Addresses : delivered at the celebration of the one hundred and fifth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, under the auspices of the Lincoln Centennial Association at the State Armoury, in Springfield, Illinois, the twelfth day of February, nineteen hundred and fourteen

UNCOLN

CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION

ADDRESSES

MCMXIV

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ADDRESSES

Delivered

At The

Celebration of

The One Hundred

AND Fifth
Anniversary

of the birth of

Abraham Lincoln

Under The Auspices of The

Lincoln Centennial Association

At The
Ctate Armoury, in Springfield,
Illinois, on the twelfth day
of February y nineteen hundred
and fourteen.

Springfield
Printed for the Association

The Lincoln Centennial
Association

Incorporated under the Laws of Illinois

Object: *'To properly observe the one
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abra-
ham Lincoln; to preserve to posterity the
memory of his words and works, and to stimu-
late the patriotism of the youth of the land by
appropriate annual exercises**

Incorporators
The Honorable Melville W. Fuller*
The Honorable Shelby M. Cullom
The Honorable Albert J. Hopkins
The Honorable Joseph G. Cannon
The Honorable Adlai E. Stevenson*
The Honorable Richard Yates
The Honorable J Otis Humphrey
(ii)

The Honorable Charles S. Deneen
The Honorable John P. Hand
The Honorable James A. Rose*
The Honorable Ben F. Caldwell
Dr. William Jayne
Mr. John W. Bunn
Mr. Melville E. Stone
Mr. Horace White

*Deceased.

Officers
President, J Otis Humphrey
Vice-President, John W. Bunn
Treasurer, J. H. Holbrook
Secretary, Philip Barton Warren

(iii)

Speakers at Former
Celebrations

HE Right Honorable James Bryce,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Min-
ister Plenipotentiary from Great
Britain; the Honorable J. J. Jusserand,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary from the French Republic;
the late Jonathan P. Dolliver, former United
States Senator for Iowa; the Honorable Wil-
liam Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State; the
Honorable Charles S. Deneen, former Gover-
nor of Illinois; Dr. Booker T. Washington, of
the Tuskegee Institute; the Honorable Wil-
liam Howard Taft, former President of the
United States; the Honorable Martin W. Lit-
tleton, former member of Congress from New
(iv)

speakers at Former Celebrations v

York; the Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge,
United States Senator from Massachusetts;
the Honorable Frank B. Willis, member of
Congress for Ohio; Count J. Von Bernstorff,
the German Ambassador to the United States ;
the Honorable Joseph W. Bailey, former
United States Senator for Texas.

Honorable J O. Humphrey, The

President of the Association
made the following

Introductory Remarks

HE rolling centuries have
occasionally produced a
man who dwarfs the re-
mainder of the human race
— a man of elemental large-
ness, as open as the prairie
and clean as the wind that follows up the rain.
For the most part, he is clothed with a cer-
tain lank grace which the Gods deny to other
men. Whatever his theme, he is always a
voice crying in the wilderness. To this man
(vi)

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Introductory Remarks vii

the people always listen. Yea, though he hide
himself, they will find him and come to him on
their knees. Such a man was Abraham Lin-
coln. As Antaeus drew strength from the
earth, so Lincoln the first to spring up from
prairie richness drew from the people. All too
early is it yet to take the measure of his great-
ness. Still while less than a half century from
him, literature is swelling in a billowy tide
around the name of Lincoln.

1 J|lPi|||M^J$|j;'^j^

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The President

of the Association^ Introducing

Senator Robinson

n~^HE best endorsement any man
can have is the endorsement of

those who know him best. When
a man still clothed with evi-
dences of youthful vigor has
been selected by his people as a representative
in Congress, as Governor of his state, and as a
Senator of the United States, we assume that he
has been tested and not found wanting. Ar-
kansas, the awakening giant of the middle
south, has sent her brilliant son to voice the
tribute of the southland to the enduring fame
of Lincoln. Gentlemen, Senator Robinson,
(viii)

Lincoln— A Tribute
From The South

The Address Delivered by the
Honorable Joseph T. Robinson
United States Senator from Arkansas

ALLED by the courtesy of the
Lincoln Memorial Association
to speak on this anniversary of
the birth of Mr. Lincoln, I am
awed and inspired by the sur-
roundings. Springfield was the home of Mr.
Lincoln throughout his public career. It was
the center of the political conflicts which he
(ix)

10 Lincoln — A Tribute jrom the South

waged — conflicts that produced the New Re-
public founded on universal Freedom and the
perpetual union of the states. Here lie his
remains, his memory cherished by old friends,
his fame secure in the love and gratitude of a
reunited country. May I assume to contrib-
ute to these proceedings a message from the
present-day South, the heartfelt tribute of all
her people?

When the spirit of revenge had seized the
souls of many then in power; when the South
lay at the feet of the union armies; when the
multitudes were crying *'Hang the rebels!"
and "Little Tad", God bless his memory, said
''No; let's not hang them; let's hang on to
them", Mr. Lincoln declared 'Tad is right;
let's hang on to them ; not hang them". Thus
was epitomized the policy pursued in the
restoration of the seceding states. Thus was
exemplified the resolute mercy of him whom

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 1 1

the South had hated, but who, unresentfully,
stood as a "pillar of cloud by day and fire by
night" between what remained of her civili-
zation and destruction. It is for this magnani-
mous service that the South reverently joins the
North in celebrating this occasion; commis-
sions me to bring a white rose plucked by the
daughter of a Confederate soldier from a gar-
den blooming in the heart of Dixie. If Mr.
Lincoln were now alive there is not a home in
all the South that would not give him joyous
welcome. The surviving followers of the
dauntless Lee, untitled knights in grey, would
combine with the scattered fragments of
Grant^s legion to form his guard of honor.

The predominance of the commonplace in
Mr. Lincoln's nature colors his life with som-
ber pathos. His youth, his experience as a
lawyer, the debates with Douglas, and his ad-
ministration as President during the Civil

12 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

War, comprise the important phases of his
career, and excite interest and amazement.

THE HARDSHIPS OF HIS YOUTH

Little is known of Mr. Lincoln's first years
spent in the backwoods of Kentucky. Scant is
the tale which biographers tell of his un-
requited toil when a lad in Indiana. The
humility of his birth, recollections of an im-
provident father and an unfortunate, sorrow-
ful mother, followed him through life and
tempered his soul with tolerance for frailties
and sympathy for sufferings.

Poor Nancy Hanks! For every joy life
brought to you, there came a thousand woes!
For every day of calm and sun, a year of storm
and gloom! Into your grave unspoken went
the story of your sorrow and sufferings. Yours
was a life of obscurity. To your son was
transmitted a heritage of fellowship for com-

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 13

mon people, a capacity for mighty duties never
once neglected or forgotten. The hardships
of humble birth, poverty and toil, gave a color
to the life of Mr. Lincoln which never faded,
stored in his mind a knowledge of common
things, and a familiarity with the trivial
achievements and weighty cares of the humble.

LINCOLN THE LAWYER AND LOCAL P0LITICL\N

When and how Mr. Lincoln became in-
spired with the ambition to be a lawyer is not
well known. His services in the Black Hawk
War were inconspicuous and were the subject
of ridicule by him. They seem, however, to
have formed the basis of a political ambition,
for in 1832, immediately following his brief
military experience, he became a candidate for
the Illinois legislature from Sangamon County
on a platform advocating extensive internal
improvements, general education and the pass-

14 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

age of a usury law. Defeated, he contemplated
becoming a blacksmith, but decided to form a
partnership with one Berry for the sale of mer-
chandise. This venture proved an utter failure
and left him embarrassed by debts. As a mer-
chant Mr. Lincoln manifested neither dili-
gence nor ability. While engaged as a store-
keeper, he gave attention to the study of law,
having found, as tradition says, a copy of
Blackstone's Commentaries in a barrel. In
1833 he became postmaster at New Salem, and,
we are told, distributed the mail from his hat
to patrons of the office, as he chanced to meet
them on the streets. In 1834, after some ex-
perience as a deputy surveyor, he became a
member of the state Legislature, was re-elected
and became identified with "The Long Nine",
a cabal which controlled the general assem-
bly, and involved the state in questionable
schemes. He was re-elected to the legislature

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 15

in 1838 and again in 1840, becoming the Whig
candidate for speaker. He seemed unfitted
for the duties which his legislative committee
assignments required, having been appointed
to the Committee on Accounts and Expendi-
tures in the first session and afterwards to the
Committee on Finance. His legislative ex-
perience as a whole was not especially meri-
torious, certainly not remarkable. The same
is true of his career in Congress, which was
limited to one term and began in December,
1847. He delivered, however, in the House of
Representatives, a speech on the famous
"Spott Resolutions" far superior to anything
he ever said in the Illinois legislature.

During all these years he was practicing
law and developing a knowledge of human
nature which was to serve him well in the vital
period of his life. Mr. Lincoln was a natural
advocate, slow of movement, cautious in

i6 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

speech, forceful, analytical, and logical in ar-
gument. He refused to champion corrupt
and unjust causes, and thus acquired a power
before juries that made him almost invincible.
His study of the law was limited to the prepa-
ration of his cases. He paid litde attention to
the collection of fees, kept no books, and was
withal an original type of lawyer.

THE DEBATES WITH DOUGLAS

It was not, however, until the slavery ques-
tion had become acute and Mr. Lincoln had
met "The Little Giant", then, perhaps the fore-
most orator in the United States Senate, on the
platform in debate, that his remarkable powers
became apparent. He had sought to be ap-
pointed Commissioner of the General Land
Office, and had been disappointed. He had
been tendered the governorship of Oregon
Territory and had refused it. His practice as

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 17

a lawyer, together with his service in the Illi-
nois legislature and in Congress, had given
him valuable training for the memorable de-
bates with Douglas which resulted in the most
far-reaching event of the times, the abolition
of slavery.

The debate hinged upon the power and duty
of Congress to prevent the extension of slavery.
It did not involve or contemplate the abolition
of slavery where it already existed. Mr. Doug-
las advocated the popular system of submitting
the issue to the state concerned. Mr. Lincoln
championed the forces that opposed the ex-
tension of slavery and denounced the institu-
tion as immoral and at variance with the fun-
damental theories of our government. He
succeeded in dividing the Democratic party.
While Mr. Douglas was re-elected to the Sen-
ate, Mr. Lincoln made an issue which chal-
lenged the patriotism and involved the prop-

i8 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

erty interests of the nation. It is doubtful
whether he expected or desired the prominence
which his debates with Douglas brought to
him. His speeches in this campaign, the ad-
dress at Cooper Union — all his speeches on
the slavery question — had a peculiar quality.
They were not brilliant. The first impression
they made, unlike the speeches by Mr. Doug-
las, increased in power, so that what first ap-
peared little more than an ordinary effort, ex-
panded in influence until it became national in
its effects. Reading these debates at this dis-
tant day, one is not surprised at the effects of
Mr. Lincoln's speeches. They were the terse
epigrammatic expressions of a mind charged
with thought ; of a conscience inspired by duty,
and, most of all, so closely in sympathy with
the trend of the times as to seem to lead rather
than to follow it.

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 19

AT THE HEAD OF THE NATION

These debates made Mr. Lincoln the nom-
inee of the Republican party for President in
i860, prevented the election of Mr. Douglas
to that high office, and called Mr. Lincoln to
the Chief Magistracy of the nation to meet the
gravest responsibilities any President has en-
countered. It is difficult now to realize his em-
barrassments and burdens. While the fires of
rebellion were smouldering in every southern
state, and one after another was passing seces-
sion ordinances, many northern citizens, de-
spising Mr. Lincoln, withheld their confi-
dence, and secretly or openly encouraged the
enemies of his administration. Mr. Lincoln
instantly grasped the portentious issue. He
realized that the union was in jeopardy. As-
sembling a cabinet of political rivals, he sought
to harmonize conflicting factions by forcing

20 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

to the front and keeping there, the necessity
for preserving the union at all hazards. No
man ever had greater opportunities to blunder
or better justification for error. Yet, viewed
even in the light of the present, his administra-
tions were free from important mistakes.
More than this. Attributable to his caution,
the government displayed a consistency
throughout the war that seems well nigh mar-
velous. When Fort Sumter fell, Great Brit-
ain, in effect, promptly recognized the bellig-
erency of the Confederacy. Seward lost his
temper, and prepared a message to the Ameri-
can minister at the Court of St. James calcu-
lated to produce an open rupture with that
government and probably to strain relations
with other European powers. Mr. Lincoln
kept his head; he never lost it. By so editing
Mr. Seward's message that it became inoffen-
sive, yet retained its force, amicable relations

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 21

were preserved with Great Britain, and a bet-
ter understanding brought about.

EMANCIPATION

The two masterful achievements which
glorify the name of Mr. Lincoln are the pres-
ervation, or rather the re-establishment of the
Union on a permanent basis, and the emanci-
pation of the slaves.

When General Fremont and General Hun-
ter issued military orders freeing the slaves,
Mr. Lincoln revoked them because he did not
believe that emancipation had became a mili-
tary necessity, and because of the strong senti-
ment at the north into converting the war for
the preservation of the Union into a war of
abolition. Many agreed with Mr. Lincoln
that if the Emancipation Proclamation had
been issued in the early stages of the conflict
it would have encompassed the loss of all the

22 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

border states and imperiled, if not defeated,
the Union cause. When the tide of the con-
flict had reached its flood and the indomitable
armies of the Confederacy were holding at
bay the soldiers of the Union; when the fate
of the nation hung upon the point of sword
and bayonet, and disaster seemed not improba-
ble to the Union cause, Mr. Lincoln resolved
that military necessity existed for the emanci-
pation of the slaves, and accordingly issued
the proclamation. He instructed the cabinet
when assembled to consider it, not to discuss
the wisdom or propriety of the proclamation,
but only its form and terms. On his own re-
sponsibility, after having attempted to deter-
mine in advance the social and political ques-
tions which freedom to the slaves would bring
to the South, Mr. Lincoln acted without hesi-
tation, and vindicated his claim to greatness.
In no other way could slavery have been abol-

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 23

ished. In no other way could the present glory
of the South have been made possible.

Abolitionists from the beginning of the war
had denounced Mr. Lincoln for not taking
this step. Now that he had issued the procla-
mation, from limit to limit of the country came
loud protests, fierce denunciations. Meetings
were held, inflammatory speeches made, bitter
newspaper editorials published, and the eman-
cipator was made an object of calumny.

In a letter to James C. Conkling of Spring-
field, Mr. Lincoln boldly sought to justify
emancipation on the ground that it had become
necessary to preserve the Union. He expressed
confidence in the final triumph of the army and
navy and appreciation of their achievements:

"The signs look better. The Father of
Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks
to the great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly
to them. Three hundred miles up they met
New England, Empire, Keystone and Jersey

24 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

hewing their way right and left. The sunny
South, too, in more colors than one, also lent
a helping hand.

"On the spot their part of the history is dot-
ted down in black and white. The job was a
great national one; and let none be barred
who bore an honorable part in it. And while
those who have cleared the Great River may
well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard
to say that anything has been more bravely
and well done than at Antietam, Murfrees-
boro, Gettysburg, and many fields of lesser
note. Nor must Uncle Sam's Web Feet be for-
gotten. At all the watery margins they have
been present. Not only on the deep seas, the
broad bay and the rapid river, but also up the
narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the
ground was a little damp they have been — and
made their tracks, thanks to all. For the Great
Republic — for the principle it lives by and
keeps alive — for man's vast future, thanks to
all".

Such prophetic hopefulness manifested in
spite of calumnies, conspiracies and bitter
hatreds !

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 25

I have said that the South unanimously
honors the memory of Mr. Lincoln because
of his generosity and magnanimity in the hour
of its desolation. There is yet another greater
reason. Emancipation was far more neces-
sary to the section immediately afflicted with
slavery than any other. If slavery had con-
tinued, it would have made the poor white
man's condition intolerable. It fostered an
aristocracy of landowners, excluded the poor
white man from opportunities of profitable
labor, and barred to him the avenues of pro-
gress. At the outbreak of the war the total
number of slave owners in the United States
did not exceed 374,000. The remaining mil-
lions that constituted the white population of
the South were compelled to earn their living
by competition with slave labor. Aside from
the idleness and arrogance which slavery cul-
tivated, it created social and industrial condi-

26 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

dons among the whites repugnant to free insti-
tutions and inconsistent with the constitutional
standard of personal liberty.

Throughout the war the primary responsi-
bility for its conduct rested upon President
Lincoln. His courage and his confidence
were often tested. They never entirely failed.
In the hours that followed Chancellorsville, the
nation-broad shadow of despair approached
him. The mistakes of Federal commanders
in the field, the brilliant victories of the Con-
federate armies, were all blamed upon him.
His enemies denounced Mr. Lincoln for not
bringing the war to a speedy close. His friends
were slow to assert what is now apparent. He
was exhausting every constitutional power to
encompass that end. His great heart followed
the Union armies through disasters to final
victory; out to where the grey lines dashed
against the blue; where hearts throbbed like

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 27

drum beats; where battle clouds obscured the
sun by day and flashing swords and glittering
bayonets paled the gleam of stars by night ; out
to where the ranks closed above the fallen,
where many a brave soldier sank to his last
sleep charmed by dream melodies of child-
hood, lullabies that sounded above the clamor
of conflict like hallelujahs of the redeemed
above the noise of Hell !

May never again such a trial come to any
man. May never again such strife disturb our
land. If in the future it shall come, may there
be found another who will use his power as
resolutely, yet as mercifully as then did Abra-
ham Lincoln.

As there was little hatred or bitterness be-
tween the soldiers of the North and the South,
so Mr. Lincoln never expressed vindictiveness
toward those engaged in the rebellion. How
marvelous that he should never have yielded to

28 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

the spirit of revenge! With the weight of a
war upon him, he was always accessible to the
humblest citizen. He never turned a deaf ear
to a plea for mercy. Throughout the four
years of organizing, arming and maintaining
vast armies; four years of marching and fight-
ing such as until then the wars of earth had
never known, this awkward, melancholy, char-
itable man never permitted an erring soldier
to be wrongfully executed. Grey-haired pa-
rents, mothers with babes in their arms, young
wives to whom love's caress was new, all seek-
ing mercy for father, husband, lover, friend,
found in him a patient auditor. The tramp of
maddened armies, and the noise of battles
could not drown their prayers for help.

At last it came to pass that peace was re-
stored. Peace at what a price! What cosdy
sacrifices of blood and fortunes! What sobs
of anguish, what cries of pain ! What a God-

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 29

send that Mr. Lincoln still lived and ruled ! If
another more vindictive and less charitable
than he had then been President, the wounds
of war might have never healed.

Mr. Lincoln was superstitious. He was a
fatalist and believed in dreams. At certain
periods of his life he was not orthodox in his
religious views. Nevertheless, when at the
head of the nation, he manifested unfaltering
faith in God and in his Providence. He was
endowed with a sense of humor, an apprecia-
tion of the ludicrous that relieved the gloom of
his melancholy spirit, and relaxed the tension
of his cares. No man ever used anecdotes to
better advantage, yet many of his stories were
too coarse for sensitive ears. He rarely min-
gled in society. Women had him at a disad-
vantage. His pathetic love for Ann Rutledge,
his courtship of Mary Owen, her rejection of
him and his unpardonable letter in reply, his

30 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

marriage to Mary Todd after having once ab-
sconded to avoid marrying her, are interesting
incidents illustrative of his peculiar disposi-
tion. Reviewing his life now, one catches
traces of queer characteristics. Yet, whatever
the sidelights, the form of Mr. Lincoln looms
gigantic. Through the years his love for
"Little Tad", his constant companion and un-
faltering friend, shines in undimmed splendor.
His tragic death hastened the coming of the
universal appreciation of his great achieve-
ments— the preservation of the republic and
the destruction of slavery.

THE HALL OF FAME

Throughout history pre-eminently great
men have rarely gathered in groups. They
have usually appeared as solitary giants tower-
ing above the level of mediocrity, their shadows
lengthening with time.

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 31

In our National Capitol between the Senate
Chamber and the House of Representatives is
Statuary Hall, consecrated to famous Ameri-
cans. Visitors have access to this Temple of
the Great, and, passing to and fro, gaze in
wonderment and admiration at the bronze and
marble likenesses adjudged to represent our
best and greatest. Here Illinois has placed the
figure of Abraham Lincoln, and Virginia has
erected the statue of Robert E. Lee, reflecting
the spirit of the new time, reconciliation and
harmonious reunion never again to be dis-
rupted. How marvelous that Lincoln should
have counseled leniency and Lee should have
urged submission to the flag of the Union, and
that both should have found their way to places
in our national Hall of Fame !

Students have consecrated a small arena to
the deeds and memories of the great of earth,
the master spirits of all ages. How few the

32 Lincoln — A Tribute from the South

figures there ! In the shadow realm that bounds
the well defined arena in which are placed by
common consent and shall forever stand the
statues of the great, move the phantoms of
those who have tried in vain to make their
names immortal, but for whom opportunity
and tales have not happily combined. Abra-
ham Lincoln belongs in the select company of
the world's renowned. Centuries of alternat-
ing progress and decline, social upheavals, in-
dustrial earthquakes and political revolutions
may pile their dust about him. They can not
entomb him. Mankind is his debtor. His
deeds will endure.

Abraham Lincoln, humble, awkward pa-
triot ! To you it was given to perform a mighty
service to your country and to all mankind.
As the ages pass, your name will become more
and more familiar. Today the citizens of this
republic repeat the sentiment you uttered when

Lincoln — A Tribute from the South 33

assuming the heaviest responsibility ever com-
mitted to man :

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must
not be enemies. Though passion may have
strained, it must not break the bonds of our
affection. The mystic chords of memory
stretching from every battlefield and patriot
grave to every living heart and hearthstone all
over this broad land, will yet swell the chords
of the Union when touched again, as surely
they will be, by the angels of our better nature".

Abraham Lincoln! Your prayer has been
answered. No thought or fear of civil con-
flict or disunion. Peace and abiding friend-
ship among the states; freedom and progress
the watchwords of all our people.

"Until the Future dares forget the Past
Your fate and fame shall be
An echo and a light
Unto Eternity".

The President

of the Association^ Introducing

Dr. Stephen S. Wise

lE have as our guest tonight a man
born across the sea in the beauti-
ful city of Budapest, but he is
American, thoroughly Ameri-
can by instinct and by training.

He never had any other country but America.

Keenly interested in many phases of today's

problems as founder and director, he thinks

and speaks continentally.

A great Pacific coast city and a greater one

on the Atlantic have been the scenes of his

Introducing Dr. Stephen S. Wise 35

labor, but his influence has reached from
Portland to New York.

The charities and corrections conference of
a great western state owes its inception to him.
Child labor, the federated boys' clubs, the
peace society, practical work for the immi-
grant, visiting nurses for the unfortunate poor,
and for tubercular patients — these are but a
few of his activities; and last, though not least,
I must name the free synagogue in New York
City founded by him and tended by him as pas-
tor so tenderly, so loyally, so fearlessly, that it
has become a great power for righteousness
and for liberty. Gentlemen, Dr. Wise.

Lincoln: Man and
American

As delivered by

Dr. Stephen S. Wise

HE honoring invitation to give
the address of tonight came to
me as I was feasting upon the
glad beauty of far-distant Ven-
ice. On the same day I had
gone to one of the beautiful old churches
facing St. Mark's and the Doge's palace across
the Grand Canal. And there I looked at the
grave of the great Doge or Duke Michael, for

Lincoln — Man and American 37

whom one of the two matchless columns of the
Piazza of St. Mark had been erected. On the
tomb is written the words: "Here lies the
terror of the Greeks. Whosoever thou art who
comes to behold this tomb of his, bow thyself
down before God because of him". As I
stood this day at the tomb of Lincoln, those
words recurred to my memory. But Lincoln
was not the terror of the Greeks nor terror to
any man. Yet we do well to bow ourselves
down to God because of him, God's choicest
gift to the American nation, America's first
commoner.

This is the centenary of another great Amer-
ican, preacher and prophet, Henry Ward
Beecher, and therefore I may fittingly refer to
the word which he spoke at the death of Lin-
coln. Beecher said "Not Springfield's but
Illinois', not Illinois' but the Nation's, not the
nation's but the world's, is this man". Though

38 Lincoln — Man and American

the name of Lincoln has become a world-wide
treasure, how good it is for you to feel that he
belongs not to the world but to America, not
to America but to Illinois, not to Illinois but
to Springfield, to you nearest and dearest of
all ; and, because he is nearest to you, his mem-
ory spells duty and high obligation and in-
escapable responsibility.

In explanation rather than in criticism of a
great writer of another day, it was truly said, —
Alas for the man who has no shrines ! Doubly,
trebly true is this of a nation, if it may truly be
said that it has no shrines. America has many
shrines. We have come to love and to honor
many of the great and the good that have made
the few years of our history splendid and com-
manding in the annals of human achievement.
But surely there will be no dissenting from my
thought that the two chief est and holiest
shrines of America are to be found on the bank

Lincoln — Man and American 39

of the Potomac and within this city of Illinois,
twin shrines for the American people, each of
them reverently regarded and tenderly treas-
ured.

What characterization of Lincoln could be
more perfect than the word of Ecclesiasticus
in which the latter describes the character and
the life of another and earlier liberator : ''And
God brought out a man of mercy, a man be-
loved of God and man, whose memorial is
blessed. He sanctified him in his faithfulness
and meekness".

A man of mercy! Lincoln was that. Not
only was he a man of mercy, but a man of in-
finite compassion. He was a strong man, a
rugged man, a virile man, but such was his
strength that it blossomed in unfailing mercy
and compassion.

A man beloved of God and men ! This was
Abraham Lincoln. A man beloved of God,

40 Lincoln — Man and American

whom God raised from among the simplest and
the lowliest of the people to be a prince among
men, and to be remembered reverently and
tenderly long after the princes of the earth
shall have been forgotten. A man loved of
God and men ! Men did not always love him ;
they did not always understand him. It was
just before his passing, as the bearer of a
martyr's crown, that men began to understand
this man. But how men have loved him since !
How the world has come to cherish him as its
own! But it is all so obvious and inevitable.
Lincoln was God's man, and God's man who
can withstand?

His memorial is blest. What better proof
than that we are gathered in this hour, as men
are wont to gather at a shrine, in order to do
homage to one of the two august memories of
American history, the earlier memory, austere

Lincoln — Man and American 41

and majestic, the later memory more human
and kindly and benign.

Saint Beuve has said, "The glory of Bossuet
has become one of the religions of France. We
recognize it, we proclaim it, we honor our-
selves by paying to it daily a new tribute".
May we not say that the glory of Lincoln has
become one of the religions of America, — a
religion of the American people? The glory
of Lincoln, who was more than President,
more than statesman, more than martyr, is one
of our religions. If we do not worship him, it
is not, as Carlyle says, that "men worship the
shows of great men; the most disbelieve that
there is any reality of great men to worship",
but because he is almost too great for our
homage and too lofty for our praise. His glory
is our religion. His memory is a consecration
of American life.

It is well to emphasize every day, and more

42 Lincoln — Man and American

than ever at such a time as this, that Lincoln
is a religion in our land, lest some of us
imagine that the railroad-dividend, or the yield
of the mine or the harvest of the field, or the
output of the factory, or the cash-book of the
warehouse, is our religion. In the temple of
deathless fame his memory is enshrined. We
do not know whether his bust has been chosen
to adorn a niche in the Hall of Fame on the
University Heights in New York; if not, it is
because he is Fame. His tomb at Springfield
is not less sacred and precious than the grave
at Mt. Vernon, each a revered shrine of the
American people, each a hallowed altar of
humanity.

Vindication of the American democracy, —
we call this man of the people, simply sublime
because sublimely simple. Let other nations
boast of their achievements ; we point to Lin-
coln, the man, — not unique, but uniquely

Lincoln — Man and American 43

American, matchless the world over, but com-
pletely, robustly, sincerely American.

No miracle was he who was the inevitable
product of the American people. Far greater
than the seeming miracle of his life would
have been the failure of America to bring
forth a man equal to its supreme trial. Not by
virtue of accident rose Lincoln to the place of
liberator of a race and saviour of a nation. The
mission came to the man because he was the
man for the mission. The unutterable privil-
ege of breaking the shackles from off millions
of slaves had to come to Abraham Lincoln,
because of the destiny of his character, — this
man of rugged strength of character, uncom-
promising conscience, unspoiled simplicity of
heart, blameless purity of soul, whose was the
greatness of real goodness and the goodness of
real greatness.

Turning for a moment to a foreign estimate

44 Lincoln — Man and American

of Lincoln, which naturally is temperate and
sober and in no sense perfervid, we find the
French Democracy some years back casting a
commemorative medal inscribed: ''Lincoln, —
honest man, abolished slavery, re-established
the Union, saved the Republic". The "honest
man" of the French characterization explains
everything else. There is a direct and inevit-
able relation between "honest man" and all the
rest. Great as were his achievements, the
French people rightly felt that the man was
even greater than his words. "Honest man"
France names him ; the negro race called him
"Father Abraham", — a title infinitely more to
be desired than "Conqueror", which is the por-
tion of an Alexander or a Napoleon.

We are often reminded, and not without
justice, that there is nothing supremely great
in American art, or letters, that the contribu-
tions of America to the world's treasure-stores

Lincoln — Man and American 45

are all material, such as the cotton-gin and the
steam-press, the telegraph and steamboat, the
telephone and harvester. If American letters
have produced nothing superlatively great, we
have something superlatively great to offer to
history in the life of the founder of the Repub-
lic and in the life of him who was the saviour
of the Nation and the restorer of our National
Union. We point to Lincoln, the man.
Beecher apostrophizes him as Illinois' gift to
the Nation. Lowell glorifies him as the new
birth of our new soil, — the first American.
Emerson sees that he is an heroic figure at the
centre of an heroic epoch. Wendell Phillips
proudly hails him as the natural growth of
democratic institutions. And Phillips Brooks
honors him with a name above every other
that he might have asked, — this best and most
American of all Americans.

Lincoln was the most American of Ameri-

46 Lincoln — Man and American

cans. It cannot truly be said that Lincoln was
not a type. God help us if Lincoln be not a
type, if it be true that he stands alone, without
fellows, without ancestors and without suc-
cessors. His ancestors were Cromwell and
Hampden, Hancock and Adams, Washington
and Franklin. His ancestry was the Magna
Charta and the Declaration of Independence.
Among his forerunners were Garrison, John
Brown, Theodore Parker; Lincoln himself
was just and generous enough to say of his
forerunners, the intrepid Abolitionists, that
their moral power had enabled him to do all.
Lincoln was chosen out of all the people, —
the great American commoner, plain man of
the people, as Emerson first styled him. To be
the first man of a people in a land where every
citizen is king is to be the manliest of men and
the kingliest of kings, — king by divine right,
by the divinest of rights, — the right of man-

Lincoln — Man and American 47

hood and worth and character. Is it not the
very Paladium of our liberty that the com-
moner, the homespun man, may rise to the
highest station in the land? Is it not the in-
spiration of our youth and the pride of our
manhood that the commoner, speaking for his
kind, voiced the abiding truth: Government
of the people, by the people and for the people
shall not perish from the earth?

As one thinks of the two shrines of Ameri-
can history, and to these others will be added
in the years that are to come, how are they con-
founded who declare that the people whom
Lincoln trusted cannot even now be complete-
ly trusted! How often have we erred in the
one hundred and thirty years of American
history in the matter of choosing the Chief
Magistrate of the nation? Not once have we
chosen badly. What kingdom or empire of
the earth has done as well? Within seventy-

48 Lincoln — Man and American

five years this nation chose two men as Presi-
dent of the United States who are to stand
among the world's immortals, — Washington
and Lincoln within one century! Match that
in all the centuries of the earth's kingdoms and
empires. What European nation has had two
rulers from 1789 to this hour who compare in
moral and spiritual stature with these two
giants of a giant continent?

Lincoln the man is at one and the same time
the vindication of the American democracy
and of the dignity and nobleness of the com-
mon people from whom he was sprung. He
proved anew that the uncommonest men and
women rise out of the ranks of the so-called
common people.

How the memory of Lincoln rebukes the
pettily arrogant and the meanly proud, who
disdain and even abhor the common people
because they are not nice nor yet refined nor

Lincoln — Man and American 49

yet cultivated ! Lincoln was not nice ; he was
simple, rough, uncouth, elemental, himself.
He never talked very much about democracy
or the common people because he was one of
them. In the mind and speech of Lincoln, the
people were never "They" but always *'We".
Lincoln was saved from the ungenuineness of
a lip-philanthropy by his common sense, his
most uncommon sense of humor, his utterly
democratic spirit.

Sprung from the people and trusting in the
people, the people trusted and loved him.
"They who trust us, educate us". They alone
distrust the people who are not worthy of a
people's trust. Let not a man of the people
who trusts and would serve them, who dares to
speak of the duties of the strong and the rights
of the weak, be derided as a demagogue. For
Lincoln was a man of the people, — not a blat-
ant demagogue, not a democrat on parade, but

50 Lincoln — Man and American

so democratic, so firmly trusting in the people
that the immortal watchword that he gave to
the nation was the necessary expression of the
fundamental democracy of faith and life of
him "whose genuine love of the people no one
could suspect of being either the cheap flattery
of the demagogue or the abstract philanthropy
of the philosopher". As one reviews the life
of Lincoln, the prophet of democracy, one is
moved to say that no man has the right to call
himself a democrat who distrusts the people,
who is fearful of entrusting the people with
plenary power, who is afraid that the popular
rights movement has *'gone too far". Lincoln
trusted the common people with less reason for
faith than have we. We have every reason to
trust the people, which moved him to place his
trust in them, and one besides, Lincoln him-
self,— the common people incarnate in this
type man.

Lincoln — Man and American 51

Democracy means not the eternal sounding
of futile shibboleths, such as state rights, — too
often an apology for a state of wrong, — but the
application of fundamental political principles
to the working out of the problems of Ameri-
can life and American welfare. Democracy
is to be something more than the pose of a hun-
gry office-hunting minority or majority; it is
to be the genuine conviction of a vast major-
ity, not the slogan of a party, but the ideal of
the whole nation.

Lincoln came of a race of pioneers, of men
who dared to the very verge of their being.
We, too, in our day must pioneer as did Lin-
coln in his, — not rashly adventurous but
bravely daring in the enterprises of the soul.
Rash and fool-hardy were deemed the pioneers
of a century ago. In truth, they adventured
much, but only they were rash and fool-hardy
who little esteemed the pioneers and appraised

52 Lincoln — Man and American

them low. Pioneers must we be in the new
world of our making and of our re-creating,
with the qualities of the pioneers who, above
all, were the soldiers of the common weal. Not
pioneering for themselves, for he is no pioneer
who would serve himself alone, but pioneers
merely that we may occupy the outposts of new
realms of the spirit and new regions of achieve-
ment to be peopled and to be blessed by the
generations for which we shall have prepared
the way as Lincoln prepared the way for us
gathered to do him homage.

In a very real sense, Lincoln was prophetic
of that which is yet to be, prophetic of the new
religion, though he knew it not, prophetic of
the religion of Abraham and Moses and Jesus
and Lincoln, — the religion which is summar-
ized in the words, — Love of God and love of
neighbor.

Lincoln was prophetic in yet another sense,

Lincoln — Man and American 53

for he was the foreseer of the newer and truer
democracy. He struck a deadly blow at that
most terrible of all castes, the caste of race. If
we are to be true to his memory, we must strike
other and telling blows at every vestige of the
false idolatry of caste and rank. Democracy
is not an institution to be created nor a struc-
ture to be established nor even an ideal to be
realized. More unsubstantial, withal more
vital and perduring than all of these, be it not
forgotten that democracy is the attitude of the
common mind, that it is the aspiration of the
commonalty.

Lincoln fulfilled the idea laid down in the
holy writ for the governance of those who are
to choose judges and rulers of the people:
"Moreover, thou shalt choose out of all the
people men of strength, such as fear God, men
of truth, hating their own gain".

Men of strength were the judges and rulers

54 Lincoln — Man and American

to be ! He was a man of that moral strength
which is the noblest courage, — strong enough
to dare to be in the right and to do the right
though he must needs stand alone. Let us not
forget his strength, who was as strong as he
was simple, not only strong enough to carry
on a mighty war to a triumphant close, but
strong enough to oppose an unjust war, even
though waged by his country. So strong was
he that, refusing to be goaded on by his friends
and unafraid of his foes, he issued the Emanci-
pation Proclamation at the right hour, when
it was destined to achieve the greatest good.
Man of strength was he who, three days before
his assassination, gave voice to the guiding
rule of his life: '^Important principles may
and must be inflexible" ; who, in his Cooper
Union address, delivered himself of the almost
prophetic burden: "Let us have faith that
right makes might, and in that faith let us to

Lincoln — Man and American 55

the end dare to do our duty as we understand
it".

Such as fear God! Fearless before man,
Abraham Lincoln feared God. Lip-piety was
not of the substance of his religion, nor was he
given to many professions of faith, but he
walked in the fear of God. Not only was he a
profoundly religious man, the content of
whose life was rooted in religion, whose relig-
ion flowered in the beauty of the good and the
true, but his was a conscious faith in a supreme
purpose. Almost might one say in paraphrase
of the word of Schiller, that the churches were
not religious enough to command his alle-
giance. The question touching his day is not
so much whether Lincoln was a churchman,
but whether the churches of his time were
Lincoln-like. Only to a God-fearing man
could have come the inspiration with which he
closed his second inaugural address: "With

56 Lincoln — Man and American

malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are
in". Such fear of God is a nation's strength.

Men of truth! Scorning to tell a lie and
lover of truth, this man who could not stoop to
think or to speak a lie, was little likely to act or
to live a lie. Compromise and time-serving
were strangers to his vocabulary. Wise but
not fearful, circumspect but not compromis-
ing, careful but unafraid was he. Nothing
could be unfairer than to think of Lincoln, as
is sometimes done, as if he had been a man of
political cunning, lacking in intellectual sta-
bility and moral courage. He was open-
minded, but he was sturdily self-reliant. He
was intellectually receptive, but always self-
contained, even as he was a man of the people
though never common. Carl Schurz tells that
in the first Springfield legislature in which he

Lincoln — Man and American 57

sat, he recorded his protest against a pro-
slavery resolution, though followed by only
one other man. So did he love truth and scorn
a lie that when he was warned in advance
against the consequences of his Springfield ad-
dress, he silenced his timid friends with the un-
forgettable words: "It is true, and I will de-
liver it as written".

Hating their own gain! Self-seeking was
far from him and the quest after gain of any
kind was unthinkable in this lover of his coun-
try. He was not a President with a conscience,
but he was conscience incarnate in a Presi-
dent. He hated the gain of the people's praise,
even the gain of such popular good-will as
would bring about his re-election, unless such
gain could be had without the sacrifice of self-
respect. He was a statesman who pleaded ever
for truth and never for victory. He would
have shared Lowell's scorn for the party which

58 Lincoln — Man and American

builds a platform as a bridge to victory and not,
one might add, as a refuge for truth. The peo-
ple could not flatter him, politicians could not
frighten him, riches could not purchase him,
ambition could not unsteady him, power could
not dazzle him, who served his conscience as
his king, who "held his steadfast way like the
sun across the firmament".

Rightly was it said of Lincoln that his was a
character such as only freedom knows how to
make. If our democracy become polluted by
the taint of caste, it will produce no Abraham
Lincolns. Lincoln fought not so much slavery
as the thing which made it possible, — the
feudal spirit of caste of which negro slavery
was only the most abhorrent symptom. It was
a noble prophecy of a tribune of the people,
George William Curtis, that the part assigned
to this country in the good fight of man is the
total overthrow of the spirit of caste. It is a

Lincoln — Man and American 59

far cry from the riotous opposition to the ap-
pearance of a coat-of-arms, in the late thirties
of the last century, on the carriage of a rich
New York family, to the title-hunting mothers
and fathers of our own day, who prefer the
purchase of some negligible dukelet or paltry
princeling to the best of men, if so be he bear
no prouder title than that of fellow-American
of Abraham Lincoln.

We need today, be it said in the spirit of
Abraham Lincoln, not a new South but a true
South, — a South that shall be true to itself, true
to the Union and true to the principles of true
democracy, a South that shall not have the
name of democracy upon its lips and despot-
ism in its heart. One thing is certain, — that
the way not to prepare the negro for citizen-
ship is the way in large part of the South which
denies to the negro the right to a complete edu-
cation, which grants him little more than the

6o Lincoln — Man and American

shreds and scraps of a rudimentary education
that is not worthy of the name. Unless Lin-
coln's work is to have been done in vain, the
South must not fix upon servitude without
chains as the abiding portion of the negro race.
Lincoln has conferred a new dignity upon
labor, but the new dignity of labor must in-
clude larger dignity and fuller life for the
toiler. If it be true, as Lincoln said, that to
secure to each laborer the whole product of his
labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy ob-
ject of any good government, then children
should cease to toil, then Northern capital
shall cease to enslave the children of the South,
then women must not be overworked and
under-paid, must not be driven into shame
from shop and store and factory by a starvation
wage, then man must have a larger and larger
share of the fruits of his labor. If we are to do
Lincoln's work, we must enfranchise all men,

Lincoln — Man and American 6i

and first of all ourselves, into that glorious lib-
erty of the sons of God which has been ap-
pointed to us, that we, the citizens of the Amer-
ican democracy, may be the emancipators of
untold millions for all time.

Not very long ago I was invited to purchase
a volume purporting to set forth the genealogy
of Lincoln. The price of the volume was to
be ten dollars, something more than the value
of the house in which Lincoln was born. The
descent of Lincoln is of very little importance
by the side of the question, — how shall we
avert a descent from Lincoln? What can we
do in order to ascend to the heights on which
he stood? This Lincoln commemoration from
year to year will be of little value unless, in the
spirit of the Gettysburg address, we make it
tell by dedicating ourselves anew to the things
for which he lived and died. The important
thing today is not what we say of Lincoln but

62 Lincoln — Man and American

what Lincoln would say of us if he were here
in this hour and could note the drift and ten-
dency in American life and American politics.
Are we true to him, are we loyal to his mem-
ory?

Edmund Burke once said that during the
reign of the kings of Spain of the Austrian
family, whenever they were at a loss in the
Spanish Councils, it was common for their
statesmen to say that they ought to consult the
genius of Phillip IL We dwell in times of
great perplexity and are beset by far-reaching
problems of social, industrial and political im-
port. We shall not greatly err if upon every
occasion we consult the genius of Abraham
Lincoln. We shall not falter nor swerve from
the path of national righteousness if we live by
the moral genius of the great American com-
moner.

Instead of following Lincoln, we too often

Lincoln — Man and American 63

strive to make it appear that he is follow-
ing us. Instead of emulating him we too often
venture to appropriate him. Instead of sitting
at his feet as his disciples, and humbly heeding
the echoes of his lips, we attribute to him our
own petty slogans. The truth is that Lincoln
belongs to no party today, though in his time
he stood well and firmly within party ranks.
His spirit ought today to inform all parties.
He was a partisan second, an American first,
as he is the first of Americans. Men and meas-
ures must not claim him for their own. He
remains the standard by which to measure men.
His views are not binding upon us, but his
point of view will always be our inspiration.
He would not be blindly followed who was
open-minded and open-visioned. He did not
solve all the problems of the future, but he did
solve the problem of his own age. Ours it is

64 Lincoln — Man and American

not to claim his name for our standards but his
aim as our standard.

Lincoln is become for us the test of human
worth, and we honor men in the measure in
which they approach the absolute standard of
Abraham Lincoln. Other men may resemble
and approach him; he remains the standard
whereby all other men are measured and ap-
praised. Gibbon tells us that two hundred
and fifty years after the death of Trajan the
Senate, in calling out the customary acclama-
tion on the accession of an Emperor, wished
that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus
and the virtue of Trajan. Melior Trajano, —
better than Trajan! Such a standard is Lin-
coln become for us, save that we dare not hope
that any American may serve his country bet-
ter than did Lincoln. However covetous of
honor for our country we may be, we cherish
no higher hope for the land we love than that

Lincoln — M^;/ and American 65

the servants of the Republic in all time may
rise to the stature of Abraham Lincoln.

In his lifetime Lincoln was maligned and
traduced, but detraction during a man's life-
time affords no test of his life's value nor offers
any forecast of history's verdict. It would
almost seem as if the glory of immortality
were anticipated in the life of the great by de-
traction and denial whilst yet they lived. When
a Lincoln-like man arises, let us recognize and
fitly honor him. There could be no poorer way
of honoring the memory of Lincoln than to
assume, as we sometimes do, that the race of
Lincolns has perished from the earth, and that
we shall never look upon his like again. One
way to ensure the passing of the Lincolns is to
assume that another Lincoln can nevermore
arise. Would we find Lincoln today, we must
not seek him in the guise of a rail-splitter, nor
as a wielder of the backwoodsman's axe, but as

66 Lincoln — Man and American

a mighty smiter of wrong in high places and
low.

Not very long ago I chanced upon a rarely
beautiful custom in the city of Florence. It
was the day of the martyrdom "of a prophet
sent by God". A multitude stood before the
spot where he was done to death, — his hands
miraculously uplifted in blessing in the very
moment of torture and death, — and every man
brought a rose petal in token of reverence and
gratitude to the martyred soul. This day every
American citizen, every American man and
woman and child has in spirit brought a petal
to the grave of Lincoln, who sleeps tonight
beneath a wilderness of love-tokens from men
of all faiths and tongues and races and back-
grounds,— who are become one and indivisible
in their love and honor for the memory of
Abraham Lincoln.

I have sometimes thought that the noblest

Lincoln — Man and American 67

tribute paid to the memory of Lincoln was the
word of Phillips Brooks in Westminster Abbey
when, pointing out that the test of the world to
every nation was, — Show us your man, — he
declared that America names Lincoln. But
the first word spoken after the death of Lincoln
is truest and best, — the word of Secretary of
War Stanton, standing by the side of that
scene of peace, — "Now he belongs to the
ages". It was verdict and prophecy alike, for
Lincoln is not America's, he is the world's ; he
belongs not to our age, but to the ages; and
yet, though he belongs to all time and to all
peoples, he is our own, for he was an Ameri-
can.

The President

of the Association^ Introducing

Mr. Percival Graham Rennick

HE good city of Peoria is rich in
varied products. Among other
things she produces spirits. She
has furnished us for this occa-
sion her most attractive sample.
He is not a neutral spirit. Amid the cares of
responsible official duties, he finds time for
much literary work. Those of us who know
him are always glad to hear him for he is one
of the sweetest spirits of Illinois. Gentlemen,
Mr. Rennick.

Lincoln: The Kindliest
Memory of the Land

Honorable Percival G. Rennick

M

s

^

1

M

1

R. CHAIRMAN, Ladies and
Gentlemen : Patriotic hearts
have been warmed and quick-
ned by countless eulogies whose
themes have been, The Martyred
President, The Great Emancipator, The Rail-
Splitter of Illinois. And though his body has
rested in the tomb for nearly fifty years, his

70 Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

spirit still lives, and his name remains power-
ful to sway the hearts of men. Lincoln lived
to save a nation, and it may be that through
celebrations in his memory a loyal legion shall
be aroused who will preserve that which he
saved.

We realize that we are in his old home, and
in the presence of men who were his neighbors
and friends, and loved him and appreciated
him. We know that there are many here as-
sembled who, with keen comprehension of
men and governmental affairs, have diligently
studied his life and character, and bow the
lower, the more they study, to his greatness
and kindness.

So we, who cannot claim the honor of hav-
ing been born while Lincoln yet lived, can
hardly find an impulse to speak of aught else
than the impressions received, the lessons
learned from the story of his life, and the love

Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land 71

that lingers around that hallowed name, the
kindliest memory of the land.

Above a busy harbor of an old seaport, there
stood a mighty beacon light that shone with
such tremendous power that it made bright
the whole sky. It had been placed there to
guide all craft, both large and small, through
the perilous waters into the channels that led
to safe moorings. And to those who have
sought liberty and freedom, the man who freed
a people and saved a nation, has been as this
beacon to the craft that sailed the sea. Yes,
from the higher heavens his character, his
deeds, his kindness, have made a light to guide,
not only the people of America, but the people
of all lands who love liberty and would be free.

I recall how, in the early days of this coun-
try when men were finding their way across
the plains and over the ranges, the leader of a
pioneer party climbed a rugged mountain side

72 Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

to gain a better view and determine the path
to take. And in my fancy I could see this
leader as a tall, strong man, with bronzed
cheek and powerful form. I could see him
starting on the common level of the plains and
climbing up and up, hand over hand ; planting
his feet on the jagged rocks ; digging deep his
fingers into the solid places ; gaining strength
by each succeeding grasp ; never faltering, but
going steadily upward until he reached the
summit. Then with uplifted form, he breathed
the pure air of the mountain-top and surveyed
the plains below. He could see far and mar-
veled at the greatness of the plain. And from
that lofty eminence he saw more greatness in
the plain than from the plain, he thought the
mountain-top possessed. But as he stood there
in his strength, he was not vain of his achieve-
ment. He was thinking only of the use he
might make of that eminence to find out a safe

Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land 73

path for the people whom he led — to search
out, if he might, the dangers and barriers to
avoid. He had known those plains before, but
he knew them better now because of the new
view.

Then in this man I seemed to see the Lincoln
who ever sought to lead his people in the right
path and to keep all from danger. He was
truly a pioneer path finder. He started on the
common level of the plain citizenship to climb
the mountain-side of usefulness to his kind.
We see him in his ruggedness, bronzed by the
winds and the sun of God's out-of-doors; an-
gular, but poised and strong; strong by work
and wholesome play ; strong in mind and heart
and soul; going on and up the difficult way.
We see him placing his feet where they would
not slip, and digging deep his fingers into the
solid places; gaining strength as he climbed.
He faltered not, but with a purpose and pre-

74 Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

paredness he kept on until he gained the sum-
mit. Then with clear eyes he looked out over
the plain below. He had known those plains
before, but he marveled at them now and what
they meant to government and civilization.
He vaunted not at his great climb. Not the
least vanity or self-congratulation was there.
He was thinking of how he might better lead
his people. With intense gaze he was search-
ing out a safe path. He was trying to discern
the barriers and dangers, nearby and in the dis-
tance. He was trying to satisfy his innermost
soul as to the right way to guide the people
whom he led and loved. Yes, he was a mighty
path-finder; and he not only found the way
from the plain to the mountain-top, but marked
the common trail of life, so that the humblest
may find the way if he will. He marked the
trail that has been closely studied by the hum-
ble and the high, the peasant and the king, and

Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land 75

up which those who would honestly serve their
kind are climbing now, reading his guide book
by the light of good conscience and patriotic
desire.

Yet, while in sentiment we may see him as a
great beacon light of the liberty-loving world,
his deeds and character shining out across the
seas to teach the ruler and the ruled the neces-
sity of individual rights and political liberty,
and while we may see him as the fearless path-
finder, leading the way, when we see plainly
and study deeply, we find him on no mountain-
top. We see him as no heaven born leader, but
as a great man — a great man who led because
he was the greatest among the people whom he
led. It was not necessary for him to climb to
any eminence to be able to see the path, be-
cause he was so high of vision, so high of heart
and soul. He walked on the plain level, shoul-
der to shoulder and hand to hand with the mul-

76 Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

titude, and yet so high he was he could see over
the heads of all and down among the con-
course of people with whom he marched and
whom he led by sheer force of his bigness.

He was the greatest product of a great race.
He was, indeed, "The Samson of the Pio-
neers". And all of them were strong men.
Strong as they were, they believed in and re-
spected the rights of others. They believed in
the government of self as well as in self govern-
ment. Those old pioneers and their fathers
gave us about all we have in government that
is substantial and enduring. They may be
called old-fashioned by some sages who worry
because they arrived too late to help create the
world, yet they came into a wilderness and
with bare hands, in less than half a lifetime,
built a veritable paradise. They probably
never heard of marriage by means of a doctor's
prescription, but they builded so well that all

Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land 77

the evil passions let loose by internecine war
could not tear down what they built. It was
among such people that Abraham Lincoln
first gained leadership. He was not a leader
among weak men ; he was a great leader among
strong men.

We find in the history of America and sister
nations other men of giant mind and sturdy
character; other men possessing power and
leadership ; other men with constructive genius
who helped build States and taught the equal-
ity of all men under the law ; other men who
rose to eminence and renown. But Lincoln
possessed not only all these attributes, but back
of them all, and under them all, and over them
all, and mingled with them all, he had a force
that transcends the might of giants, the power
of kings or the wisdom of the wise. It was that
which mingles in the mind with the memory
of the laughter of little children at play, the

jS Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

song of the birds in the trees, the goodnight
kiss and gentle pat of baby days, a child's
prayer, manhood's love, the warm hand-clasp
of true friendship ; and that is kindness. O,
such wonderful kindness he showed in every
thought and deed! That was the gift from
heaven that put the gold into his life, making
powerful all his other faculties. That was the
light behind, which made his other great qual-
ities stand out in bold relief. If all men pos-
sessed such kindness, tears would be shed only
in excess of joy; no injustice would be done;
the strong would protect rather than crush; all
men would be friends, and the problems of
government would be solved.

There are many lessons that every citizen
may learn from the story of his life. We can
learn from him because he was so common,
and yet so great. He was a mighty common
man, and mighty because of that vantage

Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land 79

ground. So rugged and yet so gentle, so strong
and yet so tender. His heart bled for every boy
who died fighting for the flag, and his spirit
shook with woe when he thought of the dark-
ened homes each battle made ; and yet he fal-
tered not in his duty to the nation, nor in his
endeavor to drive treason from the land, to
bring victory to the Union and peace to the
people. He was brave enough and kind
enough to face the bitter storm to bring home a
stray sheep, or with bare hands to tear asunder
the wolf's jaws to liberate a lamb.

Where liberty drives ignorance from the
mind and warms into being a free man, the
name of Lincoln shall ever live and be a prin-
ciple, a blessing and a guide. His story has
been told in every land where men long to be
free.

Creed nor cant, blood nor birth, poverty
nor riches, humbleness nor height, land nor

8o Lincoln — Kindliest Memory of Land

language, are barriers to the love and rever-
ence that men have in their hearts for this
champion of liberty and right. Our admira-
tion for his giant mind and soul ; our tears for
his sorrow, our love and a song for his gentle,
kindly life.

JEFFERSONS PRINTING COMPANY
SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS

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