fter such a
send off, by the President and by Congress, in view of the character of
the State Legislatures, as well as the temper of the People, that the
requisite number of States would be secured to ratify the Thirteenth
Amendment. Already, on the 1st of February, that is to say, on the very
day of this popular demonstration at the Executive Mansion, the
President's own State, Illinois, had ratified it--and this circumstance
added to the satisfaction and happiness which beamed from, and almost
made beautiful, his homely face.

Other States quickly followed; Maryland, on February 1st and 3rd; Rhode
Island and Michigan, on February 2nd; New York, February 2nd and 3rd;
West Virginia, February 3rd; Maine and Kansas, February 7th;
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, February 8th; Virginia, February 9th;
Ohio and Missouri, February 10th; Nevada and Indiana, February 16th;
Louisiana, February 17th; Minnesota, February 8th and 23rd; Wisconsin,
March 1st; Vermont, March 9th; Tennessee, April 5th and 7th; Arkansas,
April 20th; Connecticut, May 5th; New Hampshire, July 1st; South
Carolina, November 13th; Alabama, December 2nd; North Carolina, December
4th; Georgia, December 9th; Oregon, December 11th; California, December
20th; and Florida, December 28th;--all in 1865; with New Jersey, closely
following, on January 23rd; and Iowa, January 24th;--in 1866.

Long ere this last date, however, the Secretary of State (Mr. Seward)
had been able to, and did, announce (November 18, 1865) the ratification
of the Amendment by the requisite number of States, and certified that
the same had "become, to all intents and purposes, valid as a part of
the Constitution of the United States."

Not until then, was "the job" absolutely ended; but, as has been already
mentioned, it was, at the time Mr. Lincoln spoke, as good as ended. It
was a foregone conclusion, that the great end for which he, and so many
other great and good men of the Republic had for so many years been
earnestly striving, would be an accomplished fact. They had not failed;
they had stood firm; the victory which he had predicted six years before
had come!

[He had said in his Springfield speech, of 1858: "We
shall not fail; if we stand firm we shall not fail; wise counsels
may accelerate, or mistakes delay, but sooner or later the Victory
is sure to come."]

CHAPTER XXIX.

LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAT