New-York tribune., 1922-05-28
Lincoln and Wilson
Visiting Preacher Draws a Favorltc,
but False, Parallel

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Sometimes it secms as though
Great Britain had never learned the
truth Of Edmund Burkes great warn
ing against indicting a whole people
IN the interests of a theory or a
prejudice. The failure has been IL
Illustrated almost every few days since
the great war in Europe by epresenta-
tive Englishmen, who have completely
missed the point when it comes to ad-
.ocacy of The League Of Nations
The exchange preacher nov at the
Broadway Tabernacle gave the most
recent illustration last Sunday morn
ing, when he declared that 'the
American people nre now doing to
Woodrow Wilson what they did to
Abraham Lincoln Manifestly he
thought We had abused and maligned
the Civil War President and that we
are doing the same for the one who
presided throughout the European war.
! This assumption seems to be favorite
one with all the extreme admirers of
our recent President, whether they are
on this side of the Atlantic or the
other
This is so curious a confusion Of
historic fact that it would take more
than brief letter to try to straightcn
it out. But may I be permitted to
point out certain discrepancies in the
{ l
do to Lincoln what was so reprehen-
slble? Is it rot q fact that any abuse
of him or Of George Washington was
/ incidental and transitory, and never
represented more than a very slight
minority? At any moment, either in
/ their lifetime or since, either of these
great national heroes, Washington or
Lincoln, could have been reelected to
man these English preachers and
lecturers would insist We are n1is-
understanding and prosecuting. and
whom they seem to desire to put on
a pedestal at least equal to Lincoln's 9
OF Washington's
Leaving aside all claims as TO how
cur recent minority President came to
be put in Office. can we imagine Lin
coin calling for a partisan vote and be-
ing rebuked therefore by the people
Would Lincoln's chosen successor have
hccn overwhclmingly defeated as Mr..
Cox was. As q matter Of fact. there
is no reasonable resemblance between
the President who asked for party
vote in office and did not get it and the
man who asked for his country's sup
port in 1851 and did get it overwhelm
ingy until the day of his death.
The American people are not only
generous; they are extraordinarily dis
cernng Certain idealists among them
remember the two heartbrealirg
years in which they yearncd and
agonized to go into the war on behalf
of great sufferers. only to be held back
by a cool and neutral head in Washing
ton, whose friends boasted that ne kept
us out Of war. To say that this holding
back was necessary for preparation is
physical preparation was made in all
that time. and that much Of the mental
and heart preparation had been sue
ceedcd through official pressure by in
difference to cruelty and injustice, or
else by mere desire to make money
instead of to fight.
If we are to have a League Of Ma
tions praised, are the interests OF
fraternai relations among nations fur
thercd by indirectly charging whole
people with not knowing their own
great men? Is there any international
profit in intimating that they cruelty
make martyrs of them?
JAMES SHEERIN.
New York, May "a, 1922.