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Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867, by

WESTERN TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Ohio.

PREFACE.

HE emancipation of four millions of people from a state of bondage, the most cruel and degrading known in the annals of oppression, was an event which will fix attention so long as history shall be read. The prominence attained by the Chief Magistrate who led in the achievement of this grand result, and the affection cherished for him by the people whose liberties he so greatly aided in preserving, combine to render his personal example a moral power with the masses. To the colored race he stands in a higher relationship than that of any man who ever lived. Crushed for half a thousand years in a bondage which seemed as hopeless as it was cruel, the light of liberty burst upon them with a suddenness that brought shouts of wildest joy from every lip; and Abraham Lincoln became to them the Angel of Deliverance, sent direct on his mission by the blessed Jesus. Their enthusiastic gratitude kindled almost to idolatry. "He walks de earf like de Lord," exclaimed an aged freedman in describing the Emancipator. With these people the example of honesty, industry, and humanity found in Abraham Lincoln will have an influence proportionate to the love and veneration in which his memory is held.

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The design of this volume is to portray the life and character of this honored patriot in a volume the brevity of which will render it available for wide circulation in home circles and Sabbath-schools, and among that grateful and affectionate people who have most reason to cherish and honor his memory.

While the central object in view in writing these pages was the commendation of pure Christian morality, the facts and attending circumstances of Lincoln's life produce also an argument of a different cast and higher range. However nakedly stated, and for whatever purpose, they illuminate the truth of the discriminating, particular, and unerring PROVIDENCE OF GOD, with a brightness that has fastened the attention of the Christian world.

The palm of martyrdom gives peculiar fragrance to the fame of any champion of the right. This is particularly true of one whose name had already been enshrined in the affections of the people. While writing under these influences, we have sought to avoid a spirit of hero-worship; to represent and commend that which is admirable and worthy of imitation, and to condemn with impartiality that which may be used in apology for evil.

W. O. G.

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