The Alaska daily empire., 1915-02-27
LINCOLN AND S0aIE
 0Ig HlS IIRou-EI Es

! lincon ahgayg bad th' eonidence of his party exclaimed an elouent l chicago orator ln the c9prse Of 3 Lincoln day speech at si Louls. So noon K history ooneypiehtly forgot. len. or distorted or mutillated to suit political whims and partisan prrpos- os.
 TO this generation t seems as if lI-incolu must have had the confidence ] of his party, yet Linc2lnneyer had the | confidence of the Republican rarty. lif by party we mean tho managing politicians in and out of Congress who control party affairs
 1 When a visitor to the National capi- tai in the winter of 1868 expressed l desire to meet members of Com gress who were friendly to Prtident Lincoln, Isaoc x. Arnold, of illinois was pointed out to him as the cniy frgcnd that Lincoln had in Sonlress.
 At lhe very hour of nie assaisina. tlon toe Republican leaders of the lHouse and Senate were plott.us to lthwart his plans for the reconstrtc- tlon or the Southern States; aud at the time Andrew Johnson attempted to carry out Liucon's policy JohnHon was impeached
 In the perspective of history lln- coln now occupies niche among inc great figures ol all time bat in his day and bis own crisis he was the most abused President that ever oe- cupled Inc White House. Neither be- fore nor since has any President Of tho United States been subjected to such wholesale personal vlhperation,
 While living. che greatest oi AInerls cans was gorilla" "baboon, clown a butcher" "heilhound Of slavery a "tra'tor "despot" 'sus- urper" an Ignorant baclwoods law yer a fool" @scoundrel and yll- lan. to hysterical critics Even tho merit ot disintorested patriotism was denied to him by extremists and New York in parsieular reeked with denun- ciation of him. The Republican man- agers would have been glad 10 pre-. vent his renomination if ttey could have found a va. of pushing him aside As tt was. he was not renominated as a Republican candidate. but as Un-H ion candidate of Republicans md War Democrats
 The claiacr against him became so great that i0 the midst of lhe 1864 campaign he believed that defeat was certain and made preparations to CO., operate with Mcclellan immediately after election iu Q last desperate ef-. fort to save tho Urlon.
 Congress never regarded Lincoln m. til after his death as anything more important uian political accident The practical politicians of his party tolerated biia as dispenser of pat-I ronagc hut nothing more Generals like Mcclellan and Hooker carried their disrespcct to point of insub- ordination, Sarton who was Lincoln's Secretary of war made no preiense of concealing his contempt for Lin.I coin. Pho ilnancial interests oi New York city were in continual con- spirecy against him. To the Brahminl cioss he was little more than m un couth retailer of vulgar stories whose presence in che White House was a menacs to a Nation tottnring on the brink Of destruction.
 Contemporary opinion of public men is always cocksure of itself. but time has habit Of playing strange pranba with contemporary opinions. t is possible that certain clements ofI the present generation, which is cer- tain that wisdom will die with it. may be found to have been mistaken in thc criticism that they are pouring out ln this great world crisis, upon their government and upon the men who are chargcd with the direct per- sonal responsibility for the affairs of government
 "a. .,-....