St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-02-28
TRAITS OF LINCOLN.
AJNIus HENRI BROWNIES ESTIMATE
OF HIS CHARACTER.

D
Contradiction and but Little Understood.
His Weakness and His Religion.
Abraham Lincoln was, i'll all proba-
bility-and every year strengthens the
%opinion-the greatest OF Americans, hv
ing or dead, and beyond odds the great
est man Of his time. Un~questionably
a rare genius, and showing it in many
directions, he has revealed nothing in
his whole career that in the least inter
feres with the conviction. Not one OF
our countrylnen has his obvious chance
of Immortality.
Lincoln, it is often said, has been
idealized-idealized by the nation and
the world. Perhaps he has been. So has
every great man, from Pericles and Ju-
lius Caesar down to Napoleon and Ca
your. But men Of immense power, OF
t%ranscendent abilities only are so ideal
lied or can be. To be idealized is the
accompaniment of deathless fame.
The natives Of the republic would
seem to be divided into Americans and
Abraham Lincoln.
The highest frequently springs from
the lowest in the darkest mire the most
precious gem is sometimes hidden. Lin
coin was born in what was then Larue
county, KY, under circumstances so for
lorn and obscure that he had no early
recollection of aught save abject poverty
and the severest hardship. OF his own
parentage he was aEyays more or less
uncertain, and he had not the slightest
reason for hope. Yet he surmounted ev-
cry obstacle, prevailed over the direst
fate by u~nflinching determination, by
the potency of his will. His example is
q p an inspiration to every friend
less, struggling youth in the land, and
will be a stimulus, a strength, an assist
ance to thousands still unborn.
The great president often declared
that extreme tenderness was his chief
weakness; that he could not, under ordi-
nary conditions, refuse mercy to any
one for whom life was begged, and he
never did refuse it. That extreme ten
derness was really one of his grandest
strengths and is the thing, above all
others, that has embalmed and haloed
his memory. He was as firm, where
there was imperative need, as he was
tender there was a point of rugged
duty beyond which he could not be
moved. He was a shining instance of a
man streaming with humanity, not
without faults, not without ambition,
but affiuent of noble purposes and COM
pletely conscientious.
Notwithstanding the innumerable vol
umes that have been written about Lin
coin, Notwithstanding the endless COM
ments, criticisms, explanations, analyses
that have been offered of his character,
he is still unknown, still somewhat a
mystery. His true life is yet to be writ
ten. Simple as his nature was, in the
main, it was also complicated and ap-
parently full of contradictions, though,
to one who could understand it, actually
harmonious. His spirit was solitary his
being, like that of genius generally,
grave, anxious, sad, from temperament,
not surroundings. His jests, his stories,
his occasional ~buffooneries were intend
ed to relieve his oppression, often to
conceal his thoughts and aims, and they
commonly succeeded. To the mass he
continues to be as a sealed book. He is
II of the most tragic no less than of
the grandest figures in history.
Abraham (meaning in Hebrew, father
of a multitude) was, in spite of its spe-
cial fitness, its prophetic quality in
deed, very disagreeable to Lincoln from
early boyhood. When he reached man
hood, he fairly hated it. He could not
bear the title so universally bestowed on
him, Honest Old Abe, but he had toe
much sense, too much pride, toreveal his
feeling. 1t was not his nature to refer
to what troubled him, whether an i'm
portant or trifing matter. If he had
been an ordinary man, he would nc
doubt have changed his name, which nc
one could conceive Of his doing. His dis
like Of the prenomen grew with his
years, and he invariably wrote its in
itial alone.
1t may seem strange that so great {
man should be SO affected by SO small {
fact, but a name is of more consequence
than it seems. Even Caesar, the foremost
hero of all antiquity. who, as everybod.
is aware, was bald, took unwearieC
pains, when young, to conceal his bald
ness by carefully arranging the long
locks Of his hair over the bare spots
This would be thought frivolous in
commonplace mortal. How much NOR,
the imperial Caesar?
Lincoln was a great admirer of Pope
Universal Prayer" saying that it con
tanned the substance of all Christianity
He frequently repeated it, and wondere'
that it was so little cited. This was hi
favorite stanza:
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault | see.
That mercy l to others show,
That mercy show to me.
1t is singular circumstance that Lin
coins very brief Gettysburg speech
now familiar to the whole Englis
world, fell dead on his vast audience q
the time of its delivery. Nor did an
one discover its extraordinary merit fo
months. Lincoln himself, with charac
t%eristic modesty, thought it a "poor al
fair, and was amazed when a Londo
t journal-the next spring, l think
, praised it to the echo. This set the key
Every newspaper and periodical TO.
lowed the lead, and the little speec
inhAnlinLnlr tanl rna,E DO m oEGa-4 -.