PREFATORY. A FEW days after the assassination of President LINCOLN, the publishers of the present volume received the following letter from the distinguished gentleman whose name it bears: GENTLEMEN: You have it in your power to erect a monument of its own kind to the memory of the President, who, but a few months ago, was elected by one of the greatest national acts known in all history, and has now been taken off by foul assassination, as the chief representative of our national existence, and by an assassin who represents in this deed the ruthless evil against which we contend. Collect and publish, in the speediest possible manner, the inaugural and other addresses of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, his proclamations, messages, and public letters; indeed, all he has written as President, and you will contribute to the mournful celebrations of the American people your share of lasting value, and of far more impressive eloquence than the most fervent orator could utter. You would thus make the martyr rear his own monument, which no years, no centuries could level and cause to mingle again with the dust. Your obedient, FRANCIS LIEBER. NEW YORK, April 18th, 1865. In accordance with this suggestion the following pages have been prepared; their object being to present in a convenient and easily accessible form, and with chronological arrangement, the writings of which Dr. LIEBER speaks with such well-merited admiration. But the editor has included in the collection somewhat more than all that Mr. LINCOLN wrote as President. The pith of his remarkable speech delivered at the Cooper Institute, in April, 1860, all of his speeches of any importance while he was President elect, and other expressions of his purposes and his convictions, not uttered exactly as President, will be found in the collection, which is well worth the thoughtful perusal of every citizen of the Republic. to freedom, and how skillfully he performed one of th most difficult tasks that ever man was called upon t undertake, how by forbearance and by patient waiting no less than by vigorous and decided action when th time had come for action, he led a great nation through crisis of unequaled peril, until he fell a victim in th very hour of its complete salvation, is the purpose of th following pages. This collection presents a complete view of Mr. Lin coln's public life from the time when he was chosen as a candidate for the Presidency by those who were determined that slavery should no longer be extended by the authority and under the flag of this Republic, until the very day when that flag was formally raised again upon Fort Sumter as a sign that the Republic was preserved in its integrity and Slavery was utterly destroyed, and when he, having accomplished his great mission, closed his labors and gave up his spirit. Of all his speeches, messages, proclamations, public letters, and orders during that eventful period, only such parts have been omitted as were of a merely formal and business character. All that displayed his patriotism, set forth his principles, or illustrated his personal character has been solicitously retained. We have here Abraham Lincoln's portrait painted, and his monument raised, by his own hands. Rarely, if ever, was the issue to be decided by a great war so simple and so clearly defined as in the case of that war of which Abraham Lincoln's election was the immediate occasion, and which his administration con |