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TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY GEORGE W. CHURCHWELi, 
 ANNUAL BANQUET BOARD OF GOVERNORS, CONGRESS CLUB, FEBRUARY nth, 1909 
 
 HERE, in peaceful retrospection, we are met to pay homage to the memory of one of Earth's 
 grandest noblemen, he of the tender heart, "with malice toward none; with charity for ail "—he 
 of the steadfast purpose, " with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right " — he of the 
 abiding faith in divine guidance, "if He has a place and a work for me, I am read> " — he of the 
 lowly birth, who was lifted up to glorify Earth's grandest throne — 
 
 He of the rugged and care-lined face. 
 Where gladness and sadness interlace. 
 And sunbeams the lurking shadows chase; 
 The Man of Mirth, the Man of Sorrows, 
 Whose name outlives our coming morrows; 
 Who counted friend and foe as brothers. 
 His mission — doing good to others. 
 
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 who proclaimed to the world : " God cares, humanity cares, I care ' 
 said: "He is our greatest human inspiration for right living and 
 jham Lincoln. 
 
 — he of whom it has been 
 patriotic Americanism — 
 
 I might stop here; but it would be to leave unsaid a greater thought. It is my firm belief that the 
 life of Lincoln was fore-ordained, from his lowly birth to the moment that the All-wise Ruler let the 
 curtain fall; that his mission was not only the elimination of slavery, but the preservation of our 
 Union; that he was raised up, step by step, from the depths to the heights, and that he ever felt the 
 impress of the guiding hand. Indeed, no less a thinker than Henry Ward Beecher is quoted as saying: 
 " The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln is a revelation of the hand of God in the affairs of men." 
 
 When God in His wisdom needeth a man 
 To bring to fulifillment some all-wise plan 
 
 For the good of His people on earth. 
 He comes to the realm of the lowly life-- 
 That strenuous region where living is strife- 
 
 And He blesses a child at its birth. 
 
 It was so in those misty days of old. 
 
 When shepherds were watching anear their fold 
 
 And the Wise Men were led by a star. 
 It was so in our own forefathers' day. 
 When He blessed a child in His mystic way 
 
 In that humble log-cabin afar. 
 
 A child of the forest, whose lullabies 
 Were the weird and eery sylvan sighs 
 
 That danced and played as the tree-tops swayed. 
 A child of the forest — God placed him there. 
 Where the struggle was hard and frugal the fare 
 
 They eked from that clearing anear the shade. 
 
 The " Father of Waters" ne'er bore on its tide 
 A burden more precious, with mission more wide. 
 Than a flat-boat which floated adown. 
 Mid its hills and its winding. 
 Each weary day finding 
 It nearer and nearer. 
 As poled the young steerer. 
 To its goal at that great Southern town. 
 
 No burden more precious, no mission more grave — 
 From the land of the free to the home of the slave. 
 With ail of its horror, its blighting laid bare. 
 How burdened with pity his tender heart ! 
 How throbbmg with wrath in that auction mart. 
 As he saw men sold 
 For sordid gold. 
 We can see the furrows that lined his brow, 
 As he spake that solemn and sacred vow; 
 We can catch the gleam of his fiery glance — 
 "I will crush that thing if given the chance!" 
 But who will gainsay that God led him there? 
 
 But who can measure the miracle wrought ? 
 And who can fathom the stripling's thought 
 
 As he followed the furrows his ploughshare made? 
 As his sturdy stroke clave the mighty oak. 
 Was it there the lesson of growth awoke 
 
 Ambitions for power his environment stayed? 
 
 Did some wee mother-bird with wounded wing 
 Leave its impress for pity in suffering 
 
 In those later days when a mother prayed? — 
 Prayed for the life of a son doomed to death — 
 Blood of her blood and breath of her breath — 
 
 Prayed — and the sentence of death was stayed. 
 
 When God in His wisdom needeth a man 
 To bring to fulifillment some all-wise plan 
 
 For the good of His people on earth. 
 He comes to the realm of the lowly life. 
 That strenuous region where living is strife. 
 
 And He leadeth a child from its birth. 
 
 He placed him there and He blazed the wav 
 That lead to Emancipation Day. 
 
 Did Lincoln give heed to the guiding hand ? 
 "If He has a place and a work for me — 
 And I think He has — I am ready," said he. 
 
 As he waited the call of divine command. 
 
 God had a place — Earth's grandest throne; 
 God had a work, where Lincoln shone 
 Almost divine — almost alone I 
 And when that mighty work was done. 
 The battle fought, the victory won. 
 The All-wise Ruler let the curtain fall. 
 But, gleaming neath that black and somber pall- 
 Like lightning flash in dark abyss — 
 The weeping, waiting world read this: 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all.' 
 Thus did this noble, tender-hearted man 
 Write his own epitaph in Heaven's plan. 
 This was the spirit that ruled his life. 
 That raised him up from the lowly strife — 
 "God cares. Humanity cares, I care." 
 Let us thank God that He placed him there. 
 
Gift 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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