The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-18

ans had some conscience in the mat
ter, and that you carried clear con-
sciences as well as shining bayonets
onto the battlefield. This old coun-
try of ours would have been ripped
from stem to stern If there had not
been a man in the presidential chair
whom the American people could
trust. I believe, boys, that that was
the only bright rainbow that was al
ways lowering over the black clouds
of your battles. namely this, that you
fellows when you went into battle or
lay down to sleep in the bivouac were
always able to say, "Old Abe can be
trusted to do the right thing, and we
believe in him, and will stay by him.
Gentlemen, the call today is for
men who have courage and conscience.
But let US thank God that in that aw-
full hour of Americas stress Almighty
God reached over into the prairies of
Illinois and picked up man and put
him into the presidential chair that
could not be bluffed, nor be bought.
The pity of it, my neighbors, is this,
that we could not have done honor to
him when he was alive.
LincoIn's crown of Thorns.
Men, hear me; it is not such a ter
rible thing to bear cross or go to
Calvary, but it is an awful thing to
have to wear crown of thorns.
Chase, the secretary of the treasury,
thorns and pressing it upon that noble
brow. Seward ridiculed him, Stanton
abused him, Greeley lampooned him
he was wounded in the house of his
friends. You know it In his life
time his every act was ridiculed by
those around him, and his great state
papers We're called drive1, and that
greatest speech ever given on Ameri-
can soil, at Gettysburg, was hardly re-
ported, and Gree1ey's paper spoke OF
it as "A few remarks by the presi-
dent
Gentlemen, the great pity of it all
is that Lincoln had to die without rec
ignition of what the American people
really believed concerning him. But
then that is the habit that American
people have. They stone a man to
death and then send bouquet to his
funeral. I am glad that even today
we can honor his memory. I only
wish that he might have seen the ma
lions of the world uncapped before
him before he died.
The assassination Of Abraham Lin
coin was the most monumental crime
the old theater in Washington where
Lincoln was assassinated. Some peo-
pie have criticised him Chat is some
preachers have) for wanting to laugh
for wanting to be amused, at that
period. And why should he not
laugh! Laughter is humanity Cld4-
1enge to death. 1t is the clarion OF
Immortality Lincoln wanted to be
amused after those four years OF
bloody struggle when tho volcano OF
war had ceased to belch it's lava OF
blood; after the vertigo of death had
passed, and the last rumbling thunder
of cannon were drifting away in a
baf1ed roar over Appomattox, Lincoln
wanted relief from the awful tension
that had been on him for four years;
tension as great, well nigh, as thai
which bowed the head of the worlds
Redeemer beneath the olives of Geth-
semane He wanted to laugh, and ]
say he had a right to laugh
But it seemed as if history, fearful
that there would never be another
Shakespeare, dramatized itself on thai
fateful evening. I saw q passageWay
where at 10 o'clock that night a young
man pushed his way through and
came to the presidents messenger. his
body guard, and handed him his card
but before 1t could be Investigated, he
pushed past the body guard into the
area behind the presidents box, the