The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 10, 1916, Page 9

- - memory by doingthe tasks-allotted .; . Ghe House in B o Vi - Lincoln, the Lincoln family Bible, ete. . Solemn and mirthful, strong of heartand. - limb, s Tender and simple, too; he was so near.. - To all things human that he cast aut . And ever simpler, like a little child, . ... Lived in unconscious nearness unto Who always on earth’s little ones hath smiled. —S. Weir Mitchell. . I am speaking on the occasion of the celebration ‘of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and to men who count it their peculiar privilege that they- have' the right to hold Lincoln’s‘memory” dear and the duty to strive-to-work along the lines that he -laid down. We can pay -most fitting homage to his __to us in the spirit in which he'did ¥ the infinitely ‘greater and'more-ter- rible tasks allotted to him.—Theo- r LINCOLN, 1665 (! NATION- "EEDS LINCOLNS. o e e——l “Will Be Sad Day For America When It Fails to Produce Such Men. At a public dinner in New York, in { eommemoration of Lincoln, Miss Ida “'M. Tarbell, author of a “Life of Lin- ‘| 'coln,” spoke as follows: f 7 “I think I can say Abraham Lincoln is the only man, living or dead, with vyhom I could have spent five years and ‘| :¥ ot known boredom. L ' “Lincoln was a man who never pre- ~|'tended to be anything he really was ~{mot. He never found time to conform to the usages of society. He did not | “/ inderstand or care for its amenities. “}'He never learned to wear his clothes properly. His trousers bagged. His “|:coats did not fit. Bt | . “Lincoln always was anxious to get I ‘things just right. Sometimes, in con- “'sequence, he seemed-slow to_the coun- | try, but he always Insisted with him- ".-'Self that his acts must conform to the | moral law. = You cannot conceive of T:Lincoln trifling with his conscience. ‘|- “He wanted to be sure always that l;hls decisions should ever stand as just i| |'in the annals of the world and the his. ;| 1:tory.of human endeavor. hich " “There are severai instances to prove this. He was' told by his supporters .| 'he 3vould lose an election by taking a certain stand. He did lose, but he sgid: ‘We are right. The people will HE house in which Abraham Lincoln died on' the morning | recogiilze it by and by’ And they did, of April 15, 1865, stands:op- ‘and“fomr* years-later~he was' in - the posite Ford's theater, in which | White Bipuse,, =~ _ . .. the president was shot on the preced- | ~«J incoln had real goodness—not the ing night. The house, known somie-: ‘Jnd of & ess that preaches only on times as the Peterson house, from a | sunday, but the kind of. ess that former occupant, IS now devoted to the | renéfi‘gg‘out and eni'i)i"a"céhgoa?.ldfine's fel- exhibition of a wonderful collection of |'y43w men. He was the tenderest man Lincoln relics owned by Osborn M. |'¢ha¢ ever lived. ,No one suffered more Oldroyd. Mr. Oldroyd has given his=f* uring | ; life since boyhood—he 1s now an elder-- g‘:&:;,g& B ,kth'e awtul RoUE yoary 0f e e o ahs: ot | ““Lincdln was the best man American G 8 n institutions ever produced. It: would connected with the life of the presi- be. 1nd a i institu. dent. He has rails split by Abraham | B¢, indeed, a sad thing if our 5 r tions failed at any future great crisis to produce such as Lincoln.” Wy oy = Lincoln far above -any other on your shining ' list—far above ‘Bismarck, who created an empire; far above Gambetta, who saved a fallen people, or Mazzini, who helped put a new soul in another, or the Marquis Ito, who transformed some hermit islanders into the present first of Asiatic and peer of European powers.—Whitelaw Reid. It took his countrymen full four years to find Abraham Lincoln out. By the light of the campfires of vic- torious armies they learned to sce the outline of his gigantic figure, to assess the integrity of his character, to comprehend the majesty of his conscience, and, when at last they Jlooked upon his careworn face as the nation reverently bore his body to the grave, through their tears ‘they saw him exalted above all thrones in the affection of the hu- man race—Jonathan P. Dolliver. WHEN LINCOLN DESPAIRED. PR LS L Worrled by Antletam, but Next Day . Found Him Cheerful Again. The late Robert C. Ogden, famous as an educator and philanthropist, said in a public address-that on the night after the second day’s fighting at An- tletam Schuyler, Colfax, then speaker of the house 'of representatives, after a valn effort to dbtain news of the re- sult of the battle, went to see the pres- ident. It was'8 o¢’clock in the morn- ing, and he found Lincoln lying on a lounge, with-his elothes on, awaiting dispatches, - When:, Colfax said that there was still no news the president said: “Schuyler,. -whiat ‘does it all mean? Are we not on God’s side? We have thought we were right.” Then, with a gésture of despair, Lincoln added, “I would' gladly exchange’places tonight ‘ with any dead ‘soldier boy on the bat- tlefield” © The next:morning Colfax went to the capitol and asked several repre- sentatives if they. had any news of the battle. “No,” was.the reply. -“But we have seen Lincoln, and he seems to be feel- ing s0 good and told us so many sto- ries that everything must be all right.” When Lincoln Had Few Friends. In 1864 Lincoln did not possess the confidence of the Republicans in con- gress. Op one oceasion an editor visit- ing Washington asked Senator Thad- detis Stevens t6 fhtroduce him to some members of .congress~who were faver- able to Lincoln’s re-election. Stevens led him to the desk of Mr. Arnold of Illinois. *There,” said he, “is the only Lincoln member of congress that I -know!” Stevens himself regarded Lin- coln as incompetent and weak. Hen- ry Wilson (afterward vice president) spoke ‘of him ‘as ‘politically a faflure. Greeley had a low opinion of his abil- ity. © His personal friends, such as .Washburn, Raymond and Thurlow ‘Weed, belleved his re-election an im- -~ possibility. Hven Lincoln doubted it. S8AYINGS BY LINCOLN. No man is good enough to govern anotber man without that other’s consent. When the white man gov- erns himself, that is self gov- ernment, but when he gov- erns - himself and also gov- erns another man, that is more- than self government—that is despotism. This government cannot en- dure permanently half slave and half free. I have always theught that all men should be free, but if any should be slaves it should be, first, those who desire it for themselves and, secondly, those who desire it for others. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it. Public sentfiment is every- thing. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Conse- -quently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pro- ‘nounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possi- ble or impossible to be exe- cuted. Our fathers brought forth a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- tion that all men are created equal. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My para- mount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to de- stroy slavery. FEPEREEEPCPERENEN N RN AR NP ECVRERE RN NN NNV RRRRDYY FENFNEEEDNRPENENENRBEERRRND FEEFEFEECEPREUVIEEUDEERAEDRTET R e P e P R o The Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 made Lincoln a national fig- ure. “Douglasmay have electrified the crowds with hiseloquence, * * * but as each man went to his home %‘ * * * his head rang with Lincoln’s logic and appeal to manhood.’— “Lincoln,” by Herndon and Weik. The Leader fights for the farmers., The Leader fights for the farmers, .