Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: An Oration Delivered Before the Lincoln Union

The shoe buckle and the ruffled shirt worked a spell peculiarly their own. They carried with them an air of polish and authority. Hamilton, though of obscure birth and small stature, is rep resented by those who knew him to have been dignity and grace personified; and old Ben Frank lin, even in woolen hose, and none too courtier like, was the delight of the great nobles and fine ladies, in whose company he made himself as much at home as though he had been born a Marquis.

When we revert to that epoch the beauty of the scene which history unfolds is marred by lit tle that is uncouth, by nothing that is grotesque. The long procession passes, and we see in each group, in every figure, something of heroic pro portion. ]ohn Adams and John Hancock, Sam uel Warren and Samuel Adams, the Livingstonsin New York, the Carrolls in Maryland, the Ma sons, the Randolphs and the Pendletons in Vir ginia, the Rutledges in South Carolina - what pride of Caste, what elegance of manner, what dignity and dominancy of character! And the soldiers! Israel Putnam and Nathanael Greene, Ethan Allen and john Stark, Mad Anthony Wayne and Light Horse Harry Lee, and Morgan and Marion and Sumter, gathered about the immortal Washington - Puritan and Cavalier so mixed and blended as to be indistinguishable the one from the other - where shall we go to seek a more resplendent galaxy of field marshals? Surely not to Blenheim, drinking beakers to Marlborough after the famous victory; nor yet to the silken marquet of the great Conde on the Rhine, be dizened with gold lace and radiant with the flower of the nobility of France! Ah, me! There were gentlemen in those days; and they made their influence felt upon life and thought long after the echoes of Bunker Hill and Yorktown had faded away, long after the bell over Independ ence Hall had ceased to ring.

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