there was of course more active sympathy with the
South, and in conflict with this the Radicalism of some of these States
became more stalwart and intractable. To such causes of dissension was
added as time went on sheer fatigue of the war, and strangely enough
this influence was as powerful with a few Radicals as it was with the
ingrained Democratic partisans. They despaired of the result when
success at last was imminent, and became sick of bloodshed when it
passed what they presumably regarded as a reasonable amount.

It was the task of the Administration not only to conduct the war, but
to preserve the unity of the North in spite of differences and its
resolution in spite of disappointments. Lincoln was in more than one
way well fitted for this task. Old experience in Illinois and Kentucky
enabled him to understand very different points of view in regard to
the cause of the South. The new question that was now to arise about
slavery was but a particular form of the larger question of principle
to which he had long thought out an answer as firm and as definite as
it was moderate and in a sense subtle. He had, moreover, a quality of
heart which, as it seemed to those near him, the protraction of the
conflict, with its necessary strain upon him, only strengthened. In
him a tenacity, which scarcely could falter in the cause which he
judged to be right, was not merely pure from bitterness towards his
antagonists, it was actually bound up with a deep-seated kindliness
towards them. Whatever rank may be assigned to his services and to his
deserts, it is first and foremost in these directions, though not in
these directions alone, that the reader of his story must look for
them. Upon attentive study he will probably appear as the embodiment,
in a degree and manner which are alike rare, of the more constant and
the higher judgment of his people. It is plainer still that he
embodied the resolute purpose which underlay the fluctuations upon the
surface of their political life. The English military historians, Wood
and Edmonds, in their retrospect over the course of the war, well sum
up its dramatic aspect when they say: "Against the great military
genius of certain of the Southern leaders fate opposed the unbroken
resolution and passionate devotion to the Union, which he worshipped,
of the great Northern President. As long as he lived, and ruled the
people of the North, there could be no turning back."

There are