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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38582-8.txt b/38582-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a03424 --- /dev/null +++ b/38582-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7641 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;, by Clark S. Beardslee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; + A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians + +Author: Clark S. Beardslee + +Release Date: January 15, 2012 [EBook #38582] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS; *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS + + + A STUDY IN ETHICS + + WITH AN EPILOGUE ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS + + _BY_ + C. S. BEARDSLEE + + BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER + THE GORHAM PRESS + + THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED + TORONTO + + + _Copyright 1914, by C. S. Beardslee_ + + _All rights reserved_ + + _The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A._ + + + _To my sister Alice-- + A living blend + Of love and loyalty, + Of modesty and immortal hope._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +Abraham Lincoln was a man among men. He was earnest and keen. He was +honest and kind. He was humble and inwardly refined. He was a freeman +in very deed. His conscience was king. + +These few words contain the total sum of the following book. In +unfolding what they severally mean, and what their living unison +implies, the aim has been to bring to view the clear and simple beauty +of a noble personality; to show how such a human life contains the +final test of any proper claim in all the bounds of Ethical research; +and to stir in thoughtful minds the query whether such a character as +Lincoln's life displays, instinct as it is with Godliness, may not +yield forms of statement ample and exact enough for all the essential +formulas of pure Religion. + +Assuredly his aspirations were ideal. Quite as certainly his ways with +men were practical. The call and need today of just his qualities are +past debate. + +If only in our national senate chamber the ever-shifting group of +senators could hear the voice of Lincoln at every roll-call and in +each debate! If only in all our universities our studious youth could +glean each day from Lincoln, as he speaks of politics and of logic, of +ethics and of history! If only in every editorial room, where current +events are registered and reviewed, Lincoln's wit and wisdom might +illumine and advise! If only at every council, conference, or +convention, where leaders of our churches debate religious themes, the +reverence of Lincoln might preside! If only in the council chambers +where directors meet to plan and govern our modern enterprises in +industry and finance, Lincoln's broad humaneness might be felt! If +only every artist at his exalted and elusive task could every day +obtain new views of Lincoln's full nobility! If only toilers in the +shop and field could feel each day the friendly brotherhood in +Lincoln's rough, hard hand! + +Then toil, while losing naught of eagerness, would become content. +Art, while losing naught of beauty, would become unfailingly +ennobling. Commerce, while losing naught of enterprise, would grow +benign. Religion, while retaining a becoming dignity, would not fail +to be sincere. The public press would grow more savory and sane. Our +schools would be nurseries of manliness. And our conscience would be +embodied in our law. + +But Lincoln's face is vanished. Lincoln's voice is hushed. What +remains is that Lincoln's sentiments be republished every day in lives +that reverence and reproduce his excellence. To indicate this path, to +embolden and embody this aspiration is the service this volume +undertakes. + +Throughout this study, thought is fastened centrally upon Lincoln's +last inaugural address. There Lincoln stands complete. And that +completeness is vividly conscious in Lincoln's own understanding. +Eleven days after its delivery, and one month before his death, he +wrote to Thurlow Weed, saying that he expected that speech "to wear as +well as--perhaps better than--anything I have produced." Of almost +incredible brevity, containing as it left his hands, but five short +paragraphs, the compass and burden of thought within that address are +every way notable. It is in fact Lincoln's digest of the course and +trend of our national life; while on the side of character it is +replete with telling intimations of Lincoln's own moral effort, +purpose, and point of view. Here are in visible action all the +elements of essential manhood, all the virtues of a balanced +character. Here are insight, judgment, resolution. Here is momentum. +Here is something that endures. Here are ends worth any cost. Here is +wariest use of means. And here are wrongs, engendering anguish, and +mortal strife. And here are ultimate alternatives. And all is grasped +and even merged in Lincoln as he speaks. Here is wealth of ready +matter and direct allusion quite enough for any volume to lay open and +assess. + +Such a moral inventory and evaluation this study undertakes. Its +method is to subject this short address to the strictest ethical +analysis, to identify the elements that are integral and cardinal in +the moral being of God, and man, and government. Then, to articulate +and unify these elements into a vital ethical synthesis, to +demonstrate and manifest the living unison of character. Then, to +designate and undertake to clarify the major problems which such an +analysis and such a synthesis of such a speech and such a man open to +a student's mind. + +In this procedure it is the aim to show how from first to last in +Lincoln's life his mental clarity and his moral honesty are held in +model parity; how in his daily walk law and liberty go hand in hand; +how his cardinal moral qualities are to be defined; and how these +elemental virtues may avail in their own authority and right to guide +the eyes of men towards beauty, to guard the souls of men against +despair, to find the stable base of government, to overcome all guilt +by grace, to prove the perfect manliness of patience, to ground the +thought of men upon reality, to pierce the gloom of woe, to find the +core of piety, to perfect persuasive speech, and to win a vision of +the soul. Hereby and thus it may at last stand plain that in the soul +of Lincoln there is a moral universe; and that within the verities and +mysteries of this universe he alone is truly wise and fully free who +knows and proves the worth of faith. + +That so broad a study should be based upon so brief a speech, or +indeed upon Lincoln's single personality, may seem to some a fatal +fault. Such a thought, when facing such a method and such a theme, is +surely natural. As to its validity there need be no debate. The field +is free. Let any number of other speeches, or of other people be +assembled and placed beside the material handled in this book, for its +re-examination. In such a process, the further it is pursued, if only +Lincoln and the words of this inaugural are also held in thorough and +continual review, it may come the more fully clear that in a theme +like ethics mere multitude is not the measure of immensity; that the +structure of this book is organic, not mechanical; that the single +chapter on Lincoln's Moral Unison comprehends all that the volume +anywhere contains or intimates; that all the problems handled in Part +IV are only sample studies, and handled only suggestively; that the +volume might be expanded indefinitely or much reduced, and its +significance remain in either case unchanged; that correspondingly +Lincoln's last inaugural and Lincoln's public life, each and both, +outline in very deed a moral universe; that to rightly understand this +single character and this one address is to understand humanity, and +identify the ethical finalities; that to scan the soul of Lincoln in +his religious attitudes is to gaze upon God's image, and face the +reality and the rationale of the true religious life; and that, in +consequence, any reader who hesitates to venture such vast conclusions +upon so scant material may finally be induced to submit to a +substantial remeasurement his present estimates of brevity and +breadth. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART I. INTRODUCTION + + Lincoln's Mental Energy + + Lincoln's Moral Earnestness + + + PART II. ANALYSIS + + His Reverence for Law--Conscience + + His Jealousy for Liberty--Free-will + + His Kindliness--Love } + His Pureness--Life } + } The Cardinal Virtues + His Constancy--Truth } + His Humility--Worth } + + + PART III. SYNTHESIS + + Lincoln's Moral Unison + + + PART IV. STUDIES + + His Symmetry--The Problem of Beauty + + His Composure--The Problem of Pessimism + + His Authority--The Problem of Government + + His Versatility--The Problem of Mercy + + His Patience--The Problem of Meekness + + His Rise from Poverty--The Problem of Industrialism + + His Philosophy--The Problem of Reality + + His Theodicy--The Problem of Evil + + His Piety--The Problem of Religion + + His Logic--The Problem of Persuasion + + His Personality--The Problem of Psychology + + + PART V. CONCLUSION + + Lincoln's Character + + Lincoln's Preference + + AN EPILOGUE--Addressed to Theologians + + LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS + + + + +LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS + + + + +PART I. INTRODUCTION + + +LINCOLN'S MENTAL ENERGY + +In ethics, if anywhere, a master needs to be mentally sane and strong. +Truth cannot be trifled with here. Error here, whether in judgment or +as to fact, is fatal. Insight to exactly discern, and balance to +considerately compare must be the mental instincts of a moralist. + +How was this with Lincoln? What was his outfit and what his discipline +mentally? Was he unfailingly shrewd? Was he sufficiently sage? Was he +by instinct and by habit truly an explorer and a philosopher? Did he +have in store, and did he have in hand, the needful wealth of +pertinent facts? Had he the logical strength and breadth to set them +all in order and to see them all as one? + +Such inquiries are severe--too severe to be pressed or faced by anyone +in haste. But in this study of Lincoln such inquiries are not to be +escaped. To fairly answer them is worth to any man the toil of many +days. For just as surely as such research is resolutely pushed through +all its course, the eye will come to see where wisdom dwells, and to +learn what mental judgment and mental insight truly mean. And it will +grow clear as day that Lincoln mentally, as well as physically, was no +weakling; that in intellect, as in stature, he stands among the first. + +In many places this stands clear. There is no better way to trace it +out than to start from his last inaugural. To fully explore one single +paragraph of this address, the paragraph with which it opens, will +make one's examination of Lincoln's mental competence all but +complete. Its opening sentence alludes to his first inaugural. That +one allusion will repay pursuit. + +There Lincoln assumed the presidency. In that act and under that oath +he stepped to the executive headship of the Republic. By that step he +faced seven states in secession. It was a civil crisis, never one more +grave, or dark, or ominous. It threatened to subvert our national +history and to undermine our national hope. It was crowding on towards +bloody war a debate that dealt with the very basis of manhood in men. +To see the meaning of that crisis and to govern its issue required an +eye and a mind of Godlike vision and poise. + +Here is an excellent place to examine the outfit and the action of +Lincoln's intellect. His first inaugural is a masterpiece of +intellectual equipoise and energy. Any mind that will fasten firmly +upon the substance and the sequence of its thought may feel distinctly +the struggle, and the strength, and the steadiness of Lincoln's mind. +His arguments and his admonitions are impressive models of sanity and +power. Which is the more notable, his insight or his outlook, it is +hard to tell. The marvel is that the soberness and the force of his +appeal rest quite as firmly upon the prophetic as upon the historic +base. So clear is his grasp of the past, so sure is his sense of the +present, and so deliberate is the poise of his judicial thought that +his vision into the future has been found by time to be unerringly +true. + +Let any student put this to test. That address is an appeal. From +beginning to end it pleads. Set all its parts asunder. Then bind them +all together as Lincoln has done. And so find out what are its +elements; whence they are gathered; what is fact; what is principle; +what is prophecy; on what plan they are assembled; by what art they +are displayed; to what they owe their force; if in any spot of its +argument there is a break; and if the onset of the whole is +irresistible. Distinct replies to these distinct inquiries will tell +one all he needs to know about Lincoln's mental strength. Without +wandering any further one can find that Lincoln's methods and +conquests attest a student's patience, and a scholar's power; that his +wisdom was ripe, entirely adequate to devise safe counsel for a Nation +in civil strife. + +A striking feature of the address is its philosophic finish. Though +solidly set in concrete facts, and fitted ideally to the day of its +delivery, it is replete with counsel good for every time, so phrased +as to become the very proverbs of civil politics. Total paragraphs are +little more than clustered apothegms of consummate statesmanship. To +get the style and cast of Lincoln's mind let any student comprehend +the girth, and ponder the weight of each following sentence, all +gathered from this one address:-- + +The intention of the lawgiver is the law. + +I hold that in contemplation of universal law, and of the +Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. + +Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all +national governments. + +It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in +its organic law for its own termination. + +Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national +Constitution, and the Union will endure forever. + +Can a contract be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who +made it? + +That in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual is confirmed by the +history of the Union itself. + +No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union. + +Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written +provision has ever been denied. + +All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly +assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and +provisions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise +concerning them. + +If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the +government must cease. + +If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they +make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them. + +Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. + +A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and +limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of +popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free +people. + +Unanimity is impossible. + +One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be +extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be +extended. This is the only substantial dispute. + +Physically speaking we cannot separate. + +Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? + +Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws +among friends? + +Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always. + +This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inherit +it. + +The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people. + +Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice +of the people? + +If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, +be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and +that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great +tribunal of the American people. + +This people have wisely given their public servants but little power +for mischief. + +Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. + +Here are six and twenty sentences, culled from this one address, that +are nothing less than the maxims of a political sage, as lasting as +they are apt. As a glove fits a hand, so did these counsels fit that +day. As the needle guides all ships that sail, so their wisdom directs +all politics still. They embody sure witness of an eye that is keen to +see--none more narrowly; and of a mind that is trained to think--none +more thoroughly. Their author was a man who knew. He knew the past. He +knew things current. He knew what their coming issues were sure to be. +He knew the grounds of government. He knew the omens of anarchy. He +knew the awful possibilities in fraternal hate. And he knew the need +and the awful cost of patient forbearance. Here is a man well past +childhood intellectually. He has the eye and the mind of a man long +schooled by discipline. And he has a tongue expert in speech, well +freighted with tremendous sense, but lucid too, and graceful, and void +of all offense. This one address displays a man, though pathetically +unfamiliar with childhood schools, of consummate intellectual balance +and force. + +But, for its cherished end this inaugural proved pathetically +incompetent. And when it became his duty to pronounce a second +inaugural oath, the Nation had been four years in terrible war. That +war levied a terrible tax upon the president's intellectual strength. +The mental perplexities of those endless days and nights cannot be +told. Much less can they be understood. It may be doubted whether any +other man could have brought a mind to uphold and command those years +with any approach to Lincoln's mental honesty. It was, under God, +within the steadfast, tenacious grasp of Lincoln's exhaustless and +invincible mental loyalty that our national destiny lay secure. To all +the phases of all the problems of all those years, and to his own +judgment and endeavor concerning them all, this same first paragraph +of his second inaugural also alludes. This allusion, too, if any one +would compass the full measure of Lincoln's mental strength, demands +review, and will reward pursuit. The records are well preserved. And +they bear abounding witness to Lincoln's almost superhuman sanity and +insight and energy and mental equilibrium. If any one will follow +through this honest and perfectly honorable hint, he will come to feel +that the mind of Lincoln was the Nation's crucible in which all the +Nation's problems were resolved. + + +LINCOLN'S MORAL EARNESTNESS + +In the central paragraph of his last inaugural Lincoln enshrined +compelling demonstration of his moral soundness. That single paragraph +is nothing less than a solid section of a finished moral philosophy. +It reckons right and wrong incapable of any reconciliation, God as +Almighty Judge, and all his judgments just. But that opinion was no +word in haste. Deliberate as he always was, when voicing any estimate +as President, never was he more deliberate than when penning that +moral explanation of the war. In four stern years he had +been revolving surveying and pondering that sternest of all +debates:--Should the war go on or should it cease? Every argument on +either side, that heart or thought of man could feel or see, had been +driven by every sense into the faithful heed of his honest soul. He +bent his ear obediently to every plea, binding his patient mind to +register fairly every weighty word, designing with absolute honesty +that, when at last he spoke the executive decree, his decision should +bind the Nation for the single perfect reason that it was right. And +when finally and persistently he upheld the war and ordered its +relentless prosecution to the end, no one may truthfully charge that +opinion and command to ignorance or malice, to prejudice or haste. +Moral grounds alone were the basis and motive of that conclusion and +behest. The war was caused by slavery. With Southern success slavery +would spread and become perpetual. If slavery was not wrong, nothing +was wrong. That this great wrong should be restrained and in the end +removed, the war must be put through. + +But that was not all his thought and argument in this last inaugural. +The war, for the time, parted the Nation sectionally. But the sin and +guilt of slavery, in Lincoln's feeling, rested upon the Nation as a +whole; and upon the Nation as a whole he adjudged the burden of its +woe. Here the moral grandeur of Lincoln comes fully into view. His +affirmation of that awful iniquity, inwrought in two centuries and a +half of slavery, is no pharisaic indictment of the South. It is a +repentant confession of his own and all the Nation's equal part in its +infinite wrong. Among the guilty authors and abettors of that wrong he +identifies himself. He deems the war God's righteous judgment upon the +national inhumanity, and meekly bows his head, among the humblest and +most afflicted of those who suffer and sorrow beneath that scourge. + +That kindly fellowship with all the Nation in the sorrows of the war, +with its lowly confession of all the guilt, and its patient endurance +of all the atoning cost, proclaims and demonstrates that Lincoln's +respect for righteousness was supreme. It betokens a living sense of +law, a hearty assent to duty, a careful reckoning of guilt, an +uncomplaining readiness to own and rectify all wrong, a manly purpose +to inaugurate a new rule of equity, a reverent acknowledgment of God, +an ideal esteem for manhood everywhere, freedom from the dominion of +greed, friendliness for the erring, pity for the hurt and poor. Above +all it shows the faith of a moral seer in its manifest confidence that +human evil, and all its awful sorrow, are under the joint divine and +human control and can be absolutely and joyfully overthrown and done +away. + +Here is a type of manhood that, under the discipline of God, grew +sterling to the core, and by a signal favoring Providence provided an +ample basis for a national moral ideal. Here is an ideal where +conscience and righteousness stand in close affiance, where liberty +springs from equity, and where pity never fails. Here is a person and +a name worthy and able demonstrably to inspire and lead to national +triumph a new political league. And here is an official whose +spontaneous honesty has left upon all his state papers an indelible +moral stamp, creating thereby out of his official documents a national +literature of finished beauty and excellence and power. + + + + +PART II. ANALYSIS + + +HIS REVERENCE FOR LAW--CONSCIENCE + +Deeply set within the heart of Lincoln in this last inaugural was his +binding sense of right. This obligation was civic. The speech can be +described as a statement of what a loyal citizen under confederate law +is bound to do, when his civic loyalty is put to a final test. It is +an illustration of obedience facing rebellion. It is an exposition of +a confederate's duty, when confederates secede. It is a civilian's +announcement of the law that is singly and surely sovereign, when the +sole alternative in the Nation's life is dissolution or blood. It is a +revelation of the law that still prevails among and above a Republic +of freemen, when all law is faced by the challenge and defiance of +war. + +Here is a supreme exhibit of a solid co-efficient in Lincoln's +character. It shows in a commanding way how moral duty held dominion +in his life. He had no predilection for war. That he must face its +menace, or forswear his fealty to his freeman's covenant, was a +pathetic fate. And when in that alternative he upheld his oath and +endured the war, it is past all denial that he was bowing under an +inexorable constraint. He was plainly ordering his speech and conduct +in submission to an all-commanding, all-reviewing moral regimen. His +will was listening to a moral behest. His judgment was pondering a +moral choice. His eye was forecasting a moral award. He was shaping +sovereign issues with a sovereign responsibility. + +This experience and this expression of Lincoln's life unearths +foundations in his character which demand precise examination. What +was the nature of the law which held and swayed the soul of Lincoln +with such an overmastering control? Whence came its authority? Wherein +rested its validity? Is there record of its origin and authorship? +Where is it recorded? By whose hand was it transcribed? Precisely what +are its so imperative terms? + +In attempting an answer, one's first impulse is to say that in this +address Lincoln was speaking as citizen and official, as subject and +chief executive of an openly organized civil government, with written +Constitution and laws; and that what he was saying in this inaugural +address contained and involved no more and no less than those +regulations expressed; that he simply adopted and echoed what they +defined and described; that the sole and only authority he assumed to +cite or urge was this well-known published law of the land; and that +in those open records one may find in fullness and precision the full +definition of the nature and validity, the authority and authorship +and origin, the very terms and abiding form of all the moral mandates +he here obeyed. + +In such a statement there is abounding truth. Lincoln explicitly shows +explicit allegiance in all his political life to the dominion of our +national law. He revered our Constitution. And that the Constitution +should likewise be revered by all was all he gave his life to realize. +Grounded as that Constitution was upon our American Bill of Rights, +acknowledging as it did that all men were created equal, owning as it +openly did the sovereignty of the popular will, and allowing no other +lord, he found within its reverent and reverend affirmations the +dignity, authority, and power all-sufficient and supremely valid for +him as a fellow-citizen among his fellowmen. + +But in such a statement something is left unsaid. As one listens +through this address to Lincoln's voice, he instantly and continuously +feels that he is hearing there no mere echo of quoted words. There is +in the vibrant tone a note that is original. His voice is his own. His +words are of his own selection. His phrases were fashioned by himself. +His paragraphs embody the shape and bear the stamp of his peculiar and +painstaking invention and argument. In his utterance are the +inflection and accent, the very passion of unforced and independent +conviction. He speaks as one who finds within himself, in some true +sense, the authority for what he says. + +But not merely are his words valid for himself, as he shapes his +ordered speech. They are irrepressible. His convictions throb with +urgency. The constraint to which he bows is enthroned and exercised +within. The law he obeys is just as truly a law he ordains. But on +either view it is a mandate which he humbly and grandly obeys. It is +an imperative to which he yields his life. + +Just here emerges another phase of his amenability to law. It operates +as an impulse to plead. It drives him to the rostrum, and makes of him +one of the foremost masters of public address our civic life and +history have produced. As Lincoln voices this address he is speaking +not merely to himself, nor for himself, nor to ease and unburden his +mind, nor yet to open and indicate his view. As he spoke those words +his eye was fixed upon a mighty multitude of his fellowmen. As he +unfolded his thought before their attentive, waiting minds, it was as +though a banner were being unfurled to symbolize and signify to a +Nation's multitudes the sovereign duty of all true patriots. In that +transaction he became undeniably prophet and lawgiver to the Nation. +The obligations that supremely bind his life he urges and attests as +binding with equal and evident urgency upon the millions upon millions +of the members in the same free and solemn political league. When his +speech is done, he would have all who hear conjoined indefeasibly with +him in loyalty to his law. Every sentence of the address bears +evidence of this design. He is aiming to bring the Nation's conscience +and will to embody and obey the identical mandates that govern him. + +But his appeal is vestured in ideal deference. He deals with law. But +he does not command. Throughout his solemn exposition there is no note +or hint of dictatorship of any sort. Not a breath in any accent +suggests any undertaking to coerce. He simply strives, as a man with +his friend, to persuade. + +And yet as he sets forth his speech, within the comely apparel of its +courteous words gleams the regal form of duty, imperial offspring of +inflexible law. Those words were no empty phrasings of indifferent +platitudes, disposed and pronounced to dignify a passing pageant in +the formal rounds of our civic life. They trembled with anxiety. He +spoke of nothing less than the Nation's life and death, the Nation's +duty, and the Nation's doom. The honor of the Republic was being +sternly tried, to see if it was sound or rotten in its very heart. +Lincoln was dealing with things that all men owned to be above all +price. He was striving, as for life, to achieve agreement as to duties +that should transcend all possible denial. He was trying to fasten +upon every American conscience constraints that no American conscience +could possibly escape. + +Here is a cognizance of law and deference before its claims that is +curiously composite, if not complex, or even innerly contraposed. He +acknowledges the written Constitution to bind all citizens with +supreme authority; and gives his solemn oath to honor, uphold, and +execute its plain behests. He as plainly betrays the presence within +his individual breast of a moral sovereign to which he bows with just +as loyal reverence. And before every man with whom he pleads he orders +his behavior, even while he pleads, as before a throne whose moral +majesty he has no right or power to nullify. And yet within the terms +embodying such a deference he expounds the genesis and justifies the +conduct of a long-drawn civil conflict, in which his own official +decrees can be carried out only by the aid of the death and desolation +entailed by war. And when, despite death-dealing guns and deferential +pleas alike, vast multitudes of men, even all the captains and armies +of the South, despise his arguments and defy his arms, he continues to +urge his convictions and appeals, and to reinforce his words with war. + +Can such a complex attitude be shown and seen to rest in moral +harmony? Were his conscience, and the Constitution, and his deference +before other men, and his summons of the land to arms equally and +alike compelling morally, all indeed morally akin? Beneath the +unsparing gaze of his conscience-searching eye, under all the awful +testing of his loyalty to oath, in all his patient and persistent +pleadings for other men's agreement, and through all the torture and +distress of war, what explanation and account can be given of any +obligation adequate to bind and justify his course? Instinct himself +with deference, and averse to any form of tyranny, how could he so +rigidly refuse to yield? Prone toward conciliation in every fiber of +his life, how did he inwardly, how could he openly vindicate his +unbending determination to uphold his faith, and carry through the +war? + +This forces a final and vital inquiry touching the nature of the law +that was so regnant and compelling in Lincoln's personal life; and +that he was struggling here in this address with such consuming +desire, and by the unabetted efficiency of oral appeal, to implant in +other breasts. From Lincoln's balanced words it stands apparent that +the problems bound up in this inquiry beleaguered him on every side. +His throbbing syllables, and the tactics by which his sentences are +arranged, attest impressively that while he was facing problems too +profound for human thought to solve, he was also facing laws that he +could not escape, and dared not disobey. It was not for his kind heart +to sanction and encompass such a war, and stand so solidly against the +solid South, while yet behaving with so unfeigned respect for every +other man, except beneath compulsion of a law supremely gentle and +invincibly severe. He was plainly viewing some behest too plain to be +denied, too sacred to be disobeyed, too insistent to be withheld, and +yet too reverend and benign to suffer any champion to be rude--a +behest around whose throne hung sanctions, true to fact, waiting to +adjudge, certain to descend. + +In the effort now to trace in the soul of Lincoln the birth and growth +and manly stature of this deep sense of law, some things stand plain. +In this, his consciousness of sovereign duty and supreme allegiance, +Lincoln stands entire. In this address will and thought and sentiments +combine. He is not swept against his will. What he decides he eagerly +desires. And with his will and wish his best intelligence co-operates. +If any man essay to overthrow his argument, he has the total Lincoln +to overturn. Determined, impassioned, and convinced, he confronts all +men, whether they be adversaries or friends. In his contention and +defense his being is completely unified. He is employing upon his +master task his total strength. Distressful, dark and difficult as is +his environment and time, he suffers and ponders and resolves, with +forces undivided, none reserved. With such convictions, such desires, +and such determination, the assurance in his onset was in itself +triumphant. + +Upon what foundations now for such unyielding confidence and appeal +did Lincoln take his stand? For Lincoln's own deliberate reply, let +all men read again, and then again, and still again, this second +inaugural address. Those words are appareled with a beautiful charity. +But from deep within their kindliness resounds the clear, firm voice +of heaven-ordered, all-prevailing law--a law that comprehends beneath +its strong and high dominion the long career of American slavery, +defining its sin, awarding its doom, and dealing justly with the +contending imprecations and the pleading intercessions that strangely +voice the deep confusion of embattling hosts. American slavery, its +sin and doom--in his exposition of that dark theme, Lincoln gave his +exposition of all-compelling law. + +All men were created equal. The right of all men to liberty is +likewise a primitive endowment. Upon this one broad base, and upon no +other, did Lincoln ever set up any claim to voice for himself, or for +his fellowman, a civic obligation. To that creative decree can be +traced all the civic appeals that Lincoln ever made. In fixing there +the ground of every plea, he had indomitable assurance of faith that +he was defining and declaring for every man an irreducible and +ineffaceable moral law. All men were created equal. All men were +divinely entitled to be free. That fiat of God Americans had tried and +dared to invalidate. Its authority it was now the Almighty's purpose, +by the obedient hand of Lincoln, to reinaugurate. Its simple terms, +that had forever been indelible, were now to be made universally +legible, and everywhere visible, by the obedient consent of all his +fellowmen. + +In all of this the chiefest thing to note is that this same +all-commanding moral law is born within. Written precepts and +published constitutions are but transcriptions. They are not original. +They are only copies. Not at the tip of a moving pen, but in our +forefathers' reverent and independent hearts, did our noble +Constitution come to birth. And in the time of Lincoln it was in +Lincoln's heart that this venerable law was born again. In the heart +of Washington, in the heart of Lincoln, in the heart of every man, as +fashioned and over-shadowed evermore by God, all moral regimen has its +stately origin. + +To this grave oracle, deep within Lincoln's Godlike soul, did Lincoln +fashion utterance. To this same reverend oracle, deep-lodged within +the Godlike soul of every listener, Lincoln made appeal. Here is all +the urgency of all his argument. Here is the secret of all his +confidence. Herein alone shines all his moral majesty. + +Something such was Lincoln's exposition to himself, and to his time, +of the majesty and mandatory force of civic law. Its authority rests +in God. Its validity rests as well in man. It has been written down +most nobly in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Its terms spell +freedom and equality for all. In the light of our common human +sentiments, kindling within us from heavenly fires, its printed copies +may be easily revised. And while its concrete regulations are far too +manifold for any general document to possibly contain, its dictates +are all as concrete and corresponsive to our human civic life as is +the heaven-born and reverent human friendliness with which the life of +Lincoln was continually graced. + +Deferring then to future pages all specific analysis and appraisal of +the pregnant interior wealth of Lincoln's sense of moral obligation, +two momentous affirmations touching Lincoln's reverence for law lie +already right at hand. The law he reverenced held high and wide +dominion. It shaped and swayed and judged at once and alike both his +own and his Nation's destiny. + +And its terms were plain. It was no timid, dusky lamp, held in +trembling hand, throwing uncertain rays, and flickering towards +extinction. The law that shines in this inaugural is a glowing, +radiant orb, bringing day when first it dawned, and shedding still +full light of day over all the earth. + + +HIS JEALOUSY FOR LIBERTY--FREE-WILL + +This second inaugural address had its birth in the breast of a man +freeborn, and resolute to remain forever free. To find within this +speech this living seed, to trace and sketch its bursting growth, and +to gather up its fruit, is well worth any toil or cost. To begin with, +this speech is undeniably Lincoln's own. That in any sense it was born +of any other man's dictation, Lincoln would never admit, and no other +man would ever affirm. As its words gain voice, every listener feels +that Lincoln was their only author, and that even in their utterance, +though in the living presence of an un-numbered multitude, this +speaker was standing in a majestic solitude. That exposition of the +war, of the Union, and of slavery was of and by and for himself. What +he was uttering was original. The convictions he affirmed were his +personal faith. The decision his words so delicately veiled was his +personal resolve. The issue towards which they aimed was the outlook +of his lone heart's hope. The appeal he voiced was warmed and winged +by his own desire. The argument he so deftly inwrought was his +invention and device. The words he singled out were his selection. +The total aspect and onset and effect of the address, as it looked and +worked on the day of its delivery, and as it looks and works today, +were of his unforced and free election and intent. All the volume, +burden and design of those pregnant, urgent, far-seeing paragraphs are +the first hand product of a freeborn man, adapted and addressed to men +freeborn. + +Here is for any student of ethics an imposing spectacle. For here is a +commanding demonstration that mortal man is in very deed a responsible +author of moral deeds. That this inaugural scene gives this stupendous +truth an indeniable vindication, no man may lightly undertake to +disapprove. But within that undeniable verity are involved all the +mighty revolutions of a moral universe. + +This import of this speech can never be made too plain. To this end +let any reader note the fact that in that stern day, and in this plain +speech, Lincoln faced, and that under a pitiless compulsion, an +exigent alternative. When he penned, and when he spoke its freighted +words, he stood in the very brunt of war. His thoughts were tracing +battle lines. His eye was fixed on bayonets. Before him stood +far-ranging ranks of men in mutual defiance, men at variance upon +fundamental things, men in conflict over claims irreconcilable by God +or man. By no device of argument or of compromise could those +contending claims become identical, or even mutually tolerant. Men's +paths had parted. Armies had taken sides. Difference had deepened into +intolerance; intolerance had heightened into hate; and hate had flared +up into war. Secession had proclaimed that the Union must dissolve, +that confederates were foes, that one Nation must be two. And men +based their reasons for rending the land and for rallying ranks in +arms, upon opposing views of God's decree, and of the nature of men. +One side claimed that God ordained that black men should be slaves. +This claim the other side denied; and avowed instead that God in his +creation and endowment of the human race ordained that all men should +be equal and free. So appalling and so passing plain in our political +life was the alternative which this inaugural had to confront. + +Equally plain upon the face of this inaugural is the fact that, in the +presence of that dread and stern alternative, Lincoln made a choice. +He picked his flag. He chose the banner of the free. The standard of +the slaveholder he spurned. Responsibly, deliberately, he selected +where to stand, fully and consciously purposing that in such selection +he was enlisting and employing all the voluntary powers of his life. +Here was conscious choice. He did select. He did reject. He could have +taken another, an oppugnant stand, as many a familiar confederate did. +Two paths were surely possible. And they did undeniably diverge. That +divergence he soberly surveyed, and traced down through all its +devious ways to their final consequence. In act and motive, in +judgment and intent, he was self-poised, self-determined, self-moved. +When, in this second inaugural scene, removed from his former +inaugural oath by four imperious years of sobering and awakening +thought, but facing still a frowning South, he swore a second time to +preserve, protect and defend the Constitution--that was a freeman's +choice. And it was Lincoln's own. Between his soul and heaven, as he +registered that resolve, no third authority intervened. As he stood +and published and defined that reiterated pledge, his soul was +sovereignly, supremely free. + +And within that sovereign freedom its even-balanced deliberation +should not be overlooked. Those days that filed between those two +inaugurals had been replete with studied meditation. The mighty +problems precipitated by the war he had taken and turned and poised +and sought to estimate and solve in every possible way. He pondered +every ounce of their awful gravity. He paced the total course of their +development. He knew our history, with all its ideals and all its +errors by heart. He inspected with peculiar carefulness the drift and +trend of our national career. It is doubtful if any one ever studied +so incessantly the current of our affairs, or peered so anxiously and +with such far-sighted calculation into the hidden and distant issues +of the stupendous enterprise in which he was predestined to act so +commanding a part. So when his free decision was ushered forth and +projected among the contending determinations of his day, to play its +part, it was the ripe conclusion of a thoughtful mind, like the +well-poised verdict of a judge. + +And his free choice was resolute. His will was without wavering. The +side he made his own was forced to face the musketry and forts, the +arsenals and fleets, of a would-be nation of angry, determined +men--men who would rather die than yield. The choice he made involved +the shedding of human blood. This he sadly knew. In four endless years +he had been compelled to defend his resolution with arms. And now as +he volunteered his oath a second time, his free decision involved +again the frightful corollary of war. This meant that within his +voluntary oath was a conscious determination, too vigorous and +resolute for any threat to daunt, for any form of terror to reverse. +His choice was no feeble leaning to one side. Into its formation and +into its fulfillment poured all the energy of his life. It was vastly, +radically more than impulse, or propensity, or easy, unconsidered +inclination. It was a freeman's choice, poised and edged and +energized by a freeman's will. It had firmness like the firmness of +the hills. + +This choice of Lincoln was ponderous. His exercise of freedom, as +shown in this inaugural, was dealing, not with things indifferent, not +with trifles void of moral moment, nor with empty, immaterial +suppositions. When Lincoln shaped and welcomed to himself this +preference, he was handling nothing less than the affronts of human +arrogance, the greed of human avarice, the cruelty of human slavery, +and a confederate's disloyalty. That preference was his free election +to enthrone within himself, and within all other men, the stability of +a firm allegiance, the grace of human friendliness, the worthy +valuation of human souls, and the surpassing beauty of a true +humility. It was between such values that his election took its shape. +His decision dealt with things primary, enduring, and universal. It +was concerned with the elemental affections and convictions of men, +while all the time supremely respecting the decrees and judgments of +Almighty God. Upon such a level, and amid such values, did the will of +Lincoln trace out its path. It was a Godlike energy, sovereign, +soberminded, original, free. + +But though this freedom of Lincoln, as it reigns through this +inaugural, was individually his own, and wrought out into precise +experience in personal singleness and independency, by no manner of +means was he standing in this scene in moral isolation. He was beset +about and wrought upon from many sides by mighty moral energies. For +one thing, a vast Republic held him fast in the bonds of loyal +citizenship. It was a Republic composed of freemen, to be sure. But +those freemen were by no means a miscellany of mutually indifferent +and disconnected units. They had formed a Union. That Union had a +definite and inviolable integrity. That corporate integrity laid an +unrenounceable obligation upon all its membership. It was the sacred +respect for the sacred honor of that political bond that proved a man +a patriot. To assert the freeman's right to cast aside those bonds +proved a man a traitor, and gendered unto bondage. Here unfolds a +veritable mesh of moral obligations--obligations of compelling +potency. It was precisely in defence and demonstration of those +enveloping claims that Lincoln advocated and prosecuted a defensive +but relentless war. + +The South resented all such claims. They were resolute that national +bonds should be defied, that their authority should be annulled. And +this they urged explicitly in the very name of freedom. This defiant +protest Lincoln's opposite preference had to face. This involved his +mind in the study of a problem that is never out of date--a study that +will test any student's moral honesty to the quick. Lincoln's +championship of moral liberty had to grapple, in the counter +championship of Southern arms, a type and sort of freedom that he +forever disowned for himself, and that he could never consent to in +any other man. This drove him into the study of the nature of a human +soul and the nature of social bonds. This inquiry uncovered two +foundation rocks, laid deep by our forefathers beneath the fabric of +our republic, supports to human honor and stability which no man nor +any confederation of men can undermine and overthrow without turning +upside down the fundamental supports of harmony and honor among +civilians that are free. These two foundation rocks are the divine +design that all men should be equal and free; and the certain +corollary that governments among men derive their just powers from the +consent of the governed. The equality of freemen when they stand +apart, and their free consent, when they join in a political +league--these are the immovable pillars of character and order among +intelligent men. Upon such foundations this government has been +placed. That sure basis the South assailed. In the name of freedom +that assault must be repulsed. The national environment, the national +integrity, the national honor, the existence of the Nation, conceived +as it was in liberty, made all such liberty as the South preferred, +not a freeman's right, but a sorry simulation, a moral wrong. +Government of the people, by the people, was freedom to the core, the +core of civic righteousness. In such a government popular and +everlasting allegiance was elemental uprightness. Among freemen, the +cornerstone of civics is a plighted troth to liberty. + +Thus Lincoln argued. And with him to argue thus was to obey. As thus +conceived, obedience to his civic pledge went hand in hand with +liberty. Enlistment under a government and laws framed by +fellow-freemen was to him no limitation of his personal rights. +Instead it involved and assured for every bondman a full emancipation, +and for every freeman full title forever to every unalienable right. +Such a view was indeed ideal, as Lincoln soberly knew; but for that +ideal every power of his kingly manhood was ready to struggle and +suffer and serve. To bind his hand to such a league was his free +choice. To live in loyalty to such a bond was a living pride and joy. +Such an agreement was to the end of his days unresented and +unconstrained. + +But it cost him dearly. No indentured bonds-man ever wrought out sorer +toil. None ever suffered through longer, heavier, sadder days. It wore +away his life. The war was to his tender soul, as he termed it, "a +dreadful scourge." But as he interpreted its trend, its certain +winnings outvalued and outweighed its woe. It was freely and +willingly, not by any irksome and alien coercion, that he opened his +soul to all its sorrows, and poured out all his strength to direct and +hasten its consummation. He saw unerringly that it had to do with +government by free consent, with the tenure of a freeman's oath, with +the validity of a freeman's right. And by a preference that in his +freeman's breast was irrepressible, he selected with an open, +far-ranging eye to take his place in that terrific conflict in the +very brunt, that the Nation and all the world and coming ages might +see and enjoy its happy issue in a Union built and compacted +indissolubly upon the inviolable oaths and rights of men who are free. + +This was Lincoln's law of liberty. It secures to men their freedom; +but it binds those freemen in a league. Their civic life is not a +solitude. It is a covenant. + +But when freemen form a league, their solemn oath, as this inaugural +shows, embodies awful sanctions. From such a league and covenant, +seven confederate parts were affirming and defending their right to +secede, and that by force of arms. This forced freedom to a final +definition, and a final test. What follows when a Republic fails? What +form of civic order lies beyond, when a league of freemen is violently +dissolved? Where will freedom find sure footing, when the fundamental +laws of freemen are defied? On this stern question Lincoln fixed his +eye. And as his vision cleared and deepened, he grew to see that if +freedom among men could ever survive, a freeman's mutual covenant must +be inviolate. A freeman's compact must be kept, else on all the earth +freedom could find no resting place. If this should ever be denied, +that denial must be sternly smitten to the ground. Thus for the very +cause of freedom, and as a freeman, Lincoln was driven into war. He +was put where he had no other choice. He was forced to fight. + +But in that war the havoc and disaster were mutual. Both sides +suffered terribly. The conflict dealt out torture that neither party +could evade. It was mighty ponderings on these conditions that wrung +from Lincoln's heart the heart of this inaugural, wherein he traces +with a humble, deep-searching carefulness the cause of all the war to +that prolonged infraction of the law of liberty in the lot of the +American slave; and the guilt of that enormous sin to North and South +alike; and the moral explanation of the sorrows of the war to the +judgments of Almighty God. + +Herein he learned that among freemen freedom is in no sense arbitrary +and absolute. Laws lie in its very being. Their presence is +spontaneous indeed, as is every impulse of their promulgation and +rule. But they must be obeyed. If their self-framed mandates are +disobeyed, then freemen are no longer free. If freemen dare to bind +and rob their fellows and aggrandize their own advantages, then the +yoke they bind on other men, by a sanction no mortal can escape, will +be bound upon their own necks, until their false advantages are all +surrendered, and the freedom that is claimed by anyone is given +equally to every other man. To the fulfillment and preservation of +that law Lincoln freely bowed his life. This is the core of this +address. Thus Lincoln illustrates true liberty. In the crucible of war +was his vision of the worth of freedom finally refined. It was through +a costly sacrifice of peace. But it was alone and all for freedom, for +freedom and for nothing else, that his peace and ours was sacrificed. + +This exposition of Lincoln's pure ideal of independent, virile manhood +has embraced, in passing, a phase of the vast environment in which he +felt his manhood framed, that calls for separate remark--the relation +of his human freedom to the rule of God. The war is traced in this +address to a threefold origin: it was projected in the resolution of +the South that slavery should be given leave to spread; it was +accepted in the decision of the North that the present bounds of +slavery should not be passed; the whole affair was overturned, and the +war was over-ruled in the purpose of Almighty God, that North and +South, as a single Nation, guilty in common for slavery as a national +sin, should make full requital for all its cruelty. In this thought of +Lincoln, the conflicting purposes of the North and the South, and his +own determination too, were being made to bow beneath the mightier +dominion of Almighty God. In the realm of human politics this is a +rare and notable confession. And that it was published beneath the +open sky, at noon, before a peopled Nation's open eye, as a thoughtful +explanation of his inaugural oath as president of a mighty government +upon the earth, must be conceded to mightily enhance its notability. +It lacks but little of rising to the rank of prophecy. But equally +notable with its publicity is its conscious, free submissiveness. +Clear to discern, he is also prompt to own the over-mastering rule of +God. His attitude in this inaugural is an attitude of explicit +subordination to a higher power. But it is clear as day that this +subordination is voluntary. There is no sign of reluctance or +unwillingness, as though he were being forced, not even though all +expectations of his own were being over-ruled in the inscrutable plans +of God. This address reveals this man in a mood and tone of complete +submission, ready for rebuke, surrendering all his ways to God. This +posture of acquiescence, in God's revolution of his plans, and +reconstruction of his hopes, is the factor to notice here, as we +examine the actual operation of Lincoln's will. Above his private +liberty, above his high official authority, above the great Republic +in which his own decisions merge, reigns the hidden hand of God. To +the power and majesty of that unseen sway he summons every dignity +and every desire of his own to render unreserved obedience. + +In seeing and saying this, however, one must never omit to observe and +add that Lincoln's eye observed with solemn joy a precious moral +meaning in the divine omnipotence. Heaven's unexpected guidance and +consummation of the war were only adding clarity and emphasis to the +principle of liberty. It only drove the demonstration home, and that +with irresistible cogency, that human bondage must be avenged. And so +in fact Lincoln's solemn reverence for the divine control was a girdle +confirming the strength of the fine jealousy that guarded for himself +and for all mankind the sacredness and the majesty of the human will. +Within the deeper deeps of his own free preference he coincided and +co-operated with the will of God. His obedience to God, his allegiance +to his civic covenant, and his individual, cherished preference +coalesce ideally; while each, without any diversion or loss, preserves +its own integrity. + +Thus with life-exhausting, sacrificial toil, with genuine originality, +ever exemplifying in his chastened life all the burden of his thought, +by a decisive choice between divergent paths, with the careful +deliberateness of a full-grown man, with unconquerable determination, +gravely sensible of every ponderous consequence, in unbroken and +intimate companionship with all his fellow-men, with vision sharp to +detect and uncover every simulation and counterfeit of his wish, +through solemn fellowship with redemptive sorrows, bowing without +repugnance to every sanction that free equality enjoins, and in humble +reverence for the all-commanding, all-subduing will of God, Lincoln +here unfolds the central and infolded implications in his +all-consuming jealousy to be free. + + +HIS KINDLINESS--LOVE + +A genuine and generous goodwill to other men breathes warmly through +this second inaugural, as the glowing breath of life pervades the +bodily frame of a living child. This manifests itself, as seen in his +impassioned zeal for freedom, in a vivid consciousness of +companionship. He felt his life and destiny interlaced inseparably +with all Americans, nay with all the world of human kind. With this +widely expanded and ever expanding Republic, he felt himself in these +inaugural scenes peculiarly identified. In that great pageant he was +deeply sensible of holding the central place. His inaugural oath, +though his single, individual act, announced his conscious purpose to +be the Nation's head. In that station his person became supremely +representative. It was for him to incorporate nobly, mightily, +judicially, the national dignity, authority, and design. + +Many phases of this profound coincidence of the life of Lincoln with +the Nation's life come into sight whenever his life's career is +carefully reviewed. But among all the illustrations of his +self-submergence deep within the overflowing fullness of our national +history, there is one that demonstrates his tender kindliness beyond +all possibility of refutation. This is his profound participation with +the Nation in her fate because of slavery. Around this awful issue +circles all the thought of this, as of the first address. That this +puissant co-efficient of our national history was somehow the cause of +the existing war he said that all men felt. He registered his own +opinion that all the sorrows of the war were in requital for that sin. +Into those sorrows no man entered more profoundly than did Lincoln +himself. They sobered all his joy. They solemnized him utterly. It is +true few heard his groans. In his patience he was mainly silent. None +ever heard him make complaint. All impulse to resentment was subdued. +But the nation's sorrows were on his heart. Through all those days he +was our confessor, self-sacrificed, sorrow-laden, faithful absolutely, +but uncomplaining. Upon his head an angry, unanimous South, and many +thousands in the North dealt vengeful, malicious blows, denying him +all joy, crying out against him ruthlessly. All this he bore, as +though he heard them not, and continued day and night to seek the +Nation's peace. With marvelous freedom from malice himself, with +fullness of charity for all, he taught a Nation how a Nation's sorrows +should be patiently borne. And yet through all the days, in all this +land, no man was more purely innocent of the Nation's sin of slavery +than this same man. Here is friendship. Here is neighborly compassion +written large. This is generosity, untinctured with any selfish +reservation. Amid all the sorrows and fortunes of our history no sight +is half as pathetic as this deep, free, silent companionship of +Lincoln with his Nation's griefs in the deepest period of her +affliction. And yet he almost seemed to cherish his fate. He bore it +all so quietly, and with such a steady heart and eye, that in his +seeming calm we are unconscious of his pain. He gives no hint of +faltering and drawing back. He even strove repeatedly to lure the +Nation to his side, to enter into sacrificial fellowship with the +hapless South. But to nothing of this would the people hear. + +This commanding fact, the moral mutualness of the innocent Lincoln's +sorrows with the sorrows of a guilty land, is a primary factor in this +historic scene. From such a moral complication momentous questions +emerge. How can such confusion of moral issues be ever justified? Why +do guilty and innocent suffer and sorrow alike? In such a glaring +moral inequality how could Lincoln himself ever bring his candid mind +to honestly acquiesce? Why should a later generation suffer vengeance +for their father's sins? Why the black man's fate? How can moral +judgments diverge so hopelessly upon such basic moral themes? If God's +judgment is just, why are his judgments upon such inhumanity so long +delayed? How about those kindred sufferings of those earlier days that +for total generations were unavenged? Questions such as these must +have risen in Lincoln's mind as he drained his bitter cup. Such +questions are not to be evaded or suppressed. It should rather be said +that Lincoln's undeniable gentleness in enduring, as the Nation's +head, and for his country's sake, a Nation's curse for a national sin +forces just such questions into sharpest definition, and focuses them +insistently and unavoidably before every thoughtful eye. They are +shaped and fastened here solely to render aid in indicating, as they +undeniably do, the supreme refinement of Lincoln's friendliness. He +held by kindly fellowship with his fellowmen, even when that +fellowship involved his innocent life in the moral shame and pain of +their reprobation and woe. Here is an interchange of guilt and +innocence, in Lincoln's undeniable experience, undeniably resolved and +harmonized. Here is human kindliness, triumphant, transcending all +debate. + +Around this exalted illustration of the strength and purity of +Lincoln's benevolence cluster many statements eager to be heard. His +kindness showed in many ways, but they were all but varying, accordant +forms of pure neighborliness. His mastery of all malice, his unfailing +charity, the kindliness of his cherished hope, his companionship with +others' sorrow, his longings for peace at home and among all men, his +pity for the bereft, his tenderness before our human wounds, his +reluctance to go to war, his championship of the oppressed, his +willingness to bear another's blame, his silence before abuse, his +mighty predilections towards universal friendliness, are all +concordant and coincident types and forms of his prevailing, +spontaneous companionship with men. Each phase deserves elaborate +description. But it is in closer keeping with the treatment here to +name some general qualities of his kindliness, qualities that are +common to all its forms. + +His friendliness was immediate. When human needs appealed for comfort +and aid, it was not his way to send a deputy. He appeared himself. +Here is something nothing less than marvelous. An intimate friend of +all, he stood in conscious touch with all the Nation's citizenship. At +first thought this may seem to be in consequence and by means of his +eminence and office as the people's president. As chief executive of +the people's will, and as foremost representative citizen, he stood +for every man in that man's place; and his universal friendliness +found open avenues to every individual citizen's consciousness. Here +is truth. But this truth only partially meets this case. The +operations of his benevolence were somehow independent of space and +time. His tours while president were short and few. Back and forth +between the White House, the war office, and the soldier's home he +wore a historic path. It is almost overwhelmingly sad to realize how +almost all his movements while president were within the +sorrow-shadowed walls and the hidden solitudes of his official home. +As said before, he seemed to exist apart from men, in a pathetic +isolation. Nevertheless, it is plain to all that Lincoln's +uncalculating generosity reached, like the shining of the sun, to the +limits of the land. It is most surprising when one thinks. But when +one thinks, it is most clear that there was in Lincoln's kindliness a +Nation-wide capacity for intimacy. In the open genial presence of his +good-will all men feel they have an immediate and equal share. And +this holds true whether one is near enough to feel the warmth of his +living breath, or whether half a continent intervenes. + +This fact forces into view and consciousness the pure excellence of +his love. It was in its nature deeply real. He did in verity live +close to every man. He wore no distant air. He practised no reserve. +He felt and proved himself to be the kin of all. His pictured face and +published speech were a perfect symbol, a convincing pledge to every +honest man of close and equal partnership. His ways are often said to +have been homely. But their very homeliness was all human and all +humane. And in his presence, or in the presence of any truthful +impress or echo of his life, no honest nature but feels itself +instantly at ease and quite at home. This habitude in him of +overcoming distance, and absence, and all other obstacles to his +far-ranging love, and winning entrance everywhere into the affections +of all kindly men, is a notable stamp upon the total texture of his +friendliness. He stood with men in personal partnership, immediate, +intimate, real. + +And in all his intimate and immediate fellowship with men his personal +contribution was entire. In his co-partnership he had no treasure too +precious to invest. He gave his all. Imposing, almost impossible as is +the meaning of these words, all mankind do recognize, and that with +wondering reverence, that when Lincoln rose to take the presidential +oath, he held nothing back. In his service of the Union he invested +his life, his honor, his hope, even all he had. It was little else he +had to give. His lineage was of the lowliest. His education was of the +meagerest, and wholly a by-achievement. In social graces he was quite +unversed and unadorned. He was no flatterer. The fawner's dialect he +never knew. He would not boast. To beg he was ashamed. He was too +honest for any knavery. Pure integrity was his only asset. As he took +his stand at the presidential post, he stood without a single +decoration, unsupported, all alone. It was literal truth that when he +took his official oath the only bond he had to furnish was his naked +honor. But that possession was no counterfeit. Its value did not +fluctuate. It was solid gold. In his honest rating, the plighted faith +in the words of his official pledge was beyond all price. As he +discerned and understood the crisis of his day, the Nation's very +being was at mortal stake. And when in that momentous hour she +summoned him to take the presidency, she laid sovereign requisition +upon his total being. And when he obeyed the call, he invested all. No +reserve of his possession was kept in hiding for his refuge and +reimbursement, in case the Nation failed. He ventured all he had, even +all his honor. And this complete consignment by Lincoln to the +Nation's use of all his moral wealth, of all his pure and priceless +personal worth, was an act of unalloyed benignity. It was for the +Nation's welfare that he devoted himself. It was that the Union might +be preserved, and that all men might be free, that he plighted his +integrity. + +This investment of Lincoln's friendliness for the well-being of all +the land, even of all the men therein, was not alone immediate, +winning direct attachment to every man; nor merely all-absorbing on +Lincoln's part, impressing into kindly service every value and every +capacity of his total life; it also enshrined a deathless hope. +Lincoln's patriotic devotedness was no venture of a day or of a +decade. Lincoln's good-will looked far ahead. He had a passion for +immortality. His total effort and aim in all his generous endeavors +and hopes, as he served in his public life, can be defined as a +sovereign aspiration that our government should be so guided and +chastened in all its life that the Union should never be dissolved. To +his kindly heart no possible event seemed more appalling than that +this hope should fail. So far as his words reveal, this central, +sovereign passion of his glowing heart was all but exclusively +patriotic. He apparently forgot himself in his wistful anxious hope +that the Nation's peace might long endure. His faith in the Union's +indestructibility may be said to spring out of his undying continual +love for his fellowman. Indeed just here seems to be the birthplace of +all his prophetic ponderings over the final issues of our civic life. +The very stature of the government which his ideal conceived and which +he thankfully saw that our Republic designed, was deemed by him to be +copied from nothing other than the divinely fashioned moral nature +which he found alike in himself and in all his fellowmen. Deep within +his friendly heart he cherished the vision of a Republic of freemen +leagued together indissolubly as mutual friends. It was to realize and +certify that hope that he dedicated his life. And when he pledged and +sealed that offering, it was with no design that the seal should ever +be broken, or the pledge be ever recalled. Here is another primary +quality of Lincoln's friendliness. It was inwrought with personal +durability. Grounded as was his civic hope in the freedom and +conscience of Godlike men, it was impossible for him to consent that +such a hope should ever encounter defeat or decay. Deep and sure +within its essential nature were the urgent promptings and the soaring +promise of immortality. + +These observations upon the immediate directness, the integral +whole-heartedness, and the deathless eagerness of Lincoln's +friendliness, if thoughtfully compared together, reveal that these +distinctive phases of his outpouring good-will are in nature +identically the same, and spring from an identical source. This +essential coincidence, this mutual convergence deserves attention. It +intimates wherein the very essence and being of his neighborly +kindness consists. And in Lincoln's life this indication of the +precise whereabouts and substance of the essential and innermost +quality and being of human kindliness is certain and clear, as in +hardly any other man. His benignance in his dealings with men is of +well-nigh unparalleled openness and freedom from all admixture and +alloy. Lincoln's kindness embodies and conveys Lincoln's self. In +every favor from him he is in the gift. In the center of all the +friendliness that is characteristic of Lincoln, Lincoln himself stands +erect and entire, offering and commending in every case his +full-sized, undivided self. This is the core and this the +circumference, this is the sum and this the substance of his +good-will. It is rich with all his personal wealth, solid with all his +personal worth. In him an act of friendship was an inauguration of +personal copartnership. In his good-will was all the energy of his +life. In his benefactions he gave himself. Just so with his +compassions. With the sorrows of humanity it was his way to enter into +personal fellowship. This was the form and being of all his +generosity. His mastery over all malice when facing a foe, his +abounding charity when judging a wrong, his hearty gladness in the +presence of human joy, his cordial ways in greeting friends, his +fatherly affection for his boy, his love for his native land, his pity +in presence of the bereft, his sadness at sight of wounds, his +readiness to share evenly with all his Nation all that guilty Nation's +painful discipline--all this variety and plenitude of ample, +open-hearted tenderness towards other men was alike and always the +complete and conscious contribution of himself. In brief, in full, and +finally, Lincoln's friendliness, through all its beautiful +versatility, was a free and facile, a full and total, personal +self-devotion. This is the common content giving all its value to all +the forms of his human kindliness. + + +HIS PURENESS--LIFE + +In the exposition just foregoing, the thought has been drawn into +allusions to Lincoln's premonitions or aspirations towards +immortality, for the Union, if not for himself. This was in the course +of an effort to find the spring-head of his kindliness. And it +culminated in the suggestion that deep within Lincoln's being there +was enshrined an assurance, however unconfessed or even half +unconscious, of personal immortality. And that from within this shrine +of living hope, common to him with every man, he drew his inspiration +and his very pattern of a national Union and a national peace that +would endure forever. + +Here is something that calls for examination, for in this we touch a +radical quality of Lincoln's moral being. This eager craving after +permanence was in him an appetite that could never be fed or satisfied +by any things that perish. In itself and in its nutriment there is an +irrepealable call for something indefeasable, something utterly +superior to all fear of death, something never amenable to any form of +dissolution or decay, something spiritually pure, and essentially +kindred to the essential being of a deathless soul. + +The matter may be approached to start with by saying some things +negatively. Lincoln was centrally in no sense a materialist. He was +indeed firmly sensitive to the physical majesties of this continent, +though in his day they were hardly half disclosed. He calculated with +carefulness our material capacities for expansion in power and wealth. +He foresaw our certain outward growth into a puissant Nation, the +coveted and ample resort and refuge and home of hordes of men from +other lands. In his own well-seasoned and resourceful physique he felt +and knew the worth of physical virility. He could thoughtfully compute +the glittering values, the goodly financial revenues, the days and +months and total seasons of physical idleness and delights that accrue +to human owners from the unrequited toil of human slaves. And in the +current civil war he completely understood that no less a concern than +the perpetuity of the American Union was pending upon contests largely +consisting of encounters of physical prowess, of tests of muscular +endurance and strength. + +But not in calculations such as these did his thoughtful studies of +human welfare take ultimate resort, or find final rest. His conception +of the ideal state, of the ideal citizen, of the ideal life, was not +constructed or inspired from carnal elements. He noted with life-long +sadness the sordid baseness inseparably attending the fact of owning +or being a slave. He deeply saw that those battles in the Wilderness +were no mere conflicts of beasts. And never could he imagine or allow +that his personal weight, and force, and worth were ratable by +gymnastic tests. It was not upon things like these that Lincoln's +attention and hope were fixed, when his hopes and plans for our +prosperity took form. To the whole world of his material environment +he was marvelously indifferent. On every perusal of his life one +grieves at the story of his poverty, and the sad infrequency and +meagerness in his daily life of the pleasures and recreations which +are for the comfort and happiness of men in material things. But in +this he seems as though unconscious of any disappointment. For +himself as for the Nation, and for the Nation as for himself, his +satisfaction and confidence were not born and fed of things that +perish in their use. Luxury in food or attire, however toothsome or +attractive to other natures, stirred but the feeblest hankerings, if +any at all, in him. Towards sensualism of any sort, whether gluttony, +drunkenness or lust, his sound and temperate manliness did not +incline. And in his estimate of personal character his eye and respect +did not rest in outer attitudes, on printed, age-long codes of manner. +He was no slave of stately ceremonies, or artificial etiquette. Nor in +religion did he bind his tongue to creeds however hoary, nor to +rituals however august. He swore not by the oaths of any sect, however +ancient and renowned. Neither in this mountain nor in that did he +worship God. + +But on the other hand, and now to speak affirmatively, Lincoln lived +no penury-stricken life. The resources within his personality were +well-nigh incalculable. Few men in all our national catalogue have +been endowed by God with so sterling and abundant interior wealth. And +of all American patriotic benefactors few indeed have left in their +single individual name and right such priceless legacies to their +native land. What is life? What is human life? Wherein, completely and +precisely wherein, is man distinguishable from the beast? For answer, +study Lincoln and see. In the full development of such a study many +massive verities will unfold. But the feature in Lincoln's manhood, +which this chapter is set apart to designate and clarify, is the +simple purity, the elemental spirituality of all his elemental traits. +His dominant sentiments, his primary convictions, his main and +all-mastering decisions were never born to die. They were instinct +with life, with life indeed, a life never failing, ever more abundant +and free. + +This interior vitality, this unalloyed and undecaying purity may be +described one way as a real idealism. But in ascribing idealism to +Lincoln, it needs to be said at once that Lincoln's idealism, real and +glorious as it must surely be confessed to be, was transparently and +unvaryingly practical. In one way it may be defined as hope. A waiting +hope was a standard characteristic of Lincoln's attitude. His +sorrowful eye held fast to things as yet unrealizable. It is +impressive to see how often and how fondly he mentioned the future, +the "vast future," as he termed it, of our American career. The secret +of the beauty and of the power of some of his loftiest and most +spontaneous rhetoric is due to just this solemn eagerness towards the +coming days. As one comes to study more intently into the outlay of +his heroic strength, his struggle and toil are seen to be leashed +about his consuming wish that the Nation in its undivided might could +be unified about the speedy fulfillment of his prophetic aims. He +never forgot the mighty lesson, nor lost the living inspiration of his +own advancement from humblest station of ignorance and toiling poverty +to the presidency. That transformation he loved to humbly hold before +the attention of his fellow Americans, as a pattern of what might +anywhere occur again. He loved to linger upon the possibilities of +upward movement in the ranks of all laboring men. Large place and +honorable position were given to this arousing theme in his first +annual message to Congress. This general topic--the far-set, soaring +possibilities of human betterment--held constant and commanding +eminence in the ranging measure of his eagle-searching thought. For +the Nation, and for its every inhabitant, he was a true idealist. + +But Lincoln's idealism, again be it said, was no wild indulgence of a +vagrant and untrained imagination. It was utterly sober-minded. It +took its form and found its force in the center of his sanest +thoughtfulness. The terms in which its description has just been +illustratively traced show it to be perfectly rational, and even +matter-of-fact. Lincoln's idealism was nothing else but a heedful +interpretation of the proper destiny of man. It was a reflection in +terms of carefulest thought, albeit also in the guise of ardent hope, +of the essential lineaments in the nature of man. And no human +portrait by any artist was ever truer to fact, while yet tinged with +fancy, pure and free. In all his picturing of things yet to be, but +not yet in hand, his eye was fastened with an anatomist's intentness +upon the actual human nature imperishably present in every man. +Nothing that Lincoln's idealism ever proposed ever diverged from the +bounds of the original fiat creating all men equal and free. That +undeniable initial verity, itself the keystone of our national +Constitution and Bill of Rights, supplied to Lincoln's hope its total +and only inspiration. In those ancient and elemental realities, +realities that deeply underlie and long outlast all the cults and +customs and centuries which human thought is so prone to differentiate +and divide, Lincoln detected solid foundations and ample warrant for +age-long, undissolving expectations. In every human face there are +outlines that are forever indelible. These unfailing lineaments +Lincoln had the eye to see. And what is vastly more, he had the +courage and the honesty to adopt them as the pattern of the platform, +and to voice them as the notes of the battle-peal of his +statesmanship. And this he did right wittingly, knowing assuredly that +therein his vision had caught the gleam of things eternal; that +therein he had made discovery that man, even the humblest of his +race, could claim to be, as he phrased it to a company of blacks, +"kindred to the great God who made him." This amounts to saying that +Lincoln's statesmanship may be completely and precisely defined as the +studied and deliberate exploitation, upon the field of politics, of +those forces, central and common in all mankind, that are Godlike, +immortal, spiritual. + +Here we reach a definition that outlines with close precision a trait +of Lincoln's full-formed character that held a primary place in +winning for Lincoln his immortal renown. He attached himself to things +themselves immortal. His ideal hope had no admixture of clay, nor even +of gold. He made no composition or compromise with anything that dies. +His supreme desire was of a nature never to decay. It was pure with +the deathless purity of the human soul. To this pure principle, +eternal loyalty to the immortal dignity of man, he signed and sealed +his soul's allegiance with bonds that even death could never relax. +Such statements describe a primary co-efficient in Lincoln's ethical +life. Abjuring the unnumbered allurements of the material world, +allurements whose fascinations unfailingly fade, and reposing his +confidence wholly in treasures that time and use only brighten and +refine, Lincoln reveals in the realm of ethics the singular excellence +of an ideal that can kindle in an immortal man an immortal hope. +Purging every sort of baseness out of the central life, and enthroning +an all-refining pureness in the sovereign desires and visions and +designs, he has inaugurated in the field of civics an idealism that +will honor every man, fit actual life, and endure forever. Personal +pureness, this pervades the life of Lincoln as crystalline beauty +pervades a block of marble. + +This refining trait in Lincoln, this inner hunger for his living +soul's true nutriment, this thirst for the pure, perennial springs, +finds signal illustration in the closing sentence of this last +inaugural, where he pleads with all his fellow-citizens to so conduct +all civic interests as to secure among ourselves and with all Nations +a "lasting peace." That craving after permanence in civic harmony +betokens an impulse towards immortality; and rests down, as the entire +inaugural explains, upon that only basis of enduring civic quietude, +an honest and universal recognition and respect for those indelible +and universal lineaments of personal dignity which the Creator of men +has traced upon every human soul--lineaments from which the obscuring +dross of centuries was being purged in the Providential fires of an +awful war. Just this was the meaning of the war, as Lincoln understood +its work. That earth-born sordidness which marked all slaves as common +chattels, was being burnt out of our national life, as our basest +national sin. Thenceforth, forevermore, it was Lincoln's living hope +that all mankind might peacefully agree to supremely cherish and +mutually respect those human values that human unfriendliness, and +centuries of contempt, however deeply they may obscure, can never +obliterate. Upon such enduring foundations, and upon such foundations +alone, Lincoln clearly saw, could human peace endure. + +And upon this same foundation rests his first inaugural as well. In +all those months of special study, ensuing between his election in +November of 1860 and his inauguration in March in 1861, and for an +ample seven years before, Lincoln was feeling after civic perpetuity. +And when he stood before the Nation to publish his first inaugural +address, his supreme concern was fixed upon the threatened and +impending ruin of the Republic. He there faced a menacing South, +irreconcilable, and resolute for dissolution or blood. That outcrying +situation brought final issues near. Must the Union perish? Could the +Union endure? Civic dissolution or civic perpetuity--this was the +immediate, the unrelieved, the ominous alternative. In the fiery heat +of civic hate, flaming into civil war, Lincoln had to seek for civic +principles that hate could not subvert, nor the fires of war consume; +principles too strong to admit defeat, too pure to be dissolved. + +Never did a statesman bend over a graver task, nor with a more honest +and patient heart, nor with a mind more divinely fashioned and +furnished to comprehend and penetrate the actual case in hand. As in a +chemist's alembic, he fused and tried our Constitution and all our +history. Into that first inaugural he incorporated the issues of his +thought. And this was its simple, sole result:--Slavery is "the only +substantial dispute." With the people is "ultimate justice." With God +is "ultimate truth." We are not "enemies." We are "friends." In this +supreme dispute let us confer and legislate as friends, and then as +friends live together in an amity that shall be perpetual. This is the +uncompounded essence of his first inaugural, as of all his political +philosophy. In universal freedom, by mutual persuasion, and in even +friendliness, let our Union forever endure. Here again is a +statesman's publication and heroic defense of a pure, immortal hope, +voiced in an appeal and upheld by arguments as spiritual and pure as +the inmost being and utmost destiny of the living souls of men. + +No study of the transcendent momentum in Lincoln's life of spiritual +realities can fairly overlook his speech in Peoria, October 16, 1854. +It is, as he said at the time, "substantially" a repetition of an +address at Springfield, twelve days before. It "made Lincoln a power +in national politics." It was the commanding beginning of his +commanding career. That year, 1854, began the convulsion which made +him president, involved the war, and ended in his violent death. As +matters stood on New Year of 1854, slavery was, by act of Congress in +the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thenceforth forbidden to spread +anywhere in United States territory north of the southern boundary of +Missouri. In the early half of 1854 Senator Douglas drove through +Congress a bill, creating the territory of Nebraska, which declared +the Compromise prohibition of 1820 "inoperative and void." Thenceforth +slavery might spread anywhere. This is the "repeal" of the Missouri +Compromise. + +That "repeal" brought Lincoln to his feet. And from the day of that +Peoria speech Lincoln was, to seeing eyes, a man of destiny. For, not +for that day, nor for that century, nor for this continent alone did +Lincoln frame and join that speech. Let any logical mind attempt a +logical synthesis of that address, marking well what affirmations are +supreme. Not out of conditions that vary with the latitudes, nor out +of opinions that change as knowledge improves, and not from sentiments +that bloom and fade as do the passing flowers, was that address +constructed. It handles things eternal. Its central propositions +outwear the centuries. Its conclusions are compounded from stuff that +is indestructible. And the piers upon which they rest are as steadfast +as the everlasting hills. Freedom, union, perpetuity were its only +positive themes. Let us "save the Union" was its central call; and +"so" save it as to "make and keep it forever worth the saving"--so +save it "that the succeeding generations of free, happy people, the +world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest +generations." The perpetual Union of freemen--this was his one pure +hope. Of this freedom slavery was a "total violation." Such a Union +the principle of secession made forever impossible. And in the +continual presence of tyranny, and under ever impending threats of +disruption, perpetuity in peace was an impossibility. Liberty, +equality, loyalty--only upon these enduring verities could +self-government ever be built, or ever abide. Here is stability. Here +is harmony. Here are truths "self-evident." Against cruelty, +disloyalty, and pride these eternal principles are in "eternal +antagonism." And when the two collide, "shocks and throes and +convulsions must continually follow." Against human slavery, and all +that human slavery entails, humanity instinctively and universally +revolts. It is condemned by human righteousness and human sympathy +alike. "Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal +the Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still +cannot repeal human nature." + +Thus Lincoln bound together the arguments of this appeal. The +irrepealability of the human sympathies in the nature of all men, the +undeniable humanity of the black, self-government built upon the +creative fiat of freedom and equality for all--upon these enduring +propositions a Nation could be built whose resources either to +eliminate all evils, pacify all convulsions, and resolve all debates, +or to achieve a lasting progress, dignity and peace, would be +inexhaustible. Thus, at the very start, his eye pierced through the +political turmoil of his time, fixing in the central place before the +Nation's gaze those "great and durable" elements which "no statesman +can safely disregard." + +Plainly notable in all this is that powerful and habitual proclivity +in Lincoln to find out and publish abroad those civic propositions and +principles that are inwrought with perpetuity. He was straining and +toiling towards a triumph that time could never reverse. Foundations +that were sure to shift, or disintegrate, or sink away, he was +resolute to overturn, and clear away. He chose and strove to toil and +speak for the immortal part in man, for ages yet to come, and for the +immediate justice of Almighty God. And so he fashioned forth a +programme that, like the programme of the Hebrew prophets, +circumvented death. + + +HIS CONSTANCY--TRUTH + +This second inaugural contains a fine example of free and reasoned +reliability. It is in fact, in its total stature, a stately exhibit of +deliberate steadfastness. Let this short document be read, meanwhile +remembering that other inaugural document, and not forgetting all the +unspeakable strain and struggles of those four intervening years. The +man who spoke in 1861, and the man who speaks now again in 1865, +stands forth in the heart of those bewildering confusions of our +political life, a living embodiment of civic constancy. In his person +national firmness stands enshrined. In those ripe convictions, in +those cool and poised determinations, in those ardent, prophetic +desires--steadfast, consistent, and sure--are traceable the rock-like +foundations of our confederate Republic. In those inaugurals stands a +monument not liable soon to crumble away. But within that monument +insuring its durability, rests as within and upon a steadfast throne, +Lincoln's everlasting fidelity. + +To win clear vision of this fine trait, let one read again this second +inaugural, and locate truly the center of gravity of its second +paragraph. There Lincoln is tracing in broad, plain strokes the origin +and on-coming of the war. In the center of his steady thought the +interest centrally at stake was the Union. On the one hand he recalls +his own address at his first inauguration, "devoted," as he says, +"altogether to saving the Union without war." On the other hand, he +recalls "insurgent agents" seeking to destroy it without war. War was +deprecated and dreaded by both parties. But one would make war rather +than let the Nation survive. And the other would accept war rather +than let the Nation perish. "And the war came." As a register of +Lincoln's capacity for free, intelligent stability, no passing glance +can in any sense exhaust or apprehend the depth and sweep and energy +of those last four words. When loyalty to the Union was the issue and +interest at stake, Lincoln would "accept war." "And the war came." + +When Lincoln voiced those four words, his eye was looking back through +four dreadful, bloody years--years, whether in prospect or in +reminiscence, fit to make any human heart recoil. But as he surveys +those scenes of hate and carnage and desolation, retracing and +reckoning again the sum of their awful sorrow and cost, and rehearses +again his resolution to "accept the war," it is without a shadow or a +hint of wavering or remorse. In fact he is recalling that fateful day +of four years before with an eye to review and vindicate that fateful +resolve. At the end of those eventful and sorrow-laden years, he is as +steady as at their start. Not by the breadth of a hair have his +footing and purpose, his judgment and endeavor been made to swerve. +Then as now, now as then, his loyalty is absolute. And in that sturdy +loyalty of that lone man a seeing eye discerns nothing less than the +unbending majesty of a Nation's self-respect. It is the Nation's +sacred honor that he has in sacred charge. In him the integrity of the +Nation at large finds a champion and a living voice. In his firm-set +decision the Nation's destiny takes shape. In those short pregnant +words the proud consistency of our total national career, and his +superb reliability, become, instantly and for all time, freely, nobly, +and completely identified. This is not to say that in the teeming +history of those eventful years Lincoln's mind and will and sentiments +had stood in stolid immobility. He freely concedes that the years have +brought him lessons he had never foreseen. And his central attitude in +this second scene is a reverent inquiry into the ways of Him whose +purposes transcend all human wisdom, and require full centuries to +complete. But strong and clear within his reverent and lowly +acceptance of divine rebukes, stands unbent and unchanged his +steadfast, invincible pledge to reveal, on his own and on his Nation's +behalf, the sovereign grandeur of civic reliability. + +In his first message to Congress this integral trait of his personal +and official life finds majestic and most definite explication. It is +the passage explaining to Congress, in precise and minute recital, +just how the war began. It deals with those ominous events in +Charleston harbor, centering about heroic Major Anderson, a federal +officer, and within Fort Sumter, a federal fort. That assault upon a +national garrison by Confederate guns was no haphazard event. At just +that moment, and in just that spot the national crisis became acute. +Upon that spot, and upon those events Lincoln's eye was fixed with a +physician's anxiety. There he knew he could feel the pulse of the +resentment and resolution of the South. Day and night he held his +finger upon its feverish beat. And as the fever rose, he marked with +exactest attentiveness its registration of one condition of the +Southern heart:--Was that heart so hot with civic hate that, when +every lesser issue was set aside, and the only issue under review was +the right of the Republic to stand by its officers and its flag, then +those Southern leaders would fire upon those officials in a federal +fort, and pull down that flag upon federal soil? If in a federal fort +the major in command, and his uniformed men, while making no +aggression nor voicing any threat, but acting only as peaceful +exponents of the Nation's authority, and being in exigent need of +food, were to be visited by a national transport bearing nought but +bread, upon such a ship, upon such a mission, would seceding soldiers +open fire? If they would, and if that onslaught passed without rebuke, +then that Nation's federal integrity was dissolved. Such was the +unmixed issue, and so sharply edged was its final and decisive +definition under Lincoln's hand. And on his part there was here no +accident. With foresight, and by careful design Lincoln "took pains" +to make the problem plain. With impressive and ideal carefulness he +guided the action of his own heart to its final resolution, and +predetermined the final verdict of the world. + +In the last supreme alternative, when government agents stand in need +of food, and citizens who repudiate all loyalty fire upon government +transports freighted only with bread, what shall a government do? This +was the naked question that Lincoln faced, when he decided to accept +and prosecute the war. Upon this one plain question, and upon his one +convinced determination he massed and compacted his first +Congressional address. Right well he understood its point, its +gravity, and its range. And surpassing well was he fitted to be the +man to frame and demonstrate the true reply. In all the land no finer, +firmer exemplar of elemental constancy could ever have been found to +guide and cheer the Nation's course in this extremest test of +elemental self-respect. Let those words be written and read again. It +was a test of national self-respect, elemental and supreme. It was a +question that concerned, as Lincoln saw and said, "the whole family +of man." "Government of the people, by the same people"--can or +cannot such a government "maintain its own integrity against its own +domestic foes?" Can it "maintain its own integrity?" Can it master +"its own domestic foes?" Can men who assume their self-control be +trusted to maintain their self-respect? Here is a problem that is in +verity elemental and supreme. What, in very deed and in solid fact, +what is civic reliability? Where, among all the governments by men, +where can steadfastness, civic steadfastness be found? Nowhere, +Lincoln had the eyes to see; nowhere, but in the civic constancy of +men at once governing and governed. Only thus and only there, only so +and only here, in this heaven-favored land, did Lincoln see, can any +government of men by men find fundamental base and final form that +shall be consistent, stable, and real. This is government indeed. Here +is elemental, civic verity. A community held in common self-control +upon the basis of common self-respect--such a union alone has +constancy. This is the sublime and radical civic truth that Lincoln +forged out upon his steadfast heart, as he bent with mighty ponderings +over those scenes in Charleston harbor, and reviewed and expounded +their pregnant implications in his initial message to Congress in +1861. + +In many ways this constancy of Lincoln rewards attentive thought. For +one thing, it was radiant with intelligence. Indeed in him the two +became identified. As thus conceived, it shows as pure and clear +consistency. His fully tried reliability was the well-poised balance +of a mind long-schooled in the art of steadiest deliberation. When +Lincoln held immutably fast, it was due to his invincible faith that +the conviction to which he clung involved abiding truth. This quality +tempered all his firmness. Just here one finds the genesis and motive +of all his skilled invention of reasoned, pleading speech. Lincoln's +prevailing power of urgent argument roots in the deep persistency of +his convinced belief. It was because of an impassioned confidence, an +assurance that was vibrant with a note of triumph, that his grasp of +any ruling purpose was so unwaveringly firm. This was his mood and +attitude in all the major contentions of his life. To the central +tenets that those contentions involved he held with all the firmness +of the rooted hills. Touching those primary principles in his +character and politics his mind and faith seem to have attained an +absolute confirmation. And from those settled positions he could never +be moved. Constancy in him was nothing more nor less than the +energetic affirmation of intellectual rectitude. + +His steadfastness, thus, was a mental poise. It can be defined as +ripened judgment, a conclusion of thought, safeguarded on every side +by a discernment not easily confused, by a penetration not easy to +escape. This involved a wonderful flexibility. While steadfast unto +the grade of immutability, where honor was involved, no student of his +ways could call him obstinate. While firm and strong enough to hold +the Nation to her predestined course upon an even keel, he held her +helm with a gentle, pliant grasp. Being in every mental trait +inherently honest and deliberate, he could at once be resolute and +free. + +This blend within his being of thoughtfulness and determination, of +openness and immutability, this candid, conscientious, mental poise, +this Godlike apprehension of the larger equilibrium, qualified him +peculiarly to interpret the major movements of his time, to trace in +the deep, prevailing sentiments of the human soul the chart of our +national destiny. + +Here is in Lincoln something wonderful. Among the millions of his +fellowmen he counts but one. But in the range and grasp of his +thought, in the eager passion of his heart, in the controlling power +of his commanding will, he comprehends them all. Stable and heedful at +once, he could challenge unanswerably every man's esteem. His symbol +is the firm, benignant oak, the sheltering, abiding hills. Thus he +stood to help and hold, to serve and rule among his fellowmen. Thus he +wrought coherence into our great career. Thus he linked together those +mighty political events with a logic which succeeding times have +proved powerless to refute, but strong and glad to confirm. He had +marvelous capacity to divine. With him to reason was to illuminate. +Things bewilderingly obscure, within his thought and speech grew +plain. He was our prime interpreter. He explained the Nation to +itself. But in every such elucidation the Nation was made to +co-operate. His instinctive, habitual attitude toward other men was +that of a conferee. He was sensitively open to complaints and appeals. +Delegations and private supplicants always found him courteous. This +courtesy was never formal. To a degree altogether noteworthy the words +of other men found entrance into the counselings of his mind. He was +not merely accessible. He was impressible, sensitive, quick to +appreciate and honor the sentiments of another man. With the earnest +plea of balanced, honest argument, hailing from whatever source, he +was facile to correspond. His judgments and decisions were amenable to +estimates wholly novel to him. Indeed, to an almost astonishing degree +his major movements were commensurate with the progress and pace of +the national events that environed his life. In some of his mightiest +accomplishments he seemed to do little more than register the +conclusions of the national mind. + +All this is to say that Lincoln's constancy was poise, not obstinacy; +a well-reflected equilibrium, not a stiff rigidity. All his steadiness +was studied. Never can it be said of Lincoln that his verdicts were +snap judgments. On the contrary, with him deliberation and delay were +so habitual and so excessively indulged, while pondering some massive, +political perplexity, that the patience of some of our greatest +statesmen repeatedly broke down, and he was charged repeatedly with +criminal, and all but wanton indifference, inertia, and neglect. But +never was sorer libel. Through it all he was only too intent. Through +it all his eye refused to sleep, while his steady and steadying mind +pursued the vexing task, until its permanent solution stood clear. And +then, with his eye steadily single to the guiding hand of God, to the +Nation's immortal weal, and to his own unsurrendered integrity, he +would publish and fulfill his studied and sturdy resolve. Upon the +basis of these internal mental conquests did all his firmness rest. +Hence his life-long evenness and freedom from fluctuation. + +But this challenges still further study. Given this notable blending +in his mental habits of independent stalwartness and amenability to +others' views, what is the inmost secret and explanation of his +undeniable consistency? It lay in his human sincerity. His affinity +with his neighbor was a reality. The Nation's deepest concerns were as +deeply his own. Hence his ultimate convictions, though ripening in a +single decade, proved to be in deep and enduring agreement with the +ultimate convictions of the Nation at large, though requiring a full +century to mature. The sentiments that were essentially his own were +seen, when openly published upon his lips, to be the sentiments +essential and common to his fellowmen. His personal aspiration was a +national goal. His personal character was a national type. Truly +representative, he was at the same time as truly unique. Always +facing towards other men, he always stood erect. + +This was Lincoln's constancy. It was not the stubbornness of an +arbitrary will, although his will had regal energy. It was not a +frigid intellectualism, although in mental penetration he could not be +surpassed. It was not a tide of swelling enthusiasm, although the +supreme emotion of his heart was the passion of an ideal patriotism. +His commanding constancy, potent to compose a Nation's turbulence, was +but the outer stature of his typical interior integrity. It was the +open assertion and attestation of his personal self-respect. + +Thus Lincoln's convictions and verdicts were unfailingly his own. And +thus those verdicts and convictions had continental breadth. Dealing +with a Nation's destiny, he came to be clothed with a Nation's +majesty. In his own great heart, as in a Nation's crucible, he +assembled and resolved the Nation's complexities; and in his own pure +desire, as in a Nation's purified hopes, he defined and described our +national goal. Of all things narrow and peculiar, of all things +partisan and sectional, he purged his eye, until with malice toward +none, with charity for all, with reverence towards God, he could see +the total vastness of the things with which he had to deal. + +Here is a loyalty worthy of the name--the plighted troth of one in +whom the Nation's noblest hopes stand forth already realized, assured, +secure. This defines and describes the force at play in this last +inaugural. In the volume of those words Lincoln's message and +Lincoln's manhood were identical. Its utterance was the voice of his +self-respect. Herein Lincoln the patriot and Lincoln the man are one. +Here was Lincoln's standard. His search for verity was a study of +himself--of himself as true kindred of God and of his fellowmen. This +is the core of Lincoln's honesty. This is the key to Lincoln's +constancy. This is the secret of Lincoln's authority. This was the +goal of Lincoln's quest for verity. This was for Lincoln the one +reality. As child of the one great God, as closest kin of every man, +he is our model champion and exemplar of the one abiding +truth--personal self-respect. That this should be held unperverted and +preserved intact was in the thought of Lincoln the primal equity, the +very substance of a man's integrity. + + +HIS HUMILITY--WORTH + +The name of Lincoln is linked inseparably with the lot of the slave. +That the fortune of the lowly might be improved was the supreme +enterprise of his life. As conceived by him, that enterprise concerned +all men. Not for black men alone, and not alone for men in literal and +evident bonds, was this, his major interest, engaged. Quite as keenly, +nay even more, was his heart concerned for his closer kinsmen of Saxon +blood, who never felt the slave driver's lash. But even here his +prevailing inclination was a kindly solicitude for people of meager +comfort, culture and liberty. Towards men whose fortune was adverse, +and from whom more favored ones were prone to turn their face, his +heart was prone to be compassionate. His very instincts seemed +inclined to make the poor his intimates. And when he stood among the +lowly, he never showed a sign that he had entered the shadow of any +shame. Richly dowered with nobility himself, himself superior to every +fortune, incapable of subjugation by any fate, a master owned among +the mightiest, the dominant function of his life was ministration. +This was his ambition. And it was sovereign. His towering aspiration +was that the needy be relieved, that poor men might have means, that +bondmen might be free. + +This was a soaring, imperial wish. But it sent him where men were most +down-trodden and overborne. It forced his name and reputation to +become identified with the gross and low condition of the rudest, most +untutored mortals of our land, the humble Afro-American slave. This +lowly fellowship he never attempted to disguise nor consented to +disclaim. He rather seemed to welcome whatever burden or reproach it +might seem to involve. Before and against the white man who held the +whip, beside and befriending the black who felt its lash, he chose to +take, and persisted to keep, his stand. Many a time was this +co-partnership flung in Lincoln's face with stinging words as a +mongrel, shameful thing--with most vigorous persistence by Douglas in +their famous debates. But it was not in Lincoln to desert and disown +the poor, nor yet to apologize, nor to retort, nor even to reply. As +champion and companion of the despised and embondaged victims of the +white man's greed and contempt, Lincoln stands by the negro, as full +of resoluteness, and as free from shame, as though defending his own +home. + +Here is genuine humility, not an attitude assumed, but a virtue +inwrought. That this rare and Christian grace was planted deep in +Lincoln's heart, and pervaded the total fullness of his life, may be +argued from the very texture of his last inaugural. Upon just this +point that document deserves minute attention. From the vantage ground +of April 4, 1865, and from the point of view of slavery, that address +is a profound and most commanding interpretation of the philosophy and +phenomena of our American life. The war, God's Providence, and +slavery--they are its sovereign themes. God's Providence shaping into +national discipline the tragedy of the war; slavery "somehow" its +deepest, fateful "cause:" there are thoughts for thoughtful men, who +may wish to understand the meaning of our national life. The point to +notice here is to observe how in Lincoln's mind in 1865, the course, +and curse, and fate of slavery connect. It is nothing less than a +profound elucidation of outstanding American events. It intimates +impressively how Lincoln's mind had brooded and pondered over the lot +of the African slave. He had reckoned all the value of their +unrequited toil. The marks of their bruises and wounds were seared +upon his soul. And of all the meaning of that sore humiliation, in +terms of our national destiny and of the Divine dominion, he became +the supreme and sympathetic expositor. In his unfolding of that +meaning was infolded the master motive of his life. Under the hand of +God he was having bitter but submissive share in setting forever right +the cruel, age-long wrongs of the African slave. That such sentiments +should take such shape at such a time is signal demonstration that +they were the central sentiments of his heart. He was highly +designated to a humble task; and he knew no higher honor than to keep +close friendship with the poor, until his high commission stood +complete. And to this close affiliation of lowliest lives with the +loftiest aims and issues of his great career, he devotes well-nigh the +whole of his inaugural address as our Nation's president to expound, +therein betraying no slightest sign that he sees in that alliance the +slightest incongruity. In that defense and championship of the rights +that were elemental to men, though the most despised, he saw his +highest dignity as president. And to that lowly aim he shaped and +pledged his policy, his party, his fortune, and his fame. + +In truth this affinity of Lincoln with his neighbor in need was the +very fruitage of the fortune of his life. He was fitted and +predestined for it by his birth. His station was of the lowliest. His +setting-up was pathetically scant. All his discipline was cruelly +stern. In ease and plenty he had no share. Of sweets and luxury he had +no taste. Born of parents pitifully poor, nurtured in painful penury, +poorly sheltered, scantily clad, accustomed to neglect, intimate with +want, trained to disappointment, toiling in untamed scenes against +hard odds with rudest tools, the kindred and daily familiar of +unassuming men, denied the commonest aids to personal refinement, he +was to the atmosphere and temperament of genuine, undisguised humility +native born, and fully bred. From such a hopeless start, in such a +hostile environment, he made his way alone. It can be said with almost +literal truth that he never had any help. His only friend was his +modest, resolute heart. His winnings were all by wrestling--and the +struggle never relaxed. When every antagonist had been met and +overthrown, and his gaunt stature stood in the Nation's arena alone +and undefeated, then upon that unbent but unpretending form his Nation +and his Nation's God laid a burden, such as no man in all our history +had ever borne. When beneath that great final task he meekly bowed, +its superhuman responsibility and weight were all-sufficient to crush +forever all vain-glorious pride, if in his tried heart any pride had +ever entered, and having entered had still remained. Before the +majesty of his commission, and amid the inscrutable perplexities of +each unparalleled day, he must always be fain, even though never +forced, to walk humbly among his people, and before his God. From +birth to death, by fortune and by Providence, as though by +overmastering fate, he was fashioned for humility. + +From all these grounds he was predisposed to modesty. Over against the +vastness of his task, facing daily all its formidable difficulties, +and sensible evermore of his infinite insufficiency, the posture of +his spirit and the tone of his daily speech unfailingly betokened a +moderate estimate of his personal significance. The overspreading +majesty of the work to which he set his hand, always towering vividly +before his thought, kept vividly active the consciousness that he was +quite incompetent to accomplish aught, except the God of Nations +tendered daily help. + +As thus inclined and thus disposed in body and in mind, he became a +man of prayer. That he should often fall upon his knees was but the +consequence of his daily discovery that his burdens and his strength +were widely incommensurate. + +Many times those supplications seemed as though unheard. The heavens +gave no sign. Then malice raged against him. But then his +unsurrendered faith in God, his reverence for his task, and his +sobering estimate of himself would show as meekness. It was not his +way to retaliate or rail. In darkness, before delay, and beneath +abuse, he bore and suffered long without complaint. In this pathetic +quietness his humility becomes heroic. + +This bent towards lowliness, tempered through and through, as it was, +with his clear intelligence, saved him from vaunting and all vanity. +There was habitually in his posture a grave solidity. This often +seemed like carefulness and caution. But it was born of modesty. If +there was ever a time when ever a man might be suffered to boast, the +date of this second inaugural was the time, and the author of that +inaugural was the man. The hour of that address marked the opening of +Lincoln's second presidential term. It was the crowning vindication of +his presidential policy. After four years of war the national poll at +the last electoral vote had shown the North stronger in men than when +the war began. The status of the South was desperate. But five weeks +lay between him and the surrender of Lee. Lincoln was not lacking in +foresight, nor in careful calculation. His skill therein was +preeminent. Wary, discerning, resolute, his assurance of ultimate +victory no doubt firm and clear, no breath of boasting was given vent. +Instead, with almost painful reserve, he modestly said, "With high +hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured." +Lincoln was one of those rarest of men, invincible in resolution, at +the same time invincible in reserve. + +This inner mood of modesty showed in all his outer furnishing. It was +not his way to publish his distinction. For him to signalize his +primacy by any decoration would be an incongruity. In any group of men +where precedence was emphasized he was ill at ease. Any attempt by him +to designate his official elevation by some gilded ornament or plume +would have been grotesque. His eyes were not lofty nor his heart +haughty. His feet were for the furrow. His hands were for the axe. His +lips were for friendly salutation of all the people on the street. Any +outer token, intended to mark him for separation or any superiority, +would have excited nothing but sorrow in him. Fabrics however costly +and rare, jewels however brilliant and pure, designed and disposed for +distinction and display, awakening envy and unrest quite as much as +admiration and delight, were not for him. Plain man among the +lowliest, true nobleman among the noblest, he wore all his honors in +uttermost innocence of all parade. + +Nor were the features of Lincoln ever intended to be employed as +instruments of scorn. Into the hellish ministry of curling contempt +those gracious lips could never be impressed. His heart was far too +kindly; and that were safeguard enough. But his unalloyed humility was +far too potent to ever encourage or permit in him any indulgence of +disdain. Truly lowly himself, it was not in him to coldly despise any +of his fellowmen. Just here his humility displayed its sterling +honesty. And just here his honor and his glory blend. Here is his sure +title to nobility--a title that neither time nor eternity can ever +tarnish or bedim. By every right is this nobility his. By his earthly +fortune, as by a hard, relentless fate, his lot was cast among the +poor; and by that same appointment the lot of all earth's poor has +gained perennial dignity. But he graced those ranks also as a +volunteer. By his own consent, with sovereign free selection, he +elected to sustain and overcome all the impediments of the station of +his birth, and so to demonstrate the full capacity of the humblest +human life for high endeavor and desire. Thus he was alike and at once +filled with a deep compassion, and free from high contempt. Here lies +the firm foundation of his proud renown. This is the true birthmark of +his nobility. He was above the baseness and the meanness of scorning +any brother man. + +And so he avoided arrogance. It was not the way of Lincoln to forever +reiterate, if even to allow, his own importance. He was acutely +sensitive, to the meaning and worth of an honorable renown. Especially +was his cool, gray eye awake to the future issues of the pregnant +deeds of his teeming times. But therein his eager concern was a +patriot's anxiety--an anxiety in which he mingled his fortune and fame +with the destiny of his native land. Therein the jealousy of his +desire for the national welfare burned away, as in sacrificial fires +and upon a sacred altar, all ambitions for himself. At any cost to +others, or through any other man's neglect, it was not in the heart of +Lincoln to demand and heap together honors or advantages for himself. +Well might he be justified, if ever such a course were fair, in +claiming for himself exceptional rewards. Chief executive of a great +Republic, commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the North, +assured of the major momentum of military success, in immediate reach +of vast and ever increasing resources, whether for war or peace, +chosen the second time to be the Nation's head, charged the second +time to consummate the Nation's perpetual unity--surely he had ample +guaranty for imputing to his own sole hand, in a supreme degree, +mighty prowess, imposing achievements, a vast and spreading authority +and power. At such a time and amid such surroundings, a generous +measure of self-aggrandizement would have seemed quite warranted and +well sustained. But never was a mighty commander freer from that +uncomely fault. The mention of victory makes him strangely unmindful +of himself. The thought of his vast authority makes him the lowliest +in the land. Lincoln was not arrogant. He made no effort after +aggregated honors, however deserved, much less after honors unearned. +In particular he showed no inclination to appropriate another's fame. +For one thing, he knew too well the awful cost of magistracy. The +right to be commander-in-chief of a Nation's resources and arms, so +coveted a right in aspiring men, became transmuted in the cup which +Lincoln drank into a terrible, an almost impossible responsibility. +Nor was it of his nature to subtract from other men for his own +increase. At the price of a brother's freedom, or happiness, or life, +the gaining of ease, or wealth, or joy of any sort for himself would +be far too dear. In the soul of Lincoln extortion could find no soil. +His mien among men was that of indulgent ministry, not of exacting +mastery. With the lower level and the lesser meed he could be well +content. Morbid jealousy for his own acclaim, hungry greed for +another's reward, satisfaction in plaudits that were undeserved, or +comfort from robbery or extortion of any sort were sentiments for +which the refined and genuine modesty of Lincoln had no appetite or +taste. The honors that surrounded and invested him were up-springing, +spontaneous and free; in no least measure accumulated, artificial or +enforced. + +The native purity of Lincoln's lowliness shows best in his reverence +for God. He lived in a daily consciousness of Providence. As a +statesman he was thoroughly a man of God, full of a patriot's adoring +and acquiescent thankfulness, as he watched and studied the wonderful +unfolding of God's just and kindly government of this most favored +land. This mood of humble reverence was deeply wrought. It was of the +texture of his character. It was not a vesture or a posture, a gesture +or a phrase, assumed here and discarded there, and often counterfeit. +It was essential, like his integrity, pervading and indeed controlling +all his responsible life. And it was wholly undisguised. In his most +formal public documents--papers in which statesmen as a rule make +scant allusion to Deity--Lincoln's allusions to God are their most +imposing feature. Beyond all contradiction, Lincoln enacted his public +responsibilities in the fear of God. This was the beginning of his +wisdom. Just this is the secret of the sanity of this last inaugural. +And it is the secret of its immortal beauty. And it is the girdle of +its strength. In framing its central argument, and thereby steadying +the Nation's heart in the convulsions of war, he was expounding the +hidden ways of God. There grew a mighty paragraph. It reads smoothly +now. But when it passed through Lincoln's lips, it was the issue of a +hard-pent agony. When he voiced those words he stood before an altar, +and made confession, like a very priest, for both North and South. All +the land had behaved with unbecoming confidence. All alike were under +discipline. God was in dominion. Even in their prayers both North and +South had been contending against the Lord. The prayers of both could +not be answered. That of neither had been answered fully. The Almighty +had his own purposes. The expectations of all had gone astray. The +contending struggles of either side, despite their contending prayers, +were being turned by the judgments of God against them both into a +terrible national chastisement. So Lincoln discerned, and so he +humbly, vicariously confessed. But beneath this high dominion his +heart too had been bowed down, and overwhelmed, and chastened sore. +Repeatedly his counsels had been overturned, and his expectations had +been reversed; and that too, as he devoutly believed, by the +over-ruling purposes of God. Hence, as in this inaugural scene he +faced the future, though he was head of a puissant people, he behaved +like a little child. In a chastened sense of the mystery and authority +of the overruling designs of Almighty God, he forebore to boast. And +then he said in rhythmic words of almost prophetic majesty, and in the +attire of all but sacrificial humility: "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 unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid +by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, +so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether.'" + +This is indeed in prophetic strain. But he forbears to prophesy. He +longed with sacrificial eagerness for national prosperity, in lasting +freedom and unison and happiness. As he renewed his official pledge to +preserve, protect, and defend the world's greatest charter of +equality and freedom for all mankind, his heart and hope held high and +firm. But his total being was subdued. God had crossed his path. The +long-drawn war was God's rebuke. The Nation had gone sadly astray. The +Almighty had taken her waywardness in hand. His purposes were in +control. And He was supreme. And His ways were unrevealed. Lincoln +stood to his task unflinchingly, ready either for sorrow or relief, +ready either for death or life, as the Most High might appoint. + +Here is statesmanship indeed. But it is altogether unique. A mighty +Nation's executive head, discerning, devoted, and devout, holding in +his steady hand the charge of a Nation's destiny, pledging in the +Nation's name to lay upon the altar, if need be for the Nation's +honor, the Nation's life, and there before the altar waiting humbly +upon God. Many a theme of profoundest purport opens instantly into +view. Just now our eye is fixed upon its illustration of humility. + +On the one hand, and in the first place, its exhibition of the dignity +of pure manhood is sublime. In this inaugural scene, beneath the awful +stress of a Nation in war, upon the basis of the pledged covenant of +the free, invincible faith that a free Republic can sustain and +fulfill all its solemn responsibility, and with unquenchable hope in +the vast and unseen future of his land, Lincoln took his stand, and +held his ground, and put on record before God and all the world his +reverent and resolute oath. Here is manhood, noble, majestic, +decisive, free--a manhood that embraces the worth, voices the hope, +and confronts with open breast the destiny of the race. + +But in this same scene these mighty energies pause. Lincoln +consciously faces God. For himself and for the Nation he makes humble +acknowledgment that the Lord is Almighty and Most High. And to God's +full sovereignty he yields spontaneous consent. With lowliest +submission and confession he concedes and declares that all his +rebukes and all his rule are in righteousness. + +Here is a place where any man may properly pause. Here the orbit of +our proudest being strikes its verge. Here God and manhood meet. Here +human power faints. Here human resolution halts. Here human foresight +dims. Here human wisdom becomes a void. Here all our pride becomes +perforce humility; and all our counselings merge in faith. Here human +grandeur touches its outer rim. + +But here, too, human eyes awaken. Here human aspirations rise. Here +human wisdom becomes newly informed. Here human forecasts brighten +into hope. Here human strength revives. Here human purpose tightens. +Here in reverence human wisdom begins. Here in human lowliness appears +a Godlike dignity. Here our human stature shows its noblest. Lincoln +is at the utmost bound of his knowledge, and his liberty; and yet he +is displaying just here a discernment and a decision of the most +exalted type--a discernment, however, whose insight is a vision of +faith, and a decision whose resolve is an exercise of trust. In this +scene statesmanship is transmuted into religion, undefiled and pure. +Man in his loftiest hope and uttermost need, and God in his +transcendent royalty of equity and goodwill meet face to face, and +stand in open, free and friendly covenant. Here is at once a portrait +of true humility, and the acme of high nobility. Here in childlike +trust and childlike faith the wisdom and the freedom of man attain +their goal. Here statesmanship and reverence, wisdom and trust, +freedom and acquiescence, dignity and lowliness harmonize and +interblend. And in the unison either one remains uncompounded and +pure. + +Here many questions press to be resolved. This signal scene in +Lincoln's career--what has it to say about the inner nature of man? +What about the nature of God? What about the nature of our human +insight into the essential qualities of things? What about the +relation of will to thought? What about the sovereignty of character? +When human character touches the limit of human life, is it facing +night or day? These are ultimate inquiries. And they are immediate. +For answer to these inquiries, let Lincoln and Hegel meet. And let the +Nations listen to their replies; and so discern what problems clear, +where dignity and lowliness convene. For here is a shining scene, +where any man may see that in a lowly heart wisdom and nobility may +sit together as on a throne. Modesty like Lincoln's is a courtly +grace. Reverence such as his beseems a prince. Such humility, +reflecting with heavenly beauty the immediate presence of God, may +clothe a mighty man, and hold the center of a mighty scene, without +unseemliness, and it wants not intelligence. This at least this scene +makes clear. + + + + +PART III. SYNTHESIS + + +LINCOLN'S MORAL UNISON + +The marvelous beauty of the Athenian Parthenon is displayed in four +façades. Upon these four sides runs a frieze in a continuous band, +crowning all the columns, and binding all the structure into a single +shrine. Comprehended within the stately course of that all-encircling +frieze is classic demonstration how an impressive manifoldness of +sculptural form may present a perfect and impressive unison. + +Something such is Lincoln's character, as it stands in this second +inaugural. In this address four personal qualities stand forth, as +distinct and clear to the eye and thought as are the faces of the +Parthenon; while, like the Parthenon, the author of that address is +indivisibly and undeniably one. Both are alike composite, and both +alike are one. Both embrace diversity, but all in perfect harmony. +Both have perfect unity, but without monotony. Like the temple of +Athene, greeting from its single altar every horizon of the Grecian +sky, Lincoln, voicing his solemn oath as the Nation's president, gives +utterance to every moral element in our American life. Here is +something worth minute inspection. Here, upreared upon our Western, +modern American soil, is a noble work of art, as noble as any in the +ancient East--finished, balanced, and enduring--the ripened moral +character of a people's patriot. + +First to notice narrowly is that Lincoln's moral texture is fourfold. +Four virtues stamp this speech. Four strands compose its web. Four +hues commingle in its light. Four parts convey its harmony. This +four-foldness is discernible distinctly. + +Plain to see through all the features of this address, as well-defined +as the features of his friendly face, is his kindliness. Of all +things, war was most deplorable. Of all things, peace was most to be +desired. All malice was to be disowned. All charity was to be +indulged. All wounds were to be bound up. All sorrows were to be +consoled. There spoke the pleading voice of love. All men were bidden +to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. Here the quality of +moral kindliness is unmistakably and indelibly distinct. + +Quite as plain is his ideal and illustration of integrity. As manifest +to all the world is his inflexible uprightness, as is the outer +stature of his erect physique. For the equity in the bondman's protest +against two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil he had an open +ear and a profound respect. In the confidence that the judgments of +Almighty God were altogether just he was not ashamed to make public +announcement of his abiding faith. Eager that peace among ourselves +and with all Nations might always last, he was also eager that it +should be just. Firmly based, for his Nation and for himself, upon +such foundations of self-respect, resting on God, and resolute for the +right, he had no other thought but to strive with unremitting +constancy, until his work was done. Here is moral loyalty, plainly +visible, and as plainly inviolate. + +Quite as clear is his humility. The war, as Lincoln viewed it, was a +humbling visitation upon the Nation of the Nation's sins, a mighty +rebuke upon all human scorn and pride. In all that sin and scorn and +pride--the crime and guilt of slavery--Lincoln had no slightest, +conscious, personal share. But the shame and woe of that rebuke, as +it fell from the hand of God upon the Nation as a whole, he bore with +quiet, meek humility. And to whatever further judgment the Almighty +might allot he humbly bowed his head, confessing openly that, in his +own heart and thought, God's ways had been proudly misunderstood. Here +is reverent humility, and here is humble reverence, undeniable and +undisguised. + +And just as clear is his supreme esteem for values that are permanent +and pure. Above all changing accidents Lincoln honored the Godlike +human soul. In harmony herewith his thoughts and arguments were prone +to handle centuries. And in rating worth his standard was a man's +humanity. Thus he shaped the records and the prospects of our history +into a philosophy. Thus he interpreted the war. It was God's +vindication of the immortal value of the humblest man. Carnal +pleasures and worldly gains, wrung from human lives at the cost of the +degradation and debasement of the human soul, and in defiance of God's +eternal and indefeasible laws, Lincoln saw to be of all things the +most foolhardy and crude. So spiritual and pure was his conception of +God and man, and his active understanding of the meaning of historic +efforts and events. Ideals, endeavors, and enjoyments, even though +normal and worthy, if they dealt with values that were decaying and +gross, were cheaply rated by him; while the Nation's perpetuity, each +man's spiritual quality, and God's eternal purity held eminence +unfailingly in his affection and esteem. Here is spirituality, pure +within, and by the inwardly pure plain to see. + +As in the shapely quadrilateral of the Parthenon, this fourfoldness in +the character of Lincoln is cardinal. Each quality is an element, each +conforming with an elemental factor in the nature of every man. This +involves that in its essential substance each trait, so far +considered, is incapable of analysis. And each refuses to be resolved +into something else. Each one is a simple and a constant co-efficient +in Lincoln's moral being. Each one exists within his life in a +complete integrity, indivisible, self-contained. + +His humility, thus, is integral and unmixed. When Lincoln bows, as he +does in this inaugural, before his God, and therein offers his life in +a bending ministry to all his fellowmen, that reverence and that +ministry are, as ministry and as reverence, pure lowliness. The phases +of that lowliness may pass through continual transformation. And those +changing forms may have changing designations. It may be submission +before God's sovereignty, reverence before his majesty, awe before his +mystery, obedience before his authority, trust beneath his Providence, +confession under his rebukes; but common, essential, and unchanged +within them all is simple, pure humility. + +So with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also +wears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of +parade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership +with a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's +worth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged +within all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid +moral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's +life, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and +inseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a +relationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very +breath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as +firm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as are the +opportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear, +forbear, and serve. + +It is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and +imperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable +of many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in +reasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty; +with proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or +reliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as +consistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with +ethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with +even, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm +of truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But +common within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those +varied and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any +analysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand +distinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and +centered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his +very honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living +soul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his +moral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest +action of his self-consciousness. + +The same holds true of Lincoln's kindliness. In the balanced harmony +of his character the note of human friendliness is a persistent and +indispensable strain. Without that melody his moral consonance would +be painfully and irretrievably impaired. Like every other fundamental +trait, this too may be voiced with every sort of easy, fluent +variation. It may spring spontaneously from deep within the heart, as +benign and all-embracing benevolence. It may overflow with benefits, +in active, bounteous generosity. It may bind together an ideal home in +parental, filial, fraternal affection. It may kindle at the altars of +one's native land, and influence the heart of the patriotic devotee. +It may break through all the accidents of birth and race into +universal brotherhood. It may befriend the hurt, and needy, and +bereft, as sympathy. It may so prevail as to bear up beneath the cruel +sin of alien hearts in the sorrow of vicarious love, to the end that +guilty men may be redeemed and reconciled. In myriad ways this human +kindliness may speak its gentle words of mercy, grace, and peace. But +every word is keyed to kindly fellowship. Through all those variations +this note is prevalent. And it is keyed to a relationship as universal +and as unavoidable as are the bonds of human brotherhood. This wanting +in any moral character in fact or in idea, that moral character is +unbalanced and incomplete. Its mighty influence and its constant +evidence in Lincoln's active life supply an elemental requisite to +that life's harmony. It is his full-voiced answer to the world-wide +plea for human friendliness. + +And just such affirmations must be made concerning Lincoln's pureness. +Like each of the other three, this quality, too, holds a place and +eminence distinctly and uniquely its own. No other trait can do its +part or take its place. Its function and its office permit no +substitute. Nor can its ministry be divided. Its claim is regal. And +in any rating and apportionment among the other three this trait must +be granted equal primacy. Its presence and its purport in Lincoln's +total life are clear and fair and absolutely radical. Its aspect +varies like the aspect of the sky. But deep within those variations +gleams the pure and shining blue. It may win triumph over greed of +appetite in temperance; or over fleshly passion in continence. It may +fix supreme desire, not on decaying things, but on undying life; not +on things that change and disappoint, but on values that abide and +hold their own. It may search far beyond things visible for things +unseen; and look within all symbols, discerning what they mean. It may +detect within down-trodden, untutored men souls kindred to their +Maker. It may transcend all idol forms, and make all worship +spiritual. It may see how ends outvalue means; and how bottles should +not outvalue wine. In the midst of our universal lot of accident, +disease and death it may hold fast, for all the pure in heart, to the +hope of a happy immortality. But enduring and undying, common and +unchanged within them all is simple, spiritual purity. The soul +asserts supremacy. Things that fluctuate and finally dissolve, however +befitting and beautiful while they thrive, are admired and valued far +beneath the immortal and unchanging worth of God and Godlike souls of +men. This clear vision and high evaluation of spiritual things in the +thought and life of Lincoln can never be omitted nor excluded in any +final analysis of his moral life. It ranks among the elements of his +character, as each or any one of its facades holds rank about the +Parthenon. + +Thus in the composition of Lincoln's moral being there are four solid, +permanent, radical integers--his kindliness, his loyalty, his +pureness, and his humility. And these four elements of his character +face the four cardinal points in the compass of his life--his brother +man, his conscious self, his flesh-bound soul, and his sovereign Lord. +So inherent in his very structure, so inwrought in his conscious +character, so deeply based, so cardinal, and so enduring and +irreducible is this fourfoldness in Lincoln's inward life. + +And now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four +constituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear +and cardinal, but inclusive and complete. Combining in their +significance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things +superior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood; +and all the truth and worth within his own identity--every factor and +relation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and +himself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and +awarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only +two constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with +the daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the +Lord of grace and truth--these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his +life; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire +and consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are +discovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved; +when any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign +and kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a +world of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the +adoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral +stature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see, +so integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of +Lincoln's character. + +And now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four +constituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his +character, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively +some separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral, +but Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of +a section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a +whole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature +stands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent +exercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life +is Lincoln's lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is +kindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When +in this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God +reveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and +pledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying +heart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those +centuries of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its +sorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and, +disowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal +charity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is +pouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the +worth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and +commending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in +humble fellowship with humble men he abjures all hollow boasts and +pride, and, bending beneath God's just rebukes, voices for all the +land our national guilt, from that humiliation and lowliness no +portion of his being is exempt. Each cardinal virtue engrosses and +engages all his soul. + +And now ensues with a sequence that is irresistible, an affirmation +that in all this study of Lincoln's character must stand supreme. +Integral as is each several one of these four virtues in Lincoln's +life, and integral as is Lincoln's life in each single several trait, +these two integrities can be clearly seen to deeply interblend and +truly coincide. There is among the four qualities within his life no +dissonance. Here emerges Lincoln's moral unison. As in the Parthenon +all the elements harmonize and the edifice is one, so in Lincoln moral +manifoldness unifies. There is throughout coincidence. The heart that +bows towards God, in that very act of meekest acquiescence swells with +pity for all who mourn and bleed, with indignant jealousy for equity, +and with a supreme esteem for immortal souls. These four virtues do +not exist and operate asunder. They do not come into view in this +inaugural in sequence, each one in turn displacing and eclipsing the +one that went and shone before. They coexist, each one continuing +undiminished and unobscured, each one fully active and plain to see, +their confluent tides pouring through the same identical phrase, the +total strength of Lincoln surging alike in each. Through the whole +address thrills Lincoln's whole conviction, all his passion, and the +total vigor of his will respecting truth and falsity, hate and +charity, greed and purity, pride and humility. Here is moral unison. + +To find the secret to this moral synthesis demands and deserves the +sharpest scrutiny. That this may be understood it requires to be seen +that these four virtues, so clearly distinguishable and so perfectly +combined, are as clearly and perfectly akin. Lincoln's equity and +charity, as voiced in this address, are not alien energies. They +vitally correspond. They bear mutual resemblance. Each springs from +deep within himself, from his elemental manhood, a manhood that finds +in his brother's life and liberty as deep rejoicing as in his own. And +herein he is also kindred with God, as God's purposes and ways are +defined in this address. God, too, is deeply just and kind. Here roots +Lincoln's meekness under God's rebuke, and Lincoln's firmness in his +understanding of what is right. Between his heart's chief wish and +God's high will the moral correspondence becomes identity. So deep is +the coincidence and agreement of Lincoln's reverence and equity and +charity within himself and with his God. The same inwrought agreement +shines in the profound affinity of Lincoln's kindliness and +faithfulness and lowliness with his pure idealism. In him they are all +as fully unified as is his manliness. So deeply intimate is the vital +synthesis of Lincoln's moral unison. + +This position is pivotal. If either of these four virtues, here +defined and designated as elementally distinct and cardinal, can be +ever merged into any one, or any two, or all the other three; or if +any one can be dissolved, or analyzed into something else still more +elemental and pure, that possibility should be made passing sure and +clear at just this point. For from the affirmations, thus far laid +down, as to the cardinal validity and vital harmony of these four +moral traits, and of the four foundations in which these virtues rest, +follow other affirmations in the chapters that now ensue, which no +artificial postulate can ever uphold. + +But here, in passing, two standard affirmations are required. It is +not to be asserted or assumed that Lincoln's personal life attained +perfection, and transcended sin. In the chapter on humility, and in +chapters yet to come his own deep sense of deep unworthiness stands +evident. But in his clear and firm ideal and desire, aglow throughout +with Godlike grief for all delinquency, appear the qualities above +defined. + +And then these qualities, which his unique career displays, are, as +moral qualities, in no respect unique or beyond the measure of any +man. They beseem quite normally the plainest of us all. This truth +deserves full heed and unreserved respect. Lincoln was beautifully +like a little child. He was indeed a hero and performed heroic deeds. +But with all his heroism, as regards his moral qualities, the humblest +mortal may be his peer. Here is the hidden secret of the universal and +ungrudging admiration which his heroic character commands. He is the +world's model and guarantee of a world democracy. + + + + +PART IV. STUDIES + + +HIS SYMMETRY--THE PROBLEM OF BEAUTY + +In Lincoln's character is a beautiful illustration of moral balance. +He stands before the eye unchangeably, like the Capitol dome at +Washington, a signal exhibition of firmness, harmony, and repose. As +he fills his place as president, he seems to face the whole horizon at +once. A study of his life leaves the impression that he is resting +upon a solid, ample base; that his weight is well distributed; that +his energies are united evenly; that all his parts agree together; +that throughout his structure he is at ease; while yet there swell and +rise within his breast proud, far-seeing hopes that only a Nation's +grandest magnitude could give complete embodiment. This massive poise, +and breadth, and balanced evenness are the seemly vesture of his +character. They well become his inner attitude. They are the open +intimation of the shapeliness and majesty of the unseen soul within. +And quite as worthy of study and admiration as our national dome, is +this well-poised nobility of Lincoln's personality. + +With this intent one may well review this last inaugural, for it +enshrines superior beauty. Not unfittingly did it find first utterance +beneath the presence of that imposing masterpiece at our national +Capitol. As in that circling colonnade, so in the measured cadences of +this address, there is exalted harmony. Its phrases, rhythmic and +pleasurable, rank almost as music. Read however many times, its +sentences never tire. Minds the most refined are glad to point to +this address as to a noble monument, assured that its perusal will +awaken in any American high national pride, and in the minds of all +men a pure delight. + +This commanding, gracious dignity is not alone a matter of even +rhythms and pleasing cadences. It is to its author's moral poise and +full harmony that this speech owes its symmetry. Indeed this is all +its substance. Of rhetorical decoration it is absolutely bare. Its +only title to its universal admiration is the patent fact that its +author has traced and set therein, as with an engraver's nicest art, +the princely fashion of his high-born soul. Its finished ethical +symmetry is all the art that gives this speech its everlasting charm. + +What now is the inmost nature of the attractiveness that holds +possession of this last inaugural? In this inquiry is extended a +winsome invitation to any beauty-loving mind. As such a mind fixes its +inspection intently upon the vital structure of this address, he sees +within its shapely borders four princely virtues, standing together in +a courtly league. Each virtue stands mature in unrestrained virility, +no one of them overbearing the other three, nor being overborne. With +easy, manly grace each virtue does its part, while all harmoniously +combine, to support with Godlike sagacity and strength the problems of +a Nation's destiny in days and tasks that mock the sagest counsel and +baffle the proudest might of man. + +Like stately columns beneath a stately dome, these virtues deserve +regard. Each one is integral in Lincoln's personal majesty, and in the +finely finished power of this address. The exhibition of personal +self-respect, the very eye of moral verity, as displayed in Lincoln's +own reliability, and idealized within his steadfast plan for national +consistency, is fashioned forth within the well-set features of this +address with all the well-poised grandeur of the Olympian Zeus. The +tones of kindliest friendliness towards detractors and defenders +alike, repelling all malignity, unfailingly benign, cannot in any +cadence be misunderstood. They fall like healing music, reminding +listeners of home, and hearthstone, and a father's heart. The lowly +attitude of penitent submissiveness towards God, with its wonderful +mingling of solemn awe, adoring worship, and conscious fellowship, +undeniably without hypocrisy, as without restraint, institutes in this +address nothing less than the model and inspiration of a reverent, +religious liturgy, fit to lead and voice a Nation's humble penitence +and praise. The kindled and enkindling zeal for the transcendent worth +of men above all other wealth, the burning hearth from whose free +flame springs up every passion glowing through this speech, is like +the fervent ardor of a prophet's heart, watching with a patient, eager +wistfulness towards the dawning of a day that shall never pass away. + +These are signal qualities in this address, each one erect and free, +its signal beauty and virility undiminished and complete. But to be +noticed here is, not their individual comeliness, but the beauty of +their companionship. They consort together perfectly. And in that +unison is a peculiar, an individual attractiveness. Here is a symmetry +that pleads for appreciation. It is the beauty of this unison +throughout this speech that constitutes its eloquence. See how +Lincoln's very confession of error puts him in line with God. Feel how +his righteousness affiliates with tenderness. Mark how his heed for +earthly things provides a body for his idealism. Within the unyielding +rigor of his resolute will see how bending and genial is his attitude. +Here is marvelous symphony--sin and error and war, light and truth and +peace, so comprised and combined, so resolved and reconciled in this +speaker and in this address, as to show a Nation how in the discord of +arms heaven's own harmonies may be heard. To this fine blending of +tones that are distinct, to this pure consonance of notes that are +diverse, it were well for all our ears to become accustomed. This +would mean a true and real refinement. To this refinement Lincoln did +achieve. With this deep consonance his ear became familiar. Hence the +deep-toned fulness and carrying power in the moral resonance of this +address. It faces a manifold emergency with sentiments likewise +manifold, but so composed together as to lead all discordant voices +into lasting peace. + +This moral equilibrium carried within it generous breadth. This is a +striking aspect of this inaugural. It comprehends and resolves +together, with an ease that seems an instinct, the total orbit of our +national life. Within its little compass is the easy movement of the +full momentum of our past. It holds in easy grasp the full +circumference of concurrent events. It evinces, though with amazing +brevity, that the ponderous issues of the coming day are a familiar +topic in his brooding thought. And all of this consists together +within his thought with even, equal recognition. Events are made to +balance. Causes and effects are so held face to face as to declare by +demonstration their true comparison. Great issues and mighty forces +are given their needed amplitude in his observation and review. The +weight of centuries is in his ponderings. This was the style and +attitude of his mental deliberations. He was predisposed to cast and +arrange his thoughts in national dimensions. Union, liberty, manhood, +Providence, were the themes to which his soul was drawn, as though by +gravity. + +Thus Lincoln's influence attained solidity. The place of this +inaugural, and of its author's honor, in our American life, and in +the larger world of worthy civics is well-secured. The qualities +embodied in this address, each one so elemental, and all so eternally +allied, are more enduring, as they stand poised within those balanced +paragraphs, than any qualities resident in marble or bronze. The +proposition that the hostile interests of a mighty Nation be +reconciled into eternal friendliness and constancy under the awful +discipline of God through sacrificial baptisms of blood, contains +within its balanced and majestic terms an interior cohesion and +stability that nothing can ever disintegrate or move. It is without a +bias anywhere. Through all its massiveness the weight is even +absolutely. And its moral proportions are in perfect truth. It is a +monument of finished majesty, solidity, and grace. It is a masterpiece +of moral symmetry. + +This massive grandeur in Lincoln's moral character finds an exalted +illustration in the closing half of his message to Congress in +December of 1862. It forms in itself a document that may well be held +before the eye as a companion piece to his last inaugural. He is +making an elaborate argument for "compensated emancipation." He is +laboring to make clear that the issues pending in the center of the +war are no concern of mere geography, but rather a problem hanging +upon the free decisions of living citizens; and that in the interest +of universal liberty a full agreement by Congress and the chief +executive to tax the Nation peaceably, to remunerate all loss entailed +by freeing every slave, would surely win the requisite electoral +support, stay the war at once, establish lasting peace, and give +demonstration of a civic character and courage fit to brighten and +enhearten all the world. He closes his appeal with these following +words:-- + +"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and +this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No +personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of +us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor +or in dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. +The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the +Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even we +here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to +the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we +give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not +fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if +followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." + +There is in that message a document that has the scope and the +grandeur of the Alps. It offers an imposing illustration how politics, +so prone to become and to remain ignoble, may come to have surpassing +beauty; how statesmanship, vested in a worthy character, may wear +transcendent dignity. This appeal, as shaped by Lincoln, is a monument +fashioned by a master hand. Note its basis in equity, all the Nation +in common accepting their money cost of a common complicity in wrong. +Note its inscription to human goodwill, curtailing the period, and +staying the bloodshed of the war. Note its enduring substance and +composition, built up of human hearts, cemented in the action of +freedom in the human soul, a towering protest against all gains and +consequences where human liberty is denied. Note the humble reverence +in the soaring appeal to the benediction of God, with which the whole +address concludes. Note the conscience-stirring reference to +inevitable and over-ruling law, in the ominous intimation that the +light of history would luminously adjudge each several man. And note, +with all the imperial urgency of the appeal, its vesture of infinite +respect for the right of every congressman to make a free decision of +and by and for himself alone. + +Here is something at once most imposing and most engaging. Here is +handicraft of the highest grade. The man that conceived and drafted +that political appeal was, in the realm of politics, no mean +architect. He is, in these arguments, measuring the forces elemental +in a great Republic, as Michael Angelo measured gravitation. He is +dealing with decades, and with centuries, with freedom and with +slaves, with a transient Congress and the course of history, as +builders deal with granite blocks. Embracing things dispersed and +widely variant, as also things mutually inclined towards fellowship, +he defines and demonstrates, as a master artisan, how they may all be +grasped and overcome and harmonized in a commanding unison. With a +skilled designer's easy grace he drafts a sketch of our transformed +career, as plain and open to the observing eye as are the massive, +graceful movements of deploying clouds across the sky. Here is +majesty, lofty, balanced, and secure. And all its excellence is +ethical. And it pleads to be made supreme in earthly politics. In such +a message is ideal courtliness. Its bearer must be a comely prince. +The man and author upon whose polished tongue those sentiments found +birth must be of royal lineage. + +Thus Lincoln has given to civics ideal comeliness and dignity. In his +hand, and under his design, politics wears heavenly majesty. In his +conception of a State, though devised and traced in times when cruelty +and sordidness and unfairness and negligence of God were sadly +prevalent through the Nation's life, there rose to view, in his pure +patriotism, a civic standard in which, through holy fear of God, all +men were rated at their immortal worth, and treated with the love and +fairness that were the mutual due of freemen who were peers. Here is a +portrait of a patriot upon which no artist can easily improve--a +portrait which attests in Lincoln's soul a pure and a free idea of +what true art must ever be. + +And it is not without profound significance for art that Lincoln's +statesmanship has become one of the finest objects in our modern world +for artists to idealize. The very features of his face, that were wont +to be esteemed most plain, have come to show a symmetry that is +beautiful. And his whole outward frame, that men so many times have +called ungainly, has come to bear and body forth a dignity such as +summons finest bronze and marble to their most exalted ministry. +Whence came to that plain face and plainer frame such symmetry and +dignity? Let artists contemplate and reply. For in Lincoln's manhood +stature, where utmost rudeness has become transmuted to refinement, +all men are taught that true beauty and true art are ethical. In moral +harmony is found ideal symmetry. + + +HIS COMPOSURE--THE PROBLEM OF PESSIMISM + +In the foregoing pages reference has been made repeatedly to Lincoln's +poise. In the chapter just concluded this poise has been studied for +its beauty. This attitude will repay still further scrutiny. For +looked at again, and from another point of view, it reveals itself as +a reservoir of energy. Seen thus, Lincoln's notable poise becomes a +mighty store of potential, and indeed of active force. It may be +described as a mingling of energy and repose, of resourcefulness and +rest, showing and playing through all his influence among other men, +and largely explaining its potency. + +Of just this personal habitude, through all the years of Lincoln's +participation in our national affairs, there was strenuous need and +requisition. His public course ran through an era in our national +career of unprecedented internal turbulence. The house was divided +against itself. The cause of the dissension was a diametrical +opposition and an irreconcilable contention of views touching a matter +so radical as the basis of our Declaration of Independence, and the +purport of our fundamental national document, the Constitution. To the +men on either side of this contention it seemed as though their +antagonists were bent upon uprooting and removing the very hills. This +obstinate and inveterate disagreement revolved about the single, +simple, fateful question of the right and wrong of holding men in +bonds. For a full generation before Lincoln entered the lists the +conflict had been bitterly intense, refusing to be composed or +assuaged. Near the beginning of the last decade of Lincoln's life he +put on his armor and chose his side. In 1858, while competing with +Douglas for a seat in the U. S. Senate, Lincoln made a declaration +that, for its bearing upon his own career and its influence in +national affairs, has become historic; while for its testimony to the +topic of this chapter it has the very first significance. The core of +that declaration was a quotation from words of Christ, when refuting +the charge that he was in league with Beelzebub:--"A house divided +against itself cannot stand." This quotation was cited by Lincoln to +edge his affirmation that the national agitation concerning slavery, +then in full course, and continually augmenting, would not cease until +a crisis should be reached and passed. This was his firm assurance. A +national crisis was at hand. But to this assurance, that the +government could not endure permanently half slave and half free, he +attested another confidence equally assured:--"I do not expect the +Union to be dissolved--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 is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates +will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the +States, old as well as new, North as well as South." + +That was said with resolute and imposing deliberation in July of 1858. +In that utterance Lincoln's attitude deserves analysis, and for many +reasons; but in particular for its revelation of his composure. He +knew full well what tremendous issues for himself and for the Nation +were involved in what he said. He knew that his appeal for the +senatorship at Washington was thereby gravely imperiled. He knew that +it foreboded national convulsions and throes. He knew that for himself +and for the government a mighty crisis was ahead. And he knew that in +that crisis the alternatives were for all humanity supreme. The issues +were nothing less than human freedom and equality, or human tyranny +and bonds. In the stress and strain of an age-long strife like this, +many a man has swerved to moral pessimism. + +From the date of that speech Lincoln stood in the face of that +vicissitude. Indeed for his few remaining years he was, in all that +deepening commotion, an energetic and influential central force. And +he never yielded to despair. In this same month he issued to Senator +Douglas his doughty challenge to a series of debates. During those +debates Lincoln forged his way into a preeminence that amounted almost +to solitude, as champion of a people and a cause that, for weary +generations, had been under all but hopeless oppression and reproach. +Through all those debates Lincoln's single heart was nothing less +than a national theater of a solicitude nothing less than national. +Upon his lone shoulders lay the gravest burdens of his day. The ideals +of a Nation lay upon his anvil; the national temper was being forged +beneath his hand. Highest chivalry waged against him, bearing tempered +steel, and jealous of an old and proud prestige. + +In the immediate outcome of those debates Lincoln met defeat. But +farther on he only found himself involved more deeply still in the +anguish of the crisis he had foretold. The national disagreement was +verging towards the Nation's dissolution, heightening at length into +secession and actual, long-drawn civil war. So tremendous was the +crisis Lincoln foresaw. And this was precipitated directly by his +election to the presidency. So vitally were his own fortune and fate +bound up in the crisis he foretold. So pitiless and fundamental was +the challenge to his hope. His total administration was spent in the +tumult of arms. By no possibility in any Nation's conscious life could +civil confusion be worse confounded than during the period of his +presidential terms. Beginning with seven states in open secession, and +brought to an end by assassination, the measure of his supreme +official life was full to either brim with perils and sorrows and +fears, such as any single human heart could hardly contain. But the +undiminished, overwhelming volume of those fears and sorrows and cares +was encompassed every day within his anxious, ample, patriot heart. +When facing in August of 1864 the national election, upon which this +last inaugural oath was based, he said:--"I cannot fly from my +thoughts--my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I +go. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not +free from these infirmities; but I cannot but feel that the weal or +woe of this great Nation will be decided in November." So momentous +and grave seemed to him the meaning and weight of the contention that +drove the Nation into war. In this estimate, as said before, he stood +almost in solitude. "Our best and greatest men," he said in New Haven +in 1860, "have greatly underestimated the size of this question. They +have constantly brought forward small cures for great sores--plasters +too small to cover the wound." To Lincoln's credit it must forever be +said that he had a true prevision of the agony through which the +Nation must strive, as she reached and passed the crisis which he saw +in 1858 to be her predestined and impending fate. + +And so it came to pass that in 1861, when Fort Sumter was assailed, +and the sharp imperious alternative of immediate dissolution or blood +faced the Nation's eye, he was not surprised or unprepared; as +likewise, when in 1865 at his second inaugural scene, after four full +years of awful war, he is still found waiting in sacrificial patience +to hail the culmination of his assured interpretation and hope. Here +in 1865 as there in 1858, there in 1858 as here in 1865, he is +cherishing the patriot-prophet's confidence that the crisis would be +passed, that the Nation would not be dissolved, that the house would +stand. + +And to Lincoln's singular honor it must always be allowed that through +all the terrible hours while that crisis was being passed, it was +pre-eminently due to Lincoln's mighty moral optimism that our Union +was preserved. Amid all the turbulence of armies and arms, his +assurance of our national perpetuity was so deeply, firmly based, as +to be itself invested and informed with perpetuity. So commanding was +his posture of heroic, triumphant confidence, that it mightily availed +to guide and steady the Nation through the crisis into an era of +internal and international peace. + +But not merely did Lincoln's composure prevail to secure that this +Nation should not dissolve. It also wrought prevailingly to perpetuate +our liberty. Throughout the crisis the issue held in stake was whether +the Nation should be wholly slave or wholly free. Those were the +alternatives between which Lincoln's care and fear, and the Nation's +fortune and fate were hung. Throughout the crisis Lincoln's hope was +that the Nation should be forever wholly free. His fear was that the +Nation might be wholly slave. But above that fear, that hope +steadfastly prevailed. One who studies Lincoln through those days +comes to feel unerringly that deep beneath an anxiety that seemed at +times almost to overwhelm his life, there lay a supreme assurance +that, when the crisis should have passed, it should stand clear beyond +debate, and sure beyond all doubt, that here in this favored land the +chance of all the sons of men should be forever equal, fair, and free. +Astutely heedful of the power of selfish, sordid greed; deeply +conscious of the blind defiance of scorn and pride; painfully aware of +the awful capacity of a human heart for cruelty and hate; and sharp to +see how reason yields to prejudice, when chivalry becomes a +counterfeit; he still found grounds to hold his anchored hope for +universal liberty and brotherhood. + +This deep-based confidence deserves to be well understood. It is a +primary phenomenon in Lincoln's life. How in the deepest welter of +violence and strife could Lincoln's mood retain such level evenness? +How in all that continental turbulence could he keep so unperturbed? +How, through all that confusion was he never confused? In truth his +days were mostly dark and sad. Sorrows did overwhelm him. How did his +anchorage hold unchanged? When the very hills gave way, his +foundations seemed to stay. The assurance to which his soul was +attached seemed all but omnipotent. What was the secret, what the +ground of such phenomenal steadiness? + +To answer these inquiries is but to rehearse again what has already +been repeatedly made plain. This massive sturdiness of Lincoln's +statesmanship, this unalterable political reliability lay inwrought in +the hardy fiber of his moral character. + +One factor here may be termed intellectual. Lincoln's study made him +steady. His untiring thoughtfulness secured to Lincoln's soul a fine +deposit of pure assurance. It was with him a jealous and guarded +custom to make examinations exhaustive. He was always seeking +certainty. Few men ever dealt more sparingly in conjecture. Always +eager towards the future, and often making statements touching things +to come, he was nevertheless a model of mental caution. It was this +passion to make his footing fully secure that kindled in him such zest +for history. It was this same passion that glowed in his eye, as he +inspected in common men their common humanity. And likewise it was +this that led him into the fear of God, and made him a student of the +Bible, and a man of prayer. The full capacity of his mind was taxed +unceasingly, in order to secure to his ripening judgments their +majestic equipoise. + +But with saying this not enough is said to describe the grounds of his +composure. It was not merely that his mind, through thoughtful inquiry +and comparison, grew far-sighted, and balanced, and clear. What gained +for Lincoln his solid anchorage was his deep, strong hold upon all +that was inmost and permanent in the heart and nature of men. Every +inch a man himself, the one ambition of his mental research was to +make every responsible thought and deed conduce to guide every brother +man to the destiny which his nature decreed. This was the research +that made his eye so clear. This was the study that made his hope so +sure. Outcome of unsparing intellectual toil, this was the assurance +that won for Lincoln his unique and most honorable diploma and degree. +This was Lincoln's standing and this its warrant among all thoughtful +men, alike the learned and the unlettered. This was the secret of that +marvelous calmness, that was so potent to compose the fears of other +men. He studied man, until he attained a magisterial power to +understand and explain result and cause, issue and origin, amid +historic, surrounding, and impending events. In the field where +Lincoln stood and toiled he was an adept. He was a worthy master of +the humanities. He took a liberal course in the liberal arts. And out +of this broad course he constructed politics. He came to see +unerringly, and to believe unwaveringly, and to contend unwearyingly +that man, that all men should hold, in a universal equilibrium, their +regard for God, their self-respect, their brother love, and a true, +comparative esteem for things that perish and souls that survive. This +reasoned, hopeful faith, adopted with all his heart as the comely +pattern and well-set keystone of all his politics and statesmanship, +is what secured to Lincoln through all those tumultuous days his +far-commanding political equanimity. That all men were designed and +entitled by their Creator to be free, and that in this liberty, as in +the elemental right to life and self-earned happiness, all are +likewise created equal, Lincoln did devoutly, profoundly, and +invincibly believe. Confirmed by all his ranging observation and +incessant, pondering thought, this faith was also rooted beyond repeal +in his own deep reverence for God, in his own instinctive respect for +himself, in irrepressible friendliness, and in his unabashed +idealism. + +Such a man could never be a pessimist. Such a faith in such a soul +could not be plucked away. Nor could its protestations be variable. +That each, as alike the handiwork of God, should alike be always fair, +and that all should always and alike be free, was the base of his +political philosophy, and the bond of his consistency. This was the +teaching of the past. This was the harbinger of the day to come. And +in this long-pondered wisdom and belief lay the explanation of his +underlying peacefulness through the war, and of his singular ability +to prevail above the fears of other men, when in other hearts every +hope gave way. He deeply saw that underneath all battlefields, and +within all antagonisms, these simple principles, so surely sovereign +and so certainly immortal, encompassed a breadth and strength +sufficient to circumvent and overcome all hate and doubt and fear, +doing to no freeman any vital harm, shielding from essential evil +every toil-bowed slave. This is the source and secret of Lincoln's +unexampled composure amid scenes of unexampled anxiety and unrest. + +And this composure, being so inwrought with hope, was unfailingly +active and alert. It was never mere endurance, stolid and inert. It +enshrined a powerful momentum. It was alive with purpose, conscious, +vigorous, resolute. One of its fairest features was a seeing eye--an +eye transfixed upon a goal. Things as yet invisible, and still +unrealized, his earnest, unwearying eye prevailed to see. Hence his +optimism was astir with enterprise. Anticipation, quite as truly as +peacefulness, marked the constant attitude of his life. His composure +could be closely defined as confidence respecting things to come. +Always environed by difficulties, and all but blinded by their strife, +his faith struck through their turmoil, and his hope rose free and +strong into a jubilant salutation of man's undoubted destiny, and +into a victorious companionship with God's clear, certain will. + +And so there throbbed in this habitual posture of Lincoln's heart a +mighty potency. His composure was prevailing. His deep and calm +security dissipated other men's dismay. Repeatedly beneath the +presence of his stately quietness the Nation felt its turbulence +subside. This efficiency can be felt at work in this last inaugural +address; and its action well deserves to be identified. In his +exposition of its theme, and in his registration of his presidential +pledge, he seems by one hand to have fast hold of things immutable, +while with the other hand he is helping to steady things that tremble +and change. Here is kingly mastery. Things mightily disturbed are +being mightily put to rest, as though from an immutable throne. The +open figure of that throne may well be scanned by all the Nation and +by all the world. It is built and stands foursquare. Its measure +conforms in every part with the measure of a man. It is shaped and set +to stand and abide where men consort, to unify their minds, and +tranquillize their strifes. With sobered and sobering insight into the +human soul, with resolute and expectant will before our human goal, +this address inscribes and upholds, as at once an outcome and an ideal +of human events, a universal amity compacted of loyal, friendly men +who walk in reverence before God, and cherish treasures that can never +fail. Purity, humility, charity, loyalty--these are the constituents +in the structure, and the explanation of the power of Lincoln's +composure. Fully illumined, firmly convinced, evenly at rest upon +principles that stand foursquare upon the balanced manhood of Godlike +men, his civic hopefulness stood in the midst of his practical +statesmanship, like an invincible, immovable throne. + + +HIS AUTHORITY--THE PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT + +The study in the preceding chapter of Lincoln's even-paced serenity, +culminating in the symbol of a throne, conducts directly to an +examination of his influence and mastery over other men. During those +troubled days in Washington, despite all the malice, defiance, and +active abuse which he daily bore, his power to persuade, conciliate, +and govern other men was, in all the land, without a parallel. In +fact, as well as in name, he was throughout those presidential days +the Nation's chief magistrate. And since his death that dominion has +increased, until it stands today above comparison. Here is an +opportunity, not easily matched, to explore a theme whose importance +in the field of ethics no other topic can surpass--the seat and nature +of moral authority. And here in this second inaugural is a transparent +illustration of the firm security in which that authority rests, and +of the method by which it prevails. + +As in his own inner reverence for law, so in his sway of other men, +his posture towards the national Constitution demands attention first. + +"The supreme law of the land"--thus the Constitution of the United +States, in its sixth article, defines itself. In its fifth article, +the same fundamental document provides that "Amendments," properly +made, "shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this +Constitution." This primary authority for the rule of the land is +further affirmed to have been ordained and established by "the people +of the United States." Here are three noteworthy features of this "law +of the land:"--it is supreme; it is amendable; it arises from the +people. + +This written standard of our national life, its amendability, and its +primal origin in the people's will, were matters much in Lincoln's +eye. Each separate one of these three features of our national civic +life had reverent respect in Lincoln's mind, in all his conception and +exercise of authority over other men. It was this "supreme law" that +he swore in both inaugurations to "preserve, protect, and defend." An +amendment to the Constitution, that was pending at the time of his +first inaugural oath, he took unusual pains in that address to mention +and approve. And it was to "the people," on both occasions of his +inauguration as president, and at all other times of public and +responsible address, that he paid supreme respect, in his most +finished and earnest eloquence and appeal. Here was a threefold +ultimate standard to which Lincoln always made final appeal--the +original Constitution; its amenability to due revision; and the +people's free and deliberate decree. This triangular base-line was for +Lincoln's politics and jurisprudence and statesmanship the supreme and +finished standard of last appeal. He deferred to it submissively, +habitually, and with reverence. + +All this can be truly said. And yet all this does not say all the +truth. Respectful as Lincoln was for all that he found thus +fundamentally prescribed, and heedful as he was to indulge in no +executive liberty inconsonant with those express decrees, he found his +fortune as chief executive forcing him to move where all explicit +regulations failed to specify the path. The Constitution does not +include all details. It does not vouchsafe specific counsel for +specific needs. Its guidance is as to principles. "No foresight can +anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express +provisions for all possible questions." This he declared in his first +inaugural. Then he mentions three such unprescribed details:--the +method of returning fugitive slaves; the power of Congress to +prohibit; and the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the +Territories. Touching those three civic interests, civic duties and +civic standards were undirected and undefined. But even while he +spoke, those three unsettled problems in the Nation's life were +kindling the national pulse to an uncontrollable heat. Nothing less +than civil war was certainly impending, over controversies touching +which the sovereign standards of the civic life did not expressly +speak. + +Upon these momentous, undecided questions Lincoln, in his high +authority as president, had to bring his judgment, his action, and his +influence into settled shape. Deep in the heart of these unsettled +regions he set his camp, and toiled away his life. This heroic and +patriotic act may be called a detail of constitutional interpretation. +But it was for Lincoln a labor of Hercules. It opened a gigantic +controversy. The land was convulsed with contending explications. +Views, held essential to the vital honor of separate sections of the +land, were in essential hostility. As the dissension deepened, two +questions rose, outstanding above the rest:--the Constitutional +integrity of the several States (might States secede?); and the +Constitutional rights of slavery (should slavery spread?). Both these +problems were mortally acute in 1861. Both were still in hand in 1865. +Under the Constitution could the Union be legitimately dissolved? +Under the Constitution should slavery be permanently approved? To both +these questions Southern leaders answered, Yes. To both these +questions Lincoln answered, No. + +Of these two questions and asseverations, it is plain to see that the +second is the more profound. So this second inaugural affirms: +"Somehow" slavery was the cause of the secession and the war. This +"all knew." Upon this pivot, all the chances and contentions of the +great debate were compelled to turn. Here lay all the meaning of the +war. All those awful battles were trembling, struggling arguments; +thrilling, impassioned affirmations striving to finally and forever +decide whether human slavery was justified to spread. + +Here was a supreme divergence of conviction, and a supreme debate. In +all the realm of social morals, no divergence and no debate could be +more radical. Into this supreme contention Lincoln was compelled to +enter. To some conclusion that should be supreme he was, by his +official station and responsibility, compelled to lead. To find his +way through such a controversy, and to guide the land through all that +strife to some sovereign reconciliation, involved this common citizen +in the presidential chair in an assumption and exercise of authority +nothing less than sovereign. + +Face to face with this impending and decisive agony, Lincoln took his +stand in his first inaugural, not flinching even from war, if war must +come. A mighty wrestler in the awful throes of mortal civic strife, he +held his determined stand in the act of his second inaugural oath, +after war had raged for four full years. The great debate is unsettled +still. Still Lincoln has to bear the awful burden of responsible +advice. He is still the Nation's chief magistrate. An authority +pregnant to predetermine continental issues for unnumbered years to +come, however dread its weight, and however frail and faint his mortal +strength, he may not demit. Within the darkness and amid the din, he +must think and speak, he must judge and act, he must rise and lead, +while a Nation and a future both too vast for human eye to scan and +estimate, stand waiting on his word and deed. + +It was a time for omens. But never did Lincoln's ways show fuller +sanity. In such a day, and for such a responsibility this, his second +inaugural address, is Lincoln's perfect vindication. Here the true +civilian's true democracy stands vested with an authority both +sovereign and beautiful. Here political expertness becomes consummate. +Here the very throne of civil authority is unveiled. Here leadership +and fellowship combine. Here a master, though none more modest in all +the land, demonstrates his mastery in the mighty field of national +politics. Here it may be fully seen how in a true democracy a true +dominion operates. + +Here emerges, in the ripened, rugged, mellowed, moral character of +Lincoln, and in the finished, immortal formulation of his uttermost +contention and appeal, a marvelous illumination of an inquiry, that is +always alike the last and the first, the first and the last in ethical +research--the inquiry about ethical authority. Where did Lincoln +finally rest his final appeal? He is assuming to venture a +preponderant claim. He is speaking as a Nation's president. And in a +conflict of radical views that for four dread years has been a +conflict of relentless arms, he argues still, and without a quaver, +for the thorough prosecution of the war. Divergence of judgment on +moral grounds could never be brought to a sharper edge. Contention +over issues in the moral realm could never be harder pressed. On what +authority could Lincoln push a moral argument unto blood? Is there +moral warrant for such a deed? If ever there be, then where is its +base, and whence its awful sanctity? + +To shape reply to this is but to shape more sharply still the naked +substance of the debate--the crying issue of the war. The core of that +insistent strife concerned the essential nature of man. Was slavery +legitimate? Might a white man enslave a black? Could a strong man +enslave the weak? Dare some men forswear toil? May any men who toil +be pillaged of the food their hands have earned? Are some men entitled +to a luxury and ease they never earned, while to other men the luxury +and ease they have fairly won may be denied? Are some men so inferior +that they can have no right to life, and liberty, and happiness, +however much they strive and long for such a simple, common boon? Are +other men so super-excellent that life, and liberty, and happiness are +theirs by right, though never earned or even struggled for at all? + +This was the central issue of that war; and this the central theme of +this inaugural. Are common people to be forever kept beneath, and +traded on, and eyed with scorn; while favored men are to be forever +set on high, and filled with wealth, and fed with flattery? This was +the quivering question that was brought on Lincoln's lips to its +sharpest edge. Well he knew its momentousness and its antiquity. + +In its very formulation, as Lincoln gave it shape, there loomed the +formulation of its reply, perhaps still to be bitterly defied, perhaps +to be still long deferred; but inevitable at last, and sure finally to +find agreement everywhere. This final answer Lincoln's vision saw. In +that clear vision he discerned the certain meaning of the battles of +the war. In the great debate they were the solemn, measured arguments. +Amid those awful arguments this inaugural took its place, the oracle +of a moral prophet, explaining how the war arose, by whose high hand +the war was being led, and in what high issue the war must attain its +end. As the arguments of this address advance, one grows to feel that +Lincoln's thought is forging a reply, in which emerges a moral law +whose authority no man may ever dare rebuke. + +But as that authority comes to view in Lincoln's speech, its form is +shorn of every shred of arrogance. Never was mortal man more modest +than in the tone and substance of this address. This modesty is indeed +throughout devoid of wavering. His tones ring with confidence and +decisiveness. But in that confidence, though girt for war, there are +folded signs of deference and gentleness and solemn awe, as though +confessing error and confronting rebuke. Even of slavery, that most +palpable and abhorrent evil, as he forever avers; and of slaveholders, +who wring their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, and then +dare to pray for heaven's favor on their arms, he says in this +address:--"let us not judge that we be not judged;" as though the germ +of that dark error might then be swelling in his and all men's hearts. +And as to the war itself, for which he bade the Nation stand with +sword full-drawn, the central passage in this speech more than +intimates, what in an earlier part he fully concedes, that he and all +the people had availed but poorly to understand the Almighty's plans. +In all of this Lincoln seems to say that he found himself, in common +with all the land, but imperfectly in harmony with God, as to his +judgment concerning the sin inwrought in holding slaves, and as to the +primacy of the Union among the interests pending in the war. He seems +in this address, so far from affirming his right to judge and govern +arbitrarily, instead confessing that love of ease, greed for gain, the +mood of scorn, and proneness to be cruel--those inhuman roots that +rear up slavery--were apt to find hidden nutriment in his and all +men's hearts, yielding everywhere the baleful harvest of inhumanity; +confessing further that this deep-rooted tendency in human hearts to +undo God's primal decree of freedom and equality was far more needful +to eradicate than any proneness to secede within any confederacy of +States; and confessing in consequence and finally that it was for all +Americans to accept the war as God's rebuke of their common +propensity to be unkind, and as God's correction of their false rating +of their national concerns. This then seems to be Lincoln's posture in +this address--no lofty arrogance of authority to decree and execute +the right; but a humble confession of error and guilt; an acquiescent +submission to God's correction and reproof. This modest hue must +tincture this address through all its web. + +And yet the dominant note of this inaugural is clear decisiveness, an +unwavering firmness in his own opinion, a classic illustration of +persuasion and appeal, as though from the vantage ground of +convictions perfectly assured. Where now, in full view of all that has +been said, is the basis of Lincoln's argument and authority to be +placed? In an argument where conviction seems to be transmuted into +penitence, and where confession seems transfigured into confidence, +how can the logic be resolved; and where at last can the authority +repose? + +The full reply to this inquiry can be found only when we find where +Lincoln's conviction and confession coalesce. Touching this, one thing +is clear. Both bear upon the same concern. Deep within them both +slavery is the common theme. Assured that slavery is wrong, he +confesses that its roots run everywhere. Honest to the core, he bows +beneath the scourge of war, convinced that it is heaven's penalty upon +all the land. Throughout he is pleading and suffering consistently +that all men may be free. This is the sum of the address. In this it +all coheres. Thus he divines and understands the ways of God. And so +he stands, as poised in this address, in ideal fellowship, at once +with men who have held slaves, with slaves in their distress, with the +Creator in his primal decree, and with the Providential meaning of the +war. + +To all this problem, vexing so many generations, the clear and +witting touch of Lincoln's sacrificial penitence is the master key. In +this all contradictions, all hostilities, all sufferings, all +transgressions, and all pure longings are harmonized. In assurance and +repentance he has found how truth and grace, blending together in +humble heed for God and for undying souls, hold complete dominion in +the moral realm. These pure principles, congenial alike to God and +men, he welcomes to himself, and commends to all his fellowmen in +sacrificial partnership. + +Here is Lincoln's prevailing faith. This is the secret of his +strength. Herein vests his commanding and enduring power. This is +Lincoln's self--his very manhood. This is the man in this address whom +the world beheld, and still beholds--the man he was, the man he aimed +and strove to be, the man he recommended all the Nation to combine to +reproduce, the man in whom the fear of God, the love of men, the zeal +for life, and true reliability, mingle evenly, at whatever cost. This +is the man, and this the mighty influence over other men, enthroned +imperishably in this address. + +Here is the throne, the scepter, and the key to Lincoln's vast +authority. It is patterned and informed from the cardinal constituents +of a balanced moral character. It is inwrought within a life that +heeds harmoniously, and with heroic earnestness, his own integrity, +his God, his fellowman, and things immortal. Holding souls above +goods, holding his fellow as himself, holding himself in true respect, +and holding God above all, he stands and pleads, with a cogency that +is unanswerable, for verities as self-evident to any man as any man's +self-consciousness. All his claims in the heart of this address are +self-apparent. They are original convictions. They prove and approve +themselves. They make no call for substantiation. They confront every +man within himself, the light in his eye, the life in his heart, the +spring in his hope. They confront every man again within his neighbor. +They confront both men again, when together they look up to God. And +far within all forms that change, they confront all men forevermore in +things that immortally abide. + +This is the truth to which Lincoln pledged his troth, and in which he +besought all other men to plight their faith, in this address. The +vivid, ever-living dignity in man, discoverable by every man within +himself, to be greeted by every one in his brother-man, at once the +image and the handiwork of God--this defined all his faith, fired all +his zeal, woke all his eloquence, shaped all his argument, winged all +his hope. That such a being should be a slave, that such a being +should have a slave, was in his central conviction, of all wrong +deeds, the least defensible. It was the primal moral falsity, cruelty, +insult, and debasement. That such a sin should be atoned, at whatever +cost, was the primal task of purity, reverence, tenderness, and truth. +Holding such convictions, handling such concerns, for him to make the +statement was to give it demonstration. Against such convictions, and +in scorn of such concerns, no man could seriously contend without +assailing and, in the end, undoing himself. This was the citadel and +the weaponry of Lincoln's authority. + +And Lincoln found within these views the pledge of permanence. He saw +them bulwarked and corroborated by all the lessons and revelations of +history. All devices of human society, contending against these +rudimentary verities, had been proved pernicious and self-defeating a +thousand times. Only such behavior of man with man as harmonized with +the creative design, and sprang from endowments that were common to +all, could ever hope to last. Here is the sovereign lesson from all +the centuries past, and a sovereign challenge for all the centuries +to come. As Lincoln viewed it, he was handling a matter beyond debate, +when he talked of two centuries and a half of unrequited toil. If that +was not wrong, then nothing was wrong. There is the whole of Lincoln's +argument, and the whole of his authority. It stood true two hundred +and fifty years ago. It will hold fast two hundred and fifty years +hence. To deny this is to dethrone all law, turn every freeman's +highest boast to shame, and finally banish moral order from human +government and from human thought. That this could never be suffered +or confessed was the substance of Lincoln's argument, and the sum of +his authority. This and this alone was the sovereign lesson that the +sacrificial sorrows of the war were searing so legibly, that all the +world could read, upon the sinful Nation's breast. And in saying this, +Lincoln's voice was pleading as the voice of God. + + +HIS VERSATILITY--THE PROBLEM OF MERCY + +The study of Lincoln's authority, as it wields dominion in the last +inaugural, has brought to prominence his humble readiness to share +repentantly with all the Nation, in the bitter sorrows of the war, the +divine rebuke for sin. That sin was the wrong of holding slaves. But +in all the land, if any man was innocent of that iniquity, it was +Lincoln. And yet the honest Lincoln was never more sincere, more nobly +true and honest with himself, than in this deep-wrought co-partnership +with guilt. Surely here is call for thought. + +Lincoln's character was fertile. The principles that governed his +development were living and prolific. In his ethics, as in his bodily +tissues, he was alive. As the days and years went on, he grew. Like +vines and trees, he added to his stature constantly. New twigs and +tendrils were continually putting out, searching towards the sunshine +and the springs, and embracing all the field. And in all this increase +he was supremely pliable. While always firm and strong, he had a +wonderful capacity to bend. + +The primary, towering impulse working in Lincoln's life was ethical. +Amid the continual medley and confusion of things, he was continually +reaching and searching to find and plainly designate the right and the +wrong. This stands evident everywhere. Nowhere does this stand plainer +than in the period, when, at his second inaugural, he faced a second +presidential term. Still straining in the toil and turmoil, in the +intense and blinding passion of the war, he halts upon the threshold +of a second quadrennium of supreme responsibility, to see if he can +surely trace God's indication of what is right. The eternally right +was what he sought. He was after no mere expediency, no ephemeral +shift for ephemeral needs. The judgments of the Almighty Ruler of +Nations, true and righteous altogether and evermore, were what he +prayed to find and know. Then, if ever, Lincoln's earnestness was +moral. + +And for this search at just this time his eye was peculiarly sobered +and grave. Portentous problems were emerging, as the finish of the war +drew near. And these problems were new. What should the Nation, when +it laid aside its arms, decide to do with the seceded States, and with +those millions of untutored slaves? For that no precedent was at hand, +no direction in the laws. The conclusion must be original. And it must +be supreme. And its issues must hold wide sway for generations of +imperial, expanding growth. There loomed an impending peril, and a +test of statesmanship, demanding the wisdom, and integrity, and deep +foresight of a moral prince--a peril and a moral test but poorly met +by the men whom his untimely death thrust into Lincoln's place. For +bringing to perfection his ripening judgment upon that task, and so +for displaying another historic demonstration of Lincoln's moral +adaptability, the few short requisite years were mysteriously to be +denied. + +But upon other problems and in other days, there was ample revelation +of Lincoln's agile moral strength. His entire career in national +prominence provides outstanding demonstration of the continual full +mobility and plastic freedom of his moral powers. The civil war, which +he was conducting with such determination to its predestined end, as +he stood the central figure in this second inaugural scene, was but +the central vortex of a moral agitation in which all our national +principles and precedents were challenged and defied; and in which +statesmen of supremely facile, virile, moral sense were in exigent +demand. Problems were propounded constantly upon which our +Constitution shed no certain light, and the Constitution itself was in +a way to be overturned. + +Throughout this period of national discord and moral instability, +Lincoln was a leading, creative mind. The circuit of that career was +brief indeed, scarcely more than one decade. But in those dark, swift +years shine and cluster many illustrations of the rich and ready +fertility of his ethical postulates in the political realm. Man of the +people though he was, and acutely sensitive of his responsibility to +the people for every responsible act, he was in every judgment and +resolve every inch a king, openminded, original, free. Again, and +again, and again, he was the man for the hour. + +One demonstration of this is shown in his surprising readiness. With +whatever situation, he behaved as though familiar. Undisciplined in +diplomacy, he proved himself almost instantly a finished diplomat. +Totally untutored in all the acts and practices of war, but compelled +by his office to take sovereign command of the Nation's arms, and that +so suddenly that even the arms themselves could not be found, he +became one of the foremost critics and counselors of perilous and +intricate military campaigns. Unaccustomed to authority, but advanced +at a leap to the Nation's head, beleaguered by deadly animosities +among cliques and sections and States, encompassed by shameless +cabinet intrigues, he developed, as in one day, into manager, adviser, +administrator of political affairs, the most astute in all the land. + +A most impressive example of this adjustability is seen in his +manifold capacity for moral patience. It reveals how he could keep his +full integrity, while binding up his life and fortune inseparably with +men whose moral standards swayed far from his. Lincoln's first +inaugural gave luminous definition of his designs and hopes. The +principles there propounded were the ripe and firm convictions of a +thoughtful, honest life. They had been pronounced repeatedly before. +To their defense and consummation his heart and honor were pledged +irrevocably. Those propositions were the irreducible rudiments of his +faith, the permanent constituents of his hope. Surrender those +convictions and desires he never did, he never could. Within the ample +compass and easy play of those glowing sentiments there was no room +for secession, nor for war, nor for any bitterness, but only for +loyalty, fellowship, peace. But as he turned from that inauguration +and its declaration of his policy toward the execution of his trust, +he had to face and handle secession, war, and malicious defamation. He +had to see the Nation's holiest dignity desecrated, all his brotherly +offices disdained, the souls of men still held as rightful objects of +common trade, and the plainest decrees of God defied. This as shown +in the spirit and uprising of the impatient, imperious South. + +And within the North, in the very armies assembled for the Union's +defence, he had to find the very leaders and plotters of his campaigns +absorbed and overcome by petty jealousies, too despicable and +unpatriotic to be believed, and yet so real and vicious as to defeat +their battles before they were fought. And back among the Union +multitudes around his base, were men of might and standing, and men in +multitudes, who maligned his motives, and entangled his plans, until +antagonism the most malignant and resolved to all his views and +undertakings seemed to environ him on every side. + +To such conditions it was Lincoln's bitter obligation to conform. Many +men were ready with many fond prescriptions for the case; but they all +were marked by weak futility. They either brought the Nation no +complete relief, or else surrendered the Nation's very life. Within +the strain and pull from every side Lincoln felt the obligation of his +oath. + +The mood and method he employed (and let not the phrase be +misunderstood) was moral relaxation. This did not mean that he altered +aught of his pronounced belief, or varied by a single hair from his +announced design. He remembered his inaugural oath. He retained his +faith and hope, and held to his prime resolve unchanged. But he gave +the opposition time. He suffered malignants to malign, seceders to +rebel, detractors to impugn; and bore their taunts and blows and +wounds patiently, still abiding by his word. His very war was simply +for defense. The honor of the Union he would not yield up. His +brotherly friendliness he would not forego. His rating of freemen he +would not discount. The mandates of God he would not disobey. But +while on every hand these might be assailed and abjured, he repressed +all violence and vehemence of heart, and endured, and indulged, and +was still. + +Herein, however, his convictions and hopes wore a modified guise. +Their rigor softened; their lustre mellowed; their angles broadened; +their rudeness ripened; and his aspect passed through change; the +while his honor brightened and became more clear. This adjustment of +such a nature to such a fate is a massive illustration of moral +versatility. It is like keeping the steed to the course, while yet +laying the rein upon his neck. + +Through experience such as this it must have been that Lincoln +traversed his profoundest sorrow. Just here his critics and traducers +had their firmest hold. To the world at large his tactics did seem +slack, his method dilatory, his mood indifferent. Men wearied past +endurance at his delay, and charged repeatedly that he had betrayed +his trust. Such accusations must have been to his pure loyalty like +gall. And yet he must perforce be mute. It was not he, it was the +awful situation in which his noble life was manacled, that was so +incorrigible. With God and man he pleaded day and night that bloodshed +might be stayed, and peace possess the land. But an enemy was in the +land, determined not to leave his guns until the Union was dissolved, +and slavery vindicated as right. Rather than forsake the Union, and +own that men were as the brutes, he would die a thousand times. And +with a patience that no malice and no misfortune could wear away, he +held his post and kept his word, through torments too severe for +unheroic men to bear, producing thus upon his silent, sorrowful face a +humble replica of the divine long-suffering of the meek and lowly +Christ. And so he taught the world how in patience the righteousness +that abhors all wrong may turn its face toward sin with humble +meekness, through years that seem like centuries, and cause thereby +that pure and Godlike truth and love shall only be more glorious. + +But even with this the description of this case stands incomplete. To +understand it rightly further statements are required. After all his +patience, the South was obdurate. Even while in this last inaugural +Lincoln was pleading for universal charity, and seeking to banish +malice everywhere, the leaders of the armies in the South were +rallying their unrecruited ranks in a very desperation of hatred for +his principles, and of scorn for his forbearance. While he was +interpreting the desolations and sorrows of the war as God's +all-powerful punishment of slavery, our common national sin, they +resented with impassioned vehemence such an explanation, disclaimed +all guilt, and denied that slavery was wrong. + +Here emerged in Lincoln's thought Lincoln's supreme perplexity. He was +dealing with right and wrong, both only the more intensely real, +because so really concrete. Liberty and loyalty, loyalty to liberty, +the dignity of man, and the good pleasure of God--these were the +eternal principles, and the personal interests at stake. Antagonisms +were deadly virulent; and they were unrelenting. Compulsion was not +availing. Patience likewise failed. Here was a desperate call for +moral mastership. The man to meet the crisis, to join the cleft, to +reduce to moral harmony this discord of right and wrong, the man who +could resolve and morally unify this moral disagreement must have a +soul and an understanding whose insight and moral comprehension were +complete. + +Here Lincoln's moral grandeur gains its full dimension. And in this +consummation it comes clear to see how in very deed right and wrong, +evil and good, can be encompassed in a moral unison such that evil +remains the all-abhorrent thing, and good is proved to be alone +desired. This marvelous explication is found within the words and +tone of this last inaugural. It stands contained in perfect poise +within the mutual balancings of his princely pledge to abjure all +malice, show universal charity, and still pursue the awful guidance of +Almighty God in the prosecution of the war. Herein moral rigor, +forbearance, and gentleness do majestically coalesce. + +The breath and voice of this same moral mystery are felt and heard +again within this same inaugural in that bold prophetic exposition of +the Providential purport of the war. In the burning furnace of those +last four years, Lincoln's eyes had been purged to see how the ways of +God transcend the ways and thoughts of men. Both North and South, in +battle and in prayer, had failed to comprehend the thoughts of God. +All the movements of all their armies were being mightily over-ruled. +The purposes of the Almighty were his own. Both North and South had +gone astray. Neither side was wholly right. The land was under +discipline. The Nation had committed sin. That sin was destined for +requital. That requital was to be complete. The ways of God were true +and righteous altogether. All this the Nation must acquiescently +confess. For all the wrong of slavery requital must be made, +submissively, ungrudgingly, repentantly. Beneath that judgment every +heart must bow. The sin must be abjured. Its wrong must be abhorred. +Goodwill to all alike must be restored. And through it all the +Almighty must be adored. + +Like a solemn litany within a great cathedral, these solemn sentiments +of Lincoln resounded through the land, as, in want of any other +priest, Lincoln himself led the Nation to the altar of the Lord. He +truly led. And to an altar. In this inaugural, Lincoln, for all +Americans, bows and veils his own brave heart in sacrificial sorrow +and confession, to bear and suffer all that, as the Nation's due, and +for the Nation's rescue, it is the will of holy heaven to inflict. + +In this profound, spontaneous assumption of full co-partnership with +all the Nation in a Nation's undivided ill-desert; in this +uncomplaining acquiescence, while God inflicted upon the land, as an +awful scourge, all the shame and cost and sorrow that the woful wrong +of slavery had entailed; in this deep discernment that deep in every +heart ran and flourished all the baleful roots of greed and pride, of +injustice and cruelty, out from which all man's enbondagement of +brother man springs up; in this estimation of human slavery as a +primary sin, while receiving without repining its ultimate +doom--Lincoln unveils in his single heart, an abhorrence and an +endurance of our national sin, that makes him enduringly and +indivisibly the friend and brother of us all, accomplishing, in a +single moral experience, the pattern of the confession, and of the +resolution of our common wrong. Unto this, Lincoln's moral versatility +attained. Beyond this, moral versatility could never go. + +The same moral dextrousness, this facile power and fluent readiness to +fully comprehend and fitly meet the moral mastery of a problem, in +itself all but absolutely obstinate and impossible, this wondrous +deftness in compounding together guilt and grace in mutual compassion +and repentance, is shown in Lincoln's patiently repeated, but always +futile efforts to persuade the North and the South to come together, +and so bring slavery and all dissension to an end, by giving and +receiving fiscal reimbursement for the emancipation of the slaves. To +this magnanimous and unexampled proposition, offered in the midst of +war, and urged in words and tones of classic winsomeness, the North +and South could never be brought unitedly to consent. Therein this +moral hero stood like a king against the wrong, argued like a prophet +for the right, and led towards mutual penitence and sacrifice like a +priest. It is in human history one of the supremest illustrations of +moral versatility. Never were Lincoln's character and aim more stable +than in that plea. But never was mortal man more mobile. Beyond all +his contemporaries he observed and regarded the signs of the times. He +saw that the ancient order was certainly to change. He felt that an +almighty, a just, and a benignant Providence had assumed control. He +discerned that the new order was freighted with vast store of good. To +make its entrance gentle, so that nothing should be rent or wrecked, +was the sum of all his thought and toil. He took for pattern the +coming of the dew. For his method he adopted his own well-mastered and +transcendent art of brotherly persuasion. As to manner, he was +vestured in humility, desiring to eject and ban the pharisee from his +own and all other hearts. For prevailing motive he designated the +passing hour as a time of unexampled opportunity. "So much good," he +said, "has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the +Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do." And for +admonition he pointed to the vastness of the future, and a possible +lament over a pitiful neglect. But it was all for naught. For such a +moral transmutation and free triumph the embattled Nation was +unprepared. + +But over against that unrelenting rigor, his moral readiness to meet +his brother, friend or foe, in free and mutual sacrifice, glows +beautifully. Deep in the heart of his design was struggling +heroically, and in balanced moral unison, the Godlike spirit of +eternal justice, mercy, and conciliation. In his strong breast all +pride was crucified, malice was melted down to tenderness, hypocrisy +and sordidness were purged away. His moral outlook was now +unobstructed, open every way. Then his soul stood fleet and free for +any path within the moral universe. With every man in this broad land +he stood ready to journey or sojourn, meek to suffer, resolute to +prevail. Sharing with the wrongdoer and the wronged alike their shame +and suffering and sin, while urging with immortal eagerness towards +fairness and happiness and peace, he resolved and overcame the problem +of the slaveholder and the slave, and made this land forever the +universal refuge of the free. In such a transmutation, first within +himself, and then throughout the land, moral as it is in every fiber, +and from circumference to core, is perfect moral concord. Thus, in +moral discord, moral freedom finds the way to peace, while full +responsibility remains unchangeably supreme. Here is the final, +perfect triumph of moral ingenuity. Thus by means of mercy, freely +offered and freely received, through mutual fellowship in moral +suffering, wrong may be comprehended, and fully overcome, in the +unchanged dominion of the right. So moral freedom and moral +consistency combine. Men's lives become vicarious. Thus moral +versatility culminates, and overcomes, and wins the sovereign moral +crown. + + +HIS PATIENCE--THE PROBLEM OF MEEKNESS + +In the chapter just preceding, Lincoln's patience came into allusion +and review. That quality deserves a somewhat closer, separate +examination. When Lincoln took his last inaugural oath, he based its +meaning upon a statement in his inaugural address, that all the havoc +of the war was, under God, a penalty and atonement for a wrong that +had been inflicted and endured for centuries. In this interpretation +he subtly interwove a pleading intimation that all the land, in +reverent acquiescence with the righteous rule of God, should meekly +bow together to bear the awful sacrifice. And, deep within this open +exposition of his prophetic thought, there gleamed the hidden pledge, +inherent in his undiluted honesty, that he himself would not decline, +but would rather stand the first, to bear all the sorrow consequent +upon such wrong. + +Here is an attitude, and here a proposition which men and Nations are +forever prone to scorn; but which all Nations and all men will be +compelled or constrained at last to heed. Therein are published and +enacted verities, than which none known to men are more profound, or +vast, or vested with a higher dignity. They demand attention here. + +The statement made by Lincoln pivots on "offenses." Strong men, in +pride and arrogance of strength, had wronged the weak. Weak men, in +the lowliness and impotence of their poverty, had borne the wrong. In +such conditions of painful moral strain the centuries had multiplied. +Those long-drawn years of violence had heightened insolence into a +defiance all but absolute. Those selfsame years of suffering had +deepened ignominy into all but absolute despair. Through banishment of +equity and charity, of purity and humility, while all the heavenly +oracles seemed mute, fear and hope alike seemed paralyzed. The +oppressor seemed to have forgotten his eternal obligation to be kind +and fair. The oppressed seemed to have surrendered finally his +God-like dignity. The times seemed irreversible. + +Here is a problem that, while ever mocking human wisdom, refuses to be +mocked. It enfolds a wrong, undoubted moral wrong; else naught is +right. It overwhelms. Within its awful deeps multitudes have been +submerged. And it is unrelieved. It outwears the protests and appeals +of total generations of unhelped, indignant hearts. + +This problem Lincoln undertook to understand. In his conclusion was +proclaimed the vindication of the meek. Beneath that age-long wrong, +beneath the silence and delay of God, and beneath the final +recompense, he prevailed upon his heart, and pleaded with other hearts +to stand in suffering, hopeful acquiescence. Among these sorrows, so +wickedly inflicted, without relief, and without rebuke, let patience +be perfected. Here let meekness grow mature. Let confidence in our +equal and unconquered manhood, and let faith in God not fail to +overcome all Godlessness and inhumanity. Let time be trusted +absolutely to prove all wrong iniquitous. Let the worth inherent in +undying souls be shown to be indeed immortal. + +Here is Lincoln's resolution of this profound enigma, a resolution +unfolding all its mystery, and involving all his character. Here +Lincoln won his crown. This is all his meaning in abjuring malice, and +invoking charity. Too kindly to indulge resentment, whatever the +provocation, and too sensible of his own integrity to ever court +despair, he appealed to God's eternal justice and compassion, and +clung to a hope that no anguish or delay could overcome. This is +Lincoln's patience. This is the inmost secret of his moral strength. +This is his piercing and triumphant demonstration that in this +troubled world, where sin so much abounds, it is the meek who shall +finally prevail. + +This moral patience deserves to be explored. It comprehends +ingredients, quite as worthy to be kept distinct, as to be seen in +unison. For one thing it identified him with slaves. Therein he bore a +grave reproach. Its weight only he himself could rightly compute. +Beneath the rude and among the hurt he took deliberate stand. Among +the lowly, before the scorner, he held his place. He braved the +master's taunts. He penetrated to its heart the cause that kept the +black man mute. He measured out, but without indifference, as without +complaint, the divine delay. He courted in his thought on slavery a +perfect consciousness of its sin. He examined with nicest carefulness +the sufferers' impulse towards revenge. He knew the awful misery in +human shame. He shared with honest men their proudest aspirations. And +all of this, he shared with blacks, not by compulsion, but as a +volunteer. + +Herein, and in the second place, he held fast the fundamental claims +that every slave retained an ineffaceable affinity with God; that this +divine inheritance, however deep the negro's poverty, could never be +annulled or forfeited; that friendliness with fellowmen, however hard +or sad their lot, was no reproach; that in human sorrows it well +becometh human hearts, as it becometh God, to remember to be pitiful; +that all invasion or neglect of those inherent human rights and +dignities was bound to be avenged; that in God's good time all patient +souls would be crowned with song; and that thus his open championship +of the cause of slaves was in perfect keeping with his own unaltered +and unalterable self-respect. + +A third ingredient in Lincoln's patience was its conspicuous and +inseparable impeachment of oppression. Lincoln's patience under moral +wrong made him no neutral morally. Without fear and without reserve, +he held before oppressors, however hard or strong, the enormity of +their wrong. Before the cruel their cruelty was displayed. Before the +arrogant their arrogance was reflected back. Before the base and foul +their sordidness was brought to light. Before disloyal men the perfidy +of covenant disloyalty was nakedly unveiled. All the wrongs inwrought +and undergone in slavery were recited with insistent accuracy and +unreserve. Of all those centuries of unpaid toil each month and year +were reckoned up. Of all those sins against pure womanhood and +helpless infancy each tell-tale face was told numerically. The moral +wrong in slavery was set before its advocates and beneficiaries +unsparingly. Patience, whether God's or man's, and whether for one day +or for a thousand years, can never be interpreted or understood to +diminish sin's iniquity. Its prolonged persistence only aggravates its +guilt. + +In the fourth place, there was in Lincoln's patience a waiting +deference before God's silence and delay. His total confidence was in +God. That God was negligent, or indifferent, he would not concede. His +whole abhorrence of oppression was based on God's decree. Here rested +also all his hope of recompense. Vengeance belongs to God. He will +rebuke the mighty, and redeem the meek. In both, his righteousness +will be complete. And when his judgments fall, all men must own +adoringly his perfect equity. + +Finally, in Lincoln's patience there is explicit recognition and +confession of his own complicity with all the land, in the wrong to +slaves, and of his own and all the land's delinquency before the Lord, +in failure to discern and approbate the divine designs. It had been +left with God's far greater patience and far higher moral jealousy to +overcome and overwhelm and overrule the devious plans and ways of +erring men. In lowly acquiescence it was for him and the land to +acquaint themselves with God's designs, confess their wanderings, +accept his will alike in redemption and rebuke, and unite henceforth +to represent and praise on earth his perfect equity and grace. + +Here are the elements in Lincoln's patience, and here their sum. +Forming with the lowly and oppressed a free and intimate partnership; +avowing jealously for all mankind a coequal dignity among themselves +and an imperishable affinity with God; declaring unflinchingly to all +who tyrannize the full enormity of their primal sin; restraining +malice and all avenging deeds; confessing his own misjudgments and +misdeeds among his fellowmen and before the Lord; he endures +submissively the divine delays, and shares repentantly with all who +sin the judgments of a perfect righteousness. Genuinely pitiful for +suffering men, sharply jealous for human worth, direct as light to +designate the shame in pride, docile as a child before the righteous +and eternal rule of God, he illustrates and demonstrates how a perfect +patience makes requisition in a noble man of all his noblest +manliness. + +But worthy as are all its qualities, its exercise entails stern +discipline in suffering. It costs a man his life. That this was +Lincoln's understanding, as he traversed the responsibility of that +last inauguration day, is witnessed unmistakably by his letter to +Thurlow Weed respecting his inaugural address. These are his words, +well worthy to be reproduced a second time:-- + +"I believe it (the address) is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I +thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in +it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me +to tell it." + +"Most directly on myself." There Lincoln bares his heart to God and +man, in order that upon himself might fall the first, the deepest, and +the most direct humiliation. At one with slaves, despised by pride, +astray from God prepared for sacrifice--but attesting still that +slaves were men, that robbery was wrong, that God was just--so he +stands. + +But, be it said again and yet again, in such a posture looms nobility. +In meekness such as this is nothing craven. It beseems true royalty. +Bowing before his God to receive rebuke, bowing to make confession +before his fellowmen, he stands as on a hilltop, announcing and +declaring to all the world how arrogance proves men base, how +lowliness may be beautiful, how reverend are God's mysteries, how just +and pitiful his ways. Here is a kingliness that no crown can rightly +symbolize. Here is a victory that is not won with swords. In the very +attitude is final triumph. It bravely claims, and truly overcomes the +world. In such a patience there is present instantly, and in full +possession, the vigor of undying hope, and the title of a firstborn +son to the heritage of the earth. + +This capacity in Lincoln's patience for the close allegiance of +self-devotion and self-respect, of sympathy and jealousy, is shown +dramatically in his tournament with Douglas in 1858. Throughout those +speeches, replies, and rejoinders Lincoln held fast his full +fraternity with the slaves, while repressing with his fullest vigor +every onslaught against his personal integrity. + +The date of those debates marked over four full years, since Douglas +had championed through Congress into finished legislation a bill that +abrogated all federal limitation of slavery, and opened an +unrestricted possibility of its further spread forever, wherever any +local interest might so desire. That bill obtained the presidential +signature in May of 1854. During the succeeding years Douglas had been +shaping public sentiment by his almost royal influence in public +speech towards a stereotyped acceptance of the principles and +implications of that law. Under his aggressive leadership his party +had been well solidified upon three political postulates, which he +declared essential not alone to party fealty, but to any permanent +national peace. These three postulates were the following:-- + +Slavery is in no sense wrong. + +Slavery is to be treated as a local interest only. + +These principles have been sanctioned perfectly by history. + +From these fundamental postulates flowed numerous corollaries:-- + +Black men are an inferior race. This inferiority has been stamped upon +this race indelibly by God. The Declaration of Independence did not +and does not include the blacks in its affirmations about equality. + +This country contains vast sections precisely fitted to be occupied by +slavery. + +Local interests being essentially diverse, as for example between +Alabama and Maine, decisions as to local affairs will also be diverse. +This entails divergent treatment of black men, just as of herds and +crops. + +To the rights of stronger races to enslave the blacks, the fathers who +framed our government, our national history since, and the age-long +fate of Africa unitedly bear witness. + +Counter to these three major postulates of Douglas, Lincoln set the +following three:-- + +The enslavement of men is wrong. + +The treatment of slavery is a federal concern. + +Our history has contained, and still contains a compromise. Our +fathers deemed slavery a wrong. But finding it present when they +framed our government, and finding its removal impossible at the time, +they arranged for its territorial limitation, for its gradual +diminishment, and for its ultimate termination. + +From these three fundamental postulates in Lincoln's arguments flowed +also various corollaries:-- + +The sinfulness of slavery roots in the elemental manhood of the slave. +This manhood warrants his elemental claim to the employment and +enjoyment of his life in liberty. + +In our form of government, things local and things federal being held +within their respective realms respectively supreme, things locally +divergent lead to federal compromise. + +Certain sections of the country in particular, and the Nation in +general being committed, either from policy or from choice, to foster +slavery; men who hate the thing as wrong must in patient meekness +endure its presence, until in God's own time its presence and its sin +and guilt shall be removed. + +As will be seen at once, for the purposes of a popular debate, the +postulates of Douglas were easier to defend. Of the two sets of +premises, his seemed the more simple, more explicit, more direct, more +telling with a crowd; while those of Lincoln, by reason of that moral +and historical compromise, seemed more confused, more evasive, and not +so apt to take the multitude. In the nature of the debate Lincoln had +to shape his propositions and replies to face two ways:--towards the +practical emergencies of our history and form of government, on the +one hand; and on the other hand, towards an ideal nowhere yet +attained, and seemingly unattainable. Whereas Douglas, quite +unconcerned about any ideal motives in the past, as of any vision of +an ideal day to come, but dealing solely with the political situation +that day occurrent, could make every affirmation and every thrust +against his adversary seem straight, and clear, and impossible to +refute. This very practical and substantial disadvantage Lincoln had +to bear. Questions that Douglas would answer decisively, and +instantly, and with absolute distinctness, Lincoln would be compelled +to labor with, in careful deference both to our Constitutional +protection of slavery, and to its moral wrong. + +This situation in those debates deserves a close attention. The +difference in the two positions was most profound. That this deep +difference was laid fully bare was the supreme resultant of the +debate. It was indeed a difference in principles. But stated yet more +narrowly, it was a difference in nothing less than estimates of men, +and attitudes towards wrong. It was not a difference in abstract +theorems. It was vastly more. It was a difference in the personal +qualities of the two protagonists. To test this affirmation let any +one imagine Douglas producing from his heart the sentiments, and +arranging in his thought the arguments of Lincoln's last inaugural. +Douglas sadly erred in his opinion of his time. In Lincoln, in those +debates, our government, our history, our ideal as a great Republic +stood incorporate. Like our noble history, he patiently endured and +bore what he instinctively and inveterately abhorred. This pathetic +situation, this invincible anomaly in our national career, is +pathetically re-enacted in the fate of Lincoln in these debates. + +This at bottom, and this at last is what those flashing falchions and +ringing shields declare. This explains the genesis and the actual +course of those painful personalities. And it is to study this that +these debates have been introduced. In the personal thrusts of those +debates two qualities in Lincoln become pre-eminent. He would not +forsake his humble championship of slaves. He would accept no thrust +against his personal integrity. Let those debates be read, and +re-perused until those cardinal elements in Lincoln's attitude come +clear. And let it be observed that in no single personality was +Lincoln's thrust initial. Douglas opened the debate. In his opening +speech he made direct assertions and indirect intimations too gross to +be termed subtle, and too staring to be called disguised; imputing and +suggesting that Lincoln was in character a coward and a cheat, in his +politics a revolutionary, and in his social proclivities contemptible. +These same charges were made with unrelenting persistency and +reiteration by Douglas throughout the series of the debates. + +To every imputation Lincoln made definite and reiterated reply, +denouncing them roundly as unwarranted and inexcusable impeachment of +his honor, his veracity, and his candor. And then, with measured and +exact equivalence, he dealt out to Douglas's face a list of counter +personalities of sharply parallel and actual transactions in Douglas's +life, meriting precisely his own reproach. And he pressed the battle +home so hard that Douglas, in an impassioned height of protest, +demanded if Lincoln meant to carry his tactics up to "personal +difficulty." + +All this is painful confessedly to review. One wishes earnestly, just +as with the later civil war, it might never have occurred. But it +should be remembered that every retort of Lincoln was, as in the war +itself, in personal defense. Lincoln was not the assailant. But once +his honor was assailed, it was not the nature of that honor to stand +so mute that his own character seemed rightly smirched, while justice +rested with his adversary. And so, in self-defense, as in his speech +at Quincy, he carefully details, he vigorously returned each thrust. +And this, be it constantly recalled, not in any selfishness, not for +wounded pride, not for unction to a hurt, not in any vengeful heat; +but just as in the following war, in absolute unselfishness, void of +malice, in the ministry of charity, that the honor of all men might be +saved, and that the Union with its boon of universal freedom and +equality might not perish from the earth. + +Such was Lincoln's patience, in those earlier debates, and in this +last inaugural, the same. While bearing voluntarily in his single life +all the opprobrium borne by slaves; through all that fellowship and +sympathy, and on its sole behalf, he guarded his own honor with an +infinite jealousy. But it was honor saved for suffering. His life was +sacrificial. He learned to know full well, but willingly, what +meekness costs. Not alone from a political antagonist and an embattled +South, but from a multitude of active dissentients besides throughout +the North, from Congress, and from the close circle of his cabinet he +had to bear with blind misunderstandings, and malignant +misrepresentations of the deeds and qualities and motives of his +perplexed and overburdened life. + +But whatever his shortcomings or mistakes, whatever his follies or +sins, two affirmations about his life will hold forever true. He bore +his load. And he kept his path. Through all that stern campaign for +liberty and union he turned neither to the right nor to the left. +Sorrows and contentions surrounded him continually. But he descried a +better time. To speed that day he welcomed sacrifice. He lived and +died for nothing else. To show the priceless worth of freemen in a +mighty multitude, in a civic league of lasting unison and peace was +his supreme commission and consuming wish. To bring that vision near +he aspired and submitted to be its pattern and its devotee. + + +HIS RISE FROM POVERTY--THE PROBLEM OF INDUSTRIALISM + +In his first public speech, seeking election to the State Legislature +of Illinois in 1832, Lincoln said: "I was born, and have ever +remained, in the most humble walks of life." He adds: "If the good +people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I +have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much +chagrined." In the same speech he said: "I have no other (ambition) so +great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering +myself worthy of their esteem." + +Here are three phrases that epitomize Lincoln's ideals and Lincoln's +career:--"the most humble walks of life;" "too familiar with +disappointments;" and "rendering myself worthy of their esteem." There +at the age of twenty-three we are apprised of Lincoln's poverty, of +his ambition, and of his adversity. In the same address he says: "I +have no wealthy or popular relatives or friends to recommend me." At +that time he had been but two years in the State. + +In pondering this brief and frank appeal one wonders at the blending +of the youthful and the mature, the daring and the wary, the ardent +and the chastened, the eager and the sedate, the wistful and the +resigned. What had been the inner and the outer history and fortune of +him, who at the age of twenty-three could talk of being "familiar with +disappointments"--so familiar with experiences of reverse that he +could bear the public refusal of his one greatest ambition, that +public's "true esteem," without being "much chagrined." Plainly in +Lincoln's early life there was a great heart, cherishing a high hope, +but environed with poverty, familiar with reversals, unchampioned, +unknown. Already he was being refined by manifold discipline. Already +in that refining fire he had fixed his eye and set his face to win his +neighbor's true esteem. Therein one comprehends his whole career. Out +of oblivion and solitude and direst poverty he passed by sheer +self-mastery to the highest national authority and renown. Of all the +distance and of all the way between those "humblest walks" and that +commanding eminence, and of all the pregnant meaning to him and to all +Americans, and indeed to every son of Adam, of that achievement, +Lincoln had a marvelous discerning sense. He knew full well its vast +significance and he never let its vivid recollection lapse. It was +always in his living consciousness. + +One impressive proof and token that the meaning of his advancement had +permanent place in his remembrance, and that he deemed his fortune an +ideal and a type of our American government and life has been +preserved in the tone and substance of his address in Independence +Hall, when on his way to his first great inauguration. Standing there +at the age of forty-one, the Nation's president-elect, and "filled +with deep emotion," he said: "I have never had a feeling politically +that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence." And to give that statement explanation he said, "I have +often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept +this Confederacy so long together." And for answer to that inquiry he +points to "that sentiment in the Declaration which gave liberty not +alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all +future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the +weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all +should have an equal chance." "Liberty," "hope," "promise," "weights +lifted," "an equal chance," "to all," "for all," "of all," "all," "in +due time"--these are the terms that answered the question over which +he "often pondered" and "often inquired." This was the "great +principle," the "idea" which held the Confederacy together. This was +the "basis" on which, if he could save the country, he would be "one +of the happiest men in the world, if he could help to save it." This +was the principle concerning which he exclaimed: "If this country +cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say +that I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than surrender +it"--words whose purport is seen to be nothing less than tragic, when +we recall the peril of death, which he was consciously facing in that +very hour from a deep laid conspiracy against his life. + +Thus spoke Lincoln within ten days of his inauguration, in a speech +which he says was "wholly unprepared." But the day before, in a speech +at Trenton, he characterized that same "idea" as that "something more +than common" which away back in childhood, the earliest days of his +being able to read, he recollected thinking, "boy though I was," was +the "treasure" for which "those men struggled." That "something" he +then defines as "even more than national independence;" and as holding +out "a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to +come." + +This lifting of weights from the shoulders of men, this equal chance +for all; this was the liberty for which the fathers fought, this was +the hope which their Declaration enshrined, this it was whose +preservation Lincoln longed to secure above any other happiness, this +it was for which he was all but ready to die. + +There Lincoln spoke his heart. There he voiced his highest hopes. +There he traced his patriotism to its roots. And there too he touched +the quick nerve of his own disappointments, of his own often futile +endeavors and desires. And there as well his living sympathy with +other men, encumbered with disadvantage and defeat, found mighty +utterance. Lifting weights from the shoulders of all men--that in "due +time" this should be achieved he judged and felt to be the single +sovereign meaning of our national destiny. + +Of just this national destiny Lincoln's personal life was a strangely +full epitome. His shoulders knew full well the pressure of those +"weights." His soul knew all the awful volume of sorrow as of joy, +that poured about the denial or the enjoyment of an "equal chance." +From the humblest walks to the foremost seat he had been permitted to +thread his way. That liberty he chiefly sought in struggling youth. +That liberty he chiefly prized as president. And this, not alone for +himself, not alone for all Americans, but for "all the world." Thus +spoke Lincoln, "all unprepared" in February of 1861. + +But these spontaneous words were no passing breath of transient +sentiments. In July of that same year he sent to Congress his first +Message. That paper was Lincoln's studied and formal argument, a +president's deliberate State Paper, addressing to Congress his +responsible demonstration that the war was a necessity. In that +argument and demonstration his fundamental postulate was a definition +of our government. In that definition he affirms its "leading object" +to be "to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights +from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to +afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of +life." And so he calls the war a "people's contest." And he speaks of +its deeper purport as something that "the plain people understand." +And he speaks of the loyalty of all the common soldiers--not one of +whom was known to have deserted his flag--as "the patriotic instinct +of the plain people." + +Those words of Lincoln in Trenton and Philadelphia, defining the +"leading object" in the minds of the founders of our government in the +hours of its birth-travail, define his own idea and ideal as he +approached the hour of his presidential oath. That a national +government, thus beneficently designed for the equal weal of all, +should be preserved inviolate and preserved from dissolution was his +supreme desire and his supreme resolve. Its majesty and its integrity +must be held most sacred and most jealously preserved. This was the +apple of his eye. By the light of this ideal and in the pursuit of +this alluring, wistful hope he studied and judged all the movements of +his time. And in this, his initial message, he registers his official +verdict upon those surrounding evolutions and events. A vast and +ever-expanding Confederacy of intelligent and resolute men, leagued +together in a Union of Confederate States, and pledged to secure to +all men within its bounds a clear path, an unfettered start, and a +fair chance in every laudable pursuit, was judged by him a civic +undertaking too preciously freighted with promise and hope for the +welfare of the world to be ever disrupted and destroyed by the +disloyalty and the withdrawal of any one or any cluster of its +constituent parts. It was a Union as sacred and holy as all the worth +and all the hopes of men. To separate from such a league was a capital +disloyalty. To disintegrate such a unison was the ultimate inhumanity. +To stand fast forever by such a federation was a crowning fidelity. To +preserve, protect and defend such a Union, at whatever cost of life or +wealth, and therein to adventure however sacred honor was a primary +and a final obligation. By its perpetual preservation unimpaired was +secured to all mankind the vision and the priceless promise of liberty +and hope. By secession, defiance, and violent assault, that precious +human treasure was being endangered and defiled. Hence his anxious +all-consuming eagerness as he approached his ominous task. Hence his +firm acceptance of awful, inevitable war. + +Such were the marshalings of Lincoln's thoughts and sentiments as he +approached and undertook his mighty work--fit prelude in Independence +Hall, and befitting explanation and defense in the Halls of Congress +of the mighty rallying of those regiments of men for the awful combats +of a people's war. + +This was Lincoln's argument. That the rights of life and liberty and +happiness were designed and decreed by the Maker of all to be equal +for all was for him, as an American, and for him as a fellow and a +friend of all, under God, an axiom. And to that firm truth the war was +but a corollary. Because the Union was a league of freemen, kindred to +God, and peers among themselves, bound together in mutual goodwill and +for mutual weal, it must at all hazards and through all perils and +sorrows be made perpetual. Not that slavery should be immediately +removed, though its existence in such a league was an elemental +unworthiness and affront; but that the Union should be forever secured +was his immediate aspiration and resolve. This once achieved and +forever assured, and slavery with every other kindred inequality would +in "due time" be done away. + +This is the key and the core of his ringing and irresistible retort to +Greeley. This was the inspiration of that immortal appeal at +Gettysburg, the very pledge and secret of its excellence and +immortality--the plea that government of the people, by the people, +for the people should not perish from the earth. + +And it was definitively this axiomatic verity that provided to his +deeply thoughtful mind that deeply philosophic interpretation of the +divine intention in the war, which he so carefully enshrined within +his last inaugural. The sin of slavery had transgressed a primary law +of God. Human shoulders had been heavily laden with artificial +weights. Brother men had been denied by fellow-men an equal start. The +paths of laudable pursuit were not kept equally clear to all. +Multitudes of men, by the inhuman tyranny of the strong upon the +weak, and that from birth to death, had been accorded no fair chance. +Men had toiled for centuries, and that beneath the lash, without +requital. Hence the awful doom and woe of war--God's visitation upon +ourselves of our own offense, the wasting of our unholy wealth and the +leveling of our inhuman pride. And all of this was being guided +through to its predestined and most holy end with the divine design +that through the awful baptism of blood our national life should begin +anew in humble reverence for him whose just and fiery jealousy demands +that all his little ones shall share with all the mightiest in equal +rights. Thus Lincoln viewed the war as God's avenging vindication of +the just and gracious principles that all men everywhere are entitled +to share together equally in liberty and hope. + +But Lincoln felt all of this to be, not alone the law of God, but +quite as truly the common and compelling affirmation of the human +heart. This way and style of phrasing it found eloquent annunciation +in that earliest and unanswerable address respecting slavery at Peoria +in October of 1854, where were deeply laid and may still be seen the +foundations of all his power and fame. In that address he said, "My +faith in the proposition, that each man should do precisely as he +pleases with all which is exclusively his own, lies at the foundation +of the sense of justice there is in me." And upon that foundation he +laid this cornerstone of social and civic order: "No man is good +enough to govern another man without that other man's consent." To so +invade the liberty of another man is "despotism." Such invasion is +"founded in the selfishness of man's nature." "Opposition to it is +founded in his sense of justice." "These principles are in eternal +antagonism." When they collide, "shocks and throes and convulsions +must ceaselessly follow." These sentiments of liberty are above +repeal. Though you repeal all past history, "you cannot repeal human +nature." Out of the "abundance of man's heart" "his mouth will +continue to speak." And to demonstrate that this sentiment of liberty, +this consciousness that human worth is sovereign, is a verity of human +nature which even holders of slaves corroborate, he points to the over +400,000 free negroes then in the land. Their presence is proof that +deep in all human hearts is a "sense of human justice and sympathy" +continually attesting "that the poor negro has some natural right to +himself, and that those who deny it and make merchandise of him +deserve kickings, contempt and death." This irrepealable law of the +human heart was a mighty rock of confidence in Lincoln's social and +political faith. All men were made to be free, and entitled equally to +a happy life; and of this divine endowment all men everywhere were +well aware. Human nature is by its nature the birthplace and the home +of liberty and hope. + +Especially serviceable for the purposes of this study upon +Industrialism is the section in Lincoln's Message to Congress of +December, 1861, dealing with what he calls our "popular institutions." +With his eagle eye he discerns in the Southern insurrection an +"approach of returning despotism." The assault upon the Union was +proving itself, under his gaze, an attack upon "the first principles +of popular government--the rights of the people." And against that +assault he raised "a warning voice." + +In this warning he treats specifically the relation of labor and +capital. In this discussion his motive is single and clear. He detects +a danger that so-called labor may be assumed to be so inseparably +bound up and indentured with capital as to be subject to capital in a +sort of bondage; and that, once labor, whether slave or hired, is +brought under that assumed subjection, that condition is "fixed for +life." + +Both of these assumptions he assails. Labor is not a "subject state;" +nor is capital in any sense its master. There is "no such thing as a +free man's being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer." +So he affirms. And then he argues that "labor is prior to and +independent of capital." "Capital is only the fruit of labor." "Labor +is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher +consideration." Hired labor, and capital that hires and labors +not--these do both exist; and both have rights. But "a large majority +belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others +working for them." This is measurably true even in the Southern +States. While in the Northern States a large majority are "neither +hirers nor hired." And even where free labor is employed for hire, +that condition is not "fixed for life." "Many independent men +everywhere in these Northern States, a few years back in their lives, +were hired laborers." The "penniless," if "prudent," "labors for wages +awhile;" "saves a surplus;" "then labors on his own account;" and "at +length hires another new beginner to help him." "This is the just and +generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope +to all." Here is a form of "political power;" here is a "popular +principle" that underlies present national prosperity and strength, +and infolds a pledge of its certain future abounding expansion. Thus +Lincoln argued in his Annual Message of 1861. + +In his Annual Message of 1862, he pursued in a similar strain, a vital +and kindred aspect of the same industrial theme. He was arguing with +Congress in favor of compensated emancipation. In the course of that +argument, speaking of the relation of freed negroes to white labor +and white laborers, he said: "If there ever could be a proper time for +mere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In time like the +present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly +be responsible through time and in eternity." And then, after +appealing with utmost patience and consideration and with ideal +persuasiveness to every better sentiment and to every proper interest, +he drew towards the close of his plea with these arresting, prophetic, +almost forboding words, words richly worth citation for a second +time:--"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise +with the occasion." "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall +save our country." "We cannot escape history." "The fiery trial +through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the +latest generation." "We know how to save the Union." "We--even we +here--hold the power and bear the responsibility." "In giving freedom +to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what +we give and what we preserve." "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth." "The way is plain, peaceful, generous, +just--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and +God must forever bless." + +Thus Lincoln voiced, and in terms that human-kind will not lightly +suffer to be forgotten, his seasoned and convinced belief about the +principles that should hold dominion in the industrial realm. They +reveal that in his chastened and chastening faith Civics and Economics +are merged forever in Ethics, and that therein they are forever at +one. Individuals, however lowly or however strong; parties or +combinations of men or wealth, however massive or however firm; +governments or nations, however puissant, ambitious or proud, are +alike endowed and alike enjoined with sovereign duties and with +sovereign rights. The negro, however poor, may not be robbed or +exploited or bound by any master, however grand. The soil of a +neighboring government, however alluring its promise of expansion or +wealth, may never be invaded or annexed by force of any Nation's arms, +however exalted and humane that Nation's professions and aims. If any +man, or any Nation of men be but meagerly endowed, that humble +heritage is inviolably theirs forever to enjoy. The person of Dred +Scott and the soil of Mexico are holy ground--heaven-appointed +sanctuaries that no oppressor or invader may ever venture to profane. +If to any nation, or to any man "God gave but little, that little let +him enjoy." Slavery and tyranny are iniquitous economy. "Take from him +that is needy" is the rule of the slaveholder and the tyrant. "Give to +him that is needy" is the rule of Christian charity. As between the +strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the timid and the bold, +"this good earth is plenty broad enough for both." + +Here is indeed an eternal struggle. But underneath is "an eternal +principle." And among the many Nations of the earth this American +people are bringing to this principle in the face of all the world a +world-commanding demonstration of its benign validity. By the sweat of +his face shall man eat bread. And the fruit of his toil shall man +enjoy. + +So would Lincoln guard, in the industrial world, against all +exaggeration and all infringement of human liberties and rights, and +this quite as much for the sake of the strong as in defense of the +weak. Tyranny, in despoiling the weak, despoils the tyrant too. +Liberty does harm to none, but brings rich boon to all. Thus Lincoln +cherished freedom. + +But deep within this treasured liberty Lincoln saw the shining jewel +of human hope. And hope with him was ever neighborly. And this +generous sentiment, expanding forever in his heart, he cherished, not +merely as common civilian, but as president. It was while at +Cincinnati, on his way to his inauguration, that he said, "I hold that +while man exists it is his duty not only to improve his own condition, +but also to assist in ameliorating mankind." "It is not my nature, +when I see people borne down by the weight of their shackles ... to +make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but +rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke." + +But true as was Lincoln's view of our national mission, and clear and +just and generous as was his own desire, he saw in the Nation's path +before his face a mighty obstacle. He knew the fascination of +"property." And he knew that this fascination held its malevolent +sway, even though that "property" was vested in human life. Here was +the brunt of all his battle. The slaves of his day had a "cash value" +at a "moderate estimate" of $2,000,000,000. He saw that this property +value had "a vast influence on the minds of its owners." And he knew +that this was so "very naturally" that the same amount of property +"would have an equal influence ... if owned in the North;" that "human +nature is the same;" that "public opinion is founded to great extent +on a property basis;" that "what lessens the value of property is +opposed;" that "what enhances its value is favored." + +With this prevailing tendency, native and universal in all men alike, +he had to deal. Indeed he had no other problem. All his presidential +difficulties reduced to this:--the universal greed of men for gain; +and deep within this inborn greed, man's inborn selfishness. And all +his all-absorbing toil and thought as statesman and as president were +to exalt in human estimation the values in men above all other gain. +This desire lay deep in his heart at the beginning of his struggle in +1854. At the end of his conflict in those closing days of his life in +1865 this longing came forth as pure and shining gold thrice refined. + +From the time of his second election his thoughts moved with an almost +unwonted constancy upon these upper heights. With immeasurable +satisfaction he brooded and pondered over the emerging issues of the +stupendous strife. With an almost mother's love he considered and +counted over and reckoned up those outcomes of the sacrifice that +should worthily endure. With a vision purged of every form of vanity +and every form of selfishness, not as a miser, but in very deed with a +mother's pride and inner joy, he recited over the precious inventory +of the chastened Nation's wealth. + +Touching evidence of this is in his habitual tone of speech when +addressing soldiers returning from the field to their homes. Over and +over again he would remind the men of the vital principle at stake, +alike in war and in peace. "That you may all have equal privileges in +the race of life;" that there may be "an open field and a fair chance +for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence--this is 'our +birthright,' our 'inestimable pearl.' Nowhere in the world is +presented a government of so much liberty and equality." "To the +humblest and the poorest among us are held out the highest privileges +and positions." It is hard to say, when he was voicing his +satisfaction and his gratitude to these returning regiments, to which +his words were most directly addressed, to the soldier in the uniform, +or to the citizen. All those veteran soldiers were to his discerning +eyes the precious sterling units of the Nation's lasting wealth. In +their service as defenders of the Union they had saved the most +precious human heritage that human history ever knew or human hope +conceived. And of that heritage and hope they were themselves the +exponent. Their service under arms and their civilian life in coming +days of peace were one. And with a deep and fond solicitude he would +charge them to shield and guard, to champion and defend with ballot as +with sword their dear-bought liberty and right. These peaceable +precious fruits of the deadly terrible war he well foresaw and greeted +eagerly. The verdict of the ballots in his re-election in 1864 +proclaimed afar a word the world had never heard before. It +"demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national +election in the midst of a great civil war." That verdict declared +authoritatively that government by the people was "sound and strong." +And it also showed by actual count that after four terrible years of +war the government had more supporting men than when the war began. +This abounding victory filled and satisfied his heart. And in the +presence of that unexampled proof that equal liberty for all was safe +within the guardianship of common men, he exclaimed with a prophet's +vision of the living unison of civic and economic weal:--"Gold is good +in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold." + +Such were Lincoln's principles as he defined a Nation's true +prosperity and wealth. A Nation's strength, a Nation's honor, a +Nation's truest treasure is in her men. Men of freedom and men of +hope, men intolerant of tyranny, men resolved to be worthy of +themselves and conscious of kinship with their Maker, men jealous +equally of their own and their brother's liberty, men who welcome all +the bonds involved in a friendly league of equal duties and equal +rights, men in whom the amelioration of all is a ruling desire, these +are the chief and best achievement in the proudest Nation's wealth. To +undervalue men, preferring any other good, is to cherish in a Nation's +heart the source of its undoing. More to be prized than finest gold +is every citizen. However weak and humble any man may be, his honor is +sacredly above offense. To leave the burden of the feeble unrelieved, +or to clog the progress of the slow is in any Nation's history a +primal sin, and is sure to be abundantly revenged. For such a sin no +store of wealth has power to atone. A sin like that a sinner himself +must bear. This is the central thought of the last inaugural. These +were the human sentiments lying underneath all Lincoln's economic +faith. To these firm verities he held devotedly, whether counseling +the Nation as its president, projecting negro colonies as the negro's +friend, or offering to an idling, impecunious brother a dollar gratis +for every dollar earned. + +Men are equal; men are free. Men are royal; men are kin. Men are +hopeful; men aspire. Men are feeble; men have need. Men may prosper; +men may rise. Melioration is for all. Men have duties; men have +rights. Rights are mutual; duties bind. Every man resents offense. +Only despots can offend. Human tyranny is doomed. Vengeance waits on +every wrong. God is sovereign, kind and just. These are Lincoln's +sentiments. These he nobly illustrates. These are laws which he +defends. These are truths he vindicates. + +These few fundamental principles, applied anywhere in the industrial +field, would soon and certainly put in force wholesome, everlasting, +all-embracing laws. If, like Lincoln himself, men start in penury with +never a favor and never a friend, then, like him, they must hire +themselves to other men for the going wage. But every such a contract +must be forever subject to a fair and orderly recall. The humblest +earner of a daily wage must be forever free, free to continue or to +withdraw. To his freedom and improvement, to his enheartenment and +hope all industrial regulations must conduce. This is basic. This +alone is generous and fair. And only here can any government win +permanence and peace. + +Here are Lincoln's primal postulates in social economics. Moral +imperatives are over every man. Moral freedom is in every breast. +Within the nethermost foundations of any mortal's share in any social +fellowship must rest his own self-wrought integrity and self-respect. +To make that social fellowship in any form perpetually secure each man +must seek with all his heart and with continual willing sacrifice the +lasting welfare of every party and of every part. That this be safely +guaranteed each man must learn to estimate his brother-man, not by +epaulets and coins, but by immortal standards, such as only living +persons can achieve. To make this social league invincible within, +each member in the fellowship must show a true humility, abjuring all +temptation or desire to be a despot or a grandee. And through it all +this social compact must be cherished and revered as ordained by a God +of pure and sovereign truth and love. Thus by friendly ministry, in +unpretending honesty, in brother-kindliness, as sharing in a common +immortality, under the favor and in the fear of God, may fellowmen in +multitudes be fellow citizens in a civic order that may hope for +perpetual prosperity. This is the resounding message that Lincoln's +life transmuted into speech through his pathetic and inspiring rise +from poverty. + + +HIS PHILOSOPHY--THE PROBLEM OF REALITY + +The study of Lincoln's moral versatility, examined in a former +chapter, ranging as it does through all the measure of the moral +realm, verges all along its border on the domain of philosophy. +Lincoln has scant familiarity, it is true, with the rubrics and the +problems, the theories and the methods of the schools. His boyhood was +in the wilderness; locusts and wild honey were his food. Such +education as he achieved was in pathetic isolation. It was a naked +earth, unfurnished with any aids or guides, from which his homely +hard-earned wisdom was laboriously wrung. But his Maker dowered him +with a mind attempered to defiance of every difficulty. And, however +stern the face of his life's fortune might become, his sterner will +and diligence found in her solitudes her choicest treasures. To minds +that nimbly traverse many books, thinking to have gained the substance +of great truths, when they have only gained vain forms, this may seem +to be impossible. But Lincoln's mind had traversed severest +discipline. He found rare substance of intellectual wealth. And he +knew its solid worth. Of this, as has been shown, his first inaugural +yields shining proof. Almost every sentence is as the oracle of a +sage. + +But his second inaugural, too, is a gem of wisdom, clear and pure, fit +ornament for any man to wear in any place where wisest men convene. +Let keenest eyes examine narrowly the aspiration with which this +second inaugural concludes. There shines a wish as bright as any human +hope that ever shone in human breast--a wish that all the earth might +gain to just and lasting peace. That yearning plea was voiced upon the +very breath that spoke of the battles and wounds, the dead and the +bereft, of a mighty Nation in fratricidal war. The peace he sought for +within all the land, and through all the earth, was to be the national +consummation of a conflict in which multitudes of men and millions of +treasure had been offered up under God in the name of charity and +right. Such was the wording and the setting of this wish. + +Comprehend its girth. It encircled all the earth. This cannot be said +to be nothing but the ill-considered aspiration of an inexperienced +underling. It is the prayer of one who for four terrific years had +held the chief position in conducting the executive affairs of one of +the major empires of the world. During all that time, among the +bewildering and imperious problems of an era of unexampled civil +convulsion, hardly any complications had been more obstinate or more +disturbing than those bound up in the relation of the United States to +the other major Nations of the world. Within those international +complications were infolded problems and principles as profoundly +fundamental as any within any Nation's single life, or within all the +reach of international law. In such a situation and out of such a +career Lincoln culminates the declaration of his policy for a second +presidential term with an invocation of just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all Nations. + +Again let it be said, and be it not forgotten, that it is from the +lips of Lincoln that this appeal ascends. He is not a novice. He is a +seasoned veteran. Coming from that heart, and spoken in that hour, +those words cannot be lightly flung aside. They are the longing of a +man who, through almost unparalleled discipline, has attained an +almost peerless sobriety, sincerity, and clear-sightedness. Too honest +to utter hollow words, too deliberate to accept an ill-judged phrase, +too discerning to recommend a futile and unlikely proposition, and +sobered far beyond any power or inclination to play the hypocrite, we +must concede that Lincoln meant and measured what he said. In simple +fairness, and in all sobriety, we must allow that Lincoln understood +that the principles which guided him as national chief magistrate, and +the goal towards which he was driving everything in his conduct of the +war, contained all needed light and power for winning all the world +to perpetual harmony. This is nothing less than to allow in Lincoln's +deeds and words the sweep and insight of a philosopher. And it is but +simple justice, though of vast significance, to append just here that +it was in the office and person of John Hay, Lincoln's private +secretary, when later he was our Secretary of State, that there dawned +and brightened the new era in international diplomacy, now in our day +so widely inaugurated, and so well advanced. It can be truly added +that in this vast arena, where mighty Nations are the actors, and in +very fact all the world is the stage, those cardinal moral traits of +Lincoln, and his transparent and commanding personality, so steadfast +and vivid and gentle and meek, have no need to borrow from other and +ancient theories and illustrations of world-wide statesmanship either +light or power. That each individual retain unsmirched and +undiminished his pristine self-respect as the cornerstone of all +reliability, his neighborly kindness as the prime condition of all +true comity, his child-like deference towards God as the basis of all +genuine dignity, and his rating of human souls above all perishable +goods as the absolute and essential foundation of any perpetuity, +forms a programme as elemental and imperial among mightiest Nations, +as among humblest neighborhoods of men. Lincoln's obedient recognition +of the Almighty's purposes in over-ruling national affairs, his +king-like resolution to hold loyally by his innate sense of equity, +his eagerness for the elevation of all the oppressed, his instinctive +aspiration in his civic life for foundations that cannot fail, and his +uncomplaining fellowship with the penal sorrows of his erring fellow +citizens,--all apprehended and defended and adhered to with such a +lucid mind and steadfast will and prophetic hope upon the open +platform of our American Republic--propose both in active practice and +in reasoned theory a pattern of statesmanship, capable of +comprehending the political conditions, and directing the diplomacy of +all the governments of the world. Here are the primal conditions and +constituents of international amity. Agreements constructed and +defended thereupon among the Nations could not fail to be fair. They +would surely endure. And as the centuries passed, the faith of Lincoln +in a Ruler of Nations, just, benign, eternal, supreme, would +aboundingly increase. + +But once again it must be said that these are not the themes, nor this +the flight of an untrained imagination. The peace among all Nations +towards which Lincoln's hope appealed, was being patterned upon a just +and lasting achievement among ourselves. And among ourselves the +government was being tried in the burning, fiery furnace of a civil +war. It was being proved in flames what factors in a national civic +order were permanent, and fair, and approved of God. It was out of +deep affliction and unsparing discipline, rebuking all our sins, +humbling all our vanity, purging all our hopes, and cementing among +ourselves a just and lasting brotherhood, that Lincoln found the heart +to hope for perpetual fraternity through all the world. Within his +wish deep-wrought, hard-earned, clear-eyed wisdom was crystallized. It +was an imperial proposition, momentous, comprehensive, profound. It +embodied nothing less than a political philosophy. + +But these assertions demand a closer scrutiny. Does Lincoln's thought, +in scope and mode, deserve in any sense to be entitled a philosophy? +In soberness, is any such pretension justified? Are Lincoln's +principles so radical, so comprehensive, so well-ordered, as to +deserve a title so supreme? + +All turns on truly understanding Lincoln's apprehension of reality. +Lincoln's world was a society of persons. God, himself, his fellowman +engrossed his thought and interest. Among all persons, as seen and +known by him, there was a full affinity. All men were equal, and all +were kindred to the great God. This was the starting point, this the +circuit, and this the goal of all his conscious thought and toil. This +was his world. To penetrate its nature was to handle elements. To +grasp those elements was to be inclusive. And to comprehend their +native correlation was to master fundamental wisdom. + +Here Lincoln shows his mental strength. Among all these elements he +traced a fundamental similarity. A common pattern embraced them all. +The highest and the lowest were essentially alike. All were dowered +with kindred capacities for nobility. He never suffered himself or any +of his fellowmen to forget his own elevation from lowliest ignorance +and poverty to the presidency. However humble, all could rise. However +ignorant, all could learn. However unbefriended, all deserved regard. +Life and liberty and happiness were a common boon, an even, universal +right. For fellowship with God, even when buffeted beneath divine +rebukes, all might hope. The ultimate, open possibility of such divine +companionship is shown in this last inaugural, where Lincoln's keen +discernment avails to comprehend, that even sinning men may, through +penitent acceptance of heaven's rebukes, win heaven's favor and walk +with God. Thus Lincoln learned and knew that among all men, and +between all men and God there was a fundamental ground of imperishable +affiance. Here lies the foundation of his philosophy. + +And this affiance was in its being moral. With him the real was +ethical. Pure equity was the primal verity. By character were all +things judged. Politics and ethics were identical. In the thought of +Lincoln the qualities constituting our American Union, the qualities +that defined and contained its very being, the qualities that made it +a civic entity, securing to it its coherence and perpetuity, the +qualities guaranteeing that it should not dissolve and disappear in +the fate and wreck of all decaying things, the qualities that made it +worth the faithful care of God and the loving loyalty of men, were +identical with the qualities constituting himself a free, responsible +soul. The same humble reverence, the same mutual goodwill, the same +regard for durability, the same jealousy for integrity as informed his +personal conscience and inspired his personal will, should form the +law and determine the deeds of the Nation as well, if the Nation was +ever to have in its civic being a dignity worthy to survive. Here is a +standard conformable at once with the measure of things in heaven, the +measure of a Nation, and the measure of every man. + +Such is the scope of this inaugural. In penning that grave paragraph +touching "unrequited toil," Lincoln had his eye alike upon the +individual slave, upon the Nation as a whole, upon long centuries, and +upon the ways of God. It may be said with equal truth that he was +pondering the sin and hurt of a single act of fraud, the vital +structure of organic civic life, the continual tenure of right and +guilt through lives and times that seem diverse, and the unison of +moral estimates that hold with God and men alike forever. This may not +be denied. The sin inflicted in a single wrong, like that of slavery, +may implicate a Nation in a guilt that, under the impartial and +upright rule of God, the centuries cannot obliterate. Inhuman scorn, +short-sighted greed, disloyalty and cruelty, however disguised, or +however upheld, entail a doom too certain and too sovereign for the +centuries to unduly defer, or for any nation to ever annul. + +Here are principles undeniably. And as undeniably these principles +are supreme. A just God is over all. To his high purposes all things, +even the most perverse, must eventually conform. To his right rule +even unrighteous men must bend. Into intelligent harmony with his will +all upright men may come, finding in lowly acknowledgment of his great +majesty their true dignity, in loyalty to his pure righteousness their +own complete integrity, in imitation of his universal benignity their +perfect mutual friendliness, and in a vision of his eternal purity +their assurance of personal and civic perpetuity. Thus in the midst of +all being, and in the conscious presence of Him in whom all being +finds its source, our personal, human being finds its transcendent +dignity and crown. Living thus, and living thus together, men find +life indeed. Thus all, endowed alike with the common sanctity of life, +enjoying equally the common right to liberty, share equally a common +boon of happiness. Thus each man alone and thus the civic order as a +whole may survive and flourish under God in just and lasting peace. + +This, in Lincoln's thought, was final, comprehensive truth. Taken in +all its foursquare amplitude and unison, there was nothing human it +did not avail to fitly arrange and fully circumscribe. Whether for man +alone or for men in leagues, whether for States supreme or for States +confederate, it provided every needful guide and bond. As for the +international arena, so for every lesser realm of social life, the +principles enshrined in this inaugural are civic wisdom crystallized. +They proffer to our human social life nothing less than a philosophy. + +This is the wisdom literally inscribed upon the tablet of this last +inaugural. To unveil its face before an ever heedful and ever more +attentive world is being found a sovereign function of succeeding +time. Men are ever learning, but have ever yet to learn what Lincoln +was. Despite his fame, his proper glory has been veiled. His features +have been shadowed, almost smirched. His reputation has been overlaid +with rumours and reports of excessive pleasure in ribald, rollicking +hours in wayside inns. But in his very laughter there were deep hints +of measured soberness. Seasoned wisdom flavored all his wit. His very +folly was profound. But when his mood of frolic passed, when, and +almost without any inner change, his outer mien grew serious, and +sadness brooded on his face, then his speech was fed from nether +springs. Then his lips were freighted from afar, and his speech was +rich with precious lore. + +In his inmost instinct Lincoln was a philosopher. Out of life's +complexities he was always searching for its clue. His speeches deal +at bottom with nothing but details. But out of the mesh of those +details he was always weaving principles. It is this that gives his +words their weight. He is by his own right a true philosopher. It was +true wisdom with which he dealt. With true wisdom he was in love. In +his own character he has garnered all his gains. By self-refinement he +has become a Nation's pattern. In himself are treasured all the +honors, dignities, and rewards that appertain to a worthy devotee of +wisdom. Assuredly, and beyond all fair dispute, the author of this +last inaugural, when fairly measured and esteemed for what he was, and +what he did, and what he overcame in civic realms by sheer original +research, far more than any Dr. Faust, deserves his doctorate and +degree. In sober verity the author of this inaugural is a true Doctor +of Philosophy. + + +HIS THEODICY--THE PROBLEM OF EVIL + +The last preceding chapter closed with an allusion to Dr. Faust. That +reference may now be profitably resumed. Goethe's Faust is introduced +as in deep uneasiness before the unsolved mysteries of life. He is +described as having mastered all that all the Faculties can give, but +all to no sure end, and as being then beguiled into other paths and +scenes, there to prosecute afresh his quest for present satisfaction. +In this new quest he accepts the guidance of a scorner into realms of +magic, sorcery, and witchcraft; into scenes of ribaldry, debauchery, +and basest sordidness; into lust, murder, and treacherous +unfaithfulness; into a devilish trade for present carnal happiness, at +cost of freedom, reason, and any heed for future destiny. + +One notable feature in all this quest is its submergence in the sea of +things that surge up around the passing life, only to pass away +themselves and disappear. His riddles and his quests, his ideals and +delights are largely physical. His guide does not conduct him into the +steadfast presence and observation of things permanent and spiritual. +He is prone to make him roam in realms of magic, where forms and deeds +are too thin and vague to be even shadows, and too false to be even +artificial, but where yet each scene excites the imagination to +perishing desires for joys of sense. Carnal potions, charms, and lust; +physical tumults and delights so largely occupy the central place in +all the scenes, that the riddles Faust would fain resolve are, to a +large degree, the mysteries of the universe of sense. + +Now let any man compare the major problems in the mind of Goethe's +Faust with the problems that Lincoln felt to be supreme. One discovers +instantly a vast divergence. Themes and questions, that to the very +end of Goethe's life perplexed and vexed his thought, were in +Lincoln's writings not so much as named. + +But far beyond all this. The vast, unwieldly world of solid sense, so +baffling, but so sure, now so terrible, and now so kind, now serving, +and now crushing boastful, trembling man, now begetting, and now +absorbing endless, countless generations and multitudes, seems not to +constitute a vexing or perplexing theme in Lincoln's most insistent +thought. This can never be explained as due to a painless, care-free, +earthly lot; nor to a pampering environment; nor to physical +stolidity; nor to incapacity for aesthetic joys. The lines that seamed +his face, the muscles that leashed his frame, the structure of his +hands, the meaning message upon his lips, his shadowed, sobered, +brooding eyes attest a different tale. Lincoln was sufficiently aware +of the plain and common sorrows incident to our earthly environment. +He knew what havoc cold and heat, hunger and pain, toil and want, +plague and death could visit upon our human life. But none of these +things seemed to trouble him. So engrossed was he with questions he +called "durable," that all physical discomforts and distresses, with +their connected pleasures and desires and hopes and fears, were but +passing, minor incidents. + +This undoubted fact in Lincoln's mental habitude is a signal and +significant factor, to be held in careful estimation in a final +judgment of Lincoln's character. Ethics, pure ethics, themes that +dealt with realms where man is truly responsible and truly free, were +his supreme concern from first to last. And so it comes to pass that +the problem, which for him is truly fundamental and ultimate, passes +wholly by at once all that burden of so-called evil, in the fear and +hurt and mystery of things inflexible, and clings fast hold of things +alone that are responsible and free. + +Touching the theme of this chapter, and touching also this last +inaugural, the following letter, written March 15, 1865, to Thurlow +Weed, already cited and considered once, deserves a bit of heed +again:-- + + Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little + notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I + expect the latter to wear as well as--perhaps better + than--anything I have produced; but I believe it is not + immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that + there is a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. + To deny it however, in this case, is to deny that there is a + God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed + to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it + falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford + for me to tell it. + Truly yours, + A. LINCOLN. + +This letter shows what Lincoln judged to be the secret of this +inaugural's permanent hold on human approbation. It was its humble +testimony to the fact that, amidst and above the errors and sins, the +struggles and failures of men and Nations, there is a world-governing +God. Here opens a theme that is truly sovereign and ultimate. + +The last inaugural reveals that Lincoln was closely pondering two +incongruous themes: the bitter career of slavery; and the just rule of +God. + +Touching the first--the fact of human slavery--whatever other men +might think, in Lincoln's view it was always abhorrent, a primary +immorality. He was naturally "anti-slavery." Even in this address, +guarded against all malice, and suffused with charity, he could not +forbear from saying:--"It may seem strange that any men should dare +to seek a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from other +men's faces." Man's right to live was in his thought primal. That +right carried with it the right to enjoy the bread that his own hands +had earned. Such a privilege was the central element in human +happiness. Such felicity was elemental. Such freedom and such joy were +the simplest common boon in our common, earthly lot. + +The institution of slavery blasted that joy, denied that liberty, +robbed that right to life. This annihilated hope. It ranked men with +brutes. Such a ravaging of human desires and human rights Lincoln +judged, from the side of the slave-holder, a paramount crime; and from +the side of the slave, an insufferable curse. The terrible enormity of +both crime and curse was measured in Lincoln's estimation by the +enormity of the war. Viewed any way, that war was the indication and +register of the wrong done, and the wrong borne, by men in the +centuries of slavery. Arrogance and insolence, ruthlessness and +cruelty, dishonesty and faithlessness, luxury and lust, trailed all +along its path. That, in a Republic dedicated to liberty, men would go +to war and fight to the death with their fellow-citizens in defense +and perpetuation of tyranny and bonds, gave evidence to the strange +and obdurate perverseness involved and nurtured in the mood and +attitude of men that were bent on holding fellow men as slaves. The +existence of such an institution in any land Lincoln deemed a national +calamity; in a free Republic he felt it to be a heaven-braving anomaly +and affront. It was a flagrant evil, bound to bring down woe. + +But in the deep entanglements of history this baleful institution had +to be condoned, even in this land made sacred to the free. Inbred +within the Nation in the Nation's very birth, that it be sheltered +within the Nation's life became a national responsibility. From this +firm bond Lincoln himself could not escape. In the Constitution that +Lincoln swore to uphold, when first he took the presidency, slavery +was sheltered, if not entrenched. As chief magistrate of the whole +Republic, however obnoxious slavery might be, he had the obnoxious +thing to protect. This he freely admitted, and explicitly declared in +his first inaugural. + +Here was the beginning of his final, moral debate. How should he +morally justify himself in defending what he morally abhorred? That +this dual attitude should be assumed he seemed fully to concede. This +shows most clearly, and in its sharpest moral contradiction, when, in +his first inaugural, he volunteered to permit an amendment to the +Constitution, enacting, as the supreme law of the land, that slavery +should remain thereafter undisturbed forever. How he brought his mind +to take that stand has never been made clear. He said in that +connection that such an amendment was in effect already Constitutional +law. But previous to that date he had always pledged and urged +forbearance with slavery, on the understanding that such forbearance +was only for a time; that, as foreseen and designed by the men who +framed the Constitution, slave holding was always to be so handled, as +to be always on the way to disappear. It is not easy to see how a man, +to whom the practice of holding slaves was so morally repellent, could +participate in making it perpetual. One could wish that just this +problem had been frankly handled under Lincoln's pen. It must have +been plainly before his thought. And the words of few men would be +more worthy of careful record and review than deliberate words from +Lincoln upon this world-perplexing query:--how adjust one's thoughts +and acts to a moral evil, that inveterately endures, and is never +atoned? But in fact that amendment was never carried through. One of +the fruits of slavery was its rash unwisdom at just this juncture. + +Still, though the amendment lapsed, slavery held on. And slaveholders +tightened their resolution to retain their rights in slaves, or rend +the Union. This precipitated war. This may seem to have doubled +Lincoln's problem, slavery and national dissolution. Standing at the +apex of national responsibility, he had to bear the hottest brunt of +the physical anguish, the mental perplexity, and the moral sorrows of +a war waged by a slave-holding South in militant secession. But in +reality, in his thought, the two were one. All turned on slavery. This +was the burning blemish in the Constitution. This was the intent of +the war. This was the burden on his heart. Here was a load too +grievous for any man to bear. It bore preponderantly on him. And yet, +as regards any personal and conscious desire or deed, he was through +and in it all conscious within himself of innocence. His trial and +sorrow were without cause. How now, in his soberest thought, was all +this moral confusion explained? Hating slavery with all his heart, +innocent all his life of any inclination to rob another man of +liberty, but pledged and sworn to shelter slavery under the arm of his +supreme and free authority, how could he prove himself consistent +morally? + +Here emerge the profoundest thoughts of Lincoln on the ways of God. +And herein appears his contribution to a theodicy--a vindication of +God's moral honor, where his moral government seems slack. How can +thoughtful men conceive and hold that God is just, when such injustice +and disaster are allowed at all, much less for centuries; in any +corner of the earth, much less where heaven's favor seems to dwell? + +Upon this subduing theme this last inaugural gives us Lincoln's most +explicit words. Of God's personal being, and of his personal care, +this address shows Lincoln to be perfectly assured. This was his +standing attitude and confidence. Throughout his years in the +presidency this trust had seemed unwavering. Indeed, by repeated, +almost unconscious attestations, it was his stablest trust. Some of +his utterances are tender and touching testimonials to his belief that +God rules in his own personal career. But mainly his confessions of +belief in the Providence of God are connected with national concerns. +He did joyfully, almost jubilantly believe that this Republic was +under God's special watch and care. His own hope for our national +future well-being and honor rested mainly, we must judge, upon the +tokens he thought he could trace in our thrilling and inspiring +history of the divine controlling care. At bottom it was this faith +that underlay all his patriotism. That the fundamental affirmations of +our Constitution were rescripts and digests from the will and word of +God was the lively ground and unfailing confirmation of his pure +devotion to his Nation's honor and weal. More than aught in all the +world beside, it was this religious faith that steadied and girded his +will through all those strenuous days. + +It is just here that this study of a theodicy sets in. Above all his +former thoughts about himself, about his land, about the clash of +right and wrong; above all thoughts of other men, and other times; +even above his own and his opponents' former prayers and faith, he +lifts new thoughts in new reverence and new docility towards God. + +Still naught but slavery in his theme--its undeniable iniquity; its +strange, prolonged permission; his own, and all other men's +responsibility; its unavoidable entail in penalty; and the divine, +enduring terms of new liberty and peace. Here are themes and fixed +realities that seem eternally to disagree. Can they ever all be +morally harmonized? Could even God enlighten that dark past? Could his +own historic acts be morally unified? Nothing he had ever done with +slavery, not even its utter elimination in his act of freedom, had +ever been done, he explicitly affirmed, on moral grounds. Yet slavery, +and by his own hand, was indeed undone. But even so the spirit of the +South was still invincible, and war was holding on. What indeed could +be the thoughts and plans of God? + +To begin with, he confesses both North and South and all the land gone +wrong. This is the first component in his theodicy. Neither North nor +South, not even in the act of prayer, had walked with God, nor found +the truth, nor gained its wish. All thoughts of men, in the righteous +rule of God, were being overturned. This confession verges near to +worship, acclaiming, as it does, the Almighty's designs; and venturing +as it does, to trace and reproduce the Almighty's thoughts. + +Here is seen how genuine is the moral earnestness in Lincoln's earnest +thoughtfulness. As though by a very instinct, his form of words +betrays his reverence. He refrains from dogmatism. He refrains even +from affirmation. He knows he is venturing upon a daring flight. He is +assuming to conjoin together into a moral unison that bitter sample of +the age-long cruelty of man against his brother, and the transcendent +sovereignty, the eternal justice, and the age-long silence of God. His +formula is a modest supposition. But within its modesty is an eye that +searches far. + +He takes resort in one of the most trenchant declarations of Christ, +that momentous saying in his colloquy about the majesty and modesty of +a little child:--"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must +needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense +cometh." + +In this colloquy Jesus seems to be moved by a tender impulse of +affectionate jealousy for the model beauty and grace of children. But +that tenderness is roused into one of the most terrific outbursts that +ever passed his lips. Little children are Christlike, Godlike, models +of the citizenship in the heavenly Kingdom. God is their jealous +guardian and defender. But Godlike, and of heavenly dignity though +they be, they are shy and frail. And men, as they grow gross and +impudent, abuse and offend their defenselessness. So things have to +be. But woe to such offenders. They were better tied to that mammoth +stone that the mule turns in the mill, and submerged in the abyss of +the deep of the great sea. + +Here are four noteworthy elements:--a blended heavenly modesty and +majesty and innocence; an insufferable insolence; a trebly-terrible +penalty; and a strange and ominous necessity. + +Over these four factors Lincoln's mind must have pondered long. Else +how explain their place in this inaugural? They form the foundation of +its central paragraph, and constitute its paramount argument; forming +alike a sobering admonition, and a humble ground of hope to all the +Nation, while at the same time holding aloft before the Nation's +thought the outline and substance of a stately vindication of the ways +of God. Evidently here is shapely fashioning in lucid speech of +Lincoln's ripest, surest thought. As one faces all its range, it seems +like the open sky, clear but fathomless. But its wisdom is doubly +sealed, and it bears a double claim to our respect. It shows the way +of Lincoln's mind, and the way of the mind of Christ. Not quickly will +any other thinker, however disciplined, traverse all its course. But +travel where he will in the mighty orbit of this inquiry, the modern +thinker, whatever his attainment, may find in this inaugural shining +indications that Lincoln's thought has gone before. + +In this modest, far-searching supposition, transferred to American +history from the lips of Christ, Lincoln firmly grasps two solid +facts, elemental and universal in human life:--the beautiful modesty +of the meek; and the ugly arrogance in the strong. Strength and +weakness needs must be. These invite to rudeness and retreat. Then the +powerful overbear. The gentle are overborne. Offenses multiply. The +arrogant prevail. So must it be. But when the meek go down beneath the +wicked rudeness of the strong, then the Most High God, within whose +firm dominion both strong and weak share equally in all the privileges +and rights of liberty and law, sets over the offended one his shield, +and against the proud offender his sword, until pity and equity are +enthroned upon the earth again. Thus must it be. The meek must suffer. +Offenders must arise. But meekness is a heavenly, Godlike quality. And +as with God, so with his gentle little ones, patient gentleness will +be duly vindicated; rude arrogance will meet exact and fit rebuke; and +it will stand clear that strength and weakness may dwell together in +equity and liberty and peace. + +This was the age-long moral process which Lincoln's eye discerned, and +the final issue which his expectation hailed. Then and therein his eye +discerned that all voices would be constrained to proclaim that in all +the moral world pity and equity were prevalent; that the least had +Godlike majesty; that humility gave to all the great their +courtliness; and that there was within all men a fadeless worth, far +outranking all other wealth. + +But it is essential to note, not alone that Lincoln offers this in the +modest form of supposition; but that, as it leaves his lips, it +assumes the formula of a confession. Even the meek receive rebuke. The +gentlest have wandered also away from God. The problem has surpassed +us all. All have somewhat to learn from God. That arrogance may meet +its due, meekness must be yet more meek. It must needs be that +offenses come. Greater than all our wrong, and all our patience, is +the patient truth of God. This must be fully learned. It is under +wrong that wrong is made right. It is by meekness under arrogance that +arrogance is put to shame. It is by gentleness under rudeness that +rudeness is subdued. Offenses must needs be. Only in sacrificial +submission to its woe is the problem of evil ever resolved. Only thus +is the iniquity of the sin measured back upon the evil doer in a +symmetrical and equivalent rebuke. + +But this is never to exculpate the offender or condone the offense. +Blood with the sword, drop for drop, must be meted out to the +slaveholder, as he meted out to the slave blood with the lash. All the +wealth that the bonds-man's lord has snatched from the toiling slave +must be yielded up. Over human scorn and greed and injustice and +cruelty hang unfailingly judgments that are true and righteous +altogether. Neither may they who are offended rail, nor they who +offend exult, over the divine delay. Nor when God's judgments fall may +they who are rebuked complain, nor they who are redeemed turn +exultation into arrogance. God's ways, and his alone are even, and +altogether true. + +In thoughts like these Lincoln's final explanation of the ways of God +took form. In patient, repentant, adoring acquiescence his heart found +rest. His sorrows were profound, the sorrows of a patriot, kinsman to +all the sorrowful in the land. But he learned, however deep the +stroke, to forbear complaint. He received the sorrows of the war into +his own breast as heaven's righteous woe upon a haughty land, and as +heaven's discipline, teaching offenders the woe of their offense. So +his ways became coincident with the greater ways of God. + +But in this moral explication of the war, and of all that the war +involves, two vastly different types of character persist. Lincoln's +solution of the enigma was in diametrical contrast with the views of +the leading spirits of the South. Not like him did they rate slavery, +nor conceive the war, nor understand the ways of God. How, now, could +Lincoln's view assimilate this obduracy in the South? This question +was clearly within the scope of Lincoln's thought, and its answer is +embraced in what has already been explained. Given an even penalty for +any sin, drop for drop with the avenging sword for blood with the +lash, and it is morally indifferent whether men rail, or whether they +acquiesce. The wrong is made right. The meek are redeemed. God's delay +is vindicated. Rudeness is reversed. The law is fully revealed. Man's +liberty is honored equally. Cruelty and unfairness are rebuked. The +gains of greed are scattered. Humblest men are crowned with eternal +dignity. To such, whether from the North or from the South, as with +melting sorrow and repentance welcomed to their bosoms this bitter +vindication of those primal rights, the sorrows of the war opened into +perennial peace. To such as repelled that proffered vindication, there +was in the sorrows of the war no alleviation. But for both, +nevertheless, and for both identically, the sorrows of the war +completed the moral vindication of a pure and Christlike equity and +friendliness. Thus all the ways of God, with the repentant and the +rebellious alike, are just and righteous altogether. This it is the +highest wisdom of men to acquiescently confess. To this even those who +rebelliously complain and rail must finally utterly submit. + +And now one final matter remains--the idea and definition of +happiness. When men discuss the problem of evil in the universe, and +in its awful presence try to substantiate their confidence in the just +and friendly care of a transcendent Deity, one subtle touchstone +governs all they say:--What is their conception of human weal, and of +human woe? What in actual fact is deepest misery; and what is true +felicity? What do they assume man's highest good to be? + +Just here is wide and multiform diversity. For illustration, let +thought recur to the contrast with which the topic of this chapter was +introduced. The idea of happiness that Goethe plants in Dr. Faust, and +the idea of happiness that ruled in Lincoln, are as separate as the +poles. And again, to keep within the setting of this inaugural, the +happiness towards which Lincoln strove, and in which his thought found +satisfaction, contrasted mightily with the happiness that informed the +aspirations of the leaders of the South. In their ideal, disdain of +all inferiors, delight in easy luxury, unequal acknowledgment of +rights, and a cruel stifling of the very rudiments of love, were mixed +and working mightily. Desiring and enjoying that Elysium, their +estimate of evil, their definition of the highest good, and their +programme for a final consummation under God could have no fellowship +with any final plan of thought approved by Lincoln. + +What was Lincoln's highest happiness? This merits pondering anywhere; +but compellingly, where one tries to trace his views upon this +problem of theodicy; and yet still more when one conceives in this +inquiry how in Lincoln's life his ethics, his civics, and his religion +became coincident. + +As this mighty problem resolves itself in Lincoln's mind, it +comprehends, along with his own welfare and worth and true +contentment, the equal dignity and happiness of every other man, and a +harmonious consonance with the being and decree of God. He sees that +scorn of any other man involves in time the scorner's shame. He sees +that robbery, however veiled, entails a debt whose perfect +reimbursement the slowest centuries will in their time exact. He sees +that any form of malice or unfriendliness, housed and fed in any +heart, will forfeit all the joy of gratitude, and fill that heart at +last with vindictive hate and bitterest loneliness. He sees that +fleshly joys, however lush and full, are marked and destined for a +swift and sure decay and weariness and vanity. And so, to realize the +perfect welfare, he commends to himself, and urges persuasively on all +other men, the sovereign good of an even justice, upheld within +himself, and so measured out to other men by the perfect standard of +God's self-respecting loyalty; of universal charity, eager everywhere +to minister universal benefit and peace; of supreme enthusiasm for +enduring life; and of a genuine humility, that shares all hope with +all the lowly, and trusts and honors God. In this fourfold, composite +unison of conscious, deathless life Lincoln sees the fairest goal, the +choicest boon, the highest good of man. In the presence of such a +standard, and before the outlook of such a hope Lincoln fashions his +theodicy. + +Here then is the sum of Lincoln's thought upon this bewildering +theme:-- + +The evil that makes this earthly lot so dark and hard is man's wrong +to man; the awful sorrows of the meek; the offenses wrought upon the +helpless by the arrogant. + +Before this mystery all other mysteries, however deep and terrible, +such as hurricanes and famine, plagues and death, may not be named. + +This most sovereign evil is most clearly understood by those who are +oppressed. Their eyes pierce all its deeps. The rude are, by their +rudeness, blind. + +The names of all who suffer and are still are registered on high for +full solace and redemption. + +The register of the rudeness of the strong is also full, and destined +for full requital. + +This redemption and requital shall be wrought by God. + +In this redemption the ruthless may relent and share with all the meek +the full measure of all their sorrows, and so become partakers of all +their joy. + +If ruthlessness persist, full requitals shall still descend, and in +the presence of God's even righteousness every mouth shall be stopped. + +And so shall all evil be fully rectified. + + +HIS PIETY--THE PROBLEM OF RELIGION + +Of all the words of Lincoln, evincing what he thought of God, none +outweigh the witness of this last inaugural. His reply to Thurlow Weed +regarding this address, referred to in another place, concerned +precisely just this point--the movements and the postulates of his +religious faith. As his ripened mind prepared and pondered and +reviewed this speech, there accrued within his consciousness a solemn +confidence that it was destined to become his most enduring monument; +and that as coming generations became aware of its outstanding +eminence, their eyes and hearts would fasten on those words about the +age-long, just, and overturning purposes of God. There was a +confession, so Lincoln felt assured, embracing and conjoining North +and South and East and West in an equal lowliness and shame; and +declaring and extolling God's divine supremacy over all the erring +waywardness and awful sufferings of men. + +In this outpouring of his burdened heart before his God, and in the +presence of his fellowmen, there is evidence respecting Lincoln's +piety that courts reflection. + +In the first place it indicates where Lincoln's sense of moral +rectitude found out its final bearings. Those purposes of God, as +Lincoln watched their operation, were working out the moral issues in +the awful wrong of age-long, unrequited toil in perfect equity. Strong +men had been wronging weaklings and inferiors. Helpless men had been +suffering untold sorrows. Indignant men had been crying out in hot and +hasty protest for full and speedy vengeance. Thoughtful men had been +tortured over weary, futile wonderings as to how the baffling problem +could be solved. Convulsions and confusion, which no arm or thought of +man could start or stay, were shaking and bewildering all the land. + +But through and over all, as Lincoln came reverently to believe, a +sovereign God held righteous government; and out of all the baffling +turmoil he was, by simple righteousness, bringing perfect unison and +peace. The dark mystery of unrequited wrong was being illuminated by +the righteous majesty of complete requital. But in its full +perfection, it was a righteousness such as no mind of man devised. It +was the righteousness of God. Here Lincoln's moral sense was purified. +He was being taught of God. And this he clearly, humbly recognized. +And he took full pains in this address to give God all the praise. And +so his reverence towards Deity, and his affirmation touching +righteousness became identical. His sense of equity stood clothed in +piety. + +In the second place, deep within the heart of these divine +instructions were such unveilings of God's high majesty, in his +steadfast reign above the passing centuries, as awoke on Lincoln's +lips such lowly adoration as attuned these words of Godly +statesmanship unto a psalm of praise. Here Lincoln's lowliness attains +consummate beauty. It is indeed an utterance of profound abasement. It +sinks beneath a strong rebuke. It acknowledges sad wanderings. It +accepts correction, and meekly takes God's guiding hand. It also sees +God's excellence, his high thoughts and ways, his irresistible +dominion, his moral spotlessness. And before that revelation he humbly +walks among his fellow-citizens, the lowliest of them all, confessing +that the reproach involved in what he said fell heaviest upon himself; +and therein, as a priest, leading the Nation in an act of worshipping +submissiveness before the Lord. Herein his comely, moral modesty +becomes an act and attitude of simple reverence towards God. And thus +his humility, just like his sense of righteousness, becomes apparelled +all about with Godly piety. + +In the third place, this new discernment of the ways of God unfolds +profound discoveries of the divine evaluation of the diverse, +contending interests in our commingled life. It makes clear which +values fade, and which shine on eternally. The problem upon which +Lincoln had transfixed his eye was that two and one-half centuries of +hard and sad embondagement. By that gross sin men's deathless souls +were bought and sold for transient gain. Past all denial, therein was +moral wrong; else moral wrong had no existence. Its presence, every +time he faced it, tortured Lincoln, and made him miserable. And it +affronted heaven, overturning God's creative fiat of equality in all +mankind. It set and ranked brief creature comforts and desires above +the worth of heaven's image in a brother man. Every day it challenged +heaven's curse. But heaven's judgment was delayed. Long centuries +seemed to show that heaven was indifferent whether human souls or +carnal pleasures held superior rank. + +But now, within the awful tumult of the war there boomed an undertone, +conveying unto all who had quick ears to hear, how God adjudged that +wrong. Upon dark battle clouds shone heavenly light, making newly +plain God's estimate of slaveholder and of slave; of joys and gains +that perish with their use, or await recall; and of souls that never +die. Those awful tidings told how ill-gotten, carnal wealth is +mortgaged under woe, and to the uttermost farthing must be released; +how offending men affront the Lord; and how all offenses must be +avenged. They made full clear how he who grasps at earthly gain by +wrecking human dignity commits a primal sin--a sin that time, though +it run into centuries, cannot obscure, or mitigate, or exempt from +strict review. They reveal infallibly that God's pure eye is on God's +image in every son of man; that supreme, far-seeing ends are lodged in +all the good but unenduring gifts wherewith God's wise and kindly +bounties crown man's toil; that a perfect moral government holds +dominion everywhere and forevermore; and that beneath this rule, in +God's own time, it shall come supremely clear that feasts and luxury +and fine attire, that wealth and lust and pampered flesh have lesser +worth and pass away, while souls of men may thrive, and gain, and win +new worth eternally. + +As Lincoln's eye reviewed these centuries of reveling wealth, and +impoverished hearts; and beheld, in the issues of the resultant war, +that wealth laid waste, and those pure hearts fed and filled with hope +and liberty; his wisdom to compare all earth-born, mortal things with +things unperishing and heavenly passed through new birth, new growth +to new completeness in depth and clarity and confidence. And all this +gain to Lincoln, while wholly ethical, dealing as it did with the +wrong and right in human slavery and liberty, owed all its increase to +truer understanding of the Lord. Here again his ethics was purified by +faith. His faith was deeply ethical. As with his lowliness, and his +rectitude, so with his moral valuation of the human soul. It was +vestured all about with Godly piety. + +In the fourth place, within the awful wreckage of the war, with which +this last inaugural is so absorbed, there were mighty attestations +that God was pitiful. That war could be defined as God's vengeance on +man's cruelty. Precisely this was what Lincoln grew to see. To all who +toiled in slavery the war had brought deliverance. Thereby the +stinging lash was snatched from human hands; the human heel was thrust +from human necks; the shameless havoc of the homes of lowly men was +stayed; countless sufferings were assuaged; and true blessedness was +restored to souls hard-wonted to unrelenting grief. + +And this achievement was alone the Lord's. Of all down-trodden men +high heaven became the champion. In all its awful judgments he who +ruled that conflict remembered mercy. High above all the bloody +carnage of those swords there swayed the scepter of the All-pitiful. +In the very doom upon the strong God wrought redemption for the poor. +And so, as that dreadful wreckage brought to nothing all the pride in +the extorted gain of centuries, it published most impressively that he +who reigned above all centuries was All-compassionate. + +To this great thought of God, Lincoln keyed this last inaugural. The +majesty of God's sovereign law of purity and righteousness was robed +in kindliness. Into this high truth ascended Lincoln's patriot hope. +Let men henceforth forswear all cruelty, and follow God in showing all +who suffer their costliest sympathy. This was a mighty longing in his +great heart, as he prepared this speech. Before God's vindication of +the meek, let the merciless grow merciful. Yea, let all the land, for +all the land had taken part in human cruelty, confess its wrong, +accept God's scourge without complaint, thus opening every heart to +God's free, healing grace, and binding all the land in leagues of +friendliness. Let men, like God, be pitiful. Like God, let men be +merciful. In mutual sympathy let all make clear how men of every sort +may yet resemble God, the All-compassionate. This was the trend and +strength of Lincoln's gentleness, as it stood and wrought in full +maturity beneath God's discipline, within this last inaugural. It was +nothing but an echo and reflection of the gentleness of God. And so, +in his benignity, as in his rectitude and lowliness and purity, he +stood in this address attired in Godly piety. + +So Lincoln's ethics can be described, in his ripened harvest-tide of +life. So it stands in this inaugural. It is alike a living code for +daily life, and a religious faith. It is born and taught of God. It is +Godliness without disguise, upon the open field of civic +statesmanship. It is a prophet's voice, in a civilian's speech. It is +the seasoned wisdom of a man familiar equally with the field of +politics, and the place of prayer. It shows how God may walk with men, +how civic interests deal with things divine. It proves that a civilian +in a foremost seat may without apology profess himself a man of God, +and gain thereby in solid dignity. It shows how heaven and earth may +harmonize. + +But this manly recognition in Lincoln's mind of the inner unison of +ethics and religion was in no respect ephemeral, no careless utterance +of a single speech, no flitting sentiment of a day. It was the +fruitage of an ample season's growth. It was royally deliberate, the +issue of prolonged reflection, the goal of mental equipoise and rest +to which his searching, balanced thought had long conduced. It was in +keeping with an habitual inclination in his life. + +This proclivity of his inwrought moral honesty to find its norm and +origin, its warrant and secure foundation in his and his Nation's God +must have taken shape controllingly within those silent days that +intervened between his first election in 1860, and the date of his +inaugural oath in 1861. Else, in those brief addresses on his way to +Washington, that marvelous efflorescence upon his honest lips of an +ideal heavenward expectancy is unaccountable. In those dispersed and +fugitive responses, from Springfield to Independence Hall and +Harrisburg, there breathed such patriotic sentiments of aspiration and +anxiety as owed their ardor, their excellence, and their very loyalty +to his eager trust and hope, that all his deeds as president should +execute the will of God. Throughout his presidential term this wish to +make his full official eminence a facile instrument of God, attains in +his clear purpose and intelligence a solid massiveness, all too +unfamiliar in the craft of politics. + +The witness to this, in a letter to A. G. Hodges of April, 1864, is +most explicit and unimpeachable. This letter is a transcript of a +verbal conversation, is written by request, and is designed distinctly +to make the testimony of his mortal lips everywhere accessible and +permanent. Its major portion aims to give his former spoken words a +simple repetition. Then he says:--"I add a word which was not in the +verbal conversation." And upon this he appends a paragraph, as of +something he could not restrain, the while he was conscious perfectly +that what he was about to write was certain to be published and +preserved among all men. In this letter, so doubly, so explicitly +deliberate, he is defending his decree for unshackling the slave, by +the plea, that only so could the Union be preserved. In the appended +paragraph, he disclaims all compliment to his own sagacity, and +accredits all direction and deliverance of the Nation's life, in that +dark mortal crisis, to the hidden, reverend government of a kind and +righteous God. + +If any man desires to probe and understand the thoughtfulness of +Lincoln's piety, let him place this doubly-pondered document and the +last inaugural side by side, remembering discerningly the date of +each, detecting how each conveys Lincoln's well-digested judgment of +unparalleled events, and not forgetting that Lincoln foresaw how both +those documents would be reviewed in generations to come. Here are +signs assuredly that Lincoln's lowliness and reverence, his +prayerfulness and trust, his steadfastness and gratitude towards God +had been balanced and illumined beneath the livelong cogitations of an +even, piercing eye. Pursuing and comparing every way the tangled, +complex facts of history; the endless strifes of men; the broken +lights in minds most sage; and the awful evidence, as the centuries +evolve, that greed and scorn and hate and falsity lead to woe; his +patient mind grows poised and clear in faith that a good and righteous +God is sovereign eternally. The truth he grasped transcended +centuries. His grasping faith transcends change. + +But Lincoln's piety was not alone deep-rooted and deliberate, the +ripened growth of mixed and manifold experience. It was heroic. It was +the mainspring and the inspiration of a splendid bravery. This is +finely shown in the early autumn of 1864. On September 4 of that year +he wrote a letter to Mrs. Gurney, a Quakeress. This letter bears a +most curious and intimate resemblance to the central substance of the +last inaugural. It witnesses to his earnest research after the hidden +ways of God. + +Within this search he sees some settled certainties. He sees that he +and all men are prone to fail, when they strive to perceive what God +intends. Into such an error touching the period of the war all had +fallen. God's rule had overborne men's hopes. God's wisdom and men's +error therein would yet be acknowledged by all. Men, though prone to +err, if they but earnestly work and humbly trust in deference to God, +will therein still conduce to God's great ends. So with the war. It +was a commotion transcending any power of men to make or stay. But in +God's design it contained some noble boon. And then he closes, as he +began, with a tender intimation of his reverent trust in prayer. The +whole is comprehended within this single central sentence, a sentence +which involves and comprehends as well the total measure of the last +inaugural:--"The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must +prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them +in advance." + +Here is a confession notable in itself. It would be notable in any +man, and at any time. But when one marks its date, its notability is +enhanced impressively. For Lincoln was traversing just there some of +the darkest hours of his overshadowed life. It was the period +following his second nomination for the presidency in May of 1864, and +before the crisis of election in November of the same year. Central in +that season of wearisome and ominous uncertainty fell the failure of +the battle in the Wilderness under Grant; the miscarriage of his plans +for Richmond; and the awful carnage by Petersburg. Here fell also the +date of Early's raid, with its terrible disclosure of the helplessness +in Washington. Thereupon ensued, in unexampled earnestness, a +recrudescence of the great and widespread weariness with the war; and +of an open clamor for some immediate conference and compromise for +peace. Foremost leaders and defenders of the Union cause throughout +the North sank down despairingly, convinced that at the coming +national vote Lincoln was certain to meet defeat. At the same time the +army sorely needed new recruits; but another draft seemed desperate. +Then Lincoln's closest counselors approached his ears with heavy words +of hopelessness about the outlook in the Northern States confessedly +most pivotal. + +In the midst of those experiences, on August 23, 1864, Lincoln penned +and folded away with singular care from all other eyes, these +following words:-- + +"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the president-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his +election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward." + +Those words were written eleven days before he penned the sentiments +cited above from the letter to the Quakeress. Between those two dates +the Democratic Convention of Chicago had convened and nominated +General McClellan. + +Amid such scenes, in the presence of such events, and among such +prognostications, Lincoln chiseled out those phrases about the +perfect, hidden, but all-prevailing purposes of God. Here is Godly +piety in the sternest stress of politics. Here faith is militant, and +unsubdued. Its face is like a burnished shield. Its patience no +campaign outwears. In its constancy suggestions of surrender can find +no place. It was forged upon a well-worn anvil, under mighty strokes, +and at a fervent heat. Fires only proved its purity. It was fighting +battles quite as sore as any fought with steel. It was the deathless, +truceless courage of a moral hero. It was pure and perfect fortitude. +Its struggle, its testing, and its victory had not been wrought on +earthly battle-fields. Its strife had been with God. More than with +the South, Lincoln's controversy had been with the Most High. He +wrestled with the heavenly angel through the night, like the ancient +patriarch. Like the ancient saint, he bore the marks of grievous +conflict. And like him of old, he gained his boon. He achieved to see +that God and perfect righteousness were in eternal covenant. + +Such was Lincoln's piety. His view of God gave God an absolute +pre-eminence. In Lincoln's day, as in the day when Satan tempted +Christ, vast areas of human life seemed to give all faith in God's +control the lie; and men in multitudes abjured such futile confidence. +But Lincoln kept his faith in God, and truth, and love, and +immortality. And in that faith he judged his trust, and hope, and +prayer to be preserved on high inviolate. There above, he firmly held, +were lodged eternally the perfect pattern and assurance of full +rectitude and charity. And in that understanding he held on earth +unyieldingly to the perfect image of that heavenly norm, in a pure and +acquiescent loyalty and love. Thus discerningly, submissively, +triumphantly did Lincoln's heart aspire to unify an honest earthly +walk with a living faith in God. + +One word remains. As Lincoln makes confession of his faith in this +inaugural, extolling God supremely, and therein announcing to his +fellowmen the groundwork of his morality, it comes to view that the +qualities held fast in Lincoln's heart, and the attributes of God have +marvelous affinity. The equity he adores in God he cherishes within +himself, and recommends to all. God's estimate of the incomparable +value of a human soul, when set beside the variable treasures men +exchange, Lincoln's judgment reverently approves, and as reverently +adopts, establishing thereby a standard quality in his conscious life. +God's tender pity for the poor, hidden deep in his divine rebuke of +slavery, and hidden deeper still within his mercy for all who help to +bear its awful sacrifice, melts and molds the heart of Lincoln to the +same compassion. And to the very outlines of God's majesty, as his +sovereign purposes are all unrolled and all fulfilled throughout the +earth, Lincoln's soul conforms ideally, in its humble vision and +expression of devout, discerning praise. + +Here is something passing wonderful. Between a fragile, mortal man and +the eternal God, when each is limned in terms of ethics, appears a +deep and high agreement. There is enthroned in each a common +righteousness. In each, the laws of mercy are the same. In each are +constituted principles inwrought with immortality. And within the +eternal interplay of reverence and majesty between mankind and God, +there is a fellowship in dignity that proves the holy Maker and his +moral creature to be immediately akin. And so the mind and will of +Lincoln, in this their moral plenitude, may interpret and recommend, +may apprehend and execute the eternal purposes of God. This high +commission Lincoln humbly, firmly undertook. And in his commanding +life there is a mighty hint, not easy to silence or erase, that +Godliness and ethics, which have been set so often far apart, were +eternally designed for unison. + + +HIS LOGIC--THE PROBLEM OF PERSUASION + +In the study of Lincoln's ethics it is not enough to describe it as an +ideal scheme of thought, however notable its range and poise and +insight may be seen to be. As Lincoln's character stands forth in +national eminence among our national heroes, he figures as a man of +deeds, a man of powerful influence over the actions of other men, a +man of masterly exploits. However truly it may be affirmed that +multitudes of adjutants reinforced his undertakings at every turn and +on every side, it still holds also true, and that a truth almost +without a parallel, that his sheer personal force was the single, +undeniable, over-mastering energy that shaped this Nation's evolution +through an outstanding epoch in its career. It was primarily out of +those prolific and exhaustless energies, stored and mobilized within +himself, that he rose, as though by nature, to be national chief +executive. It was straight along the line of his far-seeing vision and +advice that Congress and the Nation were guided to accept and +undertake that terrible enterprise of war. In that great struggle he +came to be in firm reality, far more than any other man, the +competent, effective commander-in-chief. He was chief councilor in a +cabinet whose supreme function dealt singly with matters wholly +executive. It was by the almost marvelous unison of wisdom and +decision resident in him that Congress and the Nation were day by day +induced to hold with an almost preternatural inflexibility to the +single, sovereign issue of the strife. When, after four years of +unexampled bitterness, multitudes were wearying of all patience in +further hostilities, it was his personal momentum and weight, more +than any other influence, that held the prevailing majority of the +national electorate to predetermine by their free ballots that, at +whatever cost of further war, the principles of liberty, equality, and +national integrity should be placed above all possible challenge or +assault forever. + +And in the period before the war and before his elevation to the +presidency this same executive efficiency, this singular capacity to +mold the views and stir the motives of other men, was likewise in +continual demonstration. Discerning how supreme a factor in our +American affairs was the power of public sentiment, and observing how +that power was being utilized to undermine the national tranquillity, +he challenged and overthrew single handed the leading master of the +day in the field of political management and debate. Trusting in the +same confidence, and pursuing the same device, he appealed to the +civic consciences of men in the open field of free debate, by the +single instrument of reasoned speech, until, by his persuading +arguments, he consolidated into effective harmony and led to national +victory a party of independent voters, with watchword, platform, and +experience all untried. In all the process by which that new-formed +party gained access to national pre-eminence it was Lincoln's +governing influence that went ahead and gave the movement steadiness. +And through it all he vitally inspired a Nation, now undivided and +indivisible, with a prevailing, corporate desire, that all succeeding +days and all beholding Nations are now deeming, for any stable civic +life, the true enduring ideal. + +And all of this was compassed and set afoot within scarcely more than +one decade. In October of 1854 at Peoria, he consciously took up his +strenuous enterprise. In April of 1865, he laid it down and ceased to +strive. Single handed he undertook the task. Through all its progress +the weight of that one hand was undeniably preponderant. And when that +hand relaxed, the task that its release left trembling was one that +stirred a mighty Nation's full solicitude. + +Here is something marvelous. These affirmations, as thus far made, +seem certainly overdrawn, and totally incredible. An agency and an +efficiency of national dimensions, introducing and completing an epoch +in our national history; but an agent and an outfit almost defying +inventory, his personality seeming in every phase so simple and +without prestige, and all his ways and means seeming so unpromising +and plain; the while through all his course he was confronting a +resistance and a hostility whose impulse was rooted in centuries of +firm and proud dominion, and whose onset made a Nation tremble. How +can such stupendous affirmations be clothed with credibility? Was it +indeed the hand of Lincoln that turned the Nation from its mistaken +path? Was it Lincoln's will that reinaugurated our predestined course? +Was it Lincoln's overcoming confidence that established in the land +again a good assurance that its integrity was indestructible? + +If questions such as these were addressed to Lincoln himself for his +reply, we may be sure his answer, like all his ways, would contain a +beautiful mingling of modesty and confidence. Heeding well the mortal +crisis, and hearing the Nation's call for help, he would not refuse, +when bidden and appointed, to take his stand alone at the very apex of +the strain, knowing well that the burdens to be borne would be greater +than tasked the strength of even Washington; and affirming as he +advanced warily to his post, that in his appointment many abler men +had been passed by. But then he would re-affirm and urge again all the +arguments of his great addresses and messages and debates, beginning +with that initial trumpet peal in Peoria in 1854, and not concluding +until, after all had been rehearsed and reavouched, he recited again +with prophetic earnestness this last inaugural. And throughout all +his devout re-affirmation of all the spoken and written appeals to +which his patriotic mind gave studied form and utterance in that +intense decade, a discerning ear could distinguish in every paragraph +profound and penetrating attestations, such as these:--This is a +mighty Nation. Its future is far more vast. Its present perplexities +are intricate. It has been misled. It needs most sane direction. I am +stationed at her head. Difficulties environ me. My burdens outweigh +Washington's. But this land was conceived in liberty. It was dedicated +to be free. Here all are peers. God's hand has been on our history. +Our destiny enfolds the highest human weal. God is with us still. +Human hearts are with us. Here is overcoming power. Despite my frailty +and poor descent, I will never leave my place. I see how other men +prevail with multitudes by personal appeal. This shall be my +confidence. Though I have no name, though there is perhaps no reason +why I should ever have a name, I can plead. I can plead with men. It +is a Godlike art. Grave as is my problem, this is its grand solution. +I will study to persuade. I will take refuge in the mighty power of +argument. I will confer, and conciliate, and convince. I will employ +my reason to the full. I will address, and assail, and enlist the +reason of other men. I will put all my trust in speech, in ordered, +reasoned speech. I will arrange all my convictions and hopes and plans +in arguments. I will approach men's wills with momentous propositions. +I will open a path to human hearts through open ears by my living +voice. I will make righteousness vibrate vocally. To men's very faces +will I rebuke their wrong. Argument, pure argument shall be my only +weapon, my only agency, my only way. By naked argument, honest and +unadorned, I will undertake to turn this Nation back to rectitude. I +will rest all my confidence in truth, truth unalloyed, abjuring every +counterfeit and all hypocrisy. It is truth's primal and mightiest +function to persuade. Through persuasion alone can freemen be induced +by freemen to yield a free obedience. The heavenly art of persuading +speech shall be for me the first and the last resort. By this most +comely instrument shall my most eager and ambitious wish gain access +to all this peopled land, and win vindication through all coming time. + +Something such as this, as one must judge from Lincoln's practice, was +Lincoln's science and evaluation of the art of logical appeal. By +every token Lincoln was a master of assemblies. Upon a public platform +he was in his native element. There he won his place and name. +Whatever any one may say about Lincoln's reputation or Lincoln's +power, that power and that reputation were mined and minted in the +very act and exercise of reasoning appeal. As iron sharpeneth iron, so +he, in the immediate presence of audiences of freeborn men, assembled +from his very neighborhood, shaped and edged and tempered his total +influence. It was when upon the hustings, and while engaged in +pleading speech, that he commanded the Nation's eye and gained the +Nation's ear. And once advanced to national pre-eminence, it was still +by logical persuasion that the Nation's deference was retained. + +What now was the inner nature of Lincoln's arguments? What was the +fiber, what the texture in the composition of his thought that made +its arguments so convincing? What was the structure, and what the +carrying power in his appeals that made their logic so prevailing, so +compelling, so enduring? + +To find an answer to this inquiry let men review yet once again this +last inaugural. Here is a product of Lincoln's mind whose single +motive is persuasion, whose momentum does not diminish, and which +seems destined to be adjudged by history a master's masterpiece. What +does this short speech contain that gave it in 1865, and gives it yet, +an influence almost magical? + +There can be but one possible reply. The factor in that address that +makes its influence so imperial is the moral majesty of the argument +in its major paragraph. That paragraph enshrines an argument. Though +fashioned in the mode and aspect of a reverent supposition, the steady +pace and import of its ordered thought is such as every ordered mind +admits to be compelling. But in substance and in structure that +argument is purely ethical. All turns upon that cited, undoubted fact +of age-long, unrequited toil. Upon that stern actuality hinges all the +arrangement of the thought. Its phrases move with rhythmic fluency; +but they bind together inseparably a Nation's duty, sin, and doom; not +omitting to enfold, with a marvel of moral insight, an almost hidden +intimation of a healing cure. + +Here are weighty thoughts, thoughts that press and urge, thoughts that +carry and communicate the gravity of centuries. They contain an +interpretation. They clarify and illuminate. And they all co-ordinate. +They combine and operate together to enforce agreement. They +demonstrate that tyranny breeds a baleful progeny of guilt and woe; +that robbery binds the robber under debt to the full measure of his +rapine; that such guilt can never be forgotten; that such a woe is +pitiless; that the centuries, though slow and mute, are attentive and +impartial witnesses; and that God's even judgments are over all, and +are altogether just. This is all the content and all the purport of +this paragraph, and of all this speech: an exposition of American +slavery and of its resultant civil war, in moral terms, before the +moral bar of every hearer's conscience, and beneath the thought of +God's eternal righteousness; all turning upon the self-evident verity +that unpaid toil is wrong. In this prolific affirmation is the fertile +germ of all that Lincoln ever thought or undertook in that supreme +decade. Here are enfolded all his axioms and postulates and +propositions. By interlocking its multiform, infolded, self-evident +certitudes he framed all his arguments. Its overflowing, resistless +demonstrations in active human affairs formed all his corollaries. +Toil unrequited is a moral wrong. It cries to heaven, and shall be +avenged. In this avenging, if we but see our day, there is an open +door to join with heaven, and transmute its vengeance into recompense +and reconciliation. + +This was Lincoln's logic. It was purely ethical. This was the +master-key to his transcendent statesmanship. Here was the secret of +his political efficiency. Thus, and in no other way, he swayed the +Nation. Himself a Godlike man, and discerning in every other man the +same Godlikeness; trusting his own soul's honesty, and appealing to +honest manhood in all other men; he took his stand beside all the +oppressed, and against all extortion; and voiced and urged and trusted +the sovereign moral plea for perfect charity, and perfect equity for +all. + +But Lincoln's logic was interlaced with history. All through his +debates and addresses are woven the facts and sequences of our +national career. And to these connected events he clung in all his +arguments, as a man clings to the honor of his home. There was in +those events an argument. To tamper with that history, discrediting +its sure occurrences, or distorting their right connection, was in his +conception a downright immorality. + +But mere historical exactitude was not the motive of Lincoln's appeal +to past events. The momentum of our past was for Lincoln's use +entirely moral. Here upon this continent, as he conceived our great +experiment, was being tried, in the presence and on behalf of all +mankind, a government in which the governed were the governors. Here +men are inquiring and being taught what true manhood can create, +uphold, and consummate upon a continental scale, in mutual equality. +Here men are schooled for independence. Here men may dare to fashion +their own law. Here men are nurtured towards full fraternity. Here men +are forced to heed the civic necessity of being fair. Here a boundless +impending future has to be kept steadily in view. Here the God of +Nations is teaching a Nation that he should be revered. Here, in brief +and in sum, men are being disciplined to know and cherish the +rudiments of civic character. + +Thus Lincoln interpreted the meaning of our national history. In his +rating, its total purport was ethical. Any logical exposition of our +national career, if its statements are historically exact, will carry +moral consequences. If the logical sequence of any statement of our +historical course is morally perverse, then that statement of our +history is historically untrue. Thus Lincoln's jealous zest for +truthful history, for truthful argument, and for true morality became +coincident. + +But Lincoln's logic was his own. His zeal for history was a freeman's +zest. His arguments were not the cold reflection of a borrowed light. +They were the fervid affirmations of his own convictions, compacted +into reasoned unison, out of the indivisible constituents of his very +manhood's honor. When in his appeal his soul most glowed, when the +ordered sequence and pressure of his thought waxed irresistible, he +was simply opening to his auditors the balanced burden of his honest +heart. Then genuine manhood became articulate. Then pure honor found +a voice. Then eloquence became naught but plain sincerity. Then +arguments became transparent, and affirmations convinced like axioms. +Then demonstrations moved. Assertions did persuade. Then the very +being of the orator took possession of the auditor in an intelligent +fraternity. True, indeed, a solid South, and multitudes besides, +derided his postulates, contemned his arguments, and scorned +derisively his tenderest appeals. But better than they themselves he +understood their hearts; and holding fast forever his deeper faith and +confidence, he maintained his reasoning and his plea, knowing surely +that in some future day their chastened hearts would vindicate his +words. + +But in all of this exposition of Lincoln's logical force and skill +there has been no mention of a syllogism. Did Lincoln then neglect +that famous formula of argumentative address? To this natural inquiry +it must be replied that Lincoln understood right well the fine utility +of this strict norm of formal thought. Indeed, he had taken special +pains to perfect his skill in just that form of argument. To the +logical click in a well-formed syllogism his inner ear was well +attuned. Repeatedly he summoned in its aid. An excellent illustration +may be seen in his rejoinder to Douglas at Galesburg in September of +1858. But Lincoln's confidence was not in syllogistic forms, however +trim. His trust was in his moral axioms. Unaided, naked truth; truth +whose total urgency is self-contained, whose perfect verity is +self-displayed, and whose proudest triumphs are self-achieved; pure +truth, shaped forth in speech of absolute simplicity; truth that works +directly in the human mind, like sunshine in the eye, was Lincoln's +handiest and most common instrument in an argument. Thus he sought to +so use reason as to awaken conscience and arouse the will. And thus +his arguments prevailed. + +This was Lincoln's logic. It was the orderly exposition of his honest +manhood, pleading with the honest intelligence of every other man for +his free assent. Himself a freeman whom God made free, and greeting in +every other man an equal dignity; with loyalty to himself and with +charity for all; with Godly deference and unfailing hope; he urged and +argued from his own true manhood, and from no other grounds, with a +logic that no true freeman can ever refute: that in this heaven +favored land, and for the welfare of all the world, these ethical +foundations of all true civic welfare be kept unmoved forever. In such +a moral character, and in such a moral argument is this expanding +Nation's only pride and sure defense. At any modern Round Table of +civic knights Lincoln is true King Arthur, and his persuading speech +the true Excalibur. + + +HIS PERSONALITY--THE PROBLEM OF PSYCHOLOGY + +When Plato took his pen to write his dialogues; when Michael Angelo +took his chisel to fashion his Moses; when Raphael took his brush to +paint his Madonna; they were designing to make their several ideals of +personality pre-eminently beautiful and distinct. And each artist in +his way won a signal, a supreme success. Moses, Socrates, the Madonna, +are shining revelations of human personality. Success herein is the +height of highest art. + +But what is personality? It seems an eternal secret, despite all human +search and art. Yet its secret is everywhere felt instinctively to be +of all quests the most supreme. By every avenue men are trying to +reach and reveal its hiding place. Our goal is nothing less than the +human soul. And upon this inquest the eyes and instruments of our +inspection are being sharpened with a determination and zeal hitherto +unparalleled. + +Suppose this quest be turned to Lincoln. Surely here is a human +person. He stands enough apart in his preeminence to be pre-eminently +distinguishable and distinct; while yet his face beams near enough to +be as familiar and accessible as our most accessible and familiar +friend. For surely, despite all his proneness towards a musing +solitude, Lincoln, of all Americans, displays through all his +published statements, and in all his public life, an instructive and +unstudied openness and unreserve. Just here his marvelous power and +influence lie. He practiced no concealment. He held communion with all +his fellowmen. Herein consists his honesty. + +Now may not an honest scholarship, honestly conceiving that of all +investigations our pursuit for the ways and dwelling place of +personality is easily supreme, as honestly believe that in the open, +waiting heart of Lincoln that supreme inquiry may find its supreme +reward? Surely here is promise of a labor that will pay. In Lincoln's +personality is a vein, a mine whose worth and sure utility no mineral +wealth can parallel. + +What in very truth, what in solid fact, what in absolute reality is +Lincoln's personality? For undeniably in facing and regarding him, we +confront and apprehend a human life, compact and self-controlled, the +native home and throne of all the conscious and self-directed energies +that are ever resident within and representative of any man. If human +personality ever took evident and conscious shape and form, then +Lincoln is an open and easily approachable illustration of its +embodiment. Upon no object may a student of psychology more easily or +more wisely fix his eye than upon the soul of Lincoln, when it +thrills in resolute, intense endeavor, as in this last inaugural. + +For one thing, that Lincoln should be the specimen of psychology +commanding any student's choice is suggested by Lincoln's notability. +Here is an exhibit in no way ordinary. He has secured the attention of +us all. And the attention of us all is athrill with mighty interest. +However it has come about, in some way, as a human personality, he +illustrates a type, he presents a sample so powerful and positive as +to stand before all eyes almost alone, while also so attractive as to +be by everyone beloved. This fact may fairly beget assurance from the +start that in any heedful search for the very substance of human +personality, an interior and intimate fellowship with Lincoln may show +us closely and clearly where it dwells, and what it is. For from the +start it stands plain that Lincoln's hold upon our hearts is in its +controlling co-efficients purely personal. That hold clings fast and +spreads afar, indifferent to space, or time, or even death. His +influence over us, so gladly welcomed and so clearly felt, is no wise +physical or temporal. It cannot be handled or weighed. It is personal. +Herein is high encouragement. And that in this sense of our response +to his enduring sway should be enfolded on our part, a kindred, pure, +enduring delight attests convincingly that within Lincoln's +personality and our own there is something mutual. Within the thing we +search and us who seek there is profound affinity. In this our +encouragement may heighten, and that with solid soberness, unto hope. + +And then the scene of this his last inaugural is all aglow with +promise. For here if anywhere Lincoln's personality may be seen +engaged in the ripeness of his finished discipline, and the fullness +of his manhood's strength. The scene itself swells full of meaning; +and Lincoln's part and contribution fix and fill the center of its +significance. Surely if anything within that scene is plain to see and +localize, it is Lincoln's own identity. The living Lincoln is surely +there, wholly unreserved and unconcealed. There Lincoln's personality +is in fullest play, an evident and mighty revelation, plainly felt and +seen. + +But it is only in the action that the actor comes to view; only in his +words does the thinker stand revealed. Here and thus, and nowhere else +or otherwise, is Lincoln's personality unveiled. And yet herein, +within the compass of this speech, Lincoln unlades a burden of such +grave concern, and unrolls a problem of such profound complexity as +could nowhere come to birth and utterance but in a mighty human heart. +In the vastness of that problem and anxiety can be gauged the vastness +of the measure of that heart. Here open into immediate view at once an +object and a method of research, fitted at once to challenge and +appall the bravest student's heart. But once its summons is +distinguished, it is irresistible. + +One thing that meets the student, as he seeks the speaker in this +speech, is its witness to his titanic and pathetic toil. The words he +utters are the message of a laborer far forespent, voiced with mingled +weariness and hope, well towards the sunset of a weary day. The sun +had been fiercely hot. The field had been full of thorns. And through +the arid hours he had tasted little food, or rest, or joy. No +husbandman ever chose his seed or tilled his ground at greater cost of +patient care. None ever had to bend his frame to ruder weather, or +battle against more malicious and persistent pests. And all the agony +of that toil had been wrought through within the anguish of his mind. +In exactest and exacting thought he had engrossed and consumed the +full measure of his full strength. On all he had to bear and do he +pondered mightily. No mortal ever pondered more intently on all that +mortals ever have to meet. In this inaugural scene the soul of Lincoln +is straining at its full strength. No portion of his personal life is +idling. If a student's hand is truly deft, he can feel, as he fingers +the throbbing life of this address, the pulse beats of a full heart. + +And within the grasp and compass of that heart are revolving vast and +strenuous themes. The soul of Lincoln is dealing with a Nation's +destiny. His speech is borne upon his single voice; but with that +single voice he pleads for millions; and its vibrations carry through +a continent, as a national oracle. Expounder and defender of the +Nation's vital honor, beleaguered all about with war, distressed by +all oppression, eager with a sacrificial passion that all men +everywhere may have liberty and an equal share in equity, searching +for a just and stable basis for the world's tranquillity, as he stands +and strives throughout that speech the structure of his soul grows +luminous. As he studied Providence and scanned the grounds of +government; as he peered far into the deeps of freedom, the majesty of +duty, and the sanctions of inviolable law; as he pondered the nature +of eternal right, and the deadly mischief of moral wrong; as he +watched the ways of hate and pride and falsity and sensual delights, +he was not alone compacting the substance and order of this immortal +address; but in the shapely body of his argument he has embodied and +uncovered his honest, guileless heart. In the very scars and seams +upon his sorrow-shadowed face, as he overcomes his task and fills out +his duty in this address, discerning eyes can see through the furnace +of how deep refinement his humble and majestic soul has been forever +beautified. Transforming themes possessed his mind. By the ministry +and inner influence of these themes he grew to be transformed; and in +the process and issue of that change the outline and texture of his +inner being becomes traceable. + +And of this inner revelation the most notable mark is its simplicity. +As in this speech his inner life is introduced, its texture is not +perplexing and intricate. It is perfectly apprehensible. The total +speech can be quickly scanned. Its sentiments barely get your full +attention before they are at an end. Its entire compass can be +comprehended in a single glance. Its whole sum can be reviewed in a +single breath. And still its themes and propositions are imperial. +Within its fine simplicity its stateliness stands uneclipsed. Hence +its marvelous power to command. Upon all who look and listen, its +action and appeal are like the dawning of a day. Its major +propositions are assented to unconsciously. It works like light. It is +genial, winsome, clear. And it is irresistible. It moves. It rules. It +is an argument, the ordered appeal of a candid, earnest mind to the +reasoned thought of honest men. Gentle and modest throughout, it +contains and conveys compelling energy. It has the sturdiness of a +hardy oak. And yet its first appearing was like a new unfolding of our +flag. It is a kingly word, alike in lasting beauty and enduring +strength. In this there is surely some sure reflection of that hidden +man within, Lincoln's real, undying self. + +And this still further may be said. Amid these sovereign interests and +affirmations their agent is thus employed of his own free choice. He +is no automaton. The Lincoln whom we seek, the Lincoln whom this +address is helping us to see can never be defined by physical terms. +Through the realm of physics things move as they are moved. Lincoln in +this address moves and guides and governs himself. And he is here +self-judged. This inaugural teems with moral verdicts, verdicts that +define eternal issues irrevocably. No higher function than this can be +imagined in any sphere of being, or in any form. These verdicts +Lincoln fastens upon himself. And before the same complete authority +he summons the whole Nation to bow. Deep within those verdicts there +throbs omnipotently a sense of moral duty, moral right, man's highest +good and goal. This ideal of what should be stands evident in this +inaugural in Lincoln's own humble conformity with God, in his own +unimpeachable integrity, in his unreserved benevolence, and in his +pure esteem for souls. In each one of these constituents of human duty +Lincoln sees unchallengeable authority. For the honor of each one he +deems himself responsible. Their mingled rays create the light in +which he writes this speech, by which this speech is read, and under +whose clear radiance he records his oath. Surely here are more than +hints for any one, who seeks to see just where this speech originates, +and most precisely how its author may be defined. + +Within this last preceding paragraph one feels again the presence and +the movement of all that all the chapters of this volume have +contained. Herein we seem to face a sort of final synthesis of all our +study. If this be true, or only true approximately, then its face and +contents should be scrutinized until they are cleared of every shadow +or alloy. For this research is surely approaching its goal, and some +of its boundaries may surely be defined. + +One line that shows indelibly is his intelligence; an intelligence +comprehending total centuries, and assembling within its scope extreme +diversities; an intelligence that has a piercing eye, acute to +distinguish and divide; an intelligence that has power to estimate, +compare, and summarize; an intelligence intolerant of error, and +eager after truth; an intelligence that can frame an argument +designed to clarify, convince, and win all other minds; an +intelligence that assumes to deal with God, receiving and reflecting +within its own interior and proper vision a revelation of the divine +intent. Here is an energy, at once receptive and original, fitted +marvelously for a reflection that can embrace and authorize eternal +truth. + +This intelligence is within control. It is not a vagrant or unguided +force. It is under conduct, all its action to observe, inspect, and +estimate being ordered reasonably. And all this influence operating to +understand and counsel, all this wisdom, while gathering light and +substance from everywhere, is informed within, and wonderfully +self-contained. As Lincoln reasons in this inaugural, as he resolves +and purifies his argument, its power to convince is most intimate and +deep within himself. As he guides and shapes his thoughts for the +thought of other men, the convictions within the speaker, and their +power to persuade, so inwrought in the speech, become identical. In +his own consent choice and judgment are combined. Here is freedom +indeed, a freedom to discern as truly as to choose, to distinguish as +truly as to decide, to estimate as truly as to select, the freedom of +the intelligence, an intelligence that is truly free. + +This freedom fashions character. It is a moral architect. It is +original, able to create. The author of this speech is self-produced. +The personality that comes to view among those words is +self-determined and self-made. Its plan was sketched by his own hand. +His position and his posture, his sentiments and his sympathies, his +bent and inclination, his moral postulates and axioms, his moral stamp +and trend and tone, his stability and moral sturdiness are all his own +invention, originally, essentially, inseparably his own. Lincoln's +character is Lincoln's handicraft. Its title vests in him. It never +was, nor could it ever become the property of another man. This all +men recognize. But this universal recognition is pregnant with +significance to any seeker amid the phenomena of Lincoln's life for +the substance of his personality. Somewhere within those statements +just now made, somewhere within Lincoln's conscious authorship and +invention of his moral worth is precious intimation of the whereabouts +and constitution of his personality. + +This blend in Lincoln of freedom and intelligence, of liberty and +sanity is notable for its evenness. Lincoln's liberty is not +chimerical or riotous. It is regulated, orderly, real. Within himself +and over his full destiny, an unimpeachable sovereign though he is, he +is not prone towards wilfulness, but towards composure and sobriety. +He moves as one fast-held beneath the law that for all his movements +he will be accountable. He always wears the mien of one who carries +high responsibilities. Far from being arbitrary, he behaves as facing +within himself a court of arbitration, truly self-invested, and just +as truly sovereign. Of all his words and deeds and attitudes he is +himself self-constituted, reverend judge. Whether seeking to resolve a +doubt, or waiting to receive a verdict, his appeal is finally to +himself. This is his mood and posture in this inaugural. He is giving +an opinion. This scene is a literal crisis in a review in which a +Nation's history and delinquency have met incisive, balanced +examination, to the end that his own view of duty as president might +come clear to his own judicial eye, and all gain the approbation of +all mankind. In his loftiest originality, where his conscious power +and right to elect the path he takes is most self-evident, the way he +takes is also owned to be an unimpeachable obligation. Here is +another signal hint for the seeker after the living and abiding source +of Lincoln's words and deeds. Somewhere within this sense of duty, so +sane and free and serious, lives the very Lincoln whom we seek. + +This judicial evenness within the free and reasoned movements of +Lincoln's action and argument is due to a balanced store of moral +ballast. His stalwart mind and sturdy will and steadfast consciousness +that duty binds his life stand leagued together in a partnership +employing infinite wealth. With these resources he daily ventures vast +investments. This speech is such a venture, laden with most goodly +merchandise. Indeed he ventures here, as everywhere, his all. His fear +of God, his self-respect, his neighbor love, his thirst for things +that last--these are the priceless treasure he examines with a +searching insight, estimates with judicial carefulness, enjoys with +soul-filling admiration, and then responsibly invests. On these and +these alone he chooses and resolves to seek returns. These are the +only seas where sail his ships. Here is all his merchandise. Here is +the only exchange where Lincoln ever resorts. Here and here alone can +one make computation of his wealth. If he has wisdom, it is here. Here +is all his liberty. Here is a full register of his life's accounts, +and of his full accountability. Here are all his goodly pearls. These +are the jewels that delight his heart. And if only students have the +eye to see, within this joy deep secrets are revealed. + +Just here this study has to pause. For while it seems to be facing +straight for that in Lincoln which is innermost--his essential and +immortal self, transcending all the mere phenomena of life--and +standing where nothing intervenes between our eager search and his +steadfast soul, the outlook, as it is scanned by different eyes, +reflects in different minds world-wide diversity. Lincoln sees this +difference, and deals with it in this speech. He knows his chosen +estimates of God and man and government, of prayer and equity and +happiness, of right and wrong and penalty, awake resentful protest. +Just here his manhood shows its breed. Without resentment, but without +surrender, he takes and keeps his oath, expecting that God, humanity, +and time will vindicate his insight and his choice. This valiant +expectation stands today fulfilled, a commanding testimony that +Lincoln's personality, though so simply childlike in its every trait, +has majestic permanence and comprehension. Its inmost attributes, as +purified in him, reflect and clarify to other souls, however opposite +and hostile they may seem, their own essential and enduring rank. This +gives pointed intimation that in Lincoln's conscious life, deep +underneath his daily words and deeds, there is a conscious unity, the +very seat of freedom and law, a shrine of reverence, an altar of love, +a throne of truth, a fountain-head of purity--a unity that no +antagonist can overcome, that neither time nor death can decompose. + +But an objection still persists. Some man will say that the search for +Lincoln's personality, as thus far carried on, has only dealt with +ethics, whereas research in personality is at bottom a problem of pure +psychology; and that in pure psychology the position holds impregnable +that naught beneath men's words and deeds can ever be discerned; that +naught indeed is real for this investigation but sensible phenomena; +that a human soul is something it is impossible to place. + +This matter plainly claims respect. As an objection it is inveterate; +and whenever urged, it gains wide heed. In treating with it some +things rise up for hearing. To begin with, the intimation cited in the +former paragraph will honor pondering. Though that paragraph is +intent on ethics in its every word, no paragraph in all the volume +more strictly so, still its statements clear more ground than a single +hasty glance is liable accurately to survey. It is concerned with +ethics truly--again be that conceded. But in no concern of morals +whatsoever did Lincoln vacate intelligence. Never was pure +intelligence more intellectually engaged than when Lincoln's mind was +scanning moral problems. In such engagements Lincoln's total being was +occupied. And if amid the clustering multitudes of moral judgments and +decisions that attend his moral inquiries and activities, there is +witness to the presence of a freeborn judge whose identity remains +continuously and consciously single and the same, that fact sheds +searching light upon the problem with which this paragraph deals. + +Let one listen again to this address--listen with a due intentness as +it speaks of Union and destruction and defense; of bondage and lash +and unpaid toil; of offenders, offenses and woe; of malice and charity +and right; of God and Bible and prayer; of widows and orphans and +wounds; of war and sorrow and peace; of Nations and centuries and +Providence. Here are trilogies and tragedies and millenniums, in +ethics and religion and philosophy--but borne from perishing lips to +perishing ears upon the perishing vehicle of a passing breath. This +human breath is frail, these human words are faint, this scene bursts +forth and vanishes. But those trilogies! They are more than flitting +words, and shifting scenes, and dying breath. The actor outlasts the +scene; the speaker outlives his word; the mortal breath is not the +measure of the man. He by whom these massive trilogies were marshaled +and deployed before a national audience, upon a Nation's stage, to +form a national spectacle, and expound a Nation's history, does not +perish with his breath, nor vanish with this scene. Before, within and +afterwards he lives, pre-arranging, fulfilling and surviving this +mighty drama of his life, mightily resembling God. A speech and scene +like this bear witness to an author and actor outdating and outranking +both scene and speech. An author looms within this speech, self-moved, +creative, free. An actor moves within this scene, self-made, poetic, +unconstrained. Speech and scene, voice and form are not the man. These +are but his fading vesture. Deep within those solemn trilogies, as +within a kingly robe, conveying to his vestment all its dignity, +though all unseen among its shapely folds, stands Lincoln's living, +Godlike self. It was to this the people paid their deference. Through +those clear syllables that came to utterance upon those mortal lips it +was Lincoln's immortal soul that became articulate. In those ringing +accents Lincoln's self became identified. If ever a human personality +crossed a human stage, not as actor echoing the words and attitudes of +other men, but as an author and creator, fulfilling within himself, in +God's fear, on other men's behalf, and with an eye to deathless +destinies, his own responsible trust, that man was Lincoln in this +second inaugural address. There he asserted and declared himself. + +Here then, in the tone and impress of this address is the sovereign +place to find the tone and impress of Lincoln's soul. If that living +soul ever gave a conscious hint of its living lineaments and hidden +dwelling place, here is that hint's finest published utterance. Here, +then, is the total measure of our task. Upon this transparent speech, +and not upon vacant air, is the student of psychology to direct his +eye. Here is the final challenge. Deep within the deeps of this +supreme address, clear within the rhythms of these resounding +trilogies, what does one see and hear? + +To the question thus defined an answer something such as this must be +returned: + +Here in this inaugural address is designation and signature of a man +astute to comprehend a Nation's history, reverent towards +responsibility, a champion and exponent of liberty, commending with +radiant earnestness that all his fellow men so walk with God, so +cherish equity, and so walk in charity as to secure in all the earth +an amity that time can never disrupt. + +Something such is the personality which this address attests. While +this speech exists, this testimony will endure. Its word stands firm. +And its signature is plain. He who wrote the speech has left upon its +manuscript his clear and sacred seal. He who gave its body shape was a +freeman none could bend, heedful of the arbiter none might disobey, +humble towards God, loyal to himself, a friend to every man, an +aspirant for life. + +Surely these are intimations of personality. Here is Lincoln, a vivid +plenitude in living unison of timeless quietness and harmony, +ordaining freely his own law of even heed for self and brother man, +for God and spirit life. Here is the full manhood of a living soul, +Godlike and earthly-born. None of its features are solidified in +flesh, to be again and soon resolved. All its face is spiritual; all +its action free, self-ordered, and self-judged; all preserving +jealously its own kingly honor; all beaming graciously on other men; +all bearing homage up to God; all vivid with immortality; abhorring +mightily all pride and hate, all falsehood and decay; all sharing +sacrificially with other men the cost and shame entailed in righting +human wrong. This is Lincoln's personality. In Godlike, friendly, +undying self-respect; in heavenly, upright, immortal kindliness; in +humane, divine, self-honoring heed for spirit-life--in each and any +one of these four identical affirmations is Lincoln's personality +exhaustively engrossed, each and any one declaring that he contains +within himself a free and deathless soul, akin alike to God and man, +and bound therein by the self-wrought law of love and truth. + +These terms define a life at once of human and of heavenly range, at +once inhabiting and transcending realms of change, at once self-ruled +and environed with responsibility. Here is elemental personality, in +inwrought and indivisible unity, with measureless capacity for +versatility, easily blending fulness of vigor with complete repose, +vestured and transfused with native symmetry and grace. In some such +living, breathing words, themselves transfigured and illumined by the +quickening verities they strive to body forth, may the pure, immortal +soul of Lincoln, and of every child of man, be defined, unburdened, +and declared. + +Something thus must written words describe the soul that surged +beneath this speech, and freely gave this speech its being. Surely +such an undertaking must not be despised. That aspiring, creative +spirit, so earnest and so resolute, far more than any speech its +vision or its passion may body forth, demands to be portrayed. Grand +as are these paragraphs, their author has a far surpassing majesty. +Fitted as are these accents to reach and stir the auditors of a +continent, the soul from which these accents rise has an access to all +those auditors far more intimate. + +If readers of this essay spurn the effort which it undertakes, let +them not be scorners merely. From among their number, let some one +arise, artist enough in insight and handicraft to make some truer +delineation of that living Lincoln, the abiding origin and author of +this and his every other noble speech and deed. Such an artist is sure +to find, if ever the conscious soul of Lincoln shines through his +hand, that when the inner face of Lincoln is portrayed, that portrait +will carry speaking evidence of a joyful and abiding consciousness of +liberty and law, of self and brother man, of things eternal, and of +God; that in his countenance, so sorrow-shadowed and yet so serene, +will shine a close resemblance to every other man; that through his +quiet eye will gleam that image of God in which he and all his fellow +men have been made; and that deep within it all will beam a radiant +assurance that by the way of sacrifice the awful mystery of sin has +been resolved. + +Hitherward must men who seek the soul of Lincoln turn their eye. +Humble, gentle, and loyal, eager after the life that is its own +reward, at once dutiful and free, lavishing out his life to take the +sting from sin--this is the soul of Lincoln. In this image every man +will see himself reflected, either in affinity, or by rebuke, herein +revealing how all men resemble God. Something such is man. Something +such is our common manhood. Something such is our inherent testimony +as to our origin and source. And something such is the task of him who +would frame a valid definition of personality. No undertaking is more +profound, none more supreme. And once it is accomplished, forms of +statement will have been found availing to embody all man can ever +know of self or God. + + + + +PART V. CONCLUSION + + +LINCOLN'S CHARACTER + +In all the chapters that have gone before, the essential constructive +factors have been very few. This is evident from their continual +reiteration--a reiteration that is too conspicuous to be overlooked. +In this is intimation that the last inclusive affirmation of this +study will be remarkable for its brevity and also for its open +clarity. The simple elements of such a closing synthesis may be here +set down. + +As encouraging this attempt, it may be first remarked that Lincoln's +life attests and demonstrates the primacy of character. This is the +foundation of his fame; and hereby his fame is felt to be secure. To +this all men agree. This world-wide consent may be said to be +unhesitant, spontaneous, unforced, arising as though by common +instinct, or by a moral intuition, all men everywhere viewing him +alike, even as all eyes everywhere act alike in receiving and +reflecting light. Here is something of a significance nothing less +than imperial for a student of ethics. For it seems to say that by +universal suffrage an international tribute is rendered to a common +pattern of human life; that there is a world ideal in the moral realm; +that this ideal is visibly near; and that this realized ideal is so +altogether friendly, admirable and excellent as to win from every land +an overflowing flood of thankfulness and joy. So genuine, so genial, +and so grand is Lincoln's moral life. In the face of such a life, and +of such a tribute, a student of ethics may be emboldened to assume +that his science has indeed foundations; that those sure grounds are +after all not far to seek; and that when those cornerstones are once +uncovered, they will be within the easy comprehension of common men. +Here, then, in Lincoln's open and exalted life is at once a challenge +and a test for all who would like to attempt a careful survey of the +moral realm. + +One sterling, standing coefficient of Lincoln's character was its +thoughtfulness. Piercing, pondering thought was with him a habitude. +His mind had insight, and he used its eye unsparingly. This was no +mere mental cunning, though he was surely passing shrewd and keen. In +Lincoln insight was so inseparably allied with an active sense of +responsibility that it may be best defined as searching honesty. Into +the massive, solid, stubborn problems of his perplexing day he drilled +and pierced by plodding, patient, penetrating thought. Kepler never +fixed his mind more steadily upon any study of geometric curves than +Lincoln his upon the intricate questions of government. And not in +vain. It may be truly said that Lincoln's moral judgments and resolves +were without exception the long-sought winnings of exactest and most +exacting mental toil. + +One fruit of this sharp scrutiny was a quite unusual foresight. In +this keen certitude touching things to come he was almost without a +peer. But its design and its utility for him were ethical. The coming +issues towards which he explored were moral. The future he foresaw was +thick with evolving sanctions involved in moral deeds. For such +events, whether near or far, he had a seeing eye. And with a steady +view to those oncoming certainties he shaped his resolutions, and +plotted out his life. That those high purposes involved his soul in +untold sorrow he well and unerringly foresaw. It was not by mental +blunders that he became enmeshed in the anguish and anxiety that made +his life so shadowed and solitary. And it was not by shrewder wits +that other men escaped his all but constant fellowship with reproach +and grief. Lincoln saw beforehand whither his studied view of duty and +his clear-eyed obedience led. Where other men stood blind he achieved +to see that his selected, sorrow-burdened path was the only way to the +happiness that could wear and satisfy. His insight was betrothed right +loyally to the faithful league of moral verities. Thus Lincoln's +character was stamped and sealed with prudence. Here gleams his +wisdom. His thought was balanced, looking many ways and comprehending +many parts. Hence his sane judiciousness. + +But this well-pondered carefulness was no mere mental sapience. The +world of Lincoln's painstaking thought was a world of character; a +world of liberty; a world of binding obligation; a world of right and +wrong; a world of God-like opportunities; a world of awful sanctions; +a world where dignity and shame are infinite; a world of manhood and +of brother men; a world where human souls outrank all other things, +like God. + +These were the themes that Lincoln's mind inspected and adjudged. It +is by virtue of his life-long search to find in such mighty interests +as these their rational consistency, that mental values of the highest +grade pervade and signalize his character. No mortal course in all our +history was ever reasoned out more carefully than the course that +Lincoln chose and held with moral heroism to his death. To overlook or +underrate this thoughtfulness in any reasoned estimate or exposition +of Lincoln's character would be infinitely unfair. As with light and +vision, his thoughtfulness is the medium in which his character stands +manifest. + +Quite as elemental in Lincoln's character as his thoughtfulness is his +courtly deference to duty. Lincoln's conscience controlled and held +him in his course, as gravitation holds and guides this globe. This +all men discern; and discerning, they admire. Deep in the center of +this unanimous admiration is a respect for Lincoln that amounts almost +to reverence. Lincoln's estimate of law was most profound. When, after +humble and all-engrossing search, he found and traced those sovereign +obligations to which he bowed his life, his estimate and attitude were +as though he stood face to face with God. But in that deference was a +courtliness that was beautifully Lincoln's own. He too admired, where +he obeyed. His thoughtfulness was a stately, sovereign court that +sanctioned and made supreme every law that he revered. This +transcendent, all-commanding sense of duty, springing from within, and +also descending from above, seated centrally within his character, is +centrally and inseparably inwrought within his fame. While his name +abides this princely heed for duty will persist to challenge and to +test each studied statement of his character. + +Another factor of Lincoln's character, likewise radical, impossible to +omit, is his free and self-formed choice. That Lincoln's choice was +truly free, self-moved, and truly unconstrained comes clear +impressively when one for long inspects and understands his +thoughtfulness. Lincoln's mental action in its riper stages was a pure +deliberation. In that careful pondering we can feel and see his +ripening moral preference grow clear and free from trammels of every +sort, and gain towards decisions that know no other influence but +reason wholly purified. So inseparable in him were choice and seasoned +wisdom. From this it follows that Lincoln's ripe decisions can be +understood only when one comprehends his mental equilibrium. + +And here it comes to view that Lincoln's moral resolutions led him far +asunder from the multitudes. It is here that Lincoln's isolation takes +departure. This parting of the ways needs noting narrowly. From his +selection of his path for life the world at large draws back. Yet even +so he still retains the world's applause. Here opens the true secret +of his distinction, as of his excellence and power. This secret lies +deeply hidden, and yet openly revealed in the comely balanced law his +thoughtful wisdom led his noble will loyally to admire, adopt, and +struggle unto death to keep. + +What now in true precision was this comely, balanced programme of a +moral life that Lincoln's wisdom led his will to adopt? Here is the +apex of this study. That it is not beyond man's reach, the world's +applause and Lincoln's lowly plainness and full accessibility may well +encourage any man to hope. That this inquiry should stand unanswered, +or be answered heedlessly, or with any vagueness, is unworthy of our +day or of our land. But in the answer should be verbally embodied +adequate and intelligible explanation of Lincoln's moral majesty, of +his unexampled intimateness with every sort of men, and of an +undivided world's applause. + +These tests are heeded by the answer which this study ventures to +suggest, when it says that Lincoln's thoughtful ponderings on the ways +of God, on the souls and lives of men, on the microcosm in every man, +and on the principles of all society, revealed to him the obligation, +in deference to himself, to his neighbor, and to his God, and with +full heed to immortality, to choose and follow to its full perfection +the law of even truth and love. To be fair, and kind, and pure, as a +lowly, kingly child of God--this was the wisdom, the obligation, the +aspiration of Lincoln's life. This was the moral sum and substance of +his thoughtful, free, obedient life. Here in brief and in full is +Lincoln's character. + +In such a character is Godlike potency, and fluency, and dignity. +Within its easy interplay is true simplicity, and unison. Within its +harmony shines the eye of beauty. Amid all turbulence it holds serene. +Its movements convey a majesty that awakens deference. It is free, +like God, to devise, adjust, and originate, ever having inner power +creatively to overcome or reconcile outright antagonism. Its +thoughtfulness has a master's power to divide, combine, and +comprehend. It can gaze unblenched and unamazed into the awful face of +evil. It can plant and wield a leverage that can overturn every evil +argument. In its finished ministry it can present a portrait of the +human soul true to its very life. In such a character, though +compassed in a single life, and marked with signal modesty, there +dwells a fulness adequate to delineate and comprehend all the mighty +magnitudes within the moral universe. + +Such is the character that Lincoln's life leads all the world to +admire. Its beauty lies enshrined within the blended light of wisdom, +freedom and obedience along the way where loyalty, charity, humility +and hope of immortality shine ever brighter unto perfect day. Here is +wisdom. And here is worth. And here these two are one. + + +LINCOLN'S PREFERENCE + +In the chapter just concluded, the field of ethics is termed a +"universe." In the chapter upon Theodicy, it was noted that in +Lincoln's most thoughtful ponderings, the great world of reality that +passes under the name of physics, or the physical world, seemed to lie +outside the field of his concern. Here is a matter demanding something +more than a bare allusion. The ponderable universe of material things +has impressive majesty. It is too solid and real and present in our +life to be ignored. Among the stars and beneath the hills and within +the seas are solid and substantial verities. We are environed by their +influences on every side. It is deep within their strong embrace that +our predetermined fate is being continuously unrolled. What can be the +scope and what must be the value of any view of ethics or any plan of +life in which this solid, ever-present, all-embracing material world +is so indifferently esteemed? + +It is with just this query in mind that this research into the mind of +Lincoln was first conceived. And the query which has been throughout +in immediate review, but unpropounded openly as yet, now demands to be +defined and scrutinized. Did the mind of Lincoln, engrossed as it was +upon interests supremely ethical, and ignoring, as it seemed to do, +all those vast and deep complexities of the purely physical world, +find for our unquiet human thought the true and perfect equilibrium? +Or was the thought of Lincoln unbalanced and incomplete, misguided and +inadequate essentially? In brief, how must ethics and physics, these +two and only two supreme realities, when each is most fairly +understood, be conceived to correlate and harmonize? As between these +two realities, each so imperial and so irreducible, which holds +primacy? + +Here is for any thoughtful mind well nigh the last interrogation. To +attain a competent reply the essential qualities of each and either +realm must be uncovered and compared. In physics here, and in ethics +there, what attributes pervade, abide, and are essential? And, these +true qualities being seen in each, as between the two, which proves +itself superior; in which does the soul of man find rest? + +In the universe of physics, in all the world of things men see and +touch and weigh one pervading and abiding quality is change. We speak +indeed of the eternal hills; and before their age-long steadfastness +that phrase seems accurate. But it is only soaring rhetoric, surely +sinking from its flight, when sober science sets about to cipher from +the distinct confessions of their very rocks the date of their birth, +the story of their growth, and the sure predictions of their complete +decay. In all the stability of the solid hills there is nothing +permanent. So with the ageless stars. So with the ever-flowing sea. +And so with the very elements of which hills and stars and sea are +mixed. All the story of all their genesis and journeying and vanishing +is a never-ending tale of change. Nothing physical abides the same. +Beneath the daring rays of present-day research all things are being +proved impermanent, all found verging over the infinite abyss. +Transmutations are in progress everywhere. + +In the soul of Lincoln there was craving for a sort of satisfaction +which nothing mutable could ever meet. Amid this pageantry of change, +among these ceaseless transformations, with all their passing beauty, +and all their final disappointment, there was in him a hungering after +something that should hold eternally. And within this very eagerness +was genuine kinship with the changeless foothold in things eternal +which it aspired to find. His very longing was innerly undying. His +thirst for immortality was in itself averse and opposite to death +essentially. Deep within his desire, deep within himself were living +verities, within themselves immutable. His admiration before God's +majesty, his free covenant with perfect loyalty, his friendly +kindliness towards all others like himself, and his God-like +sacrificial grief for all wrongdoing, held within their pure vitality +visions and passions and aspirations that no mortal darts could touch. +And when with clear discernment he freely chose to fill his soul with +hopes and deeds that eternally evade decay, he selected, as between +things that change and things that abide, that reality to whose +eternal primacy every passing day yields perfect demonstration. +Nowhere in physics, in ethics alone could be found the perfect solace +of conscious perpetuity. + +Another quality of all things physical, a quality likewise +all-pervading and persistent, is their want of spontaneity. Within the +nature of this mighty physical bulk, that is forever altering its garb +and form, and within all its flowing change there is no liberty. +Through all the ever-varying orbit of the moon; in all the marvelous +wedlock of the elements within the rocks and soils and plants; in all +convulsions and explosions of air and sea and fluent gas; in +lightning, fire, and plague; in all the age-long monotony of instinct, +habit, and proclivity, there is no conscious choice, no +character-worth, no ennobling and terrifying responsibility. Through +all this change of mortal things all things are fixed. Naught is nobly +free. + +In the soul of Lincoln there was a passion to be free. In this desire +there was a clear intelligence, and a purpose like to God's. He +coveted a dignity that was self-achieved. He deemed that worth, and +that alone, supreme that was his own creation. Only in deeds that he +himself determined could he discern true excellence. Herein he stood +apart from brutes, ranked above the hills, and pierced beyond the +stars. And when, with such an insight, and such a soaring wish, and in +such high dignity, he freely chose to hold supreme the life and +thought and joy that are truly free, rating all things fixed and +physical as forever far beneath, he allotted certain primacy to that +which he discreetly judged undoubtedly pre-eminent. In closest +consonance with what has last been said, comes now to be affirmed, a +central quality of all things purely physical--persistent and +pervading everywhere--their absolute inertia morally. They move as +they are moved, and never otherwise. The law by which their being is +controlled is not their own. At the last and evermore physics, though +the measureless arena of unmeasured active energy, is powerless. It +cannot even obey. But most demonstrably it can never command, not even +itself. It is vastly, deeply, and forever only passive; although +within its ponderous frame are playing with baffling constancy forces +that weary all too easily our most stalwart thought. + +In such a realm as this, forever unawakened and evermore unjudged, +Lincoln's awakened and judicial soul could never find contentment. +Within that manly heart was enthroned a conscience, alert alike to +receive and to originate, as also to approve and fulfill all noble and +ennobling obligations. He knew the meaning and the sense of duty, the +weight of duty claimed, and the worth of duty done. In his true heart +was a living spring of moral law. And in cherishing with exalted +satisfaction this imperial quality of all true moral life, therein +deciding that physics held nothing worthy of any comparison, he gave +kingly utterance to a judgment and decision and desire that could +estimate infallibly the ultimate competitors within his conscious life +for primacy. For ever in ethics, as never in physics, right judgment +finds its source. + +Yet another quality of physics, likewise all-pervasive and permanent, +is the mocking, paralyzing mystery in which all its certainties are +veiled. The mighty acquisitions to our certain knowledge in the realm +of nature are superbly manifold and as superbly sure. The swelling +catalogue of things well certified in the material world seems to +advance the modern scientific mind almost to genuine apotheosis. But +of all these stately certitudes there is not one but walks in darkness +no human eye nor thought can penetrate. Before heroic and unexampled +diligence and daring the scientific frontiers are receding everywhere; +but only to make still more amazing and unbearable their +inscrutability. On every horizon of the physical realm yawn +infinitudes, whether of space or time, of geometry or arithmetic, of +electron or of cell, so defiant, so bewildering, and so overwhelming +in their complete defeat and mockery of our bravest and best +intelligence that our proudest powers are palsied utterly. Whichever +ways we turn, whatever gains we win, we face at last, in the very eye +of our research, and in the very heart of our desire, a changeless +silence that mocks all hope, and leaves us standing in an utter void. +In the realm of simple physics the human intellect, despite the fact +that in the physical realm the mind of man has triumphed gloriously, +is faced forever with the taunting consciousness that its primal task +is still undone. + +In an undertaking such as this, and in such a hapless outcome, the +mind and life of Lincoln could never be engrossed. He was ever facing +mystery indeed in the perplexities that throng the moral realm. In +fact, in the darkness and confusion that enshroud and mystify the +world of duty and award were all his sorrows born. But in those +mysteries moral honesty is not mocked. Where iniquities prevail, the +soul that bows towards God sees light. Where sin abounds, the heart +that yields the sacrifice of penitence finds peace. In the face of +hate and strife and bloodshed, to banish malice and to cherish charity +is to enter and to introduce complete tranquillity. Where lives grow +coarse and souls are base and purity is all denied, the soul that +seeks refinement grows refined and consciously approaches God. When +God is mocked and scorners multiply and hearts grow hard in pride, the +heart that meekly, humbly holds its confidence in the transcendent, +all-controlling Deity opens in that lowly faith deep springs of +never-failing hope. In these mysteries, however baffling and +persistent, these efforts towards relief find sure and great reward. + +In such a field and in such endeavors it was Lincoln's sovereign +preference to measure out all the forces of his conscious life. Attent +towards God, benign towards men, upright within, and prizing life, he +found, not defiance and despair, but perennial quickening and +encouragement, whatever problems darkened round his life. For him such +soul-filling verities, and such a corresponding faith held +far-transcending primacy. And so in conscious, sovereign and +everlasting preference for the truth that shows all its light in +character, and for the faith that such clear truth forever +illuminates, Lincoln testified his confidence that in the face of +physics ethics holds supreme pre-eminence. + +Of all this searching estimate and supreme comparison of these two +divergent realms one's mind may gravely doubt whether Lincoln's mind +had perfect consciousness. Concerning this no one may speak, except +with hesitance. But any one whose mind has entered into intimate +partnership with all the wealth of Lincoln's words is well aware that +it was a habit of his mind to pursue its themes to their farthest +bourne. In penetration and in pondering not many minds were ever more +evenly taxed. His mental persistence and deliberation were almost +preternatural. Discovering this, a student of his mental ways will +grow to feel that, in a likelihood almost equivalent to full +certainty, Lincoln was wittingly aware of all the meaning in his +proclivity to rate ethical interests uppermost. + +At any rate, in his life and writings, so the matter stands. And +standing thus in the deeply conscious soul of Lincoln, the matter has +a high significance. It seems to testify with a prophet's steady voice +that in all the total realm of being, the realm of freedom, of +consciousness, and of character is the first and sovereign verity; +that the real is fundamentally ethical; that he who seeks for perfect +satisfaction must bring to his inquiry the glad allegiance of a moral +freeman and a moral judge; that in every undertaking becoming him as +man each cardinal moral excellence must grow and shine increasingly; +that every mental acquisition must conduce to a lowliness that adores, +to a gentleness that loves, to a purity that pledges immortality, to a +self-respect that is the mirror and original of all reality; that only +thus, in all this universe, and to all eternity, can the soul of man +gain triumphs that can satisfy. Only so will truth grow fully radiant, +and mystery become benign. Only so can finite man find peace before +his Maker, and face serenely all that wisest unbelief finds terrible. +This is truth. Here is freedom. Such is faith. Thus, in a freeman's +faith truth stands complete. + +Such is Lincoln's preference. Like another Abraham, and with a kindred +insight and determination, he won all his triumphs and renown by +faith--a free and conscious faith in God, and soul, and character. + +Here are designations, at once so plastic and so precise, at once so +simple and so profound, as to signify and demonstrate how souls of men +may conquer death; how one may be a perfect devotee to another +person's weal, and still preserve his own integrity; how perfect +sanctity may assume a full companionship with sin, whether by +redemption or rebuke, and still remain unflecked; and how in man's +humility may be enshrined a dignity wherein supernal majesty may be +unveiled. + +In some such vivid, moral terms, mobile to grasp and manifest the +boundless range and priceless worth within the sovereign moral law; as +also to declare unerringly the fateful and unbounded issues of a moral +choice, may students hope to trace with true intelligence the real +foundations of Lincoln's all but unexampled power and fame. + + + + +AN EPILOGUE + +ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS + + +In designing and constructing the chapters that precede, three motives +have been actively at work. There has been a desire to set within the +realm of Civics a clear and balanced exposition of Lincoln's moral +grandeur. There has been a desire to introduce within the realm of +Ethics a fertile method of discussion and research. There has been a +desire to intimate how in the realm of pure Religion the finished +outline of a transparent character may provide a pattern for a true +description of the problems of Theology. + +Of these three motives the one last named has been preponderant. +Lincoln's public life was keyed alike to moral honor and to faith in +God. In his most quickening aspirations and in his most sacrificial +sorrows his sense of personal obligation and his belief in an +over-ruling Providence held fast together in a most notable unison. +Guileless, luminous, and single-hearted in his rectitude and in his +reverence, he affords a signal illustration of the way in which faith +and conscience may vitally co-operate and even coalesce. He presents +in consequence a signal opportunity for exploring the inner kinship of +ethics and religion. His personality challenges us to inquire and see +how honesty and godliness consort; how in a complete and balanced +character the categories that define the basis of one's moral +excellence may prove themselves to be the very categories that inform +and underlie the religious life. + +Here opens an engaging investigation. May the ultimate principles of a +true ethical theory and the ultimate rationale of a true theology be +found in living deed to coincide? To bring this question into open +view is the ulterior aim of this book, and more particularly of this +appended Epilogue. + +In the open petals of the plainest flower soil and sunlight, earth and +heaven meet in almost mystic union. Be this our parable. In the ample +compass of a normal character, such as Lincoln shows, there is in very +deed a mystic union--a vital partnership of man with fellowman, and of +men with God. Be this deep fellowship described; for here commingle +indivisibly the essential elements in any pure and full display in +human life of morals and religion. + +In Lincoln's public life there was undeniably a close companionship +with God. Earth-born and earth-environed though he was, he had supreme +affinity with heavenly realms. His face was seamed with suffering; he +wore a humble mien; his habitual posture was a pattern of unstudied +modesty. But through those sorrow-shadowed features shone a radiant +exalted hope, as he walked and toiled in reverend covenant with the +sovereign God of Nations. Besieged by day and night with difficulties +and distresses such as rarely burden mortal men, in his nightly vigils +and in his daily labors he clung to Deity, true civilian and true man +of God at once. The terms of this high covenant were specific and +distinct. They were the very terms that defined the conscious +qualities of his upright, God-revering character. Be those qualities +described. + +In the first place, here in Lincoln's open character it becomes +heavenly clear how profoundly intimate and at one are majesty and true +humility. When the guise of each is fully genuine, they minutely +correspond. In Lincoln's lowliness lay the very image of the majesty +of God. To that high majesty his lowliness conformed. As in a mountain +lake may be enshrined a perfect pattern of the heavenly firmament, so +was Lincoln's reverence a conscious, free reflection of the excellence +of God. His obedience was an intelligent recognition and +re-enthronement of the sovereign law of God. His lowly posture, when +in supplicating or interceding prayer, was induced by the bending pity +of a compassionate God. That trusting appeal was the very echo of +God's benign concern; and within the wrestlings of those intense +entreaties the divine designs gained place in human history. Lincoln +in his lowliness was Godlike. His humility was supremely dignified, +supremely beautiful. In its open face, as in the face of a flower +opening towards the sun, was resident a heavenly glory. + +In the second place, this vital unison of man with God stands superbly +evident in the stately wedlock of Lincoln's honesty with God's +righteousness. In Lincoln's soul there lived a faith in God's +integrity which no dark storm of human faithlessness, and no delay of +heaven's righteous judgments could eclipse or wear away. This belief +was in him an active energy. It grew to be a partnership with God's +uprightness--a covenant in which his own soul's eagerest ambitions and +resolves became upright. In his inmost soul it was his inmost +aspiration to be an agent for enthroning here on earth the equity of +God. And so, in fact, as a mighty nation's chief executive, he did +become the executive of the will of God. In his transparent honesty +there was a reflection of the sincerity of God. In his firm constancy +there was upheld before this people's eye an index finger pointing to +the steadfast constancy of God. In his pure jealousy for the utter +sanctity of his plighted word there burned a fire that was kindled in +the eye of God. In all his even, glowing zeal for righteousness he has +been adjudged by all his fellowmen pre-eminently a man of God. And as +signal devotee to honesty he demonstrates most signally that God and +man may set their lives in unison. + +In the third place there was in Lincoln's patient gentleness a +profound resemblance to the all-enduring gentleness of God. His +mastery of malice and his universal charity in the face of multitudes +of bitter and malignant men attest eternally an intimate companionship +with divine forbearing grace. His sacrificial intervention on behalf +of all God's little ones whom human heartlessness had oppressed is +world-arresting evidence and demonstration that in his kindly heart +was throned the Heavenly Father's sympathy. Unto costly fellowship +with this divine forbearance and compassion Lincoln opened +unreservedly all the compass of his life. For afflicted and afflicting +men he felt a sorrow, mixed with pity and rebuke, both born of the +affection fathers feel, both proved sincere by years of sacrificial +anguish unto death. And this he did with a discerning and deliberate +mind. It was thus he understood the heart and ways of God; and thus by +clear design he undertook in his own life to recommend the ways of God +to men. In verity he was partaker and dispenser of the manifold grace +of God. In him the mighty love of God found living medium. Like a +gentle flower drinking gratefully the warmth and beauty flowing +towards it from the sun, his soul absorbed the gentle ways of God and +itself grew kind and beautiful. Here again it may be seen how intimate +may be the life of man in God, the life of God in man. + +In the fourth place there was in Lincoln's soul an all-prevailing +confidence touching future destiny. This living confidence was the +outcome of his close partnership with God. His faith believed that +God's designs held fast eternally, and that conviction clouds and +night and death were impotent to overshadow or obscure. The rather, as +his faith and hope confided in that unfailing verity, that faith and +hope became themselves unfailing. His sure belief became participant +in God's dependability. Here is the deepest secret of his abiding +steadiness. Hence his calm indifference to death. + +And this illumines all his great appeals to his fellowmen with the +light of a prophetic vision. For his fellow-citizens, as for himself, +his sovereign aspiration was after permanence. This abiding life, +whether in the Nation or in himself, he had the mind to comprehend, +must be the very life of God within the soul. In civic Godliness alone +could there be civic permanence. In the Nation's life the life of God +must be incorporate. Then and then alone would any Nation long endure. +For this bright civic hope, for this alone he lived. And this +ever-springing hopefulness and confidence is the shining efflorescence +of his Godliness. He clung to things eternal in a conscious league +with God. + +Here is something wonderful--something replete alike with mystery and +with certitude--a vital unison of God and man in undeniable verity--a +unison in righteousness and kindliness, in lowly and majestic dignity, +in immortal spirit purity--a unison in which all that is most sacredly +elemental in God and man most intimately coalesce, while yet remaining +most unmistakably distinct--a unison in which is freely and +consciously engaged all that personality, however self-discerning and +free, can ever contribute or contain--a unison as historically real as +it is immeasurably profound--a unison in which space and time provide +the theater, while yet a unison in which time and space dissolve. Here +is surely ample range for ample exposition of many a major problem in +theology, and all within the open and familiar bounds of a normal +moral life. + +In close alliance and affinity with Lincoln's vital partnership with +God, and of almost equal pregnancy for the problems of religious +thought, is the marvelous intimacy of his inner and essential +fellowship with men. This feature of his public life is becoming more +commanding and impressive every year. To a degree altogether notable +it is becoming widely understood how he and all his fellowmen were +wonderfully allied. It is becoming seen by all of us that the +qualities essential to his commanding excellence are qualities deeply +typical of us all. His attitudes of deference and modesty, his +promptings towards things permanent and durable, his equities, his +kindnesses are universal. They are enthroned within us all. +Everywhere, in everyone they ultimately predominate. + +Wonderful as it may seem, this holds as true of enemies as it does of +friends. Hosts of people, while Lincoln lived, held him their +deadliest foe. Through all those bitter years, while they defamed, he +meekly, mightily held his own, subduing malice, disdaining subtlety, +despising scorn and arrogance, abhorring sordid greed; pleading +humbly, but as a prince instead, for righteousness and charity and +man's immortal destiny. And now all men detect that however deep and +overmastering those aversions and animosities may have been, there was +in his enemies and himself a moral kinship and agreement far more +powerful and profound. His humble, hopeful plea that every man be fair +and pitiful is winning everywhere today glad witness to its eternal +and imperial validity. + +And the wonder of this deep partnership with men but deepens, when we +consider that the form of this all-appealing, all-prevailing +partnership was sacrificial. This leads straight into the innermost +interior of the problem of vicarious suffering--one mortal, suffering +in another's place and for another's sake. Never in all that era of +civic anguish in the civil war did any human mortal suffer keener or +more continual sorrow than did he who of all the Nation's multitudes +stood most untainted and innocent of the iniquity which that stern +civic judgment was to purge away. Guiltless utterly of any part in +slavery for his own profit or by his own consent, he partook with all +the guilty ones of all the sorrows of its expurgation. + +And yet more wonderful is the sequent fact that in precisely this +voluntary and conscious unison of innocence and suffering in his +outstanding life stood and moved the pillar of fire and the pillar of +cloud that led this Nation through those sorrows by night and day. + +Here again is something wonderful--something again replete with +mystery and with certitude. And here again do mystery and certitude +stand truly unified and harmonized. Truly they are unified. But in +that unison their identity stands clarified. There where Lincoln's +manhood shows most humane and universal, a Nation's common symbol, +outlining nothing less than a puissant Nation's boundless majesty, +there stands defined, as with engraver's finished art, his separate, +ever sacred, individual nobility. Even there where his moral being +merges most completely into deepest sympathy with the afflictions that +descend on sin, there his own integrity and personal jealousy for +righteousness are most outstanding and distinct. But be it said again, +in Lincoln do that broad humaneness and that erect nobility, that +sympathy and that jealousy subsist in unison. In strict verity he is +our Nation's surrogate. Surely here again is ample range for ample +exposition of many a major problem of theology, and all still held +within the open and familiar bounds of a normal moral life. + +So Lincoln stood in unison with God and fellowman. Ideally complete in +his own identity, he was ideally allied with other lives through all +the personal realm. And be it well and truly seen that the elements of +this affiance with his God, and the elements of his firm league with +brothermen were identically the same. In each and either realm the +binding bonds were fealty to charity, to equity, to humility, to +purity. These four qualities explain and guarantee completely his +allegiance. These and these alone were the constituent elements of all +his brotherhood and of all his reverence. And it is within the nature +of these four vital qualities, at once so Godlike and so human, and +within their ever-living interplay that one must look to find whatever +Lincoln's character can contribute to the problems of theology. + +What averments tremble here! Our mighty human race does truly live in +unison. Within that peopled unison the life of one may have +far-ranging partnership. That partnership is closely definable in +terms of character. In Lincoln's life as private soul, and as vicar of +us all alike, his constancy and kindliness, his purity and lowliness +embrace and body forth his total being, with all he bore and wrought. +Herein unfolded all his beauty and all his worth, whether as a single +citizen or as a Nation's representative. + +And our humble human life does also truly share the life in God. +Within that heavenly unison the lowliest soul may have exalted +fellowship. And so in Lincoln's loyalty and tenderness, his lowliness +and thirst for immortality, as man of God, unfolds the heavenly beauty +of God's eternal purity and majesty, God's benignity and faithfulness. + +So do lives of free and conscious beings most truly flourish and so do +they most truly blend. Our fellowship with Lincoln, and Lincoln's +fellowship with us; God's fellowship with Lincoln and Lincoln's +fellowship with God; this mystic unrestricted partnership of noble +souls; unfolding and unrolling sovereign harmonies, even when they +antagonize; in vengeance or compassion fulfilling all their mission +and dominion through the earth--these are indeed our sovereign +realities. In scanning these we may indeed discern deep ways of God +and men. + +Mighty highways open here--highways that enter every major province of +theology. Be these avenues observed. + +Whence came the blight of slavery? How in human soil could such +inhumanity germinate? What is the virus of its contagion? What makes +its guilt so terrible? + +Must inhumanity be avenged? May avengers still be merciful? May +hardened men become regenerate? May guilt and innocence be reconciled? + +Why such anguish on the innocent? Why should little ones be crushed? +Why such hosts of patient ones meekly bearing wrong and shame? Why do +offenses need to come? How does patience work on sin? How does sorrow +work on guilt? + +What is human brotherhood? May fellowmen be surrogates? May men's +honor interchange? + +Wherein stands human character? What makes a man responsible? How +sovereign is man's liberty? How supreme is man's intelligence? Are +moral beings subject to decay? + +May finite man come near to God? Does God come near to finite man? May +plans of men and God's designs combine? May God be seen in human life? +May human hearts partake of God? Are love and truth and liberty, the +crown of human dignity, enthroned in God ideally? + +Is Christ indeed the Lord of men? Is he our life? Are his teachings +true? Is his love divine? Can he indeed redeem? + +Upon such queryings as these, all running deeply into mystery, each +one fast rooted in reality, and each one voicing in each human soul an +urgent quest, those sterling elements of Lincoln's character, his +lowliness, his living hope, his pity, and his faithfulness shed +grateful light. + +Be these four qualities unveiled before the face of sin, that sin may +be defined. + +When in the presence of some noble majesty or of some courtly modesty +a free and conscious soul is arrogant or insolent; when a being born +for endless life in freedom, light and purity, exchanges God and +immortality for idol forms and baseness and decay; when recipients of +God's unnumbered benefits, and participants in the joys and sorrows of +a teeming world of brothermen remain ungrateful and unpitiful; when +beings destined to be sons of light prefer hypocrisy and unbelief; +then, irreverent, corrupt, ungracious, and untrue, sin shows all its +horridness and iniquity. + +And when in the presence of pure grace and truth all such perverseness +stands revealed; then the beauty of a quiet modesty, as it respects +all worthy majesty, will make supremely plain the ugliness of every +form of insolence; then the life that opens towards perpetual dawn +will most mightily and forevermore reproach the life that feasts upon +corroding food, fattening and hardening towards decay; then +outpouring, patient love will visit on ingratitude and hate their most +unbearable rebuke; and then the radiant light of simple truth and pure +sincerity will set all falsity and unbelief in uttermost disgrace. In +such an awful penalty, supreme and unavoidable, will sin incur its +doom. + +But in the very penalty it stands proclaimed how sinful souls may be +transformed, and hostile hearts be reconciled. + +When pride, subdued by majesty, rejoices in humility; when grossness, +shamed by purity, welcomes purging fires; when malice, melted by +forbearance, partakes the sacrifice and becomes itself compassionate; +when falsity, unveiled by verity, submits to its rebuke and welcomes +truth with deep docility and faith; then within the sinner's penitence +is every penalty absolved, and between embittered souls comes perfect +reconciliation. + +Be these four qualities addressed to that supreme transaction named +atonement. + +When, in perfect loyalty and in perfect lowliness, with a perfect +charity and with an utter trust in immortality, one like a Son of Man +consents to bear the dark affront of insolence and perfidy from base +and deadly men, enduring meekly what his soul abhors, then to all the +sons of men is published equally, and with supreme assurance, that +sins of men must be indeed avenged, and that sinful men may be indeed +redeemed. + +In that transaction malice faces patience, and patience faces malice +for a final strife. There candor bears the lying taunt of acting in +disguise. Humility endures the shameful charge of shameless arrogance. +Compassion bows as though a thief to all the brutal rudeness of a mob. +The soul of immortal purity is bartered for by traders greedy after +silver coins, and driving through their trade with lamps and clubs. + +But in the measure and in the manner of that transcendent patience +malice is preparing for itself the manner and the measure of its own +just doom. And in the measure and the manner of that same transcendent +patience contrition may discern the manner and the measure of its +release. In that mighty mingling of aversion and endurance sin must +behold alike its omnipotent redemption and its omnipotent rebuke. Thus +love, in perfect sympathy, and truth, in perfect equity set forth in +heavenly purity the sovereign majesty of an atonement for the world. + +Be these four radiant qualities applied to him we call alike the son +of Mary and the Son of God. In him, the Son of God, shines such a +plenitude of grace and truth as becomes the glory of the very God, +revealed in such immortal purity as proves him heir and very Lord of +all eternity, and wearing such a dignity as belongs at once to +heaven's majesty and our most genuine humility; while deep within his +open life as son of Mary there shines such a full and genial truth and +grace as proves his true humanity, so free from mortal taint through +all our transient scenes as proves his spirit's immortality, and +manifesting everywhere to all the sons of man their own ideal +lowliness. These are all his beauty. In him they fully blend. They +blend in him indeed. But they do not dissolve. And so may we with +souls akin to him whom Mary bore behold in him the proper image of our +complete humanity; and still with eyes and vision all unchanged, +behold within those same fair traits the very image and the unbounded +fulness of the glory of the infinite God. + +Be these same radiant qualities our proper medium for beholding Deity. +Conceive of One in whose being the only light and glory reside in the +pure majesty of a perfect grace and truth. Conceive how these free +living qualities permit a unison in fellowship, a fellowship in +unison. Conceive how such a unison permits to each participant +complete equality and a full infinity. Conceive thus how perfect +constancy and perfect kindliness, revealed in perfect purity, and clad +in perfect majesty may manifest eternally in mystic unison the +blessedness of a perfect personality. Conceive how such a partnership +in unison, and unison in partnership will be evermore containing and +enjoying within itself an evermore unsullied Spirit life, engendering +and completing all the finite forms of being of the created universe; +an evermore unfolding Love that is the one original of every +fatherhood in heaven and earth; and an evermore Responding Love that +is the primal inspiration of the admiring and adoring thankfulness of +every child of God; while evermore displaying in a loyal self-respect +the eternal archetype and origin of every verity and every equity +enthroned in any earnest upright mind. And so conceive in terms as +vivid as our own intelligence and liberty how true transcendent Deity +may wield no other energy and know no other blessedness than unfolds +forever in a free and conscious unison and partnership in pure +transcendent love and truth. + +Transcendent thoughts and ventures these. But abounding other thoughts +and ventures no less transcendent wait and urge for utterance. They +all assume no less, and nothing more, than that in the living vision +of a living personality hides and shines the harmony that may unite +the mysteries and the certainties of this universe. Let Truth, as +personal self-respect; and Love, as self-devoting life; and Purity, +that fears no death; and Dignity, that crowns all worth--let these be +clearly seen, each one apart; and clearly seen again when fully +unified--and human thought holds categories in hand whereby the +problems of our mental and ethical and religious life may be resolved. + +Of all of this what goes before is but a brief and bare suggestive +hint. Its development and vindication call for the completed +exposition of such a balanced round of thought as may be found in a +prophet like Isaiah, an apostle like Paul, or an evangelist like +John. + + + + +LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL + + +Fellow-Countrymen: + +At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, +there is less occasion for an extended 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 declarations have been constantly called +forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still +absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the Nation, little +that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which +all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; +and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory. With high hope for the +future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding 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 altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without +war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by +negotiation. Both parties 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. + +One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the +magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated 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 result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes 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 prayers of +both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully. + +The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of +offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man +by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs +come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now +wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this +terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall +we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which +the believers in a living God always ascribe 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 +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn +with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was +said three thousand years ago, so still it must 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 see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him +who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to +do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all Nations. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Inconsistent/archaic spelling and punctuation retained from original. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;, by +Clark S. 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Beardslee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; + A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians + +Author: Clark S. Beardslee + +Release Date: January 15, 2012 [EBook #38582] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS; *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1 class="booktitle">ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS</h1> + +<p class="h2">A STUDY IN ETHICS</p> + +<p class="h3">WITH AN EPILOGUE ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS</p> + +<p class="h4"><i>BY</i></p> + +<p class="h3">C. S. BEARDSLEE</p> + +<p class="h5"><span class="smcap">Boston: Richard G. Badger</span></p> + +<p class="h6"><span class="smcap">the gorham Press</span></p> + +<p class="h5"><span class="smcap">The Copp Clark Co., limited</span></p> + +<p class="h6"><span class="smcap">TORONTO</span></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5"><i>Copyright 1914, by C. S. Beardslee<br /> +All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5"><i>The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="inset14"> +<p><i>To my sister Alice—<br /> +A living blend<br /> +Of love and loyalty,<br /> +Of modesty and immortal hope.</i></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln was a man among men. He was earnest and keen. He was +honest and kind. He was humble and inwardly refined. He was a freeman +in very deed. His conscience was king.</p> + +<p>These few words contain the total sum of the following book. In +unfolding what they severally mean, and what their living unison +implies, the aim has been to bring to view the clear and simple beauty +of a noble personality; to show how such a human life contains the +final test of any proper claim in all the bounds of Ethical research; +and to stir in thoughtful minds the query whether such a character as +Lincoln's life displays, instinct as it is with Godliness, may not +yield forms of statement ample and exact enough for all the essential +formulas of pure Religion.</p> + +<p>Assuredly his aspirations were ideal. Quite as certainly his ways with +men were practical. The call and need today of just his qualities are +past debate.</p> + +<p>If only in our national senate chamber the ever-shifting group of +senators could hear the voice of Lincoln at every roll-call and in +each debate! If only in all our universities our studious youth could +glean each day from Lincoln, as he speaks of politics and of logic, of +ethics and of history! If only in every editorial room, where current +events are registered and reviewed, Lincoln's wit and wisdom might +illumine and advise! If only at every council, conference, or +convention, where leaders of our churches debate religious themes, the +reverence of Lincoln might preside! If only in the council chambers +where directors meet to plan and govern our modern enterprises in +industry and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> finance, Lincoln's broad humaneness might be felt! If +only every artist at his exalted and elusive task could every day +obtain new views of Lincoln's full nobility! If only toilers in the +shop and field could feel each day the friendly brotherhood in +Lincoln's rough, hard hand!</p> + +<p>Then toil, while losing naught of eagerness, would become content. +Art, while losing naught of beauty, would become unfailingly +ennobling. Commerce, while losing naught of enterprise, would grow +benign. Religion, while retaining a becoming dignity, would not fail +to be sincere. The public press would grow more savory and sane. Our +schools would be nurseries of manliness. And our conscience would be +embodied in our law.</p> + +<p>But Lincoln's face is vanished. Lincoln's voice is hushed. What +remains is that Lincoln's sentiments be republished every day in lives +that reverence and reproduce his excellence. To indicate this path, to +embolden and embody this aspiration is the service this volume +undertakes.</p> + +<p>Throughout this study, thought is fastened centrally upon Lincoln's +last inaugural address. There Lincoln stands complete. And that +completeness is vividly conscious in Lincoln's own understanding. +Eleven days after its delivery, and one month before his death, he +wrote to Thurlow Weed, saying that he expected that speech "to wear as +well as—perhaps better than—anything I have produced." Of almost +incredible brevity, containing as it left his hands, but five short +paragraphs, the compass and burden of thought within that address are +every way notable. It is in fact Lincoln's digest of the course and +trend of our national life; while on the side of character it is +replete with telling intimations of Lincoln's own moral effort, +purpose, and point of view. Here are in visible action all the +elements of essential manhood, all the virtues<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> of a balanced +character. Here are insight, judgment, resolution. Here is momentum. +Here is something that endures. Here are ends worth any cost. Here is +wariest use of means. And here are wrongs, engendering anguish, and +mortal strife. And here are ultimate alternatives. And all is grasped +and even merged in Lincoln as he speaks. Here is wealth of ready +matter and direct allusion quite enough for any volume to lay open and +assess.</p> + +<p>Such a moral inventory and evaluation this study undertakes. Its +method is to subject this short address to the strictest ethical +analysis, to identify the elements that are integral and cardinal in +the moral being of God, and man, and government. Then, to articulate +and unify these elements into a vital ethical synthesis, to +demonstrate and manifest the living unison of character. Then, to +designate and undertake to clarify the major problems which such an +analysis and such a synthesis of such a speech and such a man open to +a student's mind.</p> + +<p>In this procedure it is the aim to show how from first to last in +Lincoln's life his mental clarity and his moral honesty are held in +model parity; how in his daily walk law and liberty go hand in hand; +how his cardinal moral qualities are to be defined; and how these +elemental virtues may avail in their own authority and right to guide +the eyes of men towards beauty, to guard the souls of men against +despair, to find the stable base of government, to overcome all guilt +by grace, to prove the perfect manliness of patience, to ground the +thought of men upon reality, to pierce the gloom of woe, to find the +core of piety, to perfect persuasive speech, and to win a vision of +the soul. Hereby and thus it may at last stand plain that in the soul +of Lincoln there is a moral universe; and that within the verities and +mysteries of this universe he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> alone is truly wise and fully free who +knows and proves the worth of faith.</p> + +<p>That so broad a study should be based upon so brief a speech, or +indeed upon Lincoln's single personality, may seem to some a fatal +fault. Such a thought, when facing such a method and such a theme, is +surely natural. As to its validity there need be no debate. The field +is free. Let any number of other speeches, or of other people be +assembled and placed beside the material handled in this book, for its +re-examination. In such a process, the further it is pursued, if only +Lincoln and the words of this inaugural are also held in thorough and +continual review, it may come the more fully clear that in a theme +like ethics mere multitude is not the measure of immensity; that the +structure of this book is organic, not mechanical; that the single +chapter on Lincoln's Moral Unison comprehends all that the volume +anywhere contains or intimates; that all the problems handled in Part +IV are only sample studies, and handled only suggestively; that the +volume might be expanded indefinitely or much reduced, and its +significance remain in either case unchanged; that correspondingly +Lincoln's last inaugural and Lincoln's public life, each and both, +outline in very deed a moral universe; that to rightly understand this +single character and this one address is to understand humanity, and +identify the ethical finalities; that to scan the soul of Lincoln in +his religious attitudes is to gaze upon God's image, and face the +reality and the rationale of the true religious life; and that, in +consequence, any reader who hesitates to venture such vast conclusions +upon so scant material may finally be induced to submit to a +substantial remeasurement his present estimates of brevity and +breadth.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> + <td class="tdc">PART I. INTRODUCTION</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln's Mental Energy</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln's Moral Earnestness</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc">PART II. ANALYSIS</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Reverence for Law—Conscience</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Jealousy for Liberty—Free-will</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Kindliness—Love</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Pureness—Life</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Constancy—Truth</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Humility—Worth</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc">PART III. SYNTHESIS</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln's Moral Unison</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc">PART IV. STUDIES</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Symmetry—The Problem of Beauty</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Composure—The Problem of Pessimism</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Authority—The Problem of Government</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Versatility—The Problem of Mercy</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Patience—The Problem of Meekness</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Rise from Poverty—The Problem of Industrialism</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Philosophy—The Problem of Reality</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Theodicy—The Problem of Evil</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"> + <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> + His Piety—The Problem of Religion</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Logic—The Problem of Persuasion</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">His Personality—The Problem of Psychology</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc">PART V. CONCLUSION</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln's Character</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln's Preference</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">AN EPILOGUE—Addressed to Theologians</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<h2>LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS</h2> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PART I. INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Mental Energy</span></h3> + +<p>In ethics, if anywhere, a master needs to be mentally sane and strong. +Truth cannot be trifled with here. Error here, whether in judgment or +as to fact, is fatal. Insight to exactly discern, and balance to +considerately compare must be the mental instincts of a moralist.</p> + +<p>How was this with Lincoln? What was his outfit and what his discipline +mentally? Was he unfailingly shrewd? Was he sufficiently sage? Was he +by instinct and by habit truly an explorer and a philosopher? Did he +have in store, and did he have in hand, the needful wealth of +pertinent facts? Had he the logical strength and breadth to set them +all in order and to see them all as one?</p> + +<p>Such inquiries are severe—too severe to be pressed or faced by anyone +in haste. But in this study of Lincoln such inquiries are not to be +escaped. To fairly answer them is worth to any man the toil of many +days. For just as surely as such research is resolutely pushed through +all its course, the eye will come to see where wisdom dwells, and to +learn what mental judgment and mental insight truly mean. And it will +grow clear as day that Lincoln mentally, as well as physically, was no +weakling; that in intellect, as in stature, he stands among the first.</p> + +<p>In many places this stands clear. There is no better way to trace it +out than to start from his last inaugural. To fully explore one single +paragraph of this address, the paragraph with which it opens, will +make one's examination<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> of Lincoln's mental competence all but +complete. Its opening sentence alludes to his first inaugural. That +one allusion will repay pursuit.</p> + +<p>There Lincoln assumed the presidency. In that act and under that oath +he stepped to the executive headship of the Republic. By that step he +faced seven states in secession. It was a civil crisis, never one more +grave, or dark, or ominous. It threatened to subvert our national +history and to undermine our national hope. It was crowding on towards +bloody war a debate that dealt with the very basis of manhood in men. +To see the meaning of that crisis and to govern its issue required an +eye and a mind of Godlike vision and poise.</p> + +<p>Here is an excellent place to examine the outfit and the action of +Lincoln's intellect. His first inaugural is a masterpiece of +intellectual equipoise and energy. Any mind that will fasten firmly +upon the substance and the sequence of its thought may feel distinctly +the struggle, and the strength, and the steadiness of Lincoln's mind. +His arguments and his admonitions are impressive models of sanity and +power. Which is the more notable, his insight or his outlook, it is +hard to tell. The marvel is that the soberness and the force of his +appeal rest quite as firmly upon the prophetic as upon the historic +base. So clear is his grasp of the past, so sure is his sense of the +present, and so deliberate is the poise of his judicial thought that +his vision into the future has been found by time to be unerringly +true.</p> + +<p>Let any student put this to test. That address is an appeal. From +beginning to end it pleads. Set all its parts asunder. Then bind them +all together as Lincoln has done. And so find out what are its +elements; whence they are gathered; what is fact; what is principle; +what is prophecy; on what plan they are assembled; by what art<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> they +are displayed; to what they owe their force; if in any spot of its +argument there is a break; and if the onset of the whole is +irresistible. Distinct replies to these distinct inquiries will tell +one all he needs to know about Lincoln's mental strength. Without +wandering any further one can find that Lincoln's methods and +conquests attest a student's patience, and a scholar's power; that his +wisdom was ripe, entirely adequate to devise safe counsel for a Nation +in civil strife.</p> + +<p>A striking feature of the address is its philosophic finish. Though +solidly set in concrete facts, and fitted ideally to the day of its +delivery, it is replete with counsel good for every time, so phrased +as to become the very proverbs of civil politics. Total paragraphs are +little more than clustered apothegms of consummate statesmanship. To +get the style and cast of Lincoln's mind let any student comprehend +the girth, and ponder the weight of each following sentence, all +gathered from this one address:—</p> + +<p>The intention of the lawgiver is the law.</p> + +<p>I hold that in contemplation of universal law, and of the +Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.</p> + +<p>Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all +national governments.</p> + +<p>It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in +its organic law for its own termination.</p> + +<p>Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national +Constitution, and the Union will endure forever.</p> + +<p>Can a contract be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who +made it?</p> + +<p>That in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual is confirmed by the +history of the Union itself.</p> + +<p>No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written +provision has ever been denied.</p> + +<p>All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly +assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and +provisions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise +concerning them.</p> + +<p>If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the +government must cease.</p> + +<p>If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they +make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them.</p> + +<p>Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.</p> + +<p>A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and +limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of +popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free +people.</p> + +<p>Unanimity is impossible.</p> + +<p>One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be +extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be +extended. This is the only substantial dispute.</p> + +<p>Physically speaking we cannot separate.</p> + +<p>Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws?</p> + +<p>Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws +among friends?</p> + +<p>Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always.</p> + +<p>This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inherit +it.</p> + +<p>The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people.</p> + +<p>Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice +of the people?</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, +be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and +that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great +tribunal of the American people.</p> + +<p>This people have wisely given their public servants but little power +for mischief.</p> + +<p>Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.</p> + +<p>Here are six and twenty sentences, culled from this one address, that +are nothing less than the maxims of a political sage, as lasting as +they are apt. As a glove fits a hand, so did these counsels fit that +day. As the needle guides all ships that sail, so their wisdom directs +all politics still. They embody sure witness of an eye that is keen to +see—none more narrowly; and of a mind that is trained to think—none +more thoroughly. Their author was a man who knew. He knew the past. He +knew things current. He knew what their coming issues were sure to be. +He knew the grounds of government. He knew the omens of anarchy. He +knew the awful possibilities in fraternal hate. And he knew the need +and the awful cost of patient forbearance. Here is a man well past +childhood intellectually. He has the eye and the mind of a man long +schooled by discipline. And he has a tongue expert in speech, well +freighted with tremendous sense, but lucid too, and graceful, and void +of all offense. This one address displays a man, though pathetically +unfamiliar with childhood schools, of consummate intellectual balance +and force.</p> + +<p>But, for its cherished end this inaugural proved pathetically +incompetent. And when it became his duty to pronounce a second +inaugural oath, the Nation had been four years in terrible war. That +war levied a terrible tax upon the president's intellectual strength. +The mental<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> perplexities of those endless days and nights cannot be +told. Much less can they be understood. It may be doubted whether any +other man could have brought a mind to uphold and command those years +with any approach to Lincoln's mental honesty. It was, under God, +within the steadfast, tenacious grasp of Lincoln's exhaustless and +invincible mental loyalty that our national destiny lay secure. To all +the phases of all the problems of all those years, and to his own +judgment and endeavor concerning them all, this same first paragraph +of his second inaugural also alludes. This allusion, too, if any one +would compass the full measure of Lincoln's mental strength, demands +review, and will reward pursuit. The records are well preserved. And +they bear abounding witness to Lincoln's almost superhuman sanity and +insight and energy and mental equilibrium. If any one will follow +through this honest and perfectly honorable hint, he will come to feel +that the mind of Lincoln was the Nation's crucible in which all the +Nation's problems were resolved.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Moral Earnestness</span></h3> + +<p>In the central paragraph of his last inaugural Lincoln enshrined +compelling demonstration of his moral soundness. That single paragraph +is nothing less than a solid section of a finished moral philosophy. +It reckons right and wrong incapable of any reconciliation, God as +Almighty Judge, and all his judgments just. But that opinion was no +word in haste. Deliberate as he always was, when voicing any estimate +as President, never was he more deliberate than when penning that +moral explanation of the war. In four stern years he had been +revolving <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>surveying and pondering that sternest of all +debates:—Should the war go on or should it cease? Every argument on +either side, that heart or thought of man could feel or see, had been +driven by every sense into the faithful heed of his honest soul. He +bent his ear obediently to every plea, binding his patient mind to +register fairly every weighty word, designing with absolute honesty +that, when at last he spoke the executive decree, his decision should +bind the Nation for the single perfect reason that it was right. And +when finally and persistently he upheld the war and ordered its +relentless prosecution to the end, no one may truthfully charge that +opinion and command to ignorance or malice, to prejudice or haste. +Moral grounds alone were the basis and motive of that conclusion and +behest. The war was caused by slavery. With Southern success slavery +would spread and become perpetual. If slavery was not wrong, nothing +was wrong. That this great wrong should be restrained and in the end +removed, the war must be put through.</p> + +<p>But that was not all his thought and argument in this last inaugural. +The war, for the time, parted the Nation sectionally. But the sin and +guilt of slavery, in Lincoln's feeling, rested upon the Nation as a +whole; and upon the Nation as a whole he adjudged the burden of its +woe. Here the moral grandeur of Lincoln comes fully into view. His +affirmation of that awful iniquity, inwrought in two centuries and a +half of slavery, is no pharisaic indictment of the South. It is a +repentant confession of his own and all the Nation's equal part in its +infinite wrong. Among the guilty authors and abettors of that wrong he +identifies himself. He deems the war God's righteous judgment upon the +national inhumanity, and meekly bows his head, among the humblest and +most afflicted of those who suffer and sorrow beneath that scourge.</p> + +<p>That kindly fellowship with all the Nation in the sorrows<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> of the war, +with its lowly confession of all the guilt, and its patient endurance +of all the atoning cost, proclaims and demonstrates that Lincoln's +respect for righteousness was supreme. It betokens a living sense of +law, a hearty assent to duty, a careful reckoning of guilt, an +uncomplaining readiness to own and rectify all wrong, a manly purpose +to inaugurate a new rule of equity, a reverent acknowledgment of God, +an ideal esteem for manhood everywhere, freedom from the dominion of +greed, friendliness for the erring, pity for the hurt and poor. Above +all it shows the faith of a moral seer in its manifest confidence that +human evil, and all its awful sorrow, are under the joint divine and +human control and can be absolutely and joyfully overthrown and done +away.</p> + +<p>Here is a type of manhood that, under the discipline of God, grew +sterling to the core, and by a signal favoring Providence provided an +ample basis for a national moral ideal. Here is an ideal where +conscience and righteousness stand in close affiance, where liberty +springs from equity, and where pity never fails. Here is a person and +a name worthy and able demonstrably to inspire and lead to national +triumph a new political league. And here is an official whose +spontaneous honesty has left upon all his state papers an indelible +moral stamp, creating thereby out of his official documents a national +literature of finished beauty and excellence and power.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PART II. ANALYSIS</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Reverence for Law—Conscience</span></h3> + +<p>Deeply set within the heart of Lincoln in this last inaugural was his +binding sense of right. This obligation was civic. The speech can be +described as a statement of what a loyal citizen under confederate law +is bound to do, when his civic loyalty is put to a final test. It is +an illustration of obedience facing rebellion. It is an exposition of +a confederate's duty, when confederates secede. It is a civilian's +announcement of the law that is singly and surely sovereign, when the +sole alternative in the Nation's life is dissolution or blood. It is a +revelation of the law that still prevails among and above a Republic +of freemen, when all law is faced by the challenge and defiance of +war.</p> + +<p>Here is a supreme exhibit of a solid co-efficient in Lincoln's +character. It shows in a commanding way how moral duty held dominion +in his life. He had no predilection for war. That he must face its +menace, or forswear his fealty to his freeman's covenant, was a +pathetic fate. And when in that alternative he upheld his oath and +endured the war, it is past all denial that he was bowing under an +inexorable constraint. He was plainly ordering his speech and conduct +in submission to an all-commanding, all-reviewing moral regimen. His +will was listening to a moral behest. His judgment was pondering a +moral choice. His eye was forecasting a moral award.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> He was shaping +sovereign issues with a sovereign responsibility.</p> + +<p>This experience and this expression of Lincoln's life unearths +foundations in his character which demand precise examination. What +was the nature of the law which held and swayed the soul of Lincoln +with such an overmastering control? Whence came its authority? Wherein +rested its validity? Is there record of its origin and authorship? +Where is it recorded? By whose hand was it transcribed? Precisely what +are its so imperative terms?</p> + +<p>In attempting an answer, one's first impulse is to say that in this +address Lincoln was speaking as citizen and official, as subject and +chief executive of an openly organized civil government, with written +Constitution and laws; and that what he was saying in this inaugural +address contained and involved no more and no less than those +regulations expressed; that he simply adopted and echoed what they +defined and described; that the sole and only authority he assumed to +cite or urge was this well-known published law of the land; and that +in those open records one may find in fullness and precision the full +definition of the nature and validity, the authority and authorship +and origin, the very terms and abiding form of all the moral mandates +he here obeyed.</p> + +<p>In such a statement there is abounding truth. Lincoln explicitly shows +explicit allegiance in all his political life to the dominion of our +national law. He revered our Constitution. And that the Constitution +should likewise be revered by all was all he gave his life to realize. +Grounded as that Constitution was upon our American Bill of Rights, +acknowledging as it did that all men were created equal, owning as it +openly did the sovereignty of the popular will, and allowing no other +lord, he found<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> within its reverent and reverend affirmations the +dignity, authority, and power all-sufficient and supremely valid for +him as a fellow-citizen among his fellowmen.</p> + +<p>But in such a statement something is left unsaid. As one listens +through this address to Lincoln's voice, he instantly and continuously +feels that he is hearing there no mere echo of quoted words. There is +in the vibrant tone a note that is original. His voice is his own. His +words are of his own selection. His phrases were fashioned by himself. +His paragraphs embody the shape and bear the stamp of his peculiar and +painstaking invention and argument. In his utterance are the +inflection and accent, the very passion of unforced and independent +conviction. He speaks as one who finds within himself, in some true +sense, the authority for what he says.</p> + +<p>But not merely are his words valid for himself, as he shapes his +ordered speech. They are irrepressible. His convictions throb with +urgency. The constraint to which he bows is enthroned and exercised +within. The law he obeys is just as truly a law he ordains. But on +either view it is a mandate which he humbly and grandly obeys. It is +an imperative to which he yields his life.</p> + +<p>Just here emerges another phase of his amenability to law. It operates +as an impulse to plead. It drives him to the rostrum, and makes of him +one of the foremost masters of public address our civic life and +history have produced. As Lincoln voices this address he is speaking +not merely to himself, nor for himself, nor to ease and unburden his +mind, nor yet to open and indicate his view. As he spoke those words +his eye was fixed upon a mighty multitude of his fellowmen. As he +unfolded his thought before their attentive, waiting minds, it was as +though a banner were being unfurled to symbolize and signify to a +Nation's multitudes the sovereign duty of all true patriots.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> In that +transaction he became undeniably prophet and lawgiver to the Nation. +The obligations that supremely bind his life he urges and attests as +binding with equal and evident urgency upon the millions upon millions +of the members in the same free and solemn political league. When his +speech is done, he would have all who hear conjoined indefeasibly with +him in loyalty to his law. Every sentence of the address bears +evidence of this design. He is aiming to bring the Nation's conscience +and will to embody and obey the identical mandates that govern him.</p> + +<p>But his appeal is vestured in ideal deference. He deals with law. But +he does not command. Throughout his solemn exposition there is no note +or hint of dictatorship of any sort. Not a breath in any accent +suggests any undertaking to coerce. He simply strives, as a man with +his friend, to persuade.</p> + +<p>And yet as he sets forth his speech, within the comely apparel of its +courteous words gleams the regal form of duty, imperial offspring of +inflexible law. Those words were no empty phrasings of indifferent +platitudes, disposed and pronounced to dignify a passing pageant in +the formal rounds of our civic life. They trembled with anxiety. He +spoke of nothing less than the Nation's life and death, the Nation's +duty, and the Nation's doom. The honor of the Republic was being +sternly tried, to see if it was sound or rotten in its very heart. +Lincoln was dealing with things that all men owned to be above all +price. He was striving, as for life, to achieve agreement as to duties +that should transcend all possible denial. He was trying to fasten +upon every American conscience constraints that no American conscience +could possibly escape.</p> + +<p>Here is a cognizance of law and deference before its claims that is +curiously composite, if not complex, or even innerly contraposed. He +acknowledges the written Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> to bind all citizens with +supreme authority; and gives his solemn oath to honor, uphold, and +execute its plain behests. He as plainly betrays the presence within +his individual breast of a moral sovereign to which he bows with just +as loyal reverence. And before every man with whom he pleads he orders +his behavior, even while he pleads, as before a throne whose moral +majesty he has no right or power to nullify. And yet within the terms +embodying such a deference he expounds the genesis and justifies the +conduct of a long-drawn civil conflict, in which his own official +decrees can be carried out only by the aid of the death and desolation +entailed by war. And when, despite death-dealing guns and deferential +pleas alike, vast multitudes of men, even all the captains and armies +of the South, despise his arguments and defy his arms, he continues to +urge his convictions and appeals, and to reinforce his words with war.</p> + +<p>Can such a complex attitude be shown and seen to rest in moral +harmony? Were his conscience, and the Constitution, and his deference +before other men, and his summons of the land to arms equally and +alike compelling morally, all indeed morally akin? Beneath the +unsparing gaze of his conscience-searching eye, under all the awful +testing of his loyalty to oath, in all his patient and persistent +pleadings for other men's agreement, and through all the torture and +distress of war, what explanation and account can be given of any +obligation adequate to bind and justify his course? Instinct himself +with deference, and averse to any form of tyranny, how could he so +rigidly refuse to yield? Prone toward conciliation in every fiber of +his life, how did he inwardly, how could he openly vindicate his +unbending determination to uphold his faith, and carry through the +war?</p> + +<p>This forces a final and vital inquiry touching the nature<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> of the law +that was so regnant and compelling in Lincoln's personal life; and +that he was struggling here in this address with such consuming +desire, and by the unabetted efficiency of oral appeal, to implant in +other breasts. From Lincoln's balanced words it stands apparent that +the problems bound up in this inquiry beleaguered him on every side. +His throbbing syllables, and the tactics by which his sentences are +arranged, attest impressively that while he was facing problems too +profound for human thought to solve, he was also facing laws that he +could not escape, and dared not disobey. It was not for his kind heart +to sanction and encompass such a war, and stand so solidly against the +solid South, while yet behaving with so unfeigned respect for every +other man, except beneath compulsion of a law supremely gentle and +invincibly severe. He was plainly viewing some behest too plain to be +denied, too sacred to be disobeyed, too insistent to be withheld, and +yet too reverend and benign to suffer any champion to be rude—a +behest around whose throne hung sanctions, true to fact, waiting to +adjudge, certain to descend.</p> + +<p>In the effort now to trace in the soul of Lincoln the birth and growth +and manly stature of this deep sense of law, some things stand plain. +In this, his consciousness of sovereign duty and supreme allegiance, +Lincoln stands entire. In this address will and thought and sentiments +combine. He is not swept against his will. What he decides he eagerly +desires. And with his will and wish his best intelligence co-operates. +If any man essay to overthrow his argument, he has the total Lincoln +to overturn. Determined, impassioned, and convinced, he confronts all +men, whether they be adversaries or friends. In his contention and +defense his being is completely unified. He is employing upon his +master task his total<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> strength. Distressful, dark and difficult as is +his environment and time, he suffers and ponders and resolves, with +forces undivided, none reserved. With such convictions, such desires, +and such determination, the assurance in his onset was in itself +triumphant.</p> + +<p>Upon what foundations now for such unyielding confidence and appeal +did Lincoln take his stand? For Lincoln's own deliberate reply, let +all men read again, and then again, and still again, this second +inaugural address. Those words are appareled with a beautiful charity. +But from deep within their kindliness resounds the clear, firm voice +of heaven-ordered, all-prevailing law—a law that comprehends beneath +its strong and high dominion the long career of American slavery, +defining its sin, awarding its doom, and dealing justly with the +contending imprecations and the pleading intercessions that strangely +voice the deep confusion of embattling hosts. American slavery, its +sin and doom—in his exposition of that dark theme, Lincoln gave his +exposition of all-compelling law.</p> + +<p>All men were created equal. The right of all men to liberty is +likewise a primitive endowment. Upon this one broad base, and upon no +other, did Lincoln ever set up any claim to voice for himself, or for +his fellowman, a civic obligation. To that creative decree can be +traced all the civic appeals that Lincoln ever made. In fixing there +the ground of every plea, he had indomitable assurance of faith that +he was defining and declaring for every man an irreducible and +ineffaceable moral law. All men were created equal. All men were +divinely entitled to be free. That fiat of God Americans had tried and +dared to invalidate. Its authority it was now the Almighty's purpose, +by the obedient hand of Lincoln, to reinaugurate. Its simple terms, +that had forever been indelible, were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> now to be made universally +legible, and everywhere visible, by the obedient consent of all his +fellowmen.</p> + +<p>In all of this the chiefest thing to note is that this same +all-commanding moral law is born within. Written precepts and +published constitutions are but transcriptions. They are not original. +They are only copies. Not at the tip of a moving pen, but in our +forefathers' reverent and independent hearts, did our noble +Constitution come to birth. And in the time of Lincoln it was in +Lincoln's heart that this venerable law was born again. In the heart +of Washington, in the heart of Lincoln, in the heart of every man, as +fashioned and over-shadowed evermore by God, all moral regimen has its +stately origin.</p> + +<p>To this grave oracle, deep within Lincoln's Godlike soul, did Lincoln +fashion utterance. To this same reverend oracle, deep-lodged within +the Godlike soul of every listener, Lincoln made appeal. Here is all +the urgency of all his argument. Here is the secret of all his +confidence. Herein alone shines all his moral majesty.</p> + +<p>Something such was Lincoln's exposition to himself, and to his time, +of the majesty and mandatory force of civic law. Its authority rests +in God. Its validity rests as well in man. It has been written down +most nobly in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Its terms spell +freedom and equality for all. In the light of our common human +sentiments, kindling within us from heavenly fires, its printed copies +may be easily revised. And while its concrete regulations are far too +manifold for any general document to possibly contain, its dictates +are all as concrete and corresponsive to our human civic life as is +the heaven-born and reverent human friendliness with which the life of +Lincoln was continually graced.</p> + +<p>Deferring then to future pages all specific analysis and appraisal of +the pregnant interior wealth of Lincoln's<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> sense of moral obligation, +two momentous affirmations touching Lincoln's reverence for law lie +already right at hand. The law he reverenced held high and wide +dominion. It shaped and swayed and judged at once and alike both his +own and his Nation's destiny.</p> + +<p>And its terms were plain. It was no timid, dusky lamp, held in +trembling hand, throwing uncertain rays, and flickering towards +extinction. The law that shines in this inaugural is a glowing, +radiant orb, bringing day when first it dawned, and shedding still +full light of day over all the earth.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Jealousy for Liberty—Free-Will</span></h3> + +<p>This second inaugural address had its birth in the breast of a man +freeborn, and resolute to remain forever free. To find within this +speech this living seed, to trace and sketch its bursting growth, and +to gather up its fruit, is well worth any toil or cost. To begin with, +this speech is undeniably Lincoln's own. That in any sense it was born +of any other man's dictation, Lincoln would never admit, and no other +man would ever affirm. As its words gain voice, every listener feels +that Lincoln was their only author, and that even in their utterance, +though in the living presence of an un-numbered multitude, this +speaker was standing in a majestic solitude. That exposition of the +war, of the Union, and of slavery was of and by and for himself. What +he was uttering was original. The convictions he affirmed were his +personal faith. The decision his words so delicately veiled was his +personal resolve. The issue towards which they aimed was the outlook +of his lone heart's hope. The appeal he voiced was warmed and winged +by his own desire. The argument he so deftly inwrought was his +invention and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> device. The words he singled out were his selection. +The total aspect and onset and effect of the address, as it looked and +worked on the day of its delivery, and as it looks and works today, +were of his unforced and free election and intent. All the volume, +burden and design of those pregnant, urgent, far-seeing paragraphs are +the first hand product of a freeborn man, adapted and addressed to men +freeborn.</p> + +<p>Here is for any student of ethics an imposing spectacle. For here is a +commanding demonstration that mortal man is in very deed a responsible +author of moral deeds. That this inaugural scene gives this stupendous +truth an indeniable vindication, no man may lightly undertake to +disapprove. But within that undeniable verity are involved all the +mighty revolutions of a moral universe.</p> + +<p>This import of this speech can never be made too plain. To this end +let any reader note the fact that in that stern day, and in this plain +speech, Lincoln faced, and that under a pitiless compulsion, an +exigent alternative. When he penned, and when he spoke its freighted +words, he stood in the very brunt of war. His thoughts were tracing +battle lines. His eye was fixed on bayonets. Before him stood +far-ranging ranks of men in mutual defiance, men at variance upon +fundamental things, men in conflict over claims irreconcilable by God +or man. By no device of argument or of compromise could those +contending claims become identical, or even mutually tolerant. Men's +paths had parted. Armies had taken sides. Difference had deepened into +intolerance; intolerance had heightened into hate; and hate had flared +up into war. Secession had proclaimed that the Union must dissolve, +that confederates were foes, that one Nation must be two. And men +based their reasons for rending the land and for rallying ranks in +arms, upon opposing views of God's decree, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> of the nature of men. +One side claimed that God ordained that black men should be slaves. +This claim the other side denied; and avowed instead that God in his +creation and endowment of the human race ordained that all men should +be equal and free. So appalling and so passing plain in our political +life was the alternative which this inaugural had to confront.</p> + +<p>Equally plain upon the face of this inaugural is the fact that, in the +presence of that dread and stern alternative, Lincoln made a choice. +He picked his flag. He chose the banner of the free. The standard of +the slaveholder he spurned. Responsibly, deliberately, he selected +where to stand, fully and consciously purposing that in such selection +he was enlisting and employing all the voluntary powers of his life. +Here was conscious choice. He did select. He did reject. He could have +taken another, an oppugnant stand, as many a familiar confederate did. +Two paths were surely possible. And they did undeniably diverge. That +divergence he soberly surveyed, and traced down through all its +devious ways to their final consequence. In act and motive, in +judgment and intent, he was self-poised, self-determined, self-moved. +When, in this second inaugural scene, removed from his former +inaugural oath by four imperious years of sobering and awakening +thought, but facing still a frowning South, he swore a second time to +preserve, protect and defend the Constitution—that was a freeman's +choice. And it was Lincoln's own. Between his soul and heaven, as he +registered that resolve, no third authority intervened. As he stood +and published and defined that reiterated pledge, his soul was +sovereignly, supremely free.</p> + +<p>And within that sovereign freedom its even-balanced deliberation +should not be overlooked. Those days that filed between those two +inaugurals had been replete with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> studied meditation. The mighty +problems precipitated by the war he had taken and turned and poised +and sought to estimate and solve in every possible way. He pondered +every ounce of their awful gravity. He paced the total course of their +development. He knew our history, with all its ideals and all its +errors by heart. He inspected with peculiar carefulness the drift and +trend of our national career. It is doubtful if any one ever studied +so incessantly the current of our affairs, or peered so anxiously and +with such far-sighted calculation into the hidden and distant issues +of the stupendous enterprise in which he was predestined to act so +commanding a part. So when his free decision was ushered forth and +projected among the contending determinations of his day, to play its +part, it was the ripe conclusion of a thoughtful mind, like the +well-poised verdict of a judge.</p> + +<p>And his free choice was resolute. His will was without wavering. The +side he made his own was forced to face the musketry and forts, the +arsenals and fleets, of a would-be nation of angry, determined +men—men who would rather die than yield. The choice he made involved +the shedding of human blood. This he sadly knew. In four endless years +he had been compelled to defend his resolution with arms. And now as +he volunteered his oath a second time, his free decision involved +again the frightful corollary of war. This meant that within his +voluntary oath was a conscious determination, too vigorous and +resolute for any threat to daunt, for any form of terror to reverse. +His choice was no feeble leaning to one side. Into its formation and +into its fulfillment poured all the energy of his life. It was vastly, +radically more than impulse, or propensity, or easy, unconsidered +inclination. It was a freeman's choice, poised and edged and +energized<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> by a freeman's will. It had firmness like the firmness of +the hills.</p> + +<p>This choice of Lincoln was ponderous. His exercise of freedom, as +shown in this inaugural, was dealing, not with things indifferent, not +with trifles void of moral moment, nor with empty, immaterial +suppositions. When Lincoln shaped and welcomed to himself this +preference, he was handling nothing less than the affronts of human +arrogance, the greed of human avarice, the cruelty of human slavery, +and a confederate's disloyalty. That preference was his free election +to enthrone within himself, and within all other men, the stability of +a firm allegiance, the grace of human friendliness, the worthy +valuation of human souls, and the surpassing beauty of a true +humility. It was between such values that his election took its shape. +His decision dealt with things primary, enduring, and universal. It +was concerned with the elemental affections and convictions of men, +while all the time supremely respecting the decrees and judgments of +Almighty God. Upon such a level, and amid such values, did the will of +Lincoln trace out its path. It was a Godlike energy, sovereign, +soberminded, original, free.</p> + +<p>But though this freedom of Lincoln, as it reigns through this +inaugural, was individually his own, and wrought out into precise +experience in personal singleness and independency, by no manner of +means was he standing in this scene in moral isolation. He was beset +about and wrought upon from many sides by mighty moral energies. For +one thing, a vast Republic held him fast in the bonds of loyal +citizenship. It was a Republic composed of freemen, to be sure. But +those freemen were by no means a miscellany of mutually indifferent +and disconnected units. They had formed a Union. That Union had a +definite and inviolable integrity. That corporate integrity laid<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> an +unrenounceable obligation upon all its membership. It was the sacred +respect for the sacred honor of that political bond that proved a man +a patriot. To assert the freeman's right to cast aside those bonds +proved a man a traitor, and gendered unto bondage. Here unfolds a +veritable mesh of moral obligations—obligations of compelling +potency. It was precisely in defence and demonstration of those +enveloping claims that Lincoln advocated and prosecuted a defensive +but relentless war.</p> + +<p>The South resented all such claims. They were resolute that national +bonds should be defied, that their authority should be annulled. And +this they urged explicitly in the very name of freedom. This defiant +protest Lincoln's opposite preference had to face. This involved his +mind in the study of a problem that is never out of date—a study that +will test any student's moral honesty to the quick. Lincoln's +championship of moral liberty had to grapple, in the counter +championship of Southern arms, a type and sort of freedom that he +forever disowned for himself, and that he could never consent to in +any other man. This drove him into the study of the nature of a human +soul and the nature of social bonds. This inquiry uncovered two +foundation rocks, laid deep by our forefathers beneath the fabric of +our republic, supports to human honor and stability which no man nor +any confederation of men can undermine and overthrow without turning +upside down the fundamental supports of harmony and honor among +civilians that are free. These two foundation rocks are the divine +design that all men should be equal and free; and the certain +corollary that governments among men derive their just powers from the +consent of the governed. The equality of freemen when they stand +apart, and their free consent, when they join in a political +league—these are the immovable pillars<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> of character and order among +intelligent men. Upon such foundations this government has been +placed. That sure basis the South assailed. In the name of freedom +that assault must be repulsed. The national environment, the national +integrity, the national honor, the existence of the Nation, conceived +as it was in liberty, made all such liberty as the South preferred, +not a freeman's right, but a sorry simulation, a moral wrong. +Government of the people, by the people, was freedom to the core, the +core of civic righteousness. In such a government popular and +everlasting allegiance was elemental uprightness. Among freemen, the +cornerstone of civics is a plighted troth to liberty.</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln argued. And with him to argue thus was to obey. As thus +conceived, obedience to his civic pledge went hand in hand with +liberty. Enlistment under a government and laws framed by +fellow-freemen was to him no limitation of his personal rights. +Instead it involved and assured for every bondman a full emancipation, +and for every freeman full title forever to every unalienable right. +Such a view was indeed ideal, as Lincoln soberly knew; but for that +ideal every power of his kingly manhood was ready to struggle and +suffer and serve. To bind his hand to such a league was his free +choice. To live in loyalty to such a bond was a living pride and joy. +Such an agreement was to the end of his days unresented and +unconstrained.</p> + +<p>But it cost him dearly. No indentured bonds-man ever wrought out sorer +toil. None ever suffered through longer, heavier, sadder days. It wore +away his life. The war was to his tender soul, as he termed it, "a +dreadful scourge." But as he interpreted its trend, its certain +winnings outvalued and outweighed its woe. It was freely and +willingly, not by any irksome and alien coercion,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> that he opened his +soul to all its sorrows, and poured out all his strength to direct and +hasten its consummation. He saw unerringly that it had to do with +government by free consent, with the tenure of a freeman's oath, with +the validity of a freeman's right. And by a preference that in his +freeman's breast was irrepressible, he selected with an open, +far-ranging eye to take his place in that terrific conflict in the +very brunt, that the Nation and all the world and coming ages might +see and enjoy its happy issue in a Union built and compacted +indissolubly upon the inviolable oaths and rights of men who are free.</p> + +<p>This was Lincoln's law of liberty. It secures to men their freedom; +but it binds those freemen in a league. Their civic life is not a +solitude. It is a covenant.</p> + +<p>But when freemen form a league, their solemn oath, as this inaugural +shows, embodies awful sanctions. From such a league and covenant, +seven confederate parts were affirming and defending their right to +secede, and that by force of arms. This forced freedom to a final +definition, and a final test. What follows when a Republic fails? What +form of civic order lies beyond, when a league of freemen is violently +dissolved? Where will freedom find sure footing, when the fundamental +laws of freemen are defied? On this stern question Lincoln fixed his +eye. And as his vision cleared and deepened, he grew to see that if +freedom among men could ever survive, a freeman's mutual covenant must +be inviolate. A freeman's compact must be kept, else on all the earth +freedom could find no resting place. If this should ever be denied, +that denial must be sternly smitten to the ground. Thus for the very +cause of freedom, and as a freeman, Lincoln was driven into war. He +was put where he had no other choice. He was forced to fight.</p> + +<p>But in that war the havoc and disaster were mutual.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> Both sides +suffered terribly. The conflict dealt out torture that neither party +could evade. It was mighty ponderings on these conditions that wrung +from Lincoln's heart the heart of this inaugural, wherein he traces +with a humble, deep-searching carefulness the cause of all the war to +that prolonged infraction of the law of liberty in the lot of the +American slave; and the guilt of that enormous sin to North and South +alike; and the moral explanation of the sorrows of the war to the +judgments of Almighty God.</p> + +<p>Herein he learned that among freemen freedom is in no sense arbitrary +and absolute. Laws lie in its very being. Their presence is +spontaneous indeed, as is every impulse of their promulgation and +rule. But they must be obeyed. If their self-framed mandates are +disobeyed, then freemen are no longer free. If freemen dare to bind +and rob their fellows and aggrandize their own advantages, then the +yoke they bind on other men, by a sanction no mortal can escape, will +be bound upon their own necks, until their false advantages are all +surrendered, and the freedom that is claimed by anyone is given +equally to every other man. To the fulfillment and preservation of +that law Lincoln freely bowed his life. This is the core of this +address. Thus Lincoln illustrates true liberty. In the crucible of war +was his vision of the worth of freedom finally refined. It was through +a costly sacrifice of peace. But it was alone and all for freedom, for +freedom and for nothing else, that his peace and ours was sacrificed.</p> + +<p>This exposition of Lincoln's pure ideal of independent, virile manhood +has embraced, in passing, a phase of the vast environment in which he +felt his manhood framed, that calls for separate remark—the relation +of his human freedom to the rule of God. The war is traced in this +address to a threefold origin: it was projected in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> resolution of +the South that slavery should be given leave to spread; it was +accepted in the decision of the North that the present bounds of +slavery should not be passed; the whole affair was overturned, and the +war was over-ruled in the purpose of Almighty God, that North and +South, as a single Nation, guilty in common for slavery as a national +sin, should make full requital for all its cruelty. In this thought of +Lincoln, the conflicting purposes of the North and the South, and his +own determination too, were being made to bow beneath the mightier +dominion of Almighty God. In the realm of human politics this is a +rare and notable confession. And that it was published beneath the +open sky, at noon, before a peopled Nation's open eye, as a thoughtful +explanation of his inaugural oath as president of a mighty government +upon the earth, must be conceded to mightily enhance its notability. +It lacks but little of rising to the rank of prophecy. But equally +notable with its publicity is its conscious, free submissiveness. +Clear to discern, he is also prompt to own the over-mastering rule of +God. His attitude in this inaugural is an attitude of explicit +subordination to a higher power. But it is clear as day that this +subordination is voluntary. There is no sign of reluctance or +unwillingness, as though he were being forced, not even though all +expectations of his own were being over-ruled in the inscrutable plans +of God. This address reveals this man in a mood and tone of complete +submission, ready for rebuke, surrendering all his ways to God. This +posture of acquiescence, in God's revolution of his plans, and +reconstruction of his hopes, is the factor to notice here, as we +examine the actual operation of Lincoln's will. Above his private +liberty, above his high official authority, above the great Republic +in which his own decisions merge, reigns the hidden hand of God. To +the power and majesty<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> of that unseen sway he summons every dignity +and every desire of his own to render unreserved obedience.</p> + +<p>In seeing and saying this, however, one must never omit to observe and +add that Lincoln's eye observed with solemn joy a precious moral +meaning in the divine omnipotence. Heaven's unexpected guidance and +consummation of the war were only adding clarity and emphasis to the +principle of liberty. It only drove the demonstration home, and that +with irresistible cogency, that human bondage must be avenged. And so +in fact Lincoln's solemn reverence for the divine control was a girdle +confirming the strength of the fine jealousy that guarded for himself +and for all mankind the sacredness and the majesty of the human will. +Within the deeper deeps of his own free preference he coincided and +co-operated with the will of God. His obedience to God, his allegiance +to his civic covenant, and his individual, cherished preference +coalesce ideally; while each, without any diversion or loss, preserves +its own integrity.</p> + +<p>Thus with life-exhausting, sacrificial toil, with genuine originality, +ever exemplifying in his chastened life all the burden of his thought, +by a decisive choice between divergent paths, with the careful +deliberateness of a full-grown man, with unconquerable determination, +gravely sensible of every ponderous consequence, in unbroken and +intimate companionship with all his fellow-men, with vision sharp to +detect and uncover every simulation and counterfeit of his wish, +through solemn fellowship with redemptive sorrows, bowing without +repugnance to every sanction that free equality enjoins, and in humble +reverence for the all-commanding, all-subduing will of God, Lincoln +here unfolds the central and infolded implications in his +all-consuming jealousy to be free.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Kindliness—Love</span></h3> + +<p>A genuine and generous goodwill to other men breathes warmly through +this second inaugural, as the glowing breath of life pervades the +bodily frame of a living child. This manifests itself, as seen in his +impassioned zeal for freedom, in a vivid consciousness of +companionship. He felt his life and destiny interlaced inseparably +with all Americans, nay with all the world of human kind. With this +widely expanded and ever expanding Republic, he felt himself in these +inaugural scenes peculiarly identified. In that great pageant he was +deeply sensible of holding the central place. His inaugural oath, +though his single, individual act, announced his conscious purpose to +be the Nation's head. In that station his person became supremely +representative. It was for him to incorporate nobly, mightily, +judicially, the national dignity, authority, and design.</p> + +<p>Many phases of this profound coincidence of the life of Lincoln with +the Nation's life come into sight whenever his life's career is +carefully reviewed. But among all the illustrations of his +self-submergence deep within the overflowing fullness of our national +history, there is one that demonstrates his tender kindliness beyond +all possibility of refutation. This is his profound participation with +the Nation in her fate because of slavery. Around this awful issue +circles all the thought of this, as of the first address. That this +puissant co-efficient of our national history was somehow the cause of +the existing war he said that all men felt. He registered his own +opinion that all the sorrows of the war were in requital for that sin. +Into those sorrows no man entered more profoundly than did Lincoln +himself. They sobered all his joy. They solemnized him utterly. It is +true few heard his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> groans. In his patience he was mainly silent. None +ever heard him make complaint. All impulse to resentment was subdued. +But the nation's sorrows were on his heart. Through all those days he +was our confessor, self-sacrificed, sorrow-laden, faithful absolutely, +but uncomplaining. Upon his head an angry, unanimous South, and many +thousands in the North dealt vengeful, malicious blows, denying him +all joy, crying out against him ruthlessly. All this he bore, as +though he heard them not, and continued day and night to seek the +Nation's peace. With marvelous freedom from malice himself, with +fullness of charity for all, he taught a Nation how a Nation's sorrows +should be patiently borne. And yet through all the days, in all this +land, no man was more purely innocent of the Nation's sin of slavery +than this same man. Here is friendship. Here is neighborly compassion +written large. This is generosity, untinctured with any selfish +reservation. Amid all the sorrows and fortunes of our history no sight +is half as pathetic as this deep, free, silent companionship of +Lincoln with his Nation's griefs in the deepest period of her +affliction. And yet he almost seemed to cherish his fate. He bore it +all so quietly, and with such a steady heart and eye, that in his +seeming calm we are unconscious of his pain. He gives no hint of +faltering and drawing back. He even strove repeatedly to lure the +Nation to his side, to enter into sacrificial fellowship with the +hapless South. But to nothing of this would the people hear.</p> + +<p>This commanding fact, the moral mutualness of the innocent Lincoln's +sorrows with the sorrows of a guilty land, is a primary factor in this +historic scene. From such a moral complication momentous questions +emerge. How can such confusion of moral issues be ever justified? Why +do guilty and innocent suffer and sorrow alike? In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> such a glaring +moral inequality how could Lincoln himself ever bring his candid mind +to honestly acquiesce? Why should a later generation suffer vengeance +for their father's sins? Why the black man's fate? How can moral +judgments diverge so hopelessly upon such basic moral themes? If God's +judgment is just, why are his judgments upon such inhumanity so long +delayed? How about those kindred sufferings of those earlier days that +for total generations were unavenged? Questions such as these must +have risen in Lincoln's mind as he drained his bitter cup. Such +questions are not to be evaded or suppressed. It should rather be said +that Lincoln's undeniable gentleness in enduring, as the Nation's +head, and for his country's sake, a Nation's curse for a national sin +forces just such questions into sharpest definition, and focuses them +insistently and unavoidably before every thoughtful eye. They are +shaped and fastened here solely to render aid in indicating, as they +undeniably do, the supreme refinement of Lincoln's friendliness. He +held by kindly fellowship with his fellowmen, even when that +fellowship involved his innocent life in the moral shame and pain of +their reprobation and woe. Here is an interchange of guilt and +innocence, in Lincoln's undeniable experience, undeniably resolved and +harmonized. Here is human kindliness, triumphant, transcending all +debate.</p> + +<p>Around this exalted illustration of the strength and purity of +Lincoln's benevolence cluster many statements eager to be heard. His +kindness showed in many ways, but they were all but varying, accordant +forms of pure neighborliness. His mastery of all malice, his unfailing +charity, the kindliness of his cherished hope, his companionship with +others' sorrow, his longings for peace at home and among all men, his +pity for the bereft, his tenderness before our human wounds, his +reluctance to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> go to war, his championship of the oppressed, his +willingness to bear another's blame, his silence before abuse, his +mighty predilections towards universal friendliness, are all +concordant and coincident types and forms of his prevailing, +spontaneous companionship with men. Each phase deserves elaborate +description. But it is in closer keeping with the treatment here to +name some general qualities of his kindliness, qualities that are +common to all its forms.</p> + +<p>His friendliness was immediate. When human needs appealed for comfort +and aid, it was not his way to send a deputy. He appeared himself. +Here is something nothing less than marvelous. An intimate friend of +all, he stood in conscious touch with all the Nation's citizenship. At +first thought this may seem to be in consequence and by means of his +eminence and office as the people's president. As chief executive of +the people's will, and as foremost representative citizen, he stood +for every man in that man's place; and his universal friendliness +found open avenues to every individual citizen's consciousness. Here +is truth. But this truth only partially meets this case. The +operations of his benevolence were somehow independent of space and +time. His tours while president were short and few. Back and forth +between the White House, the war office, and the soldier's home he +wore a historic path. It is almost overwhelmingly sad to realize how +almost all his movements while president were within the +sorrow-shadowed walls and the hidden solitudes of his official home. +As said before, he seemed to exist apart from men, in a pathetic +isolation. Nevertheless, it is plain to all that Lincoln's +uncalculating generosity reached, like the shining of the sun, to the +limits of the land. It is most surprising when one thinks. But when +one thinks, it is most clear that there was in Lincoln's<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> kindliness a +Nation-wide capacity for intimacy. In the open genial presence of his +good-will all men feel they have an immediate and equal share. And +this holds true whether one is near enough to feel the warmth of his +living breath, or whether half a continent intervenes.</p> + +<p>This fact forces into view and consciousness the pure excellence of +his love. It was in its nature deeply real. He did in verity live +close to every man. He wore no distant air. He practised no reserve. +He felt and proved himself to be the kin of all. His pictured face and +published speech were a perfect symbol, a convincing pledge to every +honest man of close and equal partnership. His ways are often said to +have been homely. But their very homeliness was all human and all +humane. And in his presence, or in the presence of any truthful +impress or echo of his life, no honest nature but feels itself +instantly at ease and quite at home. This habitude in him of +overcoming distance, and absence, and all other obstacles to his +far-ranging love, and winning entrance everywhere into the affections +of all kindly men, is a notable stamp upon the total texture of his +friendliness. He stood with men in personal partnership, immediate, +intimate, real.</p> + +<p>And in all his intimate and immediate fellowship with men his personal +contribution was entire. In his co-partnership he had no treasure too +precious to invest. He gave his all. Imposing, almost impossible as is +the meaning of these words, all mankind do recognize, and that with +wondering reverence, that when Lincoln rose to take the presidential +oath, he held nothing back. In his service of the Union he invested +his life, his honor, his hope, even all he had. It was little else he +had to give. His lineage was of the lowliest. His education was of the +meagerest, and wholly a by-achievement. In social graces<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> he was quite +unversed and unadorned. He was no flatterer. The fawner's dialect he +never knew. He would not boast. To beg he was ashamed. He was too +honest for any knavery. Pure integrity was his only asset. As he took +his stand at the presidential post, he stood without a single +decoration, unsupported, all alone. It was literal truth that when he +took his official oath the only bond he had to furnish was his naked +honor. But that possession was no counterfeit. Its value did not +fluctuate. It was solid gold. In his honest rating, the plighted faith +in the words of his official pledge was beyond all price. As he +discerned and understood the crisis of his day, the Nation's very +being was at mortal stake. And when in that momentous hour she +summoned him to take the presidency, she laid sovereign requisition +upon his total being. And when he obeyed the call, he invested all. No +reserve of his possession was kept in hiding for his refuge and +reimbursement, in case the Nation failed. He ventured all he had, even +all his honor. And this complete consignment by Lincoln to the +Nation's use of all his moral wealth, of all his pure and priceless +personal worth, was an act of unalloyed benignity. It was for the +Nation's welfare that he devoted himself. It was that the Union might +be preserved, and that all men might be free, that he plighted his +integrity.</p> + +<p>This investment of Lincoln's friendliness for the well-being of all +the land, even of all the men therein, was not alone immediate, +winning direct attachment to every man; nor merely all-absorbing on +Lincoln's part, impressing into kindly service every value and every +capacity of his total life; it also enshrined a deathless hope. +Lincoln's patriotic devotedness was no venture of a day or of a +decade. Lincoln's good-will looked far ahead. He had a passion for +immortality. His total effort and aim in all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> his generous endeavors +and hopes, as he served in his public life, can be defined as a +sovereign aspiration that our government should be so guided and +chastened in all its life that the Union should never be dissolved. To +his kindly heart no possible event seemed more appalling than that +this hope should fail. So far as his words reveal, this central, +sovereign passion of his glowing heart was all but exclusively +patriotic. He apparently forgot himself in his wistful anxious hope +that the Nation's peace might long endure. His faith in the Union's +indestructibility may be said to spring out of his undying continual +love for his fellowman. Indeed just here seems to be the birthplace of +all his prophetic ponderings over the final issues of our civic life. +The very stature of the government which his ideal conceived and which +he thankfully saw that our Republic designed, was deemed by him to be +copied from nothing other than the divinely fashioned moral nature +which he found alike in himself and in all his fellowmen. Deep within +his friendly heart he cherished the vision of a Republic of freemen +leagued together indissolubly as mutual friends. It was to realize and +certify that hope that he dedicated his life. And when he pledged and +sealed that offering, it was with no design that the seal should ever +be broken, or the pledge be ever recalled. Here is another primary +quality of Lincoln's friendliness. It was inwrought with personal +durability. Grounded as was his civic hope in the freedom and +conscience of Godlike men, it was impossible for him to consent that +such a hope should ever encounter defeat or decay. Deep and sure +within its essential nature were the urgent promptings and the soaring +promise of immortality.</p> + +<p>These observations upon the immediate directness, the integral +whole-heartedness, and the deathless eagerness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> of Lincoln's +friendliness, if thoughtfully compared together, reveal that these +distinctive phases of his outpouring good-will are in nature +identically the same, and spring from an identical source. This +essential coincidence, this mutual convergence deserves attention. It +intimates wherein the very essence and being of his neighborly +kindness consists. And in Lincoln's life this indication of the +precise whereabouts and substance of the essential and innermost +quality and being of human kindliness is certain and clear, as in +hardly any other man. His benignance in his dealings with men is of +well-nigh unparalleled openness and freedom from all admixture and +alloy. Lincoln's kindness embodies and conveys Lincoln's self. In +every favor from him he is in the gift. In the center of all the +friendliness that is characteristic of Lincoln, Lincoln himself stands +erect and entire, offering and commending in every case his +full-sized, undivided self. This is the core and this the +circumference, this is the sum and this the substance of his +good-will. It is rich with all his personal wealth, solid with all his +personal worth. In him an act of friendship was an inauguration of +personal copartnership. In his good-will was all the energy of his +life. In his benefactions he gave himself. Just so with his +compassions. With the sorrows of humanity it was his way to enter into +personal fellowship. This was the form and being of all his +generosity. His mastery over all malice when facing a foe, his +abounding charity when judging a wrong, his hearty gladness in the +presence of human joy, his cordial ways in greeting friends, his +fatherly affection for his boy, his love for his native land, his pity +in presence of the bereft, his sadness at sight of wounds, his +readiness to share evenly with all his Nation all that guilty Nation's +painful discipline—all this variety and plenitude of ample, +open-hearted tenderness towards<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> other men was alike and always the +complete and conscious contribution of himself. In brief, in full, and +finally, Lincoln's friendliness, through all its beautiful +versatility, was a free and facile, a full and total, personal +self-devotion. This is the common content giving all its value to all +the forms of his human kindliness.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Pureness—Life</span></h3> + +<p>In the exposition just foregoing, the thought has been drawn into +allusions to Lincoln's premonitions or aspirations towards +immortality, for the Union, if not for himself. This was in the course +of an effort to find the spring-head of his kindliness. And it +culminated in the suggestion that deep within Lincoln's being there +was enshrined an assurance, however unconfessed or even half +unconscious, of personal immortality. And that from within this shrine +of living hope, common to him with every man, he drew his inspiration +and his very pattern of a national Union and a national peace that +would endure forever.</p> + +<p>Here is something that calls for examination, for in this we touch a +radical quality of Lincoln's moral being. This eager craving after +permanence was in him an appetite that could never be fed or satisfied +by any things that perish. In itself and in its nutriment there is an +irrepealable call for something indefeasable, something utterly +superior to all fear of death, something never amenable to any form of +dissolution or decay, something spiritually pure, and essentially +kindred to the essential being of a deathless soul.</p> + +<p>The matter may be approached to start with by saying some things +negatively. Lincoln was centrally in no sense a materialist. He was +indeed firmly sensitive to the physical majesties of this continent, +though in his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> day they were hardly half disclosed. He calculated with +carefulness our material capacities for expansion in power and wealth. +He foresaw our certain outward growth into a puissant Nation, the +coveted and ample resort and refuge and home of hordes of men from +other lands. In his own well-seasoned and resourceful physique he felt +and knew the worth of physical virility. He could thoughtfully compute +the glittering values, the goodly financial revenues, the days and +months and total seasons of physical idleness and delights that accrue +to human owners from the unrequited toil of human slaves. And in the +current civil war he completely understood that no less a concern than +the perpetuity of the American Union was pending upon contests largely +consisting of encounters of physical prowess, of tests of muscular +endurance and strength.</p> + +<p>But not in calculations such as these did his thoughtful studies of +human welfare take ultimate resort, or find final rest. His conception +of the ideal state, of the ideal citizen, of the ideal life, was not +constructed or inspired from carnal elements. He noted with life-long +sadness the sordid baseness inseparably attending the fact of owning +or being a slave. He deeply saw that those battles in the Wilderness +were no mere conflicts of beasts. And never could he imagine or allow +that his personal weight, and force, and worth were ratable by +gymnastic tests. It was not upon things like these that Lincoln's +attention and hope were fixed, when his hopes and plans for our +prosperity took form. To the whole world of his material environment +he was marvelously indifferent. On every perusal of his life one +grieves at the story of his poverty, and the sad infrequency and +meagerness in his daily life of the pleasures and recreations which +are for the comfort and happiness of men in material things. But in +this he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> seems as though unconscious of any disappointment. For +himself as for the Nation, and for the Nation as for himself, his +satisfaction and confidence were not born and fed of things that +perish in their use. Luxury in food or attire, however toothsome or +attractive to other natures, stirred but the feeblest hankerings, if +any at all, in him. Towards sensualism of any sort, whether gluttony, +drunkenness or lust, his sound and temperate manliness did not +incline. And in his estimate of personal character his eye and respect +did not rest in outer attitudes, on printed, age-long codes of manner. +He was no slave of stately ceremonies, or artificial etiquette. Nor in +religion did he bind his tongue to creeds however hoary, nor to +rituals however august. He swore not by the oaths of any sect, however +ancient and renowned. Neither in this mountain nor in that did he +worship God.</p> + +<p>But on the other hand, and now to speak affirmatively, Lincoln lived +no penury-stricken life. The resources within his personality were +well-nigh incalculable. Few men in all our national catalogue have +been endowed by God with so sterling and abundant interior wealth. And +of all American patriotic benefactors few indeed have left in their +single individual name and right such priceless legacies to their +native land. What is life? What is human life? Wherein, completely and +precisely wherein, is man distinguishable from the beast? For answer, +study Lincoln and see. In the full development of such a study many +massive verities will unfold. But the feature in Lincoln's manhood, +which this chapter is set apart to designate and clarify, is the +simple purity, the elemental spirituality of all his elemental traits. +His dominant sentiments, his primary convictions, his main and +all-mastering decisions were never born to die. They were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> instinct +with life, with life indeed, a life never failing, ever more abundant +and free.</p> + +<p>This interior vitality, this unalloyed and undecaying purity may be +described one way as a real idealism. But in ascribing idealism to +Lincoln, it needs to be said at once that Lincoln's idealism, real and +glorious as it must surely be confessed to be, was transparently and +unvaryingly practical. In one way it may be defined as hope. A waiting +hope was a standard characteristic of Lincoln's attitude. His +sorrowful eye held fast to things as yet unrealizable. It is +impressive to see how often and how fondly he mentioned the future, +the "vast future," as he termed it, of our American career. The secret +of the beauty and of the power of some of his loftiest and most +spontaneous rhetoric is due to just this solemn eagerness towards the +coming days. As one comes to study more intently into the outlay of +his heroic strength, his struggle and toil are seen to be leashed +about his consuming wish that the Nation in its undivided might could +be unified about the speedy fulfillment of his prophetic aims. He +never forgot the mighty lesson, nor lost the living inspiration of his +own advancement from humblest station of ignorance and toiling poverty +to the presidency. That transformation he loved to humbly hold before +the attention of his fellow Americans, as a pattern of what might +anywhere occur again. He loved to linger upon the possibilities of +upward movement in the ranks of all laboring men. Large place and +honorable position were given to this arousing theme in his first +annual message to Congress. This general topic—the far-set, soaring +possibilities of human betterment—held constant and commanding +eminence in the ranging measure of his eagle-searching thought. For +the Nation, and for its every inhabitant, he was a true idealist.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Lincoln's idealism, again be it said, was no wild indulgence of a +vagrant and untrained imagination. It was utterly sober-minded. It +took its form and found its force in the center of his sanest +thoughtfulness. The terms in which its description has just been +illustratively traced show it to be perfectly rational, and even +matter-of-fact. Lincoln's idealism was nothing else but a heedful +interpretation of the proper destiny of man. It was a reflection in +terms of carefulest thought, albeit also in the guise of ardent hope, +of the essential lineaments in the nature of man. And no human +portrait by any artist was ever truer to fact, while yet tinged with +fancy, pure and free. In all his picturing of things yet to be, but +not yet in hand, his eye was fastened with an anatomist's intentness +upon the actual human nature imperishably present in every man. +Nothing that Lincoln's idealism ever proposed ever diverged from the +bounds of the original fiat creating all men equal and free. That +undeniable initial verity, itself the keystone of our national +Constitution and Bill of Rights, supplied to Lincoln's hope its total +and only inspiration. In those ancient and elemental realities, +realities that deeply underlie and long outlast all the cults and +customs and centuries which human thought is so prone to differentiate +and divide, Lincoln detected solid foundations and ample warrant for +age-long, undissolving expectations. In every human face there are +outlines that are forever indelible. These unfailing lineaments +Lincoln had the eye to see. And what is vastly more, he had the +courage and the honesty to adopt them as the pattern of the platform, +and to voice them as the notes of the battle-peal of his +statesmanship. And this he did right wittingly, knowing assuredly that +therein his vision had caught the gleam of things eternal; that +therein he had made discovery that man,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> even the humblest of his +race, could claim to be, as he phrased it to a company of blacks, +"kindred to the great God who made him." This amounts to saying that +Lincoln's statesmanship may be completely and precisely defined as the +studied and deliberate exploitation, upon the field of politics, of +those forces, central and common in all mankind, that are Godlike, +immortal, spiritual.</p> + +<p>Here we reach a definition that outlines with close precision a trait +of Lincoln's full-formed character that held a primary place in +winning for Lincoln his immortal renown. He attached himself to things +themselves immortal. His ideal hope had no admixture of clay, nor even +of gold. He made no composition or compromise with anything that dies. +His supreme desire was of a nature never to decay. It was pure with +the deathless purity of the human soul. To this pure principle, +eternal loyalty to the immortal dignity of man, he signed and sealed +his soul's allegiance with bonds that even death could never relax. +Such statements describe a primary co-efficient in Lincoln's ethical +life. Abjuring the unnumbered allurements of the material world, +allurements whose fascinations unfailingly fade, and reposing his +confidence wholly in treasures that time and use only brighten and +refine, Lincoln reveals in the realm of ethics the singular excellence +of an ideal that can kindle in an immortal man an immortal hope. +Purging every sort of baseness out of the central life, and enthroning +an all-refining pureness in the sovereign desires and visions and +designs, he has inaugurated in the field of civics an idealism that +will honor every man, fit actual life, and endure forever. Personal +pureness, this pervades the life of Lincoln as crystalline beauty +pervades a block of marble.</p> + +<p>This refining trait in Lincoln, this inner hunger for his living +soul's true nutriment, this thirst for the pure,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> perennial springs, +finds signal illustration in the closing sentence of this last +inaugural, where he pleads with all his fellow-citizens to so conduct +all civic interests as to secure among ourselves and with all Nations +a "lasting peace." That craving after permanence in civic harmony +betokens an impulse towards immortality; and rests down, as the entire +inaugural explains, upon that only basis of enduring civic quietude, +an honest and universal recognition and respect for those indelible +and universal lineaments of personal dignity which the Creator of men +has traced upon every human soul—lineaments from which the obscuring +dross of centuries was being purged in the Providential fires of an +awful war. Just this was the meaning of the war, as Lincoln understood +its work. That earth-born sordidness which marked all slaves as common +chattels, was being burnt out of our national life, as our basest +national sin. Thenceforth, forevermore, it was Lincoln's living hope +that all mankind might peacefully agree to supremely cherish and +mutually respect those human values that human unfriendliness, and +centuries of contempt, however deeply they may obscure, can never +obliterate. Upon such enduring foundations, and upon such foundations +alone, Lincoln clearly saw, could human peace endure.</p> + +<p>And upon this same foundation rests his first inaugural as well. In +all those months of special study, ensuing between his election in +November of 1860 and his inauguration in March in 1861, and for an +ample seven years before, Lincoln was feeling after civic perpetuity. +And when he stood before the Nation to publish his first inaugural +address, his supreme concern was fixed upon the threatened and +impending ruin of the Republic. He there faced a menacing South, +irreconcilable, and resolute for dissolution or blood. That outcrying +situation brought final<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> issues near. Must the Union perish? Could the +Union endure? Civic dissolution or civic perpetuity—this was the +immediate, the unrelieved, the ominous alternative. In the fiery heat +of civic hate, flaming into civil war, Lincoln had to seek for civic +principles that hate could not subvert, nor the fires of war consume; +principles too strong to admit defeat, too pure to be dissolved.</p> + +<p>Never did a statesman bend over a graver task, nor with a more honest +and patient heart, nor with a mind more divinely fashioned and +furnished to comprehend and penetrate the actual case in hand. As in a +chemist's alembic, he fused and tried our Constitution and all our +history. Into that first inaugural he incorporated the issues of his +thought. And this was its simple, sole result:—Slavery is "the only +substantial dispute." With the people is "ultimate justice." With God +is "ultimate truth." We are not "enemies." We are "friends." In this +supreme dispute let us confer and legislate as friends, and then as +friends live together in an amity that shall be perpetual. This is the +uncompounded essence of his first inaugural, as of all his political +philosophy. In universal freedom, by mutual persuasion, and in even +friendliness, let our Union forever endure. Here again is a +statesman's publication and heroic defense of a pure, immortal hope, +voiced in an appeal and upheld by arguments as spiritual and pure as +the inmost being and utmost destiny of the living souls of men.</p> + +<p>No study of the transcendent momentum in Lincoln's life of spiritual +realities can fairly overlook his speech in Peoria, October 16, 1854. +It is, as he said at the time, "substantially" a repetition of an +address at Springfield, twelve days before. It "made Lincoln a power +in national politics." It was the commanding beginning of his +commanding career. That year, 1854, began the convulsion<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> which made +him president, involved the war, and ended in his violent death. As +matters stood on New Year of 1854, slavery was, by act of Congress in +the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thenceforth forbidden to spread +anywhere in United States territory north of the southern boundary of +Missouri. In the early half of 1854 Senator Douglas drove through +Congress a bill, creating the territory of Nebraska, which declared +the Compromise prohibition of 1820 "inoperative and void." Thenceforth +slavery might spread anywhere. This is the "repeal" of the Missouri +Compromise.</p> + +<p>That "repeal" brought Lincoln to his feet. And from the day of that +Peoria speech Lincoln was, to seeing eyes, a man of destiny. For, not +for that day, nor for that century, nor for this continent alone did +Lincoln frame and join that speech. Let any logical mind attempt a +logical synthesis of that address, marking well what affirmations are +supreme. Not out of conditions that vary with the latitudes, nor out +of opinions that change as knowledge improves, and not from sentiments +that bloom and fade as do the passing flowers, was that address +constructed. It handles things eternal. Its central propositions +outwear the centuries. Its conclusions are compounded from stuff that +is indestructible. And the piers upon which they rest are as steadfast +as the everlasting hills. Freedom, union, perpetuity were its only +positive themes. Let us "save the Union" was its central call; and +"so" save it as to "make and keep it forever worth the saving"—so +save it "that the succeeding generations of free, happy people, the +world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest +generations." The perpetual Union of freemen—this was his one pure +hope. Of this freedom slavery was a "total violation." Such a Union +the principle of secession made forever impossible. And in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +continual presence of tyranny, and under ever impending threats of +disruption, perpetuity in peace was an impossibility. Liberty, +equality, loyalty—only upon these enduring verities could +self-government ever be built, or ever abide. Here is stability. Here +is harmony. Here are truths "self-evident." Against cruelty, +disloyalty, and pride these eternal principles are in "eternal +antagonism." And when the two collide, "shocks and throes and +convulsions must continually follow." Against human slavery, and all +that human slavery entails, humanity instinctively and universally +revolts. It is condemned by human righteousness and human sympathy +alike. "Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal +the Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still +cannot repeal human nature."</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln bound together the arguments of this appeal. The +irrepealability of the human sympathies in the nature of all men, the +undeniable humanity of the black, self-government built upon the +creative fiat of freedom and equality for all—upon these enduring +propositions a Nation could be built whose resources either to +eliminate all evils, pacify all convulsions, and resolve all debates, +or to achieve a lasting progress, dignity and peace, would be +inexhaustible. Thus, at the very start, his eye pierced through the +political turmoil of his time, fixing in the central place before the +Nation's gaze those "great and durable" elements which "no statesman +can safely disregard."</p> + +<p>Plainly notable in all this is that powerful and habitual proclivity +in Lincoln to find out and publish abroad those civic propositions and +principles that are inwrought with perpetuity. He was straining and +toiling towards a triumph that time could never reverse. Foundations +that were sure to shift, or disintegrate, or sink away, he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> was +resolute to overturn, and clear away. He chose and strove to toil and +speak for the immortal part in man, for ages yet to come, and for the +immediate justice of Almighty God. And so he fashioned forth a +programme that, like the programme of the Hebrew prophets, +circumvented death.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Constancy—Truth</span></h3> + +<p>This second inaugural contains a fine example of free and reasoned +reliability. It is in fact, in its total stature, a stately exhibit of +deliberate steadfastness. Let this short document be read, meanwhile +remembering that other inaugural document, and not forgetting all the +unspeakable strain and struggles of those four intervening years. The +man who spoke in 1861, and the man who speaks now again in 1865, +stands forth in the heart of those bewildering confusions of our +political life, a living embodiment of civic constancy. In his person +national firmness stands enshrined. In those ripe convictions, in +those cool and poised determinations, in those ardent, prophetic +desires—steadfast, consistent, and sure—are traceable the rock-like +foundations of our confederate Republic. In those inaugurals stands a +monument not liable soon to crumble away. But within that monument +insuring its durability, rests as within and upon a steadfast throne, +Lincoln's everlasting fidelity.</p> + +<p>To win clear vision of this fine trait, let one read again this second +inaugural, and locate truly the center of gravity of its second +paragraph. There Lincoln is tracing in broad, plain strokes the origin +and on-coming of the war. In the center of his steady thought the +interest centrally at stake was the Union. On the one hand he recalls +his own address at his first inauguration, "devoted," as he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> says, +"altogether to saving the Union without war." On the other hand, he +recalls "insurgent agents" seeking to destroy it without war. War was +deprecated and dreaded by both parties. But one would make war rather +than let the Nation survive. And the other would accept war rather +than let the Nation perish. "And the war came." As a register of +Lincoln's capacity for free, intelligent stability, no passing glance +can in any sense exhaust or apprehend the depth and sweep and energy +of those last four words. When loyalty to the Union was the issue and +interest at stake, Lincoln would "accept war." "And the war came."</p> + +<p>When Lincoln voiced those four words, his eye was looking back through +four dreadful, bloody years—years, whether in prospect or in +reminiscence, fit to make any human heart recoil. But as he surveys +those scenes of hate and carnage and desolation, retracing and +reckoning again the sum of their awful sorrow and cost, and rehearses +again his resolution to "accept the war," it is without a shadow or a +hint of wavering or remorse. In fact he is recalling that fateful day +of four years before with an eye to review and vindicate that fateful +resolve. At the end of those eventful and sorrow-laden years, he is as +steady as at their start. Not by the breadth of a hair have his +footing and purpose, his judgment and endeavor been made to swerve. +Then as now, now as then, his loyalty is absolute. And in that sturdy +loyalty of that lone man a seeing eye discerns nothing less than the +unbending majesty of a Nation's self-respect. It is the Nation's +sacred honor that he has in sacred charge. In him the integrity of the +Nation at large finds a champion and a living voice. In his firm-set +decision the Nation's destiny takes shape. In those short pregnant +words the proud consistency of our total national career, and his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +superb reliability, become, instantly and for all time, freely, nobly, +and completely identified. This is not to say that in the teeming +history of those eventful years Lincoln's mind and will and sentiments +had stood in stolid immobility. He freely concedes that the years have +brought him lessons he had never foreseen. And his central attitude in +this second scene is a reverent inquiry into the ways of Him whose +purposes transcend all human wisdom, and require full centuries to +complete. But strong and clear within his reverent and lowly +acceptance of divine rebukes, stands unbent and unchanged his +steadfast, invincible pledge to reveal, on his own and on his Nation's +behalf, the sovereign grandeur of civic reliability.</p> + +<p>In his first message to Congress this integral trait of his personal +and official life finds majestic and most definite explication. It is +the passage explaining to Congress, in precise and minute recital, +just how the war began. It deals with those ominous events in +Charleston harbor, centering about heroic Major Anderson, a federal +officer, and within Fort Sumter, a federal fort. That assault upon a +national garrison by Confederate guns was no haphazard event. At just +that moment, and in just that spot the national crisis became acute. +Upon that spot, and upon those events Lincoln's eye was fixed with a +physician's anxiety. There he knew he could feel the pulse of the +resentment and resolution of the South. Day and night he held his +finger upon its feverish beat. And as the fever rose, he marked with +exactest attentiveness its registration of one condition of the +Southern heart:—Was that heart so hot with civic hate that, when +every lesser issue was set aside, and the only issue under review was +the right of the Republic to stand by its officers and its flag, then +those Southern leaders would fire upon those<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> officials in a federal +fort, and pull down that flag upon federal soil? If in a federal fort +the major in command, and his uniformed men, while making no +aggression nor voicing any threat, but acting only as peaceful +exponents of the Nation's authority, and being in exigent need of +food, were to be visited by a national transport bearing nought but +bread, upon such a ship, upon such a mission, would seceding soldiers +open fire? If they would, and if that onslaught passed without rebuke, +then that Nation's federal integrity was dissolved. Such was the +unmixed issue, and so sharply edged was its final and decisive +definition under Lincoln's hand. And on his part there was here no +accident. With foresight, and by careful design Lincoln "took pains" +to make the problem plain. With impressive and ideal carefulness he +guided the action of his own heart to its final resolution, and +predetermined the final verdict of the world.</p> + +<p>In the last supreme alternative, when government agents stand in need +of food, and citizens who repudiate all loyalty fire upon government +transports freighted only with bread, what shall a government do? This +was the naked question that Lincoln faced, when he decided to accept +and prosecute the war. Upon this one plain question, and upon his one +convinced determination he massed and compacted his first +Congressional address. Right well he understood its point, its +gravity, and its range. And surpassing well was he fitted to be the +man to frame and demonstrate the true reply. In all the land no finer, +firmer exemplar of elemental constancy could ever have been found to +guide and cheer the Nation's course in this extremest test of +elemental self-respect. Let those words be written and read again. It +was a test of national self-respect, elemental and supreme. It was a +question that concerned, as Lincoln saw and said, "the whole family +of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> man." "Government of the people, by the same people"—can or +cannot such a government "maintain its own integrity against its own +domestic foes?" Can it "maintain its own integrity?" Can it master +"its own domestic foes?" Can men who assume their self-control be +trusted to maintain their self-respect? Here is a problem that is in +verity elemental and supreme. What, in very deed and in solid fact, +what is civic reliability? Where, among all the governments by men, +where can steadfastness, civic steadfastness be found? Nowhere, +Lincoln had the eyes to see; nowhere, but in the civic constancy of +men at once governing and governed. Only thus and only there, only so +and only here, in this heaven-favored land, did Lincoln see, can any +government of men by men find fundamental base and final form that +shall be consistent, stable, and real. This is government indeed. Here +is elemental, civic verity. A community held in common self-control +upon the basis of common self-respect—such a union alone has +constancy. This is the sublime and radical civic truth that Lincoln +forged out upon his steadfast heart, as he bent with mighty ponderings +over those scenes in Charleston harbor, and reviewed and expounded +their pregnant implications in his initial message to Congress in +1861.</p> + +<p>In many ways this constancy of Lincoln rewards attentive thought. For +one thing, it was radiant with intelligence. Indeed in him the two +became identified. As thus conceived, it shows as pure and clear +consistency. His fully tried reliability was the well-poised balance +of a mind long-schooled in the art of steadiest deliberation. When +Lincoln held immutably fast, it was due to his invincible faith that +the conviction to which he clung involved abiding truth. This quality +tempered all his firmness. Just here one finds the genesis and motive +of all his skilled<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> invention of reasoned, pleading speech. Lincoln's +prevailing power of urgent argument roots in the deep persistency of +his convinced belief. It was because of an impassioned confidence, an +assurance that was vibrant with a note of triumph, that his grasp of +any ruling purpose was so unwaveringly firm. This was his mood and +attitude in all the major contentions of his life. To the central +tenets that those contentions involved he held with all the firmness +of the rooted hills. Touching those primary principles in his +character and politics his mind and faith seem to have attained an +absolute confirmation. And from those settled positions he could never +be moved. Constancy in him was nothing more nor less than the +energetic affirmation of intellectual rectitude.</p> + +<p>His steadfastness, thus, was a mental poise. It can be defined as +ripened judgment, a conclusion of thought, safeguarded on every side +by a discernment not easily confused, by a penetration not easy to +escape. This involved a wonderful flexibility. While steadfast unto +the grade of immutability, where honor was involved, no student of his +ways could call him obstinate. While firm and strong enough to hold +the Nation to her predestined course upon an even keel, he held her +helm with a gentle, pliant grasp. Being in every mental trait +inherently honest and deliberate, he could at once be resolute and +free.</p> + +<p>This blend within his being of thoughtfulness and determination, of +openness and immutability, this candid, conscientious, mental poise, +this Godlike apprehension of the larger equilibrium, qualified him +peculiarly to interpret the major movements of his time, to trace in +the deep, prevailing sentiments of the human soul the chart of our +national destiny.</p> + +<p>Here is in Lincoln something wonderful. Among the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> millions of his +fellowmen he counts but one. But in the range and grasp of his +thought, in the eager passion of his heart, in the controlling power +of his commanding will, he comprehends them all. Stable and heedful at +once, he could challenge unanswerably every man's esteem. His symbol +is the firm, benignant oak, the sheltering, abiding hills. Thus he +stood to help and hold, to serve and rule among his fellowmen. Thus he +wrought coherence into our great career. Thus he linked together those +mighty political events with a logic which succeeding times have +proved powerless to refute, but strong and glad to confirm. He had +marvelous capacity to divine. With him to reason was to illuminate. +Things bewilderingly obscure, within his thought and speech grew +plain. He was our prime interpreter. He explained the Nation to +itself. But in every such elucidation the Nation was made to +co-operate. His instinctive, habitual attitude toward other men was +that of a conferee. He was sensitively open to complaints and appeals. +Delegations and private supplicants always found him courteous. This +courtesy was never formal. To a degree altogether noteworthy the words +of other men found entrance into the counselings of his mind. He was +not merely accessible. He was impressible, sensitive, quick to +appreciate and honor the sentiments of another man. With the earnest +plea of balanced, honest argument, hailing from whatever source, he +was facile to correspond. His judgments and decisions were amenable to +estimates wholly novel to him. Indeed, to an almost astonishing degree +his major movements were commensurate with the progress and pace of +the national events that environed his life. In some of his mightiest +accomplishments he seemed to do little more than register the +conclusions of the national mind.</p> + +<p>All this is to say that Lincoln's constancy was poise,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> not obstinacy; +a well-reflected equilibrium, not a stiff rigidity. All his steadiness +was studied. Never can it be said of Lincoln that his verdicts were +snap judgments. On the contrary, with him deliberation and delay were +so habitual and so excessively indulged, while pondering some massive, +political perplexity, that the patience of some of our greatest +statesmen repeatedly broke down, and he was charged repeatedly with +criminal, and all but wanton indifference, inertia, and neglect. But +never was sorer libel. Through it all he was only too intent. Through +it all his eye refused to sleep, while his steady and steadying mind +pursued the vexing task, until its permanent solution stood clear. And +then, with his eye steadily single to the guiding hand of God, to the +Nation's immortal weal, and to his own unsurrendered integrity, he +would publish and fulfill his studied and sturdy resolve. Upon the +basis of these internal mental conquests did all his firmness rest. +Hence his life-long evenness and freedom from fluctuation.</p> + +<p>But this challenges still further study. Given this notable blending +in his mental habits of independent stalwartness and amenability to +others' views, what is the inmost secret and explanation of his +undeniable consistency? It lay in his human sincerity. His affinity +with his neighbor was a reality. The Nation's deepest concerns were as +deeply his own. Hence his ultimate convictions, though ripening in a +single decade, proved to be in deep and enduring agreement with the +ultimate convictions of the Nation at large, though requiring a full +century to mature. The sentiments that were essentially his own were +seen, when openly published upon his lips, to be the sentiments +essential and common to his fellowmen. His personal aspiration was a +national goal. His personal character was a national type. Truly +representative,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> he was at the same time as truly unique. Always +facing towards other men, he always stood erect.</p> + +<p>This was Lincoln's constancy. It was not the stubbornness of an +arbitrary will, although his will had regal energy. It was not a +frigid intellectualism, although in mental penetration he could not be +surpassed. It was not a tide of swelling enthusiasm, although the +supreme emotion of his heart was the passion of an ideal patriotism. +His commanding constancy, potent to compose a Nation's turbulence, was +but the outer stature of his typical interior integrity. It was the +open assertion and attestation of his personal self-respect.</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln's convictions and verdicts were unfailingly his own. And +thus those verdicts and convictions had continental breadth. Dealing +with a Nation's destiny, he came to be clothed with a Nation's +majesty. In his own great heart, as in a Nation's crucible, he +assembled and resolved the Nation's complexities; and in his own pure +desire, as in a Nation's purified hopes, he defined and described our +national goal. Of all things narrow and peculiar, of all things +partisan and sectional, he purged his eye, until with malice toward +none, with charity for all, with reverence towards God, he could see +the total vastness of the things with which he had to deal.</p> + +<p>Here is a loyalty worthy of the name—the plighted troth of one in +whom the Nation's noblest hopes stand forth already realized, assured, +secure. This defines and describes the force at play in this last +inaugural. In the volume of those words Lincoln's message and +Lincoln's manhood were identical. Its utterance was the voice of his +self-respect. Herein Lincoln the patriot and Lincoln the man are one. +Here was Lincoln's standard. His search for verity was a study of +himself—of himself as true kindred of God and of his fellowmen. This +is the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> core of Lincoln's honesty. This is the key to Lincoln's +constancy. This is the secret of Lincoln's authority. This was the +goal of Lincoln's quest for verity. This was for Lincoln the one +reality. As child of the one great God, as closest kin of every man, +he is our model champion and exemplar of the one abiding +truth—personal self-respect. That this should be held unperverted and +preserved intact was in the thought of Lincoln the primal equity, the +very substance of a man's integrity.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Humility—Worth</span></h3> + +<p>The name of Lincoln is linked inseparably with the lot of the slave. +That the fortune of the lowly might be improved was the supreme +enterprise of his life. As conceived by him, that enterprise concerned +all men. Not for black men alone, and not alone for men in literal and +evident bonds, was this, his major interest, engaged. Quite as keenly, +nay even more, was his heart concerned for his closer kinsmen of Saxon +blood, who never felt the slave driver's lash. But even here his +prevailing inclination was a kindly solicitude for people of meager +comfort, culture and liberty. Towards men whose fortune was adverse, +and from whom more favored ones were prone to turn their face, his +heart was prone to be compassionate. His very instincts seemed +inclined to make the poor his intimates. And when he stood among the +lowly, he never showed a sign that he had entered the shadow of any +shame. Richly dowered with nobility himself, himself superior to every +fortune, incapable of subjugation by any fate, a master owned among +the mightiest, the dominant function of his life was ministration. +This was his ambition. And it was sovereign. His towering<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> aspiration +was that the needy be relieved, that poor men might have means, that +bondmen might be free.</p> + +<p>This was a soaring, imperial wish. But it sent him where men were most +down-trodden and overborne. It forced his name and reputation to +become identified with the gross and low condition of the rudest, most +untutored mortals of our land, the humble Afro-American slave. This +lowly fellowship he never attempted to disguise nor consented to +disclaim. He rather seemed to welcome whatever burden or reproach it +might seem to involve. Before and against the white man who held the +whip, beside and befriending the black who felt its lash, he chose to +take, and persisted to keep, his stand. Many a time was this +co-partnership flung in Lincoln's face with stinging words as a +mongrel, shameful thing—with most vigorous persistence by Douglas in +their famous debates. But it was not in Lincoln to desert and disown +the poor, nor yet to apologize, nor to retort, nor even to reply. As +champion and companion of the despised and embondaged victims of the +white man's greed and contempt, Lincoln stands by the negro, as full +of resoluteness, and as free from shame, as though defending his own +home.</p> + +<p>Here is genuine humility, not an attitude assumed, but a virtue +inwrought. That this rare and Christian grace was planted deep in +Lincoln's heart, and pervaded the total fullness of his life, may be +argued from the very texture of his last inaugural. Upon just this +point that document deserves minute attention. From the vantage ground +of April 4, 1865, and from the point of view of slavery, that address +is a profound and most commanding interpretation of the philosophy and +phenomena of our American life. The war, God's Providence, and +slavery—they are its sovereign themes. God's Providence shaping into +national discipline the tragedy of the war;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> slavery "somehow" its +deepest, fateful "cause:" there are thoughts for thoughtful men, who +may wish to understand the meaning of our national life. The point to +notice here is to observe how in Lincoln's mind in 1865, the course, +and curse, and fate of slavery connect. It is nothing less than a +profound elucidation of outstanding American events. It intimates +impressively how Lincoln's mind had brooded and pondered over the lot +of the African slave. He had reckoned all the value of their +unrequited toil. The marks of their bruises and wounds were seared +upon his soul. And of all the meaning of that sore humiliation, in +terms of our national destiny and of the Divine dominion, he became +the supreme and sympathetic expositor. In his unfolding of that +meaning was infolded the master motive of his life. Under the hand of +God he was having bitter but submissive share in setting forever right +the cruel, age-long wrongs of the African slave. That such sentiments +should take such shape at such a time is signal demonstration that +they were the central sentiments of his heart. He was highly +designated to a humble task; and he knew no higher honor than to keep +close friendship with the poor, until his high commission stood +complete. And to this close affiliation of lowliest lives with the +loftiest aims and issues of his great career, he devotes well-nigh the +whole of his inaugural address as our Nation's president to expound, +therein betraying no slightest sign that he sees in that alliance the +slightest incongruity. In that defense and championship of the rights +that were elemental to men, though the most despised, he saw his +highest dignity as president. And to that lowly aim he shaped and +pledged his policy, his party, his fortune, and his fame.</p> + +<p>In truth this affinity of Lincoln with his neighbor in need was the +very fruitage of the fortune of his life. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> was fitted and +predestined for it by his birth. His station was of the lowliest. His +setting-up was pathetically scant. All his discipline was cruelly +stern. In ease and plenty he had no share. Of sweets and luxury he had +no taste. Born of parents pitifully poor, nurtured in painful penury, +poorly sheltered, scantily clad, accustomed to neglect, intimate with +want, trained to disappointment, toiling in untamed scenes against +hard odds with rudest tools, the kindred and daily familiar of +unassuming men, denied the commonest aids to personal refinement, he +was to the atmosphere and temperament of genuine, undisguised humility +native born, and fully bred. From such a hopeless start, in such a +hostile environment, he made his way alone. It can be said with almost +literal truth that he never had any help. His only friend was his +modest, resolute heart. His winnings were all by wrestling—and the +struggle never relaxed. When every antagonist had been met and +overthrown, and his gaunt stature stood in the Nation's arena alone +and undefeated, then upon that unbent but unpretending form his Nation +and his Nation's God laid a burden, such as no man in all our history +had ever borne. When beneath that great final task he meekly bowed, +its superhuman responsibility and weight were all-sufficient to crush +forever all vain-glorious pride, if in his tried heart any pride had +ever entered, and having entered had still remained. Before the +majesty of his commission, and amid the inscrutable perplexities of +each unparalleled day, he must always be fain, even though never +forced, to walk humbly among his people, and before his God. From +birth to death, by fortune and by Providence, as though by +overmastering fate, he was fashioned for humility.</p> + +<p>From all these grounds he was predisposed to modesty. Over against the +vastness of his task, facing daily all its<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> formidable difficulties, +and sensible evermore of his infinite insufficiency, the posture of +his spirit and the tone of his daily speech unfailingly betokened a +moderate estimate of his personal significance. The overspreading +majesty of the work to which he set his hand, always towering vividly +before his thought, kept vividly active the consciousness that he was +quite incompetent to accomplish aught, except the God of Nations +tendered daily help.</p> + +<p>As thus inclined and thus disposed in body and in mind, he became a +man of prayer. That he should often fall upon his knees was but the +consequence of his daily discovery that his burdens and his strength +were widely incommensurate.</p> + +<p>Many times those supplications seemed as though unheard. The heavens +gave no sign. Then malice raged against him. But then his +unsurrendered faith in God, his reverence for his task, and his +sobering estimate of himself would show as meekness. It was not his +way to retaliate or rail. In darkness, before delay, and beneath +abuse, he bore and suffered long without complaint. In this pathetic +quietness his humility becomes heroic.</p> + +<p>This bent towards lowliness, tempered through and through, as it was, +with his clear intelligence, saved him from vaunting and all vanity. +There was habitually in his posture a grave solidity. This often +seemed like carefulness and caution. But it was born of modesty. If +there was ever a time when ever a man might be suffered to boast, the +date of this second inaugural was the time, and the author of that +inaugural was the man. The hour of that address marked the opening of +Lincoln's second presidential term. It was the crowning vindication of +his presidential policy. After four years of war the national poll at +the last electoral vote had shown the North stronger in men than when +the war began. The status of the South<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> was desperate. But five weeks +lay between him and the surrender of Lee. Lincoln was not lacking in +foresight, nor in careful calculation. His skill therein was +preeminent. Wary, discerning, resolute, his assurance of ultimate +victory no doubt firm and clear, no breath of boasting was given vent. +Instead, with almost painful reserve, he modestly said, "With high +hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured." +Lincoln was one of those rarest of men, invincible in resolution, at +the same time invincible in reserve.</p> + +<p>This inner mood of modesty showed in all his outer furnishing. It was +not his way to publish his distinction. For him to signalize his +primacy by any decoration would be an incongruity. In any group of men +where precedence was emphasized he was ill at ease. Any attempt by him +to designate his official elevation by some gilded ornament or plume +would have been grotesque. His eyes were not lofty nor his heart +haughty. His feet were for the furrow. His hands were for the axe. His +lips were for friendly salutation of all the people on the street. Any +outer token, intended to mark him for separation or any superiority, +would have excited nothing but sorrow in him. Fabrics however costly +and rare, jewels however brilliant and pure, designed and disposed for +distinction and display, awakening envy and unrest quite as much as +admiration and delight, were not for him. Plain man among the +lowliest, true nobleman among the noblest, he wore all his honors in +uttermost innocence of all parade.</p> + +<p>Nor were the features of Lincoln ever intended to be employed as +instruments of scorn. Into the hellish ministry of curling contempt +those gracious lips could never be impressed. His heart was far too +kindly; and that were safeguard enough. But his unalloyed humility was +far too potent to ever encourage or permit in him any indulgence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> of +disdain. Truly lowly himself, it was not in him to coldly despise any +of his fellowmen. Just here his humility displayed its sterling +honesty. And just here his honor and his glory blend. Here is his sure +title to nobility—a title that neither time nor eternity can ever +tarnish or bedim. By every right is this nobility his. By his earthly +fortune, as by a hard, relentless fate, his lot was cast among the +poor; and by that same appointment the lot of all earth's poor has +gained perennial dignity. But he graced those ranks also as a +volunteer. By his own consent, with sovereign free selection, he +elected to sustain and overcome all the impediments of the station of +his birth, and so to demonstrate the full capacity of the humblest +human life for high endeavor and desire. Thus he was alike and at once +filled with a deep compassion, and free from high contempt. Here lies +the firm foundation of his proud renown. This is the true birthmark of +his nobility. He was above the baseness and the meanness of scorning +any brother man.</p> + +<p>And so he avoided arrogance. It was not the way of Lincoln to forever +reiterate, if even to allow, his own importance. He was acutely +sensitive, to the meaning and worth of an honorable renown. Especially +was his cool, gray eye awake to the future issues of the pregnant +deeds of his teeming times. But therein his eager concern was a +patriot's anxiety—an anxiety in which he mingled his fortune and fame +with the destiny of his native land. Therein the jealousy of his +desire for the national welfare burned away, as in sacrificial fires +and upon a sacred altar, all ambitions for himself. At any cost to +others, or through any other man's neglect, it was not in the heart of +Lincoln to demand and heap together honors or advantages for himself. +Well might he be justified, if ever such a course were fair, in +claiming for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> himself exceptional rewards. Chief executive of a great +Republic, commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the North, +assured of the major momentum of military success, in immediate reach +of vast and ever increasing resources, whether for war or peace, +chosen the second time to be the Nation's head, charged the second +time to consummate the Nation's perpetual unity—surely he had ample +guaranty for imputing to his own sole hand, in a supreme degree, +mighty prowess, imposing achievements, a vast and spreading authority +and power. At such a time and amid such surroundings, a generous +measure of self-aggrandizement would have seemed quite warranted and +well sustained. But never was a mighty commander freer from that +uncomely fault. The mention of victory makes him strangely unmindful +of himself. The thought of his vast authority makes him the lowliest +in the land. Lincoln was not arrogant. He made no effort after +aggregated honors, however deserved, much less after honors unearned. +In particular he showed no inclination to appropriate another's fame. +For one thing, he knew too well the awful cost of magistracy. The +right to be commander-in-chief of a Nation's resources and arms, so +coveted a right in aspiring men, became transmuted in the cup which +Lincoln drank into a terrible, an almost impossible responsibility. +Nor was it of his nature to subtract from other men for his own +increase. At the price of a brother's freedom, or happiness, or life, +the gaining of ease, or wealth, or joy of any sort for himself would +be far too dear. In the soul of Lincoln extortion could find no soil. +His mien among men was that of indulgent ministry, not of exacting +mastery. With the lower level and the lesser meed he could be well +content. Morbid jealousy for his own acclaim, hungry greed for +another's reward, satisfaction in plaudits that were undeserved, or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +comfort from robbery or extortion of any sort were sentiments for +which the refined and genuine modesty of Lincoln had no appetite or +taste. The honors that surrounded and invested him were up-springing, +spontaneous and free; in no least measure accumulated, artificial or +enforced.</p> + +<p>The native purity of Lincoln's lowliness shows best in his reverence +for God. He lived in a daily consciousness of Providence. As a +statesman he was thoroughly a man of God, full of a patriot's adoring +and acquiescent thankfulness, as he watched and studied the wonderful +unfolding of God's just and kindly government of this most favored +land. This mood of humble reverence was deeply wrought. It was of the +texture of his character. It was not a vesture or a posture, a gesture +or a phrase, assumed here and discarded there, and often counterfeit. +It was essential, like his integrity, pervading and indeed controlling +all his responsible life. And it was wholly undisguised. In his most +formal public documents—papers in which statesmen as a rule make +scant allusion to Deity—Lincoln's allusions to God are their most +imposing feature. Beyond all contradiction, Lincoln enacted his public +responsibilities in the fear of God. This was the beginning of his +wisdom. Just this is the secret of the sanity of this last inaugural. +And it is the secret of its immortal beauty. And it is the girdle of +its strength. In framing its central argument, and thereby steadying +the Nation's heart in the convulsions of war, he was expounding the +hidden ways of God. There grew a mighty paragraph. It reads smoothly +now. But when it passed through Lincoln's lips, it was the issue of a +hard-pent agony. When he voiced those words he stood before an altar, +and made confession, like a very priest, for both North and South. All +the land had behaved with unbecoming confidence.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> All alike were under +discipline. God was in dominion. Even in their prayers both North and +South had been contending against the Lord. The prayers of both could +not be answered. That of neither had been answered fully. The Almighty +had his own purposes. The expectations of all had gone astray. The +contending struggles of either side, despite their contending prayers, +were being turned by the judgments of God against them both into a +terrible national chastisement. So Lincoln discerned, and so he +humbly, vicariously confessed. But beneath this high dominion his +heart too had been bowed down, and overwhelmed, and chastened sore. +Repeatedly his counsels had been overturned, and his expectations had +been reversed; and that too, as he devoutly believed, by the +over-ruling purposes of God. Hence, as in this inaugural scene he +faced the future, though he was head of a puissant people, he behaved +like a little child. In a chastened sense of the mystery and authority +of the overruling designs of Almighty God, he forebore to boast. And +then he said in rhythmic words of almost prophetic majesty, and in the +attire of all but sacrificial humility: "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 unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid +by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, +so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether.'"</p> + +<p>This is indeed in prophetic strain. But he forbears to prophesy. He +longed with sacrificial eagerness for national prosperity, in lasting +freedom and unison and happiness. As he renewed his official pledge to +preserve, protect,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> and defend the world's greatest charter of +equality and freedom for all mankind, his heart and hope held high and +firm. But his total being was subdued. God had crossed his path. The +long-drawn war was God's rebuke. The Nation had gone sadly astray. The +Almighty had taken her waywardness in hand. His purposes were in +control. And He was supreme. And His ways were unrevealed. Lincoln +stood to his task unflinchingly, ready either for sorrow or relief, +ready either for death or life, as the Most High might appoint.</p> + +<p>Here is statesmanship indeed. But it is altogether unique. A mighty +Nation's executive head, discerning, devoted, and devout, holding in +his steady hand the charge of a Nation's destiny, pledging in the +Nation's name to lay upon the altar, if need be for the Nation's +honor, the Nation's life, and there before the altar waiting humbly +upon God. Many a theme of profoundest purport opens instantly into +view. Just now our eye is fixed upon its illustration of humility.</p> + +<p>On the one hand, and in the first place, its exhibition of the dignity +of pure manhood is sublime. In this inaugural scene, beneath the awful +stress of a Nation in war, upon the basis of the pledged covenant of +the free, invincible faith that a free Republic can sustain and +fulfill all its solemn responsibility, and with unquenchable hope in +the vast and unseen future of his land, Lincoln took his stand, and +held his ground, and put on record before God and all the world his +reverent and resolute oath. Here is manhood, noble, majestic, +decisive, free—a manhood that embraces the worth, voices the hope, +and confronts with open breast the destiny of the race.</p> + +<p>But in this same scene these mighty energies pause. Lincoln +consciously faces God. For himself and for the Nation he makes humble +acknowledgment that the Lord<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> is Almighty and Most High. And to God's +full sovereignty he yields spontaneous consent. With lowliest +submission and confession he concedes and declares that all his +rebukes and all his rule are in righteousness.</p> + +<p>Here is a place where any man may properly pause. Here the orbit of +our proudest being strikes its verge. Here God and manhood meet. Here +human power faints. Here human resolution halts. Here human foresight +dims. Here human wisdom becomes a void. Here all our pride becomes +perforce humility; and all our counselings merge in faith. Here human +grandeur touches its outer rim.</p> + +<p>But here, too, human eyes awaken. Here human aspirations rise. Here +human wisdom becomes newly informed. Here human forecasts brighten +into hope. Here human strength revives. Here human purpose tightens. +Here in reverence human wisdom begins. Here in human lowliness appears +a Godlike dignity. Here our human stature shows its noblest. Lincoln +is at the utmost bound of his knowledge, and his liberty; and yet he +is displaying just here a discernment and a decision of the most +exalted type—a discernment, however, whose insight is a vision of +faith, and a decision whose resolve is an exercise of trust. In this +scene statesmanship is transmuted into religion, undefiled and pure. +Man in his loftiest hope and uttermost need, and God in his +transcendent royalty of equity and goodwill meet face to face, and +stand in open, free and friendly covenant. Here is at once a portrait +of true humility, and the acme of high nobility. Here in childlike +trust and childlike faith the wisdom and the freedom of man attain +their goal. Here statesmanship and reverence, wisdom and trust, +freedom and acquiescence, dignity and lowliness harmonize and +interblend.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> And in the unison either one remains uncompounded and +pure.</p> + +<p>Here many questions press to be resolved. This signal scene in +Lincoln's career—what has it to say about the inner nature of man? +What about the nature of God? What about the nature of our human +insight into the essential qualities of things? What about the +relation of will to thought? What about the sovereignty of character? +When human character touches the limit of human life, is it facing +night or day? These are ultimate inquiries. And they are immediate. +For answer to these inquiries, let Lincoln and Hegel meet. And let the +Nations listen to their replies; and so discern what problems clear, +where dignity and lowliness convene. For here is a shining scene, +where any man may see that in a lowly heart wisdom and nobility may +sit together as on a throne. Modesty like Lincoln's is a courtly +grace. Reverence such as his beseems a prince. Such humility, +reflecting with heavenly beauty the immediate presence of God, may +clothe a mighty man, and hold the center of a mighty scene, without +unseemliness, and it wants not intelligence. This at least this scene +makes clear.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PART III. SYNTHESIS</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Moral Unison</span></h3> + +<p>The marvelous beauty of the Athenian Parthenon is displayed in four +façades. Upon these four sides runs a frieze in a continuous band, +crowning all the columns, and binding all the structure into a single +shrine. Comprehended within the stately course of that all-encircling +frieze is classic demonstration how an impressive manifoldness of +sculptural form may present a perfect and impressive unison.</p> + +<p>Something such is Lincoln's character, as it stands in this second +inaugural. In this address four personal qualities stand forth, as +distinct and clear to the eye and thought as are the faces of the +Parthenon; while, like the Parthenon, the author of that address is +indivisibly and undeniably one. Both are alike composite, and both +alike are one. Both embrace diversity, but all in perfect harmony. +Both have perfect unity, but without monotony. Like the temple of +Athene, greeting from its single altar every horizon of the Grecian +sky, Lincoln, voicing his solemn oath as the Nation's president, gives +utterance to every moral element in our American life. Here is +something worth minute inspection. Here, upreared upon our Western, +modern American soil, is a noble work of art, as noble as any in the +ancient East—finished, balanced, and enduring—the ripened moral +character of a people's patriot.</p> + +<p>First to notice narrowly is that Lincoln's moral texture<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> is fourfold. +Four virtues stamp this speech. Four strands compose its web. Four +hues commingle in its light. Four parts convey its harmony. This +four-foldness is discernible distinctly.</p> + +<p>Plain to see through all the features of this address, as well-defined +as the features of his friendly face, is his kindliness. Of all +things, war was most deplorable. Of all things, peace was most to be +desired. All malice was to be disowned. All charity was to be +indulged. All wounds were to be bound up. All sorrows were to be +consoled. There spoke the pleading voice of love. All men were bidden +to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. Here the quality of +moral kindliness is unmistakably and indelibly distinct.</p> + +<p>Quite as plain is his ideal and illustration of integrity. As manifest +to all the world is his inflexible uprightness, as is the outer +stature of his erect physique. For the equity in the bondman's protest +against two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil he had an open +ear and a profound respect. In the confidence that the judgments of +Almighty God were altogether just he was not ashamed to make public +announcement of his abiding faith. Eager that peace among ourselves +and with all Nations might always last, he was also eager that it +should be just. Firmly based, for his Nation and for himself, upon +such foundations of self-respect, resting on God, and resolute for the +right, he had no other thought but to strive with unremitting +constancy, until his work was done. Here is moral loyalty, plainly +visible, and as plainly inviolate.</p> + +<p>Quite as clear is his humility. The war, as Lincoln viewed it, was a +humbling visitation upon the Nation of the Nation's sins, a mighty +rebuke upon all human scorn and pride. In all that sin and scorn and +pride—the crime and guilt of slavery—Lincoln had no slightest, +conscious,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> personal share. But the shame and woe of that rebuke, as +it fell from the hand of God upon the Nation as a whole, he bore with +quiet, meek humility. And to whatever further judgment the Almighty +might allot he humbly bowed his head, confessing openly that, in his +own heart and thought, God's ways had been proudly misunderstood. Here +is reverent humility, and here is humble reverence, undeniable and +undisguised.</p> + +<p>And just as clear is his supreme esteem for values that are permanent +and pure. Above all changing accidents Lincoln honored the Godlike +human soul. In harmony herewith his thoughts and arguments were prone +to handle centuries. And in rating worth his standard was a man's +humanity. Thus he shaped the records and the prospects of our history +into a philosophy. Thus he interpreted the war. It was God's +vindication of the immortal value of the humblest man. Carnal +pleasures and worldly gains, wrung from human lives at the cost of the +degradation and debasement of the human soul, and in defiance of God's +eternal and indefeasible laws, Lincoln saw to be of all things the +most foolhardy and crude. So spiritual and pure was his conception of +God and man, and his active understanding of the meaning of historic +efforts and events. Ideals, endeavors, and enjoyments, even though +normal and worthy, if they dealt with values that were decaying and +gross, were cheaply rated by him; while the Nation's perpetuity, each +man's spiritual quality, and God's eternal purity held eminence +unfailingly in his affection and esteem. Here is spirituality, pure +within, and by the inwardly pure plain to see.</p> + +<p>As in the shapely quadrilateral of the Parthenon, this fourfoldness in +the character of Lincoln is cardinal. Each quality is an element, each +conforming with an elemental factor in the nature of every man. This +involves that in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> its essential substance each trait, so far +considered, is incapable of analysis. And each refuses to be resolved +into something else. Each one is a simple and a constant co-efficient +in Lincoln's moral being. Each one exists within his life in a +complete integrity, indivisible, self-contained.</p> + +<p>His humility, thus, is integral and unmixed. When Lincoln bows, as he +does in this inaugural, before his God, and therein offers his life in +a bending ministry to all his fellowmen, that reverence and that +ministry are, as ministry and as reverence, pure lowliness. The phases +of that lowliness may pass through continual transformation. And those +changing forms may have changing designations. It may be submission +before God's sovereignty, reverence before his majesty, awe before his +mystery, obedience before his authority, trust beneath his Providence, +confession under his rebukes; but common, essential, and unchanged +within them all is simple, pure humility.</p> + +<p>So with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also +wears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of +parade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership +with a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's +worth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged +within all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid +moral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's +life, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and +inseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a +relationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very +breath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as +firm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> are the +opportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear, +forbear, and serve.</p> + +<p>It is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and +imperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable +of many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in +reasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty; +with proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or +reliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as +consistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with +ethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with +even, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm +of truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But +common within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those +varied and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any +analysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand +distinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and +centered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his +very honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living +soul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his +moral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest +action of his self-consciousness.</p> + +<p>The same holds true of Lincoln's kindliness. In the balanced harmony +of his character the note of human friendliness is a persistent and +indispensable strain. Without that melody his moral consonance would +be painfully and irretrievably impaired. Like every other fundamental +trait, this too may be voiced with every sort of easy, fluent +variation. It may spring spontaneously from deep within the heart, as +benign and all-embracing benevolence. It may overflow with benefits, +in active, bounteous generosity. It may bind together an ideal home in +parental,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> filial, fraternal affection. It may kindle at the altars of +one's native land, and influence the heart of the patriotic devotee. +It may break through all the accidents of birth and race into +universal brotherhood. It may befriend the hurt, and needy, and +bereft, as sympathy. It may so prevail as to bear up beneath the cruel +sin of alien hearts in the sorrow of vicarious love, to the end that +guilty men may be redeemed and reconciled. In myriad ways this human +kindliness may speak its gentle words of mercy, grace, and peace. But +every word is keyed to kindly fellowship. Through all those variations +this note is prevalent. And it is keyed to a relationship as universal +and as unavoidable as are the bonds of human brotherhood. This wanting +in any moral character in fact or in idea, that moral character is +unbalanced and incomplete. Its mighty influence and its constant +evidence in Lincoln's active life supply an elemental requisite to +that life's harmony. It is his full-voiced answer to the world-wide +plea for human friendliness.</p> + +<p>And just such affirmations must be made concerning Lincoln's pureness. +Like each of the other three, this quality, too, holds a place and +eminence distinctly and uniquely its own. No other trait can do its +part or take its place. Its function and its office permit no +substitute. Nor can its ministry be divided. Its claim is regal. And +in any rating and apportionment among the other three this trait must +be granted equal primacy. Its presence and its purport in Lincoln's +total life are clear and fair and absolutely radical. Its aspect +varies like the aspect of the sky. But deep within those variations +gleams the pure and shining blue. It may win triumph over greed of +appetite in temperance; or over fleshly passion in continence. It may +fix supreme desire, not on decaying things, but on undying life; not +on things that change<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> and disappoint, but on values that abide and +hold their own. It may search far beyond things visible for things +unseen; and look within all symbols, discerning what they mean. It may +detect within down-trodden, untutored men souls kindred to their +Maker. It may transcend all idol forms, and make all worship +spiritual. It may see how ends outvalue means; and how bottles should +not outvalue wine. In the midst of our universal lot of accident, +disease and death it may hold fast, for all the pure in heart, to the +hope of a happy immortality. But enduring and undying, common and +unchanged within them all is simple, spiritual purity. The soul +asserts supremacy. Things that fluctuate and finally dissolve, however +befitting and beautiful while they thrive, are admired and valued far +beneath the immortal and unchanging worth of God and Godlike souls of +men. This clear vision and high evaluation of spiritual things in the +thought and life of Lincoln can never be omitted nor excluded in any +final analysis of his moral life. It ranks among the elements of his +character, as each or any one of its facades holds rank about the +Parthenon.</p> + +<p>Thus in the composition of Lincoln's moral being there are four solid, +permanent, radical integers—his kindliness, his loyalty, his +pureness, and his humility. And these four elements of his character +face the four cardinal points in the compass of his life—his brother +man, his conscious self, his flesh-bound soul, and his sovereign Lord. +So inherent in his very structure, so inwrought in his conscious +character, so deeply based, so cardinal, and so enduring and +irreducible is this fourfoldness in Lincoln's inward life.</p> + +<p>And now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four +constituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear +and cardinal, but inclusive and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> complete. Combining in their +significance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things +superior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood; +and all the truth and worth within his own identity—every factor and +relation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and +himself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and +awarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only +two constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with +the daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the +Lord of grace and truth—these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his +life; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire +and consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are +discovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved; +when any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign +and kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a +world of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the +adoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral +stature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see, +so integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of +Lincoln's character.</p> + +<p>And now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four +constituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his +character, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively +some separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral, +but Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of +a section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a +whole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature +stands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent +exercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life +is Lincoln's<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is +kindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When +in this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God +reveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and +pledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying +heart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those +centuries of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its +sorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and, +disowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal +charity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is +pouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the +worth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and +commending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in +humble fellowship with humble men he abjures all hollow boasts and +pride, and, bending beneath God's just rebukes, voices for all the +land our national guilt, from that humiliation and lowliness no +portion of his being is exempt. Each cardinal virtue engrosses and +engages all his soul.</p> + +<p>And now ensues with a sequence that is irresistible, an affirmation +that in all this study of Lincoln's character must stand supreme. +Integral as is each several one of these four virtues in Lincoln's +life, and integral as is Lincoln's life in each single several trait, +these two integrities can be clearly seen to deeply interblend and +truly coincide. There is among the four qualities within his life no +dissonance. Here emerges Lincoln's moral unison. As in the Parthenon +all the elements harmonize and the edifice is one, so in Lincoln moral +manifoldness unifies. There is throughout coincidence. The heart that +bows towards God, in that very act of meekest acquiescence swells with +pity for all who mourn and bleed, with indignant jealousy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> for equity, +and with a supreme esteem for immortal souls. These four virtues do +not exist and operate asunder. They do not come into view in this +inaugural in sequence, each one in turn displacing and eclipsing the +one that went and shone before. They coexist, each one continuing +undiminished and unobscured, each one fully active and plain to see, +their confluent tides pouring through the same identical phrase, the +total strength of Lincoln surging alike in each. Through the whole +address thrills Lincoln's whole conviction, all his passion, and the +total vigor of his will respecting truth and falsity, hate and +charity, greed and purity, pride and humility. Here is moral unison.</p> + +<p>To find the secret to this moral synthesis demands and deserves the +sharpest scrutiny. That this may be understood it requires to be seen +that these four virtues, so clearly distinguishable and so perfectly +combined, are as clearly and perfectly akin. Lincoln's equity and +charity, as voiced in this address, are not alien energies. They +vitally correspond. They bear mutual resemblance. Each springs from +deep within himself, from his elemental manhood, a manhood that finds +in his brother's life and liberty as deep rejoicing as in his own. And +herein he is also kindred with God, as God's purposes and ways are +defined in this address. God, too, is deeply just and kind. Here roots +Lincoln's meekness under God's rebuke, and Lincoln's firmness in his +understanding of what is right. Between his heart's chief wish and +God's high will the moral correspondence becomes identity. So deep is +the coincidence and agreement of Lincoln's reverence and equity and +charity within himself and with his God. The same inwrought agreement +shines in the profound affinity of Lincoln's kindliness and +faithfulness and lowliness with his pure idealism. In him they are all +as fully unified<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> as is his manliness. So deeply intimate is the vital +synthesis of Lincoln's moral unison.</p> + +<p>This position is pivotal. If either of these four virtues, here +defined and designated as elementally distinct and cardinal, can be +ever merged into any one, or any two, or all the other three; or if +any one can be dissolved, or analyzed into something else still more +elemental and pure, that possibility should be made passing sure and +clear at just this point. For from the affirmations, thus far laid +down, as to the cardinal validity and vital harmony of these four +moral traits, and of the four foundations in which these virtues rest, +follow other affirmations in the chapters that now ensue, which no +artificial postulate can ever uphold.</p> + +<p>But here, in passing, two standard affirmations are required. It is +not to be asserted or assumed that Lincoln's personal life attained +perfection, and transcended sin. In the chapter on humility, and in +chapters yet to come his own deep sense of deep unworthiness stands +evident. But in his clear and firm ideal and desire, aglow throughout +with Godlike grief for all delinquency, appear the qualities above +defined.</p> + +<p>And then these qualities, which his unique career displays, are, as +moral qualities, in no respect unique or beyond the measure of any +man. They beseem quite normally the plainest of us all. This truth +deserves full heed and unreserved respect. Lincoln was beautifully +like a little child. He was indeed a hero and performed heroic deeds. +But with all his heroism, as regards his moral qualities, the humblest +mortal may be his peer. Here is the hidden secret of the universal and +ungrudging admiration which his heroic character commands. He is the +world's model and guarantee of a world democracy.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PART IV. STUDIES</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Symmetry—The Problem of Beauty</span></h3> + +<p>In Lincoln's character is a beautiful illustration of moral balance. +He stands before the eye unchangeably, like the Capitol dome at +Washington, a signal exhibition of firmness, harmony, and repose. As +he fills his place as president, he seems to face the whole horizon at +once. A study of his life leaves the impression that he is resting +upon a solid, ample base; that his weight is well distributed; that +his energies are united evenly; that all his parts agree together; +that throughout his structure he is at ease; while yet there swell and +rise within his breast proud, far-seeing hopes that only a Nation's +grandest magnitude could give complete embodiment. This massive poise, +and breadth, and balanced evenness are the seemly vesture of his +character. They well become his inner attitude. They are the open +intimation of the shapeliness and majesty of the unseen soul within. +And quite as worthy of study and admiration as our national dome, is +this well-poised nobility of Lincoln's personality.</p> + +<p>With this intent one may well review this last inaugural, for it +enshrines superior beauty. Not unfittingly did it find first utterance +beneath the presence of that imposing masterpiece at our national +Capitol. As in that circling colonnade, so in the measured cadences of +this address, there is exalted harmony. Its phrases, rhythmic and +pleasurable, rank almost as music. Read however many times, its +sentences never tire. Minds the most refined<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> are glad to point to +this address as to a noble monument, assured that its perusal will +awaken in any American high national pride, and in the minds of all +men a pure delight.</p> + +<p>This commanding, gracious dignity is not alone a matter of even +rhythms and pleasing cadences. It is to its author's moral poise and +full harmony that this speech owes its symmetry. Indeed this is all +its substance. Of rhetorical decoration it is absolutely bare. Its +only title to its universal admiration is the patent fact that its +author has traced and set therein, as with an engraver's nicest art, +the princely fashion of his high-born soul. Its finished ethical +symmetry is all the art that gives this speech its everlasting charm.</p> + +<p>What now is the inmost nature of the attractiveness that holds +possession of this last inaugural? In this inquiry is extended a +winsome invitation to any beauty-loving mind. As such a mind fixes its +inspection intently upon the vital structure of this address, he sees +within its shapely borders four princely virtues, standing together in +a courtly league. Each virtue stands mature in unrestrained virility, +no one of them overbearing the other three, nor being overborne. With +easy, manly grace each virtue does its part, while all harmoniously +combine, to support with Godlike sagacity and strength the problems of +a Nation's destiny in days and tasks that mock the sagest counsel and +baffle the proudest might of man.</p> + +<p>Like stately columns beneath a stately dome, these virtues deserve +regard. Each one is integral in Lincoln's personal majesty, and in the +finely finished power of this address. The exhibition of personal +self-respect, the very eye of moral verity, as displayed in Lincoln's +own reliability, and idealized within his steadfast plan for national +consistency, is fashioned forth within the well-set features<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> of this +address with all the well-poised grandeur of the Olympian Zeus. The +tones of kindliest friendliness towards detractors and defenders +alike, repelling all malignity, unfailingly benign, cannot in any +cadence be misunderstood. They fall like healing music, reminding +listeners of home, and hearthstone, and a father's heart. The lowly +attitude of penitent submissiveness towards God, with its wonderful +mingling of solemn awe, adoring worship, and conscious fellowship, +undeniably without hypocrisy, as without restraint, institutes in this +address nothing less than the model and inspiration of a reverent, +religious liturgy, fit to lead and voice a Nation's humble penitence +and praise. The kindled and enkindling zeal for the transcendent worth +of men above all other wealth, the burning hearth from whose free +flame springs up every passion glowing through this speech, is like +the fervent ardor of a prophet's heart, watching with a patient, eager +wistfulness towards the dawning of a day that shall never pass away.</p> + +<p>These are signal qualities in this address, each one erect and free, +its signal beauty and virility undiminished and complete. But to be +noticed here is, not their individual comeliness, but the beauty of +their companionship. They consort together perfectly. And in that +unison is a peculiar, an individual attractiveness. Here is a symmetry +that pleads for appreciation. It is the beauty of this unison +throughout this speech that constitutes its eloquence. See how +Lincoln's very confession of error puts him in line with God. Feel how +his righteousness affiliates with tenderness. Mark how his heed for +earthly things provides a body for his idealism. Within the unyielding +rigor of his resolute will see how bending and genial is his attitude. +Here is marvelous symphony—sin and error and war, light and truth and +peace, so comprised and combined,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> so resolved and reconciled in this +speaker and in this address, as to show a Nation how in the discord of +arms heaven's own harmonies may be heard. To this fine blending of +tones that are distinct, to this pure consonance of notes that are +diverse, it were well for all our ears to become accustomed. This +would mean a true and real refinement. To this refinement Lincoln did +achieve. With this deep consonance his ear became familiar. Hence the +deep-toned fulness and carrying power in the moral resonance of this +address. It faces a manifold emergency with sentiments likewise +manifold, but so composed together as to lead all discordant voices +into lasting peace.</p> + +<p>This moral equilibrium carried within it generous breadth. This is a +striking aspect of this inaugural. It comprehends and resolves +together, with an ease that seems an instinct, the total orbit of our +national life. Within its little compass is the easy movement of the +full momentum of our past. It holds in easy grasp the full +circumference of concurrent events. It evinces, though with amazing +brevity, that the ponderous issues of the coming day are a familiar +topic in his brooding thought. And all of this consists together +within his thought with even, equal recognition. Events are made to +balance. Causes and effects are so held face to face as to declare by +demonstration their true comparison. Great issues and mighty forces +are given their needed amplitude in his observation and review. The +weight of centuries is in his ponderings. This was the style and +attitude of his mental deliberations. He was predisposed to cast and +arrange his thoughts in national dimensions. Union, liberty, manhood, +Providence, were the themes to which his soul was drawn, as though by +gravity.</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln's influence attained solidity. The place of this +inaugural, and of its author's honor, in our American<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> life, and in +the larger world of worthy civics is well-secured. The qualities +embodied in this address, each one so elemental, and all so eternally +allied, are more enduring, as they stand poised within those balanced +paragraphs, than any qualities resident in marble or bronze. The +proposition that the hostile interests of a mighty Nation be +reconciled into eternal friendliness and constancy under the awful +discipline of God through sacrificial baptisms of blood, contains +within its balanced and majestic terms an interior cohesion and +stability that nothing can ever disintegrate or move. It is without a +bias anywhere. Through all its massiveness the weight is even +absolutely. And its moral proportions are in perfect truth. It is a +monument of finished majesty, solidity, and grace. It is a masterpiece +of moral symmetry.</p> + +<p>This massive grandeur in Lincoln's moral character finds an exalted +illustration in the closing half of his message to Congress in +December of 1862. It forms in itself a document that may well be held +before the eye as a companion piece to his last inaugural. He is +making an elaborate argument for "compensated emancipation." He is +laboring to make clear that the issues pending in the center of the +war are no concern of mere geography, but rather a problem hanging +upon the free decisions of living citizens; and that in the interest +of universal liberty a full agreement by Congress and the chief +executive to tax the Nation peaceably, to remunerate all loss entailed +by freeing every slave, would surely win the requisite electoral +support, stay the war at once, establish lasting peace, and give +demonstration of a civic character and courage fit to brighten and +enhearten all the world. He closes his appeal with these following +words:—</p> + +<p>"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and +this administration will be remembered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> in spite of ourselves. No +personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of +us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor +or in dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. +The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the +Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We—even we +here—hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to +the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we +give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not +fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which, if +followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."</p> + +<p>There is in that message a document that has the scope and the +grandeur of the Alps. It offers an imposing illustration how politics, +so prone to become and to remain ignoble, may come to have surpassing +beauty; how statesmanship, vested in a worthy character, may wear +transcendent dignity. This appeal, as shaped by Lincoln, is a monument +fashioned by a master hand. Note its basis in equity, all the Nation +in common accepting their money cost of a common complicity in wrong. +Note its inscription to human goodwill, curtailing the period, and +staying the bloodshed of the war. Note its enduring substance and +composition, built up of human hearts, cemented in the action of +freedom in the human soul, a towering protest against all gains and +consequences where human liberty is denied. Note the humble reverence +in the soaring appeal to the benediction of God, with which the whole +address concludes. Note the conscience-stirring reference to +inevitable and over-ruling law, in the ominous intimation that the +light of history would luminously adjudge each several man. And note, +with all the imperial<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> urgency of the appeal, its vesture of infinite +respect for the right of every congressman to make a free decision of +and by and for himself alone.</p> + +<p>Here is something at once most imposing and most engaging. Here is +handicraft of the highest grade. The man that conceived and drafted +that political appeal was, in the realm of politics, no mean +architect. He is, in these arguments, measuring the forces elemental +in a great Republic, as Michael Angelo measured gravitation. He is +dealing with decades, and with centuries, with freedom and with +slaves, with a transient Congress and the course of history, as +builders deal with granite blocks. Embracing things dispersed and +widely variant, as also things mutually inclined towards fellowship, +he defines and demonstrates, as a master artisan, how they may all be +grasped and overcome and harmonized in a commanding unison. With a +skilled designer's easy grace he drafts a sketch of our transformed +career, as plain and open to the observing eye as are the massive, +graceful movements of deploying clouds across the sky. Here is +majesty, lofty, balanced, and secure. And all its excellence is +ethical. And it pleads to be made supreme in earthly politics. In such +a message is ideal courtliness. Its bearer must be a comely prince. +The man and author upon whose polished tongue those sentiments found +birth must be of royal lineage.</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln has given to civics ideal comeliness and dignity. In his +hand, and under his design, politics wears heavenly majesty. In his +conception of a State, though devised and traced in times when cruelty +and sordidness and unfairness and negligence of God were sadly +prevalent through the Nation's life, there rose to view, in his pure +patriotism, a civic standard in which, through holy fear of God, all +men were rated at their immortal worth, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> treated with the love and +fairness that were the mutual due of freemen who were peers. Here is a +portrait of a patriot upon which no artist can easily improve—a +portrait which attests in Lincoln's soul a pure and a free idea of +what true art must ever be.</p> + +<p>And it is not without profound significance for art that Lincoln's +statesmanship has become one of the finest objects in our modern world +for artists to idealize. The very features of his face, that were wont +to be esteemed most plain, have come to show a symmetry that is +beautiful. And his whole outward frame, that men so many times have +called ungainly, has come to bear and body forth a dignity such as +summons finest bronze and marble to their most exalted ministry. +Whence came to that plain face and plainer frame such symmetry and +dignity? Let artists contemplate and reply. For in Lincoln's manhood +stature, where utmost rudeness has become transmuted to refinement, +all men are taught that true beauty and true art are ethical. In moral +harmony is found ideal symmetry.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Composure—The Problem of Pessimism</span></h3> + +<p>In the foregoing pages reference has been made repeatedly to Lincoln's +poise. In the chapter just concluded this poise has been studied for +its beauty. This attitude will repay still further scrutiny. For +looked at again, and from another point of view, it reveals itself as +a reservoir of energy. Seen thus, Lincoln's notable poise becomes a +mighty store of potential, and indeed of active force. It may be +described as a mingling of energy and repose, of resourcefulness and +rest, showing and playing through all his influence among other men, +and largely explaining its potency.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of just this personal habitude, through all the years of Lincoln's +participation in our national affairs, there was strenuous need and +requisition. His public course ran through an era in our national +career of unprecedented internal turbulence. The house was divided +against itself. The cause of the dissension was a diametrical +opposition and an irreconcilable contention of views touching a matter +so radical as the basis of our Declaration of Independence, and the +purport of our fundamental national document, the Constitution. To the +men on either side of this contention it seemed as though their +antagonists were bent upon uprooting and removing the very hills. This +obstinate and inveterate disagreement revolved about the single, +simple, fateful question of the right and wrong of holding men in +bonds. For a full generation before Lincoln entered the lists the +conflict had been bitterly intense, refusing to be composed or +assuaged. Near the beginning of the last decade of Lincoln's life he +put on his armor and chose his side. In 1858, while competing with +Douglas for a seat in the U. S. Senate, Lincoln made a declaration +that, for its bearing upon his own career and its influence in +national affairs, has become historic; while for its testimony to the +topic of this chapter it has the very first significance. The core of +that declaration was a quotation from words of Christ, when refuting +the charge that he was in league with Beelzebub:—"A house divided +against itself cannot stand." This quotation was cited by Lincoln to +edge his affirmation that the national agitation concerning slavery, +then in full course, and continually augmenting, would not cease until +a crisis should be reached and passed. This was his firm assurance. A +national crisis was at hand. But to this assurance, that the +government could not endure permanently half slave and half free, he +attested another confidence equally assured:—"I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> do not expect the +Union to be dissolved—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 is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates +will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the +States, old as well as new, North as well as South."</p> + +<p>That was said with resolute and imposing deliberation in July of 1858. +In that utterance Lincoln's attitude deserves analysis, and for many +reasons; but in particular for its revelation of his composure. He +knew full well what tremendous issues for himself and for the Nation +were involved in what he said. He knew that his appeal for the +senatorship at Washington was thereby gravely imperiled. He knew that +it foreboded national convulsions and throes. He knew that for himself +and for the government a mighty crisis was ahead. And he knew that in +that crisis the alternatives were for all humanity supreme. The issues +were nothing less than human freedom and equality, or human tyranny +and bonds. In the stress and strain of an age-long strife like this, +many a man has swerved to moral pessimism.</p> + +<p>From the date of that speech Lincoln stood in the face of that +vicissitude. Indeed for his few remaining years he was, in all that +deepening commotion, an energetic and influential central force. And +he never yielded to despair. In this same month he issued to Senator +Douglas his doughty challenge to a series of debates. During those +debates Lincoln forged his way into a preeminence that amounted almost +to solitude, as champion of a people and a cause that, for weary +generations, had been under all but hopeless oppression and reproach. +Through all those<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> debates Lincoln's single heart was nothing less +than a national theater of a solicitude nothing less than national. +Upon his lone shoulders lay the gravest burdens of his day. The ideals +of a Nation lay upon his anvil; the national temper was being forged +beneath his hand. Highest chivalry waged against him, bearing tempered +steel, and jealous of an old and proud prestige.</p> + +<p>In the immediate outcome of those debates Lincoln met defeat. But +farther on he only found himself involved more deeply still in the +anguish of the crisis he had foretold. The national disagreement was +verging towards the Nation's dissolution, heightening at length into +secession and actual, long-drawn civil war. So tremendous was the +crisis Lincoln foresaw. And this was precipitated directly by his +election to the presidency. So vitally were his own fortune and fate +bound up in the crisis he foretold. So pitiless and fundamental was +the challenge to his hope. His total administration was spent in the +tumult of arms. By no possibility in any Nation's conscious life could +civil confusion be worse confounded than during the period of his +presidential terms. Beginning with seven states in open secession, and +brought to an end by assassination, the measure of his supreme +official life was full to either brim with perils and sorrows and +fears, such as any single human heart could hardly contain. But the +undiminished, overwhelming volume of those fears and sorrows and cares +was encompassed every day within his anxious, ample, patriot heart. +When facing in August of 1864 the national election, upon which this +last inaugural oath was based, he said:—"I cannot fly from my +thoughts—my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I +go. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not +free from these infirmities; but I cannot but feel that the weal or +woe of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> this great Nation will be decided in November." So momentous +and grave seemed to him the meaning and weight of the contention that +drove the Nation into war. In this estimate, as said before, he stood +almost in solitude. "Our best and greatest men," he said in New Haven +in 1860, "have greatly underestimated the size of this question. They +have constantly brought forward small cures for great sores—plasters +too small to cover the wound." To Lincoln's credit it must forever be +said that he had a true prevision of the agony through which the +Nation must strive, as she reached and passed the crisis which he saw +in 1858 to be her predestined and impending fate.</p> + +<p>And so it came to pass that in 1861, when Fort Sumter was assailed, +and the sharp imperious alternative of immediate dissolution or blood +faced the Nation's eye, he was not surprised or unprepared; as +likewise, when in 1865 at his second inaugural scene, after four full +years of awful war, he is still found waiting in sacrificial patience +to hail the culmination of his assured interpretation and hope. Here +in 1865 as there in 1858, there in 1858 as here in 1865, he is +cherishing the patriot-prophet's confidence that the crisis would be +passed, that the Nation would not be dissolved, that the house would +stand.</p> + +<p>And to Lincoln's singular honor it must always be allowed that through +all the terrible hours while that crisis was being passed, it was +pre-eminently due to Lincoln's mighty moral optimism that our Union +was preserved. Amid all the turbulence of armies and arms, his +assurance of our national perpetuity was so deeply, firmly based, as +to be itself invested and informed with perpetuity. So commanding was +his posture of heroic, triumphant confidence, that it mightily availed +to guide and steady the Nation through the crisis into an era of +internal and international peace.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>But not merely did Lincoln's composure prevail to secure that this +Nation should not dissolve. It also wrought prevailingly to perpetuate +our liberty. Throughout the crisis the issue held in stake was whether +the Nation should be wholly slave or wholly free. Those were the +alternatives between which Lincoln's care and fear, and the Nation's +fortune and fate were hung. Throughout the crisis Lincoln's hope was +that the Nation should be forever wholly free. His fear was that the +Nation might be wholly slave. But above that fear, that hope +steadfastly prevailed. One who studies Lincoln through those days +comes to feel unerringly that deep beneath an anxiety that seemed at +times almost to overwhelm his life, there lay a supreme assurance +that, when the crisis should have passed, it should stand clear beyond +debate, and sure beyond all doubt, that here in this favored land the +chance of all the sons of men should be forever equal, fair, and free. +Astutely heedful of the power of selfish, sordid greed; deeply +conscious of the blind defiance of scorn and pride; painfully aware of +the awful capacity of a human heart for cruelty and hate; and sharp to +see how reason yields to prejudice, when chivalry becomes a +counterfeit; he still found grounds to hold his anchored hope for +universal liberty and brotherhood.</p> + +<p>This deep-based confidence deserves to be well understood. It is a +primary phenomenon in Lincoln's life. How in the deepest welter of +violence and strife could Lincoln's mood retain such level evenness? +How in all that continental turbulence could he keep so unperturbed? +How, through all that confusion was he never confused? In truth his +days were mostly dark and sad. Sorrows did overwhelm him. How did his +anchorage hold unchanged? When the very hills gave way, his +foundations seemed to stay. The assurance to which his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> soul was +attached seemed all but omnipotent. What was the secret, what the +ground of such phenomenal steadiness?</p> + +<p>To answer these inquiries is but to rehearse again what has already +been repeatedly made plain. This massive sturdiness of Lincoln's +statesmanship, this unalterable political reliability lay inwrought in +the hardy fiber of his moral character.</p> + +<p>One factor here may be termed intellectual. Lincoln's study made him +steady. His untiring thoughtfulness secured to Lincoln's soul a fine +deposit of pure assurance. It was with him a jealous and guarded +custom to make examinations exhaustive. He was always seeking +certainty. Few men ever dealt more sparingly in conjecture. Always +eager towards the future, and often making statements touching things +to come, he was nevertheless a model of mental caution. It was this +passion to make his footing fully secure that kindled in him such zest +for history. It was this same passion that glowed in his eye, as he +inspected in common men their common humanity. And likewise it was +this that led him into the fear of God, and made him a student of the +Bible, and a man of prayer. The full capacity of his mind was taxed +unceasingly, in order to secure to his ripening judgments their +majestic equipoise.</p> + +<p>But with saying this not enough is said to describe the grounds of his +composure. It was not merely that his mind, through thoughtful inquiry +and comparison, grew far-sighted, and balanced, and clear. What gained +for Lincoln his solid anchorage was his deep, strong hold upon all +that was inmost and permanent in the heart and nature of men. Every +inch a man himself, the one ambition of his mental research was to +make every responsible thought and deed conduce to guide every brother +man<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> to the destiny which his nature decreed. This was the research +that made his eye so clear. This was the study that made his hope so +sure. Outcome of unsparing intellectual toil, this was the assurance +that won for Lincoln his unique and most honorable diploma and degree. +This was Lincoln's standing and this its warrant among all thoughtful +men, alike the learned and the unlettered. This was the secret of that +marvelous calmness, that was so potent to compose the fears of other +men. He studied man, until he attained a magisterial power to +understand and explain result and cause, issue and origin, amid +historic, surrounding, and impending events. In the field where +Lincoln stood and toiled he was an adept. He was a worthy master of +the humanities. He took a liberal course in the liberal arts. And out +of this broad course he constructed politics. He came to see +unerringly, and to believe unwaveringly, and to contend unwearyingly +that man, that all men should hold, in a universal equilibrium, their +regard for God, their self-respect, their brother love, and a true, +comparative esteem for things that perish and souls that survive. This +reasoned, hopeful faith, adopted with all his heart as the comely +pattern and well-set keystone of all his politics and statesmanship, +is what secured to Lincoln through all those tumultuous days his +far-commanding political equanimity. That all men were designed and +entitled by their Creator to be free, and that in this liberty, as in +the elemental right to life and self-earned happiness, all are +likewise created equal, Lincoln did devoutly, profoundly, and +invincibly believe. Confirmed by all his ranging observation and +incessant, pondering thought, this faith was also rooted beyond repeal +in his own deep reverence for God, in his own instinctive respect for +himself, in irrepressible friendliness, and in his unabashed +idealism.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>Such a man could never be a pessimist. Such a faith in such a soul +could not be plucked away. Nor could its protestations be variable. +That each, as alike the handiwork of God, should alike be always fair, +and that all should always and alike be free, was the base of his +political philosophy, and the bond of his consistency. This was the +teaching of the past. This was the harbinger of the day to come. And +in this long-pondered wisdom and belief lay the explanation of his +underlying peacefulness through the war, and of his singular ability +to prevail above the fears of other men, when in other hearts every +hope gave way. He deeply saw that underneath all battlefields, and +within all antagonisms, these simple principles, so surely sovereign +and so certainly immortal, encompassed a breadth and strength +sufficient to circumvent and overcome all hate and doubt and fear, +doing to no freeman any vital harm, shielding from essential evil +every toil-bowed slave. This is the source and secret of Lincoln's +unexampled composure amid scenes of unexampled anxiety and unrest.</p> + +<p>And this composure, being so inwrought with hope, was unfailingly +active and alert. It was never mere endurance, stolid and inert. It +enshrined a powerful momentum. It was alive with purpose, conscious, +vigorous, resolute. One of its fairest features was a seeing eye—an +eye transfixed upon a goal. Things as yet invisible, and still +unrealized, his earnest, unwearying eye prevailed to see. Hence his +optimism was astir with enterprise. Anticipation, quite as truly as +peacefulness, marked the constant attitude of his life. His composure +could be closely defined as confidence respecting things to come. +Always environed by difficulties, and all but blinded by their strife, +his faith struck through their turmoil, and his hope rose free and +strong into a jubilant salutation of man's<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> undoubted destiny, and +into a victorious companionship with God's clear, certain will.</p> + +<p>And so there throbbed in this habitual posture of Lincoln's heart a +mighty potency. His composure was prevailing. His deep and calm +security dissipated other men's dismay. Repeatedly beneath the +presence of his stately quietness the Nation felt its turbulence +subside. This efficiency can be felt at work in this last inaugural +address; and its action well deserves to be identified. In his +exposition of its theme, and in his registration of his presidential +pledge, he seems by one hand to have fast hold of things immutable, +while with the other hand he is helping to steady things that tremble +and change. Here is kingly mastery. Things mightily disturbed are +being mightily put to rest, as though from an immutable throne. The +open figure of that throne may well be scanned by all the Nation and +by all the world. It is built and stands foursquare. Its measure +conforms in every part with the measure of a man. It is shaped and set +to stand and abide where men consort, to unify their minds, and +tranquillize their strifes. With sobered and sobering insight into the +human soul, with resolute and expectant will before our human goal, +this address inscribes and upholds, as at once an outcome and an ideal +of human events, a universal amity compacted of loyal, friendly men +who walk in reverence before God, and cherish treasures that can never +fail. Purity, humility, charity, loyalty—these are the constituents +in the structure, and the explanation of the power of Lincoln's +composure. Fully illumined, firmly convinced, evenly at rest upon +principles that stand foursquare upon the balanced manhood of Godlike +men, his civic hopefulness stood in the midst of his practical +statesmanship, like an invincible, immovable throne.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Authority—The Problem of Government</span></h3> + +<p>The study in the preceding chapter of Lincoln's even-paced serenity, +culminating in the symbol of a throne, conducts directly to an +examination of his influence and mastery over other men. During those +troubled days in Washington, despite all the malice, defiance, and +active abuse which he daily bore, his power to persuade, conciliate, +and govern other men was, in all the land, without a parallel. In +fact, as well as in name, he was throughout those presidential days +the Nation's chief magistrate. And since his death that dominion has +increased, until it stands today above comparison. Here is an +opportunity, not easily matched, to explore a theme whose importance +in the field of ethics no other topic can surpass—the seat and nature +of moral authority. And here in this second inaugural is a transparent +illustration of the firm security in which that authority rests, and +of the method by which it prevails.</p> + +<p>As in his own inner reverence for law, so in his sway of other men, +his posture towards the national Constitution demands attention first.</p> + +<p>"The supreme law of the land"—thus the Constitution of the United +States, in its sixth article, defines itself. In its fifth article, +the same fundamental document provides that "Amendments," properly +made, "shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this +Constitution." This primary authority for the rule of the land is +further affirmed to have been ordained and established by "the people +of the United States." Here are three noteworthy features of this "law +of the land:"—it is supreme; it is amendable; it arises from the +people.</p> + +<p>This written standard of our national life, its amendability, and its +primal origin in the people's will, were matters<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> much in Lincoln's +eye. Each separate one of these three features of our national civic +life had reverent respect in Lincoln's mind, in all his conception and +exercise of authority over other men. It was this "supreme law" that +he swore in both inaugurations to "preserve, protect, and defend." An +amendment to the Constitution, that was pending at the time of his +first inaugural oath, he took unusual pains in that address to mention +and approve. And it was to "the people," on both occasions of his +inauguration as president, and at all other times of public and +responsible address, that he paid supreme respect, in his most +finished and earnest eloquence and appeal. Here was a threefold +ultimate standard to which Lincoln always made final appeal—the +original Constitution; its amenability to due revision; and the +people's free and deliberate decree. This triangular base-line was for +Lincoln's politics and jurisprudence and statesmanship the supreme and +finished standard of last appeal. He deferred to it submissively, +habitually, and with reverence.</p> + +<p>All this can be truly said. And yet all this does not say all the +truth. Respectful as Lincoln was for all that he found thus +fundamentally prescribed, and heedful as he was to indulge in no +executive liberty inconsonant with those express decrees, he found his +fortune as chief executive forcing him to move where all explicit +regulations failed to specify the path. The Constitution does not +include all details. It does not vouchsafe specific counsel for +specific needs. Its guidance is as to principles. "No foresight can +anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express +provisions for all possible questions." This he declared in his first +inaugural. Then he mentions three such unprescribed details:—the +method of returning fugitive slaves; the power of Congress to +prohibit; and the duty of Congress to protect slavery in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> the +Territories. Touching those three civic interests, civic duties and +civic standards were undirected and undefined. But even while he +spoke, those three unsettled problems in the Nation's life were +kindling the national pulse to an uncontrollable heat. Nothing less +than civil war was certainly impending, over controversies touching +which the sovereign standards of the civic life did not expressly +speak.</p> + +<p>Upon these momentous, undecided questions Lincoln, in his high +authority as president, had to bring his judgment, his action, and his +influence into settled shape. Deep in the heart of these unsettled +regions he set his camp, and toiled away his life. This heroic and +patriotic act may be called a detail of constitutional interpretation. +But it was for Lincoln a labor of Hercules. It opened a gigantic +controversy. The land was convulsed with contending explications. +Views, held essential to the vital honor of separate sections of the +land, were in essential hostility. As the dissension deepened, two +questions rose, outstanding above the rest:—the Constitutional +integrity of the several States (might States secede?); and the +Constitutional rights of slavery (should slavery spread?). Both these +problems were mortally acute in 1861. Both were still in hand in 1865. +Under the Constitution could the Union be legitimately dissolved? +Under the Constitution should slavery be permanently approved? To both +these questions Southern leaders answered, Yes. To both these +questions Lincoln answered, No.</p> + +<p>Of these two questions and asseverations, it is plain to see that the +second is the more profound. So this second inaugural affirms: +"Somehow" slavery was the cause of the secession and the war. This +"all knew." Upon this pivot, all the chances and contentions of the +great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> debate were compelled to turn. Here lay all the meaning of the +war. All those awful battles were trembling, struggling arguments; +thrilling, impassioned affirmations striving to finally and forever +decide whether human slavery was justified to spread.</p> + +<p>Here was a supreme divergence of conviction, and a supreme debate. In +all the realm of social morals, no divergence and no debate could be +more radical. Into this supreme contention Lincoln was compelled to +enter. To some conclusion that should be supreme he was, by his +official station and responsibility, compelled to lead. To find his +way through such a controversy, and to guide the land through all that +strife to some sovereign reconciliation, involved this common citizen +in the presidential chair in an assumption and exercise of authority +nothing less than sovereign.</p> + +<p>Face to face with this impending and decisive agony, Lincoln took his +stand in his first inaugural, not flinching even from war, if war must +come. A mighty wrestler in the awful throes of mortal civic strife, he +held his determined stand in the act of his second inaugural oath, +after war had raged for four full years. The great debate is unsettled +still. Still Lincoln has to bear the awful burden of responsible +advice. He is still the Nation's chief magistrate. An authority +pregnant to predetermine continental issues for unnumbered years to +come, however dread its weight, and however frail and faint his mortal +strength, he may not demit. Within the darkness and amid the din, he +must think and speak, he must judge and act, he must rise and lead, +while a Nation and a future both too vast for human eye to scan and +estimate, stand waiting on his word and deed.</p> + +<p>It was a time for omens. But never did Lincoln's ways show fuller +sanity. In such a day, and for such a responsibility<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> this, his second +inaugural address, is Lincoln's perfect vindication. Here the true +civilian's true democracy stands vested with an authority both +sovereign and beautiful. Here political expertness becomes consummate. +Here the very throne of civil authority is unveiled. Here leadership +and fellowship combine. Here a master, though none more modest in all +the land, demonstrates his mastery in the mighty field of national +politics. Here it may be fully seen how in a true democracy a true +dominion operates.</p> + +<p>Here emerges, in the ripened, rugged, mellowed, moral character of +Lincoln, and in the finished, immortal formulation of his uttermost +contention and appeal, a marvelous illumination of an inquiry, that is +always alike the last and the first, the first and the last in ethical +research—the inquiry about ethical authority. Where did Lincoln +finally rest his final appeal? He is assuming to venture a +preponderant claim. He is speaking as a Nation's president. And in a +conflict of radical views that for four dread years has been a +conflict of relentless arms, he argues still, and without a quaver, +for the thorough prosecution of the war. Divergence of judgment on +moral grounds could never be brought to a sharper edge. Contention +over issues in the moral realm could never be harder pressed. On what +authority could Lincoln push a moral argument unto blood? Is there +moral warrant for such a deed? If ever there be, then where is its +base, and whence its awful sanctity?</p> + +<p>To shape reply to this is but to shape more sharply still the naked +substance of the debate—the crying issue of the war. The core of that +insistent strife concerned the essential nature of man. Was slavery +legitimate? Might a white man enslave a black? Could a strong man +enslave the weak? Dare some men forswear toil? May<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> any men who toil +be pillaged of the food their hands have earned? Are some men entitled +to a luxury and ease they never earned, while to other men the luxury +and ease they have fairly won may be denied? Are some men so inferior +that they can have no right to life, and liberty, and happiness, +however much they strive and long for such a simple, common boon? Are +other men so super-excellent that life, and liberty, and happiness are +theirs by right, though never earned or even struggled for at all?</p> + +<p>This was the central issue of that war; and this the central theme of +this inaugural. Are common people to be forever kept beneath, and +traded on, and eyed with scorn; while favored men are to be forever +set on high, and filled with wealth, and fed with flattery? This was +the quivering question that was brought on Lincoln's lips to its +sharpest edge. Well he knew its momentousness and its antiquity.</p> + +<p>In its very formulation, as Lincoln gave it shape, there loomed the +formulation of its reply, perhaps still to be bitterly defied, perhaps +to be still long deferred; but inevitable at last, and sure finally to +find agreement everywhere. This final answer Lincoln's vision saw. In +that clear vision he discerned the certain meaning of the battles of +the war. In the great debate they were the solemn, measured arguments. +Amid those awful arguments this inaugural took its place, the oracle +of a moral prophet, explaining how the war arose, by whose high hand +the war was being led, and in what high issue the war must attain its +end. As the arguments of this address advance, one grows to feel that +Lincoln's thought is forging a reply, in which emerges a moral law +whose authority no man may ever dare rebuke.</p> + +<p>But as that authority comes to view in Lincoln's speech, its form is +shorn of every shred of arrogance. Never was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> mortal man more modest +than in the tone and substance of this address. This modesty is indeed +throughout devoid of wavering. His tones ring with confidence and +decisiveness. But in that confidence, though girt for war, there are +folded signs of deference and gentleness and solemn awe, as though +confessing error and confronting rebuke. Even of slavery, that most +palpable and abhorrent evil, as he forever avers; and of slaveholders, +who wring their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, and then +dare to pray for heaven's favor on their arms, he says in this +address:—"let us not judge that we be not judged;" as though the germ +of that dark error might then be swelling in his and all men's hearts. +And as to the war itself, for which he bade the Nation stand with +sword full-drawn, the central passage in this speech more than +intimates, what in an earlier part he fully concedes, that he and all +the people had availed but poorly to understand the Almighty's plans. +In all of this Lincoln seems to say that he found himself, in common +with all the land, but imperfectly in harmony with God, as to his +judgment concerning the sin inwrought in holding slaves, and as to the +primacy of the Union among the interests pending in the war. He seems +in this address, so far from affirming his right to judge and govern +arbitrarily, instead confessing that love of ease, greed for gain, the +mood of scorn, and proneness to be cruel—those inhuman roots that +rear up slavery—were apt to find hidden nutriment in his and all +men's hearts, yielding everywhere the baleful harvest of inhumanity; +confessing further that this deep-rooted tendency in human hearts to +undo God's primal decree of freedom and equality was far more needful +to eradicate than any proneness to secede within any confederacy of +States; and confessing in consequence and finally that it was for all +Americans to accept the war as God's rebuke of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> their common +propensity to be unkind, and as God's correction of their false rating +of their national concerns. This then seems to be Lincoln's posture in +this address—no lofty arrogance of authority to decree and execute +the right; but a humble confession of error and guilt; an acquiescent +submission to God's correction and reproof. This modest hue must +tincture this address through all its web.</p> + +<p>And yet the dominant note of this inaugural is clear decisiveness, an +unwavering firmness in his own opinion, a classic illustration of +persuasion and appeal, as though from the vantage ground of +convictions perfectly assured. Where now, in full view of all that has +been said, is the basis of Lincoln's argument and authority to be +placed? In an argument where conviction seems to be transmuted into +penitence, and where confession seems transfigured into confidence, +how can the logic be resolved; and where at last can the authority +repose?</p> + +<p>The full reply to this inquiry can be found only when we find where +Lincoln's conviction and confession coalesce. Touching this, one thing +is clear. Both bear upon the same concern. Deep within them both +slavery is the common theme. Assured that slavery is wrong, he +confesses that its roots run everywhere. Honest to the core, he bows +beneath the scourge of war, convinced that it is heaven's penalty upon +all the land. Throughout he is pleading and suffering consistently +that all men may be free. This is the sum of the address. In this it +all coheres. Thus he divines and understands the ways of God. And so +he stands, as poised in this address, in ideal fellowship, at once +with men who have held slaves, with slaves in their distress, with the +Creator in his primal decree, and with the Providential meaning of the +war.</p> + +<p>To all this problem, vexing so many generations, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> clear and +witting touch of Lincoln's sacrificial penitence is the master key. In +this all contradictions, all hostilities, all sufferings, all +transgressions, and all pure longings are harmonized. In assurance and +repentance he has found how truth and grace, blending together in +humble heed for God and for undying souls, hold complete dominion in +the moral realm. These pure principles, congenial alike to God and +men, he welcomes to himself, and commends to all his fellowmen in +sacrificial partnership.</p> + +<p>Here is Lincoln's prevailing faith. This is the secret of his +strength. Herein vests his commanding and enduring power. This is +Lincoln's self—his very manhood. This is the man in this address whom +the world beheld, and still beholds—the man he was, the man he aimed +and strove to be, the man he recommended all the Nation to combine to +reproduce, the man in whom the fear of God, the love of men, the zeal +for life, and true reliability, mingle evenly, at whatever cost. This +is the man, and this the mighty influence over other men, enthroned +imperishably in this address.</p> + +<p>Here is the throne, the scepter, and the key to Lincoln's vast +authority. It is patterned and informed from the cardinal constituents +of a balanced moral character. It is inwrought within a life that +heeds harmoniously, and with heroic earnestness, his own integrity, +his God, his fellowman, and things immortal. Holding souls above +goods, holding his fellow as himself, holding himself in true respect, +and holding God above all, he stands and pleads, with a cogency that +is unanswerable, for verities as self-evident to any man as any man's +self-consciousness. All his claims in the heart of this address are +self-apparent. They are original convictions. They prove and approve +themselves. They make no call for substantiation. They confront every +man within himself, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> light in his eye, the life in his heart, the +spring in his hope. They confront every man again within his neighbor. +They confront both men again, when together they look up to God. And +far within all forms that change, they confront all men forevermore in +things that immortally abide.</p> + +<p>This is the truth to which Lincoln pledged his troth, and in which he +besought all other men to plight their faith, in this address. The +vivid, ever-living dignity in man, discoverable by every man within +himself, to be greeted by every one in his brother-man, at once the +image and the handiwork of God—this defined all his faith, fired all +his zeal, woke all his eloquence, shaped all his argument, winged all +his hope. That such a being should be a slave, that such a being +should have a slave, was in his central conviction, of all wrong +deeds, the least defensible. It was the primal moral falsity, cruelty, +insult, and debasement. That such a sin should be atoned, at whatever +cost, was the primal task of purity, reverence, tenderness, and truth. +Holding such convictions, handling such concerns, for him to make the +statement was to give it demonstration. Against such convictions, and +in scorn of such concerns, no man could seriously contend without +assailing and, in the end, undoing himself. This was the citadel and +the weaponry of Lincoln's authority.</p> + +<p>And Lincoln found within these views the pledge of permanence. He saw +them bulwarked and corroborated by all the lessons and revelations of +history. All devices of human society, contending against these +rudimentary verities, had been proved pernicious and self-defeating a +thousand times. Only such behavior of man with man as harmonized with +the creative design, and sprang from endowments that were common to +all, could ever hope to last. Here is the sovereign lesson from all +the centuries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> past, and a sovereign challenge for all the centuries +to come. As Lincoln viewed it, he was handling a matter beyond debate, +when he talked of two centuries and a half of unrequited toil. If that +was not wrong, then nothing was wrong. There is the whole of Lincoln's +argument, and the whole of his authority. It stood true two hundred +and fifty years ago. It will hold fast two hundred and fifty years +hence. To deny this is to dethrone all law, turn every freeman's +highest boast to shame, and finally banish moral order from human +government and from human thought. That this could never be suffered +or confessed was the substance of Lincoln's argument, and the sum of +his authority. This and this alone was the sovereign lesson that the +sacrificial sorrows of the war were searing so legibly, that all the +world could read, upon the sinful Nation's breast. And in saying this, +Lincoln's voice was pleading as the voice of God.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Versatility—The Problem of Mercy</span></h3> + +<p>The study of Lincoln's authority, as it wields dominion in the last +inaugural, has brought to prominence his humble readiness to share +repentantly with all the Nation, in the bitter sorrows of the war, the +divine rebuke for sin. That sin was the wrong of holding slaves. But +in all the land, if any man was innocent of that iniquity, it was +Lincoln. And yet the honest Lincoln was never more sincere, more nobly +true and honest with himself, than in this deep-wrought co-partnership +with guilt. Surely here is call for thought.</p> + +<p>Lincoln's character was fertile. The principles that governed his +development were living and prolific. In his ethics, as in his bodily +tissues, he was alive. As the days and years went on, he grew. Like +vines and trees, he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> added to his stature constantly. New twigs and +tendrils were continually putting out, searching towards the sunshine +and the springs, and embracing all the field. And in all this increase +he was supremely pliable. While always firm and strong, he had a +wonderful capacity to bend.</p> + +<p>The primary, towering impulse working in Lincoln's life was ethical. +Amid the continual medley and confusion of things, he was continually +reaching and searching to find and plainly designate the right and the +wrong. This stands evident everywhere. Nowhere does this stand plainer +than in the period, when, at his second inaugural, he faced a second +presidential term. Still straining in the toil and turmoil, in the +intense and blinding passion of the war, he halts upon the threshold +of a second quadrennium of supreme responsibility, to see if he can +surely trace God's indication of what is right. The eternally right +was what he sought. He was after no mere expediency, no ephemeral +shift for ephemeral needs. The judgments of the Almighty Ruler of +Nations, true and righteous altogether and evermore, were what he +prayed to find and know. Then, if ever, Lincoln's earnestness was +moral.</p> + +<p>And for this search at just this time his eye was peculiarly sobered +and grave. Portentous problems were emerging, as the finish of the war +drew near. And these problems were new. What should the Nation, when +it laid aside its arms, decide to do with the seceded States, and with +those millions of untutored slaves? For that no precedent was at hand, +no direction in the laws. The conclusion must be original. And it must +be supreme. And its issues must hold wide sway for generations of +imperial, expanding growth. There loomed an impending peril, and a +test of statesmanship, demanding the wisdom, and integrity, and deep +foresight of a moral<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> prince—a peril and a moral test but poorly met +by the men whom his untimely death thrust into Lincoln's place. For +bringing to perfection his ripening judgment upon that task, and so +for displaying another historic demonstration of Lincoln's moral +adaptability, the few short requisite years were mysteriously to be +denied.</p> + +<p>But upon other problems and in other days, there was ample revelation +of Lincoln's agile moral strength. His entire career in national +prominence provides outstanding demonstration of the continual full +mobility and plastic freedom of his moral powers. The civil war, which +he was conducting with such determination to its predestined end, as +he stood the central figure in this second inaugural scene, was but +the central vortex of a moral agitation in which all our national +principles and precedents were challenged and defied; and in which +statesmen of supremely facile, virile, moral sense were in exigent +demand. Problems were propounded constantly upon which our +Constitution shed no certain light, and the Constitution itself was in +a way to be overturned.</p> + +<p>Throughout this period of national discord and moral instability, +Lincoln was a leading, creative mind. The circuit of that career was +brief indeed, scarcely more than one decade. But in those dark, swift +years shine and cluster many illustrations of the rich and ready +fertility of his ethical postulates in the political realm. Man of the +people though he was, and acutely sensitive of his responsibility to +the people for every responsible act, he was in every judgment and +resolve every inch a king, openminded, original, free. Again, and +again, and again, he was the man for the hour.</p> + +<p>One demonstration of this is shown in his surprising readiness. With +whatever situation, he behaved as though familiar. Undisciplined in +diplomacy, he proved<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> himself almost instantly a finished diplomat. +Totally untutored in all the acts and practices of war, but compelled +by his office to take sovereign command of the Nation's arms, and that +so suddenly that even the arms themselves could not be found, he +became one of the foremost critics and counselors of perilous and +intricate military campaigns. Unaccustomed to authority, but advanced +at a leap to the Nation's head, beleaguered by deadly animosities +among cliques and sections and States, encompassed by shameless +cabinet intrigues, he developed, as in one day, into manager, adviser, +administrator of political affairs, the most astute in all the land.</p> + +<p>A most impressive example of this adjustability is seen in his +manifold capacity for moral patience. It reveals how he could keep his +full integrity, while binding up his life and fortune inseparably with +men whose moral standards swayed far from his. Lincoln's first +inaugural gave luminous definition of his designs and hopes. The +principles there propounded were the ripe and firm convictions of a +thoughtful, honest life. They had been pronounced repeatedly before. +To their defense and consummation his heart and honor were pledged +irrevocably. Those propositions were the irreducible rudiments of his +faith, the permanent constituents of his hope. Surrender those +convictions and desires he never did, he never could. Within the ample +compass and easy play of those glowing sentiments there was no room +for secession, nor for war, nor for any bitterness, but only for +loyalty, fellowship, peace. But as he turned from that inauguration +and its declaration of his policy toward the execution of his trust, +he had to face and handle secession, war, and malicious defamation. He +had to see the Nation's holiest dignity desecrated, all his brotherly +offices disdained, the souls of men still held as rightful objects of +common trade, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> the plainest decrees of God defied. This as shown +in the spirit and uprising of the impatient, imperious South.</p> + +<p>And within the North, in the very armies assembled for the Union's +defence, he had to find the very leaders and plotters of his campaigns +absorbed and overcome by petty jealousies, too despicable and +unpatriotic to be believed, and yet so real and vicious as to defeat +their battles before they were fought. And back among the Union +multitudes around his base, were men of might and standing, and men in +multitudes, who maligned his motives, and entangled his plans, until +antagonism the most malignant and resolved to all his views and +undertakings seemed to environ him on every side.</p> + +<p>To such conditions it was Lincoln's bitter obligation to conform. Many +men were ready with many fond prescriptions for the case; but they all +were marked by weak futility. They either brought the Nation no +complete relief, or else surrendered the Nation's very life. Within +the strain and pull from every side Lincoln felt the obligation of his +oath.</p> + +<p>The mood and method he employed (and let not the phrase be +misunderstood) was moral relaxation. This did not mean that he altered +aught of his pronounced belief, or varied by a single hair from his +announced design. He remembered his inaugural oath. He retained his +faith and hope, and held to his prime resolve unchanged. But he gave +the opposition time. He suffered malignants to malign, seceders to +rebel, detractors to impugn; and bore their taunts and blows and +wounds patiently, still abiding by his word. His very war was simply +for defense. The honor of the Union he would not yield up. His +brotherly friendliness he would not forego. His rating of freemen he +would not discount. The mandates of God he would not disobey. But +while on every hand these might be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> assailed and abjured, he repressed +all violence and vehemence of heart, and endured, and indulged, and +was still.</p> + +<p>Herein, however, his convictions and hopes wore a modified guise. +Their rigor softened; their lustre mellowed; their angles broadened; +their rudeness ripened; and his aspect passed through change; the +while his honor brightened and became more clear. This adjustment of +such a nature to such a fate is a massive illustration of moral +versatility. It is like keeping the steed to the course, while yet +laying the rein upon his neck.</p> + +<p>Through experience such as this it must have been that Lincoln +traversed his profoundest sorrow. Just here his critics and traducers +had their firmest hold. To the world at large his tactics did seem +slack, his method dilatory, his mood indifferent. Men wearied past +endurance at his delay, and charged repeatedly that he had betrayed +his trust. Such accusations must have been to his pure loyalty like +gall. And yet he must perforce be mute. It was not he, it was the +awful situation in which his noble life was manacled, that was so +incorrigible. With God and man he pleaded day and night that bloodshed +might be stayed, and peace possess the land. But an enemy was in the +land, determined not to leave his guns until the Union was dissolved, +and slavery vindicated as right. Rather than forsake the Union, and +own that men were as the brutes, he would die a thousand times. And +with a patience that no malice and no misfortune could wear away, he +held his post and kept his word, through torments too severe for +unheroic men to bear, producing thus upon his silent, sorrowful face a +humble replica of the divine long-suffering of the meek and lowly +Christ. And so he taught the world how in patience the righteousness +that abhors all wrong may turn its face toward sin with humble +meekness, through years that seem like centuries,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> and cause thereby +that pure and Godlike truth and love shall only be more glorious.</p> + +<p>But even with this the description of this case stands incomplete. To +understand it rightly further statements are required. After all his +patience, the South was obdurate. Even while in this last inaugural +Lincoln was pleading for universal charity, and seeking to banish +malice everywhere, the leaders of the armies in the South were +rallying their unrecruited ranks in a very desperation of hatred for +his principles, and of scorn for his forbearance. While he was +interpreting the desolations and sorrows of the war as God's +all-powerful punishment of slavery, our common national sin, they +resented with impassioned vehemence such an explanation, disclaimed +all guilt, and denied that slavery was wrong.</p> + +<p>Here emerged in Lincoln's thought Lincoln's supreme perplexity. He was +dealing with right and wrong, both only the more intensely real, +because so really concrete. Liberty and loyalty, loyalty to liberty, +the dignity of man, and the good pleasure of God—these were the +eternal principles, and the personal interests at stake. Antagonisms +were deadly virulent; and they were unrelenting. Compulsion was not +availing. Patience likewise failed. Here was a desperate call for +moral mastership. The man to meet the crisis, to join the cleft, to +reduce to moral harmony this discord of right and wrong, the man who +could resolve and morally unify this moral disagreement must have a +soul and an understanding whose insight and moral comprehension were +complete.</p> + +<p>Here Lincoln's moral grandeur gains its full dimension. And in this +consummation it comes clear to see how in very deed right and wrong, +evil and good, can be encompassed in a moral unison such that evil +remains the all-abhorrent thing, and good is proved to be alone +desired.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> This marvelous explication is found within the words and +tone of this last inaugural. It stands contained in perfect poise +within the mutual balancings of his princely pledge to abjure all +malice, show universal charity, and still pursue the awful guidance of +Almighty God in the prosecution of the war. Herein moral rigor, +forbearance, and gentleness do majestically coalesce.</p> + +<p>The breath and voice of this same moral mystery are felt and heard +again within this same inaugural in that bold prophetic exposition of +the Providential purport of the war. In the burning furnace of those +last four years, Lincoln's eyes had been purged to see how the ways of +God transcend the ways and thoughts of men. Both North and South, in +battle and in prayer, had failed to comprehend the thoughts of God. +All the movements of all their armies were being mightily over-ruled. +The purposes of the Almighty were his own. Both North and South had +gone astray. Neither side was wholly right. The land was under +discipline. The Nation had committed sin. That sin was destined for +requital. That requital was to be complete. The ways of God were true +and righteous altogether. All this the Nation must acquiescently +confess. For all the wrong of slavery requital must be made, +submissively, ungrudgingly, repentantly. Beneath that judgment every +heart must bow. The sin must be abjured. Its wrong must be abhorred. +Goodwill to all alike must be restored. And through it all the +Almighty must be adored.</p> + +<p>Like a solemn litany within a great cathedral, these solemn sentiments +of Lincoln resounded through the land, as, in want of any other +priest, Lincoln himself led the Nation to the altar of the Lord. He +truly led. And to an altar. In this inaugural, Lincoln, for all +Americans, bows and veils his own brave heart in sacrificial sorrow +and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> confession, to bear and suffer all that, as the Nation's due, and +for the Nation's rescue, it is the will of holy heaven to inflict.</p> + +<p>In this profound, spontaneous assumption of full co-partnership with +all the Nation in a Nation's undivided ill-desert; in this +uncomplaining acquiescence, while God inflicted upon the land, as an +awful scourge, all the shame and cost and sorrow that the woful wrong +of slavery had entailed; in this deep discernment that deep in every +heart ran and flourished all the baleful roots of greed and pride, of +injustice and cruelty, out from which all man's enbondagement of +brother man springs up; in this estimation of human slavery as a +primary sin, while receiving without repining its ultimate +doom—Lincoln unveils in his single heart, an abhorrence and an +endurance of our national sin, that makes him enduringly and +indivisibly the friend and brother of us all, accomplishing, in a +single moral experience, the pattern of the confession, and of the +resolution of our common wrong. Unto this, Lincoln's moral versatility +attained. Beyond this, moral versatility could never go.</p> + +<p>The same moral dextrousness, this facile power and fluent readiness to +fully comprehend and fitly meet the moral mastery of a problem, in +itself all but absolutely obstinate and impossible, this wondrous +deftness in compounding together guilt and grace in mutual compassion +and repentance, is shown in Lincoln's patiently repeated, but always +futile efforts to persuade the North and the South to come together, +and so bring slavery and all dissension to an end, by giving and +receiving fiscal reimbursement for the emancipation of the slaves. To +this magnanimous and unexampled proposition, offered in the midst of +war, and urged in words and tones of classic winsomeness, the North +and South could never be brought<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> unitedly to consent. Therein this +moral hero stood like a king against the wrong, argued like a prophet +for the right, and led towards mutual penitence and sacrifice like a +priest. It is in human history one of the supremest illustrations of +moral versatility. Never were Lincoln's character and aim more stable +than in that plea. But never was mortal man more mobile. Beyond all +his contemporaries he observed and regarded the signs of the times. He +saw that the ancient order was certainly to change. He felt that an +almighty, a just, and a benignant Providence had assumed control. He +discerned that the new order was freighted with vast store of good. To +make its entrance gentle, so that nothing should be rent or wrecked, +was the sum of all his thought and toil. He took for pattern the +coming of the dew. For his method he adopted his own well-mastered and +transcendent art of brotherly persuasion. As to manner, he was +vestured in humility, desiring to eject and ban the pharisee from his +own and all other hearts. For prevailing motive he designated the +passing hour as a time of unexampled opportunity. "So much good," he +said, "has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the +Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do." And for +admonition he pointed to the vastness of the future, and a possible +lament over a pitiful neglect. But it was all for naught. For such a +moral transmutation and free triumph the embattled Nation was +unprepared.</p> + +<p>But over against that unrelenting rigor, his moral readiness to meet +his brother, friend or foe, in free and mutual sacrifice, glows +beautifully. Deep in the heart of his design was struggling +heroically, and in balanced moral unison, the Godlike spirit of +eternal justice, mercy, and conciliation. In his strong breast all +pride was crucified, malice was melted down to tenderness, hypocrisy +and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> sordidness were purged away. His moral outlook was now +unobstructed, open every way. Then his soul stood fleet and free for +any path within the moral universe. With every man in this broad land +he stood ready to journey or sojourn, meek to suffer, resolute to +prevail. Sharing with the wrongdoer and the wronged alike their shame +and suffering and sin, while urging with immortal eagerness towards +fairness and happiness and peace, he resolved and overcame the problem +of the slaveholder and the slave, and made this land forever the +universal refuge of the free. In such a transmutation, first within +himself, and then throughout the land, moral as it is in every fiber, +and from circumference to core, is perfect moral concord. Thus, in +moral discord, moral freedom finds the way to peace, while full +responsibility remains unchangeably supreme. Here is the final, +perfect triumph of moral ingenuity. Thus by means of mercy, freely +offered and freely received, through mutual fellowship in moral +suffering, wrong may be comprehended, and fully overcome, in the +unchanged dominion of the right. So moral freedom and moral +consistency combine. Men's lives become vicarious. Thus moral +versatility culminates, and overcomes, and wins the sovereign moral +crown.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Patience—The Problem of Meekness</span></h3> + +<p>In the chapter just preceding, Lincoln's patience came into allusion +and review. That quality deserves a somewhat closer, separate +examination. When Lincoln took his last inaugural oath, he based its +meaning upon a statement in his inaugural address, that all the havoc +of the war was, under God, a penalty and atonement for a wrong that +had been inflicted and endured for centuries. In this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> interpretation +he subtly interwove a pleading intimation that all the land, in +reverent acquiescence with the righteous rule of God, should meekly +bow together to bear the awful sacrifice. And, deep within this open +exposition of his prophetic thought, there gleamed the hidden pledge, +inherent in his undiluted honesty, that he himself would not decline, +but would rather stand the first, to bear all the sorrow consequent +upon such wrong.</p> + +<p>Here is an attitude, and here a proposition which men and Nations are +forever prone to scorn; but which all Nations and all men will be +compelled or constrained at last to heed. Therein are published and +enacted verities, than which none known to men are more profound, or +vast, or vested with a higher dignity. They demand attention here.</p> + +<p>The statement made by Lincoln pivots on "offenses." Strong men, in +pride and arrogance of strength, had wronged the weak. Weak men, in +the lowliness and impotence of their poverty, had borne the wrong. In +such conditions of painful moral strain the centuries had multiplied. +Those long-drawn years of violence had heightened insolence into a +defiance all but absolute. Those selfsame years of suffering had +deepened ignominy into all but absolute despair. Through banishment of +equity and charity, of purity and humility, while all the heavenly +oracles seemed mute, fear and hope alike seemed paralyzed. The +oppressor seemed to have forgotten his eternal obligation to be kind +and fair. The oppressed seemed to have surrendered finally his +God-like dignity. The times seemed irreversible.</p> + +<p>Here is a problem that, while ever mocking human wisdom, refuses to be +mocked. It enfolds a wrong, undoubted moral wrong; else naught is +right. It overwhelms. Within its awful deeps multitudes have been +submerged.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> And it is unrelieved. It outwears the protests and appeals +of total generations of unhelped, indignant hearts.</p> + +<p>This problem Lincoln undertook to understand. In his conclusion was +proclaimed the vindication of the meek. Beneath that age-long wrong, +beneath the silence and delay of God, and beneath the final +recompense, he prevailed upon his heart, and pleaded with other hearts +to stand in suffering, hopeful acquiescence. Among these sorrows, so +wickedly inflicted, without relief, and without rebuke, let patience +be perfected. Here let meekness grow mature. Let confidence in our +equal and unconquered manhood, and let faith in God not fail to +overcome all Godlessness and inhumanity. Let time be trusted +absolutely to prove all wrong iniquitous. Let the worth inherent in +undying souls be shown to be indeed immortal.</p> + +<p>Here is Lincoln's resolution of this profound enigma, a resolution +unfolding all its mystery, and involving all his character. Here +Lincoln won his crown. This is all his meaning in abjuring malice, and +invoking charity. Too kindly to indulge resentment, whatever the +provocation, and too sensible of his own integrity to ever court +despair, he appealed to God's eternal justice and compassion, and +clung to a hope that no anguish or delay could overcome. This is +Lincoln's patience. This is the inmost secret of his moral strength. +This is his piercing and triumphant demonstration that in this +troubled world, where sin so much abounds, it is the meek who shall +finally prevail.</p> + +<p>This moral patience deserves to be explored. It comprehends +ingredients, quite as worthy to be kept distinct, as to be seen in +unison. For one thing it identified him with slaves. Therein he bore a +grave reproach. Its weight only he himself could rightly compute. +Beneath the rude and among the hurt he took deliberate stand.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> Among +the lowly, before the scorner, he held his place. He braved the +master's taunts. He penetrated to its heart the cause that kept the +black man mute. He measured out, but without indifference, as without +complaint, the divine delay. He courted in his thought on slavery a +perfect consciousness of its sin. He examined with nicest carefulness +the sufferers' impulse towards revenge. He knew the awful misery in +human shame. He shared with honest men their proudest aspirations. And +all of this, he shared with blacks, not by compulsion, but as a +volunteer.</p> + +<p>Herein, and in the second place, he held fast the fundamental claims +that every slave retained an ineffaceable affinity with God; that this +divine inheritance, however deep the negro's poverty, could never be +annulled or forfeited; that friendliness with fellowmen, however hard +or sad their lot, was no reproach; that in human sorrows it well +becometh human hearts, as it becometh God, to remember to be pitiful; +that all invasion or neglect of those inherent human rights and +dignities was bound to be avenged; that in God's good time all patient +souls would be crowned with song; and that thus his open championship +of the cause of slaves was in perfect keeping with his own unaltered +and unalterable self-respect.</p> + +<p>A third ingredient in Lincoln's patience was its conspicuous and +inseparable impeachment of oppression. Lincoln's patience under moral +wrong made him no neutral morally. Without fear and without reserve, +he held before oppressors, however hard or strong, the enormity of +their wrong. Before the cruel their cruelty was displayed. Before the +arrogant their arrogance was reflected back. Before the base and foul +their sordidness was brought to light. Before disloyal men the perfidy +of covenant disloyalty was nakedly unveiled. All the wrongs<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> inwrought +and undergone in slavery were recited with insistent accuracy and +unreserve. Of all those centuries of unpaid toil each month and year +were reckoned up. Of all those sins against pure womanhood and +helpless infancy each tell-tale face was told numerically. The moral +wrong in slavery was set before its advocates and beneficiaries +unsparingly. Patience, whether God's or man's, and whether for one day +or for a thousand years, can never be interpreted or understood to +diminish sin's iniquity. Its prolonged persistence only aggravates its +guilt.</p> + +<p>In the fourth place, there was in Lincoln's patience a waiting +deference before God's silence and delay. His total confidence was in +God. That God was negligent, or indifferent, he would not concede. His +whole abhorrence of oppression was based on God's decree. Here rested +also all his hope of recompense. Vengeance belongs to God. He will +rebuke the mighty, and redeem the meek. In both, his righteousness +will be complete. And when his judgments fall, all men must own +adoringly his perfect equity.</p> + +<p>Finally, in Lincoln's patience there is explicit recognition and +confession of his own complicity with all the land, in the wrong to +slaves, and of his own and all the land's delinquency before the Lord, +in failure to discern and approbate the divine designs. It had been +left with God's far greater patience and far higher moral jealousy to +overcome and overwhelm and overrule the devious plans and ways of +erring men. In lowly acquiescence it was for him and the land to +acquaint themselves with God's designs, confess their wanderings, +accept his will alike in redemption and rebuke, and unite henceforth +to represent and praise on earth his perfect equity and grace.</p> + +<p>Here are the elements in Lincoln's patience, and here<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> their sum. +Forming with the lowly and oppressed a free and intimate partnership; +avowing jealously for all mankind a coequal dignity among themselves +and an imperishable affinity with God; declaring unflinchingly to all +who tyrannize the full enormity of their primal sin; restraining +malice and all avenging deeds; confessing his own misjudgments and +misdeeds among his fellowmen and before the Lord; he endures +submissively the divine delays, and shares repentantly with all who +sin the judgments of a perfect righteousness. Genuinely pitiful for +suffering men, sharply jealous for human worth, direct as light to +designate the shame in pride, docile as a child before the righteous +and eternal rule of God, he illustrates and demonstrates how a perfect +patience makes requisition in a noble man of all his noblest +manliness.</p> + +<p>But worthy as are all its qualities, its exercise entails stern +discipline in suffering. It costs a man his life. That this was +Lincoln's understanding, as he traversed the responsibility of that +last inauguration day, is witnessed unmistakably by his letter to +Thurlow Weed respecting his inaugural address. These are his words, +well worthy to be reproduced a second time:—</p> + +<p>"I believe it (the address) is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I +thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in +it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me +to tell it."</p> + +<p>"Most directly on myself." There Lincoln bares his heart to God and +man, in order that upon himself might fall the first, the deepest, and +the most direct humiliation. At one with slaves, despised by pride, +astray from God<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> prepared for sacrifice—but attesting still that +slaves were men, that robbery was wrong, that God was just—so he +stands.</p> + +<p>But, be it said again and yet again, in such a posture looms nobility. +In meekness such as this is nothing craven. It beseems true royalty. +Bowing before his God to receive rebuke, bowing to make confession +before his fellowmen, he stands as on a hilltop, announcing and +declaring to all the world how arrogance proves men base, how +lowliness may be beautiful, how reverend are God's mysteries, how just +and pitiful his ways. Here is a kingliness that no crown can rightly +symbolize. Here is a victory that is not won with swords. In the very +attitude is final triumph. It bravely claims, and truly overcomes the +world. In such a patience there is present instantly, and in full +possession, the vigor of undying hope, and the title of a firstborn +son to the heritage of the earth.</p> + +<p>This capacity in Lincoln's patience for the close allegiance of +self-devotion and self-respect, of sympathy and jealousy, is shown +dramatically in his tournament with Douglas in 1858. Throughout those +speeches, replies, and rejoinders Lincoln held fast his full +fraternity with the slaves, while repressing with his fullest vigor +every onslaught against his personal integrity.</p> + +<p>The date of those debates marked over four full years, since Douglas +had championed through Congress into finished legislation a bill that +abrogated all federal limitation of slavery, and opened an +unrestricted possibility of its further spread forever, wherever any +local interest might so desire. That bill obtained the presidential +signature in May of 1854. During the succeeding years Douglas had been +shaping public sentiment by his almost royal influence in public +speech towards a stereotyped acceptance of the principles and +implications of that law. Under his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> aggressive leadership his party +had been well solidified upon three political postulates, which he +declared essential not alone to party fealty, but to any permanent +national peace. These three postulates were the following:—</p> + +<p>Slavery is in no sense wrong.</p> + +<p>Slavery is to be treated as a local interest only.</p> + +<p>These principles have been sanctioned perfectly by history.</p> + +<p>From these fundamental postulates flowed numerous corollaries:—</p> + +<p>Black men are an inferior race. This inferiority has been stamped upon +this race indelibly by God. The Declaration of Independence did not +and does not include the blacks in its affirmations about equality.</p> + +<p>This country contains vast sections precisely fitted to be occupied by +slavery.</p> + +<p>Local interests being essentially diverse, as for example between +Alabama and Maine, decisions as to local affairs will also be diverse. +This entails divergent treatment of black men, just as of herds and +crops.</p> + +<p>To the rights of stronger races to enslave the blacks, the fathers who +framed our government, our national history since, and the age-long +fate of Africa unitedly bear witness.</p> + +<p>Counter to these three major postulates of Douglas, Lincoln set the +following three:—</p> + +<p>The enslavement of men is wrong.</p> + +<p>The treatment of slavery is a federal concern.</p> + +<p>Our history has contained, and still contains a compromise. Our +fathers deemed slavery a wrong. But finding it present when they +framed our government, and finding its removal impossible at the time, +they arranged for its territorial limitation, for its gradual +diminishment, and for its ultimate termination.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<p>From these three fundamental postulates in Lincoln's arguments flowed +also various corollaries:—</p> + +<p>The sinfulness of slavery roots in the elemental manhood of the slave. +This manhood warrants his elemental claim to the employment and +enjoyment of his life in liberty.</p> + +<p>In our form of government, things local and things federal being held +within their respective realms respectively supreme, things locally +divergent lead to federal compromise.</p> + +<p>Certain sections of the country in particular, and the Nation in +general being committed, either from policy or from choice, to foster +slavery; men who hate the thing as wrong must in patient meekness +endure its presence, until in God's own time its presence and its sin +and guilt shall be removed.</p> + +<p>As will be seen at once, for the purposes of a popular debate, the +postulates of Douglas were easier to defend. Of the two sets of +premises, his seemed the more simple, more explicit, more direct, more +telling with a crowd; while those of Lincoln, by reason of that moral +and historical compromise, seemed more confused, more evasive, and not +so apt to take the multitude. In the nature of the debate Lincoln had +to shape his propositions and replies to face two ways:—towards the +practical emergencies of our history and form of government, on the +one hand; and on the other hand, towards an ideal nowhere yet +attained, and seemingly unattainable. Whereas Douglas, quite +unconcerned about any ideal motives in the past, as of any vision of +an ideal day to come, but dealing solely with the political situation +that day occurrent, could make every affirmation and every thrust +against his adversary seem straight, and clear, and impossible to +refute. This very practical and substantial disadvantage Lincoln had +to bear. Questions that Douglas would answer decisively,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> and +instantly, and with absolute distinctness, Lincoln would be compelled +to labor with, in careful deference both to our Constitutional +protection of slavery, and to its moral wrong.</p> + +<p>This situation in those debates deserves a close attention. The +difference in the two positions was most profound. That this deep +difference was laid fully bare was the supreme resultant of the +debate. It was indeed a difference in principles. But stated yet more +narrowly, it was a difference in nothing less than estimates of men, +and attitudes towards wrong. It was not a difference in abstract +theorems. It was vastly more. It was a difference in the personal +qualities of the two protagonists. To test this affirmation let any +one imagine Douglas producing from his heart the sentiments, and +arranging in his thought the arguments of Lincoln's last inaugural. +Douglas sadly erred in his opinion of his time. In Lincoln, in those +debates, our government, our history, our ideal as a great Republic +stood incorporate. Like our noble history, he patiently endured and +bore what he instinctively and inveterately abhorred. This pathetic +situation, this invincible anomaly in our national career, is +pathetically re-enacted in the fate of Lincoln in these debates.</p> + +<p>This at bottom, and this at last is what those flashing falchions and +ringing shields declare. This explains the genesis and the actual +course of those painful personalities. And it is to study this that +these debates have been introduced. In the personal thrusts of those +debates two qualities in Lincoln become pre-eminent. He would not +forsake his humble championship of slaves. He would accept no thrust +against his personal integrity. Let those debates be read, and +re-perused until those cardinal elements in Lincoln's attitude come +clear. And let it be observed that in no single personality was +Lincoln's thrust<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> initial. Douglas opened the debate. In his opening +speech he made direct assertions and indirect intimations too gross to +be termed subtle, and too staring to be called disguised; imputing and +suggesting that Lincoln was in character a coward and a cheat, in his +politics a revolutionary, and in his social proclivities contemptible. +These same charges were made with unrelenting persistency and +reiteration by Douglas throughout the series of the debates.</p> + +<p>To every imputation Lincoln made definite and reiterated reply, +denouncing them roundly as unwarranted and inexcusable impeachment of +his honor, his veracity, and his candor. And then, with measured and +exact equivalence, he dealt out to Douglas's face a list of counter +personalities of sharply parallel and actual transactions in Douglas's +life, meriting precisely his own reproach. And he pressed the battle +home so hard that Douglas, in an impassioned height of protest, +demanded if Lincoln meant to carry his tactics up to "personal +difficulty."</p> + +<p>All this is painful confessedly to review. One wishes earnestly, just +as with the later civil war, it might never have occurred. But it +should be remembered that every retort of Lincoln was, as in the war +itself, in personal defense. Lincoln was not the assailant. But once +his honor was assailed, it was not the nature of that honor to stand +so mute that his own character seemed rightly smirched, while justice +rested with his adversary. And so, in self-defense, as in his speech +at Quincy, he carefully details, he vigorously returned each thrust. +And this, be it constantly recalled, not in any selfishness, not for +wounded pride, not for unction to a hurt, not in any vengeful heat; +but just as in the following war, in absolute unselfishness, void of +malice, in the ministry of charity, that the honor of all men might be +saved, and that the Union with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> its boon of universal freedom and +equality might not perish from the earth.</p> + +<p>Such was Lincoln's patience, in those earlier debates, and in this +last inaugural, the same. While bearing voluntarily in his single life +all the opprobrium borne by slaves; through all that fellowship and +sympathy, and on its sole behalf, he guarded his own honor with an +infinite jealousy. But it was honor saved for suffering. His life was +sacrificial. He learned to know full well, but willingly, what +meekness costs. Not alone from a political antagonist and an embattled +South, but from a multitude of active dissentients besides throughout +the North, from Congress, and from the close circle of his cabinet he +had to bear with blind misunderstandings, and malignant +misrepresentations of the deeds and qualities and motives of his +perplexed and overburdened life.</p> + +<p>But whatever his shortcomings or mistakes, whatever his follies or +sins, two affirmations about his life will hold forever true. He bore +his load. And he kept his path. Through all that stern campaign for +liberty and union he turned neither to the right nor to the left. +Sorrows and contentions surrounded him continually. But he descried a +better time. To speed that day he welcomed sacrifice. He lived and +died for nothing else. To show the priceless worth of freemen in a +mighty multitude, in a civic league of lasting unison and peace was +his supreme commission and consuming wish. To bring that vision near +he aspired and submitted to be its pattern and its devotee.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Rise From Poverty—The Problem of Industrialism</span></h3> + +<p>In his first public speech, seeking election to the State Legislature +of Illinois in 1832, Lincoln said: "I was born, and have ever +remained, in the most humble walks of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> life." He adds: "If the good +people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I +have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much +chagrined." In the same speech he said: "I have no other (ambition) so +great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering +myself worthy of their esteem."</p> + +<p>Here are three phrases that epitomize Lincoln's ideals and Lincoln's +career:—"the most humble walks of life;" "too familiar with +disappointments;" and "rendering myself worthy of their esteem." There +at the age of twenty-three we are apprised of Lincoln's poverty, of +his ambition, and of his adversity. In the same address he says: "I +have no wealthy or popular relatives or friends to recommend me." At +that time he had been but two years in the State.</p> + +<p>In pondering this brief and frank appeal one wonders at the blending +of the youthful and the mature, the daring and the wary, the ardent +and the chastened, the eager and the sedate, the wistful and the +resigned. What had been the inner and the outer history and fortune of +him, who at the age of twenty-three could talk of being "familiar with +disappointments"—so familiar with experiences of reverse that he +could bear the public refusal of his one greatest ambition, that +public's "true esteem," without being "much chagrined." Plainly in +Lincoln's early life there was a great heart, cherishing a high hope, +but environed with poverty, familiar with reversals, unchampioned, +unknown. Already he was being refined by manifold discipline. Already +in that refining fire he had fixed his eye and set his face to win his +neighbor's true esteem. Therein one comprehends his whole career. Out +of oblivion and solitude and direst poverty he passed by sheer +self-mastery to the highest national authority and renown. Of all the +distance and of all the way between those "humblest<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> walks" and that +commanding eminence, and of all the pregnant meaning to him and to all +Americans, and indeed to every son of Adam, of that achievement, +Lincoln had a marvelous discerning sense. He knew full well its vast +significance and he never let its vivid recollection lapse. It was +always in his living consciousness.</p> + +<p>One impressive proof and token that the meaning of his advancement had +permanent place in his remembrance, and that he deemed his fortune an +ideal and a type of our American government and life has been +preserved in the tone and substance of his address in Independence +Hall, when on his way to his first great inauguration. Standing there +at the age of forty-one, the Nation's president-elect, and "filled +with deep emotion," he said: "I have never had a feeling politically +that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence." And to give that statement explanation he said, "I have +often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept +this Confederacy so long together." And for answer to that inquiry he +points to "that sentiment in the Declaration which gave liberty not +alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all +future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the +weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all +should have an equal chance." "Liberty," "hope," "promise," "weights +lifted," "an equal chance," "to all," "for all," "of all," "all," "in +due time"—these are the terms that answered the question over which +he "often pondered" and "often inquired." This was the "great +principle," the "idea" which held the Confederacy together. This was +the "basis" on which, if he could save the country, he would be "one +of the happiest men in the world, if he could help to save it." This +was the principle concerning which he exclaimed: "If this country +cannot<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say +that I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than surrender +it"—words whose purport is seen to be nothing less than tragic, when +we recall the peril of death, which he was consciously facing in that +very hour from a deep laid conspiracy against his life.</p> + +<p>Thus spoke Lincoln within ten days of his inauguration, in a speech +which he says was "wholly unprepared." But the day before, in a speech +at Trenton, he characterized that same "idea" as that "something more +than common" which away back in childhood, the earliest days of his +being able to read, he recollected thinking, "boy though I was," was +the "treasure" for which "those men struggled." That "something" he +then defines as "even more than national independence;" and as holding +out "a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to +come."</p> + +<p>This lifting of weights from the shoulders of men, this equal chance +for all; this was the liberty for which the fathers fought, this was +the hope which their Declaration enshrined, this it was whose +preservation Lincoln longed to secure above any other happiness, this +it was for which he was all but ready to die.</p> + +<p>There Lincoln spoke his heart. There he voiced his highest hopes. +There he traced his patriotism to its roots. And there too he touched +the quick nerve of his own disappointments, of his own often futile +endeavors and desires. And there as well his living sympathy with +other men, encumbered with disadvantage and defeat, found mighty +utterance. Lifting weights from the shoulders of all men—that in "due +time" this should be achieved he judged and felt to be the single +sovereign meaning of our national destiny.</p> + +<p>Of just this national destiny Lincoln's personal life was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> a strangely +full epitome. His shoulders knew full well the pressure of those +"weights." His soul knew all the awful volume of sorrow as of joy, +that poured about the denial or the enjoyment of an "equal chance." +From the humblest walks to the foremost seat he had been permitted to +thread his way. That liberty he chiefly sought in struggling youth. +That liberty he chiefly prized as president. And this, not alone for +himself, not alone for all Americans, but for "all the world." Thus +spoke Lincoln, "all unprepared" in February of 1861.</p> + +<p>But these spontaneous words were no passing breath of transient +sentiments. In July of that same year he sent to Congress his first +Message. That paper was Lincoln's studied and formal argument, a +president's deliberate State Paper, addressing to Congress his +responsible demonstration that the war was a necessity. In that +argument and demonstration his fundamental postulate was a definition +of our government. In that definition he affirms its "leading object" +to be "to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights +from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to +afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of +life." And so he calls the war a "people's contest." And he speaks of +its deeper purport as something that "the plain people understand." +And he speaks of the loyalty of all the common soldiers—not one of +whom was known to have deserted his flag—as "the patriotic instinct +of the plain people."</p> + +<p>Those words of Lincoln in Trenton and Philadelphia, defining the +"leading object" in the minds of the founders of our government in the +hours of its birth-travail, define his own idea and ideal as he +approached the hour of his presidential oath. That a national +government, thus beneficently designed for the equal weal of all, +should be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> preserved inviolate and preserved from dissolution was his +supreme desire and his supreme resolve. Its majesty and its integrity +must be held most sacred and most jealously preserved. This was the +apple of his eye. By the light of this ideal and in the pursuit of +this alluring, wistful hope he studied and judged all the movements of +his time. And in this, his initial message, he registers his official +verdict upon those surrounding evolutions and events. A vast and +ever-expanding Confederacy of intelligent and resolute men, leagued +together in a Union of Confederate States, and pledged to secure to +all men within its bounds a clear path, an unfettered start, and a +fair chance in every laudable pursuit, was judged by him a civic +undertaking too preciously freighted with promise and hope for the +welfare of the world to be ever disrupted and destroyed by the +disloyalty and the withdrawal of any one or any cluster of its +constituent parts. It was a Union as sacred and holy as all the worth +and all the hopes of men. To separate from such a league was a capital +disloyalty. To disintegrate such a unison was the ultimate inhumanity. +To stand fast forever by such a federation was a crowning fidelity. To +preserve, protect and defend such a Union, at whatever cost of life or +wealth, and therein to adventure however sacred honor was a primary +and a final obligation. By its perpetual preservation unimpaired was +secured to all mankind the vision and the priceless promise of liberty +and hope. By secession, defiance, and violent assault, that precious +human treasure was being endangered and defiled. Hence his anxious +all-consuming eagerness as he approached his ominous task. Hence his +firm acceptance of awful, inevitable war.</p> + +<p>Such were the marshalings of Lincoln's thoughts and sentiments as he +approached and undertook his mighty work—fit prelude in Independence +Hall, and befitting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> explanation and defense in the Halls of Congress +of the mighty rallying of those regiments of men for the awful combats +of a people's war.</p> + +<p>This was Lincoln's argument. That the rights of life and liberty and +happiness were designed and decreed by the Maker of all to be equal +for all was for him, as an American, and for him as a fellow and a +friend of all, under God, an axiom. And to that firm truth the war was +but a corollary. Because the Union was a league of freemen, kindred to +God, and peers among themselves, bound together in mutual goodwill and +for mutual weal, it must at all hazards and through all perils and +sorrows be made perpetual. Not that slavery should be immediately +removed, though its existence in such a league was an elemental +unworthiness and affront; but that the Union should be forever secured +was his immediate aspiration and resolve. This once achieved and +forever assured, and slavery with every other kindred inequality would +in "due time" be done away.</p> + +<p>This is the key and the core of his ringing and irresistible retort to +Greeley. This was the inspiration of that immortal appeal at +Gettysburg, the very pledge and secret of its excellence and +immortality—the plea that government of the people, by the people, +for the people should not perish from the earth.</p> + +<p>And it was definitively this axiomatic verity that provided to his +deeply thoughtful mind that deeply philosophic interpretation of the +divine intention in the war, which he so carefully enshrined within +his last inaugural. The sin of slavery had transgressed a primary law +of God. Human shoulders had been heavily laden with artificial +weights. Brother men had been denied by fellow-men an equal start. The +paths of laudable pursuit were not kept equally clear to all. +Multitudes of men, by the inhuman<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> tyranny of the strong upon the +weak, and that from birth to death, had been accorded no fair chance. +Men had toiled for centuries, and that beneath the lash, without +requital. Hence the awful doom and woe of war—God's visitation upon +ourselves of our own offense, the wasting of our unholy wealth and the +leveling of our inhuman pride. And all of this was being guided +through to its predestined and most holy end with the divine design +that through the awful baptism of blood our national life should begin +anew in humble reverence for him whose just and fiery jealousy demands +that all his little ones shall share with all the mightiest in equal +rights. Thus Lincoln viewed the war as God's avenging vindication of +the just and gracious principles that all men everywhere are entitled +to share together equally in liberty and hope.</p> + +<p>But Lincoln felt all of this to be, not alone the law of God, but +quite as truly the common and compelling affirmation of the human +heart. This way and style of phrasing it found eloquent annunciation +in that earliest and unanswerable address respecting slavery at Peoria +in October of 1854, where were deeply laid and may still be seen the +foundations of all his power and fame. In that address he said, "My +faith in the proposition, that each man should do precisely as he +pleases with all which is exclusively his own, lies at the foundation +of the sense of justice there is in me." And upon that foundation he +laid this cornerstone of social and civic order: "No man is good +enough to govern another man without that other man's consent." To so +invade the liberty of another man is "despotism." Such invasion is +"founded in the selfishness of man's nature." "Opposition to it is +founded in his sense of justice." "These principles are in eternal +antagonism." When they collide, "shocks and throes and convulsions +must ceaselessly follow." These sentiments<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> of liberty are above +repeal. Though you repeal all past history, "you cannot repeal human +nature." Out of the "abundance of man's heart" "his mouth will +continue to speak." And to demonstrate that this sentiment of liberty, +this consciousness that human worth is sovereign, is a verity of human +nature which even holders of slaves corroborate, he points to the over +400,000 free negroes then in the land. Their presence is proof that +deep in all human hearts is a "sense of human justice and sympathy" +continually attesting "that the poor negro has some natural right to +himself, and that those who deny it and make merchandise of him +deserve kickings, contempt and death." This irrepealable law of the +human heart was a mighty rock of confidence in Lincoln's social and +political faith. All men were made to be free, and entitled equally to +a happy life; and of this divine endowment all men everywhere were +well aware. Human nature is by its nature the birthplace and the home +of liberty and hope.</p> + +<p>Especially serviceable for the purposes of this study upon +Industrialism is the section in Lincoln's Message to Congress of +December, 1861, dealing with what he calls our "popular institutions." +With his eagle eye he discerns in the Southern insurrection an +"approach of returning despotism." The assault upon the Union was +proving itself, under his gaze, an attack upon "the first principles +of popular government—the rights of the people." And against that +assault he raised "a warning voice."</p> + +<p>In this warning he treats specifically the relation of labor and +capital. In this discussion his motive is single and clear. He detects +a danger that so-called labor may be assumed to be so inseparably +bound up and indentured with capital as to be subject to capital in a +sort of bondage;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> and that, once labor, whether slave or hired, is +brought under that assumed subjection, that condition is "fixed for +life."</p> + +<p>Both of these assumptions he assails. Labor is not a "subject state;" +nor is capital in any sense its master. There is "no such thing as a +free man's being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer." +So he affirms. And then he argues that "labor is prior to and +independent of capital." "Capital is only the fruit of labor." "Labor +is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher +consideration." Hired labor, and capital that hires and labors +not—these do both exist; and both have rights. But "a large majority +belong to neither class—neither work for others, nor have others +working for them." This is measurably true even in the Southern +States. While in the Northern States a large majority are "neither +hirers nor hired." And even where free labor is employed for hire, +that condition is not "fixed for life." "Many independent men +everywhere in these Northern States, a few years back in their lives, +were hired laborers." The "penniless," if "prudent," "labors for wages +awhile;" "saves a surplus;" "then labors on his own account;" and "at +length hires another new beginner to help him." "This is the just and +generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope +to all." Here is a form of "political power;" here is a "popular +principle" that underlies present national prosperity and strength, +and infolds a pledge of its certain future abounding expansion. Thus +Lincoln argued in his Annual Message of 1861.</p> + +<p>In his Annual Message of 1862, he pursued in a similar strain, a vital +and kindred aspect of the same industrial theme. He was arguing with +Congress in favor of compensated emancipation. In the course of that +argument, speaking of the relation of freed negroes to white labor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +and white laborers, he said: "If there ever could be a proper time for +mere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In time like the +present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly +be responsible through time and in eternity." And then, after +appealing with utmost patience and consideration and with ideal +persuasiveness to every better sentiment and to every proper interest, +he drew towards the close of his plea with these arresting, prophetic, +almost forboding words, words richly worth citation for a second +time:—"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise +with the occasion." "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall +save our country." "We cannot escape history." "The fiery trial +through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the +latest generation." "We know how to save the Union." "We—even we +here—hold the power and bear the responsibility." "In giving freedom +to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what +we give and what we preserve." "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth." "The way is plain, peaceful, generous, +just—a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and +God must forever bless."</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln voiced, and in terms that human-kind will not lightly +suffer to be forgotten, his seasoned and convinced belief about the +principles that should hold dominion in the industrial realm. They +reveal that in his chastened and chastening faith Civics and Economics +are merged forever in Ethics, and that therein they are forever at +one. Individuals, however lowly or however strong; parties or +combinations of men or wealth, however massive or however firm; +governments or nations, however puissant, ambitious or proud, are +alike endowed and alike enjoined with sovereign duties and with +sovereign<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> rights. The negro, however poor, may not be robbed or +exploited or bound by any master, however grand. The soil of a +neighboring government, however alluring its promise of expansion or +wealth, may never be invaded or annexed by force of any Nation's arms, +however exalted and humane that Nation's professions and aims. If any +man, or any Nation of men be but meagerly endowed, that humble +heritage is inviolably theirs forever to enjoy. The person of Dred +Scott and the soil of Mexico are holy ground—heaven-appointed +sanctuaries that no oppressor or invader may ever venture to profane. +If to any nation, or to any man "God gave but little, that little let +him enjoy." Slavery and tyranny are iniquitous economy. "Take from him +that is needy" is the rule of the slaveholder and the tyrant. "Give to +him that is needy" is the rule of Christian charity. As between the +strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the timid and the bold, +"this good earth is plenty broad enough for both."</p> + +<p>Here is indeed an eternal struggle. But underneath is "an eternal +principle." And among the many Nations of the earth this American +people are bringing to this principle in the face of all the world a +world-commanding demonstration of its benign validity. By the sweat of +his face shall man eat bread. And the fruit of his toil shall man +enjoy.</p> + +<p>So would Lincoln guard, in the industrial world, against all +exaggeration and all infringement of human liberties and rights, and +this quite as much for the sake of the strong as in defense of the +weak. Tyranny, in despoiling the weak, despoils the tyrant too. +Liberty does harm to none, but brings rich boon to all. Thus Lincoln +cherished freedom.</p> + +<p>But deep within this treasured liberty Lincoln saw the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> shining jewel +of human hope. And hope with him was ever neighborly. And this +generous sentiment, expanding forever in his heart, he cherished, not +merely as common civilian, but as president. It was while at +Cincinnati, on his way to his inauguration, that he said, "I hold that +while man exists it is his duty not only to improve his own condition, +but also to assist in ameliorating mankind." "It is not my nature, +when I see people borne down by the weight of their shackles ... to +make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but +rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke."</p> + +<p>But true as was Lincoln's view of our national mission, and clear and +just and generous as was his own desire, he saw in the Nation's path +before his face a mighty obstacle. He knew the fascination of +"property." And he knew that this fascination held its malevolent +sway, even though that "property" was vested in human life. Here was +the brunt of all his battle. The slaves of his day had a "cash value" +at a "moderate estimate" of $2,000,000,000. He saw that this property +value had "a vast influence on the minds of its owners." And he knew +that this was so "very naturally" that the same amount of property +"would have an equal influence ... if owned in the North;" that "human +nature is the same;" that "public opinion is founded to great extent +on a property basis;" that "what lessens the value of property is +opposed;" that "what enhances its value is favored."</p> + +<p>With this prevailing tendency, native and universal in all men alike, +he had to deal. Indeed he had no other problem. All his presidential +difficulties reduced to this:—the universal greed of men for gain; +and deep within this inborn greed, man's inborn selfishness. And all +his all-absorbing toil and thought as statesman and as president were +to exalt in human estimation the values<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> in men above all other gain. +This desire lay deep in his heart at the beginning of his struggle in +1854. At the end of his conflict in those closing days of his life in +1865 this longing came forth as pure and shining gold thrice refined.</p> + +<p>From the time of his second election his thoughts moved with an almost +unwonted constancy upon these upper heights. With immeasurable +satisfaction he brooded and pondered over the emerging issues of the +stupendous strife. With an almost mother's love he considered and +counted over and reckoned up those outcomes of the sacrifice that +should worthily endure. With a vision purged of every form of vanity +and every form of selfishness, not as a miser, but in very deed with a +mother's pride and inner joy, he recited over the precious inventory +of the chastened Nation's wealth.</p> + +<p>Touching evidence of this is in his habitual tone of speech when +addressing soldiers returning from the field to their homes. Over and +over again he would remind the men of the vital principle at stake, +alike in war and in peace. "That you may all have equal privileges in +the race of life;" that there may be "an open field and a fair chance +for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence—this is 'our +birthright,' our 'inestimable pearl.' Nowhere in the world is +presented a government of so much liberty and equality." "To the +humblest and the poorest among us are held out the highest privileges +and positions." It is hard to say, when he was voicing his +satisfaction and his gratitude to these returning regiments, to which +his words were most directly addressed, to the soldier in the uniform, +or to the citizen. All those veteran soldiers were to his discerning +eyes the precious sterling units of the Nation's lasting wealth. In +their service as defenders of the Union they had saved the most +precious human heritage that human history ever knew or human<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> hope +conceived. And of that heritage and hope they were themselves the +exponent. Their service under arms and their civilian life in coming +days of peace were one. And with a deep and fond solicitude he would +charge them to shield and guard, to champion and defend with ballot as +with sword their dear-bought liberty and right. These peaceable +precious fruits of the deadly terrible war he well foresaw and greeted +eagerly. The verdict of the ballots in his re-election in 1864 +proclaimed afar a word the world had never heard before. It +"demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national +election in the midst of a great civil war." That verdict declared +authoritatively that government by the people was "sound and strong." +And it also showed by actual count that after four terrible years of +war the government had more supporting men than when the war began. +This abounding victory filled and satisfied his heart. And in the +presence of that unexampled proof that equal liberty for all was safe +within the guardianship of common men, he exclaimed with a prophet's +vision of the living unison of civic and economic weal:—"Gold is good +in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold."</p> + +<p>Such were Lincoln's principles as he defined a Nation's true +prosperity and wealth. A Nation's strength, a Nation's honor, a +Nation's truest treasure is in her men. Men of freedom and men of +hope, men intolerant of tyranny, men resolved to be worthy of +themselves and conscious of kinship with their Maker, men jealous +equally of their own and their brother's liberty, men who welcome all +the bonds involved in a friendly league of equal duties and equal +rights, men in whom the amelioration of all is a ruling desire, these +are the chief and best achievement in the proudest Nation's wealth. To +undervalue men, preferring any other good, is to cherish in a Nation's +heart<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> the source of its undoing. More to be prized than finest gold +is every citizen. However weak and humble any man may be, his honor is +sacredly above offense. To leave the burden of the feeble unrelieved, +or to clog the progress of the slow is in any Nation's history a +primal sin, and is sure to be abundantly revenged. For such a sin no +store of wealth has power to atone. A sin like that a sinner himself +must bear. This is the central thought of the last inaugural. These +were the human sentiments lying underneath all Lincoln's economic +faith. To these firm verities he held devotedly, whether counseling +the Nation as its president, projecting negro colonies as the negro's +friend, or offering to an idling, impecunious brother a dollar gratis +for every dollar earned.</p> + +<p>Men are equal; men are free. Men are royal; men are kin. Men are +hopeful; men aspire. Men are feeble; men have need. Men may prosper; +men may rise. Melioration is for all. Men have duties; men have +rights. Rights are mutual; duties bind. Every man resents offense. +Only despots can offend. Human tyranny is doomed. Vengeance waits on +every wrong. God is sovereign, kind and just. These are Lincoln's +sentiments. These he nobly illustrates. These are laws which he +defends. These are truths he vindicates.</p> + +<p>These few fundamental principles, applied anywhere in the industrial +field, would soon and certainly put in force wholesome, everlasting, +all-embracing laws. If, like Lincoln himself, men start in penury with +never a favor and never a friend, then, like him, they must hire +themselves to other men for the going wage. But every such a contract +must be forever subject to a fair and orderly recall. The humblest +earner of a daily wage must be forever free, free to continue or to +withdraw. To his freedom and improvement, to his enheartenment and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +hope all industrial regulations must conduce. This is basic. This +alone is generous and fair. And only here can any government win +permanence and peace.</p> + +<p>Here are Lincoln's primal postulates in social economics. Moral +imperatives are over every man. Moral freedom is in every breast. +Within the nethermost foundations of any mortal's share in any social +fellowship must rest his own self-wrought integrity and self-respect. +To make that social fellowship in any form perpetually secure each man +must seek with all his heart and with continual willing sacrifice the +lasting welfare of every party and of every part. That this be safely +guaranteed each man must learn to estimate his brother-man, not by +epaulets and coins, but by immortal standards, such as only living +persons can achieve. To make this social league invincible within, +each member in the fellowship must show a true humility, abjuring all +temptation or desire to be a despot or a grandee. And through it all +this social compact must be cherished and revered as ordained by a God +of pure and sovereign truth and love. Thus by friendly ministry, in +unpretending honesty, in brother-kindliness, as sharing in a common +immortality, under the favor and in the fear of God, may fellowmen in +multitudes be fellow citizens in a civic order that may hope for +perpetual prosperity. This is the resounding message that Lincoln's +life transmuted into speech through his pathetic and inspiring rise +from poverty.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Philosophy—The Problem of Reality</span></h3> + +<p>The study of Lincoln's moral versatility, examined in a former +chapter, ranging as it does through all the measure of the moral +realm, verges all along its border on the domain of philosophy. +Lincoln has scant familiarity,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> it is true, with the rubrics and the +problems, the theories and the methods of the schools. His boyhood was +in the wilderness; locusts and wild honey were his food. Such +education as he achieved was in pathetic isolation. It was a naked +earth, unfurnished with any aids or guides, from which his homely +hard-earned wisdom was laboriously wrung. But his Maker dowered him +with a mind attempered to defiance of every difficulty. And, however +stern the face of his life's fortune might become, his sterner will +and diligence found in her solitudes her choicest treasures. To minds +that nimbly traverse many books, thinking to have gained the substance +of great truths, when they have only gained vain forms, this may seem +to be impossible. But Lincoln's mind had traversed severest +discipline. He found rare substance of intellectual wealth. And he +knew its solid worth. Of this, as has been shown, his first inaugural +yields shining proof. Almost every sentence is as the oracle of a +sage.</p> + +<p>But his second inaugural, too, is a gem of wisdom, clear and pure, fit +ornament for any man to wear in any place where wisest men convene. +Let keenest eyes examine narrowly the aspiration with which this +second inaugural concludes. There shines a wish as bright as any human +hope that ever shone in human breast—a wish that all the earth might +gain to just and lasting peace. That yearning plea was voiced upon the +very breath that spoke of the battles and wounds, the dead and the +bereft, of a mighty Nation in fratricidal war. The peace he sought for +within all the land, and through all the earth, was to be the national +consummation of a conflict in which multitudes of men and millions of +treasure had been offered up under God in the name of charity and +right. Such was the wording and the setting of this wish.</p> + +<p>Comprehend its girth. It encircled all the earth. This<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> cannot be said +to be nothing but the ill-considered aspiration of an inexperienced +underling. It is the prayer of one who for four terrific years had +held the chief position in conducting the executive affairs of one of +the major empires of the world. During all that time, among the +bewildering and imperious problems of an era of unexampled civil +convulsion, hardly any complications had been more obstinate or more +disturbing than those bound up in the relation of the United States to +the other major Nations of the world. Within those international +complications were infolded problems and principles as profoundly +fundamental as any within any Nation's single life, or within all the +reach of international law. In such a situation and out of such a +career Lincoln culminates the declaration of his policy for a second +presidential term with an invocation of just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all Nations.</p> + +<p>Again let it be said, and be it not forgotten, that it is from the +lips of Lincoln that this appeal ascends. He is not a novice. He is a +seasoned veteran. Coming from that heart, and spoken in that hour, +those words cannot be lightly flung aside. They are the longing of a +man who, through almost unparalleled discipline, has attained an +almost peerless sobriety, sincerity, and clear-sightedness. Too honest +to utter hollow words, too deliberate to accept an ill-judged phrase, +too discerning to recommend a futile and unlikely proposition, and +sobered far beyond any power or inclination to play the hypocrite, we +must concede that Lincoln meant and measured what he said. In simple +fairness, and in all sobriety, we must allow that Lincoln understood +that the principles which guided him as national chief magistrate, and +the goal towards which he was driving everything in his conduct of the +war, contained all needed light and power for winning<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> all the world +to perpetual harmony. This is nothing less than to allow in Lincoln's +deeds and words the sweep and insight of a philosopher. And it is but +simple justice, though of vast significance, to append just here that +it was in the office and person of John Hay, Lincoln's private +secretary, when later he was our Secretary of State, that there dawned +and brightened the new era in international diplomacy, now in our day +so widely inaugurated, and so well advanced. It can be truly added +that in this vast arena, where mighty Nations are the actors, and in +very fact all the world is the stage, those cardinal moral traits of +Lincoln, and his transparent and commanding personality, so steadfast +and vivid and gentle and meek, have no need to borrow from other and +ancient theories and illustrations of world-wide statesmanship either +light or power. That each individual retain unsmirched and +undiminished his pristine self-respect as the cornerstone of all +reliability, his neighborly kindness as the prime condition of all +true comity, his child-like deference towards God as the basis of all +genuine dignity, and his rating of human souls above all perishable +goods as the absolute and essential foundation of any perpetuity, +forms a programme as elemental and imperial among mightiest Nations, +as among humblest neighborhoods of men. Lincoln's obedient recognition +of the Almighty's purposes in over-ruling national affairs, his +king-like resolution to hold loyally by his innate sense of equity, +his eagerness for the elevation of all the oppressed, his instinctive +aspiration in his civic life for foundations that cannot fail, and his +uncomplaining fellowship with the penal sorrows of his erring fellow +citizens,—all apprehended and defended and adhered to with such a +lucid mind and steadfast will and prophetic hope upon the open +platform of our American Republic—propose both in active practice and +in reasoned theory a pattern<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> of statesmanship, capable of +comprehending the political conditions, and directing the diplomacy of +all the governments of the world. Here are the primal conditions and +constituents of international amity. Agreements constructed and +defended thereupon among the Nations could not fail to be fair. They +would surely endure. And as the centuries passed, the faith of Lincoln +in a Ruler of Nations, just, benign, eternal, supreme, would +aboundingly increase.</p> + +<p>But once again it must be said that these are not the themes, nor this +the flight of an untrained imagination. The peace among all Nations +towards which Lincoln's hope appealed, was being patterned upon a just +and lasting achievement among ourselves. And among ourselves the +government was being tried in the burning, fiery furnace of a civil +war. It was being proved in flames what factors in a national civic +order were permanent, and fair, and approved of God. It was out of +deep affliction and unsparing discipline, rebuking all our sins, +humbling all our vanity, purging all our hopes, and cementing among +ourselves a just and lasting brotherhood, that Lincoln found the heart +to hope for perpetual fraternity through all the world. Within his +wish deep-wrought, hard-earned, clear-eyed wisdom was crystallized. It +was an imperial proposition, momentous, comprehensive, profound. It +embodied nothing less than a political philosophy.</p> + +<p>But these assertions demand a closer scrutiny. Does Lincoln's thought, +in scope and mode, deserve in any sense to be entitled a philosophy? +In soberness, is any such pretension justified? Are Lincoln's +principles so radical, so comprehensive, so well-ordered, as to +deserve a title so supreme?</p> + +<p>All turns on truly understanding Lincoln's apprehension of reality. +Lincoln's world was a society of persons.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> God, himself, his fellowman +engrossed his thought and interest. Among all persons, as seen and +known by him, there was a full affinity. All men were equal, and all +were kindred to the great God. This was the starting point, this the +circuit, and this the goal of all his conscious thought and toil. This +was his world. To penetrate its nature was to handle elements. To +grasp those elements was to be inclusive. And to comprehend their +native correlation was to master fundamental wisdom.</p> + +<p>Here Lincoln shows his mental strength. Among all these elements he +traced a fundamental similarity. A common pattern embraced them all. +The highest and the lowest were essentially alike. All were dowered +with kindred capacities for nobility. He never suffered himself or any +of his fellowmen to forget his own elevation from lowliest ignorance +and poverty to the presidency. However humble, all could rise. However +ignorant, all could learn. However unbefriended, all deserved regard. +Life and liberty and happiness were a common boon, an even, universal +right. For fellowship with God, even when buffeted beneath divine +rebukes, all might hope. The ultimate, open possibility of such divine +companionship is shown in this last inaugural, where Lincoln's keen +discernment avails to comprehend, that even sinning men may, through +penitent acceptance of heaven's rebukes, win heaven's favor and walk +with God. Thus Lincoln learned and knew that among all men, and +between all men and God there was a fundamental ground of imperishable +affiance. Here lies the foundation of his philosophy.</p> + +<p>And this affiance was in its being moral. With him the real was +ethical. Pure equity was the primal verity. By character were all +things judged. Politics and ethics were identical. In the thought of +Lincoln the qualities constituting our American Union, the qualities +that defined<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> and contained its very being, the qualities that made it +a civic entity, securing to it its coherence and perpetuity, the +qualities guaranteeing that it should not dissolve and disappear in +the fate and wreck of all decaying things, the qualities that made it +worth the faithful care of God and the loving loyalty of men, were +identical with the qualities constituting himself a free, responsible +soul. The same humble reverence, the same mutual goodwill, the same +regard for durability, the same jealousy for integrity as informed his +personal conscience and inspired his personal will, should form the +law and determine the deeds of the Nation as well, if the Nation was +ever to have in its civic being a dignity worthy to survive. Here is a +standard conformable at once with the measure of things in heaven, the +measure of a Nation, and the measure of every man.</p> + +<p>Such is the scope of this inaugural. In penning that grave paragraph +touching "unrequited toil," Lincoln had his eye alike upon the +individual slave, upon the Nation as a whole, upon long centuries, and +upon the ways of God. It may be said with equal truth that he was +pondering the sin and hurt of a single act of fraud, the vital +structure of organic civic life, the continual tenure of right and +guilt through lives and times that seem diverse, and the unison of +moral estimates that hold with God and men alike forever. This may not +be denied. The sin inflicted in a single wrong, like that of slavery, +may implicate a Nation in a guilt that, under the impartial and +upright rule of God, the centuries cannot obliterate. Inhuman scorn, +short-sighted greed, disloyalty and cruelty, however disguised, or +however upheld, entail a doom too certain and too sovereign for the +centuries to unduly defer, or for any nation to ever annul.</p> + +<p>Here are principles undeniably. And as undeniably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> these principles +are supreme. A just God is over all. To his high purposes all things, +even the most perverse, must eventually conform. To his right rule +even unrighteous men must bend. Into intelligent harmony with his will +all upright men may come, finding in lowly acknowledgment of his great +majesty their true dignity, in loyalty to his pure righteousness their +own complete integrity, in imitation of his universal benignity their +perfect mutual friendliness, and in a vision of his eternal purity +their assurance of personal and civic perpetuity. Thus in the midst of +all being, and in the conscious presence of Him in whom all being +finds its source, our personal, human being finds its transcendent +dignity and crown. Living thus, and living thus together, men find +life indeed. Thus all, endowed alike with the common sanctity of life, +enjoying equally the common right to liberty, share equally a common +boon of happiness. Thus each man alone and thus the civic order as a +whole may survive and flourish under God in just and lasting peace.</p> + +<p>This, in Lincoln's thought, was final, comprehensive truth. Taken in +all its foursquare amplitude and unison, there was nothing human it +did not avail to fitly arrange and fully circumscribe. Whether for man +alone or for men in leagues, whether for States supreme or for States +confederate, it provided every needful guide and bond. As for the +international arena, so for every lesser realm of social life, the +principles enshrined in this inaugural are civic wisdom crystallized. +They proffer to our human social life nothing less than a philosophy.</p> + +<p>This is the wisdom literally inscribed upon the tablet of this last +inaugural. To unveil its face before an ever heedful and ever more +attentive world is being found a sovereign function of succeeding +time. Men are ever learning, but have ever yet to learn what Lincoln +was.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> Despite his fame, his proper glory has been veiled. His features +have been shadowed, almost smirched. His reputation has been overlaid +with rumours and reports of excessive pleasure in ribald, rollicking +hours in wayside inns. But in his very laughter there were deep hints +of measured soberness. Seasoned wisdom flavored all his wit. His very +folly was profound. But when his mood of frolic passed, when, and +almost without any inner change, his outer mien grew serious, and +sadness brooded on his face, then his speech was fed from nether +springs. Then his lips were freighted from afar, and his speech was +rich with precious lore.</p> + +<p>In his inmost instinct Lincoln was a philosopher. Out of life's +complexities he was always searching for its clue. His speeches deal +at bottom with nothing but details. But out of the mesh of those +details he was always weaving principles. It is this that gives his +words their weight. He is by his own right a true philosopher. It was +true wisdom with which he dealt. With true wisdom he was in love. In +his own character he has garnered all his gains. By self-refinement he +has become a Nation's pattern. In himself are treasured all the +honors, dignities, and rewards that appertain to a worthy devotee of +wisdom. Assuredly, and beyond all fair dispute, the author of this +last inaugural, when fairly measured and esteemed for what he was, and +what he did, and what he overcame in civic realms by sheer original +research, far more than any Dr. Faust, deserves his doctorate and +degree. In sober verity the author of this inaugural is a true Doctor +of Philosophy.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Theodicy—The Problem of Evil</span></h3> + +<p>The last preceding chapter closed with an allusion to Dr. Faust. That +reference may now be profitably resumed. Goethe's Faust is introduced +as in deep uneasiness before the unsolved mysteries of life. He is +described as having mastered all that all the Faculties can give, but +all to no sure end, and as being then beguiled into other paths and +scenes, there to prosecute afresh his quest for present satisfaction. +In this new quest he accepts the guidance of a scorner into realms of +magic, sorcery, and witchcraft; into scenes of ribaldry, debauchery, +and basest sordidness; into lust, murder, and treacherous +unfaithfulness; into a devilish trade for present carnal happiness, at +cost of freedom, reason, and any heed for future destiny.</p> + +<p>One notable feature in all this quest is its submergence in the sea of +things that surge up around the passing life, only to pass away +themselves and disappear. His riddles and his quests, his ideals and +delights are largely physical. His guide does not conduct him into the +steadfast presence and observation of things permanent and spiritual. +He is prone to make him roam in realms of magic, where forms and deeds +are too thin and vague to be even shadows, and too false to be even +artificial, but where yet each scene excites the imagination to +perishing desires for joys of sense. Carnal potions, charms, and lust; +physical tumults and delights so largely occupy the central place in +all the scenes, that the riddles Faust would fain resolve are, to a +large degree, the mysteries of the universe of sense.</p> + +<p>Now let any man compare the major problems in the mind of Goethe's +Faust with the problems that Lincoln felt to be supreme. One discovers +instantly a vast divergence.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> Themes and questions, that to the very +end of Goethe's life perplexed and vexed his thought, were in +Lincoln's writings not so much as named.</p> + +<p>But far beyond all this. The vast, unwieldly world of solid sense, so +baffling, but so sure, now so terrible, and now so kind, now serving, +and now crushing boastful, trembling man, now begetting, and now +absorbing endless, countless generations and multitudes, seems not to +constitute a vexing or perplexing theme in Lincoln's most insistent +thought. This can never be explained as due to a painless, care-free, +earthly lot; nor to a pampering environment; nor to physical +stolidity; nor to incapacity for aesthetic joys. The lines that seamed +his face, the muscles that leashed his frame, the structure of his +hands, the meaning message upon his lips, his shadowed, sobered, +brooding eyes attest a different tale. Lincoln was sufficiently aware +of the plain and common sorrows incident to our earthly environment. +He knew what havoc cold and heat, hunger and pain, toil and want, +plague and death could visit upon our human life. But none of these +things seemed to trouble him. So engrossed was he with questions he +called "durable," that all physical discomforts and distresses, with +their connected pleasures and desires and hopes and fears, were but +passing, minor incidents.</p> + +<p>This undoubted fact in Lincoln's mental habitude is a signal and +significant factor, to be held in careful estimation in a final +judgment of Lincoln's character. Ethics, pure ethics, themes that +dealt with realms where man is truly responsible and truly free, were +his supreme concern from first to last. And so it comes to pass that +the problem, which for him is truly fundamental and ultimate, passes +wholly by at once all that burden of so-called evil, in the fear and +hurt and mystery of things inflexible, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> clings fast hold of things +alone that are responsible and free.</p> + +<p>Touching the theme of this chapter, and touching also this last +inaugural, the following letter, written March 15, 1865, to Thurlow +Weed, already cited and considered once, deserves a bit of heed +again:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little +notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I +expect the latter to wear as well as—perhaps better +than—anything I have produced; but I believe it is not +immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that +there is a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. +To deny it however, in this case, is to deny that there is a +God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed +to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it +falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford +for me to tell it.</p> + +<p class="right1">Truly yours,</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">A. Lincoln</span>.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>This letter shows what Lincoln judged to be the secret of this +inaugural's permanent hold on human approbation. It was its humble +testimony to the fact that, amidst and above the errors and sins, the +struggles and failures of men and Nations, there is a world-governing +God. Here opens a theme that is truly sovereign and ultimate.</p> + +<p>The last inaugural reveals that Lincoln was closely pondering two +incongruous themes: the bitter career of slavery; and the just rule of +God.</p> + +<p>Touching the first—the fact of human slavery—whatever other men +might think, in Lincoln's view it was always abhorrent, a primary +immorality. He was naturally "anti-slavery." Even in this address, +guarded against all malice, and suffused with charity, he could not +forbear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> from saying:—"It may seem strange that any men should dare +to seek a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from other +men's faces." Man's right to live was in his thought primal. That +right carried with it the right to enjoy the bread that his own hands +had earned. Such a privilege was the central element in human +happiness. Such felicity was elemental. Such freedom and such joy were +the simplest common boon in our common, earthly lot.</p> + +<p>The institution of slavery blasted that joy, denied that liberty, +robbed that right to life. This annihilated hope. It ranked men with +brutes. Such a ravaging of human desires and human rights Lincoln +judged, from the side of the slave-holder, a paramount crime; and from +the side of the slave, an insufferable curse. The terrible enormity of +both crime and curse was measured in Lincoln's estimation by the +enormity of the war. Viewed any way, that war was the indication and +register of the wrong done, and the wrong borne, by men in the +centuries of slavery. Arrogance and insolence, ruthlessness and +cruelty, dishonesty and faithlessness, luxury and lust, trailed all +along its path. That, in a Republic dedicated to liberty, men would go +to war and fight to the death with their fellow-citizens in defense +and perpetuation of tyranny and bonds, gave evidence to the strange +and obdurate perverseness involved and nurtured in the mood and +attitude of men that were bent on holding fellow men as slaves. The +existence of such an institution in any land Lincoln deemed a national +calamity; in a free Republic he felt it to be a heaven-braving anomaly +and affront. It was a flagrant evil, bound to bring down woe.</p> + +<p>But in the deep entanglements of history this baleful institution had +to be condoned, even in this land made sacred to the free. Inbred +within the Nation in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> Nation's very birth, that it be sheltered +within the Nation's life became a national responsibility. From this +firm bond Lincoln himself could not escape. In the Constitution that +Lincoln swore to uphold, when first he took the presidency, slavery +was sheltered, if not entrenched. As chief magistrate of the whole +Republic, however obnoxious slavery might be, he had the obnoxious +thing to protect. This he freely admitted, and explicitly declared in +his first inaugural.</p> + +<p>Here was the beginning of his final, moral debate. How should he +morally justify himself in defending what he morally abhorred? That +this dual attitude should be assumed he seemed fully to concede. This +shows most clearly, and in its sharpest moral contradiction, when, in +his first inaugural, he volunteered to permit an amendment to the +Constitution, enacting, as the supreme law of the land, that slavery +should remain thereafter undisturbed forever. How he brought his mind +to take that stand has never been made clear. He said in that +connection that such an amendment was in effect already Constitutional +law. But previous to that date he had always pledged and urged +forbearance with slavery, on the understanding that such forbearance +was only for a time; that, as foreseen and designed by the men who +framed the Constitution, slave holding was always to be so handled, as +to be always on the way to disappear. It is not easy to see how a man, +to whom the practice of holding slaves was so morally repellent, could +participate in making it perpetual. One could wish that just this +problem had been frankly handled under Lincoln's pen. It must have +been plainly before his thought. And the words of few men would be +more worthy of careful record and review than deliberate words from +Lincoln upon this world-perplexing query:—how adjust one's thoughts +and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> acts to a moral evil, that inveterately endures, and is never +atoned? But in fact that amendment was never carried through. One of +the fruits of slavery was its rash unwisdom at just this juncture.</p> + +<p>Still, though the amendment lapsed, slavery held on. And slaveholders +tightened their resolution to retain their rights in slaves, or rend +the Union. This precipitated war. This may seem to have doubled +Lincoln's problem, slavery and national dissolution. Standing at the +apex of national responsibility, he had to bear the hottest brunt of +the physical anguish, the mental perplexity, and the moral sorrows of +a war waged by a slave-holding South in militant secession. But in +reality, in his thought, the two were one. All turned on slavery. This +was the burning blemish in the Constitution. This was the intent of +the war. This was the burden on his heart. Here was a load too +grievous for any man to bear. It bore preponderantly on him. And yet, +as regards any personal and conscious desire or deed, he was through +and in it all conscious within himself of innocence. His trial and +sorrow were without cause. How now, in his soberest thought, was all +this moral confusion explained? Hating slavery with all his heart, +innocent all his life of any inclination to rob another man of +liberty, but pledged and sworn to shelter slavery under the arm of his +supreme and free authority, how could he prove himself consistent +morally?</p> + +<p>Here emerge the profoundest thoughts of Lincoln on the ways of God. +And herein appears his contribution to a theodicy—a vindication of +God's moral honor, where his moral government seems slack. How can +thoughtful men conceive and hold that God is just, when such injustice +and disaster are allowed at all, much less for centuries;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> in any +corner of the earth, much less where heaven's favor seems to dwell?</p> + +<p>Upon this subduing theme this last inaugural gives us Lincoln's most +explicit words. Of God's personal being, and of his personal care, +this address shows Lincoln to be perfectly assured. This was his +standing attitude and confidence. Throughout his years in the +presidency this trust had seemed unwavering. Indeed, by repeated, +almost unconscious attestations, it was his stablest trust. Some of +his utterances are tender and touching testimonials to his belief that +God rules in his own personal career. But mainly his confessions of +belief in the Providence of God are connected with national concerns. +He did joyfully, almost jubilantly believe that this Republic was +under God's special watch and care. His own hope for our national +future well-being and honor rested mainly, we must judge, upon the +tokens he thought he could trace in our thrilling and inspiring +history of the divine controlling care. At bottom it was this faith +that underlay all his patriotism. That the fundamental affirmations of +our Constitution were rescripts and digests from the will and word of +God was the lively ground and unfailing confirmation of his pure +devotion to his Nation's honor and weal. More than aught in all the +world beside, it was this religious faith that steadied and girded his +will through all those strenuous days.</p> + +<p>It is just here that this study of a theodicy sets in. Above all his +former thoughts about himself, about his land, about the clash of +right and wrong; above all thoughts of other men, and other times; +even above his own and his opponents' former prayers and faith, he +lifts new thoughts in new reverence and new docility towards God.</p> + +<p>Still naught but slavery in his theme—its undeniable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> iniquity; its +strange, prolonged permission; his own, and all other men's +responsibility; its unavoidable entail in penalty; and the divine, +enduring terms of new liberty and peace. Here are themes and fixed +realities that seem eternally to disagree. Can they ever all be +morally harmonized? Could even God enlighten that dark past? Could his +own historic acts be morally unified? Nothing he had ever done with +slavery, not even its utter elimination in his act of freedom, had +ever been done, he explicitly affirmed, on moral grounds. Yet slavery, +and by his own hand, was indeed undone. But even so the spirit of the +South was still invincible, and war was holding on. What indeed could +be the thoughts and plans of God?</p> + +<p>To begin with, he confesses both North and South and all the land gone +wrong. This is the first component in his theodicy. Neither North nor +South, not even in the act of prayer, had walked with God, nor found +the truth, nor gained its wish. All thoughts of men, in the righteous +rule of God, were being overturned. This confession verges near to +worship, acclaiming, as it does, the Almighty's designs; and venturing +as it does, to trace and reproduce the Almighty's thoughts.</p> + +<p>Here is seen how genuine is the moral earnestness in Lincoln's earnest +thoughtfulness. As though by a very instinct, his form of words +betrays his reverence. He refrains from dogmatism. He refrains even +from affirmation. He knows he is venturing upon a daring flight. He is +assuming to conjoin together into a moral unison that bitter sample of +the age-long cruelty of man against his brother, and the transcendent +sovereignty, the eternal justice, and the age-long silence of God. His +formula is a modest supposition. But within its modesty is an eye that +searches far.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>He takes resort in one of the most trenchant declarations of Christ, +that momentous saying in his colloquy about the majesty and modesty of +a little child:—"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must +needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense +cometh."</p> + +<p>In this colloquy Jesus seems to be moved by a tender impulse of +affectionate jealousy for the model beauty and grace of children. But +that tenderness is roused into one of the most terrific outbursts that +ever passed his lips. Little children are Christlike, Godlike, models +of the citizenship in the heavenly Kingdom. God is their jealous +guardian and defender. But Godlike, and of heavenly dignity though +they be, they are shy and frail. And men, as they grow gross and +impudent, abuse and offend their defenselessness. So things have to +be. But woe to such offenders. They were better tied to that mammoth +stone that the mule turns in the mill, and submerged in the abyss of +the deep of the great sea.</p> + +<p>Here are four noteworthy elements:—a blended heavenly modesty and +majesty and innocence; an insufferable insolence; a trebly-terrible +penalty; and a strange and ominous necessity.</p> + +<p>Over these four factors Lincoln's mind must have pondered long. Else +how explain their place in this inaugural? They form the foundation of +its central paragraph, and constitute its paramount argument; forming +alike a sobering admonition, and a humble ground of hope to all the +Nation, while at the same time holding aloft before the Nation's +thought the outline and substance of a stately vindication of the ways +of God. Evidently here is shapely fashioning in lucid speech of +Lincoln's ripest, surest thought. As one faces all its range, it seems +like the open sky, clear but fathomless. But its wisdom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> is doubly +sealed, and it bears a double claim to our respect. It shows the way +of Lincoln's mind, and the way of the mind of Christ. Not quickly will +any other thinker, however disciplined, traverse all its course. But +travel where he will in the mighty orbit of this inquiry, the modern +thinker, whatever his attainment, may find in this inaugural shining +indications that Lincoln's thought has gone before.</p> + +<p>In this modest, far-searching supposition, transferred to American +history from the lips of Christ, Lincoln firmly grasps two solid +facts, elemental and universal in human life:—the beautiful modesty +of the meek; and the ugly arrogance in the strong. Strength and +weakness needs must be. These invite to rudeness and retreat. Then the +powerful overbear. The gentle are overborne. Offenses multiply. The +arrogant prevail. So must it be. But when the meek go down beneath the +wicked rudeness of the strong, then the Most High God, within whose +firm dominion both strong and weak share equally in all the privileges +and rights of liberty and law, sets over the offended one his shield, +and against the proud offender his sword, until pity and equity are +enthroned upon the earth again. Thus must it be. The meek must suffer. +Offenders must arise. But meekness is a heavenly, Godlike quality. And +as with God, so with his gentle little ones, patient gentleness will +be duly vindicated; rude arrogance will meet exact and fit rebuke; and +it will stand clear that strength and weakness may dwell together in +equity and liberty and peace.</p> + +<p>This was the age-long moral process which Lincoln's eye discerned, and +the final issue which his expectation hailed. Then and therein his eye +discerned that all voices would be constrained to proclaim that in all +the moral world pity and equity were prevalent; that the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> least had +Godlike majesty; that humility gave to all the great their +courtliness; and that there was within all men a fadeless worth, far +outranking all other wealth.</p> + +<p>But it is essential to note, not alone that Lincoln offers this in the +modest form of supposition; but that, as it leaves his lips, it +assumes the formula of a confession. Even the meek receive rebuke. The +gentlest have wandered also away from God. The problem has surpassed +us all. All have somewhat to learn from God. That arrogance may meet +its due, meekness must be yet more meek. It must needs be that +offenses come. Greater than all our wrong, and all our patience, is +the patient truth of God. This must be fully learned. It is under +wrong that wrong is made right. It is by meekness under arrogance that +arrogance is put to shame. It is by gentleness under rudeness that +rudeness is subdued. Offenses must needs be. Only in sacrificial +submission to its woe is the problem of evil ever resolved. Only thus +is the iniquity of the sin measured back upon the evil doer in a +symmetrical and equivalent rebuke.</p> + +<p>But this is never to exculpate the offender or condone the offense. +Blood with the sword, drop for drop, must be meted out to the +slaveholder, as he meted out to the slave blood with the lash. All the +wealth that the bonds-man's lord has snatched from the toiling slave +must be yielded up. Over human scorn and greed and injustice and +cruelty hang unfailingly judgments that are true and righteous +altogether. Neither may they who are offended rail, nor they who +offend exult, over the divine delay. Nor when God's judgments fall may +they who are rebuked complain, nor they who are redeemed turn +exultation into arrogance. God's ways, and his alone are even, and +altogether true.</p> + +<p>In thoughts like these Lincoln's final explanation of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> ways of God +took form. In patient, repentant, adoring acquiescence his heart found +rest. His sorrows were profound, the sorrows of a patriot, kinsman to +all the sorrowful in the land. But he learned, however deep the +stroke, to forbear complaint. He received the sorrows of the war into +his own breast as heaven's righteous woe upon a haughty land, and as +heaven's discipline, teaching offenders the woe of their offense. So +his ways became coincident with the greater ways of God.</p> + +<p>But in this moral explication of the war, and of all that the war +involves, two vastly different types of character persist. Lincoln's +solution of the enigma was in diametrical contrast with the views of +the leading spirits of the South. Not like him did they rate slavery, +nor conceive the war, nor understand the ways of God. How, now, could +Lincoln's view assimilate this obduracy in the South? This question +was clearly within the scope of Lincoln's thought, and its answer is +embraced in what has already been explained. Given an even penalty for +any sin, drop for drop with the avenging sword for blood with the +lash, and it is morally indifferent whether men rail, or whether they +acquiesce. The wrong is made right. The meek are redeemed. God's delay +is vindicated. Rudeness is reversed. The law is fully revealed. Man's +liberty is honored equally. Cruelty and unfairness are rebuked. The +gains of greed are scattered. Humblest men are crowned with eternal +dignity. To such, whether from the North or from the South, as with +melting sorrow and repentance welcomed to their bosoms this bitter +vindication of those primal rights, the sorrows of the war opened into +perennial peace. To such as repelled that proffered vindication, there +was in the sorrows of the war no alleviation. But for both, +nevertheless, and for both identically, the sorrows of the war +completed the moral<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> vindication of a pure and Christlike equity and +friendliness. Thus all the ways of God, with the repentant and the +rebellious alike, are just and righteous altogether. This it is the +highest wisdom of men to acquiescently confess. To this even those who +rebelliously complain and rail must finally utterly submit.</p> + +<p>And now one final matter remains—the idea and definition of +happiness. When men discuss the problem of evil in the universe, and +in its awful presence try to substantiate their confidence in the just +and friendly care of a transcendent Deity, one subtle touchstone +governs all they say:—What is their conception of human weal, and of +human woe? What in actual fact is deepest misery; and what is true +felicity? What do they assume man's highest good to be?</p> + +<p>Just here is wide and multiform diversity. For illustration, let +thought recur to the contrast with which the topic of this chapter was +introduced. The idea of happiness that Goethe plants in Dr. Faust, and +the idea of happiness that ruled in Lincoln, are as separate as the +poles. And again, to keep within the setting of this inaugural, the +happiness towards which Lincoln strove, and in which his thought found +satisfaction, contrasted mightily with the happiness that informed the +aspirations of the leaders of the South. In their ideal, disdain of +all inferiors, delight in easy luxury, unequal acknowledgment of +rights, and a cruel stifling of the very rudiments of love, were mixed +and working mightily. Desiring and enjoying that Elysium, their +estimate of evil, their definition of the highest good, and their +programme for a final consummation under God could have no fellowship +with any final plan of thought approved by Lincoln.</p> + +<p>What was Lincoln's highest happiness? This merits pondering anywhere; +but compellingly, where one tries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> to trace his views upon this +problem of theodicy; and yet still more when one conceives in this +inquiry how in Lincoln's life his ethics, his civics, and his religion +became coincident.</p> + +<p>As this mighty problem resolves itself in Lincoln's mind, it +comprehends, along with his own welfare and worth and true +contentment, the equal dignity and happiness of every other man, and a +harmonious consonance with the being and decree of God. He sees that +scorn of any other man involves in time the scorner's shame. He sees +that robbery, however veiled, entails a debt whose perfect +reimbursement the slowest centuries will in their time exact. He sees +that any form of malice or unfriendliness, housed and fed in any +heart, will forfeit all the joy of gratitude, and fill that heart at +last with vindictive hate and bitterest loneliness. He sees that +fleshly joys, however lush and full, are marked and destined for a +swift and sure decay and weariness and vanity. And so, to realize the +perfect welfare, he commends to himself, and urges persuasively on all +other men, the sovereign good of an even justice, upheld within +himself, and so measured out to other men by the perfect standard of +God's self-respecting loyalty; of universal charity, eager everywhere +to minister universal benefit and peace; of supreme enthusiasm for +enduring life; and of a genuine humility, that shares all hope with +all the lowly, and trusts and honors God. In this fourfold, composite +unison of conscious, deathless life Lincoln sees the fairest goal, the +choicest boon, the highest good of man. In the presence of such a +standard, and before the outlook of such a hope Lincoln fashions his +theodicy.</p> + +<p>Here then is the sum of Lincoln's thought upon this bewildering +theme:—</p> + +<p>The evil that makes this earthly lot so dark and hard<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> is man's wrong +to man; the awful sorrows of the meek; the offenses wrought upon the +helpless by the arrogant.</p> + +<p>Before this mystery all other mysteries, however deep and terrible, +such as hurricanes and famine, plagues and death, may not be named.</p> + +<p>This most sovereign evil is most clearly understood by those who are +oppressed. Their eyes pierce all its deeps. The rude are, by their +rudeness, blind.</p> + +<p>The names of all who suffer and are still are registered on high for +full solace and redemption.</p> + +<p>The register of the rudeness of the strong is also full, and destined +for full requital.</p> + +<p>This redemption and requital shall be wrought by God.</p> + +<p>In this redemption the ruthless may relent and share with all the meek +the full measure of all their sorrows, and so become partakers of all +their joy.</p> + +<p>If ruthlessness persist, full requitals shall still descend, and in +the presence of God's even righteousness every mouth shall be stopped.</p> + +<p>And so shall all evil be fully rectified.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Piety—The Problem of Religion</span></h3> + +<p>Of all the words of Lincoln, evincing what he thought of God, none +outweigh the witness of this last inaugural. His reply to Thurlow Weed +regarding this address, referred to in another place, concerned +precisely just this point—the movements and the postulates of his +religious faith. As his ripened mind prepared and pondered and +reviewed this speech, there accrued within his consciousness a solemn +confidence that it was destined to become his most enduring monument; +and that as coming generations became aware of its outstanding +eminence, their eyes and hearts would fasten on those words about the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +age-long, just, and overturning purposes of God. There was a +confession, so Lincoln felt assured, embracing and conjoining North +and South and East and West in an equal lowliness and shame; and +declaring and extolling God's divine supremacy over all the erring +waywardness and awful sufferings of men.</p> + +<p>In this outpouring of his burdened heart before his God, and in the +presence of his fellowmen, there is evidence respecting Lincoln's +piety that courts reflection.</p> + +<p>In the first place it indicates where Lincoln's sense of moral +rectitude found out its final bearings. Those purposes of God, as +Lincoln watched their operation, were working out the moral issues in +the awful wrong of age-long, unrequited toil in perfect equity. Strong +men had been wronging weaklings and inferiors. Helpless men had been +suffering untold sorrows. Indignant men had been crying out in hot and +hasty protest for full and speedy vengeance. Thoughtful men had been +tortured over weary, futile wonderings as to how the baffling problem +could be solved. Convulsions and confusion, which no arm or thought of +man could start or stay, were shaking and bewildering all the land.</p> + +<p>But through and over all, as Lincoln came reverently to believe, a +sovereign God held righteous government; and out of all the baffling +turmoil he was, by simple righteousness, bringing perfect unison and +peace. The dark mystery of unrequited wrong was being illuminated by +the righteous majesty of complete requital. But in its full +perfection, it was a righteousness such as no mind of man devised. It +was the righteousness of God. Here Lincoln's moral sense was purified. +He was being taught of God. And this he clearly, humbly recognized. +And he took full pains in this address to give God all the praise. And +so his reverence towards Deity, and his affirmation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> touching +righteousness became identical. His sense of equity stood clothed in +piety.</p> + +<p>In the second place, deep within the heart of these divine +instructions were such unveilings of God's high majesty, in his +steadfast reign above the passing centuries, as awoke on Lincoln's +lips such lowly adoration as attuned these words of Godly +statesmanship unto a psalm of praise. Here Lincoln's lowliness attains +consummate beauty. It is indeed an utterance of profound abasement. It +sinks beneath a strong rebuke. It acknowledges sad wanderings. It +accepts correction, and meekly takes God's guiding hand. It also sees +God's excellence, his high thoughts and ways, his irresistible +dominion, his moral spotlessness. And before that revelation he humbly +walks among his fellow-citizens, the lowliest of them all, confessing +that the reproach involved in what he said fell heaviest upon himself; +and therein, as a priest, leading the Nation in an act of worshipping +submissiveness before the Lord. Herein his comely, moral modesty +becomes an act and attitude of simple reverence towards God. And thus +his humility, just like his sense of righteousness, becomes apparelled +all about with Godly piety.</p> + +<p>In the third place, this new discernment of the ways of God unfolds +profound discoveries of the divine evaluation of the diverse, +contending interests in our commingled life. It makes clear which +values fade, and which shine on eternally. The problem upon which +Lincoln had transfixed his eye was that two and one-half centuries of +hard and sad embondagement. By that gross sin men's deathless souls +were bought and sold for transient gain. Past all denial, therein was +moral wrong; else moral wrong had no existence. Its presence, every +time he faced it, tortured Lincoln, and made him miserable. And it +affronted heaven, overturning God's creative fiat<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> of equality in all +mankind. It set and ranked brief creature comforts and desires above +the worth of heaven's image in a brother man. Every day it challenged +heaven's curse. But heaven's judgment was delayed. Long centuries +seemed to show that heaven was indifferent whether human souls or +carnal pleasures held superior rank.</p> + +<p>But now, within the awful tumult of the war there boomed an undertone, +conveying unto all who had quick ears to hear, how God adjudged that +wrong. Upon dark battle clouds shone heavenly light, making newly +plain God's estimate of slaveholder and of slave; of joys and gains +that perish with their use, or await recall; and of souls that never +die. Those awful tidings told how ill-gotten, carnal wealth is +mortgaged under woe, and to the uttermost farthing must be released; +how offending men affront the Lord; and how all offenses must be +avenged. They made full clear how he who grasps at earthly gain by +wrecking human dignity commits a primal sin—a sin that time, though +it run into centuries, cannot obscure, or mitigate, or exempt from +strict review. They reveal infallibly that God's pure eye is on God's +image in every son of man; that supreme, far-seeing ends are lodged in +all the good but unenduring gifts wherewith God's wise and kindly +bounties crown man's toil; that a perfect moral government holds +dominion everywhere and forevermore; and that beneath this rule, in +God's own time, it shall come supremely clear that feasts and luxury +and fine attire, that wealth and lust and pampered flesh have lesser +worth and pass away, while souls of men may thrive, and gain, and win +new worth eternally.</p> + +<p>As Lincoln's eye reviewed these centuries of reveling wealth, and +impoverished hearts; and beheld, in the issues of the resultant war, +that wealth laid waste, and those pure hearts fed and filled with hope +and liberty; his wisdom<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> to compare all earth-born, mortal things with +things unperishing and heavenly passed through new birth, new growth +to new completeness in depth and clarity and confidence. And all this +gain to Lincoln, while wholly ethical, dealing as it did with the +wrong and right in human slavery and liberty, owed all its increase to +truer understanding of the Lord. Here again his ethics was purified by +faith. His faith was deeply ethical. As with his lowliness, and his +rectitude, so with his moral valuation of the human soul. It was +vestured all about with Godly piety.</p> + +<p>In the fourth place, within the awful wreckage of the war, with which +this last inaugural is so absorbed, there were mighty attestations +that God was pitiful. That war could be defined as God's vengeance on +man's cruelty. Precisely this was what Lincoln grew to see. To all who +toiled in slavery the war had brought deliverance. Thereby the +stinging lash was snatched from human hands; the human heel was thrust +from human necks; the shameless havoc of the homes of lowly men was +stayed; countless sufferings were assuaged; and true blessedness was +restored to souls hard-wonted to unrelenting grief.</p> + +<p>And this achievement was alone the Lord's. Of all down-trodden men +high heaven became the champion. In all its awful judgments he who +ruled that conflict remembered mercy. High above all the bloody +carnage of those swords there swayed the scepter of the All-pitiful. +In the very doom upon the strong God wrought redemption for the poor. +And so, as that dreadful wreckage brought to nothing all the pride in +the extorted gain of centuries, it published most impressively that he +who reigned above all centuries was All-compassionate.</p> + +<p>To this great thought of God, Lincoln keyed this last inaugural. The +majesty of God's sovereign law of purity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> and righteousness was robed +in kindliness. Into this high truth ascended Lincoln's patriot hope. +Let men henceforth forswear all cruelty, and follow God in showing all +who suffer their costliest sympathy. This was a mighty longing in his +great heart, as he prepared this speech. Before God's vindication of +the meek, let the merciless grow merciful. Yea, let all the land, for +all the land had taken part in human cruelty, confess its wrong, +accept God's scourge without complaint, thus opening every heart to +God's free, healing grace, and binding all the land in leagues of +friendliness. Let men, like God, be pitiful. Like God, let men be +merciful. In mutual sympathy let all make clear how men of every sort +may yet resemble God, the All-compassionate. This was the trend and +strength of Lincoln's gentleness, as it stood and wrought in full +maturity beneath God's discipline, within this last inaugural. It was +nothing but an echo and reflection of the gentleness of God. And so, +in his benignity, as in his rectitude and lowliness and purity, he +stood in this address attired in Godly piety.</p> + +<p>So Lincoln's ethics can be described, in his ripened harvest-tide of +life. So it stands in this inaugural. It is alike a living code for +daily life, and a religious faith. It is born and taught of God. It is +Godliness without disguise, upon the open field of civic +statesmanship. It is a prophet's voice, in a civilian's speech. It is +the seasoned wisdom of a man familiar equally with the field of +politics, and the place of prayer. It shows how God may walk with men, +how civic interests deal with things divine. It proves that a civilian +in a foremost seat may without apology profess himself a man of God, +and gain thereby in solid dignity. It shows how heaven and earth may +harmonize.</p> + +<p>But this manly recognition in Lincoln's mind of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> inner unison of +ethics and religion was in no respect ephemeral, no careless utterance +of a single speech, no flitting sentiment of a day. It was the +fruitage of an ample season's growth. It was royally deliberate, the +issue of prolonged reflection, the goal of mental equipoise and rest +to which his searching, balanced thought had long conduced. It was in +keeping with an habitual inclination in his life.</p> + +<p>This proclivity of his inwrought moral honesty to find its norm and +origin, its warrant and secure foundation in his and his Nation's God +must have taken shape controllingly within those silent days that +intervened between his first election in 1860, and the date of his +inaugural oath in 1861. Else, in those brief addresses on his way to +Washington, that marvelous efflorescence upon his honest lips of an +ideal heavenward expectancy is unaccountable. In those dispersed and +fugitive responses, from Springfield to Independence Hall and +Harrisburg, there breathed such patriotic sentiments of aspiration and +anxiety as owed their ardor, their excellence, and their very loyalty +to his eager trust and hope, that all his deeds as president should +execute the will of God. Throughout his presidential term this wish to +make his full official eminence a facile instrument of God, attains in +his clear purpose and intelligence a solid massiveness, all too +unfamiliar in the craft of politics.</p> + +<p>The witness to this, in a letter to A. G. Hodges of April, 1864, is +most explicit and unimpeachable. This letter is a transcript of a +verbal conversation, is written by request, and is designed distinctly +to make the testimony of his mortal lips everywhere accessible and +permanent. Its major portion aims to give his former spoken words a +simple repetition. Then he says:—"I add a word which was not in the +verbal conversation." And<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> upon this he appends a paragraph, as of +something he could not restrain, the while he was conscious perfectly +that what he was about to write was certain to be published and +preserved among all men. In this letter, so doubly, so explicitly +deliberate, he is defending his decree for unshackling the slave, by +the plea, that only so could the Union be preserved. In the appended +paragraph, he disclaims all compliment to his own sagacity, and +accredits all direction and deliverance of the Nation's life, in that +dark mortal crisis, to the hidden, reverend government of a kind and +righteous God.</p> + +<p>If any man desires to probe and understand the thoughtfulness of +Lincoln's piety, let him place this doubly-pondered document and the +last inaugural side by side, remembering discerningly the date of +each, detecting how each conveys Lincoln's well-digested judgment of +unparalleled events, and not forgetting that Lincoln foresaw how both +those documents would be reviewed in generations to come. Here are +signs assuredly that Lincoln's lowliness and reverence, his +prayerfulness and trust, his steadfastness and gratitude towards God +had been balanced and illumined beneath the livelong cogitations of an +even, piercing eye. Pursuing and comparing every way the tangled, +complex facts of history; the endless strifes of men; the broken +lights in minds most sage; and the awful evidence, as the centuries +evolve, that greed and scorn and hate and falsity lead to woe; his +patient mind grows poised and clear in faith that a good and righteous +God is sovereign eternally. The truth he grasped transcended +centuries. His grasping faith transcends change.</p> + +<p>But Lincoln's piety was not alone deep-rooted and deliberate, the +ripened growth of mixed and manifold experience. It was heroic. It was +the mainspring and the inspiration of a splendid bravery. This is +finely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> shown in the early autumn of 1864. On September 4 of that year +he wrote a letter to Mrs. Gurney, a Quakeress. This letter bears a +most curious and intimate resemblance to the central substance of the +last inaugural. It witnesses to his earnest research after the hidden +ways of God.</p> + +<p>Within this search he sees some settled certainties. He sees that he +and all men are prone to fail, when they strive to perceive what God +intends. Into such an error touching the period of the war all had +fallen. God's rule had overborne men's hopes. God's wisdom and men's +error therein would yet be acknowledged by all. Men, though prone to +err, if they but earnestly work and humbly trust in deference to God, +will therein still conduce to God's great ends. So with the war. It +was a commotion transcending any power of men to make or stay. But in +God's design it contained some noble boon. And then he closes, as he +began, with a tender intimation of his reverent trust in prayer. The +whole is comprehended within this single central sentence, a sentence +which involves and comprehends as well the total measure of the last +inaugural:—"The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must +prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them +in advance."</p> + +<p>Here is a confession notable in itself. It would be notable in any +man, and at any time. But when one marks its date, its notability is +enhanced impressively. For Lincoln was traversing just there some of +the darkest hours of his overshadowed life. It was the period +following his second nomination for the presidency in May of 1864, and +before the crisis of election in November of the same year. Central in +that season of wearisome and ominous uncertainty fell the failure of +the battle in the Wilderness under Grant; the miscarriage of his plans +for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> Richmond; and the awful carnage by Petersburg. Here fell also the +date of Early's raid, with its terrible disclosure of the helplessness +in Washington. Thereupon ensued, in unexampled earnestness, a +recrudescence of the great and widespread weariness with the war; and +of an open clamor for some immediate conference and compromise for +peace. Foremost leaders and defenders of the Union cause throughout +the North sank down despairingly, convinced that at the coming +national vote Lincoln was certain to meet defeat. At the same time the +army sorely needed new recruits; but another draft seemed desperate. +Then Lincoln's closest counselors approached his ears with heavy words +of hopelessness about the outlook in the Northern States confessedly +most pivotal.</p> + +<p>In the midst of those experiences, on August 23, 1864, Lincoln penned +and folded away with singular care from all other eyes, these +following words:—</p> + +<p>"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the president-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his +election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward."</p> + +<p>Those words were written eleven days before he penned the sentiments +cited above from the letter to the Quakeress. Between those two dates +the Democratic Convention of Chicago had convened and nominated +General McClellan.</p> + +<p>Amid such scenes, in the presence of such events, and among such +prognostications, Lincoln chiseled out those phrases about the +perfect, hidden, but all-prevailing purposes of God. Here is Godly +piety in the sternest stress of politics. Here faith is militant, and +unsubdued.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> Its face is like a burnished shield. Its patience no +campaign outwears. In its constancy suggestions of surrender can find +no place. It was forged upon a well-worn anvil, under mighty strokes, +and at a fervent heat. Fires only proved its purity. It was fighting +battles quite as sore as any fought with steel. It was the deathless, +truceless courage of a moral hero. It was pure and perfect fortitude. +Its struggle, its testing, and its victory had not been wrought on +earthly battle-fields. Its strife had been with God. More than with +the South, Lincoln's controversy had been with the Most High. He +wrestled with the heavenly angel through the night, like the ancient +patriarch. Like the ancient saint, he bore the marks of grievous +conflict. And like him of old, he gained his boon. He achieved to see +that God and perfect righteousness were in eternal covenant.</p> + +<p>Such was Lincoln's piety. His view of God gave God an absolute +pre-eminence. In Lincoln's day, as in the day when Satan tempted +Christ, vast areas of human life seemed to give all faith in God's +control the lie; and men in multitudes abjured such futile confidence. +But Lincoln kept his faith in God, and truth, and love, and +immortality. And in that faith he judged his trust, and hope, and +prayer to be preserved on high inviolate. There above, he firmly held, +were lodged eternally the perfect pattern and assurance of full +rectitude and charity. And in that understanding he held on earth +unyieldingly to the perfect image of that heavenly norm, in a pure and +acquiescent loyalty and love. Thus discerningly, submissively, +triumphantly did Lincoln's heart aspire to unify an honest earthly +walk with a living faith in God.</p> + +<p>One word remains. As Lincoln makes confession of his faith in this +inaugural, extolling God supremely, and therein announcing to his +fellowmen the groundwork of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> his morality, it comes to view that the +qualities held fast in Lincoln's heart, and the attributes of God have +marvelous affinity. The equity he adores in God he cherishes within +himself, and recommends to all. God's estimate of the incomparable +value of a human soul, when set beside the variable treasures men +exchange, Lincoln's judgment reverently approves, and as reverently +adopts, establishing thereby a standard quality in his conscious life. +God's tender pity for the poor, hidden deep in his divine rebuke of +slavery, and hidden deeper still within his mercy for all who help to +bear its awful sacrifice, melts and molds the heart of Lincoln to the +same compassion. And to the very outlines of God's majesty, as his +sovereign purposes are all unrolled and all fulfilled throughout the +earth, Lincoln's soul conforms ideally, in its humble vision and +expression of devout, discerning praise.</p> + +<p>Here is something passing wonderful. Between a fragile, mortal man and +the eternal God, when each is limned in terms of ethics, appears a +deep and high agreement. There is enthroned in each a common +righteousness. In each, the laws of mercy are the same. In each are +constituted principles inwrought with immortality. And within the +eternal interplay of reverence and majesty between mankind and God, +there is a fellowship in dignity that proves the holy Maker and his +moral creature to be immediately akin. And so the mind and will of +Lincoln, in this their moral plenitude, may interpret and recommend, +may apprehend and execute the eternal purposes of God. This high +commission Lincoln humbly, firmly undertook. And in his commanding +life there is a mighty hint, not easy to silence or erase, that +Godliness and ethics, which have been set so often far apart, were +eternally designed for unison.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Logic—The Problem of Persuasion</span></h3> + +<p>In the study of Lincoln's ethics it is not enough to describe it as an +ideal scheme of thought, however notable its range and poise and +insight may be seen to be. As Lincoln's character stands forth in +national eminence among our national heroes, he figures as a man of +deeds, a man of powerful influence over the actions of other men, a +man of masterly exploits. However truly it may be affirmed that +multitudes of adjutants reinforced his undertakings at every turn and +on every side, it still holds also true, and that a truth almost +without a parallel, that his sheer personal force was the single, +undeniable, over-mastering energy that shaped this Nation's evolution +through an outstanding epoch in its career. It was primarily out of +those prolific and exhaustless energies, stored and mobilized within +himself, that he rose, as though by nature, to be national chief +executive. It was straight along the line of his far-seeing vision and +advice that Congress and the Nation were guided to accept and +undertake that terrible enterprise of war. In that great struggle he +came to be in firm reality, far more than any other man, the +competent, effective commander-in-chief. He was chief councilor in a +cabinet whose supreme function dealt singly with matters wholly +executive. It was by the almost marvelous unison of wisdom and +decision resident in him that Congress and the Nation were day by day +induced to hold with an almost preternatural inflexibility to the +single, sovereign issue of the strife. When, after four years of +unexampled bitterness, multitudes were wearying of all patience in +further hostilities, it was his personal momentum and weight, more +than any other influence, that held the prevailing majority of the +national electorate to predetermine by their free ballots that, at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +whatever cost of further war, the principles of liberty, equality, and +national integrity should be placed above all possible challenge or +assault forever.</p> + +<p>And in the period before the war and before his elevation to the +presidency this same executive efficiency, this singular capacity to +mold the views and stir the motives of other men, was likewise in +continual demonstration. Discerning how supreme a factor in our +American affairs was the power of public sentiment, and observing how +that power was being utilized to undermine the national tranquillity, +he challenged and overthrew single handed the leading master of the +day in the field of political management and debate. Trusting in the +same confidence, and pursuing the same device, he appealed to the +civic consciences of men in the open field of free debate, by the +single instrument of reasoned speech, until, by his persuading +arguments, he consolidated into effective harmony and led to national +victory a party of independent voters, with watchword, platform, and +experience all untried. In all the process by which that new-formed +party gained access to national pre-eminence it was Lincoln's +governing influence that went ahead and gave the movement steadiness. +And through it all he vitally inspired a Nation, now undivided and +indivisible, with a prevailing, corporate desire, that all succeeding +days and all beholding Nations are now deeming, for any stable civic +life, the true enduring ideal.</p> + +<p>And all of this was compassed and set afoot within scarcely more than +one decade. In October of 1854 at Peoria, he consciously took up his +strenuous enterprise. In April of 1865, he laid it down and ceased to +strive. Single handed he undertook the task. Through all its progress +the weight of that one hand was undeniably preponderant. And when that +hand relaxed, the task that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> its release left trembling was one that +stirred a mighty Nation's full solicitude.</p> + +<p>Here is something marvelous. These affirmations, as thus far made, +seem certainly overdrawn, and totally incredible. An agency and an +efficiency of national dimensions, introducing and completing an epoch +in our national history; but an agent and an outfit almost defying +inventory, his personality seeming in every phase so simple and +without prestige, and all his ways and means seeming so unpromising +and plain; the while through all his course he was confronting a +resistance and a hostility whose impulse was rooted in centuries of +firm and proud dominion, and whose onset made a Nation tremble. How +can such stupendous affirmations be clothed with credibility? Was it +indeed the hand of Lincoln that turned the Nation from its mistaken +path? Was it Lincoln's will that reinaugurated our predestined course? +Was it Lincoln's overcoming confidence that established in the land +again a good assurance that its integrity was indestructible?</p> + +<p>If questions such as these were addressed to Lincoln himself for his +reply, we may be sure his answer, like all his ways, would contain a +beautiful mingling of modesty and confidence. Heeding well the mortal +crisis, and hearing the Nation's call for help, he would not refuse, +when bidden and appointed, to take his stand alone at the very apex of +the strain, knowing well that the burdens to be borne would be greater +than tasked the strength of even Washington; and affirming as he +advanced warily to his post, that in his appointment many abler men +had been passed by. But then he would re-affirm and urge again all the +arguments of his great addresses and messages and debates, beginning +with that initial trumpet peal in Peoria in 1854, and not concluding +until, after all had been rehearsed and reavouched, he recited again +with prophetic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> earnestness this last inaugural. And throughout all +his devout re-affirmation of all the spoken and written appeals to +which his patriotic mind gave studied form and utterance in that +intense decade, a discerning ear could distinguish in every paragraph +profound and penetrating attestations, such as these:—This is a +mighty Nation. Its future is far more vast. Its present perplexities +are intricate. It has been misled. It needs most sane direction. I am +stationed at her head. Difficulties environ me. My burdens outweigh +Washington's. But this land was conceived in liberty. It was dedicated +to be free. Here all are peers. God's hand has been on our history. +Our destiny enfolds the highest human weal. God is with us still. +Human hearts are with us. Here is overcoming power. Despite my frailty +and poor descent, I will never leave my place. I see how other men +prevail with multitudes by personal appeal. This shall be my +confidence. Though I have no name, though there is perhaps no reason +why I should ever have a name, I can plead. I can plead with men. It +is a Godlike art. Grave as is my problem, this is its grand solution. +I will study to persuade. I will take refuge in the mighty power of +argument. I will confer, and conciliate, and convince. I will employ +my reason to the full. I will address, and assail, and enlist the +reason of other men. I will put all my trust in speech, in ordered, +reasoned speech. I will arrange all my convictions and hopes and plans +in arguments. I will approach men's wills with momentous propositions. +I will open a path to human hearts through open ears by my living +voice. I will make righteousness vibrate vocally. To men's very faces +will I rebuke their wrong. Argument, pure argument shall be my only +weapon, my only agency, my only way. By naked argument, honest and +unadorned, I will undertake to turn<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> this Nation back to rectitude. I +will rest all my confidence in truth, truth unalloyed, abjuring every +counterfeit and all hypocrisy. It is truth's primal and mightiest +function to persuade. Through persuasion alone can freemen be induced +by freemen to yield a free obedience. The heavenly art of persuading +speech shall be for me the first and the last resort. By this most +comely instrument shall my most eager and ambitious wish gain access +to all this peopled land, and win vindication through all coming time.</p> + +<p>Something such as this, as one must judge from Lincoln's practice, was +Lincoln's science and evaluation of the art of logical appeal. By +every token Lincoln was a master of assemblies. Upon a public platform +he was in his native element. There he won his place and name. +Whatever any one may say about Lincoln's reputation or Lincoln's +power, that power and that reputation were mined and minted in the +very act and exercise of reasoning appeal. As iron sharpeneth iron, so +he, in the immediate presence of audiences of freeborn men, assembled +from his very neighborhood, shaped and edged and tempered his total +influence. It was when upon the hustings, and while engaged in +pleading speech, that he commanded the Nation's eye and gained the +Nation's ear. And once advanced to national pre-eminence, it was still +by logical persuasion that the Nation's deference was retained.</p> + +<p>What now was the inner nature of Lincoln's arguments? What was the +fiber, what the texture in the composition of his thought that made +its arguments so convincing? What was the structure, and what the +carrying power in his appeals that made their logic so prevailing, so +compelling, so enduring?</p> + +<p>To find an answer to this inquiry let men review yet once again this +last inaugural. Here is a product of Lincoln's<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> mind whose single +motive is persuasion, whose momentum does not diminish, and which +seems destined to be adjudged by history a master's masterpiece. What +does this short speech contain that gave it in 1865, and gives it yet, +an influence almost magical?</p> + +<p>There can be but one possible reply. The factor in that address that +makes its influence so imperial is the moral majesty of the argument +in its major paragraph. That paragraph enshrines an argument. Though +fashioned in the mode and aspect of a reverent supposition, the steady +pace and import of its ordered thought is such as every ordered mind +admits to be compelling. But in substance and in structure that +argument is purely ethical. All turns upon that cited, undoubted fact +of age-long, unrequited toil. Upon that stern actuality hinges all the +arrangement of the thought. Its phrases move with rhythmic fluency; +but they bind together inseparably a Nation's duty, sin, and doom; not +omitting to enfold, with a marvel of moral insight, an almost hidden +intimation of a healing cure.</p> + +<p>Here are weighty thoughts, thoughts that press and urge, thoughts that +carry and communicate the gravity of centuries. They contain an +interpretation. They clarify and illuminate. And they all co-ordinate. +They combine and operate together to enforce agreement. They +demonstrate that tyranny breeds a baleful progeny of guilt and woe; +that robbery binds the robber under debt to the full measure of his +rapine; that such guilt can never be forgotten; that such a woe is +pitiless; that the centuries, though slow and mute, are attentive and +impartial witnesses; and that God's even judgments are over all, and +are altogether just. This is all the content and all the purport of +this paragraph, and of all this speech: an exposition of American +slavery and of its resultant<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> civil war, in moral terms, before the +moral bar of every hearer's conscience, and beneath the thought of +God's eternal righteousness; all turning upon the self-evident verity +that unpaid toil is wrong. In this prolific affirmation is the fertile +germ of all that Lincoln ever thought or undertook in that supreme +decade. Here are enfolded all his axioms and postulates and +propositions. By interlocking its multiform, infolded, self-evident +certitudes he framed all his arguments. Its overflowing, resistless +demonstrations in active human affairs formed all his corollaries. +Toil unrequited is a moral wrong. It cries to heaven, and shall be +avenged. In this avenging, if we but see our day, there is an open +door to join with heaven, and transmute its vengeance into recompense +and reconciliation.</p> + +<p>This was Lincoln's logic. It was purely ethical. This was the +master-key to his transcendent statesmanship. Here was the secret of +his political efficiency. Thus, and in no other way, he swayed the +Nation. Himself a Godlike man, and discerning in every other man the +same Godlikeness; trusting his own soul's honesty, and appealing to +honest manhood in all other men; he took his stand beside all the +oppressed, and against all extortion; and voiced and urged and trusted +the sovereign moral plea for perfect charity, and perfect equity for +all.</p> + +<p>But Lincoln's logic was interlaced with history. All through his +debates and addresses are woven the facts and sequences of our +national career. And to these connected events he clung in all his +arguments, as a man clings to the honor of his home. There was in +those events an argument. To tamper with that history, discrediting +its sure occurrences, or distorting their right connection, was in his +conception a downright immorality.</p> + +<p>But mere historical exactitude was not the motive of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> Lincoln's appeal +to past events. The momentum of our past was for Lincoln's use +entirely moral. Here upon this continent, as he conceived our great +experiment, was being tried, in the presence and on behalf of all +mankind, a government in which the governed were the governors. Here +men are inquiring and being taught what true manhood can create, +uphold, and consummate upon a continental scale, in mutual equality. +Here men are schooled for independence. Here men may dare to fashion +their own law. Here men are nurtured towards full fraternity. Here men +are forced to heed the civic necessity of being fair. Here a boundless +impending future has to be kept steadily in view. Here the God of +Nations is teaching a Nation that he should be revered. Here, in brief +and in sum, men are being disciplined to know and cherish the +rudiments of civic character.</p> + +<p>Thus Lincoln interpreted the meaning of our national history. In his +rating, its total purport was ethical. Any logical exposition of our +national career, if its statements are historically exact, will carry +moral consequences. If the logical sequence of any statement of our +historical course is morally perverse, then that statement of our +history is historically untrue. Thus Lincoln's jealous zest for +truthful history, for truthful argument, and for true morality became +coincident.</p> + +<p>But Lincoln's logic was his own. His zeal for history was a freeman's +zest. His arguments were not the cold reflection of a borrowed light. +They were the fervid affirmations of his own convictions, compacted +into reasoned unison, out of the indivisible constituents of his very +manhood's honor. When in his appeal his soul most glowed, when the +ordered sequence and pressure of his thought waxed irresistible, he +was simply opening to his auditors the balanced burden of his honest +heart. Then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> genuine manhood became articulate. Then pure honor found +a voice. Then eloquence became naught but plain sincerity. Then +arguments became transparent, and affirmations convinced like axioms. +Then demonstrations moved. Assertions did persuade. Then the very +being of the orator took possession of the auditor in an intelligent +fraternity. True, indeed, a solid South, and multitudes besides, +derided his postulates, contemned his arguments, and scorned +derisively his tenderest appeals. But better than they themselves he +understood their hearts; and holding fast forever his deeper faith and +confidence, he maintained his reasoning and his plea, knowing surely +that in some future day their chastened hearts would vindicate his +words.</p> + +<p>But in all of this exposition of Lincoln's logical force and skill +there has been no mention of a syllogism. Did Lincoln then neglect +that famous formula of argumentative address? To this natural inquiry +it must be replied that Lincoln understood right well the fine utility +of this strict norm of formal thought. Indeed, he had taken special +pains to perfect his skill in just that form of argument. To the +logical click in a well-formed syllogism his inner ear was well +attuned. Repeatedly he summoned in its aid. An excellent illustration +may be seen in his rejoinder to Douglas at Galesburg in September of +1858. But Lincoln's confidence was not in syllogistic forms, however +trim. His trust was in his moral axioms. Unaided, naked truth; truth +whose total urgency is self-contained, whose perfect verity is +self-displayed, and whose proudest triumphs are self-achieved; pure +truth, shaped forth in speech of absolute simplicity; truth that works +directly in the human mind, like sunshine in the eye, was Lincoln's +handiest and most common instrument in an argument. Thus he sought to +so use reason as to awaken conscience<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> and arouse the will. And thus +his arguments prevailed.</p> + +<p>This was Lincoln's logic. It was the orderly exposition of his honest +manhood, pleading with the honest intelligence of every other man for +his free assent. Himself a freeman whom God made free, and greeting in +every other man an equal dignity; with loyalty to himself and with +charity for all; with Godly deference and unfailing hope; he urged and +argued from his own true manhood, and from no other grounds, with a +logic that no true freeman can ever refute: that in this heaven +favored land, and for the welfare of all the world, these ethical +foundations of all true civic welfare be kept unmoved forever. In such +a moral character, and in such a moral argument is this expanding +Nation's only pride and sure defense. At any modern Round Table of +civic knights Lincoln is true King Arthur, and his persuading speech +the true Excalibur.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">His Personality—The Problem of Psychology</span></h3> + +<p>When Plato took his pen to write his dialogues; when Michael Angelo +took his chisel to fashion his Moses; when Raphael took his brush to +paint his Madonna; they were designing to make their several ideals of +personality pre-eminently beautiful and distinct. And each artist in +his way won a signal, a supreme success. Moses, Socrates, the Madonna, +are shining revelations of human personality. Success herein is the +height of highest art.</p> + +<p>But what is personality? It seems an eternal secret, despite all human +search and art. Yet its secret is everywhere felt instinctively to be +of all quests the most supreme. By every avenue men are trying to +reach and reveal its hiding place. Our goal is nothing less than the +human soul. And upon this inquest the eyes and instruments of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> our +inspection are being sharpened with a determination and zeal hitherto +unparalleled.</p> + +<p>Suppose this quest be turned to Lincoln. Surely here is a human +person. He stands enough apart in his preeminence to be pre-eminently +distinguishable and distinct; while yet his face beams near enough to +be as familiar and accessible as our most accessible and familiar +friend. For surely, despite all his proneness towards a musing +solitude, Lincoln, of all Americans, displays through all his +published statements, and in all his public life, an instructive and +unstudied openness and unreserve. Just here his marvelous power and +influence lie. He practiced no concealment. He held communion with all +his fellowmen. Herein consists his honesty.</p> + +<p>Now may not an honest scholarship, honestly conceiving that of all +investigations our pursuit for the ways and dwelling place of +personality is easily supreme, as honestly believe that in the open, +waiting heart of Lincoln that supreme inquiry may find its supreme +reward? Surely here is promise of a labor that will pay. In Lincoln's +personality is a vein, a mine whose worth and sure utility no mineral +wealth can parallel.</p> + +<p>What in very truth, what in solid fact, what in absolute reality is +Lincoln's personality? For undeniably in facing and regarding him, we +confront and apprehend a human life, compact and self-controlled, the +native home and throne of all the conscious and self-directed energies +that are ever resident within and representative of any man. If human +personality ever took evident and conscious shape and form, then +Lincoln is an open and easily approachable illustration of its +embodiment. Upon no object may a student of psychology more easily or +more wisely fix his eye than upon the soul of Lincoln, when it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +thrills in resolute, intense endeavor, as in this last inaugural.</p> + +<p>For one thing, that Lincoln should be the specimen of psychology +commanding any student's choice is suggested by Lincoln's notability. +Here is an exhibit in no way ordinary. He has secured the attention of +us all. And the attention of us all is athrill with mighty interest. +However it has come about, in some way, as a human personality, he +illustrates a type, he presents a sample so powerful and positive as +to stand before all eyes almost alone, while also so attractive as to +be by everyone beloved. This fact may fairly beget assurance from the +start that in any heedful search for the very substance of human +personality, an interior and intimate fellowship with Lincoln may show +us closely and clearly where it dwells, and what it is. For from the +start it stands plain that Lincoln's hold upon our hearts is in its +controlling co-efficients purely personal. That hold clings fast and +spreads afar, indifferent to space, or time, or even death. His +influence over us, so gladly welcomed and so clearly felt, is no wise +physical or temporal. It cannot be handled or weighed. It is personal. +Herein is high encouragement. And that in this sense of our response +to his enduring sway should be enfolded on our part, a kindred, pure, +enduring delight attests convincingly that within Lincoln's +personality and our own there is something mutual. Within the thing we +search and us who seek there is profound affinity. In this our +encouragement may heighten, and that with solid soberness, unto hope.</p> + +<p>And then the scene of this his last inaugural is all aglow with +promise. For here if anywhere Lincoln's personality may be seen +engaged in the ripeness of his finished discipline, and the fullness +of his manhood's strength. The scene itself swells full of meaning; +and Lincoln's part and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> contribution fix and fill the center of its +significance. Surely if anything within that scene is plain to see and +localize, it is Lincoln's own identity. The living Lincoln is surely +there, wholly unreserved and unconcealed. There Lincoln's personality +is in fullest play, an evident and mighty revelation, plainly felt and +seen.</p> + +<p>But it is only in the action that the actor comes to view; only in his +words does the thinker stand revealed. Here and thus, and nowhere else +or otherwise, is Lincoln's personality unveiled. And yet herein, +within the compass of this speech, Lincoln unlades a burden of such +grave concern, and unrolls a problem of such profound complexity as +could nowhere come to birth and utterance but in a mighty human heart. +In the vastness of that problem and anxiety can be gauged the vastness +of the measure of that heart. Here open into immediate view at once an +object and a method of research, fitted at once to challenge and +appall the bravest student's heart. But once its summons is +distinguished, it is irresistible.</p> + +<p>One thing that meets the student, as he seeks the speaker in this +speech, is its witness to his titanic and pathetic toil. The words he +utters are the message of a laborer far forespent, voiced with mingled +weariness and hope, well towards the sunset of a weary day. The sun +had been fiercely hot. The field had been full of thorns. And through +the arid hours he had tasted little food, or rest, or joy. No +husbandman ever chose his seed or tilled his ground at greater cost of +patient care. None ever had to bend his frame to ruder weather, or +battle against more malicious and persistent pests. And all the agony +of that toil had been wrought through within the anguish of his mind. +In exactest and exacting thought he had engrossed and consumed the +full measure of his full strength. On all he had to bear and do he +pondered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> mightily. No mortal ever pondered more intently on all that +mortals ever have to meet. In this inaugural scene the soul of Lincoln +is straining at its full strength. No portion of his personal life is +idling. If a student's hand is truly deft, he can feel, as he fingers +the throbbing life of this address, the pulse beats of a full heart.</p> + +<p>And within the grasp and compass of that heart are revolving vast and +strenuous themes. The soul of Lincoln is dealing with a Nation's +destiny. His speech is borne upon his single voice; but with that +single voice he pleads for millions; and its vibrations carry through +a continent, as a national oracle. Expounder and defender of the +Nation's vital honor, beleaguered all about with war, distressed by +all oppression, eager with a sacrificial passion that all men +everywhere may have liberty and an equal share in equity, searching +for a just and stable basis for the world's tranquillity, as he stands +and strives throughout that speech the structure of his soul grows +luminous. As he studied Providence and scanned the grounds of +government; as he peered far into the deeps of freedom, the majesty of +duty, and the sanctions of inviolable law; as he pondered the nature +of eternal right, and the deadly mischief of moral wrong; as he +watched the ways of hate and pride and falsity and sensual delights, +he was not alone compacting the substance and order of this immortal +address; but in the shapely body of his argument he has embodied and +uncovered his honest, guileless heart. In the very scars and seams +upon his sorrow-shadowed face, as he overcomes his task and fills out +his duty in this address, discerning eyes can see through the furnace +of how deep refinement his humble and majestic soul has been forever +beautified. Transforming themes possessed his mind. By the ministry +and inner influence of these themes he grew to be transformed;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> and in +the process and issue of that change the outline and texture of his +inner being becomes traceable.</p> + +<p>And of this inner revelation the most notable mark is its simplicity. +As in this speech his inner life is introduced, its texture is not +perplexing and intricate. It is perfectly apprehensible. The total +speech can be quickly scanned. Its sentiments barely get your full +attention before they are at an end. Its entire compass can be +comprehended in a single glance. Its whole sum can be reviewed in a +single breath. And still its themes and propositions are imperial. +Within its fine simplicity its stateliness stands uneclipsed. Hence +its marvelous power to command. Upon all who look and listen, its +action and appeal are like the dawning of a day. Its major +propositions are assented to unconsciously. It works like light. It is +genial, winsome, clear. And it is irresistible. It moves. It rules. It +is an argument, the ordered appeal of a candid, earnest mind to the +reasoned thought of honest men. Gentle and modest throughout, it +contains and conveys compelling energy. It has the sturdiness of a +hardy oak. And yet its first appearing was like a new unfolding of our +flag. It is a kingly word, alike in lasting beauty and enduring +strength. In this there is surely some sure reflection of that hidden +man within, Lincoln's real, undying self.</p> + +<p>And this still further may be said. Amid these sovereign interests and +affirmations their agent is thus employed of his own free choice. He +is no automaton. The Lincoln whom we seek, the Lincoln whom this +address is helping us to see can never be defined by physical terms. +Through the realm of physics things move as they are moved. Lincoln in +this address moves and guides and governs himself. And he is here +self-judged. This inaugural teems with moral verdicts, verdicts that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +define eternal issues irrevocably. No higher function than this can be +imagined in any sphere of being, or in any form. These verdicts +Lincoln fastens upon himself. And before the same complete authority +he summons the whole Nation to bow. Deep within those verdicts there +throbs omnipotently a sense of moral duty, moral right, man's highest +good and goal. This ideal of what should be stands evident in this +inaugural in Lincoln's own humble conformity with God, in his own +unimpeachable integrity, in his unreserved benevolence, and in his +pure esteem for souls. In each one of these constituents of human duty +Lincoln sees unchallengeable authority. For the honor of each one he +deems himself responsible. Their mingled rays create the light in +which he writes this speech, by which this speech is read, and under +whose clear radiance he records his oath. Surely here are more than +hints for any one, who seeks to see just where this speech originates, +and most precisely how its author may be defined.</p> + +<p>Within this last preceding paragraph one feels again the presence and +the movement of all that all the chapters of this volume have +contained. Herein we seem to face a sort of final synthesis of all our +study. If this be true, or only true approximately, then its face and +contents should be scrutinized until they are cleared of every shadow +or alloy. For this research is surely approaching its goal, and some +of its boundaries may surely be defined.</p> + +<p>One line that shows indelibly is his intelligence; an intelligence +comprehending total centuries, and assembling within its scope extreme +diversities; an intelligence that has a piercing eye, acute to +distinguish and divide; an intelligence that has power to estimate, +compare, and summarize; an intelligence intolerant of error, and +eager<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> after truth; an intelligence that can frame an argument +designed to clarify, convince, and win all other minds; an +intelligence that assumes to deal with God, receiving and reflecting +within its own interior and proper vision a revelation of the divine +intent. Here is an energy, at once receptive and original, fitted +marvelously for a reflection that can embrace and authorize eternal +truth.</p> + +<p>This intelligence is within control. It is not a vagrant or unguided +force. It is under conduct, all its action to observe, inspect, and +estimate being ordered reasonably. And all this influence operating to +understand and counsel, all this wisdom, while gathering light and +substance from everywhere, is informed within, and wonderfully +self-contained. As Lincoln reasons in this inaugural, as he resolves +and purifies his argument, its power to convince is most intimate and +deep within himself. As he guides and shapes his thoughts for the +thought of other men, the convictions within the speaker, and their +power to persuade, so inwrought in the speech, become identical. In +his own consent choice and judgment are combined. Here is freedom +indeed, a freedom to discern as truly as to choose, to distinguish as +truly as to decide, to estimate as truly as to select, the freedom of +the intelligence, an intelligence that is truly free.</p> + +<p>This freedom fashions character. It is a moral architect. It is +original, able to create. The author of this speech is self-produced. +The personality that comes to view among those words is +self-determined and self-made. Its plan was sketched by his own hand. +His position and his posture, his sentiments and his sympathies, his +bent and inclination, his moral postulates and axioms, his moral stamp +and trend and tone, his stability and moral sturdiness are all his own +invention, originally, essentially, inseparably his own. Lincoln's +character is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> Lincoln's handicraft. Its title vests in him. It never +was, nor could it ever become the property of another man. This all +men recognize. But this universal recognition is pregnant with +significance to any seeker amid the phenomena of Lincoln's life for +the substance of his personality. Somewhere within those statements +just now made, somewhere within Lincoln's conscious authorship and +invention of his moral worth is precious intimation of the whereabouts +and constitution of his personality.</p> + +<p>This blend in Lincoln of freedom and intelligence, of liberty and +sanity is notable for its evenness. Lincoln's liberty is not +chimerical or riotous. It is regulated, orderly, real. Within himself +and over his full destiny, an unimpeachable sovereign though he is, he +is not prone towards wilfulness, but towards composure and sobriety. +He moves as one fast-held beneath the law that for all his movements +he will be accountable. He always wears the mien of one who carries +high responsibilities. Far from being arbitrary, he behaves as facing +within himself a court of arbitration, truly self-invested, and just +as truly sovereign. Of all his words and deeds and attitudes he is +himself self-constituted, reverend judge. Whether seeking to resolve a +doubt, or waiting to receive a verdict, his appeal is finally to +himself. This is his mood and posture in this inaugural. He is giving +an opinion. This scene is a literal crisis in a review in which a +Nation's history and delinquency have met incisive, balanced +examination, to the end that his own view of duty as president might +come clear to his own judicial eye, and all gain the approbation of +all mankind. In his loftiest originality, where his conscious power +and right to elect the path he takes is most self-evident, the way he +takes is also owned to be an unimpeachable obligation. Here<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> is +another signal hint for the seeker after the living and abiding source +of Lincoln's words and deeds. Somewhere within this sense of duty, so +sane and free and serious, lives the very Lincoln whom we seek.</p> + +<p>This judicial evenness within the free and reasoned movements of +Lincoln's action and argument is due to a balanced store of moral +ballast. His stalwart mind and sturdy will and steadfast consciousness +that duty binds his life stand leagued together in a partnership +employing infinite wealth. With these resources he daily ventures vast +investments. This speech is such a venture, laden with most goodly +merchandise. Indeed he ventures here, as everywhere, his all. His fear +of God, his self-respect, his neighbor love, his thirst for things +that last—these are the priceless treasure he examines with a +searching insight, estimates with judicial carefulness, enjoys with +soul-filling admiration, and then responsibly invests. On these and +these alone he chooses and resolves to seek returns. These are the +only seas where sail his ships. Here is all his merchandise. Here is +the only exchange where Lincoln ever resorts. Here and here alone can +one make computation of his wealth. If he has wisdom, it is here. Here +is all his liberty. Here is a full register of his life's accounts, +and of his full accountability. Here are all his goodly pearls. These +are the jewels that delight his heart. And if only students have the +eye to see, within this joy deep secrets are revealed.</p> + +<p>Just here this study has to pause. For while it seems to be facing +straight for that in Lincoln which is innermost—his essential and +immortal self, transcending all the mere phenomena of life—and +standing where nothing intervenes between our eager search and his +steadfast soul, the outlook, as it is scanned by different eyes, +reflects<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> in different minds world-wide diversity. Lincoln sees this +difference, and deals with it in this speech. He knows his chosen +estimates of God and man and government, of prayer and equity and +happiness, of right and wrong and penalty, awake resentful protest. +Just here his manhood shows its breed. Without resentment, but without +surrender, he takes and keeps his oath, expecting that God, humanity, +and time will vindicate his insight and his choice. This valiant +expectation stands today fulfilled, a commanding testimony that +Lincoln's personality, though so simply childlike in its every trait, +has majestic permanence and comprehension. Its inmost attributes, as +purified in him, reflect and clarify to other souls, however opposite +and hostile they may seem, their own essential and enduring rank. This +gives pointed intimation that in Lincoln's conscious life, deep +underneath his daily words and deeds, there is a conscious unity, the +very seat of freedom and law, a shrine of reverence, an altar of love, +a throne of truth, a fountain-head of purity—a unity that no +antagonist can overcome, that neither time nor death can decompose.</p> + +<p>But an objection still persists. Some man will say that the search for +Lincoln's personality, as thus far carried on, has only dealt with +ethics, whereas research in personality is at bottom a problem of pure +psychology; and that in pure psychology the position holds impregnable +that naught beneath men's words and deeds can ever be discerned; that +naught indeed is real for this investigation but sensible phenomena; +that a human soul is something it is impossible to place.</p> + +<p>This matter plainly claims respect. As an objection it is inveterate; +and whenever urged, it gains wide heed. In treating with it some +things rise up for hearing. To begin with, the intimation cited in the +former paragraph<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> will honor pondering. Though that paragraph is +intent on ethics in its every word, no paragraph in all the volume +more strictly so, still its statements clear more ground than a single +hasty glance is liable accurately to survey. It is concerned with +ethics truly—again be that conceded. But in no concern of morals +whatsoever did Lincoln vacate intelligence. Never was pure +intelligence more intellectually engaged than when Lincoln's mind was +scanning moral problems. In such engagements Lincoln's total being was +occupied. And if amid the clustering multitudes of moral judgments and +decisions that attend his moral inquiries and activities, there is +witness to the presence of a freeborn judge whose identity remains +continuously and consciously single and the same, that fact sheds +searching light upon the problem with which this paragraph deals.</p> + +<p>Let one listen again to this address—listen with a due intentness as +it speaks of Union and destruction and defense; of bondage and lash +and unpaid toil; of offenders, offenses and woe; of malice and charity +and right; of God and Bible and prayer; of widows and orphans and +wounds; of war and sorrow and peace; of Nations and centuries and +Providence. Here are trilogies and tragedies and millenniums, in +ethics and religion and philosophy—but borne from perishing lips to +perishing ears upon the perishing vehicle of a passing breath. This +human breath is frail, these human words are faint, this scene bursts +forth and vanishes. But those trilogies! They are more than flitting +words, and shifting scenes, and dying breath. The actor outlasts the +scene; the speaker outlives his word; the mortal breath is not the +measure of the man. He by whom these massive trilogies were marshaled +and deployed before a national audience, upon a Nation's stage, to +form a national spectacle, and expound<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> a Nation's history, does not +perish with his breath, nor vanish with this scene. Before, within and +afterwards he lives, pre-arranging, fulfilling and surviving this +mighty drama of his life, mightily resembling God. A speech and scene +like this bear witness to an author and actor outdating and outranking +both scene and speech. An author looms within this speech, self-moved, +creative, free. An actor moves within this scene, self-made, poetic, +unconstrained. Speech and scene, voice and form are not the man. These +are but his fading vesture. Deep within those solemn trilogies, as +within a kingly robe, conveying to his vestment all its dignity, +though all unseen among its shapely folds, stands Lincoln's living, +Godlike self. It was to this the people paid their deference. Through +those clear syllables that came to utterance upon those mortal lips it +was Lincoln's immortal soul that became articulate. In those ringing +accents Lincoln's self became identified. If ever a human personality +crossed a human stage, not as actor echoing the words and attitudes of +other men, but as an author and creator, fulfilling within himself, in +God's fear, on other men's behalf, and with an eye to deathless +destinies, his own responsible trust, that man was Lincoln in this +second inaugural address. There he asserted and declared himself.</p> + +<p>Here then, in the tone and impress of this address is the sovereign +place to find the tone and impress of Lincoln's soul. If that living +soul ever gave a conscious hint of its living lineaments and hidden +dwelling place, here is that hint's finest published utterance. Here, +then, is the total measure of our task. Upon this transparent speech, +and not upon vacant air, is the student of psychology to direct his +eye. Here is the final challenge. Deep within the deeps of this +supreme address, clear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> within the rhythms of these resounding +trilogies, what does one see and hear?</p> + +<p>To the question thus defined an answer something such as this must be +returned:</p> + +<p>Here in this inaugural address is designation and signature of a man +astute to comprehend a Nation's history, reverent towards +responsibility, a champion and exponent of liberty, commending with +radiant earnestness that all his fellow men so walk with God, so +cherish equity, and so walk in charity as to secure in all the earth +an amity that time can never disrupt.</p> + +<p>Something such is the personality which this address attests. While +this speech exists, this testimony will endure. Its word stands firm. +And its signature is plain. He who wrote the speech has left upon its +manuscript his clear and sacred seal. He who gave its body shape was a +freeman none could bend, heedful of the arbiter none might disobey, +humble towards God, loyal to himself, a friend to every man, an +aspirant for life.</p> + +<p>Surely these are intimations of personality. Here is Lincoln, a vivid +plenitude in living unison of timeless quietness and harmony, +ordaining freely his own law of even heed for self and brother man, +for God and spirit life. Here is the full manhood of a living soul, +Godlike and earthly-born. None of its features are solidified in +flesh, to be again and soon resolved. All its face is spiritual; all +its action free, self-ordered, and self-judged; all preserving +jealously its own kingly honor; all beaming graciously on other men; +all bearing homage up to God; all vivid with immortality; abhorring +mightily all pride and hate, all falsehood and decay; all sharing +sacrificially with other men the cost and shame entailed in righting +human wrong. This is Lincoln's personality. In Godlike, friendly, +undying self-respect; in heavenly, upright,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> immortal kindliness; in +humane, divine, self-honoring heed for spirit-life—in each and any +one of these four identical affirmations is Lincoln's personality +exhaustively engrossed, each and any one declaring that he contains +within himself a free and deathless soul, akin alike to God and man, +and bound therein by the self-wrought law of love and truth.</p> + +<p>These terms define a life at once of human and of heavenly range, at +once inhabiting and transcending realms of change, at once self-ruled +and environed with responsibility. Here is elemental personality, in +inwrought and indivisible unity, with measureless capacity for +versatility, easily blending fulness of vigor with complete repose, +vestured and transfused with native symmetry and grace. In some such +living, breathing words, themselves transfigured and illumined by the +quickening verities they strive to body forth, may the pure, immortal +soul of Lincoln, and of every child of man, be defined, unburdened, +and declared.</p> + +<p>Something thus must written words describe the soul that surged +beneath this speech, and freely gave this speech its being. Surely +such an undertaking must not be despised. That aspiring, creative +spirit, so earnest and so resolute, far more than any speech its +vision or its passion may body forth, demands to be portrayed. Grand +as are these paragraphs, their author has a far surpassing majesty. +Fitted as are these accents to reach and stir the auditors of a +continent, the soul from which these accents rise has an access to all +those auditors far more intimate.</p> + +<p>If readers of this essay spurn the effort which it undertakes, let +them not be scorners merely. From among their number, let some one +arise, artist enough in insight and handicraft to make some truer +delineation of that living<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> Lincoln, the abiding origin and author of +this and his every other noble speech and deed. Such an artist is sure +to find, if ever the conscious soul of Lincoln shines through his +hand, that when the inner face of Lincoln is portrayed, that portrait +will carry speaking evidence of a joyful and abiding consciousness of +liberty and law, of self and brother man, of things eternal, and of +God; that in his countenance, so sorrow-shadowed and yet so serene, +will shine a close resemblance to every other man; that through his +quiet eye will gleam that image of God in which he and all his fellow +men have been made; and that deep within it all will beam a radiant +assurance that by the way of sacrifice the awful mystery of sin has +been resolved.</p> + +<p>Hitherward must men who seek the soul of Lincoln turn their eye. +Humble, gentle, and loyal, eager after the life that is its own +reward, at once dutiful and free, lavishing out his life to take the +sting from sin—this is the soul of Lincoln. In this image every man +will see himself reflected, either in affinity, or by rebuke, herein +revealing how all men resemble God. Something such is man. Something +such is our common manhood. Something such is our inherent testimony +as to our origin and source. And something such is the task of him who +would frame a valid definition of personality. No undertaking is more +profound, none more supreme. And once it is accomplished, forms of +statement will have been found availing to embody all man can ever +know of self or God.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PART V. CONCLUSION</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Character</span></h3> + +<p>In all the chapters that have gone before, the essential constructive +factors have been very few. This is evident from their continual +reiteration—a reiteration that is too conspicuous to be overlooked. +In this is intimation that the last inclusive affirmation of this +study will be remarkable for its brevity and also for its open +clarity. The simple elements of such a closing synthesis may be here +set down.</p> + +<p>As encouraging this attempt, it may be first remarked that Lincoln's +life attests and demonstrates the primacy of character. This is the +foundation of his fame; and hereby his fame is felt to be secure. To +this all men agree. This world-wide consent may be said to be +unhesitant, spontaneous, unforced, arising as though by common +instinct, or by a moral intuition, all men everywhere viewing him +alike, even as all eyes everywhere act alike in receiving and +reflecting light. Here is something of a significance nothing less +than imperial for a student of ethics. For it seems to say that by +universal suffrage an international tribute is rendered to a common +pattern of human life; that there is a world ideal in the moral realm; +that this ideal is visibly near; and that this realized ideal is so +altogether friendly, admirable and excellent as to win from every land +an overflowing flood of thankfulness and joy. So genuine, so genial, +and so grand is Lincoln's moral life. In the face of such a life, and +of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> such a tribute, a student of ethics may be emboldened to assume +that his science has indeed foundations; that those sure grounds are +after all not far to seek; and that when those cornerstones are once +uncovered, they will be within the easy comprehension of common men. +Here, then, in Lincoln's open and exalted life is at once a challenge +and a test for all who would like to attempt a careful survey of the +moral realm.</p> + +<p>One sterling, standing coefficient of Lincoln's character was its +thoughtfulness. Piercing, pondering thought was with him a habitude. +His mind had insight, and he used its eye unsparingly. This was no +mere mental cunning, though he was surely passing shrewd and keen. In +Lincoln insight was so inseparably allied with an active sense of +responsibility that it may be best defined as searching honesty. Into +the massive, solid, stubborn problems of his perplexing day he drilled +and pierced by plodding, patient, penetrating thought. Kepler never +fixed his mind more steadily upon any study of geometric curves than +Lincoln his upon the intricate questions of government. And not in +vain. It may be truly said that Lincoln's moral judgments and resolves +were without exception the long-sought winnings of exactest and most +exacting mental toil.</p> + +<p>One fruit of this sharp scrutiny was a quite unusual foresight. In +this keen certitude touching things to come he was almost without a +peer. But its design and its utility for him were ethical. The coming +issues towards which he explored were moral. The future he foresaw was +thick with evolving sanctions involved in moral deeds. For such +events, whether near or far, he had a seeing eye. And with a steady +view to those oncoming certainties he shaped his resolutions, and +plotted out his life. That those high purposes involved his soul in +untold sorrow he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> well and unerringly foresaw. It was not by mental +blunders that he became enmeshed in the anguish and anxiety that made +his life so shadowed and solitary. And it was not by shrewder wits +that other men escaped his all but constant fellowship with reproach +and grief. Lincoln saw beforehand whither his studied view of duty and +his clear-eyed obedience led. Where other men stood blind he achieved +to see that his selected, sorrow-burdened path was the only way to the +happiness that could wear and satisfy. His insight was betrothed right +loyally to the faithful league of moral verities. Thus Lincoln's +character was stamped and sealed with prudence. Here gleams his +wisdom. His thought was balanced, looking many ways and comprehending +many parts. Hence his sane judiciousness.</p> + +<p>But this well-pondered carefulness was no mere mental sapience. The +world of Lincoln's painstaking thought was a world of character; a +world of liberty; a world of binding obligation; a world of right and +wrong; a world of God-like opportunities; a world of awful sanctions; +a world where dignity and shame are infinite; a world of manhood and +of brother men; a world where human souls outrank all other things, +like God.</p> + +<p>These were the themes that Lincoln's mind inspected and adjudged. It +is by virtue of his life-long search to find in such mighty interests +as these their rational consistency, that mental values of the highest +grade pervade and signalize his character. No mortal course in all our +history was ever reasoned out more carefully than the course that +Lincoln chose and held with moral heroism to his death. To overlook or +underrate this thoughtfulness in any reasoned estimate or exposition +of Lincoln's character would be infinitely unfair. As with light and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +vision, his thoughtfulness is the medium in which his character stands +manifest.</p> + +<p>Quite as elemental in Lincoln's character as his thoughtfulness is his +courtly deference to duty. Lincoln's conscience controlled and held +him in his course, as gravitation holds and guides this globe. This +all men discern; and discerning, they admire. Deep in the center of +this unanimous admiration is a respect for Lincoln that amounts almost +to reverence. Lincoln's estimate of law was most profound. When, after +humble and all-engrossing search, he found and traced those sovereign +obligations to which he bowed his life, his estimate and attitude were +as though he stood face to face with God. But in that deference was a +courtliness that was beautifully Lincoln's own. He too admired, where +he obeyed. His thoughtfulness was a stately, sovereign court that +sanctioned and made supreme every law that he revered. This +transcendent, all-commanding sense of duty, springing from within, and +also descending from above, seated centrally within his character, is +centrally and inseparably inwrought within his fame. While his name +abides this princely heed for duty will persist to challenge and to +test each studied statement of his character.</p> + +<p>Another factor of Lincoln's character, likewise radical, impossible to +omit, is his free and self-formed choice. That Lincoln's choice was +truly free, self-moved, and truly unconstrained comes clear +impressively when one for long inspects and understands his +thoughtfulness. Lincoln's mental action in its riper stages was a pure +deliberation. In that careful pondering we can feel and see his +ripening moral preference grow clear and free from trammels of every +sort, and gain towards decisions that know no other influence but +reason wholly purified. So inseparable in him were choice and seasoned +wisdom.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> From this it follows that Lincoln's ripe decisions can be +understood only when one comprehends his mental equilibrium.</p> + +<p>And here it comes to view that Lincoln's moral resolutions led him far +asunder from the multitudes. It is here that Lincoln's isolation takes +departure. This parting of the ways needs noting narrowly. From his +selection of his path for life the world at large draws back. Yet even +so he still retains the world's applause. Here opens the true secret +of his distinction, as of his excellence and power. This secret lies +deeply hidden, and yet openly revealed in the comely balanced law his +thoughtful wisdom led his noble will loyally to admire, adopt, and +struggle unto death to keep.</p> + +<p>What now in true precision was this comely, balanced programme of a +moral life that Lincoln's wisdom led his will to adopt? Here is the +apex of this study. That it is not beyond man's reach, the world's +applause and Lincoln's lowly plainness and full accessibility may well +encourage any man to hope. That this inquiry should stand unanswered, +or be answered heedlessly, or with any vagueness, is unworthy of our +day or of our land. But in the answer should be verbally embodied +adequate and intelligible explanation of Lincoln's moral majesty, of +his unexampled intimateness with every sort of men, and of an +undivided world's applause.</p> + +<p>These tests are heeded by the answer which this study ventures to +suggest, when it says that Lincoln's thoughtful ponderings on the ways +of God, on the souls and lives of men, on the microcosm in every man, +and on the principles of all society, revealed to him the obligation, +in deference to himself, to his neighbor, and to his God, and with +full heed to immortality, to choose and follow to its full perfection +the law of even truth and love. To be fair,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> and kind, and pure, as a +lowly, kingly child of God—this was the wisdom, the obligation, the +aspiration of Lincoln's life. This was the moral sum and substance of +his thoughtful, free, obedient life. Here in brief and in full is +Lincoln's character.</p> + +<p>In such a character is Godlike potency, and fluency, and dignity. +Within its easy interplay is true simplicity, and unison. Within its +harmony shines the eye of beauty. Amid all turbulence it holds serene. +Its movements convey a majesty that awakens deference. It is free, +like God, to devise, adjust, and originate, ever having inner power +creatively to overcome or reconcile outright antagonism. Its +thoughtfulness has a master's power to divide, combine, and +comprehend. It can gaze unblenched and unamazed into the awful face of +evil. It can plant and wield a leverage that can overturn every evil +argument. In its finished ministry it can present a portrait of the +human soul true to its very life. In such a character, though +compassed in a single life, and marked with signal modesty, there +dwells a fulness adequate to delineate and comprehend all the mighty +magnitudes within the moral universe.</p> + +<p>Such is the character that Lincoln's life leads all the world to +admire. Its beauty lies enshrined within the blended light of wisdom, +freedom and obedience along the way where loyalty, charity, humility +and hope of immortality shine ever brighter unto perfect day. Here is +wisdom. And here is worth. And here these two are one.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Lincoln's Preference</span></h3> + +<p>In the chapter just concluded, the field of ethics is termed a +"universe." In the chapter upon Theodicy, it was noted that in +Lincoln's most thoughtful ponderings,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> the great world of reality that +passes under the name of physics, or the physical world, seemed to lie +outside the field of his concern. Here is a matter demanding something +more than a bare allusion. The ponderable universe of material things +has impressive majesty. It is too solid and real and present in our +life to be ignored. Among the stars and beneath the hills and within +the seas are solid and substantial verities. We are environed by their +influences on every side. It is deep within their strong embrace that +our predetermined fate is being continuously unrolled. What can be the +scope and what must be the value of any view of ethics or any plan of +life in which this solid, ever-present, all-embracing material world +is so indifferently esteemed?</p> + +<p>It is with just this query in mind that this research into the mind of +Lincoln was first conceived. And the query which has been throughout +in immediate review, but unpropounded openly as yet, now demands to be +defined and scrutinized. Did the mind of Lincoln, engrossed as it was +upon interests supremely ethical, and ignoring, as it seemed to do, +all those vast and deep complexities of the purely physical world, +find for our unquiet human thought the true and perfect equilibrium? +Or was the thought of Lincoln unbalanced and incomplete, misguided and +inadequate essentially? In brief, how must ethics and physics, these +two and only two supreme realities, when each is most fairly +understood, be conceived to correlate and harmonize? As between these +two realities, each so imperial and so irreducible, which holds +primacy?</p> + +<p>Here is for any thoughtful mind well nigh the last interrogation. To +attain a competent reply the essential qualities of each and either +realm must be uncovered and compared. In physics here, and in ethics +there, what attributes pervade, abide, and are essential? And, these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +true qualities being seen in each, as between the two, which proves +itself superior; in which does the soul of man find rest?</p> + +<p>In the universe of physics, in all the world of things men see and +touch and weigh one pervading and abiding quality is change. We speak +indeed of the eternal hills; and before their age-long steadfastness +that phrase seems accurate. But it is only soaring rhetoric, surely +sinking from its flight, when sober science sets about to cipher from +the distinct confessions of their very rocks the date of their birth, +the story of their growth, and the sure predictions of their complete +decay. In all the stability of the solid hills there is nothing +permanent. So with the ageless stars. So with the ever-flowing sea. +And so with the very elements of which hills and stars and sea are +mixed. All the story of all their genesis and journeying and vanishing +is a never-ending tale of change. Nothing physical abides the same. +Beneath the daring rays of present-day research all things are being +proved impermanent, all found verging over the infinite abyss. +Transmutations are in progress everywhere.</p> + +<p>In the soul of Lincoln there was craving for a sort of satisfaction +which nothing mutable could ever meet. Amid this pageantry of change, +among these ceaseless transformations, with all their passing beauty, +and all their final disappointment, there was in him a hungering after +something that should hold eternally. And within this very eagerness +was genuine kinship with the changeless foothold in things eternal +which it aspired to find. His very longing was innerly undying. His +thirst for immortality was in itself averse and opposite to death +essentially. Deep within his desire, deep within himself were living +verities, within themselves immutable. His admiration before God's +majesty, his free covenant with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> perfect loyalty, his friendly +kindliness towards all others like himself, and his God-like +sacrificial grief for all wrongdoing, held within their pure vitality +visions and passions and aspirations that no mortal darts could touch. +And when with clear discernment he freely chose to fill his soul with +hopes and deeds that eternally evade decay, he selected, as between +things that change and things that abide, that reality to whose +eternal primacy every passing day yields perfect demonstration. +Nowhere in physics, in ethics alone could be found the perfect solace +of conscious perpetuity.</p> + +<p>Another quality of all things physical, a quality likewise +all-pervading and persistent, is their want of spontaneity. Within the +nature of this mighty physical bulk, that is forever altering its garb +and form, and within all its flowing change there is no liberty. +Through all the ever-varying orbit of the moon; in all the marvelous +wedlock of the elements within the rocks and soils and plants; in all +convulsions and explosions of air and sea and fluent gas; in +lightning, fire, and plague; in all the age-long monotony of instinct, +habit, and proclivity, there is no conscious choice, no +character-worth, no ennobling and terrifying responsibility. Through +all this change of mortal things all things are fixed. Naught is nobly +free.</p> + +<p>In the soul of Lincoln there was a passion to be free. In this desire +there was a clear intelligence, and a purpose like to God's. He +coveted a dignity that was self-achieved. He deemed that worth, and +that alone, supreme that was his own creation. Only in deeds that he +himself determined could he discern true excellence. Herein he stood +apart from brutes, ranked above the hills, and pierced beyond the +stars. And when, with such an insight, and such a soaring wish, and in +such high dignity, he freely chose to hold supreme the life and +thought and joy that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> are truly free, rating all things fixed and +physical as forever far beneath, he allotted certain primacy to that +which he discreetly judged undoubtedly pre-eminent. In closest +consonance with what has last been said, comes now to be affirmed, a +central quality of all things purely physical—persistent and +pervading everywhere—their absolute inertia morally. They move as +they are moved, and never otherwise. The law by which their being is +controlled is not their own. At the last and evermore physics, though +the measureless arena of unmeasured active energy, is powerless. It +cannot even obey. But most demonstrably it can never command, not even +itself. It is vastly, deeply, and forever only passive; although +within its ponderous frame are playing with baffling constancy forces +that weary all too easily our most stalwart thought.</p> + +<p>In such a realm as this, forever unawakened and evermore unjudged, +Lincoln's awakened and judicial soul could never find contentment. +Within that manly heart was enthroned a conscience, alert alike to +receive and to originate, as also to approve and fulfill all noble and +ennobling obligations. He knew the meaning and the sense of duty, the +weight of duty claimed, and the worth of duty done. In his true heart +was a living spring of moral law. And in cherishing with exalted +satisfaction this imperial quality of all true moral life, therein +deciding that physics held nothing worthy of any comparison, he gave +kingly utterance to a judgment and decision and desire that could +estimate infallibly the ultimate competitors within his conscious life +for primacy. For ever in ethics, as never in physics, right judgment +finds its source.</p> + +<p>Yet another quality of physics, likewise all-pervasive and permanent, +is the mocking, paralyzing mystery in which all its certainties are +veiled. The mighty acquisitions to our certain knowledge in the realm +of nature are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> superbly manifold and as superbly sure. The swelling +catalogue of things well certified in the material world seems to +advance the modern scientific mind almost to genuine apotheosis. But +of all these stately certitudes there is not one but walks in darkness +no human eye nor thought can penetrate. Before heroic and unexampled +diligence and daring the scientific frontiers are receding everywhere; +but only to make still more amazing and unbearable their +inscrutability. On every horizon of the physical realm yawn +infinitudes, whether of space or time, of geometry or arithmetic, of +electron or of cell, so defiant, so bewildering, and so overwhelming +in their complete defeat and mockery of our bravest and best +intelligence that our proudest powers are palsied utterly. Whichever +ways we turn, whatever gains we win, we face at last, in the very eye +of our research, and in the very heart of our desire, a changeless +silence that mocks all hope, and leaves us standing in an utter void. +In the realm of simple physics the human intellect, despite the fact +that in the physical realm the mind of man has triumphed gloriously, +is faced forever with the taunting consciousness that its primal task +is still undone.</p> + +<p>In an undertaking such as this, and in such a hapless outcome, the +mind and life of Lincoln could never be engrossed. He was ever facing +mystery indeed in the perplexities that throng the moral realm. In +fact, in the darkness and confusion that enshroud and mystify the +world of duty and award were all his sorrows born. But in those +mysteries moral honesty is not mocked. Where iniquities prevail, the +soul that bows towards God sees light. Where sin abounds, the heart +that yields the sacrifice of penitence finds peace. In the face of +hate and strife and bloodshed, to banish malice and to cherish charity +is to enter and to introduce complete tranquillity.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> Where lives grow +coarse and souls are base and purity is all denied, the soul that +seeks refinement grows refined and consciously approaches God. When +God is mocked and scorners multiply and hearts grow hard in pride, the +heart that meekly, humbly holds its confidence in the transcendent, +all-controlling Deity opens in that lowly faith deep springs of +never-failing hope. In these mysteries, however baffling and +persistent, these efforts towards relief find sure and great reward.</p> + +<p>In such a field and in such endeavors it was Lincoln's sovereign +preference to measure out all the forces of his conscious life. Attent +towards God, benign towards men, upright within, and prizing life, he +found, not defiance and despair, but perennial quickening and +encouragement, whatever problems darkened round his life. For him such +soul-filling verities, and such a corresponding faith held +far-transcending primacy. And so in conscious, sovereign and +everlasting preference for the truth that shows all its light in +character, and for the faith that such clear truth forever +illuminates, Lincoln testified his confidence that in the face of +physics ethics holds supreme pre-eminence.</p> + +<p>Of all this searching estimate and supreme comparison of these two +divergent realms one's mind may gravely doubt whether Lincoln's mind +had perfect consciousness. Concerning this no one may speak, except +with hesitance. But any one whose mind has entered into intimate +partnership with all the wealth of Lincoln's words is well aware that +it was a habit of his mind to pursue its themes to their farthest +bourne. In penetration and in pondering not many minds were ever more +evenly taxed. His mental persistence and deliberation were almost +preternatural. Discovering this, a student of his mental ways will +grow to feel that, in a likelihood almost equivalent to full +certainty,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> Lincoln was wittingly aware of all the meaning in his +proclivity to rate ethical interests uppermost.</p> + +<p>At any rate, in his life and writings, so the matter stands. And +standing thus in the deeply conscious soul of Lincoln, the matter has +a high significance. It seems to testify with a prophet's steady voice +that in all the total realm of being, the realm of freedom, of +consciousness, and of character is the first and sovereign verity; +that the real is fundamentally ethical; that he who seeks for perfect +satisfaction must bring to his inquiry the glad allegiance of a moral +freeman and a moral judge; that in every undertaking becoming him as +man each cardinal moral excellence must grow and shine increasingly; +that every mental acquisition must conduce to a lowliness that adores, +to a gentleness that loves, to a purity that pledges immortality, to a +self-respect that is the mirror and original of all reality; that only +thus, in all this universe, and to all eternity, can the soul of man +gain triumphs that can satisfy. Only so will truth grow fully radiant, +and mystery become benign. Only so can finite man find peace before +his Maker, and face serenely all that wisest unbelief finds terrible. +This is truth. Here is freedom. Such is faith. Thus, in a freeman's +faith truth stands complete.</p> + +<p>Such is Lincoln's preference. Like another Abraham, and with a kindred +insight and determination, he won all his triumphs and renown by +faith—a free and conscious faith in God, and soul, and character.</p> + +<p>Here are designations, at once so plastic and so precise, at once so +simple and so profound, as to signify and demonstrate how souls of men +may conquer death; how one may be a perfect devotee to another +person's weal, and still preserve his own integrity; how perfect +sanctity may assume a full companionship with sin, whether by +redemption<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> or rebuke, and still remain unflecked; and how in man's +humility may be enshrined a dignity wherein supernal majesty may be +unveiled.</p> + +<p>In some such vivid, moral terms, mobile to grasp and manifest the +boundless range and priceless worth within the sovereign moral law; as +also to declare unerringly the fateful and unbounded issues of a moral +choice, may students hope to trace with true intelligence the real +foundations of Lincoln's all but unexampled power and fame.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + +<h2>AN EPILOGUE</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Addressed to Theologians</span></h3> + +<p>In designing and constructing the chapters that precede, three motives +have been actively at work. There has been a desire to set within the +realm of Civics a clear and balanced exposition of Lincoln's moral +grandeur. There has been a desire to introduce within the realm of +Ethics a fertile method of discussion and research. There has been a +desire to intimate how in the realm of pure Religion the finished +outline of a transparent character may provide a pattern for a true +description of the problems of Theology.</p> + +<p>Of these three motives the one last named has been preponderant. +Lincoln's public life was keyed alike to moral honor and to faith in +God. In his most quickening aspirations and in his most sacrificial +sorrows his sense of personal obligation and his belief in an +over-ruling Providence held fast together in a most notable unison. +Guileless, luminous, and single-hearted in his rectitude and in his +reverence, he affords a signal illustration of the way in which faith +and conscience may vitally co-operate and even coalesce. He presents +in consequence a signal opportunity for exploring the inner kinship of +ethics and religion. His personality challenges us to inquire and see +how honesty and godliness consort; how in a complete and balanced +character the categories that define the basis of one's moral +excellence may prove themselves to be the very categories that inform +and underlie the religious life.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here opens an engaging investigation. May the ultimate principles of a +true ethical theory and the ultimate rationale of a true theology be +found in living deed to coincide? To bring this question into open +view is the ulterior aim of this book, and more particularly of this +appended Epilogue.</p> + +<p>In the open petals of the plainest flower soil and sunlight, earth and +heaven meet in almost mystic union. Be this our parable. In the ample +compass of a normal character, such as Lincoln shows, there is in very +deed a mystic union—a vital partnership of man with fellowman, and of +men with God. Be this deep fellowship described; for here commingle +indivisibly the essential elements in any pure and full display in +human life of morals and religion.</p> + +<p>In Lincoln's public life there was undeniably a close companionship +with God. Earth-born and earth-environed though he was, he had supreme +affinity with heavenly realms. His face was seamed with suffering; he +wore a humble mien; his habitual posture was a pattern of unstudied +modesty. But through those sorrow-shadowed features shone a radiant +exalted hope, as he walked and toiled in reverend covenant with the +sovereign God of Nations. Besieged by day and night with difficulties +and distresses such as rarely burden mortal men, in his nightly vigils +and in his daily labors he clung to Deity, true civilian and true man +of God at once. The terms of this high covenant were specific and +distinct. They were the very terms that defined the conscious +qualities of his upright, God-revering character. Be those qualities +described.</p> + +<p>In the first place, here in Lincoln's open character it becomes +heavenly clear how profoundly intimate and at one are majesty and true +humility. When the guise of each is fully genuine, they minutely +correspond. In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> Lincoln's lowliness lay the very image of the majesty +of God. To that high majesty his lowliness conformed. As in a mountain +lake may be enshrined a perfect pattern of the heavenly firmament, so +was Lincoln's reverence a conscious, free reflection of the excellence +of God. His obedience was an intelligent recognition and +re-enthronement of the sovereign law of God. His lowly posture, when +in supplicating or interceding prayer, was induced by the bending pity +of a compassionate God. That trusting appeal was the very echo of +God's benign concern; and within the wrestlings of those intense +entreaties the divine designs gained place in human history. Lincoln +in his lowliness was Godlike. His humility was supremely dignified, +supremely beautiful. In its open face, as in the face of a flower +opening towards the sun, was resident a heavenly glory.</p> + +<p>In the second place, this vital unison of man with God stands superbly +evident in the stately wedlock of Lincoln's honesty with God's +righteousness. In Lincoln's soul there lived a faith in God's +integrity which no dark storm of human faithlessness, and no delay of +heaven's righteous judgments could eclipse or wear away. This belief +was in him an active energy. It grew to be a partnership with God's +uprightness—a covenant in which his own soul's eagerest ambitions and +resolves became upright. In his inmost soul it was his inmost +aspiration to be an agent for enthroning here on earth the equity of +God. And so, in fact, as a mighty nation's chief executive, he did +become the executive of the will of God. In his transparent honesty +there was a reflection of the sincerity of God. In his firm constancy +there was upheld before this people's eye an index finger pointing to +the steadfast constancy of God. In his pure jealousy for the utter +sanctity of his plighted word there burned a fire that was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> kindled in +the eye of God. In all his even, glowing zeal for righteousness he has +been adjudged by all his fellowmen pre-eminently a man of God. And as +signal devotee to honesty he demonstrates most signally that God and +man may set their lives in unison.</p> + +<p>In the third place there was in Lincoln's patient gentleness a +profound resemblance to the all-enduring gentleness of God. His +mastery of malice and his universal charity in the face of multitudes +of bitter and malignant men attest eternally an intimate companionship +with divine forbearing grace. His sacrificial intervention on behalf +of all God's little ones whom human heartlessness had oppressed is +world-arresting evidence and demonstration that in his kindly heart +was throned the Heavenly Father's sympathy. Unto costly fellowship +with this divine forbearance and compassion Lincoln opened +unreservedly all the compass of his life. For afflicted and afflicting +men he felt a sorrow, mixed with pity and rebuke, both born of the +affection fathers feel, both proved sincere by years of sacrificial +anguish unto death. And this he did with a discerning and deliberate +mind. It was thus he understood the heart and ways of God; and thus by +clear design he undertook in his own life to recommend the ways of God +to men. In verity he was partaker and dispenser of the manifold grace +of God. In him the mighty love of God found living medium. Like a +gentle flower drinking gratefully the warmth and beauty flowing +towards it from the sun, his soul absorbed the gentle ways of God and +itself grew kind and beautiful. Here again it may be seen how intimate +may be the life of man in God, the life of God in man.</p> + +<p>In the fourth place there was in Lincoln's soul an all-prevailing +confidence touching future destiny. This living confidence was the +outcome of his close partnership with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> God. His faith believed that +God's designs held fast eternally, and that conviction clouds and +night and death were impotent to overshadow or obscure. The rather, as +his faith and hope confided in that unfailing verity, that faith and +hope became themselves unfailing. His sure belief became participant +in God's dependability. Here is the deepest secret of his abiding +steadiness. Hence his calm indifference to death.</p> + +<p>And this illumines all his great appeals to his fellowmen with the +light of a prophetic vision. For his fellow-citizens, as for himself, +his sovereign aspiration was after permanence. This abiding life, +whether in the Nation or in himself, he had the mind to comprehend, +must be the very life of God within the soul. In civic Godliness alone +could there be civic permanence. In the Nation's life the life of God +must be incorporate. Then and then alone would any Nation long endure. +For this bright civic hope, for this alone he lived. And this +ever-springing hopefulness and confidence is the shining efflorescence +of his Godliness. He clung to things eternal in a conscious league +with God.</p> + +<p>Here is something wonderful—something replete alike with mystery and +with certitude—a vital unison of God and man in undeniable verity—a +unison in righteousness and kindliness, in lowly and majestic dignity, +in immortal spirit purity—a unison in which all that is most sacredly +elemental in God and man most intimately coalesce, while yet remaining +most unmistakably distinct—a unison in which is freely and +consciously engaged all that personality, however self-discerning and +free, can ever contribute or contain—a unison as historically real as +it is immeasurably profound—a unison in which space and time provide +the theater, while yet a unison in which time and space dissolve. Here +is surely ample range for ample exposition of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> many a major problem in +theology, and all within the open and familiar bounds of a normal +moral life.</p> + +<p>In close alliance and affinity with Lincoln's vital partnership with +God, and of almost equal pregnancy for the problems of religious +thought, is the marvelous intimacy of his inner and essential +fellowship with men. This feature of his public life is becoming more +commanding and impressive every year. To a degree altogether notable +it is becoming widely understood how he and all his fellowmen were +wonderfully allied. It is becoming seen by all of us that the +qualities essential to his commanding excellence are qualities deeply +typical of us all. His attitudes of deference and modesty, his +promptings towards things permanent and durable, his equities, his +kindnesses are universal. They are enthroned within us all. +Everywhere, in everyone they ultimately predominate.</p> + +<p>Wonderful as it may seem, this holds as true of enemies as it does of +friends. Hosts of people, while Lincoln lived, held him their +deadliest foe. Through all those bitter years, while they defamed, he +meekly, mightily held his own, subduing malice, disdaining subtlety, +despising scorn and arrogance, abhorring sordid greed; pleading +humbly, but as a prince instead, for righteousness and charity and +man's immortal destiny. And now all men detect that however deep and +overmastering those aversions and animosities may have been, there was +in his enemies and himself a moral kinship and agreement far more +powerful and profound. His humble, hopeful plea that every man be fair +and pitiful is winning everywhere today glad witness to its eternal +and imperial validity.</p> + +<p>And the wonder of this deep partnership with men but deepens, when we +consider that the form of this all-appealing, all-prevailing +partnership was sacrificial. This leads straight into the innermost +interior of the problem of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> vicarious suffering—one mortal, suffering +in another's place and for another's sake. Never in all that era of +civic anguish in the civil war did any human mortal suffer keener or +more continual sorrow than did he who of all the Nation's multitudes +stood most untainted and innocent of the iniquity which that stern +civic judgment was to purge away. Guiltless utterly of any part in +slavery for his own profit or by his own consent, he partook with all +the guilty ones of all the sorrows of its expurgation.</p> + +<p>And yet more wonderful is the sequent fact that in precisely this +voluntary and conscious unison of innocence and suffering in his +outstanding life stood and moved the pillar of fire and the pillar of +cloud that led this Nation through those sorrows by night and day.</p> + +<p>Here again is something wonderful—something again replete with +mystery and with certitude. And here again do mystery and certitude +stand truly unified and harmonized. Truly they are unified. But in +that unison their identity stands clarified. There where Lincoln's +manhood shows most humane and universal, a Nation's common symbol, +outlining nothing less than a puissant Nation's boundless majesty, +there stands defined, as with engraver's finished art, his separate, +ever sacred, individual nobility. Even there where his moral being +merges most completely into deepest sympathy with the afflictions that +descend on sin, there his own integrity and personal jealousy for +righteousness are most outstanding and distinct. But be it said again, +in Lincoln do that broad humaneness and that erect nobility, that +sympathy and that jealousy subsist in unison. In strict verity he is +our Nation's surrogate. Surely here again is ample range for ample +exposition of many a major problem of theology, and all still held +within the open and familiar bounds of a normal moral life.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + +<p>So Lincoln stood in unison with God and fellowman. Ideally complete in +his own identity, he was ideally allied with other lives through all +the personal realm. And be it well and truly seen that the elements of +this affiance with his God, and the elements of his firm league with +brothermen were identically the same. In each and either realm the +binding bonds were fealty to charity, to equity, to humility, to +purity. These four qualities explain and guarantee completely his +allegiance. These and these alone were the constituent elements of all +his brotherhood and of all his reverence. And it is within the nature +of these four vital qualities, at once so Godlike and so human, and +within their ever-living interplay that one must look to find whatever +Lincoln's character can contribute to the problems of theology.</p> + +<p>What averments tremble here! Our mighty human race does truly live in +unison. Within that peopled unison the life of one may have +far-ranging partnership. That partnership is closely definable in +terms of character. In Lincoln's life as private soul, and as vicar of +us all alike, his constancy and kindliness, his purity and lowliness +embrace and body forth his total being, with all he bore and wrought. +Herein unfolded all his beauty and all his worth, whether as a single +citizen or as a Nation's representative.</p> + +<p>And our humble human life does also truly share the life in God. +Within that heavenly unison the lowliest soul may have exalted +fellowship. And so in Lincoln's loyalty and tenderness, his lowliness +and thirst for immortality, as man of God, unfolds the heavenly beauty +of God's eternal purity and majesty, God's benignity and faithfulness.</p> + +<p>So do lives of free and conscious beings most truly flourish and so do +they most truly blend. Our fellowship with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> Lincoln, and Lincoln's +fellowship with us; God's fellowship with Lincoln and Lincoln's +fellowship with God; this mystic unrestricted partnership of noble +souls; unfolding and unrolling sovereign harmonies, even when they +antagonize; in vengeance or compassion fulfilling all their mission +and dominion through the earth—these are indeed our sovereign +realities. In scanning these we may indeed discern deep ways of God +and men.</p> + +<p>Mighty highways open here—highways that enter every major province of +theology. Be these avenues observed.</p> + +<p>Whence came the blight of slavery? How in human soil could such +inhumanity germinate? What is the virus of its contagion? What makes +its guilt so terrible?</p> + +<p>Must inhumanity be avenged? May avengers still be merciful? May +hardened men become regenerate? May guilt and innocence be reconciled?</p> + +<p>Why such anguish on the innocent? Why should little ones be crushed? +Why such hosts of patient ones meekly bearing wrong and shame? Why do +offenses need to come? How does patience work on sin? How does sorrow +work on guilt?</p> + +<p>What is human brotherhood? May fellowmen be surrogates? May men's +honor interchange?</p> + +<p>Wherein stands human character? What makes a man responsible? How +sovereign is man's liberty? How supreme is man's intelligence? Are +moral beings subject to decay?</p> + +<p>May finite man come near to God? Does God come near to finite man? May +plans of men and God's designs combine? May God be seen in human life? +May human hearts partake of God? Are love and truth and liberty, the +crown of human dignity, enthroned in God ideally?</p> + +<p>Is Christ indeed the Lord of men? Is he our life? Are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> his teachings +true? Is his love divine? Can he indeed redeem?</p> + +<p>Upon such queryings as these, all running deeply into mystery, each +one fast rooted in reality, and each one voicing in each human soul an +urgent quest, those sterling elements of Lincoln's character, his +lowliness, his living hope, his pity, and his faithfulness shed +grateful light.</p> + +<p>Be these four qualities unveiled before the face of sin, that sin may +be defined.</p> + +<p>When in the presence of some noble majesty or of some courtly modesty +a free and conscious soul is arrogant or insolent; when a being born +for endless life in freedom, light and purity, exchanges God and +immortality for idol forms and baseness and decay; when recipients of +God's unnumbered benefits, and participants in the joys and sorrows of +a teeming world of brothermen remain ungrateful and unpitiful; when +beings destined to be sons of light prefer hypocrisy and unbelief; +then, irreverent, corrupt, ungracious, and untrue, sin shows all its +horridness and iniquity.</p> + +<p>And when in the presence of pure grace and truth all such perverseness +stands revealed; then the beauty of a quiet modesty, as it respects +all worthy majesty, will make supremely plain the ugliness of every +form of insolence; then the life that opens towards perpetual dawn +will most mightily and forevermore reproach the life that feasts upon +corroding food, fattening and hardening towards decay; then +outpouring, patient love will visit on ingratitude and hate their most +unbearable rebuke; and then the radiant light of simple truth and pure +sincerity will set all falsity and unbelief in uttermost disgrace. In +such an awful penalty, supreme and unavoidable, will sin incur its +doom.</p> + +<p>But in the very penalty it stands proclaimed how sinful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> souls may be +transformed, and hostile hearts be reconciled.</p> + +<p>When pride, subdued by majesty, rejoices in humility; when grossness, +shamed by purity, welcomes purging fires; when malice, melted by +forbearance, partakes the sacrifice and becomes itself compassionate; +when falsity, unveiled by verity, submits to its rebuke and welcomes +truth with deep docility and faith; then within the sinner's penitence +is every penalty absolved, and between embittered souls comes perfect +reconciliation.</p> + +<p>Be these four qualities addressed to that supreme transaction named +atonement.</p> + +<p>When, in perfect loyalty and in perfect lowliness, with a perfect +charity and with an utter trust in immortality, one like a Son of Man +consents to bear the dark affront of insolence and perfidy from base +and deadly men, enduring meekly what his soul abhors, then to all the +sons of men is published equally, and with supreme assurance, that +sins of men must be indeed avenged, and that sinful men may be indeed +redeemed.</p> + +<p>In that transaction malice faces patience, and patience faces malice +for a final strife. There candor bears the lying taunt of acting in +disguise. Humility endures the shameful charge of shameless arrogance. +Compassion bows as though a thief to all the brutal rudeness of a mob. +The soul of immortal purity is bartered for by traders greedy after +silver coins, and driving through their trade with lamps and clubs.</p> + +<p>But in the measure and in the manner of that transcendent patience +malice is preparing for itself the manner and the measure of its own +just doom. And in the measure and the manner of that same transcendent +patience contrition may discern the manner and the measure of its +release. In that mighty mingling of aversion and endurance<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> sin must +behold alike its omnipotent redemption and its omnipotent rebuke. Thus +love, in perfect sympathy, and truth, in perfect equity set forth in +heavenly purity the sovereign majesty of an atonement for the world.</p> + +<p>Be these four radiant qualities applied to him we call alike the son +of Mary and the Son of God. In him, the Son of God, shines such a +plenitude of grace and truth as becomes the glory of the very God, +revealed in such immortal purity as proves him heir and very Lord of +all eternity, and wearing such a dignity as belongs at once to +heaven's majesty and our most genuine humility; while deep within his +open life as son of Mary there shines such a full and genial truth and +grace as proves his true humanity, so free from mortal taint through +all our transient scenes as proves his spirit's immortality, and +manifesting everywhere to all the sons of man their own ideal +lowliness. These are all his beauty. In him they fully blend. They +blend in him indeed. But they do not dissolve. And so may we with +souls akin to him whom Mary bore behold in him the proper image of our +complete humanity; and still with eyes and vision all unchanged, +behold within those same fair traits the very image and the unbounded +fulness of the glory of the infinite God.</p> + +<p>Be these same radiant qualities our proper medium for beholding Deity. +Conceive of One in whose being the only light and glory reside in the +pure majesty of a perfect grace and truth. Conceive how these free +living qualities permit a unison in fellowship, a fellowship in +unison. Conceive how such a unison permits to each participant +complete equality and a full infinity. Conceive thus how perfect +constancy and perfect kindliness, revealed in perfect purity, and clad +in perfect majesty may manifest eternally in mystic unison the +blessedness of a perfect personality. Conceive how such a partnership +in unison,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> and unison in partnership will be evermore containing and +enjoying within itself an evermore unsullied Spirit life, engendering +and completing all the finite forms of being of the created universe; +an evermore unfolding Love that is the one original of every +fatherhood in heaven and earth; and an evermore Responding Love that +is the primal inspiration of the admiring and adoring thankfulness of +every child of God; while evermore displaying in a loyal self-respect +the eternal archetype and origin of every verity and every equity +enthroned in any earnest upright mind. And so conceive in terms as +vivid as our own intelligence and liberty how true transcendent Deity +may wield no other energy and know no other blessedness than unfolds +forever in a free and conscious unison and partnership in pure +transcendent love and truth.</p> + +<p>Transcendent thoughts and ventures these. But abounding other thoughts +and ventures no less transcendent wait and urge for utterance. They +all assume no less, and nothing more, than that in the living vision +of a living personality hides and shines the harmony that may unite +the mysteries and the certainties of this universe. Let Truth, as +personal self-respect; and Love, as self-devoting life; and Purity, +that fears no death; and Dignity, that crowns all worth—let these be +clearly seen, each one apart; and clearly seen again when fully +unified—and human thought holds categories in hand whereby the +problems of our mental and ethical and religious life may be resolved.</p> + +<p>Of all of this what goes before is but a brief and bare suggestive +hint. Its development and vindication call for the completed +exposition of such a balanced round of thought as may be found in a +prophet like Isaiah, an apostle like Paul, or an evangelist like +John.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> + +<h2>LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL</h2> + +<p>Fellow-Countrymen:</p> + +<p>At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, +there is less occasion for an extended 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 declarations have been constantly called +forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still +absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the Nation, little +that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which +all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; +and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory. With high hope for the +future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.</p> + +<p>On the occasion corresponding 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 altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without +war—seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by +negotiation. Both parties 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.</p> + +<p>One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the +magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated 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 result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes 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 prayers of +both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully.</p> + +<p>The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of +offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man +by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs +come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now +wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this +terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall +we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which +the believers in a living God always ascribe 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 +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn +with the lash shall be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> paid by another drawn with the sword, as was +said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."</p> + +<p>With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him +who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to +do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all Nations.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="trnote"> +<p class="h3">Transcriber's Notes:</p> + +<p>Inconsistent/archaic spelling and punctuation retained from original.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;, by +Clark S. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; + A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians + +Author: Clark S. Beardslee + +Release Date: January 15, 2012 [EBook #38582] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS; *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS + + + A STUDY IN ETHICS + + WITH AN EPILOGUE ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS + + _BY_ + C. S. BEARDSLEE + + BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER + THE GORHAM PRESS + + THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED + TORONTO + + + _Copyright 1914, by C. S. Beardslee_ + + _All rights reserved_ + + _The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A._ + + + _To my sister Alice-- + A living blend + Of love and loyalty, + Of modesty and immortal hope._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +Abraham Lincoln was a man among men. He was earnest and keen. He was +honest and kind. He was humble and inwardly refined. He was a freeman +in very deed. His conscience was king. + +These few words contain the total sum of the following book. In +unfolding what they severally mean, and what their living unison +implies, the aim has been to bring to view the clear and simple beauty +of a noble personality; to show how such a human life contains the +final test of any proper claim in all the bounds of Ethical research; +and to stir in thoughtful minds the query whether such a character as +Lincoln's life displays, instinct as it is with Godliness, may not +yield forms of statement ample and exact enough for all the essential +formulas of pure Religion. + +Assuredly his aspirations were ideal. Quite as certainly his ways with +men were practical. The call and need today of just his qualities are +past debate. + +If only in our national senate chamber the ever-shifting group of +senators could hear the voice of Lincoln at every roll-call and in +each debate! If only in all our universities our studious youth could +glean each day from Lincoln, as he speaks of politics and of logic, of +ethics and of history! If only in every editorial room, where current +events are registered and reviewed, Lincoln's wit and wisdom might +illumine and advise! If only at every council, conference, or +convention, where leaders of our churches debate religious themes, the +reverence of Lincoln might preside! If only in the council chambers +where directors meet to plan and govern our modern enterprises in +industry and finance, Lincoln's broad humaneness might be felt! If +only every artist at his exalted and elusive task could every day +obtain new views of Lincoln's full nobility! If only toilers in the +shop and field could feel each day the friendly brotherhood in +Lincoln's rough, hard hand! + +Then toil, while losing naught of eagerness, would become content. +Art, while losing naught of beauty, would become unfailingly +ennobling. Commerce, while losing naught of enterprise, would grow +benign. Religion, while retaining a becoming dignity, would not fail +to be sincere. The public press would grow more savory and sane. Our +schools would be nurseries of manliness. And our conscience would be +embodied in our law. + +But Lincoln's face is vanished. Lincoln's voice is hushed. What +remains is that Lincoln's sentiments be republished every day in lives +that reverence and reproduce his excellence. To indicate this path, to +embolden and embody this aspiration is the service this volume +undertakes. + +Throughout this study, thought is fastened centrally upon Lincoln's +last inaugural address. There Lincoln stands complete. And that +completeness is vividly conscious in Lincoln's own understanding. +Eleven days after its delivery, and one month before his death, he +wrote to Thurlow Weed, saying that he expected that speech "to wear as +well as--perhaps better than--anything I have produced." Of almost +incredible brevity, containing as it left his hands, but five short +paragraphs, the compass and burden of thought within that address are +every way notable. It is in fact Lincoln's digest of the course and +trend of our national life; while on the side of character it is +replete with telling intimations of Lincoln's own moral effort, +purpose, and point of view. Here are in visible action all the +elements of essential manhood, all the virtues of a balanced +character. Here are insight, judgment, resolution. Here is momentum. +Here is something that endures. Here are ends worth any cost. Here is +wariest use of means. And here are wrongs, engendering anguish, and +mortal strife. And here are ultimate alternatives. And all is grasped +and even merged in Lincoln as he speaks. Here is wealth of ready +matter and direct allusion quite enough for any volume to lay open and +assess. + +Such a moral inventory and evaluation this study undertakes. Its +method is to subject this short address to the strictest ethical +analysis, to identify the elements that are integral and cardinal in +the moral being of God, and man, and government. Then, to articulate +and unify these elements into a vital ethical synthesis, to +demonstrate and manifest the living unison of character. Then, to +designate and undertake to clarify the major problems which such an +analysis and such a synthesis of such a speech and such a man open to +a student's mind. + +In this procedure it is the aim to show how from first to last in +Lincoln's life his mental clarity and his moral honesty are held in +model parity; how in his daily walk law and liberty go hand in hand; +how his cardinal moral qualities are to be defined; and how these +elemental virtues may avail in their own authority and right to guide +the eyes of men towards beauty, to guard the souls of men against +despair, to find the stable base of government, to overcome all guilt +by grace, to prove the perfect manliness of patience, to ground the +thought of men upon reality, to pierce the gloom of woe, to find the +core of piety, to perfect persuasive speech, and to win a vision of +the soul. Hereby and thus it may at last stand plain that in the soul +of Lincoln there is a moral universe; and that within the verities and +mysteries of this universe he alone is truly wise and fully free who +knows and proves the worth of faith. + +That so broad a study should be based upon so brief a speech, or +indeed upon Lincoln's single personality, may seem to some a fatal +fault. Such a thought, when facing such a method and such a theme, is +surely natural. As to its validity there need be no debate. The field +is free. Let any number of other speeches, or of other people be +assembled and placed beside the material handled in this book, for its +re-examination. In such a process, the further it is pursued, if only +Lincoln and the words of this inaugural are also held in thorough and +continual review, it may come the more fully clear that in a theme +like ethics mere multitude is not the measure of immensity; that the +structure of this book is organic, not mechanical; that the single +chapter on Lincoln's Moral Unison comprehends all that the volume +anywhere contains or intimates; that all the problems handled in Part +IV are only sample studies, and handled only suggestively; that the +volume might be expanded indefinitely or much reduced, and its +significance remain in either case unchanged; that correspondingly +Lincoln's last inaugural and Lincoln's public life, each and both, +outline in very deed a moral universe; that to rightly understand this +single character and this one address is to understand humanity, and +identify the ethical finalities; that to scan the soul of Lincoln in +his religious attitudes is to gaze upon God's image, and face the +reality and the rationale of the true religious life; and that, in +consequence, any reader who hesitates to venture such vast conclusions +upon so scant material may finally be induced to submit to a +substantial remeasurement his present estimates of brevity and +breadth. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART I. INTRODUCTION + + Lincoln's Mental Energy + + Lincoln's Moral Earnestness + + + PART II. ANALYSIS + + His Reverence for Law--Conscience + + His Jealousy for Liberty--Free-will + + His Kindliness--Love } + His Pureness--Life } + } The Cardinal Virtues + His Constancy--Truth } + His Humility--Worth } + + + PART III. SYNTHESIS + + Lincoln's Moral Unison + + + PART IV. STUDIES + + His Symmetry--The Problem of Beauty + + His Composure--The Problem of Pessimism + + His Authority--The Problem of Government + + His Versatility--The Problem of Mercy + + His Patience--The Problem of Meekness + + His Rise from Poverty--The Problem of Industrialism + + His Philosophy--The Problem of Reality + + His Theodicy--The Problem of Evil + + His Piety--The Problem of Religion + + His Logic--The Problem of Persuasion + + His Personality--The Problem of Psychology + + + PART V. CONCLUSION + + Lincoln's Character + + Lincoln's Preference + + AN EPILOGUE--Addressed to Theologians + + LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS + + + + +LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS + + + + +PART I. INTRODUCTION + + +LINCOLN'S MENTAL ENERGY + +In ethics, if anywhere, a master needs to be mentally sane and strong. +Truth cannot be trifled with here. Error here, whether in judgment or +as to fact, is fatal. Insight to exactly discern, and balance to +considerately compare must be the mental instincts of a moralist. + +How was this with Lincoln? What was his outfit and what his discipline +mentally? Was he unfailingly shrewd? Was he sufficiently sage? Was he +by instinct and by habit truly an explorer and a philosopher? Did he +have in store, and did he have in hand, the needful wealth of +pertinent facts? Had he the logical strength and breadth to set them +all in order and to see them all as one? + +Such inquiries are severe--too severe to be pressed or faced by anyone +in haste. But in this study of Lincoln such inquiries are not to be +escaped. To fairly answer them is worth to any man the toil of many +days. For just as surely as such research is resolutely pushed through +all its course, the eye will come to see where wisdom dwells, and to +learn what mental judgment and mental insight truly mean. And it will +grow clear as day that Lincoln mentally, as well as physically, was no +weakling; that in intellect, as in stature, he stands among the first. + +In many places this stands clear. There is no better way to trace it +out than to start from his last inaugural. To fully explore one single +paragraph of this address, the paragraph with which it opens, will +make one's examination of Lincoln's mental competence all but +complete. Its opening sentence alludes to his first inaugural. That +one allusion will repay pursuit. + +There Lincoln assumed the presidency. In that act and under that oath +he stepped to the executive headship of the Republic. By that step he +faced seven states in secession. It was a civil crisis, never one more +grave, or dark, or ominous. It threatened to subvert our national +history and to undermine our national hope. It was crowding on towards +bloody war a debate that dealt with the very basis of manhood in men. +To see the meaning of that crisis and to govern its issue required an +eye and a mind of Godlike vision and poise. + +Here is an excellent place to examine the outfit and the action of +Lincoln's intellect. His first inaugural is a masterpiece of +intellectual equipoise and energy. Any mind that will fasten firmly +upon the substance and the sequence of its thought may feel distinctly +the struggle, and the strength, and the steadiness of Lincoln's mind. +His arguments and his admonitions are impressive models of sanity and +power. Which is the more notable, his insight or his outlook, it is +hard to tell. The marvel is that the soberness and the force of his +appeal rest quite as firmly upon the prophetic as upon the historic +base. So clear is his grasp of the past, so sure is his sense of the +present, and so deliberate is the poise of his judicial thought that +his vision into the future has been found by time to be unerringly +true. + +Let any student put this to test. That address is an appeal. From +beginning to end it pleads. Set all its parts asunder. Then bind them +all together as Lincoln has done. And so find out what are its +elements; whence they are gathered; what is fact; what is principle; +what is prophecy; on what plan they are assembled; by what art they +are displayed; to what they owe their force; if in any spot of its +argument there is a break; and if the onset of the whole is +irresistible. Distinct replies to these distinct inquiries will tell +one all he needs to know about Lincoln's mental strength. Without +wandering any further one can find that Lincoln's methods and +conquests attest a student's patience, and a scholar's power; that his +wisdom was ripe, entirely adequate to devise safe counsel for a Nation +in civil strife. + +A striking feature of the address is its philosophic finish. Though +solidly set in concrete facts, and fitted ideally to the day of its +delivery, it is replete with counsel good for every time, so phrased +as to become the very proverbs of civil politics. Total paragraphs are +little more than clustered apothegms of consummate statesmanship. To +get the style and cast of Lincoln's mind let any student comprehend +the girth, and ponder the weight of each following sentence, all +gathered from this one address:-- + +The intention of the lawgiver is the law. + +I hold that in contemplation of universal law, and of the +Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. + +Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all +national governments. + +It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in +its organic law for its own termination. + +Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national +Constitution, and the Union will endure forever. + +Can a contract be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who +made it? + +That in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual is confirmed by the +history of the Union itself. + +No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union. + +Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written +provision has ever been denied. + +All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly +assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and +provisions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise +concerning them. + +If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the +government must cease. + +If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they +make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them. + +Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. + +A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and +limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of +popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free +people. + +Unanimity is impossible. + +One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be +extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be +extended. This is the only substantial dispute. + +Physically speaking we cannot separate. + +Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? + +Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws +among friends? + +Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always. + +This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inherit +it. + +The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people. + +Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice +of the people? + +If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, +be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and +that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great +tribunal of the American people. + +This people have wisely given their public servants but little power +for mischief. + +Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. + +Here are six and twenty sentences, culled from this one address, that +are nothing less than the maxims of a political sage, as lasting as +they are apt. As a glove fits a hand, so did these counsels fit that +day. As the needle guides all ships that sail, so their wisdom directs +all politics still. They embody sure witness of an eye that is keen to +see--none more narrowly; and of a mind that is trained to think--none +more thoroughly. Their author was a man who knew. He knew the past. He +knew things current. He knew what their coming issues were sure to be. +He knew the grounds of government. He knew the omens of anarchy. He +knew the awful possibilities in fraternal hate. And he knew the need +and the awful cost of patient forbearance. Here is a man well past +childhood intellectually. He has the eye and the mind of a man long +schooled by discipline. And he has a tongue expert in speech, well +freighted with tremendous sense, but lucid too, and graceful, and void +of all offense. This one address displays a man, though pathetically +unfamiliar with childhood schools, of consummate intellectual balance +and force. + +But, for its cherished end this inaugural proved pathetically +incompetent. And when it became his duty to pronounce a second +inaugural oath, the Nation had been four years in terrible war. That +war levied a terrible tax upon the president's intellectual strength. +The mental perplexities of those endless days and nights cannot be +told. Much less can they be understood. It may be doubted whether any +other man could have brought a mind to uphold and command those years +with any approach to Lincoln's mental honesty. It was, under God, +within the steadfast, tenacious grasp of Lincoln's exhaustless and +invincible mental loyalty that our national destiny lay secure. To all +the phases of all the problems of all those years, and to his own +judgment and endeavor concerning them all, this same first paragraph +of his second inaugural also alludes. This allusion, too, if any one +would compass the full measure of Lincoln's mental strength, demands +review, and will reward pursuit. The records are well preserved. And +they bear abounding witness to Lincoln's almost superhuman sanity and +insight and energy and mental equilibrium. If any one will follow +through this honest and perfectly honorable hint, he will come to feel +that the mind of Lincoln was the Nation's crucible in which all the +Nation's problems were resolved. + + +LINCOLN'S MORAL EARNESTNESS + +In the central paragraph of his last inaugural Lincoln enshrined +compelling demonstration of his moral soundness. That single paragraph +is nothing less than a solid section of a finished moral philosophy. +It reckons right and wrong incapable of any reconciliation, God as +Almighty Judge, and all his judgments just. But that opinion was no +word in haste. Deliberate as he always was, when voicing any estimate +as President, never was he more deliberate than when penning that +moral explanation of the war. In four stern years he had +been revolving surveying and pondering that sternest of all +debates:--Should the war go on or should it cease? Every argument on +either side, that heart or thought of man could feel or see, had been +driven by every sense into the faithful heed of his honest soul. He +bent his ear obediently to every plea, binding his patient mind to +register fairly every weighty word, designing with absolute honesty +that, when at last he spoke the executive decree, his decision should +bind the Nation for the single perfect reason that it was right. And +when finally and persistently he upheld the war and ordered its +relentless prosecution to the end, no one may truthfully charge that +opinion and command to ignorance or malice, to prejudice or haste. +Moral grounds alone were the basis and motive of that conclusion and +behest. The war was caused by slavery. With Southern success slavery +would spread and become perpetual. If slavery was not wrong, nothing +was wrong. That this great wrong should be restrained and in the end +removed, the war must be put through. + +But that was not all his thought and argument in this last inaugural. +The war, for the time, parted the Nation sectionally. But the sin and +guilt of slavery, in Lincoln's feeling, rested upon the Nation as a +whole; and upon the Nation as a whole he adjudged the burden of its +woe. Here the moral grandeur of Lincoln comes fully into view. His +affirmation of that awful iniquity, inwrought in two centuries and a +half of slavery, is no pharisaic indictment of the South. It is a +repentant confession of his own and all the Nation's equal part in its +infinite wrong. Among the guilty authors and abettors of that wrong he +identifies himself. He deems the war God's righteous judgment upon the +national inhumanity, and meekly bows his head, among the humblest and +most afflicted of those who suffer and sorrow beneath that scourge. + +That kindly fellowship with all the Nation in the sorrows of the war, +with its lowly confession of all the guilt, and its patient endurance +of all the atoning cost, proclaims and demonstrates that Lincoln's +respect for righteousness was supreme. It betokens a living sense of +law, a hearty assent to duty, a careful reckoning of guilt, an +uncomplaining readiness to own and rectify all wrong, a manly purpose +to inaugurate a new rule of equity, a reverent acknowledgment of God, +an ideal esteem for manhood everywhere, freedom from the dominion of +greed, friendliness for the erring, pity for the hurt and poor. Above +all it shows the faith of a moral seer in its manifest confidence that +human evil, and all its awful sorrow, are under the joint divine and +human control and can be absolutely and joyfully overthrown and done +away. + +Here is a type of manhood that, under the discipline of God, grew +sterling to the core, and by a signal favoring Providence provided an +ample basis for a national moral ideal. Here is an ideal where +conscience and righteousness stand in close affiance, where liberty +springs from equity, and where pity never fails. Here is a person and +a name worthy and able demonstrably to inspire and lead to national +triumph a new political league. And here is an official whose +spontaneous honesty has left upon all his state papers an indelible +moral stamp, creating thereby out of his official documents a national +literature of finished beauty and excellence and power. + + + + +PART II. ANALYSIS + + +HIS REVERENCE FOR LAW--CONSCIENCE + +Deeply set within the heart of Lincoln in this last inaugural was his +binding sense of right. This obligation was civic. The speech can be +described as a statement of what a loyal citizen under confederate law +is bound to do, when his civic loyalty is put to a final test. It is +an illustration of obedience facing rebellion. It is an exposition of +a confederate's duty, when confederates secede. It is a civilian's +announcement of the law that is singly and surely sovereign, when the +sole alternative in the Nation's life is dissolution or blood. It is a +revelation of the law that still prevails among and above a Republic +of freemen, when all law is faced by the challenge and defiance of +war. + +Here is a supreme exhibit of a solid co-efficient in Lincoln's +character. It shows in a commanding way how moral duty held dominion +in his life. He had no predilection for war. That he must face its +menace, or forswear his fealty to his freeman's covenant, was a +pathetic fate. And when in that alternative he upheld his oath and +endured the war, it is past all denial that he was bowing under an +inexorable constraint. He was plainly ordering his speech and conduct +in submission to an all-commanding, all-reviewing moral regimen. His +will was listening to a moral behest. His judgment was pondering a +moral choice. His eye was forecasting a moral award. He was shaping +sovereign issues with a sovereign responsibility. + +This experience and this expression of Lincoln's life unearths +foundations in his character which demand precise examination. What +was the nature of the law which held and swayed the soul of Lincoln +with such an overmastering control? Whence came its authority? Wherein +rested its validity? Is there record of its origin and authorship? +Where is it recorded? By whose hand was it transcribed? Precisely what +are its so imperative terms? + +In attempting an answer, one's first impulse is to say that in this +address Lincoln was speaking as citizen and official, as subject and +chief executive of an openly organized civil government, with written +Constitution and laws; and that what he was saying in this inaugural +address contained and involved no more and no less than those +regulations expressed; that he simply adopted and echoed what they +defined and described; that the sole and only authority he assumed to +cite or urge was this well-known published law of the land; and that +in those open records one may find in fullness and precision the full +definition of the nature and validity, the authority and authorship +and origin, the very terms and abiding form of all the moral mandates +he here obeyed. + +In such a statement there is abounding truth. Lincoln explicitly shows +explicit allegiance in all his political life to the dominion of our +national law. He revered our Constitution. And that the Constitution +should likewise be revered by all was all he gave his life to realize. +Grounded as that Constitution was upon our American Bill of Rights, +acknowledging as it did that all men were created equal, owning as it +openly did the sovereignty of the popular will, and allowing no other +lord, he found within its reverent and reverend affirmations the +dignity, authority, and power all-sufficient and supremely valid for +him as a fellow-citizen among his fellowmen. + +But in such a statement something is left unsaid. As one listens +through this address to Lincoln's voice, he instantly and continuously +feels that he is hearing there no mere echo of quoted words. There is +in the vibrant tone a note that is original. His voice is his own. His +words are of his own selection. His phrases were fashioned by himself. +His paragraphs embody the shape and bear the stamp of his peculiar and +painstaking invention and argument. In his utterance are the +inflection and accent, the very passion of unforced and independent +conviction. He speaks as one who finds within himself, in some true +sense, the authority for what he says. + +But not merely are his words valid for himself, as he shapes his +ordered speech. They are irrepressible. His convictions throb with +urgency. The constraint to which he bows is enthroned and exercised +within. The law he obeys is just as truly a law he ordains. But on +either view it is a mandate which he humbly and grandly obeys. It is +an imperative to which he yields his life. + +Just here emerges another phase of his amenability to law. It operates +as an impulse to plead. It drives him to the rostrum, and makes of him +one of the foremost masters of public address our civic life and +history have produced. As Lincoln voices this address he is speaking +not merely to himself, nor for himself, nor to ease and unburden his +mind, nor yet to open and indicate his view. As he spoke those words +his eye was fixed upon a mighty multitude of his fellowmen. As he +unfolded his thought before their attentive, waiting minds, it was as +though a banner were being unfurled to symbolize and signify to a +Nation's multitudes the sovereign duty of all true patriots. In that +transaction he became undeniably prophet and lawgiver to the Nation. +The obligations that supremely bind his life he urges and attests as +binding with equal and evident urgency upon the millions upon millions +of the members in the same free and solemn political league. When his +speech is done, he would have all who hear conjoined indefeasibly with +him in loyalty to his law. Every sentence of the address bears +evidence of this design. He is aiming to bring the Nation's conscience +and will to embody and obey the identical mandates that govern him. + +But his appeal is vestured in ideal deference. He deals with law. But +he does not command. Throughout his solemn exposition there is no note +or hint of dictatorship of any sort. Not a breath in any accent +suggests any undertaking to coerce. He simply strives, as a man with +his friend, to persuade. + +And yet as he sets forth his speech, within the comely apparel of its +courteous words gleams the regal form of duty, imperial offspring of +inflexible law. Those words were no empty phrasings of indifferent +platitudes, disposed and pronounced to dignify a passing pageant in +the formal rounds of our civic life. They trembled with anxiety. He +spoke of nothing less than the Nation's life and death, the Nation's +duty, and the Nation's doom. The honor of the Republic was being +sternly tried, to see if it was sound or rotten in its very heart. +Lincoln was dealing with things that all men owned to be above all +price. He was striving, as for life, to achieve agreement as to duties +that should transcend all possible denial. He was trying to fasten +upon every American conscience constraints that no American conscience +could possibly escape. + +Here is a cognizance of law and deference before its claims that is +curiously composite, if not complex, or even innerly contraposed. He +acknowledges the written Constitution to bind all citizens with +supreme authority; and gives his solemn oath to honor, uphold, and +execute its plain behests. He as plainly betrays the presence within +his individual breast of a moral sovereign to which he bows with just +as loyal reverence. And before every man with whom he pleads he orders +his behavior, even while he pleads, as before a throne whose moral +majesty he has no right or power to nullify. And yet within the terms +embodying such a deference he expounds the genesis and justifies the +conduct of a long-drawn civil conflict, in which his own official +decrees can be carried out only by the aid of the death and desolation +entailed by war. And when, despite death-dealing guns and deferential +pleas alike, vast multitudes of men, even all the captains and armies +of the South, despise his arguments and defy his arms, he continues to +urge his convictions and appeals, and to reinforce his words with war. + +Can such a complex attitude be shown and seen to rest in moral +harmony? Were his conscience, and the Constitution, and his deference +before other men, and his summons of the land to arms equally and +alike compelling morally, all indeed morally akin? Beneath the +unsparing gaze of his conscience-searching eye, under all the awful +testing of his loyalty to oath, in all his patient and persistent +pleadings for other men's agreement, and through all the torture and +distress of war, what explanation and account can be given of any +obligation adequate to bind and justify his course? Instinct himself +with deference, and averse to any form of tyranny, how could he so +rigidly refuse to yield? Prone toward conciliation in every fiber of +his life, how did he inwardly, how could he openly vindicate his +unbending determination to uphold his faith, and carry through the +war? + +This forces a final and vital inquiry touching the nature of the law +that was so regnant and compelling in Lincoln's personal life; and +that he was struggling here in this address with such consuming +desire, and by the unabetted efficiency of oral appeal, to implant in +other breasts. From Lincoln's balanced words it stands apparent that +the problems bound up in this inquiry beleaguered him on every side. +His throbbing syllables, and the tactics by which his sentences are +arranged, attest impressively that while he was facing problems too +profound for human thought to solve, he was also facing laws that he +could not escape, and dared not disobey. It was not for his kind heart +to sanction and encompass such a war, and stand so solidly against the +solid South, while yet behaving with so unfeigned respect for every +other man, except beneath compulsion of a law supremely gentle and +invincibly severe. He was plainly viewing some behest too plain to be +denied, too sacred to be disobeyed, too insistent to be withheld, and +yet too reverend and benign to suffer any champion to be rude--a +behest around whose throne hung sanctions, true to fact, waiting to +adjudge, certain to descend. + +In the effort now to trace in the soul of Lincoln the birth and growth +and manly stature of this deep sense of law, some things stand plain. +In this, his consciousness of sovereign duty and supreme allegiance, +Lincoln stands entire. In this address will and thought and sentiments +combine. He is not swept against his will. What he decides he eagerly +desires. And with his will and wish his best intelligence co-operates. +If any man essay to overthrow his argument, he has the total Lincoln +to overturn. Determined, impassioned, and convinced, he confronts all +men, whether they be adversaries or friends. In his contention and +defense his being is completely unified. He is employing upon his +master task his total strength. Distressful, dark and difficult as is +his environment and time, he suffers and ponders and resolves, with +forces undivided, none reserved. With such convictions, such desires, +and such determination, the assurance in his onset was in itself +triumphant. + +Upon what foundations now for such unyielding confidence and appeal +did Lincoln take his stand? For Lincoln's own deliberate reply, let +all men read again, and then again, and still again, this second +inaugural address. Those words are appareled with a beautiful charity. +But from deep within their kindliness resounds the clear, firm voice +of heaven-ordered, all-prevailing law--a law that comprehends beneath +its strong and high dominion the long career of American slavery, +defining its sin, awarding its doom, and dealing justly with the +contending imprecations and the pleading intercessions that strangely +voice the deep confusion of embattling hosts. American slavery, its +sin and doom--in his exposition of that dark theme, Lincoln gave his +exposition of all-compelling law. + +All men were created equal. The right of all men to liberty is +likewise a primitive endowment. Upon this one broad base, and upon no +other, did Lincoln ever set up any claim to voice for himself, or for +his fellowman, a civic obligation. To that creative decree can be +traced all the civic appeals that Lincoln ever made. In fixing there +the ground of every plea, he had indomitable assurance of faith that +he was defining and declaring for every man an irreducible and +ineffaceable moral law. All men were created equal. All men were +divinely entitled to be free. That fiat of God Americans had tried and +dared to invalidate. Its authority it was now the Almighty's purpose, +by the obedient hand of Lincoln, to reinaugurate. Its simple terms, +that had forever been indelible, were now to be made universally +legible, and everywhere visible, by the obedient consent of all his +fellowmen. + +In all of this the chiefest thing to note is that this same +all-commanding moral law is born within. Written precepts and +published constitutions are but transcriptions. They are not original. +They are only copies. Not at the tip of a moving pen, but in our +forefathers' reverent and independent hearts, did our noble +Constitution come to birth. And in the time of Lincoln it was in +Lincoln's heart that this venerable law was born again. In the heart +of Washington, in the heart of Lincoln, in the heart of every man, as +fashioned and over-shadowed evermore by God, all moral regimen has its +stately origin. + +To this grave oracle, deep within Lincoln's Godlike soul, did Lincoln +fashion utterance. To this same reverend oracle, deep-lodged within +the Godlike soul of every listener, Lincoln made appeal. Here is all +the urgency of all his argument. Here is the secret of all his +confidence. Herein alone shines all his moral majesty. + +Something such was Lincoln's exposition to himself, and to his time, +of the majesty and mandatory force of civic law. Its authority rests +in God. Its validity rests as well in man. It has been written down +most nobly in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Its terms spell +freedom and equality for all. In the light of our common human +sentiments, kindling within us from heavenly fires, its printed copies +may be easily revised. And while its concrete regulations are far too +manifold for any general document to possibly contain, its dictates +are all as concrete and corresponsive to our human civic life as is +the heaven-born and reverent human friendliness with which the life of +Lincoln was continually graced. + +Deferring then to future pages all specific analysis and appraisal of +the pregnant interior wealth of Lincoln's sense of moral obligation, +two momentous affirmations touching Lincoln's reverence for law lie +already right at hand. The law he reverenced held high and wide +dominion. It shaped and swayed and judged at once and alike both his +own and his Nation's destiny. + +And its terms were plain. It was no timid, dusky lamp, held in +trembling hand, throwing uncertain rays, and flickering towards +extinction. The law that shines in this inaugural is a glowing, +radiant orb, bringing day when first it dawned, and shedding still +full light of day over all the earth. + + +HIS JEALOUSY FOR LIBERTY--FREE-WILL + +This second inaugural address had its birth in the breast of a man +freeborn, and resolute to remain forever free. To find within this +speech this living seed, to trace and sketch its bursting growth, and +to gather up its fruit, is well worth any toil or cost. To begin with, +this speech is undeniably Lincoln's own. That in any sense it was born +of any other man's dictation, Lincoln would never admit, and no other +man would ever affirm. As its words gain voice, every listener feels +that Lincoln was their only author, and that even in their utterance, +though in the living presence of an un-numbered multitude, this +speaker was standing in a majestic solitude. That exposition of the +war, of the Union, and of slavery was of and by and for himself. What +he was uttering was original. The convictions he affirmed were his +personal faith. The decision his words so delicately veiled was his +personal resolve. The issue towards which they aimed was the outlook +of his lone heart's hope. The appeal he voiced was warmed and winged +by his own desire. The argument he so deftly inwrought was his +invention and device. The words he singled out were his selection. +The total aspect and onset and effect of the address, as it looked and +worked on the day of its delivery, and as it looks and works today, +were of his unforced and free election and intent. All the volume, +burden and design of those pregnant, urgent, far-seeing paragraphs are +the first hand product of a freeborn man, adapted and addressed to men +freeborn. + +Here is for any student of ethics an imposing spectacle. For here is a +commanding demonstration that mortal man is in very deed a responsible +author of moral deeds. That this inaugural scene gives this stupendous +truth an indeniable vindication, no man may lightly undertake to +disapprove. But within that undeniable verity are involved all the +mighty revolutions of a moral universe. + +This import of this speech can never be made too plain. To this end +let any reader note the fact that in that stern day, and in this plain +speech, Lincoln faced, and that under a pitiless compulsion, an +exigent alternative. When he penned, and when he spoke its freighted +words, he stood in the very brunt of war. His thoughts were tracing +battle lines. His eye was fixed on bayonets. Before him stood +far-ranging ranks of men in mutual defiance, men at variance upon +fundamental things, men in conflict over claims irreconcilable by God +or man. By no device of argument or of compromise could those +contending claims become identical, or even mutually tolerant. Men's +paths had parted. Armies had taken sides. Difference had deepened into +intolerance; intolerance had heightened into hate; and hate had flared +up into war. Secession had proclaimed that the Union must dissolve, +that confederates were foes, that one Nation must be two. And men +based their reasons for rending the land and for rallying ranks in +arms, upon opposing views of God's decree, and of the nature of men. +One side claimed that God ordained that black men should be slaves. +This claim the other side denied; and avowed instead that God in his +creation and endowment of the human race ordained that all men should +be equal and free. So appalling and so passing plain in our political +life was the alternative which this inaugural had to confront. + +Equally plain upon the face of this inaugural is the fact that, in the +presence of that dread and stern alternative, Lincoln made a choice. +He picked his flag. He chose the banner of the free. The standard of +the slaveholder he spurned. Responsibly, deliberately, he selected +where to stand, fully and consciously purposing that in such selection +he was enlisting and employing all the voluntary powers of his life. +Here was conscious choice. He did select. He did reject. He could have +taken another, an oppugnant stand, as many a familiar confederate did. +Two paths were surely possible. And they did undeniably diverge. That +divergence he soberly surveyed, and traced down through all its +devious ways to their final consequence. In act and motive, in +judgment and intent, he was self-poised, self-determined, self-moved. +When, in this second inaugural scene, removed from his former +inaugural oath by four imperious years of sobering and awakening +thought, but facing still a frowning South, he swore a second time to +preserve, protect and defend the Constitution--that was a freeman's +choice. And it was Lincoln's own. Between his soul and heaven, as he +registered that resolve, no third authority intervened. As he stood +and published and defined that reiterated pledge, his soul was +sovereignly, supremely free. + +And within that sovereign freedom its even-balanced deliberation +should not be overlooked. Those days that filed between those two +inaugurals had been replete with studied meditation. The mighty +problems precipitated by the war he had taken and turned and poised +and sought to estimate and solve in every possible way. He pondered +every ounce of their awful gravity. He paced the total course of their +development. He knew our history, with all its ideals and all its +errors by heart. He inspected with peculiar carefulness the drift and +trend of our national career. It is doubtful if any one ever studied +so incessantly the current of our affairs, or peered so anxiously and +with such far-sighted calculation into the hidden and distant issues +of the stupendous enterprise in which he was predestined to act so +commanding a part. So when his free decision was ushered forth and +projected among the contending determinations of his day, to play its +part, it was the ripe conclusion of a thoughtful mind, like the +well-poised verdict of a judge. + +And his free choice was resolute. His will was without wavering. The +side he made his own was forced to face the musketry and forts, the +arsenals and fleets, of a would-be nation of angry, determined +men--men who would rather die than yield. The choice he made involved +the shedding of human blood. This he sadly knew. In four endless years +he had been compelled to defend his resolution with arms. And now as +he volunteered his oath a second time, his free decision involved +again the frightful corollary of war. This meant that within his +voluntary oath was a conscious determination, too vigorous and +resolute for any threat to daunt, for any form of terror to reverse. +His choice was no feeble leaning to one side. Into its formation and +into its fulfillment poured all the energy of his life. It was vastly, +radically more than impulse, or propensity, or easy, unconsidered +inclination. It was a freeman's choice, poised and edged and +energized by a freeman's will. It had firmness like the firmness of +the hills. + +This choice of Lincoln was ponderous. His exercise of freedom, as +shown in this inaugural, was dealing, not with things indifferent, not +with trifles void of moral moment, nor with empty, immaterial +suppositions. When Lincoln shaped and welcomed to himself this +preference, he was handling nothing less than the affronts of human +arrogance, the greed of human avarice, the cruelty of human slavery, +and a confederate's disloyalty. That preference was his free election +to enthrone within himself, and within all other men, the stability of +a firm allegiance, the grace of human friendliness, the worthy +valuation of human souls, and the surpassing beauty of a true +humility. It was between such values that his election took its shape. +His decision dealt with things primary, enduring, and universal. It +was concerned with the elemental affections and convictions of men, +while all the time supremely respecting the decrees and judgments of +Almighty God. Upon such a level, and amid such values, did the will of +Lincoln trace out its path. It was a Godlike energy, sovereign, +soberminded, original, free. + +But though this freedom of Lincoln, as it reigns through this +inaugural, was individually his own, and wrought out into precise +experience in personal singleness and independency, by no manner of +means was he standing in this scene in moral isolation. He was beset +about and wrought upon from many sides by mighty moral energies. For +one thing, a vast Republic held him fast in the bonds of loyal +citizenship. It was a Republic composed of freemen, to be sure. But +those freemen were by no means a miscellany of mutually indifferent +and disconnected units. They had formed a Union. That Union had a +definite and inviolable integrity. That corporate integrity laid an +unrenounceable obligation upon all its membership. It was the sacred +respect for the sacred honor of that political bond that proved a man +a patriot. To assert the freeman's right to cast aside those bonds +proved a man a traitor, and gendered unto bondage. Here unfolds a +veritable mesh of moral obligations--obligations of compelling +potency. It was precisely in defence and demonstration of those +enveloping claims that Lincoln advocated and prosecuted a defensive +but relentless war. + +The South resented all such claims. They were resolute that national +bonds should be defied, that their authority should be annulled. And +this they urged explicitly in the very name of freedom. This defiant +protest Lincoln's opposite preference had to face. This involved his +mind in the study of a problem that is never out of date--a study that +will test any student's moral honesty to the quick. Lincoln's +championship of moral liberty had to grapple, in the counter +championship of Southern arms, a type and sort of freedom that he +forever disowned for himself, and that he could never consent to in +any other man. This drove him into the study of the nature of a human +soul and the nature of social bonds. This inquiry uncovered two +foundation rocks, laid deep by our forefathers beneath the fabric of +our republic, supports to human honor and stability which no man nor +any confederation of men can undermine and overthrow without turning +upside down the fundamental supports of harmony and honor among +civilians that are free. These two foundation rocks are the divine +design that all men should be equal and free; and the certain +corollary that governments among men derive their just powers from the +consent of the governed. The equality of freemen when they stand +apart, and their free consent, when they join in a political +league--these are the immovable pillars of character and order among +intelligent men. Upon such foundations this government has been +placed. That sure basis the South assailed. In the name of freedom +that assault must be repulsed. The national environment, the national +integrity, the national honor, the existence of the Nation, conceived +as it was in liberty, made all such liberty as the South preferred, +not a freeman's right, but a sorry simulation, a moral wrong. +Government of the people, by the people, was freedom to the core, the +core of civic righteousness. In such a government popular and +everlasting allegiance was elemental uprightness. Among freemen, the +cornerstone of civics is a plighted troth to liberty. + +Thus Lincoln argued. And with him to argue thus was to obey. As thus +conceived, obedience to his civic pledge went hand in hand with +liberty. Enlistment under a government and laws framed by +fellow-freemen was to him no limitation of his personal rights. +Instead it involved and assured for every bondman a full emancipation, +and for every freeman full title forever to every unalienable right. +Such a view was indeed ideal, as Lincoln soberly knew; but for that +ideal every power of his kingly manhood was ready to struggle and +suffer and serve. To bind his hand to such a league was his free +choice. To live in loyalty to such a bond was a living pride and joy. +Such an agreement was to the end of his days unresented and +unconstrained. + +But it cost him dearly. No indentured bonds-man ever wrought out sorer +toil. None ever suffered through longer, heavier, sadder days. It wore +away his life. The war was to his tender soul, as he termed it, "a +dreadful scourge." But as he interpreted its trend, its certain +winnings outvalued and outweighed its woe. It was freely and +willingly, not by any irksome and alien coercion, that he opened his +soul to all its sorrows, and poured out all his strength to direct and +hasten its consummation. He saw unerringly that it had to do with +government by free consent, with the tenure of a freeman's oath, with +the validity of a freeman's right. And by a preference that in his +freeman's breast was irrepressible, he selected with an open, +far-ranging eye to take his place in that terrific conflict in the +very brunt, that the Nation and all the world and coming ages might +see and enjoy its happy issue in a Union built and compacted +indissolubly upon the inviolable oaths and rights of men who are free. + +This was Lincoln's law of liberty. It secures to men their freedom; +but it binds those freemen in a league. Their civic life is not a +solitude. It is a covenant. + +But when freemen form a league, their solemn oath, as this inaugural +shows, embodies awful sanctions. From such a league and covenant, +seven confederate parts were affirming and defending their right to +secede, and that by force of arms. This forced freedom to a final +definition, and a final test. What follows when a Republic fails? What +form of civic order lies beyond, when a league of freemen is violently +dissolved? Where will freedom find sure footing, when the fundamental +laws of freemen are defied? On this stern question Lincoln fixed his +eye. And as his vision cleared and deepened, he grew to see that if +freedom among men could ever survive, a freeman's mutual covenant must +be inviolate. A freeman's compact must be kept, else on all the earth +freedom could find no resting place. If this should ever be denied, +that denial must be sternly smitten to the ground. Thus for the very +cause of freedom, and as a freeman, Lincoln was driven into war. He +was put where he had no other choice. He was forced to fight. + +But in that war the havoc and disaster were mutual. Both sides +suffered terribly. The conflict dealt out torture that neither party +could evade. It was mighty ponderings on these conditions that wrung +from Lincoln's heart the heart of this inaugural, wherein he traces +with a humble, deep-searching carefulness the cause of all the war to +that prolonged infraction of the law of liberty in the lot of the +American slave; and the guilt of that enormous sin to North and South +alike; and the moral explanation of the sorrows of the war to the +judgments of Almighty God. + +Herein he learned that among freemen freedom is in no sense arbitrary +and absolute. Laws lie in its very being. Their presence is +spontaneous indeed, as is every impulse of their promulgation and +rule. But they must be obeyed. If their self-framed mandates are +disobeyed, then freemen are no longer free. If freemen dare to bind +and rob their fellows and aggrandize their own advantages, then the +yoke they bind on other men, by a sanction no mortal can escape, will +be bound upon their own necks, until their false advantages are all +surrendered, and the freedom that is claimed by anyone is given +equally to every other man. To the fulfillment and preservation of +that law Lincoln freely bowed his life. This is the core of this +address. Thus Lincoln illustrates true liberty. In the crucible of war +was his vision of the worth of freedom finally refined. It was through +a costly sacrifice of peace. But it was alone and all for freedom, for +freedom and for nothing else, that his peace and ours was sacrificed. + +This exposition of Lincoln's pure ideal of independent, virile manhood +has embraced, in passing, a phase of the vast environment in which he +felt his manhood framed, that calls for separate remark--the relation +of his human freedom to the rule of God. The war is traced in this +address to a threefold origin: it was projected in the resolution of +the South that slavery should be given leave to spread; it was +accepted in the decision of the North that the present bounds of +slavery should not be passed; the whole affair was overturned, and the +war was over-ruled in the purpose of Almighty God, that North and +South, as a single Nation, guilty in common for slavery as a national +sin, should make full requital for all its cruelty. In this thought of +Lincoln, the conflicting purposes of the North and the South, and his +own determination too, were being made to bow beneath the mightier +dominion of Almighty God. In the realm of human politics this is a +rare and notable confession. And that it was published beneath the +open sky, at noon, before a peopled Nation's open eye, as a thoughtful +explanation of his inaugural oath as president of a mighty government +upon the earth, must be conceded to mightily enhance its notability. +It lacks but little of rising to the rank of prophecy. But equally +notable with its publicity is its conscious, free submissiveness. +Clear to discern, he is also prompt to own the over-mastering rule of +God. His attitude in this inaugural is an attitude of explicit +subordination to a higher power. But it is clear as day that this +subordination is voluntary. There is no sign of reluctance or +unwillingness, as though he were being forced, not even though all +expectations of his own were being over-ruled in the inscrutable plans +of God. This address reveals this man in a mood and tone of complete +submission, ready for rebuke, surrendering all his ways to God. This +posture of acquiescence, in God's revolution of his plans, and +reconstruction of his hopes, is the factor to notice here, as we +examine the actual operation of Lincoln's will. Above his private +liberty, above his high official authority, above the great Republic +in which his own decisions merge, reigns the hidden hand of God. To +the power and majesty of that unseen sway he summons every dignity +and every desire of his own to render unreserved obedience. + +In seeing and saying this, however, one must never omit to observe and +add that Lincoln's eye observed with solemn joy a precious moral +meaning in the divine omnipotence. Heaven's unexpected guidance and +consummation of the war were only adding clarity and emphasis to the +principle of liberty. It only drove the demonstration home, and that +with irresistible cogency, that human bondage must be avenged. And so +in fact Lincoln's solemn reverence for the divine control was a girdle +confirming the strength of the fine jealousy that guarded for himself +and for all mankind the sacredness and the majesty of the human will. +Within the deeper deeps of his own free preference he coincided and +co-operated with the will of God. His obedience to God, his allegiance +to his civic covenant, and his individual, cherished preference +coalesce ideally; while each, without any diversion or loss, preserves +its own integrity. + +Thus with life-exhausting, sacrificial toil, with genuine originality, +ever exemplifying in his chastened life all the burden of his thought, +by a decisive choice between divergent paths, with the careful +deliberateness of a full-grown man, with unconquerable determination, +gravely sensible of every ponderous consequence, in unbroken and +intimate companionship with all his fellow-men, with vision sharp to +detect and uncover every simulation and counterfeit of his wish, +through solemn fellowship with redemptive sorrows, bowing without +repugnance to every sanction that free equality enjoins, and in humble +reverence for the all-commanding, all-subduing will of God, Lincoln +here unfolds the central and infolded implications in his +all-consuming jealousy to be free. + + +HIS KINDLINESS--LOVE + +A genuine and generous goodwill to other men breathes warmly through +this second inaugural, as the glowing breath of life pervades the +bodily frame of a living child. This manifests itself, as seen in his +impassioned zeal for freedom, in a vivid consciousness of +companionship. He felt his life and destiny interlaced inseparably +with all Americans, nay with all the world of human kind. With this +widely expanded and ever expanding Republic, he felt himself in these +inaugural scenes peculiarly identified. In that great pageant he was +deeply sensible of holding the central place. His inaugural oath, +though his single, individual act, announced his conscious purpose to +be the Nation's head. In that station his person became supremely +representative. It was for him to incorporate nobly, mightily, +judicially, the national dignity, authority, and design. + +Many phases of this profound coincidence of the life of Lincoln with +the Nation's life come into sight whenever his life's career is +carefully reviewed. But among all the illustrations of his +self-submergence deep within the overflowing fullness of our national +history, there is one that demonstrates his tender kindliness beyond +all possibility of refutation. This is his profound participation with +the Nation in her fate because of slavery. Around this awful issue +circles all the thought of this, as of the first address. That this +puissant co-efficient of our national history was somehow the cause of +the existing war he said that all men felt. He registered his own +opinion that all the sorrows of the war were in requital for that sin. +Into those sorrows no man entered more profoundly than did Lincoln +himself. They sobered all his joy. They solemnized him utterly. It is +true few heard his groans. In his patience he was mainly silent. None +ever heard him make complaint. All impulse to resentment was subdued. +But the nation's sorrows were on his heart. Through all those days he +was our confessor, self-sacrificed, sorrow-laden, faithful absolutely, +but uncomplaining. Upon his head an angry, unanimous South, and many +thousands in the North dealt vengeful, malicious blows, denying him +all joy, crying out against him ruthlessly. All this he bore, as +though he heard them not, and continued day and night to seek the +Nation's peace. With marvelous freedom from malice himself, with +fullness of charity for all, he taught a Nation how a Nation's sorrows +should be patiently borne. And yet through all the days, in all this +land, no man was more purely innocent of the Nation's sin of slavery +than this same man. Here is friendship. Here is neighborly compassion +written large. This is generosity, untinctured with any selfish +reservation. Amid all the sorrows and fortunes of our history no sight +is half as pathetic as this deep, free, silent companionship of +Lincoln with his Nation's griefs in the deepest period of her +affliction. And yet he almost seemed to cherish his fate. He bore it +all so quietly, and with such a steady heart and eye, that in his +seeming calm we are unconscious of his pain. He gives no hint of +faltering and drawing back. He even strove repeatedly to lure the +Nation to his side, to enter into sacrificial fellowship with the +hapless South. But to nothing of this would the people hear. + +This commanding fact, the moral mutualness of the innocent Lincoln's +sorrows with the sorrows of a guilty land, is a primary factor in this +historic scene. From such a moral complication momentous questions +emerge. How can such confusion of moral issues be ever justified? Why +do guilty and innocent suffer and sorrow alike? In such a glaring +moral inequality how could Lincoln himself ever bring his candid mind +to honestly acquiesce? Why should a later generation suffer vengeance +for their father's sins? Why the black man's fate? How can moral +judgments diverge so hopelessly upon such basic moral themes? If God's +judgment is just, why are his judgments upon such inhumanity so long +delayed? How about those kindred sufferings of those earlier days that +for total generations were unavenged? Questions such as these must +have risen in Lincoln's mind as he drained his bitter cup. Such +questions are not to be evaded or suppressed. It should rather be said +that Lincoln's undeniable gentleness in enduring, as the Nation's +head, and for his country's sake, a Nation's curse for a national sin +forces just such questions into sharpest definition, and focuses them +insistently and unavoidably before every thoughtful eye. They are +shaped and fastened here solely to render aid in indicating, as they +undeniably do, the supreme refinement of Lincoln's friendliness. He +held by kindly fellowship with his fellowmen, even when that +fellowship involved his innocent life in the moral shame and pain of +their reprobation and woe. Here is an interchange of guilt and +innocence, in Lincoln's undeniable experience, undeniably resolved and +harmonized. Here is human kindliness, triumphant, transcending all +debate. + +Around this exalted illustration of the strength and purity of +Lincoln's benevolence cluster many statements eager to be heard. His +kindness showed in many ways, but they were all but varying, accordant +forms of pure neighborliness. His mastery of all malice, his unfailing +charity, the kindliness of his cherished hope, his companionship with +others' sorrow, his longings for peace at home and among all men, his +pity for the bereft, his tenderness before our human wounds, his +reluctance to go to war, his championship of the oppressed, his +willingness to bear another's blame, his silence before abuse, his +mighty predilections towards universal friendliness, are all +concordant and coincident types and forms of his prevailing, +spontaneous companionship with men. Each phase deserves elaborate +description. But it is in closer keeping with the treatment here to +name some general qualities of his kindliness, qualities that are +common to all its forms. + +His friendliness was immediate. When human needs appealed for comfort +and aid, it was not his way to send a deputy. He appeared himself. +Here is something nothing less than marvelous. An intimate friend of +all, he stood in conscious touch with all the Nation's citizenship. At +first thought this may seem to be in consequence and by means of his +eminence and office as the people's president. As chief executive of +the people's will, and as foremost representative citizen, he stood +for every man in that man's place; and his universal friendliness +found open avenues to every individual citizen's consciousness. Here +is truth. But this truth only partially meets this case. The +operations of his benevolence were somehow independent of space and +time. His tours while president were short and few. Back and forth +between the White House, the war office, and the soldier's home he +wore a historic path. It is almost overwhelmingly sad to realize how +almost all his movements while president were within the +sorrow-shadowed walls and the hidden solitudes of his official home. +As said before, he seemed to exist apart from men, in a pathetic +isolation. Nevertheless, it is plain to all that Lincoln's +uncalculating generosity reached, like the shining of the sun, to the +limits of the land. It is most surprising when one thinks. But when +one thinks, it is most clear that there was in Lincoln's kindliness a +Nation-wide capacity for intimacy. In the open genial presence of his +good-will all men feel they have an immediate and equal share. And +this holds true whether one is near enough to feel the warmth of his +living breath, or whether half a continent intervenes. + +This fact forces into view and consciousness the pure excellence of +his love. It was in its nature deeply real. He did in verity live +close to every man. He wore no distant air. He practised no reserve. +He felt and proved himself to be the kin of all. His pictured face and +published speech were a perfect symbol, a convincing pledge to every +honest man of close and equal partnership. His ways are often said to +have been homely. But their very homeliness was all human and all +humane. And in his presence, or in the presence of any truthful +impress or echo of his life, no honest nature but feels itself +instantly at ease and quite at home. This habitude in him of +overcoming distance, and absence, and all other obstacles to his +far-ranging love, and winning entrance everywhere into the affections +of all kindly men, is a notable stamp upon the total texture of his +friendliness. He stood with men in personal partnership, immediate, +intimate, real. + +And in all his intimate and immediate fellowship with men his personal +contribution was entire. In his co-partnership he had no treasure too +precious to invest. He gave his all. Imposing, almost impossible as is +the meaning of these words, all mankind do recognize, and that with +wondering reverence, that when Lincoln rose to take the presidential +oath, he held nothing back. In his service of the Union he invested +his life, his honor, his hope, even all he had. It was little else he +had to give. His lineage was of the lowliest. His education was of the +meagerest, and wholly a by-achievement. In social graces he was quite +unversed and unadorned. He was no flatterer. The fawner's dialect he +never knew. He would not boast. To beg he was ashamed. He was too +honest for any knavery. Pure integrity was his only asset. As he took +his stand at the presidential post, he stood without a single +decoration, unsupported, all alone. It was literal truth that when he +took his official oath the only bond he had to furnish was his naked +honor. But that possession was no counterfeit. Its value did not +fluctuate. It was solid gold. In his honest rating, the plighted faith +in the words of his official pledge was beyond all price. As he +discerned and understood the crisis of his day, the Nation's very +being was at mortal stake. And when in that momentous hour she +summoned him to take the presidency, she laid sovereign requisition +upon his total being. And when he obeyed the call, he invested all. No +reserve of his possession was kept in hiding for his refuge and +reimbursement, in case the Nation failed. He ventured all he had, even +all his honor. And this complete consignment by Lincoln to the +Nation's use of all his moral wealth, of all his pure and priceless +personal worth, was an act of unalloyed benignity. It was for the +Nation's welfare that he devoted himself. It was that the Union might +be preserved, and that all men might be free, that he plighted his +integrity. + +This investment of Lincoln's friendliness for the well-being of all +the land, even of all the men therein, was not alone immediate, +winning direct attachment to every man; nor merely all-absorbing on +Lincoln's part, impressing into kindly service every value and every +capacity of his total life; it also enshrined a deathless hope. +Lincoln's patriotic devotedness was no venture of a day or of a +decade. Lincoln's good-will looked far ahead. He had a passion for +immortality. His total effort and aim in all his generous endeavors +and hopes, as he served in his public life, can be defined as a +sovereign aspiration that our government should be so guided and +chastened in all its life that the Union should never be dissolved. To +his kindly heart no possible event seemed more appalling than that +this hope should fail. So far as his words reveal, this central, +sovereign passion of his glowing heart was all but exclusively +patriotic. He apparently forgot himself in his wistful anxious hope +that the Nation's peace might long endure. His faith in the Union's +indestructibility may be said to spring out of his undying continual +love for his fellowman. Indeed just here seems to be the birthplace of +all his prophetic ponderings over the final issues of our civic life. +The very stature of the government which his ideal conceived and which +he thankfully saw that our Republic designed, was deemed by him to be +copied from nothing other than the divinely fashioned moral nature +which he found alike in himself and in all his fellowmen. Deep within +his friendly heart he cherished the vision of a Republic of freemen +leagued together indissolubly as mutual friends. It was to realize and +certify that hope that he dedicated his life. And when he pledged and +sealed that offering, it was with no design that the seal should ever +be broken, or the pledge be ever recalled. Here is another primary +quality of Lincoln's friendliness. It was inwrought with personal +durability. Grounded as was his civic hope in the freedom and +conscience of Godlike men, it was impossible for him to consent that +such a hope should ever encounter defeat or decay. Deep and sure +within its essential nature were the urgent promptings and the soaring +promise of immortality. + +These observations upon the immediate directness, the integral +whole-heartedness, and the deathless eagerness of Lincoln's +friendliness, if thoughtfully compared together, reveal that these +distinctive phases of his outpouring good-will are in nature +identically the same, and spring from an identical source. This +essential coincidence, this mutual convergence deserves attention. It +intimates wherein the very essence and being of his neighborly +kindness consists. And in Lincoln's life this indication of the +precise whereabouts and substance of the essential and innermost +quality and being of human kindliness is certain and clear, as in +hardly any other man. His benignance in his dealings with men is of +well-nigh unparalleled openness and freedom from all admixture and +alloy. Lincoln's kindness embodies and conveys Lincoln's self. In +every favor from him he is in the gift. In the center of all the +friendliness that is characteristic of Lincoln, Lincoln himself stands +erect and entire, offering and commending in every case his +full-sized, undivided self. This is the core and this the +circumference, this is the sum and this the substance of his +good-will. It is rich with all his personal wealth, solid with all his +personal worth. In him an act of friendship was an inauguration of +personal copartnership. In his good-will was all the energy of his +life. In his benefactions he gave himself. Just so with his +compassions. With the sorrows of humanity it was his way to enter into +personal fellowship. This was the form and being of all his +generosity. His mastery over all malice when facing a foe, his +abounding charity when judging a wrong, his hearty gladness in the +presence of human joy, his cordial ways in greeting friends, his +fatherly affection for his boy, his love for his native land, his pity +in presence of the bereft, his sadness at sight of wounds, his +readiness to share evenly with all his Nation all that guilty Nation's +painful discipline--all this variety and plenitude of ample, +open-hearted tenderness towards other men was alike and always the +complete and conscious contribution of himself. In brief, in full, and +finally, Lincoln's friendliness, through all its beautiful +versatility, was a free and facile, a full and total, personal +self-devotion. This is the common content giving all its value to all +the forms of his human kindliness. + + +HIS PURENESS--LIFE + +In the exposition just foregoing, the thought has been drawn into +allusions to Lincoln's premonitions or aspirations towards +immortality, for the Union, if not for himself. This was in the course +of an effort to find the spring-head of his kindliness. And it +culminated in the suggestion that deep within Lincoln's being there +was enshrined an assurance, however unconfessed or even half +unconscious, of personal immortality. And that from within this shrine +of living hope, common to him with every man, he drew his inspiration +and his very pattern of a national Union and a national peace that +would endure forever. + +Here is something that calls for examination, for in this we touch a +radical quality of Lincoln's moral being. This eager craving after +permanence was in him an appetite that could never be fed or satisfied +by any things that perish. In itself and in its nutriment there is an +irrepealable call for something indefeasable, something utterly +superior to all fear of death, something never amenable to any form of +dissolution or decay, something spiritually pure, and essentially +kindred to the essential being of a deathless soul. + +The matter may be approached to start with by saying some things +negatively. Lincoln was centrally in no sense a materialist. He was +indeed firmly sensitive to the physical majesties of this continent, +though in his day they were hardly half disclosed. He calculated with +carefulness our material capacities for expansion in power and wealth. +He foresaw our certain outward growth into a puissant Nation, the +coveted and ample resort and refuge and home of hordes of men from +other lands. In his own well-seasoned and resourceful physique he felt +and knew the worth of physical virility. He could thoughtfully compute +the glittering values, the goodly financial revenues, the days and +months and total seasons of physical idleness and delights that accrue +to human owners from the unrequited toil of human slaves. And in the +current civil war he completely understood that no less a concern than +the perpetuity of the American Union was pending upon contests largely +consisting of encounters of physical prowess, of tests of muscular +endurance and strength. + +But not in calculations such as these did his thoughtful studies of +human welfare take ultimate resort, or find final rest. His conception +of the ideal state, of the ideal citizen, of the ideal life, was not +constructed or inspired from carnal elements. He noted with life-long +sadness the sordid baseness inseparably attending the fact of owning +or being a slave. He deeply saw that those battles in the Wilderness +were no mere conflicts of beasts. And never could he imagine or allow +that his personal weight, and force, and worth were ratable by +gymnastic tests. It was not upon things like these that Lincoln's +attention and hope were fixed, when his hopes and plans for our +prosperity took form. To the whole world of his material environment +he was marvelously indifferent. On every perusal of his life one +grieves at the story of his poverty, and the sad infrequency and +meagerness in his daily life of the pleasures and recreations which +are for the comfort and happiness of men in material things. But in +this he seems as though unconscious of any disappointment. For +himself as for the Nation, and for the Nation as for himself, his +satisfaction and confidence were not born and fed of things that +perish in their use. Luxury in food or attire, however toothsome or +attractive to other natures, stirred but the feeblest hankerings, if +any at all, in him. Towards sensualism of any sort, whether gluttony, +drunkenness or lust, his sound and temperate manliness did not +incline. And in his estimate of personal character his eye and respect +did not rest in outer attitudes, on printed, age-long codes of manner. +He was no slave of stately ceremonies, or artificial etiquette. Nor in +religion did he bind his tongue to creeds however hoary, nor to +rituals however august. He swore not by the oaths of any sect, however +ancient and renowned. Neither in this mountain nor in that did he +worship God. + +But on the other hand, and now to speak affirmatively, Lincoln lived +no penury-stricken life. The resources within his personality were +well-nigh incalculable. Few men in all our national catalogue have +been endowed by God with so sterling and abundant interior wealth. And +of all American patriotic benefactors few indeed have left in their +single individual name and right such priceless legacies to their +native land. What is life? What is human life? Wherein, completely and +precisely wherein, is man distinguishable from the beast? For answer, +study Lincoln and see. In the full development of such a study many +massive verities will unfold. But the feature in Lincoln's manhood, +which this chapter is set apart to designate and clarify, is the +simple purity, the elemental spirituality of all his elemental traits. +His dominant sentiments, his primary convictions, his main and +all-mastering decisions were never born to die. They were instinct +with life, with life indeed, a life never failing, ever more abundant +and free. + +This interior vitality, this unalloyed and undecaying purity may be +described one way as a real idealism. But in ascribing idealism to +Lincoln, it needs to be said at once that Lincoln's idealism, real and +glorious as it must surely be confessed to be, was transparently and +unvaryingly practical. In one way it may be defined as hope. A waiting +hope was a standard characteristic of Lincoln's attitude. His +sorrowful eye held fast to things as yet unrealizable. It is +impressive to see how often and how fondly he mentioned the future, +the "vast future," as he termed it, of our American career. The secret +of the beauty and of the power of some of his loftiest and most +spontaneous rhetoric is due to just this solemn eagerness towards the +coming days. As one comes to study more intently into the outlay of +his heroic strength, his struggle and toil are seen to be leashed +about his consuming wish that the Nation in its undivided might could +be unified about the speedy fulfillment of his prophetic aims. He +never forgot the mighty lesson, nor lost the living inspiration of his +own advancement from humblest station of ignorance and toiling poverty +to the presidency. That transformation he loved to humbly hold before +the attention of his fellow Americans, as a pattern of what might +anywhere occur again. He loved to linger upon the possibilities of +upward movement in the ranks of all laboring men. Large place and +honorable position were given to this arousing theme in his first +annual message to Congress. This general topic--the far-set, soaring +possibilities of human betterment--held constant and commanding +eminence in the ranging measure of his eagle-searching thought. For +the Nation, and for its every inhabitant, he was a true idealist. + +But Lincoln's idealism, again be it said, was no wild indulgence of a +vagrant and untrained imagination. It was utterly sober-minded. It +took its form and found its force in the center of his sanest +thoughtfulness. The terms in which its description has just been +illustratively traced show it to be perfectly rational, and even +matter-of-fact. Lincoln's idealism was nothing else but a heedful +interpretation of the proper destiny of man. It was a reflection in +terms of carefulest thought, albeit also in the guise of ardent hope, +of the essential lineaments in the nature of man. And no human +portrait by any artist was ever truer to fact, while yet tinged with +fancy, pure and free. In all his picturing of things yet to be, but +not yet in hand, his eye was fastened with an anatomist's intentness +upon the actual human nature imperishably present in every man. +Nothing that Lincoln's idealism ever proposed ever diverged from the +bounds of the original fiat creating all men equal and free. That +undeniable initial verity, itself the keystone of our national +Constitution and Bill of Rights, supplied to Lincoln's hope its total +and only inspiration. In those ancient and elemental realities, +realities that deeply underlie and long outlast all the cults and +customs and centuries which human thought is so prone to differentiate +and divide, Lincoln detected solid foundations and ample warrant for +age-long, undissolving expectations. In every human face there are +outlines that are forever indelible. These unfailing lineaments +Lincoln had the eye to see. And what is vastly more, he had the +courage and the honesty to adopt them as the pattern of the platform, +and to voice them as the notes of the battle-peal of his +statesmanship. And this he did right wittingly, knowing assuredly that +therein his vision had caught the gleam of things eternal; that +therein he had made discovery that man, even the humblest of his +race, could claim to be, as he phrased it to a company of blacks, +"kindred to the great God who made him." This amounts to saying that +Lincoln's statesmanship may be completely and precisely defined as the +studied and deliberate exploitation, upon the field of politics, of +those forces, central and common in all mankind, that are Godlike, +immortal, spiritual. + +Here we reach a definition that outlines with close precision a trait +of Lincoln's full-formed character that held a primary place in +winning for Lincoln his immortal renown. He attached himself to things +themselves immortal. His ideal hope had no admixture of clay, nor even +of gold. He made no composition or compromise with anything that dies. +His supreme desire was of a nature never to decay. It was pure with +the deathless purity of the human soul. To this pure principle, +eternal loyalty to the immortal dignity of man, he signed and sealed +his soul's allegiance with bonds that even death could never relax. +Such statements describe a primary co-efficient in Lincoln's ethical +life. Abjuring the unnumbered allurements of the material world, +allurements whose fascinations unfailingly fade, and reposing his +confidence wholly in treasures that time and use only brighten and +refine, Lincoln reveals in the realm of ethics the singular excellence +of an ideal that can kindle in an immortal man an immortal hope. +Purging every sort of baseness out of the central life, and enthroning +an all-refining pureness in the sovereign desires and visions and +designs, he has inaugurated in the field of civics an idealism that +will honor every man, fit actual life, and endure forever. Personal +pureness, this pervades the life of Lincoln as crystalline beauty +pervades a block of marble. + +This refining trait in Lincoln, this inner hunger for his living +soul's true nutriment, this thirst for the pure, perennial springs, +finds signal illustration in the closing sentence of this last +inaugural, where he pleads with all his fellow-citizens to so conduct +all civic interests as to secure among ourselves and with all Nations +a "lasting peace." That craving after permanence in civic harmony +betokens an impulse towards immortality; and rests down, as the entire +inaugural explains, upon that only basis of enduring civic quietude, +an honest and universal recognition and respect for those indelible +and universal lineaments of personal dignity which the Creator of men +has traced upon every human soul--lineaments from which the obscuring +dross of centuries was being purged in the Providential fires of an +awful war. Just this was the meaning of the war, as Lincoln understood +its work. That earth-born sordidness which marked all slaves as common +chattels, was being burnt out of our national life, as our basest +national sin. Thenceforth, forevermore, it was Lincoln's living hope +that all mankind might peacefully agree to supremely cherish and +mutually respect those human values that human unfriendliness, and +centuries of contempt, however deeply they may obscure, can never +obliterate. Upon such enduring foundations, and upon such foundations +alone, Lincoln clearly saw, could human peace endure. + +And upon this same foundation rests his first inaugural as well. In +all those months of special study, ensuing between his election in +November of 1860 and his inauguration in March in 1861, and for an +ample seven years before, Lincoln was feeling after civic perpetuity. +And when he stood before the Nation to publish his first inaugural +address, his supreme concern was fixed upon the threatened and +impending ruin of the Republic. He there faced a menacing South, +irreconcilable, and resolute for dissolution or blood. That outcrying +situation brought final issues near. Must the Union perish? Could the +Union endure? Civic dissolution or civic perpetuity--this was the +immediate, the unrelieved, the ominous alternative. In the fiery heat +of civic hate, flaming into civil war, Lincoln had to seek for civic +principles that hate could not subvert, nor the fires of war consume; +principles too strong to admit defeat, too pure to be dissolved. + +Never did a statesman bend over a graver task, nor with a more honest +and patient heart, nor with a mind more divinely fashioned and +furnished to comprehend and penetrate the actual case in hand. As in a +chemist's alembic, he fused and tried our Constitution and all our +history. Into that first inaugural he incorporated the issues of his +thought. And this was its simple, sole result:--Slavery is "the only +substantial dispute." With the people is "ultimate justice." With God +is "ultimate truth." We are not "enemies." We are "friends." In this +supreme dispute let us confer and legislate as friends, and then as +friends live together in an amity that shall be perpetual. This is the +uncompounded essence of his first inaugural, as of all his political +philosophy. In universal freedom, by mutual persuasion, and in even +friendliness, let our Union forever endure. Here again is a +statesman's publication and heroic defense of a pure, immortal hope, +voiced in an appeal and upheld by arguments as spiritual and pure as +the inmost being and utmost destiny of the living souls of men. + +No study of the transcendent momentum in Lincoln's life of spiritual +realities can fairly overlook his speech in Peoria, October 16, 1854. +It is, as he said at the time, "substantially" a repetition of an +address at Springfield, twelve days before. It "made Lincoln a power +in national politics." It was the commanding beginning of his +commanding career. That year, 1854, began the convulsion which made +him president, involved the war, and ended in his violent death. As +matters stood on New Year of 1854, slavery was, by act of Congress in +the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thenceforth forbidden to spread +anywhere in United States territory north of the southern boundary of +Missouri. In the early half of 1854 Senator Douglas drove through +Congress a bill, creating the territory of Nebraska, which declared +the Compromise prohibition of 1820 "inoperative and void." Thenceforth +slavery might spread anywhere. This is the "repeal" of the Missouri +Compromise. + +That "repeal" brought Lincoln to his feet. And from the day of that +Peoria speech Lincoln was, to seeing eyes, a man of destiny. For, not +for that day, nor for that century, nor for this continent alone did +Lincoln frame and join that speech. Let any logical mind attempt a +logical synthesis of that address, marking well what affirmations are +supreme. Not out of conditions that vary with the latitudes, nor out +of opinions that change as knowledge improves, and not from sentiments +that bloom and fade as do the passing flowers, was that address +constructed. It handles things eternal. Its central propositions +outwear the centuries. Its conclusions are compounded from stuff that +is indestructible. And the piers upon which they rest are as steadfast +as the everlasting hills. Freedom, union, perpetuity were its only +positive themes. Let us "save the Union" was its central call; and +"so" save it as to "make and keep it forever worth the saving"--so +save it "that the succeeding generations of free, happy people, the +world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest +generations." The perpetual Union of freemen--this was his one pure +hope. Of this freedom slavery was a "total violation." Such a Union +the principle of secession made forever impossible. And in the +continual presence of tyranny, and under ever impending threats of +disruption, perpetuity in peace was an impossibility. Liberty, +equality, loyalty--only upon these enduring verities could +self-government ever be built, or ever abide. Here is stability. Here +is harmony. Here are truths "self-evident." Against cruelty, +disloyalty, and pride these eternal principles are in "eternal +antagonism." And when the two collide, "shocks and throes and +convulsions must continually follow." Against human slavery, and all +that human slavery entails, humanity instinctively and universally +revolts. It is condemned by human righteousness and human sympathy +alike. "Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal +the Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still +cannot repeal human nature." + +Thus Lincoln bound together the arguments of this appeal. The +irrepealability of the human sympathies in the nature of all men, the +undeniable humanity of the black, self-government built upon the +creative fiat of freedom and equality for all--upon these enduring +propositions a Nation could be built whose resources either to +eliminate all evils, pacify all convulsions, and resolve all debates, +or to achieve a lasting progress, dignity and peace, would be +inexhaustible. Thus, at the very start, his eye pierced through the +political turmoil of his time, fixing in the central place before the +Nation's gaze those "great and durable" elements which "no statesman +can safely disregard." + +Plainly notable in all this is that powerful and habitual proclivity +in Lincoln to find out and publish abroad those civic propositions and +principles that are inwrought with perpetuity. He was straining and +toiling towards a triumph that time could never reverse. Foundations +that were sure to shift, or disintegrate, or sink away, he was +resolute to overturn, and clear away. He chose and strove to toil and +speak for the immortal part in man, for ages yet to come, and for the +immediate justice of Almighty God. And so he fashioned forth a +programme that, like the programme of the Hebrew prophets, +circumvented death. + + +HIS CONSTANCY--TRUTH + +This second inaugural contains a fine example of free and reasoned +reliability. It is in fact, in its total stature, a stately exhibit of +deliberate steadfastness. Let this short document be read, meanwhile +remembering that other inaugural document, and not forgetting all the +unspeakable strain and struggles of those four intervening years. The +man who spoke in 1861, and the man who speaks now again in 1865, +stands forth in the heart of those bewildering confusions of our +political life, a living embodiment of civic constancy. In his person +national firmness stands enshrined. In those ripe convictions, in +those cool and poised determinations, in those ardent, prophetic +desires--steadfast, consistent, and sure--are traceable the rock-like +foundations of our confederate Republic. In those inaugurals stands a +monument not liable soon to crumble away. But within that monument +insuring its durability, rests as within and upon a steadfast throne, +Lincoln's everlasting fidelity. + +To win clear vision of this fine trait, let one read again this second +inaugural, and locate truly the center of gravity of its second +paragraph. There Lincoln is tracing in broad, plain strokes the origin +and on-coming of the war. In the center of his steady thought the +interest centrally at stake was the Union. On the one hand he recalls +his own address at his first inauguration, "devoted," as he says, +"altogether to saving the Union without war." On the other hand, he +recalls "insurgent agents" seeking to destroy it without war. War was +deprecated and dreaded by both parties. But one would make war rather +than let the Nation survive. And the other would accept war rather +than let the Nation perish. "And the war came." As a register of +Lincoln's capacity for free, intelligent stability, no passing glance +can in any sense exhaust or apprehend the depth and sweep and energy +of those last four words. When loyalty to the Union was the issue and +interest at stake, Lincoln would "accept war." "And the war came." + +When Lincoln voiced those four words, his eye was looking back through +four dreadful, bloody years--years, whether in prospect or in +reminiscence, fit to make any human heart recoil. But as he surveys +those scenes of hate and carnage and desolation, retracing and +reckoning again the sum of their awful sorrow and cost, and rehearses +again his resolution to "accept the war," it is without a shadow or a +hint of wavering or remorse. In fact he is recalling that fateful day +of four years before with an eye to review and vindicate that fateful +resolve. At the end of those eventful and sorrow-laden years, he is as +steady as at their start. Not by the breadth of a hair have his +footing and purpose, his judgment and endeavor been made to swerve. +Then as now, now as then, his loyalty is absolute. And in that sturdy +loyalty of that lone man a seeing eye discerns nothing less than the +unbending majesty of a Nation's self-respect. It is the Nation's +sacred honor that he has in sacred charge. In him the integrity of the +Nation at large finds a champion and a living voice. In his firm-set +decision the Nation's destiny takes shape. In those short pregnant +words the proud consistency of our total national career, and his +superb reliability, become, instantly and for all time, freely, nobly, +and completely identified. This is not to say that in the teeming +history of those eventful years Lincoln's mind and will and sentiments +had stood in stolid immobility. He freely concedes that the years have +brought him lessons he had never foreseen. And his central attitude in +this second scene is a reverent inquiry into the ways of Him whose +purposes transcend all human wisdom, and require full centuries to +complete. But strong and clear within his reverent and lowly +acceptance of divine rebukes, stands unbent and unchanged his +steadfast, invincible pledge to reveal, on his own and on his Nation's +behalf, the sovereign grandeur of civic reliability. + +In his first message to Congress this integral trait of his personal +and official life finds majestic and most definite explication. It is +the passage explaining to Congress, in precise and minute recital, +just how the war began. It deals with those ominous events in +Charleston harbor, centering about heroic Major Anderson, a federal +officer, and within Fort Sumter, a federal fort. That assault upon a +national garrison by Confederate guns was no haphazard event. At just +that moment, and in just that spot the national crisis became acute. +Upon that spot, and upon those events Lincoln's eye was fixed with a +physician's anxiety. There he knew he could feel the pulse of the +resentment and resolution of the South. Day and night he held his +finger upon its feverish beat. And as the fever rose, he marked with +exactest attentiveness its registration of one condition of the +Southern heart:--Was that heart so hot with civic hate that, when +every lesser issue was set aside, and the only issue under review was +the right of the Republic to stand by its officers and its flag, then +those Southern leaders would fire upon those officials in a federal +fort, and pull down that flag upon federal soil? If in a federal fort +the major in command, and his uniformed men, while making no +aggression nor voicing any threat, but acting only as peaceful +exponents of the Nation's authority, and being in exigent need of +food, were to be visited by a national transport bearing nought but +bread, upon such a ship, upon such a mission, would seceding soldiers +open fire? If they would, and if that onslaught passed without rebuke, +then that Nation's federal integrity was dissolved. Such was the +unmixed issue, and so sharply edged was its final and decisive +definition under Lincoln's hand. And on his part there was here no +accident. With foresight, and by careful design Lincoln "took pains" +to make the problem plain. With impressive and ideal carefulness he +guided the action of his own heart to its final resolution, and +predetermined the final verdict of the world. + +In the last supreme alternative, when government agents stand in need +of food, and citizens who repudiate all loyalty fire upon government +transports freighted only with bread, what shall a government do? This +was the naked question that Lincoln faced, when he decided to accept +and prosecute the war. Upon this one plain question, and upon his one +convinced determination he massed and compacted his first +Congressional address. Right well he understood its point, its +gravity, and its range. And surpassing well was he fitted to be the +man to frame and demonstrate the true reply. In all the land no finer, +firmer exemplar of elemental constancy could ever have been found to +guide and cheer the Nation's course in this extremest test of +elemental self-respect. Let those words be written and read again. It +was a test of national self-respect, elemental and supreme. It was a +question that concerned, as Lincoln saw and said, "the whole family +of man." "Government of the people, by the same people"--can or +cannot such a government "maintain its own integrity against its own +domestic foes?" Can it "maintain its own integrity?" Can it master +"its own domestic foes?" Can men who assume their self-control be +trusted to maintain their self-respect? Here is a problem that is in +verity elemental and supreme. What, in very deed and in solid fact, +what is civic reliability? Where, among all the governments by men, +where can steadfastness, civic steadfastness be found? Nowhere, +Lincoln had the eyes to see; nowhere, but in the civic constancy of +men at once governing and governed. Only thus and only there, only so +and only here, in this heaven-favored land, did Lincoln see, can any +government of men by men find fundamental base and final form that +shall be consistent, stable, and real. This is government indeed. Here +is elemental, civic verity. A community held in common self-control +upon the basis of common self-respect--such a union alone has +constancy. This is the sublime and radical civic truth that Lincoln +forged out upon his steadfast heart, as he bent with mighty ponderings +over those scenes in Charleston harbor, and reviewed and expounded +their pregnant implications in his initial message to Congress in +1861. + +In many ways this constancy of Lincoln rewards attentive thought. For +one thing, it was radiant with intelligence. Indeed in him the two +became identified. As thus conceived, it shows as pure and clear +consistency. His fully tried reliability was the well-poised balance +of a mind long-schooled in the art of steadiest deliberation. When +Lincoln held immutably fast, it was due to his invincible faith that +the conviction to which he clung involved abiding truth. This quality +tempered all his firmness. Just here one finds the genesis and motive +of all his skilled invention of reasoned, pleading speech. Lincoln's +prevailing power of urgent argument roots in the deep persistency of +his convinced belief. It was because of an impassioned confidence, an +assurance that was vibrant with a note of triumph, that his grasp of +any ruling purpose was so unwaveringly firm. This was his mood and +attitude in all the major contentions of his life. To the central +tenets that those contentions involved he held with all the firmness +of the rooted hills. Touching those primary principles in his +character and politics his mind and faith seem to have attained an +absolute confirmation. And from those settled positions he could never +be moved. Constancy in him was nothing more nor less than the +energetic affirmation of intellectual rectitude. + +His steadfastness, thus, was a mental poise. It can be defined as +ripened judgment, a conclusion of thought, safeguarded on every side +by a discernment not easily confused, by a penetration not easy to +escape. This involved a wonderful flexibility. While steadfast unto +the grade of immutability, where honor was involved, no student of his +ways could call him obstinate. While firm and strong enough to hold +the Nation to her predestined course upon an even keel, he held her +helm with a gentle, pliant grasp. Being in every mental trait +inherently honest and deliberate, he could at once be resolute and +free. + +This blend within his being of thoughtfulness and determination, of +openness and immutability, this candid, conscientious, mental poise, +this Godlike apprehension of the larger equilibrium, qualified him +peculiarly to interpret the major movements of his time, to trace in +the deep, prevailing sentiments of the human soul the chart of our +national destiny. + +Here is in Lincoln something wonderful. Among the millions of his +fellowmen he counts but one. But in the range and grasp of his +thought, in the eager passion of his heart, in the controlling power +of his commanding will, he comprehends them all. Stable and heedful at +once, he could challenge unanswerably every man's esteem. His symbol +is the firm, benignant oak, the sheltering, abiding hills. Thus he +stood to help and hold, to serve and rule among his fellowmen. Thus he +wrought coherence into our great career. Thus he linked together those +mighty political events with a logic which succeeding times have +proved powerless to refute, but strong and glad to confirm. He had +marvelous capacity to divine. With him to reason was to illuminate. +Things bewilderingly obscure, within his thought and speech grew +plain. He was our prime interpreter. He explained the Nation to +itself. But in every such elucidation the Nation was made to +co-operate. His instinctive, habitual attitude toward other men was +that of a conferee. He was sensitively open to complaints and appeals. +Delegations and private supplicants always found him courteous. This +courtesy was never formal. To a degree altogether noteworthy the words +of other men found entrance into the counselings of his mind. He was +not merely accessible. He was impressible, sensitive, quick to +appreciate and honor the sentiments of another man. With the earnest +plea of balanced, honest argument, hailing from whatever source, he +was facile to correspond. His judgments and decisions were amenable to +estimates wholly novel to him. Indeed, to an almost astonishing degree +his major movements were commensurate with the progress and pace of +the national events that environed his life. In some of his mightiest +accomplishments he seemed to do little more than register the +conclusions of the national mind. + +All this is to say that Lincoln's constancy was poise, not obstinacy; +a well-reflected equilibrium, not a stiff rigidity. All his steadiness +was studied. Never can it be said of Lincoln that his verdicts were +snap judgments. On the contrary, with him deliberation and delay were +so habitual and so excessively indulged, while pondering some massive, +political perplexity, that the patience of some of our greatest +statesmen repeatedly broke down, and he was charged repeatedly with +criminal, and all but wanton indifference, inertia, and neglect. But +never was sorer libel. Through it all he was only too intent. Through +it all his eye refused to sleep, while his steady and steadying mind +pursued the vexing task, until its permanent solution stood clear. And +then, with his eye steadily single to the guiding hand of God, to the +Nation's immortal weal, and to his own unsurrendered integrity, he +would publish and fulfill his studied and sturdy resolve. Upon the +basis of these internal mental conquests did all his firmness rest. +Hence his life-long evenness and freedom from fluctuation. + +But this challenges still further study. Given this notable blending +in his mental habits of independent stalwartness and amenability to +others' views, what is the inmost secret and explanation of his +undeniable consistency? It lay in his human sincerity. His affinity +with his neighbor was a reality. The Nation's deepest concerns were as +deeply his own. Hence his ultimate convictions, though ripening in a +single decade, proved to be in deep and enduring agreement with the +ultimate convictions of the Nation at large, though requiring a full +century to mature. The sentiments that were essentially his own were +seen, when openly published upon his lips, to be the sentiments +essential and common to his fellowmen. His personal aspiration was a +national goal. His personal character was a national type. Truly +representative, he was at the same time as truly unique. Always +facing towards other men, he always stood erect. + +This was Lincoln's constancy. It was not the stubbornness of an +arbitrary will, although his will had regal energy. It was not a +frigid intellectualism, although in mental penetration he could not be +surpassed. It was not a tide of swelling enthusiasm, although the +supreme emotion of his heart was the passion of an ideal patriotism. +His commanding constancy, potent to compose a Nation's turbulence, was +but the outer stature of his typical interior integrity. It was the +open assertion and attestation of his personal self-respect. + +Thus Lincoln's convictions and verdicts were unfailingly his own. And +thus those verdicts and convictions had continental breadth. Dealing +with a Nation's destiny, he came to be clothed with a Nation's +majesty. In his own great heart, as in a Nation's crucible, he +assembled and resolved the Nation's complexities; and in his own pure +desire, as in a Nation's purified hopes, he defined and described our +national goal. Of all things narrow and peculiar, of all things +partisan and sectional, he purged his eye, until with malice toward +none, with charity for all, with reverence towards God, he could see +the total vastness of the things with which he had to deal. + +Here is a loyalty worthy of the name--the plighted troth of one in +whom the Nation's noblest hopes stand forth already realized, assured, +secure. This defines and describes the force at play in this last +inaugural. In the volume of those words Lincoln's message and +Lincoln's manhood were identical. Its utterance was the voice of his +self-respect. Herein Lincoln the patriot and Lincoln the man are one. +Here was Lincoln's standard. His search for verity was a study of +himself--of himself as true kindred of God and of his fellowmen. This +is the core of Lincoln's honesty. This is the key to Lincoln's +constancy. This is the secret of Lincoln's authority. This was the +goal of Lincoln's quest for verity. This was for Lincoln the one +reality. As child of the one great God, as closest kin of every man, +he is our model champion and exemplar of the one abiding +truth--personal self-respect. That this should be held unperverted and +preserved intact was in the thought of Lincoln the primal equity, the +very substance of a man's integrity. + + +HIS HUMILITY--WORTH + +The name of Lincoln is linked inseparably with the lot of the slave. +That the fortune of the lowly might be improved was the supreme +enterprise of his life. As conceived by him, that enterprise concerned +all men. Not for black men alone, and not alone for men in literal and +evident bonds, was this, his major interest, engaged. Quite as keenly, +nay even more, was his heart concerned for his closer kinsmen of Saxon +blood, who never felt the slave driver's lash. But even here his +prevailing inclination was a kindly solicitude for people of meager +comfort, culture and liberty. Towards men whose fortune was adverse, +and from whom more favored ones were prone to turn their face, his +heart was prone to be compassionate. His very instincts seemed +inclined to make the poor his intimates. And when he stood among the +lowly, he never showed a sign that he had entered the shadow of any +shame. Richly dowered with nobility himself, himself superior to every +fortune, incapable of subjugation by any fate, a master owned among +the mightiest, the dominant function of his life was ministration. +This was his ambition. And it was sovereign. His towering aspiration +was that the needy be relieved, that poor men might have means, that +bondmen might be free. + +This was a soaring, imperial wish. But it sent him where men were most +down-trodden and overborne. It forced his name and reputation to +become identified with the gross and low condition of the rudest, most +untutored mortals of our land, the humble Afro-American slave. This +lowly fellowship he never attempted to disguise nor consented to +disclaim. He rather seemed to welcome whatever burden or reproach it +might seem to involve. Before and against the white man who held the +whip, beside and befriending the black who felt its lash, he chose to +take, and persisted to keep, his stand. Many a time was this +co-partnership flung in Lincoln's face with stinging words as a +mongrel, shameful thing--with most vigorous persistence by Douglas in +their famous debates. But it was not in Lincoln to desert and disown +the poor, nor yet to apologize, nor to retort, nor even to reply. As +champion and companion of the despised and embondaged victims of the +white man's greed and contempt, Lincoln stands by the negro, as full +of resoluteness, and as free from shame, as though defending his own +home. + +Here is genuine humility, not an attitude assumed, but a virtue +inwrought. That this rare and Christian grace was planted deep in +Lincoln's heart, and pervaded the total fullness of his life, may be +argued from the very texture of his last inaugural. Upon just this +point that document deserves minute attention. From the vantage ground +of April 4, 1865, and from the point of view of slavery, that address +is a profound and most commanding interpretation of the philosophy and +phenomena of our American life. The war, God's Providence, and +slavery--they are its sovereign themes. God's Providence shaping into +national discipline the tragedy of the war; slavery "somehow" its +deepest, fateful "cause:" there are thoughts for thoughtful men, who +may wish to understand the meaning of our national life. The point to +notice here is to observe how in Lincoln's mind in 1865, the course, +and curse, and fate of slavery connect. It is nothing less than a +profound elucidation of outstanding American events. It intimates +impressively how Lincoln's mind had brooded and pondered over the lot +of the African slave. He had reckoned all the value of their +unrequited toil. The marks of their bruises and wounds were seared +upon his soul. And of all the meaning of that sore humiliation, in +terms of our national destiny and of the Divine dominion, he became +the supreme and sympathetic expositor. In his unfolding of that +meaning was infolded the master motive of his life. Under the hand of +God he was having bitter but submissive share in setting forever right +the cruel, age-long wrongs of the African slave. That such sentiments +should take such shape at such a time is signal demonstration that +they were the central sentiments of his heart. He was highly +designated to a humble task; and he knew no higher honor than to keep +close friendship with the poor, until his high commission stood +complete. And to this close affiliation of lowliest lives with the +loftiest aims and issues of his great career, he devotes well-nigh the +whole of his inaugural address as our Nation's president to expound, +therein betraying no slightest sign that he sees in that alliance the +slightest incongruity. In that defense and championship of the rights +that were elemental to men, though the most despised, he saw his +highest dignity as president. And to that lowly aim he shaped and +pledged his policy, his party, his fortune, and his fame. + +In truth this affinity of Lincoln with his neighbor in need was the +very fruitage of the fortune of his life. He was fitted and +predestined for it by his birth. His station was of the lowliest. His +setting-up was pathetically scant. All his discipline was cruelly +stern. In ease and plenty he had no share. Of sweets and luxury he had +no taste. Born of parents pitifully poor, nurtured in painful penury, +poorly sheltered, scantily clad, accustomed to neglect, intimate with +want, trained to disappointment, toiling in untamed scenes against +hard odds with rudest tools, the kindred and daily familiar of +unassuming men, denied the commonest aids to personal refinement, he +was to the atmosphere and temperament of genuine, undisguised humility +native born, and fully bred. From such a hopeless start, in such a +hostile environment, he made his way alone. It can be said with almost +literal truth that he never had any help. His only friend was his +modest, resolute heart. His winnings were all by wrestling--and the +struggle never relaxed. When every antagonist had been met and +overthrown, and his gaunt stature stood in the Nation's arena alone +and undefeated, then upon that unbent but unpretending form his Nation +and his Nation's God laid a burden, such as no man in all our history +had ever borne. When beneath that great final task he meekly bowed, +its superhuman responsibility and weight were all-sufficient to crush +forever all vain-glorious pride, if in his tried heart any pride had +ever entered, and having entered had still remained. Before the +majesty of his commission, and amid the inscrutable perplexities of +each unparalleled day, he must always be fain, even though never +forced, to walk humbly among his people, and before his God. From +birth to death, by fortune and by Providence, as though by +overmastering fate, he was fashioned for humility. + +From all these grounds he was predisposed to modesty. Over against the +vastness of his task, facing daily all its formidable difficulties, +and sensible evermore of his infinite insufficiency, the posture of +his spirit and the tone of his daily speech unfailingly betokened a +moderate estimate of his personal significance. The overspreading +majesty of the work to which he set his hand, always towering vividly +before his thought, kept vividly active the consciousness that he was +quite incompetent to accomplish aught, except the God of Nations +tendered daily help. + +As thus inclined and thus disposed in body and in mind, he became a +man of prayer. That he should often fall upon his knees was but the +consequence of his daily discovery that his burdens and his strength +were widely incommensurate. + +Many times those supplications seemed as though unheard. The heavens +gave no sign. Then malice raged against him. But then his +unsurrendered faith in God, his reverence for his task, and his +sobering estimate of himself would show as meekness. It was not his +way to retaliate or rail. In darkness, before delay, and beneath +abuse, he bore and suffered long without complaint. In this pathetic +quietness his humility becomes heroic. + +This bent towards lowliness, tempered through and through, as it was, +with his clear intelligence, saved him from vaunting and all vanity. +There was habitually in his posture a grave solidity. This often +seemed like carefulness and caution. But it was born of modesty. If +there was ever a time when ever a man might be suffered to boast, the +date of this second inaugural was the time, and the author of that +inaugural was the man. The hour of that address marked the opening of +Lincoln's second presidential term. It was the crowning vindication of +his presidential policy. After four years of war the national poll at +the last electoral vote had shown the North stronger in men than when +the war began. The status of the South was desperate. But five weeks +lay between him and the surrender of Lee. Lincoln was not lacking in +foresight, nor in careful calculation. His skill therein was +preeminent. Wary, discerning, resolute, his assurance of ultimate +victory no doubt firm and clear, no breath of boasting was given vent. +Instead, with almost painful reserve, he modestly said, "With high +hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured." +Lincoln was one of those rarest of men, invincible in resolution, at +the same time invincible in reserve. + +This inner mood of modesty showed in all his outer furnishing. It was +not his way to publish his distinction. For him to signalize his +primacy by any decoration would be an incongruity. In any group of men +where precedence was emphasized he was ill at ease. Any attempt by him +to designate his official elevation by some gilded ornament or plume +would have been grotesque. His eyes were not lofty nor his heart +haughty. His feet were for the furrow. His hands were for the axe. His +lips were for friendly salutation of all the people on the street. Any +outer token, intended to mark him for separation or any superiority, +would have excited nothing but sorrow in him. Fabrics however costly +and rare, jewels however brilliant and pure, designed and disposed for +distinction and display, awakening envy and unrest quite as much as +admiration and delight, were not for him. Plain man among the +lowliest, true nobleman among the noblest, he wore all his honors in +uttermost innocence of all parade. + +Nor were the features of Lincoln ever intended to be employed as +instruments of scorn. Into the hellish ministry of curling contempt +those gracious lips could never be impressed. His heart was far too +kindly; and that were safeguard enough. But his unalloyed humility was +far too potent to ever encourage or permit in him any indulgence of +disdain. Truly lowly himself, it was not in him to coldly despise any +of his fellowmen. Just here his humility displayed its sterling +honesty. And just here his honor and his glory blend. Here is his sure +title to nobility--a title that neither time nor eternity can ever +tarnish or bedim. By every right is this nobility his. By his earthly +fortune, as by a hard, relentless fate, his lot was cast among the +poor; and by that same appointment the lot of all earth's poor has +gained perennial dignity. But he graced those ranks also as a +volunteer. By his own consent, with sovereign free selection, he +elected to sustain and overcome all the impediments of the station of +his birth, and so to demonstrate the full capacity of the humblest +human life for high endeavor and desire. Thus he was alike and at once +filled with a deep compassion, and free from high contempt. Here lies +the firm foundation of his proud renown. This is the true birthmark of +his nobility. He was above the baseness and the meanness of scorning +any brother man. + +And so he avoided arrogance. It was not the way of Lincoln to forever +reiterate, if even to allow, his own importance. He was acutely +sensitive, to the meaning and worth of an honorable renown. Especially +was his cool, gray eye awake to the future issues of the pregnant +deeds of his teeming times. But therein his eager concern was a +patriot's anxiety--an anxiety in which he mingled his fortune and fame +with the destiny of his native land. Therein the jealousy of his +desire for the national welfare burned away, as in sacrificial fires +and upon a sacred altar, all ambitions for himself. At any cost to +others, or through any other man's neglect, it was not in the heart of +Lincoln to demand and heap together honors or advantages for himself. +Well might he be justified, if ever such a course were fair, in +claiming for himself exceptional rewards. Chief executive of a great +Republic, commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the North, +assured of the major momentum of military success, in immediate reach +of vast and ever increasing resources, whether for war or peace, +chosen the second time to be the Nation's head, charged the second +time to consummate the Nation's perpetual unity--surely he had ample +guaranty for imputing to his own sole hand, in a supreme degree, +mighty prowess, imposing achievements, a vast and spreading authority +and power. At such a time and amid such surroundings, a generous +measure of self-aggrandizement would have seemed quite warranted and +well sustained. But never was a mighty commander freer from that +uncomely fault. The mention of victory makes him strangely unmindful +of himself. The thought of his vast authority makes him the lowliest +in the land. Lincoln was not arrogant. He made no effort after +aggregated honors, however deserved, much less after honors unearned. +In particular he showed no inclination to appropriate another's fame. +For one thing, he knew too well the awful cost of magistracy. The +right to be commander-in-chief of a Nation's resources and arms, so +coveted a right in aspiring men, became transmuted in the cup which +Lincoln drank into a terrible, an almost impossible responsibility. +Nor was it of his nature to subtract from other men for his own +increase. At the price of a brother's freedom, or happiness, or life, +the gaining of ease, or wealth, or joy of any sort for himself would +be far too dear. In the soul of Lincoln extortion could find no soil. +His mien among men was that of indulgent ministry, not of exacting +mastery. With the lower level and the lesser meed he could be well +content. Morbid jealousy for his own acclaim, hungry greed for +another's reward, satisfaction in plaudits that were undeserved, or +comfort from robbery or extortion of any sort were sentiments for +which the refined and genuine modesty of Lincoln had no appetite or +taste. The honors that surrounded and invested him were up-springing, +spontaneous and free; in no least measure accumulated, artificial or +enforced. + +The native purity of Lincoln's lowliness shows best in his reverence +for God. He lived in a daily consciousness of Providence. As a +statesman he was thoroughly a man of God, full of a patriot's adoring +and acquiescent thankfulness, as he watched and studied the wonderful +unfolding of God's just and kindly government of this most favored +land. This mood of humble reverence was deeply wrought. It was of the +texture of his character. It was not a vesture or a posture, a gesture +or a phrase, assumed here and discarded there, and often counterfeit. +It was essential, like his integrity, pervading and indeed controlling +all his responsible life. And it was wholly undisguised. In his most +formal public documents--papers in which statesmen as a rule make +scant allusion to Deity--Lincoln's allusions to God are their most +imposing feature. Beyond all contradiction, Lincoln enacted his public +responsibilities in the fear of God. This was the beginning of his +wisdom. Just this is the secret of the sanity of this last inaugural. +And it is the secret of its immortal beauty. And it is the girdle of +its strength. In framing its central argument, and thereby steadying +the Nation's heart in the convulsions of war, he was expounding the +hidden ways of God. There grew a mighty paragraph. It reads smoothly +now. But when it passed through Lincoln's lips, it was the issue of a +hard-pent agony. When he voiced those words he stood before an altar, +and made confession, like a very priest, for both North and South. All +the land had behaved with unbecoming confidence. All alike were under +discipline. God was in dominion. Even in their prayers both North and +South had been contending against the Lord. The prayers of both could +not be answered. That of neither had been answered fully. The Almighty +had his own purposes. The expectations of all had gone astray. The +contending struggles of either side, despite their contending prayers, +were being turned by the judgments of God against them both into a +terrible national chastisement. So Lincoln discerned, and so he +humbly, vicariously confessed. But beneath this high dominion his +heart too had been bowed down, and overwhelmed, and chastened sore. +Repeatedly his counsels had been overturned, and his expectations had +been reversed; and that too, as he devoutly believed, by the +over-ruling purposes of God. Hence, as in this inaugural scene he +faced the future, though he was head of a puissant people, he behaved +like a little child. In a chastened sense of the mystery and authority +of the overruling designs of Almighty God, he forebore to boast. And +then he said in rhythmic words of almost prophetic majesty, and in the +attire of all but sacrificial humility: "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 unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid +by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, +so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether.'" + +This is indeed in prophetic strain. But he forbears to prophesy. He +longed with sacrificial eagerness for national prosperity, in lasting +freedom and unison and happiness. As he renewed his official pledge to +preserve, protect, and defend the world's greatest charter of +equality and freedom for all mankind, his heart and hope held high and +firm. But his total being was subdued. God had crossed his path. The +long-drawn war was God's rebuke. The Nation had gone sadly astray. The +Almighty had taken her waywardness in hand. His purposes were in +control. And He was supreme. And His ways were unrevealed. Lincoln +stood to his task unflinchingly, ready either for sorrow or relief, +ready either for death or life, as the Most High might appoint. + +Here is statesmanship indeed. But it is altogether unique. A mighty +Nation's executive head, discerning, devoted, and devout, holding in +his steady hand the charge of a Nation's destiny, pledging in the +Nation's name to lay upon the altar, if need be for the Nation's +honor, the Nation's life, and there before the altar waiting humbly +upon God. Many a theme of profoundest purport opens instantly into +view. Just now our eye is fixed upon its illustration of humility. + +On the one hand, and in the first place, its exhibition of the dignity +of pure manhood is sublime. In this inaugural scene, beneath the awful +stress of a Nation in war, upon the basis of the pledged covenant of +the free, invincible faith that a free Republic can sustain and +fulfill all its solemn responsibility, and with unquenchable hope in +the vast and unseen future of his land, Lincoln took his stand, and +held his ground, and put on record before God and all the world his +reverent and resolute oath. Here is manhood, noble, majestic, +decisive, free--a manhood that embraces the worth, voices the hope, +and confronts with open breast the destiny of the race. + +But in this same scene these mighty energies pause. Lincoln +consciously faces God. For himself and for the Nation he makes humble +acknowledgment that the Lord is Almighty and Most High. And to God's +full sovereignty he yields spontaneous consent. With lowliest +submission and confession he concedes and declares that all his +rebukes and all his rule are in righteousness. + +Here is a place where any man may properly pause. Here the orbit of +our proudest being strikes its verge. Here God and manhood meet. Here +human power faints. Here human resolution halts. Here human foresight +dims. Here human wisdom becomes a void. Here all our pride becomes +perforce humility; and all our counselings merge in faith. Here human +grandeur touches its outer rim. + +But here, too, human eyes awaken. Here human aspirations rise. Here +human wisdom becomes newly informed. Here human forecasts brighten +into hope. Here human strength revives. Here human purpose tightens. +Here in reverence human wisdom begins. Here in human lowliness appears +a Godlike dignity. Here our human stature shows its noblest. Lincoln +is at the utmost bound of his knowledge, and his liberty; and yet he +is displaying just here a discernment and a decision of the most +exalted type--a discernment, however, whose insight is a vision of +faith, and a decision whose resolve is an exercise of trust. In this +scene statesmanship is transmuted into religion, undefiled and pure. +Man in his loftiest hope and uttermost need, and God in his +transcendent royalty of equity and goodwill meet face to face, and +stand in open, free and friendly covenant. Here is at once a portrait +of true humility, and the acme of high nobility. Here in childlike +trust and childlike faith the wisdom and the freedom of man attain +their goal. Here statesmanship and reverence, wisdom and trust, +freedom and acquiescence, dignity and lowliness harmonize and +interblend. And in the unison either one remains uncompounded and +pure. + +Here many questions press to be resolved. This signal scene in +Lincoln's career--what has it to say about the inner nature of man? +What about the nature of God? What about the nature of our human +insight into the essential qualities of things? What about the +relation of will to thought? What about the sovereignty of character? +When human character touches the limit of human life, is it facing +night or day? These are ultimate inquiries. And they are immediate. +For answer to these inquiries, let Lincoln and Hegel meet. And let the +Nations listen to their replies; and so discern what problems clear, +where dignity and lowliness convene. For here is a shining scene, +where any man may see that in a lowly heart wisdom and nobility may +sit together as on a throne. Modesty like Lincoln's is a courtly +grace. Reverence such as his beseems a prince. Such humility, +reflecting with heavenly beauty the immediate presence of God, may +clothe a mighty man, and hold the center of a mighty scene, without +unseemliness, and it wants not intelligence. This at least this scene +makes clear. + + + + +PART III. SYNTHESIS + + +LINCOLN'S MORAL UNISON + +The marvelous beauty of the Athenian Parthenon is displayed in four +facades. Upon these four sides runs a frieze in a continuous band, +crowning all the columns, and binding all the structure into a single +shrine. Comprehended within the stately course of that all-encircling +frieze is classic demonstration how an impressive manifoldness of +sculptural form may present a perfect and impressive unison. + +Something such is Lincoln's character, as it stands in this second +inaugural. In this address four personal qualities stand forth, as +distinct and clear to the eye and thought as are the faces of the +Parthenon; while, like the Parthenon, the author of that address is +indivisibly and undeniably one. Both are alike composite, and both +alike are one. Both embrace diversity, but all in perfect harmony. +Both have perfect unity, but without monotony. Like the temple of +Athene, greeting from its single altar every horizon of the Grecian +sky, Lincoln, voicing his solemn oath as the Nation's president, gives +utterance to every moral element in our American life. Here is +something worth minute inspection. Here, upreared upon our Western, +modern American soil, is a noble work of art, as noble as any in the +ancient East--finished, balanced, and enduring--the ripened moral +character of a people's patriot. + +First to notice narrowly is that Lincoln's moral texture is fourfold. +Four virtues stamp this speech. Four strands compose its web. Four +hues commingle in its light. Four parts convey its harmony. This +four-foldness is discernible distinctly. + +Plain to see through all the features of this address, as well-defined +as the features of his friendly face, is his kindliness. Of all +things, war was most deplorable. Of all things, peace was most to be +desired. All malice was to be disowned. All charity was to be +indulged. All wounds were to be bound up. All sorrows were to be +consoled. There spoke the pleading voice of love. All men were bidden +to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. Here the quality of +moral kindliness is unmistakably and indelibly distinct. + +Quite as plain is his ideal and illustration of integrity. As manifest +to all the world is his inflexible uprightness, as is the outer +stature of his erect physique. For the equity in the bondman's protest +against two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil he had an open +ear and a profound respect. In the confidence that the judgments of +Almighty God were altogether just he was not ashamed to make public +announcement of his abiding faith. Eager that peace among ourselves +and with all Nations might always last, he was also eager that it +should be just. Firmly based, for his Nation and for himself, upon +such foundations of self-respect, resting on God, and resolute for the +right, he had no other thought but to strive with unremitting +constancy, until his work was done. Here is moral loyalty, plainly +visible, and as plainly inviolate. + +Quite as clear is his humility. The war, as Lincoln viewed it, was a +humbling visitation upon the Nation of the Nation's sins, a mighty +rebuke upon all human scorn and pride. In all that sin and scorn and +pride--the crime and guilt of slavery--Lincoln had no slightest, +conscious, personal share. But the shame and woe of that rebuke, as +it fell from the hand of God upon the Nation as a whole, he bore with +quiet, meek humility. And to whatever further judgment the Almighty +might allot he humbly bowed his head, confessing openly that, in his +own heart and thought, God's ways had been proudly misunderstood. Here +is reverent humility, and here is humble reverence, undeniable and +undisguised. + +And just as clear is his supreme esteem for values that are permanent +and pure. Above all changing accidents Lincoln honored the Godlike +human soul. In harmony herewith his thoughts and arguments were prone +to handle centuries. And in rating worth his standard was a man's +humanity. Thus he shaped the records and the prospects of our history +into a philosophy. Thus he interpreted the war. It was God's +vindication of the immortal value of the humblest man. Carnal +pleasures and worldly gains, wrung from human lives at the cost of the +degradation and debasement of the human soul, and in defiance of God's +eternal and indefeasible laws, Lincoln saw to be of all things the +most foolhardy and crude. So spiritual and pure was his conception of +God and man, and his active understanding of the meaning of historic +efforts and events. Ideals, endeavors, and enjoyments, even though +normal and worthy, if they dealt with values that were decaying and +gross, were cheaply rated by him; while the Nation's perpetuity, each +man's spiritual quality, and God's eternal purity held eminence +unfailingly in his affection and esteem. Here is spirituality, pure +within, and by the inwardly pure plain to see. + +As in the shapely quadrilateral of the Parthenon, this fourfoldness in +the character of Lincoln is cardinal. Each quality is an element, each +conforming with an elemental factor in the nature of every man. This +involves that in its essential substance each trait, so far +considered, is incapable of analysis. And each refuses to be resolved +into something else. Each one is a simple and a constant co-efficient +in Lincoln's moral being. Each one exists within his life in a +complete integrity, indivisible, self-contained. + +His humility, thus, is integral and unmixed. When Lincoln bows, as he +does in this inaugural, before his God, and therein offers his life in +a bending ministry to all his fellowmen, that reverence and that +ministry are, as ministry and as reverence, pure lowliness. The phases +of that lowliness may pass through continual transformation. And those +changing forms may have changing designations. It may be submission +before God's sovereignty, reverence before his majesty, awe before his +mystery, obedience before his authority, trust beneath his Providence, +confession under his rebukes; but common, essential, and unchanged +within them all is simple, pure humility. + +So with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also +wears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of +parade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership +with a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's +worth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged +within all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid +moral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's +life, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and +inseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a +relationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very +breath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as +firm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as are the +opportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear, +forbear, and serve. + +It is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and +imperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable +of many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in +reasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty; +with proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or +reliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as +consistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with +ethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with +even, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm +of truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But +common within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those +varied and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any +analysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand +distinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and +centered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his +very honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living +soul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his +moral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest +action of his self-consciousness. + +The same holds true of Lincoln's kindliness. In the balanced harmony +of his character the note of human friendliness is a persistent and +indispensable strain. Without that melody his moral consonance would +be painfully and irretrievably impaired. Like every other fundamental +trait, this too may be voiced with every sort of easy, fluent +variation. It may spring spontaneously from deep within the heart, as +benign and all-embracing benevolence. It may overflow with benefits, +in active, bounteous generosity. It may bind together an ideal home in +parental, filial, fraternal affection. It may kindle at the altars of +one's native land, and influence the heart of the patriotic devotee. +It may break through all the accidents of birth and race into +universal brotherhood. It may befriend the hurt, and needy, and +bereft, as sympathy. It may so prevail as to bear up beneath the cruel +sin of alien hearts in the sorrow of vicarious love, to the end that +guilty men may be redeemed and reconciled. In myriad ways this human +kindliness may speak its gentle words of mercy, grace, and peace. But +every word is keyed to kindly fellowship. Through all those variations +this note is prevalent. And it is keyed to a relationship as universal +and as unavoidable as are the bonds of human brotherhood. This wanting +in any moral character in fact or in idea, that moral character is +unbalanced and incomplete. Its mighty influence and its constant +evidence in Lincoln's active life supply an elemental requisite to +that life's harmony. It is his full-voiced answer to the world-wide +plea for human friendliness. + +And just such affirmations must be made concerning Lincoln's pureness. +Like each of the other three, this quality, too, holds a place and +eminence distinctly and uniquely its own. No other trait can do its +part or take its place. Its function and its office permit no +substitute. Nor can its ministry be divided. Its claim is regal. And +in any rating and apportionment among the other three this trait must +be granted equal primacy. Its presence and its purport in Lincoln's +total life are clear and fair and absolutely radical. Its aspect +varies like the aspect of the sky. But deep within those variations +gleams the pure and shining blue. It may win triumph over greed of +appetite in temperance; or over fleshly passion in continence. It may +fix supreme desire, not on decaying things, but on undying life; not +on things that change and disappoint, but on values that abide and +hold their own. It may search far beyond things visible for things +unseen; and look within all symbols, discerning what they mean. It may +detect within down-trodden, untutored men souls kindred to their +Maker. It may transcend all idol forms, and make all worship +spiritual. It may see how ends outvalue means; and how bottles should +not outvalue wine. In the midst of our universal lot of accident, +disease and death it may hold fast, for all the pure in heart, to the +hope of a happy immortality. But enduring and undying, common and +unchanged within them all is simple, spiritual purity. The soul +asserts supremacy. Things that fluctuate and finally dissolve, however +befitting and beautiful while they thrive, are admired and valued far +beneath the immortal and unchanging worth of God and Godlike souls of +men. This clear vision and high evaluation of spiritual things in the +thought and life of Lincoln can never be omitted nor excluded in any +final analysis of his moral life. It ranks among the elements of his +character, as each or any one of its facades holds rank about the +Parthenon. + +Thus in the composition of Lincoln's moral being there are four solid, +permanent, radical integers--his kindliness, his loyalty, his +pureness, and his humility. And these four elements of his character +face the four cardinal points in the compass of his life--his brother +man, his conscious self, his flesh-bound soul, and his sovereign Lord. +So inherent in his very structure, so inwrought in his conscious +character, so deeply based, so cardinal, and so enduring and +irreducible is this fourfoldness in Lincoln's inward life. + +And now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four +constituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear +and cardinal, but inclusive and complete. Combining in their +significance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things +superior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood; +and all the truth and worth within his own identity--every factor and +relation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and +himself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and +awarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only +two constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with +the daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the +Lord of grace and truth--these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his +life; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire +and consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are +discovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved; +when any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign +and kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a +world of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the +adoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral +stature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see, +so integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of +Lincoln's character. + +And now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four +constituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his +character, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively +some separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral, +but Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of +a section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a +whole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature +stands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent +exercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life +is Lincoln's lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is +kindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When +in this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God +reveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and +pledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying +heart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those +centuries of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its +sorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and, +disowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal +charity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is +pouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the +worth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and +commending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in +humble fellowship with humble men he abjures all hollow boasts and +pride, and, bending beneath God's just rebukes, voices for all the +land our national guilt, from that humiliation and lowliness no +portion of his being is exempt. Each cardinal virtue engrosses and +engages all his soul. + +And now ensues with a sequence that is irresistible, an affirmation +that in all this study of Lincoln's character must stand supreme. +Integral as is each several one of these four virtues in Lincoln's +life, and integral as is Lincoln's life in each single several trait, +these two integrities can be clearly seen to deeply interblend and +truly coincide. There is among the four qualities within his life no +dissonance. Here emerges Lincoln's moral unison. As in the Parthenon +all the elements harmonize and the edifice is one, so in Lincoln moral +manifoldness unifies. There is throughout coincidence. The heart that +bows towards God, in that very act of meekest acquiescence swells with +pity for all who mourn and bleed, with indignant jealousy for equity, +and with a supreme esteem for immortal souls. These four virtues do +not exist and operate asunder. They do not come into view in this +inaugural in sequence, each one in turn displacing and eclipsing the +one that went and shone before. They coexist, each one continuing +undiminished and unobscured, each one fully active and plain to see, +their confluent tides pouring through the same identical phrase, the +total strength of Lincoln surging alike in each. Through the whole +address thrills Lincoln's whole conviction, all his passion, and the +total vigor of his will respecting truth and falsity, hate and +charity, greed and purity, pride and humility. Here is moral unison. + +To find the secret to this moral synthesis demands and deserves the +sharpest scrutiny. That this may be understood it requires to be seen +that these four virtues, so clearly distinguishable and so perfectly +combined, are as clearly and perfectly akin. Lincoln's equity and +charity, as voiced in this address, are not alien energies. They +vitally correspond. They bear mutual resemblance. Each springs from +deep within himself, from his elemental manhood, a manhood that finds +in his brother's life and liberty as deep rejoicing as in his own. And +herein he is also kindred with God, as God's purposes and ways are +defined in this address. God, too, is deeply just and kind. Here roots +Lincoln's meekness under God's rebuke, and Lincoln's firmness in his +understanding of what is right. Between his heart's chief wish and +God's high will the moral correspondence becomes identity. So deep is +the coincidence and agreement of Lincoln's reverence and equity and +charity within himself and with his God. The same inwrought agreement +shines in the profound affinity of Lincoln's kindliness and +faithfulness and lowliness with his pure idealism. In him they are all +as fully unified as is his manliness. So deeply intimate is the vital +synthesis of Lincoln's moral unison. + +This position is pivotal. If either of these four virtues, here +defined and designated as elementally distinct and cardinal, can be +ever merged into any one, or any two, or all the other three; or if +any one can be dissolved, or analyzed into something else still more +elemental and pure, that possibility should be made passing sure and +clear at just this point. For from the affirmations, thus far laid +down, as to the cardinal validity and vital harmony of these four +moral traits, and of the four foundations in which these virtues rest, +follow other affirmations in the chapters that now ensue, which no +artificial postulate can ever uphold. + +But here, in passing, two standard affirmations are required. It is +not to be asserted or assumed that Lincoln's personal life attained +perfection, and transcended sin. In the chapter on humility, and in +chapters yet to come his own deep sense of deep unworthiness stands +evident. But in his clear and firm ideal and desire, aglow throughout +with Godlike grief for all delinquency, appear the qualities above +defined. + +And then these qualities, which his unique career displays, are, as +moral qualities, in no respect unique or beyond the measure of any +man. They beseem quite normally the plainest of us all. This truth +deserves full heed and unreserved respect. Lincoln was beautifully +like a little child. He was indeed a hero and performed heroic deeds. +But with all his heroism, as regards his moral qualities, the humblest +mortal may be his peer. Here is the hidden secret of the universal and +ungrudging admiration which his heroic character commands. He is the +world's model and guarantee of a world democracy. + + + + +PART IV. STUDIES + + +HIS SYMMETRY--THE PROBLEM OF BEAUTY + +In Lincoln's character is a beautiful illustration of moral balance. +He stands before the eye unchangeably, like the Capitol dome at +Washington, a signal exhibition of firmness, harmony, and repose. As +he fills his place as president, he seems to face the whole horizon at +once. A study of his life leaves the impression that he is resting +upon a solid, ample base; that his weight is well distributed; that +his energies are united evenly; that all his parts agree together; +that throughout his structure he is at ease; while yet there swell and +rise within his breast proud, far-seeing hopes that only a Nation's +grandest magnitude could give complete embodiment. This massive poise, +and breadth, and balanced evenness are the seemly vesture of his +character. They well become his inner attitude. They are the open +intimation of the shapeliness and majesty of the unseen soul within. +And quite as worthy of study and admiration as our national dome, is +this well-poised nobility of Lincoln's personality. + +With this intent one may well review this last inaugural, for it +enshrines superior beauty. Not unfittingly did it find first utterance +beneath the presence of that imposing masterpiece at our national +Capitol. As in that circling colonnade, so in the measured cadences of +this address, there is exalted harmony. Its phrases, rhythmic and +pleasurable, rank almost as music. Read however many times, its +sentences never tire. Minds the most refined are glad to point to +this address as to a noble monument, assured that its perusal will +awaken in any American high national pride, and in the minds of all +men a pure delight. + +This commanding, gracious dignity is not alone a matter of even +rhythms and pleasing cadences. It is to its author's moral poise and +full harmony that this speech owes its symmetry. Indeed this is all +its substance. Of rhetorical decoration it is absolutely bare. Its +only title to its universal admiration is the patent fact that its +author has traced and set therein, as with an engraver's nicest art, +the princely fashion of his high-born soul. Its finished ethical +symmetry is all the art that gives this speech its everlasting charm. + +What now is the inmost nature of the attractiveness that holds +possession of this last inaugural? In this inquiry is extended a +winsome invitation to any beauty-loving mind. As such a mind fixes its +inspection intently upon the vital structure of this address, he sees +within its shapely borders four princely virtues, standing together in +a courtly league. Each virtue stands mature in unrestrained virility, +no one of them overbearing the other three, nor being overborne. With +easy, manly grace each virtue does its part, while all harmoniously +combine, to support with Godlike sagacity and strength the problems of +a Nation's destiny in days and tasks that mock the sagest counsel and +baffle the proudest might of man. + +Like stately columns beneath a stately dome, these virtues deserve +regard. Each one is integral in Lincoln's personal majesty, and in the +finely finished power of this address. The exhibition of personal +self-respect, the very eye of moral verity, as displayed in Lincoln's +own reliability, and idealized within his steadfast plan for national +consistency, is fashioned forth within the well-set features of this +address with all the well-poised grandeur of the Olympian Zeus. The +tones of kindliest friendliness towards detractors and defenders +alike, repelling all malignity, unfailingly benign, cannot in any +cadence be misunderstood. They fall like healing music, reminding +listeners of home, and hearthstone, and a father's heart. The lowly +attitude of penitent submissiveness towards God, with its wonderful +mingling of solemn awe, adoring worship, and conscious fellowship, +undeniably without hypocrisy, as without restraint, institutes in this +address nothing less than the model and inspiration of a reverent, +religious liturgy, fit to lead and voice a Nation's humble penitence +and praise. The kindled and enkindling zeal for the transcendent worth +of men above all other wealth, the burning hearth from whose free +flame springs up every passion glowing through this speech, is like +the fervent ardor of a prophet's heart, watching with a patient, eager +wistfulness towards the dawning of a day that shall never pass away. + +These are signal qualities in this address, each one erect and free, +its signal beauty and virility undiminished and complete. But to be +noticed here is, not their individual comeliness, but the beauty of +their companionship. They consort together perfectly. And in that +unison is a peculiar, an individual attractiveness. Here is a symmetry +that pleads for appreciation. It is the beauty of this unison +throughout this speech that constitutes its eloquence. See how +Lincoln's very confession of error puts him in line with God. Feel how +his righteousness affiliates with tenderness. Mark how his heed for +earthly things provides a body for his idealism. Within the unyielding +rigor of his resolute will see how bending and genial is his attitude. +Here is marvelous symphony--sin and error and war, light and truth and +peace, so comprised and combined, so resolved and reconciled in this +speaker and in this address, as to show a Nation how in the discord of +arms heaven's own harmonies may be heard. To this fine blending of +tones that are distinct, to this pure consonance of notes that are +diverse, it were well for all our ears to become accustomed. This +would mean a true and real refinement. To this refinement Lincoln did +achieve. With this deep consonance his ear became familiar. Hence the +deep-toned fulness and carrying power in the moral resonance of this +address. It faces a manifold emergency with sentiments likewise +manifold, but so composed together as to lead all discordant voices +into lasting peace. + +This moral equilibrium carried within it generous breadth. This is a +striking aspect of this inaugural. It comprehends and resolves +together, with an ease that seems an instinct, the total orbit of our +national life. Within its little compass is the easy movement of the +full momentum of our past. It holds in easy grasp the full +circumference of concurrent events. It evinces, though with amazing +brevity, that the ponderous issues of the coming day are a familiar +topic in his brooding thought. And all of this consists together +within his thought with even, equal recognition. Events are made to +balance. Causes and effects are so held face to face as to declare by +demonstration their true comparison. Great issues and mighty forces +are given their needed amplitude in his observation and review. The +weight of centuries is in his ponderings. This was the style and +attitude of his mental deliberations. He was predisposed to cast and +arrange his thoughts in national dimensions. Union, liberty, manhood, +Providence, were the themes to which his soul was drawn, as though by +gravity. + +Thus Lincoln's influence attained solidity. The place of this +inaugural, and of its author's honor, in our American life, and in +the larger world of worthy civics is well-secured. The qualities +embodied in this address, each one so elemental, and all so eternally +allied, are more enduring, as they stand poised within those balanced +paragraphs, than any qualities resident in marble or bronze. The +proposition that the hostile interests of a mighty Nation be +reconciled into eternal friendliness and constancy under the awful +discipline of God through sacrificial baptisms of blood, contains +within its balanced and majestic terms an interior cohesion and +stability that nothing can ever disintegrate or move. It is without a +bias anywhere. Through all its massiveness the weight is even +absolutely. And its moral proportions are in perfect truth. It is a +monument of finished majesty, solidity, and grace. It is a masterpiece +of moral symmetry. + +This massive grandeur in Lincoln's moral character finds an exalted +illustration in the closing half of his message to Congress in +December of 1862. It forms in itself a document that may well be held +before the eye as a companion piece to his last inaugural. He is +making an elaborate argument for "compensated emancipation." He is +laboring to make clear that the issues pending in the center of the +war are no concern of mere geography, but rather a problem hanging +upon the free decisions of living citizens; and that in the interest +of universal liberty a full agreement by Congress and the chief +executive to tax the Nation peaceably, to remunerate all loss entailed +by freeing every slave, would surely win the requisite electoral +support, stay the war at once, establish lasting peace, and give +demonstration of a civic character and courage fit to brighten and +enhearten all the world. He closes his appeal with these following +words:-- + +"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and +this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No +personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of +us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor +or in dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. +The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the +Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even we +here--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to +the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we +give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not +fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if +followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." + +There is in that message a document that has the scope and the +grandeur of the Alps. It offers an imposing illustration how politics, +so prone to become and to remain ignoble, may come to have surpassing +beauty; how statesmanship, vested in a worthy character, may wear +transcendent dignity. This appeal, as shaped by Lincoln, is a monument +fashioned by a master hand. Note its basis in equity, all the Nation +in common accepting their money cost of a common complicity in wrong. +Note its inscription to human goodwill, curtailing the period, and +staying the bloodshed of the war. Note its enduring substance and +composition, built up of human hearts, cemented in the action of +freedom in the human soul, a towering protest against all gains and +consequences where human liberty is denied. Note the humble reverence +in the soaring appeal to the benediction of God, with which the whole +address concludes. Note the conscience-stirring reference to +inevitable and over-ruling law, in the ominous intimation that the +light of history would luminously adjudge each several man. And note, +with all the imperial urgency of the appeal, its vesture of infinite +respect for the right of every congressman to make a free decision of +and by and for himself alone. + +Here is something at once most imposing and most engaging. Here is +handicraft of the highest grade. The man that conceived and drafted +that political appeal was, in the realm of politics, no mean +architect. He is, in these arguments, measuring the forces elemental +in a great Republic, as Michael Angelo measured gravitation. He is +dealing with decades, and with centuries, with freedom and with +slaves, with a transient Congress and the course of history, as +builders deal with granite blocks. Embracing things dispersed and +widely variant, as also things mutually inclined towards fellowship, +he defines and demonstrates, as a master artisan, how they may all be +grasped and overcome and harmonized in a commanding unison. With a +skilled designer's easy grace he drafts a sketch of our transformed +career, as plain and open to the observing eye as are the massive, +graceful movements of deploying clouds across the sky. Here is +majesty, lofty, balanced, and secure. And all its excellence is +ethical. And it pleads to be made supreme in earthly politics. In such +a message is ideal courtliness. Its bearer must be a comely prince. +The man and author upon whose polished tongue those sentiments found +birth must be of royal lineage. + +Thus Lincoln has given to civics ideal comeliness and dignity. In his +hand, and under his design, politics wears heavenly majesty. In his +conception of a State, though devised and traced in times when cruelty +and sordidness and unfairness and negligence of God were sadly +prevalent through the Nation's life, there rose to view, in his pure +patriotism, a civic standard in which, through holy fear of God, all +men were rated at their immortal worth, and treated with the love and +fairness that were the mutual due of freemen who were peers. Here is a +portrait of a patriot upon which no artist can easily improve--a +portrait which attests in Lincoln's soul a pure and a free idea of +what true art must ever be. + +And it is not without profound significance for art that Lincoln's +statesmanship has become one of the finest objects in our modern world +for artists to idealize. The very features of his face, that were wont +to be esteemed most plain, have come to show a symmetry that is +beautiful. And his whole outward frame, that men so many times have +called ungainly, has come to bear and body forth a dignity such as +summons finest bronze and marble to their most exalted ministry. +Whence came to that plain face and plainer frame such symmetry and +dignity? Let artists contemplate and reply. For in Lincoln's manhood +stature, where utmost rudeness has become transmuted to refinement, +all men are taught that true beauty and true art are ethical. In moral +harmony is found ideal symmetry. + + +HIS COMPOSURE--THE PROBLEM OF PESSIMISM + +In the foregoing pages reference has been made repeatedly to Lincoln's +poise. In the chapter just concluded this poise has been studied for +its beauty. This attitude will repay still further scrutiny. For +looked at again, and from another point of view, it reveals itself as +a reservoir of energy. Seen thus, Lincoln's notable poise becomes a +mighty store of potential, and indeed of active force. It may be +described as a mingling of energy and repose, of resourcefulness and +rest, showing and playing through all his influence among other men, +and largely explaining its potency. + +Of just this personal habitude, through all the years of Lincoln's +participation in our national affairs, there was strenuous need and +requisition. His public course ran through an era in our national +career of unprecedented internal turbulence. The house was divided +against itself. The cause of the dissension was a diametrical +opposition and an irreconcilable contention of views touching a matter +so radical as the basis of our Declaration of Independence, and the +purport of our fundamental national document, the Constitution. To the +men on either side of this contention it seemed as though their +antagonists were bent upon uprooting and removing the very hills. This +obstinate and inveterate disagreement revolved about the single, +simple, fateful question of the right and wrong of holding men in +bonds. For a full generation before Lincoln entered the lists the +conflict had been bitterly intense, refusing to be composed or +assuaged. Near the beginning of the last decade of Lincoln's life he +put on his armor and chose his side. In 1858, while competing with +Douglas for a seat in the U. S. Senate, Lincoln made a declaration +that, for its bearing upon his own career and its influence in +national affairs, has become historic; while for its testimony to the +topic of this chapter it has the very first significance. The core of +that declaration was a quotation from words of Christ, when refuting +the charge that he was in league with Beelzebub:--"A house divided +against itself cannot stand." This quotation was cited by Lincoln to +edge his affirmation that the national agitation concerning slavery, +then in full course, and continually augmenting, would not cease until +a crisis should be reached and passed. This was his firm assurance. A +national crisis was at hand. But to this assurance, that the +government could not endure permanently half slave and half free, he +attested another confidence equally assured:--"I do not expect the +Union to be dissolved--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 is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates +will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the +States, old as well as new, North as well as South." + +That was said with resolute and imposing deliberation in July of 1858. +In that utterance Lincoln's attitude deserves analysis, and for many +reasons; but in particular for its revelation of his composure. He +knew full well what tremendous issues for himself and for the Nation +were involved in what he said. He knew that his appeal for the +senatorship at Washington was thereby gravely imperiled. He knew that +it foreboded national convulsions and throes. He knew that for himself +and for the government a mighty crisis was ahead. And he knew that in +that crisis the alternatives were for all humanity supreme. The issues +were nothing less than human freedom and equality, or human tyranny +and bonds. In the stress and strain of an age-long strife like this, +many a man has swerved to moral pessimism. + +From the date of that speech Lincoln stood in the face of that +vicissitude. Indeed for his few remaining years he was, in all that +deepening commotion, an energetic and influential central force. And +he never yielded to despair. In this same month he issued to Senator +Douglas his doughty challenge to a series of debates. During those +debates Lincoln forged his way into a preeminence that amounted almost +to solitude, as champion of a people and a cause that, for weary +generations, had been under all but hopeless oppression and reproach. +Through all those debates Lincoln's single heart was nothing less +than a national theater of a solicitude nothing less than national. +Upon his lone shoulders lay the gravest burdens of his day. The ideals +of a Nation lay upon his anvil; the national temper was being forged +beneath his hand. Highest chivalry waged against him, bearing tempered +steel, and jealous of an old and proud prestige. + +In the immediate outcome of those debates Lincoln met defeat. But +farther on he only found himself involved more deeply still in the +anguish of the crisis he had foretold. The national disagreement was +verging towards the Nation's dissolution, heightening at length into +secession and actual, long-drawn civil war. So tremendous was the +crisis Lincoln foresaw. And this was precipitated directly by his +election to the presidency. So vitally were his own fortune and fate +bound up in the crisis he foretold. So pitiless and fundamental was +the challenge to his hope. His total administration was spent in the +tumult of arms. By no possibility in any Nation's conscious life could +civil confusion be worse confounded than during the period of his +presidential terms. Beginning with seven states in open secession, and +brought to an end by assassination, the measure of his supreme +official life was full to either brim with perils and sorrows and +fears, such as any single human heart could hardly contain. But the +undiminished, overwhelming volume of those fears and sorrows and cares +was encompassed every day within his anxious, ample, patriot heart. +When facing in August of 1864 the national election, upon which this +last inaugural oath was based, he said:--"I cannot fly from my +thoughts--my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I +go. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not +free from these infirmities; but I cannot but feel that the weal or +woe of this great Nation will be decided in November." So momentous +and grave seemed to him the meaning and weight of the contention that +drove the Nation into war. In this estimate, as said before, he stood +almost in solitude. "Our best and greatest men," he said in New Haven +in 1860, "have greatly underestimated the size of this question. They +have constantly brought forward small cures for great sores--plasters +too small to cover the wound." To Lincoln's credit it must forever be +said that he had a true prevision of the agony through which the +Nation must strive, as she reached and passed the crisis which he saw +in 1858 to be her predestined and impending fate. + +And so it came to pass that in 1861, when Fort Sumter was assailed, +and the sharp imperious alternative of immediate dissolution or blood +faced the Nation's eye, he was not surprised or unprepared; as +likewise, when in 1865 at his second inaugural scene, after four full +years of awful war, he is still found waiting in sacrificial patience +to hail the culmination of his assured interpretation and hope. Here +in 1865 as there in 1858, there in 1858 as here in 1865, he is +cherishing the patriot-prophet's confidence that the crisis would be +passed, that the Nation would not be dissolved, that the house would +stand. + +And to Lincoln's singular honor it must always be allowed that through +all the terrible hours while that crisis was being passed, it was +pre-eminently due to Lincoln's mighty moral optimism that our Union +was preserved. Amid all the turbulence of armies and arms, his +assurance of our national perpetuity was so deeply, firmly based, as +to be itself invested and informed with perpetuity. So commanding was +his posture of heroic, triumphant confidence, that it mightily availed +to guide and steady the Nation through the crisis into an era of +internal and international peace. + +But not merely did Lincoln's composure prevail to secure that this +Nation should not dissolve. It also wrought prevailingly to perpetuate +our liberty. Throughout the crisis the issue held in stake was whether +the Nation should be wholly slave or wholly free. Those were the +alternatives between which Lincoln's care and fear, and the Nation's +fortune and fate were hung. Throughout the crisis Lincoln's hope was +that the Nation should be forever wholly free. His fear was that the +Nation might be wholly slave. But above that fear, that hope +steadfastly prevailed. One who studies Lincoln through those days +comes to feel unerringly that deep beneath an anxiety that seemed at +times almost to overwhelm his life, there lay a supreme assurance +that, when the crisis should have passed, it should stand clear beyond +debate, and sure beyond all doubt, that here in this favored land the +chance of all the sons of men should be forever equal, fair, and free. +Astutely heedful of the power of selfish, sordid greed; deeply +conscious of the blind defiance of scorn and pride; painfully aware of +the awful capacity of a human heart for cruelty and hate; and sharp to +see how reason yields to prejudice, when chivalry becomes a +counterfeit; he still found grounds to hold his anchored hope for +universal liberty and brotherhood. + +This deep-based confidence deserves to be well understood. It is a +primary phenomenon in Lincoln's life. How in the deepest welter of +violence and strife could Lincoln's mood retain such level evenness? +How in all that continental turbulence could he keep so unperturbed? +How, through all that confusion was he never confused? In truth his +days were mostly dark and sad. Sorrows did overwhelm him. How did his +anchorage hold unchanged? When the very hills gave way, his +foundations seemed to stay. The assurance to which his soul was +attached seemed all but omnipotent. What was the secret, what the +ground of such phenomenal steadiness? + +To answer these inquiries is but to rehearse again what has already +been repeatedly made plain. This massive sturdiness of Lincoln's +statesmanship, this unalterable political reliability lay inwrought in +the hardy fiber of his moral character. + +One factor here may be termed intellectual. Lincoln's study made him +steady. His untiring thoughtfulness secured to Lincoln's soul a fine +deposit of pure assurance. It was with him a jealous and guarded +custom to make examinations exhaustive. He was always seeking +certainty. Few men ever dealt more sparingly in conjecture. Always +eager towards the future, and often making statements touching things +to come, he was nevertheless a model of mental caution. It was this +passion to make his footing fully secure that kindled in him such zest +for history. It was this same passion that glowed in his eye, as he +inspected in common men their common humanity. And likewise it was +this that led him into the fear of God, and made him a student of the +Bible, and a man of prayer. The full capacity of his mind was taxed +unceasingly, in order to secure to his ripening judgments their +majestic equipoise. + +But with saying this not enough is said to describe the grounds of his +composure. It was not merely that his mind, through thoughtful inquiry +and comparison, grew far-sighted, and balanced, and clear. What gained +for Lincoln his solid anchorage was his deep, strong hold upon all +that was inmost and permanent in the heart and nature of men. Every +inch a man himself, the one ambition of his mental research was to +make every responsible thought and deed conduce to guide every brother +man to the destiny which his nature decreed. This was the research +that made his eye so clear. This was the study that made his hope so +sure. Outcome of unsparing intellectual toil, this was the assurance +that won for Lincoln his unique and most honorable diploma and degree. +This was Lincoln's standing and this its warrant among all thoughtful +men, alike the learned and the unlettered. This was the secret of that +marvelous calmness, that was so potent to compose the fears of other +men. He studied man, until he attained a magisterial power to +understand and explain result and cause, issue and origin, amid +historic, surrounding, and impending events. In the field where +Lincoln stood and toiled he was an adept. He was a worthy master of +the humanities. He took a liberal course in the liberal arts. And out +of this broad course he constructed politics. He came to see +unerringly, and to believe unwaveringly, and to contend unwearyingly +that man, that all men should hold, in a universal equilibrium, their +regard for God, their self-respect, their brother love, and a true, +comparative esteem for things that perish and souls that survive. This +reasoned, hopeful faith, adopted with all his heart as the comely +pattern and well-set keystone of all his politics and statesmanship, +is what secured to Lincoln through all those tumultuous days his +far-commanding political equanimity. That all men were designed and +entitled by their Creator to be free, and that in this liberty, as in +the elemental right to life and self-earned happiness, all are +likewise created equal, Lincoln did devoutly, profoundly, and +invincibly believe. Confirmed by all his ranging observation and +incessant, pondering thought, this faith was also rooted beyond repeal +in his own deep reverence for God, in his own instinctive respect for +himself, in irrepressible friendliness, and in his unabashed +idealism. + +Such a man could never be a pessimist. Such a faith in such a soul +could not be plucked away. Nor could its protestations be variable. +That each, as alike the handiwork of God, should alike be always fair, +and that all should always and alike be free, was the base of his +political philosophy, and the bond of his consistency. This was the +teaching of the past. This was the harbinger of the day to come. And +in this long-pondered wisdom and belief lay the explanation of his +underlying peacefulness through the war, and of his singular ability +to prevail above the fears of other men, when in other hearts every +hope gave way. He deeply saw that underneath all battlefields, and +within all antagonisms, these simple principles, so surely sovereign +and so certainly immortal, encompassed a breadth and strength +sufficient to circumvent and overcome all hate and doubt and fear, +doing to no freeman any vital harm, shielding from essential evil +every toil-bowed slave. This is the source and secret of Lincoln's +unexampled composure amid scenes of unexampled anxiety and unrest. + +And this composure, being so inwrought with hope, was unfailingly +active and alert. It was never mere endurance, stolid and inert. It +enshrined a powerful momentum. It was alive with purpose, conscious, +vigorous, resolute. One of its fairest features was a seeing eye--an +eye transfixed upon a goal. Things as yet invisible, and still +unrealized, his earnest, unwearying eye prevailed to see. Hence his +optimism was astir with enterprise. Anticipation, quite as truly as +peacefulness, marked the constant attitude of his life. His composure +could be closely defined as confidence respecting things to come. +Always environed by difficulties, and all but blinded by their strife, +his faith struck through their turmoil, and his hope rose free and +strong into a jubilant salutation of man's undoubted destiny, and +into a victorious companionship with God's clear, certain will. + +And so there throbbed in this habitual posture of Lincoln's heart a +mighty potency. His composure was prevailing. His deep and calm +security dissipated other men's dismay. Repeatedly beneath the +presence of his stately quietness the Nation felt its turbulence +subside. This efficiency can be felt at work in this last inaugural +address; and its action well deserves to be identified. In his +exposition of its theme, and in his registration of his presidential +pledge, he seems by one hand to have fast hold of things immutable, +while with the other hand he is helping to steady things that tremble +and change. Here is kingly mastery. Things mightily disturbed are +being mightily put to rest, as though from an immutable throne. The +open figure of that throne may well be scanned by all the Nation and +by all the world. It is built and stands foursquare. Its measure +conforms in every part with the measure of a man. It is shaped and set +to stand and abide where men consort, to unify their minds, and +tranquillize their strifes. With sobered and sobering insight into the +human soul, with resolute and expectant will before our human goal, +this address inscribes and upholds, as at once an outcome and an ideal +of human events, a universal amity compacted of loyal, friendly men +who walk in reverence before God, and cherish treasures that can never +fail. Purity, humility, charity, loyalty--these are the constituents +in the structure, and the explanation of the power of Lincoln's +composure. Fully illumined, firmly convinced, evenly at rest upon +principles that stand foursquare upon the balanced manhood of Godlike +men, his civic hopefulness stood in the midst of his practical +statesmanship, like an invincible, immovable throne. + + +HIS AUTHORITY--THE PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT + +The study in the preceding chapter of Lincoln's even-paced serenity, +culminating in the symbol of a throne, conducts directly to an +examination of his influence and mastery over other men. During those +troubled days in Washington, despite all the malice, defiance, and +active abuse which he daily bore, his power to persuade, conciliate, +and govern other men was, in all the land, without a parallel. In +fact, as well as in name, he was throughout those presidential days +the Nation's chief magistrate. And since his death that dominion has +increased, until it stands today above comparison. Here is an +opportunity, not easily matched, to explore a theme whose importance +in the field of ethics no other topic can surpass--the seat and nature +of moral authority. And here in this second inaugural is a transparent +illustration of the firm security in which that authority rests, and +of the method by which it prevails. + +As in his own inner reverence for law, so in his sway of other men, +his posture towards the national Constitution demands attention first. + +"The supreme law of the land"--thus the Constitution of the United +States, in its sixth article, defines itself. In its fifth article, +the same fundamental document provides that "Amendments," properly +made, "shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this +Constitution." This primary authority for the rule of the land is +further affirmed to have been ordained and established by "the people +of the United States." Here are three noteworthy features of this "law +of the land:"--it is supreme; it is amendable; it arises from the +people. + +This written standard of our national life, its amendability, and its +primal origin in the people's will, were matters much in Lincoln's +eye. Each separate one of these three features of our national civic +life had reverent respect in Lincoln's mind, in all his conception and +exercise of authority over other men. It was this "supreme law" that +he swore in both inaugurations to "preserve, protect, and defend." An +amendment to the Constitution, that was pending at the time of his +first inaugural oath, he took unusual pains in that address to mention +and approve. And it was to "the people," on both occasions of his +inauguration as president, and at all other times of public and +responsible address, that he paid supreme respect, in his most +finished and earnest eloquence and appeal. Here was a threefold +ultimate standard to which Lincoln always made final appeal--the +original Constitution; its amenability to due revision; and the +people's free and deliberate decree. This triangular base-line was for +Lincoln's politics and jurisprudence and statesmanship the supreme and +finished standard of last appeal. He deferred to it submissively, +habitually, and with reverence. + +All this can be truly said. And yet all this does not say all the +truth. Respectful as Lincoln was for all that he found thus +fundamentally prescribed, and heedful as he was to indulge in no +executive liberty inconsonant with those express decrees, he found his +fortune as chief executive forcing him to move where all explicit +regulations failed to specify the path. The Constitution does not +include all details. It does not vouchsafe specific counsel for +specific needs. Its guidance is as to principles. "No foresight can +anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express +provisions for all possible questions." This he declared in his first +inaugural. Then he mentions three such unprescribed details:--the +method of returning fugitive slaves; the power of Congress to +prohibit; and the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the +Territories. Touching those three civic interests, civic duties and +civic standards were undirected and undefined. But even while he +spoke, those three unsettled problems in the Nation's life were +kindling the national pulse to an uncontrollable heat. Nothing less +than civil war was certainly impending, over controversies touching +which the sovereign standards of the civic life did not expressly +speak. + +Upon these momentous, undecided questions Lincoln, in his high +authority as president, had to bring his judgment, his action, and his +influence into settled shape. Deep in the heart of these unsettled +regions he set his camp, and toiled away his life. This heroic and +patriotic act may be called a detail of constitutional interpretation. +But it was for Lincoln a labor of Hercules. It opened a gigantic +controversy. The land was convulsed with contending explications. +Views, held essential to the vital honor of separate sections of the +land, were in essential hostility. As the dissension deepened, two +questions rose, outstanding above the rest:--the Constitutional +integrity of the several States (might States secede?); and the +Constitutional rights of slavery (should slavery spread?). Both these +problems were mortally acute in 1861. Both were still in hand in 1865. +Under the Constitution could the Union be legitimately dissolved? +Under the Constitution should slavery be permanently approved? To both +these questions Southern leaders answered, Yes. To both these +questions Lincoln answered, No. + +Of these two questions and asseverations, it is plain to see that the +second is the more profound. So this second inaugural affirms: +"Somehow" slavery was the cause of the secession and the war. This +"all knew." Upon this pivot, all the chances and contentions of the +great debate were compelled to turn. Here lay all the meaning of the +war. All those awful battles were trembling, struggling arguments; +thrilling, impassioned affirmations striving to finally and forever +decide whether human slavery was justified to spread. + +Here was a supreme divergence of conviction, and a supreme debate. In +all the realm of social morals, no divergence and no debate could be +more radical. Into this supreme contention Lincoln was compelled to +enter. To some conclusion that should be supreme he was, by his +official station and responsibility, compelled to lead. To find his +way through such a controversy, and to guide the land through all that +strife to some sovereign reconciliation, involved this common citizen +in the presidential chair in an assumption and exercise of authority +nothing less than sovereign. + +Face to face with this impending and decisive agony, Lincoln took his +stand in his first inaugural, not flinching even from war, if war must +come. A mighty wrestler in the awful throes of mortal civic strife, he +held his determined stand in the act of his second inaugural oath, +after war had raged for four full years. The great debate is unsettled +still. Still Lincoln has to bear the awful burden of responsible +advice. He is still the Nation's chief magistrate. An authority +pregnant to predetermine continental issues for unnumbered years to +come, however dread its weight, and however frail and faint his mortal +strength, he may not demit. Within the darkness and amid the din, he +must think and speak, he must judge and act, he must rise and lead, +while a Nation and a future both too vast for human eye to scan and +estimate, stand waiting on his word and deed. + +It was a time for omens. But never did Lincoln's ways show fuller +sanity. In such a day, and for such a responsibility this, his second +inaugural address, is Lincoln's perfect vindication. Here the true +civilian's true democracy stands vested with an authority both +sovereign and beautiful. Here political expertness becomes consummate. +Here the very throne of civil authority is unveiled. Here leadership +and fellowship combine. Here a master, though none more modest in all +the land, demonstrates his mastery in the mighty field of national +politics. Here it may be fully seen how in a true democracy a true +dominion operates. + +Here emerges, in the ripened, rugged, mellowed, moral character of +Lincoln, and in the finished, immortal formulation of his uttermost +contention and appeal, a marvelous illumination of an inquiry, that is +always alike the last and the first, the first and the last in ethical +research--the inquiry about ethical authority. Where did Lincoln +finally rest his final appeal? He is assuming to venture a +preponderant claim. He is speaking as a Nation's president. And in a +conflict of radical views that for four dread years has been a +conflict of relentless arms, he argues still, and without a quaver, +for the thorough prosecution of the war. Divergence of judgment on +moral grounds could never be brought to a sharper edge. Contention +over issues in the moral realm could never be harder pressed. On what +authority could Lincoln push a moral argument unto blood? Is there +moral warrant for such a deed? If ever there be, then where is its +base, and whence its awful sanctity? + +To shape reply to this is but to shape more sharply still the naked +substance of the debate--the crying issue of the war. The core of that +insistent strife concerned the essential nature of man. Was slavery +legitimate? Might a white man enslave a black? Could a strong man +enslave the weak? Dare some men forswear toil? May any men who toil +be pillaged of the food their hands have earned? Are some men entitled +to a luxury and ease they never earned, while to other men the luxury +and ease they have fairly won may be denied? Are some men so inferior +that they can have no right to life, and liberty, and happiness, +however much they strive and long for such a simple, common boon? Are +other men so super-excellent that life, and liberty, and happiness are +theirs by right, though never earned or even struggled for at all? + +This was the central issue of that war; and this the central theme of +this inaugural. Are common people to be forever kept beneath, and +traded on, and eyed with scorn; while favored men are to be forever +set on high, and filled with wealth, and fed with flattery? This was +the quivering question that was brought on Lincoln's lips to its +sharpest edge. Well he knew its momentousness and its antiquity. + +In its very formulation, as Lincoln gave it shape, there loomed the +formulation of its reply, perhaps still to be bitterly defied, perhaps +to be still long deferred; but inevitable at last, and sure finally to +find agreement everywhere. This final answer Lincoln's vision saw. In +that clear vision he discerned the certain meaning of the battles of +the war. In the great debate they were the solemn, measured arguments. +Amid those awful arguments this inaugural took its place, the oracle +of a moral prophet, explaining how the war arose, by whose high hand +the war was being led, and in what high issue the war must attain its +end. As the arguments of this address advance, one grows to feel that +Lincoln's thought is forging a reply, in which emerges a moral law +whose authority no man may ever dare rebuke. + +But as that authority comes to view in Lincoln's speech, its form is +shorn of every shred of arrogance. Never was mortal man more modest +than in the tone and substance of this address. This modesty is indeed +throughout devoid of wavering. His tones ring with confidence and +decisiveness. But in that confidence, though girt for war, there are +folded signs of deference and gentleness and solemn awe, as though +confessing error and confronting rebuke. Even of slavery, that most +palpable and abhorrent evil, as he forever avers; and of slaveholders, +who wring their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, and then +dare to pray for heaven's favor on their arms, he says in this +address:--"let us not judge that we be not judged;" as though the germ +of that dark error might then be swelling in his and all men's hearts. +And as to the war itself, for which he bade the Nation stand with +sword full-drawn, the central passage in this speech more than +intimates, what in an earlier part he fully concedes, that he and all +the people had availed but poorly to understand the Almighty's plans. +In all of this Lincoln seems to say that he found himself, in common +with all the land, but imperfectly in harmony with God, as to his +judgment concerning the sin inwrought in holding slaves, and as to the +primacy of the Union among the interests pending in the war. He seems +in this address, so far from affirming his right to judge and govern +arbitrarily, instead confessing that love of ease, greed for gain, the +mood of scorn, and proneness to be cruel--those inhuman roots that +rear up slavery--were apt to find hidden nutriment in his and all +men's hearts, yielding everywhere the baleful harvest of inhumanity; +confessing further that this deep-rooted tendency in human hearts to +undo God's primal decree of freedom and equality was far more needful +to eradicate than any proneness to secede within any confederacy of +States; and confessing in consequence and finally that it was for all +Americans to accept the war as God's rebuke of their common +propensity to be unkind, and as God's correction of their false rating +of their national concerns. This then seems to be Lincoln's posture in +this address--no lofty arrogance of authority to decree and execute +the right; but a humble confession of error and guilt; an acquiescent +submission to God's correction and reproof. This modest hue must +tincture this address through all its web. + +And yet the dominant note of this inaugural is clear decisiveness, an +unwavering firmness in his own opinion, a classic illustration of +persuasion and appeal, as though from the vantage ground of +convictions perfectly assured. Where now, in full view of all that has +been said, is the basis of Lincoln's argument and authority to be +placed? In an argument where conviction seems to be transmuted into +penitence, and where confession seems transfigured into confidence, +how can the logic be resolved; and where at last can the authority +repose? + +The full reply to this inquiry can be found only when we find where +Lincoln's conviction and confession coalesce. Touching this, one thing +is clear. Both bear upon the same concern. Deep within them both +slavery is the common theme. Assured that slavery is wrong, he +confesses that its roots run everywhere. Honest to the core, he bows +beneath the scourge of war, convinced that it is heaven's penalty upon +all the land. Throughout he is pleading and suffering consistently +that all men may be free. This is the sum of the address. In this it +all coheres. Thus he divines and understands the ways of God. And so +he stands, as poised in this address, in ideal fellowship, at once +with men who have held slaves, with slaves in their distress, with the +Creator in his primal decree, and with the Providential meaning of the +war. + +To all this problem, vexing so many generations, the clear and +witting touch of Lincoln's sacrificial penitence is the master key. In +this all contradictions, all hostilities, all sufferings, all +transgressions, and all pure longings are harmonized. In assurance and +repentance he has found how truth and grace, blending together in +humble heed for God and for undying souls, hold complete dominion in +the moral realm. These pure principles, congenial alike to God and +men, he welcomes to himself, and commends to all his fellowmen in +sacrificial partnership. + +Here is Lincoln's prevailing faith. This is the secret of his +strength. Herein vests his commanding and enduring power. This is +Lincoln's self--his very manhood. This is the man in this address whom +the world beheld, and still beholds--the man he was, the man he aimed +and strove to be, the man he recommended all the Nation to combine to +reproduce, the man in whom the fear of God, the love of men, the zeal +for life, and true reliability, mingle evenly, at whatever cost. This +is the man, and this the mighty influence over other men, enthroned +imperishably in this address. + +Here is the throne, the scepter, and the key to Lincoln's vast +authority. It is patterned and informed from the cardinal constituents +of a balanced moral character. It is inwrought within a life that +heeds harmoniously, and with heroic earnestness, his own integrity, +his God, his fellowman, and things immortal. Holding souls above +goods, holding his fellow as himself, holding himself in true respect, +and holding God above all, he stands and pleads, with a cogency that +is unanswerable, for verities as self-evident to any man as any man's +self-consciousness. All his claims in the heart of this address are +self-apparent. They are original convictions. They prove and approve +themselves. They make no call for substantiation. They confront every +man within himself, the light in his eye, the life in his heart, the +spring in his hope. They confront every man again within his neighbor. +They confront both men again, when together they look up to God. And +far within all forms that change, they confront all men forevermore in +things that immortally abide. + +This is the truth to which Lincoln pledged his troth, and in which he +besought all other men to plight their faith, in this address. The +vivid, ever-living dignity in man, discoverable by every man within +himself, to be greeted by every one in his brother-man, at once the +image and the handiwork of God--this defined all his faith, fired all +his zeal, woke all his eloquence, shaped all his argument, winged all +his hope. That such a being should be a slave, that such a being +should have a slave, was in his central conviction, of all wrong +deeds, the least defensible. It was the primal moral falsity, cruelty, +insult, and debasement. That such a sin should be atoned, at whatever +cost, was the primal task of purity, reverence, tenderness, and truth. +Holding such convictions, handling such concerns, for him to make the +statement was to give it demonstration. Against such convictions, and +in scorn of such concerns, no man could seriously contend without +assailing and, in the end, undoing himself. This was the citadel and +the weaponry of Lincoln's authority. + +And Lincoln found within these views the pledge of permanence. He saw +them bulwarked and corroborated by all the lessons and revelations of +history. All devices of human society, contending against these +rudimentary verities, had been proved pernicious and self-defeating a +thousand times. Only such behavior of man with man as harmonized with +the creative design, and sprang from endowments that were common to +all, could ever hope to last. Here is the sovereign lesson from all +the centuries past, and a sovereign challenge for all the centuries +to come. As Lincoln viewed it, he was handling a matter beyond debate, +when he talked of two centuries and a half of unrequited toil. If that +was not wrong, then nothing was wrong. There is the whole of Lincoln's +argument, and the whole of his authority. It stood true two hundred +and fifty years ago. It will hold fast two hundred and fifty years +hence. To deny this is to dethrone all law, turn every freeman's +highest boast to shame, and finally banish moral order from human +government and from human thought. That this could never be suffered +or confessed was the substance of Lincoln's argument, and the sum of +his authority. This and this alone was the sovereign lesson that the +sacrificial sorrows of the war were searing so legibly, that all the +world could read, upon the sinful Nation's breast. And in saying this, +Lincoln's voice was pleading as the voice of God. + + +HIS VERSATILITY--THE PROBLEM OF MERCY + +The study of Lincoln's authority, as it wields dominion in the last +inaugural, has brought to prominence his humble readiness to share +repentantly with all the Nation, in the bitter sorrows of the war, the +divine rebuke for sin. That sin was the wrong of holding slaves. But +in all the land, if any man was innocent of that iniquity, it was +Lincoln. And yet the honest Lincoln was never more sincere, more nobly +true and honest with himself, than in this deep-wrought co-partnership +with guilt. Surely here is call for thought. + +Lincoln's character was fertile. The principles that governed his +development were living and prolific. In his ethics, as in his bodily +tissues, he was alive. As the days and years went on, he grew. Like +vines and trees, he added to his stature constantly. New twigs and +tendrils were continually putting out, searching towards the sunshine +and the springs, and embracing all the field. And in all this increase +he was supremely pliable. While always firm and strong, he had a +wonderful capacity to bend. + +The primary, towering impulse working in Lincoln's life was ethical. +Amid the continual medley and confusion of things, he was continually +reaching and searching to find and plainly designate the right and the +wrong. This stands evident everywhere. Nowhere does this stand plainer +than in the period, when, at his second inaugural, he faced a second +presidential term. Still straining in the toil and turmoil, in the +intense and blinding passion of the war, he halts upon the threshold +of a second quadrennium of supreme responsibility, to see if he can +surely trace God's indication of what is right. The eternally right +was what he sought. He was after no mere expediency, no ephemeral +shift for ephemeral needs. The judgments of the Almighty Ruler of +Nations, true and righteous altogether and evermore, were what he +prayed to find and know. Then, if ever, Lincoln's earnestness was +moral. + +And for this search at just this time his eye was peculiarly sobered +and grave. Portentous problems were emerging, as the finish of the war +drew near. And these problems were new. What should the Nation, when +it laid aside its arms, decide to do with the seceded States, and with +those millions of untutored slaves? For that no precedent was at hand, +no direction in the laws. The conclusion must be original. And it must +be supreme. And its issues must hold wide sway for generations of +imperial, expanding growth. There loomed an impending peril, and a +test of statesmanship, demanding the wisdom, and integrity, and deep +foresight of a moral prince--a peril and a moral test but poorly met +by the men whom his untimely death thrust into Lincoln's place. For +bringing to perfection his ripening judgment upon that task, and so +for displaying another historic demonstration of Lincoln's moral +adaptability, the few short requisite years were mysteriously to be +denied. + +But upon other problems and in other days, there was ample revelation +of Lincoln's agile moral strength. His entire career in national +prominence provides outstanding demonstration of the continual full +mobility and plastic freedom of his moral powers. The civil war, which +he was conducting with such determination to its predestined end, as +he stood the central figure in this second inaugural scene, was but +the central vortex of a moral agitation in which all our national +principles and precedents were challenged and defied; and in which +statesmen of supremely facile, virile, moral sense were in exigent +demand. Problems were propounded constantly upon which our +Constitution shed no certain light, and the Constitution itself was in +a way to be overturned. + +Throughout this period of national discord and moral instability, +Lincoln was a leading, creative mind. The circuit of that career was +brief indeed, scarcely more than one decade. But in those dark, swift +years shine and cluster many illustrations of the rich and ready +fertility of his ethical postulates in the political realm. Man of the +people though he was, and acutely sensitive of his responsibility to +the people for every responsible act, he was in every judgment and +resolve every inch a king, openminded, original, free. Again, and +again, and again, he was the man for the hour. + +One demonstration of this is shown in his surprising readiness. With +whatever situation, he behaved as though familiar. Undisciplined in +diplomacy, he proved himself almost instantly a finished diplomat. +Totally untutored in all the acts and practices of war, but compelled +by his office to take sovereign command of the Nation's arms, and that +so suddenly that even the arms themselves could not be found, he +became one of the foremost critics and counselors of perilous and +intricate military campaigns. Unaccustomed to authority, but advanced +at a leap to the Nation's head, beleaguered by deadly animosities +among cliques and sections and States, encompassed by shameless +cabinet intrigues, he developed, as in one day, into manager, adviser, +administrator of political affairs, the most astute in all the land. + +A most impressive example of this adjustability is seen in his +manifold capacity for moral patience. It reveals how he could keep his +full integrity, while binding up his life and fortune inseparably with +men whose moral standards swayed far from his. Lincoln's first +inaugural gave luminous definition of his designs and hopes. The +principles there propounded were the ripe and firm convictions of a +thoughtful, honest life. They had been pronounced repeatedly before. +To their defense and consummation his heart and honor were pledged +irrevocably. Those propositions were the irreducible rudiments of his +faith, the permanent constituents of his hope. Surrender those +convictions and desires he never did, he never could. Within the ample +compass and easy play of those glowing sentiments there was no room +for secession, nor for war, nor for any bitterness, but only for +loyalty, fellowship, peace. But as he turned from that inauguration +and its declaration of his policy toward the execution of his trust, +he had to face and handle secession, war, and malicious defamation. He +had to see the Nation's holiest dignity desecrated, all his brotherly +offices disdained, the souls of men still held as rightful objects of +common trade, and the plainest decrees of God defied. This as shown +in the spirit and uprising of the impatient, imperious South. + +And within the North, in the very armies assembled for the Union's +defence, he had to find the very leaders and plotters of his campaigns +absorbed and overcome by petty jealousies, too despicable and +unpatriotic to be believed, and yet so real and vicious as to defeat +their battles before they were fought. And back among the Union +multitudes around his base, were men of might and standing, and men in +multitudes, who maligned his motives, and entangled his plans, until +antagonism the most malignant and resolved to all his views and +undertakings seemed to environ him on every side. + +To such conditions it was Lincoln's bitter obligation to conform. Many +men were ready with many fond prescriptions for the case; but they all +were marked by weak futility. They either brought the Nation no +complete relief, or else surrendered the Nation's very life. Within +the strain and pull from every side Lincoln felt the obligation of his +oath. + +The mood and method he employed (and let not the phrase be +misunderstood) was moral relaxation. This did not mean that he altered +aught of his pronounced belief, or varied by a single hair from his +announced design. He remembered his inaugural oath. He retained his +faith and hope, and held to his prime resolve unchanged. But he gave +the opposition time. He suffered malignants to malign, seceders to +rebel, detractors to impugn; and bore their taunts and blows and +wounds patiently, still abiding by his word. His very war was simply +for defense. The honor of the Union he would not yield up. His +brotherly friendliness he would not forego. His rating of freemen he +would not discount. The mandates of God he would not disobey. But +while on every hand these might be assailed and abjured, he repressed +all violence and vehemence of heart, and endured, and indulged, and +was still. + +Herein, however, his convictions and hopes wore a modified guise. +Their rigor softened; their lustre mellowed; their angles broadened; +their rudeness ripened; and his aspect passed through change; the +while his honor brightened and became more clear. This adjustment of +such a nature to such a fate is a massive illustration of moral +versatility. It is like keeping the steed to the course, while yet +laying the rein upon his neck. + +Through experience such as this it must have been that Lincoln +traversed his profoundest sorrow. Just here his critics and traducers +had their firmest hold. To the world at large his tactics did seem +slack, his method dilatory, his mood indifferent. Men wearied past +endurance at his delay, and charged repeatedly that he had betrayed +his trust. Such accusations must have been to his pure loyalty like +gall. And yet he must perforce be mute. It was not he, it was the +awful situation in which his noble life was manacled, that was so +incorrigible. With God and man he pleaded day and night that bloodshed +might be stayed, and peace possess the land. But an enemy was in the +land, determined not to leave his guns until the Union was dissolved, +and slavery vindicated as right. Rather than forsake the Union, and +own that men were as the brutes, he would die a thousand times. And +with a patience that no malice and no misfortune could wear away, he +held his post and kept his word, through torments too severe for +unheroic men to bear, producing thus upon his silent, sorrowful face a +humble replica of the divine long-suffering of the meek and lowly +Christ. And so he taught the world how in patience the righteousness +that abhors all wrong may turn its face toward sin with humble +meekness, through years that seem like centuries, and cause thereby +that pure and Godlike truth and love shall only be more glorious. + +But even with this the description of this case stands incomplete. To +understand it rightly further statements are required. After all his +patience, the South was obdurate. Even while in this last inaugural +Lincoln was pleading for universal charity, and seeking to banish +malice everywhere, the leaders of the armies in the South were +rallying their unrecruited ranks in a very desperation of hatred for +his principles, and of scorn for his forbearance. While he was +interpreting the desolations and sorrows of the war as God's +all-powerful punishment of slavery, our common national sin, they +resented with impassioned vehemence such an explanation, disclaimed +all guilt, and denied that slavery was wrong. + +Here emerged in Lincoln's thought Lincoln's supreme perplexity. He was +dealing with right and wrong, both only the more intensely real, +because so really concrete. Liberty and loyalty, loyalty to liberty, +the dignity of man, and the good pleasure of God--these were the +eternal principles, and the personal interests at stake. Antagonisms +were deadly virulent; and they were unrelenting. Compulsion was not +availing. Patience likewise failed. Here was a desperate call for +moral mastership. The man to meet the crisis, to join the cleft, to +reduce to moral harmony this discord of right and wrong, the man who +could resolve and morally unify this moral disagreement must have a +soul and an understanding whose insight and moral comprehension were +complete. + +Here Lincoln's moral grandeur gains its full dimension. And in this +consummation it comes clear to see how in very deed right and wrong, +evil and good, can be encompassed in a moral unison such that evil +remains the all-abhorrent thing, and good is proved to be alone +desired. This marvelous explication is found within the words and +tone of this last inaugural. It stands contained in perfect poise +within the mutual balancings of his princely pledge to abjure all +malice, show universal charity, and still pursue the awful guidance of +Almighty God in the prosecution of the war. Herein moral rigor, +forbearance, and gentleness do majestically coalesce. + +The breath and voice of this same moral mystery are felt and heard +again within this same inaugural in that bold prophetic exposition of +the Providential purport of the war. In the burning furnace of those +last four years, Lincoln's eyes had been purged to see how the ways of +God transcend the ways and thoughts of men. Both North and South, in +battle and in prayer, had failed to comprehend the thoughts of God. +All the movements of all their armies were being mightily over-ruled. +The purposes of the Almighty were his own. Both North and South had +gone astray. Neither side was wholly right. The land was under +discipline. The Nation had committed sin. That sin was destined for +requital. That requital was to be complete. The ways of God were true +and righteous altogether. All this the Nation must acquiescently +confess. For all the wrong of slavery requital must be made, +submissively, ungrudgingly, repentantly. Beneath that judgment every +heart must bow. The sin must be abjured. Its wrong must be abhorred. +Goodwill to all alike must be restored. And through it all the +Almighty must be adored. + +Like a solemn litany within a great cathedral, these solemn sentiments +of Lincoln resounded through the land, as, in want of any other +priest, Lincoln himself led the Nation to the altar of the Lord. He +truly led. And to an altar. In this inaugural, Lincoln, for all +Americans, bows and veils his own brave heart in sacrificial sorrow +and confession, to bear and suffer all that, as the Nation's due, and +for the Nation's rescue, it is the will of holy heaven to inflict. + +In this profound, spontaneous assumption of full co-partnership with +all the Nation in a Nation's undivided ill-desert; in this +uncomplaining acquiescence, while God inflicted upon the land, as an +awful scourge, all the shame and cost and sorrow that the woful wrong +of slavery had entailed; in this deep discernment that deep in every +heart ran and flourished all the baleful roots of greed and pride, of +injustice and cruelty, out from which all man's enbondagement of +brother man springs up; in this estimation of human slavery as a +primary sin, while receiving without repining its ultimate +doom--Lincoln unveils in his single heart, an abhorrence and an +endurance of our national sin, that makes him enduringly and +indivisibly the friend and brother of us all, accomplishing, in a +single moral experience, the pattern of the confession, and of the +resolution of our common wrong. Unto this, Lincoln's moral versatility +attained. Beyond this, moral versatility could never go. + +The same moral dextrousness, this facile power and fluent readiness to +fully comprehend and fitly meet the moral mastery of a problem, in +itself all but absolutely obstinate and impossible, this wondrous +deftness in compounding together guilt and grace in mutual compassion +and repentance, is shown in Lincoln's patiently repeated, but always +futile efforts to persuade the North and the South to come together, +and so bring slavery and all dissension to an end, by giving and +receiving fiscal reimbursement for the emancipation of the slaves. To +this magnanimous and unexampled proposition, offered in the midst of +war, and urged in words and tones of classic winsomeness, the North +and South could never be brought unitedly to consent. Therein this +moral hero stood like a king against the wrong, argued like a prophet +for the right, and led towards mutual penitence and sacrifice like a +priest. It is in human history one of the supremest illustrations of +moral versatility. Never were Lincoln's character and aim more stable +than in that plea. But never was mortal man more mobile. Beyond all +his contemporaries he observed and regarded the signs of the times. He +saw that the ancient order was certainly to change. He felt that an +almighty, a just, and a benignant Providence had assumed control. He +discerned that the new order was freighted with vast store of good. To +make its entrance gentle, so that nothing should be rent or wrecked, +was the sum of all his thought and toil. He took for pattern the +coming of the dew. For his method he adopted his own well-mastered and +transcendent art of brotherly persuasion. As to manner, he was +vestured in humility, desiring to eject and ban the pharisee from his +own and all other hearts. For prevailing motive he designated the +passing hour as a time of unexampled opportunity. "So much good," he +said, "has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the +Providence of God it is now your high privilege to do." And for +admonition he pointed to the vastness of the future, and a possible +lament over a pitiful neglect. But it was all for naught. For such a +moral transmutation and free triumph the embattled Nation was +unprepared. + +But over against that unrelenting rigor, his moral readiness to meet +his brother, friend or foe, in free and mutual sacrifice, glows +beautifully. Deep in the heart of his design was struggling +heroically, and in balanced moral unison, the Godlike spirit of +eternal justice, mercy, and conciliation. In his strong breast all +pride was crucified, malice was melted down to tenderness, hypocrisy +and sordidness were purged away. His moral outlook was now +unobstructed, open every way. Then his soul stood fleet and free for +any path within the moral universe. With every man in this broad land +he stood ready to journey or sojourn, meek to suffer, resolute to +prevail. Sharing with the wrongdoer and the wronged alike their shame +and suffering and sin, while urging with immortal eagerness towards +fairness and happiness and peace, he resolved and overcame the problem +of the slaveholder and the slave, and made this land forever the +universal refuge of the free. In such a transmutation, first within +himself, and then throughout the land, moral as it is in every fiber, +and from circumference to core, is perfect moral concord. Thus, in +moral discord, moral freedom finds the way to peace, while full +responsibility remains unchangeably supreme. Here is the final, +perfect triumph of moral ingenuity. Thus by means of mercy, freely +offered and freely received, through mutual fellowship in moral +suffering, wrong may be comprehended, and fully overcome, in the +unchanged dominion of the right. So moral freedom and moral +consistency combine. Men's lives become vicarious. Thus moral +versatility culminates, and overcomes, and wins the sovereign moral +crown. + + +HIS PATIENCE--THE PROBLEM OF MEEKNESS + +In the chapter just preceding, Lincoln's patience came into allusion +and review. That quality deserves a somewhat closer, separate +examination. When Lincoln took his last inaugural oath, he based its +meaning upon a statement in his inaugural address, that all the havoc +of the war was, under God, a penalty and atonement for a wrong that +had been inflicted and endured for centuries. In this interpretation +he subtly interwove a pleading intimation that all the land, in +reverent acquiescence with the righteous rule of God, should meekly +bow together to bear the awful sacrifice. And, deep within this open +exposition of his prophetic thought, there gleamed the hidden pledge, +inherent in his undiluted honesty, that he himself would not decline, +but would rather stand the first, to bear all the sorrow consequent +upon such wrong. + +Here is an attitude, and here a proposition which men and Nations are +forever prone to scorn; but which all Nations and all men will be +compelled or constrained at last to heed. Therein are published and +enacted verities, than which none known to men are more profound, or +vast, or vested with a higher dignity. They demand attention here. + +The statement made by Lincoln pivots on "offenses." Strong men, in +pride and arrogance of strength, had wronged the weak. Weak men, in +the lowliness and impotence of their poverty, had borne the wrong. In +such conditions of painful moral strain the centuries had multiplied. +Those long-drawn years of violence had heightened insolence into a +defiance all but absolute. Those selfsame years of suffering had +deepened ignominy into all but absolute despair. Through banishment of +equity and charity, of purity and humility, while all the heavenly +oracles seemed mute, fear and hope alike seemed paralyzed. The +oppressor seemed to have forgotten his eternal obligation to be kind +and fair. The oppressed seemed to have surrendered finally his +God-like dignity. The times seemed irreversible. + +Here is a problem that, while ever mocking human wisdom, refuses to be +mocked. It enfolds a wrong, undoubted moral wrong; else naught is +right. It overwhelms. Within its awful deeps multitudes have been +submerged. And it is unrelieved. It outwears the protests and appeals +of total generations of unhelped, indignant hearts. + +This problem Lincoln undertook to understand. In his conclusion was +proclaimed the vindication of the meek. Beneath that age-long wrong, +beneath the silence and delay of God, and beneath the final +recompense, he prevailed upon his heart, and pleaded with other hearts +to stand in suffering, hopeful acquiescence. Among these sorrows, so +wickedly inflicted, without relief, and without rebuke, let patience +be perfected. Here let meekness grow mature. Let confidence in our +equal and unconquered manhood, and let faith in God not fail to +overcome all Godlessness and inhumanity. Let time be trusted +absolutely to prove all wrong iniquitous. Let the worth inherent in +undying souls be shown to be indeed immortal. + +Here is Lincoln's resolution of this profound enigma, a resolution +unfolding all its mystery, and involving all his character. Here +Lincoln won his crown. This is all his meaning in abjuring malice, and +invoking charity. Too kindly to indulge resentment, whatever the +provocation, and too sensible of his own integrity to ever court +despair, he appealed to God's eternal justice and compassion, and +clung to a hope that no anguish or delay could overcome. This is +Lincoln's patience. This is the inmost secret of his moral strength. +This is his piercing and triumphant demonstration that in this +troubled world, where sin so much abounds, it is the meek who shall +finally prevail. + +This moral patience deserves to be explored. It comprehends +ingredients, quite as worthy to be kept distinct, as to be seen in +unison. For one thing it identified him with slaves. Therein he bore a +grave reproach. Its weight only he himself could rightly compute. +Beneath the rude and among the hurt he took deliberate stand. Among +the lowly, before the scorner, he held his place. He braved the +master's taunts. He penetrated to its heart the cause that kept the +black man mute. He measured out, but without indifference, as without +complaint, the divine delay. He courted in his thought on slavery a +perfect consciousness of its sin. He examined with nicest carefulness +the sufferers' impulse towards revenge. He knew the awful misery in +human shame. He shared with honest men their proudest aspirations. And +all of this, he shared with blacks, not by compulsion, but as a +volunteer. + +Herein, and in the second place, he held fast the fundamental claims +that every slave retained an ineffaceable affinity with God; that this +divine inheritance, however deep the negro's poverty, could never be +annulled or forfeited; that friendliness with fellowmen, however hard +or sad their lot, was no reproach; that in human sorrows it well +becometh human hearts, as it becometh God, to remember to be pitiful; +that all invasion or neglect of those inherent human rights and +dignities was bound to be avenged; that in God's good time all patient +souls would be crowned with song; and that thus his open championship +of the cause of slaves was in perfect keeping with his own unaltered +and unalterable self-respect. + +A third ingredient in Lincoln's patience was its conspicuous and +inseparable impeachment of oppression. Lincoln's patience under moral +wrong made him no neutral morally. Without fear and without reserve, +he held before oppressors, however hard or strong, the enormity of +their wrong. Before the cruel their cruelty was displayed. Before the +arrogant their arrogance was reflected back. Before the base and foul +their sordidness was brought to light. Before disloyal men the perfidy +of covenant disloyalty was nakedly unveiled. All the wrongs inwrought +and undergone in slavery were recited with insistent accuracy and +unreserve. Of all those centuries of unpaid toil each month and year +were reckoned up. Of all those sins against pure womanhood and +helpless infancy each tell-tale face was told numerically. The moral +wrong in slavery was set before its advocates and beneficiaries +unsparingly. Patience, whether God's or man's, and whether for one day +or for a thousand years, can never be interpreted or understood to +diminish sin's iniquity. Its prolonged persistence only aggravates its +guilt. + +In the fourth place, there was in Lincoln's patience a waiting +deference before God's silence and delay. His total confidence was in +God. That God was negligent, or indifferent, he would not concede. His +whole abhorrence of oppression was based on God's decree. Here rested +also all his hope of recompense. Vengeance belongs to God. He will +rebuke the mighty, and redeem the meek. In both, his righteousness +will be complete. And when his judgments fall, all men must own +adoringly his perfect equity. + +Finally, in Lincoln's patience there is explicit recognition and +confession of his own complicity with all the land, in the wrong to +slaves, and of his own and all the land's delinquency before the Lord, +in failure to discern and approbate the divine designs. It had been +left with God's far greater patience and far higher moral jealousy to +overcome and overwhelm and overrule the devious plans and ways of +erring men. In lowly acquiescence it was for him and the land to +acquaint themselves with God's designs, confess their wanderings, +accept his will alike in redemption and rebuke, and unite henceforth +to represent and praise on earth his perfect equity and grace. + +Here are the elements in Lincoln's patience, and here their sum. +Forming with the lowly and oppressed a free and intimate partnership; +avowing jealously for all mankind a coequal dignity among themselves +and an imperishable affinity with God; declaring unflinchingly to all +who tyrannize the full enormity of their primal sin; restraining +malice and all avenging deeds; confessing his own misjudgments and +misdeeds among his fellowmen and before the Lord; he endures +submissively the divine delays, and shares repentantly with all who +sin the judgments of a perfect righteousness. Genuinely pitiful for +suffering men, sharply jealous for human worth, direct as light to +designate the shame in pride, docile as a child before the righteous +and eternal rule of God, he illustrates and demonstrates how a perfect +patience makes requisition in a noble man of all his noblest +manliness. + +But worthy as are all its qualities, its exercise entails stern +discipline in suffering. It costs a man his life. That this was +Lincoln's understanding, as he traversed the responsibility of that +last inauguration day, is witnessed unmistakably by his letter to +Thurlow Weed respecting his inaugural address. These are his words, +well worthy to be reproduced a second time:-- + +"I believe it (the address) is not immediately popular. Men are not +flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose +between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is +to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I +thought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in +it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me +to tell it." + +"Most directly on myself." There Lincoln bares his heart to God and +man, in order that upon himself might fall the first, the deepest, and +the most direct humiliation. At one with slaves, despised by pride, +astray from God prepared for sacrifice--but attesting still that +slaves were men, that robbery was wrong, that God was just--so he +stands. + +But, be it said again and yet again, in such a posture looms nobility. +In meekness such as this is nothing craven. It beseems true royalty. +Bowing before his God to receive rebuke, bowing to make confession +before his fellowmen, he stands as on a hilltop, announcing and +declaring to all the world how arrogance proves men base, how +lowliness may be beautiful, how reverend are God's mysteries, how just +and pitiful his ways. Here is a kingliness that no crown can rightly +symbolize. Here is a victory that is not won with swords. In the very +attitude is final triumph. It bravely claims, and truly overcomes the +world. In such a patience there is present instantly, and in full +possession, the vigor of undying hope, and the title of a firstborn +son to the heritage of the earth. + +This capacity in Lincoln's patience for the close allegiance of +self-devotion and self-respect, of sympathy and jealousy, is shown +dramatically in his tournament with Douglas in 1858. Throughout those +speeches, replies, and rejoinders Lincoln held fast his full +fraternity with the slaves, while repressing with his fullest vigor +every onslaught against his personal integrity. + +The date of those debates marked over four full years, since Douglas +had championed through Congress into finished legislation a bill that +abrogated all federal limitation of slavery, and opened an +unrestricted possibility of its further spread forever, wherever any +local interest might so desire. That bill obtained the presidential +signature in May of 1854. During the succeeding years Douglas had been +shaping public sentiment by his almost royal influence in public +speech towards a stereotyped acceptance of the principles and +implications of that law. Under his aggressive leadership his party +had been well solidified upon three political postulates, which he +declared essential not alone to party fealty, but to any permanent +national peace. These three postulates were the following:-- + +Slavery is in no sense wrong. + +Slavery is to be treated as a local interest only. + +These principles have been sanctioned perfectly by history. + +From these fundamental postulates flowed numerous corollaries:-- + +Black men are an inferior race. This inferiority has been stamped upon +this race indelibly by God. The Declaration of Independence did not +and does not include the blacks in its affirmations about equality. + +This country contains vast sections precisely fitted to be occupied by +slavery. + +Local interests being essentially diverse, as for example between +Alabama and Maine, decisions as to local affairs will also be diverse. +This entails divergent treatment of black men, just as of herds and +crops. + +To the rights of stronger races to enslave the blacks, the fathers who +framed our government, our national history since, and the age-long +fate of Africa unitedly bear witness. + +Counter to these three major postulates of Douglas, Lincoln set the +following three:-- + +The enslavement of men is wrong. + +The treatment of slavery is a federal concern. + +Our history has contained, and still contains a compromise. Our +fathers deemed slavery a wrong. But finding it present when they +framed our government, and finding its removal impossible at the time, +they arranged for its territorial limitation, for its gradual +diminishment, and for its ultimate termination. + +From these three fundamental postulates in Lincoln's arguments flowed +also various corollaries:-- + +The sinfulness of slavery roots in the elemental manhood of the slave. +This manhood warrants his elemental claim to the employment and +enjoyment of his life in liberty. + +In our form of government, things local and things federal being held +within their respective realms respectively supreme, things locally +divergent lead to federal compromise. + +Certain sections of the country in particular, and the Nation in +general being committed, either from policy or from choice, to foster +slavery; men who hate the thing as wrong must in patient meekness +endure its presence, until in God's own time its presence and its sin +and guilt shall be removed. + +As will be seen at once, for the purposes of a popular debate, the +postulates of Douglas were easier to defend. Of the two sets of +premises, his seemed the more simple, more explicit, more direct, more +telling with a crowd; while those of Lincoln, by reason of that moral +and historical compromise, seemed more confused, more evasive, and not +so apt to take the multitude. In the nature of the debate Lincoln had +to shape his propositions and replies to face two ways:--towards the +practical emergencies of our history and form of government, on the +one hand; and on the other hand, towards an ideal nowhere yet +attained, and seemingly unattainable. Whereas Douglas, quite +unconcerned about any ideal motives in the past, as of any vision of +an ideal day to come, but dealing solely with the political situation +that day occurrent, could make every affirmation and every thrust +against his adversary seem straight, and clear, and impossible to +refute. This very practical and substantial disadvantage Lincoln had +to bear. Questions that Douglas would answer decisively, and +instantly, and with absolute distinctness, Lincoln would be compelled +to labor with, in careful deference both to our Constitutional +protection of slavery, and to its moral wrong. + +This situation in those debates deserves a close attention. The +difference in the two positions was most profound. That this deep +difference was laid fully bare was the supreme resultant of the +debate. It was indeed a difference in principles. But stated yet more +narrowly, it was a difference in nothing less than estimates of men, +and attitudes towards wrong. It was not a difference in abstract +theorems. It was vastly more. It was a difference in the personal +qualities of the two protagonists. To test this affirmation let any +one imagine Douglas producing from his heart the sentiments, and +arranging in his thought the arguments of Lincoln's last inaugural. +Douglas sadly erred in his opinion of his time. In Lincoln, in those +debates, our government, our history, our ideal as a great Republic +stood incorporate. Like our noble history, he patiently endured and +bore what he instinctively and inveterately abhorred. This pathetic +situation, this invincible anomaly in our national career, is +pathetically re-enacted in the fate of Lincoln in these debates. + +This at bottom, and this at last is what those flashing falchions and +ringing shields declare. This explains the genesis and the actual +course of those painful personalities. And it is to study this that +these debates have been introduced. In the personal thrusts of those +debates two qualities in Lincoln become pre-eminent. He would not +forsake his humble championship of slaves. He would accept no thrust +against his personal integrity. Let those debates be read, and +re-perused until those cardinal elements in Lincoln's attitude come +clear. And let it be observed that in no single personality was +Lincoln's thrust initial. Douglas opened the debate. In his opening +speech he made direct assertions and indirect intimations too gross to +be termed subtle, and too staring to be called disguised; imputing and +suggesting that Lincoln was in character a coward and a cheat, in his +politics a revolutionary, and in his social proclivities contemptible. +These same charges were made with unrelenting persistency and +reiteration by Douglas throughout the series of the debates. + +To every imputation Lincoln made definite and reiterated reply, +denouncing them roundly as unwarranted and inexcusable impeachment of +his honor, his veracity, and his candor. And then, with measured and +exact equivalence, he dealt out to Douglas's face a list of counter +personalities of sharply parallel and actual transactions in Douglas's +life, meriting precisely his own reproach. And he pressed the battle +home so hard that Douglas, in an impassioned height of protest, +demanded if Lincoln meant to carry his tactics up to "personal +difficulty." + +All this is painful confessedly to review. One wishes earnestly, just +as with the later civil war, it might never have occurred. But it +should be remembered that every retort of Lincoln was, as in the war +itself, in personal defense. Lincoln was not the assailant. But once +his honor was assailed, it was not the nature of that honor to stand +so mute that his own character seemed rightly smirched, while justice +rested with his adversary. And so, in self-defense, as in his speech +at Quincy, he carefully details, he vigorously returned each thrust. +And this, be it constantly recalled, not in any selfishness, not for +wounded pride, not for unction to a hurt, not in any vengeful heat; +but just as in the following war, in absolute unselfishness, void of +malice, in the ministry of charity, that the honor of all men might be +saved, and that the Union with its boon of universal freedom and +equality might not perish from the earth. + +Such was Lincoln's patience, in those earlier debates, and in this +last inaugural, the same. While bearing voluntarily in his single life +all the opprobrium borne by slaves; through all that fellowship and +sympathy, and on its sole behalf, he guarded his own honor with an +infinite jealousy. But it was honor saved for suffering. His life was +sacrificial. He learned to know full well, but willingly, what +meekness costs. Not alone from a political antagonist and an embattled +South, but from a multitude of active dissentients besides throughout +the North, from Congress, and from the close circle of his cabinet he +had to bear with blind misunderstandings, and malignant +misrepresentations of the deeds and qualities and motives of his +perplexed and overburdened life. + +But whatever his shortcomings or mistakes, whatever his follies or +sins, two affirmations about his life will hold forever true. He bore +his load. And he kept his path. Through all that stern campaign for +liberty and union he turned neither to the right nor to the left. +Sorrows and contentions surrounded him continually. But he descried a +better time. To speed that day he welcomed sacrifice. He lived and +died for nothing else. To show the priceless worth of freemen in a +mighty multitude, in a civic league of lasting unison and peace was +his supreme commission and consuming wish. To bring that vision near +he aspired and submitted to be its pattern and its devotee. + + +HIS RISE FROM POVERTY--THE PROBLEM OF INDUSTRIALISM + +In his first public speech, seeking election to the State Legislature +of Illinois in 1832, Lincoln said: "I was born, and have ever +remained, in the most humble walks of life." He adds: "If the good +people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I +have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much +chagrined." In the same speech he said: "I have no other (ambition) so +great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering +myself worthy of their esteem." + +Here are three phrases that epitomize Lincoln's ideals and Lincoln's +career:--"the most humble walks of life;" "too familiar with +disappointments;" and "rendering myself worthy of their esteem." There +at the age of twenty-three we are apprised of Lincoln's poverty, of +his ambition, and of his adversity. In the same address he says: "I +have no wealthy or popular relatives or friends to recommend me." At +that time he had been but two years in the State. + +In pondering this brief and frank appeal one wonders at the blending +of the youthful and the mature, the daring and the wary, the ardent +and the chastened, the eager and the sedate, the wistful and the +resigned. What had been the inner and the outer history and fortune of +him, who at the age of twenty-three could talk of being "familiar with +disappointments"--so familiar with experiences of reverse that he +could bear the public refusal of his one greatest ambition, that +public's "true esteem," without being "much chagrined." Plainly in +Lincoln's early life there was a great heart, cherishing a high hope, +but environed with poverty, familiar with reversals, unchampioned, +unknown. Already he was being refined by manifold discipline. Already +in that refining fire he had fixed his eye and set his face to win his +neighbor's true esteem. Therein one comprehends his whole career. Out +of oblivion and solitude and direst poverty he passed by sheer +self-mastery to the highest national authority and renown. Of all the +distance and of all the way between those "humblest walks" and that +commanding eminence, and of all the pregnant meaning to him and to all +Americans, and indeed to every son of Adam, of that achievement, +Lincoln had a marvelous discerning sense. He knew full well its vast +significance and he never let its vivid recollection lapse. It was +always in his living consciousness. + +One impressive proof and token that the meaning of his advancement had +permanent place in his remembrance, and that he deemed his fortune an +ideal and a type of our American government and life has been +preserved in the tone and substance of his address in Independence +Hall, when on his way to his first great inauguration. Standing there +at the age of forty-one, the Nation's president-elect, and "filled +with deep emotion," he said: "I have never had a feeling politically +that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence." And to give that statement explanation he said, "I have +often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept +this Confederacy so long together." And for answer to that inquiry he +points to "that sentiment in the Declaration which gave liberty not +alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all +future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the +weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all +should have an equal chance." "Liberty," "hope," "promise," "weights +lifted," "an equal chance," "to all," "for all," "of all," "all," "in +due time"--these are the terms that answered the question over which +he "often pondered" and "often inquired." This was the "great +principle," the "idea" which held the Confederacy together. This was +the "basis" on which, if he could save the country, he would be "one +of the happiest men in the world, if he could help to save it." This +was the principle concerning which he exclaimed: "If this country +cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say +that I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than surrender +it"--words whose purport is seen to be nothing less than tragic, when +we recall the peril of death, which he was consciously facing in that +very hour from a deep laid conspiracy against his life. + +Thus spoke Lincoln within ten days of his inauguration, in a speech +which he says was "wholly unprepared." But the day before, in a speech +at Trenton, he characterized that same "idea" as that "something more +than common" which away back in childhood, the earliest days of his +being able to read, he recollected thinking, "boy though I was," was +the "treasure" for which "those men struggled." That "something" he +then defines as "even more than national independence;" and as holding +out "a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to +come." + +This lifting of weights from the shoulders of men, this equal chance +for all; this was the liberty for which the fathers fought, this was +the hope which their Declaration enshrined, this it was whose +preservation Lincoln longed to secure above any other happiness, this +it was for which he was all but ready to die. + +There Lincoln spoke his heart. There he voiced his highest hopes. +There he traced his patriotism to its roots. And there too he touched +the quick nerve of his own disappointments, of his own often futile +endeavors and desires. And there as well his living sympathy with +other men, encumbered with disadvantage and defeat, found mighty +utterance. Lifting weights from the shoulders of all men--that in "due +time" this should be achieved he judged and felt to be the single +sovereign meaning of our national destiny. + +Of just this national destiny Lincoln's personal life was a strangely +full epitome. His shoulders knew full well the pressure of those +"weights." His soul knew all the awful volume of sorrow as of joy, +that poured about the denial or the enjoyment of an "equal chance." +From the humblest walks to the foremost seat he had been permitted to +thread his way. That liberty he chiefly sought in struggling youth. +That liberty he chiefly prized as president. And this, not alone for +himself, not alone for all Americans, but for "all the world." Thus +spoke Lincoln, "all unprepared" in February of 1861. + +But these spontaneous words were no passing breath of transient +sentiments. In July of that same year he sent to Congress his first +Message. That paper was Lincoln's studied and formal argument, a +president's deliberate State Paper, addressing to Congress his +responsible demonstration that the war was a necessity. In that +argument and demonstration his fundamental postulate was a definition +of our government. In that definition he affirms its "leading object" +to be "to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights +from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to +afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of +life." And so he calls the war a "people's contest." And he speaks of +its deeper purport as something that "the plain people understand." +And he speaks of the loyalty of all the common soldiers--not one of +whom was known to have deserted his flag--as "the patriotic instinct +of the plain people." + +Those words of Lincoln in Trenton and Philadelphia, defining the +"leading object" in the minds of the founders of our government in the +hours of its birth-travail, define his own idea and ideal as he +approached the hour of his presidential oath. That a national +government, thus beneficently designed for the equal weal of all, +should be preserved inviolate and preserved from dissolution was his +supreme desire and his supreme resolve. Its majesty and its integrity +must be held most sacred and most jealously preserved. This was the +apple of his eye. By the light of this ideal and in the pursuit of +this alluring, wistful hope he studied and judged all the movements of +his time. And in this, his initial message, he registers his official +verdict upon those surrounding evolutions and events. A vast and +ever-expanding Confederacy of intelligent and resolute men, leagued +together in a Union of Confederate States, and pledged to secure to +all men within its bounds a clear path, an unfettered start, and a +fair chance in every laudable pursuit, was judged by him a civic +undertaking too preciously freighted with promise and hope for the +welfare of the world to be ever disrupted and destroyed by the +disloyalty and the withdrawal of any one or any cluster of its +constituent parts. It was a Union as sacred and holy as all the worth +and all the hopes of men. To separate from such a league was a capital +disloyalty. To disintegrate such a unison was the ultimate inhumanity. +To stand fast forever by such a federation was a crowning fidelity. To +preserve, protect and defend such a Union, at whatever cost of life or +wealth, and therein to adventure however sacred honor was a primary +and a final obligation. By its perpetual preservation unimpaired was +secured to all mankind the vision and the priceless promise of liberty +and hope. By secession, defiance, and violent assault, that precious +human treasure was being endangered and defiled. Hence his anxious +all-consuming eagerness as he approached his ominous task. Hence his +firm acceptance of awful, inevitable war. + +Such were the marshalings of Lincoln's thoughts and sentiments as he +approached and undertook his mighty work--fit prelude in Independence +Hall, and befitting explanation and defense in the Halls of Congress +of the mighty rallying of those regiments of men for the awful combats +of a people's war. + +This was Lincoln's argument. That the rights of life and liberty and +happiness were designed and decreed by the Maker of all to be equal +for all was for him, as an American, and for him as a fellow and a +friend of all, under God, an axiom. And to that firm truth the war was +but a corollary. Because the Union was a league of freemen, kindred to +God, and peers among themselves, bound together in mutual goodwill and +for mutual weal, it must at all hazards and through all perils and +sorrows be made perpetual. Not that slavery should be immediately +removed, though its existence in such a league was an elemental +unworthiness and affront; but that the Union should be forever secured +was his immediate aspiration and resolve. This once achieved and +forever assured, and slavery with every other kindred inequality would +in "due time" be done away. + +This is the key and the core of his ringing and irresistible retort to +Greeley. This was the inspiration of that immortal appeal at +Gettysburg, the very pledge and secret of its excellence and +immortality--the plea that government of the people, by the people, +for the people should not perish from the earth. + +And it was definitively this axiomatic verity that provided to his +deeply thoughtful mind that deeply philosophic interpretation of the +divine intention in the war, which he so carefully enshrined within +his last inaugural. The sin of slavery had transgressed a primary law +of God. Human shoulders had been heavily laden with artificial +weights. Brother men had been denied by fellow-men an equal start. The +paths of laudable pursuit were not kept equally clear to all. +Multitudes of men, by the inhuman tyranny of the strong upon the +weak, and that from birth to death, had been accorded no fair chance. +Men had toiled for centuries, and that beneath the lash, without +requital. Hence the awful doom and woe of war--God's visitation upon +ourselves of our own offense, the wasting of our unholy wealth and the +leveling of our inhuman pride. And all of this was being guided +through to its predestined and most holy end with the divine design +that through the awful baptism of blood our national life should begin +anew in humble reverence for him whose just and fiery jealousy demands +that all his little ones shall share with all the mightiest in equal +rights. Thus Lincoln viewed the war as God's avenging vindication of +the just and gracious principles that all men everywhere are entitled +to share together equally in liberty and hope. + +But Lincoln felt all of this to be, not alone the law of God, but +quite as truly the common and compelling affirmation of the human +heart. This way and style of phrasing it found eloquent annunciation +in that earliest and unanswerable address respecting slavery at Peoria +in October of 1854, where were deeply laid and may still be seen the +foundations of all his power and fame. In that address he said, "My +faith in the proposition, that each man should do precisely as he +pleases with all which is exclusively his own, lies at the foundation +of the sense of justice there is in me." And upon that foundation he +laid this cornerstone of social and civic order: "No man is good +enough to govern another man without that other man's consent." To so +invade the liberty of another man is "despotism." Such invasion is +"founded in the selfishness of man's nature." "Opposition to it is +founded in his sense of justice." "These principles are in eternal +antagonism." When they collide, "shocks and throes and convulsions +must ceaselessly follow." These sentiments of liberty are above +repeal. Though you repeal all past history, "you cannot repeal human +nature." Out of the "abundance of man's heart" "his mouth will +continue to speak." And to demonstrate that this sentiment of liberty, +this consciousness that human worth is sovereign, is a verity of human +nature which even holders of slaves corroborate, he points to the over +400,000 free negroes then in the land. Their presence is proof that +deep in all human hearts is a "sense of human justice and sympathy" +continually attesting "that the poor negro has some natural right to +himself, and that those who deny it and make merchandise of him +deserve kickings, contempt and death." This irrepealable law of the +human heart was a mighty rock of confidence in Lincoln's social and +political faith. All men were made to be free, and entitled equally to +a happy life; and of this divine endowment all men everywhere were +well aware. Human nature is by its nature the birthplace and the home +of liberty and hope. + +Especially serviceable for the purposes of this study upon +Industrialism is the section in Lincoln's Message to Congress of +December, 1861, dealing with what he calls our "popular institutions." +With his eagle eye he discerns in the Southern insurrection an +"approach of returning despotism." The assault upon the Union was +proving itself, under his gaze, an attack upon "the first principles +of popular government--the rights of the people." And against that +assault he raised "a warning voice." + +In this warning he treats specifically the relation of labor and +capital. In this discussion his motive is single and clear. He detects +a danger that so-called labor may be assumed to be so inseparably +bound up and indentured with capital as to be subject to capital in a +sort of bondage; and that, once labor, whether slave or hired, is +brought under that assumed subjection, that condition is "fixed for +life." + +Both of these assumptions he assails. Labor is not a "subject state;" +nor is capital in any sense its master. There is "no such thing as a +free man's being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer." +So he affirms. And then he argues that "labor is prior to and +independent of capital." "Capital is only the fruit of labor." "Labor +is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher +consideration." Hired labor, and capital that hires and labors +not--these do both exist; and both have rights. But "a large majority +belong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others +working for them." This is measurably true even in the Southern +States. While in the Northern States a large majority are "neither +hirers nor hired." And even where free labor is employed for hire, +that condition is not "fixed for life." "Many independent men +everywhere in these Northern States, a few years back in their lives, +were hired laborers." The "penniless," if "prudent," "labors for wages +awhile;" "saves a surplus;" "then labors on his own account;" and "at +length hires another new beginner to help him." "This is the just and +generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope +to all." Here is a form of "political power;" here is a "popular +principle" that underlies present national prosperity and strength, +and infolds a pledge of its certain future abounding expansion. Thus +Lincoln argued in his Annual Message of 1861. + +In his Annual Message of 1862, he pursued in a similar strain, a vital +and kindred aspect of the same industrial theme. He was arguing with +Congress in favor of compensated emancipation. In the course of that +argument, speaking of the relation of freed negroes to white labor +and white laborers, he said: "If there ever could be a proper time for +mere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In time like the +present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly +be responsible through time and in eternity." And then, after +appealing with utmost patience and consideration and with ideal +persuasiveness to every better sentiment and to every proper interest, +he drew towards the close of his plea with these arresting, prophetic, +almost forboding words, words richly worth citation for a second +time:--"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise +with the occasion." "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall +save our country." "We cannot escape history." "The fiery trial +through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the +latest generation." "We know how to save the Union." "We--even we +here--hold the power and bear the responsibility." "In giving freedom +to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what +we give and what we preserve." "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the +last, best hope of earth." "The way is plain, peaceful, generous, +just--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and +God must forever bless." + +Thus Lincoln voiced, and in terms that human-kind will not lightly +suffer to be forgotten, his seasoned and convinced belief about the +principles that should hold dominion in the industrial realm. They +reveal that in his chastened and chastening faith Civics and Economics +are merged forever in Ethics, and that therein they are forever at +one. Individuals, however lowly or however strong; parties or +combinations of men or wealth, however massive or however firm; +governments or nations, however puissant, ambitious or proud, are +alike endowed and alike enjoined with sovereign duties and with +sovereign rights. The negro, however poor, may not be robbed or +exploited or bound by any master, however grand. The soil of a +neighboring government, however alluring its promise of expansion or +wealth, may never be invaded or annexed by force of any Nation's arms, +however exalted and humane that Nation's professions and aims. If any +man, or any Nation of men be but meagerly endowed, that humble +heritage is inviolably theirs forever to enjoy. The person of Dred +Scott and the soil of Mexico are holy ground--heaven-appointed +sanctuaries that no oppressor or invader may ever venture to profane. +If to any nation, or to any man "God gave but little, that little let +him enjoy." Slavery and tyranny are iniquitous economy. "Take from him +that is needy" is the rule of the slaveholder and the tyrant. "Give to +him that is needy" is the rule of Christian charity. As between the +strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the timid and the bold, +"this good earth is plenty broad enough for both." + +Here is indeed an eternal struggle. But underneath is "an eternal +principle." And among the many Nations of the earth this American +people are bringing to this principle in the face of all the world a +world-commanding demonstration of its benign validity. By the sweat of +his face shall man eat bread. And the fruit of his toil shall man +enjoy. + +So would Lincoln guard, in the industrial world, against all +exaggeration and all infringement of human liberties and rights, and +this quite as much for the sake of the strong as in defense of the +weak. Tyranny, in despoiling the weak, despoils the tyrant too. +Liberty does harm to none, but brings rich boon to all. Thus Lincoln +cherished freedom. + +But deep within this treasured liberty Lincoln saw the shining jewel +of human hope. And hope with him was ever neighborly. And this +generous sentiment, expanding forever in his heart, he cherished, not +merely as common civilian, but as president. It was while at +Cincinnati, on his way to his inauguration, that he said, "I hold that +while man exists it is his duty not only to improve his own condition, +but also to assist in ameliorating mankind." "It is not my nature, +when I see people borne down by the weight of their shackles ... to +make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but +rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke." + +But true as was Lincoln's view of our national mission, and clear and +just and generous as was his own desire, he saw in the Nation's path +before his face a mighty obstacle. He knew the fascination of +"property." And he knew that this fascination held its malevolent +sway, even though that "property" was vested in human life. Here was +the brunt of all his battle. The slaves of his day had a "cash value" +at a "moderate estimate" of $2,000,000,000. He saw that this property +value had "a vast influence on the minds of its owners." And he knew +that this was so "very naturally" that the same amount of property +"would have an equal influence ... if owned in the North;" that "human +nature is the same;" that "public opinion is founded to great extent +on a property basis;" that "what lessens the value of property is +opposed;" that "what enhances its value is favored." + +With this prevailing tendency, native and universal in all men alike, +he had to deal. Indeed he had no other problem. All his presidential +difficulties reduced to this:--the universal greed of men for gain; +and deep within this inborn greed, man's inborn selfishness. And all +his all-absorbing toil and thought as statesman and as president were +to exalt in human estimation the values in men above all other gain. +This desire lay deep in his heart at the beginning of his struggle in +1854. At the end of his conflict in those closing days of his life in +1865 this longing came forth as pure and shining gold thrice refined. + +From the time of his second election his thoughts moved with an almost +unwonted constancy upon these upper heights. With immeasurable +satisfaction he brooded and pondered over the emerging issues of the +stupendous strife. With an almost mother's love he considered and +counted over and reckoned up those outcomes of the sacrifice that +should worthily endure. With a vision purged of every form of vanity +and every form of selfishness, not as a miser, but in very deed with a +mother's pride and inner joy, he recited over the precious inventory +of the chastened Nation's wealth. + +Touching evidence of this is in his habitual tone of speech when +addressing soldiers returning from the field to their homes. Over and +over again he would remind the men of the vital principle at stake, +alike in war and in peace. "That you may all have equal privileges in +the race of life;" that there may be "an open field and a fair chance +for your industry, enterprise, and intelligence--this is 'our +birthright,' our 'inestimable pearl.' Nowhere in the world is +presented a government of so much liberty and equality." "To the +humblest and the poorest among us are held out the highest privileges +and positions." It is hard to say, when he was voicing his +satisfaction and his gratitude to these returning regiments, to which +his words were most directly addressed, to the soldier in the uniform, +or to the citizen. All those veteran soldiers were to his discerning +eyes the precious sterling units of the Nation's lasting wealth. In +their service as defenders of the Union they had saved the most +precious human heritage that human history ever knew or human hope +conceived. And of that heritage and hope they were themselves the +exponent. Their service under arms and their civilian life in coming +days of peace were one. And with a deep and fond solicitude he would +charge them to shield and guard, to champion and defend with ballot as +with sword their dear-bought liberty and right. These peaceable +precious fruits of the deadly terrible war he well foresaw and greeted +eagerly. The verdict of the ballots in his re-election in 1864 +proclaimed afar a word the world had never heard before. It +"demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national +election in the midst of a great civil war." That verdict declared +authoritatively that government by the people was "sound and strong." +And it also showed by actual count that after four terrible years of +war the government had more supporting men than when the war began. +This abounding victory filled and satisfied his heart. And in the +presence of that unexampled proof that equal liberty for all was safe +within the guardianship of common men, he exclaimed with a prophet's +vision of the living unison of civic and economic weal:--"Gold is good +in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold." + +Such were Lincoln's principles as he defined a Nation's true +prosperity and wealth. A Nation's strength, a Nation's honor, a +Nation's truest treasure is in her men. Men of freedom and men of +hope, men intolerant of tyranny, men resolved to be worthy of +themselves and conscious of kinship with their Maker, men jealous +equally of their own and their brother's liberty, men who welcome all +the bonds involved in a friendly league of equal duties and equal +rights, men in whom the amelioration of all is a ruling desire, these +are the chief and best achievement in the proudest Nation's wealth. To +undervalue men, preferring any other good, is to cherish in a Nation's +heart the source of its undoing. More to be prized than finest gold +is every citizen. However weak and humble any man may be, his honor is +sacredly above offense. To leave the burden of the feeble unrelieved, +or to clog the progress of the slow is in any Nation's history a +primal sin, and is sure to be abundantly revenged. For such a sin no +store of wealth has power to atone. A sin like that a sinner himself +must bear. This is the central thought of the last inaugural. These +were the human sentiments lying underneath all Lincoln's economic +faith. To these firm verities he held devotedly, whether counseling +the Nation as its president, projecting negro colonies as the negro's +friend, or offering to an idling, impecunious brother a dollar gratis +for every dollar earned. + +Men are equal; men are free. Men are royal; men are kin. Men are +hopeful; men aspire. Men are feeble; men have need. Men may prosper; +men may rise. Melioration is for all. Men have duties; men have +rights. Rights are mutual; duties bind. Every man resents offense. +Only despots can offend. Human tyranny is doomed. Vengeance waits on +every wrong. God is sovereign, kind and just. These are Lincoln's +sentiments. These he nobly illustrates. These are laws which he +defends. These are truths he vindicates. + +These few fundamental principles, applied anywhere in the industrial +field, would soon and certainly put in force wholesome, everlasting, +all-embracing laws. If, like Lincoln himself, men start in penury with +never a favor and never a friend, then, like him, they must hire +themselves to other men for the going wage. But every such a contract +must be forever subject to a fair and orderly recall. The humblest +earner of a daily wage must be forever free, free to continue or to +withdraw. To his freedom and improvement, to his enheartenment and +hope all industrial regulations must conduce. This is basic. This +alone is generous and fair. And only here can any government win +permanence and peace. + +Here are Lincoln's primal postulates in social economics. Moral +imperatives are over every man. Moral freedom is in every breast. +Within the nethermost foundations of any mortal's share in any social +fellowship must rest his own self-wrought integrity and self-respect. +To make that social fellowship in any form perpetually secure each man +must seek with all his heart and with continual willing sacrifice the +lasting welfare of every party and of every part. That this be safely +guaranteed each man must learn to estimate his brother-man, not by +epaulets and coins, but by immortal standards, such as only living +persons can achieve. To make this social league invincible within, +each member in the fellowship must show a true humility, abjuring all +temptation or desire to be a despot or a grandee. And through it all +this social compact must be cherished and revered as ordained by a God +of pure and sovereign truth and love. Thus by friendly ministry, in +unpretending honesty, in brother-kindliness, as sharing in a common +immortality, under the favor and in the fear of God, may fellowmen in +multitudes be fellow citizens in a civic order that may hope for +perpetual prosperity. This is the resounding message that Lincoln's +life transmuted into speech through his pathetic and inspiring rise +from poverty. + + +HIS PHILOSOPHY--THE PROBLEM OF REALITY + +The study of Lincoln's moral versatility, examined in a former +chapter, ranging as it does through all the measure of the moral +realm, verges all along its border on the domain of philosophy. +Lincoln has scant familiarity, it is true, with the rubrics and the +problems, the theories and the methods of the schools. His boyhood was +in the wilderness; locusts and wild honey were his food. Such +education as he achieved was in pathetic isolation. It was a naked +earth, unfurnished with any aids or guides, from which his homely +hard-earned wisdom was laboriously wrung. But his Maker dowered him +with a mind attempered to defiance of every difficulty. And, however +stern the face of his life's fortune might become, his sterner will +and diligence found in her solitudes her choicest treasures. To minds +that nimbly traverse many books, thinking to have gained the substance +of great truths, when they have only gained vain forms, this may seem +to be impossible. But Lincoln's mind had traversed severest +discipline. He found rare substance of intellectual wealth. And he +knew its solid worth. Of this, as has been shown, his first inaugural +yields shining proof. Almost every sentence is as the oracle of a +sage. + +But his second inaugural, too, is a gem of wisdom, clear and pure, fit +ornament for any man to wear in any place where wisest men convene. +Let keenest eyes examine narrowly the aspiration with which this +second inaugural concludes. There shines a wish as bright as any human +hope that ever shone in human breast--a wish that all the earth might +gain to just and lasting peace. That yearning plea was voiced upon the +very breath that spoke of the battles and wounds, the dead and the +bereft, of a mighty Nation in fratricidal war. The peace he sought for +within all the land, and through all the earth, was to be the national +consummation of a conflict in which multitudes of men and millions of +treasure had been offered up under God in the name of charity and +right. Such was the wording and the setting of this wish. + +Comprehend its girth. It encircled all the earth. This cannot be said +to be nothing but the ill-considered aspiration of an inexperienced +underling. It is the prayer of one who for four terrific years had +held the chief position in conducting the executive affairs of one of +the major empires of the world. During all that time, among the +bewildering and imperious problems of an era of unexampled civil +convulsion, hardly any complications had been more obstinate or more +disturbing than those bound up in the relation of the United States to +the other major Nations of the world. Within those international +complications were infolded problems and principles as profoundly +fundamental as any within any Nation's single life, or within all the +reach of international law. In such a situation and out of such a +career Lincoln culminates the declaration of his policy for a second +presidential term with an invocation of just and lasting peace among +ourselves and with all Nations. + +Again let it be said, and be it not forgotten, that it is from the +lips of Lincoln that this appeal ascends. He is not a novice. He is a +seasoned veteran. Coming from that heart, and spoken in that hour, +those words cannot be lightly flung aside. They are the longing of a +man who, through almost unparalleled discipline, has attained an +almost peerless sobriety, sincerity, and clear-sightedness. Too honest +to utter hollow words, too deliberate to accept an ill-judged phrase, +too discerning to recommend a futile and unlikely proposition, and +sobered far beyond any power or inclination to play the hypocrite, we +must concede that Lincoln meant and measured what he said. In simple +fairness, and in all sobriety, we must allow that Lincoln understood +that the principles which guided him as national chief magistrate, and +the goal towards which he was driving everything in his conduct of the +war, contained all needed light and power for winning all the world +to perpetual harmony. This is nothing less than to allow in Lincoln's +deeds and words the sweep and insight of a philosopher. And it is but +simple justice, though of vast significance, to append just here that +it was in the office and person of John Hay, Lincoln's private +secretary, when later he was our Secretary of State, that there dawned +and brightened the new era in international diplomacy, now in our day +so widely inaugurated, and so well advanced. It can be truly added +that in this vast arena, where mighty Nations are the actors, and in +very fact all the world is the stage, those cardinal moral traits of +Lincoln, and his transparent and commanding personality, so steadfast +and vivid and gentle and meek, have no need to borrow from other and +ancient theories and illustrations of world-wide statesmanship either +light or power. That each individual retain unsmirched and +undiminished his pristine self-respect as the cornerstone of all +reliability, his neighborly kindness as the prime condition of all +true comity, his child-like deference towards God as the basis of all +genuine dignity, and his rating of human souls above all perishable +goods as the absolute and essential foundation of any perpetuity, +forms a programme as elemental and imperial among mightiest Nations, +as among humblest neighborhoods of men. Lincoln's obedient recognition +of the Almighty's purposes in over-ruling national affairs, his +king-like resolution to hold loyally by his innate sense of equity, +his eagerness for the elevation of all the oppressed, his instinctive +aspiration in his civic life for foundations that cannot fail, and his +uncomplaining fellowship with the penal sorrows of his erring fellow +citizens,--all apprehended and defended and adhered to with such a +lucid mind and steadfast will and prophetic hope upon the open +platform of our American Republic--propose both in active practice and +in reasoned theory a pattern of statesmanship, capable of +comprehending the political conditions, and directing the diplomacy of +all the governments of the world. Here are the primal conditions and +constituents of international amity. Agreements constructed and +defended thereupon among the Nations could not fail to be fair. They +would surely endure. And as the centuries passed, the faith of Lincoln +in a Ruler of Nations, just, benign, eternal, supreme, would +aboundingly increase. + +But once again it must be said that these are not the themes, nor this +the flight of an untrained imagination. The peace among all Nations +towards which Lincoln's hope appealed, was being patterned upon a just +and lasting achievement among ourselves. And among ourselves the +government was being tried in the burning, fiery furnace of a civil +war. It was being proved in flames what factors in a national civic +order were permanent, and fair, and approved of God. It was out of +deep affliction and unsparing discipline, rebuking all our sins, +humbling all our vanity, purging all our hopes, and cementing among +ourselves a just and lasting brotherhood, that Lincoln found the heart +to hope for perpetual fraternity through all the world. Within his +wish deep-wrought, hard-earned, clear-eyed wisdom was crystallized. It +was an imperial proposition, momentous, comprehensive, profound. It +embodied nothing less than a political philosophy. + +But these assertions demand a closer scrutiny. Does Lincoln's thought, +in scope and mode, deserve in any sense to be entitled a philosophy? +In soberness, is any such pretension justified? Are Lincoln's +principles so radical, so comprehensive, so well-ordered, as to +deserve a title so supreme? + +All turns on truly understanding Lincoln's apprehension of reality. +Lincoln's world was a society of persons. God, himself, his fellowman +engrossed his thought and interest. Among all persons, as seen and +known by him, there was a full affinity. All men were equal, and all +were kindred to the great God. This was the starting point, this the +circuit, and this the goal of all his conscious thought and toil. This +was his world. To penetrate its nature was to handle elements. To +grasp those elements was to be inclusive. And to comprehend their +native correlation was to master fundamental wisdom. + +Here Lincoln shows his mental strength. Among all these elements he +traced a fundamental similarity. A common pattern embraced them all. +The highest and the lowest were essentially alike. All were dowered +with kindred capacities for nobility. He never suffered himself or any +of his fellowmen to forget his own elevation from lowliest ignorance +and poverty to the presidency. However humble, all could rise. However +ignorant, all could learn. However unbefriended, all deserved regard. +Life and liberty and happiness were a common boon, an even, universal +right. For fellowship with God, even when buffeted beneath divine +rebukes, all might hope. The ultimate, open possibility of such divine +companionship is shown in this last inaugural, where Lincoln's keen +discernment avails to comprehend, that even sinning men may, through +penitent acceptance of heaven's rebukes, win heaven's favor and walk +with God. Thus Lincoln learned and knew that among all men, and +between all men and God there was a fundamental ground of imperishable +affiance. Here lies the foundation of his philosophy. + +And this affiance was in its being moral. With him the real was +ethical. Pure equity was the primal verity. By character were all +things judged. Politics and ethics were identical. In the thought of +Lincoln the qualities constituting our American Union, the qualities +that defined and contained its very being, the qualities that made it +a civic entity, securing to it its coherence and perpetuity, the +qualities guaranteeing that it should not dissolve and disappear in +the fate and wreck of all decaying things, the qualities that made it +worth the faithful care of God and the loving loyalty of men, were +identical with the qualities constituting himself a free, responsible +soul. The same humble reverence, the same mutual goodwill, the same +regard for durability, the same jealousy for integrity as informed his +personal conscience and inspired his personal will, should form the +law and determine the deeds of the Nation as well, if the Nation was +ever to have in its civic being a dignity worthy to survive. Here is a +standard conformable at once with the measure of things in heaven, the +measure of a Nation, and the measure of every man. + +Such is the scope of this inaugural. In penning that grave paragraph +touching "unrequited toil," Lincoln had his eye alike upon the +individual slave, upon the Nation as a whole, upon long centuries, and +upon the ways of God. It may be said with equal truth that he was +pondering the sin and hurt of a single act of fraud, the vital +structure of organic civic life, the continual tenure of right and +guilt through lives and times that seem diverse, and the unison of +moral estimates that hold with God and men alike forever. This may not +be denied. The sin inflicted in a single wrong, like that of slavery, +may implicate a Nation in a guilt that, under the impartial and +upright rule of God, the centuries cannot obliterate. Inhuman scorn, +short-sighted greed, disloyalty and cruelty, however disguised, or +however upheld, entail a doom too certain and too sovereign for the +centuries to unduly defer, or for any nation to ever annul. + +Here are principles undeniably. And as undeniably these principles +are supreme. A just God is over all. To his high purposes all things, +even the most perverse, must eventually conform. To his right rule +even unrighteous men must bend. Into intelligent harmony with his will +all upright men may come, finding in lowly acknowledgment of his great +majesty their true dignity, in loyalty to his pure righteousness their +own complete integrity, in imitation of his universal benignity their +perfect mutual friendliness, and in a vision of his eternal purity +their assurance of personal and civic perpetuity. Thus in the midst of +all being, and in the conscious presence of Him in whom all being +finds its source, our personal, human being finds its transcendent +dignity and crown. Living thus, and living thus together, men find +life indeed. Thus all, endowed alike with the common sanctity of life, +enjoying equally the common right to liberty, share equally a common +boon of happiness. Thus each man alone and thus the civic order as a +whole may survive and flourish under God in just and lasting peace. + +This, in Lincoln's thought, was final, comprehensive truth. Taken in +all its foursquare amplitude and unison, there was nothing human it +did not avail to fitly arrange and fully circumscribe. Whether for man +alone or for men in leagues, whether for States supreme or for States +confederate, it provided every needful guide and bond. As for the +international arena, so for every lesser realm of social life, the +principles enshrined in this inaugural are civic wisdom crystallized. +They proffer to our human social life nothing less than a philosophy. + +This is the wisdom literally inscribed upon the tablet of this last +inaugural. To unveil its face before an ever heedful and ever more +attentive world is being found a sovereign function of succeeding +time. Men are ever learning, but have ever yet to learn what Lincoln +was. Despite his fame, his proper glory has been veiled. His features +have been shadowed, almost smirched. His reputation has been overlaid +with rumours and reports of excessive pleasure in ribald, rollicking +hours in wayside inns. But in his very laughter there were deep hints +of measured soberness. Seasoned wisdom flavored all his wit. His very +folly was profound. But when his mood of frolic passed, when, and +almost without any inner change, his outer mien grew serious, and +sadness brooded on his face, then his speech was fed from nether +springs. Then his lips were freighted from afar, and his speech was +rich with precious lore. + +In his inmost instinct Lincoln was a philosopher. Out of life's +complexities he was always searching for its clue. His speeches deal +at bottom with nothing but details. But out of the mesh of those +details he was always weaving principles. It is this that gives his +words their weight. He is by his own right a true philosopher. It was +true wisdom with which he dealt. With true wisdom he was in love. In +his own character he has garnered all his gains. By self-refinement he +has become a Nation's pattern. In himself are treasured all the +honors, dignities, and rewards that appertain to a worthy devotee of +wisdom. Assuredly, and beyond all fair dispute, the author of this +last inaugural, when fairly measured and esteemed for what he was, and +what he did, and what he overcame in civic realms by sheer original +research, far more than any Dr. Faust, deserves his doctorate and +degree. In sober verity the author of this inaugural is a true Doctor +of Philosophy. + + +HIS THEODICY--THE PROBLEM OF EVIL + +The last preceding chapter closed with an allusion to Dr. Faust. That +reference may now be profitably resumed. Goethe's Faust is introduced +as in deep uneasiness before the unsolved mysteries of life. He is +described as having mastered all that all the Faculties can give, but +all to no sure end, and as being then beguiled into other paths and +scenes, there to prosecute afresh his quest for present satisfaction. +In this new quest he accepts the guidance of a scorner into realms of +magic, sorcery, and witchcraft; into scenes of ribaldry, debauchery, +and basest sordidness; into lust, murder, and treacherous +unfaithfulness; into a devilish trade for present carnal happiness, at +cost of freedom, reason, and any heed for future destiny. + +One notable feature in all this quest is its submergence in the sea of +things that surge up around the passing life, only to pass away +themselves and disappear. His riddles and his quests, his ideals and +delights are largely physical. His guide does not conduct him into the +steadfast presence and observation of things permanent and spiritual. +He is prone to make him roam in realms of magic, where forms and deeds +are too thin and vague to be even shadows, and too false to be even +artificial, but where yet each scene excites the imagination to +perishing desires for joys of sense. Carnal potions, charms, and lust; +physical tumults and delights so largely occupy the central place in +all the scenes, that the riddles Faust would fain resolve are, to a +large degree, the mysteries of the universe of sense. + +Now let any man compare the major problems in the mind of Goethe's +Faust with the problems that Lincoln felt to be supreme. One discovers +instantly a vast divergence. Themes and questions, that to the very +end of Goethe's life perplexed and vexed his thought, were in +Lincoln's writings not so much as named. + +But far beyond all this. The vast, unwieldly world of solid sense, so +baffling, but so sure, now so terrible, and now so kind, now serving, +and now crushing boastful, trembling man, now begetting, and now +absorbing endless, countless generations and multitudes, seems not to +constitute a vexing or perplexing theme in Lincoln's most insistent +thought. This can never be explained as due to a painless, care-free, +earthly lot; nor to a pampering environment; nor to physical +stolidity; nor to incapacity for aesthetic joys. The lines that seamed +his face, the muscles that leashed his frame, the structure of his +hands, the meaning message upon his lips, his shadowed, sobered, +brooding eyes attest a different tale. Lincoln was sufficiently aware +of the plain and common sorrows incident to our earthly environment. +He knew what havoc cold and heat, hunger and pain, toil and want, +plague and death could visit upon our human life. But none of these +things seemed to trouble him. So engrossed was he with questions he +called "durable," that all physical discomforts and distresses, with +their connected pleasures and desires and hopes and fears, were but +passing, minor incidents. + +This undoubted fact in Lincoln's mental habitude is a signal and +significant factor, to be held in careful estimation in a final +judgment of Lincoln's character. Ethics, pure ethics, themes that +dealt with realms where man is truly responsible and truly free, were +his supreme concern from first to last. And so it comes to pass that +the problem, which for him is truly fundamental and ultimate, passes +wholly by at once all that burden of so-called evil, in the fear and +hurt and mystery of things inflexible, and clings fast hold of things +alone that are responsible and free. + +Touching the theme of this chapter, and touching also this last +inaugural, the following letter, written March 15, 1865, to Thurlow +Weed, already cited and considered once, deserves a bit of heed +again:-- + + Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little + notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I + expect the latter to wear as well as--perhaps better + than--anything I have produced; but I believe it is not + immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that + there is a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. + To deny it however, in this case, is to deny that there is a + God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed + to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it + falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford + for me to tell it. + Truly yours, + A. LINCOLN. + +This letter shows what Lincoln judged to be the secret of this +inaugural's permanent hold on human approbation. It was its humble +testimony to the fact that, amidst and above the errors and sins, the +struggles and failures of men and Nations, there is a world-governing +God. Here opens a theme that is truly sovereign and ultimate. + +The last inaugural reveals that Lincoln was closely pondering two +incongruous themes: the bitter career of slavery; and the just rule of +God. + +Touching the first--the fact of human slavery--whatever other men +might think, in Lincoln's view it was always abhorrent, a primary +immorality. He was naturally "anti-slavery." Even in this address, +guarded against all malice, and suffused with charity, he could not +forbear from saying:--"It may seem strange that any men should dare +to seek a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from other +men's faces." Man's right to live was in his thought primal. That +right carried with it the right to enjoy the bread that his own hands +had earned. Such a privilege was the central element in human +happiness. Such felicity was elemental. Such freedom and such joy were +the simplest common boon in our common, earthly lot. + +The institution of slavery blasted that joy, denied that liberty, +robbed that right to life. This annihilated hope. It ranked men with +brutes. Such a ravaging of human desires and human rights Lincoln +judged, from the side of the slave-holder, a paramount crime; and from +the side of the slave, an insufferable curse. The terrible enormity of +both crime and curse was measured in Lincoln's estimation by the +enormity of the war. Viewed any way, that war was the indication and +register of the wrong done, and the wrong borne, by men in the +centuries of slavery. Arrogance and insolence, ruthlessness and +cruelty, dishonesty and faithlessness, luxury and lust, trailed all +along its path. That, in a Republic dedicated to liberty, men would go +to war and fight to the death with their fellow-citizens in defense +and perpetuation of tyranny and bonds, gave evidence to the strange +and obdurate perverseness involved and nurtured in the mood and +attitude of men that were bent on holding fellow men as slaves. The +existence of such an institution in any land Lincoln deemed a national +calamity; in a free Republic he felt it to be a heaven-braving anomaly +and affront. It was a flagrant evil, bound to bring down woe. + +But in the deep entanglements of history this baleful institution had +to be condoned, even in this land made sacred to the free. Inbred +within the Nation in the Nation's very birth, that it be sheltered +within the Nation's life became a national responsibility. From this +firm bond Lincoln himself could not escape. In the Constitution that +Lincoln swore to uphold, when first he took the presidency, slavery +was sheltered, if not entrenched. As chief magistrate of the whole +Republic, however obnoxious slavery might be, he had the obnoxious +thing to protect. This he freely admitted, and explicitly declared in +his first inaugural. + +Here was the beginning of his final, moral debate. How should he +morally justify himself in defending what he morally abhorred? That +this dual attitude should be assumed he seemed fully to concede. This +shows most clearly, and in its sharpest moral contradiction, when, in +his first inaugural, he volunteered to permit an amendment to the +Constitution, enacting, as the supreme law of the land, that slavery +should remain thereafter undisturbed forever. How he brought his mind +to take that stand has never been made clear. He said in that +connection that such an amendment was in effect already Constitutional +law. But previous to that date he had always pledged and urged +forbearance with slavery, on the understanding that such forbearance +was only for a time; that, as foreseen and designed by the men who +framed the Constitution, slave holding was always to be so handled, as +to be always on the way to disappear. It is not easy to see how a man, +to whom the practice of holding slaves was so morally repellent, could +participate in making it perpetual. One could wish that just this +problem had been frankly handled under Lincoln's pen. It must have +been plainly before his thought. And the words of few men would be +more worthy of careful record and review than deliberate words from +Lincoln upon this world-perplexing query:--how adjust one's thoughts +and acts to a moral evil, that inveterately endures, and is never +atoned? But in fact that amendment was never carried through. One of +the fruits of slavery was its rash unwisdom at just this juncture. + +Still, though the amendment lapsed, slavery held on. And slaveholders +tightened their resolution to retain their rights in slaves, or rend +the Union. This precipitated war. This may seem to have doubled +Lincoln's problem, slavery and national dissolution. Standing at the +apex of national responsibility, he had to bear the hottest brunt of +the physical anguish, the mental perplexity, and the moral sorrows of +a war waged by a slave-holding South in militant secession. But in +reality, in his thought, the two were one. All turned on slavery. This +was the burning blemish in the Constitution. This was the intent of +the war. This was the burden on his heart. Here was a load too +grievous for any man to bear. It bore preponderantly on him. And yet, +as regards any personal and conscious desire or deed, he was through +and in it all conscious within himself of innocence. His trial and +sorrow were without cause. How now, in his soberest thought, was all +this moral confusion explained? Hating slavery with all his heart, +innocent all his life of any inclination to rob another man of +liberty, but pledged and sworn to shelter slavery under the arm of his +supreme and free authority, how could he prove himself consistent +morally? + +Here emerge the profoundest thoughts of Lincoln on the ways of God. +And herein appears his contribution to a theodicy--a vindication of +God's moral honor, where his moral government seems slack. How can +thoughtful men conceive and hold that God is just, when such injustice +and disaster are allowed at all, much less for centuries; in any +corner of the earth, much less where heaven's favor seems to dwell? + +Upon this subduing theme this last inaugural gives us Lincoln's most +explicit words. Of God's personal being, and of his personal care, +this address shows Lincoln to be perfectly assured. This was his +standing attitude and confidence. Throughout his years in the +presidency this trust had seemed unwavering. Indeed, by repeated, +almost unconscious attestations, it was his stablest trust. Some of +his utterances are tender and touching testimonials to his belief that +God rules in his own personal career. But mainly his confessions of +belief in the Providence of God are connected with national concerns. +He did joyfully, almost jubilantly believe that this Republic was +under God's special watch and care. His own hope for our national +future well-being and honor rested mainly, we must judge, upon the +tokens he thought he could trace in our thrilling and inspiring +history of the divine controlling care. At bottom it was this faith +that underlay all his patriotism. That the fundamental affirmations of +our Constitution were rescripts and digests from the will and word of +God was the lively ground and unfailing confirmation of his pure +devotion to his Nation's honor and weal. More than aught in all the +world beside, it was this religious faith that steadied and girded his +will through all those strenuous days. + +It is just here that this study of a theodicy sets in. Above all his +former thoughts about himself, about his land, about the clash of +right and wrong; above all thoughts of other men, and other times; +even above his own and his opponents' former prayers and faith, he +lifts new thoughts in new reverence and new docility towards God. + +Still naught but slavery in his theme--its undeniable iniquity; its +strange, prolonged permission; his own, and all other men's +responsibility; its unavoidable entail in penalty; and the divine, +enduring terms of new liberty and peace. Here are themes and fixed +realities that seem eternally to disagree. Can they ever all be +morally harmonized? Could even God enlighten that dark past? Could his +own historic acts be morally unified? Nothing he had ever done with +slavery, not even its utter elimination in his act of freedom, had +ever been done, he explicitly affirmed, on moral grounds. Yet slavery, +and by his own hand, was indeed undone. But even so the spirit of the +South was still invincible, and war was holding on. What indeed could +be the thoughts and plans of God? + +To begin with, he confesses both North and South and all the land gone +wrong. This is the first component in his theodicy. Neither North nor +South, not even in the act of prayer, had walked with God, nor found +the truth, nor gained its wish. All thoughts of men, in the righteous +rule of God, were being overturned. This confession verges near to +worship, acclaiming, as it does, the Almighty's designs; and venturing +as it does, to trace and reproduce the Almighty's thoughts. + +Here is seen how genuine is the moral earnestness in Lincoln's earnest +thoughtfulness. As though by a very instinct, his form of words +betrays his reverence. He refrains from dogmatism. He refrains even +from affirmation. He knows he is venturing upon a daring flight. He is +assuming to conjoin together into a moral unison that bitter sample of +the age-long cruelty of man against his brother, and the transcendent +sovereignty, the eternal justice, and the age-long silence of God. His +formula is a modest supposition. But within its modesty is an eye that +searches far. + +He takes resort in one of the most trenchant declarations of Christ, +that momentous saying in his colloquy about the majesty and modesty of +a little child:--"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must +needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense +cometh." + +In this colloquy Jesus seems to be moved by a tender impulse of +affectionate jealousy for the model beauty and grace of children. But +that tenderness is roused into one of the most terrific outbursts that +ever passed his lips. Little children are Christlike, Godlike, models +of the citizenship in the heavenly Kingdom. God is their jealous +guardian and defender. But Godlike, and of heavenly dignity though +they be, they are shy and frail. And men, as they grow gross and +impudent, abuse and offend their defenselessness. So things have to +be. But woe to such offenders. They were better tied to that mammoth +stone that the mule turns in the mill, and submerged in the abyss of +the deep of the great sea. + +Here are four noteworthy elements:--a blended heavenly modesty and +majesty and innocence; an insufferable insolence; a trebly-terrible +penalty; and a strange and ominous necessity. + +Over these four factors Lincoln's mind must have pondered long. Else +how explain their place in this inaugural? They form the foundation of +its central paragraph, and constitute its paramount argument; forming +alike a sobering admonition, and a humble ground of hope to all the +Nation, while at the same time holding aloft before the Nation's +thought the outline and substance of a stately vindication of the ways +of God. Evidently here is shapely fashioning in lucid speech of +Lincoln's ripest, surest thought. As one faces all its range, it seems +like the open sky, clear but fathomless. But its wisdom is doubly +sealed, and it bears a double claim to our respect. It shows the way +of Lincoln's mind, and the way of the mind of Christ. Not quickly will +any other thinker, however disciplined, traverse all its course. But +travel where he will in the mighty orbit of this inquiry, the modern +thinker, whatever his attainment, may find in this inaugural shining +indications that Lincoln's thought has gone before. + +In this modest, far-searching supposition, transferred to American +history from the lips of Christ, Lincoln firmly grasps two solid +facts, elemental and universal in human life:--the beautiful modesty +of the meek; and the ugly arrogance in the strong. Strength and +weakness needs must be. These invite to rudeness and retreat. Then the +powerful overbear. The gentle are overborne. Offenses multiply. The +arrogant prevail. So must it be. But when the meek go down beneath the +wicked rudeness of the strong, then the Most High God, within whose +firm dominion both strong and weak share equally in all the privileges +and rights of liberty and law, sets over the offended one his shield, +and against the proud offender his sword, until pity and equity are +enthroned upon the earth again. Thus must it be. The meek must suffer. +Offenders must arise. But meekness is a heavenly, Godlike quality. And +as with God, so with his gentle little ones, patient gentleness will +be duly vindicated; rude arrogance will meet exact and fit rebuke; and +it will stand clear that strength and weakness may dwell together in +equity and liberty and peace. + +This was the age-long moral process which Lincoln's eye discerned, and +the final issue which his expectation hailed. Then and therein his eye +discerned that all voices would be constrained to proclaim that in all +the moral world pity and equity were prevalent; that the least had +Godlike majesty; that humility gave to all the great their +courtliness; and that there was within all men a fadeless worth, far +outranking all other wealth. + +But it is essential to note, not alone that Lincoln offers this in the +modest form of supposition; but that, as it leaves his lips, it +assumes the formula of a confession. Even the meek receive rebuke. The +gentlest have wandered also away from God. The problem has surpassed +us all. All have somewhat to learn from God. That arrogance may meet +its due, meekness must be yet more meek. It must needs be that +offenses come. Greater than all our wrong, and all our patience, is +the patient truth of God. This must be fully learned. It is under +wrong that wrong is made right. It is by meekness under arrogance that +arrogance is put to shame. It is by gentleness under rudeness that +rudeness is subdued. Offenses must needs be. Only in sacrificial +submission to its woe is the problem of evil ever resolved. Only thus +is the iniquity of the sin measured back upon the evil doer in a +symmetrical and equivalent rebuke. + +But this is never to exculpate the offender or condone the offense. +Blood with the sword, drop for drop, must be meted out to the +slaveholder, as he meted out to the slave blood with the lash. All the +wealth that the bonds-man's lord has snatched from the toiling slave +must be yielded up. Over human scorn and greed and injustice and +cruelty hang unfailingly judgments that are true and righteous +altogether. Neither may they who are offended rail, nor they who +offend exult, over the divine delay. Nor when God's judgments fall may +they who are rebuked complain, nor they who are redeemed turn +exultation into arrogance. God's ways, and his alone are even, and +altogether true. + +In thoughts like these Lincoln's final explanation of the ways of God +took form. In patient, repentant, adoring acquiescence his heart found +rest. His sorrows were profound, the sorrows of a patriot, kinsman to +all the sorrowful in the land. But he learned, however deep the +stroke, to forbear complaint. He received the sorrows of the war into +his own breast as heaven's righteous woe upon a haughty land, and as +heaven's discipline, teaching offenders the woe of their offense. So +his ways became coincident with the greater ways of God. + +But in this moral explication of the war, and of all that the war +involves, two vastly different types of character persist. Lincoln's +solution of the enigma was in diametrical contrast with the views of +the leading spirits of the South. Not like him did they rate slavery, +nor conceive the war, nor understand the ways of God. How, now, could +Lincoln's view assimilate this obduracy in the South? This question +was clearly within the scope of Lincoln's thought, and its answer is +embraced in what has already been explained. Given an even penalty for +any sin, drop for drop with the avenging sword for blood with the +lash, and it is morally indifferent whether men rail, or whether they +acquiesce. The wrong is made right. The meek are redeemed. God's delay +is vindicated. Rudeness is reversed. The law is fully revealed. Man's +liberty is honored equally. Cruelty and unfairness are rebuked. The +gains of greed are scattered. Humblest men are crowned with eternal +dignity. To such, whether from the North or from the South, as with +melting sorrow and repentance welcomed to their bosoms this bitter +vindication of those primal rights, the sorrows of the war opened into +perennial peace. To such as repelled that proffered vindication, there +was in the sorrows of the war no alleviation. But for both, +nevertheless, and for both identically, the sorrows of the war +completed the moral vindication of a pure and Christlike equity and +friendliness. Thus all the ways of God, with the repentant and the +rebellious alike, are just and righteous altogether. This it is the +highest wisdom of men to acquiescently confess. To this even those who +rebelliously complain and rail must finally utterly submit. + +And now one final matter remains--the idea and definition of +happiness. When men discuss the problem of evil in the universe, and +in its awful presence try to substantiate their confidence in the just +and friendly care of a transcendent Deity, one subtle touchstone +governs all they say:--What is their conception of human weal, and of +human woe? What in actual fact is deepest misery; and what is true +felicity? What do they assume man's highest good to be? + +Just here is wide and multiform diversity. For illustration, let +thought recur to the contrast with which the topic of this chapter was +introduced. The idea of happiness that Goethe plants in Dr. Faust, and +the idea of happiness that ruled in Lincoln, are as separate as the +poles. And again, to keep within the setting of this inaugural, the +happiness towards which Lincoln strove, and in which his thought found +satisfaction, contrasted mightily with the happiness that informed the +aspirations of the leaders of the South. In their ideal, disdain of +all inferiors, delight in easy luxury, unequal acknowledgment of +rights, and a cruel stifling of the very rudiments of love, were mixed +and working mightily. Desiring and enjoying that Elysium, their +estimate of evil, their definition of the highest good, and their +programme for a final consummation under God could have no fellowship +with any final plan of thought approved by Lincoln. + +What was Lincoln's highest happiness? This merits pondering anywhere; +but compellingly, where one tries to trace his views upon this +problem of theodicy; and yet still more when one conceives in this +inquiry how in Lincoln's life his ethics, his civics, and his religion +became coincident. + +As this mighty problem resolves itself in Lincoln's mind, it +comprehends, along with his own welfare and worth and true +contentment, the equal dignity and happiness of every other man, and a +harmonious consonance with the being and decree of God. He sees that +scorn of any other man involves in time the scorner's shame. He sees +that robbery, however veiled, entails a debt whose perfect +reimbursement the slowest centuries will in their time exact. He sees +that any form of malice or unfriendliness, housed and fed in any +heart, will forfeit all the joy of gratitude, and fill that heart at +last with vindictive hate and bitterest loneliness. He sees that +fleshly joys, however lush and full, are marked and destined for a +swift and sure decay and weariness and vanity. And so, to realize the +perfect welfare, he commends to himself, and urges persuasively on all +other men, the sovereign good of an even justice, upheld within +himself, and so measured out to other men by the perfect standard of +God's self-respecting loyalty; of universal charity, eager everywhere +to minister universal benefit and peace; of supreme enthusiasm for +enduring life; and of a genuine humility, that shares all hope with +all the lowly, and trusts and honors God. In this fourfold, composite +unison of conscious, deathless life Lincoln sees the fairest goal, the +choicest boon, the highest good of man. In the presence of such a +standard, and before the outlook of such a hope Lincoln fashions his +theodicy. + +Here then is the sum of Lincoln's thought upon this bewildering +theme:-- + +The evil that makes this earthly lot so dark and hard is man's wrong +to man; the awful sorrows of the meek; the offenses wrought upon the +helpless by the arrogant. + +Before this mystery all other mysteries, however deep and terrible, +such as hurricanes and famine, plagues and death, may not be named. + +This most sovereign evil is most clearly understood by those who are +oppressed. Their eyes pierce all its deeps. The rude are, by their +rudeness, blind. + +The names of all who suffer and are still are registered on high for +full solace and redemption. + +The register of the rudeness of the strong is also full, and destined +for full requital. + +This redemption and requital shall be wrought by God. + +In this redemption the ruthless may relent and share with all the meek +the full measure of all their sorrows, and so become partakers of all +their joy. + +If ruthlessness persist, full requitals shall still descend, and in +the presence of God's even righteousness every mouth shall be stopped. + +And so shall all evil be fully rectified. + + +HIS PIETY--THE PROBLEM OF RELIGION + +Of all the words of Lincoln, evincing what he thought of God, none +outweigh the witness of this last inaugural. His reply to Thurlow Weed +regarding this address, referred to in another place, concerned +precisely just this point--the movements and the postulates of his +religious faith. As his ripened mind prepared and pondered and +reviewed this speech, there accrued within his consciousness a solemn +confidence that it was destined to become his most enduring monument; +and that as coming generations became aware of its outstanding +eminence, their eyes and hearts would fasten on those words about the +age-long, just, and overturning purposes of God. There was a +confession, so Lincoln felt assured, embracing and conjoining North +and South and East and West in an equal lowliness and shame; and +declaring and extolling God's divine supremacy over all the erring +waywardness and awful sufferings of men. + +In this outpouring of his burdened heart before his God, and in the +presence of his fellowmen, there is evidence respecting Lincoln's +piety that courts reflection. + +In the first place it indicates where Lincoln's sense of moral +rectitude found out its final bearings. Those purposes of God, as +Lincoln watched their operation, were working out the moral issues in +the awful wrong of age-long, unrequited toil in perfect equity. Strong +men had been wronging weaklings and inferiors. Helpless men had been +suffering untold sorrows. Indignant men had been crying out in hot and +hasty protest for full and speedy vengeance. Thoughtful men had been +tortured over weary, futile wonderings as to how the baffling problem +could be solved. Convulsions and confusion, which no arm or thought of +man could start or stay, were shaking and bewildering all the land. + +But through and over all, as Lincoln came reverently to believe, a +sovereign God held righteous government; and out of all the baffling +turmoil he was, by simple righteousness, bringing perfect unison and +peace. The dark mystery of unrequited wrong was being illuminated by +the righteous majesty of complete requital. But in its full +perfection, it was a righteousness such as no mind of man devised. It +was the righteousness of God. Here Lincoln's moral sense was purified. +He was being taught of God. And this he clearly, humbly recognized. +And he took full pains in this address to give God all the praise. And +so his reverence towards Deity, and his affirmation touching +righteousness became identical. His sense of equity stood clothed in +piety. + +In the second place, deep within the heart of these divine +instructions were such unveilings of God's high majesty, in his +steadfast reign above the passing centuries, as awoke on Lincoln's +lips such lowly adoration as attuned these words of Godly +statesmanship unto a psalm of praise. Here Lincoln's lowliness attains +consummate beauty. It is indeed an utterance of profound abasement. It +sinks beneath a strong rebuke. It acknowledges sad wanderings. It +accepts correction, and meekly takes God's guiding hand. It also sees +God's excellence, his high thoughts and ways, his irresistible +dominion, his moral spotlessness. And before that revelation he humbly +walks among his fellow-citizens, the lowliest of them all, confessing +that the reproach involved in what he said fell heaviest upon himself; +and therein, as a priest, leading the Nation in an act of worshipping +submissiveness before the Lord. Herein his comely, moral modesty +becomes an act and attitude of simple reverence towards God. And thus +his humility, just like his sense of righteousness, becomes apparelled +all about with Godly piety. + +In the third place, this new discernment of the ways of God unfolds +profound discoveries of the divine evaluation of the diverse, +contending interests in our commingled life. It makes clear which +values fade, and which shine on eternally. The problem upon which +Lincoln had transfixed his eye was that two and one-half centuries of +hard and sad embondagement. By that gross sin men's deathless souls +were bought and sold for transient gain. Past all denial, therein was +moral wrong; else moral wrong had no existence. Its presence, every +time he faced it, tortured Lincoln, and made him miserable. And it +affronted heaven, overturning God's creative fiat of equality in all +mankind. It set and ranked brief creature comforts and desires above +the worth of heaven's image in a brother man. Every day it challenged +heaven's curse. But heaven's judgment was delayed. Long centuries +seemed to show that heaven was indifferent whether human souls or +carnal pleasures held superior rank. + +But now, within the awful tumult of the war there boomed an undertone, +conveying unto all who had quick ears to hear, how God adjudged that +wrong. Upon dark battle clouds shone heavenly light, making newly +plain God's estimate of slaveholder and of slave; of joys and gains +that perish with their use, or await recall; and of souls that never +die. Those awful tidings told how ill-gotten, carnal wealth is +mortgaged under woe, and to the uttermost farthing must be released; +how offending men affront the Lord; and how all offenses must be +avenged. They made full clear how he who grasps at earthly gain by +wrecking human dignity commits a primal sin--a sin that time, though +it run into centuries, cannot obscure, or mitigate, or exempt from +strict review. They reveal infallibly that God's pure eye is on God's +image in every son of man; that supreme, far-seeing ends are lodged in +all the good but unenduring gifts wherewith God's wise and kindly +bounties crown man's toil; that a perfect moral government holds +dominion everywhere and forevermore; and that beneath this rule, in +God's own time, it shall come supremely clear that feasts and luxury +and fine attire, that wealth and lust and pampered flesh have lesser +worth and pass away, while souls of men may thrive, and gain, and win +new worth eternally. + +As Lincoln's eye reviewed these centuries of reveling wealth, and +impoverished hearts; and beheld, in the issues of the resultant war, +that wealth laid waste, and those pure hearts fed and filled with hope +and liberty; his wisdom to compare all earth-born, mortal things with +things unperishing and heavenly passed through new birth, new growth +to new completeness in depth and clarity and confidence. And all this +gain to Lincoln, while wholly ethical, dealing as it did with the +wrong and right in human slavery and liberty, owed all its increase to +truer understanding of the Lord. Here again his ethics was purified by +faith. His faith was deeply ethical. As with his lowliness, and his +rectitude, so with his moral valuation of the human soul. It was +vestured all about with Godly piety. + +In the fourth place, within the awful wreckage of the war, with which +this last inaugural is so absorbed, there were mighty attestations +that God was pitiful. That war could be defined as God's vengeance on +man's cruelty. Precisely this was what Lincoln grew to see. To all who +toiled in slavery the war had brought deliverance. Thereby the +stinging lash was snatched from human hands; the human heel was thrust +from human necks; the shameless havoc of the homes of lowly men was +stayed; countless sufferings were assuaged; and true blessedness was +restored to souls hard-wonted to unrelenting grief. + +And this achievement was alone the Lord's. Of all down-trodden men +high heaven became the champion. In all its awful judgments he who +ruled that conflict remembered mercy. High above all the bloody +carnage of those swords there swayed the scepter of the All-pitiful. +In the very doom upon the strong God wrought redemption for the poor. +And so, as that dreadful wreckage brought to nothing all the pride in +the extorted gain of centuries, it published most impressively that he +who reigned above all centuries was All-compassionate. + +To this great thought of God, Lincoln keyed this last inaugural. The +majesty of God's sovereign law of purity and righteousness was robed +in kindliness. Into this high truth ascended Lincoln's patriot hope. +Let men henceforth forswear all cruelty, and follow God in showing all +who suffer their costliest sympathy. This was a mighty longing in his +great heart, as he prepared this speech. Before God's vindication of +the meek, let the merciless grow merciful. Yea, let all the land, for +all the land had taken part in human cruelty, confess its wrong, +accept God's scourge without complaint, thus opening every heart to +God's free, healing grace, and binding all the land in leagues of +friendliness. Let men, like God, be pitiful. Like God, let men be +merciful. In mutual sympathy let all make clear how men of every sort +may yet resemble God, the All-compassionate. This was the trend and +strength of Lincoln's gentleness, as it stood and wrought in full +maturity beneath God's discipline, within this last inaugural. It was +nothing but an echo and reflection of the gentleness of God. And so, +in his benignity, as in his rectitude and lowliness and purity, he +stood in this address attired in Godly piety. + +So Lincoln's ethics can be described, in his ripened harvest-tide of +life. So it stands in this inaugural. It is alike a living code for +daily life, and a religious faith. It is born and taught of God. It is +Godliness without disguise, upon the open field of civic +statesmanship. It is a prophet's voice, in a civilian's speech. It is +the seasoned wisdom of a man familiar equally with the field of +politics, and the place of prayer. It shows how God may walk with men, +how civic interests deal with things divine. It proves that a civilian +in a foremost seat may without apology profess himself a man of God, +and gain thereby in solid dignity. It shows how heaven and earth may +harmonize. + +But this manly recognition in Lincoln's mind of the inner unison of +ethics and religion was in no respect ephemeral, no careless utterance +of a single speech, no flitting sentiment of a day. It was the +fruitage of an ample season's growth. It was royally deliberate, the +issue of prolonged reflection, the goal of mental equipoise and rest +to which his searching, balanced thought had long conduced. It was in +keeping with an habitual inclination in his life. + +This proclivity of his inwrought moral honesty to find its norm and +origin, its warrant and secure foundation in his and his Nation's God +must have taken shape controllingly within those silent days that +intervened between his first election in 1860, and the date of his +inaugural oath in 1861. Else, in those brief addresses on his way to +Washington, that marvelous efflorescence upon his honest lips of an +ideal heavenward expectancy is unaccountable. In those dispersed and +fugitive responses, from Springfield to Independence Hall and +Harrisburg, there breathed such patriotic sentiments of aspiration and +anxiety as owed their ardor, their excellence, and their very loyalty +to his eager trust and hope, that all his deeds as president should +execute the will of God. Throughout his presidential term this wish to +make his full official eminence a facile instrument of God, attains in +his clear purpose and intelligence a solid massiveness, all too +unfamiliar in the craft of politics. + +The witness to this, in a letter to A. G. Hodges of April, 1864, is +most explicit and unimpeachable. This letter is a transcript of a +verbal conversation, is written by request, and is designed distinctly +to make the testimony of his mortal lips everywhere accessible and +permanent. Its major portion aims to give his former spoken words a +simple repetition. Then he says:--"I add a word which was not in the +verbal conversation." And upon this he appends a paragraph, as of +something he could not restrain, the while he was conscious perfectly +that what he was about to write was certain to be published and +preserved among all men. In this letter, so doubly, so explicitly +deliberate, he is defending his decree for unshackling the slave, by +the plea, that only so could the Union be preserved. In the appended +paragraph, he disclaims all compliment to his own sagacity, and +accredits all direction and deliverance of the Nation's life, in that +dark mortal crisis, to the hidden, reverend government of a kind and +righteous God. + +If any man desires to probe and understand the thoughtfulness of +Lincoln's piety, let him place this doubly-pondered document and the +last inaugural side by side, remembering discerningly the date of +each, detecting how each conveys Lincoln's well-digested judgment of +unparalleled events, and not forgetting that Lincoln foresaw how both +those documents would be reviewed in generations to come. Here are +signs assuredly that Lincoln's lowliness and reverence, his +prayerfulness and trust, his steadfastness and gratitude towards God +had been balanced and illumined beneath the livelong cogitations of an +even, piercing eye. Pursuing and comparing every way the tangled, +complex facts of history; the endless strifes of men; the broken +lights in minds most sage; and the awful evidence, as the centuries +evolve, that greed and scorn and hate and falsity lead to woe; his +patient mind grows poised and clear in faith that a good and righteous +God is sovereign eternally. The truth he grasped transcended +centuries. His grasping faith transcends change. + +But Lincoln's piety was not alone deep-rooted and deliberate, the +ripened growth of mixed and manifold experience. It was heroic. It was +the mainspring and the inspiration of a splendid bravery. This is +finely shown in the early autumn of 1864. On September 4 of that year +he wrote a letter to Mrs. Gurney, a Quakeress. This letter bears a +most curious and intimate resemblance to the central substance of the +last inaugural. It witnesses to his earnest research after the hidden +ways of God. + +Within this search he sees some settled certainties. He sees that he +and all men are prone to fail, when they strive to perceive what God +intends. Into such an error touching the period of the war all had +fallen. God's rule had overborne men's hopes. God's wisdom and men's +error therein would yet be acknowledged by all. Men, though prone to +err, if they but earnestly work and humbly trust in deference to God, +will therein still conduce to God's great ends. So with the war. It +was a commotion transcending any power of men to make or stay. But in +God's design it contained some noble boon. And then he closes, as he +began, with a tender intimation of his reverent trust in prayer. The +whole is comprehended within this single central sentence, a sentence +which involves and comprehends as well the total measure of the last +inaugural:--"The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must +prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them +in advance." + +Here is a confession notable in itself. It would be notable in any +man, and at any time. But when one marks its date, its notability is +enhanced impressively. For Lincoln was traversing just there some of +the darkest hours of his overshadowed life. It was the period +following his second nomination for the presidency in May of 1864, and +before the crisis of election in November of the same year. Central in +that season of wearisome and ominous uncertainty fell the failure of +the battle in the Wilderness under Grant; the miscarriage of his plans +for Richmond; and the awful carnage by Petersburg. Here fell also the +date of Early's raid, with its terrible disclosure of the helplessness +in Washington. Thereupon ensued, in unexampled earnestness, a +recrudescence of the great and widespread weariness with the war; and +of an open clamor for some immediate conference and compromise for +peace. Foremost leaders and defenders of the Union cause throughout +the North sank down despairingly, convinced that at the coming +national vote Lincoln was certain to meet defeat. At the same time the +army sorely needed new recruits; but another draft seemed desperate. +Then Lincoln's closest counselors approached his ears with heavy words +of hopelessness about the outlook in the Northern States confessedly +most pivotal. + +In the midst of those experiences, on August 23, 1864, Lincoln penned +and folded away with singular care from all other eyes, these +following words:-- + +"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable +that this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my +duty to so co-operate with the president-elect as to save the Union +between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his +election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward." + +Those words were written eleven days before he penned the sentiments +cited above from the letter to the Quakeress. Between those two dates +the Democratic Convention of Chicago had convened and nominated +General McClellan. + +Amid such scenes, in the presence of such events, and among such +prognostications, Lincoln chiseled out those phrases about the +perfect, hidden, but all-prevailing purposes of God. Here is Godly +piety in the sternest stress of politics. Here faith is militant, and +unsubdued. Its face is like a burnished shield. Its patience no +campaign outwears. In its constancy suggestions of surrender can find +no place. It was forged upon a well-worn anvil, under mighty strokes, +and at a fervent heat. Fires only proved its purity. It was fighting +battles quite as sore as any fought with steel. It was the deathless, +truceless courage of a moral hero. It was pure and perfect fortitude. +Its struggle, its testing, and its victory had not been wrought on +earthly battle-fields. Its strife had been with God. More than with +the South, Lincoln's controversy had been with the Most High. He +wrestled with the heavenly angel through the night, like the ancient +patriarch. Like the ancient saint, he bore the marks of grievous +conflict. And like him of old, he gained his boon. He achieved to see +that God and perfect righteousness were in eternal covenant. + +Such was Lincoln's piety. His view of God gave God an absolute +pre-eminence. In Lincoln's day, as in the day when Satan tempted +Christ, vast areas of human life seemed to give all faith in God's +control the lie; and men in multitudes abjured such futile confidence. +But Lincoln kept his faith in God, and truth, and love, and +immortality. And in that faith he judged his trust, and hope, and +prayer to be preserved on high inviolate. There above, he firmly held, +were lodged eternally the perfect pattern and assurance of full +rectitude and charity. And in that understanding he held on earth +unyieldingly to the perfect image of that heavenly norm, in a pure and +acquiescent loyalty and love. Thus discerningly, submissively, +triumphantly did Lincoln's heart aspire to unify an honest earthly +walk with a living faith in God. + +One word remains. As Lincoln makes confession of his faith in this +inaugural, extolling God supremely, and therein announcing to his +fellowmen the groundwork of his morality, it comes to view that the +qualities held fast in Lincoln's heart, and the attributes of God have +marvelous affinity. The equity he adores in God he cherishes within +himself, and recommends to all. God's estimate of the incomparable +value of a human soul, when set beside the variable treasures men +exchange, Lincoln's judgment reverently approves, and as reverently +adopts, establishing thereby a standard quality in his conscious life. +God's tender pity for the poor, hidden deep in his divine rebuke of +slavery, and hidden deeper still within his mercy for all who help to +bear its awful sacrifice, melts and molds the heart of Lincoln to the +same compassion. And to the very outlines of God's majesty, as his +sovereign purposes are all unrolled and all fulfilled throughout the +earth, Lincoln's soul conforms ideally, in its humble vision and +expression of devout, discerning praise. + +Here is something passing wonderful. Between a fragile, mortal man and +the eternal God, when each is limned in terms of ethics, appears a +deep and high agreement. There is enthroned in each a common +righteousness. In each, the laws of mercy are the same. In each are +constituted principles inwrought with immortality. And within the +eternal interplay of reverence and majesty between mankind and God, +there is a fellowship in dignity that proves the holy Maker and his +moral creature to be immediately akin. And so the mind and will of +Lincoln, in this their moral plenitude, may interpret and recommend, +may apprehend and execute the eternal purposes of God. This high +commission Lincoln humbly, firmly undertook. And in his commanding +life there is a mighty hint, not easy to silence or erase, that +Godliness and ethics, which have been set so often far apart, were +eternally designed for unison. + + +HIS LOGIC--THE PROBLEM OF PERSUASION + +In the study of Lincoln's ethics it is not enough to describe it as an +ideal scheme of thought, however notable its range and poise and +insight may be seen to be. As Lincoln's character stands forth in +national eminence among our national heroes, he figures as a man of +deeds, a man of powerful influence over the actions of other men, a +man of masterly exploits. However truly it may be affirmed that +multitudes of adjutants reinforced his undertakings at every turn and +on every side, it still holds also true, and that a truth almost +without a parallel, that his sheer personal force was the single, +undeniable, over-mastering energy that shaped this Nation's evolution +through an outstanding epoch in its career. It was primarily out of +those prolific and exhaustless energies, stored and mobilized within +himself, that he rose, as though by nature, to be national chief +executive. It was straight along the line of his far-seeing vision and +advice that Congress and the Nation were guided to accept and +undertake that terrible enterprise of war. In that great struggle he +came to be in firm reality, far more than any other man, the +competent, effective commander-in-chief. He was chief councilor in a +cabinet whose supreme function dealt singly with matters wholly +executive. It was by the almost marvelous unison of wisdom and +decision resident in him that Congress and the Nation were day by day +induced to hold with an almost preternatural inflexibility to the +single, sovereign issue of the strife. When, after four years of +unexampled bitterness, multitudes were wearying of all patience in +further hostilities, it was his personal momentum and weight, more +than any other influence, that held the prevailing majority of the +national electorate to predetermine by their free ballots that, at +whatever cost of further war, the principles of liberty, equality, and +national integrity should be placed above all possible challenge or +assault forever. + +And in the period before the war and before his elevation to the +presidency this same executive efficiency, this singular capacity to +mold the views and stir the motives of other men, was likewise in +continual demonstration. Discerning how supreme a factor in our +American affairs was the power of public sentiment, and observing how +that power was being utilized to undermine the national tranquillity, +he challenged and overthrew single handed the leading master of the +day in the field of political management and debate. Trusting in the +same confidence, and pursuing the same device, he appealed to the +civic consciences of men in the open field of free debate, by the +single instrument of reasoned speech, until, by his persuading +arguments, he consolidated into effective harmony and led to national +victory a party of independent voters, with watchword, platform, and +experience all untried. In all the process by which that new-formed +party gained access to national pre-eminence it was Lincoln's +governing influence that went ahead and gave the movement steadiness. +And through it all he vitally inspired a Nation, now undivided and +indivisible, with a prevailing, corporate desire, that all succeeding +days and all beholding Nations are now deeming, for any stable civic +life, the true enduring ideal. + +And all of this was compassed and set afoot within scarcely more than +one decade. In October of 1854 at Peoria, he consciously took up his +strenuous enterprise. In April of 1865, he laid it down and ceased to +strive. Single handed he undertook the task. Through all its progress +the weight of that one hand was undeniably preponderant. And when that +hand relaxed, the task that its release left trembling was one that +stirred a mighty Nation's full solicitude. + +Here is something marvelous. These affirmations, as thus far made, +seem certainly overdrawn, and totally incredible. An agency and an +efficiency of national dimensions, introducing and completing an epoch +in our national history; but an agent and an outfit almost defying +inventory, his personality seeming in every phase so simple and +without prestige, and all his ways and means seeming so unpromising +and plain; the while through all his course he was confronting a +resistance and a hostility whose impulse was rooted in centuries of +firm and proud dominion, and whose onset made a Nation tremble. How +can such stupendous affirmations be clothed with credibility? Was it +indeed the hand of Lincoln that turned the Nation from its mistaken +path? Was it Lincoln's will that reinaugurated our predestined course? +Was it Lincoln's overcoming confidence that established in the land +again a good assurance that its integrity was indestructible? + +If questions such as these were addressed to Lincoln himself for his +reply, we may be sure his answer, like all his ways, would contain a +beautiful mingling of modesty and confidence. Heeding well the mortal +crisis, and hearing the Nation's call for help, he would not refuse, +when bidden and appointed, to take his stand alone at the very apex of +the strain, knowing well that the burdens to be borne would be greater +than tasked the strength of even Washington; and affirming as he +advanced warily to his post, that in his appointment many abler men +had been passed by. But then he would re-affirm and urge again all the +arguments of his great addresses and messages and debates, beginning +with that initial trumpet peal in Peoria in 1854, and not concluding +until, after all had been rehearsed and reavouched, he recited again +with prophetic earnestness this last inaugural. And throughout all +his devout re-affirmation of all the spoken and written appeals to +which his patriotic mind gave studied form and utterance in that +intense decade, a discerning ear could distinguish in every paragraph +profound and penetrating attestations, such as these:--This is a +mighty Nation. Its future is far more vast. Its present perplexities +are intricate. It has been misled. It needs most sane direction. I am +stationed at her head. Difficulties environ me. My burdens outweigh +Washington's. But this land was conceived in liberty. It was dedicated +to be free. Here all are peers. God's hand has been on our history. +Our destiny enfolds the highest human weal. God is with us still. +Human hearts are with us. Here is overcoming power. Despite my frailty +and poor descent, I will never leave my place. I see how other men +prevail with multitudes by personal appeal. This shall be my +confidence. Though I have no name, though there is perhaps no reason +why I should ever have a name, I can plead. I can plead with men. It +is a Godlike art. Grave as is my problem, this is its grand solution. +I will study to persuade. I will take refuge in the mighty power of +argument. I will confer, and conciliate, and convince. I will employ +my reason to the full. I will address, and assail, and enlist the +reason of other men. I will put all my trust in speech, in ordered, +reasoned speech. I will arrange all my convictions and hopes and plans +in arguments. I will approach men's wills with momentous propositions. +I will open a path to human hearts through open ears by my living +voice. I will make righteousness vibrate vocally. To men's very faces +will I rebuke their wrong. Argument, pure argument shall be my only +weapon, my only agency, my only way. By naked argument, honest and +unadorned, I will undertake to turn this Nation back to rectitude. I +will rest all my confidence in truth, truth unalloyed, abjuring every +counterfeit and all hypocrisy. It is truth's primal and mightiest +function to persuade. Through persuasion alone can freemen be induced +by freemen to yield a free obedience. The heavenly art of persuading +speech shall be for me the first and the last resort. By this most +comely instrument shall my most eager and ambitious wish gain access +to all this peopled land, and win vindication through all coming time. + +Something such as this, as one must judge from Lincoln's practice, was +Lincoln's science and evaluation of the art of logical appeal. By +every token Lincoln was a master of assemblies. Upon a public platform +he was in his native element. There he won his place and name. +Whatever any one may say about Lincoln's reputation or Lincoln's +power, that power and that reputation were mined and minted in the +very act and exercise of reasoning appeal. As iron sharpeneth iron, so +he, in the immediate presence of audiences of freeborn men, assembled +from his very neighborhood, shaped and edged and tempered his total +influence. It was when upon the hustings, and while engaged in +pleading speech, that he commanded the Nation's eye and gained the +Nation's ear. And once advanced to national pre-eminence, it was still +by logical persuasion that the Nation's deference was retained. + +What now was the inner nature of Lincoln's arguments? What was the +fiber, what the texture in the composition of his thought that made +its arguments so convincing? What was the structure, and what the +carrying power in his appeals that made their logic so prevailing, so +compelling, so enduring? + +To find an answer to this inquiry let men review yet once again this +last inaugural. Here is a product of Lincoln's mind whose single +motive is persuasion, whose momentum does not diminish, and which +seems destined to be adjudged by history a master's masterpiece. What +does this short speech contain that gave it in 1865, and gives it yet, +an influence almost magical? + +There can be but one possible reply. The factor in that address that +makes its influence so imperial is the moral majesty of the argument +in its major paragraph. That paragraph enshrines an argument. Though +fashioned in the mode and aspect of a reverent supposition, the steady +pace and import of its ordered thought is such as every ordered mind +admits to be compelling. But in substance and in structure that +argument is purely ethical. All turns upon that cited, undoubted fact +of age-long, unrequited toil. Upon that stern actuality hinges all the +arrangement of the thought. Its phrases move with rhythmic fluency; +but they bind together inseparably a Nation's duty, sin, and doom; not +omitting to enfold, with a marvel of moral insight, an almost hidden +intimation of a healing cure. + +Here are weighty thoughts, thoughts that press and urge, thoughts that +carry and communicate the gravity of centuries. They contain an +interpretation. They clarify and illuminate. And they all co-ordinate. +They combine and operate together to enforce agreement. They +demonstrate that tyranny breeds a baleful progeny of guilt and woe; +that robbery binds the robber under debt to the full measure of his +rapine; that such guilt can never be forgotten; that such a woe is +pitiless; that the centuries, though slow and mute, are attentive and +impartial witnesses; and that God's even judgments are over all, and +are altogether just. This is all the content and all the purport of +this paragraph, and of all this speech: an exposition of American +slavery and of its resultant civil war, in moral terms, before the +moral bar of every hearer's conscience, and beneath the thought of +God's eternal righteousness; all turning upon the self-evident verity +that unpaid toil is wrong. In this prolific affirmation is the fertile +germ of all that Lincoln ever thought or undertook in that supreme +decade. Here are enfolded all his axioms and postulates and +propositions. By interlocking its multiform, infolded, self-evident +certitudes he framed all his arguments. Its overflowing, resistless +demonstrations in active human affairs formed all his corollaries. +Toil unrequited is a moral wrong. It cries to heaven, and shall be +avenged. In this avenging, if we but see our day, there is an open +door to join with heaven, and transmute its vengeance into recompense +and reconciliation. + +This was Lincoln's logic. It was purely ethical. This was the +master-key to his transcendent statesmanship. Here was the secret of +his political efficiency. Thus, and in no other way, he swayed the +Nation. Himself a Godlike man, and discerning in every other man the +same Godlikeness; trusting his own soul's honesty, and appealing to +honest manhood in all other men; he took his stand beside all the +oppressed, and against all extortion; and voiced and urged and trusted +the sovereign moral plea for perfect charity, and perfect equity for +all. + +But Lincoln's logic was interlaced with history. All through his +debates and addresses are woven the facts and sequences of our +national career. And to these connected events he clung in all his +arguments, as a man clings to the honor of his home. There was in +those events an argument. To tamper with that history, discrediting +its sure occurrences, or distorting their right connection, was in his +conception a downright immorality. + +But mere historical exactitude was not the motive of Lincoln's appeal +to past events. The momentum of our past was for Lincoln's use +entirely moral. Here upon this continent, as he conceived our great +experiment, was being tried, in the presence and on behalf of all +mankind, a government in which the governed were the governors. Here +men are inquiring and being taught what true manhood can create, +uphold, and consummate upon a continental scale, in mutual equality. +Here men are schooled for independence. Here men may dare to fashion +their own law. Here men are nurtured towards full fraternity. Here men +are forced to heed the civic necessity of being fair. Here a boundless +impending future has to be kept steadily in view. Here the God of +Nations is teaching a Nation that he should be revered. Here, in brief +and in sum, men are being disciplined to know and cherish the +rudiments of civic character. + +Thus Lincoln interpreted the meaning of our national history. In his +rating, its total purport was ethical. Any logical exposition of our +national career, if its statements are historically exact, will carry +moral consequences. If the logical sequence of any statement of our +historical course is morally perverse, then that statement of our +history is historically untrue. Thus Lincoln's jealous zest for +truthful history, for truthful argument, and for true morality became +coincident. + +But Lincoln's logic was his own. His zeal for history was a freeman's +zest. His arguments were not the cold reflection of a borrowed light. +They were the fervid affirmations of his own convictions, compacted +into reasoned unison, out of the indivisible constituents of his very +manhood's honor. When in his appeal his soul most glowed, when the +ordered sequence and pressure of his thought waxed irresistible, he +was simply opening to his auditors the balanced burden of his honest +heart. Then genuine manhood became articulate. Then pure honor found +a voice. Then eloquence became naught but plain sincerity. Then +arguments became transparent, and affirmations convinced like axioms. +Then demonstrations moved. Assertions did persuade. Then the very +being of the orator took possession of the auditor in an intelligent +fraternity. True, indeed, a solid South, and multitudes besides, +derided his postulates, contemned his arguments, and scorned +derisively his tenderest appeals. But better than they themselves he +understood their hearts; and holding fast forever his deeper faith and +confidence, he maintained his reasoning and his plea, knowing surely +that in some future day their chastened hearts would vindicate his +words. + +But in all of this exposition of Lincoln's logical force and skill +there has been no mention of a syllogism. Did Lincoln then neglect +that famous formula of argumentative address? To this natural inquiry +it must be replied that Lincoln understood right well the fine utility +of this strict norm of formal thought. Indeed, he had taken special +pains to perfect his skill in just that form of argument. To the +logical click in a well-formed syllogism his inner ear was well +attuned. Repeatedly he summoned in its aid. An excellent illustration +may be seen in his rejoinder to Douglas at Galesburg in September of +1858. But Lincoln's confidence was not in syllogistic forms, however +trim. His trust was in his moral axioms. Unaided, naked truth; truth +whose total urgency is self-contained, whose perfect verity is +self-displayed, and whose proudest triumphs are self-achieved; pure +truth, shaped forth in speech of absolute simplicity; truth that works +directly in the human mind, like sunshine in the eye, was Lincoln's +handiest and most common instrument in an argument. Thus he sought to +so use reason as to awaken conscience and arouse the will. And thus +his arguments prevailed. + +This was Lincoln's logic. It was the orderly exposition of his honest +manhood, pleading with the honest intelligence of every other man for +his free assent. Himself a freeman whom God made free, and greeting in +every other man an equal dignity; with loyalty to himself and with +charity for all; with Godly deference and unfailing hope; he urged and +argued from his own true manhood, and from no other grounds, with a +logic that no true freeman can ever refute: that in this heaven +favored land, and for the welfare of all the world, these ethical +foundations of all true civic welfare be kept unmoved forever. In such +a moral character, and in such a moral argument is this expanding +Nation's only pride and sure defense. At any modern Round Table of +civic knights Lincoln is true King Arthur, and his persuading speech +the true Excalibur. + + +HIS PERSONALITY--THE PROBLEM OF PSYCHOLOGY + +When Plato took his pen to write his dialogues; when Michael Angelo +took his chisel to fashion his Moses; when Raphael took his brush to +paint his Madonna; they were designing to make their several ideals of +personality pre-eminently beautiful and distinct. And each artist in +his way won a signal, a supreme success. Moses, Socrates, the Madonna, +are shining revelations of human personality. Success herein is the +height of highest art. + +But what is personality? It seems an eternal secret, despite all human +search and art. Yet its secret is everywhere felt instinctively to be +of all quests the most supreme. By every avenue men are trying to +reach and reveal its hiding place. Our goal is nothing less than the +human soul. And upon this inquest the eyes and instruments of our +inspection are being sharpened with a determination and zeal hitherto +unparalleled. + +Suppose this quest be turned to Lincoln. Surely here is a human +person. He stands enough apart in his preeminence to be pre-eminently +distinguishable and distinct; while yet his face beams near enough to +be as familiar and accessible as our most accessible and familiar +friend. For surely, despite all his proneness towards a musing +solitude, Lincoln, of all Americans, displays through all his +published statements, and in all his public life, an instructive and +unstudied openness and unreserve. Just here his marvelous power and +influence lie. He practiced no concealment. He held communion with all +his fellowmen. Herein consists his honesty. + +Now may not an honest scholarship, honestly conceiving that of all +investigations our pursuit for the ways and dwelling place of +personality is easily supreme, as honestly believe that in the open, +waiting heart of Lincoln that supreme inquiry may find its supreme +reward? Surely here is promise of a labor that will pay. In Lincoln's +personality is a vein, a mine whose worth and sure utility no mineral +wealth can parallel. + +What in very truth, what in solid fact, what in absolute reality is +Lincoln's personality? For undeniably in facing and regarding him, we +confront and apprehend a human life, compact and self-controlled, the +native home and throne of all the conscious and self-directed energies +that are ever resident within and representative of any man. If human +personality ever took evident and conscious shape and form, then +Lincoln is an open and easily approachable illustration of its +embodiment. Upon no object may a student of psychology more easily or +more wisely fix his eye than upon the soul of Lincoln, when it +thrills in resolute, intense endeavor, as in this last inaugural. + +For one thing, that Lincoln should be the specimen of psychology +commanding any student's choice is suggested by Lincoln's notability. +Here is an exhibit in no way ordinary. He has secured the attention of +us all. And the attention of us all is athrill with mighty interest. +However it has come about, in some way, as a human personality, he +illustrates a type, he presents a sample so powerful and positive as +to stand before all eyes almost alone, while also so attractive as to +be by everyone beloved. This fact may fairly beget assurance from the +start that in any heedful search for the very substance of human +personality, an interior and intimate fellowship with Lincoln may show +us closely and clearly where it dwells, and what it is. For from the +start it stands plain that Lincoln's hold upon our hearts is in its +controlling co-efficients purely personal. That hold clings fast and +spreads afar, indifferent to space, or time, or even death. His +influence over us, so gladly welcomed and so clearly felt, is no wise +physical or temporal. It cannot be handled or weighed. It is personal. +Herein is high encouragement. And that in this sense of our response +to his enduring sway should be enfolded on our part, a kindred, pure, +enduring delight attests convincingly that within Lincoln's +personality and our own there is something mutual. Within the thing we +search and us who seek there is profound affinity. In this our +encouragement may heighten, and that with solid soberness, unto hope. + +And then the scene of this his last inaugural is all aglow with +promise. For here if anywhere Lincoln's personality may be seen +engaged in the ripeness of his finished discipline, and the fullness +of his manhood's strength. The scene itself swells full of meaning; +and Lincoln's part and contribution fix and fill the center of its +significance. Surely if anything within that scene is plain to see and +localize, it is Lincoln's own identity. The living Lincoln is surely +there, wholly unreserved and unconcealed. There Lincoln's personality +is in fullest play, an evident and mighty revelation, plainly felt and +seen. + +But it is only in the action that the actor comes to view; only in his +words does the thinker stand revealed. Here and thus, and nowhere else +or otherwise, is Lincoln's personality unveiled. And yet herein, +within the compass of this speech, Lincoln unlades a burden of such +grave concern, and unrolls a problem of such profound complexity as +could nowhere come to birth and utterance but in a mighty human heart. +In the vastness of that problem and anxiety can be gauged the vastness +of the measure of that heart. Here open into immediate view at once an +object and a method of research, fitted at once to challenge and +appall the bravest student's heart. But once its summons is +distinguished, it is irresistible. + +One thing that meets the student, as he seeks the speaker in this +speech, is its witness to his titanic and pathetic toil. The words he +utters are the message of a laborer far forespent, voiced with mingled +weariness and hope, well towards the sunset of a weary day. The sun +had been fiercely hot. The field had been full of thorns. And through +the arid hours he had tasted little food, or rest, or joy. No +husbandman ever chose his seed or tilled his ground at greater cost of +patient care. None ever had to bend his frame to ruder weather, or +battle against more malicious and persistent pests. And all the agony +of that toil had been wrought through within the anguish of his mind. +In exactest and exacting thought he had engrossed and consumed the +full measure of his full strength. On all he had to bear and do he +pondered mightily. No mortal ever pondered more intently on all that +mortals ever have to meet. In this inaugural scene the soul of Lincoln +is straining at its full strength. No portion of his personal life is +idling. If a student's hand is truly deft, he can feel, as he fingers +the throbbing life of this address, the pulse beats of a full heart. + +And within the grasp and compass of that heart are revolving vast and +strenuous themes. The soul of Lincoln is dealing with a Nation's +destiny. His speech is borne upon his single voice; but with that +single voice he pleads for millions; and its vibrations carry through +a continent, as a national oracle. Expounder and defender of the +Nation's vital honor, beleaguered all about with war, distressed by +all oppression, eager with a sacrificial passion that all men +everywhere may have liberty and an equal share in equity, searching +for a just and stable basis for the world's tranquillity, as he stands +and strives throughout that speech the structure of his soul grows +luminous. As he studied Providence and scanned the grounds of +government; as he peered far into the deeps of freedom, the majesty of +duty, and the sanctions of inviolable law; as he pondered the nature +of eternal right, and the deadly mischief of moral wrong; as he +watched the ways of hate and pride and falsity and sensual delights, +he was not alone compacting the substance and order of this immortal +address; but in the shapely body of his argument he has embodied and +uncovered his honest, guileless heart. In the very scars and seams +upon his sorrow-shadowed face, as he overcomes his task and fills out +his duty in this address, discerning eyes can see through the furnace +of how deep refinement his humble and majestic soul has been forever +beautified. Transforming themes possessed his mind. By the ministry +and inner influence of these themes he grew to be transformed; and in +the process and issue of that change the outline and texture of his +inner being becomes traceable. + +And of this inner revelation the most notable mark is its simplicity. +As in this speech his inner life is introduced, its texture is not +perplexing and intricate. It is perfectly apprehensible. The total +speech can be quickly scanned. Its sentiments barely get your full +attention before they are at an end. Its entire compass can be +comprehended in a single glance. Its whole sum can be reviewed in a +single breath. And still its themes and propositions are imperial. +Within its fine simplicity its stateliness stands uneclipsed. Hence +its marvelous power to command. Upon all who look and listen, its +action and appeal are like the dawning of a day. Its major +propositions are assented to unconsciously. It works like light. It is +genial, winsome, clear. And it is irresistible. It moves. It rules. It +is an argument, the ordered appeal of a candid, earnest mind to the +reasoned thought of honest men. Gentle and modest throughout, it +contains and conveys compelling energy. It has the sturdiness of a +hardy oak. And yet its first appearing was like a new unfolding of our +flag. It is a kingly word, alike in lasting beauty and enduring +strength. In this there is surely some sure reflection of that hidden +man within, Lincoln's real, undying self. + +And this still further may be said. Amid these sovereign interests and +affirmations their agent is thus employed of his own free choice. He +is no automaton. The Lincoln whom we seek, the Lincoln whom this +address is helping us to see can never be defined by physical terms. +Through the realm of physics things move as they are moved. Lincoln in +this address moves and guides and governs himself. And he is here +self-judged. This inaugural teems with moral verdicts, verdicts that +define eternal issues irrevocably. No higher function than this can be +imagined in any sphere of being, or in any form. These verdicts +Lincoln fastens upon himself. And before the same complete authority +he summons the whole Nation to bow. Deep within those verdicts there +throbs omnipotently a sense of moral duty, moral right, man's highest +good and goal. This ideal of what should be stands evident in this +inaugural in Lincoln's own humble conformity with God, in his own +unimpeachable integrity, in his unreserved benevolence, and in his +pure esteem for souls. In each one of these constituents of human duty +Lincoln sees unchallengeable authority. For the honor of each one he +deems himself responsible. Their mingled rays create the light in +which he writes this speech, by which this speech is read, and under +whose clear radiance he records his oath. Surely here are more than +hints for any one, who seeks to see just where this speech originates, +and most precisely how its author may be defined. + +Within this last preceding paragraph one feels again the presence and +the movement of all that all the chapters of this volume have +contained. Herein we seem to face a sort of final synthesis of all our +study. If this be true, or only true approximately, then its face and +contents should be scrutinized until they are cleared of every shadow +or alloy. For this research is surely approaching its goal, and some +of its boundaries may surely be defined. + +One line that shows indelibly is his intelligence; an intelligence +comprehending total centuries, and assembling within its scope extreme +diversities; an intelligence that has a piercing eye, acute to +distinguish and divide; an intelligence that has power to estimate, +compare, and summarize; an intelligence intolerant of error, and +eager after truth; an intelligence that can frame an argument +designed to clarify, convince, and win all other minds; an +intelligence that assumes to deal with God, receiving and reflecting +within its own interior and proper vision a revelation of the divine +intent. Here is an energy, at once receptive and original, fitted +marvelously for a reflection that can embrace and authorize eternal +truth. + +This intelligence is within control. It is not a vagrant or unguided +force. It is under conduct, all its action to observe, inspect, and +estimate being ordered reasonably. And all this influence operating to +understand and counsel, all this wisdom, while gathering light and +substance from everywhere, is informed within, and wonderfully +self-contained. As Lincoln reasons in this inaugural, as he resolves +and purifies his argument, its power to convince is most intimate and +deep within himself. As he guides and shapes his thoughts for the +thought of other men, the convictions within the speaker, and their +power to persuade, so inwrought in the speech, become identical. In +his own consent choice and judgment are combined. Here is freedom +indeed, a freedom to discern as truly as to choose, to distinguish as +truly as to decide, to estimate as truly as to select, the freedom of +the intelligence, an intelligence that is truly free. + +This freedom fashions character. It is a moral architect. It is +original, able to create. The author of this speech is self-produced. +The personality that comes to view among those words is +self-determined and self-made. Its plan was sketched by his own hand. +His position and his posture, his sentiments and his sympathies, his +bent and inclination, his moral postulates and axioms, his moral stamp +and trend and tone, his stability and moral sturdiness are all his own +invention, originally, essentially, inseparably his own. Lincoln's +character is Lincoln's handicraft. Its title vests in him. It never +was, nor could it ever become the property of another man. This all +men recognize. But this universal recognition is pregnant with +significance to any seeker amid the phenomena of Lincoln's life for +the substance of his personality. Somewhere within those statements +just now made, somewhere within Lincoln's conscious authorship and +invention of his moral worth is precious intimation of the whereabouts +and constitution of his personality. + +This blend in Lincoln of freedom and intelligence, of liberty and +sanity is notable for its evenness. Lincoln's liberty is not +chimerical or riotous. It is regulated, orderly, real. Within himself +and over his full destiny, an unimpeachable sovereign though he is, he +is not prone towards wilfulness, but towards composure and sobriety. +He moves as one fast-held beneath the law that for all his movements +he will be accountable. He always wears the mien of one who carries +high responsibilities. Far from being arbitrary, he behaves as facing +within himself a court of arbitration, truly self-invested, and just +as truly sovereign. Of all his words and deeds and attitudes he is +himself self-constituted, reverend judge. Whether seeking to resolve a +doubt, or waiting to receive a verdict, his appeal is finally to +himself. This is his mood and posture in this inaugural. He is giving +an opinion. This scene is a literal crisis in a review in which a +Nation's history and delinquency have met incisive, balanced +examination, to the end that his own view of duty as president might +come clear to his own judicial eye, and all gain the approbation of +all mankind. In his loftiest originality, where his conscious power +and right to elect the path he takes is most self-evident, the way he +takes is also owned to be an unimpeachable obligation. Here is +another signal hint for the seeker after the living and abiding source +of Lincoln's words and deeds. Somewhere within this sense of duty, so +sane and free and serious, lives the very Lincoln whom we seek. + +This judicial evenness within the free and reasoned movements of +Lincoln's action and argument is due to a balanced store of moral +ballast. His stalwart mind and sturdy will and steadfast consciousness +that duty binds his life stand leagued together in a partnership +employing infinite wealth. With these resources he daily ventures vast +investments. This speech is such a venture, laden with most goodly +merchandise. Indeed he ventures here, as everywhere, his all. His fear +of God, his self-respect, his neighbor love, his thirst for things +that last--these are the priceless treasure he examines with a +searching insight, estimates with judicial carefulness, enjoys with +soul-filling admiration, and then responsibly invests. On these and +these alone he chooses and resolves to seek returns. These are the +only seas where sail his ships. Here is all his merchandise. Here is +the only exchange where Lincoln ever resorts. Here and here alone can +one make computation of his wealth. If he has wisdom, it is here. Here +is all his liberty. Here is a full register of his life's accounts, +and of his full accountability. Here are all his goodly pearls. These +are the jewels that delight his heart. And if only students have the +eye to see, within this joy deep secrets are revealed. + +Just here this study has to pause. For while it seems to be facing +straight for that in Lincoln which is innermost--his essential and +immortal self, transcending all the mere phenomena of life--and +standing where nothing intervenes between our eager search and his +steadfast soul, the outlook, as it is scanned by different eyes, +reflects in different minds world-wide diversity. Lincoln sees this +difference, and deals with it in this speech. He knows his chosen +estimates of God and man and government, of prayer and equity and +happiness, of right and wrong and penalty, awake resentful protest. +Just here his manhood shows its breed. Without resentment, but without +surrender, he takes and keeps his oath, expecting that God, humanity, +and time will vindicate his insight and his choice. This valiant +expectation stands today fulfilled, a commanding testimony that +Lincoln's personality, though so simply childlike in its every trait, +has majestic permanence and comprehension. Its inmost attributes, as +purified in him, reflect and clarify to other souls, however opposite +and hostile they may seem, their own essential and enduring rank. This +gives pointed intimation that in Lincoln's conscious life, deep +underneath his daily words and deeds, there is a conscious unity, the +very seat of freedom and law, a shrine of reverence, an altar of love, +a throne of truth, a fountain-head of purity--a unity that no +antagonist can overcome, that neither time nor death can decompose. + +But an objection still persists. Some man will say that the search for +Lincoln's personality, as thus far carried on, has only dealt with +ethics, whereas research in personality is at bottom a problem of pure +psychology; and that in pure psychology the position holds impregnable +that naught beneath men's words and deeds can ever be discerned; that +naught indeed is real for this investigation but sensible phenomena; +that a human soul is something it is impossible to place. + +This matter plainly claims respect. As an objection it is inveterate; +and whenever urged, it gains wide heed. In treating with it some +things rise up for hearing. To begin with, the intimation cited in the +former paragraph will honor pondering. Though that paragraph is +intent on ethics in its every word, no paragraph in all the volume +more strictly so, still its statements clear more ground than a single +hasty glance is liable accurately to survey. It is concerned with +ethics truly--again be that conceded. But in no concern of morals +whatsoever did Lincoln vacate intelligence. Never was pure +intelligence more intellectually engaged than when Lincoln's mind was +scanning moral problems. In such engagements Lincoln's total being was +occupied. And if amid the clustering multitudes of moral judgments and +decisions that attend his moral inquiries and activities, there is +witness to the presence of a freeborn judge whose identity remains +continuously and consciously single and the same, that fact sheds +searching light upon the problem with which this paragraph deals. + +Let one listen again to this address--listen with a due intentness as +it speaks of Union and destruction and defense; of bondage and lash +and unpaid toil; of offenders, offenses and woe; of malice and charity +and right; of God and Bible and prayer; of widows and orphans and +wounds; of war and sorrow and peace; of Nations and centuries and +Providence. Here are trilogies and tragedies and millenniums, in +ethics and religion and philosophy--but borne from perishing lips to +perishing ears upon the perishing vehicle of a passing breath. This +human breath is frail, these human words are faint, this scene bursts +forth and vanishes. But those trilogies! They are more than flitting +words, and shifting scenes, and dying breath. The actor outlasts the +scene; the speaker outlives his word; the mortal breath is not the +measure of the man. He by whom these massive trilogies were marshaled +and deployed before a national audience, upon a Nation's stage, to +form a national spectacle, and expound a Nation's history, does not +perish with his breath, nor vanish with this scene. Before, within and +afterwards he lives, pre-arranging, fulfilling and surviving this +mighty drama of his life, mightily resembling God. A speech and scene +like this bear witness to an author and actor outdating and outranking +both scene and speech. An author looms within this speech, self-moved, +creative, free. An actor moves within this scene, self-made, poetic, +unconstrained. Speech and scene, voice and form are not the man. These +are but his fading vesture. Deep within those solemn trilogies, as +within a kingly robe, conveying to his vestment all its dignity, +though all unseen among its shapely folds, stands Lincoln's living, +Godlike self. It was to this the people paid their deference. Through +those clear syllables that came to utterance upon those mortal lips it +was Lincoln's immortal soul that became articulate. In those ringing +accents Lincoln's self became identified. If ever a human personality +crossed a human stage, not as actor echoing the words and attitudes of +other men, but as an author and creator, fulfilling within himself, in +God's fear, on other men's behalf, and with an eye to deathless +destinies, his own responsible trust, that man was Lincoln in this +second inaugural address. There he asserted and declared himself. + +Here then, in the tone and impress of this address is the sovereign +place to find the tone and impress of Lincoln's soul. If that living +soul ever gave a conscious hint of its living lineaments and hidden +dwelling place, here is that hint's finest published utterance. Here, +then, is the total measure of our task. Upon this transparent speech, +and not upon vacant air, is the student of psychology to direct his +eye. Here is the final challenge. Deep within the deeps of this +supreme address, clear within the rhythms of these resounding +trilogies, what does one see and hear? + +To the question thus defined an answer something such as this must be +returned: + +Here in this inaugural address is designation and signature of a man +astute to comprehend a Nation's history, reverent towards +responsibility, a champion and exponent of liberty, commending with +radiant earnestness that all his fellow men so walk with God, so +cherish equity, and so walk in charity as to secure in all the earth +an amity that time can never disrupt. + +Something such is the personality which this address attests. While +this speech exists, this testimony will endure. Its word stands firm. +And its signature is plain. He who wrote the speech has left upon its +manuscript his clear and sacred seal. He who gave its body shape was a +freeman none could bend, heedful of the arbiter none might disobey, +humble towards God, loyal to himself, a friend to every man, an +aspirant for life. + +Surely these are intimations of personality. Here is Lincoln, a vivid +plenitude in living unison of timeless quietness and harmony, +ordaining freely his own law of even heed for self and brother man, +for God and spirit life. Here is the full manhood of a living soul, +Godlike and earthly-born. None of its features are solidified in +flesh, to be again and soon resolved. All its face is spiritual; all +its action free, self-ordered, and self-judged; all preserving +jealously its own kingly honor; all beaming graciously on other men; +all bearing homage up to God; all vivid with immortality; abhorring +mightily all pride and hate, all falsehood and decay; all sharing +sacrificially with other men the cost and shame entailed in righting +human wrong. This is Lincoln's personality. In Godlike, friendly, +undying self-respect; in heavenly, upright, immortal kindliness; in +humane, divine, self-honoring heed for spirit-life--in each and any +one of these four identical affirmations is Lincoln's personality +exhaustively engrossed, each and any one declaring that he contains +within himself a free and deathless soul, akin alike to God and man, +and bound therein by the self-wrought law of love and truth. + +These terms define a life at once of human and of heavenly range, at +once inhabiting and transcending realms of change, at once self-ruled +and environed with responsibility. Here is elemental personality, in +inwrought and indivisible unity, with measureless capacity for +versatility, easily blending fulness of vigor with complete repose, +vestured and transfused with native symmetry and grace. In some such +living, breathing words, themselves transfigured and illumined by the +quickening verities they strive to body forth, may the pure, immortal +soul of Lincoln, and of every child of man, be defined, unburdened, +and declared. + +Something thus must written words describe the soul that surged +beneath this speech, and freely gave this speech its being. Surely +such an undertaking must not be despised. That aspiring, creative +spirit, so earnest and so resolute, far more than any speech its +vision or its passion may body forth, demands to be portrayed. Grand +as are these paragraphs, their author has a far surpassing majesty. +Fitted as are these accents to reach and stir the auditors of a +continent, the soul from which these accents rise has an access to all +those auditors far more intimate. + +If readers of this essay spurn the effort which it undertakes, let +them not be scorners merely. From among their number, let some one +arise, artist enough in insight and handicraft to make some truer +delineation of that living Lincoln, the abiding origin and author of +this and his every other noble speech and deed. Such an artist is sure +to find, if ever the conscious soul of Lincoln shines through his +hand, that when the inner face of Lincoln is portrayed, that portrait +will carry speaking evidence of a joyful and abiding consciousness of +liberty and law, of self and brother man, of things eternal, and of +God; that in his countenance, so sorrow-shadowed and yet so serene, +will shine a close resemblance to every other man; that through his +quiet eye will gleam that image of God in which he and all his fellow +men have been made; and that deep within it all will beam a radiant +assurance that by the way of sacrifice the awful mystery of sin has +been resolved. + +Hitherward must men who seek the soul of Lincoln turn their eye. +Humble, gentle, and loyal, eager after the life that is its own +reward, at once dutiful and free, lavishing out his life to take the +sting from sin--this is the soul of Lincoln. In this image every man +will see himself reflected, either in affinity, or by rebuke, herein +revealing how all men resemble God. Something such is man. Something +such is our common manhood. Something such is our inherent testimony +as to our origin and source. And something such is the task of him who +would frame a valid definition of personality. No undertaking is more +profound, none more supreme. And once it is accomplished, forms of +statement will have been found availing to embody all man can ever +know of self or God. + + + + +PART V. CONCLUSION + + +LINCOLN'S CHARACTER + +In all the chapters that have gone before, the essential constructive +factors have been very few. This is evident from their continual +reiteration--a reiteration that is too conspicuous to be overlooked. +In this is intimation that the last inclusive affirmation of this +study will be remarkable for its brevity and also for its open +clarity. The simple elements of such a closing synthesis may be here +set down. + +As encouraging this attempt, it may be first remarked that Lincoln's +life attests and demonstrates the primacy of character. This is the +foundation of his fame; and hereby his fame is felt to be secure. To +this all men agree. This world-wide consent may be said to be +unhesitant, spontaneous, unforced, arising as though by common +instinct, or by a moral intuition, all men everywhere viewing him +alike, even as all eyes everywhere act alike in receiving and +reflecting light. Here is something of a significance nothing less +than imperial for a student of ethics. For it seems to say that by +universal suffrage an international tribute is rendered to a common +pattern of human life; that there is a world ideal in the moral realm; +that this ideal is visibly near; and that this realized ideal is so +altogether friendly, admirable and excellent as to win from every land +an overflowing flood of thankfulness and joy. So genuine, so genial, +and so grand is Lincoln's moral life. In the face of such a life, and +of such a tribute, a student of ethics may be emboldened to assume +that his science has indeed foundations; that those sure grounds are +after all not far to seek; and that when those cornerstones are once +uncovered, they will be within the easy comprehension of common men. +Here, then, in Lincoln's open and exalted life is at once a challenge +and a test for all who would like to attempt a careful survey of the +moral realm. + +One sterling, standing coefficient of Lincoln's character was its +thoughtfulness. Piercing, pondering thought was with him a habitude. +His mind had insight, and he used its eye unsparingly. This was no +mere mental cunning, though he was surely passing shrewd and keen. In +Lincoln insight was so inseparably allied with an active sense of +responsibility that it may be best defined as searching honesty. Into +the massive, solid, stubborn problems of his perplexing day he drilled +and pierced by plodding, patient, penetrating thought. Kepler never +fixed his mind more steadily upon any study of geometric curves than +Lincoln his upon the intricate questions of government. And not in +vain. It may be truly said that Lincoln's moral judgments and resolves +were without exception the long-sought winnings of exactest and most +exacting mental toil. + +One fruit of this sharp scrutiny was a quite unusual foresight. In +this keen certitude touching things to come he was almost without a +peer. But its design and its utility for him were ethical. The coming +issues towards which he explored were moral. The future he foresaw was +thick with evolving sanctions involved in moral deeds. For such +events, whether near or far, he had a seeing eye. And with a steady +view to those oncoming certainties he shaped his resolutions, and +plotted out his life. That those high purposes involved his soul in +untold sorrow he well and unerringly foresaw. It was not by mental +blunders that he became enmeshed in the anguish and anxiety that made +his life so shadowed and solitary. And it was not by shrewder wits +that other men escaped his all but constant fellowship with reproach +and grief. Lincoln saw beforehand whither his studied view of duty and +his clear-eyed obedience led. Where other men stood blind he achieved +to see that his selected, sorrow-burdened path was the only way to the +happiness that could wear and satisfy. His insight was betrothed right +loyally to the faithful league of moral verities. Thus Lincoln's +character was stamped and sealed with prudence. Here gleams his +wisdom. His thought was balanced, looking many ways and comprehending +many parts. Hence his sane judiciousness. + +But this well-pondered carefulness was no mere mental sapience. The +world of Lincoln's painstaking thought was a world of character; a +world of liberty; a world of binding obligation; a world of right and +wrong; a world of God-like opportunities; a world of awful sanctions; +a world where dignity and shame are infinite; a world of manhood and +of brother men; a world where human souls outrank all other things, +like God. + +These were the themes that Lincoln's mind inspected and adjudged. It +is by virtue of his life-long search to find in such mighty interests +as these their rational consistency, that mental values of the highest +grade pervade and signalize his character. No mortal course in all our +history was ever reasoned out more carefully than the course that +Lincoln chose and held with moral heroism to his death. To overlook or +underrate this thoughtfulness in any reasoned estimate or exposition +of Lincoln's character would be infinitely unfair. As with light and +vision, his thoughtfulness is the medium in which his character stands +manifest. + +Quite as elemental in Lincoln's character as his thoughtfulness is his +courtly deference to duty. Lincoln's conscience controlled and held +him in his course, as gravitation holds and guides this globe. This +all men discern; and discerning, they admire. Deep in the center of +this unanimous admiration is a respect for Lincoln that amounts almost +to reverence. Lincoln's estimate of law was most profound. When, after +humble and all-engrossing search, he found and traced those sovereign +obligations to which he bowed his life, his estimate and attitude were +as though he stood face to face with God. But in that deference was a +courtliness that was beautifully Lincoln's own. He too admired, where +he obeyed. His thoughtfulness was a stately, sovereign court that +sanctioned and made supreme every law that he revered. This +transcendent, all-commanding sense of duty, springing from within, and +also descending from above, seated centrally within his character, is +centrally and inseparably inwrought within his fame. While his name +abides this princely heed for duty will persist to challenge and to +test each studied statement of his character. + +Another factor of Lincoln's character, likewise radical, impossible to +omit, is his free and self-formed choice. That Lincoln's choice was +truly free, self-moved, and truly unconstrained comes clear +impressively when one for long inspects and understands his +thoughtfulness. Lincoln's mental action in its riper stages was a pure +deliberation. In that careful pondering we can feel and see his +ripening moral preference grow clear and free from trammels of every +sort, and gain towards decisions that know no other influence but +reason wholly purified. So inseparable in him were choice and seasoned +wisdom. From this it follows that Lincoln's ripe decisions can be +understood only when one comprehends his mental equilibrium. + +And here it comes to view that Lincoln's moral resolutions led him far +asunder from the multitudes. It is here that Lincoln's isolation takes +departure. This parting of the ways needs noting narrowly. From his +selection of his path for life the world at large draws back. Yet even +so he still retains the world's applause. Here opens the true secret +of his distinction, as of his excellence and power. This secret lies +deeply hidden, and yet openly revealed in the comely balanced law his +thoughtful wisdom led his noble will loyally to admire, adopt, and +struggle unto death to keep. + +What now in true precision was this comely, balanced programme of a +moral life that Lincoln's wisdom led his will to adopt? Here is the +apex of this study. That it is not beyond man's reach, the world's +applause and Lincoln's lowly plainness and full accessibility may well +encourage any man to hope. That this inquiry should stand unanswered, +or be answered heedlessly, or with any vagueness, is unworthy of our +day or of our land. But in the answer should be verbally embodied +adequate and intelligible explanation of Lincoln's moral majesty, of +his unexampled intimateness with every sort of men, and of an +undivided world's applause. + +These tests are heeded by the answer which this study ventures to +suggest, when it says that Lincoln's thoughtful ponderings on the ways +of God, on the souls and lives of men, on the microcosm in every man, +and on the principles of all society, revealed to him the obligation, +in deference to himself, to his neighbor, and to his God, and with +full heed to immortality, to choose and follow to its full perfection +the law of even truth and love. To be fair, and kind, and pure, as a +lowly, kingly child of God--this was the wisdom, the obligation, the +aspiration of Lincoln's life. This was the moral sum and substance of +his thoughtful, free, obedient life. Here in brief and in full is +Lincoln's character. + +In such a character is Godlike potency, and fluency, and dignity. +Within its easy interplay is true simplicity, and unison. Within its +harmony shines the eye of beauty. Amid all turbulence it holds serene. +Its movements convey a majesty that awakens deference. It is free, +like God, to devise, adjust, and originate, ever having inner power +creatively to overcome or reconcile outright antagonism. Its +thoughtfulness has a master's power to divide, combine, and +comprehend. It can gaze unblenched and unamazed into the awful face of +evil. It can plant and wield a leverage that can overturn every evil +argument. In its finished ministry it can present a portrait of the +human soul true to its very life. In such a character, though +compassed in a single life, and marked with signal modesty, there +dwells a fulness adequate to delineate and comprehend all the mighty +magnitudes within the moral universe. + +Such is the character that Lincoln's life leads all the world to +admire. Its beauty lies enshrined within the blended light of wisdom, +freedom and obedience along the way where loyalty, charity, humility +and hope of immortality shine ever brighter unto perfect day. Here is +wisdom. And here is worth. And here these two are one. + + +LINCOLN'S PREFERENCE + +In the chapter just concluded, the field of ethics is termed a +"universe." In the chapter upon Theodicy, it was noted that in +Lincoln's most thoughtful ponderings, the great world of reality that +passes under the name of physics, or the physical world, seemed to lie +outside the field of his concern. Here is a matter demanding something +more than a bare allusion. The ponderable universe of material things +has impressive majesty. It is too solid and real and present in our +life to be ignored. Among the stars and beneath the hills and within +the seas are solid and substantial verities. We are environed by their +influences on every side. It is deep within their strong embrace that +our predetermined fate is being continuously unrolled. What can be the +scope and what must be the value of any view of ethics or any plan of +life in which this solid, ever-present, all-embracing material world +is so indifferently esteemed? + +It is with just this query in mind that this research into the mind of +Lincoln was first conceived. And the query which has been throughout +in immediate review, but unpropounded openly as yet, now demands to be +defined and scrutinized. Did the mind of Lincoln, engrossed as it was +upon interests supremely ethical, and ignoring, as it seemed to do, +all those vast and deep complexities of the purely physical world, +find for our unquiet human thought the true and perfect equilibrium? +Or was the thought of Lincoln unbalanced and incomplete, misguided and +inadequate essentially? In brief, how must ethics and physics, these +two and only two supreme realities, when each is most fairly +understood, be conceived to correlate and harmonize? As between these +two realities, each so imperial and so irreducible, which holds +primacy? + +Here is for any thoughtful mind well nigh the last interrogation. To +attain a competent reply the essential qualities of each and either +realm must be uncovered and compared. In physics here, and in ethics +there, what attributes pervade, abide, and are essential? And, these +true qualities being seen in each, as between the two, which proves +itself superior; in which does the soul of man find rest? + +In the universe of physics, in all the world of things men see and +touch and weigh one pervading and abiding quality is change. We speak +indeed of the eternal hills; and before their age-long steadfastness +that phrase seems accurate. But it is only soaring rhetoric, surely +sinking from its flight, when sober science sets about to cipher from +the distinct confessions of their very rocks the date of their birth, +the story of their growth, and the sure predictions of their complete +decay. In all the stability of the solid hills there is nothing +permanent. So with the ageless stars. So with the ever-flowing sea. +And so with the very elements of which hills and stars and sea are +mixed. All the story of all their genesis and journeying and vanishing +is a never-ending tale of change. Nothing physical abides the same. +Beneath the daring rays of present-day research all things are being +proved impermanent, all found verging over the infinite abyss. +Transmutations are in progress everywhere. + +In the soul of Lincoln there was craving for a sort of satisfaction +which nothing mutable could ever meet. Amid this pageantry of change, +among these ceaseless transformations, with all their passing beauty, +and all their final disappointment, there was in him a hungering after +something that should hold eternally. And within this very eagerness +was genuine kinship with the changeless foothold in things eternal +which it aspired to find. His very longing was innerly undying. His +thirst for immortality was in itself averse and opposite to death +essentially. Deep within his desire, deep within himself were living +verities, within themselves immutable. His admiration before God's +majesty, his free covenant with perfect loyalty, his friendly +kindliness towards all others like himself, and his God-like +sacrificial grief for all wrongdoing, held within their pure vitality +visions and passions and aspirations that no mortal darts could touch. +And when with clear discernment he freely chose to fill his soul with +hopes and deeds that eternally evade decay, he selected, as between +things that change and things that abide, that reality to whose +eternal primacy every passing day yields perfect demonstration. +Nowhere in physics, in ethics alone could be found the perfect solace +of conscious perpetuity. + +Another quality of all things physical, a quality likewise +all-pervading and persistent, is their want of spontaneity. Within the +nature of this mighty physical bulk, that is forever altering its garb +and form, and within all its flowing change there is no liberty. +Through all the ever-varying orbit of the moon; in all the marvelous +wedlock of the elements within the rocks and soils and plants; in all +convulsions and explosions of air and sea and fluent gas; in +lightning, fire, and plague; in all the age-long monotony of instinct, +habit, and proclivity, there is no conscious choice, no +character-worth, no ennobling and terrifying responsibility. Through +all this change of mortal things all things are fixed. Naught is nobly +free. + +In the soul of Lincoln there was a passion to be free. In this desire +there was a clear intelligence, and a purpose like to God's. He +coveted a dignity that was self-achieved. He deemed that worth, and +that alone, supreme that was his own creation. Only in deeds that he +himself determined could he discern true excellence. Herein he stood +apart from brutes, ranked above the hills, and pierced beyond the +stars. And when, with such an insight, and such a soaring wish, and in +such high dignity, he freely chose to hold supreme the life and +thought and joy that are truly free, rating all things fixed and +physical as forever far beneath, he allotted certain primacy to that +which he discreetly judged undoubtedly pre-eminent. In closest +consonance with what has last been said, comes now to be affirmed, a +central quality of all things purely physical--persistent and +pervading everywhere--their absolute inertia morally. They move as +they are moved, and never otherwise. The law by which their being is +controlled is not their own. At the last and evermore physics, though +the measureless arena of unmeasured active energy, is powerless. It +cannot even obey. But most demonstrably it can never command, not even +itself. It is vastly, deeply, and forever only passive; although +within its ponderous frame are playing with baffling constancy forces +that weary all too easily our most stalwart thought. + +In such a realm as this, forever unawakened and evermore unjudged, +Lincoln's awakened and judicial soul could never find contentment. +Within that manly heart was enthroned a conscience, alert alike to +receive and to originate, as also to approve and fulfill all noble and +ennobling obligations. He knew the meaning and the sense of duty, the +weight of duty claimed, and the worth of duty done. In his true heart +was a living spring of moral law. And in cherishing with exalted +satisfaction this imperial quality of all true moral life, therein +deciding that physics held nothing worthy of any comparison, he gave +kingly utterance to a judgment and decision and desire that could +estimate infallibly the ultimate competitors within his conscious life +for primacy. For ever in ethics, as never in physics, right judgment +finds its source. + +Yet another quality of physics, likewise all-pervasive and permanent, +is the mocking, paralyzing mystery in which all its certainties are +veiled. The mighty acquisitions to our certain knowledge in the realm +of nature are superbly manifold and as superbly sure. The swelling +catalogue of things well certified in the material world seems to +advance the modern scientific mind almost to genuine apotheosis. But +of all these stately certitudes there is not one but walks in darkness +no human eye nor thought can penetrate. Before heroic and unexampled +diligence and daring the scientific frontiers are receding everywhere; +but only to make still more amazing and unbearable their +inscrutability. On every horizon of the physical realm yawn +infinitudes, whether of space or time, of geometry or arithmetic, of +electron or of cell, so defiant, so bewildering, and so overwhelming +in their complete defeat and mockery of our bravest and best +intelligence that our proudest powers are palsied utterly. Whichever +ways we turn, whatever gains we win, we face at last, in the very eye +of our research, and in the very heart of our desire, a changeless +silence that mocks all hope, and leaves us standing in an utter void. +In the realm of simple physics the human intellect, despite the fact +that in the physical realm the mind of man has triumphed gloriously, +is faced forever with the taunting consciousness that its primal task +is still undone. + +In an undertaking such as this, and in such a hapless outcome, the +mind and life of Lincoln could never be engrossed. He was ever facing +mystery indeed in the perplexities that throng the moral realm. In +fact, in the darkness and confusion that enshroud and mystify the +world of duty and award were all his sorrows born. But in those +mysteries moral honesty is not mocked. Where iniquities prevail, the +soul that bows towards God sees light. Where sin abounds, the heart +that yields the sacrifice of penitence finds peace. In the face of +hate and strife and bloodshed, to banish malice and to cherish charity +is to enter and to introduce complete tranquillity. Where lives grow +coarse and souls are base and purity is all denied, the soul that +seeks refinement grows refined and consciously approaches God. When +God is mocked and scorners multiply and hearts grow hard in pride, the +heart that meekly, humbly holds its confidence in the transcendent, +all-controlling Deity opens in that lowly faith deep springs of +never-failing hope. In these mysteries, however baffling and +persistent, these efforts towards relief find sure and great reward. + +In such a field and in such endeavors it was Lincoln's sovereign +preference to measure out all the forces of his conscious life. Attent +towards God, benign towards men, upright within, and prizing life, he +found, not defiance and despair, but perennial quickening and +encouragement, whatever problems darkened round his life. For him such +soul-filling verities, and such a corresponding faith held +far-transcending primacy. And so in conscious, sovereign and +everlasting preference for the truth that shows all its light in +character, and for the faith that such clear truth forever +illuminates, Lincoln testified his confidence that in the face of +physics ethics holds supreme pre-eminence. + +Of all this searching estimate and supreme comparison of these two +divergent realms one's mind may gravely doubt whether Lincoln's mind +had perfect consciousness. Concerning this no one may speak, except +with hesitance. But any one whose mind has entered into intimate +partnership with all the wealth of Lincoln's words is well aware that +it was a habit of his mind to pursue its themes to their farthest +bourne. In penetration and in pondering not many minds were ever more +evenly taxed. His mental persistence and deliberation were almost +preternatural. Discovering this, a student of his mental ways will +grow to feel that, in a likelihood almost equivalent to full +certainty, Lincoln was wittingly aware of all the meaning in his +proclivity to rate ethical interests uppermost. + +At any rate, in his life and writings, so the matter stands. And +standing thus in the deeply conscious soul of Lincoln, the matter has +a high significance. It seems to testify with a prophet's steady voice +that in all the total realm of being, the realm of freedom, of +consciousness, and of character is the first and sovereign verity; +that the real is fundamentally ethical; that he who seeks for perfect +satisfaction must bring to his inquiry the glad allegiance of a moral +freeman and a moral judge; that in every undertaking becoming him as +man each cardinal moral excellence must grow and shine increasingly; +that every mental acquisition must conduce to a lowliness that adores, +to a gentleness that loves, to a purity that pledges immortality, to a +self-respect that is the mirror and original of all reality; that only +thus, in all this universe, and to all eternity, can the soul of man +gain triumphs that can satisfy. Only so will truth grow fully radiant, +and mystery become benign. Only so can finite man find peace before +his Maker, and face serenely all that wisest unbelief finds terrible. +This is truth. Here is freedom. Such is faith. Thus, in a freeman's +faith truth stands complete. + +Such is Lincoln's preference. Like another Abraham, and with a kindred +insight and determination, he won all his triumphs and renown by +faith--a free and conscious faith in God, and soul, and character. + +Here are designations, at once so plastic and so precise, at once so +simple and so profound, as to signify and demonstrate how souls of men +may conquer death; how one may be a perfect devotee to another +person's weal, and still preserve his own integrity; how perfect +sanctity may assume a full companionship with sin, whether by +redemption or rebuke, and still remain unflecked; and how in man's +humility may be enshrined a dignity wherein supernal majesty may be +unveiled. + +In some such vivid, moral terms, mobile to grasp and manifest the +boundless range and priceless worth within the sovereign moral law; as +also to declare unerringly the fateful and unbounded issues of a moral +choice, may students hope to trace with true intelligence the real +foundations of Lincoln's all but unexampled power and fame. + + + + +AN EPILOGUE + +ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS + + +In designing and constructing the chapters that precede, three motives +have been actively at work. There has been a desire to set within the +realm of Civics a clear and balanced exposition of Lincoln's moral +grandeur. There has been a desire to introduce within the realm of +Ethics a fertile method of discussion and research. There has been a +desire to intimate how in the realm of pure Religion the finished +outline of a transparent character may provide a pattern for a true +description of the problems of Theology. + +Of these three motives the one last named has been preponderant. +Lincoln's public life was keyed alike to moral honor and to faith in +God. In his most quickening aspirations and in his most sacrificial +sorrows his sense of personal obligation and his belief in an +over-ruling Providence held fast together in a most notable unison. +Guileless, luminous, and single-hearted in his rectitude and in his +reverence, he affords a signal illustration of the way in which faith +and conscience may vitally co-operate and even coalesce. He presents +in consequence a signal opportunity for exploring the inner kinship of +ethics and religion. His personality challenges us to inquire and see +how honesty and godliness consort; how in a complete and balanced +character the categories that define the basis of one's moral +excellence may prove themselves to be the very categories that inform +and underlie the religious life. + +Here opens an engaging investigation. May the ultimate principles of a +true ethical theory and the ultimate rationale of a true theology be +found in living deed to coincide? To bring this question into open +view is the ulterior aim of this book, and more particularly of this +appended Epilogue. + +In the open petals of the plainest flower soil and sunlight, earth and +heaven meet in almost mystic union. Be this our parable. In the ample +compass of a normal character, such as Lincoln shows, there is in very +deed a mystic union--a vital partnership of man with fellowman, and of +men with God. Be this deep fellowship described; for here commingle +indivisibly the essential elements in any pure and full display in +human life of morals and religion. + +In Lincoln's public life there was undeniably a close companionship +with God. Earth-born and earth-environed though he was, he had supreme +affinity with heavenly realms. His face was seamed with suffering; he +wore a humble mien; his habitual posture was a pattern of unstudied +modesty. But through those sorrow-shadowed features shone a radiant +exalted hope, as he walked and toiled in reverend covenant with the +sovereign God of Nations. Besieged by day and night with difficulties +and distresses such as rarely burden mortal men, in his nightly vigils +and in his daily labors he clung to Deity, true civilian and true man +of God at once. The terms of this high covenant were specific and +distinct. They were the very terms that defined the conscious +qualities of his upright, God-revering character. Be those qualities +described. + +In the first place, here in Lincoln's open character it becomes +heavenly clear how profoundly intimate and at one are majesty and true +humility. When the guise of each is fully genuine, they minutely +correspond. In Lincoln's lowliness lay the very image of the majesty +of God. To that high majesty his lowliness conformed. As in a mountain +lake may be enshrined a perfect pattern of the heavenly firmament, so +was Lincoln's reverence a conscious, free reflection of the excellence +of God. His obedience was an intelligent recognition and +re-enthronement of the sovereign law of God. His lowly posture, when +in supplicating or interceding prayer, was induced by the bending pity +of a compassionate God. That trusting appeal was the very echo of +God's benign concern; and within the wrestlings of those intense +entreaties the divine designs gained place in human history. Lincoln +in his lowliness was Godlike. His humility was supremely dignified, +supremely beautiful. In its open face, as in the face of a flower +opening towards the sun, was resident a heavenly glory. + +In the second place, this vital unison of man with God stands superbly +evident in the stately wedlock of Lincoln's honesty with God's +righteousness. In Lincoln's soul there lived a faith in God's +integrity which no dark storm of human faithlessness, and no delay of +heaven's righteous judgments could eclipse or wear away. This belief +was in him an active energy. It grew to be a partnership with God's +uprightness--a covenant in which his own soul's eagerest ambitions and +resolves became upright. In his inmost soul it was his inmost +aspiration to be an agent for enthroning here on earth the equity of +God. And so, in fact, as a mighty nation's chief executive, he did +become the executive of the will of God. In his transparent honesty +there was a reflection of the sincerity of God. In his firm constancy +there was upheld before this people's eye an index finger pointing to +the steadfast constancy of God. In his pure jealousy for the utter +sanctity of his plighted word there burned a fire that was kindled in +the eye of God. In all his even, glowing zeal for righteousness he has +been adjudged by all his fellowmen pre-eminently a man of God. And as +signal devotee to honesty he demonstrates most signally that God and +man may set their lives in unison. + +In the third place there was in Lincoln's patient gentleness a +profound resemblance to the all-enduring gentleness of God. His +mastery of malice and his universal charity in the face of multitudes +of bitter and malignant men attest eternally an intimate companionship +with divine forbearing grace. His sacrificial intervention on behalf +of all God's little ones whom human heartlessness had oppressed is +world-arresting evidence and demonstration that in his kindly heart +was throned the Heavenly Father's sympathy. Unto costly fellowship +with this divine forbearance and compassion Lincoln opened +unreservedly all the compass of his life. For afflicted and afflicting +men he felt a sorrow, mixed with pity and rebuke, both born of the +affection fathers feel, both proved sincere by years of sacrificial +anguish unto death. And this he did with a discerning and deliberate +mind. It was thus he understood the heart and ways of God; and thus by +clear design he undertook in his own life to recommend the ways of God +to men. In verity he was partaker and dispenser of the manifold grace +of God. In him the mighty love of God found living medium. Like a +gentle flower drinking gratefully the warmth and beauty flowing +towards it from the sun, his soul absorbed the gentle ways of God and +itself grew kind and beautiful. Here again it may be seen how intimate +may be the life of man in God, the life of God in man. + +In the fourth place there was in Lincoln's soul an all-prevailing +confidence touching future destiny. This living confidence was the +outcome of his close partnership with God. His faith believed that +God's designs held fast eternally, and that conviction clouds and +night and death were impotent to overshadow or obscure. The rather, as +his faith and hope confided in that unfailing verity, that faith and +hope became themselves unfailing. His sure belief became participant +in God's dependability. Here is the deepest secret of his abiding +steadiness. Hence his calm indifference to death. + +And this illumines all his great appeals to his fellowmen with the +light of a prophetic vision. For his fellow-citizens, as for himself, +his sovereign aspiration was after permanence. This abiding life, +whether in the Nation or in himself, he had the mind to comprehend, +must be the very life of God within the soul. In civic Godliness alone +could there be civic permanence. In the Nation's life the life of God +must be incorporate. Then and then alone would any Nation long endure. +For this bright civic hope, for this alone he lived. And this +ever-springing hopefulness and confidence is the shining efflorescence +of his Godliness. He clung to things eternal in a conscious league +with God. + +Here is something wonderful--something replete alike with mystery and +with certitude--a vital unison of God and man in undeniable verity--a +unison in righteousness and kindliness, in lowly and majestic dignity, +in immortal spirit purity--a unison in which all that is most sacredly +elemental in God and man most intimately coalesce, while yet remaining +most unmistakably distinct--a unison in which is freely and +consciously engaged all that personality, however self-discerning and +free, can ever contribute or contain--a unison as historically real as +it is immeasurably profound--a unison in which space and time provide +the theater, while yet a unison in which time and space dissolve. Here +is surely ample range for ample exposition of many a major problem in +theology, and all within the open and familiar bounds of a normal +moral life. + +In close alliance and affinity with Lincoln's vital partnership with +God, and of almost equal pregnancy for the problems of religious +thought, is the marvelous intimacy of his inner and essential +fellowship with men. This feature of his public life is becoming more +commanding and impressive every year. To a degree altogether notable +it is becoming widely understood how he and all his fellowmen were +wonderfully allied. It is becoming seen by all of us that the +qualities essential to his commanding excellence are qualities deeply +typical of us all. His attitudes of deference and modesty, his +promptings towards things permanent and durable, his equities, his +kindnesses are universal. They are enthroned within us all. +Everywhere, in everyone they ultimately predominate. + +Wonderful as it may seem, this holds as true of enemies as it does of +friends. Hosts of people, while Lincoln lived, held him their +deadliest foe. Through all those bitter years, while they defamed, he +meekly, mightily held his own, subduing malice, disdaining subtlety, +despising scorn and arrogance, abhorring sordid greed; pleading +humbly, but as a prince instead, for righteousness and charity and +man's immortal destiny. And now all men detect that however deep and +overmastering those aversions and animosities may have been, there was +in his enemies and himself a moral kinship and agreement far more +powerful and profound. His humble, hopeful plea that every man be fair +and pitiful is winning everywhere today glad witness to its eternal +and imperial validity. + +And the wonder of this deep partnership with men but deepens, when we +consider that the form of this all-appealing, all-prevailing +partnership was sacrificial. This leads straight into the innermost +interior of the problem of vicarious suffering--one mortal, suffering +in another's place and for another's sake. Never in all that era of +civic anguish in the civil war did any human mortal suffer keener or +more continual sorrow than did he who of all the Nation's multitudes +stood most untainted and innocent of the iniquity which that stern +civic judgment was to purge away. Guiltless utterly of any part in +slavery for his own profit or by his own consent, he partook with all +the guilty ones of all the sorrows of its expurgation. + +And yet more wonderful is the sequent fact that in precisely this +voluntary and conscious unison of innocence and suffering in his +outstanding life stood and moved the pillar of fire and the pillar of +cloud that led this Nation through those sorrows by night and day. + +Here again is something wonderful--something again replete with +mystery and with certitude. And here again do mystery and certitude +stand truly unified and harmonized. Truly they are unified. But in +that unison their identity stands clarified. There where Lincoln's +manhood shows most humane and universal, a Nation's common symbol, +outlining nothing less than a puissant Nation's boundless majesty, +there stands defined, as with engraver's finished art, his separate, +ever sacred, individual nobility. Even there where his moral being +merges most completely into deepest sympathy with the afflictions that +descend on sin, there his own integrity and personal jealousy for +righteousness are most outstanding and distinct. But be it said again, +in Lincoln do that broad humaneness and that erect nobility, that +sympathy and that jealousy subsist in unison. In strict verity he is +our Nation's surrogate. Surely here again is ample range for ample +exposition of many a major problem of theology, and all still held +within the open and familiar bounds of a normal moral life. + +So Lincoln stood in unison with God and fellowman. Ideally complete in +his own identity, he was ideally allied with other lives through all +the personal realm. And be it well and truly seen that the elements of +this affiance with his God, and the elements of his firm league with +brothermen were identically the same. In each and either realm the +binding bonds were fealty to charity, to equity, to humility, to +purity. These four qualities explain and guarantee completely his +allegiance. These and these alone were the constituent elements of all +his brotherhood and of all his reverence. And it is within the nature +of these four vital qualities, at once so Godlike and so human, and +within their ever-living interplay that one must look to find whatever +Lincoln's character can contribute to the problems of theology. + +What averments tremble here! Our mighty human race does truly live in +unison. Within that peopled unison the life of one may have +far-ranging partnership. That partnership is closely definable in +terms of character. In Lincoln's life as private soul, and as vicar of +us all alike, his constancy and kindliness, his purity and lowliness +embrace and body forth his total being, with all he bore and wrought. +Herein unfolded all his beauty and all his worth, whether as a single +citizen or as a Nation's representative. + +And our humble human life does also truly share the life in God. +Within that heavenly unison the lowliest soul may have exalted +fellowship. And so in Lincoln's loyalty and tenderness, his lowliness +and thirst for immortality, as man of God, unfolds the heavenly beauty +of God's eternal purity and majesty, God's benignity and faithfulness. + +So do lives of free and conscious beings most truly flourish and so do +they most truly blend. Our fellowship with Lincoln, and Lincoln's +fellowship with us; God's fellowship with Lincoln and Lincoln's +fellowship with God; this mystic unrestricted partnership of noble +souls; unfolding and unrolling sovereign harmonies, even when they +antagonize; in vengeance or compassion fulfilling all their mission +and dominion through the earth--these are indeed our sovereign +realities. In scanning these we may indeed discern deep ways of God +and men. + +Mighty highways open here--highways that enter every major province of +theology. Be these avenues observed. + +Whence came the blight of slavery? How in human soil could such +inhumanity germinate? What is the virus of its contagion? What makes +its guilt so terrible? + +Must inhumanity be avenged? May avengers still be merciful? May +hardened men become regenerate? May guilt and innocence be reconciled? + +Why such anguish on the innocent? Why should little ones be crushed? +Why such hosts of patient ones meekly bearing wrong and shame? Why do +offenses need to come? How does patience work on sin? How does sorrow +work on guilt? + +What is human brotherhood? May fellowmen be surrogates? May men's +honor interchange? + +Wherein stands human character? What makes a man responsible? How +sovereign is man's liberty? How supreme is man's intelligence? Are +moral beings subject to decay? + +May finite man come near to God? Does God come near to finite man? May +plans of men and God's designs combine? May God be seen in human life? +May human hearts partake of God? Are love and truth and liberty, the +crown of human dignity, enthroned in God ideally? + +Is Christ indeed the Lord of men? Is he our life? Are his teachings +true? Is his love divine? Can he indeed redeem? + +Upon such queryings as these, all running deeply into mystery, each +one fast rooted in reality, and each one voicing in each human soul an +urgent quest, those sterling elements of Lincoln's character, his +lowliness, his living hope, his pity, and his faithfulness shed +grateful light. + +Be these four qualities unveiled before the face of sin, that sin may +be defined. + +When in the presence of some noble majesty or of some courtly modesty +a free and conscious soul is arrogant or insolent; when a being born +for endless life in freedom, light and purity, exchanges God and +immortality for idol forms and baseness and decay; when recipients of +God's unnumbered benefits, and participants in the joys and sorrows of +a teeming world of brothermen remain ungrateful and unpitiful; when +beings destined to be sons of light prefer hypocrisy and unbelief; +then, irreverent, corrupt, ungracious, and untrue, sin shows all its +horridness and iniquity. + +And when in the presence of pure grace and truth all such perverseness +stands revealed; then the beauty of a quiet modesty, as it respects +all worthy majesty, will make supremely plain the ugliness of every +form of insolence; then the life that opens towards perpetual dawn +will most mightily and forevermore reproach the life that feasts upon +corroding food, fattening and hardening towards decay; then +outpouring, patient love will visit on ingratitude and hate their most +unbearable rebuke; and then the radiant light of simple truth and pure +sincerity will set all falsity and unbelief in uttermost disgrace. In +such an awful penalty, supreme and unavoidable, will sin incur its +doom. + +But in the very penalty it stands proclaimed how sinful souls may be +transformed, and hostile hearts be reconciled. + +When pride, subdued by majesty, rejoices in humility; when grossness, +shamed by purity, welcomes purging fires; when malice, melted by +forbearance, partakes the sacrifice and becomes itself compassionate; +when falsity, unveiled by verity, submits to its rebuke and welcomes +truth with deep docility and faith; then within the sinner's penitence +is every penalty absolved, and between embittered souls comes perfect +reconciliation. + +Be these four qualities addressed to that supreme transaction named +atonement. + +When, in perfect loyalty and in perfect lowliness, with a perfect +charity and with an utter trust in immortality, one like a Son of Man +consents to bear the dark affront of insolence and perfidy from base +and deadly men, enduring meekly what his soul abhors, then to all the +sons of men is published equally, and with supreme assurance, that +sins of men must be indeed avenged, and that sinful men may be indeed +redeemed. + +In that transaction malice faces patience, and patience faces malice +for a final strife. There candor bears the lying taunt of acting in +disguise. Humility endures the shameful charge of shameless arrogance. +Compassion bows as though a thief to all the brutal rudeness of a mob. +The soul of immortal purity is bartered for by traders greedy after +silver coins, and driving through their trade with lamps and clubs. + +But in the measure and in the manner of that transcendent patience +malice is preparing for itself the manner and the measure of its own +just doom. And in the measure and the manner of that same transcendent +patience contrition may discern the manner and the measure of its +release. In that mighty mingling of aversion and endurance sin must +behold alike its omnipotent redemption and its omnipotent rebuke. Thus +love, in perfect sympathy, and truth, in perfect equity set forth in +heavenly purity the sovereign majesty of an atonement for the world. + +Be these four radiant qualities applied to him we call alike the son +of Mary and the Son of God. In him, the Son of God, shines such a +plenitude of grace and truth as becomes the glory of the very God, +revealed in such immortal purity as proves him heir and very Lord of +all eternity, and wearing such a dignity as belongs at once to +heaven's majesty and our most genuine humility; while deep within his +open life as son of Mary there shines such a full and genial truth and +grace as proves his true humanity, so free from mortal taint through +all our transient scenes as proves his spirit's immortality, and +manifesting everywhere to all the sons of man their own ideal +lowliness. These are all his beauty. In him they fully blend. They +blend in him indeed. But they do not dissolve. And so may we with +souls akin to him whom Mary bore behold in him the proper image of our +complete humanity; and still with eyes and vision all unchanged, +behold within those same fair traits the very image and the unbounded +fulness of the glory of the infinite God. + +Be these same radiant qualities our proper medium for beholding Deity. +Conceive of One in whose being the only light and glory reside in the +pure majesty of a perfect grace and truth. Conceive how these free +living qualities permit a unison in fellowship, a fellowship in +unison. Conceive how such a unison permits to each participant +complete equality and a full infinity. Conceive thus how perfect +constancy and perfect kindliness, revealed in perfect purity, and clad +in perfect majesty may manifest eternally in mystic unison the +blessedness of a perfect personality. Conceive how such a partnership +in unison, and unison in partnership will be evermore containing and +enjoying within itself an evermore unsullied Spirit life, engendering +and completing all the finite forms of being of the created universe; +an evermore unfolding Love that is the one original of every +fatherhood in heaven and earth; and an evermore Responding Love that +is the primal inspiration of the admiring and adoring thankfulness of +every child of God; while evermore displaying in a loyal self-respect +the eternal archetype and origin of every verity and every equity +enthroned in any earnest upright mind. And so conceive in terms as +vivid as our own intelligence and liberty how true transcendent Deity +may wield no other energy and know no other blessedness than unfolds +forever in a free and conscious unison and partnership in pure +transcendent love and truth. + +Transcendent thoughts and ventures these. But abounding other thoughts +and ventures no less transcendent wait and urge for utterance. They +all assume no less, and nothing more, than that in the living vision +of a living personality hides and shines the harmony that may unite +the mysteries and the certainties of this universe. Let Truth, as +personal self-respect; and Love, as self-devoting life; and Purity, +that fears no death; and Dignity, that crowns all worth--let these be +clearly seen, each one apart; and clearly seen again when fully +unified--and human thought holds categories in hand whereby the +problems of our mental and ethical and religious life may be resolved. + +Of all of this what goes before is but a brief and bare suggestive +hint. Its development and vindication call for the completed +exposition of such a balanced round of thought as may be found in a +prophet like Isaiah, an apostle like Paul, or an evangelist like +John. + + + + +LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL + + +Fellow-Countrymen: + +At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, +there is less occasion for an extended 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 declarations have been constantly called +forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still +absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the Nation, little +that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which +all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; +and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory. With high hope for the +future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding 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 altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without +war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by +negotiation. Both parties 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. + +One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not +distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern +part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful +interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the +war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the +object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; +while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the +territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the +magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated 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 result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes 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 prayers of +both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully. + +The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of +offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man +by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs +come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now +wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this +terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall +we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which +the believers in a living God always ascribe 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 +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn +with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was +said three thousand years ago, so still it must 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 see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him +who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to +do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and +with all Nations. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Inconsistent/archaic spelling and punctuation retained from original. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;, by +Clark S. 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