Part 41 (1/2)

In a general way it ton created and Lincoln saved the Union But along with Washi+ngton and Lincoln, Clay ood historic third, for it was the ht to surpassing eloquence and leading ions of unrest at bay during the forreat men ”back numbers,” who tell us we have left the past behind us and entered an epoch of ress--ould displace the example of the simple lives they led and the homely truths they told, to set up a school of philosophy which hadthe Old Continentals to turn over in their graves The self-exploiting spectacle and bizarre teaching of this school passes the wit ofto recreate the Universe, the New Freedom, as it calls itself, would standardize it The effect of that would be to desiccate the human species in human conceit It would cheapen the very harps and halos in Heaven and convert the Day of Judg picture show

I protest that I am not of its kidney In point of fact, its platitudes ”stick inthe rather to those old-fashi+oned ones--

”Who love their land because it is their own, And scorn to give aught other reason why; Who'd shake hands with a king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his hts--to speak of Kentucky as a Kentuckian, beside that of more than fifty years' service upon what may be fairly called the battle-line of the Dark and bloody Ground

My grandmother's father, William Mitchell Morrison, had raised a company of riflemen in the War of the Revolution, and, after the War, marched it ard He corandrandfather, James Black's father, the Rev James Black, was chaplain of the fort He reirl as to become his wife He was a noble stalwart--a perfect type of the hunters of Kentucky--who could bring down a squirrel froh and hit a bull's eye at a hundred yards after he was three score and ten

It was he who delighted my childhood with bear stories and properly lurid narrations of the braves in buckskin and the bucks in paint and feathers, with now and then a red-coat to give pungency and variety to the tale He would sing s He would take , and I was the only one of hts and in my dreams he has been with lorious inspiration

Daniel Boone and Si my earliest heroes

II

Born in a De to manhood on the Democratic side of a political battlefield, I did not accept, as I came later to realize, the transcendent personalof Tennessee parentage, perhaps the figure of Andrew Jackson came between; perhaps the rhetoric of Daniel Webster Once hearingre Deress with Mr Clay, gently rebuked me ”Do not express such opinions, my son,” he said, ”they discredit yourself Mr Clay was a very great man--a born leader of men”

It was certainly he, ether until the time arrived for Lincoln to save it

I made no such mistake, however, with respect to Abrahareat man, a born leader of men His death proved a blow to the whole country--most of all to the Southern section of it If he had lived there would have been no Era of Reconstruction, with its repressive agencies and oppressive legislation; there would have been wanting to the extre off to eance For Lincoln entertained, with respect to the rehabilitation of the Union, the single wish that the Southern States--to use his hoy--”should come back home and behave themselves,” and if he had lived he would haveelse effectual to which he addressed hienius of common sense Of perfect intellectual acuteness and aploree and was born in Kentucky

He knew all about the South, its institutions, its traditions and its peculiarities He was an old-line Whig of the school of Henry Clay, with strong E, never an Abolitionist ”If slavery be not wrong,” he said, ”nothing is wrong,” but he also said and reiterated it tiainst the Southern people They are just ould be in their situation If slavery did not now exist a the us, ould not instantly give it up”

Fro the War of Sections, amid the passions of the War itself, not one vindictive, prescriptive word fell froress there was scarcely a day when he did not project his great personality between soer

III

There has been much discussion about what did and what did not occur at the famous Hampton Roads Conference That Mr Lincoln met and conferred with the official representatives of the Confederate Government, led by the Vice President of the Confederate States, when itthe end of its resources, is sufficient proof of the breadth both of his humanity and his patriotism Yet he went to Fortress Monroe prepared not only to make whatever concessions toward the restoration of Union and Peace he had the lawful authority to make, but to offer soo no further at that time than his personal assurance His constitutional poere lireat moral power

The story that he offered payment for the slaves--so often affirmed and denied--is in either case but a quibble with the actual facts He could not havethe iven the opportunity to make it, because the Confederate Commissioners were under instructions to treat solely on the basis of the recognition of the independence of the Confederacy The conference caan But there is ample evidence that he went to Hampton Roads resolved to co to the official reports, refer to it in specific ter already formulated a plan of procedure This plan exists andIt embraced a joint resolution to be subress appropriating 400,000,000 to be distributed a the Southern States on the basis of the slave population of each according to the Census of 1860, and a proclamation to be issued by himself, as President, when the joint resolution had been passed by Congress

There can be no controversy a honest students of history on this point That Mr Lincoln said to Mr Stephens, ”Let e and you may write belohatever else you please,”

is referable to Mr Stephens' statement made to many friends and attested by a number of reliable persons But that hepayment for the slaves, rests neither upon conjecture nor hearsay, but on docuued that he could not have secured the adoption of any such plan; but of his purpose, and its genuineness, there can be no question and there ought to be no equivocation

Indeed, pay in his uilty with the South for the original existence of slavery He clearly understood that the Irrepressible Conflict was a Conflict of systems, not a merely sectional and partisan quarrel He was a just , indeed, who stood in awe of the Constitution and his oath of office He wanted to leave the South no right to clai slave labor unreroes to the South and then turned about and by force of arms confiscated what it had unloaded at a profit He fully recognized slavery as property The Proclamation of Ee to Congress of Dece a scheuress at that moment in the throes of a bloody ith the South, ”are not inal introduction of this property than are the people of the North, and, when it is rear and share the profits of dealing in them, it may not be quite safe to say that the South has been more responsible than the North for its continuance”

IV

It has been my rule, ai of aof aa suspect to the ruin of printer's ink; to respect the old and defend the weak; and, lastly, at work and at play, daytiirls and square with the boys, for hath it not been written of such is the kingdom of Heaven?

There will always be in a democracy two or roups of followers Hitherto history has classified these as conservatives and radicals But as society has becoroups have had their subdivisions As a consequence speculative doctrinaries and adventurous politicians are enabled to get in their work of confusing the issues and exploiting themselves