Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1915 — A STUDY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE MAN. [ARTICLE]

A STUDY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE MAN.

It has been sidd of Lincoln that he ‘grew to a great mental stature and achieved his masterful grip upon the Intelligence of the world, not alone because he had extraordinary natural endowments, but because he had an insatiable interest in ‘ realities, and never allowed a book or a formula to obscure the sunlight of a living fact." A great many people are inclined to look upon Abraham Lincoln as a marvelous being raised up for a divine purpose, and endowed with sublime attributes which are not bestowed Upon ordinary mortals. Tet if we analyze his character we find it made Up of the humblest virtues, the most Ordinary human qualities. It was his Incorruptible manhood, his unswerving honesty, his love of truths, his adherence to what he believed to be right in the face of all temptations and difficulties, that, more thaw ail else, made him the sublime character he was. Lincoln never shrank from espousing an unpopular cause when he believed it to be right At the time when it almost cost a young Ifwyer his bread and hatter to defend the fugitive slave, and when other lawyers had refused, Lbftoln would always plead the cause of the tin fortunate whenever an opportunity presented. “Go to Lincoln,” people would eay, when these hounded fugitives were seeking protection, “he’s not afraid of any cause, If it’s right” His fellqw lawyers called him “perversely konest” Nothing could Induce hQn to tabs the wrong side of a case, «r to continue on that side after lew*

fug that It was unjust o* hopeless. Only the most sublime moral courage could have sustained him as president to hold bis ground against hostile criticism and a long train of disaster; to issue the emancipation proclamsv tkm, to support Grant and Stanton against the clamor of the politicians and the press. Everybody wbo knew Mm felt that he was every inch a man, a largehearted, generous friend, always ready to help everybody out of their troubles* whether it was a poor widow in distress or a farmer who needed advice. He had a frank, transparent mind. He never covered np anything, never had secrets. He always left the door of his heart wide open, so that anyone could read his inmost thoughts. Abraham Lincoln inherited no opportunities, and acquired nothing by luck. His good fortune consisted simply of untiring perseverance and a right heart. Yet the romance and achievement of his marvelous life have no match in fiction or history. We shall search the biography of the world in vain for a man who reached such heights of power, and yet has graduated from such humble beginnings and such an iron environment. Instead of a school and university training, Lincoln had little else than hardships, trials and struggles to lift him above relentless circumstances. Behold him as a lank, awkward youth, felling trees on a little claim, building his homely log cabin, without floor or windows, teaching himself arithmetic and grammar in the evening by the light of the fire. In his eagerness to know the content* of Blackstone’s Commentaries, he walked 44 miles to procure the precious volumes, and read IS# peg®* while returning. Yet it was this man, born in a log cabin, without schooling, or books, or teacher, or even ordinary opportunities, who won the admiration of mankind by his homely, practical wisdom while president, and who emancipated 4,000,000 slaves. What an inestimable blessing to the world, what an encouragement, an inspiration to the poor and lowly born, that his great achievements can be accounted for by the triumph in his character of those qualities which are beyond the reach of money, of family. of influence, but are given freely to the lowest as well as to the highest. There is no quality of integrity, perseverance, or industry that distinguished Lincoln, that any one, no matter how poor and humble, how hardly circumstanced, cannot cultivate. His career is a rebuke to the indolent, faint-hearted youth of today, who, in this age of opportunity, dares to cry "No chance!” Abraham Lincoln Is becoming more and more our national hero, and he would drop into oblivion, were we to discover that he had ever bartered that most precious attribute —his manhood, his character—or ever offered it for sale. "Die, when I may,” said this king among men, "I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower, where I thought a flower would grow. What a glorious ideal, and how gloriously realized! No TTinn ever lived of whom it could have been more truly said that,— - ! “The elements 1 So mixed in him that Nature might stand up. * And say to all the world, ‘TWa Is Si man!”* . j*