There is not room in this work for even one full speech out of the seven. Much of the argument on both sides was transient; enough appears here, however, to show both the weight of Lincoln's matter and the keenness of his retort. Douglas throughout was trying to put Lincoln in a hole, to expose him to public odium for opinions which he never held, to belittle him personally, to bring the discussion down to Abraham Lincoln, instead of Abraham Lincoln's principles. Throughout, Lincoln showed the skill of the gladiator, the nerve of the matador. In the adroit Freeport speech he compelled Douglas to accept defeat or to "pander to the better elements" by admitting that slavery could be prevented in the territories by someone. Tradition has it that when Lincoln announced that he meant to put the test question to the "Little Giant" his friends remonstrated with him, declaring that Douglas would answer it in only one way and that would make him senator, to which Lincoln replied, "Yes, and it will make me president." Whether he said just that or not, the debates did make him president; for they put him in relief as the strongest opponent of slavery and of the proslavery party which the southern Democrats were building up. The speech at Cooper Union in New York early in 1860 (a considerable part of it here reprinted), was another vital statement of the eternal principles for which he stood. That and a series of later speeches in New England, for which there is not room here, made friends for him in the East. It was oratory that made Lincoln first a possible, and then a sure candidate; but not the oratory of a John Randolph, biting and destructive. Lincoln had the majesty of Webster in spite of his ungainly person. He had the logic of Calhoun, the diction of Edward Everett, and the tremendous emphasis of Wendell Phillips. Above all he had simplicity, the straightforwardness, the tremendous moral conviction of Abraham Lincoln. As president, Lincoln made not a single long or carefully prepared public address except his two official inaugurals. He stated his policy in five long messages to Congress, portions of which are included in this collection; but he attended no dinners, was present at no mass meetings. His oratory found its most perfect fruit in brief impromptu addresses, such as those at the sanitary fairs, and from the balcony of the White House to visiting regiments. These are the gems of Lincoln's works, and they are well represented below. Akin to them, yet above them all, was the Gettysburg Address, which was a disappointment to an audience that expected a long speech. It was instantly taken up as one of the fullest and noblest appeals ever made by man to fellow men. "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" is a political Bible text for the nation. VI. LINCOLN THE WRITER Oratory and literature do not necessarily fit together. Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, Robert C. Winthrop were renowned orators, yet left nothing remarkable in unspoken writings. Hawthorne, Whittier, and Longfellow had no gift of compelling public speech. Abraham Lincoln, however, was in the front rank both of orators and writers. Here is the miracle of Lincoln: his boyhood was so crude, his education so fragmentary, his acquaintance with literature so small; and yet he is one of those who in his written thoughts "shall stand among princes, he shall not stand among mean men." Recent researches have shown that Lincoln was a man of few books-among them the Bible, Shakespeare, Blackstone, Weem's Washington. He knew no language except English, although late in life he painfully set himself to learn German. Yet hardly any writer of the English ever had such skill in using mainly Anglo-Saxon words in just the right meaning. The truth is that Lincoln was a natural poet; not a versifier, for the specimens of his early attempts to write in rhymes are mournful in tone and lifeless in execution. He wrote a few lectures and essays; but outside of his speeches he expressed himself best in his letters. As a boy he wrote with the moonstruck spirit of callow youth. Yet his earliest preserved letters are full of pith and of humor; he sometimes wrote a speech in letter form. It was during the Civil War, in the midst of the overwhelming pressure of a Nation's cares, that his literary tongue rose to his highest quality. The extracts from his letters and telegrams to generals in the field show the native hard common sense of the man and his power to put a general order into a phrase. "Fight him too, when opportunity offers. If he stay where he is fret him and fret him." "Hold him with a bulldog grip and chew and choke as much as possible!" Such phrases go along with Wellington's "Up guards and at them." And the letters to the fathers and mothers of soldiers, to the Ellsworths, to Mrs. Gurney, to Mrs. Bixby,-in them you find the flower of Lincoln's style. Heart speaks to heart. The great man feels himself a brother to the obscure. The head of the nation is beaten down by the woes of every individual. That is the consummate art of the artless man, who never dreamed that his words would live for ages after him; who never imagined that he was placing himself among the immortals. VII. LINCOLN THE INTERPRETER Not every one, not any one, can be an Abraham Lincoln, for such men come only once in a thousand years. Every one however can take a mental impetus from his written and spoken words. Whoever wants to think clearly and write clearly should study Lincoln, of whom exact and unmistakable statement was an inseparable part. Whoever cherishes high thoughts, noble purposes and a grand belief in the destiny of his country, must read Lincoln, who is the interpreter of his generation. What made him great in so many fields? He could not have told you. To his mind he had simply gone on from year to year doing what came to him to do, in the fear of the Lord. He was not free from faults and errors. He says in one of the telegrams to his generals, "I frequently make mistakes myself." His surpassing power was his instinctive knowledge of the minds of his countryHe applied to the great questions of the day the same simple principles of justice between man and man that he practiced among his neighbors. What set him apart from millions of equally honest and well-meaning men. |