There is something in Washington or in Lincoln or Grant, that defies
analysis. It is a moral elevation, a magnanimity, a nobleness and
profoundness of mind. It is force of character and ability by which man
is able to meet great emergencies. This is true greatness.
Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. If you wish to
know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.
Judged by this standard Abraham Lincoln stands out one of the purest,
grandest and noblest characters of all time. Greatness was never more
unconscious of itself than it was in him. It consisted in the fact that
he made mistakes but rose above them.
Lincoln was a man of marvelous growth. The statesman or the military hero
born and reared in a log cabin is a familiar figure in American history;
but we may search in vain among our men of honor and fame for one whose
origin and early life equaled Abraham Lincoln’s in obscurity and lack of
education.
He sprang from the poorest class in the border south. Hard work his early
lot; his education a minus factor. In the year of his majority his father
moved to Illinois. Here Lincoln began for himself the hard battle of
life. He became an ambitious young man. Unquestionably in some mysterious
way, he arrived at the conclusion that this world had something far
higher for him than neighborhood joker, champion wrestler or prize wood
chopper.
A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone and he commenced the study of
law; was admitted to the bar in 1836; rose rapidly in his profession
and became an eminent lawyer. Being more adapted to the part of a jurist
than an advocate, owing to the striking uprightness of his character,
he applied himself to this branch of his profession, and it may truly
be said that his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do with
his effectiveness as a jurist. When he felt himself to be the protector
of innocence, the defender of justice, or the prosecutor of wrong,
he frequently disclosed such unexpected resources of reasoning, such
depth of feeling, and rose to such fervor of appeal as to astonish and
overwhelm his hearers, and make his appeal irresistible.
He continued to “ride the circuit,” read books, tell funny stories to
his fellow lawyers in the tavern, chat familiarly with his neighbors
and become more and more widely known, trusted and beloved among the
people of his State for his ability as a lawyer and politician, for the
integrity of his character and the ever-flowing spring of sympathetic
kindness in his heart. His main ambition was that of political
distinction, yet no one, at that time, would have suspected that he was
the man destined to lead the nation through the greatest crisis of the
century.
Nevertheless, he was growing, indeed, this is one prominent fact in
Lincoln’s life--he never ceased growing. As captain in the Black Hawk
war, as candidate for the legislature, as storekeeper, postmaster,
surveyor and law student, he was always growing.
In 1846 he was elected to congress where he distinguished himself as a
humorous speaker and rapidly advanced to the front as a statesman.
Lincoln was a statesman in the truest and grandest sense of the word. He
was a type of honesty and moral integrity. He had a conscience “void of
offense toward God, and toward men.” A lover of the truth and men learned
to trust him. He was just and for that reason would not put upon others
that which he would not put upon himself. He studied the questions of the
day and founded his opinions on truth and justice.
It was not until 1854 when the slavery question had been thrust into
politics as the paramount issue, that Lincoln’s powers were aroused to
their fullest capacity. He plunged into arduous study of the question, in
its legal, historical and moral aspects, until his mind became a complete
arsenal of argument.
Now he was able to cope with any political antagonist. The time had come
when the Republican party required a man to put forward as their standard
bearer one who would be equal for the coming election.
They found in Lincoln all the antecedents of his life to be such as to
produce in him the rarest qualifications for the Presidency, to which he
was now called by his party. It was during this canvass that he first
revealed, in his great debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the full scope of
his originality and genius. Subsequent to this combat of giants, he was
duly elected President.
No President, before or since, ever took his seat under such
difficulties. The situation which confronted him was appalling; secession
of the Southern States was fully organized, and less than a month before
his inauguration seven of them had already seceded.
During his inaugural address he declared his fixed purpose to uphold the
Constitution and preserve the integrity of the Union. It was his policy
to ignore the action of the seceded States as a thing in itself null,
void and of no effect.
Lincoln was the man whom Providence placed at the head of the nation in
the supreme hour of its destiny. When he assumed the reins of government
he was surrounded by traitors. The government was without army, without
navy, without credit. He spoke, and two millions of men sprang, as from
the ground. He breathed, and the bosom of the ocean was covered with
ships of war. He placed his hand upon Wall street and the credit of the
government was secured. He surrounded himself with the best and truest
counselors of the time.
He signed his name and the shackles fell from the limbs of four million
of slaves. His was a greatness for the time. He was the Moses of a new
dispensation--called of God to lead the hosts of captives out of the
bondage house of their oppression. Like his great prototype he was not
permitted to see the land of promise. He led the people safely through,
but he was not allowed to guide them across the Jordan.
On the morning of April 15, 1865, God called Abraham Lincoln away from
mortal sight.
Measured by what he did as a statesman and leader, he stands head and
shoulders above all rulers of men in the annals of the six thousand years
of Human History.
While a “solitary stripe remains in our banner,” while a “single star is
blazoned on its field of blue,” so long will the deeds, the heroism and
the loyalty of Abraham Lincoln be told to generations yet unborn.