OCTOBER 22

The law of the wise is a fountain of life.

Proverbs 13: 14.

The Ultimate Law for All.

(Extract from a speech in response to a call of loyal Marylanders and others, at the Executive Mansion, October 19, 1864, who serenaded the President in honor of the new State constitution adopted, October 12, 1864.)

I am notified that this is a compliment paid me by the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer that the adoption of the new constitution for that State furnishes the occasion, and that in your view the extirpation of slavery constitutes the chief merit of the new constitution. Most heartily do I congratulate you and Maryland and the Nation and the world upon the event. I regret that it did not occur two years sooner, which I am sure would have saved to the Nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the measure. But it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may by its effect be agreeably and profitably disappointed. . . I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it; I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it, and I therefore say that if I shall live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected thereto in November shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, and that in the meantime I shall do my utmost, that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. This is due to the people, both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all.

Lincoln, the patriot, who by stroke of his pen,
Proclaimed emancipation, gave freedom to men;
Tho' in time Mississippi to flow may cease,
Eis name will live on, while his soul rests in peace.
-Clara Lothamer Miller.

OCTOBER 23

They agreed not among themselves. Acts 28: 25.

Radicals and Conservatives.

(Extract from a lengthy letter to Honorable Charles Drake and others, October 5, 1863.)

I do not feel justified to enter upon the broad field you present in regard to the political differences between radicals and conservatives. From time to time I have done and said what appeared to me proper to do and say. The public knows it well. It obliges nobody to follow me, and I trust it obliges me to follow nobody. The radicals and conservatives each agree with me in some things and disagree in others. I could wish both to agree with me in all things; for then they would agree with each other, and would be too strong for any foe from any quarter. They, however, choose to do otherwise; and I do not question their right. I, too, shall do what seems to be my duty.

Here's a sigh for those who love me,

And a smile to those who hate;

And whatever sky's above me,
Here's a heart for any fate.

Byron.

OCTOBER 24

And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. Deuteronomy 9:20.

Scriptural Authority.

(In reply to a criticism for appointing to an office a man who had strongly opposed the President's second term.)

Well, I suppose Judge E., having been disappointed before, did behave pretty ugly, but that wouldn't make him any less fit for the place; and I think I have Scriptural authority for appointing him. You remember when the Lord was on Mount Sinai, getting out a commission for Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain making a false god for the people to worship. Yet Aaron got his commission, you know.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.