The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-07-06

v as dA IACAuSnL VI Tic civil Wal a. j
o. itself most conspicuous benefit TO /
the whole country, and l believe that /
this is now generally recognized as a I
fact by the great majority of those who /
formerly honestly and earnestly de- t
Tended, or championed that institution
that was peculiar to the Southern por-
ton of the Republic. The original
founders OF the Republic and trainers
Of our constitution found slavery an
existing fact, recognized il as such, and
few, if any, of them foresaw the diff
ficulties and dangers which were sure
TO arise from the incongruity Of the
presence and maintenance of system
of human slavery in a free Republic.
But that incongruity. and in fact the
impossibility OF a permanent co-eXist-
ence of slaves and freemen under a free
| government, became in course OF
time evident, and that one or the other
must be eliminated was truth that was
| forced upon the attention of the nation
in the crisis of the struggle for the
maintenance of national unity.
Slavery was in fact, the one uniting
stone in the great column of liberty
and American free self-government. It
| endangered the entire structure, and
when the storm of civil war broke so
unexpectedly and beat so f1ercely upon
| that column. the civilized world outside
| of the scene of conflict gazed upon it,
expecting and predicting that it would
! totter TO its fall. But fortunately for the
! Republic and for the hopes of men
| that were centered upon it, not only is
| God greater than man, but in emergen-
| cies he provides the instruments that
are necessary for the preservation of
what is best in national life, and for the
| vindication and establishment OF the
cause of righteousness and justice; and
at the critical moment for the nation,
| the power to decree that slavery in free
America should be no more, was in the
hands of the man who is now the most
| loved and revered of all the lost OF
| earth, Abraham Lincoln, and he reso-
| lutely executed the purpose which he
deemed essential to the salvation of the
Republic and made real and universal
within it the proclamation, which had,
up to that time, been only of partial ap-
| plication: Proclaim liberty through
out all the land unto all the inhabitants
| thereof
| When, after the close of the great
contest, the national heart was sore
stricken beyond all precedent, by the
| the cruel assassination of the nations
chosen head, and his lifeless body was
| borne to its resting place amid ma
| tons tears, it seemed to me that that
great soul, as it went to stand before
| the judgment seat, where we must all
one day stand to plead for mercy, could
have carried in his hand no more potent
plea for forgiveness than the broken
| shackles of four millions of his liber
ated fellow men.
| 1t is we'll for nations and communi-
| ties that in the times of their need and
| trial the right sort of men asd agents
appear for their help. It is a belief, per-
| haps common one-at least it finds
| frequent expression = that the great
men of our country have passed away;
| that all the really great men have died
| from among us; that we have no more
men who are, or who might become,
| giants in craftsmanship or heroes in
war hold, however, the contrary be-
| lief; that there are always men who, in
| the event of a real occasion and need
will be found equal to any emergency
or demand l recall the fact that this
| idea that the great men are no longer
| with us or of us, is not a novel one. l
remember that soon after the deaths of
three great American statesmen, Cal
houn, Clay and Webster, who followed
| each other in quick succession to the
grave, one of our poets wrote sadly
thus:
"Lo, Carolina mourns her steadfast
pine,
/ Which like mainmaSt lowered above
her realm;
And Ashland hears no more the voice
divine
From out the branches of her anci-
ent elm;
And Marshfield's giant oak, whose stor-
my brow
Oft turned the ocean tempest from
the west,
Lies on the shore he guarded long, and
now
Our startled eagle knows not where
to rest"
But this pathetically uttered plant
of the disheartened poet was not the
expression of the truth. It was not a
fact that this nation was bereft Of it's
, guardians, or left without defenders,
because one, or another, great man or
prince had fallen in Israel. For in how
brief period was it after this lament
ing utterance that the unexpected tenn
PVoI vi IhIC1h SCCCiOLol Dul 81
upon our national horizon and blotted
out the sunshine of peace; yet just at
the crisis when their help was needed
God raised up Lincoln and his great as
sociates in craftsmanship, and under
, their sagacious guidance the nation
emerged into the clearer and brighter
light Of larger freedom, and grew to a
, stronger and better nationality; and in
the crucial hour when the angry waves
of a powerful armed rebellion beat most
, fiercely on the imperiled foundations
of our national constitution and govern
ment, then came such soldiers as Grant
Sherman and Sheridan and the threat
, ening pillows were rolled back as the
rock rolls back the wave. Let no good
no righteous. cause ever despair of find