Excerpt from Proceedings at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Lincoln Dinner of the Republican Club of the City of New York, in Commemoration of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln, Waldorf-Astoria, Monday, February 13, 1911 Ladies and Gentlemen, Guests and Members of the Republi can Club, Fellow Citizens and Fellow Americans: The Republican Club of the City of New York welcomes you here to-night in the beloved and inspiring name of Abra ham Lincoln (applause). We gather here year after year on Lincoln's Birthday fondly to recall the man and his achievements; to pay grateful homage to his memory, and to baptize ourselves anew, if it may be, with his spirit. Lincoln's problems are not our prob lems; but if we are to solve our problems of to-day as Lincoln and the men of his generation solved theirs, we must do it in Lincoln's spirit, with the same national point of view, with the same largeness of heart, with the same great patience and with the same complete trust in the plain people. A year or two ago it was my good fortune to take part at Alton, Illinois, in the soth anniversary celebration of the lincoln-douglas debate, which was held in that place. There I came upon this incident. Our townsman, Horace White, whom many of you know as an old man now, was then a te porter for the newspapers; and he went through that pilgrim age with Abraham Lincoln throughout the whole debate. One day he said to him: Mr. Lincoln, why don't you turn the laugh oftener on Judge Douglas? As of course Lincoln was abundantly able to do. Lincoln's reply was: Well, first of all, I am so dead in earnest about this business that I do not feel like turning the laugh on anybody; secondly, I doubt whether turning the laugh on a man makes many votes. In the last analysis it is the argument that counts. I think we must approach our problems of to-day with that same dead earnestness, and we, too, must remember that in the last analysis it is the argument that counts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.