Evening star., 1922-05-31
7ert Of Presidents Speech
at Lincoln Memorial Rites

acquiescence on one side or the other.
If the minority in such case will secede
rather than acquiesce. they make a
precedent which In turn will divide and
ruin them. Plainly the central
archy. A majority held in restraint by
constitutional checks and limitations.
and always changing easily with delib-
crate changes OF popular opinions and
sentiments. is the only true sovereign
| Of free people. Whoever rejects 1t
| does. OF necessity. fly to anarchy or
despotism.'
! Here spoke the statesman. pro-
claiming deliberate public opinion
I as the supreme power of civilization.
easily to be written into law when
conviction should command. 1t ought
to be tonic to the waning confidence
of those of today who grow impa tient
| that emphasized minority views are
! sions of the republic. Deliberate
public opinion never fails.
Later. closing his first inaugural,
when anxiety gripped the nation.
| there spoke the generous. forgiving,
ann loath to OF eose WE are not
enemies but friends. We must not
be enemies. Though passion may
have strained. it must not break
our bands of affection The mystic
choTuS VI memory, StretcnlnS iToH
every battlefield and patriot grace. to
| every living heart and hearthstone.
all over this broad land, will yet
| swell the chorus of the Union, when
| again touched, as they surely will
| be, by. the better angels of our
! nature"
Appealed in Vain.
But he appealed in vain. Passion
was afame and war was made the
| arbiter. Americans fought Americans
with equal courage and valor. There
was an ambiguity in the Constitution.
which only baptism in blood could
| GRACE. One may only speculate on
rate seems to have summoned the one
| great hero best fitted to lead to
! the Unions salvation.
His faith was inspiring. his resolu-
tion commanding, his sympathy re-
| assuring, his simplicity enlisting. his
patience unfailing. He was faith.
patience and courage. with his head
above the clouds. 'unmoved by the
storms which ragged about his feet
NO leader was ever more unspar-
sailed. He was lashed by angry
tongues and ridiculed in press and
speech until he drank from as bitter
cup as was ever put to human lips,
but his faith was. unshakep and his
patience never exhausted. Some one
1
framed quotation which fell from his
| lips when the storm Of criticism was
at its height:
IF I were trying to read" he said,
| made on me. this shop might as well
/ be closed for any other business.
| I do the best I know how. the very
best 1 can: and 1 mean to keep on
doing it to the end. If the end
| brings me out all right. what is
"a oivo will 20
anything. If the end brings me out
all wrong. ten angels swearing twas
right would make no difference"
He knew, of course. before the
assassin robbed him of fuller realiza-
tion. that the end was bringing him
out all right. He knew when swords
were sheathed and guns laid down,
that the Union he saved was riveted
anew and made forever indissoluble.
He knew that in the great crucible
of fire and blood the dross had been
burned from the misdirected patriot
ism of seeding states and the pure
gold restored to shining stars in dear
Old Glory again. He knew he had
freed race Of bondmen and had
given to the world the costly proof
Union. But 1 cannot restrain the
wish that he might somehow know
of the monuments to his memory
throughout the world. and that we
are dedicating today. on behalf of
grateful nation. this matchless me-
mortal, whose forty-eight columns.
representing forty-eight states in the
concord of union, testify that the
lend brought him out all right"
UnjustiAable Abuse.
Rejecting now on the lampooning
and needless attack and unjustifiable
abuse which bruised his heart and
tested his patience. we may accept
Of hn hIrS god
privileges under popular government.
when passion sways and bitterness
inspires. but for which there is COM
pensation in the assurance that when
men have their feet firmly planted
in the right. and do the very best
they can, and keep on doing it,"
they come out all right in the end,
and all the storm does not amount
to anything.
He rose to colossal stature in a
day of imperiled union. He first ap-
pealed. and then commanded. and left
the Union secure and the nation su-
preme His was a leadership for a
great crisis, made loftier because of
the inherent righteousness of his
cause and the sublimity of his own
faith. Washington inspired belief
in the republic in it's heroic begin
ming. Lincoln proved its quality in
the heroic preservation. The old
world had wondered about the new
world experiment. and was quite
ready to proclaim it's futility when
the civil war was threatening: but
Lincoln left the Union unchallenged
for all succeeding time. Not only was
our nation given a new birth of free
dom. but democracy was given new
sanction by that hand of divinity it
self which has written the rights Of
human kind and pointed the way to
their enjoyment.
Abraham Lincoln was no superman.
Like the great Washington. whose
monumental shaft towers nearby as a
fit companion to the memorial we
dedicate today. the two testifying
the grateful love of all Americans to
founder and savior-like Washing
ton, Lincoln was a very natural hu-
man being. with the frailties mixed
with the virtues of humanity. There
are neither supermen nor demi-gods
in the government of kingdoms. en-
pires or republics. 1t will be better
for our conception of government and
it's institutions if we will understand
this fact 1t is vastly greater than
finding the superman if we justify
the confidence that our institutions
are capable of bringing into author
ity, in time of stress, men big enough
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