New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-02-09

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
lame, 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
In the strife, his taking off gave at once
the signal and the preteXt for letting
loose 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 "NIy curse be upon the
Constitution of these United States" TO
the rodomontade of the Southern sena-
tor who would not be pacitied until he
could c the muster roll of his slaves
beneath Bunker Hill monument"
AS the sectional pressure frightened
In national politics before the advent
or actual hOstilities those conservative
men who tried to avert the oncomjng
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 1t was over
these patriotic men Jared no better
than the firebrands, the mass and BODY
or the Southern people COMPOUNDED
with the original secessionists. Even
now the distinction that once existed
is blurred, if not lost. Yet q great
majority of the Southern people were
to the Union and at least a
strong minority were opposed to slav-
cry.
No n 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 IA very young nor
did he 60 very far, growing to man.
hood 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"
ungainly but aspiring, the
spirit of a hero within that rugged
easement a fine, far-reaching magma
ton 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 was a Rutledge; his
wife was a Todd.
Lincoln the Poet.
We know that he was a poet, for
nave we not that immortal prose-poem
at Gettysburg? We know that
he was n statesman, for has not time
his conclusions? But the
South did not for a long time know,
except as n kind of hearsay, that he
vas a friend-the one friend who had
he power and the will to save it alike
rom Its enemies and itself. The direst
blow that could have fallen Upon n
and PROSTATE people was de-
ivered by the assassin's bullet that
struck him down.
Much of Il misleading kind has been
touching what did and did not
happen at the Hampton Roads con-
Nothing happened there
which changed the irrecOncilable at !
of the eOmbatants. Their agents,
indeed, argued from opposite prem
ses-the restoration of the Union the
qua non of the one side, the rec
ignition of the Confederacy the ultima
of the other. |,
Neither, indeed, possessed the DOW
r to come to terms. Mr.. Davis had ,
right to dissolve the C%onfederacy ,
nd disband its armies, Mr.. Lincoln j
Ione to commit his government to any 8
,efinite treaty. 1t Is a fact, however,
hat the federal president was pre- t
AIRED with a plan then and there to |
nd the war, which, could 1t have been |
dOpted, would have saved two months !
lOOdy fighting and spared the South z
he humiliation Of the final collapse =
surrender. 4,
Though this has been denied, it ad- q
hts of no dispute. The historic issue