The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1910-02-11
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S&SHs NT3S highest, holes: note in
R2$sfXSSE the inmost native soul
- OF the American people.
In the new paganism Of commerce;
OF money getting, no matter how;
OF criticism of public men who,
whatever their faults, are to be II
loved because they have been hated Ne
by those who seek to make the ma NJ
uon sinister and CORRUPT, there Is Nv
nothing SO sodden az sordid but
Will In some sense uncover and n
kneel at the sound of the name of ~
Abraham Lincoln. VIZ
The average American does not Il
shout when he hears the name of
Abraham Lincoln, Even the politi-
cal demagOgue. the stock gambler.
the captain of industry. is likely to
grow silent and reverential when
the name of Lincoln is spoken
And while we are getting ready to honor
Lincoln 1t Is well to add that none may un-
derstand his people who has not first discoy-
cred what it is In his character and In our.
thar makes us love him above comparison in
the story OF the worlds great men-love
MIN Tor his poverty. his simplicity, for his hu.
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 we'll 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 1t was his good fortune to be associ-
ated In his earlier days had not a 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 hneness of his perception and his
sentility toward everyone and everything, that
he might have been a woman" 1t is a high
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 sab
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 conglomerate Of all that is meant
In the phrase, the lend of the free and the
home of the brave"
Nancy Hanks gave Lincoln birth. She was
~ daughter of supposedly ~illiterate and sl-
petstitious people, but 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
rot 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 q pestilence known as milk sickness. She
died In October. Her husband sawed a CONN
out Of the forest trees and buried her in .
little clearing. Several months later 4 wan
dering frontier clergyman preached . sermon
over her lonely grave. No wonder the coun-
tenance of the great emancipation moved all
who beheld 1t by its deep melancholy. He
knew what sorrow was IS years before he
paced his ONCE in the White House all night,
with white face and bowed head. Borrowing
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 in Elizabethtown, near the big South Fork
Of Nolin creek, in Hardin county, where Lin
coin was born, he married the widow Of the
town jailer. Presently thereafter a four-horse
waebn 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 owe a debt to this noble matron. who
did SO much to influence and develop the char.
acter Of the boy who was yet to save the