“Might it really?” asked Mary. “I remember that being discussed in my father’s house, but all responsible men in Kentucky opposed it.”
“But now the Confederate Union has ambitions to acquire Mexico, Cuba, and the free American Republics,” replied Mr. Lincoln. “They will need Negroes to work those lands. The cheapest Negroes are to be found in Africa. That is where the ‘buy them where they’re cheapest’ men will seek them.”
“The British must be on our side, then,” concluded Mary. “If the Confederates conquer us the world will be their oyster. Even the British will not dare oppose them.”
“I think that’s so,” said Mr. Lincoln, looking up from the papers he had been scribbling his notes on. “If the Confederates take hold of us then it will be only a matter of time before they dominate the American Continent. The British Possessions in North America will be annexed as Confederate Union Free States, while the lands south the Rio Grande will be annexed as Slave States.”
“Do you think they will help us fight the Confederates?”
“They already have, at least in words. They’ve warned the Confederates that their destruction of Cincinnati violates the norms of humanitarian warfare. I do not know how much further they will go to help us, but they have started down that path. We will know more when Seward goes back to Quebec in January.”
Seward says he hopes to obtain from the British a fifty million dollar line of credit that we may use to back our new currency with gold. Then our people will understand beyond any doubt that our ‘greenbacks’ are good as gold. And we shall see how the British react to the Confederate siege of Providence. Perhaps they will send a relief expedition to break the Confederate blockade when the extent of the deprivation of our people becomes known.
Outside the window the sky flashed a brilliant white. Mrs. Lincoln gasped. “What happened? Are the Confederates bombarding us?”
Mr. Lincoln stepped to the side of the window and squinted. When his eyes adjusted to the glare he saw that there was a break in the clouds near the horizon that allowed the sunlight to burst through. It reflected a dazzling white off the swirling snowflakes coming down outside.
“No, Mother, it’s the sun! Look to your right and you’ll see it blazing through that patch of clear sky on the horizon.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Mrs. Lincoln, pressing her face against the window. “What a beautiful sight it is! And look over there to the east. There is a bit of rainbow showing through the snow.”
“Well, I’ll be. I’ve never seen a rainbow in snow.”
“It gave me a fright,” replied Mrs. Lincoln. “I thought the Confederates had come back!” She looked skyward. “Oh, please, God, don’t bring the war back here. We suffered enough during the night when the Partisan War killed….” She cried as she remembered how her dearest sister Frannie and her husband had been murdered and their house burned. She composed herself. “When you meet with General Grant this evening please ask him to make absolutely certain that the Confederates will never enter this town again. They say Stoneballs Jackson came riding through here during the Battle of the Wabash.”
“But this time he was going the other way, Mother! He was cut off in our rear and trying to escape back into his own lines. He left this town in a hurry with a few ounces of buckshot in his posterior to hasten him on his way!”
“I don’t want to see him or any other Confederates back in this town, ever.”
“If you like, you may accompany me to the American House and tell General Grant that in person. Perhaps after that you’d enjoy mingling with the people in the commons and catching up on all that has happened here since we left. It might do you some good to talk to the people. ”
“Thank you for the invitation,” said Mrs. Lincoln. “But I really don’t feel up to it today. There are so few people still here that I know any more. Too many of our friends were killed in the Partisan War or left town with the Confederates or pulled up stakes and moved to Chicago. The people we met at the Nichols House yesterday are strangers. They all spoke with German accents. I could barely understand them.”
“Those are the Missouri Germans,” explained Mr. Lincoln. “Those who survived the Partisan War around St. Louis could no more live under the Confederate Government than the Democrats could live under ours. They have come to settle in the towns on our side of the border. It’s another reason why we must win our independence. Those who do not want to live in a slave holding republic must be able to find refuge here.”
“Well, there’s no denying that the new people have been busy rebuilding this town,” observed Mary. “You could never tell that the Partisan War was ever here. And I am sure this will be a better city without those awful Democrats.”
“It will be a better city,” agreed Mr. Lincoln. “Not that I’m blaming the Democrats for the atrocities of the Partisan War. Those crimes were committed by drunken outlaws who flock like buzzards to scenes of lawlessness. The Democrats suffered as much from their depredations as our people did. Still, it is best that the Democrats should go into the Confederate Union and leave us Republicans alone to shape the Free States according to our principles. The New Englanders, Germans, and English who are coming here will make this town into a thriving city. Perhaps it will soon be larger than St. Louis.”
The door opened and Tad and Willie entered, covered with snow. Robert went to put the horse in the garage behind the house.
Mr. Lincoln looked at his watch. “I have an idea. It’s four o’clock now. Robert and I will go to the American House at six to have dinner with General Grant and Governor Yates. Robert will ride back with dinner for you and the children. I expect that Grant and Yates will want to talk until late in the evening. And of course I shall be detained for some time in greeting the people. I will stay over at the hotel and return in the morning.”
“Yes, that will be fine, Father. Let me go and get dry clothes for the children.”
Mr. Lincoln sat back down in his chair and continued his work on his speech. He had set book marks in three passages that drew his attention. The first was written by John Adams in 1765:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene, and design in Providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of Mankind all over the earth.”
The second passage had been written by Adams eleven years later during the outset of the American Revolution
“The fourth day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. I am well aware of the toil and bloodshed and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory.”
And then there were the words of George Washington written shortly after Independence when the United States, then under the Articles of Confederation, was disintegrating into warring factions of states:
“The citizens of America, as sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, are the actors on a most conspicuous theater which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity. It is in their choice whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable as a nation. For according to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or fall, and by their confirmation or lapse, it is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.”