The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1906-02-22
Washington and Lincoln.

day grows in public favor it becomes
more and more the occasion for studies
taking a wider scope than the delinea,
ton of unique personal traits and
pleasing "reminiscences Of his times
i Falling as it does close to Washing
1 toms anniversary, long an established
natural, and they are instructive. Four
/ score years separated the eras in which
1 the Father Of His Country and the
/ great emancipation ruled and wrought,
1 and it was in the fullness of time, as
/ Washington had planted and Watered,
! that Lincoln came to inaugurate the
/ harvest.
! Washington was the organizer of
! free government; Lincoln the organizer
of free development. Washington's
| work was necessary to give Lincoln
| his opportunity 1t Is difficult to con
ceive Of a Lincoln coming to greatness
in the Revolution. He would not have
been silent, and he might have been
the compeer Of Patrick Henry. But the
line Of Patrick Henry Gid not reach
out toward Abraham Lincoln at his
| greatest, rather toward Charles Sum-
| ner, Wendell Phillips and John Brown.
"Give me liberty or give ms death
was the right battle cry when Henry
uttered it. but it carried John Brown
to the gallows under free govern
ment as Washington founded it.
Our growth in national or, rather,
international Importance brings into
stronger light the service of Washing
ton to civilization. The colonies might
have cut loose from England III a mo-
ment of passion and kept up a fitful
Independent existence for a long time.
But mere separateness does not con
stitute nationality. There was a germ
in the ferment which impelIed the colo
nistS to cast the redcOats out that was
to be of slow development, but it en-
bodied the one moral end of govern
ment upon earth. The political watch
word, "All men are created free and
equal" meant in 1776 that kings and
lords and their tools and hirelings could
not rob and Cypress a people with
enough sand to get in line and shoot
straight In 1861 the words had come
to imply that all men are entitled to
equal rights in the pursuit of happi-
ness, and there must be no government
bar against free action. The idea car
ried Lincoln from the log cabin to the
White House. just as the doctrine Of
the sword called Washington from his
genteel retirement to the head Of the
colonial army.
What Washington wrought is seen
year by year IN newer and grander
light, and it will be the same in the
case of Lincoln. We appeal to Wash
ington for wisdom to guide in counsels
of state because 1t is plain that in
craftsmanship he wrought for the fu-
ture. 1t was not his mission to make
men free, the men of his age, but to
make man free. Men need at times
protection from themselves or the
rights Of man are trampled upon. It
would have been easy for the colonies
on cutting loose from Great Britain to
fall into the anarchy that has engulfed
the South American states since they
threw off the yoke Of Spain. Washing
toms sword stood for power to keep
England on the other side OF the ocean,
and the people rested easy under
practical dictatorship while the govern
ment was taking shape. Washington's
character as noble gentleman was a
guarantee Of fair play while he lived.
But the gentlemen who climbed
into power by reason Of their supposed
affinity with Washington soon lost
sight of the doctrine of fair play. They
protested to see In the horrors of the
= ACACA ACNO1uClOA lOICCdSJ VI WudI
would happen if the American people
should be given free reign in self gov
eminent and substituted the divine
right Of class for the divine right of
kings which the mad populace had
pitched overheard along with the Brit
ISL tea. When class rule was threatened
by the awakening Of mems minds to
the fact that the preamble to the con-
stitution had been amended to read
"some men are born superior to their
fellows and are fitted to rule over
them," there were voices to cry out
that the Union would better dissolve
than that profaning hands should seize
the helm Of state. Disciples Of Wash
ington, the gentleman, thought so little
Of the work of Washington, the soldier
and patriot, that they were ready to see
the nation go down If only the flag OF
class against mass should wave over
above the ruins. And the disuniOnists
were not all of the one section nor Of
WI