The Adair County news. [volume], February 13, 1918, Page 7, Image 7

About The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987

Image provided by: University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

                
ADAIR COUNTY NEWS
'I
I J&l Jtofue. VrV Kentucky, sy?
The Comforter
A Story of President Lincoln
Founded on Fact
By F. A. MITCHEL
When the great struggle between
the Northern and Southern states
came on Allan Fitz Hugh, twelve
years old, was at school in Virginia.
He was a boy of delicate physique, but
was full of fire, and, hearing that
Abraham Lincoln was coming south
ward at the head of an armed force,
was much troubled because he was too
young to shoulder a musket and re
pel the Invader. He found it difficult
during those exciting times to attend
to his studies, and had it not been for
the influence of his mother, whom
he dearly loved, he could not have
been kept at school at all.
In those days the passion attending
war ran high on both sides. The
songs, the gibes, the speeches and
what was written concerning the great
struggle were very bitter and usually
far from the truth. In the North it
was "We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour
apple tree," and in the South Presi
dent Lincoln was called "the baboon."
The Northern schoolboy conceived the
Idea that President Davis was an ogre,
not realizing that he was an educated
gentleman, had commanded a regiment
of United States troops In the war
with Mexico, had been a United States
senator and secretary of war. The
Southern schoolboy considered Presi
dent Lincoln a wild man from the
Western woods who delighted in blood
shed. Children whose minds are not
developed must concentrate upon one
head in any movement in which they
are interested. So Allan's thoughts
dwelt upon Mr. Lincoln, embodying
the great president with Ids idea of
the hated "yankees."
When Allan was fifteen he begged
his mother to let him go to fight for
the Confederacy. Naturally she clung
to her son, and the matter was com
promised between them In this wise:
If the war was not over in another
year Allan was to enlist with his moth
er's consent Many boys of his age,
both In the North and in the South,
broke away from parental restraint
and enlisted without permission. Food
for powder was in demand, and the
recruiting officers often winked at the
fact that the recruits were under age.
But Allan was his mother's only child,
and, being of an extremely affection
ate disposition, the bond between them
was doubly strong.
So Allan continued at his studies,
though he read more about the battles
that were being fought than the sub
jects treated in his textbooks. He
lived in Richmond, and at one time
had listened to the roar of the cannon
during the seven days' battles that had
been fought between Lee and MeClel
lan. His admiration for soldiers wore
away some of his bitterness against
the federal generals, but President
Lincoln was still the embodiment of
his repugnance for the Northern peo
ple. The two heads Davis of the
Confederacy and Lincoln of the fed
eral Union throughout the war con
tinued to represent the bitter antag
onism felt by either side.
' In the early spring of 1S63 Allan
Fitz Hugh came to be sixteen years
of age, and hl moVr rolurtantly con
sented to h !. " ' to fill the
gaps In 'v V ' ' made by
'Northern iiiS.- the time
'4
t came for lain to leave his mother he
, was seized with a foreboding that he
would not see her again. It is ques-
tionable which suffered the more at
I parting, mother or son.
Allan enlisted in time to take part
in one of the last battles of the war.
He saw a dark line of blue on the edge
of a wood behind earthworks. With
the Confederate line of battle he
moved toward it. Suddenly a storm
burst in his face. He felt himself
collapse and sank down on the ground.
His companions in arms went on,
but were soon driven back and over
him, leaving him there with a stream
of blood flowing from his side.
Later he was picked up by a federal
ambulance corps and placed on a
stretcher. He believed himself to be
dying, and, oh, how terrible not to
be able to bid his mother good-by!
"What Can I Do for You, My Boy?"
"Mother!" he cried. "Oh, mother!"
A tall, spare man in citizen's ap
parel heard the wail and directed the
carrier to put down the stretcher and,
kneeling beside it, asked tenderly:
"What can I do for you, my boy?"
"You are a Yankee. You will do
nothing for me. I wish to send a
message to my mother, but it will
never reach her."
"Give me your message, and I prom
ise you that I will send it for you."
The next morning Mrs. Fitz Hugh
heard of the battle and knew that her
son had been in it. While she was
wondering what might have been his
fate a man rode up to her and gave
her a message stating that it had
come by flag of truce.
Starting for the front at once, the
anxious mother succeeded in bringing
her boy home. He hovered for some
time between life and death, then be
gan slowly to recover. Not long after
this Richmond was evacuated by the
Confederates, and President Lincoln
went down there from Washington.
When he was riding through the street
on which the Pitz Hughs lived Allan
was propped up In an easy chair on pil
lows, and his mother pointed out Mr.
Lincoln to him.
"Oh, mother!" exclaimed the boy.
"What is It, Allan?"
"He's the man who comforted me
when I was carried off that dreadful
battlefield, and he sent yon my message."
!l 1
America 9s
Martyred
President
1809 Born in Hardin county, Ken
tucky, February 12. He was de
scended from a Quaker family,
which had emigrated from Vir
ginia about 17S0.
1816 Removed with his family
from Kentucky to Indiana.
1SS0 Removed to Illinois, where
during the next few years he fol
lowed various occupations, includ
ing those of a farm laborer, a
merchant and a surveyor.
1S8G Admitted to the bar and be
gan the practice of law in Spring
field. 1S2 Served as a captain and aft
erward as a private in the Black
Hawk war.
lSlfJt Elected to the Illinois legis
lature as a Whig and served eight
years.
lSJfl Elected to congress on the
Whig ticket.
1S58 As Republican candidate for
the United States senate he en
gaged in a series of joint debates
throughout Illinois with the Dem
ocratic candidate, Stephen A.
Douglas.
1860 Elected president of the Unit
ed States on the Republican ticket,
the disunion of the Democratic
party giving him an easy victory.
1861 On April 15, two days after
the fall of Fort Sumter, he issued
a call for 75,000 volunteers, and
the control of events passed from
the cabinet to the camp.
1861 April 19, proclaimed a block
ade of Southern ports.
1862 September 22, issued a proc
lamation emancipating all slaves
in states or parts of states, which
should be in rebellion on Janu
ary 1, 1863.
186J Re-elected president by Hie
Republican party, defeating Geo.
B. McOlellan, candidate of the
Democratic party.
1865 Entered Richmond with the
Federal army on April 4, two
days after that city had been
evacuated by the Confederates.
1865 Shot by John Wilkes Booth
on April lit, and died the follow
ing day. Buried at Springfield,
III.
5K
Every man is said to have
his peculiar ambition. Wheth
er it be true or not, I can say
for one, that I have no other
so great as that of being truly
esteemed of my fellow men,
by rendering myself worthy
of their esteem. Lincoln.
Gettysburg Speech
Called Marvel of
Poetic Splendor
Lincoln's undying Gettysburg address
has been put Into the new poetic style
by Dr. Marion Mills Miller, who finds
that "the speech Is as perfect a poem
as ever was written, and 'even in the
minor qualities of artistic language
rhythm and cadence, phonetic euphony,
rhetorical symbolism, and that subtle
reminiscence of a great literary and
spiritual Inheritance, the Bible, which
stands to us a3 Homer did to the
ancients it excels the finest gem to be
found in poetic cabinets from the Greek
anthology downward," Dr. Miller's in
teresting "poetic" presentation of the
address follows:
Fourscore and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent
A new nation,
Conceived In liberty.
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation.
Or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
Can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war,
We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field
As a final resting-place
For those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper '
That'we should do this.
But. in a larger sense,
We can not dedicate
We can not consecrate
We can not hallow
This ground.
The brave men, living and dead,
Who struggled here
Have consecrated it far above our poor
power
To add or detract
The world will little note nor long remember
What we say here,
But It can never forget
What they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather
To be dedicated here to the unfinished work
Which they who fought here have so nobly
advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us
That from these honored dead
We take increased devotion to that cause
For which they gave the last full measure
of devotion;
That we here highly resolve
That these dead shall not have died In vain;
That this nation, under Cod,
Shall have a new birth of freedom;
And that government of the people,
By the people, and for the people
Shall not perish from the earth.
PATHOS IN THIS DOCUMENT
Soldier's Leave of Thirty Days,
Granted by Lincoln, Was Also
His Allotted Time.
Here is a photograph of a memo
randum signed by Abraham Lincoln.
It Is dated March lo, 1SG5 (In his own
handwriting), and, likewise In his own
hand, says, "Allow this man thirty
days' time."
The indorsement Is of an applica
tion by a soldier for thirty days' leave.
But the most striking point about it
is that it exactly named the time that, j
as the event showed, was left for Mr.
Lincoln himself to remain on earth.
He was assassinated just thirty days
later.
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LINCOLN'S GOOD OLD FRIEND
Perfect Courtesy of America's Great
Son Shown in His Treatment of
"Aunt Sally."
After Lincoln's election to the presi
dency an old woman, whom he called
"Aunt Sally," came from New Salem
to say good-by to "Abe" before he
"went to Washington to be president."
The president-elect was standing in
the room placed at his disposal in the
old state capitol talking with two
men of national renown when the old
woman entered, shy and embarrassed.
He saw her at once and walked across
the room to meet his old friend. Tak
ing both her hands in his, he led her
to the seat of honor and presented his
distinguished visitors to her, putting
her quite at ease by saying:
"Gentlemen, this Is a good old friend
of mine. She can make the best flap
jacks you ever tasted, for she has
baked them for me many a time."
A Few Facts About Lincoln.
He knew the value of a merry jest
and a hearty laugh.
He was simple in manner, dress and
bearing, but was big of heart and
brain.
He was too great a nature to care
one way or another about his ances
try. The living generation was of vital
Importance to him.
He did not advocate war for his own
glorification, but to liberate human
beings from slavery. All men were his
brothers and his equals before his
Creator.
Lincoln's Fine Tribute
to Bereaved Mother
A
T this time, above all times, when our thoughts revert to the man
by many considered the greatest president that our country has
had, we are proud to publish a letter written hn him in a bereaved
mother. It went from the heart to
the soul of motherhood.
The letter was this:
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C& OhA4 iflij. &sA. W,
-&V JOvJ Vo & cUl cZoua w & ftJtol of-Uttt.
SX urio6 j-cU. VtLZJZr& &MZS yois .ri &t
uys snf -'-a-i.'i- "a wv ,
a.. -tsCn-t; -. 7fJL tHtS-aOt, auccj.
Is it any wonder that this famous letter is still hanging on the walls
p Brasenose college, Oxford university, England, as a model of pure and
exquisite English and as a compelling expression of a great heart and
iiind?
WOMEN LOVED BY LINCOLN
Loss of One of Them in Early Youth
Cast a Lifelong Shadow Across
His Heart.
There was a wild rose slip of a girl
In a blue sunbonnet, with whom he
walked the lanes of his homespun
days. There was a clever, cultured
woman, whose brilliant intellect
lighted his ascending way In the Illi
nois legislature. And there was the
belle of the gay social set at Spring
field, who fluttered across his pathway
as it led to Washington. One he
loved, and one he tried to, and one
he married. These were the women
that he courted. They loved Lincoln.
To them the greatest American was
far nearer than a lofty figure on a
high pedestal. They heard his heart
beat !
These were the women that loved
Lincoln. One of them today lies near
the banks of the Sangamon where he
loved her. To the last there was with
him the long, long sorrow .of her loss
that cast its shadow across his heart
in youth. As late as 1864 he pushed
aside state papers in the executive
mansion at Washington to talk of her
late in the night to a friend who had
come from back home. One rests
peacefully In a little cemetery at
Pleasant Ridge, HI. The mother of
five children, her tombstone reads:
"Mary Owens Vineyard." One lies
at his side In the great mausoleum in
Springfield, where the state keeps her
bier and his heaped with fresh, fra
grant flowers. When an assassin's bul
let took his life, the American peo
ple mourned a great president. 'She
mourned a great husband. Delineator.
&-
The way for a young man
to rise is to improve himself
every way he can, never sus
pecting that anybody wishes
to hinder him. Lincoln.
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Election Incident.
Lincoln was a clever politician and
never hesitated when president to play
trumps In a crisis.
Colonel A. K. McClure said that he
told Lincoln he couldn't carry Pennsyl
vania In 1864 on the home vote unless
he furloughed 10,000 Pennsylvania sol
diers and sent them back here to vote.
Lincoln hesitated only a moment and
then requested both Meade and Sher
idan to send 5,000 troops into Pennsyl
vania for the election, which was done.
McClure's prediction was evidently
correct, as Lincoln, even with the
10,000 troops voting here, carried
Pennsylvania by only 5,712. To this
plurality was added some 14,000 as the
result of Pennsylvania soldiers voting
In the field. Philadelphia Ledger.
Lincoln's Stories.
It seems probable that some of Lin
coln's stories, genuine though we may
believe them to be, were current before
his time; for Instance, the one with
the Kentucky flavor referring to the
brand of whisky which General
Grant's enemies protested he used
with too much freedom. Lincoln dis
claimed this story In my hearing,
stating that King George m. of Eng
land was said to have remarked,
when he was told that General Wolfe,
then In command of the English army
in Canada, was mad, that he wished
Wolfe vould bite some of his other
generals. From "Lincoln An the Tele
graph Office."
the heart, and its message still stirs
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3tusLl 7v au-nzrjL, tTJ
HASTENED TO INFORM WIFE
"Mary, We Are Elected," Was Lin
coln's Form of Telling Helpmeet
the Good News.
Perhaps one of the most character
istic of the Lincoln anecdotes may b9
revived with timeliness. On the night
of his first election the little "frame'
home of the LIncolns In Springfield,
111., was thronged with eager neigh
bors and friends. Reports for a while
came in early and favorably. Then
they were less promising. The crowd
dwindled. Then came the news that
Lincoln had carried the country. The
rest of the story will better be told
by that great man himself. "When
there was no longer any doubt, or
reason for doubt," he related afte
ward, "I went up to my bedroom and
found my wife asleep. I gently touch
ed her shoulder and said, 'Mary!' Sho
made no answer. T spoke again a lit
tle louder, saying, 'Mary! Mary! we
are elected!'"
-M
Stand with anybody that
stands right. Stand with him
while he is right and part
with him when he goes wrong.
Lincoln.
.:K
EEEEBCT
When Abraham Lincoln, as a boy. first
came in contact with the institution Of
slavery, ho remarked: "If I ever get a
chance I am going to knock that thlaf.
and knock It hard."
To one of station lowly
And far removed from fame
In early youth a holy
Prophetic vision came.
i
He cherished well the vision
That nursed the germ of truth;
In spite of men's derision; '
In spite of waning youth.
When sacrifice was needed
He gave, nor grudged the gift;
And as the years receded
He saw the darkness lift.
The fogs that clouded reason
Were scattered by the light
And what before was treason
Grew sacred in men's sight.
His memory, without equal,
Lies in our hearts enshrined;
For he, so runs the sequel,
Serves best, who serves mankind.
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