{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67395/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67395","id":"gutenberg_67395","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67395","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865"],"text":"Lincoln, The American\n\n                                  by\n\n                            FRANK O. LOWDEN\n\n                         Governor of Illinois\n\n\n                             Boston, Mass.\n\n                           February 12, 1919\n\n\n           [Printed by authority of the State of Illinois.]\n\n\n                       [Illustration: colophon]\n                           SPRINGFIELD, ILL.\n              ILLINOIS STATE JOURNAL CO., STATE PRINTERS\n                                 1919\n\n                               15793--1M\n\n\n     Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois delivered the following\n        address before the Middlesex Club at the Hotel Somerset\n             in Boston, Mass., Wednesday evening February\n                               12, 1919:\n\nPrinciples rather than policies appealed to Abraham Lincoln. All great\nquestions seemed to him to involve some moral quality. It was his habit,\ntherefore, to resolve them into their simple fundamentals. It thus\nhappens that many of his words are as apt and forceful to-day as when\nthey were first spoken by him. Your Club has recognized this fact and\nhas made \u201cLincoln, the American,\u201d the theme of the evening. In harmony\nwith this thought, I shall try to put before you some of the things for\nwhich Lincoln stood, which directly apply, as it seems to me, to the\ngrave problems with which we and all the world with us are now\nconfronted.\n\nA hundred and ten years ago to-day, two men were born. Both have been\ndust for many years. Yet each played a large part in the Great World War\nthat we hope has reached its close. These men were Charles Darwin and\nAbraham Lincoln. Darwin devoted his life to the study of material\nthings. In that world in which he lived he found heredity and\nenvironment to be the controlling facts. Out of his study came the\ndoctrine of the survival of the fittest. The savants of Germany made\nthat doctrine the corner-stone of a new philosophy which they called\nKultur.\n\nAccording to Kultur, the world belonged to the strong and to the strong\nalone. Might was right, and the world was in the relentless grip of\nphysical force. Justice, gentleness, righteousness were words invented\nby the weak to protect themselves against the strong. To pity a foe was\nweakness; to spare him was a crime. Kultur was a denial of the moral\nlaw; was a blind faith in the power of the laws of life which Darwin had\ndeclared.\n\nOn the same day, in a cabin in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln was born. If\nheredity and environment had been all there was in human life, we never\nshould have heard his name. While Darwin delved in rocks to find\nvanished forms of life, Lincoln studied men. He learned to know men. By\nthem his sympathies were quickened; the moral depths of his being were\nstirred; the right and wrong of human conduct engaged his deepest\nthought. Just as the laws of physical being unfolded under the eye of\nthe great scientist, so the laws of the moral universe disclosed\nthemselves to the great man. It was said that Darwin could take a single\nbone of some extinct and unknown animal and reconstruct that animal\nperfectly. Lincoln at the same time could take a single wrong to society\nand reconstruct society, to the everlasting benefit of all. Lincoln\nnever read The Origin of Species, but he knew that, under the moral law,\nan injury by a superior race to an inferior reacted upon itself. He\nsaid--\u201cThis is a world of compensation and he who would be no slave must\nconsent to have no slave. And those who deny freedom to others deserve\nit not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it.\u201d\nUnconsciously, Lincoln became the interpreter of the moral laws of\nsociety, just as Darwin became the interpreter of the physical laws of\nlife. Therefore, to Lincoln all men had the inalienable right to \u201clife,\nliberty and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d Lincoln was as much at home\namidst the play of moral and spiritual forces as was Darwin in the realm\nof mere matter. It was this moral grandeur to which Lincoln attained\nthat made him the wisest of all men. For, after all, wisdom is largely a\nproduct of character. Men may be intellectually brilliant, indeed\nbrilliant beyond compare, and yet be utterly lacking in wisdom. Where\nother men had views, Lincoln had convictions. Convictions come from the\nheart and not from the brain. And so if there comes a question of human\nliberty, of human rights, one may turn to Lincoln for an answer without\ninquiring as to the particular year in which he wrote. There is a\nperfect harmony running through all his utterances.\n\nIt is not strange that as Kultur was partially founded upon the doctrine\nof Darwin, so the Allies found their chief inspiration in the life of\nAbraham Lincoln. For this great contest was a war between the material\nforces of the world, upon the one hand, and the spiritual forces on the\nother. Where the Central Empires found comfort in The Origin of Species,\nthe statesmen of England and France, and of Italy and the United States\nread the Gettysburg speech and the Second Inaugural, and so they renewed\ntheir faith and refreshed their courage.\n\nDarwin and Lincoln! Darwin announcing the survival of the strong!\nLincoln declaring that when being mounted up to man, love also came into\nthe universe to shield the weak! Lincoln insisting that when the laws of\nthe physical universe and of the moral universe clash, those of the\nmoral universe will prevail! Thank God, our soldiers, on a score of\nimmortal battlefields in the last two years, have proven that Lincoln\nwas right. The victory which we celebrate is the victory of spiritual\nforces over the things of earth.\n\nLincoln truly served mankind because he loved mankind. Genuine service\nmust always spring from the promptings of the heart, and is never a\nproduct of the will alone. It was your own poet Lowell who said:\n\n    \u201cHow beautiful to see\n     Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed,\n     Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead.\u201d\n\nAnd so he couldn\u2019t help giving his tenderest thought to the working man.\nHe cared for him because he cared for all men. All are familiar with his\nsignificant saying that the Lord loves plain people because He made so\nmany of them.\n\nWith reference to the age-old question of labor and capital, he\ndeclared--\u201cLabor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only\nthe fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first\nexisted. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the highest\nconsideration.\u201d This is but another way of saying that society should\nchiefly concern itself with the lot in life of the average man. And this\nis but saying, in another form, that Lincoln was a lover of humanity.\nThe Declaration of Independence, to which, again and again, he turned in\nhis thinking, included not only the right to life and liberty, but the\nright to the pursuit of happiness as well. And it is interesting to note\nthat though Lincoln emphasized the right to liberty--for slavery was the\ndominant issue at the time--he never referred to the Declaration, so far\nas I can find, without coupling with the right to liberty, the right to\nthe pursuit of happiness. Life means much; liberty means much; but both\nfail unless life can be lived and liberty enjoyed under conditions of\nwell-being. Any form of government is but a means to an end, and that\nend is the happiness of the individual. I am sure that in our almost a\ncentury and a half of existence, since that great day of Independence,\nmore men have lived happy lives in our country and under our form of\ngovernment than in any other in all the history of the world.\n\nBut the happiness and well-being of the average man and woman must be\nsteadily advanced if our institutions are to endure. The economists may\nexplain, the statesmen may excuse our failure to accomplish this, but\nthe fact remains that our civilization will fail if the well-being of\nthe men and women and children of America shall not continuously\nimprove.\n\nThis cannot be, however, in my opinion, if we destroy private initiative\nin industry. For every invention, for every improved process made under\nthe stimulus of private initiative, though the inventor may profit,\nsociety profits immeasurably more. A steadily reducing amount of human\nlabor is all the time required to produce the necessities of life. If we\nshall abandon the ancient landmarks and substitute for private\ninitiative and private industry a socialistic state, the progress of\nmankind will be arrested and retrogression will set in. Again Lincoln\nspeaks to us: it is a message for to-day--\u201cThe legitimate object of\ngovernment is to do for a community of people whatever they need to\nhave done but cannot do at all or cannot so well do for themselves in\ntheir separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can\nindividually do as well for themselves, government ought not to\ninterfere.\u201d He also warns us--\u201clet not him who is houseless pull down\nthe house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for\nhimself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from\nviolence when built.\u201d\n\nLincoln was above all a great American. Indeed, it was that same poet of\nyours, whom I have already quoted, who said of him--\u201cnew birth of our\nnew soil, the first American.\u201d\n\nAll his life he hated slavery, but he loved his country more. He\naccepted battle not to free the slave but to save the Union. With sad\nheart, but with steadfast courage, he faced the greatest war the world\nhad ever seen to keep the flag of his country--and not of the\nworld--flying in the sky.\n\nThere are those who believe they can see somewhere high in the sky a\nshadowy banner, upon which is written the word \u201cinternationalism.\u201d To\nsome this far-away flag seems white and to others red. They believe,\nthat this flag is to supersede the flag of all the nations of the earth.\nThat time may come, but it will come only when men shall cease to love\ntheir own, when they shall care for others\u2019 families equally with their\nown. In the meantime we can serve humanity best by serving our own\ncountry first.\n\nLincoln said: \u201cI do not mean to say that this general government is\ncharged with the duty of redressing or preventing all the wrongs in the\nworld; but I do think that it is charged with preventing and redressing\nall wrongs which are wrongs to itself.\u201d These words might indicate that\nLincoln was not interested in humanity beyond our own borders. This is\nnot so. All through his writings runs the thought that our cause was the\ncause of humanity. In his speech at Gettysburg, he did not say--\u201cLet us\nhighly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this\nNation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that\ngovernment of the people, by the people, for the people shall not\nperish\u201d _from the United States_, but \u201cfrom the earth.\u201d His vision\ncircled all the globe. His great heart was beating in sympathy with\nmankind everywhere. But he knew that the surest way to help the world\nwas to cherish our priceless heritage at home. He knew that if we could\npreserve intact the liberties and institutions which we called our own,\nthat was the greatest service we could render to mankind.\n\nHow well he wrought I doubt if even he himself could fully understand.\nThe condition of mankind the world over has been constantly improving,\ndue to our influence and our example. The American Republic has been an\ninspiration to the lovers of liberty everywhere. It is the last and best\nhope of the world and he who would imperil its future by excess of love\nfor other peoples and other lands is recreant not only to his country,\nbut to mankind everywhere. The Republic, during its almost a century and\na half of existence, has had a mighty influence throughout the world.\nIts power has come from its success as a self-governing nation. Our\ninfluence has run around the globe because we have contented ourselves\nwith being an exemplar to, rather than a ruler of mankind.\n\nLincoln did preserve the Union and free the slaves. That Nation which he\nsaved had grown so powerful in a little more than fifty years that it\nwas able, in the supreme crisis of civilization, to turn the tide of the\ngreat world conflict. And as he prayed, so now we may have faith to\nbelieve that \u201cgovernment of the people, by the people, for the people\nshall not perish _from the earth_.\u201d","title":"Lincoln, the American","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":2106}