Year: 1865

liant, he was always substantial. Iherc
was an abiding faith, an earnestness of
purpose more grand and more noble than
any transient splendor or captivating
display.


Our brilliant men are not our great
men. Aaron Burr was the most brilliant
man in America. The grandson of Jon
athan Edwards, the son of one of the best
and most popular men of the age, a man
of rare culture, an accomplished lawyer,
a wary and successful politician, posses
sed of a personal dignity that could awe
even his enemies, the most popular court
ier that ever visited Europe from America.
his career was the most miserable failure
in our history.


Of such life as Mr.. Lincoln's we do
not select any one act as the evidence OF
his greatness, but we take the resultant
of his career and judging by the results
we make up our verdict. 1t was the har-
mony of his faculties and the even bal
ance of mind that made him great.


So it was with Washington. We re-
gard him not as the he hero of single
great battle but of the whole war, not
made great by single achievment but by
life of usefulness.


But it is not alone for his intellectual
greatness nor that chiefly that Abraham
Lincoln will be remembered. The crown
ing excellence of his character is in this
that in addition to being great he was a
good man. He was sincere patriotic
man. He loved his country and most Of
all desired to sea it brought out from its
trials and returned to its original unity
and greatness For this great end he la.
bored earnestly and long, sacrificing his
personal ease and comfort for the public
good


During the course of the struggle. al


the Chief Magistrate of the nation, h'


was called to the exercise of greater au


thority than was ever before committed tt


any one man in the whole history of ou


government. In the assumption of thes


powers he overstepped what some men re


garded the limits of his perogative. L


is still to some extent matter eff discus


sion whether such emergencies or any


emergencies warranted the assumption o


such extraordinary authority by tn


President But, however much men diff


fered in that respect, very few ever ques


toned the manner of their exercise b,


Mr.. Lincoln. Granting that he had tn


right to assume such powers, there was


moderation in their exercise without pa1


allel. Holding in his control an army Q


NEARLY a million men, with all the civi
functions of the government suspended i


nearly one half the Union, with the whol


authority both civil and military of thes
vast regions centered in him, he had tn
rarest opportunities for carrying out pri


vate purposes, for rewarding his friend


and Furnishing his enemies any one ma
, ever possessed.


, And yet among all his arbitrary arres
and among all the men who had vili6e
and abused him, not one was arrested frol
, any personal pique of the Presiden
| Whenever any man was deprived of h
liberty by arbitrary arrest, it WI


because ne was an enemy of I'll
, country or an abcttor of its enemies an
not for his hostility to the President.
Other men in his situation would ha,
sacrificed the public good to serve priva
Q ends. Weak men would have avenge
: their own petty grievances and persons
r sights, would have surrounded themselv
) with swarms of favorites and enricht
5 themselves out of the public spoils. An
bilious men would have seized upon Il
reins of government and by the exercise
| their power and patronage have secure
to themseles enduring authority aud pc
: petual dictatorship.


Mr.. Lincoln did none Of these. T
t day of his death found him poor as witt


he first entered upon his Presidency,
: far from being solicitous to secure
+: himself dictatorship, he was only anxio
q TO hasten the time when there should
J. no further need of his extraordinary a
n thority. In this, as in great many Of
/, er respects, it was exceedingly fortune
{. for us that Abraham Lincoln was o