The record-union., 1898-02-13

Fables" Robinson Crusoe," the Ara
bian Nights Entertainments, Pill
grim's Progress and Weems' Life of
Washington" Later he got hold of a
history of the United States, the lives
of Franklin and Clay. Shakespeare and
Burns. Better reading this than the
modern substitutes, the daily newspa-
pers, with their sensational details of
folly and crime
Naturally, with his sympathetic tenn
permanent, he was attracted to law and
politics In 1884, at p years of age,
he was elected to the Legislature, and
again in 1886 In the latter year can
didates We're called upon in the county
paper by Many Voters to "show
their hands, Promptly, in the New
Salem Journal" Lincoln responded:
agreed. Here's mine. | go in for all
sharing the privileges of the Govern
ment who assist in bearing its burdens.
Consequently, go for admitting all
whites to the right Of suffrage who pay
taxes or bear arms. by no means ex-
Guiding females. If elected | shall con-
slider the whole people of Sangamon
my constituents, as we'll those that op-
pose as those that support me- Dur
ing this session, twenty-four years be-
fore the Civil War, in community pro-
foundly pro-slavery, Abraham Lincoln.
with only one other member. introduced
strenuous protest against the passage
Of resolutions denouncing anti-slavery
societies, asserting the right of property
in slaves, and opposing the abolition
of slavery III the District of Columbia.
Thus in the very outset OF his public
career Lincoln announced himself as
woman suffra gist and an enemy Of sla-
very.
His private life was singularly pure
and unblemished. Although careless
and often coarse in his talk among his
rough companions, he was noted for
temperance and respect for women.
Naturally. he early fell in love and was
heartbroken by the death of the girl
he adored. 1t is doubtful whether he
ever fully reganed his cheerfulness or
formed an engrossing attachment FOR
any other woman. From 1894, the year
when he met this loss, he was subject
to fits of melancholy and was wont to
quote as his favorite poem:
o why should the spirit of mortal be
Like a swift-ieeting meteor a fast-hying
clOuQ.
A flash of the lightning, break of the
wave.
Man passes from life to his rest in the
grave
In 1916 Lincoln was elected to Con-
gress as a Whig, and served two years
with some distinction opposing the
Mexican war While voting supplies 10
carry it on. In 1856 the Whig party
went to pieces. With the repeal of the
Missouri compromise the slavery ques-
ton became the pivot of American pol
itics. The anti-Nebraska convention
chose Lincoln as Presidential Elector.
series of debates with Stephen a.
Douglas made him national reputa-
ton. Defeated by Douglas for Senator,
he 5iiad, his time, and in 1860 was
elected President. During the five
crucial years that followed he rose To
the emergency. Calm. reasonable, pa
tient and considerate, he developed a
moral nature singularly lofty ten
derness which reflected the sorrows Of
camps and hospitals. and desolated
homes. a faith in providence inspiring
and. sublime. He lived to- issue the
proclamation of emancipation and ac-
complish the restoration of the Union,
followed after his death by the adop-
tion Of the thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments, which defined