rather peevish and fretful air he turned to them and said: 'Well, ladies, what can I do for you?'

"They both commenced speaking at once.

"From what they said, he soon learned that one was the wife and the other was the mother of men who had resisted the draft in western Pennsylvania.

666

Stop,' said he, 'don't say any more. Give me your petition.'

66

The old lady responded: 'Mr. Lincoln, we've got no petition, we couldn't write one, and had no money to pay for writing it, and I thought best to come to see you.'

'I

"Oh!' said he, I understand your cases.'

66 He rang his bell and ordered one of the messengers to tell General Dana to bring him the names of all the men in prison for resisting the draft in western Pennsylvania.

"The general soon came with the list.

66

Lincoln then inquired if there was any difference in the charges or degrees of guilt.

"The general replied that he knew of none. "Well, then,' said the President, these fellows have suffered long enough, and I have thought so for some time, and now that my mind is on the subject, I believe I will turn out the whole flock. So draw up the order, general, and I will sign it.'

"It was done, and the general left the room.

"Turning to the women, Lincoln said: 'Now, ladies, you can go.'

66 The younger of the two ran forward and was in the act of kneeling in thankfulness.

"Get up,' he said, 'don't kneel to me, but thank God and go.'

"The old lady now came forward with tears in her eyes to express her gratitude. 'Good-by, Mr. Lincoln,' said she. 'I shall probably never see you again till we meet in heaven.'

"These were her exact words. She had the President's hand in hers, and he was deeply moved.

"He instantly took her right hand in both of his own, and, following her to the door, said: 'I am afraid, with all my troubles, I shall never get to the resting-place you speak of, but if I do, I am sure I shall find you. That you wish me to get there is, I believe, the best wish you could make for me. Good-by.'

66 We were now alone. I said to him: Lincoln, with my knowledge of your nervous sensibility, it is a wonder that such scenes as this don't kill you.'

"He thought for a moment, and then answered in a languid voice: 'Yes, you are to a certain degree right. I ought not to undergo what I so often do. I am very unwell now; my feet and hands of late seem to be always cold, and I ought,

perhaps, to be in bed. But things of this sort you have just seen don't hurt me, for, to tell you the truth, that scene is the only thing to-day that has made me forget my condition, or given me any pleasure. I have in that order made two people happy and alleviated the distress of many a poor soul whom I never expect to see. That old lady,' he continued, was no counterfeit. The mother spoke out in all the features of her face. It is more than one can often say, that in doing right one has made two people happy in one day. Speed, die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow."

66 6

Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863

66

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But in a larger sense we can not dedicate— we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract.

"The world will little 'note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

LINCOLN'S TRIUMPH

(1865)

CHAPTER XVIII

His second inauguration—The President at Petersburg is mistaken for a rebel-The Confederate Government destroyed -Lincoln enters Richmond amid demonstrations of great joy from emancipated slaves-General Pickett's wife and the President-Lincoln's last official act was to save a life -His assassination-His Code of War adopted at the Peace Conference at The Hague.

ON March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated the second time. In his address the following paragraph occurred:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 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 his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

The lofty and sublime thought here expressed exercised a powerful and healing influence upon the minds of the people, which survived even the