The New York herald., 1922-05-31

stressed the great general principle
that .in our constitutional controver-
sizes we divide into majorities and
minorities. If the minority will not ac-
quiesce the majority must or the Gov
ernment must cease. There Is no other
alternative, for continuing the Govern
ment is acquiescence on one side or
the other If the minority In such
cases will secede rather than acquiesce
they make precedent which in turn
will divide and ruin them.
Plainly the central idea of secession
is the essence of anarchy. majority
held in restraint by constitutional
checks and limitations are always
changing easily with deliberate
changes of popular opinion and senti-
ments, is the only true sovereign Of
a free people. Whoever rejects it does
of necessity fly to anarchy or despo-
tism."
Here spoke the statesman. proclaim
ing deliberate public opinion as the
supreme power OF civilization, easily
to be written into law when convic-
ton should command. 1t ought to be
tonic to the waning confidence OF
those of to-day who grow impatient
that emphasized minority views are
not hurried into the majority express
sions of the Republic. Deliberate
public opinion never fails.
Later, closing his first inaugural.
when anxiety gripped the nation. there
spoke the generous, forgiving. SYM
pathetic man of undaunted faith:
II am loath to close. We are not
enemies but friends. We must not be
enemies Though passion may have
strained. It must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every battle
field and patriot grave. to every living
heart and hearthstone, all over this
broad land. will yet swell the chorus
of the Union when again touched, as
they surely will be, by the better an
gels OF our nature"
But he appealed in vain. Passion
was aflame and war was made the
arbiter. Americans fought Americans
with equal courage and valor. There
was an ambiguity in the Constitution
which only baptism in blood could
efface. One may only speculate on
what another might have done, but
fate seems to have summoned the one
great hero to lead to the Unions SAL
walton.
His faith was inspiring. his resolu-
ton commanding, his sympathy reas-
surfing, his simplicity enlisting, his pa
tience unfailing. He was faith, pa
tience and courage, with his head
above the clouds. unmoved by the
storms which ragged about his feet.
No leader was ever more unspar-
ingly criticized or more bitterly as
sailed. He was lashed by angry
tongues and ridiculed in press and
speech. until he drank from as bitter
a cup as was ever put to human lips.
but his faith was unshaken and his
patience never exhausted. Some one
sent ME recently an illumined and
framed quotation which fell from his
lips when the storm of criticism was
at its height:
"If were trying to read" he said,
"much less answer all the attacks
made on me. this shop might as we'll
be closed for any other business.
do the best / know how, the very best
I can: and / mean to keep on doing
II to the end. IL the end brings me
out all right. what IL said against me
will not amount to anything. II the
end brings me out all wrong ten an
gels swearing was right would make
no difference"
He knew. of course. before the
aSSdbSln TODDcQ MN Oh IulleT TehllZd-
tion. that the end was bringing him
out all right. He knew when swords
were sheathed and guns laid down,
that the Union he saved was riveted
anew and made forever indissoluble.
He knew that in the great crucible of
fire and blood the dross had been
burned from the misdirected patriot
ism of seeding states and the pure
gold restored to shining stars in dear
Old Glory again. He knew he had
freed a race of bondmen AMI had
given to the world the costly proof
OF the perpetuity of the American
Union. But I cannot restrain the
wish that he might somehow know OF
the monuments to his memory
throughout the world, and that we
are dedicating to-day. on behalf OF a
grateful nation, this matchless me-
mortal, whose forty-eight columns,
representing forty-eight states In the
concord Of union, testify that the
"end brought him out nil right"
Rejecting now on the lampooning
and needless attack and unjustihable
abuse which bruised his heart and
tested his patience we may accept its
expression as one of the abused priv
iieges under popular government. when
but for which there Is compensation
in the assurance that when men have
their feet firmly planted in the right
and do the very best they can and
keep on doing IT, they come out all
right in the end and all the storm
does not amount to anything.
He rose to colossal stature in day
OF imperilled union. He first ap-
pealed. and then commanded, and left
the Union secure and the nation su-
prene. His was leadership for q
great crisis. made loftier because OF
the inherent Righteousness OF his cause
and the sublimity of his own faith.
Washington inspired belief In the Re-
public In its heroic beginning. Lincoln
proved his quality In the heroic pres-
crvation. The Old World had won
dered about the New World experi-
ment, and was quite ready to proclaim
its futility when the civil war was
threatening but Lincoln left the
Union unchallenged for all succeed
ing time. Not only was our nation
given new birth of freedom, but
democracy was given a new sanction
by that hand of divinity itself which
has written the rights OF human kind
and pointed the way to their enjoy