CHAPTER XXVII.

The reader will doubtless be interested in knowing how the money was raised to accomplish so much. By the courtesy of the treasurer, the Hon. James H. Beveridge, it has been my privilege to examine his books, and a little explanation will be of some advantage. As the money came in, an entry was made in a journal, prepared expressly for that purpose, of each contribution, giving the date of its reception, number on the journal, name of the person or society contributing, place of residence or location, and amount. For everything, except Sunday schools, this is all the record. The whole number of entries in the journal is 5145, and of these 1697 are Sunday schools. Besides entering the Sunday schools on the journal, there is another book prepared for them alone. The names of more than sixty thousand children are enrolled in this book. The total amount of their contributions is about twenty thousand dollars. Every superintendent was requested to send a roll of the names of the children, with the amount contributed by each. The record begins with the name of the school, where located, and the name of the superintendent, followed by the names of the children and amounts of their contributions. After the design was adopted, those who contributed not less than fifty cents, received in return a fine steel engraving of the monument, as it will appear when the statuary is placed on it.

The following extracts from the journal of the Association, taken at random, will give some idea of the great variety of persons and organizations contributing to the fund:

The first entry was made May 8, 1865, and was from Isaac Reed & Co., New York city, $100; Excelsior Lodge, No. 97, F. & A. Masons, Freeport, Ill., $25; St. Annes's Council, U. L. A., No. 1234, Kendall county, Ill.; Big Thunder Lodge, No. 28, I. O. of Good Templars, Belvidere, Ill.; Olive Branch Lodge, No. 15, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Canton, Ill.; Third Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ill.; Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ill; German Lutheran Church, Springfield, Ill., and nearly all the other churches in Springfield; First Universalist Church, Sugar Grove and Blackberry, Ill.; First M. E. Church, Springfield, Ill.; 118th Mounted Infantry, Baton Rouge, La.; Cumberland Presbyterian Sunday School, at Lincoln, Ill. This is the first contribution from a Sunday school, and it is remarkable that it comes from a town named by some personal friends for Abraham Lincoln, when his only fame was that of being a good and honest lawyer. Congregational Church, Clifton, Ill.; Baptist Church, Towanda, Ill.; Ladies' Aid Society, Fairfield, Iowa; St. Mary's Church, Protestant Episcopal, Bloomington, Ill.; Citizens of Chelsea, Mass.; M. E. Church, Altoona, Penn.; Presbyterian Church, Omaha, Neb.; Colored Citizens of Cairo, Ill.; Hebrew Citizens of Alton, Ill; Hobart Church, Oneida Indians, Oneida, Wis.; United Brethren Church, Dayton, Ohio. The 73d Regiment U. S. Colored Troops, at New Orleans, La., contributed $1437, a greater amount than was given by any other individual or organization, except the State of Illinois.

It was not until the latter part of June that the Sunday schools began to report in large numbers, when page after page of the journal was filled with their contributions. At the same time, reports would come from a U. S. war steamer, with a long list of contributions; then from a U. S. army hospital, then Sunday schools, another U. S. steamship, a regiment in Mississippi, another at Washington, then one in Tennessee,

still another from Arkansas, some white and some colored. Then more Sunday schools, Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia; a colored regiment, Sunday schools, a Hebrew congregation at St. Joseph, Mo.; Sunday schools, M. E. Church in Massachusetts, from a Congregational Church in Wisconsin, a Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, Baptist Church in Michigan, Episcopal Church in Illinois; roll of contributors from a colored regiment fills twenty three pages; Hebrew congregation in Philadelphia, and a Presbyterian Sunday school at Aurora, Indiana. An American missionary, from his far-off field in Hong Kong, China, sends his contribution, to help build the monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. A Methodist Sunday school, away up in Seattle, Alaska, sends twenty dollars for the same purpose. Then comes a contribution from the superintendent of public instruction at Memphis, Tennessee. More Sunday schools, more Masonic, Odd Fellows, and Good Templars' lodges. More Sunday schools, from the east, west, north, and some from the south, of almost every denomination of Christians. Citizens of New York city contributed nearly five thousand dollars. Citizens of Boston and Stockbridge, Mass., contributed nearly fifteen hundred dollars. More Sunday schools-Sunday schools, lodges, churches, Sunday schools, and so it continues, page after page, thronghout the journal.

Much the largest part of the money was contributed during the year 1865, but contributions continued to come, decreasing in number, until the early part of 1870. A contribution came, February 2, 1870, from a Methodist Sunday school at Smithtown Branch, Mass. On the sixty-first anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, namely, February 9, 1870, a contribution of $500 in gold was received from the State of Nevada, by her large hearted Governor, Henry G. Blasdel. One hundred dollars in gold was received on the eleventh of March, following, from the Secretary of

the State of Nevada, as the contribution of the members of the Legislature and officers of that State. For a long time it appeared as if no more voluntary offerings would come into the treasury, but in December, 1870, a contribution of $10 was received from a gentleman in St. Louis, and on the twenty-second of the month $15.22 was received from a Presbyterian Sunday school at Princeton, Illinois.

Another pause ensues, until May 12, 1871, when $25 was received from a citizen of Sangamon county, Illinois, and on the fifth of June, $5, from a citizen of Belvidere, Illinois. On the twenty-fourth of June, $5 was received from a Methodist Sunday school at Greenwich, New York, and on the same day, $198 was reported as the contribution of the Second Presbyterian Sunday School of Springfield, Illinois. November 25, 1871, a contribution of $50 is recorded from a citizen of Geneva, Illinois. A report of the contributions for procuring the groups of statuary can be seen in the twentieth chapter, and for ornamenting the monument grounds, in the twenty-first chapter.

Only three States have made contributions to the fund, without reserve. Illinois, by an act of the General Assembly, approved January 29, 1867, appropriated fifty thousand dollars. The money was not to be drawn from the State treasury until it was needed to pay out on the work. It has been drawn and applied as contemplated in the law. The State of Missouri appropriated one thousand dollars-a draft from Governor Fletcher, for that amount, came into the hands of the treasurer of the Association, April 18, 1868and the State of Nevada $500, as already stated.

Men may object to giving assistance, and say it is an enterprise that belongs to Illinois. That State has acknowledged the honor of having been the chosen home of Abraham Lincoln, by her contribution of fifty thousand dollars, and has put her name in the most obscure place on the monument. If any other four

States were to combine, and do as much as Illinois, they would justly be regarded as liberal, and yet it is not a State, but a National Monument. As evidence of this, I need only refer to the great extent of country from which the contributions already received have come. They were made up, too, by all classes of people, and by organizations of almost every kind.

There can be but one National Monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, and that only can be a National Monument which contains his remains; who, at the time of his death, was the head of the nation, and was slain because he was its Chief Magistrate. This is even more than a National Monument, it is cosmopolitan in its character. His love included all mankind, and all the liberty loving portion of the human family extended their love to him. I might fill page after page with quotations from articles written in all parts of the world, expressing sorrow for his death. These expressions were so numerous that the United States Congress, in order to preserve them in a separate form, by a joint resolution of both houses, approved March 2, 1867,

Resolved, That, in addition to the number of copies of papers relating to foreign affairs now authorized by law, there shall be printed for distribution by the Department of State, on fine paper, with wide margin, a sufficient number of copies of the appendix to the diplomatic correspondence of 1865, to supply one copy to each Senator and each Representative of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and to each foreign government, and one copy to each corporation, association or public body, whose expressions of condolence or sympathy are published in this volume; one hundred of these copies to be bound in full Turkey morocco, full gilt, and the remaining copies to be bound in half Turkey morocco, marble edged.

Under this resolution, a volume of nine hundred and thirty quarto pages was published, making a book almost as large as Webster's unabridged dictionary. It