THE POWER OF LINCOLN TO CONQUER HIMSELF

REAT achievements are but the accumulation of conquered difficulties. As we look over our own experiences we find that there is one simple truth in life that is always well worth rememberingour richest possessions are those which cost us the most, not in money, but in disappointments, sacrifices, and hope. The Emancipation Proclamation plunged the nation into despair. It was a bugle call to the hosts of the South who now arose in vengeance to strike a staggering blow at the man who had despoiled them of their property.

The mighty columns of the Confederacy were now sweeping toward the North, vowing that they would unfurl their flag over the capitol at Washington and force a prostrate nation to return their property to them. The North, stricken with terror, called for the resignation of Lincoln, the man who was responsible for the disaster, and threatened to take his life. "I shall never be happy again," he said. "My life springs are wearing out and I shall not last I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he may do it." Then he added dejectedly, "How hard it is to die, unless I can make the world understand that I would be willing to die if I could be sure I am doing my work toward lifting the burdens from all mankind!"

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It was a bright afternoon in May, in 1863. The door leading to the family apartments in the White House swung open. There stood Lincoln, holding a telegram in his hand. It was from Chancellorsville.

"My God! My God!" he cried in broken tones. "What will the country say? Oh, what will the country say

He tottered to a chair, and sat down. As the night fell he paced the floor in deep thought. In front of him were heaps of letters, the purport of which he well knew. They were piteous appeals for peace, the cries of heart-stricken mothers. They were denunciations branding him with the blood of the hundred thousand homes that were being left fatherless.

The doors of the room were ajar. The night was warm; its stillness was broken only by the slow, steady tread back and forth. One by one the hours passed, but Lincoln, with head bowed, walked the chamber, the steady footfalls breaking the silence. A battle greater than Chancellorsville was raging within him. When the morning light sifted through the window, Lincoln, his eyes heavy with sleeplessness, sat at his desk, but his face was strong in resignation. A great battle had been fought that night and Lincoln had won another victory over himself.

THE HUMILITY OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF VICTORY

HAT it is always darkest just before the dawn is a truth that comes to every man sooner or later. No matter how hard the storm may rage there is always a break in the clouds through which the golden light floods the heart with warmth and hope.

The sun rose hot on the first morning in July, in the year 1863. Its scorching rays looked down on two great armies standing face to face. The legions of the South, on their onward march into the strongholds of the North, stood in battle-line against the hosts in blue under the Stars and Stripes on the field of Gettysburg. Nearly two hundred thousand strong, they passed through the fire of hell for the sake of the cause that they loved. On and on they charged, beneath the maddening hail of iron, into the terrible roar and din of belching flame, their banners flying; and when the clouds of smoke lifted at the end of the third day, more than fifty thousand dead, wounded and missing, had laid down their lives on the altar of sacrifice.

Lincoln, with anxiety and anguish on his face, waited for the tidings. When the news came to him that the flag of the republic had triumphed, that the great army of the Confederacy had been driven from Northern soil and was fleeing back to its own beautiful valley-he thanked God.

It was four months later that Lincoln stood on the battlefield at Gettysburg. Before him was a great throng of people. Garlands of flowers were placed upon the graves of the heroes who had given their lives on the sacred ground on those terrible days in July. The chill of November had now fallen upon the hills.

Dressed in black, the somberness and ghastly pallor of his face brought silence to the multitude. His words, as if by magic, fell upon their ears: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal."

A hush fell over the great audience. There was now and then an outburst of suppressed emotion. The notes rang clear. "It is due our own who have died here . . . This nation in God shall have a new proof of freedom . . . Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The tall, solemn figure disappeared from view. As he resumed his seat the words seemed to leap from man to man across the continent until the American people were inflamed by their inspiration, the fires of which are still blazing, and will forever blaze, down through the generations.

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN DURING LINCOLN'S SPEECH ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG

Original negative by Alexander Gardner on November 19, 1863, while Lincoln was delivering his famous Gettysburg address at the consecration of the cemetery

Original in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyrighted, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Company