Lincoln, the unknown

192 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNThe following month, on the occasion of his second inauguration,Lincoln delivered a speech that the late Earl Curzon,Chancellor of Oxford University, declared to be "the purestgold of human eloquence, nay of eloquence almost divine."Stepping forward and kissing a Bible open at the fifth chapterof Isaiah, he began an address that sounded like the speechof some great character in drama."It was like a sacred poem," wrote Carl Schurz. "No rulerhad ever spoken words like these to his people. America hadnever before had a president who had found such words in thedepths of his heart."The closing words of this speech are, in the estimation of thewriter, the most noble and beautiful utterances ever deliveredby the lips of mortal man. He never reads them without thinkingsomehow of an organ playing in the subdued light of a greatcathedral.Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that thismighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, ifGod wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by thebondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toilshall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with thelash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as wassaid three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "Thejudgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmnessin the right, as God gives us to see the right, let usstrive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation'swounds; to care for him who shall have borne thebattle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all whichmay achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace amongourselves, and with all nations.Two months later, to a day, this speech was read at Lincoln'sfuneral services in Springfield.