Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln

by George Bancroft, U.S. Congress (Creator)

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Genres: History

90 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Published works of American diplomat George Bancroft include the ten-volume History of the United States (1834-1874); as secretary of the Navy from 1845 to 1846, he established the academy at Annapolis.

George Bancroft, a prominent man, promoted secondary education in his home and at the national level during his tenure. From the discovery of the continent, he wrote the best-known magisterial series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...

Reviews

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bancroft's Memorial to Lincoln is a beautifully written testament to the type of hagiographic and often gnostic nationalism that typified the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Bancroft portrayed the war as the vanguard of a planetary crusade for liberty against the Old World's evils of state churches, aristocracies, and monarchy. A heavy tinge of naturalism pervades the work. Bancroft posited that the anthropomorphized forest and prairies served as Lincoln's teachers. Bancroft also favorably repeatedly and compared Lincoln to the British Prime Minister of the era, Lord Palmerston. Here, Bancroft's hatred seemed unhinged, and he declared that Palmerston would be forgotten within a generation. (He wasn't. British historians continue to count him among the most important premiers in British history, and his imprint is as significant as Lincoln's in many ways.) The memorial is in many ways a simple evocation of Bancroft's innate progressivism, shared by many northern Evangelicals, unitarians, and radicals of the era.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✔️Published in February 12, 1866. “MEMORIAL ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN DELIVERED, AT THE REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE CONGRESS OF AMERICA, BEFORE THEM, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AT WASHINGTON, ON THE 12TH OF FEBRUARY, 1866. BY GEORGE BANCROFT. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1866. ORATION. SENATORS, REPRESENTATIVES OF AMERICA: That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science.”
🖊 My review: This work is an intelligently written testament to the life of Abraham Lincoln and the legacy he left to the United States, and arguably, the rest of the world. Though a long memorial address, it covers the bases well. I recommend reading this.

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🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg .
🔖 A short biography about George Bancroft (1800-91) may be read HERE.
🔲 Excerpts:

🔸The fame of this only daughter of freedom went out into all the lands of the earth; from her the human race drew hope. Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary aristocracy planted itself on our soil; the only hereditary condition that fastened itself upon us was servitude. Nature works in sincerity, and is ever true to its law. The bee hives honey; the viper distils poison; the vine stores its juices, and so do the poppy and the upas. In like manner every thought and every action ripens its seed, each according to its kind. In the individual man, and still more in a nation, a just idea gives life, and progress, and glory; a false conception portends disaster, shame, and death

🔸For a time the war was thought to be confined to our own domestic affairs, but it was soon seen that it involved the destinies of mankind; its principles and causes shook the politics of Europe to the centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the governments of the world.

🔸The funeral ceremonies took place in the East room of the Executive Mansion, at noon, on the 19th of April, and the remains were then escorted to the Capitol, where they lay in state in the rotundo. On the morning of April 21, the remains were taken from the Capitol and placed in a funeral car, in which they were taken to Springfield, Illinois, accompanied by the Congressional Committee. Halting at the principal cities along the route, that appropriate honors might be paid to the deceased, the funeral cortege arrived on the 3d of May at Springfield, Illinois, and the next day the remains were deposited in Oak Ridge cemetery near that city.

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[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the official Congressional memorial to Abraham Lincoln, delivered by Unitarian historian and author, George Bancroft. This loving portrait of Lincoln and call to the country to carry on remains moving.