Ottawa Hills High School - Legend Yearbook (Grand Rapids, MI)

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.,,. .L -- - . , '49 f V gil f vf 0 , ' 1 f - ' 5 Q , 01, Y . Q- Q 0 V I - ' I - I -gi - ' - g - 1 . I 4 I - f in ffm' cf 'We cgfuf' cgzlxn- :ia-s L il derision and ridicule, suspicion and misrepresentation, burdened with a thousand trials and crushed under the weight of a thousand nerve-shattering responsibilities, and finally look upon himself, the mortal victim of a crazed secessionist, would he still have been agreeable, I know that his voice would not have faltered in the words, I accept . It was while the nation was in the throes of civil strife that the soul of Lincoln displayed itself in all its real grandeur. Steadfast as the ideal he represented, he was the defender, the protector, the mediator, the friend. The attacks upon the ever retreating Union forces were no less depressing than the attacks made upon him by disappointed office seekers, repulsed politicians and an inimical press and even by members of the cabinet. Through it all he maintained a magnificent tran- quility. Tales of his conduct during this period are almost legendary in the height of their motive and the breadth of their intent. With a soul which knew not north or south, but only Union, with a faith which knew not black or white, but only the people, he went on to the fulfillment of the great task which destiny had given him. During the momentous period which followed his second election to the presi- dency, Lincoln wrote this letter to Mrs. Bixby a widow who had suffered deeply in the loss of five sons slain in battle,- My dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Depart- ment a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom. Out of such a soul came the life we admire and the memory which we bless today. Without it we have not a Lincoln, with it we have all that was Lincoln. A heart which knew only the beats of human kindliness, a heart which uplifted and made better all who came within its touch, a heart which stretched out its illustrious influence and impressed its benign virtue over all. At the zenith of his career he was called. I will not trouble you with the painful details of that event in Fordls theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. Gently they carried him to the little house across the street. Reverently they laid him upon the bed. In the privacy of that apartment there had gathered only the intimate friends of the family and members of the Cabinet. Everywhere there was tumult except in the quietude of that small room. Let us think that in those last few moments there came to him a divine assurance that by the shedding of his blood, by the giving of that last full measure of devotionv, a new nation should arise, reunited in spirit, regenerated in ideal, reconsecrated in faith, re- deemed in right, which in his name and by his example should plead at the bar of the world for a nobler humanity, a higher civilization, for an awakened social conscience. Perhaps a thousand years from now, the memory of Lincoln, the Constitution- alist, Lincoln, the Defender of the Union, Lincoln, the Emancipator of the Slaves, will have vanished from the thoughts of men, but the superb character, the infinite sympathy, the inspired soul of Lincoln, The hfan, belongs only to Eternity.

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