patriot! through the mist of years
That in the future are to come,--
When we who saw thee here are gone,--
We view thy heaven-aspiring tomb
Illumined by the roseate dawn
Of the millennial day,
When Peace shall hold her sway,
And bring Saturnian eras; when the roar
O' the battle's thunder shall be heard no more.
[Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN
At Newark, N. J. Gutzon Borglum, sculptor]
The statue was unveiled May 30, 1911. It is the gift of Amos H. Van
Horn, who died December 26, 1908. In his will he set aside $25,000 for
a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, to be dedicated in memory of Lincoln
Post, No. 11, Department of New Jersey, G. A. R., of which he was a
charter member.
Joseph Fulford Folsom, Presbyterian clergyman, miscellaneous writer
and local historian, is a native of Bloomfield, New Jersey. He is a
direct descendant of John Folsom who arrived at Boston in the Diligent
on August 10, 1638, and settled at Hingham, Massachusetts.
Mr. Folsom is the pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, South, of
Newark, New Jersey. He has served two terms as Chaplain General of the
Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. Is Librarian and
Recording Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society. Edited and
wrote three chapters of _Bloomfield, Old and New_, a history of that
town published in 1912. Wrote the history of the churches of Newark,
including the _History of Newark, New Jersey_, published in 1913. His
poem, _The Ballad of Daniel Bray_, is found in the _Patriotic Poems of
New Jersey_. He is an occasional writer of poems, and contributes
regularly a column of historical matters, signed "The Lorist."
THE UNFINISHED WORK
The crowd was gone, and to the side
Of Borglum's Lincoln, deep in awe,
I crept. It seem'd a mighty tide
Within those aching eyes I saw.
"Great heart," I said, "why grieve alway?
The battle's ended and the shout
Shall ring forever and a day,--
Why sorrow yet, or darkly doubt?"
"Freedom," I plead, "so nobly won
For all mankind, and equal right,
Shall with the ages travel on
Till time shall cease, and day be night."
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