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 Book. 
 
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 t ''^'•■ai r'- 
 
T 
 
 AN OEATION 
 
 CHARACTER km PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 deliyej;ed by 
 in bryan hall, chicago, ill. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE METHODIST BOOK DEPOSITORY. 
 1867. 
 
E 
 
 
Chicago, Sept. 27, 1867. 
 Rev. C. H. Fowler: 
 
 Dear Sir, — The undersigned, a committee acting on behalf of your 
 numerous friends, who are desirous of preserving in a permanent form 
 your analysis of the character and eulogy of the life of the late President 
 Lincoln, delivered originally at the services memorial of his death, in the 
 First M. E. Church of Chicago, and afterwards repeated by request of Hons. 
 F. C. Sherman, J. B. Rice, E. C. Earned, John M. Wilson, and other distin- 
 guished citizens of the city, in Bryan Hall, on the day of the interment at 
 Springfield, of the remains of the lamented dead — would respectfully re- 
 quest a copy of the manuscript for publication. 
 
 Hon. Grant Goodrich, 
 
 R. F. QUEAL, 
 
 A. E. Bishop, 
 Fernando Jones, 
 E. n. Gammon, 
 
 T. M. BURKITT, 
 
 C. Trudeau, 
 
 B. Halbrook. 
 
 Hon. Grant Goodrich, R. F. Queal, A. E. Bishop, Fernando Jones, E. H. 
 Gammon, T. M. Burkitt, C. Trudeau, B. Halbrook. 
 
 Genilemen, — Your request for a copy of the manuscript of the address 
 on Mr. Lincoln, delivered by me, is received. I thank you for your con- 
 sideration of its author, and am pleased with your interest in the memory 
 of the [/reat President, and herewith furnish the desired copy. 
 
 Respectfully yours, C. H. Fowler. 
 
 Centenary Parsonage, Chicago, Oct. 1, 1867. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Four 3-ears ago Illinois gave to tlie nation a President, to 
 the world a hero, and to humanity a model. To-day she 
 reeeivcs him into her aching bosom a sainted martyr, and 
 covenants, before God and in the solemn presence of the 
 opening infinite future, that for the nation, and for the 
 world, and for humanity, she will guard his sacred ashes 
 with all the tenderness of a motlier. Proud have we been 
 of the offering we have made. But grief, tliat will not be 
 comforted, is oiu's for the i3rice we have paid to Him who has 
 led us to glory through anguish. As we bow \\dth the 
 mourning millions of America around the open grave, and 
 wait for the angel's trump to waken the martyred sleeper, 
 it is fitting that we should study his marvelous character 
 and inhale the fragrance of his memoiy, that we may emu- 
 late his many virtues. 
 
 The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on 
 account of its symmetiy. Its comprehension is to us im- 
 possible on account of its immensity, for a man can be 
 comprehended only by his peers. Though we may not 
 get its altitude, nor measure its girth, nor fathom its depths, 
 nor estimate its richness, we may stretch our little selves 
 up against it, and get somewhat of the impress of its purity, 
 the inspiration of its heroism, and the impulse of its power. 
 
 . 
 
6 
 
 The foundation of his character was his moral sense. 
 This contains the secret of his steadiness and consistency, 
 for the first question he always asked, was, " Is it right?'' 
 His moral sense was manifested in absolute truthfulness. 
 It gave him moral uprightness. It kept him unseduced 
 by the temptations of his profession, untainted by the cor- 
 ruptions of politics, unblamable in public administration. 
 It covered him like a mantle of light and purity, let fall 
 upon him from the worlds out of sight. 
 
 Gruided by an invisible hand, like a bird of passage, he 
 moved ever toward his unseen destiny. Supported by the 
 Infinite, he came calmly to the people, confident of the ulti- 
 mate triumj^h of the right. This made him hopeful in the 
 darkness and steady in the light. 
 
 The leading faculty of his mind was his Reason. His 
 ideas came out in syllogisms. His mind acted with the 
 fearful certainty of logic. Toned up by his moral con- 
 sciousness, his reason controlled with the inflexibility of 
 despotism, every element of his being, even his passions 
 and compassions, and detemiined every act of his life. He 
 arrived at conclusions not by intuition, but by argument. 
 This made him appear slow in diiiicult questions, but it 
 gave him all the certainty of logic and the abiding convic- 
 tions of duty. Thus his mental organization gave him the 
 felt consciousness of power. This made inevitable that 
 firmness which was more than equal to every emergency, 
 and which amazed the civilized world. Once at a decision, 
 he could not be moved from it. He had a quick percep- 
 tion of the relations of things, and an accurate and almost 
 infallible memory. These furnished the premises of his 
 
7 
 
 ai'gumcnts. His deep penetration of character, and 
 tliorongh knowledge of Imman nature, scrutinizing ever tlie 
 motives, purposes, and possil)ilities of men, gave him the 
 riglit instruments for the execution of liis phans. Here he 
 was also logical rather than intuitional. Advancino; from 
 facts, and not from impi'essions, he saw power in men whom 
 we condemned, and rejected men to whom we clung. His 
 imagination and speculative fliculties were of great native 
 strength ; but they were so subjected to his reason that 
 they only seemed to suggest courses of action in unprece- 
 dented difficulties, and illustrated by condensed arguments 
 the correctness of his positions./ Thus, in a day of our 
 great impatience, we were convinced and cpiieted 1)}^ his 
 saying, '' I never cross Rock River till I come to it.'' He 
 confirmed our conviction of the wisdom of his renomina- 
 tion, by sa3dng that, " The peo|)le will not trade horses in 
 the middle of tlie stream." His wit was of the finest 
 qualitv, and had a toughness and strength that often gave 
 the people his own courageous hopefulness. 
 
 Thus we half forgot our defeats after the seven da^'s' 
 " change of base," when we heard him say to an applicant 
 for a pass to Richmond, " ^ly passes are not honored in that 
 (piarter. I have already given passes to two hundred 
 thousand men wishing to go there, but they have not 3'et 
 been admitted." His caution, that might have been a, fault, 
 was balanced by the certainty of his reason, so that it pro- 
 duced only a wise prudence. His whole character was 
 rounded out into remarkable practical common sense. 
 Thus his moral sense, his reason and his common sense, 
 were the three fixed points through which the perfect circle 
 
8 
 
 of liis cliaracter was drawn, the sacred trinity of liis great 
 manliood. Had lie lacked eitlier of tliese lie would liave 
 failed, and we would have been buried in tlie ruins of the 
 Republic. Without the first, he would have been a villain ; 
 without the second, a bigot or a fool ; without the third, 
 a fimatic or a dreamer. With them all he was Abraham 
 Lincoln, 
 
 This is the analysis of his character. Let us see how it 
 wrought in his life. 
 
 His moral sense was the foundation of his character. It 
 entered into all his calculations. He had ever the con- 
 sciousness of the presence of Him who is above all, and 
 over all, and who has ordained a standard of right which 
 men may trample, but cannot repeal. This furnishes the 
 key to an exalted life. Viewed from this standpoint, his 
 history unfolds like a perfect argument. Starting from this, 
 there is no escape from the sublime conclusions that have 
 immortalized his memoiy. This gave him the ready solu- 
 tion of the problems that have pei'plexed and bewildered 
 other statesmen. While others have asked, " What is ex- 
 pedient?'' he asked, "What is right ?" Thus he was saved 
 from the endless and impossible calculations of probabili- 
 ties as to results in po]oular judgment. Yet, studying the 
 advantages of time and mode, he delayed while these made it 
 necessary ; but when the action was possible, the decision 
 was taken, and the consequences committed to Him who 
 rules and over-rules according to His good pleasure. 
 
 One result of his conscientiousness was the universal con- 
 viction of his honesty. Other men have been as honest as 
 he was, but I know of no public man who has enjoyed such 
 
 . 
 
9 
 
 universal confidence. This was not a wliim of tlie people 
 taken up hj cliance. It was tHe inevitable consequence of 
 his business and professional habits. His estimates were 
 based upon value received. Because he was necessary to 
 a client was no reason for increasing his fea His sense of 
 moral honesty governed him where many good men do not 
 seem to be sensitive. Having a pass over a railroad for his 
 own pleasure, he did not feel at liberty to use it when on 
 professional business. No cornmon conscience could dictate 
 such convictions. The rule that determined his advocacy 
 of a cause was, whether it was right Money and the 
 chances for reputation in handling an important suit, were 
 no temptations to him to undertake a bad cause. A gentle- 
 man in this cit}^ sought his sei'vices in an important land 
 suit, and he replied, "From what little I know about the 
 case, I think the other man onght to have the land." But 
 upon examination he changed his mind, took and won the 
 suit. Once in some small suit he found he was on the 
 wrong side, and tried to be released by his client, but his 
 client held him to his promise. When the trial came on, 
 he simpl}'- stated the points of the case, but said not one 
 word about a verdict, offered no argument, and walked out 
 of tlie court room. The jury could not agree. In the 
 second trial he did the same ; yet the jury gave him the 
 verdict, without argument, against the evidence, and against 
 the law, simply because Mr. Lincoln was on that side ; 
 " For," said they, " Mr. Lincoln never takes the wrong side." 
 One such man is enough to dignify and ennoble a profession 
 for a thousand years ; and were I a member of the Bar, I 
 would cherish his memory as the devotee clings to his amulet. 
 
lO 
 
 This character for honesty made Mr. Lincoln President 
 of the United States. Five years ago I stood in yonder 
 Wigwam, and heard the Repubhcan party announce "Hon- 
 est Okl Abe " as the leader of the ticket, and I said, " By 
 the grace of God we will carry the country under that 
 name," 
 
 We know somewhat of him through his Douglas cam- 
 paign. But thousands throughout the length and breadth 
 of the country who knew him only as " Honest Old Abe," 
 voted for him on that account ; and wisely did they choose, 
 for no other man could have carried us through the fearful 
 night of the last four years. When his plans were too vast 
 for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sub- 
 lime for our participation, when it was all night about us, 
 and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us — 
 when not one ray shone upon our cause, when traitors were 
 haaghty and exultant at tlie South, and fierce and blasphe- 
 mous at the North, when the loyal men here seemed 
 almost in the minority, when the stoutest hearts quailed, 
 the bravest cheeks paled, when generals were defeating 
 each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the 
 very heart's blood of the 'prostrate Eepublic, when every- 
 thing else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient 
 man, standing like a rock in the storm, and said, " Mr. 
 Lincoln is honest and we can trust him still." Holding to 
 this single point with the energy of faith and despair we 
 held together, and under God he brought us through to vic- 
 tory. And to-day, in this overwhelming grief that mourns 
 a cofiin in every house, we have the open judgment of man- 
 kind for moral loorth. 
 
11 
 
 Another cliaracteristic dependent upon liis moral sense, 
 was his magnanimity. He saw all men under the eye of 
 God as equals, and feeling the hight of the Infinite above 
 the finite he regarded the exaltation of one man above 
 another but as the crawling of one worm over another. 
 Little ambitions never embarrassed him. He sought 
 always to benefit and bless his fellows and not to rule over 
 them. By serving all he became chiefest. No trickery 
 ever marked his movements. No unfiur advantage was 
 ever taken over an opponent or a rival. When promoted 
 it was in spite of his request that some other man should 
 be chosen. When the way was open upward he was 
 always saying, "take this man or that man, he is compe- 
 tent." When the committee for the nomination of dele- 
 gates to the Republican Convention of 1860 met, they 
 wanted men that would be true to Mr. Lincoln. Feeling 
 they were not sufiiciently acquainted throughout the State, 
 they went to Mr. Lincoln, stated their embarrassment, and 
 asked him to name his friends. He replied, " Grentlemen, 
 I can have nothing to do with this matter. If the people 
 want me to be their President, they will look to that. If 
 they do not want me I would not take the office. Nomi- 
 nate good men." When responsibility was to be assumed 
 he was always ready to step into the breach. When the 
 army was defeated and the nation was demanding some- 
 body's head, he said : " I am responsible if there be blame." 
 When the final and most glorious triumphs came, and he 
 had been down to the front, and might possibly be credited 
 with it, he said, '' The glory of the plan and of the execu- 
 tion is not mine. It belongs to Gren. Grant and the 
 
12 
 
 noble men nnder liim. If rivals and personal enemies wlio 
 had villified him were needed for high places they were 
 raised to tliem all regardless of himself. He was the most 
 magnanimous man that the world ever saw. 
 
 One of the most prominent facts in his life is his repre- 
 sentative character. He incarnated the ideal Eej^nblic. No 
 other man ever so fully embodied the purposes, the affec- 
 tions, and the power of the people. He came up among us. 
 He was one of us. His birth, his education, his habits, his 
 motives, his feelings, and his ambitions were all our own. 
 Had he been born am.ong hereditary aristocrats he would 
 not have been oui^ President. But born in the cabin, and 
 reared in the field and in i\\e forest, he became the Great 
 Commoner. The classics of the schools might have pol- 
 ished him but they would have separated him from us. 
 But trained in the common school of adversity, his cal- 
 loused palms never slipped fi'om the poor man's hand. A 
 child of the people, he was as accessible in the "White 
 House as he had been in the cabin. The griefs of the poor 
 African were as sacred to him as were the claims of the 
 opulent white man. Measuring all men by their humanity, 
 he found them essentially equal. Hence, his marvelous 
 patience under the pressm'c upon him of the poorest people. 
 He never had an equal in this. Seeing in Grod the Com- 
 mon Father of all men, he saw in every man a brother. 
 Making the Government the protector of every man in 
 virtue of his humanity, and the creature of the majority in 
 virtue of their numbers, he realized to the world in himself 
 the ideal Kepublic. 
 
 As a speaker, Mr. Lincoln suffers hut little by compari- 
 
13 
 
 son with men wliose greatest or only gift lias been oratory. 
 True, lie did not equal the Philipics of Demosthenes. His 
 heart was too kindly, and his nature too elevated to deal in 
 invective. But in the certainty of his conclusions he was 
 his ^jee/-. The classics had riot polished him. But where in 
 our language, or in the language of the old orators, can be 
 found a sentence to surpass in dignity and power, in beauty 
 and sublimity, the closing sentence of his Emancipation 
 Proclamation. '• UjDon tliis act I invoke the considerate 
 judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty 
 God," At Getty sbiu'g the most finished and cultivated 
 orator of the age delivered one of his master pieces. But 
 when that has been forgotten the short speech of Mr. Lin- 
 coln, on that occasion, will be green in the memories of men. 
 Those who look simply at the manner and not at the mat- 
 ter, who lose the man in his clothes, may not regard Mr. 
 Lincoln as a marked speaker. But I appeal to you who 
 have heard him — was there not that paramount something 
 about his speaking that made you feel, as you left him, 
 what he says is true, and he is honest ! 
 
 As a politician, he was a leader. As an administrator, 
 he was a guider. Few men, if any, ever equaled him in 
 forecast of public sentiment. He seemed almost able to 
 count the votes before the balloting. And the affections 
 \xiih which he inspired political friends made him the leader 
 of his part}^ What other man, with the advantages all 
 against him, could have contended so evenly with Douglas ? 
 Who could have given such strength to his party as he 
 did in that campaign and in the campaign of 1860 ? 
 As President it was his place to be not prow, but helm, 
 
14 
 
 and riglit steadily lie guided us safely tliroiigli tlie breakers.^ 
 Here we approacli the strong side of his character. As 
 a statesynan, his clear, accurate, comprehensive reason, and 
 strong, practical common sense, place him far above his fel- 
 lows. We were so attracted by the goodness of his heart, 
 that we failed to see the power of his brain. Calmlj^, 
 quietl}^, patientl}'" working in the night when other men 
 were asleep, he brought us out of the darkness to the day 
 with movements so easy that we did not think them diffi- 
 cult. Taking the lead of the nation in troubled times, 
 when old landmarks were broken down, when old prece- 
 dents were useless, when new paths had to be beaten, new 
 difiiculties overcome, new forces controlled, new races 
 recognized, the grasp and power of his intellect soon made 
 him master of his position. He selected the ablest men of 
 the nation for his Cabinet, and with confidence he drew 
 them about himself tiTisting to his own ability to control 
 them. Determined from the day of his election to be, in 
 fact, the head of the Government, he chose men strong 
 enough to yield to argument, and true enough to follow the 
 consequences of their logic. Eivals were advanced to high 
 positions, and through them he controlled their friends. 
 Dangerous friends were sent abroad, where they could serve 
 their country most and embaiTass him least. Ability was 
 the ground of promotion, and success the tenure of office. 
 Thus, by a wise use of his prerogatives, factions were ulti- 
 mately harmonized and all sections united. Being rational 
 rather than intuitional, he adopted measures and selected 
 men from facts, rather than from impressions. This made 
 him slow, but his advance was as certain as destiny. Thus 
 
15 
 
 lie held on to Grant when the coiintiy demanded his head, 
 and we now see that that head miglit have cost us onr liber- 
 ties. Thus he dropped Fremont and others at the hight 
 of their power. In one case other elements were compli- 
 cated. The administration party would l)e true to the 
 country under any man. The opposition, viewing things 
 from a different standpoint, required management. The 
 wise physician never undertakes an amputation till the pa- 
 tient is strong enough to survive the operation. This case 
 was no exception to the rule of his action. For it must 
 ever be remembered that the foundation of a Republican 
 Government is the will of the people. The Chief Magistrate 
 is not proprietor. He is only the executor. Mr. Lincoln 
 was the President of a Republic, not the Tyrant of a Des- 
 potism. IFe were the Government; he was our servant. 
 Therefore it was the consummation of statesmanship to 
 adapt measures to the exigencies of the times. Had he ar- 
 bitrarily fixed a purpose in the beginning and adhered to it 
 to the end, we would have been lost The policy of '63 
 would have desolated us in '61, and the policy of '61 would 
 have ruined us in '63. Public opinion is the resultant of 
 forces. It may not take the direction of any one force, but 
 is modified by all the elements. In a country fifty-seven 
 times as large as England, where millions of men are trained 
 to tliinlc, to find the resultant is most difficult But this 
 resultant determines the possibility of action. To hold 
 back one section and spur up another, and thus harmonize 
 all, is no small task. This Mr. Lincoln accomplished. We 
 called him slow and prayed God to give him back-bone, 
 when, in fact, he had the stoutest spinal column in all the 
 
16 
 
 land. Seen in the light of success, which is the ultimate 
 demonstration of ability, he was never ioofasi^ never too slow. 
 When once he fixed his polic}' he never went back. "When 
 he moved, it was forward into the opening possibilities of 
 the future. He was the ultimate judge of when and how 
 to act. He received suggestions and gathered information 
 from all sources, but lie adopted or rejected as seemed to 
 him best. A measure that would not do to-day was reject- 
 ed, to be adopted to-morrow when it would do. And he 
 put men up or down as the cause required. His Secretary 
 of War did very much to secure his election, and, therefore, 
 Mr. Lincoln was obligated to him; but Cameron had a 
 theory that was too early, and grand old Stanton was called 
 to his place — a wise choice — for to him, on that terrible 
 Saturda}', the nation clung as to a rock. Fremont, full of 
 an idea, issued a proclamation. He struck too quick and 
 exceeded his powers. Mr. Lincoln revoked his order, set 
 him aside, and saved Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland. 
 But when the time came he had strength enough to enact 
 what he had nullified. What could have been more mas- 
 terly than his treatment of Vallandigham ? First, he sent 
 him South where he could not induce desertions, then let 
 him come home to defeat his party, which he did by his 
 platform. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow 
 causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contin- 
 gencies seemed almost prophetic. While we in turn were 
 calling him weak and stubborn and blind, Europe was 
 amazed at his statesmanship, and awed into silence by the 
 grandeur of his plans. Measured by what he did, Mr. Lin- 
 coln is a statesman witliout a peer. He stands alone in the 
 
17 
 
 world. He came to tlie government by a minority vote. 
 Witliout an army, witliout a navy, without money, without 
 munitions, he stepped into the midst of the most stupen- 
 dous, most wide spread, most thoroughly equipped and ap- 
 pointed, most deeply planned and infamous rebellion of all 
 history. Traitors were in every department. Treason was 
 the rule, loyalty was the exception. He was alone in 
 "Washington ; armed foes were close at hand ; his friends 
 were away yonder in the North, and traitors hissed and rat- 
 tled all over the loyal States. He conciliated rivals, united 
 friends, flanked politicians, martialed Wall-street, defeated 
 Copperheads and conquered foes. He stamped upon the 
 earth and two millions of armed men leaped forward. He 
 spoke to the sea and the mightiest navy the world ever saw 
 crowned every wave. He breathed into the air and money 
 and munitions rained upon the j^eople. 
 
 His goodness is said to have made him weak. But here 
 men have misjudged him. Seeing the exalted humanity of 
 the act, they have overlooked the strength of the purpose. 
 He has left behind not one word or act of mere impulse or 
 passion. He avowed his purpose in the beginning " to pal- 
 liate — not aggrevate — the horrors of civil war." From tliis 
 purpose he never moved. Suppliants at his knee, though 
 of his own family, were kindly but sternly refused every 
 request that did endanger the country. But when it came 
 within his purpose \vide amnesties were granted to his ene- 
 mies. His goodness was the highest manifestation of his 
 strength. To be good when all are sweeping by in the tide 
 of CAdl, to resist a thousand grievances, a thousand mali- 
 cious misrepresentations, and be forever misunderstood, and 
 
18 
 
 }■ et be calm, loving, iinimpassioned and forgiving, all re- 
 gardless of self, is to be stronger than Eobespiere and 
 miglitier tlian a hundred ISTeros. "Were I to choose but 
 two scenes to represent his life they should be these : one, 
 his giving the Proclamation of Emancipation, which brings 
 out his firmness and his justice, and makes him the Eman- 
 cipator ; the other, the restoration of the widow's son, show- 
 ing justice and humanity. Poorly clad, \veeping and pale, 
 she said to him, " Mr. President, I had three sons and a 
 husband in the arni}^ ; my husband has just been killed, and 
 I came to ask back my oldest boy." He gTanted the re- 
 quest. She took the order, went to the field only to see 
 that oldest son die fi-om his wounds. She went again to 
 the President with the statement of the tacts by the sur- 
 geon. Mr. Lincoln read tlie backing on the order and said, 
 " I know what you "want, you need not ask for it, I will 
 give you your next son," saying as he wrote, " you have 
 one and I have one; that is about right." The poor 
 woman standing by him smoothed his hair with her hands, 
 saying, while her tears fell upon his head, " God bless you, 
 Mr. President, may you live a thousand 3^ears and be the 
 head of this great nation." This was no weak point in the 
 great man's character, for his goodness was as systematic as 
 his statesmanship, and into its exercise there never entered 
 merely personal motives. Constitutionally merciful, he was 
 also constitutionally logical and conscientious. Above his 
 mercy stood his reason, to detect the possible consequence of 
 any action, and behind that was his moral sense to bow him 
 to the dictates of his judgment in spite of the impulses of 
 his heart. No man ever surpassed him in the subjection of 
 
19 
 
 liis life to his convictions. Weak, lie 7vas called, bnt now, 
 all tlioughtful men admit his great firmness/ His almost 
 prophetic foresight of contingencies required the firmness of 
 a martyr to hold him to plans incomprehensible to extrem- 
 ists who clamored for measures that would have been fatal. 
 Sometimes he stood alone against the body of Congress, but 
 Congress always yielded, and the end justified the action. 
 Had he consented to the Confiscation Bill of '61, with all 
 its provisions, his amnesty would never have thinned the 
 rebel ranks. He sent three questions to the War Commit- 
 tee concerning the arming of the negroes, to be put to all 
 the Generals that came before it. They were presented to 
 ninety -two Generals ; of that number, eighty -five answered 
 firmly against the policy, two Major Generals and five 
 Brigadiers answered for it. The next day, after the report 
 was made to him by the War Committee, he issued his 
 order for arming the negroes. Good he was, and compas- 
 sionate ; but no firmer man ever held the reins of power. 
 He was mercy mailed in justice. / He was taken from us 
 not because he would have proved unequal to the hour to 
 come, but rather because we were underrating the terrible 
 crime of slavery that has caused all our woe. In the joy of 
 victory we were willing to pardon for peace, and I verily 
 believe that the future policy of Mr. Lincoln, as indicated 
 to Secretary Seward, would have called down upon his 
 head the curses of Christendom. But now all mouths are 
 stopped as by his gaping wounds we have revealed to us 
 the fearful enormity of the crime. He led us safely in the 
 past when he alone could have done it, and he would have 
 been equal to the future, but his fall has stricken all our 
 
20 
 
 hearts, lias opened tlie eyes of the world to see slavery as 
 the sum of all villainies. 
 
 This woe has fallen upon us because we are living for the 
 admonition of all time to come, to show mankind the solu- 
 tion of the problem of sin, and to demonstrate the power of 
 free government. I must reject the theory that seeks the 
 explanation of this providence in any supposed weakness of 
 this wonderful man. For taken all and in all he rises head 
 and shoulders above every other man of six thousand years. 
 I would not pluck one laurel from the statues of the noble 
 dead ; I would rather place in their midst another statue 
 that shall adorn and honor their glorified companj-. "We 
 are indeed too near Mr. Lincoln to award him the glory he 
 deserves. We remember too well his long, lank form, his 
 soiled clothing, his awkward movements, to realize that this 
 man, standing among us like a father, yet looms above us 
 like a monarch. I turn to the past ; I see behind me a 
 noble company. There is Napoleon, the man of destiny. 
 Armies move at his bid as if they were the muscles of his 
 body ; kings rise and fall at his nod, but he lived for him- 
 self His entire life was a failure. He did not [accomplish 
 one of his great purposes. I see a Wellington ; great as a 
 military chieftain, competent to command armies against a 
 foreign and hereditary foe. I see Marlborough, but on every 
 stone of his monument and in every page of his history I 
 see the frauds by which he enriched himself from the plun- 
 der of his country. There is Cromwell, a fine old man, 
 England's noblest son ; but his arena was small, the work 
 he undertook limited, the work he accomplished ephemeral. 
 The revolution from the hereditary kingdom of the Stewarts 
 
21 
 
 to the hereditary dictatorship of the Cromwells was not so 
 great as the change from executing the Fugitive Slave Law 
 in Boston to the Constitutional Emancipation of the slave in 
 Maryland. Yet, upon his death the Government reverted 
 to the Stuarts, but upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, 
 Freedom rears a monument, and for new conquests marches 
 boldly into the future. I do see a Ctesar j^onder, but his 
 power is the purchase of fraud and crime^ and falls about 
 his grave like withered weeds. And away down yonder in 
 the dark vortex of history, looking out ujion the centuries, 
 is old Pericles, But the thirty thousand citizens of Athens 
 are lost in some inland town of America with her thirty 
 millions of citizens. There are many noble heroes who 
 illumine the darkness behind us with the radiance of some 
 single virtue, but among them all I see no Lincoln. He is 
 radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed 
 a glory upon this age that shall Jill ilie eyes of men as they 
 look into history. Other men have excelled him in some 
 one point, but, taken at all points, all and in all he stands 
 head and shoulders above every other man of six thousand 
 years./ An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils 
 of unparalleled civil war. A Statesman, he justilied his 
 measures by their success. A Philanthropist, he gave lib- 
 erty to one race and salvation to another. A Moralist, he 
 bowed from the summit of human power to the foot of the 
 Cross and became a Christian. A Mediator, he exercised 
 mercy under the most absolute abeyance to law. A Leader, 
 he was no partisan. A Commander, he was untainted with 
 blood. A Euler in des^^arate times, he was unsullied with 
 crime. A man, he has left no word of passion, no thought 
 
22 
 
 of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of 
 selfish ambition. Thus perfected wdthout a model and with- 
 out a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to 
 adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in 
 our humanity, and to present to all coming time the repre- 
 sentative of the divine idea of Free government A child 
 of the people, the poor man's fiiend ; want was the passport 
 to his heart, and helplessness the signal for his power. As 
 the Great Father would not suffer David, though a man 
 after His own heart, to build His temple, because he was a 
 man of blood, so in our time He has resented the just work 
 of retribution for others, and having completed the great 
 Temple of Freedom by the hands of Abraham Lincoln, He 
 takes his spotless soul to Himself and sends his memory to 
 history hallowed by his martyrdom to Liberty, 
 
 LB S '12