Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1916 — LINCOLN'S LAST FEW WEEKS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LINCOLN'S LAST FEW WEEKS

FROM his 56th birthday on February 12 until the night of his assassination the “Great Emancipator” seemed happier than he had been in five years. Was there premonition?

NO man in American history has carried burdens as heavy as those which Abraham Lincoln bore on his great, patient shoulders. Despite his reputation as a teller of humorous stories and his keen appreciation of the ludicrous in persons and situations that bore the outward appearance of utmost dignity and funereal solemnity, the martyred president was a melancholy man The whole course of his life had made him so. In childhood he endured the most rigorous hardship in the wilds of southern Indiana and central Illinois. His father was a sort of ne’er-do-well who somehow couldn’t seem to gather any of this world’s goods together. His mother was a patient, God-fearing toiler who held no hope of reward in mortal life. This mother encouraged his efforts at learning when he was a little fellow, and just when mother and son were getting to be chummy and have their times of reading aloud together she died —after only a week’s illness. The son’s grief was lasting. When he was twepty-two, Lincoln fell in love with little Ann Rutledge, who was wearing her heart out in grief for a faithless lover. After a time, Lincoln won little Ann’s regard and they planned to marry—though he was desperately poor. Came a streak of good luck; he went to the legislature at Springfield and she went to Jacksonville, 111., to a young ladies’ academy. Presently Lincoln got word that she was ill. One week later she was dead. This sorrow Lincoln added to his early grief. Years later, the tall, awkward country lawyer was elected president of the United States—an honor unsurpassable. But with it came the ghastly tragedy of civil strife. And to his sorrow And his grief of old he added this load of sadness. Four years and more Lincoln plodded slowly along under th® burden, a national mourner. Then through the clouds came a ray of sunshine. The war was nearing an end. The president saw peace ahead. He planned to bind a nation's wounds —North and South alike. He became happier—rather, he became less unhappy, for his spirit was expanding. But once again the glittering lance of malignant fate shot out. This time it brought down the victim it had played with for half a century —-A. Lincoln! ■ ■ .. i The following telegram, one of, the many instances of his works of mercy and compassion, was-sent by Abraham Lincoln from the White House on his last birthday alive. It typifies the spirit of the man in the last days of his life and is exemplary of the attitude he took, not only towards individuals but toward the peoples and the states who were opposed in arms to the Union. ’’Major General Hooker, Cincinnati, Ohio: “Is it Lieut. Samuel D. Davis whose death sentence is commuted. If not done, let it be done. Is there not an associate of his also in trouble? Please answer. . A. LINCOLN.” The military rigors of the closing days of the war compelled harsh measures, not only in dealing with the ene,my but in dealing with those within the forces of the North who were guilty of desertion, neglect or treachery, and the columns of the daily papers of the time were replete with paragraphs headed, as a rule, "Execution of the Conspirators,” "The Spies Shot” or "Execution oL*—- —■* Deserters.” A perusal of his papers during the weeks preceding and following his

birthday, February 12, 1865, show that he was giving especial attention to these matters. In the month of February alone he sent at least ten telegrams su s pend in g or delayin g executions or asking for full reports of the trials for his personal examination. In some cases he upheld the decree of the military courts, in others he issued pardons, and it is said that in at least one case the man who had been convicted was in reality a government secret service agent unknown to the military authorities who had convicted him for the very acts he committed in the service of the Union. It has been asserted by some biographers of Lincoln that he felt premonitions of his death in the months following his second election and Jf this be true it is possible that the shadow over his soul may have caused him to be more clement than was his rule. All are agreed that he was always compassionate and slow to condemn, but he was sensible of the necessity for stern justice and was not given to mock mercy of the weakkneed, sentimental kind. The president’s birthday itself had no special significance in 1865. It is doubtful if many outside his immediate family realized when the day occurred. It would be a small percentage of Americans today who could state the date of*President Wilson’s birth and in the last stages of the Civil war the nation was too sorely beset by pressing, vital problems/ sorrow and anxiety to recognize the birthday of the man who himself was the vortex of all the maelstrom of political, military and executive activities. It is known, however, that Lincoln’s last birthday season saw the president more cheerful, more hopeful of a peace which should save the Union than he had been at any other time during the war. He had recently met commissioners of the Confederate government on a steamer at Hampton Roads and although the interview had led to nothing, the president felt that the dissension evident between the commissioners from the South meant a speedy conclusion of the conflict. Nicolay and Hay, writing of the president's general feeling in February, 1865, says: “His interview with the rebel commissioners doubtless strengthened his former convictions that the rebellion was waning in enthusiasm and resources, and that the Union cause must triumph at no distant day. Secure in his renewal of four years’ personal leadership and hopefully inspirited by every sign of early victory in the war, his only thought was to shorten by generous conciliation the period of dreadful conflict. His temper was not one of exultation, but of broad, patriotic charity and of. keen, sensitive personal sympathy for the whole country and all its people, South as well as North. His conversation with Stephens, Hunter and Campbell had probably revealed to him glimpses of the undercurrent of their anxiety that fraternal bloodshed and the destructive ravages of war might somehow come to an end.” Just before the president’s birthday the house of representatives passed a resolution requesting the president to communicate to it such Information as he might deem compatible with the public interest concerning his interview with the Confederate commissioners. The president sent to the house a message summarizing the transactions on board the steamer, which actually amounted to nothing

at all. This message was received February 10 and a short discussion occurred in the house. According to Nicolay and Hay : “It (the discussion) did not rise above the level of an ordinary party wrangle. The few Democrats who took part in it complained of the president for refusing an armistice, while the Republicans retorted with Jefferson Davis’ conditions about the ‘two countries’ and the more recent declarations of his Richmond harangue, announcing his Readiness to perish for independence. On the whole, both congress and the country were gratified that the incident had called out Mr. Lincoln's renewed declaration of an unalterable resolve to maintain the Union. Patriotic hope was quickened and public confidence strengthened by noting once more his singleness of purpose and steadfastness of faith. No act of his could have formed a more fitting prelude to his second inauguration, which was now rapidly approaching, and the preliminary steps of which were at this time consummated.” This feeling throughout the country and in congress was becoming evident to the president on his last birthday, so much so that he commented on it to his friends and advisers. It showed him that the nation was behind him, and that he would be supported to the completion of his work of cementing the Union. Almost in the nature of a birthday gift came the formal announcement to President Lincoln that he had beeh elected president of the United States. On the very day 6f Lincoln’s birthday the first of the cotton ships Sherman had sent from Savannah put into New York and Newport, R. I. The newspapers of February 13 featured the dispatches announcing the arrival of the vessels and commenting with favor on the prospects of getting great cargoes of cotton from the newly opened ports of the South. The dailies were also filled with dispatches telling of the progress of Grant’s campaign against Lee, which was beginning so to formulate itself that Appomattox should end the war, and that Sherman had completed his march to the sea. None viewed the approach of peace with greater gratification than did Lificoln, and it was with the spirit of this period of his last birthday upon him that he wrote his second inaugural address, which is fraught with human sympathy, so expressive of the character of the man. The sad story of the great president’s death is familiar to all. That it was to follow so closely on his last birthday, so lightened by hope and gratitude for the success of the Union cause, none could foresee, unless, as some writers declare, the president himself had forebodings of it. In all evepts, it is pleasant to contemplate that the closing months of Abraham Linepin’s life were gifted with a feeling of peace which for long he had not known. It was during these months that he conceived that closing paragraph of his second Inaugural address : ■With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on 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.”