The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-08-19
LINCOLN, THE IMMORTAL.

LINCOLN, THE IMMORTAL.
A Great Democratic Editors EuIOgy of
the Martyr President-Watterson Grand
Tribute.-The Democratic Platform
Maker on the First Republican Presi-
dent.
From Caesar to Bismarck and Glad
stone the world has had its soldiers and
its statesmen, who rose to eminence and
power step by step through a series
of geometrical progression, as it were,
each promotion following in regular or
der, the whole obedient to well estab-
lisfed and well understood laws of cause
and effect. These were not what we
call "men of destiny" They were men
of the time. They were men whose ca
reer had beginning, middle and an
end, rounding off life with history,
full, it may be, of interesting and excit-
ing events, but comprehensive and COM
prehensive, simple, clear, complete.
The inspired men are fewer, Whence
their emanation, where and how they
got their power, and by what rule they
lived, moved and had their being, we
cannot see. There is no exploitation to
their lives. They rose from shadow and
they went in mist. We see them, feel
them, but we know them not. They ar
rived, Gods word upon their lips,
they did their Office, Gods mantle
upon them, and they passed away, Gods
holy light between the world and them,
leaving behind memory half mortal
and half myth. From first to last they
were distinctly the creations of some
special providence, battling the wit of
- cal lofnafin1 thn frNnahi N
tions of the world, the flesh and the
devil until their work was done, and
passing from the scene as mysteriously
as they had come upon it; to wit;
Luther, Shakespeare, Burns, even Bona
parte, the archangel of war, havoc and
ruin; not to 90 back into the dark ages
for examples of the hand of God
stretched out to raise up, to protect, and
to cast down.
Tried by this standard, and observed in
an historic spirit, where shall we find an
illustration more impressive than in
Abraham Lincoln whose life, career and
death might be chanted by Greek cho-
rus as at once the prelude and epilogue
of the most imperial theme of modern
times?
Born as lowly as the Son of God in a
hovel; of what real parentage we know
not; reared in penury, squalor, with no
CLEAN of light, nor fair surroundings; a
young manhood veXed by weird dreams
and visions, bordering at times on mad
ness; without grace, natural or ac-
quired; singularly awkward, ungainly,
even among the uncouth about him;
grotesque in his aspects and ways; it
was reserved to this strange being, late
in life, without name or fame, or prepa-
ration, to be snatched from obscurity,
raised to supreme command at a SUI
preme moment, and intrusted with the
destiny of nation.
The great leaders OF Tt4s party were
made to stand aside; the most expert
enced and accomplished men of the day,
men like Seward and Chase and Sumner,
statesmen famous and trained, were
sent to the rear, while this unknown
and fantastic figure was brought by I'M
seen hands to the front and given the
| reins of power. 1t is entirely immaterial
whether we believe in what he said or
did. whether we are for him or against
him. that, during four years, carrying
with them such pressure of RESPONSE
bility as the world has never witnessed
before, he filled the measure of the vast
space allotted him in the actions of man.
kind and in the eyes of the world, is to
say that he was inspired of God, for no.
where else could he have acquired the
enormous equipment indispensable to
the situation.
Where did Shakespeare get his genius?
Where did Mozart get his music? Whose
hand smote the Tyre of the Scottish
plowman and stayed the life of the Ger
man priest? God alone, and, as surely
as these were raised up by God, inspired
of God was Abraham Lincoln; and, a
thousand years hence, no story, nc
tragedy, no epic poem will be filed with
greater wonder than that which tells OF
his life and death. If Lincoln were not
inspired of God, than were not Luther
or Shakspere, or Burns. If Lincoln
was not inspired of God, then there is nc
such thing on earth as special provi-
dence, or the interposition of divine
power in the affairs of men.-From Hen.
ry WdtterSon'S Louisville COurier-JOur.
| nal.