substituting General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts. Charles Sumner had regarded himself as a confidant of the President, who once smilingly remarked, "Sumner thinks he runs me." As the election drew near, the Massachusetts Senator agreed with the opposition, and wished Lincoln would see that patriotism required his retirement, because of his lack of "practical talent for his important place."

Lincoln, however, did not believe anything would be gained by "swapping horses," although he himself finally accepted the opinion that there was little prospect of his own success. He sat down on August 23, wrote out a resolution which he had taken in secret, and sealed it.

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"This morning," so this strange paper ran, for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reëlected. Then it will be my duty to so coöperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured the election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."

The Democratic National Convention held its session in the last days of August, and nominated McClellan on a platform declaring that after four years of failure in the struggle to restore the Union

by war, the time had come for a cessation of hostilities and an effort to restore it by peaceable negotiation. This was a view held by many men at the time, including not a few influential Republicans.

Startling events, however, coming in a remarkable series, quickly and completely corrected the opinion that the war was a failure. Sherman roused the nation by this message from Georgia on September 2, "Atlanta is ours and fairly won."

Only a few days before, the President, by direction of Congress, had caused a day to be set apart for "humiliation and prayer." Now he called on the people to give thanks. After hardly more than a fortnight, Sheridan won the battle of Winchester in the Shenandoah. Once more the country rejoiced.

The early state elections foreshadowed a victory for Lincoln at the polls in November. When election night came, he sat in the War Department until the morning hours, receiving the news of his success, and in the lulls reading aloud the humorous yarns of Petroleum V. Nasby in a little book of yellow paper covers, which he had brought with him in the breast pocket of his coat.

As soon as his reëlection was assured, he remembered Mrs. Lincoln's anxiety and said, "Send the word right over to Madam; she will be more

interested than I am." It was found on the complete returns that he had been chosen by a majority of nearly half a million votes, carrying all the states remaining in the Union except New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky.

Late as was the hour when he returned to the White House, he was greeted there by a party of serenaders. All feeling of personal exultation was lost in his deep satisfaction that the people had resolved to go on with the war for the Union. "It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one," he said in acknowledging the serenade.

A day or two afterward he made another speech, in which he pointed out the value of the experience through which the country had passed, showing as it did that a popular government could sustain a national election while under the strain of a great civil war. "We cannot have free government without elections," he told the people. "If a rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

The Union went on in its triumph. Sheridan through the fall and into the winter cleared the valley of the Shenandoah — that great natural avenue by which the Confederacy had thrice invaded the North. Sherman marched to the sea. Thomas

overwhelmed and utterly dispersed a Confederate army in Tennessee. Lee was foredoomed to defeat as soon as spring should come.

Lincoln's eyes beheld the dawn of peace, and all saw the new light that was in them as he turned from the sword which he hated to the olive branch which he loved.

LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Lincoln's tears

Mrs. Lincoln's brothers

Heavy shadows in the

How the Civil War was brought home to the President and his family. Old friends who wore the gray.. for a fallen Confederate brigadier. slain under the Stars and Bars. Executive Mansion relieved only by Lincoln's sense of humor. - Four years with no vacations. — Lincoln's religious creed. His simple life and plain manners in the White House. How he met his visitors, and how he dressed. Evenings with friends. What he read. - Forgetting his meals. His light diet. His muscular strength.Open house to the people. His "public opinion baths." His democratic ideals and practices.

THE full meaning of the Civil War was brought home to the Lincolns in the White House as much as to any family in the land. To multitudes alike in the North and in the South it differed little from a strife with a foreign nation. Their families were not divided by it, and they never were called upon to sorrow over a fallen foe.

On the other hand, the battle line crossed the very hearthstone of the President's home. The President of the United States was as much a Southerner by birth as the President of the Confederate States himself, since both were born in