E 457 .B43 Copy 1 m Class EjV51_. Book Copyright N° COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. One hundred, tiuenty-five copies printed, each numbered am "^Number S.tfCty^f™ ' U*£*f MlMJdJ..U£..A gbrafjam Lincoln This photograph was printed especially for this volume direct from the original negative, made from life early in 1 86 1 , by C. S. Germon, in Springfield, Illinois The original negative is preserved in the collection of Frederick Hill Meserve, Esq., New York City ^Kimfjam Lincoln A POETICAL INTERPRETATION BY George William $ell,$(.8. PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY THE ARTHUR H.CLARK COMPANY CLEVELAND, 1913 COPYRIGHT, IQI^^BY GEORGE WILLIAM BELL To my parents James &. anb iflarp €. ^ell highest exemplars of true fatherhood and motherhood Contents Foreword . . . . . . i i Part One -The Shaping Current . . 19 The Lifting of the Veil The Freeing of the Spirit The Coming of the Races The Welding of the Parts Part Two - The Unending Toil . . . 37 Lincoln's first official Utterance Lincoln's last public Expression Ancestral Tracings Personal Inheritances Home Influences The Call and the Vision The Law and its Voice The Voice becomes National Weakness and Strength National Ills The Major and the Minor The vicarious Sacrifice The Burden and the Faith The higher Humanity The higher Leadership Gettysburg Death of Lincoln The Waste of Passion Our human Loss Part Three - The Achieving Spirit . . 75 Personal Significance The Torch of Permanence Contents The Power of Love The higher Thinking The Torch of Power Fortitude The Voice of Relief The higher Living The Crown of Life The Nation's Seer Jforetoortr The truth of life with its reaches of sentiment and romance presents to man his most fascinating and eternal problem. To reconcile this pervasive romance in a nation's history with the demands of modern scholarship is neither an easy nor always a desirable undertaking; and the attempted recon- ciliation too often discloses the scholar without imagination. Still we are passing along a way, wherein the sensitive imagination is being intelli- gently informed. Facts have their romance as well as hearsay and tradition. One need not move out- side the material and spiritual circle of any simple and sincere life to meet with the most sublime thoughts and highest ideals of the thinker and poet. Remarkable have been the achievements of his- torical and scientific scholarship in the last few decades, suggesting a field of vision to the poet- prophet or affording an opportunity to the poet- interpreter; and as he draws nigh unto his facts, his vision strengthens and he reads the human heart as one inspired. There is ethical significance here for both the poet and the race. There is an immediacy of environment playing upon every life inhering in the very truth of that life. Here lies the common 11 jforetoorb meeting-ground for poet and scholar, giving us the judgment of truth touched in colors of flesh and blood. The recent researches of Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, and Messrs. Howard, Learned, Lea, and Hutchinson have been of inestimable value in providing the way for silencing those who would throw a cloud over the reputation of Nancy Hanks, beloved mother of Abraham Lincoln. To Lea and Hutchinson, especially, are we indebted for estab- lishing the chain of Lincoln descent back into the sixteenth century, and proving to a reasonable de- gree of certainty that the Lincolns, even the much scorned father of the president, have always been among the first of their equals. Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of the presi- dent, was born February 5, 1784, and died October 15, 1818, at the age of thirty-four. Within those few years were compressed much of early happi- ness and some sorrow -for Nancy was orphaned at nine years of age; something in the home of her guardian, Aunt Lucy Shipley Berry, of a joyous and intelligent leadership among her young compan- ions, until she was fairly wooed and won by the in- dustrious young carpenter, Thomas Lincoln; some- thing of the experiences of a married life of simple joy, for she loved her husband and their three chil- dren, of whom two lived to be trained and instruct- ed by her in the great and good things of life; and finally, something of the common trials and suffer- jforetoorb ings of the wife on the frontier of civilization, pass- ing to an early death. The mystery of life is the law of its continuance - the forgetting and the remembering, the sinking down and the rising up, the shaping of life upon life. We cannot account for the meanest specimen of mankind without entering the laboratory of the mystic, and we shall never explain this Abraham Lincoln by the historic method alone. The influ- ences that moulded the future leader of his race were subtle and varied; but we may be certain that the influence of his mother transcended any other. He himself has said, "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother;" and we are slowly real- izing that our president was even more of a Hanks, than a Lincoln, as his features and mental charac- teristics reveal. His wonderful tenderness and humanity and his humor are the pervading char- acteristics that came to him from his mother's line. His sturdy honesty, his high sense of duty and his capacity for suffering seem to be the elements, pe- culiarly Lincoln, in his personality. The union of the Lincoln and Hanks families brought together two forces of eminent respectabil- ity in their ranges of living. In the persons of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, we have -a man, who amidst a series of the most tragic hap- penings of a frontier life, proves himself capable of sustaining an unwearying contest- a woman who is above the average of her class in every way, yet 15 jforetoorb so gentle and intelligent as to win all as friends, one capable of sacrificing for the good of her family whatever was necessary of her own life. There can be no rhetorical exaggeration in placing the name of Nancy Hanks beside that of her martyred son. The early death of this estimable woman gave to Lincoln an ever ennobling memory but removed from his daily presence a practical influence that would have meant much to the unconscious refine- ment of a noble human soul. As we link together the names of Washington and Lincoln, let us also place beside them the names of the two women who were so much to them -Martha Washington and Nancy Hanks- the wife and the mother. George William Bell. Stoneham, Mass., February, 1913. :; Part one flEfje Raping Current ®be lifting of tfje \Teil I Hail, mind of to-day, that with its spirit Relights the dimming glow of cycles past And fans to radiant brightness, darkest pit That through long ages was not- an outcast! That gropes with monumental patience, lest Some valued and unsung memorial Of ancient greatness keep its unknown rest, And bear its part in silence -mystical! To find, and to creatively affirm The human stepping of the sons of God Towards that inevitable, final term, Where man no more sees service 'neath the rod. The physical endurance of a noble past Unveils but slowly its heroic might, Yet lights up in the glowing mind, at last A wondering tenderness for sorrow's night. The pre-historic days, the ancient world, The ferment born of time long since unfurled; Have passed in some degree, will pass far more Into the life that ventures to restore. 21 ®ije lifting ol tfje \Xeil-2 And restoration is the art of arts- To build again the thought and deed of those Who in creation's early days made charts And evolved principles that slowly rose In elemental greatness -this the task- To reconstruct a life and time that bore Eternal freshness and a will to ask Its God for signs and symbols to explore. Life is a whole, time but the agent strong, Stripping the fetters binding to the earth; There is no first, no last, nor right nor wrong That in itself is absolute, has worth; To-day is just as great as yesterday, The victory and truth still unrevealed, 'Twill be the greater when the ancient way, In re-creations, bears its will unsealed. The reason's process through the straining years Evokes the heart's great tumult and its tears; And guides the master passion, through its light, To dissipate the darkness of the night. 23 W&t Jfreetng of tfje Spirit- 1 To send anew the Word, heard, but unknown, To ever glow with brilliance, pure, serene, To light the beacons o'er the tombs, moss-grown, Doth verify a purpose, felt, not seen; Significance of soul present in One Doth glorify unto an age its fruit, And in the heart of man there has begun Acknowledgment of Law -as absolute: The law that finds its voice in one, then all. In leader, then in people to be led, Seeks of the loyal individual Some service to all living- from all dead. A Moses, Socrates, world-spirits these, A Charlemagne, a Luther, and Cromwell, Lean towards the higher law, and raise o'er seas And lands, the emblems of truth's citadel. Life's unit is the individual soul, Encased or free, on voyage to some goal; The world glows not but as the unit glows, Each trail of glory, glory fresh bestows. ®fje Jfreeing of tfje g>pirit-2 The sunlight of intelligence darts back Afar, whose rays destroy the atmosphere Of superstition, nightmares that do wrack Man's peace to terrorize his life with fear; And a Columbus steers his course due West To find a land whose bosom yields the hope To millions toiling in their homes, unblessed, Of freedom, and the right to live, not grope. Courageous voyager, sailing the main Of an uncharted sea, seeking to spell In letters bold, the mystic path, to gain Anew, man's right as ocean's sentinel: Thy followers, Vespuccius, Cabot, Drake, Champlain, La Salle, Balboa, and Marquette, Remade thy glory and served to awake The sleeping earth that would thy names forget. The world looks for a sign but sees it when - The years have raised it with the blood of men, Those fearless wanderers who've found new lands Died for a future that with praise expands. 27 Z\)t Coming o! t\)t ft aces I America -thy eastern shores received The human floods that swept their lines afar, And gave thy rolling acres -well achieved - Unto a world-task pointed by God's star. O'er hill and plain and mountain spread the host, Breaking the chains of empire and anew As a Republic, stretched from coast to coast, Sped liberty and freedom as man's due. The conquering of a continent- for use- Its untrod labyrinths op'ed and explored, Its timber felled, its surface tilled, excuse Enough for taking from a race abhorred Through dark and bloody cruelties unmatched, That land, a hunting ground, a haunt of beasts- Some day the home of millions unattached To old world privileges, to lords and priests. All Europe feels her title in this land Whose children found these shores, met first demand Imperative for blood, and later spread Her life, her thoughts, wherever pathways led. 29 Zi)t Coming of tfje &ace*~2 As in each life, life's discipline flows from Repeated tasks, so conquest marks its pace From east to west, to constantly o'ercome Tide-water east, which fights the march of race. Each step seems by the older most opposed, And national vision comes first to the west; Yet rests that vision with its truth disclosed, Upon a government stable, the best: And oft as the expanding forces move Across the mountains, down the rivers' flight, They pause to settle and their rights to prove Against a nation's whettening appetite; Till in the passing years, 'mid struggles grim, A whole land sees with kindlier eyes, the soil As home of man, productive synonym For happiness, the right to live and toil. The Revolution was the first advance. The goal is reached but when the wide expanse From shore to shore a common purpose sings, Of people's rights, not selfish rule of kings. Cfje OTefomg of tie $art*-l The nation's pathway to its time of peace Lies over seas of blood, through years of storm ; Its course uncertain, bending at caprice Of party, section, to its dream perform. The right to occupy, to cultivate The land once taken from the Indian brave, Gave us our homes, yet fostered bitterest hate In that proud race, acts that it ne'er forgave. The right to independence, in our rule Of home affairs, in customs and in law, Brought on a strife, worthy of ridicule In part, in vaster part inspiring all. The right to freedom and to liberty, To strive and meet the urge of every soul ; The right of nation to its destiny, Found answer in the battle's grim control. These are the acts of an ambitious race Seeking its way, yet careless of its pace ; Brave and in purpose righteous but aware Too seldom, of the dangers that ensnare. 33 ®f)e OTelfcmg of tfje $arta 2 And in the wake of conquest came that scheme, Our government, that man, our Washington. A nation, raised to greatness, saw its dream Unfolding mightily, the battle won. In Washington, there was the harmony Of spirit, product of no single age Yet seeming like some vast reality Uplifting all the land, at every stage : In Hamilton, the genius of the mind Sought to preserve the fabric of our plan, Whose services and brilliance could not blind The nation to his hostile views of man. In Jefferson the people felt their own Will rising to the forefront in the fight, While upland Jackson made that will full grown, Yet needing Lincoln to our land unite. This country leans to leadership in part, A leadership that teaches of the heart; It needs its men of genius, thinkers bold, To raise its future earthworks, and to hold. 35 $art tluo Lincoln's First Official Utterance We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 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 chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Lincoln's Last Public Expression With 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, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. ancestral tracing* Ancestral Mendings of our Lincoln raised That giant mould of form and brain, the quest With ever wearying stress of times that crazed, To keep, and bring to fainting nation, rest. From out the life of England's wealth, there passed A glory to New England's rocky coast That in new forms and freer, did at last Trek to the South and West- a fertile host. The Anglo-Saxon Lincoln blood runs pure Throughout its English, Northern, Southern course, Harking to-day of Shakespere's mighty lure Of fame immortal, did it wield its force. The first among their equals, Lincolns moved From times long gone to fateful end of care; His race and Nancy's own have ever proved The value of the virtues born to dare. Our nation strikes its roots in other lands, Forming a tie that sympathy commands: To rear aloft a new race, a new man, Fairer in promise, nobler in his plan. 41 personal Sntimtanr rs True Puritan, thy soul in moral zeal, True Southern in its warmth and sympathy, True Western most in vision, makes men feel The ties of daily human chivalry. Thy mother's sway artistic, in thy blood, Lifted thy moral nature far beyond The sphere of narrow practice, and its flood Of dogma that does break, makes men despond, To regions where the mind and heart do leap Together in the framing of an act; To heights where vision falters not to keep The way of truth, with wisdom to attract. Thy father's worth to thee was honesty His tragic life failed utterly to kill; Those hardships borne with courage fashioned thee To know the test, and breast it with firm will. The blending family stocks richly prevail In weaving wondrous human fabrics, frail, And shimmering with the life pulse all aflame, Creation's document for time to claim. 43 Jjtome Jttfluencea How deeply has the heart of womankind Enveloped earth with love's sweet mystery! How marvelously its purer soul, entwined With baser things, thrilled life's humanity! How brightly has the lowly cottage shone With all the treasures of a fruitful love, E'en when the cottage boasts of love alone A holy incense radiates above! This lowly cottage in the fair South-land Was nurturing soil at birth, and in his youth, Storing a soul, impelled by high command, With common wisdom leading unto truth. The home, the forest, solitude of woods, Raised deep within his nature -sympathies; The books with thoughts and deeds, seemed brotherhoods, Framing their themes for future melodies. The sainted memories of childhood days Plead sympathetically for better ways; Spin daily texts in weaving of life-plans, Rounding life's arch, all beauteous in its spans. 45 Gtfje Call attb tfje "STteton The simple round of tasks filling the hours Of those who swiftly follow in the wake Of pioneers, may lend undreamed of powers For making real, great visions as they break. The merging of his youth in manhood's task, As Lincoln passed to forum of debate, Marked well the dawning insight, that the mask Of folly on the face of truth, bred hate. His call was of the deep unto the deep, With vision flashing out as nature's torch, Saw prejudice, the spectre, then o'erleap Man's reason and o'erthrow the national arch. He mastered principles that gripped the age. He saw beneath the coating of all form The monster slavery, our heritage From out the past, a curse presaging storm. The guilt of slavery first was borne by all, Though later woe on South did heaviest fall; The economic law first mastered right, And then by right was conquered in grim fight. 47 stfmrg The field of Gettysburg -ground consecrate To efforts superhuman and unmatched, To deeds of loyal valor born of great Resolvements and to unborn loves attached - Held mighty host as Lincoln rose to view, A President, a nation's father now, Whose heart in silence measured grief it knew, A grief fine words seemed illy to avow. The memories of that battle surged his brain And forced the breaking of a deep drawn sigh More eloquent than language to explain Those deeds that time will ever glorify. His words so brief, yet placed immortal wreath Upon the sufferers 'neath that scorching fire, The heirs of whom must always walk beneath The guidance of the truth -such deeds inspire. The battle's menace darked the universe, But sanguine victory shattered slavery's curse: The sacrifice appalled a blood-bought world, Hastening the day all battle flags are furled. 67 ©eatf) of Htncoln Fourth anniversary of Sumter's fall, The brightest day when hopes of peace revived: The saddest night a nation could recall, Its Lincoln dead, its heaven of light deprived! Swift settled o'er this land a heavy pall, While grim and tear stained faces groped for naught That lay within man's power, now trivial, To give, when fell the best he ever wrought. Palsied with grief and awed with fear men sank, Not otherwise than victims in a flood, That bursting o'er the ill-restraining bank Strewed earth's fair green with wreckage and with blood. In every household where loved Lincoln reigned, There was the bitter funereal grief; Subdued was every tone, all joy enchained, While misery cleft deep in man's belief. 'Twas in his years of service, through his deeds, That we knew Lincoln, loved his simple creeds ; Drank from his soul of richness, national power Sufficient unto rising 'bove death's awful hour. 69 OTfje ®Ba$ie of $aa*ion Assassination marked the climax grim Of evils crusting o'er the nation's form, And smote the heart of mercy- tore from him The right to edge with silver -clouds of storm. Doubt not the leaden messenger of death Eclipsed a beacon of new dawning peace; Blurred deep the people's vision, and their faith, With passion urging passion to increase. What meaning to life's span of consciousness, If at its strongest hour its doom is marked! What purpose, that a nation choose, possess Great leaders when on fearful war embarked! Where lies the logic of a man's stern fight If hopes and visions lead but to the cross! Why strives a nation mightily for right, If final contest brings but dire pathos! All killing is confession that we learn Impatiently- nor higher things discern: All meanings that we search for fail us when Our passions rise as cloud-banks round our ken. <©ut tmmatt Hosft Could his redeeming presence still have fed His day, hushing opinion's direful waste, Shaping war's sharp reactions, that o'erspread The nation's temper through its fretful haste; His human thinking, so uncritical, Yet seeing deep our needs and weaknesses, Would surely have swept chords, innumerable, And made of wounds new budding victories. A Lincoln dead, no other fills his place Or adequately soothes the frenzied mind, That does anew seek rudely to efface Those master lines of statecraft, wisdom twined. Love's fond immediacy resents a change Of object, and its virtues positive Slip quickly to negation's practice strange, And men arise whose lives have naught to give. Earth's leadership comes not with puny skill Of man to warp, manipulate at will The rights of fellow man, 'tis as the sun That through all time creatively its work has done. 73 $art tfjree W)t &cf)tebmg Spirit personal ^tgtufitante The personality of manhood lies In showing unto others, what is theirs; It is the chord once struck, brings joys or sighs, To some 'tis wheat, to many only tares. O Lincoln, Lincoln, tender, brave, and true, Thy love does make more beautiful, sublime, Each lowly human effort to subdue Life's errors and the habit of dread crime. The mystery of thy sympathy weaves fast The garment covering o'er the scars of sin ; While to the world thy agency looms vast With pregnant sources for the life within. The greater life of vision belts the globe, From zenith to horizon it doth probe. 77 ®fje ®orcf) of permanence Thy personality doth prompt in all Emotions full and richer for thine own; Thy soul of goodness bursts prophetical, Upon the soul life, in its world unknown : It lifts the burdens that so agonize, Bringing to bearer message of relief; It calls upon the nations to arise, And bear the burdens -still the heart of grief. Soon will there come unto all lands just peace, Soon whisperings of the dawn of brighter days; Soon joys will rise for thought of pain's surcease, And wars will lesser vaunt their cruel displays. The gift of life is endless power to mould Man's spirit, and his best to help unfold. 79 ®fje Jtotoer of Hobe And how he loved, who bore for us so much Of life's deep sorrow, and the martyr's crown! To hearts of men and women came a touch Of human kindness, all their hate to drown. He taught us much, who did his work so well That we have grown more like him, e'en shall grow, As through succeeding ages weaves the spell Of spirit upon spirit here below. The character of Lincoln rests secure With Washington's, eternally enshrined; Twin forces ever seeking to allure To walks of justice- with fair peace entwined. The North and South now strive to multiply The bonds of union -with love's strongest tie. 81 W$t fjtgfjer {Etiinfeing Lincoln was master of the common lore, And easily ascended wisdom's plane; Bore in himself the thought to first restore The Union and its limits to maintain. Wisdom again shone o'er his war time acts, And prompted to a sure ingathering trust That Lincoln's heart and brain knew best the facts, Knew how to guide, control, and be most just. Wisdom -that higher thinking of the soul- Alone gives basis for the soul's delight; Wisdom -'tis more than learning's aureole - 'Tis common knowledge grafted with foresight. Who clings to fundamentals -bears the cross. But through his wisdom sanctifies all loss. 83 Cfje Corel) of $otoer No gold nor earthly gewgaws dimmed the glance That probed behind man's lean and selfish life; No prize of power transcendent, turned the lance That pricked unerringly the ills of strife. Back to the past, then up the steep ascent Of daily life, he traced his weary rise, Communing with the God omnipotent, And earth streamed with the faith of sacrifice. The soul that reaches back to lowly trails As duty flings its issues on the brain, Unearths a mint and cummin that avails As daily altar where God's fires obtain. Unfolding laws sometimes bind earth and skies, And man finds the eternal, ere he dies. Jfortitube Thy fortitude in shouldering each defeat, And courage when adversity bore near, Showed forth a nature practical -concrete, Which loses naught with minglings of dread fear. Thou coped with every ill that threatened harm; Thou warred with every rumor of disgrace: Thy being rose with sternness to disarm Those minions, self-appointed, treacherous, base. The times vouchsafed no virtuous clemency, Nor wafted to thy spirit fragrant hours, But doomed thy life with dread calamity, Testing the height and depth of human powers. When fortitude seems greatest, there is love That delves the deepest, soars to heavens above. 87 W*t "£Xoice of belief Humor is active, wisdom's instrument, And played with kind insinuating grace, Falls as the dew, not as the rain's torrent, Lifting to keen delight- the commonplace. It turns aside the stinging darts of foes, Through understanding of their origin; It brings to human suffering ease of woes, From feeling joy as sorrow's nearest kin. Thy spirit's humor-gift of God to thee- Brought to thy life an agency divine, That more and more in full and high degree, Served usefully thy deeds to interline. Humor enables us to see ahead, Though fierce the breakers o'er the way we tread. 89 Wqi fjiflfter libing Thy patience, all enduring, did supplant The weary wastes of passion's wild despair, And overturn the ill advice and cant Flowing relentlessly, man's will to snare. It bore thee past all insults grave, Springing from lips through ignorance or guile; It carried thy kind heart, that ills forgave, To sterner deeds, as fallen times defile. Thy patience, like the flakes of falling snow, Unconsciously sifts o'er the people's heart, Adding a purity that does bestow A cleaner footing and a nobler part. Thy voice to us does speak- does patience urge, That wisdom's ways may common ills submerge. 91 W$t Croton of Utfe The alabaster box of ointment spreads Its precious contents o'er the Master's feet, While Mary, in true humbleness that sheds Its rays of glory o'er all time complete, Dries with her hair, and hears the Master's tones Blessing the giver and the gift of love: So Lincoln bears a soul that ne'er disdains The way of service for his God above; All ways turned upward in that simple rule Scaling to heights no monarch ever knew, Turning the shafts of sharpest ridicule To perfumed laws 'neath flails, thought to subdue. The truest human spirit does explore Unto the heart of man -its boundless lore. 93 Gtfje jfiatton'* g>eer The tall and stately pine-tree rears aloft Its needle-pointed vestments, bears its sway, As prophet o'er a wilderness, and oft Tells to the ear attuned, of storms that play. So rose our Lincoln to his lonely view Above the hill tops springing from the plain; Then saw he far beyond, and through and through, As earth-contact thrilled messages of pain. A man, our very own, to earth so near, So simple in his heartfelt tenderness, Yet with a vision, piercing heights, a seer, Tracing the storm clouds and the war's duress. Seems human life a vain and worthless thing Attuned by Lincoln to love's deathless spring! 95 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 025 233 1