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diff --git a/30420-0.txt b/30420-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dac7c2b --- /dev/null +++ b/30420-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8211 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30420 *** + + [Illustration: (Frontispiece) + + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864] + + + + + The + Poets' Lincoln + + TRIBUTES IN VERSE TO THE + MARTYRED PRESIDENT + + + _Selected by_ + + OSBORN H. OLDROYD + + AUTHOR OF "THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN" + AND EDITOR OF THE "WORDS OF LINCOLN" + + _With many portraits of Lincoln, + illustrations of events + in his life, etc._ + + + PUBLISHED BY THE EDITOR AT + "THE HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED" + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + + 1915 + + + Copyright 1915, + by OSBORN H. OLDROYD + + + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENT + + +The Editor is most grateful to the various authors who have willingly +given their consent to the use of their respective poems in the +compilation of this volume. It has been a somewhat difficult problem, +not only to select the more appropriate productions, but also to find +the names of their authors, for in his Lincoln collection there are +many hundreds of poems which have appeared from time to time in +magazines, newspapers and other productions, some of which are +accompanied by more than one name as author of the same poem. In a +number of instances it has been difficult to ascertain the name of the +actual owner of the copyright, the poems having been printed in so +many forms without the copyright mark attached. + +The Editor in particular extends his grateful acknowledgment to the +Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to reprint the "Emancipation +Group" by John G. Whittier; the "Life Mask" by Richard Watson Gilder; +"The Hand of Lincoln" by Clarence Stedman; "Commemoration Ode" by +James Russell Lowell, and the "Gettysburg Address" by Bayard Taylor; +to Charles Scribner's Sons for two "Lincoln" poems by Richard Henry +Stoddard; and to the J. B. Lippincott Company for the poem "Lincoln" +by George Henry Boker. + +The Editor is also grateful to Dr. Marion Mills Miller for his +contribution of the introduction and a poem specially written for the +collection, and also for assistance in the editorial work. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +No great man has ever been spoken of with such tender expressions of +high regard as has been Abraham Lincoln. Especially is this true of the +tributes of esteem made by the poets to his memory. It is therefore +desirable that these should be preserved for future generations, and at +this time, the fiftieth anniversary of his untimely death, it is +peculiarly proper that they should be presented to the public. + +Although they are chiefly the productions of American authors, quite a +number are from the pens of appreciative citizens of other countries. +From the thousand of meritorious poems which have been written about +Lincoln, the compiler, after serious consideration, has selected those +within as appearing to be gems; although there were others which he +would have been glad to include if space permitted. + +The poems and illustrations are arranged largely in the chronological +order of their application to the events in the life of Lincoln. The +intense sympathy and warm appreciation portrayed therein for our +Martyred President, as well as their artistic merit assure the poems +a sacred place in the heart of every patriotic American. + +The large number of selected portraits and illustrations of events +connected with his life, service, death and burial, with brief +sketches of authors of the following poems, also forms a compilation +of rich material for all readers of Lincoln literature. + +The object in publishing this compilation is to assist in preserving +the collection of memorials now contained in the house in which +Lincoln died, 516 Tenth Street, Washington, D. C. + +The volume will be sent postpaid by the Editor at the above address, +upon receipt of its price, $1.00. + + OSBORN H. OLDROYD. + + Washington, D. C., September twelve, + Nineteen hundred and fifteen. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION--The Poetic Spirit of Lincoln, by Marion Mills + Miller .................................................... v + MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME I SEE AGAIN, by Abraham Lincoln .......... vi + BUT HERE'S AN OBJECT MORE OF DREAD, by Abraham Lincoln ..... viii + OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE PROUD? By William + Knox ..................................................... ix + SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG (in verse form), by Abraham Lincoln ... xiii + SOLILOQUY OF KING CLAUDIUS, by William Shakespeare ......... xvii + LINCOLN, by Julia Ward Howe .................................... 14 + THE GREAT OAK, by Bennett Chapple .............................. 15 + LINCOLN, by Noah Davis ......................................... 17 + THE BIRTH OF LINCOLN, by George W. Crofts ...................... 19 + MENDELSSOHN, DARWIN, LINCOLN, by Clarence E. Carr .............. 20 + THE NATAL DAY OF LINCOLN, by James Phinney Baxter .............. 22 + NANCY HANKS, by Harriet Monroe ................................. 25 + LINCOLN THE LABORER, by Richard Henry Stoddard ................. 29 + A PEACEFUL LIFE, by James Whitcomb Riley ....................... 31 + LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE, by William Wilberforce Newton ............ 32 + LINCOLN, by Wilbur Hazelton Smith .............................. 35 + LINCOLN IN HIS OFFICE CHAIR, by James Riley .................... 37 + THE VOICE OF LINCOLN, by Elizabeth Porter Gould ................ 41 + THE THOUGHTS OF LINCOLN, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps ............ 43 + ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Richard Watson + Gilder ................................................... 45 + THE HAND OF LINCOLN, by Edmund Clarence Stedman ................ 47 + HONEST ABE OF THE WEST, by Edmund Clarence Stedman ............. 51 + PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 1860, by William Henry Burleigh ......... 53 + LINCOLN, 1809--FEBRUARY 12, 1909, by Madison Cawein ............ 56 + THE MATCHLESS LINCOLN, by Isaac Bassett Choate ................. 59 + LINCOLN, by Charlotte Becker ................................... 61 + LINCOLN AT SPRINGFIELD, 1861, by Anna Bache .................... 65 + LINCOLN CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY, by Henry Wilson + Clendenin ................................................ 70 + LINCOLN THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE, by Edwin Markham ................ 74 + LINCOLN, by John Vance Cheney .................................. 76 + LINCOLN'S CHURCH IN WASHINGTON, by Lyman Whitney Allen ......... 80 + SONNET IN 1862, by John James Piatt ............................ 83 + LINCOLN, SOLDIER OF CHRIST, in Macmillan's Magazine ............ 85 + A CHARACTERIZATION OF LINCOLN, by Hamilton Schuyler ............ 87 + THE EMANCIPATION GROUP, by John Greenleaf Whittier ............. 91 + THE LIBERATOR, by Theron Brown ................................. 94 + TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN, by Edmund Ollier ......................... 96 + ON FREEDOM'S SUMMIT, by Charles G. Foltz ....................... 98 + ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CEMETERY AT + GETTYSBURG, by Abraham Lincoln .......................... 100 + GETTYSBURG ODE, by Bayard Taylor .............................. 102 + LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL, by Benjamin Franklin Taylor ....... 104 + OH, PATIENT EYES! by Herman Hagedorn .......................... 107 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Margaret Elizabeth Sangster ............... 109 + THE MAN LINCOLN, by Wilbur Dick Nesbit ........................ 113 + THE MASTER, by Edwin Arlington Robinson ....................... 116 + LINCOLN, by Harriet Monroe .................................... 119 + THE EYES OF LINCOLN, by Walt Mason ............................ 121 + HE LEADS US STILL, by Arthur Guiterman ........................ 123 + LINCOLN, by S. Weir Mitchell .................................. 125 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by George Alfred Townsend .................... 126 + LINCOLN, by Paul Lawrence Dunbar .............................. 128 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Alice Cary ................................ 130 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Rose Terry Cooke .......................... 132 + LINCOLN, by Frederick Lucian Hosmer ........................... 134 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Charles Monroe Dickinson .................. 136 + SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS! by Robert Leighton ....................... 139 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN FOULLY ASSASSINATED, by Tom Taylor ............ 140 + THE DEATHBED .................................................. 144 + LINCOLN AND STANTON, by Marion Mills Miller ................... 146 + THE HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED, by Robert Mackay ................ 151 + IN TOKEN OF RESPECT, Translation of Latin Verses .............. 152 + ENGLAND'S SORROW, from _London Fun_ ........................... 153 + THE FUNERAL HYMN OF LINCOLN, by Phineas Densmore Gurley ....... 155 + REST, REST FOR HIM, by Harriet McEwen Kimball ................. 157 + THE FUNERAL CAR OF LINCOLN, by Richard Henry Stoddard ......... 159 + THE DEATH OF LINCOLN, by William Cullen Bryant ................ 161 + ODE, by Henry T. Tuckerman .................................... 163 + TOLLING, by Lucy Larcom ....................................... 164 + REQUIEM OF LINCOLN, by Richard Storrs Willis .................. 167 + REQUIEM, by James Nicoll Johnston ............................. 168 + SERVICES IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Oliver Wendell + Holmes .................................................. 170 + SPRINGFIELD'S WELCOME TO LINCOLN, by William Allen ............ 173 + LINCOLN, by Lucy Hamilton Hooper .............................. 175 + LET THE PRESIDENT SLEEP, by James M. Stewart .................. 179 + THE CENOTAPH OF LINCOLN, by James Mackay ...................... 181 + DEDICATION POEM, by James Judson Lord ......................... 183 + THE GRAVE OF LINCOLN, by Edna Dean Proctor .................... 186 + COMMEMORATION ODE, by James Russell Lowell .................... 189 + AN HORATIAN ODE, by Richard Henry Stoddard .................... 193 + O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! by Walt Whitman ........................ 197 + ON THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, by Henry De Garrs ............ 200 + POETICAL TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + by Emily J. Bugbee ...................................... 201 + LINCOLN, 1865, by John Nichol ................................. 204 + LINCOLN, by Christopher Pearse Cranch ......................... 206 + LINCOLN, by George Henry Boker ................................ 208 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Phoebe Cary ............................... 210 + LINCOLN, by Charles Graham Halpin ("Miles O'Reilly") .......... 215 + THE MARTYR PRESIDENT .......................................... 219 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Eugene J. Hall ............................ 220 + THE TOMB OF LINCOLN, by Samuel Francis Smith .................. 222 + LINCOLN, by John Townsend Trowbridge .......................... 227 + HOMAGE DUE TO LINCOLN, by Kinahan Cornwallis .................. 229 + THE SCOTLAND STATUE, by David K. Watson ....................... 231 + THE UNFINISHED WORK, by Joseph Fulford Folsom ................. 234 + ONE OF OUR PRESIDENTS, by Wendell Philips Stafford ............ 236 + ON A BRONZE MEDAL OF LINCOLN, by Frank Dempster Sherman ....... 239 + THE GLORY THAT SLUMBERED IN THE GRANITE ROCK, + by Ella Wheeler Wilcox .................................. 241 + THE LINCOLN BOULDER, by Louis Bradford Couch .................. 243 + WHEN LINCOLN DIED, by James Arthur Edgerton ................... 247 + HAD LINCOLN LIVED, by Amos Russell Wells ...................... 250 + LET HIS MONUMENT RISE, by Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin ....... 253 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864 ....... _Frontispiece_ + LINCOLN, from a Bust by Johannes Gelert ........................ iv + THE LOG CABIN, Birthplace of Lincoln ........................... 13 + LINCOLN BY THE CABIN FIRE ...................................... 16 + MENDELSSOHN, DARWIN, LINCOLN ................................... 20 + MONUMENT TO THE MOTHER OF LINCOLN .............................. 25 + THE RAIL SPLITTER .............................................. 28 + THE BOY LINCOLN, by Eastman Johnson ............................ 30 + LINCOLN THE LAWYER, from an Ambrotype, 1856 .................... 34 + LINCOLN'S OFFICE CHAIR ......................................... 36 + LINCOLN AS A CANDIDATE FOR UNITED STATES SENATOR, from an + Ambrotype by Gilmer, 1858 ................................ 40 + LINCOLN AT THE TIME OF DEBATE WITH DOUGLAS, from an Ambrotype, + 1858 ..................................................... 42 + THE LINCOLN LIFE-MASK, by Leonard W. Volk ...................... 44 + THE HAND OF LINCOLN, a Cast by Leonard W. Volk ................. 46 + HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY, + 1860, painted by Hicks ................................... 49 + THE "WIGWAM," Convention Hall in Chicago, 1860 ................. 50 + LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, from an Ambrotype, 1860 .... 52 + "HONEST ABE," Campaign Cartoon of 1860 ......................... 55 + LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, Photograph by Hesler, + Chicago, 1860 ............................................ 58 + LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, Photograph at + Springfield, Ill., 1860 .................................. 60 + CABIN OF LINCOLN'S PARENTS, on Goose-Nest Prairie, Ill. ........ 62 + LINCOLN HOMESTEAD, Springfield, Ill., 1861 ..................... 64 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SECRETARIES, JOHN G. NICOLAY AND + JOHN HAY, Photograph at Springfield, Ill., 1861 .......... 67 + INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA ................................ 69 + LINCOLN IN 1858, Photograph by S. M. Fassett, Chicago .......... 71 + THE CAPITOL, at Second Inauguration of Lincoln ................. 73 + THE WHITE HOUSE ................................................ 76 + WHERE LINCOLN WORSHIPPED, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, + Washington, D. C. ........................................ 79 + LINCOLN IN 1858, Photograph Owned by Stuart Brown, + Springfield, Ill. ........................................ 82 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph Autographed for Miss Speed ....... 84 + LINCOLN IN FEBRUARY, 1860, Photograph by Brady ................. 86 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner ....................... 88 + EMANCIPATION GROUP, in Park Square, Boston ..................... 90 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1863 ................... 93 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner, 1863 ................. 95 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady ......................... 97 + LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG ......................................... 100 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON THOMAS ("TAD") .................. 103 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady ........................ 106 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady ........................ 108 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner, 1864 ................ 112 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT ANTIETAM ................................. 115 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner, 1864 ................ 118 + PRESIDENT-ELECT LINCOLN, Photograph at Springfield, Ill., + 1861 .................................................... 120 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1862 .................. 122 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864 .................. 124 + STATUE OF LINCOLN in Hodgenville, Ky.; Adolph A. Weinman, + sculptor ................................................ 126 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864 .................. 128 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner, 1865 ................ 130 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Gardner, 1865 ................ 132 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1865 .................. 134 + FORD'S THEATRE, WASHINGTON, D. C. ............................. 138 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FOULLY ASSASSINATED, + Cartoon in London _Punch_ ............................... 140 + DEATHBED OF LINCOLN ........................................... 144 + ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND EDWIN M. STANTON .......................... 146 + DEATH OF LINCOLN .............................................. 149 + HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN DIED ................................... 150 + JOSEPHINE OLDROYD TIEFENTHALER ................................ 150 + THE FUNERAL OF LINCOLN, in East Room of White House ........... 154 + THE FUNERAL CAR ............................................... 158 + CITY HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y. .................................... 162 + ROTUNDA, CITY HALL ............................................ 166 + ST. JAMES HALL, BUFFALO, N. Y. ................................ 168 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1863 .................. 170 + LINCOLN HOMESTEAD, May 4, 1865 ................................ 172 + STATE CAPITOL, ILLINOIS, 1865 ................................. 175 + PUBLIC VAULT, OAK RIDGE CEMETERY, SPRINGFIELD, ILL. ........... 178 + FACADE OF PUBLIC VAULT ........................................ 180 + LINCOLN MONUMENT, in Springfield, Ill., Larken G. Mead, + Architect ............................................... 182 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, Lincoln Park, Washington, D. C., + Thomas Ball, sculptor ................................... 188 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, by Leonard W. Volk ......................... 192 + "THE GOOD GRAY POET" (Walt Whitman) ........................... 196 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Washington, D. C.; Lott Flannery, + sculptor ................................................ 199 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Muskegon, Mich.; Charles Niehaus, + sculptor ................................................ 203 + LINCOLN AND CABINET ("First Reading of Emancipation + Proclamation"), Painted by Frank B. Carpenter ........... 206 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Randolph + Rogers, sculptor ........................................ 208 + PRESIDENT LINCOLN, Photograph by Brady, 1864 .................. 210 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Lincoln Park, Chicago; Augustus Saint + Gaudens, sculptor ....................................... 214 + TABLET AT PHILADELPHIA ........................................ 218 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Rotunda of Capitol; Vinnie Ream, + sculptor ................................................ 222 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Lincoln, Neb.; Daniel Chester French, + sculptor ................................................ 226 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Burlington, Wis.; George E. Ganiere, + sculptor ................................................ 228 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Edinburgh, Scotland; George E. Bissell, + sculptor ................................................ 231 + STATUE OF LINCOLN, in Newark, N. J.; Gutzon Borglum, + sculptor ................................................ 234 + CHILDREN ON THE BORGLUM STATUE ................................ 236 + HEAD OF LINCOLN, Bronze Medallion in Commemoration of Lincoln + Centenary, Struck for the Grand Army of the Republic .... 238 + MARBLE HEAD OF LINCOLN, in Statuary Hall, Capitol; Gutzon + Borglum, sculptor ....................................... 240 + THE LINCOLN BOULDER, at Nyack, N. Y. .......................... 243 + BAS-RELIEF HEAD OF LINCOLN, James W. Tuft, sculptor ........... 246 + A STUDY OF LINCOLN, Painting by Blendon Campbell .............. 249 + THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, at Washington, D. C., Henry Bacon, + architect ............................................... 252 + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN + + From a bust by Johannes Gelert] + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + THE POETIC SPIRIT OF LINCOLN + + By MARION MILLS MILLER + + (See biographical sketch on page 146) + + +Some years ago, while editing Henry C. Whitney's "Life of Lincoln" I +showed a photograph of the bust of Lincoln by Johannes Gelert, the most +intellectual to my mind of all the studies of his face, to a little +Italian shoeblack, and asked him if he knew who it was. The boy, +evidently prompted by a recent lesson at school, said questioningly, +"Whittier?--Longfellow?" I replied, "No, it is Lincoln, the great +President." He answered, "Well, he looks like a poet, anyway." + +This verified a conclusion to which I had already come: Lincoln, had +he lived in a region of greater culture, such as New England, might +not have adopted the engrossing pursuits of law and politics, but, as +did Whittier, have remained longer on the farm and gradually taken up +the calling of letters, composing verse of much the same order as our +Yankee bards', and poetry of even higher merit than some produced. + +It is not generally known that Lincoln, shortly before he went to +Congress, wrote verse of a kind to compare favorably with the early +attempts of American poets such as those named. Thus the two poems of +his which have been preserved, for his early lampoons on his neighbors +have happily been lost, are equal in poetic spirit and metrical art to +Whittier's "The Prisoner for Debt," to which they are strikingly +similar in melancholic mood. + +In 1846, at the age of 37, Lincoln conducted a literary correspondence +with a friend, William Johnson by name, of like poetic tastes. In +April of this year he wrote the following letter to Johnson: + + + Tremont, April 18, 1846. + + FRIEND JOHNSTON: Your letter, written some six weeks since, + was received in due course, and also the paper with the + parody. It is true, as suggested it might be, that I have + never seen Poe's "Raven"; and I very well know that a parody + is almost entirely dependent for its interest upon the + reader's acquaintance with the original. Still there is + enough in the polecat, self-considered, to afford one + several hearty laughs. I think four or five of the last + stanzas are decidedly funny, particularly where Jeremiah + "scrubbed and washed, and prayed and fasted." + + I have not your letter now before me; but, from memory, I + think you ask me who is the author of the piece I sent you, + and that you do so ask as to indicate a slight suspicion + that I myself am the author. Beyond all question, I am not + the author. I would give all I am worth, and go in debt, to + be able to write so fine a piece as I think that is. Neither + do I know who is the author. I met it in a straggling form + in a newspaper last summer, and I remember to have seen it + once before, about fifteen years ago, and this is all I know + about it. + + The piece of poetry of my own which I alluded to, I was led + to write under the following circumstances. In the fall of + 1844, thinking I might aid some to carry the State of + Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went into the neighborhood in that + State in which I was raised, where my mother and only sister + were buried, and from which I had been absent about fifteen + years. + + That part of the country is, within itself, as unpoetical as + any spot of the earth; but still, seeing it and its objects + and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were certainly + poetry; though whether my expression of those feelings is + poetry is quite another question. When I got to writing, + the change of subject divided the thing into four little + divisions or cantos, the first only of which I send you now, + and may send the others hereafter. + + Yours truly, + A. LINCOLN. + + + My childhood's home I see again, + And sadden with the view; + And still, as memory crowds my brain, + There's pleasure in it too. + + O Memory! thou midway world + 'Twixt earth and paradise, + Where things decayed and loved ones lost + In dreamy shadows rise, + + And, freed from all that's earthly vile, + Seem hallowed, pure and bright, + Like scenes in some enchanted isle + All bathed in liquid light. + + As dusky mountains please the eye + When twilight chases day; + As bugle-notes that, passing by, + In distance die away; + + As leaving some grand waterfall, + We, lingering, list its roar-- + So memory will hallow all + We've known but know no more. + + Near twenty years have passed away + Since here I bid farewell + To woods and fields, and scenes of play, + And playmates loved so well. + + Where many were, but few remain + Of old familiar things; + But seeing them to mind again + The lost and absent brings. + + The friends I left that parting day, + How changed, as time has sped! + Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray; + And half of all are dead. + + I hear the loved survivors tell + How nought from death could save, + Till every sound appears a knell, + And every spot a grave. + + I range the fields with pensive tread, + And pace the hollow rooms, + And feel (companion of the dead) + I'm living in the tombs. + + +In September he wrote the following letter: + + + Springfield, September 6, 1846. + + FRIEND JOHNSTON: You remember when I wrote you from Tremont + last spring, sending you a little canto of what I called + poetry, I promised to bore you with another some time. I now + fulfil the promise. The subject of the present one is an + insane man; his name is Matthew Gentry. He is three years + older than I, and when we were boys we went to school + together. He was rather a bright lad, and the son of the + rich man of a very poor neighborhood. At the age of + nineteen he unaccountably became furiously mad, from which + condition he gradually settled down into harmless insanity. + When, as I told you in my other letter, I visited my old + home in the fall of 1844, I found him still lingering in + this wretched condition. In my poetizing mood, I could not + forget the impression his case made upon me. Here is the + result: + + + But here's an object more of dread + Than aught the grave contains-- + A human form with reason fled, + While wretched life remains. + + When terror spread, and neighbors ran + Your dangerous strength to bind, + And soon, a howling, crazy man, + Your limbs were fast confined; + + How then you strove and shrieked aloud, + Your bones and sinews bared; + And fiendish on the gazing crowd + With burning eyeballs glared; + + And begged and swore, and wept and prayed, + With maniac laughter joined; + How fearful were these signs displayed + By pangs that killed the mind! + + And when at length the drear and long + Time soothed thy fiercer woes, + How plaintively thy mournful song + Upon the still night rose! + + I've heard it oft as if I dreamed, + Far distant, sweet and lone, + The funeral dirge it ever seemed + Of reason dead and gone. + + To drink its strains I've stole away, + All stealthily and still, + Ere yet the rising god of day + Had streaked the eastern hill. + + Air held her breath; trees with the spell + Seemed sorrowing angels round, + Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell + Upon the listening ground. + + But this is past, and naught remains + That raised thee o'er the brute: + Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strains + Are like, forever mute. + + Now fare thee well! More thou the cause + Than subject now of woe. + All mental pangs by time's kind laws + Hast lost the power to know. + + O death! thou awe-inspiring prince + That keepst the world in fear, + Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence, + And leave him lingering here? + + + If I should ever send another, the subject will be a "Bear + Hunt." + + Yours as ever, + A. LINCOLN. + + +The poem alluded to in the first letter is undoubtedly "Oh, Why Should +the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?", by William Knox, a Scottish poet, +known to fame only by its authorship. It remained the favorite of +Lincoln until his death, being frequently alluded to by him in +conversation with his friends. Because it so aptly presents Lincoln's +own spirit it is here presented in full. During his Presidency he +said: + + + "There is a poem which has been a great favorite with me for + years, which was first shown me when a young man by a friend, + and which I afterwards saw and cut from a newspaper and + learned by heart. I would give a good deal to know who wrote + it, but I have never been able to ascertain." + + +Then, half closing his eyes, he repeated the verses: + + + OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL + BE PROUD? + + By WILLIAM KNOX. + + + William Knox was born at Firth, in the parish of + Lilliesleaf, in the county of Roxburghshire, on the 17th of + August, 1789. From his early youth he composed verses. He + merited the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who afforded him + pecuniary assistance. He died November 12, 1825, at the age + of thirty-six. + + + Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? + Like a swift-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, + The flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, + He passes from life to his rest in the grave. + + The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, + Be scattered around and together be laid; + And the young and the old, and the low and the high + Shall molder to dust and together shall lie. + + The infant a mother attended and loved, + The mother that infant's affection who proved, + The husband that mother and infant who blest, + Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. + + The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye, + Shone beauty and pleasure, her triumphs are by; + And the mem'ry of those who loved her and praised + Are alike from the minds of the living erased. + + The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne, + The brow of the priest that the miter hath worn, + The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave + Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. + + The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap, + The herdsman who climbed with his goats up the steep, + The beggar who wandered in search of his bread, + Have faded away like the grass that we tread. + + The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven, + The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven, + The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, + Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. + + So the multitude goes like the flower or the weed + That withers away to let others succeed, + So the multitude comes, even those we behold, + To repeat every tale that has often been told. + + For we are the same that our fathers have been; + We see the same sights our fathers have seen; + We drink the same streams, and view the same sun, + And run the same course our fathers have run. + + The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think, + From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink; + To the life we are clinging they also would cling, + But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. + + They loved, but the story we cannot unfold; + They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold; + They grieved, but no wail from their slumber will come; + They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. + + They died, ay, they died. We things that are now, + That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, + And make in their dwellings a transient abode, + Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. + + Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, + Are mingled together in sunshine and rain: + And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, + Still follow each other like surge upon surge. + + 'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, + From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, + From the gilded salon to the bier and the shroud,-- + Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? + + +"The Last Leaf," by Oliver Wendell Holmes, was also a favorite poem of +Lincoln, says Henry C. Whitney, his friend and biographer (in his +"Life of Lincoln," Vol. I, page 238): + +"Over and over again I have heard him repeat: + + + The mossy marbles rest + On the lips that he has prest + In their bloom; + And the names he loved to hear + Have been carved for many a year + On the tomb. + + +and tears would come unbidden to his eyes, probably at thought of the +grave (his mother's) at Gentryville, or that in the bend of the +Sangamo" (of Ann Rutledge, his first love, who died shortly before the +time set for their wedding, and whose memory Lincoln ever kept +sacred). + +While Lincoln, so far as can be ascertained, wrote nothing in verse +after 1846, he developed in his speeches a literary style which is +poetical in the highest sense of that term. More than all American +statesmen his utterances and writings possess that classic quality +whose supreme expression is found in Greek literature. This is because +Lincoln had an essentially Hellenic mind. First of all the +architecture of his thought was that of the Greek masters, who, +whether as Phidias they built the Parthenon to crown with harmonious +beauty the Acropolis, or as Homer they recorded in swelling narrative +from its dramatic beginning the strife of the Achaeans before Troy, or +even as Euclid, they developed from postulates the relations of space, +had a deep insight into the order in which mother nature was striving +to express herself, and a reverent impulse to aid her in bodying forth +according to her methods the ideal forms of the cosmos, the world of +beauty, no less within the soul of man than without it, which was +intended by such help to be realized as a whole in the infinity of +time, and in part in the vision of every true workman. In short, +Lincoln had a profound sense of the fitness of things, that which +Aristotle, the scientific analyst of human thought and the philosopher +of its proper expression, called "poetic justice." He strove to make +his reasoning processes strictly logical, and to this end carried with +him as he rode the legal circuit not law-books, but a copy of Euclid's +geometry, and passed his time on the way demonstrating to his drivers +the theorems therein proposed. "Demonstrate" he said he considered to +be the greatest word in the English language. He constructed every one +of his later speeches on the plan of a Euclidean solution. His Cooper +Union speech on "Slavery as the Fathers Viewed It," which contributed +so largely to his Presidential nomination, was such a demonstration, +settling what was thereafter never attempted to be controverted: his +contention that the makers of the Constitution merely tolerated +property in human flesh and blood as a primitive and passing phase of +civilization, and never intended that it should be perpetuated by the +charter of the Republic. + +So, too, the Gettysburg speech, brief as it is, is the statement of a +thesis, the principles upon which the Fathers founded the nation, and +of the heroic demonstration of the same by the soldiers fallen on the +field, and the addition of a moral corollary of this, the high resolve +of the living to prosecute the work until the vision of the Fathers +was realized. + +In substance of thought and in form of its presentation the speech is +as perfect a poem as ever was written, and even in the minor qualities +of artistic language--rhythm and cadence, phonetic euphony, rhetorical +symbolism, and that subtle reminiscence of a great literary and +spiritual inheritance, the Bible, which stands to us as Homer did to +the ancients--it excels the finest gem to be found in poetic cabinets +from the Greek Anthology downward. Only because it was not written in +the typography of verse, with capitalized and paragraphed initial +words at the beginning of each thought-group of words, has it failed +of recognition as a poem by academic minds. Had Walt Whitman composed +the address, and printed it in the above manner, it would now appear +in every anthology of poetry published since its date. To convince of +this those conventional people who must have an ocular demonstration +of form in order to compare the address with accepted examples of +poetry, I will dare to incur the condemnation of those who rightly +look upon such a departure from Lincoln's own manner of writing the +speech as profanation, and present it in the shape of _vers libre_. +For the latter class of readers this, the greatest poem by Lincoln, +the greatest, indeed, yet produced in America, may be preferably read +in the original form on page 100 of this collection. I trust that +these, especially if they are teachers of literature, will pardon, for +the sake of others less cultivated in poetic taste, what may appear a +duplication here, unnecessary to themselves, of the address. + + + SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG + + By ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Four score and seven years ago + Our fathers brought forth on this continent + A new nation, + Conceived in liberty, + And dedicated to the proposition + That all men are created equal. + + Now we are engaged in a great civil war, + Testing whether that nation, + Or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, + Can long endure. + We are met on a great battle-field of that war. + We have come to dedicate a portion of that field + As a final resting-place + For those who here gave their lives + That that nation might live. + It is altogether fitting and proper + That we should do this. + But, in a larger sense, + We cannot dedicate-- + We cannot consecrate-- + We cannot hallow-- + This ground. + The brave men, living and dead, + Who struggled here, + Have consecrated it far above our poor power + To add or detract. + The world will little note nor long remember + What we say here, + But it can never forget + What they did here. + It is for us, the living, rather, + To be dedicated here to the unfinished work + Which they who fought here have so nobly advanced. + It is rather for us to be here dedicated + To the great task remaining before us-- + That from these honored dead + We take increased devotion to that cause + For which they gave the last full measure of devotion; + That we here highly resolve + That these dead shall not have died in vain; + That this nation, under God, + Shall have a new birth of freedom; + And that government of the people, + By the people, and for the people + Shall not perish from the earth. + + +Lincoln attained this classic perfection of ordered thought, and with +it, as an inevitable accompaniment this classic beauty of expression, +only by great struggle. He became a poet of the first rank only by +virtue of his moral spirit. He was continually correcting deficiencies +in his character, which were far greater than is generally received, +owing to the tendency of American historians of the tribe of Parson +Weems to find by force illustrations of moral heroism in the youth of +our great men. Thus Lincoln is represented as a noble lad, who, having +allowed a borrowed book to be ruined by rain, went to the owner and +offered to "pull fodder" to repay him, which the man ungenerously +permitted him to do. The truth is, that the neighbor, to whom the book +was a cherished possession, required him to do the work in repayment, +and that Lincoln not only did it grudgingly, but afterwards lampooned +the man so severely in satiric verse that he was ashamed to show himself +at neighborhood gatherings. All the people about Gentryville feared +Lincoln's caustic wit, and disliked him for it, although they were +greatly impressed with his ability exhibited thereby. Lincoln recognized +his moral obliquity, and curbed his propensity for satire, which was a +case of that "exercise of natural faculty" which affects all gifted +persons. And when he left that region he visited all the neighbors, and +asked pardon of those whom he had ridiculed. The true Lincoln is a far +better example to boys than the fictitious one, in that he had more +unlovely traits at first than the average lad, yet he reformed, with the +result that, when he went to new scenes, he speedily became the most +popular young man in the neighborhood. He was one of those who + + + "rise on stepping stones + Of their dead selves to higher things." + + +The reformation of his character by self examination and determination +not to make the same mistake again seems to have induced similar +effects and methods for their attainment in the case of his +intellectual development. Whatever the connection, both regenerations +proceeded apace. Lincoln at first was a shallow thinker, accepting +without examination the views of others, especially popular statesmen, +such as Henry Clay, whose magnetic personality was drawing to himself +the high-spirited young men of the West. Some of the political +doctrines which Lincoln then adopted he retained to the end, these +being on subjects such as taxation and finance whose moral bearing was +not apparent, and therefore into which he never inquired closely, for +Lincoln's mind could not be profoundly interested in any save a moral +question. When he found that a revered statesman was weak upon a +crucial moral issue, he repressed his innate tendency to loyalty and +rejected him. Thus, after a visit to Henry Clay in Kentucky, when the +slavery question was arising to vex the country despite the efforts +the aged statesman had made to settle it by the compromise of 1850, +Lincoln returned disillusioned, having found that the light he himself +possessed on the subject was clearer than that of his old leader. The +eulogy which he delivered on the death of Clay, which occurred shortly +afterward (in 1852), is the most perfunctory of all his addresses. + +Indeed, not till the time of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise of +1854, which brought Lincoln back into politics by its overthrow of +what he regarded as the constitutional exclusion of slavery from the +Territories, did he rise to his highest powers as a thinker and +speaker. Lincoln had been defeated for reelection to Congress because +of his opposition, though not highly moral in character, to the +popular Mexican war, and, regarding himself as a political failure, he +had devoted himself to law. His most notable speech in the House of +Representatives, a well composed satirical arraignment of President +Polk for throwing the country into war, had failed utterly of its +intended effect, probably because of its trimming partisan tone. In +1854 he was relieved of the trammels of party, the Whigs having gone +to smash. Anti-slavery had become a great moral movement, and he was +drawn into its current. Almost at once he became its Western leader. +His speech against the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise which had +been effected by his inveterate antagonist, Senator Stephen A. +Douglas, was his first classic achievement in argumentative oratory. +While in the greater aspect of artistic composition, the form of the +address as a whole, his master was Euclid, in minor points the +influence of Shakespeare, of whom Lincoln had become a great reader, +was apparent, as indicated by a quotation from the dramatist, and an +application to Senator Douglas of the scene of Lady Macbeth trying to +wash out the indelible stain upon her hand. Also the Bible was the +source of strong and telling phrases and figures of speech. Thus he +denominated slavery as "the great Behemoth of danger," and asked, +"shall the strong grip of the nation be loosened upon him, to intrust +him to the hands of his feeble keepers?" + +And, in the following passage, characteristic of the new Lincoln, I +think that either Shakespeare and the Bible had combined to inspire +him with graphic description of character and moral indignation, or +they enforced these native powers. + +"Again, you have among you a sneaking individual of the class of +native tyrants known as the 'Slave-Dealer'. He watches your +necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave at a speculative price. +If you cannot help it, you sell to him; but if you can help it, you +drive him from your door. You despise him utterly. You do not +recognize him as a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children +must not play with his; they may rollick freely with the little +negroes, but not with the slave-dealer's children. If you are obliged +to deal with him you try to get through the job without so much as +touching him. It is common with you to join hands with the men you +meet, but with the slave-dealer you avoid the ceremony--instinctively +shrinking from the snaky contact." + +Of Lincoln's critical appreciation of Shakespeare Frank B. Carpenter, +the artist of the "First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation" +(see illustration on page 206), writes in his "Six Months at the White +House with Abraham Lincoln" as follows: + +"Presently the conversation turned upon Shakspeare, of whom it is well +known Mr. Lincoln was very fond. He once remarked, 'It matters not to +me whether Shakspeare be well or ill acted; with him the thought +suffices.' Edwin Booth was playing an engagement at this time at +Grover's Theatre. He had been announced for the coming evening in his +famous part of _Hamlet_. The President had never witnessed his +representation of this character, and he proposed being present. The +mention of this play, which I afterward learned had at all times a +peculiar charm for Mr. Lincoln's mind, waked up a train of thought I +was not prepared for. Said he,--and his words have often returned to +me with a sad interest since his own assassination,--'There is one +passage of the play of "Hamlet" which is very apt to be slurred over +by the actor, or omitted altogether, which seems to me the choicest +part of the play. It is the soliloquy of the King, after the murder. +It always struck me as one of the finest touches of nature in the +world.' + +"Then, throwing himself into the very spirit of the scene, he took +up the words:-- + + + "'O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; + It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, + A brother's murder!--Pray can I not, + Though inclination be as sharp as will; + My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent; + And, like a man to double business bound, + I stand in pause where I shall first begin, + And both neglect. What if this cursed hand + Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? + Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens + To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy + But to confront the visage of offence; + And what's in prayer but this twofold force-- + To be forestalled ere we come to fall, + Or pardoned, being down? Then I'll look up; + My fault is past. But O what form of prayer + Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder?-- + That cannot be; since I am still possessed + Of those effects for which I did the murder,-- + My crown, my own ambition, and my queen. + May one be pardoned and retain the offence? + In the corrupted currents of this world, + Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, + And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself + Buys out the law; but 'tis not so _above_. + There is no shuffling; there the action lies + In its true nature; and we ourselves compelled, + Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, + To give in evidence. What then? What rests? + Try what repentance can; what can it not? + Yet what can it when one cannot repent? + O wretched state! O bosom black as death! + O bruised soul that, struggling to be free, + Art more engaged! Help, angels, make assay! + Bow, stubborn knees! And heart with strings of steel, + Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe; + All may be well!' + + +"He repeated this entire passage from memory, with a feeling and +appreciation unsurpassed by anything I ever witnessed upon the stage. +Remaining in thought for a few moments, he continued:-- + +"'The opening of the play of "King Richard the Third" seems to me often +entirely misapprehended. It is quite common for an actor to come upon +the stage, and, in a sophomoric style, to begin with a flourish:-- + + + "'Now is the winter of our discontent + Made glorious summer by this sun of York, + And all the clouds that lowered upon our house, + In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.' + + +"'Now,' said he, 'this is all wrong. Richard, you remember, had been, +and was then plotting the destruction of his brothers, to make room +for himself. Outwardly, the most loyal to the newly crowned king, +secretly he could scarcely contain his impatience at the obstacles +still in the way of his own elevation. He appears upon the stage, just +after the crowning of Edward, burning with repressed hate and +jealousy. The prologue is the utterance of the most intense bitterness +and satire.' Then, unconsciously assuming the character, Mr. Lincoln +repeated, also from memory, Richard's soliloquy, rendering it with a +degree of force and power that made it seem like a new creation to me. +Though familiar with the passage from boyhood, I can truly say that +never till that moment had I fully appreciated its spirit. I could not +refrain from laying down my palette and brushes, and applauding +heartily upon his conclusion, saying, at the same time, half in +earnest, that I was not sure but that he had made a mistake in the +choice of a profession, considerably, as may be imagined, to his +amusement. Mr. Sinclair has since repeatedly said to me that he never +heard these choice passages of Shakspeare rendered with more effect by +the most famous of modern actors." + +Lincoln's sense of the classic phrase seems to have been native with +him, for we find it in his earliest utterances. Such a phrase appears +in homely proverbial form in his first speech: "My politics are short +and sweet, like the old woman's dance." Impaired in rhythm of thought +and sound by an awkward, though logical, parenthetical expression, +another phrase stands out in a "spread-eagle" passage from his first +formal address, that on "The Perpetuation of Our Political +Institutions." + +"All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the +treasure of earth (our own excepted) in its military chest, with a +Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force _take a drink from the +Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge_ in a trial of a thousand +years." + +And in a eulogy on Washington, Lincoln early achieved a line which in +phonetic quality, rhetorical figure and rhythmic cadence is pure +poetry, though not of an exceptional order. + +"In solemn awe we pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless +splendor leave it shining on." + +In an article entitled "Lincoln's Literary Experiments," by John G. +Nicolay, one of Lincoln's two private secretaries, which was published +in the Century Magazine for April, 1894, are reproduced Lincoln's +notes of one lyceum lecture on "Niagara Falls," and the text of +another on "Discoveries, Inventions and Improvements." These, however, +detract, if anything, from Lincoln's reputation as a writer, for in +choice of subjects and in style of treatment there is seen an almost +discreditable stooping of a man of genius, even in his function of +teacher, to the low popular taste of the West at the time. In the +first lecture Lincoln presented the statistics of the water power of +Niagara Falls for each minute, and led his hearers from this base to +the "contemplation of the vast power the sun is constantly exerting in +the quiet noiseless operation of lifting water up to be rained down +again." Yet at this point he stopped short of his duty as an educator, +for he made no suggestion as to the utilization of this power. He was +satisfied with giving the people what they had come for--the pleasant +excitation of a mental faculty, that of the imagination in its primary +form of wonder at the grandeur of the material universe. In short, he +was acting as a mere entertainer--as so many of our public men do now +at "Chautauquas." + +In the second lecture he performed this function in a still more +discreditable manner, by catering to the unworthy demand of his +hearers for obvious and familiar humorous conceptions to grasp which +would cause them no mental exertion. Thus, in speaking of the +inventions of the locomotive and telegraph, already old enough for the +first inevitable similitudes and jocose remarks about them to be +current, he said: + +"The iron horse is panting and impatient to carry him (man) everywhere +in no time; and the lightning stands ready harnessed to take and bring +his tidings in a trifle less than no time." + +This reveals Lincoln's taste for the characteristic American humor of +exaggeration, which was later to afford him relief from the stress and +strain of his duties as President in the works of "Petroleum V. Nasby" +and "Artemus Ward," writers, however, with a quaint originality which +lifted them and their admirers above the plane of humorous composition +and appreciation of the preceding decade. Indeed, Lincoln developed +his own power of witty expression to a degree excelling that of the +writers he admired, and in quality of product, if not in quantity (for +the greater part of the "funny stories" attributed to him, thank +heaven, are apocryphal) he stands in the front rank of the American +humorists of his generation. + +And as the poet and the wit are near akin through this common appeal +to the imagination, Lincoln, had he overcome the obsession of +melancholy in his nature which was the mood in which he resorted to +poetry, and which early limited his taste for it to verse of a sad and +reflective kind, might have become a literary craftsman of the order +of Holmes, whose poetry in the main was bright and joyous, and, even +when he occasionally touched upon such subjects as death, was, as we +have seen, informed with inspiring Hellenic beauty rather than +depressing Hebraic moralization. It was in his sad moments, says Henry +C. Whitney, that the mind of Lincoln "gravitated toward the weird, +sombre and mystical. In his normal and tranquil state of mind, 'The +Last Leaf,' by Oliver Wendell Holmes, was his favorite" (poem). It was +Lincoln's happy lot to rise in the realm of oratory by the power of +his poetic spirit higher than any American, save probably Emerson, has +done in other fields of literature. On the theme of slavery, where his +unerring moral sense had free sway, he became our supreme orator, +transcending even Webster in grandeur of thought and beauty of its +expression. His periods are not as sonorous as the Olympian New +England orator's, but their accents will reach as far and resound even +longer by the carrying and sustaining power of the ideas which they +express. Indeed, it is on the wings supplied by Lincoln that Webster's +most significant conception, that of the nature of the Constitution, +is even now borne along, because of the uplifting ideality which +Lincoln gave it by more broadly applying it to the nation itself as an +examplar and preserver to the world of ideal government. + +Webster said: "It is, sir, the people's Constitution, the people's +Government; made for the people; made by the people; and answerable to +the people." + +This he made the thesis for an argument which was to be followed by a +magnificent peroration ending with a sentiment, calculated for use as +a toast at political banquets, and as a patriotic slogan: "Liberty and +Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" + +Lincoln with purer taste, the expression of which, be it said to +Webster's credit, had been made possible by the acceptance of the +earlier statesman's contention, assumed the thesis as placed beyond +all controversy, and, making it the exhortation of his speech, gave +to it the character of a sacred adjuration: "That we here highly +resolve ... that government of the people, by the people, and for +the people, shall not perish from the earth." + +Another example of Lincoln's ability to improve the composition of +another writer is the closing paragraph of his first inaugural +address. The President-elect had submitted the manuscript of this most +important speech, which would be universally scrutinized to find what +policy he would adopt toward the seceded States, to Seward, his chosen +Secretary of State, for criticism and suggestion. Mr. Seward approved +the argument, but advised the addition of a closing paragraph "to meet +and remove prejudice and passion in the South; and despondency in the +East." He submitted two paragraphs of his own as alternative models. +The second was in that poetic vein which occasionally cropped out in +Seward's speeches, and over which Lincoln on better acquaintance was +wont good-naturedly to rally him. It is evidence of Lincoln's +predilection for poetic language, at least at the close of a speech, +that he adopted the latter paragraph. It ran: + +"I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but +fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our +bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, +be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many +battlefields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts +and all hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again +harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian +angel of the nation." + +Lincoln, by deft touches which reveal a literary taste beyond that of +any statesman of his time, indeed beyond that which he himself had yet +exhibited, transformed this passage into his peroration. His +emendations were largely in the way of excision of unnecessary +phrases, resolution of sentences broken in construction into several +shorter, more direct ones, and change of general and vague terms in +rhetorical figure to concrete and picturesque words. He wrote: + +"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be +enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds +of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every +battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone +all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when +again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our +nature." + +More than the persuasive argument and gentle yet determined spirit of +the address, it was the chaste beauty and tender feeling of these +closing words which convinced the people that Lincoln measured up to +the high mental and moral stature demanded of one who was to be their +leader through the most critical period that had arisen in the life of +the nation. + +The second inaugural address, coming so shortly before the President's +death, formed unintentionally his farewell address. It has the spirit +and tone of prophecy. The Bible, in thought and expression, was its +inspiration. The first two of its three paragraphs ring like a chapter +from Isaiah, chief of the poet seers of old. The concluding paragraph +is an apostolic benediction such as Paul or John might have delivered. + +"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the +work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who +shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan--to do +all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves, and with all nations." + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + THE POETS' LINCOLN + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + [Illustration: THE LOG CABIN + + Birthplace of Lincoln, near Hodgensville, Kentucky] + + +Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th day of February, 1809, on the Big +South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then known as Hardin, but is +now known as La Rue County, Kentucky, about three miles from +Hodgensville. + +The above illustration represents the cabin in which he was born, as +described by his former neighbors. + +Out of that old hut came the mighty man of destiny, the matchless man +of the Nineteenth Century. The world has no parallel for that +transition from the cabin to the White House. + + +Julia Ward [Howe] was born in New York City, May 27, 1819. At an early +age she wrote plays and poems. In 1843 Miss Ward married Dr. Samuel +Gridley Howe. In 1861, while on a visit to the camp near Washington, +with Governor John A. Andrew and other friends, Mrs. Howe wrote to the +air of "John Brown's Body" the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" which has +become so popular. She also published several books of poems. She +espoused the Woman-Suffrage movement in 1869, and devoted much of her +time to the cause. She died in 1910. + +This poem was written by Mrs. Howe in her ninetieth year and read by +her in Symphony Hall, Boston, on the centenary of the martyred +President's birthday, February 12, 1909. + + + LINCOLN + + Through the dim pageant of the years + A wondrous tracery appears: + A cabin of the western wild + Shelters in sleep a new born child. + + Nor nurse nor parent dear can know + The way those infant feet must go, + And yet a nation's help and hope + Are sealed within that horoscope. + + Beyond is toil for daily bread, + And thought to noble issues led. + And courage, arming for the morn + For whose behest this man was born. + + A man of homely, rustic ways, + Yet he achieves the forum's praise + And soon earth's highest meed has won, + The seat and sway of Washington. + + No throne of honors and delights, + Distrustful days and sleepless nights, + To struggle, suffer and aspire, + Like Israel, led by cloud and fire. + + A treacherous shot, a sob of rest, + A martyr's palm upon his breast, + A welcome from the glorious seat + Where blameless souls of heroes meet. + + And thrilling, through unmeasured days, + A song of gratitude and praise, + A cry that all the earth shall heed, + To God, who gave him for our need. + + + + + THE GREAT OAK + + Some men are born, while others seem to grow + From out the soil, like towering trees that spread + Their strong, broad limbs in shelter overhead + When tempest storms, protecting all below. + + Lincoln, Great Oak of a Nation's life, + Rose from the soil, with all its virgin power + Emplanted in him for the fateful hour, + When he might save a Nation in its strife. + + --_Bennett Chapple._ + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN BY THE CABIN FIRE + + "Lying down was Lincoln's favorite attitude while reading or + studying. This remained a habit with him throughout + life."--_Henry C. Whitney in his "Life Of Lincoln."_] + + + + +Noah Davis, born in Haverhill, New Hampshire, September 10, 1818. He +was educated at Albion, New York, and in the Seminary at Lima, studied +law, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. Appointed in March, 1857, a +justice of the New York Supreme Court. He served in Congress from +March 4, 1869, till July 20, 1870, when he resigned, having been +appointed by President Grant, U. S. Attorney for the Southern District +of New York. He resigned that office on Dec. 31, 1872, being elected +justice of the New York State Supreme Court. In 1874, he became +presiding justice. In January, 1887, he was retired from the bench and +resumed practice. He died in New York in 1902. + + + LINCOLN + + Almost a hundred years ago, in a lonely hut, + Of the dark and bloody ground of wild Kentucky, + A child was born to poverty and toil, + Save in the sweet prophecy of mother's love + None dreamed of future fame for him! + + 'Mid deep privation and in rugged toil, + He grew unschooled to vigorous youth, + His teaching was an ancient spelling book, + The Holy Writ, "The Pilgrim's Progress," + Old "Æsop's Fables" and the "Life of Washington"; + And out of these, stretched by the hearthstone flame + For lack of other light, he garnered lore + That filled his soul with faith in God. + + The prophet's fire, the psalmist's music deep, + The pilgrims' zeal throughout his steadfast march, + The love of fellow man as taught by Christ, + And all the patriot faith and truth + Marked the Father of our Land! + And there, in all his after life, in thought + And speech and act, resonant concords were in his + great soul. + + And, God's elect, he calmly rose to awful power, + Restored his mighty land to smiling peace, + Then, with the martyr blood of his own life, + Baptized the millions of the free. + + Henceforth, the ages hold his name high writ + And deep on their eternal rolls. + + + + +Rev. George W. Crofts was born at Leroy, Illinois, April 9, 1842. He was +educated at the Illinois State University at Springfield, graduating in +the class of 1864. He was ordained to the ministry in 1865. He preached +at Sandwich, Illinois; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Beatrice, Nebraska, and +West Point. He died at West Point, May 16, 1909. + + + THE BIRTH OF LINCOLN + + No choir celestial sang at Lincoln's birth, + No transient star illumined the midnight sky + In honor of some ancient prophecy, + No augury was given from heaven or earth. + + He blossomed like a flower of wondrous worth, + A rare, sweet flower of heaven that ne'er should die, + Altho' the vase in which it grew should lie + Most rudely rent amid the darkling dearth. + + There, in that humble cabin, separate + From everything the world regarded great, + Where wealth had never pressed its greedy feet, + Where honor, pomp or fame found no retreat; + E'en there was born beneath the eye of God + The noblest man His footstool ever trod. + + + + + [Illustration: Mendelssohn Darwin Lincoln] + + + MENDELSSOHN + DARWIN + LINCOLN + + _February 12, 1809_ + + +Clarence E. Carr, born in Enfield, New Hampshire, January 31, 1853. +Received his early education from the common schools and academies of +the State, later from Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in +1875. + +Practiced law, was also a manufacturer and farmer. Was president of +the New Hampshire Unitarian Conference, director and vice-president of +the American Unitarian Association, bank trustee, president of the +United Life and Accident Insurance Company of Concord, New Hampshire, +and occasionally a wanderer in the Elysian Fields of the Muses. + +_The Three Birthday Anniversaries_ is the subject of a highly +appreciative article on the subject of Mendelssohn, Darwin and Lincoln, +by President Samuel A. Eliot of the American Unitarian Association, in +the _Christian Register_ of February 4, 1909. The central thought +therein is thus expressed very beautifully by Mr. Carr. + + + Three lives this day unto the world were given + Into whose souls God breathed the air of heaven,-- + The first He taught the music of the spheres, + The next, of worlds, the story of the years; + And, loving, wise, and just beyond our dream, + The third a pilot made upon the New World's stream. + + Their work is done, but ere they crossed "the portal," + One, Song; One, Truth; One, Freedom; Made Immortal! + + + + +James Phinney Baxter, born at Gorham Maine, March 23, 1831. Academic +education; President of Savings Bank; Mayor of Portland, six terms, +1893-97--1904-5. Organized Associated Charities and was its first +President; built and donated to the City of Portland its public +library in 1888, and to Gorham in 1907; also conveyed to Gorham his +family mansion for use as a Museum. President Portland Public Library, +Baxter Library (Gorham), Portland Benevolent Society, Overseer of +Bowdoin College, President Maine Historical Society since 1890, +Northeast Historical Society since 1899. Author: _The Trelawney +Papers_, 1884; _The British Invasion From the North_, 1887; _Sir +Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine_, 1890; _The Pioneers of +New France in New England_, 1894; edited ten volumes of _Documentary +History of Maine_, etc. + + + THE NATAL DAY OF LINCOLN + + Son of the Western World! whose heritage + Was the vast prairie and the boundless sky; + Whose callow thoughts with wings untrammeled sought + Free scope for growth denied to Ease and Power, + Naught couldst thou know of place or precedent, + For Freedom's ichor with thy mother's milk + Coursing thy veins, would render thee immune + To Fashion's dictate, or prescriptive creed, + Leaving thy soul unhindered to expand + Like Samuel's in Jehovah's tutelage. + Hail to thy Natal day! + + Like all great souls with vision unobscured + Thou wert by Pride unswayed, and so didst tread + The gray and sombre way by Duty marked; + Seeking the springs of Wisdom, unallured + By shallower sources which the witless tempt. + Afar o'er arid plains didst thou behold + An empty sky, and mountains desolate + Barring thy way to fairer scenes beyond; + But faith was thine, and patience measureless, + Making thee equal to thy destiny. + Hail to thy Natal day! + + It summons to our vision all thy life, + Of strenuous toil; the cabin low and rude; + The meagre fare; the blazing logs whose glow + Illumed the pages of inspired bards, + Shakespeare and Bunyan; prophets, priests and seers; + The darkling forest where thy ringing axe + Chimed with the music of the waterfall; + The eager flood bearing thy rugged raft + Swift footed through an ever changing world + Unknown to thee save in remembered dreams. + Hail to thy Natal day! + + We see thee in the mart where Selfishness + For Fame ephemeral strives, and sordid gain; + Thy ill-requited toil till thou hadst earned + The right to raise thy potent voice within + A nation's forum, facing all the world; + And then, achievement such as few have known, + A mighty people placing in thy hand + A sceptre swaying half a continent, + Making thee peer of kings and potentates; + Aye, greater than them all, whate'er their power. + Hail to thy Natal day! + + But, lo! the martial camp; the bivouac; + The rude entrenchment;--the grim fortalice; + The tented field;--the flaming battle line, + And thy great soul amidst it all unmoved + By petty aims, leading with flawless faith + Thy people to a promised land of peace; + And, then, when thou hadst reached the goal of hope, + And the world stood amazed, the heavy crown + Of martyrdom was pressed upon thy brow + And thy immortal course was consummate. + Hail to thy Natal day! + + In all great souls God sows with generous hand + The seed of martyrdom, for 'twas decreed + In Eden, that alone by sacrifice + Should sons of men the crown immortal win; + And thou, who didst the shining heights attain + Of unsurpassed achievement, didst but pay + The impartial toll of souls like thine required. + And we, who on the narrow marge of Time + Standing wondering, shed no tears, but raise to thee + The pæans to a martyred hero due, + Hail to thy Natal day. + + + + + [Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE MOTHER OF LINCOLN] + + +Nancy Hanks Lincoln died October 5, 1818, aged thirty-five years. The +design of this monument is by Thompson Stickle, and it was constructed +by J. S. Culver of Springfield, Illinois, and dedicated October 2, +1902. + +In the construction of the monument in Spencer County, Indiana, Mr. +Culver used as much of the granite as possible from the National +Lincoln Monument before it was reconstructed. + +The face of this block is handsomely hand-carved. As the Scroll of +Time unrolls, it reveals the name of "Nancy Hanks Lincoln." The ivy +represents affection and the branch of oak nobility. + +The public celebration of the centenary of Lincoln's birth was held in +the town of North Adams, Massachusetts, February 12, 1909. + +Ex-Senator Thomas F. Cassidy, in his address, said: "One hundred years +ago today, in Hardin County, Kentucky, there was ushered into being +the child, Abraham Lincoln. + +"As God selected Mary, the humble girl of Judea, to be the mother of +the Saviour of mankind and she gave birth to Him in the stable at +Bethlehem, so it was ordained that in the lowly log cabin of the +Kentucky wilderness, Nancy Hanks should receive into the protection of +her sheltering arms the child who was destined to be the Saviour of +the Republic." + + +Harriet Monroe, born at Chicago, Illinois, December, 23, 1860. +Graduated Visitation Academy, Georgetown, District Columbia, 1879. In +December, 1889, was appointed to write text for cantata for opening of +Chicago Auditorium in March, 1891. Was requested by Committee on +Ceremonies of Chicago Exposition to write a poem for the dedication; +her _Columbia Ode_ was read and sung at the dedicatory ceremonies on +the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, October 21, 1892. +Author of _Valerie_, and other poems, 1892; _The Columbia Ode_, 1893; +_John Wellborn, Poet, A Memoir_, 1896; _The Passing Show--Modern Plays +in Verse_, 1903, etc. + + + NANCY HANKS + + Prairie Child, + Brief as dew, + What winds of wonder + Nourished you? + + Rolling plain + Of billowy green, + Fair horizons, + Blue, serene. + + Lofty skies + The slow clouds climb, + Where burning stars + Beat out the time. + + These, and the dreams + Of fathers bold, + Baffled longings + Hopes untold. + + Gave to you + A heart of fire, + Love like waters, + Brave desire. + + Ah, when youth's rapture + Went out in pain, + And all seemed over, + Was all in vain? + + O soul obscure, + Whose wings life bound, + And soft death folded + Under the ground. + + Wilding lady, + Still and true, + Who gave us Lincoln + And never knew: + + To you at last + Our praise, our tears, + Love and a song + Through the nation's years. + + Mother of Lincoln, + Our tears, our praise; + A battle-flag + And the victor's bays! + + + + + [Illustration: THE RAIL SPLITTER + + From the "Footprints of Abraham Lincoln"] + + + + + LINCOLN THE LABORER + + _From an Horatian Ode by Richard Henry Stoddard_ + + + A laboring man with horny hands, + Who swung the axe, who tilled the lands, + Who shrank from nothing new, + But did as poor men do. + + One of the people. Born to be + Their curious epitome, + To share, yet rise above, + Their shifting hate and love. + + Common his mind, it seemed so then, + His thoughts the thoughts of other men, + Plain were his words, and poor-- + But now they will endure. + + No hasty fool of stubborn will, + But prudent, cautious, still-- + Who, since his work was good, + Would do it as he could. + + No hero, this, of Roman mold-- + Nor like our stately sires of old. + Perhaps he was not great-- + But he preserved the state. + + O, honest face, which all men knew, + O, tender heart, but known to few-- + O, wonder of the age, + Cut off by tragic rage. + + + + + [Illustration: "THE BOY LINCOLN" + + By Eastman Johnson] + + + + +James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, about 1852. He +was engaged in various pursuits until 1875, when he began to +contribute verses of poetry to local papers in the Western district +which gained wide popularity for him. His published works in dialect +and his serious poems have also proved very popular. + + + A PEACEFUL LIFE + + (LINCOLN) + + A peaceful life;--just toil and rest-- + All his desire;-- + To read the books he liked the best + Beside the cabin fire. + God's word and man's;--to peer sometimes + Above the page, in smoldering gleams, + And catch, like far heroic rhymes, + The onmarch of his dreams. + + A peaceful life;--to hear the low + Of pastured herds, + Or woodman's axe that, blow on blow, + Fell sweet as rhythmic words. + And yet there stirred within his breast + A faithful pulse, that, like a roll + Of drums, made high above his rest + A tumult in his soul. + + A peaceful life!--They hailed him even + As One was hailed + Whose open palms were nailed toward Heaven + When prayers nor aught availed. + And lo, he paid the selfsame price + To lull a nation's awful strife + And will us, through the sacrifice + Of self, his peaceful life. + + + + +William Wilberforce Newton, born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, March, +1836. Was graduated at Franklin and Marshall College in 1853. Studied +law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He served as Captain and +Assistant Adjutant General of U. S. Volunteers in 1861-5; was Editor +of the _Philadelphia Press_ and President of the "Press" Publishing +Co., from 1867 till 1878. He is the author of _Vignettes of Travel_ +and has been largely engaged in railway building in Mexico. + + + LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE + + Saw you in his boyhood days + O'er Kentucky's prairies; + Bending to the settler's ways + Yon poor youth whom now we praise-- + Romance like the fairies? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Saw you in the days of youth + By the candle's flaring: + Lincoln searching for the truth, + Splitting rails to gain, forsooth, + Knowledge for the daring? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Saw you in his manhood's prime + Like a star resplendent, + Him we praise with measured rhyme + Waiting for the coming time + With a faith transcendent? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Saw you in the hour of strife + When fierce war was raging, + Him who gave the slaves a life + Full and rich with freedom rife, + All his powers engaging? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Saw you when the war was done + (Such is Lincoln's story) + Him whose strength the strife had won + Sinking like the setting sun + Crowned with human glory? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Saw you in our country's roll + Midst her saints and sages, + Lincoln's name upon the scroll-- + Standing at the topmost goal + On the nation's pages? + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + Hero! Yes! We know thy fame; + It will live forever! + Thou to us art still the same; + Great the glory of thy name, + Great thy strong endeavor! + Hero! Hero! Sent from God! + Leader of his people. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN THE LAWYER + + From an Ambrotype, taken in 1856] + + +"The charm which invested the life on the Eighth Circuit in the mind +and fancy of Mr. Lincoln yet lingered there, even in the most +responsible and glorious days of his administration; over and over +again has the great President stolen an hour ... from his life of +anxious care to live over again those bygone exhilarating and halcyon +days ... with Sweet or me."--Henry C. Whitney in his _Life of Lincoln_. + + + + +Wilbur Hazelton Smith was born in the town of Mansfield, New York, +March 28, 1860. His early education was obtained from the district +school and he began teaching at the age of sixteen. After completing +an academic course he went to Cornell University from which he was +graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1885. + +He at once became a teacher and after a few years started the first +Current Topic paper in the state, _The Educator_. Later he edited a +teachers' paper, _The World's Review_. Perhaps he is best known as +publisher of the _Regents' Review Books_ used in nearly every school +in the United States. His death occurred October 19, 1913. + + + LINCOLN + + Unlearned in the cant and quip of schools, + Uncouth, if only city ways refine; + Ungodly, if 'tis creeds that make divine; + In station poor, as judged by human rules, + And yet a giant towering o'er them all; + Clean, strong in mind, just, merciful, sublime; + The noblest product of the age and time, + Invoked of God in answer to men's call. + + O simple world, and will you ever learn, + Schools can but guide, they cannot mind create? + 'Neath roughest rock the choicest treasures wait; + In meanest forms we priceless gems discern; + Nor time, nor age, condition, rank nor birth, + Can hide the truly noble of the earth. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN'S OFFICE CHAIR] + + +This chair was used by Mr. Lincoln in his law office at Springfield, +Illinois, where, before leaving for the City of Washington after his +election as President, he wrote his Inaugural Address and formed his +Cabinet, frequently conferring with his twenty-year law partner, +William H. Herndon, on such matters, and adopting changes as suggested +if he considered them advisable. It was presented to O. H. Oldroyd +while living in the Lincoln Homestead, Springfield, by Mr. Herndon, +March 18, 1886. + + +James Riley was born in the hamlet of Tang, one mile from the town of +Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, and two miles from Lissoy, +County Westmeath, the home of Oliver Goldsmith--on the road between +the two--August 15, 1848. Published _Poems_, 1888; _Songs of Two +Peoples_, 1898, and _Christy of Rathglin_, a novel, in 1907. His poem +_The American Flag_, has been rated often as the best poem written to +our banner. Four lines on the loss of the Titanic brought from Captain +Rostron words in which he said: "With such praise one feels on a +higher plane, and must keep so, to be worthy of continuance." + + + LINCOLN IN HIS OFFICE CHAIR + + High-browed, rugged, and swarthy; + A picture of pain and care; + A lawyer sat with his greatest brief, + High in his office chair. + + His Country was to him client! + Futurity his ward! + And he must plead 'fore Fate's high court, + With prayer, and pen, and sword. + + Elected, by his people! + His heart and theirs, one beat! + He sees the storm-clouds gather; + The waves dash at his feet! + + Gloom upon land and water! + The Flag no more in the sun! + Lights from the South-line flickering, + And--dying--one--by one! + + November's winds wild shrieking! + Night--closed, on a Union rent! + And still the lawyer sat dreaming + Of its once bright firmament. + + Then, '61! Dark! Silent! + Only the calling word + Of Anderson at Sumter + The lawyer, writing, heard. + + Writing the Message that ever + Shall live in the hearts of men; + With cannon to cannon fronting, + The lawyer held the pen. + + Only thinking of Country + And the work that must be done; + Nature made in roughest mold + Her favored, fated son. + + He wrote while the world was waiting + Great Freedom's final test. + Should, or should not Democracy + Be planted in the West? + + Should Liberty at last survive + And man look straight on man? + Law, in its round, its strength and might + Be timed unto sense and plan? + + He, in his chair there sitting, + Had all these things for thought. + Now, the Vote unrecognized, + Must battles wild be fought? + + Alone the Chair is standing, + To remind the Land of the time + When the Slaver's heart, all passion, + He planned, and pursued his crime! + + As he rushed Disunion's order, + On, on from State to State! + And the Pen talked loud down the Message, + And bided the Land to wait. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR UNITED STATES SENATOR + + Photograph from an Ambrotype, by Gilmer, Illinois, 1858] + + + + +Elizabeth Porter Gould, born June 8, 1848, died July 28, 1906. +Essayist, lecturer and author; an early inspirer of woman's clubs and +the pioneer of the _Current Events_ and _Topics_ classes in Boston and +vicinity; an officer in several educational societies and honorary +member of the Webster Historical Society, Castilian Club and other +clubs where she had read many historical papers of great research and +given many practical suggestions. Among her published works are _Gems +From Walt Whitman_, _Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman_, _Ezekial +Cheever, Schoolmaster_, _John Adams and Daniel Webster as +Schoolmasters_, _A Pioneer Doctor_, _One's Self I Sing_ and _The +Brownings and America_. She had great energy and force of character, +and a capacity for friendship which was a source of great happiness to +her and endeared her to all. + + + THE VOICE OF LINCOLN + + In life's great symphony, + Above the seeming discord and the pain, + A master-voice is ever singing, singing, + The plan of God to men. + + In young America's song, + As threatening tumult pierced the tensioned air, + The voice of Lincoln over all was singing + The love of brother-man. + + And still his voice is heard; + 'Twill pierce the din of strife and mystery, + Till master-voices cease their singing, singing, + In life's great symphony. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AT THE TIME OF DEBATE WITH DOUGLAS + + From an Ambrotype taken at Beardstown, Ill., 1858] + + +His friends advised Lincoln to press his opponent on the Dred Scott +decision (of the United States Supreme Court permitting slavery in the +Territories), as Douglas would accept it, but argue for nullifying it +by anti-slavery legislation in the territorial assemblies, and this +would satisfy the people of Illinois, and elect him Senator. "All +right," said Lincoln, "then that kills him in 1860. I am gunning for +larger game." + + + + +Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on August +13, 1844. Educated at Andover. Her literary career began at the age of +thirteen with contributions to the newspapers. The earlier years of +her life were devoted to Christian labors among the poor families in +Andover, but failing health finally prevented her from carrying on her +labors along that line, and kept her within her study, but her +sympathy was always enlisted in the reformatory questions of the day. +_The Gates Ajar_ proved very popular, as did also her many juvenile +books. She wrote this poem for the Lincoln Memorial Album in 1882. She +died January 29, 1911. + + + THE THOUGHTS OF LINCOLN + + The angels of your thoughts are climbing still + The shining ladder of his fame, + And have not reached the top, nor ever will, + While this low life pronounces his high name. + + But yonder, where they dream, or dare, or do, + The "good" or "great" beyond our reach, + To talk of him must make old language new + In heavenly, as it did in human, speech. + + + + + [Illustration: THE LINCOLN LIFE-MASK + + By Leonard W. Volk] + + +Mr. Lincoln was engaged in trying a case in the United States Court at +Chicago, Illinois, in April, 1860, and Leonard W. Volk, the sculptor, +called upon him and said: "I would like to have you sit to me for your +bust." "I will, Mr. Volk," replied Lincoln. This was the first time +that Lincoln sat to an artist for the reproduction of his physique in +this manner. Previous to this he had posed only for daguerreotypes or +for photographs. + + +Richard Watson Gilder was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, February 8, +1844, and was educated at his father's school. He enlisted in Landis' +Philadelphia Battery for the emergency call in the campaign of 1863, +when the Confederate forces invaded Pennsylvania. Later he was editor +of a number of magazines and upon the death of J. G. Holland he was +made associate editor of the _Century_. At the age of twenty-six he +had attained high literary standing. His poems are published in five +volumes. He rendered valuable service in tenement-house reform over +the country. He died on the 18th day of November, 1909. + + + ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + This bronze doth keep the very form and mold + Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he: + That brow all wisdom, all benignity; + That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that hold + Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold; + That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea + For storms to beat on; the lone agony + Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. + Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men + As might some prophet of the elder day-- + Brooding above the tempest and the fray + With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. + A power was his beyond the touch of art + Or armed strength--his pure and mighty heart. + + + + + [Illustration: THE HAND OF LINCOLN] + + +The Saturday after the nomination of Mr. Lincoln for President of the +United States, the Committee appointed to inform him of the said +nomination arrived in Springfield and performed this duty in the +evening at his home. + +The cast of his hand was made the next morning by Mr. Leonard W. Volk. +While the sculptor was making the cast of his left hand, Lincoln +called his attention to a scar on his thumb. "You have heard me called +the 'rail-splitter' haven't you?" he said, "Well, I used to split +rails when I was a young man, and one day, while sharpening a wedge on +a log, the axe glanced and nearly took off my thumb." + + +Edmund Clarence Stedman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 8th +of October, 1833. He entered Yale College at the age of sixteen and +distinguished himself in Greek and English Composition. He was the +editor of several papers in Connecticut and in 1856 removed to New +York City--a larger field for his literary abilities. He was a +contributor to _Vanity Fair_, _Putnam's Monthly_, _Harper's Magazine_ +and other periodicals. His poems: _The Diamond Wedding_, _How Old John +Brown Took Harper's Ferry_, _The Ballad of Lager-Bier_, gave him some +reputation. He was war-correspondent for the _World_ during the early +campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from the Headquarters of General +Irwin McDowell and General B. McClellan. He died in 1908. + + + THE HAND OF LINCOLN + + Look on this cast, and know the hand + That bore a nation in its hold; + From this mute witness understand + What Lincoln was--how large of mold. + + The man who sped the woodman's team, + And deepest sunk the plowman's share, + And pushed the laden raft astream, + Of fate before him unaware. + + This was the hand that knew to swing + The axe--since thus would Freedom train + Her son--and made the forest ring, + And drove the wedge and toiled amain. + + Firm hand that loftier office took, + A conscious leader's will obeyed, + And, when men sought his word and look, + With steadfast might the gathering swayed. + + No courtier's, toying with a sword, + Nor minstrel's, laid across a lute; + Chiefs, uplifted to the Lord + When all the kings of earth are mute! + + The hand of Anak, sinewed strong, + The fingers that on greatness clutch, + Yet lo! the marks their lines along + Of one who strove and suffered much. + + For here in mottled cord and vein + I trace the varying chart of years, + I know the troubled heart, the strain, + The weight of Atlas--and the tears. + + Again I see the patient brow + That palm erewhile was wont to press; + And now 'tis furrowed deep, and now + Made smooth with hope and tenderness. + + For something of a formless grace + This molded outline plays about; + A pitying flame, beyond our trace, + Breathes like a spirit, in and out-- + + The love that casts an aureole + Round one who, longer to endure, + Called mirth to cease his ceaseless dole, + Yet kept his nobler purpose sure. + + Lo, as I gaze, the statured man, + Built up from yon large hand, appears; + A type that nature wills to plan + But once in all a people's years. + + What better than this voiceless cast + To tell of such a one as he, + Since through its living semblance passed + The thought that bade a race be free? + + + + + [Illustration: HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR + THE PRESIDENCY, 1860 + + Painted by Hicks; lithograph by L. Grozelier; published by + W. Schaus, New York, 1860; printed by J. H. Bufford, Boston] + + + + + [Illustration: THE "WIGWAM" + + Convention Hall, at Chicago, 1860, in which Lincoln was nominated] + + +The Republicans of Chicago had erected a huge temporary building for +the use of the Convention. The "Wigwam," as it was called, covered a +space of 600 feet by 180, and the height was between 50 and 60 feet. +The building would hold about 10,000 persons, and was divided into +platform, ground-floor and gallery. The stage upon which the delegates +and members of the press were seated, held about 1,800 persons; the +ground-floor and galleries, about 8,000. A large gallery was reserved +for ladies, which was filled every day to overflowing. The Convention +met on June 16, 1860. + + + + +Edmund Clarence Stedman is the author of this poem, and it was +published in the _Press and Tribune_ of Chicago, and in _Weekly +Illinois State Journal_, June 13, 1860. It was sung to the air of the +"Star Spangled Banner" throughout the campaign. + + + HONEST ABE OF THE WEST + + O Hark! from the pine-crested hills of old Maine, + Where the splendor first falls from the wings of the + morning, + And away in the West, over river and plain, + Rings out the grand anthem of Liberty's warning! + From green-rolling prairie it swells to the sea, + For the people have risen, victorious and free, + They have chosen their leaders, and bravest and best + Of them all is Old Abe, Honest Abe of the West! + + The spirit that fought for the patriots of old + Has swept through the land and aroused us forever; + In the pure air of heaven a standard unfold + Fit to marshal us on to the sacred endeavor! + Proudly the banner of freemen we bear; + Noble the hopes that encircle it there! + And where battle is thickest we follow the crest + Of gallant Old Abe, Honest Abe of the West! + + There's a triumph in urging a glorious cause, + Though the hosts of the foe for a while may be stronger, + Pushing on for just rules and holier laws, + Till their lessening columns oppose us no longer. + But ours the loud pæan of men who have passed + Through the struggles of years, and are victors at last; + So forward the flag! Leave to Heaven the rest, + And trust in Old Abe, Honest Abe of the West! + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT + + From an Ambrotype taken at Springfield, Illinois, August 13, 1860] + + + + +William Henry Burleigh, born at Woodstock, Connecticut, February 2, +1812. In early manhood became an advocate of reforms then unpopular, +and an acceptable lecturer on behalf of temperance and the +anti-slavery cause. He removed to Pittsburgh in 1837, where he +published the _Christian Witness_, and afterwards the _Temperance +Banner_. As a writer, speaker, editor, poet, reformer, friend and +associate, it was the universal testimony of those who knew him best +and esteemed him most truly, that he stood in the forefront of his +generation. His poetry, animated by deep love of nature and a profound +desire to uphold truth and justice, gives him a place with our first +minor poets. + + + PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 1860 + + Up again for the conflict! Our banner fling out, + And rally around it with song and with shout! + Stout of heart, firm of hand, should the gallant boys be, + Who bear to the battle the Flag of the Free! + Like our fathers, when Liberty called to the strife, + They should pledge to her cause fortune, honor, and life! + And follow wherever she beckons them on, + Till Freedom results in a victory won! + + They came from the hillside, they came from the glen-- + From the streets thronged with traffic and surging with men, + From loom and from ledger, from workshop and farm, + The fearless of heart, and the mighty of arm. + As the mountain-born torrents exultingly leap + When their ice-fetters melt, to the breast of the deep; + As the winds of the prairie, the waves of the sea, + They are coming--are coming--the Sons of the Free! + + Our Leader is one who, with conquerless will, + Has climbed from the base to the brow of the hill; + Undaunted in peril, unwavering in strife, + He has fought a good fight in the Battle of Life, + And we trust as one who--come woe or come weal, + Is as firm as the rock and as true as the steel. + Right loyal and brave, with no stain on his breast, + Then, hurrah, boys, for honest "Old Abe of the West!" + + + + + [Illustration: "HONEST ABE" + + A Campaign Cartoon of 1860] + + + + +Madison Cawein was born at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 23rd of March, +1865. Was educated in the city and country schools about Louisville +and New Albany, Indiana. Graduated from the Male High School, +Louisville, in 1886, and the following year published his first +volume, called _Blooms of the Berry_. Since then he published some +thirty-odd volumes of prose and poetry, both in the United States and +England. He died in 1915. + + + LINCOLN, 1809--FEBRUARY 12, 1909 + + _Read for the first time at the Lincoln centenary celebration, + Temple Adath Israel, Louisville, Ky._ + + Yea, this is he, whose name is synonym + Of all that's noble, though but lowly born; + Who took command upon a stormy morn + When few had hope. Although uncouth of limb, + Homely of face and gaunt, but never grim, + Beautiful he was with that which none may scorn-- + With love of God and man and things forlorn, + And freedom mighty as the soul in him. + Large at the helm of state he leans and looms + With the grave, kindly look of those who die + Doing their duty. Stanch, unswervingly + Onward he steers beneath portentous glooms, + And overwhelming thunders of the sky, + Till, safe in port, he sees a people free. + + Safe from the storm; the harbor-lights of Peace + Before his eyes; the burden of dark fears + Cast from him like a cloak; and in his ears + The heart-beat music of a great release; + Captain and pilot, back upon the seas, + Whose wrath he'd weathered, back he looks with tears, + Seeing no shadow of the Death that nears, + Stealthy and sure, with sudden agonies. + So let him stand, brother to every man, + Ready for toil or battle; he who held + A Nation's destinies within his hand; + Type of our greatness; first American, + By whom the hearts of all men are compelled, + And with whose name Freedom unites our land. + + He needs no praise of us, who wrought so well, + Who has the Master's praise; who at his post + Stood to the last. Yet, now, from coast to coast, + Let memory of him peal like some great bell, + Of him as woodsman, workman, let it tell! + Of him as lawyer, statesman, without boast! + And for what qualities we love him most, + And recollections that no time can quell. + He needs no praise of us, yet let us praise, + Albeit his simple soul we may offend, + That liked not praise, being most diffident; + Still let us praise him, praise him in such ways + As his were, and in words that shall transcend + Marble, and outlast any monument. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT + + Photograph by Hesler, Chicago, Illinois, 1860] + + + + +Isaac Bassett Choate, born at South Otis Field, Maine, July 12, 1833. +Bachelor of Arts, Bowdoin College, 1862. Author of _Wild Birds and +Flowers_, 1895; _Wells of English_, 1892; _Obeyed the Camel Driver_, +1899; _Apollo's Guest_, 1907. + +By special invitation from the faculty of the Alumni Association of +said College he read the following poem at their annual banquet held +on the centenary of Lincoln's birth, 1909: + + + THE MATCHLESS LINCOLN + + From out the ranks of common men he rose-- + Himself of common elements, yet fine-- + As in a wood of different species grows + Above all other trees the lordly pine, + Upon whose branches rest the winter snows, + Upon whose head warm beams of summer shine; + His was the heart to feel the people's woes + And his the hand to hold the builder's line; + Strong, patient, wise and great, + Born ruler of the State. + + Among a mountain group one sovereign peak + Will tower aloft unto commanding height + As if more distant view abroad to seek-- + First one to hail, last one to speed the light; + Those granite sides will snows of winter streak + E'en in the summer with their purest white;-- + Silent, serene, that summit yet will speak + Of loftiest grandeur to the enraptured sight; + So Lincoln's greatness shone + Supreme, unmatched, alone. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT + + Photograph, Springfield, Ill., 1860] + + + + +Charlotte Becker was born and has always lived in Buffalo, New York. +She was educated in private schools and in Europe, and has written +poems for _Harper's Magazine_, _The Metropolitan_, _The American_, +_Life_, etc., besides a number of songs which have been set to music +by Amy Woodfords-Finden, C. B. Hawley, Whitney Coombs and others. + + + LINCOLN + + Gaunt, rough-hewn face, that bore the furrowed signs + Of days of conflict, nights of agony, + And still could soften to the gentler lines + Of one whose tenderness and truth went free + Beyond the pale of any small confines + To understand and help humanity. + + Wise, steadfast mind, that grasped a people's need, + Counting nor pain nor sacrifice too great + To keep the noble purpose of his creed + Strong against all buffeting of Fate, + Though no least solace sprang of work or deed + For him, since triumph came at last--too late. + + Brave, weary heart, that beat uncomforted + Beneath its heavy load of grief and care; + That tears of blood for every battle shed, + Yet called on mirth to help his comrades bear + The waiting hours of anguish, and that sped + With loyal haste each breath of balm to share. + + Only his people's griefs were his; no part + Had he within their joy; nor his the toll + To know the love that made rebellion start, + Spurred hosts unnumbered to a higher goal; + That his great soul should cleanse a nation's heart, + His martyred heart awake a nation's soul. + + + + + [Illustration: CABIN OF LINCOLN'S PARENTS + + on Goose-Nest Prairie, Illinois] + + +The last home of the parents of Lincoln. Built by his father, Thomas, +in 1831, near Farmington, Coles Co., Ill. The father died here in 1851 +and the step-mother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, in 1869. After Lincoln was +elected President in 1860, and before leaving for Washington to be +inaugurated, he visited his mother in this cabin for the last time. As +he was leaving her, she made a prediction of his tragic death. With +arms about his neck, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she +declared it was the last time she would ever see him alive, and it +proved to be so. + +Lincoln once said, "I was told that I never would make a lawyer if I +did not understand what 'demonstrate' means. I left my situation in +Springfield, went to my father's house, and stayed there till I could +give any proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I there +found out what demonstrate means." + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN HOMESTEAD, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS] + + +On Monday, February 11, 1861, Mr. Lincoln and family in company with a +party left Springfield, Illinois, for Washington, D. C. A light rain +mixed with snow was falling at the time which made the occasion a +somewhat gloomy one. Mr. Lincoln appeared on the rear platform of the +car where he bade farewell to his neighbors in the following address: + +"My friends, no one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I +feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have +lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, +and here one of them lies buried. + +"I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me +which is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved upon any other +man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except +for the aid of divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. + +"I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which +sustained him; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for +support, and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive the +divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which +success is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate farewell." + +Mr. Lincoln thought that there is a time to joke and pray; and if, as +his detractors affirm, he joked all the way to Washington, if he did +not pray also (as we believe he did, and fervently, too) he at least +desired the prayers of others, as the circumstances recorded in the +following poem will show. It is from the pen of a lady of +Philadelphia, Mrs. Anna Bache. + + + LINCOLN AT SPRINGFIELD, 1861 + + "My friends,--elected by your choice, + From the long-cherished home I go, + Endeared by Heaven-permitted joys, + Sacred by Heaven-permitted woe, + I go, to take the helm of State, + While loud the waves of faction roar, + And by His aid, supremely great, + Upon whose will all tempests wait, + I hope to steer the bark to shore. + Not since the days when Washington + To battle led our patriots on, + Have clouds so dark above us met, + Have dangers dire so close beset. + And _he_ had never saved the land + By deeds in human wisdom planned, + But that with Christian faith he sought + Guidance and blessing, where he ought. + Like him, I seek for aid divine, + His faith, his hope, his trust, are mine. + Pray for me, friends, that God may make + My judgment clear, my duty plain; + For if the Lord no wardship take, + The watchmen mount the towers in vain." + + He ceased; and many a manly breast + Panted with strong emotion's swell, + And many a lip the sob suppressed, + And tears from manly eyelids fell. + And hats came off, and heads were bowed, + As Lincoln slowly moved away; + And then, heart-spoken, from the crowd, + In accents earnest, clear, and loud, + Came one brief sentence, "We _will_ pray!" + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SECRETARIES, + JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY + + Photographed at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861] + + + + +On the 22nd of February, 1861, Washington's birthday, on his journey +to Washington, to assume the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln raised a new flag +over Independence Hall, then went inside and spoke as follows:-- + +"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing in this +place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the +devotion to principle from which sprang the institutions under which +we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task +of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return, +sirs, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, +so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which +originated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never +had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments +embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered +over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and +framed and adopted that Declaration. I have pondered over the toils +that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who +achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great +principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. +It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the +motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence +which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope +to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise +that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all +men and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment +embodied in the Declaration of Independence. + +"Now, my friends, can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, +I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can +help to save it. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up +that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on +this spot than surrender it." + +Four years and two months later, April 22, 1865, his body lay, +assassinated, on the very spot where he had made the above remarks, +then being taken to Springfield, Illinois, for burial. + + + [Illustration: INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA] + + + + +Henry Wilson Clendenin, born at Schellsburg, Pennsylvania, August 1, +1837; educated in private schools and by tutors. Married Mary E. Morey +of Monmouth, Illinois, October 23, 1877; to them were born five +children, four of whom survive: George M., manager _Illinois State +Register_; Clarence R., Deputy Internal Revenue Collector, +Springfield, Illinois; Harry F., proofreader, _Illinois State +Register_, and Marie, Assistant Instructor Physical Education, State +Normal University, Normal, Illinois. He was a private of Company I, +Twentieth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War. Began +newspaper work on _Burlington_ (Iowa) _Hawkeye_. Afterwards telegraph +editor _Peoria Transcript_, 1858; telegraph editor _Burlington +Gazette_, 1863, and editor and proprietor, _Keokuk Daily +Constitution_, 1876-1881; since that year was editor and president of +the _Illinois State Register_. Postmaster, Springfield 1886-90. Member +Illinois State Historical Society, The Jefferson Association, Grand +Army of the Republic and Sons of the American Revolution. Director of +Lincoln Library at Springfield, Illinois, for ten years. Member of the +First Congregational Church of that city. + +This sonnet was written by Mr. Clendenin, in Philadelphia, February +22, 1861, after witnessing Lincoln hoist the flag over Independence +Hall. + + + LINCOLN CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY + + Hark to the sound that speedeth o'er the land! + Behold the sword in fratricidal hand! + 'Tis duty calls thee, Lincoln, and thy trust + Demands that all thy acts be wise and just. + No idle task to thee has been assigned, + But work that's worthy of a giant mind-- + And on the issue hangs the nation's fame + As a free people who deserve the name. + So, walk thou in the way the fathers trod; + Be true to freedom, country, and to God; + Then truth will triumph, treason be undone, + And thou be hailed the second Washington. + The first, the Father of his country--thou, + Its Saviour. Bind the laurel on thy brow. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1858 + + From a photograph by S. M. Fassett of Chicago] + + + + +An act of Congress July 9, 1790, established the District of Columbia +as the National Capital, and provided that prior to the first Monday +of December, 1800, the Commissioners should have finished a suitable +building for the sessions of Congress. The site of the Capitol was +included in L'Enfant's plan for the city. The cornerstone was laid +September 18, 1793, with Masonic rites, George Washington officiating. +The wings of the central building were completed in 1811, and were +partially burned by the British, in 1814. The entire central building +was finished in 1827. The cornerstone of the extension was laid by +President Fillmore, July 4, 1851. The extensions were first occupied +by Congress 1857 and 1859. Up to that time the Senate Chamber was the +present Supreme Court Room, and the Hall of Representatives was the +present National Statuary Hall. The dome was finished during the +administration of President Lincoln. The total cost of the Capitol +building and grounds was about thirty million dollars. The remains of +President Lincoln were escorted from the White House to the Capitol at +three o'clock P.M., on the 19th of April, 1865. The number in the +procession was estimated at forty thousand, and that many more were +spectators along the route. The burial service was conducted by Dr. +Gurley. The special train bearing the remains left at 8 A.M., Friday, +April 21, for Springfield, Illinois, stopping at Baltimore, Maryland; +Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Albany and Buffalo, New +York; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, +Illinois, reaching Springfield, Illinois, the 3d of May, and was +buried the following day. The body lay in state in all of the above +cities. + + + [Illustration: THE CAPITOL + + The Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the + United States, in front of the Capitol, Washington, March 4, 1865] + + + + +Edwin Markham, born at Oregon City, Oregon, April 23, 1852; settled in +California in 1857, and worked there during his boyhood, principally +as a blacksmith. Worked his way through the San Jose Normal School and +Santa Rosa College. Became a writer of stories and verse for papers +and magazines, and principal and superintendent of California schools. +Was the author of _The Man With the Hoe, and Other Poems_ (1899); _The +Man With the Hoe, with Notes by the Author_ (1900); _The End of the +Century_ (1899); _Lincoln, the Great Commoner_ (1900); _The Mighty +Hundred Years; Lincoln and Other Poems_ (1901); _The Shoes of +Happiness_ (1915). His _Man With the Hoe_ was extensively republished +and gave him wide fame. + + + LINCOLN THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE + + When the Norn-Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour, + Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, + She bent the strenuous Heavens and came down + To make a man to meet the mortal need. + She took the tried clay of the common road-- + Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, + Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy; + Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff. + It was a stuff to wear for centuries, + A man that matched the mountains, and compelled + The stars to look our way and honor us. + + The color of the ground was in him, the red earth; + The tang and odor of the primal things-- + The rectitude and patience of the rocks; + The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn; + The courage of the bird that dares the sea; + The justice of the rain that loves all leaves; + The pity of snow that hides all scars; + The loving-kindness of the wayside well; + The tolerance and equity of light + That gives as freely to the shrinking weed + As to the great oak flaring to the wind-- + To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn + That shoulders out the sky. + + And so he came. + From prairie cabin up to Capitol, + One fair ideal led our chieftain on. + Forevermore he burned to do his deed + With the fine stroke and gesture of a king. + He built the rail pile as he built the State, + Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, + The conscience of him testing every stroke, + To make his deed the measure of a man. + + So came the Captain with the mighty heart; + And when the step of earthquake shook the house, + Wresting the rafters from their ancient hold, + He held the ridge-pole up and spiked again + The rafters of the Home. He held his place-- + Held the long purpose like a growing tree-- + Held on through blame and faltered not at praise, + And when he fell, in whirlwind, he went down + As when a kingly cedar, green with boughs, + Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, + And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. + + + + + [Illustration: THE WHITE HOUSE] + + +The corner-stone was laid by George Washington on the 13th of October, +1792. The mansion was first occupied by President John Adams in the +year 1800, also by every succeeding President. British troops burned +it in 1814, in President Madison's term. It was the first public +building erected in Washington. It is constructed of Virginia +freestone, and is 170 feet in length, 80 feet in depth, and consists +of a rustic basement, two stories and an attic. + + + + +John Vance Cheney, born Groveland, New York, December 29, 1848. +Graduated Temple Hill Academy, Genesee, New York, at seventeen. +Assistant principal there two years later. Practiced law, New York, +1875-6; librarian Free Public Library, San Francisco, 1887-94; +Newberry Library, Chicago, 1894-1909; author, _The Old Doctor_, 1881; +and a number of poems, 1887-1911. + + + LINCOLN + + The hour was on us; where the man? + The fateful sands unfaltering ran, + And up the way of tears + He came into the years. + + Our pastoral captain. Forth he came, + As one that answers to his name; + Nor dreamed how high his charge, + His work how fair and large, + + To set the stones back in the wall + Lest the divided house should fall, + And peace from men depart, + Hope and the childlike heart. + + We looked on him; "'Tis he," we said, + "Come crownless and unheralded, + The shepherd who will keep + The flocks, will fold the sheep." + + Unknightly, yes: yet 'twas the mien + Presaging the immortal scene, + Some battles of His wars + Who sealeth up the stars. + + Not he would take the past between + His hands, wipe valor's tablets clean, + Commanding greatness wait + Till he stands at the gate; + + Not he would cramp to one small head + The awful laurels of the dead, + Time's mighty vintage cup, + And drink all honor up. + + No flutter of the banners bold + Borne by the lusty sons of old, + The haughty conquerors + Set forward to their wars; + + Not his their blare, their pageantries, + Their goal, their glory, was not his; + Humbly he came to keep + The flocks, to fold the sheep. + + The need comes not without the man; + The prescient hours unceasing ran, + And up the way of tears + He came into the years. + + Our pastoral captain, skilled to crook + The spear into the pruning hook, + The simple, kindly man, + Lincoln, American. + + + + + [Illustration: WHERE LINCOLN WORSHIPPED + + New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C.] + + +President Lincoln and family attended this church during his +Administration. The pew that they occupied is still preserved in its +black walnut trimmings, though the rest of the sanctuary has been +refurnished. + + + + +Lyman Whitney Allen, born at St. Louis, November 19, 1854. Bachelor of +Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, 1878; later Master of Arts, +Princeton Theological, 1878-80; Post-graduate studies at Princeton +University; (D.D., University of Wooster, 1897). Ordained Presbyterian +Minister, 1882; stated supply Kimmswick, Missouri, 1881-3; DeSoto, +Missouri, 1883-5; Pastor-elect Carondelet Church, St. Louis, Missouri, +1885-9; Pastor South Park Church, Newark, New Jersey, since 1889. +Director Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian; Chaplain New Jersey +Society D. A. R.; Member Society American Authors; New Jersey Society +S. A. R. Club, Princeton (New York). Has written many poems and +articles, including the New York _Herald's_ $1,000 prize poem which +was published in 1895. + +Rev. Dr. Lyman Whitney Allen of Newark, New Jersey, had for his guest +Chief Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford of the Supreme Court of the +District of Columbia. Judge Stafford addressed the Men's Club of Dr. +Allen's church one evening, and next day, in company with his host, +visited the Lincoln statue on the court-house plaza. On the train that +bore him back to Washington that day, Judge Stafford wrote the poem on +the Statue. (See page 236). + +A few weeks thereafter Dr. Allen visited his friend, the judge, in +Washington, and they made a little pilgrimage to the New York Avenue +Presbyterian church. In the Lincoln pew Dr. Allen sat and meditated, +and on his way back he wrote the verses. + +"I had seen the Lincoln statue many times," says Dr. Allen, "but, +somehow, I could not get started on the poem I knew could be written +around it." And Judge Stafford wrote to his friend in Newark: "I had +seen the Lincoln pew a score of times without poetic result, yet you +come on a one-day visit and carry away the inspiration needed." + + + LINCOLN'S CHURCH IN WASHINGTON + + Within the historic church both eye and soul + Perceived it. 'Twas the pew where Lincoln sat-- + The only Lincoln God hath given to men-- + Olden among the modern seats of prayer, + Dark like the 'sixties, place and past akin. + All else has changed, but this remains the same, + A sanctuary in a sanctuary. + + Where Lincoln prayed! What passion had his soul-- + Mixt faith and anguish melting into prayer + Upon the burning altar of God's fane, + A nation's altar even as his own. + + Where Lincoln prayed! Such worshipers as he + Make thin ranks down the ages. Wouldst thou know + His spirit suppliant? Then must thou feel + War's fiery baptism, taste hate's bitter cup, + Spend similar sweat of blood vicarious, + And sound the cry, "If it be possible!" + From stricken heart in new Gethsemane. + + Who saw him there are gone, as he is gone; + The pew remains, with what God gave him there, + And all the world through him. So let it be-- + One of the people's shrines. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1858 + + From a photograph in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown of + Springfield, Illinois] + + + + +John James Piatt was born in Indiana, March 1, 1835. His earliest +schooling was received at Rising Sun, in Indiana. At the age of +fourteen he was set to learn the printing business in the office of +the _Ohio State Journal_ at Columbus, Ohio, for a brief period, and at +the age of eighteen years first began to write verses. His poems were +chiefly on themes connected with his native West. + + + SONNET IN 1862 + + Stern be the Pilot in the dreadful hour + When a great nation, like a ship at sea + With the wroth breakers whitening at her lee, + Feels her last shudder if her helmsman cower; + A godlike manhood be his mighty dower! + Such and so gifted, Lincoln, may'st thou be + With thy high wisdom's low simplicity + And awful tenderness of voted power. + From our hot records then thy name shall stand + On Time's calm ledger out of passionate days-- + With the pure debt of gratitude begun, + And only paid in never-ending praise-- + One of the many of a mighty land, + Made by God's providence the Anointed One. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + [Signed: For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hand I + accepted the present of an Oxford Bible twenty + years ago. + + Washington, D. C. October 3, 1861 + + A. Lincoln ]] + + + + +Lincoln once said: "When any church will inscribe over its altar, as +its sole qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed +statement of the substance of both law and gospel, 'Thou shalt love +the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all +thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself', that church will I join with +all my heart and all my soul." + + + LINCOLN, SOLDIER OF CHRIST + + _From Macmillan's Magazine, England_ + + Lincoln! When men would name a man + Just, unperturbed, magnanimous, + Tried in the lowest seat of all, + Tried in the chief seat of the house-- + + Lincoln! When men would name a man + Who wrought the great work of his age, + Who fought, and fought the noblest fight, + And marshalled it from stage to stage. + + Victorious, out of dusk and dark, + And into dawn and on till day, + Most humble when the pæans rang, + Least rigid when the enemy lay + + Prostrated for his feet to tread-- + This name of Lincoln will they name, + A name revered, a name of scorn, + Of scorn to sundry, not to fame. + + Lincoln; the man who freed the slave; + Lincoln, whom never self enticed; + Slain Lincoln, worthy found to die + A soldier of the captain Christ. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1860 + + Photographed by Brady at the time of the "Cooper Institute Speech," + February, 1860] + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Gardner, Washington] + + + + +Rev. Hamilton Schuyler was born in Oswego, New York, 1862, and is a +son of the late Anthony Schuyler, who was for many years rector of +Grace Church, Orange, New Jersey. He belongs to the well-known family +of that name, being seventh in descent from Philip Peterse Schuyler, +founder of the family, who came to this country from Holland and +settled in Albany in 1650. He studied at Oxford University, England, +and the General Theological Seminary of New York. Has held positions +in Calvary Church, New York; Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, +and was for several years dean of the Cathedral at Davenport, Iowa, +under the late Bishop Perry. He began his rectorship at Trenton in +February, 1900. Has written extensively for journals and periodicals. +Among the bound publications which bear his name as author are _A +Fisher of Men_, a biography of the late Churchill Satterlee, priest +and missionary, son of the first Bishop of Washington; _Studies in +English Church History_; _The Intellectual Crisis Confronting +Christianity_; and _A History of Trinity Church, Trenton_. In 1900 his +poem, _The Incapable_, won a prize of two hundred dollars offered by +the late Collis P. Huntington through the _New York Sun_, for the best +poems antithetical to Edwin Markham's _Man With the Hoe_. A volume of +Mr. Schuyler's verses, under the title _Within the Cloister's Shadow_, +was published in 1914. + + + A CHARACTERIZATION OF LINCOLN + + _From Lincoln Centenary Ode_ + + Tall, ungainly, gaunt of limb, + Rudely Nature molded him. + Awkward form and homely face, + Owing naught to outward grace; + Yet, behind the rugged mien + Were a mind and soul serene, + And in deep-set eyes there shone + Genius that was all his own. + Humor quaint with pathos blent + To his speech attraction lent; + Telling phrase and homely quip + Falling lightly from his lip. + Eloquent of tongue, and clear, + Logical, devoid of fear, + Making plain whate'er was dense + By the light of common sense. + Tender as the bravest be, + Pitiful in high degree, + Wrathful only where offence + Led to grievous consequence; + Hating sham and empty show; + Chivalrous to beaten foe; + Ever patient in his ways; + Cheerful in the darkest days; + Not a demi-god or saint + Such as fancy loves to paint, + But a truly human man + Built on the heroic plan. + + + + + [Illustration: EMANCIPATION GROUP] + + +Moses Kimball, a citizen of Boston, presented to the city a duplicate +of the Freedman's Memorial Statue erected in Lincoln Park, Washington, +D. C., after a design by Thomas Ball. The group, which stands in Park +Square, represents the figure of a slave from whose limbs the broken +fetters have fallen, kneeling in gratitude at the feet of Lincoln. The +verses which follow were written for the unveiling of the statue, +December 9, 1879. + + +John Greenleaf Whittier, born December 17, 1807, in Haverhill, +Massachusetts. He lived on a farm until he reached the age of +eighteen, working a little at shoemaking and also writing poetry for +the _Haverhill Gazette_. Later he became editor of a number of papers, +and his poems in after life were full of patriotism and the love of +human freedom, all of which attained a strong hold on the hearts of +the people. He would have prevented war, if possible, with honor, but +when war came he wrote in support of the Union cause, displaying no +bitterness, and when the conflict was over he was most liberal and +conciliatory. He was one of the most popular of poets. He died +September 7, 1892. + + + THE EMANCIPATION GROUP + + Amidst thy sacred effigies + Of old renown give place, + O city. Freedom-loved! to his + Whose hand unchained a race. + + Take the worn frame, that rested not + Save in a martyr's grave; + The care-lined face, that none forgot, + Bent to the kneeling slave. + + Let man be free! The mighty word + He spoke was not his own; + An impulse from the Highest stirred + These chiseled lips alone. + + The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, + Along his pathway ran, + And Nature, through his voice, denied + The ownership of man. + + We rest in peace where these sad eyes + Saw peril, strife, and pain; + His was the Nation's sacrifice, + And ours the priceless gain. + + O symbol of God's will on earth + As it is done above + Bear witness to the cost and worth + Of justice and of love! + + Stand in thy place and testify + To coming ages long, + That truth is stronger than a lie, + And righteousness than wrong. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1863] + + + + +Theron Brown, born at Willimantic, Connecticut, April 29, 1832. +Graduated at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1858; Newton Theological +Institution, 1859. Ordained in Baptist Ministry, 1859; Pastor South +Framingham, Massachusetts, 1859-62; Canton, Massachusetts, 1863-70; on +staff _Youth's Companion_ since 1870. Author various juvenile stories; +_Life Songs_ (poems), 1894; _Nameless Women of the Bible_, 1904; _The +Story of the Hymns and Tunes_, 1907; _Under the Mulberry Tree_ (a +novel), 1909; _The Birds of God_, 1911. He died February 14, 1914. + + + THE LIBERATOR + + When, scornful of a nation's rest, + The angry horns of Discord blew + There came a giant from the West, + And found a giant's work to do. + + He saw, in sorrow--and in wrath-- + A mighty empire in its strait, + Torn like a planet in its path + To warring hemisphere of hate. + + Between the thunder-clouds he stood; + He harked to Ruin's battle-drum, + And cried in patriot hardihood, + "Why do I wait? My hour has come! + + "Was it my fate, my lot, my woe + To be the Ruler of the land, + Nor own my oath that long ago + I swore upon this heart and hand? + + "That vow, like barb from bowman's string, + Shall pierce sedition's secret plea: + God grant the bloodless blow shall sting + Till brother's quarrels cease to be! + + "Should once the sudden wound provoke + New strife in anger's zone + The clash may be the penal stroke + That makes a new Republic one." + + He wrote his Message--clear as light, + And bolder than a king's command-- + And when war's whirlwinds spent their might + There was no bondman in the land. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Alexander Gardner, Washington, D. C., + January 24, 1863] + + + + + TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + _January 1, 1863_ + + + Lincoln, that with thy steadfast truth the sand + Of men and time and circumstance dost sway! + The slave-cloud dwindles on this golden day, + And over all the pestilent southern land, + Breathless, the dark expectant millions stand, + To watch the northern sun rise on its way, + Cleaving the stormy distance--every ray + Sword-bright, sword-sharp, in God's invisible hand. + + Better with this great end, partial defeat, + And jibings of the ignorant worldly-wise, + Than laud and triumph won with shameful blows. + The dead Past lies in its dead winding-sheet; + The living Present droops with tearful eyes; + But far beyond the awaiting Future glows. + + _Edmund Ollier, in London (Eng.) Morning Star._ + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C.] + + + + +Charles G. Foltz was born at West Winfield, Herkimer County, New York, +September 9, 1837. His parents were Benjamin Foltz, a Presbyterian +clergyman, and Jane Harwood Foltz. In 1846 the family moved to +Cuyahoga County, Ohio. In 1849 to Wisconsin, first to Rock County, +then to Walworth County, and in 1854 to Burlington, Racine County, +where he has since resided. + + + ON FREEDOM'S SUMMIT + + On freedom's summit, Oh, how grand + Stood Lincoln ruler of our land, + As he issued the sublime command + Let the enslaved be free. + Ere long he saw the Bondmen rise; + Ere long as Freedmen seize the prize, + The precious boon of liberty. + + A backward glance he cast + Into the valley of the past, + Amid the shade and gloom + Discerning slavery's tomb. + Out from the depths his upturned eyes + Beheld the fleeing clouds the brighter skies. + Upon him shone a glory like the sun, + Reflecting "peace toward all, malice toward none." + + As thus he filled his high exalted place, + The brave emancipator of a race, + He thought of the fierce struggle and the victory + And humbly deemed himself to be + Only the instrument of a Divine decree. + Rejoicing in the faith of brighter coming days + His "fervent prayers" were merged in those of praise. + + Like unto psalmists of the olden time + His uttered thoughts inspired the nation's song, + Throughout the land the chorus rose sublime, + The exultant triumph of the right o'er wrong. + + "Behold, what God the Lord hath wrought," + More than we asked, or hoped, or thought. + Through the "Red sea" of blood and carnage + He brought our nation free of bondage. + With Moses sing, yea shout O North; + With Miriam answer back O South: + That "He hath triumphed gloriously." + + . . . . . + + Oh why the sudden blotting out of light? + The cloud of sorrow, dark as Plutonian night, + That cast its lengthening shadow o'er the land; + Changing to funeral dirge the choral grand. + Swift as the typhoon's breath-- + The harbinger of death-- + The cruel deed of hate + Swept the grand chief away. + Unto this day, and ever aye, + The nation mourns her martyr's fate. + + + + + [Illustration: Lincoln at Gettysburg] + + + ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION + OF THE CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG + + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we +cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add +or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say +here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the +living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they +who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us +to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,--that from +these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which +they gave their last full measure of devotion--that we here highly +resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, +under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of +the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the +earth. + + November 19, 1863. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +"Undoubtedly there were many in the audience who fully appreciated the +beauty of the President's address, and many of those who read it on +the following day perceived its wondrous character; but it is apparent +that its full force and grandeur were not generally recognized then, +either by its auditors or its readers. Not until the war had ended and +the great leader had fallen did the nation realize that this speech +had given to Gettysburg another claim to immortality and to American +eloquence its highest glory."--From the monograph on the Gettysburg +Address, by Maj. William H. Lambert. + + + + +Bayard Taylor, born in Kennett Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania, +on the 11th of January, 1825. Died in Berlin, Germany, on the 19th of +December, 1878. His boyhood was passed on a farm near Kennett. He +learned to read at four, began to write at an early age, and from his +twelfth year wrote poems, novels and historical essays, but mostly +poems. In 1837 the family moved to Westchester, and there and at +Unionville he had five years of high-school training. His first poem +printed was contributed to the _Saturday Evening Post_, in 1841, and +those to the _New York Tribune_ from abroad, written in 1844, were +widely read and shortly after his return were collected and published +in _Views Afoot, or Europe Seen With Knapsack and Staff_. With a +friend he bought a printing office in 1846, and began to publish the +_Phoenixville Pioneer_, but it was as a poet that he excelled above +most other vocations. + + + GETTYSBURG ODE + + After the eyes that looked, the lips that spake + Here, from the shadows of impending death, + Those words of solemn breath, + What voice may fitly break + The silence, doubly hallowed, left by him? + We can but bow the head, with eyes grown dim, + And, as a Nation's litany, repeat + The phrase his martyrdom hath made complete, + Noble as then, but now more sadly sweet: + "Let us, the Living, rather dedicate + Ourselves to the unfinished work, which they + Thus far advanced so nobly on its way, + And saved the periled State! + Let us, upon this field where they, the brave, + Their last full measure of devotion gave, + Highly resolve they have not died in vain!-- + That, under God, the Nation's later birth + Of freedom, and the people's gain + Of their own Sovereignty, shall never wane + And perish from the circle of the earth!" + From such a perfect text, shall Song aspire + To light her faded fire, + And into wandering music turn + Its virtue, simple, sorrowful, and stern? + His voice all elegies anticipated; + For, whatsoe'er the strain, + We hear that one refrain: + "We consecrate ourselves to them, the Consecrated!" + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON THOMAS ("TAD")] + + + + +Benjamin Franklin Taylor, born at Lowville, New York, July 19, 1819. +He was for several years connected with the _Chicago Evening Journal_. +He wrote _Pictures of Life in Camp and Field_ (1871); _The World on +Wheels_, etc. (1874); _Songs of Yesterday_ (1877); _Between the Gates_ +(1878); _Summer Savory_, etc. (1879); _Dulce Domum_ (1884); +_Theophilus Trent_, a novel (1887); etc. Among his best known poems +are: _Isle of the Long Ago_, _Rhymes of the River_, and _The Old +Village Choir_. + + + LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL + + The following is an excerpt from a _Centennial Poem_ read by + B. F. Taylor on Decoration Day (May 30, 1876), on the + occasion of the centennial celebration by the Department of + the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic, at Arlington + Cemetery, Washington, D. C. + + They see the pilgrims to the Springfield tomb-- + Be proud today, oh, portico of gloom!-- + Where lies the man in solitary state + Who never caused a tear but when he died + And set the flags around the world half-mast-- + The gentle Tribune and so grandly great + That e'en the utter avarice of Death + That claims the world, and will not be denied, + Could only rob him of his mortal breath. + How strange the splendor, though the man be past! + His noblest inspiration was his last. + The statues of the Capitol are there. + As when he stood upon the marble stair + And said those words so tender, true and just, + A royal psalm that took mankind on trust-- + Those words that will endure and he in them, + While May wears flowers upon her broidered hem, + And all that marble snows and drifts to dust: + "Fondly do we hope, fervently we pray + That this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away: + With charity for all, with malice toward none, + With firmness in the right + As God shall give us light, + Let us finish the work already begun, + Care for the battle sons, the Nation's wounds to bind, + Care for the helpless ones that they will leave behind, + Cherish it we will, achieve it if we can, + A just and lasting peace, forever unto man!" + Amid old Europe's rude and thundering years, + When people strove as battle-clouds are driven, + One calm white angel of a day appears + In every year a gift direct from Heaven, + Wherein, from setting sun to setting sun + No thought of deed of bitterness was done. + "Day of the Truce of God!" Be this day ours, + Until perpetual peace flows like a river + And hopes as fragrant as these tribute flowers + Fill all the land forever and forever! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C.] + + + + +Hermann Hagedorn, born in New York, July 18, 1882. Instructor in +English at Harvard in 1909-1911. Wrote several one-act plays which +were produced by the Harvard Dramatic Club, and by clubs of other +colleges. Author of _The Silver Blade_ (a play in verse), _The Woman +of Corinth_, _A Troop of the Guard_ and other poems. + + + OH, PATIENT EYES! + + Oh, patient eyes! oh, bleeding, mangled heart! + Oh, hero, whose wide soul, defying chains, + Swept at each army's head, + Swept to the charge and bled, + Gathering in one too sorrow-laden heart + All woes, all pains; + The anguish of the trusted hope that wanes, + The soldier's wound, the lonely mourner's smart. + He knew the noisy horror of the fight, + From dawn to dusk and through the hideous night + He heard the hiss of bullets, the shrill scream + Of the wide-arching shell, + Scattering at Gettysburg or by Potomac's stream, + Like summer flowers, the pattering rain of death; + With every breath, + He tasted battle and in every dream, + Trailing like mists from gaping walls of hell, + He heard the thud of heroes as they fell. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady] + + + + +Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, born at New Rochelle, New York, February +22, 1838. Educated privately, chiefly in New York. Became contributor +to leading periodicals; also editor of _Hearth and Home_, 1871-73; +_Christian at Work_, 1873-79; _The Christian Intelligencer_ since +1879; postmistress _Harper's Young People_, 1882-89; editor _Harper's +Bazar_, 1889-99; staff contributor _Christian Herald_ since 1894; +_Ladies' Home Journal_, 1899-1905; _Woman's Home Companion_ since +1905. Author _Poems of the Household_; _Home Fairies and Heart +Flowers_; _On the Road Home_; _Easter Bells_; _Winsome Womanhood_; +_Little Knights and Ladies_; _Lyrics of Love_; _When Angels Come to +Men_; _Good Manners for All Occasions_; _The Story Bible_; _Fairest +Girlhood_; _From My Youth Up_; _Happy School Days_. She died June 4, +1912. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + (_February 12, 1809-1909_) + + Child of the boundless prairie, son of the virgin soil, + Heir to the bearing of burdens, brother to them that toil; + God and Nature together shaped him to lead in the van, + In the stress of her wildest weather when the Nation needed + a Man. + + Eyes of a smoldering fire, heart of a lion at bay, + Patience to plan for tomorrow, valor to serve for today, + Mournful and mirthful and tender, quick as a flash with a jest, + Hiding with gibe and great laughter the ache that was dull + in his breast. + + Met were the Man and the Hour--Man who was strong for the shock-- + Fierce were the lightnings unleashed; in the midst, he stood + fast as a rock. + Comrade he was and commander, he who was meant for the time, + Iron in council and action, simple, aloof, and sublime. + + Swift slip the years from their tether, centuries pass like a + breath, + Only some lives are immortal, challenging darkness and death. + Hewn from the stuff of the martyrs, write on the stardust + his name, + Glowing, untarnished, transcendent, high on the records of Fame. + + Oh, man of many sorrows, 'twas your blood + That flowed at Chickamauga, at Bull Run, + Vicksburg, Antietam, and the gory wood + And Wilderness of ravenous Deaths that stood + Round Richmond like a ghostly garrison: + Your blood for those who won, + For those who lost, your tears! + For you the strife, the fears, + For us, the sun! + For you the lashing winds and the beating rain in your eyes, + For us the ascending stars and the wide, unbounded skies. + + Oh, man of storms! Patient and kingly soul! + Oh, wise physician of a wasted land! + A nation felt upon its heart your hand, + And lo, your hand hath made the shattered, whole, + With iron clasp your hand hath held the wheel + Of the lurching ship, on tempest waves no keel + Hath ever sailed. + A grim smile held your lips when strong men quailed. + You strove alone with chaos and prevailed; + You felt the grinding shock and did not reel, + And, ah, your hand that cut the battle's path + Wide with the devastating plague of wrath, + Your bleeding hand, gentle with pity yet, + Did not forget + To bless, to succor, and to heal. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Alexander Gardner, Washington, D. C., 1864] + + + + +Wilbur Dick Nesbit was born at Xenia, Ohio, September 16, 1871. +Educated in the public schools at Cedarville, Ohio. Was printer and +reporter on various Ohio and Indiana papers until 1898; verse writer +and paragrapher _Baltimore American_, 1899-1902; since that year +writer of verse and humor _Chicago Evening Post_ and other newspapers, +contributor of stories and poems to magazines and periodicals. Author +of _Little Henry's Slate_, 1903; _The Trail to Boyland and Other +Poems_, 1904; _An Alphabet of History_, 1905; _The Gentleman Ragman_, +1906; _A Book of Poems_, 1906; _The Land of Make-Believe and Other +Christmas Poems_, 1907; _A Friend or Two_, 1908; _The Loving Cup_ +(compilation), 1909; _The Old, Old Wish_, 1911; _My Company of +Friends_, 1911; _If the Heart be Glad_, 1911; co-author with Otto +Hauerbach of _The Girl of My Dreams_, a musical comedy, 1910. + + + THE MAN LINCOLN + + Not as the great who grow more great + Until from us they are apart-- + He walks with us in man's estate; + We know his was a brother heart. + The marching years may render dim + The humanness of other men; + Today we are akin to him + As they who knew him best were then. + + Wars have been won by mail-clad hands, + Realms have been ruled by sword-hedged kings, + But he above these others stands + As one who loved the common things; + The common faith of man was his, + The common faith of man he had-- + For this today his grave face is + A face half joyous and half sad. + + A man of earth! Of earthy stuff, + As honest as the fruitful soil, + Gnarled as the friendly trees, and rough + As hillsides that had known his toil; + Of earthy stuff--let it be told, + For earth-born men rise and reveal + A courage fair as beaten gold + And the enduring strength of steel. + + So now he dominates our thought. + This humble great man holds us thus + Because of all he dreamed and wrought; + Because he is akin to us. + He held his patient trust in truth + While God was working out His plan, + And they that were his foes, forsooth, + Came to pay tribute to the Man. + + Not as the great who grow more great + Until they have a mystic fame-- + No stroke of fortune nor of fate + Gave Lincoln his undying name. + A common man, earth-bred, earth-born, + One of the breed who work and wait-- + His was a soul above all scorn. + His was a heart above all hate. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT ANTIETAM + + Photograph taken on the battlefield, September, 1862, + with General McClellan and Allen Pinkerton] + + + + +Edwin Arlington Robinson, born at Head Tide, Maine, December 22, 1869. +Educated at Gardiner, Maine, and Harvard University, 1891-3. Member +National Institute Arts and Letters. Author: _The Torrent_ and _The +Night Before_, 1896; _The Children of the Night_, 1897, 1905; _Captain +Craig_ (poems), _The Town Down the River_, 1910. + + + THE MASTER + + (LINCOLN) + + A flying word from here and there + Had sown the name at which we sneered, + But soon the name was everywhere, + To be reviled and then revered: + A presence to be loved and feared, + We cannot hide it, or deny + That we, the gentlemen who jeered, + May be forgotten by and by. + + He came when days were perilous + And hearts of men were sore beguiled; + And having made his note of us, + He pondered and was reconciled. + Was ever master yet so mild + As he, and so untamable? + We doubted, even when he smiled, + Not knowing what he knew so well. + + He knew that undeceiving fate + Would shame us whom he served unsought; + He knew that he must wince and wait-- + The jest of those for whom he fought; + He knew devoutly what he thought + Of us and of our ridicule; + He knew that we must all be taught + Like little children in a school. + + We gave a glamour to the task + That he encountered and saw through, + But little of us did he ask, + And little did we ever do. + And what appears if we review + The season when we railed and chaffed? + It is the face of one who knew + That we were learning while we laughed. + + The face that in our vision feels + Again the venom that we flung, + Transfigured to the world reveals + The vigilance to which we clung. + Shrewd, hallowed, harassed, and among + The mysteries that are untold, + The face we see was never young + Nor could it ever have been old. + + For he, to whom we had applied + Our shopman's test of age and worth, + Was elemental when he died, + As he was ancient at his birth: + The saddest among kings of earth, + Bowed with a galling crown, this man + Met rancor with a cryptic mirth, + Laconic--and Olympian. + + The love, the grandeur, and the fame + Are bounded by the world alone; + The calm, the smouldering, and the flame + Of awful patience were his own; + With him they are forever flown + Past all our fond self-shadowings, + Wherewith we cumber the Unknown + As with inept, Icarian wings. + + For we were not as other men: + 'Twas ours to soar and his to see. + But we are coming down again, + And we shall come down pleasantly; + Nor shall we longer disagree + On what it is to be sublime, + But flourish in our perigee + And have one Titan at a time. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Gardner, Washington, D. C. + Taken when Lincoln appointed General U. S. Grant + Commander-in-chief of the Army, in 1864] + + + + + LINCOLN + + _By Harriet Monroe_ + + + And, lo! leading a blessed host comes one + Who held a warring nation in his heart; + Who knew love's agony, but had no part + In love's delight; whose mighty task was done + Through blood and tears that we might walk in joy, + And this day's rapture own no sad alloy. + Around him heirs of bliss, whose bright brows wear + Palm leaves amid their laurels ever fair. + Gaily they come, as though the drum + Beat out the call their glad hearts knew so well; + Brothers once more, dear as of yore, + Who in a noble conflict nobly fell. + Their blood washed pure yon banner in the sky, + And quenched the brands laid 'neath these arches high-- + The brave who, having fought, can never die. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT-ELECT LINCOLN + + From a photograph taken with his Secretaries, + John G. Nicolay and John Hay, + Springfield, Illinois, 1861] + + + + +Walt Mason, born at Columbus, Ontario, May 4, 1862. Self educated. +Came to the United States 1880. Connected with the _Atchinson Globe_ +1885-7, later with _Lincoln_ (Nebraska) _State Journal_ and other +papers; editorial paragrapher _Evening News_, Washington, D. C., 1893; +associated with William Allen White on _Emporia_ (Kansas) _Gazette_ +since 1907. His rhymes and prose poems are widely copied in America. + + + THE EYES OF LINCOLN + + Sad eyes that were patient and tender, + Sad eyes that were steadfast and true, + And warm with the unchanging splendor + Of courage no ills could subdue! + + Eyes dark with the dread of the morrow, + And woe for the day that was gone, + The sleepless companions of sorrow, + The watchers that witnessed the dawn. + + Eyes tired from the clamor and goading + And dim from the stress of the years, + And hallowed by pain and foreboding + And strained by repression of tears. + + Sad eyes that were wearied and blighted + By visions of sieges and wars + Now watch o'er a country united + From the luminous slopes of the stars! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN 1862 + + Photograph by Matthew Brady, Washington, D. C.] + + + + +Arthur Guiterman, author, born of American parentage, at Vienna, +Austria, November 20, 1871. Editorial work on _Woman's Home +Companion_, _Literary Digest_ and other magazines since 1891. Author +of _Betel Nuts_, 1907; _Guest Book_, 1908; _Rubiayat_, including the +_Literary Omar_, 1909, and _Orestes_ (with Andre Tridon), 1909. +Contributor chiefly of ballad, lyric verse and short stories to +magazines and newspapers. + + + HE LEADS US STILL + + Dare we despair? Through all the nights and days + Of lagging war he kept his courage true. + Shall Doubt befog our eyes? A darker haze + But proved the faith of him who ever knew + That Right must conquer. May we cherish hate + For our poor griefs, when never word nor deed + Of rancor, malice, spite, of low or great, + In his large soul one poison-drop could breed? + + He leads us still. O'er chasms yet unspanned + Our pathway lies; the work is but begun; + But we shall do our part and leave our land + The mightier for noble battles won. + Here Truth must triumph, Honor must prevail; + The nation Lincoln died for cannot fail! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1864] + + + + +S. Weir Mitchell, born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 15, +1829. Educated in grammar school, and University of Pennsylvania, but +was not graduated because of illness during senior year; Doctor of +Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, 1850; LL.D., Harvard, 1886; +Edinburgh, 1895; Princeton, 1896; Toronto, 1896; Jefferson Medical +College, Philadelphia, 1910. Established practice in Philadelphia. +Author of many works on treatment of diseases. _Collected Poems_, +1896-1909; _Youth of Washington_, 1904; _A Diplomatic Adventure_, +1905; _The Mind Reader_, 1907; _A Christmas Venture_, 1907; _John +Sherwood, Ironmaster_, 1911. + + + LINCOLN + + Chained by stern duty to the rock of State, + His spirit armed in mail of rugged mirth, + Ever above, though ever near to earth, + Yet felt his heart the cruel tongues that sate + Base appetites and, foul with slander, wait + Till the keen lightnings bring the awful hour + When wounds and suffering shall give them power. + Most was he like to Luther, gay and great, + Solemn and mirthful, strong of heart and limb. + Tender and simple, too; he was so near + To all things human that he cast out fear, + And, ever simpler, like a little child, + Lived in unconscious nearness unto Him + Who always on earth's little ones hath smiled. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + In the Public Square, Hodgenville, Kentucky. + Adolph A. Weinman, Sculptor] + + + + +George Alfred Townsend was born in Georgetown, Delaware, January 30, +1841. In 1860 he began writing for the press and speaking in public, +and in 1860 adopted the profession of journalism. In 1862 he became a +war correspondent for the _New York World_, the _Chicago Tribune_ and +other papers, and made an enviable reputation as a descriptive writer. +He also published a number of books both of prose and poetry. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + The peaceful valley reaching wide, + The wild war stilled on every hand; + On Pisgah's top our prophet died, + In sight of promised land. + + Low knelt the foeman's serried fronts, + His cannon closed their lips of brass,-- + The din of arms hushed all at once + To let this good man pass. + + A cheerful heart he wore alway, + Though tragic years clashed on the while; + Death sat behind him at the play-- + His last look was a smile. + + No battle-pike his march imbrued, + Unarmed he went midst martial mails, + The footsore felt their hopes renewed + To hear his homely tales. + + His single arm crushed wrong and thrall + That grand good will we only dreamed, + Two races wept around his pall, + One saved and one redeemed. + + The trampled flag he raised again, + And healed our eagle's broken wing; + The night that scattered armed men + Saw scorpions rise to sting. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1864] + + + + +Paul Lawrence Dunbar, born of negro parents at Dayton, Ohio, June 27, +1872. Was graduated at the Dayton High School in 1891, and since then +has devoted himself to literature and journalism. He has written _Oak +and Ivy_ (poems); _Lyrics of Lowly Life_ (poems), and _The Uncalled_ +(a novel). Since 1898 he has been on the staff of the Librarian of +Congress. + + + LINCOLN + + Hurt was the Nation with a mighty wound, + And all her ways were filled with clam'rous sound. + Wailed loud the South with unremitting grief, + And wept the North that could not find relief. + Then madness joined its harshest tone to strife: + A minor note swelled in the song of life + Till, stirring with the love that filled his breast, + But still, unflinching at the Right's behest + Grave Lincoln came, strong-handed, from afar,-- + The mighty Homer of the lyre of war! + 'Twas he who bade the raging tempest cease, + Wrenched from his strings the harmony of peace, + Muted the strings that made the discord,--Wrong, + And gave his spirit up in thund'rous song. + Oh, mighty Master of the mighty lyre! + Earth heard and trembled at thy strains of fire: + Earth learned of thee what Heaven already knew, + And wrote thee down among her treasured few! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Gardner, Washington, D. C., 1865] + + + + +Alice Cary was born in Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, Ohio, April 20, +1820. Her first book of poems, with her sister Phoebe, was published +in 1850. Her poems and prose writings were pictures from life and +nature, among which were _Pictures of Memory_, _Mulberry Hill_, +_Coming Home_ and _Nobility_. She died at her home in New York City, +February 12, 1871. This poem is inscribed to the _London Punch_. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + No glittering chaplet brought from other lands! + As in his life, this man, in death, is ours; + His own loved prairies o'er his "gaunt, gnarled hands," + Have fitly drawn their sheet of summer flowers! + + What need hath he now of a tardy crown, + His name from mocking jest and sneer to save + When every plowman turns his furrow down + As soft as though it fell upon his grave? + + He was a man whose like the world again + Shall never see, to vex with blame or praise; + The landmarks that attest his bright, brief reign, + Are battles, not the pomps of gala days! + + The grandest leader of the grandest war + That ever time in history gave a place,-- + What were the tinsel flattery of a star + To such a breast! or what a ribbon's grace! + + 'Tis to th' man, and th' man's honest worth, + The Nation's loyalty in tears upsprings; + Through him the soil of labor shines henceforth, + High o'er the silken broideries of kings. + + The mechanism of eternal forms-- + The shifts that courtiers put their bodies through-- + Were alien ways to him: his brawny arms + Had other work than posturing to do! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Alexander Gardner, Washington, D. C., 1865] + + + + +Rose Terry Cooke was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, February 17, +1827. Graduated at Hartford Female Seminary in 1843. She has written +many short stories and a number of books of poems. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Hundreds there have been, loftier than their kind, + Heroes and victors in the world's great wars: + Hundreds, exalted as the eternal stars, + By the great heart, or keen and mighty mind; + There have been sufferers, maimed and halt and blind, + Who bore their woes in such triumphant calm + That God hath crowned them with the martyr's palm; + And there were those who fought through fire to find + Their Master's face, and were by fire refined. + But who like thee, oh Sire! hath ever stood + Steadfast for truth and right, when lies and wrong + Rolled their dark waters, turbulent and strong; + Who bore reviling, baseness, tears and blood + Poured out like water, till thine own was spent, + Then reaped Earth's sole reward--a grave and monument! + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph by Brady, Washington, D. C., 1865] + + + + +Frederick Lucian Hosmer, born at Framingham, Massachusetts, October +16, 1840. Graduated at Harvard in 1869. Ordained in Unitarian Ministry +at Northboro, Massachusetts, in 1869. Author of _The Way of Life_, +_The Thought of God, in Hymns and Poems_. + + + LINCOLN + + The prairies to the mountains call, + The mountains to the sea; + From shore to shore a nation keeps + Her martyr's memory. + + Though lowly born, the seal of God + Was in that rugged face; + Still from the humble Nazareths come + The Saviours of the race. + + With patient heart and vision clear + He wrought through trying days-- + "Malice toward none, with Charity for all," + Unswerved by blame or praise. + + And when the morn of peace broke through + The battle's cloud and din, + He hailed with joy the promised land, + He might now enter in. + + He seemed as set by God apart, + The winepress trod alone; + He stands forth an uncrowned king, + A people's heart his throne. + + Land of our loyal love and hope, + O Land he died to save, + Bow down, renew today thy vows + Beside his martyr grave! + + + + +Charles Monroe Dickinson, born at Lowville, New York, November 15, +1842. Educated at Fairfield (New York), Seminary and Lowville Academy. +Admitted to the bar in 1865; practiced law in the State of +Pennsylvania, at Binghamton, New York, and in New York City 1865-77, +when he abandoned the profession because of broken health. Editor and +proprietor of _Binghamton Republican_, 1878-1911. In 1892, upon his +suggestion and initiative the various news organizations were combined +into the present Associated Press. Presidential elector, 1896; United +States Consul-General to Turkey, 1897-1906; Diplomatic agent to +Bulgaria, 1901-1903. While acting in this capacity the American +missionary, Ellen M. Stone, was carried off by brigands, but released +through his settlement and efforts. Member board to draft regulations +for government of American consular service 1906; American +Consul-General at-large, 1906-October 1, 1908. Author of _History of +Dickinson Family_, 1885; _The Children and Other Verses_, 1889; part +of political history of State of New York, 1911. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + If any one hath doubt or fear + That this is Freedom's chosen clime-- + That God hath sown and planted here + The richest harvest field of Time-- + Let him take heart, throw off his fears, + As he looks back a hundred years. + + Cities and fields and wealth untold, + With equal rights before the law; + And, better than all lands and gold-- + Such as the old world never saw-- + Freedom and peace, the right to be, + And honor to those who made us free. + + Our greatness did not happen so, + We owe it not to chance or fate; + In furnace heat, by blow on blow, + Were forged the things that make us great; + And men still live who bore that heat, + And felt those deadly hammers beat. + + Not in the pampered courts of kings, + Not in the homes that rich men keep, + God calls His Davids with their slings, + Or wakes His Samuels from their sleep; + But from the homes of toil and need + Calls those who serve as well as lead. + + Such was the hero of our race; + Skilled in the school of common things, + He felt the sweat on Labor's face, + He knew the pinch of want, the sting + The bondman felt, and all the wrong + The weak had suffered from the strong. + + God passed the waiting centuries by, + And kept him for our time of need-- + To lead us with his courage high-- + To make our country free indeed; + Then, that he be by none surpassed, + God crowned him martyr at the last. + + Let speech and pen and song proclaim + Our grateful praise this natal morn; + Time hath preserved no nobler name, + And generations yet unborn + Shall swell the pride of those who can + Claim Lincoln as their countryman. + + + + + [Illustration: FORD'S THEATRE] + + +The building is a plain brick structure, three stories high, +seventy-one feet front and one hundred feet deep. It was originally +constructed and occupied as a Baptist Church, but at the beginning of +the war was converted into a theatre, though never used for that +purpose after the assassination of Lincoln. The government purchased +it for one hundred thousand dollars, and it is now used as a branch of +the Record and Pension Division of the War Department. President +Lincoln was shot by J. Wilkes Booth at 10.20 o'clock P.M. on the +evening of April 14, 1865, while seated in his private box in the +theatre. + + + SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS! + + _By Robert Leighton_ + + "Sic semper tyrannis!" the assassin cried, + As Lincoln fell. O villain! who than he + More lived to set both slave and tyrant free? + Or so enrapt with plans of freedom died, + That even thy treacherous deed shall glance aside + And do the dead man's will by land and sea; + Win bloodless battles, and make that to be + Which to his living mandate was denied! + Peace to that gentle heart! The peace he sought + For all mankind, nor for it dies in vain. + Rest to the uncrowned king, who, toiling, brought + His bleeding country through that dreadful reign; + Who, living, earned a world's revering thought, + And, dying, leaves his name without a stain. + + _Liverpool, England, + May 5, 1865_ + + + + + [Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Foully assassinated, April 14, 1865] + + +Tom Taylor wrote the following poem, which appeared in the _London +Punch_, May 6, 1865. The engraving is a facsimile of the one published +in the paper at the head of the poem. + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FOULLY ASSASSINATED + + You lay a wreath on murdered LINCOLN'S bier, + _You_, who with mocking pencil wont to trace, + Broad for self-complacent British sneer, + His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face, + + His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair, + His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, + His lack of all we prize as debonair, + Of power or will to shine, of art to please, + + _You_, whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, + Judging each step, as though the way were plain: + Reckless, so it could point its paragraph, + Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain. + + Beside this corpse, that bears for winding sheet + The Stars and Stripes, he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile-jester, is there room for _you_? + + Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen-- + To make me own this hind of princes peer, + This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. + + My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue, + Noting how to occasion's height he rose, + How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true, + How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. + + How humble, yet how hopeful he could be; + How in good fortune and in ill the same; + Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he, + Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. + + He went about his work--such work as few + Ever had laid on head and heart and hand-- + As one who knows, where there's a task to do, + Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command. + + Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow, + That God makes instruments to work His will, + If but that will we can arrive to know, + Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill. + + So he went forth to battle, on the side + That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's, + As in his peasant boyhood he had plied + His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights-- + + The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil, + The iron-bark that turned the lumberer's axe, + The rapid, that o'erbears the boatmen's toil, + The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks, + + The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear-- + Such were the needs that helped his youth to train; + Rough culture--but such trees large fruit may bear, + If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. + + So he grew up, a destined work to do, + And lived to do it--four long-suffering years; + Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through, + And then he heard the hisses change to cheers, + + The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, + And took both with the same unwavering mood; + Till, as he came on light from darking days, + And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood, + + A felon hand, between the goal and him, + Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest,-- + And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, + Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest! + + The words of mercy were upon his lips, + Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen, + When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse + To thoughts of peace on earth, good will to men. + + The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, + Utter one voice of sympathy and shame! + Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high, + Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came. + + A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before + By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt + If more of horror or disgrace they bore; + But thy foul crime, like CAIN'S stands darkly out. + + Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, + Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly striven; + And with the martyr's crown crownest a life + With much to praise, little to be forgiven! + + + + + [Illustration: DEATHBED OF LINCOLN] + + +Immediately after the President was shot in Ford's Theatre he was +carried across the street to the house of William Petersen and placed +on a single bed in a room at the end of the hall. All through that +weary night the watchers stood by the bedside. He was unconscious +every moment from the time the bullet entered his head until Dr. +Robert King Stone, the family physician, announced at twenty-two +minutes after seven on the following morning that he had breathed his +last (April 15, 1865). Upon this Secretary Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary +of War, in a low voice said: "_Now He Belongs to the Ages_." + + + THE DEATHBED + + Silence falls, unbroken save by sobs of strong men + In that room, where Lincoln, at the morning hour's chime + Passed out into the unknown from the world of human ken. + Gone his body and his life work from the world inclosed by time; + But in the silence that was falling after breath of broken prayer, + Words eternal broke the quiet like a bell toll on the air; + Never in the world's wide story, wiser spoke nor Prophet, spoke nor + Sages, + Than these words that broke the silence: "He belongs now to the Ages!" + + "To the Ages!" well you spoke it, Stanton of the massive mind! + He belongs, the years have shown it, to the world of human kind! + Heard his story, where'er hearts throb o'er the world's far spreading + way; + Heard his story, children listen at the closing of the day; + Heard his story, lovers speak it in their hushed and saddened tones + As they wander in the twilight, dreaming of their coming homes; + Heard his story, statesmen tell it, with a thrill of pride and truth; + Heard his story, old men speak it to the country's growing youth. + And the years have shown the Prophets, and the years have shown the + Sages; + Writ in fire these words of wisdom, "He belongs now to the Ages!" + + + + + [Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + President] + + + [Illustration: EDWIN M. STANTON + + Secretary of War] + + +Marion Mills Miller was born at Eaton, Ohio, February 27, 1864. He was +graduated from Princeton in 1886, and for several years thereafter was +an instructor there in the English department. In 1889 he received the +degree of Doctor of Literature from his Alma Mater. Since 1893 he has +been engaged in literary and social reform work in New York City. He +has published some verse and fiction, but his most notable work has +been in the fields of translation and history. He has edited _The +Classics--Greek and Latin_ (15 volumes), published in 1909, and _Great +Debates in American History_ (14 volumes), published in 1913. + +In 1907 he edited the Centenary Edition of _The Life and Works of +Abraham Lincoln_ in 10 volumes, logically arranged for ready +reference. The _Life of Lincoln_ was published separately in 1908 in +two volumes. It is based on a manuscript by Henry C. Whitney, whose +name it bears as author, although the second volume, _Lincoln, the +President_, was largely written by Dr. Miller. The late Major William +H. Lambert, president of the Lincoln Fellowship, called it "the best +of the shorter biographies of Lincoln." Dr. Miller has also edited +_The Wisdom of Lincoln_ (1908), a small book of extracts from +Lincoln's speeches and writings. He wrote the following poem, "Lincoln +and Stanton," especially for THE POETS' LINCOLN. + +The first reference in it is to the Manny-McCormick case over the +patent rights of the reaping machine, in which Lincoln had been at +first selected as principal pleader, but was superseded by Edwin M. +Stanton. Having thoroughly prepared himself, he offered his assistance +to Stanton, but was brusquely repulsed. He was so hurt that he felt +like leaving the court room, but decided, in loyalty to his client, to +remain, and, leaving his place among counsel, took a seat in the +audience. Despite his injured feelings he was filled with admiration +for Stanton's able and successful conduct of the case. Lincoln, +probably referring to a slur of Stanton reported to him, said that he +would have to go back to Illinois and "study more law," since the +"college-bred" lawyers were pushing hard the "cornfield" ones. + +The second reference is to Stanton's criticism of Lincoln's +conservative course during the first months of his Presidency; "that +imbecile at the White House," he called him. Stanton as +Attorney-General at the close of Buchanan's administration had done +effective work in foiling the plans of the Confederacy, and he +believed in forceful measures to put down the rebellion in its +incipiency. + +The third reference is to the virtually enforced resignation of Simon +Cameron, Lincoln's first Secretary of War, and Lincoln's choice to +succeed him of Stanton, whom he realized to be the best equipped man +in the country for the place. + +The fourth reference is to Stanton's remark by the bedside of Lincoln +as the stricken President ceased breathing: "There lies the greatest +leader of men the world ever saw." + + + LINCOLN AND STANTON + + Lincoln had cause one man alone to hate: + A fellow-lawyer, lacking in all grace, + Who cast uncalled-for insult in his face + When Lincoln as his colleague, with innate + Courtesy, proffered aid. With pride inflate + The scornful Stanton waved him to his place, + Snapping, "I need no help to try this case"; + And "cornfield lawyer" muttered of his mate. + + And when, as captain of the Union ship, + Lincoln drew sail before the gathering storm + Till favoring winds the shrouds unfurled should fill, + Stanton again curled his contemptuous lip + And, with the impatience of a patriot warm, + Sneered at the helmsman, "craven imbecile." + + Laid was the course at length; the sails untried + Were spread; the raw crew set at spar and coil. + Now round the prow Charybdean waters boil + And ever higher surges war's red tide. + The mate who should the captain's care divide + Has strengthless proved. Where shall, the foe to foil, + A man be found able to bear the toil + And stand, to steer the ship, by Lincoln's side? + + Stanton he called! The bitter choice he made + For country, not himself. The ship was driven + By the great twain through war's abyss, again + Into calm seas. Then Lincoln low was laid, + And Stanton paid him highest tribute given + To mortal: "Mightiest leader among men!" + + + + + [Illustration: THE DEATH OF LINCOLN + + 1 President Lincoln. 2 Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the + Navy. 3 John Hay, Esq., President's Private Secretary. 4 Hon. + E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 5 Rev. Dr. Gurley. 6 Gen. + Farnsworth, M. C. from Illinois. 7 Governor Ogilsby of Illinois. + 8 General Todd. 9 Rufus Andrews, Esq. 10 Hon. W. T. Otto, + Assistant Secretary of the Interior. 11 Hon. W. Denison, + Postmaster-General. 12 Judge D. K. Carter. 13 Major-General + Halleck. 14 Captain Robert Lincoln. 15 Dr. Leale. 16 Hon. Charles + Sumner. 17 Dr. Crane, Assistant Surgeon-General. 18 Governor + Farwell, of Wisconsin. 19 Hon. J. P. Usher, Secretary of the + Interior. 20 Major-General Augur. 21 Major-General Meigs. 22 + Maunsel B. Field, Esq. 23 Hon. Schuyler Colfax. 24 Hon. James + Speed, Attorney-General. 25 Hon. H. McCullough, Secretary of the + Treasury 26 Dr. R. K. Stone. 27 Surgeon-General Barnes.] + + + + + [Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN DIED + + Washington, D. C.] + + + [Illustration: JOSEPHINE OLDROYD TIEFENTHALER + + Born July 17, 1896. Died February 20, 1908] + + +Robert Mackay and his wife visited this historic house in 1902. They +were met at the door and escorted through the various rooms containing +the Collection by Little Josephine, and were deeply impressed at the +knowledge she exhibited of Lincoln and the Collection, although she +was but six years of age. Mr. Mackay was born at Virginia City, +Nevada, April 22, 1871. Reporter _San Francisco Chronicle_, 1886. +Worked on newspapers as printer, reporter and editor until 1895, when +he traveled extensively over the world for the International News +Syndicate; joined staff of the _New York World_ in 1899; managing +editor of _Success Magazine_, 1900-1908. Editor the _Delineator_, +1908. Joined editorial department of the Frank A. Munsey Company in +1909, contributor of short stories, also other prose and verse. + + + THE HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED + + Above Judea's purple-mantled plain, + There hovers still, among the ruins lone, + The spirit of the Christ whose dying moan + Was heard in heaven, and paid our debt in pain. + + As subtle perfume lingers with the rose, + Even when its petals flutter to the earth, + So clings the potent mystery of the birth + Of that deep love from which all mercy flows. + + . . . . . + + Within this house,--this room,--a martyr died, + A prophet of a larger liberty,-- + A liberator setting bondmen free, + A full-orbed MAN, above mere mortal pride. + + The cloud-rifts opening to celestial glades, + Oft glimpse him, and his spirit lingers still, + As Christ's sweet influence broods upon the hill + Where the red lily with the sunset fades. + + . . . . . + + A little girl with eyes of heavenly blue, + Sings through the old place, ignorant of all; + Her angel face, her cheerful, birdlike call + Thrilling the heart to life more full, more true. + + + + + IN TOKEN OF RESPECT + + _Translation from Latin verses_ + + + From humble parentage and low degree + Lincoln ascended to the highest rank; + None ever had a harder task than he, + It was perfected--him alone we thank. + + Did the assassin think to kill a name, + Or hand his own down to posterity? + One will wear the laurel wreath of fame, + The other be condemned to infamy. + + Caesar was killed by Brutus, + Yet Rome did not cease to be; + Lincoln by Booth, and yet the slaves + In all America are free! + + Rieti, France, May, 1865 + + + + + ENGLAND'S SORROW + + _From London Fun_ + + + The hand of an Assassin, glowing red, + Shot like a firebrand through the western sky; + And stalwart Abraham Lincoln now is dead! + O! felon heart that thus could basely dye + The name of southerner with murderous gore! + Could such a spirit come from mortal womb? + And what possessed it that not heretofore + It linked its coward mission with the tomb? + Lincoln! thy fame shall sound through many an age, + To prove that genius lives in humble birth; + Thy name shall sound upon historic page, + For 'midst thy faults we all esteemed thy worth. + + Gone art thou now! no more 'midst angry heat + Shall thy calm spirit rule the surging tide, + Which rolls where two contending nations meet, + To still the passion and to curb the pride. + Nations have looked and seen the fate of kings, + Protectors, emperors, and such like men; + Behold the man whose dirge all Europe sings, + Now past the eulogy of mortal pen! + He, like a lighthouse, fell athwart the strand; + Let curses rest upon the assassin's hand. + + + + + [Illustration: THE FUNERAL OF LINCOLN + + Ceremonies in the East Room of the White House, April 19, 1865] + + +At ten minutes after twelve o'clock Rev. Charles H. Hall, of the +Church of the Epiphany, opened the service by reading from the +Episcopal Burial Service for the Dead. Bishop Matthew Simpson of the +Methodist Church then offered prayer, and the Rev. Dr. Phineas D. +Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, at which +Mr. Lincoln and his family attended, delivered a sermon. The Rev. E. +H. Gray, D.D., of the E Street Baptist Church, closed the solemn +service with prayer. + + +Phineas Densmore Gurley, born at Hamilton, New York, 1816. Educated at +Union College, Schenectady, New York. Taught during vacation, +graduated 1837. Studied theology at the Theological Seminary, +Princeton, New Jersey. Was licensed to preach in 1840. In 1840 he went +to Indianapolis, Indiana, and took charge of a church. In 1849 he +removed to Dayton, Ohio, taking charge of a church, and in 1853 moved +to Washington, D. C., and took charge of a Presbyterian Church on F +Street, afterwards Willard Hall. In 1858 was elected Chaplain of the +United States Senate. In July, 1859, the Second Presbyterian Church +and the F Street Church united, and were known as the New York Avenue +Presbyterian Church, Dr. Gurley becoming its pastor from March, 1861, +until his death. President Lincoln was a pew holder and a regular +attendant, but was not a member. On one occasion the President +remarked, "I like Dr. Gurley, he doesn't preach politics. I get enough +of that during the week, and when I go to church I like to hear +gospel." + +When the President was assassinated Dr. Gurley was sent for and +remained with the President until he breathed his last. + +As soon as the spirit took its flight, Secretary Stanton turned to Dr. +Gurley and said, "Doctor, will you say something?" After a brief +pause, Dr. Gurley said, "Let us talk with God," and offered a touching +prayer. Dr. Gurley died September 30, 1868. + + + THE FUNERAL HYMN OF LINCOLN + + Rest, noble martyr! rest in peace; + Rest with the true and brave, + Who, like thee, fell in freedom's cause, + The nation's life to save. + + Thy name shall live while time endures, + And men shall say of thee, + "He saved his country from its foes, + And bade the slave be free." + + These deeds shall be thy monument, + Better than brass or stone; + They leave thy fame in glory's light, + Unrival'd and alone. + + This consecrated spot shall be + To freedom ever dear; + And freedom's sons of every race + Shall weep and worship here. + + O God! before whom we, in tears, + Our fallen chief deplore, + Grant that the cause for which he died + May live forevermore. + + + + +Harriet McEwen Kimball, born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, November, +1834. Educated there; specially known as a religious poet, although +she has written much secular verse; chief founder of the Portsmouth +Cottage Hospital. Author hymns, _Swallow Flights_; _Blessed Company of +All Faithful People_; _Poems_ (complete edition), 1889. + + + REST, REST FOR HIM + + Rest, rest for him whose noble work is done; + For him who led us gently, unaware, + Till we were readier to do and dare + For Freedom, and her hundred fields were won. + + His march is ended where his march began; + More sweet his sleep for toil and sacrifice, + And that rare wisdom whose beginning lies + In fear of God, and charity for man; + + And sweetest for the tender faith that grew + More strong in trial, and through doubt more clear, + Seeing in clouds and darkness One appear + In whose dread name the Nation's sword he drew. + + Rest, rest for him; and rest for us today + Whose sorrow shook the land from east to west + When slain by treason on the Nation's breast + Her martyr breathed his steadfast soul away. + + + + + [Illustration: THE FUNERAL CAR] + + +This car bore the remains of the Martyr President to his home in +Springfield, Illinois, where they were laid to rest. The funeral train +left Washington, D. C., on the 21st of April, 1865, proceeded from +that city to Baltimore, Maryland; Harrisburg and Philadelphia, +Pennsylvania; New York City, Albany and Buffalo, New York; Cleveland +and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; and +finally to Springfield, reaching the latter place May 3, where the +last sad rites were performed on the succeeding day. The body lay in +state in all the above cities, brief stops being also made in many +smaller places. + + +Richard Henry Stoddard in the following Horatian Ode made a beautiful +analysis of the Martyr President's character, with a magnificent +picture of the nation's tribute of mourning for its dead chief: + + + THE FUNERAL CAR OF LINCOLN + + Peace! Let the long procession come, + For, hark!--the mournful, muffled drum-- + The trumpet's wail afar-- + And, see! the awful car! + + Peace! let the sad procession go, + While cannon boom, and bells toll slow: + And go, thou sacred car, + Bearing our Woe afar! + + Go, darkly borne, from State to State, + Whose loyal, sorrowing cities wait + To honor all they can + The dust of that good man! + + Go, grandly borne, with such a train + As greatest kings might die to gain; + The Just, the Wise, the Brave + Attend thee to the grave! + + And you the soldiers of our wars, + Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars, + Salute him once again, + Your late Commander--slain! + + Yes, let your tears, indignant, fall, + And leave your muskets on the wall; + Your country needs you now + Beside the forge, the plow! + + (When Justice shall unsheathe her brand-- + If Mercy may not stay her hand, + Nor would we have it so-- + She must direct the blow!) + + So, sweetly, sadly, sternly goes + The Fallen to his last repose; + Beneath no mighty dome, + But in his modest Home! + + The churchyard where his children rest, + The quiet spot that suits him best; + There shall his grave be made, + And there his bones be laid! + + And there his countrymen shall come, + With memory proud, with pity dumb, + And strangers far and near, + For many and many a year! + + For many a year, and many an age, + With History on her ample page + The virtues shall enroll + Of that Paternal Soul. + + + + +William Cullen Bryant, born in Cummington, Massachusetts, November 3, +1794. Died in New York, June 12, 1878. He wrote verses in his twelfth +year to be recited at school. Spent two years at Williams College and +at the age of eighteen began the study of law. He depended upon his +profession for a number of years, although it was not to his liking. +His contributions to the _North American Review_ and his poems +published therein gained him an enviable reputation, and reflected +great credit upon him. + + + THE DEATH OF LINCOLN + + Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare, + Gentle and merciful and just! + Who, in the fear of God didst bear + The sword of power, a nation's trust. + + In sorrow by thy bier we stand, + Amid the awe that hushes all, + And speak the anguish of a land + That shook with horror at thy fall. + + Thy task is done; the bond is free-- + We bear thee to an honored grave, + Whose noblest monument shall be + The broken fetters of the slave. + + Pure was thy life; its bloody close + Hath placed thee with the sons of light + Among the noble host of those + Who perished in the cause of right. + + + + + [Illustration: CITY HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y.] + + +At the time of the appearance of the procession at the City Hall at +least twenty thousand persons were assembled in the immediate +neighborhood. While awaiting the arrival of the procession a number of +German singing bands were marched into the open space before the Hall, +and arranged on either side of the entrance, preparatory to the +singing of a requiem to the dead. The procession entered the Park at +about half-past eleven o'clock, and the hearse stopped before the +entrance to the Hall. Here the coffin was immediately taken from the +hearse and carried up the stairs to the catafalque which had been +prepared for its reception, while the singing societies rendered two +very appropriate dirges. + +The interior of the City Hall had been decorated with much taste. +Across the dome a black curtain was drawn, and the rays of light thus +conducted fell subdued upon the sad but imposing spectacle. + + + + +Henry T. Tuckerman, a member of the Committee on Resolutions, wrote +the following ode for the funeral obsequies, on the 25th day of April, +1865, at New York City. The Athenaeum Club participated, bearing an +appropriate banner, the members wearing distinctive badges of mourning +and under the leadership of their Vice-President, Henry E. Pierpont; +the President, William T. Blodgett, being at that time absent acting +as Chairman of the Citizens Committee: + + + ODE + + Shroud the banner! rear the cross! + Consecrate a nation's loss; + Gaze on that majestic sleep; + Stand beside the bier to weep; + Lay the gentle son of toil + Proudly in his native soil; + Crowned with honor, to his rest + Bear the prophet of the West. + + How cold the brow that yet doth wear + The impress of a nation's care; + How still the heart, whose every beat + Glowed with compassion's sacred heat; + Rigid the lips, whose patient smile + Duty's stern task would oft beguile; + Blood-quenched the pensive eye's soft light; + Nerveless the hand so loth to smite; + So meek in rule, it leads, though dead, + The people as in life it led. + + O let his wise and guileless sway + Win every recreant today, + And sorrow's vast and holy wave + Blend all our hearts around his grave! + Let the faithful bondmen's tears, + Let the traitor's craven fears, + And the people's grief and pride, + Plead against the parricide! + Let us throng to pledge and pray + O'er the patriot martyr's clay; + Then, with solemn faith in right, + That made him victor in the fight, + Cling to the path he fearless trod, + Still radiant with the smile of God. + + Shroud the banner! rear the cross! + Consecrate a nation's loss; + Gaze on that majestic sleep; + Stand beside the bier to weep; + Lay the gentle son of toil + Proudly in his native soil; + Crowned with honor, to his rest + Bear the prophet of the West. + + + + +Lucy Larcom was born in Beverly, Mass., in 1826. At the age of seven +years she wrote stories and poems. She spent three years in school, +then worked in the cotton mills. Some of her writings attracted the +attention of Whittier, from whom she received encouragement. At the +age of twenty she went to Illinois and there taught school for some +time, and for three years studied in Monticello Female Seminary. She +returned to Massachusetts and during the war wrote many patriotic +poems. + + + TOLLING + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + All the bells of the land! + Lo, the patriot martyr + Taketh his journey grand! + Travels into the ages, + Bearing a hope how dear! + Into life's unknown vistas, + Liberty's great pioneer. + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + See, they come as a cloud, + Hearts of a mighty people, + Bearing his pall and shroud; + Lifting up, like a banner, + Signals of loss and woe; + Wonder of breathless nations, + Moveth the solemn show. + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + Was it, O man beloved, + Was it thy funeral only + Over the land that moved? + + + + + [Illustration: ROTUNDA, CITY HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y.] + + +The remains of President Lincoln lay in state in the City Hall, New +York, from noon April 24 to noon April 25, 1865. Visitors were +admitted to view the remains, passing through the Hall two abreast. +Singing societies sang dirges in the rotunda the night through. + + + + +Richard Storrs Willis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, February 10, +1819, was graduated at Yale in 1841, and adopted literature as his +profession. He has published musical and other poems; has edited the +_New York Musical World_ and _Once a Week_, and contributed also to +current literature. He wrote the following: + + + REQUIEM OF LINCOLN + + Now wake the requiem's solemn moan, + For him whose patriot task is done! + A nation's heart stands still today + With horror, o'er his martyred clay! + + O, God of Peace, repress the ire, + Which fills our souls with vengeful fire! + Vengeance is Thine--and sovereign might, + Alone, can such a crime requite! + + Farewell, thou good and guileless heart! + The manliest tears for thee must start! + E'en those at times who blamed thee here, + Now deeply sorrow o'er thy bier. + + O, Jesus, grant him sweet repose, + Who, like Thee, seemed to love his foes! + Those foes, like Thine, their wrath to spend, + Have slain their best, their firmest friend. + + + + + [Illustration: ST. JAMES HALL, BUFFALO, N. Y.] + + +The funeral train bearing the remains of President Lincoln reached +Buffalo, New York, on Thursday morning, the 27th of April. The body +was taken from the funeral car and borne by soldiers up to St. James' +Hall, where it was placed under a crape canopy, extending from the +ceiling to the floor. The Buffalo St. Cecilia Society sang with deep +pathos the dirge "Rest, Spirit, Rest," the society then placed an +elegantly formed harp, made of choice white flowers, at the head of +the coffin, as a tribute from them to the honored dead. The public +were admitted to view the remains, and the following day the remains +reached Cleveland, Ohio. + + + + +James Nicoll Johnston was born in Ardee, County Donegal, Ireland. When +two years of age the family moved to Cashelmore, Sheephaven Bay, +County Donegal. In 1847 they moved to America. He was then between +fifteen and sixteen years of age. In 1848 they settled at Buffalo, +New York, which has been his home until the present time. + +He has published two editions of _Donegal Memories_, also two editions +of _Donegal Memories and Other Poems_, and a volume of Buffalo verse +collected by him under the title of _Poets and Poetry of Buffalo_. He +assisted in collections of Buffalo local literature, also devoted much +time to the production of publications of a philanthropic nature. + + + REQUIEM + + Bear him to his Western home, + Whence he came four years ago; + Not beneath some Eastern dome, + But where Freedom's airs may come, + Where the prairie grasses grow, + To the friends who loved him so, + + Take him to his quiet rest; + Toll the bell and fire the gun; + He who served his Country best, + He whom millions loved and bless'd, + Now has fame immortal won; + Rack of brain and heart is done. + + Shed thy tears, O April rain, + O'er the tomb wherein he sleeps! + Wash away the bloody stain! + Drape the skies in grief, O rain! + Lo! a nation with thee weeps, + Grieving o'er her martyred slain. + + To the people whence he came, + Bear him gently back again, + Greater his than victor's fame: + His is now a sainted name; + Never ruler had such gain-- + Never people had such pain. + + + + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN + + Photograph taken in 1863 by Brady] + + + + +Oliver Wendell Holmes, born in Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1809. To +him belongs the credit of saving the frigate Constitution from +destruction, by a poem--_Aye, Tear the Battered Ensign Down_. He died +August 7, 1894. + + + SERVICES IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + (_City of Boston, June 1, 1865_) + + + O Thou of soul and sense and breath, + The ever-present Giver, + Unto Thy mighty angel, death, + All flesh Thou didst deliver; + What most we cherish, we resign, + For life and death alike are Thine, + Who reignest Lord forever! + + Our hearts lie buried in the dust + With him, so true and tender, + The patriot's stay, the people's trust, + The shield of the offender; + Yet every murmuring voice is still, + As, bowing to Thy sovereign will, + Our best loved we surrender. + + Dear Lord, with pitying eye behold + This martyr generation, + Which Thou, through trials manifold, + Art showing Thy salvation! + O let the blood by murder spilt + Wash out Thy stricken children's guilt, + And sanctify our Nation! + + Be Thou Thy orphaned Israel's friend, + Forsake Thy people never, + In one our broken many blend, + That none again may sever! + Hear us, O Father, while we raise + With trembling lips our song of praise, + And bless Thy name forever! + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN HOMESTEAD, MAY 4, 1865 + + Photographed by F. W. Ingmire on the day of the funeral, with the + members of the National Committee appointed to accompany the + remains to Springfield, Illinois. + + Members on the pavement: Left (1) Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker + of the House; (2) Hon. R. C. Schenck, Ohio; (3) Hon. Lyman + Trumbull, Illinois; (4) Hon. Charles E. Phelps, Maryland; (5) + Hon. W. H. Wallace, Idaho; (6) Hon. Joseph Baily, Pennsylvania; + (7) Hon. James K. Morehead, Pennsylvania; (8) Hon. Sidney Clarke, + Kansas; (9) Hon. Samuel Hooper, Massachusetts; (10) Hon. E. B. + Washburn, Illinois; (11) Hon. Thomas W. Ferry, Michigan; (12) + Hon. Thomas B. Shannon, California; (13) S. G. Ordway, + Sergeant-at-Arms of the House. + + Members in the yard: Left (1) Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Illinois; (2) + Hon. John B. Henderson, Missouri; (3) Hen. Richard Yates, + Illinois; (4) Hon. James W. Nye, Nevada; (5) Hon. Henry S. Lane, + Indiana; (6) Hon. George H. Williams, Oregon; (7) Hon. George T. + Brown, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate; (8) Hon. William A. + Newell, New Jersey.] + + + + +William Allen, D.D., born 1784, died 1868. Graduated at Harvard, 1802. +President Dartmouth College, 1816-1819, Bowdoin College, 1820-1839. He +was the father of American Biography, published various volumes of +poems; as a philologist, he contributed many thousands of words and +definitions to Webster and Worcester's dictionaries. He was leader of +the American delegation to the National Peace Congress at Versailles +in 1849. + + + SPRINGFIELD'S WELCOME TO LINCOLN + + Lincoln! thy country's father, hail! + We bid thee welcome, but bewail; + Welcome unto thy chosen home-- + Triumphant, glorious, dost thou come. + + Before the enemy struck the blow + That laid thee in a moment low, + God gave thy wish: It was to see + Our Union safe, our country free. + + A country where the gospel truth + Shall reach the hearts of age and youth, + And move unchained, in majesty, + A model land of liberty! + + When Jacob's bones, from Egypt borne, + Regained their home, the people mourn; + Great mourning then at Ephron's cave, + Both Abraham's and Isaac's grave. + + Far greater is the mourning now; + For our land one emblem wide of woe; + And where thy coffin car appears + Do not the people throng in tears? + + Thy triumph of a thousand miles, + Like eastern conqueror with his spoils-- + A million hearts thy captives led, + All weeping for their chieftain dead. + + Thy chariot, moved with eagle speed + Without the aid of prancing steed, + Has brought thee to that destined tomb; + Springfield, thy home, will give thee room. + + Lincoln, the martyr, welcome home! + What lessons blossom on thy tomb! + In God's pure truth and law delight; + With firm, unwavering soul do right. + + Be condescending, kind and just; + In God's wise counsels put thy trust; + Let no proud soul e'er dare rebel, + Moved by vile passions sprung from hell. + + Come, sleep with us in sweet repose, + Till we, as Christ from death arose, + Still in His glorious image rise + To dwell with him beyond the skies. + + + + + [Illustration: STATE CAPITOL, ILLINOIS, 1865] + + +The body of the President lay in state in the Capitol, Springfield, +Illinois--which was very richly draped--from May 3 to May 4, when it +was removed to Oak Ridge Cemetery. + + + + +Lucy Hamilton Hooper, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 20, +1835. In conjunction with Charles G. Leland she edited _Our Daily +Fare_, the daily chronicle of the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair in 1864. +She was assistant editor of _Lippincott's Magazine_ from its +foundation until she went to Europe in 1870. In 1874 she settled in +Paris and since has been correspondent for various journals in this +country. She has published _Poems, with Translations from the German_ +(Philadelphia, 1864), another volume of _Poems_ (1871); a translation +of _Le Nabob_, by Alphonse Daudet (Boston, 1879); and _Under the +Tricolor_, a novel (Philadelphia, 1880). She died August 31, 1893. + + + LINCOLN + + There is a shadow on the sunny air, + There is a darkness o'er the April day, + We bow our heads beneath this awful cloud + So sudden come, and not to pass away. + + O the wild grief that sweeps across our land + From frozen Maine to Californian shore! + A people's tears, an orphaned nation's wail, + For him the good, the great, who is no more. + + The noblest brain that ever toiled for man, + The kindest heart that ever thrilled a breast, + The lofty soul unstained by soil of earth, + Sent by a traitor to a martyr's rest. + + And his last act (O gentle, kindly heart!) + The noble prompting of unselfish grace. + He would not disappoint the waiting crowd + Who came to gaze upon his honored face. + + O God, thy ways are just, and yet we find + This dispensation hard to understand. + Why must our Prophet's weary feet be stay'd + Upon the borders of the Promised Land? + + He bore the heat, the burden of the day, + The golden eventide he shall not see; + He shall not see the old flag wave again + Over a land united, saved, and free. + + He loved his people, and he ever lent + To all our griefs a sympathizing ear; + Now for the first time in these four sad years + The stricken nation wails--he does not hear. + + O never wept a land a nobler Chief! + Kind heart, strong hand, true soul--yet, while we weep + Let us remember, e'en amid our tears, + 'Tis God who gives to his beloved sleep. + + So sleeps he now, the chosen man of God, + No more shall care or sorrow wring his breast; + The weary one and heavy laden, lies + Hushed by the voice of God to endless rest. + + We need no solemn knell, no tolling bells, + No chanted dirge, no vain words sadly said. + The saddest knell that ever stirred the air + Rang in those words, "Our President is dead!" + + + + + [Illustration: PUBLIC VAULT, OAK RIDGE CEMETERY, SPRINGFIELD, ILL., + + On the day of Lincoln's funeral] + + +The remains of President Lincoln were deposited in this receiving +vault of Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, on the 4th of May, +1865, where they remained until December 21, 1865, when they were +removed to a temporary vault near the site of the public one. On +September 19, 1871, the remains were removed to the monument which had +been erected and which stands on the top of the hill in that cemetery +back of the public vault. The remains of Mrs. Lincoln, Willie and +Thomas (Tad), are also resting there. + + + + + LET THE PRESIDENT SLEEP + + _By James M. Stewart_ + + + Let the President sleep! all his duty is done, + He has lived for our glory, the triumph is won; + At the close of the fight, like a warrior brave, + He retires from the field to the rest of the grave. + Hush the roll of the drum, hush the cannon's loud roar, + He will guide us to peace through the battle no more; + But new freedom shall dawn from the place of his rest, + Where the star has gone down in the beautiful West. + Tread lightly, breathe softly, and gratefully bring + To the sod that enfolds him the first flowers of spring; + They will tenderly treasure the tears that we weep + O'er the grave of our chief--let the President sleep. + + Let the President sleep--tears will hallow the ground, + Where we raise o'er his ashes the sheltering mound, + And his spirit will sometimes return from above, + There to mingle with ours in ineffable love. + Peace to thee, noble dead, thou hast battled for right, + And hast won high reward from the Father of Light; + Peace to thee, martyr-hero, and sweet be thy rest, + Where the sunlight fades out in the beautiful West. + Tread lightly, breathe softly, and gratefully bring + To the sod that enfolds him the first flowers of spring; + They will tenderly treasure the tears that we weep + O'er the grave of our chief--let the President sleep! + + + + + [Illustration: FACADE OF PUBLIC VAULT + + Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, in which the body + of Lincoln was placed, May 4, 1865] + + + + +James Mackay, born in New York, April 8, 1872. Author of _The Economy +of Happiness_, _The Politics of Utility_, and of various lectures on +Scientific Ethics, etc. + + + THE CENOTAPH OF LINCOLN + + And so they buried Lincoln? Strange and vain + Has any creature thought of Lincoln hid + In any vault 'neath any coffin lid, + In all the years since that wild spring of pain? + 'Tis false--he never in the grave hath lain. + You could not bury him although you slid + Upon his clay the Cheops Pyramid, + Or heaped it with the Rocky Mountain chain. + They slew themselves;--they but set Lincoln free. + In all the earth his great heart beats as strong, + Shall beat while pulses throb to chivalry, + And burn with hate of tyranny and wrong. + Whoever will may find him, anywhere + Save in the tomb. Not there--he is not there. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN MONUMENT + + Springfield, Illinois, Larken G. Mead, Architect] + + +A movement was started shortly after the burial of Lincoln to raise +funds sufficient to build a monument over his grave. Contributions +were made by various States and societies, and about sixty thousand +Sunday-school scholars contributed the sum of eighteen thousand +dollars. Ground was broken on the 9th of September, 1869, and the +monument was dedicated on the 15th of October, 1874, at a total cost +of two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. + + + + +James Judson Lord, born at Berwick, Maine, in 1821. He had the +advantage of an excellent early education followed by years of +research. During his preparatory studies at Cambridge he met +Longfellow, who loaned him books from his own library. For a time he +studied art under prominent masters, but his health failing, after a +time of forced leisure he went into the mercantile business in Boston, +which vocation he afterward followed. In 1851 he went to Illinois; +finally, after his marriage, settling in Springfield. There he knew +Mr. Lincoln, with whom he was on terms of closest friendship. + +The poem submitted by Mr. Lord was selected for reading at the +dedication of the National Lincoln Monument in a competition which +brought contributions from many leading poets. + +He was the author of several dramas, and from time to time contributed +poems to leading magazines and newspapers of the country. He died +January 3, 1905. + + + DEDICATION POEM + + _Read by Richard Edwards, LL.D., President Illinois + State Normal University at Bloomington, Illinois_ + + We build not here a temple or a shrine, + Nor hero-fane to demigods divine; + Nor to the clouds a superstructure rear + For man's ambition or for servile fear. + Not to the Dust, but to the Deeds alone + A grateful people raise th' historic stone; + For where a patriot lived, or hero fell, + The daisied turf would mark the spot as well. + + What though the Pyramids, with apex high, + Like Alpine peaks cleave Egypt's rainless sky, + And cast grim shadows o'er a desert land + Forever blighted by oppression's hand? + No patriot zeal their deep foundations laid-- + No freeman's hand their darken'd chambers made-- + No public weal inspired the heart with love, + To see their summits towering high above. + The ruling Pharaoh, proud and gory-stained, + With vain ambitions never yet attained;-- + With brow enclouded as his marble throne, + And heart unyielding as the building stone;-- + Sought with the scourge to make mankind his slaves, + And heaven's free sunlight darker than their graves. + His but to will, and theirs to yield and feel, + Like vermin'd dust beneath his iron heel;-- + Denies all mercy, and all right offends, + Till on his head th' avenging Plague descends. + + Historic justice bids the nations know + That through each land of slaves a Nile of blood + shall flow: + And Vendome Columns, on a people thrust, + Are, by the people, level'd with the dust. + + Nor stone, nor bronze, can fit memorials yield + For deeds of valor on the bloody field, + 'Neath war's dark clouds the sturdy volunteer, + By freedom taught his country to revere, + Bids home and friends a hasty, sad adieu, + And treads where dangers all his steps pursue; + Finds cold and famine on his dauntless way, + And with mute patience brooks the long delay, + Or hears the trumpet, or the thrilling drum + Peal the long roll that calls: "They come! they come!" + Then to the front with battling hosts he flies, + And lives to triumph, or for freedom dies. + Thund'ring amain along the rocky strand, + The Ocean claims her honors with the Land. + Loud on the gale she chimes the wild refrain, + Or with low murmur wails her heroes slain! + In gory hulks, with splinter'd mast and spar, + Rocks on her stormy breast the valiant Tar:-- + Lash'd to the mast he gives the high command, + Or midst the fight, sinks with the _Cumberland_. + + Beloved banner of the azure sky, + Thy rightful home where'er thy eagles fly; + On thy blue field the stars of heav'n descend, + And to our day a purer luster lend. + O, Righteous God! who guard'st the right alway, + And bade Thy peace to come, "and come to stay": + And while war's deluge fill'd the land with blood, + With bow of promise arch'd the crimson flood,-- + From fratricidal strife our banner screen, + And let it float henceforth in skies serene. + + Yet cunning art shall here her triumphs bring, + And laurel'd bards their choicest anthems sing. + Here, honor'd age shall bare its wintery brow, + And youth to freedom make a Spartan vow. + Here, ripened manhood from its walks profound, + Shall come and halt, as if on hallow'd ground. + + Here shall the urn with fragrant wreaths be drest, + By tender hands the flow'ry tributes prest; + And wending westward, from oppressions far, + Shall pilgrims come, led by our freedom-star; + While bending lowly, as o'er friendly pall, + The silent tear from ebon cheeks shall fall. + + Sterile and vain the tributes which we pay-- + It is the Past that consecrates today + The spot where rests one of the noble few + Who saw the right, and dared the right to do. + True to himself and to his fellow men, + With patient hand he moved the potent pen, + Whose inky stream did, like the Red Sea's flow, + Such bondage break and such a host o'erthrow! + The simple parchment on its fleeting page + Bespeaks the import of the better age,-- + When man, for man, no more shall forge the chain, + Nor armies tread the shore, nor navies plow the main. + Then shall this boon to human freedom given + Be fitly deem'd a sacred gift of heaven;-- + Though of the earth, it is no less divine,-- + Founded on truth it will forever shine, + Reflecting rays from heaven's unchanging plan-- + The law of right and brotherhood of man. + + + + +Edna Dean Proctor, born in Henniker, New Hampshire, October 10, 1838. +She received her early education in Concord and subsequently removed +to Brooklyn, New York. She contributed largely to magazine literature +and has traveled extensively abroad. Of all her poems _By the +Shenandoah_ is probably the most popular. + + + THE GRAVE OF LINCOLN + + Now must the storied Potomac + Laurels forever divide; + Now to the Sangamon fameless + Give of its century's pride. + Sangamon, stream of the prairies, + Placidly westward that flows, + Far in whose city of silence + Calm he has sought his repose. + Over our Washington's river + Sunrise beams rosy and fair; + Sunset on Sangamon fairer,-- + Father and martyr lies there. + + Break into blossom, O prairie! + Snowy and golden and red; + Peers of the Palestine lilies + Heap for your Glorious Dead! + Roses as fair as of Sharon, + Branches as stately as palm, + Odors as rich as the spices-- + Cassia and aloes and balm-- + Mary the loved and Salome, + All with a gracious accord, + Ere the first glow of the morning + Brought to the tomb of the Lord. + + Not for thy sheaves nor savannas + Crown we thee, proud Illinois! + Here in his grave is thy grandeur; + Born of his sorrow thy joy. + Only the tomb by Mount Zion, + Hewn for the Lord, do we hold + Dearer than his in thy prairies, + Girdled with harvests of gold! + Still for the world through the ages + Wreathing with glory his brow, + He shall be Liberty's Saviour; + Freedom's Jerusalem thou! + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + In Lincoln Park, Washington, D. C. Thomas Ball, sculptor.] + + +The first contribution of five dollars for the statue in Lincoln Park, +Washington, D. C., was made by a colored woman named Charlotte Scott, +of Marietta, Ohio, the morning after the assassination of President +Lincoln, and the entire cost of said monument, amounting to $17,000, +was paid by subscriptions of colored people. It was unveiled April 14, +1876. + + + + +James Russell Lowell, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 22, +1819. He received his degree in 1838, at Harvard, and his first +production was a class poem which was delivered on that date. He was +successor of Professor Longfellow in the chair of Modern Languages at +Harvard College. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes to the +Spanish Mission, from which he was transferred in 1880 to the Court of +St. James. A long list of poetical works have been published to his +credit. He died August 12, 1891. + + + COMMEMORATION ODE + + Life may be given in many ways, + And loyalty to Truth be sealed + As bravely in the closet as the field, + So bountiful is Fate; + But then to stand beside her, + When craven churls deride her, + To front a lie in arms and not to yield, + This shows, methinks, God's plan + And measures of a stalwart man, + Limbed like the old heroic breeds, + Who stand self-poised on manhood's solid earth; + Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, + Fed from within with all the strength he needs. + + Such was he, our Martyr-Chief, + Whom late the Nation he had led, + With ashes on her head, + Wept with the passion of an angry grief; + Forgive me, if from present things I turn + To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, + And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. + Nature, they say, doth dote, + And cannot make a man + Save on some worn-out plan, + Repeating us by rote: + For him her Old World molds aside she threw, + And, choosing sweet clay from the breast + Of the unexhausted West, + + With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, + Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. + How beautiful to see + Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, + Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead; + One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, + Not lured by any cheat of birth, + But by his clear-grained human worth, + And brave old wisdom of sincerity! + They knew that outward grace is dust; + They could not choose but trust + In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, + And supple-tempered will + That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust! + + His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, + Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, + A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind; + Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, + Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, + Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. + Nothing of Europe here, + Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, + Ere any names of Serf or Peer + Could Nature's equal scheme deface; + Here was a type of the true elder race, + And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. + + I praise him not; it were too late; + And some innative weakness there must be + In him who condescends to victory + Such as the present gives, and cannot wait, + Safe in himself as in a fate. + So always firmly he; + He knew to bide his time, + And can his fame abide, + Still patient in his simple faith sublime, + Till the wise years decide. + Great captains, with their guns and drums, + Disturb our judgment for the hour, + But at last silence comes; + These are all gone, and, standing like a tower, + Our children shall behold his fame, + The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, + Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, + New birth of our new soil, the first American. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + By Leonard W. Volk] + + + + +Richard Henry Stoddard, born in Hingham, Massachusetts, July 2, 1825. +His first book, entitled _Foot Prints_, was published in 1849, and +some three years after a more mature collection of poems was +published. In later years a number of his books were published, all of +which have been received with approbation by the public. Died May 12, +1903. + + + AN HORATIAN ODE + + (_To Lincoln_) + + Not as when some great captain falls + In battle, where his country calls, + Beyond the struggling lines + That push his dread designs + + To doom, by some stray ball struck dead: + Or in the last charge, at the head + Of his determined men, + Who must be victors then! + + Nor as when sink the civic great, + The safer pillars of the State, + Whose calm, mature, wise words + Suppress the need of swords! + + With no such tears as e'er were shed + Above the noblest of our dead + Do we today deplore + The man that is no more. + + Our sorrow hath a wider scope, + Too strange for fear, too vast for hope,-- + A wonder, blind and dumb, + That waits--what is to come! + + Not more astonished had we been + If madness, that dark night, unseen, + Had in our chambers crept, + And murdered while we slept! + + We woke to find a mourning earth-- + Our Lares shivered on the hearth,-- + To roof-tree fallen--all + That could affright, appall! + + Such thunderbolts, in other lands, + Have smitten the rod from royal hands, + But spared, with us, till now, + Each laureled Caesar's brow. + + No Caesar he, whom we lament, + A man without a precedent, + Sent it would seem, to do + His work--and perish too! + + Not by the weary cares of state, + The endless tasks, which will not wait, + Which, often done in vain, + Must yet be done again; + + Not in the dark, wild tide of war, + Which rose so high, and rolled so far, + Sweeping from sea to sea + In awful anarchy;-- + + Four fateful years of mortal strife, + Which slowly drained the Nation's life, + (Yet, for each drop that ran + There sprang an armed man!) + + Not then;--but when by measures meet-- + By victory, and by defeat, + By courage, patience, skill, + The people's fixed "We will!" + + Had pierced, had crushed rebellion dead-- + Without a hand, without a head:-- + At last, when all was well, + He fell--O, how he fell! + + Tyrants have fallen by such as thou, + And good hath followed,--may it now! + (God lets bad instruments + Produce the best events.) + + But he, the man we mourn today, + No tyrant was; so mild a sway + In one such weight who bore + Was never known before! + + _From "Poems of Richard Henry Stoddard"_ + Copyright, 1880, by Charles Scribner's Sons. + + + + + [Illustration: "THE GOOD GRAY POET" (Walt Whitman)] + + +Walt Whitman, born in West Hills, Long Island, New York, May 31, 1819. +He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York City. +Learned the printing trade at which he worked during the summer and +taught school in winter. He made long pedestrian tours through the +United States and even extended his tramps through Canada. His chief +work, _Leaves of Grass_, is a series of poems through which he earned +the praise of some and the abuse of others. He visited the army when a +brother was wounded and remained afterward as a volunteer nurse. Died +1892. + + + O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! + + O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; + The ship has weather'd every wrack, the prize we sought is won; + The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, + While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel firm and daring; + + But O heart! heart! heart! + O the bleeding drops of red, + Where on the deck my Captain lies, + Fallen, cold and dead. + + O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; + Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; + For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores + a-crowding; + For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; + + Here, Captain! dear Father! + This arm beneath your head; + It is some dream that on the deck + You've fallen cold and dead. + + My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; + My Father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; + The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; + From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; + + Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! + But I, with mournful tread, + Walk the deck where my Captain lies, + Fallen, cold and dead. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + By Lott Flannery, in front of the Court House, Washington Unveiled + April 16, 1868] + + + + +Henry de Garrs, of Sheffield, England, wrote these lines on the +assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They were published in +England in 1889, and later in America, in the _Century_. + + + ON THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN + + What dreadful rumor, hurtling o'er the sea, + Too monstrous for belief, assails our shore? + Men pause and question, Can such foul crime be? + Till lingering doubt may cling to hope no more. + Not when great Caesar weltered in his gore, + Nor since, in time, or circumstance, or place, + Hath crime so shook the World's great heart before. + O World! O World! of all thy records base, + Time wears no fouler scar on his time-smitten face. + + A king of men, inured to hardy toil, + Rose truly royal up the steeps of life, + Till Europe's monarchs seemed to dwarf the while + Beneath his greatness--great when traitors rife + Pierced deep his country's heart with treason-knife; + But greatest when victorious he stood, + Crowning with mercy freedom's greatest strife. + The world saw the new light of godlike good + Ere the assassin's hand shed his most precious blood. + + Lament thy loss, sad sister of the West: + Not one, but many nations with thee weep; + Cherish thy martyr on thy wounded breast, + And lay him with thy Washington to sleep. + Earth holds no fitter sepulcher to keep + His royal heart--one of thy kings to be + Who reign even from the grave; whose scepters sweep + More potent over human destiny + Than all ambition's pride and power and majesty. + + Yet, yet rejoice that thou hadst such a son; + The mother of such a man should never sigh; + Could longer life a nobler cause have won? + Could longest age more gloriously die? + Oh! lift thy heart, thy mind, thy soul on high + With deep maternal pride, that from thy womb + Came such a son to scourge hell's foulest lie + Out of life's temple. Watchers by his tomb! + He is not there, but risen: that grave is + slavery's doom. + + + + + POETICAL TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + _By Emily J. Bugbee_ + + + There's a burden of grief on the breezes of Spring, + And a song of regret from the bird on its wing; + There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, + And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours; + For a star hath gone out from the night of our sky, + On whose brightness we gazed as the war-cloud roll'd by; + So tranquil, and steady, and clear were its beams, + That they fell like a vision of peace on our dreams. + + A heart that we knew had been true to our weal, + And a hand that was steadily guiding the wheel; + A name never tarnished by falsehood or wrong, + That had dwelt in our hearts like a soul-stirring song. + Ah! that pure, noble spirit has gone to its rest, + And the true hand lies nerveless and cold on his breast; + But the name and the memory--_these_ never will die, + But grow brighter and dearer as ages go by. + + Yet the tears of a Nation fall over the dead, + Such tears as a Nation before never shed; + For our cherished one fell by a dastardly hand, + A martyr to truth and the cause of the land; + And a sorrow has surged, like the waves to the shore, + When the breath of the tempest is sweeping them o'er, + And the heads of the lofty and lowly have bowed, + As the shaft of the lightning sped out from the cloud. + + Not gathered, like Washington, home to his rest, + When the sun of his life was far down in the West; + But stricken from earth in the midst of his years, + With the Canaan in view, of his prayers and his tears. + And the people, whose hearts in the wilderness failed, + Sometimes, when the star of their promise had paled, + Now, stand by his side on the mount of his fame, + And yield him their hearts in a grateful acclaim. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + Muskegon, Michigan, Charles Niehaus, sculptor] + + + + +John Nichol, born at Montrose, Forfarshire, Scotland, September 8, +1833. He was a professor of English Literature at the University of +Glasgow (1861-1889), and did much to make American books popular in +England. His numerous publications include: _Leaves_ (1854), verse; +_Tables of European History, 200-1876 A.D._ (1876); fourth edition +(1888); _Byron in English Men of Letters series_; _American +Literature, 1520-1880_ (1882). He was an ardent advocate of the +Northern cause during the Civil War, and visited the United States at +the close of the conflict. He died at London, England, October 11, +1894. + + + LINCOLN, 1865 + + An end at last! The echoes of the war-- + The weary war beyond the Western waves-- + Die in the distance. Freedom's rising star + Beacons above a hundred thousand graves; + + The graves of heroes who have won the fight, + Who in the storming of the stubborn town + Have rung the marriage peal of might and right, + And scaled the cliffs and cast the dragon down. + + Pæans of armies thrill across the sea, + Till Europe answers--"Let the struggle cease. + The bloody page is turned; the next may be + For ways of pleasantness and paths of peace!" + + A golden morn--a dawn of better things-- + The olive-branch--clasping of hands again-- + A noble lesson read to conquered kings-- + A sky that tempests had not scoured in vain. + + This from America we hoped and him + Who ruled her "in the spirit of his creed." + Does the hope last when all our eyes are dim, + As history records her darkest deed? + + The pilot of his people through the strife, + With his strong purpose turning scorn to praise, + E'en at the close of battle reft of life + And fair inheritance of quiet days. + + Defeat and triumph found him calm and just, + He showed how clemency should temper power, + And, dying, left to future times in trust + The memory of his brief victorious hour. + + O'ermastered by the irony of fate, + The last and greatest martyr of his cause; + Slain like Achilles at the Scæan gate, + He saw the end, and fixed "the purer laws." + + May these endure and, as his work, attest + The glory of his honest heart and hand-- + The simplest, and the bravest, and the best-- + The Moses and the Cromwell of his land. + + Too late the pioneers of modern spite, + Awe-stricken by the universal gloom, + See his name lustrous in Death's sable night, + And offer tardy tribute at his tomb. + + But we who have been with him all the while, + Who knew his worth, and loved him long ago, + Rejoice that in the circuit of our isle + There is at last no room for Lincoln's foe. + + + + + [Illustration: LINCOLN AND CABINET + + "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation." + Painted by Frank B. Carpenter. + + From left to right--Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War; Salmon + P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; President Lincoln; Gideon + Welles, Secretary of the Navy; William H. Seward, Secretary of + State; J. P. Usher, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair, + Postmaster-General; Edward Bates, Attorney-General] + + + + +Christopher Pearse Cranch, born in Alexandria, Virginia, March 8, +1813. Graduated at the school of Divinity, Cambridge, Massachusetts, +in 1835, but retired from the ministry in 1842 to devote himself to +art. He studied in Italy in 1846-8, and lived and painted in 1853-63, +and, returning to New York, was elected a member of the National +Academy in 1864. He was a graceful writer of both prose and verse. + + + LINCOLN + + But yesterday--the exulting nation's shout + Swelled on the breeze of victory through our streets, + But yesterday--our banners flaunted out + Like flowers the south wind woos from their retreats; + Flowers of the nation, blue, and white, and red, + Waving from balcony, and spire, and mast; + Which told us that war's wintry storm had fled, + And spring was more than spring to us at last. + + Today the nation's heart lies crushed and weak; + Drooping and draped in black our banners stand. + Too stunned to cry revenge, we scarce may speak + The grief that chokes all utterance through the land. + God is in all. With tears our eyes are dim, + Yet strive through darkness to look to Him! + + No, not in vain he died--not all in vain, + Our good, great President! This people's hands + Are linked together in one mighty chain + Drawn tighter still in triple-woven bands + To crush the fiends in human masks, whose might + We suffer, oh, too long! No league, nor truce + Save men with men! The devils we must fight + With fire! God wills it in this deed. This use + We draw from the most impious murder done + Since Calvary. Rise then, O Countrymen! + Scatter these marsh-lights hopes of Union won + Through pardoning clemency. Strike, strike again! + Draw closer round the foe a girdling flame. + We are stabbed whene'er we spare--strike in God's name! + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Randolph Rogers, + sculptor. Unveiled November 26, 1869] + + + + +George Henry Boker, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 6th day +of October, 1823. Graduated at Princeton in 1842, and afterward +studied law. In the year 1847, after his return from an extended tour +in Europe, he published _The Lessons of Life and Other Poems_. He also +produced a number of plays which were successfully produced upon the +stage, both in England and America. During the War of the Rebellion he +wrote a number of patriotic lyrics, collected and published in a +volume under the title of _Poems of the War_. He has also written +other poems and articles in prose which have received high praise. + +In the year 1871 he was appointed by President Grant as our United +States Minister to Turkey, but in 1875 was transferred to the more +important Mission of Russia. + + + LINCOLN + + Crown we our heroes with a holier wreath + Than man e'er wore upon this side of death; + Mix with their laurels deathless asphodels, + And chime their pæans from the sacred bells! + Nor in your praises forget the martyred Chief, + Fallen for the gospel of your own belief, + Who, ere he mounted to the people's throne, + Asked for your prayers, and joined in them his own. + I knew the man. I see him, as he stands + With gifts of mercy in his outstretched hands; + A kindly light within his gentle eyes, + Sad as the toil in which his heart grew wise; + His lips half parted with the constant smile + That kindled truth, but foiled the deepest guile; + His head bent forward, and his willing ear + Divinely patient right and wrong to hear: + Great in his goodness, humble in his state, + Firm in his purpose, yet not passionate, + He led his people with a tender hand, + And won by love a sway beyond command. + Summoned by lot to mitigate a time + Frenzied with rage, unscrupulous with crime, + He bore his mission with so meek a heart + That Heaven itself took up his people's part; + And when he faltered, helped him ere he fell, + Eking his efforts out by miracle. + No king this man, by grace of God's intent; + No, something better, freeman,--President! + A nature modeled on a higher plan, + Lord of himself, an inborn gentleman! + + + + + [Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Photo by Brady, 1864] + + + + +Phoebe Cary was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, September 24, 1824. Her +advantages for education were somewhat better than those of her sister +Alice, whose almost inseparable companion she became at an early age. +They were quite different, however, in temperament, in person and in +mental constitution. Phoebe began to write verse at the age of +seventeen years, and one of her earliest poems, _Nearer Home_, +beginning with "One sweetly solemn thought," won her a world-wide +reputation. In the joint housekeeping in New York she took from choice +(Alice being for many years an invalid) the larger share of duties +upon herself, and hence found little opportunity for literary work. +In society, however, she was brilliant, but at all times kindly. She +wrote a touching tribute to her sister's memory, published in the +_Ladies' Repository_ a few days before her own death, which occurred +at Newport, R. I., July 31, 1871. In the volume of _Poems of Alice and +Phoebe Cary_ (Philadelphia, 1850) but about one-third were written by +Phoebe. Her independently published books are _Poems and Parodies_ +(1854), and _Poems of Faith, Hope and Love_ (1868). + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + Our sun hath gone down at the noonday, + The heavens are black; + And over the morning the shadows + Of night-time are back. + + Stop the proud boasting mouth of the cannon, + Hush the mirth and the shout; + God is God! and the ways of Jehovah + Are past finding out. + + Lo! the beautiful feet on the mountains, + That yesterday stood; + The white feet that came with glad tidings + Are dabbled in blood. + + The Nation that firmly was settling + The crown on her head, + Sits, like Rizpah, in sackcloth and ashes, + And watches her dead. + + Who is dead? who, unmoved by our wailing + Is lying so low? + O, my Land, stricken dumb in your anguish, + Do you feel, do you know? + + Once this good man we mourn, overwearied, + Worn, anxious, oppressed, + Was going out from his audience chamber + For a season to rest; + + Unheeding the thousands who waited + To honor and greet, + When the cry of a child smote upon him + And turned back his feet. + + "Three days hath a woman been waiting," + Said they, "patient and meek." + And he answered, "Whatever her errand, + Let me hear; let her speak!" + + So she came, and stood trembling before him + And pleaded her cause; + Told him all; how her child's erring father + Had broken the laws. + + Humbly spake she: "I mourn for his folly, + His weakness, his fall"; + Proudly spake she: "he is not a TRAITOR, + And I love him through all!" + + Then the great man, whose heart had been shaken + By a little babe's cry; + Answered soft, taking counsel of mercy, + "This man shall not die!" + + Why, he heard from the dungeons, the rice-fields, + The dark holds of ships; + Every faint, feeble cry which oppression + Smothered down on men's lips. + + In her furnace, the centuries had welded + Their fetter and chain; + And like withes, in the hands of his purpose, + He snapped them in twain. + + Who can be what he was to the people; + What he was to the State? + Shall the ages bring to us another + As good and as great? + + Our hearts with their anguish are broken, + Our wet eyes are dim; + For us is the loss and the sorrow, + The triumph for him! + + For, ere this, face to face with his Father + Our Martyr hath stood; + Giving into his hand the white record + With its great seal of blood! + + That the hand which reached out of the darkness + Hath taken the whole? + Yea, the arm and the head of the people-- + The heart and the soul! + + And that heart, o'er whose dread awful silence + A nation has wept; + Was the truest, and gentlest, and sweetest + A man ever kept! + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + By Augustus Saint Gaudens, in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois] + + +On the 22nd of October, 1887, this statue by Saint Gaudens was +unveiled, Mr. Eli Bates donating $40,000 for that purpose. There is a +vast oval of cut stone, thirty by sixty feet, the interior fashioned +to form a classic bench, and the statue stands on a stone pedestal. +The sculptor represents him as an orator, just risen from his chair, +which is shown behind him, and waiting for the audience to become +quiet before beginning his speech. The attitude is that always assumed +by Lincoln at the beginning--one hand behind him, and the other +grasping the lapel of his coat. He appears the very incarnation of +rugged grandeur which held the master mind of this age. + + + + +Charles Graham Halpin (Miles O'Reilly) was born near Oldcastle, County +of Meath, Ireland, November 20, 1829. Graduated from Trinity College, +Dublin, in 1846. He entered the field of journalism as a profession +and soon gained a reputation in England. Came to New York in 1852 and +secured employment with the _Herald_, was later connected with other +papers. Enlisted in April, 1861, and became lieutenant of Colonel +Corcoran's 69th Regiment, rising to the rank of brigadier-general. He +died in New York City, August 3, 1868. + + + LINCOLN + + He filled the Nation's eyes and heart, + An honored, loved, familiar name; + So much a brother that his fame + Seemed of our lives a common part. + + His towering figure, sharp and spare, + Was with such nervous tension strung, + As if on each strained sinew swung + The burden of a people's care. + + His changing face, what pen can draw-- + Pathetic, kindly, droll or stern; + And with a glance so quick to learn + The inmost truth of all he saw. + + Pride found no place to spawn + Her fancies in his busy mind. + His worth, like health or air, could find + No just appraisal till withdrawn. + + He was his country's--not his own; + He had no wish but for the weak, + Nor for himself could think or feel, + But as a laborer for her throne. + + Her flag upon the heights of power-- + Stainless and unassayed to place, + To this one end his earnest face + Was bent through every burdened hour. + + . . . . . + + But done the battle--won the strife; + When torches light his vaulted tomb, + Broad gems flash out and crowns illume + The clay-cold brow undecked in life. + + . . . . . + + O, loved and lost! Thy patient toil + Had robed our cause in victory's light; + Our country stood redeemed and bright, + With not a slave on all her soil. + + 'Mid peals of bells and cannon's bark, + And shouting streets with flags abloom, + Sped the shrill arrow of thy doom, + And, in an instant, all was dark! + + . . . . . + + A martyr to the cause of man, + His blood is Freedom's Eucharist, + And in the world's great hero list + His name shall lead the van. + + Yes! ranked on Faith's white wings unfurled + In Heaven's pure light, of him we say, + "He fell on the self-same day + A Greater died to save the world." + + + + + [Illustration: TABLET AT PHILADELPHIA + + Unveiled February 21, 1903] + + + + +He who seeks the embodiment of the genius of the Union finds it in the +apotheosis of the Great Emancipator. There, under the arching skies he +stands, erect, serene, resplendent; beneath his feet the broken +shackles of a race redeemed; upon his brow the diadem of liberty with +law, while around and behind him rise up, as an eternal guard of +honor, the great army of the Republic. + +In the belief that from the martyr's bier as from the battlefield of +right it is but one step to paradise, may we not, on days like this, +draw back the veil that separates from our mortal gaze the phantom +squadrons as they pass again in grand review before their "Martyr +President."--_From an address by Hiram F. Stevens, read before the +Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion._ + + + THE MARTYR PRESIDENT + + In solid platoons of steel, + Under heaven's triumphant arch, + The long lines break and wheel, + And the order is "Forward, March!" + The colors ripple o'erhead, + The drums roll up to the sky, + And with martial time and tread + The regiments all pass by-- + The ranks of the faithful dead + Meeting their president's eye. + March on, your last brave mile! + Salute him, star and lace! + Form 'round him, rank and file, + And look on the kind, rough face. + But the quaint and homely smile + Has a glory and a grace + It has never known erstwhile, + Never in time or space. + Close 'round him, hearts of pride! + Press near him, side by side! + For he stands there not alone. + For the holy right he died, + And Christ, the crucified, + Waits to welcome his own. + + + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + _Written for the Lincoln Memorial Album, by + Eugene J. Hall, 1882._ + + + O honored name, revered and undecaying, + Engraven on each heart, O soul sublime! + That, like a planet through the heavens straying, + Outlives the wreck of time! + + O rough, strong soul, your noble self-possession + Is unforgotten. Still your work remains. + You freed from bondage and from vile oppression + A race in clanking chains. + + O furrowed face, beloved by all the nation! + O tall gaunt form, to memory fondly dear! + O firm, bold hand, our strength and our salvation! + O heart that knew no fear! + + Lincoln, your manhood shall survive forever, + Shedding a fadeless halo round your name; + Urging men on, with wise and strong endeavor, + To bright and honest fame! + + Through years of care, to rest and joy a stranger, + You saw complete the work you had begun, + Thoughtless of threats, nor heeding death or danger, + You toiled till all was done. + + You freed the bondman from his iron master, + You broke the strong and cruel chains he wore, + You saved the Ship of State from foul disaster + And brought her safe to shore. + + You fell! An anxious nation's hopes seemed blighted, + While millions shuddered at your dreadful fall; + But _God is good_! His wondrous hand has righted + And reunited all. + + You fell, but in your death you were victorious; + To moulder in the tomb your form has gone, + While through the world your great soul grows more glorious + As years go gliding on! + + All hail, great Chieftain! Long will sweetly cluster + A thousand memories round your sacred name, + Nor time, nor death shall dim the spotless luster + That shines upon your fame. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + By Vinnie Ream, rotunda of the Capitol, Washington, D. C.] + + + + +Samuel Francis Smith, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, +October 21, 1808. Attended the Boston Latin School in 1820-5, and was +graduated at Harvard in 1829 and at Andover Theological Seminary in +1832. Was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist Church at +Waterville, Maine, in 1834, where he occupied pastorates from 1834 +until 1842, and at Newton, Massachusetts, 1842 to 1854. Was professor +of languages in Waterville College while residing in that city, and +there he also received the degree of D.D. in 1854. + +He has done a large amount of literary work, mainly in the line of +hymnology, his most popular composition being our national hymn, _My +Country, 'Tis of Thee_, which was written while he was a theological +student, and first sung at a children's celebration in the Park Street +Church, Boston, July 4, 1832. _The Morning Light is Breaking_, was +also written at the same place and time. His classmate, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, in his reunion poem entitled _The Boys_, thus refers to him: + + "And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith; + Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith! + But he chanted a song for the brave and the free-- + Just read on his medal, 'My Country, of Thee!'" + + The following poem was written expressly for the exercises + held on the Nineteenth Anniversary of President Lincoln's + death, at his tomb, Springfield, Illinois, April 15, 1884. + + + THE TOMB OF LINCOLN + + Grandeur and glory await around the bed + Where sleeps in lowly peace the illustrious dead; + He rose a meteor, upon wondering men, + But rose in strength, never to set again. + A king of men, though born in lowly state, + A man sincerely good and nobly great; + Tender, but firm; faithful and kind, and true, + The Nation's choice, the Nation's Saviour, too; + When Liberty and Truth shall reign for evermore, + From Oregon to Florida's perpetual May, + From Shasta's awful peak to Massachusetts Bay,-- + Then our children's children, by the cottage door, + In the schoolroom, from the pulpit, at the bar, + Shall look up to thee as to a beacon star, + And deduce the lesson from thy life and death, + That the patriot's lofty courage and the Christian's faith + Conquer honors that outweigh ambition's gaudiest prize, + Triumph o'er the grave, and open the gates of Paradise. + + Schooled through life's early hardships to endure, + To raise the oppressed, to save and shield the poor; + Prudent in counsel, honest in debate, + Patient to hear and judge, patient to wait; + The calm, the wise, the witty and the proved, + Whom millions honored, and whom millions loved; + Swayed by no baleful lust of pride or power, + The shining pageants of the passing hour, + + Led by no scheming arts, no selfish aim, + Ambitious for no pomp, nor wealth, nor fame, + No planning hypocrite, no pliant tool, + A high-born patriot, of Heaven's noblest school; + Cool and unshaken in the maddest storm, + For in the clouds he traced the Almighty's form; + Worn with the weary heart and aching head, + Worse than the picket, with his ceaseless tread, + + He kept--as bound by some resistless fate-- + His broad, strong hand upon the helm of State; + Nor turned, in fear, his heart or hope away, + Till on the field his tent a ruin lay. + His tent, a ruin; but the owner's name + Stands on the pinnacle of human fame, + Inscribed in lines of light, and nations see, + Through him, the people's life and liberty. + + What high ideas, what noble acts he taught! + To make men free in life, and limb, and thought, + To rise, to soar, to scorn the oppressor's rod, + To live in grander life, to live for God; + To stand for justice, freedom and the right, + To dare the conflict, strong in God's own might; + The methods taught by Him, by him were tried, + And he, to conscience true, a martyr died. + + As the great sun pursues his heavenly way + And fills with life and joy the livelong day, + Till, the full journey, in glory dressed, + He seeks his crimson couch beneath the west; + So, with his labor done, our hero sleeps; + Above his tomb a ransomed Nation weeps; + And grateful pæans o'er his ashes rise-- + Dear is his fame--his glory never dies. + + Bring flowers, fresh flowers, bring plumes with nodding crests, + To wreath the tomb where our great hero rests; + Bring pipe and tabret, eloquence and song, + And sound the loving tribute, loud and long; + A Nation bows, and mourns his honored name, + A Nation proudly keeps his deathless fame; + Let vale and rock, and hill, and land, and sea + His memory swell--the anthem of the free. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + On the State Capitol Grounds at Lincoln, Nebraska. + Unveiled September 2, 1912. Daniel Chester French, sculptor] + + + + +John Townsend Trowbridge, born September 18, 1827, in Ogden, New York. +He lived the ordinary life of a country boy, going to school six +months in the year till he was fourteen, after which he had to work on +the farm in summer. His books had more interest to him than his work, +and he managed to learn more out of school than in it. At sixteen he +wrote articles in verse and prose for magazines and journals. He was a +contributor to the _Atlantic Monthly_. + +During the great rebellion, he wrote several stories of the war: _The +Drummer Boy_, 1863, and _The Three Scouts_, 1865. On the return of +peace he spent some four months in the principal southern States, for +the purpose of gaining accurate views of the condition of society +there after the war. He published the result of these observations +June, 1866, in a volume entitled, _The South_. A collected edition of +his poems was published in 1869, entitled _The Vagabonds, and Other +Poems_. + + + LINCOLN + + Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid, + Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint; + What he endured, no less than what he did, + Has reared his monument, and crowned him saint. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + Burlington, Wisconsin. George E. Ganiere, sculptor + Unveiled October 13, 1913] + + + + +Kinahan Cornwallis was born in London, England, December 24, 1839. +Entered British Colonial Civil Service; two years at Melbourne, +Australia. Located in New York in 1860, one of the editors and +correspondent of the _Herald_. Accompanied the Prince of Wales on his +American tour. Admitted to the New York bar in 1863; financial editor +and general editorial writer of _New York Herald_, 1860-69. Editor and +proprietor of _The Knickerbocker Magazine_, afterward of _The Albion_. +Since 1886 editor and proprietor _Wall Street Daily Investigator_, now +_Wall Street Daily Investor_. Author of _Howard Plunkett_ (a novel); +an Australian poem, 1857. The _New Eldorado, or British Columbia_ +(Travels); _Two Journeys to Japan_; _A Panorama of the New World_; +_Wreck and Ruin, or Modern Society_ (novel); _My Life and Adventures_ +(story), 1859, also of many other histories and novels. Among his poet +productions are _The Song of America and Columbus_, 1892; _The +Conquest of Mexico and Peru_, 1893; _The War for the Union, or the +Duel Between North and South_, 1899. + + + HOMAGE DUE TO LINCOLN + + Well may we all to Lincoln homage pay, + For patriotic duty points the way, + And tells the story of the debt we owe-- + A debt of gratitude that all should know; + And ne'er will perish that historic tale. + To him, the Union's great defender, hail! + Through battling years he steered the ship of state, + And ever proved a captain just and great. + Through storm and tempest, and unnumbered woes, + While oft assailed in fury by his foes, + He held his course, and triumphed over all, + Responding ever to his country's call; + And more divine than human seemed the deed + When he the slave from hellish bondage freed, + And from the South its human chattels tore. + 'Twas his to Man his manhood to restore. + That righteous action sealed rebellion's doom, + And paved secession's pathway to the tomb. + But, lo! when Peace with Union glory, came, + And all the country rang with his acclaim-- + A reunited country, great and strong-- + A foul assassin marked him for his prey; + A bullet sped, and Lincoln dying lay. + Alas! Alas! that he should thus have died-- + His country's leader, and his country's pride! + No deed more infamous than this-- + No fate more cruel and unjust than his-- + Can in the annals of the world be found. + The Nation shuddered in its grief profound, + And mourning emblems draped the country o'er + Alas! Alas! its leader was no more! + But still he lives in his immortal fame, + And evermore will Glory gild his name, + And keep his memory in eternal view, + And o'er his grave unfading garlands strew. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + At Edinburgh, Scotland, George E. Bissell, sculptor] + + +It is within an inclosed cemetery, known as the Calton burying ground, +which is separated from the Calton Hill by a wide thoroughfare. The +statue is the work of an American sculptor, George E. Bissell. It is a +fine bronze figure, and rests on a massive granite pedestal. The +figure at the base is that of a freed negro holding up a wreath. On +one face of the pedestal are Lincoln's words, "To preserve the jewel +of liberty in the framework of freedom." The statue is a memorial not +alone to Lincoln; the legend on the pedestal tells that this plot of +ground was given by the lord provost and town council of Edinburgh to +Wallace Bruce, United States Consul, and dedicated as a burial place +for Scottish soldiers of the American Civil War, 1861-65. Cut in the +granite are the names and records of Scots who fought to preserve the +Union, and who have found their last resting place in this old burying +ground at the Scottish capital. + + +David K. Watson was born near London, Madison County, Ohio, June 18, +1849. Moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1875, where he now resides. Was +Assistant United States District Attorney for the Southern District of +Ohio from 1881 to 1885. Elected Attorney-General of Ohio in 1887 and +re-elected in 1889. Member of the fifty-fourth Congress. Was member of +the Commission to revise the Federal Statutes. Author of _History of +American Coinage_ and _Watson on the Constitution of the United +States_. + + + THE SCOTLAND STATUE + + O Scotland! It was a gracious act in thee + To build a monument beside the sea + To Lincoln, who wrote the word, + And slavery's shackles fell + From off a race + Which ne'er before could tell + What freedom was. + To Lincoln, whose soul was great enough to know + That beings born in likeness of their God + Were meant to live as freemen, + Not as slaves, and ruled by slavery's rod. + To Lincoln, who more than any of his race + Uplifted men and women to the place + God made for them. + To Lincoln, who never saw your land, + And in whose veins no Scottish blood had run; + But yet, because of deeds which he had done, + His mighty name + Had filled the world with fame + And taught the people of each land + That in God's hand + Is held the destiny of races and of man. + + Immortal patriot! through the mist of years + That in the future are to come,-- + When we who saw thee here are gone,-- + We view thy heaven-aspiring tomb + Illumined by the roseate dawn + Of the millennial day, + When Peace shall hold her sway, + And bring Saturnian eras; when the roar + O' the battle's thunder shall be heard no more. + + + + + [Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN + + At Newark, N. J. Gutzon Borglum, sculptor] + + +The statue was unveiled May 30, 1911. It is the gift of Amos H. Van +Horn, who died December 26, 1908. In his will he set aside $25,000 for +a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, to be dedicated in memory of Lincoln +Post, No. 11, Department of New Jersey, G. A. R., of which he was a +charter member. + + + + +Joseph Fulford Folsom, Presbyterian clergyman, miscellaneous writer +and local historian, is a native of Bloomfield, New Jersey. He is a +direct descendant of John Folsom who arrived at Boston in the Diligent +on August 10, 1638, and settled at Hingham, Massachusetts. + +Mr. Folsom is the pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, South, of +Newark, New Jersey. He has served two terms as Chaplain General of the +Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. Is Librarian and +Recording Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society. Edited and +wrote three chapters of _Bloomfield, Old and New_, a history of that +town published in 1912. Wrote the history of the churches of Newark, +including the _History of Newark, New Jersey_, published in 1913. His +poem, _The Ballad of Daniel Bray_, is found in the _Patriotic Poems of +New Jersey_. He is an occasional writer of poems, and contributes +regularly a column of historical matters, signed "The Lorist." + + + THE UNFINISHED WORK + + The crowd was gone, and to the side + Of Borglum's Lincoln, deep in awe, + I crept. It seem'd a mighty tide + Within those aching eyes I saw. + + "Great heart," I said, "why grieve alway? + The battle's ended and the shout + Shall ring forever and a day,-- + Why sorrow yet, or darkly doubt?" + + "Freedom," I plead, "so nobly won + For all mankind, and equal right, + Shall with the ages travel on + Till time shall cease, and day be night." + + No answer--then; but up the slope, + With broken gait, and hands in clench, + A toiler came, bereft of hope, + And sank beside him on the bench. + + + [Illustration: CHILDREN ON THE BORGLUM STATUE] + + + + +Wendell Phillips Stafford, son of Frank and Sarah (Noyes) Stafford, +born at Barre, Vermont, May 1, 1861. Educated at Barre Academy and St. +Johnsbury Academy. Studied law and attended Boston University Law +School, graduating therefrom in 1883. Admitted to the bar in 1883. +Practiced law in St. Johnsbury until 1900. Was then appointed to the +Supreme Court of Vermont. Appointed to the Supreme Court of the +District of Columbia in 1904, which position he still holds. + +Married February 24, 1886, to Miss Florence Sinclair Goss of St. +Johnsbury. Has contributed to the _Atlantic Monthly_ and other +magazines. Publications: _North Flowers_ (poems), 1902; _Dorian Days_ +(poems), 1909; _Speeches_, 1913. + + + ONE OF OUR PRESIDENTS + + (_See page 80_) + + He sits there on the low, rude, backless bench, + With his tall hat beside him, and one arm + Flung, thus, across his knee. The other hand + Rests, flat, palm downward, by him on the seat. + So Æsop may have sat; so Lincoln did. + For all the sadness in the sunken eyes, + For all the kingship in the uncrowned brow, + The great form leans so friendly, father-like, + It is a call to children. I have watched + Eight at a time swarming upon him there, + All clinging to him--riding upon his knees, + Cuddling between his arms, clasping his neck, + Perched on his shoulders, even on his head; + And one small, play-stained hand I saw reached up + And laid most softly on the kind bronze lips + As if it claimed them. These were the children + Of foreigners we call them, but not so + They call themselves; for when we asked of one, + A restless dark-eyed girl, who this man was, + She answered straight, "One of our Presidents." + + "Let all the winds of hell blow in our sails," + I thought, "thank God, thank God the ship rides true!" + + + + + [Illustration: HEAD OF LINCOLN + + This medal was struck for the Grand Army of the Republic in + commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of + Abraham Lincoln] + + +Frank Dempster Sherman, son of John Dempster and Lucy (McFarland) +Sherman, was born May 6, 1860, at Peekskill, New York; educated at +home and at Columbia and Howard Universities, and since 1886 connected +with Columbia University where he is Professor of Graphics. Author of +several volumes of poems which are published by Houghton-Mifflin +Company, Boston. + +Professor Sherman married, November 16, 1887, Juliet Durand, daughter +of Rev. Cyrus Bervic and Sarah Elizabeth (Merserveau) Durand. + +He is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. + + + ON A BRONZE MEDAL OF LINCOLN + + This bronze our Lincoln's noble head doth bear, + Behold the strength and splendor of that face, + So homely-beautiful, with just a trace + Of humor lightening its look of care, + With bronze indeed his memory doth share, + This martyr who found freedom for a Race; + Both shall endure beyond the time and place + That knew them first, and brighter grow with wear. + Happy must be the genius here that wrought + These features of the great American + Whose fame lends so much glory to our past-- + Happy to know the inspiration caught + From this most human and heroic man + Lives here to honor him while Art shall last. + + + + + [Illustration: MARBLE HEAD OF LINCOLN + + In Statuary Hall, Capitol in Washington, Gutzon Borglum, sculptor] + + + + +Ella Wheeler [Wilcox] was born in Johnstown Centre, Wisconsin, in +1845. Was educated at the public schools at Windsor and at the +University of Wisconsin. In 1884 she married Robert M. Wilcox. +Contributed articles for newspapers at an early age and also wrote and +published a number of books of poems. + + + THE GLORY THAT SLUMBERED IN THE GRANITE ROCK + + A granite rock on the mountain side + Gazed on the world and was satisfied; + It watched the centuries come and go-- + It welcomed the sunlight, and loved the snow, + It grieved when the forest was forced to fall, + But smiled when the steeples rose, white and tall, + In the valley below it, and thrilled to hear + The voice of the great town roaring near. + + When the mountain stream from its idle play + Was caught by the mill-wheel, and borne away + And trained to labor, the gray rock mused: + "Tree and verdure and stream are used + By man, the master, but I remain + Friend of the Mountain, and Star, and Plain; + Unchanged forever, by God's decree, + While passing centuries bow to me!" + + Then, all unwarned, with a heavy shock + Down from the mountain was wrenched the rock. + Bruised and battered and broken in heart, + He was carried away to a common mart. + Wrecked and ruined in peace and pride, + "Oh, God is cruel!" the granite cried; + "Comrade of Mountain, of Star the friend-- + By all deserted--how sad my end!" + + A dreaming sculptor, in passing by, + Gazed on the granite with thoughtful eye; + Then, stirred with a purpose supreme and grand, + He bade his dream in the rock expand-- + And lo! from the broken and shapeless mass, + That grieved and doubted, it came to pass + That a glorious statue, of infinite worth-- + A statue of LINCOLN--adorned the earth. + + + + + [Illustration: THE LINCOLN BOULDER + + At Nyack, N. Y.] + + +This boulder had been for two hundred and fifty years a landmark near +the Western shore of the Hudson River, opposite Upper Nyack. The +school children of Nyack contributed the funds to remove it from its +ancient bed and place it in front of the Nyack Carnegie Library, where +it now stands and probably will stand for thousands of years to come, +a monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. + +The boulder contains the Gettysburg address and was dedicated June 13, +1908. + + +Louis Bradford Couch, born at East Lee, Massachusetts, October 1, +1851. Son of Bradford Milton and Lucy L. Couch. Educated in the public +schools of Northampton, Massachusetts. Began the study of medicine in +1871, graduating with honors from the New York Homeopathic Medical +College, March 4, 1874, being awarded the Allen gold medal for the +best original investigations in medicine; he was graduated from the +New York Ophthalmic Hospital, the same year, as an eye and ear +surgeon. Practiced medicine for thirty-nine years at Nyack, New York. +Served three years as one of the medical experts on the New York State +Board of Health. + + + THE LINCOLN BOULDER + + O Mighty Boulder, wrought by God's own hand, + Throughout all future ages thou shalt stand + A monument of honor to the brave + Who yielded up their lives, their all, to save + Our glorious country, and to make it free + From bondsmen's tears and lash of slavery. + + Securely welded to thy rugged breast, + Through all the coming ages there shall rest + Our Lincoln's tribute to a patriot band, + The noblest ever penned by human hand. + + The storms of centuries may lash and beat + The granite face and bronze with hail and sleet; + But futile all their fury. In a day + The loyal sun will melt them all away. + + Equal in death our gallant heroes sleep + In Southern trench, home grave, or ocean deep; + Equal in glory, fadeless as the light + The stars send down upon them through the night. + O priceless heritage for us to keep + Our heroes' fame immortal while they sleep! + + . . . . . + + O God still guide us with thy loving hand, + Keep and protect our glorious Fatherland. + + + + + [Illustration: BAS-RELIEF HEAD OF LINCOLN + + James W. Tuft, Boston] + + + + +James Arthur Edgerton, born at Plantsville, Ohio, January 30, 1869. +Graduated at the Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, in 1887. One year's +post-graduate work, Marietta, Ohio, College. Editor county and state +papers several years; on editorial staff of _Denver News_, 1899-1903; +American Press Association, New York, 1904; _Watson's Magazine_, 1905. +Editorial writer _New York American_, 1907; Secretary State Labor +Bureau of Nebraska, 1895-9; received party vote for clerk United +States House of Representatives. Author, _Poems_, 1889; _A Better +Day_, 1890; _Populist Hand-book for 1894_; _Populist Hand-book for +Nebraska_, 1895; _Voices of the Morning_, 1898; _Songs of the People_, +1902; _Glimpses of the Real_, 1903; _In the Gardens of God_, 1904. + + + WHEN LINCOLN DIED + + When Lincoln died a universal grief + Went round the earth. Men loved him in that hour. + The North her leader lost, the South her friend; + The nation lost its savior, and the slave + Lost his deliverer, the most of all. + Oh, there was sorrow mid the humble poor + When Lincoln died! + + When Lincoln died a great soul passed from earth, + A great white soul, as tender as a child + And yet as iron willed as Hercules. + In him were strength and gentleness so mixed + That each upheld the other. He possessed + The patient firmness of a loving heart. + In power he out-kinged emperors, and yet + His mercy was as boundless as his power. + And he was jovial, laughter loving; still + His heart was ever torn with suffering. + There was divine compassion in the man, + A godlike love and pity for his race. + The world saw the full measure of that love + When Lincoln died. + + When Lincoln died a type was lost to men. + The earth has had her conquerors and kings + And many of the common great. Through all + She only had one Lincoln. There is none + Like him in all the annals of the past. + He was a growth of our new soil, a child + Of our new time, a symbol of the race + That freedom breeds; was of the lowest rank, + And yet he scaled the highest height. + Mankind one of its few immortals lost + When Lincoln died. + + When Lincoln died it seemed a providence, + For he appeared as one sent for a work + Whom, when that work was done, God summoned home. + He led a splendid fight for liberty, + And when the shackles fell the land was saved; + He laid his armor by and sought his rest. + A glory sent from heaven covered him + When Lincoln died. + + + + + [Illustration: A STUDY OF LINCOLN + + From painting by Blendon Campbell] + + + + +Amos Russell Wells was born at Glens Falls, New York, December 23, +1862. His mother removed to Yellow Springs, Ohio, when he was four +years old, and he received his education at the public school there, +afterward studying at Antioch College of that town, a college made +illustrious by its first President, Horace Mann, who died there. +Graduated in 1883, all by himself, later receiving as Master of Arts, +also LL.D. He taught for a year in a country district school, then +entered the faculty of his Alma Mater, where he was a tutor for nine +years. Was professor of Greek, Geology and Astronomy. He joined the +Christian Endeavor Society in 1888, and by it was led to become a +member of the Presbyterian Church at Yellow Springs. When but a boy he +began to write, and edited numerous journals. Later edited an amateur +paper, also a town paper. His first paid contribution was a poem +accepted in 1881 by _The Christian Union_, now _The Outlook_. Wrote +articles often for _The Golden Rule_, now _The Christian Endeavor +World_, and for the _Sunday School Times_. + +In December, 1891, he went to Boston and became managing editor of +_The Golden Rule_, a position which he still holds. Since then the +paper has changed its name and three other papers added--_The Junior +Christian Endeavor World_, _Junior Work_ and _Union Work_, all edited +by Mr. Wells. He is also Editorial Secretary of the United Society of +Christian Endeavor and in editorial charge of all its publications. + +Mr. Wells' first book, then entitled _Golden Rule Meditations_, but +now _The Upward Look_, was published in 1893. Since then every year +has seen from one to ten additions to his list of productions until +they now number fifty-eight volumes in all. He is a director of the +Union Rescue Mission and of the Chinese Mission of Boston. Is a member +of the American Sunday-School Lesson Committee, an important part of +his work being his association with Dr. F. N. Peloubet in writing the +well-known _Select Notes_ on the International Sunday-School Lessons. + + + HAD LINCOLN LIVED + + Had Lincoln lived, + How would his hand, so gentle yet so strong, + Have closed the gaping wounds of ancient wrong; + How would his merry jests, the way he smiled, + Our sundered hearts to union have beguiled; + How would the South from his just rule have learned + That enemies to neighbors may be turned, + And how the North, with his sagacious art, + Have learned the power of a trusting heart; + What follies had been spared us, and what stain, + What seeds of bitterness that still remain, + Had Lincoln lived! + + With Lincoln dead, + Ten million men in substitute for one + Must do the noble deeds he would have done: + Must lift the freedman with discerning care, + Nor house him in a castle of the air; + Must join the North and South in every good, + Fused in co-operating brotherhood; + Must banish enmity with his good cheer, + And slay with sunshine every rising fear; + Like him to dare, and trust, and sacrifice, + Ten million lesser Lincolns must arise, + With Lincoln dead. + + + + + [Illustration: THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL + + Henry Bacon, Architect] + + +The Lincoln Memorial will be the costliest monument to the memory of +one man ever reared by a republic. The Capitol, at one end of the +great parkway stretching from Capitol Hill to the Potomac, is a +monument to the Government; the Lincoln Memorial, at the other end of +that parkway, is a monument to the savior of that Government; and the +Washington Monument, standing between, is a monument to its founder. +The memorial will stand on a broad terrace 45 feet above grade. The +colonnade will be 188 feet long and 118 feet wide, and will contain 36 +columns, 44 feet high and 7 feet 5 inches in diameter at the base. +Within the interior of the structure will be three halls. In the +central hall, which will be 60 feet wide, 70 long, and 60 high, there +will be a noble statue of Lincoln, while in the two side halls will be +bronze tablets containing the Great Emancipator's second inaugural +address and his Gettysburg speech. The George A. Fuller Company of +Washington are the builders of the Memorial, which will be completed +in 1917. + + +Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin, born at Argos, Greece, February 13, +1837. Was United States Minister to Persia (1883-1885). Assistant +Librarian in the New York State Library. In 1861-1864 sent two +companies of cavalry to the war. Served in war hospitals, studied art. +Art editor of American Department _Magazine of Art_, also of the _New +York Mail_. Marine painter and illustrator. Among his numerous works +in prose and verse are _Art in America_, _Contemporary Art in Europe_ +(1877); _Constantinople_ (1860); _Persia and the Persians_ (1866); +_The Choice of Paris_ (1870), a romance; _Sea Spray_ (1887), a book +for yachtsmen, etc. + + + LET HIS MONUMENT ARISE + + Let his monument arise, + Pointing upward to the skies, + Founded by a nation's heart, + Grandly shaped in every part + By the master-minds of art, + And consecrated by a nation's tears, + To teach throughout the after-time, + To every tribe, in every clime, + That toil for others is sublime. + + + + +INDEX + + + ALLEN, LYMAN WHITNEY: sketch of, 80; + poem, "Lincoln's Church in Washington," by, 81. + + ALLEN, WILLIAM: sketch of, 173; + poem, "Springfield's Welcome to Lincoln," by, 173. + + ANTIETAM, LINCOLN AT: photograph, 115. + + "ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN, ON THE": poem by Henry De Garrs, 200. + + + B + + BACHE, ANNA: poem, "Lincoln at Springfield, 1861," by, 65, 66. + + BACON, HENRY, architect: Lincoln Memorial at Washington, by, 252. + + BALL, THOMAS, sculptor: "Emancipation Group" in Boston by, 90; + in Washington by, 188. + + BATES, EDWARD, Attorney-General: portrait of, in "Lincoln and + Cabinet," 206. + + BAXTER, JAMES PHINNEY: sketch of 22; + poem, "The Natal Day of Lincoln," by, 22. + + BECKER, CHARLOTTE: sketch of, 61; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 61. + + BENJAMIN, SAMUEL GREEN WHEELER: sketch of, 253; + poem, "Let His Monument Arise," by, 253. + + BIBLE, THE: Lincoln's fondness for xvi, xxiii. + + "BIRTH OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by George W. Crofts, 19. + + BISSELL, GEORGE E., sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 231. + + BLAIR, MONTGOMERY, Postmaster-General: portrait of, in "Lincoln + and Cabinet," 206. + + BOKER, GEORGE HENRY: sketch of 208; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 209. + + BOOTH, EDWIN: Lincoln discusses his _Hamlet_, xvii-xix. + + BOOTH, J. WILKES: assassin of Lincoln, 138. + + BORGLUM, GUTZON, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 234, 236; + marble head of Lincoln by, 240. + + BOSTON: statue of Lincoln in, by Thomas Ball, 90. + + "BOY LINCOLN, THE": picture by Eastman Johnson, 30. + + BRADY, Washington photographer: portraits of Lincoln by, + _frontispiece_, 20, 86, 93, 97, 103, 106, 108, 122, 124, + 128, 134, 170, 210. + + + "BRONZE MEDAL OF LINCOLN, ON A": poem by Frank Dempster Sherman, + 239. + + BROWN, STUART: owner of Lincoln portrait, 82. + + BROWN, THERON; sketch of, 94; + poem, "The Liberator," by, 94. + + BROWNE, CHARLES F., see WARD, ARTEMUS. + + BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN: sketch of, 161; + poem, "The Death of Lincoln," by, 161. + + BUFFALO, N. Y.: Lincoln's obsequies at, 168. + + BUGBEE, EMILY J.: "Poetical Tribute to the Memory of Abraham + Lincoln," by, 201. + + BURLEIGH, WILLIAM HENRY: sketch of, 53; + poem, "Presidential Campaign, 1860," by, 53. + + BURLINGTON, WIS.: statue of Lincoln in, by Ganiere, 228. + + "BUT HERE'S AN OBJECT MORE OF DREAD": poem by Lincoln, viii. + + + C + + CABIN, LOG, Lincoln's birthplace: picture, 13. + + CABIN OF LINCOLN'S PARENTS: picture, 62; + description, 63. + + CAMPBELL, BLENDON, artist: "A Study of Lincoln" by, 249. + + CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON, THE: description of, 72; + picture of, 73. + + CARPENTER, FRANK B., painter of "First Reading of the + Emancipation Proclamation," xvii, 206; + his account of Lincoln as a dramatic critic, xvii. + + CARR, CLARENCE E.: sketch of, 20; + poem, "Mendelssohn, Darwin, Lincoln," by, 21. + + CARY, ALICE: sketch of, 130; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 131. + + CARY, PHOEBE, sketch of, 210; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 211. + + CASSIDY, THOMAS F.: tribute of, to the mother of Lincoln, 25. + + CAWEIN, MADISON: sketch of, 56; + poem, "Lincoln, 1809--February 12, 1909," by, 56. + + "CENOTAPH OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by James Mackay, 181. + + CHAPPLE, BENNETT: poem, "The Great Oak," by, 15. + + "CHARACTERIZATION OF LINCOLN, A": poem by Hamilton Schuyler, 87. + + CHASE, SALMON P., Secretary of the Treasury: portrait of, in + "Lincoln and Cabinet," 206. + + CHENEY, JOHN VANCE: sketch of, 76; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 77. + + CHICAGO: statue of Lincoln in, by Saint Gaudens, 214. + + "CHILDREN ON THE BORGLUM STATUE": picture, 236. + + CHOATE, ISAAC BASSETT: sketch of, 59; + poem, "The Matchless Lincoln," by, 59. + + CITY HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y.: picture and description of, at time + of Lincoln obsequies, 162, 166. + + CLAY, HENRY: Lincoln's regard for, vi; + his eulogy of, xv. + + CLENDENIN, HENRY WILSON: sketch of, 70; + poem, "Lincoln Called to the Presidency," by, 70. + + COOKE, ROSE TERRY: sketch of, 132; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 133. + + COOPER UNION SPEECH, by Lincoln; reference to, xii. + + CORNWALLIS, KINAHAN: sketch of, 229; + poem, "Homage Due to Lincoln," by, 229. + + COUCH, LOUIS BRADFORD: sketch of, 244; + poem, "The Lincoln Boulder," by, 244. + + CRANCH, CHRISTOPHER PEARSE: sketch of, 206; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 207. + + CROFTS, GEORGE W.: sketch of, 19; + poem, "The Birth of Lincoln," by, 19. + + + D + + "DARWIN, MENDELSSOHN, LINCOLN": poem by Clarence E. Carr, 21; + portraits of, 20. + + DAVIS, NOAH: sketch of, 17; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 17. + + DEATH OF LINCOLN, 149. + + "DEATH OF LINCOLN": poem by William Cullen Bryant, 161. + + DEATHBED OF LINCOLN: picture of, 144; + poem on, 145. + + DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Lincoln on, 68. + + "DEDICATION POEM" of Lincoln Monument at Springfield, Ill., by + James Judson Lord, 183. + + DICKINSON, CHARLES MONROE: sketch of, 136; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 136. + + "DIOGENES AND HIS LANTERN": campaign cartoon of 1860, 55. + + DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A., Senator: Lincoln's opposition to, xvi; + attitude of, on the Dred Scott Decision, opposed by Lincoln, + 42. + + DRED SCOTT DECISION: reference to, 42. + + DUNBAR, PAUL LAWRENCE: sketch of, 128; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 129. + + + E + + EDGERTON, JAMES ARTHUR: sketch of, 247; + poem, "When Lincoln Died," by, 247. + + EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND: Statue of Lincoln in, by Bissell, 231. + + "EMANCIPATION GROUP," statuary designed by Thomas Ball: in + Boston, 90; + in Washington, 188; + poem on, by John Greenleaf Whittier, 91. + + "EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, FIRST READING OF THE": painting by + Frank B. Carpenter, 206. + + "ENGLAND'S SORROW": poem in London _Fun_, 153. + + EUCLID: see GEOMETRY. + + "EYES OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by Walt Mason, 121. + + + F + + FASSETT, S. M., Chicago photographer: portrait of Lincoln in + 1858, by, 71. + + "FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION": painting by + Frank B. Carpenter, 206. + + FLANNERY, LOTT, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 199. + + FOLSOM, JOSEPH FULFORD: sketch of, 234; + poem, "The Unfinished Work," by, 235. + + FOLTZ, CHARLES G.: sketch of, 98; + poem, "On Freedom's Summit," by, 98. + + FORD'S THEATRE: picture of, 138. + + FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 226. + + FUN, LONDON: poem, "England's Sorrow" in, 153. + + FUNERAL OF LINCOLN, THE, in White House: picture, 154. + + "FUNERAL CAR OF LINCOLN": picture of, 158; + poem by Richard Henry Stoddard on, 159. + + "FUNERAL HYMN OF LINCOLN": poem by Phineas Densmore Gurley, 155. + + + G + + GANIERE, GEORGE E., sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 228. + + GARDNER, Washington photographer: portraits of Lincoln by, 88, + 95, 112, 118, 130, 132. + + GARRS, HENRY DE: sketch of, 200; + poem, "On the Assassination of Lincoln," by, 200. + + GELERT, JOHANNES, sculptor: bust of Lincoln by, iv, v. + + GENTRY, MATTHEW, insane friend of Lincoln: poem by Lincoln on, + vii-ix. + + GEOMETRY: favorite study of Lincoln, xii, 63. + + GETTYSBURG, LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT: in prose form, 100; + comment by William H. Lambert on, 101; + in verse form, xii. + + "GETTYSBURG ODE"; poem by Bayard Taylor, 102. + + GILDER, RICHARD WATSON: sketch of, 45; + poem, "On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln," by, 45. + + GILMER, photographer: ambrotype of Lincoln, 1858, by, 40. + + "GLORY, THE, THAT SLUMBERED IN THE GRANITE ROCKS": poem by Ella + Wheeler Wilcox, 241. + + GOULD, ELIZABETH PORTER: sketch of, 41; + poem, "The Voice of Lincoln," by, 41. + + "GRAVE OF LINCOLN, THE": views of, 178, 180, 182; + poem on, by Edna Dean Proctor, 186. + + "GREAT OAK, THE," poem by Bennett Chapple, 14. + + GUITERMAN, ARTHUR: sketch of, 123; + poem, "He Leads Us Still," by, 123. + + GURLEY, PHINEAS DENSMORE: sketch of, 155; + poem, "The Funeral Hymn of Lincoln," by, 155. + + + H + + "HAD LINCOLN LIVED": Poem by Amos Russell Wells, 251. + + HAGEDORN, HERMANN: sketch of, 107; + poem, "Oh, Patient Eyes!" by, 107. + + HALL, EUGENE J.: poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 220. + + HALPIN, CHARLES GRAHAM ("Miles O'Reilly"): sketch of, 215; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 216. + + "HAND OF LINCOLN, THE": cast by Leonard W. Volk, 46; + poem on, by Edmund Clarence Stedman, 47. + + HANKS, NANCY: see LINCOLN, NANCY HANKS. + + HAY, JOHN, secretary of Lincoln: portrait of, 67. + + "HE LEADS US STILL": poem by Arthur Guiterman, 123. + + HERNDON, WILLIAM H., law partner of Lincoln: presents Lincoln's + office chair to O. H. Oldroyd, 36. + + HESLER, Chicago photographer: portrait of Lincoln in 1860, by, + 58. + + HICKS, painter of Lincoln portrait lithographed for campaign of + 1860, 49. + + HODGENVILLE, KY.: statue of Lincoln in, by Weinman, 126. + + HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL: sketch of, 170; + poem, "Services in Memory of Abraham Lincoln," by, 171; + his "Last Leaf," a favorite poem of Lincoln, xi, xxi. + + "HOMAGE DUE TO LINCOLN": poem by Kinahan Cornwallis, 229. + + "HONEST ABE": campaign cartoon of 1860, 55. + + "HONEST ABE OF THE WEST": poem by Edmund Clarence Stedman, 51. + + HOOPER, LUCY HAMILTON: sketch of, 175; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 176. + + "HORATIAN ODE, AN": poem by Richard Henry Stoddard, 29, 159, 193. + + HOSMER, FREDERICK LUCIAN: sketch of, 134; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 135. + + "HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED, THE": picture of, 150; + poem by Robert Mackay on, 151; + Oldroyd collection of Lincoln Memorials at, _Foreword_. + + HOWE, JULIA WARD: sketch of, 14; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 14. + + + I + + INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA: speech of Lincoln at, 68; + picture of, 69. + + INGMIRE, F. W., photographer: picture of Lincoln Homestead at + time of Lincoln's funeral, 172. + + "IN TOKEN OF RESPECT": poem, 152. + + + J + + JOHNSON, EASTMAN: picture, "The Boy Lincoln," by, 30. + + JOHNSON, WILLIAM, literary friend of Lincoln: Lincoln's letters + to, v-ix. + + JOHNSTON, JAMES NICOLL: sketch of, 168; + poem, "Requiem," by, 169. + + + K + + KIMBALL, HARRIET MCEWEN: sketch of, 157; + poem, "Rest, Rest, for Him," by, 157. + + KNOX, WILLIAM, Scotch poet: favorite of Lincoln, vi; + his poem, "Oh Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud," ix. + + + L + + LAMBERT, WILLIAM H.: on Lincoln's Speech at Gettysburg, 101. + + LARCOM, LUCY, sketch of, 164; + poem, "Tolling," by, 165. + + "LAST LEAF, THE," by O. W. Holmes: favorite poem of Lincoln, xi, + xxi. + + "LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE": poem by William Wilberforce Newton, 32. + + LEIGHTON, ROBERT: poem, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" by, 139. + + "LET THE PRESIDENT SLEEP": poem by James M. Stewart, 179. + + "LET HIS MONUMENT ARISE": poem by Samuel Green Wheeler Benjamin, + 253. + + "LIBERATOR, THE": poem by Theron Brown, 94. + + "LIFE-MASK OF LINCOLN, THE": cast by Leonard W. Volk, 44; + poem on, by Richard Watson Gilder, 45. + + LINCOLN, ABRAHAM: poems by, v-ix; + speeches by, xii-xiv, xv-xvii, xix, xxi-xxiii; + lectures by, xix, xx; + his favorite poems, vi, ix-xi, xxi; + his moral character, xiv-xvii; + his literary inspirations, xii, xvi-xix, xxiii, 17; + as a dramatic critic, xvii-xix; + as a literary artist, xix-xxiii; + his taste for humor, xx; + birth 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 74, 109; + youth, 14, 17, 29, 31, 32, 46, 47, 142; + education, 17, 22, 23, 31, 32, 35; + profession, 34, 36, 37, 147, 148; + religion, 17, 18, 41, 65, 66, 79, 81, 84, 85, 99, 105, 114, + 125, 135, 223; + statecraft, 14, 18, 23, 29, 33, 37, 38, 42, 47, 48, 57, 59, 70, + 75, 77, 78, 83, 91, 94, 95, 96, 98, 110, 116, 119, 127, + 129, 131, 136, 141, 148, 161, 163, 183, 189, 193, 209, 220, + 223, 229, 232, 241; + character, 43, 45, 48, 51, 54, 56, 61, 74, 87, 89, 107, 109, + 113, 116, 121, 123, 125, 127, 131, 133, 135, 136, 139, 141, + 148, 174, 176, 189, 200, 201, 209, 211, 216, 220, 223, 227, + 239, 241; + death, 15, 18, 24, 29, 31, 61, 75, 92, 99, 137, 138-207, 211, + 219, 230, 247, 251. + + "LINCOLN": title of poems by Becker, Charlotte, 61; + Boker, George Henry, 209; + Cheney, John Vance, 77; + Cranch, Christopher Pearse, 207; + Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 129; + Davis, Noah, 17; + Halpin, Charles Graham, 216; + Hooper, Lucy Hamilton, 176; + Hosmer, Frederick Lucian, 135; + Howe, Julia Ward, 14; + Mitchell, S. Weir, 125; + Monroe, Harriet, 119; + Smith, Wilbur Hazelton, 35; + Trowbridge, John Townsend, 227. + + "LINCOLN, ABRAHAM": title of poems by, Cary, Alice, 131; + Cary, Phoebe, 211; + Cooke, Rose Terry, 133; + Dickinson, Charles Monroe, 136; + Hall, Eugene J., 200; + Sangster, Margaret Elizabeth, 109; + Townsend, George Alfred, 127. + + "LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, FOULLY ASSASSINATED": cartoon in London + _Punch_, 140; + poem by Tom Taylor on, 141. + + LINCOLN, AMBROTYPES OF: 34, 40, 42, 52. + + "LINCOLN AND CABINET": painting by Frank B. Carpenter, 206. + + "LINCOLN AND STANTON": poem by Marion Mills Miller, 148. + + "LINCOLN AS CANDIDATE FOR SENATOR": ambrotype by Gilmer, 1858, + 40. + + "LINCOLN AT SPRINGFIELD, 1861": poem by Anna Bache, 66. + + "LINCOLN AT THE TIME OF DEBATE WITH DOUGLAS": ambrotype in 1858, + 42. + + LINCOLN, BAS-RELIEF HEAD OF: by James W. Tuft, 246. + + LINCOLN, BUST OF: by Johannes Gelert, iv. + + "LINCOLN BY THE CABIN FIRE": picture, 16. + + "LINCOLN CALLED TO THE PRESIDENCY": poem by Henry Wilson + Clendenin, 70. + + LINCOLN, CARTOONS OF: "Abraham Lincoln Foully Assassinated," 140; + "Honest Abe," 55. + + "LINCOLN, 1809--FEBRUARY 12, 1909" poem by Madison Cawein, 56. + + "LINCOLN, 1865": poem by John Nichol, 204. + + LINCOLN, DEATH OF, 149. + + LINCOLN, HAND OF: cast by Leonard W. Volk, 46. + + LINCOLN, HEAD OF: in marble, by Borglum, at Washington, 240. + + "LINCOLN IN HIS OFFICE CHAIR": poem by James Riley, 37. + + LINCOLN, LIFE-MASK OF: by Leonard W. Volk, 44. + + LINCOLN, MEDALLION OF: Bronze Head in Commemoration of Lincoln + Centenary, 238. + + "LINCOLN, MENDELSSOHN, DARWIN": poem by Clarence E. Carr, 21; + portraits of, 20. + + LINCOLN, MONUMENTS OF: Lincoln Memorial at Washington, by Bacon, + Henry, 252; + Lincoln Monument in Springfield, Ill., by Mead, Larken G., 182. + + LINCOLN, OFFICE CHAIR OF: picture, 36. + + LINCOLN, PHOTOGRAPHS OF: Brady's, _frontispiece_, 20, 86, 93, 97, + 103, 106, 108, 122, 124, 128, 134, 170, 210; + Fassett's, 71; + Gardner's, 88, 95, 112, 118, 130, 132; + Gilmer's, 40; + Hesler's, 58; + by unidentified photographers, 34, 42, 52, 60, 67, 82, 84, 120. + + LINCOLN, PICTURES OF: "Boy Lincoln, The," by Eastman Johnson, 30; + "Lincoln, by the Cabin Fire," 16; + "Rail Splitter, The," 28. + + "LINCOLN, POETIC SPIRIT OF": introduction by Marion Mills Miller, + v. + + LINCOLN, PORTRAIT PAINTINGS OF: "A Study of Lincoln," by + Campbell, Blendon, 249; + in "Lincoln and Cabinet," by Carpenter, Frank B., 206; + by Hicks, 49. + + "LINCOLN, PRESIDENT, TO," poem by Edmund Ollier, 96. + + "LINCOLN'S CHURCH IN WASHINGTON": picture of, 79; + poem by Lyman Whitney Allen, 81. + + "LINCOLN, SOLDIER OF CHRIST": poem in _Macmillan's Magazine_, 85. + + LINCOLN, SPEECHES OF: in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 68; + on leaving Springfield, 65. + + LINCOLN, STUDIES OF: by Ball, in Boston, 90, and in Washington, + 188; + by Bissell, in Edinburgh, Scotland, 231; + by Borglum in Newark, N. J., 234, 236; + by Flannery, in Washington, 199; + by French, in Lincoln, Neb., 226; + by Ganiere, in Burlington, Wis., 228; + by Niehaus, in Muskegon, Mich., 203; + by Ream, in Washington, 222; + by Rogers, in Philadelphia, 208; + by Saint Gaudens, in Chicago, 214; + by Weinman, in Hodgenville, Ky., 126; + by Volk, 192. + + "LINCOLN THE LABORER": poem by Richard Henry Stoddard, 29. + + "LINCOLN THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE": poem by Edwin Markham, 74. + + "LINCOLN BOULDER, THE": picture of, 243; + poem on, by Louis Bradford Couch, 244. + + LINCOLN HOMESTEAD, Springfield, Ill.: picture of, in 1861, 64; + in 1865, 172. + + LINCOLN, NANCY HANKS, mother of Lincoln: tomb of, 25; + poem on, by Harriet Monroe, 26. + + LINCOLN, NEB.: statue of Lincoln in, by French. 226. + + LINCOLN, SARAH BUSH, stepmother of Lincoln: cabin of, 62; + her parting from Lincoln, 63. + + LINCOLN, THOMAS, father of Lincoln: cabin of, 62, 63. + + LINCOLN, THOMAS ("Tad"), son of Lincoln: portrait of, 103. + + LOCKE, DAVID R., see NASBY, PETROLEUM V. + + "LOG CABIN, THE," birthplace of Lincoln: picture of, 13. + + LORD, JAMES JUDSON: sketch of, 183; + poem at dedication of Lincoln Monument at Springfield, Ill., + by, 183. + + LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL: sketch of, 189; + poem, "Commemoration Ode," by, 189. + + + M + + MACKAY, JAMES: sketch of, 181; + poem, "The Cenotaph of Lincoln," by, 181. + + MACKAY, ROBERT: sketch of, 151; + poem, "The House where Lincoln Died," by, 151. + + MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE: poem, "Lincoln, Soldier of Christ," in, 85. + + "MAN LINCOLN, THE": poem by Wilbur Dick Nesbit, 113. + + MARKHAM, EDWIN: sketch of, 74; + poem, "Lincoln the Man of the People," by, 74. + + "MARTYR PRESIDENT, THE": poem, 219. + + MASON, WALT: sketch of, 121; + poem, "The Eyes of Lincoln," by, 121. + + "MASTER, THE": poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, 116. + + "MATCHLESS LINCOLN, THE": poem by Isaac Bassett Choate, 59. + + MEAD, LARKEN G., architect: Lincoln Monument at Springfield, + Ill., by, 182. + + "MENDELSSOHN, DARWIN, LINCOLN": poem by Clarence E. Carr, 21; + portraits of, 20. + + MILLER, MARION MILLS: editorial assistance by, in "The Poets' + Lincoln," _Acknowledgment_; + introduction by, v; + sketch of, 146; + poem, "Lincoln and Stanton," by, 148. + + MITCHELL, S. WEIR: sketch of, 125; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 125. + + MONROE, HARRIET: sketch of, 26; + poems, "Nancy Hanks," 26, and "Lincoln," 119. + + MUSKEGON, MICH.: statue of Lincoln in, by Niehaus, 203. + + "MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME I SEE AGAIN": poem by Lincoln, vi. + + + N + + "NASBY, PETROLEUM V." (David R. Locke), humorist: Lincoln's + fondness for, xx. + + "NATAL DAY OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by James Phinney Baxter, 22. + + NESBIT, WILBUR DICK: sketch of, 113; + poem, "The Man Lincoln," by, 113. + + NEWARK, N. J., Statue of Lincoln in, by Borglum, 234, 236. + + NEWTON, WILLIAM WILBERFORCE: sketch of, 32; + poem, "Leader of His People," by, 32. + + NEW YORK AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WASHINGTON: picture of, 79. + + NEW YORK CITY: obsequies of Lincoln at, 162, 166. + + NICHOL, JOHN: sketch of, 204; + poem, "Lincoln, 1865," by, 204. + + NICOLAY, JOHN G., secretary of Lincoln: his account of Lincoln's + lectures, xix; + portrait of, 67. + + NIEHAUS, CHARLES, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 202. + + NYACK, N. Y.: Lincoln Boulder at, 243. + + + O + + OAK RIDGE CEMETERY, SPRINGFIELD, ILL.: views in, 178, 180. + + "O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!" poem by Walt Whitman, 197. + + "ODE" on Lincoln's obsequies: by Henry T. Tuckerman, 163. + + "OH, PATIENT EYES!" poem by Hermann Hagedorn, 107. + + "OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE PROUD?" by William Knox, + favorite poem of Lincoln, vi, ix. + + OLDROYD, OSBORN H.: editor of "The Poets' Lincoln"; his purpose, + _Foreword_; + his collection of Lincoln memorials, _Foreword_; + owner of Lincoln's office chair, 36. + + OLLIER, EDMUND: poem, "To President Lincoln," by, 96. + + "ONE OF OUR PRESIDENTS": poem by Wendell Phillips Stafford, 237. + + "ON FREEDOM'S SUMMIT": poem by Charles G. Foltz, 98. + + "O'REILLY, MILES," see HALPIN, CHARLES GRAHAM. + + + P + + "PEACEFUL LIFE, A": poem by James Whitcomb Riley, 31. + + PHELPS, ELIZABETH STUART: sketch of, 43; + poem, "The Thoughts of Lincoln," by, 43. + + PHILADELPHIA: speech of Lincoln at, 68; + statue of Lincoln in, by Rogers, 208; + tablet to Lincoln in, 218. + + PIATT, JOHN JAMES: sketch of, 83; + poem, "Sonnet in 1862," by, 83. + + "POETICAL TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN": by Emily J. + Bugbee, 201. + + "POETIC SPIRIT OF LINCOLN": introduction by Marion Mills Miller, + v. + + POLK, JAMES K., President: Lincoln's arraignment of, xvi. + + "PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 1860": poem by William Henry Burleigh, 53. + + PROCTOR, EDNA DEAN: sketch of, 186; + poem, "The Grave of Lincoln," by, 186. + + PUNCH, LONDON: poem on "Abraham Lincoln Foully Assassinated," in, + 140. + + + R + + "RAIL SPLITTER, THE": picture, 28. + + REAM VINNIE, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 222. + + REPEAL OF MISSOURI COMPROMISE: Lincoln's speech on, xv-xvii. + + REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1860: reference to, 50. + + "REQUIEM": poem by James Nicoll Johnston, 169. + + "REQUIEM OF LINCOLN": poem by Richard Storrs Willis, 167. + + "REST, REST FOR HIM": poem by Harriet McEwen Kimball, 157. + + RILEY, JAMES: sketch of, 37; + poem, "Lincoln in His Office Chair," by, 37. + + RILEY, JAMES WHITCOMB: sketch of, 31; + poem, "A Peaceful Life," by, 31. + + ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON: sketch of, 116; + poem, "The Master," by, 116. + + ROGERS, RANDOLPH, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 208. + + ROTUNDA, CITY HALL, NEW YORK: picture of, at time of Lincoln's + obsequies, 166. + + + S + + SAINT GAUDENS, AUGUSTUS, sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 214, + 215. + + ST. JAMES HALL, BUFFALO, N. Y.: picture of, at time of Lincoln + obsequies, 168. + + SANGSTER, MARGARET ELIZABETH: sketch of, 109; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 109. + + SCHUYLER, HAMILTON: sketch of, 87; + poem, "A Characterization of Lincoln," by, 87. + + "SCOTLAND STATUE, THE": poem by David K. Watson, 232. + + "SECOND INAUGURAL, LINCOLN'S": poem by Benjamin Franklin Taylor, + 104. + + "SERVICES IN MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN": poem by Oliver Wendell + Holmes, 171. + + SEWARD, WILLIAM H., Secretary of State: suggests closing passage + of Lincoln's First Inaugural, xxii-xxiii; + portrait in "Lincoln and Cabinet," 206. + + SHAKESPEARE: Lincoln's fondness for, xvi-xix. + + SHERMAN, FRANK DEMPSTER: sketch of, 239; + poem, "On a Bronze Medal of Lincoln," by, 239. + + "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!", poem by Robert Leighton, 139. + + SLAVERY: Lincoln on, xii, xv-xvii; + the Dred Scott Decision, 42; + Lincoln the emancipator, 90, 91, 94, 96, 98, 152, 161, 184, + 187, 221, 229, 232, 241. + + SMITH, SAMUEL FRANCIS: sketch of, 222; + poem, "The Tomb of Lincoln," by, 223. + + SMITH, WILBUR HAZELTON: sketch of, 35; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 35. + + "SONNET in 1862": poem by John James Piatt, 83. + + SPEED, LUCY G.: autographed portrait of himself given by Lincoln to, 84. + + SPRINGFIELD, ILL.: homestead of Lincoln at, 64, 172; + Lincoln's funeral at, 172-181; + state capitol at, 175; + public vault in Oak Ridge cemetery at, 178, 180; + monument to Lincoln at, 182. + + "SPRINGFIELD'S WELCOME TO LINCOLN": poem by William Allen, 173. + + STAFFORD, WENDELL PHILLIPS: sketch of, 236; + poem, "One of Our Presidents," by, 237; + reference to, 80. + + STANTON, EDWIN M.: tribute to Lincoln dead, 144, 147; + portrait, 146; + poem on, 148; + portrait of, in "Lincoln and Cabinet," 206. + + STEDMAN, EDMUND CLARENCE: sketch of, 47; + poem, "The Hand of Lincoln," by, 47; + poem, "Honest Abe of the West," by, 51. + + STEVENS, HIRAM F.: tribute to Lincoln by, 219. + + STEWART, JAMES M.: poem, "Let the President Sleep," by, 179. + + STICKLE, THOMPSON: designer of monument of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, + 25. + + STODDARD, RICHARD HENRY: sketch of, 193; + passages from his "Horatian Ode," 29, 159, 193. + + "STUDY OF LINCOLN, A": painting by Blendon Campbell, 249. + + + T + + TAYLOR, BAYARD: sketch of 102; + poem, "Geyttsburg Ode," by, 102. + + TAYLOR, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: sketch of, 104; + poem, "Lincoln's Second Inaugural," by, 104. + + TAYLOR, TOM: poem, "Abraham Lincoln, Foully Assassinated," by, + 141. + + "THOUGHTS OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 43. + + TIEFENTHALER, JOSEPHINE OLDROYD, child guide in the "House where + Lincoln Died": portrait, 150; + reference to, 151, 152. + + "TOMB OF LINCOLN, THE": poem by Samuel Francis Smith, 223. + + TOWNSEND, GEORGE ALFRED: sketch of, 126; + poem, "Abraham Lincoln," by, 127. + + TROWBRIDGE, JOHN TOWNSEND: sketch of, 227; + poem, "Lincoln," by, 227. + + TUCKERMAN, HENRY T.: sketch of, 163; + "Ode" on Lincoln's obsequies, by, 163. + + TUFT, JAMES W., sculptor: bas-relief Head of Lincoln by, 246. + + + U + + "UNFINISHED WORK, THE": Poem by Joseph Fulford Folsom, 235. + + UNION, THE: Lincoln on, 100, 102. + + USHER, J. P., Secretary of the Interior: portrait of, in "Lincoln + and Cabinet," 206. + + + V + + "VOICE OF LINCOLN, THE," Poem by Elizabeth Porter Gould, 41. + + VOLK, LEONARD W., sculptor: Life-Mask of Lincoln by, 44; + cast of Hand of Lincoln by, 46; + statue of Lincoln by, 192. + + + W + + WARD, ARTEMUS (Charles F. Browne) humorist: Lincoln's fondness + for, xx. + + WASHINGTON, D. C.: statues of Lincoln in, by Ball, 188; + Flannery, 199; + Ream, 222; + marble head of Lincoln by Borglum, in, 240; + Lincoln Memorial by Bacon in, 252; + picture of Capitol, 73; + of White House, 76; + funeral of Lincoln in, 154. + + WASHINGTON, GEORGE: Lincoln's poetic tribute to, xix. + + WATSON, DAVID K.: sketch of, 232; + poem, "The Scotland Statue," by, 232. + + WEBSTER, DANIEL: originator of closing sentence of Lincoln's + Gettysburg speech, xxi, xxii. + + WEINMANN, ADOLPH A., sculptor: statue of Lincoln by, 126. + + WELLES, GIDEON, Secretary of the Navy: portrait of, in "Lincoln + and Cabinet," 206. + + WELLS, AMOS RUSSELL: sketch of, 250; + poem, "Had Lincoln Lived," by, 251. + + "WHEN LINCOLN DIED": poem by James Arthur Edgerton, 247. + + "WHERE LINCOLN WORSHIPPED": picture of N. Y. Ave. Presbyterian + Church, Washington, 79. + + WHITE HOUSE AT WASHINGTON: picture and description of, 76; + funeral of Lincoln in, 154. + + WHITMAN, WALT: autographed portrait of, 196; + sketch of, 197; + poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" by, 197. + + WHITNEY, HENRY C.: author of "Life of Lincoln," v; + on Lincoln's poetic sensibility, xi, xxi; + on his habit of reading, 16; + on Lincoln as a lawyer, 34. + + WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF: sketch of, 91; + poem, "The Emancipation Group," by, 91; + reference to, v. + + "WIGWAM, THE," Republican convention hall, Chicago, 1860: + picture of, 50. + + WILCOX, ELLA WHEELER: sketch of, 241; + poem, "The Glory that Slumbered in the Granite Rock," by, 241. + + WILLIS, RICHARD STORRS: sketch of, 167; + poem, "Requiem of Lincoln," by, 167. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +Every effort has been made to faithfully reproduce the original book +in this etext. The inconsistent, alternate and archaic spelling and +usage that one would expect in a collection of poets and authors from +1915 and earlier have been preserved. Errors in the Index, obvious +and simple enough to be assumed typesetter's errors, have been +corrected. Other problems and corrections are listed below. + + Page: 1 + Text: extends his grateful acknowledgment + Change: acknowledgement changed to acknowledgment (to match + spelling of section title) + + Page: 6 + Text: Abraham Lincoln Foully Assassinated, by Tom Taylor + Change: removed comma after Taylor + + Page: 11 + Text: The Funeral of Lincoln, in East Room of White House + Change: removed comma after White House + + Page: xvi + Text: Yours truly, + Change: Comma added + + Page: xvii + Text: It matters not to me whether Shakspeare be well or + ill acted + Change: Shakespeare changed to Shakspeare (alternate spelling + used by Carpenter) + + Page: xx + Text: performed this function in a still more + Change: added the word "in" + + Page: 22 + Text: Like all great souls with vision unobscured + Change: version changed to vision + + Page: 116 + Text: May be forgotten by and by + Change: fogotten changed to forgotten + + Page: 117 + Text: Shrewd, hallowed, harassed + Change: harrassed changed to harassed + + Page: 172 + Text: (5) Hon. W. H. Wallace, Idaho + Change: Walace change to Wallace + + Page: 172 + Text: (3) Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Illinois + Change: Hon changed to Hon. + + Page: 189 + Text: And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn + Change: wealth changed to wreath + + Page: 216 + Text: He filled the Nation's eyes and heart + Change: We changed to He + + Page: 216 + Text: Pathetic, kindly, droll or stern + Change: added comma after Pathetic + + Page: 223 + Text: Here, Captain! dear Father! + Change: Hear changed to Here + + Page: 243 + Text: funds to remove it from + Change: extra "to" removed + + Page: 252 + Text: The George A. Fuller Company of Washington + Change: removed comma after Company + + Harper's Bazar (page 109) did not change the spelling to Bazaar + until about 1929. + + No poet is mentioned for "The Deathbed" on page 145. However, + this poem seems to be "Now He Belongs to the Ages" by William L. + Stidger, from The Lincoln Book of Poems, published by R. G. + Badger, copyright 1911, page 30. (available on archive.org) + + Pages v, vi and vii refer to Lincoln's correspondent as both + Johnson and Johnston. Left as printed. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poets' Lincoln, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30420 *** |