Show TOOK LiNCOl NS palace IN ARMY young pennsylvanian sent do duty from which president was De barred GRAVE AT ph PA J the name of the substitute who was in person at the front while G great reat statesman ruled at ai washington abraham lincoln had a 4 substitute who served as a defender of tho the union th irk the bloody and epoch making period of tho the civil war this assertion has been made many times before it has haa aroused bitter controversy in various quarters it has haa given birth to columns of print both in support and dental denial of ua its truth tho the exemption of the president of the united states from froin the taking up of arms or serving on an actual field of battle Is provided for by a special statute drawn up to meet such tt it contingency but thero there to la nothing to prevent the nations chief executive from sending forth a substitute to fight in his place although lincoln was the only occupant of the white house who ever took addan tage of this fact writes prof bernard J cigrand grand Cl tho the man mail who represented in his person that of tile the martyred marty red president was john summerfield staples whose body lies at rest in a little cemetery at stroudsburg Strouds burg pa the tombstone above his gravo grave photograph of which to la here reproduced testifies not only to staples war record but states in granite letters the tact fact of his having served as abraham Lincol ns substitute the tha inscription in question reads as follows J summerfield staples a private of co C hegt P V also a member of the 2 reg D C vols as a substitute for LINCOLN died jan 11 1888 aged 43 years 4 mos 25 days his grave also bears the G A R marker a metallic star upon which the words post appears A small american flag flatters in the breeze but the outside world sums little in 3 Z an 0 V J summerfield staples formed as to tho the career of this patriotic and distinguished soldier boy there aro are several leopla e still hying in stroudsburg Strouds burg who know staples and remember that to him belonged the unique distinction of representing on the field of battle among their number are J T palmer postmaster and principal of the tha public school C L drake ed editor I 1 tor of the stroudsburg Strouds burg times and representative A mitchell Ml palmer of pennsylvania it was waa characteristic of lincoln that he kept the matter from the public press and a like modesty mode e sty seems to have imposed silence on the young soldier one does not have to make a very exhaustive study of Lincol ns charac ter in order to understand tho the motive which led him to send a substitute to represent him in the scenes of the bloody drama then being enacted throughout the land hla his conscience was waa not of that aas easily ily catl satisfied ei fled variety which contents itself with allowing allowan 9 things to remain as they are without indulging in exertion for the common good ills his was the hand which was vas steering the ship of state through tempest and crush of hostile guns yet great as was the task assigned him he perceived with the eagle eye that watched the course of action a post still unfilled an unoccupied niche where a combatant could bo be placed to strike in behalf of the union to that post he resolved to appoint a representative senta tive that he might be practically in person as he was already in spirit on alic tho red odd field of carnage it was done quietly in that simple unostentatious manner that distin all gi of Lincol ns ats acts whether in official or private life he never played to tho the gallery and the tha verdict of ills his C own wn conscience wits was all he cared about aboul copyright by W 0 chapman |