The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1909-02-11

so as to tighten his discontinue, I
abused him, as being the cause of his
and his friends undoing.
And l can never forget the sad
and spiritless way in which he de-
Tended himself from my attacks. We
sat together in the cheerless, dismal
Office till after dark, when he went
with me to my hotel, and, in fact, re-
mained with me till late hour. He
said with bitterness: 81 expect every
one to desert me-"
Mr.. Lincoln was a model citizen, In
the sense of being a citizen of the
whole State, and ultimately of the
whole Nation, although, at the outset
of his career, his affiliations were
purely local and quadrated with
Sangamon alone. Yet, with larger
experiences, his social and political
horizon expanded and enlarged, and
he was no more intimately in touch
with the people of Springfield or
Sangamon County than with those of
Logan or Champaign. He deemed
himself to be as much obligated to
the people of any other village in the
bestowment of official or other favors
as to those at his immediate home.
And in his entire administration at
Washington 1t was, in principle. the
same: he really wanted a Cabinet
Minister-Judd--fro his own State,
but he considered that his State had
had enough consideration in his own
election. He had no more regard, in
/ the matter of executive favors, for
Illinois than for Maine. Geograph-
| ical propinquity and social propin-
guilty had no alliance in his mind;
/ his social area embraced the whole
| State and ultimately the entire Ma
tion. His field was the world. He
dwelt in principles and institutions.
To him men were but agents or
media, to originate, promulgate or
enforce principles, and mans local
ity had naught to do with his eff
ficiency in that respect; and the acme
and high-water mark of such social
pastimes as he allowed himself was
achieved on the circuit with the
boys" las we were called) during
court-time.
This catholicity Gas contradistin-
guished from anything specially OF as
sociation and consequent failure to
localize his social and political at
tachments, will serve to explain, in
some sort, the lack of that ardent
sympathy for him at home which
sometimes (and especially on election
day in November, 1S60) cropped out,
The bitterness of partisan politics,
especially on the part of those who
deemed his anti-slavery sentiments
as recusant to the land of his fathers,
aided this feeling, and his omission
to recognize his home neighbors suf-
ficiently in the distribution of Fed
eral offices all combinedto engender q
considerable social alienation, and
prevented him from being, as alb
stractly and on his individual merits
he would have been, an ideally popu-
lar citizen. Not that he was unpop-
ular, but he should have been popu-
lar to the verge of enthusiasm, as
he was when news of the location OF
the capital at Springfield reached the
then insignificant little village.
He was most rigid supporter of
all laws, those which were conven-
tional and unimportant, as we'll as
those which were vital; paid his
debts and taxes promptly; did not
allow his little real estate to get on
the delinquent list, nor violate or
omit any other political duty. He
drank no liquor at any period of his
life and did not visit a saloon (al-
though it was a lawyer-like habit to
do so) on any pretense whatever;
neither did he obtrude advice or a
pertinacious temperance lecture on
those who did so. We were once in
vited to visit primitive vineyard in
Vermillion County, and to taste the
several varieties of homemade wine.
1t affected no one but Lincoln, but II
did affect him: "Fellers, I'm getting
drunk" said he, comically.