"'We must not be satisfied until the public sentiment of this State, and the individual conscience shall be instructed to look upon the saloon-keeper and the liquor-seller, with all the license each can give him, as simply and only a privileged malefactor—a criminal.'
"Mr. Lincoln used, in advocating the entire prohibition of the liquor traffic, nearly the same language, and in many instances the same illustrations that he used later on in his arguments against slavery. At another place he said:
"'The real issue in this controversy, the one pressing upon every mind that gives the subject careful consideration, is that legalizing the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is a wrong—as all history and every development of the traffic proves it to be—a moral, social, and political wrong.'
"It should be stated distinctly, squarely, and fairly, and repeated often, that Mr. Lincoln was a practical total abstinence man; wrote for it, worked for it, taught it, both by precept and by example; and when, from a long and varied experience, he found that the greed and selfishness of the liquor-dealers and the saloon-keepers overleaped and disregarded all barriers and every other restraint, and taught by the lessons of experience that nothing short of the entire prohibition of the traffic and the saloon would settle the question, he became an earnest, unflinching prohibitionist.
"It has been said by those most competent to judge, that Mr. Lincoln surpassed all orators in eloquence, all diplomats in wisdom, all statesmen in foresight, and this makes him and his name a power not to be resisted as a political prohibitionist.
"We do not say much about it, for it is not necessary, but there were times and occasions when Mr. Lincoln came to be, in his administration, greater than law—when his wisdom was greater than the combined wisdom of all the people. The people, the law-makers had never comprehended the conditions and the situation that confronted him. He was as great as necessity, and our safety lay in the fact that he was as just as he was great, and as wise as he was just. Great in law, but greater in necessity.
"God be praised for the great gifts he showered upon him; God be praised for the generous use he made of them. In the radiance of God's light and in the sunshine of his love from out the gates of pearl which were swung inward to his entrance by those who waited to welcome him thither, there opened to him that vast and bright eternity, vivid with God's love. We could wish for a moment the veil might be parted and we, too, could have vision that such labor shall be crowned with immortal rest. Hail, brother, and farewell."
In a letter to me, of late date, Major Merwin writes:
"None of us can get too many views of the good and great Lincoln, and the world grows better for all we know, or can learn of him.... I spoke in New Haven last Sunday evening in one of the largest churches in the old college town. The house was packed with Yale students and others. The subject was, 'Lincoln, the Christian Statesman,' emphasizing the religious phase of the man, much to the surprise of many present. This was the real source of his strength. He was larger than any or all so-called 'denominations,' and yet a multitude find both comfort and strength in these various divisions, and Lincoln's heart was glad it was so."