eristic also of Abraham
Lincoln. Lincoln emphasized that quality in Taylor, because he
unconsciously sought out in him what was most truly like to his own
noble nature.

Orations by one President upon another are none too common in American
literature; and this by Lincoln upon Taylor is of value in its estimate
of the best in Taylor as discerned by one in whom the same quality was
worthily present. Lincoln would have done for Worth what Taylor did. He
treated in similar fashion the men who opposed him.

One feature of the oration has remarkable interest. It appears to have
been the only address of Lincoln's in which he made use of his favorite
poem,--

"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"

This poem he quoted so often to his friends that some of them supposed
him to have been its author, but so far as a search of his published
works can show, he did not use it in any other formal address.

Lincoln often inquired of his friends whether any of them knew the
author of this poem. So far as is known, he never learned. Herndon, in
his lecture which has served as the basis of all the literature
concerning Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, informs us that, after the death of
Ann, Lincoln formed an attachment for this poem. It has been affirmed
that he learned it from Ann. I have inquired of Mrs. Sarah Rutledge
Saunders, surviving[1] sister of Ann Rutledge, whether her mother knew
this poem and taught it to her daughters, Ann included. She replied:

Yes, Mother knew the poem, "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be
proud." But she did not teach it to Lincoln. The girls and Mother
learned it from Lincoln. They always called it Lincoln's song.

[Footnote 1: Mrs. Saunders was living when this Introduction was
written, but died May 1, 1922.]

The first allusion made to this poem in any of Lincoln's letters, that I
have seen, was in April, 1846, when he was writing some verses of his
own, and comparing them with those of another budding poet, William
Johnson. Johnson had sent to Lincoln a poem which he had written, a
parody upon Poe's "Raven." Lincoln had never read the "Raven," but he
sent to Johnson some lines of his own, composed after his visit to his
old home in Indiana in the fall of 1844. Subsequently, in September,
1846, Lincoln sent him additional lines suggested by the same visit. It
is in the letter of April 18, 1846, that Lincoln refers to the poem, "Oh
why should the spirit of mortal be pr