Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-14
Speaking to Good Americans.

TT is a great thing to remember that
while it is occasionally proper to join in
mass meetings for the purpose of calling
attention to neighbors' shortcomings, it is
normally better to turn to our own.
In presenting figures showing a decrease
in lynchngs in the last three months, the
President said:
These are striking figures, and 1 take
certain satisfaction in them, in view of
some of the gloomy forebodings of last
summer"
Another side remark which caught the
Presidents hearers was:
''There is not of us that does not
sometimes stumble and shame be to us if
we do not help him up, but if he lies
down, there is no use in trying to carry
him. 1t will hurt both of u.s."
The President said:
President Roosevelts Address.
In his second inaugural, in speech which
will be read as long as the memory of this
nation endures, Abraham Lincoln closed by
saying:
with malice toward none; with charity
for all, with firmness in the right, as God
gives us to the right, let US strive on to
finish the work we are in to do all
which may achieve and cherish just and
lasting peace among ourselves, and with all
nations.
Immediately after his reelection he had
already spoken thus: ---.---.-.---.. i
THE strife of the election is but human
tie case. Wha t has occurred Sin this cases
must ever reeur .ini similar cases, Human
nature will not change. In any future great
national trial. compared with the men of
this, we shall have as weak and as strong,
as silly and wise. as bad and as good.
Let us, therefore. study the incidents of this
as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and
none of them as wrongs to be reVenged.
May not all having a common inter-
est reunite in common effort to (serve) our
common country? For my own part,sI have
striven and shall strive to avoid placing any
obsta Gle in the way. So long as | have been j
here | have not willingly planted thorn in
any mans bosom.
while | am deeply sensible to the high
compliment of a reelection and duly CRATE
full, as l trust, to Almighty God for having
directed my countrymen to e right concu-
sion, as I think, for their own good, it adds
nothing to my satisfaction that any other
man may be disappointed or PANIED by the
result.
May l ask those who have not differed
with me to join with me in this same spirit
toward those who haveP
This is the spirit in which mighty Lincoln
sought to bind up the nations wounds when
it's soul was yet seething with fierce hatreds,
with wrath, with rancor, with all 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 rancor or
hatred when there is so little of vital con-
sequence to divide brother from brother
Strive to Show Lincoln's Qualities.
Lincoln, himself man of southern birth.
did not hesitate to appeal to the sword
when he became satisfied that in no other
way could the Union be saved, for high
though he put peace, he put righteousness
still higher. He warred for the Union: he
warred to free the slave: and when he
warred he warred in earnest, for 1t is
sign of weakness to be half-hearted when
blows must be struck.
But he felt only love- a love as deep as
the tenderness of his great and sad heart.
for all his countrymen 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 unbreak-
able bonds of eternal friendship.
We of today, in dealing with all our fell
low-citizens, white or colored north or
south. should strive to show just the quail
ties that Lincoln showed: His steadfast-
ness in striving after the right, and his in
finite patience and 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 unattainabe; his unceasing effort to
cure what was evil, coupled with his re-
fusal to make bad situation worse by any
nl-judged or ill-timed effort to make it bet
ter.
The great civil war in which Lincoln tow
cred as the loftiest figure left 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 both fought with equal
bravery and with equal sincerity of convic- |
ton. each striving for the light at 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 Union was essential to |
the welfare 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 Amer |
leans, feel the most earnest friendship for |
their fellow-countrymen who dwell in the |
south, friendship all the greater because
it is in the south that we find in it's most |
acute phase of the graVest problems |
before our people, the problem of so deal |
ing with the man of one color as to secure !
him the rights that one would grudge |
him if he were of another color To solve |
this problem 1t is, of course, necessary to |
ure to perform which will render him a |
curse to himself and to all around him.
Sympathy With the South.
Most certainly all clear-sighted and gen. |
erous men in the north appreciate the diff |
Guilty and perplexity of this problem SYM |
pathize with the south in the embarrass- |
ment of conditions for which she is not |
alone responsible, feel an honest wish to |
help her where help Is practicable, and |
nave the heartiest respect for those brave |
ana earnest men of the south who, In the |
face of fearful difficulties are doing all |
that men can do for the betterment alike I
of white and OF black
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