Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln: Delivered at the request of both Houses of Congress of AmericaBancroft, George
History
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln: Delivered at the request of both Houses of Congress of America
Bancroft, George
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave when the
prime minister of England died, full of years and honors. Palmerston
traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LINCOLN went back only
to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the best
scholars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge; LINCOLN'S early teachers
were the silent forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars.
Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; LINCOLN for but a tenth
of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established
aristocracy; LINCOLN a leader, or rather a companion, of the people.
Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the
House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth;
LINCOLN thought always of mankind, as well as his own country, and
served human nature itself. Palmerston, from his narrowness as an
Englishman, did not endear his country to any one court or to any one
nation, but rather caused general uneasiness and dislike; LINCOLN left
America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston
was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the conflicting factions
of the aristocracy; LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise
himself on the ever-moving opinions of the masses. Palmerston was
capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the sense of honor, not
heedful of right;
LINCOLN rejected counsel given only as a matter of policy, and was not
capable of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial,
delighted in banter, and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful
levity; LINCOLN was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest
earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the
aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the
conscience of humanity, but the House of Commons; LINCOLN took to heart
the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of
Providence, and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity.
Palmerston did nothing that will endure; LINCOLN finished a work which
all time cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the
ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of
institutions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the
great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in
Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was attended by the
British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a few years, will hardly
be noticed by the side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; LINCOLN was
followed by tho sorrow of his country across the continent to his
resting place in the heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered
through all time by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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