Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1912-02-15
x x K x x K K x < 4 x x
Lncoln,s
dndL>etters.
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VIZ the birth of Abraham
Lincoln With the recollec-
ton of that vast volume of eulogy still
fresh upon us, it may sound para
doxical to hint that Lincoln is even
now without honor in his own coun-
try.
Perhaps you have noticed that while
paradoxes are not always true, as Mr..
G. K. Chesterton would have us be-
lieve an astonishingly large number
have much truth in them. So it is
with this one.
OF course we are all able to re-
count anecdotes about the young rail
splitter, the country stOrekeeper, the
struggling lawyer, the stump speaker,
the presidential nominee, the Great
Emancipator. We can tell some Of his
own yarns and jokes. I wonder If
Lincoln's habit of joking is not the
very reason we have withheld his
full need of worship. We are so
prone to laugh at, as we'll as with, the
man who seems to aim at entertain.
ment. Let us not forget that Loncoln's
stories and mastery funning were
only escape valves for his feelings.
Well, all these superficial things, I
say, we know and appreciate to be
sure; we listen to little sermons on
"qualities" that he is said to have
possessed; we have heroic half mys-
tical notions about him; he has be-
come myth. But do we know his
words? Have we drunk his bottom
less wisdom? Are we vaccinated by
the Lincoln literature against cant
and cowardice?
The man, statesman, martyr, Is writ.
ten in letters so large that to many it
may seem anti-climax to turn to the
smaller print and read Lincoln, the
writer of letters and maker of speech
es. Yet here I venture that he is no
less great. No real man of letters is
q mere man of letters. You and and
all sensible people have no patience
with the man who writes or talks, not
because he must, but because he can.
The writer who has no purpose in
writing other than literary style may
not be as obnoxious as some other
parasites, but his Importance in the
real world of victory and defeat is
certainly represented by minus
sign. Lincoln is one of the for
tunate few whose genius kept pace
on al sides.
Loyal Americans have perhaps been
too close, to the massive features of
their hero to admire sufficiently his
symmetry. The colossal effect has
blinded us to some of the colossal de-
tails. The British have done better. l
understand that one and only one
specimen of American oratory is pro-
nounced perfect at Oxford university
and studied with loving care. OF
course this is the Gettysburg speech.
II know there are good reasons why
Bnglishmen dislike the speeches of
John Adams and Patrick Henry, but
their judgment is right in this case,
despite their prejudice.) No more
nearly perfect utterance ever issued
from the mouth of man.
More or less homage, certainly, has
been paid to the Gettysburg address
THAT government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth" is becoming
the slogan of a newly awakened
America in her battle against 'princi-
palities and powers" The second in
augural address also, and the Cooper
institute speech with it's famous end
ing,
''Let us have faith that makes right,
and in that faith let us to the end dare
to do our duty as we understand it,
are fairly we'll known by name, and
sometimes read.
But there are so many wise, tender,
magnificent things from the pen of
Lincoln, which, though they are with.
in the reach of all, remain practically
unread. We doff our hats to them,
when they are referred to, and take
them as matter of course. Matter
of course" really spells Indifference.
Let us make journey to the well
ourselves.
What of that famous II would save
the Union letter that he sent to Hor-
ace Greeley, in which he riddled the
editor of the New York Tribune with
the most delicious satire? Do you
know it?
What of his reply to the working
men of Manchester, the letters to Nc
Clellan, Grant, Seward, the note to
Thurlow Weed, in which, referring to
his recent inaugural address, he says:
"Men are not fattered by being shown
that there has been difference of
purpose between the Almighty and
them. To deny it, however, in this case
is to deny that there is a God govern
Ing the world. 1t is truth which I
thought needed to be told!'' Do you
catch the sublime simplicity and mod
esty Of this last? .
What Of that masterpiece to Gen
eral Hooker?
General: have placed you, at the head
of the Army Of the Potomac. OF course,
have done this upon what appear to
me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I
think it best for you to know that there
:,