l, could not misunderstand; declared that if
slavery was not wrong, there was nothing that was wrong. Soon he came to
be looked upon as one who each year would coin the happy phrase and the
rhythmical watchword that would be taken upon the lips of 30,000,000 of
people; was made the leader of the new "party of freedom," and
President.

Now, with infinite skill and patience, he entered upon the task of
proving that he was the strongest man in his Cabinet, the strongest man
in the North, the strongest man in the country, and the only man who had
the last fact in the case, and therefore had the right to rule. Seward,
experienced politician and statesman that he was, began by delicately
hinting to Lincoln that if he felt himself unequal to emergencies, he
could rely upon his Secretary of State for guidance, and that he,
Seward, would not evade the responsibility. Lincoln answered by reading
Seward's statement of a possible measure, and then placing beside it a
statement of his own that reduced Seward to the level of a schoolboy
standing up beside a giant. Then Stanton entered the lists as
competitor, and quietly Lincoln asserted himself until Stanton's
attitude became one of almost reverent worship, as he said of Lincoln,
"Henceforth he belongs with the immortals." Then Greeley put in his
claim for supremacy, and after Lincoln had published his answer to
Horace Greeley, in lines as clear as crystal, and in words as gentle as
sunbeams, not a man in the land but saw that Lincoln was intellectually
head and shoulders above Horace Greeley. One by one and step by step he
ascended the hills of difficulty. Round by round he climbed the ladder
of fame. Naturally, therefore, his centennial was observed by a week's
celebration, when all the wheels were still, and all the stores and
factories were silent, when ninety millions of people were gathered into
one vast audience chamber, when one name was upon all lips--the name of
Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of the slaves, the acknowledged master
of men, who gave liberty to the slaves that he might assure freedom to
the free.

Thoughtless writers have talked Lincoln's ancestry down, and careless
biographers have defamed him. Superficial students speak of him as a
miracle, and say that his genius is surrounded with silence and mystery.
But all that Abraham Lincoln was he had at the hands of his fathers and
his mothers. Although their greatness was latent, his parents had as
much abilit