LINCOLN DELIVERING HIS MEMORABLE ADDRESS ON THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG, From a painting by Fletcher G. Ransom. 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. This admirable address should be familiar to every loyal American. It was delivered a few short months after the decisive battle was fought on the same spot; many dark days were still to come before the momentous decision at Appomattox Court House, but President Lincoln was voicing the hope of every true patriot that the cause of popular government should not fail. The "Gettysburg Address" was quickly recognized as one of the great classics of the language; in fact, British critics anticipated America in discovering its merit. The long and studied oration delivered by Edward Everett on the same occasion has long since been forgotten. Lincoln's triumph in speech and in writing was entirely without artifice. The note of sincerity rings true in the following beautiful letter which he wrote to a bereaved American mother: Executive Mansion Washington, November 21, 1864. MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts. Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, ABRAHAM LINCOLN In his "Second Inaugural Address" he was equally sincere and equally effective when he said: Fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray-that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it shall continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 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. Lincoln's style was that of a thoughtful man who knows well the power of plain words-the language of the Bible, of Pilgrim's Progress, and of Robinson Crusoe. Such a man could not have imitated with any degree of success the oratorical periods or the carefully wrought eloquence of a Webster, a Choate, or a Phillips, but no other man is so lovingly enshrined in the hearts of his fellow countrymen as Abraham Lincoln. 5. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was the most conspicuous literary figure in the antislavery agitation immediately preceding the Civil War. She was the daughter of the Reverend Lyman Beecher, a noted preacher of Litchfield, Conn. Harriet received her education under her father's direction. While he was president of the Lane Theological Seminary, in Cincinnati, she was married to Professor Calvin E. Stowe, a member of the faculty. Soon after Professor Stowe's removal to Maine, where he became a teacher at Bowdoin College, Mrs. Stowe began to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. She had never visited the far South, but in Cincinnati she had learned much of slavery as it existed just across the Ohio River. She also knew something of the "underground railway" that helped fugitive slaves to Canada and freedom. She wrote slowly at spare moments, usually in a tense state of emotion and with a strong conviction of the justice of her plea, yet she sought to bring out the bright as well as the dark side of slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared as a serial (1851-1852) in The National Era, a small paper published in Washington. The story attracted universal attention and was immediately brought out in book form. With all its crudities of style and form, Uncle Tom's Cabin has remarkable dramatic qualities and that blending of pathos and humor that appeals so strongly to the great reading public. Those who wept copiously over Little Eva or followed with bated breath the escape of Eliza over the ice were just as ready to laugh over irresponsible Topsy and her quaint antics. The success of the book was unprecedented in publishing annals. Half a million copies were sold during the next five years, and the story was translated into most of the languages of Europe. Although Mrs. Stowe had tried to be fair, her sensational exposures of the evils of slavery led to a storm of criticism, |