The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-15

learned the lesson of compassion and Oft
en- as that lesson was repeated. and fraught
with anguish, as ii more and more became.
this lover of his kind never lost the sweet
ness of soul that characterized him while
he meekly bore the hardships of his child
hood Small wonder is it that his sensitive
spirit early led him to seek companionship
of the forest and the stream; small wonder
that so soon there fell upon his heart the
shadow when; though OTTER stirred f by the
never lifted. The wonder is that the harsh
experiences of his infancy left him free
| from the bitterness that cankers the germ
of life in the bud or kills or withers its
| flower in the bloom.
Removed in boyhood from his home in the
wilderness in Kentucky to a home in the
wilderness of Indiana, want was his COM
! panion still and grief did not forsake him.
Yet his sojourn in this State must ever have
| been hallowed in his memory, for it was
| here that she whom he reverently named
| sanity entered his life, encouraged his
| struggles after knowledge and clothed him
| with an affection he had not known and
| which blessed him all the rest of his days.
How much he owed to his stepmother
Lincoln Well knew. and over and over again
confessed with tender gratitude. but the debt
her love ana watchful care of the future
savior of his country laid upon that country
and its people to the remotest pOsterity has
never been adequately measured or appro-
priately expressed. W hen the American Re-
public shall have commemorated in tiawlesS
stone its greatest benefactors, if a just pro-
portion shall have been preserved. no shaft
1t shall have raised will longer arrest the
raptured gaze than that erected to perpet-
uate the memory of the gentle woman who,
far more than his own, was Lincoln's
mother.
The ultimate political convictions that
bound Lincoln were the long results of ev-
olution. In their gradual development may
be discovered the hand OF a mighty pur-
pose. breaking down one after another the
obstructing barriers of previous opinion
and. by the stress of circumstances, bend
ing to its service a shrinking temperament
His first declaration of principle in 1892
ignored subject human bOnd-
age. With the assassination of LOvejoy to
spur him on. he would. in 1887, go no
further than to declare that slavery was
impolitic and unjust and ne then depre-
Gated anti-slavery agitation and denied
the power of Congress to in
the States. For the next decade
he took no advanced position upon the
question that was more and more e eng
AbOlitionists presented a candidate for the
Presidency, Lincoln did not support him;
he did not advocate the cause of the Lib
erty party of 1874; he did not lend his aid
to the Free Soil party in 1S4S or in 1852
During that period he was a Wing. though
in none of those years had a Wing plat
form declared against slavery, and, al
though in 1852. it protested against any
effort to continue or renew the agita-
ton Of slavery questions. which ii de-
sas-Nebraska bill. in 1854, drove Lincoln
no further than persistent opposition to
convention of 1856, he considered conserva-
tive expressions IN the platform, and in his
speech there advised moderate conduct in
the campaign. and having in that mas
terly Grafton expressed himself in terms he
subsequently regarded as 100 radical. he
is reported 10 have been well pleased that
his speech had escaped publication. Yet
that inspired utterance. whose full import
Lincoln did not then perceive and whose
prophecies he was afterward inclined 10
doubt, was the determining event of his
career-the baptism that consecrlted him
to & cause whose champion he had never
hon 10 hs Ifx- fsorporra Il
him to a course he had never thought to
pursue.
culiar mission had visited his brain. AT
no time in his life indeed. did he entertain
a suspicion Of such appointment He dis
couraged those who first desired 10 propose
him for the presidency. On his nomina-
ton he saw portent of n task u."inely
assigned to him. When the trem endous re-
sponsibility imposed upon him by election
weighed him down. the travail of his spirit
not rendered more endur7ble by any
self-assurance of divine assistance and di-
rection. Urged TO issue the mancipation
proclamation, and assured that this was
clearly the will of God he answered IF IL
is probable that God would reveal His will
TO others point connected with nv
duty, IL might be supposed he would re-
veal IL directly TO me-" and the p-)Ciama-
ton was issued only after the most ca refuI
consideration of its practical effect. Even
then he was uncertain concerning it, for
two years later he said. LAS affairs have
turned out. II Is the central act OF my adj
ministration. He who feels himself cCm-
missioned of God has no such doubt an6
holds no such language. Yet the proclama
ton was the Will OF Providence. and Linco
was the instrument chosen by Providanc,
to execute that will,
Up TO the time OF Lncoln's removal to
/ Illinois. and, indeed for a long time after
ward. there was given no sign OF his fu.
ture. He was still only
THE man who sped the woodman's team
And deepest sank the plowman's share
And pushed the laden raft astream
OF fate before him unaware
But his necessities continued to pres
| upon him and his griefs increased in mum
Der and in poignancy. No holier nor any
more intense. ever sWelled a human breas
than that which burst in n:oans from Lin
coins lips at the death of poor Ann Rut
lidge- II cannot bear for the storm TO beat