part of presenting a well-rounded eulogy of Lincoln, I chose to speak for a moment upon a particular feature in Lincoln's life. I knew that Mr. Dolliver would illustrate what I want to say, but I felt sure that he would devote so much of his time to the other characteristics brought out by Lincoln's life, that he might leave me just a little to say of Lincoln as an orator.

This part of his life and of his qualities has, I think, been overshadowed by his great career as

a statesman.

Lincoln's fame as a statesman and as the nation's chief executive during its most crucial period has so overshadowed his fame as an orator that his merits as a public speaker have not been sufficiently emphasized.

You will pardon me, therefore, if I pass over the things that are most mentioned in his life, and the virtues that have been so eloquently portrayed today, and speak of the part which Lincoln's ability as a public speaker played in his career and, through him, in this part of our nation's history.

Lincoln more than any other President we have ever had, owes his eminence to his power as a public speaker. Without that power he would have been unknown among the members of his party.

When it is remembered that his nomination was directly due to the prominence which he won upon the stump; that in a remarkable series of debates he held his own against one of the most brilliant orators America has produced; and that to his speeches, more than to the arguments of any other one man, or in fact, of all other public men combined was due the success of his partywhen all these facts are borne in mind, it will appear plain, even to the casual observer, that too little attention has been given to the extraordinary power which he exercised as a speaker. That his nomination was due to the effect that his speeches produced, can not be disputed. When he began his fight against slavery in 1854 he was but little known outside of the counties in which he attended court. It is true that he had been a member of Congress some years before, but at that time he was not stirred by any great emotion or connected with the discussion of any important theme, and he made but little impression upon national politics. No subject had then stirred

his latent energies into life. He was a lawyer of distinction in the communities which he visited, but he was not known beyond a limited area. It was when, in 1854, he found a cause worthy of his championship, that he came from obscurity into great prominence. It was when the question of the extension of slavery became a real issue, that he stepped forth and became the representative of the anti-slavery sentiment.

It so happened that there lived in Illinois the man who represented the other side of that question, a great orator, one of the greatest that this nation has known, skilled in all the arts of debate, polished and having had experience at the nation's capitol among the nation's foremost men, and when this issue began to take form, Lincoln appeared as the antagonist of Douglas.

Beginning in 1854, he counteracted as he could the influence of the speeches of Douglas. When Douglas appeared in 1858 as a candidate for the Senate, to succeed himself, Lincoln presented himself as his opponent. Then began the most remarkable series of debates that this world has ever known. History records no such series of public speeches.

In order to have a great debate, you must have a great subject. You must have great debaters, and you must have a people ready for the subject. Here were the people ready for the issue. Here was an issue as great as ever stirred a human heart. Here were the representatives on either side.

In engaging in this contest with Douglas he met a foeman worthy of his steel, for Douglas had gained a deserved reputation as a great debater, and recognized that his future depended upon the success with which he met the attacks of Lincoln. On one side an institution supported by history and tradition and on the other a growing sentiment against the holding of a human being in bondage -these presented a supreme issue.

Lincoln was defeated in the debates so far as the immediate result was concerned. Douglas won the senatorial seat for which the two at that time contested but Lincoln won the presidency in the same contest.

Lincoln won the larger victory in that he helped to mould the sentiment that was dividing parties and re-arranging the political map of the country. That series of debates focused public attention upon Lincoln, and because of the masterly manner in which he presented his side of that great issue, he became the leader of the forces against extension.

It was because of that leadership, won in the forum and on the stump, and by his power of speech that, coming from the west, the far west, with nothing to command him but the zeal and the earnestness and the force with which he presented the cause, he triumphed in his convention. He was not only a western man, but a man lacking in book learning and the polish of the schools.

He laid the foundations for his party more than any other one man, aye, more than all the rest combined. He won that fight by his argument. His leadership rests upon his superb talent as a speaker. No other American president has ever so clearly owed his elevation to his oratory. Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, the presidents usually mentioned in connection with him, were all poor speakers. I insist that, when the history of this nation's orators is written, Lincoln will stand at the top, for this nation has never produced a greater orator than Abraham Lincoln.