611 SON PEACOCK. Editor
VOLUME XIX.---NO. 256.
EVENING BULLETIN.
PUBLISHED EVERY ETENING.
(Sundays excepted) at
No. 329 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Ell=
"Evening Bulletin Association,"
PROPYII - 17011.5.
GIBSON PEACOCK, CASPER SOUDER, Jr.,
7. L. FETHERSTON I ERNEST C. WALLACE
THOMAS WILLIAMSON.
The Burmarm is served to subscribers In the city at
3.8 mote per week, payable to the carriers, or is to per
RIMED.
SANE—On the 11th instant, Mrs. J, D. L. Kane, re.
aiet of 'the late Judge Kane.
Her relatives and friends are invited to -attend her
'funeral from the residence of her ssn, Robert P.
Mane, No. 1805.Delaiscey Place on Tuesday afternoon,
the 13th instant, at 2 o'clock. it
POULSON—On the morning of Feb. Bth, 1868, Chas.
_A. Poulson; aged 77 years.
The funeral services will be held *at St. Peter's
IChurc.h. on Thursday, the 15th instant, at 11 o'clock,
precisely;. and the interment take place at German
town. Ms relatives and - friends are invited to at
tend. 3t
PRICE—On the 9th instant, Mrs. Anna, ,wife of Mr.
omas L. Price, aged 48 years.
Her' relativee and friends are resPectfhlly Invited
to attend her funeral from her husband's residence,
'Germantown road, above the Second Toll Gate, on
Tuesday, 13th instant, at, two o'clock. To proceed to
Laurel Rill Cemetery., t•
:ViricrrE DIORERNS FOB SKIRTS.
Green Watered Moreene.
6-4 and 54 Green Baize,
White Cloth for Sacks.
- . White Evening Silks.
EYRE & LANDkr.r , Fourth and Arch
SPECIAL NOTICES.
10° THE SEASON AND THE POOR
UNION BENEVOLENT AnOCIATION
For thirty-four years this society has been golnz
M and out amongst the citizens of Philadelphia,
giving and receiving their alms, and it, has never ap.
pealed for aid in vain. At the present crisis it needs
all It can obtain to enable It to carry on its work.
With . a
hundred lady visitors distributed over the
entire city, it reaches nearly every family, and the
experience of the visitors enable them to discriminate
betwecn the worthy and the unworthy. The principle
of the society is to distribute favors with a cautious
band,being convinced by long experience that this is
the only true plan of right charity. Numberless or
gen izatiMlS have risen and :ellen upon a different
principle since its foundation, and numberless
others will rise ann fall whenever they fall
So recognize this - principle. Indiscriminate
.alms-giving is the foster-father of pauperism, and is
will eventuate in filling any community with beggar: ,
There are myriads of poor who now labor willingly for
s living that would not do so if e neon. aged In idleness
by a mistaken philanthropy, and there are myriad s
who no LIVE without labor upon the gains of their chit
Oren, sent through the streets to beg. At the same time
there is and always will be a very great deal of rep,
suffering, which it is the bounden duty of the good 10
seek out and relieve. These are principally' women
and children, not oftin men, whom women can best
Minister to. At this crisis many otthese are families
of discharged soldiers, who would suffer and
..die in their garrets and cellars unknown to
the great public, but for the efforts of our
benevolent women, who thread the byways
and alleys of the city, to seek out and relieve them
The number of visits made by our visitors last year
was 17,166, number of families relieved, 7,780, number
Of sick cared for, 1,090, number of persons found em
ployment, 817; amount of cash distributed, $5,681;
number of tons of coal given out, 1,740: number of
g - arments, 3,00; number of stoves loaned, 350, and 30
- women were found constant employment. In all this
Visiting there have beem'of course, numerous instances
of intense hardship brought to light, which, if related,
:would appeal to every charitable heart; but it has never
been the practice of the society to obtrude
harrowing cases of suffering before the public tb excite
sympathy. It has relied rather upon the intelligent
Judgment of the public to sustain its steady work. I 1
respectable Board of Managers is a guarantee of re
sponsibility, and they all now urge upon the public no-
Sice the wants of the poor at the close of the season.
Messrs. COOPER and EVANS, the authorized col
lectors, will mumediatelymake their float call for the
year. Money may also be left with EDMUND WIL
COX, Treasurer, 404 Chestnut street, or with JOHN
liICICS;Agent, at the Office of the Society, corner of
ISansorn and Seventh streets.
(SAMUEL H. PERKINS, President.
Jonas H. ATWOOD, becretary. fel2-m,w,fit
IU. THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL ORA
TION before the SOCIETY of the ALUMNI of
the PHILAD.I4LPHIA ohaszTRAL HIGH self° _XL,
- will be delivered on THURSDAY }WANING, Febru
-rary 15th, at musrce L FUND HALL, by CHARLES
HENRY BROCK, Esp.. fel24trpo
tUo --- BF,ARSON PETROLEUM COMPANY. —A
spec'al meeting of the Stow holders of the above
Company wI,l be held on MONDAY, Febrdary 26th.
H 66, at 4 o'clock, P. M., at its Office, ;Room NO. 7, No.
.52.4 WAlEUT.street, for the purpose of electing Di
rectors. fel2-6to
LECTURE ON MERCANTILE REMEDFEs
The next Lecture of the Course, on Commercial
law, will be delivered at Crittenden's 'Commercial
College, by Joseph C. Turner. Esq , on TUESDAY
IStla lust, at 73 o'clock.
Subject--Mercantile Remedies." All former stn
•dents and business men are cordially invited. felo-3t
'RTHE SOCIETY for supplying the Poor with
SOUP. N 0.338 GRISCOII street, find themselves
ut sufficient funds to meet the current expenses
of the season, and make this appeal to the public to
•enable them to supply the more than usual demand for
.assistance.
jvrt .ATTAH HACKER, President,
316 South Fourth street
WM. EVANS, JR., Treasuter,
232 South Front street
reft-6tirp
i" UNION MEETING—EIGHTH WARD.—A
meeting of the Union citizens of the ED3IITII
R7IRD, will be held at tae Schuylkill Hose House, on
TUESDAY evening February 13,at half-past 7 o'clock,
for the purpose of electing a Juuge and two Inspectors,
Lo conduct the delegate election, to be held in tae varl
•ous election divisions. on TUESDAY evening Febru
ary 20th between the hours of 6 and 8 o'clock,in accord
ance with the call of the City Executive Committee.
fel2,2t ALEX. J. HARPEE, President.
;OFF/OE OF EH 00AL AND
NAVIGATION THE NAVIGATION COMPALNY,IGH
PoimanELPHIA,
73ecember 21st, 1865.
LOAN FOR SA_LE.
IN BUMS TO SUIT PURCHASERS.
The Loan of this Company, due April Ist, 1884, into
.. Test payable quaiterly, at the rate of six per cent. per
This Loan is secured by a mortgage on all the Com-
Ipany's Coal Lands; Canals, and Slackwater Navigation
`sn the Lehigh river,andall their Railroads,constructed
.and to be constructed, between Manch Chunk and
Wllkesbarre, and branch 'roads convected therewith,
mind the franchise Of the Compapy relating thereto.
Apply to SOLOMON SHEPHERD, Treasurer,
de2l-rptfi 122 South Second street.
10:. CONCERT HALL.
W3I LLOYD GARRISON will deliver the
:Second Lecture of the Course before "The Social, Civil,
.and Statistical Association," on THURSDAY EVE;
.24ING. February 15th. Subject—' . Liberty Victorious."
February 22d.—General CARL bCHURZ. Subject—
TThe Problem of the Day. , '
March lnt. Mrs, F E.W. HARPER, Subject—"Tne
ration's Great Opportunity."
March Btti.—Prot. WM. R. DAY.
March 15th.—Hon. Will. D. KELLEY.
Miss E. T. GREENFLELD (tne Black Swan) has
atindly yolnnteered to furnish appropriate music on
'each evening.
Tickets for the course $1.25; single tickets 85c. To be
'Arad at T. B. PUGH'S Book Store, Sixth and Chestnut,
:and at the door,
Doors open at 7, lectpre to commence at 8. fel2-4trlg
10*
INAUGURATION
OF TH2
SOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS,
820 SOUTH street, Philadelphia.
The Inauguration Exercises of the Home for Little
;Wanderers, will take place at
. CONCERT HALL, Chestnut street, above Twelfth,
On MONDAY EVENING, Feb. 12th,
; o'ck.
The Exercises wil At l I co 73 nsistcl o
of an address by Hon.
OLIVER DYER (an i eminent member of the New
'York Bar), on "Poverty, Vice and Crime—What Should
lbe Done to Remove and Prevent Them." Also, ad
ddressea by Bev. W. C. MAN METER, Superintendent
of the "Home" in New York; CHARLES LEX, Esq.,
and Rev. W. Ir. SIEGFRIED, of Philadelphia.
The Choir will consist of twelve Little Girls from the
"Home" in New York. who will be present by special
invitation,and will entertain the audience with singing.
Ex-Gov. POLLOCK•wiII preside upon the occasion.
Tickets. 25 cents, for sale at Trumpler's Music Store,
Seventh and Chestnut streets; at Concert Hall. T'cket
Office, and at the "Home," 820 South street.
.Proceeds for the benefit Of the "Home." feltqtrp
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
BIRTH DAY SOLEMNITIES AT
WASHINGTON.
ORATION OF THE HON. GEORGE BAN.
Bead Before the President, Heads of
Departments and Congress, Monday,
Feb. 12111,1866.
Senators ' Representatives . of America—
That God rules in the affa i rs of men is as
certain as any truth of physical science. On
the great moving ;power which is from the
beginning hangs the world of the senses and
the world of thought and action... Eternal
wisdom marshals the great procession of the
nations, working in patient continuity
through the ages, never halting and never
abrupt, encompassing all events in its over
sight, and ever i ,effecting its will, though
mortals may slubther in apathy or oppose
with madness. Kings arelifted up or thrown
down, 'nations come and go, republics
flourish and wither, dynasties pass away
like a tale that is told; but nothing is by
chance, though men in their ignorance of
causes may think so. The deeds of time
are'governed, as well as judged, by the de
crees of eternity. The caprice of fleeting exis
tences bends to the immovable omnipotence
which plants its foot on all the centuries,
and has neither change of purpose nor re
pose. Sometimes, likes messenger through
the , thick darkness of night, it steps
along mysterious ways ; but when the hour
strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass
into a new form of being, unseen hands
draw the bolts from the gates of futurity :
an j all-subduing influence prepares the
mind of men for the coining revolution ;
those who planned resistance find themselves
in conflict with the will of Providence, rather
than with human devices ; and all hearts
and all understandings,most of all the opin
ions and influences of the unwilling, are
wonderfully attracted and compelled to bear
forward the change which becomes more an
obedience to the law of universal nature
than submission to the arbitrament of man.
Growth of the American Repnblio.
In the fullness of time a republic .rose up
in the wilderness of America. Thousands
of years had passed away before this child
of the ages could be born. From whatever
there was of good in the systems of former
centuries she drew her nourishment; the
wrecks of the past were her warnings.
With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed
in her inmost nature, she disenthralled
religion from bondage to temporal power,
that her worship might be worship only in
spirit and in truth. The wisdom which
had passed from India through Greece,with
what Greece had added of her own; the
jurisprudence of Rome; the medieval
municipalities ; the Teutonic method
of representation ; the political expe
rience of England; the benignant wis
dom of the expositors of the law of
nature and of nations in France and
Holland, all shed on her their selectest in
fluence. She washed the gold of political
wisdom from the sands wherever it was
found ; she cleft it from the rocks ; she
gleaned it among ruins. Out of all the dis
coveries of statesmen and sages, out of all
the experience of past human life, she com
piled a perennial political philosophy, the
primordial principles of national ethics.
The wise men of Europe sought' the best
government in a mixture of • monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy; and America
went behind these names to extract from
them the vital elements of social forms, and
blend them harmoniously in the free com
monwealth, which comes nearest to the il
lustration of the natural equality of all men.
She entrusted the guardianship of estab
lished rights to law; the movements of re
form to the spirit of the people, and drew
her force from the happy reconciliation of
both.
Territorial Exteat of the Republic.
Republics had heretofore been limited to
small cantons or cities and their dependen
cies; Amerka, doing that of which the like
had not before been known upon the earth.
or believed by kings and statesmen to be
possible, extended her republic across a
continent. Under her auspicies the vine of
liberty took deep root and filled the land;
the hills were covered with its shadow; its
boughs were like the goodly cedar', and
reached unto both oceans. The fame of
this only daughter of freedom went out
into all the lands of the earth; from her the
human race drew hope.
Prophecies on the Consequences of
Slavery.
Neither hereditary monarchy nor heredi
tary aristocracy planted itself on our soil;
the only hereditary condition that fastened
itself upon us was servitude. Nature
works in sincerity, and is ever true to its
law. The bee hives honey, the viper • dis
tills poison; the vinqpitores its juices and so
do the poppy and the npas. In like man
ner, every thought and every action ripens
its seed, each in its kind. In the individual
man, and still more in a nation, a just idea
gives life, and progress and glory ; a false
conception portends disaster, rename and
death. A hundred and twenty years ago
a West Jersey Quaker wrote: "This trade of
importing slaves is dark gloominess hang
ing over the land; the consequences will be
grievous to posterity." At the North the
groWth of slavery was arrested by natural
causes; in the region nearest _ the tropics it
throve rankly, and worked itself into the
organism of the rising States. Virginia
stood between the two; with soil, and clim
ate, resources demanding free labor, and
yet capable of the profitable employment of
the slave. She was the land of great
statesmen; and they saw the dan
ger of her being whelmed under
the rising flood in time to struggle against
the delusions oflavarice and pride. Ninety
four years ago, the Legislature of Virginia
..addressed the British king, saying that the
trade in slaves was "of great
inhumanity," was opposed to the "security
and happiness" of their constituents,
"would in time have the most destructive
influence," and "endanger their very ex
istence." And the king answered them
that, "upon pain of his highest displeasure, ,
theimportation of slaves should not be in
any respect obstructed." "Pharisaical
Britain," wrote Franklin in behalf of
Virginia "to pride thyself in setting free a
single slave that happened to land on thy
coasts, while thy laws continue a
traffic whereby so many hundreds of thou
sands are dragged into a slavery
that is entailed on their posterity." "A
serious view, of this subject," said Patrick
Henry in 1773, PgiveS a gloomy prospect to
future times.", In the same year George
Mason wrote to the legislatureof Virginia:
"The laws of impartial Pp:midi:ince may
avenge our injustice upon our posterity.'
In Virginia and in the Continental Con
CROFT
PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1866:
gress, Jefferson, with the approval of Ed
mund Pendleton, branded the slave-trade
as piracy; and he fixed in the Declaration
of Independence as the corner-stone of
America: "All men are created equal, with
an unalienable right to liberty." On
the' first organization of temporary
governments for the continental do
main, Jefli3rson, but for the default of New
Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated
every part of that territory to freedom. In
the formation of the national Constitution,
Virginia opposed by a part of New England, '
vainly struggled to abolish the slave trade
at once and forever; and when the ordinance
of 1787 was introuced by Nathan Dane,
without the clause prohibiting slavery, it
was through the favorable disposition of
Virginia and the South that the clause of
Jefferson was restored, and the whole North
western Territory—all the territory. that then
belonged to the nation—was reserved for
the labor of freemen.
Despair of the Alen of the Revolution.
The hope prevailed in Virginia that the
abolition of the slave-trade would bring
with it the gradual abolition of slavery;
but the expectation was doomed to disap
pointment. In supporting incipient mea
sures for emancipation; Jefferson encoun
tered difficulties greater than he could -over
come; and after vahi wrestling, the words
that broke from him, "I tremble for my
country, when I reflect that God is just,
that his justice cannot sleep forever," were
words of despair. It was the desire of
Washington's heart that Virginia should
remove slavery by a public act; and as the
prospects of a general emancipation grew
more and more dim he, in utter hopeless
ness of the action of the State,. did all that
he could by bequeathing freedom to his
own slaves. Good and true men had, from
the days of 1776, thought of colonizing the
negro in the home of his ancestors.
But the idea of colonization was thought to
increase the difficulty of emancipation; and
:n spite of strong support, while it accom
plished much good for Africa,it proved im
practicable as a remedy at home. Madison,
who, in early life disliked slavery so much
that he wished "to depend as little as possi
ble on the labor of slaves;" Madison, who
held that where slavery exists "the republi
can theory becomes fallacious;" Madison,
who, in the last years of his life would not
consent to the annexation of Texas, lest his
countrymen should fill it with slaves;Madl
son, who said, "slavery is the greatest evil
under which the nation labors, a portentous
evil, an evil—moral, political and economi
cal—a sad blot on our free country," went
mournfully into old age with the cheerless
words: "No satisfactory plan has yet been
devised for taking out the stain."
New Vlewa of Slavery.
The men of the Revolution pass away. A
new generation sprang up, impatient that
an institution to which they clung, should
be condemned as inhulnan, unwise and un
just ; in the throes of discontent at the self
reproach of their fathers, and blinded by the
lustre of wealth to:be acquired by the culture
of a new staple,' they devise the theory that
slavery, which they would not abolish, was
not evil, but good. They turned on the
friends of colonization, and confidently de
manded, "Why take black men from a
civilized and Christian country,where their
labor is a amuse of immense gain and a
power to control the markets of the
world, and send them to a land of
ignorance, idolatry, and indolence,
which was the home of their forefathers,
but not theirs? Slavery is a blessing.
Were they not in their ancestral land
naked, scarcely lifted above brutes, igno
rant of the course of the sun, controlled by
nature? And in their new abode, have
they not been taught to know the differ
ence of the seasons, to plough, and plant,
and reap, to drive oxen, to tame th e horse,
to exchange their scanty dialect for the
richest of all the languages among men,and
the stupid adoration of follies for the purest
religion. And since slavery is good for the
ulacks, it is good for their masters, bring
ing opulence and the opportunity of edu
cating a race. The slavery of the black is
good in itself; he shall serve the white man
torever." And Nature,which better under
stood the quantity of fleeting interest and
passion, laughed, as it caught the echo:
"man" and "forever !"
Slavery at Home.
A regular development Of pretensions fol
lowed the new declaration with logical con
sistency. Under the old declaration every
one of the States had retained, each for itself,
the right of manumitting all slaves by an
ordinary act of legislation; now, the power
of the people over servitude through their
legislatures was curtailed, and the privi
leged class was swift in imposing legal and
constitutional obstructions on the people
hemselves. The power of emancipation
was narrowed or taken away. The slave
might not be disquieted by education.
There remained an unconfessed conscious
ness that the system of bondage was wrong,
and a restless memory that it was at vari
ance with the true American tradition; its
safety was therefore to be secured by politi
cal organization. The generation that made
the Constitution took care for the predomi
nance of freedom in Congress, by the ordi
nance of Jefferson ; the new school aspired
to secure for slavery an equality of votes in
the Senate, and while it hinted at an organic
act that should concede to the cellective
South a veto power on national legislation,
it assumed that each State separately had
the right to revise and nullify laws of the
United States, according to p:ie discretion of
its judgment.
Slavery and Foreign Relations.
The new theory hung as a bias on the for
eign relations of the country; there could be
no recognition of Hayti, nor even of the
American colony of Liberia; and the world
was given to understand that the establish
ment of free labor in Cuba would be a
reason for wresting that island from Sjain.
Territories were annexed; Louisiana, Flori
da, Texas, half of Mexico; slavery must
have its share in them all, and it accepted
for a time a dtviding line between the un
questioned domain of free labor, and that in
which involuntary labor was to be tolerated.
A few years passed away, and the new
school, strong and arrogant, demanded and
received an apology for applying the Jeffer
son proviso to Oregon.
squatter sovereignty.
The application of that proviso was inter
rupted for three all mi nißtrations; but justice
moved steadily onward. In the news that
the men of California had chosen freedom,
Calhoun heard the knell of parting slavery;
and'on his deathbed he counseled secession.
Washington and Jefferson, and Madison
had died despairing of the abolition of
slavery; Calhoun died in despair at the
growth of freedom. His system rushed irre
sistibly to its naturaldevelopment. The death
struggle for California was followed by a
short truce; but the newschool of politicians
who said that slavery was not evil, but
good, soon sought to recover the ground
they had lost; and confident of securing
Texas, they demanded that the established,
line in the Territories between freedom and
slavery should be blotted out. The country
mat 'WHOILE COUNTRY.
believing in the strength and enterprise and
expansive energy of freedom, made answer
though reluctantly: "Be it so; let there ba
no strife between brethren; let freedom and
slavery compete for the Territories on equal
terms, in a fair field under an impartial ad
ministration;" and on this theory, if on
any, the contest might have been left to the
decision of time.
Dred Scott Decision.
The South started back in appallment
from its victory ; for it knew that a fair
competition foreboded its defeat. But
where could it now find an ally to save it
from its ownimistake ? What I have next
to say is spoken with no emotion but regret.
Our meeting to-day is, as it were, at the
grave, in the presence of Eternity, and the
truth must be uttered in soberness and sin
cerity. In a great republic, as was observed
more than two thousand years ago, any at
tempt to overturn the state owes its
strength to aid from some branch of the
government. The Chief Justice of the
United States, without any neces
sity or occasion, volunteered to come
to the rescue of the theory of slavery. And
from his court there lay no appeal but to the
bar of humanity and history. Against tha
Constitution, against the memory of the
nation, against a previous decision, against
a series of enactments, he decided that the
slave is property, that slave property, is
entitled to no less protection than
any any other property. that the
Constitution upholds it in every Terri
tory against any act of a local legislature,
and even against Congress itself; or, as the
President tersely promulgated the saying:
"Kansas is as much a slave State as
South Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by
virtue of the Constitution, exists in every
Territory." The municipal character being
thus taken away, and slave property de
creed to be "sacred," the authority of the
courts was invoked to introduce it by the
comity of law into States where slavery had
been abolished; and in one of the courts
of the United States a judge pronounced the
African slave trade legitimate, and nume
rous and powerful advocates demanded its
restoration.
Taney and Slave Races.
Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elabo
rate opinion, announced what had never
been heard from any magistrate of Greece or
Rome—what was unknown to civil law,and
canon law, and feudal law, and common
law, and constitutional law; unknown to
Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth and Marshall—
that there are "slave races." The spirit of
evil is intensely logical. Having the au
thority of this decision, five States swiftly
followed the earlier example cf a sixth, and
opened the way for reducmg the free negro
to bondage; the migrating free negro became
a slave if he but touched the soil of a
seventh; and an eighth, from its extent and
soil and mineral resources, destined to incal
culable greatness, dosed its eyes on its
coming prosperity, and enacted—as by
Tansy's decision it had the right to do--that
every free black man who would live
within its limits, must accept the condition
of slavery for himself and his posterity.
Only one step more remained to be taken.
Jefferson and the leading statesmen of his
day held fast to the idea that the enslave
ment of the African was socially, morally,
and politically wrong. The new school was
founded exactly upon the opposite idea;
and they resolved fit - sato distract the Demo
cratic party, for which the Supreme Court
had now furnished the means, and then
to establish a new government, with negro
slavery for its corner-stone, as socially, mo
rally, and politically right.
As the Presidential election drew on, one
of the old traditional parties did not make
its appearance; the other reeled as it sought
to preserve its old position; and the candi
date who most nearly represented its best
opinion' driven by patriotic zeal,roamed the
country from end to end to speak for union,
eager at least to confront its enemies, yet
not having hope that it would find its deli
verance through him. The storm rose to a
whirlwind; who should allay its wrath?
The most experienced statesmen of the
country had failed; there was no hope from
those who were great after the flesh; could
relief come from one whose wisdom was
like the wisdom of little children.
F.ariy Life of Abraham Lincoln.
The choice of America foall on a man born
west of the Alleghanies, in the cabin of poor
people of Hardin county, Kentucky—Abra
ham Lincoln.
His mother could read, but not write ; his
father could do neither; but his parents sent
him, with an old spelling-book, to school,
and he learned in his childhool to do both.
When eight years old he floated down the
Ohio with his lather on a raft which bore the
lumpy and all their possessions to the shore
of Indiana; and child as he was, he gave
help as they toiled through dense forests to
the interior of Spencer county. There in
the land of free labor he grew up in a log
cabin, with the solemn solitude for his
teacher in his meditative hours. Of Asiatic
literature he knew only the Bible; of Greek,
Latin and medieval, no more than the
translation of ir.op's Fables; of English,
John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The
traditions 01 George Fox and William Penn
passed to him dimly along the lines of two
centuries through his ancestors, who were
Quakers.
Otherwise his education was altogether
American. The Declaration of Indepen
dence was his compendium of political
wisdom, the Life of Washington his con
stant study, and something of Jefferson and
Madison reached him through Henry Clay,
whom he honored from boyhood. For the
rest, from day to day, he lived the life of the
American people; walked in its light; rea
soned with its reason; thought with its
power of thought; felt te beatings of its
mighty heart; and so was in every way a
child of nature—a child of the West—a
child of America.
His Progress in Life.
At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition
to get on in the world, he engaged himself
to go down the Mississippi in a flat-boat, re
ceiving ten dollars a month for his wages,
and afterwards he made the trip once more.
At twenty-one he drove his father's cattle as
the family migrated to Illinois, and split
rails to fence in the new homestead in the
wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of
volunteers in the Black , Hawk war. He
kept a shop; he learned something of sur
veying; bat of English literature he added
to Bunyan nothing but Shakapeare's plays.
At twenty-five he was elected to the legisla
ture of Illinois, where he served eight years.
At twenty-seven he was admitted to the bar.
in 1837 he •chose his home at Spring
field, the beautiful centre of the rich
est land in the State. In 1847 he was
a member of the National Congress, where
he voted about forty times in favor of the
principle of the Jefferson proviso. In 1884
he gave his influence to eleot from Illinois,
to the American Senate, a - Democrat who
would certainly do justice to. Kansas. In
1858, as- the rival of Douglas,. he went before
the people of the mighty Prairie State 84-
Secession Resolved On.
The Election
Big Education.
ing: "This Union cannot permanently en
dure, half slave and half free; the Union
will not be dissolved, but the house will
cease to be divided;" and now in 1861, with
no experience whatever as an executive offi
cer, while States were madly flying from
their orbit, and wise men knew not where
tn j
to find counsel, thisdescendant of Quakers,
this pupil of &mum (this child of the great
West was elected sident of America.
He measured e difficulty of the duty
that devolved ,on him, and was %resolved to
fulfill it..
He Goes to Washington.
As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he
left Springfield, which for a quarter of a
century bad been his happy home, to the
crowd of his friends and neighbors whom
be was never more to meet, he spoke a
solemn farewell: " I know not how soon I
shall see you again. A duty has devolved
upon me, greater than that which has de
volved upon any other man since Washipg
'ton.. He never would have succeeded, ex
cept for the aid of Divine providence, upon
which he at all times relied. On the same
Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray
that I may receive that Divine assistance,
without which I cannot succeed. but with
which success is certain." To the men of
Indiana he said: "I am but an accidental,
temporary instrument; it is your basi
n QBEI to rise up and preserve
the Union and liberty." At the
capital of Ohio he said: "Without a name,
without a reason why I should have a
name, there has fallen upon me a task,
such as did not rest even upon the father, of
his country." At various places in New
York, especially at Albany before the legis
lature, which tendered him the united sup
port of the great Empire State, he said:
"While I hold myself the humblest of all
the individuals who have ever been
elevated to the Presidency, I have a more
difficult task to perform than any of them.
I bring a true heart to the work. I must
rely upon the people of the whole country
for support; and with their sustaining aid
even Ihumble as I am, cannot fail to carry
the sh'ip of State safely through the
storm." To the assembly of New
Jersey at Trenton, he explained: "I
shall take the ground' I deem most
just to the North, the East, the West, the
South, and the whole country, in good tem
per, certainly with no malice to any section.
I am devoted to peace, but it may be neces
sary to put the foot down firmly." In the
old Independence Hall of Philadelphia, he
said : " I have never had a feelingpolitically
that did not spring from the sentiments em
bodied in the Declaration of Independence,
which gave liberty, not alone to the people
of this country, but to the world in all future
time. If the country cannot be saved with
out giving up that principle, I would rather
be assassinated on the spot than surrender
It. I have said nothing but what lam will
ing to live and die by."
In What State He Found the Country'.
Traveling in the dead of night to escape
assassination, Lincoln arrived at Washing
ton nine days before his inauguration. The
outgoing President, •at the opening of the
session of Congress had still kept as the ma
jority of his advisers men engaged in trea
son; had declared that in case of even an
"imaginary" apprehension of danger from
notions of freedom among the slaves, "dis
union would become inevitable." Lincoln
and others had questioned the opinion of
Taney; such impugning he ascribed to the
"factions temper of the times.:' The favorite
doctrine of the majority of the Democratic
party on the power of a territorial legisla
ture over slavery he condemned as an
attack on "the sacred rights of pro
perty.". The State legislatures, he
insisted, must repeal what he called "their
unconstitutional and obnoxious enact
ments," and which, if such were "null and
void," or "it would be impossible for any
human power to save the Union." Nay! if
these unimportant acts were not repealed,
"the injured States would be justified in
revolutionary resistance to the Government
of the Union." He maintained that no
Sate might secede at its sovereign will and
pleasure; that the Union was meant for
perpetuity; and that Congress might at
tempt to preserve, but only by conciliation;
that "the sword was not placed in their
hands to preserve it by force;" that the
last desperate remedy of a despairing
people" would be "an explanatory
_ 'slept recognizing. the decision of the
upretre Court of the United States." The
American Union he called "a confederacy"
of States, and he thought it a duty to make
the appeal for the amendment "before any
of these States should separate themselves
from the Union." The views of the Lien.
ter tw t- Gen e r al,
advice, "conceded the right of secession,"
pronounced a quadruple rupture of the
Union "a smaller evil than the re-uniting
of the fragments by the sword," and
"eschewed the idea of invading a
seceded State." After changes in the Cabi
net, the President informed Congress that
"matters were still worse;" that "the South
suffered serious grievances," which should
be redressed "in peace." The day after this
message the flag of the Union was fired upon
from Fort Moultrie, and the insult was not
revenged or noticed. Senators in Congress
telegraphed to their constituents to seize
the national forts, and they were not
arrested. The finances of the country were
grievously embarrassed. Its little army
was not within reach—the part of it in
Texas, with all its stores, was made over by
its commander to the seceding insur
gents. One State after another voted
in Convention to go out of the Union.
A peace congress, so called, met at the
request of Virginia, to concert the terms of
a capitulation for the continuance of the
Union. Congress in both branches sought
to devise conciliatory expedients ; the
Territories of the country were organized in
a manner not to conflict with any preten
sions of the South, or any decision of the
Supreme Court; and, nevertheless, the se
ceeding States formed at Montgomery a
provisional government, and pursued
their relentless purpose with such success
that the Lieutenant-General feared the city
of Washington might find itself "in
cluded in a foreign country," and proposed
among the options for the consideration of
Lincoln, to bid the seceded States "depart
in peace." The great Republic seemed to
have its emblem in the vast unfinished
Capitol, at that moment surrounded by
masses of stone and prostrate columns
never yet lifted into their places; seemingly
the monument of high but delusive aspira
tions, the confused wreck of inchoate magni
ficence, sadder than any ruin of Egyptian
Thebes or Athens,
His Inauguration.
The fourth of March came. With instinc
tive wisdom, the new President, speaking
to the people on taking the oath of office,
put aside every question that divided the
country, and gained a right to universal
support, by planting himself on the single
idea of 'Union. That Union he declared to
be unbroken and perpetual; and he an
nounced his determination 'to fulfill "the,
simple' duty of taking care that the laWs be
faithfully executed in all the States.”
F. L. IfETHERSTON. PribliAer.
DOUBLE SHEET, THREE CENTS
Seven days later, the Convention of
Confederate States unanimously adopted
a constitution .of their own; and . the
new government was authoritatively
announced to be founded on the
idea that slavery is the natural and normal
condition of the negro race. The issue was
made up whether the great Republic was to
maintain fits providential place in the his
tory of mankind, or a rebellion founded on
negro slavery gain a recognition of its prin
ciple throughout the civilized world. To
the disaffected, Lincoln had said: "You can
have no conflict without being yourselves
the aggressors." To fire the passions of the
southern portion of the people, the confede
rate government chose to become aggressors;
and on the morning of the 12th of April be
gan the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and
compelled its evacuation.
Uprising of the People.
Itis the glory ofthe late President that he
had perfect 4lith in the perpetuity of the
Union. Supported in advance by Douglas,
who spoke as with the voice of a million,he
instantly called a meeting of Congress,
and summoned the people to come up and
repossess the forts, places and property
which had been seized from the Union.
The men of the North were trained in
schools; industrious and frugal; many of
them delicately bred, their minds teeming
with ideas and fertile in plans of enterprise;
given to the culture of the arts; eager in the
pursuit of wealth, yet employing wealth
less for ostentation than for developing the
resources of their country; seeking happi
ness in the calm of domestic life; and such
lovers of peace• that for generations they
had been reputed unwarlike. Now, at the.
cry of their country in its distress, they
rose up with unappeasable patriotism; not
hirelings—the purest and of the best blood
in the land; sons of a pious ancestry,
with a clear perception of duty, un
clouded faith ,and fixed resolve to
succeed, they thronged round the
President to support the wronged, the
beautiful flag of the nation. The halls of
theological seminaries sent forth their
young men, whose lips were touched with
eloquence, whose hearts kindled with devo
tion to serve in the ranks, and make their
way to command only as they learned the
art of war. Striplings in the colleges, as
well the most gentle and stud ions; those of
sweetest temper and loveliest character and
brightest genius passed from their classes to
the camp. The lumbermen sprang forward
from the forests, the mechanics from their
benches, where they had been trained by
the exercise of political rights to share the
life and hope of the Republic, to feel their
responsibility to their forefathers, their pos
terity and mankind, went forth resolved
that their dignity as a constituent part of
this Republic should not be Impaired.
Farmers and sons of farmer left the land but
half plowed, the grain but half planted,and,
taking up the musket, learned to face with
out fear the presence of peril and the coming
of death in the shocks of war, while their
hearts were still attracted to the charms of
their rural life, and all the tender affections
of home. Whatever there was of truth and
faith and public love in the common heart
broke out with one expression. The mighty
winds blew from every quarter to fan the
flame of the sacred and unquenchable lire.
The War a World-Wide War.
For a time the war was thought to be
confined to otu- own domestic affairs, but it
was soon seen that it involved the destinies
of mankind, and its principles and causes
shook the politics of Europe to the centre,
and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the
governments of the world.
Great Britain.
There was a kingdom whose people had
in an eminent degree attained a treedom
of industry and the security of persons
and property. Its middle class rose to
greatness. Out of that class sprung
the noblest poets and philosophers
whose words built up the intellect of its
people; skillful navigators, to find out the
many paths of the oceans; discoveries in
natural science, whose inventions guided
its industry to wealth, till it equaled any
nation of the world in letters, and excelled
all in trade and commerce. Bat its govern
ment was become a government of land,
and not of men; every blade of grass was
represented. but only a small minority of
the people. In the transition from the feudal
forms, the heads of the social organization
freed themselves from the military services
which were the conditions of their tenure,
and, throwing the burden on the industrial
classes,kept all the soil to themselves. Vast
estates that had been managed by mon
asteries as endowments for religion and
charity were impropriated to swell the
wealth of courtiers and favorites; and the
commons, where the poor man once had his
right of pasture, were taken away, and,
under forms of law,
enclosed distributively
within their own domains. Although no
law forbade any inhabitant from purchas
ing land, the costliness of the transfer con
stituted a prohibition; so that it was the
rule of that country that the plough should
not be in the hands of its owner. The
church was rested on a contradiction,claim
ing to be an embodiment of absolute truth,
and yet was a creature of the statute book.
Her Sentiments.
The progress of time increased the terrible
contrast between wealth and poverty; in
their years of strength, the laboring people,
cut off from all share in governing the state,
derived a scanty support from the severest
toil, and bid no hone for old age butin pub
lic charity or death. A grasping ambition
had dotted the world with military posts,
kept watch over our borders on the north
east, at the Bermudas, in the - West Indies,
held the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern
and of the Indian ocean, hovered on our
northwest at Vancouver, held the whole
of the newest continent, and the en
trances to the old Mediterranean and Red
Sea; and garrisoned forts allthe way from
Madras to China. That aristocracy had
gazed with terror on the :growth of ac, mi
monwealth where freeholds existed by the
million, and religion was not in bondage
to the state; and now they could not re
press their joy at its perils. They had not
one word of sympathy for the kind-hearted
poor man's son whom America had
chosen for her chief; they jeered at his
large hands, and long feet, and un
gainly stature; and the British secretary
of state for foreign affairs made haste to send
word through the palaces of Europe that the
great Republic was in its agony, that the
Republic was no more, that a headstone was
all that remained due by the law of nations
to "the late Union." But it is written:
"Let the dead bury their dead:" they may
may not bury the living. Let the dead bury
their dead; let a bill of reform remove the
worn-out government of a class, and infuse
new life into the British constitution by con
fiding rightful power to the people.
But while
Polley.
But while the vitality of America isindes-:
tructible, the British' government hurried.
to' do what never before had been done by
Christian powers, what, was, in direct conflict
with its' own exposition of public inw in the_
time of our struggle for independence.
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