Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-06-27
THE PEERLESS AMERICAN
c~raouatlon Essay Of Mr.. Harry Carthew

dred and NIFTY years seems ilhe d oii'4
time compared with the centuries IN
which Norman. Saxon and Dane have
been fusing into the English race.
Yet we have something to show when
great names are counted, something
to remember when great deeds are
told. Abraham Lincoln stands with
out a peer among Americans-Aes.
even among the names OF the world.
1t has been said that his career a.
American manhood reprodu. ID in II
man. Born in poverty and raised IN
obscurity he proved by his trlum-
plant assent that circumstances are
not the masters but the servants OF
men, not the creators but the con-
ditions of an all conquering mind.
Raised in the backwoods far from any
institution of learning. he had no in
structor and attended no school ex-
cept that of experience. He learned
his lessons from life and in active con-
tact with every order of the human
mind; he learned the conditions
through which he passed and incor-
porated them into every fibre OF his
own being. At successive stages OF
his life he felt and thought Just as
each condition of the American has
felt aud thought. He became the
veritable mirror OF every phase OF
human life. Sprung from the COM
mon people he was v separated
from them BY official position. The
simplicity and heartiness of his life
were never spoiled by the stiffness
and formality OF imported court ETH
quette. No other man ever - = N
pletely won the love and trust OF the
popular heart. Upon his rugged
countenance was reflected the glory
and purity of the soul within. Ma
poleon schooled his looks and dis
charged his face OF expression that no
man might read his thoughts but
Lincoln needed no such veil over his
honest face to hide that soul. which
he fearlessly threw open to the gaze
of angels and men. Grant was the
worlds leader of war without an oath,
Lincoln the worlds leader Of all Lead
ers without deceit. His honesty was
% pure, so transparent that friend
and foe were compelled by the might
of its irristible majesty to bow before
it.. But if the soul of n seraph dwelt
in the form of a Satyr in the glorious
old Socrates. in the ungainly figure OF
Lincoln dwelt the Respondent beauty
of virtue %unequalled in living man be-
fore. In him was a most forgiving
soul, which pleaded for every soldier
who had made a slip in military dis
cipline and pleaded not in vain. He
was above all things a man. strong,
resolute and modest. to great to be
proud. No ruler by divine right ever
had more true dignity, no common
laborer more true humility. As
Wordsworth says in one of his beauti-
full poems:
True dignity abides in him alone.
Who, in the silent hours of inward
thought.
Can still suspect and still revere himself
In lonliness of heart"
As Abraham Lincoln. ne never for
got that he was president, as presi-
dent. he never forgot that he was
Abraham Lincoln. He possessed that
rare sense OF humor which is usually
found in the greatest minds. inthose
dark DAYS OF civil war, nothing aided
him so much in bearing those heavy
burdens for his country. Other men
dispaired, but when the darkest and
most threatening clouds lowered above
us, he never lost hope, his trust was
above. Never once during those four
long years did he move from the path
OF duty or deyiate from the course of
right, as God gave him to see the
right. He was one of those men APP
pearing at rare intervals, of COM
handing greatness, who, standing al
most alone and seemingly independ-
ent OF human sympathy. yet bear the
pressure of nations and shape the
destiny of centuries. The fear de-
picted upon the faces of other men
only served 10 strengthen his own
courage. The opposition of thousands
at home and abroad only made him
more firm in the right. with malice
toward none, with charity for all.
with tirmness in the right, as God
gives us TO see the right. let us strive
to finish the work we are in, to bind
up the nations wounds, to care for
him who shall have borne the battle,
and his widow and orphans, to do all
which may cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all
nations" In what more fitting Ian
guage can an American citizen con-
secrate himself to the momentous and
unending work OF the republic? No
president either before or since ever
dared to select a really great cabinet;
he chose his rivals to be his advisors
easily towering above them all. With
nearly every president there are mas
tiers in the cabinet. but with Lincoln.
all the cabinet combined could not
move him when he saw that duty was
at stake, The greatest crisis of his
life as all know. was the proclamation
of freedom. Many urged him to de-
clare it earlier. many to DELAY, but
he waited till the high noon OF Amer
lean history had struck, then with a