The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1895-02-21

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lie delivered that inaugural address "A
II he had been delivering inaugural adj
dresses all his life. Firm, resonant. earn.
est, 1t announced the coming of n man.
OF II leader of men, and in it's ringing tones
and elevated style the gentlemen whom
ne had invited to become members Of his
political family-each of whom Mt bottom
thought himself his masters equal or su.
periof-mlght have heard the voice and
seen the hand of one born to rule. Wheth-
or ihey did or not they very soon ascer-
tanned the fact. From the hour Abraham
Lincoln crossed the threshold of the White
House to the hour he went thence to his
tragic death there was not Il moment
when he DID not dominate the political
ana military situation and his official
subordinates. The idea that he was over
matched ut any time by anybody is con.
tradictcd by all that actually happened.
Lincoln and the South.
l want to say just here u few words
about Mr.. Lincoln's relation to the South
and toward the people of the South.
lie was himself Il Southern man. He
ana all his tribe were SOuthcrners. AL
though he left Kentucky when the merest
child, he was an old child; he never was
very young; he grew to manhood in a
kentucky colony; for what is Illinois,
what is Chicago, but n Kentucky colony,
grown somewhat out of proportion? tie
was IN no sense what we used to call "a
poor white Awkward, perhaps; Niger
less certainly, but aspiring; the spirit of a
nero beneath that rugged exterior; the
imagination of n poet beneath those heavy
broWs; the courage of a lion beneath
those patient. kindly aspects: and. long
before he was of legal age, a leader. His
first love was Il Rutlcdgc; his wife was a
Todd.
Let the romancist tell the story of his
romance. | dare not. No sadder idyl
can be found in all the annals of the poor.
We know that he was Il poet; for have
we not that immortal prose-poem recited
at Gettysburg? We know that he was a
statesman: for has not time indicated
his conclusions? But the South does not
know, except as Il kind of hearsay, that
he was a friend: the one friend who had
the power and the will to save it from
itself. The direst blow that could have
been inflicted upon the South was deliv-
cred by the assassin's bullet that struck
him down.
Throughout the wild contention that
preceded the war, amid the lurid passions
that attended the war itself, not one bitter
or narrow word escaped the lips of Abra-
ham Lincoln, whilst there was hardly a
day that he was not projecting his big,
sturdy personality between some South
ern man or woman and danger.
The Laws Of Inspiration.
From Caesar to Bismarck and Glad
stone the world has had its statesmen and
its soldiers-men who rose to eminence
and power step by step, through a series
of eeometric progression, as it were, each
advancement following in regular order
one after the other, the whole obedient to
well-establisled and well-understood laws
OF cause and effect. They were not what
we call 'mcn of destiny" They were
men of the time" They were men whose
careers had a beginning, N middle. and
an end, rounding of lives with histories,
full it may be of interesting and exciting
events. but comprehensive and compre-
hensible; 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 know not.
l ltIt Is IIo AiIll'ItloIl w tHtl il'tS MY
rose from shadow and they went in mist.
We see them, feel them, but we know
them not. They came, Gods word upon
their lips; they did their office. Gods man
tie about them; and they passed away,
Gods holy light between the world and
them, leaving behind a memory, half NOR
tai and half myth. From first to last they
were the creations of some special Proyi-
dence, battling the wit of man 10 fathom,
defeating the Vaccinations of the world,
the lesh, and the devil, and, their work
done. passing from the scene rs mystic
riously as they had come upon it.
Tried by this standard where shall we
find an illustration more impressive than
Abraham Lincoln. whose career might be
chanted by Il Greek chorus as at once
the prelude and the cpiloguc of the most
imperial theme Of modern ines.
Born as loWly as the Son of God. in q
hovel; of what ancestry we know not and
care not; reared in penury. squalOr, with
no CLEAN of light or fair surroundings
without external graces, actual or acquir'
ed: without name or fame or official train
ing: il was reserved for this strange be.
ing. late in life, to be snatched from oh.
security. raised to supreme command at Il
supreme moment, and intrusted with the
destiny of a nation.
The great leaders of his party, the most
experienced and accomplished public men
of the day, were made to stand aside;
were sent to the rear, whilst this fantas'
tic figure was led by unseen hands to the
front and given the reins of power II
is immaterial whether we were for him OF
against him-wholly immaterial. That,
during four years, carrying with them
such a pressure of responsibility as the
world never witnessed before, he filled the
vast space allotted him in the eyes and
actions Of mankind. is to say that he was
inspired of God. for nowhere else could he
have acquired the wisdom and the grace
Indispensable 10 his mission.
Nyla.a- Ia SLnCnSnGu 70 got his NnniuSt