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Show ILINCOLN and PATTERSON Kentucky's Famous Or-$jator Or-$jator Pays Eloquent ' Tribute to Dead SU' Frankfort, Ky, Nov. S Henry Wnt-Jterson, Wnt-Jterson, oditor of the Louisville Cour-er-.Tournal, delivered an address here VjBbday on Abraham Lincoln on the oc-j5jEslon oc-j5jEslon of the unveiling of the Lincoln jUVtamorinl. .Mr. Watterson's oration 3Rras devoted mainly to the "persou-Jqftty, "persou-Jqftty, the origin, and spirltunl life ami aKharacter" of Abraham Lincoln, lie SEavo a minute account of the Lincoln jjiBjnd Hanks families derived from doo-jjSlmentary doo-jjSlmentary ovldence; disproved tho SWalsehoods touching Lincoln's birth Snd traced his noble qualities of head afind heart to his mother. In conclud-jfjttpg conclud-jfjttpg this passage, he saJd: -wWTomorrow there will assemble in a 'JBttlo clearing of the wildwood of Ken-JlJwcky Ken-JlJwcky a goodly company. It will em--ioErace the greatest and best of our )5fpmo and land. The President and upe Chief Justico and the rest will J&rRther about a lowly cabin, whose un-ffJS un-ffJS iwn logs like the serried battlements M r'EIsinoro gave prelude to the swell's swell-'s ig act of a theme yet raoro imperial, :a ? consecrate a shrine. Of him tlint Jy ks born there the final earthlj word 1,1 Sis spoken long ago, but, .Mother ot a bd shall that throng pass down the "ikk LB''e and awa without looking into S H tieaven auove in unuuerauic love jd homage with the thought of a ilrit there which knew in this world . ught of splendor and power and 1 me; whoso hard lot it was to live and n V e in obscurity, struggle, almost In J ibury and squalor; whose tragic Jo it was after she had lain half a tftlmo in her humble, unmarked -s ave, to be pursued by the deepest, JJjjJ jrkest calumny that can attach itself jfj Jtho name of woman; the hapless, ' j fair-haired Nancy Hanks' Jfo falser, fouler story ever gaiD"d A. rrepcy than that which impeaches i s" character of tho motlior of Abra-1 Abra-1 i aT Lincoln. It "had never any foun- tloa whatsoever. Every known fact Uy conad'ets 1L Every nspectr j, circumstantial evidence stamps It .cPgter113 "e- PEwas a period of heroic aclilcve- A At tempered bj' religious fervor. H 'ifckiUR, C!od7fearIngnj;Ighb,on. sfflmFfit simple Tuird-worklng men and jm&en. Debauchery was unknown. , .yJjSble living was Impossible. Thomas Jpoln and Nancy Hanks, as I have l-lBrn, came of good people Histor- fiifw, it would, not matter who were JS parents of Abraham Lincoln any Se thnn it matters that he whom J JREngllsh monarch is proud to call fcprogenltor v.-as a bastard; but It 'Ends the soul of a bravo and just ; fcbood, it should arouse in the heart v vcrj" true woman a sense of wrong '!?' E0 muca as a sna(1w should, rest 22In the memory of that little cabin which Nancy Hanks gave to. tho ' 1 an 'n,mortaI son, born in clean. iSliallenged wedlock, nor thought of -jt or shamo anywli'ere. ,5?t no one of thoso tliat gather dw; go th en co without a heart sa- BBKV tci the gentle spirit of Nancy Tks Lincoln, that maybe, some- f yro beyond the stars among tho els of the choir invisible, will look flllCti the scone, serene and safe at ItIK". in the bosom of her Father and witfc'i9 stor5" of tue love-life of Lincoln . 31 his relaUon with Joshua Fry ir fedf an uncle ot the donor of this jie. in tho early days at gpriug-. . 3J' Illinois, was illustrative and in- LjiB's record tna' I,e stood closer t'lpshua Fry Speed than to any iMMf. The ties of early manhood be-Litt be-Litt n the two wero never broken. To ,vjggnd of Lincoln could turn tp Speed -jgMjiIn to get the truth, equally sure rrfeund counsel and unselfish fidel- SUWlISe T.as one of those men," says JE Hay, "who seem to havo to a jjiasslng degreo the genius of friend- . J(mr tnc "Pythias, the Pylades the QJBltio of the world. , It Q"""Krdly too much to say that he was jHpnly, as ho certainly was the last i iiilf atP frIenQ -nat- Lincoln ever had. Tllk They know the Inmost 2feQts f eacn other's hearts and depended upon the honesty and i'wy of tho other.' mlf )fiW t(ContImied on Pago Two.) itfltf : LINCOLN AND WATTERSON H (Continued from Page One ) H The story of the way their Intim- H acy begun and how they came to abide H together relates that, entering Speed's M store in Springfield, saddle-bags on-' M arm, the Just-arrived Lincoln asccr- M tallied ibat the domestic outfit bo re- H quired would cost the enormous sum M of seventeen dollars. "I had no idea H it would cost the half of that," he H said, "and I haven't the money to pay fl for it; but, if you'll wait on me till H Christmas, and I make anything I'll 1 nay; and, If I don't, I can't." Then H said Speed. "I can do better for you Hj than that, T have all the things you B want and I sleep on a bed that's big H enough for two. You jnst come and H bunk with nic and it shall cost you H nothing." He pointed tho way around H a pile of boxes and barrels and up a Hj flight of stairs. Lincoln went as di- H rectcd and quickly returned, but H without the saddle-bags.' "Speed, H said he, "I've moved," H Conscience and Destiny had joined H forces to write a drama such as may H not be found elsewhere outside the H pages of romance; as compact and unl- B fled as a Greek tragedy; mystical and P weird, hut real. Speed was short of H stocky build, not given to loquacity, a H little abrupt In speech to the end of H his days Lincoln was very tall and H angular, conciliatory, patient, not ever H wanting the persuasive word. He H might have described himself and his H friend as he once described himself H and his wife, as "tho long and the H short of it," HJ The first and most serious affair or H life to them was marriage. The ama- H tory matters which engaged and en- Hl grossed them were not many, but H they cut deep. Lincoln had already H had what he thought was his finishing H stroke in the death of Ann Rut- Hl ledge, when he met Mary Todd. H Speed's lovo passage with Fanny Hen- H nlng was to come later. Each as the Hl sequel showed suffered the common H lot of heartache, as each in turn and H in the hour of trouble delivered to H the other fraternal wisdom and cora- M "In Uio year 1840," I quote from H tho.Hay-NIcolay biography, "Abraham Hl Lincoln became engaged to bo mar- Hl rled to MIss.Mary Todd, of Lexington, M Kentucky. "" The cngage- H mont was not in all respects a happy H one, as both parties doubted their 1 compatibility. ills affec- H tlon for his betrothed, which he fear- H cd was not strong enough to make H happiness with her secure; lils doubts H which yet -were not convincing enough B to induce him to brcnlc -off all Hl relations with her; his eenso of hon- H or which wa3 wounded in his own H eyes by his own act; his sense of H duty which condemned him in one H course and did not sustain him in the H opposlto course, combined to make hirn profoundly and passionately H wretched. To his friends who were H unused to such finely wrought, and H even fantastic sorrows, his trouble H seemed so -exaggerated that they H could only account for it on the H ground of insanity." H But ho was not mad. Speed picked 7 him up bodily, as It were, and carried 1 him off to Kentucky and into tho bosom of his own happy and pious family circle, where he quickly recovered recov-ered his equanimity, returning to Springfield himself again. , It was Speed, who on this home visit, met his fate, and, In perturbation of spirit, spir-it, exchanged placoB with J lncoln Lincoln who became the physician of his friend, and, out of his own experience ex-perience administered the needed medicine of thoughtful and tender sympathy. The correspondence is yet extant revealing the innermost throes of two natures exquisitely strung and stretched stretch-ed to their tension, neither Hamlet, nor Werther, closer upon the edge of tho precipice, which happily was withheld from them. Their period of travail endured for nearly two years, from 1S40 to 1842, the close of the latter year finding each of them safely safe-ly married. Less than twenty years thereafter two short decades Lincoln, Lin-coln, elected president of the United States, wrote to Speed: "It is like a dream, Isn't It?" Mr. Watterson told a graphic story of the coming of Lincoln to Washington Wash-ington and his first inauguration. His narrative took the form of a personal reminiscence. "I was engaged by Mr. Gobrlght, tho gonoral manager of the Associated Press In the national capital," cap-ital," said he, "to assist him and Major Ma-jor Ben Pcrloy Poore, a well known newspaper correspondent of those days, with their report of tho Inaugural Inaug-ural ceremonies of the -1th of March, 1SG1. The newly-elected president had arrived in Washington ten days before to be exact, the morning of the 2Hrd of February. It was a Saturday. Sat-urday. That same afternoon ho came to the capltol escorted by Mr. Sow-ard, Sow-ard, and being on tho floor of the House I saw him for tho first time and was, indeed, presented to him." He continued as follows: Early In the morning of tho 4th of March I discovered, thrust into the keyhole cf my bedroom a slip of paper which read: "For inauguiar'address 6ee Col onel Ward IT. Lamon." Who was "Colonel "Col-onel Ward H. Lamon " T had " never heard of him. The city, was crowded with strangers To find ono of them was to look for a needle in a haystack. hay-stack. I went directly to Willard's hotel. As I passed through the long corridor of the second floor, spliced with little dark entryways. to the apartments facing on Pennsylvania avenue, T saw through a half-opened door, Mr. Lincoln himself pacing to k and fro, apparently reading a manuscript. manu-script. 1 went straight in He was alone and, as ho turned and met me, he extended his hand, called my name and said: "What can I do for you9" I told him my errand and dilemma, showing him tho brief memorandum "Why," said he "you have come to the right shop Lamon is in the next room I will take vou to him, and he will fix you all right." No sooner said than done, and, supplied with the press copy of the inaugural address, ad-dress, gratefully and gleefully took my leave. Two hours later I found myself In tho senate chamber, witnessing there the oath of office administered to Vice President-elect Hannibal Hamlin Thence I followed the cortege through the long passage-way and across the rotunda to. the east? portico, where a temporary wooden platform had been erected, keeping close to Mr. Lincoln He was tail and ungainly, wearing a black suit, a black tie and a black silk hat. Ho carried a gold or a silver-headed silver-headed walking cane. As we came out Into the open and upon tho provisional pro-visional stand, where there was a table ta-ble containing a Bible, a pitcher and a glass of water, he drew from his breast pocket the manuscript I had seen him reading at the hotel, laid this before him, placing the cane upon it as a paperweight, removed from their leathern case his steel-rimmed spectacles, and raised his hand he was exceedingly deliberate and composed com-posed to remove his hat. As he did so, I lifted my hand to receive it. but Judge Douglas, who stood at my side, reached over mv arm, took the hat, and held It during the delivery of tho inaugural address which followed. fol-lowed. His self-possession was perfect. Dignity, herself, could not have been more unexcited. His voice was a little lit-tle hjgJi-nUched, but resonant, quite reaching the outer fringes of the vast crowd in front; his expression berious to the point of gravity not a scintillation scintil-lation of humor. In spite of the campaign cam-paign pictures I was prepared to expect ex-pect much. Judge Douglas had said to me, upon his return to Washington, after the famous campaign of 1S5S for tho Illinois senatorship, from which tho Little Giant had. come off victor: ''He is the greatest debater I have ever met, either here or anywhere else," To me the address meant war. As the crowd upon the portico dispersed back into the capltol I found mysolf wedged In between John Bell of Ten-nesseo Ten-nesseo and Rcverdy Johnson of Maryland. Mary-land. Each took me by an arm and wo aat down upon a bench Just outside out-side the rotunda. Thoy were very optimistic op-timistic No, there would be no war, no fight; all the troubles would be tided over; tho Union was safe, I was but a boy, just one and twenty They wore the two most Intellectual and renowned of the surviving Whig leaders of the school of Clay and for president in the preceding election. elec-tion. Their talk puzzled me greatly, for to my mind there seemed no es-enpe es-enpe from the armei collision of the sections secession already accomplished accom-plished and a Confederate government govern-ment actually established. Thore Is In youth a prophetic instinct which grows duller with advancing years. As I look behind me I not only bonr this in mind, illustrated by the converse of those two veteran statesmen that day In tho rotunda of the capitol at Washington, but 1 feel it and realize It, so that T am much less confident, with a lifetime of experience to guide me, than I was when buoyed by the Ignorance and bravery, but also the inspiration of youth, the problems ahead read plain and clear as out of an open book. Of Lincoln and the south ho taid: I bjiduty he had been com- HttbLo &L the people the k homely, Union, At , Ko do w Emnncl-Hnirely. Emnncl-Hnirely. He B a I Br office, nd; but Hin cor Ballfy BLho joint resolution to be. passed by congress con-gress appropriating four hundred mil- Hon dollars for the purpose, which still stands In his own hauJwiitlng. He was himself a southern man. All his people were southerners. "If slavery be not wrong," he said, "nothing "noth-ing is wrong," echoing in this tho opinion of most of the Virginia gentlemen gen-tlemen of the Eighteenth century and voicing the sentiments of Oiousands of grave men who woro the Confederate gray. Not less than the north, therefore, there-fore, has the south reason to canonize Lincoln: for he was tho one friend wo had at court aside from Grant and Sherman when friends were most in need. If Lincoln had lived thore would have been no era of reconstruction, with its mistaken theories, repress've ngoncics and oppressive legislation. If Lincoln had lived there would have been wanting to tho extremism of tho time the bloody cue of his taking off to mount the steeds and spur the flanks of vengeance For Lincoln entertained, en-tertained, with respect to the rehabilitation rehabil-itation of tho Union, the single wish that the southern states to use his homely phraseology "should come back home and behave themselves," and if he had lived he uould have made this wish offectual as he made everything offectual to which he seriously seri-ously addressed himself. Poor, insane John Wilkes Booth! Was he, too, an instrument in tho hands of God to put a deeper damnation upon tho taking tak-ing off of the Confederacy and to sink the southern people yet lower in the abyss of affliction and humiliation humilia-tion the living Lincoln had spared us? He spoke of Lincoln's teaching and example, and paid a glowing tribute to Piesidont Taft, as follows: Tragedy walks hand-In-hand with history and the eyes of glory are wet with tears "With malice toward non, with charity for all" since Christ said "Blessed are the peacemakers peace-makers for they shall be called tho children of God," has heart of man, stirred to its depths by human exigency, ex-igency, delivered a message so sublime? sub-lime? Irresistibly the mind recurs to that other martyr of the ages, whom not alone in tho circumstances of obscure ob-scure birth and tragic death, but In those of simple living and childlike faith, Lincoln so closely resembled. Yon lowly cabin -which is to be offi-cialy offi-cialy dedicated on the morrow may well be llkenod to tho mangor of Bethlehem, the boy that went thence to a God-llko destiny, to tho Son of God, the Father Almighty, of him and of us all. For whence his prompting excopt from God? There- are utterances oi his which read like rescripts fiom the Sermon on the Mount Reviled even as the Man of Qalllee, slain even as the Man of Galilee, yet as gentle and as unoffending, a mun who died for men I Roll the stone from the grave and what shall we see' JuBt an American. Ameri-can. The Declaration of Independence Independ-ence his confession of faith. The constitution con-stitution of the United States his ark and covenant of liberty. The Union his redoubt, the flag his shibboleth. Called like one of old, within a handful hand-ful of years he rose at a supreme moment mo-ment to supremo command, fulfilled the law of his being, and passed from the scene an exhalation of the dawn of freedom. We may still hear his cheery voice, bidding U3 bo of good heart, sure that "right makes might," entreating us to pursue "with firmness firm-ness in the right as God gives us to see the right." The problems he met and. solved are problems no longer. Other, it may be greater problems, rise before us. Shall there rise another Lincoln? May God gird round and guard bin successor in tho great office of chief magistrate whom we have here with us this day; give him the soul of Lincoln Lin-coln to feel, Lincoln's wisdom to see and know; to tho end that which ever of the parties will prevail and to whatever group of men are committed tho powers of administration, wholehearted whole-hearted devotion to the public service serv-ice and largo-minded fidelity to American Am-erican institutions may continue to glorify the teaching and example of Abraham Lincoln. His pcrorntlon was as follows: "L(Ot us hore highly resolve," the words still ring like a trumpet-call from that green-grown hillside of Gettysburg doited with the graves of heroes, "that theso men small not have died in aln; that this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freo-dom; freo-dom; and that government pf tho poo-plo, poo-plo, by the people and for tho people shall not perish from the earth," Repeat Re-peat we the declaration.. As we gather gath-er about this effigy in bronze and marble mar-ble in this the capital of Kontucky of Kentucky the most world-famous among the states of America, whoso birth-right carries with it a universal and unchallenged badgo of honor; of Kentucky, which gaye to the longest and bloodiest of modern wars both Its chieftains, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, and to each of tho contending armies a quota of fighting mon larger than was contributed by any other state singly to cither army; of that Kentucky whose Clay, ante- dating Lincoln in the arts of concill- ation and eloquence, tried to effect V and did for a time by compromise I what Lincoln could only compass by U the sword, and whoso Crittenden was M last seriously to Invoke the spirit of fri fraternity and peace; or our own Ken- J tucky, dark and bloody ground of tho j savage, beloved home of all that we f hold generous and valiant In man, graceful and lovely in woman, where- j in when the battle was ended the war was over, and once a Kentuckian al- J ways a Kentuckian, the Federal and fj the Confederate were brothers again fj let use here, whether wo call our- selves Democrats or Republicans, re- )'; new our allegiance to the constitti- tlon of the republic and the perpetu- f, ity of tho Union' I I |
