Cop}Tiglil N°_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. f^Si^g_ Copyrighted, 1906, by the Author. "O, slow to smite and swift to spare. Gentle and merciful and just! Who, in the fear of God, didst bear The sword of pozver — the nation's trust! "In sorrow by thy bier zve stand, Amid the awe that hushes all, And speak the anguish of a land That shook with horror at thy fall. "Thy task is done; the bond arc free; We bear thee to an honored grave. Whose proudest monument shall be The broken fetters of the slave. "Pure zvas thy life; its bloody close Has placed thee with the sons of light, Among the noble host of those Who perished in the cause of Right." — Wm. C. Bryant. 3 "Mr. Lincoln has furnished the American people a states- man ivithout a statesman's craftiness, a politician without a politician's meanness, a ruler ivithout the pride of place or power, an ambitious man ivithout selfisJmess, and a success- ful man without vanity. This true manhood — simple, un- pretending, sympathetic with all mankind and reverent to- ward God — is among the noblest of earth's treasures; and through it God has breathed and will continue to breathe into the nation the elevating and purifying pozver of His own divine life. — J. G. Holland. 4 PREFACE. If the readers of this Essay are stimulated to a fuller study of Mr. Lincoln's life and character and to a higher appreciation of his genius and worth and his services to mankind — and if in addition to this they are filled with the desire to emulate his vir- tues and become partakers of his spirit, — the author will feel that his thought and labor have not been in vain. M. R. S. 5 CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter I. By Way of Introduction 9 Chapter II. Functions of the Prophet 11 Chapter III. Lincoln's Statesmanship 22 Chapter IV. His Moral Teachings 26 Chapter V. His More Direct Prophecies... 35 Chapter VI. His Life and Character 45 Chapter VII. His Religious Faith 52 Chapter VIII. Lessons to be Learned from Lincoln's Life 64 Appendix "A" S^ Appendix "B" 87 Appendix ' 'C" 90 Appendix "D" 93 Appendix "E" 95 7 ESSAY ON LINCOLN: Was He an Inspired Prophet? CHAPTER I. By Way of Introduction. MIRACLES will never cease; the mysteries of Nature and Providence will always present themselves to our eyes ; the Spirit of God will always move on the face of the waters ; divine men will always appear on the earth. Who of us can measure the length and breadth and height and depth of the all-pervading Soul? Who can comprehend its various revelations, manifes- tations and incarnations? As the wind bloweth where it listeth, and as the stars run their appointed courses through the heavens, so this Soul, this mysterious Energy, this incompre- hensible Power, this Supreme Essence, this Divine Spirit, worketh hitherto and worketh unceasingly, ac- cording to its own law, and according to that eternal 9 lo Essay on Lincoln: Order or Principle or Purpose that no man can com- prehend. God is, and man is — what more need we know concerning the mysterious Providence whose creatures and subjects we are?* "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" — Job ii; 7. "No word or phrase that we can apply to Deity can be other than an extremely inadequate and unsatisfactory symbol." — John Fiske. "Of all points of faith the being of God is accompanied with most difficulty and borne in upon our minds with most power." — Cardinal Newman. "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." — Westminster Catechism. "It is dangerous for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High, whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name; yet our sound- est knowledge is to know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him, and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, whereby we confess that his glory is inexplicable, and his greatness is beyond our capacity and reach." — Rich- ard Hooker. CHAPTER II. Functions of the Prophet. FOR what purpose has the gift of prophecy been given to the sons of men ? What is the sign and seal of the prophet's commission? How shall we test the correctness of his vision and know whether his message be true or false? How can any man prove to us that he possesses the spirit of prophecy and is therefore worthy to carry the prophet's staff in his hand and wear the prophet's mantle on his shoulders ? First of all, the prophet must be a teacher com- petent to teach — he must needs have a measure of Truth to impart to us greater than that which we ourselves possess. All rational creatures may be said to have some measure of truth committed to them; but it is manifestly the order of Providence that the light and knowledge in men's souls shall be very un- equal,* even as the trees of the forest differ in size and the stars of heaven differ in brightness and glory. * "For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and dehv- ered unto them his goods. "And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey." — Matthew xxv : 14-15. 12 Essay on Lincoln: Also, we think it is not the order of Providence that the entire vokime of Truth should be communi- cated to men once for all ; for if that were the case, the spirit of prophecy would cease to work in men's souls, and the prophetic office would be known no more. Rather do we believe not only that no revela- tion of Truth is complete and perfect, but that its most elementary and fundamental principles need new exposition, new illustration, new illumination, yea, and new incarnation. The divine word (logos) must ever be made flesh. "God himself can not do without wise men," said Martin Luther. And the poet Lowell has sung: "New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good urtcouth; They must onward still and upward, Who would keep abreast of Truth ! "Lo, her camp-fires gleam before us, We ourselves must pilgrims be, Laiinch our Mayflower, and steer boldly Through the desp'rate wintry sea. Nor attempt the future's portal. With the past's blood-rusted Key!" Moral science, no less than physical science, must be progressive ; and it will forever require the living souls of men for its expression and interpretation. No man has yet spoken the last word concerning its principles and their application to human life, nor Was He an Inspired Prophet? 13 can we conceive it possible that such a word should ever be spoken. If constant evolution be the law of the physical world, it is no less the law of the moral and spiritual world. "He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind." How highly favored, then, is the man who is en- dued with such knowledge of the truth that he may communicate to his fellow-men a message worthy of their acceptation. And still more highly favored is he when they are ready to receive his message, and he knows how to communicate it unto them. But be it remembered, that the "knowledge of the truth" of which we have spoken must be something more than the prophet has learned from other men. To some extent, at least, his message must be his own, and no other man's. Not only must the spirit of Truth dwell in his soul, but he must meet the Lord of Truth on the summit of the mountain alone. Teachers of rote and rule have their place and their work among us ; but the prophet's office is to open men's eyes, that they may see and to open their ears that they may hear and to quicken their moral sense, that they may understand the truth for them- selves. And if he aspires to be a leader as well as a prophet, he must know how to part the waters of the 14 Essay on Lincoln: sea, so that we may pass over it on our journey to the promised land. The prophet must indeed be our instructor; but his instruction must be given to us in such a manner that our own faculties shall be brought into active exercise, and that we ourselves shall become children of the light, and not be the mere recipients of his message or the subjects of his authority.* To this end he must know the minds and hearts of men as well as the revelations of the Spirit — he must reflect the light of the Spirit into our conscious- ness, so as to reveal us to ourselves and enable us to see our relation to the truths which he communicates. All true teaching — especially all moral teaching — is far more than the communication of knowledge ; it is the contact of mind with mind, of thought with thought, of feeling with feeling, of soul with soul. The true teacher must impart his very life to those whom he teaches. *T am come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it more abundantly," said the great teacher of the Orient. 'Tf a man can communicate himself, he can teach," says Emerson, ''but not otherwise. He teaches who gives, and he learns who receives. There is no teach- * "Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do the exact work prescribed for it, but a tree which requires to grow and develop on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing." — John Stuart Mill. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 15 ing, until the pupil is brought into the same state or principle in which you are ; a transfusion takes place ; he is you, and you are he. Then is a teaching, and by no mischance or bad company can he quite lose the benefit." If this be a fundamental law or principle in the teaching of science and philosophy, how much more fundamental and important does it become in the teaching of morality and religion ; for neither morality nor religion can be considered an exact science ; nor will it ever be possible to reduce either of them to precise formulas. If it were possible to lay down precise rules of morality and cause them to be strictly followed by all men, we would cease to be moral beings, if we did not cease to be intelligent ones ; for as surely as the eye is made for seeing and the ear for hearing, so surely are our moral faculties given to us that we may discern the truth and may choose and prefer the right course of action as well as follow it. Good conduct may be defined not as walking on a single straight line, but as keeping a proper balance while walking between two lines, the one on the right and the other on the left. And therefore it becomes the high office of the moral teacher to quicken and inspire our moral faculties, so that we shall not only keep this balance, but shall learn how and when and where to draw the Hnes between which we must walk. 1 6 Essay on Lincoln: To some extent at least every man must be a law unto himself and must create — or evolve — his own rules and standards of morality. The man who does not know that moral science is subjective as well as objective — shall we say subjective rather than objec- tive ? — is very deficient in his knowledge of the truth, to say the least. And still more unfortunate is he if he has no ''inner light" to guide his steps ; or if the light that is in him be darkness. Only as the prophet brings us into communication with the same spirit of which he himself is possessed can we recognize his commission ; only as he inspires us can we believe that he is inspired ; only as he makes us realize that we are partakers of the divine nature* can we believe that he is a divine messenger; only as he shows us the son of God in ourselves can we see the son of God in him. In a word, his message must be vital ; and it must be assimilated by ourselves before we can realize that it has come down to us from God out of heaven. And let no man imagine that he can communicate a larger measure of virtue or even a larger knowledge of virtue to his fellows than that which he incarnates in himself and illustrates by his life and character. The prophet must be our exemplar as well as our in- * "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." — ii Peter i : 4, Was He an Inspired Prophet? 17 structor, if he would lead us through the wilderness into the promised land.* And unless he be such an examplar we can not understand his message — we can not even know the meaning of his words. How can any one teach or preach that which he knows not — and is not ? The prophet who would give light to the blind and strength to the weak, and li!e and hope to all men must be a seer — he must have a visiONf so large and clear that his message will prove itself, even as the sun proves its office in the heavens by the light and heat which it imparts to its planets and the attraction which it exercises upon them. The prophet must needs have some prescience of future events ; for verily the future is no more wholly hid from our eyes than is the past, but his predictions concerning them must come out of his comprehension of the past and present and his knowledge of the prin- ciples that enter into the moral order of the universe. His prophecies must be both natural and supernatural, else they will be untrue. if * "We draw new life from the heroic example. The , prophet has drunk more deeply than any of us of the cup i of bitterness; but his countenance is so unshaken, and he > speaks such mightv words of cheer, that his will becomes I our will, and our life is kindled at his own." — Prof. William \ James. t "Where there is no vision the people perish." — Proverbs xxix : 18. X "Ever3^thing that is supernatural is natural ; and everything that is natural is supernatural." — Lyman Abbott. 2 E L 1 8 Essay on Lincoln: If it be the high office of poetry to reveal to us the beauty which dwells in Nature in spite of all her (seemingly) unfriendly manifestations, and if it be the high office of music to mediate between the discords and disorders of our lives and the ideals of harmony and beneficent purpose that exist in our souls, so it must be the office of the -prophet to interpret the varied experiences of our lives in such a manner that we shall see the wisdom of the eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to men. Only thus can he prove himself the daysman or mediator whom the souls of men are ever searching after. To these high qualifications must be added that passion or enthusiasm of humanity which can only be defined by giving it the joint names of Sympathy and Love. The prophet who would thrill the souls of men with light and fill them with the knowledge of the truth must not only feel the highest interest in his race, but must cherish the largest sympathy and re- spect for individuals of every class.* He must carry men's burdens on his shoulders ; he must share in their sorrows; he must be merciful to their transgressions; he must heal their infirmities ; he must help their un- belief. Nay, more than this; while cherishing the * "He who is truly humane considers every human be- ing as such interesting and important, and without waiting to criticise each individual specimen, pays in advance to all alike the tribute of good wishes and sympathy." — Prof. J. R. Seeley. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 19 highest ideals of virtue in his own soul, he must enter into the very lives of his fellow-men; he must search out and recognize their better natures* he must realize his kinship and affinity with them ; he must be willing to endure privation and reproach for their sakes ; he must find his highest satisfaction in loving and serving and seeking to save those who are lost.f He who would do battle against the evil that is in the world must suffer on account of it — and be willing so to suffer — as well as condemn it ; he who would save transgressors must consent to be numbered with them.J In speaking of the triumphs of Christianity in the Roman empire Macaulay, in his essay on Milton, says : ''God, the uncreated, the incomprehensible, the invis- ible, attracted few worshipers. It was before Deit}r embodied in a human form, walking among men, par- taking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger and bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of the synagogue and the doubts of the academy and the pride * "To be trusted is to be saved ! And if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that our suc- cess is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of what he is becomes- to him the hope and pattern of what he may become." — Henry Drummond. t "For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." — Luke xix : 10. X "And he was numbered with the transgressors." — Isaiah lhi: 10. 20 Essay on Lincoln : of the portico and the fasces of the Hctor and the swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust." The prophet who loves us because he is one of us, and is willing to serve us, even to the laying down of his life in our behalf, will not only constrain us to walk in the paths of wisdom and virtue, but will give us visions of truth and beauty like unto those which he himself enjoys.* He may not transport us to the sev- enth heaven of delight, but he will enable us to see the meaning of our lives and to appreciate the Wisdom and Goodness that are from everlasting to everlasting. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me," cried Isaiah of old, ''because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- * "Ideas are often poor ghosts; our sun-filled eyes can not discern them; they pass athwart us in their vapor, and can not make themselves felt. But sometimes they are made flesh ; they breathe upon us with warm breath ; they look at us with sad, sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones ; they are clothed in a living human soul, with all its conflicts, its faith and its love. Then their presence is a power; then they shake us like a passion; and we are drawn after them with gentle compulsion, as flame follows flame." — George Eliot. Was He an Inspired Prophet: 21 ness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."* And thus the prophet Ezekiel: "The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about ; and behold there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me. Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me. Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. * * So I prophesied as he commanded me ; and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.f * Isaiah Ixxi : 1-3. t Ecekiel xxxvii : 1-10. CHAPTER III. Lincoln's Statesmanship. WITH due reserve and reverence should we ever speak concerning the divine purpose or pur- poses in the affairs of men ; but surely the pre-eminent fitness of Abraham Lincoln for the high political office he was called to fill and the pre-eminent wisdom and statesmanship which he manifested in the administra- tion of our government ought to leave no doubt in our minds concerning the Providential order in his case. And even the most skeptical, we think, must concede that his genius and character can only be accounted for by considering him the special product of the mysteri- ous Power — call that power by whatever name we may — that controls the heavens and the earth and shapes the destiny of men and nations.* To say the least, we may challenge the history of the world to present a case in which any man was more marvel- ously fitted for the management of a great crisis and * "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." — Shakespeare. "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." — Daniel iv: 35. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 23 furnished clearer proofs that he — and he alone — was capable of bringing it to a successful issue. As we read the story of his early life in connection with the history of his administration, we are ready to believe that the goddess of Liberty had found him an infant hidden in the forests of Kentucky, and had com- mitted him to the arms of the young Republic with the solemn injunction, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages ; for the day will surely come when the American people will need his strong arm and clear head and great soul, that they may preserve their place among the nations of the earth !" It may possibly be too much to claim that our Union could not have been saved without Lincoln ; but who else could have exercised such wisdom and ren- dered such service as he did from the hour when he assumed the duties of his office until the hour of his assassination P"^ From first to last he was the head and front of the nation. While he sought advice and wisdom from every quarter they could be obtained the judgment and conscience of the Executive were always in his own keeping, and his own brain ''divined," and his own hands marked out the course of his administration. * "Without doubt the greatest man of rebellion times, the- one matchless* among forty millions for the peculiar difficulties of the period was Abraham Lincoln." — Gen. James Longsi'reet. 24 Essay on Lincoln : His strong eye pierced every cloud and every season of darkness ; his strong heart rose above every excitement and every depression of the conflict. Guided by him the ship of state moved through the wild storms of the war, and never deviated from its course. Amid tempest and strife and doubt and distrust and darkness of the deepest kind he steered ever onward. The nation's mind and heart and ma- terial interests were all committed to this faithful pilot's hands ; and in times of severest stress, and when all else seemed to fail, we trusted him; for we knew that he was honest and true — and exceedingly wise ! With the scepter of power many men have achieved great deeds, even to the setting up and pull- ing down of kings and princes and the turning and overturning of nations and kingdoms, and have thereby raised themselves high above the great mass of their fellow-men. But Lincoln sat down in the congregation of the people, and with no scepter in his hand but the scepter of the people's will, and no armor on his breast but the armor of their love and confidence, met and mastered the most stupendous crisis in the history of the world ! His statesmanship is, indeed, without a parallel in history. Among all the princes and rulers of the earth there is none like him, there is none equal to him, no, not one. As we survey the panorama of his administration. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 25 is not the hand of Providence ever visible? Was he not clearly chosen — yea, "foreordained'' — to lead us through the wilderness into the promised land of peace and order and liberty ? Can we doubt that there was a God in Israel, as we read the whole history of the war in the lines and wrinkles of his face ? * *"As the state of society in which Lincoln grew up passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of the man, who, not only of the humblest origin, but remain- ing the simplest and most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power, unprecedented m our history; who, although the gentlest and most peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without feeling a pang in his own breast, and yet wielded the power of government when stern resolution and relentless force were the order of the day, and then won and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, and yet led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution ot our time; who preserving his homely speech and rustic manner, thrilled the souls of men with utterances of won- derful beauty and grandeur; who while in power was ridi- culed and maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and yet around whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him as one of the greatest of Americans and one of the best of men." — Carl Schurz. CHAPTER IV. His Moral Teachings. WAS the gift of prophecy in Lincoln as well as the genius of statesmanship? Was he a re- vealer of moral and spiritual truth as well as an ex- ponent of political wisdom? Was he a preacher of righteousness as well as the greatest President of the greatest Republic of the earth? Was he a messenger of the Lord Most High as well as the champion of Liberty and the Rights of Man? If he deserves the highest rank among the rulers and statesmen of the world, is he also worthy to stand with Jesus and Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration? Our only way to answer these questions is to study his life and character as well as his various utterances, if haply we may enter into the spirit of which he was possessed. He certainly left us no "code of morals," neither did he assume to give any specific directions whereby we should regulate our conduct in all the af- fairs of life. On the contrary, he always appealed to men's" reason, and whether he was always conscious of such an effort or not, he sought to quicken and inspire their moral sense. Mr. Lincoln not only knew how to appeal to men's 26 Was He an Inspired Prophet? 27 reason, but knew how to reach it, and how to throw such Hght on all questions he discussed that men's moral sense was always brought into exercise in greater or less measure. And so clear was his own understanding and so liappy was he in the expression of his- thoughts, that he was rarely misunderstood or misconstrued. In all his speeches and messages and letters no man can find a trace of cant or affectation or evasion of the point at issue ; in all of them simplicity and sincerity as well as reason and logic are as clear as the sunlight. Nowhere can we find a false note or a passage of dubious or un- certain meaning. Even faults of diction and rhetoric are **few and far between." He was a literary artist of the highest order, not merely on account of his native genius, but because he drew his inspiration from the very fountain of truth, and from "The Spirit that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure." Can any man give higher proof of his own inspira- tion than his power to inspire the souls of other men ?* * "The test of inspiration is the power to inspire. This is the very definition of inspiration given in the so often misquoted text in Paul's letter to Timothy, 'All scripture, given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteous- ness.' * * It matters not what the writing be called -— drama, fiction, epic, ballad, lyric, narrative, biography — if it does this work, it is holy. If it inspires, it is inspired; the helping word is the divine word." — O. B. Frothingham. 28 Essay on Lincoln : Could we ask other evidence in Lincoln's case than the fact that the people heard him most gladly while he lived, and that since his death his words have passed into the permanent literature of the world? In all his utterances — especially is this the case with those in which the moral tone is most predomi- nant — we can almost hear him saying to the people : "Whatever wisdom and knowledge I possess and what- ever dignity or honor may belong to the position I occupy, I am willing to share with you ; for we are all creatures of the same blood and citizens of the same Republic." Neither his talents nor his virtues ever oppress us or repel us or make him persona non grata to us ; his touch is always genial, cordial, cheering, inspiring; his voice is always that of a father or an elder brother f As we have said, Mr. Lincoln left no final defini- tion of virtue and no precise rules of conduct ; but in his recognition of men's reason and moral sense he fur- nished an example that might well be cherished and followed by all teachers of morality and ministers of righteousness. Most clearly may we learn from him that the law of the Lord has been written on the souls of men, and that the highest virtue can only be attained by those whose reason and conscience have been duly exercised, even as bodily health is promoted by bodily exercise, and mental development depends on the exer- cise of our mental faculties. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 29 And yet his moral teaching was not devoid of concrete form and direct application. He was a most practical statesman, ;md if it must be conceded that he was also a "practical politician," he not only bronght his moral sense into his politics, but always sought the vindication of his measures and policies by commend- ing them to the reason and conscience of the people. "Some of our Generals complain that I impair discipUne and subordination in the army by my par- dons and respites; but it makes me feel rested after a hard day's work, if I can find some excuse for saving a poor fellow's life, and I go to bed greatly rejoiced to think how happy the signing of my name has made him and his family."* Who could answer such an argu- ment as this! . „ ^^,, "If slavery isn't wrong, nothing is wrong. Could there be a clearer or terser expression of the sentiment that actuated him in all his efforts to deliver his coun- try from the curse of that institution? Hear his clarion voice in words to the same effect at Cooper Institute a few months before he was nomi- u.ated for President ; , j .„„ "If slaverv is right, all words, acts, laws and con- stitutions against it are wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we can not justly ob- Z:^iZu^\« never, abused his great P°";'='-- ^l^l'^/^^e .vere on the side of mercy v^d humanity^ ^.^^^ gentlest memory of our earth. — Robert u. i" 30 Essay on Lincoln : ject to its becoming national. If it is wrong, the South can not justly insist upon its extension and enlarge- ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right. All we ask they could readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact on which depends the whole controversy. * * Wrong as we think slavery is, can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national terri- tories and overrun us here in the free states? If our sense of duty forbids this", then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. * "^ Let us have faith, that Right makes Might, and in that faith let us — to the end — dare to do our duty as we understand it." 'Tn your hands, my • dissatisfied fellow-country- men, and not in mine" — he pleaded with the Southern people in his first Inaugural'*' — *'is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- gressors. You haVe no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' " 'Tt was with the deepest regret," he declared in his first message to Congress,t ''that the Executive found the duty of employing the war power of the government; he could but perform this duty or sur- * See Appendix "A." tSee Appendix "B." Was He an Inspired Prophet? 31 render the existence of the government. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might follow." Whether Mr. Lincoln entered upon his great task with a premonition of his assassination, as this utter- ance leads us to beheve he did, or not, his life was fully consecrated to the people's service and laid down on his country's altar! "And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity" — such were the closing words of the im- mortal proclamation of Emancipation^-^— "I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God!" It is very easy for us to see that this proclamation could not have been carried into effect, if it had not been sustained by the voice of the people and the mili- tary power of the government ; it may not be so easy for us to see — but is it any the less true? — that the support of the people could not have been secured, nor could the proclamation have been made effective, if there had not been breathed into it the mind and soul of the President by whom it was issued. Mr. Lincoln was a wonderful interpreter and ex- ponent of the people's will ; but he was also the peo- ple's leader and inspirer and herald of light and truth. * See Appendix "C." 32 Essay on Lincoln: And they always recognized his voice as the voice of one having authority; because his vision was very clear, and they knew he was possessed of the spirit of truth ! "I would save the Union," he wrote to Horace Greeley, in reply to certain strictures of the latter in the New York Tribune a short time before the Eman- cipation Proclamation was issued. "I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. * -^ What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. U shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause; and I shall do less whenever I believe doing less will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors ; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty ; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every- where could be free !" What faithfulness to his trust as executive of the government he here reveals, while he kept the love of liberty burning as a sacred fire in his breast ! And how close the good President brought himself to the hearts of all his people by such utterances as this. ''You say," Mr. Lincoln wrote to certain self- styled "unconditional Union men" in Illinois some Was He an Inspired Prophet? 33 months after the poHcy of emancipation and the arm- ing of negroes had been inaugurated, "you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you, but no matter. Fight you then ex- clusively to save the Union. I issued the proclama- tion on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will then be an apt time for you to declare that you will not fight to free the negroes. "^^ * If negroes stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest of motives, even the promise of freedom. And the promise, being made, must be kept. ''Peace does not appear so far distant as it did. I trust it will come soon and come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal must lose their case and pay the costs. And then there will be some black men who can remember that with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well- poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation ; while I fear there will be some white men unable to forget, that with malignant heart and deceitful speech they have striven to hinder it. 34 Essay on Lincoln : "Still, let us not be over sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result." I , CHAPTER V. His More Direct Prophecies. WHEN Mr. Lincoln was a young man of nine- teen or twenty years, he made a trip to the city of New Orleans in the capacity of a flat-boatman, and while there saw a number of negroes chained to- gether and sold at public auction like horses or cattle. The spectacle is said to have made such an impres- sion on his feelings that he exclaimed: "If I ever get a chance to strike this institution of slavery, I will strike it hard !" Was there a far vision of the Presidential office and the Emancipation Proclamation in his youthful soul as he uttered these words? If a clear and marvelous prescience of the future — if a clear understanding of all the forces working in the present — if the firm resolve to speak the truth and deliver his soul by declaring the principles in- volved in the political contest in which he was engaged — if the desire to have the people appreciate the grav- ity and magnitude of the crisis that was before them — if confidence that the reason and conscience of the people would secure the ultimate triumph of justice — • 35 2,6 Essay on Lincoln : if all these things combined are sufficient to prove Mr. Lincoln an inspired prophet, we need only quote the opening and closing paragraphs of his speech accept- ing the nomination for United States Senator in the year 1858: "If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far on into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed ob- ject and confident promise of putting an end to slav- ery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.' I believe this government can not permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- solved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or -its advocates will push it forward, until it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South." 'The result is not doubtful. If we stand firm, Was He an Inspired Prophet? 37 we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later, victory is sure to come!'' And what were all Lincoln's speeches during the campaign of this year — including the seven debates with Douglas — but an unfolding of this same proph- ecy in the ears of the people ? Douglas, indeed, gained the senatorship ; but the debates made Lincoln President; and the Presidency gave him immortal fame from the rivers to the ends of the earth ! And when he died the house was no longer divided against itself ! What a large measure of prophecy may also be seen in the brief address which Mr. Lincoln delivered at the Springfield depot, on the occasion of his depart- ure for Washington to assume the duties of the Pres- idency : "My friends, no one, not in my position can ap- preciate the sadness I feel at this parting from you. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Wash- ington. He never could have succeeded without the aid of the Divine Providence upon which he relied at 38 Essay on Lincoln : all times ; and I feel that I can not succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him. In the same Almighty being I place my reliance for support; and therefore I hope, my friends, you will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I can not succeed, but with which success is certain." As we ponder this address it seems to us that if Mr. Lincoln had expressed his "sub-conscious" thought and feeling on this occasion, it would have been in words like these: ''My friends and neighbors, the sadness I feel at parting from you to-day is greater than I can understand or express. Can it be that I shall never again see this city where I have lived so many years, and zv'here my children zvere born and one of them is buried f I fully realize that I am assuming the administration of the government in the midst of a most serious and painful crisis, and that I shall need wisdom as great as even Washington possessed; and my supreme desire and hope is to administer the gov- ernment as faithfully and successfully as he did. None of us can see clearly and fully into the future ; but as I believe that this government has always been favored and upheld by the Divine Providence, and that I have been providentially called to the respon- sibility of presiding over it, I have great faith and confidence that if I do my whole duty as President of the country, the necessary wisdom will be given to me, and that my administration will be successful Was He an Inspired Prophet? 39 and a blessing to the whole country. Will you not therefore give me your sympathy and confidence and earnestly pray that I may always have the blessing and support of Divine Providence, so that I may administer the government successfully as well as honestly and faithfully?" Four years from the delivery of this most pro- phetic address the lifeless body of Mr. Lincoln was brought back to Springfield as "consecrate dust," watered with the tears of all the people ; for by his genius and virtue the great Republic was saved. But he could not save himself ! "There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring, And a song of regret from the bird on its wing; There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours. "For a star has gone out from the night of our sky, On whose brightness we gazed as the war-cloud rolled by. So tranquil and steady and clear were its beams, That they fell like a vision of peace on our dreams. "Then bear him home gently, great son of the West ! 'Mid her fair blooming prairies lay Lincoln to rest ; A Mecca his grave to the people shall be, And a shrine evermore for the hearts of the free !" What a message of beauty* and beneficence as * "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." — Isaiah lii : 7. 40 Essay on Lincoln : well as one of hope and courage were the closing words of Lincoln's first Inaugural : "The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battle field and every patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched as they surely will be by the better angels of our nature." What shall we say concerning the Gettysburg ad- dress?''' Is it not an evangel of liberty and a message of life and hope to all mankind? Surely no element of inspired prophecy is lacking in this marvelous clas- sic. Prescience of the future — comprehension of the past and the present — patriotism of the highest order — the most ardent devotion to the principles of free government — faith in the wisdom and intelligence of the people as well as the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Providence ; — all these are so clearly re- vealed that the wayfaring man may see and feel their quickening and inspiring influence. To doubt the di- vine inspiration of this address is to doubt the verdure of the earth and the shining of the sun and stars ; it is to deny that the Spirit of God still dwells in the souls of men. ^'\nd shall not the truths proclaimed in this ad- dress be forever established in our minds and hearts? Shall it ever be said bv us that our Declaration of In- See Appendix "D. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 41 dependence is an unmeaning abstraction, when Lin- coln has told us that our government was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal?" Shall we ever lose faith in the virtue and intelligence of the people, when Lincoln has declared that "government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth !" Rather let this address be inscribed on all our hearts and hearthstones ; let it be "written large" on the walls of all our school houses and churches and colleges and universities — let us transmit it to our children and our children's children unto the latest generation of them that shall inhabit the free soil of America. For where in all history and in all literature can we find anything superior to this address? Is it not equal, if not more than equal, to St. Paul's sermon on Mars Hill? And the second Inaugural?* To what loftiest heights of inspiration and moral dignity does Mr. Lin- coln here rise. How calmly and yet how seriously he accepts the high trust which has again been committed to his hands. How low he bows his head before the all-wise Providence whose ways are past finding out- How faithfully and yet how kindly and tenderly he * See Appendix "E. 42 Essay on Lincoln : speaks concerning the righteous judgment that has come upon both the North and the South on account of the ''offense" of slavery. How subhme is his assur- ance of "a just and lasting peace" as the reward of our faithful and continued well-doing. This address was far more than the words of the President who had passed through four years of war and was pouring out his soul in the ears of his people ; it was the voice of the prophet who had stood on the mountain before the Lord Jehovah, and had come down to write the message he had received, not on tables of stone, but on the tables of men's hearts to abide through endless ages. For verily this address contains all the law and the prophets and all the reli- gions and moralities of the world. We deem it no irreverence to place it in the same category with the Psalms of David and the Sermon on the Mount. On the dark background of slavery and secession and a great civil war, in letters of clearest light, the message of Lincoln is presented to our eyes. In all that he said and in all that he wrote the love of lib- erty and humanity shines forth like a bright and morn- ing star — like a star that giveth hope, that giveth comfort, that giveth peace, that giveth inspiration — like a star that grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. His rhetoric and logic and even his Was He an Inspired Prophet? 43 jokes and anecdotes and the quaint humor* for which he was noted, were charged with the high purpose of leading the people in the right path and securing for them the blessings of a perpetual Union, wherein should dwell both peace and righteousness. He hated slavery with a perfect hatred; but the supreme battle of his life against this institution was fought ''with malice toward none and with charity for all." While employing the utmost powers of the government in the suppression of the Rebellion, all his -utterances were full of kindness and good-will toward the people of the South ; and all his acts were prompted hy his desire to promote their welfare as well as that of the Northern people. His patriotism was as broad as the whole land ; and his heart was generous enough * "Then his broad good humor, in which he delighted, and in which he excelled, was a rich gift to this wise man It enabled him to keep his secret, to meet every kind of man and every rank in society, to take off the edge ot the severest decisions, to mask his own purpose and sound his companion and to catch with true instinct the temper ot everv* company he addressed. And more than all, it is to a man of severe labor, in anxious and exhausting crises, the natural restorative, good as sleep, and is the protection of the over-driven brain against rancor and insanity. _ He is the author of a number of good sayings so disguised as pleasantries, that they had no -reputation at first but as iesf^ and only later, by the very acceptance and adoption they find in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the wis- dom of the hour. I am sure if this man had ruled in a iDcriod of less facilitv of printing, he would have become mythological in a vefy few years, like Aesop or Pilpay or one of the Seven Wise Masters, by his fables and proverbs. — R. W. Emerson. 44 Essay on Lincoln : and strong enough to throb for each and every fellow- countryman. And what amazing magnanimity and generosity he always manifested toward his political opponents. How completely he rose above all personal feeling in the discussion of every issue which they forced upon him, begging them to consider only the country's wel- fare and to labor with him for the salvation of the Union. There is no absolute perfection in the works of man; but who of us could add anything to Lincoln's, message? Would we subtract a word or a sentence from it? CHAPTER VI. His Life and Character. BUT clear as Mr. Lincoln's utterances all are, they become still clearer and more luminous as we read the story of his life and learn to appreciate his character. What a child of Nature he was ! What an array of human virtues he presents to our eyes ! How supremely and exquisitely human were all the elements of his character !* How great and yet how ^'common" — how strong and yet how gentle — how wise and yet how modest — how self-reliant and yet how humble — how earnest and yet how patient and even-tempered — how just and yet how kind and char- itable — how righteous and yet how free from self- righteousness — he always was ! In him we may truly * "What makes Lincoln lovable more than any other one thing is the perfect combination of humility and strength. Charity for others was a natural sister to humility about himself, and unfaltering determination was perfectly con- sistent with both. Pomp and ceremony raised no awe in him. The beating in human veins was what he heard, and heard with a fulness of music that comes only to the richest natures. It is his trueness that we love, the absence of artifice, of convention, of vanity, of any false value, the strength of character and insight wedded to the simplicity and gentleness of a noble heart." — Norman Hapgood. 45 46 Essay on Lincoln : say that judgment and mercy met together, and right- eousness and peace kissed each other. *We may not be able to define the many virtues that we find in his character; but we can hardly fail to appreciate and admire them when they are made so luminous by his services to his country and to* mankind.* And yet a catalogue of all his virtues would not fully reveal his character to us ; for his supreme ex- cellence must be seen in the marvelous combination of these virtues, even as the colors of the rainbow are glorified in our eyes by the manner in which they are blended together on the face of the sky ! Iti the light of Lincoln's history his face reveals to us the very beauty of holiness; and in his homely form we may see such an incarnation of greatness and * To conceive the good and express it in words is not enough ; it is necessary to make it succeed amongst men. In morals, as in art, precept is nothing; practice is every- thing. The idea that lies hidden in a picture of Raphael is of small moment; it is the picture itself that is prized. In the same manner, truth is very little thought of when it only reaches the condition of mere feeling; it only attains- its full value when it is realized in the world as a certain fact. Some men df mediocre morality, have written a num- ber of good maxims ; and some very virtuous men, on the other hand, have done nothing to preserve the tradition of virtue. The palm is his, who has been powerful both in words and deeds, who has discerned the good, and at the price of his blood, has made it triumph. — Ernest Renan, "Life of Jesus." Was He an Inspired Prophet?' 47 goodness, of genius and virtue, of manliness and gen- tleness, that we might fitly pronounce him the eighth wonder of the world I"^ And is he not worthy to be called the prophet and friend of m.ankind as well as the greatest citizen of America? Have not all nations and races of men the right to circle around his tomb and hail him as an elder brother ! His life is, indeed, a plea for virtue and goodness and truth that shall be felt until the end of time. His character is Argument for Liberty! That all the powers of the earth can not pull down ; it is a tree of fadeless green and immortal beauty, v/hose leaves are for the healing of all the nations ; it is a colossal statue,t whose base is the broad area of our *The "Seven Wonders" of the ancient world were (1) the Egyptian Pyramids, (2) the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (3) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, (4) the Walls and Hanging Gardens at Babylon, (5) the Colossus at Rhodes, (6) the statue of Zeus at Olympia, (7) the Pharos or Lighthouse at Alexandria. t 'A granite rock by the mountain side Gazed on the world, and was satisfied; It watched the centuries come and go; It welcomed the sunlight, it loved the snow. "But all at once with a mighty shock, Down from the mountain was hurled the rock. 48 Essay on Lincoln : Republic, and whose summit is found among the stars of heaven ! In every act of Lincohi's Hfe he seems to say to us, ''Be just and fear not ; let all the ends at which you aim be Truth's and God's." And as he lies moulder- ing in his tomb, we can almost hear him cry, ''Beware, ye nations, O, beware of slavery — beware of injustice and oppression of every kind — beware of fraud and corruption — beware of all unrighteousness !" Say, all ye people, is not the symmetry and pro- portion of Lincoln's character without a flaw ? — "with- out spot or wrinkle or any such thing?" Is there any quality of superior manhood in which he is found wanting? Would we add anything to his record, or take anything from it ? "From the union of these colonists, the puritans and cavaliers" — thus spoke the late Henry W. Grady All bruised and battered and broken in pride, 'Oh, God is cruel !' the granite cried. "But a dreaming sculptor in passing by, Gazed on the granite with thoughtful eye, Then stirred with a purpose, supreme and grand. He bade his dream in the rock expand. "And lo, from the broken and shapeless mass. That grieved and doubted, it came to pass, That a glorious statue of infinite worth, A statute of Lincoln adorned the earth!" — Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 49 in an address delivered in Boston a short time before his death — "from the straitening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a century, came he who stands as . The First Typical American ! The first who comprehended in himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Re- public, Abraham Lincoln. He was the sum of puritan and cavalier ; for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul, the faults of both were lost ! He was greater than puritan, he was greater than cavalier, in that he was American, in that in his homely form were gath- ered all the vast and thrilling forces of this ideal gov- ernment of ours ; charging it with such tremendous meaning, and so elevating it above human suffering, that martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came at last as a fitting close to a life consecrated from its cradle to human liberty !" And thus Henry Watterson : "Surely Lincoln was one of God's elect, not in any sense a creature of cir- cumstance or accident. As I look into the crystal globe that, slowly turning, tells the story of his life, I see him growing from boyhood to manhood amid scenes that seem to lead to .nothing but repression and abase- 50 Essay on Lincoln : ment — no teachers — no books — no chart, except his own untutored mind — no compass, except his own un- discipHned will — no light, save light from Heaven ; yet like the caravel of Columbus, struggling on and on through the trough of the sea, always toward the destined land. Later, I see him, the preferred among his fellows, ascend the eminence reserved for him, en- countering the derision of opponents and the distrust of supporters, yet unawed and unmoved, because thor- oughly equipped for the emergency. "^ * Born as lowly as the Son of God in a hovel, reared in penury and squalor, with no gleam of light or fair surround- ing,, without graces, actual or acquired, without name or fame or official training — it was reserved for this strange man, late in life, to be snatched from ob- scurity, raised to supreme command at a supreme mo- ment, and entrusted with the destiny of a nation. * * To say that during the four years of his administration he filled the vast space allotted him in the eyes and ac- tions of mankind, is to say that he was inspired of God ; for in no other way could he have acquired such wisdom and virtue. * * Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his. music? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman and stayed the life of the German priest? God, and God alone ; and as surely as these were inspired of God, Lincoln was ; and a thousand years hence, no Was He an Inspired Prophet? 51 drama, no tragedy, no epic poem, will be filled with greater wonder or be followed by mankind with deeper feeling than that which tells the story of his life and his death." CHAPTER VII. His Religious Faith. WE must not fail to take note of Mr. Lincoln's religion ; for no man can be called a prophet of his race who does not share in the religious senti- ment, which is its vital breath. But highly as he re- spected the Christian church as an institution and as the expression and embodiment of the religious faith of the people, he never bcame one of its communicants or gave any formal adhesion to its ''doctrines." He was very familiar with the teachings of the Bible ; but we have no reason to think he considered it "inerrant" or "infallible" or an absolute "revelation" from Heaven, or that he recognized any authority in it, except the authority which belongs to the truths it contains. He certainly never so declared himself ; and in the case of the Scriptural quotations which he used, he seemed to make them the expression of his own thoughts, as by the divine right of assimilation. He made no public expression of his opinion con- cerning the "divinity" of Christ ; but if ever any man could claim kinship and affinity with the founder of Christianity, he could, so similar were they in spirit and 52 Was He an Inspired Prophet? 53 purpose and in their power to inspire the love and devo- tion of their fellow-men. How much alike they also were in originality and their freedom from dogmatism and external author- ity. And how simple and sublime was their faith in the Infinite Father! How pure was their worship of Him ! We know not how nearly the mass of mankind may rise to their level in these respects; but let us not lightly esteem our divine birthright. May not we, too, be sons of God and stand before Him face to face? Lincoln may not have accepted all the miracles* and legends of the New Testament as veritable history ; but the principles therein taught were his principles, and the Sermon on the Mount was the keynote of his life. That he also held the prophets and righteous men of the Old Testament in the highest esteem is clear from the quotations he made from their writings and his manifest assimilation of their spirit and temper. What would have been his precise attitude toward Buddhism, Mohammedanism or any other system, if it * "Thus were it not miraculous, could I stretch forth my hand and clutch the Sun? Yet thou seest me daily stretch forth my hand, and therewith clutch many a thing, and swmg it hither and thither. Dost thou fancy, then, that the Miracle lies in miles of distance or in pounds avoirdupois of weight, and dost not see that the true, inexplicable, God-revealing miracle lies in this, that I can stretch forth my hand at all and clutch aught therewith? — Thomas Carlyle. 54 Essay on Lincoln: had been the prevailing faith of his day, we can only conjecture; but we may safely assert that he would have recognized whatever virtue could be found in its tenets and doctrines, and would have cherished the highest possible respect for its votaries, if only they feared God and sought after the works of righteous- ness. Lincoln's religion was like his statesmanship, unique, peculiar, transcendent. If it can be said of him in any sense, that he was not a Christian, it is be- cause he was more than a Christian. If a formal con- fession of Christianity as a supernatural revelation from Heaven and a formal connection with the visible or organized church be essential to the name of Chris- tian, it can not be applied to him ; but if deep and fervent piety — if faith in the God of truth and justice — if the most ardent love for the human race — if the intensest sympathy for the poor, the lowly and the oppressed — if willingness to clasp the hand of the prisoner and the slave in kindness and friendliness — if the ornament of a meek and tranquil spirit, — if all these things are sufficient to constitute a Christian, then was he a Christian of Christians, and no man can take this crown from his head.* * Lincoln was a man of profound and intense religious feeling. We have no purpose of attempting to formulate his creed ; we question if he himself ever did so. We only have to look at his authentic public and private utterances to see how deep and strong, in all the latter part of his life, Was He an Inspired Prophet? 55 Shall we also pronounce him a Hebrew of He- brews in respect of his faith in the God of Righteous- ness Perhaps his religious nature was so broad that it could not be compassed within the limits of any par- ticular creed or system of doctrines. Perhaps he saw the soul of truth in all religious systems so clearly, that he could not accept any one of them as a complete and final revelation of truth. Perhaps he so clearly realized that all religious creeds and systems have was the current of his religious thought and emotion. He continually invited and appreciated at their highest value the prayers of good people. The pressure of the tremendous problems by which he was surrounded, the awful moral sig- nificance of the conflict in which he was the chief combatant, the overwhelming sense of personal responsibility which never left him for an hour — all combined to produce in a temperament naturally serious and predisposed to a spiritual view of life and conduct, a sense of dependence on the guidance of a Superior Power as well as a reverent accept- ance of such s-flidance. From that morning, when stand- ing amid the falling snowflakes on the railway car at Spring- field he asked the prayers of his neighbors to the memorable hour when he humbled himself before his Creator m the sublime words of the Second Inaugural, there was not an expression from his lips or his pen, but proves that he held himself answerable in his every act to a more august tribunal than any on earth. The fact that he was not a member of any church, and was singularly reserved m refer- ence to his personal religious life, gives only the greater force to these striking proofs of his profound reverence and faith."— Hay and Nicolay's "Life of Lincoln." 56 Essay on Lincoln : their roots in human nature*, that he could not look upon the Christian system as the only ''deposit" of truth committed to the children of men. Perhaps his conception of Deity was so vast that he could not see all the divine attributes manifested in the person of the historic Christ. Perhaps he felt that some of the doctrines of Christianity, as they were formulated and preached in his day, would be a hindrance rather than a help to his'religious faith, so clear was his vision of the things which are unseen and eternal, and so close was his relation to the Author of his being. Perhaps * Among all these structures of spiritual organization there is vital sympathy. It lies not in what they know ; for, in a scientific sense, they are all alike in knowing nothing. Their point of sympathy lies in what they have sublimely created through longing imagination. In all these faiths there is the same alloy of human superstition, the same fables of miracle and prophecy, the same signs and wonders, the same successive births and resurrections. In point of knowledge they are all helpless; in point of credulity they are all puerile; in point of aspiration, they are all sublime. They all feel after God, if haply they might find him." — T. W. HiGGINSON. "We must remember that amid the many errors and corruptions of religion, it has always asserted and diffused a supreme verity. From the first, the recognition of this su- preme verity, in however imperfect a manner, has been its vital element; and its various defects, once supreme, but gradually diminishing, have been so many failures to recog- nize in full that which was recognized in part. The many imperfections of religion are only imperfections as measured by ah absolute standard, and not by a relative one. Speaking generally, the religion current in each age and among each people has been as near an approximation to the truth, as it was then and there possible for men to receive." — Herbert SF'ENCER. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 57 he feh no need of a daysman or mediator, because he himself knew the Lord face to face. "I and my Father are one," said Jesus when he was on the earth. Well might Lincoln have cried with the poet Ten- nyson : "Speak to him, soul, for he hears, and spirit with spirit may meet ; Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." He can not be pronounced wholly "orthodox ;" but if he must be counted as heterodox, his heterodoxy was not that of blindness or indifference or of mere nega- tion, but that of the pure heart and open mind, that of the largest comprehension and the clearest spiritual vision. All prophets are not heretics, and all heretics are not prophets ; but the two characters sometimes reveal a marvelous affinity for each other. Per contra, there is a principle of belief in our natures that is as eternal and fundamental as any prin- ciple that belongs to us, and therefore all they who enter the path of progress must walk by faith and not (wholly) by sight. Man can not live by bread alone, nor by logic alone, nor yet by knowledge alone ; he that hclieveth shall be saved ! Important as the facts of the earth and the uni- verse may be to us, bare facts will no more satisfy our 58 Essay on Lincoln : minds and souls than the bare earth without trees or plants or grass or flowers would satisfy our eyes. We must think and feel and wonder and believe and imag- ine* and aspire as well as know. Only let us be careful to believe (or disbelieve) with our hearts unto rightousness, as Lincoln did, for verily in the realm of things unseen and spiritual, it is hozv we believe or disbelieve as well as what we believe — we had almost said rather than what we believe — that makes us children of the truth and the light ! We should be very patient with both the skeptic and the dogmatist ; for each of them, if he be but an humble and honest seeker of the truth, represents an essential principle of human nature ; and somewhere between their divergent paths is the way of life. Concerning Mr. Lincoln let us be satisfied to know that he had that belief in God and His Provi- dence which is counted for righteousness, and that men of every creed and nation may serve the same God whom he served and honored. Whatever truth * "The Imagination — the divinest of mental faculties — is God's self in the soul. All our other faculties seem to me to have the touch of the brown earth on them; but this one carries the verj^ livery of Heaven. It reveals to us the differ- ence between the visible and the invisible, teaching us how to take material and visible things and carry them up into the realm of the invisible and the immaterial, and how to bring down immaterial things and embody them in visible and mate- rial symbols ; and so being God's messenger and prophet, it stands between our soul and God's. — Henry Ward Beecher. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 59 and whatever error there may be in the proposition that every worshiper creates his own Deity, we may be certain that Lincoln's God was the Lord of Truth and Light and Wisdom and of all Goodness what- soever. In vain shall we search his record to find any sys- tem of theology or any particular form or mode of worship ; but not in vain shall we search for the spirit which dwells in all true worshipers of the Infinite Father ! His creed comprehended the truth that is to be found in all other creeds ; and the temple in which he worshiped is large enough to admit all nations within its walls. Mr. Lincoln's willingness to fulfill the law of ser- vice and sacrifice* was so closelv related to his reli- * Vicarious sacrifice is the law of being. It is a mys- terious and fearful thing to observe how the universe is liuilt on this law, how it penetrates and pervades all nature, so that if it were to cease, nature would no longer exist. The mountain rock must becorne dead soil before the herb can grow; the destruction of the mineral is the life of the vegetable. The corn of wheat dies; and out of its death more abundant life is born. Out of the soil in which dead leaves are buried, the young tree shoots vigorously, and strikes its roots deep down into the realm of decay and death. Upon the life of the vegetable world, the myriad forms of higher life sustain themselves — the sacrifice of life to give life. * * Farther still : it is as impossible for man to live as it is impossible for him to be redeemed, except through vicarious sacrifice. The anguish of the mother is the condition of the child's life. His very being has its roots in the law of sacrifice ; and from the hour 6o Essay on Lincoln : gious faith, that we must pronounce them almost identical. Here, indeed, was the crowning excellence of his character and the "bright particular glory" of his life. In obedience to this divinest of laws he not only bore censure and reproach without complaint, but labored for the salvation of his country with almost infinite patience and a measure of faith and courage that was the wonder of the world. We can not assert that he foresaw his tragic end as clearly as he foresaw the triumph of the Union cause, but how else can we account for the sadness that oppressed him at times and left its mark so visible upon his face?* of his birth this becomes the law which rules his existence, — Frederick W. Robertson. * Mr. F. B. Carpenter, to whom the country is indebted for the famous painting, "Signing the Emancipation Procla- mation," has left this statement concerning Mr. Lincoln: "It has been the business of my life to study human faces; and Mr. Lincoln's face was the saddest one I ever painted. I have seen him at times, when his careworn, troubled ap- pearance was enough to bring tears of sympathy into the eyes of his most violent enemies. I recall, particularly, one day when I saw him all alone, pacing up and down a nar- row passage of the White House, his hands behind him, his head bent forward on his breast, heavy black rings under his eyes, showing sleepless nights — altogether such a pic- ture of the effects of weighty cares and responsibilities as I had never seen. And yet he always had a kind word for everyone, and almost always a genial smile, and frequently relieved himself at such times by some harmless pleasantry. 'If it were not this vent for my feelings, I should die !' he exclaimed on one occasion." Was He an Inspired Prophet? 6i "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray," he said in his last Inaugural, "that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away ; yet if God wills that it con- tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so it must still be said. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether !' " Could Mr. Lincoln have ex- pressed himself in words like these, unless the shadow of his fate was resting on his soul, and he had received some sort of premonition that his own blood must be placed in the scales of the Eternal Justice P"^' But if he was, indeed, walking through the val- ley of the shadow of death at this time, there was no faltering or wavering in the discharge of his duty, nor the least weakening of his courage and devotion. Rather was his soul transfigured before the eyes of the people, as he closed his address with the immortal words, "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 that may achieve and cherish a just * "And without shedding of blood is no remission."— Hebrews ix : 12. 62 Essay on Lincoln : and lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- tions." Heaven grant that this prophecy may be realized and fulfilled through all the ages ! Was not Lincoln faithful to his high trust — even unto his death? May we not cherish his memory in our hearts, not merely because he died for us, but be- cause he was willing so to die? Let us never cease to thank God for the ''unspeak- able gift" of Abraham Lincoln ; for who can tell what might have been the result of the war, if we had not had so wise and so good a man in the Presidential chair? Like Moses of old, he stood in the breach and warded off the calamities that might else have fallen on the nation. Not only so; but we shall never know how far the valor of the Union soldiers was due to his sublime faith and courage, and how far the patri- otism and devotion of the people were inspired by his utterances and services — and his prayers.* * "God brought up Lincoln as he brought up David from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. And he fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with counsel when we were in doubt, with inspiration when we sometimes faltered, with caution when we would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheerfulness through many dark days and hours. He made our souls glad with the love of liberty that was in his soul. He showed us how to love truth and justice and yet be charitable, how to hate all wrong and oppression, and yet not treasure resent- ment or a single personal injury or insult. He fed all his people from the highest to the lowest, from the most privi- Was He an Inspired Prophet? 63 Would we serve the same God whom Lincoln served and pray as he prayed? Then let not our prayers be of the earth, earthy; let them not be marred with any guile or hypocricy or vain self-seek- ing. Let us pray for large hearts — for pure thoughts — for high ideals — for noble aspirations — for prac- tical wisdom — for clear sense and understanding, — that we may discern the things which are right and true and fulfill the end and aim of our being on the earth. Was it not after this manner — whatever form of words he used — that Lincoln always prayed ? leged to the most enslaved. * * And at the last behold him with his hand reached out to feed the South with mercy and the North with charity and the whole land with peace, when the Lord who had sent him called him home, and his work was done." — Phillips Brooks. CHAPTER VIII. Lessons to be Learned -from Lincoln's Life. WHILE the imitation of every good man should consist in the assimilation of his spirit rather than the repetition of his words and acts, yet so far as we need a model, how safe a model Lincoln would be for men, women and children in all conditions of life. Not far astray, we think, could any one go, who seeks to manage his affairs and discharge the daily tasks of his life as he believes Lincoln would do in his place. And surely no one would greatly err, who seeks to regulate his conduct according to the prin- ciples on which Lincoln's life was based, or who pre- sides over his own life in the same spirit in which Lincoln presided over the government. Nay, more ; is not his character so perfect that we may consider him the type and expression of the ideal life which we should ever cherish and strive to attain ? His life seems to reveal the very heart of Nature to us. His virtue is the flavor of the apple ; it is the fragrance of the flower ; it is the beauty of the sky ; it is the brightness of the sun ; it is the song of the 64 Was He an Inspired Prophet? 65 morning stars; it is the breath of Him who created the worlds ! Should not our virtue be of the same type and quality? Should it not be ever luminous and radiant like his, that man may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven? And as the days of our years increase in number should not our lives, like his, become greater and nobler, more and more beautiful, and more and more beneficent ? Let us all learn from Lincoln's example, not only to be just and faithful in all situations of life, but to be "good-natured," to be kind-hearted, to be €ven-tempered, to be merciful, to be charitable, and to exercise these virtues at all times and toward all men, even as the sun shines on the evil and the good, and the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. If any of us cannot cherish and practice these virtues without compromising our ''dignity" or sacri- ficing our self-respect, Heaven help us ! Perhaps there is no more important lesson — cer- tainly there is no clearer one — to be learned from Lincoln's life than the lesson that whoever would be a "gentleman" — or a "lady" — must always be gentle, and that whoever would enjoy a proper measure of dignity and self-respect must always respect the self- respect of other people. Let us not forget that Mr. Lincoln's kindly spirit 66 Essay on Lincoln : was manifested not only toward his friends, but also toward his enemies and even toward the enemies of his country. Let no man claim to be like him who cherishes any malice or resentment in his heart, or strives to "get even" with those who have injured him in any manner. Savage man may know no other way to protect himself — and we must all recognize self-protection as the first law of our nature — than the law of re- taHation ; but civilized man should be able to find a better and surer way — even the way of Lincoln. And his way was always the way of magnanimity. We should ever cherish the love of liberty in our breasts, even as he did, and let us see to it that like him we respect the liberty and rights of others as fully as we do our own. The man who does not re- joice in the freedom of others comes far short of ful- filling all righteousness, neither has he fully learned the lesson of good citizenship. ' "I am glad to remember," writes Hon. John Hay, who was Lincoln's private secretary during the four years of his administration, ''that he said to me not many days before he went to join the august assembly of just men made perfect, 'A man who denies equality of rights to others is hardly worthy of freedom ; but I would give even to him all the rights I claim for my- self.' A plain phrase, but all the law and the prophets is in it." Was He an Inspired Prophet? 67 The love of liberty should be a rational principle with us as well as a humane sentiment or passion. We should desire the largest possible freedom for all men, not merely because men love freedom and enjoy it, but because the more freedom and the larger sense of freedom they are permitted to> enjoy, if their moral sense be not inactive or perverted, the higher style of manhood they can attain. Men can not be made worthy of freedom, unless they are permitted to breathe the air of freedom ! Recurring to Lincoln's example, however, let it be noted, that while he was a most ardent lover and devotee of liberty, he was, at the same time, a most faithful exponent of law and order and was always, mindful of the moral obligations which are so essen- tial to true manhood and good citizenship. Amid all the complex and complicated conditions, of our lives, our rights and interests will often conflict or seem to conflict with those of other people ; and there is no solution of the questions arising out of such a situation but a sentiment of justice and fairness and a recognition of the Golden Rule as the standard of our lives. Power and authority over others may come to us, but they should always be exercised in kindness and good will ; and no lust of power should ever find place or lodgment in our breasts. O, that all kings and princes and parents and teachers and governors 68 Essay on Lincoln: and legislators and officers of armies and navies and keepers of prisons and public officials of every grade were imbued with the spirit of Lincoln, and would learn from his example that their power has not been given to them for their own satisfaction or emolument, but for the service of others. And may we not all learn from him as well as from Jesus the Christ, that he who would be the greatest of all must be the friend of all and the servant of all ! Surely we may learn from these great teachers that the life of service is the only life worth living ; for it is only by living such a life that we can secure the proper development of our natures* — only thus can we attain the roundness and completeness of character which is our natural inheritance — only thus can we ■^'iulfill ourselves." Shall we ever become so just and honest and so * "The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that ■watereth shall be watered also himself." — Proverbs xi : 25. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but ■whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it." — Luke ix : 21. "In truth the law of the spiritual life is unlike the law of the physical life in this, that it increases by what it imparts, and lives by what it loses — the more we give to others the more we have left." — Washington Gladden. "When we rise from the material or animal world and enter the spiritual realm, we see the law of service and sacri- fice in its grandest proportions. * * Men do not become great by caring only for themselves, but by serving and caring for others. The greatest man is he who does the most for liis fellow-men ; and the lowest man is he who does the least for his fellow-men." — Henry Ward Beecher. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 69 highly evolved in our ethics, that whatever wealth or talents we may possess or whatever position we occu- py, we will neither ask nor desire more service or re- spect from other people than vv^e are willing to give to them ? Verily we shall not come to the full measure of the moral stature of Lincoln until this is the case. Let us not close our eyes to the fact that the exer- cise of power and the possession of wealth''' —and oft- times even the advantages of education — tend to de- humanize and unspiritualize us ; and our only way to save our souls alive from this danger is to cultivate an active and friendly interest in our fellow-men, and never forget that they are all made of the same flesh and blood as ourselves. How happy, then, are all they who can turn the means of degradation of which we have spoken into means of grace and goodness, and thereby become the children of their Father in Heaven ! And what a pearl of great price is Lincoln's ex- ample in this respect — if we only had the grace and wisdom to follow it. We cannot help thinking that if Lincoln's princi- ples were recognized in the army and navy of the United States as they should be, the spirit of caste which is so strenuously cherished by the commissioned officers as essential to their "dignity" and authority * How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. — Mark x : 23. JO Essay on Lincoln : would be greatly modified, if it were not entirely re- moved. They would at least learn that enlisted men are their fellow-citizens and have souls as well as themselves ! Many superintendents and teachers of our public schools as well as college and university professors might also learn from Lincoln that a cordial and friendly and more or less intimate acquaintance with their pupils would greatly facilitate their work and en- able them to educate the minds and souls of the rising generation even more effectively than they are now doing. Might not many priests and ministers of religion also learn from him how to mingle with their people and the public and how to exercise the power and in- fluence of their office in the spirit of meekness and gentleness? If Lincoln's ideals of justice and equality could be breathed into the souls of all masters and mistresses of households — if they could all be made to realize that "servants" and "hired girls" are human beings, and that they themselves are only human beings, how much easier it would be for society to solve the problem of domestic service. How long will it require for us to see that the degradation of domestic service is an injury to society as well as an injustice and injury to those who may be called to serve? How long will it Was He an Inspired Prophet? 71 be until the Golden Rule becomes the law of all our households, great and small ? We know not what remedy Lincoln would propose for the "divorce evil" of our day ; but we are very safe in saying that he would take both sides of the question into consideration, and would favor no meas- ures that were based on ecclesiastical authority or a traditional interpretation of Scripture and did not refer the whole question to the reason and intelligence of the people as the court of last resort. So far as we know, Mr. Lincoln left no utterance directly bearing on the administration of criminal law or on the proper treatment of prisoners ; but we think if he were to appear on the floor of our 'Trison Con- gress" at one of its annual sessions, he would not fail to remind the delegates that all their ''reforms" will be of little or no avail, unless they recognize and ever re- member that prisoners are all men of the same flesh and blood as themselves ! He certainly would declare that criminal law and prison discipline should always be ad- ministered ''with malice toward none and with charity for all." The same great principle of equality, we believe, he would preach to all charitable societies and all asso- ciations and organizations that seek the relief of suf- fering and the improvement of society. Mr. Lincoln was always a supporter of the policy of protection to American industries ; but we do not 72 Essay on Lincoln: infer from this, that he would favor the estabhshment and perpetuation of huge monopoHes that enable a few "captains of industry" to grow richer and richer still at the expense of the people who consume their products. He left us no formula for the solution of the ''la- bor problem ;" but if all employers and all employees could be imbued with his sentiment of justice and would learn to respect each other's manhood — if em- ployers were willing to concede a proper balance of POWER to their employees, and the latter were always careful to exercise their power in reason and modera- tion — a long step would be taken in the direction of peace and harmony. And O, that the great President could rise from his tomb and lift up his voice in condemnation of the child labor that mars and disgraces the ''progress" of our age and cries to heaven for remedy ! Would he not tell us that if child labor in factories and sweat shops isn't wrong, nothing is wrong ? "Do you hear the children weeping, O, my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers; And that can not stop their tears. The young lambs are frisking in the meadows. The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing toward the west; Was He an Inspired Prophet? 73 But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly; They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free l""^ Perhaps a still more serious problem than the labor problem is presented to us in the ''bossism" and cor- ruption that afflicts our national, state and municipal politics. Is there any remedy for this crying evil, ex- cept to let it be known of all men that our government is, indeed, "a, government of the people, by the people and for the people," as Lincoln declared it should ever be? Against the power of millionaires and multi-mil- lionaires — shall we also speak of coming billionaires ? — and great trusts and corporations that seek to con- trol our national and state legislation, we must assert the sovereign power of the people and their right to enact — and execute — whatever laws are necessary to preserve our government and the principles on which it was established. t * From Mrs. Browning's ''Cry of the Children.'" t "It is important to this people to grapple with the problems connected with the amassing of enormous fortunes, and the use of those fortunes, both corporate and individual, in business. * * As a matter of personal conviction and without attempting to discuss the details or formulate the system, I feel that we shall ultimately have to consider the adoption of some such scheme as that of a progressive tax on all fortunes beyond a certain amount, either given in life or devised or bequeathed — a tax so framed as to put it out of the power of the owner of one of these enormous fortunes to hand on more than a certain amount to any one individual, the tax, of course, to be imposed by the 74 Essay on Lincoln : Men have no more ''divine right" to the acquisi- tion and transmission of great fortunes than kings and emperors have such a right to rule over their subjects without their subjects' consent, for the manifest rea- son that all wealth is the product of the mental and physical labor of the mass of the people. And since the right to own any property whatever is derived from the consent of the body politic, it belongs to the people in their sovereign capacity to prescribe all the limita- tions and conditions under which individuals and cor- porations may acquire or hold or dispose of their wealth, to the end that the welfare of the people may be promoted, and that the nearest possible approxima- tion to Justice may be secured. The voice of the peo- ple is not the voice of God in the sense that the people are always wise or always right; but their voice is surely the voice of God in the sense that there is no higher court to which an appeal can be taken from Avhatever they decree. If the possessors of great wealth and the heads of great corporations can not be persuaded to recognize themselves as stewards and servants of the people — why should not wealth as well as office be considered a public trust ? — they can surely be made to respect national, and not the state government." — Theodore Roose- velt. Pray, Mr. President, why should not the states, also, Was He an Inspired Prophet? 75 the people's power and authority as expressed in stat- utes duly made and provided. We cannot too clearly realize that enormous for- tunes — however acquired — are a menace to the Re- public. We must either control them, or be controlled by them. And the negro problem ? While the white people, both North and South, should seek to solve all ques- tions concerning the colored race in the spirit of the Emancipation Proclamation, the negroes would do well to remember that their future depends essentially upon themselves, and that they must, indeed, work out their own salvation. To this end, let them fully acquaint themselves with the story of Lincoln, and emulate his virtues with all the powers of their minds and souls. Ay, let them write the name of their great liberator on their foreheads, and pray that a portion of his spirit may ever abide with them ! May not Lincoln's patriotism and devotion be counted the permanent possession and '"asset" of the American people? Is not his great love for us and all mankind a moral and spiritual force that will con- tinue among us through all the years of the future, con- straining'^ us to the practice of every virtue and the cultivation of the loftiest ideals in our breasts ? levy such a tax for the supnort of their governments and the education of their youth ? * "For the love of Christ constraineth us." — ii Corin- thians V : 14. 76 Essay on Lincoln : May we not ever realize that because he and such as he have Hved we may live also ? — and make our lives worth living? May we not be quickened by his spirit and find in him such an interpreter and mediator, that his influence will enable us to see the right and the truth and to walk in the paths of wisdom and right- eousness? May we not feed on his virtues and ap- propriate them to ourselves, so that we shall enter into kinship with him, and become sharers — ''joint heirs" — in his greatness and glory? Let Lincoln's story and his principles be taught in our public schools and Sunday-schools and preached to all our youths and maidens, if haply they may assimi- late his teachings and become partakers of his great soul. Let mothers teach their babes resting on their knees to admire his homely face and to lisp his great name, because he was the friend of little children as well as the friend of men and women. And let us all emulate the example of the great citizen, who was al- ways willing to meet the humblest and the lowliest of his fellows on the plane of a common humanity, while he could also stand before kings and emperors and all the great and wise men of the earth unabashed, their equal and peer by divinest right, for that the image and superscription of the Most High was stamped upon his forehead ! * * "There are a few men who have stood the closest Was He an Inspired Prophet? ']^ And since we rejoice that our government is rec- ognized as one of the "powers" of the earth, let us be careful that it shall not be known as a spoiler and op- pressor, but rather as the friend and protector of all upon whom its authority is placed. Wherever our flag is raised, let us inscribe on its folds the story of Lincoln and the principles for which he lived and died. For wherever that story is told, it will thrill the souls of men with life and hope; and wherever the name of Lincoln is spoken, it will be the synonym of Justice, of Humanity, of Equality, and of that Charity (Love), without which all other human virtues are but sound- ing brass and tinkling cymbal. Everywhere men will recognize him as a prophet of the Lord, because he loved his country and his fel- low men, and will know that he was a divine man be- cause he was so human !'^ scrutiny and the severest tests, who have been tried in the furnace and have proved pure, who have. been weighed in the balance and have not been found wanting, who have been declared sterling by the general consent of mankind, and who are visibly stamped with the image and superscription of the Most High. Such men we trust we know how to prize; and Mihon was one of these."— T. B. Macaulay. If all this could be said concerning England's blind poet, can it not be equally said concerning America's martyr President? , * "If our civilization had done nothing but produce Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson, it would have justified its right to be; for these two men, at the opposite ends of society, the one without formal opportunity, the yS Essay on Lincoln : More than forty years have passed since Lincoln's death, and we mourn for him still. We can never com- prehend the mystery of his sacrifice, but surely it was needful that his devotion to his country should be made perfect by the laying down of his life, and that his message of justice and charity to mankind should be sealed zmth his blood! As we stand with bowed heads at the shrine of his tomb, we may hear no voice but the voice which saith, *'Be still, and know that I am God ;" yet may we com- fort ourselves with the thought that all the inhabitants of the world have mingled their tears with ours, and that our great President's memory is crowned with the brightest crown ever vouchsafed to man, the crown of universal and immortal love ! other commanding all the resources of the richest culture of his time, were alike in this — that they both proclaimed and illustrated the supreme dignity and value of the human spirit, the right of a man to be himself without regard to the con- ditions in which he happens to be placed. "In Lincoln we first saw rugged strength rising like -a great mass of rocks against the horizon, then the clefts gathering moisture and verdure, then foliage and flowers creeping to the summit, and the light of sunset on it all ; first rude vigor, then tempered strength, then a great human spirit, touched with the pathos of infinite patience and sor- row ; an ideal American, who had climbed from the bottom to the top, who had educated himself by the way, and in becoming supremely great, had remained supremely human." Hamilton W. Mabie. Was He an Inspired Prophet? 79 His tomb shall be forever surrounded with A Wall of Living Hearts ! And over it shall wave in perpetual beauty and gran- deur the flag of the nation that he died to save. " 'Tis the Star Spangled Banner, O long may it wave^^ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" Surely this man was sent from God, not only to liberate three million slaves and to die for his coun- try, but to teach all nations how to be just, how to be honest, how to be righteous, and how to be good. ^ His place is not in the tomb ; it is among the im- mortals before the face of the Infinite Father, and his great soul shall go marching on through all the ages. Concerning him we may well employ the words of the poet Longfellow : "There is no death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call death !" Hail, immortal martyr, hero, statesman, President of the nation and friend of all mankind I Thy name shall never be forgotten; and the star of thy glory shall rise higher and grow brighter through all the years of time. The people of this great Republic — North and South and East and West — shall pay thee the tribute of everlasting remembrance, and for ages ^o Essay on Lincoln: of ages shall send up to thee an ofifering of gratitude and reverence and love ! What the future may bring forth no man knov^- eth ; but at the present stage of the world's progress we may safely declare that among men born of women there has risen none greater or diviner than Jesus of Nazareth and i\braham Lincoln of the United States of America ! APPENDIX, 8i I APPENDIX -A." Extracts from Lincoln's First Inaugural. " T^ ellow-Citisens of the United States: \^ "In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. ^ ^ ^ ''It is seventy-two years since the first inaugura- tion of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and very distin- guished citizens have, in succession, administered the executive branch of the government, conducting it through many perils and, generally, with great success. Yet with all this scope for precedent I now enter upon the same task, under great and peculiar difficulties. "A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the funda- mental law of all national governments. * ^ Con- tinue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure for- ever, it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 83 84 Essay on Lincoln : "I therefore consider, that in view of the Consti- tution and the laws, the Union is unbroken and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitu- tion expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states. Considering this to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, as far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall with- hold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct to the contrary. "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. "In doing this there need be no bloodshed or vio- lence ; and there shall be none, unless it is forced upon the National authority. ''Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we •cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A hus- band and wife may be divorced and go out of the pres- ence and beyond the reach of each other ; but the dif- ferent parts of our country can not do this. They can not but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. 'Ts it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separa- tion than before ? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faith- fully enforced between aliens than laws among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always ; and when after much loss on both sides, and Was He an Inspired Prophet? 85 no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are still upon you. * ^ * "The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people ; and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the states. His duty is to administer the government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. "Why, then, should there not be a patient conh- dence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our pres- ent differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North or yours of the South, that truth and that jus- tice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. * * * "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. "If there be an object to hurry any of you m hot haste to take a step which you would never take delib- erately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by doing so. "Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it, while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. "If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied 86 Essay on Lincoln : hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance upon Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. ''In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. ''You can have no conflict without being your- selves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government ; while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' "I am loth to close. 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 every patriot grave to every liv- ing heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched, as they surely will be by the better angels of our nature !" APPENDIX -B." Extracts from Lincoln's First Message to Con- gress, July 4, 1861. ^'r^elloiv-Citizens of the Senate and House of Repre- r^ sentatives: "Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, as authorized by the Constitution, your atten- tion is not called to any ordinary subject of Legislation. At the beginning of the present Presidential term four months ago, the functions of the Federal Government were found to be generally suspended within the sev- eral states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- issippi, Louisiana and Florida, excepting only those of the Post-office department. * * H« ''Simultaneously and in connection with all this, the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance with this purpose, an ordi- nance had been adopted in each of these states, declar- ing the states to be respectively separated from the National Union. A formula for instituting a combmed government of those states had been promulgated; and this illegal organization, in the character of the ^'Confederate States" was already invoking recogni- tion, aid and intervention from foreign powers. "Finding this condition of things and believing it to be an imperative duty to prevent, if possible, the 87 88 Essay on Lincoln : consummation of such attempt to destroy the Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became indispen- sable. This choice was made and declared in the Inau- gural address ; and the policy chosen looked to an exhaustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to any stronger ones. 'Tt is thus seen that the assault upon and reduc- tion of Fort Sumter was, in no sense, a matter of self- defense on the part of the assailants. * "^ Then and thereby the assailants of the government began the conflict of arms. In this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country the distinct issue, imme- diate dissolution or blood ; and this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional Republic or Democracy, a government of the people by the same people, can or can not main- tain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in number to control the Adminis- tration according to the organic law in any case, can always on the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarily without any pretense, break up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth." "It was with the deepest regret that the Execu- tive found the duty of employing the war power. In defense of the government, forced upon him, he could but perform this duty, or surrender the existence of the government. No compromise by public servants could in this case be a cure, not that compromises are not often proper, but that no popular government can Was He an Inspired Prophet? 89 long survive a marked precedent, that those who carry an election can only save the government from imme- diate destruction by giving up the main point upon which the people gave the election." ''As a private citizen the Executive could not have consented that these institutions shall perish ; much less could he in betrayal of so sacred a trust as these free people had confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life in what might follow. "In full view of his great responsibility, he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your views and your actions may so accord with his as to assure all faithful citi- zens who have been disturbed in their rights, of a cer- tain and speedy restoration to them under the Consti- tution and laws ; and having thus chosen our course without guile and with pure purpose let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts. "Abraham Lincoln.''' APPENDIX -C." The Emancipation Proclamation. '^'l ][ 7HEREAS, on the twenty-second day of Sep- Y y tember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States con- taining among other things the following, to-wit : "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state or any des- ignated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be thenceforward and forever free, and the Executive government of the United States, including the mili- tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom ; ''That the executive will on the first day of Janu- ary aforesaid by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States, and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall have participated, shall in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, 90 Was He an Inspired Prophet? 91 be deemed conclusive evidence that such state and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States : ''Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for repressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of Janu- ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my pur- pose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day of the first above mentioned order, designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the follow- ing, to-wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans, Missis- sippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South ^ Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, except the forty-eight coun- ties designated as West Virginia; and also the coun- ties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk . and Portsmouth ; which excepted parts are left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. "And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be free, and that the Executive 92 Essay on Lincoln : government of the United States, including the mili- tary and naval authorities thereof will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. "And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, except in neces- sary self-defense, and I recommend to them, that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for rea- sonable wages. ''And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garri- son forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. "And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon mili- tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God ! "In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. "Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of r n our Lord one thousand eight hundred '- * ■-' and sixty-three, and of the indepen- dence of the United States the eighty- seventh. "Abraham Lincoln.^^ "By the President: "Wm. H. Seward, Sec'y. of State/* APPENDIX -D." The Gettysburg Ad- dress. ''r^ouRSCORE and seven 1^"^ years ago our fa- thers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Hberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battle- field of that war. We are met to dedicate a por- tion of it as the final rest- ing place of the men 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 can not dedicate^ we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, St. Paul's Sermon on Mars Hill. Y E men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are somewhat religious. "For as I passed by and beheld your devo- tions, I found an altar with this inscription, To THE Unknown God. Whom' therefore ye igno- rantly worship, him de- clare I unto you, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; neither is he wor- shiped with men's hands, as though he needed any- thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their 93 94 Essay on Lincoln : living and dead, who fought and struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the liv- ing, rather to be dedi- cated, here, to the unfin- ished work, which they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is for us rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devo- tion — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain — that the nation shall, under God, 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 !" habitation ; that they should seek ihe Lord, if haply they might feel af- ter him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our be- ing; as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also his off- spring. "Forasmuch, then, as we are the oiTspring of God, we ou^ht not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. "And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now commandeth all men everywhere to re- pent, because he hath ap- pointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead." — Acts 17, 22-31. APPENDIX -E." Lincoln's Last Inau- gural. " Hr ^llow-Countrymen: \^ ''At this second appearing to take the oath of the Pres- idential office, there is less occasion for an ex- tended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now at the expiration of four years, during which public dec- larations have been called forth on every point and phase of the great con- test, which stiU absorbs the interest and engrosses the energies of the na- tion, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms. Extracts from the Book of Psalms and THE New Testa- ment. '^'T^HE law of the Lord J^ is perfect, convert- ing the soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, re- joicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlighten- ing the eyes ; the fear of the Lord is clean, endur- ing forever; the judg- ments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- gether. "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned, and in 95 96 Essay on Lincoln : upon which all else de- pends, is as well known to the public as to my- self; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. ''On the occasion cor- responding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all ;sought to avert it. While the Inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted alto- g e t h e r to saving the Union without war, in- surgent agents were in the city, seeking to de- stroy it without war — seeking to destroy the Union and divide effects "by negotiation. Both par- ties deprecated war ; but one of them would make war, rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war, rather than let it perish. And the war came. keeping of them there is great reward." — Psalms 19; 7-II. "Let integrity and up- rightness preserve me, for I wait on thee. Re- deem Israel^ O God out of all his troubles." — Psalms 25, 21-22. "Blessed are the unde- filed in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity ; they walk in his ways. * * "O that my ways were directed to keep thy stat- utes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy com- mandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned all thy righteous judgments." — Psalms 119:1-7. "And seeing the multi- tudes he went up into a mountain ; and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he Was He an Inspired Prophet? 97 "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not dis- tributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern portion of it. These slaves consti- tuted a peculiar and pow- erful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the ob- ject for which the insur- gents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it. ''Neither party expected for the war the magni- tude or the duration which it has already at- tained. Neither antici- pated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a ■■•7 E L Opened his mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after right- eousness ; for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. Blessed are the peace- makers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ''Ye have heard that if hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I sav unto vou, Love 98 Essay on Lincoln : result less fundamental and astounding. ''Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God; and each in- vokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be an- swered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of of- fenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe unto that man by whom the offense Cometh.' "If we shall suppose American slavery to be one of those offences, which in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having contin- ued through his appoint- ed time, he now wills to your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven; for he maketh his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." — Matthew 5, 1-14. "Recompense to no man evil for evil. Pro- vide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace- ably with all men. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is written. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. "Be not overcome of Was He an Inspired Prophet? 99 remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which believers in a living God have always ascribed to him? ''Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of. unre- quited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so must it still be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether !' "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to evil, but overcome evil with good." — - Romans 12, 17-21. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tink- ling cymbal. And though I have the gift of proph- ecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowl- edge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity en- vieth not; charity vaunt- eth not itself; is not puffed up ; doth not be- have itself unseemly ; thinketh no evil; rejoic- eth not in iniquity, but re- joiceth in the truth ; bear- eth all things ; believeth all things ; hopeth all L OF C. lOO Essay on Lincoln : see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the na- tion's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his or- phan, to do all that rnay achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." things ; endureth alt things. "Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. * * And now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is Charity." — i Corinthians 13: 1-13 SEP 11 i90i