Men of our times; or, Leading patriots of the day. Being narratives of the lives and deeds of statesmen, generals, and orators. Including biographical sketches and anecdotes of Lincoln, Grant, Garrison, Sumner, Chase, Wilson, Greeley, Farragut, Andrew, Colfax, Stanton, Douglas, Buckingham, Sherman, Sheridan, Howard, Phillips and Beecher

Front matter

.4**-

A-

MEN OF OUR TIMES;

Dedication

THESE RECORDS

OF THEIR ELDER BRETHREN IN THE REPUBLIC,

ARE INSCRIBED

Chapter I.— Abraham Lincoln

The Men of our Time — Lincoln Foremost — The War was the Working-Man's Revolution — Abraham Lincoln's Birth and Youth — The Books he Read — The Thirty Thousand Dollars for Tender— The Old Stocking of Government Money — A Just Lawyer ; Anecdotes — His First Candidacy and Speech — Goes to Legislature and Congress — The Seven Debates and Campaign against Douglass in 1858 — Webster's and Lincoln's Language Compared — The Cooper Institute Speech — The Nomination at Chicago— Moral and Physical Courage — The Backwoodsman President and the Diplomatists — Significance of his Presidential Career — Religious Feelings — His Kindness — " The Baby Did It "—The First Inaugural— The Second Inaugural, and other State Papers — The Conspiracy and Assassination— The Opinions of Foreign Nations on Mr. Lincoln. - - - - - -11

Chapter Ii.— Ulysses S. Grant

A General Wanted — A Short War Expected — The Young Napoleon — God's Revenge Against Slavery — The Silent Man in Galena — " Tanning Leather" — Gen. Grant's Puritan Descent — How he Loaded the Logs — His West Point Career— Service in Mexico — Marries, and Leaves the Army — Wood-cutting, Dunning and Leather-Selling — Enlists against the Rebellion — Missouri Campaign — Paducah Campaign — Fort Donelson Campaign — Battle of Shiloh — How Grant Lost his Temper — Vicksburg Campaign — Lincoln on Grant's "Drinking" — Chattanooga — Grant's Method of Making a Speech — Appointed Lieutenant-General — The Richmond Campaign — "Mr. Grant is a Very Obstinate Man " — Grant's Qualifications as a Ruler — Honesty — Generosity to Subordinates — Sound Judgment of Men — Power of Holding his Tongue — Grant's Sidewalk Platform — Talks Horse to Senator Wade — "Wants Nothing Said "—The Best Man for Next President. - - 111

Chapter Iii.— Wllliam Lloyd Garrison

Mr. Garrison's Birth and Parents — His Mother — Her Conversion — His Boyhood — Apprenticed to a Printer — First Anti-Slavery Address — Advice to Dr. Beecher — Benjamin Lundy — Garrison Goes to Baltimore — First Battle with Slavery — In Jail — First Number of the Liberator — Threats and Rage from the South — The American Anti-Slavery Society — First Visit to England—The Era of Mob Violence — The Respectable Boston Mob — Mr. Garrison's Account — Again in Jail — The Massachusetts Legislature Uncivil to the Abolitionists — Logical Vigor of the Slaveholders — Garrison's Disunionism — Denounces the Church— Liberality of the Liberator — The Southerners' own Testimony— Mr. Garrison's Bland Manners— His Steady Nerves—

X CONTENTS

His use of Language — Things by their Right Names — Abolitionist " Hard Language ;" Garrison's Argument on it — Protest for Woman's Eights — The Triumph of his Cause — " The Liberator " Discontinued — Second Visit to England — Letter to Mrs. Stowe. - - - - - 154

Chapter Iv.— Charles Sumner

Mr. Sumner an instance of Free State High Culture — The "Brahmin Caste" of New England — The Sumner Ancestry ; a Kentish Family — Governor Increase Sumner; His Revolutionary Patriotism — His Stately Presence ; "A Governor that can Walk " — Charles Sumner's Father — Mr. Sumner's Education, Legal and Literary Studies — Tendency to Ideal Perfection — Sumner and the Whigs — Abolitionism Social Death — Sumner's Opposition to the Mexican War — His Peace Principles — Sumner Opposes Slavery Within the Constitution, as Garrison Outside of it — Anti-Slavery and the Whigs — The Political Abolitionist Platform — Webster asked in vain to Oppose Slavery — Sumner's Rebuke of Winthrop — Jbins tho Free Soil Party — Succeeds Webster in the Senate — Great Speech against the Fugitive Slave Law — The Constitution a Charter of Liberty — Slavery not in the Constitution — First Speech after the Brooks Assault — Consistency as to Reconstruction. - 214

England and our Finances in the War — President Wheelock and Mr. Chase's Seven Uncles — His Uncle the Bishop — His Sense of Justice at College — His Uncle the Senator — Admitted to the Bar for Cincinnati — His First Argument before a U.S. Court — Society in Cincinnati — The Ohio Abolitionists — Cincinnati on Slavery — The Church admits Slavery to be " an Evil " — Mr. Chase and the Birney Mob — The Case of the Slave Girl Matilda — How Mr. Chase "Ruined Himself" — He Affirms the Sectionality of Slavery — The Van Zandt Case — Extracts from Mr. Chase's Argument— Mi-. Chase in Anti-Slavery Politics — His Qualifications as a Financier. - - 241