The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1898-02-10

~ ~ 1ected as renre.
senting the views of the poetic philoso-
pher, the frank and dispassionate for
eigner and the equally candid political
foeman. Ralph Waldo Emerson S
thoughts were spoken April 10. 1865,
at the funeral services held in Concord.
After briefly recalling the marvellous
rise of Lincoln from comparative OBJ
scurity to worldwide greatness Mr..
Emerson proceeded:
ga plain man Of the people, an ex-
traordinary fortune attended him. Lord
Bacon says: Manifest virtues procure
reputation; occult ones, fortune He
offered no shining qualities at the first
encounter; he did not offend by superb
GRITTY. He had face and manner which
disarmed suspicion, which inspired
confidence, which confirmed good will.
He was man without vices. He had
strong sense Of duty which it was very
easy for him to obey. Then he had what
farmers call a long head; was excellent
in working out the sum for himself; in
arguing his case and convincing you
fairly and firmly. Then it turned out
that he was great worker, had prodi-
gious faculty Of performance, worked
easily. A good worker is so rare; every
body has some disabling quality. In
host of young men that start together
and promise so many brilliant leaders
by bad health, one by conceit or by love
Of pleasure, or by lethargy, or by a
hasty temper-each has some disqual-
flying fault that throws him out of the
career. But this man was sound to the
core, cheerful, persistent, all right for
labor, and liked nothing so we'll.
Ellis occupying the chair of state was
triumph Of the good sense of mankind
and of the public conscience. This mid
die class country had got middle class
president at last. Yes, in manners,
sympathies, but not in powers, for his
powers were superior. His mind mas
tered the problem of the day, and as
the problem grew, so did his compre-
hension of it. Rarely was man so fitted
to the event. In the midst Of fears and
jealousies, in the Babel of counsels and
parties, this man wrought necessarily
with all his might and all his honesty,
laboring to find what the people wanted,
and how to obtain that. It cannot be
said there is any exaggeration of his
worth. If ever man was fairly tested,
he was. There was no lack of resist
ance, nor of Islander, nor of ridicule.
"Then, what an occasion was the
whirlwind Of the war. Here was place
for no holiday magistrate, no fair
weather sailor; the new pilot was hur-
ried to the helm in a tornado. In four
years-four years Of battle days-his
endurance, his fertility of resources, his
magnanimity, were sorely tried and
never found wanting There, by his
courage, his justice, his even temper, his
fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood
a heroic figure in the center of a he
roic epoch. He is the true history of the
American people in his time. Step by
step he walked before them; slow with
their slowness, quickening his march
to theirs; the true representative of
this continent; an entirely public man
father Of his country, the pulse of 90
600, 900 thrObbing in his heart, the
thought of their minds articulated by
his tongue
A year after the assassination of Lin
coin there appeared in Blackwood's Ed
lnburgh Magazine critical review of
the careers of Presidents Andrew Jack
son and Abraham Lincoln. Both were
classed as saviors of the American
Union. Passing from the discussion of
free trade, protection and notification
as the causes of strife betwiXt the sec.
tions, the review enters upon the crisis
which confronted Lincoln in 1861:
cit fell to the lot of man very differ
ent from Andrew Jackson to wage the
second battle for the preservation Of the
Union, on a plea more exasperating
than free trade, on an issue more stu
pendous and on a scale of grandeur
which no war between the states in
Jackson's comparatively early time
could possible have equaled. From 1888
to 1860 southern statesmen had been
contemplating, if they had not been
planning, the disruption of the Union.
Northern statesmen were aware of the
fact. Some of them were reconciled to
it, and others were resolved to aid in it's
contamination, not few of them for
the sake of the north itself, which they
Imagined would be better without south
ern companionship. Time but increased
the bitterness and widened the estrange-
ment ct one section against the other.
When secession at last was accom-
plished, the south was prepared at
most points, the north at none, and a
man was at the head of affairs who on
hasty or superficial Judgment might
have been pronounced singularly in
efficient and unsuited for the task of CO.
ercion which cruel fate had thrust upon
him. Like his great predecessor Jackson,