y it in our foreign relations, none in our
home popular sentiment, none in our white military force, no loss
by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite
a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These
are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no
cavilling. We have the men; and as we could not have had them
without the measure.

And now let any Union man who complains of the measure, test
himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the
rebellion by force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking
three hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and
placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns.
If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot
face the truth.

I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have
controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled
me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's
condition is not what either party or any man devised or expected.
God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God
now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of
the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our
complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new
causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN

CHAPTER XXII

President and People--Society at the White House in 1862-3--The
President's Informal Receptions--A Variety of
Callers--Characteristic Traits of Lincoln--His Ability to Say _No_
when Necessary--Would not Countenance Injustice--Good Sense and
Tact in Settling Quarrels--His Shrewd Knowledge of Men--Getting Rid
of Bores--Loyalty to his Friends--Views of his Own
Position--"Attorney for the People"--Desire that they Should
Understand him--His Practical Kindness--A Badly Scared
Petitioner--Telling a Story to Relieve Bad News--A Breaking Heart
beneath the Smiles--His Deeply Religious Nature--The Changes
Wrought by Grief.

In a work which is not intended to cover fully the events of a great
historic period, but rather to trace out the life of a single individual
connected with that period, much must be included which, although not
possessing special hist