to it "the direst misfortune that ever darkened the calendar of her woes"-and it seems now to be generally recognized that much of the bitterness and humiliation of the reconstruction period would have been avoided, had he lived to guide the nation through those stormy days.

This attitude of the South, as expressed by the Southern press, is typically illustrated by a recent editorial in The Post of Houston, Texas:

“All men stand ready to concede that in a great crisis he was loyal to his convictions of duty, that he bore his great responsibilities with infinite patience, and that in all things he was free from sectional hatred and personal malice.

"The people of the South have always felt that his untimely and tragic end was one of the severest catastrophes of the war period. They believed after the capitulation at Appomattox, that Mr. Lincoln would, in his second administration, bend all his energies toward reconciliation and binding up the wounds of war. All his utterances respecting the South were broadly patriotic, sympathetic, and expressive of a desire to restore peace, prosperity, and self-government. He sounded no note of exultation or vindictiveness over a prostrate country. He seemed to comprehend the woe and hardship which rested so heavily on every portion of our devastated domain, and he evinced a determination to resist the efforts of those who were anxious to put the people under the heel of the conqueror. It was no fault of his that the South, crushed and bleeding, was subjected to the brutalities and vandalism of reconstruction. We know now that when he fell, the barrier that protected us from that reign of terror was swept away; we know that if he had lived we should have been spared the multiplied sorrows which were visited upon In the Republic's oneness, the Americans of all sections shared in the heritage he bequeathed to the nation, and Americans of all sections honor and revere his memory."

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The South does not forget that Lincoln was a Southerner by birth, transplanted to the soil of the West. She takes pride in him as the son of the South. There is not throughout the South that deep affection for Lincoln which is everywhere evidenced in the North; but there is a very real appreciation and a profound respect. Here and there discordant notes and utterances are sounded in the Southern press, but their very rarity marks them as anachronisms of

a bygone day, which have long since ceased to represent the true sentiments of this great section of our common country. Not only, then, has Lincoln come to be a truly national figure and to represent, in his hopes and ideals for America and American institutions, the North and South, the East and West, alike, but wherever thoughtful men or hopeful men turn to American institutions as the hope of democracy, he stands forth as the heroic figure on the horizon of time.

Abraham Lincoln holds this place to-day in the minds and hearts of all his countrymen and men of similar aspirations everywhere, not alone because of his public utterances, his keen insight into the problems of a democratic State, his emancipation of millions of slaves, his even-handed justice to friend and foe alike, or any one or all of the things that go to make up his public career, but also because of his personality and life history. In his own day there were those who sneered because his training and manner were not conventional. These very facts, and the opposition which they caused, endeared him to the people as a whole, for they represented their joys and sorrows, their aspirations and hopes, their ideals and beliefs, their struggles for self-expression in all the varied activities of life.

It is sometimes commented upon as remarkable that a man like Lincoln should have risen from conditions such as marked his youth and early career. Americans then, and Americans now, have been among those who raise the question. It may be excusable for men brought up in other civilizations, to wonder at the possibility, but for an American to do so is to doubt his own institutions, and to question the power of democracy. It is out of such conditions, modified from decade to decade in accordance with the development of the country, away from the deadening level of the schools and the crushing conventionality of a settled society in our great cities, that we are most apt to draw our truly great men.

Lincoln had a fine mind and a splendid physique, both developed to great perfection. He was a natural student, trained largely by his contact with men, but not neglecting every opportunity to master the books that he had at hand.

Albums containing the Newspaper Clippings Concerning the Lincoln Centenary, in the Library of the Editor

(See page xxv)

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He struggled for what he attained, but the result was a mastership of English style-two or three of his utterances rank with the finest in the world-a statesmanship as wide as the problem of the nation itself, a humanity as broad as the needs of men.

The feeling about Lincoln being what it is, it is not surprising that, with the approach of the Centenary of his birth, the suitable celebration of it began to be agitated throughout the country-not alone by the people who knew him, or the thousands still living who had come in contact with him, hazarded property or life or loved ones to sustain him, or come to recognize him as their far-seeing friend in the time of stress and trouble-but even more by the millions who had been brought up under the inspiration of his memory and with reverence for his name.

Centenary celebrations are not altogether unusual, but are generally of great national events. Never before did a whole people approach the centenary of the birth of a man with such interest and unanimity, or carry out its celebration with such enthusiasm. It was the spontaneous tribute of the nation to him who had justified its existence, given vitality to its utterances, preserved it for its destinies, and given promise of its future.

It is hard to trace the origin of the Centenary celebration. Plans for it seemed to spring into existence simultaneously in various parts of the country: in the action of the Congress of the United States; in the appointment of State commissions, by the Governors of all the States in the Union, to represent their States in the preparation for the national celebration at the Lincoln Farm; and-to stimulate celebrations within their own States-in the organization of municipal celebrations; and the activities of various associations and patriotic societies.

The American Federation of Labor paid tribute to the day by the adoption, by its Executive Council, as part of its Report for the Denver Convention, the following recommendation, written by Samuel Gompers, President of the Federation: