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and anxieties may have been, he never inflicted them. upon others; he never wounded by his wit; his humor was never harsh or rude; he endeavored to lighten the labors and the cares of others, and beneath his awkward manner was a gentle refinement and an amiable disposition.

For twenty-five years he practised at the Springfield bar. He was not a great lawyer according to the standard of his profession, but the testimony of his associates is that he was a good one, enjoying the confidence of the judiciary, the bar, and the public to a remarkable degree. He was conspicuous for several honorable traits, and, above all, for that sense of moral responsibility that can always distinguish between duty to a client and duty to society and the truth. On the wrong side of a case he was always weak, and, realizing this, he often persuaded his clients to give up litigation rather than compel him to argue against truth and justice.

Leonard Swett, of Chicago, for years an intimate associate, and himself one of the most famous of American lawyers, says that, "sometimes, after Lincoln entered upon a criminal case, the conviction that his client was guilty would affect him with a sort of panic. On one occasion he turned suddenly to his associate and said, 'Swett, the man is guilty; you defend him, I can't,' and so gave up his share of a large fee.

"At another time, when he was engaged with Judge S. C. Parks in defending a man accused of larceny, he said, 'If you can say anything for the man, do it, I can't; if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, and convict him.'

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Once he was prosecuting a civil suit, in the course of which evidence was introduced showing that his client was attempting a fraud. Lincoln rose and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge sent for him; he refused to come. Tell the judge,' he said, 'my hands are dirty; I came over to wash them.' We are aware

that these stories detract something from the character of the lawyer; but this inflexible, inconvenient, and fastidious morality was to be of vast service afterwards to his country and to the world. The fact is that, with all his stories and jests, his frank companionable humor, his gift of easy accessibility and welcome, he was a man of grave and serious temper and of unusual innate dignity and reserve. He had few or no special intimates, and there was a line beyond which no one ever thought of passing."

Mr. Chauncey M. Depew said, "He told me once that, in his judgment, one of the two best things he ever originated was this. He was trying a cause in Illinois where he appeared for a prisoner charged with aggravated assault and battery. The complainant had told a horrible story of the attack, which his appearance fully justified, when the district attorney handed the witness over to Mr. Lincoln for cross-examination. Mr. Lincoln said he had no testimony, and unless he could break down the complainant's story he saw no way out. come to the conclusion that the witness was a bumptious man, who rather prided himself upon his smartness in repartee, and so, after looking at him for some minutes, he inquired, 'Well, my friend, what ground did you and my client here fight over?" The fellow answered, 'About six acres.' 'Well,' said Mr. Lincoln, don't you think this is an almighty small crop of fight to gather from such a big piece of ground?' The jury laughed, the court and district attorney and complainant all joined in, and the case was laughed out of court."

III

A GREAT ORATOR AND HIS SPEECHES

THE fame of Abraham Lincoln as an orator was made secure by his debate with Douglas in 1858, his political speech at Cooper Institute in February, 1860, his oration at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863, and his second inaugural address in March, 1865. Neither of these four distinct examples of argument and eloquence has ever been surpassed in their separate fields. That was the judgment of his contemporaries, and it is confirmed by the succeeding generation, not only of his own countrymen, but of competent critics throughout the English-speaking world. His style commanded the highest praise from the French Academy. It was commended as a model for the imitation of princes.

His debate with Douglas was a gladiatorial combat between oratorical Titans. It had no precedent and has not been repeated. His speech at Cooper Institute, as an example of political reasoning, made him pre-eminent upon what the Americans call the "stump." His historical analysis, concise statement, faultless logic, and irresistible conclusions made it a model which has been studied and imitated by campaign speakers ever since its delivery. The brief oration at Gettysburg, covering only thirty lines of print, ranks with the noblest utterances of human lips. No orator of ancient or modern times produced purer rhetoric, more beautiful sentiment, or elegant diction.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Many passages in his letters, messages, and speeches are destined to wide fame. What pregnant definitions, what unerring com

mon sense, what foresight, and on great occasions what lofty and, more than national, what human tones. His brief speech at Gettysburg will not easily be surpassed by words on any recorded occasion."

The occasion was the dedication of the battle-field as a soldiers' cemetery, November 19, 1863. Edward Everett delivered a masterly oration, and President Lincoln, being present, was introduced for a few remarks. With profound earnestness and solemnity he spoke five minutes to a breathless audience. His remarks were so brief that it is possible and appropriate to include them here. They could not be considered out of place in any volume of literature on any subject. They cannot be printed or read too often:

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased

devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The next day Mr. Everett, who was considered one of the most accomplished of American orators, sent Lincoln a note in which he said,

"Permit me to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you with such eloquence, simplicity, and appropriateness at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."

It has always been a popular impression that Lincoln's speech was written upon the cars, en route to Gettysburg from Washington on the morning of the ceremonies, but General Fry, of the army, who was detailed from the War Department as his escort on that occasion and was with him every moment, says that he has no recollection of seeing him writing or even reading a manuscript, nor was there any opportunity during the journey for him to do so. Colonel Hay, his private secretary, says that he wrote out a brief speech at the White House before leaving Washington, and, as usual on such occasions, committed it to memory; but the inspiration of the scene led him to make material changes, and the version given here, copied from Nicolay and Hay's Biography, was written out by the President himself after his return. While it may not be exact, it is nearly accurate.

The London Times pronounced Lincoln's second inaugural address to be the most sublime state paper of the century. Equally competent critics have called it a masterpiece of political literature. The following extract will show its style and sentiment:

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