The record-union., 1899-06-23
COMMENCEMENT
EXERCISES.
Essays, Etc, by Pupils Of the Sac
ramento Institute.

valor, strength, nobility, sagacity and
surprising patience.
Born in the very ashes of poverty,
in the grand old State Of Kentucky,
then sparsely settled, where the school
house was practically unknown, Lincoln,
by his own untiring efforts and thirst
after knowledge, obtained his only ed
ucation. But by his own innate nobil-
ity of soul he achieved the purple of
greatness, and revolving years but add
to the grandeur of his character as
backward we turn, and lifting the
mantle of the misty past speculate up
on the good and loving things he did
for his country and his fellow men.
Ever animated by a holy ambition,
he began the study of, the law, and
then entering the political arena was
elected to the Legislature of his own
State. His career there, lasting through
many sessions. did not forbode much
of his future greatness
Retiring from politics for some time
in order to better equip himself for the
duties of a statesmen, we hear little
of him until the year 1858, when he
aspired to a seat in the Senate house
of our nation. Defeated, though not dis
heartened, he continued in the struggle
against slavery, knowing full well that
in that struggle he had on his side
right, Justice, philosophy. the opinion
of enlightened manhood and the or
ganic law Of our land-our glorious
Constitution.
When two years later he was made
the standard bearer of his party for
the Presidency, his sterling worth, ,his
ardent patriotism and noble charity
were put to a most excruciating test.
Conducting his own campaign on the
lines of honesty, frankness and fair
ness, he took the Presidential chair
under the most trying circumstances
and strange forebodings of some ma
tional crisis But not for one single mo-
ment did he falter, although many
overt acts of dissatisfaction ran high,
and hurled defiance at law and it's ad-
ministrators.
The long existing and bitter antag-
onism of opinion on the subject of
slavery between the North and South
eliminated at last-on the inaugura-
ton of Lincoln as President-in a civil
war, the extent, duration and horrors
Of which have never been paralleled
in any age or among any people in an
cient or modern times. Intent on a
separate national existence, in which
they might maintain unmolested, as
well as extend, the institution Of
slavery, the Southern States recalled
the Senators and Representatives from
Congress, and unfurling the banner Of
secession commenced the war that rent
the Republic asunder and drenched it
with the blood of its best citizens.
The history of that war Is a lesson
we all know too we'll; the desolation it
worked is evidenced by the widows and
orphans of those times.
But when Abraham Lincoln, zeal
ously cherishing the humane wish
s'that all men everywhere might be
free as expressed by himself, signed
the Proclamation of Emancipation he
availed himself Of the high and solemn
prerogative of his position, as the sworn
protector and defender OF the nation.
When Lincoln struck the gives from
the bondmen of America he dealt a
blow, the echo Of which is ringing to-
day in the beautiful East Indies, and
in those far distant tropical islands,
where our men at arms are setting up
the Flag of Stars and paving the way
for the schoolmaster and the highest
type of civilization that has ever
blessed the world-'true Americanism. -
Sprung from the common people, his
great heart was a never-failing fount
of sympathy for them in their trials
and misfortunes. Lincoln was one who
looked across the epaulettes of the Off
Ger into the eyes of the common soldier,
where always did he find the man that
understood him, and while critics sat
in judgment upon his acts as President
the common people about the hearth
stone and in the trenches at the front
rested their faith in his manhood and
sagacity to the uppermost-
Finally, in the full glory of success
and at the summit of his greatness.
the assassin let loose the shaft Of
death. and the noble Lincoln was but
a memory. The time chosen for this
most appalling conspiracy was that
which was marked by the virtual close
of the great war, which for four long
years had filled the land with carnage
and death.
OF all the events that distinguish our
national existence up to the present
time there is confessedly none which
so paralyzed the heart Of the nation or
sent such thrill of agony through the
civilized world as the assassination Of
our beloved Abraham Lincoln by John
Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, Wash
ington, D. c.
What tears and sorrow there were in
the land when the tidings of his fall
flashed afar, history faithfully chron
icles. The people had learned to love
him, and to lean upon him as one in
whom there was a strength surprising
the potentiality of mere man.
Lincoln became to the people of
America a guide, sage and friend, who
stood as the very bone and sinew and
the stalwart personality of the institu-
tions of American freedom.
Stunned, bewildered, amazed, incred-
ulous at first at the news of the Presi-
dents assassination, pang of horror
seized every heart in this darkest hour
of the country's history; emblems Of
mourning SorO11dad the land in vorv