Evening Star Newspaper, February 12, 1928, Page 87

IL LUSTRATED FEATURES e Part 7—8 Pages Lincoln a MAGAZINE SECTION he Sunday Stas. WASHINGTON, D. ¢, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 12, 1928 d HAD THE UNHAPPY FACULTY OF SEEING THE OTHER FELLOW'S | BY THOMAS R. HENRY. LL those who expect to go to () A Heaven, stand up,” shouted the Rev. Peter Cartwright Everybody in the candle- | lit, plank church arose ex- cept one man. scat near the door. All eyes turned upon him. The venerable prairie cir- cuit rider glared at him. He knew the intruder and held him in a proper con- He had followed his career ever v down in New Salem. “Now, all who expect to go to hell stand up.” the preacher thundered. His fanatical eyes were focused on the man in the back seat. There was nc Tesponse. “Well, then” he demanded, “wherc do you expect to go?” The man arose, slowly and awkward- ly—a tall, ungainly k “I didn't come here tonight caleu- latin’ to take any part in this service,” he said. “But seein’ you insist on it. I'm goin’ to Washington.™ ‘There were suppresses some of the more worldly minded of the congregation. The circuit rider didn't see the joke. The campaign then in progress for a seat im Congress be- tween himself and this scoffer at sacred fundamentals was no laughing matter. His opponent was a man whose soul had not been saved. The intruder sat down. The Rev. Peter Cartwright, saver of untold thou- sands of souls, preacher of hell-fire and the abolition of slavery, went on with his sermon He condemned thc institution of slavery—and card play- ing, liquor, dancing, reading novels free thinking and all frivolity. The preacher was an old man. He had been on the circuit of these fron- tier settlements, with their rude log &nd board chapels, for almost 60 years ‘The longer he preached the more con- scious he became of the tide of hell- five which was sweeping up over the prairie grass lands. There were somc who would temporize on issues of mo- relity, There was no temporizing in the heart of the circuit rider. He combined preaching and politics Now he was Democratic candidate for Congress from the sixth Ilinois district His opponent. less t half his age, s this clownish, easy-going Spring- field lawyer. The Rev. Peter Cart- wright hoped that his hea would understand. A vote for the Whig ticket meant a vote for the devil. There was no certainty that the man in the back scat held sound opinions on any v fssues. He was a frec-soiler—so much o his credst. But he was, at best, only 8 lukewarm abolitionist This man going to Washington—in- @eed! Not if the voters showed any common sense, Vet there was an un- mistakable Whig sentiment through the counties, Probably 3t would be a close race. But the fellow was not going Washington—he was on his way W a hotter city Great eontempt for his political opponent. A few years later he wrote his autobiog- He was slouched on a| d laughs from 4 {ndred, was the circuit rider's a verrible judgment on the people POINT OF VIEW. | raphy. There were nearly 600 closely | printed pages. He didn't mention the | name of Abraham Lincoln. | s 'HE evening of April 18, 1848, in the | ining room of Mrs. Spriggs’ board- | ing house in Duff Green's Row on Capi- | tol Hill in Washington. Six or seven Whig Congressmen were seated about the supper table. Ordi- nartly they were jovial comrades. The life of the boarding house was the tall, | ungainly Representative from Illinos { with his unfailing reservoir of hom spun anecdotes, applicable to every oc- | casion. Sometimes, it was true, Lincoln Was pincoln was skeptical, but admitted he €V a bit_irritating. He voted consistently | enough according to sound Whig prin- Member of Congress Avoided Bitter Slavery Fight vinced of the claims of spiritualism couldn't explain the queer phenomena I . __ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAW THE MELANCHOLY CORTE tution at one stroke, totally and for- There was no room for such a com- promise in the heart of Giddings-- ciples. One speech he had made on the | they had witnessed. The whole mess especially after the insults to which responsibility for the bloody and costly | war with Mexico had bothered Polk, who occupled the White House at the | other end of the Avenue. But the fellow was a temporizer. He had the unhappy | faculty of seeing the other fellow's| side of the argument. There was one subject :an which some of the men who boarded with Mrs. | Spriggs didn't admit any other side. They didn't consider it a matter of | politics. It was a matter for blows, not | words. It caused bitter rows at the table when any Southern members were | present. Yet even on the question of the abo- | lition of slavery this man Lincoln t- | ed to go slowly. This was irritating to Joshua R. Giddings of Oblo. Yet! he liked the Ilinois fellow. He was educating him. He had great hopes of bringing around the Springfield law- yer—who was becoming rather friendly with Alexander Stephens of Georgla— to the viewpoint of an uncompromising abolitionist before the sesslon was over. | Lincoln would be useful as a mission ary back in Illinois. There wasn't much likelthood that he would be sent | back to Congress. He hadn’t made a particularly good record. | 8o Giddings was spending a good deal | of time with the new member. Both of them had left their families back | home. They took long walks of eve-| nings. They went to band concerts. Strange, unbelievable things were tak- ing place in Washington just then. There was a New York lady in town who claimed that she could communi- cate with the dead. She was holding seances in some of the most fashionable homes in Georgetown, Giddings him- welf had seen e fll:no rise from the ! floor when she placed her fingers on it. He had heard from her lips secrets which he had supposed were known only to himself and loved ones who had | passed beyond the vell | He wok Lincoln with him to some of these seances, hrough the lips of the lady, had wid | them that the master of the realms be- | yond the stars was provoked and grieved at the whipping, selling and murdering | of his black children here in the United States and was preparing to bring dul"’n Gid- dings agreed with this, ] Ohio member was almost con- | talked it over frequently at the supper | table. Was it all a clever fake, or was Joshua R. Giddings was in no mood to argue about spiritualism. It had been a bitter, ex- | citing day in the House. Down in the muddy little city below them there was a seething fury against him. They wanted toiphch him. 8till he couldn't make his fellow | member quite see his point of view. | Lincoln agreed that slavery should be | abolished in the District of Columbla. | But he pointed out that many of the | But tonight | citizens had large sums of money in- | vested in slaves. They would be ruined if their property were taken | away from them. Why not give them a | chance to cleanse their own souls of | the great evil? Lincoln even had been | {to call on Mayor Seaton with a plan which the city executive--himself none too easy of conscience over the keep- ' ing of human beings in bondage-—-had llrp]'!)vtd. The two of them felt that he had been subjected that day. He felt rather angry at Lincoln for pro- posing such a thing. It seemed almost | the world on the eve of a great revela- [lie" & ‘breach of friendship. But he would be patient. His friend’s mind was developing. Giddings wondered whether the tall man from Illinois had been in the fringe of the crowd at the jall that day—the crowd which shouted “Lynch him." One thing he knew, Y |1 the Washington rabble had started anything Lincoin could have thrashed any ten of them—and doubtless would have. The whole thing was a part of | his_education. | Probably never before had the city of Washington witnessed quite such i scene. It had been a show-down b tween the slave-owners and the aboli- tionists, *xox o HE whole thing had started on the | morning of April 14, when some of | Washington's best families awoke to| find that their fires were not lit and their breakfasts not cooked. Domestic servants—the highest priced of slaves— Ohlo who condoned such crimes should be_deprived of their seats in the House Before dark some order had been evolved from the confusion. The city began to understand how it all hap- | pened. A few days before, a sailing ship loaded with wood and in the charge of two men, Daniel Drayton and Ed- ward Sayres, had docked in the Po- tomac and discharged its cargo. Then it had remained at anchor, ostensibly \l;hfl(‘ its crew were looking over the city. The schconer Pearl and the slaves had disappeared together. A posse of 30 Washington and Georgetown men was selected hastily from scores of volunteers. They were armed with rifles. A fast boat was secured Probably the Pearl was on her way to Boston or Portland, where the slaves would be concealed, with the con- nivance of the authorities, until they could get over the Canadian line, The recapture was easier than had been expected. The pursuers found the Pearl lying at anchor in Cornfield Harbor at the mouth of the Potomac. All were asleep—slaves and_crew—with exception of a single watchman. The posse boarded the schooner and slam- med down the hatches. All were the people of Washington were had disappeared during the night. The trapped. given an opportunity to sell their news spread from house to house. Be- | There was much rejolcing in Wash- slaves to the Government, with a law fore noon a check-up showed that 90 | ington when the expedition returned with in force that no more could be pur- chased, these citizens themselves %oon | would put an end to slavery. Nobody | would be injured. The same good | black men and women-—the latter carrying their children with them were gone. It obviously was a well- engineered plot of those abolitionists its captives Surely thought the citi- zens, the two wood peddlers, Drayton | and Sayres, would be sent to jail for life. As for the runaway slaves— would be accomplished, with a little ' A man who would steal another man’s there was a gencral agreement to sell | delay, as if Congress comprom! ; passed_an un Relics of the Civil War TORED away in the stacks of the Library of Congress are some | bulky = puckages of yellowing | maniscripts, which probably are worth their weight in gold, but | at the Library of Congress which are | sage to Congress, the manuscript of promised to pa two or three living persons, For nearly 20 years yet they must | remain secret—until there is no longer | any possibility that any of the persons | whose names are mentioned in them are alive, Until that time the world must | wait for the full evidence regarding the | life and character of Abraham Lincoln | Out of this mass of tattered and scribbled papers eventually will arlse a slave—hanging was too good for him. | Those scoundrels from Maine and work on original matertal must go to| widely scattered sources. | Among_the letters, scraps of writing | and law briefs in Lincoln’s handwriting | The spirits, speaking | the contents of which are known to oniy | open to the public are a few not gener- ally known and which throw some light ! on the character of the man—his in- | tensity and his resort to humor in all | sorts of situations. There s, for exam- | ple, his advice to a young man who wished to be a luwyer, contained in n | letter written from Springfield on De- them South. They didn't appreciate | easy work and good treatment. “4. That himself, James Blake, have something.” The Library also has the concluding paragraph of Lincoln's last annual mes- which is supposed to have been dis tributed among souvenir hunters short- Iy after his de 1t reads “If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such persons, an- | other, and not 1, must b then instrue ed to perform it In stating a single ”Leé({ér __IT_WAS PART OF _THE EDUCATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of South Carolina proposed an inquiry “to determine whether the scoundrels who helped the slaves escape ought not *to be hanged.” These slaves represented a good deal of moncy. It would be safer to have it in cold cash, with so much aboli- tionist trickery abroad. Government was failing in its function of protecting | property. Drayton, Sayres and the slaves were locked up in the city jail. The two white men were placed in barred cells. A mob surrounded the prison. The; wanted blood. It was time the aboli- tionists on the Hill were learning that such things were not possible in & civi- lized country. The sight of the two slave stealers hanging from one tree might prove a lesson. ‘The next day, however, came & crowning insult. Giddings of Ohio was on his feet as soon as the House was called to order. He asked leave to pre- sent a resolution for the appointment by the chair of a committee of five to determine by what right the authori- ties of the District of Columbia were keeping in confinement two estimable citizens engaged in the peaceful busi- ness of transporting passengers by water. It was, sald Giddings. a high- handed interference with legitimate business. Certain colored persons had engaged passage to various Northern ports. Could the ship owners be ex- pected to Investigate their status before taking them on board? Wasn't it prop- er to presume that every man was free until he was proved otherwise? They laughed at him—all except & scattered group of very serious men. Probably his friend Lincoln joined in the laughter. He voted against giving G It was defeated. Representative Holmes use of sald defendant and at his speclal interest and request; and said defendant in conversation thereof afterwards un- dertook and then and there faithtully y the sums of money aforesald when i\r should be thereunto afterwards requested. “Yet sald defendant, although often requested to do 5o, has not as yet paid to the sald plaintiff either of them or any part, but has wholly neglected and refused and still does wholly neglect and refuse, to the damage of said plain- cember 2, 1858, to James T. Thornton, | condition of peace 1 mean simply to [ tiff of $200, and therefore he brings which reads “Yours of the 20th in behalf of John | H. Widner is recelved. 1 am absent al- | say that the war will cense on the part of the Government whenever it | shall have ceased on the part of those | more complete and finer picture of the yypeher fho much to be a sultable fn- | Who began 1t | man tenderness, such human trivialities and \ pHAC00 TR O L MY, Wid | & country lawyer i Hlnoks s sho flluminated by such flashes of pettiness, and such suggestions of power and righteousness as a man n'-’ served for his most Intmate communi- cations These ure the papers of the Robert Todd Lincoln coflection, bequeathed to ! structor for a law student. When o | ner has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgment s that he read the books for himself without an instructor, That Is precisely the wi came to the law. Let Widner Blackstone'’s Commentaries, Chirry's | The routine of Lincoln's practice as Wi by two briefs written i his own hand | which have found their way Into the files of the Library of Congress. One brief rends | “Of the Oct term of the Coles County | Court in the year A D 1843, { this suit” Others are mere scraps of paper on which Lincoln scribbled notes of intro- duction to various Government officlals Such fragments of his handwriting con- stantly are turning up throughout the country as persons who lived in the Civil War pertod pass away and their | papers are examined Probably fewer Lincoln manuscripts are in the hands of the Government than those of any other President, with iddings leave to present the resolution. | | That evening a mob of infuriated citizens attacked the office of the Na- | tional Era—a black abolitionist news- | paper. |~ The next day Giddings. accompanied by his Ohio colleague, E. S. Hamlin, and Senator Lawrence Brainerd of Vermont. | went to visit Drayton and Sayres in the ! jail. They pushed their way through the mob which still surrounded the buflding. The keeper allowed them to speak to the two men through a grated door. l The mob learned what was going on. In some way the lower gate was open. The angry crowd pushed through and started to come up the stairs. They shouted to the three men that if they continued to talk to the prisoners they would be lynched, Congress or no Con- gress. The jailer quieted the rioters. Gid- dings, Hamlin and Brainerd left the jall fearlessly. The crowd shouted im- Pprecations against them. There wasno violence The citizens of Washington, | excited as they were, were not quite bold enough to attack members of Con- gress. That night Giddings sat at the | supper table in Mrs. Sprigys’ boarding | house with Abraham Lincoin. L e ot |BY a common agreement among the | owners, most of the slaves were |sold in & bunch to a Baltimore slave | dealer, Hope H. Slatter. He put them in chains and marched them to the Baltimore & Ohio station. Men with rifies watched them along the way Abraham Lincoln saw the mehn;gul,\- cortege pass up the Avenue. ese | slaves had been born and reared in the | District of Columbia. All their friends were here. They were leaving home forever. At the station they were loaded into one car. The Rev. Henry Slicer, chap- | lain of the House, entered the car. He | pushed his way through and talked with | Slatter, an old friend, presumably con- | gratulating him on getting such a | bunch of excellent stock so cheap. | A big black man pulled at the minis- | ter's coat talls. He had done odd jobs {about the House chaplain's church in | Washington. “QGood-by, Mr. Slicer,” said the weep- ing man. Slicer turned and “rebuked the man severely for his wickedness in trying to escape from slavery.” | R ‘.’]‘HS incident of Rev. Mr. Slicer and the slave was recounted that eve- ning at the supper table in Mrs. Spriggs boarding house. The next morning the chaplain was at his desk in the House. He arcse ana | spread his hands in the attitude of prayer. Representative J. M. Root of Ohio arose from his seat and put on his hat. | Slicer asked the blessing of God on | the Congress and on the country. { “Qod -—- such preachers as you!" Root shouted. | , The Representative continued to drown out the clergyman's voice with a succession of loud oaths, defying the gavel of the Speaker Abraham Lincoln was silent. There s no record as to whether or not he followed the chaplain's prayer ‘There was bitter debate in the House ll . sald Representative Haskell of Tenne: se, ought to be hanged as high as Haman for his ef- forts on behalf of Sayres and Drayton. A similar scene was enacted in the Senate. Hale of Maine sought to intro- duce a bill to prevent unlawful assem- lies, such as that which had stormed the jail, in the District of Columbia. A tall, military figure, still limping from a wound received in the Mexican War, arose. He was the junior Senator Mississippi, Jefferson Davis. He sald that Hale's bill was a measure to “pro- tect incendiaries and kidnapers.” colleague, Foote of Mississippl, told the Senate that Hale should be delivered over to the mob and hanged from the nearest convenient tree. Seldom before had a District of Co- lumbia incident figured so notably in the debates of both Houses. It was a_part of the education of Abraham Lincoin. The tall lawyer might have no chance of coming back to Congress—but he was absorbing terial that would be useful later on. Giddings was rather proud of the progress of his odd. ungainly protege. LTy = (¥ December 21, 1848, Representative Gott of New York introduced the following resolution: ited in “Whereas the traffic now prosecut in the metropolis of this Republic human bejngs as chattels is contrary to justice and the fundamental of our political system and & hindrance to the cause of 1d- erty among the nations of the earth. “Resolved. That a committee of the judiciary committee be instructed to re- port a bill as soon as practicable to m;nmbu the slave trade in such Dis- trict.” Gott chose a time when there was » bare quorum present to up this resolution. It passed. 94 to Among the 88 who voted against it was Abraham Lincoln. A Southern member moved for recon- sideration. The motion was carried. 119 to 81. Gott’s resolution never was heard of agan. Among the 119 who voted for recon- sideration was Abraham Lincoln. He didn't believe it was necessary to abol: ish slavery in the District of Columbia within a week or a month. He had in the back of his head what he t Was & better plan. It would accomplish &:{mmc purpose without hurting any- 0 Giddings. Hale, Gott. Root and the rest of them wanted it to hurt. Actua! freeing of the slaves was only half thei purpose. They wanted the slave own- ers of the District of Columbia to eat dirt Their colleague from INlinois—soon to g0 home for good as he and all his friends expected—didn't hate anybody All he wanted to do was free the slaves. He preferred to operate with an an- esthetic. He didn't enjoy hearing the patient scream. He could. if the oec- casion demandad. be a relentless sur- geon. He had shown that by his merci- less operation on the political philos- ophy of Mr. Polk early in the session Painless surgery of the kind he sought clice led sometimes to ¢ of tanism. Wendell Phillips had ed_him as “that Dlinals slave Such misunderstanding was 1 when the operator didnt make a great parade of his knives and saws before starting to cub. !the Nation by the oldest son of U Plendings, Gr af'n Kvidence, Story’s | “Jumes M. Bagley, plantif, com- | the possible exception of John Adams | Civil War President, upon his death | | dquity and Story's Equity Pleadings | plains of Tawac D Vinmeter end- | and John Quincy Adams, whose papers | two yers ago, with the eondition that | Then let him get a license and go to the | ant, belng in custody, for that whereas | aro kept In Massachusetts. Other Pres- | they ‘be kept secret for a specific tme. | practice, and still keep on rending That the saume defendunt heretofor It, | dents whose slgnatures are extremely The pertod of walting will not be con- |1y my judgment of the cheapest, quick- | on the day of y of | tare are Zachary Taylor, Willlam Henry | cluded before 1946 taln provistons | est und best way for Mr. Widner to | Our Lord 1843, i afore- | Harrison and James A. Qarfield, all of ! | bwve been made, however, in uccord- nuke a lawyer of himaelf.” suld and in - the ng | whom died after a few months in office i —— ;‘;,"u il Ul Y ( . 4 THE MAN AROSK SLOWLY ASND LAGAINLY {ance with Mr. Lincoln's will, whereby | AWKWARDLY, A TALL AND it Kk, > | im thinking proc |10 historians, some of the papers can be examined | by qualined historians secking for Keys | w the charscter of the emanctpator | | "They can he used only to furnish back- | round They cannot be quoted, or | y Inkling given of el contonts They will make almost no chunge, 1t | i understood, 1 the broad outiines of | epted figure of Lincoln. Foe | detalls which they contan, | will glve w shirper pleture of | v the men and ev of s time After sl 10 s nob the gotusl Lincoln manuscripls in the colection which are expeeted Lo prove of the greatent vl but the letters o him, | Trom persons wll over the country and ol walks of Ife His replies b some | of these lotters have been known for ainny years, but will mean mach more when the original nlcations can he placed slongside " Munuscripts in Ui handwiiting of Lincoln, eapectally tose bearing hin slgnature, now wre widely seattercd wmong private collectors and wie ex- | temely valuable. Lincoln papers now | surpuss those of Washinglon o value snd e Library of Congress s been | | whle Lo secure very few of them ot elde Lhe secrel collection. 10 bs expecled that the price will go up from year to yeur Bhortly after the Freaident’s death he alrendy win (e oblect of puich hevo worehip wnd collectors were huny g1ah Ying up everything n elght - As o 1 sult, blugraphiers who Uy o baese Uil and his reactions | W Historleally, the most valuable of | 0f divers good wid w ’ | these manuacripts In Lincoln's hand- | the Btate of Jliinals, did wiltully, ma- written order to Maj, Gen. H. W, Hal. | elously and fulsely speak of und con- | leck. commander of the Depurtment of ",f;;\'"“:‘l“::;: ““““{:"‘l":;:',fi"fi":,f;“"{("’;:;" el il TR TR o [ Gt 15 10 sy e (pladntiT meanin swore a damned He and T (defendant oA tusurrection, extatn i the | peantig) ean prove 1t | nited Htates and B dncoarms I the f e neans of which the satd plainti | Blate of Misowrl, you ute hereby s g been injured wnd hath sistained | Nortzed and empowered to sunpend e | g 0 e sum of 81,000, and writ of habens corpus within the Bmits | (oefore brings this suit | of thie military diviston under your com- | ncain used o hive ocenstonal cases and Lo Insttute martial Taw an S Coles County - hecause his | father | L0 your diseretion. e there The parent unually was | Lo secure ety and the author in.. d up oand came up fom his 40 ity of the United Alaten [acre faom 1o the courthouse: whenever | Lincoln's cablnel was new i office at the Wie Uis document was prepared | unfarailiar with the proper pro- | e i lndiing Government papers Connsequently the great seal of the United Hiates wan pliaced on verne alde of the paper from () g The historical stgnificance of the | 1 Ner bitel I i a sult Aled for snper Hes I the enrly dute at which | Hitam Metlenry, a - atorokeeys Fihotn waw L Lo aastimo extraordinary | Bpringfeld, against Hivam Peany, for powers o put down the vebellion the payment of a bill for merehandise Lincoln, Mke wll other Prestdents, | el veads, I part conslantly was troubled by persons | e that the sald defendunt heves wecking Jobs or promotions, and he | tofore, o wit, on the firat day of Auguat somethnes made @ joke of 16wy 1860, was Indobted (o sald plaintift dn o the following seribbled communteation | large sum of money, (0 wit, i the sum forwarded o (he Beoretary of War on | of 810, for the goods, wares and mer March 21, 1803 chandise of antd plaintft before that “Poduy M. Blkke of Tndiana aska: | e sold wod delivered by sald plaintt “Locapt Alken he promoted o nld defendant and at the apecla v ool Willlam 1 Winek [ natance and vequeat of satd defendant, 01h e promoted and also non avther Tagge sum, to wit, 4 Ool John W, Black of the 4lst | the sum of 8100, hotore that thine pald, e o Iaid ont wnd expended Lo and for the [ hls s wan due Lo argue @ cuse () notonly 1o but to kel part 1 ocane i this | Intefed above, diet, of which | DEBAD wh a fee, turning (hat sum | I writh his fatl ol the te Probably the second largest collec- ton of Lincoln signatures fn Washing- ton I8 in the hands of the War De- partment, and consists of the manu- soripta of telegrams sent by the Presi- dent. These nlso are not open to gen- eral thspection, but are made avatlable to all with any interest above that of curloalty, They will not bo placed on exhibition until there 18 no possibility that any of the persons mentioned in them reprimanded officers, soldlors und sentence of death tor desertion, PEVSONS Acting as Informers with the Confederate army, et are ving . Earliest Decorations. I probable that the enrilest wall palntings were those of the Egyp- Uana. Those people employed & dis- tomper oontaining dissolved gum, and thelt prineipal plgments were white chalk, a vegoluble yellow, oohres, Ethio- plan clnnabar, blue powdered glass atatped with copper and charcoal black The walls of Assyrian and Babylontan dwellings were treated I muoh the and the pravtive of patnt- conted WIth plaster was certalnly fn vogue i Asayvia, It 14 bolleved that the Oreeks under- atood true freaco work, apparently on the strength of & phrase ooourring In Plutareh, "o palnt on & wet ground.” Vitruvius also speaka of & wel ground and says that colors placed upon & ANTACe 50 propared are perinanent, Which cortatily Is chavacteristio of trie fieaco work