rines and sailors from the Navy Yard and from war-vessels in the harbor performed their duty thoroughly. Towards the close, full regiments arrived from the interior of the State, the seat of war and elsewhere, and quiet was at last restored.

The fighting was continuous and bloody. How many of the Mob were actually killed and wounded before its fury was expended and its power broken was never officially reported. There were reasons for not saying too much about it at the time, but the count probably fell little short of fifteen hundred.

Mr. Lincoln was bitterly but unjustly blamed for the occurrence of the Draft Riot. Men saw that its apparent cause and opportunity came from his action as Chief Magistrate of the nation, and many did not look much further. They failed to consider that he was as ignorant as they were that the wild beasts of Europe were so numerous in the dens of New York City.

The good uses of the whole matter were at once developed, and the Draft Riot was of incalculable assistance to the Administration. The entire country, in its amazed perusal of the newspaper accounts of the horror, could see the glare of the burning buildings and hear the brutal roar of the Mob and the shrieks of its helpless victims. The sacking of the negro orphan-asylum, the murder of colored persons, and the other hideous cruelties of the rioters, turned old pro-slavery Democrats, by the thousand, into red-hot Abolitionists. The entire affair, moreover, with all its disgrace and misery, was finally charged over to the account which was to be settled with the Rebellion. Everybody felt that a Draft, or something even more dreadful, ought to be put in operation at once, and that nothing else under heaven was half so bad as a Mob.

The Governor of New York had not distinguished himself, during the riot, by any effort of his to suppress it, but be continued a demand he had made upon the President for a postponement of the Draft, and for sundry modifications of its operation. He even went so far as to ask that the postpone

ment should be until a test of the constitutionality of the Act should be had before the courts. Mr. Lincoln's reply was, in effect, that he had no objection whatever to having the matter brought before the Supreme Court, but that, in the mean time, the Draft must go on and the ranks of the army must be filled up. He said:

"We are contending with an enemy who, as I understand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen. No time is wasted, no argument is used. This produces an army which will soon turn upon our now victorious soldiers already in the field, if they shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be."

The immediate action of the Confederate authorities was precisely as described by the President to Governor Seymour. The South called for its last man after the defeat at Gettysburg, and the war went on with a stubbornness of determination unsurpassed in history.

It was not in Mr. Lincoln's nature to withhold his admiration from the ability and courage of the men with whom he was contending. To him, as to any right-minded man, the record of their fruitless daring and misdirected devotion had in it a sort of mournful fascination.

Who can feel other than an emotion of sadness and regret, for instance, in mentally looking down the slope at the Gettysburg fight and seeing Pickett's magnificent columns and lines march on and melt away in that wonderful charge which was, after all, a blunder? And so of many another charge and rally of our gallant but misguided brethren of the now doomed Confederacy.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THORNS.

Poisoned Arrows-The Ways of a Workingman-Western Bickerings— An Extraordinary Congress-Presenting the President's Case - Preparing the Political Future-Visitors at the White House-Wearing Away-Unconditional Unionism Portrayed-Voices of Goodwill from Europe-The Gettysburg Speech.

It is well to keep in sight the fact that the bitter opposition to the policy of the Administration had generally assumed the shape of a personal detestation of the President. Hatred has keen eyes, and it made no error in this, for he was "the Administration."

No satire was too pointed, no ridicule too coarse, no calumny too vile, no vituperation too profane, to be hurled at the man whom both American and English journalists did not hesitate to describe as a "gorilla" and as "the Illinois ape." Well might even so respectable an affair as the London Punch, after his death, in 1865, print with his obituary its versified and thorough contrition for its course towards him as a man and ruler. It is not possible to rightly measure the strength of any man without taking into account all the weights making up the burden he is carrying. It is not pleasant, now, to think of such a man exposed to such foul and cowardly abuse; but he had it all to endure daily, nevertheless.

His personal manner changed but little, and whatever variations came were not caused by any thought or purpose of his own. Any special reserve, or coldness, or sternness, as well as

* See Appendix.

any special heartiness in his greetings of men or women, was an outward expression which took care of itself, for he was no actor. From his childhood to his last days, his kindly nature came to the surface in a smile on reaching out his hand to grasp another. He could not help it. A child could stop him and get a pleasant word from him, even if he were on his way to the State Department or the War Office. Some success had been attained by Mrs. Lincoln in her efforts at securing greater care in matters of dress, but the care was almost entirely her own, he merely submitting to occasional new clothes with more docility, including gloves on state occasions. He was a man of too much good sense to despise the minor social proprieties of all sorts, but his head and heart were too full of the larger interests of his position to spare much thought for its formalities. It had not been easy to make him attend regularly to his meals in Springfield, and the difficulty increased in Washington. Towards his immediate subordinates, private secretaries, messengers, and other officials or servants, it may almost be said that he had no manner at all, he took their presence and the performance of their duties so utterly for granted. Not one of them was ever made to feel, unpleasantly, the fact of his inferior position by reason of any look or word of the President. All were well assured that they could not get a word from him unless the business which brought them to his elbow justified them in coming. The number of times that Mrs. Lincoln herself entered his business-room at the White House could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It is a misuse of words and a falsification of ideas to say or think that this absorption in duty and simplicity in manner implied or produced any real lack of dignity. True dignity of character can carry well what littleness breaks down under. The most superficial observer, looking in upon Lincoln and his Cabinet of uncommonly strong men, during an hour of trial and its counsels, could have had no difficulty in pointing out their unquestionable chief and leader.

Mr. Lincoln, in all his public career, invariably left his personal popularity to take care of itself. He never for one moment hesitated to do the most unpopular things that were required of him by the duties of the hour. In the long-run events were pretty sure to justify his judgment, even in cases. where it had gone against that of other men or contrary to local public opinion.

Concerning a multitude of matters, including many of great importance, he was compelled to form his conclusions from such information as he was able to obtain from interested parties, making such allowances as he could for their prejudices. It was needful to trust largely to representations made by men whose social, political, or military position seemed to render them trustworthy and responsible witnesses. A notable instance of this occurred in the summer and fall of 1863. It had been difficult to steer a straight course among the jarring factions of Missouri and Kansas, especially because they all contained so many able and excellent men. Had each of the more prominent Union men of that section been in fact the being he was described by some equally active patriotic neighbor, Mr. Lincoln's task in the premises would have been comparatively easy. The foreign element in both States was large, and was mainly composed of German immigrants of the better classes. The New England settlers were numerous and were generally of the extreme anti-slavery type. The "old settler" element, on the other hand, was not at all anti-slavery, and a good deal of its "Union" feeling had been developed somewhat late in the day, but it was none the less important and entitled to thoughtful consideration. The "rebel sympathizers" were also numerous, and added to the difficulties of the situation the continual complications of their intrigues and conspiracies. It was simply impossible for any military commander, however competent as an "army man," to so carry himself in his management of affairs as not to get himself into trouble. Every man Mr. Lincoln sent there got in, if time were given