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Show LPCOLW i LASTS I few! WEEKS s rROM his 56th Jbirthday on February 12 until un-til the night of his assassination the "Great Emancipator" Eman-cipator" seemed happier than he hadbeen in five years. Was there J premonition? O O mat. in American hls-c-Os, vry has carried burdens k aa heavy as those which T V Abraham Lincoln bore I K '! cn hls Ereal. patient I iSVjs shoulders. Despite his iLs I It reputation as a teller ot humorous stories and his keen appreciation of the ludicrous In persons and situations that bore the outward appearance of utmost dignity and funereal solemnity, the martyred president was a melancholy melan-choly man. The whole course of his life had made him eo. In childhood he endured the most rigorous hardship in the wilds of southern Indiana and central Illinois. His father was a sort of ne'er-do-well who somehow couldn't seem to gather any of this wot'.d's goods together. His mother was a patlont. God fearing toiler toil-er who held no bepe of reward in mortal life. This motber encouraged his efforts at learning wh-on he was a little felloe, and just l"n mother and son were getting to t chummy and have their times of reaeKtrj aloud together she died after only a v-eek's Ulness. The son's grief was lastitg. When he was twenty-two. Lincoln fell In love with little Ann Rutledgw. who was wearing her heart out 1G grief for a faithless lover. After a time. Lincoln won little Ann's regard and they planned to marry though he was desperately poor. Came a streak of good luck; he went to the legislature legisla-ture at Spricgneld and she went to Jacksonville, 111., to a young ladies' academy. Presently Lincoln got word that she was ill. One week later she was dead. This sorrow Lincoln added to his early grief. Years later, the tall, awkward country coun-try lawyer was elected president of the United States an honor unsurpassable. unsur-passable. But with It came the ghastly tragedy of civil strife. And to his sorrow and his grief of old he added this load of sadness. Four years and more Lincoln plodded slowly along under the burden, a national mourner. Then through the clouds came a ray of sunshine. The war was nearing an end. The president saw peace ahead. He planned to bind a nation's wounds North and South alike. He became happier rather, he became less unhappy, for his spirit was expanding. But once again the glittering lance of malignant fate shot out. This time it brought down the victim it had played with for half a century A. Lincoln! The following telegram, one of the many Instances of his works of mercy and compassion, was sent by Abraham Lincoln from the White House on his last birthday alive. It typifies the spirit spir-it of the man in the last days of his life and Is exemplary of the attitude he took, not only towards individuals but toward the peoples and the states who were opposed In arms to the Union. "Major General Hooker, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Is It Lieut. Samuel D. Davis whose death sentence Is commuted. If not done, let it be done. Is there not an associate of his also in trouble? Please answer. A. LINCOLN." The military rigors of the closing days of the war compelled harsh measures, meas-ures, not only in dealing with the enemy ene-my but in dealing with those within the forces of the North who were guilty guil-ty of desertion, neglect or treachery, and the columns of the daily papers of the time were replete with para-Eraphs para-Eraphs headed, as a rule, "Execution or ihe Conspirators," "The Spies Shot" or "Execution of Deserters." A perusal of his papers during the weeks preceding and following his cS !-t-';--'-;:, rfc-in rfrt-nra.i birthday, Kebruaiy 12. lsti. show that he was giving especial attention to these, mallets. In the month of February Febru-ary alono he sent at least ten trio-grams trio-grams suspending or delaying executions execu-tions or asking for full reiHjrts of the trials for his personal examination. In some cases lie upheld the decree of the military courts. In others he Issued Is-sued pardons, and it is Bald that in at least one caso tho man who had been convicted was In reality a government secret service spent unknown to the military authorities who had convicted him for the very acts ho committed In the service of the Union. It has been asserted by some biographers biog-raphers of Lincoln that he felt premonitions pre-monitions of his death In the months following his second election and If this bo true it Is possiblo that the shadow over his soul may have caused him to be pjore clement than was his rule. All are agreed that ho was always al-ways compassionate and slow to condemn, con-demn, but he was sensiblo of the necessity ne-cessity for stern Justice and was not given to mock mercy of the weak-kneed, weak-kneed, sentimental kind. The president's birthday itself had no special significance In 1S65. It is Coubtful If many oulslde his Immediate Im-mediate family realized when the day oot'irred. It would be a small percentage per-centage of Americans today who could state the date of Fresident Wilson's birth and In the last stages of the Civil war the nation was too sorely beset by pressing, vital problems, sorrow atd anxiety to recognize the birthday of the man who himself was the vortex of afl ifie maelstrom of political, military mili-tary and executive activities. It Is known, however, that Lincoln's last birthday season saw the president more cheerful, more hopeful of a peace which should save the Union than he had been at any other time during the war. He had recently met commissioners of the Confederate government on a steamer at Hampton Roads and although al-though the interview had led to nothing, noth-ing, the president felt that the dissension dissen-sion evident between the commissioners commission-ers from the South meant a speedy conclusion of the conflict Nicolay and Hay, writing of the president's general feeling in February, Febru-ary, 1 S65, Bays: "His interview with the rebel commissioners doubtless strengthened his former convictions that the rebellion was waning in enthusiasm en-thusiasm and resources, and that the Union cause must triumph at no distant dis-tant day. Secure in his renewal of four years' personal leadership and hopefully inspirited by every sign of early victory in the war, his only thought was to Bhorten by generous conciliation the period of dreadful conflict. His temper was not one of exultation, but of broad, patriotic charity char-ity and of keen, sensitive personal sympathy for the whole country and all Its people, South as well as North. His conversation with Stephens, Hunter Hun-ter and Campbell had probably revealed re-vealed to him glimpses of the undercurrent under-current of their BfiKiety that fraternal bloodshed and the destructive ravages of war might somehow come to an end." Just before the president's birthday tile house of representatives passed a resolution requesting the president to communicate to It such information as he might deem compatible with the public Interest concerning his interview inter-view with the Confederate commissioners. commis-sioners. The president sent to the house a message summarizing the transactions on board the steamer, which actually amounted to nothing at all This message was received February 10 and a short discussion occurred oc-curred In the house. According to Nicolay and Hay: "It (tho discussion) did not rise above the level of an ordinary party wrangle. Tho few Democrats who took rart in It complained of the president presi-dent for refusing an armistice, while the Republicans retorted with Jefferson Jeffer-son Davis' conditions about the 'two countries' and the more recent declarations declar-ations of his Richmond harangue, announcing an-nouncing his readiness to perish for Independence. On the wholo, both congress and the country were gratified grati-fied that tho Incident had called out Mr. Lincoln's renewed declaration of an unalterable resolve to maintain the Union. Patriotic hope was quickened and public confidence strengthened by noting once more his singleness of purposo and steadfastness of faith. No act of his could have formed a more fitting prelude to his second inauguration, in-auguration, wljlch was now rapidly approaching, ap-proaching, and the preliminary steps of which were at this time consummated." consum-mated." This feeling throughout the country and In congress was becoming evident to the president on his last birthday, so much so that he commented on It to his friends and advisers. It showed him that the nation was behind him, and that he would be supported to the completion of hiB work of cementing the Union. Almost In the nature of a birthday gift came the formal announcement to President Lincoln that he had been elected president of the United States On the very day of Lincoln's birthday birth-day the first of the cotton ships Sherman Sher-man had sent from Savannah put into New York and Newport, R. I. The newspapers ot February 13 featured the dispatches announcing the arrival of the vessels and commenting with favor on the prospects of getting great cargoes of cotton from th newly opened ports of the South. The dallies were also filled with dispatches dis-patches telling of the progress of Grant's campaign against Lee, which was beginning so to formulate itself that Appomattox should end the war, and that Sherman had completed his march to the sea. None viewed the approach of peace with greater gratification gratifi-cation than did Lincoln, and it was with the spirit of this period of his last birthday upon him that he wrote his second inaugural address, which Is fraught with human sympathy, so expressive of the character of the man. The sad story of the great president's presi-dent's death Is familiar to all. That it was to follow so closely on his last birthday, so lightened by hope and gratitude for the success of the Union cause, none could foresee, unless, as some writers declare, the president himself had forebodings of it. In all events, it is pleasant to contemplate con-template that the closing months of Abraham Lincoln's life were gifted with a feeling of peace which for long he had not known. It was during these months that he conceived that closing paragraph of his second inaugural address: ad-dress: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the rlpht aq OnH p-tvps iiq in duo thu rtn-ht let us strive on to fini6h 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 orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." |