Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-27
Lincoln's Fame.

Inc following are the closing words OF
the life of Lincoln, the final instalment
of which appears in the February Century:
General W.T.. Sherman has repeatedly
expressed the admiration and surprise with
which he has read Mr.. Lincoln's CORES
pondence with his generals, and his
opinion of the remarkable correctness of
his military views. General W. F. Smith
says:
81 have long held to the opinion that
at the close of the war Mr.. Lincoln was
the superior of his generals In his compre-
hensior of the effect of strategic move
ments and the proper method of following
up the victories to their legitimate conclu-
sion.
General J. Il. Wilson holds the same
opinion; and Colonel Robert n. Scott, in
whose lamented death the army lost one
of its most vigorous and best trained in
tellects, frequently called Mr.. Lincoln the
ablest strategist Of The war.
''To these qualifications of high literary
excellence, and easy practical mastery of
affairs of transcendent Importance, we
must add as an explanation of his imme-
diate and worldwide fame, his possession
of certain moral qualities rarely combined
In such high degree In one individual. His
mount from his horse in forest to replace
in their nest young birds which had fallen
by the roadside; he could not sleep at
night if he knew that soldier-boy was
under sentence of death; he could not,
fuse the prayer of helplessness in distress.
Children instinctively loved him; they
never found his rugged features ugly; his
limited. He was absolutely without
prejudice of class or condition. Frederick
Douglass says he was the only man of dis
tinction he ever met who never reminded
him by word or manner of his color; he
was as just and generous to the rich and
well born as to the poor and humble
thing rare among politicians. He was toll
Grant even of evil; though no man can ever
have lived with a loftier scorn than of mean
ness and selfshness, he yet recognized their
existence and counted with them He said
one day, with a flash of cynical wisdom
worthy of La Rochefoucauld, that honest
craftsmanship was the employment Of in
dividual meanness for the public good He
never asked perfection of any one; he did
not even insist for others upon high stand
ards he set up for himself At time be-
fore the word was invented he was the first
of opportunists. With the fire of reform
er and a martyr in his heart he yet pro-
ceeded by the ways Of cautious and prac-
tical statecraft. He always worked with
things as they were, while never relinquish-
ing the desire and effort to make them
better. To hope which saw the Delec-
table Mountains of absolute justice and
peace in the future; to faith that God In
his own time would give to all men the
things convenient to them, he added a
charity which embraced in its deep bosom
all the good and the bad, all the virtues
and infrmities of men, and patience like
that of nature, which In It's vast and fruit
full activity knows neither haste nor rest.
ga character like this is among the
precious heirlooms of the Republic; and
by a special good fortune every part of the
country has an equal claim and pride in it.
Lincoln's blood came from the veins of
New England emigrants, of Middle State
Quakers, of Virginia planters, of Kentucky
pioneers; he himself was one of the men
who grew up with the earliest growth of
the. Great West. Every jewel of his mind
or his conduct sheds radiance OH each por-
ton of the nation. The marvellous sym
metry and balance of his intellect and
character may have owed something to this
varied environment of his race, and they
may fifty typify the variety and solidity of
the Republic. 1t may not be unreasonable
to hope that his name and his renown may
be forever bond of union to the country
which he loved with an affection so i'm
partial, and served-in life and in death
with such entire devotion