The Yale expositor., 1910-02-11

NESN kF5S9 struck the noblest
@s5A kk$sSI highest, hottest note in
kGJSSR5AsxS the inmost native soul
'&>A@s4oI< N1AA of the American people
In the new paganism of commerce;
of money getting, no matter how; 4
of criticism of public men who
whatever their faults. are TO be a 40
loved because they have been hated b, W.
by those who seek to make the ma w
ton sinister and corrupt there is NV
nothing so sodden and sordid but An
will in some sense uncover and "A
k spss1s at the ,a sound of the name of m
The average American does not II
shout when he hears the name of c
Abraham Lincoln. Even the politi-
cal demagogue, the stock gambler,
the captain of industry. is likely 20
grow silent and reverential when
the name of Lincoln is spoken.
And while we are getting ready to honor
Lincoln it is well to add that none may I'M
derstand his people who has not first discov-
cred what it is in his character and in ours
that makes us love him above comparison in
the story of the worlds great men-love
him for his poverty, his simplicity for his hui
mainly for his fidelity, for his Justice for his
plainness. for his life and for his death.
Sheer force of character must have been
the inherent trait which he had well cultivated
His attitude to women may have been but
an incident, but there can be no question but
that the influence Of various women with
whom it was his good fortune to be associ.
ated in his earlier days had not little to do
with the forming of one of his most predomi-
nant traits. He was. in his later life, one OF
the kind of men of whom good women declare
in all humility and honesty for their SEX that
through the fneness of his perception and his
gentiity toward everyone and everything that
1, ftv,sr 49, Gr,.. -
compliment
In the first place. he was born of a good
woman Nancy Hanks. his mother neglected
in the neglect of those Of her social status at
the time She was born, must have in the sub
Unity of maternity engendered in the life
blood of her illustrious offspring the nourish
ment that made the great achievements OF
Abraham Lincoln possible. Yet. to her is due
but the honor of Installing with her own blood
her own spirit. the character that enabled
Abraham Lincoln to become the first Ameri
can-the congomerate of all that is meant
in the phrase. "the land of the free and the
home of the brave"
Nancy Hanks gave Lin colin birth She was
the daughter of supposedly illiterate and su.
perstitious people. bat she was comely, intelli.
gent, knew how to read and write and taught
her husband, Thomas Lincoln father of the
president. to scrawl his name.
The great Lincoln always believed that he
got his intelligence and powers from his
mother
The family moved from Kentucky to Indi.
ana when Lincoln was seven years old Two
years later Nancy Hanks Lincoln succumbed
to pestence known as milk sickness She
died i'm October. Her husband sawed a coffin
out of the forest trees and buried her In
little clearing. Several months later wan
dering frontier clergyman preached sermon
over her lonely grave. No wonder the coun.
tenance of the great emancipation moved all
who beheld IL by its deep melancholy He
knew what sorrow was 10 years before he
paced his office in the White House all night
with white face and bowed head sorrowing
over the defeat of Charlottesville wondering
whether he was TO be the last president of the
United States and praying for the victory that
came at Gettysburg
All that year the sensitive boy grieved for
the mother who had gone out of his life; but
in time the father went back to Kentucky,
and i'm Elizabethtown, near the big South Fork
of Nolin creek. in Hardin county where Lin
coin was born, he married the widow of the
town taller Presently thereafter four-horse
wagon creaked up to the door of the Lincoln
cabin in the Indiana forest and young "Abe"
made his first acquaintance with Sarah Bush
Lincoln, Who next to his own mother, was to
become the second incentive of his youthful
life
Sarah Bush lincoln was a woman of thrift
and energy tall. straight, fair and a kind
hearted. motherly Christian. The American
people o~e a debt to this noble matron, who
did so much to influence and develop the char.
scter of he boy who was yet to save the