concerning days of national religious
observance) he could wield, like no other modern writer, the language
of the Prayer Book, so he would speak of prayer without the smallest
embarrassment in talk with a general or a statesman. It is possible
that this was a development of later years. Lincoln did not, like most
of us, arrest his growth. To Mrs. Lincoln it seemed that with the
death of their child, Willie, a change came over his whole religious
outlook. It well might; and since that grief, which came while his
troubles were beginning, much else had come to Lincoln; and now through
four years of unsurpassed trial his capacity had steadily grown, and
his delicate fairness, his pitifulness, his patience, his modesty had
grown therewith. Here is one of the few speeches ever delivered by a
great man at the crisis of his fate on the sort of occasion which a
tragedian telling his story would have devised for him. This man had
stood alone in the dark. He had done justice; he had loved mercy; he
had walked humbly with his God. The reader to whom religious utterance
makes little appeal will not suppose that his imaginative words stand
for no real experience. The reader whose piety knows no questions will
not be pained to think that this man had professed no faith.

He said, "Fellow Countrymen: At this second appearance to take the oath
of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in
detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at
the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have
been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
contest which still absorbs the energies and engrosses the attention of
the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our
arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the
public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and
encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in
regard to it is ventured.

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all
sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,
insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without
war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divid