Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-02-10

press. But the histrionic in the man
crayed, perhaps a more spectacular
Suggesting as well as O surer mark.
1t was a passing fact which at the time
stirred no second thought, but which in
the relation OF things TO come, doomed
full of tragic import.
John Wilkes Booth struck a far more
disastrous blow at the south than at the
north when he shot down the man who,
alone of his generation, could have
brought the sections together In cart
felt reunion, without the strife and
tragedy, the dishonor and abasement
which attended reconstruction, So far
as Lincoln gave indications of his pur-
pose and plans for bringing the van
pushed south back TO loyalty and fra
ternity, and binding the nations
wounds" there is ground for believing
that his policy would not have been
different in any essential degree from
that Of Andrew Johnson. But the great
and signal difference would have di-
rected the restoration of peace and
unity with all the prestige. the hold on
the popular heart amounting almost TO
idolatry hat Lincoln possessed and
Johnson did not. That which in john
son seemed e-ncroachment arid usurpa-
ton, in Lincoln would have been ac-
cepted as the natural and logical exer-
else of a judgment tried and tempered
and purified In the fiery crucible OF a
four-yearS' struggle to save the "a
tons very life. Johnson, the petty
white Of a border state, vainly attempt
ed TO wear Lincoin's boots and clothes.
1t was as If Richard Cromwell, instead
of seeking the retirement for which he
was best fitted, had sought TO COM
mand the Ironsides.
Johnson meant well. Looking back
at his course from the clearer atmos-
phere OF today it is easy to perceive
that Johnson was animated by the best
motives in his attitude toward the tre-
mendous problems which confronted
him, and that the success of
the impeachment proceedings would
have been a blot upon our national
history. The problems and the position
were too big for him-like the sword
of Wallace in the hands of an YER
age mar.
1t may be added that John Wilkes
Booth represented a class with whom
the real fighters of the south had no
fellow-feeling-the ''copperheals" who
had not the courage to risk their lives
for the cause with which they PROGRESSED
sympathy; who set fire to hotels and
spread contagion, who shot and stabbed
in the dark. That the former confed-
crates had no responsibility for the
GtiIttc u Dooli1 anu that tIley were
overwhelmed With horror and dismay
| when they heard of It Is an undfsputed
fact, and it is also well known that
Abraham Lincoln has today no warmer
admirers than the survivors and de-
~scendants of those who, so years ago,
hated his very name.
The spectacle witnessed in washing
ton, IN December, when Edward Doug
lass White. a former confederate sol
der, was sworn in as chief justice OF
the United States BY his associate JUS
tice, John Marshall Harlan, a former
colonel In the Union army, was typical
of the effacemont OF civil war anilnos-
tiles and Of the spirit of harmony
which prevails among the citizens of
our common country. That complete
reunion is the greatest monument TO
the ia5oTs, sacrifices ind ShhiovSiiI1IIts
life and death of Abraham Lincoln. /.