the grandest memorial of his character and power which it has yet been given to any man to build on earth. He did it so naturally that hardly at any point does it give us the impression of extraordinary exertion. He did it so silently that the world was startled with extremest surprise when it found it accomplished. He did it so thoroughly that even his death could not interrupt it, could only complete and crown the whole. He might well leave a work so grand when the capstone had been placed upon it. The flag just lifted anew on Fort Sumter,-symbolic as it was of the war concluded, of the nation restored, -might well be the signal for his departure. More than almost any other man, he could say with' the Lord, looking back on his ministry, "It is finished!"

Reviewing this work, so vast, so enduring and so sublime, and looking up unto that which is now for him its consummation, all eulogy is inadequate, if it be not in vain. The monuments we may build-and which it is our instinct and our privilege to build, in all our cities as well as at the Capital, in this city by the sea, as well as in that where his dust sleeps-are not needful to him, but only to the hearts from which they arise, and the future generations which they shall instruct. From the topmost achievement yet realized by man, he has stepped to the skies. He leads, henceforth, the hosts whom he marshaled, and who at his word went forth to battle, on plains invisible to our short sight. He stands side by side once more with the orator, so cultured and renowned, with whom he stood on the heights of Gettysburg; but now on hills where rise no graves, and over which march, in shining ranks, with trumpet-swells and palms

of triumph, immortal hosts. He is with the fathers and founders of the Republic; whose cherished plans he carried out, whose faith and hope had in his work their great fruition. He is with all builders of Christian States, who, working with prescient skill and will, and with true consecration, have laid the foundations of human progress, and made mankind their constant debtor.

The heavens are his home, but the earth and its records will take care of his fame. For of all whom he meets and dwells with there, no one has held a higher trust; no one has been more loyal to it; no one has left a work behind more grand and vast. And so long as the government which he reestablished shall continue to endure; so long as the country which he made again the home of one nation shall hold that nation within its compass, and shall continue to attract to its bosom the liberty-loving from every land; so long as the people which he emancipated shall make the palmetto and the orange-tree quiver with the hymns of its jubilee; so long as the race which he has set forward shall continue to advance, through brightening paths, to the future that waits for its swift steps-a fame as familiar as any among men, a character as distinguished, and an influence as wide, will be the fame, the character and the influence, of him who came four years ago an unknown man from his home in the West, but who has now written in letters of light, on pages as grand and as splendid as any in the history of the world, the illustrious name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

II

THE EARLY AMERICAN SPIRIT AND THE GENESIS OF IT

An Address delivered before the New York Historical Society at the celebration of its seventieth anniversary, April 15, 1875.

II

THE EARLY AMERICAN SPIRIT AND THE GENESIS OF IT

MR. PRESIDENT: MEMBERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN:—

THE anniversary by which we are assembled marks the completion of the seventieth year of the useful life of this Society. It is an occasion of interest to all of us, if regarded only in this relation. There are some present who remember still the founders of the Society: Egbert Benson, its first President, John Pintard, Brock holst Livingston, Dr. John M. Mason, Drs. Samuel L. Mitchill and David Hosack, Rufus King, Samuel Bayard, Daniel D. Tompkins, DeWitt Clinton, and others whose names are less familiar. There are many present to whom are recalled memorable faces, by the names of those who in subsequent years received its honors, or shared its labors, who are not now among the living: John Jay, Albert Gallatin, John Duer, Dr. McVickar, Gulian Verplanck, Charles King, Dr. John W. Francis, William L. Stone, Edward Robinson, Luther Bradish, Romeyn Brodhead, Dr. De Witt.

All of us, who are of a studious habit, have enjoyed the labors and the influence of the Society, and have been encouraged and quickened by it, as well as more directly aided, in the small excursions which we have made into the domain of historical knowledge.

It is a source, therefore, I am sure, of unfeigned sat