But I cannot refrain
from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of
the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may
assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished
memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to
have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
"Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN." [Footnote: "Lincoln, Complete Works" (Nicolay and Hay
edition), 2:600. To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass., November 1, 1864.]
These two examples illustrate not only the form of his speech and writing,
but the sympathy and the temper of the soul of the man. They need only the
supplement of a comment on the strength of his thought in expression. It
is said of his Cooper Union speech (his first speech before a large
eastern urban audience, I think): "From the first line to the last, from
his premises to his conclusion, he travels with a swift, unerring
directness which no logician ever excelled, an argument complete and full,
without the affectation of learning.
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