Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865

by Ward Hill Lamon

[6] Page 174, line 11, after the word "period."

The words of Clark E. Carr are entitled to credit, for no one present had more at heart than he the success of these ceremonies—he being one of the original commissioners comprising the board that purchased this, the first ground set apart for a national cemetery for our soldiers. He was on the platform from which Mr. Lincoln spoke. He says in his "Lincoln at Gettysburg" that, "Before the great multitude of people could prepare themselves to listen intelligently, before their thoughts had become sufficiently centred upon the speaker to take up his line of thought and follow him, he had finished and returned to his seat. So short a time [only about three minutes] was Mr. Lincoln before them that the people could scarcely believe their eyes when he disappeared from their view. They could not possibly in so short a time mentally grasp the ideas that were conveyed. Many persons said to me that they would have supposed that on such a great occasion the President would have made a speech. Every one thought he made only a very few 'dedicatory remarks.' Mr. Carr further says that the general impression was that the remarks consisted of 'a dozen commonplace sentences scarcely one of which contained anything new, anything that when stated was not self-evident.'"

[I] In a speech at Cooper Institute in New York City, on the Presidential election (1864), Wendell Phillips said that for thirty years he had labored to break up the Union in the interest of justice, and now he labored to save it in the same interest. The same curse that he invoked on the old Union he would invoke on a new Union if it is not founded on justice to the negro. "Science must either demonstrate that the negro is not a man, or politics must accord to him equality at the ballot-box and in offices of trust." He judged Mr. Lincoln by his words and deeds, and so judging he was "unwilling to trust Abraham Lincoln with the future of the country. Let it be granted that Mr. Lincoln is pledged to Liberty and Union; but this pledge was wrung out of him by the Cleveland movement, and was a mere electioneering pledge. Mr. Lincoln is a politician. Politicians are like the bones of a horse's fore-shoulder,—not a straight one in it. A reformer is like a Doric column of iron,—straight, strong, and immovable. It is a momentous responsibility to trust Mr. Lincoln where we want a Doric column to stand stern and strong for the Nation.... I am an Abolitionist, but I am also a citizen watchful of constitutional Liberty; and I say if President Lincoln is inaugurated on the votes of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, every citizen is bound to resist him. Are you willing to sacrifice the constitutional rights of seventy years for your fondness for an individual?"

Mr. Phillips then quoted some opinions from prominent men in the Republican party. "A man in the field said, 'The re-election of Abraham Lincoln will be a disaster.' Another said, 'The re-election of Abraham Lincoln will be national destruction.' Said another, 'There is no government at Washington,—nothing there.' Winter Davis of Maryland testifies to his [Lincoln's] inability. Said another, 'That proclamation will not stand a week before the Supreme Court; but I had rather trust it there than Abraham Lincoln to make the judges.' Mr. Lincoln has secured his success just as the South used to secure its success. He says to the radicals of the Republican party, 'I am going to nominate myself at Baltimore: risk a division of the party if you dare!' and the radicals submitted. Political Massachusetts submitted, and is silent; but Antislavery Massachusetts calls to the people to save their own cause." Mr. Phillips said he "wanted by free speech to let Abraham Lincoln know that we are stronger than Abraham Lincoln, and that he is a servant to obey us. I distrust the man who uses whole despotism in Massachusetts and half despotism in South Carolina, and that man is Abraham Lincoln."

[7] Page 199, last line, after the word "quality."

While reading over some of the appealing telegrams sent to the War Department by General McClellan, Lincoln said, "It seems to me that McClellan has been wandering around and has got lost. He's been hollering for help ever since he went south—wants somebody to come to his deliverance and get him out of the place he's got into. He reminds me of the story of a man out in Illinois, who, in company with a number of friends, visited the state penitentiary. They wandered all through the institution and saw everything, but just about the time to depart, this man became separated from his friends and couldn't find his way out. At last he came across a convict who was looking out from between the bars of his cell door; he hastily asked: 'Say! How do you get out of this place?'"

[8] Page 203, line 14, after the word "patriotism."

Whether the act proved his wisdom or not, the result certainly sustained and justified his course; the proceeding at least exemplified his firmness and determination in desperate emergencies. There is perhaps no act recorded in our history that demanded greater courage or more heroic treatment.

In a conversation with me shortly after this Mr. Lincoln said, "Well, I suppose our victory at Antietam will condone my offence in reappointing McClellan. If the battle had gone against us poor McClellan (and I too) would be in a bad row of stumps."

Had not the tide of success and victory turned in our favor about this time, there is little doubt that Mr. Lincoln would have been deposed and a military dictatorship erected upon the ruins of his administration. The victory at Antietam was, without doubt, the turning point for fame or for downfall in the career of Mr. Lincoln.