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country, alike unquestioned and unquestionable. It remains for the 

 generous promptings of public feeling to give reality to these ideas 

 and hopes of the Park Commissioners. 



In respect to the third position, the events of this day and the 

 ceremonies of this occasion tell their own story. Soon after the 

 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the popular heart glowed with an 

 irrepressible desire to do honor to the memory of the lamented dead. 

 Called to the presidency amid circumstances of the greatest difficulty, 

 confronted in the very outset of his career with the embarrassments, 

 complications and perils of an incipient civil war ; contending, dur- 

 ing the whole of his term of service, with one of the most formidable 

 rebellions known in the history of nations ; in these exigencies of 

 peculiar trial conducting the government with a discretion, perse- 

 verance, firmness, and patriotic devotion that proved him to be the 

 man of the hour ; re-elected for a second term by a grateful and 

 appreciating people ; living till the victories of the army and navy 

 had brought the country to the verge of peace, and then falling too 

 soon for the nation's good, Abraham Lincoln has wrought for himself 

 a name, and gained a place in the affections of the American people 

 more lasting than any memorial which it is in the power of art to 

 devise. 



As one significant evidence of this fact, I point to that noble 

 statue which has just been unveiled to the public, which you have 

 . now presented to the Park Commissioners as Brooklyn's tribute of , 

 gratitude to the honored dead, and which in their name I now have 

 the pleasure to accept, pledging to you, and also to the citizens of 

 Brooklyn, that they will endeavor to be faithful custodians of the 

 sacred trust. Here let this monument stand, with the other two to 

 which reference has been made, and which it is hoped will soon be 

 erected, suggesting to the thousands who may hereafter seek the 

 recreations of this park, that nobleness of character, trueness of 

 heart, and eminent service for the public good, are alike the best 

 qualities of the citizen, and the surest guarantees for the permanent 

 respect of the nation. 



