find enduring arbitrament in the dread tribunal of war.

It was well in such an hour-with such tremendous issues in the balance that a steady hand was at the helm; that a conservative statesman-one whose mission was to save, not to destroy-was in the high place of responsibility and power. It booted little, then, that he was untaught of schools, unskilled in the ways of courts, but it was of supreme moment that he could touch responsive chords in the great American heart; all-important that his very soul yearned for the preservation of the government established through the toil and sacrifice of the generation that had gone. How hopeless the Republic in that dark hour had its destiny hung upon the statecraft of Tallyrand, the eloquence of Mirabeau, or the genius of Napoleon!

Fortunate, indeed, that the ark of our covenant was then borne by the plain brave man of conciliatory spirit and kind words, and whose heart, as Emerson said, "Was as large as the world but nowhere had room for the memory of wrong!"

Nobler words have never fallen from human lips than the closing sentences of his First Inaugural in one of the pivotal days of human history-immediately upon taking the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the country:

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

In the light of what we now know so well, nothing is hazarded in saying that the death of no man has been to this country so irreparable a loss—one so grievous to be borneas that of Abraham Lincoln. When Washington died his work was done, his life well rounded out-save one, the years allotted had been passed. Not so with Lincoln. To him a grander task was yet in waiting-one no other could so well perform. The assassin's pistol proved the veritable Pan

dora's box from which sprung evils untold-whose consequences have never been measured-to one-third of the States of our Union. But for his untimely death, how the current of history might have been changed-and many a sad chapter remained unwritten! How earnestly he desired a restored Union, and that the blessings of peace and of concord should be the common heritage of every section, is known to all.

When in the loom of time have such words been heard above the din of fierce conflict as his sublime utterances but a brief time before his tragic death:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness for the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve a lasting peace among ourselves and among all nations."

No fitter occasion than this can ever arise in which to refer to two historical events that at a crucial moment tested to the utmost the safe and far-seeing statesmanship of President Lincoln. The first was the seizure upon the high seas of Mason and Slidell, the accredited representatives from the Southern Confederacy, respectively to the Courts of England and of France. The seizure was in November, 1861, by Capt. Wilkes of our Navy-and the envoys named were taken by him from the Trent, a mail-carrying steamer of the British Government. The act of Capt. Wilkes met with enthusiastic commendation throughout the entire country; he was voted the thanks of Congress and his act publicly approved by the Secretary of the Navy.

The demand by the British government for reparation upon the part of the United States was prompt and explicit. The perils that then environed us were such as rarely shadow the pathway of nations. Save Russia alone, our government had no friend among the crowned heads of Europe. Menaced by the peril of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by England and France-with the very stars apparently warring against us in their courses-the position of the President was in the last degree trying. To surrender the Con

federate envoys was in a measure humiliating and in opposition to the popular impulse; their retention, the signal for the probable recognition of the Southern Confederacy by the European powers, and the certain and immediate declaration of war by England.

The good genius of President Lincoln-rather his wise, just, far-seeing statesmanship-stood him well in hand at the critical moment. Had a rash, opinionated, impulsive man then held the executive office, what a sea of troubles might have overwhelmed us-how the entire current of our history might have been changed!

The calm, wise President in his council chamber-aided by his closest official adviser, Secretary Seward-discerned clearly the path of national safety and of honor. None the less was the act of the President one of justice-one that will abide the sure test of time. Upon the real ground that the seizure of the envoys was in violation of the law of nations, they were eventually surrendered; war with England-as well as immediate danger of recognition of the Confederacyaverted. And let it not be forgotten that this very act of President Lincoln was a triumphant vindication of our government in its second war with Great Britain—a war waged as a protest upon our part against British seizure and impressment of American citizens upon the high seas.

The other incident to which I briefly refer was the Proclamation of Emancipation. As a war measure of stupendous significance in the national defense as well as of justice to the enslaved-such proclamation, immediate in time, and radical in terms, had, to greater or less degree, been urged upon the President from the outbreak of the Rebellion. That slavery was to perish amid the great upheaval, became in time the solemn conviction of all thoughtful men. Meanwhile there were divided counsels among the earnest supporters of the President as to the time the masterful act-"that could know no backward steps"-should be taken. Unmoved amid divided counsels and at times fierce dissensions-the calm, far-seeing Executive upon whom was cast the tremendous responsibility, patiently bided his time. Events that are

now the masterful theme of history crowded in rapid succession, the opportune moment arrived, the hour struck, the Proclamation-that has no counterpart-fell upon the ears of the startled world, and as by the interposition of a mightier hand, a race was lifted out of the depths of bondage.

To the one man at the helm seems to have been given to know "the day and the hour.' At the crucial moment in one of the exalted days of human history, "He sounded forth the trumpet that has never called retreat."

My fellow-citizens, the men who knew Abraham Lincoln, who saw him face to face, who heard his voice in public assemblage, have, with few exceptions, passed to the grave. Another generation is upon the busy stage. The book has forever closed upon the dread pageant of civil strife. Sectional animosities, thank God, belong now only to the past. The mantle of peace is over our entire land and prosperity within our borders.

Through the instrumentality-in no small measure of the man whose memory we now honor, the government established by our fathers, untouched by the finger of Time, has descended to us. The responsibility of its preservation and transmission rests upon the successive generations as they shall come and go. To-day, at this auspicious hour-sacred to the memory of Lincoln-let us, his countrymen, inspired by the sublime lessons of his wondrous life, and grateful to God for all He has vouchsafed to our fathers and to us in the past, take courage and turn our faces resolutely, hopefully, trustingly to the future. I know of no words more fitting with which to close this humble tribute to the memory of Abraham Lincoln than those inscribed upon the monument of Molière: "Nothing was wanting to his glory; he was wanting to ours."

LINCOLN THE LAWYER, AND HIS BLOOMINGTON

SPEECHES

MY

R. M. BENJAMIN

Y personal acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln began in 1856 and continued until his election to the presidency in 1860. Accordingly, my remarks on this occasion will be confined to that period.

I shall first speak of Lincoln, the lawyer, and then of his two principal Bloomington speeches-one of them in Major's Hall on May 26, 1856, and the other in the Court House square on September 4, 1858.

I began the study of law at the Harvard Law School in 1854, came to Bloomington in April, 1856, was admitted to the bar on an examination certificate signed by Lincoln, and in October of the same year, began the practice of law in company with Gridley and Wickizer. They were both old-time Whigs-political associates and supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Gen. Gridley had served as a Representative, and later as a Senator, in the State Legislature, and was at the time (1856) one of the five members of the State Central Committee of the new party just organized and known at first as the Anti-Nebraska Party. Mr. Wickizer had been Mayor of the city of Bloomington, and at the November election, 1856, was elected the Representative of this legislative district. During the four years between the Spring of 1856 and the Spring of 1860, Lincoln was a regular attendant at the sessions of the McLean County Circuit Court. He sometimes, in important cases, assisted us, and he frequently visited the office for consultation with Gridley and Wickizer on political matters.

In 1856, there were published only sixteen volumes of the Illinois Supreme Court Reports. There are now two hundred