re he ought.
Like him, I seek for aid divine,
His faith, his hope, his trust, are mine.
Pray for me, friends, that God may make
My judgment clear, my duty plain;
For if the Lord no wardship take,
The watchmen mount the towers in vain."

He ceased; and many a manly breast
Panted with strong emotion's swell,
And many a lip the sob suppressed,
And tears from manly eyelids fell.
And hats came off, and heads were bowed,
As Lincoln slowly moved away;
And then, heart-spoken, from the crowd,
In accents earnest, clear, and loud,
Came one brief sentence, "We _will_ pray!"

[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SECRETARIES,
JOHN G. NICOLAY AND JOHN HAY

Photographed at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861]

On the 22nd of February, 1861, Washington's birthday, on his journey
to Washington, to assume the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln raised a new flag
over Independence Hall, then went inside and spoke as follows:--

"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing in this
place, where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the
devotion to principle from which sprang the institutions under which
we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task
of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return,
sirs, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn,
so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which
originated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never
had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered
over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and
framed and adopted that Declaration. I have pondered over the toils
that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who
achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great
principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together.
It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the
motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence
which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope
to all the world, for all future