leans. As an object lesson
of the marvels of the closing century, an event of such momentous
consequence to the world as the formulation of the Treaty of Ghent,
by which peace was restored between England and America, would to-day
be known at every fireside a few hours after its occurrence. And yet,
within the now closing century, the battle of New Orleans was fought
twenty-three days after the Treaty of Ghent, coming by slow-sailing
vessels across the Atlantic, had received the signature of our
commissioners; all unsettled accounts squared eternally between America
and Great Britain; and the United States, by valor no less than by
diplomacy, exalted to honored and enduring place among the nations.

"The fifty-six years that compassed the life of Abraham Lincoln
were years of transcendent significance to our country. While
he was yet in his rude cradle the African slave trade had just
terminated by constitutional inhibition. While Lincoln was still in
attendance upon the old field school, Henry Clay--yet to be known as
the 'great pacificator'--was pressing the admission of Missouri
into the Union under the first compromise upon the question of
slavery since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. From
the establishment of the Government the question of human
slavery was the one perilous question,--the one constant menace to
national unity, until its final extinction amid the flames of war.
Marvellous to man are the purposes of the Almighty. What seer
could have foretold that, from this humblest of homes upon the
frontier, was to spring the man who at the crucial moment should
cut the Gordian knot, liberate a race, and give to the ages enlarged
and grander conception of the deathless principles of the declaration
of human rights?

"'Often do the spirits of great events
Stride on before the events,
And in to-day already walks to-morrow.'

"The first inauguration of President Lincoln noted the hour of
breaking with the past. It was a period of gloom, when the very
foundations were shaken, when no man could foretell the happening of
the morrow, when strong men trembled at the possibility of the
destruction of our Government.

"Pause a moment, and recall the man who, under the conditions
mentioned, on the fourth of March, 1861, entered upon the duties
of the great office to which he had been chosen. He came from the
common walks of life--from what, in other countries, would be called
the great middle c