T THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL. HE Nation waited long to provide in Washington a tribute to The Lincoln Memorial is placed on the axis of the Capitol and the Monument. On the same line is the bridge commemorative of the country's heroic dead, which spans the Potomac, connecting Washington and the Arlington Cemetery. Set on an eminence and surrounded on all sides by open spaces, the white marble temple is a conspicuous object, seen from points as widely separated as the Capitol, the Soldier's Home and the hills of Virginia. Having a place in countless vistas, it is one of the outstanding and surpassing features of the architectural magnificence the years are conferring on Washington. The isolated situation precludes the intrusion of any marring element in the view, and the long approach gives preparation as we draw near the building for a fuller appreciation of its grandeur. The Memorial is of imposing size and exquisite beauty. Simple in plan and of direct appeal, it has a singularly impressive effect on the spirit, as, withdrawing from the turmoil of the town, we come here as to a shrine to pay our tribute of reverence and to receive the benediction of the place. "From the beginning of my study," wrote Henry Bacon, the architect who designed the Memorial, "I believed that this memorial of Abraham Lincoln should be composed of four features a statue of the man, a memorial of his Gettysburg Speech, a memorial of his Second Inaugural Address, and a symbol of the Union of the United States, which he stated it was his paramount object to save—and which he did save." The Union is expressed in the colonnade surrounding the hall. There are thirty-six columns, one for each State in existence at the time of Lincoln's death,* and on the wall above the colonnade, with decorations of carved memorial festoons and wreaths, are inscribed the names of the forty-eight States which now make the Union and have equal part in cherishing and perpetuating Lincoln's fame. The proportions are impressive. The colonnade is 188 feet long and 118 feet wide. The fluted columns are 7 feet 4 inches in diameter at the base, and 44 feet high— the largest of their kind in the world. The capstones are the largest single pieces of marble ever quarried. *The thirty-six States were Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Passing through the double row of columns of the entrance, we find ourselves in the central hall, an apartment 60 feet wide, 70 feet long and 60 feet high. Here is the statue, carved from crystalline Georgia marble, by Daniel Chester French. The colossal figure, seated in curule chair, faces the entrance, the eyes looking out through the columns to the Monument and the Capitol. The lineaments are of Lincoln as idealized by the sculptor. In the features as here depicted each of us perhaps will find those qualities of the man which most have endeared him to us and most strongly compelled our veneration of his memory. It is the Lincoln of Gettysburg, speaking words of infinite tenderness of the dead, of dedication anew of the living of high resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, and that the nation shall not perish from the earth. And it is the Lincoln of the Second Inaugural-the War President of a nation struggling for its very existence; the leader of inflexible will to continue the struggle to the end, to win the war, to restore the Union, and to bring reconciliation to North and South. And in the serene gaze one sees the consciousness of his power, the sustaining confidence that the task which has been laid upon him he will have strength to perform. On each side of the central hall a row of Ionic fluted columns 50 feet high screens a smaller hall. In the south hall is inscribed the Gettysburg Address. On the wall above are symbolical paintings by Jules Guerin. The central group symbolizes Freedom and Liberty. The Angel of Truth bestows freedom upon the slaves as broken shackels fall from hands and feet. In the group on the left the central figure holds the sword of Justice, and on her lap rests the scroll of the Law. Supporting her on each side are the guardians of the law holding aloft the torches of Intelligence, and at her feet are two sibyls interpreting the law. The group on the right symbolizes Immortality. The central figure is receiving the laurel crown, and about her are Faith, Hope and Charity. The vessels are of wine and oil, symbols of life everlasting. In the north hall, lettered in the stone of the wall, is the Second Inaugural Address. The paintings represent Unity, Fraternity and Charity. In the central picture Unity is symbolized by the Angel of Truth joining the hands of the North and the South. Grouped about her are the Arts which flourish in the peace of Unity's reign-Painting, Sculpture, Architecture (the face is that of Henry Bacon), Music, Literature, Philosophy and Chemistry. In the group on the left. Fraternity embraces within her outstretched arms the Father, the Mother and the Child. typifying the Family; and there are shown the fruits of the earth's abundance. The third symbolism is of Charity giving the water of life to the maimed and the blind and caring for the orphans. The inner ceiling of the entire building is supported on a framework of bronze beams decorated with intertwined laurel leaves. On these rest panes of very thin Georgia marble, the translucent substance admitting a softly mellowed light. Not in material form alone is the Memorial a temple; its atmosphere is that of a sanctuary. With stately column, marble presentment and painted symbolism, architect, sculptor and artist have contributed their several parts to give it this character; but still more potent are the monumental inscriptions on the walls. These bring us very close to the real Lincoln and to Lincoln's day. As we read the moving periods here in the presence of the Statue, the spirit of the place lays its spell upon us, we are transported to that other time, and the words cut in stone we hear as spoken words falling from the lips of the living Lincoln "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." On the grounds surrounding the Memorial the landscape artist has expended his highest skill. The vistas framed by the columns are entrancing. A reflecting lagoon between the Memorial and the Monument mirrors on its placid surface the forms of both these structures and of the Capitol Dome. Hundreds of elms, planted for memory of the soldier dead add their grace to the scene. THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will 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 which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from those honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause to which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. |