The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1909-02-19
CORNER stone TO MEMORIAL HALL
Laid and LINCOLN FARM DEDICTED.

hemUucky uickWOOUoiiltmi, NhV "oio
alike In essentials. they were alike
in the great Qualities which rendered
each able TO reder service to his
nation and 20 an mankind such as no
other man OF hds generation could or
did rather. Each had lofty ideals. but
each In striving 10 attain these lofty
ideals was guided by the soundesi
common sense. Each possessed in
flexible courage in adversely and a
soul wholly umspoiled by prosperity
Each possessed all the gentler vir-
tues commonly exhibited by good men
who lack rugged Strength of charac-
ter. Each possessed also all Hhe strong
qualities commonly exhibflEd by Those
towering masters of mankind who have
too often shown themselves devoid
of so much as tine understanding of
the words by which we signify tine
qua ities OF duty, of lofty disin.er-
estedness In BATTLING for tine good
of others There have been other
men as great and other men as good;
but in all the history of mankind
theu,e are NO other two great men as
good as THESE no other TWO good men
as great. Widely though tine problem
OF to-day differ from the problems
set for solution to Washington when
h. f<,,pdod IN a. ,,afi IN, 10 f,o<a, ,.1,,,,
he saved 1t and freed the slave, yet
the qualities they showed in NEE ing
these problems are exactly the same
as those we should SNOW in doing our
work to-day
Lincoln saw into Fhe future with
the prophetic imagination usually
vouchsafed only 10 the poet and the
seer. He had in him all the lift to-
ward greatness of the visionary with
out any of tn visonary's fanaticism
or egoism, without amy OF the vision
aTy's narrow jeaIously of the practical
man and inability to strive in praoti-
cal fashion for the realization of an
ideal. He had The practical mans hard
common sense and Willingness to adap
means 10 ends; but there was in him
none OF that morbid growth of mind
and soul whcih blinds so many
practical men to The higher things of
life. No more practical man ever Lv-
sad than thfc, ibOy,a1x, lsoolyuoode gdooI
list; but he had notEing in common
with those practical men whose con-
are warped until they fail to
distinguish between good and evil,
fail TO understand that strength, abil-
ity, shrewdness, whether in the world
Of business or of politics, only serve
to make their possessor a more nox-
ious a more evil member of tha com
munity' if they are not guided and
controlled by a fine and high moral
sense.
We of this day must try TO solve
many social and industrial problems,
requiring to an espicial degree the
combine ion of indomitable resolution
with cool-headed sanity We can profit
by the ways in which Lincoln used
boJh these traits as he stroue to ne
form. We can learn much of value
from the very attacks which follow
Ing that course brought upon his head,
lie hNr hA aterfs. -
revolution and by the extremists of
reac don. He never wavered In devo-
ton to his principles, in his love for
the Union, and in his adherence of
slavery. Timid and lukewarm people
were always denouncing him because
he was too extreme; blu. as a matter of
fact he never went to extremes he
worked step by step; and because of
this the extremists ha er denounc-
ed him with a fervor which now seems
TO us fantastic in its edification of
TIE unreal and the impossible. AT the
very time when one side was no ding
him up as the apostle of social revo-
luton because he was against slavery
the leading aboliHionist denounced him
as the slave hound of Illinois" When
he was the second time candidate for
President, the majority of his oppon-
ents attacked him because of what
they termed his extreme radioalism
while a minority threatened TO bolt
hds nomination because he was not
radical enough. He had continually to
check Those who wished to go for
ward too fast al line very time that lhe
OvewOde the opposition of those who
wished moi to go forward at all. The
goal was never dim before his vision
but he piced whis kay cautiously with
out either halt or hurry as he strode
toward 1t, through such morass of
tihat no man of less courage
would have at tempted 1t, while it
would surely have Overwhelmed amy
man of Judgment less serene.
Yet perhaps the most wonderful
hing of al, and, from the standpoint
If the American of to-day and of the
u ure, the most vitality important,
was THE extraordinary way in wlnoh
Lincoln could fight valianoly against
what he dermed wrong and yet pre-
serve uEd.minished his love and re-
spect for the brother from whom NE