Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1885 — Lincolniana. [ARTICLE]

Lincolniana.

In the senatorial contest between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, when they spoke at Freeport, Illinois, Mr. Douglas appeared in an elegant barouche drawn ,by four white horses, and was received with great applause. But when Mr. Lincoln came up in a “prairie schooner,” viz., an old-fash-ioned canvas-covered pioneer wagon, the enthusiasm of the vast throng was unbounded. When travelling about the quiet country towns on his law business it was his custom, at the tavern or board-ing-house where lie stopped, after tea to get a candle and go to his room and read awhile. He was no loafer. At a public meeting in a grove, a long shambling figure was seen sitting on the fence and whittling thoughtfully, clothed in the slightest summer attire. After others had spoken, “Lincoln! Lincoln!” was called, and the wliittler, pocketing, his knife, and slipping from the fence, made a characteristic speech. This was before his great prominence. At the same place, when the lady who entertained him and some others at dinner made some apology, he said he guessed it was better than they would have got at home, anyhow. To Bishop Simpson, after a lecture on American progress, in which he did not speak of petroleum, Mr. Lincoln said, as they came out, “You did not ‘strike ile.’ ”

The sheets and clothes stained with the blocd of Lincoln were 'literally torn in strips, as Antony said of Csesar, and preserved as mementos. The assassination of Ca'sar, and of William of Orange were brought vividly to the minds of those who were in Washington. Only a day or two before the assassination, the Morning Chronicle, tlie Washington' organ of the administration, said that a single life was seldom indispensable to a country, but that just then that of Abraham Lincoln seemed to be so. .r . It seemed to be so, indeed. Yet he served his country by his death as by Not only did liis death at once prevent what might have been the dangerous consequences of a frenzy of exultation, but it taugtyt us Aha most important of truths,' that no man, however great c'fid able anil patriotic and devoted and beloved, is indispensable to the welfare of the country. There are extreme exigencies in which the natural cry is, “Oh, for an hour of Dundee!” But in the great development of liberty no one man is essential. As Charles Sumner said in beginning liis eulogv upon Lincoln, “Iff the Providence of God there are no accidents.” Editor’s Easij Chair, in Harper’s Magazine. -/ . .1 Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thpn ah alt sell thy necessaries. * \ .- ! '