The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-12
:
THE STORY OF THE
FIRST AMERICAN
James Mogans Dramatic Pictures of Lncolns Struggles
Trials and Achievements.
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Trials and Achievements

seek his aid. Wherever Douglas APP |
peared there was a loud demand for |
Lincoln. Distant New Hampshire |
urged him to come there to answer his |
famous adversary, and New York and
Ohio made like requests. 4 have been
a great man such mighty little time,
he confessed to an enthusiastic adj
mirer, that | am not used to it yet
An Indiana leader wrote to tell
him that his counsel carried such
weight that every political letter fall
ing from his pen was copied through
out the Union. In these letters, which
he wrote to his correspondents and to
committees, he modestly offered much
sane advice. l have some little no.
toriety,' he observed on the subject of
Knownothingism, 'for commiserating
the oppressed condition of the negro;
and | should be strangely inconsistent
if | could favor any project for cur
failing the existing rights of white
men, even though born in different
lands and speaking different languages
from myself. -
Not only as a speaker was the aid
and counsel Of this uncompromising
leader solicited. From every part of
the North requests for advice came to
him:
To a Boston organization he sent
this clear message: This is a world
of compensation, and he who would be
no slave must be content to have no
slave. Those who deny freedom to
others deserve it not for themselves.
and. under a just God, can not long
retain it,
When Douglas went to ohio, Lin
coin accepted urgent invitations to an
sWer him at Cincinnati and Columbus
There the Republican State Commit
tee published the reports Of the I'LL
nois debates and Lincoln's two Ohio
speeches for general circulation, as the
best means of educating the people on
the issues of the coming campaign of
1860. Thus Lincoln was chosen as the
champion of his party's cause before
the entire nation, and three huge edi-
tlans of the addresses found ready
SALE
Lincoln was still too modest to re-
gard himself seriously as a presidential
candidate, although his friends far and
near often suggested his name. Sud
denly came an invitation to lecture in
New York, and he was frankly pleased
with this recognition:
Arrived in the city, he went to hear
Henry Ward Beecher preach, and, with
friend, he visited Five Points, then
the notorious center of the slums of
New York, where he found himself in
q missionary Sunday school. Being a
stranger, he was called on 10 speak to
the children, and his homely and kindly
talk so pleased them that they cried,
when he paused, Go on, oh, do go
on AS he was leaving the room, the
teacher asked him his name. Abraham
Lincoln, from Illinois,, he simply an,
swered
when committee which had in
vited him to New York called on hlm
at the Astor House, and he saw its
members in their fashionable attire he
seemed to be conscious of his own awk-
| ward appearance for the first time in
his life. He felt under the necessity
of apologizing for the wrinkled ccndi-
tion of his suit, which he had brought
with him in valise; and in beginning
his speech he was again embarrassed as
! iiC IOOAOo at bnG We'll ClUlHtu HltdIISS
on the platform The collar of his coat
did not fit, and he was troubled lest
| the audience note its bad habit of fly
| ing out of place whenever he raised his
arms.
! 1.-THE meeting, probably the most
memorable ever held in New York, took
place in Cooper Institute. 1t was an
| imposing occasion. NO man. one
|
and Webster, has spoken to larger
assemblage of the intellect and mental
culture of our city William Cullen
Bryant presided. Horace Greeley and
men of light and leading were in at
| tendance
He seemed careless of everything
save the justice of his cause. There
could be no dangers for a nature Sc
transparent, SO honest, SO absolutely
fearless, so devoted to liberty anC
right:
''New York has been the pitfall o.
more than one visiting statesman. 1
was there that Abraham Lincoln prov
ed to himself his power to lead tn,
nation, and disproved to himself hi
original conception that he was mo
fit to be President
From this great triumph, Lincoln
went to New England to see his sol
Robert, who was at school, and H.
spoke in Connecticut. Rhode Island, an,
New Hampshire. At New Haven h
told his hearers that twenty-five year
before he was a hired laborer, maulinI
rails, or at work on fatboat, an
that he wished every laborer, black a
well as white, to have the same chane
to rise that he had enjoyed.
''The professor of rhetoric in Yal
College observed with admiration tn
fine structure of his speech. He no
only took notes of it and held it u
before his class the next day as al
example of English composition, but h
, followed the speaker to a neighborini
, city, that he might again sit at the fee
, of this self-taught master Of our mothe
tongue
When, at length, the Chicago conven
ton conferred upon itself the creates
possible honor and nominated Lincoln
the obscure "eounty court advocate,
for the presidency, over Seward, tn
New York senator who had felt eel
tain of the prize, there were few VIII
had faith that the choice was wise