Lincoln's Birthday : $b a comprehensive view of Lincoln as given in the most noteworthy essays, orations and poems, in fiction and in Lincoln's own writings
History
Lincoln's Birthday : $b a comprehensive view of Lincoln as given in the most noteworthy essays, orations and poems, in fiction and in Lincoln's own writings
As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised the flag; the American
people was the hero of the war; and, therefore, the result is a new
era of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of
anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system
of hereditary wrong; and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens
to the renovated nation a career of unthought of dignity and glory.
Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor.
The party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and
are merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would
have left us are not brought back as subjugated States, for then we
should hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained;
they come to their rightful place under the constitution as original,
necessary, and inseparable members of the Union.
We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We
respect the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands,
raised emblems of triumph. And our generals are not to be classed in
the herd of vulgar warriors, but are of the school of Timoleon, and
William of Nassau, and Washington. They have used the sword only to
give peace to their country and restore her to her place in the great
assembly of the nations.
SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of America: as I bid you farewell, my
last words shall be words of hope and confidence; for now slavery is
no more, the Union is restored, a people begins to live according to
the laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
BY GOLDWIN SMITH
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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