little meaning. Others rejoice in the new truth, and trust the world, and smile at prophecies. For them Lincoln represents soundness. For them his rule is as full of pictures and inspiration as anything in the past, as full of charm as it is of justice, and his character is as reassuring as it is varied. He had no artificial aids. He merely proved the weapon of finest temper in the fire in which he was tested. In the struggle for survival in a social upheaval he not only proved the living power of integrity and elasticity, but he easily combined with his feats of strength and shrewdness some of the highest flights of taste. As we look back across the changes of his life, -see him passing over the high places and the low, and across the long stretches of the prairie; spending years in the Socratic arguments of the tavern, and anon holding the rudder of state in grim silence; choosing jests which have the freshness of earth, and principles of eternal right; judging potentates and laborers in the clear light of nature and at equal ease with both; alone by virtue of a large and melancholy soul, at home with every man by virtue of love and faith, —this figure takes its place high in our minds and hearts, not solely through the natural right of strength and success, but also because his strength is ours, and the success won by him rested on the fundamental purity and health of the popular will of which he was the leader and the servant. Abraham Lincoln was in a deep and lasting sense the first American. All the world can see his worth, but perhaps only we who know the taste of the climate, the smell of the prairie, the tone of fresh and Democratic life, can quite appreciate his flavor. General and President Washington, who, standing firm, with wisdom and power, gave the opportunity to build a nation, has left a name that grows with the onward march of his country. Abraham Lincoln, nearly a century later, found the nation grown, about to test the sufficiency of its creed, and with the comprehension of lifelong intimacy helped it to understand itself. His fame also has risen, and will rise, with the fortunes of his country. His deeds stand first, but his story becomes higher through the pure and manifold character which accomplished them and the lastingly fair and vital words in which he defended them. INDEX Adams, John Quincy, 16 194, 217, 232, 247, 311, 412 Alexandria (Virginia), 233 Alton (Illinois), 56, 58, 84, 146 Alvary, John, 2 American party, 125 Baltimore (Maryland), 163, 181, 182, Bates, Edward, 157, 161, 162, 184, Bates, Hymer D., 258 Anderson, General Robert, 33, 200, Bates forces, the, 185 Army of the Potomac, the, 255, 262, Berry, William F., 35, 36, 37, 42 298, 315, 316, 360, 362 Army of Virginia, the, 274 Austrian minister, the, 239 Baird, James, 2 Berry and Lincoln, 36, 37, 42, 97 Bible, the, 11, 88, 347, 392, 403, 405, 417 Big Black River, the, 327 Black, Judge, Secretary of State, 176 Black Hawk War, 31, 33, 62, 96, 187 "Black Republican," 143 Blackstone's Commentaries, 36, 38 Baker, Colonel, E. D., 73, 74, 99, Blair, Frank, 185, 186 246, 289 Baker, Edward H., 87, 88, 89, 99 Blair, Montgomery, 130, 185, 186, 192, 193, 269, 345, 348, 349, 370 Blair family, the, 345 Blondin anecdote, the, 216 "Blue-Tailed Fly," the, 282 Boone, Daniel, 2 Caesar's hair, the color of, 333 Cameron, Simon, 159, 160, 161, 185, Campbell, Judge, 193 Canada, 196 Carlisle (Pennsylvania), 322 Carlyle, 240 Cartwright, Peter, 35, 89 Cass, General, 33, 94 protection needed in, 173, 367, 369 Carpenter, William, 35, 44 Booth, John Wilkes, 407, 412 Boston, solid men of, 126 Boston, Christopher, 2, 4 Boutwell, George S., 347 Bright, John, 412 British minister, the, 239 Breckenridge, John C., 163, 168, 171 Cass Township, Schuykill County, Britton, Isaac S., 77 Brooklyn navy-yard, the, 200 Brooks's assault on Sumner, 140 Brooks, Noah, 169 Brooks, Phillips, 416 Brown, Thomas C., 85 Browning, O. H., 243 Browning, Mrs. O. H., 67 Buchanan, James, 129, 133, 160, 162, Chase, Salmon P., 161, 162, 175, 184, |