but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."

The turning point of the war had been reached; the victory of the
Northern forces was now assured. On the Ninth of April, 1865, General
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House and the war was
brought to an end.

In the meantime Lincoln had been reelected President by an overwhelming
majority. He now had before him the difficult task of reconstruction,
and of bringing together the warring factions that so nearly had torn
our nation in two halves forever.

His kindliness, his personal bravery which made him regardless of all
risks and repeated threats of assassination, his infinite tact,
resourcefulness and good humor, coupled with the weightier abilities as
a ruler and a statesman, have made his name most justly the most famous
in our history with the possible exception of George Washington's.
There is an infinite fund of anecdotes concerning him and what he did
in the dark days through which he piloted the country. Lincoln was
always gentle when there was the least excuse for gentleness, and he
pardoned so many military offenders who had been under sentence of
death that the Union Generals complained that he was weakening their
discipline. Yet this gentleness on his part was never confounded with
weakness. No more terrible contestant could have appeared against the
rebellious South than the quiet, gaunt backwoodsman who had placed
himself in the President's chair by reason of his character alone.

On April 14, 1865, when attending a performance at Ford's Theater in
Washington, President Lincoln was murdered. His assassin was John
Wilkes Booth, brother of the famous actor, Edwin Booth, who was in no
way implicated with the terrible deed perpetrated by one that bore his
name. Wilkes Booth was a rabid Southerner and believed that since the
North had conquered, vengeance was necessary. He did not