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where Lincoln gave his first speech in reply to Douglas-a speech which led to the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates-and where Judge Douglas afterward died.

Thousands of copies of a very interesting and instructive pamphlet on the "One Hundredth Anniversary of Lincoln," were distributed throughout the city and the State, by the Hon. Francis G. Blair, the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Illinois; the book stores and libraries had on special exhibit books and pictures relating to Lincoln and his time; the Chicago Public Library, upon the suggestion of the Lincoln Committee, prepared, and issued to the public a "Lincoln Bibliography," with a very complete classification of all published works relating to the different periods of Lincoln's life. This was widely distributed, and proved of great interest and value in connection with the plans of the general Committee. The compilation of the Bibliography was the work of Mr. Charles A. Larson.

The editors of all the foreign papers of the city took an active interest in the celebration. The Gettysburg Speech, and the Mayor's Proclamation were translated into the various foreign languages, printed in foreign papers published in the city, and posted in the foreign quarters, in order that the life and work of Lincoln might be brought home to every man, woman, and child in the community, whether they read the English language or not.

Chicago remembered with pride that it was within her boundaries that Lincoln received his nomination for the Presidency; and her celebration, starting on Sunday with exercises in the churches of every denomination, lasted throughout the week with a sustained interest that the most experienced observer of public celebrations would have in advance declared utterly impossible. The city in which Lincoln was nominated and in which he spent much of his time, showed by every evidence, that it thoroughly appreciated the honor which had been conferred upon it by that association.

THE

THE UNITY OF THE NATION

(A Speech of Introduction)

HON. WILLIAM J. CALHOUN

HE progress of nations towards a more perfect civilization is often attended with great social convulsions, with revolutions, and wars. It is in such times, when the need of the people is the sorest, when their cry for leadership is the loudest, that the great man appears. From obscurity he sometimes comes, and to the wondering eyes of men seems divinely commissioned for the needs of the hour and for the work he has to do.

Such a time in the history of this country was the Civil War, and such a man was Abraham Lincoln. The time was one of great excitement and of intense passion. The air resounded with the clamor of angry voices, with the tramp of armed men, and with the thunder of the great guns of war.

Lincoln, when called to the head of the Nation, was comparatively unknown and inexperienced. Many doubted his capacity for the emergency, and questioned the wisdom of his policies, but he continued to be the central figure of that great struggle. Around him men, strong men, fought and died, while women and children wept. Through it all, he was masterful in control, resolute and inflexible in purpose. But his resolution was always tempered with patience, with moderation, and with pity.

I lived in that time; I was but a boy, and vaguely understood the things I saw and heard, but I remember well the angry passion of the hour, the abuse and the epithets that were heaped upon him. But just as the bugles were blowing the sweet notes of victory, just as the sunshine of peace was breaking through the clouds of war, he too fell dead-the War's last and most precious victim. It was then the American people, North and South, seemed to awake to the realiza

tion that a great and good man had fallen. A wave of sympathy and love swept over the land, and removed every trace of bitterness. Friends and former foes alike crowded around his grave and covered it with laurels of fame and with flowers of praise.

The War bore heavily upon him. Its responsibilities were great. His rugged cheeks were furrowed with care. His heart was wrenched with the misery, the suffering, and the pity of it. But all through that dark and desperate night, his greatest hope, his greatest aspiration was to save the Union; for it he prayed and labored and suffered. Regardless of every cost and every sacrifice, his hope, his trust, his faith, was in and for the Union.

I do not know whether the immortals look down upon the earth and remember us as we remember them. I do not know whether Abraham Lincoln takes note of what is said and done here to-day. If he does, the fact that the Union which he loved is safe; that the warring sections which threatened its perpetuity are now closer together in personal relations, in common sympathies, and in purpose, than ever before, must gratify him.

The War is long since over. Its battle flags, blood-stained and tear-stained, have been furled and laid away, never again to wave in the battle front. Its forts are dismantled and levelled. Its guns and swords have turned to rust. Its dead quietly sleep in grass-covered graves. But the blessing of a profound peace rests upon the Republic. The prayer of Abraham Lincoln has been answered; the Union is saved.. If I may be allowed the figure of speech, the North and the South now stand, as it were, side by side, with clasped hands, the heart of each full of sacred memories of the past, of courageous endeavor and heroic sacrifice. But their backs are turned upon the past; their uplifted faces are turned to the future, illuminated with a love of country that knows no North and no South, no East and no West. Their aspirations for the future are the same. Their common purpose is, that the American people shall meet the emergencies of the future with the same high resolve that distinguished

their past. And their common hope is, that this Union shall be maintained as a demonstration of the permanency of democracy; that its influence shall be for the betterment of the life of the world, for the uplift of humanity, and for the advancement of civilization.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

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PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON

Y earliest recollection is of standing at my father's gateway in Augusta, Georgia, when I was four years old, and hearing some one pass and say that Mr. Lincoln Iwas elected and there was to be war. Catching the intense tones of his excited voice, I remember running in to ask my father what it meant. What it meant, you need not be told. What it meant, we shall not here to-day dwell upon. We shall rather turn away from those scenes of struggle and of unhappy fraternal strife, and recall what has happened since to restore our balance, to remind us of the permanent issues of history, to make us single-hearted in our love of America, and united in our purpose for her advancement. We are met here to-day to recall the character and achievements of a man who did not stand for strife, but for peace, and whose glory it was to win the affection alike of those whom he led and of those whom he opposed, as indeed a man and a king among those who mean the right.

It is not necessary that I should rehearse for you the life of Abraham Lincoln. It has been written in every school book. It has been rehearsed in every family. It were to impeach your intelligence if I were to tell you the story of his life. I would rather attempt to expound for you the meaning of his life, the significance of his singular and unique career.

It is a very long century that separates us from the year of his birth. The nineteenth century was crowded with many significant events,-it seems to us in America as if it were more crowded with significant events for us than for any other nation of the world,-and that far year 1809 stands very near its opening, when men were only beginning to understand what was in store for them. It was a significant