Part 12 (1/2)

”Why?”

”Because every hour adds to the difficulties I am called upon toto check the tendency towards dissolution I, who have been called to meet this awful responsibility, a to avert it or lessen its force when it comes to me Every day adds to the situation andfostered rather than repressed I have read, upon my knees, the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness arden of Gethse” (Tarbell, ”Life of Lincoln,” II, 406)

It was indeed hard to keep his patience and self-control He was ies conciliatory to the South, for so But he saw clearly that anything he ht say at that time, no matter hoise or conciliatory, would surely be misused as fuel to add to the flames While therefore he talked and wrote freely to his friends, he made no public announcement He merely referred to his record His opinions had been fully expressed in the debates with Douglas and in other speeches There were four important points as to his future policy The Union should be preserved, the Constitution should be upheld, and the fugitive slave law (being a law) should be enforced, but slavery should not be extended These fully covered all the necessary points of the subject, and beyond these he would not go

He ould control others ine athis period of waiting He made his preparations in silence, and not an injudicious word escaped hiton the 11th day of February, but though he made several speeches on the way, he did not outline his policy until he read his inaugural address on the 4th of March

CHAPTER XXI

JOURNEY TO WAshi+NGTON

The long period of waiting approached its end Most of the states and cities lying between Springfield and Washi+ngton invited him officially to visit them on his way to the capital It was decided that he should accept as many as possible of these invitations This would involve a zigzag route and require considerable time The invitation of Massachusetts he declined on account of the pressure of time Maryland was conspicuous by its omission of courtesy Two private citizens of Baltimore invited him to dinner That was all

The presidential party consisted of about a dozen, all told They were to leave Springfield February 11, and to consu, partly drizzling, and partly snowing A large crowd of neighbors had asseood-by The process of handshaking was interrupted by the arrival of the train After the party had entered the car, the President reappeared on the rear platform He raised his hand to speak, but did not utter a word until the solereat tenderness and seriousness, he spoke as follows:

”My friends, no one, not inof sadness at this parting To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed fro to an old man Here my children have been born, and one is buried I now leave, not knohen or whether ever I reater than that which rested upon Washi+ngton Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed With that assistance, I cannot fail

Trusting in Hio with ood, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well

To His care co you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell”

The speech was telegraphed, with substantial accuracy all over the country, and was read with loving syiven are the report as revised by Lincoln himself, and first published in the _Century_ for Decee of Colonel Ward Hill Lamon, afterwards Marshal of the District of Coluth, a man who knew not what fear was, and, with an enthusiasious zeal, he was devoted to his chief soul and body In the words of a later Marshal, he ”worshi+ped every bone in his body”

A few friends had accompanied the presidential party to Indianapolis, where the first stop was made After the address of welcome by Governor Morton and the response, after the speech to the legislature, after the reception and the handshaking, they were left in quiet in the Bates House These friends then took Lamon into a room, locked the door, and in the most solemn and iuarding Lincoln's person until they should reach Washi+ngton The scene was concluded by Dubois with a mixture of solemnity and playfulness, who said: ”Now, La; and if you don't protect it, never return to Illinois, for ill ht”

Neither the exhortation nor the threat were in the least needed by Lahly alert But it is of interest in this, that it indicates that there was a wide-spread feeling that this journey was fraught with unusual dangers

Of course Lincoln made many brief speeches These were closely scanned in the hope of finding soural But not one such word escaped hih he had in his day done much hard work, this was the hardest work he had ever done,--to keep speaking without saying anything It was not quite true that he did not say anything, for the speeches were thoughtful and full of interest

But he did not anticipate his inaugural, and to that the popular curiosity was alive He did not say the things that were uppernant questions: ”What, then, is 'coercion'? What is 'invasion'? If the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property [in South Carolina that had seceded], and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any, or all, of these things be 'invasion' or 'coercion'? Upon what principle, what rightful principle,no more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the nation, and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself in the ht to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country, with its people, byit a state? Fellow-citizens, I a questions for you to consider”

At Trenton, New Jersey, historic in the annals of the revolutionary war, he spoke with simple candor of the influence upon his life of Weeton,” one of the first books he ever read The audience broke into cheers, loud and long, when he appealed to thee of his patriotic duty ”I shall endeavor,” said he, ”to take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole country I take it, I hope, in good temper; certainly with no malice towards any section I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am, none ould do more to preserve it; but it may be necessary to put the foot down firht, you will sustain me, will you not?”

At Philadelphia he spoke in Independence Hall on Washi+ngton's Birthday, and raised a flag ”Our friends,” he said of it, ”had provided a ed it so that I was given the honor of raising it to the head of its staff And when it went up, I was pleased that it went to its place by the strength of eloriously to the ithout an accident, in the bright glowing sunshi+ne of thethat there was in the entire success of that beautiful cere of an omen of what is to come”

On this very day, President Buchanan, in Washi+ngton City, was apologizing for per to be carried at the head of a procession that was ton!

It was at Philadelphia thatAt that place they were informed of a plot to assassinate the President as he passed through Baltimore This information came to them from a variety of sources entirely independent, and the various stories so nearly agreed in substance that they could not be disregarded Most io, one of the most famous detectives in the world He had been personally with his assistants in Baltimore and knew the details of the plot But Lincoln was neither suspicious nor tis of Pinkerton

At about this time the son of William H Seward met Lincoln with confidential coave other evidences of this plot, gathered by some detectives from New York City These two sets of detectives had worked on the case; each party entirely ignorant of the other Both got specific evidence of the plot