Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-11-10

during the delivery OF the inaugural ao-
dress which followed.
gravity: not a scintillation of humor.
In spite of the campaign pictures | was
prepared to expect much. Judge Doug
las had said to me, upon his return to
washington after the famous campaign
of 1858 for the Illinois senatorship,
from which the Little Giant had come
off victor: HE is the greatest debater
/ have ever met, either here or anywhere
else"
To me the address meant war. AS
the crowd upon the portico dispersed
back into the capitol / found myself
wedged in between John Bell. OF Ten
GIVES "REMINISCENCES.
His self-possession was perfect. Dig
nifty, herself, could not have been more
unexcited. His voice was a little high
pitched, but resonant. quite reaching the
outer fringe of the vast crowd In front;
his expression serious to the point of
nessee, and Reverdy Johnson of Mary
land Each took me by an arm and
we sat down upon a bench just outside
the rotunda. They were very optimis-
tic. No. there would be no war; no
fight: all the troubles would be tided
over: the union still was safe. I was
but a boy, just one and twenty. They
nowned of the surviving Wing leaders
of the school of Clay and Webster, one
of them just defeated for president in
the preceding election Their talk puz-
zled me greatly, for to my mind there
seemed no escape from the armed col
Iision of the sections-secession already
accomplished and Confederate gov
eminent actually established. There is
in youth a prophetic instinct which
grows duller with advancing years. As
/ look behind me not only bear this in
mind, illustrated by the converse OF
those two veteran statesmen that day
in the rotunda of the capitol at Wash
ington but feel II and realize II, so
that I am much less confident, with a
lifetime of experience to guide me, than
I was when buoyed by the ignorance
and bravery, but also the inspiration
of youth, the problems ahead read plain
and clear as out of an open book.
LINCOLN AND SOUTH.
OF Lincoln and the south he said:
The duty he had been commissioned
TO do was to save the union. With an
overwhelming majority of the people
the institution of African slavery was
not an issue In his homely, enlighten-
ing way. Lincoln declared that If he
could preserve the union, with slavery,
he would do it. or, without slavery, he
would do it. or, with some free and
others slaves, he would do that. The
proclamation of emancipation was
war measure purely. He knew he had
no constitutional warrant. and. true to
his oath of office, he held back as long
as he could; but so clear-sighted was
his sense of justice. so empty his heart
of rancor that he wished and sought
to qualify the rigor of the act, by some
measure of restitution. and so prepared
the Joint resolution to be passed by con-
gress appropriating s4OO.ooO0O for the
purpose, which still stands in his own
handwriting.
He was himself southern man. All
his people were southerners. IF slav-
cry be not wrong" he said, nothing is
wrong" echoing in this the opinion OF
most of the Virginia gentlemen OF the
18th century and voicing the sentiments
of thousands of brave men who wore the
gray. Not less than the
north. therefore. has the south reason
to canonize Lincoln; for he was the one
friend we had at court-aside from
Grant and Sherman--when friends were
most in need.
FRIEND OF THF SOUTH.
If Lincoln had lived chere would have
been no era of reconstruction, with its