or the right. His
education was practical, not theoretical, and was acquired in the school
of nature and among men rather than among books. The basis of his life
was earnestness. No rhetorical display marked his speech, but his
oratory fastened the attention, appealed to reason and carried
conviction to the hearts of his listeners. He valued public opinion, for
he said:

"With public sentiment nothing can fail; without public sentiment
nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes
deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions."

He opposed the extension of slavery rather than its abolition; but as he
divined the real sentiments of its advocates he realized that enduring
peace would not bless the nation while the institution lived, a menace
to free labor and industrial prosperity. He professed no religion, for
his great heart throbbed in sympathy with all humanity, and he would not
be separated from even the humblest among men by the artificial barriers
of creed. He believed in the gospel of liberty and would guarantee it to
all men through constitutional enactment. When he became president he
found slavery intrenched behind the bulwarks of constitutional law and
judicial decision; he found a united South, resolute in her
determination to perpetuate slavery in the nation; a vacillating North,
divided in its sentiment on the great question of property in man. He
found the nation in the throes of civil war, and died in the triumphal
hour of his country's deliverance, with the sceptre of slavery
shattered, her fetters broken and in rust, and her power crumbled to
ashes.

Public criticism never annoyed him, and he was not averse to taking
counsel from the poorest among men. It was love of country, not selfish
ambition, which turned his attention to public life, and toward the end
of his administration he was rewarded by public confidence and a respect
for his honesty and singleness of aim toward the good of the nation. He
had a great relish for story-telling and used his fund of anecdote to
good advantage in illustrating points in conversation.

His administration stands the guide-post of the centuries, set by the
Eternal as the dividing line between the serfdom of the past and the
freedom of the future. His monument stands the altar of a nation's fame,
and his name will live to guide the world to enfranchisement.

[Signature of the author.]

HORACE GREELEY[14]

By NOAH BRO