Excerpt from Lincoln

No man has expressed the feelings of America so well as President Lincoln, and no man in this or any other land has been more truly great. He was the child of poor parents. He was born in a log cabin. He went to school but little, because he lived where there were no schools. When a boy and young man he worked hard with his hands and it gave him a healthy body. He studied a few good books and it gave him a clear head. He liked history. He mastered mathematics and did surveying. He was interested in politics, and his mind' grasped the laws easily. He read about the principles of government, and thought about the rights of men. He became a lawyer. He was elected to the Legislature of Illinois, and then to the Congress of the United States. The experiences thus gained helped to make him a suc cessful lawyer._ He was much interested in the affairs of the people, in universal justice, and in the good of his country. He thought for himself, and he thought hard and straight. He had a keen sense of humor and a fine gift of wit. He wrote so plainly, and he spoke in public so clearly, that all the people could under stand him. But he had even greater qualities. His habits were simple and he lived without great show. He was true and sin cere, and the people believed in him. All these things made him a leader, a statesman, and a very great man. The country was deeply agitated about slavery. It had existed in all of the states in earlier years, and it then existed in all of the Southern States, where there were five millions of slaves. He abhorred human bondage, but he abhorred war also. The laws allowed slavery in the South, and he thought it impossible to change the laws and abolish slavery without bringing on a war between the Northern and the isouthern States. He hoped for an easier and better way. But many tried to carry slavery into the new states and territories that were being 'formed beyond the Mississippi river. He was Opposed to that, whether war came or not. He spoke hundreds of times against it, and what he said made him President of the United States. This brought on a dreadful war, which lasted four years. Great armies of citizens were organized to save the Union. Half a million of the best men in the country.

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