“It’s Lincoln’s birthday tomorrow, and we do not have school,”
said the boy named Billy. “But I’ve got to tell the class this
afternoon why I think Lincoln was the greatest American.”
“Suppose you tell us what you do know about him,” suggested
Somebody.
“Well,” said the boy named Billy, “I know he was born in Hardin
County, Kentucky, in a poor little old log cabin, on February
12th, 1809. That he lived there until he was seven years old,
when he went with his family to Indiana, where they were even
poorer than before.
“His mother was never very strong, poor lady, and the rough way
in which they had to live was very hard for her, and she died
when Abraham was only nine years old. But she taught him to be
good, honest and true, and ‘learn all he could and be of some
account in the world.’
“After while, his father brought him another mother who was
very good to him and as he said later, ‘Moved heaven and earth
to give him an education.’ His school years were few, but he
was determined to know things, so he studied every minute and
often walked ten miles to borrow a book. When he was twenty-one
he owned six books, the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, the Arabian
Nights, Statutes of Indiana, Weems’ ‘Life of Washington,’ and
‘Aesop’s Fables.’ He used to read after his work was done by the
light of the fire on the family hearth. He almost memorized the
Bible.
“He was very kindhearted and once when he went to New Orleans
with a flat boat full of lumber to sell, he saw some slaves being
sold. It affected him so strongly that he said if he ever got a
chance he was going to ‘hit that thing hard!’ He was never idle,
and he was absolutely honest, and to be depended upon.
“When he was 21 he went with his parents to a wilderness farm in
Illinois, which state almost lost him, because if there had not
been a flood making travel impossible he, with his family, would
have gone on to Wisconsin where they had started for.
“After studying law, and practicing it for a good many years, and
being sent to Congress he was elected to be the president of the
United States in 1860, being the 16th president of the land. He
was in the presidential chair all through the civil war and when
he was shot, soon after his second election, the whole country
mourned for the man who had ‘_hit that thing hard_’ and abolished
slavery.”
“Do you know his most famous address?” asked Sister.
“Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech!” exclaimed Billy. “Well, I should
say--‘Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in the great Civil War, testing whether that
nation or any nation so conceived and dedicated can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It
is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But
in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or
detract. The world will little know nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us, that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the
people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.’”
“You seem to know a good many things about Lincoln after all,”
said Somebody, smiling proudly.
“Yes, but I do not know why he was the ‘_greatest_ American’,”
said Billy.
“He was the ‘greatest American’,” said Somebody, “because he
loved the Union and determined that it must at all costs be
preserved. Because he knew that ‘united we should stand, but that
divided we must fall.’ Because his own life counted for nothing
where the Union was concerned. Because it is due to him and to
him only that we are not broken up into small independent states,
but are gathered together under the best flag that the sun ever
shone upon. Never has the world seen a greater example of wisdom,
patience, patriotism and moral courage than animated his every
act. Abraham Lincoln is our greatest American because he stood
for honesty, loyalty, affection, willing service, and striving
after every kind of good.”
“I’ve got it now,” said the boy named Billy.