Abraham Lincoln and the men of his time

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. Page

Abraham Lincoln— Son of a Hardy Western Pioneer— Thomas Lincoln — Characteristics of the Father — How Great Men are developed— Some Examples: Philip of Macedon, Caesar, Savonarola, Martin Luther— The Birth of Freedom in England: Magna Charta, Eobert Bruce, Hampden and Cromwell, William of Orange— The Founding of our Nation— What Luther had accomplished — What Cromwell had accomplished— What the Development of our Country has Meant to the World — Our Relation to Great Britain and Other Countries— What our Future may be— The Time of the Bevoluition— The Condition of the Colonies— The Leader, Washington: His Training and Fitness — Our Second Great Leader, Abraham Lincoln — Comparison with Others— What he accomplished 11

Chapter II

"Little Abe"— Slavery— God's Chosen Leader— Characteristics- Friend of the Common People — His True Relation to the Human Race— How he became a Leader— The Early Settlers of our Country — The Lincoln Ancestry — Settlement of Kentucky— Boone and his Associates — Death of Abraham, the Pioneer— The Indian Question 36

Chapter III

Thomas Lincoln and his Early Surroundings in Kentucky — His Trade^Implements — Condition of the Family — Character — Marriage — Removal to Nolin's Creek Farm — Birth of Abraham Lincoln — Description of Nancy Hanks — Lincoln, of the Common People, not ashamed of his Lineage — "God's Grinding Out" of the Slavery Question — Our Visit to hie Birthplace in 1862— Description by an Old Man— Testimony of Affection to "Abe" — Elizabethtown — Nolin's Creek Farm — His Sincere

Friends — Austin Gallagher 57

CHAPTER IV. Page

The Task Before Lincoln— Story of a Woman near Blizabethtown —Two Removals Westward— The Blight of Slavery— The Hammering Out of Character— The Great Westward Movement- How Homes were made— The Pigeon Creek Settlement— The Destruction of Forests— Customs— Manner of Living, and Habits

Chapter V

Death in Pigeon Creek Settlememt— Abe loses his Mother— Abe's Journey of Sixty Miles for a Minister— The Dreary Winter— The Student— His Early Books— Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston— Happier Days, with Home Comfort and Care— Running a Ferry-boat— More Study— The First Trip Down the Mississippi — The Slave-market of New Orleans — Journey to Illinois— "Neutral Ground"— "The Cold Winter"— Rail-splitting 103

Chapter VI

Springfield — The Freeze of December 20, 1836 — Weedman's Deer Park — "Internal Improvements" — Navigation of the Sangamon — Proposed Trip to New Orleans— Passing the Dam near New Salem — The New Orleans Slave-market again — Thomas Lincoln's Death — New Salem selected as a Home — The Black Hawk War — Abe's Election as Captain — Experience in the Field — Stillman's Run — Black Hawk— Mr. Lincoln's Description of his Military Experience — Clerking for Mr. Offut 130

Chapter VII

Forming of Character — "Honest Abe" — Trials of Strength — Navigation of the Sangamon— Newton Graham— Kirkham's Grammar— Candidate for the Legislature — New Acquaintances and Future Friends— Political Beliefs— Defeat— "A Country Store" in New Salem: A Losing Venture — Law-reading in the OflBee of Logan and Stuart — The Bible, Blackstone, Coke, Chitty, Greenleaf, Story, Kent, and Others for Three Years' Drill, until, "You know as much about it as we do" — A Favorite Advocate all over Central Illinois, alongside Douglas and Others . . 155

CHAPTER VIII. Page

Studying Surveying— Work under Calhoun— Poatmaster of New Salem — Removal to Springfield in 1836 — Canvass for the Legislature— Elected — His Work at Vandalia — Re-elected — Declaration for Female Suffrage in Third Canvass — The Canal Enterprise— Capital Removal to Springfield — Some of his Assocdates — The Slavery Question — Signed Protest against Pro-slavery Resolutions 176

Chapter IX

The Original Policy of our Government toward Slavery— Its Growth— Henry Clay— Compromise of 1820— Compromisers- Slavery Leaders, Calhoun and Jefferson Davis — Illinois Constitutional Convention Fight— Prevalent Opinion that Slavery Agitation was Wrong — Lovejoy — Invasion of Texas — Lincoln's Wrestling Match— Great Physical Strength 202

Chapter X

Beginning of Acquaintance of Lincoln and Douglas — Douglas: Ancestry, Education, Development: An Intellectual Giant — ^Arrival at Jacksonville, III., in 1833, at Twenty Years of Age — Bookkeeping, Teaching, Law-reading, Elected to Legislature at Twenty-two — Nimmo Browne: Ancestry, Training, Education- Acquaintance with Douglas — Political Beliefs^Friendly Disputes— Building the Springfield Capjtol — Meeting Lincoln- Comparison of Douglas and Lincoln — The Career of Douglas.. .218

Chapter XI

Discussion between Douglas and Browne — On Slavery Extension — Policy of the Nation toward Slavery — Democratic Policy — A Warning against Abolition Sentiments publicly expressed — Browne's Description of Lincoln — Douglas's Estimate of Lincoln— Lincoln's Law Partnership with Stuart — The Embarrassments of Politics— The Campaign of 1840— Increase of Acquaintance and a Wider Sphere of Influence — The Panic of 1837-38— Lincoln's Financial Beliefs— Hard' Times, and How the People passed through them — Practicing Law — Saving a "Homestead." 239

CHAPTER XII. Page

The Comparative Standing of Some Political Leaders: Lincoln, Douglas, Clay, Jackson, Webster, Van Buren, Harrison, Cass, Scott, Buchanan, Jefferson Davis— Lincoln's Growing Popularity—An Affair of Honoi— General Shields— The Logan-Lincoln Partnership— Some Famous Students or Partners with Logan- Some of the Able and Famous Men of the Springfield Bar- Lincoln's Marriage — The Campaign of 1844 — Some Good Temperance Work— Clay's Third and Final Defeat for President- Lincoln's Inspiration and Prophecy — The Admission of Texas. .264

Chapter XIII

The Mexican War — General Taylor — Victories and Defeats — Astonishing Continental Development- Our New Territory and its Disposal — The Pro-slavery Plan — Change of the "Front of Battle" to Kansas-Nebraska — Lincoln's Election to Congress — Cartwright — Douglas as Congressman-at-Large and Senator — A Lifetime Friendship— "Spot" Resolutions 288

Chapter XIV

Campaign of 1848 — Mr. Lincoln's Canvass in the East — The Wilmot Proviso — Mr. Lincoln's Plan of Gradual Emancipation — Rejection — John A. Logan and the Peace Convention at Richmond in 1861 — Mr. Lincoln's Enlightenment on the Intentions of the Slave Power— Clay, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, William H. Seward, Senator Clayton, General Scott, Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, General Lewis Cass, Toombs, Stephens, Bei-- rien, Crawford, Foote of Mississippi, Benton, John Wentworth, General Shields, Judge Douglas, and Other Distinguished Acquaintances and Associates of Lincoln — Success in Business — Partnership with Herndon — More Study — Asahel Gridley — Judge Davis 311

Chapter XV

Friendly Relation of Judge Davis and Mr. Lincoln — Some Reminiscences— The Crumbaugh Brothers — An Estimate of Lincoln — Campaign of 1848 — Davis's Protest against Lincoln's Small Fees— Davis's Tribute to Mr. Lincoln— Judge Drummond's Estimate— Some False Estimates— The Real Man as compared with his Associates — Reprimand to a Law Student 337

CHAPTER XVI. Page

Nimmo Browne and Judge Douglas on the Mexican War and its Relation to Slavery — Douglas's Leadership — The Slave-trade: Its Introduction, Growth 363

Chapter XVII

Race Mixing— Pennsylvania Abolition Society — New York Manumission Society — Admission of Missouri — Benjamin Lundy's "Genius of Universal Emancipation" — Lloyd Garrison's "Liberator"— American Anti-slavery Society — Liberty Party — Barnburners— Republican Party — Lecompton Constitution — Rebellion— Emancipation Proclamation — Thirteenth Amendment. .. .386

Chapter XVIII

Effect of Slavery on Labor, Learning, Religion, Society — Policy of Concession — Mr. Lincoln's Conviction when elected as to his Leadersihip in putting Slavery down — A Never-to-be-Forgotten Interview— Whitney's Invention — Thirty Years of Clay's and Calhoun's Management of Affairs — Compromises that did not settle — Some of the Compromisers 406

Chapter XIX

Gold Discovery in California — Rushing Immigration — Slavery Extension defeated — Anxiety of the Propaganda — Thirty-first Congress: Some of its Members — Mr. Seward — "States' Rights" Resolutions — ^Agitation of 1848-50 — Compromise of 1850 — Furious Discussions 429

Chapter XX

"Sandy Desert Plain"— Prevailing Belief that the Slavery Question was settled in 1850 — Archibald Dixon — Death of Clay — "Peace-keeper of the Nation" — Apathy and Indifference — Suppression of Free Speech — Political Cowardice — Campaign of 1852— Franklin Pierce — Some Other Candidates — Election of Pierce — The Real Agitators — Plan to repeal the Missouri Compromise—Jefferson Davis — Caleb Cushing — The Propaganda in Full Control 451

S CONTENTS.

CHAPTBK XXI.

Page.

The Westward Movement— The Building of a New Party— Some of the Forming Elements— Estimate of Slave Holdings and Power— Repeal of the Missouri Compromise — Opinion of Joshua Giddings— The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— Denunciation of Douglas—What forced the Repeal— Archibald Dixon— Atchison's Negotiation with Douglas — Atchison as a Border Leader- Douglas's Real Position 474

Chapter XXII

Douglas's Decision— "Squatter Sovereignty"— The Storm of Angry Denunciations — John Steven — An Estimate of Lincoln — Beginning of the Writer's Acquaintance with Davis, Gridley, and Lincoln — Introduction to Lincoln as an Abolitionist — A Friendly Discussion, in which Mr. Gridley assists — Early Impressions of Slavery — Mr. Lincoln's Office Habits and Pleasant Ways — The Darkest Days of our Repulblic 495

Chapter XXIII

The Elements of which the New Party was made — Douglas's Delicate, Exasperating Position — Anti-Nebraska Campaign of 1854 — Joint Deljates — Peoria Argument — Election of Trumbull to United States Senate — Boy "Abolitionisits" in Bloomington — Restraints on Mr. Lincoln — Work of Organizing the Republican Party in 1854 515

Chapter XXIV

The Louisiana Purchase — Compromise of 1820 — Compromise of 1850 — Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 — Emigrant Aid Societies —Where the Kansas Emigrants were from—Slave Emigration from Missouri — The Atchison Plan — Congressional Investigation of 1856 — Kansas Governors — Jefferson Davis in Control — Woodson as Acting Governor — The Courts — "The Squatter Sovereign" — "Candle Boxes" — Armed Missourians — Governor Reeder — Census of 1855 — Election following — Second Invasion ot Atchison — Certificates of Election under Duress — Reeder's Humiliation at Washington — Subsequent Removal from Office —Work of the "Bogus Legislature"- Judge Lecompte — Governor Shannon 539

CHAPTER XXV. Page

Mass Oonveotion at Big Springs— Election of October 9, 1855— Free State Constitution — Election of 1856 — Changing Attitude of Politicians — Committee of Investigation, known as the Howard Committee — The Eight of Self-government — SherifE Jones — Arrests and Indictments — Lane's Emigrants with Sharp's Eifles— "Jim Lane"— John Brown— The Eeal Situation— The Nation appalled — Aroused from its Negligence 561

AND

THE MEN OF HIS TIME.

Chapter I

ABEAHAM LINCOLN was the son of a hardy Western pioneer. He was born and grew into strong, rugged manhood at a time when the vast, fertile, and immensely-productive basin of the middle and upper Mississippi was being settled and brought under the uses of a mighty westward migration. The vast areas of forest, mountain, and plain, and the widespreading waterways of the middle continent were well adapted to the purposes of the moving multitudes; and they could be numbered each year by hundreds of thousands. In one short generation they transformed the wilderness and the sea-like plains into one of the most beautiful and happiest habited regions of the earth — strong in every element that has made and built up our unequaled Western civilization.

Abraham Lincoln grew and waxed strong alongside the best and bravest, the most industrious and hard-working men and boys of his time, whose principles were love of kindred, home, and country, that the story of the Savior was the faith of the pioneer, and that "the fear of the

Lord was the beginning of wisdom." They were men whose patient, continuous toil and hardships made them the strongest-bodied, most supple, and active-limbed body of men in all the land, whose intelligence and ancestry made them worthy successors of men who fought and died for their liberties.

The father, Thomas Lincoln, as it will develop in our progress, was one of the rugged, able-bodied men who were the early settlers of Kentucky, son of Abraham Lincoln, the companion of Daniel Boone. The elder was massacred by the Indians, when Thomas escaped the fate of his father. Distancing his pursuers, he summoned the neighbors to the defense of the cabin home of the family. He had courage, patience, and industry — those sterling qualities of manhood— to form the foundation for the character and career of his remarkable son. He quietly toiled on in his duty, living the life on the frontier that became a necessity to reduce a continental wilderness to civilization. There is wisdom in the old legend that there is something buried in the earth, to give foundation and existence to whatever grows upon it. This should come to be better known as the truth concerning the training and ancestry of Mr. Lincoln.

He was boy and man with his people, growing up and coming to early manhood with them, of them, among them, and, as he proved constant to the end, always one of them.

The few great reformers of the world have done likewise. Moses was the lifelong servant of his people, as well as servant and prophet of God. He became the chosen leader of his people, serving a long lifetime in trial, solitude, and preparation, that in his age and infirmity he might see the success of all his labors, and east his vision over the land to the seas that would be the home of his emancipated people, which they held in prosperity until their idolatries, persecutions, and cruelties surpassed those from which they had been rescued in Egypt.

Philip of Macedon, founder of one of the greatest empires of antiquity, spent a lifetime of patient, laborious work in the camps and fields of his armies and peoples, training his invincible phalanx, building an undisputed world's kingdom, which perished in less time through the quarreling and disputes of his successors over the subdivision of the conquest of the daring, dissipated Alexander. Philip and his son had capacity and courage to build and conquer, but not the wisdom to perpetuate a nation of independent men.

Great Cssar rose in a lifetime service with his campaigning legions to a more dominant, more puissant, reigning splendor, more triumphant autocracy, than the Macedonian, for one reason: that he served and fought by the side of his Eomans in every country and on every field where any foe raised its standards against their all-conquering armies, and that he had genius such as soldier never surpassed. Nevertheless his great empire rotted away in the greed and lust its wealth and arrogated powers had consolidated. It had no God but money and rank; and, without having advanced the rights of man or of humanity, as its supremacy enabled it to do, this world-power became an easy prey to the stronger Northmen, who rioted and feasted for a few short years on its aggregated luxuries and world-plundered riches.

Savonarola — ^man, priest, and reformer — ^rendered a lifetime service, became a martyr in the devoted task of raising men out of the degraded, beastly plight of men in his day, succeeding the bloody, glutted reign of proud, pretentious, haughty, and imperial Eome, though dissolving amid its tyrant dynasties, when debauched popes were as bad as the more besotted emperors had been. He lived, served, and died well, as one of the best and truest reformers of all time, that man might be what his Creator signed him to he. This man of a corrupt age -was, in his labors, always one of and faithful among his people.

Among the favored and fearless few there never ea another like Martin Luther — God's hammering hero — -v, hammered loose the fetters of his people and the wo from bigotry and persecution, on sounding anvils. In pe: ous discussions before, and in cruel councils, he vanquisl and arrested their oppressions and bloody supremacy, the majesty of truth and' human rights, against their ar gant pretensions and iniquitous cruelties, under the na: and usurped authority of the Savior of men by pries bishops, popes, and councils, were all swept before h by this master man, opening the first real pathway to fr dom which the world had known for more than a thousa years.

The barons of England, who wrested "Magna Charl from their weak and cowardly King John in 1315, w( serving mankind far more and better than they realis at the time, compelling an obdurate despot, through ' timidity and want of courage, to acknowledge and guarani the rights of his subjects in part, thereby founding c( stitutional government for the English people for all tir or as long, at least, as the so-named "Anglo-Saxon peoplt are brave enough to fight for, sustain, and defend it. Th( barons, like all the feudal leaders of their time, could leaders when they were with and part of their armed foi or following.

About the same period, Eobert Bruce patiently ser-^ his country, taught, trained, and gathered his clansm for the most determined and desperate defense of th beloved Scotland, braving every peril and danger, mi ing every river or lake or hill or plain or mountain c] or glen the home of liberty and independence or a Scot man's grave. No leader of ancient or modern times \ more among or one of his unconquerable people. Base and degraded indeed is the heart of any Scotchman who does not honor, as one of the bravest and strongest leaders in history, the Bruce, who, with William Wallace, made and established Scotland an independent nation.

Hampden and Cromwell came to be the leaders of the English people against the tyrannical, usurping house of Stuart, to save the liberties of a great nation, won on so many fiercely-contested fields of war, through centuries of progress, to a higher, more perfect manhood. Hampden, bravest leader of them all, fell in victory among them. Cromwell forged onward with his God-fearing Puritans, winning victories, limiting and extinguishing despotisms and dynasties, fighting for the liberties enjoyed to-day, on every smoking battlefield on which they fought and prayed.

A load of obloquy, distortions, and grievous falsehoods have been lifted from the name of England's fearless leader and protector. Ko fame was ever more honestly earned. He was true, sincere, and the earnest leader of his time and the cause of his people. The English-speaking peoples, the world over, have better government and better-protected liberties because Old !N"oll shattered and dispersed the house of Stuart with the pikestafEs and blunderbusses of his Parliamentary army.

William of Orange began, in heroic struggle, the deliverance of his people from the clutching bondage of such wolfish savages as Parma, Alva, and Philip, whose memories are still reeking and groaning under the foul, outcrying load of tortured and slaughtered thousands, whose retributive punishment, with their iniquitous, Inquisitionladen nation, will not be complete until remorseless, dying Spain is as well forgotten as ancient Babylon.

That the cruelties and savageries against the brave IsTetherlanders were among the most frightful and appalling in any real or pretended civilization needs barely to be mentioned. That William bared his breast to the killing storm, braved every danger, and died for his people, is as true. He was and is a leader whom God has made immortal. Men may emulate, but never surpass, the work of such a hero — one who has served his age so well that time Will brighten the memory of a man as valorous in war as he was wise and steadfast in counsel or leadership.

Among the few great reformers of all time we must not omit Saiat Patrick, who, in a peaceful and bloodless triumph, led the Irish race — kings and kingdoms and the people — out of ignorance, superstition, and slavish distress that bound them down in barbarous clans and clannish wars, to the light and faith of Christ's gospel of peace. It was no less than a nation and a race of millions and succeeding generations turned from darkness and destroying, pillaging wars, murders, and devastations, to the kingdom of our Savior, by his ceaseless labor in the lifetime of the devoted Christian, hero, leader.

Since his time — the beginning of the sixth century — the Irish race have been the advance guard of civilization and liberty to every land under the sun, who, if they could not win freedom for their own native and dear old Ireland, have been God's faithful Christian heroes, to carry it and die for it with the struggling and oppressed of every clime.

Christianity, under the lead of this dariag man, turned this great race from their degradation and half-savage condition to a nation of scholars, humorists, statesmen, soldiers, and heroes, who are seldom equaled and never surpassed.

Under the three great leaders, the triple heroes of Britain— Saint Patrick, John Knox, and Oliver Cromwell — and their successors, have grown the strongest and most predominant force of men whom the world has ever known; further, blended and commingled with a strong admixture of the sturdy Germanic, have produced the American, the strongest individual character and manhood in existence, — all of whom, if true to their lineage and exalted conditions, if their cursed drink-hahits were abated, would carry, not a plimdering, but a pure, Christian civilization aU over the world.

There is an allegory, with many terminatiag distinctions, as to the elementary character of the English, Scotch, Irish, and American. One is that a person asked, severally, these to undertake a hazardous enterprise. The Englishman said he would if he could adjust it under "Magna Charta" and the precedents of English law and literature. The Scotchman said "he would meditate over it in prayer and thanksgiving when it approved itself to his mind." The Irishman said, "By the faith of Saiat Patrick, Oi'm ready, sor;" and the American, "Sir, I will undertake it if it will pay on these terms: twenty-five per cent ia advance, and the balance in quarterly installments."

There remains for our thoughful consideration the most capable, zealous, and devout spiritual reformer of the Christian Church and the greatest founder of a world-wide Christianity since Saint Paul — John Wesley — ^whose life and labors for sixty of the years of the eighteenth century laid the foundation for the most powerful body of spiritual, believing, and faith-proving Christians in the world — a denomination growing out of a little sect of reformers in a dull and lifeless State establishment to a world-extending activity, with more millions now than the England of Wesley's day.

He became an accredited apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw the great English Church, that had so grandly risen above Eomanism, falling away and perishing, without spirituality or belief in the absolute necessity of regeneration, another victim of postures, precedents, and 2 formulas. He obliterated self, and in a tireless itinerary, work, and devotion of more than a half century, proclaimed anew the saving faith of Christ's gospel over two continents.

He had wrought out a religious revolution, and founded one of the world's strongest bodies of God-loving people, while content in the belief that he was saving the Church of his people and their ancestors from listless and Godless decay. He did even that which no other man had done or seemed able to do: revived and, for the time, saved the Establishment.

He preached and pleaded and entreated men to turn from their sins in every city, town, highway, mine, factory, lane, and byway he could reach, leading them to repentance stadi bettered lives in multitudes beyond number, full of the conviction that in every human face he saw a soul to save.

He had the grace, the zeal, the untiring energy, and the power of not only one, but many of the first of the faith, who worked and served with the Master himself as he reasoned and taught in Judea. He had the marvelous patience and directness of speech of Saint Matthew, whose record grows more precious as centuries roll on. He had the polish and accuracy of Saint Luke, the scholar, who told the gospel story more gracefully than Saint Paul himself— the most learned, convincing, logical, and eloquent of all the Twelve. He had the fire and thunder of good, old Peter, and often brought three thousand, or more, to the faith in a single sermon, so plaintive and eloquent that strong men and women shouted all about him in thousands. He had the mellowed mind, the power of imagery, and the tender heart of the disciple "whom Jesus loved." He was, all in all, a man, leader, and reformer, without money or even the power to call his great and increasing body of followers a Church or separate organization, who had done more for mankind than all the kings of England lumped together, with Croesus and all the world's millionaires since thrown in as make-weight.

As we review the lives and character of such men as Wesley and Lincoln, we can well understand the high distinction and duty that was open to the youth whom Christ admonished, "Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me."

AVhen the American colonies were about founding a new nation and establishing a new era among the Governments and powers of the earth, almost eighteen dull, leaden centuries had passed since the truth concerning man's existence had been promulgated; when Calvary succeeded Sinai; when sacrifice beyond human conception or understanding opened the way, lighted the world with a belief, a gospel founded on God's eternal truth, with glad tidings of peace on earth and good will to men; that in government, as in all the relations of life, men must cease to do evil, and learn righteousness, justice, forgiveness, mercy, peace, and the absolute equality of all men before God.

Discovery .after discovery had found new continents, and had revealed almost endless new elements and resources in nature, far surpassing the wildest dreams of antiquity, when the fabled "Atlantis" was far out of reach of their clumsy coast-line navigation, when a flattened-plane surface of the earth, an endless westward ocean, and a revolving sxm marked the limits of human philosophy.

Gunpowder had ameliorated the barbarities of war. Science came to the relief of the weak and oppressed when a robber baron and predatory king, or lesser villains, with their marauding clans and men-at-arms, on their incursions, prudently halted outside the zone of the powder-mill. Printing had made a new world of intelligence. The silent, movable types could preserve and communicate the best, the brightest, and the mightiest thought to the remotest recesses, into the ignorance, darkness, and iniquity tnat filled men's lives, but which fled and dissipated before these new agencies like the mists and the gloom in the belts of the noonday sun.

Luther had overturned a priestly, tyrannical hierarchy; the angered, broken fragments were cooling quietly down after the furious sundering of beliefs; policies and social order had wonderfully changed, and men were readjusting themselves as much as could be to the very much changed condition of things in all the business and conduct of life. The hard, unyielding logic of his reform had turned nations from a blind superstition under the name of religion to free, independent, thoughtful beliefs. Priestcraft, as a governing, controlling, and punishing power, had been overthrown; and the minds of men could turn peacefully to their Maker and the pursuit of their welfare and happiness when despotic kings were as completely overthrown as the priests had been in their campaigns and battles with Luther.

In time Cromwell overthrew and destroyed a house of these despotic little men, calling themselves kings by Divine right, and arrogating under this authority the disposal of the lives and fortunes of their fellow-men. They were, perhaps, the worst of their kind and time, because they were endeavoring to throttle and destroy the rights, privileges, and liberties of an intelligent, almost a free people — the leading nation of the earth at the time — on its high road to progress and a bettered condition for all its people.

It is in analysis, dissection, cutting away false ideas, and by comparison, that we are able to estimate and understand the acts of men, and follow the course of events. These leaders — fair representatives of the best and most noted in history — ^have from necessity passed in hurried review. More might be added; but we would only be giving the record and work of other men with the same ideas and purposes. We are to study men, government, and the conduct of public affairs under changed conditions — a new continent, where men are devoted to and will sustain the principle that all Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

In time multitudes in full accord on the subject, in vast numbers, considering the occasion, the cause, and the opportunities, sought and found homes on the American Continent, free and unbound by the priestcraft and the monarchical, labor-robbing, man-killing codes of Europe, from which they had fled, hoping and praying for a complete deliverance from the systems that had despoiled and degraded men for centuries, and from which, although beset by all manner of difficulties, and their habitations still a wilderness, they continually hoped for the wisdom and strength that would make them a free and independent people. They saw in their early beginnings the light and promise of a better civilization. They were hungering and thirsting for the enjoyment of the liberties they had so diligently earned. Fast-hurrying events brought the crisis that made them, for the time, the defenders of human rights. It was a trying and desperate struggle, marking it as a distinct epoch in the path of man's development. Victory, after seven years of wasting war, brought an unkinged nation to a new world, a new era, and renewed hopes to mankind.

Britain had grown to be, at the time, the great sea power of the world, with as greedy desire for domination and plunder, under the name of an enlightened nation, extending its ideas, influences, and commerce over the earth, as it has done, and as it professes in these later days, with all of them prospered and maintained. They are propagating and enforcing all these ideas against mankind with all their power and strength. Their plans of government have as full possession of their rulers, soldiers, statesmen, and commercial people for trade supremacy as they had under the Georges. The well-formed purpose then, as now, is to trade with and govern all the weak peoples of the earth indiscrimiuately, sequestrate the rights and property possessions of every country or kingdom which their armies or navies can reach and subdue.