Lincolns Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters | Page 8

confined his remarks within the smallest possible limits. Furthermore, Lincoln was not a reader speaker and rarely did himself justice without careful preparation. Writers on Lincoln have failed to note the severe criticisms upon Lincoln's impromptu remarks that appeared in the opposition press and in the English newspapers. Even as late as 1863 newspaper writers not opposed to him did not hesitate to refer to the plainness of the President's public speaking.
The Messages to Congress are distinguished from most documents of that class by their frequent purple patches. To the enumeration of dry facts furnished by the various departments they add an elevation and breadth of thought of the first order.
In a class by themselves are the various proclamations, some of them of a purely formal character, such as those announcing blockades, others of a distinctly literary character, like the announcements of fasts and feasts. Midway between these two classes is the most important of all, the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, which, with the exception of the concluding sentence, is entirely free from ornament. Perhaps Lincoln felt here, as with the Debates, that the occasion was too serious, not only for jesting but even for attempting the mere graces of language.
Finally, mention should be made of the letters and telegrams written by President Lincoln. Although many letters have been preserved from earlier times, none make special claims to attention outside of the information that they furnish. But during the last four years of his life Lincoln wrote some of the most beautiful letters that have ever been composed. One of these, the letter to Mrs. Bixby, has been given a place on the walls of one of the Oxford colleges, as a model of noble English. The Conkling letter and the letter to Horace Greeley are among the most important statements of Lincoln's policy and are really short political tracts.
The First Inaugural can be traced through the Cooper Union Address and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the Peoria Speech, and the speeches of 1854 to the seed of 1832, the plain, logical, direct statement of principles of Lincoln's first address to the public. The development of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural, those supreme expressions of Lincoln's feelings, is not, in the main, to be traced through complete speeches, but it must be sought for in isolated passages, when he left logic for the moment and gave himself up to the passing emotion. The real seed of the majestic simplicity of those addresses is perhaps to be found in those rhetorical speeches of an early period, so lacking apparently in the qualities that we love and admire. In writing, as in so many other things, we reap not what we sow, but its fruition. The effect may seem very remotely related to the cause, but he would be a fool who would deny the relation between them.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The complete works of Abraham Lincoln have been compiled and edited by his biographers, John G. Nicolay and John Hay (two vols., Century Company). Their life of Lincoln in ten volumes (Century Company) is the standard authority. There is also an excellent condensation in one volume. Other biographies are by W. H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner (two vols., Putnam); by Miss Ida Tarbell (two vols., McClure); by John T. Morse, Jr., in the American Statesmen Series (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.); and by Norman Hapgood (Macmillan).
Among the many tributes to Lincoln, are the essays by James Russell Lowell, Carl Schurz, the address by Emerson; and poems by Stedman, Bryant, Holmes, Stoddard, Gilder, and Whitman, and the noble lines in Lowell's Commemoration Ode.
The student of Lincoln's writings should be familiar with the history of the United States, and should consult the standard histories for explanation of the references to events in the long struggle which culminated in the Civil War.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
LIFE OF LINCOLN. CONTEMPORARY CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY. AMERICAN HISTORY.
1809. Lincoln born, 1809. Gladstone, 1809. Madison President. Feb. 12. Darwin, Tennyson, Poe, Holmes born.
1813. Douglas born.
1816. Family moved 1816. Indiana admitted to Indiana. as a state.
1818. Mother died. 1818. Illinois admitted as a state.
1819. Father married Sarah Johnston.
1820. Missouri Compromise.
1821. Missouri admitted as a state.
1822. Grant born.
1829. Jackson President.
1830. Family moved 1830. Douglas moved 1830. Speeches of Hayne to Illinois. to New York. and Webster.
1831. Settled in 1831. Publication of New Salem. The Liberatur.
1832. Enlisted in the 1832. Founding of the Black Hawk War: New England Anti-Slavery unsuccessful Society. candidate for the legislature
1833. Postmaster of 1833. Douglas moved 1833. Founding of the New Salem; deputy to Illinois. American Anti-Slavery surveyor's clerk. Society.
1834. Elected to the 1834. Douglas admitted legislature. to the bar.
1835. Douglas elected State's Attorney.
1836. Reelected to 1836. Douglas elected the legislature. to the legislature. Presidential Elector.
1837. Admitted to 1837. Douglas 1837. Van Buren the bar. Moved appointed Registrar President. Murder to Springfield. of the