The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-02-17
THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH
DELIVERED BEFORE LINCOLN
CLUB OF NEW YORK.
One Of the Most Notable Ctterances
that Has Ever Eliminated from the
Chief Executive-It Deals Candidly
With the Race Question.

In his second inaugural, in a speech
which will be a as long as the mem
DRY of this nation endures, Abraham
Lincoln closed by saying:
With malice toward none; with
charity for all; with frmness in the
right, let us strive on to fnish the work
we are in; to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves, and
with all nations"
Immediately after his reelection ne
had already spoken thus:
The strife of the election is bat
hnman nature practically applied to
the facts Of the case. What has oc-
Cured in this case must ever recur in
similar cases. Human nature will not
change. In any future great national
trial, compared with the men of this,
We shall AVE as weak and as strong,
as silly and as wise, as bad and as
good. Let US, therefore, study the i'll
cidents Of this as philosophy to Learn
wisdom from, and none of them as
wrongs to be revenged. May
not all having a common interest re-
unite in a common effort to ~(serve)
our common country? For my own
part, / have striven and shall strive
TO avoid placing any obstacle in the
way. So long as 1 have been here I
have not willingly planted a thorn ia
any mans bosom. While I am deeply
--.A - A. 49,
reelection, and duly grateful, as 1
trust, to Almighty God for having di-
rected my c~ountrymen to a right
conclusion, as j think, for their own
good, it adds nothing to my satisfac-
ton that any other m a may be dis
appointed or panied by the result.
May I ask those who have not dr.
fered with me to join with me in this
same spirit toward those who haVe?~
This IS the spirit in which mighty
Lincoln sought to bind up the ia
tion's wounds when its soul was yet
seething with fierce hatreds, with
wrath, with rancor with al the evil
and dreadful passions provoked by civil
war. Surely this is the spirit which
all Americans should show now, when
there is SO little excuse for malice or
rance OF hatred, when there is so
little of vital consequence to divide
brother from brother.
Lincoln, himself a man of southern
birth, did not hesitate to appeal to
the sword when he became satisfied
that in nc other way could the Mo
be saved, for high though he put
peace he put righteousness still higher.
He warred for the Union; he varied
to free the S1a wa. and when he wa rra6
he warred in earnest, for it is a sign
Of weakness to be half-hearted when
blows must be struck. But he felt
only love, a love as deep as the ten
derness of his great and sad heart, for
all his c~ountrymen alike in the north
and in the south, and he longed above
everything for the day when they
should once more be knit together in
the u~nbreakable bonds of eternal
friendship.
We of today, in dealing with all our
tellow-citizens, white or colored, north
or south, should strive to show just
the qualities that Lincoln showed: His
steadfastness in striving after the
right, and his infinite patience n
forbearance with those who saw that
right less clearly than he did; his
| earnest endeavor to do what was best.
and yet his readiness to accept the
best that was practicable when the
ideal best was unattainable: his I'M
ceasing effort to cure Wha was evil,
coupled with his refusal to make a
bad situation worse by any ill-judged
or ill-timed effort to make it better.
The great civil war in which Lln-
coin lowered as the Hottest figure lat
us not only a reunited country, but a
country which has the proud right to
claim as it's own the glory won alike
by those who wore the blue and by
those who wore the gray, by those who
followed Grant and by those who fol-
lowed Lee; for 10th fought with equal
bravery and with equal sincerity OF
conviction. each striving for the light
as it was given him to see the light;
though it is now clear to all that the
triumph of the cause of freedom and
OF the Mol was essential to the wei.
fare of mankind. We are now one
people, a people with failings which
we must not blink, but a people with
great qualities in which we have the
right to feel just pride.
All good Americans who dwell IN
the north must, because they are GOOD
Americans, feel the most earnest
friendship for their fellow-coutrymen
who dwell in the south, a friendship
al the greater because it is in the
south that We ind in its most acute
phase one of the gravest problems De-
fore our people: the problem of so
dealing with the man of one color AS
to secure him the rights that no one
would grudge him # he were of another
color. To solve this problem it is, or
course, necessary to educate him to
perform the duties, a failure TO per-
form which will render him a curse.
to himself INK to al around him.
Most certainly all c~lear-sighted and
generous men in the north appreci-
ate the difficulty and perplexity OF
this DrOhlom. Symnathiza with the