Omaha daily bee., 1890-02-25

Rooted in the Memory OF Man IL Will
Live Forever.

Rooted in the Memory OF Man IL viii
Live Forever.
United States District Attorney A..
w. Tenney of Brooklyu delivered one
of his characteristic brilliant speeches
at the Lincoln birthday dinner given
by Lafayette camp No. 140, Sons of Vet
Grams, in celebration Of the birthday of
the martyr president. General Sher-
man, General o. O. Howard and Ad-
miral Bratne were among those pres
ent. says the Eagle.
Colonel Clarkson presided and called
upon General Sherman to respond to
the toast Our Country" The grim
old veteran was in excellent humor, and
he made the boys feel happy by telling
them that they would undoubtedly make
been. Justice and mercy" said GEN
eral Sherman, "are two things which
come from heaven, but the sword is
mans symbol of authority on earth,
which makes good mercy IN the one
hand and Justice on the other.n
General o. o. Howard spoke of the
army and navy.
Colonel larkson then called upon the
principal speaker of the evening, Asa
w. Tenney, to respond to the toast
abraham Lincoln" Mr.. Tenney was
received with great applause aud his
speech was frequently interrupted with
shoutso OF appreciation from his auditors.
Among other things he said:
Mr.. Lincoln was intensely American.
He believed in government by the peo-
pie and for the people. He had no
sympathy with class distinctions or with
an aristocracy that came by chance or
had its root in spoliation and carnage.
He believed not in the birthright of
kings, but in the unalienable rights of
the people. He believed that every
man should own himself and enjoy the
fruits of his hands and brain. He be.
lieved that in the scales of citizenship
Loyalty weighed more than disloyalty.
He believed, too, in the union
OF OF ,bs states nao an IN n t me sovereignty
of the nation to save itself. And
acting upon this belief in the crucial
period of the republic he turned slaves
into men and men into soldiers, and
declared that this nation should be
saved inside the constitution, if pos
sible, outside of it if necessary. His
theory was to save the nation first and
a X care of p%archinents a%fterward.
And acting upon this theory he saved
the nation. AS an orator Mr.. Lincoln
had few equals, no superiors. And
YET ne WAS educated not In the schools,
but in the cabin. He knew nothing
of The rules of rhetoric or the
genius of gesture" He was ma
lures Orator-heaven born. His words,
pure and simple. came from his heart
and found an echo on his lips. On No
vember IA, 1868, two orators met on the
memorable field of Gettysburg. Both
were masters and matchless in their
way. One was gifted in oratory, learned
in schools and from the books, the other
was skilled in the ''witchery of speech"
as gathered from the river, the forest
and PLAIN. Both spoke. The speech of
one lies dumb and meaningless, un-
read and aforementioned, while the
speech of the other, rooted in the men,
Dry of man, and oft repeated will live
with the literature OF the race, grow
ing grander and sweeter in pathos and
in beauty as the years shall gather
around and about 1t. One was a brain
effort, the other was a heart effort.
One spoke words that were heard, the
other words that were felt. One was
art the other was genius. One was
Edward Everett, the gifted scholar Of
New England, the other was Abraham
Lincoln, the gifted railsplitter OF the
waat