Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/47

 Abraham Lincoln.

��37

��felicitous turns of oxprossion, such as tlio Cooper Institute speech, his inau;;urul sHldresse^, and llie oration iit (iettysl)ui jr, are iiiasteriiitces. to live and resound as lonsr iis llu^ Knulisli loiiijue survives.

Mr. I,incoln aii^wci-cd. as I tiiink. another oftlie uncrrinj; ti.-ts of fircatiiess. in his marked individ- uality, and his uni(|ue uidikeness.to everybody else. He had no alleclation of siiiRularitv, and yet he cri-ated a distinctness of inipre?^siou which seems to point him out as a tvjie by hinisell. a distiucit spe- cies created by the Divine hand in the evolution of time. His imase on our vision is not a blur, but is as distinctly and sharply cut as the outline of a oameo, or

"The dome of Florence drawn on the deep blue sky."

No other jjreat man as yet in the least resembles him; and if my friends, we are so happy one day as to meet the shades of the };reat in the Elysian tields, we shall know that e.xalted spirit at a glance, and we shall no more mistake the identity of Abra- ham Lincoln than we shall that of C;psar or Croin- well or iSapoleon, AVashinjjton or Grant. Nature stamps her particular sign-manual upon each of her supi-emely {Treat creations, and we may be sure that she broke the die in moulding Lincoln.

'I"o a club which has honored itself by taking his great name, an inquiry into Mr. Lincoln's concep- tion of politics must ever be a study of the deepest interest. In the first place, he icaa a politician from the crown of his head to the sole of his toot, and, himself pure, sober, temperate, chaste, and incor- ruptible, he never shrank from what the mawkish sentimentality of our day affects to condemn and sneer at as the vulgarity of engaging in politics. He entered with ardor into the political life around him; he engaged in partv caucuses, conventions, and gatherings; he mixed in the political manage- ment of his state, his county, his district. Ins town- ship, and received no contamination thereby. He conceived this to be the duty of every citizen of a free republic, and no word discouraging political activity ever fell from his lips. He carried into his politics the same morality tliat he used in his daily dealings with clients and friends. He was incapa- ble ot intrigue, he was true and transparent, and no duplicity ever stained his integrity. He studied the currents of pidjiic opinion, not as a demagogue to slavishly follow them, but from a profound con- viction that, as to times and means, all men are wiser than any one man, and from a real respect for the will of the people, to which he ever render- ed a genuine homage. He sought no power. He was too healthy and natural to be disturbed by anv troubled dreams of a great destiny : and if he had ambition, it was free from vulgar taint. But in power he never forgot his trusteeship for the peo- ple, and he never lost elbow-touch with those to whom he rendered

"The constant service of the antique world. When service sweat for duty, not lor meed."

The world knew, therefore, that glory, or vanity, or lust of power had no place in that pure heart. " His ends were his countiy's, his God's, and truth's," and thus did he earn the proud title of

" Statesman, yet friend to truth ! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honor clear; Who broke no promise, served no private end, Who gained no title, and who lost no friend."

Therefore, 3Ir. President, I claim that liis whole life is a standing reproof tf) the flippant notion and the -keptical and cynical fling that polities is a dis- honest game. He was a politician trom the outset; and if there is one lesson inculcated hereto-day by his life and character, it is that politics in a free government affords the loftiest themes of thought and the grandest theatre of action for men of great, and consecrated powers. He was a sti iking proof that the honestest politics is the best politics, that the greatest prizes are gained by unselfish souls, and that, in fact, there is in decent politics no room for a dishonest man. Here was a man devoted all

��his life to politics in America, with a zeal and in- tensitv which left him no time for the study of any- thing hut jiolitics. and the law by which he gained his meagre livelihood; and if, as has been said, there is something narrowing in the jiiolession of hiw, ami degrading in the jiursuit of politics, surely Abraham Lincoln ilid not e.xeniplify it, nor did he,

" born for the universe, narrow his ndnd,

And to party give up what was meant lor man- kind."

After his great elevation, his si)eeclies and state l)apers are replete with pioofs or his political in- sight, his clearness of vision, and his far-reaclnng views. He saw vividly the great considerations which determinj'd his duty, and that of his party, on the question of disunion He felt in his own breast the pulsations of this mighty land. He saw his country and her splendid opportunities tor a great race for empire, — no oceans or mountains dividing, great riveis connecting, a common ori- gin, a common history, common traditions, a com- mon language, continuity of soil, and a great posi- tion in the family of nations which unity alone could secure. He rose to the full height of the Issues involved. He knew that should the South succeed in winning independence " the cloth once rent would be rent again;'' that there would no longer be one America, but many Americas; that the New World would tread over again in the bloody tracks of the Old ; that there would be rival communities, with rival constitutions, Democracies lapsing Into military despotisms, intrigues, dissen- sions, and wars following on wars. 'Iherefore this man, so gentle, so mild, so peace-loving, that every shot sent a pang to his own heart, could give the word of command, and. with unbending will, see the United States tear open their veins, and spill their blood in torrents that they might remain one people. But throughout the sanguinary carnival through which he was forced to lead us for four loug years, Mr. Lincoln's natuie remained true and tender and forgiving. No bitterness and no uncharltableness usurped any place In hl» heart. I'liere was not hing local op provincial in his patriot- Ism. Notwithstanding the insults and contempt lavished upon himself, despitethe injury and wrong done to what ho held dearer than hlinselt, — the Union and the liberty which it made possible, — he still enfolded the .South in his warmest affections. His whole public life Is full of evidences of this breadth of view, this cathoiicity of temper, this far- reaching statesmanship, this magnanimous and Christian spirit. He yearned for peace unceasing- ly ; and theie can bo no doubt that a complete pac- iiication and reconciliation on the basis of impar- tial liberty was the last and fondest dream of his great soul, rudely interrupted by the stroke of the assassin. He lived not to realize his great designs, yet he fullilled his historic mission, and what a large arc In the completed circle of our country's history will his administration embrace! What harvests of martial and civic virtue were garnered in! What a treasure-house of national memories and heroic traditions was prepared! What a new and glorious impulse was communicated to the na- tional life !

What was achieved by his genius and character by that peculiar conihination and summary of qual- ities of heart and brain and environment which make up what we call Abraham Lincoln, we, by our finite standards and our piirtial view of the scopes and orbits of human influence, can never adequately measure. But some things we see in their completeness before our eyes. SVe gaze with admiration upon his pure and upright cliaracter, his immovable firmness and determination in the right, his inexhaustible patience and hopefulness under reverses. We remember how steadily these masterful qualities wrought upon the public mind, till his quaint wisdom, his di^interestedness, his identification with the princijiles that underlay the issues of the Civil War, made his name repre- sentative of all that was highest and holiest and best in the North, and gave it a prestige which

�� �