ful and
true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power."

THE SHEPHERD OF THE PEOPLE! that old name that the best rulers ever
craved. What ruler ever won it like this dead President of ours? He
fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with counsel when we were in
doubt, with inspiration when we sometimes faltered, with caution when
we would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheerfulness through many
an hour, when our hearts were dark. He fed hungry souls all over the
country with sympathy and consolation. He spread before the whole land
feasts of great duty and devotion and patriotism, on which the land
grew strong. He fed us with solemn, solid truths. He taught us the
sacredness of government, the wickedness of treason. He made our souls
glad and vigorous with the love of liberty that was in his. He showed
us how to love truth and yet be charitable--how to hate wrong and all
oppression, and yet not treasure one personal injury or insult. He fed
all his people, from the highest to the lowest, from the most
privileged down to the most enslaved. Best of all, he fed us with a
reverent and genuine religion. He spread before us the love and fear
of God just in that shape in which we need them most, and out of his
faithful service of a higher Master, who of us has not taken and eaten
and grown strong? "He fed them with a faithful and true heart." Yes,
till the last. For at the last, behold him standing with hand reached
out to feed the South with mercy, and the North with charity, and the
whole land with peace, when the Lord who had sent him called him, and
his work was done!

He stood once on the battlefield of our own State, and said of the
brave men who had saved it, words as noble as any countryman of ours
ever spoke. Let us stand in the country he has saved, and which is to
be his grave and monument, and say of Abraham Lincoln what he said of
the soldiers who had died at Gettysburg. He stood there with their
graves before him, and these are the words he said:

"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. These brave men who struggled here have consecrated it far
beyond our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor
long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did
here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the grea