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Abraham Lincoln—The Man and Patriot
ARTICLE V.
HE great problem which Abraham Lin
coln, a plain country lawyer with lit
tle experience in office-holding, and no
experience in high executive duties,
was called upon to solve when he as
sumed his duties as president, may be
stated in his own words; “It presents
to the whole family of man the ques
tion whether a constitutional republic
T
or democracy—a government of the people by the
same people—can, or cannot, maintain its territo
rial integrity against its own domestic foes. It
forces us to ask, Is there in all republics this in
herent and fatal weakness? Must a government
of necessity, ibe too strong for the liberties of its
own people or too weak to maintain its own ex
istence?” This was the problem as Lincoln un
derstood it. In taking leave of his friends in
Springfield, he said, “I go to assume a task more
difficult than that which devolved upon Washing
ton. Unless the great God who assisted him shall
be with and aid me, I shall fail; but if the same
omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed
and protected him shall guide and support me,
I shall not fail. I shall succeed.” How Lincoln
met the task and solved this difficulty is the mar
vel of the world. We can comprehend Lincoln’s
greatness in no better way than to present his
difficulties and the manner in which he met them.
There can be no question that; Lincoln was the
best fitted man in the country to conduct the na
tion during the storms of war. It is exceedingly
doubtful whether any other man could have done
it successfully. Certainly subsequent events show
that neither Seward nor Douglas nor Chase nor
Stanton nor any other of the political leaders of
Lincoln's day were equal to the task. They all
failed in some important particulars.
Presidential Difficulties.
At the beginning of Lincoln’s administration he
had to face, first, a nation divided by the seces
sion of eleven states. These states were fairly
well united on their policy, were solidly united on
the justice of their cause and solidly opposed to
the invasion of their territory. They were enthu
siastic, patriotic, self-sacrificing and their soldiers
were the best that the world has ever seen. In
the second place Lincoln was confronted by a divid
ed and a contentious North. The various par
ties in the North may be represented as follows:
Republicans, eighteen; Democrats, thirteen; Un
ionists, five; Abolitionists, three. According to
this comparison the Southern slave-holders would
be eight. These parties were each strongly op
posed to the other. Again, a large part of the
Northern people strenuously demanded union and
peace ‘‘at any price.” Others demanded the abo
lition of slavery “ait any price.” Anti-coercion
meeting’s were held in many places. Many Republi
cans grew afraid of their victory and asked for
compromise with the South. The North, in gener
al, presented a “bewildering confusion of discor
dant voices.”
Those of the Republicans, who had opposed Lin
coln’s nomination and had favored Seward or
Chase or Cameron, viewed the situation with dis
may, while the opposition newspapers were “ridi
culing and campooning Lincoln without measure.”
The society of Washington City was strongly in
clined to the South, while New York city was
threatening- to secede. Os the border states, Mary
land was in a state of fermentation. The governor
declared that he “would rather lose his right arm
than to raise it to strike a sister state.” Baltimore
was as bitterly opposed to the Abolitionists as
Richmond itself.
Missouri, Kentucky and Delaware were wavering
and strongly inclined to cast their fortunes wit!)
the Confederacy. An error of judgment on the
part of Mr. Lincoln would have lost these border
states to the Union and made the triumph of the
Confederacy certain.
The Golden Age for April 4, 1907.
By Mark Bolding.
In England and France a sympathy for the South
had been most skilfully created. Both nations
were jealous of the growing power and greatness
of the United States, and were anxious to interfere
in this “family quarrel.”
This “family quarrel” could not excite a united
national enthusiasm like a foreign war. Its ten
dency was to produce local and sectional disunion
and discord.
At the same time Lincoln was no autocrat nor
despot, but the chosen constitutional ruler of a
democracy. There was no “absolute will.” The
men and means necessary for the carrying on of
the war had to be furnished by the voluntary ac
tion of the people, themselves, and through their
representatives. This is a government of public
opinion, and in order to conduct it successfully
through a sectional war Lincoln had to unite, guide,
inspire, propitiate and organize this public opin
ion. In doing this he had “to take into account
all the influences strongly affecting the current of
popular thought and feeling, and to direct while
appearing to obey.” These are some of the great
difficulties which Lincoln had to face. Let ns see
how he met them.
Lincoln as a Popular Leader.
In the first place, he was essentially a man of
the people. In war the chief reliance is upon that
class which is willing and able to furnish soldiers
and munitions of war. These must, of necessity,
come from /the common people. 'I he politicians
can bring on a war, hut others must fight the bat
tles, while the financiers usually take advantage of
the nation’s necessities, to amass private fortunes.
The leader, therefore, in times of war must have
the confidence, the support and the sympathy of
the great masses of the common people. Mr. Lin
coln, as another has expressed it, “had grown up
among the poor, the lowly, the ignorant. Although
in his mental development he had risen far above
them, he never looked down upon them. How they
felt and how they reasoned he knew, for. so had he
once felt and reasoned himself. How they could
be moved he knew, for so he had once been moved
himself, and he practiced moving others. His mind
was much larger than theirs, but it thoroughly
comprehended theirs. In his ways of thinking he
had become a gentleman in the highest sense,
but the reforming process had polished but little
the outward form. The plain people, therefore,
still considered Gionest Abe Lincoln’ one of
themselves.” For this reason there grew up a
relation of “mutual understanding and sympathy
between Lincoln and the plain people.” He had
perfect confidence in the right-mindedness of his
fellow-men and trusted himself to their reason and
intelligence. He addressed himself to individuals,
meetings or committees, and presented “the sin
gular spectacle of a president, who, in the midst of
a great civil war, with precedented duties weighing
upon him, was constantly, in person, debating the
great features of his policy with the people.”
Thus in the end Mr. Tancoin welded together the
discordant elements of the North.
Refused to Begin Hostilities.
Mr. Lincoln’s inaugural address has been com
pared to the “entreaty of a sorrowing father
speaking to his wayward children.” He refused
to see that the Union had been dissolved and said,
“I must run the machine as I find it.” He did
not intend to invade any state, but merely to “hold,
occupy and possess the property and places be
longing to the government.” He was careful not
to be the first to begin actual hostilities. Regard
ing South Carolina as still in the Union, and con
sidering that to provision Fort Moultrie was no
act of war, he cautiously waited for the (South to
fire the first gun, and thus he made the South ap
pear to have begun the war. Although Virginia was
threatening to secede Lincoln wisely refused to
send Federal soldiers into the state until Virginia
had formally passed her act of secession. He even
refused to permit to be hauled down the Confed-
erate flag which was floating from the heights of
Arlington and in sight of the eapitol. Thus he
refused to take one step which could appear to
threaten, much less assail, the rights of a sov
ereign state until she should formally divest her
self of them. This policy was called by his oppo
nents “Mr. Lincoln’s dilatoriness,” but he was de
termined in every case not to be the first f ‘to be
gin a fuss.” I give the result in Lincoln’s own
words: “In my place radicalism -would have
driven the border states into the Confederacy, ev
ery Southern man back to his kinsmen, and divid
ed the North into civil conflict. I have sought to
guide and control public opinion into the ways on
which depends our life.”
As a Diplomat.
In dealing -with foreign affairs Lincoln’s policy
was, in his own words: “This is our own affair.
It is a family quarrel with which foreign nations
have nothing to do, and they must let it alone.”
Although he had no training in the subtle) arts
of diplomacy, he carefully revised all 'Seward’s
despatches to foreign ministers, and made such
changes as that of “wrongful” to “hurtful” and
of “no one of these proceedings will be borne,”
to “will pass unquestioned.” In the Trent affair
he decided contrary to the expectation and the de
mands of the public to restore to England the
Confederate commissioners. While revising one
of Seward’s despatches he was heard murmuring,
“One war at a time.”
This action of Lincoln led John Stuart Mill to
write, “Is there any one capable of a moral judg
ment or feeling who will say that his opinion of
America and American statesmen, is not raised by
such an act done on such grounds?”
Lincoln gave great offense to the Abolitionists
by refusing to issue his proclamation of emanci
pation at the beginning of his administration. Lin
coln clearly saw, while others did not, that the
vast majority of the Northern people were willing
to fight to preserve the Union, but were totally op
posed to a war carried on to free the negroes. Lin
coln, therefore “changed the question before the
public from one upon slavery or about slavery for
a question upon Union or disunion.” Later, when
it appeared that the emancipation proclamation
might be used as a tool in his hand to weaken the
Confederacy and strengthen the cause of the Un
ion, he issued it purely as a war measure.
I have traced only a few of Lincoln’s actions
which show his unsurpassed wisdom, good sense
and justice in dealing with national affairs. No
man was ever confronted with a greater task than
Lincoln, and none have ever accomplished a great
work more nobly. His whole work was done with
malice toward none, with charity for all. In
speaking of the war, he said: “This war has been
a great conflict of principles to decide whether
we are a bundle of petty sovereignties, held by a
rope of sand, or a mighty nation of freemen.
Before the sheer grandeur of its history,
our children will walk with silent lips and uncov
ered heads.”
Logical 'English.
I paused to talk to a fishmonger. “Fish
monger,” said I, pleasantly, “why do you fish
mong?”
He answered with a cordial smile: “I fishmong
because my father fishmang before me.”
“And have you been a fishmonging long?” I
asked further.
“Yes,” was the reply, “I have fishmong for sev
en years come Michaelmas.”
“You are a worthy fishmonger,” I responded,
“and I’m sure you always mong the best of fish.”
it
Niece: “Aunt, this is our new minister, who has
called to see you.” The old lady: “Indeed, I’m
glad to see yon, sir, and I hope you will call as
often as the last imcumbrance did.’.’ —Puck.
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