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Abraham Lincoln

Including Inaugurals and Proclamations

Selected and Edited with an Introduction and Prefatory Notes
By G. MERCER ADAM

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PREFACE.

INTEREST in Lincoln, as man and politician-" type, flower, and representative of all that is worthily American" in his historic day--will, as it has been confidently predicted, never die. Nor should we of our day be in any haste to forget one whose many public virtues and estimable personal character have shed glory on the nation he so assiduously and patriotically served and loved. The popular heart, at least, will certainly not be blamed for continuing to go out warmly to the lovable, unostentatious man, whose human nature overflowed with sympathy for his kind, and whose devotion to public duty was that of a true patriot and a devoted, heroic figure at a most critical era in the nation's annals. That his many admirable and thoughtful Addresses and State Papers continue to be constantly referred to and read shows what hold Lincoln had upon the men and events of his time, and how effectively and beneficently he influenced the trend of affairs in his day. If the Fates did not suffer him to live to deal with the great problem of Reconstruction, there was much of magnitude that in his era he honestly and fearlessly dealt with, and that with signal ability, as well as with marvellous clearness, logical precision, and sagacity. These characteristics of the martyr President are manifestly well brought out in the following collection of his more important Speeches and Addresses, and especially so in his Inaugurals and Messages to Congress, together with a phenomenal power of reaching the core of a subject and of imparting to his audiences his views and conclusions thereon with justice, force, and lucidity. The present Collection, it need M29356

hardly be said, is not an attempt to vie with the exhaustive and authoritative one prepared under the able editorship of President Lincoln's private secretaries, Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, and published by The Century Co., of New York. The volume has a much more limited aim and modest purpose-namely, to produce in popular and more compendious form selections from some of the chief public utterances of Mr. Lincoln of abiding interest; and so help to perpetuate the well-deserved fame and extend the range and scope of public familiarity with the great "Liberator's " career and work.

NEW YORK,

December, 1905.

G. MERCER ADAM.

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