Latest light on Abraham Lincoln, and war-time memories, including many heretofore unpublished incidents and historical facts concerning his ancestry, boyhood, family, religion, public life, trials and triumphs

Front matter

Class Book.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

Latest Light on

Introduction

By Bishop John W. Hamilton, D.D., LL.D. Chancellor American University, Washi/ngton, D. C,

ANOTHER Life of Abraham Lincoln? No, not a biography, but the latest authentic information relative to many features of his life in which the world is deeply interested. Such information is always in demand and at this time it is peculiarly welcome. In our own country Abraham Lincoln is today held in higher esteem than ever before, and public interest in his life and in all for which he is known to have contended, is constantly increasing. In public schools and institutions of higher education, in organizations for literary culture and pursuits, on the lecture platform and in the pulpit, Lincoln's name is heard more frequently and with greater interest than is that of any other American. And scarcely less interesting or potential is his name in other lands.

The world has set its halo about him for what it already knows of him but that only increases the desire to know more. And Doctor Ervin Chapman has responded to that desire by producing a work in which there is a great fund of information concerning Lincoln never before published. He has been able to do this because of his intimate knowledge of the workings of the general government and his close and prolonged acquaintance and association with eminent men during Lincoln's administration. He is, therefore, able to write with authority and has done so in a manner so illuminating and instructive as to win for himself a well accredited distinction among all who have written about Lincoln and the times in which he lived.

Doctor Chapman's eminent service during his long life devoted so fully to the progressive and memorable achieve-

ix

X INTRODUCTION

ments of those historical and turbulent times, gives him superior qualifications to write with deepest sympathy and friendliness. SjTiipathy rules the world, the world of Letters as well as the world of Life. A friend will show himself friendly. A foe cannot conceal his enmity. Other things being equal the friend is more reliable than the foe, more popular surely. There are a hundred readers of Abbott's ''Life of Napoleon" to one who reads the life by Scott. Because of his deep sympathy with all that distinguished the life of Abraham Lincoln the author has here given us a work in the perusal of which one can hear the heart throbs of the writer. Good news can never come too often and this is a book of good news which we will never tire of reading. It tells us what we always believed was true about Lincoln and the proofs are so conclusive that no misleading myths or legends will hereafter be given credence.

I commend to every reader the author's impassionate appeal for the aid of the platform, pulpit and press in repeating the entrancing story of the humble but hallowed home and family from which this great servant and messenger of God came to save the nation and to redeem a race. I have known Doctor Chapman for many years and have ever held him in high esteem. I have rejoiced in his great work on the Pacific Coast and throughout the nation, and have often announced my conviction that of all men I have known he was the best adapted to the work of reform in which he was such an able and successful leader. I rejoice that he has lived to complete the great work on Abraham Lincoln which he has been for so many years engaged in producing. It will undoubtedly prove the crowning work of his remarkable life. He has giren abundant evidence of his fitness to write of the important matters with which he is familiar. He has added a valuable contribution to the political history of the nation and I am pleased to present my venerable friend of many years to my many friends of

many lands.

J. W. H.

FOKEWOKD

IT is indeed a special providence that a unique man like Dr. Ervin Chapman should just at this time of great emergency give to the world a work on Abraham Lincoln, in the preparation of which he has been engaged for more than half a century.

Of "Particeps Criminis," "Bob" Burdette said, "Doctor Chapman is the only man who could write this book," and the same is true of the "Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln and War-time Memories." No one but this "Statesman-Preacher," as he is called, could so successfully have supplemented the three thousand Lincoln publications that have appeared, with a work that is unlike all that has been written concerning Abraham Lincoln,

From boyhood Doctor Chapman has been engaged in literary pursuits and his writings have always been distinguished for their fascinating originality. His books entitled, "A Stainless Flag," "The Czolgosz of Trade and Commerce," and "Particeps Criminis," have been widely and eagerly read. At sixteen he was on the lecture platform. At eighteen he was active in the organization of the Republican party and took the stump for Fremont, and at twenty-two he made one hundred speeches for the election of Abraham Lincoln as President. When but a lad he could repeat from memory the greater part of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States. "Jefferson's Letters," the "Madison Papers," "The Federalist," "Benton's Thirty Years' View," and "Democracy in America," were his delight while still in his teens and those works are yet in his possession with his original annotations. I have been thrilled with interest as I have handled those old, well-worn but well-preserved volumes, in the perusal of which

2 FOREWORD

this studious country boy unconsciously prepared for tlie great work he was destined to accomplish. The knowledge of the fundamental principles of civil government acquired by the study of such great books gave strength and imagination to the fervid eloquence of the "Boy Orator," as he was then called. He was brought into close association with the most distinguished men of the nation, and after the election of Lincoln as President he was called to Washington to fill an important position in the Federal government and to be an active participant in many of the decisive movements of those historic times, some of which were not known to the public and are not until now mentioned in history.

During his connection with the government at Washington, Doctor Chapman began the accumulation of data which has made possible the production of this great work. His claim that during those fifty years nothing of value respecting Lincoln has escaped him seems fully justified by the wealth of information he has here given to the public. Without the extraordinary opportunities and the thorough personal preparation, which began in boyhood and has continued through an extended life, no author could have written a work of such great and permanent value ; and from a field less extended or less productive such riches could not have been acquired. Momentous measures and movements have passed like a panorama and men have come and gone as in a moving pageant since Doctor Chapman began his preparation for this work. Not one man is now living who was then prominent in public life. At that time Blaine, Conkling, Grant, and Garfield were just beginning to attract attention. Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley were unknown. John Hay was only a President's private secretary; Roosevelt had seen but seven summers, Taft eight, and Woodrow Wilson was a restless boy of nine years in a Presbyterian manse in Virginia.

And while this procession was passing Doctor Chapman, like a toiling miner, was delving in the rock for the gold that enriches the pages of this historical masterpiece. In this he

FOREWORD 3

has not been hindered but helped by the ceaseless activities that have made his life so full of notable achievements. As a pastor, platform lecturer, participant in great conventions, and valiant leader in reforms, he has always been the champion of those civic and national ideals which he learned from the great books he studied so diligently in early life, and which with such consummate skill he has in this work shown to be the mainspring of the marvelous life of Abraham Lincoln.

He has been a preacher of great earnestness and power, with pronounced evangelistic gifts and inclinations, but he is most distinguished as an authority on the fundamental principles of civil government, and as a wise and successful leader in reform movements. When the Anti-Saloon League was organized in California there was a unanimous and unyielding demand that Doctor Chapman should become the leader of that new and unique movement, and so incomparable were his achievements in that field that nb one has ever doubted the wisdom of his selection for that difficult work. It was my good fortune to be one of that great assembly in San Francisco that sent Doctor Chapman out into California as superintendent of the Anti- Saloon League. The League was at that time understood to be an experimental movement but Doctor Chapman insisted that while its activities might be in a measure determined by conditions, its ideals must be fixed and immovable, and that the liquor traffic must be regarded and dealt with not as a business but as a crime, and that the League must always oppose the adoption of liquor license and any increase of the liquor license tax. He had learned these fundamentals from Lincoln and he adhered to them as tenaciously as the great Emancipator insisted that all rightful opposition to slavery must be based upon the unalterable proposition that slavery is wrong.

Dr. Howard H. Russell, founder and first superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, says : "From the day Doctor Chapman began the study of law in 1856 until 1898 when he became superintendent of the California Anti-Saloon League, every day of his life seems to have been spent in a school of discipline,

4 FOREWORD

development and instruction for his state-wide and nation-wi'dc work." And when Doctor Chapman induced the National League to declare that the liquor license tax was ''an entrenchment for the liquor traffic and the higher the tax the stronger that entrenchment," Doctor Russell said, "Doctor Chapman has convinced us all. I believe this is one of the most important measures we have thus far undertaken." And when a year later the League was led to declare that the liquor traffic is "not a business but a crime," the national superintendent, Dr. P. A. Baker, said to Doctor Chapman, "You have lifted us a notch higher." Upon that high level Doctor Chapman's "Stainless Flag" address was prepared and delivered throughout the length and breadth of this nation under the auspices of the National League. It was my supreme privilege when a pastor in Brooklyn to hear that epochal address in New York City and subsequently to learn of its great influence in creating and maintaining the conviction now so dominant in the nation that civil government cannot rightfully give legal standing to the traffic in strong drink. That address on "A Stainless Flag" is not outranked in power and eloquence by either Neal Dow or John B. Gough.

As the doctrines of Abraham Lincoln prepared Doctor Chapman for his great influence in temperance reform, so his work in that reform contributed very largely to his preparation for this monumental work on Lincoln. Without the least break or delay he passed from the strenuous struggles of the Anti-Saloon League to the work of classifying and arranging the varied and scholarly material he had accumulated. I was closely associated with him when he turned from all other activities to the happy labor of preparing the manuscript of this work. I observed the enthusiasm with which he retired from the public arena of conflict and sought the quiet seclusion in which he could work without interruption. And I have been thrilled with delight as I have seen this work take definite form and expand into such magnificent and masterful proportions. My hopes were high when I first learned of the plan and scope of the pro-

ERVIN CHAPMAN, D.D, LL.D.

FOREWORD 5

posed volume, and I fully appreciated Doctor Chapman's rare fitness for the task he had undertaken, but I had never imagined that to the thousands of Lincoln ^publications another could be added of such surpassing interest and value. And my greatest astonishment is in finding in this work so much valuable information which does not appear in any other publication. I am delighted to note the characteristic courage with which the author calmly sets aside as untruthful many harmful statements concerning Lincoln which have been given wide publicity, and the conclusive evidence he produces in support of his declarations.

It is not a new Lincoln but a true and real, indeed a living Lincoln, which Doctor Chapman gives us in this work, a Lincoln of whose lineage and birth, and personal appearance and religious belief and experience we have every reason to be proud. And it is that incomparably great and gracious Lincoln whom the world must ever hereafter behold, admire and imitate.

Doctor Chapman has placed a grateful posterity under everlasting obligation to him for this brilliant masterpiece.

Charles Edward LockEj Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, Cal.

Preface

THIS work Is the product of more tlian half a century of diligent preparation and labor. It is added to the vast Lincoln library in the belief that it contains fresh and heretofore unpublished information relative to Abraham Lincoln and men and events of his day. My personal participation in the activities of the national government during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency, and my intimate acquaintance and close official association with many of the most prominent men of that day afforded me the best of facilities for acquiring knowledge of what was then in progress throughout the nation. Therefore, my personal reminiscences of those years, which are published for the first time in this work, contain much valuable information which other writers seem not to have secured.

In addition to this are the accumulations of prolonged and careful research in which nothing of value relative to Lincoln has been overlooked. More than two thousand publications have been carefully examined and made to contribute to the data which makes authentic every statement of this work. From books and other war-time publications, from national and local official records, and from Confederate documents and histories, items have been gathered and woven into connected records of events which form important new contributions to authentic history. The disclosures thus made are of great significance and some of them are so astounding that the validity of the history may at first be doubted. But investigation will establish, beyond question, the truth of every statement and deduction contained herein.

I have been greatly favored and aided in all this prolonged and taxing research. Data that had been lost have by diligent search been recovered, and much of which I had never heard came unsought into my possession and has been used to the

8 PREFACE

great advantage of this work. Many doors have been voluntarily opened to me, affording admission to unsearched realms abounding in new and exceedingly valuable material. Sympathizing friends and strangers, hearing of the nature and purpose of my work, have contributed information that has aided me greatly to enrich these pages with choice Lincolniana in literature and art.

I was especially fortunate in the extended research which made possible the preparation of the account of the Jaquess- Gilmore Mission, knowledge of which during its progress was not had even by the President's confidential secretaries, nor by any member of his Cabinet. A great flood of light is by that fascinating story cast upon the character and inner life of Abraham Lincoln, revealing his secret meditations and his undeclared hopes during even the darkest period of his life. Very extensive and unfrequented fields were perseveringly surveyed in securing the information given in that chapter. Each item is fully authenticated by unquestionable records, but here only have they been united so as to tell the thrilling story of that unique and marvelously successful adventure.

The chapter devoted to quotations from the diary of Lincoln's pastor, Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D., is of special interest and value. The existence of this daily record by the able and distinguished minister who, during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency, was his beloved spiritual adviser and his esteemed and trusted counsellor, has for some time been known to a limited number of persons and has eagerly been sought by writers and publishers, but until the present it has been withheld from publication. I was delighted to secure the manuscript from Doctor Gurley's daughter, Mrs. Emma Gurley Adams of Washington, D. C, and I heartily commend it to the reader.

A considerable portion of this work is devoted to the correction of errors. No man in American history is so generally misunderstood as Abraham Lincoln. Erroneous statements and opinions relative to his ancestry, early life, family relations, personal appearance, bearing, habits, attitude to reforms, and

PREFACE 9

religious belief and experience have long remained uncorrected to the great detriment of the world's heritage in one of its most important characters. Those misrepresentations and misconceptions have come from conditions existing during Mr. Lincoln's life, and from the malice or inexcusable carelessness of writers since his assassination.

Mr. Lincoln was before the nation for only seven years and was known to the people of his own state for but a slightly more extended period. However, during all of that time there was in progress throughout the nation a great moral and civic movement which was characterized by intense bitterness of spirit, and personal animosities.

Mr. Lincoln was an active and influential participant in that contest and during its progress he was the target for the most vindictive and cruel personal assaults known to political campaigns. At first the misrepresentations were only such as are usual in heated political contests, for he was always held in high esteem by his partisan antagonists in Illinois. But when his fame became national, and the movement against slavery became dangerous to that institution, the warfare against him sank to a lower level and was prosecuted with less regard for truth and honor.

So long as damaging misrepresentations were confined to the campaign statements of his political antagonists their influence was not seriously harmful, but when his former law partner, William H. Herndon, published in his ''Life of Lincoln" that he was of illegitimate birth and had declared to him that the same was true of his mother, the wicked falsehood was accepted as true, and added immensely to the force of other untruthful statements that were given wide circulation. As is shown in this work Herndon's statement was promptly and indignantly denied and was proved to be without the least foundation. But after that had been done it continued to be reproduced in later works and was given wide publicity.

Herndon was a pronounced infidel and in his book states that Lincoln also was an unbeliever. This declaration was

10 PREFACE

confirmed by Lamon, another infidel author of a Lincoln biography, and has been repeated by many careless writers and widely proclaimed by enemies of Christianity and of Lincoln until, in spite of his own strong, unequivocal declarations to the contrary, it i8 very widely believed to be true. In like manner many other harmful errors have been published and accepted until the true image of Lincoln is quite generally seen through a mask of unfortunate misconceptions.

These conditions should not be permitted to continue. It is due the memory of Lincoln that his image, so admired by the world, should be unmasked and made to appear in public thought in its unmarred purity and beauty. The misleading legendry which has become associated with his name should be cast aside and forgotten, and the truthful history of this greatest product of the new world should be reverently learned in its entirety and faithfully repeated to all the world, and to succeeding generations. To aid in accomplishing this result is the chief purpose of this work.

The charming "Stories about Lincoln" which form a chapter are pleasingly illustrative of his unique and delightful personality. Mr. Lincoln's own stories have been given large space in other publications, but brief accounts of events with which he was connected, such as are here given, have had less publicity. They are, however, bright and lovely gems picked up on vast fields of research and are here given their illuminating historical settings.

The topical arrangement of Mr. Lincoln's declarations of religious beliefs and experiences constitute a feature peculiar to this work. By this grouping of his own statements it is possible to ascertain, with but little effort, the exact truth relative to this very interesting and important matter. The collecting of this material from the large number of books consulted and its arrangement topically has been the most prolonged and tedious feature of the preparation of this work. But it has been a labor of love and of unspeakable delight Ministers, lecturers, lawyers, teachers and writers are busy

JS ti o ^

PREFACE II

people and only a limited number have access to the thousands of publications in which this material may be found and from which it has been patiently collected and classified, as gold is gathered from a mine and cast into form for convenient use. If this shall prove helpful to my busy, burdened fellow workers I shall feel amply rewarded for my tireless labors to that end.

Special mention is here made of the efficient services of Miss Glenn Will in the diversified lines of labor by which this book has been produced. She has three times crossed the continent and prosecuted extensive research in public and private libraries and in museums and collections of rare Lincolniana. Too much cannot be said in commendation of her labors and achievements.

It is a great pleasure here to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Rev. James M. Campbell, D.D., in the preparation of this volume. Doctor Campbell has attained international fame as the author of many books of great worth, and to his ability and learning the character of this book is in no small measure due.

In a statement as brief as this must be it is not possible to mention all who have aided me in securing data or in the prej)aration of this work. One mind has been constantly alert and watchful for facts and suggestions concerning Lincoln, and by that assistance from my wife this publication has been made possible. With like constancy, though for a less extended period, our children have added to my resources of literature and art, and thus and otherwise have shared in my labors and achievements.

Hon. Robert T. Lincoln has with characteristic courtesy responded to all my requests for his counsel and assistance, and in interviews and by correspondence, his encouragement and aid have been exceedingly helpful. Persons in charge of public and private libraries, and of collections of Lincolniana have extended every needed courtesy. In prosecuting that research assistance of special value has been received from D. M. Gaudier, D.D., Mrs. W. E. McVey, Rev. George W. Wilson, D.D.,

PREFACE

Kev. P. C. L. Harris, Miss Carline Mclllvaine, Howard H. Russell, D.D., LL.D., Miss Laura R. Church and Mr. Douglas Volk.

Authors and publishers have with uniform cheerfulness granted permission to reproduce as has been requested. For such courtesies special acknowledgment is here made to Mr. Truman H. Bartlett, Century Company, F. C. Iglehart, D.D., Methodist Book Concern, Robert M. Browne, M.D., Mr. Frederick H. Meserve, George P. Putnam's Sons, Miss Ida M. Tarbell, Mrs. Nellie Blessing Eyster, Mr. J. L. G. Ferris, William J. Johnson, D.D., the Gerlach-Barklow Company, Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Colonel A. K. McClure, Francis Grierson, Esq., Scribner's Magazine, Everybody's Magazine, Little, Brown & Company, L. C. Page & Company, Mr. John W. Lincoln, Miss Helen Nicolay, Mr. 0. H. Olroyd, Mr. Harry Roseland, General James F. Rusling, Colonel W. O. Stoddard, Doubleday, Page & Company, and Hon. Henry W. Melvin.

From others whose names do not here appear I have received encouragement and aid which I hope ever to remember with appreciation and gratitude. And as I lay aside the pen with which these pages have been written, upon this work believed to have been begun and conducted under the promptings of the Divine Spirit, "I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

ERVIN CHAPMAN.

Los Angeles, California.

CONTENTS Part I

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Lincoln — Fortune's Favorite 17

III. The Jaquess-Gilmore Mission 83

IV. Lincoln and Temperance 141

V. Lincoln and Slavery — Opposed to Slavery 176

VI. Emancipation Considered 193

VII. Emancipation Proclamation 219

VIII. Constitutional Amendment 249

Part II

I. Reminiscences of Lincoln's Second Inaugural. . 277

II. Lincoln's Religious Faith 299

III. Lincoln's Religious Faith — (Continued) 319

IV. Lincoln's Faith in Prayer 364

V. Lincoln's Religious Experience 395

VI. Lincoln and Horace Greeley 441

VII. The Wade-Davis Manifesto 484

VIII. Excerpts from Unpublished Manuscript by Dr.

P. D. Gurley 499

Part III

I. Short Stories about Lincoln 511

Index 557

"From the union of the Colonists, Puritans and Cavaliers, from the strengthening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first to comprehend within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Republic, Abraham Lincoln. He was the son of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depth of his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier in that he was American. Let us build with reverent hands to the type of that simple but sublime life in which all types are honored."

— Henry W, Grady.

ILLUSTRATIONS

OFFOSITB PAGE

Lincoln in 1856 Title

Ervin Chapman, D.D., LL.D 4

The author while making his one hundred speeches for Lincoln's first

election as President 10

The badge he wore ia parades during that campaign 10

The ticket he voted four years later 10

Lincoln's mother's bible 30

Cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born 32

Early pmrsuit of knowledge 32

Stephen A. Douglas 34

Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln 36

Tablecloth presented by Mrs. Lincoln 40

Lincohi in 1861 46

Lincoln and detective Pinkerton 50

The greatest among the great 52

Lincoln at Cooper Institute. . , 56

Leonard W. Volk and his busts of Lincoln and Douglas 60

Bust of Lincoln, made by Leonard W. Volk, April, 1860 62

Lincohi in 1848 64

First picture as candidate for President 66

Last picture of President Lincoln 66

Abraham Lincoln in 1860, soon after his nomination 68

Lincoln in 1863, a few days before he delivered the Gettysburg address . . 70

Why people thought Lincoln homely 82

Colonel James F. Jaquess 84

Abraham Lincoln in 1847, pledging Cleopas Breckenridge to total abstinence 150

Howard H. Russell, D.D., LL.D 152

President Lincoln and his Cabinet 228

Facsimile of manuscript by R. M. Devens 230

Lincoln and the contrabands 248

Hon. James M. Ashley of Ohio 258

Memories 274

1 6 ILLUSTRATIONS

OPPOSITE PAGE

President Lincoln during the battle of Gettysburg 276

Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase 280

Bible on which Lincoln took oath of office 290

Seal of the Supreme Court affixed to the bible on which Lincoln took the

oath of office 1861 292

Discoveries and inventions, being facsimile of first pages of the lecture

supposed to have been lost 303

Father Charles Chiniquy 328

Hon. James F. Wilson of Iowa 346

N. Bateman 350

General Daniel E. Sickles 386

General James F. Rusling 388

General Rushng's certificate 390

Col. W. O. Stoddard 414

President Lincobi and family 426

Horace Greeley 440

Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., President Lincoln's pastor, and the New

York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C 500

Bouquet of flowers picked and presented by Abraham Lincoln at the

White House 502

Deathbed of Lincoln 504

The Village Blacksmith. This engraving hung in the room where President Lincoln died 506

Facsimile letter written by Lincoln April 6, 1860 510

As seen and loved abroad. A picture woven in silk in Switzerland in

1865 522

Henry Ward Beecher 536

David R. Locke, author of humorous Nasby writings greatly enjoyed by

President Lmcoln 540

VOLUME I

"The name of Abraham Lincoln will be cherished, so long as we have a history, as one of the wisest, purest and noblest magistrates, as one of the greatest benefactors to the human race, that have ever lived. ... So much firmness with such gentleness of heart, so much logical acuteness with such almost childlike simplicity and ingenuousness of nature, so much candor to weigh the wisdom of others, with so much tenacity to retain his own judgment, were rarely before united in one individual. Never was such vast political power placed in purer hands ; never did a heart remain more humble and unsophisticated after the highest prizes of earthly ambition had been obtained."

— ^J. LoTHROP Motley.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was well born, and the auspicious conditions into which he came at his birth were prophetic of the generous favors of fortune during all his life.

Ancestry

He was favored in the two lines of lineage which united in his wonderful personality. Both of those ancestral lines were of high-grade and each possessed qualities for which he was distinguished. The Lincoln line of lineage from its earliest history moved conspicuously upon a high plane, never lost, never broken and never joined in any unfavorable alliance.

The hardships of pushing back the wooded wilderness and redeeming the virgin soil for the use of man ; the dangers of encounters with hostile savages ; the struggle for daily bread, together with powerful religious influences, served to keep that line of lineage upon a lofty plane. The course which it followed extended from the Atlantic's rocky coast, westward through New England and across the Alleghenies and the mountains of Virginia, to the verdant valleys of Kentucky — Abraham Lincoln's native state. And the dangers and hardships through which the rugged heroes of that line were called to pass, were calculated to produce the toughened fibre of Abraham Lincoln's giant frame and his superb moral stamina.