For the almost unbroken succession of achievements in the West by Generals Grant,Sherman,Thomas,and Hooker against Albert Sidney Johnston,Bragg,Pemberton,and Hood,the union forces in the East offered at first an almost equally unbroken series of misfortunes and disasters.Far from capturing Richmond,they had been thrown on the defensive.General after general-McClellan,Pope,Burnside,Hooker,and Meade-was tried and found wanting.None of them could administer a crushing defeat to the Confederate troops and more than once the union soldiers were beaten in a fair battle.They did succeed,however,in delivering a severe check to advancing Confederates under General Robert E.Lee,first at Antietam in September,1862,and then at Gettysburg in July,1863-checks reckoned as victories though in each instance the Confederates escaped without demoralization.Not until the beginning of the next year,when General Grant,supplied with almost unlimited men and munitions,began his irresistible hammering at Lee's army,did the final phase of the war commence.The pitiless drive told at last.General Lee,on April 9,1865,seeing the futility of further conflict,surrendered an army still capable of hard fighting,at Appomattox,not far from the capital of the Confederacy.
Abraham Lincoln.-The services of Lincoln to the cause of union defy de-ion.A judicial scrutiny of the war reveals his thought and planning in every part of the varied activity that finally crowned Northern arms with vic-tory.Is it in the field of diplomacy?Does Seward,the Secretary of State,pro-pose harsh and caustic measures likely to draw England's sword into the scale?Lincoln counsels moderation.He takes the irritating message and with his own hand strikes out,erases,tones down,and interlines,exchanging for words that sting and burn the language of prudence and caution.Is it a matter of compro-mise with the South,so often proposed by men on both sides sick of carnage?Lincoln is always ready to listen and turns away only when he is invited to sur-The Federal Military Hospital at Gettysburgrender principles essen-tial to the safety of the union.Is it high strat-egy of war,a question of the general best fit-ted to win Gettysburg-Hooker,Sedgwick,or Meade?Lincoln goes in person to the War Department in the dead of night to take coun-sel with his Secretary and to make the fateful choice.
Deprived,as he believes,of hiscivil liberties unjustly or in violation of the Constitution?Lincoln is ready to hear it and anxious to afford relief,if warrant can be found for it.Is a mother begging for the life of a son sentenced to be shot as a deserter?Lincoln hears her petition,and grants it even against the protests made by his generals in the name of military discipline.Do politicians sow dissensions in the army and among civilians?Lincoln grandly waves aside their petty personalities and invites them to think of the greater cause.Is it a question of securing votes to ratify the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery?Lincoln thinks it not beneath his dignity to traffic and huckster with politicians over the trifling jobs asked in return by the members who hold out against him.Does a New York newspaper call him an ignorant Western boor?Lincoln's reply is a letter to a mother who has given her all-her sons on the field of battle-and an address at Gettysburg,both of which will live as long as the tongue in which they were written.These are tributes not only to his mastery of the English language but also to his mastery of all those sentiments of sweetness and strength which are the finest flowers of culture.
Throughout the entire span of service,however,Lincoln was beset by merciless critics.The fiery apostles of abolition accused him of cowardice when he delayed the bold stroke at slavery.Anti-war Democrats lashed out at every step he took.Even in his own party he found no peace.Charles Sumner complained:"Our President is now dictator,imperator-whichever you like;but how vain to have the power of a god and not to use it godlike."Leaders amongthe Republicans sought to put him aside in 1864and place Chase in his chair."I hope we may never have a worse man,"was Lincoln's quiet answer.
Wide were the dissensions in the North during that year and the Republicans,while selecting Lincoln as their candidate again,cast off their old name and chose the simple title of the "Union party."Moreover,they selected a Southern man,Andrew Johnson,of Tennessee,to be associated with him as candidate for Vice President.This combination the Northern Democrats boldly confronted with a platform declaring that "after four years of failure to restore the union by the experiment of war,during which,under the pretence of military necessity or war power higher than the Constitution,the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part and public liberty and private right alike trodden down ...justice,humanity,liberty,and public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities,to the end that peace may be restored on the basis of the federal union of the states."It is true that the Democratic candidate,General McClellan,sought to break the yoke imposed upon him by the platform,saying that he could not look his old comrades in the face and pronounce their efforts vain;but the party call to the nation to repudiate Lincoln and his works had gone forth.The response came,giving Lincoln 2,200,000votes against 1,800,000for his opponent.The bitter things said about him during the campaign,he forgot and forgave.When in April,1865,he was struck down by the assassin's hand,he above all others in Washington was planning measures of moderation and healing.