The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-02-16
LINCOLN HONOREO BY
A GRATEFUL NATION.
President Roosevelt Pays High
Tribute at His Birthplace.
TAKAHIRA'S MESSAGE or PEACE

One of the Two Greatest Americans
The Boy Who Passed From
Poverty to Fame and to Live in
History.
New York City. Throughout the
length and breadth of the Nation that
he preserved in the hour of its great
est peril the people united to do
honor to the memory of Abraham
Lincoln. The Tooth anniversary of
his birth was the occasion of tribute
which in extent and depth of feeling
has probably never before been paid
to any character in history. In many
States the day was legal holiday,
and where it was not a special holt
day was observed
In Hodgenville, KY, where stands
the humble cabin in which Lincoln
was born, just a century ago, Presi-
dent Roosevelt laid the cornerstone
of a memorial that is to be a national
shrine. He delivered an address, in
which he dwelt on the strength of
character that enabled Lincoln to &C
complish his great task. The Presi-
dents keynote was that we, in solving
the industrial and social problems of
to-day, can profit by contemplation of
the com bination of indomitable reso-
luton and cool-headed sanity with
which Lincoln carried on his work.
Baron Takahira, the Japanese Am
bassador, expressed in speech at
Peoria, ILL.,, the cordial and firm
friendship of Japan for America.
In Springfield, ILL.,, where Lincoln
lived for quarter of a century, and
from which city he left to take UP his
work as President, William Jennings
Bryan spoke of Lincoln as an orator
Ambassador Bryce, of England, and
Ambassador Jusserand, of France,
paid the tributes of their respective
countries to the great American.
Vice-President Fairbanks spoke in
Pittsburg. James S. Sherman, Vice
President-elect, was the orator at
Harrisburg, Pa; President Woodrow
Wilson, of Princeton, was the leading
speaker in Chicago, and Senator
Lodge delivered the grafton in Bos-
ton.
No more fitting exercise was held
than that on the battlefield of Gettys-
burg. The famous address of Lin
coin at Gettysburg in 1853 was re-
read on the summit of Seminary
Ridge, the scene of the terrific fight
ing during the great battle of Gettys-
burg.
In this city the observance of the
day was widespread. Under the di-
rection of the Mayors committee, ex-
ercises were held in each one of the
545 public schools, in the armories
and at four large meetings. There
were celebrations by private institu-
tions, clubs and organizations of va
rious kinds, scores in number. While
the President was paying his tribute
to Lincoln at Hodgenville, over on
the East Side of this city aliens, only
recently arrived, who are to become
citizens some day, were receiving
their lessons from the life of this
country's great character. Addresses
bn Lincoln were made in Italian, in
German and in other foreign tongues.
Hodgenville, Ky.-The birthplace
of Abraham Lincoln is to be marked
hereafter by a simple but classic
building of granite, and it is hoped
that it may be completed next fall,
when the then President Taft will
oficiate in dedicating it, as the pres
ent President, Theodore Roosevelt,
officiated in laying its foundation
stone.
The cornerstone laying took place
after appropriate ceremonies which
were participated in by the President
of the United States, Governor Au-
gustus e. Wilson, of Kentucky; for
mer Governor Joseph w. Folk, of
Missouri, president of the Lincoln
Farm Association; Luke E. Wright,
Secretary of War, who spoke as an
ex-Confederat soldier; General
,ames Grant Wilson, of New York,
Who represented the Union soldiers,
and I. T. Montgomery, of Mississippi,
q negro and an ex-slave.
The President was cordially re-
teived He aroused especial enthusi-
asm when he mounted a chair and
gave the crowd a better opportunity
TO see and hear him. In the main
he confined himself closely to his
manuscript, but at the beginning de-
parted from it to make reply to com
plimentarv illusions to himself by
Governor Folk. The extemporaneous
part of the speech was as follows:
I'VE have met here to celebrate
the hundredth anniversary of the
birth of one of the two greatest
Americans; Of one of the two or three
greatest men of the nineteenth CEN
tury; of one of the greatest men in
the worlds history. This rail-split-
ter, this boy who passed his ungainly
youth in the dire poverty of the poor
est of the frontier folk, whose rise
was by weary and painful labor, lived
to lead his people through the burn
ing flames of a struggle from which
the Nation emerged, purified as by
fire, born anew to loftier life. After
long years of iron effort, and of fail
IRE that came more often than vic
tory, he at last rose to the leadership
of the Republic, at the moment when
that leadership had become the stu
pendous world-task of the time"