E457 „.K45 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDD]i?37=^5fl '!M^ o. ^m^^s y ^'% •!M^:* >P^^ 73 V V ^^HO, '•^_ "^ .'^^ .. V *••-' ^^^ ^. *•"*' .\^ .^' y^< c^^^ • r3r' V *" ; J'^-i ^°-^*, '^-^l.^ ^J^Me>^*^ ^^>^r^ 0' :^ *"^- A^ V ".To* ^ O ♦.,,. ^o .c^'i^" **^afe'. ^^ ^ .: %^<.^^ :sm^'^ ^^^A^ : mM'-m n. . ^m LINCOLN KHARAS I folks who have no vices have very few virtues. ^^. J^NCOLN. LINCOLN l3a^»S CAL lines, so that while cut- ting off the number of their employees in the interest of industrial economy they have also cut out the lobby as use- less. They no longer keep a lobby, because they have converted their lobbyists into honorable Senators. There is no need to argue with a Senator on the payroll. Tliis one contrast between conditions in 1831 and 1881 demonstrates the fact that our Heroic Age ended with the Civil War and our Sordid Age began when corporate wealth got control of the functions of government. Whatever may have been the failings of our grandfath- ers, they were trifling in com- parison with their virtues. They were deeply religious, intensely patriotic, w^orshiped Jehovah with their whole souls, and deified learning. Their convictions w^ere strong and they were willing to fight I u LINCOLN 17 ^jOL^M^c'^LiA^c^U i admirable, and necessarily, such ideals? produced heroic figures and developed ad- mirable characters. One generation after Zama, Rome was conquering the world, and had destroyed her own liberties. In one generation the common peo- ple were crushed; member- ship in trades unions became a felony; government was a military, financial and eco- nomic tyranny; wealth and brute force were triumphant, and Rome consisted of twen- ty per cent patricians and eighty per cent f laves. They all worshiped Mammon. In like manner, at Appo- mattox, the last barrier was removed which had prevent- ed the United States from becoming a world power. In one generation we, too, have become the richest nation in the world — the richest and most powerful nation the world ever knew, with the riches likewise concentrated LINCOLN v< !' toji>?; s Ltis£aca5nissPSi^sDQL^ w LINCOLN 23 tracts for future use, making him their master and them his servants. From intimate familiarity with the Bible, he was literally steeped in the Scriptures and in Oriental imagery, which dominated his forensic style and formed his moral perspective. The minister who married his father and mother w^as an ardent Abolitionist, and the boy's parents imbibed his radical views. Abraham was born breathing hatred to the trade in slaves. In 1816, when he was seven years of age, the family moved to In- diana, largely to get away from slavery. In 1818, Nancy Lincoln died, and, later, Thomas Lin- coln went back to Kentucky and returned with a new wife, a widow with three chil- dren. The new mother was everything to be desired, and fashioned the mind, and in- spired the ideals of the grow- ing boy. 24 LINCOLN His life was one of inces- sant labor from the begin- ning. He learned the rudi- ments of carpentry and cabi- net-making, but generally speaking, he was what would be termed a farm hand or * 'hired man,'* but the hired man and hired girl of that day were the social equals of the master. There was no suggestion of inferiority. No man was brave enough to of- fer, and no man pusillani- mous enough to accept a tip from any one, king or peas- ant. The humblest workman was too proud to accept a gratuity: to offer it was an in- sult ii' Abraham was a good boy. He sowed no wild oats. He never gave his parents trouble. In fact, he was exemplary, and served his father faithfully until after he was 21, when, in 1830, the family moved to Illinois, where, in passing through Vincennes, he saw a printing press for the first time. He was good-natured, kindly, a fluent speaker and a great story teller, with a remark- able memory. Abraham was a pofVe boy. He took lessons in manners and was gallant for his years and environment; never pro- fane and always deferential to the ladies. He was scrupu- lously honest, to the point of eccentricity. In the neigh- borhood spelling-bees, he was the first one chosen zmd always took the prize. He was so voracious for knowl- edge that he read every book to be borrowed in the neigh- borhood, and took extracts. He read even while at work; and while others were ca- rousing at night, he was studying by the aid of some rude light. As a young man he could out-lift, out-throw, out-run, out- jump and out-wrestle any of his companions. Phy- sically he was a giant. Men- ^JSi®-^ ?;2'?siw< 26 LINCOLN tally he was a giant in the making. Indeed, his whole life is an example of all- around efficiency. It was an age of political and religious controversy. The slavery question was the most bitter, but every man had his denominational be- liefs and fought for them strenuously. His neighbors were deeply religious, in- tensely theological and con- sistently moral. We can con- ceive of no environment so likely to produce an heroic giant. There was no miracle in his physical, mental and moral development. As a young man, he bor- rowed an English grammar, and simply devoured it; and laid a foundation for those classic utterances in later years, that are admitted to be the choicest written Eng- lish. He split rails, worked in a grocery store, was a ferry- man on the Ohio, and a boat- isa^/E?^. LINCOLN 27 man on the Mississippi; went to New Orleans, and there saw the slave market in all its horrible details. This ex- perience but intensified the controversial spirit that was born in this six-foot-four Kentuckian. He was a captain of a company of independent rangers in the Black Hawk War, and did excellent ser- vice. He was elected to the Illinois Assembly. He failed in a small grocery business, probably because of his love of books, for during this time he simply devoured Shakes- peare and Bums, and his style in oratory can be traced to the exquisite English of the Seventeenth Century. He had at least two love affairs, which, while temporarily de- pressing, were good moral discipline. There was a demand for surveyors, and he was ap- pointed deputy surveyor. Lincoln worked night euid ; ; ; j , hh day, endangering his health, but in six weeks he was mas- ter of all the books on sur- veying that could be found, and his work in later years as a surveyor was satisfactory. He accomplished in six weeks what it took others as many months, even years, to do. He never attacked any subject without conquering it. He was literally the em- bodiment of EFFICIENCY. He did nothing by halves. He had dogged pertinacity; he never let go. He already had a well-disciplined mind; a cultivated judgment which responded wisely and quick- ly in emergencies. He had education, although compar- atively little knovirledge — what he had was profound. With his remarkable mem- ory, he might easily have ac- quired a great store of showy knowledge, without any at- tendant mental discipline, but he developed well-bal- auiced judgment. He had an LINCOLN intellectual equipment sel- dom acquired in a modern elective college, where the students pursue "the line of least resistance." He learned a few books well, rather than many books little. His t'me was always fully occupied. He wasted none of it. His reading was along serious lines, although by nature he was a humorist and a prince of good fellows. As early as 1837 he. with one other, signed a protest against the institution of slav- ery and lodged it with the Il- linois legislature. From that time on his life was one con- tinual battle. The writer, too, was born in the Middle West, in the very rearmost of the "back- woodc." and hence knows somewhat of the early envi- ronment of Lincoln. During the earlier part of my h^e, while eng3.ged in the practice of n-y profession, 1 kept inti- mate record of the persons 1 IBI WS ^t^MM^^ 30 LINCOLN ^^2^ met who were the most * 'suc- cessful failures." Each one was always ready with an alibi. One would say, "My mother died when I was very young;" another, **My peo- ple were always very poor;" a third, "My early environ- ment was of the worst.'* Lincoln could have made all these excuses, and quite truthfully — but he didn't. An efficient man does not make explanations or excuses; as for the former — ^your friends do not require them, and those who are not your friends will not believe them if you make explanations. As to excuses, a good excuse is practically no better than a poor one — the results are the same. Lincoln never made explanations or excuses. He was a Master of Efficiency. He studied law, and prac- ticed it for years, following the Circuit with the Judge. He was forceful before a jury, industrious in his office, 3yp>x>,5 »5gjesysr >gr?a3Kritag?Haa^?3' a genial companion on Cir- cuit, and an entertaining and persuasive wit everywhere. His satire was not always taken in good part, although, generally speaking, his shaftar of humor were pointed with honey, not vinegar. One man challenged h'm to a duel which he accepted in such an outlandish way as to make bis adversary the laughing stock of the town. From about his twenty- first year he was always in- terested in politics. He w^as for eight consecutive ye-^rs a member of the Assembly in Illinois, and gained one term in Congress, where his oppo- nent was the celebrated Petei Cartwright, the famous Methodist exhorter. He was not always successful, but his failures strengthened charac- ter and never disheartened him. He arose superior to every defeat. He and his wife attended the Presbyterian Church, and m m m LINCOLN went regularly. His habits were correct and no man has suggested any dev'ation from the straight and narrow way. As a Congressman in his first and only term, he was an industrious and useful member, already attracting attention. Always attacking slavery, he drew up and pre- sented a bill to abolish it in the District of Columbia. Even while practicing law he was an intense student, studying mathematics, astro- nomy and poetry, as syste- matically as if in college, and he began the study of Ger- man. All his leisure was spent in study; he never wasted precious time. He was a genius in his capacity for hard work. As he developed as a law- yer, his fame was spread as an orator, statesman and fighter. His speeches were Icgical, serious, though hu- morous, prudent and cou- I rageouSs couched in lan- guage unsurpassed in litera- ture. Of course, the princi- pal agitation was over slav- ery. From one of his famous speeches on Free Kansas, we take the following, which il- lustrates his attitude at this early date, and explains his later course as President: "As it now stands, w^e must appeal to the sober sense and patriotism of the people. We will make con- verts day by day; we w^ill grow strong by calmness and moderation; we will grow strong by the violence and injustice of our adversaries, and, unless truth be a mock- ery and justice a hollow lie, we will be in the majority after a while, and then the revolution which we will ac- complirh will be none the less radical from being the re- sult of pacific measures. The battle of freedom is to be fought out on principle. Slav- ery is a violation of the eter- I m IStPZS^'A ?M^>^i^>L^^i>iJ! ^^^^mmm 38 LINCOLN ent from the accepted model as illustrated by Edward Everett, whose long, compli- cated and flowery sentences had captivated the ears ot that generation. Lincoln had something to say, and he said it in short, clear, persua- sive sentences that sent home and clinched a thought so forcefully that it could not escape. His sole object w^as conviction, not display. There never was any doubt or controversy over the meaning of what he had said. The story of Lincoln's nomination at the Chicago Convention is of intensest in- terest, as is also the Presiden- tial campaign itself, w^hich was conducted very largely by Mr. Lincoln from his modest two-story house in an unfashionable part of Springfield, Illinois. He was elected owing to a split in the Democratic Par- ty that was created by his questions to Mr. Douglas in the famous debate. He was a mfnority President, receiv- ing but 1.850.000 votes out of 4,700,000 votes cast. The South had no part in his elec- tion. The complication of troubles that had been brew- ing for a generation can well be imagined. The South was solidly against him. The North was divided into a multiplicity of factions fight- ing one another in the vari- ations of their radicalism. Everybody suspected every- body else of being a traitor at heart and Lincoln started out w^ith the one idea "to save the Union" from its enemies and its friends and in carrying out the one pur- pose, he finally s^itisfied all factions, until today his un- selfish and wise patriotism is applauded by all. His first duty was to select a cabinet and he chose the leaders of his own party, not being afraid to gather about him the brightest intellects of w^s^^s^^em.^i t 40 UNCOLN ■^ ;A^^^i/^Li''^i/%.^^i/»i/'%iiJ'i^t.>%tM^J»L^^^^ his time. In this respect he followed the example ot Washington and did not fol- low the example of so many lesser Presidents who pre- ferred to have about them mere secretaries or clerks and not men whose intellects might shine above their own. Washington reflected the glory and wisdom of his cabi- net; Lincoln's cabinet reflect- ed the glory and wisdom of the President. He towered above them all and in that respect was the greatest President of the Republic. We must pass* over the in- tensely dramatic incidents that immediately preceded the firing on Fort Sumter, the massing of giant armies, the enthusiasm that emptied the shops, offices, and farms of their choicest young men who, under the excitement and novelty of war, and the persuasive oratory of the politicians, rushed to the hos- tile frontiers. We pass by w mm :^\y^ LINCOLN 41 ^ the dreadful disappointments of early defeats in battle, during which years Mr. Lin- coln was earnestly striving to select the right general. Each commanding officer in turn was defeated, and each had some good excuse or other to offer, but good excuses are no better than bad excues; the results are the same. He wanted to find **a man** and in that search his well-bal- anced judgment and genius were revealed. He found him at last in General Grant. The South were a milita"^y people — military by instinct. They were brought up to ride and to shoot. The North were commercial and without military instincts. They had to be taught the art of war, but they had the best mili- tary instructors in the wor'd — the armies of the South taught them. It took the Morth four years' to learn how to ride a horse, but what magnificent cavalry followed w. J^Q'.^J! 42 LINCOLN at the heels of Phil Sheridan in the Valley in 1864 and 1 865 ! The South started out under the direction of scien- tific soldiers, from the Presi- dent down. The North had to discover them, for soldiers, like poets, are born, not made, or rather, they are both bom and made. A miltary genius must be born such, and in addition, have a scientific military training, for war today is intensely sci- entific. Finally, Mr. Lincoln found the man for the emer- gency, and the war was closed. His earnest life and his terrible struggles for four long years were rew^arded with a re-election, and he turned hopefully to the fu- ture and more peaceful times. The Emancipation Procla- mation was the great act of his life, and it was his, and not others*. He alone has the glory. It was intended to terrify the hostile armies in the field, to mitigate friction LINCOLN 43 m in the border States and uni- fy factions in the North. It is doubtful if it accom- plished its purpose, but it was right, and God accom- plished the result. It intensi- fied the situation; the fight- ing was continued with re- doubled zeal by bot^h sides, and finally the arbitrament of the sword determined that America should be free; and the present prosperity of the South indicates how harsh a blight had been put upon it by the institution that they erroneously, though honestly, conceived to be their right. The price paid in blood and wealth was enormous, but the results were enor- mous. Mr. Lincoln's genius was revealed in every depart- ment of government. He put his hand upon correspond- ence of State, softening it, avoiding friction and foreign war. His kindly heart miti- gated the horrors of domes- ^ d i. tic war; and he became the idol of the soldiers in the field, and of the mothers and children at home. His knowl- edge w^as as varied as it was profound. Each member of the Cabinet thought at first that he would soon be the government. They soon saw their error, and graciously submitted to and gratefully aided the dominating intel- lect. Mr. Lincoln was the government. HIS RELIGIOUS SIDE |HE grandeur of his character was best re- vealed during those dark days- when defeat after defeat disheartened all but the bravest, and intensified the contentions of discord- ant factions at home. They were the darkest days of the republic, and, as if the cup of sorrow were not yet full, he lost his young and beloved son. This multiplicity of sor- rows and cares and burdens did not dull his faith or lead to despair, or sour his sunny disposition. They seemed to add to his character both sublimity and strength. In a conversation during this time with Judge Gilles- pie, he said: **I have read, upon my knees, the story of Gethsemane where the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the Garden of Gethsemane now^, and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing." TarbelFs Life of Lincoln says: **But it is not until after the death of his son that we begin to find evidence that Mr. Lincoln was making a personal test of Christian- ity. Broken by his anxiety for the country, wounded nigh to death by his loss, he felt that he must have a sup- port outside of himself; that from some source he must draw^ new courage. Could LINCOLN he find the help he needed in the Christian faith? From this time on he was seen often with the Bible in his hand, and is known to have prayed frequently. His personal re- lation to God occupied hit mind much. He was deeply concerned to know, as he told a visiting delegation once, not whether the Lord was on his side, but whether he was on the Lord's side. Henceforth, one of the most real influences in Abraham Lincoln's life and conduct was his dependence upon a personal God." THE NATIONAL TRAGEDY. E now come to the saddest of trage- dies, the most pain- ful event in American history. No one loved his brethren in the South more tenderly than did Mr. Lincoln. Had he lived, all would have been w^mmmm W'\ Si: I LINCOLN 47 ^S^^S^ forgiven and the wounds of war soon healed, but the as- sassin's bullet struck down the idol of the North, and that murder engendered and intensified hatreds that con- tinued for a generation. Ihe deplorable acts- of the recon- struction period might have been avoided but for the hatred inspired by the as- sassin. The whole nation mourned. They then appre- ciated fully the sublimity of that life, his sterling honesty and unswerving rectitude, his pure altruism and devo- tion to his country. 1 he one object of his life had been at- tained: he had saved the Union; he had retained ail the srtars in the flag. He had done more: he had washed that flag clean and made it fit to float forever over a na- tion of free men. i 48 LINCOLN OUR ERROR IN ANALOGY [\ HAT has developed in one generation after Appomattox? Exactly what developed one generation after Zama. We have become a world power. We have suddenly become the richest nation in the world — the world, past ot present — with our riches con- centrated in the hands of a few who are especially rep- resented in the United States Senate. We have the richest man that ever lived — yet he has neither learning nor skill — merely cunning. Our great men of today use check books, not text books. We exalt wealth, not character. We have, not twenty per cent patricians, and eighty per cent slaves — ^without a mid- dle class, but we have seven- ty-five per cent of our wealth concentrated in the hands of less than one per cent of our people, and more than eighty ^ gsEE^as^rv: LINCOLN per cent are industrial slaves. In New York City ten per cent are buried in the Pot- ter's Field. Our ideals have changed. Our ambitions have changed. The very air we breathe is no longer charged with the ozone of contro- versy and religious zeal, but is heavy and flat with "lib- erality,** love of ease, dis- play and wealth. Monopo- lies or trusts that cost Charles I. his head and were out- lawed at common law, now aspire to control government, and ask to be "regulated," /. c, recognized as legal; and the pessimist shakes his head and says the country has gone to the dogs. If this dark picture were true, if your seeming analo- gies between Zama and Ap- pomattox be correct, I should have little respect for the Heroic Age and its genera- tion of physical, moral and intellectual giants. If they have builded a political body SQ5®«a that shall so soon be de- stroyed by the virus engen- dered in its own veins their work, though conscientious, was unskillful. They gave us mere ideals, not perma- nence and strength. I do not so interpret the future. I recognize the viru- lence of the disease, but see also the antidote. The little red school house and the lit- tle white church have, in a century, developed a new, mixed American race of in- ventors and independent thinkers of pronounced strength and virility, wholly dissimilar from the degener- ate Romans. Our analogy is faulty. In Rome four- fifths w^ere illiterate and five- fifths immoral. In America, four-fifths are literate and four-fifths are moral. Our moral balance wheel is the Great Middle Class, which is both educated and religious. They have but to be taught the tricks of their enslavers £ind they will find a remedy. w. We do not have to cut ofF a king's head to rid ourselves of oppressive monopoly. We Vote it off. High cost of liv- ing is always the best symp- tom preceding revolution, but this generation trained by the Heroic Age, does not have to institute a Reign of Terror to get rid of Special Privilege; it votes revolution. Our fathers in 1861 per- formed the unique in history, by ridding ourselves of a great national sin without the intervention of foreign arm- ies; and I have no doubt that this generation, when aroused, will return to the early virtues of the Heroic Age; will heed the call of the Modern Gracchi ; and will rid itself of Monopoly, Special Privilege and Congested Wealth, perpetuating for cen- turies the virtues taught in the school house and the church. We believe that we may still continue our Heroic Age, ^^^^l^spg^f^l that our present generation of graft — a mere day in a nation's life — is but the chicken pox, a child's dis- ease, not the hardening of the arteries incident to old age. Let us return to our old ideals', our old positive con- victions and enthusiasms. Let us refuse to grow old, and I know no better way than to re-adopt the intense faith, strict morality and ag- gressive individualism of our fathers and hold up to our children as a model to be copied, the life and struggles of the last and greatest of our Heroes. I always feel like taking off my hat to a Grand Army button. I recognize that the Civil War was the grandest moral drama of the ages. It was the demonstration of the Christian life in a nation. Alexander fought for con- quest; Hannibal for hate; Caesar for political prefer- ment; Augustus Adolphus w^^s^mMM LINCOLN 53 for religion; Frederick for his kingdom; Napoleon for La Belle France and empire; Washington fought to repel an invader. We admire them all; they were all heroes; but they were all selfish. In 1861, there was no invader at the door. We had merely to say to an erring brother, "Go in peace." We had still left a glorious country — proud of it all from the storm-beaten coast of Massa- chusetts Bay to the smiling sho'-e^' of the Pacific. We had simply to say, "Go your way, while we go ours." But no! just for sentiment; that the Union might be saved; that a down-trodden race of despised strangers might be free, cur fathers faced the cannon's mouth and death. That was pur**, unselfsh pa- triotism. It was unique. It was subl'me. It had no coun- terpart in history. It was the climax of the Heroic Age. It demonstrated that we were i 9^ ^PJEx^^SBBS:'^2aS3SSi^a^E^' 54 LINCOLN ■;.^>!MHk;!Vy;j a Christian nation, following the example of the Savior of mankind who likewise shed His blood that strcingera might be free. I have no fear that the sons of such fathe s will not be wise enough and patriotic enough, again to cure their own diseases of Monopoly and Special Privilege, and let the Republic live on for centuries admired, honored, and imitated by all the na- tions of the earth, until all are republics, living like brothers in universal peace, ushering in the Millenium of God, when for 1,000 years the flag of America the blest, shall float over a free, inde- pendent, intelligent, self-re- specting and God-fearing people, leading the world in true civilization. The Heroic Age died at Appomattox, and the choicest flower of that age of heroes was the martyred President. No wonder that i a sorrowing nation followed his bier to its last resting place in Springfield. His death was a personal loss to each citizen. They admired him for his genius. They loved him for his kindly heart. He was a national hero to whom every boy could properly be referred as an example. He never be- came a multi-millionaire. He never was successful in great business enterprises, and yet his every ambition was ac- complished; without instruc- tors, his language became a claFsic. His enemies were subdued and are now his wors-hipers. The one great object of his life, the Preser- vation of the Union, was achieved, and then he diedl Died full of glory and re- nown, in the closing hours of the Heroic Age of the Re- public, the greatest character of the greatest age of the greatest nation; truly A MASTER OF EFFICIENCY. i^5gm5^??^.^f>^ LINCOLN GOOD-WILL From J^ncoln 5 Second Inaugural