ABRAHAM LINCOLN Uniform with This Volume GEORGE WASHINGTON By PAUL LEICESTER FORD "This work challenges attention for the really valuable light which it throws upon the character of George Washington." --_Philadelphia Bulletin._ THOMAS JEFFERSON By WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS "The volume is particularly worth reading because it revives the many-sided nature and activity of a truly great man." --_Springfield Republican. "A most readable and entertaining volume. Jefferson will stand higher in popular estimation because of the human touch in the picture." --_Brooklyn Eagle._ [Illustration: Copyright, 1891, by M. P. Rice ABRAHAM LINCOLN From an original, unretouched negative made in 1864] ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS AUTHOR OF "THOMAS JEFFERSON", "THE TURK AND HIS LOST PROVINCES", "THE UNITED STATES AND FOREIGN POWERS", ETC. _WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS_ [Illustration] PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. He knew to bide his time, And can his fame abide, Still patient in his simple faith sublime, Till the wise years decide. Great captains, with their guns and drums, Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence comes; These all are gone, and, standing like a tower, Our children shall behold his fame, The kindly, earnest, brave, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American. --_Lowell, Commemoration Ode_ Contents CHAPTER PAGE I.--THE MAN AND HIS KINDRED 13 II.--THE LEADER OF THE SPRINGFIELD BAR 56 III.--A GREAT ORATOR AND HIS SPEECHES 86 IV.--A PRAIRIE POLITICIAN 129 V.--A PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 179 VI.--A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND HIS GENERALS 229 VII.--HOW LINCOLN APPEARED IN THE WHITE HOUSE 277 VIII.--THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES 314 IX.--A MASTER IN DIPLOMACY 342 X.--LINCOLN'S PHILOSOPHY, MORALS, AND RELIGION 370 List of Illustrations PAGE ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Frontispiece_ From an original, unretouched negative made in 1864, when he commissioned Ulysses S. Grant Lieutenant-General and commander of all the armies of the republic. THE BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 20