The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1960-02-18
MeCiN on Lincoln

ing in the wheat fields. Machines
were then grinding sugar cane.
6 Railroads were being built and
projected in dreams to the Pa
cific. There were then, more than
now, sensitive problems Of prop
erty interests in changing econ
onay. Iron and coal had come to
rivers, rails and the seas. In Lin
g coins time pig-iron production
had vaulted, or so it seemed,
from almost nothing to almost a
million tons a year. Iron plows
" were ripping the prairie soils.
Steam transportation, with coal
in the fire boxes, was settling up
.4 the Northwest. Pigs and corn
. came one way on steamboats, and
4, in freight cars. Plows, reapers,
furniture. and the new machines
went the other
There was something else in
}. those freight cars and on the
decks of riverboats. 1t was the
new political and economic pow
er, symbolized by the Northwest.
In the South, billions of dollars
were enslaved by slavery This
capital was confined, by the sys-
tenn, to ownership of slaves and
slave-labor supplies. In the East
and Northwest there was a wage
labor system. In such a system
the dollars were free to circulate
as operating capital. This was the
new power which was even then
breaking the political hold of the
South on the government in
Washington.
Then, as now, the people want
ed bread and jobs, land and roads,
freedom and answers to their
questions. A civil war was COM
ing on. Then, as now, the people
had to be reached to make public
opinion. The gap which Lincoln
had to close between technology
and the social sciences was great
er than today.
This has meaning for us today
Nor is it lacking in irony. When
Lincoln came here to speak, gov
eminent in the United States was
deadlocked on the issue of slav-
cry in the new territories. But
elsewhere the cause of freedom
was advancing around the world,
thrilling millions and giving hope
to the oppressed Most impress
sive in that time, was the fact
that the long struggle to liberate
serfs in Russia was reaching its
climax. On the day before Lin
coin was inaugurated, the czar's
official decree was published set
ting al serfs free.
This was a great leap forward
in human rights. And it turned.
of course, the eyes of the world
to this country with its shining
principles and its guarantee OF
human rights written into the
Constitution.
In the South, the moderate's
voice had long been all but sill
cnced IN Virginia, for example,
the Southern Literary Messenger
repudiated, as ignorant and err
roneous, the principles Of the
Declaration and the Constitution
and stign1atized Jefferson's state
ment that in any contest between
masters and slaves, Divine Good
ness must take the side of the
downtrodden. A leadership which
might have chung to Jefferson
turned instead, in a sort of com
puisive madness, to excitement
OF fears and passions.
All this was a part of the gap
before Lincoln's feet
Yet, the speech here century
ago was not anti-Southern. 1t
was firm in developing its CEN
trail point It was that the United
States could no longer remain q
slave. holding republic. 1t was, in
essence, the speech of moderate.
Patiently, with great wisdom,
Lincoln insisted that this coun-
try must not evade its moral re-
sponsibilities. He could see, as
@coald others, that we We're losing