Section II, 1921 [i^^ô] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Second President Lincohi 



By Rendell Williams 



Presented by the Honble. William Renwick Riddell, F. R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1921) 



An American writer, Emerson Hough (who repeatedly calls 

 himself a "Yankee"), in 1609 published a very interesting book 

 called "The Sowing, a Yankee's View of England's Duty to Herself 

 and to Canada. "1 



On page 36 he says: "Generations hence, England still maybe 

 ruling Canada." 



If a Canadian had asked Mr. Hough why he thought England 

 was "ruling Canada," no doubt he would have cited The British 

 North America Act, 1867^ — the so-called "Constitution of Canada" — 

 which, by section 9, provides that "the executive government and 

 authority of Canada is hereby declared to ... be vested in the" 

 King — by other sections provides for a Governor General appointed 

 by the King to carry on the government in the name of the King, 

 for the appoinment for life of all the Senators and Judges by the 

 Governor General in Council, the members of the Council being 

 chosen and summoned by the Governor General, that any statute 

 of the Dominion can be disallowed and annulled by the King; he 

 would point out that Canada cannot even amend her own Constitution 

 and that the Parliament at Westminster could legally make laws 

 governing Canada. The Canadian would say: "Yes, I guess that's 

 so," and grin. 



"But what has th^t to do with the second President Lincoln?" 

 you say. Read on and see. 



Near Atlanta, Georgia, on a small plot of poor land — if such a 

 thing as poor land can be found in the South — lived a coal-black, 

 full-blooded negro. Born in 1867, he was christened Abraham 

 Lincoln, after the idolized and martyred President — we should perhaps 

 say martyred and idolized President, for there was little evidence of 

 idolizing before the martyrdom.^ Naturally the name was con- 

 tracted to Ab'm Linkum, but that did not grieve him. It would 

 indeed have taken a great deal to make him downcast— over six 

 feet in height, broad in proportion, the picture of health, shining like 

 a mirror in the sun, he spent his days in joyous abandon interrupted 



