ABRAHAM LINCOLN.*

• Abraham Lincoln and the Downfall of American Manny. By Noah Moults. London s G. P. Putnam's Bone.

THERE is much that is excellent in the book before us, but we regret we cannot give unqualified praise to the manner in which it is written. The known character of the " Heroes of the Nations" series, to which it belongs, as well as its own title, would lead us to expect thoroughly sound biography; instead of which, the first dozen chapters, containing an account of Lincoln's boyhood and early manhood are quite in the style of those juvenile story-books which subordinate historical accuracy to a so-called moral purpose. The Abraham Lincoln of these chapters is the model youth of such story-books,—a paragon who, " When he begun (!) to study anything was not satisfied until he got to the bottom of it; " who, while studying, rocked cradles with his foot ; who was a lover of peace, yet inflicted righteous chas- tisement on the village bully, and thereby made him his de- voted friend for life ; who "now and again of an evening" lounged in the country store, only to delight the other lounger s with his "homely wit and wisdom." All of which, with much more of the same kind, may be true, but cannot be the whole truth, for it reveals none of the " grit," without which such a youth could never have developed into a hero-President. One with such a superfluity of early piety must have died young

or, surviving, have become a Sunday-school superintendent of the type described in Torn Sawyer. The real Lincoln of those early days peeps out here and there ; for instance, in this incident which occurred when he was, literally, "on the stamp" " On one occasion, seeing from his elevation that a friend of his in the crowd before him had been attacked by a ruffianly fellow, and was getting the worst of it, Lincoln descended from his temporary rostrum, seized the assailant by the scruff of the neck, threw him about ten feet, and then, having discharged his duty as a keeper of the peace, calmly remounted the stump and went on with his speech as if nothing had happened to inter- rupt it."

As Mr. Brooks adds, "A man who on fit occasions was as

ready with his muscle as with his mental power bad many friends in the frontier region." That in his early years Lincoln was good—never treacherous or cruel—is undoubted. He was good, certainly, but just as certainly not goody-goody. His goodness was substantial enough to induce him on fitting occasion to take a ruffian " by the scruff of the neck."

As the story goes on it steadily improves, and Lincoln's public career is, generally speaking, placed before the reader in a sober and sensible manner. Still, even here it is im- possible not to feel some degree of incredulity when we are told that a man of Lincoln's known reserve and self-restraint was continually weeping in public. Strong men do sometimes weep even in public; and it is jest possible that when Lincoln

entered Richmond on April 4th, 1865, " the tears streamed down his cheeks." But it taxes our credulity to read that when he heard that seventeen clergymen of Springfield had voted against him, "his voice was choked with emotion," and he walked up and down the room "with his face wet with tears ; " or that when describing some good omen "the tears gathered in his eyes ; " and we positively refuse to believe that on this, or any other occasion, he uttered the snuffling phrase, "Let us accept it as a good sign, my dear friends." If Mr. Brooks had appreciated the sturdy strength of Lincoln's character, he would never have resorted to such artificial glamour. He fails also, as it seems to us, to realise Lincoln's moral greatness. Else, for example, he could not have so misapprehended Lincoln's attitude when his re-

nomination for the Presidency was in the balance. His apparent freedom from anxiety about an issue so momentous to himself, as well as to the country, is attributed by Mr Brooks to his "sagacity ; " be " doubtless knew that events would so shape themselves, that his renomination via inevit- able." Really, he knew nothing of the kind. The result of the elections was entirely doubtful. The cause of his calm- ness lay in that perfect disinterestedness which excluded

private ambition or desire, whenever there was a public duty

to be done. So far from feeling any confidence in his re. nomination, Mr. Lincoln had reason to feel the gravest doubt' ; yet this did not deter him from public acts which were likely to be unpopular, and which his political friends—looking at his private interests—considered to be highly indiscreet. There is one other small occasion for complaint against Mr. Brooks's work, namely, the repetition of facts and incidents. Thus, the names of Lincoln's children, with other particulars concerning them, are given on p. 117, and again on p. 419; Seward's well-meaning but injudicious offer to Lincoln to take the direction of affairs, and Lincoln's dignified refusal, are described on pp. 251, and again on pp. 432-3. Within four pages (367-70), in almost identical words, we are told twine that Hooker was superseded by Meade because he had failed to discover Lee's movements and aims. The list might be lengthened. If the final revision had been carefully made, or if the index had been accurately compiled, these repetitions could not have escaped notice.

Happily, in despite of these drawbacks, Mr. Brooks has succeeded in giving a good account of the real Abraham Lincoln in his public career. Where facts are allowed to convey their own meaning and moral, they are telling and effective. Mr. Brooks has not much to relate that is new.

The story of the Civil War and of Lincoln's relations to slavery has been told again and again from every con- ceivable standpoint, in all sorts of ways. Yet it is a story which will bear retelling, and Mr. Brooks's version gives it, in some respects, fresh significance. A biography of Lincoln might readily become a history of the war with Lincoln only as a leading incident. Mr. Brooks has succeeded in so directing the historical facts that they serve as an effective background, and Lincoln himself, all the time,

appears in bold relief. We see the man, not merely the President. The following passage shows that Mr. Brooks has

rightly apprehended a characteristic of Lincoln which has often been misunderstood :-

" Inquisitive inquirers were put off with a comical story, or a bit of wise humour, and they did not like it any better that their rebuff should take this shape. They went home and sourly re- ported that the President-elect was a buffoon, a joker, a merry- andrew. There were not a few who were glad to hear anything to the discredit of Lincoln, and so it came to pass that a grave injustice was done him, long before he took his seat in the Presidential chair. Perhaps Lincoln sometimes made the mistake natural to men of a natural and unaffected turn of mind, and presumed that the good sense of his visitors would make allowance for an artful sportiveness and fancy. But many of these went away troubled in mind and full of wrong notions of Lincoln. Nobody that ever knew Lincoln could possibly have said of him that be was a trifler or an inveterate joker. He was a serious and deeply grave man, when seriousness and gravity were in order ; and much of his playfulness was assumed for a purpose, cr to lighten his load of care and divert his mind from heavy troubles. On the whole, those who knew him best unite in saying that his disposition was a sad one by nature."

Lincoln was an accurate, but not a rapid thinker. His judgment was sere to be right if only it had time to mature, And he seems to have understood that for him rapid conclu- sions were not advisable, and to have adopted the method of a seemingly careless talk and ready anecdote, to give himself the necessary time. He preferred to speak in parables until his direct and final answer was ready. Then, when fully con- vinced as to the proper course, he was prompt and resolute to act.

Another noteworthy feature of Lincoln's character was his entire freedom from malice. He had no enemies except those created by the political bitterness of the times. Persons who had been at enmity with him, when they came to know him became his friends. Much that he did, being judged by the popular standard, was readily misunderstood. His strong sense of justice which prevented him from preferring any private friend for a public appointment, if a foe had a better claim, might have been mistaken for ingratitude,—so rare was such a delicate sense of right. That his sometime bitter an- tagonist, Douglas, whose ambition for the Presidency it had been his destiny to thwart, should have so cordially co-operated with him in the time of need, speaks well for both men. It shows how deeply Lincoln's integrity had impressed his strenuous opponent ; and it reveals the genuine patriotism of Douglas, who could thus sink private interests and enmities in an endeavour to save the Union. In his somewhat exces- sive eagerness to justify Lincoln, Mr. Brooks does Douglas less than justice. True, he admits at the last Douglas's "unmistakable devotion to his country," and says he died " greatly lamented by his fellow-countrymen, among whom the sad-hearted Lincoln mourned with a great and exceeding sorrow." But magnanimity such as Douglas displayed could not have existed in one so crafty and time-serving, shifty and tricky, as Mr. Brooks had previously represented him to be, If Linoolu could bear with his foes, serve them when occasion offered, and always think the best possible of them, his biographers should never make the mistake of magnifying him at their expense.