The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-02-16

TO LINCOLN
[coNrINUED FROM FIRST fAen.l

and to feel in his every fiber the sor-
row of the women. Disaster saddened
but never dismayed him. Triumph was
his at the last, and barely had he tast-
ed it before murder found him, and the
the kindly, patient, fearless eyes were
closed forever.
Lincoln and Washington.
AS a people we are indeed beyond
measure fortunate in the characters Of
the two greatest Of our public men,
Washington and Lincoln. They were
alike in essentials they were alike In
the great qualities which rendered each
able to render service to his nation
and to all mankind such as no other
man of his generation could or did
render There have been other men as
great and other men as good, but In
all the history of mankind there are
no other two great men as good as
these, no other two good men as great
Widely though the problems of today
differ from the problems set for solu-
tion to Washington when he founded
this nation, to Lincoln when he saved
it and freed the slave, yet the qualities
they showed in meeting these prob
lens are exactly the same as those we
should show in doing our work today.
Lincoln saw into the future with the
prophetic imagination usually vouch-
safed only to the poet and the seer.
He had in him all the lift toward
greatness Of the visionary, without
any Of the visionary's fanaticism or
egotism, without any of the vision
ary's narrow jealousy of the practical
man and inability to strive in prac-
ideal. No more practical man ever liv-
ed than this homely backwoods ideal
list, but he had nothing in common with
those practical men whose consciences
are warped until they fail to distin-
guish between good and evil, fail to
understand that strength, ability,
shrewdness, whether in the world Of
business or Of politics. only serve to
make their possessor more noxious,
more evil member of the communi-
ty, if they are not guided and con-
trolled by fine and high moral sense.
LincoIn's Qualities Needed Now.
We of this day must try to solve
many social and Industrial problems
requiring to an especial degree the
combination of indomitable resolution
with cool headed sanity. We can profit |
by the way in which Lincoln used both |
these traits as he strove for reform.
We can learn much of value from the |
very attacks which following that |
course brought upon his head, attacks
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 denounc- I
ing him because he was too extreme;
but, as a matter of fact, he never went |
to extremes.
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 Lin
coin could fight valiantly against
what he deemed wrong and yet pre-
serve undiminished his love and re
spect 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 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, endings with
the solemn exhortation that, as the
strife was over, all should reunite in
a common effort to save their common
country.
~ "Mightiest of Americans"
He lived in days that were great
and terrible, when brother fought
against brother for what each sincere
ly deemed to be the right, in a con-
test so grim the strong men who alone
can carry 1t through are rarely able to
do justice to the deep convictions of
those with whom they grapple in NOR
tai strife. At such times men see
through glass darkly. To only the
rarest and loftiest spirits is vouch-
safed 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 this supreme vi
sion. 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 quality so high that it needed no
bolstering Of dark passion. He saw
clearly that the same high qualities,
the same courage and willingness for
self sacrifice and devotion to the right
as 1t was given them to see the right,
belonged both to the men of the north
and to the men of the south. AS the
years roll by and as all of us, wher-
ever 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 grow to feel
peculiar sense of pride in the mightiest
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 a race.