ln! Lincoln!

[_All join except_ STEVENS, _whose face remains a mask._]

LINCOLN

Come on, Stevens, smile! Take a chance. It may kill you, but my Lord,
man, take a chance!

STEVENS

You're not elected yet, sir--and such levity ill becomes a Nation's
Chief in these tragic hours----

LINCOLN

[_Laughs._]

If I couldn't laugh I'd have died long ago at this job!

CURTAIN

EPILOGUE

SET SCENE: _The great pillars of the Capitol at Washington fill the
entire stage from arch to arch. In the foreground stands the platform
on which the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, headed
by Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice, are grouped about the President, who
is delivering his Second Inaugural._ JOHN VAUGHAN _beside_ BETTY WINTER
_is conspicuously leading the applause._

AT RISE: _The President is reading his Inaugural. A great burst of
cheering follows the sentence he is closing before the curtain rises:_

LINCOLN

[_Before rise._]

Shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?

[_Applause as curtain rises._]

Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of
war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until
all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with
the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of
the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

[_Applause._]

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 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 orphan--to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and all nations.

[_Fade out with the light on Lincoln's face as he utters the last
word._]

CURTAIN

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man of the People, by Thomas Dixon

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