The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-06-10
OLD ABUSE OF LINCOLN.

To those of the present generation
who have been trained TO look upon
Lincoln the great war President, al
most with veneration, it will be a shocl k
to realize that in Lincoln's time
he was received by tho country at large
with distrust and suspicion, and that
he was pursued with vindictivc cal
umny compared with which even the
present strenuous campaign is mlld. 1t
is a clear case. aud those who are old
enough to recall the times of Lincoln
well know of their own knowledge,
Presidential primaries in those days,
Lincoln would have had no show what
ever for the Republican nomination.
Some of the great party leaders, as Sc
ward, Chase, Fremont, or some other of
the starry galaxy Of the radical element
Of the party, would undoubtedly have
been the nominee; most probably Sc
ward.
AS illustrating the way that the
press of the country received the nom
nation of Abraham Lincoln, we may
note that the New York Herald, in
announcing his nomination, spoke of
him as ga third rate Western lawyer,
poorer than even poor Pierce.' 1t
lamented that the convention had
passed over Seward, Chase and Banks,
"who are faithful and able men," to
take ga fourthrate lecturer who can
not speak good grammar and who, to
raise the wind, delivers his hackneyed,
illiterate compositions ut 5000 apiece, -
The Herald put its readers in mind
that "thls Derlpatetic politician Wis"
tied New York two or three months ago
on his financial tour, when, in return
for tho most unmitigatcd trash, inter
larded with coarse and clumsy Jokes, he
filled his empty pockets with dollars
coined out of Republican fanaticism. !"
In a later issue the Herald spoke OF
Lincoln as can uneducated man, vul-
gar village politician. without any ex~
perience worth mentioning in the prac~
teal duties Of craftsmanship, and only
noted for some very unpopular votes
"hiSu uS gave Willie VI SOh
gress," And it closed its diatribe by
saying, "The comparison between Sc
ward and this illiterate Western boor
is odious-it is as Hyperion to a
satyr.o
The Albany Atlas and Argus speak
Of Lincoln as having been "frst heard
Of in politics a year ago last fall, when
limping with wounds and bowling with
anguish, he was driven through the
State of Illinois by Douglas and de-
feated with the tacit approval of the
majority of his own party, and with
the publicly expressed gratulations of
Greeley, Weed, and others Speak
ing of Lincoln g lecture tour In New
York where he was "charging for his
speeches. at the rate of 500 apiece, }"
the Albany paper says that Lincoln
twas forced TO desist amid such public
expressions of contempt that he may
be said to have been fairly Kissed out
of the State,D The same paper spoke
Of Lincoln s ineXperience in public of
fee, and stated that "he is not known
except as slangwhanging stump
speaker, of a class with which every
party teens, and of which all parties
are ashamed
The Boston Post in 1860 SAID that
Lincoln "has merely talent for dem
agogue appeal that was thought to be
worth in New England $50 or 500 a
speech by those who hired him; but
some who heard him were surprised
that he should be considered anywhere
great man." 1t spoke of Lincoln 8
winning by trickery and demagogism
and contemptuously dismissed the idea
But such is the intelligence of the
country that this attempt must fail. -
There is no parallel between that
sort of assault upon the great War
President and anything that is said in
public life today. But it is sufficient to
before the country was extremely poor
and uncertain Mt the time that be was
nominated and elected to the Presi-
dency. 1t was the great cause that he
represented that triumphed in his cleo
tion, and that cause was better served
in his person than any one. even his
most ferVent admirers at the time,
could possibly have hoped for Lincoln
was a diamond in the rough. The war
polished him. and he shone forth with
exceeding brilliauce before he died,
and his memory has grown brighter
and brighter as the years have gone
by.
1t is to be noted that those who are
30 fond of comparing themselves with
Lincoln in these later times with so lit.
tie justification for doing So are draw
ing their comparisons between them.
salyss and him not with Lincoln who