After a period of fighting, Green and Vaughn crossed into Mississippi from Tennessee, camping at Tupelo, Miss. Not having heard from his family, Green was anxious to hear from his old home, so he delegated Vaughn to go on the mission of delivering letters to his wife.

Vaughn had almost completed his trip, having reached La Grange, six miles south of Canton, when he was captured by a squad of Federal troops.

They searched his person, and, finding letters and papers concealed about him, he was tried as a spy and sentenced to be shot. John B. Henderson, Senator from Missouri, finally succeeded in getting an order from the President for a retrial, but the verdict remained as hitherto. Again Henderson appealed to Lincoln, who granted a third trial, with the same result.

Henderson was not disconcerted, and again I went to Lincoln. It was on the afternoon of April 14, 1865-a melancholy date that the Senator called at the White House. He called the attention of Lincoln to the fact that the war was practically closed, and said: "Mr. Lincoln, this pardon should be granted in the interest of peace and conciliation."

Mr. Lincoln replied: "Senator, I agree with you. Go to Stanton and tell him this man must be released."

Henderson went to the office of the Secretary of War. Stanton became violently angry, and swore that he would permit no such procedure.

Vaughn had but two days to live, and Henderson hastened to make one more stand. After supper he went to the White House. The President was in his office, dressed to go to Ford's Theatre, when the Senator entered and told of the meeting he had had with Stanton.

Lincoln turned to his desk and wrote a few lines on an official sheet of paper. As he handed it to Senator Henderson he remarked: "I think that will have precedence over Stanton."

It was an order for an unconditional release and pardon the last official paper ever signed by Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln's Code of War and the Peace Conference of 1899

Aside from the emancipation of the slaves, history has recently given a lofty position to one of Lincoln's many humane acts, which shows how truly he lived and labored for the good of mankind, and how greatly he honored and ennobled his nation.

Mr. William Stead, in a letter written at The Hague during the International Peace Conference, writes on June 1, 1899, as follows:

66 CREDIT TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"It is very interesting to Americans to know that in the historical retrospect with which Professor Martens opened his case for the Russian scheme, he attributed the original initiative of the whole movement to Abraham Lincoln, whose code for the guidance of the Federal troops during the war served as the first example of the effort of humanity to reduce the laws of war within reasonable limits."

*TRANSLATION OF INSCRIPTION.-" To Abraham Lincoln, President, for the second time, of the American Republic, citizens of Rome present this stone, from the wall of Servius Tullius, by which the memory of each of those brave assertors of liberty may be associated. Anno 1865."