Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-08-02
Social Distinctions.

| uaIped Just now the name Of Abraham
lincoln. Were you aware that the " Auto
crat' prophesied Of him ? He did 1t wa
gwen this social seer, in one Of his inspire,
moments, to say something like the following
Ii has happened hitherto, so far as my lin
tied knowledge goes, that the President o
the United States has always been what nigh
be called, in general terms, gentleman. Blu
what if at some future time the choice of the
people should fall on one on whom this title
could not by any stretch of charity be con.
ierredY This may happen how soon the
future only knows Think of the miserable
man of coming political possibilities, the un.
presentable boor, sucked into office by an ed.
dy in public sentiment. Think Of him, and
OF the concentrated gaze Of good society fixed
upon the wretched object etc. Now the
crisis so pathetcally described was, as you
know, close at hand when these words were
written. The hour and the man were almost
here. James Buchanan, who, according to
all the Autocrats rules, was a gentleman,
went out, and Abraham Lincoln, who could
not have stood one Of his tests, came in. He
came Immediately from a two.story house
originally from a log.hut He was unprc-
sentable. lie was a boor. He sat with his
legs crossed His hands did not take kindly
TO French gloves. All good society could do
at his advent was to turn its eyes away from
the spectacle, and sigh for the days of the
"old public functionary." But the new Pres
ident happened to have his head and hands
full of eminently serious matters, and never
heard that he was made as "wretched" by the
sentence Of this august tribunal as our author
had anticipated.
lie was not gentleman; he was only the
truest patriot and the whitest soul the world
has seen for centuries He was not Il gen
tleman; but high and low, the rich and poor,
ran clamoring to him in the hour of mortal
danger; and he led this nation, not haughtily
as the old.time leaders did, but humbly, as
the new-time leaders must, through the val.
ley of the shadow Of death. lie was not a
gentleman. He never had the training of
schools; but he spoke those words at Gcttys-
burg which one Of the severest literary critics
OF the day pronounced the finest that ever fell
from human lips, and he penned that last
inaugural, which a world read in solemn
silence, as if with presentiment that it was
his dying prayer. Those sentences were
shaped on no academic model Their inspira-
ton was caught by intercourse with a circle
OF spirits more select than academicians, and
they have taken their place among the few
utterances which will live while the world
lives, whether there be conscious effort to
preserve them or not and stir and strengthen
the divinity in man till the race is no more.
Not gentleman, but martyr; one of those
Of whom the world and the glory Of it are
not thought worthy, and we seek his prototype
IN vain among the kings OF men, because
because-where do we seek it Did any Of
you, ! wonder, read Of his simple entry into
the city Of his enemies welcomed only by
the blessings of those common people who
heard Of his coming so gladly; and then OIL
the base hand that smote him on Good Fri
dry night, without an awe-struck remem
brance Of another martyr, whose death wa
found expedient that another nation nigh
not perish o, my children, to whom it ha
been given to see with your young eyes thi
pre-eminent example, why not choose thi
night, whom you will serve whether tn
mlncDg Mammon Of fashionable worship, o
Him who led this greater son Of our father
in the cloud and through the sea