The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Arnold)/Chapter XXIV

In following the currents of great events at the capital and at the theatre of war, some facts of minor importance, but of great interest, have not been noticed. Among them were the great organizations for the relief, health, and comfort of the soldiers, known as the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. These organizations were novel, and indicate an advance in humanity and civilization; they relieved war of half the horrors and of much of the suffering incident to its destruction of human life. The tenderness and sympathy of the President with all forms of suffering was apparent in all his life, and the stern soldiers of the war often regarded his humane spirit as a weakness. They claimed that his clemency was often abused, and that his reluctance to inflict punishment interfered with rigid discipline. There were some grounds for these complaints.

When, therefore, in the summer of 1861, Dr. Henry W. Bellows, of New York, visited Washington, and laid before the President a plan for organizing the Sanitary Commission, he was listened to with the most careful consideration, and he found in Mr. Lincoln one as zealous as himself to carry out his humane purposes. The project was to organize a commission of the most intelligent, highly respected, and best citizens of the country, whose special duty it should be, in connection with the regular medical officers of the army, to look after and improve the sanitary condition of the soldiers, including their food and their medical and surgical treatment. The President organized this commission by naming Dr. Bellows as its president, and associating with him some of the leading citizens of the great cities of the Union. Its object was to bring the wealth and social influence, and the highest intelligence, skill, and culture of the republic, to secure to the soldier every possible means of preserving and maintaining his health, and the very best possible treatment when wounded or sick. The attention of the very best experts was directed to securing for them the best and most wholesome food, and especially to the comfort and hygiene of camps and hospitals. Voluntary associations, composed of the best men and women of the republic, were organized all over the loyal states, and all the people, with generous and patriotic liberality, placed in the hands of this commission, and in those of a kindred association called the Christian Commission, money, medicines, food, clothing, wine, fruit, and every delicacy for the hospitals; secular and religious reading, trained nurses, and everything which could contribute to the welfare and relieve the wants of the soldiers. Sanitary stores, the most skillful surgeons, and kind and well-trained nurses, followed the soldiers to every battle-field. The wounded of both armies were tenderly cared for and nursed, the dying soothed, and their last messages carefully sent to family and friends. By such means the battle-field was robbed of half its horrors, and the soldier realized that kindness, skill, and care would attend him; that everything would be done to relieve his sufferings and restore him to health. And if it was his fate to die for his country, he knew that his last hours would be soothed by affection and Christian sympathy, and that he would be honored and cherished as a patriot, by his family and friends. For objects so noble and purposes so holy, no appeal for aid was ever made in vain. From the widow's mite and the orphan's pittance, from the day laborer's dollar, the products of the farm and the shop, the gold and jewels of the rich, the means flowed in so lavishly that the resources of the commissions were never exhausted, and many millions were freely given during the war. In furtherance of these objects, a series of great Sanitary Fairs was inaugurated at Chicago, and extended to Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, and all the great cities and towns of the Union. The President attended many of these fairs, and made many speeches recommending them and urging the most liberal contributions. To the great Northwestern Fair held at Chicago in September, 1863, he sent the original draft of the proclamation of emancipation, to be sold for the benefit of the soldiers, as has already been stated.

The women of the nation, in every social position, were the most active and efficient agents in these enterprises. With a power of organization rivalling that which organized armies, with a tireless energy and executive ability which knew no pause nor rest, many noble women and especially the widows, mothers, and sisters of soldiers who had been killed, consecrated their time and sacrificed their lives to these noble and patriotic purposes. Party, sect, creed, and social distinction melted away before the holy influence of these objects, and all, rich and poor, laborer and millionaire, laid their gifts upon the altar of patriotism. Here was a universal brotherhood. These institutions were the fruits of religious inspiration, and the fairest flowers of Christian civilization. The Christian Commission expended more than six millions of these generous contributions, and sent five thousand clergymen, from among the very best and ablest, to the camps and battle-fields of the war. The Sanitary Commission had seven thousand associated societies, and, through an unpaid board of directors, distributed with skill and discretion fifteen millions of dollars in supplies and money.

In this connection may be mentioned the extreme tenderness and sympathy of Mr. Lincoln for all forms of suffering. One day in November, 1864, his attention was called to the fact that a widow of Boston, Massachusetts, had lost five sons in battle. He immediately wrote to her from the White House, saying:

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save.

"I pray our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavements and leave only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

"Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, "A. LINCOLN."

Incidents illustrating the same feeling might be multiplied without number. I venture to add the following, which came under my personal observation. In the early spring of 1862, a young lad, who had lost his right hand at the battle of Belmont, came to Washington to obtain an appointment as assistant quartermaster. He arrived on Saturday, and calling at my house found that I was out of the city. With the confidence of youth, he did not wait for my return, but, having very strong recommendations, went to the Secretary of War, and was greatly disappointed when Mr. Stanton refused to appoint him. In the evening he came to me in great distress, and stated his case. I told him I would go with him on Monday to the War Office, but that his case was injured by his having been once rejected. On Monday we called on Mr. Stanton, who was receiving and dispatching a multitude of suitors. I noticed that the Secretary was in an ill humor; however, we took our turn, and I stated the case. Turning to the young soldier, Stanton said: "Were you not here Saturday, and did I not refuse to appoint you? And now here you are again on Monday, troubling me again.  I cannot and will not have my time wasted in this way."

I said: "Mr. Stanton, I am responsible for this second application." But he would not listen to me, and continued to scold at the young soldier. I thought him rude and uncivil, but seeing his irritability, retired as soon as possible, saying to the young soldier: "We will stop at the White House, and see what the President has to say to this."

We found Mr. Lincoln alone in his office, and I had scarcely stated the case, when he took a card and wrote on it: "Let --- be appointed Assistant Quartermaster, etc. A. Lincoln." He had not then become familiar with one-armed and one-legged soldiers, and he seemed touched by the empty sleeve of the fine-looking young man. Putting the card in my pocket, I went to the Capitol. In the course of the day, Stanton came on the floor of the House, and as he seemed in good humor, I went to him and said: "Mr. Stanton, you seemed very harsh and ruse to my friend and constituent this morning. It seems to me that those who lose their right hands in the service of the country should at least be entitled to kindness and courtesy from the Secretary of War."

"Well, well," he replied, "I was vexed and annoyed this morning. Take your young friend to the President.  He always does anything you ask him, and he will, I doubt not, appoint him."

"Mr. Stanton," I replied, "if the President grants my requests, I take care never to ask anything but what I am sure is right; but in this instance you do the President no more than justice. He has already directed the appointment, and I beg you will not interpose any obstacle or delay, as you sometimes do."

Taking the card, Mr. Stanton said: "I will send you the commission as soon as I get to the War Department." An house later a messenger brought the commission.--Author.

Great dissatisfaction was expressed at one time because Mr. Lincoln hesitated, or seemed to hesitate, in ordering retaliation for cruelties and barbarities practiced by the rebels on Union soldiers and prisoners. The story of the terrible cruelties inflicted upon Union prisoners at Andersonville, and at other places, and the alleged massacre of colored soldiers at Fort Pillow, filled all the people with horror. The committee on the conduct of the war reported that the statements were true, and, on the 16th of January, 1865, Senator Wade offered a resolution directing retaliation in kind, with unflinching severity. But Senator Sumner replied: "We cannot be cruel, or barbarous, or savage, because the rebels, whom we are meeting in war, are cruel, barbarous, and savage." He quoted Dr. Lieber as saying: "If we fight with Indians, who slowly roast their prisoners, we cannot roast in turn the Indians whom we may capture." When reports of these barbarities, and the official report of the committee on the conduct of the war, were brought to the attention of Mr. Lincoln, and he was urged to retaliate in kind, he said: "No, I never can. I can never starve men like that." Edward Everett, speaking, however, of the conduct of the rebels at Andersonville and elsewhere, said: "You have no more right to starve than to poison a prisoner of war." Senator Chandler advocated retaliation in kind, declaring that Sumner's "sublimated humanitarianism would not do for 'these accursed rebels.'" McDougall, of California, a man of rare eloquence and genius, spoke against the resolution, comparing the proposal with the wild outrages and cruelties of the French Revolution, and which had no parallel save in the barbarities of the dark ages. But it was the eloquent voice of Sumner, appealing to the nobler and more humane feelings of our nature, which restrained the just indignation, and the fierce and terrible demands for retaliation in kind; and the resolution was so modified as to require "retaliation according to the laws and usages of war among civilized nations."

Mr. Sumner had become the sincere and confidential adviser of Mr. Lincoln. These two men, in many respects so unlike, became the most ardent and affectionate personal friends. They rode and walked together, and seemed to enjoy each other's society like brothers. Sumner, the scholar and the man of conventionality, the favorite American of the English aristocracy, found in Lincoln one that he admired and confided in above all others.

The employment of negroes as soldiers in the Union armies had created intense excitement and bitterness in the rebellious states. The Confederate press and members of the Confederate Congress, at first, in their angry fury, proposed to execute all slaves found in arms, and to put their officers to death. Conscious that such acts of atrocity would bring severe retaliation, the whole subject was referred to Jefferson Davis, with power to act. He issued a proclamation declaring that negro troops and their white officers would, if captured, not be treated as prisoners of war, but would be turned over to state authority for punishment, and that all free negroes captured with arms should be sold into slavery. In reply to this, the President issued an order directing "that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for everyone enslaved or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war."

At the Sanitary Fair at Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln said: "The black soldier shall have the same protection as the white soldier. If the reports relative to this massacre [at Fort Pillow] are substantiated, retribution will be surely given." In accordance with the order of the President, certain rebel prisoners were, in 1864, placed at hard labor on the Dutch Gap Canal, in retaliation for certain negro soldiers captured by the rebels and employed at work in the trenches of the rebels at Fort Gilmer. General Grant, in his correspondence with General Lee on the subject, laid down the rule which governed the Union authorities, based on the order of the President, saying: "I shall always regret the necessity for retaliating for wrongs done our soldiers, but regard it my duty to protect all persons received into the army of the United States, regardless of color or nationality." The firmness of the President and General Grant resulted in compelling the Confederates to accord the negro soldiers, when captured, the rights of prisoners of war.

This visit to the Baltimore Fair was the occasion of an exhibition of love and veneration towards Mr. Lincoln on the part of the negro race, almost without a parallel in history. They crowded around the Washington depot, and so filled the streets along which he was to pass that it was difficult for him to make his way. Hundreds of negro women kneeled on the sidewalks, holding up their children that they might see him and be blessed by him. They seemed to feel that to look at him was a privilege, and that to be touched by him would bring a blessing. Their feeling recalled the old superstition that the touch of the king would heal all disease. But he was to them more than king, more than mortal. He was to these simple, sincere worshipers something supernaturally good and great. The scene at Baltimore might without irreverence be compared to that when Christ rode into Jerusalem. The negroes, ignorant, simple, and earnest, looked upon him as their savior, their deliverer, and they were ready "to spread their garments in his way; to cut down branches of the trees and strew them in his path." "And they that went before, and they that followed after, cried, 'Hosanna. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.'" To the negro race he had passed into mythology, and already become a great historic figure, free from all human infirmity.

The subject of reconstruction, of restoring the rebel states to their former relations with the national government, was one of difficulty, and one in relation to which there was a wide difference of opinion. Upon no question of statesmanship was Mr. Lincoln's sagacity and practical good sense more strikingly illustrated. There were many theories on the subject, which were advocated with great vehemence and passion. Mr. Lincoln did not adopt any particular theory as to any one mode by which the national authority could be restored. Daniel Webster, speaking of the secession of the states and of the dissolution of the Union, sadly said: "If these columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Colosseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful and melancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them than were ever shed over Grecian or Roman art, for they will be the ruins of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw--the edifice of constitutional American freedom." It was the difficult but not impossible work of Lincoln to raise again and reconstruct the shattered fragments of the republic; to rear again the broken and prostrate columns of the seceding states; but this time, their foundation was to be on the rock of liberty. As has been said before, he was no mere theorist, but a practical statesman, looking ever for the wisest means to secure the end. One indispensable condition--emancipation, the freedom of the colored race--he made the condition of every act of reconstruction. This he repeatedly declared in his messages to Congress, in his instructions to Mr. Seward at the time of the Hampton Roads conference, and in many speeches. Loyalty and fidelity to the national government and the Constitution, including the proclamation of emancipation and the amendment prohibiting slavery, were the conditions of reconstruction. He appointed provisional governors over rebellious states, and recommended Congress to provide by law for the establishment of courts for "all such parts of the insurgent states and territories as may be under the control of the government, whether by voluntary return to its allegiance and order, or by the power of our armies."

The rebel state governments he regarded as public enemies to be subdued, while a new government, republican in form, was to be established in their place. In initiating steps to organize new, loyal, and republican state governments, he, as the Executive and Commander in Chief, and in the absence of the action of Congress, prescribed the qualifications of voters, requiring all to be loyal to the Constitution. These proceedings he regarded as preliminary, and subject to the action and approval of Congress, before the new state government should be entitled to representation in Congress or to vote in the electoral college. He treated the Confederates as public enemies; all acts of the Confederate government, and of the rebel states while in rebellion, were void, and these organizations were to be overthrown and subjugated, and the territory from which they were expelled to be governed, until otherwise provided, by martial law. The states in rebellion were not entitled to vote in the electoral college.

The question as to whether the loyal negro was to vote had not been definitely settled at the time of Mr. Lincoln's death. As early as March 13th, 1864, the President, writing to Michael Hahn, Governor of Louisiana, said: "Now you are about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of the colored people might not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks." In his speech of April 11th, 1865, four days before his assassination, speaking of the new constitution in Louisiana, he said: "It is unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana government is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to improve it, or to reject it."

In a letter to General Wadsworth, Mr. Lincoln says: "I cannot see, if universal amnesty is granted, how, under the circumstances, I can avoid exacting, in return, universal suffrage, or at least suffrage on the basis of intelligence and military service." The following is an extract from the Wadsworth letter. I have never seen the authenticity of this letter denied, and it bears internal evidence of being genuine. Mr. Lincoln says:

"Your desire to know, in the event of our complete success in the field, the same being followed by a loyal and cheerful submission on the part of the South, if universal amnesty should not be accompanied with universal suffrage. Now, since you know my private inclinations as to what terms should be granted to the South in the contingency mentioned, I will here add, that if our success should thus be realized, followed by such desired results, I cannot see, if universal amnesty is granted, how, under the circumstances, I can avoid exacting in return universal suffrage, or, at least, suffrage on the basis of intelligence and military service.  How to better the condition of the colored race has long been a study which has attracted my serious and careful attention; hence I think I am clear and decided and to what course I shall pursue in the premises, regarding it as a religious duty, as the nation's guardian of those people who have so heroically vindicated their manhood on the battle-field, where, in assisting to save the life of the republic, they have demonstrated their right to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of the flag they have so fearlessly defended."

The following note from the Hon. Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War during the last two years of Mr. Lincoln's administration, will throw some light on Mr. Lincoln's views:

"New York, November 13, 1866. "Hon. Isaac Arnold.

"My Dear Sir: In a speech here before the election, I stated that at the time of Mr. Lincoln's death, a printed paper was under consideration in the Cabinet, providing ways and means for restoring state government in Virginia. In that paper it was stated that all loyal men, white or black, were to be called upon to vote in holding a state convention, while all rebels were to be excluded.  I said that I could not affirm that Mr. Lincoln had definitely adopted that policy with respect to black suffrage, but that I knew his mind was tending to it, and that I was morally certain he would have finally adhered to it.  After Mr. Johnson's accession, all the provisions of the paper were incorporated in the presidential proclamation respecting the reorganization of state governments, with the single exception of this one making all loyal men voters, whether white or black.

"Yours very truly, "CHARLES A. DANA." It may be assumed as settled, that Mr. Lincoln favored negro suffrage "on the basis of intelligence and military service" at least, but it is not clearly proved that he would have made it universal.

He was a man of great evenness of temper, rarely excited to anger. Personal abuse, injustice, and indignity offered to himself did not disturb him, but gross injustice and bad faith towards others made him indignant, and when such were brought to his knowledge, his eyes would blaze with indignation, and his denunciation few could endure. When some one dared to suggest to him that he might placate the rebel masters, and secure peace, by abandoning the freedmen, he exclaimed: "Why, it would be an astounding breach of faith! If I should do it, I ought to be damned in time and eternity." To this day, the South does not appreciate, nor does the world know, how much the Confederates were indebted to the humane, kind, almost divine spirit of Lincoln. The key-note of his policy towards the rebels was boldly struck in his second inaugural, when he declared "with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, ...to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and among all nations."

In the midst of the fierce passions and bitter animosities growing out of the war, many thought him too mild and too forbearing; but his conviction was clear, and his determination firm, that when there was a sincere repentance, then there should be pardon and amnesty. In the face of those who sternly demanded punishment and confiscation, and the death of traitors and conspirators, he declared: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of it, he can safely be pardoned."

When the fiery and eloquent Henry Winter Davis, the stern, blunt, downright Ben Wade, and the unforgiving Thaddeus Stevens, demanded retaliation, confiscation, death, desolation, and bloody execution, the voice of Lincoln rose clear above the storm, firm, gentle, but powerful, like the voice of God. "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," he hushed the raging storm of passion, and brought back peace and reconciliation.