The herald., 1898-02-13
Gather to Honor the Great
Leader
EX-PRESIDENT BEN HARRISON
PAYS HIS ELOQUENT TRIBUTE
OF PRAISE
Secretary Gage Embraces the oppor-
tlnity to Emphasize the Over
whelming Necessity of Main-
tanning the Gold Standard
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press Special Wire
CHICAGO, Feb.12.-The anniversary
of the birth of Abraham Lincoln was
generally observed here today by ex-
ercises in the schools and by various BAN
quets. The principal banquet Of the
evening, however, was the twelfth an
nual affair Of the Marquette club, which
was held at the Auditorium. Fully 600
members Of the club were present, and
the speeches in reply to the toasts were
received with great applause. Ex-Presi-
dent Harrison was the speaker Of the
evening, and his address on Abraham
Lincoln" was received with enthusiastic
manifestations Of applause.
| President E. D. Paulding Of the Mar
quette club opened the exercises with a
brief address, and then introduced Con-
gresham Boutelle of Illinois, who spoke
on Chicago: A Political Storm Center"
| Congressman Boutelle was followed by
ex-President Harrison.
HARRISON'S RESPONSE
| Ex-Presdent Harrison responded to
the toast abraham Lincoln" He said
in part:
The observance of the birthday of
Abraham Lincoln, which has now be-
come so widely established by public
law or by general custom, will more and
more force orators of the occasion to
| depart from the line of biography and
incident and eulogy, and to assume the
duty of applying to pending questions
the principles illustrated in the life and
| taught in the public utterances Of the
man whose birth we commemorate.
And, after all, we may be sure that
the great, supplemented patriot would
have wished it so. Flattery did not
soothe the living ear of Lincoln. He
was not unappreciative of friendship,
not without ambition to be esteemed,
but the overmastering and dominant
| thought of his life was to be useful to
his country and to his countrymen.
No college of arts had opened to his
struggling youth. He had been born
| in cabin and reared among the unlet-
tered. He was a rail-splitter, flatboat-
man, country lawyer.
Yet in all these conditions and asso-
| Citations he was a leader-at rail-split-
ting, in the rapids and at the bar, and in
| storytelling.
| In the broad common-sense way in
| which he did small things he was larger
| than any situation in which life had
placed him. Europe did not know him.
To the south and to not a few in the
northern states, he was an uncouth
| jester, an ambitious upstart, a reckless
disturber. He was hated by the south,
not only for his principles, but for him
self. The sons of the cavalier, the men
who felt toll to be a stain, despised this
son of the people, this child of toll.
He was distinguished from the aboli-
ton leaders by the fairness and kind
liness with which he judged the south
and the Shareholder. He was opposed to
human slavery, not because some mas
ters were cruel, but upon reasons that
kindness to the slave did not answer.
"All men" included the black men.
Liberty is the law of nature. The HUI
man enactment cannot pass the limits
of the states; Gods law embraces crea-
ton.
Mr.. Lincoln had faith in time, and
time has justified his faith. If the
panorama of the years from 1861 to 1865
could have been unrolled before the
eyes of his countrymen, would they have
said-would he have said-that he was
adequate for the great occasion? And
yet, as we look back over the story of
the civil war, he is revealed to us, stand
ing above all men of that epoch, in his
capacity and adaptation to the duties Of
the presidency.
Mr.. Lincoln loved the plain people,"
out of whose ranks he came, but not
with class love. He never pandered to
ignorance or sought applause by appeals
to prejudice. The equality of men In
rights and burdens, justice to all, a
government by all the people, for all the
people, was his thought-no favoritism
in enactment or administration-the gen.
eral good.
He had the love of the masses, and he
won it fairly, not by art or trick. He
could, therefore, admonish and restrain
with authority. He was a man who could
speak to all men and be heard. Would
there We're more such! There is great
need of men now who can be heard both
in the directors meeting and in the la
Dor assembly.
Qualities Of heart and mind combined
to make a man who has won the love Of
mankind. He Is beloved. He stands like
a great lighthouse to show the way Of
duty to all his countrymen and to send
afar a beam Of courage to those who
beat against the winds. We do him rev.
erence. We bless tonight the memory
of Lincoln.
Following Mr.. Harrison came Justice
David ]. Brewer Of the United States