Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-09-04
BIRTHPLACE Of ABRAHAM LINCOLN GIVEN COUNTRY

the case of mani would rather say
of a pirit,-like Lincoln the question
where he was is of little significance,
that it is always what he was that real
ly arrests our thought and takes hold of
our imagination. 1t is the spirit always
that is sovereign. Lincoln, like the rest
of US, was put through the discipline
of the world,-a very rough and exact
ing discipline for him, an indispensable
discipline for every man who would
know what he is about in the midst of
the world g affairs; but his spirit got
only its schooling there. 1t did not
derive its character or its vision from
the experiences which brought it to its
full revelation. The test of every Amer
lean must always be, not where he is,
but what he is. That, also, is of the
essence of democracy, and is the moral
of which this place is most gravely ex
pressive.
"We would like to think of men like
Lincoln and Washington as typical
Americans, but no man can be typical
who is so unusual as these great men
were. 1t was typical of American life
that it should produce such men with
supreme indifference as to the manner
in which it produced them, and as read
lily here in this hut as amidst the little
circle of cultivated gentlemen to whom
Virginia owed so much in leadership
and example. And Lincoln and Wash
ington were typical Americans in the
use they made of their genius. But
there will be few such men at best, and
we will not look into the mystery of
how and why they come. We will only
keep the door open for them always,
and hearty welcome,-after we have
recognized them.
81 have read many biographies of
Lincoln; L have sought out with the
greatest interest the many intimate
stories that are told of him, the nara
tives of nearby friends, the sketches at
close quarters, in which those who had
the privilege of being associated with
him have tried to depict for us the very
man himself in his habit as he lived;
but | have nowhere found real inti-
mate of Lincoln s.. l nowhere get the
impression in any narrative or reminis-
cence that the writer had in fact pene
trated to the heart of his mystery, or
that any man could penetrate to the
heart of it. That brooding spirit had no
real familiars. l get the impression
that it never spoke out in complete
selfrevelation. and that it could not
reveal itself completely to anyone. 1t
was very lonely spirit that looked out
from underneath these shaggy brows
and comprehended men without fully
,nnr Ia, 20 .
all its genial efforts at comradeship,
it dwelt apart, saw its visions of duty
where no man looked on. There is q
very holy and very terrible isolation
for the conscience of every man who
seeks to read the destiny in affairs for
others as well as for himself, for n ma.
ton as we'll as for individuals. That
privacy no man can intrude upon. That
lonely search of the spirit for the right
perhaps no man can assist. This strange
child of the cabin kept company with
invisible things, was born into no init
macy but that of its own silently as
semblng and. deploying thoughts.
81 have come here today, not to utter
eulogy on Lincoln; he stands in need
of none. but to endeavor to interpret
the meaning of this gift to the nation
of the place of his birth and origin. Is
not this an altar upon which we may
forever keep alive the vestal fire OF
democracy as upon shrine at which
some of the deepest and mosts sacred
hopes of mankind may from age to ag1
be rekindled9 For these hopes must
constantly be rekindled, and only those
who live can rekindle them. The only