Abraham Lincoln centennial : a collection of authentic stories, with poems, songs, and programs, for the boys, girls, and teachers of elementary schools online

has recorded how Lincoln bore himself during those four
frightful years; that he was the real President, the re-



45

sponsible and actual head of the Government through it
all; that he listened to all advice, heard all parties, and
then, realizing his responsibility to God and the Nation,
decided every great executive question for himself.

— Joseph H. Choate. ( Extract. )



6-8 Almost from the moment the bullet of the assassin

pierced his brain, detraction ceased and appreciation be-
gan. His fame has kept even pace with the fortunes of
his united country. His great character is our noblest
heritage. The more we study it the firmer must be our
faith in the living power of human integrity,

— Aljred Bayliss.

7-8 Certain it is that we have never had a man in public

life whose sense of duty was stronger, whose bearing toward
those with whom he came in contact, whether his friends
or political opponents, was characterized by a greater sense
of fairness than Abraham Lincoln. We have never had a
man in public life who took upon himself uncomplainingly
the woes of the nation and suffered in soul from the weight
of them as he did. We have never had a man in our history
who had such a mixture of far-sightedness, of understand-
ing of the people, of common sense, of high sense of duty,
of power of inexorable logic and of confidence in the good-
ness of God, in working out a righteous result as this great
product of the soil of Kentucky and Illinois.

— William Howard Tajt,



4 6

7~8 Washington and Lincoln

Washington, though in some ways an even greater man
than Lincoln, did not have Lincoln's wonderful gift of
expression — that gift which makes certain speeches of the
rail-splitter from Illinois read like the inspired utterances
of the great Hebrew seers and prophets. But he had all of
Lincoln's sound common sense, far-sightedness, and de-
votion to a lofty ideal. Like Lincoln he sought after the
noblest objects, and like Lincoln he sought after them by
thoroughly practical methods. These two greatest Ameri-
cans can fairly be called the best among the great men of
the world, and the greatest among the good men of the
world. Each showed in actual practice his capacity to
secure under our system, the priceless union of individual
liberty with governmental strength. Each was free from
the vices of the demagogue.

— Theodore Roosevelt.




A r t illkry Group



The Artillery group represents a piece of artillery in battle. The enemy
has succeeded in directing a shot so well as to dismount the gun. The officer
in command mounts his disabled piece and with drawn saber fronts the enemy.
The youthful soldier, with uplifted hands, is horrified at the havoc around
him. The wounded and prostrate soldier wears a look of intense agony.




C a valry Group



The Cavalry group, consisting of two human figures and a horse, repre-
sents a battle scene. The horse, from whose back the rider has just been
thrown, is frantically rearing. The wounded and dying trumpeter, supported
by a comrade, is bravely facing death.




Infantry Group



The Infantry group represents an officer, a private soldier, and a drummer,
with arms and accoutrements, marching in expectation of battle. The
officer in command raises the flag with one hand, and pointing to the enemy
with the other, orders a charge. The private with the musket, as the repre-
sentative of the whole line, is in the act of executing the charge. The drum-
mer boy has become excited, lost his cap, thrown away his haversack and
drawn a revolver to take part in the conflict.




N A V A L G R O U P



The Naval group represents a scene on the deck of a gunboat. The
mortar is poised ready for action; the gunner has rolled up a shell ready for
firing; the boy, or powder monkey, climbs to the highest point and is peering
into the distance; the officer in command is about to examine the situation
tkrough the telescope. Each of these groups cost $13,700.



VII

Toast to the Flag

Your Flag, and my Flag,

And how it flies to-day
In your land and my land

And half a world away.
Rose red and blood red

Its stripes forever gleam,
Soul white and snow white,

The good forefather's dream.
Sky blue and true blue,

With stars to gleam aright,
A gloried guidon in the day,

A shelter through the night.

Your Flag, and my Flag!

And O, how much it holds —
Your land and my land

Secure within its folds;
Your heart and my heart

Beat quicker at the sight,
Sun kissed and wind tossed,

The red and blue and white.
The one Flag, the great Flag,

The Flag for me and you —
Glorified all else beside,

The Red and White and Blue.



W. B. Nesbit.



Pledge Salute to the Flag

Issued by the Grand Army of the Republic

At a signal every person rises in his place. While the
flag is being brought forward the salute is given as follows:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for
which it stands: One Nation indivisible, with Liberty and
Justice for ally

At the words "to my flag," extend the right hand,
palm upward, toward the flag until the end of the pledge
of affirmation. Then drop the hand to the side.

To the younger children the following may be taught:

"I give my head and my heart to God and my country.
One country, one language, one flag."



VIII

SONGS

Favorites of Lincoln — Campaign Songs — Popular
National War Songs

The song which Lincoln liked above all others was
"Twenty Years Ago," beginning thus:

"I've wandered to the village, Tom: I've sat beneath the tree
Upon the schoolhouse playground, that sheltered you and me,
But none were left to greet me, Tom, and few were left to know
Who played with us upon the green, some twenty years ago."

Other favorites were "Ben Bolt," "The Sword of
Bunker Hill," and "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant."

CAMPAIGN SONGS. 1858-1860
A Lincoln Campaign Song, 1858

We hear a cry increasing still,
Like light it springs from hill to hill —
From Pennsylvania's State it leaps,
And o'er the Buckeye valley sweeps.

Get out of the way, Stephen Douglas!
Get out of the way, Stephen Dougas!
Get out of the way, Stephen Douglas!
Lincoln is the man we want to serve us!

49



5°



The Hoosier State first caught the cry,
The Hawkeye State then raised it high,
The Sucker State now waits the day,
When Lincoln leads to victory!

Get out of the way, etc.

Cheer up, for victory's on its way,
No power its onward march can stay,
As well to stop the thunder's roar
As hope for Douglas to serve us more.

Get out of the way, etc.

Then, Freemen, rally, one and all,
Respond to our brave leader's call;
Free Speech, Free Press, Free Soil, want we,
And Lincoln to lead for liberty!

Get out of the way, etc.

— Illinois State Journal, October 27, 1858.



Douglas' Complaint

He punished me — in fight you see,

And said I had the wrong of it;
For I am small and he is tall

And that's the short and long of it.

He split a rail, through my coat tail
He quickly thrust the prong of it;
I'm five feet one, that lofty son
Is six feet four and strong of it.
From the Wide-awake Vocalist, a Republican campaign song book
of i860.



5 1
" Wide- Awake Club" Song

Tune — "A Wet and a Flowing Sea."

Oh, hear you not the wild huzzas
That come from every State?

For honest Uncle Abraham,
The people's candidate?

He is our choice, our nominee

A self-made man and true;
We'll show the Democrats this fall

What honest Abe can do.

Then give us Abe, and Hamlin, too,

To guide our gallant ship,
With Seward, Sumner, Chase, and Clay,

And then a merry trip.

I hear that Doug is half inclined

To give us all leg-bail,
Preferring exercise on foot

To riding on a rail.

For Abe has one already mauled
Upon the White House plan;

If once Doug gets astride of that,
He is a used up man.

Then give us Abe, and Hamlin, too,

To guide our gallant ship,
With Seward, Sumner, Chase, and Clay,

And then a merry trip.



5 2
POPULAR NATIONAL WAR SONGS

When General Grant asked for 300,000 soldiers in 1864,
Lincoln, in spite of many protests, called for 500,000, hence
this loyal response:

We are Coming, Father Abraham

We are coming, Father Abraham, six hundred thousand more,

From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore;

We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,

With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;

O we dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before —

We are coming, Father Abr'am, with six hundred thousand more!

We are coming, we are coming, Our Union to restore;

We are coming, Father Abr'am, with six hundred thousand more.

If you look acoss the hill-tops that meet the Northern sky,

Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;

And now the wind an instant tears the cloudy veil aside,

And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;

And bayonets in the sunlight gleam and bands brave music play —

We are coming, Father Abr'am, with six hundred thousand more.

We are coming, we are coming, etc.

— A Volunteer.



5-8 The Vacant Chair

Thanksgiving, 1861

We shall meet but we shall miss him;

There will be one vacant chair;
We shall linger to caress him,

While we breathe our evening prayer.



53

When, a year ago, we gathered,
Joy was in his mild blue eye;

But a golden cord is severed,
And our hopes in ruins lie.

At our fireside, sad and lonely,

Often will the bosom swell
At remembrance of the story,

How our noble Willie fell;
How he strove to bear our banner

Through the thickest of the fight,
And upheld our country's honor

In the strength of manhood's might.



5-8 Foes and Friends

Two soldiers, lying as they fell, upon the reddened clay,

In daytime foes, at night in peace, breath'd there their lives away;

Brave hearts had stirr'd each manly breast, fate, only, made them

foes;
And lying, dying, side by side, a softened feeling rose.

Chorus
They'll go no more to the lov'd homes here, but together both will wait
For the sunny-hair'd and bright-eyed ones, beyond the golden gate.

"Among New Hampshire's snowy hills, there pray for me to-night
A woman and a little girl, with hair like golden light";
And at the thought, broke forth at last the cry of anguish wild,
That would not longer be repressed, "O God, my wife, my child!"

Then spoke the other dying man: "Across the Georgia plain,
There watch and wait for me loved ones I'll never see again!
A little girl, with dark bright eyes, each day is at the door,
The father's step, the father's kiss will never greet her more."



54

The dying lips the pardon breathe, the dying hands entwine;
The last ray dies, and over all the stars of heaven shine,
And now, the girl with golden hair, and she with dark eyes bright,
On Hampshire's hills and Georgia's plain, were fatherless that night.



Wake Nicodemus

Nicodemus, the slave, was of African birth,

And was bought for a bagful of gold;
He was reckon'd as part of the salt of the earth,

But he died years ago, very old.
'Twas his last sad request, so we laid him away

In the trunk of an old hollow tree,
Wake me up! " was his charge, at the first break of day,

Wake me up for the great Jubilee!"

Chorus
The "Good time coming" is almost here!

It was long, long, long on the way!
Now run and tell Elijah to hurry up Pomp,
And meet us at the gumtree down in the swamp,

To wake Nicodemus to-day.



When Johnny Comes Marching Home

When Johnny comes marching home again,

Hurrah ! Hurrah !
We'll give him a hearty welcome then,

Hurrah ! Hurrah !
The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
The ladies, they will all turn out,
The old church bell will peal with joy,

Hurrah! Hurrah!



55

To welcome home our darling boy

Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way.

Refrain

And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

(The words of the foregoing songs are used by permission of the S. Brainard's
Sons Company, of Chicago, publishers of the words and music.)



IX

PROGRAMS

SUGGESTED PROGRAMS FROM MATERIAL
IN THE FOREGOING PAGES

These programs are merely suggestive. They may be modified
and adjusted to suit conditions.

Country School Programs

Country school programs may easily be made from these by select-
ing portions from each appropriate to the children of any school.

Grades I and II

Time — About Fifty Minutes

Song — "America." (First stanza.)

Talk by the Teacher — Lincoln's Life. (About five minutes.)*
Song — "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."
Stories (to be memorized in advance and told by individual children) —
i A "Copy" Writtea by Lincoln.

2 Recollections of the Kentucky Farm.

3 "Abe's Log" at Sangamon Town.

4 Lincoln Saves a Man from Freezing.

*See " Boy's Life of Lincoln," by Helen Nicolay. Found also in St. Nicholas,
Vol. 33. Supplement the talk by blackboard drawings or pictures of Lincoln,
the log cabin in which he was born, his home at Springfield, the National Lin-
coln Monument, and the Capitol at Washington.
56



57

5 Lincoln and the Young Birds.

6 Rescue of a Pig.

7 Lincoln's Habit of Carrying Letters in His Hat. (May be

dramatized.)

8 How Lincoln Kept His Post-office Collections.
Poem — From Lincoln's Paper Scrap Book.

March — Flag Drill.

Song — "Salute to the Flag." (By Jessie L. Gaynor.)

Stories (to be told by the children) —

9 Lincoln Carries a Little Girl's Trunk to the Station.

io Lincoln, His Two Boys, and Three Walnuts. (May be

dramatized.)
ii How Tad Interrupted a Game of Chess.
12 A Little Girl Induces Lincoln to Wear a Beard.
Sayings (write on the blackboard. To be read by the teacher or
recited by children) —

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
"Broken eggs cannot be mended."
"A live dog is better than a dead lion."
Song — "Dixie Land."
Salute to the Flag. (To be memorized.)



Grades III and IV

Time — About One Hour

Song — "The Star Spangled Banner."

Talk by Teacher — Early Life of Lincoln. (Five minutes.)*

Charades — Based on Lincoln's Boyhood. (To be acted by boys

in turn.)

i Carrying water.

2 Picking berries.

♦See " Boy's Life of Lincoln," by Helen Nicolay. Found also in St. Nicholas,
Vol. 33. Supplement the talk by blackboard drawings or pictures.



58

3 Splitting rails.

4 Poling a flat-boat.

5 Dropping pumpkin seeds in the cornfield — every ether hill

in every other row.

6 Writing on a shovel with a charred stick.

7 Copying, from borrowed books, with his turkey-buzzard pen

and brier- root ink.
Talk by Teacher — Lincoln's Later Life. (Five minutes.)
Poem — "Douglas' Complaint" — Campaign Song of i860. (Class

memorize and recite.)
Song — "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
Stories (to be told by the children) —

1 How Lincoln Paid for Weems' Life of Washington.

2 Lincoln's First Dollar.

3 How Lincoln Saved a Flat-boat.

Sayings and Maxims (written on blackboard. Read by teacher
or children) —
"It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be

wrong."
"When I am dead I wish my friends to remember that I always
plucked a thistle and planted a rose when in my power."
Song — "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!"

March (leader to beat time on drum. Fife also, if possible.)
Toast to the Flag (By W. B. Nesbit.)
Stories (to be told by the children) —

4 Wrestling Match with Armstrong.

5 Irish Bull about the New Boots.

6 How Tad was Named.

7 Some Little Girls at the White House.

8 How Tad Signalled to His Father.
Song — "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Salute to the Flag.

Song — "America." (First and last stanzas.)



59
Grades V and VI

Time — About an Hour and Fifteen Minutes

Song — "We are Coming, Father Abraham."

Reading by the Teacher — Lincoln's Own Sketch of His Life, as

found in "Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln," by Nicolay

and Hay.
Poem — Verses Lincoln Wrote on His Return to Indiana.
Song — "Just Before the Battle, Mother."
Stories (to be memorized and told by individual children) —

i Lincoln Saves Three Men in a Sangamon River Tree.

2 How Lincoln Saved a Flat-boat.

3 The Great Wrestling Match.

4 Captain Lincoln Forgets Proper Word of Command.
Poem — " A Man's a Man for a' That."

Song — "The Girl I Left Behind Me."
Stories (to be told by individual children, —

5 Lincoln Refuses to Defend a Guilty Client.

6 Lincoln Discourages Sharp Practices.

7 Latitude and Longitude of Lincoln's Socks.

8 Douglas Holds Lincoln's Hat.
Poems Suitable for Readings —

"A Lincoln Campaign Song."

"Wide- Awake Club" Song.
Song — "The Vacant Chair."

Talk by the Teacher — Lincoln as President. (About five minutes.)
Stories —

9 Betsy Ann, the Washerwoman,
io Lincoln on His Ancestry.

ii The Steamer with Six-inch Boiler and Nine-Inch Whistle.

12 iEsop's Fable about "Four White Men Scrubbing a Negro."
Reading by Pupil — The Presidential Oath.
Sayings —

i "I have not suffered by the South," etc.



6o

2 "Those who deny Freedom to others," etc.

3 "Let us have faith that right makes might," etc.
Poem — "O Captain, My Captain." (Walt Whitman.)
Recitation by Three Students — "Tributes to Lincoln," by Bayliss,

Taft, and Roosevelt.
Pledge Salute to Flag.
Song — "America."



Grades VII and VIII

Time — About One Hour and a Half

Song — "Song of a Thousand Years."

Talk by Principal or Grade Teacher — How Lincoln Became

President. (Five minutes.)
Poem — "Oh! Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud?"
Song — "Nelly Gray."
Stories — About Lincoln (to be memorized and told by pupils) —

i Lincoln's Honesty in Regard to Fees.

2 Lincoln's Suit Against the Illinois Central Railroad.

3 Homes of Lincoln and Louis the Fourteenth.

4 How Oglesby, John Hanks, and Two Fence Rails Killed

Seward's Boom.

5 A Pass to Richmond.

6 Lincoln and the Russian Ambassador.

Reading — Lincoln's Interpretation of "All Men are Created Equal."

Reading — Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby.

Maxim — "He who does something at the head of one regiment, will

eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred."
Talk by Principal or Grade Teacher — What made Lincoln Great.
Reading — Lincoln's Letter to General Hooker.
Song — "Wake Nicodemus."

Reading — With Explanatory Remarks. The Gettysburg Address.
Stories — By Lincoln (to be memorized and told by the pupils) —

7 Purpose of Lincoln's Stories.



6i

8 The Rat Story.

9 The Boast of the Irish Soldier.

10 The Irish Bull about the New Boots.

ii How Some People Succeed in Corking Up Others.

12 Blondin Crossing Niagara River.

13 Attending to the Details of the Army.

14 The Coon Story, or What Lincoln Would Like to do with

Jeff Davis.
Reading — Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.
Song — "Foes and Friends."
Tributes to Lincoln — By Alfred Bayliss, William Howard Taft,

Theodore Roosevelt.
Poem — "A Retrospect." (Harry H. Kemp.)
Talk — Description of the National Lincoln Monument.
Talk — What Shall the Centennial Lincoln Memorial be? {Review 0}

Reviews, September, 1908.)
Poem — "Lincoln." (J. L. H.) If possible, at close of poem, unveil

a new bust or picture of Lincoln.
Pledge Salute to the Flag.
Song — "America."