973.7L63 Cadwallader , Mary E 
 B4C115a 
 
 Abraham Lincoln the 
 Friend of Man 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnfrOOcadw 
 
,Ufe5 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 The Friend of Man 
 
 His Life Was Another Drop in That Vat Where Human 
 Lives, Like Grapes in God's Vintage, Yield the Wine 
 That Strengthens the Spirit of Truth and Justice in 
 the World. 
 
 By M. E. CADWALLADER 
 
All the Nation pays homage to the memory of 
 Abraham Lincoln, not only on his natal day, Feb. 12, 
 but on every day of every year. We look to Lincoln 
 as the preserver of our Nation. His name is immortal. 
 It is enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen, but at 
 this particular time we especially wish to commemorate 
 the memory of Lincoln the Emancipator, who was born 
 of humble parents on the 12th day of February, 1809, 
 about a mile and a half from Hodgenville, the county 
 seat of LaRue County, in Kentucky. 
 
 Our purpose is not to give a narrative of the inci- 
 dents which may be found in the life history of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln and can be obtained in any public library, 
 but to bring to the notice of our readers some interest- 
 ing facts that are in our possession about Abraham 
 Lincoln that are not generally known. 
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF 
 
 His former partner, Hon. W. H. Herndon, said in 
 regard to his religious belief, that Lincoln disagreed 
 with the Christian world in its principles as well as in 
 its theology, because, in the first place, Mr. Lincoln's 
 mind was a purely logical mind. Secondly, that he was 
 purely a practical man, that he was a realist as opposed 
 to an idealist. 
 
 He came to Illinois, about 1830, and became ac- 
 quainted with a class of men the world never saw the 
 like of before or since. They were large men in body 
 and in mind, hard to whip and never to be fooled. It 
 was among these people that Mr. Lincoln was thrown, 
 and about the year 1834 he chanced to come across 
 Volney's "Ruins" and some of Paine's theological 
 works. He at once seized hold of them and assimilated 
 them in his own being. Yolney and Paine became a 
 part of Mr. Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life. 
 He even went so far as to write a small work on Infi- 
 delity, intending to have it published, but it never saw 
 the light of day. Mr. Lincoln at that time was in New 
 Salem keeping store for Mr. Samuel Hill at that place, 
 and one day after the book was finished, Lincoln read 
 it to Mr. Hill, who was his friend and who saw that 
 
Lincoln was a rising man, and, with an eve to the future 
 popularity of his young friend, he believed that if the 
 book were published it would kill Lincoln forever in 
 the eyes of his fellow men, so. snatching it from Lin- 
 coln's hands when he was not expecting it, he put it 
 into an old-fashioned stove, and it went up in smoke. 
 Mr. Herndon says that at that time Mr. Lincoln drank 
 deeply of the works of Hume, Gibbon and others and 
 boldly avowed himself an infidel. Mr. Herndon said 
 that Mr. Lincoln was a melancholy man, and at that 
 time was living on the borderland between theism and 
 atheism. In his happier moments he would swing back 
 to theism from atheism and dwell lovingly there. He 
 was intense always, and terrible in his melancholy. 
 LINCOLN'S BELIEF IN SPIRITUALISM 
 
 So much for what the Hon. W. H. Herndon, a for- 
 mer law partner of Abraham Lincoln, said of the re- 
 ligious belief of the late President, but we have reason 
 to know that he became interested in Spiritualism, as 
 he attended many seances, and that he many times sat 
 with Nettie Colburn, who afterwards became the wife 
 of William Porter Maynard of White Plains, N. Y. 
 
 It was our good fortune to know Nettie Colburn 
 Maynard, and be present at seances, where she was 
 the medium, and through her lips hear the voice of the 
 martyred President speak again. W ; e cherish in loving 
 reverence one statement made by him which has been 
 engraved and is now in the home of The Progressive 
 Thinker, inscribed on a plaque under a brass bust of 
 Abraham Lincoln. It is this : "LET THE SWORD 
 REST IN PEACE; ITS RUST IS PRECIOUS." 
 
 Col. Simon P. Kase, of Philadelphia, was present at 
 Mr. Laurie's house in Washington many times when 
 President Lincoln visited Miss Colburn. At one of 
 the seances at the White House, President Lincoln 
 asked Miss Colburn to demonstrate "her rare gift," 
 as he called it, and said it was perfectly satisfactory. 
 In an interview with Mr. Maynard some years ago, 
 he told us of the strange events that had taken place 
 and of many incidents connected with Mrs. Colburn 
 Maynard in her early days. 
 
 3 
 
As is well known, for very many years Mrs. May- 
 nard was an invalid and lying upon her bed of pain 
 tenderly cared for by her husband and her friends, and 
 she was often controlled by the spirit of Abraham 
 Lincoln. On one occasion when I was present I re- 
 member distinctly that her face looked like that of a 
 child, although at the time she was fifty-four years of 
 age, unable to move, suffering intensely always, but 
 she kept up a cheerful spirit that made all realize that 
 spirit power alone could keep her from being very 
 melancholy. On that occasion Abraham Lincoln en- 
 tranced Mrs. Maynard and for some time talked of 
 things of moment and gave advice that has never been 
 forgotten, and for that reason we are glad that it has 
 fallen to our lot to re-publish the book "Was Abraham 
 Lincoln a Spiritualist?" For it was well known that 
 the simple story would be told just as it had been 
 dictated from her own lips. It contains many start- 
 ling statements. 
 
 During a number of years father and mother Hill 
 were close friends of Mr. and Mrs. Maynard, and 
 often visited their beautiful home in White Plains. 
 Mr. Maynard and Parnie, as she was affectionately 
 called, who had accompanied her on her visits to Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, were untiring in their devotion to the 
 invalid. I begged the privilege of sitting up all night 
 with her, which was granted, and Mr. Maynard after- 
 wards told me it was his first unbroken night's rest 
 for seven years. 
 
 The hours spent there will never be forgotten. 
 Young as I was, it made such a lasting impression that 
 on receiving an invitation to the twenty-fifth anniver- 
 sary of her marriage to Mr. Maynard, I wrote: 
 "Though I cannot come, you may be sure that I have 
 only to think of the patient endurance of your suffer- 
 ing to realize how little after all are the ordinary trials 
 of life. You are doing more missionary work, though 
 confined to your bed, unable to move, than anyone I 
 know. Your sweet, sunshiny face comes up before 
 me; your words of counsel and cheer live in my 
 being, while the utterances of the arisen friends who 
 
have spoken through you, including our beloved 
 Abraham Lincoln, are engraven on my heart." 
 
 And it was so. In the silent hours of the night it 
 was not possible to doubt that, among others, Abraham 
 Lincoln, who while in mortal life had counseled with 
 others through her mediumship, had spoken with me, 
 and through all the years that have passed his utter- 
 ances, through her lips, have been a golden memory. 
 
 When I visited the home of Mr. Maynard, we talked 
 over the incidents of that time. To him his arisen 
 wife is as an angel who has gone from his home — and 
 he feels glad that he was privileged to care for her 
 during the years she was here on the mortal plane. He 
 tenderly spoke of father Hill, and said : "Never will I 
 forget his goodness to my dear one." 
 
 Among those who were close to Nettie Colburn at 
 the time she gave seances in the White House, was 
 Col. Simon P. Kase, of Philadelphia, a grand old man 
 who related to me many times incidents that occurred, 
 of which he had personal knowledge. Of course the 
 true story of Abraham Lincoln attending seances had 
 a peculiar bearing upon the most momentous period in 
 history, but it is based on truth and fact, and therefore 
 will live. It will bear thorough examination, regard- 
 less of doctrine, or sect, or creed. It is a page of veiled 
 history, but there are still living today those who will 
 corroborate the statements made, as Mrs. Nettie May- 
 nard was well known to the Spiritualists years ago 
 under her maiden name of Nettie Colburn as a trance 
 speaker at about the same time as Helen Temple Brig- 
 ham started out in the work. Mr. Hudson Tuttle vis- 
 ited Mrs. Colburn Maynard with Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
 J. Newton. He wrote that her mediumship was won- 
 derful and that every sentence bore evidence of truth- 
 fulness. Mr. Tuttle said the seance he had with her 
 was one of the most convincing he had ever had the 
 good fortune to attend. 
 
 Mr. Maynard is very anxious that the people should 
 know that his wife never claimed that through her was 
 dictated the Emancipation Proclamation, but before it 
 was signed President Lincoln was charged with the ut- 
 
most solemnity not to abate the terms of its issue, nor 
 delay its enforcement ; he was assured that it was to be 
 the crowning" event of his administration and his life. 
 
 Those present at the seance declared they lost sight 
 of the timid girl, Nettie Colburn, in the majesty of the 
 utterance, the strength of the language and the import- 
 ance of that which was conveyed, as it was known that 
 strong pressure was being brought to bear upon Presi- 
 dent Lincoln to defer it, but he was urged to in no 
 wise heed such counsel, but stand firm to his convic- 
 tions and fulfill the mission for which he had been 
 raised up by an overruling Providence. 
 
 Mr. Daniel Somes asked President Lincoln if it was 
 improper to inquire whether pressure had been brought 
 to bear upon him, to which he replied, "Under these 
 circumstances that question is perfectly proper, as we 
 are all friends here. It is taking all my nerve and 
 strength to withstand such a pressure." Turning to 
 Miss Colburn, he said : 
 
 "My child, you possess a very singular gift, but that 
 it is of God I have no doubt. I thank you for coming 
 here tonight. It is more important than perhaps any- 
 one present can understand." 
 
 Mrs. Maynard had one hope — to place in proper 
 shape all the facts about how she became acquainted 
 with President Lincoln — through her brother having 
 lost his pass and furlough — and then how, as a young 
 girl, she was taken to the White House where many 
 seances were held, at which she was the medium. 
 Those were the years that tried the soul of the man 
 who had made an almost prophetic utterance in Phila- 
 delphia on the 22nd of February, 1861, when he was on 
 his way to his first inauguration. 
 
 "Throngs of people had gathered to see him," said 
 J. H. Barrett, "and he raised a national flag to its 
 place on the staff above Independence Hall, in Phila- 
 delphia, as requested, amid the cheers of the thousands 
 present." 
 
 In a brief speech he referred with much emotion to 
 the men who had assembled in the same hall in 1776, 
 and to the principles there proclaimed on the fourth of 
 
July, principles which he declared it to be his purpose 
 never to yield, even if he must seal his devotion to them 
 by a violent death — alas ! his prophetic utterance came 
 only too true. 
 
 Positive information had already been received at 
 Washington of a plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln at 
 Baltimore. When this was communicated to him, he 
 was averse to any change of the time fixed for his 
 transit through that city. On the earnest representa- 
 tion of Mr. Seward, however, who sent a special 
 messenger to the President-elect at Harrisburg, to urge 
 this course, he left the latter place on the night train a 
 few hours in advance of that which he was expected 
 to take, and passing through Baltimore without recog- 
 nition, arrived safely the following morning in Wash- 
 ington, where on the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham 
 Lincoln took the oath of office as President of the 
 United States. 
 
 How easy it is to be unjust to the dead, says a well 
 known writer. It is not safe to accept the representa- 
 tions of churchmen as to the belief of prominent per- 
 sons. The case of President Lincoln is somewhat 
 in point. For many years he was an open and avowed 
 skeptic, known as such by all his intimate friends. He 
 afterwards investigated Spiritualism, and often sat in 
 Spiritual circles. The late Judge A. S. Miller, for- 
 merly of Rockford, 111., told Dr. G. W. Brown on 
 several occasions he had sat in circles with Abraham 
 Lincoln and knew he was in sympathy with its teach- 
 ings, but now the church claims Mr. Lincoln as one 
 of its brightest lights. 
 
 What Lincoln said : 
 
 "I have never united myself to any church, because 
 I have found difficulty, in giving my assent without 
 mental reservation to the long complicated statements 
 of the Christian doctrine which characterize their arti- 
 cles of belief and confessions of faith. 
 
 "When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its 
 sole qualification for membership, the Savior's con- 
 densed statement of the substance of both law and 
 Gospel, 'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 
heart and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thy- 
 self,' that church will I join with all my heart and all 
 my soul." — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 This agrees with Herndon's statement that Lincoln 
 was not a member of any established church. 
 
 WHAT TENKIN LLOYD JONES SAID 
 IN 1896 
 
 Jenkin Lloyd Jones preached in Sinai Temple, tak- 
 ing for his theme, "From the Log Cabin to the Presi- 
 dent's Chair," a study of Abraham Lincoln. After 
 tracing his origin and childhood through their hard- 
 ships, he said: 
 
 "I wish we might in some fresh way discover again 
 that the pathos and the power of this figure, which 
 still, to many minds, is permanently grotesque, is based 
 on integrity. Out of that log cabin there came a mani- 
 festation of conscience so significant that it made Lin- 
 coln feel kinship with the meanest and lowest thing in 
 nature, and also relationship with the highest God in 
 heaven, wherever that may be, and whatever he is." 
 
 Speaking of the religion of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. 
 Jones said : 
 
 "His theological credentials are very slender and 
 very doubtful. Lincoln was by pre-eminence Ameri- 
 ca's man of faith. The very things he did not believe 
 in witness his religiousness. His denials were his de- 
 votions, intellectually; he was a student of sacred 
 things, a lover of such books as help interpret life and 
 throw some light on the mystery of being. 
 
 READS THE BIBLE 
 
 "The Bible was his childhood's daily food and the 
 meagerness of his home was lit up,by the simple rev- 
 erence of simple hearts. Once, when his father had 
 asked a blessing at a meal consisting of warmed-over 
 potatoes, he did venture to ask if they were not rather 
 poor blessings to make much mention of. This was 
 Abraham Lincoln's attitude toward the conventional 
 creeds of his day and of ours. The works of Thomas 
 Paine, Volney and Voltaire, were among the many 
 
 8 
 
volumes that he devoured during outwardly idle days. 
 
 "He wrote out the argument and read it at the vil- 
 lage store against supernatural Christianity and in 
 favor of the faith of reason and of nature. But the 
 storekeeper thought it was sacrilegious and put it into 
 the stove. 
 
 "Later, in his Springfield life, the 'Vestiges of Crea- 
 tion,' that unique and until recently anonymous book 
 that was the forerunner of Darwin and Spencer, in- 
 terested him much, and the thought of evolution, the 
 universal law, found in him an earnest champion. 
 Once he said, 'There are no accidents in my philoso- 
 phy.' David Davis, his intimate co-laborer, said, 'He 
 had faith in laws, principles, causes and effects, but no 
 faith in the ordinary sense of the term,' meaning, of 
 course, in the theological sense. To another friend he 
 said, 'I am a kind of immortalist. I never could bring 
 myself to believe in eternal punishment.' 
 
 DISAGREES WITH THE CHURCH 
 
 "And another friend says that on the doctrine of 
 depravity, atonement and infallibility of the written 
 revelation and such questions, he was utterly at vari- 
 ance with those usually taught in the church. Hern- 
 don, his law partner, tells us with what avidity he 
 read the writings of Charming, and that the author 
 whose views most nearly represented those of Mr. 
 Lincoln, was probably Theodore Parker, from whose 
 writings Lincoln elaborated the memorable phrase of 
 a 'government of the people, by the people, and for 
 the people.' To Carpenter, who painted the signing 
 of the emancipation, he said, T never joined any 
 church, because I never could bring myself to believe 
 their creeds. When I can find a church based on the 
 Golden Rule, that which will I gladly join.' And 
 Nicolay, his private secretary, says there is no ground 
 to believe that these opinions were ever changed. 
 
 "After his death the religious world found a great 
 and perplexing task on their hands, that of trying to 
 get this great, throbbing hearted Lincoln, the savior of 
 so many souls to liberty, into heaven through their 
 
 9 
 
creed doors. They tried to prove his religiousness by 
 making out that he thought of Jesus, of God and of 
 the Bible something: as thev did. 
 
 •& 
 
 LOVE WAS HIS RELIGION 
 
 "Let us rather believe that he was religious because 
 he had a God-like love in his heart, because he sought 
 to be an embodied righteousness, a truth teller ;. be- 
 cause in him the human instincts of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury culminated ; because he was able to throw aside 
 ecclesiastical and political trappings ; do without the 
 helps and stays that are considered necessary to the 
 intellectual and moral lives of most men, and rise by 
 virtue of an internal force into the sublimity of a full 
 manhood in his plain manliness, proving his relation- 
 ship to all that is infinite, and eternal. 
 
 "We will find his religion indicated by his oft-flow- 
 ing tears for the suffering. He established his kinship 
 with the Man of Nazareth by going up and down this 
 world as he did, doing good. His was the beatitudes 
 which the elder brother had pronounced blessed. 'The 
 pure in heart, the meek, the merciful, the poor in spirit, 
 the peacemaker,' he was one who 'hungered after 
 righteousness/ and was, oh, so sadly persecuted for 
 truth's sake, and the reward of being so persecuted, 
 which came to the one while nailed to the cruel cross 
 on Calvary, came to the other on the wings of the swift 
 flying bullet as he sat in Ford's Theater in the city of 
 Washington. 
 
 "If there is any glory corner anywhere in the uni- 
 verse where the hallelujahs of 4,000,000 emancipated 
 slaves may not carry -the soul of Abraham Lincoln be- 
 cause, forsooth, he had a head that worked as well as 
 a heart, when he was flesh environed, then, my friends, 
 we can do without that glory corner ourselves, and if 
 there is anywhere a great white throne not accessible 
 to plain manliness, to the motherly tenderness, the 
 God-like charity and sympathy of Abraham Lincoln, 
 then all I have to say is that I have no desire to visit 
 such a throne myself. 
 
 10 
 
FAITH IN LINCOLN'S FUTURE 
 "The heaven of Abraham Lincoln is good enough 
 for me. The hell of Abraham Lincoln is not too bad 
 for me. Ah ! there lies a searching, solemn exaction 
 in this confession. His heaven is only for those who, 
 with bleeding feet, have walked the rocky road he 
 traveled, who have tasted the Mara waters of high 
 service. His life arraigns our selfishness, rebukes our 
 cupidity, but it girds our courage. His life was an- 
 other drop in that sacred vat where human lives, like 
 grapes from God's vintage, yield the wine that 
 strengthens the spirit of truth and justice in the world. 
 If we would know the religion of Abraham Lincoln, 
 let us save this flag from further stains, keep it 
 untarnished as an emblem of love, liberty and law to 
 all nations and to all ages." 
 
 * * * * 
 
 HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE 
 
 Who saved this nation ? Was it the generals in com- 
 mand, whose names are held in veneration throughout 
 the land? Yes, but with the help of the privates, whose 
 names will never be known to fame. All honor to the 
 rank and file, the brave boys in blue who faced toil, 
 misery and starvation on the battle field and in the 
 prison cell. The soldier who did his duty, though his 
 bones were left to bleach upon the battle field, did as 
 much toward his country's preservation as did the 
 bravest general in command. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We answer, the mothers 
 who gave their sons for its sake. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We answer, the wives who 
 offered up their husbands upon the altar of their 
 country. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We answer, the children, 
 who were left orphans. They helped to pay the price 
 of Union. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We answer, the brave boys 
 in blue, who gallantly pressed forward at their coun- 
 try's call. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We answer, the generals 
 
 11 
 
in command, staunch and true, who led the army to 
 victory. 
 
 Who saved this nation? We linger in loving rever- 
 ence upon the name than which no other holds a dearer 
 place in our hearts. The one we teach our children 
 to revere, the one whose life we would have them emu- 
 late — the one whose life-blood sealed the emancipation 
 proclamation — the one whose memory is enshrined in 
 the heart of every American citizen. 
 
 Lincoln — Abraham Lincoln — with his brave generals 
 and his boys in blue — Lincoln the immortal — saved this 
 nation. 
 
 Could we hear him speak today he would counsel us 
 to work for peace, to work for arbitration, to work for 
 the day when war shall be no more, when brother shall 
 no longer fight against brother. Could we hear him 
 speak, he would tell us of the cruelties of war and bid 
 us bend our energies toward that day when mankind 
 shall be as brothers and all dwell together in unity. 
 Again we hear the voice of Lincoln the immortal, as 
 he seems to say: "Let the sword rest in peace; its 
 rust is precious." 
 
 INTERESTING INCIDENTS NOT 
 GENERALLY KNOWN 
 
 Mr. James C. Underhill relates the following inter- 
 esting incident: *T was in Springfield, 111., the home 
 of Abraham Lincoln, at the time when Mr. Lincoln 
 was first nominated for the Presidency. There exist- 
 ed in Springfield a Republican organization designated 
 the Rail Guard. This Rail Guard marched around 
 the Capitol Square, each member carrying upraised on 
 his shoulder a rail of Lincoln's own splitting. Thus 
 they marched, two by two in procession, with the tall, 
 gaunt figure of Abraham Lincoln following in the 
 rear. It was a unique spectacle, not to be forgotten 
 by the many onlookers." 
 
 HOW LINCOLN CAME TO WEAR A BEARD 
 
 It is not generally known that it was a child who 
 persuaded Abraham Lincoln to wear a beard. In the 
 
 12 
 
magazine, St. Nicholas, we read that up to the time he 
 was nominated he had always been smooth shaven. A 
 little girl in Chautauqua County, New York, who 
 greatly admired him, made up her mind that he would 
 look better if he wore whiskers, and with youthful 
 directness wrote him so. He answered her by return 
 mail : 
 
 "Springfield, 111., Oct. 19, 1860. 
 "Miss Grace Bedell : 
 
 "My dear Little Miss — Your very agreeable letter of 
 the 15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying 
 I have no daughter. I have three sons, one seventeen, 
 one nine and one seven years of age. They, with their 
 mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whisk- 
 ers, never having worn any, do you not think people 
 would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin 
 it now? 
 
 "Your very sincere well-wisher, 
 
 "A. LINCOLN." 
 
 Evidently on second thought he decided to follow 
 her advice. On his way to Washington the train 
 stopped at the town where she lived. He asked if she 
 were in the crowd gathered at the station to meet him. 
 Of course she was, and willing hands forced a way for 
 her through the mass of people. When she reached the 
 car, Mr. Lincoln stepped from the train, kissed her, 
 and showed her that he had taken her advice. 
 
 THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN'S MOTHER 
 The following interesting narrative was written by 
 an intimate friend of the Lincoln family: 
 
 "It was a Sunday evening. No one was present but 
 the father, the suffering mother, and the two children, 
 Abe and his sister Sarah. Abe had already on many 
 a Sabbath during his mother's illness, undertaken her 
 office oj reading from the Scriptures to the family. 
 Now he sat near Mother Nancy, as she was called, the 
 old family Bible upon his knees, reading the Gospel in 
 a soft but clear voice. His little sister knelt beside the 
 roughly improvised couch of the mother, looking 
 dreamily into her pale face and shrunken eyes, while 
 
 13 
 
one of the thin hands of the patient woman rested upon 
 the daughter's curly head. Father Thomas Lincoln 
 leaned against the tall sycamore whose mighty branches 
 shadowed the log cabin and the sorrowing little group. 
 His broad chest, across which his arms were folded, 
 heaved and betrayed the feelings of the husband. He 
 gazed motionless into his wife's almost transfigured 
 countenance, over which at that moment the evening 
 cast a roseate hue. At times his lips moved convul- 
 sively, as if unable to repress the anguish that cramped 
 his heart. His tearful eyes expressed the terrible grief 
 and solicitude of the plain but deeply feeling pioneer. 
 Mother Nancy's earthly moments were numbered. 
 This could not be disguised. Thomas Lincoln saw it 
 by the momentary light, scarcely perceptible convulsions 
 of her emaciated body ; but the change which had taken 
 place during the last hour in her gentle, beautified 
 face ; by the eyes that became more and more glazed, 
 and only now and then lit up with an expression of 
 love and anxiety for her dear ones. 
 
 " 'Stop reading, Abe,' he murmured, trembling with 
 apprehension, 'it worries your mother.' 'No,' breathed 
 Mrs. Lincoln in broken sentences, 'it seems as though 
 angels were singing psalms — as though the entire 
 glory of the other world were disclosed to me — yes, 
 thus — thus I always wished to die — the blue heaven 
 above me — you at my side — and God's word on my 
 lips. Your hand, Thomas.' 
 
 "The husband bent over his wife and took her right 
 hand, which she was unable to lift. 
 
 "Abe had been silent. He now looked into his 
 mother's face, hastily closed the Bible and sprang up 
 from the log. 
 
 "'Gracious God! My mother is dying!' he stam- 
 mered, and reeled, pale and trembling, to her side, 
 while Sarah uttered a cry and, falling on her knees, 
 buried her face, over which the tears were streaming, 
 in the lap of the dying woman. But Abe embraced his 
 mother, and held her in his arms as though, poor boy! 
 he could in that way stay the soul of the so-dearly 
 loved mother. 
 
 14 
 
" 'Don't cry,' she whispered. 'Is death not a relief 
 from my sufferings? I am prepared. I feel that I 
 shall remain with you even when I am gone. I shall 
 pray for you in heaven — and — shall see you all again. 
 Be virtuous, Sarah. Remain honest and brave, my 
 Abe — honor and love your father — I can die content- 
 ly — and you — Thomas — ' 
 
 " 'My Nancy — my wife!' stammered the strong man, 
 now thoroughly overcome. 
 
 " 'I have been faithful to you,' she continued, in a 
 feeble tone, 'and you have done your duty. Thanks 
 for all your kindness to me. And now — God be with 
 — you all/ 
 
 "The noble woman endeavored to utter a few more 
 words of love, but they were lost in an unintelligible 
 murmur. One more glance she cast on all around her 
 and then her beautiful eyes, formerly so radiant with 
 love, became dim, the lips trembled for the last time. 
 Death had come to her like sweet sleep, serene and 
 holy transfiguration lay on her quiet features, a smile 
 hovered around her lips. Life had fled; but Nancy 
 Lincoln resembled a softly sleeping one, over whom the 
 last rays of the sun shed their rosy hue. The children 
 knelt weeping at the feet of the lifeless body. Thomas 
 Lincoln still retained the now cold hand within his 
 own. 
 
 " 'Let us pray, children/ he muttered in deepest 
 agony, 'that God may not forsake us in the hour of our 
 greatest trial and need — you have no mother now/ " 
 
 Born and reared in deep poverty — such was the ex- 
 perience of Abraham Lincoln, who rose to such heights 
 of fame that his history is now printed in every known 
 language. Not alone is he honored in his own country, 
 but in every country the sun shines upon. Though 
 born in Kentucky, he lived some years in Indiana, but 
 Illinois claims him as her most illustrious son. 
 
 LINCOLN THE HERO OF THE NATION 
 
 The great International Panama-Pacific Exposition 
 had on exposition in the Lincoln Memorial room of 
 the Illinois building the famous collection of Lincoln. 
 
 15 
 
I spent many hours there studying his letters, which 
 had been preserved — the many relics which had been 
 loaned for the occasion — and as I gazed on the books 
 in every known language almost, all telling the tale of 
 the one whose name rises unbidden to our lips when 
 we speak of our own country and the preservation of 
 our Union, I felt glad to know that even at this day 
 honor was being done to the illustrious Lincoln. 
 
 Has the soul of this great man soared away to 
 heights immortal, while the ship of state he guided 
 safely into calm waters is in the midst of such perilous 
 times? Nay, not so. Lincoln is not asleep — but gifted 
 with clearer vision than ever before ; he is today as 
 interested as any of us in our nation's welfare. 
 
 Lincoln's body has crumbled to dust, but his spirit 
 still inspires us to noble deeds of true patriotism. 
 
 Every one who possibly can should visit Springfield, 
 Illinois, and see the Lincoln Memorials. They will* 
 see how humble the surroundings of the early birth 
 of Abraham Lincoln, who studied his lessons by the 
 fire-light in the log cabin, and practiced writing on 
 the back of a shovel. They will see relics priceless in 
 value — letters written by his own hand during the 
 perilous times of the civil war, as well as many por- 
 traits taken at different stages of his career. 
 
 No one can visit this wonderful collection without 
 realizing the inspiration that came from his devotion 
 to principles. Volumes could be written, monuments 
 may be erected, eulogies prepared and delivered, but 
 even then the debt of gratitude we owe cannot be re- 
 paid. 
 
 (Copyright 1926. By M. E. Cadwallader) 
 
 16