The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1897-02-12
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ted against Douglass for the senator
ship but without success so far as the
election was concerned, but had i'm
pressed the people with such logic and
eloquence, that when the Republican
party of Illinois was born at Bloom
ington in May 1856, his advice was
sought and his suggestions were en-
bodied in the platform.
The two questions that engrossed
the attention of the people at this
time-the Dred Scott decision and the
Kansas-Nenraska controversy, enlisted
the services of the prominent men, in
which Lincoln met his old antagonist,
Douglass in q second senatorial con-
test. Douglass securing the seat in
the senate through holdover members
in the legislature, Lincoln became the
Free Soil champion of the West.
1t was natural, that when the con-
vention of June, 1860 met at Chicago,
tnat they turned instinctively to Lin
coin as their standard bearer in the
final struggle with slavery. A can
vass, warm and bitter, followed, clos
! ing Nov. 9th, in the election of Lin
coin.
When inaugurated, March 18th, 1861
he found the rebellion organized, con-
solidated, defiant; the government
stripped of it's resources by the con-
sent of the outgoing administration.
The crisis presented two alternatives
war was one, and the surrender of
the popular will by which he was e.
lected, to whatever demands the rebel
lion in arms might dictate, but the
attorney for the people, as he was, de-
clared, "Gad did not make room for
two separate nationalities between the
Lakes and the Gulf No peaceful line
of division could be indicated or inn
agined, etc."
From the beginning of the war he
was actuated by one purpose-that of
saving the Union, but as the war was
prolonged and the destruction of sla-
very inevitable, he performed the
crowning act of the centuries by issu-
ing the Emancipation Proclamation,
Sept. %, 1862, believing it to be can
act of justice and invoked the consid-
crate judgment of mankind as he
made the Declaration of Independence
reality
Lincoln has not been generally
classed among scholars as man of
letters but his speeches and inaugural
addresses are surpassed by no one in
this or any other age. As historian
has said "that if one would study the
results wrought ont on Lincoln's mind
| by four years . stress and strain as
the head tn nation during the
civil war the second inaugural should
| be read with the first" There are
passages here that are matchless in
| English lltera ire
In his second inaugural he no long
er pleads with the wavward children
who insisted on fighting but rather
llamenting the acts that they had
brought upon themselves. He closed
with the following eloquent words:
'Fondly do we hope, fervently do we
pray that this mighty scourage of war
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God
wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled up by the bondman's two
hundred and fifty years of unrequited
toll shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be
paid by another drawn by the sword,
us it Was said three thousand years
ago, so still it must be said, that the
judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether With malice
toward none, with charity for all, with
| frmness in the right as God gives us
to see the right, let>us strive to finish
the work We are in, to bind up the ma
tion's wounds, to care for him who
has borne the battle, and for his
widows and orphans, to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and
with all nations"
April 9th Lee surrendered, the
Union and it's flag safe, and the North,
| from the east to the west joined in one
Joyous acclaim that the war was over.
In the midst of this season of happi-
ness the great attorney for the people
was stricken down by the hands OF an
assassin April Ia. and no words can
picture the grief of the nation as these
tidings went forth.
The man and the hour had come
and gone. Like the great leader of
old he was only allowed to view the
land of promise "from Nebo's lonely
mountain and Pisgah's lofty height"
and not allowed to 60 in, but was laid
to rest on the banks of the Sangamon
with many tears,-while his grand life
and good works will live on forever IN
the memory of his people.