mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is
expected. It cannot be. To add to the brightness of the sun or glory to
the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In
solemn awe we pronounce the name and, in its naked, deathless splendor,
leave it shining on."

It was young Lincoln's patriotic love for George Washington which did so
much to bring about, in time, a double emancipation from white slavery
and black.

Once, as President, he said to a boy who had just signed the temperance
pledge:

"Now, Sonny, keep that pledge and it will be the best act of your life."

President Lincoln was true and consistent in his temperance principles.
In March, 1864, he went by steamboat with his wife and "Little Tad," to
visit General Grant at his headquarters at City Point, Virginia.

When asked how he was, during the reception which followed his arrival
there, the President said, as related by General Horace Porter:

"'I am not feeling very well. I got pretty badly shaken up on the bay
coming down, and am not altogether over it yet.'

"'Let me send for a bottle of champagne for you, Mr. President,' said a
staff-officer, 'that's the best remedy I know of for sea-sickness.'

"'No, no, my young friend,' replied the President, 'I've seen many a
man in my time seasick ashore from drinking that very article.'

"That was the last time any one screwed up sufficient courage to offer
him wine."

"THE UNDER DOG"

Some people are kinder to dumb animals--is it _because_ they are
dumb?--than to their relatives. Many are the stories of Lincoln's
tenderness to beasts and birds. But his kindness did not stop there, nor
with his brothers and sisters in white. He recognized his close
relationship with the black man, and the bitterest name his enemies
called him--worse in their minds than "fool," "clown," "imbecile" or
"gorilla"--was a "Black Republican." That terrible phobia against the
negro only enlisted Abraham Lincoln's sympathies the more. He appeared
in court in behalf of colored people, time and again. The more bitter
the hatred and oppression of others, the more they needed his
sympathetic help, the more certain they were to receive it.

"My sympathies are with the under dog," said Mr. Lincoln, one day,
"though it is often that dog that starts the fuss."

The fact that the poor fellow may have brought the trouble upon himself
did not make him forfeit Abraham Lincoln's sympathy. That was only a