The San Francisco call., 1898-02-13

V
 It Is 89 years since Abra-
 ham Lincoln was born. It Is nearly B years since he climbed to immortality. We may now impar- tially discuss his character and his acts, for time wears out prejudices, tranouilizes passions and induces men to respect the integrity of mo- tive of those from whom they have radically differed. If Wendell Phil lips were alive to-day he would propably incur no personal risk in addressing an audience in New Or leans. If Jefferson Davis were still in the flesh he would certainly be accorded a patient hearing In Bos- ton. The men of this generation can scarcely realize that less than half a century ago slavery was not only powerful but popular in the North as we'll as the South, while those who claimed themselves in fa- vor Of its abolition incurred social, the North, and insult, assault and expulsion in the South. Few post masters south of Mason and Dixon s line would have delivered a copy of the New York Tribune to a sub scriber, and few subscribers would have ventured to receive a copy of 1t except in a sealed envelope The Northern man who journeyed south ward padlocked his lips when he crossed the Potomac or the Ohio. In the streets of Southern cities slaves marched to the auction block with the clank of their manacles un- muffled, but the voice of freedom was hushed to silence, her dramas were unpresented, her songs un- sung. A despotism more drastic than that of Russia ruled in fifteen States. The vast amount of capital invested in slave property was ap- parently safely intrenched behind barriers of Judge-made law, bas- tions of commercial power and bat teries of social prestige. In all of the Southern and in many of the Northern States the great forces of society were enlisted in the inter- ests of the slave holders. The con- servative influence of the churches. always exercised In favor of exist ing authority, was allied to the prej- udices of the slums against the ne- gro. The power of the ebanks-millions upon millions of whose money was loaned upon the security of human chattels-was linked to the ambi- ton of politicians whose nomina- tion and election depended upon the favor of the slave holders. The en- ergies of merchants anxious for Southern custom and the power of a press seeking for commercial adver- Using were all massed against anti slavery agitation. The millionaire and the proletariat marched in the lock step of comrades and bowed to Dagon, and slavery officered our army and navy, ruled our courts and Legislatures and Congresses, dictated our foreign and domestic policies, dominated our political parties and selected our Presidents, Cabinets, Ambassadors, postmasters and customs officers. Yet, even with the combined power of all these forces, agitation for the abo- lition of slavery could no more be suppressed than could the waves be stopped from dashing when the storm king rides the seas, or the earth be stopped from quiverfng when internal fires throb in her fur naces.
 Radical utterances on the one side instigated utterances equally radical on the other. A Southern Senator characterized the constitu- tion of the United States as "a prof itless compact with Northern mud sills." while Garrison denounced 1t as "a league with death and cove nant with he'll" Toombs boasted that the time would come when he could call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill," and Seward de- clared that the hour was approach ing when New Orleans must cease to be a mart for the bodies and
  souls of men"
 Yet. notwithstanding, the rising tempest of agitation, the dormant and drowsy conscience of the North slept on, until the slave holders themselves aroused 1t by repeating the Missouri compromise which they themselves had enacted thirty-four years before. Their action was bit terly denounced at the time by men of all parties, yet it's logic may not at this day be justly criticized, for slavery was aggressive by that very necessity of it's nature which de- manded expansion as a condition precedent of continued existence. The world was weary of it. Pro- gressive civilization called for it's extinction. It was a relic of bar barism out of touch with the times. The nineteenth century had become for 1t the enemys country where to halt was to die, and so 1t defi- antly smote the nineteenth century In the face and marched out into the open with drums beating and colors flying. Then the freemen of inc North awoke with the spring and roar of lions aroused from slumber. Out of the farms and fac- tories, out of the forests and mines, out of the shops and counting houses they came. They formed the grandest association of freemen that the world has ever known. and they named it the Republican Par ty." For it and it's beneficent pur- poses the tongue of the orator has been kindled with fire from the al- tar For 1t the strain of the meet