33

(November 19, 1858, Letter to Dr. Henry-Herndon, p. 414.)

I am glad that I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable questions of the age which I could have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of liberty long after I am gone.

34

(March 17, 1865, Speech to an Indiana Regiment-Hapgood, p. 386.) I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear

any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

35

(November 21, 1864, Letter to Mrs. Bixby-Van Buren, p. 392.)

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the AdjutantGeneral of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I

cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

36

Abraham Lincoln.

(December 20, 1839, Speech at Springfield, Ill.-Hanaford, p. 52.)

* * *

Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, may it be my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert her, but that I never deserted her! * * * The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause that we deem to be just. It shall not deter me. Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if after all we shall fail, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the course approved by our judgments and adored by our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending.

37

(February 22, 1842, Speech at Springfield, Ill.-Complete Works, Vol. I, p. 63.)

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest name of earth-long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on.

GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE.

38

(July 16, 1852, Speech at Springfield, Ill.-Complete Works, Vol. I, p. 171.)

A free people in times of peace and quiet-when pressed by no common danger-naturally divide into parties. At such times the man who is of neither party is not, cannot be of any consequence.

39

(December 3, 1864, Interview-Hapgood, p. 385.)

You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.

40

(March 4, 1861, First Inaugural-Raymond, p. 168.)

The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The