ABRAHAM LINCOLN A TRIBUTE [Being the MEMORIAL ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN]

First edition thus, produced for the centennial of Lincoln's birth and being a reprint of the Memorial Address giving by Bancroft at the Request of Both Houses of the Congress of America, Before them, In the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 12th of February, 1866. With a fine steel-engraved portrait of Lincoln, with tissue-guard, as frontispiece. 8vo, in the original navy blue ribbed cloth, the upper cover and spine gilt lettered and decorated. 76pp. A fine and bright copy, just the lightest of aging.

Edizione: a scarce lincoln centennial edition. bancroft’s speech on lincoln is one of the finest to have come out of the congress. in bancroft’s words: “the assassination of lincoln, who was so free from malice, has, by some mysterious influence, struck the country with solemn awe, and hushed, instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. it seems as if the just had died for the unjust. when i think of the friends i have lost in this war---and every one who hears me has, like myself, lost some of those whom he most loved---there is no consolation to be derived from victims on the scaffold, or from anything but the established union of the regenerated nation.<br> in his character lincoln was through and through an american.douglas, his rival, said of him: “lincoln is the honestest man i ever knew”.the habits of his mind were those of meditaton and inward thought, rather than of action. he delighted to express his opinions by an apothegm, illustrate themby a parable, or drive them home by a story. he was skillful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it by itself in a few homely, strong old english words that would be intelligible to all.”<br> this finely produced centennial reprint is in excellent condition.