LINCOLN'S MORAL UNISON
The marvelous beauty of the Athenian Parthenon is displayed in four
facades. Upon these four sides runs a frieze in a continuous band,
crowning all the columns, and binding all the structure into a single
shrine. Comprehended within the stately course of that all-encircling
frieze is classic demonstration how an impressive manifoldness of
sculptural form may present a perfect and impressive unison.
Something such is Lincoln's character, as it stands in this second
inaugural. In this address four personal qualities stand forth, as
distinct and clear to the eye and thought as are the faces of the
Parthenon; while, like the Parthenon, the author of that address is
indivisibly and undeniably one. Both are alike composite, and both
alike are one. Both embrace diversity, but all in perfect harmony.
Both have perfect unity, but without monotony. Like the temple of
Athene, greeting from its single altar every horizon of the Grecian
sky, Lincoln, voicing his solemn oath as the Nation's president, gives
utterance to every moral element in our American life. Here is
something worth minute inspection. Here, upreared upon our Western,
modern American soil, is a noble work of art, as noble as any in the
ancient East--finished, balanced, and enduring--the ripened moral
character of a people's patriot.
First to notice narrowly is that Lincoln's moral texture is fourfold.
Four virtues stamp this speech. Four strands compose its web. Four
hues commingle in its light. Four parts convey its harmony. This
four-foldness is discernible distinctly.
Plain to see through all the features of this address, as well-defined
as the features of his friendly face, is his kindliness. Of all
things, war was most deplorable. Of all things, peace was most to be
desired. All malice was to be disowned. All charity was to be
indulged. All wounds were to be bound up. All sorrows were to be
consoled. There spoke the pleading voice of love. All men were bidden
to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. Here the quality of
moral kindliness is unmistakably and indelibly distinct.
Quite as plain is his ideal and illustration of integrity. As manifest
to all the world is his inflexible uprightness, as is the outer
stature of his erect physique. For the equity in the bondman's protest
against two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil he had an open
ear and a profound respect. In the confidence that the judgments of
Almighty God were altogether just he was not ashamed to make public
announcement of his abiding faith. Eager that peace among ourselves
and with all Nations might always last, he was also eager that it
should be just. Firmly based, for his Nation and for himself, upon
such foundations of self-respect, resting on God, and resolute for the
right, he had no other thought but to strive with unremitting
constancy, until his work was done. Here is moral loyalty, plainly
visible, and as plainly inviolate.
Quite as clear is his humility. The war, as Lincoln viewed it, was a
humbling visitation upon the Nation of the Nation's sins, a mighty
rebuke upon all human scorn and pride. In all that sin and scorn and
pride--the crime and guilt of slavery--Lincoln had no slightest,
conscious, personal share. But the shame and woe of that rebuke, as
it fell from the hand of God upon the Nation as a whole, he bore with
quiet, meek humility. And to whatever further judgment the Almighty
might allot he humbly bowed his head, confessing openly that, in his
own heart and thought, God's ways had been proudly misunderstood. Here
is reverent humility, and here is humble reverence, undeniable and
undisguised.
And just as clear is his supreme esteem for values that are permanent
and pure. Above all changing accidents Lincoln honored the Godlike
human soul. In harmony herewith his thoughts and arguments were prone
to handle centuries. And in rating worth his standard was a man's
humanity. Thus he shaped the records and the prospects of our history
into a philosophy. Thus he interpreted the war. It was God's
vindication of the immortal value of the humblest man. Carnal
pleasures and worldly gains, wrung from human lives at the cost of the
degradation and debasement of the human soul, and in defiance of God's
eternal and indefeasible laws, Lincoln saw to be of all things the
most foolhardy and crude. So spiritual and pure was his conception of
God and man, and his active understanding of the meaning of historic
efforts and events. Ideals, endeavors, and enjoyments, even though
normal and worthy, if they dealt with values that were decaying and
gross, were cheaply rated by him; while the Nation's perpetuity, each
man's spiritual quality, and God's eternal purity held eminence
unfailingly in his affection and esteem. Here is spirituality, pure
within, and by the inwardly pure plain to see.
As in the shapely quadrilateral of the Parthenon, this fourfoldness in
the character of Lincoln is cardinal. Each quality is an element, each
conforming with an elemental factor in the nature of every man. This
involves that in its essential substance each trait, so far
considered, is incapable of analysis. And each refuses to be resolved
into something else. Each one is a simple and a constant co-efficient
in Lincoln's moral being. Each one exists within his life in a
complete integrity, indivisible, self-contained.
His humility, thus, is integral and unmixed. When Lincoln bows, as he
does in this inaugural, before his God, and therein offers his life in
a bending ministry to all his fellowmen, that reverence and that
ministry are, as ministry and as reverence, pure lowliness. The phases
of that lowliness may pass through continual transformation. And those
changing forms may have changing designations. It may be submission
before God's sovereignty, reverence before his majesty, awe before his
mystery, obedience before his authority, trust beneath his Providence,
confession under his rebukes; but common, essential, and unchanged
within them all is simple, pure humility.
So with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also
wears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of
parade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership
with a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's
worth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged
within all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid
moral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's
life, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and
inseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a
relationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very
breath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as
firm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as are the
opportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear,
forbear, and serve.
It is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and
imperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable
of many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in
reasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty;
with proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or
reliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as
consistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with
ethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with
even, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm
of truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But
common within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those
varied and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any
analysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand
distinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and
centered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his
very honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living
soul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his
moral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest
action of his self-consciousness.
The same holds true of Lincoln's kindliness. In the balanced harmony
of his character the note of human friendliness is a persistent and
indispensable strain. Without that melody his moral consonance would
be painfully and irretrievably impaired. Like every other fundamental
trait, this too may be voiced with every sort of easy, fluent
variation. It may spring spontaneously from deep within the heart, as
benign and all-embracing benevolence. It may overflow with benefits,
in active, bounteous generosity. It may bind together an ideal home in
parental, filial, fraternal affection. It may kindle at the altars of
one's native land, and influence the heart of the patriotic devotee.
It may break through all the accidents of birth and race into
universal brotherhood. It may befriend the hurt, and needy, and
bereft, as sympathy. It may so prevail as to bear up beneath the cruel
sin of alien hearts in the sorrow of vicarious love, to the end that
guilty men may be redeemed and reconciled. In myriad ways this human
kindliness may speak its gentle words of mercy, grace, and peace. But
every word is keyed to kindly fellowship. Through all those variations
this note is prevalent. And it is keyed to a relationship as universal
and as unavoidable as are the bonds of human brotherhood. This wanting
in any moral character in fact or in idea, that moral character is
unbalanced and incomplete. Its mighty influence and its constant
evidence in Lincoln's active life supply an elemental requisite to
that life's harmony. It is his full-voiced answer to the world-wide
plea for human friendliness.
And just such affirmations must be made concerning Lincoln's pureness.
Like each of the other three, this quality, too, holds a place and
eminence distinctly and uniquely its own. No other trait can do its
part or take its place. Its function and its office permit no
substitute. Nor can its ministry be divided. Its claim is regal. And
in any rating and apportionment among the other three this trait must
be granted equal primacy. Its presence and its purport in Lincoln's
total life are clear and fair and absolutely radical. Its aspect
varies like the aspect of the sky. But deep within those variations
gleams the pure and shining blue. It may win triumph over greed of
appetite in temperance; or over fleshly passion in continence. It may
fix supreme desire, not on decaying things, but on undying life; not
on things that change and disappoint, but on values that abide and
hold their own. It may search far beyond things visible for things
unseen; and look within all symbols, discerning what they mean. It may
detect within down-trodden, untutored men souls kindred to their
Maker. It may transcend all idol forms, and make all worship
spiritual. It may see how ends outvalue means; and how bottles should
not outvalue wine. In the midst of our universal lot of accident,
disease and death it may hold fast, for all the pure in heart, to the
hope of a happy immortality. But enduring and undying, common and
unchanged within them all is simple, spiritual purity. The soul
asserts supremacy. Things that fluctuate and finally dissolve, however
befitting and beautiful while they thrive, are admired and valued far
beneath the immortal and unchanging worth of God and Godlike souls of
men. This clear vision and high evaluation of spiritual things in the
thought and life of Lincoln can never be omitted nor excluded in any
final analysis of his moral life. It ranks among the elements of his
character, as each or any one of its facades holds rank about the
Parthenon.
Thus in the composition of Lincoln's moral being there are four solid,
permanent, radical integers--his kindliness, his loyalty, his
pureness, and his humility. And these four elements of his character
face the four cardinal points in the compass of his life--his brother
man, his conscious self, his flesh-bound soul, and his sovereign Lord.
So inherent in his very structure, so inwrought in his conscious
character, so deeply based, so cardinal, and so enduring and
irreducible is this fourfoldness in Lincoln's inward life.
And now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four
constituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear
and cardinal, but inclusive and complete. Combining in their
significance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things
superior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood;
and all the truth and worth within his own identity--every factor and
relation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and
himself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and
awarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only
two constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with
the daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the
Lord of grace and truth--these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his
life; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire
and consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are
discovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved;
when any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign
and kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a
world of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the
adoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral
stature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see,
so integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of
Lincoln's character.
And now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four
constituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his
character, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively
some separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral,
but Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of
a section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a
whole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature
stands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent
exercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life
is Lincoln's lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is
kindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When
in this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God
reveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and
pledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying
heart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those
centuries of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its
sorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and,
disowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal
charity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is
pouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the
worth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and
commending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in
humble fellowship with humble men he abjures all hollow boasts and
pride, and, bending beneath God's just rebukes, voices for all the
land our national guilt, from that humiliation and lowliness no
portion of his being is exempt. Each cardinal virtue engrosses and
engages all his soul.
And now ensues with a sequence that is irresistible, an affirmation
that in all this study of Lincoln's character must stand supreme.
Integral as is each several one of these four virtues in Lincoln's
life, and integral as is Lincoln's life in each single several trait,
these two integrities can be clearly seen to deeply interblend and
truly coincide. There is among the four qualities within his life no
dissonance. Here emerges Lincoln's moral unison. As in the Parthenon
all the elements harmonize and the edifice is one, so in Lincoln moral
manifoldness unifies. There is throughout coincidence. The heart that
bows towards God, in that very act of meekest acquiescence swells with
pity for all who mourn and bleed, with indignant jealousy for equity,
and with a supreme esteem for immortal souls. These four virtues do
not exist and operate asunder. They do not come into view in this
inaugural in sequence, each one in turn displacing and eclipsing the
one that went and shone before. They coexist, each one continuing
undiminished and unobscured, each one fully active and plain to see,
their confluent tides pouring through the same identical phrase, the
total strength of Lincoln surging alike in each. Through the whole
address thrills Lincoln's whole conviction, all his passion, and the
total vigor of his will respecting truth and falsity, hate and
charity, greed and purity, pride and humility. Here is moral unison.
To find the secret to this moral synthesis demands and deserves the
sharpest scrutiny. That this may be understood it requires to be seen
that these four virtues, so clearly distinguishable and so perfectly
combined, are as clearly and perfectly akin. Lincoln's equity and
charity, as voiced in this address, are not alien energies. They
vitally correspond. They bear mutual resemblance. Each springs from
deep within himself, from his elemental manhood, a manhood that finds
in his brother's life and liberty as deep rejoicing as in his own. And
herein he is also kindred with God, as God's purposes and ways are
defined in this address. God, too, is deeply just and kind. Here roots
Lincoln's meekness under God's rebuke, and Lincoln's firmness in his
understanding of what is right. Between his heart's chief wish and
God's high will the moral correspondence becomes identity. So deep is
the coincidence and agreement of Lincoln's reverence and equity and
charity within himself and with his God. The same inwrought agreement
shines in the profound affinity of Lincoln's kindliness and
faithfulness and lowliness with his pure idealism. In him they are all
as fully unified as is his manliness. So deeply intimate is the vital
synthesis of Lincoln's moral unison.
This position is pivotal. If either of these four virtues, here
defined and designated as elementally distinct and cardinal, can be
ever merged into any one, or any two, or all the other three; or if
any one can be dissolved, or analyzed into something else still more
elemental and pure, that possibility should be made passing sure and
clear at just this point. For from the affirmations, thus far laid
down, as to the cardinal validity and vital harmony of these four
moral traits, and of the four foundations in which these virtues rest,
follow other affirmations in the chapters that now ensue, which no
artificial postulate can ever uphold.
But here, in passing, two standard affirmations are required. It is
not to be asserted or assumed that Lincoln's personal life attained
perfection, and transcended sin. In the chapter on humility, and in
chapters yet to come his own deep sense of deep unworthiness stands
evident. But in his clear and firm ideal and desire, aglow throughout
with Godlike grief for all delinquency, appear the qualities above
defined.
And then these qualities, which his unique career displays, are, as
moral qualities, in no respect unique or beyond the measure of any
man. They beseem quite normally the plainest of us all. This truth
deserves full heed and unreserved respect. Lincoln was beautifully
like a little child. He was indeed a hero and performed heroic deeds.
But with all his heroism, as regards his moral qualities, the humblest
mortal may be his peer. Here is the hidden secret of the universal and
ungrudging admiration which his heroic character commands. He is the
world's model and guarantee of a world democracy.