The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-02-16
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

memoratlon or the man VINO is con-
ceded to be one of the most colossal
characters in American history.
Abraham Lincoln was the greatest
figure of the nineteenth century in the
whole world. Napoleon, Bismark,
Gladstone, Leo XIII, Tolstoy, yelling
ton, Cayour Victor Emmanuel, were
men of mighty power, but Abraham
Lincoln outranks them all in the real
elements which lift human soul above
greatness to grandeur.
Born in the estate next lowest to the
lowest possible in our American life
that occupied by the negro slave-he
died, as we think before his time, at
the pinnacle of possibility, even for
men who have reached the presiden-
Itial chair. Between him and Wash
ington were many presidents; since
him there have been many. But who
we're they? What did they do, as com
pared with him? From cabin to the
capitol of the nation, from the woods
mans task to the highest work of
craftsmanship, from a flatboat to the
foremost station of honor in the re-
public, he passed in a life measured by
one half century. Triumphant genius,
transparent integrity, unquestioned
mastery of administration far-sighted-
ness that is astonishing even yet to
consider, judgment as to the course to
follow that never was mistaken, and
la hold on God that no opposition could
break, were the characteristics of this
Iburden-bearing Atlas among men, this
Herakles that we call
Abraham Lincoln.
Intrepid, intense, Industrious as a
boy on a backwoods farm, intrepid, in
tense, indomitable as student with
his mind set on the law intrepid, in
tense, indefatigable at the bar, and be-
fore the highest courts of the nation;
intrepid, intense, investigating to the
bottom the causes he advocated, he
was counsel in more supreme court
leases. and successful in more, than
ANY Of the great figures of the Illinois
bar in the years from 1910 to 1860. The
man with judicial mind can tell what
men of judicial mind will do in given
lease, and Abraham Lincoln had such
a mind. Having found by scrupulous
what the truth in any
case was, and having made his own
deliberate Judgment as to the course
! he would follow were he one of the
final arbiters in the matter, he made
his plea on the basis of his conclusion
and won. He was as Judge showing
other pudges what ther own judgment
must decide.
Abraham Lincoln was not made
igreat by being elected president. He
began to be great when, lying flat OF
THE floor in the mountain hut, he ciph
cred on the black bottom of the fire
shovel. Learn, know, do, are tremen
,dous motors toward power when they
become potent in human soul. Ii
all his great career he learned frs
what was demanded by the eXigency
he faced. When he was sure he knew
he went to the conclusion with un
,erring step; not always, indeed. rapid
ly. but always surely, unerringly
What made Abraham Lincoln great
His brain, his heart, his hand, united
each to the full scope of its power, il
doing the right as God gave him tC
see the right. His mpassioned cry
in answer to Stephen A. Douglas il
1858 in Illinois, Douglas does not care
for the slave, but God cares, and
care was the keynote of his whole
life. Translated into its underlyin!
significance, that utterance will read
,'I will find grst for what God cares
Then for that | will care and | vii
be one in that purpose with Cod liz
reached the heights of power because
he climbed with his hand clasping thu
hand of God. No man who so climbs
need ever fear.
Abraham Lineoln's greatest address
to his fellow citizens was made a
Gettysburg, the field of one of tn
greatest battles Of the world Fittin!
combination that Greatest speech o
thee then greatest living American OF
Americas greatest battlefield. Human
hands had placed the granite shaf
there to commemorate their country
men who fell upon that field, but tn
speech delivered by Abraham Lineoll
IN dedication was the monument whicI
will outlast marble, or granite, o
bronze.
-Four score and seven years az
our fathers brought forth upon thi
continent new nation, conceived j
liberty. and dedicated to the propos
ton that all men are created equa
A., IN faiA