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unmindful of the many trials which beset them in their march through the dismal swamps, whereby both their courage and their numbers have been depleted.”
    She fell silent and the President cleared his throat to answer. “If that will do any good,” he said, “it is easily done.”
    The voice of Dr. Bamford instantly replied. “It will do all that is required. It will unite the soldiers as one man. It will unite them to you in bands of steel.”
    “And now, if you would prevent a serious if not fatal disaster to your cause, let the news be promulgated at once and disseminated throughout the camp of the Army of the Potomac. Have it scattered broadcast that you are on the eve of visiting the front.
    “Not that you are merely
talking
of it but that it is settled, that you are
going
and are now getting into readiness.
    “This will stop insubordination and hold the soldiers in check, being something to divert their minds and they will wait to see what your coming portends.”
    “It shall be done,” the President said.
    Everyone started as Nettie Colburn stood. Looking down directly into Lincoln’s eyes, she spoke to him with the utmost force and solemnity.
    “You must not abate the terms of the issue uppermost in your mind,” she declared.
    The President’s features tightened, the directive was so unexpected. He stared at the young woman’s face as though it were the face of someone else.
    “You must not delay its enforcement as a law beyond the opening of the year,” Nettie told him. “This act will be the crowning event of your administration and your life.”
    The President twitched as Nettie placed her right hand on his shoulder. “You are being counseled by strong parties to defer the enforcement of it,” she continued, her voice sounding too deep and resonant to be emerging from such a young, female throat. “These parties hope to supplant it by other measures and to delay action. You must, in no wise, heed such counsel but stand firm in your convictions, fearlessly perform the work and fulfill the mission for which you have been raised up by an overruling Providence.”
    Nettie Colburn fell silent then. Everyone stared at her expectantly.
    Several moments later, she blinked and, seeing where she was, standing in front of the President, she started and, blushing, retreated so abruptly that she would have fallen back across the ottoman had Mr. Laurie not grabbed her suddenly by the arm.
    The President stood, making Nettie cringe as he towered above her. Once more taking her small hands in his, he said, “My child, you possess a very singular gift. I thank you for coming here tonight. It is more important than perhaps anyone present can understand.”
    “Thank you, sir,” she replied, feeling ill-at-ease.
    While Mrs. Lincoln was thanking her profusely, Nettie was able to hear what Mr. Newton was saying to the President even though he spoke in a confidential tone of voice.
    “Mr. President,” he asked, “would it be improper for me to inquire whether there has been any pressure brought to bear upon you to delay the enforcement of the proclamation?”
    “It is taking all my nerve and strength to withstand such a pressure,” Nettie heard the President answer.
    As they were exiting the parlour, Mr. Newton said to Lincoln, “Did you notice, Mr. President, anything peculiar in the method of address when Miss Colburn was addressing you in trance?”
    “Yes, and it is very singular,” Lincoln replied.
    As they spoke, both men were looking at a full-length portrait on the wall.
    That of Daniel Webster who had died in 1852.
AFTERWARD
    Both injunctions given to the President that night by the twenty-year old medium were followed.
    Lincoln’s visit to the front, rallying the weakened Army of the Potomac, was a turning point in the Civil War.
    And, on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln formally issued the Emancipation Proclamation, hastening the end of slavery in America.
    Had the mediumship of this slender