Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-13
Public and Pulpit Orators Join
in Paying Tributes.
TWO BIG MEETINGS HELD
One in the Afternoon Under Aus
pices of Y. M. c. A.
CANNON GIVES REcoLLECT1oNs
Was Helped by Martyred President
When a Struggling Young
Lawyer in Illinois.


From pulpit and. platform in all sec
tons of Washington Yesterday euiogies
were pronounced on Abraham Lincoln. as
a patriot. statesman, prophet and a lead
err Of men.
Congregations of practically every
church offered prayer for the man Of
sorrows,'' and at the two big meetings
held at the National Theater in the after
noon and evening the applause that
greeted the tributes to the great eman-
ctpator was frequent and prolonged.
Hundreds of persons filled the theater
at the afternoon meeting, which was held
under the auspices of the Young Mems
Christian Association. Speaker Cannon,
who introduced the principal speaker,
Rev. John Wesley Hill. stirred his hear
ers with a brief recital of incidents of
his own association with Lincoln when
both were practicing law in Illinois,
Speaker cannon's Tribute.
"A young lawyer has tough job. -
said the Speaker, when he starts in the
practice in a new and undeveloped coun-
try town. It's a big thing to have en-
C engagement from men older in the pro-
fession. This is what Lincoln was good
enough to give me. He was the biggest
hearted man / ever knew. Then the
Speaker launched into a striking eulogy
of Lincoln, declaring that in the spirit
of righteousness he was exceeded ''only
by the Great Master himself, the
Christ
I'm for peace" continued Speaker
Cannon. but I'm not for mOllycoddles.
From my life experience 1 conclude that
fbn h,lro nj &c IN ho a
fighter. IL the millennium means nothing
to do but dream and eat, then I'm not for
the millennium. 1t can end in only one
thing-dry rot.
THE religion of Lincoln added Speak
err Cannon, was not affiliated with any
church, but nevertheless he was a re-
ligious man, living and doing all that he
did for his country, to preserve the Union
in the trust and fear Of GOD. That he did
not affiliate himself with any church
coins love for humanity, truth and hon.
esty was the underlying principle that
made 1T possible for him to accomplish
what he did. Had God failed to make
such men as Lincoln the Union would
have persisted and the country died"
Abuse Changed to Eulogy.
Declaring that Lincoln was the worst
abused man who ever occupied the presi-
principal Grafton of the exercises. He
said, in part:
Prophets come upon different missions;
one as q patriarch like Abraham, another
as lawgiyer like Moses. another as a
warrior like Joshua, another as a dis
turber and avenger like Elijah, another
as a reformer like Luther, another as a
regeneration like Wesley, another as a
patriot like Washington, another as an
or fnr la
another as an eXpansionist like Mckinley.
another as an Outrider and crusader like
Roosevelt and another as a peaeemaker
and statesman like Taft.
'Some one has said that a saint is q
good man dead 100 years, cannonaded
then but canoniZed now. 1t is declared
in Holy Writ that A prophet is not with
out honor. save in his own country. This
is true Of all prophets. Stones have been
their bed and bread. Lincoln was no ex-
slandered and maligned, denounced and
martyred. Yesterday we called Washing
ton a fastidious aristocrat, Lincoln an ape
and buffoon and Mckinley a designing
imperialist. Today we set these men on
Olympus with the gods and speak of
ing prophets we have epithets; for dead
ones, epitaphs."
DR.. L. G. y. Pierce, chaplain of the
Senate. offered the opening prayer.
BISHOP ffdTulUS III tic EplSCOpdi ulOCeSc
Of Washington pronounced the invocation
and William Knowles Cooper, secretai
of the Y. NJ. c. A., presided.
A Lover of Liberty.
The night observance at the National
was under the direction OF the President s
Own Garrison. No. 1O4, Army and Navy
Union, John NJ. Thurston. former senator
from Nebraska, presiding.
Representative William Sulzer Of New
York. the chief speaker at these exer-
cises, urged his hearers to study Lin
coins career and do justice TO the living
as we'll as the dead In the course of his
remarks he said that he thought 1t better
to spend money for pensions for the
soldiers than for the purLndse Of battle
ships.
II want to say right here he added,
that in the sixteen years I have Teen
in Congress l have never voted against
a just pension bill. We owe everything
we have to the soldiers who fought undo
the direction of Abraham Lincoln.
abraham Lincoln was one of the pur-
est patriots, one of the wisest statesmen
and one of the greatest men that ever
lived in the worlds history continued
Mr. SulZer. 'He loved liberty, believed
in the people and battled for the rights
of man. He was the friend of the masses
and the champion of the oppressed. He
loved liberty and truth and justice. He
hated cant and despised hypocrisy. He
believed in civil and religious liberty: he
advocated not only the freedom Of man,