consecrated it, far above our power to add or to detract. The world will very

little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what

they did here.

 

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work

they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated

to the great task remaining before us: that from these honored dead we take

increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure

of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in

vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that

government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from

the earth.

 

--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

 

_A PLEA FOR CUBA_

 

[This deliberative oration was delivered by Senator Thurston in the United

States Senate on March 24, 1898. It is recorded in full in the _Congressional

Record_ of that date. Mrs. Thurston died in Cuba. As a dying request she urged

her husband, who was investigating affairs in the island, to do his utmost to

induce the United States to intervene--hence this oration.]

 

Mr. President, I am here by command of silent lips to speak once and for all

upon the Cuban situation. I shall endeavor to be honest, conservative, and just.