St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-02-21
Gbe Californian.
ABRAHAM LINCoLN-Isoo-Isso.

County, Kentucky but 1OT the as
sassin's bullet he might be living to-
dav in the fi1llness of a fame wider
and rarer than had been won by any
other American since Washington.
Indeed, as we grow further away
from the colonial period of which
Washington was the grandest pro-
duct and the great republic looks
back on the history it has made so
rapidly, Washington seems to be get
ting idealized and removed from hui
man svmpathies, while Lincoln s
equality to far greater ex1genc1es
than Washington had to meet and
the breadth and power of his purely
American manhood make him the
supreme figurei in our grea test history
and in our continental development.
We can best realize how much this
nation has lived through within the
four-score wears since Lincoln was
born. when we reflect that one of the
New Workers who was a leader in the
law and a power in politics before
Lincoln was really known here and
who went to Chicago to help nOni-
nate Lincoln in 1860, is still in the
fi1llness of intellectual vigor and &C
tivitY and tomorrow celebrates his
S4th birthday We refer to David
Dudley Field
1t was not until Lincoln's great
debate with Douglas, in 1853, that
the former was known by the people
of this region. Three years before
that time two members of the pres
ent Senate, John Sherman and Justin
S. Morrill,, entered the House and
both had won national regulations
before Lincoln disclosed his matchless
powers as debater and gave to the
republican party the most resistless
arguments for its principles and poll
cies. Sherman and Morrill, are still
leaders of the Senate, while Nathan
iel P Banks member-elect of the
Fifty-first Congress, went to the
House in 1853 with a national repu-
tation and added greatly to that
reputation as Speaker of the House,
before Lincoln's national career had
opened.
Lincoln was slow in developing the
powers that proved to be equal to
emergencies such as Webster could
not see dimly and family, as by a
prophets vision, without a horror
that his great intellect could not en-
dure- How thoroughly prepared
Lincoln was how superior he was III
sagacity to all his contemporaries !;
how noble was the simplicity of his
faith in republican principles; how a
humOr as rare as ever relieved the
severest stain endured by any of the
worlds great rulers, masked q WIS
dom that never failed how thorough
representative he was of the purely
American character that was devel-
oped in the then West, and how he
comprehended all sections and their
peculiarities-theS facts and much
besides the american people are learn
ing more and more, especially through
the loving labOrs of his two private
secretaries, Hay and Nicolay, who
had such unique opportunities for
knowing him in all moods and III all
his relations, and who are presenting
so many new data, in the way of his
own letters and memoranda, on
which the worlds judgment can be
formed.
AS the inside history of Lincoln, as
President, comes more and more
to light, we see more clearly, how
easily he rose above all the great
men with whom he was brought in
contact. He was supreme whenever
he chose to be. Seward and Chase
found that he was their master III
wisdom, tact, resources and charac
ter. Even Stanton had to yield on
the few occasions when Lincoln was
thoroughly aroused by some act or
declaration of his masterful subordi-
nate that angered him. Mcclellan,
Grant, Sherman, Halleck, Sheridan,
and the rest of our military leaders,
found Lincoln was a natural Stratc-
gist, modest as he was in undertaking
to interfere with details. The Grant
and Sheridan memoirs show how
quick Lincoln was to recognize the
magnificent fighting qualities of the
two men who virtually destroyed
Lees army and ended the rebellion.
Year after year the memory of Lin
coin becomes Il greater and dearer
fact in the consciousness of every
American The celebrations of his
birthday are becoming more common
and more interesting Lincoln clubs
are multiplying; Lincoln statues are
to be found in many of our cities.
That by St Gaudens, in Chicago, is
by far the most faithful likeness and
the nOblest work of art. 1t is worth
going to Chicago to see, SO nobly
does it embOdy the ideal and the act
ual Lincoln, as 1t stands fronting a
wide and splendid avenue, in the
southern end of Lincoln Park, which,
in all its varied beauty, seems conse-
Grated to the memory it perpetuates,
while the waves of the great inland
sea beat against this lovely pleasure
ground of the people to whom Lin
coins form was so familiar.
But Lincoln's words can best and
most pcrpetuate his fame and i'm
mortalize the man in his relations to
humanity. On this his birthday,
especially, it is fitting that his match
less and deathlcss Gettysburg Grafton
should be read and learned by heart"
by old and young. 1t should be read
in all our schools and in every family
Here it is, all of it-and no other
mortal ever made a speech that can
be considered its equal:
-Four score and seven wears ago
our fathers brought forth upon this
continent new nation, conceived in
liberty and dedicated to the propo-
SitiOn that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged i'll a great civil
war, testing whether that nation, or
any nation so conceived and so dedi-
Gated, can long endure. We are met
on great battle field of that war
We have come to dedicate a portion
Il, N,..Il ii
for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. 1t is
altogether fitting and proper that