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Show rious thing that the gentle, kindly, humane Lincoln should be called on to lead the nation in the greatest fratricidal war of history. It is a curious thing that today when passion, pas-sion, aid prejudice and hate seem to rule humanity, there should be i world-wide revival of interest in Lincoln. But there Is hope In it. . It may yet be that human nature will vibrate vi-brate to the music of that passage which closes the first inaugural, "We are not enemies, . but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bond's of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by .the better angels of our nature." Difficult to Recognize. It Is only when we understand the true character of our government, and why it was so organized and so established that we are able to recognize rec-ognize those projects which, In themselves them-selves seemingly wise, may when fairly considered be seen to destroy the harmony and threaten the Integrity In-tegrity of the whole fabric. We sometimes some-times fail to recognize In those things which seem to promise enlargement of liberty, things which in reality must result in curtailment of liberty. I have myself on occasion failed to recognize them, and so perhaps yoti may. Not wholly has the original scheme of limitations, checks and balances been preserved. The electoral college, in its original form was early swept aside. Perhaps wisely so. The differentiation differ-entiation between the two houses of congress by which they were to act as checks, one upon the other, has been partially obliterated by the popular election of senators. The representative organization of po- j litical parties, which while not created cre-ated by the Constitution, owes its development to the representative system of the Constitution, has been almost wholly destroyed. I am not suggesting that any one of these basic l changes is in itself vital, and besides be-sides they Involve political controversies con-troversies into which I do not care to enter but I am indicating a tendency tend-ency In respect to the checks and limitations of the Constitution which it is well for us to consider, especially especial-ly when self interest and patriotism so happily combine to urge on us the perpetuation of the Constitution in the spirit of its founders. Lincoln's Faith in American Principles Never Lost Sight of Trut'i in Declaration of Independence. Lincoln invoked the Declaration1 of Independence in his efforts to check the spread of slavery, but just as. those who framed it uttered a maxim intended for all time, when merely seeking separation from Britain, so Lincoln reiterated an eternal and universal tr'.th, and believed in it as such, Judge Charles C. Simons writes, in the Detroit News. "I had thought the Declaration contemplated con-templated the progressive improvement improve-ment in the condition of all men everywhere," he said. And he knew that it would outlive the death of slavery, just as the framers intended intend-ed it should outlive their successful separation from Britain. lie closed his Springfield speech with this stirring appeal, after reading read-ing the Declaiation with the Douglas Doug-las Interpolation : "Are you willing that the Declaration should thus be frittered away? thus left no more, at most, than an interesting memento of the dead past? thus shorn of its vitality and practical value, aud left without the germ or even the suggestion sug-gestion of the individual rights of man in it?" Three years later, on Washington's birthday, Lincoln, President-elect, stood in Independence hall, Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, on his way to the inauguration at Washington. Doesn't it, somehow, stir the blood and fire the imagination to think of Lincoln on the spot where the immortal Declaration was given to the world? "I have often inquired of myself," he said there, "what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not tli e mere matter of separation separa-tion of the colonies from the motherland, mother-land, but that seutiment in the Declaration Dec-laration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time." Faith Again Voicsd. Speaking to the soldiers of an Ohio regiment toward the close of the war, Lincoln again voiced his faith in the American principle. "It is in order that each of you may have, through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence, that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all Its desirable human aspirations. as-pirations. It is fur this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright." The world is full of strange contracts con-tracts and anomalies. It was a cu |