Rutland Daily Herald from Rutland, Vermont • 8

RUTLAND DAILY HERALD, FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 16, 194ft Bridge The Rutland Herald Peregrinations Washington Gossip year training school for teaching to A top-ranking institution with a four- year course and giving a professional degree of bachelor of education. It also survived fire and other disasters and cow has modern plant with fine buildings whose facilities however are strained to the utmost times to take care of incoming! classes. If Caroline Woodruff should desire monument to her life and work. Castleton Normal school would ample and highly suggestive ofj her energy, years of service and successful acomplishmenL BIILLU. tard, vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire or other dressings without advice to smear 'em onto good meat before, after or during cooking.

Like the dumb Dundreary who refused sugar for his coffee; No he said, I never take sugar unless the coffee very bad. A little la ten 1 believe I will have a spot of sugar. Poor meat or hash may be disguised by various pungent dressings, like the unbathed beauties who used to buy Florida water in place of soap, but the best way to spoil a good steak' or chop is to put anything tasty on it. If its good, sauces just spoil the natural flavor. If its not so good, please pass the beans.

P. S- Exception noted in case of fish, boiled or feaked. It needs something perhaps a little sage dressing or tartar sauce. THIRD TEKMAMA. (With apologies to tne late William Cullen Bryant).

To him. who in love with the notion, holds Communion with it visible form. he speaks A various language. For radio hours He has a voice of gladness, and a And eloquence of beauty; and he glides Avar from the debt musing with a mild And gentle sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness ere one is aware. But through The press conferences there comes a blight Over his spirit.

The sad images Of the reporters, the stern agony And breathless silence throughput the White House Makes one. to shudder and grow sick at heart. So shalt thou choose? And what if thou withdraw. In silence with misgivings, and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe Will sigh with great relief. The gay will laugh.

The solemn brood of WPA Will plod on. each one, as before. will chase His favorite phantom; yet all these shall have Their mirth and their continued employments. So what? If. then, they summon thee to join A caravan of candidates, that moves With its frail helm to gascony.

where each Shall end his clamor in silence sans breath. Thou go not. with a regnantory mien. Gorged on thv dogma, but. sustained and -soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thine end With faith in American tradition.

But. if instead, thou wave thy wand and spring Another deck, and so campaign again Pleasant dreams! PAUL T. RICKERT. Leicester, Feb. 12th, 1940.

Poet and Peasant Paul must have been reading too many columns. The white-haired boys of yester-year, who get bawled out from the throne for asking a civil question, may have given him a too-vivid impression of the humors of greatness. Anyway, Teacher would never have contemplated with tolerance this poetic violence to Than-atopsis, one of our pet mediums of gentle melancholy, but there it is P. S. and N.

B. 'Gascony is purely rhetorical. Xny resemblance to present-day places- or conditions is entirely coincidental. Old Man of the Benn-Banner was astonished to find corned-beef hash served at a church supper without ketchup or vinegar and a good idea, too. Pity folks wouldnt get the' same idea about and chops.

Seems like you never read a household page or an ad for mus- The Passing ftteralni Dally. as weiy ta 1794. lent I Daily SUM 1M1. ta Rutland. cum Mad Matter.

Rotated Termon I. at tbe unrunt mrr utmeno Or CIRCULATIONS. SUBSCRIPTION BATES (payment required ta ad City, carrier or mail: taaa than ioaontha. 7Sc a three to at montha, oe ia month; at month. MA1 By maU ta Mew England.

I. Sfd, Dal. D. C. hao.llr? mMitha.

0e a month; thrao month to rni year. MW a month: Remainder Borth America, 7So a north America. month; MW a year. Ouutda North America. L00 a month.

12 iX) a year MEMBER OF TK ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Aaaoctatad Praa I ti tie to th ua lor reproduction of all now diptch credited to of not otharwta credited In thto PPr tti local news publlabod herein. HERALD TlXEFHOin! NUMBERS: ytiielneM Department ss Editorial Rooma FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 18. 1940.

from AKTirt xviu or the VERMONT BILL OF RIGHT A (Adopted duly. nil.J That frequent recurrence to fundamental principle and a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, ta' oLinend frugality ar absolutely neo-tba hleaalngA of liberty keep goremment free. British Myopia. If Great Britain chooses to jeopard-her relations with all neutrals lie througlyadherence to a war-time foreign policy which bristle with arbitrary maritime rulings aimed et the established rights of other. It 1 essentially her own affair.

When, however, those decrees threaten to em-broil the United State and other neu tral in argument or blow with Germany, the offending policy becomes a matter of immediate concern to all nations affected. Several weeks ago Great Britain decreed that all neutral vessels sailing within the combat area must be escorted by patrols into control ports, there to be searched for contraband. The results have caused indignant protests from Washington and other capitals. Now, however, Germany calmly declares that a German prize law gives her the right to seize or attack any neutral ship which touches or enters an enemy harbor whether under compulsion or not. This paves the way for serious trouble.

An American liner or 'freighter, for example, may be stopped by a British patrol and politely told to proceed to Gibraltar for examination. If Germany chooses to enforce her law literally (and she has done so in the case of ships of several ether neutrals) the American ship may be captured or sunk. Small neutrals have been able to no nothing but protest as Holland has been obliged to do within the past few days, but the United States is in a position to do more than that. In fact, two or three such acts might easily draw this country into war. Lord Lothian, British ambassador to this country, says efforts are being made to establish a control port St John, N.

outside the combat area. Inasmuch as the German law makes no mention of combat areas but merely talks of enemy ports, it is difficult to see how this change would better, the situation. Germany, could, if she chose, sink a neutral ship out of SL John just as well as she could one out of Southampton. Theyre both British ports. More drastic corrective measures than that must be adopted.

The trouble lies in British insistence upon cominance of the seas at all costs, with a somewhat myopic disregard of the feelings of others in the at ta inmen of this goal. Great Britain must be made to see that the discovery of a few dollars destined for Germany or some cither bit of contraband which might help the Reich cause is scarcely worth the loss of the goodwill of 'America and those other countries which are smarting under the oppressive restrictions England has adopted. Dr. Woodruff Retires. After nearly threescore years of active service in the schools of Ver mont.

Dr. Caroline S. Woodruff of Castlcton Norndal school retires. St is regretful that Miss Woodruff should be lost to the school and slate as active educator and executive but the occasion is also one of congratulation on a long period of service for education which began as teacher in a rural school and ended as head of the state normal school end also as a recognized national leader of advanced education. An outstanding figure in education, she was the first woman to become head of the State Teachers associa lion and her service as president of the National Education association (1937-38) came after many year of study and research.

She Is still consultant on the Educational relieves commission. These honorable and distinguished positions resulted In large degree from Dr. Woodruff experience in rural teaching and her 20 years of ad ministration in Castleten which have been stressed by a natural and personal interest in the rural schools. She has been one of the stronger in-Cueoces in the gradual raising of teaching standards in Vermont and in giving teachers an adequate and practical professional preparation for iu As for Castleton itself, the school has been built up during her incum bency from a sketchy sort of one- ha at be BY ARNE. WASHINGTON (JP).

Borahs talking. used to be an exciting whisper that simmered through the Capitol and trickled through town. Men and women rushed to the Senate galleries. People downtown actually grabbed cabs to get there in time to bear the Lion of Idaho. Now whos to hand out such magic? There is no natural heir to Borahs toga.

Maybe no one will ever actually wear it That doesnt mean the Senate is devoid of orators. Of show men. Of wits. But theyre not quite the stature of Borah. Theres little Carter Glass of Virginia.

Tiny, 82 years old, he doesnt waste much breath on talking any more except when hes downright hopping mad. Then his distilled, elegant vitriol is something to hear. Its the old school. He can call a man a liar a dozen ways without saying the word. The last time he rose to spray verbal acid in the Senate chamber was a few years back.

People still talk about it He was fulminating because the munitions committee had led up to a point where it insinuated that Wood-row Wilson was a liar. 'Glass an nounced that he would like a few minutes to talk. He rose and looked about, leaning against his desk. He started out that day with the courtly Virginia style he uses. It is with great reluctance that I venture to trespass on the Senates time today, he said.

The Senate and galleries were pin-drop silent. He said the funds voted the munitions committee were so much waste. Thats heavy insult for the Senate, where members seldom write down each others work. He wound up with What I feel like saying here to the man who insults Woodrow Wilson is something which may not be spoken here, or printed in the newspapers, or uttered by a gentleman. The munitions investigation petered out Theres interest of another sort in the silver-tongued sunbeam from the painted desert, Senator Henry F.

Ashurst of Arizona. Hes the scholar of the Senate. And the wit His style also is courtly. Hes a tall, square-shouldered man with a kind smile. Hes the only ory in the Senate who will stand up and poke fun at himself.

He has a phenomenal memory, hes widely read, and he enjoys using rare, puzzling words. He can be as serious, at times, as Borah was, but other times he gets up, for the sheer love of words, and entertains the Senate with scholarly nonsense, as on the occasion when he was accused of being inconsistent Said he: My faults are obvious. I suffer from' cacoethese loquendi, a mania or itch for talking, from vanity, and morbidity, and as is obvious to everyone who knows me, an inborn flair for histrionics. But there never has been super-added to these vices of mine the withering, embalming vice of consistency. Whoever in his public service is handcuffed by the vice of consistency will be a man not free to act as various questions come before him; he will be a statesman locked in a prison house the keys to which are in the keeping of days that are dead.

He stands almost motionless as he talks. He smiles. Occasionally hell toy with his glasses that hang on a black ribbon. Needless to say, the galleries fill for Ashurst They fill for Tom Connally, of Texas, too, the Senates verbal boxer. Hes the one the democrats leave on the floor to heckle the republicans.

Hes a dangerous antagonist because he doesnt hesitate to become personal. He never talks from notes. Hes tall, well-built, handsome, usu ally smiling. Theres a southern planter touch about him; maybe its the tucked shirts, or the curling gray hair thats a touch long. Hes full of stories.

He recently killed an offered amendment which would have limited United States sales of poison gas. He took the stand that in war weapons must meet weapons, and that the United Stdtes should either sell every-thing, or nothing. He recalled an illustrative story. It was about Bob Toombs who was In the Congress before the Civil war. Toombs became a brigadier general in the Confederacys army and made speeches to whip up war fever.

Hed wind up with, "And are the Yanks such soldiers, gentlemen? Why. we could beat them with corn stalks. Corn-stalks, I say. The war ended, and Toombs ran again for the House. One day he was stopped in a speech by a man who wanted to know about that corn-stalk boast.

Toombs said, Yes I said that still think so. But gentlemen, the Yanks didn't use corn-stalks. Connally killed the amendment with a laugh. TWO MISSING ITEMS. (New York Sun.) President Roosevelts figures on national economics, given a few days before without direct quotation, were repeated by him more concretely on Saturday: The national income from all sources ha increased from in 1932 to $68,500,000,000 in 1939 in other words plus 71 per cent Wares and salaries have increased from $2,400,000,000 in December, 1932, to $3,888,000,000 in December, 1939 plus 62 per cent It might have helped the educaUon of the delegates of the Youth Congress If Mr.

Roosevelt had added two simple items of historical record: 1. The year 1932 used in his com parison was the nadir of the national depression. 2. The dollars of 1932 contained 25.8 grain of gold as compared' with lt5-21 grain In 1939. In other words, there was a 100-cent dollar in 1932 and a 59-cent dollar in 1933.

These little facts, we nope, will not in Mr. Roosevelts words, be misstated and twisted by many newspapers and by some politicians seeking office. Result of Necessity. The decision to charge a 10 cent I fee for use of the parking area at Willow and Edson streets was a matter of necessity, not choice. Once support for a free parking area was not forthcoming, there was nothing to do but give up the whole plan or inaugurate the charge.

It seems a pity that the business-1 men of Rutland are not' willing to dig down in their own pockets enough to maintain free parking for an unlimited time for out-of-town shoppers. This was the original conception of the Rutland Development corporation when it started the area, but, although every possible effort seems to have been made to carry the plan through, maintenance funds could not be raised. Lately, the burden has rested heavily on a few organizations alone, and they could 1 hardly be expected to do more than their share indefinitely. The 10 cent fee should more than I cover operating expenses, and shoppers may take some comfort out of the fact that excess, income will be devoted to improving and enlarging the facilities at their disposal. The problems of the parking area I cannot be separated from the general parking problem in Rutland.

Incon-1 sistency in enforcement of the ordin- I ance, resulting from the inability of both city officials and merchants to make up their minds what they want, has complicated the situation and made It difficult to believe in some of the suggested remedies. This, like many of our problems, is one of long-range planning; it cannot be solved by hit-or-miss expediencies. Just a Reminder. A headline in yesterday mornings derald served as a startling remind- I er that the Allies and Germany ac- tually are fighting along the Franco-1 German frontier. "French report nazi -attack neaf-1 Saar river repulsed." Steeped in information concerning Finland's war of desperation, the mobilizing of English, French and Turks in the I Near East and the war on the sea, the average reader found it hard for I a moment to grasp the import of this headline and the story accompanying it Then it all came back.

All along I the border between France and Ger- many are two great fortresses filled with soldiers. Occasionally they get restless and exchange a few shots or even go out on scouting expeditions to vary the monotony. -It isnt much like war but if all wars could be just as quiet and bloodless wed all be I happier. Matter of Form. The proper wording of an article in the town warning to permit the towns to take part in the plans for I local recreational development Is a matter of some argument In Orleans county this form has been widely "To see if the town will instruct its selectmen to use a sum of money from the general fund, not to exceed 1 per cent on the dollar of the grand list for the purpose of co-operating with other Orleans county towns in conducting a publicity campaign for recreational development in the area and creating a market for abandoned farm property.

Town meetings being what they are the best surviving example of pure democracy in local government the text of the warning seems to be quite important Modern Neighborliness. The response of Chief Koltonski and five of his men to a call for help in fighting Burlingtons disastrous hotel fire is a modern example of the neighborlincss which characterized the days of the bucket brigade when men came from far and near to help a neighbor fight a fire. In this case the neighbors are cities, separated by 67 miles of snowy, icy roads; for transportation the Rutland firemen had a fast car instead of horses but the desire and will to help are the same now as formerly. Rutlandcrs regret that Burlington sustained such a heavy: loss but they are glad that they were able to help in however indirect and minor a fashion by responding to Burlingtons call for aid without delay. The most sensible thing that has been said about the Youth Movement and its Leftist leanings is that not only communists, but republicans, democrats, socialists and all ether political affiliations should be barred from the organiation.

Otherwise It will simply become another one of those things BY THOMAS K. SALMON. Wanted: A Lincoln. Little brother from Seattle was much amused while attending the convention of his bosses, the national grocers, at Chicago, to have the telephone girl call him at 7 oclock, saying sweetly; Its 7 oclock, please, and the temperature is five below zero. Just a nice winter day.

but it allowed all the weather sissies to go back to the Pacific coast and brag about the hardships they endured in the East. Listen: Imagine then the contrast upon our arrival in Seattle to find the temperature at 64 degrees. glorious sunshine, our lawns waiting for the mower, many flowers blooming in the yard and frogs lustily singing their springtime love songs. People out here on Puget Sound do not half appreciate their blessings and privileges 'of living in this kind of a climate. Worst of it is that Maw agrees with this nonsense and says shed rather be in the Puget Sound country from now on to June than anywhere else in the U.S.A.

And its pretty nice from June on, too. The imminence of auto registration for the year leads to the following interesting outburst from a Fair Haven reader: When I think of Lisense Plates it makes me sick of this old State With auto Lisence three times to high and Pole taxes to the sky and if they are not paid at al Some big guy with a star will take you car and all You cant fish or hunt or park with out running into a Shark with-a. Star upon his coat I tell you it gets my goat and if you think this place Is Free then you Differ a lot from me for I can always write a line and give you the truth most any time. Speaking in a purely clinical sense, you might have something paL Political Sho northern branch seeking a middle ground. The dying whig party was completely befuddled and the newly born republican party was zealous in its crusade for freedom but did not comprehend entirely that com passion of its leader with charity for all, and malice towards none.

Before election day is over this November, we shall be treated to some apt and many inept compari sons of the 1940 and 1860 political campaigns. The conflicts 'within parties and the intensity of the political strife that lies before us will produce conditions in 1940 analogous to those of 1860, but by no means identicaL The American voter this year will have to make a critical decision. He will have to disentangle facts from fallacies, disguised with emotional appeals and partisan prejudices. He will have to look beyond those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and bela bored to the consequences his decision will have in preserving or destroying a nation of free men. Unfortunately, none of our candi dates for the presidency seems to speak with that direct clarity of Ab raham Lincoln.

We are looking for a heart and mind to bring us an understanding of todays problems with the same simplicity and terseness that Lincoln used in his Gettysburg address to sum up the purpose of the Civil war. Lincoln had a resolute faith that government of the people, by the people, for the people meant that all ultimate decisions could be left to the people who might be misled temporarily, but not permanently. That was a faith in democracy also held by the framers of our Constitution which expressly provides that all powers not delegated under it are retained by the people. Recognition of the ultimate good judgment of the people is evident today when leaders of both major political parties agree that the election this year will be decided by some IC.000,000 independent voters. Lincoln, and the ideal of government he held, is exerting a powerful influence on people today who look upon a world in which freedom is fast vanishing.

And something of a Lincoln ic stature or spirit will be a necessity for the successful presidential candidate this coining November. Clipped From CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. (New York Time.) In its original form, recommended by the United States Civil Service commission, the Ramspeck Civil Service bill, passed in an amended form by the House last week, authorized the president to bring into the classified civil service some 240,000 federal employes now unclassified. The 60,000 WPA employes would be practically the only employes of the execuUve branch outside of the classified service. The republicans looked sourly upon this summary blanketing, but they were of another mind when the first President Roosevelt and President Taft, each at the end of an administration, were the blanketers.

The classified civil service can hever be extended if the theory is followed that the party in power has an undue advantage over its successors and opponents. The Ramspeck bill provides for a non-compeUUve examination. This doesnt differ from a competiUve examination, but the mark required to pass is lower. Republican members of the Civil Service committee and other republicans tried to pass an amendment forcing the present incumbents to pass a competiUve examination within this year. The amendment was lost.

The matter is further perplexed by the passage of an amendment which in effect merely requires strict enforcement of the law directing the distribuUon among the states and territories of civil em ploye of the executive branch in proportion to their population. Like it or dislike it, that is the law. A law hard to execute, it is said. The statis Ucs of distribution in the report of the United States Civil Service com mission show some queer instances of disproportion. To remedy these, geographical jusUce will have to be done; but presumably this can be done gradually, without dismissal of civil servants from quota-exceeding states and territories.

The new office-holding material can be tested by non-competiUve examination and by observaUon of its behavior in of fice. THE PROTEST AT ALBANY. (New York Sun.) TTie display at Albany in protest against more state taxes was impressive to those who saw it or read of it Here were thousands of men and women giving up a holiday and going tc the state's capital, not to see its beayUes but to object to its oppressions. No such gathering was ever seen in this state before. It value will be determined by the act of the Legislature.

If it succeeded, then it may have been the beginning of a fortunate period in economy. If it failed, then it can be set down as the beginning of a crusade. Of course it was not a one-sided demonstration. It would have been absurd to expect that the proponents of economy could have their say alone. Ranged against them were the well-trained and usually well-re-warded orators of the groups that have controlled Albany for years; the trade union barons that held Gov.

Lehman and his democratic majority in the hollow of their hands in 1935; the public employes who are united Other Papers in the determination that, no matter how other people fare, their incomes shall not be reduced; the demagogues whose specialty is relief; the spouters who howl democracy at every turn. The depth of their logic was reflected in the argument of one of their foremost speakers that, as Industry provided jobs for 'young people twenty years ago but did not do so now, it should be taxed to support them. Strange words to hear at Albany, where industry has been so harassed by taxes and regulation that it is leaving the state! The advocates of economy offered concrete plans for reducing the state budget Its opponents offered nothing, being content to go along with the theory that as the income taxpayer is still alive after all the beatings he has received it would be easy to kick a few more dollars out of him. Spend and spend, tax and tax, elect and elect the aphorism of disputed origin still holds with them. But the revolt has begun.

If the beneficiaries of public money are temporarily vie torious in their effort to hold everything they have and contribute nothing to the restoration of the state and its finances, let them not howl too loudly when the day of wrath comes. REVOLT IN BERGEN. (New York Sun.) In New Jerseys Bergen county a tempest rages in the county teapot. Taxpayers associations and inquiring individuals have started a revolt over alleged extravagance on the part of the Board of Freeholders. Tens of thousands of people who work in Manhattan live in Bergen county.

On the 246 square miles. within its lines live 365,000, a population larger than that of Jersey City. A few days ago the Bergen Board of Freeholders called a meeting to consider the county budget. TO this body came various taxpayers bearing ot gifts but ques tions. Evidently the Freeholders knew of the wrath that swirled beneath the serenity of the meeting when it open ed, because the director of the board announced at the start that to avoid controversy no question from the public would be answered until later date.

After that came the deluge. a a The outcome seems typical of governmental bodies under fire of criticism. First information is withheld, and when this arouses the public the officeholders turn on their own employes. The leak which has exposed rising expenses, salary grabs and other details of government becomes the crime; the concealment from taxpayers is made to seem quite proper. Nothing is done by the servants of the public to correct the exposed conditions, but every conceivable effort is made to stop the leak of information.

If it were cot for a few inquiring taxpayers the wastrels in public office would go unchecked. THINK IT OVER. (Burlington Free Preaa.) It isnt quite clear on what basis the American Youth congress is planning to form an alliance with John L. Lewis and the CIO, but the young people will do well to stop, look and listen before getting involved in any such alliance. The Lens A Tulsa young woman stormed into the District court clerks office and demanded: Give me a divorce!" The clerk, Paul Burney, suggested she have a lawyer file a petition for one.

"Oh, she said, I thought all you had to do was ask for it. The Joliet, 111, young couple were profuse in Something their apologies for the condition of the book which they were returning to the library. It had been chewed by their dog. The book: How to train your dog. Clarence Henke of 1 Taken Evansvillef Ind aske(j to the his sister whether she Cleaners.

had seen hia best Why, you sent it to the cleaners, she said. No, I didnt" Well, anyway, she continued, early this week a man came to the door and said he was from the cleaners. I gave him the suit." Maurice Chaude, president of the Iloudmi assembly, American Society of Magicians, thinks spirits had something to do with his failure to get quorum on the third floor of the Press club for the annual meeting. So, without the aid of mirrors, he levitated his missing members by ordering the bar moved up from the first floor. Two Worcester, Mass, gunmen robbed Mrs.

Mary Monopli. 60, of $1300 last Wednesday. On Friday. masked stranger rapped at her door and handed her $1100. A few days later someone else rapped.

When she opened the door, she found $200 on the porch. 100 Years Ago THREE IN, A BED One of the resolutions adopted a Whig meeting la Concord a evenings since read thus: Resolved, that we congratulate the Whigs of our sister States, Ver mont and Maine, upon late signal triumph over the combined forces of the office holders and seekers, and that New Hampshire will yet prove herself a sister worthy to lay in middle." The Torie have set her a snooze ing" alongside of Miss Souri and Mrs. SippI, but the moment cold weather comes on shell jump out of bed "in the twinkling of a bed-post, get into a separate couch -long wl1 Louisa Anna. Claremont N. Eagle.

LITTLE TOO WET. (Brattleboro Reformer.) Somebody at Hardwick has dug big well and claim it will supply 000,000 gallons of water a day but trust it will not be needed to damp Oscar Shepards campaign. Monday evening was again the occasion for the annual oratorical barrage that republican leaders lay down in banquet balls to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Hoover in Omaha, Hamilton in New York, Dewey in Portland, T. K.

SALMON. Taft in Greensboro, N. and thousands of lesser lights of the party in other cities contributed to the salvo of sensible and senseless sound. On another Monday morning, late in February, 80 years ago, there was a speaker, awkward, ungainly and dressed in an ill-fitting, crumpled black suit, who spoke to the intellect and culture of New York from the gas-lit platform at Cooper Institute. The speaker was Abe Lincoln of Illinois.

When he started his talk, he was merely an uncouth curiosity from the uncivilized west who brought smiles to the faces of his fashionable eastern audience. When he had finished. he was unquestionably the next presidential nominee of the republican party. Without the benefit of a nationwide radio network that Cooper In statute speech by Lincoln was broadcast over the country through the press and by pamphlet. With simplicity and sincerity he had laid bare the fundamental issues of the most critical political campaign this country has ever faced.

In the spring and summer of 1860, men sensed the fatal drift towards disunion that was to bring four long years of civil war. Selfish interests and searchers for some middle ground between right and wrong1 were both incapable of understanding Lincolns: "Let us have faith that right make might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. The democratic party was hopelessly divided with its southern wing determined to maintain the institution of slavery at any cost its 1..