Rising from his seat, he opened a desk behind, and, taking from it a pamphlet collection of the letters already published, proceeded to read from it with infinite zest, while his melancholy features grew bright. It was a delight to see him surrender so completely to the fascination. Finding that I listened, he read for more than twenty minutes, and was still proceeding, when it occurred to me that there must be many at the door waiting to see him on graver matters. Taking advantage of a pause, I rose, and, thanking him for the lesson of the morning, went away. Some thirty persons, including Senators and Representatives, were in the antechamber as I passed out.
Though with the President much during the intervening time before his death, this was the last business I transacted with him. A few days later he left Washington for City Point, on the James River, where he was at the surrender of Richmond. April 6th I joined him there. April 9th the party returned to Washington. On the evening of April 14th the bullet of an assassin took his life.
In this simple story Abraham Lincoln introduces Nasby.
LETTER TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF COLORED PEOPLE AT NEW ORLEANS, APRIL 7, 1872.
MY DEAR SIR,--In reply to your inquiry, I make haste to say, that, in my judgment, the Colored Convention should think more of principles than of men,--except so far as men stand for principles. Above all, let them insist on the rights of their own much-abused and insulted people.
It is absurd for anybody to say that he “accepts the situation,” and then deny the equal rights of the colored man. If the “situation” is accepted in good faith, it must be entirely,--including not merely the abolition of Slavery and the establishment of equal suffrage, but also all those other rights which are still denied or abridged. There must be complete equality before the law, so that in all institutions, agencies, or conveniences, created or regulated by law, there can be no discrimination on account of color, but a black man shall be treated as a white man.
In maintaining their rights, it will be proper for the Convention to invoke the Declaration of Independence, so that its principles and promises shall become a living reality, never to be questioned in any way, but recognized always as a guide of conduct and a governing rule in the interpretation of the National Constitution, being in the nature of a Bill of Rights preceding the Constitution.