I was about to say, to his enemies-I will say, to his adversaries-Lincoln had no personal enemies and he was absolutely devoid of malice. I have never heard a syllable from any person evidencing a single instance in the life of Lincoln where he harbored the least malice. He, a few times, was observed to become intensely angry when his motives were impugned and he was not always able to restrain himself from all exhibition of anger; but when the heat of passion had subsided, as it always soon did, there remained no trace of malice. He had provocation. He was slighted by men who ought to have been too just to slight him; he was snubbed by men who ought to have been too great to snub him; he was betrayed by men who ought to have been too loyal to betray him; he had provocation that would have caused the iron to enter the soul of almost any less perfect than the Son of Man. You all recall some of these instances and you know how free from malice his subsequent conduct proved him to be.

He believed in the Great Jehovah and in the eternal principles of truth and justice and he acted up to the full measure of his belief, every day of his life in the smallest and most trivial transaction as well as in the greatest. I wish to repeat that he was, in every sense of the term, at every stage of his life, in very truth a Model Citizen. I know how impotent and empty mere adjective eulogy is -how little it really means to say of a man that he was honest, good, great, wise, unselfish, devoid of malice and the like to this end-mere adjective laudation. But in this case, the case of Abraham Lincoln, the evidence which I have not recounted in detail is known to you all; and to say these things (and many more that might be said of him) does mean something to you. The people of Springfield, his neighbors in the country villages, knew Lincoln's worth and valued it before he was discovered to the Nation and the world.

AT THE HIGH SCHOOL

The High School meeting held on the afternoon of the 11th was attended by the faculty and students of the Springfield High School, Principal L. M. Castle presiding. The leading feature of this event was the address of General John W. Noble, of St. Louis, who served with distinction as a general of the Civil War and later served as Secretary of the Interior under President Harrison. His address follows.

GENERAL NOBLE

The Relation of Springfield to Lincoln and the Character of the United States as

Impersonated in Lincoln

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND PUPILS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL-I have but little claim to come here on the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, to speak regarding him. His praise has been spoken for almost a half a century, by the most eminent men, not only in our own country but others, and his deeds have become a part of the history, not only of the United States, but of the best chapters of all history that relates to mankind.

I have put on my breast today, not through any egotism, the only claim I have to be here, the badge of the Grand Army of the Republic. I was a soldier for four years-one of Abraham Lincoln's Union soldiers. I served in my own regiment, for those four years, with men who knew him. I knew him. I served with men that knew that whatever might happen, in death, in carnage, in victory or defeat, in advance or retreat, whether this or that general was good or bad, or that movement was successful or unsuccessful, there was above us all one heart, one man, that was the friend of us all, that wanted our success as he wanted to live, himself, that that success might be for the benefit of his country and the world, that loved the soldiers and whom the soldiers loved, Abraham Lincoln!

And in that sympathy of feeling, born of those four years, I, when asked by your superintendent to come here, felt that I might come. I might speak a word in Springfield, not in addition of praise-Lincoln needs no praise from me; not to add anything to history-it has all been written; but before you young men and women (some of whom are almost as old as the boys that went with me into the army in '61, and girls like those we left behind us when we went into the army, daughters yourselves, and sons, of the very soldiers, or the grandchildren of the very soldiers of whom I have spoken) I might say a word here at Springfield that would be worth your while to hear.

Springfield! The center, the capital, of this great State of Illinois! The song that has just been sung has touched my heart deeply. "Illinois! Illinois!"