Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-04-07

| HC " Us " ueeu tliOSc PRAYERS, the PRAYER
OF all this nation, and the prayers of all tn.
working suffering common people throughou
the world. Gods hand was upon him with .
visible protection, saving first from the dan
ger of assassination Of Baltimore and bring
ing HIM safely TO our national capital. Theu
the world have seen and wondered at the
greatest sign and marvel of our dav, to wit
PLAIN working man Of the people, with nc
more culture, instruct on or education than
any such working man may obtain for him
self, called on to conduct the passage of d
great people through crisis involving the
destlnies Of the whole world. The eyes o
princes, mobiles, arlstocrats, of dukes, earls
scholars, statesmen, warriors, all turned on
the plain backwoo lsman, with his simple
sense, lmperturable simplicity, his determin
ed seit-:ellance, his impracticabe and incor.
iujtible honesty, as he sat amid the war OF
csndlctng elements with unpretending stead
lless, striving to guide the national ship thro
channel at whose peril the worlds oldest
statesmen stood against. The brilliant court
OF Europe leve!ed their opera glasses at the
phenomenon. Fair ladies saw that he had
hofny hands and disclaimed white gloves
! Dapper diploma ist; were shocked at his srs-
TEN OF etiquette, but old statesmen, who knew
the terrors OF that passage, were wiser than
court ladies and dandy diplomatists, and
watched him with curiosly, simply asking,
VIII that awkward o.d backwoodsman real
ly get that ship through? If he does, it will
be time Tor us TO lo)k about u.s."
nooth to say, our own politicians were
somewhat shocked with his State papers at
first. Why not let us make them little
more conventional, and file to a classical pat
tern? No." was the reply, Il shall write
them m self. The people ,cM understand Mem "
| hut this that nf Is ~
elegant, not classical" "7he people aoM IN
aeystnd It," has been his invariable reply.
And whatever may be said of his state pa
! pers as compared with the classic standards,
1t has been fact that they have always been
| wonderfully well understood by the people,
and that since the time of Washington, the
State papers of no President have more con
trolled the popular mind. And one reason
for this is, that they have been informed and
uadplomatic. They have more resembled a
fathers talk to his children than State pa
per And they have had that relish and
smack of the s,il, that appeal to the simple
human heart and head, which is a greater
power in writing tn n the most artful rhet-
oric. Lincoln might well say with the Apos-
| tie, "But though be rude in speech yet not
IN knowledge, but we have been thoroughly
made manifest among yoM in all things" His
| rejection of what is called fine writing was as
deliberate "a St. Paul's, and for the same
because he felt that he speaking on a
subject which mist be made clear to the low
| est Intellect, thonGh it should fail to captivate
the highest. But we may say of Lincoln's wri-
ting that tJr al true, manly purpose of wri-
ing, there are pls ages in his State papers
! that could not be better put--they are abso-
| lutely perfect. They are brief, condensed, in
tense, and with power of insight and expires
sion which make them worthy to be inscribed
in letters of gold. Such are some passages
OF the celebrated Springfield letter, especial
lv that mas ieily one where he compares the
conduct of the patriotic and loyal blacks with
that of the treachefous and dsloyal whites
| No one can read this letter without feeling
! the influence Of mind both strong and gem
| crous. -.
| Lincoln is strong man, but his strength
Is OF peculiar kind; it is not aggressive so
much as passive, and among passive things it
! Is like the strength not So much Of stone
buttress, as of a wire cable, 1t is strength
swaying to every Influence, yielding OH this
side and on that to the popular needs, yet
| tenaclously and infeXbly 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 that beset her way. -
|
claims, by traitors, by half hearted, tmid
men, by border State men and free state men,
by radical abolitonists and conservatives, he
| has listened to all, wei ghcd the words of all
waited. observed, yielded now here and now
there, but in the main kept one inhexible,
honest purpose, and drawn the ship through.
In times of trouble, Abraham Lincoln has
had his turn of being the best abused man of
cur nation. Like Moses leading his Israel
| through the Wilderness he has seen the dav
whea every man seemed ready to stone him,
aud yet with simple, wiry, steady perseverance
| he has held ON, conscious of honest inten-
tions, and looking to God for help. All the
nation have felt, in the increasing solemnity
OF his proclamations aud papers, how Eeep an
education was being wrought in his mind by
this simple faith in God, the Ruler of nations,
and this humble willingness to learn the aw-
tul lessons of His providence
We do not mean to give the impression that
Lincoln Is relig gisus man in the sense in
which that term is properly applied. We be-
lleVe he has never made any such profession,
but we see evidence that in passing through
this dreadful national crisis he had been
forced by the very anguish Of the struggle to
look upward, where any rational creature
must look for support. No man in this agony
has suffered more or deeper, albeit with a
dry, weary patient pain that seemed to some
like insenslbility. 'sWhichever way it ends, ~
he said to the writer, 81 have the impression
snat 1 shant last long after its over" After
the dreadful repulse of Fredrick sburg he is
reported to have said, "If there's man out of
hell that suffers more than I do, pity him. ~
In those dark days his heavy eyes and worn
weary air told how our reverses wore upon
him, and yet there was never failing fund
OF patience at the bottom, which sometimes
rose to the surface in some droll, quaint say
ing or story, that forced laugh even from
himself.
There have been times with many, of impet-
uous impatience, when our national ship seem
ed to lie water logged and We have called aloud
for a deliverer of another fashion, brilliant
General, dashing, fearless statesman, man
| who could dare and do, who would strike all
on die, and win or lose by coup de naim.-
1t may comfort our minds that since He who
ruleth in the armies of nations set no man to
this work; that perhaps He saw in the man
whom lie did send some peculiar fitness and
/ aptitude therefor. .-...-,.r. ........f-... 3.
Slow and careful in coming to resolutions,
willing tG talk with every person who has any.
thing to show any side Of q disputed sub
Iiect, long in weighing and pondering, attach
ed to constitutional limits and me-honored
land marks; Lincoln certainly was the Safes
leader nation could have 1s time when
ths habeas corpus must be suspended, and all
the constitutional and minor rights of citizens
be thrown into the hands of their military
! leader. A reckless, bold, theorizing, dashine
: man of genius might have wrecked the con
: stitution and ended US in splendid military
/ despctisp,. when honest Abe has only walked