The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

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THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

ical canvass of 1864, and widely copied, in which it was stated that
the concluding paragraph of the Proclamation was from the pen of
Secretary Chase. One of Mr. Lincoln's intimate friends (this incident
was related to me by the gentleman himself), who felt that there was
an impropriety in this publication, at that time, for which Mr. Chase
was in some degree responsible, went to see the President about it.
" Oh," said Mr. Lincoln, with his characteristic simplicity and freedom
from all suspicion, " Mr. Chase had nothing to do with it; I think I
mentioned the circumstance to Mr. Tilton myself."
The facts in the case are these: while the measure was pending,
Mr. Chase submitted to the President a draft of a proclamation, embodying his views upon the subject, which closed with the appropriate
and solemn words referred to: " And upon this act, sincerely believed
to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution, I invoke the
considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty
God!"
Mr. Lincoln adopted this sentence intact, excepting that he inserted
after the word " Constitution" the words " upon military necessity."
Thus is ended what I have long felt to be a duty I owed to the
world-the record of circumstances attending the preparation and
issue of the third great state paper which has marked the progress of
our Anglo-Saxon civilization.
First, is the MAGNA CHARTA," wrested by the barons of England
from King John; second, the " DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE;" and
third, worthy to be placed upon the tablets of history, side by side
with the two first, is a ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.