hing from every
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our
nature."

More than the persuasive argument and gentle yet determined spirit of
the address, it was the chaste beauty and tender feeling of these
closing words which convinced the people that Lincoln measured up to
the high mental and moral stature demanded of one who was to be their
leader through the most critical period that had arisen in the life of
the nation.

The second inaugural address, coming so shortly before the President's
death, formed unintentionally his farewell address. It has the spirit
and tone of prophecy. The Bible, in thought and expression, was its
inspiration. The first two of its three paragraphs ring like a chapter
from Isaiah, chief of the poet seers of old. The concluding paragraph
is an apostolic benediction such as Paul or John might have delivered.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan--to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves, and with all nations."

* * * * *

THE POETS' LINCOLN

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE LOG CABIN

Birthplace of Lincoln, near Hodgensville, Kentucky]

Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th day of February, 1809, on the Big
South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then known as Hardin, but is
now known as La Rue County, Kentucky, about three miles from
Hodgensville.

The above illustration represents the cabin in which he was born, as
described by his former neighbors.

Out of that old hut came the mighty man of destiny, the matchless man
of the Nineteenth Century. The world has no parallel for that
transition from the cabin to the White House.

Julia Ward [Howe] was born in New York City, May 27, 1819. At an early
age she wrote plays and poems. In 1843 Miss Ward married Dr. Samuel
Gridley Howe. In 1861, while on a visit to the camp near Washington,
with Governor John A. Andrew and other friends, Mrs. Howe wrot