necessarily be, to meet all these demands or to alter these
points of view. Interests that are purely local, events that did
not with certainty contribute to the final outcome, gossip, as
well as the mere caprice of the scholar--these must obviously be
set aside.

The task imposed upon the volume resolves itself, at bottom, into
just two questions: Why was there a war? Why was the Lincoln
Government successful? With these two questions always in mind I
have endeavored, on the one hand, to select and consolidate the
pertinent facts; on the other, to make clear, even at the cost of
explanatory comment, their relations in the historical sequence
of cause and effect. This purpose has particularly governed the
use of biographical matter, in which the main illustration, of
course, is the career of Lincoln. Prominent as it is here made,
the Lincoln matter all bears in the last analysis on one
point--his control of his support. On that the history of the
North hinges. The personal and private Lincoln it is impossible
to present within these pages. The public Lincoln, including the
character of his mind, is here the essential matter.

The bibliography at the close of the volume indicates the more
important books which are at the reader's disposal and which it
is unfortunate not to know.

NATHANIEL W. STEPHENSON. Charleston, S. C., March, 1918.



ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE UNION