The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-02-12


olution and by the extremists of re-
action. He never wavered in
Devotion to His Principles,
in his love for the Union, and in his
adherence of slavery. Timid and luke
warm people we're always denouncing
him because he was too extreme: but
as a matter OF fact he never went
to extremes, he worked step by step;
and because of this the extremists
hated and denounced him with a fer
Hor, 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
"slave Hound of illinois,
When he was the second time candi-
date for President, the majority of his
opponents attacked him because of
what they termed his extreme radical
ism, while a minority threatened to
bolt his nomination because he was
not radical enough. He had contin-
ually to check those who wished to go
forward too fast, at the very time he
OVERRIDE the opposition 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
morass of difficulty that no man of
less courage would have attempted it.
while it would surely have overwhelm-
ed any man of judgement 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 VaIfantIy
against what he deemed wrong and vet
preserve undiminished his love and
respect for the brother from whom he
differed. In the hour of a triumph
that would have turned any weaker
mans head, in the heat of struggle
which spurred many a good man to
dreadful vindictiveness, he said truth
fully that SO long as he had been in
his office he had never willingly plant
ed thorn In any mans bosom, and
besought his supporters to study the
Incidents of the trial through 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 common effort to save their COM
mon country.
He lived in days that were great and
terrible, when brother fought against
brother for what each sincerely believ-
ed to be the right. In a contest so
grim the strong men alone can carry
1t 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
loftiest spirits is vouchsafed the 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 this supreme vision.
He did not hate the man from whom
he differed. Weakness was as foreign
as wickedness to his strong, gentle
nature; but his courage was of a quail
ity so high that it needed no bolstering
of dark passion. He saw clearly that
the same high qualities, the same
courage ana Willingness Tor Self-sac- !
rifice, and devotion to the right as it
was given them to see the right, be-
longed both to the men of the North
and to the men of the South. AS the
years roll by. and as all of us, wherev-
err we dwell, grow to feel an equal
pride In the valor and self-devotion,
alike of the men who wore the blue
and the men who wore the gray. so
this whole nation will gro to feel
peculiar sense of pride in the might
est of the mighty men who mastered
the mighty days; the lover of his
country and of all mankind; the man
whose blood was shed for the union
of his people and for the freedom of