. Lincoln at work : sketches from life. the blood of men? What is it thatmay justly call for the sacrifice of life ? There are such things. The Union was atreasure worth dying for. The breaking upof the awful tyranny of Spain in the WestIndies was of the full value of the preciousblood that was shed. The history of thoseislands will forever witness that our braveboys were not thrown away upon a causelesswar. They did not die in vain. Those who were in active life during theCivil War saw our volunteers march to thefront, year after year, three hundred thou-sand more, from call to call, to pay t
. Lincoln at work : sketches from life. the blood of men? What is it thatmay justly call for the sacrifice of life ? There are such things. The Union was atreasure worth dying for. The breaking upof the awful tyranny of Spain in the WestIndies was of the full value of the preciousblood that was shed. The history of thoseislands will forever witness that our braveboys were not thrown away upon a causelesswar. They did not die in vain. Those who were in active life during theCivil War saw our volunteers march to thefront, year after year, three hundred thou-sand more, from call to call, to pay the pricewhich was demanded for the nations life. OurSouthern brethren passed through a similarexperience. The dead who bravely, unselfishlygave up their lives were very many. Never-theless, as General Leavenworth predicted,Ellsworth is almost forgotten, and in this hebecomes also a type and representative of hun-dreds of thousands of all the unnamed heroesso eloquently described by Mr. Lincoln him-self in his Gettysburg speech. EijiRte. OOttl J^JTpSiO me there is no other such windowin America as this; for at thatdesk right here all the presidentsof the United States, since the daysof John Adams, have written or signed theirgreat state papers, vetoes, messages to Con-gress, and declarations of war or peace. Doyou notice that, sitting at that desk, you maylook out toward the South ? The Emancipa-tion Proclamation was written there. I re-member when the original draft of that his-toric document was brought over from thisdesk to my own table that I might make thefirst copies of it. You can imagine how myfingers tingled and how the perceptions ofits tremendous consequences came pouringthrough my brain. Not many days later,all the nation was tingling, and Europe also,while a new life began for our millions offreedmen. Down yonder is the Potomac, and the highground beyond is Arlington Heights; and overthat white residence that crowns them a Con- 60 THE DARK WORK-ROOM 61 federate flag
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