The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-14
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WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY IA, 1866.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
GRAFTON OF GEO. BANCROFT

The memorial address on the life ant
| character of Abraham Lincoln, was
delivered before great audience in the
House of Representatives, by Honorable
George Bancroft of New York. Passing
over minor incidents, we give such por-
ton of the address as our space will
admit. After a historical sketch Of the
building and completion of the republic
Mr.. Bancroft said
THE ELECTION
| AS the Presidential aIootion dros, on,
one of the old traditional parties did not
make Its appearance; the other reeled
as it sought to preserve its old position
and the candidate who most nearly rep
resented its best opinion, driven BY pa
triotic zeal, roamed the country from
end TO end to speak for union, eager at
least to confront its enemies, vet not
having hope that it would find its de-
liverance through him. The storm rose
to n whirlwind who should allay its
wrath? The most experienced states
men of the country had failed there
was no hope from those who were great
after the flesh; could relief come from
one whose wisdom was like the wisdom
of little children?
EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
| The choice of America fell on man
born, west of the Alleghanies, in the
cabin of poor people of Hardin county,
| Kentucky-Abraham Lincoln.
i His mother could read, but not write
his father could do neither; but his
parents sent him, with an old spelling
book. to school, and he learned in his
| childhood to do both.
When eight years old he foated down
the Ohio with his father on raft which
bore the family and all their possessions
to the shore of Indiana; and child as
he was, he gave help as they toiled
through dense forests to the interior of
Spencer county. There in the land of
free labor he grew up in log cabin, with
the solemn solitude for his teacher in his
Ineditative hours: Of Asiatic literature
he knew only the Bible; of Greek,
Latin and medieval, no more than the
translation of Esop's Fables; of Eng
| fish, John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress.
The traditions of George Fox and
] William Penn passed to him dimly
I along the lines of two centuries through
his ancestors, who were Quakers.
Ills EDUCATION.
| Otherwise his education was altogeth-
err American. The Declaration of indie.
| pendence was his compendium of politi-
cal wisdom, the life of Washington his
constant study, and something Of Jeflcr
son and Madison reached him through
Henry Clay, whom he honored from
| boyhOQd. For the rest, from day to day,
| walked III iL.s IIgnt s&vs.>~-;aasa ,.oanie.l
reason; Thought with its power OF
thought; felt the beatngs of its mighty
| heart and so was in every way child
of nature-a child Of the West-a child
of-America.
| HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE.
| At nineteen, feeling impulses of am
bition to get OH in the world, he engaged
himself to go down the Mississippi in
hat-boat receiving ten dollars a month
| for his wages; and afterwards he made
the trip once more. At .twenty-one he
drove .his fathers cattle as the family
migrated to Illinois, and split rails to
fence in the new homesteadin the wild.
| At twenty-three he was captain of
volunteers in the Black Hawk war. He
| kept shop; he learned something of
surveying; but of English literature he
added to Bunyan nothing but Shake
speares plays. AT twenty-five he was
elected to the Legislature of Illinois,
where he served eight years. At twenty
seven he was admitted to the bar. In
| 1887 he chose his home at Springfield,
the beautiful centre of.he richest land
| in the State. In lS47 he was member
of the national Congress, where he voted
about forty times in favor of the princi-
pie of the Jefferson proviso. In 1854 he
| gave his influence to elect from Illinois
| to the American Senate n Democrat who
would certaily do justice to Kansas. In
1858, as the rival of Douglas, he went
before the people of the mighty Prairie
State saying "This Union cannot per-
manently endure, half slave and half
free; the Union will not be dissolved,
but the house will cease to be divided :"
and now in 1861, with no experience
whatever as an executive officer, while
States were madly flying from their
orbit, and wise men knew not where to
find counsel, this descendant of the
Quakers, this pupil of Bunyan, this
child of the great West was elected
President of America.
He measured the difficulty of the duty
that devolved on him, andwas resolved
to fulfil it. a
He GOES TO. WASHINGTON.
AS on the 18th of February, 1861, he
left Springfield, which for quarter of a
century had been his happy home, to
the crowd of his friends and neighbors
whom he was never more to meet, he
spoke solemn farewell: II know not
how soon shall see you again. A duty
has devolved upon me greater than that
which has devolved upon any other man
! since Washington. He never would
have succeeded, except for the aid of
Divine Providence, upon which he at
all times relied. On the same Almighty
Being place my reliance. Pray that
may receive that Divine assistance,
without which / cannot succeed, but
with which success is certain" To the
men of Indiana he said: ~ am hut an
accidental, temporary instrument; it is
your business to rise up and preserve
the Union aud liberty" At the capital
of Ohio he said: "Without name,
without reason why should have a
name, there has fallen upon me task
! such as did not rest even upon the
Father of his country. At various places
in New York, especially at Albany be.
fore the legislature, which rendered him
the united support of the great Empire
State, he said: while hold myselfthe
humblest of all the individuals who
have ever been elevated to the Presi-
dency, have more difficult task tc
perform than any of them. L bring ;
true heart to the work. i must rely
upon the people of the whole country
for support, and with their SUSTAINING
aid, even 1, humble as / am, cannot fai
to carry the shin of State safely fhron oil