Evening star., 1940-02-11
By Thomas R. Hfsry.


the time Of a slow working miracle. the
emergence OF a man-god out of the
broken memories of a man.
Perhaps no biography was ever more
dincult to write. Any adequate picture
of Abraham Lincoln requires that the
factors of his life and times must be
found and assessed to explain this
TRANSPORTATION of a man so widely be-
rated in 1864, so widely mourned in
1865. so universally revered in 1910.
Compare, for example. Lincoln and
Lee. None would deny today that the
latter was a great man. Any biographer
Of the Confederate commander can
state how and why he was great. He was
. supreme military leader and strategist,
one of the greatest the world has known
In addition he was a man of splendid
character. charming personality, un-
questionable integrity. Placed in the
field against Lee, Lincoln probably would
have made rather mediocre showing,
even If he had benefited from a military
education. The best that can be said for
him is that he could hardly have done
worse than some of the Northern gen.
erals.
Compare for example, Lincoln and an
other contemporary American whose
greatness nobody would deny any longer
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was
great philosopher-perhaps the su-
preme intellect in the America of his
time and one Of the great minds of the
10th century world. Lincoln had no pre-
tensions to being a philosopher. The
sage Of Concord would soon have been
completely beyond his depths.
Difficult to Picture.
It would be relatively simple to write
biography Of Lee or a biography Of
Emerson. Each man did certain things.
Those deeds were easily recognized as
beyond the capacities of ordinary NOR
tails The circumstances of them are
clearly and fully recorded. But of
Lincoln it might be said today that
both Lee and Emerson were included in
him. His life itself was both Emerson's
books and Lees victories. Carl Sand
burg could not write the biography Of
a man and call 1t . finished job. He
had to epitomize the biographies of a
million men in the life story of one
because the greatness of Lincoln lay
supremely in the fact that he was
the distillation out of the mash of cir
cumstance Of the weaknesses and the
sorrows and the greatness of the mil
lion. He stands today before the world
| as the demos of the mid-19th CEN
tury incarnate-that demos which was
arising out of the purple patched mist
to pass through the morning storm
clouds Of the Civil War. Thus, it seems,
Sandburg has viewed and tried to pic
ture Lincoln.
The volumes are illustrated by vivid
sketches of the men who fought the
| Civil War. Their many-colored per-
sonalities are flashed on like success
sion of lamps to light the way through
rooms of time where the dust lies thick
on old hates and old loves. We pass on
and, one after another, the lamps go out
Mcclellan the naughty, self-depreciat-
ing Burnside and Meade, boastful Hook
er, devout Rosecrans, intense Sherman,
relentless Grant. Beauregard, jackson,
Lee, Davis, Stephens. Hannibal Hamlin,
Andrew johnson, Charles Sumner, Ben
Made, the Blairs. Seward, Stanton, Har-
riet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman. and
scores Of others. Last, pistol flashes in
the baleful green light Of the personality
Of John Wilkes Booth and there is dark
ness for time. and beating rain on
the windows, and sobbing and mourning
in the house of life.
The Civil War produced procession
Of great men. They were great as in
dividuals for their specific accomplish
ments. It was a neurotic age. In the
flames of war much Of this neuroticism
became genius, as In the cases of Sher-
man and Stonewall jackson, Stanton
i and Thaddeus Stevens. Lncolns great
ness was different. It hardly consisted
Of outstanding accomplishments. It was
scarcely realized at Ill until the closing
days Of his LIE. Throughout the tribula-