Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-02-16
WHOLE NUMBER. 1.217.

ON the part of these able eastern Repub-
licans in Mr.. Lincolns higher intellec-
tual cultivation and quality, there was
ON the other hand something of curiosi-
ty to see and hear this man who had
overthrown Douglas, and who had crys-
tallized public opinion in the west.
The congregation that assembled in
Cooper Union on that now historic even
ing was splendid one. Many of the
distinguished Republicans brought their
wives or members of their families. Ev-
arts was there, curious to see and hear
this man of whom he had heard so much.
but for whom he had not at that time
the most admiring opinion, perhaps be-
cause of premonitions that it was Lin
coin who was to defeat the darling hope
of Evarts and of that great company of
eastern Republicans who had cherished
for four years the desire to see Mr.. Sew
ard nominated for the presidency Gov
ernor Morgan was there, and Moses H.
Grinnell, who might have been govern
or had his partner not objected, and
young Colonel Arthur, who was after
ward to be president, and Professor
Dwight, one of the profoundest lawyers
New York has ever had, and William
Cullen Bryant, even then seeming ven
erable in appearance, and, in fact, near.
ly all of those men who had been con.
spicuous in the service of the young Re
publican party i'll New York city.
Mr.. Lincoln was introduced, and very
happily, by William Cullen Bryant,
and when he stepped forth upon the
platform great throng saw a man con
spicuous above every other one in that
hall for height, with sort of awkward
grace suggested by his loose jointed fig
ure, careless Indifference to nicely i'll
his dress, his face clean shaven, homely
and his hair tossed about his head SEEM
ingly as though his fingers had been run
carelessly through it just before he arose
His appearance for the moment was not
such as to greatly impress those who
saw him. He spoke in voice pitched
upon high tenor key, but it was no.
ticed that his words were distinctly
enunciated and his voice carried easily
over that hall
His first sentence surprised the ac-
cOmplished orators and thinkers who
We're before him. They expected to hear
a fiowery, rhetorical and snowy eXor-
dium, but there was no eXordium at all
He plunged Immediately into his sub
ject, taking as his text paragraph
from speech delivered few months
before by Douglas in Ohio. Before he
had spoken five minutes these able men
perceived his intellectual strength and
began to understand why he had gained
the pre-eminence which distinguished
him i'll the west There were no flowers
of rhetoric i'll the address. but it was
noticed that the diction was singularly
accurate. simple. appropriate, and that
it was used with such remarkable fe-
licity as enabled him to express abstract
ideas so that they were understood upon
the moment of hearing.
He had that great and distinguished
audience completely in his power with
i'll few moments after he began to
speak. Curiosity had vanished, and
there came i'll its place that impressive
recognition which intellect gives to in
tellect. Before he was half through it
W do pcICSlNSu tLldb ll6 Was SGltlllS lOTtll
the tremendous issues of the day in such
a manner as had never been done in
New York, and when he had finished
these able men turned to one another
and with common thought exclaimed,
'"That is a mastery address. -
The pre- eminent ability revealed by
this address caused the profoundest i'm
preston in New York city. The speech
and the man were the chief topics of in
terest when Republicans met Oh the fol
lowing day and for many days there
after, and when the news came three
months later from Chicago that Mr.
Lincoln had been nominated for the
presidency there was probably not one
of those who heard that address who did
not recall it and find consolation in the
recollection of it for their disappoint-
ment over Mr.. Seward's defeat.
f. J. EDWARDS