1 he went to Illinois;
finally, after his marriage, settling in Springfield. There he knew
Mr. Lincoln, with whom he was on terms of closest friendship.

The poem submitted by Mr. Lord was selected for reading at the
dedication of the National Lincoln Monument in a competition which
brought contributions from many leading poets.

He was the author of several dramas, and from time to time contributed
poems to leading magazines and newspapers of the country. He died
January 3, 1905.

DEDICATION POEM

_Read by Richard Edwards, LL.D., President Illinois
State Normal University at Bloomington, Illinois_

We build not here a temple or a shrine,
Nor hero-fane to demigods divine;
Nor to the clouds a superstructure rear
For man's ambition or for servile fear.
Not to the Dust, but to the Deeds alone
A grateful people raise th' historic stone;
For where a patriot lived, or hero fell,
The daisied turf would mark the spot as well.

What though the Pyramids, with apex high,
Like Alpine peaks cleave Egypt's rainless sky,
And cast grim shadows o'er a desert land
Forever blighted by oppression's hand?
No patriot zeal their deep foundations laid--
No freeman's hand their darken'd chambers made--
No public weal inspired the heart with love,
To see their summits towering high above.
The ruling Pharaoh, proud and gory-stained,
With vain ambitions never yet attained;--
With brow enclouded as his marble throne,
And heart unyielding as the building stone;--
Sought with the scourge to make mankind his slaves,
And heaven's free sunlight darker than their graves.
His but to will, and theirs to yield and feel,
Like vermin'd dust beneath his iron heel;--
Denies all mercy, and all right offends,
Till on his head th' avenging Plague descends.

Historic justice bids the nations know
That through each land of slaves a Nile of blood
shall flow:
And Vendome Columns, on a people thrust,
Are, by the people, level'd with the dust.

Nor stone, nor bronze, can fit memorials yield