Evening star., 1925-02-08

neDDle perish. Inc history u
humanity gives not Few
examples of issues and perls III "hlch
the life Of the nation, so to speak,
and its salvation in time of peril, has
depended upon the guidance of the
God-ciyen hero. For vision is, in the
greater number of cases, not given
to the people as a whole, but Is re-
yealed to them through an inspired
leader.
On the 27th of February, 1860, l was
on the platform in the Cooper Union
in New York when the young lawyer
who had come from Illinois at the
invitation of Mr.. Bryant's committee
"a committee of which / am glad TO
recall my father was a member) was
talking to New Workers on the vital
issues of the day. The country was
on the eve of the Civil War, when
came so near to breaking up the
republic. The people were, however
still unwilling to believe that war
was inevitable Men, North and
South, were looking about for some
means by which the differences when
were making cleavage between the
two sections could be adjusted with
out the necessity of fighting.
The Republican party, the origin or
which goes back to meeting IN a
small town in Michigan in 1854, had
in 1856 fought it's first fight for the
presidency, with Gen. Fremont as It's
candidate, and had been defeated.
The men who had organized TINS
party, the purpose of which was the
restriction of slavery, so that II should
not be permitted to become national
institution, and the maintenance OF
the Union, were looking about for
leader for the presidential campaign
of 1860. 1t had seemed to Bryant and
his associates that it was desirable
for New Workers to secure a personal
impression of the young lawyer In
Illinois who in his debates with Doug
las in the senatorial campaign of 1888
had made for himself a national repu-
tation. The Republican leaders in
New York were themselves in favor
of the nomination of the great New
Yorker, William H. Seward. Seward
had been Repre- resentatiVe, Senator and
Governor of the State. He was
scholar as we'll a patriot and he
had made clear-cut utterances in re-
gard to the necessity, if the Union
were to be preserved, of restricting
slavery within the territory in which
1t then existed There must,f said
Seward. be no more slave states.
1t was Seward with whom originated
the phrase. There is between freedom
and slavery an irrepressible conflict
Bryant had brought into print in
the evening HOSt tne 1ull text ol the
Lincoln Douglas debates, and the
readers of the Post had been able to
secure from these addresses good
understanding of the issues that were
to be fought out in the pending
presidential campaign.
BRYANT called together in the Of
- flee of the Evening Post group
of men who had influence in the
councils of the new party. The re-
port of this meeting came to me from
my father, who was one of the cItf-
zens invited. Bryant took the ground
that while they We're all in favor of
the nomination of Seward, there was
possibility that the delegates from
the West (this term was then sp-
piled to the region now known as the
Middle States) might insist upon
Western candidate. Bryant reminded
us that Illinois. Indiana, Ohio, Michi-
gan. etc, were controlling a large
portion of the electoral vote, and that
many of the political leaders in those
States were insisting that the time
had come to give due recognition in
the choice for President to the claims
of Western statesmen. Bryant said
further that presidential conventions
had more than once been stampeded
by a call from the floor, or even a
yell from the gallery. and that the
result of decision arrived at
through an excited vote had often
been unsatisfactory, SO that the
nomination had not gone to the best
man." He pointed out the Importance
of avoiding such a risk in the coming
convention.
Let u.s." said Bryant, give in
structions to the New York~>delega-
oh N
do not succeed in securing the nomi-
nation of Seward"
There was full approval of this
suggestion.
Then" continued Bryant, IF we
have got to have a man from the
West, L think we had better give
thought to the qualifications of the
young Illinois lawyer whose debates
with Douglas have made him known
to the whole country. can but
think" said Bryant, that Mr.. Lincoln
has shown a better understanding of
the purpose and spirit of the Re-
publican party and of the conditions
under which this coming presidential
fight is to be made than has been
shown by any other political leader in
the country, not even excepting our
own Seward. Lincoln probably un-
derstands the West better than does
Seward"
X X X
vitation should be sent to Mr..
Lincoln asking him to make an ad-
dress in New York that should set
forth the principles on which the
presidential campaign was to be
fought. A further suggestion that,
as Western lawyers might easily not
have money available, 1t would be
wise to send him a check for ex-
penses was also accepted
The audience gathered in Cooper
Union on the evening of February %
had the impression that the talk o.
the man from the West would be
wild and woolly," while men who
had heard something about Lincoln's
humor were expecting that he would
intermingle with his arguments a
supply of funny stories. Others who
like my father had been admirers of
Henry Clay and who remembered
that Lincoln also had been born In
kentucky, thought 1t possible that
his speech would represent the ornate
and architectural order of oratorv for
Whrh Clay and many of his fellow
southerners had been famous
The address to which the New
Workers listened was, however, some
thing very different 1t had nothing
in common with the unrefined utter
ances of western politicians, or with
the wordy oratory of the Henry Clay
group. Lincoln presented a simple,
straightforward statement, based on
the history of the Republic, for the
purpose of emphasizing the duty, the
obligations and the rights of Amer
lean citizens of that generation. Mr.
Bryant presided over the meeting
with his accustomed dignity and