y^j .

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

White, Erskine I-J.
The personal influence of Abraham Lincoln.
ITeif York, 1865

PERSOML IIFLUENCE

Abraham Lincol]^^.

A SERMON

<|)n the 'Rational i^ast-fea]), ^bunsda^, June Jst, J 865,

liRSKINE K. WHITE,
PA8T0B OF THE PE ESB YT E BI AN 0 H TJ B C H , NE W - E O 0 H E L L E , N. Y.

l^UBLISHEr) BY REQTJBST.

N,EW YORK:
JOHN A. GRAY & GKEBN, PKINTEES. Noa; 16 and 18 JACOB STREET.
1865.

THE

PERSOML IMLUE}(CE

Abraham Lustcole^.

A SEEMON

\$n the l^ational I'ast-l^ay, ^hviti$dat), June Jst, JS65,

ERSKfflE N. WHITE, 111 '
PASTOR OE THE P K E SB TTEEI AN OHTJECH, NE'W - K 0 CH ELL E , N. i.

yUBLISHBD BY REQIJEST.

NEW-YORK:
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS, Noa. 16 and 18 JACOB STREET.
1865.

THE

PERSOML INFLUENCE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart f and guided them hy
the shillfulness of his Iiands."—Fsalm 78 : 72.
In accordance with the proclamation of the Presi
dent, we have met here to-day that, " with our fellow-
citizens, assembled in their respective places of wor
ship, we may unite in solemn service to Almighty God
in memory of the good man who has been removed, so
that all may be occupied at the same time in contem
plation of his virtues, and in sorrow for his sudden and
violent end."
It is not with us to-day, as it was upon that sad
Easter Sunday when our joy was turned into mourn
ing, for all excitement and violence of emotion have
passed away, and the country no longer trembles with
the deep sob which was the first spontaneous utterance
of a stricken people. The obsequies are over, the days
of formal mourning are ended, the public life of the
nation is again moving onward in its stately course,
and now, just as the spring-flowers are blossoming upon
the new-made grave, we pause again to speak more

calmly of the debt that the country owes to Abeaham
LiNCOLisr. This, then, is primarily a day of commemoration, a
day in which sorrow and thanksgiving are mingled ;
sorrow for our great, our irreparable loss — ^thanksgiving
for what our departed President was permitted to ac
complish ; and while we unite, as we already have, in
prayer to God for His mercy, and in praise for His lov
ing-kindness, we may not omit our heart-felt tribute to
the memory of the honored dead. Yet, though the
occasion and the terms of the proclamation thus com
mand the theme that will engage our attention, I
should shrink from the part allotted to me in the con
duct of these services, did I suppose that, in any great
degree, their interest depended upon the novelty or
freshness of the thoughts that are to be presented. As
it is, the eloquence of the subject and the unison of our
hearts render my task comparatively easy. That we
may, however, secure at least the semblance of a line
of thought, I have chosen a text that suggests more
particularly a single aspect of the character of Abra
ham Lincoln.
The Psalmist, speaking of David, as chosen by God
and taken from the sheep-folds to occupy the throne,
adds, as the highest eulogy npon the king : " So he fed
them according to the integrity of his heart ; and guided
them by the skiUfulness of his hands." The work of
the sovereign was made successful by his qualities as a
man. He was no mere figure-head to the state — ^the
apex of a constitutional pyramid — he made himself

felt as a mem, and guided the people by his personal
influence, impressing upon the national life his own
qualities of integrity and righteousness, and leaving the
mark of his skillful hands upon all the acts of the
people. How far may we apply these words to the man
whom we mourn to-day ? In other words, how much
may we venture to claim for the personal injUtence of
Lincoln ?
It is to be remembered that many men, who have
attracted a large share of the attention of their gen
eration, have been yet almost devoid of any of that
influence that springs directly from the personal quali
ties of mind or heart. A man may be the executive
of a great nation and, as such, be known and feared ;
he may be the mouth-piece of a formidable power, and
so be honored with every mark of deference and re
spect ; and yet, after all, be only the puppet or play
thing of more influential minds that govern him.
The majority of the kings who have held the sceptre
and worn the purple, have been merely names upon the
page of history — men of straw, who, by a sort of his
toric fiction, are said to have accomplished certain
acts. Not such was Abraham Lincoln. His signet is upon
the pages of history, and his personal influence as dis
tinguished from his official importance can not be over
looked or denied.
Such influence manifests itself in two ways. Our
text reads: "He fed them according to the integrity

of his heart ; and he guided them by the skiUfulness of
his hands." The moral influence of his character nur
tured and transformed the people, while at the same
time he skillfully made his own hand manifest in guid
ing their eternal fortunes.
Let us, in speaking of Lincoln, take the second of
these thoughts first.
I. Our first question, then, is this : Can we find,
deeply graven upon the events of the last four years,
the marks of the personal influence of the man ?
I am not of the number of those who believe that
the great events of history spring primarily from the
enthusiasm, will, or abilities of the men who are the
chief actors in their progress. Under God's direction,
the history of man passes on from century to century ;
and, if we read it aright, we find that it portrays a
constant "progress. Each in its own place, for example,
appear the successive discoveries in the arts and the
sciences, and as the world was ripe for them, it would
not have waited long, though Copernicus, or Faust, or
Watt, or Newton, had died in infancy.
So, too, Rome would have been mistress of the
world, Csesar or no Csesar. The German empire would
have exerted a commanding influence in the middle
ages, though Charlemagne had never been born, nor,
seven centuries later, Charles Y. ascended the throne.
Doubtless the papacy would have become supreme,
even if Hildebrand had died an undistinguished monk ;
and the sixteenth century would have witnessed the

reformation, though the " son of the Thuringian miner"
had been elevated to the See of Rome. And yet, every
one of these great hinges upon which the destiny of the
world has swung, goes into history bearing the mark,
the sign-manual of him whom God selected for the
forging. In modern times, more than ever before, it is true
that no one man is necessary. In a sense that earlier
ages never knew, nations and peoples move first, and
then, the action having begun, they install as leader
the man whom the circumstances evoke. Yet, just as
surely now as ever, the mark of the chosen man is upon
the grand result. If he be insufficient, or, in any regard,
unworthy, he may for a while dam up and delay the
progress; but soon the hindered waves gather new
head, and, rushing on, sweep him away or cast him
stranded upon the bank. But if he prove worthy of
his high vocation, then the whole movement is in a
measure swayed and directed according to the influence
. of his master-mind.
God rules the world in the interests of the Church
of His eternal Son, and to this end every great event
tends ; but still as God and man work together, every
step is marked with the human foot-print of the great
men whom He uses as His agents, or whom He per
mits for a whUe to struggle in hopeless conflict agauist
them. And thus it is with recent events in our own
country. For my part, I have always believed, what the re-

suit seems now to have proved, that our statesman was
right, who announced that upon this continent there
was an ^^irrepressible conflict^'' which, in the nature of
things, must go on, until one side or the other was
completely vanquished. It was not Calhoun and his
fellow-advocates of slavery and State rights, nor was it
intemperate and premature abolitionists that made the
conflict. The necessity was in the nature of the circum
stances in which this country found itself, and in the
exigencies of Christian progress and advancing civiliza
tion, brought into conflict with old and moribund
theories. Yet these men gave it shape and brought it
to the issue.
So, emphatically, of the administration of affairs dur
ing the last four years.
The London Spectator speaks of Lincoln as " the vil
lage-lawyer whom, by some divine inspiration or provi
dence, the republican caucus of 1860 substituted fof
Mr. Seward as their nominee for the President's chair."
That is exactly it.
The same God, who in the last century could have
done without a Washington, if He had so chosen, was
pleased to give us, in our extremity, a second Washing
ton whose personal influence should enter into His
plans as one of the elements of their success.
We need not, like the historian Gibbon, flippantly
speculate what would be the various results at import
ant crises, did some accident prevent certain men reach
ing certain positions. When God has need of a man
in any place. He sees that he gets there; and thus

it was when, in 1860, we, doubting and fearing, cast
our ballots. Then, while many conscientiously voted
to no purpose, the most that any of us can say is, that
we felt it to be better to grasp an uncertainty that
might prove a blessing, than to commit ourselves to
what we knew revolted our moral sense. But now we
all know that we were intrusting the interests of the
country to a hand strong enough to leave its mark
upon them.
While events were in progress, it was sometimes
querulously said, that in no sense did this man guide
and shape their course, but, on the other hand, was
directed and driven by them. We begin now to under
stand just how far this was true. Doubtless he was not
their cause. It has been very truly said, for example,
in reference to his treatment of slavery, that " he was
chosen as men usuaUy are, to do that which he was
most fearful of doing — not because he did not see that
it was a great work — but because he only very gradu
aUy opened his eyes to its being a work in which he,
with his defined duties, had a right to meddle." But,
nevertheless, the movement is indelibly impressed with
his characteristics.
So, too, it is true that he never assumed the airs or
issued the mandates of a despot. The American peo
ple in the latter half of the nineteenth century neither
want nor need a Csesar, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon,
nor, I think I may add, a CromweU or a Jackson.
But he was " influenced by events" !
There are two ways for a navigator to be influenced

10
by winds and tides. He may either stand with his
hands by his side and with mouth closed, and drift,
drift aimlessly and idly, or he may study the winds and
•tides, and so direct his course that instead of vainly
battling them, they may be made the very cause of his
swift and safe progress.
The poor old man who preceded Lincoln, was satis
fied that he could not still the raging waves and hush
the rising gale, and so nothing could be done but
d/rift.
Lincoln, sublime in his humble faith, determined
that, with the help of the Almighty, the swelling
surges and howling storm should all be so used that
they should become grand and God-like powers to in
sure the safety and the speedy accomplishment of the
voyage. Take it for all in all, and no man has ever so read
the heart of the American people. He stood, as it
were, Ustening for the judgment of the nation, and
had the wisdom from amid the discordant clamor of
many advisers to distinguish what was truly the " voice
of the people," and thus in some sense, at least, the
" voice of God." There have been times when he ap
pealed from Philip drunk to PhUip sober, but that was
because he knew the people better than they knew
themselves, and they understood it and responded in
November last, with an acclamation that rung all over
the world and awakened answering echoes even among
the incredulous rulers across the sea.
If it be necessary to speak more specifically, I would

11
direct you to two or three particulars in which this
personal power has been very apparent :
1. He was never even accused of being unduly influ
enced by any one confidential adviser. During his ad
ministration there was no suspicion of a king behind
the throne. He gathered around him men as wise and
as good, upon the whole, as have graced any adminis
tration since the 'days of Washington, and he counselled
with them freely, and yet there was no kitchen cabinet.
He gave his confidence to one General after another,
and admitted them to most intimate familiarity, and
yet ngoone remained in command after it became evi
dent that another could better fill his place.
Now this, which would be remarkable in the case of
any chief-magistrate, becomes unparalleled when we
consider that Lincoln's life had been previously almost
entirely that of a private citizen, and remember his
peculiarly amiable and gentle characteristics.
2. Be it remembered that in no important particular
was he ever obliged to retrace his steps.
Some have thought that he moved slowly, but he
certainly moved surely. Particularly was this true
with reference to his dealing with the question of
questions — Slavery. Every kind of criticism, some
times of the most virulent and vituperative kind,
was made upon his every act in relation to this.
Extreme and hasty men abused his slowness. Old-
school and ultra-conservative men abused his meddling.
But regardless of both, he moved steadUy forward, as
he believed God and the American people wiUed that

12
he should, and I presume that very few now doubt the
wisdom of a course that has never, thus far, needed to
be revised or corrected.
3. We see the force of his personal influence upon
events in the fact that, little hj little, the American
people grew into the habit of trusting him implicitly.
It has become a proverb among the monarchists of
Europe that Republics are both fickle and ungrateful ;
and we freely admit that it is characteristic of this na
tion — at least, as represented by its public prints — to
rush into enthusiastic extremes of admiration and con
demnation, often at very short notice, and with very
little reason. In the earlier years of the war, more than
one general was greeted with shouts of applause as cer
tainly about to be the " young Napoleon," who would
bring the contest to a triumphant end ; and then, after
doing quite as well as any one had any reasonable
ground for expecting, dismissed from popular favor,
and consigned to an oblivion as profound as unde
served. And in regard to the presidential office, so fond were
many of change, or, as they would have expressed it,
" trying a new hand," that what was caUed the " one-
term principle''' was dignified, for the occasion, into an
article of political faith. Yet, in spite of all these popu
lar characteristics and adverse circumstances, Abraham
Lincoln grew steadily in the confidence and affection of
the American people.
Had his term of office, like that of the Premier of
England, depended upon popular favor, it is possible

13
that within the first two years he would have been dis
placed ; but, by the article of our Constitution, we were
obliged to give him four years ; and before that period
elapsed, the mind of the people, which had vibrated
and wavered between distrust and confidence, settled
down into a confirmed belief that resulted in his en
thusiastic reelection to a second term of office.
Such a result could never have been effected, had he
not impressed himself upon us as a power personally —
a power acting upon the momentous events which were
passing into history. We felt his presence and his in
fluence, even though we could not always analyze and
describe it, and the result proved that that which in
us was for the most part a divinely given instinct, was
the true dictate of the sublimest political wisdom.
After his reelection, only five short months were
needed for his work to culminate and close, yet the
judgment of the world reaffirms the truth of the elo
quent words which fell from the lips of the historian
of America, when called upon to soothe and encourage
the hearts of his feUow-countrymen as they returned,
weeping, from following the bier of Lincoln through
the streets of New- York.*
* " But after every allowance, it will remain that members of the Gov
ernment which preceded his administration opened the gates to treason,
and he closed them ; that when he went to Washington, the ground on
which he trod shook under his feet, and he left the Republic on a solid
foundation ; that traitors had seized public forts and arsenals, and he
recovered them for the United States, to whom they belonged ; that the
Capital, which he found the abode of slaves, is now the home only of the
free; that the boundless public domain which was grasped at, and in a

14
II. Thus far, we have been considering the influence
of Lincoln upon the events amid which he lived and
moved ; but there is another balance in which his cha
racter, like that of every other man, must be weighed.
There is a style of influence greater than that which
sways cotemporary events, and we must ask of every
great man. What lasting moral impression does he
make upon his country and upon the world ?
It is in this regard, for the most part, that we are
able to give the phUosopher or the statesman his true
place, as compared with the victorious soldier. The
latter may dazzle the eyes of the world, and seem to
be the masteijspirit of his age ; but it is quite possible
that the former, in the seclusion of almost private life,
may be framing laws or shaping principles of phUoso
phy that will change the whole course of history long
after the great ocean of time has closed and ceased to
ripple over the brUliant deeds of the apparent con
queror. Plato and Aristotle have done more for the
world than Philip and Alexander.
We come, then, to our second question, and ask,
great measure held for the diffusion of slavery, is now irrevocably devoted
to freedom ; that then men tallied a jargon of a balance of power in a
Republic between slave States and free, and now the foolish words are
blown away for ever by the breath of Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee ;
that a terrible cloud of political heresy rose from the abyss, threatening to
hide the light of the sun, and under its darlcness a rebellion was rising into
undefinable proportions, now the atmosphere is purer than ever before, and
the insurrection is vanishing away, the country is cast into a different
mould, and the gigantic system of wrong, which had been the work of
more than two centuries, is dashed down, we hope, for ever." — Bancroft.

15
What shaU we conclude of the mmal influence of
Abraham Lincoln?
Has he, in the words of our text, '¦'¦fed them accord
ing to ihe integrity of his heart " ?
NecessarUy, what we remark in reference to this is
more speculative in character, and may not win the
assent of aU. Though "we have been making his
tory," as Winthrop said, " hand over hand," we are not
yet far enough removed from the actual presence of
Lincoln to know just how lasting •will be his influence
upon the hearts of men. All the signs of the times,
however, unite in telling us :
1. That the influence of his official life will be long
felt in the moral character of our poUtical principles.
Consider, for a moment, whither our poUtics, so-
called, had been drifting. Degenerating from the
times of Jefferson, and that, too, more and more ra
pidly every year, they were fast debasing the noble
word ^^ politician'''' into an appellative for a smart, bra
zen-faced demagogue, who sought public office for his
own private advantage. Yet, so successfully had the
wheels of republican government rolled along for half
a century, that honest men, thoroughly given up to the
pursuit of their own private ends and the cultivation
of private virtues, seemed to have forgotten that there
might be an amount of selfishness and corruption in
high office that would break up even as stable a gov
ernment as ours. I give no political party credit for
the election of Lincoln ; for, although, by the blessing
of God, the sound of the cannon awoke the people

16
just before ruin was complete, still the election ante
dates the awakening, and Lincoln was nominated, un
doubtedly, just because he was supposed to be an
available candidate. God's providence ordered it, that
he was not only that., but also an honest man.
No one conceived the mighty issues that were being
decided when, in 1860, we deposited our ballots ; and
when the unpolished, inexperienced " village lawyer "
quietly took his place in the White House, the na
tion stood, as it were, agape, waiting to see what would
come next, for, by this time, we began to realize that a
storm was brewing.
Slowly but surely, it became evident that a new era
had dawned in political life. No more concealed co
alitions, no more pettifogging, no more truckling to
the threats of bastard chivalry. The most momentous
questions came before that simple, unaffected mind ;
and, to the astonishment of the people, the disgust of
demagogues, and the dismay of traitors, every such
question was brought to the simple test of honesty,
straightforwardness, and equity.
What would be the result of such a strange and
novel course ? We began to fear that our new Presi
dent would not shine in that favorite American charac
teristic, " smartness^
Mistakes, undoubtedly, this man made, and he was,
by no means, careful always to conceal the working
and the weighing that was taking place in his own
mind while he was deciding upon any particular line

17
of action ; and this, at times, laid him open to severe
criticism. But, by and by, every one began to admit that hon
esty, simplicity, and frankness, were better arts in
diplomacy than all the Machiavelism in the world.
Then, as fast maturing events proved the wisdom of
his conclusions, there arose a deep-rooted and abiding
faith that he was just the man to represent a great
democratic people. And now, I say, party traditions
have been, in a great measure, swept aside. We have
learned to distrust cunning and trickery ; and the in
fluence of this man is not going to be forgotten in
political circles for one generation at least.
Our political morals have been keyed-up to some
where near a unison with the morals of private life.
The American people have had a taste of honesty and
morality in public life, and not only do they find it a
success, but they thoroughly like its flavor, and for a
whUe, at least, and I hope for ever, this new mode in
politics wUl obtain.
Having seen the advantage and the glory of honesty
and simplicity in high official position, can it be possi
ble that the great mass of the people will ever again
relapse into indifference to our public welfare, and so
let the reins of power fall into the hands of unbalanced
and self-seeking partisan leaders ?
2. It can not be but that the character and life of a
man like Abraham Lincoln will always exert some
such influence as that of Washington's upon the young,
men a/ad youth who, in a few years, will give tone to
' 2

18
this country. And perhaps, in some respects, his influ
ence may be more definite and effective than that of
Washington. Our first great President has been honored almost
with an apotheosis. As the "Father of his Country"
he seems to be so encircled by a halo of grandeur that
it is hard to measure him by the ordinary standards of
men. It is, for example, somewhat difficult for us even
to picture his social life, or to imagine him in the home
circle, unbending from the dignified stateliness that
seems to be his natural attribute.
Not so with Lincoln. "A plain man of the people,''
he called himself; and though he rose, step by step, to
be almost the foremost man of all the world, he ever
retained the same homely sympathy with common men
and things around him, which brought him especially
near to our hearts.
It is well for us to be able to show that, whUe the
days of Tancred, the "mirror of ehivalry," and of
the Chevalier de Bayard have passed away, we still
have men, who, though they count it no dishonor to
work, and no disgrace to be found with hands some
what rough, and with manners wanting in perfect pol
ish, are still more truly " without fear and without re
proach" than any knight of medieval chivalry; men
who are grander in their characters and more worthy
of reverence and imitation than all the heroes who
have immortalized the "Round Table" or graced the
"Idyls of a King." It was no affectation of respect
that penned, in an English journal, such words as

19
these : "In all time to come, not among Americans
only, but among aU who think of manhood as more
than rank, and worth above display, the name of Abra
ham Lincoln will be held in reverence, A life so true,
rewarded by a dignity so majestic, was defense enough
against the petty shafts of malice, which party spirit,
violent enough to light -a civil war, aimed against him.
The lowly caUings he had first pursued became his
titles to greater respect among those whose respect was
worth having ; the little external rusticities only
showed more brightly, as the rough matrix the golden
ore, the true dignity of his nature. A purity of
thought, word, and deed never challenged, a disinter
estedness never suspected, an honesty of purpose never
impugned, a gentleness and tenderness that never made
a private enemy or aUenated a friend — ^these are quali
ties which may well make a nation mourn."*
K thus a foreigner regard our departed President,
how great the shame to us if we be not, as a people,
better and purer for the example that has shone so
brightly in our midst !
ShaU not our young men, remembering Lincoln,
grow up with a truer estimate of the dignity and glory
of simple, unadorned ma/nhoodf — that manhood which
shines, not by the flaunting pretensions of entailed
wealth and the gaudy tinsel of fictitious titles, but by
deeds of usefulness, self-devotion, and honor.
3. Finally, let me mention his influence in that char-
* London Baily News, April 2T, 1866.

20
acter in which he most impresses the world — that is,
as the representative man of democracy, the incarna
tion, as it were, of the success of the principles of re
publican government. Great as he appears in the
purity and honesty of his life, lasting as will be his
fame as the chosen Emancipator, I beUeve that, at this
moment, he impresses the world most as being the
grand exponent of the result of that experiment which,
for nearly a century, has been progressing upon this
continent. Our forefathers felt, more than we have done, the
gravity of their decision when, in spite of the many
failures which the world had witnessed, they deter
mined to inaugurate republicanism as the life of the
new nation. True, like almost all thoughtful men,
they were convinced that in theory no government was
so perfect and equable as a democratic. They felt that
it was a solemn and indisputable truth, that all men
were born free and equal, but they were just as con
scious that, in the imperfect state of human nature, and
in consideration of past experience, it was by no means
-certain that the age had come in which the ideaUy per
fect form would be the best for practical security.
Washington is said to have asserted, that republican
institutions were upon trial ; and Adams, writing of the
'Constitution of the Senate and the Executive, used
•these impressive and foreboding words: "I contend
that hereditary descent in both, when controlled by an
independent representation of the people, is better than
corrupted, turbulent, and bloody elections; and the

21
knowledge you have of the human heart will concur
with your knowledge of the history of nations to con
vince you that elections of Presidents and Senators
can not be long conducted in a populous, opulent, and
commercial nation, without corruption, sedition, and
civil war."
Just about the same time the great experiment in
France utterly faUed, and Napoleon, who seized the
reins of government, characterized a constitution with
out an aristocracy as nothing but a " balloon drifting
in the air." " You can direct a vessel," he said, " be
cause you have two forces to balance against each
other, and the rudder finds a point of resistance. But
the balloon is the sport of a single force ; it has no
counter force. The wind carries it along, and direction
is impossible."
Such was the general opinion and the anxiety of
thoughtfol minds ; and during the ninety years of the
existence of this nation, it has been watched with eager
eyes by its enemies, constantly looking for the crash
which their blatant prophecies foretold; and it has
been foUowed in its course by the ceaseless anxiety of
its friends, who have had too much reason to see in the
tyranny of an unexampled material prosperity, and in
fast increasing political corruption, the signs of grow
ing selfishness, decaying patriotism, and approaching
dissolution. The great issue to be decided was whether the wide
spread facUities for education and for the enlighten
ment of the masses would take effect in time to trans-

22
form ignorance and vice (constantly increasing by im
migration) into enlightenment and purity before they
became impudent enough to aspire to the direction of
affairs. In other words, was the world old enough for
the educating power of republicanism to conquer the
inherent selfishness and wickedness of human nature,
which hitherto had been curbed only by the strong
hand of power ?
Years passed away, and stUl the struggle was going
on. On the one side, the Brights and the Cobdens
could say : " The Republic stiU lives, and her prosper
ity is unprecedented." On the other side, the Roe
bucks and the Derbys would reply : " Yes ; but the
machinery works harder and harder every year. The
politicians are becoming more and more corrupt, party
spirit more and more virulent. Wait a little ! The
crash will soon come."
At last these sneerers shouted out in exulting deri
sion. Democracy had, at length, reached its acme —
produced its "bright consummate flower." It had
chosen as its Chief Magistrate, not one of its Win-
throps, its Adamses, its Everetts, of the North, nor
one of the representatives of the first famUies of the
chivalry of the South, but a vulgar, awkward, half-
educated Western lawyer, who, in his youth, had been
a raU-splitter and a flat-boatman.
A little later, and stupendous rebellion raised its
black flag. Then the whole thing was settled, " The
JR&pvhUcaffh Ivhlle has lymst at lastP That was the
phrase that just met the occasion.

23
Four years have passed away. The world sees, with
admirmg awe, that the "RepubUcan bubble" has not
burst ; but, on the other hand, that a democracy has
proved itself the strongest government in the world,
and its citizens more self-denying in their loyalty than
any subjects of a king ever dreamed of being possible.
But this is not all. The world has learned the true
character of him at whom they scoffed and* sneered.
They derided him as the acknowledged exponent of
democracy, and, as suc\ they are now bound to accept
him. And what is their verdict in regard to him whom
they thus denominated ? He has conquered their pre
judices, he has won their admiration, yes, even their
love, and now they can hardly find words to speak the
full measure of thefr praise. It was before his death
so deeply touched their feelings and caUed forth their
better nature, that a "writer referring to the last inaugu
ral, and doubtless reflecting the sentiment of all candid
Englishmen, remarked : " We can no longer detect the
rude and Ulitera;te mould of a viUage lawyer's thought,
but find it replaced by a grasp of principle, a dignity
of manner, and a solemnity of purpose, which would
have been unworthy neither of Hampden nor of Crom
well, whUe his gentleness and generosity of feeling
toward his foes are almost greater than we should ex
pect from either of them,"*
Now, I say, that a democratic country may well be
proud of such a man — a thorough American, born and
* London Spectator, March 25, 1866.

24
nurtured amid our institutions, educated under their
influence, exposed to the same trials, hampered by the
same drawbacks, beset by the same temptations, des
tined to the same struggles, which meet the great mass
of our feUow-countrymen, and yet manifesting that
there is nothing in aU these that can prevent the form
ation of a character as lofty and a patriotism as pure
as ever challenged the admiration of man.
He is ours — owrs alone. No foreign university had
aught to do with his training. No aristocratic circles
are to be thanked for the simple dignity of his bear
ing. No intimacy with the courts of kings taught him
the arts of skUled diplomacy. And thus, I say, his
life is a pledge of the success and ennobling power of
pure democratic institutions.
It is enough to give eternal dignity to any country
to 'have produced two such men as WASHmGTOi?" and
Lincoln — men differing in almost every personal qua
lity, but aUke in their moral grandeur, and in repre
senting each the very best product of the age in which
he lived, WASHmaTON was the connecting link be
tween the Monarchy and the Republic, the father of a
new-bom democracy ; LnsrooLW was the son of the Re
public and the exemplar of its matured strength.
Washingtok guided and guarded his people as the
father leads the chUd ; Lincoln listened to the heart
throbs of his fellow-citizens, and timed his own pulse
to the solemn august music, Washington shone in that ,
courtly dignity that impresses and awes the bystander ;

25
Lincoln in that homely kindness that won the confi
dence of every honest man.
To Washington his country will ever pay the tribute
of reverent homage ; the memory of Lincoln will be
enshrined in every true and loving heart.
I have but a word to add. It is given to but few to
serve their country in their death as truly as in their
life. It is hard to say what more, Lincoln living might
have consecrated to his country, but God ordained
that, by his death, every doubt in regard to the future
of this nation should be swept away.
It matters little what costly mausoleums or monu
mental shafts we rear to his memory. To the eye of
the world his monument will be the Repvhlic, fr-eed
from the stain of slavery and united by indissoluble
bonds ; North and South claiming as their common
heritage the simple grave where the hallowed dust of
Abraham Lincoln awaits the coming of the Lord.