The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-02-06

premacy came mainly from the power
of oratory or convincing speech there
was no surer road to leadership.
Sure to Become a Power.
With a mind thus self-trained and
kept from the world until manhood.
Lincoln was sure to come into prom
inence as soon as he could in any way
secure a public hearing. AS Woodrow
Wilson puts it. HE had had the in
stinct of the student in the midst Of
affairs, and had made himself mas
ter of ideas and Of language as an
instrument of mastery. He had de-
vised for himself straight thrusts of
speech and the use of words that acted
always like the application of light"
Such a man will ever be put forward
as champion by any party to which
he lends his services. When. there
fore. in the days of controversy be-
tween North and South over the great
issue of whether the new territories
should be slave or free, the Dred Scott
decision declared that the people Of
territory had no power to keep
a slave owner from bringing his prop
erty" into their community. and this
became the burning question of the
day around which gathered those who
were opposed as well on a dozen 9th
er grounds. Lincoln was put forward
as the champion of the Free Soil party
against Senator Douglas, who upheld
the constitutional sanction of slavery.
Lincoln's plain way of putting things
was evident in his famous declara-
ton. "A house divided against itself
cannot stand. believe this country
cannot endure half slave and half
free. do not expect the house to fall.
but do expect It will cease to be d.
vided"
Put Douglas In Dilemma.
BY a clever set Of questions Lincoln
put Douglas into a dilemma that re-
quired him to lose either his following
In Illinois or his following among the
southern party. Douglas made his
choice, antagonized the South. won the
senatorship against Lincoln. but put
himself out Of the running for the
presidency. Then came the insurrec-
tion led by John Brown, and the feel
ing excited by this event still ran
high during the next presidential cleo
tion. Douglas had been forced to
stand for the right of the people Of
a territory to exclude slavery, and thus
set himself against the Dred Scott de-
cision permitting slave owners to bring
their property into the territories. Up
on this question the Democratic party
split. The Republicans met in Chica-
90, and here the Illinois men SO ably
presented and advocated their new
champion, Lincoln, that Seward lost
the nomination and Lincoln won 1t.
In the Following election Lincoln
succeeded over his rival by a narrow
majority, and really represented. so far
as votes were concerned. minority
of the nation. Having staked upon this
election the whole doctrine of state
rights and the extension of slavery,
the leading southern states looked up
on Lincoln's election as a defiance of
the whole course of legislation looking
to the upholding of the southern view.
Determined on Secession.
The war followed, for the South con-
sidered state rights and slave labor as
the foundation Of their prosperity and
power, especially since the invention
of the cotton gin had made, as they
phrased 1t, cotton the king of the
world of commerce. Woodrow Will
son points out that in the northern
opposition to slavery the South felt
keen sense of injustice. They believed
that the worst side of the institution
was willfully presented. that its neces-
stiles and its better side were willfully
suppressed. In the election of Lincoln
they saw the beginning OF an attempt
to dominate them completely. 1t