New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-03
LINCOLN AS A SPEAKER.
A ROOK THAT ILLUSTRATES HIS RIGHT TO
RANK WITH THE GREATEST OF
ORATORS
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES: Complied
by l.. Il. Chttenden, ex-Secretary OF the treas
ury. PIP. vi, 81. Dodd, Mead co.

by l.. Il. Chittenden, ex-Secretary Of the Treas
ury. PIP vi. 81. Dodd. Mead co.
The world seems to be coming 10 the conclusion
that Abraham Lincoln was not only one or its
wsest men, but that he was also one OF It's great
est orators. This was hardly thought of in his
lifetime Men felt his power when he spoke to
them without thinking how that power was ex-
ercised His directness and simplicity were Ike
those of great orators among the Greeks. but 1t
was foreign to the tradition of a race which had
its Burke on one side of the Atlantic and its
Everett on the other The flowers Of rhetoric
are as conspicuous by their absence from the
speeches of Lincoln as from those of Demosthenes
If he allowed himself sometimes a grOtesque ex-
preston which would have shocked Greek no.
tons Of propriety. he only displayed In that way
the homely genius OF race which long ago Vo-
lated critical sensibilites with the mingled trag-
edy and comedy Of a Shakespeare. The particular
instance of this tendency In him which is oftenest
mentioned occurred in his address to the lndi-
ana Legislature, when he was on his way TO
Washington to take his place as President. In
their vew" he said referring to the advocates
of secession, 1.-The Union, family relation
would seem to be no regular marriage, but a
sort of free-love arrangement. to be maintained
only ON passonal attraction Demosthenes
would hardly have used such comparison, but
on the other hand, neither he nor any other could
have found words to express the broad political
philosophy and the tender pathos of the Gettys
burg speech.
1t is interesting TO observe in ex-Secretary
Chttenden's selection of Lincon's speeches, quite
unconscously shown. the movement of Lincoln's
mind toward the great thought with which the
Gettysburg speech closed. The whole purpose Of
his own life as well as that of American Ma
~ in hos 70 Rut
it required an experience without its like in his
tory to form them TO. utterance. Far back in
1887, in an address to a group of young men in
Springfield. H. he expressed the conviction that
the Nation could only be endangered from within.
"An the armies of Europe. Asia and Africa com
bined," he exclaimed, with touch OF that gro
tesque exaggeration characteristic Of the whole
race to which he belonged. well as OF himself,
with all the treasure of the earth (our own ex-
cepted) in their military chest with Bonaparte
for commander, could not. by force, take drink
from the Ohio. or make track on the Blue Ridge,
in trial Of thousand years" The great danger
within, as he then saw 1t. the disregard for
law. 1.-The growing disposition to substitute wild
and furious passions in lieu Of the sober judg
ment of courts; and the worse than savage mobs
for the executive ministers Of justice" This dis
position has not been eradicated to this day.
Lincoln never swervei afterWard from his
primary principle When the bred Scott decision
stirred his deepest resentment. he disproved the
charges of his political adversaries by insisting
that II must be obeyed. but that public senti-
ment must be so directed that the Supreme Court
Of the United States would be forced to undo its
own .niauity Laws mus, be obeyed but II laws
were Interchangeable then the country ceased to be
free In spite Of every effort land effort was
manifold to misrepresent Lincoln's attitude. he
made II plain that he was no revolutionist even
from the point OF view Of the Northern advocates
Of slavery and yet he made II equally clear that
his determination to labor against the monstrous
| injustice expressed In bred Scott decisions and
| Fugitive Slave laws. But even after the i'm
mortal speech in which he declared that the
| Union could not exist half slave and half free,
he would still have been guilty OF no inconsist-
ency II the slave power had been victorious and
| he had obeyed It's laws
The minute tactical skill which he displayed In
his controversy with Judge Douglas, while II left
| the latter positively In the attitude Of one who
would in certain contingencies break the very
| laws and decisions which he proclaimed. made no
| change In Lincoln's own relation TO the law. He
would violate no law not even the bred Scott de-
l. cision; but he would strive to 1t. and to
reverse II peaceably. The ables exponent OF the