The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-02-26
LINCOLN DAY ORATORY.

One of the most interesting of the
orators of Lincoln Day was Minister
WI, who responded to q toast at q
grand dinner in Grand Rapids, Mich.
How Mr.. WI happened to be in Grand
| Rapids is a question a greater con-
trast could scarcely be imagined than
| that between the representative of
the oriental empire and the bustling
manufacturing city of the west, where
millions of dollars worth of machine
made furniture are produced every
year. Mr.. Wu's address, however,
| was distinctly modern. He is an ORR
entail, but he has become imbued with
many western ideas, and it is remark
able how well informed he is on the
subject of American history and how
quick to grasp the salient points of
our national career. Mr.. WI recall
ed to his auditors the period of the
civil war and declared that the great
struggle of the North and South was
not an unmixed evil. "For before
the war;" said the Minister, slavery
had been an incubus, weighing heav-
lily upon the life and energy of the ma
ton AS long as that question
remained unsettled the people wasted
their time and thought i'll bitter con-
troversy, and all important matters
pertaining to internal development
and foreign commerce were relegated
to the background With the
abolition of slavery the country at once
awoke to new life. - According to
Mr.. WI the question now is whether
we Americans appreciate the change
that has taken place in our national
outlook since the civil war. President
Mckinley, he reminded us, sounded
the keynote to the present situation
when he said that the period of ex-
clusiveness is past. To be taught
thus by an Oriental, even so distin-
guished parsonage as Minister WI,
is little humiliating, but surely the
anti-imperialists, and the hide
bonud protectionists need the lesson.
Secretary Long, in his address at
Boston, followed out this line of
thought. No narrow construction of
the constitution, said Mr. Long, ham
pered Lincoln in opposing the extern
sion of slavery into the territories,
and no narrow construction would
hamper him now in dealing with the
insular problems that have been forced
| upon ns LAS he recognized the
powers of Congress under the Consti-
| tuition to make needful rules and regu-
| lations for our territories then, so he
would recognize them today. He was
jealous of every safeguard of the Con-
stitution, yet looked through it's let
ter for its spirit, and regarded it as
country for it. =" Mr. Mckinley, con-
cluded the Secretary, took the career
of Lincoln as his guide-an intima-
ton that fits in with Senator Depew' S
address at New York in which he took
occasion to frame serious estimate of
McKinley's service to the nation.
The Senator said:
Though always a poor man, he
made possible the gigantic fortunes
which have been amassed by master
minds in the control, use and distribu
ion of iron, coal, oil, cotton and WOO
and their products. Though never al
organizer or beneficiary of combina
tions or trusts, yet the constant aggre
CATION of most industries in vast cor
porations of fabulous capital, Will,
due to tendencies of the age and com
mon to all countries, received tire
mendous acceleration from his poll
cies. The dominant idea which gov
erned his public life was that meas
ure which brought out our nationa
resources and increased our nationa
; wealth, added to the security, com
fort and happiness of every citizen, "
The observance of Lincoln day i
the future will evoke not merely trib
' utes to the life and character of Lii
i coin, but comments and opinions o