Remarks on Venezuela Made in Receiving Minister Bruzual. September 5, 1864 Remarks upon the Holy Scriptures in Receiv- Remarks on Election Day, in Response to a Remarks on the Benefits of the Elective Sys- tem, in Response to a Serenade. November Remarks on Maryland's Free Constitution, PAGE Remarks on Sherman's March to the Sea, in Response to a Serenade. December 6, 1864 217 Remarks on Edward Everett to a Committee Presenting a Souvenir of Gettysburg. January Remarks the Constitutional Amendment The Hampton Roads Conference. February 3, Acceptance of the Office of President Made to a Notification Committee of Congress. Febru- Second Inaugural Address. March 4, 1865 Remarks on the Employment of Negroes in the The President and the "Powder Monkey" The Two Ruling Ideas of Lincoln's Life PREFACE THE present volume opens with the speeches made by Lincoln, now recognized as a national leader of the Republican party, in a tour of Kansas, late in 1859, and in a tour of New York City and neighboring New England cities early in 1860. In the eastern metropolis, in Cooper Union he delivered the most carefully prepared address of his career, and one that proved to be the most momentous, for it removed the impression, general in the East, that Lincoln was a typical Western "rough and tumble" orator, and gave him equal standing as a serious exponent of his party's principles with Seward, then the leading Republican candidate for the impending nomination for the Presidency.) It is noteworthy that Lincoln delivered only one speech while Presidential nominee, a few modest remarks in his home town. At this time Senator Douglas, the chief of his two opponents for the office, was touring the country, wildly endeavoring to stem by personal appeal the current of popular approval of Lincoln's policies. The speeches delivered by Lincoln as Presidentelect were very disappointing, since he considered it the part of wisdom to temporize on the issues which were literally tearing the country asunder, until he was firmly established in his office. Accordingly in such speeches as "Nothing xiii is Going Wrong," and "The Crisis is Artificial" he exposed himself to the ridicule of his enemies, and to the censure of many of his chagrined supporters. The Presidential speeches, however, are admirable in every respect. From the impromptu replies to serenades to the immortal Speech at Gettysburg and the sublime Second Inaugural Address, all of the President's utterances possess that supreme quality of oratory known by the older rhetoricians as grace, the perfect adaptation of word and sentiment to the spirit and needs of the occasion. The Conversations and Anecdotes which close the volume form a logical appendix to the speeches in their revelation of the height and breadth and depth of the nature of the speaker. And since they relate particularly to the crucial period of Lincoln's statesmanship, when he was planning and executing the Emancipation Proclamation, they serve even more fittingly as an introduction to the succeeding volume of the series, that of State Papers. |