The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-21
PRESIDENTS EULOGY ON
HIS GREAT PREDECESSOR
Mr.. Roosevelt Speaks of Abraham Lincoln on
the Site OF the Great Emancipator's
Birthplace in kentucky.

alike by the extremists of revolution
and by the extremists of reaction. He
never wavered in devotion to his prin-
ciples, in his love for the Union, and
in his adherence of slavery. Timid
and lukewarm people were always de-
nouncing him because he was too ex-
IRENE; but as a matter of fact he never
went to extremes, he worked step by
step; and because of this the extrem-
lists hated and denounced him with
fervOr which now seems to us fantastic
IN its dedication of the unreal and the
impossible. At the very time when one
side was holding him up as the apostle
of social revolution because he was
against slavery, the leading abolitionist
denounced him as the Eslave hound of
Illinois. When he was the second
time candidate for President. the ma
Jority of his opponents attacked him
because of what they termed his ex-
IRENE radicalism, while a minority
threatened to bolt his nomination be.
cause he was not radical enough. He
had continually to check those who
wished to go forward too fast, at the
very time that he OVERRIDE the opposi-
ton of those who wished not to go
forward at all. The goal was never
dim before his vision; but he picked his
way cautiously, without either halt or
hurry, as he strobe toward it, through
such a morass of difficulty that no man
of less courage would have attempted
it. while it would surely have over
whelmed any man of Judgment less
serene
Yet perhaps the most wonderful thing
of ALL and. from the standpoint of the
America of today and of the future,
the most vitality important, was the
extraordinary way in which Lincoln
could fight valiantly against what he
deemed wrong and yet preserve I'M
diminished his love and respect for the
brother from whom he differed. In the
hour of triumph that would have
turned any weaker mans head, in the
heat of a struggle which spurred many
a good man to dreadful vindietiveness,
he said truthfully that so long as he
had been in his office he had never
willingly planted thorn in any man s
bosom, and besought his supporters to
sA1 d. I, e Ii
which they were passing as philosophy
from which to learn wisdom and not as
wrongs to be avenged; ending with the
solemn exhortation that, as the strife
was over, all should reunite in a com
mon effort to save their common coun-
try.
He lived in days that were great and
terrible, when brother fought against
brother for what each sincerely deemed
to be the right In contest so grim
the strong men who alone can carry
it through are rarely able to do justice
to the deep convictions of those with
whom they grapple in mortal strife At
such times men see through a glass
darkly; to only the rarest and Hottest
spirits is vouchsafed that clear vision
which gradually comes to all, even to
the lesser, as the struggle fades into
distance, and wounds are forgotten, and
peace creeps back to the hearts that
were hurt. But to Lincoln was given
La4
the man from whom he differed. Weak
ness was as foreign as wiekedness tt
his strong, gentle nature; but his cour
age was of quality so high that il
needed no bolstering of dark passion
He saw clearly that the same higf
qualities, the same courage, and willing
ness for self sacrifice, and devotion tt
the right as it was given them to SCI
the right, belonged both to the men o.
| the North and to the men of the South
As the years roll by, and as all of US
wherever we dwell, grow to feel al
equal pride in the valor and self-devo
ton, alike of the men who wore Thu
blue and the men who wore the gray
: so this whole nation will grow to fee
a peculiar sense of pride in the might
| lest of the mighty men who mastered
the mighty days; the lover of his coun
! try and of all mankind; the man who's
!; blood was shed for the union of hi
people and for the freedom of race
Abraham Lincoln.