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

Address Delivered by Rev. Frank Loveland D. c. A r
Lincoln Day Celebration at the Auditorium at Topeka.

II at topeka
rights. and the North would fight for
the Union. And when they came to-
gether in that mighty conflict then it
was that Almighty God and Abraham
Lincoln took advantage of the fracas
and freed the slaves. CONTINUED ap
plause.)
That, ladies and gentlemen, was the
crucible, those four years, when AL
| mighty God welded together the dis
cordant elements in American life, and
out of that crucible, thank God. came
a type of civilization that is distinctly
American. (Applause.) We no longer
| love one-half of our country any
more than that young fellow loves
one-half of his best girl We now love
every part of our nation. We love
every acre of our sunny soil. We love
every mountain that catches morn
| ing sunb eam, and every valley that
cradles an evening shadow. And to-
| day our country is laced together,
North and South, by her mighty rivers
and her mountain ranges and from
| east to west by her great transconti-
| mental railway systems, until today if
any foreign foe should seek to get into
| too close quarters with American
civilization, he would have to climb
over not only the North and South,
| but the East and the West. Today
we have an American civilization be-
cause there was one man that was
! tall enough to see the golden fringe
of glory that hung just outside of the
ordinary vision, and that man was
| Abraham Lincoln.
| Wendell Phillips and Horace Gree
| ley kept barking at Lincoln like
hounds of hell, and insisted that he
should free the slaves. But Lincoln
held steadily to one notion all the
time, viz, the Union. If he could not
clio
would free them. If he could save it
by leaving them in slavery. he would
leave them there. But the Union
! American civilization, was the thing
| that Abraham Lincoln sought for all
the time, and I would to God that We
had some statesmen, neighbors, that
were big enough to stand for the
same thing today.
/ Courage and Conscience.
There are just one or two things to
| which I would call the attention of the
youth. There are two essential ele-
ments that are absolutely basic in
Am erican life. If this republic is to
endure there are two things needed.
| Courage and conscience in public life.
Abraham Lincoln held them both.
| (Cries of ''Y esq
/ My father, who is now So years old,
God bless him, stood at the end of that
train fifty years ago las Tuesday
| morning, in the city of Springfield,
! when the landscape was wrapped in
wintry gloom, and that tall form of
Abraham Lincoln that stood on the
rear platform was enshrouded in
mystery My father saw that train
pull out with that majestic figure on
board that had but four years and a
few weeks to live. Many a time my
father has said to me, Sonny, Abra-
ham Lincoln was the bravest man
that America ever produced, the most
courageous" Abraham Lincoln knew
that the bony fingers of death were al
ready reaching for the curtain to
drop it and shut him from the view
of men But with a courage I'M
i daunted and a conviction that was
true, he went forward to do his duty.
/ He went into presid entail Office which
for four years before had been vacant.
Yes, that is what I mean. James Blu
chanan had drawn the salary as presi-
dent, but still I maintain that the Of
fee was vacant. (Applause.)
Linco1n's Great Test.
) He found the nation without credit
with an army disbanded and navy
! scattered 10 the four corners of the
earth The crowned heads of Europe
watched to see him stumble and fall
and prayed that he might stumble
They wanted to see democracy perish
Land thew said that if Abraham Lin
coin stumbled, democracy goes down
| with him-and so it would. But Abra-
, ham Lincoln, thank God with a cour-
age that nothing could quail and make
falter he stood on the deck of the
ship of state He took his place a
the wheel, and he hel5 the old sh1T
to her course through the four blood
lest, stormiest years that ever sweep
! over any nation; years when, as the
old prophet said, The sun had turnec
to darkness and the moon to blood
Through the four years when tht
earth drank blood until II was glutted
But he held her to her course, THANH
God. held her to her course, until the
scuppers of the good ship were washed
with blood; until five hundred thou
sand of your brethren lay sleeping
upon her deeks-held her to hel
course while Greeley bounded hin
and Wendan Phillips nagged him, ane
even Beecher, who should have hae
better sense, criticized him. But Lin
coin held the old ship to her course
until at last he brought her into tht
harbor of safety, with her flag flying
at her peak, bearing all the stars ht
started with. and not a single one was
lost from that armament of blue
| (Applause.)
Young people of Topeka, it had t.
come: but you ought to thank Coo
that that baptism of hell fire is in the
past rather than yet to come. Yo1
ought to thank God that that awful
crucible is behind you rather than il
front of you. God give us men today
enough in public life not to be a 1oi
of pulling puppies in the place where
We need men.
Another thing Lincoln had con
science with him. And I am rathel
inclined to believe that you old veter-