After my husband died, I, with my two boys, lived with Judge Trumbull until his death; and I wish I could tell you how beautiful that home life was. He was so devoted to his family, so sweet and tender and thoughtful for us all. Others never realized this and often thought him cold. He was so great a man and yet so gentle and simple in his ways that little children clung to him.
Among the papers left by Trumbull was the following estimate of the character and career of Abraham Lincoln. It was addressed to his son Walter Trumbull and is here published for the first time:
My dear Son: I have often been requested to give my estimate of Mr. Lincoln's life and character. His death at the close of a great civil war in which the Government of which he was the head had been successful, and the manner of his taking off, were not favorable to a candid and impartial review of his character. The temper of the public mind at that time would not tolerate anything but praise of the martyred President, and even now it is questionable whether the truthful history of his life by Mr. Herndon, his lifelong friend, and law partner for twenty years, will be received with favor. As I could not give any other than a truthful narration of Mr. Lincoln's character, as he was known to me, I have hitherto declined to write anything for the public concerning him. Having known him at different times as a political adversary and a political friend, my opportunities for judging his public life and character were from different standpoints. We were members of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1840. He was a Whig and I a Democrat, but we had no controversies, political or otherwise. Indeed, Mr. Lincoln took very little part in the legislation of that session. It was the period when, as related by Mr. Herndon, he was engaged in love affairs which some of his friends feared had well-nigh unsettled his mental faculties. I recall but one speech he made during the session. In that he told a story which convulsed the House to the great discomfiture of the member at whom it was aimed. Mr. Lincoln was regarded at that time by his political friends as among their shrewdest and ablest leaders, and by his political adversaries as a formidable opponent. Contemporary with him in the legislature of 1840 were Edward D. Baker, William A. Richardson, William H. Bissell, Thomas Drummond, John J. Hardin, John A. McClernand, Ebenezer Peck, and others whose subsequent careers in the national councils, on the field of battle, and in civil life have shed lustre on their country's history. It is no mean praise to say of Mr. Lincoln that among this galaxy of young men convened at the capital of Illinois in 1840, to whom may be added Stephen A. Douglas, although not then a member of the legislature, he stood in the front rank.
As a lawyer Mr. Lincoln was painstaking, discriminating, and accurate. He mastered his cases, and had a most happy and fascinating way of presenting them. He was logical, fair, and candid. It was said of him by one of the most eminent judges who ever presided in Illinois, that after Mr. Lincoln had opened a case he [the judge] fully understood both sides of it. Some of Mr. Lincoln's contemporaries at the bar were more learned, and better lawyers, but no one managed a case, which he had time to thoroughly study and understand, more adroitly. The breaking-up of the Whig and Democratic parties in 1854, growing out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the opening of the territory to slavery, threw Mr. Lincoln and myself together politically. We were both opposed to the spread of slavery, and from the foundation of the Republican party till his death we were in political accord. I do not claim to have been his confidant, and doubt if any man ever had his entire confidence. He was secretive, and communicated no more of his own thoughts and purposes than he thought would subserve the ends he had in view. He had the faculty of gaining the confidence of others by apparently giving them his own, and in that way attached to himself many friends. I saw much of him after we became political associates, and can truthfully say that he never misled me by word or deed. He was truthful, compassionate, and kind, but he was one of the shrewdest men I ever knew. To use a common expression he was "as cunning as a fox." He was a good judge of men, their motives, and purposes, and knew how to wield them to his own advantage. He was not aggressive. Ever ready to take advantage of the public current, he did not attempt to lead it. He did not promulgate the article of war enacted by Congress forbidding army and navy officers from employing their forces to return slaves to their masters, under penalty of dismissal from the service, till more than six months after its passage. It was more than nine months after the enactment of a law by Congress declaring free all slaves of rebels captured, or coming within the Union lines, or found in any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the Union, that he issued the proclamation declaring free the slaves then within the rebel lines, all of whom, belonging to persons in rebellion, were made free by the act of Congress as soon as the Union forces occupied the country, and till then the proclamation could not be enforced. When applied to by a friend, just previous to the meeting of the convention at Baltimore which nominated him for a second term, to indicate what resolutions or policy he desired the convention to adopt, he declined to suggest any. These and many other illustrations might be given to show that Mr. Lincoln was a follower and not a leader in public affairs. Without attempting to form or create public sentiment, he waited till he saw whither it tended, and then was astute to take advantage of it. Some of Mr. Lincoln's admirers, instead of regarding his want of system, hesitancy, and irresolution as defects in his character, seek to make them the subject of praise, as in the end the rebellion was suppressed, and slavery abolished, during his administration, ignoring the fact that a man of more positive character, prompt and systematic action, might have accomplished the same result in half the time, and with half the loss of blood and treasure.
Mr. Lincoln was by no means the unsophisticated, artless man many took him to be. Mr. Swett, a lifelong friend and admirer, writing to Mr. Herndon, says: "One great public mistake of his character, as generally received and acquiesced in, is that he is considered by the people of this country as a frank, guileless, and unsophisticated man. There never was a greater mistake. Beneath a smooth surface of candor, and apparent declaration of all his thoughts and feelings, he exercised the most exalted tact, and the widest discrimination.... In dealing with men he was a trimmer, and such a trimmer as the world has never seen."[137]
Herndon in his "Lincoln," at page 471, says: "He had a way of pretending to assure his visitor that in the choice of his advisers he was free to act as his judgment dictated, although David Davis, acting as his manager at the Chicago Convention, had negotiated with the Pennsylvania and Indiana delegations, and assigned places in the Cabinet to Simon Cameron and Caleb Smith, besides making other arrangements which Mr. Lincoln was expected to satisfy."
Another popular mistake is to suppose Mr. Lincoln free from ambition. A more ardent seeker after office never existed. From the time when, at the age of twenty-three, he announced himself a candidate for the legislature from Sangamon County, till his death, he was almost constantly either in office, or struggling to obtain one. Sometimes defeated and often successful, he never abandoned the desire for office till he had reached the presidency the second time. Swett says, "He was much more eager for it
While ardently devoted to the Union, Mr. Lincoln had no well-defined plan for saving it, but suffered things to drift, watching to take advantage of events as they occurred. He was a judge of men and knew how to use them to advantage. He brought into his Cabinet some of the ablest men in the nation, and left to them the management of their respective departments. This country never had an abler head of the Treasury Department than Salmon P. Chase. To his skillful management of the finances the country was indebted for the means to carry on the war of the rebellion, and bring it to a successful issue. For the distinguished ability with which the State and War Departments were managed during the rebellion the country is greatly indebted to Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton. Other members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet were men of great executive ability. Lincoln was unmethodical and without executive ability, but he selected advisers who possessed these qualities in an eminent degree.
To sum up his character, it may be said that as a man he was honest, pure, kind-hearted, and sympathetic; as a lawyer, clear-headed, astute, and successful; as a politician, ambitious, shrewd, and farseeing; as a public speaker, incisive, clear, and convincing, often eloquent, clothing his thoughts in the most beautiful and attractive language, a logical reasoner, and yet most unmethodical in all his ways; as President during a great civil war he lacked executive ability, and that resolution and prompt action essential to bring it to a speedy and successful close; but he was a philanthropist and a patriot, ardently devoted to the Union and the equality and freedom of all men. He presided over the nation in the most critical period of its history, and lived long enough to see the rebellion subdued, and a whole race lifted from slavery to freedom. The fact that he was at the head of the nation when these great results were accomplished, and of his most cruel assassination, before there was time to fully appreciate the great work that had been done during his administration, will forever endear him to the American people, and hand his name down to posterity as among the best, if not the greatest, of mankind.
Another manuscript, addressed to Mrs. Gershom Jayne, the mother of the first Mrs. Trumbull, in answer to a communication from her, gives Trumbull's views on religion:
Chicago, Apr. 22, 1877.
Dear Mother: I scarcely know how to reply to your texts of Scripture and your solicitude for me. If the fervent prayers of the righteous avail, it would seem as if yours and those of my departed Julia should have their influence, and I sometimes feel as if the spirit of my dear Julia was even now not far away. That I am not what I should be is too true: I feel it and I know it, and yet I trust the influence and prayers of those who have loved me have not been entirely thrown away. I have abundant reason to be thankful to our Heavenly Father for his protection and ten thousand kindnesses to me which I know I have not deserved. How often when the way was dark before me has an unseen hand carried me safely through! And yet, whilst ever ready to acknowledge my own imperfection and impotence, I suppose I know nothing of, or at best see but as through a glass dimly, that change of heart of which the converted speak, and which comes of a faith it has not been given me to possess. I certainly hope through the Saviour's interposition for a happy hereafter, but at the same time am obliged to confess that the way is to me dark and mysterious, and by no means as discernible as it appears to some others. I rejoice that they can see it clearly and wish that I could too....
Affectionately yours,
Lyman Trumbull.
Three sons of Lyman Trumbull reached mature years: Walter, Perry, and Henry. The latter died unmarried, January 20, 1895.
Walter, the eldest, was married September, 1876, to Miss Hannah Mather Slater. Three sons were born of this union. The first of these, Lyman Trumbull, Jr., died in infancy. The second, Walter S., was born in 1879, married Miss Marjorie Skinner, of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1905, and now resides in New York City. The third, Charles L., born in 1884, married in 1910 Miss Lucy Proctor, of Peoria, Illinois, and now resides in Chicago. Walter Trumbull died October 25, 1891.
Perry Trumbull was married to Mary Caroline Peck, daughter of Ebenezer Peck, judge of the United States Court of Claims, in 1879. Four children were born to them: (1) Julia Wright, married to H. Thompson Frazer, M.D., now resides at Asheville, North Carolina; (2) Edward A., married Anna Whitby, and resides at Seattle, Washington; (3) Charles P., married, resides at Las Vegas, New Mexico; (4) Selden, resides in Chicago. Perry Trumbull died December 10, 1902.
Mrs. Mary Ingraham Trumbull, widow of Lyman Trumbull, resides at Saybrook Point, Connecticut.
THE END