O Scotland! It was a gracious act in thee
To build a monument beside the sea
To Lincoln, who wrote the word,
And slavery's shackles fell
From off a race
Which ne'er before could tell
What freedom was.
To Lincoln, whose soul was great enough to know
That beings born in likeness of their God
Were meant to live as freemen,
Not as slaves, and ruled by slavery's rod.
To Lincoln, who more than any of his race
Uplifted men and women to the place
God made for them.
To Lincoln, who never saw your land,
And in whose veins no Scottish blood had run;
But yet, because of deeds which he had done,
His mighty name
Had filled the world with fame
And taught the people of each land
That in God's hand
Is held the destiny of races and of man.
Immortal patriot! through the mist of years
That in the future are to come,--
When we who saw thee here are gone,--
We view thy heaven-aspiring tomb
Illumined by the roseate dawn
Of the millennial day,
When Peace shall hold her sway,
And bring Saturnian eras; when the roar
O' the battle's thunder shall be heard no more.
[Illustration: STATUE OF LINCOLN