The Washington herald., 1911-02-12
HON. HANNIS TAYLOR'S
TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN

tuition began and ended with the State
whose positive laws upheld ii. Lincoln
said that a question so grave as human
slavery could not be localized; that all
local questions that affect all are the COM
mon concern OF all. That unanswera BILE
contention has become the starting point
of our new national life. Until an Amer
lean citizen can take that principle into
his heart in its fullneSS, he can never be
a patriot Lincoln was a patriot. II
is delightful to remember how the North
and the South met in warm embrace
when it became necessary for the re-
united nation to enforce for the first time
that principle in the destruction of a
peculiar social institution within the local
limits of the Territory of Utah, which
menaCed the morals of our civilization.
The father of the family at Boston and
the father of the family at Charles
ton ClaSped hands then as they declared
that local questions that affect all are the
common concern of all. Such is my un-
derStanding of the basic principle that
guided Lincoln in his titanic struggle for
the abolition of slavery and the preserva-
ton of the Union.
In conclusion. | will now state to you
in a few words why [. Southern man.
am here tonight as his eulOgist. In the
first place. | honor his memory because
in breaking the shaCkes that bound the
enslaVer to the cnslaved. he cmancipatel
my people. the white people Of the South,
from an incubus that laid like u blight
Upon their entire economic and industrial
life. In recognition of that service We
are now erecting to him a monument
more enduring than brass and lOftier
than the pyramids. | see that monument
rising higher and higher every time |
States thar lie hpf
residence at Washington and my old
home at Mobile.
But last and most Of all. love the
memory OF Lincoln because of his mighty
love for this Union. and by this Union [
mean the aggregation of these States in
to one nation. The real founder of our
natiOnaliSm was John Marshall Of Eir-
ginia. Into the existing Constitution Of
the United States, after his predecessor,
John Jay, had deserted and denounced il
as a marble Gaiatea. he first breathed
the breath Of life From his high prac-
torian chair he passed the torch of the
new natiOnaIism. which he lighted from a
Southern sky. to Daniel Webster. who
passed it on to Abraham Lincoln. If you
ask was Lincoln faithful in guarding the
sacred fire in the darkest hour Of our
history. | will take you to the steps of
the Capitol. on that fateful March I,
1861. when in closing his inaugural ad-
dress, on the eve Of the civil war. he
spake these loving words to my people,
Of whom he never said i'll. Fixing his
tender gray eyes upon the listening mui-
titude. he made this last sublime appeal
against war:
II am Ioath to close. We are not enc
mics. but friends. We must not be enc
mics Though passion may have strain
cd. it must not break our bonds Of affec-
ton. The mystic chords of memory.
stretching from every battlefield and Dat-
rot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land. will
yet swell the chorus of the Inion when
again touched. as surely they Will be,
by the better angles of our nature
In those Christ-likc words. the product
OF a patriot-pOet's soul. let his memory
he embalmed forever. He lived for the
Union. and he perishcd that the Union
might live. Like a Titan. he struggled
and triumphed, and like a protomartyr
died.