The Penn's Grove record., 1917-02-09

KUMH INV vi an dSSOCtdllOH u lliS
MTA possession of the govern
ment of the United States
contrast strangely with the passions
which illumined the period in which
his lot was cast, toward the close
breaking into a volcano of blood and
flame, his tragic death u%nhappily not
the end for we now know that, while
ne was entertaining the most benevo-
lent intentions toward the beaten party
In the strife, his taking off gave at once
the signal and the pretext for letting
o upon the vanquished a swarm of
evil spirits working ills even worse
than those of war itself.
For at least ten years before the
secession of the Southern states the
two sectional extremes in and out of
congress talked like madmen, the raw
ing ranging from the abolition orators
melodramatic my curse be upon the
Constitution of these United States to
the rodomontade of the Southern sena-
tor who would not be pacifed until he
could "call the muster roll of his slaves
beneath Bunker Hill monument"
AS the sectional pressure frightened
In national politics before the advent
OF actual hostilities those conservative
me- who tried to avert the Oncoming
clash of arms were driven to the wall.
Neither extreme would listen to mod
crate counsels. The i%nterpOsition of
the border states proved of doubtful
restraint and was of short duration.
During the Val and after it was over
these patriotic men Jared no better
than the tirebrands. the mass and body
OF the Southern people confounded
with the original Se~cessionists. Even
now the distinction that once existed
is blurred, if not lost. Yet q great
majority of the Southern people were
devoted to the Union and at least q
strong minority were opposed to sIav-
cry.
NO one understood this better than
Abraham Lincoln. He was himself of
Southern birth. He and all his tribe
were Southerners. Although he left
Kentucky when a child, he was an old
child; he never was very young: nor
did he go very far, growing to man.
mood in a Kentucky colony, for what
is Illinois, what Chicago, but a Ken
lucky colony. swollen somewhat out
of proportion? He was in no sense
what we used to call "a poor white"
Awkward, ungainly but aspiring, the
spirit OF a hero within that rugged
easement; a fine, far-reaching magma
tlon behind those heavy brows; the
courage of a lion beneath those patient.
kindly aspects; and, long before he
was of legal age, a leader among men.
His first love vas a Rutledge; his
wife was a Todd.
Lincoln the Poet.
We know that he was a poet. for
have we not that immortal prose-poem
recited at Gettysburg? We know that
he was a statesman, for has not time
~vindicated his conclusions? But the
South did not for a long time know,
except as a kind of hearsay, hat he
was a friend-the one friend who had
the power and the will to save it alike
from its enemies and itself. The dires>
blow that could have fallen upon u
IDN "
hapless and PROSTATE people waa CO.
livered by the assassin's bullet thar
struck him down.
Much of a misleading kind Gag o-.en
written touching what did as,c did not
happen at the Hampton Roads con-
ference. Nothing happened there
which changed the irreconcilable az.
titude of the combatants. Their agents
indeed, argued from opposite prem 4.
ises-the restoration of the Union thu,
sine qua non of the II side. the rec
ognition of the C~onfederacy the ultima
tum of the other.
Neither, indeed, possessed the DOW.
er to come to terms. Mr.. Davis had
no right to dissolve the Confederacy
and disband its armies, Mr.. Lincolr
none to commit his government to am
definite treaty. 1t is a fact, however.
that the federal president was SEE
pared with a plan then and there %
end the war, which, could it have been
adopted. would have saved two months -
bloody fighting and spared the South
the humiliation of the final collapse
and surrender.
Though this has been denieS, it ad.
mits of no dispute. The historic issue
L~incoIn's Family.