LORD CHARNWOOD'S LIFE OF LINCOLN.* THE Lives of Lincoln are

beyond counting, but nearly all of them are by Americans. There is plenty of room for 'English appreciations of Lincoln, for his qualities were just such as please Englishmen, and are characteristic of Anglo-Saxondom in what might be called its highest flights of common-sense. Mr. Basil Williams, the general editor of the series " Makers of the Nineteenth Century," calls Lord Chamwood's work the " first considered attempt by an Englishman to give a picture of Lincoln." It is a remarkable fact that this can be said truly, for Lincoln's name for many years has been as greatly honoured here as in the United States, and we have nearly as many " Lincoln stories" as are current among Americans. We do not think that Lord Clam- wood has said anything new of Lincoln—he draws on the accepted sources, of which the chief is of course Messrs. Hay and Nicolay's colossal and shapeless work—and his judgment on Lincoln does not differ in any essential respects from other judgments with which we are familiar.

But he has written a finished and very graceful biography which those Englishmen who are not actually collectors of Lincoln literature may place on their shelves with confidence that it tells them all the facts, and does so with a frank but reverent intention to reveal minutely the structure of Lincoln's character: Now that we are in the pangs of war it is good to dwell upon the example of a great patriot who had infinite powers of adaptation but never once descended to cynicism, and who was capable of intense passion but never allowed wrath to take a mean or ignoble form.

Lord Charnwood's exploration of Lincoln's weaknesses yields nothing that need make us think the worse of the great man. We might almost say that we appreciate the weaknesses ; they relate Lincoln to the " common men " of whom he said that God must like them since He had made so many of them. There is no doubt that Lincoln's stories and expressions were often Rabelaisian, and there is just as little doubt that his innermost mind was as clean, sincere, and honest as it is possible for a human mind to be. Such discrepancy as there was between his official and unofficial methods of expression is perfectly intelligible.

His undress language saved him from the disrespect of those who would have been appalled by the mind that could not unbend. He was capable of talking of " this nigger question." But his real mind was moved to genuine anger when the popular sophism of the South pre- tended that slavery was the only alternative to a literal equality between black and white :— " I protest," he said, and there spoke the real Lincoln, " against the counterfeit logic which says that since I do not want a negro woman for my slave I must necessarily want her for my wife. I may want her for neither. I may simply let her alone. In some respects she is certainly not my equal. But in her natural right to eat the bread which she has earned by the sweat of her brow, she is my equal and the equal of any man."

From his boyhood Lincoln was noted for his uncompromising honesty. He even carried his honesty so far as to prejudice, as some would think, the useful principle that a lawyer does right, in the general interests of justice, to plead in Court for a man or a cause " from a brief " and not from personal conviction. Of course we regard this as an indispen- sable incident in the search for judicial truth. But on one occasion Lincoln discovered at the last moment a fact against his client of which he had been unaware before. He saw that he was now not in charge of a doubtful case, but a case which ought to be decided against him. He refused to have anything more to do with it. Isolated acts of this kind seem to mark the conduct of an idealist without skill in affairs; but Lincoln was none the less guided in all great matters by a profound sense of what was practical. How his practical way offended the Abolitionists is notorious. He placed the preservation of the Union before the abolition of slavery. He saw that the one was much the safest, if the longest, road to the other. Similarly, towards the end of the war he proposed a moderate settlement of the slavery problem— compensation to slave-holders and a tentative and limited grant of the franchise to the negroes—which if it had ever been adopted might have prevented the South from setting out to defeat by trickery a more drastic, and to them much more offensive, law.

It is interesting to know that Lincoln's disposition to spare human life whenever he could was displayed, when he was still a very young man, during his only experience of military service :- " The Indian chief, Black Hawk, who had agreed to abide west of the Mississippi, broke the treaty and led his warriors back into their former haunts in Northern Illinois. The Governor of the State called for volunteers, and Lincoln became one. He obtained the elective rank of captain of his company, and contrived to maintain some sort of order in that, doubtless brave, but undisciplined body. He saw no fighting, but he could earn his living for some months, and stored up material for effective chaff in Congress long afterwards about the military glory which General Cass's supporters for the Presidency wished to attach to their candidate. His most glorious exploit consisted in saving from his own men a poor old friendly Indian who had fallen among them. A letter of credentials, which the helpless creature produced, was pro- nounced a forgery and he was about to be hanged as a spy, when Lincoln appeared on the scene, swarthy with resolution and rage,' and somehow terrified his disorderly company into dropping their prey."

His devices for reprieving condemned men during his Presidency were certainly not marked by rage, but rather by a humorous and patient resolution that kept turning the point, and delaying, until the man was

• Abraham Lincoln. By Lord Charnwood. London : Constable and Co. Ns. net.]

somehow " begged off "—the phrase may be allowed, since Lincoln always liked to persuade and convince his officials, not merely to exercise his veto.

Lincoln's first political speech was like many of his later speeches in its strange power to make an original expression of character arise out of quaintness. How he made dignity flow out of the most ordinary words by their arrangement is one of the puzzles and triumphs of language. In his first speech, it is true, there is less mellowness and more facetiousness than in any speech of his famous period. But Lord Charnwood shows us how Lincoln was at first prone to faults of taste and outgrew them, or rather educated himself so that ho became Incapable of them. Here is the first speech Fellow Citizens, I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet like the old woman's dance. I am in favour of a national bank. I am in favour of the internal improvement system and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful ; if not, it will be all the same."

Lincoln's plan for encouraging logical argument in his speeches was to master the first six books of Euclid at a time when his life was heavily burdened with business. He was no economist, and had even a poor head for figures. It was a moral argument which attracted him, and which brought out his supreme powers. The Republican Party of his creation was a more Whiggish institution than some of his very early opinions would have led any one to expect. Once some newspaper demanded that the deadly uniformity of allegiance to a conventional set of principles should be dropped in an election. "All candidates," it said, " should show their hands." " Agreed," wrote Lincoln, " here's mine." Then followed his avowal that ho would like to give votes " to all whites who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding femalm"

The following story of one of Lincoln's practical jokes in politics will be new to most readers "A Springfield newspaper called the Conservative was acquiring too much influence as the organ of moderate and decent opinion that acquiesced in the extension of negro slavery. The Abolitionist, Mr. Herndon, was a friend of the editor. One day he showed Lincoln an article in a Southern paper which most boldly justified slavery whether the slaves wore black or white. Lincoln observed what a good thing it would be if the pro-slavery papers of Illinois could be led to go this length. Herndon ingeniously used his acquaintance with the editor to procure that he should reprint this article with approval. Of course that promising journalistic venture, the Conservative, was at once ruined by so gross an indiscretion. This was hard on its confiding editor, and it is not to Lincoln's credit that ho suggested or connived at this trick."

Lord Charnwood's comment is quite severe enough, and is a proof of his desire to be frank. An editor who was such a fool as to commit political suicide deserves little sympathy. We suppose that Herndon used his friendship with a man of feeble judgment to ensnare him into the suicidal act. That was very wrong, of course, but we are not told that this was the express suggestion of Lincoln.

Lord Charnwood is particularly happy in showing the relations of Lincoln with Seward, his Secretary of State; Stanton, his Secretary for War; and other Ministers. Seward's vain attempt to " run " Lincoln was soon at an end, and was ended with less friction than would have Leen possible if any other man had been President. It is curious to remember that the Secretary of Stato was not above suggesting a decidedly Prussian policy when ho advised Lincoln to distract attention from critical affairs at home by a foreign adventure. Here is Seward's amazing plan :—

" I would demand explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central America, to raise a vigorous spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention, and, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France, would convene Congress and declare war against them.'

One of the chief merits of Lincoln's leadership during the war was that he absolutely refused to interfere with his generals till they had had a prolonged trial and had failed. When he appointed Grant he hoped that ho would follow a particular course, which, however, Grant rejected. Nevertheless he let Grant go his own way, trusting, in his own words, " that you knew better than L" Eventually Grant adopted the plan of which Lincoln had originally approved, and succeeded with it.

We will end with Lincoln's own very interesting comment on his famous " Second Inaugural." It was conveyed in a otter to a friend who had congratulated him:— "March 15, 1865. Dear Mr. Weed,—Everyone likes a little com- pliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I expect the latter to wear as well as— perhaps better than—anything I have produced ; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. —Truly yours, A. LINCOLN." Lincoln's allusion to the " difference of purpose " between the Almighty and men who claim His sanction of course refers to these words in the " Second Inaugural " about the motives of the contending aides:—

"Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God ; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their breasi from the sweat of other men's faces ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neithee has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."