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Abraham Lincoln—The Man and 'Patriot
N order to comprehend properly Lin
coln’s character and work it is neces
sary to study the type of his mind and
the manner in which it lacted. In his
mental operations Lincoln always re
quired something tangible, some solid
foundation to rest upon. His mind
simply could not operate without such
a foundation. He was, therefore, a
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realist as opposed to an idealist ; a materialist as
opposed to a spiritualist. He gave little attention
to the intnaeaeies of metaphysics and abstruse phil
osophy. Investigation into the science or essence
of being' and other abstract mental phenome
na, he thrust aside as so much trash, but he took
great interest in the physical sciences and studied
mathematics and trigonometry and astronomy after
he became a lawyer. He was well versed in
Shakespeare, and greatly enjoyed reading history,
especially Rollin’s and Gibbon’s histories. He lik
ed to examine and experiment with clocks, guns
and intricate machines of any sort.
Mind Was Analytical.
Lincoln’s mental perceptions were cold, clear
and accurate. Objects and facts did not present
themselves to his mind clothed in robes of beauty
or splendor. He saw things as they are, without
illusions, false relations, or any coloring of the
imagination.
Lincoln’s mind was thoroughly analytical. He
not only went to the root of every subject, but
even analyzed and separated into its component
parts the very root of the subject. He would not
express an opinion on any subject until he had
learned its origin and history and the quality and
magnitude of its substances. For this reason his
comprehension and grasp of a subject was usually
slow and laborious. The analytical qualities of his
mind appear in his speech accepting the Republi
can nomination for the senate, his debates with
Douglas, the great Cooper Institute speech which
begins with a keen analysis of the questions at
issue between himself and Judge Douglas. This
speech, for clear statement, logical analysis, his
torical research and political wisdom, has never
been surpassed and really made Lincoln president.
Lincoln could not arrive at a conclusion on any
subject until he had first reduced it to its primal
elements. Even the great Gettysburg speech which
has been called a prose poem, and which reads
like a chapter of Holy Writ, is a comprehensive
analysis of the conditions which Lincoln and his
compatriots found confronting them, and Lin
coln’s conclusions based thereon.
Causative.
Lincoln’s mind was causative, working with a
slow, automatic movement from cause to effect.
Some one said that his mind was like a “majestic
machine, running in iron grooves with heavy
flanges on its wheels.” He traced all human ac
tions to motive. Standing in the presence of Ni
agara, and being asked whiat impression the sub
lime spectacle made on his mind, he replied,
“Where on earth does all this water come from?”
His idea was that every effect must have its cause.
He said, “The past is the cause of the present,
and the present will be the cause of the future.
All things are links in the endless chain stretch
ing from the finite to the infinite.”
Logical.
Lincoln’s mind was severely logical. His reason
was a despot, and required the entire submission
of all the other faculties of his mind and heart.
He had no intuitive faculty, and in reaching his
conclusions the voice of sentiment was not heard
in the first instance. His object was to discover the
truth. It is said of him by an excellent judge,
“He loved the truth for the truth’s sake. He
would not argue from a false premise or be de
ceived himself, or deceive others by a false con
clusion. He did not seek to say merely the thing
which was best for that day’s debate, but the thing
ARTICLE 111.
The Golden Age for March 21, 1907.
which would stand the test of time and square it
self with eternal justice.”
He cared little for non-essentials, nothing for
forms, ways, methods, rank or manners, took no
interest in local or town affairs, or who in the
city made the most money, was married or elected,
etc. When no principle was involved he was easily
influenced, but when his logical process of thought
had led him to what he believed was the truth,
nothing on earth could move him.
No 'speech is good which does not read well.
Grandeur of thought is accompanied by simplicity
of style, as the literature of the Bible duly at
tests. Nothing is more lofty, beautiful, eloquent
nor powerful than the plain, unvarnished truth,
simply expressed. In all Lincoln’s speeches and
writings there are no rhetorical flourishes, no ora
torical tricks, no cunningly devised phrases, no ar
tifice intended to produce an effect, no high-sound
ing metaphors. Lincoln depended on the force
of a logical statement of the truth.
The analytical faculty, as possessed by Lincoln,
is in no way inconsistent with a poetical and imag
inative faculty. Indeed, the man of logical and
analytical mind usually possesses an imaginative
faculty of a high order. His power of linking fact
into fact and fancy into fancy gives his imagination
an almost unbounded scope. This power Lincoln
possessed in a high degree, and he often predicted
the end of a thing from the beginning. He was
by nature a poet, as his Gettysburg address and the
second inaugural address, as well as many portions
of his other speeches and writings, clearly show.
Here is an example;
“Some ships come into port that are not steered.
Suppose Pickett had charged one hour earlier at
Gettysburg? Suppose the Monitor had arrived
one hour later at Hampton Roads? 1 had a dream
last night that always presages great events. I
saw a ship sailing under full sail. I have often
seen her before. I have never known the port of
entry or her destination, but I have always known
her pilot.”
In his best photographs his eyes clearly indicate
a poetical temperament. He frequently fell into
periods of mental abstraction and reverie from
which no one could arouse him. What he saw or
heard at these times no one ever knew. Often he
was attacked by fits of melancholia. Some say
this latter was a part of his nature, others that
it was the result of a sluggish liver. Lincoln had
a keen appreciation of the vain and transitory
character of all earthly pursuits, honors and
achievements, and to the day of his death his fa
vorite poem was that of Knox, beginning:
“0, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?”
Political Wisdom.
America has never produced a wiser, more level
headed statesman than Abraham Lincoln; nor one
less influenced by prejudice or bias. The true test
of a man’s political wisdom is, wiiether or not his
doctrines and policies have been verified by time.
He once said: “I leave my policy before the
judgment bar of .time, content witlh its verdict.”
That verdict is in Lincoln’s favor.
As to Slavery.
The effort to represent Lincoln as the special
friend of the negro and the champion of his cause,
is unjust to Lincoln’s fame.
Lincoln believed that human slavery was a so
cial, political and moral wrong, regardless of
whether those enslaved were white, yellow, brown
or black. He had no special love for the negro,
but to his mind injustice is the greatest of evils,
and he believed that one man cannot justly own
another. With Lincoln it was love of justice, pure
and simple. Was he wrong? Where is the man
who will defend slavery? While Lincoln was not
thoroughly familiar with the character of the negro,
he held about the same opinion of him that the
enlightened people of the South hold today. Tn
his debates with Douglass he set forth his views
of the negro in the following words:
By Mark Bolding.
“Anything that argues mo into Douglass’ idea
of perfect social and political equality with the
negro is a specious and fantastic arrangement of
words by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut
to be a chestnut-horse, I hold that there is no rea
son in the world why the negro is not entitled to
all the national rights enumerated in the Declara
tion of Independence, the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is
as much entitled to these as any white man. I
agree with Judge Douglas that he is not my equal
in many respects; certainly not in color; perhaps,
not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in
the right to eat the bread, without the leave of
anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my
equal, and the equal of Judge Douglass, and the
equal of e/ery living man.’’
Again, he said: “I do not understand that be
cause I do not want a negro woman for a slave,
I must necessarily want her for a wife. My un
derstanding is that I can just let her alone.”
Later, he said: “I will say that I am not, and
never have been, in favor of bringing about, in
any way, the social and political equality of the
white and black races —that I am not, nor ever
have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of
negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor
to intermarry with white people; I will say in ad
dition to this, that there is a physical difference
between the white and black races which I believe
will forever forbid the two races living together
on terms of political and social equality. And in
asmuch as they cannot so live while they remain
together, there must be the position of superior
and inferior, and I, as much as any other man,
am in favor of having the superior position as
signed to the white man.”
These views of Lincoln were often reiterated by
him, and to the day of his deatfi he never saw* fit
to change them. He believed that the negroes
ought to be colonized to themselves in some for
eign country, and seems never to have doubted the
feasibility of such a plan.
But while Lincoln was just to the negro, he was
equally just to the Southern people and the slave
holders. In the first place, his denunciations were
never of people, but only of institutions and poli
cies.
In his debates with Douglass, he said: “I have
no prejudice against the Southern people. They
are just what we would be in their situation. If
slavery did not now exist among them they would
not introduce it. If it did now exist among’ us,
we should not instantly give it up. It does seem
to me that systems of gradual emancipation might
be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I will
not undertake to judge our brethren of the
South.”
In my next article I shall endeavor to show that
Lincoln had no part nor lot with the Abolition
ists.
Uncle Joe’s Postscript.
Representative Cushman, of Washington, came to
Speaker Cannon with a letter written by the
Speaker himself.
“Mr. Speaker,” he said, “1 got this letter from
you yesterday and I couldn’t read it. After I stud
ied it quite a spell I showed it to twenty or thirty
of the fellows in the House and, between us, we
have spelled out all the words except those last
three. We can’t make them out. I want to know
if you won’t translate those last three words?”
Uncle Joe took the letter and studied it. “Those
last three words that stuck you and everybody
else,” he said, “are ‘Personal and Confidential.’ ”
—From the Saturday Evening Post.
“Yes; Jinks has gone on the stage.”
“Him? What can that numbskull play?”
“He plays a hose in the garden scene.”
—From the Pittsburg Post.
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