On April 14, 1865, a few hours previous to his assassination, President
Lincoln sent a message by Congressman Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President
during General Grant’s first term, to the miners in the Rocky Mountains
and the regions bounded by the Pacific ocean, in which he said:
“Now that the Rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the
amount of our National debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make
the payment of that debt so much easier.
“Now I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We shall have
hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many have feared that
their return home in such great numbers might paralyze industry by
furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply of labor than there will be
demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden wealth of
our mountain ranges, where there is room enough for all. Immigration,
which even the War has not stopped, will land upon our shores hundreds
of thousands more per year from overcrowded Europe. I intend to point
them to the gold and silver that wait for them in the West.
“Tell the miners for me that I shall promote their interests to the
utmost of my ability; because their prosperity as the prosperity of
the nation; and,” said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, “we shall
prove, in a very few years, that we are indeed the treasury of the
world.”
“ON THE LORD’S SIDE.”
President Lincoln made a significant remark to a clergyman in the early
days of the War.
“Let us have faith, Mr. President,” said the minister, “that the Lord is
on our side in this great struggle.”
Mr. Lincoln quietly answered: “I am not at all concerned about that, for
I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my
constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s
side.”