New-York tribune., 1895-02-13
PART IL.
PAGES II TO IA.
MIR. DEPEW AT BURLINGTON
HIS EULOGY ON ABRAHAM LlNCoAN'

Tim p,..1Nrsr OF THE PLAIN PEOPLE. THE
r,rpo,c AND MAJESTIC FIGURE OF THE
GREAT NATIONAL CRISIS.
rx rr,rGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.l
,,,.,,rgton VT, Feb. 12.-Lincoln's birthday was
,,ade tbe occasion for the first annual meeting
a,d banouet Of the Young Mems Republican
Cruh of Vermont. and the Queen City to-day has
been thronged with host Of representative young
republicans and many distinguished party lead
ers Burlington has never seen so brilliant and
cultured an audience assembled within its beaut-
full opera house as that which Chauncey NJ. De-
pew faced when he to deliver his Grafton on
Abraham Lincoln Seated upon the stage were
President Foster and the officers Of the Young
Mems Republican Club, Governor Woodbury.,
Leutenant-G Governor Mansur, President Buck
ham, Of the University of Vermont ex-Governors
Barstow Ormsbee, Stewart and Page, Colonel W.
Seward Webb General j. G. Mccullough. Mayor
Van Patten and other city officials the clergy or
the city and prominent business men. Inc ooAe'
were occupied by Mrs. w. Seward Weoo' MIS-
Ormsbee, Mrs Van Patten and many "o"'ei
prominent in society. Portraits OF Lincoln anu
Denev eraced the stage The young Republican
clubs from the various counties were sea'eu al
the bodv Of the opera house. and when their
enthusi. site greeting President Foster, In pre-
sentins Mr. Depew made we-consdered and
forcefu address which closely listened TO.
Governor Woodbury. then made few appropri-
ate remarks. and gave the young Republicans
some excellent advice. Mr.. Depew spoke in part
as follows:
The tendency in all times has been for the people
to grow so far apart from their National heroes
that the hero becomes impossible. We cannot live
with perfection cannot have the canaraderie
of personal communion with saints. The force and
effect Of continuing leadership is to be In touch
with the leader. We have ideaZed already the
worthless of the Revolutionary period and especially
Washington that they out OF the pale OF
humanity. To they never possessed the foibes
and weaknesses which are common to our race
doubt II Washington ever did had occasion at
the time of the Centennial study closely his char
acter and 1t was impossible to lower him
to any plane where horizontal view could be had
OF him. In the camp and in the cabinet, In the
Continental Convention and around the campfire
In the midst his soldiers at the, mess with his
staff. he always the same dignhed, majestic
and unapproachabe figure For the times in which
he lived for the mission TO which he was destined
these lofty characteristics were appropriate Inc
Revolution knew little of the fierce Democracy Ihe
classes and the were distinctly defined and
separated The pride of BIRTH of ancestry and
landed propretorshp was never more distinctly
asserted and never more generally recognized III
is probable that for the purpose of bringing the
wealth and the intelligence OF the country 10 the
support Of the patriot 1t was pecessary that
one of this class who was infinitely superior TO MS
fellows and whose aim and ambition were only his
country and its liberties, should lead the movement
The processes of evolution OF democracy Tor one
hundred years had created a condition where wash
inrton would have been failure In the civil war.
Abraham Lincoln, his opposite In every re-
spect because he was different, was the most
successful leader of any revolution OF modern or
ancient times.
LINCOLN'S GREATNESS
As we study the characteristics which made Lip
coin great and successful, We find them not In tho
usual gifts OF great statesmen Others have been
more cultivated others have had more genius DINERS
have had more experience and training. but none
of any time had the motive power or every
action an ndomitable and resistess moral force
You may call 1t the principle OF natural religion or
whatever you may. 1t an instinct for the right
a comprehension Of justice. a boundess sympathy
and compassion, an intense and yearning love for
his fellows and their welfare which knew neither
rank nor race, but gathered within its charity all
mankind. The force and effect Of this power In
Lincoln can be best illustrated by the contrast be-
tween him and his great antagonist Douglas.
Douglas was born in Vermont; about him were all
the influences OF this liberty-loving ana nteihgeht
common wealth; his father was clergyman, a col
lege graduate, a of brains and culture, and his
mother a worthy helpmeet for her minister hus-
band Every authority of environment ana atmos-
phere was for right, justice and liberty His strug-
giles with poverty not those which enervate
or degrade but those which inspire men OF hore'
energy, ambition and genius to the e1orts WHICH
make career His natural abilities trained IN the
best of schools made him teacher. a lawyer. a
Judge a legislator. Senator and the leader OF MS
party II made him the ablest Of debaters In the
United States Senate. the most formidable OF Toes
upon the platform In political campaign, and the
most adrot OF politicians in framing issues wnich
In y0nn-
dtion of the country's affairs when great moral
questions were not AT issue Stephen A. Douglas
would have been President
Lincoln on the other hand, born in a slave
State the OF poor white. and lived during MS
early youth in a cabin Of one room. under conditions
of abject poverty and ignorance. His mother died,
his shiftless father moved to Indiana, log cabin
was erected which had neither partitions nor floors
and scarcely windows or doors. a few acres were
cleared TO get the bare necessares OF life, and al
most at the period of manhood Lincoln had edu-
cation, dressed In skins. was associated with
semi-savages who relieved the hard conditions OF
their lives by brutal debauches and equally brutal
fehts among themselves. and yet he remained un-
contaminated by the drinking. swearing idle loafers
rouehs or thugs who constituted his companionship
Iis energies would be shown occasionally with his
enormous strength in protecting the weak or rescu-
ing the defeated, and a promise of his future pow
ers given by holding spellSound at times his rough
auditors by his rustic eoquence. or entertaining
them at night with his endless fund or anecdote
drol,cry and mirnicry An Unsuitable craving foi
knowledge led him to learn to read and write The
only books within miles about him were Robinson
Crusoe" q short history OF the United States
Weems Life OF Washington" and Bunyan's 'Pil
grim's Progress" These he soon knew by heart
This master Of the English tongue this most felci
tous OF phrase makers. this most eloquent Of speak
ers. framed his sentences and formed his style b.
writing compositions with charcoal upon wooder
shovel or the shingles from the mill. a clerk In
store on starvation wages. a storekeeper withou
capital. and his business sold out by the sheriff.
surveyor earning $40 SIS month. and a lawye
with no other equipment than Blackstone" and th