Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-14

or Rome-what was unknown to civil
law, and canon law, and feudal law; un-
known to Jag, to Rutledge, Ellsworth, and
Marshall-that there are "sla7e races"
| The spirit Of evil is intensely logical.
Having the authority of this decision, five
States swiftly followed the earlier exam
pie of a sixth, and opened the way for re-
ducing the free negro to bondage; the
migrating free negro became a slave if he
but touched the soil of seventh and an
eighth, from its extent and soil and mineral
resources, destined to incalculable great
ness, closed its eyes on its coming pros
perity, and enacted-as by Taney's deci-
sion it had the right to dO-that every free
black man who would live within its lin
its must accept the condition of slavery
for himself and his posterity.
SECESSION RESOLVED ON.
Only one step more remained to be ta-
ken. Jefferson and the leading statesmen
Of his day held fast to the idea that the
enslavement of the African was socially,
morally and politically wrong. The new
school was founded exactly upon the OPP
posite idea; and they resolved first to dis
tract the Democratic party, for which the
Supreme Court had now furnished the
means, and then to establish Il new Gov
ernment, with negro slavery for its corner
stone, as socially, morally and politically
right.
THE ELECTION.
As the Presidential election drew on,
one of the old traditional parties did not
make its appearances the other reeled as
it sought to preserve its old position; and
the candidate who most nearly represented
its best opinion, driven by patriotic zeal,
roamed the country from one end TO
end to speak for union, eager at least to
confront its enemies, yet not having hope
that it would find its deliverance through
him. The storm rose to a whirlwind
who should allay its wrath? The most
experienced statesmen of the country had
failed there was no hope from those who
were great after the flesh; could relief
come from one whose wisdom was like
the wisdom of little children?
EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The choice of America fell on man
born west of the Alleghanies in the
cabin of poor people of Hardin county,
Kentucky-Abraham Lincoln.
His mother could read but not write;
his father could do neither; but his
parents sent him, with an old spelling
book, to school, and he learned in his
childhood to do both.
When eight years old he foated down
the Ohio with his father on raft, which
bore the family and all their possessions
to the shore of Indiana and, child as he
was, he gave help as they toiled through
dense forests to the interior of Spencer
county. There, in the land of free labor,
he grew up in log cabin, with the solemn
solitude for his teacher in his meditative
hours. Of Asiatic literature he knew
only the Bible; of Greek, Latin and me-
dieval no more than the translation of
Ksops Fables; of English, John Bun
yan's Pilgrims Progress. The traditions
of George Fox and William Penn passed
to him dimly along the lines of two cen
turies through his ancestors, who were
Quakers.
HIS EDUCATION.
Otherwise his education was altogether
American. The Declaration of Indepen-
dence twas his compendium of political
wisdom, the Life of Washington his con-
slant study, and something of Jefferson
and Madison reached him through Henry
Clay, whom he honOred from boyhood
For the rest, from day to day, he lived the
life the American people, walked in its
light, reasoned with its reason, thought
with its power of thought, felt the beat
ings of It's mighty heart, and so was in
every way child of nature, child of
the West, child of America.
HIS PROGRESS IN LIFE.
At nineteen, feeling impulses of am
bition to get on in the world, he engaged
himself to go down the Mississippi in a
fiat boat, receiving ten dollars month for
his wages, and afterwards he made the
trip once more. At twenty-one he drove
his fathers cattle as the family migrated
to Illinois, and split rails to fence in the
new homestead in the wilds. At twenty
three he was Captain of volunteers in
the Black Hawk war. He kept shop ;
he learned something of surveying; but
of English literature he added to Bunyan
nothing but Shakspeare's plays. At
twenty-five he was elected to the Legisla-
ture of Illinois, where he served eight
years. Attwenty-seven he was admitted
to the bar. In 1881 he chose his home at
Springfield, the beautiful center of the
richest land in the State. In lS47 he was
member of the National Congress,
where he voted about forty times in favor
of the principle of the jefferson proviso.
In ls54h gave his influence to elect from
Illinois to the American Senate Demo
crat who would certainly do justice to
Kansas. In 1858 as the rival of Douglas,
he went before the people of the mighty
Prairie State saying: 'The Union can
not permanently endure, half slave and
half free; the Union will not be dissolved ;
but the house will cease to be divided )"
and nowin 1861, with no experience what
as an executive officer, while States were
madly flying from their orbits, and wise
men knew not where to find counsel, this
descendant of Quakers, this pupil of Bum
van, this child of the great West was
elected President of America.
He measured the difficulty of the duty
that devolved on him, and was resolved
to fulfill it.
HE GOES TO WASHINGTON.
On the 1lth of February, 1861, he left
Springfield, which for quarter of a CEN
tury had been his happy home. To the
crowd of his friends and neighbors whom
he was never more to meet, he spoke Q
solemn farewell: "I know not how soon
1 shall see you again. A duty has de-
volved upon me, greater than that which
has devolved upon any other man since
the days of Washington. He never would
have succeeded except for the aid of Di
| vine Providence, upon which he at al
times relied. On the same Almighty Be
ing place my reliance. Pray that
NAV receive that Divine assistance, with
out which cannot succeed, but with which
success is certain" To the men of Indian,
be said Il am but an accidental, tenn
porary instrument; it is your business Il
rise up and preserve the Union and liber
ty." At the capital of Ohio he said
GWithout name, without reason why
1 should have name, there has falle1
upon me task such as did not rest ever
upon the Father of His Country" A
various places in New York, especially a
Albany, before the Legislature, which ten
dered him the united support of the grea
Empire State, he said: "While 1 hold my
self the humblest of all the individuals VIII
have ever been elevated to the Presidency
Ihave a more difficult task to perform thai
any of them. 1 bring true hear
to the work I must rely upon the peopl
of the whole country for support; an
with their sustaining aid even l, humbl