“While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must decline to preside, I cannot withhold my approval of the meeting, and its worthy objects. Whatever shall be, sincerely and in God’s name, devised for the good of the soldiers and seamen in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blessed. And whatever shall turn our thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices, and jealousies incident to a great national trouble such as ours, and serve to fix them on the vast and long-enduring consequences, for weal or for woe, which are to result from the trouble, and especially to strengthen our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final triumph of the right, cannot but be well for us all.”

These earnest words voice not only his abiding interest in the loyal army, but also his equally abiding confidence that God would give final victory to the right.

For the purpose of emphasizing his sympathy with the boys at the front, he attended soldiers’ fairs in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Three years before he was obliged to pass through the former city in disguise to escape assassination. In its streets the Massachusetts Sixth had met with a bloody reception, on its way to protect Washington, and left some of its heroic members dead. The city was then a hot-bed of treason. But a great change had been wrought there, and the chief attraction of the Soldiers’ Fair was the presence of Mr. Lincoln. Alluding to the remarkable change that had been wrought he said, in his address,—

“Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon the many people I see assembled here to serve as they best may the soldiers of the Union, it occurs to me that three years ago those soldiers could not pass through Baltimore. I would say, blessings upon the men who have wrought these changes, and the women who have assisted them!”

In both these places he spoke of the loyalty and sufferings of the “boys” with fatherly tenderness, and eulogized the women of the land for their self-denying and philanthropic labours in their behalf.

The proceeds of the Fair at Philadelphia amounted to one million three hundred thousand dollars, a result over which the President became enthusiastic. When he was told that the fairs in eleven cities netted nearly Five Million Dollars he exclaimed:—

“Was there ever such a country for patriotism and liberality? How much suffering will be prevented among the brave boys!”

When he was told that the Sanitary Commission, within ten days after the terrible battle of Antietam, sent 28,763 pieces of dry goods, shirts, towels, bed-ticks, pillows, etc.; 30 barrels of old linen, bandages, and lint; 3,188 pounds of farina; 2,620 pounds of condensed milk; 5,000 pounds of beef-stock and canned meats; several tons of lemons and other fruit, crackers, tea, sugar, rubber-cloth, tin-cups, and 4,000 sets of hospital clothing; all of which was tenderly distributed among the wounded by the scores of volunteer agents of the Christian Commission, language was not an ample vehicle to convey his overflowing gratitude; his unbidden tears told how full of joy his heart was.

We have said that Mr. Lincoln was opposed to the war-rule of retaliation; but the suffering of our soldiers in Libby Prison, at Andersonville, Belle Isle, and at other points in the South, caused him to modify his views, and declare for retaliation, at least, under certain circumstances.

The investigation of the Congressional Committee on the “Conduct of the War,” confirmed the most harrowing reports from rebel prisons, over which Mr. Lincoln’s heart bled, and his indignation was aroused. Speaker Colfax said of him, “I doubt if his most intimate associate ever heard him utter bitter or vindictive language. He seemed wholly free from malignity or revenge, from ill-will or injustice.” But the barbarous treatment of his “boys,” who were prisoners in Southern stockades, came very near upsetting his famous motto, “With malice towards none; with charity for all.” He could endure censure and even insult, and “attacked ever so sharply, never answered railing for railing,” but his whole soul was stirred over the treatment of Union soldiers by their captors.