"He will be poisoned before the fourth of March," still another.

"He will be shot from a housetop on inauguration day," a fourth.

"You ought to take a cook with you from your own female friends," suggested a fifth.

On the 11th day of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln left Springfield for Washington with his family. A multitude of friends and neighbours gathered at the depot for a parting hand-shake. From the platform of the cars he addressed the company:

"My friends,-No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves on me which is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support: and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I bid you all an affectionate farewell.”

His journey to Washington was signalized by sincere demonstrations of respect and honour. His passage was like that of a conqueror. From the beginning to the end of his journey it was one splendid ovation. At all the cities on the route he addressed the vast multitudes assembled, and his sentiments were eagerly caught up and borne over the land; for the people were eager to obtain the least hint of his future policy.

His speeches were characterized by that thoughtful, sound, solid, clear, and logical element that ever distinguished his best efforts.

The presidential party was met at Philadelphia by the son of Mr. Seward, with the startling intelligence that a plot had been discovered to assassinate the President-elect when he passed through Baltimore on the following day. Threats of assassination had been heard again and again, and now detectives supposed that they had discovered a veritable plot, and that speedy action alone could thwart the purpose of the conspirators.

A consultation with Mr. Lincoln followed, and it was arranged that, instead of going on the presidential train the next day, Mr. Lincoln should be taken through that night to Washington by the night express. At half-past six next morning he reached Washington, and the news of his arrival was flashed at once over the country by the telegraphic wires.

XXIV.

LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

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UR purpose being to see the man Lincoln in the highest office, as we saw the boy Abraham in his pioneer home, we shall not recount his public deeds in overthrowing the "Rebellion," which lasted during his entire life in the Executive Mansion. His remarkable success in marshalling the "Union Army' of more than two million men, controlling the perilous factions of the country, securing the confidence of every true patriot in the land, organizing victory upon a thousand battle-fields, creating a powerful navy, raising three thousand million dollars for the war, restoring the public credit, emancipating four million slaves, and restoring peace upon a stronger basis than ever, is well known to the world. These achievements caused M. Laboulaye to exclaim, at the College de France, before an immense audience of the elite of the intellectual world, "Mr. LINCOLN IS A GREATER MAN THAN CÆSAR." To record a history of these achievements would require a volume instead of two or three chapters, and even then the real character of the man might not appear so clearly as it does in certain incidents of his presidential career. In his daily life, at the head of the nation, we are to find those qualities of mind and heart which made him truly great. Incidents will illustrate his ability, honesty, patriotism, industry, kindness, self-reliance, firmness, tact, wit, genius, mag

nanimity, and influence, far better than declamation. For this reason we shall present his presidential career through the most instructive incidents of his life in the White House.

Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1861. A vast concourse of people assembled at Washington to witness the imposing ceremonies. Fears of an outbreak and the possible assassination of the President led General Scott to provide ample military defence of the city. President Lincoln closed his inaugural address with the following touching appeal to the enemies of the Government :

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may be strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

On that morning, Mrs. Lincoln relates, he read his inaugural address to his family; and after having read it, he requested to be left alone. The door stood ajar, and his friends distinctly heard him in prayer, commending himself, his country, and his family to the care and protection of God. The weight of responsibility laid upon him was too great for his human heart to bear alone. His Cabinet were William H. Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the

Treasury; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates, Attorney-General,

a body of advisers with whom the loyal people were well pleased.

A distinguished senator said to President Lincoln, just after his inauguration,

"You have as difficult a task in hand as Washington had when he took command of the American army, and as little to do it with."

"That is true, substantially," replied the President, "but then I have larger resources to draw from," a reply which showed that a hopeful, discriminating, thoughtful man had moved into the Executive Mansion.

"You are right, Mr. President," responded the senator; "but my remark had reference to the weak condition of the government, as the out-going administration left it-no money, no army, no navy, no fire-arms, no nothing for you to begin with."

"But really I have what is better, the patriotism of the loyal people," was the President's just and noble reply. The Honorable Henry J. Raymond, speaking of a leading feature of Mr. Lincoln's administration, said : "From the outset his reliance was upon the spirit and patriotism of the people. He had no overweening estimate of his own sagacity, he was quite sensible of his lack of that practical knowledge of men and affairs. which experience of both alone can give; but he had faith in the devotion of the people to the principles of Republican government, in their attachment to the Constitution and the Union, and in that intuitive sagacity of a great community which always transcends the most cunning devices of individual men, and in a great and perilous crisis more resembles inspiration