The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-06-06
Il POETTCAL TRIBUTE
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
TO

dOhdI<d4h L4HOOLLN.
At the late reunion of the Society of the
Army of the Potomac, in Washington, George
poetical tribute to Abraham Lincoln. 1t is one
of the best productions Of the distinguished
journalist:
Civil soldiers, reassembled by the river of
Ye who saved the virgin city bathed in wash
ington's clear namei
Which of all your past commanders doth this
day your memory haunt?
Scott, Mcdowell, Burnside, Hooker, Meade,
Mcclellan, Halleck, Grant?
There is one too little mentioned when your
And the thoughtfui love of country dies upon
the sounding drum;
Let me call him in your musterl Let me wake
Captain by the Constitution, Abr'am Lincoln
was your chief.
Ever nearest to his person, We were his de-
fense and shield;
He alone Of your commanders died upon the
All your Generals were mis- children, leaning
on him childish-willed,
And they all were hlial mourners round the
mighty tomb he filled.
Tender as the harp of David his soft answers
When amid the cares of kingdoms rose and
fell some Absolom;
within a tent
Or the sunken sun that fingers on the lofty
monument
Like the slave that saw the sunrise with his
face toward the West.
As 1t flashed. while yet twas hidden, on
slender steeple's crest;
So while Victory turned her from him, ere the
dawn in welcome came,
On his pen Emancipation elittered like an
altar hame.~
Feeling for the doomed deserter, feeling for
the drafted sire,
For the empty Northern hearthstone and the
Z.k1-
Mercy kept him grim as Moloch, all the future
babes to free,
And eternal peace to garner for the millions
Not a, soldier, of the classics. he could see
through learned pretense,
Master of the greatest science, military com
nonsense:
AS he watched your marches, comrades,
hither, thither, wayward years,
On his map the roads you followed, you can
trace them by his tears.
In the rear the people clamored, in the front
the Generals missed;
In his inner councils harbored critic and an
But he ruled them by an instinct like the
queen among the bees,
With a wealth of soul that honeyed Publicans
and Pharisees-
Faint of faith, we looked behind us for a
chief of higher tone,
While the voice that drowned the trumpets
Ever thus. m my Old companionsi % Genius has us
by the hand,
Walking on the tempest with us, every crisis
TO command
Like the bugle blown at evening by some
homesick son OF art,
Lincolns words, unearthiy, quiver in the uni
Not an echo left Of malice. scarce of triumph
As when summer thunder murmurs in pa
thetic showers of rain.
Years forever oonsecrated. here he lived
where duties be,
Never crying on the climate or the tolls
Here his darling boy he buried, and the night
in vigil wept,
tired disciples slept.
How his call for men went ringing round the
world, mighty belll
And the races of creation came the proud re
volt to quelll
Standing in the last reaction on the rock O
human rights,
Worn and mournful grew his features in the
fash of battle lights
Once, like Moses from the mountain; looked
he on the realm he won,
When the slaves in burning Richmond knel
and thought him Washington.
Then an envious bravo snatched him from
To become a saint of Nature in the Pantheon
| of Kings.
Faded are the golden chevrons, vanished Il
| the pride of war;
Mild in Heaven his moral glory fingers LIKE
/ the morning star,
And the Freeman's zone of cotton his whitt
| l- spirit seems to be,
/ And the insects in the harvest beat his army
reveille.
| An around him spoiled or greedy, womel
| vain and honor spent,
| Stin his faith in human nature lived withou
discouragement;
| For his country, which could raise him, bare
| foot to the monarch's height,
Could he mock her, or his Mother, though he
name she could not write
Deep the wells of humble childhood, cool tn
spring beside the hut
Millions more as poor as Lincoln see the doc
he has not shut.
Not till wealth has made its canker every poo
whites cabin through.
Shall the Great Republic wither or the inhde
subdue.
| Stand around your great Commander La,
| $50 aside your little fearsi ,--s..r
| Every Lincoln carries Freedoms car along
| hundred years. =
And when next the call for soldiers rolls alon
the golden belt, -e. 1891 !.
Look to see mightier column rise and march
prevail and melt
-NorE.-The people of a city were com
| manded. by the oracle to assemble on a plail
| outside of the city. and he who nrst saw tn
| sunrise should be made King. A slave turne
| q high temple where the SUMS earliest ray
famed, and he cried: II see it" He had bee
| told to do so by wise citizen, who staid a
| home This citizen, revealed by the slave
| they made King, and he was the wisest tina
ever reigned there.