The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1864-02-18

thirty thousand dollars to make legal ten
with. III bring it back in an hour or tv,.'
The cashier handed across ths IN )ney to
i"Honest Abe" and without the scratch Of
| a pen in acknowledgment he str,is his way
with the specie, all in most sacre simplicity
made the tender, an brought it buck with
as much m,nchalancs as If he had been
borrowing silver spoon Of his grand'n tn
| err His honesty, shrewdnss., energy. anl
keen practical insight into men sni things
soon made him the m,st Influential man In
his State. He became the reputsd lealer
Of the Wing party, and canvass. the State
as stump speakerin time Of Henry Clay.
md in 1S46 was elected representative to
Congress- Hare hs mat the grinding Of the
great question Of the day--tha uppr ani
neither millstonc of slavery and frcsisn re-.
volving against each other. Lincon's whole
nature incii ned him to be har,neniz,r of
conflicting parties rather than committed
combattant on either si,le. Hswas firmly
and from principle an enemy to slavery
but the ground he occupied in Congress was
in some respects middle course between
the advance guard of the anti-slavcry and
the spears Of the fire-eaters. lie voted
with John Quincy Adams for the receipt Of
anti.slavery petitions he voted with Gid
dings for committee of inquiry into the
constitutionality of slavery in tae District Of
Columbia, and the expediency Establishing
slavery in th,t District; he votel for the
various resolutions prohibiting slavery in
the territories to be acquired from Mexico,
and he voted forty two times for the Will
mot Proviso. In JAN 1G, ls49, he offered
a plan for abolishing slavery in tbs District
of Columbia, by compensation from the ma
tional treasury, with the consent of a major.
ity Of the citizens. He opposed the annex.
alton Of Texas, but voted for the bill to pay
the expenses Of the war. 9aE
But at the time Of the repeal of the Mis-
souri Compromise he took the field, heart
and soul against the plot to betray onr terri.
tories to slavery. 1t was mainly owing to
his exertons that at this critical period a
Republican Senator was elected from Him
ois, when a Republican Senator in the
trembling nationsl scales Of the conflict was
worth a thousand times his weight in
gold. tl
Little did the Convention that nominated
Abraham Lincoln for President know what
they were doing. Little. did thu honest,
faith rly, patriotic man, who stood in his
simplicity on the Platform at Springfield,
asking the prayers of his townsmen and re-
ceiving their pledges to remember him, fore.
see how awfuly he was to need those
prayers, the prayers If all this nation and
the prayers of all tn, working, suffering
common people throughout the world =
Gods hand was upon him with visible
protection, saving first from the danger OF
assassination at Baltimore and bringing him
safely to our national capital. Then the
world have seen AMI wondered at tho great
est sign ard marvel Of our day to wit, a
plain working man Of the people. with no
more culture. instruction or education than
any snch working man may obtain for him
self. called on to con luct the passage of a
great people through crisis involving the
destinies Of the whole world. Tn. eyes M
princes, mobiles, aris ocrats, Of dukes, earls.
scholars. statesmen, warriors. all turned on
the plain backwoodsman, with his sirnple
sense, his imnerturbeble simplicity,
his determined self-reliance. hi. impractica-
BILE and incorruprible honesty. as he sat
amid the of conflicting elements with
unpretending steadiness striving co guide
the national ship through channel at
whose pcrls the worlds oldest statesmen
stood agh,st The brilliant courts Of En
rope ieyelled their opera glasses at the phe-
nomenon. 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 terrors Of that passage. were wiser
than court ladies and dandy diplomatists.
and watched him with fearful c1,nsi
simply asking, "Wiu that awkward old
backwoodsnan really get that ship through?
If he does, it viii DO time for Us to look
about US. I"
Sooth to say, orr own p,li'icians were
somewhat shocked with his S.,te papers at
first. Why not let w make them 4 little
rnnre Conventional. AMI file then to classi.
Cal pattern. an" "w,s his r,,!v, az sh,ll
write them myself The peope eN ua,sr-
stand than" "BI. this or That form of cx-
pression1is not el.g.n,. MT classcal."-
"7he peJple psu understand it," has been
his invariabls reply. And whatever n,v
be said Of his State papers as compared with
classic standaris, it hss basl fact that
they have always been wonderfully well IN.
d,rstood by the people. all that SINGS the
tina of Washington. the State papers pf no
President have more contrnlle1 tho popular
mind. All ops reason If this is, tn, thcy
have been informal and undiplolnatic They
have more resemblei fathers talk to his
children than State paper. And they
have hal that relish AMI smack OF the soil,
that appeal to the simple human heart and
head which is greater power in writing
than tn, most artful devices of rhetoric. -
Line In might well ssy. with tho apostle,
But though be lis in spe,c, yet not in
but We have been thoroughly
nads manifest amo,0 you in all things.
His rejection OF what Is called fine writing