The Character And Career Of Abraham Lincoln

( Originally Published 1913 )

DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY 12, 1909.

You are met to commemorate a great man, one of your greatest, great in what he did, even greater in what he was. One hundred years have passed since in that lowly hut in the neighbouring state of Kentucky this child of obscure and unlettered parents was born into a country then still wild and thinly peopled. Three other famous men were born in that same year in England : Alfred Tennyson, the most gifted poet who has used our language since Wordsworth died ; William Gladstone, the most powerful, versatile, and high-minded statesman of the last two generations in Britain; and Charles Darwin, the greatest naturalist since Linnĉus, and chief among the famous scientific discoverers of the nineteenth century. It was a wonderful year, and one who knew these three illustrious Englishmen whom I have named is tempted to speak of them and compare and contrast each one of them with that illustrious contemporary of theirs whose memory we are met to honour. He quitted this world long before them, but with a record of great work done to which a long life could scarcely have added any further lustre.

Of the personal impression he made on those who knew him, you will hear from some of the few yet living who can recollect him. All I can contribute is a reminiscence of what reached us in England. I was an undergraduate student in the University of Oxford when the Civil War broke out. Well do I remember the surprise we felt when the Republican national convention nominated him as candidate for the Presidency, for his name was hardly known on our side of the Atlantic, and it had been expected that the choice would fall upon William I. Seward. I recollect how it slowly dawned upon Europeans in 1862 and 1863 that the President could be no ordinary man, because he never seemed cast down by the reverses which befell his armies ; because he never let himself be hurried into premature action, and because he did not fear to take so bold a step as was the Emancipation Proclamation when he saw that the right moment had arrived. And above all I remember the shock of awe and grief which thrilled all Britain when the news came that he had perished by the bullet of an assassin. There have been not a few murders of the heads of states in our time, but none smote us with such horror and such pity as the death of this strong and merciful man, just when his long and patient efforts had been crowned with victory, and peace was beginning to shed her rays over a land laid waste by the march of armies.

We in England then already felt that a great as well as a good man had departed, though it remained for later years to enable us all (both you here and us in the other hemisphere) fully to appreciate his greatness. Both among you and with us his fame has continued to rise till he has now become one of the grandest figures whom America has given to World history, to be a glory first of this country, then also of mankind.

A man may be great by intellect or by character or by both. The highest men are great by both ; and of these was Abraham Lincoln. Endowed with powers that were solid rather than shining, he was not what is called a brilliant personality. Perhaps the want of instruction and stimulation during his early life prevented his naturally vigorous mind from learning how to work nimbly. Yet the disadvantages of his boyhood, the want of books and of teachers and of the society of men with powers comparable to his own, were all so met and overcome by his love of knowledge and his strenuous will that he drew strength from them. Thoughtfulness and intensity, the capacity to reflect steadily and patiently on a problem till it has been solved, is one of the two most distinct impressions which one gets from that strong, rugged face with its furrowed brow and deep-set eyes.

The other impression is that of unshaken and unshakable resolution. Slow in reaching a decision, he held fearlessly to it when he had reached it. He had not merely physical courage, and that in ample measure, but the rarer quality of being willing to face misconception and unpopularity. It was his undaunted firmness and his clear thinking that fitted Lincoln to be the pilot who brought your ship through the wildest tempest that ever broke upon her.

Three points should not be forgotten which, if they do not add to Lincoln's greatness, make it more winning and attractive. One is the fact that he rose all unaided to the pinnacle of power and responsibility. Rarely in-deed has it happened in history, hardly at all could it have happened in the last century outside America, that one born in poverty, with no help throughout his youth from intercourse with educated people, with no friend to back him except those whom the impression of his own character drew around him, should so rise. A second is the gentleness of his heart. He who has to refuse every hour requests from those whom a private person would have been glad to indulge, he who has to punish those whom a private person would pity and pardon, can seldom retain either tenderness or patience. But Lincoln's tenderness and patience were inexhaustible.

It is often said that every great man is unscrupulous, and doubtless most of those to whom usage has attached the title have been so. To preserve truthfulness and conscientiousness appears scarcely possible in the stress of life where immense issues seem to make it necessary, and therefore to make it right, to toss aside the ordinary rules of conduct in order to secure the end de-sired. To Abraham Lincoln, however, truthfulness and conscientiousness remained the rule of life. He felt and owned his responsibility not only to the people, but to a higher power. Few rulers who have wielded like power amid like temptations have so stain-less a record.

To you, men of Illinois, Lincoln is the most famous and worthy of all those who have adorned your Commonwealth. To you, citizens of the United States, he is the President who carried you through a terrible conflict and saved the Union. To us in England, he is one of the heroes of the race whence you and we spring. We honour his memory as you do, and it is fitting that one who is privileged here to represent the land from which his forefathers came should bring, on behalf of England, a tribute of admiration for him and of thankfulness to the Providence which gave him to you in your hour of need.

Great men are the noblest possession of a nation and are potent forces in the moulding of national character. Their influence lives after them, and, if they be good as well as great, they remain as beacons lighting the course of all who follow them. They set for succeeding generations the standards of the youth who seek to emulate their virtues in the service of the country. Thus did the memory of George Washing-ton stir and rouse Lincoln himself. Thus will the memory of Lincoln live and endure among you, gathering reverence from age to age, the memory of one who saved your republic by his wisdom, his constancy, his faith in the people and in freedom; the memory of a plain and simple man, yet crowned with the knightly virtues of truthfulness, honour, and courage.