Lincoln on Democracy

"A RIGHTEOUS AND SPEEDY PEACE"

344 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY There is one thing about the negroes fighting for the rebels which we can know as well [as] they can; and that is that they can not, at [the] same time fight in their armies, and stay at home and make bread for them. And this being known and remembered we can have but little concern whether they become soldiers or not. I am rather in favor of the measure; and would at any time if I could, have loaned them a vote to carry it. We have to reach the bottom of the insurgent resources; and that they employ, or seriously think ofemploying, the slaves as soldiers, gives us glimpses of the bottom. Therefore I am glad of what we learn on this subject. "A RIGHTEOUS AND SPEEDY PEACE" His Last Public Address, the White House [APRIL II, 1865] Lincoln's last public speech, delivered from a White House window after his return from a triumphant visit to conquered Richmond, was businesslike and detailed, a distinct anticlimax to his rhetorical zenith at the second inaugural. But as historian Don E. Fehrenbacher has pointed out, the Reconstruction address reflected Lincoln's intention to go "to work again after havingfinished one heavy task. " It was, Fehrenbacher added, "a voice interrupted in the middle ofa sentence," which may be why the New York World thought Lincoln groped in this address "like a traveler in an unknown country without a map. " But anotherpaperfound his last speech "remarkable," both "wise in sentiment"and "pervaded by the logic of the heart. " It was devoted almost exclusively to defending the effort to create a free-state government in Louisiana, and was in keeping with Lincoln's inaugural pledge of "charity for all. " We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 345 whose joyous expression can not be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He, from Whom all blessings flow, must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked. Their honors must not be parcelled out with others. I myself, was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skilful officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority -reconstruction-which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction . As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up, and seeking to sustain, the new State Government of Louisiana . In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message ofDec. 1863 and accompanying Proclamation , I presented a plan of re-construction (as the phrase goes) which, I promised, ifadopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive government ofthe nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when, or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore...