LINCO INCOLN was the truest friend I ever had and therefore my estimate of his character must be taken "cum grano salis." He was the most conscientious man I ever knew, and ranks with Washington in genius, public service, and patriotism. They will go down to posterity in equal love, admiration, and gratitude. After this I need not say that he was the man of his times and such is the verdict of his contemporaries. SPEECH IN THE SENATE CHAMBER. TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. MAY I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have seen, "Weem's Life of Washington." I remember all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and struggles for liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory, more than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing which they struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come --I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if SPEECH IN THE SENATE CHAMBER. 197 I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty and of this, his most chosen people, as the chosen instrument-also in the hands of the Almightyfor perpetuating the object of that great struggle. SPEECH AT TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. I SHALL endeavor to take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, certainly with no malice towards any section. I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve it, but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly. And if I do my duty and do right you will sustain me, will you not? Received, as I am, by the members of a Legislature, the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of State through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is, for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 199 HIS IS freedom from passion and bitterness-in his acute sense of justice-in his courageous faith in the right, and his inextinguishable hatred of wrong—in warm and heartfelt sympathy and mercy, in his coolness of judgment, in his unquestioned rectitude of intention—in a word, in his ability to lift himself for his country's sake above all mere partizanship, in all the marked traits of his character combined, he has had no parallel since Washington, and, while our republic endures he will live with him in the grateful hearts of his grateful countrymen. |