The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-02-13
THE NATIONS r

Although it has not yet been made a
national holiday by any act of con.
gress, February II is annually more
and more honored by it's observance
as a proper day on which to give man
Hesitation to patriotic impulse and for
reminding ansW the fires of patriot
ism in the breasts of all loyal citizens
of the republic. What until a short
time ago was a day to be observed
by only a few has become one of the
days on which a reunited nation loves
to assemble and pay tributes of re-
spect and generation to the memory
of the man who made the reunion
possible. From standing as the parti-
san representative of one section, Lin
coin has been elevated to the pedestal
of national affection and v~eneration,
until today his memory is regarded
with the same feeling of admiration
and love in the southland, against
whom he Directed the armies of the
north, as in the land where shines
the polar s.ar and whence marched
the armies that conquered and over
longer remembered as the tyrant and
%oppressor, epithets applied to him
while in life by those to whom he
was opposed, but as the patriot, the
wise man, the preserver of the nation
and to whose foresight, patriotism and
%unselfish love of country all are in
debted for the place among the n a
tions of the earth we now so proudly
occupy. His heart bleeding for the
Wounds he was forced to inf1ict and
with the sadness and sorrow of the
parent that feels compelled to i'm
pose the punishment necessary to cor
rect and reform the hayward child,
he was the first to bind those wounds
and the first to speak gently and
kindly to the n that had been the
object of his parental d%ispleasure and
by word and deed gave proof of the
great love he bore the people who had
borne arms against the government
he had sworn to defend and perpetu-
ate. The time has come when the
south realizes it's errors and feels that
the silent, sad man who caused the
crushing blow to be struck that so
humbled it's pride raj latter all, it's
truest friend and that what he did
was from an impulse as noble as ever
animated any breast and from a de-
sire as lofty as ever filled the mind
of a patriot.
Tonight, both north and south will
vie with each other in paying tribute
to his memory and garlands of beauti-
full words, breathing patriotism and
devotion, will be woven and laid on
his grave, the offerings of a common
country, a people happy and free and
g%lorying in the power, might and
destiny of the nation he preserved.
Next to that of Washington, no
name IN history is cnerlSHeu moTe
fondly OR respected and loved more
sincerely by all Americans than that
of Lincoln, the statesman, patriot.
liberator, martyr. AS future genera
lions shall arise and the old give way
to the new that love and admiration
will increase and Washington and
Lincoln will be the %proudest inherit
ances of a loyal, liberty loving,
mighty people whose deeds shall
! glorify the earth and whose valiant
accomplishments on the field of bat
tie shall be no more glorious than it's
achievements in the gentle paths Of
peace, for they will ever have the
memory of those great ones, renown-
| ed in war and famous in peace, to
guide them and prompt them to the
commission of all deeds that make a
nation truly great and give it might
in every direction of national effort.