PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1269, 9 March 1872, Page 2

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

[FROM DR. DRAPER'S * HISTORY OF THE REBELLION.']

Clad in black, the ungainly-looking President might be seen, after the hour bad come for visitors to be excluded, pacing to and fro past the windows of his apartment, his hands behind him,, his head bent forward upon his breast, lost in profound meditation, a picture of sorrow, care, and anxiety The artist Carpenter, who enjoyed frequent opportunities of observing him in his moments of retirement, says, " His was the saddest face in repose 1. ever knew. His eyes, of a bluish grey tine, always, in deep shadow from the upper lids* which were unusually heavy, gave him an expression remarkably expressive and tender, often inexpressibly sad. A peculiar dreaminess sometimes stole over his face." As is not unfrequently observed of Western meu, there were mysterious traits of superstitition in his character. A friend once enquiring the cause of a deep depression under which he seemed to be suffering. "I have seen again this evening," he replied, " what I once saw before, on the evening of my nomination at Chicago. As ] stood before a mirror, there n-eiv two images of myself—a bright one in front, and one that was veiy pallid standing behind. Ft completely unnerved me. The bright one I know is my past, the pale one my coming life." And feeling that there is no armor against Destiny, he added, " I do not think J. shall live to the end of my term; I try to shake off the vision, but it still haunts me." He began to receive threatening letters soon after his nomination. He kept them by themselves, labelled, " Letteis on Assassination." After his death,, one was found amongst, them connected with the plot that had succeeded. " I cannot help being in this way," he said, " my father was so before me. He once dreamt that he rode through an unfrequented path to a strange house, the surroundings and furnishing of which were vividly impressed on his mind. At the fireside there was >itting a woman whose textures he distinctly saw. She was engaged in paring an. apple. The woman was to be his wife. Though, a strong minded man, he could not slake off the vision. It haunted him incessantly,, until it complied him to. go down the unfrequented way. He quietly opened the door of what he recognised to. be the house, and saw at a-glance that it was where he had been in his dream;, there was a woman at the fireside engaged in paring an apple, and the rest of his dream came to pass." "There will be bad uews to-night," he said on another occasion. " Why, how do* you know that, Mr President?" "X dropped asleep, and saw in a dream what, has often before been the precursor of disaster. I saw a ship sailing

very fasb." And that night bad news came! Perhaps, in the opinion of the supercilious critic, these idle stories are unworthy of the page of history. The materialist philosopher may say, " Had Lincoln taken the trouble to hold up a candle before his miiTor, he might have seen a dozen pale images of it 1" That is very true. But does not history record that some of the greatest soldiers, statesmen, lawgivers—men who have left ineffaceable marks on the annals of the human race —have been influenced by like delusions ?