LINCOLN 



3444 



LINCOLN 



bility of Confederate invasion of the North, 

 and on July 4, 1863, Grant captured Vicksburg. 

 On November 19, 1863, Lincoln spoke at the 

 dedication of the national cemetery at Gettys- 

 burg. The orator of the day was Edward 

 Everett, a polished speaker, whose address was 

 a model of oratorical excellence. Lincoln had 

 scrawled the notes for his three-minute speech 

 on an envelope. He felt, like most of those 

 who heard the speech, that his words added 

 nothing to the occasion, but history has proved 

 him wrong. The Gettysburg Address is one of 

 the noblest gems in the English language, and 

 its words will survive when even the names 

 of Edward Everett and the others who partici- 

 pated in the ceremonies shall have been for- 

 gotten. (For text, see GETTYSBURG, BATTLE OF.) 



After Gettysburg came another change of 

 Federal commanders, for Meade failed to ham- 

 mer Lee as Lincoln thought it should be done. 

 The man who succeeded Meade was General 

 U. S. Grant. When Grant took command, the 

 Federal armies numbered about 975,000 men; 

 the Confederates were about half that number. 

 Grant's persistent pounding spelled doom for 

 the weaker forces of the Confederacy, and on 

 April 9, 1865, he received the surrender of 

 General Lee's army at Appomattox Court 

 House. It is interesting to note that in allow- 

 ing the Confederate officers to keep their side- 

 arms and horses Grant was exceeding Lincoln's 

 instructions, but when Lincoln heard the terms 

 of surrender he expressed great satisfaction. 



Renomination and Reelection. Early in 1864 

 Lincoln began to give less attention to military 

 matters, and more to political affairs. The 

 appointment of Grant, Sherman and Sheridan 

 to the highest commands was followed by a 

 change in Lincoln's attitude. Hitherto he had 

 never given the Federal commanders the high- 

 est confidence, but henceforth he disclosed a 

 justifiable trust in the judgment of his army 

 leaders. The dress-parade commanders were 

 all gone, and in their places were fighters. 

 Lincoln's position towards Grant is set forth 

 in a letter to him, dated April 30, 1864 : 



"Not expecting to see you again before the 

 spring campaign opens, I wish to express in this 

 way my entire satisfaction with what you have 

 done up to this time, so far as I understand it. 

 The particulars of your plans I neither know nor 

 seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant, 

 I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints 

 upon you. While I am very anxious that any 

 great disaster or capture of our men in great 

 numbers shall be avoided, I know these points 

 are less likely to escape your attention than they 

 would mine. If there is anything wanting which 



is within my power to give, do not fail to let me 

 know it." 



With confidence in his generals Lincoln gave 

 much of his time to efforts for securing his 

 renomination and reelection. In his own party 

 there was strong opposition from Salmon P. 

 Chase and John C. Fremont, and skilful 

 litical maneuvering was required to eliminat 

 these men. The Democrats nominated General 

 McClellan on a platform declaring the Presi- 

 dent's war policy a failure and demandii 

 peace. Before election day Farragut had en- 

 tered Mobile Bay and Sherman had captured 

 Atlanta. ''Sherman and Farragut," said Sew- 

 ard, "have knocked the planks out of 

 Chicago platform" the platform which de- 

 clared the war a failure. To these exploits 

 should be added Sheridan's picturesque victory 

 in the Shenandoah campaign. Sheridan's mes- 

 sage to Grant "We have just sent them whirl- 

 ing through Winchester, and we are after them 

 to-morrow" thrilled the North and demol- 

 ished what still remained of the Democratic 

 platform. Lincoln's electoral vote was 212, 

 against 21 for McClellan. The latter carried 

 New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky; Lincoln 

 carried all the rest, including West Virginia, 

 which had been admitted to the Union on June 

 19, 1863. The popular vote was much closer, 

 being 2,330,552 for Lincoln to 1,835,985 for 

 McClellan. 



Victory and Death. Before the election 

 Lincoln had labored in vain to secure from 

 Congress a favorable vote on the Thirteenth 

 Amendment, forever prohibiting slavery, but 

 not until January, 1865, was the vote obtained. 

 The adoption of this amendment removed all 

 possibility of questioning the constitutionality 

 of the Emancipation Proclamation. Early in 

 February Lincoln suggested to his Cabinet that 

 Congress be asked to appropriate $400,000,000 

 to compensate the owners of slaves in such of 

 the Southern states as should have ceased re- 

 sistance by April 1, but this proposal was 

 unanimously disapproved by the Cabinet. It 

 was a sign of Lincoln's conciliatory attituc 

 toward the South, an attitude which found it 

 noblest expression in the imperishable words 

 of the second inaugural address. The closing 

 sentence is one of the most frequently quoted 

 sentences in the English language: 



"With malice toward none, with charity for all, 

 with firmness in the right as God gives us to see 

 the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 

 are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care 

 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 

 his widow, and for his orphan to do all wliidi 



