Chapter 1

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Our American Holidays

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY

Our American Holidays

A series of Anthologies upon American Holidays, each volume a collection of writings from many sources, historical, poetic, religious, patriotic, etc., presenting each American festival as seen through the eyes of the representative writers of many ages and nations.

EDITED BY ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

_12mo. Each volume $1.00 net_

NOW READY

THANKSGIVING LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY CHRISTMAS MEMORIAL DAY

IN PREPARATION

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY EASTER ARBOR DAY FLAG DAY FOURTH OF JULY NEW YEAR'S DAY

MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 31 East 17th Street New York

Our American Holidays

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY

A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF LINCOLN AS GIVEN IN THE MOST NOTEWORTHY ESSAYS, ORATIONS AND POEMS, IN FICTION AND IN LINCOLN'S OWN WRITINGS

EDITED BY ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1916

Published, January, 1909

2nd Printing--June, 1911 3rd Printing--July, 1914 4th Printing--Feb. 1916

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE ix

INTRODUCTION xi

I A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3 A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LINCOLN'S LIFE _Osborn H. Oldroyd_ 6

II EARLY LIFE

LINCOLN'S EDUCATION _Horace Greeley_ 15 ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY 17 THE BOY THAT HUNGERED FOR KNOWLEDGE 18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Florence E. Pratt_ 19 YOUNG LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 20 A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS _Charles Sumner_ 21 CHOOSING ABE LINCOLN CAPTAIN 22

III MATURITY

LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE 31 HOW LINCOLN AND JUDGE B---- SWAPPED HORSES 33 LINCOLN AS A MAN OF LETTERS _H. W. Mabie_ 34 LINCOLN'S PRESENCE OF BODY 44 HOW LINCOLN BECAME A NATIONAL FIGURE _Ida M. Tarbell_ 45 LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR THE LITTLE ONES 89 HOW LINCOLN TOOK HIS ALTITUDE 90

IV IN THE WHITE HOUSE

HOW LINCOLN WAS ABUSED 95 SONNET IN 1862 _John James Piatt_ 96 LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT _James Russell Lowell_ 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Frank Moore_ 109 THE PROCLAMATION _John Greenleaf Whittier_ 110 THE EMANCIPATION _James A. Garfield_ 112 THE EMANCIPATION GROUP _John Greenleaf Whittier_ 121 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CHRISTMAS GIFT _Nora Perry_ 122

V DEATH OF LINCOLN

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! _Walt Whitman_ 127 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DEATH _Walt Whitman_ 128 HUSHED BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY _Walt Whitman_ 134 TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _William Cullen Bryant_ 135 CROWN HIS BLOODSTAINED PILLOW _Julia Ward Howe_ 136 THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Walt Whitman_ 137 OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN _Phoebe Cary_ 139 TOLLING _Lucy Larcom_ 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Rose Terry Cooke_ 143 EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN _Henry Ward Beecher_ 144 HYMN _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 151 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Tom Taylor_ 153

VI TRIBUTES

THE MARTYR CHIEF _James Russell Lowell_ 159 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 161 WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN _William McKinley_ 169 LINCOLN _Theodore Roosevelt_ 170 LINCOLN'S GRAVE _Maurice Thompson_ 170 TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN 173 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _H. H. Brownell_ 174 TRIBUTES 189 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Joel Benton_ 189 ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Richard Watson Gilder_ 190 LINCOLN _George H. Boker_ 192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _James A. Garfield_ 193 AN HORATIAN ODE _R. H. Stoddard_ 195 SOME FOREIGN TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN _Harriet Beecher Stowe_ 202 THE GETTYSBURG ODE _Bayard Taylor_ 211 TRIBUTES 212 LINCOLN _Macmillan's Magazine_ 214 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _R. H. Stoddard_ 215 LINCOLN _Edna Dean Proctor_ 215 WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D _Walt Whitman_ 218

VII THE WHOLE MAN

LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE _Edwin Markham_ 233 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _George Bancroft_ 235 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Goldwin Smith_ 276 GREATNESS OF HIS SIMPLICITY _H. A. Delano_ 278 HORACE GREELEY'S ESTIMATE OF LINCOLN 279 LINCOLN _J. T. Trowbridge_ 282 THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF LINCOLN _B. B. Tyler_ 282 TO THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN _R. W. Gilder_ 296 LINCOLN AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN _Phillips Brooks_ 297 LINCOLN AS CAVALIER AND PURITAN _H. W. Grady_ 304 LINCOLN, THE TENDER-HEARTED _H. W. Bolton_ 306 THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN _W. H. Herndon_ 307 "WITH CHARITY FOR ALL" _W. T. Sherman_ 317 LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY _Ida V. Woodbury_ 318 FEBRUARY TWELFTH _M. H. Howliston_ 319 TWO FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS _L. M. Hadley and C. Z. Denton_ 323

VIII LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY

THE THREE GREATEST AMERICANS _Theodore Roosevelt_ 333 HIS CHOICE AND HIS DESTINY _F. M. Bristol_ 333 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Robert G. Ingersoll_ 334 LINCOLN _Paul Laurence Dunbar_ 341 THE GRANDEST FIGURE _Walt Whitman_ 342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Lyman Abbott_ 345 "LINCOLN THE IMMORTAL" _Anonymous_ 346 THE CRISIS AND THE HERO _Frederic Harrison_ 349 LINCOLN _John Vance Cheney_ 351 MAJESTIC IN HIS INDIVIDUALITY _S. P. Newman_ 353

IX LINCOLN YARNS AND SAYINGS

THE QUESTION OF LEGS 359 HOW LINCOLN WAS PRESENTED WITH A KNIFE 360 "WEEPING WATER" 361 MILD REBUKE TO A DOCTOR 362

X FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

LINCOLN'S LIFE AS WRITTEN BY HIMSELF 365 THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY 365 SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE 368 FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 371 LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY 376 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 378 THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION 380 GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 382 REMARKS TO NEGROES ON THE STREETS OF RICHMOND 383 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 384

PREFACE

An astounding number of books have been written on Abraham Lincoln. Our Library of Congress contains over one thousand of them in well-nigh every modern language. Yet, incredible as it may seem, no miner has until to-day delved in these vast fields of Lincolniana until he has brought together the most precious of the golden words written of and by the Man of the People. Howe has collected a few of the best poems on Lincoln; Rice, Oldroyd and others, the elder prose tributes and reminiscences. McClure has edited Lincoln's yarns and stories; Nicolay and Hay, his speeches and writings. But each successive twelfth of February has emphasized the growing need for a unification of this scattered material.

The present volume offers, in small compass, the most noteworthy essays, orations, fiction and poems on Lincoln, together with some fiction, with characteristic anecdotes and "yarns" and his most famous speeches and writings. Taken in conjunction with a good biography, it presents the first succinct yet comprehensive view of "the first American." The Introduction gives some account of the celebration of Lincoln's Birthday and of his principal biographers.

NOTE

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Houghton, Mifflin & Company; the McClure Company, R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill Co.; Charles Scribner's Sons; Dana Estes Company; Mr. David McKay, Mr. Joel Benton, Mr. C. P. Farrell and others who have very kindly granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing their copyright.

INTRODUCTION

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born at Nolin Creek, Kentucky, on Feb. 12, 1809. As the following pages contain more than one biographical sketch it is not necessary here to touch on the story of his life. Lincoln's Birthday is now a legal holiday in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Washington (state) and Wyoming, and is generally observed in the other Northern States.

In its inspirational value to youth Lincoln's Birthday stands among the most important of our American holidays. Its celebration in school and home can not be made too impressive. "Rising as Lincoln did," writes Edward Deems, "from social obscurity through a youth of manual toil and poverty, steadily upward to the highest level of honor in the world, and all this as the fruit of earnest purpose, hard work, humane feeling and integrity of character, he is an example and an inspiration to youth unparalleled in history. At the same time he is the best specimen of the possibilities attainable by genius in our land and under our free institutions."

In arranging exercises for Lincoln's Birthday the teacher and parent should try not so much to teach the bare facts of his career as to give the children a sense of Lincoln's actual personality through his own yarns and speeches and such accounts as are given here by Herndon, Bancroft, Mabie, Tarbell, Phillips Brooks and others. He should show them Lincoln's greatest single act--Emancipation--through the eyes of Garfield and Whittier. He should try to reach the children with the thrill of an adoring sorrow-maddened country at the bier of its great preserver; with such a passion of love and patriotism as vibrates in the lines of Whitman, Brownell and Bryant, of Stoddard, Procter, Howe, Holmes, Lowell, and in the throbbing periods of Henry Ward Beecher. His main object should be to make his pupils love Lincoln. He should appeal to their national pride with the foreign tributes to Lincoln's greatness; make them feel how his memory still works through the years upon such contemporary poets as Gilder, Thompson, Markham, Cheney and Dunbar; and finally through the eyes of Harrison, Whitman, Ingersoll, Newman and others, show them our hero set in his proud, rightful place in the long vista of the ages.

In order to use the present volume with the best results it is advisable for teacher and parent to gain a more consecutive view of Lincoln's life than is offered here.

The standard biography of Lincoln is the monumental one in ten large volumes by Nicolay and Hay, the President's private secretaries. This contains considerable material not found elsewhere, but since its publication in 1890 much new matter has been unearthed, especially by the enterprise of Miss Ida Tarbell, whose "Life" in two volumes contains the essentials of the larger official work, is well balanced, and written in a simple, vigorous style perfectly adapted to the subject. If only one biography of Lincoln is to be read, Miss Tarbell's will, on the whole, be found most satisfactory.

The older Lives, written by Lincoln's friends and associates, such as Lamon and Herndon, make up in vividness and the intimate personal touch what they necessarily lack in perspective. Arnold's Life deals chiefly with the executive and legislative history of Lincoln's administration. The Life by the novelist J. G. Holland deals popularly with his hero's personality. The memoirs by Barrett, Abbott, Howells, Bartlett, Hanaford and Power were written in the main for political purposes.

Among the later works there stand out Morse's scholarly and serious account (in the American Statesmen series) of Lincoln's public policy; the vivid portrayal of Lincoln's adroitness as a politician by Col. McClure in Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times; Whitney's Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, with its fund of entertaining anecdotes; Abraham Lincoln, an Essay by Carl Schurz; James Morgan's "short and simple annals" of Abraham Lincoln The Boy and the Man; Frederick Trevor Hill's brilliant account of Lincoln the Lawyer, the result of much recent research; the study of his personal magnetism in Alonzo Rothschild's Lincoln, Master of Men; and The True Abraham Lincoln by Curtis--a collection of sketches portraying Lincoln's character from several interesting points of view. Abraham Lincoln The Man of the People by Norman Hapgood is one of most recent and least conventional accounts. It is short, vigorous, vivid, and intensely American.

Among the many popular Lives for young people are: Abraham Lincoln, the Pioneer Boy, by W. M. Thayer; Abraham Lincoln, The Backwoods Boy, by Horatio Alger, Jr.; Abraham Lincoln, by Charles Carleton Coffin; The True Story of Abraham Lincoln The American, by E. S. Brooks; The Boy Lincoln, by W. O. Stoddard; and--most important of all--Nicolay's Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln.

R. H. S.

A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The following autobiography was written by Mr. Lincoln's own hand at the request of J. W. Fell of Springfield, Ill., December 20, 1859. In the note which accompanied it the writer says: "Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me."

"I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Ky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams Co., and others in Mason Co., Ill. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham Co., Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks Co., Pa. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like.

"My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and grew up literally without any education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer Co., Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', writin', and cipherin', to the rule of three. If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.

"I was raised to farm work, at which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War, and I was elected a captain of volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went into the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten--the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. During the legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was elected to the Lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig electoral ticket, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

"If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said I am in height six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes--no other marks or brands recollected.

"Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN."

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LINCOLN'S LIFE

BY OSBORN H. OLDROYD

From "Words of Lincoln"

The sun which rose on the 12th of February, 1809, lighted up a little log cabin on Nolin Creek, Hardin Co., Ky., in which Abraham Lincoln was that day ushered into the world. Although born under the humblest and most unpromising circumstances, he was of honest parentage. In this backwoods hut, surrounded by virgin forests, Abraham's first four years were spent. His parents then moved to a point about six miles from Hodgensville, where he lived until he was seven years of age, when the family again moved, this time to Spencer Co., Ind.

The father first visited the new settlement alone, taking with him his carpenter tools, a few farming implements, and ten barrels of whisky (the latter being the payment received for his little farm) on a flatboat down Salt Creek to the Ohio River. Crossing the river, he left his cargo in care of a friend, and then returned for his family. Packing the bedding and cooking utensils on two horses, the family of four started for their new home. They wended their way through the Kentucky forests to those of Indiana, the mother and daughter (Sarah) taking their turn in riding.

Fourteen years were spent in the Indiana home. It was from this place that Abraham, in company with young Gentry, made a trip to New Orleans on a flatboat loaded with country produce. During these years Abraham had less than twelve months of schooling, but acquired a large experience in the rough work of pioneer life. In the autumn of 1818 the mother died, and Abraham experienced the first great sorrow of his life. Mrs. Lincoln had possessed a very limited education, but was noted for intellectual force of character.

The year following the death of Abraham's mother his father returned to Kentucky, and brought a new guardian to the two motherless children. Mrs. Sally Johnson, as Mrs. Lincoln, brought into the family three children of her own, a goodly amount of household furniture, and, what proved a blessing above all others, a kind heart. It was not intended that this should be a permanent home; accordingly, in March, 1830, they packed their effects in wagons, drawn by oxen, bade adieu to their old home, and took up a two weeks' march over untraveled roads, across mountains, swamps, and through dense forests, until they reached a spot on the Sangamon River, ten miles from Decatur, Ill., where they built another primitive home. Abraham had now arrived at manhood, and felt at liberty to go out into the world and battle for himself. He did not leave, however, until he saw his parents comfortably fixed in their new home, which he helped build; he also split enough rails to surround the house and ten acres of ground.

In the fall and winter of 1830, memorable to the early settlers of Illinois as the year of the deep snow, Abraham worked for the farmers who lived in the neighborhood. He made the acquaintance of a man of the name of Offutt, who hired him, together with his stepbrother, John D. Johnson, and his uncle, John Hanks, to take a flatboat loaded with country produce down the Sangamon River to Beardstown, thence down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Abraham and his companions assisted in building the boat, which was finally launched and loaded in the spring of 1831, and their trip successfully made. In going over the dam at Rutledge Mill, New Salem, Ill., the boat struck and remained stationary, and a day passed before it was again started on its voyage. During this delay Lincoln made the acquaintance of New Salem and its people.

On his return from New Orleans, after visiting his parents,--who had made another move, to Goose-Nest Prairie, Ill.,--he settled in the little village of New Salem, then in Sangamon, now Menard County. While living in this place, Mr. Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War, in 1832, as captain and private. His employment in the village was varied; he was at times a clerk, county surveyor, postmaster, and partner in the grocery business under the firm name of Lincoln & Berry. He was defeated for the Illinois Legislature in 1832 by Peter Cartwright, the Methodist pioneer preacher. He was elected to the Legislature in 1834, and for three successive terms thereafter.