considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

This was, is, and ever will be the greatest act of his life, the greatest accomplishment of the Civil War. More than anyone else, more than all else, he will ever be regarded responsible for the abolishment of American Slavery, which became necessary to save the Union and give the country a peaceful future.

The intense excitement of the slave period had its humorous happenings. In one of the Douglas debates Mr. Douglas said of Mr. Lincoln that he tended a bar in the New Salem store where he was a clerk; and Mr. Lincoln replied that he did, and that while he was inside the bar Judge Douglas was just outside with his foot on the brass rail; that they simply occupied the well-known opposite sides of the bar.

Mr. Lincoln's Cooper Institute Speech drew a great overflow audience. William Cullen Bryant, the great poet, presided at the meeting. Peter Cooper, who gave the Institute, was present. Horace Greeley was present with a friend he introduced to Mr. Lincoln. The friend quickly said to Mr. Greeley that he was a very homely man. As Mr. Lincoln warmed up with his speech, the friend whispered to Mr. Greeley that he was the handsomest man he ever saw.

The masterful way, the kind and considerate way, in which Abraham Lincoln looked and acted upon the slave question during his presidency should evermore be regarded a great tribute to his name and memory.

During the excitement and controversy leading to emancipation no one in all the country was, at heart, more willing than he. In wise desire he stood alone and seemed to be the only one who comprehended the importance of taking every step safely. Many insisted that Slavery should be abolished regardless of the Union; but history will credit the President with holding the higher and better view, and coming generations will see that in saving the liberties of the United States he also saved the liberties of the world. As he said at Gettysburg, the war was 'to determine whether any nation (not the United States only, but any nation) conceived in liberty and dedicated to the equality of man could long endure.'

He had not much more than taken the oath when beseechments poured in upon him, urging immediate action upon the Slave question. The abolition agitators, lay and clergy alike, besieged him importuning and entreating action upon the great question. Several of the Generals, early in the war, presumed to proclaim the states within their commands free.

He met all these and many other annoyances with a stern, steady, patient purpose; and in such a way as to avoid retracements, rendering every move progressive and conclusive.

NOTE-The foregoing has been written to show the attitude of the President as to the greatest of all questions determined by the Civil War. The greatest because it was the cause of the War. Had there been no Slavery, there would have been no War. You can see, then, it was an important question, and was so regarded and so treated by Abraham Lincoln. He disentangled it from all other questions; and considerately, in the spirit of fairness and justice, determined it, in such a way that all concerned could only accept the result. This note is appended to say that the emancipation of the American Slave was most judiciously accomplished in a most statesmanlike way and was the greatest event of the 19th century.

AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY AND NAVY-1861

During the close of President Buchanan's administration the munitions and war supplies of the government were side-stepped to southern points considered most convenient for military purposes.

The first aggressive act of war was firing upon the Star of the West, a vessel undertaking to provision the garrison of Fort Sumter.

This resulted in a surrender of that fortress and a proclamation of President Lincoln asking for 75,000

men.

Thus did the Confederacy fire the first gun of the war.

President Lincoln's call to arms was magically met. Seventy-five thousand men sprang up like so many northern lights. They gathered from hill, plain, and valley. Every loyal state rushed to arms. Twenty million people with great enthusiasm placed their fortunes and lives at the disposal of the government. The North shouted, "We are coming, Father Abraham." In five days Governor Denison of Ohio reported 71,000 men. Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania began moving troops to Washington. Prayers invoked Divine protection for the Union. Banks tendered money. Independent organizations

offered service. Crowds gathered, held meetings, sang National airs, raised the flag on the village green, and inasmuch as was possible the North placed itself and its all at the command of the government. The war meetings of 1861 were gatherings of fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. The whole subject was discussed with a coolness and deliberation wonderful to remember. Then the decision and the enlistment. As though but yesterday do you see the mother giving up her son, the sister her brother, the wife her husband, and the child the father. Armies began to rendezvous along the Potomac, the Ohio, the Tennessee and the Mississippi.

If you can see the forces of war gathering from the North to save the Union and the defiant armies of the South marching forth to destroy it, you have somewhat the situation of Abraham Lincoln's administration in the early summer of 1861. The issues of the great contest were joined. The overbearing demands and bullying threats of many years had crystalized into rebellion. The Union forever was the affirmative. Its destruction was the negative. For more than four years these forces composed of the best manhood known to civilization contended against each other. Campaigns were planned, battles were fought, armies were victorious, officers and soldiers were brave; but we must not dwell upon such things.