The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-02-12
LINCOLN, A man
OF THE PEOPLE

which works upon the earthly reality
of every great man, and in due time
leaves him a desiccated abstraction
existing for the heavy boredom of
childhood. Even Lincoln, with his vi
| tai, homely outlines, his intimate, en-
dearing faults, and strong flavor of
his day, must come to this turn. But
the process may be retarded and ought
to be as long as we can contrive.
One hundred and seven years ago
Lincoln was born. Fifty-one years ago
he was shot by John Wilkes Booth,
and on the next day he died. the first
"martyred President. A great wave
of passionate sorrow, gratitude and af-
fection swept the North. The process
of apotheosis began. Today it may be
observed in the sanctifed generalities
of Lincoln orations, editorials, poems
and articles
The central idea of the overwhelm-
ing majority of these tributes is Lin
coin, the man of the people, the typi
cal American. Year after year on Feb
ruary IL and frequently throughout
the year we hear this confident sum-
mary and without examining it. Is
this mental inertia or are we uncon-
seiously moved by the fattery implicit
in this idea7 An editorial in the New
Republic suggests the latter. The
real purpose of Lincoln-day speakers
is not so much to eulogize Lincoln, this
journal declares, as to fatter the audi
ence. eff Mr.. Lincoln was so entirely
a man of the people, the people must
be very like to Lincoln"
The reproach has more of justice
than we like to think The orator IS
the eourtier of democracy fattering
the sovereign citizen as grossly rs
ever an emperor was fattered. The
iattery of indirect praise is unusually
delicate and insidious, and it is well
for us to examine it coolly. The New
Republic puts it sharply away. "In
point of fact Mr.. Lincoln was super
ficially a man of the people, and fun
damentally unique, distinguished and
wholly exceptional individual. In cer-
tain salient respects he was the least
| typical of Americans. Americans, par
ticularly those of Lincoln Is own gem
Grafton and neighborhood, were essen
italy active, aggressive and objective
men, whose lives were given over to
practical external affairs, who subor-
dinated everything else to the demands
of practical achievement, and whose
individuality consisted in living ordi-
nary lives in an extraordinarily ener
getic manner. They were superficial,
discursive, easy going, quarrelsome,
and wholly incapable of preparing in
advance for any task or responsibility.
In all these respects Lincoln differed
from his fellow countrymen, and upon
these differences his eminence depends.
He was not particularly ambitious, ag
gressive or practical. In spite of his
lively social feelings, he lived a con-
templative life, in which the intellect
ual interest obtained full expression
and which attained a high degree of
internal concentration. He fought hard
and well, but he never quarreled. Dur
ing his formative years he quietly but
unostentatiously prepared himself for
great enterprises. He trained his mind
because he enjoyed hard intellectual
exertion. His style shaped itself under
the influence of the Bible and Shake
speare Thus at a period and in
country favorable to the cheap per
formance and the easy victory, Mr.
Lincoln tempered his reason and his
spirit for great performance and
|
| typieally American about that7'
This is refreshing variation from the
Teamed eloquenee' of the Lincoln
| Day utterance, and il will repay con-
sideration and emphasis, since we are
very like our forbears as to just the
defects the New Republic here pun
gently outlines. If we thought more of
Lincoln s extraordinary disinterested-
L.. L.
deeply brooding spirit, and less of
those qualities with which we estab-
lish all too readily rough resemblance
to our daily selves, we might get a
wholesome and much-needed reaction
from our rafting, dissatisfied and
shallow life without losing our sense
of his reality as human being having
human weaknesses. Especially keen is
the tendency to "the cheap perform
ance and the easy victory and its
contrast with Lincoln s tempting rea-
son and spirit "for a great perform
ance and a costly victory"
No great victory was ever purchased
cheaply. 1t has always been paid for
in long and costly, though often un-
conscious preparation. Our national
optimism, our impatienee and super
fieiaity obscure that truth.
But, after all, in the legend we are
making of Lincoln as typical Ameri-
can there is an instinct and a truth
that are not superficial. All legend
making is a profound process of ma
tional self realization, an intuitive in
carnation of national ideals, and in the
ease of Lincoln it is based ON the sin
cere, the religious democracy of this
great man. The high distinction of
mind, as shown, for example, in the
prose of the Gettysburg oration, the
moral nobility, the interpretive aloof
ness which were an essential part of
him, only aeeentuate for us the warm
nearness of his nature to the common
man and the common life. Lincoln
himself held to the mystical conception
of democracy which Whitman express
ed in his poetry and which is the
dream in the heart of Amerieanism.
Tho acSapftal brofharhaod of p,ap