"
Read and reread this whole address. Since the days of Christ's Sermon
on the Mount, where is the speech of ruler that can compare with it?
No other in American annals has so impressed the people. Said a
distinguished statesman from New York, on the day of its delivery,
"A century from to-day that inaugural will be read as one of the most
sublime utterances ever spoken by man. Washington is the great man of
the era of the Revolution. So will Lincoln be of this; but Lincoln will
reach the higher position in history."
Four years before, Mr. Lincoln, an untried man, had assumed the reins of
government; now, he was the faithful and beloved servant of the people.
Then, he was ridiculed and caricatured; and some persons even found
fault with his dress, just as the British ambassador found fault with
the dress of the author of the Declaration of Independence. The
ambassador is forgotten, but Jefferson will live as long as a government
of the people, by the people, and for the people, endures. While he
lived Lincoln was shamefully abused by the people and press of the land
of his forefathers; and not until the shot was fired--not until the
blood of the just--the ransom of the slave--was spilled, did England
throw off the cloak of prejudice, and acknowledge--
"This king of princes-peer,
This rail-splitter, a true-born king of men.
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