As one by one withdraw the lofty actors,
From that great play on history’s stage eterne,
That lurid, partial act of war and peace — of old and new contending,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;
All past — and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,
Victor’s and vanquish’d — Lincoln’s and Lee’s — now thou with them,
Man of the mighty days — and equal to the days!
Thou from the prairies! — tangled and many-vein’d and hard has been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!