Newspaper Page Text
Campus Mirror
Published During the College Year by the Students of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
VOL. XV FEBRUARY 15, 1939 No. 5
How I Consider Our Six
teenth President, Lincoln
Dorothea Boston. ’39
As we approach another birthday of
one of our national heroes, Abraham Lin
coln. it seems quite necessary in this time
of crises to think a moment about this in
dividual and the qualities which made it
possible for him to find for the people a
way out of their crisis. Even leaders to
day, when faced with conflicts which dare
not ever become quite so hitter as those
were, are quite lost as to how the prob
lems should be handled. Not so with
Lincoln. He knew the issue and dealt
with it in such a manner as to break down
the institution which caused the division
and began a reorganization of the nation
which the greatest leaders since his death
have not been wise enough to complete.
In giving a brief analysis of Lincoln 1
cannot give his exact thoughts, but I will
give his words, which must he records of
his thoughts, to say exactly what I mean.
In 1858 Abraham Lincoln first came
into prominence as a national figure. He
was then forty-nine years old, very tall
and lanky, awkward and homely, but was
the possessor of a keen, well-trained mind.
In June of that year he spoke these words
which are often quoted: “I believe this
government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not expect
the union to he dissolved I do not expect
the house to fall but I do expect that it
will cease to be divided.”
In his speech in July of the same year
in Chicago, he made such an utterance as
this. and it set his audience on fire: “Let
us discard all this quibbling about this
man and the other man. this race and the
other race, and the other race being in
ferior. and therefore they must be placed
in inferior positions, discarding our stand
ards that we have left to us. Let us dis
card all these things and unite as one
people throughout this land until we shall
stand up declaring that all men are cre
ated equal.”
In the following September of the same
year, 1858, in a speech in Charleston,
Illinois, he said these things which may
seem to some to be contradictory. “I am
not nor ever have been in favor of mak
ing voters of the free Negroes, or jurors,
or qualifying them to hold office, or hav
ing them marry with white people. I will
say in addition that there is a physical
difference between the white and black
races which, I suppose, will forever for
bid the two races living together upon
terms of social equality; and inasmuch as
they can not so live, that while they do
remain together, there must be the posi
tions of the superiors and the inferiors;
and that I. as much as any other man, am
in favor of the superior position being
assigned to the white man.”
These statements certainly seem to con
tradict each other, but Lincoln said of
them, “If you take the trouble to analyze
the statements carefully, you wdll see that
they are so slippery in context that there
is really no conflict between them. There
is only a difference in quality.” In the
three together he expressed his honest
feelings that were elaborated when he
said: “My paramount object in the strug
gle is to save the Union, and it is not either
to save or destroy slavery.”
Whether this matter may be considered
by both white and colored races as so
many or so few words, the fact is that on
December 18. 1865 (he had become presi
dent. been reelected, served as Command-
er-in-Chief of the Union \rmy and had
vastly more knowledge and insight on
the national problem), Abraham Lincoln
proclaimed one of the “landmarks of Uni
versal history” as part of the Constitution
of the United States of America when he
wrote: “And by virtue of the powers and
for the purpose aforesaid. I order and de
clare that all persons held as slaves with
in said states and parts of states, are and
henceforth shall be free."
And I today cherish the fact that he
seemed sincere, honest and true; and he
allowed himself to be used a* a tool of
Cod for the emancipation of my people!