but it is necessary that our brave boys at the front should be supported, and the country saved. I shall call for five hundred thousand more men, and if I go down under the measure, I will go down like the Cumberland, with my colours flying.”

God crowned his noble decision with success. He did not go down like the Cumberland, or any other riddled gunboat. Opposition hid itself before the onward march of his popularity. He was re-elected by the largest majority ever known in presidential elections. His popular majority was 411,428, in a total vote of 4,015,902; and he had 212 of the 233 votes in the electoral college. On being publicly congratulated upon this emphatic endorsement, President Lincoln said,—

“I am thankful to God for this approval of the people. But, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people’s resolution to stand by free government, and the rights of humanity.”

The re-election of President Lincoln was equal to the addition of five hundred thousand more soldiers to the Union army. It destroyed the last hope of the Rebellion. It was staggering when the day of the election arrived; and from that time its fall was rapidly accelerated.

On the 4th day of March, 1865, his second inauguration as President of the United States occurred. A great concourse of people witnessed the imposing ceremonies, and listened to his remarkable inaugural address. According to the national custom, Mr. Lincoln kissed the open Bible, after having taken the oath of office. Mr. Middleton, who passed the Bible to him, instantly marked the verses touched by the President’s lips. They were the 26th and 27th verses of the fifth chapter of Isaiah, and read as follows:—

“And he will lift up an ensign to the nations, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they shall some with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.”

The speedy overthrow of the rebellion furnished a remarkable interpretation of these words; and they are choice words of prophecy to be for ever associated with President Lincoln’s memory.

His inaugural address on that occasion has been declared to be the most remarkable State paper extant.

It has often been classed with the “Farewell Address” of Washington; as it proved, indeed, the farewell address of Lincoln to the American people. And as Washington’s life would be incomplete without the former, so Lincoln’s life would lack an essential fact without the latter. The address was brief, direct, and affecting, as follows:—

Fellow-Countrymen,—At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties