J. T. Hobson

“ Another writer says:
"We hear Lincoln's words in every schoolhouse and college, in every cabin, and at every public meeting. We read them in every newspaper, school-book, and magazine, and they are all in favor of right, liberty, and truth, and of honesty and reverence for God. His words, some of them as familiar as the Bible, are on the tongues of the people, shaping the national character."
Bishop Newman said:
"There is no name more deserving of imperishable fame than Abraham Lincoln. ”

“ So the memorial to be erected here, by South as well as North, will not only be in memory of Lincoln, but it will be a testimony that the fires of hatred kindled by the fierce civil conflict of nearly half a century ago, are dead, and from the ashes has arisen the red rose of patriotism to a common country and loyalty to a common flag."
President Roosevelt, in behalf of the nation, said, in part:
"He lived in days that were great and terrible, when brother fought against brother for what each sincerely deemed to be the right. ”

“ In a contest so grim the strong men who alone can carry it through are rarely able to do justice to the deep convictions of those with whom they grapple in mortal strife. At such times men see through a glass darkly; to only the rarest and loftiest spirits is vouchsafed that clear vision which gradually comes to all, even to the lesser, as the struggle fades into distance, and wounds are forgotten, and peace creeps back to the hearts that were hurt. But to Lincoln was given this supreme vision. ”

“ It may be wondered what future generations will think when they read the history of our country and learn that within the memory of many of those who now live this Government tolerated and protected that "sum of all villainies"—human slavery. Slavery arose at an early period in the world's history out of the accident of capture in war. As an institution it has existed in many countries for ages. Unfortunately, in the first settling of the United States, slavery was tolerated, and allowed to spread as the country developed. ”

“ God has a great work for this nation to do, and Mr. Lincoln was, like Washington, one of his instruments to prepare the people for this mission which the United States is to accomplish toward the enlightenment, freedom, and Christianization of the world."
I heard a lecture on Abraham Lincoln at Corydon, Indiana, March 17, 1899, by Henry Watterson, the talented editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal and ex-Confederate, in which he said, "If Lincoln was not inspired of God, then there is no such thing on earth as special providence or the interposition of divine power in the affairs of men." ”

“ A demon studying how most deeply to wound the greatest number of hearts, could have devised no act for his purpose like that which sent Abraham Lincoln to his grave. No man's loss could have been so universally felt as that of a father, brother, friend. ”

“ CHAPTER I. Lincoln's Birth and Early Life in Kentucky
Unpromising Cradles—Site of the Log Cabin—Tangled History Untangled—Jacob S. Brother's Statement—Speaking with Authority—The Lincolns Move to Knob Creek—The Lincoln Farm Association.
It has been said truly that God selects unpromising cradles for his greatest and best servants. On a cold winter night, a hundred years ago, in a floorless log cabin, the emancipator of a race was born. Like the Redeemer of mankind, there was "no room" in the mansions of the rich and the great for such a child to be born. ”

“ Lincoln's argument was contained in this fearless declaration:
"'This legalized liquor traffic, as carried on in the saloons and grogshops, is the tragedy of civilization. Good citizenship demands and requires that what is right should not only be made known, but be made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected and defeated, but destroyed. The saloon has proved itself to be the greatest foe, the most blighting curse of our modern civilization, and this is why I am a practical prohibitionist. ”

“ Merwin says that Mr. Lincoln talked freely with him on the overthrow of the liquor traffic, and it is his strong conviction that if his life had been spared, even a decade, he would have emphasized his lifelong devotion to the temperance cause with an open and decisive championship of State and National prohibition. The slavery issue had come unforeseen into his life and swept him heart and soul into the very vortex of that terrific struggle. As he often expressed it, "there must [Pg 62] be one war at a time," and the one that called him first was not of his own choosing in point of order. ”

“ The South did not accept the overtures of President Lincoln, and the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. It was issued as a war measure, upon military necessity, and on the condition that the traitor forfeits his property. After this the war, upon the part of the North, was not only to suppress the rebellion, but for the purpose of abolishing slavery, and the South fought not only to preserve the Confederacy, but for the institution of slavery itself. ”

“ On the 22d of February, 1842, he made a strong address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society, in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, in which he said: "Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts." ”

“ Abraham Lincoln was always opposed to slavery. When a young man he witnessed the cruelties of a slave market in New Orleans, where men, women, and children were sold like brutes. He then and there said, "If I ever have a chance to hit that institution, I will hit it hard." In 1837, when he was only twenty-eight years old, he heard a sermon preached by a noted minister, in Illinois, on the interpretation of prophecy in its relation to the breaking down of civil and religious tyranny. ”

“ God be praised for the great gifts he showered upon him; God be praised for the generous use he made of them. In the radiance of God's light and in the sunshine of his love from out the gates of pearl which were swung inward to his entrance by those who waited to welcome him thither, there opened to him that vast and bright eternity, vivid with God's love. ”

“ This association is purely patriotic in its purposes, and the movement has met with a ready response from every section of the nation. In revering the name of Lincoln, there is now no North or South, or East or West. There is but one heart in all, and that the heart of patriotic America. ”

“ After a brief introduction by Mr. Alonzo Wilson, chairman of the State Prohibition Committee, Mr. Merwin, standing on one of the steps of the stairway of the monument, with a beautiful flag covering a part of the balustrade, said:
"We stand to-day in the heart of the continent, midway between the two oceans, within the shadow of the monument of the man who made more history—who made greater history than any other person, than all other persons who lived in the nineteenth century! ”

“ Lincoln came to be, in his administration, greater than law—when his wisdom was greater than the combined wisdom of all the people. The people, the law-makers had never comprehended the conditions and the situation that confronted him. ”

“ Like many others, I have always taken great interest in the life and work of Abraham Lincoln. There are some special reasons for this, upon my part, aside from my interest in the lives of great men, and the magnetic charm which surrounds the name and fame of the most eminent American and emancipator of a race. ”

“ It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South. ”

“ Mr. Lincoln arose and, gravely addressing the company, said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual healths in the most healthy beverage which God has given to man. It is the only beverage I have ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on the present occasion—it is pure Adam's ale from the spring." And, taking a glass, he touched it to his lips, and pledged them his highest respects in a cup of cold water.
The Democratic party was divided. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's old political rival. ”

“ He saw clearly that the same high qualities, the same courage and willingness for self-sacrifice, and devotion to the right as it was given them to see the right, belonged both to the men of the North and to the men of the South. As the years roll by, and as all of us, wherever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the valor and self-devotion alike of the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray, so this whole nation will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people, [Pg 109] and for the freedom of a race. ”

“ To you, men of Illinois, Lincoln is the most famous and worthy of all those who have adorned your commonwealth. To you, citizens of the United States, he is the President [Pg 112] who carried you through a terrible conflict and saved the Union. To us in England he is one of the heroes of the race whence you and we sprung. ”

“ In 1820 the territory of Missouri sought admission into the Union. The question as to whether it should be admitted as a free or a slave State was so warmly and violently discussed in Congress that many were alarmed lest it would lead to the dissolution of the Union. The territory was finally admitted as a slave State, but on the express condition that slavery would forever be excluded from all that part of the territory of the United States lying north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. ”

“ Never, perhaps, in the history of mankind has such general recognition been given to the anniversary of any man's birth as was given to the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on Friday, February 12, 1909. ”

“ Every newcomer of any great strength had to be tested. So Lincoln was required to go through the ordeal of a wrestling match. Seeing that he could not be easily floored, Jack Armstrong, their champion, was chosen to lay Lincoln on his back. Many gathered to witness the contest, and a number of bets were made. After quite a spirited engagement, Lincoln won, and was invited to become one of the company. Jack Armstrong declared, "Abe Lincoln is the best man that ever broke into the settlement," and he became a lifelong, warm friend of Lincoln. ”

“ I recollect how it slowly dawned upon Europeans in 1862 and 1863 that the President could be no ordinary man, because he never seemed cast down by the reverses which befell his arms, because he never let himself be hurried into premature action, nor feared to take so bold a step as the Emancipation Proclamation was when he saw that the time had arrived. ”

“ John Kemp, my old friend and a highly-respected citizen, now sixty-three years old, who was born and reared on a farm adjoining Henry Brooner, told me in July, 1903, in Washington, Indiana, that north of the [Pg 81] old Brooner farm there is an old farm still known as the "Dutton farm," and that he remembered seeing, often, when a small boy, near a spring, an old, dilapidated building called the "old still-house." He had never heard of John Johnston or of Abraham Lincoln working there, for that was before he was born. ”

“ Captain J. W. Lamar, of Buffaloville, Spencer County, a delegate to the Republican State Convention, knew Abraham Lincoln when the latter lived in Spencer County. He is past eighty years old, but his memory is keen, and he is unusually vigorous for a man of his age. He is six feet tall, broad-shouldered, with flowing white hair and beard, making him one of the picturesque figures of the convention crowd. Lincoln is his favorite theme, and he delights to talk of him. ”

“ The spot where Abraham Lincoln was born will, for coming ages, be the most sacred shrine in all this great country, whose government he died to save.
At Lincoln City, Spencer County, Indiana, where the Lincolns lived fourteen years after moving from Kentucky, and before moving to Illinois, and where Abraham's mother lies buried, exercises were held. The school children of Evansville, Indiana, raised money to purchase a flag, and the school children of Indianapolis sent a wreath of flowers, both of which were placed on Mrs. Lincoln's grave. ”

“ The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and its effects was the means of the destruction of the Whig party, to which Mr. Lincoln belonged, the disruption of other party lines, and the organization of a new party with Abraham Lincoln as its acknowledged leader, which in a few years was to decide the destinies of the United States Government. It also had the effect of bringing about a state of civil war in Kansas. Thousands of pro- and anti-slavery people flocked to Kansas to help decide the destiny of that territory. ”

“ In the wider field of politics he fought with uncommon power to overthrow the wrong and enthrone the right. He fought not for the love of contest, but for the love of truth. By nature he was a man of peace. ”