Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-02-13

| OF COOK COUNTY, WHO SPOKE
| ON LINCOLN. THE
| STATESMAN"
ing half the people, were naturally
| Iehement in denunciation and direful
| prophecy. He was to assume the reins
| IF government with cabinet made!
Up largely of disappointed rivals, who
/ elt themselves his superiors, and its
chief, the secretary of state. must take
/ ap our foreign relations with the
knowledge that the great powers of
/ Europe were looking with ill-concealed
joy, and still more lily concealed GER
tainty of expectation for the disrup-
ion of the republic. 4e
These were the conditions under
which Lincoln entered the White
house in 1861.
In Four Years.
"A little more than four years later
he return to Springfield came. 1t was
not, however, to take up again his res
idence and work among the friends
of his youth, that Lincoln came back.
1
was brought back to rest on the
lprairies he loved so we'll In the very
moment of supreme victory, he had
been stricken down by the hand of an
assassin
But consider what this plain man
Of the plain people had achieved in
The four years that had interviewed
between that departure and that re-
turn! Mighty armies had sprung into
being at his bidding--like magic, great
nayies had risen from the sea. Bat
ties that in their fierceness and per-
sistency staggered the military, stu
dents of the world, had been fought
and won under the leaders selected by
his supreme command, fought and won
ofttimes under his specific advice and
Instructions The union had been pre-
q served; our country, saved, was
+ triumphant over internal discord and
foreign jealousy; the stars and stripes
honored and respected abroad as
never before. had proven their right
to float among the proudest standards
Of the world; and. greatest of all the
achievements of that wonderful fOul
years, the United States of America
had had new birth of freedom; tbs
foul stain of slavery had been re
moved from it. and with that remova
the knell of chattel bondage In all the
: civilized world had sounded. The
plain man of the plain people ha6
l become the emancipation of race!
This work had been done, this re
l sponsibiity borne, these ends attained
4 by him. in the face of almost incred
a ible difficulties and amid multiplied
Z ldiscouragements. carping criticisms
open and concealed hostilities, rival
; ries and jealousies!
But with the bullet of the ASSASSIN
8 came change. Criticism ceased
II Hostility died Jealousy hid itsel
Ilaway On the glad sounds of victor,
= in the land there came first hush an,
then succeeded wall of grief Al
Icivilized mankind seemed stricke
with the same sorrow and every tongu
ljoined in eulogy of the great dead.
IAN English Illustrated paper, whic
had for years held up his features an
his speech to ridicule, portrayed hin
lat last with friendly hand, apostropl
izing itself in language OF genuine an
generous emotion
You lay a wreath ON murdered Lii
coins bier!
You. who with hooking pencil WEI
wont to trace,
BROAD for the self-complacent sheer
His length of shambling limb, HI
furrowed face,
His gaunt. gnarled hands, his unkemp
4 bristling hair,
l ! His garb uncouth, his bearing i'll
4 ease,
/ His lack of all we prize as debonair,
OF power or will to shine. of art
please;
You, whose smart pen backed up Il
pencils laugh,
i Judging each step, as though Il
\ way were plain;
Il Reckless. so it could point it's par
graph,
Of chiefs perplexity, or people
pain!
Beside this corpse, that bears I,
winding sheet
The stars and stripes he lived
j rear anew.
= between the mourners at his hef
CONTINUED on Page Six.)