The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1909-02-18
ENTIRE VA TON PA rs
TRIBUTE LLNCOLN

lows:
We have met here to celebrate
the hundredth anniversary of the
birth OF one OF the two greatest
Americans: one Of the two or three
greatest men of the nineteenth CEN
fury; OF one ofsthe greatest men IN
the worlds history. This rail-split-
ter. this boy who passed his un-
sainly youth in the dire poverty of
the poorest OF the frontier folk,
whose rise was by weary and painful
labor, lived. to lead his people
through the burning flames OF a
struggle from which the nation
emerged. purified as by fire. born
anew to lofties life. After long
years of iron effort. and OF failure
that came more often than victory.
he at last rose to the leadership OF
the Republic, at the moment when
that leadership had become the stu
penduous world.task Of the time.
He grew to know greatness, but new
er ease. Success came to him, but
never happiness. save that which
springs from doing well a painfni
and vital task. Power was his,
but not pleasure, The burrows deep
ened on his brow, but his eyes were
undimmed by either hate or fear.
His gaunt shoulders were bowed,
but his steel thews never faltered as
he bore for a'burden the destinies of
his people. His great and tender
heart shrank from giving pain: and
the task allotted him was to pour
out like water the life-blood of the
young men, and to feel in his every
fiber the sorrow OF the women. Dis
aster saddened but never dismayed
him. AS the red years of war went
by they found him ever doing his
duty in the present, ever facing the
future with fearless front, high of
heart. and dauntless OF SOIL. I'm
broken by hatred, mistaken, by
scorn, he worked and suffered for
the pople. Triumph was his at last;
and barely had he tasted 1t before
murder found him. and the kindly.
patient, fearless eyes were closed
forever.
AS a people We are indeed beyond
measure fortunate In the characters
of the two greatest of our public
linen, Washington and Lincoln.
Widely thongh the different exter-
mails, the Virginia landed gentleman
and the Kentucky kwoodsman,
they were alike in essentials, they
were alike in the great qualities
which render each able to render
service to his nation and to all man
kind such as no other man of his
generation could or. did render.
Each had lofty ideals, but each in
striving to attain these lofty ideals
twas guided by the soundest common
sense. Each possessed inflexible
courage in adversely, and soul
wholly unspoiied by prosperity.
Each possessed all the gentler vir-
tues commonly exhibited by good
men who lack rugged strength of
character. Each possessed also all
the strong qualities commonly ex-
Ehibited by those towering masters of
mankind who have too ofteh shown
themselves devoid of so much as the
understanding of the words by
which we signify the qualities OF
duty. of mercy. of devotion to the
fright, of lofty disinterestedness in
battling for the good of others.
There have been other men as great
land 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
LOT today differ from the problems
Iset for solution to Washington when
The founded the nation. to Lincoln
when he saved 1t and freed the
slave. yet the qualities they showed
in meeting these problems are ex-
laetly the same as those we should
show in doing our work today.
Lincoln. saw into the future with
the prophetic Imagination usually
lyouchsafed only to the poet and seer.
HE had in.him all the lift toward
4 greatness of the visionary. without
any oft'the visionary,s fanaticism or
/ tgotism. without any OF the vision
ary's narrow Jealousy OF the practic-
la man and inability to strive in
practical fashion for the realization
Of an ideal. He had the practical
mans hard common sense and will
4 ingness to adapt means to ends; but
There was in him none of that NOR
bid growth of mind and soul which
/ blinds SO many practical men to the
I higher things ofslife. No more prac-
NJ Ia -