lands and religions--long may it be the citadel of that liberty which
writes beneath the eagle's folded wings, "We will sell to no man, we
will deny to no man, Right and Justice."
Long live the United States of America! Filled with the free,
magnanimous spirit, crowned by the wisdom, blessed by the moderation,
hovered over by the guardian angel of Washington's example; may they be
ever worthy in all things to be defended by the blood of the brave who
know the rights of man and shrink not from their assertion--may they be
each a column, and altogether, under the Constitution, a perpetual
Temple of Peace, unshadowed by a Caesar's palace, at whose altar may
freely commune all who seek the union of Liberty and Brotherhood.
Long live our Country! Oh, long through the undying ages may it stand,
far removed in fact as in space from the Old World's feuds and follies,
alone in its grandeur and its glory, itself the immortal monument of him
whom Providence commissioned to teach man the power of Truth, and to
prove to the nations that their Redeemer liveth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lecture by Henry Watterson, journalist and orator, editor of the
Louisville, Ky., _Courier Journal_ since 1868. This lecture was
originally delivered before the Lincoln Club of Chicago, February
12, 1895, and subsequently repeated on many platforms as a lecture.
It has been heard in all parts of the country, but nowhere, with
livelier demonstrations of approval than in the cities of the South
"from Richmond and Charleston to New Orleans and Galveston."
The statesmen in knee breeches and powdered wigs who signed the
Declaration of Independence and framed the Constitution--the soldiers in
blue-and-buff, top-boots and epaulets who led the armies of the
Revolution--were what we are wont to describe as gentlemen. They were
English gentlemen. They were not all, nor even generally, scions of the
British aristocracy; but they came, for the most part, of good
Anglo-Saxon and Scotch-Irish stock.
The shoe buckle and the ruffled shirt worked a spell peculiarly their
own. They carried with them an air of polish and authority. Hamilton,
though of obscure birth and small stature, is represented by those who
knew him to have been dignity and grace personified; and old Ben
Franklin, even in woolen hose, and none too courtier-like, was the
delight of the great nobles and fine ladies, in whose company he made
himself as much a
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