THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY

after having, for good and valuable consideration,

      promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was

      accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is

      to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke

      dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we

      verily believe, most of his popularity with the present

      generation.

      --T.B. MACAULAY.

      _ABRAHAM LINCOLN_

      We needed not that he should put on paper that he believed in

      slavery, who, with treason, with murder, with cruelty infernal,

      hovered around that majestic man to destroy his life. He was

      himself but the long sting with which slavery struck at liberty;

      and he carried the poison that belonged to slavery. As long as

      this nation lasts, it will never be forgotten that we have one

      martyred President--never! Never, while time lasts, while

      heaven lasts, while hell rocks and groans, will it be forgotten

      that slavery, by its minions, slew him, and in slaying him made

      manifest its whole nature and tendency.

      But another thing for us to remember is that this blow was aimed

      at the life of the government and of the nation. Lincoln was

      slain; America was meant. The man was cast down; the government

      was smitten at. It was the President who was killed. It was

      national life, breathing freedom and meaning beneficence, that

      was sought. He, the man of Illinois, the private man, divested

      of robes and the insignia of authority, representing nothing but

      his personal self, might have been hated; but that would not

      have called forth the murderer's blow. It was because he stood

      in the place of government, representing government and a

      government that represented right and liberty, that he was

      singled out.

      This, then, is a crime against universal government. It is not a

      blow at the foundations of our government, more than at the

      foundations of the English government, of the French government,

      of every compact and well-organized government. It was a crime

      against mankind. The whole world will repudiate and stigmatize

      it as a deed without a shade of redeeming light....

      The blow, however, has signally failed. The cause is not

      stricken; it is strengthened. This nation has dissolved,--but in

      tears only. It stands, four-square, more solid, to-day, than any

      pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither wasted, nor daunted,

      nor disordered. Men hate slavery and love liberty with stronger

      hate and love to-day than ever before. The Government is not

      weakened, it is made stronger....

      And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than

      when alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming.

      Cities and states are his pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the

      hours with solemn progression. Dead--dead--dead--he yet

      speaketh! Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is

      any man dead that ever was fit to live? Disenthralled of flesh,

      and risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion never comes,

      he begins his illimitable work. His life now is grafted upon the

      Infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass

      on, thou that hast overcome! Your sorrows O people, are his

      peace! Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums sound triumph in

      his ear. Wail and weep here; God makes it echo joy and triumph

      there. Pass on, victor!

      Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried

      man, and from among the people; we return him to you a mighty

      conqueror. Not thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but

      the world's. Give him place, ye prairies! In the midst of this

      great Continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to

      myriads who shall make pilgrimage to that shrine to kindle anew

      their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds, that move over the mighty

      places of the West, chant his requiem! Ye people, behold a

      martyr, whose blood, as so many inarticulate words, pleads for

      fidelity, for law, for liberty!

      --HENRY WARD BEECHER.

      _THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY_

      The event which we commemorate is all-important, not merely in

      our own annals, but in those of the world. The sententious

      English poet has declared that "the proper study of mankind is

      man," and of all inquiries of a temporal nature, the history of

      our fellow-beings is unquestionably among the most interesting.

      But not all the chapters of human history are alike important.

      The annals of our race have been filled up with incidents which

      concern not, or at least ought not to concern, the great company

      of mankind. History, as it has often been written, is the

      genealogy of princes, the field-book of conquerors; and the

      fortunes of our fellow-men have been treated only so far as they

      have been affected by the influence of the great masters and

      destroyers of our race. Such history is, I will not say a

      worthless study, for it is necessary for us to know the dark

      side as well as the bright side of our condition. But it is a

      melancholy study which fills the bosom of the philanthropist and

      the friend of liberty with sorrow.

      But the history of liberty--the history of men struggling to be

      free--the history of men who have acquired and are exercising

      their freedom--the history of those great movements in the

      world, by which liberty has been established and perpetuated,

      forms a subject which we cannot contemplate too closely. This is

      the real history of man, of the human family, of rational

      immortal beings....

      The trial of adversity was theirs; the trial of prosperity is

      ours. Let us meet it as men who know their duty and prize their

      blessings.