tyranny of custom we cannot tell. In public life he was spotless in
integrity and dependent upon Divine aid. He had made no public
consecration to God in church covenant, but we may not enter the
sanctuary of his inner life. He constantly read the holy oracles, and
recognized their claim to be the inspired Scriptures.

He felt that religious responsibility when he set forth the
Proclamation of Emancipation closing with the sublime sentence: "And
upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted
by the Constitution, on military necessity, I invoke the considerable
judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

In one of the gloomy hours of the struggle he said to a delegation
of clergymen: "My hope of success in this great and terrible struggle
rests on that immutable foundation, the justice and goodness of God.
And when events are very threatening, and prospects very dark, I
still hope, in some way which men cannot see, all will be well in the
end, because our cause is just and God is on our side."

If, as the executive officer of the nation he erred, it was in
excessive tenderness in dealing with criminals. Unsuspecting and
pure, he could not credit unmixed guilt in others, and with
difficulty could he bring himself to suffer condign punishment to be
inflicted. There were times when he was inflexible. In vain did
wealth and position plead for Gardner, the slave-captain. As vainly
did they for Beall and Johnson. If he was lenient it was the error of
amiableness.

In reviewing the administration of Abraham Lincoln, we see in him
another of those Providentially called and directed leaders who have