Charles R. Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin, reading his Address at the Madison Commemoration . . Unveiling of the Bronze Replica of the Statue of Lincoln by Weinman at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Commencement Day, 1909 .

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Veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic in the Denver Centenary Parade.

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392

393

420

Scene in the Colorado Senate Chamber during the Lincoln Centenary Commemoration

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Scene in the Denver Auditorium during the Lincoln Centenary Commemoration

427

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Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Señor Joaquim Nabuco,
Brazilian Ambassador to the United States .

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Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Wendell Phillips Stafford,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of
Columbia

Autographed Portrait of President William H. Taft
Facsimile of Tribute from President Taft.

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Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Dr. Henry van Dyke .
Medal presented to the Widow of Abraham Lincoln by a Com-
mittee representing Forty Thousand French Citizens; now in
the Possession of Hon. Robert T. Lincoln
The Town Hall of Manchester, England

The American Embassy in Berlin, Germany.

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"ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE TRIBUTE

OF A CENTURY"

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE TRIBUTE

A

OF A CENTURY"

NATHAN WILLIAM MAC CHESNEY

BRAHAM LINCOLN is essentially the product of Amer

ica. For that very reason he makes a peculiar appeal to the American people, and, so far as American ideas and American ideals represent the aspirations and hopes of democracy everywhere, he inspires those who believe in these things, wherever they may be found.

He is the concrete embodiment of the visions of our forefathers expressed in the Declaration of Independence. A product of this country which made that document possible, and which was made possible by it, he saved the nation from permanent hypocrisy, and democratic institutions from disaster. He made the performance of the nation square with its promises, in the eyes of the world.

Lincoln, as the product of the typical American environment of his period, self-made as most of his fellows were, imbued with the ideals of the forefathers and willing to fight for them, was the personification of the spirit of the nation. Everywhere he attracted men who were filled with a kindred spirit; and he is loved and revered to-day wherever that spirit is found. He is Americanism as interpreted by Americans.

His very heredity fitted him for this position. Of Southern ancestry originally from the North, he was born in the South, and brought up among people of Southern birth; yet he lived his youth, grew to manhood, and reached his maturity in a Northern community. He knew and sympathized with the South as a Northern man, born and bred, could not have done; he grasped the earnestness and the temper of the North as it was impossible for a Southern man then to do.