irit, one resolve--
To strike the stroke that rounds the perfect star.
The grip that swung the ax on Sangamon
Was on the pen that spelled Emancipation.
He built the rail-pile as he built the State,
Pouring his splendid strength through every blow,
The conscience of him testing every stroke,
To make his deed the measure of a man.

So came the Captain with the thinking heart;
And when the judgment thunders split the house,
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest,
He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again
The rafters of the Home. He held his place--
Held the long purpose like a growing tree--
Held on through blame and faltered not at praise.
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
As when a lordly cedar green with boughs
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

[25] _All rights reserved by the author._

From the Memorial Address to Congress on the

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BY GEORGE BANCROFT

_Senators, Representatives of America:_

That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of
physical science. On the great moving power which is from the
beginning hangs the world of the senses and the world of thought and
action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations,
working in patient continuity through the ages, never halting and
never abrupt, encompassing all events in its oversight, and ever
effecting its will, though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose
with madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go,
republics flourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that
is told; but nothing is by chance, though men, in their ignorance of
causes, may think so. The deeds of time are governed, as well as
judged, by the decrees of eternity. The caprice of fleeting existences
bends to the immovable omnipotence, which plants its foot on all the
centuries and has neither change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes,
like a messenger through the thick darkness of night, it steps along
mysterious ways; but when the hour strikes for a people, or for
mankind, to pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts
from the gates of futurity; an all-subsiding influence prepares the
minds of men for the coming revolution; those who plan resistance find
themselves in conflict with the will of Providence rather than with