New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-02-12
Abraham Lincoln
An English Reading Of His Char
actcr and Achievement
By Lord lCharnwood

10 seldom given to political heroes, be-
cause he is seen to have applied to
great affairs q wisdomj for which cvery-
body has occasion every day. In 8
sense it would be absurd to call him
simple; be was the master of cum
ming equaled only by his honesty; the
plainness of his worxfa cams from
trained and exquisite taste and a
brooding profundity of thought. Think
ing was indeed the habit which distin-
guished him most among,statesmcn, and
this intellectual bent belonged to per-
sonality Of fascinating, complexity.
What in earlier life seemed an in
consequent medley of dignity with
oa6shness, coarse-tongued love of fact
and concealed but perilous gensibility
ripened finally into a subtly blended
character, In which a set and noble
melancholy was humanized by the tire
less play Of fun, and an anecdotic habit
which savored of the manure heap only
set off dazzling purity of soul. Yet
it was the simpler traits that told.
When at last his victory and death
made men see what a burden he had
borne and they began to reckon up his
merits, they saw that, If he had been
shrewd master Of men, sheer gen
crosby had been his most potent
weapon; If he had been an orator and
a skillful manager no art had served
him better than unwillingness to mis-
lead the people by a single adjective";
if his craftsmanship had proved sound
in the end its deepest SECRET had been
the reality OF his wish to do the right
thing. Such were the qualities by
which, so far as he had dome it, he had
preserved America, and as years have
elapsed and thousands of "reminiscences
been disclosed Lincoln has acquired in
memory the stature of a national hero
rot 80 much because he was the chief
agent in great and blameless con-
quest, but because his conGuering part
shines with the luster Of an absolute
humility and an almost iuconceivable
tenderness Of heart. Recollection has
preserved and Imagination multiplied
more yarns concerning him than any
otGer man, and in this mass of legend,
dull or brilliant, one class of story re-
ours with startling frequency: it pre-
sents to US the great President in some
such guise as, for instance, queer,
gaunt man in nightshirt, harassed
and dog-tired, dragged from his scant
repose at midnight to listen to tale
of sorrow and to pronounce in per-
versely quaint phrase his sentence OF
pardon on court-martialed private.
Thus his figure has become stamped
with greatness which is curiously
lovable, SO that few people have trou-
bled to inquire whether his actual
achievements were great. His Admins
tratton, once accused Of many blunders,
has indeed been shown by later dis
closures OF the circumstances to have
been very able. Moreover, he was deaf
during the war to the suggestions of
insidious compromise and equally deaf
to those of vindictiveness. 81 hope to
God the war will never end till It's pur-
pose Is accomplished" "What | deal
with is too vast for malicious dealing.7
These things were finely said, and his
acts accorded with them; but there is
nothing extraordinary In this. The
supreme test is his bearing toward that
complex issue presented by the need OF
preserving the Union, yet extinguishing
slavery. In relation TO this contempt.
raries saw in him only an honest OPP.
portunist. Careful study long after,
discovers statesman guided In shift,
ing circumstances by great principles,
thought out and deeply felt which for
the most part can be read unambigu-
ously in his speeches on the stump
from his first entrance upon the scene,
When once Lincolns view has been
grasped there remains no inconsistency
or time-serving in the puzzling steps
by which he distressed alternately the
conservatives and the radicals Of his
party. His struggles in the last
months of his life for liberality in the
reconstruction of the South are now
reckoned as part of his highest claim
to honor; but his efforts for compen-
stated and gradual emancipation have
been little noticed, and the slow
process by which he brought himself
to the act by which he actually killed
slavery was, and remains, an offense to
more impulsive champions of freedom.
All these parts of his policy should
now, however, be visible in their con-
neetion and as elements In a larger
philanthropy than that uf simple aboli-
tlonism. His craftsmanship may or
may not command agreement, but it
stands out on examination as a singu-
lar instance OF what the Greeks were
after when they dreamt of "philoso-
pher king"
But this large claim should only en-
nance the gentler human aspect of him
with which we began. Austere calcula-
ton of the policy Of emancipation left
him the uncommon power of friendli-
ness on equal TERMS with individual
negroes. Lofty vision made him the
humber and the more reverent of the
common mind. The democracy of which
ne Is felt to be a prophet became in
him the spirit ,of that greater genius
who said Il ssts among you as he that
asSveths"