The Washington times., 1937-02-12
Robert Lincoln O'Brien's
Appreciation Of Lincoln
Spirit of the Present
Carries Word to
Nancy Hanks

known him. I recall a New York
financier who had known the high
life of the world, mingling with
the princes and statesmen of
nearly every land.
Leading the Immortals
On his SEVENTEEN birthday his
friends gave him complimentary
dinner. He chatted to them of
what he had seen and where he
had been. But he dismissed all the
honorS of the big world by saying
that the one thing that remained
most worth while in his three
score years and ten was that he
had shaken hands and conversed
in private audience with your little
boy, whom this cosmopolite pic
tured as leading the procession of
the immortals down the centuries" :"
NANCY HANKS-ThiS is be-
yond me. I am lost in mystery
and amaZement. What did my
boy-that earnest, sad little fel-
low of the woods and streams
do to make men feel this way?
How did it all come about?
THE PRESENT-That might
be as hard for you to understand,
without a knowledge of what has
taken place in the meantime, as
the skyscrapers and the ocean
cables and railroad trains that I
have spoken about. But I will
try to tell you something of what
he has done.
NANCY HANKS-I am hang
ing on your words. I long to
hear the story.
Path Of Righteousness
THE PRESENT-We have in
the United States a great democ-
racy. We are making a great ex.
pertinent for the nations. Your
little boy gave friends of democ-
racy the world over the largest
measure of confidence in its per-
manency and success of any man
that has ever lived.
More than million people a
year now pour into the United
States from lands beyond the
seas, most Of them unfamiliar
with our language and our Gus
toms and our aims. When we
Americans who are older by a few
generations go out to meet them
we take, as the supreme example
of what we mean by our great
experiment, the life of Abraham
Lincoln. And, when we are our
selves tempted in the mad com.
plexity of our material civiliZa-
ton to disregard the pristine
ideals of the republic, we see his
gaunt figure standing before us
and his outStretched arm point
ing to the straighter and simpler
path of righteousness.
For he was a liberator of men
in bondage, he was a savior of his
country, he was a bright and shin
ing light.
He became President of the
United States, but that affords
small clue to his real distinction.
Few Americans ever refer to him
as president Lincoln" In the
idiom of our people, he is Abraham
Lincoln, called by the name you
gave him in the wilderness gloom.
To that name of your choosing no
titles that the vain world knows
could add anything of honor or dis
tinction. And today, from the At
lantic to the Pacific seas, and in
places under distant skies, children
will recite in their schools his
words, men will gather about ban
quet boards to refresh their ideals
by hearing anew some phase of his
wonderful story.
Our nation could get along with
out some of its territory, without
millions of its people, without
masses of its boarded wealth, but
it would be poor indeed were it
to wake up on this morning of the
Twentieth century without the
memory Of Abraham Lincoln-one
of the really priceless possessions
of the republic.