The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-06-27
THE TWO GREAT LEADERS
Of THE CIVIL WAR
The Great Struggle Was a Contest
Between Peers.
STALWARTS IN THOSE DAYS
Davis Was Secretary Under Pierce
and Had Distinguished Himself in
the Mexican Lincoln Had Also
Been Soldier.

pastor OF Hanson Place MethOdlSt
Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, N.
V, who delivered the baccalau-
reate sermon at the Womans Col
lege, Baltimore, Sunday last, in
an address on Memorial Day in
Brooklyn to an audience of 10, 900
people, said:
The Civil War was the most
vehement and bloody of the years,
because its issue was to settle for
ever the policy and performance
of the most favored land upon
which sun could ever shine! Our
forefathers were stalwarts. They
had developed the strength of
struggle. They had battled
against angry seas to reach these
shores; they had subdued wild
beasts and impenetrable forests,
on a hundred battlefelds they had
fought the initial struggles for
freedom against a foreign foe.
They were warriors bold, and
when they found themselves ar
rayed against each other on funda-
mental principles Of government
they discovered in each other foe
men worthy of their steel. 1t was
a war not for conquest, but for con-
science; knight against knight,
schoolmate against mate, Christian
against Christian, freeman against
freeman, each fighting as he pray
ed, and all, in the hush of battle,
singing the same songs and bow
ing at kindred affairs. Men were
listening for a heavenly voice and
looking for heavenly vision, and
they heard it in the thunders of
war and read it on the clouds of
battle!
Eyes, it was contest of peers.
An Interpretation of the constitu-
ton became necessary. Under the
porcelain skies of the South that
masterful document seemed one
thing, while on the vigorous alti-
tudes OF the North it appeared to
De something entirely different.
The issue could not be settled for
ever until it was determined by
equals. Many of the best generals
on both sides were products of
West Point. The same adjectives
which are used in describing the
valor and integrity and personal
qualities of Grant and Sheridan
and Sherman can be most Justly
employed in referri ng to Lee and
Stonewall Jackson and Albert Sid
ney Johnson. Two men were born
within a few months of each other,
a few miles apart, in the same
State-one in poverty, the other in
prosperity. One was educated in
the best schools of his State, and
afterward appointed by President
Monroe to West Point; the other
received his education out of a
few borrowed books which he
studied at night by the light of
pine knots. They were both tall,
serious men; both orator of un-
usual power; both men of prayer;
both patriots of conviction and
courage; and each was pressed for
ward by destiny into the repre-
sentative places of trust of oppos-
ing constituencies. The one was
Abraham Lincoln, the other Jeff
ferson Davis.
Jefferson Davis was married to
a daughter of Zachary Taylor. the
twelfth President of the United
State. He was Secretary of War
in President Pierce's Cabinet. He
was a United States Senator from
Mississippi. When his State
withdrew from the Union he arose
in his place IN the Senate chamber,
and, in announcing his withdrawal
from that body courtesyly begged
the pardon of any whom he had
offended in debate. Lincoln and
Davis were men of the same type.
With answering devotion each
stood as a gladiator by his interpre-
tation of eight and justice. Lin
coin completely embodied all the
traditions and virtues and hopes