What the bottles on the table may have contained, it matters not now, for they are empty and are not capable of doing any harm.
EPOCH-MAKERS OF THE CENTURY
By REV. A. LEFFINGWELL,
Rector of Trinity Church, Toledo, Ohio.
Every century has had its epoch-making characters,—men and women who dominated and directed the thoughts, purposes, activities, and achievements of their times. The nineteenth century is distinguished above all others by the number and quality of those who came to stand for the inception, advance, and culmination of the world’s great movements and who highly exemplified in their careers the enterprise and genius of their day.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The object here is to designate, and make brief mention of, some of those who have fairly earned the title of epoch-maker, with the hope of providing a delightful historic study, and further enhancing the instructive value of a volume addressed to the triumphs and wonders of the century.
Statesmen, Orators, and Jurists.—Abraham Lincoln (b. February 12, 1809; d. April 14, 1865) sprang from the masses, and grew up with their institutions rather than with the learning of the schools. He grew into leadership because he was one of the “million,” had hard sense and was true. As a forcible exponent of the sentiment of his party he was elected President in 1861. His election was the signal for secession and war. His mastery of the most delicate situation in the history of his country was superb. His patience, his perseverance amid hard trials, his wisdom of administration, his adaptation to the march of events, his striking and educative speech, his determination to preserve a union of States, all led grandly and inevitably to the crowning act of his noble career,—the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1863.
There is no sadder chapter in history, and no greater loss for any nation or time, than that of his taking off (after being a second time honored by the presidency) at the hands of an assassin, on the night of April 14, 1865.