The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-03-02
A QUESTION or HEREDlIY AND
FACT

D,
cally object when contemporary ho'
only garbles our articles for the pur'
pose of criticism but to make that crit
icism more prominent, attacks the Wiz
tue of respectable family. Two arti-
cles appeared the other day In IHE
STATESMAN, one of which attempted
to show that the royalties OF men de-
PENDED as much on blood as the quar-
tiles of horses depended on ploou'
the other wag comment ON
Individuality in which Mr.. Lincoln
was mentioned as "the highest type
of manhood"
The San Antonio Express ID swift
to point out the Inconsistencies in the
two articles which Is evidently so UNI
fair, IL that paper had not attacked The
virtue of a good and noble woman, we
would have been content to let 1t
alone, but 1t would not be right to
leave such Islander unanswered.
The Express asserts that Mrs. Lincoln,
the mother of Abraham Lincoln, was
"a woman of easy virtue"
That paper after arraigning THE
STATESMAN for inconsistency, says:
LincoIn's mother was an uncouth,
uncultured woman of easy virtue.
His father WAS q member OF the "po'
white trash" of Kentucky,-a man
who worked in the field with negroes
and took his pay in old clothes, bacon,
corn meal and moonlight whiskey.
If che testimony of neighbOrs Is to be
believed, LincOln's parents were not
married when he was born they had
Just "tuk up together" Yet of such
an ancestry came "the highest type
of manhood"-a man with the wit OF
Swift, the analytical mind of Socrates,
the courage of Cromwell, the humility
of q saint and the heart of q child!
Did ssceptered sovereign ever beget a
grander son? Can the "blue blood" OF
this great world produce the peer OF
the Glove child born in a Kentucky
cabin? "Blue bloOd?n Where are its
Shakespeares and its Millions? its Ger
vantes and its Swifts? its EdisOns
and its Fultons? its Napoleons and its
Cromwells? its Guatamas and its
Christs?
II Ia trua the article enlngises Lin
coin with the "wit of Swift etc, but
that Is poor compensation for the
charge that his mother wasa "woman
of easy virtue" Lincoln would have
been infamous if he had not resented
such charge with all the indignity
of his nature. No kind of personal
compliment would haze soothed the
deep wound inflicted by a reckless
pen, especially when the statement is
untrue. Mr.. Lincoln was poor man
but he married woman of great force
of character and Mr.. Lincoln often at
trlbuted any force of character and
honesty OF purpose in himself to an
inheritance and training by his
mother. Ii might be difficult in the
early settlement Of Kentucky to find
a marriage license but the whole life
of such woman as Lincoln's mother
is q refutatIon OF the charge made by
the Express of her being "womGn OF
easy virtue
A reading of the two articles refer
red to by The Express would show
that they needed no defense of their
consistency, and we would not have
considered 1t worth while to reply but
in the vindication of woman of high
character, whose purity has never be.
fore been doubted, and about whose
grave rests the glory OF great mater
nifty. The freedom of the press is the
greatest guarantee of personal liberty,
but the license of the press to smirch
pure and virtuous family whose
members are held in the very highest
esteem can not be regarded by the
most leinent less than an attempt to
vindicate bastardy by smirching the
character of the mother of great
man. We confess 1t is inexplicable to
us why any man desires to ennoble
bastardy, and we can only attribute
this SANDER to an unwarIanted
jealousy Of an unoffending con-
temporary. The onlything that
makes us care for that is to
regret that such animosity to us would
induce any man in al! this broad land
to brand the mother of Abraham
Lincoln as "a woman of easy virtue"
We have been aware of the fact that
lately the San Antonio Express had,
like Ishmael, its hand against every
body and seemed to be pleased to run
muck, but it has also held lance at
rest and visor down to defend any
Northern man, and on that account
we were more surprised that it would
lend it's columns to attempt to snatch
from the brow the laurel Of a noble
maternity whose son was stamped
with the highest viltures and who in
herited from her those qualities that
made him a man among men one of
"the highest types If manhood"
OUR STATE UNIVERSITY.
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