The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-06-26
A TRUE GENTLEMAN.
what an EnGllshman Says About Abrah:
Lincoln.

! Lincoln.
The English-speaking world WI
never read the story of the Rebellij
without a thrill of pride and exultatiol
Heroic and inspiring as was the achie1
ment of the Puritans in throwing off I'll
tyranny of the Stuarts, and establishi1t
IN its place, not license or ana rchy, bA
wise and liberal polity, the veilinI
hand of time diminishes for modern md
its distinctness and reality With til
defence of the Union it is different. VI
can almost hear the reverberation of til
cannon at Vicksburg, and our ha1s
may still clasp the hands of those WI
! overthrow embattled treason at GettT
burg and Chattanooga. The glory vi
by the English race is so near, that
still stirs the blood like trumpet
read of the patriotism of the men vi
fought at the call of Lincoln. Nothik
is more admirable, as nothing is md
| dramatic in recorded history, than tie
manner in which the North sprang to
arms at the news that the Nations flag
had been fired on at Fort Sumpter It
is all very well to hire soldiers at so
much day and send them to the front
with salutes and reioicings, but the
action of the eastern and western statei
meant a great deal more than this 5tE
meant voluntary sacrifice on the part
of men who had nothing to gain and
everything to lose by throwing over a
life of ease or profit to shoulder a
musket or serve a gun. A continent
was on fire.
1t is one of the greatest of Lincolns
claims to admiration, that though he
sympathized with the fervor and en-
thusiasm of his countrymcn, he was not
carried away by it. He was one of
those rare men who can at once be
Jealous and moderate, who are 6indled
by great ideas, and who yet retain com
plete control of the critical faculty.
And more than this, Lincoln was a man
who could be reserved without the chill
of reserve. Again, he could make al
lowance for dement's in principle or
human instrument, without ever falling
into the purblindness of cynicism. He
often acted in his dealings with men
much as professed cynic might have
acted but his conduct was due, not to
any disbelief in virtue. but to a wide
tolerance and clear knowledge of hui
man nature. He saw things as a dis
iliusionized man sees them and yet in
the bad sense he never suffered any dis
lllusionment. For sutfusing and COM
bining his other qualities was serenity
of mind which affected the whole man.
He viewed the world too much as
whole to be greatly troubled or per-
picked over its accidents. To this
serenity of mind was due an almost total
absence of Indignation in the ordinary
sense. Generals might half-ruin the
cause for the sake of some trumpery
quarrel, or in order to gain some petty
personal advantage; office-seekers might
worry at the very crisis of the Ma
TONS fate;but none ofthe pettinesses,
the spites, or the follies could rouse
in Lincoln the Impotence or the indig-
nation that would have been Weakened
in ordinary men. Pity, and nothing
else, was the feeling such exhibitions
occasioned him. Lincoln seems to have
felt the excuse that tempers the guilt
of every mortal transgression His
ldESeHtSS anu lcuucTIleSS Oh nature
made him at heart universal apologist.
He was of course too practical and too
great statesman to let this Sensibility
to the excuses that can be made for
human conduct induce him to allow
misdeeds to go unpublished or incorrect
ed. He acted as firmly and as severely |
as if he had experienced the most burn |
ing Indignation; but the moment we
come to Lincoln's real feelings we see
that he is never incen sed. and that, even |
in its most legitimate form, the desire !
for retributiOn is absent from his mind. |
Tout comprende. c'est tout pardonner, |
was the secret of his attitude toward |
hum an affairs. That is not the highest |
wisdom, but it er'rs on the right and also |
on the rare side. So much for the intel
lectual side of Lincoln'S nature. Be- |
hind it was personality of singular
charm. Tenderness and humor were !
its main characteristics. AS he rode
through a forest in spring-time, he |
would keep on dismounting to put back
the young birds that had fallen from !
their nests. There was not situation |
in life which could not afford him the
subject for kindly smile. 1t needed a !
character so full of gentleness and good
temper to sustain the intolerable weight |
of responsibility which the war threw
upon the shoulders of the President.
Most men would have been crushed by |
the burden. His serenity of temper
saved Lincoln. Except when the miser-
able necessity of having to sign the
order for a military execution took
away his sleep, he carried on his work
without any visible sign of over-str$in.
Not the least of Lincoln's achieve
ments is to be found in the fact that
though for four years he welded a
power and a personal authority greater
than that exercised by any monarch on
earth he never gave satirists or carl |
caturists the slightest real ground for
declaring that his sudden rise to world
wide fame had turned the head of the
backwoodsman. Under the circum-
stances, there would have been every
excuse for Lincoln, had he assumed to
his subordinates somewhat of the bear
ing OF the autocrat he was. 1t is sign
of the absolute sincerity and good sense
of the President that he was under no
sort of a temptation to do so. Lincoln