The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1911-11-16

Frankfort, KY, Nov, 8.-Col.
Henry Watterson, editor Of the
Louisville Courier-JournaI, de-
livered an address to-day on
Abraham Lincoln, on the occa-
sion of the unveiling of the Lin
coin Memorial.
Mr.. Watterson's grafton was
devoted mainly to the person
ality, the origin and spiritual
life and character" Of Abraham
Lincoln. He gave a minute &C
count Of the Lincoln and Banks
families derived from document
ary evidence; disproved the
falsehoods touching Lincoln's
birth and traced his noble quail
tiles of head ard heart to his
mother. In concluding this pas
sage he said:
Tomorrow there will assem-
bic in a little clearing of the
wildwood of Kentucky a goodly
company. It will embrace the
greatest and the best!of our time
and land. The president and
the chief justice and the rest
will gather about a lowly cabin,
whose unhewn logs like the
serried battlements Of Elsinore
gave prelude to the swelling act
of a theme yet more imperial to
consecrate a shrine. Of him
that was born there the final
earthly word was spoken long
ago; but, Mother of God. shall
that throng pass down the hill
side and away without looking
into the heaven above in unut-
terable love and homage with
the thought of spirit there
which knew in this world
nought of splendor and power
: and fame; whose sad lot it was
to live and die in obscurity,
struggle, almost in penury and
squalor; whose tragic fate it
was after she had lain half a
lifetime III her humble, unnlark-
ed grave, to be pursued by the
deepest, darkest calumny that
car attach itself to the name Of
woman-the hapless, the fair
haired Nancy Hanks.
No falser, fouler story ever
gained currency than that which
impeaches the character Of the
mother of Abraham Lincoln.
It had never any foundation
whatsoever. Every known fact
fairly contradicts it. Every as
pect of circumstantial evidence
stamps it a preposterous lie.
It was a period of heroic
achievements tempered by relig-
ious fervor. It was a pious,
God-fearing neighborhood OF
simple, hard-working men and
women. Debauchery was un-
known. Double-living was inn
possible. Thomas Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks, as I have shown
came of good people, Historic
ally, it would not matter who
were the parents of Abraham
Lincoln any more than it mat
tiers that he whom the English
monarch is proud to call his pro-
genitor was a bastard; but it
offends the soul of brave and
just manhood, it should arouse
in the heart of every true wo-
man a sense of wrong that so
much as a shadow should rest
upon the memory of the little
cabin in which Nancy Lincoln
gave to the world an immortal
son, born in clean, unchallenged
wedlock, nor thought of taint or
shame anywhere,
Let no one of those that
gather there 90 thence without
a heart to salute the gentle spirit
of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, that
maybe somewhere beyond the
stars among the angels of the
choir invisible will look upon
the scene, serene and safe at last
in the bosom of her Father and
her God.
His story of the love-life of
Lincoln and his relation with
Joshua Fry Speed, an uncle of
the donor of this statue, in the
early days at Springfield, ILL.,,
was illustrative and interesting
He said:
isof record that he stood