The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-24
By Mas. HARgIEr. .BEEeHER ssowE..s :,

l
"A visitor, in. our, national Capitol said,
pointing to the busts of Washington and.
Franklin which adorned its grand halls, s4Seel
therei That revolution was an era of great
men. You can seelit by their very heais.-t
We have no great men nowadays" "Pos-l
sihly we hay e. Twas the reply g The great
!. men of that day were not known to their
contemporaries as We know them, ncehisto-
ry has fully set forth their work, and shown
what they accomplished. swashington and
Franklin stood in, their day as. open to criti-
cisui as Lincoln, Chase and Fuller IN ours,
and perhaps in some future day, looking on
their busts in the Capitol, our descendants
may Shake their heads and say, sAh, there
are nos such great rnenl now! ss We have
thought brief series of the portraits OF the
men Of our times-the history makers Of our
day-might not be unintcresting. And first
among them, asSis due te-his station asscom-
'napder intehiaf Of our arm ysand navy, we
place for. record il the Watchman and Re-
feeter the honored name
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The revolution through which the Ameri-
can nation is passing is not a mere local con
vulsion. Itisa warrior a2'prineiple which
concerns all mankind. 1t is THE war for the
rights of the working classes Of all mankind,
as against the usurpaton of privileged aris-
tocracies. You can make nothing else of it.
| That is the reason why, ikea shaft of light
in the Judgment day, it has gopestlrough all
nations, dividing to the right aud the left the
multitudes. For us and our cause all the
] common working classes of Europe-all that
toll andzs weat ,sand are oppressed. 4geiast
us all privileged classes, mobiles, princes
bankers, and great manufacturers, and all who
dive at ease.s a silent instinct, piercing gto the
dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow
has gone through the earth, and sent every
soul with instinetiye certainty where 1T be-
longs. The poor laborers of Birmingf Fam
and Manchester. the poor silk weavers o.
Lyons, to whom our conflict has been present
sstarvatio and lingering death, have stood
| bravely for us. No sophistries could blind OF
deceive them-they knew that our cause wa
their cause, and they have suffered their par
heroically, as if fighting by our side, because
they knew cur victory was to be their victo
ry. On the other side all aristocrats and hold
ers of fsexclusive privileges have feltsthe in
stinct of opposition, and the sympathy will
a struggling aristocracy, for they, too, feel tha
eurlvictory will be their doom. sas sst-E
This great contest has visiblysbeen heldil
the hands of Almighty God, and is a fulfill
ment of the solemn prophecies with whicl
the Bible is sown thick as stars, that He woul
spare the soul of the needy and judge tn
cause of the poor. 1t was He who cheseth
instrument for this work, and He chose hin
with visible reference to the rights and inte
rests of great majority of mankind, fc
which he stands 85s9a
2 Abraham Lincoln is in. the strictest sens
anaan Of The aooakings classes. All his advan
:, tages and abilities are those of man of tt
working classes; all his disadvantages and dis
abilities are those of man of the iwerkin
classes; and his position now at the head
one OF The most powerful nations of th
earth, isa sign to all who live by labor thu
= their day is coming. Lincoln was born
the inheritance Of hard work. as truly as tt
: poorest laborerss son that digs in our fields
At seven years of age he was set to work, az
in hand, to clear up a farm ina Western fo
: Until he was seventeen his life was tn
of simple farm laborer, with only such il
+ tervals of schooling as farm, laborers &c
s Probably the school instruction Of his who
q life would not amount to more than one yes
s At nineteen he made trip 10. New yOrlea
De as hired hand on fiat boat, and on his r
III turn he split the rails for log cabin and bu
s, it, and enclosed ten acres Of land with r
Z fence of his own handiwork. The next We
Il he hired himself for twelve dollars a mon
II to build a fat boat and take her to New
!. leans, and any one who knows what the Ii
] of a Mississippi boatman was in those da,
. must know that it involved every kind
q labor. In 1882, in the Black Hawk Indi
war; the hardy boatnnan volunteered to fig
=. for his country, and twas unanimously elect
= a captain, and served with honor for a seas
lip frontier military life After this VIII