E-text prepared by Steve Schulze
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
Abraham Lincoln
The People's Leader in the Struggle forNational Existence
By
George Haven Putnam, Litt. D.
Author of
"Books and Their Makers in the MiddleAges,"
"The Censorship of the Church," etc.
With the above is included the speechdelivered by Lincoln in New York,February 27, 1860; with an introduction by Charles C. Nott, late ChiefJustice of the Court of Claims, and annotations by Judge Nott and byCephas Brainerd of New York Bar.
1909
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The twelfth of February, 1909, was the hundredth anniversary of thebirth of Abraham Lincoln. In New York, as in other cities and townsthroughout the Union, the day was devoted to commemoration exercises,and even in the South, in centres like Atlanta (the capture of which in1864 had indicated the collapse of the cause of the Confederacy),representative Southerners gave their testimony to the life andcharacter of the great American.
The Committee in charge of the commemoration in New York arrangedfor aseries of addresses to be given to the people of the city and it was myprivilege to be selected as one of the speakers. It was an indicationofthe rapid passing away of the generation which had had to do with theevents of the War, that the list of orators, forty-six in all, includedonly four men who had ever seen the hero whose life and character theywere describing.
In writing out later, primarily for the information of children andgrandchildren, my own address (which had been delivered without notes),I found myself so far absorbed in the interest of the subject and intherecollections of the War period, that I was impelled to expand thepaperso that it should present a more comprehensive study of the career andcharacter of Lincoln than it had been possible to attempt within thecompass of an hour's talk, and should include also references, inoutline, to the constitutional struggle that had preceded the contestand to the chief events of the War itself with which the great WarPresident had been most directly concerned. The monograph, therefore,while in the form of an essay or historical sketch, retains in certainportions the character of the spoken address with which it originated.
It is now brought into print in the hope that it may be found ofinterest for certain readers of the younger generation and may serve asan incentive to the reading of the fuller histories of the War period,and particularly of the best of the biographies of the great Americanwhom we honour as the People's leader.
I have been fortunate enough to secure (only, however, after thismonograph had been put into type) a copy of the pamphlet printed inSeptember, 1860, by the Young Men's Republican Union of New York, inwhich is presented the text, as revised by the speaker, of the addressgiven by Lincoln at the Cooper Institute in February,—the address whichmade him President.
This edition of the speech, prepared for use in the Presidentialcampaign, contains a series of historical annotations by CephasBrainerdof the New York Bar and Charles C. Nott, who later rendered furtherdistinguished service to his country as Colonel of the 176th Regiment,N.Y.S. Volunteers, and (after th