Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-04-16
MISCELLANEOUS.
Abraham Lincoln.

COL. WATTERSoN'S GREAT LECTUR,
ON THE WAR PRESIDENT, SHOW
ING HOW LINCOLN ROSE FRON
PERJURY AND WANT TO TIL,
Chief Mdgistrdcy OF A GREA'
NATION. WITH TOUCHING PA
THOS AND SPLENDID ELoQUENC
wATTERsON DECLARES THAT LIN
COLIN WAS INSPIRED. THE Lee
TURE IN FULL.
The statesmen in knee breeche!
and powdered wigs who Signed tn,
Declaration of Independence anC
framed the Constitution--the soldier
in blue and buff, top-boots aud epau
lets, who led the armies of the Revo
lution-were wont to describe as gen
tlemen. They were English gentle
men. They were not all, or ever
generally, scions of the British aris
tocracy; but they came, for the
most part, of good Anglo-Saxon and
Scotch-Irish Stock.
The shoe buckle and ruffied shirt
worked a spell peculiarly their own,
They carried with them an air of
polish and authority. Hamilton,
though of obscure birth and small
stature, is represented by those who
knew him to have been dignity and
and grace personified ; and old Ben
Franklin, even in wooden hose, and
none too courtier-like, was the de-
light of the great mobiles and fine la
dies, in whose society he made him
self as much at home as if he had
been horn marquis.
When we next revert to that epoch
the beauty of the scene which his.
tory unfolds is marred by little that
is uncouth, by nothing that is gro
tesque. The long procession passes
and we see in each group, i'm every
figure, something Of heroic proper
ton. John Adams and John Han
cock, Samuel Warren and Samuel
Adams, the Livingstons, in New
York, the CAROLS, in Maryland, the
Masons, the Randolphs and the Pen
dletons, in Virginia, the Rutledges,
in South Carolina - what pride of
caste, what elegance of manner,
what dominancy of character. And
the soldiers: Israel Putnam and
Nathaniel Greene, Ethan Allen and
John Stark, Mad Anthony Wayne
and Light Horse Harry Lee, and
Morgan, and Marion, and Sumter,
gathered about the immortal Wash
ington - Puriton and cavalier so
mixed and blended as to be indis-
the one from the other
shall we go to seek a more
resplendent galaxy of field marshals I?
Surely not to Blenheim, drinking
beakers to Marlborough after the fa-
nous victory; nor yet to the silken
marquet of the great Cond @
on the Rhine, bediZened with gold
lace and radiant with the flower of
the nobility of France! Ah, me !!
there were gentlemen in those days !;
and they made their influence felt
upon life and thought long after the
echoes of Bunker Hill and Yorktown
had died away, long after the bell
over Independence Hall had ceased
to ring.
NEXT A RACE OF PARTY LEADERS.
The first half of the Republics
first century the public men of
America, distinguished for many
things, were chiefly and almost uni
versally distinguished for repose of
beariug and sobriety of behavior.
1t was not until the institution of
African slavery got into politics as a
vital force that Congress>became a
beer garden and that our law makers,
laying aside their manners with
their small clothes, fell into the loose
fitting habiliments of modern fash
ion and the slovenly jarg0n of parti-
san controversy. The gentleman
who signed the Declaration and
framed the Constitution were sue
ceeded by gentlemen-men like them
selves-Dut these we're succeeded by
a race of party leaders very much
less decorous and very much more
self-confident rugged, puissant /;
deeply moved in all that they said
and did, and sometimes turbulent ;
and when the volcano finally burst
forth flames that reached the heaven,
great human bowlders, appeared
amid the glare on every side; none
of them much to speak of, according
to rules regnant at st. James and
Versailles; but all of them are vigo.
rous, brainy men, full of their mis-
sion and themselves, and pulling foi
dear life in opposite directions.
There were Seward and Summer
and Chase, Corwin and Ben Wade
Trumbull and Fessenden, Hale ant
Collamer and Grimes, and Greedy
our latter day Franklin. There were
Toombs and Hammond, Slidell anC
Wigfall, and the two little giants
Douglas and Stephens, and Yansey
and Mason, and Jefferson Davis
With them soft words buttered M
parsnips, and they cared little how
many pitchers may be broken b!
rude ones. The issue between then
did not require diagram to explain
it. 1t was so simple a child coul'
understand. 1t read, slavery agains
human freedom, slave labor agains
free labor, and involved conflict a
inevitable as 1t was irrepressible.
COMPROMISES OF NO AVAIL.
Long before the guns Of Beaure
gard opened fire upon Fort Sumpte