The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-06-23
Parentsge Of Lincoln.

Not the least interesting chapter of
the Kentucy Homecoming was the ad-
dress of Colonel Watterson upon Lin
coin, in which the following statement
relative to Lincoln's parentage ap-
pears:
There is one thing which seems
proper on this occasion to say of any
doubt that may have been cast on the
paternity of Abraham Lincoln, and
that Is that there Is not, and never
has been, a shadow of evidence or rea-
sonable conjecture Of any sort to sup
port 1t. Those who repeat 1t, or dis
cuss it, mercy betray their ignorance,
If they do not display a vicious ten
dency. Nancy Hanks was modest,
we'll reared young woman. Her peo-
pie were as respectable as any people
of the village. Not breath of scan
dial was ever heard until she had lain
in her grave half century. Abraham
Lincoln was her second child, born
nearly three years after her marriage
to Thomas Lincoln. To impeach her
integrity is to discredit that of any
and everymother who lived in those
where the home was sanctuary, the
AAsbA Ao6C CAO a lSll6IOA anu l0Wuuc6S
contemplate.
This authentic declaration has great
historical value, for. however ignorant
may be people who have belived that
Lincoln was an Legitimate child, it
is nevel heless fact that the impress
sion is widespread in this country.
Nor has this story been circulated,
as rule, with vicious intent. On the
contrary, 1t has been repeated to IL
lustrate the Unreasonable opportunity
which American citizenship holds out
to the nations youth; and it has been
repeated to show the sublimity of
Lincoln's manhood in rising superior
to a most humiliating environment
that which involved faint upon his
mothers name.
That Colonel Watterson speaks the
full truth about the Legitimacy of Lin
coins birth there Is not the slightest
doubt. The records are ample to prove
just what Watterson asserts-that
Abraham Lincoln was born three years
after the marriage of Thomas Lincoln
to Nancy Hanks.
This cruel story of Nancy Hanks
shame, with Abraham Lincoln as the
fruit of it, is so old that it would now
be difficult to trace the origin of it.
1t certainly antedates the civil war,
and it probably had its origin in some
of Lincoln's early campaigns in Ill
inois,at period when it was not un-
common for political enemies to cir
culate the most scandalous reports
about political leaders.
Many men have taken enough in
terest in the matter to carefully in
vestigate the records and inform them
selves of its falsity, but SO few have
cared to write upon SO delicate a sub
ject that the falsehood has travelled
down the years with little resistance
Most of Mr. Lincoln's biographers have
preferred not to dignity the lie with
even the most casual refutation.
The time has come in our history
when Abraham Lincoln's life, from his
birth to his tragic termination. con-
stitutes chapter of our National his
tory of which every American citizen
feels proud. In many respects he was
the most remarkable man the west
ern hemisphere ever produced, and
Southern people will rejoice that a
former Confederate soldier has re-
moved for all time the contemplate
doubt which has SO tenaciously clune
about the good name of the mother
of this noble son of Kentucky.
Houston Post