The record-union., 1899-02-13
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.

S1AOA
Lincoln's Birthday. An enduring
charm Of the printed page and the
written word is, that a man being dead
is yet able to speak, and in some cases
able to influence a wider circle than
ever came within range of his voice
Thus with Lincoln. The constant allu-
sions to him in books and IN papers
and the increasing tendency to regard
his birthday as a holiday make him a
very real man to US; and his example
even greater in it's influence than dur
ing his life, for each year carries us
further and further away from thl
heat and the frenzy of the great wal!
and we get not only a better perspec-
tive view of Lincoln, but also os the
conditions that made him great.
To me one of, the most Interesting
considerations in connection with his
public life is that though he signed,
as a war measure, the Emancipa;iCn
Proclamation, yet he never abandoned d
in his personal convictions the belief
that the South had rights by iEher-
itance, and by perfectly legal purchase,
in their living property. This is DEM
onstrated beyond all cavil by his at
tempt to get Delaware to pass a
gradual Emancipation Act. the owners
to be paid $500 a. head for every slave,
man, woman or child, belonging to
them. The measure failed, of course,
because feelings were too heated on
each side to permit the calm Judgment
that Lincoln himself possessed. The
fact that he dared such step while the
hotheads were ready to denoGnce him.
is but little known or little understood.
So interested was he in the plan that
with his own hand he sketched out the
details of two methods by which the
end desired could be obtained. These
priceless proofs of his fairness and OF
his courage are before me on my desk
as 1 write Furthermore, 7 have it
from the lips of a man still living, q
man who was one of the most trusted
advisers and confidants, the Hon.
George P. Fisher that before the war
ended Mr. Lincoln had already COM
menced to turn over in his mind a plan
for issuing bonds to the extens of S4O0,
100000 as a means of setting the ruined
South on it's feet again. Death cut
this magnanimous plan short; there
fore it is almost idle to theorize re-
garding results, if it had been put into
effect 1t is self-evident, however, that
the humiliation of the reconstruction
period, when the brother triumphant
abased the brother defeated, would
have been avoided, and with it much
of the ranking resentment that
burnt deep in some of the Southern
hearts until February last. Thank
God. one great passion was superseded
by anOther-the desire to see American
arms successful whether welded by
North or by South.
Another aspect of his life is one that
is valuable in the extreme, to us Just
at this time of bewilderment, when
even wise men are asking themselves
what the United States as nation
should do when confronted by new
conditions. Though Lincoln was trained
as a lawyer, and therefore more apt
than usual to be guided and influenced
by precedents, yet none can say that
he failed in adjustability. He saw clear
" what the fathers could never have
foreseen. and because they therefore
had never expressed themselves re-
garding the new problems he felt at
liberty to act on the judgement of the
living rather than of the dead. In
short, he made precedents for himself,
and did what every true American
ought to do and can do, the "best'' un-