Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-05-10
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents

BY JAMES MORGAN.

coin turned at once TO bind up the
wounds Of the Union. The South haV-
ling surrendered to force. he wished
ITO onque II forever BY magnanimit
lHe would not hold the States together
with bayonets and erect a rebellious
ireland within the borders of the re-
public.
No bitterness ranked in his big. pa
Itient heart. His fairness forbade him
Ito hold any individuals personally re-
,sponsible for a great Civil War.
Unfortunately, many Republican
Headers. who had not been so much in
1.-THE thick of the tight. were unable to
lcalm the passions aroused In them by
1.-THE long struggles A clamor arose for
wholesale h%angings and confiscations
land for ruling the Southern States as
conquered Provinces.
1t was the same conflict that follows
leVery war, the conflict between a peace
lof reconciliation and a peace of ven
igeance. The radicals of Congress had
no faith in l.incoln's idea of a reunion
,f hearts. They demanded the rebel
1ous States of the South be held i'm
subsection indefinitely and that the
newly freed slaves. whom Lincoln pre-
lferred 10 admit TO the suffrage grad
iually.
ON the second day after the surren-
der at Appomattox, i'm an address from
a White House window, the President
tcfOht VI al new announcement 10 the
people of the South. But that was
- be his last speech.
At the Cabinet meeting on the clos
ing of his life he rejoiced that Con-
lgress was not in session to interfere
with peace-making and reconstruction
and was confidently hoping to re-
establish the Union before il met
again. As to Jefferson Davis and the
Confederate leaders. he declared with
much feeling that no one need expect
him TO hang them. brighten them
lout of the country" he cried in ex-
Icited, high-pitched tones. open the
gates! Let down the bars! Scare them
off! Enough lives have been sacri-
Heed. We must extinguish our resent
lments if we expect harmony and
%Iunion."
With those accents of a generous
craftsmanship ringing in their ears,
the Secretaries went away from the
last Cabinet meeting. Secretary Stan
ton sent. later In the day. to ask per-
omission to arrest Jacob Thompson, a
Confederate emissary in Canada, who
had slipped INTO the United States for
1.-THE purpose of escaping to Europe
from Portland. Wei. i rather guess
mot" the President replied. when
you have an elephant by the hind leg
land he wants TO run away, better let
him rum"
An unwonted ease and happiness
lseemed to rest upon Lincoln that
tragic day. Although he had dream
led the night before that he was i'll a
Istrange ship, moving toward a dark
and indefinite shore. he took it as a
Igood omen. Had not the same dream
Icome to him before the victories of
lAntietam, Gettysburg and V~icksburg =?
In the evening he sat in a box at
lFord's Theatre, enjoying a comedy,
when John Wilkes Booth stole upon
him. The handsome but ungifted
young actor, who was a prey to dark
moods and whose mad hostility to The
Union had upset a never we'll balanced
mind, peeped through a hole in the
door of the box and observed the posi-
ton of his illustrious victim. Could
he have looked into Lincoln's face
with its simple benignity, his better
mature might have turned him back
from the threshold of his awful crime.
While the curtain was down be-
tween the acts. the President and
Mrs. Lincoln fondly talked over plans
for the future when they should be
free from the heavy cares of the White
House. AS they planned the travels
Ithey would enjoy he said there is no
lplace / should like SO much to see as
Jerusalem" These were his last
words. The play began and the assass-
lin, noiselessly opening the door. fired
his cowardly shot. Lincoln rose from
his chair under the impulse of the
shock and then sank back into 1t, his
head dropped and his eyes closed, not
to open again this side of that mys-
l~terious shore toward which he had
lsailed in his dream ship.
The frenzied murderer pushed lis
way through the bewildered party in
THE box and leaped over its railing.
iBut the folds of the flag that draped
lit tripped him and he fell ape the
stage. Although the fall had broken
ibis leg, he rose with the m~elodramItic
lcry of "Sic temper %tyrannis," Milking
his escape from the stage. he rode
away through the night, but only tt
be shot down two weeks afterwa"d "a
The stood at bay in a Virginia barn.
To spare the stricken President q
ride over the cobblestones TO the
White House. he was carried to thu
simple home of a tailor across thu
= l%street from the theatre. There hi'
: giant strength battled with death unit
/, the morning. hen the great hear
' stopped and Stanton hoarsely whisper
? ed, Now. he belongs'to the ages"
The day that Lincoln died stands
! alone among days. A war-weary PEG
Iple awoke to continue the week of re
ljoicing over their release and thei
Victory. In an hour the land was filleC
8 with grief and rage.
No other death ever touched 81
lmany hearts. Millions mourned
: friend. AS the body was borne bacl
d Ito Springfield sorrowing hundreds o
Thousands along the way looked upol
n 1.-THE face which had been the mirror o
II q peoples sacrifice and of a people
hope.
At Springfield simple men and wo
d men brought from humble homes
1.-THE countryside their tribute of tears
mot to the dead President, but to tn
-, loaa1 neiphhor who had halnpd thaI
: in counsel, in the field, in the flores
or on the highway. when he share
with them the crust of poverty. i
,e 1.-The place of n behind his funer;
Is lear in the procession to the tom
walked "Old Bob" the faithful hors
that had carried him in his rave
= around the law circuit. above h
lprairie grave a lofty monument wf
raised. and out of the earnings
| their free labor thousands of freed
linen. whose shackles he had broke
! contributed to its buildings.