THE BLOOMINGTON COMMEMORATION I T was in Bloomington that the Republican party in Illinois was given birth, on May 29, 1856, when Lincoln unified, inspired, and so stirred the Convention with his famous "Lost Speech," that even the reporters failed to take their notes, but were caught by the enthusiasm of the audience and listened with wonderment. Lincoln's speech on that day was regarded as the greatest that had ever been made in the State, and as making him a presidential possibility. There, too, on the last sad journey of the dead President to his final resting place, his body lay in state at the Court House, where for years the people had been accustomed to see his lank figure passing in and out, crowds gathering from far and near to gaze for the last time upon his silent face. The City of Bloomington, like Springfield and Chicago, felt that it had a special interest in Lincoln and the Lincoln Centenary, because of Lincoln having visited and spoken there, and because it has as its citizens prominent men who had personal touch with Mr. Lincoln. A large and enthusiastic meeting was addressed by the Hon. Adlai Stevenson, Vice-President of the United States under Grover Cleveland; by Judge R. M. Benjamin, Dean of the Illinois Wesleyan Law School there, and the author and editor of several well known legal treatises; and by Judge Owen T. Reeves—all three of these speakers having known Lincoln personally, and speaking, therefore, from a first-hand knowledge of the times and the man. IN LINCOLN THE STATESMAN HON. ADLAI E. STEVENSON the humblest of homes in the wilds of a new and sparsely settled State, Abraham Lincoln was born one hundred years ago this day. The twelfth day of February-like the twenty-second day of the same month-is one of the sacred days in the American calendar. It is well that this day be set apart from ordinary uses, the headlong rush in the crowded mart suspended, the voice of fierce contention in legislative hall be hushed, and that the American people-whether at home, in foreign land, or upon the deep-honor themselves by honoring the memory of the man of whose birth this day is the first centennial. This coming together is no idle ceremony, no unmeaning observance. For to this man-more than to any otherare we indebted for the supreme fact that ninety millions of the people are at this hour, in the loftiest sense of the expression, fellow citizens of a common country. Some of us through the mists of half a century distinctly recall the earnest tones in which Mr. Lincoln in public speech uttered the words, "My fellow citizens." Truly the magical words "fellow citizens" never fail to touch a responsive chord in the patriotic heart. Was it the gifted Prentiss who at a critical moment of our history exclaimed: "For whether upon the Sabine or the St. Johns; standing in the shadow of Bunker Hill or amid the ruins of Jamestown; near the great northern lakes or within the sound of the Father of Waters flowing unvexed to the sea; in the crowded mart of the great metropolis or upon the Western verge of the continent where the restless tide of emigration is stayed only by the ocean-everywhere, upon this broad domain, thank God, I can still say 'Fellow citizens'!" Let us pause for a moment and briefly note some of the marvellous results wrought out by the toil, strife, and sacri fice of the century whose close we commemorate. The year of our Lord 1809 was one of large place in history. The author of the Declaration of Independence was upon the eve of final retirement from public place, and the presidential term of James Madison just beginning, when, in a log cabin near the western verge of civilization, the eyes of Abraham Lincoln first opened upon the world. The vast area stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean was under the dominion of Spain. Two decades only had passed since the establishment of the United States government under the federal Constitution-and the inauguration of Washington as its first President. Lewis and Clark had but recently returned from the now historic expedition to the Columbia and the Oregon-an expedition fraught with momentous consequence to the oncoming generations of the Republic. Only five years had passed since President Jefferson had purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte, for fifteen millions of dollars, the Louisiana country extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the frozen lakes-out of which were to be carved sixteen magnificent States to become enduring parts of the American Republic. From the early colonial settlements that fringed the Atlantic a tide of hardy emigration was setting in to the Westward, and, regardless of privation and danger, laying the sure foundation for future commonwealths. Four States only had been admitted into the federal Union, and the population of the entire country was less than that of the State of New York to-day. This same year witnessed the first organization of Illinois into a distinct political community and its creation by Act of Congress as "the Territory of Illinois," with a white population less than one-twentieth of that of this good County to-day. The United States having barely escaped a war with France-our ally in securing independence—was earnestly struggling for distinct place among the nations. No less significant, and fraught with deep consequences, were events transpiring in the old world. The year 1809 witnessed the birth of Darwin and Gladstone. The despotism of the dark ages still brooded over continental Europe, |