TH

HE life and services of President Lincoln must ever be regarded as one of the most beneficent gifts which an ever-willing Providence has ever conferred upon this much-favored country. He seems to have been raised up for the times in which he lived-times as critical as it is possible to conceive-and for those times he was exactly fitted. Perhaps it is too much to say no other man could have done the noble work which he did in saving the Union, but I know of no other that in my judgment could have done so well. An ardent patriot, shrewd, with large common sense, far-reaching foresight, firmness and tenacity of purpose, possessing the largest sympathies, "with malice for none and charity for all," I cannot hope ever to see his like again.

W. D. HOWELLS-JOHN GIBBON.

407

N°

O admirer who speaks in his praise must pause to conceal a stain upon his good name.

No true man falters in his affection at the remembrance of any mean action or littleness in the life of Lincoln. The purity of his reputation ennobles every incident of his career and gives significance to all the events of his past."

W. D. Howells

BELMONT, 1880.

MR.

R. LINCOLN will be known in history, first, as an honest man; second, as a statesman in the truest and best meaning of the word; third, as a humanist with a sincere love of his whole country, and a heart large enough to take in the whole human race; fourth, as the great martyr to the cause of Liberty throughout the world.

U. S. ARMY, 1882.

John Gibbon

ITH profound reverence for the life and character

WITH

of Abraham Lincoln.

JaGarfield

MENTOR, OHIO, JULY 2, 1880.

GALUSHA A. GROW-W. W. GOODWIN.

409

TH

HE Martyr President seals with his blood the emancipation of a race, and grasping four millions. of broken coffles, ascends to the bosom of his God, thus consecrating the land of Washington as the home of the emigrant and the asylum of the oppressed of every clime. and of all races of men.

Gülushe & Grow

PHILADELPHIA, 1880.

BRAHAM LINCOLN was the right man in the

ABRA

right place, at the right time. The whole country owes him a debt of endless gratitude.

LINC

INCOLN came so aptly to the need of his times, and was so exactly fitted for the burden of his greatness, that probably he impressed few of his casual acquaintances with his transcendent qualities. Now that he has gone from the world, which he did so much to make better, those who have a definite knowledge of the crisis in which he was the greatest actor can see and wonder at his greatness. Others were divided upon abstract questions, which, by unkindly discussion, seemed to have grown into causes of sectional hate. Even many of the leaders of the party which made Lincoln President forgot their love of country in their hatred of slavery, and would have accepted disunion even, that they might fight slavery more earnestly. They made the mistake which history shows has been made so often. They fancied that excessive philanthropy might take the place of patriotism. Lincoln first and above all loved his country. Every other love, opinion, principle was in utter subordination to his patriotism. That was his strength. That made him the representative and the worthy leader of all patriots of every sort of opinion. He was the leader of all the patriotic people; he was the leader of the war. He was the incarnation of a nation's love of country. In his grave he remains the exemplar and the idol of patriotism.