the right eyc; his chin was long, sharp, and up-curved; his eyebrows cropped out like a huge rock on the brow of a hill; his face was long, sallow, and cadaverous, shrunk, shriveled, wrinkled, and dry, having here and there a hair on the surface; his cheeks were leathery; his ears were large, and ran out almost at right angles from his head, caused partly by heavy hats and partly by nature; his lower lip was thick, hanging, and under-curved, while his chin reached for the lip upcurved; his neck was neat and trim, his head being well balanced on it; there was the lone mole on the right cheek, and Adam's apple on his throat.

"Thus stood, walked, acted, and looked Abraham Lincoln. He was not a pretty man by any means, nor was he an ugly one; he was a homely man, careless of his looks, plain-looking and plain-acting. He had no pomp, display, or dignity, so-called. He appeared simple in his carriage and bearing. He was a sad-looking man; his melancholy dripped from him as he walked. His apparent gloom impressed his friends, and created a sympathy for him-one means of his great success. He was gloomy, abstracted, and joyous—rather humorous-by turns. I do not think he knew what real joy was for many years.

"Mr. Lincoln sometimes walked our streets cheerily-goodhumoredly, perhaps joyously—and then it was, on meeting a friend, he cried 'How d'y?' clasping one of his friend's hands in both of his, giving a good hearty soul-welcome. Of a winter's morning, he might be seen stalking and stilting it toward the market-house, basket on arm, his old gray shawl wrapped around his neck, his little Willie or Tad running along at his heels, asking a thousand little quick questions, which his father heard not, not even then knowing that little Willie or Tad was there, so abstracted was he. When he thus met a friend, he said that something put him in mind of a story which he heard in Indiana or elsewhere, and tell it he would, and there was no alternative but to listen.

"Thus, I say, stood and walked and looked this singular He was odd, but when that gray eye and face and every feature were lit up by the inward soul in fires of emotion, then

man.

it was that all these apparently ugly features sprang into organs of beauty, or sunk themselves into a sea of inspiration that sometimes flooded his face. Sometimes it appeared to me that Lincoln's soul was just fresh from the presence of its Creator."

Abraham Lincoln was born poor; had scarcely the bare rudiments of education and no money; he lived in the backwoods, and had to do the exhausting and time-consuming manual labor of frontier settlements, in order to live; he had not one single brilliant intellectual trait or faculty to help him; he had neither books, teachers, money, nor time; neither an intellectual home nor the culture of systematic study. Yet toiling to the uttermost, and simply doing his best with unbroken and undiscouraged steadiness, he lived a singularly useful, successful, and even a heroically symmetrical and noble life. He was a good citizen, a most beneficent friend and neighbor, a helper of the needy, only over-kind as a parent, an honest and able lawyer, a powerful and useful public speaker, a shrewd and yet a fair politician, a lover of justice and right, a patient and just and determined and sagacious and far-seeing ruler. His fame is one with the saving of a nation and the redemption of a race; he is one of those very few men whose names can not be forgotten, because his goodness, as well as his office, marks a great epoch in human history.

There is no room here to quote any of the very numerous and enthusiastic praises that friends and foes alike have abundantly bestowed upon Mr. Lincoln. It is the fate of good and bad men alike to be reviled while alive. But it must have been a good man whose memory shines with such bright unspotted splendor of

praise as has been awarded to Mr. Lincoln since his death. The rulers of England who did their best to help our nation into ruin under a lying pretense of neutrality; the English newspapers that had ranted and sneered at us and at him all through the war; life-long political opponen is, thorough-going rebels, underhand traitors in the North, doubtful or dissatisfied partisans and unqualified supporters, all alike joined in one immense voice of unbroken commendation and mourning when he was taken away. And-what was a far nobler and more desirable possession than all-he had and still has the love and the, prayers of the ignorant and oppressed negroes; a voice that makes but small sound on earth, but which comes before the throne of God with a far stronger and loftier tone than that of all the white men who ever lauded him. If the Emancipation of the Slaves was the greatest deed since Christ, assuredly the blessings of the black people are the best blessings that any man has had since Christ.

As one indication-though doubtless an uncertain test-of the extent and depth of Mr. Lincoln's popularity with the American people, it may be mentioned that since his death there has appeared a printed list of three hundred and eighty books, sermons, eulogies, and addresses upon his life or death; and this list is by no means complete.

The lessons of Mr. Lincoln's life are: the p •power of determined labor and thorough honesty, and the value of character, over and beyond any mere brilliancy or force of intellect; and still more, the justness and soundness of the basis principles of our American liberty. Any European kingdom-say England-will be

as good a country as America, when a "hired man" shall by merit become its king. That simple test is typical of the two continents. In no other nation on earth than the United States can good qualities alone, without intrigue or lying, without shedding blood, or privy conspiracy, or levying war, carry a man through so lofty a career.

8

V.

WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD.

SECRETARY SEWARD has during the rebellion had especial official charge of the foreign relations of the United States, and has likewise been often an adviser of the President about home affairs. Mr. Seward, before being Secretary of State, had been United States Senator from New York, Governor of New York, and State Senator. Besides holding those important offices, he has been long and widely known as a laborious student, a good writer, a powerful orator, a shrewd and able lawyer, a skillful and successful politician and partyleader, and an enlightened statesman. Of the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, he was the only one who suggested any modifications actually adopted as to the Great Proclamation, and these were important ones. He advised and secured the insertion of the words "and maintain" in that paper, where it had at first only said that it would “recognize" the freedom of the emancipated slaves. And he suggested waiting to issue the Proclamation accompanied with victory instead of defeat.

Mr. Seward was born at Florida, Orange County, New York, May 16, 1801. He was therefore eight years older than Mr. Lincoln, and is one year younger than the century. His father's ancestors were Welsh, and those of his mother, Mary Jennings, Irish. His grandfather, John Seward, was a Colonel in the Revolutionary army, and an energetic Whig leader in Sus