Though defeated by an unfair apportionment of the legislative districts for the senatorship, yet Lincoln so ably fought the great Douglas with such wonderful power as to surprise the nation. Heretofore but little known out of his native State; this debate made him one of the two most conspicuous men in the nation, and the excitement was intensified from the fact that both from that hour were the chosen opponents for the coming presidential contest.
At the ensuing presidential contest Lincoln was elected to the presidency, and the gory front of secession was raised. Forgetting past differences, Douglas magnanimously stood shoulder to shoulder with Lincoln in behalf of the Union. It was the olive branch of genuine patriotism. But while proudly holding aloft the banner of his nation in the nation councils, and while yet the blood of his countrymen had not blended together and drenched the land, the great senator was suddenly snatched from among the living in the hour of the country's greatest need; while the brave Lincoln was allowed to see the end--the cause triumphant, when he was also called from death unto life.
Lincoln elected, though he was, and admitted to have received his election fairly and triumphantly, was yet of necessity compelled to enter Washington, like a thief in the night, to assume his place at the head of the nation. Lincoln met the crisis calmly but firmly. He had watched the coming storm and he asked, as he bade adieu to his friends and fellow-citizens, their earnest prayers to Almighty God that he might have wisdom and help to see the right path and pursue it. Those prayers were answered. He guided the ship of State safely through the most angry storm that ever demanded a brave and good pilot. We can only gaze in awe on the memory of this man. He seemingly knew in a moment, when placed in a trying position that would have baffled an inferior mind, just what to do for the best interest of the nation.
Mr. Lincoln had unsurpassed fitness for the task he had to execute.
Without anything like brilliancy of genius, without breadth of learning or literary accomplishments, he had that perfect balance of thoroughly sound faculties which gave him the reputation of an almost infallible judgment. This, combined with great calmness of temper, inflexible firmness of will, supreme moral purpose, and intense patriotism made up just that character which fitted him, as the same qualities fitted Washington, for the salvation of his country in a period of stupendous responsibility and eminent peril.
Although far advanced on the question of slavery, personally, he was exceedingly careful about pushing measures upon a country he knew was hardly prepared as yet to receive such sweeping legislation. An acquaintance once said: 'It is hard to believe that very nearly one-half of the Republican party were opposed to the issue of the proclamation of emancipation.' Thus Lincoln avoided all extremes, and this quality alone made him eminently fit to govern. Yet, when necessary, he was stern and unrelenting. When the British minister desired to submit instructions from his government, stating that that government intended to sustain a neutral relation, he refused to receive it officially. When France demanded recognition by the United States of the government of Maximilian, in Mexico, he steadily refused. He was firm as a rock; he would ride post haste twenty miles to pardon a deserter, but under no consideration could he be induced to suspend hostilities against a people who were trying to destroy the Union. All sorts of political machinery was invented to manufacture public opinion and sentiment against him, but he was triumphantly re-elected in 1864.
The morning of Lincoln's second inauguration was very stormy, but the sky cleared just before noon, and the sun shone brightly as he appeared before an immense audience in front of the capitol, and took the oath and delivered an address, alike striking for its forcible expressions and conciliatory spirit. He spoke something as follows:
"On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. * * * Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came. * * * Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be answered. That of neither has been fully. * * * With malice toward none, with charity for all, with the firmness in the right, as God gives us light to see the right, let us 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 orphans, to all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
He hated slavery from the beginning, but was not an abolitionist until it was constitutional to be so. At the head of the nation, when precedents were useless, he was governed by justice only. He was singularly fortunate in the selection of his cabinet officers, and the reason was he never allowed prejudice to prevent his placing a rival in high office.
Yes, Mr. Lincoln is probably the most remarkable example on the pages of history, showing the possibilities of our country. From the poverty in which he was born, through the rowdyism of a frontier town, the rudeness of frontier society, the discouragement of early bankruptcy, and the fluctuations of popular politics, he rose to the championship of Union and freedom when the two seemed utterly an impossibility; never lost his faith when both seemed hopeless, and was suddenly snatched from earth when both were secured. He was the least pretentious of men, and when, with the speed of electricity, it flashed over the Union that the great Lincoln--shot by an assassin--was no more, the excitement was tremendous. The very heart of the republic throbbed with pain and lamentation. Then the immortal President was borne to his last resting-place in Springfield, Illinois. All along the journey to the grave, over one thousand miles, a continual wail went up from friends innumerable, and they would not be comforted. Never was there a grander, yet more solemn funeral accorded to any, ancient or modern. He was a statesman without a statesman's craftiness, politician without a politician's meanness, a great man without a great man's vices, a philanthropist without a philanthropist's dreams, a christian without pretensions, a ruler without the pride of place or power, an ambitious man without selfishness, and a successful man without vanity. Humble man of the backwoods, boatman, axman, hired laborer, clerk, surveyor, captain, legislator, lawyer, debater, orator, politician, statesman.
President, savior of the republic, emancipator of a race, true christian, true man.
Gaze on such a character; does it not thrill your very soul and cause your very heart to bleed that such a man should be shot by a dastardly assassin? Yet on the 14th of April, 1865, J. Wilkes Booth entered the private box of the President, and creeping stealthily from behind, as become the dark deed which he contemplated, deliberately shot Abraham Lincoln through the head, and the country lost the pilot in the hours when she needed him so much.
EDWARD EVERETT.
Among the more eminent of eminent men stands Edward Everett in the annals of American history. We do not give his history to show how he struggled through privations, overcoming all obstacles, until victory at last crowned his efforts, as so many of our great men have been obliged to do, but we do delineate his achievements to illustrate what hard work will do, provided a man has ability to develop. Yes, to show what hard work will do. But some will say, 'Well, that does sound well, but I guess if Edward Everett had been an ordinary man no amount of hard work would have made him the Edward Everett of history'; another may say, 'That's so, it is foolish to argue as you do, and hold up such men as examples, intimating that their success is the result of hard work'; and still another may say, 'Say what you will, you cannot gain-say the factor of opportunities, of 'luck,' if you choose to so designate it.'
We do not gain-say anything; we simply point to history; read for yourself. Take eminent men, read their lives, and see if seven-tenths, at least, of our great men did not acquire success through their own effort. Read carefully and see if they did not largely MAKE their own opportunities. True, all cannot be Everetts or Clays, but by extraordinary effort and careful thought, any one will better his or her condition. Sickness may come, they will be the better prepared. Losses will be more easily met and discharged. No man ever succeeded by waiting for something to turn up. The object of this work is not to make people delude themselves by any conceited ideas, but to encourage, to inspire, to enkindle anew the fires of energy laying dormant. The point is, it is not a 'slumbering genius' within people that it is our desire to stimulate, but a 'slumbering energy.' We are content that others should take care of the 'genius'; we are satisfied that any influence, no matter from what source it comes, that will awaken dormant energies will do the world more good than ten times the same amount of influence trying to prove that we are fore ordained to be somebody or nobody.
Mr. Everett was a man who fully comprehended and appreciated this fact.
All great men understand that it is the making the most of one's talents that makes the most of our chances which absolutely tells. Rufus Choate believed in hard work. When some one said to him that a certain fine achievement was the result of accident, he exclaimed: "Nonsense. You might as well drop the Greek alphabet on the ground and expect to pick up the Illiad." Mr. Beecher has well said that every idle man has to be supported by some industrious man. Hard labor prevents hard luck.
Fathers should teach their children that if any one will not work neither shall he attain success. Let us magnify our calling and be happy, but strive to progress. As before said, Mr. Everett fully understood all this and great men innumerable could be quoted in support of this doctrine.
The year 1794 must ever be memorable, as the year in which Mr. Everett was ushered into the world, in which he was to figure as so prominent a factor. We have written a long preamble, but it is hoped that the reader has taken enough interest thus far to fully take in the points which we have endeavored to make, and it is further hoped that such being the case, the reader will, by the light of those ideas, read and digest the wonderful character before us.
Undoubtedly Everett possessed one of the greatest minds America has ever produced, but if he had rivaled Solomon in natural ability, he could not have entered Harvard College as a student at the age of thirteen had he not been an indefatigable worker, and will any man delude himself into the belief that he could have graduated from such a school at the age of only seventeen, and at the head of his class, had he not exercised tremendous energy. Still further do any of the readers who chance to read this volume think that he was picked up bodily and placed in the ministerial chair vacated by the gifted Buckminister when he was only nineteen because he was lucky? A city preacher at nineteen! Occupying one of the first pulpits in the land at nineteen! "Why, he was gifted."
Of course he was, and he was a tremendous worker. Thus was his success enhanced.
At twenty he was appointed to a Greek professorship in Harvard College, and qualified himself by travel in Europe for four years. During that time he acquired that solid information concerning the history and principles of law, and of the political systems of Europe, which formed the foundation of that broad statesmanship for which he was afterward distinguished. During his residence in Europe his range of study embraced the ancient classics, the modern languages, the history and principles of the civil and public law, and a comprehensive examination of the existing political systems of Europe. He returned home, and from that time until his death he was recognized as one of the greatest orators of his time. In 1825 to 1835 he was a distinguished member of the national congress. He then served three successive terms as governor of Massachusetts. In 1814 he was appointed minister to the English court. It was an important mission, for the relations of his government with that of England, then wore a grave aspect. His official career in London was a marked success. His personal accomplishments made him a friend and favorite with the leading men and families of England. After this he was sent as a commissioner to China, and after his return from abroad, he was at once chosen President of Harvard College.
He entered upon the duties of this new office with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm, but ill-health compelled his resignation at the end of three years. Upon the death of his bosom friend, Daniel Webster, he was appointed to succeed to Webster's position at the head of President Fillmore's cabinet. Before the close of his duties as Secretary of State, he was chosen by the Massachusetts State Legislature to a seat in the National Senate. Once more overwork compelled his withdrawal from active responsibility, and in May, 1854, under the advice of his physician, he resigned his seat. But he was content to remain idle only a few months when he entered with great zeal upon a new enterprise.
The project of purchasing Mount Vernon and beautifying it as a memento of esteem to the 'Nation's father' attracted his attention, and his efforts in behalf of the association to raise money for the above-named object netted over $100,000, besides his valuable time, and paying his own expenses. He afterwards raised many more thousands of dollars for the benefit of numerous charitable societies and objects. Emerging from private life at the opening of the civil war he gave himself incessantly to the defense of the Union. He died on the 14th of January, 1865, and was mourned throughout the whole North. Eulogies innumerable were called forth by the death of this intellectual phenomenon of the nineteenth century.
EDWIN M. STANTON.
Edwin M. Stanton, whom President Lincoln selected for his Secretary of War, notwithstanding the fact that he had served in the cabinet of Buchanan, was born at Steubenville, Ohio, December 19th, 1814, and died in Washington, D. C., December 24th, 1869.
When fifteen years old he became a clerk in a book-store in his native town, and with money thus accumulated, was enabled to attend Kenyon College, but at the end of two years was obliged to re-enter the book-store as a clerk.
Thus through poverty he was deterred from graduating, but knowledge is just as beneficial, whether acquired in school or out. Thurlow Weed never had the advantages of a college, but stretched prone before the sap-house fire, he laid the foundation upon which he built that splendid reputation as an able editor; Elihu Buritt never saw the inside of a college school-room as a student, but while at the anvil, at work as a blacksmith, with book laying on a desk near, he framed the basis of that classical learning which made him, as master of forty different languages, the esteemed friend of John Bright and others of the most noted people the world has ever known.
As it was with them, so it was with Stanton. He had but little advantages, but he would not 'down.' It is said that if Henry Ward Beecher had gone to sea, as he desired to do, he would not have long remained, for in him was even then a 'slumbering genius,' But he himself once said that had it not been for his great love of work he never could have half succeeded. Ah, that's it; if ability to accomplish hard 'digging' is not genius, it is the best possible substitute for it. A man may have in him a 'slumbering genius,' but unless he put forth the energy, his efforts will be spasmodic, ill-timed and scattered.
"Full many a gem, of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
Young men, there is truth hidden in these words, despite what some writers would make you think. They would argue that if you are to be a Milton, a Cromwell, a Webster, or a Clay, that you cannot help it, do what you will. Possibly, this may be so; it may not be thought proper for me to dispute their lordship, but it does seem to me that such arguments can give but little hope; if they have influence at all it cannot be an inspiring one. No, never mind the reputation; never pine to be a Lincoln, or a Garfield, but if you feel that your chances in youth are equal to theirs, take courage--WORK.
If you are a farmer strive to excel all the surrounding farmers. If a boot-black, make up your mind to monopolize the business on your block.
Faculty to do this is the 'best possible substitute for a slumbering genius,' if perchance you should lack that 'most essential faculty to success.' At any rate, never wait for the 'slumbering genius' to show itself,--if you do, it will never awake but slumber on through endless time, and leave you groping on in midnight darkness.
But to return to Stanton. Whether he possessed a 'slumbering genius'
does not appear, but certain it is that by down-right HARD WORK he gained a knowledge of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836, when in his twenty-first year. While yet a young lawyer he was made prosecuting attorney of Harrison county. In 1842 he was chosen reporter of the Ohio Supreme Court, and published three volumes of reports.
In 1847 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but for nine years afterward retained his office in Steubenville, as well as that in Pittsburgh. In 1857 his business had so expanded that he found it necessary to move to Washington, D. C., the seat of the United States Supreme Court. His first appearance before the United States Supreme Court was in defence of the State of Pennsylvania against the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, and thereafter his practice rapidly increased.
In 1858 he was employed by the national government as against the government of Mexico on land titles, deeds, etc. This great legal success, together with several others, won for him a national reputation. It has been stated by one of the leading jurists in the United States that the cause of nine out of ten of the failures in the legal profession is laziness, so common in lawyers, after being admitted to the bar. Once in, they seem to think that they have but to 'sit and wait' for business. Possibly their eye has, at one time or another, caught those sentiments so dear to some writers in regard to 'the slumbering genius.' Be that as it may, it is very evident that Stanton had never been idle, and was seldom obliged to 'refer to his library'
before answering questions in relation to the law.
He was called to the high position of attorney-general in President Buchanan's cabinet, and on January 11th, 1862, nine months after the inauguration of Lincoln, he was placed in the most responsible position in his cabinet at that time,--Secretary of War. His labors in this department were indefatigable, and many of the most important and successful movements of the war originated with him. Never, perhaps, was there a more illustrious example of the right man in the right place. It seemed almost as if it were a special Provincial interposition to incline the President to go out of his own party and select this man for this most responsible of all trusts, save his own.
With an unflinching force, an imperial will, a courage never once admitting the possibility of failure, and having no patience with cowards, compromisers or self-seekers; with the most jealous patriotism he displaced the incompetent and exacted brave, mighty, endeavor of all, yet only like what he EXACTED OF HIMSELF. He reorganized the war with HERCULEAN TOIL. Through all those long years of war he thought of, saw, labored for one end--VICTORY. The amount of work he does in some of these critical months was _absolutely amazing_ by its comprehension of details, the solution of vexed questions, the mastery of formidable difficulties, wonder was it his word sometimes cut like a sharp, quick blow, or that the stroke of his pen was sometimes like a thunderbolt. It was not the time for hesitation, or doubt, or even argument. He meant his imperiled country should be saved, and whatever by half-loyalty or self-seeking seemed to stand in the way only attracted the lightning of his power.
The nation owes as much to him as to any one who in council or in field contributed to its salvation. And his real greatness was never more conspicuous than at the time of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. His presence of mind, his prompt decision, his unfailing faith and courage strengthened, those about him, and prevented the issue of a frightful panic and disorder following that unexpected assault upon the life of the republic. To have equipped, fed, clothed and organized a million and a-half of soldiery, and when their work was done in two days, to have remanded them back to the peaceful industries from which they had been called; to have had the nation's wealth at his disposal, and yet so incorruptible that hundreds of millions could pass through his hands and leave him a poor man at the end of his commission, shattered in health, yet from necessity obliged to resume his legal practice, must for all time rank him among the world's phenomena. Such a man, so true, so intent upon great objects must many a time have thwarted the greed of the corrupt, been impatient with the hesitation of the imbecile, and fiercely indignant against half-heartedness and disloyalty. Whatever faults, therefore, his enemies may allege, these will all fade away in the splendor with which coming ages will ennoble the greatest of war ministers in the nineteenth century. He will be remembered as "one who never thought of self, and who held the helm in sunshine and in storm with the same untiring grip."
Nor were his services less valuable to his country when, after the surrender of the Confederate armies, the rebellion was transferred to the White House, and he stood the fearless, unflinching patriot against the schemes and usurpations of its accidental occupant. Mr. Stanton entered on his great trust in the fullest prime of manhood, equal, seemingly, to any possible toil and strain. He left his department incurably shorn of health. He entered upon it in affluence, with a large and remunerative practice. He left it without a stain on his hands, but with his fortune lessened and insufficient. Yet, when it was contemplated by some of his friends, after his retirement, to tender him a handsome gift of money, he resolutely and unhesitatingly forbade it, and the project had to be abandoned. He was as truly a sacrifice to his country as was the brave soldier who laid down his life in the prison-pen or sanctified the field with his blood. For an unswerving and passionate patriotism, for a magnificent courage, for rare unselfishness, for transcendent abilities, for immeasurable services to his country; the figure of the greatest war minister in modern times will tower with a noble grandeur, as undimmed and enviable a splendor as that of any in the history of the Republic; which, like his friend and co-worker, the great Lincoln, he gave his life to save.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
The life-career of the seventeenth president of the United States well illustrates the spirit and genius of our free institutions. Four of the incumbents of the national executive chair were born in North Carolina.
Of these, the subject of this sketch was one, being born in the above-named State, December 29th, 1808.
His father, who died in 1812, was sexton of a church and porter in the State bank. Extreme poverty prevented Andrew from receiving any schooling, and at the age of ten he was apprenticed to a tailor. A gentleman was in the habit of visiting the shop and reading to the workmen, generally from the 'American Speaker.' Andrew became intensely interested, especially in the extracts from the speeches of Pitt and Fox. He determined to learn to read, and having done this he devoted all his leisure hours to the perusal of such books as he could obtain. In the summer of 1824, a few months before his apprenticeship expired, he got into trouble by throwing stones at an old woman's house, and ran away to escape the consequences. He went to Lauren's Court House, South Carolina, and obtained work as a journeyman tailor.
In May, 1826, he returned to Raleigh. Mr. Selby, his former employer, had moved into the country, and Johnson walked twenty miles to see him, apologized for his misdemeanor and promised to pay him for his unfulfilled time. Selby required security, which Johnson could not furnish, and he went away disappointed. In September he went to Tennessee, taking with him his mother, who was dependent upon him for support. He worked a year at Greenville when he married, and finally settled, deciding to make that town his home.
Thus far his education had been confined to reading; but now, under the tuition of his wife, he learned to 'write and cipher.' During this time he became prominent in a local debating society, formed of resident young men and students of Greenville College. One student says; "On approaching the village there stood on the hill by the highway a solitary little house, perhaps ten feet square,--we invariably entered when passing. It contained a bed, two or three stools, and a tailor's platform. We delighted to stop because one lived here whom we knew well outside of school and made us welcome; one who would amuse us by his social good nature, taking more than ordinary interest in us, and catering to our pleasure."
Mr. Johnson, taking an interest in local politics, organized a workingman's party in 1828, to oppose the 'aristocrat element,' which had always ruled the town. Considerable excitement ensued, and Johnson was elected an alderman by a large majority. He rose to be mayor, member of the State legislature, and a representative in Congress, holding the last office for ten years.