who had given, irrevocably given, as was then supposed, five sons to the country. The letter was dated November 21, 1864, before the excitement of his second election was over:

"DEAR MADAM: I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement, of the Adjutant-General 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 a loss so overwhelming. But I can not 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, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts."

I imagine that all history and all literature may be searched, and in vain, for a funereal tribute so touching, so comprehensive, so fortunate in expression as this.

If we have been moved to laughter by a sim

ple story, and to tears by a pathetic strain, we can understand what Lincoln was to all, and especially to the common people who were his fellows in everything except his greatness, when he moved, spoke, and acted among them. It would be a reflection upon the human race if men did not recognize something worthy of enduring fame in one whose kindness and sympathy were so comprehensive as to include the insect on the one side and the noble, but bereaved, mother on the other. To the soldiers, General Thomas was "Old Holdfast," General Hooker was "Fighting Joe," and Mr. Lincoln was "Father Abraham." These names were due to personal qualities which the soldiers observed, admired, and applauded.

Mr. Lincoln was a mirth-making, genial, melancholy man. By these characteristics he enlisted sympathy for himself at once, while his moral qualities and intellectual pre-eminence commanded respect. Mr. Lincoln's wit and mirth will give him a passport to the thoughts and hearts of millions who would take no interest in the sterner and more practical parts of his character. He used his faculties for mirth and wit to relieve the melancholy of his life, to parry unwelcome inquiries, and, in the debates of politics and the bar, to worry his opponents. In debate he often so combined wit, satire, and statement, that his opponent

at once appeared ridiculous and illogical. Mr. Douglas was often the victim of these sallies in the great debate for the Senate before the people of Illinois, and before the people of the country, in the year 1858. Douglas constantly asserted that abolition would be followed by amalgamation, and that the Republican party designed to repeal the laws of Illinois which prohibited the marriage of blacks and whites. This was a formidable appeal, to the prejudices of the people of Southern Illinois especially. "I protest now and forever," said Lincoln, "against that counterfeit logic which presumes that because I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do, necessarily, want her for a wife. I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there were no law to keep them from it; but, as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will, to the very last, stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." Thus, in two sentences, did Mr. Lincoln overthrow Douglas in his logic, and render him ridiculous in his position.

Douglas claimed special credit for the defeat of the Lecompton bill, although five sixths of the

votes were given by the Republican party. Said Lincoln: "Why is he entitled to more credit than others for the performance of that good act, unless there was something in the antecedents of the Republicans that might induce every one to expect them to join in that good work, and, at the same time, leading them to doubt that he would? Does he place his superior claim to credit on the ground that he performed a good act which was never expected of him?” He then gave Mr. Douglas the benefit of a specific application of the parable of the lost sheep.

In the last debate at Alton, October 15, 1858, Mr. Douglas proceeded to show that Buchanan was guilty of gross inconsistencies of position. Lincoln did not defend Buchanan, but, after he had stated the fact that Douglas had been on both sides of the Missouri Compromise, he added: "I want to know if Buchanan has not as much right to be inconsistent as Douglas has? Has Douglas the exclusive right in this country of being on all sides of all questions? Is nobody allowed that high privilege but himself? Is he to have an entire monopoly on that subject?"

There are three methods in debate of sustaining and enforcing opinions, and the faculty and facility of using these several methods are the tests of intellectual quality in writers and speak

ers. First, and lowest intellectually, are those who rely upon authority. They gather and marshal the sayings of their predecessors, and ask their hearers and readers to indorse the positions taken, not because they are reasonable and right under the process of demonstration, but because many persons in other times have thought them to be right and reasonable. As this is the work of the mere student, and does not imply either philosophy or the faculty of reasoning, those who rely exclusively upon authority are in the third class of intellectual men. Next, and of a much higher order, are the writers and speakers who state the facts of a case, apply settled principles to them, and by sound processes of reasoning maintain the positions taken. But high above all are the men who, by statement pure and simple, or by statement argumentative, carry conviction to thoughtful minds. Unquestionably Mr. Lincoln belongs to this class. Those who remember Douglas's theory in regard to "squatter sovereignty," which he sometimes dignified by calling it the "sacred right of self-government," will appreciate the force of Lincoln's statement of the scheme in these words: "The phrase, 'sacred right of self-government,' though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in the attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That