The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1864-10-13
President Lincoln.
BY MRS. HARRIET BEEcHER STOWE.


held, asking the prayers of his townsmen
and receiving their pledges to remember
him, foresee how awfully he was to need
those prayers, the prayers of all this ma
tlon and the prayers of all the working,
suffering, common people throughout the
world. Gods hand was upon him with a
visible protection, saving first from the
danger Of assassination at Baltimore, and
bringing him safely to our national Capt.
tol. Then the world have seen and won
dered of the greatest sign and marvel of
our day, to wit, plain working man of
the people, with no more culture, instruc-
ton 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, schol-
ars, statesmen, warriors, all turned on the
plain backwoodsman, with his simple
sense, his imperturable simplicity, his de-
termined selfreliance, and his incorrupti-
bic honesty, as he sat amid the war of
Will
steadiness, striving to guide the national
ship through channel at whose perils
the worlds oldest statesmen stood aghast
The brilliant courts Of Europe leveled
their opera glasses at the phenomenon. =
Fair ladies saw that he had homely hands
and disdaincd white gloves. Dappcr di-
plomatists were shocked at his system of
etiquette, but old statesmen, who knew
the terrorS of that passage, were wiser
than court ladies and dandy diplomatsts
and watched him with fearful curiosity
simpl y asking, " WI that awkard back.
woodsman really get that ship through ?
If he does, it will be time for US to look
about US"
Lincoln is strong man, but his strength
is of a peculiar kind it is not aggressive
so much as passive, and among passive
things it is like The strength not SO much
of a stone buttress as of wire cable. 1t
is strength swaying to every influence,
yielding on this side and on that to pop.
ular needs, yet tenaciously and infexibly
bound to carry its great end and proba-
bly, by no other kind of strength could
our national ship have been drawn safely
thus for during the tossings and tempests
which beset her way.
Surrounded by all sorts of conflicting
claims, by traitors, by half, hearted, timid
men, by border State men and free State
men, by radical abolitionists and conserv-
atives, he has listened to all, waited, OBJ
served, yielded, now here and now there,
but in the main kept infexible, honest
purpose, and drawn the national ship
through.
In times of our trouble, Abraham Lin
coin has had his turn of being the best
abused man of our nation Like Moses
leading his Israel through the wilderness
he has seen the day when every man
seemed ready to stone him, and yet, with
simple, wiry, steady perseverance, he ha.
held on, conscious of honest intentions
and looking to God for help. All the
nations have felt, in the increasing solem
nifty of his proclamations and papers, how
deep an education was being wrought il
his mind by this simple faith in God, tht
Ruler of the nations, and this humbl,
willingness to learn the awful lessons O.
His providence. No man in this agony
has suffered more and deeper, albeit with
dry, weary, patient pain, that seemed tt
some like insensibility. " Whichever
way it ends" he said to the writer, {"
have the impression that shan last Ion;
after it is over" After the dreadful re
pulse at Fredericksburg he is reported t
have said, eff there is a man out of hel
that suffers more than | do, [ pity him,
In those dark days his heavy eyes an,
worn and weary air told how reverse
wore upon him, and yet there was a nev
err failing fund of patience at the bottom
that sometimes rose to the surface in som
droll, quaint saying or story, that forcet
a laugh even from himself
There have been times with many, O
impetuous impatience, when our nationa
ship seemed to lie water-logged, and W
have called aloud for deliverer of anoth
err fashion-a brilliant General, a dash
ing, fearless statesman, man who coul
dare and do, who would stake all on die
aud win or lose by brilliant coup d
main. 1t may comfort our minds tha
since He who rulcth in the armies of ns
lions set no such man at work, perhap
he saw in the man whom he did sen
some peculiar fitness and aptitudes there
for.
Slow and careful in combining to reso
lutions, willing to talk with every person
who had anything to show on any side o
a disputed subject, long in weighing am
pondering, attached to constitutional lin
it's and time honored landmarks, Lincol
certainly was the safest leader a natioI
could have at a time when the ha6ea
corpus must be suspended, and all tn
constitutional and minor rights of citizen
be thrown into the hands of their militia
ry leader.
Among the many accusations which il
hours of ill-luck have been thrown ou
upon Lincoln, it is remarkable that h'
has never been called self-seeking or sci
fish. When we were troubled, and sa