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Abraham Lincoln 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 By CHARLES EUGENE CLARK 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE KENTUCKY STATE LEAGUES 
 OF LOCAL BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 By CHARLES EUGENE CLARK 
 
 'I 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE KENTUCKY STATE LEAGUES 
 OF LOCAL BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 By Charles Kugenf, Clark^ 
 
 I'resident (if the I'liitcil States and the Kentucky State J.eagues of Local lUiilding and 
 
 Loan Associations. 
 
 HI5RAHAM LINCOLN, the centenary of whose birth we 
 celebrate today, has won the chief place in American 
 hearts. He has become our popular hero, our tv])ical 
 American, the ])rou(lest product of onr institutions, the 
 n.:blest growth of our. soil. 
 
 W'c honor and love him because he was a man of the people, 
 of the common people : bone of their bone, and desh of their flesh ; 
 ])orn among the lowliest of theuL in Hardin County, Kentucky, 
 i'^bruary \2, 1809, the son of a poor, unlearned pioneer farmer 
 and backwoods carpenter, and reared in the wildness with them in 
 the greatest poverty and want, living their lowly life and ])artak- 
 ing of their hunger and misery, of their hopes and fears. 
 
 As the growing oak is toughened and strengthened in fibre 
 by the blasts of the forest, until it becomes a towering giant among 
 its surroundings, so the boy, Abraham, learned in the early strug- 
 gles of life, while his father followed his humble calling, to so 
 shape his own course, and life, as to enable him in the years to 
 come, to build a character that made him a God-given force and 
 power among men, to mold the thought of his adopted State and 
 of his nation, and guide the ship of state through troubled waters, 
 to the glory and honor of all mankind. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, while he arose a giant, in ever\^ sense of 
 the worrl, among men, never forgot his lowly origin; nor per- 
 mitted himself to get out of touch with the humble and the lowly; 
 but always felt and sympathized with them; for with them he had 
 exj^erienced the misery and grayness of their everv-dav life, and 
 caught the heart-beat of the masses as he lived their lowly life, 
 because he understood them and their trials and sutferings.' 
 
 I'Acn as a little boy he knew hunger and cold, misery and un- 
 re(|uiterl toil, in a rude log cabin. His couch was a bed'of leaves 
 on the bare floor, with skins at the door's entrance to keep out the 
 rain, the snow and the cold. 
 
 Can we then wonder why he was beloved b\- the masses? 
 
 The idols of the popular heart have ever been ]wor men ; men 
 wli I have suffered and have sympathies in common with them. 
 
 These experiences, wliieh were continued through his vouth 
 and early manhood, knitted him in close symi)athy with the siifYer- 
 ing and afflictions of his fellovy-men and country and enabled him 
 to see and view the world and its trials as they found and experi- 
 enced them. 
 
 We are told that he split four hundred rails for each yard of 
 jeans, for which the rails were bartered, in ortler to secure sufli- 
 cient cloth for a suit of clothes. Those of \-ou who liave ever 
 cut a tie. or >plit a rail, realize the price hv paid for that suit of 
 
— 4 - 
 
 jeans. This surely was the portion and dowry of hardest, most 
 bitter tojl. 
 
 When first elected to the Legislature in Illinois, he walked one 
 hundred miles, over the rough country roads of Clay and Corduro\\ 
 to the State Capitol at Vandalia, and then, at the close of the 
 session, back home again. He walked because his necessities and 
 desire to succeed in life forced him to economize. 
 
 Lincoln in his youth had little schooling, as we understand the 
 term, but he was rich in many and varied experiences and was 
 deei)ly learned in two books unknown to many profound readers — 
 The Book of Nature and the Book of Man. 
 
 And yet, in this backwoods lawyer, the country woke up to 
 the fact that it had a President of genuine culture and great in- 
 tellectual power. For Lincoln, by his own heroic efforts, with the 
 kindly help of his rude pioneer friends, arose above his unlettered 
 surroundings and thus demonstrated that it is possible under our 
 free institutions, for all men, no matter how lowly their condition, 
 who possess the will and force, to rise, even though they be clogged 
 and beset with dire poverty and want. Necessity is ever the spur 
 to exertion, and opportunity the door to preferment and advance- 
 ment. 
 
 This successful struggle of Lincoln's is one of the great lessons 
 of his life and one of our greatest assets as a people, and should 
 be taken to heart by every struggling soul. 
 
 Integrity makes for character and spells success, and so we 
 hear Lincoln called "Honest Abe Lincoln." Yes, he was rightly 
 so called, for rugged honesty, sincerity and integrity were among 
 the chief characteristics of this most wonderful man, upon which 
 he builded an unassailable character, ever the true foundation of 
 greatness. 
 
 He never forgot them, but always lived up to them in the most 
 minute details of his life. And we are even told that he was too 
 honest to make a good lawyer or to make money. Yet he became, 
 in the opinion of competent judges, perhaps the greatest lawyer 
 in his State, and was a feared antagonist at the bar. His ability 
 and rugged honesty, sincerity and openness carried conviction, and 
 won many a judge and jury. His services were ever enlisted to 
 redress wrongs and establish truth and justice. 
 
 He was the most homely of men. with his great lank, angular 
 face and figure, being six feet four inches tall, with long-reaching 
 arms, big. ungainly hands, caloused with the hard ])ioneer work 
 of his earlv life. Yet his countenance literally beamed with honest, 
 loving kindness, truth and sympathy, and his great arms encom- 
 j^assed the woes and trials of his c-untry, as he took them to his 
 breast and grieved over them ; and his large, caloused hands, the 
 result of laborious toil, were clean and undefiled from all corrup- 
 tion, and bore the burdens of his country and ministered to the 
 ])ain and suffering of her soldiers, wrote the Emancipation Procla- 
 mation, which freed twelve million slaves and made out pardons for 
 tired soldiers who, suffering from excessive service, went to sleep 
 
while on duty, or who liad, in fear or timidity, lied in the faee of 
 the enemy, had been condemned to death by court martial. 
 
 Lincoln knew the weaknesses and frailties of human nature 
 and all its limitations, and always believed in the goodness of 
 heart of all mankind. He. in spite of all protests and those rules 
 of war made for the discipline of the service, refused to be a party 
 to the making- of more widows and or])hans through the execution 
 of Union soldiers, for infractions of the stern laws of war. 
 
 He was a born leader, a man of brains, of heart and sympathy, 
 who came fresh from the hand of Almighty God to serve and 
 save his country and tn ennoble mankind. He was indeed Nature's 
 Xobleman. one who was not only a politician, but a statesman, a 
 |)artisan. also a patriot ; and his partisanship was rounded out by 
 his love of country and high sense of duty, while his nobility and 
 gentleness attuned him to all humanity, to which he willingly gave 
 the last measure of unselfish service. 
 
 He was an assiduous student, so far as time and opj)ortunit)' 
 permitted him to be, and he devoted every spare moment to the 
 reading of such books on grammar, politics, surveying and law 
 as was possible for him to find or borrow ; and he mastered them, 
 making them his very own. 
 
 His schoolmasters were said to be three — "an invincil)le will. 
 a boundless patience and an eager thirst for knowledge." P'rom 
 the schooling of these masters, he emerged a truly educated man ; 
 fcr he conquered not only his books, but also himself, and became 
 wise in his day and generation. 
 
 Like Lkmyan. he spoke and wrote in the language of the 
 people, such as they could fully comprehend and understand. His 
 statements were clear, masterful and profound. He never learned 
 the art of saying one thing and meaning another. Candor and 
 frankness to him were cardinal virtues. As statesman and Presi- 
 dent, he became imbued with all the learning necessary to enable 
 him to successfully handle the mighty problems affecting his 
 country. His state papers and speeches are literary masterpieces 
 and have continued to excite the wonder and admiration of man- 
 kind. Their grandeur lies in their directness and force, sincerity, 
 simplicity, humanity and beauty. 
 
 His inaugurals and his speech at Gettysburg will live in the 
 minds and hearts of his countrymen as k^ig as our land and 
 language shall endure ; for they are the personification of ])atriotism 
 and statesmanship and have sounded the very depths of human 
 feeling. 
 
 Almighty ( iod, in Ills l)oun(lless wisdom, raised U]) this leader 
 of men, out of the western wilderness, as a modern Mioses, to 
 leafl our nation through the turmoil and travail of war, out of 
 the sloughs of despondency and degradation, through a baptism of 
 calumny, doubt, heartaches, fire and blood, t(3 greater moral heights 
 and true national greatness, freed of the shackles of slavery and 
 the bitter dissensions and acrimonious dis]')utes of its sons, to 
 perfect ])eace. brotherly love and accord. 
 
— 6 — 
 
 Lincoln was one of the gentlest souls ever born into this world. 
 He was a kindly man, the loving, compassionate father of his 
 people; one who took unto himself their many and grievous 
 burdens. He rejoiced in their prosperity and happiness and keenly 
 felt and sympathized with them in their woes. He was ever an 
 inspiration to them in their hours of supreme trial and affliction, 
 and pointed the way to the light, when darkness had gathered over 
 them and hope had tied. The beatitudes of the Sermon on the 
 Mount were ever reflected in his daily life and conduct. 
 
 He was an humble man. He never ascribed unto himself any 
 feats of greatness, nor i)ara(led his virtues, but ever mindful of 
 the omnipotence and mercies of our Heavenly Father, always 
 attributed all the strength and glory of the accomplishment of his 
 life and administration to the people and to God. He was pure 
 in heart, upright in conduct, the soul of honesty and manliness, 
 and, knowing the weaknesses of our poor human nature and its 
 dependence, always invoked the assistance of Divine Providence 
 upon all of his and the nation's undertakings. He walked with 
 God, as he prayed for Divine guidance, strength and succor, and 
 was blest with victory. 
 
 ■In the eyes of the world that knew him best, he was ever ac- 
 counted a man of unblemished life, a kind neighbor and a depend- 
 able friend, one who had learned to trust in Providence, to honor 
 the Bible and respect the Sabbath ; to pray, to worship his Creator, 
 love Christ and consider nothing human alien to him. His great, 
 kindly heart ever encompassed humanity. 
 
 He was said to be an absolutely brave man ; one without 
 physical or moral fear, ever ready to^ champion and succor the 
 weak, the needv.and the downtrodden, to forgive the erring and 
 raise the fallen. He was a tactful man and had a great leader's 
 indispensable gift, in dealing with men and in molding events and 
 in analyzing motives. 
 
 By his gentleness, tenderness and tactfulness, he was able to 
 control th"e policy and bent of his Cabinet, the administrative 
 servants oi the Nation ; to lead the Generals in the field and 
 subdue the complaints of the soldiers at the front and the civilians 
 at home, and to avoid those entangling foreign com])lications that 
 might have led to misunderstandings. 
 
 By his firmness and aggressiveness he thwarted foreign opposi- 
 tion to the cause of the Union, compelled the nations of the earth 
 to respect its wishes and edicts, and brought to a successful close, 
 four years of most horrible civil war, with the Union unimpaired, 
 and was idolized b_\- his ctnintrymen. 
 
 And though he died a martyr for humanity, yet his most 
 i.-imentable death was not in vain, for l)y his life, sacrifices and death 
 he proved in the supreme hour that he had merited the martyr's 
 crown of greatest service, in the cause of his country and that of 
 humanity. 
 
 He proved that though this Republic miglit be torn and ravished 
 bv great political evil, and fraticidal strife, even that of civil war. 
 
it could }et endure the greatest climax of horrors without cHsiu- 
 tegration. and that the faith of the fathers was well founded, that 
 the priceless heritage of a free people and a free land had been 
 worthily bestowed upon worthy sons and daughters, which they 
 treasured as a priceless guerdon, and that this nation of the people, 
 for the people, and by the people, should not perish from the earth, 
 and that the greatness of a state only emphasizes the happiness 
 and contentment of its citizens who are its sovereigns. 
 
 He demonstrated that its flag and its sentiments shall ever fly 
 on the wings of the morning, carrying for all time, and to all 
 ])eoples throughout the world, the blessings of Liberty and the 
 Equality of all men, before the Law ; that true government rests 
 only on the full consent of the governed ; that involuntary slavery 
 and servitude, except as a punishment for crime committed, can- 
 not and should not exist among an enlightened pe^jjlc, one that 
 acknowledges the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. 
 
 In the language of the attic philosopher, Abraham Lincoln, 
 poverty stricken hoy, enured to hardship and service, statesman. 
 President and martyr, was but another member of that noble 
 phalanx that has always marched in front for the example and 
 salvation of the world. 
 
 For this brave soldier's war cry was Heme, Ha])])iness, Free- 
 dom, E([uality, Country, Humanity — God. His standard was that 
 of Duty. For him was the Divine law o4 Self-sacrifice. He had 
 learned that to love something more than one's self w^as the secret 
 of all that is Great, and to live for others is the aim of alt Noble 
 Souls, and that the supreme expression of life and religion, upon 
 this earth, is that of greatest service. 
 
 His life was sincere and honest and without material blemish. 
 He wrought for the good of his country and of mankind, as he 
 bore his high commission, seeking Divine guidance in its exercise 
 from the King of Kings. 
 
 His birth and life have hallowed the log cabin and enshrined 
 it in the hearts of humanity, as it became the cradle of greatness, 
 surpassing the splendor of the palace. 
 
 His humble life, with its early hardshi])s, has wcmi the admira- 
 tion of mankind. For through it he rose to the pinnacles of 
 l\ame, Power and Earthly Grandeur. And the integrity of his life 
 and conduct and its successes have become an inspiration to strug- 
 gling humanity. 
 
 1"he people have learned to love and cherish him, to revere his 
 memory and keep time to the music of his heart, as his life and 
 mission have ever become better known to them with the passing 
 years. 
 
 He was great in life, great in death, and i> great in history. 
 He was uni(|ue in character and majestic in his individuality ; 
 fashioned of God in a heroic mold, for a heroic ]nu'pose, a savior 
 of his country and a blessing to humanity, as he wrought heroically 
 in a supreme hour for his country's good and honor. He was 
 solid and brilliant and is easilv the First American. 
 
As he clonib every rung of the ladder of Life, from direst 
 poverty to the Presidential chair, he illustrated to the fullest and 
 widest extent the possibility of American citbciishfp and the bless- 
 ings of free institutions, where all men are equal before the law. 
 
 It has been truly said, "that his biography was written in blood 
 and tears ;"' for not only had he known the misery of every-day 
 life, the common heritage of mankind, had felt its greatest sor- 
 row's, which attuned him in experience and suffering, with that 
 monotone of sadness, which has ever enveloped, crushed, raised 
 and enriched humanity, but had also mounted the highest ramparts 
 of human accomplishment and feeling and tasted earth's greatest 
 joys, so that uncounted millions rise and call him blessed, and a 
 redeemed and reunited Republic and people is his monument. 
 
 His was indeed a simple, yet a sublime life, worthy of our 
 undying emulation. In his service and sacrifices for his country, 
 and in his forgiving disposition, he is suggestive of the mercy of the 
 Savior of mankind. And though human, in a sense divine, for he 
 has touched the chords of life, which make the whole world kin. 
 
 His name and fame are prouder and higher and will outlast that 
 of the Hapsburgs and are more enduring than statues of bronze 
 and marble, for they are enshrined in the hearts and memory of 
 all mankind. For his supreme service was for (iod. Country and 
 Humanity. 
 
 Alay we be ever mindful that our Heavenly Father in His 
 boundless wisdom in the fulfillment of His purposes, working His 
 will through His chosen of the nation, the annointed, patient and 
 immortal Lincoln, kept kindled the fires of loyalty and patriotism 
 as they oft flickered and burned low on the altars of our country 
 and freedom for the salvation of the Union during the prolonged 
 and frightful struggles of the war for human rights, as it dragged 
 its bloody course through the years, with its harrowing and vary- 
 ing fortunes. 
 
 For as Jehovah commanded the High Priest to preserve for 
 the governance of His people and keep within the xArk of the 
 Covenant in the Holy of Holies, His commandments, so He en- 
 trusted the lightning of His wrath and the integrity of our nation 
 to Abraham Lincoln, as he was called to serve mankind and save 
 the State. 
 
 As His High Priest, this chosen leader not only wielded with 
 awful power the Sword of Destiny, but also officiated at the first 
 communion of our people as the stricken nation gathered at the 
 Throne of Grace to seek balm for its wounds, to heal its woes, 
 forget its differences, to ask for and extend forgiveness for all 
 of its shortcomings, render thanks for all mercies and seek of the 
 Most High, for all time to come, the Divine Guidance of Heaven. 
 
 As (jod in His mercy raised up this heroic figure from among 
 the children of men to lead our nation to the light and freedom 
 in that greatest crisis of our existence as a people, may He in 
 the exercise of a boundless patience and goodness, should annihila- 
 tion again confront us. send to us, as He may find us worthy of 
 worldly salvation, another Abraham Lincoln. 
 
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