Part 21

“It must be remembered that Mr. Lincoln’s mind acted logically, cautiously, and slowly. Now, having stated the above facts, the question of his will and its power is easily solved. Be it remembered that Mr. Lincoln cared nothing for simple facts, manners, modes, ways, and such like things. Be it remembered that he _did_ care for truth, right, for principle, for all that pertains to the good. In relation to simple facts, unrelated to substance, forms, rules, methods, ways, manners, he cared nothing; and if he could be aroused, he would do anything for any body at any time, as well foe as friend. As a politician he would courteously grant all facts and forms--all non-essential things--to his opponent. He did so because he did not care for them; they were rubbish, husks, trash. On the question of substance, he hung and clung with all his might. On questions of truth, justice, right, the good, on principle his will was as firm as steel and as tenacious as iron. It was as firm, solid, real, vital, and tenacious as an idea on which the world hinges or hangs. Ask Mr. Lincoln to do a wrong thing, and he would scorn the request; ask him to do an unjust thing, and he would cry, ‘Begone!’ ask him to sacrifice his convictions of the truth, and his soul would indignantly exclaim, ‘The world perish first!’

“Such was Mr. Lincoln’s will. On manners and such like things, he was pliable. On questions of right and substance, he was as firm as a rock. One of these classes of men look at Mr. Lincoln from the stand-point of things non-essential, and the other looks at him from the stand-point of substance, rejecting forms. Hence the difference. Mr. Lincoln was a man of firm, unyielding will, when, in human transactions, it was necessary to be so, and _not_ otherwise. At one moment Mr. Lincoln was as pliable and expansive as gentle air, and at the next moment he was as biting, firm, tenacious, and unyielding as gravity itself.

“Thus I have traced Mr. Lincoln through his perceptions, his suggestiveness, his judgments, and his four great predominant qualities, namely,--his powers of reason, his great understanding, his conscience, and his heart. I assert that Mr. Lincoln lived in the head. He loved the truth; he loved the eternal right and the good,--never yielding the fundamental conceptions of these to any man for any end.

“All the follies and wrong Mr. Lincoln ever fell into, or committed, sprang or came out of his weak points, namely, his want of quick, sagacious, intuitive judgment,--his want of quick, sagacious, intuitive knowledge of the play and meaning of the features of men as written on the face,--his tenderness and mercy, and, lastly, his utterly unsuspecting nature. He was deeply and seriously honest himself, and assumed that others were so organized. He never suspected men. These, with other defects of his nature, caused all his follies and wrongs, if he ever had any of either.

“All the wise and good things Mr. Lincoln ever did, sprang or came out of his great reason, his conscience, his understanding, and his heart, his love of truth, right, and the good. I am speaking now of his particular and individual faculties and qualities, _not their combination_, nor the result of wise or unwise combinations. Each man and woman must form his or her own estimate of the man in the mind. Run out these facts, qualities, and faculties, and see what they must produce. For instance, a tender heart; a wise, strong reason; a good understanding, an exalted conscience, a love of the good, must, in such combination, practically applied, produce a man of great humanity.

“Take another illustration in the combination of his faculties and qualities. Mr. Lincoln’s eloquence lay, 1st, in the strength of his logical faculty, his supreme power of reasoning, his great understanding, and his love of principle; 2d, in his clear, exact, and very accurate vision; 3d, in his cool and masterly statement of his principles, around which the issues gather; in the statement of those issues, and the grouping of the facts that are to carry conviction, aided by his logic, to the minds of men of every grade of intelligence. He was so clear that he could not be misunderstood nor misrepresented. He stood square and bolt upright to his convictions, and formed by them his thoughts and utterances. Mr. Lincoln’s mind was not a wide, deep, broad, generalizing, and comprehensive mind, nor versatile quick, bounding here and there, as emergencies demanded it. His mind was deep, enduring, and strong, running in deep iron grooves, with flanges on its wheels. His mind was not keen, sharp, and subtile; it was deep, exact, and strong.

“Whatever of life, vigor, force, and power of eloquence the whole of the above qualities, or a wise combination will give; whatever there is in a fair, manly, honest, and impartial administration of justice, under law, to all men at all times,--through these qualities and capabilities given, never deviating; whatever there is in a strong will in the right, governed by tenderness and mercy; whatever there is in toil and a sublime patience; whatever there is in particular faculties, or a wise combination of them,--not forgetting his weak points,--working wisely, sagaciously, and honestly, openly and fairly;--I say, whatever there is in these, or a combination of them, that Mr. Lincoln is justly entitled to in all the walks of life. These limit, bound, and define him as statesman, orator, as an executive of the nation, as a man of humanity, a good man, and a gentleman. These limit, bound, and define him every way, in all the ways and walks of life. He is under his law and his nature, and he never can get out of it.

“This man, this long, bony, wiry, sad man, floated into our county in 1831, in a frail canoe, down the north fork of the Sangamon River, friendless, pennyless, powerless, and alone,--begging for work in this city,--ragged, struggling for the common necessaries of life. This man, this peculiar man, left us in 1861, the President of the United States, backed by friends and power, by fame, and all human force; and it is well to inquire _how_.

“To sum up, let us say, here is a sensitive, diffident, unobtrusive, natural-made gentleman. His mind was strong and deep, sincere and honest, patient and enduring; having no vices, and having only negative defects, with many positive virtues. His is a strong, honest, sagacious, manly, noble life. He stands in the foremost rank of men in all ages,--their equal,--one of the best types of this Christian civilization.”

LXXX.

At the end of six months’ incessant labor, my task at the White House drew near completion. On the 22d of July, the President and Cabinet, at the close of the regular session, adjourned in a body to the State Dining-room, to view the work, at last in a condition to receive criticism. Sitting in the midst of the group, the President expressed his “unschooled” opinion, as he called it, of the result, in terms which could not but have afforded the deepest gratification to any artist.

The curiosity of the public to see the picture was so great that during the last two days of my stay in Washington, by the kind permission of the President, it was placed in the East Room, and thrown open to the public. During this time the house was thronged with visitors, the porters estimating their number each day at several thousands.

Towards the close of the second day’s exhibition, intending to have the canvas taken down and rolled up during the night for transportation to New York, I watched for an opportunity to say a last word to Mr. Lincoln previous to his leaving for the Soldiers’ Home, where the family were then staying. At four o’clock the carriage drove up to the door, accompanied by the “Black-Horse Cavalry” escort. Knowing the President would soon appear, I stepped out under the portico to wait for him. Presently I caught sight of his unmistakable figure standing half-way between the portico and the gateway leading to the War Department leaning against the iron fence,--one arm thrown over the railing, and one foot on the stone coping which supports it, evidently having been intercepted, on his way in from the War Department, by a plain-looking man, who was giving him, very diffidently, an account of a difficulty which he had been unable to have rectified. While waiting, I walked out leisurely to the President’s side. He said very little to the man, but was intently studying the expression of his face while he was narrating his trouble. When he had finished, Mr. Lincoln said to him, “Have you a blank card?” The man searched his pockets, but finding none, a gentleman standing near, who had overheard the question, came forward and said, “Here is one, Mr. President.” Several persons had in the mean time gathered around. Taking the card and a pencil, Mr. Lincoln sat down upon the low stone coping, presenting almost the appearance of sitting upon the pavement itself, and wrote an order upon the card to the proper official to “examine this man’s case.” While writing this, I observed several persons passing down the promenade smiling, at what I presume they thought the undignified appearance of the head of the nation, who, however, seemed utterly unconscious, either of any impropriety in the action, or of attracting any attention. To me it was not only another picture of the native goodness of the man, but of true nobility of character, exemplified not so much by a disregard of conventionalities, as in unconsciousness that there _could_ be any breach of etiquette or dignity in the manner of an honest attempt to serve or secure justice to a citizen of the Republic, however humble he might be. Rising to his feet he handed the man the card, with a word of direction, and then turning to me said: “Well C----, I must go in and take one more look at the picture before you leave us.” So saying, he accompanied me to the East Room, and sitting down in front of it, remained for some time in silence. I said that I had at length worked out my idea, as he expressed it at our first interview, and would now be glad to hear his final suggestions and criticism.

“There is little to find fault with,” he replied; “the portraiture is the main thing, and that seems to me absolutely perfect.”

I then called his attention afresh to the accessories of the picture, stating that these had been selected from the objects in the Cabinet chamber with reference solely to their bearing upon the subject. “Yes,” said he, “there are the war-maps, the portfolios, the _slave_-map, and all; but the book in the corner, leaning against the chair-leg,--you have changed the title of that, I see.” “Yes,” I replied; “at the last moment I learned that you frequently consulted, during the period you were preparing the Proclamation, Solicitor Whiting’s work on the ‘War Powers of the President,’ and as Emancipation was the result in fact of a military necessity, the book seemed to me just the thing to go in there; so I simply changed the title, leaving the old sheepskin cover as it was.” “Now,” said he, “Whiting’s book is not a regular law-book. It is all very well that it should be there; but I would suggest that as you have changed the title, you change also the character of the binding. It now looks like an old volume of United States Statutes.” I thanked him for this criticism, and then said: “Is there anything else that you would like changed or added?” “No,” he replied, and then repeated very emphatically the expression he used when the design was first sketched upon the canvas: “It is as good as it can be made.”

I then referred at some length, to the enthusiasm in which the picture was conceived and had been executed, concluding with an expression of my profound appreciation of the very unusual opportunities afforded me in the prosecution of the work, and his unvarying kindness and consideration through the many weeks of our intercourse.

He listened pensively,--almost passively, to me,--his eyes fastened upon the picture. As I finished he turned, and in his simple-hearted, earnest way, said: “C----, I believe I am about as glad over the success of this work as you are.” And with these words in my ear, and a cordial “good-bye” grasp of the hand, President and painter separated: the one to gather into and around himself more and more the affections of a mighty people, till in the culmination and attainment of all his heart’s desires he should be called from “glory to glory;” the other, in his humble sphere, to garner as a precious legacy to him and his these fragments of leaves from the daily life of one whose name and fame--inseparably bound up with devotion to freedom and reverence for law, fragrant with the tender memories and sweet humanities of life--are to grow brighter and stronger with God’s eternal years, as men learn to appreciate and emulate a true Christian manhood.

FOOTNOTES

[1] To Mr. SAMUEL SINCLAIR, of the _New York Tribune_, for the introduction to Mr. Lincoln, and to FREDERICK A. LANE, Esq., of New York, for the generous aid thus extended, I shall ever be indebted for the accomplishment of my work.

[2] The authorship of this poem has been made known since this publication in the _Evening Post_. It was written by William Knox, a young Scotchman, a contemporary of Sir Walter Scott. He died in Edinburgh, in 1825, at the age of 36.

The two verses in brackets were not repeated by Mr. Lincoln, but belong to the original poem.

[3] Hon. Henry J. Raymond.

[4] Colonel Le Grand B. Cannon, of General Wool’s staff

[5] Raymond’s _Life of Lincoln_.

[6] Hon. H. J. Raymond.

[7] Mr. Lincoln’s friend Brooks, of the _Sacramento Union_, has given to the public a somewhat different version of this story, placing its occurrence on the day of the election in 1860. The account, as I have given it, was written before I had seen that by Mr. Brooks, and is very nearly as Hay and myself heard it,--the incident making a powerful impression upon my mind. I am quite confident that Mr. Lincoln said it occurred the day he was first nominated; for he related it to us a few hours after having received intelligence of his renomination, saying, “I am reminded of it to-night.” It is possible, however, that I am mistaken in the date. Mr. Brooks’s statement that “Mrs. Lincoln” was “troubled” about it, regarding it as a “sign that Mr. Lincoln would be reëlected, but would not live through his second term,” is undoubtedly correct.

[8] Holland’s _Life of Abraham Lincoln_.

[9] My “six months” proper, at the White House, terminated, as will be seen, the last week in July, 1864. February and a part of March following I passed in Washington, and was privileged with a renewal of my previous intercourse with Mr. Lincoln.

[10] _San Francisco Bulletin._

[11] Noah Brooks, _Harper’s Monthly_, July, 1865.

[12] _Boston Watchman and Reflector._

[13] Abbott’s _History of the Civil War_.

[14] “Accuse not a servant to his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.”

[15] Speech at Charleston, September 18th, 1858.

[16] _Boston Commonwealth._

[17] _Rochester_ (New York) _Express_.

[18] Colonel Charles G. Halpine, _New York Citizen_.

[19] Correspondence of the _N. Y. Independent_.

[20] J. C Derby, Esq., of New York.

[21] Address in Philadelphia upon the death of Mr. Lincoln.

[22] This article was written and first published some months previous to Mr. Lincoln’s reëlection, during the depression of the public mind following the “raid” on Washington.

[23] Rev. Mr. Henderson, Louisville, Ky.

[24] Mr. Murtagh, of the _Washington Republican_.

INDEX.

A.

Adams, J. Q., 211.

Alley, Hon. J. B., 119.

All-noise Story, 212.

Amnesty Proclamation, 98.

Andersonville, 177.

Apparition, 164.

Arnold, Hon. I. N., 150, 237, 302.

Ashley, Hon. Mr., 151.

Ashmun, Hon. George, 284–286.

Assassination, 63.

B.

Baker, G. E., 127.

Baldwin, Judge, (Cal.,) 245.

Baltimore Convention, 162.

Barrett, Hon. J. H., 86, 254.

Bateman, Newton, 192.

Bates, Attorney-General, 55.

Battle, Fair Oaks, 139.

Beecher, Henry Ward, 135, 230.

Bellows, Rev. Dr., 81, 274.

Bible Presentation, 199.

Bingham, Hon. John A., 234.

Blair, Hon. M., 21, 46, 88.

Booth, Edwin, 49.

Bowen, H. C., 221.

Brady, M. B., 46.

Braine, Lieutenant, 94.

Brooks, Noah, 63, 165, 188, 235.

“Bulletin,” (San Francisco,) 223.

Burnside, 81.

C.

Cabinet Meeting, 55.

Cameron, Secretary, 136–133, 253.

Cannon, Colonel L. B., 115.

Cass, General, 271.

Chase, 21, 84, 85, 86, 88–90, 130, 218, 223; letter to Stanton, 180.

Cheever, Rev. Dr., 147.

Chicago Convention, 119.

Christian Commission, 161.

Clark, Senator, 276.

Clay, Henry, 71.

Colfax, Hon. Schuyler, 14, 85, 87, 172, 177, 195, 285.

Concert, Marine Band, 143, 168.

Creech, 68.

Creeds, 190.

Crittenden, General, 46.

Cropsey, 168.

Curtin, 82–84.

Cushing, Lieutenant, 232.

D.

Dall, Mrs. C. H., 165.

Defrees, 126.

Deming, Hon. H. C., 190, 219.

“Demonstrate,” 314.

Derby, J. C., (N. Y.,) 290.

Description of Picture, 27.

Dole, Commissioner, 282.

Douglas, Hon. Stephen A., 194, 237, 249, 315.

Douglass, Frederick, 204.

E.

Elliott, (Artist,) 69.

Emancipation, 21, 73, 74, 77, 78, 86, 196, 197, 269, 307.

Equestrian Statues, 71.

Ewing, Hon. Thomas, 37.

F.

Fessenden, Hon. W. P., 182.

Field, Rev. H. M., 135.

Florida Expedition, 48.

Ford, Hon. Thomas, 296.

Forney, Colonel, 267.

Forrest, Edwin, 114.

Frank, Hon. A., 218.

Freedmen, 196.

Fremont, 47, 220, 221.

G.

Gamble, Governor, 242.

Garfield, General, 240.

Garrison, 167.

Gilbert, Wall Street Assessor, 255.

Goldsborough, Admiral, 240.

Grant, General, 56, 57, 265, 283, 292.

Greeley, 152.

Greene, W. T., 267.

Gulliver, Rev. J. B., Reminiscences, 309.

H.

Halpine, Colonel, 63, 278.

Hammond, Surgeon-General, 274, 275.

Hanks, Dennis, 299.

Harris, Hon. Ira, 175.

Hay, John, 45, 149.

Henderson, Rev. Mr., 320.

Henry, Dr., (Oregon,) 302.

Herndon, Hon. Wm. H.; analysis of Mr. Lincoln’s character, 323.

Higby, Hon. William, 148.

Holland, Dr., 79, 191.

Holmes, O. W., 58.

Holt, Judge, 32, 33.

Hooker, General, 233.

Hospitals, 107.

Hubbard, Hon. Mr., (Ct.,) 253.

I.

“Independent,” New York, 88, 230, 287.

“Ingenious Nonsense,” 158.

Inman, (Artist,) 69.

Interview, first, with Mr. Lincoln, 18.

J.

Jackson, “Stonewall,” 234, 268.

Johnson, Hon. Andrew, 102.

Johnson, Oliver, 77.

Jones, (Sculptor,) 34.

K.

Kelly, Hon. Wm., 92, 165, 294.

King, Starr, 228.

Knox, William, (Poet,) 60.

L.

Lincoln, Hon. G. B., of Brooklyn, 110, 113, 234.

Lincoln, Mrs., 165, 293, 301.