The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-02-13
THE SAGE OF THE NATION

nation the babe whose life's unfold
ing was one of the marvels of Amer
lean free conditions and free oppor-
tunities. That life, in it's expanding,
whether it was drinking in the ozone
of the mountains or whether it was
engaged in the lowly tasks of the
frontier, or whether it was addressing
| itself to the service of self-culture,
or whether it was found in the arena
of debate or standing at the bar of
justice to plead for persons or causes,
was life>that filled the ample meas
ure of Americanism, and has caused
the name of Lincoln to be written
upon the walls of the ages as Ameri-
cas- greatest sage. Amid the whirl
of contemporary events and the move
ment of the scenes upon the stage of
the world, when the drama of the
great war is receiving its climax in
the imposition Of terms upon a Hun
ish foe, the name Of Lincoln beams
with singular clarity. He it was who
made it possible for the Uuited States
to champion freedom for the OPP
pressed by striking from the limbs of
the oppressed in his own country the
shackles of servitude. He it was who
made possible the League of Nations
through consolidating the tie of the
sovereign states, so that the Union
might speak as such in the mighty
councils of the worlds peace and of
the worlds war. He it was who cast
the United States in a higher cate
CORY than any other nation upon the
face of the earth. He it was, as
though led by divine hand and pre-
science, who pronounced the sentences
of immortal freedom in behalf of the
rights of the weak and the obligations
of the strong in behalf OF the weak.
He it was who purged and cleansed
and exalted and sustained the nation
for the mighty tasks that it has per-
formed and is performing in these
momentous times.
Sage he was, taught in all the wis
| dom not of the ancients but of the
American people. Yet he drank from
the spring of common truth that
welled at the feet of Socrates and
purled in the path of Plato, that was
I
limpid when the Founder of the Chris
| tain faith received therein His bap-
tism for suffering and service and
redemption. Lincoln never moved a
foot from the pathway of his fellows.
| Lincoln's name is unblemished by
meanness, cupidity, cruelty, arrogance
or autocracy. His name is the como
| tation of the nature of the American
people, the genius of their and ideal
ity Such a sage as this, who was I'M
grit with the sword of domination, but
full of the stern and firm purposes of
power that comes from the common
source of human inspiration and aims
had never before been known, has
never since been seen in American
life.
The men who stand as the epochal
characters in the history of the ma
| ton, the men of pre-eminence in the
White House-these men have lived
not their own lives but the lives of
their fellows. They have learned that
only as one lives in the common life
can he perform the uncommon
achievements. Thus lived Lincoln, so
! homely and so humble in the early
chapters of his career, and yet so
| spun about by the parti-colored web
of humanity and event, so marvel
ously beautiful in the career that was
God-given and praised by humankind.
The birthday of that eminent Ameri-
can calls for no stilted phrases, no
stereotyped assemblage of adjectives;
| it calls only for the tribute of it's
worth in relation to the vast scheme
of American democracy and liberty.
And as the fruits of these things APP
pear upon the tree of the league
whose fruit will be for the healing
of the nations, let all who lift their
hats in reverence 70 the obvious per-
formers of the present tasks look past
these to the figure that can never be
ghostly-that of the man who made
possible the participation of the Unit
ed States in the world war and the
world peace. Honor and dominion
among the great fol evermore is his
portion. All the people, as they see
the liberator stand in the foreground
of the liberation of the peoples of the
earth from the serfdom of a brutal
nation will rejoice in the ordinances
of destiny that gave Abraham Lin
coin to the American nation.