animated by the same determination to complete and perpetuate the work our fathers began and transmitted. The work of the Plymouth emigrants was the glory of their age. While we reverence their memory, let us not forget how vastly greater is our opportunity. I am, very truly, your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. JOSEPH H. CHOATE, ESQ. LETTER TO DR. JOHN MACLEAN, OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. In December, 1864, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon President Lincoln, by a vote of the Board of Trustees of Princeton College, in New Jersey, of which fact he was duly notified by the President of that institution, Dr. Maclean. Mr. Lincoln sent the following letter, in acknowledgment of this honor: EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 27, 1864. } MY DEAR SIR-I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your note of the of the 20th of December, conveying the announcement that the Trustees of the College of New Jersey had conferred upon me the degree of Doctor of Laws. The assurance conveyed by this high compliment, that the course of the Government which I represent has received the approval of a body of gentlemen of such character and intelligence, in this time of public trial, is most grateful to me. Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon this continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the most gratifying proofs of this conviction, is the hearty devotion everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges to the national cause. I am most thankful if my labors have seemed to conduce to the preservvtion of those institutions under which, alone, we can expect good government, and in its train, sound learning and the progress of the liberal arts. I am, Sir, very truly, your obedient servant, DR. JOHN MACLEAN. A. LINCOLN. LETTER TO GOV. FLETCHER, OF MISSOURI. EXECUTIVE MANSION, His Excellency, Gov. Fletcher: It seems that there is now no organized military force of the enemy in Missouri, and yet that destruction of property and life is rampant everywhere. Is not the cure for this within easy reach of the people themselves? It can not but be that every man, not naturally a robber or cut-throat, would gladly put an end to this state of things. A large majority, in every locality, must feel alike upon this subject; and if so, they only need to reach an understanding, one with another. Each leaving all others alone solves the problem; and surely each would do this, but for his apprehension that others will not leave him alone. Can not this mischievous distrust be removed? Let neighborhood meetings be everywhere called and held, of all entertaining a sincere purpose for mutual security in the future, whatever they may heretofore have thought, said or done, about the war, or about any thing else. Let all such meet, and, waiving all else, pledge each to cease harassing others, and to make common cause against whoever persists in making, aiding or encouraging, further disturbance. The practical means they will best know how to adopt and apply. At such meetings, old friendships will cross the memory, and honor and Christian charity will come in to help. Please consider whether it may not be well to suggest this to the now afflicted people of Missouri. Yours, truly, A. LINCOLN. MR. LINCOLN TO THE MINERS OF THE FAR WEST. On the fatal 14th of April, Hon. Schuyler Colfax, then about to start for the far-off mining regions, received from Mr. Lincoln a verbal message for the miners, which was thus given in a speech by Mr. C. in Colorado: "Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from me to the miners whom you visit. I have," said he, "very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the Western country-from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of millions of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of our precious metals. We had the country to save first. But, now that the Rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, makes the payment of that debt so much the easier. Now," said he, speaking with much emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many have feared that their return home in such great numbers might paralyze industry by furnishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than there will be a demand for. I am going to try and attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our shores hundreds of thousands more per year, from over-crowded Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that waits for them in the West. Tell the miners, from me, that I shall promote their interests to the utmost of my ability, because their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation; and," said he, his eye kindling with enthusiasm, we shall prove, in a very few years, that we are, indeed, the TREASURY OF THE WORLD.' HIS SPEECH AT INDEPENDENCE HALL. These quotations from the written and spoken words of Mr. Lincoln, can not be more fitly closed than with the remarkable speech which he made at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, on Washington's birthday, while on his way to the National Capital, to enter upon the duties of the Presidency. He had taken his life in his hand, as he well knew, in thus responding to the call of the people. He seems at the moment, to have almost foreseen the end which awaited him, and his unpremeditated words rise into prophetic grandeur, as he stands face to face with the possible-and now actual result: I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to the principle from which sprung the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say, in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated and were given to the world from this hall in which we stand. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and adopted the Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land, but something in that declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope for the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. How, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it can't be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country can not be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated on the spot than to surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say, in advance, there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the Government. The Government will not use force unless force is used against it. [Prolonged applause, and cries of "That's the proper sentiment."] My friends, this is a wholly unprepared speech. I did not expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here. I supposed I was merely to do something toward raising this flag. I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. But I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, in the pleasure of Almighty God, die by. From the cabin to the White House-from a lowly birth to an honored death, at the summit of human glory-these pages have imperfectly traced the earthly course of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He is now where praise and blame alike fall unheeded "on the dull, cold ear" of the dead, yet one comes reluctantly to any final summing up of the labors and the character of one so lately gone, and still so spiritually present. He served the people. He saved the nation. He gave his life for his country. His name will be one of heroic grandeur for all time. His fame will be perennial as the sun. While Liberty lives, this her chief martyr will be the central figure among her most illustrious devotees. He finished his work, and its renown is not alone for a transient generation, but for the wide world and for the whole future. What Robert Burns has, proverbially, been to the people of his native land, and, to a certain extent, of all lands, as a poet, Abraham Lincoln early became to us as a statesman and a patriot, by his intimate relations alike with the humbler and the higher walks of life. By his own native energy and endowment, he rose from a place of humble obscurity to a commanding position and power among his fellow-men, and achieved an enduring fame. The experiences of the "toiling millions," whether of gladness or of sorrow, had been his experiences. He had an identity with them, such as common trials and common emotions produced. He had become in person, no less than in principle, a genuine representative man in the cause of free labor. As a ruler, no man ever took the people into his confidenco so unreservedly and fully-discarding the diplomatic devices of European statesmanship, which erect so many barriers between the governing and the governed. His policy was unfeignedly democratic. In accepting a great public trust, he endeavored always to be in harmony with those who gave it. He carried out the popular will, so far as in him lay, discarding the imperial idea which would force the masses into subjection to the will of one leading mind. He was "controlled by events," and "did not control them," after the vain imagination of a Napoleon. His strength lay in striving to embody and execute the mind of the nation, not to direct its thought and will. The greatness of Mr. Lincoln lay not in contesting, defying, or deluding the masses in their purposes, but in giving those purposes development and effect. Mr. Lincoln knew how to be reticent, as occasion required, and how to be honest and open whenever matured decisions were passing into speech and act. He was never precipitate; and when he "put his foot down," it was never to recall the step deliberately taken. He did not move forward rapidly enough for some; he was in advance of many; but always keeping near what may be termed his skirmishing line, he moved forward whenever it appeared that his main column could safely move with him. He was not of the material of which reformers, a whole generation in advance of their time, |