The Men of our Time--Lincoln Foremost--The War was the Working-Man's Revolution--Abraham Lincoln's Birth and Youth-- The Books he read--The Thirty Thousand Dollars for Tender--The Old Stocking of Government Money--A Just Lawyer; Anecdotes--His First Candidacy and Speech--Goes to Legislature and Congress-- The Seven Debates and Campaign against Douglas in 1858--Webster's and Lincoln's Language Compared--The Cooper Institute Speech-- The Nomination at Chicago--Moral and Physical Courage--The Backwoodsman President and the Diplomatists--Significance of his Presidential Career--Religious Feelings--His Kindness-- "The Baby Did It"--The First Inaugural--The Second Inaugural, and other State Papers--The Conspiracy and Assassination--The Opinions of Foreign Nations on Mr. Lincoln. Our times have been marked from all other times as the scene of an immense conflict which has not only shaken to its foundation our own country, but has been felt like the throes of an earthquake through all the nations of the earth. Our own days have witnessed the closing of the great battle, but the preparations for that battle have been the slow work of years. The "Men of Our Times," are the men who indirectly by their moral influence helped to bring on this great final crisis, and also those who, when it was brought on, and the battle was set in array, guided it wisely, and helped to bring it to its triumphant close. In making our selection we find men of widely different spheres and characters. Pure philanthropists, who, ignoring all selfish and worldly politics, have labored against oppression and wrong; far-seeing statesmen, who could foresee the working of political causes from distant years; brave naval and military men, educated in the schools of our country; scientific men, who helped to perfect the material forces of war by their discoveries and ingenuity--all are united in one great crisis, and have had their share in one wonderful passage of the world's history. Foremost on the roll of "men of our time," it is but right and fitting that we place the honored and venerated name of the man who was called by God's providence to be the leader of the nation in our late great struggle, and to seal with his blood the proclamation of universal liberty in this country--the name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.