Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1911-11-08
NATIVE STATE HONORS HIM
BRONZE LIKENESS OF WARTIME
PRESIDENT STANDS IN KEN.
TuckY CAPITOL
WILSON ADDRESSES THRONG
SPEAKS OF THE SWEETNESS AND
NOBILITY OF DEAD ExEcu-
TlvE's CHARACTER

rrank1ort, NY, Nov. S.-While the
! president Of the United States and {
large assemblage, Including manv O,
: those who wore the gray in the con
fiict between the north and the south
looked on, an heroic bronze statue
} of Abraham Lincoln, was unveiled ia
the capitol building here today.
i Proof of reunited country said
Governor Wilson of Kentucky in ac-
cepting the statue on behalf of the
state, lis made evident in the selec-
ton of Henry Watterson, a confed-
crate soldier, to formally present this
image Of the great president to the
people Of his native state. The great
ness and the goodness, the nobility
and the sweetness of Abraham Lin
coin are recognized as earnestly by
those who wore the gray as by those
who wore the blue.
In presenting The statue Mr. Wat
terson said2
Tomorrow there win assemble in
little clearing OF the wildwood of Ken
lucky a goodly company 1t will en-
brace the grettest and the best Of our
time and lands Th, nresident and the |
chief justice and the rest will gather
about lowly cabin, whose unhewn
logs like the sierred battlements of
Elsinore gave prelude to the swelling
act of theme yet more imperial. tol
conseerate 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 unutterable love
and homage with the thought Of a
spirit there which knew in this world
naught of spfendor and power ana
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 life
time in her humble, unmarked grave,
to be pursued by the deepest, darkest
calumny that can attach itself to tho
name of woman; the hapless. the fair
haired Nancy Hanks?
No falser, fouler story ever gained
currency than that which impeachas
the character of the mother of Abra-
ham Lincoln. 1t had never any founda-
tion whatsoever Every known fact
fatty contradicts it, Every aspect of
circumstantial evidence stamps ii Z
preposterous lie.
It was a period of heroic achieve
ment tempered by religious fervor. 1t
was a pious, God-fearing neighbor-
hood of simple hard-working men and
women. Debauchery was unknown.
Double-living was impossible. Thomas
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, as have
shown, came of good people. Histcr-
ically, it would not matter who were
the parents of Abraham Lincoln any
more than it matters that he whom
the English monorch is proud to call
his progenitor was bastard but it
offends the soul Of brave and just
manhood, it should arouse in the heart
of every true woman sense of wrong
that so much as 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 go thence without heart salute
to the gentle spirit of Nancy Hanks
Lincoln, that maybe, somewhere be-
yond 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