The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-02-16

On ruthless ranks of maddened men!
That call to arms our country heard:
AND scarce had Lincoln IS signal word
Rung out, ere hosts-untried before
From forge and farm and cottage door,
From riverside anG peaceful plain,
From valley low and mountain chain,
From scattered haunts and cities
dense
Uprose in national defense.
So war its desolation waged
AS battles grim with horror ragged;
While all the land for four long years
Was bathed in blood and drowned in
tears.
One master mind held full command
o Ter surging seas and darkened land;
And, welding more than kingly power,
Fought raging foes from Freedom s
tower.
The Nations fate all trembling hung
Upon a word from Lincoln IS tongue,
When needless act or futile frown
Might let the mighty fabric down.
But hero, chieftain, father, friend
Der all the land from end to end;
He wrought as toiling humblest slave
His country, tried by fire, to save.
When stainless triumph crowned his
work,
Mid scenes where hell-born dangers
lurk,
Ee fell sustaining Freedom S laws
A martyr to his country's cause.
As angels tears from heaven fell
Upon that form they Lived SO well,
HIS soul unfettered took its fight
To join them there in glDry bright.
And as his spirit rose on high
10 deathless realms beyond the sky,
The Nation woke-transfgured free
Redeemed in loyal unity!
His perfect work at last was done,
The prize for which he strove was
won;
And Union over all our land
Was firmly bound by Lincoln's hand.
Then let our flags be all unfurled
And waved in pride around the world,
To mark the day, from early morn,
When Lincoln, GOdlike man, was born!
The Grafton.
Walter G. Smith delivered the ora
ton. He spoke as follows:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men:
This republic was an experiment un-
til Abraham Lincoln had done his
life's workout it was never called
an experiment again. 1t had proved
its right to be. Europe-and not only
the Europe of princes and aristocrats
had felt free to mock it with proph-
ecies of failure. OF the intellectual
men of England, during the earlier part
of our Civil War, the only conspicu-
Gus one who did not despair of the
republic was John Bright. Mr.. Glad
stone had no hope At one period of
the war when things looked blacklist
for the Union, he had published book
called "The History of Democracy
From the Achaean League to the Down
fall of the United States "a work
which he was eager, within two years,
to withdraw from print. In 1864 a Ger
man publicist, reviewing the history of
vanished republics-of Rome, of the
Grecian states, of Italy, France and
Holland-convinced himself that the
Civil War must end with sashed and
girded dictator in the White House.
The task of restoring order in a de.
moralized land and of paying the ma
tional debt would be too great, he
thought, for an excited and unframed
democracy to undertake. Indeed for
a long time back democracy, as a work
ing plan of government, had few be-
levers among great thinkers and pub
lieists abroad, however strongly some
of them may have been arrayed against
one man power. Carlyle did not believe
in it, and fouted its basic claim in
characteristic phrase democracy will
prevail" he said, "only when men be-
lieve the vote of Judas to be as good
as that Of Christ" Macaulay had said
that our constitution was all sail and