Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-02-22
tanned the fact. From the hour Abraham

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 q moment
when he did not dominate the political
and military situation and his official
subordinates. The idea that he was over
matched AZ any time by anybody is con-
tradicted by all that actually happened.
Lincoln and the South.
L want to say just here Il few words
about Mr.. Lincoln's relation to the South
and toward the people of the South.
He was himself Il Southern man. He
and al his tribe were Southerners. Al
though he left Kentucky when the merest
child, lac was an old child; he never was
very young; he grew to manhood in q
Kentucky colony; for what is Illinois,
what is Chicago, but Kentucky colony,
grown somewhat out OF proportion? lie
was in no sense what we used to call "a
poor white" Awkward. perhaps; niger
less, certainly, but aspiring; the spirit of
hero beneath that rugged exterior; the
imagination of poet beneath those heavy
brows; the courage of lion beneath
those patient, kindly aspects; and, long
before he was of legal age, leader. His
first love was Rutledge; 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 q poet; for have
we not that immortal prose-poem recited
ct Gettysburg? We know that he was 4
statesman; for has not time vindicated
his conclusions? But the South does not
know, except as a kind of hearsay, that
he was n friend; the one friend who had
the power and the will 10 save il from
itself. The direst blow that could have
been inflicted upon the South was deiv-
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
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 geometric progression. rs it were, each
advancement following in regular order
one after the other, the whole obedient TO
well-cstablshed and we'll understood laws
of cause and effect. They were not what
we call men of destiny" They were
men of the time" They were men whose
careers had beginning, 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.
There is no exploitation to their lives. They
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 n memory, half NOR
tai and half myth. From first to last they
were the creations of some special Provi-
dence, battling the wit of man to fathom,
defeating the Vaccinations of the world.
done, passing from the scene as 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 Greek chorus as at once
the prelude and the epilogue of the most
imperial theme of modern times.
Born as lowly as the Son of God, in
of hot oncfr-t 1
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; it was reserved for this strange be-
ing late in life, to be snatched from OBJ
security, raised to supreme command at a
supreme moment, and intrusted with the
destiny of 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 1t
is immaterial whether we were for him or
against him-wholly immaterial That,
during four years, carrying with them
such 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 to his mission
Where did Shakespeare get his genius
Where did Mozart get his music? Whose
hand smOte the Tyre of the Scottish plow-
man, and stayed the life of the German
priest? God, God and God alone; and
as surely as these were raised up by God,
inspired by God, was Abraham Lincoln:
and a thousand years hence no story no
tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with
greater wonder, or be followed by man
kind with deeper feeling, than that which
tells of his life and death