ggested that perhaps he might be _entrenching_. The
election was held, and Lincoln received a majority greater than was ever
before given to a candidate for the presidency. The people this time
were like the Dutch farmer,--they believed that "it was not best to swap
horses when crossing a stream."

On the 4th of March, 1865, he delivered that memorable inaugural address
which is truly accounted one of the ablest state papers to be found in
the archives of America. It concludes with these words:--

"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are
in,--to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations."

Read and reread this whole address. Since the days of Christ's Sermon
on the Mount, where is the speech of ruler that can compare with it?
No other in American annals has so impressed the people. Said a
distinguished statesman from New York, on the day of its delivery,
"A century from to-day that inaugural will be read as one of the most
sublime utterances ever spoken by man. Washington is the great man of
the era of the Revolution. So will Lincoln be of this; but Lincoln will
reach the higher position in history."

Four years before, Mr. Lincoln, an untried man, had assumed the reins of
government; now, he was the faithful and beloved servant of the people.
Then, he was ridiculed and caricatured; and some persons even found
fault with his dress, just as the British ambassador found fault with
the dress of the author of the Declaration of Independence. The
ambassador is forgotten, but Jefferson will live as long as a government
of the people, by the people, and for the people, endures. While he
lived Lincoln was shamefully abused by the people and press of the land
of his forefathers; and not until the shot was fired--not until the
blood of the just--the ransom of the slave--was spilled, did England
throw off the cloak of prejudice, and acknowledge--

"This king of princes-peer,
This rail-splitter, a true-born king of men."

It is well known that not all of Mr. Lincoln's friends invariably
harmonized with his views. Of the number of these Horace Greeley stood
foremost, and undoubtedly caused the President great anxiety upon
several occasions. He never d