New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-04-22
Li,,cot,, Memorial Services.

The following is the address deliver
ed by Judge B. F. Weber at-the Lin
coin memorial services held at Turner
Hall, New Ulm, on Tuesday evening,
April Is 1885:
This is not the time nor place to st
tempt an extended review Of the life
of him whom we commemorate to-
night, nor am I the man. No such re-
view is necessary A quarter of a GEN.
tury has silenced the voices of political
hate and the voice of treason, and his
tory has placed his name and bio
graphy in their true light, and every
schoolboy knows it by heart. Many Of
the men who lived and labored with
him 7or their country's salvation still
live and labor for their country's pros
perity and look back with pride upon
every effort of theirs to aid him in the
great conflict which has made his name
immortal; many, too, still live who
were arrayed on the opposite side in the
great conflict, and among them all,
from ocean to ocean, and from the
lakes to the gulf, not one can be found
I to speak of Abraham Lincoln except in
terms of praise. Let us then tonight
remember the acts of him and those
who labored with him in gratitude; let
us forget the acts Of those who fought
and labored against him. and remember
only that those of them who are now
living are citizens of our own great
country, and that it was to retain them
as citizens that he gave his labors and
his life. Let US rejoice that
from them we hear now only expires
sions of loyalty and patriotism, and let
us hope that all those expressions come
from the heart Does any one doubt
that if the life of Abraham Lincoln
could have been spared to this time that
his highest qualification and pride
would have been to see every man,
those that are white and those that are
black, those residing in the north and
those residing in the south. those who
fought for the Union ard those who
fought against it citizens of the same
great nation in the enjoyment of free
dom and of equal rights9
As we read of the course pursued by
Mr. Lincoln during that memorable
conflict, after the lapse of twenty
years, and in the light of the success
that attended his course, we scarcely
comprehend the power of his mind, the
GOODNESS of his judgment or the firm
ness of his purpose. To appreciate the
man we should reproduce, in our minds,
the condition of the country and of pol
ltical parties of the time of his election
and Inauguration; we should recollect
that at the time of his election there
were four candidates in the field and
that while Mr.. Lincoln had plurality
of the votes there was large majority
against him; that in all the Southern
States those who voted against him
were not merely political opponents but
deadly enemies; that those who oppos-
ed him in the North opposed him with
bitterness before unknown in the his
tory of political parties; that even
among those who supported him, when
business became paralyzed by the ap-
pearance of grim-visaged war, when
it was no longer doubtful that the long
threatened experiment of accession
would actually be tried, thousands re-
GREETED their action and had it been pos
sible would gladly have changed their
votes. So great was the reaction that
Wendall Phillips required the protec-
ton of the police to save him from vio-
lence for expressing his we'll known
sentiments in the Republican City of
Boston, and George w. Curtis was
compelled to cancel his appointment to
deliver political lecture in the Repub-
lican City of Philadelphia for fear of 4
riot.
! Not only among the masses of the
people had this reaction been felt, but
it had extended to Congress, and, with
the hope of appeasing the South, that
body had shown its timidity by passing
in both houses, by more than two.
thirds vote, resolution favoring such
an amendment of the constitution as
would FOREVER prevent any interfer.
ance with slavery and thus render that
institution perpetual and beyond all
power of the general government; and
this resolution received the support OF
such neutrality-suspicious. as JohnScher-
man of Ohio. Schuyler Colfox of India
ma, Charles Francis Adams of Massa.
chusetts and William Window of Min
nesota. l refer to these men in no
disrespectful spirit but as an illustra-
Vi Luc cAClLcuutuL IudU SlcZcu stuNl
carried away the people and statesmen,
in the presence of the impending peril
and the great responsibilities resting
upon them.
In this state of the country, in the
darkest home of those dread months
preceding the clash of arms, when ev-
cry dispatch was expected to bring the
news that the flow of blood had COM
menced, with = defiant and we'll orga-
nized foe before him, with a disorga-
nized and discordant mass of political
enemies and timid friends behind him;
with a full sense of the mighty respon.
sibilities resting upon him he bid adue
to his friends and started on his peri
lous journey to the national capitol
! In the midst of all these embarrass-
ments, when the wisest statesmen in
the country hesitated and doubted; with
the eyes OF all mankind resting upon
him, with all the horrors of civil war
confronting him on one side and the
dismemberment and ruin of this coun-