Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1902-02-12
ABRAHAn LINCOLN

VA
On the evening of Good Friday, April
ID, 1865, an unparalleled crime was COM
mitted. AT ~ minutes past seven o'clock
on the morning of April IS, thirty-seven
years ago, Abraham Lincoln, the martyr
president passed into history.
No man or woman old enough on that
day to realize what had occurred to the
nation can yet pass its anniversary UNI
moved. Death in violent form had
come into many family circle during
the preceding few years, but sorrow had
not made the people calous, and when
the most awful shot of all was fired it
struck millions of hearts with pain and
thrilled a world with horror.
Ninety-three years ago today, Feby.
IL, 1909, was the day which gave Abra-
ham Lincoln birth and though his pitiful
death has in some measure identified his
memory more dramatically, so to speak,
with the history of the country, already
it is fading away; but the story of his
grand life is standing out more conspicu-
ously as the passing years prove it to
have left deep impress upon the nation.
A peaceful death would have lessened in
no degree the influence he exercised or
the lesson his career has left.
Abraham Lincoln was one of the few
profound statesmen of the century, and
scarcely one of the many brilliant men of
our time was more distinctively Amer-
can than he. He was actuated by the
spirit of freedom which gave birth to the
great republic; he had an abiding faith
in the intelligence and integrity of the
American people. The great secret of
Lincoln's position in the hearts of the
people was that he belonged to them.
The plain people" whom he so often adj
dressed, were his people; he knew their
struggles, their disappointments and
their hopes. He believed in the efficacy
of republican institutions in insuring the
greatest liberty and equity. His life pur-
pose was to apply those principles to
methodist of government. Unfortunately,
his great efforts were absorbed in the di-
rection of war; had they been reserved
to the development of the nation in peace
he would have advanced this people a
century in the establishment of good
government.
He was too sincere of purpose to de-
Jude the people by flattery, and he was
therefore as hold in criticising mistaken
notions of liberty as he was courageous
in the advocacy of true freedom. "Un-
derstanding the spirit of our institutions
he said, ito aim at the elevation of men,
l am opposed to whatever degrades
them. There is no grievance that's a fit
object of redress by mob law. Gold is
good in its place, but living, brave and
patriotic men are better than gold"
His life is an ever living lesson to pol
iticians that no permanent success is at
tainable unless the confidence of the
people is secured, and he was merciless
to those who attempted to betray that
trust when given.
His sagacity was without guile. His
keen perception led him to thorough
knowledge of men, and although he met
efforts at deception with astuteness, he
sought to gain no end himself by duplic-
ity. Washington lives in the hearts of
the people as the aggressive leader who
wrung from foreign power our liberty
and institutions. He is identified with
patriotic resistance to oppression from
abroad, and maintenance of American
institutions against all the world. Lin
coin typfies the true American charac-
ter in its relation to its own race, its aspi-
rations and its destiny. Washington is
the theme of the orator, Lincoln the study
of the citizen. His beautiful life, pure
and exalted in every relation; his gentle,
but every manly utterances; his integrity
of motive and his steadfastness of pur-
pose should be expatiated upon and held
up for emulation wherever it is sought to
lead American citizenship up to the
throne of popular sovereignty.