Grief

[ReignetteC]

On February 12, 1934, Congressman George A. Dondero of Michigan commemorated President Lincoln’s birthday with a speech before his congressional colleagues called “Lincoln: Lover of Children.”

Dondero's remarks (highlighted below) are most fitting on this very, very sad day.


“To be a lover of children and be loved by children is truly a personal distinction. Through the ministry of children we are lead away from the hard perplexing problems of life and we become devoted to their sweet simplicity from which we derive rest and comforting assurance. Without guile they come to us fresh from God. May it be a long, long time before we, who are only children of a larger growth, drift away from the virtues of childhood.

“That Abraham Lincoln loved little children is known. That he was a kind and indulged father to his four boys is also known. That he was respected and esteemed by the little children in his neighborhood who knew him in Springfield, Ill., is equally true.

“May we of this House of Representatives, in which he once served the Nation from 1847-1849, believe today that somewhere “‘in the infinite meadows of heaven, where blossom the stars,’” Abraham Lincoln is still loving little children, still loved by little children, and led by them into the everlasting dimensions of his undying manhood.”


"And a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6)