=Abraham Lincoln.=—­The services of Lincoln to the cause of union defy description.  A judicial scrutiny of the war reveals his thought and planning in every part of the varied activity that finally crowned Northern arms with victory.  Is it in the field of diplomacy?  Does Seward, the Secretary of State, propose harsh and caustic measures likely to draw England’s sword into the scale?  Lincoln counsels moderation.  He takes the irritating message and with his own hand strikes out, erases, tones down, and interlines, exchanging for words that sting and burn the language of prudence and caution.  Is it a matter of compromise with the South, so often proposed by men on both sides sick of carnage?  Lincoln is always ready to listen and turns away only when he is invited to surrender principles essential to the safety of the union.  Is it high strategy of war, a question of the general best fitted to win Gettysburg—­Hooker, Sedgwick, or Meade?  Lincoln goes in person to the War Department in the dead of night to take counsel with his Secretary and to make the fateful choice.

Is it a complaint from a citizen, deprived, as he believes, of his civil liberties unjustly or in violation of the Constitution?  Lincoln is ready to hear it and anxious to afford relief, if warrant can be found for it.  Is a mother begging for the life of a son sentenced to be shot as a deserter?  Lincoln hears her petition, and grants it even against the protests made by his generals in the name of military discipline.  Do politicians sow dissensions in the army and among civilians?  Lincoln grandly waves aside their petty personalities and invites them to think of the greater cause.  Is it a question of securing votes to ratify the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery?  Lincoln thinks it not beneath his dignity to traffic and huckster with politicians over the trifling jobs asked in return by the members who hold out against him.  Does a New York newspaper call him an ignorant Western boor?  Lincoln’s reply is a letter to a mother who has given her all—­her sons on the field of battle—­and an address at Gettysburg, both of which will live as long as the tongue in which they were written.  These are tributes not only to his mastery of the English language but also to his mastery of all those sentiments of sweetness and strength which are the finest flowers of culture.

Throughout the entire span of service, however, Lincoln was beset by merciless critics.  The fiery apostles of abolition accused him of cowardice when he delayed the bold stroke at slavery.  Anti-war Democrats lashed out at every step he took.  Even in his own party he found no peace.  Charles Sumner complained:  “Our President is now dictator, imperator—­whichever you like; but how vain to have the power of a god and not to use it godlike.”  Leaders among the Republicans sought to put him aside in 1864 and place Chase in his chair.  “I hope we may never have a worse man,” was Lincoln’s quiet answer.