the freedom of the slaves for the restoration of the Union. Note the courageous and uncompromising reply in Lincoln's second inaugural address: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it might be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." "

At the beginning of Lincoln's administration his chief solicitude was for the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, slave states which had not yet seceded. He above all others saw the necessity of retaining the border states in the Union and thus dividing the resources of the South. Three of these states had insolently refused to raise troops for the Union at the call of the President. But Lincoln's policy of mildness toward the South disarmed hatred and prejudice in the border states, and their retention in the Union was due entirely to his masterly statesmanship. This master stroke may have been the deciding factor of the war, as these four states and West Virginia, with a population of over three million Southerners, contributed more than three hundred thousand Union soldiers.

When Great Britain recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent power, Secretary of State Seward wrote a protest which he proposed to have our Minister Adams, in London, read to the British Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this protest he threatened war with England and reminded her that we had already whipped her twice. When Seward read the protest to Lincoln, he was simply requested to leave the document. By cancelling words here and there, removing its provocation, and instructing our Minister Adams to retain the document for his own guidance instead of reading it to the British Minister, Lincoln no doubt prevented war with England and perhaps her alliance with the Southern Confederacy.

When the Confederate commissioners, Mason and Slidell, were

forcibly taken from the British mail steamer Trent, when England began preparations for war and demanded reparation from the United States, granting only seven days for a reply, and when a great majority of the indignant citizens of the United States demanded war with England, believing with Seward that we could suppress the rebellion and defeat England at the same time, Lincoln surely averted war by magnanimously disavowing the act of Captain Wilkes and declaring that we had no intention of reviving the odious practices of Great Britain which led to the war

of 1812.

Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation, the most important act of his life, was at a most opportune time, making the war a war against injustice and oppression and effectually preventing European interference.

Lincoln's moral courage was the most conspicuous element of his greatness and the greatest factor in the preservation of the Union. A weaker man, a less courageous man, confronted with Lincoln's difficulties and beset as he was by advisers, might have been cajoled by the enemies of the republic or misled by wellmeaning friends into the adoption of a conciliatory policy, ending in the peaceable division of the Union into a southern oligarchy of slaveholders and a non-slaveholding republic; or through the lack of a well-matured and definite policy failed to rally the people to the support of the government and hence failed in the war for the restoration of the Union.

Thus in every crisis we see the master mind of Lincoln guiding the ship of state from the shoals and breakers, inspiring the people with loyalty by his firmness in the right, and by his abiding determination to save the nation at all hazards, by his consummate skill, patience, and resourcefulness directing the energies of the nation to the task of restoring the Union.

Another element of his greatness was his remarkable power of expression. No loftier sentiments were ever couched in more befitting language than his Gettysburg address, second inaugural, and letter of condolence to a bereaved mother. They are masterpieces of literature comparable with the best pieces of English

prose ever produced. A copy of his letter of condolence to Mrs. Bixby hangs on a wall of the Oxford University as a model of elegant literature which the world has never excelled.

On the memorable battlefield of Gettysburg, Edward Everett, considered the most gifted and scholarly orator then living, delivered a two-hours oration. Lincoln followed him with the immortal Gettysburg address, consisting of about fifty lines. Everett's oration is now seldom read. The speech of the cultured railsplitter is admired as the most perfectly adapted to the occasion of any speech ever delivered, and is studied in our colleges and universities as a model of style in composition.

Whence came this power of expression? I believe that it can be explained as logically as was explained the development of his character. His first attempts at composition were crude and bombastic. Behind all improvements, literary or other, there must be a desire for excellence. Lincoln early in life perceived the importance of lucid expositions as a prerequisite to leadership.

See him scrawling notes from books on the logs of the cabin or any handy board. If, in reading, he came across an idea or a phraseology that pleased him, he would write it in a copybook He so excelled in spelling that he was debarred from the spelling contests. He had such a passion for books and reading that he borrowed and read every book within a radius of fifty miles of his home. When a dictionary fell into his hands, he devoured it page by page. He read with as much avidity a copy of the statutes of Indiana as most boys would read a detective story. He walked fifteen miles to the county seat to listen to the arguments of the lawyers, and after returning home held mock trials, and from stumps delivered harangues to the field hands. During his storekeeping experience at New Salem he was often sprawled out at length on a counter studying a grammar which he had walked six miles to borrow, but which most boys of today would walk six miles to avoid. Nothing delighted him more than a day spent unmolested out of town, reading a book. After finding a copy of Blackstone's commentaries on the common law, he was often seen lying in the shade of a tree near the store devouring its contents.

He walked a distance of twenty miles to borrow law books and read diligently on the way back. Lincoln himself said that when he heard a word or phrase that he did not understand, he sometimes walked the floor late in the night until he comprehended the meaning and was able to express the same thought in language so simple that any one could understand it.

Almost any boy or girl having the desire and sufficient persistence and concentration of mind can acquire equal literary ability. But have they Lincoln's passion for knowledge and his power of application? Aye, there's the rub.

Let us recall the two great principles of education so well exemplified in the life and achievements of the noblest figure in American history, the emancipator of four million slaves, the preserver of the integrity of the Union, the writer of our second Declaration of Independence, whose life is an inspiration to every poor boy and a rebuke to the idle and inefficient, whose life has taught us that the best passports to enduring distinction are not a pretty face, fine clothes, wealth or social position, but character, sterling worth and social efficiency-these two principles of education are: There is no education but self-education through selfactivity; and the only way to develop a noble character is to perform noble deeds.

In the words of Shakespeare: "His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to the world, This was a man."

A

Two Rulers

SUPT. A. S. AMES, MEDFIELD, MASS.

♣ BOUT four hundred years ago a child was born to a family in England under conditions that would seem to be the most favorable. This child was descended from a long line of illustrious ancestors and surrounded by all the conveniences that the wealth and influence of that age could procure. Liveried servants waited upon him; private tutors instructed him; he was skilled in manly sports and accomplishments, and surrounded by admirers. At the age of eighteen the reins of government were placed in his hands and he became the ruler of a great nation. Self-centered, however, he went from one indulgence to another until his life became a ghastly record of immoralities and executions. At the age of fifty-six he died; a king in name, but a criminal in character; leaving, as an English author has said, "a grease spot on the pages of history." This was Henry the Eighth, King of England.

A little more than one hundred years ago a child was born to a family in the wilderness of America. This child first saw the light through the dim windows of a log cabin. When hardly out of infancy he labored with axe and spade and other rough tools of the frontier. This labor was lightened, however, by love for others and the joy of useful service. From his mothers' lips and from good books he learned thrilling stories of great men's lives and longed to emulate them. With heroic resolution he snatched from hours of needed rest sufficient time to pursue his studies. Step by step he rose from positions of trust and honor to the highest office in the gift of the people. He became the uncrowned ruler of a mighty nation His untimely death at the age of fiftysix was a personal loss to millions, but the grandeur of his fame