The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-02-12

L
blinds so many practical men to the
higher things Of life. No more prac-
ttcal man ever lived than this homely
backwoods idealist; but he had nothing
in common with those practical men
whose consciences are warped until they
fail to distinguish between good and
evil, fail to understand that strength,
ability, shrewdness, whether IN the
world of business or of politics, only
serve to make their possessor a more
noxious, more evil member of the
community, 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, requfr-
ing to an especial degree the combi-
nation of indomitable resolution with
the way in which Lincoln used both
these traits as he strove for reform.
We can learn much of value from the
very attacks which following that
course brought upon his head, attacks
alike by the extremists of revolution
and by the extremists of reaction. He
never wavered in devotion to his prin-
ciples, in his love for the Union, and
in his adherence of slavery.
Timid and lukewarm people Were al
ways denouncing him because he was
too extreme; but as a matter of fact he
never went to extremes, he worked step
by step; and because of this the eX-
tremists hated and denounced him with
a fervor which now seems to us fam
tastic in it's dedication of the unreal
and the impossible. At the very time
when one side was holding him up as
the apostle of social revolution be-
cause he was against slavery, the lead
ing abolitionist denounced him as the
slave hound of Illinois,
When he was the second time candi-
date for president, the majority of his
opponents attacked him because of
what they termed his extreme radical
ism, while a minority threatened to
bolt his nomination because he was not
radical enough. He had continually to
check those who wished to go forward
too fast, at the very time that he over
rode the opposition of those who wished
not to go forward at all.
His Goal Was Never Dim
The goal was never dim before his
vision; but he picked his way eau
as he strobe toward it, through such a
of difficulty that no man of less
courage would have attempted it, while
it would surely have overwhelmed any
man of judgment less serene.
Yet perhaps the most wonderful thing
of ALL and from the standpoint of the
American of today and of the future, |
the most vitality important, was the |
extraordinary way in which Lincoln |
could fight vaHantly against what he |
deemed wrong and yet preserve I'M
his love and respect for the |
brother from whom he differed. In the
hour of triumph that would have turn |
ed a weaker mans head, in the heat of |
a struggle which spurred many a good |
man to dreadful vindictiveness, he said
that so long as he had been
in his office he had never willingly |
planted a thorn in any mans bosom,
and besought his supporters to study |
the incidents of the trial through which |
they were passing as philosophy from |
which to learn wisdom and not as
wrongs to be avenged; ending with the
solo ~&oTi ho he cfy-{fo
was over, all should reunite in COM
mon effort to save their common coun-
try.
He lived in days that were great and |
.errible, when brother fought against |
brother for what each sincerely deem |
I'd to be the right In a contest so |
grim the strong men who alone can |
carry it through are rarely able to |
10 justice to the deep convictions of |
hose with whom they grapple in NOR 1
al strife. At such times men see |
a glass darkly; to only the |
-arest and Hottest spirits is vouchsafed |
hat clear vision which gradually |
comes to all, even to the lesser as the |
struggle fades into distance, and |
are forgotten, and peace |
,reepS back to the hearts that were |
1urt. But to Lincoln was given this |
supreme vision. He did not hate the |
nan from whom he differed. Weak
less was as foreign as wickedness to
lis strong, gentle nature; but his cour-
lge was of a quality so high that it
needed no bolstering of dark passion.
He saw clearly that the same high
qualities, the same courage, and will
ingness for self-sacrifice, and devotion |
% the right as it was given them to
zee the right, belonged both to the
men of the north and to the men of
he south.
AS the years roll bya and as all of
IS, wherever we dwell, grow to feel an
equal pride in the valor and self-devo-
ion, alike of the men who wore the
blue and the men who wore the gray,
10 this whole nation will grow to feel
/ peculiar sense Of pride in the might
est of the mighty men who mastered |
he mighty days.. the lover of his
and of all mankind; the man l.
whose blood was shed for the union
IF his people and for the freedom of a !