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Abraham Lincoln—The Man and Patriot
ARL iSOHURZ, in his splendid essay
on Lincoln, says that no American can
study the character and career of Abra
ham Lincoln and not be carried away
by sentimental emotions. It is unques
tionably true that Lincoln is one of
the most fascinating figures in history
and that no fair minded American,
whether of the North or of the South,®
C
can justly and fairly study his character and ca
reer without feeling more proud of a countiy that
makes possible such a career, or of a race that can
produce such a character. Such a one will be con
vinced that Lincoln was neither a divine king nor
an 4 4 anthropoid ape, ’ ’ but was a great man who
patiently, logically and honestly worked out a great
career, having a reasonable degree of 44 g00d luck”
in his favor.
With the exception of about four of our presi
dents, all of them have been men more honored by
than honoring the presidential office. When the na
tion is at peace at home and with foreign nations
and no great questions are demanding solution a
man of no great ability can discharge the ordinary
duties of the office. In fact, the political manipu
lators who are chiefly instrumental in making pres
idents, seek for a man for the office who can be
used as a tool in their hands. But when the foun
dations of our institutions are shaken really great
men like Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln aie
called into service.
The story of Saul seeking his father’s asses and
suddenly finding himself turned into a king is not
more wonderful than the story of Lincoln’s career.
No man ever began lower; few if any have ever
ascended higher. I have never read of a more ut
terly wretched home than that into which Abraham
Lincoln was 'born, in Hardin county, Kentucky, in
1809. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a worth
less, wandering backwoodsman, who absolutely re
fused to learn reading and writing, and whose sole
ambition was to find some blessed spot where na
ture would provide for his necessities without his
having to do any work. The only meritorious
thing he ever did was to many two of the best
women that ever lived. Lincoln’s mother, Nancy
Hanks Lincoln, in her youth, was a beautiful and
intelligent woman, and Mr. Lincoln once said that
he owed all he had become in life to her. The life
she was forced to live, however, soon ended her sad
career. She was buried in the stillness and gloom
of an almost unbroken forest in Illinois. It is an
earmark of character that oft as the gloom of the
.tight descended upon that lonely grove, there
might have been seen lingering near it a broken
hearted boy upon whose face a shadow had fallen
never to be lifted.
Abraham Lincoln never went to school in all
more than twelve months. He said that he hardly
had the opportunity to feel like a human being
till he was twelve years old. As a boy the future
seemed to offer him no help and no hope. There
seemed to be absolutely nothing in his pathway but
difficulties.
We are often reminded that opportunity comes
once in a lifetime. We are told that there is a
tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood
leads on to fortune, but neglected all the remain
der of life abounds only in shallows and flats.
These are great and unusual opportunities. Happy
is the man who has never forgotten a lesson nor
lost an opportunity. When such came to Abraham
Lincoln they were not lost. But these are not the
finest and most helpful opportunities. It is said
that in the head of the ugly and venomous toad
is sometimes found the most precious jewel. It
is the peculiarity of opportunities that they often
conceal themselves in the most unexpected places.
One of the most common places to find opportuni
ties concealed is in difficulties.
Difficulties are the means God gives men to be
come strong. Difficulties are challenges to us to
FIRST ARTICLE.
The Golden Age for March 7, 1907.
"Bolding.
the high worlds of which he had caught faint
put forth our strength. The strong winds wrench
and twist the great oaks; but this wrenching and
twisting only cause the roots of the tree to strike
deeper into the soil, and the fiber of the tree to
become tough and firm. The iron ore is cast into
the fiery furnace. When it is brought out it is
iron. It is cast in again, and when it comes forth
it is the finest steel. 44 Poverty,” says one great
man, 44 is the north wind that lashes men into Vik
ings.” 44 Lowliness,” says another, 44 is young
ambition’s ladder.” Afflictions made Job one of
the greatest men of Biblical history, -while prosper
ity almost ruined Solomon. John Bunyan was
kept twelve years in prison and the result was 4 4Pil
grim’s Progress.” Milton became blind and Beet
hoven became deaf, but
44 T0 blind old Milton’s sightless orbs
A ray divine was given,
And deaf Beethoven hears
The hymns and harmonies of heaven.”
The Sandwich Islander believes that when he has
slain an enemy the strength that was formerly
in the body of this slain enemy passes into him
self. History gives no record of any strong man
who did not gain his strength by battling with and
overcoming difficulties.
One of the chief purposes of these articles is to
show how Lincoln became great, not in spite of, but
by means of, the great difficulties that confronted
him.
It is generally supposed that Lincoln’s great
ness was accidental, or was thrust upon him by a
kind Providence with little or no effort on his part.
This is a great mistake. Nominations for office
were never thrust upon him but he worked skill
fully and persistently for them. Few men have
ever more patiently and persistently worked out by
clear intelligence what was in them than Abraham
Lincoln. He very early learned to read and write.
In his boyhood so proficient was he in the difficult
art of spelling that he was not permitted to partic
ipate in the neighborhood 44 spelling bees.” He
himself says, 44 1 read everything within a circuit
of fifty miles.” If books were scarce in his day,
he mastered the few he had and demonstrated that
it is well to beware of the man of one book, and
that it is better to know one book than to have a
smattering of a hundred. Among the books which
Lincoln in his boyhood almost committed to mem
ory were: Aesop’s Fables, which beat him at the
art of story telling and taught him to 4 4 tell sto
ries with a point and to argue by parables”"; Rob
inson Cruesoe and Pilgrim’s Progress, and Sindbad
the Sailor’s account of his perilous adventures,
which opened to him the world of imagination and
beauty, greatly in contrast with his coarse, rude
and nnspiritual surroundings; a short history of
the United States and Weem’s Life of Washington,
whom he always regarded as a being more divine
than human; and the Bible, which he intently
studied for every other purpose than that of
learning theology. When he was eighteen he had
intently read the Revised Statutes of Indiana and
could discuss its contents intelligently. This book
contained the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution of the United States, the Ordinance of
1787 governing the Northwest Territory and on
which many of his later arguments 'were based, and
375 pages of the laws of Indiana. From this book
he learned the principles on which the nation was
founded and how it is governed.
If there were no schools or little culture among
his neighbors the very lack of them taught him the
value of the fragments of time and the practical
uses of knowledge, and inspired in him a perfect
passion for it, which made him an unremitting stu
dent.
In the words of another, 44 By the light of pine
logs, in dim lit garrets, in the fields following the
plow, in early dawns when others were asleep, he
plied his blessed task, seeking nourishment for a
mind athirst for truth, yearning for the full sight of
glimpses.” John Hanks says, 44 When Abe and I
returned to the house from work he would go to
the cupboard, snatch a piece of cornbread, sit
down, take a hook, cock his legs up as high as his
head and read. We grubbed, ploughed, mowed and
worked together barefoot in the field. Whenever
Abe had a chance in the field, while at work, or at
the house he would stop and read.” Frequently
was his grotesque figure seen lying in the grass
with his feet up a tree or sitting on a fence ab
sorbed in a book. Offutt, one of his early employ
ers, declared that he knew more than any other
man in the United 'States, and that some day he
would be President. His first business enterprise
44 winked out,” as he expressed it, because his
dissolute partner squandered the proceeds while
Lincoln read books. Lincoln’s father had little
patience with Abe’s bookish inclinations and en
deavored to save him from utter ruin by teaching
him to be a carpenter. Lincoln, however, was
physically lazy and his employers often com
plained that he liked his dinner and his pay better
than his work.
Lincoln soon evinced a great desire to be an
orator and would walk seven or eight miles to at
tend debating societies, whose exercises he called
44 practicing polemics.” His passion for 44speech
ifying” was often a source of great annoyance to
his employers as he would often mount a stump
and deliver to the other laborers long harangues,
sometimes comical and sometimes serious. He at
tended all the trials of the county and would often
walk fifteen miles to attend court. Soon he became
known as the 44 backwoods orator,” and could re
peat all the poems and speeches in the school read
ers, and imitate to perfection all the eccentricities
of the traveling preachers.
Untraveled Ways.
Oh, the untraveled way, with its fruitage of joy,
Enticingly stretches before,
And we eagerly hasten to garner the bliss,
That for us it holdeth in store.
Oh, beautiful, untraveled way!
How gladly we tread through the maze
Os pleasure you bring us, as gayly we run,
The length of earth’s vanishing days.
Oh, the untraveled way, with its harvest of pain,
Sweeps dismally into our view,
And we falter and shrink from walking therein —
As each of us surely must do.
Oh, drearisome, untraveled way!
In sadness we’re driven to go,
And gather from thee a full crop of despair—
A portion of sorrow and woe.
Oh, the untraveled way, with its net-work of sin,
Spreads out as a snare to our feet,
And though we may shun it, we foolishly go,
Its evil temptations to meet.
Oh, terrible, untraveled way!
In fear, in shame and remorse,
We stumble and stagger, and frequently fall,
As your horrible meshes we cross.
Oh, the untraveled way, with its bright crown of
life,
Winds ruggedly, steeply above,
And we hopefully strive to attain the fair heights,
Adorned by the banner of Love.
Oh, glorious, untraveled way!
We prayerfully, wearily plod
Along thy rough pathway, that leads us at 'last,
Triumphantly home to our God.
Sarah A. Heinzerling.
