The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-12

We have met here to celebrate the
hundrcdth anniversary Of the birth of
one Of the two greatest Americans; of
ono of the two or three greatest men
of the nineteenth century: of one of
the greatest men in the worlds his
tory. This rail splitter. his boy Who
passed his ungainly youth in the dire
poverty of the poorest of the frontier
lolk. whose rise was by weary and
painful labor. lived to lead his people
through the burning flames of a strug-
gle from which the nation emerged,
purified rs by fire. born anew to a
~loftior life. After long years of iron
effort. and of failure that came more
often than victory, he at last rose to
the leadership of the republic. at the
moment when that leadership become
the ~Stupcndous ~world-task of the time.
IL" grew to know greatness. but never
chS". Success cane to him. but never
happiness, save that which springs
from doing we'll a painful and a vital
task. Power was his, but not pleas
ure. The burrows deepened on his
brow. but his eyes were nndimmed
by either hate or fear. His gaunt
shoulders We're bowed, but his steel
thews never faltered as he bore for a
burden the destinies of his people. His
great II tender heart shrank from
giving pain: and the task allotted him
was TO pour out like water the life
hlood or the Young men, and to feel in
mis- every fiber the sorrow of the wom-
on. Disaster saddened but never dis
MAYED him. AS the red years of war
went by they found him ever doing his
nutE in the present, .ver facing the
future with fearless front, high of
heart. n dauntless of soul. In
broken by hatred. mistaken by scorn,
he worked aud suffered for the people.
Triumph was his at the last: and bare
y had he tasted it before murder
found him, and the kindly, patient,
fearless eyes We're closed forever.
As a people we are indeed beyond
measure fortunate in the characters
OF the two greatest Of our public men.
Washington and Lincoln. Widely
though they differed in eXternals, the
Virginia landed gentleman and the
Kentucky backwoodsman. they were
mike In essentials, they were alike in
the great qualities which made each
able to do service to his nation ana
to all mankind sue as no other man
az his generation could or did render.
Each had lofty ideals, but each in
striving to attain these lofty ideals
was guided by the soundest common
sense. Each possessed inf1eXihle cour-
'SN u lily, III al SOuI WHOllN un-
spoiled by prosperity. Each possessed
AL the Sentler virtues commonly en-
hibltcd by good men who lack rugged
strength of character. Each possessed
also all the strong qualities commonly
tNlibited by those towering masters of
mankind who have too often shown
themselves devoid of som uch as the
understanding of the words by which
we signify the qualities of duty, of
! mpIIE. of InNNfl0n To tho Yi0hf IF
loftN dislntcrestedness in battling for
the good of others. There have been
other men as great and other men as
good: but in all the history of man
klnu there are no other two great men
us good as these, no other two men
MS great. Widely though the problems
Of today differ from the problems set
for solution to Washington when he
founded this nation. to Lincoln when
he saved it and freed the slave, vet
the qualities they showed in meeting
these problems are exactly the same
as those we should show in doing our
work today.
Lincoln saw in the future with the
prophetic imagination usually vouch-
He had in him all the lift toward
greatness of the visionary. without any
of the ~visionary's fanaticism or ego-
tism. without any of the visionary's
narrow Jealousy of the practical mar
and inability to strive in practical
fashion for the realization of an ideal.
lie had the practical mans hard COM
mon sense and Willingness to adapt
means to ends: but there was in him
none Of that morbid growth of mind
and soul which binds so many practi-
cal men to the higher things of life.
No more practical man ever lived than
this homely backwoods idealist; but
he mad nothing in common with those
practical men whose consciences are
warped until they fail to distinguish
between good n evil, fail to under
stand that strength, ability. shrewd-
ness. whether in the world Of business
ct of politics. only serve to make their
possessOr n more n%oxious. a more evil,
member of the community If they are
not guided and controlled by a fine
n high moral sense.
We of this day must try to solve
many social and industrial problems.
requiring to an especial degree the
combination OF indomitable resolution
with cool-headed sanity. We can pro-
mt by the way in which Lincoln used
both these traits as he strove for re-
forms. We can learn much of value
from the very attacks which following
that course brought upon his head,
attacks alike by the extremists Of rev.
%olution and by the extremists of re-
action. He never wavered in devotion
to his principles. in his love for the
union, and in his adherence of slav-
cry. Timid and lukewarm people
were always denouncing him because
he was too extreme; but as a matter
Of fact r." never went to extremes, he
worked step by step: and because of
this the extremists hated and de-
nounced him with a fervor which now
seems to us fantastic in it's dedication
Of the unreal and the impossible. At
the very time when side was hold
ing him up as the apostle of social
revolution because he was against
slavery. the leading abolitionists de-
nounced him as the ."slave hound of
Illinois," When he was the second
time candidate for president. the ma
jority Of his opponents attacked him
because of what they termed his ex.
IRENE radicalism. while a minority
threatened to bolt his nomination be-
cause he was not radical enough. He