Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-04-14
Abraham Lincoln.

What other piece of the nations good
fortune equals this,-that against the
scene of Its supreme four years there
stands out in strong relief the character of
II man rare as the blossom of century
plant. A man worthy to be the typical
and rcprcsentivc figure of democracy.
! Wise with the wisdom of the common peo-
pie; guided always by two counsellors.-
the voice of the people, and eternal right
the flavor of mother earth in every word
and look; dear to the fireside; wiser in
the cabinet than all his ministers; plant
IN his means to every new emergency;
ineXorablc toward his great end as fate it.
self; bearing in his heart the agony of
every battlefield and the sorrow of every
stricken mother; reverent of legal form,
but knowing that law was made for man,
not man for law; ambitious for the burden
rather than the crown; with patience
like that of the hills; full of danger to
the evil against which he set himself like
the danger of the slowmoving glacier to
whatever bars its progress; sad with
lifelong sorrow; for four years the leader
of the American people, for all future
years their inspiration.
Atevery point of bis history, Lincoln is
as picturesque as he is great. He charms
that higher imagination which the pencil
can but little serve. The first reading of
the emancipation proclamation has been
| pictured, but the elements which gave
significance to the scene defy the artist.
1t is strange now to think that for year
Lincoln had been under that fire of criti-
cism and denuncation, not only from the
foes OF unity and freedom, but from many
OF their high minded friends. The en-
thusiasts and idealists, how they assaled
him for his slownesS and inertness! The
silver tongucd orator who had champoned
the slave, now lashed " the slave hound of
! illinois! Lowell wrote about " having
to hoist your captains heart up with der
rick" The New York Independent as
sailed him in II series of editorials, after
reading which he rose from his chair with
the indignant exclamation, Am | a
dog?' They thought, these fiery gentle
men, that the national ark was being
drawn by Il slow and stupid OK, whom
they must goad to quicker pace. He
bore it us he bore everything.
At last one day he called his cabinet to-
gether They met, no man of them sus.
pectng what was TO come. Fancy the
looks OF the company decorous Seward,
and grave Chase, and fiery Stanton, 81
when the president Touchdown Artemas
Wards book and read them chapter,
shaking his sides with laughter as he read
Then TINS lnscrutable jester, with sudden
gravity, told his august councillors he had
summoned them TO listen to Il document
us TO whose substance his purpose was IT.
revocably fiXed-and read them the eman.
clpallon proclamation.
Sometimes even yet one hears Lincoln
spoken Of us if his kindness of heart was
the compensation for his want of great
intellectual qualities,-a strangely shallow
Judgment His political speeches, in.
cIudlng those before he was president,
deserve the closest study, both for matter
and manner. The little book OF CLEAN.
ings called The presidents words" has
not Il few passages which every Young
American ought to learn by heart. Lin
coins craftsmanship was of precisely the
kind most serviceable in republic 1t
was an Interpretation of the best thought
and deliberate will of the common people.
1t was rooted in u profound allegiance to
moral right, but as to the ways of reach
ing that right it took close and constant
counsei with the traditional spirit of our
institutions, and the living voice of the
nalloh. The common people, to whom he
belonged, have done him full Justice.
They trusted rim in his life, and they
appreciated him from the hour of his
death. When Charles Francis Adams
spoke of him di,plragngly in compari.
son with Seward it hurt the speakers rep
utatlon more than any other act of his lie.
The people recognized with true instinct
something shallow in II Judgment that
could SO mistake, and they resented an in
justice to the memory of Abraham Lincoln
us warmly Us IL wife resents IL slight to her
husband. Lowell made atonement for his
earlier mistake in ono Of the stray pasaoes
OF his greatest poem. Nature, he saws,
worked by no old pattern when this man
was made -
For him her old world molds aside she threw
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast
} OF the uuexhausted west,
With stuff untanted shaped hero new
WISE steadiast in the strength OF God and true
HIS was no Lively mountain peak of mind
Trusting to thin air DER our cloudy bars,
: A sea mark now, now lost in vapors blind;
Broad prairie rather, genial level-lnel
Fruitful and friendly for all human kind
Yet also nigh to Heaven and loved of oftiest stars
-Hprtnlfeld Repu6tjcan.
A PERPETUAL CALENDAR.-Tho fol.
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