Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-12
exceptional qualities that differentiate
him from his fellows.
Developed by Civil War.


Developed by Civil War.
"Those traits in him which now place
him with Washington, and with Washing
ton alone, did not make themselves clear
ly manifest and were not fully developed
until the trials of the four years of our
awful civil war. In that supreme test
he threw off such dross as his early life
may have shown and the gold OF his
great character and intellect shone forth
in it's purity.
Lincoln had been farmer. He had
lived in the humbleSt home on farm,
had visited New Orleans on q fiatboat,
had conducted a country store and edu-
Gated himself; had studied law and
practiced 1t; had been in the legislature;
had been once in Congress and had lived
all the time the life of the plain people.
He had taken part in the greatest debate
of the last or any other century on the
slavery question:: had been defeated for
the Senate. which was the immediate
prize of the contest. and then, without
any executive or administrative expert
ence, was thrust into an office requiring
in the successful discharge OF its duties
the highest ability in selecting subordi-
mates. the keenest political sense and
shrewdneSs in order to secure unity of
support In the loyal states. familiarity
with military strategy and with the or
sanization of military resources and a
patience of long suffering kindness that
has no superior that l know of, save in
the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Expressed Himself Clearly.
''Lincoln's intellectual honesty and his
great sympathetic, human heart were
his two great and highest attributes, be-
cause from them flowed all his other
qualities. From boyhood he had trained
his reasoning faculty; from hoyhood he
had practiced simplicity of style and di-
rect statement. His words were short
and Anglo-SaXon in derivation. and the
simplicity of his sentences harmonized
with the lucidity and clearness of his
thought.
than he was with himself in reasoning
to II conclusion. He made no argument
and stated no proposition until he had
worked 1t out pro and con In his own
mind. and what he wrote or spoke had
most convincing quality. He was in
Prospective. and was severe in his self
Judgment. His readers or hearers saw
in his treatment OF his subjects no dis
position to keep out of sight any formi
dable obstruction in the flow of reason
posing arguments and stated them with
even more force than did his opponents
before he demolished them. He capti
waited his audience with his fairness and
path he had led himself in finding the
truth
II cannot pass this distinguishing and
most remarkable trait In his character
without saying that, in my opinion, Lin
coin would have made as great a chief
justice as he made President But In
the crisis in the nations history through
which he lived, the quality was more
necessary even in the executive than in
the judicial branch of the government.
Style Biblical in Force.
His style was not only suited to the
clearness of his thought, but it was bib
lical in its force; and when his whole
nature was reused. as In his second in
augural address, 1t was as exalted as
thats Of one Of the psalmists or one Of
the prophets. His disposition to search
himself. this judicial attitude on every
matter. gave him clearness Of percep-
tion and nabled him to judge other men
and their probable actions with the Ger
tafnty OF a seer. His power Of observa-
tion and his wide acquaintance with the
common man and the practice OF putting
himself in another's place gave him the
so-called common sense and 8hrewdness
In reading human nature for which he
was noted.
"He cherished no resentments. He was
meek and lowly in Weighing his qualifica-
by the war, and he was patient beyond
belief with the men whom he thought to
be the necessary instruments In accom-
plishing the nations good. He had
to the needs Of the Office, but he sank
personal vanity and repressed his natural
Indignation at studied insults Of his
subordinates when 1t seemed wise to do
so in his country's interest
THE trials he had with Seward and
Chase and Stanton and Fremont and Nc
Clellan, and with the extreme abolition
ISIS, no one can realize until he reads
the contemporaneous correspondence Of
Lincoln and notes how everything that
Lincoln said and did and refrained from
saying was actuated by the purest pa
triotic motives and a desire to bring a
united country to peace.
Denounced and Ridiculed.
Lincoln had to go down through the
valley of the shadow Of popular denur1cia-
tion and popular distrust. He had to
bear the bitterest ridicule, the most con-
temptuous criticism, accusations Of the
meanest motives. He had to see small
demagogues exalted in the popular mind
at the expense Of his own standing and
OF his own reputation.
For months and years he had to
strengthen himeslf with the thought that
he alone understood the problems that he
was working out, that he alone had the
necessary clearness Of vision to see far
beyond the present and secure the nations
saivatlon at the expense OF popular mis-
understanding and partisan attack But
TO: tunately he lived through these trials
and his martyrs death did not come until
after the people knew OF his pa,,ence his
sacrifice. his great qualities of heart and
mind. his patriotism and farsighted
statesmanshlp And the generations that
have followed and will follow him. even
those whose ancestors were inconflict
with him. will give him q higher and
still higher place in the history Of the
world.
Il count IT great good fortune which
brings me here to this home of Lincoln
to meet men now venerable who knew
him as neighbor and friend during twen-
ty-tve years of his life doubt not, as
the time has passed. they, too, have ex-
perienced change in their estimate OF
the man. He was too great q man to be
properly measured In the nearness of
social intercourse and the comradeship of
neighbors.