Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-09-04
CONTINUED from Page ~

democracy. There is nowhere in the
land any home 50 remote, so humble,
that it may not contain the power OF
mind and heart and conscience to which
nations yield and history submits its
processes. Nature pays no tribute to
aristocracy, subscribes to no creed of
caste, renders fealty to no monarch or
master of any name or kind. Genius is
no snob. 1t does not run after titles
or seek by preference the high circles
of society. 1t affects humble company
as well as great. 1t pays no special
tribute to universities or learned socie-
ties or conventional standards of great
ness, but serenely chooses its own COM
rades, its own haunts its own cradle
even, and its own life of adventure and
of training. Here is proof of it. This
little hut was the cradle of one of the
great sons of men, man of singular,
delightful vital genius who presently
emerged upon the great stage of the ma
tion s history, gaunt, shy, ungainly, but
dominant and majestic, natural ruler
of men, himself inevitably the central
figure of the great plot No man can
explain this, but every man can see how
| it demonstrates the vigor of democracy,
where every door is open, in every ham
let and countryside, in city and wilder
ness alike, for the ruler to emerge when
he will and claim his leadership in the
free life. Such are the authentic proofs
of the validity and vitality of democ-
racy.
Here, no less, hides the mystery of
democracy. Who shall guess this secret
of nature and providence and free
policyl Whatever the vigor and vital
| itv of the stock from which he sprang,
its mere vigor and soundness do not ex-
plain where this man got his great heart
that seemed to comprehend all mankind
in its catholic and benignant sympathy,
the mind that sat enthrOned behind
those broodng, melancholy eyes, whose
vision swept many an horizon which
those about him dreamed not of, -
that mind that comprehended what it
had never seen, and understood the Ian
guage of affairs with the ready ease of
one to the manner born,-or that nature
which seemed in its varied richness to
be the familiar of men of every way of
| life. This is the sacred mystery of
democracy, that its richest fruits spring
up out of soils which no man has pre-
pared and in circumstances amidst
which they are the least expected. This
is place alike of mystery and of reas-
surance.
1t is likely that in a society ordered
otherwise than our own Lincoln could
not have found himself or the path of
fame and power upon which he walked
serenely to his death. In this place it is
right that we should remind ourselves
of the solid and striking facts upon
which our faith in democracy is found
ed Many another man besides Lincoln
has served the nation in its highest
places Of counsel and of action whose
origins were as humble as his. Though
the greatest example of the universal
energy, richness, stimulation, and force
of democracy, he is only one example
among many. The permeating and all
pervasive virtue of the freedom which
challenges us in America to make the
most of every gift and power we possess
every page of our history serves to EN-
phasize and illustrate. Standing here in
this place. it seems almost the whole
of the stirring story.
Here Lincoln had his beginning Here
the end and consummation of that
great life seems remote and Il bit in
credible. And yet there was no break
anywhere between beginning and end,
no lack of natural sequence anywhere.
Nothing really incredible happened.
Lincoln was unaffectedly as much at
home in the White House as he was
here. Do you share with me the feeling,
wonder, that he was permanently at
home nowhereP 1t seems to me that in