The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-03-05

Prof. Ellett, Of Blue Mountain, Opposed to
Hanging il in Hall Of Fame.

has written the Clarion Ledger the
following letter relative to the hang
ing of Abe Lincoln's portrait in the
Mississippi hall of fame:
Bluo Mountain, Miss, Feb. 26,
1908.
Mississippians chose ten men
whose portraits should hang in Miss
issippi's Hall of Fame. It may be
the list is not exactly what every
voter would have made it. Certainly
this list of ten does not exhaust the
catalogue of famous M1ssissippians.
For my own part am satisfied with it
as it is.
In the first place, then why dc
these ten hang there? There is not
space here to tell all the reasons why
certainly some fof the reasons were
these:
l. Because they loved the constitu-
tion of the United States, and obeyed
it.
2. Because they acknowledged the
truth of the Declaration of indepen-
.dence, and revered it,
g. Because they loved the Union,
and suffered wrong for more than
half~a century, rather than dissolve 1T.
Because they believed this was a
Union Of sovereign states and that
among there sister sovereigns Mississ-
ippi stood peerless queen.
5. Because they loved Mississippi,
first, last and all the time, loved her
at the baptism of her birth, and loved
her at her cruel baptism of blood
loved her as she walked majestically
in the light of the worlds approving
smile, and loved her as, bleeding land
bruised and broken and wounded al
most unto death by order of EAbraham
Lincoln sho struggled up and on amid
the wreck Of her institutions, and the
ruins OF her homes, and the unmar ked
graves of her patriotic sons.
Because they loved her best in her
darkest hour, and gave their lives to
lead her up into the rich dawn Of al
ampler day, in the glorious light of
which, please God, she shall live for
ever!
/ To me there seem sufficient reasons
for hanging of the elected ten in the
hall of Fame.
Now why should that of Lincoln
hang beside them?
II at all, only fo1 his national doc
trines and dseds These alone touch
Mississippi. His personal character
is no concern Of hers 1t is nothing
to her that personally he was a coarse
jester, winning his way often times
by foul story or an obscene joke.
Nothing to her that his literary in
stincts should run TO the production
of such things as The First Chronicle
of Reuben,' and the verses that ac-
companied it, and that his biographer
confesses that 'decency would not
permit the publication of either.''
That The should be base enough to
write an insulting letter to a young
lady who had declined to MARRY him
that he was virtually an infidel and
wrote phamplflet to prove that the
Bible is a fraud; that his friends
were unwilling for his life as written
By Herndon his law partner and his
| friend to be circulated, and that his
son, Robert, bought the plates-and de-
stroyed them. These are personal
matters and do not enter into the aues.
tion.
For his national doctrines and
deeds he should be accepted or exclu-
ded. Shall we hear the ,claims and
find the truth? He has been called:
/. The Great Emancipator He set
free slaves that did not belong to him,
and thereby robbed Of two thousand
million dollars people over whom
nc had no sort Of gightful 5urisdio-
tion,
.. savior OF Of the Union. He cal
led into action for the purpose of
coorcing sovereign states, more men
than ever Xerxes, or any other inya-
ding vandal Of the past Led forth to a
ruthless war Of robbery or rapine. He
was the reputed Savior of q Union,
the constitution of which fourteen of
| the northern states, his own state in
the number, had nullifed by enact
ment Of state laws and had set al
defiance the sanctions Of that conssiSuz
ion, the mandates Of the laws made In
| pursuance thereto. and the ruling of
/ the supreme Court of the Unied States
made III accordance Herewith.
! With an unconscious irony that
would be funny if it wese not SO se-
| riouss he has been called
3. The Second Washington. Wash.
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