Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-13
LEGISLATIVE EXERCISES.
Continued from Page one)

pers by the orchestra were the over
ture America which was played
with great spirit, and the Grand
American Fantasia" by Bendix, with
which the program closed. ~,
senator Henry H. Hastings Of Ok
ford called the meeting to order short
~ before 8 o'clock and without max
ing any extended speech introduced as
the presiding officer Hon. George G.
weeks, Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives. Speaker Weeks after pay
ing an eloquent tribute to the memory
OF Lincoln, said that it was eminently
BETTING that this celebration should
be held in the Capital city, for the
walls of yonder Capitol held the shat
tered flags carried by those brave men
who fought for their country at the
call OF Abraham Lincoln Prayer was
offered by Rev. Leroy Wilson Coons
pastor CT the Winthrop Street Univer.
salist church, after which Speaker
Weeks introduced as the first speaker
of the evening Prof. Wilmot Brookings
Mitchell Of Bowdoin College.
Address Of Prof. Mitchell.
The address of Prof Wilmot E
Mitchell of Bowdoir College was al
able and scholarly effort After re-
viewing briefly the times in which Lin
coin was born century ago, the con.
ditions surrounding his birth, his an.
cestry, his boyhood, his early career
his preparation for his life work, his
intense hatred for the institution OF
slavery, he closed with a tribute tc
Lincoln as a master of men, saying, ir
part:
Mr.. Lincoln also had an instinct for
leadership. He was by nature a mas
ter OF men. / do not mean that he
was man Of blood and iron who by
sheer strength beat down all opposi-
ton to his desires and purposes, and
with an iron hand compelled others to
obey him. To such a man he was at
the very antipOdes. He ruled by
subtler means. He won the hearts of
men by those forces which we include
under the vague phrase of personal
magnetism. He had the art of Win
ming with his humor, and he Went
straight to his mark which was the
human heart. Even those who obey
Cu nm Souiu llOI ulN dyS lCll WHY ltlS J
did so. Men would go to him as en-
ragged enemies and come away loyal
friends. Sometimes his humor or tact
robbed them of suspicion, but often it
was the clearness of his reasoning and
his speech, his absolute simplicity and
frarkNcss and sincerity that aroused
their enthusiasm and won their af-
fections.
When he went to Washington as
President how he amazed the poll,
ticians! At first his directness and
patience, his candor in acknowledge
ing deficiencies, his Willingness to
learn. his rough humor and uncon-
VentiOnality, were SO misunderstood
that even some CT his cabinet mstook
them FOR clownishness or vacillation or
stupidity. But it did not take some of
them long to learn who was to be mas
ter. They found before many weeks
that they were dealing with a shrewd
and honest intellect, a firm will and a
large. heart. Perhaps nowhere Were
these powers more clearly shown than
IN the handling of his mistrustful ana
factiCus cabinet made up of old time
Democrats and old-time Wings and
Itt'N-tliHc tiiC SlI clISCol'
most influential men that he could
master, his happy family" as he used
to call them.
1t was with sagacIty, humor, pa
tience, tirmness and sincerity that
Lincoln mastered great men. Not
less was his instinct for leadership
seen IN his dealings with common
folks. He has been called the Great
Commoner. To him it was a title of
nobility, for he loved the plain people.
No man knew them better than he; he
was born among them and bred among
them, indeed was over all of them,
a common man-with genius. He had
eaten their food, sat by their flresides,
rocked their cradles, argued in their
grocery stores, watched by their sick
and buried their dead; he knew their
ways Of living, their methods of rea'
SOnling, their rough strength, their
common sense, their pleasures and
wishes and SORROWS. And Withal he
believed in them and they in him. To
them President Lincoln was ever a
friend at court.
To the common soldier he was al
ways Father Lincoln; to the common
citizen Honest Abe Lincoln. To him
they were not subjects but friends.
They were a jury of peers before
whom he argued his case They might
sometimes be moved by passion and
misled ty error, but their hearts were
right You could fool some of them all
the time, and all of them some of the
time. but you couldn't fool all OF them
all the time
Some of you, very likely all OF you
soldiers, shook hands with him, and
you had chance to look into that
wonderful face. l envy you that ca
perience. For l tell you If l could look
into the living face and feel the power
of personality of but one great maker
of American history, l should choose
not Hamilton or jefferson or Wash
ington. | should choose Abraham Lin
coin.
His, I know, was not face or figure
that was always handsome or marshal
as that of Jefferson or Webster or
Washington. He was. indeed, often
rated as ungainly or slouchy; ms
clothes were generally ill-fttlng. AS
H. ,,oc., b;C littln gray shawl and