Download lincoln - Park University

Name: ________________________________ Date: __________________
LINCOLN
A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY
By Russell Freedman
Chapter 5: pp 67-92
1. On Inauguration Day—March 4, 1861—
1. __________
Washington looked like an armed camp.
2.Cavalry and artillery had been clattering through
2. __________
the streets all morning. 3.Troops were
3. __________
everywhere. 4. Rumors of assassination plots, of
4. __________
Southern plans to seize the capital and prevent the
inauguration, had put the army on the alert.
5. Shortly after noon, the carriage bearing
5. __________
President James Buchanan and President-elect
Abraham Lincoln bounced over the cobblestones
of Pennsylvania Avenue, heading for Capitol Hill.
Infantrymen lined the parade route. 6. Army
6. _________
sharpshooters crouched on nearby rooftops.
7. Soldiers surrounded the Capitol building, and
7. _________
plainclothes detectives mingled with the crowds.
8. On a hill overlooking the Capitol, artillerymen
1
8. _________
manned a line of howitzers and watched for
trouble.
9. A long covered passageway had been
9. _________
built to protect the presidential party on its way to
the speaker’s platform in front of the Capitol.
10. More than three hundred dignitaries crowded
10. _________
the platform, waiting to witness the swearing-in
ceremony. 11. Among them was Stephen Douglas,
11. _________
who had pledged to support the new
administration.
12. Lincoln was visibly nervous. 13. He
12. _________
was wearing a new black suit and sporting a neatly
13. _________
clipped beard. 14. He held his silk stovepipe hat in
14. _________
one hand, a gold-headed cane in the other. 15. He
15. _________
put the cane in a corner, then looked around, trying
to find a place for the hat. 16. Stephen Douglas
16. _________
smiled and took the hat from him.
17. Lincoln unrolled the manuscript of his
inaugural address. 18. He put on his steel-rimmed
spectacles and faced the sunlit crowd below.
2
17. _________
18. _________
19. Thousands of people jammed the board square
19. ____________
in front of the Capitol, waiting to hear the new
president speak.
20. Four months had passed since Lincoln’s
election in November. 21. During That time,
20. ____________
21. ____________
seven Southern states had left the Union, and four
more were about to join them. 22. In February,
22. ____________
Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi had been
sworn in as president of the Confederate States of
America. 23. Now, with the Union collapsing, the
23. ____________
defiant South was preparing for war.
24. Congressional leaders had tried to find a
24. ____________
compromise plan that would hold the Union
together. 25. But the Southerners would not budge
25. ____________
from their demands. 26. They wanted slavery to
26. ____________
be guaranteed not only in the South, but wherever
else it might spread—to the western territories, and
perhaps even to Central America and the
Caribbean. 27. By the time Lincoln left
Springfield for Washington on the eve of his
3
27. ____________
fifty-second birthday, all attempts at compromise
had failed.
28. He traveled east on a special presidential
28. ____________
train, stopping at dozens of cities, towns, and
villages along the route. 29. Thousands of
29. ____________
Americans had a chance to see and hear their
elected leader for the first time. 30. “Last night I
30. ____________
saw the new president,” one man reported.
31. “He is a clever man, and not so bad looking as
31. ____________
they say, while he is not great beauty. 32. He is
32. ____________
tall…has a commanding figure bows pretty well, is
not stiff, has a pleasant face, is amiable and
determined.”
33. At Philadelphia, the presidential train
33. ____________
was met by detectives who had uncovered
evidence of an assassination plot, a plan to murder
Lincoln as he traveled through Baltimore the next
day. 34. He was persuaded to switch trains and
34. ____________
travel secretly through the night to Washington,
accompanied by armed guards. 35. When his
4
35. ____________
night train passed through Baltimore at 3:30 A.M.,
Lincoln was safely hidden in a sleeping berth.
36. He arrived in Washington at dawn, unnoticed
36. ____________
and unannounced.
37. Word of Lincoln’s secret night ride
spread fast. 38. Opposition newspapers ridiculed
37. ____________
38. ____________
the president-elect, calling his escape from
Baltimore “the flight of Abraham.” 39. The abuse
39. ____________
became nasty. 40. Hostile editors and politicians
40. ____________
snickered at “this backwoods President” and his
“boorish” wife. 41. They taunted Lincoln as a hick
41. ____________
with a high-pitched voice and a Kentucky twang,
an ugly “gorilla” and “baboon.” 42. Lincoln
42. ____________
shrugged off the insults as a hazard of his job, but
Mary was mortified.
43. He was still living under this cloud when
43. ____________
he stood in front of the Capitol on Inauguration
Day, ready to take his oath of office as the
sixteenth president of the United States. 44. In his
speech, he appealed to the people of the South,
5
44. ____________
assuring them again that he would not tamper with
slavery in their states:
45. “In your hands, my dissatisfied
45. ____________
countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous
issue of civil war. 46. The government will not
46. ____________
assail you. 47. You can have no conflict, without
47. ____________
being yourselves the aggressors. 48. You have no
48. ____________
oath registered in Heaven to destroy the
government, while I shall have the most solemn
one to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ it.”
49. Lincoln wanted to believe that the Union
49. ____________
could be saved without bloodshed. 50. But that
50. ____________
hope was about to vanish. 51. Less than two
51. ____________
weeks after his inauguration, he faced his first
crisis. 52. Fort Sumter, at the entrance to
52. ____________
Charleston harbor in South Carolina still flew the
Union flag. 53. The state’s governor was
53. ____________
demanding that the fort be given up.
54. On March 15, Lincoln learned that
54. ____________
Sumter was running out of supplies. 55. While the
55. ____________
6
fort was not of great military value, the president
had pledged to defend federal property in the
South. 56. Sumter had become a symbol of
56. ____________
Northern determination, and Lincoln had to make a
decision. 57. If he sent supplies, he risked and
57. ____________
armed attack and war. 58. If he didn’t, the fort
58. ____________
could not hold out for long.
59. He consulted with his military staff and
59. ____________
members of his cabinet, but they could not agree
on what should be done. 60. Lincoln himself was
60. ____________
uncertain. 61. All the troubles and anxieties of his
61. ____________
life, he later said, were nothing compared to the
weeks that followed.
62. Finally the president acted. 63. On April
6 he notified the South Carolina governor that a
62. ____________
63. ____________
supply fleet was about to sail for Charleston.
64. As the Union ships approached the city on the
64. ____________
morning of April 12, rebel cannons ringing the
harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter.
65.The American Civil War had begun.
7
65. ____________
66. On April 14, Lincoln heard that the fort
66. ____________
had surrendered after a blistering thirty-six-hour
bombardment. 67. That day he issued a
67. ____________
proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers for
enlistments of ninety days, which seemed long
enough. 68. Surely the rebellion would be put
68. ____________
down by then.
69. Stephen Douglas called at the White
House and again offered his support. 70. Despite
69. ____________
70. ____________
his disagreements with Lincoln, he wanted to
preserve the Union. 71. Then Douglas left for
71. ____________
Illinois to denounce the rebels and rally Northern
Democrats to the Union cause. 72. A month later
72. ____________
he was dead of typhoid fever at the age of fortyeight.
73. ____________
73. The North mobilized. 74. Troops poured
74. ____________
into Washington, ready to defend the capital.
75. Across the Potomac River, Virginia had joined
75. ____________
the Confederacy. 76. From his office windows,
76. ____________
Lincoln could see rebel flags flying over buildings
8
in Alexandria, Virginia.
77. Everyone in Washington believed that
the war would end quickly. 78. The North claimed
77. ____________
78. ____________
the loyalty of twenty-three states with a population
of 22 million. 79. The eleven states of the
79. ____________
Confederacy had about 9 million people, and
nearly 4 million of them factories to produce
ammunition and guns, a network of railroads to
transport troops, and a powerful navy that could
blockade Southern ports.
80. But if the North had most of the industry
80. ____________
and population, the South held a monopoly on
military talent. 81. Jefferson Davis, the
81. ____________
Confederate president, was a professional soldier.
82. And Southerners make up a high proportion of
82. ____________
the country’s skilled military commanders.
83. Lincoln’s biggest headache during the early
83. ____________
years of the war would be to find competent
generals who could lead the Union to victory.
84. By early summer, both sides were
9
84. ____________
training large armies of volunteers, many of them
inexperienced boys who could barely handle a
rifle. 85. Northern newspapers were calling for a
85. ____________
massive drive against the Confederate capital in
Richmond, Virginia. 86. “On to Richmond!”
86. ____________
became the popular rallying cry.
87. In July, Union forces under General
87. ____________
Irwin McDowell marched into Virginia.
88. McDowell had been ordered to capture the
88. ____________
crucial railroad junction at Manassas, about
twenty-five miles southwest of Washington.
89. From there, he would sweep down to
89. ____________
Richmond and crush the rebellion.
90. Word spread through Washington that
90. ____________
McDowell would begin his attack on Sunday, July
21. 91. That morning dozens of politicians and
91. ____________
their wives, newspapermen, and other spectators
drove down from Washington in buggies and
carriages to watch their army defeat the rebels.
92. None of these people had ever seen a battle,
10
92. ____________
and they had little idea what to expect. 93. They
93. ____________
brought along picnic baskets, champagne, and
opera glasses, camped on a hillside, and waited for
the action to begin.
94. Lincoln waited anxiously in the White
House. 95. The first reports to reach him were
94. ____________
95. ____________
confusing—the two armies had met at a muddy
little creek called Bull Run. 96. They were
96. ____________
advancing and retreating I turn. 97. Several hours
97. ____________
later, Lincoln received word of a disaster. 98.
98. ____________
Union troops had broken ranks. 99.McDowell’s
99. ____________
army had been routed.
100. The president stayed up all that night,
100.___________
listening to the stories of congressmen and other
civilians who had fled in panic before the
retreating troops. 101. The Union army had fallen
101.___________
apart. 102. Soldiers and sightseers alike had
102.___________
stampeded back to Washington. 103. As dawn
103.___________
broke, Lincoln stood at a White House window
and watched his mud-splattered troops straggling
11
back into the capitol through the fog and rain.
104. Until now, Lincoln had turned for
104.___________
strategic advice to his general in chief, seventyfive-year-old Winfield Scott. 105. Scott had
105.___________
proposed his famous “anaconda plan” to surround
the South and squeeze it into submission—a
blockade of the Southern coast and occupation of
the Mississippi River. 106. Lincoln felt that the
106.___________
plan didn’t go far enough. 107. He wanted his
107.___________
commanders to take the offensive wherever they
could. 108. After Bull Run, he resolved to tighten
108.___________
the naval blockade, call up more troops for longer
enlistments, and launch three offensives at once—
into Virginia, into Tennessee, and down the
Mississippi.
109. He gave command of the Eastern
109.___________
armies to General George B. McClellan, a thirtyfive-year-old veteran of the Mexican War.
110. McClellan was vain, pompous, and
opinionated, but Lincoln had faith in him.
12
110.___________
111. The president brushed off criticism of the
111.___________
general’s rude behavior by saying, “Never mind.
112. I will hold McClellan’s stirrups if he will
112.___________
bring us victory.”
113. McClellan trained his growing army
113.___________
with meticulous care, but as the months passed, he
showed no signs of moving against the rebel forces
massed in Virginia. 114. “Don’t let them hurry
114.___________
me, is all I ask,” he said. 115. When the first
115.___________
snows fell at the end of 1861, McClellan’s troops
were not yet ready for battle. 116. On the western
116.___________
front, it was the same story. 117. Union
117.___________
commanders built up their forces and drilled their
men, but they weren’t ready to fight.
118. Congress and the public were losing
118.___________
patience. 119. Why weren’t the generals fighting?
119.___________
120. Was Lincoln too inexperienced to handle his
120.___________
job? 121. A Congressional committee began to
121.___________
investigate the conduct of the war. 122. Generals
122.___________
were called in from the field to testify on Capitol
13
Hill.
123. Lincoln, too, was tired of the delays.
124. But he wasn’t a military man himself, and he
123.___________
124.___________
was reluctant to overrule his commanders.
125. And he had other troubles besides—
125.___________
corruption in the War Department, angry disputes
within his cabinet, and mounting criticism from
Congress. 126. Senator Benjamin F. Wade of
126.___________
Ohio called the Lincoln administration
“blundering, cowardly, and inefficient.”
127. By now, the president had serious
127.___________
misgivings about the professional soldiers who
were running the war. 128. He had collected a
128.___________
library of books on military strategy, and he
studied them late into the night, just as he had once
studied law and surveying. 129. Attorney General
129.___________
Edward Bates had told Lincoln that it was his
presidential duty to “command the commanders….
The nation requires it, and history will hold you
responsible.” 130. Lincoln began to play an active
14
130.___________
role in the day-to-day conduct of the war, planning
strategy and sometimes directing tactical
maneuvers in the field.
131. He found relief from the pressures of
131.___________
the war during his private hours in the white
House. 132. Robert Lincoln was now studying at
132.___________
Harvard University, but eleven-year-old Willie and
eight-year-old Tad lived with their parents in the
executive mansion. 133. They romped through the
133.___________
house, bursting into solemn conferences, playing
tricks on cabinet members, making friends with the
staff, and collecting a menagerie of pets, including
a pony that they rode around the White House
grounds, and a goat that slept on Tad’s bed.
134. Lincoln took the boys with him to visit
troops camped along the Potomac. 135. And he
134.___________
135.___________
joined in their games, wrestling with his sons on
the expensive Oriental carpets Mary had bought
when she redecorated the White House.
136. During the darkest moments of the war,
15
136.___________
Lincoln was able to throw off his fits of despair in
the company of his two boys.
137. In February, 1862, both boys came
down with fevers. 138. Tad recovered, but Willie
137.___________
138.___________
took a turn for the worse, tossing and turning
through the night as his parents sat by his bedside,
bathing his face and trying to comfort him.
139. Willie died on February 20—the second son
139.___________
to be taken from the Lincolns. 140. Mary was so
140.___________
overwhelmed with grief, she could not attend the
funeral. 141. For three months she refused to
141.___________
leave the White House. 142. She would never
142.___________
fully recover from her emotional breakdown.
143. Lincoln plunged into the deepest gloom
he had ever known. 144. He had felt a special
143.___________
144.___________
bond of understanding with Willie, and now he
grieved as never before. 145. Again and again, he
145.___________
shut himself in his room to weep alone.
146. As Willie lay dying, the pace of the war was
16
146.___________
quickening offensive in the West, winning the first
Northern victories of the war. 147. By the spring
147.___________
of 1862, the North had captured New Orleans and
was gaining control of the crucial Mississippi
River. 148. While the news was encouraging, the
148.___________
cost in human lives horrified everyone.
149. During a single two-day battle at Shiloh
149.___________
Church in southern Tennessee, thirteen thousand
Union soldiers had been killed or wounded.
150. On the Eastern front, General
150.___________
McClellan had finally led his huge army into
Virginia. 151. Instead of marching overland to
151.___________
Richmond, as Lincoln had urged, McClellan
shipped his troops to the tip of the York Peninsula,
landing seventy-five miles southeast of Richmond.
152. Then he moved up the peninsula to attack the
152.___________
Confederate capital from the rear.
153. Unfortunately, he advanced so slowly and
cautiously, the rebels had plenty of time to muster
their defenses.
17
153.___________
154. In June, as McClellan paused outside
154.___________
Richmond, waiting to attack, rebel troops
commanded by Robert E. Lee launched a surprise
counter-offensive. 155. During seven days of
155.___________
bitter fighting, McClellan was driven all the way
back to the James River. 156. His long-awaited
156.___________
campaign to take Richmond had been a bloody
failure. 157. More than twenty-three thousand of
157.___________
his troops were either dead, wounded, or missing.
158. Meanwhile, the rebels had been
158.___________
battering Union armies in Virginia’s Shenandoah
Valley. 159. As the casualty lists piled up on his
159.___________
desk, Lincoln wondered if the war would ever end.
160. In the all-important Eastern theatre, the North
160.___________
had yet to win a victory.
161. For months, Lincoln had been shuffling
161.___________
his generals around, trying to find field
commanders he could count on and a reliable
general in chief to direct the war effort. 162. The
elderly and ailing Winfield Scott had been
18
162.___________
persuaded to retire. 163. McClellan had stepped in
163.___________
as supreme commander, but he had little talent for
strategic planning. 164. When he sailed with his
164.___________
army for Virginia, Lincoln decided to act as his
own general in chief. 165. Then he called on
165.___________
General Henry W. Halleck to fill the top military
command post. 166. But Halleck was another
166.___________
disappoint. He offered good advice, but he shrank
from making decisions. 167. Once again, Lincoln
167.___________
had to make them.
168. The toughest decision facing Lincoln,
168.___________
however, was the one he had to make about
slavery. 169. Early in the war, he was still willing
169.___________
to leave slavery alone in the South, if only he
could restore the Union. 170. Once the rebellion
170.___________
was crushed, slavery would be confined to the
Southern states, where it would gradually die out.
171. “We didn’t go into the war to put down
171.___________
slavery, but to put the flag back,” Lincoln said.
172. “To act differently at this moment would, I
19
172.___________
have no doubt, not only weaken our cause, but
smack of bad faith.”
173. Abolitionists were demanding that the
173.___________
president free the slaves at once, by means of a
wartime proclamation. 174. “Teach the rebels and
174.___________
traitors that the price they are to pay for the
attempt to abolish this Government must be the
abolition of slavery,” said Frederick Douglass, the
famous black editor and reformer. 175. “Let the
175.___________
war cry be down with treason, and down with
slavery, the cause of treason!”
176. But Lincoln hesitated. 177. He was
afraid to alienate the large numbers of Northerners
176.___________
177.___________
who supported the Union but opposed
emancipation. 178. And he worried about the
178.___________
loyal, slaveholding border states—Kentucky,
Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware—that had
refused to join the Confederacy. 179. Lincoln
feared that emancipation might drive those states
into the arms of the South.
20
179.___________
180. Yet slavery was the issue that had
180.___________
divided the country, and the president was under
mounting pressure to do something about it.
181. At first he supported a voluntary plan that
181.___________
would free the slaves gradually and compensate
their owners with money from the federal treasury.
182. Emancipation would begin in the loyal border
182.___________
states and be extended into the South as the rebel
states were conquered. 183. Perhaps then the
183.___________
liberated slaves could be resettled in Africa or
Central America.
184. Lincoln pleaded with the border-state
184.___________
congressmen to accept his plan, but they turned
him down. 185. They would not part with their
185.___________
slave property or willingly change their way of
life. 186. “Emancipation in the cotton is simply an
186.___________
absurdity,” said a Kentucky congressman.
187. “There is not enough power in the world to
187.___________
compel it to be done.”
188. Lincoln came to realize that if he
21
188.___________
wanted to attack slavery, he would have to act
more boldly. 189. A group of powerful
189.___________
Republican senators had been urging him to act.
190. It was absurd, they argued, to fight the war
190.___________
without destroying the institution that had caused
it. 191. Slaves provided a vast pool of labor that
191.___________
was crucial to the south’s war effort. 192. If
192.___________
Lincoln freed the slaves, he could cripple the
Confederacy and hasten the end of the war.
193. If he did not free them, then the war would
193.___________
settle nothing. 194. Even if the South agreed to
194.___________
return to the Union, it would start another war as
soon as slavery was threatened again.
195. Besides, enslaved blacks were eager to
195.___________
throw off their shackles and fight for their own
freedom. 196. Thousands of slaves had already
196.___________
escaped from behind the lines. 197. Thousands
197.___________
more were ready to enlist in the Union armies.
198. “You need more men,” Senator Charles
Sumner told Lincoln, “not only at the North, but at
22
198.___________
the South, in the rear of the rebels. 199. You need
199.___________
the slaves.”
200. All along, Lincoln had questioned his
200.___________
authority as president to abolish slavery in those
states where it was protected by law. 201. His
201.___________
Republican advisors argued that in time of war,
with the nation in peril, the president did have the
power to outlaw slavery. 202. He could do it in his
202.___________
capacity as commander in chief of the armed
forces. 203. Such an act would be justified as a
203.___________
necessary war measure, because it would weaken
the enemy. 204. If Lincoln really wanted to save
204.___________
the Union, Senator Sumner told him, he must act
now. 205. He must wipe out slavery.
205.___________
206. The war had become an endless
206.___________
nightmare of bloodshed and bungling generals.
207. Lincoln doubted if the Union could survive
207.___________
without bold and drastic measures. 208. By the
208.___________
summer of 1862, he had worked out a plan that
would hold the loyal slave states in the Union,
23
while striking at the enemies of the Union.
209. On July 22, 1862, he revealed his plan
209.___________
to his cabinet. 210. He had decided, he told them,
210.___________
that emancipation was “a military necessity,
absolutely essential to the preservation of the
Union.” 211. For that reason, he intended to issue
211.___________
a proclamation freeing all the slaves in rebel states
that had not returned to the Union by January 1,
1863. 212. The proclamation would be aimed at
212.___________
the confederate South only. 213. In the loyal
213.___________
Border States, he would continue to push for
gradual, compensated emancipation.
214. Some cabinet members warned that the
214.___________
country wasn’t ready to accept emancipation.
215. But most of them nodded their approval, and
215.___________
in any case, Lincoln had made up his mind.
216. He did listen to the objection of William H.
216.___________
Seward, his secretary of state. 217. If Lincoln
217.___________
published his proclamation now, Seward argued,
when Union armies had just been defeated in
24
Virginia, it would seem like an act of desperation,
“the last shriek on our retreat.” 218. The president
218.___________
must wait until the Union had won a decisive
military victory in the East. 219. Then he could
219.___________
issue his proclamation from a position of strength.
220. Lincoln agreed. 221. For the time being, he
220.___________
filed the document away in his desk.
221.___________
222. A month later, in the war’s second
222.___________
battle at Bull Run, Union forces commanded by
general John Pope suffered another humiliating
defeat. 223. “We are whipped again,” Lincoln
223.___________
moaned. 224. He feared now that the war was lost.
224.___________
225. Rebel troops under Robert E. Lee were
225.___________
driving north. 226. Early in September, Lee
226.___________
invaded Maryland and advanced toward
Pennsylvania.
227. Lincoln again turned to General George
McClellan—Who else do I have? 228. He
227.___________
228.___________
asked—and ordered him to repel the invasion.
229.The two armies met at Antietam Creek in
25
229.___________
Maryland on September 17 in the bloodiest single
engagement of the war. 230. Lee was forced to
230.___________
retreat back to Virginia. 231. But McClellan,
231.___________
cautious as ever, held his position and failed to
pursue the defeated rebel army. 232. It wasn’t the
232.___________
decisive victory Lincoln had hoped for, but it
would have to do.
233. On September 22, Lincoln read the
233.___________
final wording of his Emancipation Proclamation to
his cabinet. 234. If the rebels did not return to the
234.___________
Union by January 1, the president would free
“thenceforward and forever” all the slaves
everywhere in the Confederacy.
235. Emancipation would become a Union war
235.___________
objective. 236. As Union armies smashed their
236.___________
way into rebel territory, they would annihilate
slavery once and for all.
237. The next day, the proclamation was
released to the press. 238. Throughout the North,
opponents of slavery hailed the measure, and black
26
237.___________
238.___________
people rejoiced. 239. Frederick Douglass, the
239.___________
black abolitionist, had criticized Lincoln severely
in the past. 240. But he said now: “We shout for
240.___________
joy that we live to record this righteous decree.”
241. When Lincoln delivered his annual
241.___________
message to Congress on December 1, he asked
support for his program of military emancipation:
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.
242. We of this Congress and this administration,
242.___________
will be remembered in spite of ourselves…In
____________
giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to
____________
the free—honorable alike in what we give, and
what we preserve.”
243. On New Year’s Day, after a fitful
243.___________
night’s sleep, Lincoln sat at his White House desk
and put the finishing touches on his historic
decree. 244. From this day forward, all slaves in
244.___________
the rebel states were “forever free.” 245. Blacks
245.___________
who wished to could now enlist in the Union army
and sail on Union ships. 246. Several all-black
27
246.___________
regiments wee formed immediately. 247. By the
247.___________
end of the war, more than 180,000 blacks—a
majority of them emancipated slaves—had
volunteered for the Union forces.
248. They manned military garrisons and served
248.___________
as front-line combat troops in every theatre of the
war.
249. The traditional New Year’s reception
249.___________
was held in the White House that morning.
250. Mary appeared at an official gathering for the
250.___________
first time since Willie’s death, wearing garlands in
her hair and a black shawl about her head.
251. During the reception, Lincoln slipped
251.___________
away and retired to his office with several cabinet
members and other officials for the formal signing
of the proclamation. 252. He looked tired.
252.___________
253. He had been shaking hands all morning, and
253.___________
now his hand trembled as he picked up a gold pen
to sign his name.
254. Ordinarily he signed “A. Lincoln.”
28
254.___________
255. But today, as he put pen to paper, he carefully
255.___________
wrote out his full name. 256. “If may name ever
256.___________
goes into history,” he said then, “it will be for this
act.”
29