The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-03-24
LINCOLN'S HOST SPEECH"
Christian Science Monitor

\AIlIlSIlau 0ClCICc NlO1llIOIJ
 With each recurring 18th of February the thots of Americans turn naturally to some event or incident in the career of Abraham Lincoln, and the strange thing is that, after continuous weaving of history and story around this most remarkable and interesting man for more than half century, there is nearly always something new or fresh to be learned about him, or, at least, always some thing that can be told in an unfamiliar way.
 It is not widely known, for instance, or we'll remembered, that in the middle fifties Abraham Lincoln had practically abandoned hope of ever attaining place of recognized importance in national politics. He had, for the good of the Free Soil Party, sacrificed his ambition and his opportunity to become a United States senator from Illinois, allowing Lyman Trumbull to carry off the prize, and had gone back to the practice of law.
 While he did not regret this generous and patriotic act, yet to some of his friends he pointed it out as a fact that whenever the way seemed bright and clear for his future something unforeseen occurred to block it.
 It was in this mood that he attended the state convention held. by the Anti-Nebraska men of Illinois at Bloomington, in the sum- mer of l856 This gathering was attended by the leaders who were to become, in large measure, the founders of the Republican party, which was to win the Presidency four years later, carry on the Civil War, and rule the nation uninterruptedly for nearly quar- ter of century. Among them, besides Lin coin, were Trumbull, Palmer, Oglesby, Yates, Browning, Wentworth, Lovejoy, David Davis Judd, Medill and Dubois The names of these men were written into the history of both the state and the nation. Wings, Free Soil Democrats, and Abolitionists, they had been, in the immediate past, often in volved in bitter antagonism to one another. The attempt to introduce slavery into the new territories and states was now bringing and welding them together.
 John M. Palmer, later to become mil- tary officer, governor, and United States senator, was called upon to preside. William H. Bissell, back home from the Mexican war, and 'hero," was nominated for the gov- ernorship. A full state and presidential elec- toral ticket was named The platform adopt ed declared emphatically against the further spread of slavery. It pronounced the repeal of the Missouri Compromise "unwise, unjust and injurious, an open violation of the plight ed faith of the states," and asserted that the attempt to force slavery upon Kansas and Nebraska, against the known wishes of the people, was an arbitrary and tyrannous vio- lation of the right of the people to govern themselves" Owen Lovejoy, whose brother had fallen at Alton for the anti-slavery cause, and described, like Otis of Colonial Massa- chusetts, as "a flame of fire," speaking to| the platform, stirred the members of the con vention to high pitch of enthusiasm for the cause which they now unitedly espoused. He| was followed by Long John'' Wentworth of Chicago powerful figure and forceful speaker Judge Trumbul, the new senator David Davis, afterward to figure in the Hayes-Tilden electoral commission; Leonard