Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-05-03
SgAisekllamn.
Abraham Lincoln.
SPEECH OF 1T. GOV. wooDroRD.


The German Radita Central Committee
of New York City, commemorated the sec
oud anniversary of the death Of ABRAHAM
LINCOLN, on Monday evening, April 10Th,
1867. The proceedings showed the respect
in which the German population held our
late martyr President. Most of the
speeches were made in German. The
principal speech in English was most
excellent one by 1t. Gov. Woodlord of
that State, which we copy as follows =
TO be great among men wins the ap-
plau-e of the living to be good commands
the approval of posterity. To be both great
and good, by the State honored, an by
our children to be beloved, is the fortunate
lot of Abraham Lincoln No fact so thor
oughly attests the love and appreciation
with which our people hold his memory as
/ this, that even now his name is only
coupled with that of Washington !; and we
speak of Washington as the father and
Lincoln as the saviour Of our country.
And yet forever linked a. their names will
be, they were unlike in birth, in fraining.
and in character. The one was of the best
and purest blood of aristocratic Virginia;
the other was from the " despised white
trash y of Kentucky; fiie one elegant in
person, eourtly in manner, and educated to
the habit Of command, was the type of the
old school gentleman and statesman; the
other ungainly in presence, quaiat in hu-
NOR, and honestly angular in speech and
manner, was still, take him all in all, the
best type of democratic manhood which
our Institutions have produced. Great
applause. If Washington was the fit in
strument to lead in the struggle agans,
the Mother Country, so was Lincoln in his
birth, in training, and nature, the fit rep
resentative of free labor 10 lis last and
compulsory crusade against slavery and
slaveholding aristocracy.
We may mourn over the sacrifice which
the irrepressible coafict between our di-
verse forms of society compelled. II was
we'll when the conflict came that the ban
ner of free labor was borne by him who
was the purest and most faithful working
man of US all. Great App ause.] As we
meet TO commemorate his worth and work
we instincIively recall his birthplace in the
poor log-caoin in Kentucky then the new
home in the wilderness of Illinois, the hard
struggle Of his boyhood for bread and
books, the farm labor, then the fat-boat.
the country store, till we come to his pro-
fessional triumphs in the courts of the viii
lage justice, his political success in the
State Legislature, and the long patient
effort which placed him in the very fore
front at the bar Of Illinois. Then we re-
call the canvass against Douglass, wherein
the ideas Of the infant republican party
found such utterance in his quaint yet elo-
quently logical words that, although defeat
ed at the polls, he was still victor, and
lifted himself from local celebrity into ma
tional recognition. Then we remember his
unexpected nomination at Chicago and his
triumphant election to the Presidency of
tbs nation. But the picture darkens. He
leaves for the last time his home at Spring
field with these words: go to resume
harder duties than have fallen upon any
President since Washington. Ny friends,
pray for me, that may have strength to
do my duty" He did his duty, how well
and nobly you-all know. He held unwav-
eringly his faith in the patriotic purpose of
the people and the ultimate providence of
! God. To him was given the sublime for
tune to speak the word that made our
nation free. He lived until the crushed
rebellion dropped its arms and sued for
mercy until, like the lawgiver of Israel,
he looked fom Pisgah's top upon the
promised land of peace, of liberty. of JUS
tice, and then, his labors done, slept with
the fathers. We remember the joy of our
triumph, and then the horror of the dark