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The Peterson House, in which Lincoln Died, Washington, D. C.

never was any answer to it. It became a standard to which men rallied. And truth appeared the best politics. Mr. Ingersoll calls this "a victorious truth whose utterance made Lincoln the foremost man in the Republic." That sentence stated the clear principle. On that he will not compromise, but on all the minor matters he will be yielding and conciliatory-and always go ahead.

He summarized the Dred Scott decision in the fierce words, "If any one man choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object!" "The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy,' was another rifle shot in his First Inaugural.

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At no time did he satisfy the extremists on either side. Many times he was thought to be drifting and without a policy. He was not omniscient. Only a few men are. it is an unspeakable mercy that this man was willing to learn from current events, to use his discretion according to circumstances actually existing; that the only consistency he had was the consistency of principle, and he would find his goal by any path he could. And his own eye was so single that at last the whole body was full of light.

In two crucial respects he stands nearly alone-in his power to keep still, and his power to speak. We are a speaking people. Good talkers are always at a premium with us. Now here else is the right word more effective than in a Republic. And Lincoln had the national gift, as we shall see. But in certain supreme crises the final test is not only what a man says, but what he refrains from saying.

A civil war does not develop careful and dainty speech. Men and women-on both sides incline to invective and vitiriol. Our Abolitionists knew a lot of hard words. The South did not measure its terms by the rule of gentleness. When there was nothing else men could do, they pitched into Lincoln. Men here, who were boys then, heard him called by all the names that were bad. I have always been wanting to tone to him for the names I heard him called in my youth.

Not only so, but the North and the South were abusing

each other. "Rebel" and "traitor" were about the gentlest terms we used. And it was a talking time. But in all that flood of acrimonious speech, not one word of malice escaped his lips. He was reviled and slandered, but "as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Other men stung and goaded him, but he replied only in some quaint story that acted like oil where others used acids. And in all the forty-four years since "the lilacs bloomed" as he died, we have not had to take back one word of bitterness toward the South, or pull out one sentence from festering sore. He won a victory over the South, and is to-day our strongest appeal to the South. "His entire administra tion was one protracted magnanimity. He was as great in his forbearance as in his performances."

But what shall be said of his power to speak? His silence and his speech alike were golden. Men were scared when he began the debates with Douglas, for Douglas was indeed a "Little Giant." When the debates were over, the air was cleared for a thousand years. Douglas won the sentorship, but Lincoln won the shining victory for truth. And man said, "You always felt that Abe was right." "I m not bound to win," he said, "but I am bound to be true. So "he did not say the thing which was best for that day de bate, but the thing that would stand the test of timend! square itself with eternal justice."

Gladstone, born the same year as Lincoln, was the spea. marvel of England during many years. British oratory hardly ever been richer or nobler than his. He was educa at Oxford. All that culture could do had been done for hi but his supporters declare that he has left not a single m terpiece of English, and hardly one great phrase that cli to the memory of men. Lincoln has given a new mea: to oratory and a new dignity to public speech. His atter ances have the quality of finality. George William Cris declares that there are three supreme speeches in our hist "The speech of Patrick Henry at Williamsburg, of Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall, of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysl —three, and there is no fourth." I think there was a fourth

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Lincoln's Second Inaugural. He gave a new and embarrassing definition to the words "principal address." At = Gettysburg, Edward Everett spoke magnificently through many thousand noble words-a masterly oration. Lincoln spoke three minutes, two hundred and fifty words, and this is the principal address of that day or many days. The Second Inaugural is only seven hundred and fifty words in length, but while liberty lasts, while charity survives among men, while patriotism lives under any flag, these few words will I be on men's lips like prophecy, psalm or gospel. How did this man, born in poverty, reared in poverty, untrained in any schools, come to do this miracle? It is not a trick of expression, it is the miracle of supreme truth, supremely stated. "Back of the orator is the man.” Behind the matchless President is the matchless personality.

He had the faith that saves, without the bigotry that blights. He had insight like a prophet's, a sense of the AlI mighty Person like a mystic's; no theology, but the life of

the spirit; an unwavering belief in the Providence that was 1 often silent and perplexing; moral courage born of moral I conviction; a sense that right is right, since God is God; ue. a devotion that planted a cross in his heart; a trust that day kept his hands clean and his heart pure. When he called ime the Cabinet to hear the Emancipation Proclamation, they

found him reading a chapter from Artemus Ward. He said, pea I made the promise to myself and to my Maker that I would ory lo this. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, lucor that I have determined for myself"-and read the im

binortal document which freed the slave. His sense of desle iny was not fatalism, but faith. He thought of himself and cliche nation as in the guiding care of God. He thought more ea of his duties than of his rights, more of his burdens than of his honors. He incarnated the simplest and greatest virtues. He was above all a man of truth. "I am nothing, truth is steverything." His life did not belie the language of his lips. "Whatever appears to be God's will, I will do it." And he put the loftiest at the service of the lowliest.

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I know what I am saying, and must not be betrayed into

extravagance, but I can not refrain from saying, that of Abraham Lincoln, more than of any merely human man of history, are certain inspired words true; to him, more than any other save One, are they to be applied: "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." "We hid, as it were, our faces from him." "He trod the winepress alone." "The chastisement of our peace was upon him." "He saved others, himself he could not save.' "The common people heard him gladly." "The government shall be upon his shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful"-and, after war-"the Prince of Peace."

He was murdered on Good Friday, and, as when William of Orange was slain, "the little children wept in the streets."

It is not for us to mourn that we have lost Lincoln, for he is our finest inspiration and "gentlest memory" forever. It is rather for us to be glad that we have had and still have him. The mention of his name makes poverty look less odious and depressing. The story of his life is enough to make any youth under the flag put his feet upon difficulties and hardships in a royal purpose to rise above them all. The picture of his character should call us again to the love and practice of those simple, majestic virtues of which Lincoln was the¦ living definition. A thousand things we can live without, but we cannot live without truth and honesty, courage and kindness, self-denial and patriotism, faith and charity, liberty and law. In the face of an old conservatism and a dangerous radicalism we need again the truth and independence of this tall rail-splitter, leader of the sons of men. In the face of greed and graft we need to learn again that a good name like Lincoln's is infinitely better than any riches, however great.

Once in the darkest days of the War, after many defeats for our armies, one of our poets addressed Lincoln in a poem called, "Abraham Lincoln, give us a man." This still is America's call to manhood and youth. "The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity." "It is a glorious thing to see a nation saved by its youth." It is our high chance to show whence we have sprung; ours to add to Lin

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