F-jspBcr:, ■r £j,g^ LINCOLN ROOM UNIVEI ISITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MKMO.i.AL the Class of 1901 ^^^^^^^1 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER ri - '%:^: ''^^is^: m ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln Centennial ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE MEMORIAL EXERCISES HELD AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS FEBRUARY 12, 1909 Commemorating The One Hundredth Birthday of ABRAHAM LINCOLN Published by THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION 1909 JOURNAL CO.. PRINTERS. SPRINQFIELD. ILL. V 1 0) CONTENTS Page Frontispiece; Lincoln 4 Joint Resolution of the Illinois General Assembly ... 4 Illinois Centennial Commission; members 5 Lincoln Centennial Association; incorporators 6 Summary of Memorial Exercises 7 At the Armory ; mention 10 Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Jusserand 11 Ambassador Jusserand's address 16 Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Bryce 27 Ambassador Bryce's address 29 Judge Humphrey, introducing Mr. Bryan 36 Hon. William J. Brj^an's address 37 Judge Humphrey, introducing Senator Dolliver .... 52 Senator Dolliver's address 53 Senator Cullorn's letter 60 Hon. Booker T. Washington's letter 63 Mr. Charles Henry Butler's poem 67 At the Tabernacle; mention 75 ui Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Jusserand 76 ^ Ambassador Jusserand's address 78 < Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Bryce 82 Ambassador Bryce's address 83 ^ Governor Deneen, introducing Senator Dolliver ... 88 < Senator Dolliver's address 89 § Governor Deneen, introducing Mr. Bryan 113 Hon. William J. Bryan's address 114 At St. John's Church; mention 132 Dr. Thomas D. Logan's address 133 At the Court House; mention 159 The Memorial Tablet 160 Colonel Mills, introducing Judge Cartwright 164 Judge Cartwright's address 166 Colonel Mills, introducing Judge Creighton 174 Judge Creighton's address 175 At the High School; mention 182 ^>c-^ General John W. Noble's address 183 "At the Lincoln Home; mention 208 At the Historical Library; mention 209 At the Executive Mansion; mention .210 At the Lincoln Tomb; mention 211 At the Country Club; mention 213 The Veteran Guard of Honor; hst 214 The Illinois Centennial Commission; list 216 The Lincoln Centennial Association; list 217 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 22 Whereas, The one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln will occur on the 12th day of February, 1909; and, Whereas, It is fitting and proper that the State of Illinois should celebrate the anniversary of the birth of this greatest of all American statesmen; therefore, be it Resolved, by the Senate of the State of IllinoiSf the Hoicse of Representatives concurring therein. That the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln be celebrated in the city of Springfield on the 12th day of February, 1909; and, be it further Resolved, That the Governor is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint a commission of fifteen representative citizens of this State to have charge of all arrangements for such celebration. Adopted by the Senate, October 8, 1907. Concurred in by the House, October 9, 1907. STATE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION John W. Bunn Ben F. Caldwell Edwin L. Chapin James A. Connolly James A. Creighton Shelby M. Cullom J Otis Humphrey William Jayne Edward D. Keys Alfred Orendorff Nicholas Roberts James A. Rose Edgar S. Scott Lawrence Y. Sherman Philip Barton Warren LINCOLN CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION [INCOEPORATOKS] Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice U. S. Supreme Court Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, U. S. S. Hon. Albert J. Hopkins, U. S. S. Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, M. C. Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson Hon. Charles S. Deneen, Governor Hon. John P. Hand, Chief Justice Sup. Court Hon. J Otis Humphrey, Judge U. S. Dist. Court Hon. James A. Rose, Secretary of State Hon. Ben F. Caldwell, M. C. Hon. Richard Yates Melville E. Stone, Esq., New York Horace White, Esq., New York John W. Bunn, Esq. Dr. William Jayne SUMMARY The memorial exercises, celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, were held under the general direction of the State Centennial commission, working in con- junction with the Lincoln Centennial association, (incorporated) and consisted of a number of dis- tinct events so arranged as not to conflict with each other as to date or purpose. Each separate event was a distinct success and the numbers in attendance were limited in every instance by the capacity of the buildings in which the exercises were held. The more important events included in these memorial exercises were as follows: The Armory meeting, at which addresses were made by Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce and by Senator Dolliver and Mr. Bryan, and a banquet served to 800 guests; The Tabernacle meeting, earlier in the day, at which an audience of 10,000 was addressed by the same distinguished speakers; Pagt eight The religious services held at St. John's Evan- gelical Lutheran church (formerly the First Pres- byterian church where Mr. Lincoln worshiped while living in Springfield) at which Rev. Dr. Thomas D. Logan delivered the principal address; The Grand Army meeting at which a Lincoln tree was planted in the Court House square by the veterans, after which ceremony they marched to the Lincoln tomb, served as a Guard of Honor during the day and, in a body, attended the ban- quet at night; The Sons of the American Revolution meeting, at which addresses were delivered by Judges Cartwright and Creighton and a memorial tablet, marking the site of the old Lincoln law office, was unveiled at 109 North Fifth street; The Daughters of the American Revolution meet- ting, consisting of a reception at the old Lincoln home and a luncheon served at the rooms of the Young Men's Christian association; The State Historical society meeting in the hbrary at the State Capitol including a reception and addresses; Paffe nine The High School meeting, the principal feature of which was the address of Gen. John W. Noble of St. Louis; An informal reception at the Executive Mansion at which the guests of the commission together with State officials, Justices of the Supreme Court and others paid their respects to Governor and Mrs. Deneen; A visit to the Lincoln tomb participated in by the guests of the commission, as well as by State and city officials and many citizens of Springfield; An informal luncheon served at the home of the mini Country Club in honor of the city's guests. Page ten AT THE ARMORY The principal event of the celebration was the banquet in the evening at the Armory. Here eight hundred and fifty members of the Centennial association with their guests were seated at seventy-one tables, and the galleries were filled with spectators and auditors. The hall of the armory was brilliantly illuminated and conspicu- ous among the decorations were the national colors of France and of England mingled with those of the United States. Judge J Otis Hum- phrey presided as toastmaster. Addresses were delivered by the French Ambassador, the British Ambassador, Senator Dolliver and Mr. Bryan. Letters of regret from Senator Cullom and Booker T. Washington were read and a poem by Charles Henry Butler. The letters, poem and addresses with the introductory remarks of the toastmaster are given on the following pages. Page eleven JUDGE HUMPHREY Introducing the French Ambassador 't5 Perhaps never again in any presence will so many of his old associates be assembled together to do honor to that immortal character given to the world by the great republic. We are in the midst of a universal celebration of which Spring- field is recognized as the center, and to know what is said and done here today the world is standing at attention. Many men in all ages have taught lessons of patriotism: Mr. Lincoln taught patriotism plus humanity. He knew as few others have known the lesson that, more than wealth, more than fame, more than any other thing, is the power of the human heart. The notion has long been prevalent in the east and to some extent among historians of the period that Mr. Lincoln's greatness was all attained after he became President. Let that fallacy be forever set at rest. True it is that the general recog- nition of his greatness came with his broadened Page twelve opportunities, but his old friends in Illinois had for years known his power and recognized his strength. Those who had worked with him or who had opposed him in the arena of justice; those who were factors in his combinations who associated with him or took orders from him in his various political campaigns, knew his subtle diplomacy and his easy mastery of men. Some of those men still remain to us, some of them are here tonight. They had seen him convince courts, control juries and sway the masses; they heard the Bloomington speech and the spell of it is still over them. They knew his powers of expression, his moderation of statement; his willingness to yield nonessentials, his immovable adherence to what he regarded as important. They saw in him then what the world sees now, a rare combination of gentleness, genius and strength. So, when at Washington they saw his apparent yielding to his great secretaries, going Seward's way yesterday, and Chase's way today, and Stanton's way tomorrow, these men knew as the country did not know, that Mr. Lincoln was all the time going his own way and that he would carry the secretaries with him. Page fifteen the basis of organized government; each has stood to the other, sometimes as an example and some- times a warning, and these lessons of history have been profitable to both. The greatest republic of the old world greets us tonight in the person of one of her most dis- tinguished citizens. Gentlemen, I have pleasure in presenting the scholar, the author, the diplo- matist, His Excellency, Mr. J. J. Jusserand, the French Ambassador. Page lizUen THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR Abraham Lincoln as France Regarded Him On two tragic occasions, at a century's distance, the fate of this country has trembled in the bal- ance: Would it be a free nation? Would it continue to be one nation? A leader was wanted on both occasions, a very different one in each case. This boon from above was granted to the American people who had a Washington when a Washington was needed and a Lincoln when a Lincoln could save them. Both had enemies, both had doubters, but both were recognized by all open-minded people and, above all, by the nation at large, as the men to shape the nation's destinies. When the Marquis de Chastellux came to America as chief of staff in the army of Rochambeau, his first thought was to go and see his friend Lafayette and, at the same time, Washington. He has noted in his memoirs what were, on first sight, his impressions of the not yet victorious, not yet triumphant, not yet universally admired American patriot: Page seventeen "I saw," he said, "M. de Lafayette talking in the yard with a tall man of 5 feet 9 inches, of noble mien and sweet face. It was the general himself. I dismounted and soon felt myself at my ease by the side of the greatest and best of all men. All who meet him trust him, but no one is familiar with him, because the sentiment he inspires to all has ever the same cause; a pro- found esteem for his virtues and the highest opinion of his talents. " So wrote a foreigner who was not Lafayette, who suddenly found himself face to face with the great man. Any chance comer, any passer-by would have been similarly impressed. He inspired confidence and those who saw him felt that the fate of the country was safe in his hands. A century of almost unbroken prosperity had nearly elapsed when came the hour of the nation's second trial. Though it may seem to us a small matter compared with what we have seen since, the development had been considerable; the scat- tered colonies of yore had become a great nation, and now it seemed as if all was in doubt again; the nation was young, wealthy, powerful, pros- — 2 L c Page eighteen perous; it had immense domains and resources; yet it seemed as if her fate would parallel those of old empires described by Tacitus, which, with- out foes, crumble to pieces under their own weight. Within her own frontiers elements of destruction or disruption had been growing; hatreds were em- bittered among people equally brave, bold and sure of their rights. The edifice raised by Wash- ington was trembling on its base; a catastrophe was at hand. Then it was that in the middle- sized, not yet world-famous town, Chicago by name, the republican convention called there for the first time, met to choose a candidate for the presidency. It has met there again since, and has made, each time, a remarkable choice. In 1860 it chose a man whom my predecessor of those days, announcing the news to his govern- ment, described as "a man almost unknown, Mr. Abraham Lincoln.'' Almost unknown was he, in- deed, at home as well as abroad, and the news of his selection was received with anxiety. My country, France, was then governed by Napoleon III; all liberals had their eyes fixed on America. Your example was the great example which gave heart to our most progressive men. You had Page nineteen proved that republican government was possible, by having one. If it broke to pieces, so would the hopes of all those among us who expected that one day we would have the same. And the partisans of autocracy were loud in their assertion that a republic was well and good for a country without enemies or neighbors but that, if a storm arose, it would be shattered. A storm arose and the helm had been placed in the hands of that man almost unknown, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. " We still remember, '' wrote, years later, the illus- trious French writer, Prevost-Paradol, "the un- easiness with which we awaited the first words of that President then unknown, upon whom a heavy task had fallen and from whose advent to power might be dated the ruin or regeneration of his country. All we knew was that he had sprung up from the humblest walks of life, that his youth had been spent in manual labor; that he had then risen by degrees in his town, in his county and in his state. What was this favorite of the people? Democratic societies are hable to errors which are fatal to them. But as soon as Mr. Lincoln arrived in Washington, as soon as he spoke, all our doubts and fears were dissipated ; Page twenty and it seemed to us that fate itself had pronounced in favor of the good cause, since, in such an emer- gency, it had given to the country an honest man. " The first words (the now famous inaugural address) had been, for Prevost-Paradol and for millions of others, what a first glance at Wash- ington had been for Chastellux, a revelation that the man was a man, a great and honest one, and that, once more, the fate of the country, at an awful period, had been placed in safe hands. Well indeed might people have wondered and felt anxious when they remembered how little training in great affairs the new ruler had had and the incredible difficulties of the problems he would have to solve; his heart bleeding at the very thought, for he had to fight "not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." No romance of adventure reads more like a romance than the true story of Lincoln's youth and of the wanderings of his family from Virginia to Ken- tucky, from Kentucky to Indiana, from Indiana to the newly-formed state of lUinois, having first to clear a part of the forest to build a doorless, windowless cabin, with one room for all the uses Page twenty-one of them all; Lincoln, the grandson of a man killed by the Indians, the son of a father who never succeeded in anything, and whose utmost literary accomplishment consisted in signing with great difficulty, his own name — an accomplishment he had in common with the father of Shakespeare; the whole family leading a sort of life in compari- son with which that of Robinson Crusoe was one of sybaritic enjoyment. That in those trackless, neighborless, bookless parts of the country he could learn and educate himself was the first great wonder of his life; it showed, once more, that learning does not so much depend upon the mas- ter's teaching as upon the pupil's desire. But no book, no school, no talk with refined men, would have taught him what his rough life did. Confronted every day and every hour of the day with problems which had to be solved, he got the habit of seeing, deciding and acting by himself. Accustomed from childhood to live surrounded by the unknown and meet the unex- pected, his soul learnt to be astonished at nothing and, instead of losing any time in wondering, to seek at once the way out of the difficulty. What the forest, what the swamp, what the river taught Page twenty-two Lincoln cannot be over-estimated. After long years of it, and shorter years at long-vanished New Salem, here at Springfield, at Vandalia, the former capital, where he met some descendants of his precursors in the forest, the French "Cour- eurs de bois, " almost suddenly he found himself transferred to the post of greatest honor and greatest danger. And what then would say the "man almost unknown," the backwoodsman of yesterday? What would he say? What did he say? THE RIGHT THING. He was accustomed not to be surprised, but to decide and act. And so, confronted with cir- cumstances which were so extraordinary as to be new to all, he was the man least astonished in the government. His rough and shrewd instinct proved of better avail than the clever minds of his more refined and better instructed seconds. It was Lincoln's instinct which checked Seward's complicated schemes and dangerous calculations. Lincoln could not calculate so cleverly but he could guess better. His instinct, his good sense, his personal dis- interestedness, his warmth of heart for friend and foe, his high aims, led him through the awful Page twenty-three years of anguish and bloodshed during which ceaselessly increased the number of fields decked with tombs and no one knew whether there would be one powerful nation or two weaker ones, the odds were so great. They led him through the worst and through the best hours, and that of triumph found him none other than what he had ever been before, a man of duty, the devoted ser- vant of his country, with deeper furrows on his face and more melancholy in his heart. And so, after having saved the nation, he went to his doom and fell, as he had long foreseen, a victim to the cause for which he had fought. The emotion caused bv the event was immense. Among my compatriots, part were for the south, part for the north; they should not be blamed; it was the same in America. But the whole of those who had Uberal ideas, the bulk of the nation, considered neither north nor south and thought only whether the republic would survive and con- tinue a great republic or be shattered to pieces. The efforts of Lincoln to preserve the Union were followed with keen anxiety and the fervent hope that he would succeed. Pafft tictnty-four When the catastrophe happened there were no more differences and the whole French nation was united in feehng. From the emperor and empress, who telegraphed to Mrs. Lincoln, to the humblest workman, the emotion was the same; a wave of sympathy covered the country, such a one as was never seen before. A subscription was opened to have a medal struck and a copy in gold presented to Mrs. Lincoln. In order that it might be a truly national offering, it was decided that no one would be permitted to subscribe more than 2 cents. The necessary money was collected in an instant and the medal was struck, bearing these memorable words: "Dedicated by French democracy to Lincoln, honest man, who abolished slavery, re-established the Union, saved the re- public without veiling the statue of Liberty." The French press was unanimous; from the royalist Gazette de France to the liberal Journal des Debats came forth the same expression of admiration and sorrow. "A christian," said the Gazette de France, " has just ascended before the throne of the Final Judge, accompanied by the souls of four millions of slaves created like ours in the image of God, and who have been endowed Page twenty-five with freedom by a word from him." Prevost- Paradol, a member of the French academy and a prominent hberal, wrote: "The pohtical instinct which made enlightened Frenchmen interested in the maintenance of the American power, more and more necessary to the equiUbrium of the world ; the desire to see a great democratic state surmount terrible trials and continue to give an example of the most perfect liberty united with the most absolute equality, assured the cause of the north a number of friends among us. * * * Lincoln was indeed an honest man, giving to the word its full meaning, or rather the sublime sense which belongs to it, when honesty was to contend with the severest trials which can agitate states, and with events which have influence on the fate of the world. Mr. Lincoln had but one object in view from the day of his election to that of his death, namely, the fulfillment of his duty, and his imagination never carried him beyond it. He has fallen at the very foot of the altar, covering it with his blood. But his work was done, and the spectacle of a rescued republic was what he could look upon with consolation when his eyes were closing in death. Moreover, he has not Page twenty-six lived for his country alone, since he leaves to everyone in the world to whom liberty and justice are dear, a great remembrance and a pure ex- ample. " When, in a log cabin in Kentucky, a hundred years ago this day, that child was bom who was named after his grandfather killed by the Indians, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon I swayed Europe, Jefferson was President of the United States, and the second war of independence had not yet come to pass. It seems all very remote. But the memory of the great man whom we try to honor today is as fresh in everybody's mind as if he had only just left us. "It is,'' says Plutarch, "the fortune of all good men that their virtue rises in glory after their death, and that the envy which any evil man may have conceived against them never survives the envious. " Such was the fate of Abraham Lincoln. Page twenty-seven JUDGE HUMPHREY Introducing the British Ambassador There is a nation which governs one acre in five of the territory of the earth and one person in five of the population of the world. It is developed out of Briton and Phoenician and Roman and Saxon and Dane and Norman. Amid the shifting sands of government it stands as a rock of empire. A people governed not by a written constitution but by a working, worldly wisdom; where efficient results of government are accom- panied with the least machinery of government; where there is order without despotism and liberty without license; where lynch law is unknown; where justice is certain and as prompt as certain. One of the most gifted sons of Great Britain honors us with his presence tonight. So surely has he a fixed place in the intellectual world, that students of modem political systems look to him as master and guide. So wisely has he written of our own political institutions that Fage twtiUy-eigU American scholars sit at his feet and drink in the learning of his noble mind. He is the ripened fruit of centuries of Anglo-Saxon progress. I have the pleasure of presenting His Excellency, The Right Honorable James Bryce, The British Ambassador. Page twenty-nine THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR Some Reflections on the Character and Career of Lincoln You are met to commemorate a great man, one of your greatest, great in what he did, even greater in what he was. One hundred years have passed since in a lowly hut in the bordering state of Ken- tucky this child of obscure and unlettered parents was born into a country then still wild and thinly peopled. Three other famous men were bom in that same year in England: Alfred Tennyson, the most gifted poet who has used our language since Wordsworth died; William Gladstone, the most powerful, versatile and high-minded states- man of the last two generations in Britain, and Charles Darwin, the greatest naturalist since Lin- naeus, and chief among the famous scientific dis- coverers of the nineteenth century. It was a wonderful year, and one who knew these three illustrious Englishmen whom I have named is tempted to speak of them and compare and con- Page thirty trast each one of them with that illustrious con- temporary of theirs whose memory we are met to honor. He quitted this world long before them but with a record to which a long life could scarcely have added any further lustre. Of the personal impression he made on those who knew him, you will hear from some of the few yet living who can recollect him. All I can contribute is a reminiscence of what reached us in England. I was an undergraduate student in the University of Oxford when the civil war broke out. Well do I remember the surprise when the Republican national convention nominated him as candidate for the Presidency, for it had been expected that the choice would fall upon William H. Seward. I recollect how it slowly dawned upon Europeans in 1862 and 1863 that the President could be no or- dinary man, because he never seemed cast down by the reverses which befell his armies; because he never let himseK be hurried into premature action nor feared to take so bold a step as the Emancipa- tion Proclamation was when he saw that the time had arrived. And above all I remember the shock of awe and grief which thrilled all Britain when the news came that he had perished by the bullet Fagt thirty -one of an assassin. There have been not a few murders of the heads of states in our time, but none smote us with such horror and such pity as the death of this great, strong and merciful man in the moment when his long and patient efforts had been crowned with victory and peace had just begun to shed her rays over a land laid waste by the march of armies. We in England already felt then that a great as well as a good man had departed, though it re- mained for later years to enable us all (both you here and we in the other hemisphere) fully to appre- ciate his greatness. Both among you and with us his fame has continued to rise till he has now be- come one of the grandest figures whom America has given to world history to be a glory first of this country, then also of mankind. A man may be great by intellect or by character or by both. The highest men are great by both; and of these was Abraham Lincoln. Endowed with powers that were soHd rather than shining, he was not what is called a brilliant man. Perhaps the want of instruction and stimulation during his early life prevented his naturally vigorous mind from learning how to work nimbly. The disad- vantages of his boyhood, the want of books and Page thirty4wo teachers, were so met and overcome by his love of knowledge and his strenuous will that he drew strength from them. Thoughtfulness and inten- sity, the capacity to reflect steadily and patiently on a problem till it has been solved is one of the two most distinct impressions which one gets from that strong, rugged face with its furrowed brow and deep-set eyes. The other impression is that of unshaken and unshakable resolution. Slow in reaching a decision he held fearlessly to it when he had reached it. He had not merely physical courage and that in ample measure, but the rarer quality of being willing to face misconception and unpopularity. It was his dauntless courage and his clear thinking that fitted Lincoln to be the pilot who brought your ship through the wildest tempest that ever broke upon her. Three points should not be forgotten which, if they do not add to Lincoln's greatness, make it more attractive. One is the fact that he rose all unaided to the pinnacle of power and responsibility. Rarely indeed has it happened in history, hardly at all could it have happened in the last century out- side America, that one bom in poverty, with no Page thirty-three help throughout his youth from intercourse with educated people, with no friend to back him except those whom the impression of his own personality brought round him, should so rise. A second is the gentleness of his heart. He who has to refuse every hour requests from those whom a private person would have been glad to indulge, he who has to punish those whom a private person would pity and pardon, can seldom retain either tender- ness or patience. But Lincoln's tenderness and patience were inexhaustible. It is often said that every great man is unscrup- ulous, and doubtless most of those to whom usage has attached the title have been so. To preserve truthfulness and conscientiousness appears scarcely possible in the stress of life where immense issues seem to make it necessary and therefore make it right to toss aside the ordinary rules of conduct in order to secure the end desired. To Abraham Lincoln, however, truthfulness and conscientious- ness remained the rule of life. He felt and owned his responsibihty not only to the people but to a higher power. Few men have so stainless a record. -3 L C Page thirty-four To you, men of Illinois, Lincoln is the most fa- mous and worthy of all those who have adorned your commonwealth. To you, citizens of the United States, he is the president who carried you through a terrible conflict and saved the Union. To us in England he is one of the heroes of the race whence you and we spring. We honor his memory as you do, and it is fitting that one who is privileged here to represent the land from which his forefathers came should bring on behalf of England a tribute of admiration for him and of thankfulness to the Providence which gave him to you in your hour of need. Great men are the noblest possession of a nation and are potent forces in the moulding of national character. Their influence lives after them and, if they be good as well as great, they remain as bea- cons lighting the course of all who follow them. They set for succeeding generations the standards of the youth who seek to emulate their virtues in the service of the country. Thus did the memory of George Washington stir and rouse Lincoln him- self. Thus will the memory of Lincoln live and endure among you, gathering reverence from age to age, the memory of one who saved your republic Page thirty-five by his wisdom, his constancy, his faith in the people and in freedom ; the memory of a plain and simple man, yet crowned with the knightly virtues of truthfulness, honor and courage. Page thirly-aix JUDGE HUMPHREY Introducing Mr. Bryan An eminent American, whose words have repeat- edly touched the hearts and moved the minds of the people of the land, should need no introduction at my hands. Primarily he belongs to Illinois; sister states or the nation may adopt him, but to us he will ever be hailed as a son of Illinois. With a generous pride in the achievements he has wrought; with a full recognition of the purity of his private life which makes him an example for the youth of the land; with a love which the zeal of party politics can never destroy, let us say to him tonight, welcome home, Mr. Bryan! Fage thirty-seven HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN The Art of Government I appreciate this cordial welcome to the State of my birth. I am glad that there is an interim between campaigns when we can forget the an- imosities aroused by party strife and come face to face with the fact that the things that we hold in common are more numerous and more impor- tant than our political differences. In a country where parties govern and where people act through parties, we are apt to over- estimate the importance of the questions upon which we divide and under-estimate the enduring qualities that underlie all parties and unite us in a common citizenship. I appreciate the more than generous words that have been spoken in presenting me to you and I appreciate the splendid opportunity that this oc- casion has given us to hear from the representa- tives of foreign lands. I think Great Britain and France have paid our country a high compliment Page thirty-eight in sending as their representatives two such men as those to whom we have Hstened. A compli- ment, I say, those nations have paid us in sending us representatives who stand upon their own merits and accomplishments and need no high titles to command universal respect and admiration. I am glad we live in a day when nations can be friendly to each other, and each bid all others God speed, for we have reached the day when we understand that as the citizen can wish well to every other citizen, that as the citizen can recognize that his own good is best promoted by the highest development of all about him, so each nation can recognize that its welfare is not impeded but ad- vanced by the advancement of all the other nations. I am glad we have reached the day when nations do not look upon each other mth envious eye or begrudge each other any great success; when the rivalry is not to see which can do the other harm but to see which can hold highest the light that guides all to higher ground. The subject that I have selected for this evening is really too large a subject for an occasion of this kind, and you must not expect my speech to have Page thirty-nine a length commensurate with the magnitude of the theme ; for, coming as I do, after the speech of the toastmaster, after the speeches of the ambassadors from Great Britain and France, coming as I do before one to whom you will listen with delight, I cannot violate the proprieties of the occasion by a speech of any considerable length; but it seems to me that at this time it is fitting to submit just a few words on The Royal Art of Government, for it has been so described and fitly described. The art of government is not only the art in which kings have sought to manifest their ability, but it is the art that comes into closest and most constant contact with the citizen, and I might give you two reasons for selecting that subject for to- night; first, because Lincoln illustrates, as few men in history have illustrated, the possibilities of our government and the stimulus to greatness that a repubUc can give; and the second is that Lincoln was an artist in the art of government, and pos- sessed as few men in high position have ever pos- sessed, all of the qualities that tend to fit one for the exalted work of a chief executive. Let me briefly enumerate some of these qualities. He had a sense of responsibility — no man more so. Page forty The relation between himself and his God was one clearly defined in his own mind. He recognized that to that Supreme Being he was responsible for every thought and word and act. There is a world of difference between the man who is trying to conform to an opinion about him, and the man who is trying to approximate his liv- ing to a high standard — a world of difference be- tween the man who is trying to do right when he thinks the people are looking at him, and the man who tries to do right because he believes the eye of God is ever upon him. The man who is trying to do right when he thinks people are watching, will find a time, some- times, when he thinks the people are not looking, and then he takes a vacation and falls. I believe that one of the reasons why Lincoln lived his life without a fall was that he was not watching the people around him, but acted in the belief that he was watched by One who never sleeps. Another quality — Lincoln used self-control. The man who would govern others must first govern himself ; and when he has learned to govern himself, he has taken the next step toward meeting the re- sponsibilities of high positions. "He that ruleth Page forty-one his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city ; " and Lincoln was the undisputed ruler of him- seK and of his own spirit. He had humility. Few men so great have been so humble as he. Humility is a hard virtue to cultivate. If a man has great wealth, he is apt to be proud of his wealth. If he has great learning, he is likely to be proud of his learning. If he has distinguished ancestry, he is quite sure to be proud of his pedigree, and someone has said that humility is so difficult a virtue to cultivate that, if one really becomes humble, he is soon proud of his humility! But Lincoln's favorite poem was "Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" Lincoln understood how little of any man's great- ness is really a self-made greatness. Lincoln un- derstood, as few have understood, how much we owe to those who have gone before us, and to those about us. Who will measure our obligation to those who laid foundations for our Republic ! Who will meas- ure our obligation to those who surrounded us with the privileges that we enjoy! When we come to analyze our accomplishments, we find that that which can be properly traced to ourselves is infin- Page forty-two itesimal, while that which is traceable to the influ- ence that others have exerted upon us is immeasur- able. Lincoln had courage. As has been well said by the distinguished ambassador from Great Britain, Lincoln had moral courage. The world recognizes the courage of the man who walks up to the mouth of the cannon and without wavering gives his life on his country's altar. I say to you, my friends, that man shares physical courage with the beast, but he shares moral courage with Him in whose image he was made. Lincoln had the courage to face any kind of op- position, to meet any kind of criticism, to disregard any kind of ridicule. And why? Because he had another virtue. He had faith. If you tell me that " works are more important than faith, " I tell you that there are no works until there is first a faith to inspire the works. Only those who beUeve do great things; and Lincoln believed. Lincoln had patience, and only those who have faith have patience ; only those who can see that there is a triumph coming have the patience to wait until it comes. Aye, Lincoln needed patience, as everyone in such a position as Page forty -three he occupied needs patience. There were around him men who could not wait, men who wanted to see today the thing for which they longed and worked ; but Lincoln knew that it took time to ac- complish great things. He had patience, the pa- tience that the parent has who watches the growing child, knowing that no anxiety or solicitude can hasten that child's development; the patience of one who plants a tree and knows that, if it is to be a sturdy tree, it must take years in its growth and development. Lincoln had fidelity. He was faithful. The people knew they could trust him, because his fidelity stood out and shone out, and embraced all who came into contact with him; and then Lincoln had an understanding of the development of gov- ernments and civilization. In that immortal ut- terance at Gettysburg he spoke of the unfinished work to which those present should consecrate themselves. He knew that every generation leaves an unfinished work, that every generation finds the work incomplete when it comes, and, labor as it will, leaves it still unfinished when it departs. I might have justified my description of the art of government by reference to these qualities that Page forty-four Lincoln possessed, but my purpose was a different one. I desired, rather, briefly to trace the growth and development of this royal art. When Solomon found the responsibihties of government resting upon him, he gave utterance to that prayer that has come down through the ages, " Give me wisdom that I may govern my people aright. " My friends, there have been changes since then, and the prayer today would be a little different from the prayer in Solomon's day; for, with the growth of intelligence, with the rise of the spirit of democracy, the defini- tion of leadership has undergone a change. The aristocratic definition of leadership is that the leader thinks for the people. The democratic definition of leadership is that the leader thinks with the people, and Lincoln illustrated the new definition of leadership. As the representative of the people, he acted for them, doing, as their repre- sentative, what they would have him to do; but Lincoln's hold upon the people was due to the fact that he never assumed to think for them. He was content to think with them on the questions that affected the government and their welfare. In college I learned that there were three kinds of government, the monarchy, the aristocracy and Page forty-five the democracy. I learned that the monarchy was the strongest, the aristocracy the wisest, and the democracy the most just. I have had some time to think upon this subject since I received my diploma but I still adhere to a part of that. I believe that the democracy is the most just but I do not believe that the aristocracy is the wisest or that the monarchy is the strongest. A govern- ment that draws upon the wisdom of all the people is wiser than the government that rests upon the wisdom of a few of the people, and a monarchy, while it may act more quickly upon a given point or subject, is not the strongest. I prefer to believe with the great historian Bancroft that the repubUc is in truth the strongest of governments because, disregarding the implements of terror, it dares to build its citadel in the hearts of men. The heart after all is the most secure foundation upon which a nation's strength can be built. Pericles, in his great funeral oration, described the greatness of his country and then he said : " It was for these, then, rather than to have that taken from them, to die fighting in its behalf, and that their survivors may well be wiUing to suffer for our country. " Page forty-six When a government is just and the people love it, they will die that its blessings may be transmit- ted to their children and their children's children. This idea of government, this democratic idea of government, is the growing idea. My friends, if anyone has ever doubted that the ideas of government which characterize our country are the growing ideas, let him but examine recent history. Within five years China, the sleeping giant of the Orient, has sent envoys throughout the world to secure information for the formation of a constitution. Within five years Russia, the synonym for des- potism, has been compelled to recognize the right of the people to a voice in their government, and you have seen a douma estabUshed there. It is not what we would like or what we would have in this country, but it is a long step in advance; and, my friends, no one can watch the struggles through which those people have passed, without believing that it is only a question of time when they are going to have constitutional government and free- dom of speech and freedom of the press and free- dom of conscience and universal education; and when this time comes, as come it will, Russia will Page forty-seven take her place among the great nations of the world ; for people who are willing to die for lib- erty as her people have died, have in them the material of which great nations are made. You may go through the nations of the world, and you will find that in every one there are issues upon which depend the further progress of demo- cratic institutions. Go into France, the democracy represented by our distinguished guest tonight, and you will find that while in their suffrage they have already reached their limit, while their government is al- ready responsive to the will of the people, they are practically working out their problems. They are increasing the intelligence of their people, adding to the number of schools, increasing the attendance at the schools, and what is also important they are seeking to increase the number of home owners and are doing it, believing that when a man owns his home he is a better citizen than if he is merely a tenant and can be thrown out at will by someone else. In Great Britain, where they have already solved so many problems, and where, in spite of their monarchial form, they recognize so large a power Page forty-eight in the people to direct their governraent, there is a growing sentiment against the exercise b}^ the House of Lords of any power to thwart, finally, the will of the people expressed at the polls. And so you can take up every nation, and you will find the sentiment in favor of democracy spreading. You will find, everywhere, govern- ments becoming more popular. You will find, everywhere, the people getting a larger control of their own government ; and, if it would not take me into partisan politics, I might easily show that in our own country we have no exception to the rule, but that back of all parties in this country there is a democratic spirit that is forcing, step by step, more complete control of the government by the people who live under the government. My friends, just one other thought in the devel- opment of this subject. There was a time when might meant right and when physical strength was the controlling factor in government. With in- creasing intelligence, the power of the muscle and the influence of the strong arm decreased and the influence of the brain increased. It was a step in advance, a great step in advance; but the brain is not the largest element in man, and following close Page forty-nine upon the supremacy of the mind above the arm, has come the supremacy of the heart over the brain. Carlyle, in his closing chapters on the French Revolution, presents the relation of these three fac- tors. He said that thought is stronger than artil- lery park, and moulds the world Hke soft clay and that back of thought is love ; that there never was a great mind that did not have back of it a generous heart. And so, my friends, I believe that we are making progress in the direction of a larger heart control, and that the greatness of Lincoln, like the greatness of his prototype, Jefferson, was due more to his heart than to his head. His heart was large enough to take in all mankind, and he was one of the earlier apostles of the doctrine of human liberty that is spreading throughout the world. About fourteen years ago a great Frenchman, Dumas, wrote a letter in which he said that we were on the eve of a new era, when mankind was to be seized with a passion of love, and when men were to understand their relations to each other. Two years afterwards Tolstoi, in his secluded home in — 4 L C Page fifty the heart of Russia, Tolstoi who has never been outside of the confines of his own country for more than fifty years, Tolstoi clad in the garb of the peasant, and Uving the life of the peasant and preaching out to all the world the philosophy that rests upon the doctrine, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself," Tolstoi read the letter of Dumas and gave it his endorsement. We see signs of it in this country and everywhere, and with that great doctrine of liberty we shall find the nations knit more closely together. We shall find our own people working more harmoniously together, and we shall find people asking, not "What can we do?" but "What ought we to do?" and giving to ethics a paramount place in the cal- culations of individuals and nations. My friends, Lincoln was a representative of the latest development of the art of government, for Lincoln rested his hope and built his faith upon the hearts of men. I am glad that we live in this latter day when the might of the brute is disappearing, when the cunning of the brain is no longer commanding the highest praise, when the characteristics of the Page fifty-one heart are demanding a consideration that they have never demanded before; and on this occasion, when we meet to speak the name of Lincoln, it is a fitting time to raise our hearts in gratitude, that he was one of the first and one of the greatest of those artists in the "Royal Art of Government'' to recognize the heart's place in shaping the destiny of man and the history of a nation. Page fifty-two JUDGE HUMPHREY Introducing Senator DoUiver ^<=> A score of years ago a new star appeared in the firmament of the Mississippi valley. The people of Iowa saw this man adorning the public forum and the sanctuaries of justice and they bade him go and grace somewhat the rougher walks of political life. They found him worthy to be the colleague of the late Senator Allison. Since that time his star has been ever in the ascendant and the nation recog- nizes the added strength and wisdom which he brings to that great deliberative body, the Senate of the United States. Always a welcome visitor to Illinois, where his voice on other occasions has been frequently heard, we give him special welcome to- night as one worthy to voice an estimate of the greatest American the country has ever produced. I have pleasure in presenting the distinguished orator and statesman, the Honorable, aye, the Honorable Jonathan P. Dolliver, senator from Iowa. Page fifty-three SENATOR DOLLIVER Our Heroic Age I find a very great pleasure in sitting down with you at these tables, spread with the lux- uries and the necessities of life. I thank my friend, the toastmaster, for the very kind ex- pression with which he has introduced me, al- though I am bound to say that I have a distinct impression that, without intending it, he has given me an advertisement that is likely to do me more harm than good, for I make no pretense whatever either as an orator or as a statesman. I am a plain country politician, of a kind very numerous here in IlUnois, although I think I agree with you in believ- ing that there is mighty little difference between a politician and a statesman. I have had a little trouble to find out what I am expected to speak about in order to beguile the midnight dispositions of the patriots who remain around these banquet tables. While I have had a little difficulty to find out what I am expected to Page fifty-four talk about, I have had several intimations that there are some subjects that might be irritating if I introduced them on an occasion like this. It has been deUcately suggested to me that the campaign in Illinois, (I do not mean the primary campaign, but the ordinary poUtical campaign) is over, and that these tables are dedicated to an atmosphere of pure patriotism without any partisan bias; and I am mighty glad of it, because I have hved in the atmo- sphere of party politics so long, I have been com- pelled to talk politics so much myself, and what is even worse I have been compelled to listen to so many other people talking, that I have reached, so far as those matters are concerned, a point of saturation, resembling somewhat the case of the young lady who had spent the summer at Narra- gansett Pier. She said that she had eaten so many clams that she rose and fell with the tide. It is not that I have anything against it, but simply that, Uke everybody else, I have had enough of it for the time being. I have Ustened with an unalloyed pleasure to the magnificent speeches with which this banquet has been made famous and memorable in Illinois and, I believe, throughout the United States. I was Page fifty-five especially interested in the profound observations of the philosophy of government and of life which have been given to us by the distinguished states- man and orator who has just taken his seat, and I was glad to hear him. I regard him as an institu- tion in the United States. He has chosen the bet- ter part, and has given over his life to meditation upon the administration of the government of the United States and no man, in my judgment, has rendered a larger or a better service in the forma- tion of a public opinion in the interest of our in- stitutions than our distinguished orator and friend and guest. There are two little groups of people whose com- ing into this chamber have touched my heart. One of them sits yonder in the balcony, the Daughters of the American Revolution. There is one thing about them that the pubUc ought to understand. We are here in our little way trying to preserve and helping to perpetuate the memory of Abraham Lincoln; but Abraham Lincoln needs none of our help to make his memory immortal in the ages of the world. These young women are doing a finer thing, even, than that. They are perpetuating the unknown heroism, the unrecorded service, of the Page fifty-six men who, in the foundation of our institutions gave their Hves, with wilHng hearts, to the defense of pubHc Uberty. They do not ask, even, that a man should be regarded as a hero. If ooly he was wil- Hng for the sacrifice, it is their business to hand his name, however lowly, to other generations. And yonder in the gallery sits a little group of veterans who, after all, made the services of Abra- ham Lincoln possible in the dark days of the civil war. We have heard from the lips of the EngHsh Ambassador that a great name, a great man, is the chief possession of a people; but there can be no great name, no great man, unless there is behind him a great cause and a great people. Abraham Lincoln illustrates the life of sixty years ago. We do well to hang up his picture. I have seen it in every city that I have passed through, in Washington in every window, in Pitts- burgh^in every window, in Cincinnati and here at the old homestead in Springfield. We do well to teach our children what the life means, and to let that kindly benignant face shine from our walls, Page fifty-seven that the young people of the United States, coming to responsibility, may be educated in all the alle- giance of patriotism and of liberty. We have, in the United States, within the life- time of many who sit around these tables, a national experience which elevated the republic to a level never before known in the history of our institu- tions. There had been a dark period behind it when nobody knew whether the government of the United States was going to last another ten years or not. It is a curious thing that this government was eighty years old before it produced a statesman who could stand up, at the dinner table or anywhere else, and tell his countrymen that the institutions of America would last out their lifetime. Even our greatest statesmen were in the dark. Daniel Webster said, in his greatest speech, "God grant that upon my vision that curtain may not rise." ^'Finally," said Henry Clay, " I implore, as the best blessing that Heaven can bestow upon me on earth, that if the direful and sad event of the dissolution of the nation shall happen, I may not be spared to behold the heart-rending spectacle. " Page fifty-eight These men, great as they were, in their day and time did not dare to trust themselves to look into the future. It remained for a later and, in my judgment, a better generation to view without despair the chaos of civil strife, to walk into it, to fight the way of the nation through it, to lift up a spotless flag above it and, in the midst of the flame and the smoke of battle, to create the nation of America. That was our heroic age, and out of it came forth our ideal heroes, Lincoln and the states- men who stood by his side; Grant and the great soldiers who obeyed his orders; and behind them both the countless hosts of that Grand Army of the Republic through whose illustrious sacrifice of blood our weary and heavy-laden centuries have been redeemed. You have built here a monument, strong and beautiful, which is to bear the name and perpetuate the service of Abraham Lincoln. We are about to build, at our capital yonder at Washington, a na- tional monument that will in some dim kind of way illustrate our opinion of the service of this man; and when we get it built we will not put upon it any image of his person. It will not need any such memorial for it will be, as Victor Hugo said of the Page fifty-nine column of Waterloo to be dedicated to the memory of the Duke of Wellington — it will bear up not the figure of a man, for it will be the statue of a people, the memorial of a great nation. And so his centennial has put into the hearts and into the minds of unnumbered millions this fame which has grown in this half century until it has become the chiefest possession of the American people, and the most precious heritage that will be passed on to the generations that are to come. Page sixty SENATOR CULLOM A Letter of Regret United States Senate, Washington, D. C, Feb. 6, 1909. Hon. J Otis Humphrey, President Lincoln Centen- nial Association, Springfield, III.: My Dear Judge — It is a matter of sincere regret to me that I am unable to be present at your great anniversary celebration of the birth of the immortal Lincoln and to welcome to my home city the am- bassadors of Great Britain and France and the distinguished guests who are to be with you. Abraham Lincoln, greatest of Americans, great- est of men, emancipator, martyr, his service to his country has not been equaled by any American citizen, not even by Washington. His name and life have been an inspiration to me from my earliest recollection. On this one hundredth anniversary of his birth the people, without regard to creed, color, condition or section, in all parts of this union which he saved,. Page sixty-one are striving to do honor to his memory. No Amer- ican has ever before received such deserved uni- versal praise. Not only in his own country, but throughout the civilized world, Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of the few, the very few, truly great men in history. His memory is as fresh today in the minds and hearts of the people as it was forty years ago, and the passing years only add to his fame and serve to give us a truer conception of his noble character. The events of his life, his words of wisdom, have been gathered together in countless volumes, to be treasured up and handed down to generations yet to come. I knew him intimately in Springfield ; I heard him utter his simple farewell to his friends and neigh- bors when he departed to assume a task greater than any President had been called upon to assume in our history; it was my sad duty to accompany his mortal remains from the capital of the nation to the capital of Illinois, and as I gazed upon his face the last time, I thanked God that it had been my privilege to know him as a friend, and I felt then, as I more fully realize now, that the good he had done would live through all the ages to bless the world. Page sizty4wo Springfield, his only real home, the scene of his great political triumphs, was his fitting resting place. In the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest a sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to his shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Again expressing regret that I cannot be with you to take part in honoring the memory of our greatest President on the one hundredth anniver- sary of his birth, and feeling sure that the Spring- field celebration will be the most notable of all, as it should be, I remain Sincerely yours, S. M. CULLOM. Page iizty-lhree BOOKER T. WASHINGTON A Letter of Regret Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, February 9, 1909. Mr. James R. B. Van Cleave, Secretary Publicity Committee, Lincoln Centennial Association Springfield, III,: My Dear Sir — It is a matter of keen regret to me that, owing to a long standing promise to speak in New York on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, I find myself unable to accept your generous invita- tion to speak in his home city on that day. There is no spot in America where it would have given me greater satisfaction to have spoken my word than in Springfield — the city that he loved and the city where his body rests. There are many lessons which can and will be drawn from the life of our great hero, but there is one above all others at this moment that I deem Page sixty-four fitting to call attention to on this occasion. Among other reasons, I do so because of recent occurrences in the city of Lincoln's adoption. When Lincoln freed my race there were four millions. Now there are ten millions. Naturally more and more this increase means that they will scatter themselves through the country, north as well as south. A large element already is in the north. If my race would honor the memory of Lincoln and exhibit their gratitude for what he did, it can do so in no more fitting manner than by put- ting into daily practice the lessons of his own life. Mr. Lincoln was a simple, humble man, yet a great man. Great men are always simple. No matter where members of my race reside, we should resolve from this day forward that we will lead sober, in- dustrious, frugal, moral lives, and that while being ambitious we shall at the same time be patient^ law-abiding and self-controlled as Lincoln was. These are the elements that will win success and respect, no matter where we live. Every member of my race who does not work, who leads an im- moral life, dishonors the memory and the name of Page sixty-five Lincoln. Every one, on the other hand, who leads a law-abiding, sober life is justifying the faith which the sainted Lincoln placed in us. In every part of this country I want to see my race live such high and useful lives that they will not be merely tolerated, but that they shall actu- ally be needed and wanted because of their use- fulness in the community. The loafer, the man who tries to live by his wits, is never wanted any- where. Many white people in the north who are now honoring the memory of Lincoln are coming into contact with the race Lincoln freed for the first time. I have spoken of the patience and self con- trol needed on the part of my race. With equal emphasis I wish to add that no man who hallows the name of Lincoln will inflict injustice upon the negro because he is a negro or because he is weak. Every act of injustice, of law-breaking, growing out of the presence of the negro, seeks to pull down the great temple of justice and law and order which he gave his life to make secure. Lawlessness that begins when a weak race is the victim grows by what it feeds upon and spreads until it includes all -5 L C Page sixty-six races. It is easy for a strong man or a strong race to kick down a weak man or a weak race. It is ignoble to kick down; it is noble to lift up as Lincoln sought to do all through his life. Just in the degree that both races, while we are passing through this crucial period, exhibit the high quaUties of self- control and Uberality which Lincoln exhibited in his own life, will we show that in reahty we love and honor his name, and both races will be lifted into a high atmosphere of service to each other. Yours truly, Booker T. Washington. Page sixty-seven CHARLES HENRY BUTLER Our Leader; a Poem Fair stretched the land, East, West, from sea to sea; North, South from Lakes to Gulf; we called it free. And, proudly in our ballads, oft had sung Of how our freedom we had bravely wrung From tyrant King; fair were its prospects too And bright; nor could the wealth the Indies knew, Even when fabled Kublai Khan was there, Nor yet Pactolus' golden tide, compare With boundless stream that, ever constant, poured Into the lap of industry its hoard Of treasure; as though forest, mine and field Each with the other vied the greatest wealth to yield. God-fearing too, the people of this land Their churches grandly reared on every hand And worshipped Him who taught us when we pray, "Thy Kingdom come upon this earth," to say. To its fair shores there came, across the sea, The weary peasant, yearning to be free From serfdom's toil; and there he sought, and found, The right to till, and call his own, the ground And fruit it yielded to his care. There came, Beside, the patriot burning with the shame Page sixty-eight Of thought, in his own land not merit told But only rank, and noble birth, and gold; While in the young republic of the West, He hoped, and found, true merit was the test. Surely than this no land more blessed could be, Surely in land like this all must be free ! Not so ; in market place men bought and sold Their fellow-men, and bartered souls for gold; It matters not how blessed, how good, how fair Be land or people, if the curse is there Of slavery, it will cast its blight O'er all that elsewhere would be bright. Not over all the land this curse had spread. Not yet throughout the land was conscience dead; But still to blame is every one who tries Not to strike evil dead, but compromise With it; so, not upon a few, but all. The blame and burden of that curse must fall. Too late 'tis now to try to cast the blame On either side; no longer fan that flame Or further fuel feed ; but let it die, And with it all the animosity That once so hotly burned. Is not this true — One did but what the other let it do ; Till, past all bounds, the evil grew so much It held the country in its death-like clutch? How loose that clutch? How could the tide be stemmed. By which, not stemmed, the land were overwhelmed? Ah ! many men were brave to death, and tried To loose those bonds and check that rising tide. Page sixty-nine Honor to all our brave we gladly pay, But more than all to him, who on this day Was born a century ago, and who, As leader unsurpassed, his people through The darksome valley of the shades of death Led back to light and life; and then, himself, Fell at the foot of the altar he had^reared To Freedom's God, dead — but his name revered, And loved forever, as the most sublime Of patriot martyrs on the roll of time. Dark were the clouds that o'er the country hung. Wild were the threats that 'cross the' line were flung, Men trembled, women wept, all were dismayed; And Peace, in our time, oh. Lord, some prayed, Hoping, in compromise, to find a way To limit, not to end, the plague; to stay Its further progress; as though slaves could be In part of land, while elsewhere all were free. Oh, for a leader! others prayed. God heard And answered ; from the West a voice that stirred The hearts of all was heard throughout the length And breadth of this whole land. Its tones of strength Proclaimed the voice of leader when he bade Them heed these words that could not be gainsaid : Not half for slave, and other half for free, Can this, nor yet another, country be; No house divided 'gainst itself can stand. And what is true of house is true of land. In withering tones he spoke of slaving toil That tilled, while others ate, the fruit of soil; Not by the sweat of other's brow shalt earn thy bread Page seventy But by thine own, the Holy Writ hath said. Truth! And the people — sick of lies — replied "Our Leader!" — and he led them till he died. And still he leads us, for the truth ne'er dies, " Our Leader still! " Each honest heart replies. Behold his portrait, gaze upon his face, Seek not therein to find soft shades of grace; In rugged lines which in that face appear Sorrow there is and care, but not one trace of fear; And back of all — and in that eye, indeed — What wealth and depth of character we read ! Look where we will, not elsewhere shall we find Such courage, strength and truth with tenderness combined. His was the vision that so plainly saw Not only what all others saw — the flaw — But also that the flaw would surely spread Until the whole fabric would be dead. Unless the fearful, ugly thirig were cut; — Nor cared how deep in flesh the knife were put, Tho' even close to heart of that which he most loved, If but the wicked spot could be removed — But oh, to him how deep the pain, that he The one to wield that almost fatal knife must be. His was the genius that knew how to act And when — yet so combined with skill and tact. And nameless charm of humor he was known To use so well in manner all his own — That through a crisis, such as ne'er before Had ever threatened State in peace or war. He guided it, and shaped its course so well. That it was saved at last; and, when he fell Page seventy-one Pierced by a bullet from assassin hand, Not one part only, but the whole wide land, Cursed the foul deed, and grieved that it had lost Him who to heal its wounds had done the most; His was the patience, that with faith combined, Enabled him in darkest hour to find Hope for the future, and that all would see At last the country — reunited — free. His faith was that which bade him call upon The Being most Divine — the God of Washington. He knew with that aid he would not fail And that without it he could not prevail. Yes, when nearly all was nearly o'er. And looking back on four long years of war, Could calmly say, with charity toward all And malice none, in words we all recall; That still the everlasting judgments of the Lord Through all the long resounding ages of the world, Whether three thousand years ago, or whether Rendered today, are time and righteous altogether. He came to earth and here his task fulfilled ; He nobly did the work his Master willed Him here to do ; and when he died 'twas known Earth's noblest spirit back to Heaven had flown. Though storied urn, nor animated bust The fleeting breath has ne'er recalled ; though dust. When silent, honor's voice cannot provoke, Nor yet can soothing flattery invoke The dull, cold ear of death; still can we not Erect some monument upon some spot Page geventy-two That ever in the hearts of all, Our Leader great Will honor, and his fame perpetuate; Once on a field that red with patriot blood A year before that time had run, he stood And uttered to the throng assembled there Those words, with which no other words compare Not uttered by a voice divine. He said, While dedicating to the noble dead The spot whereon they died: "It is too late For us to hallow, or to consecrate This field; that has been done; it is for us — The living — to be dedicated here, and thus To make the high resolve that those who gave Devotion's fullest measure here to save The Nation's life shall not in vain have died." Cannot that thought to him be now applied? If to Our Leader we would now erect A fitting monument, let each select In his own heart, some high resolve to make, And then fulfill it for that leader's sake ; And, if in such a monument, each one Of us, today, would set a single stone, 'T would higher be, more stately and more grand Than any ever built in any land To any hero; it would nobly rise Until its lofty apex reached the skies, And to Our Leader would the message bring. That while within our hearts his words still ring, This Nation under God shall have new birth Of freedom ; nor shall perish from the earth This Government that of the people, by And for the people is; Thus let us try Page seventy-three To prove — nor count the cost of time or pain — The noblest dead shall not have died in vain. Ask ye what that resolve shall be? Look right Or left, for all the fields are harvest white. Are there no slaves to be set free today? No great remaining tasks to which we may Now dedicate ourselves? may we not help to free This country from those forms of slavery That know no color line — the greed of wealth And lust for power — aggrandizement of self — That hold in thraldom many of our best And steep in envy nearly all the rest? Fairer and brighter is this land today Than it has ever been before ; and may It ever fairer, better, brighter grow. Surely no land more blest than this, below Heaven's high dome can ever be. And so As would Our Leader let us bravely strike These shackles off; and strike them not alone From others' limbs; but strike them from our own. Are there no other slaves who sorely need Some one to loose their bonds? There are, indeed. Do ye not hear the children's bitter cry As in the mills and mines their tasks they ply? They, who should cheer the household through the day Are taught to work before they learn to play. Shame on the land of which it may be said That parents eat, while children earn, the bread. Page aeventy-four If he were here would not Our Leader be In foremost rank to set the children free, And onward lead us in the great crusade Of right 'gainst wrong which ever should be made? Then let us make them for Our Leader's sake. What nobler tasks can our devotion claim Than these? Then let us do them in his name. Page seventy-five AT THE TABERNACLE At 2:30 in the afternoon an audience of 10,000 people were assembled at the Tabernacle where addresses were delivered by Messre. Jusserand, Bryce, Dolliver and Bryan. Governor Deneen presided at the meeting. The addresses together with the introductory remarks of the Governor are given on the following pages. y Page seventy-six GOVERNOR DENEEN Introducing the French Ambassador We are met to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout our own land and in many parts of the world men are gathered together at this moment to pay a tribute to his memory. Wherever they have gathered, their thoughts will turn to our state and this spot, which have been glorified by his life and death. We are exceedingly fortunate, in this his home, to have with us today distinguished representa- tives from far European countries, and two dis- tinguished sons of our native land. The Com- mittee had arranged for the ambassadors from France and from Great Britain to speak at the banquet tonight but our people were so anxious to have the opportunity to meet them and hear them, and to show the high respect and great love which is had here for their countries, that they have consented to speak briefly this afternoon ; Page seventy-seven and it is indeed a great pleasure to me to have the honor to introduce to you a diplomat, author and statesman, His Excellency, the Ambassador from France to the United States, the Honorable J. J. Jusserand. Page seventy-eight THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR France's Esteem For Lincoln Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen — It is not only a great but unexpected honor to address you today. I am very proud to be asked, and very happy to address the citizens of this city of Springfield, where the mind of the great man whose memory we deUght to honor today, took its definite shape. It was in Springfield that Lincoln received his first lessons in statesmanship, with what results all the world knows. In this city, which owes much to Lincoln, as it owes to him the honor of being the capital of this great state, that the backwoods- man of years before became the citizen who was to be the leader of men, and who was to be the second grandest President of the United States, the one who holds in the heart of his compatriots the same place as George Washington. These two great men were related in their life- work. One created the United States and the Page seventy-nine other prevented their disruption. When Wash- ington fought for his great task, France stood by him as a friend. When Lincoln fought, you may recall that if France did not send an army, there was at least, under the United States flag, one regiment that was French, that was led by French officers. That was the 55th New York, which wore the red trousers of the French army, and went to Washington singing the Marseillaise. They went to camp and received the flag they were to carry through the battles and through the war, from Mr. Lincoln, himself. Lincoln came, himself, to present the flag and he had asked the regiment to select their date. They selected a date that was dear to them, and Lincoln came, and to the song of Marseillaise he presented the flag. A man who had been a general in the French army and who was a French citizen, proposed a toast to the nation. He drank to the nation and said, "To the Union to be maintained and to be re-established, but not so soon but that the 55th may have time to show how much they care for it. " Lincoln himself replied, " I drink to the 55th Page eighty and to the Union, and since the Union cannot, apparently, be re-established until the 55th has had its battle, I drink a speedy battle to the 55th. " That flag was carried through the war and ended gloriously with the regiment, itself, in that awful day at Fredericksburg. At Fredericksburg only the stem was left. When the battle was over the regiment was reduced to two hundred and ten men. It was melted into the very sod, itself! That was the end of the regiment, not of the war. What the end of the war was you know. Lincoln too, met his fate, the fate of a hero such as he; and now his glory fills the world, and everywhere there is only one feeling for him. In France that feeling was peculiarly keen and great because, in those days, all the Uberal French- men were anxious about what took place in Amer- ica. They all felt that if the American Republic split into two, we had very little chance, in France, ever to have a republic, ourselves. So we followed with beating hearts what happened to Lincoln and prayed with all our earnestness of soul for the re-establishment of that Union which we had loved from its first days. \ Page eighty-one In Lincoln's day, it was long before he took his rightful place, among the great men of the United States. He had many doubters. There were many scoffers, but now not one is left. Why that great difference? That great difference has been explained admirably by another great Amer- ican, by Emerson, who said, "You cannot see the mountain near." — 6 L C Fage eighty-two GOVERNOR DENEEN Introducing the English Ambassador Again it is my pleasure to introduce to you a scholar, author, diplomat, statesman, expounder of the American Constitution, and interpreter of the spirit of the American commonwealth, His Excellency, the Ambassador from Great Britain to the United States. Page eighty-three THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR Lincoln as One of the People Mr. Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen, Cit- izens OF Abraham Lincoln's Own City — I am come to say a very few words to you, in order that I may bear to you the greetings of England, her sympathy with you on this day, and ex- pression of the reverence and honor in which she holds, as you hold, the memory of your im- mortal President. Four days ago I had the privilege of delivering to the President of the United States a message of sympathy and a tribute of admiration from King Edward the Seventh and now I want to renew and repeat the substance of that message to you, the people of Springfield. Ladies and gentlemen, my friend and colleague, the French Ambassador, has just, with perfect truth, compared the position which Abraham Lincoln holds in your history with that which was held by George Washington. Page eighty-four At two great crises of the fate of this repubhc, Providence gave you two men specially fitted to be leaders and inspirers of the nation. George Washington was not only a great leader in war, but was a wise guide in peace, and it was the impression of his upright and lofty character that held your people together in their hour of need. When the second great struggle in which the fortunes of your republic were involved came upon you, and the conflict between slavery and its ex- tension, and freedom and its preservation, broke like a storm upon you, you found in Abraham Lincoln the one man who was fitted to meet and to grapple with that awful crisis. I remember how in England those of us who sympathized wdth the cause of the north, as did the great majority of the EngUsh people, did so because we felt it was the cause of humanity and freedom. I remember how we thought and felt more and more as months and years passed, that Abraham Lincoln was the man whom you needed, because he possessed what was the supreme and essential gift that the country required. He was a man whom the people could trust, because he was the Page eigUy-five man who sprung, himself, from the people and understood the people as perhaps no one had ever so thoroughly done before. It very soon became certain to us who were watching that struggle from the shores of Europe that it could only end in the preservation of the Union; for the people of the north and the west were themselves united and determined to main- tain the Union, and that the only chance for those who were trying to divide the Union would have been if there had been faltering and wavering in the minds of the northern and western people. For a time it seemed uncertain whether there might not be that faltering and that wavering, but we saw that there was in your President a man of steadfast will and lofty character, a man whom no reverses could affect and no charges or accusations could turn from his path; and we saw that more and more the heart of the people went out to him, because they felt that he was the true interpreter of their minds. Ladies and gentlemen, the one essential thing at that moment was that the people should have Page eighty-six someone to hold them together. Lincoln held them together. He held them together because he understood how they felt. He was a man sprung from among themselves who had come to know the minds and thoughts of the people by living among them as no President had ever done before; and when this crisis came he was the true interpreter to himself of the will and thoughts and hopes of the whole nation, and the people trusted him. They trusted him be- cause they knew that he understood them. They trusted him because they knew that he was one of themselves, who was not apart from them, who was not looking down on them, who was not trying to study them like distant objects, but who was one of themselves and felt as each of them felt, himself. That was his greatness. That was what fitted him to be the man for the moment. He embodied all that was best and highest in people's minds. His life is far more eloquent than any words. Nothing that we can say or do can add to his glory. One of our own poets has said, in an ode which I read the other day, speaking of him: Page eighty-seven " For there are lives too large in simple truth, For aught to limit, or knowledge to gauge, And there are men so near to God's own roof They are the better angels of their age. " Lincoln's true memorial is to be found in the legacy of greatness he has given us. You have erected a monument to him here, but the whole United States are his monument, because it is owing to him that the United States still remain one and indivisible. He was one of those who are a perpetual glory, not merely to the state which sent him to the presidential chair, not merely to the nation which owned him as its wise guide and leader, but also to humanity, because he was one of those in whom the love of humanity, the love of justice and the love of freedom bum with an unquenchable flame. Ladies and gentlemen, be thankful that in your hour of need Providence gave you such a man, and hold his memory in honor forever. Page eigUy-eight GOVERNOR DENEEN Introducing Senator Dolliver It is my pleasure to present to you next the gifted and eloquent son of our neighboring state, the Honorable Jonathan P. DolUver, United States Senator of Iowa. Page eighty-nine SENATOR DOLLIVER Lincoln, the Champion of Equal Rights Ladies and Gentlemen — It is a very great pleasure to me to have the chance of partici- pating with you in this celebration, and I share with you the gratification that the occasion is given more than a national significance by the presence and words here of the ambassador of that nation which befriended our national infancy, and has been our friend ever since the foundation of this republic; and by the presence here and helpful word of that man who has interpreted our insti- tutions to the English speaking world — "Pro- fessor Bryce, " as we love to call him. Ambassador not alone of the English king and the English government but of the English people to the people of the United States. The memory which we are trying to celebrate today is too great for any political party, too great to be the heritage of a single nation, too great to be absorbed in the renown of any one Page ninety century. The ministry of his life was to all par- ties, to all nations and to all generations of men. Yet there is a sense in which it belongs to the American people and a sense still more sacred in which it belongs to you of Illinois and to the city of Springfield, where his life was lived and where his body lies buried. It is for you and your children to care for his fame and to keep his faith. Within the last half century, this old neighbor of yours, once derided, once despised, once mis- understood and maligned, has been lifted up into the light of universal history where all men and all generations of men may see him and make out, if they can, what manner of man he was. His life in this world was a very short one, less than three score years, only ten of them visible above the level of these prairies, yet into that brief space were crowded events so stupendous in their ultimate significance that we cannot read the volume which records them without a strange feeling coming over us that maybe, after all, we are not reading about a man, but about some Page niTUty-one sublime automatic figure in the hands of the infin- ite powers, being used to help and to bless the human race. If we are troubled because we do not under- stand his life we ought to be encouraged because no previous generation of our people, not even that among which he lived, was able to understand him. While he lived the air was full of speculation about his purposes and the plans for their execution and until this day men are still guessing about his education, his religion, his faculties, and the in- tellectual account from which he drew the re- sources which always seemed equal to his task. There are some who claim that he was a great lawyer. I do not believe that he was anything of the kind. It is true that he mastered, though not without difficulty, the principles of the common law, and it is also certain that his mind was so normal and complete that he did not require a commentary nor a copy of the "Madison papers, " thumb-marked by the doubts and fears of three generations, to understand that the men who made the constitution of the United States were build- ing for eternity. But he practiced law without Page nirifty-two a library, and those who practiced with him have said that he was of no account in a lawsuit unless he knew the right was on his side. It went against his intellectual as well as his moral grain to adopt the epigram of Lord Bacon that it is impossible to tell whether a case be good or bad until a jury has brought in its verdict. The old judicial circuit about Springfield where he practiced law, where he knew everybody by their first name, and everybody Hked to hear him talk as they sat together in the village tavern after the day's work was done, undoubtedly did much for him in many ways. But the great lawyers who are present in this assembly today will bear me witness that a man who habitually gives his advice away for nothing, who has not the foresight to ask for a retainer, nor the energy to collect a fee after he has earned it, whatever other gifts and graces he may have, is not by nature cut out for a lawyer. I have talked with a good many of the older men who used to practice with him, and from what they have said to me, I think that the notion was even then slowly forming in his mind that he held a brief, with power of attorney from on High, Page nimty-thTee for the un-numbered millions of his fellowmen, and was only loitering about the county seats of Illinois until the case came on for trial. You are to hear in a few moments one of the most eloquent orators who ever spoke the English tongue talk of "Lincoln as an orator;" but if he was such, the standards of the schools, ancient and modern, will have to be thrown away. Per- haps they ought to be, and when they are, this curious circuit-rider of the law, refreshing his com- panions with wit and wisdom from the well of English undefiled; this champion of civil liberty, confuting Douglas with a remorseless logic cast in phrases rich with the proverbial homely Htera- ture of our language; this advocate of the people standing head and shoulders above his brethren, stating their cause at the bar of history in sen- tences so simple that a child can follow them, such a one, surely, will not be denied a place in the company of the masters who have added some- thing to the triumphs of our mother tongue. He was dissatisfied with his modest address at Gettysburg, read awkwardly from poorly written manuscript. He turned to Edward Everett and told him that his masterly oration was the best Page ninety-jour thing he had ever heard; but Mr. Everett did not need a minute for reflection to make him discern that that little piece of crumpled paper which the President held in his unsteady hand that day would be preserved from generation to generation, after his own laborious utterances had been for- gotten. The old school of oratory and the new met that day on the rude platform under the trees among the graves, and congratulated each other. They haven't met very often since, for both of them have been pushed aside to make room for the declaimer, the essayist, the statisticians and the other peddlers of intellectual wares who have de- scended like a swarm upon all human deliberations. There are some who claim that Lincoln was a great statesman. If by that they mean that he was better informed than his contemporaries in the administrative technicaUties of our govern- ment, or that he was wiser than his day in the creed of the party in whose fellowship he passed his earlier years, there is very little evidence of that at all. The most that can be said is that he clung to the fortunes of the old Whig leadership through evil as well as good report and that he stumped the county and afterward the state; but Page ninety-five the speeches which he made neither he nor any- body else thought it important to preserve. He had a very simple political faith, short and to the point. "I am in favor," said he, "of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high protective tariff." But while he followed Henry Clay nearly all his lifetime, more like a lover than a disciple, yet when that great popular hero died and Mr. Lincoln was called upon to make an address upon the occasion of his funeral in your old State House, he passed over without a word the whole creed of the party faith, and gave his entire time to that love of liberty and that devotion to the Union which shone even to the end in the superb career of Henry Clay. Of course he was a statesman; but when you have described him as a statesman, whatever adjectives you use, you have opened no secret of his biography. You have rather marred, it seems to me, the epic grandeur of the drama in which he moved. Of course he was a great states- man. Exactly so, Saul of Tarsus, setting out from Damascus, became a great man. Exactly so, Columbus, inheriting a taste for the sea, devel- oped gradually into a mariner of high repute. Page ninety-six There are some who have made a study more or less profound, of the archives of the rebelhon, who have made out of Mr. Lincoln a great miHtary genius, better able than his generals to order the movement of the armies under his command. In my humble opinion there is hardly any evidence of that. He was driven into the war department by the exigency of the times, and if he towered above the ill-fitting uniforms which made their way through one influence and another to posi- tions of brief command during the first campaigns of the civil war, there is no very high praise in that after all. But there is one thing about him that I have always been interested in. He comprehended the size of the undertaking which the nation had on hand and he kept looking until his eyes were weary for somebody who could master the whole situation and get out of the army what he knew was in it. It broke his heart to see its efforts scattered and thrown away by quarrels among its officers, endless in number, and unintelligible for the most part to the outside world. When he passed the command of the army of the Potomac over to General Hooker, he did it in terms of Page ninety-seven reprimand and admonition which read hke a father's last warning to a wayward son. He told him that he had wronged his country and wronged his fellow officers, and recalled General Hooker's insubordinate suggestion that the army and the country both needed a dictator. Mr. Lincoln re- minded him that only generals who won victories have ever been known to set up dictatorships; and then with a humor grim as death he told him to go on and win military success and he would take all the chances of the dictatorship, himself. If General Hooker did not tear up his commission when he got that letter, it only shows that he was brave enough to stand upon his naked back the lash of the simple truth. All this time the President had his eye on a man from the West who appeared to be doing a fairly good mihtary business down in Tennessee, a copious worker and a copious thinker, but a very meager writer, as Mr. Lincoln afterward de- scribed him in a telegram to Burnside. He hked this man. Especially he liked the fact that in his plan the advertisement and the event seemed to have some relation to each other. He Uked — 7 L C Page ninety-eight him also because he never "regretted to report;" and so after Vicksburg had fallen, after the tide of the rebelHon had been swept back from the borders of Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Presi- dent -wrote two letters, one to General Meade, holding him to a stern account for his failure to follow up the victory at Gettysburg, and the other to Ulysses S. Grant, ordering him to report at Washington for duty. The letter to General Meade was never sent. You will find it resting quietly in the collection of the writings of Lincoln by Mr. Nicolay, all the fires of its mighty wrath long since gone out, but General Grant managed to get his; and from that hour no more miUtary orders from the White House; no more suggestions about the movement of the army; no more orders to advance. He left it all to him. He did not ask the general to tell him what his plans were. He left it all to him; and as the plan of the great captain began to unfold, gradually, Mr. Lincoln dispatched from the White House a telegram to the head- quarters in Virginia in these words, "I begin to see it. You will succeed. God bless you all. A. Lincoln. " Page ninety-nine And SO these two, each adding something to the other's fame, go down in history together, God's blessing faUing Uke a benediction upon the memory of both. While Mr. Lincoln lived, even the great men that were nearest to him did not seem to enjoy the pleasure of his acquaintance. His lonely iso- lation, even among the advisors whom he chose to sit in council with him in the administration of the government, has always seemed pathetic; but the letters and papers which have come to light as one by one the actors in those great scenes have passed from the stage, reveal a situation which throws the light of comedy upon the sorrow- ful experience through which he passed. I reckon that among the greatest intellects our institutions have nurtured was William H. Seward, of New York, the great Secretary of State; and yet the record recently dug up shows that he spent nearly all his time pestering Mr. Lincoln with contradic- tory pieces of advice, and that he finally prepared a memorandum in his owti handwriting, telling what he thought ought to be done, and ending by an accommodating proposal to take the responsi- bihty of the administration off Mr. Lincoln's hands. Page one hundred I suppose that Salmon P. Chase was one of the greatest men we have ever had in the United States ; but if you will pick up the current number of the Scribner's Magazine, you will find there some very curious letters from Mr. Chase, letters that I would be the last man to use for the purpose of belittling him; but I rather like to see them, because it enables us to interpret the size of the man who was standing by his side. "He never consults me. He holds no cabinet meetings," said this full grown minister of finance, prattling like a child. After the Battle of Bull Run, even so incor- ruptible a patriot as Edwin M. Stanton, known in after years as the organizer of victory, wrote a letter which you will find in the life of James Buchanan, to the ex-President then quietly resid- ing at his country estate near Washington, at Wheatland, in Pennsylvania, a letter filled with obloquy and contempt for Mr. Lincoln. He said, speaking of the defeat at Bull Run, that it was an unnecessary catastrophe. "The imbecility of the administration, " he said, " culminated in that catastrophe ; and irretrievable misfortune and national disgrace never to be for- Page one hundred one gotten are to be added to the ruin of peaceful pursuits and national bankruptcy as the result of Lincoln's 'running the machine' for five full months. " From the sanctum of the old Tribune, where for a generation Horace Greeley had dominated the intellectual life of the people as no American editor has done before or since his day, there came to the White House a curious letter, a maud- lin mixture of enterprise and despair; a despair which after seven sleepless nights had given up the fight; an enterprise characteristic of modern journalism, asking for inside information of the hour of the surrender that was obviously near at hand. "You are not considered a very great man," said Mr. Greeley, in that letter, for the president's eye alone. Who is this, sitting on an old sofa in the pubUc offices of the White House after the battle of Bull Run, talking, with quaint anecdotes and humor- ous commentaries, with officers and soldiers and civilians and scattered congressmen, who poured across the Long Bridge from the first battlefield of the rebelHon to tell their tale of woe to the only man in Washington who had sense enough left Page one hundred two to appreciate it or patience enough left to listen to it? Is it the log cabin student, learning to read and write by the light of the kitchen fire in the woods of Indiana? It is he. Can it be the adventurous voyager of the Mississippi, inventing ideas for lifting flat boats over the rifQes which impeded his journey, and at the same time medi- tating ideas broad as the free skies, for Ufting nations out of barbarism, as he traced the divine image in the faces of men and women chained together in the auction block of the slave market at New Orleans? It is he. Can it be the awkward farm hand of the Sanga- mon, who covered his bare feet in the fresh dirt which his plow had turned up to keep them from getting sunburned, while he sat down at the end of the furrow to rest his team and to regale himself with a few more pages of worn volumes borrowed from the neighbors? It is he. Can it be the country lawyer who rode on horseback from county seat to county seat, with nothing in his saddlebags except a clean shirt and the code of Ilhnois, to try his cases and to air his views in the cheerful company that always gathered around the stove in the tavern at the county seat? It is he. Page one hundred three Is it the daring debater, blazing out for a moment with the momentous warning, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," then falling back within the defenses of the Constitution, in order that the cause of liberty, already hindered by the folly of its friends, might not become an outlaw in the land? It is he. . Is it the weary traveller, setting out from Spring- field on his last journey from home, asking anxious neighbors who came to the depot to see him off, to remember him in their prayers, and talking to them in sad and mystical language about One who could go with him and remain with them, and be everywhere for good; It is he. They said that he jested, and laughed in a weird way, and told objectionable anecdotes that night, sitting on the old sofa in the public offices of the White House. They started ugly reports about him, and the comic newspapers of London and New York made cruel pictures of him, pictures of his big, handsome hands that were about to be stretched out to save the civiHzation of the world, and his overgrown feet, feet that for four torn and bleeding years were not too weary in the service of mankind. They said that his clothes did not Page one hundred four fit him, that when he sat down he tangled up his long legs in an ungainly fashion, that he was awkward and uncouth in his appearance. They began to wonder whether this being a backwoodsman was really a recommendation for President of the United States, and some of them began to talk about the grace of courtly manners which had been brought home from St. James. Little did they dream that the rude cabin where his father lived the night he was born, yonder on the edge of the hill country in Kentucky, would be transfigured in the tender imagination of the people until it became a mansion more stately than the White House, a palace more royal than all the palaces of the earth. It did not shelter the childhood of a king, but there is in this world one thing at least more royal than a king — it is a man. They said that he jested and acted unconcerned as he looked at people through eyes that moved slowly from one to another in the crowd. They did not know him. If they had known him they might have seen that he was not looking at the crowd at all — ^that his immortal spirit was girding for its ordeal. And if he laughed, how could they Page one hundred five be sure that he did not hear cheerful voices from above? For had he not read in an old book that He who sitteth in the Heavens sometimes looks down with laughter and derision upon the impotent plans of men to turn aside the everlasting pur- poses of God? It took his countrymen the full four years to find out Abraham Lincoln. By the light of the camp fires of victorious armies they learned to see the outline of his gigantic figure, to comprehend in part at least the dignity of his character, and to assess at its full value the integrity of his con- science; and when at length they followed his body back to Springfield and looked for the last time upon his worn and wrinkled face, through their tears they saw him exalted above all thrones in the gratitude and the affection of the world. We have been accustomed to think of the civil war in the United States as an affair of armies, for we come of a fighting race, and our military instinct needs very little encouragement — some think none at all — but it requires no very deep insight into the hidden things of history, to see that this conflict was not waged altogether on fields of battle nor under the walls of besieged Page one hundred six cities; and that fact makes Abraham Lincoln greater than all his generals, greater than all his admirals, greater than all the armies and all the navies that responded to his proclamation. He stands apart because he bore the ark of the covenant of our institutions. He was not making his own fight, nor even the fight of his own country or of the passing generation. The stars in their courses had enUsted with him. He had a treaty never submitted to the Senate, which made him the ally of the Lord of Hosts, with infinite rein- forcements at his call; and so the battle he was in was not in the woods around the old church at Shiloh nor in the wilderness of Virginia. He was hand in hand with an insurrection older than the slave power in America, a rebelUon old as human voracity and human greed, that age after age had filled this earth with oppression and wrong, denied the rights of man and made the history of the world, in the language of the historian Gibbon, a dull recital of the crimes and follies and misfortunes of the human race. And so he was caught up like Hezekiah, prophet of Israel, and brought to the east gate of the Lord's house, and when he heard it said unto him, "Son of man, Page one hundred seven these are the men who devise mischief," he under- stood what the vision meant, for he had touched human life in such lowly fashion, living a humbler life than any man ever lived in this world, except our incarnate Lord who had not even where to lay his head, he had lived such a life that he knew instinctively what this great, endless struggle of our poor, fallen humanity is and how far the nation had fallen away from its duty and its opportunity. All his life there had dwelt in his recollection a little sentence from an historic document which had been carelessly passed along from one Fourth of July celebration to another, for nearly eighty years, "All men are created equal.'' To Abra- ham Lincoln that sounded strangely like an answer to a question propounded by the oldest of the Hebrew sages, " If I despise the cause of my man servant or my maid servant when he contendeth with me, what shall I do when God riseth up? Did not He that made me make him?" A stra- tegic question that had to be answered aright be- fore democracy or any other form of civil liberty