The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-13
A PALTRY FALsEHOOD.

Lincoln was as little known when he was
nominated for President as Grover Cleveland"
This same lie has been more than once printed
and spoken as an excuse for the discovery of
Mr. Cleveland and his elevation to the Presi-
dency. OF course it is lie, and the men
who speak it and write it know that it is a
lie. To demonstrate its falsity is not to
impeach the possibilities of Mr.. Cleveland,
Lincoln from stain sought to be put upon it
for an unworthy purpose, and to acquit the
Republican party of taking up an unknown
man without a record at supreme crisis in
its own and the country's history, when a
man was needed whose position and
convictions were thoroughly known
and understood. In 1860 the Repub-
lican party was not looking for an
unknown man; for man who was not known
to be abreast of the advanced and advancing
thought of the times upon the then dominant
question that was rocking the country
from center to circumference. William FL.
Seward was IN the party mind, because of his
great abilities and high standing, and his sup
posed radicalism upon the question of the ex-
tension Of slavery into free territory. But
his Rochester speech-deemed timid, and
hating, and two faced-turned the hearts Of
the great Northwest from him, while there
4bo Oh hfx TOO, D+,r kolx
identified with the sinuosities of New York
politics, even then in dsrepute. Salmon P.
Chase was another prominent man, but he
was regarded as too much of politician.
Edward Bates, of Missouri, was thought of by
those who hoped to compromise with the hungry
and thirsty Democratic tiger, but he was a
stakeholder, and that settled him. There
were a few others, of lesser note and standing,
but the great heart of the party in the Mid
die and Western and Northwestern States
had been turned toward another figure, which
had grown into much prominence by debate
in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas, in 1858,
the influence of which had penetrated to the
furtlest confines of the North, at least. But
he was known even before that. In 1856 he
had received 10 votes for president,
standing second to William L. Dayton, who
was nominated on the ticket with Fremont.
He strobe to the front in that memorable ma
tional discussion with "the Little Giant" in
which, following him over the country, with
the trenchant blade of irresistible logic he not
only overpowered his great antagonist, but
won his way to the nomination at Chicago,
and to the triumphant election by
the people in the following November.
Mr. Lincoln's tour in the wake
of Douglass, and his trip to New York, where
he delivered his address in the Cooper Insti-
tute, were an ovation from start to finish. He
went through crowds of men at every station,
town and city en- route; men earnestly excited
over the arrogance of the slave power; men
who saw the lowering cloud, no larger than a
mans hand, perhaps, but which they felt to
be full of portent. The simple, sturdy, force
full words of the plain man from Illinois went
to the hearts of the masses who heard him,
and by the time he reached New York, months
before the meeting of the Chicago convention,
his name was on every lip as a possible presi
dental candidate and his utterances were dis
cussed in all the newspapers of the country.
Mr. Lincoln was as we'll known as any man
in the Nation when the Chicago convention
met, and It's nomination was but the formal
record of a verdict long before reached by a
great majority of the voters of the Republican
party. Neither Seward, nor Chase nor Bates,
nor any other man, could have so touched the
heart of the people, and evoked 50 instantaneous
a response and so devoted a support as Abra-
ham Lincoln. He had, been for years as
voice crying in the wilderness. The voice had
been heard, and the North was ready and
eager to enlist under his banner in the new
evangel of freedom.
To talk of Abraham Lincoln being as I'M
known when nominated as was Grover Cleve-
land, is foul and false attempt to belittle
one of the greatest figures in the worlds his
tory; it is an effort to wrap the robes of an i'm
mortal about the form of one for whose awk
wardness and lack Of fitness even his friends
feel forced to apologize. AS We have said,
the indignant rebuke of such a blasphemy-
considering the spirit in which it is uttered
does not, necessarily, belittle Mr.. Cleveland,
or argue against his ability to fill fairly well
the executive office. But it is to vindicate his
tory, and to defend the greatest of American
names from prostitution TO petty and con
temptible use.
A WRITER to the Louisville Courier-Jour-