ul faction, to displace
Washington from the chief command. The correspondence of the Father of
his country, now first published, reveals the fact that the compensation
attached to military rank was by no means an unimportant object of the
universal rage for preferment, which then threatened to break up the
army. Lafayette set a noble example to the republican chiefs. He
declined the tender of a commission as major-general, with the
emoluments, and stipulated, on the contrary, for leave to serve without
reward, and even without a command, until he should have made a title to
it by actual achievements. He won his commission by the blood he gave to
his adopted country in the battle of Brandywine, by rallying the troops
in the retreat at Chester Bridge, and by his brave resistance and
capture, with the aid of militia-men, of a superior force of British
and Hessian regulars; and thus, without exciting murmurs among his
compatriots, and with the thanks of Congress, he rose to the command of
a division in the army of the United States. Lavish of gold, as he had
already shown that he was lavish of blood, he clothed and equipped
these troops, numbering two thousand, at his own expense; and they soon
became, under his exact but affectionate discipline, the favorite corps
of the whole army.

Lafayette stood second to Washington in the affections of the American
people, and in the applauses of the friends of liberty throughout the
world. Certainly whatever honors that people could have conferred upon
any one would have been sure to wait on him. Let those who think that
preferment, power, and applause are always the chief objects of human
ambition, look now at this illustrious and yet youthful personage,
cheerfully resigning his command, and without one murmur of regret for
the honors laid down, or one glance towards the honors gathering before
him, taking affectionate leave of his companions in arms, and their
great chief, and returning to his native land, to resume there the
duties he owed as a subject and member of the State, in France.

[Footnote 24: A prominent statesman, formerly Governor of New York, of
which state he is a native. He is known in literature by many addresses,
speeches, and diplomatic papers, often of high merit.]

* * * * *

=_Abraham Lincoln,[25] 1809-1865._=

"Speech at the Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg,"
November 19, 1883.

=_95._= OBLIGATION TO TH