The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-11-14
lie Tells Englishnen Of His Career
and Character.
Address at Edinburgh
Institute.
Lord ROseberry's Tribute to
Famous American.

Edfpburg. November 10 MIR, Joseph
III. Choate, the United States ambassa-
dor to Great Britain, this afternoon de-
Iiyered the inaugural lecture at the
PHILOSOPHICAL Institution OF Edinburgh,
taking as his theme. 1.-The Career and
Character OF Abraham Lincoln"
LORD Roseberry, who presided, intro
duoed Mr.. Choate as follows:
.'Mr. Choats is one of that choice sue
cession OF mon whom the United States
have sent to this country. He has en-
deared himself to us in a remarkable de-
gree by his brilliant and genial quail
ties For his discourse, he has selected
ons Of the most interesting subjects with
in the range of possibility, the great man
whom he personally knew in the flesh.
Abraham Lincoln"
BY the rejection of Lincoln to the
presidency, the furthsr extension OF siav.
cry into the territories was rendered
forever impo ssib le--Vox populi, vox Del.
Revolutions never go backward, ana
when founded on grea5 moral sentl-
ment stirring the heart OF an indignant
people, their edicts are Irresistible and
final. Had the slave power aequiesced
in that election, had the southern States
remained under the constitution ana
within the union, and relied upon their
constitutional and legal rights, their
fayorite institution, immoral as 1t was,
blighting and fatal as 1t was, might
have endured for another century. The
great party that had elected him, unal-
teralDlg determined against Its extension,
was nevertheless pledged not to Interfere
with its continuance In the states where
tt already existed. or course, when new
regions were forever closed against it,
from its very nature 1t must have begun
10 shrink and to dwindle, and probably
gradual and compensated emancipation
which appealed very strongly to the new
Presidents sense of justice and expedt-
spoy, would in the progress OF time, by a
reversion to the ideas CT the founders Of
the republic, have found a safs outlet for
bo.h masters and slaves. But whom the
Qods wish to destroy they first make mad.
and, when seven states, afterwards IN
creased to eleven, openly seeded from the
Union, when they declared and began
the war upon the nation, and challenged
its mighty power to the desperate ana
protracted struggle for Its lite, and for
the maintenance of Its authority as a
nation over its territory, they gave TO
Lincoln and to teedom the sublime op-
portunity OF history.
In his first inaugural address, when as
yet not daop of precious blood had been
she'd Whils ne held out to them the olive
branch In one hand, in the other he pre-
sented the guarantees CT the constitution,
and after reciting the emphatic resolution
of the convention that no minated MIN,
that the maintenance inviolate OF the
striQhts OF the states, and especially the
right OF each state to order nd control
its own domestic institutions according
to its own Judgment exclusively, is essen
sial to that balance of power on which
the perfection and endurance or our
political fabric depend" he reiterated
this sentiment and declared with no
mental reservation, tnat an tne protsc-
ton which consistently with the conssi-
tuition ana the laws can be given 90 all
the states when lawfully demanded for
whatever cause. as oheerfuliy to one sec
tion as to another.
When, however, these magnanimous
overtures for peace and reunion were re-
iected; when the seeding states defied
the constitution and every clause and
principle of 1t; when they persisted In
staying out of the Union from which
they had seeded, and proceeded TO carve
out of its territory new and hostile en-
pire based on slavery; when they flew az
the throat Of the nation ard plunged IL
into the bloodtest war OF the nineteenth
century-the tables were turned, and the
belief gradually came to the mind of the
President that If the rebellion was not
soon subdusd by force OF arms, IL the war
must be fought out to the bitter end,
then to reach that end the salvation of
the nation itself might require the de-
struction of slavery wherever 1t existed;
that il the war was to continue on one
side for disunion, for no other purpose
than to preserve slavery 1t must continue
on the other side for the Union to destroy
slavery.
AS he said, Events control me; / can
not control events and as the dreadful
war progressed, and became more dead
Iy and dangerous, the unalterable conVio
ton was forced upon him that, In order
that the frightful sacrifice of life and
treasure on both sides might not be all
in vain, 1t had become his duty as COM
mander-in-chief of the army, as neces-
sary war measure, to strike blow at the
rebellion which, all others railing, would
inevitably lead to it's Pnnihilation, by
annihilatinR the very thing for which IL
was oontending. His own words are the
beet:-
al understand that my oath to preserve
the constitution to the best OF my ability
imposed upon me the duty OF preserving,
by every Indispensable means that gov
ernment-that nation, of which that con-
stitution was the organic law. Was IL
possible to loss the nation and preserve
the constitutional By general law, life
and limb must be protected; yet often a
limb must be amputated TO save life;
but a life Is never wisely given to save
limb. L felt that measures otherwise I'M
constitutional might become lawful by
becoming Indispensable to the preserva-
tion of the constitution through the pres
ervation of the nation. Right or wrong,
-
Great Medicine