{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38582/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38582","id":"gutenberg_38582","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38582","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Psychology"],"text":"Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/American\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS\n\n\n    A STUDY IN ETHICS\n\n    WITH AN EPILOGUE ADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS\n\n    _BY_\n    C. S. BEARDSLEE\n\n    BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER\n    THE GORHAM PRESS\n\n    THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED\n    TORONTO\n\n\n    _Copyright 1914, by C. S. Beardslee_\n\n    _All rights reserved_\n\n    _The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A._\n\n\n    _To my sister Alice--\n    A living blend\n    Of love and loyalty,\n    Of modesty and immortal hope._\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nAbraham Lincoln was a man among men. He was earnest and keen. He was\nhonest and kind. He was humble and inwardly refined. He was a freeman\nin very deed. His conscience was king.\n\nThese few words contain the total sum of the following book. In\nunfolding what they severally mean, and what their living unison\nimplies, the aim has been to bring to view the clear and simple beauty\nof a noble personality; to show how such a human life contains the\nfinal test of any proper claim in all the bounds of Ethical research;\nand to stir in thoughtful minds the query whether such a character as\nLincoln's life displays, instinct as it is with Godliness, may not\nyield forms of statement ample and exact enough for all the essential\nformulas of pure Religion.\n\nAssuredly his aspirations were ideal. Quite as certainly his ways with\nmen were practical. The call and need today of just his qualities are\npast debate.\n\nIf only in our national senate chamber the ever-shifting group of\nsenators could hear the voice of Lincoln at every roll-call and in\neach debate! If only in all our universities our studious youth could\nglean each day from Lincoln, as he speaks of politics and of logic, of\nethics and of history! If only in every editorial room, where current\nevents are registered and reviewed, Lincoln's wit and wisdom might\nillumine and advise! If only at every council, conference, or\nconvention, where leaders of our churches debate religious themes, the\nreverence of Lincoln might preside! If only in the council chambers\nwhere directors meet to plan and govern our modern enterprises in\nindustry and finance, Lincoln's broad humaneness might be felt! If\nonly every artist at his exalted and elusive task could every day\nobtain new views of Lincoln's full nobility! If only toilers in the\nshop and field could feel each day the friendly brotherhood in\nLincoln's rough, hard hand!\n\nThen toil, while losing naught of eagerness, would become content.\nArt, while losing naught of beauty, would become unfailingly\nennobling. Commerce, while losing naught of enterprise, would grow\nbenign. Religion, while retaining a becoming dignity, would not fail\nto be sincere. The public press would grow more savory and sane. Our\nschools would be nurseries of manliness. And our conscience would be\nembodied in our law.\n\nBut Lincoln's face is vanished. Lincoln's voice is hushed. What\nremains is that Lincoln's sentiments be republished every day in lives\nthat reverence and reproduce his excellence. To indicate this path, to\nembolden and embody this aspiration is the service this volume\nundertakes.\n\nThroughout this study, thought is fastened centrally upon Lincoln's\nlast inaugural address. There Lincoln stands complete. And that\ncompleteness is vividly conscious in Lincoln's own understanding.\nEleven days after its delivery, and one month before his death, he\nwrote to Thurlow Weed, saying that he expected that speech \"to wear as\nwell as--perhaps better than--anything I have produced.\" Of almost\nincredible brevity, containing as it left his hands, but five short\nparagraphs, the compass and burden of thought within that address are\nevery way notable. It is in fact Lincoln's digest of the course and\ntrend of our national life; while on the side of character it is\nreplete with telling intimations of Lincoln's own moral effort,\npurpose, and point of view. Here are in visible action all the\nelements of essential manhood, all the virtues of a balanced\ncharacter. Here are insight, judgment, resolution. Here is momentum.\nHere is something that endures. Here are ends worth any cost. Here is\nwariest use of means. And here are wrongs, engendering anguish, and\nmortal strife. And here are ultimate alternatives. And all is grasped\nand even merged in Lincoln as he speaks. Here is wealth of ready\nmatter and direct allusion quite enough for any volume to lay open and\nassess.\n\nSuch a moral inventory and evaluation this study undertakes. Its\nmethod is to subject this short address to the strictest ethical\nanalysis, to identify the elements that are integral and cardinal in\nthe moral being of God, and man, and government. Then, to articulate\nand unify these elements into a vital ethical synthesis, to\ndemonstrate and manifest the living unison of character. Then, to\ndesignate and undertake to clarify the major problems which such an\nanalysis and such a synthesis of such a speech and such a man open to\na student's mind.\n\nIn this procedure it is the aim to show how from first to last in\nLincoln's life his mental clarity and his moral honesty are held in\nmodel parity; how in his daily walk law and liberty go hand in hand;\nhow his cardinal moral qualities are to be defined; and how these\nelemental virtues may avail in their own authority and right to guide\nthe eyes of men towards beauty, to guard the souls of men against\ndespair, to find the stable base of government, to overcome all guilt\nby grace, to prove the perfect manliness of patience, to ground the\nthought of men upon reality, to pierce the gloom of woe, to find the\ncore of piety, to perfect persuasive speech, and to win a vision of\nthe soul. Hereby and thus it may at last stand plain that in the soul\nof Lincoln there is a moral universe; and that within the verities and\nmysteries of this universe he alone is truly wise and fully free who\nknows and proves the worth of faith.\n\nThat so broad a study should be based upon so brief a speech, or\nindeed upon Lincoln's single personality, may seem to some a fatal\nfault. Such a thought, when facing such a method and such a theme, is\nsurely natural. As to its validity there need be no debate. The field\nis free. Let any number of other speeches, or of other people be\nassembled and placed beside the material handled in this book, for its\nre-examination. In such a process, the further it is pursued, if only\nLincoln and the words of this inaugural are also held in thorough and\ncontinual review, it may come the more fully clear that in a theme\nlike ethics mere multitude is not the measure of immensity; that the\nstructure of this book is organic, not mechanical; that the single\nchapter on Lincoln's Moral Unison comprehends all that the volume\nanywhere contains or intimates; that all the problems handled in Part\nIV are only sample studies, and handled only suggestively; that the\nvolume might be expanded indefinitely or much reduced, and its\nsignificance remain in either case unchanged; that correspondingly\nLincoln's last inaugural and Lincoln's public life, each and both,\noutline in very deed a moral universe; that to rightly understand this\nsingle character and this one address is to understand humanity, and\nidentify the ethical finalities; that to scan the soul of Lincoln in\nhis religious attitudes is to gaze upon God's image, and face the\nreality and the rationale of the true religious life; and that, in\nconsequence, any reader who hesitates to venture such vast conclusions\nupon so scant material may finally be induced to submit to a\nsubstantial remeasurement his present estimates of brevity and\nbreadth.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n    PART I. INTRODUCTION\n\n    Lincoln's Mental Energy\n\n    Lincoln's Moral Earnestness\n\n\n    PART II. ANALYSIS\n\n    His Reverence for Law--Conscience\n\n    His Jealousy for Liberty--Free-will\n\n    His Kindliness--Love   }\n    His Pureness--Life     }\n                           } The Cardinal Virtues\n    His Constancy--Truth   }\n    His Humility--Worth    }\n\n\n    PART III. SYNTHESIS\n\n    Lincoln's Moral Unison\n\n\n    PART IV. STUDIES\n\n    His Symmetry--The Problem of Beauty\n\n    His Composure--The Problem of Pessimism\n\n    His Authority--The Problem of Government\n\n    His Versatility--The Problem of Mercy\n\n    His Patience--The Problem of Meekness\n\n    His Rise from Poverty--The Problem of Industrialism\n\n    His Philosophy--The Problem of Reality\n\n    His Theodicy--The Problem of Evil\n\n    His Piety--The Problem of Religion\n\n    His Logic--The Problem of Persuasion\n\n    His Personality--The Problem of Psychology\n\n\n    PART V. CONCLUSION\n\n    Lincoln's Character\n\n    Lincoln's Preference\n\n    AN EPILOGUE--Addressed to Theologians\n\n    LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS\n\n\n\n\nLINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS\n\n\n\n\nPART I. INTRODUCTION\n\n\nLINCOLN'S MENTAL ENERGY\n\nIn ethics, if anywhere, a master needs to be mentally sane and strong.\nTruth cannot be trifled with here. Error here, whether in judgment or\nas to fact, is fatal. Insight to exactly discern, and balance to\nconsiderately compare must be the mental instincts of a moralist.\n\nHow was this with Lincoln? What was his outfit and what his discipline\nmentally? Was he unfailingly shrewd? Was he sufficiently sage? Was he\nby instinct and by habit truly an explorer and a philosopher? Did he\nhave in store, and did he have in hand, the needful wealth of\npertinent facts? Had he the logical strength and breadth to set them\nall in order and to see them all as one?\n\nSuch inquiries are severe--too severe to be pressed or faced by anyone\nin haste. But in this study of Lincoln such inquiries are not to be\nescaped. To fairly answer them is worth to any man the toil of many\ndays. For just as surely as such research is resolutely pushed through\nall its course, the eye will come to see where wisdom dwells, and to\nlearn what mental judgment and mental insight truly mean. And it will\ngrow clear as day that Lincoln mentally, as well as physically, was no\nweakling; that in intellect, as in stature, he stands among the first.\n\nIn many places this stands clear. There is no better way to trace it\nout than to start from his last inaugural. To fully explore one single\nparagraph of this address, the paragraph with which it opens, will\nmake one's examination of Lincoln's mental competence all but\ncomplete. Its opening sentence alludes to his first inaugural. That\none allusion will repay pursuit.\n\nThere Lincoln assumed the presidency. In that act and under that oath\nhe stepped to the executive headship of the Republic. By that step he\nfaced seven states in secession. It was a civil crisis, never one more\ngrave, or dark, or ominous. It threatened to subvert our national\nhistory and to undermine our national hope. It was crowding on towards\nbloody war a debate that dealt with the very basis of manhood in men.\nTo see the meaning of that crisis and to govern its issue required an\neye and a mind of Godlike vision and poise.\n\nHere is an excellent place to examine the outfit and the action of\nLincoln's intellect. His first inaugural is a masterpiece of\nintellectual equipoise and energy. Any mind that will fasten firmly\nupon the substance and the sequence of its thought may feel distinctly\nthe struggle, and the strength, and the steadiness of Lincoln's mind.\nHis arguments and his admonitions are impressive models of sanity and\npower. Which is the more notable, his insight or his outlook, it is\nhard to tell. The marvel is that the soberness and the force of his\nappeal rest quite as firmly upon the prophetic as upon the historic\nbase. So clear is his grasp of the past, so sure is his sense of the\npresent, and so deliberate is the poise of his judicial thought that\nhis vision into the future has been found by time to be unerringly\ntrue.\n\nLet any student put this to test. That address is an appeal. From\nbeginning to end it pleads. Set all its parts asunder. Then bind them\nall together as Lincoln has done. And so find out what are its\nelements; whence they are gathered; what is fact; what is principle;\nwhat is prophecy; on what plan they are assembled; by what art they\nare displayed; to what they owe their force; if in any spot of its\nargument there is a break; and if the onset of the whole is\nirresistible. Distinct replies to these distinct inquiries will tell\none all he needs to know about Lincoln's mental strength. Without\nwandering any further one can find that Lincoln's methods and\nconquests attest a student's patience, and a scholar's power; that his\nwisdom was ripe, entirely adequate to devise safe counsel for a Nation\nin civil strife.\n\nA striking feature of the address is its philosophic finish. Though\nsolidly set in concrete facts, and fitted ideally to the day of its\ndelivery, it is replete with counsel good for every time, so phrased\nas to become the very proverbs of civil politics. Total paragraphs are\nlittle more than clustered apothegms of consummate statesmanship. To\nget the style and cast of Lincoln's mind let any student comprehend\nthe girth, and ponder the weight of each following sentence, all\ngathered from this one address:--\n\nThe intention of the lawgiver is the law.\n\nI hold that in contemplation of universal law, and of the\nConstitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.\n\nPerpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all\nnational governments.\n\nIt is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in\nits organic law for its own termination.\n\nContinue to execute all the express provisions of our national\nConstitution, and the Union will endure forever.\n\nCan a contract be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who\nmade it?\n\nThat in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual is confirmed by the\nhistory of the Union itself.\n\nNo State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.\n\nThink, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written\nprovision has ever been denied.\n\nAll the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly\nassured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and\nprovisions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise\nconcerning them.\n\nIf the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the\ngovernment must cease.\n\nIf a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they\nmake a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them.\n\nPlainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.\n\nA majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and\nlimitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of\npopular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free\npeople.\n\nUnanimity is impossible.\n\nOne section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be\nextended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be\nextended. This is the only substantial dispute.\n\nPhysically speaking we cannot separate.\n\nCan aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws?\n\nCan treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws\namong friends?\n\nSuppose you go to war, you cannot fight always.\n\nThis country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inherit\nit.\n\nThe chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people.\n\nWhy should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice\nof the people?\n\nIf the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice,\nbe on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and\nthat justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great\ntribunal of the American people.\n\nThis people have wisely given their public servants but little power\nfor mischief.\n\nNothing valuable can be lost by taking time.\n\nHere are six and twenty sentences, culled from this one address, that\nare nothing less than the maxims of a political sage, as lasting as\nthey are apt. As a glove fits a hand, so did these counsels fit that\nday. As the needle guides all ships that sail, so their wisdom directs\nall politics still. They embody sure witness of an eye that is keen to\nsee--none more narrowly; and of a mind that is trained to think--none\nmore thoroughly. Their author was a man who knew. He knew the past. He\nknew things current. He knew what their coming issues were sure to be.\nHe knew the grounds of government. He knew the omens of anarchy. He\nknew the awful possibilities in fraternal hate. And he knew the need\nand the awful cost of patient forbearance. Here is a man well past\nchildhood intellectually. He has the eye and the mind of a man long\nschooled by discipline. And he has a tongue expert in speech, well\nfreighted with tremendous sense, but lucid too, and graceful, and void\nof all offense. This one address displays a man, though pathetically\nunfamiliar with childhood schools, of consummate intellectual balance\nand force.\n\nBut, for its cherished end this inaugural proved pathetically\nincompetent. And when it became his duty to pronounce a second\ninaugural oath, the Nation had been four years in terrible war. That\nwar levied a terrible tax upon the president's intellectual strength.\nThe mental perplexities of those endless days and nights cannot be\ntold. Much less can they be understood. It may be doubted whether any\nother man could have brought a mind to uphold and command those years\nwith any approach to Lincoln's mental honesty. It was, under God,\nwithin the steadfast, tenacious grasp of Lincoln's exhaustless and\ninvincible mental loyalty that our national destiny lay secure. To all\nthe phases of all the problems of all those years, and to his own\njudgment and endeavor concerning them all, this same first paragraph\nof his second inaugural also alludes. This allusion, too, if any one\nwould compass the full measure of Lincoln's mental strength, demands\nreview, and will reward pursuit. The records are well preserved. And\nthey bear abounding witness to Lincoln's almost superhuman sanity and\ninsight and energy and mental equilibrium. If any one will follow\nthrough this honest and perfectly honorable hint, he will come to feel\nthat the mind of Lincoln was the Nation's crucible in which all the\nNation's problems were resolved.\n\n\nLINCOLN'S MORAL EARNESTNESS\n\nIn the central paragraph of his last inaugural Lincoln enshrined\ncompelling demonstration of his moral soundness. That single paragraph\nis nothing less than a solid section of a finished moral philosophy.\nIt reckons right and wrong incapable of any reconciliation, God as\nAlmighty Judge, and all his judgments just. But that opinion was no\nword in haste. Deliberate as he always was, when voicing any estimate\nas President, never was he more deliberate than when penning that\nmoral explanation of the war. In four stern years he had\nbeen revolving surveying and pondering that sternest of all\ndebates:--Should the war go on or should it cease? Every argument on\neither side, that heart or thought of man could feel or see, had been\ndriven by every sense into the faithful heed of his honest soul. He\nbent his ear obediently to every plea, binding his patient mind to\nregister fairly every weighty word, designing with absolute honesty\nthat, when at last he spoke the executive decree, his decision should\nbind the Nation for the single perfect reason that it was right. And\nwhen finally and persistently he upheld the war and ordered its\nrelentless prosecution to the end, no one may truthfully charge that\nopinion and command to ignorance or malice, to prejudice or haste.\nMoral grounds alone were the basis and motive of that conclusion and\nbehest. The war was caused by slavery. With Southern success slavery\nwould spread and become perpetual. If slavery was not wrong, nothing\nwas wrong. That this great wrong should be restrained and in the end\nremoved, the war must be put through.\n\nBut that was not all his thought and argument in this last inaugural.\nThe war, for the time, parted the Nation sectionally. But the sin and\nguilt of slavery, in Lincoln's feeling, rested upon the Nation as a\nwhole; and upon the Nation as a whole he adjudged the burden of its\nwoe. Here the moral grandeur of Lincoln comes fully into view. His\naffirmation of that awful iniquity, inwrought in two centuries and a\nhalf of slavery, is no pharisaic indictment of the South. It is a\nrepentant confession of his own and all the Nation's equal part in its\ninfinite wrong. Among the guilty authors and abettors of that wrong he\nidentifies himself. He deems the war God's righteous judgment upon the\nnational inhumanity, and meekly bows his head, among the humblest and\nmost afflicted of those who suffer and sorrow beneath that scourge.\n\nThat kindly fellowship with all the Nation in the sorrows of the war,\nwith its lowly confession of all the guilt, and its patient endurance\nof all the atoning cost, proclaims and demonstrates that Lincoln's\nrespect for righteousness was supreme. It betokens a living sense of\nlaw, a hearty assent to duty, a careful reckoning of guilt, an\nuncomplaining readiness to own and rectify all wrong, a manly purpose\nto inaugurate a new rule of equity, a reverent acknowledgment of God,\nan ideal esteem for manhood everywhere, freedom from the dominion of\ngreed, friendliness for the erring, pity for the hurt and poor. Above\nall it shows the faith of a moral seer in its manifest confidence that\nhuman evil, and all its awful sorrow, are under the joint divine and\nhuman control and can be absolutely and joyfully overthrown and done\naway.\n\nHere is a type of manhood that, under the discipline of God, grew\nsterling to the core, and by a signal favoring Providence provided an\nample basis for a national moral ideal. Here is an ideal where\nconscience and righteousness stand in close affiance, where liberty\nsprings from equity, and where pity never fails. Here is a person and\na name worthy and able demonstrably to inspire and lead to national\ntriumph a new political league. And here is an official whose\nspontaneous honesty has left upon all his state papers an indelible\nmoral stamp, creating thereby out of his official documents a national\nliterature of finished beauty and excellence and power.\n\n\n\n\nPART II. ANALYSIS\n\n\nHIS REVERENCE FOR LAW--CONSCIENCE\n\nDeeply set within the heart of Lincoln in this last inaugural was his\nbinding sense of right. This obligation was civic. The speech can be\ndescribed as a statement of what a loyal citizen under confederate law\nis bound to do, when his civic loyalty is put to a final test. It is\nan illustration of obedience facing rebellion. It is an exposition of\na confederate's duty, when confederates secede. It is a civilian's\nannouncement of the law that is singly and surely sovereign, when the\nsole alternative in the Nation's life is dissolution or blood. It is a\nrevelation of the law that still prevails among and above a Republic\nof freemen, when all law is faced by the challenge and defiance of\nwar.\n\nHere is a supreme exhibit of a solid co-efficient in Lincoln's\ncharacter. It shows in a commanding way how moral duty held dominion\nin his life. He had no predilection for war. That he must face its\nmenace, or forswear his fealty to his freeman's covenant, was a\npathetic fate. And when in that alternative he upheld his oath and\nendured the war, it is past all denial that he was bowing under an\ninexorable constraint. He was plainly ordering his speech and conduct\nin submission to an all-commanding, all-reviewing moral regimen. His\nwill was listening to a moral behest. His judgment was pondering a\nmoral choice. His eye was forecasting a moral award. He was shaping\nsovereign issues with a sovereign responsibility.\n\nThis experience and this expression of Lincoln's life unearths\nfoundations in his character which demand precise examination. What\nwas the nature of the law which held and swayed the soul of Lincoln\nwith such an overmastering control? Whence came its authority? Wherein\nrested its validity? Is there record of its origin and authorship?\nWhere is it recorded? By whose hand was it transcribed? Precisely what\nare its so imperative terms?\n\nIn attempting an answer, one's first impulse is to say that in this\naddress Lincoln was speaking as citizen and official, as subject and\nchief executive of an openly organized civil government, with written\nConstitution and laws; and that what he was saying in this inaugural\naddress contained and involved no more and no less than those\nregulations expressed; that he simply adopted and echoed what they\ndefined and described; that the sole and only authority he assumed to\ncite or urge was this well-known published law of the land; and that\nin those open records one may find in fullness and precision the full\ndefinition of the nature and validity, the authority and authorship\nand origin, the very terms and abiding form of all the moral mandates\nhe here obeyed.\n\nIn such a statement there is abounding truth. Lincoln explicitly shows\nexplicit allegiance in all his political life to the dominion of our\nnational law. He revered our Constitution. And that the Constitution\nshould likewise be revered by all was all he gave his life to realize.\nGrounded as that Constitution was upon our American Bill of Rights,\nacknowledging as it did that all men were created equal, owning as it\nopenly did the sovereignty of the popular will, and allowing no other\nlord, he found within its reverent and reverend affirmations the\ndignity, authority, and power all-sufficient and supremely valid for\nhim as a fellow-citizen among his fellowmen.\n\nBut in such a statement something is left unsaid. As one listens\nthrough this address to Lincoln's voice, he instantly and continuously\nfeels that he is hearing there no mere echo of quoted words. There is\nin the vibrant tone a note that is original. His voice is his own. His\nwords are of his own selection. His phrases were fashioned by himself.\nHis paragraphs embody the shape and bear the stamp of his peculiar and\npainstaking invention and argument. In his utterance are the\ninflection and accent, the very passion of unforced and independent\nconviction. He speaks as one who finds within himself, in some true\nsense, the authority for what he says.\n\nBut not merely are his words valid for himself, as he shapes his\nordered speech. They are irrepressible. His convictions throb with\nurgency. The constraint to which he bows is enthroned and exercised\nwithin. The law he obeys is just as truly a law he ordains. But on\neither view it is a mandate which he humbly and grandly obeys. It is\nan imperative to which he yields his life.\n\nJust here emerges another phase of his amenability to law. It operates\nas an impulse to plead. It drives him to the rostrum, and makes of him\none of the foremost masters of public address our civic life and\nhistory have produced. As Lincoln voices this address he is speaking\nnot merely to himself, nor for himself, nor to ease and unburden his\nmind, nor yet to open and indicate his view. As he spoke those words\nhis eye was fixed upon a mighty multitude of his fellowmen. As he\nunfolded his thought before their attentive, waiting minds, it was as\nthough a banner were being unfurled to symbolize and signify to a\nNation's multitudes the sovereign duty of all true patriots. In that\ntransaction he became undeniably prophet and lawgiver to the Nation.\nThe obligations that supremely bind his life he urges and attests as\nbinding with equal and evident urgency upon the millions upon millions\nof the members in the same free and solemn political league. When his\nspeech is done, he would have all who hear conjoined indefeasibly with\nhim in loyalty to his law. Every sentence of the address bears\nevidence of this design. He is aiming to bring the Nation's conscience\nand will to embody and obey the identical mandates that govern him.\n\nBut his appeal is vestured in ideal deference. He deals with law. But\nhe does not command. Throughout his solemn exposition there is no note\nor hint of dictatorship of any sort. Not a breath in any accent\nsuggests any undertaking to coerce. He simply strives, as a man with\nhis friend, to persuade.\n\nAnd yet as he sets forth his speech, within the comely apparel of its\ncourteous words gleams the regal form of duty, imperial offspring of\ninflexible law. Those words were no empty phrasings of indifferent\nplatitudes, disposed and pronounced to dignify a passing pageant in\nthe formal rounds of our civic life. They trembled with anxiety. He\nspoke of nothing less than the Nation's life and death, the Nation's\nduty, and the Nation's doom. The honor of the Republic was being\nsternly tried, to see if it was sound or rotten in its very heart.\nLincoln was dealing with things that all men owned to be above all\nprice. He was striving, as for life, to achieve agreement as to duties\nthat should transcend all possible denial. He was trying to fasten\nupon every American conscience constraints that no American conscience\ncould possibly escape.\n\nHere is a cognizance of law and deference before its claims that is\ncuriously composite, if not complex, or even innerly contraposed. He\nacknowledges the written Constitution to bind all citizens with\nsupreme authority; and gives his solemn oath to honor, uphold, and\nexecute its plain behests. He as plainly betrays the presence within\nhis individual breast of a moral sovereign to which he bows with just\nas loyal reverence. And before every man with whom he pleads he orders\nhis behavior, even while he pleads, as before a throne whose moral\nmajesty he has no right or power to nullify. And yet within the terms\nembodying such a deference he expounds the genesis and justifies the\nconduct of a long-drawn civil conflict, in which his own official\ndecrees can be carried out only by the aid of the death and desolation\nentailed by war. And when, despite death-dealing guns and deferential\npleas alike, vast multitudes of men, even all the captains and armies\nof the South, despise his arguments and defy his arms, he continues to\nurge his convictions and appeals, and to reinforce his words with war.\n\nCan such a complex attitude be shown and seen to rest in moral\nharmony? Were his conscience, and the Constitution, and his deference\nbefore other men, and his summons of the land to arms equally and\nalike compelling morally, all indeed morally akin? Beneath the\nunsparing gaze of his conscience-searching eye, under all the awful\ntesting of his loyalty to oath, in all his patient and persistent\npleadings for other men's agreement, and through all the torture and\ndistress of war, what explanation and account can be given of any\nobligation adequate to bind and justify his course? Instinct himself\nwith deference, and averse to any form of tyranny, how could he so\nrigidly refuse to yield? Prone toward conciliation in every fiber of\nhis life, how did he inwardly, how could he openly vindicate his\nunbending determination to uphold his faith, and carry through the\nwar?\n\nThis forces a final and vital inquiry touching the nature of the law\nthat was so regnant and compelling in Lincoln's personal life; and\nthat he was struggling here in this address with such consuming\ndesire, and by the unabetted efficiency of oral appeal, to implant in\nother breasts. From Lincoln's balanced words it stands apparent that\nthe problems bound up in this inquiry beleaguered him on every side.\nHis throbbing syllables, and the tactics by which his sentences are\narranged, attest impressively that while he was facing problems too\nprofound for human thought to solve, he was also facing laws that he\ncould not escape, and dared not disobey. It was not for his kind heart\nto sanction and encompass such a war, and stand so solidly against the\nsolid South, while yet behaving with so unfeigned respect for every\nother man, except beneath compulsion of a law supremely gentle and\ninvincibly severe. He was plainly viewing some behest too plain to be\ndenied, too sacred to be disobeyed, too insistent to be withheld, and\nyet too reverend and benign to suffer any champion to be rude--a\nbehest around whose throne hung sanctions, true to fact, waiting to\nadjudge, certain to descend.\n\nIn the effort now to trace in the soul of Lincoln the birth and growth\nand manly stature of this deep sense of law, some things stand plain.\nIn this, his consciousness of sovereign duty and supreme allegiance,\nLincoln stands entire. In this address will and thought and sentiments\ncombine. He is not swept against his will. What he decides he eagerly\ndesires. And with his will and wish his best intelligence co-operates.\nIf any man essay to overthrow his argument, he has the total Lincoln\nto overturn. Determined, impassioned, and convinced, he confronts all\nmen, whether they be adversaries or friends. In his contention and\ndefense his being is completely unified. He is employing upon his\nmaster task his total strength. Distressful, dark and difficult as is\nhis environment and time, he suffers and ponders and resolves, with\nforces undivided, none reserved. With such convictions, such desires,\nand such determination, the assurance in his onset was in itself\ntriumphant.\n\nUpon what foundations now for such unyielding confidence and appeal\ndid Lincoln take his stand? For Lincoln's own deliberate reply, let\nall men read again, and then again, and still again, this second\ninaugural address. Those words are appareled with a beautiful charity.\nBut from deep within their kindliness resounds the clear, firm voice\nof heaven-ordered, all-prevailing law--a law that comprehends beneath\nits strong and high dominion the long career of American slavery,\ndefining its sin, awarding its doom, and dealing justly with the\ncontending imprecations and the pleading intercessions that strangely\nvoice the deep confusion of embattling hosts. American slavery, its\nsin and doom--in his exposition of that dark theme, Lincoln gave his\nexposition of all-compelling law.\n\nAll men were created equal. The right of all men to liberty is\nlikewise a primitive endowment. Upon this one broad base, and upon no\nother, did Lincoln ever set up any claim to voice for himself, or for\nhis fellowman, a civic obligation. To that creative decree can be\ntraced all the civic appeals that Lincoln ever made. In fixing there\nthe ground of every plea, he had indomitable assurance of faith that\nhe was defining and declaring for every man an irreducible and\nineffaceable moral law. All men were created equal. All men were\ndivinely entitled to be free. That fiat of God Americans had tried and\ndared to invalidate. Its authority it was now the Almighty's purpose,\nby the obedient hand of Lincoln, to reinaugurate. Its simple terms,\nthat had forever been indelible, were now to be made universally\nlegible, and everywhere visible, by the obedient consent of all his\nfellowmen.\n\nIn all of this the chiefest thing to note is that this same\nall-commanding moral law is born within. Written precepts and\npublished constitutions are but transcriptions. They are not original.\nThey are only copies. Not at the tip of a moving pen, but in our\nforefathers' reverent and independent hearts, did our noble\nConstitution come to birth. And in the time of Lincoln it was in\nLincoln's heart that this venerable law was born again. In the heart\nof Washington, in the heart of Lincoln, in the heart of every man, as\nfashioned and over-shadowed evermore by God, all moral regimen has its\nstately origin.\n\nTo this grave oracle, deep within Lincoln's Godlike soul, did Lincoln\nfashion utterance. To this same reverend oracle, deep-lodged within\nthe Godlike soul of every listener, Lincoln made appeal. Here is all\nthe urgency of all his argument. Here is the secret of all his\nconfidence. Herein alone shines all his moral majesty.\n\nSomething such was Lincoln's exposition to himself, and to his time,\nof the majesty and mandatory force of civic law. Its authority rests\nin God. Its validity rests as well in man. It has been written down\nmost nobly in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Its terms spell\nfreedom and equality for all. In the light of our common human\nsentiments, kindling within us from heavenly fires, its printed copies\nmay be easily revised. And while its concrete regulations are far too\nmanifold for any general document to possibly contain, its dictates\nare all as concrete and corresponsive to our human civic life as is\nthe heaven-born and reverent human friendliness with which the life of\nLincoln was continually graced.\n\nDeferring then to future pages all specific analysis and appraisal of\nthe pregnant interior wealth of Lincoln's sense of moral obligation,\ntwo momentous affirmations touching Lincoln's reverence for law lie\nalready right at hand. The law he reverenced held high and wide\ndominion. It shaped and swayed and judged at once and alike both his\nown and his Nation's destiny.\n\nAnd its terms were plain. It was no timid, dusky lamp, held in\ntrembling hand, throwing uncertain rays, and flickering towards\nextinction. The law that shines in this inaugural is a glowing,\nradiant orb, bringing day when first it dawned, and shedding still\nfull light of day over all the earth.\n\n\nHIS JEALOUSY FOR LIBERTY--FREE-WILL\n\nThis second inaugural address had its birth in the breast of a man\nfreeborn, and resolute to remain forever free. To find within this\nspeech this living seed, to trace and sketch its bursting growth, and\nto gather up its fruit, is well worth any toil or cost. To begin with,\nthis speech is undeniably Lincoln's own. That in any sense it was born\nof any other man's dictation, Lincoln would never admit, and no other\nman would ever affirm. As its words gain voice, every listener feels\nthat Lincoln was their only author, and that even in their utterance,\nthough in the living presence of an un-numbered multitude, this\nspeaker was standing in a majestic solitude. That exposition of the\nwar, of the Union, and of slavery was of and by and for himself. What\nhe was uttering was original. The convictions he affirmed were his\npersonal faith. The decision his words so delicately veiled was his\npersonal resolve. The issue towards which they aimed was the outlook\nof his lone heart's hope. The appeal he voiced was warmed and winged\nby his own desire. The argument he so deftly inwrought was his\ninvention and device. The words he singled out were his selection.\nThe total aspect and onset and effect of the address, as it looked and\nworked on the day of its delivery, and as it looks and works today,\nwere of his unforced and free election and intent. All the volume,\nburden and design of those pregnant, urgent, far-seeing paragraphs are\nthe first hand product of a freeborn man, adapted and addressed to men\nfreeborn.\n\nHere is for any student of ethics an imposing spectacle. For here is a\ncommanding demonstration that mortal man is in very deed a responsible\nauthor of moral deeds. That this inaugural scene gives this stupendous\ntruth an indeniable vindication, no man may lightly undertake to\ndisapprove. But within that undeniable verity are involved all the\nmighty revolutions of a moral universe.\n\nThis import of this speech can never be made too plain. To this end\nlet any reader note the fact that in that stern day, and in this plain\nspeech, Lincoln faced, and that under a pitiless compulsion, an\nexigent alternative. When he penned, and when he spoke its freighted\nwords, he stood in the very brunt of war. His thoughts were tracing\nbattle lines. His eye was fixed on bayonets. Before him stood\nfar-ranging ranks of men in mutual defiance, men at variance upon\nfundamental things, men in conflict over claims irreconcilable by God\nor man. By no device of argument or of compromise could those\ncontending claims become identical, or even mutually tolerant. Men's\npaths had parted. Armies had taken sides. Difference had deepened into\nintolerance; intolerance had heightened into hate; and hate had flared\nup into war. Secession had proclaimed that the Union must dissolve,\nthat confederates were foes, that one Nation must be two. And men\nbased their reasons for rending the land and for rallying ranks in\narms, upon opposing views of God's decree, and of the nature of men.\nOne side claimed that God ordained that black men should be slaves.\nThis claim the other side denied; and avowed instead that God in his\ncreation and endowment of the human race ordained that all men should\nbe equal and free. So appalling and so passing plain in our political\nlife was the alternative which this inaugural had to confront.\n\nEqually plain upon the face of this inaugural is the fact that, in the\npresence of that dread and stern alternative, Lincoln made a choice.\nHe picked his flag. He chose the banner of the free. The standard of\nthe slaveholder he spurned. Responsibly, deliberately, he selected\nwhere to stand, fully and consciously purposing that in such selection\nhe was enlisting and employing all the voluntary powers of his life.\nHere was conscious choice. He did select. He did reject. He could have\ntaken another, an oppugnant stand, as many a familiar confederate did.\nTwo paths were surely possible. And they did undeniably diverge. That\ndivergence he soberly surveyed, and traced down through all its\ndevious ways to their final consequence. In act and motive, in\njudgment and intent, he was self-poised, self-determined, self-moved.\nWhen, in this second inaugural scene, removed from his former\ninaugural oath by four imperious years of sobering and awakening\nthought, but facing still a frowning South, he swore a second time to\npreserve, protect and defend the Constitution--that was a freeman's\nchoice. And it was Lincoln's own. Between his soul and heaven, as he\nregistered that resolve, no third authority intervened. As he stood\nand published and defined that reiterated pledge, his soul was\nsovereignly, supremely free.\n\nAnd within that sovereign freedom its even-balanced deliberation\nshould not be overlooked. Those days that filed between those two\ninaugurals had been replete with studied meditation. The mighty\nproblems precipitated by the war he had taken and turned and poised\nand sought to estimate and solve in every possible way. He pondered\nevery ounce of their awful gravity. He paced the total course of their\ndevelopment. He knew our history, with all its ideals and all its\nerrors by heart. He inspected with peculiar carefulness the drift and\ntrend of our national career. It is doubtful if any one ever studied\nso incessantly the current of our affairs, or peered so anxiously and\nwith such far-sighted calculation into the hidden and distant issues\nof the stupendous enterprise in which he was predestined to act so\ncommanding a part. So when his free decision was ushered forth and\nprojected among the contending determinations of his day, to play its\npart, it was the ripe conclusion of a thoughtful mind, like the\nwell-poised verdict of a judge.\n\nAnd his free choice was resolute. His will was without wavering. The\nside he made his own was forced to face the musketry and forts, the\narsenals and fleets, of a would-be nation of angry, determined\nmen--men who would rather die than yield. The choice he made involved\nthe shedding of human blood. This he sadly knew. In four endless years\nhe had been compelled to defend his resolution with arms. And now as\nhe volunteered his oath a second time, his free decision involved\nagain the frightful corollary of war. This meant that within his\nvoluntary oath was a conscious determination, too vigorous and\nresolute for any threat to daunt, for any form of terror to reverse.\nHis choice was no feeble leaning to one side. Into its formation and\ninto its fulfillment poured all the energy of his life. It was vastly,\nradically more than impulse, or propensity, or easy, unconsidered\ninclination. It was a freeman's choice, poised and edged and\nenergized by a freeman's will. It had firmness like the firmness of\nthe hills.\n\nThis choice of Lincoln was ponderous. His exercise of freedom, as\nshown in this inaugural, was dealing, not with things indifferent, not\nwith trifles void of moral moment, nor with empty, immaterial\nsuppositions. When Lincoln shaped and welcomed to himself this\npreference, he was handling nothing less than the affronts of human\narrogance, the greed of human avarice, the cruelty of human slavery,\nand a confederate's disloyalty. That preference was his free election\nto enthrone within himself, and within all other men, the stability of\na firm allegiance, the grace of human friendliness, the worthy\nvaluation of human souls, and the surpassing beauty of a true\nhumility. It was between such values that his election took its shape.\nHis decision dealt with things primary, enduring, and universal. It\nwas concerned with the elemental affections and convictions of men,\nwhile all the time supremely respecting the decrees and judgments of\nAlmighty God. Upon such a level, and amid such values, did the will of\nLincoln trace out its path. It was a Godlike energy, sovereign,\nsoberminded, original, free.\n\nBut though this freedom of Lincoln, as it reigns through this\ninaugural, was individually his own, and wrought out into precise\nexperience in personal singleness and independency, by no manner of\nmeans was he standing in this scene in moral isolation. He was beset\nabout and wrought upon from many sides by mighty moral energies. For\none thing, a vast Republic held him fast in the bonds of loyal\ncitizenship. It was a Republic composed of freemen, to be sure. But\nthose freemen were by no means a miscellany of mutually indifferent\nand disconnected units. They had formed a Union. That Union had a\ndefinite and inviolable integrity. That corporate integrity laid an\nunrenounceable obligation upon all its membership. It was the sacred\nrespect for the sacred honor of that political bond that proved a man\na patriot. To assert the freeman's right to cast aside those bonds\nproved a man a traitor, and gendered unto bondage. Here unfolds a\nveritable mesh of moral obligations--obligations of compelling\npotency. It was precisely in defence and demonstration of those\nenveloping claims that Lincoln advocated and prosecuted a defensive\nbut relentless war.\n\nThe South resented all such claims. They were resolute that national\nbonds should be defied, that their authority should be annulled. And\nthis they urged explicitly in the very name of freedom. This defiant\nprotest Lincoln's opposite preference had to face. This involved his\nmind in the study of a problem that is never out of date--a study that\nwill test any student's moral honesty to the quick. Lincoln's\nchampionship of moral liberty had to grapple, in the counter\nchampionship of Southern arms, a type and sort of freedom that he\nforever disowned for himself, and that he could never consent to in\nany other man. This drove him into the study of the nature of a human\nsoul and the nature of social bonds. This inquiry uncovered two\nfoundation rocks, laid deep by our forefathers beneath the fabric of\nour republic, supports to human honor and stability which no man nor\nany confederation of men can undermine and overthrow without turning\nupside down the fundamental supports of harmony and honor among\ncivilians that are free. These two foundation rocks are the divine\ndesign that all men should be equal and free; and the certain\ncorollary that governments among men derive their just powers from the\nconsent of the governed. The equality of freemen when they stand\napart, and their free consent, when they join in a political\nleague--these are the immovable pillars of character and order among\nintelligent men. Upon such foundations this government has been\nplaced. That sure basis the South assailed. In the name of freedom\nthat assault must be repulsed. The national environment, the national\nintegrity, the national honor, the existence of the Nation, conceived\nas it was in liberty, made all such liberty as the South preferred,\nnot a freeman's right, but a sorry simulation, a moral wrong.\nGovernment of the people, by the people, was freedom to the core, the\ncore of civic righteousness. In such a government popular and\neverlasting allegiance was elemental uprightness. Among freemen, the\ncornerstone of civics is a plighted troth to liberty.\n\nThus Lincoln argued. And with him to argue thus was to obey. As thus\nconceived, obedience to his civic pledge went hand in hand with\nliberty. Enlistment under a government and laws framed by\nfellow-freemen was to him no limitation of his personal rights.\nInstead it involved and assured for every bondman a full emancipation,\nand for every freeman full title forever to every unalienable right.\nSuch a view was indeed ideal, as Lincoln soberly knew; but for that\nideal every power of his kingly manhood was ready to struggle and\nsuffer and serve. To bind his hand to such a league was his free\nchoice. To live in loyalty to such a bond was a living pride and joy.\nSuch an agreement was to the end of his days unresented and\nunconstrained.\n\nBut it cost him dearly. No indentured bonds-man ever wrought out sorer\ntoil. None ever suffered through longer, heavier, sadder days. It wore\naway his life. The war was to his tender soul, as he termed it, \"a\ndreadful scourge.\" But as he interpreted its trend, its certain\nwinnings outvalued and outweighed its woe. It was freely and\nwillingly, not by any irksome and alien coercion, that he opened his\nsoul to all its sorrows, and poured out all his strength to direct and\nhasten its consummation. He saw unerringly that it had to do with\ngovernment by free consent, with the tenure of a freeman's oath, with\nthe validity of a freeman's right. And by a preference that in his\nfreeman's breast was irrepressible, he selected with an open,\nfar-ranging eye to take his place in that terrific conflict in the\nvery brunt, that the Nation and all the world and coming ages might\nsee and enjoy its happy issue in a Union built and compacted\nindissolubly upon the inviolable oaths and rights of men who are free.\n\nThis was Lincoln's law of liberty. It secures to men their freedom;\nbut it binds those freemen in a league. Their civic life is not a\nsolitude. It is a covenant.\n\nBut when freemen form a league, their solemn oath, as this inaugural\nshows, embodies awful sanctions. From such a league and covenant,\nseven confederate parts were affirming and defending their right to\nsecede, and that by force of arms. This forced freedom to a final\ndefinition, and a final test. What follows when a Republic fails? What\nform of civic order lies beyond, when a league of freemen is violently\ndissolved? Where will freedom find sure footing, when the fundamental\nlaws of freemen are defied? On this stern question Lincoln fixed his\neye. And as his vision cleared and deepened, he grew to see that if\nfreedom among men could ever survive, a freeman's mutual covenant must\nbe inviolate. A freeman's compact must be kept, else on all the earth\nfreedom could find no resting place. If this should ever be denied,\nthat denial must be sternly smitten to the ground. Thus for the very\ncause of freedom, and as a freeman, Lincoln was driven into war. He\nwas put where he had no other choice. He was forced to fight.\n\nBut in that war the havoc and disaster were mutual. Both sides\nsuffered terribly. The conflict dealt out torture that neither party\ncould evade. It was mighty ponderings on these conditions that wrung\nfrom Lincoln's heart the heart of this inaugural, wherein he traces\nwith a humble, deep-searching carefulness the cause of all the war to\nthat prolonged infraction of the law of liberty in the lot of the\nAmerican slave; and the guilt of that enormous sin to North and South\nalike; and the moral explanation of the sorrows of the war to the\njudgments of Almighty God.\n\nHerein he learned that among freemen freedom is in no sense arbitrary\nand absolute. Laws lie in its very being. Their presence is\nspontaneous indeed, as is every impulse of their promulgation and\nrule. But they must be obeyed. If their self-framed mandates are\ndisobeyed, then freemen are no longer free. If freemen dare to bind\nand rob their fellows and aggrandize their own advantages, then the\nyoke they bind on other men, by a sanction no mortal can escape, will\nbe bound upon their own necks, until their false advantages are all\nsurrendered, and the freedom that is claimed by anyone is given\nequally to every other man. To the fulfillment and preservation of\nthat law Lincoln freely bowed his life. This is the core of this\naddress. Thus Lincoln illustrates true liberty. In the crucible of war\nwas his vision of the worth of freedom finally refined. It was through\na costly sacrifice of peace. But it was alone and all for freedom, for\nfreedom and for nothing else, that his peace and ours was sacrificed.\n\nThis exposition of Lincoln's pure ideal of independent, virile manhood\nhas embraced, in passing, a phase of the vast environment in which he\nfelt his manhood framed, that calls for separate remark--the relation\nof his human freedom to the rule of God. The war is traced in this\naddress to a threefold origin: it was projected in the resolution of\nthe South that slavery should be given leave to spread; it was\naccepted in the decision of the North that the present bounds of\nslavery should not be passed; the whole affair was overturned, and the\nwar was over-ruled in the purpose of Almighty God, that North and\nSouth, as a single Nation, guilty in common for slavery as a national\nsin, should make full requital for all its cruelty. In this thought of\nLincoln, the conflicting purposes of the North and the South, and his\nown determination too, were being made to bow beneath the mightier\ndominion of Almighty God. In the realm of human politics this is a\nrare and notable confession. And that it was published beneath the\nopen sky, at noon, before a peopled Nation's open eye, as a thoughtful\nexplanation of his inaugural oath as president of a mighty government\nupon the earth, must be conceded to mightily enhance its notability.\nIt lacks but little of rising to the rank of prophecy. But equally\nnotable with its publicity is its conscious, free submissiveness.\nClear to discern, he is also prompt to own the over-mastering rule of\nGod. His attitude in this inaugural is an attitude of explicit\nsubordination to a higher power. But it is clear as day that this\nsubordination is voluntary. There is no sign of reluctance or\nunwillingness, as though he were being forced, not even though all\nexpectations of his own were being over-ruled in the inscrutable plans\nof God. This address reveals this man in a mood and tone of complete\nsubmission, ready for rebuke, surrendering all his ways to God. This\nposture of acquiescence, in God's revolution of his plans, and\nreconstruction of his hopes, is the factor to notice here, as we\nexamine the actual operation of Lincoln's will. Above his private\nliberty, above his high official authority, above the great Republic\nin which his own decisions merge, reigns the hidden hand of God. To\nthe power and majesty of that unseen sway he summons every dignity\nand every desire of his own to render unreserved obedience.\n\nIn seeing and saying this, however, one must never omit to observe and\nadd that Lincoln's eye observed with solemn joy a precious moral\nmeaning in the divine omnipotence. Heaven's unexpected guidance and\nconsummation of the war were only adding clarity and emphasis to the\nprinciple of liberty. It only drove the demonstration home, and that\nwith irresistible cogency, that human bondage must be avenged. And so\nin fact Lincoln's solemn reverence for the divine control was a girdle\nconfirming the strength of the fine jealousy that guarded for himself\nand for all mankind the sacredness and the majesty of the human will.\nWithin the deeper deeps of his own free preference he coincided and\nco-operated with the will of God. His obedience to God, his allegiance\nto his civic covenant, and his individual, cherished preference\ncoalesce ideally; while each, without any diversion or loss, preserves\nits own integrity.\n\nThus with life-exhausting, sacrificial toil, with genuine originality,\never exemplifying in his chastened life all the burden of his thought,\nby a decisive choice between divergent paths, with the careful\ndeliberateness of a full-grown man, with unconquerable determination,\ngravely sensible of every ponderous consequence, in unbroken and\nintimate companionship with all his fellow-men, with vision sharp to\ndetect and uncover every simulation and counterfeit of his wish,\nthrough solemn fellowship with redemptive sorrows, bowing without\nrepugnance to every sanction that free equality enjoins, and in humble\nreverence for the all-commanding, all-subduing will of God, Lincoln\nhere unfolds the central and infolded implications in his\nall-consuming jealousy to be free.\n\n\nHIS KINDLINESS--LOVE\n\nA genuine and generous goodwill to other men breathes warmly through\nthis second inaugural, as the glowing breath of life pervades the\nbodily frame of a living child. This manifests itself, as seen in his\nimpassioned zeal for freedom, in a vivid consciousness of\ncompanionship. He felt his life and destiny interlaced inseparably\nwith all Americans, nay with all the world of human kind. With this\nwidely expanded and ever expanding Republic, he felt himself in these\ninaugural scenes peculiarly identified. In that great pageant he was\ndeeply sensible of holding the central place. His inaugural oath,\nthough his single, individual act, announced his conscious purpose to\nbe the Nation's head. In that station his person became supremely\nrepresentative. It was for him to incorporate nobly, mightily,\njudicially, the national dignity, authority, and design.\n\nMany phases of this profound coincidence of the life of Lincoln with\nthe Nation's life come into sight whenever his life's career is\ncarefully reviewed. But among all the illustrations of his\nself-submergence deep within the overflowing fullness of our national\nhistory, there is one that demonstrates his tender kindliness beyond\nall possibility of refutation. This is his profound participation with\nthe Nation in her fate because of slavery. Around this awful issue\ncircles all the thought of this, as of the first address. That this\npuissant co-efficient of our national history was somehow the cause of\nthe existing war he said that all men felt. He registered his own\nopinion that all the sorrows of the war were in requital for that sin.\nInto those sorrows no man entered more profoundly than did Lincoln\nhimself. They sobered all his joy. They solemnized him utterly. It is\ntrue few heard his groans. In his patience he was mainly silent. None\never heard him make complaint. All impulse to resentment was subdued.\nBut the nation's sorrows were on his heart. Through all those days he\nwas our confessor, self-sacrificed, sorrow-laden, faithful absolutely,\nbut uncomplaining. Upon his head an angry, unanimous South, and many\nthousands in the North dealt vengeful, malicious blows, denying him\nall joy, crying out against him ruthlessly. All this he bore, as\nthough he heard them not, and continued day and night to seek the\nNation's peace. With marvelous freedom from malice himself, with\nfullness of charity for all, he taught a Nation how a Nation's sorrows\nshould be patiently borne. And yet through all the days, in all this\nland, no man was more purely innocent of the Nation's sin of slavery\nthan this same man. Here is friendship. Here is neighborly compassion\nwritten large. This is generosity, untinctured with any selfish\nreservation. Amid all the sorrows and fortunes of our history no sight\nis half as pathetic as this deep, free, silent companionship of\nLincoln with his Nation's griefs in the deepest period of her\naffliction. And yet he almost seemed to cherish his fate. He bore it\nall so quietly, and with such a steady heart and eye, that in his\nseeming calm we are unconscious of his pain. He gives no hint of\nfaltering and drawing back. He even strove repeatedly to lure the\nNation to his side, to enter into sacrificial fellowship with the\nhapless South. But to nothing of this would the people hear.\n\nThis commanding fact, the moral mutualness of the innocent Lincoln's\nsorrows with the sorrows of a guilty land, is a primary factor in this\nhistoric scene. From such a moral complication momentous questions\nemerge. How can such confusion of moral issues be ever justified? Why\ndo guilty and innocent suffer and sorrow alike? In such a glaring\nmoral inequality how could Lincoln himself ever bring his candid mind\nto honestly acquiesce? Why should a later generation suffer vengeance\nfor their father's sins? Why the black man's fate? How can moral\njudgments diverge so hopelessly upon such basic moral themes? If God's\njudgment is just, why are his judgments upon such inhumanity so long\ndelayed? How about those kindred sufferings of those earlier days that\nfor total generations were unavenged? Questions such as these must\nhave risen in Lincoln's mind as he drained his bitter cup. Such\nquestions are not to be evaded or suppressed. It should rather be said\nthat Lincoln's undeniable gentleness in enduring, as the Nation's\nhead, and for his country's sake, a Nation's curse for a national sin\nforces just such questions into sharpest definition, and focuses them\ninsistently and unavoidably before every thoughtful eye. They are\nshaped and fastened here solely to render aid in indicating, as they\nundeniably do, the supreme refinement of Lincoln's friendliness. He\nheld by kindly fellowship with his fellowmen, even when that\nfellowship involved his innocent life in the moral shame and pain of\ntheir reprobation and woe. Here is an interchange of guilt and\ninnocence, in Lincoln's undeniable experience, undeniably resolved and\nharmonized. Here is human kindliness, triumphant, transcending all\ndebate.\n\nAround this exalted illustration of the strength and purity of\nLincoln's benevolence cluster many statements eager to be heard. His\nkindness showed in many ways, but they were all but varying, accordant\nforms of pure neighborliness. His mastery of all malice, his unfailing\ncharity, the kindliness of his cherished hope, his companionship with\nothers' sorrow, his longings for peace at home and among all men, his\npity for the bereft, his tenderness before our human wounds, his\nreluctance to go to war, his championship of the oppressed, his\nwillingness to bear another's blame, his silence before abuse, his\nmighty predilections towards universal friendliness, are all\nconcordant and coincident types and forms of his prevailing,\nspontaneous companionship with men. Each phase deserves elaborate\ndescription. But it is in closer keeping with the treatment here to\nname some general qualities of his kindliness, qualities that are\ncommon to all its forms.\n\nHis friendliness was immediate. When human needs appealed for comfort\nand aid, it was not his way to send a deputy. He appeared himself.\nHere is something nothing less than marvelous. An intimate friend of\nall, he stood in conscious touch with all the Nation's citizenship. At\nfirst thought this may seem to be in consequence and by means of his\neminence and office as the people's president. As chief executive of\nthe people's will, and as foremost representative citizen, he stood\nfor every man in that man's place; and his universal friendliness\nfound open avenues to every individual citizen's consciousness. Here\nis truth. But this truth only partially meets this case. The\noperations of his benevolence were somehow independent of space and\ntime. His tours while president were short and few. Back and forth\nbetween the White House, the war office, and the soldier's home he\nwore a historic path. It is almost overwhelmingly sad to realize how\nalmost all his movements while president were within the\nsorrow-shadowed walls and the hidden solitudes of his official home.\nAs said before, he seemed to exist apart from men, in a pathetic\nisolation. Nevertheless, it is plain to all that Lincoln's\nuncalculating generosity reached, like the shining of the sun, to the\nlimits of the land. It is most surprising when one thinks. But when\none thinks, it is most clear that there was in Lincoln's kindliness a\nNation-wide capacity for intimacy. In the open genial presence of his\ngood-will all men feel they have an immediate and equal share. And\nthis holds true whether one is near enough to feel the warmth of his\nliving breath, or whether half a continent intervenes.\n\nThis fact forces into view and consciousness the pure excellence of\nhis love. It was in its nature deeply real. He did in verity live\nclose to every man. He wore no distant air. He practised no reserve.\nHe felt and proved himself to be the kin of all. His pictured face and\npublished speech were a perfect symbol, a convincing pledge to every\nhonest man of close and equal partnership. His ways are often said to\nhave been homely. But their very homeliness was all human and all\nhumane. And in his presence, or in the presence of any truthful\nimpress or echo of his life, no honest nature but feels itself\ninstantly at ease and quite at home. This habitude in him of\novercoming distance, and absence, and all other obstacles to his\nfar-ranging love, and winning entrance everywhere into the affections\nof all kindly men, is a notable stamp upon the total texture of his\nfriendliness. He stood with men in personal partnership, immediate,\nintimate, real.\n\nAnd in all his intimate and immediate fellowship with men his personal\ncontribution was entire. In his co-partnership he had no treasure too\nprecious to invest. He gave his all. Imposing, almost impossible as is\nthe meaning of these words, all mankind do recognize, and that with\nwondering reverence, that when Lincoln rose to take the presidential\noath, he held nothing back. In his service of the Union he invested\nhis life, his honor, his hope, even all he had. It was little else he\nhad to give. His lineage was of the lowliest. His education was of the\nmeagerest, and wholly a by-achievement. In social graces he was quite\nunversed and unadorned. He was no flatterer. The fawner's dialect he\nnever knew. He would not boast. To beg he was ashamed. He was too\nhonest for any knavery. Pure integrity was his only asset. As he took\nhis stand at the presidential post, he stood without a single\ndecoration, unsupported, all alone. It was literal truth that when he\ntook his official oath the only bond he had to furnish was his naked\nhonor. But that possession was no counterfeit. Its value did not\nfluctuate. It was solid gold. In his honest rating, the plighted faith\nin the words of his official pledge was beyond all price. As he\ndiscerned and understood the crisis of his day, the Nation's very\nbeing was at mortal stake. And when in that momentous hour she\nsummoned him to take the presidency, she laid sovereign requisition\nupon his total being. And when he obeyed the call, he invested all. No\nreserve of his possession was kept in hiding for his refuge and\nreimbursement, in case the Nation failed. He ventured all he had, even\nall his honor. And this complete consignment by Lincoln to the\nNation's use of all his moral wealth, of all his pure and priceless\npersonal worth, was an act of unalloyed benignity. It was for the\nNation's welfare that he devoted himself. It was that the Union might\nbe preserved, and that all men might be free, that he plighted his\nintegrity.\n\nThis investment of Lincoln's friendliness for the well-being of all\nthe land, even of all the men therein, was not alone immediate,\nwinning direct attachment to every man; nor merely all-absorbing on\nLincoln's part, impressing into kindly service every value and every\ncapacity of his total life; it also enshrined a deathless hope.\nLincoln's patriotic devotedness was no venture of a day or of a\ndecade. Lincoln's good-will looked far ahead. He had a passion for\nimmortality. His total effort and aim in all his generous endeavors\nand hopes, as he served in his public life, can be defined as a\nsovereign aspiration that our government should be so guided and\nchastened in all its life that the Union should never be dissolved. To\nhis kindly heart no possible event seemed more appalling than that\nthis hope should fail. So far as his words reveal, this central,\nsovereign passion of his glowing heart was all but exclusively\npatriotic. He apparently forgot himself in his wistful anxious hope\nthat the Nation's peace might long endure. His faith in the Union's\nindestructibility may be said to spring out of his undying continual\nlove for his fellowman. Indeed just here seems to be the birthplace of\nall his prophetic ponderings over the final issues of our civic life.\nThe very stature of the government which his ideal conceived and which\nhe thankfully saw that our Republic designed, was deemed by him to be\ncopied from nothing other than the divinely fashioned moral nature\nwhich he found alike in himself and in all his fellowmen. Deep within\nhis friendly heart he cherished the vision of a Republic of freemen\nleagued together indissolubly as mutual friends. It was to realize and\ncertify that hope that he dedicated his life. And when he pledged and\nsealed that offering, it was with no design that the seal should ever\nbe broken, or the pledge be ever recalled. Here is another primary\nquality of Lincoln's friendliness. It was inwrought with personal\ndurability. Grounded as was his civic hope in the freedom and\nconscience of Godlike men, it was impossible for him to consent that\nsuch a hope should ever encounter defeat or decay. Deep and sure\nwithin its essential nature were the urgent promptings and the soaring\npromise of immortality.\n\nThese observations upon the immediate directness, the integral\nwhole-heartedness, and the deathless eagerness of Lincoln's\nfriendliness, if thoughtfully compared together, reveal that these\ndistinctive phases of his outpouring good-will are in nature\nidentically the same, and spring from an identical source. This\nessential coincidence, this mutual convergence deserves attention. It\nintimates wherein the very essence and being of his neighborly\nkindness consists. And in Lincoln's life this indication of the\nprecise whereabouts and substance of the essential and innermost\nquality and being of human kindliness is certain and clear, as in\nhardly any other man. His benignance in his dealings with men is of\nwell-nigh unparalleled openness and freedom from all admixture and\nalloy. Lincoln's kindness embodies and conveys Lincoln's self. In\nevery favor from him he is in the gift. In the center of all the\nfriendliness that is characteristic of Lincoln, Lincoln himself stands\nerect and entire, offering and commending in every case his\nfull-sized, undivided self. This is the core and this the\ncircumference, this is the sum and this the substance of his\ngood-will. It is rich with all his personal wealth, solid with all his\npersonal worth. In him an act of friendship was an inauguration of\npersonal copartnership. In his good-will was all the energy of his\nlife. In his benefactions he gave himself. Just so with his\ncompassions. With the sorrows of humanity it was his way to enter into\npersonal fellowship. This was the form and being of all his\ngenerosity. His mastery over all malice when facing a foe, his\nabounding charity when judging a wrong, his hearty gladness in the\npresence of human joy, his cordial ways in greeting friends, his\nfatherly affection for his boy, his love for his native land, his pity\nin presence of the bereft, his sadness at sight of wounds, his\nreadiness to share evenly with all his Nation all that guilty Nation's\npainful discipline--all this variety and plenitude of ample,\nopen-hearted tenderness towards other men was alike and always the\ncomplete and conscious contribution of himself. In brief, in full, and\nfinally, Lincoln's friendliness, through all its beautiful\nversatility, was a free and facile, a full and total, personal\nself-devotion. This is the common content giving all its value to all\nthe forms of his human kindliness.\n\n\nHIS PURENESS--LIFE\n\nIn the exposition just foregoing, the thought has been drawn into\nallusions to Lincoln's premonitions or aspirations towards\nimmortality, for the Union, if not for himself. This was in the course\nof an effort to find the spring-head of his kindliness. And it\nculminated in the suggestion that deep within Lincoln's being there\nwas enshrined an assurance, however unconfessed or even half\nunconscious, of personal immortality. And that from within this shrine\nof living hope, common to him with every man, he drew his inspiration\nand his very pattern of a national Union and a national peace that\nwould endure forever.\n\nHere is something that calls for examination, for in this we touch a\nradical quality of Lincoln's moral being. This eager craving after\npermanence was in him an appetite that could never be fed or satisfied\nby any things that perish. In itself and in its nutriment there is an\nirrepealable call for something indefeasable, something utterly\nsuperior to all fear of death, something never amenable to any form of\ndissolution or decay, something spiritually pure, and essentially\nkindred to the essential being of a deathless soul.\n\nThe matter may be approached to start with by saying some things\nnegatively. Lincoln was centrally in no sense a materialist. He was\nindeed firmly sensitive to the physical majesties of this continent,\nthough in his day they were hardly half disclosed. He calculated with\ncarefulness our material capacities for expansion in power and wealth.\nHe foresaw our certain outward growth into a puissant Nation, the\ncoveted and ample resort and refuge and home of hordes of men from\nother lands. In his own well-seasoned and resourceful physique he felt\nand knew the worth of physical virility. He could thoughtfully compute\nthe glittering values, the goodly financial revenues, the days and\nmonths and total seasons of physical idleness and delights that accrue\nto human owners from the unrequited toil of human slaves. And in the\ncurrent civil war he completely understood that no less a concern than\nthe perpetuity of the American Union was pending upon contests largely\nconsisting of encounters of physical prowess, of tests of muscular\nendurance and strength.\n\nBut not in calculations such as these did his thoughtful studies of\nhuman welfare take ultimate resort, or find final rest. His conception\nof the ideal state, of the ideal citizen, of the ideal life, was not\nconstructed or inspired from carnal elements. He noted with life-long\nsadness the sordid baseness inseparably attending the fact of owning\nor being a slave. He deeply saw that those battles in the Wilderness\nwere no mere conflicts of beasts. And never could he imagine or allow\nthat his personal weight, and force, and worth were ratable by\ngymnastic tests. It was not upon things like these that Lincoln's\nattention and hope were fixed, when his hopes and plans for our\nprosperity took form. To the whole world of his material environment\nhe was marvelously indifferent. On every perusal of his life one\ngrieves at the story of his poverty, and the sad infrequency and\nmeagerness in his daily life of the pleasures and recreations which\nare for the comfort and happiness of men in material things. But in\nthis he seems as though unconscious of any disappointment. For\nhimself as for the Nation, and for the Nation as for himself, his\nsatisfaction and confidence were not born and fed of things that\nperish in their use. Luxury in food or attire, however toothsome or\nattractive to other natures, stirred but the feeblest hankerings, if\nany at all, in him. Towards sensualism of any sort, whether gluttony,\ndrunkenness or lust, his sound and temperate manliness did not\nincline. And in his estimate of personal character his eye and respect\ndid not rest in outer attitudes, on printed, age-long codes of manner.\nHe was no slave of stately ceremonies, or artificial etiquette. Nor in\nreligion did he bind his tongue to creeds however hoary, nor to\nrituals however august. He swore not by the oaths of any sect, however\nancient and renowned. Neither in this mountain nor in that did he\nworship God.\n\nBut on the other hand, and now to speak affirmatively, Lincoln lived\nno penury-stricken life. The resources within his personality were\nwell-nigh incalculable. Few men in all our national catalogue have\nbeen endowed by God with so sterling and abundant interior wealth. And\nof all American patriotic benefactors few indeed have left in their\nsingle individual name and right such priceless legacies to their\nnative land. What is life? What is human life? Wherein, completely and\nprecisely wherein, is man distinguishable from the beast? For answer,\nstudy Lincoln and see. In the full development of such a study many\nmassive verities will unfold. But the feature in Lincoln's manhood,\nwhich this chapter is set apart to designate and clarify, is the\nsimple purity, the elemental spirituality of all his elemental traits.\nHis dominant sentiments, his primary convictions, his main and\nall-mastering decisions were never born to die. They were instinct\nwith life, with life indeed, a life never failing, ever more abundant\nand free.\n\nThis interior vitality, this unalloyed and undecaying purity may be\ndescribed one way as a real idealism. But in ascribing idealism to\nLincoln, it needs to be said at once that Lincoln's idealism, real and\nglorious as it must surely be confessed to be, was transparently and\nunvaryingly practical. In one way it may be defined as hope. A waiting\nhope was a standard characteristic of Lincoln's attitude. His\nsorrowful eye held fast to things as yet unrealizable. It is\nimpressive to see how often and how fondly he mentioned the future,\nthe \"vast future,\" as he termed it, of our American career. The secret\nof the beauty and of the power of some of his loftiest and most\nspontaneous rhetoric is due to just this solemn eagerness towards the\ncoming days. As one comes to study more intently into the outlay of\nhis heroic strength, his struggle and toil are seen to be leashed\nabout his consuming wish that the Nation in its undivided might could\nbe unified about the speedy fulfillment of his prophetic aims. He\nnever forgot the mighty lesson, nor lost the living inspiration of his\nown advancement from humblest station of ignorance and toiling poverty\nto the presidency. That transformation he loved to humbly hold before\nthe attention of his fellow Americans, as a pattern of what might\nanywhere occur again. He loved to linger upon the possibilities of\nupward movement in the ranks of all laboring men. Large place and\nhonorable position were given to this arousing theme in his first\nannual message to Congress. This general topic--the far-set, soaring\npossibilities of human betterment--held constant and commanding\neminence in the ranging measure of his eagle-searching thought. For\nthe Nation, and for its every inhabitant, he was a true idealist.\n\nBut Lincoln's idealism, again be it said, was no wild indulgence of a\nvagrant and untrained imagination. It was utterly sober-minded. It\ntook its form and found its force in the center of his sanest\nthoughtfulness. The terms in which its description has just been\nillustratively traced show it to be perfectly rational, and even\nmatter-of-fact. Lincoln's idealism was nothing else but a heedful\ninterpretation of the proper destiny of man. It was a reflection in\nterms of carefulest thought, albeit also in the guise of ardent hope,\nof the essential lineaments in the nature of man. And no human\nportrait by any artist was ever truer to fact, while yet tinged with\nfancy, pure and free. In all his picturing of things yet to be, but\nnot yet in hand, his eye was fastened with an anatomist's intentness\nupon the actual human nature imperishably present in every man.\nNothing that Lincoln's idealism ever proposed ever diverged from the\nbounds of the original fiat creating all men equal and free. That\nundeniable initial verity, itself the keystone of our national\nConstitution and Bill of Rights, supplied to Lincoln's hope its total\nand only inspiration. In those ancient and elemental realities,\nrealities that deeply underlie and long outlast all the cults and\ncustoms and centuries which human thought is so prone to differentiate\nand divide, Lincoln detected solid foundations and ample warrant for\nage-long, undissolving expectations. In every human face there are\noutlines that are forever indelible. These unfailing lineaments\nLincoln had the eye to see. And what is vastly more, he had the\ncourage and the honesty to adopt them as the pattern of the platform,\nand to voice them as the notes of the battle-peal of his\nstatesmanship. And this he did right wittingly, knowing assuredly that\ntherein his vision had caught the gleam of things eternal; that\ntherein he had made discovery that man, even the humblest of his\nrace, could claim to be, as he phrased it to a company of blacks,\n\"kindred to the great God who made him.\" This amounts to saying that\nLincoln's statesmanship may be completely and precisely defined as the\nstudied and deliberate exploitation, upon the field of politics, of\nthose forces, central and common in all mankind, that are Godlike,\nimmortal, spiritual.\n\nHere we reach a definition that outlines with close precision a trait\nof Lincoln's full-formed character that held a primary place in\nwinning for Lincoln his immortal renown. He attached himself to things\nthemselves immortal. His ideal hope had no admixture of clay, nor even\nof gold. He made no composition or compromise with anything that dies.\nHis supreme desire was of a nature never to decay. It was pure with\nthe deathless purity of the human soul. To this pure principle,\neternal loyalty to the immortal dignity of man, he signed and sealed\nhis soul's allegiance with bonds that even death could never relax.\nSuch statements describe a primary co-efficient in Lincoln's ethical\nlife. Abjuring the unnumbered allurements of the material world,\nallurements whose fascinations unfailingly fade, and reposing his\nconfidence wholly in treasures that time and use only brighten and\nrefine, Lincoln reveals in the realm of ethics the singular excellence\nof an ideal that can kindle in an immortal man an immortal hope.\nPurging every sort of baseness out of the central life, and enthroning\nan all-refining pureness in the sovereign desires and visions and\ndesigns, he has inaugurated in the field of civics an idealism that\nwill honor every man, fit actual life, and endure forever. Personal\npureness, this pervades the life of Lincoln as crystalline beauty\npervades a block of marble.\n\nThis refining trait in Lincoln, this inner hunger for his living\nsoul's true nutriment, this thirst for the pure, perennial springs,\nfinds signal illustration in the closing sentence of this last\ninaugural, where he pleads with all his fellow-citizens to so conduct\nall civic interests as to secure among ourselves and with all Nations\na \"lasting peace.\" That craving after permanence in civic harmony\nbetokens an impulse towards immortality; and rests down, as the entire\ninaugural explains, upon that only basis of enduring civic quietude,\nan honest and universal recognition and respect for those indelible\nand universal lineaments of personal dignity which the Creator of men\nhas traced upon every human soul--lineaments from which the obscuring\ndross of centuries was being purged in the Providential fires of an\nawful war. Just this was the meaning of the war, as Lincoln understood\nits work. That earth-born sordidness which marked all slaves as common\nchattels, was being burnt out of our national life, as our basest\nnational sin. Thenceforth, forevermore, it was Lincoln's living hope\nthat all mankind might peacefully agree to supremely cherish and\nmutually respect those human values that human unfriendliness, and\ncenturies of contempt, however deeply they may obscure, can never\nobliterate. Upon such enduring foundations, and upon such foundations\nalone, Lincoln clearly saw, could human peace endure.\n\nAnd upon this same foundation rests his first inaugural as well. In\nall those months of special study, ensuing between his election in\nNovember of 1860 and his inauguration in March in 1861, and for an\nample seven years before, Lincoln was feeling after civic perpetuity.\nAnd when he stood before the Nation to publish his first inaugural\naddress, his supreme concern was fixed upon the threatened and\nimpending ruin of the Republic. He there faced a menacing South,\nirreconcilable, and resolute for dissolution or blood. That outcrying\nsituation brought final issues near. Must the Union perish? Could the\nUnion endure? Civic dissolution or civic perpetuity--this was the\nimmediate, the unrelieved, the ominous alternative. In the fiery heat\nof civic hate, flaming into civil war, Lincoln had to seek for civic\nprinciples that hate could not subvert, nor the fires of war consume;\nprinciples too strong to admit defeat, too pure to be dissolved.\n\nNever did a statesman bend over a graver task, nor with a more honest\nand patient heart, nor with a mind more divinely fashioned and\nfurnished to comprehend and penetrate the actual case in hand. As in a\nchemist's alembic, he fused and tried our Constitution and all our\nhistory. Into that first inaugural he incorporated the issues of his\nthought. And this was its simple, sole result:--Slavery is \"the only\nsubstantial dispute.\" With the people is \"ultimate justice.\" With God\nis \"ultimate truth.\" We are not \"enemies.\" We are \"friends.\" In this\nsupreme dispute let us confer and legislate as friends, and then as\nfriends live together in an amity that shall be perpetual. This is the\nuncompounded essence of his first inaugural, as of all his political\nphilosophy. In universal freedom, by mutual persuasion, and in even\nfriendliness, let our Union forever endure. Here again is a\nstatesman's publication and heroic defense of a pure, immortal hope,\nvoiced in an appeal and upheld by arguments as spiritual and pure as\nthe inmost being and utmost destiny of the living souls of men.\n\nNo study of the transcendent momentum in Lincoln's life of spiritual\nrealities can fairly overlook his speech in Peoria, October 16, 1854.\nIt is, as he said at the time, \"substantially\" a repetition of an\naddress at Springfield, twelve days before. It \"made Lincoln a power\nin national politics.\" It was the commanding beginning of his\ncommanding career. That year, 1854, began the convulsion which made\nhim president, involved the war, and ended in his violent death. As\nmatters stood on New Year of 1854, slavery was, by act of Congress in\nthe Missouri Compromise of 1820, thenceforth forbidden to spread\nanywhere in United States territory north of the southern boundary of\nMissouri. In the early half of 1854 Senator Douglas drove through\nCongress a bill, creating the territory of Nebraska, which declared\nthe Compromise prohibition of 1820 \"inoperative and void.\" Thenceforth\nslavery might spread anywhere. This is the \"repeal\" of the Missouri\nCompromise.\n\nThat \"repeal\" brought Lincoln to his feet. And from the day of that\nPeoria speech Lincoln was, to seeing eyes, a man of destiny. For, not\nfor that day, nor for that century, nor for this continent alone did\nLincoln frame and join that speech. Let any logical mind attempt a\nlogical synthesis of that address, marking well what affirmations are\nsupreme. Not out of conditions that vary with the latitudes, nor out\nof opinions that change as knowledge improves, and not from sentiments\nthat bloom and fade as do the passing flowers, was that address\nconstructed. It handles things eternal. Its central propositions\noutwear the centuries. Its conclusions are compounded from stuff that\nis indestructible. And the piers upon which they rest are as steadfast\nas the everlasting hills. Freedom, union, perpetuity were its only\npositive themes. Let us \"save the Union\" was its central call; and\n\"so\" save it as to \"make and keep it forever worth the saving\"--so\nsave it \"that the succeeding generations of free, happy people, the\nworld over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest\ngenerations.\" The perpetual Union of freemen--this was his one pure\nhope. Of this freedom slavery was a \"total violation.\" Such a Union\nthe principle of secession made forever impossible. And in the\ncontinual presence of tyranny, and under ever impending threats of\ndisruption, perpetuity in peace was an impossibility. Liberty,\nequality, loyalty--only upon these enduring verities could\nself-government ever be built, or ever abide. Here is stability. Here\nis harmony. Here are truths \"self-evident.\" Against cruelty,\ndisloyalty, and pride these eternal principles are in \"eternal\nantagonism.\" And when the two collide, \"shocks and throes and\nconvulsions must continually follow.\" Against human slavery, and all\nthat human slavery entails, humanity instinctively and universally\nrevolts. It is condemned by human righteousness and human sympathy\nalike. \"Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal\nthe Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, you still\ncannot repeal human nature.\"\n\nThus Lincoln bound together the arguments of this appeal. The\nirrepealability of the human sympathies in the nature of all men, the\nundeniable humanity of the black, self-government built upon the\ncreative fiat of freedom and equality for all--upon these enduring\npropositions a Nation could be built whose resources either to\neliminate all evils, pacify all convulsions, and resolve all debates,\nor to achieve a lasting progress, dignity and peace, would be\ninexhaustible. Thus, at the very start, his eye pierced through the\npolitical turmoil of his time, fixing in the central place before the\nNation's gaze those \"great and durable\" elements which \"no statesman\ncan safely disregard.\"\n\nPlainly notable in all this is that powerful and habitual proclivity\nin Lincoln to find out and publish abroad those civic propositions and\nprinciples that are inwrought with perpetuity. He was straining and\ntoiling towards a triumph that time could never reverse. Foundations\nthat were sure to shift, or disintegrate, or sink away, he was\nresolute to overturn, and clear away. He chose and strove to toil and\nspeak for the immortal part in man, for ages yet to come, and for the\nimmediate justice of Almighty God. And so he fashioned forth a\nprogramme that, like the programme of the Hebrew prophets,\ncircumvented death.\n\n\nHIS CONSTANCY--TRUTH\n\nThis second inaugural contains a fine example of free and reasoned\nreliability. It is in fact, in its total stature, a stately exhibit of\ndeliberate steadfastness. Let this short document be read, meanwhile\nremembering that other inaugural document, and not forgetting all the\nunspeakable strain and struggles of those four intervening years. The\nman who spoke in 1861, and the man who speaks now again in 1865,\nstands forth in the heart of those bewildering confusions of our\npolitical life, a living embodiment of civic constancy. In his person\nnational firmness stands enshrined. In those ripe convictions, in\nthose cool and poised determinations, in those ardent, prophetic\ndesires--steadfast, consistent, and sure--are traceable the rock-like\nfoundations of our confederate Republic. In those inaugurals stands a\nmonument not liable soon to crumble away. But within that monument\ninsuring its durability, rests as within and upon a steadfast throne,\nLincoln's everlasting fidelity.\n\nTo win clear vision of this fine trait, let one read again this second\ninaugural, and locate truly the center of gravity of its second\nparagraph. There Lincoln is tracing in broad, plain strokes the origin\nand on-coming of the war. In the center of his steady thought the\ninterest centrally at stake was the Union. On the one hand he recalls\nhis own address at his first inauguration, \"devoted,\" as he says,\n\"altogether to saving the Union without war.\" On the other hand, he\nrecalls \"insurgent agents\" seeking to destroy it without war. War was\ndeprecated and dreaded by both parties. But one would make war rather\nthan let the Nation survive. And the other would accept war rather\nthan let the Nation perish. \"And the war came.\" As a register of\nLincoln's capacity for free, intelligent stability, no passing glance\ncan in any sense exhaust or apprehend the depth and sweep and energy\nof those last four words. When loyalty to the Union was the issue and\ninterest at stake, Lincoln would \"accept war.\" \"And the war came.\"\n\nWhen Lincoln voiced those four words, his eye was looking back through\nfour dreadful, bloody years--years, whether in prospect or in\nreminiscence, fit to make any human heart recoil. But as he surveys\nthose scenes of hate and carnage and desolation, retracing and\nreckoning again the sum of their awful sorrow and cost, and rehearses\nagain his resolution to \"accept the war,\" it is without a shadow or a\nhint of wavering or remorse. In fact he is recalling that fateful day\nof four years before with an eye to review and vindicate that fateful\nresolve. At the end of those eventful and sorrow-laden years, he is as\nsteady as at their start. Not by the breadth of a hair have his\nfooting and purpose, his judgment and endeavor been made to swerve.\nThen as now, now as then, his loyalty is absolute. And in that sturdy\nloyalty of that lone man a seeing eye discerns nothing less than the\nunbending majesty of a Nation's self-respect. It is the Nation's\nsacred honor that he has in sacred charge. In him the integrity of the\nNation at large finds a champion and a living voice. In his firm-set\ndecision the Nation's destiny takes shape. In those short pregnant\nwords the proud consistency of our total national career, and his\nsuperb reliability, become, instantly and for all time, freely, nobly,\nand completely identified. This is not to say that in the teeming\nhistory of those eventful years Lincoln's mind and will and sentiments\nhad stood in stolid immobility. He freely concedes that the years have\nbrought him lessons he had never foreseen. And his central attitude in\nthis second scene is a reverent inquiry into the ways of Him whose\npurposes transcend all human wisdom, and require full centuries to\ncomplete. But strong and clear within his reverent and lowly\nacceptance of divine rebukes, stands unbent and unchanged his\nsteadfast, invincible pledge to reveal, on his own and on his Nation's\nbehalf, the sovereign grandeur of civic reliability.\n\nIn his first message to Congress this integral trait of his personal\nand official life finds majestic and most definite explication. It is\nthe passage explaining to Congress, in precise and minute recital,\njust how the war began. It deals with those ominous events in\nCharleston harbor, centering about heroic Major Anderson, a federal\nofficer, and within Fort Sumter, a federal fort. That assault upon a\nnational garrison by Confederate guns was no haphazard event. At just\nthat moment, and in just that spot the national crisis became acute.\nUpon that spot, and upon those events Lincoln's eye was fixed with a\nphysician's anxiety. There he knew he could feel the pulse of the\nresentment and resolution of the South. Day and night he held his\nfinger upon its feverish beat. And as the fever rose, he marked with\nexactest attentiveness its registration of one condition of the\nSouthern heart:--Was that heart so hot with civic hate that, when\nevery lesser issue was set aside, and the only issue under review was\nthe right of the Republic to stand by its officers and its flag, then\nthose Southern leaders would fire upon those officials in a federal\nfort, and pull down that flag upon federal soil? If in a federal fort\nthe major in command, and his uniformed men, while making no\naggression nor voicing any threat, but acting only as peaceful\nexponents of the Nation's authority, and being in exigent need of\nfood, were to be visited by a national transport bearing nought but\nbread, upon such a ship, upon such a mission, would seceding soldiers\nopen fire? If they would, and if that onslaught passed without rebuke,\nthen that Nation's federal integrity was dissolved. Such was the\nunmixed issue, and so sharply edged was its final and decisive\ndefinition under Lincoln's hand. And on his part there was here no\naccident. With foresight, and by careful design Lincoln \"took pains\"\nto make the problem plain. With impressive and ideal carefulness he\nguided the action of his own heart to its final resolution, and\npredetermined the final verdict of the world.\n\nIn the last supreme alternative, when government agents stand in need\nof food, and citizens who repudiate all loyalty fire upon government\ntransports freighted only with bread, what shall a government do? This\nwas the naked question that Lincoln faced, when he decided to accept\nand prosecute the war. Upon this one plain question, and upon his one\nconvinced determination he massed and compacted his first\nCongressional address. Right well he understood its point, its\ngravity, and its range. And surpassing well was he fitted to be the\nman to frame and demonstrate the true reply. In all the land no finer,\nfirmer exemplar of elemental constancy could ever have been found to\nguide and cheer the Nation's course in this extremest test of\nelemental self-respect. Let those words be written and read again. It\nwas a test of national self-respect, elemental and supreme. It was a\nquestion that concerned, as Lincoln saw and said, \"the whole family\nof man.\" \"Government of the people, by the same people\"--can or\ncannot such a government \"maintain its own integrity against its own\ndomestic foes?\" Can it \"maintain its own integrity?\" Can it master\n\"its own domestic foes?\" Can men who assume their self-control be\ntrusted to maintain their self-respect? Here is a problem that is in\nverity elemental and supreme. What, in very deed and in solid fact,\nwhat is civic reliability? Where, among all the governments by men,\nwhere can steadfastness, civic steadfastness be found? Nowhere,\nLincoln had the eyes to see; nowhere, but in the civic constancy of\nmen at once governing and governed. Only thus and only there, only so\nand only here, in this heaven-favored land, did Lincoln see, can any\ngovernment of men by men find fundamental base and final form that\nshall be consistent, stable, and real. This is government indeed. Here\nis elemental, civic verity. A community held in common self-control\nupon the basis of common self-respect--such a union alone has\nconstancy. This is the sublime and radical civic truth that Lincoln\nforged out upon his steadfast heart, as he bent with mighty ponderings\nover those scenes in Charleston harbor, and reviewed and expounded\ntheir pregnant implications in his initial message to Congress in\n1861.\n\nIn many ways this constancy of Lincoln rewards attentive thought. For\none thing, it was radiant with intelligence. Indeed in him the two\nbecame identified. As thus conceived, it shows as pure and clear\nconsistency. His fully tried reliability was the well-poised balance\nof a mind long-schooled in the art of steadiest deliberation. When\nLincoln held immutably fast, it was due to his invincible faith that\nthe conviction to which he clung involved abiding truth. This quality\ntempered all his firmness. Just here one finds the genesis and motive\nof all his skilled invention of reasoned, pleading speech. Lincoln's\nprevailing power of urgent argument roots in the deep persistency of\nhis convinced belief. It was because of an impassioned confidence, an\nassurance that was vibrant with a note of triumph, that his grasp of\nany ruling purpose was so unwaveringly firm. This was his mood and\nattitude in all the major contentions of his life. To the central\ntenets that those contentions involved he held with all the firmness\nof the rooted hills. Touching those primary principles in his\ncharacter and politics his mind and faith seem to have attained an\nabsolute confirmation. And from those settled positions he could never\nbe moved. Constancy in him was nothing more nor less than the\nenergetic affirmation of intellectual rectitude.\n\nHis steadfastness, thus, was a mental poise. It can be defined as\nripened judgment, a conclusion of thought, safeguarded on every side\nby a discernment not easily confused, by a penetration not easy to\nescape. This involved a wonderful flexibility. While steadfast unto\nthe grade of immutability, where honor was involved, no student of his\nways could call him obstinate. While firm and strong enough to hold\nthe Nation to her predestined course upon an even keel, he held her\nhelm with a gentle, pliant grasp. Being in every mental trait\ninherently honest and deliberate, he could at once be resolute and\nfree.\n\nThis blend within his being of thoughtfulness and determination, of\nopenness and immutability, this candid, conscientious, mental poise,\nthis Godlike apprehension of the larger equilibrium, qualified him\npeculiarly to interpret the major movements of his time, to trace in\nthe deep, prevailing sentiments of the human soul the chart of our\nnational destiny.\n\nHere is in Lincoln something wonderful. Among the millions of his\nfellowmen he counts but one. But in the range and grasp of his\nthought, in the eager passion of his heart, in the controlling power\nof his commanding will, he comprehends them all. Stable and heedful at\nonce, he could challenge unanswerably every man's esteem. His symbol\nis the firm, benignant oak, the sheltering, abiding hills. Thus he\nstood to help and hold, to serve and rule among his fellowmen. Thus he\nwrought coherence into our great career. Thus he linked together those\nmighty political events with a logic which succeeding times have\nproved powerless to refute, but strong and glad to confirm. He had\nmarvelous capacity to divine. With him to reason was to illuminate.\nThings bewilderingly obscure, within his thought and speech grew\nplain. He was our prime interpreter. He explained the Nation to\nitself. But in every such elucidation the Nation was made to\nco-operate. His instinctive, habitual attitude toward other men was\nthat of a conferee. He was sensitively open to complaints and appeals.\nDelegations and private supplicants always found him courteous. This\ncourtesy was never formal. To a degree altogether noteworthy the words\nof other men found entrance into the counselings of his mind. He was\nnot merely accessible. He was impressible, sensitive, quick to\nappreciate and honor the sentiments of another man. With the earnest\nplea of balanced, honest argument, hailing from whatever source, he\nwas facile to correspond. His judgments and decisions were amenable to\nestimates wholly novel to him. Indeed, to an almost astonishing degree\nhis major movements were commensurate with the progress and pace of\nthe national events that environed his life. In some of his mightiest\naccomplishments he seemed to do little more than register the\nconclusions of the national mind.\n\nAll this is to say that Lincoln's constancy was poise, not obstinacy;\na well-reflected equilibrium, not a stiff rigidity. All his steadiness\nwas studied. Never can it be said of Lincoln that his verdicts were\nsnap judgments. On the contrary, with him deliberation and delay were\nso habitual and so excessively indulged, while pondering some massive,\npolitical perplexity, that the patience of some of our greatest\nstatesmen repeatedly broke down, and he was charged repeatedly with\ncriminal, and all but wanton indifference, inertia, and neglect. But\nnever was sorer libel. Through it all he was only too intent. Through\nit all his eye refused to sleep, while his steady and steadying mind\npursued the vexing task, until its permanent solution stood clear. And\nthen, with his eye steadily single to the guiding hand of God, to the\nNation's immortal weal, and to his own unsurrendered integrity, he\nwould publish and fulfill his studied and sturdy resolve. Upon the\nbasis of these internal mental conquests did all his firmness rest.\nHence his life-long evenness and freedom from fluctuation.\n\nBut this challenges still further study. Given this notable blending\nin his mental habits of independent stalwartness and amenability to\nothers' views, what is the inmost secret and explanation of his\nundeniable consistency? It lay in his human sincerity. His affinity\nwith his neighbor was a reality. The Nation's deepest concerns were as\ndeeply his own. Hence his ultimate convictions, though ripening in a\nsingle decade, proved to be in deep and enduring agreement with the\nultimate convictions of the Nation at large, though requiring a full\ncentury to mature. The sentiments that were essentially his own were\nseen, when openly published upon his lips, to be the sentiments\nessential and common to his fellowmen. His personal aspiration was a\nnational goal. His personal character was a national type. Truly\nrepresentative, he was at the same time as truly unique. Always\nfacing towards other men, he always stood erect.\n\nThis was Lincoln's constancy. It was not the stubbornness of an\narbitrary will, although his will had regal energy. It was not a\nfrigid intellectualism, although in mental penetration he could not be\nsurpassed. It was not a tide of swelling enthusiasm, although the\nsupreme emotion of his heart was the passion of an ideal patriotism.\nHis commanding constancy, potent to compose a Nation's turbulence, was\nbut the outer stature of his typical interior integrity. It was the\nopen assertion and attestation of his personal self-respect.\n\nThus Lincoln's convictions and verdicts were unfailingly his own. And\nthus those verdicts and convictions had continental breadth. Dealing\nwith a Nation's destiny, he came to be clothed with a Nation's\nmajesty. In his own great heart, as in a Nation's crucible, he\nassembled and resolved the Nation's complexities; and in his own pure\ndesire, as in a Nation's purified hopes, he defined and described our\nnational goal. Of all things narrow and peculiar, of all things\npartisan and sectional, he purged his eye, until with malice toward\nnone, with charity for all, with reverence towards God, he could see\nthe total vastness of the things with which he had to deal.\n\nHere is a loyalty worthy of the name--the plighted troth of one in\nwhom the Nation's noblest hopes stand forth already realized, assured,\nsecure. This defines and describes the force at play in this last\ninaugural. In the volume of those words Lincoln's message and\nLincoln's manhood were identical. Its utterance was the voice of his\nself-respect. Herein Lincoln the patriot and Lincoln the man are one.\nHere was Lincoln's standard. His search for verity was a study of\nhimself--of himself as true kindred of God and of his fellowmen. This\nis the core of Lincoln's honesty. This is the key to Lincoln's\nconstancy. This is the secret of Lincoln's authority. This was the\ngoal of Lincoln's quest for verity. This was for Lincoln the one\nreality. As child of the one great God, as closest kin of every man,\nhe is our model champion and exemplar of the one abiding\ntruth--personal self-respect. That this should be held unperverted and\npreserved intact was in the thought of Lincoln the primal equity, the\nvery substance of a man's integrity.\n\n\nHIS HUMILITY--WORTH\n\nThe name of Lincoln is linked inseparably with the lot of the slave.\nThat the fortune of the lowly might be improved was the supreme\nenterprise of his life. As conceived by him, that enterprise concerned\nall men. Not for black men alone, and not alone for men in literal and\nevident bonds, was this, his major interest, engaged. Quite as keenly,\nnay even more, was his heart concerned for his closer kinsmen of Saxon\nblood, who never felt the slave driver's lash. But even here his\nprevailing inclination was a kindly solicitude for people of meager\ncomfort, culture and liberty. Towards men whose fortune was adverse,\nand from whom more favored ones were prone to turn their face, his\nheart was prone to be compassionate. His very instincts seemed\ninclined to make the poor his intimates. And when he stood among the\nlowly, he never showed a sign that he had entered the shadow of any\nshame. Richly dowered with nobility himself, himself superior to every\nfortune, incapable of subjugation by any fate, a master owned among\nthe mightiest, the dominant function of his life was ministration.\nThis was his ambition. And it was sovereign. His towering aspiration\nwas that the needy be relieved, that poor men might have means, that\nbondmen might be free.\n\nThis was a soaring, imperial wish. But it sent him where men were most\ndown-trodden and overborne. It forced his name and reputation to\nbecome identified with the gross and low condition of the rudest, most\nuntutored mortals of our land, the humble Afro-American slave. This\nlowly fellowship he never attempted to disguise nor consented to\ndisclaim. He rather seemed to welcome whatever burden or reproach it\nmight seem to involve. Before and against the white man who held the\nwhip, beside and befriending the black who felt its lash, he chose to\ntake, and persisted to keep, his stand. Many a time was this\nco-partnership flung in Lincoln's face with stinging words as a\nmongrel, shameful thing--with most vigorous persistence by Douglas in\ntheir famous debates. But it was not in Lincoln to desert and disown\nthe poor, nor yet to apologize, nor to retort, nor even to reply. As\nchampion and companion of the despised and embondaged victims of the\nwhite man's greed and contempt, Lincoln stands by the negro, as full\nof resoluteness, and as free from shame, as though defending his own\nhome.\n\nHere is genuine humility, not an attitude assumed, but a virtue\ninwrought. That this rare and Christian grace was planted deep in\nLincoln's heart, and pervaded the total fullness of his life, may be\nargued from the very texture of his last inaugural. Upon just this\npoint that document deserves minute attention. From the vantage ground\nof April 4, 1865, and from the point of view of slavery, that address\nis a profound and most commanding interpretation of the philosophy and\nphenomena of our American life. The war, God's Providence, and\nslavery--they are its sovereign themes. God's Providence shaping into\nnational discipline the tragedy of the war; slavery \"somehow\" its\ndeepest, fateful \"cause:\" there are thoughts for thoughtful men, who\nmay wish to understand the meaning of our national life. The point to\nnotice here is to observe how in Lincoln's mind in 1865, the course,\nand curse, and fate of slavery connect. It is nothing less than a\nprofound elucidation of outstanding American events. It intimates\nimpressively how Lincoln's mind had brooded and pondered over the lot\nof the African slave. He had reckoned all the value of their\nunrequited toil. The marks of their bruises and wounds were seared\nupon his soul. And of all the meaning of that sore humiliation, in\nterms of our national destiny and of the Divine dominion, he became\nthe supreme and sympathetic expositor. In his unfolding of that\nmeaning was infolded the master motive of his life. Under the hand of\nGod he was having bitter but submissive share in setting forever right\nthe cruel, age-long wrongs of the African slave. That such sentiments\nshould take such shape at such a time is signal demonstration that\nthey were the central sentiments of his heart. He was highly\ndesignated to a humble task; and he knew no higher honor than to keep\nclose friendship with the poor, until his high commission stood\ncomplete. And to this close affiliation of lowliest lives with the\nloftiest aims and issues of his great career, he devotes well-nigh the\nwhole of his inaugural address as our Nation's president to expound,\ntherein betraying no slightest sign that he sees in that alliance the\nslightest incongruity. In that defense and championship of the rights\nthat were elemental to men, though the most despised, he saw his\nhighest dignity as president. And to that lowly aim he shaped and\npledged his policy, his party, his fortune, and his fame.\n\nIn truth this affinity of Lincoln with his neighbor in need was the\nvery fruitage of the fortune of his life. He was fitted and\npredestined for it by his birth. His station was of the lowliest. His\nsetting-up was pathetically scant. All his discipline was cruelly\nstern. In ease and plenty he had no share. Of sweets and luxury he had\nno taste. Born of parents pitifully poor, nurtured in painful penury,\npoorly sheltered, scantily clad, accustomed to neglect, intimate with\nwant, trained to disappointment, toiling in untamed scenes against\nhard odds with rudest tools, the kindred and daily familiar of\nunassuming men, denied the commonest aids to personal refinement, he\nwas to the atmosphere and temperament of genuine, undisguised humility\nnative born, and fully bred. From such a hopeless start, in such a\nhostile environment, he made his way alone. It can be said with almost\nliteral truth that he never had any help. His only friend was his\nmodest, resolute heart. His winnings were all by wrestling--and the\nstruggle never relaxed. When every antagonist had been met and\noverthrown, and his gaunt stature stood in the Nation's arena alone\nand undefeated, then upon that unbent but unpretending form his Nation\nand his Nation's God laid a burden, such as no man in all our history\nhad ever borne. When beneath that great final task he meekly bowed,\nits superhuman responsibility and weight were all-sufficient to crush\nforever all vain-glorious pride, if in his tried heart any pride had\never entered, and having entered had still remained. Before the\nmajesty of his commission, and amid the inscrutable perplexities of\neach unparalleled day, he must always be fain, even though never\nforced, to walk humbly among his people, and before his God. From\nbirth to death, by fortune and by Providence, as though by\novermastering fate, he was fashioned for humility.\n\nFrom all these grounds he was predisposed to modesty. Over against the\nvastness of his task, facing daily all its formidable difficulties,\nand sensible evermore of his infinite insufficiency, the posture of\nhis spirit and the tone of his daily speech unfailingly betokened a\nmoderate estimate of his personal significance. The overspreading\nmajesty of the work to which he set his hand, always towering vividly\nbefore his thought, kept vividly active the consciousness that he was\nquite incompetent to accomplish aught, except the God of Nations\ntendered daily help.\n\nAs thus inclined and thus disposed in body and in mind, he became a\nman of prayer. That he should often fall upon his knees was but the\nconsequence of his daily discovery that his burdens and his strength\nwere widely incommensurate.\n\nMany times those supplications seemed as though unheard. The heavens\ngave no sign. Then malice raged against him. But then his\nunsurrendered faith in God, his reverence for his task, and his\nsobering estimate of himself would show as meekness. It was not his\nway to retaliate or rail. In darkness, before delay, and beneath\nabuse, he bore and suffered long without complaint. In this pathetic\nquietness his humility becomes heroic.\n\nThis bent towards lowliness, tempered through and through, as it was,\nwith his clear intelligence, saved him from vaunting and all vanity.\nThere was habitually in his posture a grave solidity. This often\nseemed like carefulness and caution. But it was born of modesty. If\nthere was ever a time when ever a man might be suffered to boast, the\ndate of this second inaugural was the time, and the author of that\ninaugural was the man. The hour of that address marked the opening of\nLincoln's second presidential term. It was the crowning vindication of\nhis presidential policy. After four years of war the national poll at\nthe last electoral vote had shown the North stronger in men than when\nthe war began. The status of the South was desperate. But five weeks\nlay between him and the surrender of Lee. Lincoln was not lacking in\nforesight, nor in careful calculation. His skill therein was\npreeminent. Wary, discerning, resolute, his assurance of ultimate\nvictory no doubt firm and clear, no breath of boasting was given vent.\nInstead, with almost painful reserve, he modestly said, \"With high\nhope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.\"\nLincoln was one of those rarest of men, invincible in resolution, at\nthe same time invincible in reserve.\n\nThis inner mood of modesty showed in all his outer furnishing. It was\nnot his way to publish his distinction. For him to signalize his\nprimacy by any decoration would be an incongruity. In any group of men\nwhere precedence was emphasized he was ill at ease. Any attempt by him\nto designate his official elevation by some gilded ornament or plume\nwould have been grotesque. His eyes were not lofty nor his heart\nhaughty. His feet were for the furrow. His hands were for the axe. His\nlips were for friendly salutation of all the people on the street. Any\nouter token, intended to mark him for separation or any superiority,\nwould have excited nothing but sorrow in him. Fabrics however costly\nand rare, jewels however brilliant and pure, designed and disposed for\ndistinction and display, awakening envy and unrest quite as much as\nadmiration and delight, were not for him. Plain man among the\nlowliest, true nobleman among the noblest, he wore all his honors in\nuttermost innocence of all parade.\n\nNor were the features of Lincoln ever intended to be employed as\ninstruments of scorn. Into the hellish ministry of curling contempt\nthose gracious lips could never be impressed. His heart was far too\nkindly; and that were safeguard enough. But his unalloyed humility was\nfar too potent to ever encourage or permit in him any indulgence of\ndisdain. Truly lowly himself, it was not in him to coldly despise any\nof his fellowmen. Just here his humility displayed its sterling\nhonesty. And just here his honor and his glory blend. Here is his sure\ntitle to nobility--a title that neither time nor eternity can ever\ntarnish or bedim. By every right is this nobility his. By his earthly\nfortune, as by a hard, relentless fate, his lot was cast among the\npoor; and by that same appointment the lot of all earth's poor has\ngained perennial dignity. But he graced those ranks also as a\nvolunteer. By his own consent, with sovereign free selection, he\nelected to sustain and overcome all the impediments of the station of\nhis birth, and so to demonstrate the full capacity of the humblest\nhuman life for high endeavor and desire. Thus he was alike and at once\nfilled with a deep compassion, and free from high contempt. Here lies\nthe firm foundation of his proud renown. This is the true birthmark of\nhis nobility. He was above the baseness and the meanness of scorning\nany brother man.\n\nAnd so he avoided arrogance. It was not the way of Lincoln to forever\nreiterate, if even to allow, his own importance. He was acutely\nsensitive, to the meaning and worth of an honorable renown. Especially\nwas his cool, gray eye awake to the future issues of the pregnant\ndeeds of his teeming times. But therein his eager concern was a\npatriot's anxiety--an anxiety in which he mingled his fortune and fame\nwith the destiny of his native land. Therein the jealousy of his\ndesire for the national welfare burned away, as in sacrificial fires\nand upon a sacred altar, all ambitions for himself. At any cost to\nothers, or through any other man's neglect, it was not in the heart of\nLincoln to demand and heap together honors or advantages for himself.\nWell might he be justified, if ever such a course were fair, in\nclaiming for himself exceptional rewards. Chief executive of a great\nRepublic, commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the North,\nassured of the major momentum of military success, in immediate reach\nof vast and ever increasing resources, whether for war or peace,\nchosen the second time to be the Nation's head, charged the second\ntime to consummate the Nation's perpetual unity--surely he had ample\nguaranty for imputing to his own sole hand, in a supreme degree,\nmighty prowess, imposing achievements, a vast and spreading authority\nand power. At such a time and amid such surroundings, a generous\nmeasure of self-aggrandizement would have seemed quite warranted and\nwell sustained. But never was a mighty commander freer from that\nuncomely fault. The mention of victory makes him strangely unmindful\nof himself. The thought of his vast authority makes him the lowliest\nin the land. Lincoln was not arrogant. He made no effort after\naggregated honors, however deserved, much less after honors unearned.\nIn particular he showed no inclination to appropriate another's fame.\nFor one thing, he knew too well the awful cost of magistracy. The\nright to be commander-in-chief of a Nation's resources and arms, so\ncoveted a right in aspiring men, became transmuted in the cup which\nLincoln drank into a terrible, an almost impossible responsibility.\nNor was it of his nature to subtract from other men for his own\nincrease. At the price of a brother's freedom, or happiness, or life,\nthe gaining of ease, or wealth, or joy of any sort for himself would\nbe far too dear. In the soul of Lincoln extortion could find no soil.\nHis mien among men was that of indulgent ministry, not of exacting\nmastery. With the lower level and the lesser meed he could be well\ncontent. Morbid jealousy for his own acclaim, hungry greed for\nanother's reward, satisfaction in plaudits that were undeserved, or\ncomfort from robbery or extortion of any sort were sentiments for\nwhich the refined and genuine modesty of Lincoln had no appetite or\ntaste. The honors that surrounded and invested him were up-springing,\nspontaneous and free; in no least measure accumulated, artificial or\nenforced.\n\nThe native purity of Lincoln's lowliness shows best in his reverence\nfor God. He lived in a daily consciousness of Providence. As a\nstatesman he was thoroughly a man of God, full of a patriot's adoring\nand acquiescent thankfulness, as he watched and studied the wonderful\nunfolding of God's just and kindly government of this most favored\nland. This mood of humble reverence was deeply wrought. It was of the\ntexture of his character. It was not a vesture or a posture, a gesture\nor a phrase, assumed here and discarded there, and often counterfeit.\nIt was essential, like his integrity, pervading and indeed controlling\nall his responsible life. And it was wholly undisguised. In his most\nformal public documents--papers in which statesmen as a rule make\nscant allusion to Deity--Lincoln's allusions to God are their most\nimposing feature. Beyond all contradiction, Lincoln enacted his public\nresponsibilities in the fear of God. This was the beginning of his\nwisdom. Just this is the secret of the sanity of this last inaugural.\nAnd it is the secret of its immortal beauty. And it is the girdle of\nits strength. In framing its central argument, and thereby steadying\nthe Nation's heart in the convulsions of war, he was expounding the\nhidden ways of God. There grew a mighty paragraph. It reads smoothly\nnow. But when it passed through Lincoln's lips, it was the issue of a\nhard-pent agony. When he voiced those words he stood before an altar,\nand made confession, like a very priest, for both North and South. All\nthe land had behaved with unbecoming confidence. All alike were under\ndiscipline. God was in dominion. Even in their prayers both North and\nSouth had been contending against the Lord. The prayers of both could\nnot be answered. That of neither had been answered fully. The Almighty\nhad his own purposes. The expectations of all had gone astray. The\ncontending struggles of either side, despite their contending prayers,\nwere being turned by the judgments of God against them both into a\nterrible national chastisement. So Lincoln discerned, and so he\nhumbly, vicariously confessed. But beneath this high dominion his\nheart too had been bowed down, and overwhelmed, and chastened sore.\nRepeatedly his counsels had been overturned, and his expectations had\nbeen reversed; and that too, as he devoutly believed, by the\nover-ruling purposes of God. Hence, as in this inaugural scene he\nfaced the future, though he was head of a puissant people, he behaved\nlike a little child. In a chastened sense of the mystery and authority\nof the overruling designs of Almighty God, he forebore to boast. And\nthen he said in rhythmic words of almost prophetic majesty, and in the\nattire of all but sacrificial humility: \"Fondly do we hope--fervently\ndo we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.\nYet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the\nbondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be\nsunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid\nby another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago,\nso still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and\nrighteous altogether.'\"\n\nThis is indeed in prophetic strain. But he forbears to prophesy. He\nlonged with sacrificial eagerness for national prosperity, in lasting\nfreedom and unison and happiness. As he renewed his official pledge to\npreserve, protect, and defend the world's greatest charter of\nequality and freedom for all mankind, his heart and hope held high and\nfirm. But his total being was subdued. God had crossed his path. The\nlong-drawn war was God's rebuke. The Nation had gone sadly astray. The\nAlmighty had taken her waywardness in hand. His purposes were in\ncontrol. And He was supreme. And His ways were unrevealed. Lincoln\nstood to his task unflinchingly, ready either for sorrow or relief,\nready either for death or life, as the Most High might appoint.\n\nHere is statesmanship indeed. But it is altogether unique. A mighty\nNation's executive head, discerning, devoted, and devout, holding in\nhis steady hand the charge of a Nation's destiny, pledging in the\nNation's name to lay upon the altar, if need be for the Nation's\nhonor, the Nation's life, and there before the altar waiting humbly\nupon God. Many a theme of profoundest purport opens instantly into\nview. Just now our eye is fixed upon its illustration of humility.\n\nOn the one hand, and in the first place, its exhibition of the dignity\nof pure manhood is sublime. In this inaugural scene, beneath the awful\nstress of a Nation in war, upon the basis of the pledged covenant of\nthe free, invincible faith that a free Republic can sustain and\nfulfill all its solemn responsibility, and with unquenchable hope in\nthe vast and unseen future of his land, Lincoln took his stand, and\nheld his ground, and put on record before God and all the world his\nreverent and resolute oath. Here is manhood, noble, majestic,\ndecisive, free--a manhood that embraces the worth, voices the hope,\nand confronts with open breast the destiny of the race.\n\nBut in this same scene these mighty energies pause. Lincoln\nconsciously faces God. For himself and for the Nation he makes humble\nacknowledgment that the Lord is Almighty and Most High. And to God's\nfull sovereignty he yields spontaneous consent. With lowliest\nsubmission and confession he concedes and declares that all his\nrebukes and all his rule are in righteousness.\n\nHere is a place where any man may properly pause. Here the orbit of\nour proudest being strikes its verge. Here God and manhood meet. Here\nhuman power faints. Here human resolution halts. Here human foresight\ndims. Here human wisdom becomes a void. Here all our pride becomes\nperforce humility; and all our counselings merge in faith. Here human\ngrandeur touches its outer rim.\n\nBut here, too, human eyes awaken. Here human aspirations rise. Here\nhuman wisdom becomes newly informed. Here human forecasts brighten\ninto hope. Here human strength revives. Here human purpose tightens.\nHere in reverence human wisdom begins. Here in human lowliness appears\na Godlike dignity. Here our human stature shows its noblest. Lincoln\nis at the utmost bound of his knowledge, and his liberty; and yet he\nis displaying just here a discernment and a decision of the most\nexalted type--a discernment, however, whose insight is a vision of\nfaith, and a decision whose resolve is an exercise of trust. In this\nscene statesmanship is transmuted into religion, undefiled and pure.\nMan in his loftiest hope and uttermost need, and God in his\ntranscendent royalty of equity and goodwill meet face to face, and\nstand in open, free and friendly covenant. Here is at once a portrait\nof true humility, and the acme of high nobility. Here in childlike\ntrust and childlike faith the wisdom and the freedom of man attain\ntheir goal. Here statesmanship and reverence, wisdom and trust,\nfreedom and acquiescence, dignity and lowliness harmonize and\ninterblend. And in the unison either one remains uncompounded and\npure.\n\nHere many questions press to be resolved. This signal scene in\nLincoln's career--what has it to say about the inner nature of man?\nWhat about the nature of God? What about the nature of our human\ninsight into the essential qualities of things? What about the\nrelation of will to thought? What about the sovereignty of character?\nWhen human character touches the limit of human life, is it facing\nnight or day? These are ultimate inquiries. And they are immediate.\nFor answer to these inquiries, let Lincoln and Hegel meet. And let the\nNations listen to their replies; and so discern what problems clear,\nwhere dignity and lowliness convene. For here is a shining scene,\nwhere any man may see that in a lowly heart wisdom and nobility may\nsit together as on a throne. Modesty like Lincoln's is a courtly\ngrace. Reverence such as his beseems a prince. Such humility,\nreflecting with heavenly beauty the immediate presence of God, may\nclothe a mighty man, and hold the center of a mighty scene, without\nunseemliness, and it wants not intelligence. This at least this scene\nmakes clear.\n\n\n\n\nPART III. SYNTHESIS\n\n\nLINCOLN'S MORAL UNISON\n\nThe marvelous beauty of the Athenian Parthenon is displayed in four\nfacades. Upon these four sides runs a frieze in a continuous band,\ncrowning all the columns, and binding all the structure into a single\nshrine. Comprehended within the stately course of that all-encircling\nfrieze is classic demonstration how an impressive manifoldness of\nsculptural form may present a perfect and impressive unison.\n\nSomething such is Lincoln's character, as it stands in this second\ninaugural. In this address four personal qualities stand forth, as\ndistinct and clear to the eye and thought as are the faces of the\nParthenon; while, like the Parthenon, the author of that address is\nindivisibly and undeniably one. Both are alike composite, and both\nalike are one. Both embrace diversity, but all in perfect harmony.\nBoth have perfect unity, but without monotony. Like the temple of\nAthene, greeting from its single altar every horizon of the Grecian\nsky, Lincoln, voicing his solemn oath as the Nation's president, gives\nutterance to every moral element in our American life. Here is\nsomething worth minute inspection. Here, upreared upon our Western,\nmodern American soil, is a noble work of art, as noble as any in the\nancient East--finished, balanced, and enduring--the ripened moral\ncharacter of a people's patriot.\n\nFirst to notice narrowly is that Lincoln's moral texture is fourfold.\nFour virtues stamp this speech. Four strands compose its web. Four\nhues commingle in its light. Four parts convey its harmony. This\nfour-foldness is discernible distinctly.\n\nPlain to see through all the features of this address, as well-defined\nas the features of his friendly face, is his kindliness. Of all\nthings, war was most deplorable. Of all things, peace was most to be\ndesired. All malice was to be disowned. All charity was to be\nindulged. All wounds were to be bound up. All sorrows were to be\nconsoled. There spoke the pleading voice of love. All men were bidden\nto love their neighbors as they loved themselves. Here the quality of\nmoral kindliness is unmistakably and indelibly distinct.\n\nQuite as plain is his ideal and illustration of integrity. As manifest\nto all the world is his inflexible uprightness, as is the outer\nstature of his erect physique. For the equity in the bondman's protest\nagainst two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil he had an open\near and a profound respect. In the confidence that the judgments of\nAlmighty God were altogether just he was not ashamed to make public\nannouncement of his abiding faith. Eager that peace among ourselves\nand with all Nations might always last, he was also eager that it\nshould be just. Firmly based, for his Nation and for himself, upon\nsuch foundations of self-respect, resting on God, and resolute for the\nright, he had no other thought but to strive with unremitting\nconstancy, until his work was done. Here is moral loyalty, plainly\nvisible, and as plainly inviolate.\n\nQuite as clear is his humility. The war, as Lincoln viewed it, was a\nhumbling visitation upon the Nation of the Nation's sins, a mighty\nrebuke upon all human scorn and pride. In all that sin and scorn and\npride--the crime and guilt of slavery--Lincoln had no slightest,\nconscious, personal share. But the shame and woe of that rebuke, as\nit fell from the hand of God upon the Nation as a whole, he bore with\nquiet, meek humility. And to whatever further judgment the Almighty\nmight allot he humbly bowed his head, confessing openly that, in his\nown heart and thought, God's ways had been proudly misunderstood. Here\nis reverent humility, and here is humble reverence, undeniable and\nundisguised.\n\nAnd just as clear is his supreme esteem for values that are permanent\nand pure. Above all changing accidents Lincoln honored the Godlike\nhuman soul. In harmony herewith his thoughts and arguments were prone\nto handle centuries. And in rating worth his standard was a man's\nhumanity. Thus he shaped the records and the prospects of our history\ninto a philosophy. Thus he interpreted the war. It was God's\nvindication of the immortal value of the humblest man. Carnal\npleasures and worldly gains, wrung from human lives at the cost of the\ndegradation and debasement of the human soul, and in defiance of God's\neternal and indefeasible laws, Lincoln saw to be of all things the\nmost foolhardy and crude. So spiritual and pure was his conception of\nGod and man, and his active understanding of the meaning of historic\nefforts and events. Ideals, endeavors, and enjoyments, even though\nnormal and worthy, if they dealt with values that were decaying and\ngross, were cheaply rated by him; while the Nation's perpetuity, each\nman's spiritual quality, and God's eternal purity held eminence\nunfailingly in his affection and esteem. Here is spirituality, pure\nwithin, and by the inwardly pure plain to see.\n\nAs in the shapely quadrilateral of the Parthenon, this fourfoldness in\nthe character of Lincoln is cardinal. Each quality is an element, each\nconforming with an elemental factor in the nature of every man. This\ninvolves that in its essential substance each trait, so far\nconsidered, is incapable of analysis. And each refuses to be resolved\ninto something else. Each one is a simple and a constant co-efficient\nin Lincoln's moral being. Each one exists within his life in a\ncomplete integrity, indivisible, self-contained.\n\nHis humility, thus, is integral and unmixed. When Lincoln bows, as he\ndoes in this inaugural, before his God, and therein offers his life in\na bending ministry to all his fellowmen, that reverence and that\nministry are, as ministry and as reverence, pure lowliness. The phases\nof that lowliness may pass through continual transformation. And those\nchanging forms may have changing designations. It may be submission\nbefore God's sovereignty, reverence before his majesty, awe before his\nmystery, obedience before his authority, trust beneath his Providence,\nconfession under his rebukes; but common, essential, and unchanged\nwithin them all is simple, pure humility.\n\nSo with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also\nwears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of\nparade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership\nwith a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's\nworth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged\nwithin all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid\nmoral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's\nlife, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and\ninseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a\nrelationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very\nbreath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as\nfirm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as are the\nopportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear,\nforbear, and serve.\n\nIt is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and\nimperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable\nof many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in\nreasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty;\nwith proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or\nreliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as\nconsistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with\nethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with\neven, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm\nof truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But\ncommon within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those\nvaried and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any\nanalysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand\ndistinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and\ncentered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his\nvery honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living\nsoul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his\nmoral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest\naction of his self-consciousness.\n\nThe same holds true of Lincoln's kindliness. In the balanced harmony\nof his character the note of human friendliness is a persistent and\nindispensable strain. Without that melody his moral consonance would\nbe painfully and irretrievably impaired. Like every other fundamental\ntrait, this too may be voiced with every sort of easy, fluent\nvariation. It may spring spontaneously from deep within the heart, as\nbenign and all-embracing benevolence. It may overflow with benefits,\nin active, bounteous generosity. It may bind together an ideal home in\nparental, filial, fraternal affection. It may kindle at the altars of\none's native land, and influence the heart of the patriotic devotee.\nIt may break through all the accidents of birth and race into\nuniversal brotherhood. It may befriend the hurt, and needy, and\nbereft, as sympathy. It may so prevail as to bear up beneath the cruel\nsin of alien hearts in the sorrow of vicarious love, to the end that\nguilty men may be redeemed and reconciled. In myriad ways this human\nkindliness may speak its gentle words of mercy, grace, and peace. But\nevery word is keyed to kindly fellowship. Through all those variations\nthis note is prevalent. And it is keyed to a relationship as universal\nand as unavoidable as are the bonds of human brotherhood. This wanting\nin any moral character in fact or in idea, that moral character is\nunbalanced and incomplete. Its mighty influence and its constant\nevidence in Lincoln's active life supply an elemental requisite to\nthat life's harmony. It is his full-voiced answer to the world-wide\nplea for human friendliness.\n\nAnd just such affirmations must be made concerning Lincoln's pureness.\nLike each of the other three, this quality, too, holds a place and\neminence distinctly and uniquely its own. No other trait can do its\npart or take its place. Its function and its office permit no\nsubstitute. Nor can its ministry be divided. Its claim is regal. And\nin any rating and apportionment among the other three this trait must\nbe granted equal primacy. Its presence and its purport in Lincoln's\ntotal life are clear and fair and absolutely radical. Its aspect\nvaries like the aspect of the sky. But deep within those variations\ngleams the pure and shining blue. It may win triumph over greed of\nappetite in temperance; or over fleshly passion in continence. It may\nfix supreme desire, not on decaying things, but on undying life; not\non things that change and disappoint, but on values that abide and\nhold their own. It may search far beyond things visible for things\nunseen; and look within all symbols, discerning what they mean. It may\ndetect within down-trodden, untutored men souls kindred to their\nMaker. It may transcend all idol forms, and make all worship\nspiritual. It may see how ends outvalue means; and how bottles should\nnot outvalue wine. In the midst of our universal lot of accident,\ndisease and death it may hold fast, for all the pure in heart, to the\nhope of a happy immortality. But enduring and undying, common and\nunchanged within them all is simple, spiritual purity. The soul\nasserts supremacy. Things that fluctuate and finally dissolve, however\nbefitting and beautiful while they thrive, are admired and valued far\nbeneath the immortal and unchanging worth of God and Godlike souls of\nmen. This clear vision and high evaluation of spiritual things in the\nthought and life of Lincoln can never be omitted nor excluded in any\nfinal analysis of his moral life. It ranks among the elements of his\ncharacter, as each or any one of its facades holds rank about the\nParthenon.\n\nThus in the composition of Lincoln's moral being there are four solid,\npermanent, radical integers--his kindliness, his loyalty, his\npureness, and his humility. And these four elements of his character\nface the four cardinal points in the compass of his life--his brother\nman, his conscious self, his flesh-bound soul, and his sovereign Lord.\nSo inherent in his very structure, so inwrought in his conscious\ncharacter, so deeply based, so cardinal, and so enduring and\nirreducible is this fourfoldness in Lincoln's inward life.\n\nAnd now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four\nconstituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear\nand cardinal, but inclusive and complete. Combining in their\nsignificance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things\nsuperior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood;\nand all the truth and worth within his own identity--every factor and\nrelation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and\nhimself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and\nawarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only\ntwo constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with\nthe daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the\nLord of grace and truth--these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his\nlife; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire\nand consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are\ndiscovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved;\nwhen any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign\nand kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a\nworld of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the\nadoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral\nstature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see,\nso integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of\nLincoln's character.\n\nAnd now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four\nconstituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his\ncharacter, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively\nsome separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral,\nbut Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of\na section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a\nwhole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature\nstands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent\nexercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life\nis Lincoln's lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is\nkindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When\nin this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God\nreveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and\npledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying\nheart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those\ncenturies of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its\nsorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and,\ndisowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal\ncharity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is\npouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the\nworth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and\ncommending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in\nhumble fellowship with humble men he abjures all hollow boasts and\npride, and, bending beneath God's just rebukes, voices for all the\nland our national guilt, from that humiliation and lowliness no\nportion of his being is exempt. Each cardinal virtue engrosses and\nengages all his soul.\n\nAnd now ensues with a sequence that is irresistible, an affirmation\nthat in all this study of Lincoln's character must stand supreme.\nIntegral as is each several one of these four virtues in Lincoln's\nlife, and integral as is Lincoln's life in each single several trait,\nthese two integrities can be clearly seen to deeply interblend and\ntruly coincide. There is among the four qualities within his life no\ndissonance. Here emerges Lincoln's moral unison. As in the Parthenon\nall the elements harmonize and the edifice is one, so in Lincoln moral\nmanifoldness unifies. There is throughout coincidence. The heart that\nbows towards God, in that very act of meekest acquiescence swells with\npity for all who mourn and bleed, with indignant jealousy for equity,\nand with a supreme esteem for immortal souls. These four virtues do\nnot exist and operate asunder. They do not come into view in this\ninaugural in sequence, each one in turn displacing and eclipsing the\none that went and shone before. They coexist, each one continuing\nundiminished and unobscured, each one fully active and plain to see,\ntheir confluent tides pouring through the same identical phrase, the\ntotal strength of Lincoln surging alike in each. Through the whole\naddress thrills Lincoln's whole conviction, all his passion, and the\ntotal vigor of his will respecting truth and falsity, hate and\ncharity, greed and purity, pride and humility. Here is moral unison.\n\nTo find the secret to this moral synthesis demands and deserves the\nsharpest scrutiny. That this may be understood it requires to be seen\nthat these four virtues, so clearly distinguishable and so perfectly\ncombined, are as clearly and perfectly akin. Lincoln's equity and\ncharity, as voiced in this address, are not alien energies. They\nvitally correspond. They bear mutual resemblance. Each springs from\ndeep within himself, from his elemental manhood, a manhood that finds\nin his brother's life and liberty as deep rejoicing as in his own. And\nherein he is also kindred with God, as God's purposes and ways are\ndefined in this address. God, too, is deeply just and kind. Here roots\nLincoln's meekness under God's rebuke, and Lincoln's firmness in his\nunderstanding of what is right. Between his heart's chief wish and\nGod's high will the moral correspondence becomes identity. So deep is\nthe coincidence and agreement of Lincoln's reverence and equity and\ncharity within himself and with his God. The same inwrought agreement\nshines in the profound affinity of Lincoln's kindliness and\nfaithfulness and lowliness with his pure idealism. In him they are all\nas fully unified as is his manliness. So deeply intimate is the vital\nsynthesis of Lincoln's moral unison.\n\nThis position is pivotal. If either of these four virtues, here\ndefined and designated as elementally distinct and cardinal, can be\never merged into any one, or any two, or all the other three; or if\nany one can be dissolved, or analyzed into something else still more\nelemental and pure, that possibility should be made passing sure and\nclear at just this point. For from the affirmations, thus far laid\ndown, as to the cardinal validity and vital harmony of these four\nmoral traits, and of the four foundations in which these virtues rest,\nfollow other affirmations in the chapters that now ensue, which no\nartificial postulate can ever uphold.\n\nBut here, in passing, two standard affirmations are required. It is\nnot to be asserted or assumed that Lincoln's personal life attained\nperfection, and transcended sin. In the chapter on humility, and in\nchapters yet to come his own deep sense of deep unworthiness stands\nevident. But in his clear and firm ideal and desire, aglow throughout\nwith Godlike grief for all delinquency, appear the qualities above\ndefined.\n\nAnd then these qualities, which his unique career displays, are, as\nmoral qualities, in no respect unique or beyond the measure of any\nman. They beseem quite normally the plainest of us all. This truth\ndeserves full heed and unreserved respect. Lincoln was beautifully\nlike a little child. He was indeed a hero and performed heroic deeds.\nBut with all his heroism, as regards his moral qualities, the humblest\nmortal may be his peer. Here is the hidden secret of the universal and\nungrudging admiration which his heroic character commands. He is the\nworld's model and guarantee of a world democracy.\n\n\n\n\nPART IV. STUDIES\n\n\nHIS SYMMETRY--THE PROBLEM OF BEAUTY\n\nIn Lincoln's character is a beautiful illustration of moral balance.\nHe stands before the eye unchangeably, like the Capitol dome at\nWashington, a signal exhibition of firmness, harmony, and repose. As\nhe fills his place as president, he seems to face the whole horizon at\nonce. A study of his life leaves the impression that he is resting\nupon a solid, ample base; that his weight is well distributed; that\nhis energies are united evenly; that all his parts agree together;\nthat throughout his structure he is at ease; while yet there swell and\nrise within his breast proud, far-seeing hopes that only a Nation's\ngrandest magnitude could give complete embodiment. This massive poise,\nand breadth, and balanced evenness are the seemly vesture of his\ncharacter. They well become his inner attitude. They are the open\nintimation of the shapeliness and majesty of the unseen soul within.\nAnd quite as worthy of study and admiration as our national dome, is\nthis well-poised nobility of Lincoln's personality.\n\nWith this intent one may well review this last inaugural, for it\nenshrines superior beauty. Not unfittingly did it find first utterance\nbeneath the presence of that imposing masterpiece at our national\nCapitol. As in that circling colonnade, so in the measured cadences of\nthis address, there is exalted harmony. Its phrases, rhythmic and\npleasurable, rank almost as music. Read however many times, its\nsentences never tire. Minds the most refined are glad to point to\nthis address as to a noble monument, assured that its perusal will\nawaken in any American high national pride, and in the minds of all\nmen a pure delight.\n\nThis commanding, gracious dignity is not alone a matter of even\nrhythms and pleasing cadences. It is to its author's moral poise and\nfull harmony that this speech owes its symmetry. Indeed this is all\nits substance. Of rhetorical decoration it is absolutely bare. Its\nonly title to its universal admiration is the patent fact that its\nauthor has traced and set therein, as with an engraver's nicest art,\nthe princely fashion of his high-born soul. Its finished ethical\nsymmetry is all the art that gives this speech its everlasting charm.\n\nWhat now is the inmost nature of the attractiveness that holds\npossession of this last inaugural? In this inquiry is extended a\nwinsome invitation to any beauty-loving mind. As such a mind fixes its\ninspection intently upon the vital structure of this address, he sees\nwithin its shapely borders four princely virtues, standing together in\na courtly league. Each virtue stands mature in unrestrained virility,\nno one of them overbearing the other three, nor being overborne. With\neasy, manly grace each virtue does its part, while all harmoniously\ncombine, to support with Godlike sagacity and strength the problems of\na Nation's destiny in days and tasks that mock the sagest counsel and\nbaffle the proudest might of man.\n\nLike stately columns beneath a stately dome, these virtues deserve\nregard. Each one is integral in Lincoln's personal majesty, and in the\nfinely finished power of this address. The exhibition of personal\nself-respect, the very eye of moral verity, as displayed in Lincoln's\nown reliability, and idealized within his steadfast plan for national\nconsistency, is fashioned forth within the well-set features of this\naddress with all the well-poised grandeur of the Olympian Zeus. The\ntones of kindliest friendliness towards detractors and defenders\nalike, repelling all malignity, unfailingly benign, cannot in any\ncadence be misunderstood. They fall like healing music, reminding\nlisteners of home, and hearthstone, and a father's heart. The lowly\nattitude of penitent submissiveness towards God, with its wonderful\nmingling of solemn awe, adoring worship, and conscious fellowship,\nundeniably without hypocrisy, as without restraint, institutes in this\naddress nothing less than the model and inspiration of a reverent,\nreligious liturgy, fit to lead and voice a Nation's humble penitence\nand praise. The kindled and enkindling zeal for the transcendent worth\nof men above all other wealth, the burning hearth from whose free\nflame springs up every passion glowing through this speech, is like\nthe fervent ardor of a prophet's heart, watching with a patient, eager\nwistfulness towards the dawning of a day that shall never pass away.\n\nThese are signal qualities in this address, each one erect and free,\nits signal beauty and virility undiminished and complete. But to be\nnoticed here is, not their individual comeliness, but the beauty of\ntheir companionship. They consort together perfectly. And in that\nunison is a peculiar, an individual attractiveness. Here is a symmetry\nthat pleads for appreciation. It is the beauty of this unison\nthroughout this speech that constitutes its eloquence. See how\nLincoln's very confession of error puts him in line with God. Feel how\nhis righteousness affiliates with tenderness. Mark how his heed for\nearthly things provides a body for his idealism. Within the unyielding\nrigor of his resolute will see how bending and genial is his attitude.\nHere is marvelous symphony--sin and error and war, light and truth and\npeace, so comprised and combined, so resolved and reconciled in this\nspeaker and in this address, as to show a Nation how in the discord of\narms heaven's own harmonies may be heard. To this fine blending of\ntones that are distinct, to this pure consonance of notes that are\ndiverse, it were well for all our ears to become accustomed. This\nwould mean a true and real refinement. To this refinement Lincoln did\nachieve. With this deep consonance his ear became familiar. Hence the\ndeep-toned fulness and carrying power in the moral resonance of this\naddress. It faces a manifold emergency with sentiments likewise\nmanifold, but so composed together as to lead all discordant voices\ninto lasting peace.\n\nThis moral equilibrium carried within it generous breadth. This is a\nstriking aspect of this inaugural. It comprehends and resolves\ntogether, with an ease that seems an instinct, the total orbit of our\nnational life. Within its little compass is the easy movement of the\nfull momentum of our past. It holds in easy grasp the full\ncircumference of concurrent events. It evinces, though with amazing\nbrevity, that the ponderous issues of the coming day are a familiar\ntopic in his brooding thought. And all of this consists together\nwithin his thought with even, equal recognition. Events are made to\nbalance. Causes and effects are so held face to face as to declare by\ndemonstration their true comparison. Great issues and mighty forces\nare given their needed amplitude in his observation and review. The\nweight of centuries is in his ponderings. This was the style and\nattitude of his mental deliberations. He was predisposed to cast and\narrange his thoughts in national dimensions. Union, liberty, manhood,\nProvidence, were the themes to which his soul was drawn, as though by\ngravity.\n\nThus Lincoln's influence attained solidity. The place of this\ninaugural, and of its author's honor, in our American life, and in\nthe larger world of worthy civics is well-secured. The qualities\nembodied in this address, each one so elemental, and all so eternally\nallied, are more enduring, as they stand poised within those balanced\nparagraphs, than any qualities resident in marble or bronze. The\nproposition that the hostile interests of a mighty Nation be\nreconciled into eternal friendliness and constancy under the awful\ndiscipline of God through sacrificial baptisms of blood, contains\nwithin its balanced and majestic terms an interior cohesion and\nstability that nothing can ever disintegrate or move. It is without a\nbias anywhere. Through all its massiveness the weight is even\nabsolutely. And its moral proportions are in perfect truth. It is a\nmonument of finished majesty, solidity, and grace. It is a masterpiece\nof moral symmetry.\n\nThis massive grandeur in Lincoln's moral character finds an exalted\nillustration in the closing half of his message to Congress in\nDecember of 1862. It forms in itself a document that may well be held\nbefore the eye as a companion piece to his last inaugural. He is\nmaking an elaborate argument for \"compensated emancipation.\" He is\nlaboring to make clear that the issues pending in the center of the\nwar are no concern of mere geography, but rather a problem hanging\nupon the free decisions of living citizens; and that in the interest\nof universal liberty a full agreement by Congress and the chief\nexecutive to tax the Nation peaceably, to remunerate all loss entailed\nby freeing every slave, would surely win the requisite electoral\nsupport, stay the war at once, establish lasting peace, and give\ndemonstration of a civic character and courage fit to brighten and\nenhearten all the world. He closes his appeal with these following\nwords:--\n\n\"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and\nthis administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No\npersonal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of\nus. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor\nor in dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union.\nThe world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the\nUnion. The world knows we do know how to save it. We--even we\nhere--hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to\nthe slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we\ngive and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the\nlast, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not\nfail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if\nfollowed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.\"\n\nThere is in that message a document that has the scope and the\ngrandeur of the Alps. It offers an imposing illustration how politics,\nso prone to become and to remain ignoble, may come to have surpassing\nbeauty; how statesmanship, vested in a worthy character, may wear\ntranscendent dignity. This appeal, as shaped by Lincoln, is a monument\nfashioned by a master hand. Note its basis in equity, all the Nation\nin common accepting their money cost of a common complicity in wrong.\nNote its inscription to human goodwill, curtailing the period, and\nstaying the bloodshed of the war. Note its enduring substance and\ncomposition, built up of human hearts, cemented in the action of\nfreedom in the human soul, a towering protest against all gains and\nconsequences where human liberty is denied. Note the humble reverence\nin the soaring appeal to the benediction of God, with which the whole\naddress concludes. Note the conscience-stirring reference to\ninevitable and over-ruling law, in the ominous intimation that the\nlight of history would luminously adjudge each several man. And note,\nwith all the imperial urgency of the appeal, its vesture of infinite\nrespect for the right of every congressman to make a free decision of\nand by and for himself alone.\n\nHere is something at once most imposing and most engaging. Here is\nhandicraft of the highest grade. The man that conceived and drafted\nthat political appeal was, in the realm of politics, no mean\narchitect. He is, in these arguments, measuring the forces elemental\nin a great Republic, as Michael Angelo measured gravitation. He is\ndealing with decades, and with centuries, with freedom and with\nslaves, with a transient Congress and the course of history, as\nbuilders deal with granite blocks. Embracing things dispersed and\nwidely variant, as also things mutually inclined towards fellowship,\nhe defines and demonstrates, as a master artisan, how they may all be\ngrasped and overcome and harmonized in a commanding unison. With a\nskilled designer's easy grace he drafts a sketch of our transformed\ncareer, as plain and open to the observing eye as are the massive,\ngraceful movements of deploying clouds across the sky. Here is\nmajesty, lofty, balanced, and secure. And all its excellence is\nethical. And it pleads to be made supreme in earthly politics. In such\na message is ideal courtliness. Its bearer must be a comely prince.\nThe man and author upon whose polished tongue those sentiments found\nbirth must be of royal lineage.\n\nThus Lincoln has given to civics ideal comeliness and dignity. In his\nhand, and under his design, politics wears heavenly majesty. In his\nconception of a State, though devised and traced in times when cruelty\nand sordidness and unfairness and negligence of God were sadly\nprevalent through the Nation's life, there rose to view, in his pure\npatriotism, a civic standard in which, through holy fear of God, all\nmen were rated at their immortal worth, and treated with the love and\nfairness that were the mutual due of freemen who were peers. Here is a\nportrait of a patriot upon which no artist can easily improve--a\nportrait which attests in Lincoln's soul a pure and a free idea of\nwhat true art must ever be.\n\nAnd it is not without profound significance for art that Lincoln's\nstatesmanship has become one of the finest objects in our modern world\nfor artists to idealize. The very features of his face, that were wont\nto be esteemed most plain, have come to show a symmetry that is\nbeautiful. And his whole outward frame, that men so many times have\ncalled ungainly, has come to bear and body forth a dignity such as\nsummons finest bronze and marble to their most exalted ministry.\nWhence came to that plain face and plainer frame such symmetry and\ndignity? Let artists contemplate and reply. For in Lincoln's manhood\nstature, where utmost rudeness has become transmuted to refinement,\nall men are taught that true beauty and true art are ethical. In moral\nharmony is found ideal symmetry.\n\n\nHIS COMPOSURE--THE PROBLEM OF PESSIMISM\n\nIn the foregoing pages reference has been made repeatedly to Lincoln's\npoise. In the chapter just concluded this poise has been studied for\nits beauty. This attitude will repay still further scrutiny. For\nlooked at again, and from another point of view, it reveals itself as\na reservoir of energy. Seen thus, Lincoln's notable poise becomes a\nmighty store of potential, and indeed of active force. It may be\ndescribed as a mingling of energy and repose, of resourcefulness and\nrest, showing and playing through all his influence among other men,\nand largely explaining its potency.\n\nOf just this personal habitude, through all the years of Lincoln's\nparticipation in our national affairs, there was strenuous need and\nrequisition. His public course ran through an era in our national\ncareer of unprecedented internal turbulence. The house was divided\nagainst itself. The cause of the dissension was a diametrical\nopposition and an irreconcilable contention of views touching a matter\nso radical as the basis of our Declaration of Independence, and the\npurport of our fundamental national document, the Constitution. To the\nmen on either side of this contention it seemed as though their\nantagonists were bent upon uprooting and removing the very hills. This\nobstinate and inveterate disagreement revolved about the single,\nsimple, fateful question of the right and wrong of holding men in\nbonds. For a full generation before Lincoln entered the lists the\nconflict had been bitterly intense, refusing to be composed or\nassuaged. Near the beginning of the last decade of Lincoln's life he\nput on his armor and chose his side. In 1858, while competing with\nDouglas for a seat in the U. S. Senate, Lincoln made a declaration\nthat, for its bearing upon his own career and its influence in\nnational affairs, has become historic; while for its testimony to the\ntopic of this chapter it has the very first significance. The core of\nthat declaration was a quotation from words of Christ, when refuting\nthe charge that he was in league with Beelzebub:--\"A house divided\nagainst itself cannot stand.\" This quotation was cited by Lincoln to\nedge his affirmation that the national agitation concerning slavery,\nthen in full course, and continually augmenting, would not cease until\na crisis should be reached and passed. This was his firm assurance. A\nnational crisis was at hand. But to this assurance, that the\ngovernment could not endure permanently half slave and half free, he\nattested another confidence equally assured:--\"I do not expect the\nUnion to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do\nexpect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or\nall the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further\nspread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the\nbelief that is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates\nwill push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the\nStates, old as well as new, North as well as South.\"\n\nThat was said with resolute and imposing deliberation in July of 1858.\nIn that utterance Lincoln's attitude deserves analysis, and for many\nreasons; but in particular for its revelation of his composure. He\nknew full well what tremendous issues for himself and for the Nation\nwere involved in what he said. He knew that his appeal for the\nsenatorship at Washington was thereby gravely imperiled. He knew that\nit foreboded national convulsions and throes. He knew that for himself\nand for the government a mighty crisis was ahead. And he knew that in\nthat crisis the alternatives were for all humanity supreme. The issues\nwere nothing less than human freedom and equality, or human tyranny\nand bonds. In the stress and strain of an age-long strife like this,\nmany a man has swerved to moral pessimism.\n\nFrom the date of that speech Lincoln stood in the face of that\nvicissitude. Indeed for his few remaining years he was, in all that\ndeepening commotion, an energetic and influential central force. And\nhe never yielded to despair. In this same month he issued to Senator\nDouglas his doughty challenge to a series of debates. During those\ndebates Lincoln forged his way into a preeminence that amounted almost\nto solitude, as champion of a people and a cause that, for weary\ngenerations, had been under all but hopeless oppression and reproach.\nThrough all those debates Lincoln's single heart was nothing less\nthan a national theater of a solicitude nothing less than national.\nUpon his lone shoulders lay the gravest burdens of his day. The ideals\nof a Nation lay upon his anvil; the national temper was being forged\nbeneath his hand. Highest chivalry waged against him, bearing tempered\nsteel, and jealous of an old and proud prestige.\n\nIn the immediate outcome of those debates Lincoln met defeat. But\nfarther on he only found himself involved more deeply still in the\nanguish of the crisis he had foretold. The national disagreement was\nverging towards the Nation's dissolution, heightening at length into\nsecession and actual, long-drawn civil war. So tremendous was the\ncrisis Lincoln foresaw. And this was precipitated directly by his\nelection to the presidency. So vitally were his own fortune and fate\nbound up in the crisis he foretold. So pitiless and fundamental was\nthe challenge to his hope. His total administration was spent in the\ntumult of arms. By no possibility in any Nation's conscious life could\ncivil confusion be worse confounded than during the period of his\npresidential terms. Beginning with seven states in open secession, and\nbrought to an end by assassination, the measure of his supreme\nofficial life was full to either brim with perils and sorrows and\nfears, such as any single human heart could hardly contain. But the\nundiminished, overwhelming volume of those fears and sorrows and cares\nwas encompassed every day within his anxious, ample, patriot heart.\nWhen facing in August of 1864 the national election, upon which this\nlast inaugural oath was based, he said:--\"I cannot fly from my\nthoughts--my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I\ngo. I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not\nfree from these infirmities; but I cannot but feel that the weal or\nwoe of this great Nation will be decided in November.\" So momentous\nand grave seemed to him the meaning and weight of the contention that\ndrove the Nation into war. In this estimate, as said before, he stood\nalmost in solitude. \"Our best and greatest men,\" he said in New Haven\nin 1860, \"have greatly underestimated the size of this question. They\nhave constantly brought forward small cures for great sores--plasters\ntoo small to cover the wound.\" To Lincoln's credit it must forever be\nsaid that he had a true prevision of the agony through which the\nNation must strive, as she reached and passed the crisis which he saw\nin 1858 to be her predestined and impending fate.\n\nAnd so it came to pass that in 1861, when Fort Sumter was assailed,\nand the sharp imperious alternative of immediate dissolution or blood\nfaced the Nation's eye, he was not surprised or unprepared; as\nlikewise, when in 1865 at his second inaugural scene, after four full\nyears of awful war, he is still found waiting in sacrificial patience\nto hail the culmination of his assured interpretation and hope. Here\nin 1865 as there in 1858, there in 1858 as here in 1865, he is\ncherishing the patriot-prophet's confidence that the crisis would be\npassed, that the Nation would not be dissolved, that the house would\nstand.\n\nAnd to Lincoln's singular honor it must always be allowed that through\nall the terrible hours while that crisis was being passed, it was\npre-eminently due to Lincoln's mighty moral optimism that our Union\nwas preserved. Amid all the turbulence of armies and arms, his\nassurance of our national perpetuity was so deeply, firmly based, as\nto be itself invested and informed with perpetuity. So commanding was\nhis posture of heroic, triumphant confidence, that it mightily availed\nto guide and steady the Nation through the crisis into an era of\ninternal and international peace.\n\nBut not merely did Lincoln's composure prevail to secure that this\nNation should not dissolve. It also wrought prevailingly to perpetuate\nour liberty. Throughout the crisis the issue held in stake was whether\nthe Nation should be wholly slave or wholly free. Those were the\nalternatives between which Lincoln's care and fear, and the Nation's\nfortune and fate were hung. Throughout the crisis Lincoln's hope was\nthat the Nation should be forever wholly free. His fear was that the\nNation might be wholly slave. But above that fear, that hope\nsteadfastly prevailed. One who studies Lincoln through those days\ncomes to feel unerringly that deep beneath an anxiety that seemed at\ntimes almost to overwhelm his life, there lay a supreme assurance\nthat, when the crisis should have passed, it should stand clear beyond\ndebate, and sure beyond all doubt, that here in this favored land the\nchance of all the sons of men should be forever equal, fair, and free.\nAstutely heedful of the power of selfish, sordid greed; deeply\nconscious of the blind defiance of scorn and pride; painfully aware of\nthe awful capacity of a human heart for cruelty and hate; and sharp to\nsee how reason yields to prejudice, when chivalry becomes a\ncounterfeit; he still found grounds to hold his anchored hope for\nuniversal liberty and brotherhood.\n\nThis deep-based confidence deserves to be well understood. It is a\nprimary phenomenon in Lincoln's life. How in the deepest welter of\nviolence and strife could Lincoln's mood retain such level evenness?\nHow in all that continental turbulence could he keep so unperturbed?\nHow, through all that confusion was he never confused? In truth his\ndays were mostly dark and sad. Sorrows did overwhelm him. How did his\nanchorage hold unchanged? When the very hills gave way, his\nfoundations seemed to stay. The assurance to which his soul was\nattached seemed all but omnipotent. What was the secret, what the\nground of such phenomenal steadiness?\n\nTo answer these inquiries is but to rehearse again what has already\nbeen repeatedly made plain. This massive sturdiness of Lincoln's\nstatesmanship, this unalterable political reliability lay inwrought in\nthe hardy fiber of his moral character.\n\nOne factor here may be termed intellectual. Lincoln's study made him\nsteady. His untiring thoughtfulness secured to Lincoln's soul a fine\ndeposit of pure assurance. It was with him a jealous and guarded\ncustom to make examinations exhaustive. He was always seeking\ncertainty. Few men ever dealt more sparingly in conjecture. Always\neager towards the future, and often making statements touching things\nto come, he was nevertheless a model of mental caution. It was this\npassion to make his footing fully secure that kindled in him such zest\nfor history. It was this same passion that glowed in his eye, as he\ninspected in common men their common humanity. And likewise it was\nthis that led him into the fear of God, and made him a student of the\nBible, and a man of prayer. The full capacity of his mind was taxed\nunceasingly, in order to secure to his ripening judgments their\nmajestic equipoise.\n\nBut with saying this not enough is said to describe the grounds of his\ncomposure. It was not merely that his mind, through thoughtful inquiry\nand comparison, grew far-sighted, and balanced, and clear. What gained\nfor Lincoln his solid anchorage was his deep, strong hold upon all\nthat was inmost and permanent in the heart and nature of men. Every\ninch a man himself, the one ambition of his mental research was to\nmake every responsible thought and deed conduce to guide every brother\nman to the destiny which his nature decreed. This was the research\nthat made his eye so clear. This was the study that made his hope so\nsure. Outcome of unsparing intellectual toil, this was the assurance\nthat won for Lincoln his unique and most honorable diploma and degree.\nThis was Lincoln's standing and this its warrant among all thoughtful\nmen, alike the learned and the unlettered. This was the secret of that\nmarvelous calmness, that was so potent to compose the fears of other\nmen. He studied man, until he attained a magisterial power to\nunderstand and explain result and cause, issue and origin, amid\nhistoric, surrounding, and impending events. In the field where\nLincoln stood and toiled he was an adept. He was a worthy master of\nthe humanities. He took a liberal course in the liberal arts. And out\nof this broad course he constructed politics. He came to see\nunerringly, and to believe unwaveringly, and to contend unwearyingly\nthat man, that all men should hold, in a universal equilibrium, their\nregard for God, their self-respect, their brother love, and a true,\ncomparative esteem for things that perish and souls that survive. This\nreasoned, hopeful faith, adopted with all his heart as the comely\npattern and well-set keystone of all his politics and statesmanship,\nis what secured to Lincoln through all those tumultuous days his\nfar-commanding political equanimity. That all men were designed and\nentitled by their Creator to be free, and that in this liberty, as in\nthe elemental right to life and self-earned happiness, all are\nlikewise created equal, Lincoln did devoutly, profoundly, and\ninvincibly believe. Confirmed by all his ranging observation and\nincessant, pondering thought, this faith was also rooted beyond repeal\nin his own deep reverence for God, in his own instinctive respect for\nhimself, in irrepressible friendliness, and in his unabashed\nidealism.\n\nSuch a man could never be a pessimist. Such a faith in such a soul\ncould not be plucked away. Nor could its protestations be variable.\nThat each, as alike the handiwork of God, should alike be always fair,\nand that all should always and alike be free, was the base of his\npolitical philosophy, and the bond of his consistency. This was the\nteaching of the past. This was the harbinger of the day to come. And\nin this long-pondered wisdom and belief lay the explanation of his\nunderlying peacefulness through the war, and of his singular ability\nto prevail above the fears of other men, when in other hearts every\nhope gave way. He deeply saw that underneath all battlefields, and\nwithin all antagonisms, these simple principles, so surely sovereign\nand so certainly immortal, encompassed a breadth and strength\nsufficient to circumvent and overcome all hate and doubt and fear,\ndoing to no freeman any vital harm, shielding from essential evil\nevery toil-bowed slave. This is the source and secret of Lincoln's\nunexampled composure amid scenes of unexampled anxiety and unrest.\n\nAnd this composure, being so inwrought with hope, was unfailingly\nactive and alert. It was never mere endurance, stolid and inert. It\nenshrined a powerful momentum. It was alive with purpose, conscious,\nvigorous, resolute. One of its fairest features was a seeing eye--an\neye transfixed upon a goal. Things as yet invisible, and still\nunrealized, his earnest, unwearying eye prevailed to see. Hence his\noptimism was astir with enterprise. Anticipation, quite as truly as\npeacefulness, marked the constant attitude of his life. His composure\ncould be closely defined as confidence respecting things to come.\nAlways environed by difficulties, and all but blinded by their strife,\nhis faith struck through their turmoil, and his hope rose free and\nstrong into a jubilant salutation of man's undoubted destiny, and\ninto a victorious companionship with God's clear, certain will.\n\nAnd so there throbbed in this habitual posture of Lincoln's heart a\nmighty potency. His composure was prevailing. His deep and calm\nsecurity dissipated other men's dismay. Repeatedly beneath the\npresence of his stately quietness the Nation felt its turbulence\nsubside. This efficiency can be felt at work in this last inaugural\naddress; and its action well deserves to be identified. In his\nexposition of its theme, and in his registration of his presidential\npledge, he seems by one hand to have fast hold of things immutable,\nwhile with the other hand he is helping to steady things that tremble\nand change. Here is kingly mastery. Things mightily disturbed are\nbeing mightily put to rest, as though from an immutable throne. The\nopen figure of that throne may well be scanned by all the Nation and\nby all the world. It is built and stands foursquare. Its measure\nconforms in every part with the measure of a man. It is shaped and set\nto stand and abide where men consort, to unify their minds, and\ntranquillize their strifes. With sobered and sobering insight into the\nhuman soul, with resolute and expectant will before our human goal,\nthis address inscribes and upholds, as at once an outcome and an ideal\nof human events, a universal amity compacted of loyal, friendly men\nwho walk in reverence before God, and cherish treasures that can never\nfail. Purity, humility, charity, loyalty--these are the constituents\nin the structure, and the explanation of the power of Lincoln's\ncomposure. Fully illumined, firmly convinced, evenly at rest upon\nprinciples that stand foursquare upon the balanced manhood of Godlike\nmen, his civic hopefulness stood in the midst of his practical\nstatesmanship, like an invincible, immovable throne.\n\n\nHIS AUTHORITY--THE PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT\n\nThe study in the preceding chapter of Lincoln's even-paced serenity,\nculminating in the symbol of a throne, conducts directly to an\nexamination of his influence and mastery over other men. During those\ntroubled days in Washington, despite all the malice, defiance, and\nactive abuse which he daily bore, his power to persuade, conciliate,\nand govern other men was, in all the land, without a parallel. In\nfact, as well as in name, he was throughout those presidential days\nthe Nation's chief magistrate. And since his death that dominion has\nincreased, until it stands today above comparison. Here is an\nopportunity, not easily matched, to explore a theme whose importance\nin the field of ethics no other topic can surpass--the seat and nature\nof moral authority. And here in this second inaugural is a transparent\nillustration of the firm security in which that authority rests, and\nof the method by which it prevails.\n\nAs in his own inner reverence for law, so in his sway of other men,\nhis posture towards the national Constitution demands attention first.\n\n\"The supreme law of the land\"--thus the Constitution of the United\nStates, in its sixth article, defines itself. In its fifth article,\nthe same fundamental document provides that \"Amendments,\" properly\nmade, \"shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this\nConstitution.\" This primary authority for the rule of the land is\nfurther affirmed to have been ordained and established by \"the people\nof the United States.\" Here are three noteworthy features of this \"law\nof the land:\"--it is supreme; it is amendable; it arises from the\npeople.\n\nThis written standard of our national life, its amendability, and its\nprimal origin in the people's will, were matters much in Lincoln's\neye. Each separate one of these three features of our national civic\nlife had reverent respect in Lincoln's mind, in all his conception and\nexercise of authority over other men. It was this \"supreme law\" that\nhe swore in both inaugurations to \"preserve, protect, and defend.\" An\namendment to the Constitution, that was pending at the time of his\nfirst inaugural oath, he took unusual pains in that address to mention\nand approve. And it was to \"the people,\" on both occasions of his\ninauguration as president, and at all other times of public and\nresponsible address, that he paid supreme respect, in his most\nfinished and earnest eloquence and appeal. Here was a threefold\nultimate standard to which Lincoln always made final appeal--the\noriginal Constitution; its amenability to due revision; and the\npeople's free and deliberate decree. This triangular base-line was for\nLincoln's politics and jurisprudence and statesmanship the supreme and\nfinished standard of last appeal. He deferred to it submissively,\nhabitually, and with reverence.\n\nAll this can be truly said. And yet all this does not say all the\ntruth. Respectful as Lincoln was for all that he found thus\nfundamentally prescribed, and heedful as he was to indulge in no\nexecutive liberty inconsonant with those express decrees, he found his\nfortune as chief executive forcing him to move where all explicit\nregulations failed to specify the path. The Constitution does not\ninclude all details. It does not vouchsafe specific counsel for\nspecific needs. Its guidance is as to principles. \"No foresight can\nanticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express\nprovisions for all possible questions.\" This he declared in his first\ninaugural. Then he mentions three such unprescribed details:--the\nmethod of returning fugitive slaves; the power of Congress to\nprohibit; and the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the\nTerritories. Touching those three civic interests, civic duties and\ncivic standards were undirected and undefined. But even while he\nspoke, those three unsettled problems in the Nation's life were\nkindling the national pulse to an uncontrollable heat. Nothing less\nthan civil war was certainly impending, over controversies touching\nwhich the sovereign standards of the civic life did not expressly\nspeak.\n\nUpon these momentous, undecided questions Lincoln, in his high\nauthority as president, had to bring his judgment, his action, and his\ninfluence into settled shape. Deep in the heart of these unsettled\nregions he set his camp, and toiled away his life. This heroic and\npatriotic act may be called a detail of constitutional interpretation.\nBut it was for Lincoln a labor of Hercules. It opened a gigantic\ncontroversy. The land was convulsed with contending explications.\nViews, held essential to the vital honor of separate sections of the\nland, were in essential hostility. As the dissension deepened, two\nquestions rose, outstanding above the rest:--the Constitutional\nintegrity of the several States (might States secede?); and the\nConstitutional rights of slavery (should slavery spread?). Both these\nproblems were mortally acute in 1861. Both were still in hand in 1865.\nUnder the Constitution could the Union be legitimately dissolved?\nUnder the Constitution should slavery be permanently approved? To both\nthese questions Southern leaders answered, Yes. To both these\nquestions Lincoln answered, No.\n\nOf these two questions and asseverations, it is plain to see that the\nsecond is the more profound. So this second inaugural affirms:\n\"Somehow\" slavery was the cause of the secession and the war. This\n\"all knew.\" Upon this pivot, all the chances and contentions of the\ngreat debate were compelled to turn. Here lay all the meaning of the\nwar. All those awful battles were trembling, struggling arguments;\nthrilling, impassioned affirmations striving to finally and forever\ndecide whether human slavery was justified to spread.\n\nHere was a supreme divergence of conviction, and a supreme debate. In\nall the realm of social morals, no divergence and no debate could be\nmore radical. Into this supreme contention Lincoln was compelled to\nenter. To some conclusion that should be supreme he was, by his\nofficial station and responsibility, compelled to lead. To find his\nway through such a controversy, and to guide the land through all that\nstrife to some sovereign reconciliation, involved this common citizen\nin the presidential chair in an assumption and exercise of authority\nnothing less than sovereign.\n\nFace to face with this impending and decisive agony, Lincoln took his\nstand in his first inaugural, not flinching even from war, if war must\ncome. A mighty wrestler in the awful throes of mortal civic strife, he\nheld his determined stand in the act of his second inaugural oath,\nafter war had raged for four full years. The great debate is unsettled\nstill. Still Lincoln has to bear the awful burden of responsible\nadvice. He is still the Nation's chief magistrate. An authority\npregnant to predetermine continental issues for unnumbered years to\ncome, however dread its weight, and however frail and faint his mortal\nstrength, he may not demit. Within the darkness and amid the din, he\nmust think and speak, he must judge and act, he must rise and lead,\nwhile a Nation and a future both too vast for human eye to scan and\nestimate, stand waiting on his word and deed.\n\nIt was a time for omens. But never did Lincoln's ways show fuller\nsanity. In such a day, and for such a responsibility this, his second\ninaugural address, is Lincoln's perfect vindication. Here the true\ncivilian's true democracy stands vested with an authority both\nsovereign and beautiful. Here political expertness becomes consummate.\nHere the very throne of civil authority is unveiled. Here leadership\nand fellowship combine. Here a master, though none more modest in all\nthe land, demonstrates his mastery in the mighty field of national\npolitics. Here it may be fully seen how in a true democracy a true\ndominion operates.\n\nHere emerges, in the ripened, rugged, mellowed, moral character of\nLincoln, and in the finished, immortal formulation of his uttermost\ncontention and appeal, a marvelous illumination of an inquiry, that is\nalways alike the last and the first, the first and the last in ethical\nresearch--the inquiry about ethical authority. Where did Lincoln\nfinally rest his final appeal? He is assuming to venture a\npreponderant claim. He is speaking as a Nation's president. And in a\nconflict of radical views that for four dread years has been a\nconflict of relentless arms, he argues still, and without a quaver,\nfor the thorough prosecution of the war. Divergence of judgment on\nmoral grounds could never be brought to a sharper edge. Contention\nover issues in the moral realm could never be harder pressed. On what\nauthority could Lincoln push a moral argument unto blood? Is there\nmoral warrant for such a deed? If ever there be, then where is its\nbase, and whence its awful sanctity?\n\nTo shape reply to this is but to shape more sharply still the naked\nsubstance of the debate--the crying issue of the war. The core of that\ninsistent strife concerned the essential nature of man. Was slavery\nlegitimate? Might a white man enslave a black? Could a strong man\nenslave the weak? Dare some men forswear toil? May any men who toil\nbe pillaged of the food their hands have earned? Are some men entitled\nto a luxury and ease they never earned, while to other men the luxury\nand ease they have fairly won may be denied? Are some men so inferior\nthat they can have no right to life, and liberty, and happiness,\nhowever much they strive and long for such a simple, common boon? Are\nother men so super-excellent that life, and liberty, and happiness are\ntheirs by right, though never earned or even struggled for at all?\n\nThis was the central issue of that war; and this the central theme of\nthis inaugural. Are common people to be forever kept beneath, and\ntraded on, and eyed with scorn; while favored men are to be forever\nset on high, and filled with wealth, and fed with flattery? This was\nthe quivering question that was brought on Lincoln's lips to its\nsharpest edge. Well he knew its momentousness and its antiquity.\n\nIn its very formulation, as Lincoln gave it shape, there loomed the\nformulation of its reply, perhaps still to be bitterly defied, perhaps\nto be still long deferred; but inevitable at last, and sure finally to\nfind agreement everywhere. This final answer Lincoln's vision saw. In\nthat clear vision he discerned the certain meaning of the battles of\nthe war. In the great debate they were the solemn, measured arguments.\nAmid those awful arguments this inaugural took its place, the oracle\nof a moral prophet, explaining how the war arose, by whose high hand\nthe war was being led, and in what high issue the war must attain its\nend. As the arguments of this address advance, one grows to feel that\nLincoln's thought is forging a reply, in which emerges a moral law\nwhose authority no man may ever dare rebuke.\n\nBut as that authority comes to view in Lincoln's speech, its form is\nshorn of every shred of arrogance. Never was mortal man more modest\nthan in the tone and substance of this address. This modesty is indeed\nthroughout devoid of wavering. His tones ring with confidence and\ndecisiveness. But in that confidence, though girt for war, there are\nfolded signs of deference and gentleness and solemn awe, as though\nconfessing error and confronting rebuke. Even of slavery, that most\npalpable and abhorrent evil, as he forever avers; and of slaveholders,\nwho wring their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, and then\ndare to pray for heaven's favor on their arms, he says in this\naddress:--\"let us not judge that we be not judged;\" as though the germ\nof that dark error might then be swelling in his and all men's hearts.\nAnd as to the war itself, for which he bade the Nation stand with\nsword full-drawn, the central passage in this speech more than\nintimates, what in an earlier part he fully concedes, that he and all\nthe people had availed but poorly to understand the Almighty's plans.\nIn all of this Lincoln seems to say that he found himself, in common\nwith all the land, but imperfectly in harmony with God, as to his\njudgment concerning the sin inwrought in holding slaves, and as to the\nprimacy of the Union among the interests pending in the war. He seems\nin this address, so far from affirming his right to judge and govern\narbitrarily, instead confessing that love of ease, greed for gain, the\nmood of scorn, and proneness to be cruel--those inhuman roots that\nrear up slavery--were apt to find hidden nutriment in his and all\nmen's hearts, yielding everywhere the baleful harvest of inhumanity;\nconfessing further that this deep-rooted tendency in human hearts to\nundo God's primal decree of freedom and equality was far more needful\nto eradicate than any proneness to secede within any confederacy of\nStates; and confessing in consequence and finally that it was for all\nAmericans to accept the war as God's rebuke of their common\npropensity to be unkind, and as God's correction of their false rating\nof their national concerns. This then seems to be Lincoln's posture in\nthis address--no lofty arrogance of authority to decree and execute\nthe right; but a humble confession of error and guilt; an acquiescent\nsubmission to God's correction and reproof. This modest hue must\ntincture this address through all its web.\n\nAnd yet the dominant note of this inaugural is clear decisiveness, an\nunwavering firmness in his own opinion, a classic illustration of\npersuasion and appeal, as though from the vantage ground of\nconvictions perfectly assured. Where now, in full view of all that has\nbeen said, is the basis of Lincoln's argument and authority to be\nplaced? In an argument where conviction seems to be transmuted into\npenitence, and where confession seems transfigured into confidence,\nhow can the logic be resolved; and where at last can the authority\nrepose?\n\nThe full reply to this inquiry can be found only when we find where\nLincoln's conviction and confession coalesce. Touching this, one thing\nis clear. Both bear upon the same concern. Deep within them both\nslavery is the common theme. Assured that slavery is wrong, he\nconfesses that its roots run everywhere. Honest to the core, he bows\nbeneath the scourge of war, convinced that it is heaven's penalty upon\nall the land. Throughout he is pleading and suffering consistently\nthat all men may be free. This is the sum of the address. In this it\nall coheres. Thus he divines and understands the ways of God. And so\nhe stands, as poised in this address, in ideal fellowship, at once\nwith men who have held slaves, with slaves in their distress, with the\nCreator in his primal decree, and with the Providential meaning of the\nwar.\n\nTo all this problem, vexing so many generations, the clear and\nwitting touch of Lincoln's sacrificial penitence is the master key. In\nthis all contradictions, all hostilities, all sufferings, all\ntransgressions, and all pure longings are harmonized. In assurance and\nrepentance he has found how truth and grace, blending together in\nhumble heed for God and for undying souls, hold complete dominion in\nthe moral realm. These pure principles, congenial alike to God and\nmen, he welcomes to himself, and commends to all his fellowmen in\nsacrificial partnership.\n\nHere is Lincoln's prevailing faith. This is the secret of his\nstrength. Herein vests his commanding and enduring power. This is\nLincoln's self--his very manhood. This is the man in this address whom\nthe world beheld, and still beholds--the man he was, the man he aimed\nand strove to be, the man he recommended all the Nation to combine to\nreproduce, the man in whom the fear of God, the love of men, the zeal\nfor life, and true reliability, mingle evenly, at whatever cost. This\nis the man, and this the mighty influence over other men, enthroned\nimperishably in this address.\n\nHere is the throne, the scepter, and the key to Lincoln's vast\nauthority. It is patterned and informed from the cardinal constituents\nof a balanced moral character. It is inwrought within a life that\nheeds harmoniously, and with heroic earnestness, his own integrity,\nhis God, his fellowman, and things immortal. Holding souls above\ngoods, holding his fellow as himself, holding himself in true respect,\nand holding God above all, he stands and pleads, with a cogency that\nis unanswerable, for verities as self-evident to any man as any man's\nself-consciousness. All his claims in the heart of this address are\nself-apparent. They are original convictions. They prove and approve\nthemselves. They make no call for substantiation. They confront every\nman within himself, the light in his eye, the life in his heart, the\nspring in his hope. They confront every man again within his neighbor.\nThey confront both men again, when together they look up to God. And\nfar within all forms that change, they confront all men forevermore in\nthings that immortally abide.\n\nThis is the truth to which Lincoln pledged his troth, and in which he\nbesought all other men to plight their faith, in this address. The\nvivid, ever-living dignity in man, discoverable by every man within\nhimself, to be greeted by every one in his brother-man, at once the\nimage and the handiwork of God--this defined all his faith, fired all\nhis zeal, woke all his eloquence, shaped all his argument, winged all\nhis hope. That such a being should be a slave, that such a being\nshould have a slave, was in his central conviction, of all wrong\ndeeds, the least defensible. It was the primal moral falsity, cruelty,\ninsult, and debasement. That such a sin should be atoned, at whatever\ncost, was the primal task of purity, reverence, tenderness, and truth.\nHolding such convictions, handling such concerns, for him to make the\nstatement was to give it demonstration. Against such convictions, and\nin scorn of such concerns, no man could seriously contend without\nassailing and, in the end, undoing himself. This was the citadel and\nthe weaponry of Lincoln's authority.\n\nAnd Lincoln found within these views the pledge of permanence. He saw\nthem bulwarked and corroborated by all the lessons and revelations of\nhistory. All devices of human society, contending against these\nrudimentary verities, had been proved pernicious and self-defeating a\nthousand times. Only such behavior of man with man as harmonized with\nthe creative design, and sprang from endowments that were common to\nall, could ever hope to last. Here is the sovereign lesson from all\nthe centuries past, and a sovereign challenge for all the centuries\nto come. As Lincoln viewed it, he was handling a matter beyond debate,\nwhen he talked of two centuries and a half of unrequited toil. If that\nwas not wrong, then nothing was wrong. There is the whole of Lincoln's\nargument, and the whole of his authority. It stood true two hundred\nand fifty years ago. It will hold fast two hundred and fifty years\nhence. To deny this is to dethrone all law, turn every freeman's\nhighest boast to shame, and finally banish moral order from human\ngovernment and from human thought. That this could never be suffered\nor confessed was the substance of Lincoln's argument, and the sum of\nhis authority. This and this alone was the sovereign lesson that the\nsacrificial sorrows of the war were searing so legibly, that all the\nworld could read, upon the sinful Nation's breast. And in saying this,\nLincoln's voice was pleading as the voice of God.\n\n\nHIS VERSATILITY--THE PROBLEM OF MERCY\n\nThe study of Lincoln's authority, as it wields dominion in the last\ninaugural, has brought to prominence his humble readiness to share\nrepentantly with all the Nation, in the bitter sorrows of the war, the\ndivine rebuke for sin. That sin was the wrong of holding slaves. But\nin all the land, if any man was innocent of that iniquity, it was\nLincoln. And yet the honest Lincoln was never more sincere, more nobly\ntrue and honest with himself, than in this deep-wrought co-partnership\nwith guilt. Surely here is call for thought.\n\nLincoln's character was fertile. The principles that governed his\ndevelopment were living and prolific. In his ethics, as in his bodily\ntissues, he was alive. As the days and years went on, he grew. Like\nvines and trees, he added to his stature constantly. New twigs and\ntendrils were continually putting out, searching towards the sunshine\nand the springs, and embracing all the field. And in all this increase\nhe was supremely pliable. While always firm and strong, he had a\nwonderful capacity to bend.\n\nThe primary, towering impulse working in Lincoln's life was ethical.\nAmid the continual medley and confusion of things, he was continually\nreaching and searching to find and plainly designate the right and the\nwrong. This stands evident everywhere. Nowhere does this stand plainer\nthan in the period, when, at his second inaugural, he faced a second\npresidential term. Still straining in the toil and turmoil, in the\nintense and blinding passion of the war, he halts upon the threshold\nof a second quadrennium of supreme responsibility, to see if he can\nsurely trace God's indication of what is right. The eternally right\nwas what he sought. He was after no mere expediency, no ephemeral\nshift for ephemeral needs. The judgments of the Almighty Ruler of\nNations, true and righteous altogether and evermore, were what he\nprayed to find and know. Then, if ever, Lincoln's earnestness was\nmoral.\n\nAnd for this search at just this time his eye was peculiarly sobered\nand grave. Portentous problems were emerging, as the finish of the war\ndrew near. And these problems were new. What should the Nation, when\nit laid aside its arms, decide to do with the seceded States, and with\nthose millions of untutored slaves? For that no precedent was at hand,\nno direction in the laws. The conclusion must be original. And it must\nbe supreme. And its issues must hold wide sway for generations of\nimperial, expanding growth. There loomed an impending peril, and a\ntest of statesmanship, demanding the wisdom, and integrity, and deep\nforesight of a moral prince--a peril and a moral test but poorly met\nby the men whom his untimely death thrust into Lincoln's place. For\nbringing to perfection his ripening judgment upon that task, and so\nfor displaying another historic demonstration of Lincoln's moral\nadaptability, the few short requisite years were mysteriously to be\ndenied.\n\nBut upon other problems and in other days, there was ample revelation\nof Lincoln's agile moral strength. His entire career in national\nprominence provides outstanding demonstration of the continual full\nmobility and plastic freedom of his moral powers. The civil war, which\nhe was conducting with such determination to its predestined end, as\nhe stood the central figure in this second inaugural scene, was but\nthe central vortex of a moral agitation in which all our national\nprinciples and precedents were challenged and defied; and in which\nstatesmen of supremely facile, virile, moral sense were in exigent\ndemand. Problems were propounded constantly upon which our\nConstitution shed no certain light, and the Constitution itself was in\na way to be overturned.\n\nThroughout this period of national discord and moral instability,\nLincoln was a leading, creative mind. The circuit of that career was\nbrief indeed, scarcely more than one decade. But in those dark, swift\nyears shine and cluster many illustrations of the rich and ready\nfertility of his ethical postulates in the political realm. Man of the\npeople though he was, and acutely sensitive of his responsibility to\nthe people for every responsible act, he was in every judgment and\nresolve every inch a king, openminded, original, free. Again, and\nagain, and again, he was the man for the hour.\n\nOne demonstration of this is shown in his surprising readiness. With\nwhatever situation, he behaved as though familiar. Undisciplined in\ndiplomacy, he proved himself almost instantly a finished diplomat.\nTotally untutored in all the acts and practices of war, but compelled\nby his office to take sovereign command of the Nation's arms, and that\nso suddenly that even the arms themselves could not be found, he\nbecame one of the foremost critics and counselors of perilous and\nintricate military campaigns. Unaccustomed to authority, but advanced\nat a leap to the Nation's head, beleaguered by deadly animosities\namong cliques and sections and States, encompassed by shameless\ncabinet intrigues, he developed, as in one day, into manager, adviser,\nadministrator of political affairs, the most astute in all the land.\n\nA most impressive example of this adjustability is seen in his\nmanifold capacity for moral patience. It reveals how he could keep his\nfull integrity, while binding up his life and fortune inseparably with\nmen whose moral standards swayed far from his. Lincoln's first\ninaugural gave luminous definition of his designs and hopes. The\nprinciples there propounded were the ripe and firm convictions of a\nthoughtful, honest life. They had been pronounced repeatedly before.\nTo their defense and consummation his heart and honor were pledged\nirrevocably. Those propositions were the irreducible rudiments of his\nfaith, the permanent constituents of his hope. Surrender those\nconvictions and desires he never did, he never could. Within the ample\ncompass and easy play of those glowing sentiments there was no room\nfor secession, nor for war, nor for any bitterness, but only for\nloyalty, fellowship, peace. But as he turned from that inauguration\nand its declaration of his policy toward the execution of his trust,\nhe had to face and handle secession, war, and malicious defamation. He\nhad to see the Nation's holiest dignity desecrated, all his brotherly\noffices disdained, the souls of men still held as rightful objects of\ncommon trade, and the plainest decrees of God defied. This as shown\nin the spirit and uprising of the impatient, imperious South.\n\nAnd within the North, in the very armies assembled for the Union's\ndefence, he had to find the very leaders and plotters of his campaigns\nabsorbed and overcome by petty jealousies, too despicable and\nunpatriotic to be believed, and yet so real and vicious as to defeat\ntheir battles before they were fought. And back among the Union\nmultitudes around his base, were men of might and standing, and men in\nmultitudes, who maligned his motives, and entangled his plans, until\nantagonism the most malignant and resolved to all his views and\nundertakings seemed to environ him on every side.\n\nTo such conditions it was Lincoln's bitter obligation to conform. Many\nmen were ready with many fond prescriptions for the case; but they all\nwere marked by weak futility. They either brought the Nation no\ncomplete relief, or else surrendered the Nation's very life. Within\nthe strain and pull from every side Lincoln felt the obligation of his\noath.\n\nThe mood and method he employed (and let not the phrase be\nmisunderstood) was moral relaxation. This did not mean that he altered\naught of his pronounced belief, or varied by a single hair from his\nannounced design. He remembered his inaugural oath. He retained his\nfaith and hope, and held to his prime resolve unchanged. But he gave\nthe opposition time. He suffered malignants to malign, seceders to\nrebel, detractors to impugn; and bore their taunts and blows and\nwounds patiently, still abiding by his word. His very war was simply\nfor defense. The honor of the Union he would not yield up. His\nbrotherly friendliness he would not forego. His rating of freemen he\nwould not discount. The mandates of God he would not disobey. But\nwhile on every hand these might be assailed and abjured, he repressed\nall violence and vehemence of heart, and endured, and indulged, and\nwas still.\n\nHerein, however, his convictions and hopes wore a modified guise.\nTheir rigor softened; their lustre mellowed; their angles broadened;\ntheir rudeness ripened; and his aspect passed through change; the\nwhile his honor brightened and became more clear. This adjustment of\nsuch a nature to such a fate is a massive illustration of moral\nversatility. It is like keeping the steed to the course, while yet\nlaying the rein upon his neck.\n\nThrough experience such as this it must have been that Lincoln\ntraversed his profoundest sorrow. Just here his critics and traducers\nhad their firmest hold. To the world at large his tactics did seem\nslack, his method dilatory, his mood indifferent. Men wearied past\nendurance at his delay, and charged repeatedly that he had betrayed\nhis trust. Such accusations must have been to his pure loyalty like\ngall. And yet he must perforce be mute. It was not he, it was the\nawful situation in which his noble life was manacled, that was so\nincorrigible. With God and man he pleaded day and night that bloodshed\nmight be stayed, and peace possess the land. But an enemy was in the\nland, determined not to leave his guns until the Union was dissolved,\nand slavery vindicated as right. Rather than forsake the Union, and\nown that men were as the brutes, he would die a thousand times. And\nwith a patience that no malice and no misfortune could wear away, he\nheld his post and kept his word, through torments too severe for\nunheroic men to bear, producing thus upon his silent, sorrowful face a\nhumble replica of the divine long-suffering of the meek and lowly\nChrist. And so he taught the world how in patience the righteousness\nthat abhors all wrong may turn its face toward sin with humble\nmeekness, through years that seem like centuries, and cause thereby\nthat pure and Godlike truth and love shall only be more glorious.\n\nBut even with this the description of this case stands incomplete. To\nunderstand it rightly further statements are required. After all his\npatience, the South was obdurate. Even while in this last inaugural\nLincoln was pleading for universal charity, and seeking to banish\nmalice everywhere, the leaders of the armies in the South were\nrallying their unrecruited ranks in a very desperation of hatred for\nhis principles, and of scorn for his forbearance. While he was\ninterpreting the desolations and sorrows of the war as God's\nall-powerful punishment of slavery, our common national sin, they\nresented with impassioned vehemence such an explanation, disclaimed\nall guilt, and denied that slavery was wrong.\n\nHere emerged in Lincoln's thought Lincoln's supreme perplexity. He was\ndealing with right and wrong, both only the more intensely real,\nbecause so really concrete. Liberty and loyalty, loyalty to liberty,\nthe dignity of man, and the good pleasure of God--these were the\neternal principles, and the personal interests at stake. Antagonisms\nwere deadly virulent; and they were unrelenting. Compulsion was not\navailing. Patience likewise failed. Here was a desperate call for\nmoral mastership. The man to meet the crisis, to join the cleft, to\nreduce to moral harmony this discord of right and wrong, the man who\ncould resolve and morally unify this moral disagreement must have a\nsoul and an understanding whose insight and moral comprehension were\ncomplete.\n\nHere Lincoln's moral grandeur gains its full dimension. And in this\nconsummation it comes clear to see how in very deed right and wrong,\nevil and good, can be encompassed in a moral unison such that evil\nremains the all-abhorrent thing, and good is proved to be alone\ndesired. This marvelous explication is found within the words and\ntone of this last inaugural. It stands contained in perfect poise\nwithin the mutual balancings of his princely pledge to abjure all\nmalice, show universal charity, and still pursue the awful guidance of\nAlmighty God in the prosecution of the war. Herein moral rigor,\nforbearance, and gentleness do majestically coalesce.\n\nThe breath and voice of this same moral mystery are felt and heard\nagain within this same inaugural in that bold prophetic exposition of\nthe Providential purport of the war. In the burning furnace of those\nlast four years, Lincoln's eyes had been purged to see how the ways of\nGod transcend the ways and thoughts of men. Both North and South, in\nbattle and in prayer, had failed to comprehend the thoughts of God.\nAll the movements of all their armies were being mightily over-ruled.\nThe purposes of the Almighty were his own. Both North and South had\ngone astray. Neither side was wholly right. The land was under\ndiscipline. The Nation had committed sin. That sin was destined for\nrequital. That requital was to be complete. The ways of God were true\nand righteous altogether. All this the Nation must acquiescently\nconfess. For all the wrong of slavery requital must be made,\nsubmissively, ungrudgingly, repentantly. Beneath that judgment every\nheart must bow. The sin must be abjured. Its wrong must be abhorred.\nGoodwill to all alike must be restored. And through it all the\nAlmighty must be adored.\n\nLike a solemn litany within a great cathedral, these solemn sentiments\nof Lincoln resounded through the land, as, in want of any other\npriest, Lincoln himself led the Nation to the altar of the Lord. He\ntruly led. And to an altar. In this inaugural, Lincoln, for all\nAmericans, bows and veils his own brave heart in sacrificial sorrow\nand confession, to bear and suffer all that, as the Nation's due, and\nfor the Nation's rescue, it is the will of holy heaven to inflict.\n\nIn this profound, spontaneous assumption of full co-partnership with\nall the Nation in a Nation's undivided ill-desert; in this\nuncomplaining acquiescence, while God inflicted upon the land, as an\nawful scourge, all the shame and cost and sorrow that the woful wrong\nof slavery had entailed; in this deep discernment that deep in every\nheart ran and flourished all the baleful roots of greed and pride, of\ninjustice and cruelty, out from which all man's enbondagement of\nbrother man springs up; in this estimation of human slavery as a\nprimary sin, while receiving without repining its ultimate\ndoom--Lincoln unveils in his single heart, an abhorrence and an\nendurance of our national sin, that makes him enduringly and\nindivisibly the friend and brother of us all, accomplishing, in a\nsingle moral experience, the pattern of the confession, and of the\nresolution of our common wrong. Unto this, Lincoln's moral versatility\nattained. Beyond this, moral versatility could never go.\n\nThe same moral dextrousness, this facile power and fluent readiness to\nfully comprehend and fitly meet the moral mastery of a problem, in\nitself all but absolutely obstinate and impossible, this wondrous\ndeftness in compounding together guilt and grace in mutual compassion\nand repentance, is shown in Lincoln's patiently repeated, but always\nfutile efforts to persuade the North and the South to come together,\nand so bring slavery and all dissension to an end, by giving and\nreceiving fiscal reimbursement for the emancipation of the slaves. To\nthis magnanimous and unexampled proposition, offered in the midst of\nwar, and urged in words and tones of classic winsomeness, the North\nand South could never be brought unitedly to consent. Therein this\nmoral hero stood like a king against the wrong, argued like a prophet\nfor the right, and led towards mutual penitence and sacrifice like a\npriest. It is in human history one of the supremest illustrations of\nmoral versatility. Never were Lincoln's character and aim more stable\nthan in that plea. But never was mortal man more mobile. Beyond all\nhis contemporaries he observed and regarded the signs of the times. He\nsaw that the ancient order was certainly to change. He felt that an\nalmighty, a just, and a benignant Providence had assumed control. He\ndiscerned that the new order was freighted with vast store of good. To\nmake its entrance gentle, so that nothing should be rent or wrecked,\nwas the sum of all his thought and toil. He took for pattern the\ncoming of the dew. For his method he adopted his own well-mastered and\ntranscendent art of brotherly persuasion. As to manner, he was\nvestured in humility, desiring to eject and ban the pharisee from his\nown and all other hearts. For prevailing motive he designated the\npassing hour as a time of unexampled opportunity. \"So much good,\" he\nsaid, \"has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the\nProvidence of God it is now your high privilege to do.\" And for\nadmonition he pointed to the vastness of the future, and a possible\nlament over a pitiful neglect. But it was all for naught. For such a\nmoral transmutation and free triumph the embattled Nation was\nunprepared.\n\nBut over against that unrelenting rigor, his moral readiness to meet\nhis brother, friend or foe, in free and mutual sacrifice, glows\nbeautifully. Deep in the heart of his design was struggling\nheroically, and in balanced moral unison, the Godlike spirit of\neternal justice, mercy, and conciliation. In his strong breast all\npride was crucified, malice was melted down to tenderness, hypocrisy\nand sordidness were purged away. His moral outlook was now\nunobstructed, open every way. Then his soul stood fleet and free for\nany path within the moral universe. With every man in this broad land\nhe stood ready to journey or sojourn, meek to suffer, resolute to\nprevail. Sharing with the wrongdoer and the wronged alike their shame\nand suffering and sin, while urging with immortal eagerness towards\nfairness and happiness and peace, he resolved and overcame the problem\nof the slaveholder and the slave, and made this land forever the\nuniversal refuge of the free. In such a transmutation, first within\nhimself, and then throughout the land, moral as it is in every fiber,\nand from circumference to core, is perfect moral concord. Thus, in\nmoral discord, moral freedom finds the way to peace, while full\nresponsibility remains unchangeably supreme. Here is the final,\nperfect triumph of moral ingenuity. Thus by means of mercy, freely\noffered and freely received, through mutual fellowship in moral\nsuffering, wrong may be comprehended, and fully overcome, in the\nunchanged dominion of the right. So moral freedom and moral\nconsistency combine. Men's lives become vicarious. Thus moral\nversatility culminates, and overcomes, and wins the sovereign moral\ncrown.\n\n\nHIS PATIENCE--THE PROBLEM OF MEEKNESS\n\nIn the chapter just preceding, Lincoln's patience came into allusion\nand review. That quality deserves a somewhat closer, separate\nexamination. When Lincoln took his last inaugural oath, he based its\nmeaning upon a statement in his inaugural address, that all the havoc\nof the war was, under God, a penalty and atonement for a wrong that\nhad been inflicted and endured for centuries. In this interpretation\nhe subtly interwove a pleading intimation that all the land, in\nreverent acquiescence with the righteous rule of God, should meekly\nbow together to bear the awful sacrifice. And, deep within this open\nexposition of his prophetic thought, there gleamed the hidden pledge,\ninherent in his undiluted honesty, that he himself would not decline,\nbut would rather stand the first, to bear all the sorrow consequent\nupon such wrong.\n\nHere is an attitude, and here a proposition which men and Nations are\nforever prone to scorn; but which all Nations and all men will be\ncompelled or constrained at last to heed. Therein are published and\nenacted verities, than which none known to men are more profound, or\nvast, or vested with a higher dignity. They demand attention here.\n\nThe statement made by Lincoln pivots on \"offenses.\" Strong men, in\npride and arrogance of strength, had wronged the weak. Weak men, in\nthe lowliness and impotence of their poverty, had borne the wrong. In\nsuch conditions of painful moral strain the centuries had multiplied.\nThose long-drawn years of violence had heightened insolence into a\ndefiance all but absolute. Those selfsame years of suffering had\ndeepened ignominy into all but absolute despair. Through banishment of\nequity and charity, of purity and humility, while all the heavenly\noracles seemed mute, fear and hope alike seemed paralyzed. The\noppressor seemed to have forgotten his eternal obligation to be kind\nand fair. The oppressed seemed to have surrendered finally his\nGod-like dignity. The times seemed irreversible.\n\nHere is a problem that, while ever mocking human wisdom, refuses to be\nmocked. It enfolds a wrong, undoubted moral wrong; else naught is\nright. It overwhelms. Within its awful deeps multitudes have been\nsubmerged. And it is unrelieved. It outwears the protests and appeals\nof total generations of unhelped, indignant hearts.\n\nThis problem Lincoln undertook to understand. In his conclusion was\nproclaimed the vindication of the meek. Beneath that age-long wrong,\nbeneath the silence and delay of God, and beneath the final\nrecompense, he prevailed upon his heart, and pleaded with other hearts\nto stand in suffering, hopeful acquiescence. Among these sorrows, so\nwickedly inflicted, without relief, and without rebuke, let patience\nbe perfected. Here let meekness grow mature. Let confidence in our\nequal and unconquered manhood, and let faith in God not fail to\novercome all Godlessness and inhumanity. Let time be trusted\nabsolutely to prove all wrong iniquitous. Let the worth inherent in\nundying souls be shown to be indeed immortal.\n\nHere is Lincoln's resolution of this profound enigma, a resolution\nunfolding all its mystery, and involving all his character. Here\nLincoln won his crown. This is all his meaning in abjuring malice, and\ninvoking charity. Too kindly to indulge resentment, whatever the\nprovocation, and too sensible of his own integrity to ever court\ndespair, he appealed to God's eternal justice and compassion, and\nclung to a hope that no anguish or delay could overcome. This is\nLincoln's patience. This is the inmost secret of his moral strength.\nThis is his piercing and triumphant demonstration that in this\ntroubled world, where sin so much abounds, it is the meek who shall\nfinally prevail.\n\nThis moral patience deserves to be explored. It comprehends\ningredients, quite as worthy to be kept distinct, as to be seen in\nunison. For one thing it identified him with slaves. Therein he bore a\ngrave reproach. Its weight only he himself could rightly compute.\nBeneath the rude and among the hurt he took deliberate stand. Among\nthe lowly, before the scorner, he held his place. He braved the\nmaster's taunts. He penetrated to its heart the cause that kept the\nblack man mute. He measured out, but without indifference, as without\ncomplaint, the divine delay. He courted in his thought on slavery a\nperfect consciousness of its sin. He examined with nicest carefulness\nthe sufferers' impulse towards revenge. He knew the awful misery in\nhuman shame. He shared with honest men their proudest aspirations. And\nall of this, he shared with blacks, not by compulsion, but as a\nvolunteer.\n\nHerein, and in the second place, he held fast the fundamental claims\nthat every slave retained an ineffaceable affinity with God; that this\ndivine inheritance, however deep the negro's poverty, could never be\nannulled or forfeited; that friendliness with fellowmen, however hard\nor sad their lot, was no reproach; that in human sorrows it well\nbecometh human hearts, as it becometh God, to remember to be pitiful;\nthat all invasion or neglect of those inherent human rights and\ndignities was bound to be avenged; that in God's good time all patient\nsouls would be crowned with song; and that thus his open championship\nof the cause of slaves was in perfect keeping with his own unaltered\nand unalterable self-respect.\n\nA third ingredient in Lincoln's patience was its conspicuous and\ninseparable impeachment of oppression. Lincoln's patience under moral\nwrong made him no neutral morally. Without fear and without reserve,\nhe held before oppressors, however hard or strong, the enormity of\ntheir wrong. Before the cruel their cruelty was displayed. Before the\narrogant their arrogance was reflected back. Before the base and foul\ntheir sordidness was brought to light. Before disloyal men the perfidy\nof covenant disloyalty was nakedly unveiled. All the wrongs inwrought\nand undergone in slavery were recited with insistent accuracy and\nunreserve. Of all those centuries of unpaid toil each month and year\nwere reckoned up. Of all those sins against pure womanhood and\nhelpless infancy each tell-tale face was told numerically. The moral\nwrong in slavery was set before its advocates and beneficiaries\nunsparingly. Patience, whether God's or man's, and whether for one day\nor for a thousand years, can never be interpreted or understood to\ndiminish sin's iniquity. Its prolonged persistence only aggravates its\nguilt.\n\nIn the fourth place, there was in Lincoln's patience a waiting\ndeference before God's silence and delay. His total confidence was in\nGod. That God was negligent, or indifferent, he would not concede. His\nwhole abhorrence of oppression was based on God's decree. Here rested\nalso all his hope of recompense. Vengeance belongs to God. He will\nrebuke the mighty, and redeem the meek. In both, his righteousness\nwill be complete. And when his judgments fall, all men must own\nadoringly his perfect equity.\n\nFinally, in Lincoln's patience there is explicit recognition and\nconfession of his own complicity with all the land, in the wrong to\nslaves, and of his own and all the land's delinquency before the Lord,\nin failure to discern and approbate the divine designs. It had been\nleft with God's far greater patience and far higher moral jealousy to\novercome and overwhelm and overrule the devious plans and ways of\nerring men. In lowly acquiescence it was for him and the land to\nacquaint themselves with God's designs, confess their wanderings,\naccept his will alike in redemption and rebuke, and unite henceforth\nto represent and praise on earth his perfect equity and grace.\n\nHere are the elements in Lincoln's patience, and here their sum.\nForming with the lowly and oppressed a free and intimate partnership;\navowing jealously for all mankind a coequal dignity among themselves\nand an imperishable affinity with God; declaring unflinchingly to all\nwho tyrannize the full enormity of their primal sin; restraining\nmalice and all avenging deeds; confessing his own misjudgments and\nmisdeeds among his fellowmen and before the Lord; he endures\nsubmissively the divine delays, and shares repentantly with all who\nsin the judgments of a perfect righteousness. Genuinely pitiful for\nsuffering men, sharply jealous for human worth, direct as light to\ndesignate the shame in pride, docile as a child before the righteous\nand eternal rule of God, he illustrates and demonstrates how a perfect\npatience makes requisition in a noble man of all his noblest\nmanliness.\n\nBut worthy as are all its qualities, its exercise entails stern\ndiscipline in suffering. It costs a man his life. That this was\nLincoln's understanding, as he traversed the responsibility of that\nlast inauguration day, is witnessed unmistakably by his letter to\nThurlow Weed respecting his inaugural address. These are his words,\nwell worthy to be reproduced a second time:--\n\n\"I believe it (the address) is not immediately popular. Men are not\nflattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose\nbetween the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is\nto deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I\nthought needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in\nit falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me\nto tell it.\"\n\n\"Most directly on myself.\" There Lincoln bares his heart to God and\nman, in order that upon himself might fall the first, the deepest, and\nthe most direct humiliation. At one with slaves, despised by pride,\nastray from God prepared for sacrifice--but attesting still that\nslaves were men, that robbery was wrong, that God was just--so he\nstands.\n\nBut, be it said again and yet again, in such a posture looms nobility.\nIn meekness such as this is nothing craven. It beseems true royalty.\nBowing before his God to receive rebuke, bowing to make confession\nbefore his fellowmen, he stands as on a hilltop, announcing and\ndeclaring to all the world how arrogance proves men base, how\nlowliness may be beautiful, how reverend are God's mysteries, how just\nand pitiful his ways. Here is a kingliness that no crown can rightly\nsymbolize. Here is a victory that is not won with swords. In the very\nattitude is final triumph. It bravely claims, and truly overcomes the\nworld. In such a patience there is present instantly, and in full\npossession, the vigor of undying hope, and the title of a firstborn\nson to the heritage of the earth.\n\nThis capacity in Lincoln's patience for the close allegiance of\nself-devotion and self-respect, of sympathy and jealousy, is shown\ndramatically in his tournament with Douglas in 1858. Throughout those\nspeeches, replies, and rejoinders Lincoln held fast his full\nfraternity with the slaves, while repressing with his fullest vigor\nevery onslaught against his personal integrity.\n\nThe date of those debates marked over four full years, since Douglas\nhad championed through Congress into finished legislation a bill that\nabrogated all federal limitation of slavery, and opened an\nunrestricted possibility of its further spread forever, wherever any\nlocal interest might so desire. That bill obtained the presidential\nsignature in May of 1854. During the succeeding years Douglas had been\nshaping public sentiment by his almost royal influence in public\nspeech towards a stereotyped acceptance of the principles and\nimplications of that law. Under his aggressive leadership his party\nhad been well solidified upon three political postulates, which he\ndeclared essential not alone to party fealty, but to any permanent\nnational peace. These three postulates were the following:--\n\nSlavery is in no sense wrong.\n\nSlavery is to be treated as a local interest only.\n\nThese principles have been sanctioned perfectly by history.\n\nFrom these fundamental postulates flowed numerous corollaries:--\n\nBlack men are an inferior race. This inferiority has been stamped upon\nthis race indelibly by God. The Declaration of Independence did not\nand does not include the blacks in its affirmations about equality.\n\nThis country contains vast sections precisely fitted to be occupied by\nslavery.\n\nLocal interests being essentially diverse, as for example between\nAlabama and Maine, decisions as to local affairs will also be diverse.\nThis entails divergent treatment of black men, just as of herds and\ncrops.\n\nTo the rights of stronger races to enslave the blacks, the fathers who\nframed our government, our national history since, and the age-long\nfate of Africa unitedly bear witness.\n\nCounter to these three major postulates of Douglas, Lincoln set the\nfollowing three:--\n\nThe enslavement of men is wrong.\n\nThe treatment of slavery is a federal concern.\n\nOur history has contained, and still contains a compromise. Our\nfathers deemed slavery a wrong. But finding it present when they\nframed our government, and finding its removal impossible at the time,\nthey arranged for its territorial limitation, for its gradual\ndiminishment, and for its ultimate termination.\n\nFrom these three fundamental postulates in Lincoln's arguments flowed\nalso various corollaries:--\n\nThe sinfulness of slavery roots in the elemental manhood of the slave.\nThis manhood warrants his elemental claim to the employment and\nenjoyment of his life in liberty.\n\nIn our form of government, things local and things federal being held\nwithin their respective realms respectively supreme, things locally\ndivergent lead to federal compromise.\n\nCertain sections of the country in particular, and the Nation in\ngeneral being committed, either from policy or from choice, to foster\nslavery; men who hate the thing as wrong must in patient meekness\nendure its presence, until in God's own time its presence and its sin\nand guilt shall be removed.\n\nAs will be seen at once, for the purposes of a popular debate, the\npostulates of Douglas were easier to defend. Of the two sets of\npremises, his seemed the more simple, more explicit, more direct, more\ntelling with a crowd; while those of Lincoln, by reason of that moral\nand historical compromise, seemed more confused, more evasive, and not\nso apt to take the multitude. In the nature of the debate Lincoln had\nto shape his propositions and replies to face two ways:--towards the\npractical emergencies of our history and form of government, on the\none hand; and on the other hand, towards an ideal nowhere yet\nattained, and seemingly unattainable. Whereas Douglas, quite\nunconcerned about any ideal motives in the past, as of any vision of\nan ideal day to come, but dealing solely with the political situation\nthat day occurrent, could make every affirmation and every thrust\nagainst his adversary seem straight, and clear, and impossible to\nrefute. This very practical and substantial disadvantage Lincoln had\nto bear. Questions that Douglas would answer decisively, and\ninstantly, and with absolute distinctness, Lincoln would be compelled\nto labor with, in careful deference both to our Constitutional\nprotection of slavery, and to its moral wrong.\n\nThis situation in those debates deserves a close attention. The\ndifference in the two positions was most profound. That this deep\ndifference was laid fully bare was the supreme resultant of the\ndebate. It was indeed a difference in principles. But stated yet more\nnarrowly, it was a difference in nothing less than estimates of men,\nand attitudes towards wrong. It was not a difference in abstract\ntheorems. It was vastly more. It was a difference in the personal\nqualities of the two protagonists. To test this affirmation let any\none imagine Douglas producing from his heart the sentiments, and\narranging in his thought the arguments of Lincoln's last inaugural.\nDouglas sadly erred in his opinion of his time. In Lincoln, in those\ndebates, our government, our history, our ideal as a great Republic\nstood incorporate. Like our noble history, he patiently endured and\nbore what he instinctively and inveterately abhorred. This pathetic\nsituation, this invincible anomaly in our national career, is\npathetically re-enacted in the fate of Lincoln in these debates.\n\nThis at bottom, and this at last is what those flashing falchions and\nringing shields declare. This explains the genesis and the actual\ncourse of those painful personalities. And it is to study this that\nthese debates have been introduced. In the personal thrusts of those\ndebates two qualities in Lincoln become pre-eminent. He would not\nforsake his humble championship of slaves. He would accept no thrust\nagainst his personal integrity. Let those debates be read, and\nre-perused until those cardinal elements in Lincoln's attitude come\nclear. And let it be observed that in no single personality was\nLincoln's thrust initial. Douglas opened the debate. In his opening\nspeech he made direct assertions and indirect intimations too gross to\nbe termed subtle, and too staring to be called disguised; imputing and\nsuggesting that Lincoln was in character a coward and a cheat, in his\npolitics a revolutionary, and in his social proclivities contemptible.\nThese same charges were made with unrelenting persistency and\nreiteration by Douglas throughout the series of the debates.\n\nTo every imputation Lincoln made definite and reiterated reply,\ndenouncing them roundly as unwarranted and inexcusable impeachment of\nhis honor, his veracity, and his candor. And then, with measured and\nexact equivalence, he dealt out to Douglas's face a list of counter\npersonalities of sharply parallel and actual transactions in Douglas's\nlife, meriting precisely his own reproach. And he pressed the battle\nhome so hard that Douglas, in an impassioned height of protest,\ndemanded if Lincoln meant to carry his tactics up to \"personal\ndifficulty.\"\n\nAll this is painful confessedly to review. One wishes earnestly, just\nas with the later civil war, it might never have occurred. But it\nshould be remembered that every retort of Lincoln was, as in the war\nitself, in personal defense. Lincoln was not the assailant. But once\nhis honor was assailed, it was not the nature of that honor to stand\nso mute that his own character seemed rightly smirched, while justice\nrested with his adversary. And so, in self-defense, as in his speech\nat Quincy, he carefully details, he vigorously returned each thrust.\nAnd this, be it constantly recalled, not in any selfishness, not for\nwounded pride, not for unction to a hurt, not in any vengeful heat;\nbut just as in the following war, in absolute unselfishness, void of\nmalice, in the ministry of charity, that the honor of all men might be\nsaved, and that the Union with its boon of universal freedom and\nequality might not perish from the earth.\n\nSuch was Lincoln's patience, in those earlier debates, and in this\nlast inaugural, the same. While bearing voluntarily in his single life\nall the opprobrium borne by slaves; through all that fellowship and\nsympathy, and on its sole behalf, he guarded his own honor with an\ninfinite jealousy. But it was honor saved for suffering. His life was\nsacrificial. He learned to know full well, but willingly, what\nmeekness costs. Not alone from a political antagonist and an embattled\nSouth, but from a multitude of active dissentients besides throughout\nthe North, from Congress, and from the close circle of his cabinet he\nhad to bear with blind misunderstandings, and malignant\nmisrepresentations of the deeds and qualities and motives of his\nperplexed and overburdened life.\n\nBut whatever his shortcomings or mistakes, whatever his follies or\nsins, two affirmations about his life will hold forever true. He bore\nhis load. And he kept his path. Through all that stern campaign for\nliberty and union he turned neither to the right nor to the left.\nSorrows and contentions surrounded him continually. But he descried a\nbetter time. To speed that day he welcomed sacrifice. He lived and\ndied for nothing else. To show the priceless worth of freemen in a\nmighty multitude, in a civic league of lasting unison and peace was\nhis supreme commission and consuming wish. To bring that vision near\nhe aspired and submitted to be its pattern and its devotee.\n\n\nHIS RISE FROM POVERTY--THE PROBLEM OF INDUSTRIALISM\n\nIn his first public speech, seeking election to the State Legislature\nof Illinois in 1832, Lincoln said: \"I was born, and have ever\nremained, in the most humble walks of life.\" He adds: \"If the good\npeople in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I\nhave been too familiar with disappointments to be very much\nchagrined.\" In the same speech he said: \"I have no other (ambition) so\ngreat as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering\nmyself worthy of their esteem.\"\n\nHere are three phrases that epitomize Lincoln's ideals and Lincoln's\ncareer:--\"the most humble walks of life;\" \"too familiar with\ndisappointments;\" and \"rendering myself worthy of their esteem.\" There\nat the age of twenty-three we are apprised of Lincoln's poverty, of\nhis ambition, and of his adversity. In the same address he says: \"I\nhave no wealthy or popular relatives or friends to recommend me.\" At\nthat time he had been but two years in the State.\n\nIn pondering this brief and frank appeal one wonders at the blending\nof the youthful and the mature, the daring and the wary, the ardent\nand the chastened, the eager and the sedate, the wistful and the\nresigned. What had been the inner and the outer history and fortune of\nhim, who at the age of twenty-three could talk of being \"familiar with\ndisappointments\"--so familiar with experiences of reverse that he\ncould bear the public refusal of his one greatest ambition, that\npublic's \"true esteem,\" without being \"much chagrined.\" Plainly in\nLincoln's early life there was a great heart, cherishing a high hope,\nbut environed with poverty, familiar with reversals, unchampioned,\nunknown. Already he was being refined by manifold discipline. Already\nin that refining fire he had fixed his eye and set his face to win his\nneighbor's true esteem. Therein one comprehends his whole career. Out\nof oblivion and solitude and direst poverty he passed by sheer\nself-mastery to the highest national authority and renown. Of all the\ndistance and of all the way between those \"humblest walks\" and that\ncommanding eminence, and of all the pregnant meaning to him and to all\nAmericans, and indeed to every son of Adam, of that achievement,\nLincoln had a marvelous discerning sense. He knew full well its vast\nsignificance and he never let its vivid recollection lapse. It was\nalways in his living consciousness.\n\nOne impressive proof and token that the meaning of his advancement had\npermanent place in his remembrance, and that he deemed his fortune an\nideal and a type of our American government and life has been\npreserved in the tone and substance of his address in Independence\nHall, when on his way to his first great inauguration. Standing there\nat the age of forty-one, the Nation's president-elect, and \"filled\nwith deep emotion,\" he said: \"I have never had a feeling politically\nthat did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of\nIndependence.\" And to give that statement explanation he said, \"I have\noften inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept\nthis Confederacy so long together.\" And for answer to that inquiry he\npoints to \"that sentiment in the Declaration which gave liberty not\nalone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world for all\nfuture time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the\nweights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all\nshould have an equal chance.\" \"Liberty,\" \"hope,\" \"promise,\" \"weights\nlifted,\" \"an equal chance,\" \"to all,\" \"for all,\" \"of all,\" \"all,\" \"in\ndue time\"--these are the terms that answered the question over which\nhe \"often pondered\" and \"often inquired.\" This was the \"great\nprinciple,\" the \"idea\" which held the Confederacy together. This was\nthe \"basis\" on which, if he could save the country, he would be \"one\nof the happiest men in the world, if he could help to save it.\" This\nwas the principle concerning which he exclaimed: \"If this country\ncannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say\nthat I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than surrender\nit\"--words whose purport is seen to be nothing less than tragic, when\nwe recall the peril of death, which he was consciously facing in that\nvery hour from a deep laid conspiracy against his life.\n\nThus spoke Lincoln within ten days of his inauguration, in a speech\nwhich he says was \"wholly unprepared.\" But the day before, in a speech\nat Trenton, he characterized that same \"idea\" as that \"something more\nthan common\" which away back in childhood, the earliest days of his\nbeing able to read, he recollected thinking, \"boy though I was,\" was\nthe \"treasure\" for which \"those men struggled.\" That \"something\" he\nthen defines as \"even more than national independence;\" and as holding\nout \"a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to\ncome.\"\n\nThis lifting of weights from the shoulders of men, this equal chance\nfor all; this was the liberty for which the fathers fought, this was\nthe hope which their Declaration enshrined, this it was whose\npreservation Lincoln longed to secure above any other happiness, this\nit was for which he was all but ready to die.\n\nThere Lincoln spoke his heart. There he voiced his highest hopes.\nThere he traced his patriotism to its roots. And there too he touched\nthe quick nerve of his own disappointments, of his own often futile\nendeavors and desires. And there as well his living sympathy with\nother men, encumbered with disadvantage and defeat, found mighty\nutterance. Lifting weights from the shoulders of all men--that in \"due\ntime\" this should be achieved he judged and felt to be the single\nsovereign meaning of our national destiny.\n\nOf just this national destiny Lincoln's personal life was a strangely\nfull epitome. His shoulders knew full well the pressure of those\n\"weights.\" His soul knew all the awful volume of sorrow as of joy,\nthat poured about the denial or the enjoyment of an \"equal chance.\"\nFrom the humblest walks to the foremost seat he had been permitted to\nthread his way. That liberty he chiefly sought in struggling youth.\nThat liberty he chiefly prized as president. And this, not alone for\nhimself, not alone for all Americans, but for \"all the world.\" Thus\nspoke Lincoln, \"all unprepared\" in February of 1861.\n\nBut these spontaneous words were no passing breath of transient\nsentiments. In July of that same year he sent to Congress his first\nMessage. That paper was Lincoln's studied and formal argument, a\npresident's deliberate State Paper, addressing to Congress his\nresponsible demonstration that the war was a necessity. In that\nargument and demonstration his fundamental postulate was a definition\nof our government. In that definition he affirms its \"leading object\"\nto be \"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights\nfrom all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to\nafford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of\nlife.\" And so he calls the war a \"people's contest.\" And he speaks of\nits deeper purport as something that \"the plain people understand.\"\nAnd he speaks of the loyalty of all the common soldiers--not one of\nwhom was known to have deserted his flag--as \"the patriotic instinct\nof the plain people.\"\n\nThose words of Lincoln in Trenton and Philadelphia, defining the\n\"leading object\" in the minds of the founders of our government in the\nhours of its birth-travail, define his own idea and ideal as he\napproached the hour of his presidential oath. That a national\ngovernment, thus beneficently designed for the equal weal of all,\nshould be preserved inviolate and preserved from dissolution was his\nsupreme desire and his supreme resolve. Its majesty and its integrity\nmust be held most sacred and most jealously preserved. This was the\napple of his eye. By the light of this ideal and in the pursuit of\nthis alluring, wistful hope he studied and judged all the movements of\nhis time. And in this, his initial message, he registers his official\nverdict upon those surrounding evolutions and events. A vast and\never-expanding Confederacy of intelligent and resolute men, leagued\ntogether in a Union of Confederate States, and pledged to secure to\nall men within its bounds a clear path, an unfettered start, and a\nfair chance in every laudable pursuit, was judged by him a civic\nundertaking too preciously freighted with promise and hope for the\nwelfare of the world to be ever disrupted and destroyed by the\ndisloyalty and the withdrawal of any one or any cluster of its\nconstituent parts. It was a Union as sacred and holy as all the worth\nand all the hopes of men. To separate from such a league was a capital\ndisloyalty. To disintegrate such a unison was the ultimate inhumanity.\nTo stand fast forever by such a federation was a crowning fidelity. To\npreserve, protect and defend such a Union, at whatever cost of life or\nwealth, and therein to adventure however sacred honor was a primary\nand a final obligation. By its perpetual preservation unimpaired was\nsecured to all mankind the vision and the priceless promise of liberty\nand hope. By secession, defiance, and violent assault, that precious\nhuman treasure was being endangered and defiled. Hence his anxious\nall-consuming eagerness as he approached his ominous task. Hence his\nfirm acceptance of awful, inevitable war.\n\nSuch were the marshalings of Lincoln's thoughts and sentiments as he\napproached and undertook his mighty work--fit prelude in Independence\nHall, and befitting explanation and defense in the Halls of Congress\nof the mighty rallying of those regiments of men for the awful combats\nof a people's war.\n\nThis was Lincoln's argument. That the rights of life and liberty and\nhappiness were designed and decreed by the Maker of all to be equal\nfor all was for him, as an American, and for him as a fellow and a\nfriend of all, under God, an axiom. And to that firm truth the war was\nbut a corollary. Because the Union was a league of freemen, kindred to\nGod, and peers among themselves, bound together in mutual goodwill and\nfor mutual weal, it must at all hazards and through all perils and\nsorrows be made perpetual. Not that slavery should be immediately\nremoved, though its existence in such a league was an elemental\nunworthiness and affront; but that the Union should be forever secured\nwas his immediate aspiration and resolve. This once achieved and\nforever assured, and slavery with every other kindred inequality would\nin \"due time\" be done away.\n\nThis is the key and the core of his ringing and irresistible retort to\nGreeley. This was the inspiration of that immortal appeal at\nGettysburg, the very pledge and secret of its excellence and\nimmortality--the plea that government of the people, by the people,\nfor the people should not perish from the earth.\n\nAnd it was definitively this axiomatic verity that provided to his\ndeeply thoughtful mind that deeply philosophic interpretation of the\ndivine intention in the war, which he so carefully enshrined within\nhis last inaugural. The sin of slavery had transgressed a primary law\nof God. Human shoulders had been heavily laden with artificial\nweights. Brother men had been denied by fellow-men an equal start. The\npaths of laudable pursuit were not kept equally clear to all.\nMultitudes of men, by the inhuman tyranny of the strong upon the\nweak, and that from birth to death, had been accorded no fair chance.\nMen had toiled for centuries, and that beneath the lash, without\nrequital. Hence the awful doom and woe of war--God's visitation upon\nourselves of our own offense, the wasting of our unholy wealth and the\nleveling of our inhuman pride. And all of this was being guided\nthrough to its predestined and most holy end with the divine design\nthat through the awful baptism of blood our national life should begin\nanew in humble reverence for him whose just and fiery jealousy demands\nthat all his little ones shall share with all the mightiest in equal\nrights. Thus Lincoln viewed the war as God's avenging vindication of\nthe just and gracious principles that all men everywhere are entitled\nto share together equally in liberty and hope.\n\nBut Lincoln felt all of this to be, not alone the law of God, but\nquite as truly the common and compelling affirmation of the human\nheart. This way and style of phrasing it found eloquent annunciation\nin that earliest and unanswerable address respecting slavery at Peoria\nin October of 1854, where were deeply laid and may still be seen the\nfoundations of all his power and fame. In that address he said, \"My\nfaith in the proposition, that each man should do precisely as he\npleases with all which is exclusively his own, lies at the foundation\nof the sense of justice there is in me.\" And upon that foundation he\nlaid this cornerstone of social and civic order: \"No man is good\nenough to govern another man without that other man's consent.\" To so\ninvade the liberty of another man is \"despotism.\" Such invasion is\n\"founded in the selfishness of man's nature.\" \"Opposition to it is\nfounded in his sense of justice.\" \"These principles are in eternal\nantagonism.\" When they collide, \"shocks and throes and convulsions\nmust ceaselessly follow.\" These sentiments of liberty are above\nrepeal. Though you repeal all past history, \"you cannot repeal human\nnature.\" Out of the \"abundance of man's heart\" \"his mouth will\ncontinue to speak.\" And to demonstrate that this sentiment of liberty,\nthis consciousness that human worth is sovereign, is a verity of human\nnature which even holders of slaves corroborate, he points to the over\n400,000 free negroes then in the land. Their presence is proof that\ndeep in all human hearts is a \"sense of human justice and sympathy\"\ncontinually attesting \"that the poor negro has some natural right to\nhimself, and that those who deny it and make merchandise of him\ndeserve kickings, contempt and death.\" This irrepealable law of the\nhuman heart was a mighty rock of confidence in Lincoln's social and\npolitical faith. All men were made to be free, and entitled equally to\na happy life; and of this divine endowment all men everywhere were\nwell aware. Human nature is by its nature the birthplace and the home\nof liberty and hope.\n\nEspecially serviceable for the purposes of this study upon\nIndustrialism is the section in Lincoln's Message to Congress of\nDecember, 1861, dealing with what he calls our \"popular institutions.\"\nWith his eagle eye he discerns in the Southern insurrection an\n\"approach of returning despotism.\" The assault upon the Union was\nproving itself, under his gaze, an attack upon \"the first principles\nof popular government--the rights of the people.\" And against that\nassault he raised \"a warning voice.\"\n\nIn this warning he treats specifically the relation of labor and\ncapital. In this discussion his motive is single and clear. He detects\na danger that so-called labor may be assumed to be so inseparably\nbound up and indentured with capital as to be subject to capital in a\nsort of bondage; and that, once labor, whether slave or hired, is\nbrought under that assumed subjection, that condition is \"fixed for\nlife.\"\n\nBoth of these assumptions he assails. Labor is not a \"subject state;\"\nnor is capital in any sense its master. There is \"no such thing as a\nfree man's being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer.\"\nSo he affirms. And then he argues that \"labor is prior to and\nindependent of capital.\" \"Capital is only the fruit of labor.\" \"Labor\nis the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher\nconsideration.\" Hired labor, and capital that hires and labors\nnot--these do both exist; and both have rights. But \"a large majority\nbelong to neither class--neither work for others, nor have others\nworking for them.\" This is measurably true even in the Southern\nStates. While in the Northern States a large majority are \"neither\nhirers nor hired.\" And even where free labor is employed for hire,\nthat condition is not \"fixed for life.\" \"Many independent men\neverywhere in these Northern States, a few years back in their lives,\nwere hired laborers.\" The \"penniless,\" if \"prudent,\" \"labors for wages\nawhile;\" \"saves a surplus;\" \"then labors on his own account;\" and \"at\nlength hires another new beginner to help him.\" \"This is the just and\ngenerous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope\nto all.\" Here is a form of \"political power;\" here is a \"popular\nprinciple\" that underlies present national prosperity and strength,\nand infolds a pledge of its certain future abounding expansion. Thus\nLincoln argued in his Annual Message of 1861.\n\nIn his Annual Message of 1862, he pursued in a similar strain, a vital\nand kindred aspect of the same industrial theme. He was arguing with\nCongress in favor of compensated emancipation. In the course of that\nargument, speaking of the relation of freed negroes to white labor\nand white laborers, he said: \"If there ever could be a proper time for\nmere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In time like the\npresent, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly\nbe responsible through time and in eternity.\" And then, after\nappealing with utmost patience and consideration and with ideal\npersuasiveness to every better sentiment and to every proper interest,\nhe drew towards the close of his plea with these arresting, prophetic,\nalmost forboding words, words richly worth citation for a second\ntime:--\"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise\nwith the occasion.\" \"We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall\nsave our country.\" \"We cannot escape history.\" \"The fiery trial\nthrough which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the\nlatest generation.\" \"We know how to save the Union.\" \"We--even we\nhere--hold the power and bear the responsibility.\" \"In giving freedom\nto the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what\nwe give and what we preserve.\" \"We shall nobly save or meanly lose the\nlast, best hope of earth.\" \"The way is plain, peaceful, generous,\njust--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and\nGod must forever bless.\"\n\nThus Lincoln voiced, and in terms that human-kind will not lightly\nsuffer to be forgotten, his seasoned and convinced belief about the\nprinciples that should hold dominion in the industrial realm. They\nreveal that in his chastened and chastening faith Civics and Economics\nare merged forever in Ethics, and that therein they are forever at\none. Individuals, however lowly or however strong; parties or\ncombinations of men or wealth, however massive or however firm;\ngovernments or nations, however puissant, ambitious or proud, are\nalike endowed and alike enjoined with sovereign duties and with\nsovereign rights. The negro, however poor, may not be robbed or\nexploited or bound by any master, however grand. The soil of a\nneighboring government, however alluring its promise of expansion or\nwealth, may never be invaded or annexed by force of any Nation's arms,\nhowever exalted and humane that Nation's professions and aims. If any\nman, or any Nation of men be but meagerly endowed, that humble\nheritage is inviolably theirs forever to enjoy. The person of Dred\nScott and the soil of Mexico are holy ground--heaven-appointed\nsanctuaries that no oppressor or invader may ever venture to profane.\nIf to any nation, or to any man \"God gave but little, that little let\nhim enjoy.\" Slavery and tyranny are iniquitous economy. \"Take from him\nthat is needy\" is the rule of the slaveholder and the tyrant. \"Give to\nhim that is needy\" is the rule of Christian charity. As between the\nstrong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the timid and the bold,\n\"this good earth is plenty broad enough for both.\"\n\nHere is indeed an eternal struggle. But underneath is \"an eternal\nprinciple.\" And among the many Nations of the earth this American\npeople are bringing to this principle in the face of all the world a\nworld-commanding demonstration of its benign validity. By the sweat of\nhis face shall man eat bread. And the fruit of his toil shall man\nenjoy.\n\nSo would Lincoln guard, in the industrial world, against all\nexaggeration and all infringement of human liberties and rights, and\nthis quite as much for the sake of the strong as in defense of the\nweak. Tyranny, in despoiling the weak, despoils the tyrant too.\nLiberty does harm to none, but brings rich boon to all. Thus Lincoln\ncherished freedom.\n\nBut deep within this treasured liberty Lincoln saw the shining jewel\nof human hope. And hope with him was ever neighborly. And this\ngenerous sentiment, expanding forever in his heart, he cherished, not\nmerely as common civilian, but as president. It was while at\nCincinnati, on his way to his inauguration, that he said, \"I hold that\nwhile man exists it is his duty not only to improve his own condition,\nbut also to assist in ameliorating mankind.\" \"It is not my nature,\nwhen I see people borne down by the weight of their shackles ... to\nmake their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but\nrather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke.\"\n\nBut true as was Lincoln's view of our national mission, and clear and\njust and generous as was his own desire, he saw in the Nation's path\nbefore his face a mighty obstacle. He knew the fascination of\n\"property.\" And he knew that this fascination held its malevolent\nsway, even though that \"property\" was vested in human life. Here was\nthe brunt of all his battle. The slaves of his day had a \"cash value\"\nat a \"moderate estimate\" of $2,000,000,000. He saw that this property\nvalue had \"a vast influence on the minds of its owners.\" And he knew\nthat this was so \"very naturally\" that the same amount of property\n\"would have an equal influence ... if owned in the North;\" that \"human\nnature is the same;\" that \"public opinion is founded to great extent\non a property basis;\" that \"what lessens the value of property is\nopposed;\" that \"what enhances its value is favored.\"\n\nWith this prevailing tendency, native and universal in all men alike,\nhe had to deal. Indeed he had no other problem. All his presidential\ndifficulties reduced to this:--the universal greed of men for gain;\nand deep within this inborn greed, man's inborn selfishness. And all\nhis all-absorbing toil and thought as statesman and as president were\nto exalt in human estimation the values in men above all other gain.\nThis desire lay deep in his heart at the beginning of his struggle in\n1854. At the end of his conflict in those closing days of his life in\n1865 this longing came forth as pure and shining gold thrice refined.\n\nFrom the time of his second election his thoughts moved with an almost\nunwonted constancy upon these upper heights. With immeasurable\nsatisfaction he brooded and pondered over the emerging issues of the\nstupendous strife. With an almost mother's love he considered and\ncounted over and reckoned up those outcomes of the sacrifice that\nshould worthily endure. With a vision purged of every form of vanity\nand every form of selfishness, not as a miser, but in very deed with a\nmother's pride and inner joy, he recited over the precious inventory\nof the chastened Nation's wealth.\n\nTouching evidence of this is in his habitual tone of speech when\naddressing soldiers returning from the field to their homes. Over and\nover again he would remind the men of the vital principle at stake,\nalike in war and in peace. \"That you may all have equal privileges in\nthe race of life;\" that there may be \"an open field and a fair chance\nfor your industry, enterprise, and intelligence--this is 'our\nbirthright,' our 'inestimable pearl.' Nowhere in the world is\npresented a government of so much liberty and equality.\" \"To the\nhumblest and the poorest among us are held out the highest privileges\nand positions.\" It is hard to say, when he was voicing his\nsatisfaction and his gratitude to these returning regiments, to which\nhis words were most directly addressed, to the soldier in the uniform,\nor to the citizen. All those veteran soldiers were to his discerning\neyes the precious sterling units of the Nation's lasting wealth. In\ntheir service as defenders of the Union they had saved the most\nprecious human heritage that human history ever knew or human hope\nconceived. And of that heritage and hope they were themselves the\nexponent. Their service under arms and their civilian life in coming\ndays of peace were one. And with a deep and fond solicitude he would\ncharge them to shield and guard, to champion and defend with ballot as\nwith sword their dear-bought liberty and right. These peaceable\nprecious fruits of the deadly terrible war he well foresaw and greeted\neagerly. The verdict of the ballots in his re-election in 1864\nproclaimed afar a word the world had never heard before. It\n\"demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national\nelection in the midst of a great civil war.\" That verdict declared\nauthoritatively that government by the people was \"sound and strong.\"\nAnd it also showed by actual count that after four terrible years of\nwar the government had more supporting men than when the war began.\nThis abounding victory filled and satisfied his heart. And in the\npresence of that unexampled proof that equal liberty for all was safe\nwithin the guardianship of common men, he exclaimed with a prophet's\nvision of the living unison of civic and economic weal:--\"Gold is good\nin its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.\"\n\nSuch were Lincoln's principles as he defined a Nation's true\nprosperity and wealth. A Nation's strength, a Nation's honor, a\nNation's truest treasure is in her men. Men of freedom and men of\nhope, men intolerant of tyranny, men resolved to be worthy of\nthemselves and conscious of kinship with their Maker, men jealous\nequally of their own and their brother's liberty, men who welcome all\nthe bonds involved in a friendly league of equal duties and equal\nrights, men in whom the amelioration of all is a ruling desire, these\nare the chief and best achievement in the proudest Nation's wealth. To\nundervalue men, preferring any other good, is to cherish in a Nation's\nheart the source of its undoing. More to be prized than finest gold\nis every citizen. However weak and humble any man may be, his honor is\nsacredly above offense. To leave the burden of the feeble unrelieved,\nor to clog the progress of the slow is in any Nation's history a\nprimal sin, and is sure to be abundantly revenged. For such a sin no\nstore of wealth has power to atone. A sin like that a sinner himself\nmust bear. This is the central thought of the last inaugural. These\nwere the human sentiments lying underneath all Lincoln's economic\nfaith. To these firm verities he held devotedly, whether counseling\nthe Nation as its president, projecting negro colonies as the negro's\nfriend, or offering to an idling, impecunious brother a dollar gratis\nfor every dollar earned.\n\nMen are equal; men are free. Men are royal; men are kin. Men are\nhopeful; men aspire. Men are feeble; men have need. Men may prosper;\nmen may rise. Melioration is for all. Men have duties; men have\nrights. Rights are mutual; duties bind. Every man resents offense.\nOnly despots can offend. Human tyranny is doomed. Vengeance waits on\nevery wrong. God is sovereign, kind and just. These are Lincoln's\nsentiments. These he nobly illustrates. These are laws which he\ndefends. These are truths he vindicates.\n\nThese few fundamental principles, applied anywhere in the industrial\nfield, would soon and certainly put in force wholesome, everlasting,\nall-embracing laws. If, like Lincoln himself, men start in penury with\nnever a favor and never a friend, then, like him, they must hire\nthemselves to other men for the going wage. But every such a contract\nmust be forever subject to a fair and orderly recall. The humblest\nearner of a daily wage must be forever free, free to continue or to\nwithdraw. To his freedom and improvement, to his enheartenment and\nhope all industrial regulations must conduce. This is basic. This\nalone is generous and fair. And only here can any government win\npermanence and peace.\n\nHere are Lincoln's primal postulates in social economics. Moral\nimperatives are over every man. Moral freedom is in every breast.\nWithin the nethermost foundations of any mortal's share in any social\nfellowship must rest his own self-wrought integrity and self-respect.\nTo make that social fellowship in any form perpetually secure each man\nmust seek with all his heart and with continual willing sacrifice the\nlasting welfare of every party and of every part. That this be safely\nguaranteed each man must learn to estimate his brother-man, not by\nepaulets and coins, but by immortal standards, such as only living\npersons can achieve. To make this social league invincible within,\neach member in the fellowship must show a true humility, abjuring all\ntemptation or desire to be a despot or a grandee. And through it all\nthis social compact must be cherished and revered as ordained by a God\nof pure and sovereign truth and love. Thus by friendly ministry, in\nunpretending honesty, in brother-kindliness, as sharing in a common\nimmortality, under the favor and in the fear of God, may fellowmen in\nmultitudes be fellow citizens in a civic order that may hope for\nperpetual prosperity. This is the resounding message that Lincoln's\nlife transmuted into speech through his pathetic and inspiring rise\nfrom poverty.\n\n\nHIS PHILOSOPHY--THE PROBLEM OF REALITY\n\nThe study of Lincoln's moral versatility, examined in a former\nchapter, ranging as it does through all the measure of the moral\nrealm, verges all along its border on the domain of philosophy.\nLincoln has scant familiarity, it is true, with the rubrics and the\nproblems, the theories and the methods of the schools. His boyhood was\nin the wilderness; locusts and wild honey were his food. Such\neducation as he achieved was in pathetic isolation. It was a naked\nearth, unfurnished with any aids or guides, from which his homely\nhard-earned wisdom was laboriously wrung. But his Maker dowered him\nwith a mind attempered to defiance of every difficulty. And, however\nstern the face of his life's fortune might become, his sterner will\nand diligence found in her solitudes her choicest treasures. To minds\nthat nimbly traverse many books, thinking to have gained the substance\nof great truths, when they have only gained vain forms, this may seem\nto be impossible. But Lincoln's mind had traversed severest\ndiscipline. He found rare substance of intellectual wealth. And he\nknew its solid worth. Of this, as has been shown, his first inaugural\nyields shining proof. Almost every sentence is as the oracle of a\nsage.\n\nBut his second inaugural, too, is a gem of wisdom, clear and pure, fit\nornament for any man to wear in any place where wisest men convene.\nLet keenest eyes examine narrowly the aspiration with which this\nsecond inaugural concludes. There shines a wish as bright as any human\nhope that ever shone in human breast--a wish that all the earth might\ngain to just and lasting peace. That yearning plea was voiced upon the\nvery breath that spoke of the battles and wounds, the dead and the\nbereft, of a mighty Nation in fratricidal war. The peace he sought for\nwithin all the land, and through all the earth, was to be the national\nconsummation of a conflict in which multitudes of men and millions of\ntreasure had been offered up under God in the name of charity and\nright. Such was the wording and the setting of this wish.\n\nComprehend its girth. It encircled all the earth. This cannot be said\nto be nothing but the ill-considered aspiration of an inexperienced\nunderling. It is the prayer of one who for four terrific years had\nheld the chief position in conducting the executive affairs of one of\nthe major empires of the world. During all that time, among the\nbewildering and imperious problems of an era of unexampled civil\nconvulsion, hardly any complications had been more obstinate or more\ndisturbing than those bound up in the relation of the United States to\nthe other major Nations of the world. Within those international\ncomplications were infolded problems and principles as profoundly\nfundamental as any within any Nation's single life, or within all the\nreach of international law. In such a situation and out of such a\ncareer Lincoln culminates the declaration of his policy for a second\npresidential term with an invocation of just and lasting peace among\nourselves and with all Nations.\n\nAgain let it be said, and be it not forgotten, that it is from the\nlips of Lincoln that this appeal ascends. He is not a novice. He is a\nseasoned veteran. Coming from that heart, and spoken in that hour,\nthose words cannot be lightly flung aside. They are the longing of a\nman who, through almost unparalleled discipline, has attained an\nalmost peerless sobriety, sincerity, and clear-sightedness. Too honest\nto utter hollow words, too deliberate to accept an ill-judged phrase,\ntoo discerning to recommend a futile and unlikely proposition, and\nsobered far beyond any power or inclination to play the hypocrite, we\nmust concede that Lincoln meant and measured what he said. In simple\nfairness, and in all sobriety, we must allow that Lincoln understood\nthat the principles which guided him as national chief magistrate, and\nthe goal towards which he was driving everything in his conduct of the\nwar, contained all needed light and power for winning all the world\nto perpetual harmony. This is nothing less than to allow in Lincoln's\ndeeds and words the sweep and insight of a philosopher. And it is but\nsimple justice, though of vast significance, to append just here that\nit was in the office and person of John Hay, Lincoln's private\nsecretary, when later he was our Secretary of State, that there dawned\nand brightened the new era in international diplomacy, now in our day\nso widely inaugurated, and so well advanced. It can be truly added\nthat in this vast arena, where mighty Nations are the actors, and in\nvery fact all the world is the stage, those cardinal moral traits of\nLincoln, and his transparent and commanding personality, so steadfast\nand vivid and gentle and meek, have no need to borrow from other and\nancient theories and illustrations of world-wide statesmanship either\nlight or power. That each individual retain unsmirched and\nundiminished his pristine self-respect as the cornerstone of all\nreliability, his neighborly kindness as the prime condition of all\ntrue comity, his child-like deference towards God as the basis of all\ngenuine dignity, and his rating of human souls above all perishable\ngoods as the absolute and essential foundation of any perpetuity,\nforms a programme as elemental and imperial among mightiest Nations,\nas among humblest neighborhoods of men. Lincoln's obedient recognition\nof the Almighty's purposes in over-ruling national affairs, his\nking-like resolution to hold loyally by his innate sense of equity,\nhis eagerness for the elevation of all the oppressed, his instinctive\naspiration in his civic life for foundations that cannot fail, and his\nuncomplaining fellowship with the penal sorrows of his erring fellow\ncitizens,--all apprehended and defended and adhered to with such a\nlucid mind and steadfast will and prophetic hope upon the open\nplatform of our American Republic--propose both in active practice and\nin reasoned theory a pattern of statesmanship, capable of\ncomprehending the political conditions, and directing the diplomacy of\nall the governments of the world. Here are the primal conditions and\nconstituents of international amity. Agreements constructed and\ndefended thereupon among the Nations could not fail to be fair. They\nwould surely endure. And as the centuries passed, the faith of Lincoln\nin a Ruler of Nations, just, benign, eternal, supreme, would\naboundingly increase.\n\nBut once again it must be said that these are not the themes, nor this\nthe flight of an untrained imagination. The peace among all Nations\ntowards which Lincoln's hope appealed, was being patterned upon a just\nand lasting achievement among ourselves. And among ourselves the\ngovernment was being tried in the burning, fiery furnace of a civil\nwar. It was being proved in flames what factors in a national civic\norder were permanent, and fair, and approved of God. It was out of\ndeep affliction and unsparing discipline, rebuking all our sins,\nhumbling all our vanity, purging all our hopes, and cementing among\nourselves a just and lasting brotherhood, that Lincoln found the heart\nto hope for perpetual fraternity through all the world. Within his\nwish deep-wrought, hard-earned, clear-eyed wisdom was crystallized. It\nwas an imperial proposition, momentous, comprehensive, profound. It\nembodied nothing less than a political philosophy.\n\nBut these assertions demand a closer scrutiny. Does Lincoln's thought,\nin scope and mode, deserve in any sense to be entitled a philosophy?\nIn soberness, is any such pretension justified? Are Lincoln's\nprinciples so radical, so comprehensive, so well-ordered, as to\ndeserve a title so supreme?\n\nAll turns on truly understanding Lincoln's apprehension of reality.\nLincoln's world was a society of persons. God, himself, his fellowman\nengrossed his thought and interest. Among all persons, as seen and\nknown by him, there was a full affinity. All men were equal, and all\nwere kindred to the great God. This was the starting point, this the\ncircuit, and this the goal of all his conscious thought and toil. This\nwas his world. To penetrate its nature was to handle elements. To\ngrasp those elements was to be inclusive. And to comprehend their\nnative correlation was to master fundamental wisdom.\n\nHere Lincoln shows his mental strength. Among all these elements he\ntraced a fundamental similarity. A common pattern embraced them all.\nThe highest and the lowest were essentially alike. All were dowered\nwith kindred capacities for nobility. He never suffered himself or any\nof his fellowmen to forget his own elevation from lowliest ignorance\nand poverty to the presidency. However humble, all could rise. However\nignorant, all could learn. However unbefriended, all deserved regard.\nLife and liberty and happiness were a common boon, an even, universal\nright. For fellowship with God, even when buffeted beneath divine\nrebukes, all might hope. The ultimate, open possibility of such divine\ncompanionship is shown in this last inaugural, where Lincoln's keen\ndiscernment avails to comprehend, that even sinning men may, through\npenitent acceptance of heaven's rebukes, win heaven's favor and walk\nwith God. Thus Lincoln learned and knew that among all men, and\nbetween all men and God there was a fundamental ground of imperishable\naffiance. Here lies the foundation of his philosophy.\n\nAnd this affiance was in its being moral. With him the real was\nethical. Pure equity was the primal verity. By character were all\nthings judged. Politics and ethics were identical. In the thought of\nLincoln the qualities constituting our American Union, the qualities\nthat defined and contained its very being, the qualities that made it\na civic entity, securing to it its coherence and perpetuity, the\nqualities guaranteeing that it should not dissolve and disappear in\nthe fate and wreck of all decaying things, the qualities that made it\nworth the faithful care of God and the loving loyalty of men, were\nidentical with the qualities constituting himself a free, responsible\nsoul. The same humble reverence, the same mutual goodwill, the same\nregard for durability, the same jealousy for integrity as informed his\npersonal conscience and inspired his personal will, should form the\nlaw and determine the deeds of the Nation as well, if the Nation was\never to have in its civic being a dignity worthy to survive. Here is a\nstandard conformable at once with the measure of things in heaven, the\nmeasure of a Nation, and the measure of every man.\n\nSuch is the scope of this inaugural. In penning that grave paragraph\ntouching \"unrequited toil,\" Lincoln had his eye alike upon the\nindividual slave, upon the Nation as a whole, upon long centuries, and\nupon the ways of God. It may be said with equal truth that he was\npondering the sin and hurt of a single act of fraud, the vital\nstructure of organic civic life, the continual tenure of right and\nguilt through lives and times that seem diverse, and the unison of\nmoral estimates that hold with God and men alike forever. This may not\nbe denied. The sin inflicted in a single wrong, like that of slavery,\nmay implicate a Nation in a guilt that, under the impartial and\nupright rule of God, the centuries cannot obliterate. Inhuman scorn,\nshort-sighted greed, disloyalty and cruelty, however disguised, or\nhowever upheld, entail a doom too certain and too sovereign for the\ncenturies to unduly defer, or for any nation to ever annul.\n\nHere are principles undeniably. And as undeniably these principles\nare supreme. A just God is over all. To his high purposes all things,\neven the most perverse, must eventually conform. To his right rule\neven unrighteous men must bend. Into intelligent harmony with his will\nall upright men may come, finding in lowly acknowledgment of his great\nmajesty their true dignity, in loyalty to his pure righteousness their\nown complete integrity, in imitation of his universal benignity their\nperfect mutual friendliness, and in a vision of his eternal purity\ntheir assurance of personal and civic perpetuity. Thus in the midst of\nall being, and in the conscious presence of Him in whom all being\nfinds its source, our personal, human being finds its transcendent\ndignity and crown. Living thus, and living thus together, men find\nlife indeed. Thus all, endowed alike with the common sanctity of life,\nenjoying equally the common right to liberty, share equally a common\nboon of happiness. Thus each man alone and thus the civic order as a\nwhole may survive and flourish under God in just and lasting peace.\n\nThis, in Lincoln's thought, was final, comprehensive truth. Taken in\nall its foursquare amplitude and unison, there was nothing human it\ndid not avail to fitly arrange and fully circumscribe. Whether for man\nalone or for men in leagues, whether for States supreme or for States\nconfederate, it provided every needful guide and bond. As for the\ninternational arena, so for every lesser realm of social life, the\nprinciples enshrined in this inaugural are civic wisdom crystallized.\nThey proffer to our human social life nothing less than a philosophy.\n\nThis is the wisdom literally inscribed upon the tablet of this last\ninaugural. To unveil its face before an ever heedful and ever more\nattentive world is being found a sovereign function of succeeding\ntime. Men are ever learning, but have ever yet to learn what Lincoln\nwas. Despite his fame, his proper glory has been veiled. His features\nhave been shadowed, almost smirched. His reputation has been overlaid\nwith rumours and reports of excessive pleasure in ribald, rollicking\nhours in wayside inns. But in his very laughter there were deep hints\nof measured soberness. Seasoned wisdom flavored all his wit. His very\nfolly was profound. But when his mood of frolic passed, when, and\nalmost without any inner change, his outer mien grew serious, and\nsadness brooded on his face, then his speech was fed from nether\nsprings. Then his lips were freighted from afar, and his speech was\nrich with precious lore.\n\nIn his inmost instinct Lincoln was a philosopher. Out of life's\ncomplexities he was always searching for its clue. His speeches deal\nat bottom with nothing but details. But out of the mesh of those\ndetails he was always weaving principles. It is this that gives his\nwords their weight. He is by his own right a true philosopher. It was\ntrue wisdom with which he dealt. With true wisdom he was in love. In\nhis own character he has garnered all his gains. By self-refinement he\nhas become a Nation's pattern. In himself are treasured all the\nhonors, dignities, and rewards that appertain to a worthy devotee of\nwisdom. Assuredly, and beyond all fair dispute, the author of this\nlast inaugural, when fairly measured and esteemed for what he was, and\nwhat he did, and what he overcame in civic realms by sheer original\nresearch, far more than any Dr. Faust, deserves his doctorate and\ndegree. In sober verity the author of this inaugural is a true Doctor\nof Philosophy.\n\n\nHIS THEODICY--THE PROBLEM OF EVIL\n\nThe last preceding chapter closed with an allusion to Dr. Faust. That\nreference may now be profitably resumed. Goethe's Faust is introduced\nas in deep uneasiness before the unsolved mysteries of life. He is\ndescribed as having mastered all that all the Faculties can give, but\nall to no sure end, and as being then beguiled into other paths and\nscenes, there to prosecute afresh his quest for present satisfaction.\nIn this new quest he accepts the guidance of a scorner into realms of\nmagic, sorcery, and witchcraft; into scenes of ribaldry, debauchery,\nand basest sordidness; into lust, murder, and treacherous\nunfaithfulness; into a devilish trade for present carnal happiness, at\ncost of freedom, reason, and any heed for future destiny.\n\nOne notable feature in all this quest is its submergence in the sea of\nthings that surge up around the passing life, only to pass away\nthemselves and disappear. His riddles and his quests, his ideals and\ndelights are largely physical. His guide does not conduct him into the\nsteadfast presence and observation of things permanent and spiritual.\nHe is prone to make him roam in realms of magic, where forms and deeds\nare too thin and vague to be even shadows, and too false to be even\nartificial, but where yet each scene excites the imagination to\nperishing desires for joys of sense. Carnal potions, charms, and lust;\nphysical tumults and delights so largely occupy the central place in\nall the scenes, that the riddles Faust would fain resolve are, to a\nlarge degree, the mysteries of the universe of sense.\n\nNow let any man compare the major problems in the mind of Goethe's\nFaust with the problems that Lincoln felt to be supreme. One discovers\ninstantly a vast divergence. Themes and questions, that to the very\nend of Goethe's life perplexed and vexed his thought, were in\nLincoln's writings not so much as named.\n\nBut far beyond all this. The vast, unwieldly world of solid sense, so\nbaffling, but so sure, now so terrible, and now so kind, now serving,\nand now crushing boastful, trembling man, now begetting, and now\nabsorbing endless, countless generations and multitudes, seems not to\nconstitute a vexing or perplexing theme in Lincoln's most insistent\nthought. This can never be explained as due to a painless, care-free,\nearthly lot; nor to a pampering environment; nor to physical\nstolidity; nor to incapacity for aesthetic joys. The lines that seamed\nhis face, the muscles that leashed his frame, the structure of his\nhands, the meaning message upon his lips, his shadowed, sobered,\nbrooding eyes attest a different tale. Lincoln was sufficiently aware\nof the plain and common sorrows incident to our earthly environment.\nHe knew what havoc cold and heat, hunger and pain, toil and want,\nplague and death could visit upon our human life. But none of these\nthings seemed to trouble him. So engrossed was he with questions he\ncalled \"durable,\" that all physical discomforts and distresses, with\ntheir connected pleasures and desires and hopes and fears, were but\npassing, minor incidents.\n\nThis undoubted fact in Lincoln's mental habitude is a signal and\nsignificant factor, to be held in careful estimation in a final\njudgment of Lincoln's character. Ethics, pure ethics, themes that\ndealt with realms where man is truly responsible and truly free, were\nhis supreme concern from first to last. And so it comes to pass that\nthe problem, which for him is truly fundamental and ultimate, passes\nwholly by at once all that burden of so-called evil, in the fear and\nhurt and mystery of things inflexible, and clings fast hold of things\nalone that are responsible and free.\n\nTouching the theme of this chapter, and touching also this last\ninaugural, the following letter, written March 15, 1865, to Thurlow\nWeed, already cited and considered once, deserves a bit of heed\nagain:--\n\n     Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little\n     notification speech and on the recent inaugural address. I\n     expect the latter to wear as well as--perhaps better\n     than--anything I have produced; but I believe it is not\n     immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that\n     there is a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.\n     To deny it however, in this case, is to deny that there is a\n     God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed\n     to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation there is in it\n     falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford\n     for me to tell it.\n                                                Truly yours,\n                                                        A. LINCOLN.\n\nThis letter shows what Lincoln judged to be the secret of this\ninaugural's permanent hold on human approbation. It was its humble\ntestimony to the fact that, amidst and above the errors and sins, the\nstruggles and failures of men and Nations, there is a world-governing\nGod. Here opens a theme that is truly sovereign and ultimate.\n\nThe last inaugural reveals that Lincoln was closely pondering two\nincongruous themes: the bitter career of slavery; and the just rule of\nGod.\n\nTouching the first--the fact of human slavery--whatever other men\nmight think, in Lincoln's view it was always abhorrent, a primary\nimmorality. He was naturally \"anti-slavery.\" Even in this address,\nguarded against all malice, and suffused with charity, he could not\nforbear from saying:--\"It may seem strange that any men should dare\nto seek a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from other\nmen's faces.\" Man's right to live was in his thought primal. That\nright carried with it the right to enjoy the bread that his own hands\nhad earned. Such a privilege was the central element in human\nhappiness. Such felicity was elemental. Such freedom and such joy were\nthe simplest common boon in our common, earthly lot.\n\nThe institution of slavery blasted that joy, denied that liberty,\nrobbed that right to life. This annihilated hope. It ranked men with\nbrutes. Such a ravaging of human desires and human rights Lincoln\njudged, from the side of the slave-holder, a paramount crime; and from\nthe side of the slave, an insufferable curse. The terrible enormity of\nboth crime and curse was measured in Lincoln's estimation by the\nenormity of the war. Viewed any way, that war was the indication and\nregister of the wrong done, and the wrong borne, by men in the\ncenturies of slavery. Arrogance and insolence, ruthlessness and\ncruelty, dishonesty and faithlessness, luxury and lust, trailed all\nalong its path. That, in a Republic dedicated to liberty, men would go\nto war and fight to the death with their fellow-citizens in defense\nand perpetuation of tyranny and bonds, gave evidence to the strange\nand obdurate perverseness involved and nurtured in the mood and\nattitude of men that were bent on holding fellow men as slaves. The\nexistence of such an institution in any land Lincoln deemed a national\ncalamity; in a free Republic he felt it to be a heaven-braving anomaly\nand affront. It was a flagrant evil, bound to bring down woe.\n\nBut in the deep entanglements of history this baleful institution had\nto be condoned, even in this land made sacred to the free. Inbred\nwithin the Nation in the Nation's very birth, that it be sheltered\nwithin the Nation's life became a national responsibility. From this\nfirm bond Lincoln himself could not escape. In the Constitution that\nLincoln swore to uphold, when first he took the presidency, slavery\nwas sheltered, if not entrenched. As chief magistrate of the whole\nRepublic, however obnoxious slavery might be, he had the obnoxious\nthing to protect. This he freely admitted, and explicitly declared in\nhis first inaugural.\n\nHere was the beginning of his final, moral debate. How should he\nmorally justify himself in defending what he morally abhorred? That\nthis dual attitude should be assumed he seemed fully to concede. This\nshows most clearly, and in its sharpest moral contradiction, when, in\nhis first inaugural, he volunteered to permit an amendment to the\nConstitution, enacting, as the supreme law of the land, that slavery\nshould remain thereafter undisturbed forever. How he brought his mind\nto take that stand has never been made clear. He said in that\nconnection that such an amendment was in effect already Constitutional\nlaw. But previous to that date he had always pledged and urged\nforbearance with slavery, on the understanding that such forbearance\nwas only for a time; that, as foreseen and designed by the men who\nframed the Constitution, slave holding was always to be so handled, as\nto be always on the way to disappear. It is not easy to see how a man,\nto whom the practice of holding slaves was so morally repellent, could\nparticipate in making it perpetual. One could wish that just this\nproblem had been frankly handled under Lincoln's pen. It must have\nbeen plainly before his thought. And the words of few men would be\nmore worthy of careful record and review than deliberate words from\nLincoln upon this world-perplexing query:--how adjust one's thoughts\nand acts to a moral evil, that inveterately endures, and is never\natoned? But in fact that amendment was never carried through. One of\nthe fruits of slavery was its rash unwisdom at just this juncture.\n\nStill, though the amendment lapsed, slavery held on. And slaveholders\ntightened their resolution to retain their rights in slaves, or rend\nthe Union. This precipitated war. This may seem to have doubled\nLincoln's problem, slavery and national dissolution. Standing at the\napex of national responsibility, he had to bear the hottest brunt of\nthe physical anguish, the mental perplexity, and the moral sorrows of\na war waged by a slave-holding South in militant secession. But in\nreality, in his thought, the two were one. All turned on slavery. This\nwas the burning blemish in the Constitution. This was the intent of\nthe war. This was the burden on his heart. Here was a load too\ngrievous for any man to bear. It bore preponderantly on him. And yet,\nas regards any personal and conscious desire or deed, he was through\nand in it all conscious within himself of innocence. His trial and\nsorrow were without cause. How now, in his soberest thought, was all\nthis moral confusion explained? Hating slavery with all his heart,\ninnocent all his life of any inclination to rob another man of\nliberty, but pledged and sworn to shelter slavery under the arm of his\nsupreme and free authority, how could he prove himself consistent\nmorally?\n\nHere emerge the profoundest thoughts of Lincoln on the ways of God.\nAnd herein appears his contribution to a theodicy--a vindication of\nGod's moral honor, where his moral government seems slack. How can\nthoughtful men conceive and hold that God is just, when such injustice\nand disaster are allowed at all, much less for centuries; in any\ncorner of the earth, much less where heaven's favor seems to dwell?\n\nUpon this subduing theme this last inaugural gives us Lincoln's most\nexplicit words. Of God's personal being, and of his personal care,\nthis address shows Lincoln to be perfectly assured. This was his\nstanding attitude and confidence. Throughout his years in the\npresidency this trust had seemed unwavering. Indeed, by repeated,\nalmost unconscious attestations, it was his stablest trust. Some of\nhis utterances are tender and touching testimonials to his belief that\nGod rules in his own personal career. But mainly his confessions of\nbelief in the Providence of God are connected with national concerns.\nHe did joyfully, almost jubilantly believe that this Republic was\nunder God's special watch and care. His own hope for our national\nfuture well-being and honor rested mainly, we must judge, upon the\ntokens he thought he could trace in our thrilling and inspiring\nhistory of the divine controlling care. At bottom it was this faith\nthat underlay all his patriotism. That the fundamental affirmations of\nour Constitution were rescripts and digests from the will and word of\nGod was the lively ground and unfailing confirmation of his pure\ndevotion to his Nation's honor and weal. More than aught in all the\nworld beside, it was this religious faith that steadied and girded his\nwill through all those strenuous days.\n\nIt is just here that this study of a theodicy sets in. Above all his\nformer thoughts about himself, about his land, about the clash of\nright and wrong; above all thoughts of other men, and other times;\neven above his own and his opponents' former prayers and faith, he\nlifts new thoughts in new reverence and new docility towards God.\n\nStill naught but slavery in his theme--its undeniable iniquity; its\nstrange, prolonged permission; his own, and all other men's\nresponsibility; its unavoidable entail in penalty; and the divine,\nenduring terms of new liberty and peace. Here are themes and fixed\nrealities that seem eternally to disagree. Can they ever all be\nmorally harmonized? Could even God enlighten that dark past? Could his\nown historic acts be morally unified? Nothing he had ever done with\nslavery, not even its utter elimination in his act of freedom, had\never been done, he explicitly affirmed, on moral grounds. Yet slavery,\nand by his own hand, was indeed undone. But even so the spirit of the\nSouth was still invincible, and war was holding on. What indeed could\nbe the thoughts and plans of God?\n\nTo begin with, he confesses both North and South and all the land gone\nwrong. This is the first component in his theodicy. Neither North nor\nSouth, not even in the act of prayer, had walked with God, nor found\nthe truth, nor gained its wish. All thoughts of men, in the righteous\nrule of God, were being overturned. This confession verges near to\nworship, acclaiming, as it does, the Almighty's designs; and venturing\nas it does, to trace and reproduce the Almighty's thoughts.\n\nHere is seen how genuine is the moral earnestness in Lincoln's earnest\nthoughtfulness. As though by a very instinct, his form of words\nbetrays his reverence. He refrains from dogmatism. He refrains even\nfrom affirmation. He knows he is venturing upon a daring flight. He is\nassuming to conjoin together into a moral unison that bitter sample of\nthe age-long cruelty of man against his brother, and the transcendent\nsovereignty, the eternal justice, and the age-long silence of God. His\nformula is a modest supposition. But within its modesty is an eye that\nsearches far.\n\nHe takes resort in one of the most trenchant declarations of Christ,\nthat momentous saying in his colloquy about the majesty and modesty of\na little child:--\"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must\nneeds be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense\ncometh.\"\n\nIn this colloquy Jesus seems to be moved by a tender impulse of\naffectionate jealousy for the model beauty and grace of children. But\nthat tenderness is roused into one of the most terrific outbursts that\never passed his lips. Little children are Christlike, Godlike, models\nof the citizenship in the heavenly Kingdom. God is their jealous\nguardian and defender. But Godlike, and of heavenly dignity though\nthey be, they are shy and frail. And men, as they grow gross and\nimpudent, abuse and offend their defenselessness. So things have to\nbe. But woe to such offenders. They were better tied to that mammoth\nstone that the mule turns in the mill, and submerged in the abyss of\nthe deep of the great sea.\n\nHere are four noteworthy elements:--a blended heavenly modesty and\nmajesty and innocence; an insufferable insolence; a trebly-terrible\npenalty; and a strange and ominous necessity.\n\nOver these four factors Lincoln's mind must have pondered long. Else\nhow explain their place in this inaugural? They form the foundation of\nits central paragraph, and constitute its paramount argument; forming\nalike a sobering admonition, and a humble ground of hope to all the\nNation, while at the same time holding aloft before the Nation's\nthought the outline and substance of a stately vindication of the ways\nof God. Evidently here is shapely fashioning in lucid speech of\nLincoln's ripest, surest thought. As one faces all its range, it seems\nlike the open sky, clear but fathomless. But its wisdom is doubly\nsealed, and it bears a double claim to our respect. It shows the way\nof Lincoln's mind, and the way of the mind of Christ. Not quickly will\nany other thinker, however disciplined, traverse all its course. But\ntravel where he will in the mighty orbit of this inquiry, the modern\nthinker, whatever his attainment, may find in this inaugural shining\nindications that Lincoln's thought has gone before.\n\nIn this modest, far-searching supposition, transferred to American\nhistory from the lips of Christ, Lincoln firmly grasps two solid\nfacts, elemental and universal in human life:--the beautiful modesty\nof the meek; and the ugly arrogance in the strong. Strength and\nweakness needs must be. These invite to rudeness and retreat. Then the\npowerful overbear. The gentle are overborne. Offenses multiply. The\narrogant prevail. So must it be. But when the meek go down beneath the\nwicked rudeness of the strong, then the Most High God, within whose\nfirm dominion both strong and weak share equally in all the privileges\nand rights of liberty and law, sets over the offended one his shield,\nand against the proud offender his sword, until pity and equity are\nenthroned upon the earth again. Thus must it be. The meek must suffer.\nOffenders must arise. But meekness is a heavenly, Godlike quality. And\nas with God, so with his gentle little ones, patient gentleness will\nbe duly vindicated; rude arrogance will meet exact and fit rebuke; and\nit will stand clear that strength and weakness may dwell together in\nequity and liberty and peace.\n\nThis was the age-long moral process which Lincoln's eye discerned, and\nthe final issue which his expectation hailed. Then and therein his eye\ndiscerned that all voices would be constrained to proclaim that in all\nthe moral world pity and equity were prevalent; that the least had\nGodlike majesty; that humility gave to all the great their\ncourtliness; and that there was within all men a fadeless worth, far\noutranking all other wealth.\n\nBut it is essential to note, not alone that Lincoln offers this in the\nmodest form of supposition; but that, as it leaves his lips, it\nassumes the formula of a confession. Even the meek receive rebuke. The\ngentlest have wandered also away from God. The problem has surpassed\nus all. All have somewhat to learn from God. That arrogance may meet\nits due, meekness must be yet more meek. It must needs be that\noffenses come. Greater than all our wrong, and all our patience, is\nthe patient truth of God. This must be fully learned. It is under\nwrong that wrong is made right. It is by meekness under arrogance that\narrogance is put to shame. It is by gentleness under rudeness that\nrudeness is subdued. Offenses must needs be. Only in sacrificial\nsubmission to its woe is the problem of evil ever resolved. Only thus\nis the iniquity of the sin measured back upon the evil doer in a\nsymmetrical and equivalent rebuke.\n\nBut this is never to exculpate the offender or condone the offense.\nBlood with the sword, drop for drop, must be meted out to the\nslaveholder, as he meted out to the slave blood with the lash. All the\nwealth that the bonds-man's lord has snatched from the toiling slave\nmust be yielded up. Over human scorn and greed and injustice and\ncruelty hang unfailingly judgments that are true and righteous\naltogether. Neither may they who are offended rail, nor they who\noffend exult, over the divine delay. Nor when God's judgments fall may\nthey who are rebuked complain, nor they who are redeemed turn\nexultation into arrogance. God's ways, and his alone are even, and\naltogether true.\n\nIn thoughts like these Lincoln's final explanation of the ways of God\ntook form. In patient, repentant, adoring acquiescence his heart found\nrest. His sorrows were profound, the sorrows of a patriot, kinsman to\nall the sorrowful in the land. But he learned, however deep the\nstroke, to forbear complaint. He received the sorrows of the war into\nhis own breast as heaven's righteous woe upon a haughty land, and as\nheaven's discipline, teaching offenders the woe of their offense. So\nhis ways became coincident with the greater ways of God.\n\nBut in this moral explication of the war, and of all that the war\ninvolves, two vastly different types of character persist. Lincoln's\nsolution of the enigma was in diametrical contrast with the views of\nthe leading spirits of the South. Not like him did they rate slavery,\nnor conceive the war, nor understand the ways of God. How, now, could\nLincoln's view assimilate this obduracy in the South? This question\nwas clearly within the scope of Lincoln's thought, and its answer is\nembraced in what has already been explained. Given an even penalty for\nany sin, drop for drop with the avenging sword for blood with the\nlash, and it is morally indifferent whether men rail, or whether they\nacquiesce. The wrong is made right. The meek are redeemed. God's delay\nis vindicated. Rudeness is reversed. The law is fully revealed. Man's\nliberty is honored equally. Cruelty and unfairness are rebuked. The\ngains of greed are scattered. Humblest men are crowned with eternal\ndignity. To such, whether from the North or from the South, as with\nmelting sorrow and repentance welcomed to their bosoms this bitter\nvindication of those primal rights, the sorrows of the war opened into\nperennial peace. To such as repelled that proffered vindication, there\nwas in the sorrows of the war no alleviation. But for both,\nnevertheless, and for both identically, the sorrows of the war\ncompleted the moral vindication of a pure and Christlike equity and\nfriendliness. Thus all the ways of God, with the repentant and the\nrebellious alike, are just and righteous altogether. This it is the\nhighest wisdom of men to acquiescently confess. To this even those who\nrebelliously complain and rail must finally utterly submit.\n\nAnd now one final matter remains--the idea and definition of\nhappiness. When men discuss the problem of evil in the universe, and\nin its awful presence try to substantiate their confidence in the just\nand friendly care of a transcendent Deity, one subtle touchstone\ngoverns all they say:--What is their conception of human weal, and of\nhuman woe? What in actual fact is deepest misery; and what is true\nfelicity? What do they assume man's highest good to be?\n\nJust here is wide and multiform diversity. For illustration, let\nthought recur to the contrast with which the topic of this chapter was\nintroduced. The idea of happiness that Goethe plants in Dr. Faust, and\nthe idea of happiness that ruled in Lincoln, are as separate as the\npoles. And again, to keep within the setting of this inaugural, the\nhappiness towards which Lincoln strove, and in which his thought found\nsatisfaction, contrasted mightily with the happiness that informed the\naspirations of the leaders of the South. In their ideal, disdain of\nall inferiors, delight in easy luxury, unequal acknowledgment of\nrights, and a cruel stifling of the very rudiments of love, were mixed\nand working mightily. Desiring and enjoying that Elysium, their\nestimate of evil, their definition of the highest good, and their\nprogramme for a final consummation under God could have no fellowship\nwith any final plan of thought approved by Lincoln.\n\nWhat was Lincoln's highest happiness? This merits pondering anywhere;\nbut compellingly, where one tries to trace his views upon this\nproblem of theodicy; and yet still more when one conceives in this\ninquiry how in Lincoln's life his ethics, his civics, and his religion\nbecame coincident.\n\nAs this mighty problem resolves itself in Lincoln's mind, it\ncomprehends, along with his own welfare and worth and true\ncontentment, the equal dignity and happiness of every other man, and a\nharmonious consonance with the being and decree of God. He sees that\nscorn of any other man involves in time the scorner's shame. He sees\nthat robbery, however veiled, entails a debt whose perfect\nreimbursement the slowest centuries will in their time exact. He sees\nthat any form of malice or unfriendliness, housed and fed in any\nheart, will forfeit all the joy of gratitude, and fill that heart at\nlast with vindictive hate and bitterest loneliness. He sees that\nfleshly joys, however lush and full, are marked and destined for a\nswift and sure decay and weariness and vanity. And so, to realize the\nperfect welfare, he commends to himself, and urges persuasively on all\nother men, the sovereign good of an even justice, upheld within\nhimself, and so measured out to other men by the perfect standard of\nGod's self-respecting loyalty; of universal charity, eager everywhere\nto minister universal benefit and peace; of supreme enthusiasm for\nenduring life; and of a genuine humility, that shares all hope with\nall the lowly, and trusts and honors God. In this fourfold, composite\nunison of conscious, deathless life Lincoln sees the fairest goal, the\nchoicest boon, the highest good of man. In the presence of such a\nstandard, and before the outlook of such a hope Lincoln fashions his\ntheodicy.\n\nHere then is the sum of Lincoln's thought upon this bewildering\ntheme:--\n\nThe evil that makes this earthly lot so dark and hard is man's wrong\nto man; the awful sorrows of the meek; the offenses wrought upon the\nhelpless by the arrogant.\n\nBefore this mystery all other mysteries, however deep and terrible,\nsuch as hurricanes and famine, plagues and death, may not be named.\n\nThis most sovereign evil is most clearly understood by those who are\noppressed. Their eyes pierce all its deeps. The rude are, by their\nrudeness, blind.\n\nThe names of all who suffer and are still are registered on high for\nfull solace and redemption.\n\nThe register of the rudeness of the strong is also full, and destined\nfor full requital.\n\nThis redemption and requital shall be wrought by God.\n\nIn this redemption the ruthless may relent and share with all the meek\nthe full measure of all their sorrows, and so become partakers of all\ntheir joy.\n\nIf ruthlessness persist, full requitals shall still descend, and in\nthe presence of God's even righteousness every mouth shall be stopped.\n\nAnd so shall all evil be fully rectified.\n\n\nHIS PIETY--THE PROBLEM OF RELIGION\n\nOf all the words of Lincoln, evincing what he thought of God, none\noutweigh the witness of this last inaugural. His reply to Thurlow Weed\nregarding this address, referred to in another place, concerned\nprecisely just this point--the movements and the postulates of his\nreligious faith. As his ripened mind prepared and pondered and\nreviewed this speech, there accrued within his consciousness a solemn\nconfidence that it was destined to become his most enduring monument;\nand that as coming generations became aware of its outstanding\neminence, their eyes and hearts would fasten on those words about the\nage-long, just, and overturning purposes of God. There was a\nconfession, so Lincoln felt assured, embracing and conjoining North\nand South and East and West in an equal lowliness and shame; and\ndeclaring and extolling God's divine supremacy over all the erring\nwaywardness and awful sufferings of men.\n\nIn this outpouring of his burdened heart before his God, and in the\npresence of his fellowmen, there is evidence respecting Lincoln's\npiety that courts reflection.\n\nIn the first place it indicates where Lincoln's sense of moral\nrectitude found out its final bearings. Those purposes of God, as\nLincoln watched their operation, were working out the moral issues in\nthe awful wrong of age-long, unrequited toil in perfect equity. Strong\nmen had been wronging weaklings and inferiors. Helpless men had been\nsuffering untold sorrows. Indignant men had been crying out in hot and\nhasty protest for full and speedy vengeance. Thoughtful men had been\ntortured over weary, futile wonderings as to how the baffling problem\ncould be solved. Convulsions and confusion, which no arm or thought of\nman could start or stay, were shaking and bewildering all the land.\n\nBut through and over all, as Lincoln came reverently to believe, a\nsovereign God held righteous government; and out of all the baffling\nturmoil he was, by simple righteousness, bringing perfect unison and\npeace. The dark mystery of unrequited wrong was being illuminated by\nthe righteous majesty of complete requital. But in its full\nperfection, it was a righteousness such as no mind of man devised. It\nwas the righteousness of God. Here Lincoln's moral sense was purified.\nHe was being taught of God. And this he clearly, humbly recognized.\nAnd he took full pains in this address to give God all the praise. And\nso his reverence towards Deity, and his affirmation touching\nrighteousness became identical. His sense of equity stood clothed in\npiety.\n\nIn the second place, deep within the heart of these divine\ninstructions were such unveilings of God's high majesty, in his\nsteadfast reign above the passing centuries, as awoke on Lincoln's\nlips such lowly adoration as attuned these words of Godly\nstatesmanship unto a psalm of praise. Here Lincoln's lowliness attains\nconsummate beauty. It is indeed an utterance of profound abasement. It\nsinks beneath a strong rebuke. It acknowledges sad wanderings. It\naccepts correction, and meekly takes God's guiding hand. It also sees\nGod's excellence, his high thoughts and ways, his irresistible\ndominion, his moral spotlessness. And before that revelation he humbly\nwalks among his fellow-citizens, the lowliest of them all, confessing\nthat the reproach involved in what he said fell heaviest upon himself;\nand therein, as a priest, leading the Nation in an act of worshipping\nsubmissiveness before the Lord. Herein his comely, moral modesty\nbecomes an act and attitude of simple reverence towards God. And thus\nhis humility, just like his sense of righteousness, becomes apparelled\nall about with Godly piety.\n\nIn the third place, this new discernment of the ways of God unfolds\nprofound discoveries of the divine evaluation of the diverse,\ncontending interests in our commingled life. It makes clear which\nvalues fade, and which shine on eternally. The problem upon which\nLincoln had transfixed his eye was that two and one-half centuries of\nhard and sad embondagement. By that gross sin men's deathless souls\nwere bought and sold for transient gain. Past all denial, therein was\nmoral wrong; else moral wrong had no existence. Its presence, every\ntime he faced it, tortured Lincoln, and made him miserable. And it\naffronted heaven, overturning God's creative fiat of equality in all\nmankind. It set and ranked brief creature comforts and desires above\nthe worth of heaven's image in a brother man. Every day it challenged\nheaven's curse. But heaven's judgment was delayed. Long centuries\nseemed to show that heaven was indifferent whether human souls or\ncarnal pleasures held superior rank.\n\nBut now, within the awful tumult of the war there boomed an undertone,\nconveying unto all who had quick ears to hear, how God adjudged that\nwrong. Upon dark battle clouds shone heavenly light, making newly\nplain God's estimate of slaveholder and of slave; of joys and gains\nthat perish with their use, or await recall; and of souls that never\ndie. Those awful tidings told how ill-gotten, carnal wealth is\nmortgaged under woe, and to the uttermost farthing must be released;\nhow offending men affront the Lord; and how all offenses must be\navenged. They made full clear how he who grasps at earthly gain by\nwrecking human dignity commits a primal sin--a sin that time, though\nit run into centuries, cannot obscure, or mitigate, or exempt from\nstrict review. They reveal infallibly that God's pure eye is on God's\nimage in every son of man; that supreme, far-seeing ends are lodged in\nall the good but unenduring gifts wherewith God's wise and kindly\nbounties crown man's toil; that a perfect moral government holds\ndominion everywhere and forevermore; and that beneath this rule, in\nGod's own time, it shall come supremely clear that feasts and luxury\nand fine attire, that wealth and lust and pampered flesh have lesser\nworth and pass away, while souls of men may thrive, and gain, and win\nnew worth eternally.\n\nAs Lincoln's eye reviewed these centuries of reveling wealth, and\nimpoverished hearts; and beheld, in the issues of the resultant war,\nthat wealth laid waste, and those pure hearts fed and filled with hope\nand liberty; his wisdom to compare all earth-born, mortal things with\nthings unperishing and heavenly passed through new birth, new growth\nto new completeness in depth and clarity and confidence. And all this\ngain to Lincoln, while wholly ethical, dealing as it did with the\nwrong and right in human slavery and liberty, owed all its increase to\ntruer understanding of the Lord. Here again his ethics was purified by\nfaith. His faith was deeply ethical. As with his lowliness, and his\nrectitude, so with his moral valuation of the human soul. It was\nvestured all about with Godly piety.\n\nIn the fourth place, within the awful wreckage of the war, with which\nthis last inaugural is so absorbed, there were mighty attestations\nthat God was pitiful. That war could be defined as God's vengeance on\nman's cruelty. Precisely this was what Lincoln grew to see. To all who\ntoiled in slavery the war had brought deliverance. Thereby the\nstinging lash was snatched from human hands; the human heel was thrust\nfrom human necks; the shameless havoc of the homes of lowly men was\nstayed; countless sufferings were assuaged; and true blessedness was\nrestored to souls hard-wonted to unrelenting grief.\n\nAnd this achievement was alone the Lord's. Of all down-trodden men\nhigh heaven became the champion. In all its awful judgments he who\nruled that conflict remembered mercy. High above all the bloody\ncarnage of those swords there swayed the scepter of the All-pitiful.\nIn the very doom upon the strong God wrought redemption for the poor.\nAnd so, as that dreadful wreckage brought to nothing all the pride in\nthe extorted gain of centuries, it published most impressively that he\nwho reigned above all centuries was All-compassionate.\n\nTo this great thought of God, Lincoln keyed this last inaugural. The\nmajesty of God's sovereign law of purity and righteousness was robed\nin kindliness. Into this high truth ascended Lincoln's patriot hope.\nLet men henceforth forswear all cruelty, and follow God in showing all\nwho suffer their costliest sympathy. This was a mighty longing in his\ngreat heart, as he prepared this speech. Before God's vindication of\nthe meek, let the merciless grow merciful. Yea, let all the land, for\nall the land had taken part in human cruelty, confess its wrong,\naccept God's scourge without complaint, thus opening every heart to\nGod's free, healing grace, and binding all the land in leagues of\nfriendliness. Let men, like God, be pitiful. Like God, let men be\nmerciful. In mutual sympathy let all make clear how men of every sort\nmay yet resemble God, the All-compassionate. This was the trend and\nstrength of Lincoln's gentleness, as it stood and wrought in full\nmaturity beneath God's discipline, within this last inaugural. It was\nnothing but an echo and reflection of the gentleness of God. And so,\nin his benignity, as in his rectitude and lowliness and purity, he\nstood in this address attired in Godly piety.\n\nSo Lincoln's ethics can be described, in his ripened harvest-tide of\nlife. So it stands in this inaugural. It is alike a living code for\ndaily life, and a religious faith. It is born and taught of God. It is\nGodliness without disguise, upon the open field of civic\nstatesmanship. It is a prophet's voice, in a civilian's speech. It is\nthe seasoned wisdom of a man familiar equally with the field of\npolitics, and the place of prayer. It shows how God may walk with men,\nhow civic interests deal with things divine. It proves that a civilian\nin a foremost seat may without apology profess himself a man of God,\nand gain thereby in solid dignity. It shows how heaven and earth may\nharmonize.\n\nBut this manly recognition in Lincoln's mind of the inner unison of\nethics and religion was in no respect ephemeral, no careless utterance\nof a single speech, no flitting sentiment of a day. It was the\nfruitage of an ample season's growth. It was royally deliberate, the\nissue of prolonged reflection, the goal of mental equipoise and rest\nto which his searching, balanced thought had long conduced. It was in\nkeeping with an habitual inclination in his life.\n\nThis proclivity of his inwrought moral honesty to find its norm and\norigin, its warrant and secure foundation in his and his Nation's God\nmust have taken shape controllingly within those silent days that\nintervened between his first election in 1860, and the date of his\ninaugural oath in 1861. Else, in those brief addresses on his way to\nWashington, that marvelous efflorescence upon his honest lips of an\nideal heavenward expectancy is unaccountable. In those dispersed and\nfugitive responses, from Springfield to Independence Hall and\nHarrisburg, there breathed such patriotic sentiments of aspiration and\nanxiety as owed their ardor, their excellence, and their very loyalty\nto his eager trust and hope, that all his deeds as president should\nexecute the will of God. Throughout his presidential term this wish to\nmake his full official eminence a facile instrument of God, attains in\nhis clear purpose and intelligence a solid massiveness, all too\nunfamiliar in the craft of politics.\n\nThe witness to this, in a letter to A. G. Hodges of April, 1864, is\nmost explicit and unimpeachable. This letter is a transcript of a\nverbal conversation, is written by request, and is designed distinctly\nto make the testimony of his mortal lips everywhere accessible and\npermanent. Its major portion aims to give his former spoken words a\nsimple repetition. Then he says:--\"I add a word which was not in the\nverbal conversation.\" And upon this he appends a paragraph, as of\nsomething he could not restrain, the while he was conscious perfectly\nthat what he was about to write was certain to be published and\npreserved among all men. In this letter, so doubly, so explicitly\ndeliberate, he is defending his decree for unshackling the slave, by\nthe plea, that only so could the Union be preserved. In the appended\nparagraph, he disclaims all compliment to his own sagacity, and\naccredits all direction and deliverance of the Nation's life, in that\ndark mortal crisis, to the hidden, reverend government of a kind and\nrighteous God.\n\nIf any man desires to probe and understand the thoughtfulness of\nLincoln's piety, let him place this doubly-pondered document and the\nlast inaugural side by side, remembering discerningly the date of\neach, detecting how each conveys Lincoln's well-digested judgment of\nunparalleled events, and not forgetting that Lincoln foresaw how both\nthose documents would be reviewed in generations to come. Here are\nsigns assuredly that Lincoln's lowliness and reverence, his\nprayerfulness and trust, his steadfastness and gratitude towards God\nhad been balanced and illumined beneath the livelong cogitations of an\neven, piercing eye. Pursuing and comparing every way the tangled,\ncomplex facts of history; the endless strifes of men; the broken\nlights in minds most sage; and the awful evidence, as the centuries\nevolve, that greed and scorn and hate and falsity lead to woe; his\npatient mind grows poised and clear in faith that a good and righteous\nGod is sovereign eternally. The truth he grasped transcended\ncenturies. His grasping faith transcends change.\n\nBut Lincoln's piety was not alone deep-rooted and deliberate, the\nripened growth of mixed and manifold experience. It was heroic. It was\nthe mainspring and the inspiration of a splendid bravery. This is\nfinely shown in the early autumn of 1864. On September 4 of that year\nhe wrote a letter to Mrs. Gurney, a Quakeress. This letter bears a\nmost curious and intimate resemblance to the central substance of the\nlast inaugural. It witnesses to his earnest research after the hidden\nways of God.\n\nWithin this search he sees some settled certainties. He sees that he\nand all men are prone to fail, when they strive to perceive what God\nintends. Into such an error touching the period of the war all had\nfallen. God's rule had overborne men's hopes. God's wisdom and men's\nerror therein would yet be acknowledged by all. Men, though prone to\nerr, if they but earnestly work and humbly trust in deference to God,\nwill therein still conduce to God's great ends. So with the war. It\nwas a commotion transcending any power of men to make or stay. But in\nGod's design it contained some noble boon. And then he closes, as he\nbegan, with a tender intimation of his reverent trust in prayer. The\nwhole is comprehended within this single central sentence, a sentence\nwhich involves and comprehends as well the total measure of the last\ninaugural:--\"The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must\nprevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them\nin advance.\"\n\nHere is a confession notable in itself. It would be notable in any\nman, and at any time. But when one marks its date, its notability is\nenhanced impressively. For Lincoln was traversing just there some of\nthe darkest hours of his overshadowed life. It was the period\nfollowing his second nomination for the presidency in May of 1864, and\nbefore the crisis of election in November of the same year. Central in\nthat season of wearisome and ominous uncertainty fell the failure of\nthe battle in the Wilderness under Grant; the miscarriage of his plans\nfor Richmond; and the awful carnage by Petersburg. Here fell also the\ndate of Early's raid, with its terrible disclosure of the helplessness\nin Washington. Thereupon ensued, in unexampled earnestness, a\nrecrudescence of the great and widespread weariness with the war; and\nof an open clamor for some immediate conference and compromise for\npeace. Foremost leaders and defenders of the Union cause throughout\nthe North sank down despairingly, convinced that at the coming\nnational vote Lincoln was certain to meet defeat. At the same time the\narmy sorely needed new recruits; but another draft seemed desperate.\nThen Lincoln's closest counselors approached his ears with heavy words\nof hopelessness about the outlook in the Northern States confessedly\nmost pivotal.\n\nIn the midst of those experiences, on August 23, 1864, Lincoln penned\nand folded away with singular care from all other eyes, these\nfollowing words:--\n\n\"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable\nthat this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my\nduty to so co-operate with the president-elect as to save the Union\nbetween the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his\nelection on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward.\"\n\nThose words were written eleven days before he penned the sentiments\ncited above from the letter to the Quakeress. Between those two dates\nthe Democratic Convention of Chicago had convened and nominated\nGeneral McClellan.\n\nAmid such scenes, in the presence of such events, and among such\nprognostications, Lincoln chiseled out those phrases about the\nperfect, hidden, but all-prevailing purposes of God. Here is Godly\npiety in the sternest stress of politics. Here faith is militant, and\nunsubdued. Its face is like a burnished shield. Its patience no\ncampaign outwears. In its constancy suggestions of surrender can find\nno place. It was forged upon a well-worn anvil, under mighty strokes,\nand at a fervent heat. Fires only proved its purity. It was fighting\nbattles quite as sore as any fought with steel. It was the deathless,\ntruceless courage of a moral hero. It was pure and perfect fortitude.\nIts struggle, its testing, and its victory had not been wrought on\nearthly battle-fields. Its strife had been with God. More than with\nthe South, Lincoln's controversy had been with the Most High. He\nwrestled with the heavenly angel through the night, like the ancient\npatriarch. Like the ancient saint, he bore the marks of grievous\nconflict. And like him of old, he gained his boon. He achieved to see\nthat God and perfect righteousness were in eternal covenant.\n\nSuch was Lincoln's piety. His view of God gave God an absolute\npre-eminence. In Lincoln's day, as in the day when Satan tempted\nChrist, vast areas of human life seemed to give all faith in God's\ncontrol the lie; and men in multitudes abjured such futile confidence.\nBut Lincoln kept his faith in God, and truth, and love, and\nimmortality. And in that faith he judged his trust, and hope, and\nprayer to be preserved on high inviolate. There above, he firmly held,\nwere lodged eternally the perfect pattern and assurance of full\nrectitude and charity. And in that understanding he held on earth\nunyieldingly to the perfect image of that heavenly norm, in a pure and\nacquiescent loyalty and love. Thus discerningly, submissively,\ntriumphantly did Lincoln's heart aspire to unify an honest earthly\nwalk with a living faith in God.\n\nOne word remains. As Lincoln makes confession of his faith in this\ninaugural, extolling God supremely, and therein announcing to his\nfellowmen the groundwork of his morality, it comes to view that the\nqualities held fast in Lincoln's heart, and the attributes of God have\nmarvelous affinity. The equity he adores in God he cherishes within\nhimself, and recommends to all. God's estimate of the incomparable\nvalue of a human soul, when set beside the variable treasures men\nexchange, Lincoln's judgment reverently approves, and as reverently\nadopts, establishing thereby a standard quality in his conscious life.\nGod's tender pity for the poor, hidden deep in his divine rebuke of\nslavery, and hidden deeper still within his mercy for all who help to\nbear its awful sacrifice, melts and molds the heart of Lincoln to the\nsame compassion. And to the very outlines of God's majesty, as his\nsovereign purposes are all unrolled and all fulfilled throughout the\nearth, Lincoln's soul conforms ideally, in its humble vision and\nexpression of devout, discerning praise.\n\nHere is something passing wonderful. Between a fragile, mortal man and\nthe eternal God, when each is limned in terms of ethics, appears a\ndeep and high agreement. There is enthroned in each a common\nrighteousness. In each, the laws of mercy are the same. In each are\nconstituted principles inwrought with immortality. And within the\neternal interplay of reverence and majesty between mankind and God,\nthere is a fellowship in dignity that proves the holy Maker and his\nmoral creature to be immediately akin. And so the mind and will of\nLincoln, in this their moral plenitude, may interpret and recommend,\nmay apprehend and execute the eternal purposes of God. This high\ncommission Lincoln humbly, firmly undertook. And in his commanding\nlife there is a mighty hint, not easy to silence or erase, that\nGodliness and ethics, which have been set so often far apart, were\neternally designed for unison.\n\n\nHIS LOGIC--THE PROBLEM OF PERSUASION\n\nIn the study of Lincoln's ethics it is not enough to describe it as an\nideal scheme of thought, however notable its range and poise and\ninsight may be seen to be. As Lincoln's character stands forth in\nnational eminence among our national heroes, he figures as a man of\ndeeds, a man of powerful influence over the actions of other men, a\nman of masterly exploits. However truly it may be affirmed that\nmultitudes of adjutants reinforced his undertakings at every turn and\non every side, it still holds also true, and that a truth almost\nwithout a parallel, that his sheer personal force was the single,\nundeniable, over-mastering energy that shaped this Nation's evolution\nthrough an outstanding epoch in its career. It was primarily out of\nthose prolific and exhaustless energies, stored and mobilized within\nhimself, that he rose, as though by nature, to be national chief\nexecutive. It was straight along the line of his far-seeing vision and\nadvice that Congress and the Nation were guided to accept and\nundertake that terrible enterprise of war. In that great struggle he\ncame to be in firm reality, far more than any other man, the\ncompetent, effective commander-in-chief. He was chief councilor in a\ncabinet whose supreme function dealt singly with matters wholly\nexecutive. It was by the almost marvelous unison of wisdom and\ndecision resident in him that Congress and the Nation were day by day\ninduced to hold with an almost preternatural inflexibility to the\nsingle, sovereign issue of the strife. When, after four years of\nunexampled bitterness, multitudes were wearying of all patience in\nfurther hostilities, it was his personal momentum and weight, more\nthan any other influence, that held the prevailing majority of the\nnational electorate to predetermine by their free ballots that, at\nwhatever cost of further war, the principles of liberty, equality, and\nnational integrity should be placed above all possible challenge or\nassault forever.\n\nAnd in the period before the war and before his elevation to the\npresidency this same executive efficiency, this singular capacity to\nmold the views and stir the motives of other men, was likewise in\ncontinual demonstration. Discerning how supreme a factor in our\nAmerican affairs was the power of public sentiment, and observing how\nthat power was being utilized to undermine the national tranquillity,\nhe challenged and overthrew single handed the leading master of the\nday in the field of political management and debate. Trusting in the\nsame confidence, and pursuing the same device, he appealed to the\ncivic consciences of men in the open field of free debate, by the\nsingle instrument of reasoned speech, until, by his persuading\narguments, he consolidated into effective harmony and led to national\nvictory a party of independent voters, with watchword, platform, and\nexperience all untried. In all the process by which that new-formed\nparty gained access to national pre-eminence it was Lincoln's\ngoverning influence that went ahead and gave the movement steadiness.\nAnd through it all he vitally inspired a Nation, now undivided and\nindivisible, with a prevailing, corporate desire, that all succeeding\ndays and all beholding Nations are now deeming, for any stable civic\nlife, the true enduring ideal.\n\nAnd all of this was compassed and set afoot within scarcely more than\none decade. In October of 1854 at Peoria, he consciously took up his\nstrenuous enterprise. In April of 1865, he laid it down and ceased to\nstrive. Single handed he undertook the task. Through all its progress\nthe weight of that one hand was undeniably preponderant. And when that\nhand relaxed, the task that its release left trembling was one that\nstirred a mighty Nation's full solicitude.\n\nHere is something marvelous. These affirmations, as thus far made,\nseem certainly overdrawn, and totally incredible. An agency and an\nefficiency of national dimensions, introducing and completing an epoch\nin our national history; but an agent and an outfit almost defying\ninventory, his personality seeming in every phase so simple and\nwithout prestige, and all his ways and means seeming so unpromising\nand plain; the while through all his course he was confronting a\nresistance and a hostility whose impulse was rooted in centuries of\nfirm and proud dominion, and whose onset made a Nation tremble. How\ncan such stupendous affirmations be clothed with credibility? Was it\nindeed the hand of Lincoln that turned the Nation from its mistaken\npath? Was it Lincoln's will that reinaugurated our predestined course?\nWas it Lincoln's overcoming confidence that established in the land\nagain a good assurance that its integrity was indestructible?\n\nIf questions such as these were addressed to Lincoln himself for his\nreply, we may be sure his answer, like all his ways, would contain a\nbeautiful mingling of modesty and confidence. Heeding well the mortal\ncrisis, and hearing the Nation's call for help, he would not refuse,\nwhen bidden and appointed, to take his stand alone at the very apex of\nthe strain, knowing well that the burdens to be borne would be greater\nthan tasked the strength of even Washington; and affirming as he\nadvanced warily to his post, that in his appointment many abler men\nhad been passed by. But then he would re-affirm and urge again all the\narguments of his great addresses and messages and debates, beginning\nwith that initial trumpet peal in Peoria in 1854, and not concluding\nuntil, after all had been rehearsed and reavouched, he recited again\nwith prophetic earnestness this last inaugural. And throughout all\nhis devout re-affirmation of all the spoken and written appeals to\nwhich his patriotic mind gave studied form and utterance in that\nintense decade, a discerning ear could distinguish in every paragraph\nprofound and penetrating attestations, such as these:--This is a\nmighty Nation. Its future is far more vast. Its present perplexities\nare intricate. It has been misled. It needs most sane direction. I am\nstationed at her head. Difficulties environ me. My burdens outweigh\nWashington's. But this land was conceived in liberty. It was dedicated\nto be free. Here all are peers. God's hand has been on our history.\nOur destiny enfolds the highest human weal. God is with us still.\nHuman hearts are with us. Here is overcoming power. Despite my frailty\nand poor descent, I will never leave my place. I see how other men\nprevail with multitudes by personal appeal. This shall be my\nconfidence. Though I have no name, though there is perhaps no reason\nwhy I should ever have a name, I can plead. I can plead with men. It\nis a Godlike art. Grave as is my problem, this is its grand solution.\nI will study to persuade. I will take refuge in the mighty power of\nargument. I will confer, and conciliate, and convince. I will employ\nmy reason to the full. I will address, and assail, and enlist the\nreason of other men. I will put all my trust in speech, in ordered,\nreasoned speech. I will arrange all my convictions and hopes and plans\nin arguments. I will approach men's wills with momentous propositions.\nI will open a path to human hearts through open ears by my living\nvoice. I will make righteousness vibrate vocally. To men's very faces\nwill I rebuke their wrong. Argument, pure argument shall be my only\nweapon, my only agency, my only way. By naked argument, honest and\nunadorned, I will undertake to turn this Nation back to rectitude. I\nwill rest all my confidence in truth, truth unalloyed, abjuring every\ncounterfeit and all hypocrisy. It is truth's primal and mightiest\nfunction to persuade. Through persuasion alone can freemen be induced\nby freemen to yield a free obedience. The heavenly art of persuading\nspeech shall be for me the first and the last resort. By this most\ncomely instrument shall my most eager and ambitious wish gain access\nto all this peopled land, and win vindication through all coming time.\n\nSomething such as this, as one must judge from Lincoln's practice, was\nLincoln's science and evaluation of the art of logical appeal. By\nevery token Lincoln was a master of assemblies. Upon a public platform\nhe was in his native element. There he won his place and name.\nWhatever any one may say about Lincoln's reputation or Lincoln's\npower, that power and that reputation were mined and minted in the\nvery act and exercise of reasoning appeal. As iron sharpeneth iron, so\nhe, in the immediate presence of audiences of freeborn men, assembled\nfrom his very neighborhood, shaped and edged and tempered his total\ninfluence. It was when upon the hustings, and while engaged in\npleading speech, that he commanded the Nation's eye and gained the\nNation's ear. And once advanced to national pre-eminence, it was still\nby logical persuasion that the Nation's deference was retained.\n\nWhat now was the inner nature of Lincoln's arguments? What was the\nfiber, what the texture in the composition of his thought that made\nits arguments so convincing? What was the structure, and what the\ncarrying power in his appeals that made their logic so prevailing, so\ncompelling, so enduring?\n\nTo find an answer to this inquiry let men review yet once again this\nlast inaugural. Here is a product of Lincoln's mind whose single\nmotive is persuasion, whose momentum does not diminish, and which\nseems destined to be adjudged by history a master's masterpiece. What\ndoes this short speech contain that gave it in 1865, and gives it yet,\nan influence almost magical?\n\nThere can be but one possible reply. The factor in that address that\nmakes its influence so imperial is the moral majesty of the argument\nin its major paragraph. That paragraph enshrines an argument. Though\nfashioned in the mode and aspect of a reverent supposition, the steady\npace and import of its ordered thought is such as every ordered mind\nadmits to be compelling. But in substance and in structure that\nargument is purely ethical. All turns upon that cited, undoubted fact\nof age-long, unrequited toil. Upon that stern actuality hinges all the\narrangement of the thought. Its phrases move with rhythmic fluency;\nbut they bind together inseparably a Nation's duty, sin, and doom; not\nomitting to enfold, with a marvel of moral insight, an almost hidden\nintimation of a healing cure.\n\nHere are weighty thoughts, thoughts that press and urge, thoughts that\ncarry and communicate the gravity of centuries. They contain an\ninterpretation. They clarify and illuminate. And they all co-ordinate.\nThey combine and operate together to enforce agreement. They\ndemonstrate that tyranny breeds a baleful progeny of guilt and woe;\nthat robbery binds the robber under debt to the full measure of his\nrapine; that such guilt can never be forgotten; that such a woe is\npitiless; that the centuries, though slow and mute, are attentive and\nimpartial witnesses; and that God's even judgments are over all, and\nare altogether just. This is all the content and all the purport of\nthis paragraph, and of all this speech: an exposition of American\nslavery and of its resultant civil war, in moral terms, before the\nmoral bar of every hearer's conscience, and beneath the thought of\nGod's eternal righteousness; all turning upon the self-evident verity\nthat unpaid toil is wrong. In this prolific affirmation is the fertile\ngerm of all that Lincoln ever thought or undertook in that supreme\ndecade. Here are enfolded all his axioms and postulates and\npropositions. By interlocking its multiform, infolded, self-evident\ncertitudes he framed all his arguments. Its overflowing, resistless\ndemonstrations in active human affairs formed all his corollaries.\nToil unrequited is a moral wrong. It cries to heaven, and shall be\navenged. In this avenging, if we but see our day, there is an open\ndoor to join with heaven, and transmute its vengeance into recompense\nand reconciliation.\n\nThis was Lincoln's logic. It was purely ethical. This was the\nmaster-key to his transcendent statesmanship. Here was the secret of\nhis political efficiency. Thus, and in no other way, he swayed the\nNation. Himself a Godlike man, and discerning in every other man the\nsame Godlikeness; trusting his own soul's honesty, and appealing to\nhonest manhood in all other men; he took his stand beside all the\noppressed, and against all extortion; and voiced and urged and trusted\nthe sovereign moral plea for perfect charity, and perfect equity for\nall.\n\nBut Lincoln's logic was interlaced with history. All through his\ndebates and addresses are woven the facts and sequences of our\nnational career. And to these connected events he clung in all his\narguments, as a man clings to the honor of his home. There was in\nthose events an argument. To tamper with that history, discrediting\nits sure occurrences, or distorting their right connection, was in his\nconception a downright immorality.\n\nBut mere historical exactitude was not the motive of Lincoln's appeal\nto past events. The momentum of our past was for Lincoln's use\nentirely moral. Here upon this continent, as he conceived our great\nexperiment, was being tried, in the presence and on behalf of all\nmankind, a government in which the governed were the governors. Here\nmen are inquiring and being taught what true manhood can create,\nuphold, and consummate upon a continental scale, in mutual equality.\nHere men are schooled for independence. Here men may dare to fashion\ntheir own law. Here men are nurtured towards full fraternity. Here men\nare forced to heed the civic necessity of being fair. Here a boundless\nimpending future has to be kept steadily in view. Here the God of\nNations is teaching a Nation that he should be revered. Here, in brief\nand in sum, men are being disciplined to know and cherish the\nrudiments of civic character.\n\nThus Lincoln interpreted the meaning of our national history. In his\nrating, its total purport was ethical. Any logical exposition of our\nnational career, if its statements are historically exact, will carry\nmoral consequences. If the logical sequence of any statement of our\nhistorical course is morally perverse, then that statement of our\nhistory is historically untrue. Thus Lincoln's jealous zest for\ntruthful history, for truthful argument, and for true morality became\ncoincident.\n\nBut Lincoln's logic was his own. His zeal for history was a freeman's\nzest. His arguments were not the cold reflection of a borrowed light.\nThey were the fervid affirmations of his own convictions, compacted\ninto reasoned unison, out of the indivisible constituents of his very\nmanhood's honor. When in his appeal his soul most glowed, when the\nordered sequence and pressure of his thought waxed irresistible, he\nwas simply opening to his auditors the balanced burden of his honest\nheart. Then genuine manhood became articulate. Then pure honor found\na voice. Then eloquence became naught but plain sincerity. Then\narguments became transparent, and affirmations convinced like axioms.\nThen demonstrations moved. Assertions did persuade. Then the very\nbeing of the orator took possession of the auditor in an intelligent\nfraternity. True, indeed, a solid South, and multitudes besides,\nderided his postulates, contemned his arguments, and scorned\nderisively his tenderest appeals. But better than they themselves he\nunderstood their hearts; and holding fast forever his deeper faith and\nconfidence, he maintained his reasoning and his plea, knowing surely\nthat in some future day their chastened hearts would vindicate his\nwords.\n\nBut in all of this exposition of Lincoln's logical force and skill\nthere has been no mention of a syllogism. Did Lincoln then neglect\nthat famous formula of argumentative address? To this natural inquiry\nit must be replied that Lincoln understood right well the fine utility\nof this strict norm of formal thought. Indeed, he had taken special\npains to perfect his skill in just that form of argument. To the\nlogical click in a well-formed syllogism his inner ear was well\nattuned. Repeatedly he summoned in its aid. An excellent illustration\nmay be seen in his rejoinder to Douglas at Galesburg in September of\n1858. But Lincoln's confidence was not in syllogistic forms, however\ntrim. His trust was in his moral axioms. Unaided, naked truth; truth\nwhose total urgency is self-contained, whose perfect verity is\nself-displayed, and whose proudest triumphs are self-achieved; pure\ntruth, shaped forth in speech of absolute simplicity; truth that works\ndirectly in the human mind, like sunshine in the eye, was Lincoln's\nhandiest and most common instrument in an argument. Thus he sought to\nso use reason as to awaken conscience and arouse the will. And thus\nhis arguments prevailed.\n\nThis was Lincoln's logic. It was the orderly exposition of his honest\nmanhood, pleading with the honest intelligence of every other man for\nhis free assent. Himself a freeman whom God made free, and greeting in\nevery other man an equal dignity; with loyalty to himself and with\ncharity for all; with Godly deference and unfailing hope; he urged and\nargued from his own true manhood, and from no other grounds, with a\nlogic that no true freeman can ever refute: that in this heaven\nfavored land, and for the welfare of all the world, these ethical\nfoundations of all true civic welfare be kept unmoved forever. In such\na moral character, and in such a moral argument is this expanding\nNation's only pride and sure defense. At any modern Round Table of\ncivic knights Lincoln is true King Arthur, and his persuading speech\nthe true Excalibur.\n\n\nHIS PERSONALITY--THE PROBLEM OF PSYCHOLOGY\n\nWhen Plato took his pen to write his dialogues; when Michael Angelo\ntook his chisel to fashion his Moses; when Raphael took his brush to\npaint his Madonna; they were designing to make their several ideals of\npersonality pre-eminently beautiful and distinct. And each artist in\nhis way won a signal, a supreme success. Moses, Socrates, the Madonna,\nare shining revelations of human personality. Success herein is the\nheight of highest art.\n\nBut what is personality? It seems an eternal secret, despite all human\nsearch and art. Yet its secret is everywhere felt instinctively to be\nof all quests the most supreme. By every avenue men are trying to\nreach and reveal its hiding place. Our goal is nothing less than the\nhuman soul. And upon this inquest the eyes and instruments of our\ninspection are being sharpened with a determination and zeal hitherto\nunparalleled.\n\nSuppose this quest be turned to Lincoln. Surely here is a human\nperson. He stands enough apart in his preeminence to be pre-eminently\ndistinguishable and distinct; while yet his face beams near enough to\nbe as familiar and accessible as our most accessible and familiar\nfriend. For surely, despite all his proneness towards a musing\nsolitude, Lincoln, of all Americans, displays through all his\npublished statements, and in all his public life, an instructive and\nunstudied openness and unreserve. Just here his marvelous power and\ninfluence lie. He practiced no concealment. He held communion with all\nhis fellowmen. Herein consists his honesty.\n\nNow may not an honest scholarship, honestly conceiving that of all\ninvestigations our pursuit for the ways and dwelling place of\npersonality is easily supreme, as honestly believe that in the open,\nwaiting heart of Lincoln that supreme inquiry may find its supreme\nreward? Surely here is promise of a labor that will pay. In Lincoln's\npersonality is a vein, a mine whose worth and sure utility no mineral\nwealth can parallel.\n\nWhat in very truth, what in solid fact, what in absolute reality is\nLincoln's personality? For undeniably in facing and regarding him, we\nconfront and apprehend a human life, compact and self-controlled, the\nnative home and throne of all the conscious and self-directed energies\nthat are ever resident within and representative of any man. If human\npersonality ever took evident and conscious shape and form, then\nLincoln is an open and easily approachable illustration of its\nembodiment. Upon no object may a student of psychology more easily or\nmore wisely fix his eye than upon the soul of Lincoln, when it\nthrills in resolute, intense endeavor, as in this last inaugural.\n\nFor one thing, that Lincoln should be the specimen of psychology\ncommanding any student's choice is suggested by Lincoln's notability.\nHere is an exhibit in no way ordinary. He has secured the attention of\nus all. And the attention of us all is athrill with mighty interest.\nHowever it has come about, in some way, as a human personality, he\nillustrates a type, he presents a sample so powerful and positive as\nto stand before all eyes almost alone, while also so attractive as to\nbe by everyone beloved. This fact may fairly beget assurance from the\nstart that in any heedful search for the very substance of human\npersonality, an interior and intimate fellowship with Lincoln may show\nus closely and clearly where it dwells, and what it is. For from the\nstart it stands plain that Lincoln's hold upon our hearts is in its\ncontrolling co-efficients purely personal. That hold clings fast and\nspreads afar, indifferent to space, or time, or even death. His\ninfluence over us, so gladly welcomed and so clearly felt, is no wise\nphysical or temporal. It cannot be handled or weighed. It is personal.\nHerein is high encouragement. And that in this sense of our response\nto his enduring sway should be enfolded on our part, a kindred, pure,\nenduring delight attests convincingly that within Lincoln's\npersonality and our own there is something mutual. Within the thing we\nsearch and us who seek there is profound affinity. In this our\nencouragement may heighten, and that with solid soberness, unto hope.\n\nAnd then the scene of this his last inaugural is all aglow with\npromise. For here if anywhere Lincoln's personality may be seen\nengaged in the ripeness of his finished discipline, and the fullness\nof his manhood's strength. The scene itself swells full of meaning;\nand Lincoln's part and contribution fix and fill the center of its\nsignificance. Surely if anything within that scene is plain to see and\nlocalize, it is Lincoln's own identity. The living Lincoln is surely\nthere, wholly unreserved and unconcealed. There Lincoln's personality\nis in fullest play, an evident and mighty revelation, plainly felt and\nseen.\n\nBut it is only in the action that the actor comes to view; only in his\nwords does the thinker stand revealed. Here and thus, and nowhere else\nor otherwise, is Lincoln's personality unveiled. And yet herein,\nwithin the compass of this speech, Lincoln unlades a burden of such\ngrave concern, and unrolls a problem of such profound complexity as\ncould nowhere come to birth and utterance but in a mighty human heart.\nIn the vastness of that problem and anxiety can be gauged the vastness\nof the measure of that heart. Here open into immediate view at once an\nobject and a method of research, fitted at once to challenge and\nappall the bravest student's heart. But once its summons is\ndistinguished, it is irresistible.\n\nOne thing that meets the student, as he seeks the speaker in this\nspeech, is its witness to his titanic and pathetic toil. The words he\nutters are the message of a laborer far forespent, voiced with mingled\nweariness and hope, well towards the sunset of a weary day. The sun\nhad been fiercely hot. The field had been full of thorns. And through\nthe arid hours he had tasted little food, or rest, or joy. No\nhusbandman ever chose his seed or tilled his ground at greater cost of\npatient care. None ever had to bend his frame to ruder weather, or\nbattle against more malicious and persistent pests. And all the agony\nof that toil had been wrought through within the anguish of his mind.\nIn exactest and exacting thought he had engrossed and consumed the\nfull measure of his full strength. On all he had to bear and do he\npondered mightily. No mortal ever pondered more intently on all that\nmortals ever have to meet. In this inaugural scene the soul of Lincoln\nis straining at its full strength. No portion of his personal life is\nidling. If a student's hand is truly deft, he can feel, as he fingers\nthe throbbing life of this address, the pulse beats of a full heart.\n\nAnd within the grasp and compass of that heart are revolving vast and\nstrenuous themes. The soul of Lincoln is dealing with a Nation's\ndestiny. His speech is borne upon his single voice; but with that\nsingle voice he pleads for millions; and its vibrations carry through\na continent, as a national oracle. Expounder and defender of the\nNation's vital honor, beleaguered all about with war, distressed by\nall oppression, eager with a sacrificial passion that all men\neverywhere may have liberty and an equal share in equity, searching\nfor a just and stable basis for the world's tranquillity, as he stands\nand strives throughout that speech the structure of his soul grows\nluminous. As he studied Providence and scanned the grounds of\ngovernment; as he peered far into the deeps of freedom, the majesty of\nduty, and the sanctions of inviolable law; as he pondered the nature\nof eternal right, and the deadly mischief of moral wrong; as he\nwatched the ways of hate and pride and falsity and sensual delights,\nhe was not alone compacting the substance and order of this immortal\naddress; but in the shapely body of his argument he has embodied and\nuncovered his honest, guileless heart. In the very scars and seams\nupon his sorrow-shadowed face, as he overcomes his task and fills out\nhis duty in this address, discerning eyes can see through the furnace\nof how deep refinement his humble and majestic soul has been forever\nbeautified. Transforming themes possessed his mind. By the ministry\nand inner influence of these themes he grew to be transformed; and in\nthe process and issue of that change the outline and texture of his\ninner being becomes traceable.\n\nAnd of this inner revelation the most notable mark is its simplicity.\nAs in this speech his inner life is introduced, its texture is not\nperplexing and intricate. It is perfectly apprehensible. The total\nspeech can be quickly scanned. Its sentiments barely get your full\nattention before they are at an end. Its entire compass can be\ncomprehended in a single glance. Its whole sum can be reviewed in a\nsingle breath. And still its themes and propositions are imperial.\nWithin its fine simplicity its stateliness stands uneclipsed. Hence\nits marvelous power to command. Upon all who look and listen, its\naction and appeal are like the dawning of a day. Its major\npropositions are assented to unconsciously. It works like light. It is\ngenial, winsome, clear. And it is irresistible. It moves. It rules. It\nis an argument, the ordered appeal of a candid, earnest mind to the\nreasoned thought of honest men. Gentle and modest throughout, it\ncontains and conveys compelling energy. It has the sturdiness of a\nhardy oak. And yet its first appearing was like a new unfolding of our\nflag. It is a kingly word, alike in lasting beauty and enduring\nstrength. In this there is surely some sure reflection of that hidden\nman within, Lincoln's real, undying self.\n\nAnd this still further may be said. Amid these sovereign interests and\naffirmations their agent is thus employed of his own free choice. He\nis no automaton. The Lincoln whom we seek, the Lincoln whom this\naddress is helping us to see can never be defined by physical terms.\nThrough the realm of physics things move as they are moved. Lincoln in\nthis address moves and guides and governs himself. And he is here\nself-judged. This inaugural teems with moral verdicts, verdicts that\ndefine eternal issues irrevocably. No higher function than this can be\nimagined in any sphere of being, or in any form. These verdicts\nLincoln fastens upon himself. And before the same complete authority\nhe summons the whole Nation to bow. Deep within those verdicts there\nthrobs omnipotently a sense of moral duty, moral right, man's highest\ngood and goal. This ideal of what should be stands evident in this\ninaugural in Lincoln's own humble conformity with God, in his own\nunimpeachable integrity, in his unreserved benevolence, and in his\npure esteem for souls. In each one of these constituents of human duty\nLincoln sees unchallengeable authority. For the honor of each one he\ndeems himself responsible. Their mingled rays create the light in\nwhich he writes this speech, by which this speech is read, and under\nwhose clear radiance he records his oath. Surely here are more than\nhints for any one, who seeks to see just where this speech originates,\nand most precisely how its author may be defined.\n\nWithin this last preceding paragraph one feels again the presence and\nthe movement of all that all the chapters of this volume have\ncontained. Herein we seem to face a sort of final synthesis of all our\nstudy. If this be true, or only true approximately, then its face and\ncontents should be scrutinized until they are cleared of every shadow\nor alloy. For this research is surely approaching its goal, and some\nof its boundaries may surely be defined.\n\nOne line that shows indelibly is his intelligence; an intelligence\ncomprehending total centuries, and assembling within its scope extreme\ndiversities; an intelligence that has a piercing eye, acute to\ndistinguish and divide; an intelligence that has power to estimate,\ncompare, and summarize; an intelligence intolerant of error, and\neager after truth; an intelligence that can frame an argument\ndesigned to clarify, convince, and win all other minds; an\nintelligence that assumes to deal with God, receiving and reflecting\nwithin its own interior and proper vision a revelation of the divine\nintent. Here is an energy, at once receptive and original, fitted\nmarvelously for a reflection that can embrace and authorize eternal\ntruth.\n\nThis intelligence is within control. It is not a vagrant or unguided\nforce. It is under conduct, all its action to observe, inspect, and\nestimate being ordered reasonably. And all this influence operating to\nunderstand and counsel, all this wisdom, while gathering light and\nsubstance from everywhere, is informed within, and wonderfully\nself-contained. As Lincoln reasons in this inaugural, as he resolves\nand purifies his argument, its power to convince is most intimate and\ndeep within himself. As he guides and shapes his thoughts for the\nthought of other men, the convictions within the speaker, and their\npower to persuade, so inwrought in the speech, become identical. In\nhis own consent choice and judgment are combined. Here is freedom\nindeed, a freedom to discern as truly as to choose, to distinguish as\ntruly as to decide, to estimate as truly as to select, the freedom of\nthe intelligence, an intelligence that is truly free.\n\nThis freedom fashions character. It is a moral architect. It is\noriginal, able to create. The author of this speech is self-produced.\nThe personality that comes to view among those words is\nself-determined and self-made. Its plan was sketched by his own hand.\nHis position and his posture, his sentiments and his sympathies, his\nbent and inclination, his moral postulates and axioms, his moral stamp\nand trend and tone, his stability and moral sturdiness are all his own\ninvention, originally, essentially, inseparably his own. Lincoln's\ncharacter is Lincoln's handicraft. Its title vests in him. It never\nwas, nor could it ever become the property of another man. This all\nmen recognize. But this universal recognition is pregnant with\nsignificance to any seeker amid the phenomena of Lincoln's life for\nthe substance of his personality. Somewhere within those statements\njust now made, somewhere within Lincoln's conscious authorship and\ninvention of his moral worth is precious intimation of the whereabouts\nand constitution of his personality.\n\nThis blend in Lincoln of freedom and intelligence, of liberty and\nsanity is notable for its evenness. Lincoln's liberty is not\nchimerical or riotous. It is regulated, orderly, real. Within himself\nand over his full destiny, an unimpeachable sovereign though he is, he\nis not prone towards wilfulness, but towards composure and sobriety.\nHe moves as one fast-held beneath the law that for all his movements\nhe will be accountable. He always wears the mien of one who carries\nhigh responsibilities. Far from being arbitrary, he behaves as facing\nwithin himself a court of arbitration, truly self-invested, and just\nas truly sovereign. Of all his words and deeds and attitudes he is\nhimself self-constituted, reverend judge. Whether seeking to resolve a\ndoubt, or waiting to receive a verdict, his appeal is finally to\nhimself. This is his mood and posture in this inaugural. He is giving\nan opinion. This scene is a literal crisis in a review in which a\nNation's history and delinquency have met incisive, balanced\nexamination, to the end that his own view of duty as president might\ncome clear to his own judicial eye, and all gain the approbation of\nall mankind. In his loftiest originality, where his conscious power\nand right to elect the path he takes is most self-evident, the way he\ntakes is also owned to be an unimpeachable obligation. Here is\nanother signal hint for the seeker after the living and abiding source\nof Lincoln's words and deeds. Somewhere within this sense of duty, so\nsane and free and serious, lives the very Lincoln whom we seek.\n\nThis judicial evenness within the free and reasoned movements of\nLincoln's action and argument is due to a balanced store of moral\nballast. His stalwart mind and sturdy will and steadfast consciousness\nthat duty binds his life stand leagued together in a partnership\nemploying infinite wealth. With these resources he daily ventures vast\ninvestments. This speech is such a venture, laden with most goodly\nmerchandise. Indeed he ventures here, as everywhere, his all. His fear\nof God, his self-respect, his neighbor love, his thirst for things\nthat last--these are the priceless treasure he examines with a\nsearching insight, estimates with judicial carefulness, enjoys with\nsoul-filling admiration, and then responsibly invests. On these and\nthese alone he chooses and resolves to seek returns. These are the\nonly seas where sail his ships. Here is all his merchandise. Here is\nthe only exchange where Lincoln ever resorts. Here and here alone can\none make computation of his wealth. If he has wisdom, it is here. Here\nis all his liberty. Here is a full register of his life's accounts,\nand of his full accountability. Here are all his goodly pearls. These\nare the jewels that delight his heart. And if only students have the\neye to see, within this joy deep secrets are revealed.\n\nJust here this study has to pause. For while it seems to be facing\nstraight for that in Lincoln which is innermost--his essential and\nimmortal self, transcending all the mere phenomena of life--and\nstanding where nothing intervenes between our eager search and his\nsteadfast soul, the outlook, as it is scanned by different eyes,\nreflects in different minds world-wide diversity. Lincoln sees this\ndifference, and deals with it in this speech. He knows his chosen\nestimates of God and man and government, of prayer and equity and\nhappiness, of right and wrong and penalty, awake resentful protest.\nJust here his manhood shows its breed. Without resentment, but without\nsurrender, he takes and keeps his oath, expecting that God, humanity,\nand time will vindicate his insight and his choice. This valiant\nexpectation stands today fulfilled, a commanding testimony that\nLincoln's personality, though so simply childlike in its every trait,\nhas majestic permanence and comprehension. Its inmost attributes, as\npurified in him, reflect and clarify to other souls, however opposite\nand hostile they may seem, their own essential and enduring rank. This\ngives pointed intimation that in Lincoln's conscious life, deep\nunderneath his daily words and deeds, there is a conscious unity, the\nvery seat of freedom and law, a shrine of reverence, an altar of love,\na throne of truth, a fountain-head of purity--a unity that no\nantagonist can overcome, that neither time nor death can decompose.\n\nBut an objection still persists. Some man will say that the search for\nLincoln's personality, as thus far carried on, has only dealt with\nethics, whereas research in personality is at bottom a problem of pure\npsychology; and that in pure psychology the position holds impregnable\nthat naught beneath men's words and deeds can ever be discerned; that\nnaught indeed is real for this investigation but sensible phenomena;\nthat a human soul is something it is impossible to place.\n\nThis matter plainly claims respect. As an objection it is inveterate;\nand whenever urged, it gains wide heed. In treating with it some\nthings rise up for hearing. To begin with, the intimation cited in the\nformer paragraph will honor pondering. Though that paragraph is\nintent on ethics in its every word, no paragraph in all the volume\nmore strictly so, still its statements clear more ground than a single\nhasty glance is liable accurately to survey. It is concerned with\nethics truly--again be that conceded. But in no concern of morals\nwhatsoever did Lincoln vacate intelligence. Never was pure\nintelligence more intellectually engaged than when Lincoln's mind was\nscanning moral problems. In such engagements Lincoln's total being was\noccupied. And if amid the clustering multitudes of moral judgments and\ndecisions that attend his moral inquiries and activities, there is\nwitness to the presence of a freeborn judge whose identity remains\ncontinuously and consciously single and the same, that fact sheds\nsearching light upon the problem with which this paragraph deals.\n\nLet one listen again to this address--listen with a due intentness as\nit speaks of Union and destruction and defense; of bondage and lash\nand unpaid toil; of offenders, offenses and woe; of malice and charity\nand right; of God and Bible and prayer; of widows and orphans and\nwounds; of war and sorrow and peace; of Nations and centuries and\nProvidence. Here are trilogies and tragedies and millenniums, in\nethics and religion and philosophy--but borne from perishing lips to\nperishing ears upon the perishing vehicle of a passing breath. This\nhuman breath is frail, these human words are faint, this scene bursts\nforth and vanishes. But those trilogies! They are more than flitting\nwords, and shifting scenes, and dying breath. The actor outlasts the\nscene; the speaker outlives his word; the mortal breath is not the\nmeasure of the man. He by whom these massive trilogies were marshaled\nand deployed before a national audience, upon a Nation's stage, to\nform a national spectacle, and expound a Nation's history, does not\nperish with his breath, nor vanish with this scene. Before, within and\nafterwards he lives, pre-arranging, fulfilling and surviving this\nmighty drama of his life, mightily resembling God. A speech and scene\nlike this bear witness to an author and actor outdating and outranking\nboth scene and speech. An author looms within this speech, self-moved,\ncreative, free. An actor moves within this scene, self-made, poetic,\nunconstrained. Speech and scene, voice and form are not the man. These\nare but his fading vesture. Deep within those solemn trilogies, as\nwithin a kingly robe, conveying to his vestment all its dignity,\nthough all unseen among its shapely folds, stands Lincoln's living,\nGodlike self. It was to this the people paid their deference. Through\nthose clear syllables that came to utterance upon those mortal lips it\nwas Lincoln's immortal soul that became articulate. In those ringing\naccents Lincoln's self became identified. If ever a human personality\ncrossed a human stage, not as actor echoing the words and attitudes of\nother men, but as an author and creator, fulfilling within himself, in\nGod's fear, on other men's behalf, and with an eye to deathless\ndestinies, his own responsible trust, that man was Lincoln in this\nsecond inaugural address. There he asserted and declared himself.\n\nHere then, in the tone and impress of this address is the sovereign\nplace to find the tone and impress of Lincoln's soul. If that living\nsoul ever gave a conscious hint of its living lineaments and hidden\ndwelling place, here is that hint's finest published utterance. Here,\nthen, is the total measure of our task. Upon this transparent speech,\nand not upon vacant air, is the student of psychology to direct his\neye. Here is the final challenge. Deep within the deeps of this\nsupreme address, clear within the rhythms of these resounding\ntrilogies, what does one see and hear?\n\nTo the question thus defined an answer something such as this must be\nreturned:\n\nHere in this inaugural address is designation and signature of a man\nastute to comprehend a Nation's history, reverent towards\nresponsibility, a champion and exponent of liberty, commending with\nradiant earnestness that all his fellow men so walk with God, so\ncherish equity, and so walk in charity as to secure in all the earth\nan amity that time can never disrupt.\n\nSomething such is the personality which this address attests. While\nthis speech exists, this testimony will endure. Its word stands firm.\nAnd its signature is plain. He who wrote the speech has left upon its\nmanuscript his clear and sacred seal. He who gave its body shape was a\nfreeman none could bend, heedful of the arbiter none might disobey,\nhumble towards God, loyal to himself, a friend to every man, an\naspirant for life.\n\nSurely these are intimations of personality. Here is Lincoln, a vivid\nplenitude in living unison of timeless quietness and harmony,\nordaining freely his own law of even heed for self and brother man,\nfor God and spirit life. Here is the full manhood of a living soul,\nGodlike and earthly-born. None of its features are solidified in\nflesh, to be again and soon resolved. All its face is spiritual; all\nits action free, self-ordered, and self-judged; all preserving\njealously its own kingly honor; all beaming graciously on other men;\nall bearing homage up to God; all vivid with immortality; abhorring\nmightily all pride and hate, all falsehood and decay; all sharing\nsacrificially with other men the cost and shame entailed in righting\nhuman wrong. This is Lincoln's personality. In Godlike, friendly,\nundying self-respect; in heavenly, upright, immortal kindliness; in\nhumane, divine, self-honoring heed for spirit-life--in each and any\none of these four identical affirmations is Lincoln's personality\nexhaustively engrossed, each and any one declaring that he contains\nwithin himself a free and deathless soul, akin alike to God and man,\nand bound therein by the self-wrought law of love and truth.\n\nThese terms define a life at once of human and of heavenly range, at\nonce inhabiting and transcending realms of change, at once self-ruled\nand environed with responsibility. Here is elemental personality, in\ninwrought and indivisible unity, with measureless capacity for\nversatility, easily blending fulness of vigor with complete repose,\nvestured and transfused with native symmetry and grace. In some such\nliving, breathing words, themselves transfigured and illumined by the\nquickening verities they strive to body forth, may the pure, immortal\nsoul of Lincoln, and of every child of man, be defined, unburdened,\nand declared.\n\nSomething thus must written words describe the soul that surged\nbeneath this speech, and freely gave this speech its being. Surely\nsuch an undertaking must not be despised. That aspiring, creative\nspirit, so earnest and so resolute, far more than any speech its\nvision or its passion may body forth, demands to be portrayed. Grand\nas are these paragraphs, their author has a far surpassing majesty.\nFitted as are these accents to reach and stir the auditors of a\ncontinent, the soul from which these accents rise has an access to all\nthose auditors far more intimate.\n\nIf readers of this essay spurn the effort which it undertakes, let\nthem not be scorners merely. From among their number, let some one\narise, artist enough in insight and handicraft to make some truer\ndelineation of that living Lincoln, the abiding origin and author of\nthis and his every other noble speech and deed. Such an artist is sure\nto find, if ever the conscious soul of Lincoln shines through his\nhand, that when the inner face of Lincoln is portrayed, that portrait\nwill carry speaking evidence of a joyful and abiding consciousness of\nliberty and law, of self and brother man, of things eternal, and of\nGod; that in his countenance, so sorrow-shadowed and yet so serene,\nwill shine a close resemblance to every other man; that through his\nquiet eye will gleam that image of God in which he and all his fellow\nmen have been made; and that deep within it all will beam a radiant\nassurance that by the way of sacrifice the awful mystery of sin has\nbeen resolved.\n\nHitherward must men who seek the soul of Lincoln turn their eye.\nHumble, gentle, and loyal, eager after the life that is its own\nreward, at once dutiful and free, lavishing out his life to take the\nsting from sin--this is the soul of Lincoln. In this image every man\nwill see himself reflected, either in affinity, or by rebuke, herein\nrevealing how all men resemble God. Something such is man. Something\nsuch is our common manhood. Something such is our inherent testimony\nas to our origin and source. And something such is the task of him who\nwould frame a valid definition of personality. No undertaking is more\nprofound, none more supreme. And once it is accomplished, forms of\nstatement will have been found availing to embody all man can ever\nknow of self or God.\n\n\n\n\nPART V. CONCLUSION\n\n\nLINCOLN'S CHARACTER\n\nIn all the chapters that have gone before, the essential constructive\nfactors have been very few. This is evident from their continual\nreiteration--a reiteration that is too conspicuous to be overlooked.\nIn this is intimation that the last inclusive affirmation of this\nstudy will be remarkable for its brevity and also for its open\nclarity. The simple elements of such a closing synthesis may be here\nset down.\n\nAs encouraging this attempt, it may be first remarked that Lincoln's\nlife attests and demonstrates the primacy of character. This is the\nfoundation of his fame; and hereby his fame is felt to be secure. To\nthis all men agree. This world-wide consent may be said to be\nunhesitant, spontaneous, unforced, arising as though by common\ninstinct, or by a moral intuition, all men everywhere viewing him\nalike, even as all eyes everywhere act alike in receiving and\nreflecting light. Here is something of a significance nothing less\nthan imperial for a student of ethics. For it seems to say that by\nuniversal suffrage an international tribute is rendered to a common\npattern of human life; that there is a world ideal in the moral realm;\nthat this ideal is visibly near; and that this realized ideal is so\naltogether friendly, admirable and excellent as to win from every land\nan overflowing flood of thankfulness and joy. So genuine, so genial,\nand so grand is Lincoln's moral life. In the face of such a life, and\nof such a tribute, a student of ethics may be emboldened to assume\nthat his science has indeed foundations; that those sure grounds are\nafter all not far to seek; and that when those cornerstones are once\nuncovered, they will be within the easy comprehension of common men.\nHere, then, in Lincoln's open and exalted life is at once a challenge\nand a test for all who would like to attempt a careful survey of the\nmoral realm.\n\nOne sterling, standing coefficient of Lincoln's character was its\nthoughtfulness. Piercing, pondering thought was with him a habitude.\nHis mind had insight, and he used its eye unsparingly. This was no\nmere mental cunning, though he was surely passing shrewd and keen. In\nLincoln insight was so inseparably allied with an active sense of\nresponsibility that it may be best defined as searching honesty. Into\nthe massive, solid, stubborn problems of his perplexing day he drilled\nand pierced by plodding, patient, penetrating thought. Kepler never\nfixed his mind more steadily upon any study of geometric curves than\nLincoln his upon the intricate questions of government. And not in\nvain. It may be truly said that Lincoln's moral judgments and resolves\nwere without exception the long-sought winnings of exactest and most\nexacting mental toil.\n\nOne fruit of this sharp scrutiny was a quite unusual foresight. In\nthis keen certitude touching things to come he was almost without a\npeer. But its design and its utility for him were ethical. The coming\nissues towards which he explored were moral. The future he foresaw was\nthick with evolving sanctions involved in moral deeds. For such\nevents, whether near or far, he had a seeing eye. And with a steady\nview to those oncoming certainties he shaped his resolutions, and\nplotted out his life. That those high purposes involved his soul in\nuntold sorrow he well and unerringly foresaw. It was not by mental\nblunders that he became enmeshed in the anguish and anxiety that made\nhis life so shadowed and solitary. And it was not by shrewder wits\nthat other men escaped his all but constant fellowship with reproach\nand grief. Lincoln saw beforehand whither his studied view of duty and\nhis clear-eyed obedience led. Where other men stood blind he achieved\nto see that his selected, sorrow-burdened path was the only way to the\nhappiness that could wear and satisfy. His insight was betrothed right\nloyally to the faithful league of moral verities. Thus Lincoln's\ncharacter was stamped and sealed with prudence. Here gleams his\nwisdom. His thought was balanced, looking many ways and comprehending\nmany parts. Hence his sane judiciousness.\n\nBut this well-pondered carefulness was no mere mental sapience. The\nworld of Lincoln's painstaking thought was a world of character; a\nworld of liberty; a world of binding obligation; a world of right and\nwrong; a world of God-like opportunities; a world of awful sanctions;\na world where dignity and shame are infinite; a world of manhood and\nof brother men; a world where human souls outrank all other things,\nlike God.\n\nThese were the themes that Lincoln's mind inspected and adjudged. It\nis by virtue of his life-long search to find in such mighty interests\nas these their rational consistency, that mental values of the highest\ngrade pervade and signalize his character. No mortal course in all our\nhistory was ever reasoned out more carefully than the course that\nLincoln chose and held with moral heroism to his death. To overlook or\nunderrate this thoughtfulness in any reasoned estimate or exposition\nof Lincoln's character would be infinitely unfair. As with light and\nvision, his thoughtfulness is the medium in which his character stands\nmanifest.\n\nQuite as elemental in Lincoln's character as his thoughtfulness is his\ncourtly deference to duty. Lincoln's conscience controlled and held\nhim in his course, as gravitation holds and guides this globe. This\nall men discern; and discerning, they admire. Deep in the center of\nthis unanimous admiration is a respect for Lincoln that amounts almost\nto reverence. Lincoln's estimate of law was most profound. When, after\nhumble and all-engrossing search, he found and traced those sovereign\nobligations to which he bowed his life, his estimate and attitude were\nas though he stood face to face with God. But in that deference was a\ncourtliness that was beautifully Lincoln's own. He too admired, where\nhe obeyed. His thoughtfulness was a stately, sovereign court that\nsanctioned and made supreme every law that he revered. This\ntranscendent, all-commanding sense of duty, springing from within, and\nalso descending from above, seated centrally within his character, is\ncentrally and inseparably inwrought within his fame. While his name\nabides this princely heed for duty will persist to challenge and to\ntest each studied statement of his character.\n\nAnother factor of Lincoln's character, likewise radical, impossible to\nomit, is his free and self-formed choice. That Lincoln's choice was\ntruly free, self-moved, and truly unconstrained comes clear\nimpressively when one for long inspects and understands his\nthoughtfulness. Lincoln's mental action in its riper stages was a pure\ndeliberation. In that careful pondering we can feel and see his\nripening moral preference grow clear and free from trammels of every\nsort, and gain towards decisions that know no other influence but\nreason wholly purified. So inseparable in him were choice and seasoned\nwisdom. From this it follows that Lincoln's ripe decisions can be\nunderstood only when one comprehends his mental equilibrium.\n\nAnd here it comes to view that Lincoln's moral resolutions led him far\nasunder from the multitudes. It is here that Lincoln's isolation takes\ndeparture. This parting of the ways needs noting narrowly. From his\nselection of his path for life the world at large draws back. Yet even\nso he still retains the world's applause. Here opens the true secret\nof his distinction, as of his excellence and power. This secret lies\ndeeply hidden, and yet openly revealed in the comely balanced law his\nthoughtful wisdom led his noble will loyally to admire, adopt, and\nstruggle unto death to keep.\n\nWhat now in true precision was this comely, balanced programme of a\nmoral life that Lincoln's wisdom led his will to adopt? Here is the\napex of this study. That it is not beyond man's reach, the world's\napplause and Lincoln's lowly plainness and full accessibility may well\nencourage any man to hope. That this inquiry should stand unanswered,\nor be answered heedlessly, or with any vagueness, is unworthy of our\nday or of our land. But in the answer should be verbally embodied\nadequate and intelligible explanation of Lincoln's moral majesty, of\nhis unexampled intimateness with every sort of men, and of an\nundivided world's applause.\n\nThese tests are heeded by the answer which this study ventures to\nsuggest, when it says that Lincoln's thoughtful ponderings on the ways\nof God, on the souls and lives of men, on the microcosm in every man,\nand on the principles of all society, revealed to him the obligation,\nin deference to himself, to his neighbor, and to his God, and with\nfull heed to immortality, to choose and follow to its full perfection\nthe law of even truth and love. To be fair, and kind, and pure, as a\nlowly, kingly child of God--this was the wisdom, the obligation, the\naspiration of Lincoln's life. This was the moral sum and substance of\nhis thoughtful, free, obedient life. Here in brief and in full is\nLincoln's character.\n\nIn such a character is Godlike potency, and fluency, and dignity.\nWithin its easy interplay is true simplicity, and unison. Within its\nharmony shines the eye of beauty. Amid all turbulence it holds serene.\nIts movements convey a majesty that awakens deference. It is free,\nlike God, to devise, adjust, and originate, ever having inner power\ncreatively to overcome or reconcile outright antagonism. Its\nthoughtfulness has a master's power to divide, combine, and\ncomprehend. It can gaze unblenched and unamazed into the awful face of\nevil. It can plant and wield a leverage that can overturn every evil\nargument. In its finished ministry it can present a portrait of the\nhuman soul true to its very life. In such a character, though\ncompassed in a single life, and marked with signal modesty, there\ndwells a fulness adequate to delineate and comprehend all the mighty\nmagnitudes within the moral universe.\n\nSuch is the character that Lincoln's life leads all the world to\nadmire. Its beauty lies enshrined within the blended light of wisdom,\nfreedom and obedience along the way where loyalty, charity, humility\nand hope of immortality shine ever brighter unto perfect day. Here is\nwisdom. And here is worth. And here these two are one.\n\n\nLINCOLN'S PREFERENCE\n\nIn the chapter just concluded, the field of ethics is termed a\n\"universe.\" In the chapter upon Theodicy, it was noted that in\nLincoln's most thoughtful ponderings, the great world of reality that\npasses under the name of physics, or the physical world, seemed to lie\noutside the field of his concern. Here is a matter demanding something\nmore than a bare allusion. The ponderable universe of material things\nhas impressive majesty. It is too solid and real and present in our\nlife to be ignored. Among the stars and beneath the hills and within\nthe seas are solid and substantial verities. We are environed by their\ninfluences on every side. It is deep within their strong embrace that\nour predetermined fate is being continuously unrolled. What can be the\nscope and what must be the value of any view of ethics or any plan of\nlife in which this solid, ever-present, all-embracing material world\nis so indifferently esteemed?\n\nIt is with just this query in mind that this research into the mind of\nLincoln was first conceived. And the query which has been throughout\nin immediate review, but unpropounded openly as yet, now demands to be\ndefined and scrutinized. Did the mind of Lincoln, engrossed as it was\nupon interests supremely ethical, and ignoring, as it seemed to do,\nall those vast and deep complexities of the purely physical world,\nfind for our unquiet human thought the true and perfect equilibrium?\nOr was the thought of Lincoln unbalanced and incomplete, misguided and\ninadequate essentially? In brief, how must ethics and physics, these\ntwo and only two supreme realities, when each is most fairly\nunderstood, be conceived to correlate and harmonize? As between these\ntwo realities, each so imperial and so irreducible, which holds\nprimacy?\n\nHere is for any thoughtful mind well nigh the last interrogation. To\nattain a competent reply the essential qualities of each and either\nrealm must be uncovered and compared. In physics here, and in ethics\nthere, what attributes pervade, abide, and are essential? And, these\ntrue qualities being seen in each, as between the two, which proves\nitself superior; in which does the soul of man find rest?\n\nIn the universe of physics, in all the world of things men see and\ntouch and weigh one pervading and abiding quality is change. We speak\nindeed of the eternal hills; and before their age-long steadfastness\nthat phrase seems accurate. But it is only soaring rhetoric, surely\nsinking from its flight, when sober science sets about to cipher from\nthe distinct confessions of their very rocks the date of their birth,\nthe story of their growth, and the sure predictions of their complete\ndecay. In all the stability of the solid hills there is nothing\npermanent. So with the ageless stars. So with the ever-flowing sea.\nAnd so with the very elements of which hills and stars and sea are\nmixed. All the story of all their genesis and journeying and vanishing\nis a never-ending tale of change. Nothing physical abides the same.\nBeneath the daring rays of present-day research all things are being\nproved impermanent, all found verging over the infinite abyss.\nTransmutations are in progress everywhere.\n\nIn the soul of Lincoln there was craving for a sort of satisfaction\nwhich nothing mutable could ever meet. Amid this pageantry of change,\namong these ceaseless transformations, with all their passing beauty,\nand all their final disappointment, there was in him a hungering after\nsomething that should hold eternally. And within this very eagerness\nwas genuine kinship with the changeless foothold in things eternal\nwhich it aspired to find. His very longing was innerly undying. His\nthirst for immortality was in itself averse and opposite to death\nessentially. Deep within his desire, deep within himself were living\nverities, within themselves immutable. His admiration before God's\nmajesty, his free covenant with perfect loyalty, his friendly\nkindliness towards all others like himself, and his God-like\nsacrificial grief for all wrongdoing, held within their pure vitality\nvisions and passions and aspirations that no mortal darts could touch.\nAnd when with clear discernment he freely chose to fill his soul with\nhopes and deeds that eternally evade decay, he selected, as between\nthings that change and things that abide, that reality to whose\neternal primacy every passing day yields perfect demonstration.\nNowhere in physics, in ethics alone could be found the perfect solace\nof conscious perpetuity.\n\nAnother quality of all things physical, a quality likewise\nall-pervading and persistent, is their want of spontaneity. Within the\nnature of this mighty physical bulk, that is forever altering its garb\nand form, and within all its flowing change there is no liberty.\nThrough all the ever-varying orbit of the moon; in all the marvelous\nwedlock of the elements within the rocks and soils and plants; in all\nconvulsions and explosions of air and sea and fluent gas; in\nlightning, fire, and plague; in all the age-long monotony of instinct,\nhabit, and proclivity, there is no conscious choice, no\ncharacter-worth, no ennobling and terrifying responsibility. Through\nall this change of mortal things all things are fixed. Naught is nobly\nfree.\n\nIn the soul of Lincoln there was a passion to be free. In this desire\nthere was a clear intelligence, and a purpose like to God's. He\ncoveted a dignity that was self-achieved. He deemed that worth, and\nthat alone, supreme that was his own creation. Only in deeds that he\nhimself determined could he discern true excellence. Herein he stood\napart from brutes, ranked above the hills, and pierced beyond the\nstars. And when, with such an insight, and such a soaring wish, and in\nsuch high dignity, he freely chose to hold supreme the life and\nthought and joy that are truly free, rating all things fixed and\nphysical as forever far beneath, he allotted certain primacy to that\nwhich he discreetly judged undoubtedly pre-eminent. In closest\nconsonance with what has last been said, comes now to be affirmed, a\ncentral quality of all things purely physical--persistent and\npervading everywhere--their absolute inertia morally. They move as\nthey are moved, and never otherwise. The law by which their being is\ncontrolled is not their own. At the last and evermore physics, though\nthe measureless arena of unmeasured active energy, is powerless. It\ncannot even obey. But most demonstrably it can never command, not even\nitself. It is vastly, deeply, and forever only passive; although\nwithin its ponderous frame are playing with baffling constancy forces\nthat weary all too easily our most stalwart thought.\n\nIn such a realm as this, forever unawakened and evermore unjudged,\nLincoln's awakened and judicial soul could never find contentment.\nWithin that manly heart was enthroned a conscience, alert alike to\nreceive and to originate, as also to approve and fulfill all noble and\nennobling obligations. He knew the meaning and the sense of duty, the\nweight of duty claimed, and the worth of duty done. In his true heart\nwas a living spring of moral law. And in cherishing with exalted\nsatisfaction this imperial quality of all true moral life, therein\ndeciding that physics held nothing worthy of any comparison, he gave\nkingly utterance to a judgment and decision and desire that could\nestimate infallibly the ultimate competitors within his conscious life\nfor primacy. For ever in ethics, as never in physics, right judgment\nfinds its source.\n\nYet another quality of physics, likewise all-pervasive and permanent,\nis the mocking, paralyzing mystery in which all its certainties are\nveiled. The mighty acquisitions to our certain knowledge in the realm\nof nature are superbly manifold and as superbly sure. The swelling\ncatalogue of things well certified in the material world seems to\nadvance the modern scientific mind almost to genuine apotheosis. But\nof all these stately certitudes there is not one but walks in darkness\nno human eye nor thought can penetrate. Before heroic and unexampled\ndiligence and daring the scientific frontiers are receding everywhere;\nbut only to make still more amazing and unbearable their\ninscrutability. On every horizon of the physical realm yawn\ninfinitudes, whether of space or time, of geometry or arithmetic, of\nelectron or of cell, so defiant, so bewildering, and so overwhelming\nin their complete defeat and mockery of our bravest and best\nintelligence that our proudest powers are palsied utterly. Whichever\nways we turn, whatever gains we win, we face at last, in the very eye\nof our research, and in the very heart of our desire, a changeless\nsilence that mocks all hope, and leaves us standing in an utter void.\nIn the realm of simple physics the human intellect, despite the fact\nthat in the physical realm the mind of man has triumphed gloriously,\nis faced forever with the taunting consciousness that its primal task\nis still undone.\n\nIn an undertaking such as this, and in such a hapless outcome, the\nmind and life of Lincoln could never be engrossed. He was ever facing\nmystery indeed in the perplexities that throng the moral realm. In\nfact, in the darkness and confusion that enshroud and mystify the\nworld of duty and award were all his sorrows born. But in those\nmysteries moral honesty is not mocked. Where iniquities prevail, the\nsoul that bows towards God sees light. Where sin abounds, the heart\nthat yields the sacrifice of penitence finds peace. In the face of\nhate and strife and bloodshed, to banish malice and to cherish charity\nis to enter and to introduce complete tranquillity. Where lives grow\ncoarse and souls are base and purity is all denied, the soul that\nseeks refinement grows refined and consciously approaches God. When\nGod is mocked and scorners multiply and hearts grow hard in pride, the\nheart that meekly, humbly holds its confidence in the transcendent,\nall-controlling Deity opens in that lowly faith deep springs of\nnever-failing hope. In these mysteries, however baffling and\npersistent, these efforts towards relief find sure and great reward.\n\nIn such a field and in such endeavors it was Lincoln's sovereign\npreference to measure out all the forces of his conscious life. Attent\ntowards God, benign towards men, upright within, and prizing life, he\nfound, not defiance and despair, but perennial quickening and\nencouragement, whatever problems darkened round his life. For him such\nsoul-filling verities, and such a corresponding faith held\nfar-transcending primacy. And so in conscious, sovereign and\neverlasting preference for the truth that shows all its light in\ncharacter, and for the faith that such clear truth forever\nilluminates, Lincoln testified his confidence that in the face of\nphysics ethics holds supreme pre-eminence.\n\nOf all this searching estimate and supreme comparison of these two\ndivergent realms one's mind may gravely doubt whether Lincoln's mind\nhad perfect consciousness. Concerning this no one may speak, except\nwith hesitance. But any one whose mind has entered into intimate\npartnership with all the wealth of Lincoln's words is well aware that\nit was a habit of his mind to pursue its themes to their farthest\nbourne. In penetration and in pondering not many minds were ever more\nevenly taxed. His mental persistence and deliberation were almost\npreternatural. Discovering this, a student of his mental ways will\ngrow to feel that, in a likelihood almost equivalent to full\ncertainty, Lincoln was wittingly aware of all the meaning in his\nproclivity to rate ethical interests uppermost.\n\nAt any rate, in his life and writings, so the matter stands. And\nstanding thus in the deeply conscious soul of Lincoln, the matter has\na high significance. It seems to testify with a prophet's steady voice\nthat in all the total realm of being, the realm of freedom, of\nconsciousness, and of character is the first and sovereign verity;\nthat the real is fundamentally ethical; that he who seeks for perfect\nsatisfaction must bring to his inquiry the glad allegiance of a moral\nfreeman and a moral judge; that in every undertaking becoming him as\nman each cardinal moral excellence must grow and shine increasingly;\nthat every mental acquisition must conduce to a lowliness that adores,\nto a gentleness that loves, to a purity that pledges immortality, to a\nself-respect that is the mirror and original of all reality; that only\nthus, in all this universe, and to all eternity, can the soul of man\ngain triumphs that can satisfy. Only so will truth grow fully radiant,\nand mystery become benign. Only so can finite man find peace before\nhis Maker, and face serenely all that wisest unbelief finds terrible.\nThis is truth. Here is freedom. Such is faith. Thus, in a freeman's\nfaith truth stands complete.\n\nSuch is Lincoln's preference. Like another Abraham, and with a kindred\ninsight and determination, he won all his triumphs and renown by\nfaith--a free and conscious faith in God, and soul, and character.\n\nHere are designations, at once so plastic and so precise, at once so\nsimple and so profound, as to signify and demonstrate how souls of men\nmay conquer death; how one may be a perfect devotee to another\nperson's weal, and still preserve his own integrity; how perfect\nsanctity may assume a full companionship with sin, whether by\nredemption or rebuke, and still remain unflecked; and how in man's\nhumility may be enshrined a dignity wherein supernal majesty may be\nunveiled.\n\nIn some such vivid, moral terms, mobile to grasp and manifest the\nboundless range and priceless worth within the sovereign moral law; as\nalso to declare unerringly the fateful and unbounded issues of a moral\nchoice, may students hope to trace with true intelligence the real\nfoundations of Lincoln's all but unexampled power and fame.\n\n\n\n\nAN EPILOGUE\n\nADDRESSED TO THEOLOGIANS\n\n\nIn designing and constructing the chapters that precede, three motives\nhave been actively at work. There has been a desire to set within the\nrealm of Civics a clear and balanced exposition of Lincoln's moral\ngrandeur. There has been a desire to introduce within the realm of\nEthics a fertile method of discussion and research. There has been a\ndesire to intimate how in the realm of pure Religion the finished\noutline of a transparent character may provide a pattern for a true\ndescription of the problems of Theology.\n\nOf these three motives the one last named has been preponderant.\nLincoln's public life was keyed alike to moral honor and to faith in\nGod. In his most quickening aspirations and in his most sacrificial\nsorrows his sense of personal obligation and his belief in an\nover-ruling Providence held fast together in a most notable unison.\nGuileless, luminous, and single-hearted in his rectitude and in his\nreverence, he affords a signal illustration of the way in which faith\nand conscience may vitally co-operate and even coalesce. He presents\nin consequence a signal opportunity for exploring the inner kinship of\nethics and religion. His personality challenges us to inquire and see\nhow honesty and godliness consort; how in a complete and balanced\ncharacter the categories that define the basis of one's moral\nexcellence may prove themselves to be the very categories that inform\nand underlie the religious life.\n\nHere opens an engaging investigation. May the ultimate principles of a\ntrue ethical theory and the ultimate rationale of a true theology be\nfound in living deed to coincide? To bring this question into open\nview is the ulterior aim of this book, and more particularly of this\nappended Epilogue.\n\nIn the open petals of the plainest flower soil and sunlight, earth and\nheaven meet in almost mystic union. Be this our parable. In the ample\ncompass of a normal character, such as Lincoln shows, there is in very\ndeed a mystic union--a vital partnership of man with fellowman, and of\nmen with God. Be this deep fellowship described; for here commingle\nindivisibly the essential elements in any pure and full display in\nhuman life of morals and religion.\n\nIn Lincoln's public life there was undeniably a close companionship\nwith God. Earth-born and earth-environed though he was, he had supreme\naffinity with heavenly realms. His face was seamed with suffering; he\nwore a humble mien; his habitual posture was a pattern of unstudied\nmodesty. But through those sorrow-shadowed features shone a radiant\nexalted hope, as he walked and toiled in reverend covenant with the\nsovereign God of Nations. Besieged by day and night with difficulties\nand distresses such as rarely burden mortal men, in his nightly vigils\nand in his daily labors he clung to Deity, true civilian and true man\nof God at once. The terms of this high covenant were specific and\ndistinct. They were the very terms that defined the conscious\nqualities of his upright, God-revering character. Be those qualities\ndescribed.\n\nIn the first place, here in Lincoln's open character it becomes\nheavenly clear how profoundly intimate and at one are majesty and true\nhumility. When the guise of each is fully genuine, they minutely\ncorrespond. In Lincoln's lowliness lay the very image of the majesty\nof God. To that high majesty his lowliness conformed. As in a mountain\nlake may be enshrined a perfect pattern of the heavenly firmament, so\nwas Lincoln's reverence a conscious, free reflection of the excellence\nof God. His obedience was an intelligent recognition and\nre-enthronement of the sovereign law of God. His lowly posture, when\nin supplicating or interceding prayer, was induced by the bending pity\nof a compassionate God. That trusting appeal was the very echo of\nGod's benign concern; and within the wrestlings of those intense\nentreaties the divine designs gained place in human history. Lincoln\nin his lowliness was Godlike. His humility was supremely dignified,\nsupremely beautiful. In its open face, as in the face of a flower\nopening towards the sun, was resident a heavenly glory.\n\nIn the second place, this vital unison of man with God stands superbly\nevident in the stately wedlock of Lincoln's honesty with God's\nrighteousness. In Lincoln's soul there lived a faith in God's\nintegrity which no dark storm of human faithlessness, and no delay of\nheaven's righteous judgments could eclipse or wear away. This belief\nwas in him an active energy. It grew to be a partnership with God's\nuprightness--a covenant in which his own soul's eagerest ambitions and\nresolves became upright. In his inmost soul it was his inmost\naspiration to be an agent for enthroning here on earth the equity of\nGod. And so, in fact, as a mighty nation's chief executive, he did\nbecome the executive of the will of God. In his transparent honesty\nthere was a reflection of the sincerity of God. In his firm constancy\nthere was upheld before this people's eye an index finger pointing to\nthe steadfast constancy of God. In his pure jealousy for the utter\nsanctity of his plighted word there burned a fire that was kindled in\nthe eye of God. In all his even, glowing zeal for righteousness he has\nbeen adjudged by all his fellowmen pre-eminently a man of God. And as\nsignal devotee to honesty he demonstrates most signally that God and\nman may set their lives in unison.\n\nIn the third place there was in Lincoln's patient gentleness a\nprofound resemblance to the all-enduring gentleness of God. His\nmastery of malice and his universal charity in the face of multitudes\nof bitter and malignant men attest eternally an intimate companionship\nwith divine forbearing grace. His sacrificial intervention on behalf\nof all God's little ones whom human heartlessness had oppressed is\nworld-arresting evidence and demonstration that in his kindly heart\nwas throned the Heavenly Father's sympathy. Unto costly fellowship\nwith this divine forbearance and compassion Lincoln opened\nunreservedly all the compass of his life. For afflicted and afflicting\nmen he felt a sorrow, mixed with pity and rebuke, both born of the\naffection fathers feel, both proved sincere by years of sacrificial\nanguish unto death. And this he did with a discerning and deliberate\nmind. It was thus he understood the heart and ways of God; and thus by\nclear design he undertook in his own life to recommend the ways of God\nto men. In verity he was partaker and dispenser of the manifold grace\nof God. In him the mighty love of God found living medium. Like a\ngentle flower drinking gratefully the warmth and beauty flowing\ntowards it from the sun, his soul absorbed the gentle ways of God and\nitself grew kind and beautiful. Here again it may be seen how intimate\nmay be the life of man in God, the life of God in man.\n\nIn the fourth place there was in Lincoln's soul an all-prevailing\nconfidence touching future destiny. This living confidence was the\noutcome of his close partnership with God. His faith believed that\nGod's designs held fast eternally, and that conviction clouds and\nnight and death were impotent to overshadow or obscure. The rather, as\nhis faith and hope confided in that unfailing verity, that faith and\nhope became themselves unfailing. His sure belief became participant\nin God's dependability. Here is the deepest secret of his abiding\nsteadiness. Hence his calm indifference to death.\n\nAnd this illumines all his great appeals to his fellowmen with the\nlight of a prophetic vision. For his fellow-citizens, as for himself,\nhis sovereign aspiration was after permanence. This abiding life,\nwhether in the Nation or in himself, he had the mind to comprehend,\nmust be the very life of God within the soul. In civic Godliness alone\ncould there be civic permanence. In the Nation's life the life of God\nmust be incorporate. Then and then alone would any Nation long endure.\nFor this bright civic hope, for this alone he lived. And this\never-springing hopefulness and confidence is the shining efflorescence\nof his Godliness. He clung to things eternal in a conscious league\nwith God.\n\nHere is something wonderful--something replete alike with mystery and\nwith certitude--a vital unison of God and man in undeniable verity--a\nunison in righteousness and kindliness, in lowly and majestic dignity,\nin immortal spirit purity--a unison in which all that is most sacredly\nelemental in God and man most intimately coalesce, while yet remaining\nmost unmistakably distinct--a unison in which is freely and\nconsciously engaged all that personality, however self-discerning and\nfree, can ever contribute or contain--a unison as historically real as\nit is immeasurably profound--a unison in which space and time provide\nthe theater, while yet a unison in which time and space dissolve. Here\nis surely ample range for ample exposition of many a major problem in\ntheology, and all within the open and familiar bounds of a normal\nmoral life.\n\nIn close alliance and affinity with Lincoln's vital partnership with\nGod, and of almost equal pregnancy for the problems of religious\nthought, is the marvelous intimacy of his inner and essential\nfellowship with men. This feature of his public life is becoming more\ncommanding and impressive every year. To a degree altogether notable\nit is becoming widely understood how he and all his fellowmen were\nwonderfully allied. It is becoming seen by all of us that the\nqualities essential to his commanding excellence are qualities deeply\ntypical of us all. His attitudes of deference and modesty, his\npromptings towards things permanent and durable, his equities, his\nkindnesses are universal. They are enthroned within us all.\nEverywhere, in everyone they ultimately predominate.\n\nWonderful as it may seem, this holds as true of enemies as it does of\nfriends. Hosts of people, while Lincoln lived, held him their\ndeadliest foe. Through all those bitter years, while they defamed, he\nmeekly, mightily held his own, subduing malice, disdaining subtlety,\ndespising scorn and arrogance, abhorring sordid greed; pleading\nhumbly, but as a prince instead, for righteousness and charity and\nman's immortal destiny. And now all men detect that however deep and\novermastering those aversions and animosities may have been, there was\nin his enemies and himself a moral kinship and agreement far more\npowerful and profound. His humble, hopeful plea that every man be fair\nand pitiful is winning everywhere today glad witness to its eternal\nand imperial validity.\n\nAnd the wonder of this deep partnership with men but deepens, when we\nconsider that the form of this all-appealing, all-prevailing\npartnership was sacrificial. This leads straight into the innermost\ninterior of the problem of vicarious suffering--one mortal, suffering\nin another's place and for another's sake. Never in all that era of\ncivic anguish in the civil war did any human mortal suffer keener or\nmore continual sorrow than did he who of all the Nation's multitudes\nstood most untainted and innocent of the iniquity which that stern\ncivic judgment was to purge away. Guiltless utterly of any part in\nslavery for his own profit or by his own consent, he partook with all\nthe guilty ones of all the sorrows of its expurgation.\n\nAnd yet more wonderful is the sequent fact that in precisely this\nvoluntary and conscious unison of innocence and suffering in his\noutstanding life stood and moved the pillar of fire and the pillar of\ncloud that led this Nation through those sorrows by night and day.\n\nHere again is something wonderful--something again replete with\nmystery and with certitude. And here again do mystery and certitude\nstand truly unified and harmonized. Truly they are unified. But in\nthat unison their identity stands clarified. There where Lincoln's\nmanhood shows most humane and universal, a Nation's common symbol,\noutlining nothing less than a puissant Nation's boundless majesty,\nthere stands defined, as with engraver's finished art, his separate,\never sacred, individual nobility. Even there where his moral being\nmerges most completely into deepest sympathy with the afflictions that\ndescend on sin, there his own integrity and personal jealousy for\nrighteousness are most outstanding and distinct. But be it said again,\nin Lincoln do that broad humaneness and that erect nobility, that\nsympathy and that jealousy subsist in unison. In strict verity he is\nour Nation's surrogate. Surely here again is ample range for ample\nexposition of many a major problem of theology, and all still held\nwithin the open and familiar bounds of a normal moral life.\n\nSo Lincoln stood in unison with God and fellowman. Ideally complete in\nhis own identity, he was ideally allied with other lives through all\nthe personal realm. And be it well and truly seen that the elements of\nthis affiance with his God, and the elements of his firm league with\nbrothermen were identically the same. In each and either realm the\nbinding bonds were fealty to charity, to equity, to humility, to\npurity. These four qualities explain and guarantee completely his\nallegiance. These and these alone were the constituent elements of all\nhis brotherhood and of all his reverence. And it is within the nature\nof these four vital qualities, at once so Godlike and so human, and\nwithin their ever-living interplay that one must look to find whatever\nLincoln's character can contribute to the problems of theology.\n\nWhat averments tremble here! Our mighty human race does truly live in\nunison. Within that peopled unison the life of one may have\nfar-ranging partnership. That partnership is closely definable in\nterms of character. In Lincoln's life as private soul, and as vicar of\nus all alike, his constancy and kindliness, his purity and lowliness\nembrace and body forth his total being, with all he bore and wrought.\nHerein unfolded all his beauty and all his worth, whether as a single\ncitizen or as a Nation's representative.\n\nAnd our humble human life does also truly share the life in God.\nWithin that heavenly unison the lowliest soul may have exalted\nfellowship. And so in Lincoln's loyalty and tenderness, his lowliness\nand thirst for immortality, as man of God, unfolds the heavenly beauty\nof God's eternal purity and majesty, God's benignity and faithfulness.\n\nSo do lives of free and conscious beings most truly flourish and so do\nthey most truly blend. Our fellowship with Lincoln, and Lincoln's\nfellowship with us; God's fellowship with Lincoln and Lincoln's\nfellowship with God; this mystic unrestricted partnership of noble\nsouls; unfolding and unrolling sovereign harmonies, even when they\nantagonize; in vengeance or compassion fulfilling all their mission\nand dominion through the earth--these are indeed our sovereign\nrealities. In scanning these we may indeed discern deep ways of God\nand men.\n\nMighty highways open here--highways that enter every major province of\ntheology. Be these avenues observed.\n\nWhence came the blight of slavery? How in human soil could such\ninhumanity germinate? What is the virus of its contagion? What makes\nits guilt so terrible?\n\nMust inhumanity be avenged? May avengers still be merciful? May\nhardened men become regenerate? May guilt and innocence be reconciled?\n\nWhy such anguish on the innocent? Why should little ones be crushed?\nWhy such hosts of patient ones meekly bearing wrong and shame? Why do\noffenses need to come? How does patience work on sin? How does sorrow\nwork on guilt?\n\nWhat is human brotherhood? May fellowmen be surrogates? May men's\nhonor interchange?\n\nWherein stands human character? What makes a man responsible? How\nsovereign is man's liberty? How supreme is man's intelligence? Are\nmoral beings subject to decay?\n\nMay finite man come near to God? Does God come near to finite man? May\nplans of men and God's designs combine? May God be seen in human life?\nMay human hearts partake of God? Are love and truth and liberty, the\ncrown of human dignity, enthroned in God ideally?\n\nIs Christ indeed the Lord of men? Is he our life? Are his teachings\ntrue? Is his love divine? Can he indeed redeem?\n\nUpon such queryings as these, all running deeply into mystery, each\none fast rooted in reality, and each one voicing in each human soul an\nurgent quest, those sterling elements of Lincoln's character, his\nlowliness, his living hope, his pity, and his faithfulness shed\ngrateful light.\n\nBe these four qualities unveiled before the face of sin, that sin may\nbe defined.\n\nWhen in the presence of some noble majesty or of some courtly modesty\na free and conscious soul is arrogant or insolent; when a being born\nfor endless life in freedom, light and purity, exchanges God and\nimmortality for idol forms and baseness and decay; when recipients of\nGod's unnumbered benefits, and participants in the joys and sorrows of\na teeming world of brothermen remain ungrateful and unpitiful; when\nbeings destined to be sons of light prefer hypocrisy and unbelief;\nthen, irreverent, corrupt, ungracious, and untrue, sin shows all its\nhorridness and iniquity.\n\nAnd when in the presence of pure grace and truth all such perverseness\nstands revealed; then the beauty of a quiet modesty, as it respects\nall worthy majesty, will make supremely plain the ugliness of every\nform of insolence; then the life that opens towards perpetual dawn\nwill most mightily and forevermore reproach the life that feasts upon\ncorroding food, fattening and hardening towards decay; then\noutpouring, patient love will visit on ingratitude and hate their most\nunbearable rebuke; and then the radiant light of simple truth and pure\nsincerity will set all falsity and unbelief in uttermost disgrace. In\nsuch an awful penalty, supreme and unavoidable, will sin incur its\ndoom.\n\nBut in the very penalty it stands proclaimed how sinful souls may be\ntransformed, and hostile hearts be reconciled.\n\nWhen pride, subdued by majesty, rejoices in humility; when grossness,\nshamed by purity, welcomes purging fires; when malice, melted by\nforbearance, partakes the sacrifice and becomes itself compassionate;\nwhen falsity, unveiled by verity, submits to its rebuke and welcomes\ntruth with deep docility and faith; then within the sinner's penitence\nis every penalty absolved, and between embittered souls comes perfect\nreconciliation.\n\nBe these four qualities addressed to that supreme transaction named\natonement.\n\nWhen, in perfect loyalty and in perfect lowliness, with a perfect\ncharity and with an utter trust in immortality, one like a Son of Man\nconsents to bear the dark affront of insolence and perfidy from base\nand deadly men, enduring meekly what his soul abhors, then to all the\nsons of men is published equally, and with supreme assurance, that\nsins of men must be indeed avenged, and that sinful men may be indeed\nredeemed.\n\nIn that transaction malice faces patience, and patience faces malice\nfor a final strife. There candor bears the lying taunt of acting in\ndisguise. Humility endures the shameful charge of shameless arrogance.\nCompassion bows as though a thief to all the brutal rudeness of a mob.\nThe soul of immortal purity is bartered for by traders greedy after\nsilver coins, and driving through their trade with lamps and clubs.\n\nBut in the measure and in the manner of that transcendent patience\nmalice is preparing for itself the manner and the measure of its own\njust doom. And in the measure and the manner of that same transcendent\npatience contrition may discern the manner and the measure of its\nrelease. In that mighty mingling of aversion and endurance sin must\nbehold alike its omnipotent redemption and its omnipotent rebuke. Thus\nlove, in perfect sympathy, and truth, in perfect equity set forth in\nheavenly purity the sovereign majesty of an atonement for the world.\n\nBe these four radiant qualities applied to him we call alike the son\nof Mary and the Son of God. In him, the Son of God, shines such a\nplenitude of grace and truth as becomes the glory of the very God,\nrevealed in such immortal purity as proves him heir and very Lord of\nall eternity, and wearing such a dignity as belongs at once to\nheaven's majesty and our most genuine humility; while deep within his\nopen life as son of Mary there shines such a full and genial truth and\ngrace as proves his true humanity, so free from mortal taint through\nall our transient scenes as proves his spirit's immortality, and\nmanifesting everywhere to all the sons of man their own ideal\nlowliness. These are all his beauty. In him they fully blend. They\nblend in him indeed. But they do not dissolve. And so may we with\nsouls akin to him whom Mary bore behold in him the proper image of our\ncomplete humanity; and still with eyes and vision all unchanged,\nbehold within those same fair traits the very image and the unbounded\nfulness of the glory of the infinite God.\n\nBe these same radiant qualities our proper medium for beholding Deity.\nConceive of One in whose being the only light and glory reside in the\npure majesty of a perfect grace and truth. Conceive how these free\nliving qualities permit a unison in fellowship, a fellowship in\nunison. Conceive how such a unison permits to each participant\ncomplete equality and a full infinity. Conceive thus how perfect\nconstancy and perfect kindliness, revealed in perfect purity, and clad\nin perfect majesty may manifest eternally in mystic unison the\nblessedness of a perfect personality. Conceive how such a partnership\nin unison, and unison in partnership will be evermore containing and\nenjoying within itself an evermore unsullied Spirit life, engendering\nand completing all the finite forms of being of the created universe;\nan evermore unfolding Love that is the one original of every\nfatherhood in heaven and earth; and an evermore Responding Love that\nis the primal inspiration of the admiring and adoring thankfulness of\nevery child of God; while evermore displaying in a loyal self-respect\nthe eternal archetype and origin of every verity and every equity\nenthroned in any earnest upright mind. And so conceive in terms as\nvivid as our own intelligence and liberty how true transcendent Deity\nmay wield no other energy and know no other blessedness than unfolds\nforever in a free and conscious unison and partnership in pure\ntranscendent love and truth.\n\nTranscendent thoughts and ventures these. But abounding other thoughts\nand ventures no less transcendent wait and urge for utterance. They\nall assume no less, and nothing more, than that in the living vision\nof a living personality hides and shines the harmony that may unite\nthe mysteries and the certainties of this universe. Let Truth, as\npersonal self-respect; and Love, as self-devoting life; and Purity,\nthat fears no death; and Dignity, that crowns all worth--let these be\nclearly seen, each one apart; and clearly seen again when fully\nunified--and human thought holds categories in hand whereby the\nproblems of our mental and ethical and religious life may be resolved.\n\nOf all of this what goes before is but a brief and bare suggestive\nhint. Its development and vindication call for the completed\nexposition of such a balanced round of thought as may be found in a\nprophet like Isaiah, an apostle like Paul, or an evangelist like\nJohn.\n\n\n\n\nLINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL\n\n\nFellow-Countrymen:\n\nAt this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office,\nthere is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the\nfirst. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be\npursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four\nyears, during which public declarations have been constantly called\nforth on every point and phase of the great contest which still\nabsorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the Nation, little\nthat is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which\nall else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself;\nand it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory. With high hope for the\nfuture, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.\n\nOn the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts\nwere anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all\nsought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered\nfrom this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,\ninsurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without\nwar--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by\nnegotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make\nwar rather than let the Nation survive; and the other would accept war\nrather than let it perish. And the war came.\n\nOne-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not\ndistributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern\npart of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful\ninterest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the\nwar. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the\nobject for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war;\nwhile the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the\nterritorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the\nmagnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither\nanticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even\nbefore, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier\ntriumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the\nsame Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against\nthe other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just\nGod's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's\nfaces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of\nboth could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.\n\nThe Almighty has His own purposes. \"Woe unto the world because of\noffenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man\nby whom the offense cometh.\" If we shall suppose that American slavery\nis one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs\ncome, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now\nwills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this\nterrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall\nwe discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which\nthe believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we\nhope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may\nspeedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the\nwealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of\nunrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn\nwith the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was\nsaid three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, \"The\njudgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.\"\n\nWith malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the\nright, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish\nthe work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him\nwho shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to\ndo all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and\nwith all Nations.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nInconsistent/archaic spelling and punctuation retained from original.","title":"Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;: A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":71167}