Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout

roclamation-Lincoln in His Night-shirt-James Russell Lowell-"Barbara Frietchie

to do so. He had volunteered to go with Andrews on the railroad raid, which was to take a week, and he had been away for many weeks, during which he had been carried on the army-rolls as "missing." Would the President think of him as a truant, who had run away and stayed away from duty? John Hay's welcome of him

rusty black dress spotted with recent tears. Her thin hands were nervously twisting the petition someone had prepared for her to present to the Pre

ldn't do anything for you

e said it was time to make an example and that my boy Jim

rlough, had been arrested, hurried before a court-martial of elderly officers who were tired of hearing the frivolous excuses of careless boys for not coming back promptly to the front, had been found guilty of desertion, and had been sen

f our country? It is unfortunate," the grim Secretary's tones grew softer at the sight of the mother's utter anguish, "it is unfortunate that th

person on the list was ushered in. An hour afterwards she was with Lincoln. Th

a bell and sent word to Mrs. Lincoln asking her to come to him. When she did so, she took charge of Mrs. Jenkins and speedily revived her. But it was the President, not his wife, who

that pa

te beneath it in bold letters: "This man is pardoned. A. Lincoln, Prest." Then he held the petition close to the sofa so that the first thing Mrs. Jenkins saw as she came back to cons

better to give him a chance not to make another. You tell Jim from me to do better after this. Tom, you take Mrs. Jenkins over to the Secretary and show him that little line of mine. He won't like it very much. Usually he has his own way, but sometimes I have mine an

and her six days' stay there. Abraham Lincoln's gift sent her safely back to home and happiness. When once again she had occasion to weep over her son, a year later, her tears were those of a hero's mother. For Jim Jenkins died a hero's death at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1863, that day of "the high tide of the Confederacy," when Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate commander, saw the surge of his splendid soldiers break in vain upon the rocks of the Union line, in the heart of the North. The bu

y, when Private Secretary Nicolay was away, Hay came into the offices with a letter in his hand and a cloud on his usually ga

had to do so, that justice or injustice might be tempered by mercy. He caught at

nd runs away, may live to fight another day.' Besides, if this fe

serter. After sentence, he had

ted. "We can't catch him, you see. We'll condemn him

New York Tribune and the foremost man in a group of great editors such as the country has never seen since. They were Horace Greeley of the Tribune, Henry J. Raymond of the New York Times, and Samuel Bowles of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican. Bowle

ust what the master mind was brooding, but the whole world was to know it soon. It was not until Lincoln had written with his own hand in the solitude of his own room the charter of freedom for the Southern slaves that he called together his Cabinet, not to advise him about it, but to hear from him what he had resolved to do. The messenger who summoned the Cabinet officials to that historic session was none other than Uncle Moses. Tom of course had long since told the story of his flight for freedom, including Unk' Mose's stout-hearted attack at the very nick of time upon the overseer. Lincoln was touched by the tale of the old negro's fine feat. He had Tom bring Moses to see him and Moses emerged from that interview the proudest darkey in the world, for he was made a messenger and general utility man at the White Hou

he came to think he really had carried the Proclamation to the Cabinet, instead of simply summoning the Cabinet to the meeting at which

to feel a sort of new and exhilarated life; they breathed freer; the President's Proclamation had freed them as well as the slaves. They gleefully and merrily called themselves Abolitionists

dage-emancipation was to take place wherever the Stars-and-Stripes flew on January 1, 1863-such a man must have a wonderful glow of

on the sill of the open window. He was holding a seven-foot telescope to his eyes, its other end resting upon his toes. He was looking at two steamb

so John Hay pushed excitedly by hi

hink Smith of Illinois has do

, but I'm too busy to quarrel with him. Don't tell m

egard little men an

g of milk were the refreshments and John Hay's talk was the delight of the little gathering. Midnight had just struck when the door opened quietly and the Preside

.' That fellow Lowell knows how to put things. Just hear

re prosp'rous a

n' starved into

wuz lef' when t

wuz too unam

Fort Donelson,

riumphantly g

y of his garb, "and here is a good touch on the Proclamation. I

hould we ki

res'dent's

-goin' to

t like ema

to be a

om all dev

on (ez a

itter born

his short shirt hanging about his long legs and setting out behind like the tail feathers

Lowell, an American critic, poet, and e

St. Petersburg and had upon its envelope Russian stamps. Tom had never seen a Russian stamp before. He showed the envelope as a curiosity to little Tad Lincoln and at

Tommy has

rom Russia?" ask

ed. "He sent me good news.

ews, too," said Mr. Lincoln

nterjected the fir

nor the old Romans could give to a fellow-citizen was to decree that he had 'deserved well of the Republic.' That can be said of your father now. He has deserved w

hat Mr. Strong had done after Lincoln sent him abroad. The whole world saw the symbol of his work, without in many cases kn

ishmen were also on our side, but the latter were helpless in the grip of their aristocratic rulers. They testified to their belief, however, splendidly. In the height of what was called "the cotton famine," when the Lancashire mills were closed for lack of the fleecy staple and when the Lancashire mill-operatives were facing actual starvation, a tiny group of great Englishmen, John Bright and Thomas Bayley Potter among them, spoke throughout Lancashire on behalf of the Northern cause. There was to be a great meeting at Manchester, in the heart of t

ow's mite, many

kade and in making Slavery triumph. England hesitated before the proposed crime, but finally said it was inclined to follow the Napoleonic lead, if Russia would do likewise. Then the French Emperor wr

can example infect Alaska, spread through Siberia, even creep to the steps of the throne at St. Petersburg? But this time, thanks to the work of our Minister to Russia and of our extra-official representative there, the Hon. Thomas Strong, Despotism stood by Liberty. The Russian Czar wrote the French Emperor that the R

York and Washington went mad in those September days of 1863 in welcoming the Russian fleet and the R

is time that John

of the Tycoon by

cretaries had given Lincoln. Nevertheless they both reverenced

words all he felt about his chief. But John Hay, who was never much i

iter. He sits here and wields both the machinery of