Evening journal., 1916-02-11
IINCnLN,s nIRTHnAY.

a MERICANs will 90 honor tomorrow to the memory
"A o. Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest and most
heroic this country ever has produced As time
softens the sectional and personal feeling engendered
by the great struggle which reached its elimination
in the surrender at Appomattox he is recognized
man who not only saved nation from disruption
and ruin aud abolished social system that was out OF
accord with the fundaments of civilization, but who
also was great constructive agent, deserving oi-na
tional appreciation for all time.
Those who believe in the supremacy Of the things
that are bad look upon him, doubt, destruc-
tion,st And he He destroyed the things that
were bad to the end that the things that good
in our national life might survive bless the civilized
world.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
independence in 1776 embodied in its preamble these
words:
1--WE hold these truths to be self-evident that all
men we're created equal that they endowed by
their Creator with certain unaenable rights, that
among them life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed"
Il also will be recalled that November 10, 1868.
Abraham Lincoln delivered address at the dedica-
tion Of Gettysburg cemetery in which he said:
"Fourscore and years ago our fathers brought
forth upon this continent nation, conceived in
liberty and dedicated the proposition that all men
are created equal
Now we are engaged in great Civil War, testing
whether that nation or any nation conceived and
so dedicated long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield Of that war. We met to dedicate por-
ton of il the final resng-pace of those who here
gave their lives that their nation might live. 1t is al
together fitting and proper that should do this
"But in a larger sense We cannot dedicate we can
not consecrate. we cannot hallow this ground The
brave men. living and dead who struggled here have
consecrated IL far above power add detract
The world will little note nor long remember what we
say here. but Il can forget what they did here
II is u.s. the living. rather be dedicated here to
the unfinished that they have thus far nobly
carried on It is rather for 10 be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before that from these
honored dead we take Increased devotion the cause
for which they gave the last full measure of de-
voton; that we here highly resolve that the dead
shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall
under Cod have new birth of freedom and that gov
the people by the people and for the peo
pie shall not perish from the earth"
Those are, to Americans imperishable declarations
They shaped and will continue to hape. our ma
tonal life reality they shaping the life of the
civilized world The declaration written by Jefferson
and the declaration by Lincoln stand side by
side in the American mind today two Of the finest
utterances made since the creation the world The!
breathe hope to the oppressed warning the op
pressor In shor they constitute the political
Of twentieth century civilization and the hope and as
piratioa the civilized world