194 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



The triumph of final victory and re-election were rudely 

 snatched from his personal enjoyment, when a traitorous hand 

 shot and then stabbed him to death on April 14, 1865. For one 

 day the body lay in state, then the funeral train took him to 

 Springfiel-d to his final rest. 



Abraham Lincoln "had at once the flavor of the soil and the 

 flight of the stars. When he rose to large endeavor he had what 

 seemed to be almost Divine inspiration. Some of his papers in 

 their simplicity, directness and strength are more like the epistles 

 of Paul than anything else in literature. His speech was as lu- 

 cent as crystal, because his thoughts were as clear as the sunbeam. 

 He was filled with sublime thoughts which transformed them- 

 selves into sublime words and sublime acts. His imperishable 

 speech at Gettysburg, which will ever remain the noblest monu- 

 ment of that immortal field, sprang from the greatness of his soul, 

 and reflected his inmost being. His second inaugural rose to a 

 moral elevation not reached outside of sacred deliverance, and 

 the grand and lofty portraiture of the Supreme law of justice 

 and retribution in Cod's universe, almost suggests the awful and 

 mystic communion of Sinai. His example and his inspiration 

 live for all time. The appreciation of his great personality and 

 his true historic grandeur increases as we gain the juster per- 

 spective of distance, and the sanctity of his memory will deepen 

 in the hearts of his countrymen, as the sublimity of his service 

 and the mystery of his martyrdom become more and more the 

 loftiest legend of our national story." 



