The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-01-25

So-and-so's conception of Lincoln.
Senator Beveridge, however, under
took to present, not Beveridge's Lin
coin. but Lincoln -. What is
more, Beyeridge did what he started
out to do"
How does it happen then that the
real. Lincoln has at last been revealed
by biographer? Perhaps the answer
can be found in a statement by MIR
Bowers in which he commented upon
The fact that Beyeridge does justice
to the true greatness Of Stephen A.
Douglas as it has never been done
by historian before. He writes:
There was probably psychological
reason for the Beveridge understand
ing Of Douglas-for there are some
striking resemblances in both the
gifts and careers of the two men.
Both were orators, fighters, possessed
of dash and certain masterfulness
of manner; both won ren0wn early:
both were chairmen of the senate
committee on territories and helped
mold legislation that made states;
both Incurred the enmity Of powerful
elements in their own party" In
the same way it may be said that
Beverage had an understanding Of
Lincoln because both were skillful
politicians who became statesmen in
the truest sense OF the word and In
his own disappointment in the arena
of politics, Beverage could appreci-
ate the disappointment which came
to Lincoln early in his political ca
reer. So it seems entirely plausible
that when "a statesman looks at Lin
coln,a especially at the period in Lin
coins life when the evolution of the
politician into the statesman was
taking place, as 1t was in the period
which Reveridge covers, in his two
volumes, there should result an ade-
squate understanding of the forces
which were shaping his life and which
were to make him the great man that
he was. a.
The story Of how this latest Lin
coin biographer set about and accom-
pIished his task Is in itself a romantic
one. Several years ago Beveridge
noted principally as brilliant orator
and one of the outstanding person
alities In the United States senate
amazed the literary world with his
two-yolume life of John Marshall"
1t was hailed by scholars not as only
one OF the finest biographies that had
ever been written by an American.
but as q noteworthy contribution to
American history because Beyeridge
had made a sweeping and magnificent
Interpretation Of the early days of
the republic through the life of the
great chief justice. When in 1922
Beveridge suffered his final disap-
pointment In politics and saw that he
had missed promised greatness in
this field Of activity. he again turned
to writing and determined to take up
again the thread of the American
story. interpreting later phase Of
it than the Marshall phase in terms
of the career of man greater even
than Marshall-Abraham Lincoln.
OF that ambitious project and what
1t involved. Bowers says:
Needless to say. Mr.. Beveridge did
not approach his colossal task In the
spirit of an iconoclast: nor in that OF
blind worshiper. willing to prostitute
his art as a biographer to the preser-
walton of myth. We have heard him
say that he would hardly have had the
courage to undertake the task at all
had he had the slightest conception of
the superfciality' with which the feld
had been searched before.
1t was tremendous task 1t meant
weary months with musty manuscripts
searching the long deserted avenues
that promised the possibility of new
light. examining thousands of old let