The national prohibitionist., 1908-04-16


Mr.. Hay confirms Mr. Stoddard. He says:
"Mr. Lincoln man of extremely temperate
habits; he made no use of either whisky or to-
bacco, during all the years that l knew him."
Major William H. Crook, who was executive
clerk at the White House in the administration
of President Lincoln and still holds the place, said
recently: Never while he was President did
ever see or hear of Abraham Lincoln's drinking
one drop of liquor of any kind"
Mr.. Lncolns son declared that his father never
used liquor or tobacco in any form. He is said
to have often preached the following Sermon"
as he called it, to his boys: Don't drink, don't
smoke, don't chew, don't swear, don't gamble
don't lie, don't cheat Love your fellow men and
love God Love truth, love virtue, and be happy"
Those who we're brought into intimate associa-
ton with Mr. Lincoln have declared, without hest
tation that Mr. Lincoln was total abstainer
Among those who pay tribute to Mr. Lincoln's
personal habits are Senator Shelby M. Cullom
of Illinois, who knew Mr. Lincoln for many years
before he became President and is reported in the
Record-Herald of May 16, 1908, to have said /:
Lincoln never drank, smoked chewed tobacco
or swore. He was of the most simple
habits I recall distinctly when committee of
Springfield citizens, including myself called at
Lincoln's house after he nominated for Presi-
dent, to talk over with him the arrangements for
receiving the committee on notification. Lincoln
said: Boys, I have never had drop of liquor
in my whole life and don't want to begin now
This part of the entertainment was provided for
elsewhere"
But the most valuable evidence of Mr.. Lincoln's
temperance views and practices are his own
words. The first composition he ever wrote was
on the foolishness of liquor drinking and the evils
that came from the habit. He became very much
interested in the Washingtonian movement which
swept over the country and frequently addressed
temperance meetings In his address delivered
on Washington's Birthday February %, 1912, he
used these remarkable words, which contain
prophecy of the overthrow of slavery and in
temperance and consequently of the downfall of
the saloon:
"Ihe demon of intemperance ever seems to have
delighted in sucking the blood of genius and
generosity. What one of us but can call to mind
some relative more promising in youth than all
his fellows who has fallen sacrifice to his
rapacity? He seems to have gone forth like
the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay,
if not the first, the farest born of every family
Shall he now be arrested in his desolating career?
In that arrest all can aid that will, and who shall
be excused that can and will not? Far around as
human breath has ever blown he keeps our
fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends
PROSTATE in the chains of moral death To all
the living everywhere we cry: Come, sound the
moral trump, that these may rise and stand up
an exceedingly great army Come from the four
Winds 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain that
they may live If the relative grandeur of revolu
ton shall be estimated by the great amount of
human misery they alleviate, and the small amount