Show LIFE AND moriis ACCORDED NATIONS MEN OF WORTH IN TRIBUTE TO ABRA HAM LINCOLN PRESIDENT MAKES ADDRESS M qualities and deeds of the great president set forth by the chief executive in impressive speech immense concourse gathered to witness exercises in connection with laying of corner comer stone of memo hal hall Il leKy ky tho the corner stone of tho the splendid to be erected to tho the nien memory jory of abraham lincoln was laid by president ovelt tho the exercises were participated in by many of the nations leading men cardinal gibbons and ex gov folk bolk of Aliss missouri ourt being adiong those hose who made addresses dres feS from in till all points by train and over roads not particularly smooth at tills this season of the year the people gathered to the exercises A building four times the size of tho the tent provided could not have accommodated the crowd the corner stone sione of the memorial hall was laid by president roosevelt in unimpressive impressive an address the chief ox ex eulogized the life and work of the great statesman ile he spoke as follows we have met hero here to vel c the one on hil hundredth anniversary ot of the birth of 0 one ona of the two greatest americans ot of one of tile tho two or three greatest men of the nineteenth century of one ot of the greatest men in the worlds lil hlo tory atory tills this rail splitter tills boy who passed assad ills his ungainly youth in tho dire poverty of tile the poorest of the frontier folk whose rne was by weary and painful labor lived to load lead ills his people through the burning names of a struggle from which the nation emerged purified as by fire born anew to a loftier life after long years of f iron effort and of failure that camo came more often than victory lie at last rose to the leadership of the republic at the moment when that leadership had become ABRAHAM LINCOLN the stupendous world task of tho the time lie he grow to know greatness but never ease success came to him but never happiness savo save that which springs from doing well a painful and a vital task power was hla his but not pleasure the tha furrows deepened on his brow b but ut 1119 eyes were undimmed by either cither hate or fear jils his gaunt shoulders were bowed bu but t ills steel never faltered as he be bore for a burden the destinies of his people ills ilia great and denler heart shrank hrank from giving pain anti and the task allotted allotted him was to pour out like hice water the life blood of the young men and to feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the women disaster saddened bu but t never dismayed him As the red years of war went by they found him over ever doing his duty in the present even facin facing g tile future with fearless fr fiant 0 nt high of heart and dauntless of s soul 0 til unbroken by hatred unshaken by scorn lie worked and suffered for tile the people triumph was ills at tile the last and barely had lie he tasted it before murder found him and the lie kindly patient fearless eyes were closed forever washington and lincoln As a poop people I 1 e we are indeed beyond measure fortu fortunate nae in tile tho characters of tile the two greatest of our public men washington and lincoln widely though they differed in externals the virginia landed gentleman and the kentucky backwoodsman they were alike in essentials senti als they were alike in the great qualities which rendered rend fiod each cadi able I 1 to render service to itis ills nation anil and to all mankind such as no other man of his generation could or did render V inch ach had lofty ideals but each eni h in striving to attain these lofty ideals was guided by tile tho soundest common senie sen ac kadi possessed inflexible courage lit in adversity and a soul soui wholly unspoiled by prosperity each possessed all the gentler virtues commonly exhibited by good men who lack rugged strength of character 13 kach ach possessed also all the strong qualities commonly exhibited by those towering masters of mankind who have too often shown themselves devoid of so much as the he understanding of the words by which wo we signify the qualities of duty of mercy ry of devotion to the right of lofty dist Interestedness in battling for the good of 0 others there have been other men eta as great and other men inen as rood good but in all tile history of mankind I 1 thern them aro no oth other or two groat inen nil an good lis a those these no other two geo fac ol 1 as t great widely tho 1 the he of cr to dily adny differ fron t tho 1 jellis set to foi 1 solution to washington alun lit a lie ile founded tills till nallon atlon ii to 1111 lincoln tola alun lie ile saved it a annl reed fred tle alie slavo yet sot tile the they sli ovod lit in nir themi problems piu blenis ino are exactly tile the saine ns its tho those we vie s should cioll ld how in doing our worl work today to day Lincol ns deep foresight Illi lincoln coln saw into tile tho clure with tile the prophetic imagination usually only to the lilt poet anti tile thu reer meer ile iio had 11 in 1 lit ailin I 1 it nil all the lift toward of tho 1 i v loo nary without any or tile vision arys fanatic lern or ego egotism tiam without any of tile the vision arys narrow jealousy jen lonsy of the practical inan and inability to strive in practical fashion cushion for or tile the rea lizal tort af pf ot an ideal liis ilk had the practical arm tacal malls ila anid rd common and willingness to capt means to ends but there was in v him none of u that gi howth of 0 mind and sold which blinds so ninny many practical men to the higher things of lit alfo no more praet practical ical man ever lived than this his homely backwoods buiko oila idealist but lio lie hall had nothing in con conanon lillon with alth those tto practical men wrose consciences are until thay nil fail to distinguish between good and emilit evil full fail to understand that ab ability y al lr evilness adother in tho world of business or of politics politico only serve ervo to make their possessor it 0 more noxious ft a more oll evil member of tile the community it they are arc not lot guide it find ad controlled by a line and high moral hellse lessons from Lincol ns life wo we of thin lay day insist try it to solve many social and industrial problems problem ig to nil an especial degree tho the combination of indomitable resolution with coolheaded cool headed eunity wo we call by the way in which lincoln used will these traits as lie he strove for foi re lefohn forin wo can learn much ut of value front tile iho v very ery attacks which following that course brought broux tit upon life his head attacks nallie by tile extremists of revolution and by the c tre mists of reaction ho hil never way cred in devotion to ills principles in his love for the union und and lit in ills his abhorrence of slavery timid anti and lukewarm people were always denouncing igini because lie was estremo extremo ext remo roine but its as ft a matter it ater of fact he never went to cali ernes nee lie worked step by step and because 0 f tills alila the extremists efti enlists hated and denounced him with a fervor which now to us fantastic in its ha deification dein callon of the unreal and the impossible at tile very time when one side alde was holding him up a na s tile apostle of social revolution because lie lia was against slavery the lending leading abolitionist lit denounced him ns its the he slava hound of illinois when lie was the second secand time candidate for president tile nia ma bority of his opponents ata clied him be cause causa of what they termed ills hi eitrem radicalism while it u minority threatened to bolt ills nomination because ho he was not nol radical enough ire had continually to check those who wished to go BO forward too fast nt at tile the very time that ho he overrode the opposition ot of those who wished not to KO go forward at nil all the goal was wa never dini dim before ills hl vision hut but he picked ills way cautiously without ot 01 hurry as aa lie ho strode toward it through thron gli such a morass of difficulty thai that no mat man of loss less courage would have attempted it while it would surely have overwhelmed any man of judgment less serene mart mao of great toleration yet perhaps the tha most wonderful thing of all and from the standpoint of the american of today to day and of tho the future the most vitally important was the tha ext extraordinary way in which lincoln c could 0 uld fight valiantly against wh what at 11 ha 6 1 deemed d aei 11 ed wrong and yet preserve und 1 dished ills his love and respect for the brother from whom he differed strong sense of justice lie ile lived in days that were great and terrible when brother fought against again s t brother for what each cacti sincerely deem deemed ed to be the right in a contest so grim the strong men who alone alona can carry it through are rarely able to do justice to the deep convictions of those with whom ahorn they grapple in mortal strife at such times men see through a glass darkly to only tile the rarest and loftiest loft lofti iest ost spirits la Is vouchsafed d that clear vision which gradually comes to all even to the lesser as aa the struggle fades into distance and wounds are forgotten and peace creeps back to the hearts that were hurt but lincoln was given ghen this supreme vision vasio n lie he did not hate the man from whom ho he differed Wea liness was as foreign as wicked to ills hla strong gentle nature but ills his courage was of a quality so ao high that it needed no bols bolstering ot of dark passion IN hi saw clearly that the same high the sable sane courage and willingness for self sacrifice and devotion to the right as it was waa given ghen them to see the right belonged both to the men of the north and to tile the men of the As a the years roll by and as aa all of us wherever we dwell grow to feel an equal pride in the valor and self devo tion alike ot of tho thil 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 mightiest of the tha mighty men who mastered the mighty days dayi tile the lover of his country and of all mankind the man whose blood was shed for tile the union of his people and for the freedom of a race abraham lincoln |