Like the Negro, Mr. Lincoln was born in a hovel. He had to labor incessantly for his daily bread. His educational advantages were the poorest. He had scarcely a year's schooling. He was deprived of books. The Bible, "Pilgrim's Progress," "Life of Washington," "Robinson Crusoe" and "Esop's Fables" were the books to which he owed most. His early narrow escapes showed that he was a providential man. With all this, Mr. Lincoln's religious sense was deep and pervading. The very biography of Mr. Lincoln's struggles for bread, for clothes, for money and for "a little learning" reads so much like the story of some Negro battling against adversity. Had Mr. Lincoln been a member of the Negro race it is doubtful if he would have outstripped Frederick Douglass in the race of life. May it not be stated that the two typical Americans are Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass?

Mr. Lincoln was noted for his great common sense and for his political sagacity. Senator Hoar thinks that with all his great and grand qualities, Mr. Lincoln was a born politician and was even a perpetual wire-puller; that it was by his great shrewdness that he secured the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, kept the border States from going out of the Union, and held back the antislavery sentiment of the North until the time was ripe to strike the blow for his Emancipation Proclamation. There is no doubt of the fact that Mr. Lincoln had great political sagacity and an abundance of common sense. He knew what to do next and when to do it. Some people believe or affect to believe that Mr. Lincoln was not ardently earnest and sincere in the desire to free the slaves. Indeed, they seem to believe that he was indifferent upon this point; that his only desire was to

save the Union. I cannot think so. As a great statesman and "student of the slow processes of the great mills of God," he abided God's time with the profoundest and most reverent faith. As he had expressed his belief that this nation could not long exist half slave and half free, with this conviction, he undoubtedly felt that in the course of events the great Ruler in the affairs of nations would accomplish the freedom of the American slaves.

PERSONAL

RECOLLECTIONS

LINCOLN.

OF ABRAHAM

BY HENRY W. KNIGHT.

My first recollection of Mr. Lincoln was at the review of the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1863, just preceding the battle of Chancellorsville. This noble army had been in winter quarters since the fatal affair under Burnside at Fredericksburg, and Gen. Joseph Hooker was now Commander-in-Chief. Our forces were never in better condition than at this time. Three corps of the army-the Sixth, commanded by Gen. John Sedgwick of Connecticut, "Uncle John," as he was familiarly called by his corps; the Third, commanded by General Sickles; and the Second, under command of General Hancock were drawn up in one grand line,

and numbered fully 5000 men.

I had the honor of belonging to the Sixth Corps. As Mr. Lincoln approached to review our corps I had a fine opportunity of seeing him. He rode, in a very awkward manner, a magnificent black horse, was dressed in a suit of plain black clothes, with a much-worn black silk hat. His pale, sad face, in strong contrast to his dark apparel, certainly looked singularly out of place by the side of bluff Joe Hooker, whose florid countenance, splendid uniform and beautiful white horse, fairly glittered by the side of the plain man who rode at his right hand.

In the campaign of 1864 I became disabled, and was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. This body of men was composed of wounded and disabled soldiers -too much disabled to stand active service, and yet good for garrison and guard duty. I was assigned to duty at Washington. I was placed in charge of the guard at the War Department, and here it was that I frequently saw Mr. Lincoln. His favorite time for visiting the War Department was between eleven and twelve at night, and when there was no one in the building but the telegraph operator and his two or three messengers and the guard in charge of the building. We were all quite sure of one thing - the harder it rained or the fiercer the winds blew, the more certainly would he come; for he seemed to love to go out in the elements, and to commune with Nature in her wildest moods. I seem to see him now, as his tall, ungainly form wrapped in an old gray shawl, wearing usually a "shockingly bad hat," and carrying a worse umbrella he came up the steps into the building. Secretary Stanton, who knew Mr. Lincoln's midnight habits, gave a standing order that, although Mr. Lincoln might come from the White House alone (and he seldom came in any other way), he should never be permitted to return alone, but should be escorted by a file of four soldiers and a noncommissioned officer. I was on duty every other night. When Mr. Lincoln was ready to return we would take up a position near him, and accompany him safely to the White House. I presume I performed this duty fifty times. On the way to the White House, Mr. Lincoln would converse with us on various topics. I remember one night when it was raining very hard that he came over, and about one o'clock he started back. As he saw

us at the door, ready to escort him, he addressed us in these words: "Don't come out in this storm with me to-night, boys; I have my umbrella, and can get home safely without you." "But," I replied, "Mr. President, we have positive orders from Mr. Stanton not to allow you to return alone; and you know we dare not disobey his orders." "No," replied Mr. Lincoln, "I suppose not; for if Stanton should learn that you had let me return alone, he would have you court-martialed and shot inside of twenty-four hours." I recollect another very pleasing incident that took place in the same building. Those who may have been in the old War Department may remember that there were two short flights of stairs which had to be ascended in order to reach the second floor. At the head of the first flight was a platform or landing, and here the non-commissioned officer in charge of the guard had a desk and chair. Mr. Lincoln had to pass me whenever he came up these stairs, and as he did so I always arose, and, taking off my hat, remained standing till he passed. The taking-off of the hat was a mark of personal respect simply, for no soldier on duty, under any circumstances, is required to raise his hat. On one occasion, Mr. Lincoln, who always had a pleasant "Good-evening," and sometimes stopped to pass a word or two, hesitated on this landing, and, looking at the wall, where hung a pair of axes to be used in case of fire, asked what they were there for. I replied that they were to be used in case of fire. "Well, now,” said he, "I wonder if I could lift one of those axes up by the end of the handle?" and, suiting the action to the word, he took one down, and, laying the heavy end on the floor, he commenced raising it till he held it out at arm's length, and kept it there several seconds. "I