The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1911-04-21

In the midst Of the general rejoicing
over the surrender Of Lee al Appomatox
and the termination Of the four years Of
disastrous civil war in which the country
had been plunged. Abraham LINCOLN,
the moving spirit in that greatest Of
human dramas, forty-six years ago
Friday (April r4th) was shot by the
assassin, ]. Wilkes Booth. OF all the
inisfortunes suffered by the south in its
long struggle for the enforcement Of
what It conceived to to be its conssitu-
tional privilege, that act Of the misguided
actor, whose reason is believed to have
been unhinged by the triumph Of the
Northern Army, added more to its
plethora Of woe than any dozen reverses
its armies had sustained 10 the entire
period of war. In the face of Grants mag
naniminity to Lee and the concilitory,
sincerely solicitious disposition displayed
by Lincoln toward his emacipated, half
clothed. sickened and disheartened army,
it was tax upon the patience and con-
sideration of the victors which they would
have been more than human if they did
not resent. AS is always the case when
an irresponsible individual undertakes to
privately avenge what he esteems to be a
public wrong, the South, wholly inno-
cent of knowledge of the intended at.
tempt on the life Of the President had
imputed to it part in the foul con.
spiracy, a charge that made the bitterness
of defeat seem a thousand times more
poignant to the digni6ed Lee and the
brave officers and men under him.
Psychologically, il was the worst pos
sible thing that could have happened
to the South and the South, conscious of
its utter helplessness iu its then i'm
poverished condition, was the FIRST to
recognize it. It deprived It of gym
pathetic, unselfish, true friend. who
would have smoothed and made easier
for it the trying days of reconstruction
and iuterposed restraing hand against
the hords Of immediately severe north
ern carpet-baggers sent into the surren-
dered territory to administer the state
and country governments pending the re-
establishment of local self.control.
Proud of the peaceful achievement Of his
country before the blight OF civil war cast
its shadow over it. Lincoln aspired to see
the South resume the advanced position
it occupied in the industrial life of the
nation at the time il parted company
with its sister states and have it CO
operate with the north, the east and the
west in that marvellous forward move
ment which has made the republic today
the wealthiest and the most prosperous
nation on earth. What Lincoln would
say and think if he could come back from
the tomb and see his cherished ambition
realized is not difficult to imagine. In
the War Office, where the immovable
Stanton once issued orders to crush out
the rebellion, the snave Southern born
Dickinson, of Tennessee, now directs the
destinies of the military establishment.
Two former rebel soldiers. Chief Justice
Edward D. White. of Louisiana and
Associate Justice Horace D. Lurton. of
Tennessee sit side by side with the
Union veteran, Associate Justice John M.
Harlan on the bench of the United States
Supreme Court and vie with one another
in upholding the constitution. Making
common cause in the peaceful CONNER
cial conquest of the earth, the south
watches its 5000. 900, 900 cotton crop
against the billion dollar wheat and corn
crops of the west and encourages New
England in its efforts to capture through
the time saving Oxford processes. which
accomplish here in two days that (which
requires thirty weeks abroad. the old
worlds control of the linen market.
With the old wounds healed and the old
prejudices buried irrevocably in the dim
memories of the past, north and south,
mutually jealous of the honor of their
country abroad and its integrity at home.
sharing a single. ambition to make the
future of the nation as fruitful in worthy
accomplishments as its past, old glory
has had new birth of freedom in
those 46 years since Lincoln was borne
through the mystic gate and settled for
ever the question, so eloqueutly answered
by the dead President on the field at
Gettysburg. that "a government of the
people. by the people and for the people