not without its effect upon the public mind, now fast settling down to
the belief that Slavery everywhere upon the soil of the United States
must die.

[Greeley well said of it: "His death, at this moment, seemed to
mark the transition from the Era of Slavery to that of Universal
Freedom."]

Then came, October 19th, the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va. where the Rebel
General Early, during Sheridan's absence, surprised and defeated the
latter's forces, until Sheridan, riding down from Winchester, turned
defeat into victory for the Union Arms, and chased the armed Rebels out
of the Shenandoah Valley forever; and the fights of October 27th and
28th, to the left of Grant's position, at Petersburg, by which the
railroad communications of Lee's Army at Richmond were broken up.

At last, November 8, 1864, dawned the eventful day of election. By
midnight of that date it was generally believed, all over the Union,
that Lincoln and Johnson were overwhelmingly elected, and that the Life
as well as Freedom of the Nation had thus been saved by the People.

Late that very night, President Lincoln was serenaded by a Pennsylvania
political club, and, in responding to the compliment, modestly said:

"I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work (if it be
as you assure, and as now seems probable) will be to the lasting
advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the Country. I cannot at
this hour say what has been the result of the election. But whatever it
may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion, that all who have
labored to-day in behalf of the Union organization have wrought for the