Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-05
centennial OF LINCOLN
HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF
DARWIN FALLS ON SAME DATE.
Preparations Making in England
and America for Appropriate OBJ
servance of February IL, 1909.

William Roscoe Thayer In the North American
Review.
On February II, 1909. fall the centen-
malls of Abraham Lincoln and of Charles
Darwin. Already we hear that prepara-
ltions are making in England and Amer
lea to celebrate their birthdays. The Brit
Ssh scientific bodies will doubtless do full
honor to Darwin, the greatest of modern
men of science, not only in Great Britain,
but in the civilized world. In like manner
our American historical societies, per-
lhops even Congress and some of our state
land city governments, may be counted on
ITO commemorate Abraham Lincoln. But
is this enough? Does not destiny itself,
which saw to it that the foremost BritOn
and the foremost American of the nine
teenth century should come into life on
the same day OF the same year, seem to
Estates should unite in celebrating this
centennial? In all history there is no
other similar coincidence.
The 18th of February, the birthday of
Lincoln and Darwin. should be day of
international festival, sort of Pan
iAnglO-Saxon reunion. in which the scat
tered members of great race should
come together TO reaffirm their racial
principles. 10 feel the thrill of common
hopes and common emotions, and TO real
lie in the most convincing way that blood
is thicker than water.
Public or national celebrations are never
so fruitful as when they have for their
object person. The personifying in
Stinct is one of the strongest in the hearts
OF mcn-sO strong that, even when alb
stractions or principles are the theme.
the orator and the poet, and the philos-
opher not less than they, clothe these alb
stractions with living garments of per-
sonality which even children can recOg
nize. Now, il happens that Lincoln and
m n r
acteristic qualities of our race.
/ What have been the great English po-
1itical ideals in government. as they have
been unfOlded century 10y century. some
times retarded. sometimes checked but
never abandoned? These have been the
belief in representation and the belief
in law. No king who ruled in England
after the Conquest was so absolute that
he could safely disregard the rights of
his subjects. No tyrant could ever crush
out of them the conviction that, if they
were to be called upon TO pay axes and
to provide military service. they must
have a share in the government That
share, once secured grew and grew until
representation has become the dominant
principle. not only in the British parlia-
ment. but in every nation. state, city or
village which Engiishmen planted or their
sons now govern. This principle leads
straight 10 democracy-that political ideal
which, beyond all others, acknowledges
the obligation OF making of every member
of the state citizen, and of giving all
citizens liberty and equality at the voting
booth and in the courts.
Spirit of liberation.
But AnglO-SaXon democracy would not
be what ii is If il had not been worked
out in spirit peculiar 10 our race-the
spirit which manifests itself in honorable
compromise and in great-souled liberation
Compromise. which is not to be confOund-
ed with the base trucking. log-rolling and
dishonest bargains of the politicians, has
been found by long experience to be the
best method by which most necessary inn
provements can be secured-and kept. The
free political evolution of people should
be growth, If II be not this II may De
succession of conflicting whims and am
billions. violent but not deep. in which
individuals and cliques take the place of
parties and principles. To accept COM
promise in cases where conscience sane
tons II has been the AnglO-SaXOn way,
and party government, in which first
one side and then the other makes the
laws-and thereby in the long run both
sides record their principles on the statute
0ook-is also, in essence, form of COM
promise.
With this has grown up federation. the
Willingness to respect an adversary's Opin-
ION. the recognition that the general in
tellectual and moral health of a country
Is best served 10y allowing free play to
all sorts of creeds and thinkers. if they do
alton did not spring up and flourish among
Anglo-Saxons in a moment, but the con-
science OF our race accepted il long before
conduct. which lags behind good
resolutions. generally practic-
Ing II. And although England
was shaken by dynastic. religious and
civil wars. she organized nQuisition
TO take. like Frankenstein's monster. a
terrible vengeance on its creator; she fur
nlshed no counterpart to the wholesale
expulsion OF the Huguenots from France
or OF the Moriscoes from Spain; and now.
Tor above 700 years, she has seen the
representatives of her chief interests and
the upholders of antagOnistic political the
cries sit side by side at Westminster. in
tolerance, II not in harmony. And Amer
lea In this respect has not fallen short of
the mothers example. Less than half a
century ago our country was torn by a
civil war whose causes had roots too deep
for compromise. in two Incompatible mu-
tually destructive civilizations. Yet, when
the issue had been fought out, there fol-