Class __£SjLiik Book .13 4 Copyright^?. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ^L^X^C^ im LAKE ENGLISH CLASSICS General Editor LINDSAY TODD DAMON, A. B. Professor of Rhetoric in Brown University ADDISON— The Sir Roger De Coverley Papers— Abbott 30c AMERICAN POEMS— English Requirements— Greever -c BROWNING— Selected Poems— Re ynolds 40c BUNYAN— The Pilgrim's Progress— Lath am 30c BURKE— Speech on Conciliation with America— Denney. 25c CARL YLE— Essay on Burns— Aiton 25c CHAUCER— Selections-GREENLAW 40c COOPER— Last of the Mohicans -Lewis 40c COLERIDGE— The Ancient Mariner, \ ,, AT ^^ ,, LOWELL-Vlsion of Sir Launfal, J l vol.— Moody 25c DEFOE— Robinson Crusoe— Hastings — c DE QUINCEY— Joan of Arc and Selections— Mood y 25c DE QUINCEY^The Flight of a Tartar Tribe— French 25c DICKENS— A Tale of Two Cities— Baldwin 40c DICKENS— A Christmas Carol, etc.— Broadtts 30c DICKENS— David Copperf ield— Baldwin — c DRYDEN— Palamon and Arcite— Oook 25c EMERSON— Essays and Addresses— He ydrick 35c FRANKLIN— Autobiography— Griffin 30c GEORGE ELIOT— Silas Marner— Hancock 30c GOLDSMITH- The Vicar of Wakefield— Morton . . . , 30c HAWTHORNE— The House of the Seven Gables— Herrtc k 35c HAWTHORNE— Twice-Told Tales— Herrick and Bruere 40c IRVING— Life of Goldsmith— Keapp 40c IRVING— The Sketch Book— Krapp 40c IRVING— Tales of a Traveller— and parts of The Sketch Book— Krapp 40c LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, WEBSTER-Addresses— Dennet — c LONGFELLOW— Narrative Poems— Powell 40c MACAULAY— Essays on Addison and Johnson— Newcomer 30c MACAULAY— Essays on Milton and Addison— Newcomer 30c MACAULAY— Essays on Cllve and Hastings— Newcomer 35c MILTON— L* Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas— Neilson 25c MILTON— Paradise Lost, Books I and II— Farley 25c PALGRAVE— Golden Treasury— Newcomer 40c POE— Poems and Tales, Selected— Newcomer 30c POPE-Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV-Oressy and Moody 25c RUSKIN-Sesame and Lilies-LlNN 25c SCOTT— Ivanhoe— Simonds 45c SCOTT— Lady of the Lake— Moody 30c SCOTT— Lay of the Last Minstrel— Moody and Willard 25c SCOTT— Marmion— Mood y and Willard 30c SCOTT— Quentin Durward— Simonds 45c SHAKSPERE— The Neilson Edition— Edited with Introductions, Notes, and Word Indexes by W. A. Neilson. As You Like It, Hamlet, Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Midsummer* Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, each 25c SHAKSPERE— Merchant of Venice— Lovett 25c STEVENSON— Treasure Island— Broadus 25c THACKERAY— Henry Esmond— Phelps 50c TENNYSON— Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine, The Passing of Arthur, and other Poems— Reynolds 35c TcNNYSON— The Princess— Oopeland 25c SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY Educational Publishers 378 WABASH AVENUE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Gbe Xafee lEnglteb Classics EDITED BY LINDSAY TODD DAMON, A. B. Prof*88or of Ehetoric in Brown University TEbe Xafee English Classics WASHINGTON WEBSTEE and LINCOLN i i SELECTIONS FOR The College Entrance English Requirements EDITED BY JOSEPH VILLIERS DENNEY, PROFESSOR IN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 76 U^ Copyright, 1910 By SCOTT, FORESMAN & COMPANY ©GI.A265412 PREFACE. American speeches have always been studied en- thusiastically by Americans; not primarily because of their literary value, but because of their satis- fying statement of American ideals. The words of Washington, Webster, and Lincoln express the national aspiration in ways that are forever memorable. Their phrases have passed into maxims and into the daily speech of their countrymen. The appeal they make is to the historical imagination. Consequently they can be appreciated best by those who bring to the reading the fullest knowledge of the historical events and govern- mental principles to which they refer. For this reason the notes explain, or put the student in the way of explaining for himself, the leading historical ideas with which Washington, Webster, and Lincoln deal in their addresses. But while the interest in these addresses is primarily historical, the editor has not neglected the literary and rhetorical phase of the study. To this phase are devoted a part of the introduction and a considerable body of the notes. Columbus, Ohio, January, 1910. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Preface 5 Introduction : Occasions for Speaking 9 Kinds of Public Address 10 The Oral Quality 14 Fashions in Public Address 15 Methods 17 The Parts of a Discourse 19 1. The Introduction 20 2. The Discussion 23 Outline of the Bunker Hill Monument Address ... 24 3. The Conclusion ' 34 Text: Farewell Address George Washington. ... 35 The Character of Washington . . . Daniel Webster 56 The Bunker Hill Monument Daniel Webster. ...... 74 Speech at Independence Hall. . . .Abraham Lincoln 100 First Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln 102 Letter to Horace Greeley .Abraham Lincoln 115 Speech at Gettysburg Abraham Lincoln 117 Second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln 118 Last Public Address Abraham Lincoln 121 Abraham Lincoln " The Spectator " 127 Notes 135 7 INTRODUCTION. OCCASIONS FOR SPEAKING. It is often said that oratory is on the decline. The occasions are rare, we are told, when there is a real demand for it. The newspaper, the magazine, and the popular novel have come, usurping the function per- formed by the orator of the olden time. When, as in our day, many can write and practically all can read, why should any speak ? It is doubtless true that oratory — in the sense of heightened appeal to the feelings — is not so often heard as formerly. It has almost disap- peared from legislative halls and has become less fre- quent in courts of law and in some other places where it once nourished. But in the meantime, in these and a thousand other places, public speech of a less preten- tious and less ardent sort, — addressed primarily not to the feelings, but to the reason, — has become almost a daily necessity. This increase in the number of situa- tions calling for public address is due to the complexity of modern life. All of our professions and trades, all of our enterprises, — political, religious, philanthropic, educational, and social, — even our pleasures and sports, are highly organized. Each has its stated meetings, each its occasions for the oral communication of ideas and feelings. There probably never was a time when these occasions were half so numerous as they are today. As a result, the art of public speech has become less of a profession, less a matter of set rules and formulae, less 9 10 INTRODUCTION the possession of a particular class of people exclusively devoted to its cultivation, and more of a staple need of the many. A good reason, this, why every educated per- son should wish to learn more about it. Carlyle con- gratulated the English on the fact that they were a na- tion of poor speakers. He thought that the less talking there was, the greater would be the amount of useful work accomplished. But since some talking is in- evitable in order that work may be directed into channels that are worth while, it seems a strange reason for pride in any nation, or in any indi- vidual, that the thing is done poorly. Carlyle's friend, Emerson, had a better word for his countrymen, when he wrote that "if there ever was a country where eloquence was a power, it is in the United States. Here is room for every degree of it, on every one of its ascend- ing stages, — that of useful speech in our commercial, manufacturing, railroad, and educational conventions; that of political advice and persuasion on the grandest theatre, reaching, as all good men trust, into a vast fu- ture, and so compelling the best thought and noblest administrative ability that the citizen can offer. And here are the services of science, the demands of art, and the lessons of religion, to be brought home to the instant practice of thirty millions of people. Is it not worth the ambition of every generous youth to train and arm his mind with all the resources of knowledge, of method, of grace, and of character, to serve such a constituency ?" KINDS OF PUBLIC ADDRESS. In the quotation just given, Emerson suggests a classification of speeches. The principle of his classifi- cation is the relative importance of their subject-matter. INTRODUCTION H His first division includes utterances of immediate prac- tical utility, utterances that deal with affairs and that deal with affairs mainly on the matter-of-fact basis; beginning with commerce, but rising successively to the larger interests involved in manufacturing, in the rail- road problem, in education. His second division in- cludes those utterances that touch our political interests. It is higher than the first because here we have to deal not merely with matters of fact, but with matters of national sentiment and aspiration ; consequently there is here offered a broader field for the element of advice and persuasion. His third division includes those utter- ances that deal with man's most vital interests, speeches of which the end is to render science, art, or religion most serviceable, — to make them a part of the life of every man. Here the field for the element of persuasion is widest. It is clear that Emerson's classification will apply equally well to written discourse and that it covers the field. It is as specific also as a classification of so many species can be made and remain a true classification. It would not be difficult to place any speech in one of Emerson's three divisions. A classification on an entirely different principle was made by Aristotle. His principle of classification is the attitude of the audience toward the speech. Audi- ences, he says, are either judges of things done in the past, as are legal judges and juries ; or they are judges of things proposed for the future, as are legislative or political assemblies; or they are judges of the speech itself considered merely as a work of art. Hence Aristotle classifies oratory as (1) judicial, or the oratory of the bar, the aim of which is the securing or protecting of personal rights by convincing and persuading judges and juries; (2) deliberative, or the oratory before con- 12 INTRODUCTION ventions, assemblies, legislatures, and public meetings, political, religious, commercial, or educational; and (3) epideictic, or the oratory of display, now more fre- quently called occasional oratory, under which heading modern writers who follow Aristotle have put prac- tically all secular speaking that is not easily classified as judicial or deliberative, — the eulogy, the anniversary address, the dedicatory address, the popular lecture, the commencement address, the after-dinner speech, etc. To all this it is necessary to add (4) pulpit oratory, a species that has appeared since Aristotle wrote. The mere statement of this classi- fication reveals its remoteness from modern life and its insufficiency as a classification of the multifarious public speaking of our day. The basis of the Aristotelian division is the mental attitude of the audience. But the psychology of audiences is not so simple a matter as this four-fold division assumes it to be. Emerson once called attention to the undoubted fact that every audience is composed of many audiences; that the speaker finds himself addressing now one, now another, of these lesser audiences; that very rarely, if ever, may a homogeneous state of mind be presumed in all listeners ; that the very same listener may be successively in several mental attitudes during the same address. The principle by which orations are to be classified cannot, then, be a principle based solely upon a homo- geneous state of mind which probably does not exist. It is clear, too, that the state of mind appealed to by a deliberative oration may be, perversely enough, that which this classification assigns exclusively to judicial oratory. Modern pulpit oratory, also, may be, and often is, judicial or deliberative in spirit; it may look either to the past or to the future. The epideictic was thought INTRODUCTION 13 by the Greeks to be best illustrated in the eulogy and the invective ; but surely it is not just to regard these as forms of display and to judge them solely by artistic considerations. Even the modern oratorical contest, which is most often accused of being purely epideictic, rejects as inadequate this basis of judgment and de- mands a judgment based upon the value of the thought as well as upon the style and the delivery. In spite of all this, the psychological fact on which Aristotle based his classification remains true, — that a speaker must con- sider his audience and must try to adapt his material to what he supposes the mental state of a majority of his listeners to-be. The ideal standard of speech thus becomes not mere self-expression, for self-expression implies no thought of the audience; but rather self -communication,. which implies a constant effort to carry our ideas over to those who listen to us. This ideal standard we owe to Aristotle. A third classification divides spoken discourse, as written discourse is usually divided, into descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative. The principle of division here is the rhetorical process employed. This classification makes no attempt to describe a eulogy, or a sermon, or a speech at the bar, or an after-dinner speech, or any other kind of speech, as a distinct species having a quality of its own that no other species pos- sesses. It assumes that the vital characteristic of any utterance is not indicated by its popular class label. It assumes that eulogies, sermons, and the rest, differ so widely in variety and method, that no class character- istic that is at once useful and true can be found for each of them. But every speech may be examined for its rhetorical process, and this examination will show the fundamental types of oral discourse. This classification, 14 INTRODUCTION too, is imperfect; for a speech that is descriptive may- use, as accessory to its purpose, narration, exposition, or argument, as it needs ; and so with the others. The truth is that we must keep in mind all three of the systems of classification when studying any speech, — Emerson's, Aristotle's, and that of the rhetoricians, — if we would arrive at anything like a complete judgment; for (1) we must think of the importance of the subject-matter as Emerson thought of it; (2) we must think of the speech as an effort at communication with a certain audience, as Aristotle thought of it; and (3) we must think of the effectiveness of the process employed, as the rhetoricians enjoin. THE ORAL QUALITY. Whatever their classification, most successful speeches have one marked characteristic in common. Even when reduced to print, they appeal primarily not to the eye but to the ear. The attentive reader feels called upon in imagination to hear a speech as he reads it. If his mind is active he images also the speaker, the audience, the occasion; and is impelled to find out as much as possible about the feelings that ruled the hearts of men when it was delivered. He is ready to make concessions to cover the loss which the spoken sentence may suffer when printed. A printed extemporaneous address when read critically will usually show faults of phrasing that were doubtless overlooked by those listeners who shared the speaker's feelings. Speech has an excellence of its own, entirely apart from its literary quality. More- over, in the leisure of reading, we often take pleasure in a certain subtlety and fineness of statement; we like to make our own inferences ; we accept mere hints of what we are expected to think, and we have time to suspend INTRODUCTION 15 reading, if need be, in order to make sure of our ground. In spoken discourse, there is no time for this. The speaker must move forward to his conclusion by a simple plan and a directness of statement that leaves no doubts pending. A speech may have all of the literary virtues and may yet fail for lack of simplicity of structure and the easy intelligibility which comes from direct idiomatic statement. Having these latter, together with energy and insight into the meaning of the occasion, a speech will be effective, though it lack grace, suggestiveness, refinement, and even strict grammatical accuracy. We prize in a speech certain of the qualities of good con- versation, — unpretentiousness, short and pointed phras- ing — but not its waywardness; in a speech we look for the straight-forward march to partial and complete con- clusions. These characteristics of speech, which may be called the oral (or, equally well, the aural) quality, are forced upon the speaker by the immediate presence of his audience. Some writers, too, are keenly conscious, while composing, of those whom they are addressing; they hear each sentence as they put it on paper. Their writing is essentially oral although it may never be spoken. Many an open letter or newspaper editorial, sometimes even a state paper, has this oral quality. Some spoken discourses lack it; they are essays rather than speeches, addressed to the eye rather than to the ear. FASHIONS IN PUBLIC ADDRESS. While the notion of addressing a specific audience, with its resultant (the cultivation of the oral quality) has persisted since the days of Aristotle, and is, indeed, the explanation of the present ideal of public speech, — effective self-communication, — it is equally true that 16 INTRODUCTION fashions have changed in this as in the other arts. The essential worth and dignity of the old classical oratory cannot be questioned; yet its manner would by many be accounted mannerism today. For instance, public taste at the present time is somewhat intolerant of any but the most indirect and carefully disguised attempts at emotional appeal. We want the facts: the facts, we think, carry their own appeal; having the facts, we think that we know how to feel about them. Hence arises the greater share of the intellectual element in the speeches of today as compared with those of former times; and the more scrupulous regard for accuracy of statement. Hence, too, has come about the gradual abandonment of certain fashions that were once preva- lent, and the adoption of new fashions. It was once the fashion, for example, for a young lawyer addressing a jury to refer humbly to his youth and inexperience, or to eulogize the jury system. It was once the fashion for a skillful speaker to apologize for a pretended lack of skill. It was once the fashion always to emphasize the importance of the subject, even though every one appreciated its importance. These things were not insincerities ; they were the conventions of the moment ; they were expected. It is the fashion today to do none of these things, to take much for granted, and (whether intrinsically a good fashion or not) to get speedily to the essential point to be presented, with very little preliminary or introductory matter. The fear of delay, the fear of over-formality, which prevails among speakers today, while generally wholesome, is doubtless the cause of a certain abruptness, nervousness, and undue haste, that are often noticeable in contem- porary speaking. We have rid ourselves of indirection, and of tardiness in taking hold of our theme; but we INTRODUCTION 17 have sacrificed something of ease and grace in the process. To be always relentlessly business-like, direct, r and practical in speech, may itself, at some future time, be criticised as a mannerism of the present age. There is, however, in modern speeches, a nicer adjustment of the time-element to the importance of the message. Economy of time has become a paramount considera- tion. Speakers today usually know, beforehand, how much time they are expected to occupy, and govern themselves accordingly. METHODS. Not only do oratorical fashions change from age to age, but at any given moment there are marked differences of method. Among the Greeks, for instance, most of the ora- tors and teachers insisted upon elevation of thought and sentiment, with diction to match, as essential to a good speech; but then, as now, there were successful speakers who, like Andocides, professed a contempt for the rules of rhetoric and for any serious study of the art which they themselves practised; who paid little attention to arranging their material in an orderly way; who relied on a fund of good stories to help them in times of need ; and who advised speakers to trust to their native gifts, and to the inspiration of the occasion. There were some, like Hyperides, who advocated a conversational manner, the plainest of plain speech, and a large use of colloquialism, in opposition to those who advised the cultivation of a more dignified, stately, or highly ornate diction. Some studied the art of the public actors in order to learn "the outer signs of eloquence" and thus cultivated a theatrical manner of speaking; others, dis- daining this as shallow trickery, studied the art of being artless. There were those, however, who advocated 18 INTRODUCTION the sound principle that the cultivation of the "inner spirit," — the systematic and prolonged education of the mind and heart, the achievement of a strong character, — should precede and accompany the study of the "outer signs." Many followed iEschines in practising written composition assiduously and in studying general litera- ture and philosophy, as essential elements in the educa- tion of a speaker. Demosthenes, the greatest of Greek orators, illustrated the value of unremitting and purposeful labor. In order to overcome de- fects of voice, articulation, breathing, and physical manner, he imposed upon himself arduous exer- cises through a series of years; he watched the ways of the actors and of other professional speakers, and imitated them in those points which seemed appropriate to his own personality and temperament. He gave seven years of his life to practising written composition and to studies in history, law, and statesmanship. Believing that he could win no lasting success without worthy thinking, he endeavored in all of his studies to find out what was fundamentally right and not merely what was expedient, in order that, throughout his life, he might habitually and unconsciously apply the highest test to every question that he might be called upon to discuss. In thus devoting himself primarily to gaining sound knowledge and to developing moral earnestness, while steadily learning, through practice and a study of models, the approved modes of speech that were suitable to himself as an individual, he set for all time the example of a sound method of training for effective self-communication on any subject of discussion; a method involving first, adequate knowledge of the facts to be discussed ; secondly, the ability and the disposition to apply principles of right and wrong to the facts as INTRODUCTION 19 ascertained; thirdly, attention to the best way of pre- senting the matter. The Greek and Latin writers on public speaking devoted a great deal of discussion to the first and second of these points. Later writers have said less about these, devoting their attention almost exclusively to the art of presentation ; but always assum- ing the preeminent importance of knowledge and sin- cerity. THE PARTS OF A DISCOURSE. The usual division of any discourse is into (1) intro- duction (see pp. 20-23), (2) discussion (pp. 23-34), and (3) conclusion (p. 34). These terms suggest little more than beginning, middle, end. The ancient writers enumerated the following as parts of an address : introduction, the narration or exposition, the proposi- tion, the confirmation, the refutation, the conclusion; and some added the excursus or digression. This min- uter division is still useful as indicating certain elements that enter or may enter into the make-up of a speech, certain functions to be performed, or, for good reason, to be consciously left unperformed. In most argumenta- tive discourses, for example, a formal narration or expo- sition of facts, as a separate part, preliminary to the proposition and the confirmation of proof, is unneces- sary: yet the element of narration or exposition will appear at any stage of the discourse as needed. -Likewise proof and refutation may or may not constitute the main body of a discourse : in a discourse that is essentially nar- rative or expository, argument may be absent altogether, while in others there is nothing but argument. The proposition, or, if there be no proposition, the subject, can hardly be considered a part of discourse, yet its enumeration with the parts points clearly to the need 20 INTBODUCTION" of some unifying element in every discourse ; and indeed the excursus, or the digression, an element now almost universally condemned as lacking all excuse for being, was originally offered in answer to the human need of relief from too strict an adherence to the logic of the subject and as an opportunity for the speaker to un- burden his mind on any matter that logic would exclude from his discourse. We shall adopt as parts of discourse the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion ; and, in the treatment of each, we shall ask what elements may properly enter into its make-up. 1. The Introduction. The work of the introduction is to provide all that is needed by way of preliminary infor- mation and in order to secure a favorable disposition to- wards the ideas that are to follow in the discussion. An- cient writers, however, restricted the introduction to the work of gaining the active good will of the audience. They assigned to another part of the discourse the work of giving preliminary information. The chief function of the introduction, they thought, is. to overcome hostil- ity in the mind of the audience, should hostility exist ; to win attention, and to create an interest in the subject, leaving no hearer in a state of indifference. One of the best recommendations of Aristotle may be stated thus: the way to gain good will is to show good will. In general, good will is made apparent in modern speeches, more often in the tone and spirit of the opening than in any direct statement. A second method of gaining good will is the appeal, direct or indirect, to community of interest, or to class or party spirit. The tacit assumption in this appeal is that because speaker and audience are of the same nationality, church, political party, school, club, social INTEODUCTION 21 class, trade, profession, or other occupation, enjoy the same intellectual pursuits, or even the same sports, they will be inclined to agree in all matters. Webster, eulo- gizing Washington, naturally touches the chord of patri- otism; and at the outset of the Monument Address he voices the common feeling as he conceives it. His second paragraph is devoted exclusively to the patriotic note. While showing good will, however, while seeking to identify himself with his audience, the speaker must not surrender any of his convictions or any of his self- respect. As Aristotle long ago pointed out, a speaker commends himself chiefly by his good judgment and reasonableness, by his reliance on his own worth and the worth of his message. But modern taste forbids him to assert his good qualities. A speaker's reasonableness, his worth, his virtue, or strength, declare themselves in his treatment of his theme. The personal introduction in political or other controversy, however, is still com- mon, and, indeed, is unavoidable when the speaker has been made the object of criticism and thus has himself become part of the matter at issue. It is used with a fine reticence in Washington's Farewell Address and with solemn effectiveness in Lincoln's Independence Hall address. But, excepting instances of obvious necessity, like those just named, the personal introduction will not often suggest itself in these days as an easy or appropri- ate method of beginning. Closely related to the personal introduction, and often employed in connection with it, is the introduction based upon the importance of the subject. As a general rule in modern addresses the importance of the subject is a thing to be assumed rather than directly asserted. The importance of the subject is either self-evident at the outset or is to be made evident by the whole discourse. 22 INTRODUCTION It should be recognized by the audiences as a result of the speech, rather than declared by the speaker at the beginning. Probably the easiest and most economical introduc- tions are those which are based on some pertinent re- mark that has been made by another. An introduction of this kind seems to continue a discussion already begun in people's minds, and offers a point of departure either in harmony with the quoted sentiment or in contrast with it. The introduction by anecdote belongs to this class. Whatever the subject matter chosen for the introduc- tion it must, in order to suit the modern taste, bear close relevance to the theme of the discourse. The irrelevant introduction advocated by some, practised by many, may be attractive in itself, but it arouses expectations that are destined not to be fulfilled, and its final effect, when it is recalled by a hearer, is to diminish the total influence of the speech. Nowhere is there greater danger, than in the introduction, of vio- lating unity of tone. If the introduction is keyed at too high an elevation of thought or feeling or is too finely finished, the speaker may later find himself un- able to maintain the level on which he started and the decline to a lower level is sure to be disappointing. Speakers of experience are usually wary of this danger and prefer to begin on a level from which it will not be difficult to rise as the essential parts of the discourse are taken up. The summit of an inclined plane is not a good point of departure in any discourse. The splendid intro- ductions of Webster must have put many of his first hearers in fear that no man, however great, could begin on so high a plane and maintain himself there for long. The usual advice to the inexperienced is to prepare INTEODUCTION 23 the introduction after the body of the discourse has been written. The advice is sound if understood as a warning against a pretentious, a trite, or a far-fetched introduction, or against one that for any reason is out of tune with the prevailing note of the discourse. The further advice that if an appropriate introduction has not suggested itself by the time the body of the dis- course is completed, all attempt at introduction should be given up, is also sound. Earlier writers on oratory provided for this very contingency by naming one of their varieties of introduction "the abrupt beginning." To this advice may be added the reminder, contained in a word of Walter Bagehot's, that excepting in times of great excitement an audience begins to listen in a de- cidedly "factish" frame of mind. At the outset it pre- fers the particular rather than the general, facts rather than principles, the specific instance rather than the universal truth, the intellectual rather than the emo- tional. 2. The Discussion. The main body of an address in- cludes one or more of the following elements: (1) a division or partition of the subject, (2) definition, (3) narration, description, or exposition, (4) proofs and ref- utation. ^The order in which these things appear in an address is determined by the nature of the address. One or more of them may in many cases be omitted al- together. Attention to the first will always be necessary. (1) The division or partition of the material is not often formally announced in the finished address, as was once the custom. When it is so announced it is usually accounted a part of the introduction. Yet it is with the organization of the body of the discourse that the partition is concerned; and, in any event, there must be in the preparation of a discussion a division or par- 24 INTRODUCTION tition of the material with a view to orderly presenta- tion. Waiving the question whether the partition is at the end of the introduction or at the beginning of the discussion, we may say that the best division is the simplest and most natural, with each part distinct from the others, yet with all the parts standing in intelligible relationship to one another and to the main idea. In spoken more than in written discourse, the plan must be perfectly clear, because the hearer has no time to think back over the speech in order to consider relation- ships of ideas. He is occupied with the passing word. As an illustration of the value of a clear, self-con- sistent partition, let us study the underlying structure of Webster's Bunker Hill Monument Speech. The speech is of the expository class; there is no debatable proposition; there is only a subject and an occasion re- quiring a voice to express its dominant mood. The plan which follows fails, of course, to reproduce what is most characteristic and valuable in the speech, the element of personality, the emotional uplift ; but it shows the chief ideas in their relationship. Outline of the Bunker Hill Monument Address, introduction. 1. Impressiveness of the occasion (p. 74, 11. 1-8). 2. Patriotic memories and hopes peculiar to Americans in- spired (p. 74, 1. 9— p. 76, 1. 17). I. By the significance to them of the date and place (p. 74, 1. 9— p. 75, 1. 7). II. By the significance to them of the discovery of America (p. 75, 11. 8-23). INTEODUCTION 25 III. By the significance to them of colonial history (p. 75,1. 24— p. 76,1. 8). IV. By the significance to them of the Eevolution (p, 76, 11. 9-17). s DISCUSSION". A. Purposes of the Society in providing for the Monument (p. 76, 1. 18— p. 77, 1. 2). I. Not that a monument is necessary, but to show our appreciation of the deeds of our ancestors, to keep alive similar sentiments and to foster a regard for the principles of the Eevolution (p. 77,11. 3-26). II. Not to cherish hostility or the military spirit, but to express our sense of the benefits which have come through the events commemorated (p. 77, 1. 27— p. 78, 1. 29). B. Mighty events in America and Europe since the Eevolu- tion (p. 78, 1. 30— p. 80, 1. 18). C. Apostrophe to the survivors of the Eevolution (p. 80, 1. 19— p. 81, 1. 20). D. Tribute to the patriotic dead (p. 81, 1. 21— p. 82, 1. 1), especially to Warren (p. 82, 1. 2— p. 82, 1. 19). E. Address to the living survivors (p. 82, 1. 20 — p. 83, 1. 23). F. The unity of spirit in the Colonies and the effect of the Battle of Bunker Hill, especially upon La Fayette (p. 83, 1. 24— p. 87, 1. 25). G. Eulogy on La Fayette (p. 87, 1. 26— p. 89, 1. 7). H. Improvement in the world since the Battle of Bunker Hill, especially in politics and government (p. 89, 1. 8). 1. Diffusion of knowledge and community of ideas; with results (p. 89, 1. 23— p. 90, 1. 33). II. Difference between the Eevolution in America and the French Eevolution (p. 91, 1. 28). a. America was accustomed to representative government (p. 92, 11. 4-30). 26 INTKODUCTION b. Europe was a stranger to the popular principle (p. 92, 1. 31— p. 93, 1. 4). c. Europe has, however, gained by the change (p. 93, 11. 4-21). (1) Everywhere there is a desire for popular government (p. 93, 11. 22-32). ^ III. The influence of world opinion upon arbitrary governments (p. 93, 1. 33— p. 94, 1. 19). The case of Greece (p. 94, 1. 20— p. 95, 1. 33). IV. The rise of independent states in South America (p. 95, 1. 34— p. 97, 1. 6). I. The influence of the example of America (p. 97, 1. 7). I. It proves that free government may be safe and just (p. 97, 11. 13-19). II. If we fail, free government will perish from the earth (p. 97, 1. 20— p. 98, 1. 2). III. Free government may be as permanent as any other (p. 98, 11. 3-13). CONCLUSION. The duty of America is to preserve what the fathers won and to increase the spirit of union. This analysis shows that Webster is in complete con- trol of his material ; he divides it as he will, for the sub- ject and the occasion do not rigidly prescribe what points he shall take up. There is no logical proposition to impose requirements upon him in the matter of division, subdivision, and proof. To be sure we may reduce the whole address to the form of a syllogism if we wish : Major Premise. All true patriots who have made sac- rifices that their country might furnish to the world an illustrious example of freedom, good government and prosperity, should be gratefully honored by their coun- trymen. INTRODUCTION 27 Minor Premise. The heroes of the American Revo- lution have made sacrifices that their country might, etc. Conclusion. The heroes of the American Eevolution -should be gratefully honored by their countrymen. Nothing is gained, however, by applying this strict logical test to an address the chief aim of which is not to prove a proposition, but to deepen feeling and to increase appreciation. To treat it as we treat an argu- mentative discourse is to reduce it to a string of plati- tudes, and to miss all that gives it distinction. It is to be noted, however, that while Webster is free to select what topics he wishes, we find no waywardness or eccentricity in the selection. The topics are emi- nently appropriate to the subject and the occasion ; each is distinct from the others; each follows the preceding topic naturally. As we pass from one to the next we are made to feel their relationship. In some cases it is a relationship of similarity or contrast ; the apostrophe to the survivors (C) suggests the tribute to the patriotic dead (D) and this in turn suggests the address to the living (E). In other cases it is a relationship of cause and effect; the eulogy of LaFayette (Gr) follows as a natural effect of the facts cited just before under (F) ; the apostrophe to the survivors (C) is the natural effect of the recital of the mighty events referred to under (B) ; the improvement in the world (H) is the effect of the diffusion of knowledge and community of ideas (H-I) ; the difference between the Eevolution in Amer- ica and in Europe (H-II) is accounted for by a recital of causes (H-II a-b). In still other cases it is a rela- tionship neither of similarity and contrast nor of cause and effect, but ideas follow one another because they are felt to be in contiguity, that is near to one another, 28 INTRODUCTION either near in time, as in the narrative portions, or near in thought. The influence of world opinion upon ar- bitrary governments (H-III) is near in thought to the preceding topic, the desire for popular government everywhere; the case of Greece suggests the case of the states of South America (IV). Thus it is easy to ac- count for the position of each topic in the discussion and to find a reason why it is where we find it. We notice also the use of climax in the arrangement of the divisions. The first climax is reached at p. 78, 1. 29 ; the second at p. 83, 1. 23 ; the third at the close of the eulogy of La Fayette, p. 89, 1. 7; the fourth at p. 95, 1. 33; the last in the conclusion of the speech. The general arrangement is in accordance with the usual principles of cause and effect, similarity and contrast, and contiguity. (2) The second element that may enter into the body of a discourse is definition. When this term is used most people think only of the kind of definition that is found in the dictionaries, a single sentence giving the meaning of a term in other words that are likely to be better understood, a sentence that puts the thing to be defined into its proper genus or class and then gives its difference from the other members of the class. This kind of formal definition is almost always necessary in argumentative discourse, especially in de- bate. Before a proposition is discussed its terms must be understood. But the word definition has a much wider meaning. It means all those processes of explanation, illustration, and example that set the limits of an idea. Lincoln's letter to Greeley is definitive of Lincoln's policy; it sets the limits of that policy and tells both what it includes and what it does not include. Definition may be inci- INTRODUCTION 29 dental and may appear in a discourse wherever it is needed, or it may be the main object of a discourse and may dictate the method of dealing with the whole sub- ject. The general method involved in a definitive dis- course is the method of inquiry or the inductive method. (3) Narration, description, or exposition may also enter into a discourse. Each, like the ele- ment of definition, may be found on a very re- stricted scale, in one place in the discourse, or may be scattered through the discourse, appearing wherever it is needed; and, like the element of defini- tion, each may be merely incidental or may dominate the whole discourse and determine its method. Older writ- ers conceived of the narration as a separate and distinct part of the discourse, immediately following the exor- dium, or introduction, and immediately preceding the formal statement of the partition or division. They thought of it as a preliminary recital of facts or events which must be understood before proof and refutation could be profitably presented. When the facts or events were well known, the narration was to be omitted. The narration, when expressed, was to be persuasive; it was to foreshadow the proof and prepare the way for it, but was not to pretend to be proof itself. In modern public address we find this procedure still common and neces- sary in argumentative discourse, especially in debate; only here, in most cases, the narration would be more accurately called the description or the exposition, for it both recites facts and explains them. If the proposi- tion refers to the past, some historical narrative will be unavoidable, early in the discussion. A present day proposition also may require preliminary narration, de- scription, and exposition. Thus the proposition, "The present British ministry should be sustained in making 30 INTEODUCTIOK the taxation of land values a part of its 1909 budget," would certainly require a preliminary description of the economic conditions in England that make new sources of revenue necessary, a historical narrative show- ing what have been the customary sources of revenue in the past, a definition of the term "taxation of land values," and an exposition of certain principles of taxa- tion. In the words of the older writers on rhetoric and oratory, "The present state of the question must be made clear by narration and exposition." The second para- graph of - Webster's Bunker Hill oration performs a function analagous to that of the narration in an argu- mentative discourse ; but in most expository addresses the narration is not concentrated in one part of the discourse. In sermons the place of the narration is supplied by the scripture reading that precedes. In sermons of the traditional type there was usually, in addition to this, an explanation of doctrine, definitive in character, just before the partition was announced. What is a single feature of one address may be the entire substance of another: some addresses are essen- tially all narration, description, or exposition. The eulogy, for example, may be in its fundamental struc- ture a narration. Superimposed upon this narration there will be a mass of description and exposition, the purpose of which is character interpretation. The bio- graphical sketch preceding an appreciation of character is narration and description combined. If interpreted as standing in the relation of cause and effect to the work and influence of the life, it precisely fulfills the function of the narration in an argumenta- tive discourse.* In most expository addresses, however, narration, description, definition, and explanation are *See also p. 138. INTBODUCTION 31 scattered through the discourse. Thus in Webster's Bunker Hill address, the narrative is not all given in the second paragraph; after the first climax there are two pages of narrative (p. 78, 1. 30 — p.' 80, 1. 18) that furnish the basis of the address to the survivors. On p. 83, 1. 24 begins another section of the narration covering more than three pages, leading up to the ad- dress to LaFayette. Indeed, after every one of Web- ster's climaxes the discourse is resumed on the narra- tive plane. But the chief use of the narrative and descriptive parts of an expository address is to furnish the neces- sary amplification of the principal ideas of the dis- course. Typical means of amplification are necessarily resorted to in every expository discourse. One of these is repetition of an idea in other words. This is espe- cially necessary when the idea is not liked, or is somewhat difficult of apprehension, or, being essential, is to be made emphatic. Instances abound in Wash- ington's Farewell Address. A case in point is the passage on page 43, lines 2 to 18. The idea of respect for the Federal Government is repeated in almost every sentence ; and from line 19 to line 34, on page 43, the repetition is made by presenting the contrary of this idea, by dwelling upon the things that mean disrespect for the government. Another of the means of amplification is enumeration. After declaring that every portion of our country has motives to guard the Union of the whole, Washington enumerates in one paragraph (p. 39, 1. 30) the special motives that should act upon the North, the South, the East, and the West. A third means of amplification is the use of example. Washington refers (p. 42, 11. 9 to 20) to the treaty with Spain and to that with Eng- 32 INTRODUCTION land as examples of the nation-wide and non-sectional policy of the general government. The relative amount of amplification devoted to different ideas indicates their relative importance. (4) A fourth element that may enter into the body of an address is proof and refutation. In an argumen- tative discourse it is naturally the chief element. But it may enter into a discourse of the expository type as an ancillary or subsidiary element. Thus in Washing- ton's Farewell Address the section on "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" (p. 45, 1. 6— p. 46, 1. 23) is clearly argumentative. Party spirit should be re- pressed in a republic because (a) it means a revengeful despotism of the victorious faction over the defeated faction, (b) the despotism of factions alternately in power leads to intolerable disorders and miseries, (c) and these may incline men finally to seek security by setting up an individual despot, (d) even though it does not go so far as this, it enfeebles the public admin- istration, (e) foments insurrection, and (f) opens the door to foreign interference. This also illustrates the kind of proof called the chain of reasoning from cause to effect. Another kind of proof is the specific instance. The specific instances of disorder, insurrection, govern- mental embarrassment, foreign interference sup- ported by domestic faction, were too recent to require mention: they were matters of common knowledge. The appeal to common knowledge or to universal ex- experience is often offered in this way as a substitute for specific instances. One form of this appeal is the proverb and the maxim. Instead of, or in addition to, the specific instances cited or the common knowledge appealed to, reference may be made to the testimony of individuals or to the INTBODUCTION 33 authority of books or of experts. It is usually necessary in employing this argument — the argument from au- thority — to show that the authority quoted is competent to speak to the point in issue, is disinterested and un- prejudiced and entirely worthy of confidence. The argu- ment derived from what we know of human nature, which Washington employs repeatedly in the Farewell Address, is a common form of the argument from cause to effect. The order in which arguments shall be arranged must be determined anew for every address. Each address has its own logic, its own natural order, and the re- quirements of coherence are supreme. The advice is often given, not to place a weak argument first; but there is really no good place for a weak argument; a weak argument will not knowingly be used at all if a speaker discovers its weakness in time. The subject itself, the form of statement which the proposition takes, will always suggest some logical order for the ar- gument, and this order will in general be the best and the most economical. But this order may be modified to meet the state of mind of the audience. It is well, for instance, to begin with an argument with which people are familiar; rather than with one that has been developed by research. It is well to begin with an argument that can be dealt with briefly, conclusively and simply, rather than with one that requires nicety of distinction and extended reasoning. It is well to close with the* argument that the speaker himself values most. But all of these suggestions must give way in favor of logic and coherence. The work of refutation is as important as the work of affirmation or direct proof. It consists not merely in replying to arguments that have actually been ad- 34 INTBODTJCTION vanced, but also in considering unspoken objections that naturally suggest themselves. An argument is refuted either by disproving the fact on which it is based, or by disproving the inference that has been drawn from the fact. When the fact is admitted to be true and the inference drawn from it is true in part, and false in part, the refutation is effected by pointing out the distinction as Washington does (p. 46, 11. 9-23) in admitting the advantage of party spirit in a monarchy but denying its advantage in a republic. It does not follow (non sequitur), he says, that because party spirit is useful in Europe, it should be encouraged in America. 3. The Conclusion. One purpose of the conclusion is to sum up in brief the whole matter that has been dis- cussed. In an argumentative discourse the summary will often be bare and formal, recalling in order the points argued in the discussion. In an expository dis- course the summary will not be made as an exact repeti- tion, but will be presented with some variation and ad- dition. Another purpose of the conclusion is to afford opportunity for a final appeal to the feelings. Here, if anywhere, the audience is prepared to receive such an appeal. The conclusion of Lincoln's First Inaugural (pp. 113-114) is highly persuasive partly on account of the introduction of the prophetic element and the ele- ment of faith in the supremacy of man's better impulses. An apt quotation often does this work most effectively. The conclusion should be brief and direct. It should be closely related in thought and spirit to the thought and spirit of the whole discourse. FAREWELL ADDRESS GEORGE WASHINGTON" Friends and Fellow Citizens — The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the executive government of the United States, being not far dis- tant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts 5 must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprize you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being 10 considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured, that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations apper- 15 taining to the relation, which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest; no deficiency of grateful respect for 20 your past kindness ; but am supported by a full convic- tion that the step is compatible with both. The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion 25 of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped, that it would have 35 36 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN been much earlier in my power, consistently with mo- tives, which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement, from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the prepara- 5 tion of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled* me to abandon the idea. 10 I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of in- clination incompatible with the sentiment of duty, or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circum- 15 stances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire. The impressions, with which I first undertook the arduous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that 1 20 have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset, of the inferi- ority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, 25 perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strength- ened the motives to diffidence of myself, and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied, that, if any cir- 30 cumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. FAEEWELL ADDRESS 37 In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved 5 country for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness 10 unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the pas- sions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mis- 15 lead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the 20 plans by which they were effected. Profoundly pene- trated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence ; that your union and brotherly affection may 25 be perpetual, that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained, that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of lib- 30 erty, may be made complete, by so careful a preserva- tion and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it. 38 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your 5 frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them 10 the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indul- gent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 15 Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every liga- ment of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is 20 a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different 25 quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices em- ployed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though 30 often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial^ FABEWELL ADDRESS 39 habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing 5 whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate . any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various 10 parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to 15 you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation de- rived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause 20 fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and suc- cesses. But these considerations, however powerfully they 25 address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly out- weighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. 30 The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common govern- ment, finds in the productions of the latter, great addi- tional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The 40 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; and, while it contributes, in different ways, 5 to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a mari- time strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercpurse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior commu- 10 nications by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West de- rives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfQrt, and, what is perhaps of still greater conse- 15 quence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indis- soluble community of interest as one nation. Any other 20 tenure by which the West can hold this essential advan- tage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. While, then, every part of our country thus feels an 25 immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign 30 nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same FAEEWELL ADDEESS 41 governments, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alli- ances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity 5 of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of 10 your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patri- 15 otic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common gov- ernment can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope, that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of 20 governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated 25 its impracticability, there will always be reason to dis- trust the patriotism of those, who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any 30 ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western ; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real dif- ference of local interests and views. One of the, expe- 42 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN dients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien 5 to each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the 10 treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in 15 regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be 20 their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advan- tages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens? 25 To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No alli- ances, however strict, between the parts can be an ade- quate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances in all 30 times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calcu- lated than your former for an intimate Union, and for FAEEWELL ADDEESS 43 the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, unin- fluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its princi- 5 pies, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confi- dence and your support. Respect for its authority, com- pliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are 10 duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of 15 the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every indi- vidual to obey the established Government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all com- 20 binations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, coun- teract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this funda- mental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to 25 organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordi- nary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, 30 to make the public administration the mirror of the ill- concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests, 44 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and un- principled men will be enabled to subvert the power of 5 the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requi- 10 site, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitu- 15 tion, alterations, which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments, as 20 of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard, by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety 25 of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that, for the efficient management of your common in- terests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will 30 find in such a government, with powers properly dis- tributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine FAREWELL ADDRESS 45 each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and __tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. I have already intimated to you the danger of parties 5 in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. .0 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled,, or re- pressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in .5 its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a fright- 10 ful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some pre- !5 vailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out 50 of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the 46 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through 5 the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the govern- 10 ment, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in govern- ments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments 15 purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage 20 it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, in- stead of warming, it should consume. It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those in- 25 trusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments 30 in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of govern- ment, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the FAREWELL ADDRESS 47 truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and dis- tributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions 5 by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional 10 powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for,. though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free gov- 15 ernments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield. Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 20 pensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish 25 them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of 30 justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposi- tion, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national 48 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, in- deed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, 5 can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force 10 to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoiding occasions of 15 expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoid- ing likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shun- ning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in 20 time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion 25 should co-operate. To facilitate to them the perform- ance of their duty, it is essential that you should prac- tically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised which are not 30 more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of diffi- culties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid con- FAEEWELL ADDEESS 49 struction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 5 Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great 10 nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which 15 might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its 20 vices ? In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essen- tial, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate, attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, 25 just and amicable feelings towards all should be culti- vated. The nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray so from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent col- 50 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN lisions, obstinate/ envenomed, and bloody 'contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best cal- culations of policy. The Government sometimes partici- pates in the national propensity, and adopts through 5 passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, some- times perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim. 10 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imag- inary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of 15 the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate in- ducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the 20 concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ^ambi- tious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote them- 25 selves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacri- fice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the ap- pearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commend- able deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for 30 public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambi- tion, corruption or infatuation. As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly FAEEWELL ADDRESS 51 enlightened and independent patriot. How many op- portunities do they afford to tamper with domestic fac- tions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils ! Such 5 an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy 10 of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since- his^ tory and experience prove that foreign influence-^ one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be 15 avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive par- tiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may 20 resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign 25 nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us 30 have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her 52 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEB, LINCOLN politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one peo- ple, under an efficient government, the period is not far 5 off when we may defy material injury from external an- noyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, 10 will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, 15 by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice ? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alii- 20 ances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less appli- cable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is 25 always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 30 establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraor- dinary emergencies. Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are FAEEWELL ADDKESS 53 recommended by policy, humanit}^ and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of 5 things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional 10 rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to look 15 for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equival- ents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached 20 with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experi- ence must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of 25 an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish ; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I 30 may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to w r arn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriot- 54 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN ism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solici- tude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated. How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been de- lineated, the public records and other evidences of my 5 conduct must witness to you and to the world. To my- self, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them. In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index of 10 my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your Eepresentatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 15 After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our coun- try, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far 20 as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with modera- tion, perseverance and firmness. The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to de- tail. I will only observe, that, according to my under- 25 standing of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtu- ally admitted by all. The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be in- ferred, without any thing more, from the obligation 30 which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. The inducements of interest for observing that con- FAREWELL ADDRESS 55 duct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With, me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress with- 5 out interruption to that degree of strength and consist- ency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administra- tion, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am never- 10 theless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my country will never 15 cease to view them with indulgence ; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 20 Eelying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who views in it the native soil of him- self and his progenitors for several generations ; I antici- pate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I 25 promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoy- ment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free govern- ment, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, 30 and dangers. George Washington. United States, September Ytth, 1796. THE CHAEACTEE OF WASHINGTON DANIEL WEBSTER A speech delivered at a public dinner in the City of Wash- ington, February 22, 1832, the centennial anniversary of Wash- ington's birth. We are met to testify our regard for him whose name is intimately blended with whatever belongs most essen- tially to the prosperity, the liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of our country. That name was of power to rally a nation, in the hour of thick-thronging 5 public disasters and calamities; that name shone, amid the storm of war, a beacon light, to cheer and guide the country's friends ; it flamed, too, like a meteor, to repel her foes. That name, in the days of peace, was a load- stone, attracting to itself a whole people's confidence, a 10 whole people's love, and the whole world's respect. That name, descending with all time, spreading over the whole earth, and uttered in all the languages belonging to the tribes and races of men, will forever be pro- nounced with affectionate gratitude by every one in 15 whose breast there shall arise an aspiration for human rights and human liberty. We perform this grateful duty, Gentlemen, at the ex- piration of a hundred years from his birth, near the place, so cherished and beloved by him, where his dust 20 now reposes, and in the capital which bears his own immortal name. All experience evinces that human sentiments are strongly influenced by associations. The recurrence of 56 CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 57 anniversaries, or of longer periods of time, naturally freshens the recollection, and deepens the impression, of events with which they are historically connected. Be- no wned places, also, have a power to awaken feeling, 5 which all acknowledge. No American can pass by the fields of Bunker Hill, Monmouth, and Camden, as if they were ordinary spots on the earth's surface. Who- ever visits them feels the sentiment of love of country kindling anew, as if the spirit that belonged to the trans- it) actions which have rendered these places distinguished still hovered round, with power to move and excite all who in future time may approach them. But neither of these sources of emotion equals the power with which great moral examples affect the mind. 15 When sublime virtues cease to be abstractions, when they become embodied in human character, and exempli- fied in human conduct, we should be false to our own nature if we did not indulge in the spontaneous effu- sions of our gratitude and our admiration. A true 20 lover of the virtue of patriotism delights to contemplate its purest models ; and that love of country may be well suspected which affects to soar so high into the regions of sentiment as to be lost and absorbed in the abstract feeling, and becomes too elevated or too refined to glow 25 with fervor in the commendation or the love of individ- ual benefactors. All this is unnatural. It is as if one should be so enthusiastic a lover of poetry as to care nothing for Homer or Milton; so passionately attached to eloquence as to be indifferent to Tully and Chat- 30 ham ; or such a devotee to the arts, in such an ecstasy with the elements of beauty, proportion, and expression, as to regard the masterpieces of Raphael and Michael Angelo with coldness or contempt. We may be assured, Gentlemen, that he who really loves the thing itself, 58 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN loves its finest exhibitions. A true friend of his coun- try loves her friends and benefactors, and thinks it no degradation to commend and commemorate them. The voluntary outpouring of the public feeling, made to-day, from the north to the south, and from the east to the 5 west, proves this sentiment to be both just and natural. In the cities and in the villages, in the public temples and in the family circles, among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices to-day bespeak grateful hearts and a freshened recollection of the virtues of the Father of his 10 Country. And it will be so, in all time to come, so long as public virtue is itself an object of regard. The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to themselves the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what they behold ; they will contemplate his char- li acter till all its virtues spread out and display them- selves to their delighted vision; as the earliest astrono mers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and con- stellations, overpowering at length the eyes of the 20 beholders with the united blaze of a thousand lights. Gentlemen, we are at a point of a century from the birth of Washington; and what a century it has been! During its course, the human mind has seemed to pro- ceed with a sort of geometric velocity, accomplishing for 25 human intelligence and human freedom more than had been done in fives or tens of centuries preceding. Wash- ington stands at the commencement of a new era, as well as at the head of the New World. A century from the birth of Washington has changed the world. The 30 country of Washington has been the theatre on which a great part of that change has been wrought, and Wash- ington himself a principal agent by which it has been CHAKACTEE OF WASHINGTON 59 accomplished. His age and his country are equally full of wonders ; and of both he is the chief. If the poetical prediction, uttered a few years before his birth, be true ; if indeed it be designed by Providence 5 that the grandest exhibition of human character and human affairs shall be made on this theatre of the West- ern world; if it be true that, "The four first acts already past; A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 10 Time's noblest offspring is the last"; how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be appro- priately opened, how could its intense interest be ade- quately sustained, but by the introduction of just such a character as our Washington? 15 Washington had attained his manhood when that spark of liberty was struck out in his own country which has since kindled into a flame and shot its beams over the earth. In the flow of a century from his birth, the world has changed in science, in arts, in the extent 20 of commerce, in the improvement of navigation, and in all that relates to the civilization of man. But it is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of individual man, in his moral, social, and political char- acter, leading the whole long train of other improve- 25 ments, which has most remarkably distinguished the era. Society, in this century, has not made its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of ingenuity in trifles; it has not merely lashed itself to an increased speed round the old circles of thought and action ; but it 30 has assumed a new character ; it has raised itself from . beneath governments to a participation in governments ; it has mixed moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of individual men; and, with a freedom and (30 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN strength before altogether unknown, it has applied to these objects the whole power of the human understand- ing. It has been the era, in short, when the social prin- ciple has triumphed over the feudal principle; when society has maintained its rights against military power, 5 and established, on foundations never hereafter to be shaken, its competency to govern itself. It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington, that, having been intrusted, in revolutionary times, with the supreme military command, and having fulfilled that 10 trust with equal renown for wisdom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the first government in which an attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution and of a pure representative principle. A 15 government was to be established, without a throne, without an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privi- leges; and this government, instead of being a democ- racy existing and acting within the walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast country of different 20 climates, interests, and habits, and of various commun- ions of our common Christian faith. The experiment certainly was entirely new. A popular government of this extent, it was evident, could be framed only by carrying into full effect the principle of representation 25 or of delegated power ; and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, carry forward its own great interests, and conduct itself to political re- nown and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this 30 experiment, so full of interest to us and to our posterity forever, so full of interest, indeed, to the world in its present generation and in all its generations to come, was suffered to commence under the guidance of Wash- CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 61 ington. Destined for this high career, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriotism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire confidence in man toward man. In entering on the untried scenes, early disappointment 5 and the premature extinction of all hope of success would have been certain, had it not been that there did exist throughout the country, in a most extraordinary degree, an unwavering trust in him who stood at the helm. 10 I remarked, Gentlemen, that the whole world was and is interested in the result of this experiment. And is it not so? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment the career which this government is run- ning is among the most attractive objects to the civilized 15 world ? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true that at this moment that love of liberty and that understanding of its true principles which are flying over the whole earth, as on the wings of all the winds, are really and truly of American origin ? 20 At the period of the birth of Washington there existed in Europe no political liberty in large communities, ex- cept in the provinces of Holland, and except that Eng- land herself had set a great example, so far as it went, by her glorious Revolution of 1688. Everywhere else, 25 despotic power was predominant, and the feudal or mili- tary principle held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One-half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon sceptre, and no conception of political liberty, no hope even of religious toleration, existed among that 3D nation which was America's first ally. The king was the state, the king was the country, the king was all. There was one king, with power not derived from his people, and too high to be questioned ; and the rest were all subjects, with no political right but obedience. All 62 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN above was intangible power, all below quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in the French chamber shows us how public opinion on these subjects is changed. A minister had spoken of the "king's subjects." "There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, 5 "in a country where the people make the king!" Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, 10 it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty is to show, in our own example, that this spirit is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power ; that its benignity is as great as its strength ; 15 that its efficiency to secure individual rights, social rela- tions, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a willing, but something of a fearful admiration. Its deep and 20 awful anxiety is to learn whether free States may be stable, as well as free; whether popular power may be trusted, as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regu- lar, and virtuous self-government is a vision for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth established, illus- 25 trated, and brought into practice in the country of Washington. Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races of man- kind, we seem to hold in our hands, for their weal or 30 woe, the fate of this experiment. If we fail, who shall venture the repetition? If our example shall prove to be one not of encouragement, but of terror, not fit to be imitated, but fit only to be shunned, where else shall CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 63 the world look for free models? If this great Western Sun be struck out of the firmament;, at what other foun- tain shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted? What other orb shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, on 5 the darkness of the world ? There is no danger of our overrating or overstating the important part which we are now acting in human affairs. It should not flatter our personal self-respect, but it should reanimate our patriotic virtues, and inspire 10 us with a deeper and more solemn sense both of our privileges and of our duties We cannot wish better for our country, nor for the world, than that the same spirit which influenced Washington may influence all who succeed him; and that the same blessing from 15 above, which attended his efforts, may also attend theirs. The principles of Washington's administration are not left doubtful. They are to be found in the Consti- tution itself, in the great measures recommended and approved by him, in his speeches to Congress, and in 20 that most interesting paper, his Farewell Address to the people of the United States. The success of the govern- ment under his administration is the highest proof of the soundness of these principles. And, after an experi- ence of thirty-five years, what is there which an enemy 25 could condemn ? What is there which either his friends, or the friends of the country, could wish to have been otherwise? I speak, of course, of great measures and leading principles. In the first place, all his measures were right in their 30 intent. He stated the whole basis of his own great character, when he told the country, in the homely phrase of the proverb, that honesty is the best policy. One of the most striking things ever said of him is, that "he changed mankind's ideas of political greatness/' 54 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN To commanding talents, and to success, the common ele- ments of such greatness, he added a disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive, a steady submission to every public and private duty, which threw far into the shade the whole crowd of vulgar great. The object of his 5 regard was the whole country. No part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. His love of glory, so far as that may be supposed to have influenced him at all, spurned everything short of general appro- bation. It would have been nothing to him that his 10 partisans or his favorites outnumbered, or outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored, those of other leaders. He had no favorites; he rejected all partisanship; and, act- ing honestly for the universal good, he deserved, what he has so richly enjoyed, the universal love. 15 His principle it was to act right, and to trust the people for support; his principle it was not to follow the lead of sinister and selfish ends, nor to rely on the little arts of party delusion to obtain public sanction for such a course. Born for his country and for the world, 20 he did not give up to party what was meant for man- kind. The consequence is, that his fame is as durable as his principles, as lasting as truth and virtue them- selves. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and temporary circumstances, and casual combinations, 25 have raised into transient notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, Washington's fame is like the rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to break harmlessly forever. 30 The maxims upon which Washington conducted our foreign relations were few and simple. The first was an entire and indisputable impartiality towards foreign States. He adhered to this rule of public conduct, CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 65 against very strong inducements to depart from it, and when the ^popularity of the moment seemed to favor such a departure. In the next place, he maintained true dignity and unsullied honor in all communications with 5 foreign States. It was among the high duties devolved upon him to introduce our new government into the circle of civilized States and powerful nations. Not arrogant or assuming, with no unbecoming or super- cilious bearing, he yet exacted for it from all others 10 entire and punctilious respect. He demanded, and he obtained at once, a standing of perfect equality for his country in the society of nations ; nor was there a prince or potentate of his day, whose personal character carried with it, into the intercourse of other States, a greater 15 degree of respect and veneration. He regarded other nations only as they stood in politi- cal relations to us. With their internal affairs, their political parties and dissensions, he scrupulously abstained from all interference ; and, on the other hand, 20 he repelled with spirit all such interference by others with us or our concerns. His sternest rebuke, the most indignant measure of his whole administration, was aimed against such an attempted interference. He felt it as an attempt to wound the national honor, and r**- 25 sented it accordingly. The reiterated admonitions in his Farewell Addre^. show his deep fears that foreign influence would insinu- ate itself into our counsels through the channels of domestic dissension, and obtain a sympathy with our 30 own temporary parties. Against all such dangers he most earnestly entreats the country to guard itself. He appeals to its patriotism, to its self-respect, to its own honor, to every consideration connected with its welfare and happiness, to resist, at the very beginning, all ten- 6(3 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN dencies towards such connection of foreign interests with our own affairs. With a tone of earnestness no- where else found, even in his last affectionate farewell advice to his countrymen, he says, "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me, 5 fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government." Lastly, on the subject of foreign relations, Washing- 10 ton never forgot that we had interests peculiar to our- selves. The primary political concerns of Europe, he saw, did not affect us. We had nothing to do with her balance of power, her family compacts, or her succes- sions to thrones. We were placed in a condition favor- 15 able to neutrality during European wars, and to the enjoyment of all the great advantages of that relation. "Why, then/' he asks us, "why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by interweaving our des- 20 tiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- ship, interest, humor, or caprice?" Indeed, Gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Address is full of truths important at all times, and particularly 25 deserving consideration at the present. With a sagacity which brought the future before him, and made it like the present, he saw and pointed out the dangers that even at this moment most imminently threaten us. I hardly know how a greater service of that kind could 30 now be done to the community, than. by a. renewed and wide diffusion of that admirable paper, and an earnest invitation to every man in the country to reperuse and consider it. Its political maxims are invaluable; its CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 67 exhortations to love of country and to brotherly affec- tion among citizens/ touching; and the solemnity with which it urges the observance of moral duties, and im- presses the power of religious obligation, gives to it the 5 highest character of truly disinterested, sincere, parental advice. The domestic policy of Washington found its pole- star in the avowed objects of the Constitution itself. He sought so to administer that Constitution as to form 10 a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, prqmote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. These were objects interesting, in the highest degree, to the whole country, and his policy embraced the whole 15 country. Among his earliest and most important duties was the organization of the government itself, the choice of his confidential advisers, and the various appointments to office. This duty, so important and delicate, when a 20 whole government was to be organized, and all its offices for the first time filled, was yet not difficult to him, for he had no sinister ends to accomplish, no clamorous partisans to gratify, no pledges to redeem, no object to be regarded but simply the public good. It was a plain, 25 straightforward matter, a mere honest choice of good men for the public service. His own singleness of purpose, his disinterested patri- otism, were evinced by the selection of his first cabinet, and by the manner in which he filled the seats of justice, 30 and other places of high trust. He sought for men fit for offices ; not for offices which might suit men. Above personal considerations, above local considerations, above party considerations, he felt that he could only dis- charge the sacred trust which the country had placed in 68 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN his hands, hy a diligent inquiry after real merit, and a conscientious preference of virtue and talent. The whole country was the field of his selection. He ex- plored that whole field, looking only for whatever it con- tained most worthy and distinguished. He was, indeed, 5 most successful, and he deserved success for the purity of his motives, the liberality of his sentiments, and his enlarged and manly policy. Washington's administration established the national credit, made provision for the public debt, and for that 10 patriotic army whose interests and welfare were always so dear to him; and, by laws wisely framed, and of admirable effect, raised the commerce and navigation of the country, almost at once, from depression and ruin to a state of prosperity. Nor were his eyes open to 15 these interests alone. He viewed with equal concern its agriculture and manufactures, and, so far as they came within the regular exercise of the powers of this govern- ment, they experienced regard and favor. It should not be omitted, even in this slight reference 2 o to the general measures and general principles of the first President, that he saw and felt the full value and importance of the judicial department of the govern- ment. An upright and able administration of the laws he held to be alike indispensable to private happiness 25 and public liberty. The temple of justice, in his opin- ion, was a sacred place, and he would profane and pollute it who should call any to minister in it, not spotless in character, not incorruptible in integrity, not competent by talent and learning, not a fit object of unhesitating 30 trust. Among other admonitions, Washington has left us, in his last communication to his country, an exhortation against the excesses of party spirit. A fire not to be CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 69 quenched, he yet conjures us not to fan and feed the flame. Undoubtedly, Gentlemen, it is the greatest dan- ger of our system • and of our time. Undoubtedly, if that system should be overthrown, it will be the work of 5 excessive party spirit, acting on the government, which is dangerous enough, or acting in the government, which is a thousand times more dangerous; for government then becomes nothing but organized party, and, in the strange vicissitudes of human affairs, it may come at 10 last, perhaps, to exhibit the singular paradox of govern- ment itself being in opposition to its own powers, at war with the very elements of its own existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men may be protected against murder, but cannot be guarded against suicide, so government 15 may be shielded from the assaults of external foes, but nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent hands on itself. Finally, Gentlemen, there was in the breast of Wash- ington one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly upper- 20 most, that no proper occasion escaped without its utter- ance. From the letter which he signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand to that last paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union, 25 — the Union was the great object of his thoughts. In that first letter he tells them that to him and his brethren of the Convention, union appears to be the greatest interest of every true American; and in that last paper he conjures them to regard that unity of gov- 30 ernment which constitutes them one people as the very palladium of their prosperity and safety, and the secur- ity of liberty itself. He regarded the union of these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his 70 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN judgment, was the great magazine of all our means of prosperity ; here, as he thought, and as every true Ameri- can still thinks, are deposited all our animating pros- pects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught us to maintain this union, not by seeking to 5 enlarge the powers of the government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pur- suing objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity. K The extreme solicitude for the preservation of the Union, at all times manifested by him, shows not only the opinion he entertained of its importance, but his clear perception of those causes which were likely to spring up to endanger it, and which, if once they should 15 overthrow the present system, would leave little hope of any future beneficial reunion. Of all the presumptions indulged by presumptuous man, that is one of the rash- est which looks for repeated and favorable opportuni- ties for the deliberate establishment of a united govern- 2c ment over distinct and widely extended communities. Such a thing has happened once in human affairs, and but once ; the event stands out as a prominent exception to all ordinary history; and unless we suppose ourselves running into an age of miracles, we may not expect its 25 repetition. Washington, therefore, could regard, and did regard, nothing as of paramount political interest but the in- tegrity of the Union itself. With a united government, well administered, he saw that we had nothing to fear; 30 and without it, nothing to hope. The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should solemnly impress the whole country. If we might regard our country as per- sonated in the spirit of Washington, if we might con- CHAEACTEE OF WASHINGTON 71 sider him as representing her, in her past renown, her present prosperity, and her future career, and as in that character demanding of us all to account for our con- duct, as political men or as private citizens, how should 5 he answer him who has ventured to talk of disunion and dismemberment? Or how should he answer him who dwells perpetually on. local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice? How should he answer him who would array State against State, inter- 10 est against interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance of that unity of government which con- stitutes us one people ? The political prosperity which this country has at- tained, and which it now enjoys, has been acquired 15 mainly through the instrumentality of the present gov- ernment. While this agent continues, the capacity of attaining to still higher degrees of prosperity exists also. We have, while this lasts, a political life capable of beneficial exertion, with power to resist or overcome 20 misfortunes, to sustain us against the ordinary accidents of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, every public interest. But dismemberment strikes at the very being which preserves these faculties. It would lay its rude and ruthless hand on this great agent itself. It 25 would sweep away, not only what we possess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring new possessions. It would leave the country not only bereft of its pros- perity and happiness, but without limbs, or organs, or faculties, by which to exert itself hereafter in the pur- 30 suit of that prosperity and happiness. Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects over- come. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it; 72 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered 5 by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished gov- ernment? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall frame together the skilful architecture which unites national 10 sovereignty with State rights, individual security, and public prosperity? No, if these columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Coliseum and the Par- thenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melan- choly immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow 15 over them than were ever shed over the monuments of Eoman or Grecian art; for they will be the remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Home ever saw, the edifice of constitutional American liberty. But let us hope for betters things. Let us trust in 20 that gracious Being who had hitherto held our country as in the hollow of his hand. Let us trust to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, and to the efficacy of religious obligation. Let us trust to the influence of Washington's example. Let us hope that that fear of 25 Heaven which expels all other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other regard, may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our country still onward in her happy career. Full of these gratify- ing anticipations and hopes, let us look forward to the so end of that century which is now commenced. A hun- dred years hence, other disciples of Washington will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere admiration than we now commemorate it. When they shall meet, CHAKACTEE OF WASHINGTON 73 as we now meet, to do themselves and him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, so surely as they shall behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, still flowing on toward the sea, so surely may they see, as we now see, the flag of the Union float- ing on the top of the Capitol; and then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country ! THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT DANIEL WEBSTER An address delivered at the laying of the corner-stone at Charlestown, Massachusetts, June 17, 1825. This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of 5 the firmament, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress 10 the emotions which agitate us here. We are among the sepulchres of our fathers. We are on ground distin- guished by their valor, their constancy, and the shed- ding of their blood. We are here, not to fix an uncer- tain date in our annals, nor to draw into notice an 15 obscure and unknown spot. If our humble purpose had never been conceived, if we ourselves had never been born, the 17th of June, 1775, would have been a day on which all subsequent history would have poured its light, and the eminence where we stand a point of attraction 20 to the eyes of successive generations. But we are Ameri- cans. We live in what may be called the early age of this great continent; and we know that our posterity, through all time, are here to enjoy and suffer the allot- ments of humanity. We see before us a probable train 25 74 THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 75 of great events; we know that our own fortunes have been happily cast; and it is natural, therefore, that we should be moved by the contemplation of occurrences which have guided our destiny before many of us were 5 born, and settled the condition in which we should pass that portion of our existence which God allows to men on earth. We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, without feeling something of a personal interest in the 10 event; without being reminded how much it has affected our own foi tunes and our own existence. It would be still more unnatural for us, therefore, than for others, to contemplate with unaffected minds that interesting, I may say that most touching and -pathetic scene, when 15 the great discoverer of America stood on the deck of his shattered bark, the shades of night falling on the sea, yet no man sleeping; tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, yet the stronger billows of alternate hope and despair tossing his own troubled thoughts ; ex- 20 tending forward his harassed frame, straining westward his anxious and eager eyes, till Heaven at last granted him a moment of rapture and ecstasy, in blessing his vision with the sight of the unknown world. Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our 25 fates, and therefore still more interesting to our feelings and affections, is the settlement of our own country by colonists from England. We cherish every memorial of these worthy ancestors ; we celebrate their patience and fortitude; we admire their daring enterprise; we teach 30 our children to venerate their piety ; and we are justly proud of being descended from men who have set the world an example of founding civil institutions on the great and united principles of human freedom and human knowledge. To us, their children, the story of 7g WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN their labors and sufferings can never be without its inter- est. We shall not stand unmoved on the shore of Plym- outh, while the sea continues to wash it; nor will our brethren in another early and ancient colony forget the place of its first establishment, till their river shall cease 5 to flow by it. No vigor of youth, no maturity of man- hood, will lead the nation to forget the spots where its infancy was cradled and defended. But the great event in the history of the continent, which we are now met here to commemorate, that 10 prodigy of modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world, is the American Eevolution. In a day of extraordinary prosperity and happiness, of high national honor, distinction, and power, we are brought together, in this place, by our love of country, by our 15 admiration of exalted character, by our gratitude for signal services and patriotic devotion. The Society whose organ I am was formed for the purpose of rearing some honorable and durable monu- ment to the memory of the early friends of American 20 Independence. They have thought that for this object no time could be more propitious than the present pros- perous and peaceful period, that no place could claim preference over this memorable spot, and that no day could be more auspicious to the undertaking than the 25 anniversary of the battle which was here fought. The foundation of that monument we have now laid. With solemnities suited to the occasion, with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing, and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have begun the work. We trust 30 it will be prosecuted, and that, springing from a broad, foundation, rising high in massive solidity and un-. adorned grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven per- mits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, both of the . THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ?* events in memory of which it is raised, and of the grati- tude of those who have reared it. We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is most safely deposited in the universal remem- 5 brance of mankind. We know that if we could cause this structure to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part of that which, in an age of knowl- edge, hath already been spread over the earth, and 10 which history charges itself with making known to all future times. We know that no inscription on entabla- tures less broad than the earth itself can carry informa- tion of the events we commemorate where it has not already gone; and that no structure which shall not 15 outlive the duration of letters and knowledge among men can prolong the memorial. But our object is, by this edifice, to show our own deep sense of the value and importance of the achievements of our ancestors; and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, 20 to keep alive similar sentiments, and to foster a con- stant regard for the principles of the Eevolution. Human beings are composed, not of reason only, but of imagination also, and sentiment; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the 25 purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. Let it not be supposed that our object is to per- petuate national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, 'purer, nobler. We con- 30 secrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences which have been f g WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN produced, by the same events, on the general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undis- 5 tinguished where the first great battle of the Eevolu- tion was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and every age. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal 10 lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up here, and be proud in the midst of its toil. We wish that, in those days of disaster which, as they come upon all nations, must 15 be expected to come upon us also, desponding patriot- ism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our national power are still strong. We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples 20 dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall re- 25 mind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise ! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit. ■>/ We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so eo various and so important that they might crowd and distinguish centuries are, in our times, compressed within the compass of a single life. When has it happened that history has had so much to record, in THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 79 the same term of years, as since the 17th of June, 1775? Our own revolution, which, under other cir- cumstances, might itself have been expected to occa- sion a war of half a century, has been achieved; 5 twenty-four sovereign and independent States erected; and a general government established over them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment should have been accom- plished so soon, were it not far the greater wonder 10 that it should have been established at all. Two or three millions of people have been augmented to twelve, the great forests of the West prostrated be- neath the arm of successful industry, and the dwellers on the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi become 15 the fellow-citizens and neighbors of those who culti- vate the hills of New England. We have a commerce that leaves no sea unexplored; navies which take no law from superior force; revenues adequate to all the exigencies of government, almost without taxation; 20 and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and mutual respect. -*• Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the individual condition and happiness of almost 25 every man, has shaken to the centre her political fab- Tic, and dashed against one another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages. On this, our continent, our own example has been followed, and colonies have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed sounds of 30 liberty and free government have reached us from be- yond the track of the sun; and at this moment the dominion of European power in this continent, from the place where we stand to the south pole, is annihi- lated for ever. 80 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has been the general progress of knowledge, such the improvement in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and, above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, that the whole world seems 5 changed. Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint ab- stract of the things which have happened since the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from it; and we now stand here to enjoy all 10 the blessings of our own condition, and to look abroad on the brightened prospects of the world, while we still have among us some of those who were active agents in the scenes of 1775, and who are now here, from every quarter of New England, to visit 15 once more, and under circumstances so affecting, I had almost said so overwhelming, this renowned theatre of their courage and patriotism. Venerable men ! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened 20 out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers, and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold, how altered ! The same heavens are indeed over your 25 heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else how changed ! You hear now no roar of hostile can- non, you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and dying ; the impetuous charge ; the 30 steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is inanly to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly sared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 81 in war and death, — all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable 5 emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population come out to welcome and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and 10 seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of dis- tinction and defence. All is peace ; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to behold 15 and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! 20 But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Bead, Porneroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you in vain amid this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her 25 grateful remembrance and your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve that you have met the common fate of men. You lived at least long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your country's inde- 30 pendence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. - On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like 11 another morn, Risen on mid-noon ; ' ' 35 82 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless. But ah ! Him ! the first great martyr in this great cause ! Him ! the premature victim of his own self- devoting heart ! Him ! the head of our civil councils, 5 and the destined leader of our military bands, whom nothing brought hither but the unquenchable fire of his own spirit ! Him ! cut off by Providence in the hour of overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom; falling ere he saw the star of his country rise; pouring out 10 his generous blood like water, before he knew whether it would fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! — how shall I struggle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of thy name ! Our poor work may perish ; but thine shall endure ! This monument may moulder 15 away ; the solid ground it rests upon may sink down to a level with the sea ; but thy memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall be claimed kindred with thy spirit ! 20 But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit us to confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless spirits who hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here in the presence of a most worthy representation of the survivors of the whole Revolutionary army. 25 Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well-fought field. You bring with you marks of honor from Tren- ton and Monmouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Benning- ton, and Saratoga. Veterans of half a century! when in your youthful days you put everything at hazard in 30 your country's cause, good as that cause was, and san- guine as youth is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward to an hour like this ! At a period to which you could not reasonably have expected to arrive, THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 83 at a moment of national prosperity such as you could never have foreseen, you are now met here to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, and to receive the over- flowings of a universal gratitude. 5 But your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I perceive that a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon you. The images of the dead, as well as the per- sons of the living, present themselves before you. The 10 scene overwhelms you, and I turn from it. May the Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years, and bless them ! And when you shall here have ex- changed your embraces, when you shall once more have pressed the hands which have been so often extended to 15 give succor in adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory, then look abroad upon this lovely land which your young valor defended, and mark the happiness with which it is filled; yea, look abroad upon the whole earth, and see what a name you have contributed to 20 give to your country, and what praise you have added to freedom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and grati- tude which beam upon your last days from the improved • condition of mankind! The occasion does not require of me any particular 25 account of the battle of the 17th of June, 1775, nor any detailed narrative of the events which immedi- ately preceded it. These are familiarly known to all. In the progress of the great and interesting contro- versy, Massachusetts and the town of Boston had be- 30 come early and marked objects of the displeasure of the British Parliament. This had been manifested in the act for altering the government of the Prov- ince, and in that for shutting up the port of Boston. Nothing sheds more honor on our early history, and 84 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN nothing better shows how little the feelings and sen- timents of the Colonies were known or regarded in England, than the impression which these measures everywhere produced in America. It had been antic- ipated, that while the Colonies in general would be 5 terrified by the severity of the punishment inflicted on Massachusetts, the other seaports would be gov- erned by a mere spirit of gain; and that, as Boston was now cut off from all commerce, the unexpected advantage which this blow on her was calculated to 10 confer on other towns would be greedily enjoyed. How miserably such reasoners deceived themselves ! How little they knew of the depth, and the strength, and the intenseness of that feeling of resistance to illegal acts of power, which possessed the whole Ameri- 15 can people. Everywhere the unworthy boon was rejected with scorn. The fortunate occasion was seized, everywhere, to show to the whole world that the Colonies were swayed by no local interest, no par- tial interest, no selfish interest. The temptation to 20 profit by the punishment of Boston was strongest to our neighbors of Salem. Yet Salem was precisely the place where this miserable proffer was spurned, in a tone of the most lofty self-respect and the most indignant patriotism. "We are deeply affected/' 25 said its inhabitants, "with the sense of our public calamities; but the miseries that are now rapidly has- tening on our brethren in the capital of the Province greatly excite our commiseration. By shutting up the port of Boston some imagine that the course of trade 30 might be turned hither and to our benefit; but we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feel- ings of humanity, could we indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes on the ruin of our THE BUNKEB HILL MONUMENT 85 suffering neighbors/' These noble sentiments were not confined to our immediate vicinity. In that day of general affection and brotherhood, the blow given to Boston smote on every patriotic heart from one 5 end of the country to the other. Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as Connecticut and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the cause to be their own. The Continental Congress, then holding its first session in Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for the suffering ;o inhabitants of Boston, and addresses were received from all quarters, assuring them that the cause was a common one, and should be met by common efforts and common sacrifices. The Congress of Massachu- setts responded to these assurances; and in an address 15 to the Congress at Philadelphia, bearing the official signature, perhaps among the last, of the immortal Warren, notwithstanding the severity of its suffering and the magnitude of the dangers which threatened it, it was declared that this Colony "is ready, at all times, 20 to spend and to be spent in the cause of America." But the hour drew nigh which was to put profes- sions to the proof, and to determine whether the au- thors of these mutual pledges were ready to seal them in blood. The tidings of Lexington and Concord had 25 no sooner spread, than it was universally felt that the time was at last come for action. A spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, not boisterous, but deep, sol- - emn, determined, — "Totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corj se corpore miscet. tf War on their own soil and at their own doors, was, indeed, a strange work to the yeomanry of New Eng- 86 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN land; but their consciences were convinced of its ne- cessity, their country called them to it, and they did not withhold themselves from the perilous trial. The ordinary occupations of life were abandoned ; the plough was stayed in the unfinished furrow ; wives 5 gave up their husbands, and mothers gave up their sons, to the battles of a civil war. Death might come in honor, on the field; it might come, in disgrace, on the scaffold. For either or for both they were pre- pared. The sentiment of Quincy was full in their 10 hearts. "Blandishments/' said that distinguished son of genius and patriotism, "will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate; for, under God, we are determined, that, whatsoever, whensoever, or howsoever, we shall be called to make our exit, we will 15 die free men." The 17th of June saw the four New England Colo- nies standing here side by side, to triumph or to fall together; and there was with them from that moment to the end of the war, what I hope will remain with 20 them for ever, — one cause, one country, one heart. The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most important effects beyond its immediate results as a military engagement. It created at once a state of open, public war. There could now be no longer a 25 question of proceeding against individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. That fearful crisis was past. The appeal lay to the sword, and the only question was, whether the spirit and the resources of the people would hold out till the object should be accomplished. 30 Nor were its general consequences confined to our own country. The previous proceedings of the Colonies, their appeals, resolutions, and addresses, had made their cause known to Europe. Without boasting, we THE BUNKEE HILL MONUMENT 87 may say, that in no age or country has the public cause been maintained with more force of argument, more power of illustration, or more of that persuasion which excited feeling and elevated principle can alone r * bestow, than the Kevolutiociary state papers exhibit. These papers will forever deserve to be studied, not only for the spirit which they breathe, but for the ability with which they were written. To this able vindication of their cause, the Colonies 10 had now added a practical and severe proof of their own true devotion to it, and given evidence also of the power which they could bring to its support. All now saw, that if America fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men felt sympathy and regard, as well as 15 surprise, when they beheid these infant states, remote, unknown, unaided, encounter the power of England, and, in the first considerable battle, leave more of their enemies dead on the field, in proportion to the number of combatants, than had been recently known to fall 20 in the wars of Europe. Information of these events, circulating throughout the world, at length reached the ears of one who now hears me. He has not forgotten the emotion which the .fame of Bunker Hill, and the name of Warren,. 25 excited in his youthful breast. Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establish- ment of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor to the distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe for eulogy of the living. But, Sir, your inter- 30 esting relation to this country, the peculiar circum- stances which surround you and surround us, call on me to express the happiness which we derive from your presence and aid in this solemn commemoration. Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of de- 88 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN votion will you not thank God for the circumstances of your extraordinary life ! You are connected with both hemispheres and with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, from .the New 5 World to the Old; and we, who are now here to per- form this duty of patriotism, have all of us long ago received it in charge from our fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. You will account it an instance of your good fortune, Sir, that you crossed 10 the seas to visit us at a time which enables you to be present at this solemnity. You now behold the field, the renown of which reached you in the heart of France, and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by 15 the incredible diligence of Prescott; defended, to the last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor; and within which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken its position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, Moore, and other early 20 patriots, fell with him. Those who survived that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. Some of them you have known in the trying scenes of the war. Behold! they now stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace yon. 23 Behold S they raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of God on you and yours forever. Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this structure. You have heard us rehearse, with our feeble commendation, the names of departed patriots. 30 Monuments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this day to Warren and his associates. On other occasions they have been given to your more immediate companions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 89 to Sullivan, and to Lincoln. We have become reluctant to grant these, our highest and last honors, further. We would gladly hold them yet back from the little remnant of that immortal band. Serus in ccelum redeas. 5 Illustrious as are your merits, yet far, oh, very far dis- tant be the day when any inscription shall bear your name, or any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! The leading reflection to which this occasion seems to invite us respects the great changes which have hap- 10 pened in the fifty years since the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. And it peculiarly marks the character of the present age, that, in looking at these changes, and in estimating their effect on our condition, we are obliged to consider, not what has been done in our 15 own country only, but in others also. In these inter- esting times, while nations are making separate and individual advances in improvement, they make, too, a common progress; like vessels on a common tide, pro- pelled by the gales at different rates, according to their 20 several structure and management, but all moved for- ward by one mighty current, strong enough to bear onward whatever does not sink beneath it. A chief distinction of the present day is a community of opinions and knowledge amongst men in different 25 nations, existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, in our time, triumphed, and is tri- umphing, over distance, over difference of languages, over diversity of habits, over prejudice, and over big- otry. The civilized and Christian world is fast learning 30 the great lesson, that difference of nation does not imply necessary hostility, and that all contact need not be war. The whole world is becoming a common field for intel- lect to act in. Energy of mind, genius, power, where- soever it exists, may speak out in any tongue, and the 90 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN world will hear it. A great chord of sentiment and feeling runs through two continents, and vibrates over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from country to country; every wave rolls it; all give it forth, and all in turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas; 5 there are marts and exchanges for intellectual discov- eries, and a wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligences which make up the mind and opinion of the age. Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ulti- 10 mately answered; and the diffusion of knowledge, so astonishing in the last half-century, has rendered innu- merable minds, variously gifted by nature, competent to be competitors or fellow-workers on the theatre of intellectual operation. 15 From these causes important improvements have taken place in the personal condition of individuals. Generally speaking, mankind are not only better fed and better clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure; they possess more refinement and more 20 self-respect. A superior tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. This remark, most true in its application to our own country, is also partly true when applied elsewhere. It is proved by the vastly augmented consumption of those articles of manufac- 25 ture and of commerce which contribute to the comforts and the decencies of life; an augmentation which has far outrun the progress of population. And while the unexampled and almost incredible use of machinery would seem to supply the place of labor, labor still 30 finds its occupation and its reward ; so wisely has Providence adjusted men's wants and desires to their condition and their capacity. Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 91 during the last half-century in the polite and the me- chanic arts, in machinery and manufactures, in com- merce and agriculture, in letters and in science, would require volumes. I must abstain wholly from these 5 subjects, and turn for a moment to the contemplation of what has been done on the great question of poli- tics and government. This is the master topic of the age; and during the whole fifty years it has intensely occupied the thoughts of men. The nature of civil 10 government, its ends and uses, have been canvassed and investigated; ancient opinions attacked and de- fended; new ideas recommended and resisted, by whatever power the mind of man could bring to the controversy. From the closet and the public halls the 15 debate has been transferred to the field ; and the world has been shaken by wars of unexampled magnitude, and the greatest variety of fortune. A day of peace has at length succeeded; and now that the strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared away, we may be- 20 gin to see what has actually been done, permanently changing the state and condition of human society. And, without dwelling on particular circumstances, it is most apparent, that, from the before-mentioned causes of augmented knowledge and improved indi- 25 vidua! condition, a real, substantial, and important change has taken place, and is taking place, highly favorable, on the whole, to human liberty and human happiness. The great wheel of political revolution began to move 30 in America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe. Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but natural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse ; it whirled along with a fearful celerity; till at length, like the chariot wheels in the 92 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN races of antiquity, it took fire from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, spreading conflagration and terror around. We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortunate was our own condition, and how admirably 5 the character of our people was calculated for setting the great example of popular governments. The pos- session of power did not turn the heads of the American people, for they had long been in the habit of exer- cising a great degree of self-control. Although the 10 paramount authority of the parent state existed over them, yet a large field of legislation had always been open to our Colonial assemblies. They were accustomed to representative bodies and the forms of free govern- ment ; they understood the doctrine of the division of 15 power among different branches, and the necessity of checks on each. The character of our countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious; and there was little in the change to shock their feelings of jus- tice and humanity, or even to disturb an honest preju- 20 dice. We had no domestic throne to overturn, no privi- leged orders to cast down, no violent changes of prop- erty to encounter. In the American Eevolution, no man * sought or wished for more than to defend and enjoy his own. None hoped for plunder or for spoil. 25 Eapacity was unknown to it; the axe was not among the instruments of its accomplishment; and we all know that it could not have lived a single day under any well-founded imputation of possessing a tendency ad- verse to the Christian religion. 30 It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well intended, have terminated differently. It is, in- deed, a great achievement; it is the master-work of the THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 93 world, to establish governments entirely popular on lasting foundations; nor is it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at all into governments to which it has been altogether a stranger. It cannot be doubted, 5 however, that Europe has come out of the contest, in which she has been so long engaged, with greatly superior knowledge, and, in many respects, in a highly improved condition. Whatever benefit has been ac- quired is likely to be retained, for it consists mainly in 10 the acquisition of more enlightened ideas. And al- though kingdoms and provinces may be wrested from the hands that hold them, in the same manner they were obtained; although ordinary and vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost as it has been won; yet 15 it is the glorious prerogative of the empire of knowl- edge, that what it gains it never loses. On the contrary, it increases by the multiple of its power; all its ends become means; all its attainments, helps to new con- quests. Its whole abundant harvest is but so much seed 20 wheat, and nothing has limited, and nothing can limit the amount of ultimate product. Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowl- edge, the people have begun, in all forms of govern- ment, to think and to reason on affairs of state. Ee- 25 garding government as an institution for the public good, they demand a knowledge of. its operations, and a participation in its exercise. A call for the repre- sentative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, and where there is already intelligence enough to estimate its value, 30 is perseveringly made. Where men may speak out, they demand it! where the bayonet is at their throats, they pray for it. When Louis the Fourteenth said, "I am the State," he expressed the essence of the doctrine of unlimited 94 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN power. By the rules of that system, the people are disconnected from the state; they are its subjects, it is their lord. These ideas, founded in the love of power, and long supported by the excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to other opinions ; and 5 the civilized world seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers of government are but a trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for the good of the community. As knowledge is more and 10 more extended, this conviction becomes more and more general. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. The prayer of the Grecian champion, when enveloped in unnatural clouds and darkness, is 15 the appropriate political supplication for the people of every country not yet blessed with free institutions: — 11 Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." We may hope that the growing influence of enlight- 20 ened sentiment will promote the permanent peace of the world. Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down dynasties, and to regulate successions to thrones, which have occupied so much room in the his- tory of modern times, if not less likely to happen at all, 25 will be less likely to become general and involve many nations, as the great principle shall be more and more established, that the interest of the world is peace, and its first great statute that every nation possesses the power of establishing a government for itself. But 30 public opinion has attained also an influence over gov- ernments which do not admit the popular principle into their organization. A necessary respect for the judg- THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT 95 ment of the world operates, in some measure, as a control over the most unlimited forms of authority. It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, that the interesting struggle of the Greeks has been suffered to go on so long, 5 without a direct interference, either to wrest that coun- try from its present masters, or to execute the system of pacification by force, and, with united strength, lay the neck of Christian and civilized Greek at the foot of the barbarian Turk. Let us thank God that we live in an 10 age when something has influence besides the bayonet, and when the sternest authority does not venture to encounter the scorching power of public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I have mentioned should be met by one universal burst of indignation; the air of the 15 civilized world ought to be made too warm to be com- fortably breathed by any one who would hazard it. It is, indeeed, a touching reflection, that, while in the fulness of our country's happiness, we rear this monument to her honor, we look for instruction in our 20 undertaking to a country which is now in fearful con- test, not for works of art or memorials of glory, but for her own existence. Let her be assured that she is not forgotten in the world; that her efforts are ap- plauded, and that constant prayers ascend for her suc- 25 cess. And let us cherish a confident hope for her final triumph. If the true spark of religious and civil lib- erty be kindled, it will burn. Human agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's central fire, it may be smothered for a time; the ocean may overwhelm it; 30 mountains may press it down ; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, and at some time or other, in some place or other, the volcano will break out and flame up to heaven. Among the great events of the half-century, we 96 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN must reckon, certainly, the revolution of South Amer- ica; and we are not likely to overrate the importance of that revolution, either to the people of the country itself or to the rest of the world. The late Spanish colonies, now independent states, under circumstances 5 less favorable, doubtless, than attended our own revo- lution, have yet successfully commenced their national existence. They have accomplished the great object of establishing their independence; they are known and acknowledged in the world ; and although in re- 10 gard to their systems of government, their sentiments on religious toleration, and their provision for public instruction, they may have yet much to learn, it must be admitted that they have risen to the condition of settled and established states more rapidly than could 11 have been reasonably anticipated. They already fur- nish an exhilarating example of the difference between free governments and despotic misrule. Their com- merce, at this moment, creates a new activity in all the great marts of the world. They show themselves 20 able, by an exchange of commodities, to bear a useful part in the intercourse of nations. A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail; all the great interests of society receive a salutary impulse ; and the progress of information not 25 only testifies to an improved condition, but itself con- stitutes the highest and most essential improvement. When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. The thirteen little Colonies of North 30 America habitually called themselves the "Continent." Borne down by Colonial subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast regions of the South were hardly visible above the horizon. But in our day there has THE BUNKEB HILL MONUMENT 97 been, as it were, a new creation. The southern hemi- sphere emerges from the sea. Its -lofty mountains begin to lift themselves into the light of heaven; its broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of 5 civilized man, and at the mighty bidding of the voice of political liberty the waters of darkness retire. And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the conviction of the benefit which the example of our country has produced, and is likely to produce, on 10 human freedom and human happiness. Let us en- deavor to comprehend in all its magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the part assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We are placed at the head of the system of representative and popular gov- K ernments. Thus far our example shows that such governments are compatible not only with respectability and power, but with repose, with peace, with security of personal rights, with good laws, and a just adminis- tration. 20 We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are preferred, either as being thought better in them- selves, or as better suited to existing conditions, we leave the preference to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, that the popular form is practicable, 25 and that with wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves ; and the duty incumbent on us is to preserve the consistency of this cheering example, and take care that nothing weaken its authority with the world. If, in our case, the representative system ultimately fail, JO popular governments must be pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us; and if it should be proclaimed that our example had become an 98 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN argument against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded throughout the earth. These are excitements to duty; but they are not suggestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, 5 authorize the belief that popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, in form perhaps not always for the better, may yet, in their general charac- ter, be as durable and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that in our country any other is im- 10 possible. The principle of free governments adheres to the American soil. It is imbedded in it, immovable as its mountains. And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. 15 Those who established our liberty and our government are daily dropping from among us. The great trust now descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win no laurels in a war for inde- 20 pendence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preservation ; and there is 25 open to us also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop the resources 30 of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institu- tions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. 5 Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be, OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING but our country. And, by the blessing of God, may 10 that country itself become a vast and splendid monu- ment, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever ! AT INDEPENDENCE HALL ABRAHAM LINCOLN Philadelphia, Feb. 21, 1861 I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my 5 hands is the task of restoring peace to the present dis- tracted condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in and 10 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 Independ- ence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and 15 framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy 20 so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. 25 It was that which gave promise that in due time the 100 AT INDEPENDENCE HALL 101 weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis ? If it can, I will consider myself 5 one of the happiest of 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 this spot than 10 surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course ; and I may say in advance that there will be no blood- shed unless it be forced upon the government, and then 15 it will be compelled to act in self-defense. My friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech, and I did not expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here. I supposed it was merely to do something towards raising the flag — I may, therefore, have said 20 something indiscreet. I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by. FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS ABRAHAM LINCOLN March 4, 1861 Fellow Citizens oe the United States — In com- pliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President 5 "before he enters on the execution of his office." I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist, among the people of the 10 Southern States, that by the accession of a republican administration their property and their peace and per- sonal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. In- deed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all 15 the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 20 of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And 25 more than this, they placed in the platform for my ac- 102 FIRST INAUGUEAL ADDRESS 103 ceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: — "Resolved — That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each 5 state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we de- nounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil 10 of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most con- clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that 15 the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming admin- istration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the states, when 20 lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheerfully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any 25 other of its provisions : — "No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 30 delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." It is scarcely questioned that this provision was in- tended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the law- 104 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN giver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as much as any other. To the proposition^ then, that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this clause, "shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. 5 Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unani- mous oath? There is some difference of opinion whether this clause 10 should be enforced by national or by state authority; but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him, or to others, by which authority it is done. And should any one, in any case, be content 15 that his oath shall go unkept, on a mere unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? Again, in any law upon the subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and human jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be 20 not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well, at the same time, to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens 25 in the several states?" I shall take the official oath to-day with no mental reservation, and with no purpose to construe the Con- stitution or laws by any hypercritical rule. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con- 30 gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private sta- tions, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting FIRST INAUGUEAL ADDRESS 105 to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitu- tional. It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a president under our national constitution. During 5 that period, fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, administered the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter 10 upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that, in contemplation of universal law, and 15 of the Constitution, the union of these states is per- petual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. 20 Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national government, and the Union will endure for- ever — it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. Again, if the United States be not a government 25 proper, but an association of states in the nature of con- tract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it ? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 30 Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It £ was formed in fact, by the articles of association in 106 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declara- tion of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the articles of confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 1787, 5 one of the declared objects for ordaining and establish- ing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union." But if destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part only, of the states, be lawfully possible, the Union is 10 less perfect than before, the Constitution having lost the vital ejement of perpetuity. It follows, from these views, that no state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally 15 void ; and that acts of violence within any state or states, against the authority of the United States, are insurrec- tionary, or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I, therefore, consider that, in view of the Constitu- tion and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the 20 extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitu- tion itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my right- 25| ful masters, the American people, shall withhold the re- quisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 30 In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places ^ FIEST INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 107 belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be but necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where 5 hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right 10 may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, I deem it better to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices. The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur- 15 nished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect secur- ity which is most favorable to calm thought and reflec- tion. The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and experience shall show a modification 20 or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to cir- cumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. 25 That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not 30 speak ? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascer- tain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so des- 108 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN perate a step while there is any possibility that any por- tion of the ills yon fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills yon fly to are greater than all the real ones yon fly from — will yon risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 5 All profess to be content in the Union, if all constitu- tional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of 10 doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point 15 of view, justify revolution — certainly would if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmation and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Constitution, that 20 controversies never arise concerning them. But no or- ganic law can ever be framed with a provision specifical- ly applicable to every question which may occur in prac- tical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express pro- 25 visions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery 30 in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class spring all our constitu- tional controversies, and we divide upon them into ma- FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 109 jorities and minorities. If the minority will not ac- quiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no other alternative; for continuing the government is acquiescence on one side or the other. 5 If a minority in such case will secede rather than ac- quiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn, will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may 10 not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. 15 Is there such perfect identity of interests among the states to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional 20 checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to des- potism. Unanimity is impossible ; the rule of a minor- 25 ity, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible ; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or des- potism, in some form, is all that is left. I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Su- S0 preme Court ; nor do I deny that such decisions must be. binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases, by all other departments of the government. And while HO WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN it is obviously possible that such decisions may be errone- ous in any given case, still, the evil effect following it being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled, and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils 5 of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between li parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that emi- nent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the Court U or the Judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery . is right, and ought to be ex- 21 tended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dis- pute. The fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave- trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law 21 can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obliga- tion in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured ; and it would be 3i worse, in both cases, after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restric- tion, in one section; while fugitive slaves, now only FIKST INAUGURAL ADDRESS HI partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor 5 build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or 10 hostile, must continue between them. It is impossible then to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before. Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens 15 than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. 20 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the .people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their con- stitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignor- 25 ant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amend- ment, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either 30 of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the con- vention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amend- 112 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN ments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the pur- pose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a 5 proposed amendment to the Constitution — which amend- ment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the states, in- cluding that of persons held to service. To avoid mis- 10 construction of what I have said, I depart from my pur- pose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision now to be implied constitutional law, I have no objections to its being made express and irrevocable. 15 The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the states. The people themselves can do this also if they choose; but the execu- tive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to 20 administer the represent government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or 25 equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely 30 prevail, by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of the government under which we live, the same people have wisely given their public servants FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 113 but little power for mischief and have with equal wis- dom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any 5 extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of 10 you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Consti- tution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws 15 of your own framing under it ; while the new adminis- tration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. In- 20 telligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, 25 and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government while I shall have the most sol- 30 emn one to "preserve, protect, and defend" it. I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. 114 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN The mystic chord of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. 5 LETTEE TO HOEACE GEEELEY. abraham lincoln". Executive Mansion. Washington, August 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir: — I have just read yours of the 19th, ad- dressed to myself through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact 5 which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in 10 deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave anyone in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest 15 way under the constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the "Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time - save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be 20 those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I 25 would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it: and if I could save it by freeing 115 116 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do be- cause I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall be- 5 lieve what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe that doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. 10 I have stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modifications of my oft- expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free. Yours, A. Lincoln. SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG ABRAHAM LINCOLN November 19, 1863 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil 5 war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so con- ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation 10 might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedi- cate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or 15 detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us 20 to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased de- votion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, 25 under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 117 SECOND INAUGUEAL ADDEESS ABRAHAM LINCOLN March 4, 1865 Fellow- Country men — At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occa- sion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at 5 the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. io The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encourag- ing to all. With high hope for the future, no predic- tion in regard to it is ventured. 15 On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without 20 war, insurgent agents were in the city, seeking to de- stroy it with war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation. Both parties depre- cated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war 25 rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-eightlr 118 SECOND INAUGUEAL ADDKESS U9 of the whole population were colored slaves, not dis- tributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was 5 somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetu- ate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 10 Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease, even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental 15 and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and' each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat 20 of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences 25 come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His ap- pointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives 30 to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern there any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 120 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unre- quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 5 the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so, still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 10 let. us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 15 LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN Washington, April 11, 1865. We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond," and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give " hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous ex- 5 pression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part, gives us the cause of rejoicing 10 be overlooked. Their honors must not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high ^pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor for plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skilful officers and 15 brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part. By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national authority — reconstruction — which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much 20 more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. XTnlike a case of war between inde- pendent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with — no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin 25 with and mold from disorganized and discordant ele- ments. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to 121 122 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN the mode, manner and measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of 5 this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, 10 the public knows. In the annual message of December, 1863, and in the accompanying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the executive government of the 15 nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable, and I also dis- tinctly protested that the executive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was in 20 advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the 25 suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission of members to Congress. But even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action 30 of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emanci- pation for the whole State, practically applies the procla- mation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent, LAST PUBLIC ADDEESS 123 as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louis- iana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I received 5 many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from any professed eman- cipationist came to my knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 10 1862, I had corresponded with different persons sup- posed to be interested [in] seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Or- leans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident 15 that the people, with his military cooperation, would re- construct substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been my only agency in get- ting up the Louisiana government. 20 As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public in- terest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have 25 been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the ques- tion whether the seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment 30 to his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, 124 WASHINGTON, WEBSTER, LINCOLN while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious abstraction. 5 We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and mili- tary, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not 10 only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without decid- ing or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the 15 acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they 20 never having been out of it. The amount of constitu- ency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana govern- ment rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it con- tained 50,000, 01 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory 25 to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana gov- 30 ernment, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louis- iana be brought into proper practical relation with the LAST PUBLIC ADDKESS 125 Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government ? Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power 5 of the State, held elections, organized a State govern- ment, adopted a free State constitution, giving the bene- fit of public schools equally to black and white, and em- powering the legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already 10 voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State — committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, 15 the nation wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or worse; we will 20 neither help you, nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say : This cup of liberty which these, your old mas- ters, hold to your lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and 25 how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louis- 30 iana, the converse of all this is made true. We encour- age the hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing 126 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them ? Concede that the new govern- 5 ment of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national Con- 10 stitution. To meet this proposition it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to say that such a ratification would 15 be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or 20 by discarding her new State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new and unprecedented 25 is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the so phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new an- nouncement to the people of the South. I am consider- ing, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From "The Spectatok," London, Apkil 25, and May 2, 1891. The English-speaking world will never read the story of the Rebellion without a thrill of pride and exultation. Heroic and inspiring as was the achievement of the Puritans in throwing off the tyranny of the Stuarts, 5 and establishing in its place, not license or anarchy, but a wise and liberal polity, the veiling hand of time diminishes for modern men its distinctness and reality. With the defense of the Union it is different. We can almost hear the reverberations of the cannon at Vicks- 10 burg, and our hands may still clasp the hands of those who fought for the life of the Nation at Gettysburg and Chattanooga. The glory won by the English race is so near, that it still stirs the blood like a trumpet to read of the patriotism of the men who fought at 15 the call of Lincoln. Nothing is more admirable, as nothing is more dramatic in recorded history, than the manner in which the North sprang to arms at the news that the nation's flag had been fired on at Fort Sumter. It is all very well to hire soldiers at so much 20 a day and send them to the front with salutes and re- joicings, but the action of the Eastern and Western States meant a great deal more than this. It meant a voluntary sacrifice on the part of men who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by throwing over a life 25 of ease or profit to shoulder a musket or serve a gun. A continent was on fire. 127 j_28 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN It is one of the greatest of Lincoln's claims to ad- miration, that though he sympathized with the fervor and enthusiasm of his countrymen, he was not carried away by it. He was one of those rare men who can at once be zealous and moderate, who are kindled by great 5 ideas, and who yet retain complete control of the critical faculty. And more than this, Lincoln was a man who could be reserved without the chill of reserve. Again, he could make allowance for demerits in a principle or a human instrument, without ever falling into the pur- 10 blindness of cynicism. He often acted in his dealings with men much as a professed cynic might have acted; but his conduct was due, not to any disbelief in virtue, but to a wide tolerance and a clear knowledge of human nature. He saw things as a disillusionised man sees 15 them, and yet in the bad sense he never suffered any disillusionment. For suffusing and combining his other qualities was a serenity of mind which affected the whole man. He viewed the world too much as a whole to be greatly troubled or perplexed over its accidents. To this 20 serenity of mind was due an almost total absence of indignation in the ordinary sense. Generals might half- ruin the cause for the sake of some trumpery quarrel, or in order to gain some petty personal advantage ; office- seekers might worry at the very crisis of the nation's 25 fate ; but none of the pettiness, the spites, or the follies could rouse in Lincoln the impatience or the indigna- tion that would have been wakened in ordinary men. Pity, and nothing else, was the feeling such exhibitions occasioned him. Lincoln seems to have felt the excuse 30 that tempers the guilt of every mortal transgression. His largeness and tenderness of nature made him at heart a universal apologist. He was, of course, too practical and too great a statesman to let this sensibility ABRAHAM LINCOLN 129 to the excuses that can be made for human conduct in- duce him to allow misdeeds to go unpunished or un- corrected. He acted as firmly and as severely as if he had experienced the most burning indignation; but the 5 moment we come to Lincoln's real feelings, we see that he is never incensed, and that, even in its most legitimate form, the desire for retribution is absent from his mind. Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner, was the secret of his attitude towards human affairs. That is not the 10 highest wisdom ; but it errs on the right, and also on the rare, side. So much for the intellectual side of Lincoln's nature. Behind it was a personality of singular charm. Tender- ness and humor were its main characteristics. As he 15 rode through a forest in spring-time, he would keep on dismounting to put back the young birds that had fallen from their nests. There was not a situation in life which could not afford him the subject for a kindly smile. It needed a character so full of gentleness and 20 good temper to sustain the intolerable weight of re- sponsibility which the war threw upon the shoulders of the President. Most men would have been crushed by the burden. His serenity of temper saved Lincoln. Except when the miserable necessity of having to sign 25 the order for a military execution took away his sleep, he carried on his work without any visible sign of over- strain. Not the least of Lincoln's achievements is to be found in the fact that though for four years he wielded a power and a personal authority greater than 30 that exercised by any monarch on earth, he never gave satirist or caricaturist the slightest real ground for de- claring that his sudden rise to world-wide fame had turned the head of the backwoodsman. Under the cir- cumstances, there would have been every excuse; for 130 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEK, LINCOLN Lincoln, had he assumed to his subordinates somewhat the bearing of the autocrat he was. It is a sign of the absolute sincerity and good sense of the President that he was under no sort of a temptation to do so. Lincoln was before all things a gentleman, and the good 5 taste inseparable from that character made it impos- sible for him to be spoiled by power and position. This grace and strength of character is never better shown than in the letters to his generals, victorious or de- feated. When they were beaten, he was anxious to share 10 the blame; when victorious, he was instant to deny by anticipation any rumor that he had inspired "the strategy of the campaign. If a general had to be reprimanded, he did it as only the most perfect of gentlemen could do it. He could convey the severest censure without in- 15 flicting any wound that would not heal, and this not by using roundabout expressions, but in the plainest language. "He writes to me like a father," were the heart-felt words of a commander who had been reproved by the President. Throughout these communications, 20 the manner in which he not only conceals, but alto- gether sinks, all sense that the men to whom they were addressed were, in effect, his subordinates, is worthy of special note. "A breath could make them, as a breath had made," and yet Lincoln writes as if 25 his generals were absolutely independent. We have said something of Lincoln as a man and as the leader of a great cause. We desire now to dwell upon a point which is often neglected in considering the career of the hero of the Union, but which, from the 3Q point of view of letters, is of absorbing interest. No criticism of Mr. Lincoln can be in any sense adequate which does not deal with his astonishing power over words. It is not too much to say of him that he is ABRAHAM LINCOLN 131 among the greatest masters of prose ever produced by the English race. Self-educated, or rather not educated at all in the ordinary sense, as he was, he contrived to obtain an insight and power in the handling of the 5 mechanism of letters such as has been given to few men of his, or, indeed, in any age. That the gift of oratory should be a natural gift, is understandable enough, for the methods of the orator, like those of the poet, are primarily sensuous, and may well be instinctive. Mr. 10 Lincoln's achievement seems to show that no less is the writing of prose an endowment of Nature. Mr. Lincoln did not get his ability to handle prose through his gift of speech. That these are separate, though co- ordinate, faculties, is a matter beyond dispute, for many 15 of the great orators of the world have proved them- selves exceedingly inefficient in the matter of deliberate composition. Mr. Lincoln enjoyed both gifts. His let- ters, dispatches, memoranda, and written addresses are even better than his speeches; and in speaking thus of 20 Mr. Lincoln's prose, we are not thinking merely of certain pieces of inspired rhetoric. We do not praise his work because, like Mr. Bright, he could exercise his power of coining illuminating phrases as effectively upon paper as on the platform. It is in his conduct of 25 the pedestrian portions of composition that Mr. Lin- coln's genius for prose style is exhibited. Mr. Bright's writing cannot claim to answer the description which Hazlitt has given of the successful prose-writer's per- formance. Mr. Lincoln's can. What Hazlitt says is 30 complete and perfect in definition. He tells us that the prose-writer so uses his pen "that he loses no particle of the exact characteristic extreme impression of the thing he writes about;" and with equal significance he points out that "the prose-writer is master of his ma- 132 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN terials," as "the poet is the slave of his style." If these words convey a true definition, then Mr. Lincoln is a master of prose. Whatever the subject he has in hand, whether it be bald or impassioned, business-like or pathetic, we feel that we "lose no particle of the 5 exact characteristic extreme impression" of the thing written about. We have it all, and not merely a part. Every line shows that the writer is master of his ma- terials; that he guides the words, never the words him. This is, indeed, the predominant note throughout all 10 Mr. Lincoln's work. We feel that he is like the en- gineer who controls some mighty reservoir. As he de- sires, he opens the various sluice-gates, but for no in- stant is the water not under his entire control. We are sensible in reading Mr. Lincoln's writings, that an 15 immense force is gathered up behind him, and that in each jet that flows, every drop is meant. Some writers only leak; others half flow through determined chan- nels, half leak away their words like a broken lock when it is emptying. The greatest, like Mr. Lincoln, 20 send out none but clear-shaped streams. The "Second Inaugural" — a written composition, though read to the citizens from the steps of the Capi- tol — well illustrates our words. Mr. Lincoln had to tell his countrymen, that, after four years' struggle, the war 25 was practically ended. The four years' agony, the pas- sion of love which he felt for his country, his joy in her salvation, his sense of tenderness for those who fell, of pity mixed with sternness for the men who had deluged the land with blood, — all the thoughts these 30 feelings inspired were behind Lincoln pressing for ex- pression. A writer of less power would have been over- whelmed. Lincoln remained master of the emotional and intellectual situation. In three or four hundred ABRAHAM LINCOLN 133 words that burn with the heat of their compression, he tells the history of the war and reads its lesson. No nobler thoughts were ever conceived. No man ever found words more adequate to his desire. Here is the 5 whole tale of the nations shame and misery, of her heroic struggles to free herself therefrom, and of her victory. Had Lincoln written a hundred times as much more, he could not have said more fully what he desired to say. Every thought receives its complete expression 10 and there is no word employed which does not directly and manifestly contribute to the development of the central thought. As an example of Lincoln's more familiar style, we may quote from that inimitable series of letters to his 15 generals to which we made allusion on a former oc- casion. The following letter was addressed to General Hooker on his being appointed to command the Army of the Potomac, after mismanagement and failure had made a change of generals absolutely necessary: — 20 "I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have doue this upon what appears to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satis- fied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, 25 which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have con- fidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that, during General 30 Burnside's command of the army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother-officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both 35 the army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course, it 134 WASHINGTON, WEBSTEE, LINCOLN was. not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than 5 it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit, which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were 10 alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories. ' ' It is possible that this letter may sound too severe in 15 tone_when read without the context. If, however, the condition of the army at the time, and the intrigues of the various commanders are considered, it will be recognized as erring in no way on the side of harsh- ness. The irony is particularly delightful, and in no 20 sense forced. . . . NOTES GEOEGE WASHINGTON. FAEEWELL ADDEESS. AUTHORSHIP. The first draft of most of Washington's state papers was prepared by others. The papers were not, however, given out until revised, well considered, digested, and rewritten by Washington himself. In 1792, Madison, at Washington's request, furnished him a draft of an address to the American people on Washington's expected retirement. Having been prevailed upon to accept a second term, Washington did not again take up the project of a farewell address until 1796. The address was dated September 17, 1796, and contains some suggestions from Madison's former draft and some from Ham- ilton. ' ' The copy from which the final draft was printed . . . is wholly in the handwriting of Washington. It bears all the marks of a most rigid and laborious revision. ' ' Sparks : Writ- ings of Washington, Vol. XII, appendix. THE OCCASION AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES. What is excellent in literature is preserved because of the universal element of truth and the evidence of great per- sonality in it. Even though utterly ignorant of the historical facts back of Washington's Farewell Address and unac- quainted with the life of Washington, a reader could not miss the appeal of the great national principles which the address embodies; nor could he escape the feeling 'that he is in the presence of a great and admirable personality. A knowledge of the facts and of the life, however, would greatly deepen appreciation. Eecall in connection with the introduction of the address (p. 35— p. 38, 1. 15) the great debt of gratitude which the country owed to Washington for his services in the Eevolution. Eecall the fact that he was probably the only American who could have gotten the new government under way amid the perplexities that arose after the dismal failure of the old Confederation. Eecall the bitter 135 136 NOTES and unjust criticism of his administration and of himself. And then note the spirit of good-will, concern for the public welfare, and dignified modesty where much personal credit might have been claimed. The first topic of the discussion (p. 38, 1. 16 — p. 41, 1. 27) enjoins love of country, pride in the national union. There were still a great many Ameri- cans who remained in the colonial condition of mind, who took their politics from abroad, and thought politically as Frenchmen or as Englishmen rather than as Americans. There was also considerable unfriendliness and jealousy between North and South, East and West, — a feeling that appears to this day on occasion, usually showing itself in connection with tariff bills, or discussions of the money question, or the bank question. The logic of Washington's first topic will be keenly felt by the student who is informed about the attitude of different sections of our country towards the Assumption Bill, the National Bank, the Excise Bill, the Whiskey Insur- rection, the Genet Affair, the Jay Treaty, the Spanish Treaty, the Proclamation of Neutrality. (See any of the larger his- tories: Hildreth, volumes III-V; Schouler, volume I; Sparks, Life and Writings of Washington, or the volumes in the American Statesmen Series on Washington, Jefferson, Hamil- ton, and Jay.) That the warning was timely will be clear to those who recall the Virginia and Kentucky Eesolutions of 1798, and the rumors of secession in connection with these and with the Hartford Convention sixteen years later. Wash- ington next takes up more specifically (p. 41, 1. 28 — p. 45, 1. 3) the danger to the Union arising from political parties based on geographical lines, and here refers by name to the treaties with Spain and England, thereby recalling the agitation, based on sectional lines and on foreign affiliations, that was aroused by the proposal of these treaties. (See Lodge: George Wash- ington, vol. II, pp. 135, 167, 180, 201, 205.) He next empha- sizes the need of an adequate central government (p. 42, 1. 26) and of obedience to it (p. 43, 1. 9), warning against combina- tions and factions (p. 43, 1. 19) and against the spirit of innovation. (Lodge: Washington, II, 266-268.) The discus- sion of party spirit (p. 45, 1. 4 — p. 46, 1. 23) recalls the fact that Washington entered upon the Presidency with the impos- sible expectation that parties could be eliminated from govern- ment. His cabinet, however, represented in Hamilton and Jefferson respectively, the two principles along which parties speedily formed. (Alexander Johnston: American Politics.) The Farewell Address is to be read as his final judgment that parties are inevitable, but excessive party spirit is forever to be repressed in a free country. (See chapter V, vol. II of Lodge's biography, on "Washington as a Party Man.") It NOTES 137 is a corollary of- this that a party when in power should pro- ceed with moderation and not in a spirit of vengeance, and should keep well within constitutional limitations (p. 46, i. 24 — p. 47, 1. 17). The next section of the address (p. 47, 1. 18 — p. 48, 1. 12) should recall the words of the Ordinance of 1787. On public credit and acquiescence in revenue laws (p. 48, 1. 13 — p. 49, 1. 4), the experience of Washington's administration with Hamilton 's financial measures and with the Whiskey Insurrection, plainly speaks. (See Lodge: Washington, II, 122-128). The last topic of the discussion (p. 49, 1. 5— p. 55, 1. 7) deals with the principles that should govern our country's foreign policy. The inveterate antipathy against England and the passionate attachment for France are alike condemned (p. 49, 1. 22), though the countries are not named. Pages 50 and 51 recall the Genet Affair, with the attendant exhibitions of foolish popular affection for France and equally foolish popular hatred for England; and the disgraceful intriguing of one American faction with the French minister to the United States. (See Lodge: Washington, II, chapter IV.) The great rule of conduct (p. 51, 11. 24-28) in foreign affairs, as laid down by Washington, was nobly fulfilled in the diplomacy of the late John Hay, Secretary of State. In closing with a defense of the Proclamation of Neutrality, Washington reached a true climax, a fact not generally appreciated today; for that proclamation embodied, in effect, all the fundamental principles laid down in the Farewell Address. It meant national soli- darity against the world, as opposed to a divided nation with conflicting sympathies running wildly in favor of one foreign country or another. The conclusion (p. 55, 11. 8-30) like the introduction, illustrates the highest use of personal reference. But the evidence of great and admirable personality is found not merely in the sentiments of the introduction and the con- clusion. It appears in the magnanimous and perfectly adequate treatment of the principles announced one after another in the body of the discourse; in the final character and nobility of those principles; in the repression of the controversial spirit and the choice of the highest plane of discussion. If the address had been written in the spirit of controversy, it must have remained on the low plane of fact; it comes to us not on that plane, but on the plane of truth. The next speech in this volume, Webster on the Character of Washington, contains an exposition of the main truths of the Farewell Address. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES. Make a complete outline of the address, following the form of the outline of Webster's Bunker Hill Monument Address as given in the introduction to this volume (p. 24). Are the 138 NOTES topics of the address related to one another by the law of cause and effect, or by similarity and contrast, or by conti- guity? What passages or maxims would you select for memo- rizing? What audience is Washington addressing? Do you find the appeal to community of interest anywhere plainly expressed? Does the persuasion arise from the subject, the method of treatment, or the speaker? What does Washington mean by the distinction between political and commercial in our dealings with foreign nations? Is there any ground for think- ing that the principles of the address are in any respect obsolete? On the immediate effect of the Farewell Address, see Lodge 's Washington, volume II, pages 248-251. DANIEL WEBSTEK. THE CHAEACTEE OF WASHINGTON. THE SPEAKER. When this speech was delivered, in 1832, Webster had been United States Senator from Massachusetts about five years, and had previously served several terms in the House of Eepre- sentatives. He had already enjoyed five great triumphs. As a lawyer he had won a favorable decision from the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dartmouth College Case; he had gained fame also by four remarkable orations: one commemorating the landing of the Pilgrims, one at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, one on Adams and Jefferson, and one in reply to Hayne. These had made Webster recognized as the leader of the Union sentiment, the national idea, in the country, just as Senators Calhoun and Hayne were already the recognized leaders of the confederation sentiment in the country, of the idea that the Constitution is merely a compact. Although he served twice as Secretary of State and was twice a candidate for the presidency, it was in the Senate, as the expounder of the Constitution on the national theory, that he performed his greatest service. His last great speech, March 7, 1850, was on the slavery question. He died in 1852 at the age of seventy. See Lodge: Daniel Webster (American Statesmen Series), especially chapter IV; Curtis: Life of Webster, especially chapter XI; Whipple: Essays and Reviews, Vol. I; Whipple: Webster's Great Speeches. KIND OF ADDRESS. An address which takes for its title the name of a great man may (1) be merely narrative and biographical. This it is NOTES 139 likely to be, and needs to be, if the man whom it celebrates has but recently passed away, or if, though long celebrated, his life in many of its details has been forgotten. (2) It may be judicial, aiming at a careful estimate of the worth of the life and of its influence. (3) It may be appreciative and eulogistic, dealing not with the facts of the life but with the exemplary principles which guided the great man in his work. (4) It may take the life and the principles which gov- erned it merely as a point of departure for discussion of pres- ent day problems and duties and of the spirit in which they should be met. In these days a Washington's Birthday ad- dress is likely to be of the type last named. Webster 's address is not judicial and is only incidentally biographical. It is in the main an appreciation of Washington's character, and the appreciation is deepest when Webster speaks of Wash- ington 's devotion to the paramount idea of Union, to the country as one nation (pp. 69-71) ; for this was the idea to which Webster himself was supremely devoted during his whole life. THE THEME. The subject of this address is Washington; the theme, everywhere present, is the spirit of American Nationality as exemplified in Washington. The sentiment of nationalism, of an inseparable unity of states, of a supreme union as an essential of true liberty, was still not dominant in this country. Webster had given it a commanding utterance two years before in the Reply to Hayne. Now he recurs to it. At the opening of the speech (p. 56, 11. 9-11; p. 57, 11. 8, 21; p. 58, 11. 1-11) it is calmly assumed. In the body of the discourse, which begins on page 58, line 22, it is appealed to incidentally as the key to the proper appreciation of Washington's character (p. 60, 11. 3, 4, 14, 15; p. 61, 1. 19; p. 62, 11. 12-17; p. 63, 1. 9; p. 64, 11. 5-15; p. 65, 11. 12, 16-25 [referring to the Proclamation of Neutrality], 32; p. 66, 11. 10, 11; p. 67, 11. 1, 10, 14, 32; p. 81, 1. 23), but finally (pp. 69-73) the senti- ment of nationalism becomes the main object of the discus- sion. Thus the various topics of the address (beginning respectively on pages 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69) are bound together by this pervading sentiment. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES. Make an outline of the address. This address abounds in specimens of the climax; almost every one of the longer para- graphs affords a specimen. Note how each climax is approached. Webster does not often in his speeches use ex- 140 NOTES tended figures, but in this address such figures are numerous. See p. 57, 11. 9-12, 11. 26-32. Also see p. 58, 11. 17-21 (perhaps the finest of all), p. 64, 1. 26; p. 69, 1. 13; p. 71, 11. 22-30; p. 72, 11. 8-19. On p. 64, 11. 20-22, Webster adapts Goldsmith's lines referring to Burke: 1 ' Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. " — Goldsmith: Retaliation, 31. Note the large use of rhetorical questions in this address. Whence arises the persuasive element in the address, from the subject, from the method or from the speaker? THE BUNKEE HILL MONUMENT. THE OCCASION. A monument to General Warren, whom Webster calls ''the first great martyr" of the revolution, had been erected by King Solomon's Lodge of Masons, Charlestown, Massachusetts, and had been dedicated, in 1794. General Warren in his life- time had been Grand Master of the Massachusetts Masons. But there came in the course of years a desire on the part of Congress, the Massachusetts legislature, and the people gen- erally, for a grander memorial not only to Warren but also to the other patriots who had fought at Bunker Hill. An asso- ciation, the Bunker Hill Monument Association, was formed, with Webster as President of the Board of Trustees. Funds were raised and on June 17, 1825, the ceremonies of laying the corner stone took place. The procession included the mili- tary, followed by two hundred veterans of the Eevolution, in carriages, forty of the veterans being survivors of the battle of Bunker Hill. Then came the members of the Monument Association and of the Masonic fraternity, followed by Lafayette, who had arranged his progress through the country so as to be present on the occasion. Many civic societies fol- lowed and the procession was attended with great enthusiasm and a universal outburst of patriotism during its long prog- ress from the State House to Breed 's Hill. Thousands had come to hear the great Webster, whom the trustees of the Association had appointed orator. For this extraordinary occasion, Webster had made preparations that were unusual for him. He had written out the speech in full, whereas it was his custom to write out and commit to memory only the most important and striking passages of his speeches. It is known that this speech caused Webster great anxiety; especially, the portion to be addressed directly to the noble Lafayette raised NOTES J41 fine questions of taste, fitness, and proportion, that were not so urgent in the case of the direct address to the Bevolutionary soldiers. "He said," says Ticknor, "that he felt as if he knew how to talk to such men, for that his father, and many of his father's friends whom he had known, had been among them. ' ' QUALITIES OF THE ADDRESS. Five years before the date of this address Webster had given at Plymouth the oration celebrating the "First Settle- ment of New England/' which Ticknor described as "a series of eloquent fragments." In that oration Webster had touched upon the power of local association, the historical event, the character of the Pilgrims, the growth and future of the country, on liberty, on the national view of the constitu- tion, on education and on slavery. The point of Ticknor 's description is that these topics were not so closely knit to- gether as to make an organized unity. No such criticism could be passed on the Monument speech. Although the range of topics is even greater than in the Plymouth Oration, and consequently the problem of relating them closely to one another is more difficult, unity of organization is effected with apparent ease. (See outline and study of the principles of arrangement, Introduction, pp. 24-28.) Many of the ideas are the. same in the two orations; for instance the idea of the power of local association (p. 74, 1. 9. See also p. 56, 1. 23), of the growth of mankind in education (p. 89) and in government (pp. 93-94). Besides unity and wide range of topics, the Monument Address shows ease of transition; its continuity is unbroken. In making transitions Webster uses the ' ' echo ' ' frequently, — some word or sentiment towards the end of one paragraph being repeated at the beginning of the next (e. g. "deep impression," p. 74, 1. 7, is echoed in "af- fect" and "emotions," 11. 10, 11). This is a special form of the arrangement by contiguity (see p. 24). Note also the easy approach to the address to the survivors (p. 80, 1. 19), to the veterans (p. 82, 1. 20) and to Lafayette (p. 87, 1. 26). Another quality conspicuous in all of Webster's orations is massiveness; there is a sufficient bulk of material gathered about each point to give it due importance and dignity; a sense of satisfaction is experienced as the discussion of each topic is concluded. The language is plain and direct; almost devoid of subtlety and fancy (the one fanciful allusion in this speech is to the ships about the Charlestown navy yard, p. 81, 1. 11). Yet there is imagination (e. g. p. 75, 11. 8-23). There is picturesqueness (e. g. p. 79). There is force. These are higher qualities, independent of vocabulary and of sentence- 142 NOTES length; they are qualities that arise from the vision or insight of the speaker into the deeper significance of the occasion (cf. pp. 75, 78, 81, 88, 89, 91, 93). The sentences are short and clear; they are void of monotony on account of the full- ness and variety of thought which they carry. It is Webster's simplicity of expression, combined with the amplitude of his thought and the dignity of his emotion, that explains the power of his speech. It was this that led those who listened to him to speak of his discourse as having " magnanimity,' ' or "high seriousness," or "largeness," or "sweep," or "ele- vation," or "tone." These words point to characteristics of the speaker's personality while, at the same time, they de- scribe his speech; thus they indicate his sincerity and perfect competence for the occasion. (Other points are touched upon in the Introduction, pp. 24-31). Webster's speeches are full of political wisdom and the Monument Address is no excep- tion. (See especially pp. 89, 92.) Our attention is held by his thoughts, rather than by the way in which they are clothed. He makes no effort for small adornment; quotations and literary allusions are few. That on p. 81, 1. 34, is from Milton's Paradise Lost, V, 310-311; that on p. 85, 1. 29, is from Virgil's Mneid, VI, 726 ("infused through all parts, intelligence moves the whole mass and permeates the great body"); that on p. 89, 1. 4 is from Horace's Carmina, I. 2, 45 ("May you return late to heaven; may you live long! ") ; that on p. 94, 1. 18 is from Homer's Iliad, XVIII; books that Webster read in the academy and in college and that continued to be his favorites through life. From the nature of the case, historical references are numerous. The matters with which they deal, colonial history, the French Eevolution, the Greek Revolution, South American States, are treated at length in the larger histories, Fiske, Bancroft, Von Hoist, Lalor's Cyclopedia of United States History, or may be traced by use of the index volume of the American Statesmen Series. On page 95, 11. 20- 26 the reference is to the events that followed the Greek War against Turkey, for independence (1821-1829). In 1830, the great powers declared Greece an independent kingdom, Turkey agreeing; but they were unable to provide a king for Greece until 1832. Meanwhile Greece was ruled by a dictator and conditions were so bad as to justify the alternatives mentioned, 11. 5-9. As would be expected, melody and cadence on the small scale of single sentences, are not prominent char- acteristics of Webster, but in the larger divisions of his dis- course, rhythm and harmony are prominent. They arise from the large sweep of his thought and emotion, and are best noticed as he approaches and reaches his climaxes (pp. 78, 83, 97 and 99). NOTES 143 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ADDRESS AT INDEPENDENCE HALL. Mr. Lincoln had spoken his brief but touching farewell to his Springfield neighbors, February 11, 1861, and had started for Washington. After stopping at various points to make speeches, he had reached Philadelphia, where he was to assist at a flag-raising. The secession of Southern states, the de- moralization of the Buchanan Administration at Washington, the timid attitude' of the North, and of Congress, were post- election developments. Through these, the issues on which Lincoln had won the election had suddenly become obsolete. The issue was now no longer anti-slavery, but the Union and how to save it. The Independence Hall speech recognizes this great change of issues (p. 100, 11. 5-7, 11. 19-21; p. 101, 11. 3-10), and the Union is Lincoln's theme from this time on. The place suggested the central idea, "The Declaration of Independence furnishes the principle on which the Union must be saved." While hundreds of influential but timid Northern- ers were, at the moment, ready to yield any and all principles in order to pacify the South, here was a strong declaration from the President-elect, that there would be no war unless it was forced upon the government. The effect of this address was to hearten the North and to impress the South with the fact that Lincoln was in no sense doubtful as to the duty before him. In connection with the last sentence of the address it should be remembered that there were credible rumors of a plot to assassinate Lincoln as he should pass through Baltimore on the next day or two. The plot, if it existed, was frustrated by making the journey earlier than the time announced, and Lincoln entered Washington February 23d, unharmed. THE FIEST INAUGURAL. This, the. most momentous utterance in our history, left no doubt that the real issue was now union or disunion, and of the firm course President Lincoln would take. * ' The union of these states is perpetual"; "No state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union"; "I shall take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states"; "The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy"; "The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts"; "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, 144 NOTES while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend' it," — these direct, simple, firm, and earnest sen- tences, impossible to misunderstand, meant that the seceded states must either abandon their project or make war to main- tain it. By the most persuasive pleas and reasonings they were solicited to abandon their project. They are first assured (pp. 102, 103) that Eepubliean success does not mean danger to slavery in the Southern states; that the President deems the enactment of a Fugitive Slave Law a constitutional obliga- tion binding on Congress (pp. 103, 104). Indeed he makes suggestions for improving the existing law (p. 104, 11. 18-26). Then follow the open acknowledgment that an attempt is being made to disrupt the Union (p. 105) and the argument that the Union is perpetual and secession ordinances void (p. 106) ; the duty and intentions of the President (pp. 106, 107) ; the plea to those who love the Union (pp. 107, 108) ; the lack of real grievances against the government (p. 108) ; the reduction of secession to a logical absurdity (p. 109) ; the true attitude of the citizen towards the Supreme Court (p. 110) ; the folly of secession (pp. 110, 111) ; Lincoln's willingness that the Constitution should be amended (pp. Ill, 112) ; the appeal to faith in the triumph of the right (p. 112) ; the appeal to old friendship and to patriotism (pp. 113, 114). In an earlier draft of the inaugural the word nothing was used for the word void (p. 106, 1. 16), the word treasonable instead of the word revolutionary (p. 106, 1. 18). The clauses in view of the Con- stitution and the laws (p. 106, 1. 19) and as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me (p. 106, 1. 21) were omitted; tangible way was used for authoritative manner (p. 106, 1. 27) and the last line of the paragraph (p. 106, 1. 30) read, that it will have its own and defend itself. (The student will find it instructive to consider what difference in implication there is between the word rejected and the word adopted in each case and to account for the alterations adopted by Lincoln.) The original draft of the final paragraphs (p. 113) read as follows : ' * My dissatisfied fellow-countrymen ; you cannot forbear the assault upon it; I cannot shrink from the defense of it. With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of Shall it be peace or a sword?" To this Mr. Seward objected on the ground that " something besides or in addition to argu- ment is needful — to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South and despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection — some of calm and cheerful confidence." Mr. Seward proposed the following: "I close. "We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affec- tion too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, be NOTES 145 broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battle-fields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all the hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation. ' ' Compare these versions with the text finally adopted by Mr. Lincoln and account for the alterations. Lincoln's fine precision in the use of words, his sense for choosing words with the association desired, his gift for direct statement, his ability to make every sentence say and imply no more and no less than he meant it to say and imply, can be illustrated on every page of this inaugural. He attributed his power over language to the fact that he never was satisfied with an idea until he had put it in language "plain enough \for any boy to comprehend." The tone is firm but kindly, the spirit breathes native greatness and honesty of intention. THE LETTER TO GREELEY. In spite of the clear statement of the First Inaugural that the supreme issue was not now anti-slavery but the saving of the Union, many of Lincoln's supporters continued to think of the war only in its bearings on slavery. The radicals were zealous to destroy slavery at once; the conservatives were willing to preserve it. Each faction was eager to criticise every act of the administration with sole reference to the effect on slavery. Lincoln was on record as saying that he believed the Union could not permanently endure half-slave and half-free. He was known to hate human slavery. It might be inferred that when convinced of the necessity of emancipation as a war measure, solely in order to save the Union, he would proclaim freedom to the slave. He was meditating whether the hour had not arrived and had dis- cussed the subject with his Cabinet July 22, 1862. But he had laid the proclamation aside awaiting Union victories. These did not come; and the radicals were more bitter in their criticism of his "inaction" than ever. August 20, 1862, the New York Tribune, Greeley 's paper, printed an open letter to Abraham Lincoln signed by Horace Greeley charging the President with not executing the laws energetically, with not carrying forward emancipation; with not taking counsel with radicals instead of conservatives, with acting timidly, with deferring to Southern sentiment, and with much more to the same purport. The purpose of Lincoln's reply was to restrain the impatience of those enthusiasts who felt as Greeley wrote, and to turn Greeley's letter to account in mak- ing public sentiment ready for emancipation. Lincoln aimed 146 NOTES to go no faster in the direction of emancipation than he felt sure public opinion would warrant. There was for Lincoln every provocation to anger at the injustice of Greeley's letter; every incitement to reveal in detail his own plan for emanci- pation, and to make a promise on the subject. But Lincoln refused to yield to impulses of that kind. With rare mag- nanimity he overlooked the personal injustice, with rare dig- nity he denied himself the justification that a word might have afforded, refused to enter a controversy, refused to dis- comfit his accuser, and prepared the public mind for the proclamation which was published September 23d. THE SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. This brief speech should be memorized and made a perma- nent possession. Of the same quality in tone, spirit, and perfect expression, is the following letter to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston: Dear Madam: — I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the adjutant general of Massachu- setts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Very respectfully yours, Abraham Lincoln. THE SECOND INAUGUKAL. By the time of the second inaugural the military success of the Federal arms was assured, the Union was probably saved, and slavery was being destroyed by the victorious advance of the Union armies. For those now defeated, who had brought on_the war, the great heart of Lincoln contained nothing but forgiveness. His fear was that the spirit of revenge which had begun to appear in Congress would dictate too harsh terms to the conquered and would perpetuate hatred and make real reconciliation impossible between the two sections of the country. The second inaugural address is the most magnani- mous of American state papers. Its final sentence might stand as the epitaph of its writer. ' ' This speech, ' ' says Morse, ' ' has taken its place among the most famous of all the NOTES 147 written or spoken compositions in the English language. In parts it has often been compared with the lofty portions of the Old Testament. Mr. Lincoln's own contemporaneous criticism is interesting. ' ' I expect it, ' ' he said, ' ' to wear as well as, perhaps better than, anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing tha world, It is the truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it. ' ' The address puts on the war an interpretation (p. 119, 1. 16 — p. 120, 1. 15) at once the highest, the profoundest, and the most magnanimous, rising above all controversies as to the relative blame of the North and the South for bringing on the scourge; it is divine retribution upon the whole nation for permitting a great wrong to continue for so many years. In this interpretation Lincoln anticipated the best judgment which history has pronounced in explanation of this and other sim- ilar conflicts of the world, notably the French Revolution. The deeply religious tone, the awe and the mystery of it, indicate the humble spirit in which Lincoln would have the nation proceed to the work of restoration and reconciliation that remained to be accomplished. In connection with p. 119, 1. 19 read Genesis 3:19; with 1. 20, Matthew 7:1; with 11. 23-25, Matthew 18:7; with p. 120, 1. 7, Psalm 19:9; with 1. 11, Isaiah 61:1 and Isaiah 30:26; with 1. 12, Matthew 20:12; with 1. 13, Psalm 146:9. LAST PUBLIC ADDRESS. For the- various theories of reconstruction, — the restoration or presidential theory, conquered territory theory, state suicide theory, etc., see Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science and United States History, article on Reconstruction. Reconstruc- tion brought greater embarrassments than secession had brought, and aroused passions quite as fierce. The President was attacked for exercising powers that were claimed for Congress alone and for offering terms too lenient to the Southern States. The spirit of revenge, which Lincoln had feared, gained headway in Congress. The speech was delivered to a multitude that had gathered in the evening of April 11, before the White House, to express enthusiasm over the fall of Petersburg and Richmond and the surrender of Lee. It begins by generously attributing to Grant and the army all of the honor of the victory and then calmly, without the slight- 148 NOTES est hint of irritation at unjust criticism, appeals by argument and explanation for support of the humane and liberal policy in Louisiana, which was already bitterly assailed by politicians of his own party. Keasonableness, benignity, honesty of inten- tion, greatness of heart, characterize the utterance. But so do practical sagacity, homely wisdom, and simplicity. Lincoln touched no difficult subject in his life without simplifying it by his statement. He brushes aside the fine spun theories of reconstruction with which men had befogged their minds and calls attention to the one purpose for which all should work (p 124 11. 6-21). Two weeks after this speech Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who, in the words of Morse, "slew the only sincere and powerful friend whom the Southerners had among their conquerors." THE LONDON SPECTATOK ON LINCOLN. Of the countless tributes to the greatness of Abraham Lincoln, none are more instructive to the American than those coming from foreign sources. That quoted in the text is especially noteworthy for its analysis of Lincoln's literary power, as well as for its true insight into his character. Cite from the speeches of Lincoln in this volume passages that verify the points made by the London Spectator. Cite an example of persuasion arising from the order in which Lincoln arranges the topics of his discourse. Cite from Lincoln a case of refutation; a case of persuasion arising from logic alone; several memorable maxims of government. JUN 3 1910 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 One copy del. to Cat. Div.