The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-31


with flat-topped smokestack, is putting along
the single track that winds among the gently
rolling hills of Ohio Back there in one of the
wooden coaches tall, gaunt man sits by a win
dow gazing out over the bleak winter landscape
Yesterday he had stood the platform
of train at the brick railway station in Spring
field, III. A crowd of nearly a thousand people,
silent, bareheaded in the cold, drizze of rain,
had listened to these words:
Friends, no one who has never been placed in
like position can understand my feelings at
this hour nor the oppressive sadness l feel at
this parting. For more than quarter of CEN
tury have lived among you, and during all that
time l have received nothing but kindness at
your hands.
"Here 1 have lived from my youth till now 1
am an old man. Here the most sacred trusts of
earth were assumed; here all my children were
born; and here of them lies buried. To you,
dear friends owe all that have all that l am.
All the strange checkered past seems to crowd
upon my mind
To-day L leave you; l go to assume a task
more difficult than that which devoved upon
General Washington. Unless the great God who
assisted him shall be with and aid me- l must
fail. But if the same omniscent mind and the
same almighty arm that directed and protected
him shall guide and support me, shall not fail :;
l shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God
of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him
l commend you all. Permit me to ask that with
equal sincerity and faith you will all invoke His
wisdom and guidance for me.
with these few words must leave you-for
how long, know not. Friends, and ALL 1
must now bid you affectonate farewell
Now old man." he had said.
Yes, Abraham Lincoln is ffty-two years old
this twelfth day OF February, 1861. But he has
come a long way in those so years.
This should be happy birthday for Abraham
Lincoln. But his three boys, Bob and Willie and
Tad hear the sigh that escapes from his lips as
he turns from the window and they hush their
noisy play. And Mary Todd Lincoln sees in the
deep-set eyes that look of sadness which will
shadow the face of this MAN of Sorrows" for
the next four years.
Yes, he is Presdent-elect of the United States
of America should he say 1.-The Disunited
States?
Six weeks after his election South Carolina
had passed its ordinance of secession. During
the next month Georgia, Alabama Mississippi
Louisiana and Florida had followed the Palmetto
states lead. On February representatives from
these states had met at Montgomery. Ala, and
organized the Confederate States of America"
Five more Texas, North Carolina, Virginia.
join the six that had already departed from the
Union The future course of three border
states," Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, as
well the northern slave state of Delaware
was doubtful. And always in the background
loomed the threat of fratricidal war between
the North and the South.
SO much depended upon what he said and how
he said it that he had toiled, night and day, for
three weeks over his inaugural address.
He wrote it as a composer writes a SYM
phony," says Don Glassman in the Washington
Star. He marshaed all the melody in words
all the rhythm of speech and euphony of Ian
guage to build monument out of cold sylables
E. He weighed every one a musical scale
He employed them as full notes and half notes.
He would pronounce each word separately and
feel convinced of its necessity both as to thought
and style. By the time he finished a sentence
it would harbOr no contradictory thought
coarse note. The words were rveted together
so that to strike out an adjective or syllable
would upset the thought and leave gaping hole
in the sentence"
Ever since his election his mail had been full
of letters bearing southern postmarks. Some
were signed with the names and addresses of
the Senders; others were anonymous. They were
filled with such words as BLACK Republican"
"mulattO scamps," 'jailbirds," "rascas" and
thieves"
Caesar had his Brutus! Charles the First
his Cromwell And the President may profit by