E-text prepared by Melanie Lybarger, Suzanne Lybarger,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
SPEECHES & LETTERS
of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1832-1865
EDITED BY MERWIN ROE
London: Published By J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd
and in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co
First issue of this Edition 1907
Reprinted 1909, 1910, 1912
Mr. Bryce's Introduction to 'Lincoln's Speeches' is printed from plates made
and type set by the University Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., 1907.
Taken by permission from 'The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln'
Century Company, 1894
INTRODUCTION
No man since Washington has become to Americans so familiar or sobeloved a figure as Abraham Lincoln. He is to them the representativeand typical American, the man who best embodies the political ideals ofthe nation. He is typical in the fact that he sprang from the masses ofthe people, that he remained through his whole career a man of thepeople, that his chief desire was to be in accord with the beliefs andwishes of the people, that he never failed to trust in the people and torely on their support. Every native American knows his life and hisspeeches. His anecdotes and witticisms have passed into the thought andthe conversation of the whole nation as those of no other statesman havedone.
He belongs, however, not only to the United States, but to the whole ofcivilized mankind. It is no exaggeration to say that he has, within thelast thirty years, grown to be a conspicuous figure in the history ofthe modern world. Without him, the course of events not only in theWestern hemisphere but in Europe also would have been different, for hewas called to guide at the greatest crisis of its fate a State alreadymighty, and now far more mighty than in his days, and the guidance hegave has affected the march of events ever since. A life and a charactersuch as his ought to be known to and comprehended by Europeans as wellas by Americans. Among Europeans, it is especially Englishmen who oughtto appreciate him and understand the significance of his life, for hecame of an English stock, he spoke the English tongue, his action toldupon the progress of events and the shaping of opinion in all Britishcommunities everywhere more than it has done upon any other nationoutside America itself.
This collection of Lincoln's speeches seeks to make him known byhis words as readers of history know him by his deeds. Inpopularly-governed countries the great statesman is almost of necessityan orator, though his eminence as a speaker may be no true measureeither of