Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1899-02-08
PRES ENT-DAY THOUGHTS.
by q. GRosvESoR DAVE.

Lncoln's Birthday An enduring charm
Of the printed page and the written word
is, that 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 illusions to him in books
and in papers, and he increasing tende cy
to regard his birthday as holiday make
him very real man to US; and his ex-
ample even greater in its influence than
during his life for each year carries us
further and further away from the heat
and the frenzy of the great war and we
get not only better perspective view of
Lincoln but also of the conditions that
made him great
To me one of the most interesting con-
siderations in connection with his public
life is that though he signed, as war
measure, the emancipation proclamation,
yet he never abandoned in his personal
convictions the belief that the South had
rights by inheritance. and by perfectly
legal purchase, in their living operty
This is demonstrated beyond all cavil by
his attempt to get Delaware to pass
gradual emancipation act, the owners to
be paid $500 head for every slave, man,
woman or child, belonging to them. The
measure failed, of course, because feelings
were too heated on both sides to permit
the calm judgment that Lincoln himself
possessed The fact that he dared such
step while the hot heads We're ready to
denounce him, is but little known or
10 Ia mt cd
in the plan that with his own hand he
sketched out the details of two methods
by which the end desired could be OBJ
tanned.
These priceless proofs of his fairness and
of his courage are before me on my desk,
as write Furthermore | have it from
the lips of man still living, man who
WAS one OF his most trusted advisers and
confidants, the Hon. George p. Fisher,
that before the war ended Mr. Lincoln
had already commenced to turn over in
his mind plan for issuing bonds to the
extent of $4,000 600 means of setting
the ruined South on its feet again.
Death cut this magnanimous plan short,
therefore il is almost idle to theorize re-
garding results, il it had been put into
eff ct 1t is self evident, however, that
the humiliation of the reconstruction
pc -iod, when the brother triumphant
abased he brother defeated, would have
been >oided, ami with it much of the
ranking resentment that burnt deep i'll
some of the southern hearts until Febru-
airy last Then, thank God, one great
passion was superseded by another-the
d sire to see American arms successful
whether welded by North or by South
Another aspect of his life is one that is
valua BILE in the extreme to US just at this
time of bewilderment, when even wise
men are asking themselves what the
United Sta as nation should do when
confronted by new conditions. Though
Lincoln was trained lawyer and
therefore more apt than usual to be guided
and influenced by presidents, yet none
can say that he failed in adjustability.
He saw clearly what the fathers could
never have foreseen, and because they
therefore had never expressed themselves
regarding the new problems he felt at lib
erty to act on the judgment 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" under all the
circumstances When the great disrup
tion confronted Lincoln he faced a con-
dition and trod pathway that no signer
of the Declaration of Independence knew
about
Beeau e of the lack of knowledge on the
part OF the forefathers, he did not fat
uously deny the existence of the path;
but with calmness almost supernatural
and devotion most eXhausting 10 him