Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/46

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��Abra/iani Lincoln.

��their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, pen- niless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on lis own ai'count another while, and at len-zth hires another new be- gjinnertohelphim.Tliisis the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope toall, and consequent energy and prog- re^s and improvement of c jndition to all. No men living Hre more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty ; none less in dined to taU I- or touch aught which they have not honestly earned."

T lese words of Abraham Lincoln are as wise and true to-dny as they were when first uttered, and they are still the d ictrine of the Republican party. ,Wliile capital has a right to protection, labor is still its superior. We recognize the fact tiiat hn- DiHU beings are of more consequence than d jUars, that persons are more precious than things, and, h ippily for the workingman, imder a fre^ govern- ment, the parry that by precept or example teaches oth-rwise, will soon tiecome a mere plutocratic remnant without v^tes

I c jMgrntulate the members of our club upon the na lie we have assumed, and I venture to predict, that so lon'i as the Republicans of Nhw Hampshire continue to honor the na'ne of Lincoln and tollow his example and teachiims, they wi'l deserve and continue to receive the support of a great majority of the intelligent people ot the state.

• SPEECH OF COL. DANIEL HALL.

The oration of Colonel Hall received the close attention of every one present, and was able and eloquent. It was as follows :

Mr. President: I understand that I am ex- pected to occupy a few minutes of your time in speaking of " Abraham Lincoln as a Man." The theme is too large for me, and crushes me at the beginning. It is like speaking of the sun: and as. while we stand in the full efiiilgenee of that great luminary, flooding the world with its light and warmth and life-giving power, it is impossible to disentangle and analyze its various and many-hued rays of benelicence, so is it difficult to emphasize any separate aspects of this illustrious and many- sided character. The mere character of a great man not seldom confers greater benefits upon the nation, and upon the ejjoch in which he lives, than any, or even all, of his specific achievements. I have sometimes thought that such was the minis- try to us of the life of Abraham Lincoln; for though it w:is given to him to connect his name inseparably with some of the greatest events in our history, — the overthrow of the Rebellion, the maintenance of the Union, the emiincii)ation of the slave, — yet, when we consider the great moral authority his name has gained, the ideas and asso- ciations'that cluster about that unique individual- it), how his iuHuonce and example and ])iecepts have ui)lift<;d this jicople in their whole being, it seems as if he had brought a new force into our national life; had set in motion a tniin ot benign influences which is to go on without limit, so that in future his age is to lorm a new date and point of depurtuie in our political calendar.

So familiar is his personality to us that we scarcely need to know more of him; and yet I think ail of us must be reading witn deep interest the new Ul'e of him, which is apiiearing in "The Century." and throwing fresh light upon his ori- gin, his education, and his early career. There was a special fitness in the birth, amid the poorest and harshest surroundings, of him whose destiny it was to assert for his country and his age the di- vine right, not of kings, but of humanity, — the es- sential e(|iiality of men, and their right to an untrammellod liberty and an unfettered iiursuit of hai)piness. No training in the schools entered into his preparation for his great work, hut he lived the lifeoCthe broad West, breathing its free and invigorating air, and thus developed a sterling

��manhood, health of body, and strength of limb, truth in every word and deed, and a clearness of vision and moral intrepidity which the schools cannot supply. Thus reared, amid humble and simple surroundings, he " mewed his mighty youth" iu warfare upon

" The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil, The iron bark that turns the lumberer's axe, The rapid that oerbears the boatman's toil, The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks,

" The ambushed Indian and the prowling bear, —

Such were the needs that helped his youth to train:

Rough culture — but such trees large fruit may bear.

If but their stocks be of right girth and grain." In such a mould his life took on that rough exte- rior and homely garb which shaped it for all time, and made him "in his simplicity sublime."

These struggles of pioneer lite were the bracing on of the armor of Vulcan which equipped him for deeds of hi;;h emi)rise ; they made him brave and true, genuine and sincere, — one to whom duty should be first, and the rights of man second; and he grew up having in him what our ancestors, with awful solemnity, called "the fear of God." To his latest day he took on no veneer of polish : he assumed no dramatic attitudes for dazzling the eye or impressing the imagination, and was guilty of no trickeries to cheat the judgment of contem- poraries or ot posterity.

It is not necessary to trace Mr. Lincoln's path- way, step by step, upward towards the high places of the world. You are all familiar with the slow but sure processes of liis growth and advancement. His original abilities were of a high order. He saw quickly and distinctly. His mind was clear, and open to truth as the flowers are to the sunlight and the dew. His reasonings were close and sound. He was a man of power and effectiveness, and so steadily did he grow in public esteem that long before his great preferment was dreamed of he enjoyed a popular regard almost unparalleled. No stronger proof of his intellectual and moral ener- gy can be cited than the rapid and strong hold which he gained in due lime upon the patriotism, the conlidence, and the faith of the country. These elements crystallized with an unhesitating abandon about liis name, and the strength and vi- tality ot the free North took the color of his mind, and became charged with his personality. That he was a great lawyer, with vigorous powers of logic and coni)iarison and illustration, and a strong grasp ujioii legal principles, will be shown to you by another, amply competent to present to you that phase of his greatness; and I will not trench upon his province.

He was also an orator of rare power. Before those rather ruue audiences of the West, which had no fastidiousness, and judged him by no nice sfgindard of taste, he was grandly effective, and convinced and sw;iyed them with consummate skill. With them he employed, as he did xnerywhere, those " rugged jihrases hewn Irom life," and that inimi- table wit and genial humor which t(>stili(i(l to his real seriousness, and' the zest and relish with which he entered into the life around him. 'i ho severe logic, the clearness and (•(nni)actiiess of statement, the moral earnestness which struck a deeper chord even than conviction. — all these apiiear in some of his speeches in Congress, and notably in the re- nowned debate liotween him and Douglas; and in theseand hiscasual addresses, more still in his un- studied conversations, there is to be loiind phrase after phrase tiiat has the ring and the weight and the sharp outline of a bronze coin. Hut he filled also the requisites of a higher and more exacting criticism. Though unlearned, and without the graces of the schools, he was soineliines gifted with the loftiest eloquence. On great occasimis, written and spoken sjjeech has rarely risen to higher levels than from his lips. Some of his utterances, in- stinct with solemn thoiightfulness. and illustrated by beauty of diction, a sententious brevity, and

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