In this critical hour let every loyal citizen say with a contemporary poet:
In this grave hour—God help keep the President!
To him all Lincoln's tenderness be lent,
The grave, sweet nature of the man that saw
Most power in peace and let no claptrap awe
His high-poised duty from its primal plan
Of rule supreme for the whole good of man.
In this grave hour—Lord, give him all the light,
And us the faith that peace is more than might,
That settled nations have high uses still
To curb the hasty, regulate the ill,
And without bloodshed from the darkest hour
Make manifest high reason's nobler power.
NATIONAL HONOR AND PEACE
By Louis Broido, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, representing the North Atlantic Group
Second Prize Oration in the National Contest held at Mohonk Lake, May 28, 1914