which he had battled so well. In him the West thus spoke to the East:

"But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation.

"One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he would fail with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them glittering generalities.' Another bluntly styles them self-evident lies.' And others insidiously argue that they apply only to perior races.'

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"These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the sappers and miners of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us.

"This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

"All honor to Jefferson sure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression!

the man who, in the concrete pres

In the winter of next year the Western champion appeared at New York; and, in a remarkable address at the Cooper Institute, February 27, 1860, vindicated the policy of the Fathers of the Republic and the principles of the Republican party. After showing with curious skill and minuteness the original understanding on the power of Congress over Slavery in the territories, he demonstrated that the Republican party was not in any just sense sectional; and he proceeded to expose the perils from the pretensions of slave-masters, who, not content with requiring that "we must arrest and return their slaves with greedy pleasure," insisted that the Constitution must be so interpreted as to uphold the idea of property in man. The whole address was in a subdued and argumentative style, while each sentence was like a driven nail, with a concluding rally that was a bugle-call to the lovers of right. "Let us have faith," said he, "that right makes might, and in that faith, let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."

A few months later this champion, who would not see the colored man shut out from the promises of the Declaration of Independence, and who insisted upon the exclusion of Slavery from the territories, after summoning his countrymen to dare to do their duty, was nominated by a great political party as their candidate for President of the United States. Local considerations, securing to him the support of certain States beyond any other candidate, exercised a final influence in determining his selection; but it is easy to see how, from position, character, and origin, he was at that moment

pre-eminently the representative of his country. The Unity of the Republic was menaced. He was from that vast controlling Northwest, which would never renounce its communications with the sea, whether by the Mississippi or by eastern avenues. The Declaration of Independence was dishonored, in the denial of its primal truths. He had already become known as a volunteer in its defense. Republican Institutions were in jeopardy. He was the child of humble life, through whom Republican Institutions would stand confest. These things which are so obvious now, in the light of history, were less apparent then in the turmoil of party. But that Providence, in whose hands are the destinies of nations, which had found out Washington to conduct his country through the war of Independence, now found out Lincoln to wage the new battle for the Unity of the Republic on the foundations of Liberty and Equality.

The election took place. Of the popular vote, Abraham Lincoln received 1,857,610, represented by 180 electoral ballots; Stephen A. Douglas received 1,365,976, represented by 12 electoral ballots; John C. Breckenridge received 847,953, represented by 72 electoral ballots; and John Bell received 590,631, represented by 39 electoral ballots. By this vote Abraham Lincoln became President. The triumph at the ballot-box was flashed by the telegraph over the whole country, from north to south, from east to west; but it was answered by defiance from the slavemasters, speaking in the name of State Rights and for the sake of Slavery. The declared will of the American people, registered at the ballot

box, was set at naught. The conspiracy of years blazed into day. The National Government, which Alexander H. Stephens characterized as "the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, the most aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man that the sun of heaven ever shone upon; and which Jefferson Davis himself pronounced "the best government that has ever been instituted by man," that National Government, whose portrait is thus drawn by its enemies, was menaced. South Carolina was the first in crime, and before the new President had turned his face from the beautiful prairies of the West to enter upon his perilous duties, State after State had undertaken to abandon its place in the Union-senator after senator had dropped from his seat,fort after fort had been lost -and the mutterings of war had begun to fill the air, while the actual President, besotted by Slavery, tranquilly witnessed the gigantic treason, as he sat at ease in the Executive Mansion and did nothing.

You

It was time for another to come upon the scene. do not forget how the new President left his village home, never to return except under the escort of death. In words of farewell to the friendly multitude who surrounded him, he dedicated himself to his country and solemnly invoked the aid of Divine Providence. know not," he said, "how soon I shall see you again"; and then, with a prophetic voice he announced that a duty devolved upon him "greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washing

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ton," and he asked his friends to pray that he might receive that Divine assistance, without which he could not succeed, but with which success was certain. Others have gone forth to power and fame with gladness and with song. He went forth prayerfully as to a sacrifice.

You do not forget how at each resting-place on the road he renewed his vows, and when at Philadelphia, visiting Independence Hall, his soul broke forth in homage to the vital truths which were there declared. Of all his utterances on the way to the national capital, after his farewell to his neighbors, there is nothing so prophetic as these unpremeditated words:

"All the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated, and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." "Now, my friends, can this country be saved on this basis? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on the spot."

And then, after adding that he had not expected to say a word, he repeated again the consecration of his life, exclaiming, "I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by."

He was about to raise the national banner over the old