disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending."

The second and last rhetorical speech is the address delivered before the Washingtonian Temperance Society of Springfield on Washington's Birthday, 1842. Lincoln was not only himself a total abstainer, but he was actively interested at that time in the cause of temperance, so that his willingness to speak on this occasion was in perfect keeping with his practical aims as a speaker. Like its predecessor, the address closes with a splendid peroration, which, while less familiar than the close of the "First Inaugural Address," is hardly inferior to it:

"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."

Curiously enough, in the four short speeches delivered by Lincoln on the same day in Pennsylvania, nineteen years later, only one brief reference is made to Washington, although one of the speeches was given in Independence Hall. These speeches were not prepared and the president elect did not know beforehand that he would be called upon to speak in Independence Hall, where, he said, "I supposed I was merely to do something toward raising a flag." From what he said, however, it is evident that he had lost none of his early veneration for the Father of his Country.

Although Lincoln served only a single term in Congress, he made a number of speeches, one of which, really a stump speech, is distinguished by its markedly humorous character.X

This positive quality of his principal congressional speech affords an opportunity to note a negative quality of most of Lincoln's other speeches, including all his formal addresses. Famous as he was as a teller of funny stories and fond as he was at all times of illustrating a point in conversation by an appropriate anecdote, in his public speaking Lincoln is usually serious. He himself once explained his reason for abstaining from using this obvious help in the Debates, when urged to do so Xby a friend, by saying: "The occasion is too

serious, the issues are too grave. I do not seek applause, or to amuse the people, but to convince them." As we have already noted, the persuasion of people, not their amusement, was always Lincoln's first purpose. As a political speaker he dealt with serious subjects at a critical period and he dealt with them in an appropriately serious and substantial manner. It is possible that in the Campaign Speeches, from 1840 to 1856, which have been reported in very small part and in fragmentary form, Lin

coln resorted to funny stories to clinch his political arguments, but if he did so there is no record of the fact. There is some evidence, however, furnished by newspaper reports of political meetings held in the first republican campaign, in 1856, that some of these campaign speeches, at least, were not wholly serious, as in the following from The Springfield Journal, for August 4, 1856:

"Mr. Lincoln having been called upon, explained the object of the meeting, and made a graphic and forcible statement of the true issue in the impending struggle. His remarks were very happy, frequently interrupted by applause and sounds of laughter."

Before Congress had been assembled a month, the new whig member from Illinois, the only representative of his party from his state in the Lower House, spoke for the first time, and as this was Lincoln's first speech of anything like a national character, aside from the unrecorded campaign speeches, it may be given

more attention than its intrinsic interest or importance really deserves. He refers to it himself in a letter to Herndon as follows:

"As to speech making, by way of getting the hang of the House, I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, no more, as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two, in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it."

The speech referred to in this letter was delivered January 12, 1848, and it deals with the burning party question of that day-the Mexican War. Like most whigs, Lincoln was strongly opposed to the war, for which he could find no justification, and although he never failed to vote in favor of granting supplies to the army, he took advantage of every opportunity to voice his disapproval of the democratic policy. Although the speech is in the