The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-06-06

any words of mine which should at
tempt to beguile you from the grief
of loss so overwhelming. But l
cannot refrain from rendering to you
the consolation that may be found in
the thanks of the Republic they died
to save. l pray that our heavenly
Father may assauge the anguish of
your bereavement, and leave you
only the cherished memory of the
loved and lost, and the solemn pride
that must be yours to have laid so
costly sacrifice upon the altar of
freedom. !"
His regard for the soldier himself
had many forms of expression, but
none finer than his gift to the
Chicago Sanitary Fair of the origin
al draft of the Emancipation Procla-
nation, che document whose author
ship and issue already constituted,
in the esteem of millions, and in
that of millions more was to con-
stitnte, his strongest title to immor-
tai fame.
81 had some desire to retain the
paper; but if it shall contribute to
the relief or comfort of the soldiers
that will be better. -
President Lincoln gave early evil
dence that he was willing to assume
the gravest responsibilities by acts
which he believed would conduce to
the great end that he had in view.
81 feel that measures otherwise I'M
constitutional might become lawful
by becoming indispensable to the
preservation of the Constitution
through the preservation of the Ma
| ton. Right or wrong | assumed this
| md nd AaLs
upon this theory, whilst he had eb-
| stained from striking at slavery as an
evil in itself and in it's results, yet
when. by deliberate and painful consi-
Iteration, he became convinced that
the preservation of the Union de-
manded freedom for the slave, he de-
termined upon emancipation so far as
he could effect it consistently with
his constitutional obligation and his
military prerogative.
/ But having decided upon emanci-
patton as military necessity, he also
] declared that he would not retract or
modify the proclamation, nor would
he return to slavery any person who
had been freed by it's terms or by
any of the acts of Congress, and in
his last annual message repeating that
declaration he said, eff the people
should, by whatever mode and means,
make it an executive duty to re len
slave such persons, another and not
must be their instrument to perform
it"
When forty thousand Frenchmen,
chatting under the imperial rule that
had overthrown their beloved Repub-
lie, sought to express their sympathy
with the American people in the hour
of its profound grief, they presented
to the widow of the martyred Presi-
dent massive gold medal, upon
which was inscribed this summary of
his work, this legend of his eternal
fame: Lincoln the honest man -abo-
lished slavery, established the
Union-saved the Republic without
vieling the form of Liberty"
From the. highest reach that Mr..
Lincoln had attained before his &C.
cession to the Presidency to the
zenith of his career, the space seems
incalculable. The study of his earlier
life shows that he possessed clear
ness of thought, remarkable gift of
expression, native sagacity, honesty
of purpose, and courage of conviction
that he was devoted to the rights of
man, and that he loved his country !;
but that he possessed elements of
greatness in such degree as was re-
vealed by the war, could not have
been surmised from aught he had
said or done. And that he should
manifest so soon and so signally his
ability to rule great nation in the
most dangerous period of it's exist
ence; that he should overtower his
associates, and prove that more than
they he was fitted to save the govern
/ ment; that he could WELD power
vastly greater than that which had
been possessed by his predecessors
and surprising that exercised by any
contemporary ruler, king or emperor,
could not have been foreseen by any
lacking divine inspiration. Not by
graded steps, but by giant stride,
Lincoln reached the height Ut power,
achievement, and fame.
True, the progress of the war re-
vealed growth in his character IN
thought and in force, and he stood
conspicuously higher at its close than
at its beginning; but at its opening
it was apparent that Providence had
so shaped the country's destiny that
the nan who had been chosen mainly
because of his availability as a presi-
Dental candidate was far and away
the one man for the Office and the
work.
Thus it came to pass that he who,
at the beginning, had said truthfully,
II cannot but know what you all
know, that without name-perhaps
without reason why | should have
name-there has fallen upon me
task such as did not rest even upon
the Father of his Country within
four years of that utterance had at
tanned such renown and wrought such
result that OH the roll of great Amer
leans the one name which we think