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Show - j, Not a Restricted Field REFERRING to Mr. Lincoln, the New York ' Sun says he was "trained politically in - a narrow though important field, with rough associations and apparently unread in politics." That is not quite fair. For thirty years be-, fore Mr. Lincoln became president Illinois had a multitude of the strongest men in the nation. There was Douglas, who held his own and led his party for years. There was Col. E. D. Baker, who made a splendid name as a soldier in the Mexican war, who was a fine lawyer and, we believe, the foremost orator of his day, who was 1 always a close friend of Mr. Lincoln. There was Stephen Logan, whom a fine lawyer declared was the greatest lawyer he ever saw. There was Mr. Trumbull, who held a national fame as a lawyer law-yer and a statesman. There was General John Logan, whey while not a scholar, had no end oi! hard sense, who, by the force of his brain and his magnificence courage, won the stars of a major general in the great war. There was the war governor of Illinois, old Dick Yates, who had the levelest of heads, there was Col. Hardy, who went down at Buena Vista. It was in Illinois Illi-nois that Lovejoy was killed. Illinois was filled with men who, like Lin- , coin, had come from the- south. Political issues i were fought fiercely in that state. From the time of the Mexican war to the time of Mr. Lincoln's election no state in the union understood the situation better than Illinois, or fought it out on stronger lines, and one of tho greatest evidences of Mr. Lincoln's greatness is, that in that state, surrounded by such men, he naturally gravitated to the head. Location makes a great difference with men. t The assertion of Gilpin that when it came into its own, the Mississippi valley would dominate this country, was already in the minds of men and the great men of that day took on the largeness large-ness of their surroundings. In Now York Mr. Lincoln might have been lost. As Punch said: "His gaunt, gnarled hands, the unkempt, bristling I hair, I His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, ' Hi3 lack of all we prize as debonair, Of power, or will to shine, of art to please " might have kept him in tho background of New York City, but out on the prairie, "He went about his work such work as few Ever had laid on head and heart! and hand As one who knows where there's a task to do, Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command." I And so, with all the strength of his brain, and careless of surroundings he wont to Washington to do the work there and he did not go from a restricted field, rather ho wont from a field that j had no fences around it, and he filled the forties that fell upon him there in his own quiet way, but with a prescience that those around him could not understand; he knew what ho was doing and he had faith that it would come out right. BBBBBBriKflttlBBttHflBBHBBIWBBBB |