Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States: Annual Oration Delivered Before the Society of the Army of the Potomac
When forty thousand Frenchmen, chafing under the impe rial rule that had overthrown their loved Republic, sought to express their sympathy with the American people in the hour of its profound grief, they presented to the widow Of the martyred President a massive gold medal, upon which was inscribed this summary Of his work, this legend Of his eternal fame: lincoln the honest man - abolished slavery, RE established the union - saved the republic - without veil ing the form OF liberty.
From the highest reach that Mr. Lincoln had attained before his accession to the Presidency to the zenith of his career, the space seems incalculable. The study Of his earlier life shows indeed that he possessed clearness of thought, remarkable gift Of expression, native sagacity, honesty Of purpose, and courage Of conviction that he was devoted to the rights Of man, and that he loved his country; but that he possessed elementsof greatness in such degree as was revealed by the war, could not have been surmised from aught he had said or done. And that he should manifest so soon and so signally his ability to rule a great nation in the most dangerous period Ofits existence; that he should overtower his associates, and prove that more than they he was fitted to save the government; that he could wield a power vastly greater than that which had been possessed by his predecessors and surpassing that exercised by any contemporary ruler, king or emperor, could not have been foreseen by any lacking divine inspiration. Not by graded steps, but by giant stride, Lincoln reached the height of power, achievement, and fame.
True, the progress Of the war revealed growth in his charac ter, thought, and force, and he stood conspicuously higher at its close than at its beginning; but at its opening it was apparent that Providence had so shaped the country's destiny that the man who had been chosen mainly because of his availability as a presidential candidate was far and away the one man for the Office and the work.
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