Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-02-09

VI
NM 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 volcano of blood and
flame, his tragic death unhappily not
the end; for we now know that, while
he was entertaining the most benevo-
lent intentions toward the beaten party
i'm the strife, his taking off gave at once
the signal and the pretext for letting
loose upon the vanquished 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
tor who would not be pacified 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
men who tried to avert the oncoming
clash of arms were driven to the wall.
Neither extreme would listen to mod
crate cOunsels. The interpOsition of
the border states proved of doubtful
restraint and was of short duration.
During the war and after it was over
these patriotic men Jared no better
than the firebrands, the mass and body
of the Southern people COMPOUNDED
with the original secessionists. Even
now the distinction that once existed
is blurred, if not lost. Yet a great
majority of the Southern people were
| devoted TO the Union and at least a
strong minority were opposed to slav-
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 child, he was an old
child; he never was very young; nor
did he go very far, growing to man.
hood in 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; fine, far-reaching magma
| ton behind those heavy brows; the
courage of lion beneath those patient.
kindly aspects; and, long before he
was of legal age, leader among mon.
His first love was Rutledge; his
wife was 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 statesman, for has not time
indicated his conclusions? But the
South did not for a long time know,
except as kind of hearsay, that he
was friend-the one friend who had
the power and the will to save it alike
| from its enemies and itself. The direSt
blow that could have fallen upon a
hapless and PROSTATE people was de-
livered by the assassin's bullet that
| struck him down.
Much of a misleading kind has been
written touching what did and did not
happen at the Hampton Roads con-
ference. Nothing happened there
which changed the irreconcilable at
titude of the combatants. Their agents,
indeed, argued from opposite prem
ises-the restoration of the Union the
sine qua non of the one side. the rec
ignition of the Confederacy the ultima
tum of the other.
Neither, indeed, possessed the pow
er to come to terms. Mr.. Davis had
no right to dissolve the Confederacy
and disband its armies, Mr.. Lincoln
none to commit his government to any
definite treaty. 1t is a fact, however,
that the federal president was pre-
pared with plan then and there to
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 denied, it adj
mits OF 40 dispute. The historic Issue