The San Francisco call., 1898-02-13
5 A BRILLIANT GRAFTON BY THOMAS FITCH.

N serve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.''
 What more comprehensive state ment of the duty of the hour than the familiar sentence, With mal- ice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness for the right as God gives us to see the right"
 There are many words of Lincoln so fitly and grandly said that they will burn in the sky of history like fixed stars, even when the master pieces of great orators shall have vanished with their train of rhetor- ical splendors into space. There are ideas of his which victorious arm ies have placed upon their eagles and carried to grander fruition than ever prophet foretold or poet dreamed. Never was ruler or. rep resentative truer to trust than he. His reigning animating purpose was to preserve the geographical integ- rity and political unity of the United States of America, and his determination to extend the bless ings of freedom to every human be- ing dwelling beneath the shelter of our flag was an OutgroWth of the original design. He never lost sight of this purpose. He was conserva- tive when the premature adoption of radical measures might have alienated the wavering and weak ened the Union cause. He was rad ical when the power of time and circumstance had crumbled the bar riers of prejudice which for years had obstructed the road to justice.
 His individualism was never ab- sorbed or subverted even by the genius and power of the great men who daily counseled him. Without being egotistic or dogmatic or stub- born, he was firm. He took each mans counsel and preserved his Judgment" Without previous train ing in the conduct of public affairs, he was called upon to grasp the reins of government when the char iot of state was rocking amid the convulsions of war. But he kept steady hand, and neither the terri fled counsels of OCT cautious con- servatism, nor the demands Of un- thinking and improvident zeal could drive him from the road along which he believed the safety of the nation demanded he should guide his countrymen. It was his prfv1- lege to select the best policy for the time. and his gift of discrimination was marvellous. He stands ap- proved by the popular Judgment. both of his times and of later his tory, as seldom having made mis- take. He was sometimes deceived in his Judgment of men, but he was hardly ever at fault in his Judg- ment of measures. Understanding the American people better than many men of more experience in statesmanship, he never entertained a doubt as to the final issue of the contest. When disaster encompassed us and defeat hurled back our arm les, he called for more men. Sus- tained by his imperturbable trust in the righteousness of our cause and in the power and willingness of the people to meet all requirements, he pressed steadily onward to that perfect consummation of national peace, unity and freedom which, with the faith born of presence, he felt would be sure to come, and which he almost lived to see.
 Shall we of this day not profit on the performances of public duty by recalling the life and teachings of this patriot and martyr? On the morning after the news came of Lincoln's assassination, crowds surged in front of the United States Government buildings in Wall street, and the air was charged with panic Then there arose upon the granite steps a son of Ohio, who years afterward worthily, though briefly, occupied Lincoln's chair and quieted the fears of the multitude with sentence now historic, God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives"
 A month ago another son of Ohio, emerging in triumph from a politi- cal contest, the mephitic odors of which still poison the atmosphere. paraphrased, and shall I not say 1t? burlesqued Garfield's great utter ance by telegraphing to the Presi- dent of the United States, God reigns, and the Republican party still lives"
 Yes, our goddess lives, not because of the result of the Senatorial elec- tion In Ohio, but in despite of 1t. May she live hereafter as in Lin coln's day, an expression of the brains and conscience and patriot ism of the nation, and not as a sat- rap, scourged and gasping and weary at the chariot wheels of Plu- tus! May she live unswindled by the hucksters of the caucus and undebauched by the bawds of the lobby! May she live with ears un- attuned to the clink of the briber's gold and with brow unbranded with the scarlet letter! May she live with her foreign policy unshaped by the magnates of the sugar trust and her finances unruled by the mouthpiece of bankers syndicatel May the harvest of prosperity which her rule is bringing to the nation not be blighted by the hot and greedy blasts of selfishness while the corn is still in the milk, and may those who now control her des- tinies turn their backs upon Wall ctroot and their focoe fo fbo x,,o.xo--