audiest prize,
Triumph o'er the grave, and open the gates of Paradise.

Schooled through life's early hardships to endure,
To raise the oppressed, to save and shield the poor;
Prudent in counsel, honest in debate,
Patient to hear and judge, patient to wait;
The calm, the wise, the witty and the proved,
Whom millions honored, and whom millions loved;
Swayed by no baleful lust of pride or power,
The shining pageants of the passing hour,

Led by no scheming arts, no selfish aim,
Ambitious for no pomp, nor wealth, nor fame,
No planning hypocrite, no pliant tool,
A high-born patriot, of Heaven's noblest school;
Cool and unshaken in the maddest storm,
For in the clouds he traced the Almighty's form;
Worn with the weary heart and aching head,
Worse than the picket, with his ceaseless tread,

He kept--as bound by some resistless fate--
His broad, strong hand upon the helm of State;
Nor turned, in fear, his heart or hope away,
Till on the field his tent a ruin lay.
His tent, a ruin; but the owner's name
Stands on the pinnacle of human fame,
Inscribed in lines of light, and nations see,
Through him, the people's life and liberty.

What high ideas, what noble acts he taught!
To make men free in life, and limb, and thought,
To rise, to soar, to scorn the oppressor's rod,
To live in grander life, to live for God;
To stand for justice, freedom and the right,
To dare the conflict, strong in God's own might;
The methods taught by Him, by him were tried,
And he, to conscience true, a martyr died.

As the great sun pursues his heavenly way
And fills with life and joy the livelong day,
Till, the full journey, in glory dressed,
He seeks his crimson couch beneath the west;
So, with his labor done, our hero sleeps;
Above his tomb a ransomed Nation weeps;
And grateful paeans o'er his ashes rise--
Dear is his fame--his glory never dies.

Bring flowers, fresh flowers, bring plumes with nodding crests,
To wreath the tomb where our great hero rests;
Bring pipe and tabret, eloquence and song,
And sound the loving tribute, loud and long;
A Nation bows, and mourns his honored name,
A Nation proudly keeps his de