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 LINCOLN 499 morning. At the same hour when the presi- dent was shot, Secretary Seward was attacked in his house by a desperate assassin; and it became known that an elaborate plot had been formed for murdering simultaneously nearly all the chief civil officers of the government, and perhaps Gen. Grant also. The conspiracy had gradually grown out of a design to abduct the president, and was participated in to a greater or less extent by at least nine persons, eight of whom were tried by a military com- mission, and four of them (including a woman) were executed, while three were sentenced to hard labor on the Dry Tortugas for life, and one for six years; one died there, and the other three were pardoned by President John- son. An investigation failed to show that the confederate government had any knowledge of the plot or was in any way directly respon- sible for it. It was an act of fanaticism which Mr. Seward had apprehended for two or three years, but which the simplicity of Lincoln's nature forbade him to contemplate. Lincoln was the most remarkable product of the re- markable possibilities of American life. From the poverty in which he was born, through the rowdyism of a frontier town, the rudeness of frontier society, the discouragement of early bankruptcy, and the fluctuations of popular politics, he rose to the championship of union and freedom when the two seemed utterly in- consistent, never lost his faith when both seemed hopeless, and was suddenly snatched from life when both had been secured. He was a hater of slavery from the beginning, but was never an abolitionist until abolition be- came constitutional. At the head of the na- tion in a crisis when precedents were worthless and no man could forecast the future, his con- duct was governed by the events of the day as they appealed to his love of justice and keen sense of the fitness of things, always guided by what has been called his "grand old wisdom of sincerity." He would ride 20 miles post haste to pardon a deserter, but on no account would he slacken the war against those who were in arms to divide the country. No feel- ing of jealousy ever prevented him from select- ing the ablest men for the offices within his gift, and in his ministers of state, war, and finance he was singularly fortunate. Scores of his sayings have become proverbial, and when he spoke of the country as one " where every man has a right to be equal with every other man," he gave a new definition to the Declaration of Independence. The funeral honors paid to him have seldom been sur- passed in grandeur, and perhaps never equalled in popular sorrow. The body was embalmed, and lay in state in the rotunda of the capitol on April 20, and on the 21st the funeral train started for Springfield, Illinois, by the same route he had traversed in first going to Wash- ington. The remains lay in state in Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and Springfield, and the interment took place at Oak Ridge ceme- tery, near Springfield, on May 4. On Oct. 15, 1874, the remains were removed to an elaborate tomb surmounted by a statue of Lincoln, an obe- lisk, and four symbolical figures. See H. J. Raymond's " Life and Public Services of Abra- ham Lincoln, together with his State Papers " (New York, 1865); J. G. Holland's "Life of Abraham Lincoln" (Springfield, Mass., 1865); "The President's Words" (Boston, 1865); " The Lincoln Memorial " (New York, 1865) ; F. B. Carpenter's " Six Months at the White House" (New York, 1866); A. Boyd's "Me- morial Lincoln Bibliography" (Albany, 1870); and W. H. Lamon's "Life of Abraham Lin- coln " (vol. i., Boston, 1870). LINCOLN, Benjamin, an American general, born in Hingham, Mass., Jan. 24, 1733, died there, May 9, 1810. Until the age of 40 he was a farmer, holding at different times the offices of magistrate, representative in the pro- vincial legislature, and colonel of militia. He was also an active member of the provincial congresses of Massachusetts, and as a militia officer rose in 1776 to the rank of major gen- eral. In June of that year he commanded the expedition which cleared Boston harbor of British vessels. After the American defeat on Long Island he was despatched by the council of Massachusetts to reenforce Washington with a body of militia, and he subsequently partici- pated in the battle of White Plains and other engagements. In the beginning of 1777 he joined Washington at Morristown with a new levy of militia, and soon after was transferred to the continental service with the rank of ma- jor general. After serving for several months in New Jersey, he was sent to join the forces assembled to oppose the progress of Burgoyne, and during the battle of Bemis's heights, com- manded inside the American works. On the succeeding day, while reconnoitring in the vicinity of the enemy's position, he was se- verely wounded, and compelled for nearly a year to retire from service. In September, 1778, he was appointed to the command of the southern army, and for several months was engaged in protecting Charleston against the demonstrations of Gen. Prevost. Upon the arrival of Count d'Estaing he cooperated with the French troops and fleet in the unsuccessful assault on Savannah ; and from the unwilling- ness of his allies to continue the siege he was obliged to return to Charleston, where in the spring of 1780 he was besieged by a superior British force under Sir Henry Clinton. After an obstinate defence he was forced in May to capitulate, and in November retired to Massa- chusetts on parole. In the spring of the suc- ceeding year he was exchanged, and immedi- ately joined Washington on the Hudson. He participated in the siege of Yorktown, and Washington appointed him to receive the sword of Cornwallis upon the surrender of the British forces. He held the office of secretary of war for three years from Octo-