Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-03-20

OFFICIAL PAPER OF COUNTY.
Lincoln as q Literary Model.
Abraham Lincoln as literary model
has been neglected.
Whether judged by their effects on
the man who first heard them or by
the persistency with which they reap
pear in our everyday writing and
speaking, Lincoln's words lead those
of all American presidents and states
men, with but one exception. Thorn
as Jefferson alone has an equal meas
ure OF that Immortality of constant
quotation which certities supreme
literary excellence.
1t is therefore an inquiry pertinent
to the day. What was the secret of
Lincoln's wonderful skill in saying
things?
Was it not that he always put his
thoughts into as few and as fit words
as possible? Did not his utterances
go to their mark at the time, and do
they not still remain household words,
because he always had before him this
primary rule of good speech or writ
ing: Accuracy, terseness, accuracy.
All the famous Lincoln sayings are
remarkable for these two things
their absolute veracity and their ir-
reducible brevity. AS for example:
''No man is good enough to govern
another man without that other s con-
sent.
When the white man governs him
self, that is self government; but
when he governs himself and also
governs another man, that is more
than self-government-that is despot-
ism.
This government annotendure per-
manently half slave and half free.
I have always thought that all men
should be free, but if any should be
slaves, it should be first those who de-
sire it for themselves, and secondly
those who desire it for others.
Let us have faith that right makes
might; and in that faith let us desire
to do our duty as we understand it.
Public sentiment is everything.
With public sentiment nothing can
fail; without it nothing can succeed.
Consequently he who moulds public
sentiment goes deeper than he who
enacts statutes or denounces decisions.
He makes statutes and decisions pos
sible or impossible to be executed.
Our fathers brought forth nation
conceived in liberty and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are Gre
ated equal.
II there be those who would not
save the Union unless they could at
the same time save slavery, I do not
agree with them. II there be those
who would not save the Uuion unless
they could at the same time destroy
slavery, I do not agree with Them.
My paramount object in this struggle
is to save the Union, and is not either
to save or destroy slavery"
There are hundred other examples
just as good of the preciseness and
conciseness of the Lincoln style. His
inaugural addresses, his messages to
congress, were models of clear, exact
and compact statements. Consider
ing that they dealt with the state of
the nation and it's foreign relations
during the most momentous years in
all it's history, their brevitY was no
less remarkable than their accuracy.
And there was not an important mis-
statement Of fact in any one of them.
At Gettysburg on Nov. 10, 1858, he
gave an extraordinary illustration of
the strength that lies in that simple
ity OF speech of which he was the
master. Edward Everett, the most
scholarly and polished orator Of his
day, made the Grafton at Gettysburg
that day. He spoke at length and
with studied preparation. Lincolns
speech was but "a few remarks, "hast-
lily composed on moving train. Next
day Everett wrote to Lincoln In praise
of the latters brief address. Lincoln
wrote to Everett in reply:
In our respective parts yesterday
you could not have been excused to
make q short address, nor a long
one. I am pleased to know, that in
your Judgment, the little I did say
was not entirely failure.
The few plain, correct, concise
words spoken by Lincoln on that oc-
casion are now held to form one of the
masterpieces of English eloquence.
Its short, striking sentences have be-
come as familiar to the ears of the
American people as those of the Dec
laration Of Independence. But who
reads, remembers or quotes the polish
ed periods of Everetts long and labor
ieus Gettysburg orationp
Therefore Lincoln Day is most fit
ting occasion to enforce the literary
lesson Of the great presidents style:
Accuracy, terseness, accuracy.--New
York World.
Inc Elk1nS law as construed by the
railroads is to their profit. Hereto
lore land agents, interested in the
sale of wpstarn 1o.a, l., 80,