Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-12
DEMlCoDS WERE ONCE
MEN OF COMMON CLAY
We Ought to Keep This In Mind When
We Try to Understand Why
Lincoln Is Great

Lincoln Is Great
TT USED to take two or three hundred or
L thousand years for the world to make
saints or demigods out of its heroes. The
stories of the great achievements or the acts
of sacrifice Travelled slowly in the days when
there were no printing presses and no tele-
graph lines and no railroads or automobiles
or steamships or airpanes. And by the time
the sanity or heroic myth was established 1t
was impossible to correct the eNaggeration
and discover just what sort of man the
subject of the myth was.
Hercules lived once, but it is doubtful
whether he was the invinCiblc giant OF the
legend. There was an original Tor king
Arthur but he was no more like the man OF
the Arthurian legends than the actress of
today is like the wonderful creature her
press agent depicts.
Man is in the habit OF giving TO his heroes
the attributes that he admirrs and would
like TO possess In the leisurely centuries
of the past when a year was no fuller of
activities than a week is today, myth build
ing was n slow process. The hero was hand
carved each wrinkle and fold of his countc-
nance was the laborous work of decades and
the figure was not completed for centuries.
In these days of steam and electricity we
do these things differently. Lincoln has
been dead only about fifty-s years and he
is already almost dcmigod. SculptOrs by
the score have carved his statue, and thcit
figures represent their conception of what
they like to think he was much more fro
Quently than they show the man as he really
walked about the roads of Illinois or trod
wearily through the streets of Washington.
There are old men alive today who saw
him in their youth, and few of the statues
are convincing to them.
The idealized Lincolns in bronze and
marble may be regarded ms the apology of
the present generation to the great man for
the misjudgment of his contemporaries.
The so-calcd realistic Lincolns offend us
now because they differ radically from the
ideal OF the man which has taken shape in
the common consciousness.
II this man $ career is TO mean anything
practical to the present and coming genera.
tions it is important that we should remem-
bcr that he was n very human and fallible
sort Of n being, with all the Weaknesses and
temptations Of our common human nature.
Then when We study what he did and how
he did it the humblest Of us may hope to be
able to follow. even though remotely, the
example which he set
If we made myths after the ancient pat
tern we should call Lincoln sort of
earth god, for his strength was due to his
determination always TO keep his feet on
the ground. He kept close to the fuctS Of
everyday life and devoted himself to n study
of things as they are. The story is familiar
of how he surprised a delegation of New
Englanders who had called on him to demand
that he act in accord with their conception
of what the facts were. conception not
justified by exact knowledge in his posses
sion.
IF you should call n cows tail n leg. low
many legs would the COW have" the pu,icnt
man asked his visitors.
"Fivc,' they exclaimed with unanimity.
Lincoln smiled sadly as lie remarked:
"G"utIcmcn, it does not make a tail a leg
TO call it leg.
This great man devoted himself consis-
teatly and unsefshIy to preserving the
Union when its disruption was attempted.
In al, the years of the war he kept that pur-
pose consistently before him. lie used every
means at his command to accomplish it,
When it was necessary TO win the support
Of lukcwarm politicians by the use of pat
ronage he did not hesitate 70 appoint their
friends 10 office. When men as eager as h"
t. preserve the Union poured personal abuse
on him he continued 70 work with them, be-
cause he knew that they were seeking the
same ends as he. lie had no pride of opinion
about his methods, but he was adamant when
it came to insistcuce on the things to be
done.
The shifty politicians here and abroad who
ar" paying tribute to his memory on this
anniversary Of his birth have il not in them
10 plan the high minded course which he
aid out for himself in 1864 when the Union
armies had been suffering defeat after de
feat. 1t is known now that in that trying
sumner he called General Mcclellan TO
Washington and offered TO retire from tho
presidential race and call upon his friends
to support Mcclellan if the general would
pledge himself to carry on th" war for the
Union. He did not attempt to drccil" the
people in order to retain his hold on office,
Offcc was the last thing he wanted in that
tremendous crisis. a decisive Union victory.
however, was won before the negotiations
with Mcclellan were ended and Lincoln then
became confident that tho uutiou was ~tiIl
willing TO use him as its instrument, It cuu-
tidencc justified By the outnom".