he goes back in triumph. As he pauses here
to-day, and from his cold lips bids us bear witness how he has met the
duty that was laid on him, what can we say out of our full hearts but
this--"He fed them with a faithful and true heart, and ruled them
prudently with all his power." The _Shepherd of the People_! that old
name that the best rulers ever craved. What ruler ever won it like this
dead President of ours? He fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with
counsel when we were in doubt, with inspiration when we sometimes
faltered, with caution when we would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful
cheerfulness through many an hour when our hearts were dark. He fed
hungry souls all over the country with sympathy and consolation. He
spread before the whole land feasts of great duty and devotion and
patriotism, on which the land grew strong. He fed us with solemn, solid
truths. He taught us the sacredness of government, the wickedness of
treason. He made our souls glad and vigorous with the love of liberty
that was in his. He showed us how to love truth and yet be
charitable--how to hate wrong and all oppression, and yet not treasure
one personal injury or insult. He fed _all_ his people, from the highest
to the lowest, from the most privileged down to the most enslaved. Best
of all, he fed us with a reverent and genuine religion. He spread before
us the love and fear of God just in that shape in which we need them
most, and out of his faithful service of a higher Master who of us has
not taken and eaten and grown strong? "He fed them with a faithful and
true heart." Yes, till the last. For at the last, behold him standing
with hand reached out to feed the South with mercy and the North with
charity, and the whole land with peace, when the Lord who had sent him
called him and his work was done!

He stood once on the battle-field of our own State, and said of the
brave men who had saved it words as noble as any countryman of ours ever
spoke. Let us stand in the country he has saved, and which is to be his
grave and monument, and say of Abraham Lincoln what he said of the
soldiers who had died at Gettysburg. He stood there with their graves
before him, and these are the words he said:--

"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. The brave men who struggled here have consecrated it far
beyond our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor
long remember what we say