Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-12


Power was his but not pleasure
The burrows deepened on his brow. but
his ewes were undmmed by either hate
or fear. His gaunt shoulders were bow
ed but his steel thews never faltered as
he bore for a burden the destines OF his
people. His great and tender heart
shrank from giving pain: and the task
allotted him was TO pour out like water
the life-blood of the young men. and to
feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the
women.
Saddened, But Undismayed.
Disaster saddened but never dismayed
him. AS the red years of war went by
they found him ever doing his duty in the
present. ever facing the future with fear
less front high of heart and dauntless
of soul U-nbroken by hatred. mistaken
by scorn, he worked and suffered tor the
people.
Triumph was his at the last: and barely
had he tasted it before murder found him.
and the kindly. patient, fearless eyes We're
closed forever.
AS a people we are indeed beyond meas
ure fortunate in the characters of the two
greatest of our public men. Washington
and Lincoln. Widely though they differ
ed in eXternals the Virginia landed gen
tleman and the Kentucky baCkwoodsman.
they were alike in essentials, they were
alike in the great qualities which rendered
each able TO render service to his nation
ard to all mankind such as no other man
of his generation could or DID render.
Each had lofty ideals. but each in striv
ing to attain these lofty ideals was guided
by the soundest common sense. Each
possessed inf1axible courage in adversely
and soul wholly unspoiled by prosperity.
Each possessed all the gentler virtues
commonly exhibited by good men who
lack rugged strength of character.
Each possessed also all the strong quail
ties commonly exhibited by those towering
shown themselves devoid of so much as
the understanding of the words by which
we signify the qualities of duty. of mercy,
OF devotion to the right, OF lofty disinter-
estedness in battling for the good of
others. There have been other men as
great and other men as good: but in all
the history of mankind there are no other
two great men as good as these, no other
two good men as great.
Widely though the problems of today
differ from the problems set for solution
to Washington when he founded this ma
ton. to Lincoln when he saved it and
freed the slave. yet the qualities they
showed in meeting these problems are ex-
actly the same as those We should show
In doing our work today.
Poet and Seer.
Lincoln saw into the future with the
prophetic ina gination usually vouchsafed
only to the poet and the seer He had
In him all the lift toward greatness of
the visionary, without any OF the vision
ary's fanaticism or egotism without any
OF the visionarys narrow jealousy of the
practical man and inability to strive In
practical fashion for the realization of an
ideal He had the practical mans hard
common sense and Willingness 70 adapt
means to ends: but there was in him
none of that morbid growth of mind and
soul which blinds SO many practical men
to the higher things of life.
No more practical man ever lived than
this homely backwoods idealist: but he
had nothing in common with those prac-
teal 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 more nox-
ious, a more evil member of the COM
munity. If they are not guided and con-
trolled by a fine and high moral sense.
We of this day must try to solve many
social and industrial problems. requiring
to an especial degree the combination OF
indomitable resolution with cool-headed
sanity. We can profit by 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 principles. in his love
for the Union and in his adherence of
slavery.
Timid and lukewarm people were al
ways Genouncing him because he was too
extreme but as matter of fact he
never went to extremes, he worked step
by step, and because of this the extrem-
lists hated and denounced him with a
fervor which now seems to us fantastic
in its dedication of the unreal and the
impossible. At the very time when one
side was holding him UP as the apostle
OF social revolution because he was
against slavery the leading abolitionist
denounced him as the slave hound OF
Illinois,
Attacked by Both Sides.