Our American Holidays: Lincoln's Birthday Part 25

Yes, we love to sing this song, As we proudly march along, Singing the praises of the heroes.

Through this great and happy land, We would sound their names so grand.

Singing the praises of our heroes.

CHORUS

ALL: We have come to tell you of two men whose names must be linked together as long as the nation shall stand, Was.h.i.+ngton and Lincoln.

They stand for patriotism, goodness, truth and true manliness. Hand in hand they shall go down the centuries together.

FIRST SPEAKER ON THE WAs.h.i.+NGTON SIDE: Virginia sends you greeting. I come in her name in honor of her ill.u.s.trious son, George Was.h.i.+ngton, and she bids me tell you that he was born in her state, Feb. 22, 1732.

ALL: 'Twas years and years ago.

FIRST SPEAKER: Yes, more than a hundred and seventy, nearly two centuries.

ALL: A long time to be remembered.

FIRST SPEAKER: Yes, but Was.h.i.+ngton's name is still cherished and honored all over the land which his valor and wisdom helped save, and, for generations yet to come, the children of the schools shall give him a million-tongued fame.

SECOND SPEAKER: Virginia bids me tell you that as a boy, Was.h.i.+ngton was manly, brave, obedient and kind, and that he never told a lie.

SONG: (Either as solo or chorus). AIR, _What Can the Matter Be?_

Dear, dear, who can believe it?

Dear, dear, who can conceive it?

Dear, dear, we scarce can believe that Never did he tell a lie.

O, surely temptation must oft have a.s.sailed him, But courage and honor we know never failed him, So let us all follow his wondrous example, And never, no never tell lies.

And never, no never, tell lies.

THIRD SPEAKER: A brave and manly boy, he began work early in life, and, in 1748, when only sixteen years old, he was a surveyor of lands, and took long tramps into the wilderness. In 1775 came the Revolutionary War, and he was appointed commander-in-chief of the American Army. In 1787 he was elected president of the convention which framed the const.i.tution of our country.

FOURTH SPEAKER: In 1789 he was chosen first president of the United States. He was re-elected in 1793 and, at the close of the second term he retired to private life at his beautiful and beloved home, Mt.

Vernon. He died there, Dec. 14, 1799, honored and mourned by the whole nation, and leaving to the world a life which is a "pattern for all public men, teaching what greatness is and what is the pathway to undying fame," and richly deserving the t.i.tle, "Father of his country."

ALL: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.

BOYS REPRESENTING LINCOLN: Was.h.i.+ngton was a great and good man, and so, too, was the man whom we delight to honor, whose t.i.tle, "Honest Abe," has pa.s.sed into the language of our times as a synonym for all that is just and honest in man.

FIRST SPEAKER ON THE LINCOLN SIDE: Kentucky is proud to claim Abraham Lincoln as one of her honored sons, and she bids me say that he was born in that state in Hardin County, Feb. 12, 1809. Indiana, too, claims him, he was her son by adoption, for, when but seven years old, his father moved to the southwestern part of that state. Illinois also has a claim upon him. It was there that he helped build a log cabin for a new home, and split rails to fence in a cornfield. Afterwards he split rails for a suit of clothes, one hundred rails for every yard of cloth, and so won the name, "The Rail-splitter."

SECOND SPEAKER: In 1828 he became a flat-boatman and twice went down the river to New Orleans. In 1832 he served as captain of a company in the Black Hawk War. After the war he kept a country store, and won a reputation for honesty. Then, for a while, he was a surveyor, next, a lawyer, and in 1834 he was elected to the Legislature of Illinois.

THIRD SPEAKER: In 1846 he was made a member of Congress, in 1860 he was elected president of the United States.

FOURTH SPEAKER: The Civil War followed, and in 1864 he was elected president for the second term. On April 14 he was shot by an a.s.sa.s.sin and died on the morning of the 15th.

SONG BY SCHOOL: AIR, _John Brown's Body_

In spite of changing seasons of the years that come and go, Still his name to-day is cherished in the hearts of friend and foe, And the land for which he suffered e'er shall honor him we know, While truth goes marching on.

CHORUS

BOTH GROUPS TOGETHER: To both these men, George Was.h.i.+ngton and Abraham Lincoln, we, the children of the nation, owe a debt of grat.i.tude which we can only repay by a lifetime of work, for G.o.d, humanity, and our country. Both have left behind them words of wisdom, which, if heeded, will make us wiser and better boys and girls, and so wiser and better men and women.

TWO BOYS FROM THE WAs.h.i.+NGTON GROUP: Was.h.i.+ngton said, "Without virtue and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect or conciliate the esteem of the most valuable part of mankind."

TWO BOYS FROM THE LINCOLN GROUP: Lincoln said, "I have one vote, and I shall always cast that against wrong as long as I live."

TWO BOYS FROM WAs.h.i.+NGTON GROUP: "If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work?"

TWO BOYS FROM LINCOLN GROUP: Lincoln said, "In every event of life, it is right makes might."

ALL: O, wise and great!

Their like, perchance, we ne'er shall see again, But let us write their golden words upon the hearts of men.

SONG: TUNE _"America"_

Turn now unto the past, There, long as life shall last, Their names you'll find.

Faithful and true and brave, Sent here our land to save.

Men whom our father gave, Brave, true, and kind.

(_Exeunt_)

VIII

LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY

THE THREE GREATEST AMERICANS

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

As the generations slip away, as the dust of conflict settles, and as through the clearing air we look back with keener vision into the Nation's past, mightiest among the mighty dead, loom up the three great figures of Was.h.i.+ngton, Lincoln and Grant. These three greatest men have taken their places among the great men of all nations, the great men of all times. They stood supreme in the two great crises of our history, in the two great occasions, when we stood in the van of all humanity, and struck the most effective blows that have ever been struck for the cause of human freedom under the law.

HIS CHOICE AND HIS DESTINY

BY F. M. BRISTOL

As G.o.d appeared to Solomon and Joseph in dreams to urge them to make wise choices for the power of great usefulness, so it would appear that in their waking dreams the Almighty appeared to such history-making souls as Paul and Constantine, Alfred the Great, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Lincoln. It was the commonest kind of a life this young Lincoln was living on the frontier of civilization, but out of that commonest kind of living came the uncommonest kind of character of these modern years, the sublimest liberative power in the history of freedom. Lincoln felt there, as a great awkward boy, that G.o.d and history had something for him to do. He dreamed his destiny. He chose to champion the cause of the oppressed. He vowed that when the chance came he would deal slavery a hard blow. When he came to his high office, he came with a character which had been fitting itself for its grave responsibilities. He had been making wise choices on the great questions of human rights, of national union, of const.i.tutional freedom, of universal brotherhood.

FROM "REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"[28]

BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL