A. Lincoln

by Ronald C. White, Jr.

  government loyal to the Union The story of Southern disaffection and a resurgent Unionist spirit is told well by William C. Harris, With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 123ff

  “as a restraint” Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, 121—22.

  “menaced by the ambition” William E. Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1933), 2:237-40.

  “The policy of emancipation” AL, “Annual Message to Congress,” December 8, 1863, CW, 7:49-52.

  how much his thinking had changed AL, “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,” December 8, 1863, CW, 7:53—57.

  “Men acted as if the Millennium” Hay, Inside, December 9, 1863, 121—22. Dixon was James Dixon, Republican senator from Connecticut.

  “Mr. Lincoln has the inside track” Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1863.

  “You have touched” Albert Smith to AL, December 12, 1863, ALPLC.

  “Oh! that the President” Niven, Salmon P. Chase: A Biography, gives a full treatment of Chase’s bid for the Republican nomination in 1864.

  “That visit to the west” Bates, Diary, October 20, 1863, 311.

  “It was in very bad taste” Hay, Inside, October 18, 1863, 93.

  CHAPTER 25. The Will of God Prevails: March 1864-November 1864

  Grant arrived in Washington Simpson, Ulysses S. Grant, 258—59.

  “Why, here is General Grant!” Smith, Grant, 289-90.

  “I am naturally anti-slavery” Guelzo, Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation, AA—A7, 70-73.

  emphasize the overall passivity See Donald, Lincoln, 10, 14.

  he began to correspond regularly Albert G. Hodges to AL, April 22, 1864, ALPLC; Hodges also wrote to Lincoln on April 25, May 27, July 19, August 11, September 15, September 29, October 24, November 1, November 12, December 1, and December 9, 1864, and March 1 and April 1, 1865, ALPLC.

  The will of God prevails AL, “Meditation on the Divine Will,” CW, 4:404. Roy P. Basier, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, calculated the date of this reflection as September 2, 1862, after the discouraging defeat at the second battle of Bull Run, but placed a question mark after the date. Douglas L. Wilson, in Lincoln’s Sword, offers persuasive evidence that Lincoln’s meditation was written sometime in 1864. See 255—56.

  “a distinct scheme of unbelief” Francis Wharton, A Treatise on Theism and Modern Skeptical Theories (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1859), 147, 152.

  Bates noted their attendance Bates, Diary, March3, 1861, 176.

  as did Illinois senator Orville Browning Browning, Diary, December 22, 1861,517.

  “where they habitually attended” Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, ed. Michael Burlingame (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 13.

  “The whole world to him” Leonard Swett to WHH, July 17, 1866, HI, 162.

  “I wish to find a church” E. Frank Eddington, A History of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church: One Hundred Fifty-Seven Years, 1803—1961 (Washington, D.C.: New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1962), 57—58.

  “I like Gurley” David Rankin Barbee, “President Lincoln and Doctor Gur-ley,” ALQ 5 (March 1948): 3.

  “an infinitely wise” Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1871), 1:583, 616.1 am grateful to Donald K. McKim for his help in thinking through the issue of fatalism and providence in the Reformed tradition.

  “Calvinism presented in his beautiful examples” William E. Schenck, A Memorial Sermon on the Life, Labours, and Christian Character of Phineas D. Gurley (Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1869), 42. I have examined more than thirty sermons by Gurley at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. Although handwritten and undated, they are consistent in their presentation of typical themes of nineteenth-century Old School Presbyterian preaching, especially his emphasis on providence.

  “Man is a rational” Phineas D. Gurley, Man’s Projects and God’s Results (Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1863), 7.

  “the world moves” AL, “Address at Sanitary Fair,” April 18, 1864, CW, 7:301.

  “The world has never had” Ibid., 301—2.

  “The shepherd drives the wolf “ Ibid., 302.

  “A painful rumor” Ibid.

  attacked Fort Pillow The story of Fort Pillow, and what did and did not happen, is best captured in two articles: Albert Castel, “The Fort Pillow Massacre: A Fresh Examination of the Evidence,” Civil War History 4 (1959): 37—50; and John Cimprich and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., “Fort Pillow Revisited: New Evidence about an Old Controversy,” Civil War History 28 (1982): 293—306.

  “that devil Forrest” Sherman’s assessment is in OR, vol. 39, pt. 2, 121, 142.

  “The river was dyed red” For biographical information on Forrest, see Jack Hurst, Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).

  “to give me in writing” Abraham Lincoln, “To Cabinet Members,” May 3, 1864, CW, 7:328-29.

  Seward, Chase, Stanton, and Welles argued A summary of the cabinet responses is found in Nicolay and Hay, 6:478ff

  “Lee’s army will be your objective” Ulysses S. Grant to George G. Meade, April 9, 1864, OR, vol. 33, 27-28.

  “to move against Johnston’s army” Ulysses S. Grant to William T. Sherman, April 4, 1864, OR, vol. 32, pt. 3, 246, cited in McPherson, Tried by War, 205.

  “Not expecting to see you again” AL to Ulysses S. Grant, April 30, 1864, CW, 7:324.

  two days of terrible, confusing fighting McPherson, Tried by War, 210—11.

  “There will be no turning back” Henry E. Wing, When Lincoln Kissed Me: A Story of the Wilderness Campaign (New York: Eaton and Main, 1913), 13.

  “I saw [Lincoln]” Schuyler Colfax, in Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, 337-38.

  “I believe that if any other” Hay, Inside, May 9, 1864, 195.

  “I propose to fight it out” Ulysses S. Grant to Henry Halleck, May 11, 1864, PUSG, 10:422-23.

  “for the last 8 or 10 days” Bates, Diary, May 15, 1864, 366.

  “I think Grant” The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade: Major-General, United States Army (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 2:201.

  “I wish when you write” Brooks, Lincoln Observed, 113.

  the anti-Lincoln sentiment John C. Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency (New York: Crown Publishers, 1997), 172-81.

  Lincoln, in the telegraph office Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, 195.

  writing a first history Henry J. Raymond, History of the Administration of President Lincoln (New York: J. N. Derby and N. C. Miller, 1864).

  “In view of the dread realities” Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, 188—89.

  “cordially endorse the principles” CW, 7:382, n. 1.

  “not to interfere” [June 6, 1864], CW, 7:377 n. 1.

  Lincoln and Johnson formed an unlikely duo Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, 198—201; Richmond Examiner, quoted in New York Tribune, June 24, 1864.

  “I will neither conceal” AL, “Reply to Committee Notifying Lincoln of His Renomination,”June 9, 1864, CW, 7:380.

  “I cannot” AL to Salmon P. Chase, June 28, 1864, CW, 7:412-13.

  give Chase three options See Niven, Salmon P. Chase, 364—66.

  “because the difficulty” AL to Salmon P. Chase, June 28, 1864, CW, 7:413.

  “I cannot help feeling” Salmon P. Chase to AL, June 29, 1864, ALPLC.

  “Of all I have said” AL to Salmon P. Chase, June 30, 1864, CW, 7:419.

  “When does the Senate meet” Hay, Inside, June 30, 1864, 212.

  “War, at the best,” AL, “Speech at Great Central Sanitary Fair, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,”June 16, 1864, CW, 7:394-96.

  “Get down, you damn fool,” McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 756—57.

  “would go 50,000 against us” Brown, Raymond of the Times, 260. Raymond’s entire letter is in
CW, 7:517-18.

  “The want of military success” Henry B. Raymond to AL, CW, 7:518.

  This morning AL, “Memorandum Concerning His Probable Failure of Reelection,” August 23, 1864, CW, 7:514-15.

  “They must nominate a Peace Democrat” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 164.

  “after four years of failure” Donald, Lincoln, 530.

  “Atlanta is ours” John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order (New York: The Free Press, 1993), 282-84.

  “Glorious news this morning” Strong, Diary, September3, 1864, 480—81.

  “The preservation of our Union” George B. McClellan to the Democratic Nominating Committee, September 4, 1864, McClellan, Civil War Papers, 590-92.

  electrified and disappointed Democrats Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, 298—302.

  “Well, we see at last” New York Times, September 10, 1864.

  neither Lincoln nor McClellan campaigned Waugh, Reelecting Lincoln, 317 21.

  campaigned on a theme Roger A. Fischer, Tippecanoe and Trinkets Too: The Material Culture of American Presidential Campaigns, 1828—1984 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 94-96.

  “The purposes of the Almighty” AL to Eliza P. Gurney, September 4, 1864, CW, 7:535.

  CHAPTER 26. With Malice Toward None, with Charity for All. December 1864-April 1865

  “the necessity of a military escort” Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1895), 265-68.

  “I regret” Ibid., 275.

  “that a people’s government” AL, “Response to a Serenade,” November 10, 1864, CW, 8:100-1.

  Brooks had become a trusted friend Wayne C. Lemple and Justin G. Lurner, “Lincoln’s ‘Castine’: Noah Brooks,” Lincoln Herald 94 (Fall 1970), 113—15. Lemple wrote a number of articles for the Lincoln Herald from 1970 to 1972 based on his doctoral dissertation on Noah Brooks at the University of Illinois (1956). See also Michael Burlingame’s introduction in Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, 1—12.

  “I am a thorough Constitutional Abolitionist” Goodwin, Team of Rivals, 676.

  most important appointment For a discussion of the storm over the selection of a new chief justice, see David M. Silver, Lincoln’s Supreme Court (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956), especially chapters 15 and 16.

  “as the crowning” Edward G. Bates to AL, October 13, 1864, ALPLC.

  “remove the cloud” Francis P. Blair, Sr., to AL, October 20, 1864, ALPLC.

  “Happily it is now certain” Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, October 19, 1864, ALPLC.

  “We cannot ask a man” Silver, Lincoln’s Supreme Court, 207—8.

  “Forage liberally on the country.” Marszalek, Sherman, xv.

  “He has passed by Macon” Strong, Diary, November 28, 1864, 522.

  “Much concern about Sherman” Strong, Diary, December 8, 1864, 526.

  “I beg to present you” William L. Sherman to AL, December 22,1864, ALPLC.

  “When you were about leaving Atlanta” AL to William L. Sherman, December 26, 1864, CW, 7:181-82.

  “I feel how weak” AL to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, November 21, 1864, CW, 8:116-17. The later finding that two of Mrs. Bixby’s sons were not killed does not take away from Lincoln’s letter. See F. Lauriston Bullard, Abraham Lincoln and the Widow Bixby (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1946). John Hay, who wrote some letters for Lincoln, claimed he wrote the letter to Mrs. Bixby. Michael Burlingame supports this claim in “New Light on the Bixby Letter,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 16 (1995), 59—71, but the evidence is inconclusive at best.

  “Upon rejoining his regiment” AL, “Pardon,” November 16, 1964, CW, 8:112. The name of the soldier was not identified.

  “You have too much” AL to James Madison Cutts, Jr., October 26, 1863. CW, 6:538.

  amendment that would abolish slavery For a fine treatment of the story of the passage of the Lhirteenth Amendment see Michael Vorenberg, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

  “I wish that you could have been” Charles R. Douglass to Frederick Douglass, February 9, 1865, quoted in Vorenberg, Final Freedom, 207—8.

  “This amendment” AL, “Response to a Serenade,” February 1, 1865, CW, 8:254.

  “would accept nothing short” AL, “Annual Message to Congress,” December 6, 1864, CW, 8:151.

  “to secure peace” Jefferson Davis to Francis P. Blair, January 12, 1865, CW, 8:275.

  “to the people” AL to Francis P. Blair, January 18, 1865, CW, 8:275-76.

  “Well, Mr. President” Although no notes were taken at the Hampton Roads conference, participants did write of the conversations, sometimes years later. Stephens rendered a full account in his Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States: Its Causes, Character, Conduct, and Results (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1870), 2:599-619.

  “would be immediately restored” Campbell’s report is found in his Reminiscences and Documents Relating to the Civil War During the Year 1865 (Baltimore: John Murphy and Company, 1887), 8-19.

  “ended without result” Lincoln reported to the Congress on February 10, 1865. AL, “To the House of Representatives,” February 10, 1865, CW, 8:274—85. Lincoln, who often wished to keep strategic negotiations in his own hands, in this case provided materials from the Blair mission and the Hampton Roads conference to Congress.

  “The President directs me” Edwin M. Stanton to Ulysses S. Grant, March 3, 1865, CW, 8:330-31.

  “All honor to Abraham Lincoln” Illinois State Journal, March 4, 1865.

  “Mr. Lincoln has slowly” Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1865.

  “We shall not be surprised” Oailj Morning Chronicle, March 4, 1865.

  “in force sufficient” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6, 1865.

  “at least half the multitude” “From Our Correspondent,” Times (London), March 20, 1865.

  Lincoln was photographed delivering a speech Gardner focused this photograph on the president just as the ceremonies were about to begin. He is seated with his hands folded. Modern technology so restores the image that we can see that Lincoln had what for him was relatively close-cropped and well-managed hair and beard. Visible on the president’s right are Vice President Hamlin and Vice President—Elect Andrew Johnson. On the other side, Chief Justice Chase chats amiably with Associate Justice Noah H. Swayne. Behind the president are his two secretaries, John Hay and John G. Nicolay.

  “As soon as Mr. Lincoln came out” Michael Shiner, Diary, 1813—1865, Library of Congress, 182.

  “At this second appearing” AL, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, CW, 8:332.

  “one-eighth of the whole population” Ibid.

  “essential to the nature” Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Charles Scribner, 1871), 1:368. Gurley would have heard Hodge’s thinking on “divine attributes” in lectures. Hodge made the decision not to publish his lectures in book form until the end of his career.

  response to his political and theological indicative In the collection of Phineas Gurley sermons at the Presbyterian Historical Society, one hears a consistent indicative/imperative refrain. Gurley first speaks about the indicative of the love of Christ, manifest in Christ’s death on the cross. He then calls for a selfless love as the response to Christ’s love. Because these eighteen sermons are undated, I could not connect them with Lincoln and the 1860s. Nevertheless, this was a consistent theme in Gurley’s sermons.

  “The White House looked” Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel H. Crook, compiled and edited by Margarita Spalding Gerry (New York: Harper, 1907), 26.

  “Here comes my friend Douglass.” Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Hartford, CT: Park Publishing Company, 1882), 402.

  “What is to be done” Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (New York: Random House, 1974),
3:857.

  “Of all the men” William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (New York: The Century Company, 1893), 327.

  “I will take care” AL to Edwin M. Stanton, April 3, 1865, CW, 8:385.

  started up the James River For the story of Lincoln’s visit to Richmond, see Nelson Lankford, Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital (New York: Viking, 2002), 156-67.

  “Jefferson Davis should be hanged” Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, 512.

  “If I were in your place” Ibid., 166.

  “Let us all join” AL, “Last Public Address,” April 11, 1865, CW, 8:402-4.

  “no exclusive” Ibid.

  “That means nigger citizenship” Michael W. Kauffman, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (New York: Random House, 2004), 210.

  “possess feelings of hate” Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, 517.

  “We must bothhe more cheerful” Mary Todd Lincoln (WHH interview), September 5, 1866, Hi, 273.

  they spoke of the future Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, 283—85.

  “I am going” Isaac N. Arnold, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, and Company, 1885), 431.

  “The giant sufferer” Welles, Diary, April 14, 1865, 2:286.

  “Now, he belongs to the ages.” Along-running debate arose over what Stanton actually said. Did he say “ages” or “angels”? To appreciate the import of this debate, see Adam Gopnik, “Angels and Ages: Lincoln’s Language and It’s Legacy,” The New Yorker, May 28, 2007, 30-37.

  “those memorable words” “Our Martyred President: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 15 April 1865, The Frederick Douglass Papers, ed. John W. Blasingame and John R. McKivigan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 74-77.

  Selected Bibliography

  CHAPTERS IN BOOKS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES

  Angle, Paul M. “The Record of a Friendship—A Series of Letters from Lincoln to Henry E. Dummer.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 31 (June 1938): 125–37.

  Appleby, Joyce. “New Cultural Heroes in the Early National Period.” In The Culture of the Market: Historical Essays, edited by Thomas L. Haskell and Richard F. Teich-graeber III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.