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GEO. W. JULIAN-PHILIP SHAFF.

253

E combined the integrity of Washington with the humanity of Wilberforce.

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EXT to Washington, the Father of our Independence, stands Abraham Lincoln, the martyr of our Union, in the line of our Presidents.

NEW YORK, 1882.

Philip Schaff

TO THE

THE SYNOD OF THE OLD SCHOOL
PRESBYTERIANS OF BALTIMORE,

WHO WAITED UPON HIM IN A BODY.

I SAW, upon taking my position here, I was going to have an administration, if an administration at all, of extraordinary difficulty. It was without exception a time of the greatest difficulty this country ever saw. I was early brought to a lively reflection, that nothing in my power whatever, or others, to rely upon, would succeed, without direct assistance of the Almighty. I have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am; nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing all would go well, and that he would decide for the right.

ALBERT PIKE.

255

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say that he was pre-eminently an honest man, a frank, sincere, outspoken man, who deceived no one, wronged no one, cajoled no one; that he was a great, strong, fearless man; that he was unselfishly patriotic, a worshiper of the constitution according to the old Whig interpretation of it, a devotee of the Union, an ardent lover of his whole country, hating no one, desiring to punish no one; yearning to see the Union restored, and the old good will and good humor return to bless the land-to say all this is only to say weat is testified to by a cloud of witnesses, what no one anywhere will now not gladly admit. He occupied, I think, a larger place in the affections of the people than any of the great men who preceded him, and he will have it, I think, in the affection of the generations that are to come. He would have said, if questioned, that he greatly preferred to be so remembered. He endeared himself to the people by ways and practices and observances all worthy and honorable, generous and fair; and kindly memories of him are as general among those who, struggling to believe political independence owed chiefly to him their defeat, as they are among the men of the States whose armies obeyed orders and maintained the Union.

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REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE LUTHERAN SYNOD OF 1862.

I WELCOME here the representatives of the Evangelical Lutherans of the United States. I accept with gratitude their assurances of the sympathy and support of that enlightened, influential, and loyal class of my fellowcitizens in an important crisis, which involves, in my judgment, not only the civil and religious liberties of our own dear land, but in a large degree the civil and religious liberties of mankind in many countries and through many ages. You well know, gentlemen, and the world knows, how reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle forced upon me, on my advent to this place, by the internal enemies of our country. You all know, the world knows the forces and the resources the public agents have brought into employment to sustain a government against which there has been brought not one complaint of real injury committed against society at home or abroad. You all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus forced into our hands, this government appealed to the prayers of the pious and the good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor of God. I now humbly and reverently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting that, if it shall please the Divine Being who determines the destinies of nations, that this shall remain a united people, they will, humbly seeking the divine guidance, make their prolonged national existence a source of new benefit and conditions of mankind.

ABRAM S. HEWITT.

257

ABRA

BRAHAM LINCOLN was essentially a thinker who had the courage of his convictions.

He was a patriot who was ever willing to make personal sacrifices for his patriotism. He was, therefore, a man of action as well as of reflection. His character was based upon truth, and having been placed by fortune in the proper sphere of action, he showed he was a truly great man.

NEW YORK, 1880.

17

Abram S. He will

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