Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1887 — Lincoln on Quarrels. [ARTICLE]

Lincoln on Quarrels.

After telling of the Shields duel, in the Century, Nicolay and Hay give the following: “This was Mr. Lincoln’s last personal quarrel. Although the rest Of his life was passed in hot and earnest debate, he never again descended to the level of his adversaries, who would gladly enough have resorted to unseemly wrangling. In later years it became his duty to give an official reprimand to a young officer who had been court-martialed for a quarrel with one of his associates. The reprimand is probably tho gentlest recorded in the annals of penal discourses, and it shows, in few words, the principles which ruled the conduct of this great and peaceable man. It has never before been published, and it deserves to be written in letters of gold on the walls of every gymnasium and college. “The advice of a father to his son, •Deware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee I’is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can be afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-con-trol. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal riglit) and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a •dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog will not cure the bite.”