The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-02-20

IAE SAUh =
all chance, and we expect the weak to
grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, and all
better and happier together. We mado
the experiment, and the fruit is before us.
Look at it; think OF It'll Look at 1t In its
aggregate grandeur, extent of country and
numbers of population.
Faith In tho People.
Lincoln believed in the uplifting infiu-
ences Of self government, and that by CIV
ing all a chance we could get higher av-s
erage results for the people than where
governments are exclusive and Opportun1-
ties are limited to the few. No American.
ever did SO much as he to enlarge these OPP
portunities or tear down the barriers which
excluded free participation in them. In
a message to congress, at the special ses-
sion converting on July 4, 1851, he gave
signal evidence of his faith in our institu-
tions and their elevating influences In most
impressive language. He said:
sit may be affirmed without extrava-
gance that the free institutions we enjoy
have developed the powers and improved
the condition of our whole people beyond
any example In the world. OF this we now
ton. Solarge an army as the government
has now on foot was never before known
without a soldier in it but who has. taken
his place there of his own free choice
Then what followed in his message is, to
me, the highest and most touching trib-
ute ever spoken or written of our match
less volunteer army of 1876 by any Amer
lean statesman, soldier or citizen from
that day to this: But, more than this,
there are many single regiments whose
members, one and another, possess full
practical knowledge of all the arts, sol
ences and professions, and whatever else,
whether useful or elegant, is known in the
world, and there is scarcely one from
which there could not be selected a presi-
dent, a cabinet a congress and perhaps
court abundantly competent to administer
the government ITSELF
What noble, self sacrificing army of
freemen he describes! The like of it man
kind never saw before and will not look
upon soon again. Their service and sac
rifice were not in vain. The Union is
stronger, freer and better than ever before
because they lived, and the peace, frater
nifty and harmony which Lincoln prayed
might come, and which he prophesied
would come, is happily here. And now
that the wounds of the war are healed may
we not tonight, with grateful hearts, re-
solve, in the words of Lincoln. that we
will 'care for him who shall have borne
the BATTLE and for his widow and his OF
phan?"
Founding Career.
Lincoln's antecedent life seems to have
been one of unconscious preparation for
the great responsibilities which were COM
mitted to him in 1860. As one of the masses
himself, and living with them, sharing
their feelings and sympathizing with their
daily trials, their hopes and aspirations,
he was better fitted to lead them than any
other man of his age. He recognized more
clearly than any one else that the plain
people he met in his daily life and knew SO
Familiarity were, according to the dictates
of justice and our theory Of government,
its ultimate rulers and the arbiters of its
destiny. He knew this not as theory,
but from his own personal experience.
Born in poverty and surrounded by OBJ
stacIes on every hand seemingly insur-
mountable but for the Intervening hand of
Providence, Lincoln grew every year into
greater and grander intellectual power and
vigor. His life until he was IL years old
was spent either in a ''half faced camp"
or cabin Yet amid such surroundings the
boy learned to read, write and cipher, to
think, declaim and speak in a manner far
beyond his years and time. All his days
in the schoolhouse 'added together would
not make single year" But every day
of his life from infancy to manhood was a
constant drill in the school Of nature and
experience. His study Of books and news
papers was beyond that of any other per-
son in his town or neighborhood and per-
haps of his county or section. He did not
read MANY books, but he learned more
from them than any other reader. It was
strength of body as well as of mind that
made Lincoln's career possible. Ill sue
/. cess only spurred him into making himself
more worthy of trust and confidence.
Nothing could daunt him. He might have
but single tow linen shirt or only one
pair of jeans pantaloons; he often did not
know where his next dollar was to come
from, but he mastered English grammar
and composition, arithmetic, geometry,
surveying, logic and the law.
How we'll he mastered the art of express
sion is shown by the incident of the Yale
professor who heard his Cooper institute
speech and called on him at his hotel to in
quire where he had learned his matchless
power as public speaker. The modest
country lawyer was in turn surprised to be
suspected of possessing unusual talents as
an orator, and could only answer that his
sole training had been in the school of .ex-
perience.
Training For Duties.
Eight years. service in the Illinois legis-
lature, two years in congress and nearly
80 years political campaigning, in the
most exciting period of American politics,
gave scope for the development of his pow
ers and that tact, readiness and self reli-
ance which were invaluable to modest,
backward man, such as Lincoln naturally
was. Added to these qualities he had the
genius which communizes, which puts
man on level not only with the highest
but with the lowest of his kind. By dint
of patient industry and by using wisely
his limited opportunities he became the
most popular orator, the best political
manager and the ablest leader of his party
! in Illinois.
But the best training he had for the
presidency, after all, was his % years
arduous experience as a lawyer travelling
the circuit Of the courts of his district and
state. Here he met in forensic contests
and frequently defeated some of the most
powerful legal minds of the west In the
higher courts he won still greater distinc-