"You are met to commemorate a great man, one of your greatest, great in what he did, even greater in what he was. One hundred years have passed since in a lowly hut in the bordering state of Kentucky, this child of obscure and unlettered parents was born into a country then still wild and thinly peopled. Three other famous men were born that same year in England - Alfred Tennyson, the most gifted poet that has used our language since Wordsworth died; William Gladstone, the most powerful and versatile statesman of the last two generations in Britain, and Charles Darwin, the great naturalist and chief among the famous scientific discoverers of the nineteenth century. It was a wonderful year, and we who knew these three illustrious gentlemen whom I have named are tempted to compare and contrast each one of them with that illustrious contemporary of theirs whose memory we are met to honor. He quitted this world long before them, but with a record to which a long life could scarcely have added any further lustre.

"Of the personal impression he made on those who knew him, you will hear from some of the few yet living who can recollect him. All I can contribute is a reminiscence of what reached us in England. I was an undergraduate student in the University of Oxford when the civil war broke out. Well do I remember the surprise when the republican national convention nominated him as a candidate for the presidency, for it had been expected that the choice would fall upon William H. Seward. I recollect how slowly it dawned upon Europeans in 1862 that the president could be no ordinary man because he never seemed cast down by the reverses which befell his army; because he never let himself be worried into premature action, nor feared to take so bold a step as the emancipation proclamation when he saw that the time had arrived. And above all, I remember the shock and the grief which afflicted all when the word came that he had been struck down by the bullet of an assassin. There have been not a few murders of the heads of state in our time; but none smote us with such horror and such pity as the death of this great, strong and merciful man in the moment when his long and patient efforts had been crowned with victory, and peace had just begun to send her rays over the land laid waste by the march of armies.

"We in England already felt then that a great as well as a good man had departed, though it remained for later years to enable us all (both you here and the other hemisphere) fully to appreciate his greatness. Both among you and with us his fame has continued to rise till he has now become one of the grandest figures whom America has given to world history to be a glory first of this country, then also of mankind.

"A man may be great of intellect, or by character, or by both. The highest men are great by both; and of these was Abraham Lincoln. Endowed with powers that were solid rather than shining, he was not what is called a brilliant man. Perhaps the want of instruction and stimulation during his early life prevented his naturally vigorous mind from learning how to work nimbly. The disadvantages of this boyhood, the want of books and teachers, were so met and overcome by his love of knowledge and his strenuous will that he drew strength from them. Thoughtfulness and intensity, the capacity to reflect steadily and patiently on a problem till it has been solved is one of the two most distinct impressions which one gets from that stron, rugged face with its furrowed brow and deep set eyes.

"The other impression is that of unshaken and unshakable resolution. Slow in reaching a decision, he held fearlessly to it when he reached it. He had not merely physical courage, and that in ample measure, but the rarer quality of being willing to face misconceptions and unpopularity. It was his dauntless courage and his clear thinking that fitted Lincoln to be the pilot who brought your ship through the wildest tempest that ever broke upon her.

"Three points should not be forgotten which, if they do not add to Lincoln's greatness, make it more attractive. One is the fact that he rose all unaided to the pinnacle of power and responsibility. Rarely, indeed, has it happened in history, hardly at all could it have happened in the last century outside America, that one born in poverty, with no help throughout his youth from intercourse with educated people, with no friend to back him except those whom the impression of his own personality brought round him, should rise. A second is the gentleness of his heart. He who has to refuse every hour requests from those whom a private person would have been glad to indulge, he who has to punish those whom a private person would pity and pardon, can seldom retain either tenderness or patience. But Lincoln's tenderness and patience were inexhaustible.

"It is often said that every great man is unscrupulous; and doubtless most of those to whom usage has attached the title have been so. To preserve truthfulness and conscientousness appears scarcly possible in the stress of life where immense issues seem to make it necessary and, therefore, make it right to toss aside the ordinary rules of conduct in order to secure the end desired. To Abraham Lincolm, however, truthfulness and conscientiousness remained the rule of his life. He felt that he owed his responsibility not only to the people, but to a higher power. Few men have so stainless a record.

"To you, men of Illinois, Lincoln is the most famous and worthy of all those who have adorned your commonwealth. To you, citizens of the United States, he is the president who carried you through a terrific conflict and saved the union. To us in England he is one of the heroes of the race whence you and I spring. We honor his memory as you do; and it is fitting that one who is priveledged here to represent the land from which his forefathers came should bring on behalf of England a tribute of admiration for him and of thankfulness to the Providence which gave him to you in your hour of need.

"Great men are the noblest possession of a nation and are potent forces in the moulding of national character. Their influence lives after them, and if they be good as well as great, they remain as beacons lighting the course of all who follow them. They set for succeeding generations the standards of public life. They stir the spirit and rouse the energy of the youth who seek to emulate their virtues in the service of the country. Thus did the memory of George Washington stir and rouse Lincoln himself. Thus will the memory of Lincoln live and endure among you gathering reverence from age to age, the memory of one who saved your republic by his wisdom, his constancy, his faith in the people and in freedom, the memory of a plain and simple man, yet crowned with knightly virtues of truthfulness, honor and courage."

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