The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-01-22

The Rev. DR. Howard Duflield. deliv-
cred an Grafton on Abraham Lincoln
before the Michigan Club, at Detroit.
Monday eight, from which we take the
following, which will, we think,
be read with interest 10y all
admirers of the nartyred President;
"A generation ago the question Who
was Abraham LincolnY would have
brought different answer from all
quarters of our country. From the
East would have come the answer, He
is the nominee of all parties-and of
none From the West, the answer,
He is an experiment. From the
South, He is gauntlet flung into the
face of our most sacred institutions.
The southland in that day was spelling
for the fight. From the Abolitionists
came the answer, He is compromise.
The strong abolition sentiment OF the
day could not forget the fling at the
fugitive slave law in the District of
Columbia. But today ask this same
question: vision is conjured into life
of solemn face, of holy grandeur,
that grand brow, firm-set chin, scored
lines, whole, wonderful countenance
over which the sunlight played as 1t
plays over the deep sea. And this
vision grows brighter year by year un-
til Abraham Lincoln may be fairly rep
resented rs the grandest figure crowd
ingthe historical canvas of our times.
The life force of this man was packed
into the fateful four years that swept
over our country. 1t was a war not of
the red and white rose, not of state
against state or land against land, but
of those grand principles of freedom
and liberty wrung from the best
progress of the ages. Lincoln fully
appreciated the tremendous situation,
when he said: The fiery ordeal through
which we are passing will be flashed
down the ages for all time to come.
'Lincoln's coadjutors were worthy and
profound men, of rare gifts, but they
soon found one and all that Lincoln was
master of them all And when Lincoln
set the iron of his personality against
their bascr metal, the miracle of
the early ages was repeated, and
the iron was made to swim. But
among all these men Lincoln stood
alone. His vision swept wider horizon,
| his voice sounded truer note and the
anchors of his faith held in deeper
waters. From early days his was a
silent life. His earliest tutors were the
fields and running streams. A simple
life of Washington and Esop's Fables
these only were his early books. With
such a schooling this untutored boy in
after life grasped and settled questions
which might well have taxed the best
energies of the worlds greatest diplo-
mats. That boy, who made his first
stump speech from an empty keg, did
not fear to cope with Douglas, IN
whose hands the dry details of cam
paign were transformed into tale
equal in beauty and interest to one of
SCOTS novels. His military expert
once be himself has set up for ridicule;
yet his grasp of military principles
was SO great that his plan, finally adopt
ed by Grant, was the one which brought
the war to close He steered with II
singular skill between too much haste
and too much idleness. He would not
waste time trying TO set IA hen until the
hen was ready to set In the forefront
of every frowning battle loomed his
manly form, and in the rear of every
honored retreat his inspired words of
consciencel Lincoln never spoke his
hurts, but turned away the poisoned
arrows of his enemies by his invincible
humor. For four long years he kept
his tireless watch at the White House,
where, without the pomp and circum-
stance of war, he fought out those silent
battles of principle which were often
wrought out well nigh with tears of
! blood!
Lincoln was man who watched the
coming of the breakers of public opin-
ion, and when they broke he always
managed TO be swimming on the top.
His hold on the people was twO-fold-
his purposes were perfectly transparent,
and he never dissembled to friends or
to enemies. He knew nothing of bar
rel-tapping. In one of his campaigns,
out of fund of 500, he returned $780,
%. His purpose was TO reach the peo-
pie through his conscience. Black was
black and white was white. The fires
of patriotism burned high upon the
affairs of his breast. He ever sought to
infuse into the minds of the people that
great constitutional privilege which has
come down To us from our fathers. The
solid, sound heart of the nation always
beat in sympathy with his own. Never
did he put on record harsh word
against the world He never planted a
thorn in the heart of enemy or friend.
Lincoln was a deeply religious man.
From his Bible his mother taught him
to read; and the sentences of that
Bible saturated his soul and tine
tured his thought to the end of his
days. His religious instincts were from
his mother. He never wore the garb
of any ism, but his religious instincts
were all the more clearly shown on that
account Every one of his State papers
echoes the name of God and the teach
ings of Christ.
Then came the last scene of all
Good Friday, 1865. The Cabinet met
that day. Enough of life has been
sacrificedr These were Lincoln's clos
ing words to his coadjutors of the Cab
met. The hour of peace ineffable was
about to strike. The palm of the vic
tory was about to be placed in his
hand, though he knew it not. The dead
past was gone, while before him spread
a vision of the golden future, whose
treasures he was never to know. The
pistol barrel is raised and sighted, and
the strong man bows himself at the
finger touch of Death. A few hours
hence, and as the gray twilight streaks
the East the President passes away on
the golden beams of the opening day.
| Now he belongs to the aQesl" said