Book Description

Excerpt from Eulogy on the Life, Character and Public Services of the Late President Abraham Lincoln: Delivered Before Council No; 33, Union League of America, at Sumner Hall, East Boston, May 8, 1865; With a Record of the Proceedings, and a Description of the Decorations Put Up for the Occasion In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, re the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.' I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Never, in this, or any other land, were uttered words more elegant and-felicitous. They fell that day, alas, upon many cars that were dull of hearing; but, long after this generation shall have passed away, they will be quoted among the finest passages of modern literary composition. Nothing evinces genius and greatness more than clearness and precision of speech, combined with the ability of making a few words convey a great deal of meaning. In this respect President Lincoln was never excelled, seldom equalled, by the distinguished speakers of the country. With marvellous discrimination he grasped the strong points of every subject brought to his notice, and presented them briefly in lucid and forcible language. Few are the intellects so feeble as to be bewildered by his public statements and addresses none so great as to better the garb he choose to carry his views to the minds of the people. Everything he has ever said, everything he has ever written, will ere long be gathered together and presented to the country he lived and labored and died to serve. His words will circu late from the north-east boundary line of Maine, across the broad prairies of the West, and far beyond the Rocky Mountains to the shores of Oregon, and the golden sands of California. Pioneers will read them in their forest huts or hillside homes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.