The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-09
LINCOLN, THE
MAN OF PEACE
BY GEN. HORACE PORTER.

the trials of misfortune and to learn
the first lessons of life in the severe
school of adversely. He came from
that class which he always alluded to
as the plain people. He always pos
sessed their confidence, he never lost
his hold on their affections. He be-
heved that the government was made
for the people, and not the people for
the government. and that true Repub-
hcanism Was like a torch-the more IL
is shaken in the hands of the people
The brighter il burns.
If at the height of his power anyone
had sneered at him on account OF his
humble origin, he might well have re-
piled, like the marshal of France, who
was raised from the ranks TO duke
dom, when he told the naughty mobiles
of Vienna, who boosted OF their long
lines of descent and refused to asso-1
ciate with him: II am an ancestor;
you are only descendants"
Abraham Lincoln possessed in a re-
markable degree that most uncommon
of all virtues, common sense. With him
there was no practising the arts of the
demagogue, no posing for effect, no at
titudinizing in public, no mawkish
sentimentality. There was none of that
puppyism so often bred by power.
There was none of that dogmatism that
DIR. Johnson said was only puppyism
grown to maturity.
While his mind was one great store
house of facts and useful information,
he laid no claim to any knowledge he
did not possess. He believed with Ad-
Olson that pedantry in learning is like
hypocrisy in religion, form of knOwl-
edge without the power of it,
While he was singularly adroit and
patient in smoothing down the ruffied
feathers of friends who did not under
stand him. or even of political oppo-
h. tod ff4,1o on a h.
solute recalcitrants. He never attempt
ed to massage the back of a political
porcupine. And, ds he once said him
self, he always found il was a losing
game to- try to shovel fleas across
barnyard.
There are two names of presidents
that will always be inseparably asso-
Ciated in our minds-Wdshington and
Lincoln. But from the manner in
which modern historians magnify triv-
iai- acts you would suppose one had
spent his entire life in cutting down
NTees and the other in splitting them
Yup into rails. There was one marked
difference between them-Washingto
could not tell story; Lincoln always
could
But he told them not for the anec-
dote, but TO clinch a fact, to point
moral
All. it was that humOr of his that
mind and relieved it for the time from
the great responsibilities that were
weighing upon him. He could cut the
sting from the keenest criticism with
his wit. he could gid disappointment
with a joke. He knew better than
most men that in speech wit is to
eloquence what in music melody is TO
harmony.
But his mind was not always at
tuned to mirth: its chords were too
often set TO strains of sadness There
was the slaughter in the field, the de-
pletion of the treasury, complications
which arose. All these were so APP
palling that sometimes even the great
soul of Lincoln seemed ready to melt.
But just when the gloom was blacklist
he never, never took counsel of his
fears. He always had the courage Of
his convictions He never had Occa-
sion to look to the past with regret.
nor TO the future with apprehension.
He had that sublime faith which is
content TO leave the efforts to man. the
results to God.
For ages after the battle of Their
mopyiae every Greek school child was
taught to recite each day the names of
the 800 heroes who fell in the defense
of that~pass It would be a crowning
act of patriotism if every American
school child could be taught each day
to contemplate the exalted character
and utter the inspiring name of Abra-.
ham Lincoln.
Singular man, No one can pluck a
single laurel from his brow. no one
can lessen the measure of his fame.
Marvellous mani In the annals Of all
history we fail to find another whose
life had been so peaceful, whose ma
ture so gentle. and yet who was called
upon TO marshal the hosts of an
aroused people and for four long years
to conduct a bloody, relentless, fratri-
cidal war.
In the annals of history we fail to
find another whose education was that
of the cabinet, not the camp, and yet
who died more heroic death.
/ 1t has seldom fallen to the lot of
Man TO strike the shackles from the
limbs of bondmen and liberate a race
1t has seldom fallen TO the lot of man
to die the death of an honOred mar
tyr, with his robes of office still about
him, his heart at peace with his fell
IOwmen his soul at peace with God,
at the moment of the restoration of his
country TO peace within her borders, to
peace with all the world.
A celebrated sculptor in the four
teenth century in Florence was COM
manded to make a colossal statue.
which was to surmOUnt a historic
cathedral. When it was placed at the
base of the cathedral, the ropes ar
ranged for hosting II. and il was there
unveiled, the crowd jeered and hooted
and criticized numerically the sculp-
tor. 1t was all out of proportion; it
was a failure. But soon the ropes be-
gan TO tighten, and as the statue moved
up into the air the crowd ceased to
jeer, and finally, when ii was placed
upon the pinnacle at the proper focal
distance as intended by the great sculp-
tor who created it, the sneers turned
to plaudits, and the people then saw
it in all the beauty of its true pro-
portions.
And so Abraham Lincoln has so far
receded from us in history that he is
now in the proper focal distance. We
can now measure all his great qualities
as they appear in their true beauty and
symmetry.
j am glad of the work of the Lin
coin Farm association. 1t is well that
his birthplace should be redeemed from
Individual ownership. II should be made