Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-02-19
Celebrate
Lincoln
Centenary.
Temperance People Planning Ma
tionaI Observance of EmanCi-.
pator's Birthday as Pro-
hibitien Pioneer.
LINC0LN'S RADICAL ATTITUDE
Evidence of Martyred Presidents Life
long Loyalty to Total Abstinence
and Enthusiastic Devotion to Cause
Recalled by Temperance Leaders.
BrilIiants From Lincoln Philosophy.

1SNGiC0 W hCihFOt ohNO ESAASi -
BrilIiants From Lincoln Philosophy.
The centenary Of the birthday of
Abraham Lincoln will be celebrated by
the temperance and Prohibition forces
of the nation on Feb. u next by spe-
cial services. and addresses in many
towns and cities in practically every
state in the Union.
The fact that Abraham Lincoln was
not only total 'abstainef, but in later
years a believer in 4and champion of
Prohibition, and the further fact that
on the very day of his assassination
he declared to a personal friend that
"the next great question after recon-
struction will be the overthrow of the
liquor traffic" will. make this celebra-
tion of peculiar interest to all the
forces of civic righteousness in Amer
lea.
Abraham Lincoln's most notable con-
tribution to the literature of the tenn
perance reform was his, famous ad
dress delivered on Washingtons birth
day, Feb %, 1S42, before the Spring
field Qll) Washington society. The
complete text of this address exactly
as it appeared in the Sangamon Jour
nal, Springfield. H., March 26, 1912.
has just been issued in convenient leaf
let form by the Prohibition national
committee, which has also prepared as
an accompanying leafiet four page
compilation of "Flashlights From Lin
coin Philosophy" arranged by Hon.
Eugene w. Chain, Prohibition candi-
date for president, 1908.
Lincoln's Famous Appeal For the Tenn
perance Cause.
Several of the most striking para
graphs from Lincoln's temperance ad-
dress graphically illustrate the emanci-
pator's earnestness and breadth of
view upon the great reform even in
that early period Of the reform. We
give them herewith:
Although the temperance cause has
been in progress for nearly twenty
years, it is apparent to all that it is just
now QS42) being crowned with a de-
gree of success hitherto; unparalleled.
'"The list of its friends is daily
swelled by the additions of fifties, of
hundreds and of thousands. The
cause itself seems suddenly transform
ed from a cold, abstract theory to a
living, breathing, active and powerful
chieftain going forth conquering and
to conquer s =
when all such of us as have now
reached the years of maturity first
opened our eyes upon the stage Of
existence we found intoxicating liquor
recognized by everybody, used by ev-
erybody and repudiated by nobody.
"It commonly entered into the first
draft of the infant and the last draft
Of the dying man.
"From the sideboard of. the parson
down to the ragged pocket of the
found. ...,
physicians prescribed it in this,
that and the other disease
Government provided it for its sol
diers and sailors, and to have a rolling
or raising, husking or hoedown any
where without it was positively insult
ferable.
$50, too, it was everywhere re-
spectacle article Of mapufacture and
of merchandise. The making of it was
regarded as an honorable livelihood.
Merchants bought and sold it by whole
sale and by retail with precisely the
same feelings on the part of the seller,
buyer and bystander as are felt at the
selling and buying of -four, beef, bacon
or any other of the real necessaries of
life. Universal public opinion not only
tolerated but recognized and adopted
it's use.
"It is true that even then it was
known and acknowledged that many
were greatly injured by 1t, but none
seemed to think the injury arose from
the use of bad thing, but from the
abuse of very good thing. = 3
eff, thea, what I have been saying
be true, is it wonderful that some
should think and act now QS42) as
all thought and acted twenty years
ago 1922?
whether or not the world would be
vastly benefited. by a total and final
banishment from.it of all Intoxicating
drinks seems to me not now to be an
open question. Three-fourths of man
kind confess the affirmative with their
tongues, and believe all the rest ac-
I vIo1 1rro; tn lo;v L, o,.+e.
"Ought any, then, to refuse their aid
in doing what the good of the whole
demands? Shall he who cannot do
much be for that reason excused if he
do nothing? : .
'"The demon of intemperance ever
seems to have delighted in sucking the
blood Of genius and OF generosity
What one of us but can call to mind
some dear relative, more promising
In youth than all his fellows, who has
fallen sacrifice to his rapacity?
"Shall he now be arrested, in his