The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1908-02-26


like Lincoln, men of heart, and courage
and devotion, who are pledged not to
to help those who are strong among us,
but to help become strong those who
are weak. Class rule for the benefit of
class, whether it be the upper class or
the lower class, is selfishness, and all
there is to sin is selhshness, and sin is
"reproach to any people" The party,
the faction, the class, or the state that
seeks its own advantage, inevitably
must lose it, The class that seeks
special privileges, not only loses its
privileges, but its good name goes with
them. Whatever alliance there is of
selfish interests fighting however adj
roith against the universal demand in
America to-day for distributive Justice,
will follow the slave holder to defeat
and destruction as surely as there is a
God in Isreal. For democracy under
Lincoln proved its ability TO select its
fttest leader by fittest is meant the
one the most nearly of its heart and of
its spiritual kin.
LlNCOLN'S NOMINATION.
1t is 4 curious thing-this selective
power of democracy. 1t works with
the same mystery that surrounds the
miracle of the grass and the trees
The mystery of Lincoln's nomination
to the Presidency is as inexplicable as
Is the growth of a forest. 1t came up
out OF politics just as petty and just as
corrupt rs the politics of today are petty
and corrupt, Jealousy and hatred of
Seward in the nomination of Lincoln;
what would pass for venialty today was
there. 1t was not denied that Lincoln paid
the expenses of a Kansas delegate to
Nie 1piiNelitioIi IL WIS iOl ucllltU
that there were deals and combinations
and states and trades in the nomina-
ton of Lincoln, just as there are in
the nominations of today. Bad men
voted their malice in the convention
that nominated Lincoln, and weak men
voted their weakness. And yet--there
was the thing accomplished There
was the selection of the candidate who
represented the national soul. TO
look At growing forest, to see all the
warning elements and homogeneous en-
vironments, to observe the action OF
bugs and birds and wild things, boring
and scratching and burr owing, each
after its own selfish end, and yet to
know that they are all working with the
wind and sun to make the forest grow
as it was intended the strongest pos
sible forest under that sky--that is to
behold mystery as great as any of the
miracles iii the Bible And again to
consider a room full of coatlcss, sweaty
men, each dominated by his own pur-
pose, with here mean man, there a
good man, yonder venal man, beside
him a flabby man, all milling and plot
ting and scheming, yet all led by sub
conscious impulse toward that which in
the end is for the best---to see that
dingy, battered trumpet breathe forth
the voice of God---and that is exactly
what happened in Lincoln's nomina-
ton that is wonder of wonders.
The thing works---this self govern
ment Of ours. The divine purpose
often is checked, often diverted, often
ignored; but with the perslstency Of a
flood It's finds its course and moves on
ward; moreover, it moves through those
very dirty channels of ordinary grimy
politics that good citizens are SO prone
to deplore. So sure must one be who
reads American history carefully that
during any considerable series OF years,
in our politics--as in all politics, for that
matter, ---"God moves in a mysterious
way" but does actually move, so sure
must one be Of right winning in the long
run, that one feels bound to declare
that fundamental faith in the people
such as Abraham Lincoln had--is an es-
sentlal part in mans working faith in
God. Llncoln's whole life epitomized
that dual faith in the people and in God
as one. His life made il manifest, more
obviously than has any other Ameri-
cans. And indeed without that faith a
man in American politics is bouud to
be a freebooter, bound to count for
nothing in the game Of life.
LINCOLN'S WEAPON, FAITH.
For through the spread of popular
education democracy as an express
sion Of the divine purpose is growing
more and more easily bent to the di-
vine will. The vision of the people is
broader, clearer and stronger, be-
bause they know more than any other
people ever knew on this planet be-
fore. And faith in them, in their III
innate righteousness, should be a pol
itician s hrst weapon against the in
EQUITIES of his generation. He need
be no demagogue. He may disagree
with the people today and teach them
right for tomorrow. But he must not
deceive them; he must meet error
with courage not with tricks. And
then he will find what Lincoln found.
For democracy day in America is