The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-02-24

I
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
carry too much sail, lacks prudence, has toe
/ much courage. The ballast of dizziness In
| spires confidence.
| by a happy chance Lincoln was nominated
| and elected in spite of his fitness-and the pa
| tent, gentle, just and loving man was called
| upon to bear as great a burden as man has
ever borne. After the proclamation OF enamel
! patton was signed Lincoln held it, waiting for
some great victory before giving it to the world,
| so that it might appear to be the child of
/ strength. This was on the 22d of July, 1852 On
| the 22d of August OF the same year, after Lin
| coin wrote his celebrated letter to Horace
| Greeley, in which he stated that his object was
! TO save the union; that he would save it with
1 slavery if he could: that if it was necessary to
/ destroy slavery in order TO save the union he
| would In other words, he would do what was
necessary to save the union.
This letter dsheartened to great degree
| thousands and millions of the friends of free
/ dom. They felt that Mr.. Lincoln had not at
/ tanned the moral height upon which they sup
| posed he stood. And yet when this letter was
! written the emancipation proclamation was in
! his hands. and had been for thirty days wait
! ing only an opportunity to give it TO the
world. On the I'D day OF September, 1862,
the most glorious date in the history of the re-
public the proclamation OF emancipation was
/ of all argument upon the question OF slavery
Z and freedom-a generalization that never has
( been and probably never will be eycelled.
"In giving freedom TO the slave we assure
freedom to the free. This is absolutely true.
I Liberty can be retained and can be enjoyed
! only by giving it to others. The spendthrift
saves, the miser is prodigaL In the reamof free
, dom waste is husbandry. He who puts chains
upon the body OF another shacEles his own
1 soul The moment this proclamation was is
/ sued the cause of the republic became sacred.
From that moment the north fought for the
| human race From that moment the north
stood under the blue and stars, the flag Of
/ nature-sublime and free.
| ''In 1881 Lincoln saw in New Orleans a colored
| girl sold at auction. The scene filed his soul
/ with Indignation and horror. Turning to his
! companions, he said: Boys, II ever get a
! chance to hit slavery III hit it hard The help
/ less girl unconsciously had planted in great
! heart the seed of emancipation.
"Thrty-one years afterward the chance came;
! the oath was kept, and to 100000 of slaves, Of
! men, women and children, was restored liberty,
: the jewel of the soul. In the history, in the
/ fiction of the world, there is nothing more in
| tensely dramatic than this
! Speaking of Lincoln's character, Col
/ Ingersoll said:
strange mlngling of mirth and tears, of the
! tragic and grOtesque, of cap and crown of Soc
: Aurelius, OF all that is gentle and just, humor-
Gus and honest merclful, wise, laughabls, low
able and divine, and all consecrated to the use
E Of man, while through all and over ali were an
overwhelming sense OF obligation. Of chivalric
loyalty 10 truth, and upon all the shadow of the
tragic end
! NEARLY all the great historic characters are
! impossible monsters disproportOned by fat
! terry or by calumny deformed. We know moth
inc of their peculiarities. About these oaks
there clings none of the earth Of humanity.
( Washington is now only steel engraving
About the real man who lived and loved and
hated and schemed we know but little. The
glass through which we look at him is of such
/ high magnifyiuc power that the features are ex-
ceedingly indistnct
Hundreds of people are now engaged in
smoothing out the lines of Lincoln's face-forc-
: ing all features to the common molG-so that he
may be known, not as he really was, but, &C
: cording 10 their poor standard, as he should
! have been.
Lincoln was not type. He stands alone
I no ancestors, no fellows and no successors. He
was a many-sided man, acquainted with smiles
and tears, complex in brain. single in heart
direct as light, and his words-candid as
mirrors-gave the perfect image of his thought
. He was never afraid to ask, never too dignifed
TO admit that he did not know. No man had
keener wit or kinder humor. 1t may be that
humor is the pilot of reason. People without
humor drift unconsciously to absurGity.
. Humor sees the other side, stands in the mind
3 like a spectator, a good-natured critic, and
gives its opinion before judgment is reached.
Humor goes with good nature and good nature
is the climax OF reason In anger reason
abdicates ard malice extinguishes the torch
Such was the humor of Lincoln that he could
+ tell even unpleasant truths as charmingly as
most men can tell things we wish 70 hear. He
was not solemn. Solemnity is 4 mask worn By
7 ignorance and hypocrisy il is the preface, pro-
! logue and index to the cunning or the stupid
He was natural in his life and thought mas
ter of the story-tellers art; in illustration apt;
| in application perfect: liberal in speech, shock
| ing pharisees and prudes, using any word that
] wit could disinfect. He was an orator, clear,
sincere, natural lie did not pretend He did
/ not say what he thought others thought, but
! what he thought
If you wish to be sublime you must be nat
! ural-you must keep close to the grass You
must sit by the freside OF the heart Above
the clouds it is too cold. You must be simple
in your speech, too much polish suggests insin-
/ cerity'
Referring to Lincoln's gentleness Col.
/ Ingersoll said:
Men submitted 10 him as they submit TO ma
! ture-unconsciously. He was severe with HIM
I sci and for that reason lenient with others. he
I appeared to apologize for being kinder than his
1 IellONS. he Olu Lntfcnui inlu9S a. Sltdi luA4y
| as others committed crimes. Almost ashamed
of tenderness, he said and did the noblest words
! and deeds with that charming confusion that
/ awkwardness, that is the perfe grace Of mod
1 esty.
| "a great man STOPPING. not wishing 10 make
! his fellows feel that they were small or mean
| BY his candor, by his kindness, by his perfect
! freedom from restraint, by saying what he
| thought and saying il absolutely in his own way,
he made il not only possible bat popular TO be
! natural He was the enemy Of mock solemnity