The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-01-20

Abraham Lincoln.

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe Is writing a sa-
ries Of articles for the Christian watchrnan
and Reflector on "Men OF Our Times.n In the
issue of that paper Of january 1th she writes
as follows Of President Lincoln:
Abraham Lincoln Is, in the strictest sense.
man OF the working classes. All his advan-
tages aud abilities are those of a man of The
working classes; all his disadvantages and
disabilities are those OF a man of the working
classes and his position, now at the head OF
one OF the most powerful nations of the earth,
Is sign TO all those who live by labor that
their day is coming. Lincoln was born to the
inheritance OF hard work, as truly as the poor
est laborers son that digs ia our fields. At
seven years OF age he was set 10 work, axe in
hand, to clear up farm in a Western forest.
Until be was seventeen his life was that of a
simple farm iaborcr, with only such intervals
OF schooling as farm laborers get. Probably
the school instruction OF his whole life would
not amount to more than one year. At nine
teen he made a trip to New Orleans as hired
hand on tiat-boat, and on his return he split
rails for log cabin and built it, aud enclosed
ten acres OF land with a rail fence of his own
handiwork- The next year he hired himself
Tor twelve dollars month TO build a fiat-boat
and TO take her to New Orleans, and any one
who knows what the life Of Mississippi boat
mau was in those days must know that Il in
yolyed every kind OF labor
In 1852, Ia the Black Hawk Indian war. the
hardy boatman volunteered TO fight for his
country, and was unanimously elected cap
tain, and served with honor for season In
frontier military life. Afler this, while serving
as postmaster, he began his law studies,
borrowing the books he was too poor TO buy.
and studying by the light OF the evening fire.
lie acquired name in the country about a.
man OF resources and shrewdness he was one
that people looked to for counsel in exigencies
and TO whom they were ready TO depute al
most any enterprise which needed skin and.
energy. The surveyor OF Sangamon county
being driven with work, came to him 10 take
the survey Of tract or his hands True, hc
had never studied suryeying-but what OF
that? He accepted the Job procured chain
and did the work. Do we not see In this
parable Of the wider wilderness which in later
years he has undertaken TO survey and fit for
human habitation without chart or surveyors
chain?
Little did the convention that nominated
Abraham Lincoln for President know what
they were doing. Little did Che honest, faith
erly, patriotic man, who stood in his simplici-
fy on the platform at Springfield, asking the
prayers OF his townsmen and receiving their
pledges to remember him, ioresee how awfully
he was to need those prayers, the prayers OF
all this nation and the prayers oi all the work
ing, suffering common people throughout the
world. Gods hand was upon him with yisi-
Bile protection, saving first from the dangers
OF assassination at Baltimore and bringing
him safely TO our national capital. Then the
world have seen aud wondered at the greatest
sign and marvel of our day, to wit, plain
working man of the people. with no more cul-
ture, instruction or education than any such
working man may obtain for himself called
on TO conduct the passage OF great people
through crisis involving the destinies of the
Whole world. The eyes of princes, mobiles,
aristocrats, OF dukes, earls, scholars. states.
men, warriors, all turned on the plain back
woodsman, with his simple sense, his imper-
turbable simplicity his determined selfreli-
ance. his impracticable and incorruptible hon
esfy, as he sat amid the war Of conflicting ell
ements with unpretending steadiness striving
10 guide the national ship through a channel
at whose perils the worlds boldest statesmen
stood aghast. The brilliant courts of Europe
leveled their glasses at the phenomenon.
Fair ladies saw that he had horny hands and
disdained white gloves. Dapper diplomatists
were shocked at his system of etiquette, but
old statesmen. who knew the tcrrors of that
passage, were wiser than court ladies and dan
dy diplomatists, who watched him with
fearful curiosity, simply asking, "lviH that
awkward old backwoodsman really get that
ship through? II he does, it will be time for
US to look about u.s.
Lincoln Is strong man. but his strength is
OF peculiar kind il is not aggressive so
much as passive, aud among passive things il
ls Ike the strength not so much of stone
buttress as OF wire cable. Ii is strength
swsying to every influence, yielding on this
side and on that to popular needs, yet tena-
ciously and infexibly bound to carry its great
end; and probably by no other kind of
strength could our national ship have been
drawn safely thus far during the tossings and
tempests which beset her way.
Surrounded by all sorts of conflicting claims.
by traitors, by halfllearted, timid men, by
Border State men aud free State men, by rad-
cal abolitionists aud conservatives, he has lis
tened to all, weighed the words of all, waited.
observed. yielded now here and now there,
but in the main kept one inflexiblc, honest
purpose, and drawn the national ship through.
In the times of our trouble Abraham Lin
coin has had his turn OF being the best abused
man Of our nation. Like Moses leading bis
Israel through the wilderness, he has seen the
day when every man seemed ready 10 stone
him, aud yet, with simple, wiry, steady perse-
serance, he has held on, conscious OF honest
intentions, and looking to God for help. All
the nation have felt, in the Increasing solem-
nifty OF his proclamations aud papers. how deep
an education has been wrought In his mind by
this simple faith in God, the Ruler of nations,
and this humble willingness to learn the aw-
ful lessons Of His providence.
r.f Al II