The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-09-08

emerge when ne will and claim his
leadership in the free life. Such are
the authentic proofs of the validity
and vitality of democracy.
Here, no less, hides the mystery o.
democracy. Who shall guess this Sc
cret of nature and providence and a
free polity? Whatever the vigor and
vitality of the stock from which ne
sprang, its mere vigor and soundness
do not explain where this man got his
great heart that seemed to compre-
hend all mankind in it's catholic and
benignant sympathy, the mind that saS
enthroned behind those brooding,
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 language of
affairs with the ready ease Of one to
the manner born-or that nature
which seemed in it's varied richness
to be the familiar of men of every way
of life. This is the sacred mystery
o. democracy, that its richest fruits
spring UP out of soils which no man
has prepared and in circumstances
amidst which they are the least ex-
pected. This is a place alike of mys-
tery and of reinsurance.
One of Many.
at is likely that in 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. l1'
this place it is right that we should
remind ourselves of the solid and
striking facts upon which our faith
il. democracy is founded. Many an
ether man besides Lincoln has serVe1
the nation in it's highest places j.
counsel and of action whose origins
were as humble as his. Though the
&, ,eatest example of the universal
energy, richness, stimulation and force
of democracy, he is only one eXampl
among many The permeating and
all pervasive virtue of tho freedom
which challenges us in America TO
make the most of every gift ard
Iower we possess every page of our
history serves to emphasize and illus
trete. Standing here in this place, it
gems almost the whole Of the stirri2g
story.
Here Lincoln had his beginnings.
Here the end and consummation OF
that great life seem remote and Dl:
incredible. And yet, there was Nd
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 nowhere? IT.
seems to me that in the case OF
mani would rather say of spirit
like Lincoln the question where ne
was is of little significance, that it Is
always what he was that really ar
rests our thought and takes hold or
our imagination. 1t is the spirit al
WAYS that sovereign. Lincoln, like
the rest of US, was put through the
discipline of the world-a very rough
and exacting discipline for him, an
indispensable discipline for every. man
who would know what he is about in
the midst of the worlds affairs; bur
his spirit got only its schooling there.
Il did not derive it's character or its
vision from the experiences which
brought it to it's full revelation. The
test of every American must always
be, not where he is, but what he IS.
That, also, is of the essence of dem
ocracy, and is the moral of which this
place is most gravely expressive.
eve would like to think OF men
like Lincoln and Washington as typi
cal Americans, but no man can be
typical who is so unusual as these.
great men were.s 1t was typical OF
American life that it should produce
such men with supreme indifference
as to the manner in which it pro-
duced them, and as readily here in
this hut as amidst the little circle u
cultivated gentlemen to whom VIZ