doubtedly entitled to the larger share of credit, while no small share is due to the democratic characters of the military chieftains. With a weak or wilful man in Lincoln's place, however, it would have been impossible. He would surely have been overridden by events and men too powerful for him to direct and control.

This was at once the test and the triumph of a government by the people. All things considered, probably it is without a parallel in history. In a long and mighty civil war in a democracy, with a million men under arms, the civil power remained always supreme, and the lawfully elected chief, a plain citizen, who never had set a squadron in the field, stood forth at the end, easily the foremost figure, without even a rival among the victorious generals and martial heroes who surrounded him.

LINCOLN IN VICTORY

His noblest qualities called out in the hour of success as his hand turned to the new task of binding up the wounds of the Union.

Striving to win the South by magnanimity. — Applying Christian principles and the golden rule to statecraft. — Disappointed in his efforts for peace at Hampton Roads conference, February 3, 1865. - How he disposed of Charles I as an example.

His plan to offer to pay the South for its slaves defeated in the cabinet, February 5, 1865. - His rejoicing over the passage of the thirteenth amendment. His second inauguration, March 4, 1865, and his second inaugural address. His visit to Grant's army at City Point, Virginia, March 22 to April 9, to supervise terms of peace. - Lincoln and Grant, Sherman and Sheridan in conference. The fall of Richmond, April 3. - Lincoln in Richmond, April 4 and 5.-Modest bearing of the conqueror in the capital of the enemy. The black freedmen in ecstasy. -Lincoln in Jefferson Davis's chair.—“Judge not, that ye be not judged."- Returning to Washington, April 9. Prophetic words from Shakespeare.

VICTORY called out Lincoln's noblest qualities. He accepted it as humbly as he had borne defeat.

When assured at the close of the military operations, in the fall of 1864, that the country was saved, and that in a brief campaign in the spring the Confederacy would surely be overthrown, he did not pause to exult. His hand turned at once to its new task. He must bind up the wounds of the Union

and restore it. He would not fasten it together with bayonets and erect a rebellious Ireland or a desolated Poland within its borders. The South, conquered by force, must be won by magnanimity.

For him, this was a grateful duty. No bitterness rankled in his great, patient heart. Even when the blows of the foe rained heavy upon him, the Confederates still were to him countrymen and fellowAmericans. His habit of fairness forbade him to hold any individuals, however high their stations, personally responsible for a great civil war.

It better suited his sense of humor to refer to his adversaries as "the other side" or as "these southern gentlemen" than to rail at them as "rebels." "Jeffy D." and "Bobby Lee" were his favorite names for the two principal chieftains of the Confederacy. When Stonewall Jackson was killed and a Washington newspaper printed an editorial tribute to that gallant upholder of the Stars and Bars, Lincoln wrote a letter to the editor, commending his article.

No sooner was he assured that the arms of the South must yield to the Union than he gave his anxious thought to winning the hearts of the southern people. Many, if not most, of the leaders of the Republican party were unable so readily to calm the passions which the long and desperate struggle had

aroused in them. The radicals were loud in their call for the hanging of the foremost Confederates, for the confiscation of property, and for ruling the southern states as conquered provinces. Not a few who had clamored for a cowardly peace in the midst of war now lustily cried out for harsh measures as peace drew near. Lincoln's next battle must be with Congress and a large section of his own party.

He disliked the form of the oath which Secretary Stanton prescribed for those in the South who wished to swear allegiance and which required them to declare they had not given “aid and comfort to the enemy." This, he complained, "rejects the Christian principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it is enough if the man does no wrong hereafter."

His whole course was guided by his feeling that the government should be animated by "no motive for revenge, no purpose to punish for punishment's sake," and he laid down as the golden rule of statesmanship that "we should avoid planting too many thorns in the bosom of society." He stated only a guiding principle of his own life when he said, “If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him."

He refused to lend himself to any vengeful spirit toward those in the North who had opposed his elec

tion. "I am in favor," he said, "of short statutes of limitations in politics." In his annual message to Congress he claimed the people who voted against him, as well as those who voted for him in the recent election, as friends of the Union. No candidate, he proudly pointed out, sought support on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. Men had differed only as to the method of saving it.

At the approach of spring, in 1865, the season for opening a new movement against the army of Lee, Lincoln was most anxious to gain peace without further bloodshed. He cared nothing for the military triumph which was certain to come. He would rather coax than drive the South into submission. In this generous spirit he went to Hampton Roads to meet Alexander H. Stephens, the Confederate Vice-president, and other representatives of the Richmond government.

If he had cared to stand on his dignity as President, he would not have gone to meet those subordinates of Jefferson Davis. If he had been moved by any pride of victory, he would have spurned the representatives of a foe already staggering to defeat. He thought, however, not of himself, but of the lives of the men in blue and the men in gray which would be sacrificed on the renewal of the struggle. effort to save them, he left the capital and journeyed

In an