August 19, 2025 • 20 mins
In Story of Abraham Lincoln, Mary A. Hamilton offers a unique British perspective on the life of the 16th President of the United States, presenting a heartfelt tribute to “Honest Abe.” She explores Lincoln’s ancestral roots, his humble beginnings in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, and his impactful adult life in Illinois, culminating in his presidency and the trials of the White House. The biography also delves into the American Civil War, providing valuable context on its causes and developments. While Hamilton’s narrative is engaging, it does contain some historical inaccuracies, such as misidentifying Jefferson Davis as the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 election instead of John C. Breckinridge. Nevertheless, The Story of Abraham Lincoln remains an intriguing and accessible account of Lincolns life, principles, and political legacy. Please note Chapter 7 includes a single use of an epithet for African-Americans from a British magazine quote, and Chapter 8 features an example of a stereotypical Southern black dialect that may be considered offensive. (Summary by John Lieder.)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seven of the Story of Abraham Lincoln. This is
a librivoxy courting. All librivoxy courtings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by John Leader. The Story of Abraham Lincoln by
Mary A. Hamilton, Chapter seven. The war war began in Virginia.
(00:27):
West Virginia was free East Virginia slave holding. The state
was the natural meeting place for the two armies. On
the twenty first July, they met at bull Run. The
engagement could hardly be called a battle. On neither side
was there any order or discipline. More than once during
the day. The Southern army seemed to be beaten, but
(00:50):
it rallied, and the Federalists, as the Union soldiers were called,
broke into a disgraceful retreat, which became an awful panic.
The fugitives poured into Washington, haggard and dustained. Everything seemed
to be lost. Lincoln did not go to bed all night.
He paced up and down in his room, expecting that
(01:11):
the victorious Confederate army would march upon Washington and the
war be at an end. It did not come. The
opportunity was lost a battle had been gained, that was all.
The moral effect of the Battle of bull Run was
very great. Indeed, the South thought the war was over.
The North saw that it had only begun. At first,
(01:35):
the Confederate seemed to have great advantages. The army was
the one profession for a Southern gentleman. Nearly all their
young men were trained at the Military Academy at West Point,
and a great many of the officers of the United
States Army had been Southerners. These men now left the
Union Army and gave their services to the Confederates. Among
(01:57):
them was General Robert Lee, who became General in chief
of the Confederate Army. Lincoln's difficulties were greatly increased by
the fact that so many officers and men went over
to the Confederates. At the beginning, the South had a
larger and better trained army in the field, and at
first there were plenty of volunteers. But after bull Run,
(02:19):
she thought the war was finished, and events proved that
in a long war the North must win by reason
of her greater staying power. The South was as enthusiastic
as the North, and at the beginning better prepared, but
not equal in resources. Of any sort. The South was
entirely dependent on agriculture. All the necessaries of life came
(02:43):
from the North and from Europe. Whereas the South had
to import all her ammunition, the North had powder magazines
of her own and a people of mechanics, and the
confederacy was soon defined that men are useless without arms.
Great sufferings were endured, wonderful inventions and patience was shown
on both sides. There was great heroism, but in the
(03:06):
end the resources of the North decided the day. Lincoln
threw all his energy into the task of getting ready
an army, and in a short time the Northern soldier
was as well trained and equipped as the southern. The
Battle of bull Run roused the North. Quickened by shame.
The people were ready to fight to the bitter end.
(03:28):
For the next two years, however, they were disheartened by
continual disaster. Army after army was destroyed, position after position lost.
Gloom descended on the nation. In the dark times of defeat,
men turned upon Lincoln and blamed him. His position was difficult. Indeed,
(03:48):
as head of the state, he was also commander of
the army, but he had to entrust the actual management
of the campaigns to others. He followed and understood their tactics,
but was too wise to try to direct their movements.
Only occasionally did he offer advice, wise advice which his
generals were not always wise enough to accept. At first,
(04:11):
the generals were not men of great ability. McClellan the
commander drilled his army in a wonderful way, but never
used it to any effect. In the Virginian campaign of
eighteen sixty one. In eighteen sixty two, he threw away
numberless opportunities. His place was taken by Burnside at the
end of eighteen sixty two. But not until the rise
(04:34):
of Ulysses S. Grant did Lincoln discover a really great commander.
The generals quarreled with one another, and all were ready
to complain of the president. Lincoln's difficulties were increased by
the fact that many people, when they found that the
North was not going to conquer, immediately said that the
war was a mistake. The South ought to be allowed
(04:57):
to go if it wanted to. Did not think it
right to let the South go, And because to keep
it was proving difficult, was never to him a reason
for ceasing to do what he saw to be right.
The newspapers abused Lincoln because the war, instead of being
finished in three months, seemed likely to last for years.
(05:18):
For long, his own cabinet was hardly loyal to him.
Each member thought he could manage affairs better himself. Seward,
who was Chief secretary, thought Lincoln stupid and was anxious
to arrange everything. But as experience of his chief taught him,
he became Lincoln's devoted admirer. Chase, the treasurer, plotted against him. Stanton,
(05:41):
the war secretary, openly declared that quote things would go
all right but for the imbecile at the head unquote.
Stanton had no sense of humor and an ungovernable temper.
He did not understand Lincoln at all. For a long time,
his jokes puzzled and annoyed him, and he used to
jump up and down with rage. He did not see
(06:03):
that to a man of a deep melancholy nature like Lincoln,
a dreamer and something of a poet, some outlet, some
way of escaping from himself was necessary. Lincoln was marvelously
patient with Stanton and won his deep affection. The cabinet
might criticize, but Lincoln's firm will dominated them all. The
(06:24):
policy of the government was the President's policy. No quality
is so hard to appreciate until it succeeds as patients.
And for two years Lincoln was patient, and few understood.
England and France were inclined to recognize the Confederacy. The
English point of view was not one which reflected any
(06:47):
glory on the nation. Lord Palmerston said, we do not
like slavery, but we want cotton. And a poem in
Punch expressed the general point of view, against which only
a few Englishmen protested. Though with the North we sympathize,
it must not be forgotten that with the South we've
(07:07):
stronger ties, which are composed of cotton. Where of our
imports mount unto a sum of many figures, and where
would be our calico but for the toil of niggers.
France agreed with England. Under such circumstances there was a
great danger that, unless the North proved itself able to
(07:27):
cope with the rebellion, England or France might send help
to the Confederates. For two years, the North did not
prove this. For two years, it seemed, except to the
very far seeing, almost certain that the South would win
the Northern plan of campaign was to attack and close
round the Confederacy. To do this, it was necessary to
(07:51):
cross the Potomac River and clear away the Southern armies
that blockaded it. The Potomac was the center of operations.
While lighting went on constantly in Virginia and Missouri, everything
went against the North. On the ninth of August, a
desperate encounter took place at Wilson's Creek, at which the
(08:12):
Union army lost nearly two thousand men, including prisoners and
large supplies of arms and ammunition. In September, the Confederates
won a victory at Lexington, and in October the Federal
troops were defeated at Ball's Bluff. Lincoln's plan was gradually
to shut the South in, driving it behind its own
(08:34):
boundaries by means of the armies invading from north and
west and blockading the ports from the sea. So far,
the first half of the plan was not successful, but
the Civil War was won to a very large extent
by the Northern Navy. By blockading the Southern ports, it
prevented the South from getting supplies from Europe, and since
(08:56):
the South depended for supplies of every sort from it
was in a desperate position when cut off from the sea.
More fortunate on sea than on land, Lincoln found in
David Farragut, an admiral almost as great as Nelson. Farragut
was a Southerner by birth, but he had served for
fifty years in the United States Navy and refused to
(09:19):
desert it now. Patriotism to him meant devotion not to
the pride, but to the best interests of his country,
and he thought that North and South could only attain
their best interests when united. In April, the Northern Army
suffered a severe defeat on land at the Battle of Shiloh,
the most disastrous yet experienced. But the news was balanced
(09:42):
by the tidings of Farragut's capture of New Orleans. The
fighting in the harbor was tremendous. Don't flinch from that fire, boys,
cried the admiral. There is a hotter fire for those
who don't do their duty. Inspired by his example, his
men did not flinch, and the town was captured. The
(10:03):
North needed all the encouragement such naval victory could give it,
for things were going very badly. Stonewall Jackson, the Southern commander,
carried everything before him in Virginia. Washington was in danger.
There was a panic in the capitol. Jackson, however, did
not want to attack Washington. His plan was to compel McLellan,
(10:25):
who was slowly moving south to attack the Confederate capital
at Richmond, to turn north again. There was fighting all
through June. Jackson had been joined by Lee, the Confederate
commander in chief. On the first of July, a battle
was fought at Malvern Hill. Lee and Jackson were defeated.
McLellan ought now to have pushed on to Richmond, the
(10:48):
Confederate capital, instead of which, with extraordinary stupidity, he continued
to retreat. In August, the Second Battle of bull Run
resulted in another victory for the South. Both sides lost
an extraordinary number of men. The panic in Washington grew
more acute when early in September Lee prepared to invade Maryland.
(11:13):
Mc clellan again delayed when he ought to have forced
an engagement. The people of Maryland received the Southern army
very coldly. On the seventeenth the armies met at Antietam.
The battle was not really decisive. The losses of the
North were as great as those of the South, but
it put an end to their invasion. Lee recrossed the
(11:35):
Potomac River to Virginia. McLellan again wasted time. He waited
six weeks before pursuing Lee. In November, mc clellan was
at last superseded. Events had gradually led Lincoln to see
the necessity of taking one great step, the freeing of
the slaves. The question of slavery was at the bottom
(11:58):
of the war. It was the great division between North
and South. Two reasons led Lincoln to take this step now.
One was that he knew the Negroes, when free, would
fight for the most part for the North, and the
North needed every help she could find. The other was
the great difficulty of knowing what to do with the
(12:19):
Negro slaves which fell into the hands of the conquerors
of any part of southern territory. On the twenty second
of September, very soon after the news of the Battle
of Antietam and Lee's retreat from Maryland had arrived, Lincoln
called a meeting of his cabinet. None of them knew
why he had summoned them. They found the President reading
(12:41):
Artemis Ward. One story amused him so much that he
read it aloud. They all laughed a great deal, except Stanton,
who could never see a joke and did not understand
that Lincoln must have broken down altogether under the fearful
strain of all he had to bear, if he had
not been able sometimes to forget himself. When he had
(13:02):
finished reading the story, the president's face grew grave again.
He drew from his pocket a large sheet of foolscap
covered with his straight, regular writing, and read it to
the cabinet. It was the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that
after January first of the coming year, all slaves were
(13:25):
to be free, that government would pay some compensation to
loyal owners. No one dared oppose Lincoln when his mind
was made up. His reason for introducing emancipation now was
that he thought it would help the cause of union,
and that cause was to him sacred beyond everything, as
long as I am president, he said later, this war
(13:47):
shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring
the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion
without the use of the emancipation policy. His first object
in everything to hold the American nation together as one whole.
But at the same time he detested slavery as much
as any man quote. If slavery is not wrong, nothing
(14:12):
is wrong. End of quote. An opportunity had now come
when to strike a blow at slavery was to assist
the Union cause. By freeing the blacks, Lincoln provided the
North with a new resource at the time when the
South had nowhere to turn for fresh resources. By declaring
the abolition of slavery an unchangeable part of the Union
(14:35):
which the South must accept before peace could be made,
he won the sympathy of Europe for the North and
prevented it from sending help to the South at a
time when such help would have changed the balance of affairs.
Up till now, both England and France had shown themselves
ready to sympathize with the South. English newspapers abused Lincoln
(14:59):
and the Norse in the most violent language. In the
English stockyards, vessels had been built and equipped which were
used by the South as privateers to do great damage
to the Northern navy. One of these was the famous Alabama.
But when the war was a war against slavery, English
feeling was all on the side of the North. The
(15:22):
United States was made a really free country. Slavery, which
had made such a name a mockery was wiped off
the statute book. Lincoln showed rare judgment and courage in
doing what he did at this time. At first a
large section in the North was opposed to emancipation, but
gradually all united in admiring the wisdom of Lincoln's action.
(15:45):
The South knew that if they were conquered, slavery was gone,
and however black things might look, Lincoln and the North
were not going to give in till they did conquer.
They had set their teeth. They were going to fight
to the bitter end. McLellan had been dismissed, but his
successes were not much more successful. In December, Burnside threw
(16:09):
away thousands of lives in an attempt to scale Mary's Heights.
Men were shot down in heaps by the enemy, and
the army fell into a panic. A battle against overwhelming
odds ended in a complete defeat. Lincoln's heart bled for
the loss of so many splendid citizens. There was deep
(16:29):
indignation in Washington, much of it vented against the president.
The darkest moment of the war came when in May
the news of the Battle of Chancellorsville reached the government.
Hooker met Jackson. A long and fearfully bloody battle followed.
There were dreadful losses on both sides. Another valuable opportunity
(16:52):
of pressing South was lost in the Battle Stonewall. Jackson
was killed shot accidentally by his own men, a disastrous
loss to the southern side. Though the North was defeated,
all hope seemed gone from the North. Up till now,
the North had lost more than the South. It had
(17:13):
suffered most of all from a lack of really able commanders. Now, however,
Lincoln discovered a really great general in Ulysses S. Grant,
and from this time on the fortune of the war
began to change. The North was richer, It had more men, money,
and resources to draw on in a long struggle. The
(17:35):
South was bound to be worn out. Grant saw this
and planned accordingly. Grant had distinguished himself early in the
war by the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson
on the Mississippi in February eighteen sixty two. In the
following April, he had driven the Confederates back to Corinth
after one of the most expensive battles of the war.
(17:58):
Grant was a man of the most wreckless personal courage,
as a general. His great fault was that he exposed
his men needlessly. Complaints were early made of him to Lincoln,
But Lincoln's wonderful eye discerned a great soldier in Grant. Quote,
I can't spare that man he fights end of quote.
(18:20):
Later he was told that Grant drank. Quote, Pray, tell
me what brand of whiskey he takes. That I may
send a barrel to each of my other generals. End
of quote. Lincoln and Grant always understood each other. Each
was a man of intense strength of character, given to
do things rather than talking of them. Grant had not
(18:42):
Lincoln's tenderness of heart or the beauty of his pure
and generous nature, but he had his power of concentrating
his whole mind upon the task in hand. He knew
Lincoln's secret work, work is the main thing. The Battle
of Chanceleyville May eighteen sixty three was, for the North
(19:03):
the darkest moment of the war. Things were never so
dark again. Only Lincoln's supreme faith and courage could have
risen from such a series of defeats unshaken. The newspapers
were full of abuse of the President. Plots were on
foot against him to prevent his re election. When the
time came in February. He had lost his son Willie
(19:27):
after a long and painful illness, but he never quailed,
and his patience was at last to be rewarded. After Chancellorsville,
his unflinching belief in the justice of his course, in
spite of opposition and discontent, was to be rewarded. He
was to look, if only for a moment, upon an
(19:47):
America not only free but united and of Chapter seven.
Recording by John Leader, Bloomington, Illinois,
Chapter seven of the Story of Abraham Lincoln. This is
a librivoxy courting. All librivoxy courtings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by John Leader. The Story of Abraham Lincoln by
Mary A. Hamilton, Chapter seven. The war war began in Virginia.
(00:27):
West Virginia was free East Virginia slave holding. The state
was the natural meeting place for the two armies. On
the twenty first July, they met at bull Run. The
engagement could hardly be called a battle. On neither side
was there any order or discipline. More than once during
the day. The Southern army seemed to be beaten, but
(00:50):
it rallied, and the Federalists, as the Union soldiers were called,
broke into a disgraceful retreat, which became an awful panic.
The fugitives poured into Washington, haggard and dustained. Everything seemed
to be lost. Lincoln did not go to bed all night.
He paced up and down in his room, expecting that
(01:11):
the victorious Confederate army would march upon Washington and the
war be at an end. It did not come. The
opportunity was lost a battle had been gained, that was all.
The moral effect of the Battle of bull Run was
very great. Indeed, the South thought the war was over.
The North saw that it had only begun. At first,
(01:35):
the Confederate seemed to have great advantages. The army was
the one profession for a Southern gentleman. Nearly all their
young men were trained at the Military Academy at West Point,
and a great many of the officers of the United
States Army had been Southerners. These men now left the
Union Army and gave their services to the Confederates. Among
(01:57):
them was General Robert Lee, who became General in chief
of the Confederate Army. Lincoln's difficulties were greatly increased by
the fact that so many officers and men went over
to the Confederates. At the beginning, the South had a
larger and better trained army in the field, and at
first there were plenty of volunteers. But after bull Run,
(02:19):
she thought the war was finished, and events proved that
in a long war the North must win by reason
of her greater staying power. The South was as enthusiastic
as the North, and at the beginning better prepared, but
not equal in resources. Of any sort. The South was
entirely dependent on agriculture. All the necessaries of life came
(02:43):
from the North and from Europe. Whereas the South had
to import all her ammunition, the North had powder magazines
of her own and a people of mechanics, and the
confederacy was soon defined that men are useless without arms.
Great sufferings were endured, wonderful inventions and patience was shown
on both sides. There was great heroism, but in the
(03:06):
end the resources of the North decided the day. Lincoln
threw all his energy into the task of getting ready
an army, and in a short time the Northern soldier
was as well trained and equipped as the southern. The
Battle of bull Run roused the North. Quickened by shame.
The people were ready to fight to the bitter end.
(03:28):
For the next two years, however, they were disheartened by
continual disaster. Army after army was destroyed, position after position lost.
Gloom descended on the nation. In the dark times of defeat,
men turned upon Lincoln and blamed him. His position was difficult. Indeed,
(03:48):
as head of the state, he was also commander of
the army, but he had to entrust the actual management
of the campaigns to others. He followed and understood their tactics,
but was too wise to try to direct their movements.
Only occasionally did he offer advice, wise advice which his
generals were not always wise enough to accept. At first,
(04:11):
the generals were not men of great ability. McClellan the
commander drilled his army in a wonderful way, but never
used it to any effect. In the Virginian campaign of
eighteen sixty one. In eighteen sixty two, he threw away
numberless opportunities. His place was taken by Burnside at the
end of eighteen sixty two. But not until the rise
(04:34):
of Ulysses S. Grant did Lincoln discover a really great commander.
The generals quarreled with one another, and all were ready
to complain of the president. Lincoln's difficulties were increased by
the fact that many people, when they found that the
North was not going to conquer, immediately said that the
war was a mistake. The South ought to be allowed
(04:57):
to go if it wanted to. Did not think it
right to let the South go, And because to keep
it was proving difficult, was never to him a reason
for ceasing to do what he saw to be right.
The newspapers abused Lincoln because the war, instead of being
finished in three months, seemed likely to last for years.
(05:18):
For long, his own cabinet was hardly loyal to him.
Each member thought he could manage affairs better himself. Seward,
who was Chief secretary, thought Lincoln stupid and was anxious
to arrange everything. But as experience of his chief taught him,
he became Lincoln's devoted admirer. Chase, the treasurer, plotted against him. Stanton,
(05:41):
the war secretary, openly declared that quote things would go
all right but for the imbecile at the head unquote.
Stanton had no sense of humor and an ungovernable temper.
He did not understand Lincoln at all. For a long time,
his jokes puzzled and annoyed him, and he used to
jump up and down with rage. He did not see
(06:03):
that to a man of a deep melancholy nature like Lincoln,
a dreamer and something of a poet, some outlet, some
way of escaping from himself was necessary. Lincoln was marvelously
patient with Stanton and won his deep affection. The cabinet
might criticize, but Lincoln's firm will dominated them all. The
(06:24):
policy of the government was the President's policy. No quality
is so hard to appreciate until it succeeds as patients.
And for two years Lincoln was patient, and few understood.
England and France were inclined to recognize the Confederacy. The
English point of view was not one which reflected any
(06:47):
glory on the nation. Lord Palmerston said, we do not
like slavery, but we want cotton. And a poem in
Punch expressed the general point of view, against which only
a few Englishmen protested. Though with the North we sympathize,
it must not be forgotten that with the South we've
(07:07):
stronger ties, which are composed of cotton. Where of our
imports mount unto a sum of many figures, and where
would be our calico but for the toil of niggers.
France agreed with England. Under such circumstances there was a
great danger that, unless the North proved itself able to
(07:27):
cope with the rebellion, England or France might send help
to the Confederates. For two years, the North did not
prove this. For two years, it seemed, except to the
very far seeing, almost certain that the South would win
the Northern plan of campaign was to attack and close
round the Confederacy. To do this, it was necessary to
(07:51):
cross the Potomac River and clear away the Southern armies
that blockaded it. The Potomac was the center of operations.
While lighting went on constantly in Virginia and Missouri, everything
went against the North. On the ninth of August, a
desperate encounter took place at Wilson's Creek, at which the
(08:12):
Union army lost nearly two thousand men, including prisoners and
large supplies of arms and ammunition. In September, the Confederates
won a victory at Lexington, and in October the Federal
troops were defeated at Ball's Bluff. Lincoln's plan was gradually
to shut the South in, driving it behind its own
(08:34):
boundaries by means of the armies invading from north and
west and blockading the ports from the sea. So far,
the first half of the plan was not successful, but
the Civil War was won to a very large extent
by the Northern Navy. By blockading the Southern ports, it
prevented the South from getting supplies from Europe, and since
(08:56):
the South depended for supplies of every sort from it
was in a desperate position when cut off from the sea.
More fortunate on sea than on land, Lincoln found in
David Farragut, an admiral almost as great as Nelson. Farragut
was a Southerner by birth, but he had served for
fifty years in the United States Navy and refused to
(09:19):
desert it now. Patriotism to him meant devotion not to
the pride, but to the best interests of his country,
and he thought that North and South could only attain
their best interests when united. In April, the Northern Army
suffered a severe defeat on land at the Battle of Shiloh,
the most disastrous yet experienced. But the news was balanced
(09:42):
by the tidings of Farragut's capture of New Orleans. The
fighting in the harbor was tremendous. Don't flinch from that fire, boys,
cried the admiral. There is a hotter fire for those
who don't do their duty. Inspired by his example, his
men did not flinch, and the town was captured. The
(10:03):
North needed all the encouragement such naval victory could give it,
for things were going very badly. Stonewall Jackson, the Southern commander,
carried everything before him in Virginia. Washington was in danger.
There was a panic in the capitol. Jackson, however, did
not want to attack Washington. His plan was to compel McLellan,
(10:25):
who was slowly moving south to attack the Confederate capital
at Richmond, to turn north again. There was fighting all
through June. Jackson had been joined by Lee, the Confederate
commander in chief. On the first of July, a battle
was fought at Malvern Hill. Lee and Jackson were defeated.
McLellan ought now to have pushed on to Richmond, the
(10:48):
Confederate capital, instead of which, with extraordinary stupidity, he continued
to retreat. In August, the Second Battle of bull Run
resulted in another victory for the South. Both sides lost
an extraordinary number of men. The panic in Washington grew
more acute when early in September Lee prepared to invade Maryland.
(11:13):
Mc clellan again delayed when he ought to have forced
an engagement. The people of Maryland received the Southern army
very coldly. On the seventeenth the armies met at Antietam.
The battle was not really decisive. The losses of the
North were as great as those of the South, but
it put an end to their invasion. Lee recrossed the
(11:35):
Potomac River to Virginia. McLellan again wasted time. He waited
six weeks before pursuing Lee. In November, mc clellan was
at last superseded. Events had gradually led Lincoln to see
the necessity of taking one great step, the freeing of
the slaves. The question of slavery was at the bottom
(11:58):
of the war. It was the great division between North
and South. Two reasons led Lincoln to take this step now.
One was that he knew the Negroes, when free, would
fight for the most part for the North, and the
North needed every help she could find. The other was
the great difficulty of knowing what to do with the
(12:19):
Negro slaves which fell into the hands of the conquerors
of any part of southern territory. On the twenty second
of September, very soon after the news of the Battle
of Antietam and Lee's retreat from Maryland had arrived, Lincoln
called a meeting of his cabinet. None of them knew
why he had summoned them. They found the President reading
(12:41):
Artemis Ward. One story amused him so much that he
read it aloud. They all laughed a great deal, except Stanton,
who could never see a joke and did not understand
that Lincoln must have broken down altogether under the fearful
strain of all he had to bear, if he had
not been able sometimes to forget himself. When he had
(13:02):
finished reading the story, the president's face grew grave again.
He drew from his pocket a large sheet of foolscap
covered with his straight, regular writing, and read it to
the cabinet. It was the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that
after January first of the coming year, all slaves were
(13:25):
to be free, that government would pay some compensation to
loyal owners. No one dared oppose Lincoln when his mind
was made up. His reason for introducing emancipation now was
that he thought it would help the cause of union,
and that cause was to him sacred beyond everything, as
long as I am president, he said later, this war
(13:47):
shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring
the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion
without the use of the emancipation policy. His first object
in everything to hold the American nation together as one whole.
But at the same time he detested slavery as much
as any man quote. If slavery is not wrong, nothing
(14:12):
is wrong. End of quote. An opportunity had now come
when to strike a blow at slavery was to assist
the Union cause. By freeing the blacks, Lincoln provided the
North with a new resource at the time when the
South had nowhere to turn for fresh resources. By declaring
the abolition of slavery an unchangeable part of the Union
(14:35):
which the South must accept before peace could be made,
he won the sympathy of Europe for the North and
prevented it from sending help to the South at a
time when such help would have changed the balance of affairs.
Up till now, both England and France had shown themselves
ready to sympathize with the South. English newspapers abused Lincoln
(14:59):
and the Norse in the most violent language. In the
English stockyards, vessels had been built and equipped which were
used by the South as privateers to do great damage
to the Northern navy. One of these was the famous Alabama.
But when the war was a war against slavery, English
feeling was all on the side of the North. The
(15:22):
United States was made a really free country. Slavery, which
had made such a name a mockery was wiped off
the statute book. Lincoln showed rare judgment and courage in
doing what he did at this time. At first a
large section in the North was opposed to emancipation, but
gradually all united in admiring the wisdom of Lincoln's action.
(15:45):
The South knew that if they were conquered, slavery was gone,
and however black things might look, Lincoln and the North
were not going to give in till they did conquer.
They had set their teeth. They were going to fight
to the bitter end. McLellan had been dismissed, but his
successes were not much more successful. In December, Burnside threw
(16:09):
away thousands of lives in an attempt to scale Mary's Heights.
Men were shot down in heaps by the enemy, and
the army fell into a panic. A battle against overwhelming
odds ended in a complete defeat. Lincoln's heart bled for
the loss of so many splendid citizens. There was deep
(16:29):
indignation in Washington, much of it vented against the president.
The darkest moment of the war came when in May
the news of the Battle of Chancellorsville reached the government.
Hooker met Jackson. A long and fearfully bloody battle followed.
There were dreadful losses on both sides. Another valuable opportunity
(16:52):
of pressing South was lost in the Battle Stonewall. Jackson
was killed shot accidentally by his own men, a disastrous
loss to the southern side. Though the North was defeated,
all hope seemed gone from the North. Up till now,
the North had lost more than the South. It had
(17:13):
suffered most of all from a lack of really able commanders. Now, however,
Lincoln discovered a really great general in Ulysses S. Grant,
and from this time on the fortune of the war
began to change. The North was richer, It had more men, money,
and resources to draw on in a long struggle. The
(17:35):
South was bound to be worn out. Grant saw this
and planned accordingly. Grant had distinguished himself early in the
war by the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson
on the Mississippi in February eighteen sixty two. In the
following April, he had driven the Confederates back to Corinth
after one of the most expensive battles of the war.
(17:58):
Grant was a man of the most wreckless personal courage,
as a general. His great fault was that he exposed
his men needlessly. Complaints were early made of him to Lincoln,
But Lincoln's wonderful eye discerned a great soldier in Grant. Quote,
I can't spare that man he fights end of quote.
(18:20):
Later he was told that Grant drank. Quote, Pray, tell
me what brand of whiskey he takes. That I may
send a barrel to each of my other generals. End
of quote. Lincoln and Grant always understood each other. Each
was a man of intense strength of character, given to
do things rather than talking of them. Grant had not
(18:42):
Lincoln's tenderness of heart or the beauty of his pure
and generous nature, but he had his power of concentrating
his whole mind upon the task in hand. He knew
Lincoln's secret work, work is the main thing. The Battle
of Chanceleyville May eighteen sixty three was, for the North
(19:03):
the darkest moment of the war. Things were never so
dark again. Only Lincoln's supreme faith and courage could have
risen from such a series of defeats unshaken. The newspapers
were full of abuse of the President. Plots were on
foot against him to prevent his re election. When the
time came in February. He had lost his son Willie
(19:27):
after a long and painful illness, but he never quailed,
and his patience was at last to be rewarded. After Chancellorsville,
his unflinching belief in the justice of his course, in
spite of opposition and discontent, was to be rewarded. He
was to look, if only for a moment, upon an
(19:47):
America not only free but united and of Chapter seven.
Recording by John Leader, Bloomington, Illinois,
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