Year: 1864

Wiu that awkward old backwoodsman really get that ship through? If he does, it will be time for us to look about us."

 Sooth to say, our own politicians were some what shocked with hls State papers at first Why not let as make them little more con- ventional, and file them to classical pattern Mo-" was his reply. shall write them my self. Ihe people viN understand taens' !" But this or that form of expression is not elegant, not classical" Tie people aoM understand H," has been his invariably reply. And what ever may be said of his State papers as com pared with the classic standards, it has been a fact that they have always been wonderfully well understood by the people, and that siuse the time of Washington, the State papers o no President have more controlled the popular mind. And one reason for this is, that they have been informal and undiplomatic. They have more resembled fathers talk to his children than State paper. And they have had that relish and smack of the soil, that appeal to the simple human heart and head, which is a greater power in writing than the most artful devices of rhetoric. Lincoln might we'll say. with the apostle, But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but We have been thoroughly made manifest amoag you in all things" His rejection of what is called fine writing, was as deliberate as St.. Paul's, and for the came reason-because he felt that he was speaking on subject which must be made clear to the lowest intellect, though it should fail to captivate the highest But we say of Lincolns writing, that for all true, manly purposes of writing, there are pas sages in his State papers that could not be better put-they are absolutely perfect. They arc brief, condensed. iniense and with q pow er of insight and expression which make them worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold. Such are some passages of the celebrated Spring field letter, especially that mastery one where be compares the conduct of the patriotic and loyal blacks with that of the treacherous and disloyal whites. No one can read this letter without feeling the influence of mind both strong and generous.

 Lincoln is strong man, but his strength is of peculiar kind; it is not aggressive so much as passive, and among passive things, it is like the strength not so much of stone buttress, as of wire cable It is strength swaying to every influence, yielding on this side and on that to popular needs, yet tenaciously and infexibly bound to carry it's great end ; and probably by no other kind of strength could our national ship have been drawn safe y thus far during the tossings and tempests that beset her way.

 Surrounded by all sorts of conflicting claims, by halfhearted, timid men, by border States men and free State. men, by radical abolition. ists and conservatives, he has listened to all, weighed the words of all, waited observed, yielded now here and now there, but in the main kept one inhexible and honest purpose, and drawn the national ship through.

 In times of our trouble, Abraham Lincoln has had his turn of being the best abused man of our nation. Like Moses leading his Israel through the wilderness, he has seen the day when every man seemed ready to stone him and yet, with simple, wiry steady persever. ance, he has held on, conscious of honest in. tentions, and looking to God for help. All the nation have felt, in the increasing solemni- ty Of his Proclamations and papers how deep an education was being wrought in his mind by this simple faith in God, the Ruler of na- tions, and this humble willingness to learn the awful lesson of His providence.

 We do not mean to give the impression that Lincoln is religious man in the sense in which that term is popularly applied. We believe he has never made any such profession, but we See evidence that in passing through this dreadful national crisis, he has been forced by the very anguish of the struggle to look upward, where any rational creature must look for support. No man in this agony a dry, weary, patient pain, that seemed to some like insensibility. Whichever way it ends' he said to the writer, " have the impression that Ishan't last long after it is over."

 After the dreadful repulse of Fredericksburg he is reported to have said If there is man out of hell that suffers more than I do, pity

 In those dark kssdays his heavy eyes and wea- rY air told how our reverses wore upon him, and yet there was a never-failing fund of pa- tience and bottom, that sometimes rose to the surface in some droll, quaint saying or story, that forced laugh even from himself.

 There have been times with many, of impe- tuous impatience when our national ship seemed to be water-ogged, and we havc called aloud fors deliverer of another fashion, . brilliant general dashing, fearless statesman, a man who could dare and do who would stake all on die, and win or lose by brilliant3coup de main. It may comfort our minds that since He who ruleth in the armies of nations set no such man to this work, that perhaps He saw in the man whom He did send some peculiar fitness and aptitudes therefor.

 Slow and careful in coming to resolutions, willing to talk with every person who has any thing to show on any side of a disputed sub ject. long in weighing and pondering, attached to constitutional limits and time -honored land mhrhsJ Lucoiu certainty was the Sdfest leader . nation could have at time when the habeas corpus must be suspended, and all the consti- tutional and minor rights of citizens be thrown into the hands of their military leader. A reckless, bold, tlisorizing. dashing man of genius might have wrecked our Conetitution and ended us in a splsnaid military despstism, when honest Abe has only walked off with our rights as he did with his bag of SD ,cie from the bank. on the simple prom;se to bring them back when he had done with them.

 Among the many accusations which in hours of ill luck have been thrown out upon Lincoln it is remarkable that he has never been called self seeking or sefsh. When we were troubled and sat in darkness. aud looked doubtful toward the Presidential chair it never was that we doubted the geod will of our pot-only the clearness Of his eyesight. But Almighty God has granted to him that clearness of wis ion which He gives to the true hearted, and enabled him to set his honest foot in that prom ised land ot t'freedom which is to bs the patr,- mony of all men black and whi,e--and fron henceferth nations shall rise up to call him blessed.

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