| Show IN MEMORIAM twenty eight ago this evening abraham lincoln Liin coln the first republican president Pre eident of the united states was assassinated by john wilkes booth in ford fords s theater washington D C he died the following morning A great deal has been spoken and said of the murdered murde president that Is fulsome MOI maudlin thus subverting to a great extent the dignity which should surround the subject the plain facts in relation to him contain enough that is instructive historic and pathetic he was a typical western man of gigantic sta stature toire but raw boned angular and awkward in his movements his countenance was singularly homely but always presented an appearance of goodness and meekness strongly allied to firmness of the most decided type his hid education was neither goob nor bad not good as rel tes tee to the classics olasa ioa and the higher branches of modern study and not bad as regards complete familiarity with we tue ordinary lines of scholastic training and that wider and more comprehensive department of mental acquirements acquire ments an intelligent comprehension of subjects and things with which he came in contact his 4 I 1 advancement from the humblest of stations to the highest was waa not rapid it was impossible that it should be I 1 lor for he had no pride of ancestry no 1 influx flu enolal relatives or friends and scarcely ever more than a dollar in money at a time add to these drawbacks the I 1 I 1 harder one that as soon as his bis ability began to receive the attention it merited he was brought ii to compe with some of cf the greatest men of his day prominent among them being f the veritable little giant stephen A douglas and we can then under baand how difficult and trying was the path along which he plodded but nothing could hold him back apparently at the zenith of his career he was beaten for the united states senate by douglas only to defeat and utterly destroy him politically a few years later this too after wrest ing the presidential palm from the empire state represented by the then fc foremost statesman in his party wili liam ilam H seward i the contrast between lincoln and his assassin in point of personal appear k ance was so eo great as to be almost phenomenal phenomena one homely old fashioned and lanky the other the aprilo belvidere in real life hand band some as aa a dream and graceful grace tul as a gazelle booth was somewhat tainted with herdit hereditary ary insanity greatly in creased by brooding over what he considered the wrongs done the south whose people he loved to a degree amounting to frenzy the final suri ouri render of the war and the head bead of the nation making merry at a playhouse decided him at once and with the k shout of sio semper fy thus be it ever with tyrants the south is avenged l the assassin flew from a fate that would have hare been more terrible than that of his victim to meet one a few days later fully as terrible never were words more inaptly applied P lied than were those of booth the J h e south had all the revenge which a people engaged in a cause that was wrong were entitled to in accordance with any code known to man great heaps tf cf the invaders P slain on a hundred blood soaked battlefields hospitals throughout the land filled with the maimed and slowly dying avast a vast hoet boot of walling wailing widows and weeping orphans orp bans a debt beyond the ability of a generation to pay all this inflicted upon the north because seeking by the only effectual means at their command to hold bold the nation together unpolluted by the cures curee of human slavery averyl sl and lincoln was as far from being a tyrant as any man that every lived he was rigid in the prosecution of the war but was ever aready to adopt any proposition looking to peace with honor and union uhlon and his big gentle heart was wrung more severely and more times than any of us will ever know at the carnage and destruction that was going on in accordance with strict definitions lincoln was not a martyr but when we consider the awful trials the bitter experiences and the indescribable anguish of soul through which he passed for four long and cruel years giving up his life because he be would not falter in upholding the flag with all its stars until at last the work was done we can scarcely accord him any other position or give him any other jameso name so fitting resealed he sealed his work with his blood after the battle clouds had bad cleared away arid and the din of strife had bad ceased to reverberate throughout the land those who had bad opposed him and his hie cause with force and arms began to realize that what was proclaimed by the assassin as an act for them and theirs was only a misfortune measured by many years of sorrow morrow and regret more they had learned to love him tor for himself the scales of prejudice and bigotry had bad fallen from their eyes and they recognized in the man anat had fallen a friend who would have been a benefactor As brave men and valiant warriors they thay appreciated precia ted and acknowledge the manhood courage and steadfastness of those who overcame them and now after so much time has passed the wounds are quite healed the scars bears entirely gone but it was not for the great leader to see it with his human eyes may his bis memory be ever greenl green |
