Show A TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN the memory of the great eman pator is so firmly enshrined in the memory of the american people and of the entire world so far as that is concerned that the attempt of the so called poet edgar lee masters to defame lincoln can only be likened to the puny attempt of a pigmy to batter t down the castle of a gi giant t his unwarranted attack on our r immortal martyred marty red hero is about as silly a gesture to gain public attention as the stunts of these ilag pole sitters marathon dancers and the like the following tribute to lin lincoln coln I 1 written by a resident of marys vale and given some years ago before the state legislature of which he was a member will help to freshen in our minds the memory of the greatest anti and most typical american this country ever produced lincoln the statesman address of william E white now of marysvale Marys vale at memorial Servi ses in the legislature of utah february 12 1903 it is well that a grateful people loving liberty and law and justice happy content and prosperous under the most benign government and institutions ever fashioned by the brains of men standing in the van of the Norl worlds ds progress their flag the fairest emblem and the dearest hope of all the earth turn for an hour from all their toil and strife for material things an and ponder over the achievements and pay loving reverent tribute to the memory of their immortal lead dead our beloved land is rich in gold and silver rich in houses and I 1 lands but richer yet a hundred fold in history and memory of that for which the planets turn and stars were lit it the lives of noble tn men en and in the memory and achievements of lincoln the statesman the poorest american has a national heritage licher than ever kings possessed or princes pes dreamed the founders of this republic as good and brave a people as ever launched a ship of state believed they lad built their vessel secure for every sea and every storm but while the decks and cabins were furnished with every safeguard for the freedom and equality of the caucasian the ethiopian was left leftin in chains in the hold and while the stately vessel carried at its masthead the flag of liberty it carried under its sails the deadly canker of negro slavery and the stately phrases of the declaration of independence failed to harmonize with the voice of the slave auctioneer and the hissing lash of the slave driver the discord grew until embittered hate arrayed the nation in contending hosts and men with blanched faces saw impending shipwreck on oil the rocks and shoals of sectional strife but the storm clouds lowered hope seemed dead and statesmanship and diplomacy impotent there came not from the stately halls of learning of the land not from within the shadow of the belfry from whence had pealed the glad acclaim of a nations birth not from historic jamestown bay or yorktown but from the humble cabin of the western wilds a voice clear as a trumpet that declared that this nation could not ot endure half slave and half free that slavery must be confined to certain territory and forced to ultimate extinction or it must be permitted wherever the flag floated and the voice was the voice of lincoln the statesman the irrepressible conflict was on no power on earth could stem its tide until it was forever settled whether this nation was to be the land of slave or the home of the free in fact as well vell as name lincoln was called to take charge of the helm of the ship of state and never on liaos ocean lid fid mariner know so well his ship and crew and passengers and dangers of the voyage as did this patient long quiet sad faced commander who forgot self and loved his country and his countrymen with a deathless zeal amid taunt and threat f from rom tongue and pen this incomparable leader plod the even tenor of his way determined that if war must come the first guns must be fired by those who would deny the authority of the union for his clear brain saw that the echo of such guns must fire the patriotism of every loyal heart and cement the friends of the government the world at first smiled atthe at the spectacle of this quiet awkward backwoodsman sitting at the head of the cabinet of this great nation anti and even some of his official family reared in diplomacy ind and all affairs of state thought it was to constitute themselves the guardians of the president that lie he might not blunder but when this matchless man began to play his part in the mighty drama with a boundless wisdom and patience but resistless less insistence the world ceased to smile and began to wonder and his erstwhile guardians acknowledged their leader with a states mans vision and a patriots courage lie he declared that the union must be preserved and all else was made subservient to that one alpha and omega of his statecraft slavery might go or slavery might stay but the sov s ov of the nation must be recognized and not a star should be erased from the flag though treasure and blood flow in torrents conventions declared the war a failure and the chief tian trod the wine press perhaps with a sadder face but never with a eak eaker er heart leaders of his party advised him to let the erring sister states go in peace the shoulders of a nations burden bearer stooped a little more as lie he turned to grant and sherman an and the patriot veterans of the grandest army that ever trod the earth and asked that the has flag forever hold its stars he stood on the battlefield of gettysburg when the tide of northern invasion lad had been turned and lees columns had been broken A smaller mind might have indulged in self laudation but the heroic soul of lincoln turned in reverent eulogy to those who had died that the nation might live and invoked increased devotion to the great unfinished work but what of Lincol ns title and fame for untold ages man had struggled to be free from tyranny of the favored few and at last government of and for and by the people hall had been established in this land its flag portended death to tyranny and life to liberty oer all the earth and when the life of this government was threatened liberty was threatened in every land and clime and lincoln the statesman was the savior of liberty on earth the lone wanderer on the shores of galilee lived and suffered and died for man and countless thousands extol his hallowed name and worship at his shrine and next to his the grandest noblest greatest sweetest and gentlest memory of earth is that of our hero leader friend lincoln the statesman |