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^onalsecularsociety
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN
AN ORATION
BY
COLONEL R. G. INGERSOLL.
Price Threepence.
LONDON:
R. FORDER, 28 STONECUTTER STREET, E.O.
1893.
�LONDON .*
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY G. W. FOOTE,
AT 14 CLERKENWELL GREEN, E.C.
�N) 3
4
ORATION ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
EiGHTY-FOUR years ago to-day, two babes were born—
one in the woods of Kentucky, amid the hardships and
poverty of pioneers ; one in England, surrounded by
wealth and culture. One was educated in the University
of N ature, the other at Oxford.
One associated his name with the enfranchisement
of labor, with the emancipation of millions, with the
salvation of the Republic. He is known to us as
Abraham Lincoln.
The other broke the chains of superstition and filled
the world with intellectual light, and he is known as
Charles Darwin.
Because of these two men the nineteenth century is
illustrious.
A few men and women make a nation glorious—
Shakespeare made England immortal ; Voltaire civilised
and humanised France ; Goethe, Schiller, apd Hum
boldt lifted Germany into the light ; Angelo, Raphael,
Galileo, and Bruno crowned with fadeless laurel the
Italian brow ; and now the most precious treasure of
the Great Republic is the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
Every generation has its heroes, its iconoclasts, its
pioneers, its ideals. The people always have been and
still are divided, at least into two classes—the many,
who with their backs to the sunrise worship the past ;
and the few, who keep their faces towards the dawn—
the many, who are satisfied with the world as it is ;
the Jew, who labor and suffer for the future, for those
�( 4 )
to be, and who seek to rescue the oppressed, to destroy
the cruel distinctions of caste, and to civilise mankind.
Yet it sometimes happens that the liberator of one
age becomes the oppressor of the next. His reputation
becomes so great, he is so revered and worshipped»
that his followers, in his name, attack the hero who
endeavors to take another step in advance.
The heroes of the Revolution, forgetting the justice
for which they fought, put chains upon the limbs of
others, and in their names the lovers of liberty were
denounced as ingrates and traitors.
In our country there were for many years two great
political parties, and each of these parties had con
servatives and extremists. The extremists of the
Democratic party were in the rear and wished to go
back; the extremists of the Republican were in the
front and wished to go forward. The extreme Democrat
was willing to destroy the Union for the sake of
slavery, and the extreme Republican was willing to
destroy the Union for the sake of liberty.
Neither party could succeed without the votes of its
extremists.
This was the political situation in 1860.
The extreme Democrats would not vote for Douglas,
but the extreme Republicans did vote for Lincoln.
Lincoln occupied the middle ground, and was the
compromise candidate of his own party. He had
lived for many years in the intellectual territory of
compromise—in a part of our country settled by
Northern and Southern men—where Northern and
Southern ideas met, and the ideas of the two sections
were brought together and compared.
The sympathies of Lincoln, his ties of kindred, were
with the South. His convictions, his sense of justice,
and his ideals, were with the North. He knew the
horrors of slavery, and he felt the unspeakable
�(5 )
ecstacies and glories of freedom. He had the kind
ness, the gentleness, of true greatness, and he could not
have been a master; he had the manhood and
independence of true greatness, and he could not have
been a slave. He was just, and incapable of putting a
burden upon others that he himself would not
willingly bear.
He was merciful and profound, and it was not
necessary for him to read the history of the world to
know that liberty and slavery could not live in the
same nation, or in the same brain. Lincoln was a
statesman. And there is this difference between a
politician and a statesman. A politician schemes and
works in every way to make the people do something
for him. The statesman wishes to do something for
the people. With him place and power are means to
an end, and the end is the good of his country.
The Republic had reached a crisis.
The conflict between liberty and slavery could no
longer be delayed. For three-quarters of a century
the forces had been gathering for the battle.
After the Revolution, principle was sacrificed for the
sake of gain. The Constitution contradicted the
Declaration. Liberty as a principle was held in
contempt. Slavery took possession of the Government.
Slavery made the laws, corrupted courts, dominated
presidents and demoralised the people.
In 1840, when Harrison and Van Buren were candi
dates for the Presidency, the Whigs of Indiana issued
a circular giving reasons for the election of Harrison
and the defeat of Van Buren. The people of Indiana
were advised to vote against Van Buren because he,
when a member of the New York Legislature, had
voted to enfranchise colored men who had property to
the extent of two hundred and fifty dollars. This was
the crime of Van Buren.
�( 6)
The reason why the people should support Harrison
was that he had signed eleven petitions to make
Indiana a slave State.
Mr. Douglas voiced the feeling of the majority when
he declared that he did not care whether slavery was
voted up or down.
From the heights of philosophy—standing above the
contending hosts, above the prejudices, the senti
mentalities of the day—Lincoln was great enough and
brave enough and wise enough to utter these prophetic
words : “A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this Government cannot permanently endure
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union
to be dissolved ; I do not expect the house to fall; but
I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become
all the one thing or the other. Either the opponents
of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and
place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its
advocates will push it further until it becomes alike
lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as
well as South.”
This declaration was the standard around which
gathered the grandest political party the world has
ever seen, and this declaration made Lincoln the leader
of that vast host.
In this, the first great crisis, Lincoln uttered the
victorious truth that made him the foremost man in
the Republic.
The people decided at the polls that a house divided
against itself could not stand, and that slavery had
cursed soul and soil enough.
It is not a common thing to elect a really great man
to fill the highest official position. I do not say that
the great presidents have been chosen by accident.
�( 7 )
Probably it would be better to say that they were the
favorites of a happy chance.
The average man is afraid of genius. He feels as
an awkward man feels in the presence of a sleight-ofhand performer. He admires and suspects. Genius
appears to carry too much sail—lacks prudence,
has too much courage. The ballast of dullness inspires
confidence.
By a happy chance Lincoln was nominated and
elected in spite of his fitness—and the patient, gentle,
and just and loving man was called upon to bear as
great a burden as man has ever borne.
II.
Then came another crisis—the crisis of Secession,
and Civil War.
Again Lincoln spoke the deepest feeling and the
highest thought of the Nation. In his first message
he said : “ The central idea of secession is the essence
of anarchy.”
He also showed conclusively that the North and
South, in spite of secession, must remain face to face
—that physically they could not separate—that they
must have more or less commerce, and that this com
merce must be carried on, either between the two
sections as friends, or as aliens.
This situation and its consequences he pointed out
to absolute perfection in these words : “ Can aliens
make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can
treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens
than laws among other friends ?”
After having stated fully and fairly the philosophy
of the conflict, after having said enough to satisfy any
calm and thoughtful mind, he addressed himself to the
hearts of America. Probably there are few finer
passages in literature than the close of Lincoln’s
inaugural address : “ I am loth to close. We are not
�(«)
enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passion may have strained, it must not break,
our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory
stretching from every battle-field and patriotic grave
to every loving heart and hearthstone all over this
broad land, will swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better
angels of our nature.”
These noble, these touching, these pathetic words,
were delivered in the presence of rebellion, in the
midst of spies and conspirators—surrounded by but
few friends, most of whom were unknown, and some
of whom were wavering in their fidelity—at a time
when secession was arrogant and organised, when
patriotism was silent, and when, to quote the expres
sive words of Lincoln himself, “ Sinners were calling
the righteous to repentance.”
When Lincoln became President, he was held in
contempt by the South—underrated by the North and
East—not appreciated even by his cabinet—and yet he
was not only one of the wisest, but one of the shrewdest
of mankind. Knowing that he had the right to enforce
the laws of the United States and Territories—knowing,
as he did, that the secessionists were in the wrong, he
also knew that they had sympathisers not only in the
North but in other lands.
Consequently he felt that it was of the utmost
importance that the South should fire the first shot,
should do some act that would solidify the North and
gain for us the justification of the civilised world. He
so managed affairs that while he was attempting simply
to give food to our soldiers, the South commenced hos
tilities and fired on Sumter.
This course was pursued by Lincoln in spite of the
advice of many friends, and yet a wiser thing was
never done.
�( 9 )
At that time Lincoln appreciated the scope and con
sequences of the impending conflict. Above all other
thoughts in his mind was this : “ This conflict will
settle the question, at least for centuries to come,
whether man is capable of governing himself, and con
sequently is of greater importance to the free than to
the enslaved.’*
He knew what depended on the issue and he said :
“ We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best
hope of earth.”
III.
Then came a crisis in the North.
It became clearer and clearer to Lincoln’s mind, day
by day, that the rebellion was slavery, and that it was
necessary to keep the border States on the side of the
Union. For this purpose he proposed a scheme of
emancipation and colonisation—a scheme by which the
owners of slaves should be paid the full value of what
they called their “ property.” He called attention to
the fact that he had adhered to the Act of Congress to
confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes
—that the Union must be preserved, and that, there
fore, all indispensable means must be employed to
that end.
If, in war, a nation has the right to take the property
of its citizens—of its friends—certainly it has the
right to take the property of those it has the right to
kill.
He knew that if the border States agreed to gradual
emancipation, and received compensation for their
slaves, they would be for ever lost to the Confederacy,
whether secession succeeded or not. It was objected
at the time, by some, that the scheme was far too
expensive ; but Lincoln, wiser than his advisers—far
wiser than his enemies—demonstrated that from an
economical point of view, his course was best.
�( 10 )
He proposed that 400 dols. be paid for slaves,
including men, women, and children. This was a
large price, and yet he showed how much cheaper it
was to purchase than to carry on the war.
At that time, at the price mentioned, there were
about 750,000 dols. worth of slaves in Delaware. The
cost of carrying on the war was at least two millions
of dollars a day, and for one-third of one day’s expenses
all the slaves in Delaware could be purchased. He
also showed that all the slaves in Delaware, Kentucky,
and Missouri could be bought at the same price for
less than the expense of carrying on the war for eighty
seven days.
This was the wisest thing that could have been pro
posed, and yet such was the madness of the South,
such the indignation of the North, that the advice was
unheeded.
Again, in July, 1862, he urged on the Representa
tives of the border States a scheme of gradual com
pensated emancipation ; but the Representatives were
too deaf to hear, too blind to see.
Lincoln always hated slavery, and yet he felt the
obligations and duties of his position. In his first
message he assured the South that the laws, including
the most odious of all—the law for the return of
fugitive slaves—would be enforced. The South would
not hear. Afterwards he proposed to purchase the
slaves of the border States ; but the proposition was
hardly discussed, hardly heard. Events came thick
and fast; theories gave way to facts, and everything
was left to force.
The extreme Democrat of the North was fearful that
slavery might be destroyed, that the Constitution
might be broken, and that Lincoln, after all, could not
be trusted; and at the same time the radical Repub-
�(11)
lican feared that Lincoln loved the Union more than
he did liberty.
The fact is that he tried to discharge the obligations
of his great office, knowing from the first that slavery
must perish. The course pursued by Lincoln was so
gentle, so kind and persistent, so wise and logical, that
millions of Northern Democrats sprang to the defence,
not only of the Union, but of his administration.
Lincoln refused to be led or hurried by Fremont or
Hunter, by Greeley or Sumner. From first to last he
was the real leader, and he kept step with events.
IV.
On July 22, 1862, Lincoln called together his cabinet
for the purpose of showing the draft of a Proclamation
of Emancipation, stating to them|that he did not wish
their advice, as he had made up his mind.
After the Proclamation was signed Lincoln held it,
waiting for some great victory before giving it to the
world, so that it might appear to be the child of
strength.
This was on July 22, 1862. On August 22 of the
same year Lincoln wrote his celebrated letter to Horace
Greeley, in which he stated that his object was to save
the Union ; that he would save it with slavery if he
could; that if it was necessary to destroy slavery in
order to save the Union, he would; in other words, he
would do what was necessary to save the Union.
This letter disheartened, to a great degree, thousands
and millions of the friends of freedom. They felt
that Mr. Lincoln had not attained the moral height
upon which they supposed he stood. And yet, when
this letter was written, the Emancipation Proclamation
was in his hands, and had been for thirty days,
waiting only an opportunity to give it to the world.
Some two weeks after the letter to Greeley, Lincoln
was waited on by a committee of clergymen, and was
�( 12 )
by them informed that it was God’s will that he should
issue a Proclamation of Emancipation. He replied to
them, in substance, that the day of miracles had passed.
He also mildly and kindly suggested that if it were
God’s will this Proclamation should be issued, certainly
God would have made known that will to him—to the
person whose duty it was to issue it.
On September 22, 1862, the most glorious date in
the history of the Republic, the Proclamation of
Emancipation was issued.
Lincoln had reached the generalisation of all argu
ments upon the question of slavery and freedom—a
generalisation that never has been, and probably never
will be, excelled : In giving freedom to the slave, we
assure freedom to the free.
This is absolutely true. Liberty can be retained,
can be enjoyed, only by giving it to others. The
spendthrift saves, the miser is prodigal. In the realm
of Freedom, waste is husbandry. He who puts chains
upon the body of another shackles his own soul. The
moment the Proclamation was issued, the cause of the
Republic became sacred.
From that moment the
North fought for the human race. From that moment
the North stood under the blue and stars, the flag of
Nature—sublime and free.
In 1831 Lincoln saw in New Orleans a colored girl
sold at auction. The scene filled his soul with
ndignation and horror.
Turning to his companion, he said, “ Boys, if I ever
get a chance to hit slavery, by God I’ll hit it hard I ”
The helpless girl, unconsciously, had planted in a
great heart the seeds of the Proclamation.
Thirty-one years afterwards the chance came, the
oath was kept, and to four millions of slaves, of men,
women, and children, was restored liberty, the jewel
of the soul.
�( 13 )
In the history, in the fiction of the world, there
is nothing more intensely dramatic than this.
Lincoln held within his brain the grandest truths,
and he held them as unconsciously, as easily, as
naturally as a waveless pool holds within its stainless
breast a thousand stars.
Let us think for one moment of the distance
travelled from the first ordinance of secession to the
Proclamation of Emancipation.
In 1861 a thirteenth amendment to the Constitution
was offered to the South. By this proposed amend
ment slavery was to be made perpetual. This com
promise was refused, and in its stead came the
Proclamation. Let us take another step.
In 1865 the thirteenth^ amendment was adopted.
The one proposed made slavery perpetual. The one
adopted in 1865 abolished slavery and made the great
Republic free forever.
The first state to ratify this amendment was Illinois.
v.
We were surrounded by enemies. Many of the
so-called great in Europe and England were against us.
They hated the Republic, despised our institutions,
and sought in many ways to aid the South.
Mr. Gladstone announced that Jefferson Davis had
made a nation and he did not believe the restoration of
the American Union by force attainable.
From the Vatican came words of encourgement for
the South.
It was declared that the North was fighting for
empire and the South for independence.
The Marquis of Salisbury said : “ The people of the
South are the natural allies of England. The North
keeps an opposition shop in the same department of
trade as ourselves.”
�( 14 )
Some of their statesmen declared that the subjuga
tion of the South by the North would be a calamity to
the world.
Louis Napoleon was another enemy, and he endea
vored to establish a monarchy in Mexico to the end
that the great North might be destroyed. But the
patience, the uncommon common sense, the statesman
ship of Lincoln—in spite of foreign hate and Northern
division—triumphed over all. And now we forgive
all foes. Victory makes forgiveness easy.
Lincoln was, by nature, a diplomat. He knew the
art of sailing against the wind. He had as much
shrewdness as is consistent with honesty. He under
stood, not only the rights of individuals, but of nations.
In all his correspodence with other governments he
neither wrote nor sanctioned a line which afterwards
was used to tie his hands. In the use of perfect
English he easily rose above his advisers and all his
fellows.
No one claims that Lincoln did all. He could have
done nothing without the great and splendid generals
in the field ; and the generals could have done
nothing without their armies. The praise is due
to all—to the private as much as to the officer ; to the
lowest who did his duty, as much as to the highest.
My heart goes out to the brave private as much as
to the leader of the host.
But Lincoln stood at the centre and with infinite
patience, with consummate skill, with the genius of
goodness directed, cheered, consoled, and conquered.
VI.
Slavery was the cause of the war, and slavery was
the perpetual stumbling-block. As the war went on
question after question arose—questions that could not
be answered by theories. Should we hand back the
�( 15 )
slave to his master, when the master was using his
slave to destroy the Union? If the South was right
slaves were property, and by the laws of war anything
that might be used to the advantage of the enemy
might be confiscated by us. Events did not wait for
discussion. General Butler denominated the negro as
a “ contraband.” Congress provided that the property
of the rebels might be confiscated.
Lincoln moved along this line.
Each step was delayed by Northern division, but
every step was taken in the same direction.
First, Lincoln offered to execute every law, including
the most infamous of all ; second, to buy the slaves of
the border states ; third, to confiscate the property of
rebels ; fourth, to treat slaves as contraband of war ;
fifth, to use slaves for the purpose of putting down the
rebellion ; sixth, to arm these slaves and clothe them
in the uniform of the Republic ; seventh, to make them
citizens, and allow them to stand on an equality with
their white brethren under the flag of the Republic.
During all these years, Lincoln moved with the
people—with the masses, and every step he took has
been justified by the considerate judgment of mankind.
VII.
Lincoln not only watched the war, but kept his hand
on the political pulse. In 1863 a tide set in against the
administration. A Republican meeting was to be held
in Springfield, Illinois, and Lincoln wrote a letter to
be read at this convention. It was in his happiest vein.
It was a perfect defence of his administration, including
the Proclamation of Emancipation. Among other
things he said: “ But the proclamation, as law, either
is valid or it is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no
retraction, but if it is valid it cannot be retracted, any
more than the dead can be brought to life.”
�( 16 )
To the Northern Democrats who said they would not
fight for negroes, Lincoln replied: “ Some of them
seem willing to fight for you—but no matter.”
Of negro soldiers : “ But negroes, like other people,
act upon motives. Why should they do anything for
us if we will do nothing for them? If they stake
their lives for us they must be prompted by the
strongest motive—even by the promise of freedom.
And the promise, being made, must be kept.”
There is one line in this letter that will give it
immortality: “The Father of waters again goes un
vexed to the sea.” This line is worthy of Shakespeare.
Another: “ Among freemen there can be no suc
cessful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.”
He draws a comparison between the white men
against us and the black men for'Us : “And then there
will be some black men who can remember that with
silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and
well-poised bayonet they have helped mankind on to
this great consummation ; while I fear there will be
some white ones unable to forget that with malignant
heart and deceitful speech they strove to hinder it.”
Under the influence of this letter, the love of
country, of the Union, and above all the love of liberty,
took possession of the heroic North.
The Republican party became the noblest organisa
tion the world has ever seen.
There was the greatest moral exaltation ever known.
The spirit of liberty took possession of the people.
The masses became sublime.
To fight for yourself is good.
To fight for others is grand.
To fight for your country is noble.
To fight for the human race, for the liberty of land
and brain, is nobler still.
�( 17 )
As a matter of fact, the defenders of slavery had
sown the seeds of their own defeat. They dug the pit
in which they fell. Clay and Webster and thousands
of others had by their eloquence made the Union
almost sacred. The Union was the very tree of life,
the source and stream and sea of liberty and law.
For the sake of slavery millions stood by the Union,
for the sake of liberty millions knelt at the altar of the
Union ; and this love of the Union is what, at last,
overwhelmed the Confederate hosts.
It does not seem possible that only a few years ago
our Constitution, our laws, our Courts, the Pulpit and
the Press defended and upheld the institution of
slavery—that it was a- crime to feed the hungry, to give
water to the lips of thirst, shelter to a woman flying
from the whip and chain !
The old flag still flies, the stars are there—the stains
have gone.
VIII.
Lincoln always saw the end. He was unmoved by
the storms and currents of the times. He advanced
too rapidly for the conservative politicians, too slowly
for the radical enthusiasts. He occupied the line of
safety, and held by his personality—by the force of
his great character, by his charming candor—the
masses on his side.
The soldiers thought of him as a father.
All who had lost their sons in battle felt that they
had his sympathy—felt that his face was as sad as
theirs. They knew that Lincoln was actuated by one
motive, and that his energies were bent to the attain
ment of one end—the salvation of the Republic.
Success produces envy, and envy often ends in
conspiracy.
In 1864 many politicians united against him. It is
not for me to criticise their motive or their actions®
�.
( 18 )
It is enough to say that the magnanimity of Lincoln
towards those who had deserted and endeavored to
destroy him, is without parallel in the political history
of the world. This magnanimity made his success not
only possible, but certain.
During all the years of war Lincoln stood, the
embodiment of mercy, between discipline and death.
He pitied the imprisoned and condemned. He took
the unfortunate in his arms, and was the friend even
of the convict. He knew temptation’s strength—the
weakness of the will—and how in fury’s sudden flame
the judgment drops the scales, and passion—blind and
deaf—usurps the throne.
Through all the years Lincoln will be known as
Lincoln the Loving, Lincoln the Merciful.
Lincoln had the keenest sense of humor, and always
saw the laughable side even of disaster. In his humor
there was logic and the best of sense. No matter how
complicated the question, or how embarrassing the
situation, his humor furnished an answer, and a door
of escape.
Vallandingham was a friend of the South, and did
what he could to sow the seeds of failure. In his
opinion everything, except rebellion, was unconstitu
tional.
He was arrested, convicted by a court martial, and
sentenced to imprisonment in Fort Warren.
There was doubt about the legality of the trial, and
thousands in the North denounced the whole proceed
ings as tyrannical and infamous. At the same time
millions demanded that Vallandingham should be
punished.
Lincoln’s humor came to the rescue. He disapproved
of the findings of the court, changed the punishment,
and ordered that Mr. Vallandingham should be sent to
his friends in the South.
�( 19 )
Those who regarded the act as unconstitutional
almost forgave it for the sake of its humor.
Horace Greeley always had the idea that he was
greatly superior to Lincoln, and for a long time he
insisted that the people of the North and the people of
the South desired peace. He took it upon himself to
lecture Lincoln, and felt that he in some way was
responsible for the conduct of the war. Lincoln, with
that wonderful sense of humor, united with shrewd
ness and profound wisdom, told Greeley that, if the
South really wanted peace, he (Lincoln) desired the
same thing, and was doing all he could to bring it
about. Greeley insisted that a commissioner should
be appointed, with authority to negotiate with the
representatives of the Confederacy. This was Lincoln’s
opportunity. He authorised Greeley to act as such
commissioner. The great editor felt that he was
caught. For a time he hesitated, but finally went, and
found that the Southern commissioners were willing
to take into consideration any offers of peace that
Lincoln might make. The failure of Greeley was
humiliating, and the position in which he was left
absurd.
Again the humor of Lincoln had triumphed.
Lincoln always tried to do things in the easiest way.
He did not waste his strength. He was not particular
about moving along straight lines. He did not tunnel
the mountains. He was willing to go around, and he
reached the end desired as a river reaches the sea.
IX.
One of the most wonderful things ever done by
Lincoln was the promotion of General Hooker. After
the battle of Fredericksburg, General Burnside found
great fault with Hooker, and wished to have him
removed from the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln
disapproved of Burnside’s order, and gave Hooker the
�( 20 )
command of the Army of the Potomac. He then wrote
Hooker this memorable letter : “ I have placed you at
the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I
have done this upon what appears to me to be sufficient
reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that
there are some things in regard to which I am not quite
and ^175
L0U*
1 b61ieVe
t0 b* a brave
and skilful soldier—which, of course, I like. I
a so. believe you do not mix politics with your profession-m which you are right. You have confidence
which is a valuable, if not an indispensable, quality.
You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds
does good rather than harm; but I think that during
General Burnside’s command of the army you have
taken counsel of your ambition to thwart him as much
as you could in which you did a great wrong to the
country and to a most meritorious and honorable
brother, officer. I have heard, in such a way as to
believe
of your recently saying that both the army
and the Government needed a dictator. Of course it
was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given
you command. Only those generals who gain
successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you
is military successes, and I will risk the dictatorship.
The Government will support you to the best of its
ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done
and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the
spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army
of criticising their commander and withholding con
fidence in him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist
you, so far as I can, to put it down. Neither you, nor
Napoleon, if he were alive, can get any good out of
an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now
beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with
energy and sleepless vigilence go forward and give us
victories.”
�( 21 )
This letter has—in my judgment, no parallel. The
mistaken magnanimity is almost equal to the pro
phecy t “ I much fear that the spirit which you have
aided to infuse into the army of criticising their com
mander and withholding confidence in him, will now
turn upon you.”
Chancellorsville was the fulfilment.
Mr. Lincoln was a statesman.
The great stumbling-block—the great obstruction
in Lincoln’s way, and in the way of thousands, was
the old doctrine of States Rights.
This doctrine was first established to protect slavery.
It was clung to to protect the iner-State slave trade.
It became sacred in connection with the Fugitive
Slave Law, and it was finally used as the corner-stone
of Secession.
This doctrine was never appealed to m defence of
the right—always in support of the wrong. For many
years politicians upon both sides of these questions
endeavored to express the exact relations existing
between the Federal Government and the States, and I
know of no one who succeeded, except Lincoln. In
his message of 1861, delivered on July 4, the definition
is given, and it is perfect: “Whatever concerns the
whole should be confined to the whole—to the General
Government. Whatever concerns only the State should
be left exclusively to the State.”
When that definition is realised in practice, this
country becomes a Nation. Then we shall know
that the first allegiance of the citizen is not to hi&
State, but to the Republic, and that the first duty of
the Republic is to protect the citizen, not only when in
other lands, but at home, and that this duty cannot be
discharged by delegating it to the States.
�( 22 )
„ Lincoln believed in the sovereignty of the people_
in the supremacy of the nation—in the territorial
integrity of the Republic.
XI.
A great actor can be known only when he has
assumed the principal character in a great drama,
ossibly the greatest actors have never appeared, and
it may be that the greatest soldiers have lived the lives
of perfect peace. Lincoln assumed the leading part
m the greatest drama ever acted upon the stage of a
continent.
His criticism of military movements, his correspon
dence with his generals and others on the conduct of
the war, show that he was at all times master of the
situation—that he was a natural strategist, that he
appreciated the difficulties and advantages of every
kind, and that in “ the still and mental ” field of
war he stood the peer of any man beneath the flag.
Had McClellan followed his advice, he would have
taken Richmond.
# Had Hooker acted in accordance with his sugges
tions, Chancellorsville would have been a victory for
the Nation.
Lincoln’s political prophecies were all fulfilled.
We know now that he not only stood at the top,
but that he occupied the centre, from the first to the
last, and that he did this by reason of his intelli
gence, his humor, his philosophy, his courage, and
his patriotism.
In passion s storm he stood unmoved, patient, just
and candid. In his brain there was no cloud, and
in his heart no hate. He longed to save the South
as well as the North, to see the Nation one and
free.
He lived until the end was known.
�( 23 )
He lived until the Confederacy was dead until
Lee surrendered, until Davis fled, until the doors of
Libby Prison were opened, until the Republic was
supreme.
A
He lived until Lincoln and Liberty were united
for ever.
n
.
He lived to cross the desert—to reach the palms
of victory—to hear the murmured music of the wel
come waves.
He lived until all loyal hearts were his—until the
history of his deeds made music in the soul of men
—until he knew that on Columbia’s Calendar of
worth and fame his name stood first.
He lived until there remained nothing for him to
to do as great as he had done.
What he did was worth living for, worth dying
for.
.
He lived until he stood in the midst of universa
Joy, beneath the outstretched wings of Peace the
foremost man in all the world.
And then the horror came. Night fell on noon. The
Savior of the Republic, the breaker of chains, the
liberator of millions, he who had “ assured freedom to
the free,” was dead.
Upon his brow Fame placed the immortal wreath.
For the first time in the history of the world a Nation
bowed and wept.
The memory of Lincoln is the strongest, tenderest
tie that binds all hearts together now, and holds all
States beneath a Nation’s flag.
XII.
Strange mingling of mirth and tears, of the tragic
and grotesque, of cap and crown, of Socrates and
Democritus, of ^Esop and Marcus Aurelius, of all that
is gentle and just, humorous and honest, merciful,
�( 24 )
wise, laughable, lovable and divine, and all consecrated
to the use of man ; while through all, and over all
were an overwhelming sense of obligation, of chivalric
loyalty to truth, and upon all, the shadow of the tragic
Nearly all the great historic characters are impossible
monsters disproportioned by flattery, or by calumny
deformed. We know nothing of their peculiarities, or
nothing but their peculiarities. About these oaks there
clings none of the earth of humanity.
Washington is now only a steel engraving. About
the real man who lived and loved and hated and
schemed, we know but little. The glass through which
we look at him is of such high magnifying power that
the features are exceedingly indistinct.
Hundreds of people are now engaged in smoothing
out the lines of Lincoln’s face—forcing all features to
the common mould-so that he may be known, not as
he really was, but, according to their poor standard, as
he should have been.
Lincoln was not a type. He stands alone-no
ancestors, no fellows, and no successors.
He had the advantage of living in a new country of
social equality, of personal freedom, of seeing in the
horizon of his future the perpetual star of hope He
preserved his individuality and his self-respect* He
knew and mingled with men of every kind ; and, after
all, men are the best books. He became acquainted
with the ambitions and hopes of the heart, the means
used to accomplish ends, the springs of action and the
seeds of thought. He was familiar with nature, with
actual. things, with common facts. He loved and
appreciated the poem of the year, the drama of the
seasons.
In a new country a man must possess at least three
virtues—honesty, courage, and generosity. In culti-
�( 25 )
vated society, cultivation is often more important than
soil. A well-executed counterfeit passes more readily
than a blurred genuine. It is necessary only to observe
the unwritten laws of society—to be honest enough to
keep out of prison, and generous enough to subscribe
in public—where the subscription can be defended as
an investment.
In a new country, character is essential : in the old,
reputation is sufficient. In the new they find what a
man really is ; in the old, he generally passes for what
he resembles. People separated only by distance are
much nearer together than those divided by the walls
of caste.
It is no advantage to live in a great city, where
poverty degrades and failure brings despair. The
fields are lovelier than paved streets, and the great
forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are more
poetic than steeples and chimneys.
In the country is the idea of home. There you see
the rising and setting sun; you 1 become acquainted
with the stars and clouds. The constellations are your
friends. You hear the rain on the roof and listen to
the rhythmic sighing of the winds. You are thrilled
by the resurrection called Spring, touched and sad
dened by Autumn—the grace and poetry of death.
Every field is a picture, a landscape ; every landscape
a poem ; every flower a tender thought, and every
forest a fairyland. In the country you preserve your
identity—your personality. There you are an aggre
gation of atoms ; but in the city you are only an atom
of an aggregation.
In the country you keep your cheek close to the
breast of Nature. You are calmed and ennobled by
the space, the amplitude and scope of earth and sky—
by the constancy of the stars.
�(
)
Lincoln never finished his education. To the night
■of his death he was a pupil, a learner, an inquirer,
a seeker after knowledge. You have no idea how
many men are spoiled by what is called education.
For the most part, colleges are places where pebbles
are polished and diamonds are dimmed. If Shake
speare had graduated at Oxford, he might have been a
quibbling attorney, or a hypocritical parson.
Lincoln was a great lawyer. There is nothing
shrewder in the world than intelligent honesty.
Perfect candor is sword and shield.
He understood the nature of man. As a lawyer
he endeavored to get at the truth, at the very heart of a
case. He was not willing even to deceive himself.
No matter what his interest said, what his passion
demanded, he was great enough to find the truth and
strong enough to pronounce judgment against his own
desires.
Lincoln was a many-sided man, acquainted with
smiles and tears, complex in brain, single in heart,
direct as light; and his words, candid as mirrors^ gave
the perfect image of his thought. He was never
afraid to ask—never too dignified to admit that he did
not know. No man had keener wit, or kinder humor,
It may be that humor is the pilot of reason. People
without humor drift unconsciously into absurdity.
Humor sees the other side—stands in the mind like a
spectator, a good-natured critic, and gives its opinion
before judgment is reached. Humor goes with good
nature, and good nature is the climate of reason.
In anger, reason abdicates and malice extinguishes the
torch. Such was the humor of Lincoln that he could
tell even unpleasant truths as charmingly as most men
can tell the things we wish to hear.
He was not solemn. Solemnity is a mask worn by
�( 27 )
ignorance and hypocrisy—is is the preface, prologue,
and index to the cunning or the stupid.
He was natural in his life and thought—master
of the story-teller’s art, in illustration apt, in application
perfect, liberal in speech, shocking Pharisees and
prudes, using any word that wit could disinfect.
He was a logician. His logic shed light. In its
presence the obscure became luminous, and the most
complex and intricate political and metaphysical knots
seemed to untie themselves. Logic is the necessary
product of intelligence and sincerity. It cannot be
learned. It is the child of a clear head and a good
heart.
Lincoln was candid, and with candor often deceived
the deceitful. He had intellect without arrogance,
genius without pride, and religion without cant—that
is to say, without bigotry and without deceit.
He was an orator—clear, sincere, natural. He did
not pretend. He did not say what he thought others
thought, but what he thought.
If you wish to be sublime you must be natural—you
must keep close to the grass. You must sit by the
fireside of the heart : above the clouds it is too cold.
You must be simple in your speech : too much polish
suggests insincerity.
The great orator idealises the real, transfigures the
common, makes even the inanimate throb and thrill,
fills the gallery of the imagination with statues and
pictures perfect in form and color, brings to light the
gold hoarded by memory the miser, shows the glittering
coin to the spendthrift hope, enriches the brain,
ennobles the heart, and quickens the conscience.
Between his lips words bud and blossom.
If you wish to know the difference between an
orator and an elocutionist—between what is felt and
what is said—between what the heart and brain can
�( 28 )
do together and what the brain can do alone—read
Lincoln’s wondrous speech at Gettysburg, and then the
speech of Edward Everett.
The oration of Lincoln will never be forgotten. It
will live until languages are dead and lips are dust.
The speech of Everett will never be read.
The elocutionists believe in the virtue of voice, the
sublimity of syntax, the majesty of long sentences,
and the genius of gesture.
The orator loves the real, the simple, the natural.
He places the thought above all. He knows that the
greatest ideas should be expressed in shortest words_
that the greatest statues need the least drapery.
Lincoln was an immense personality—firm but not
obstinate. Obstinacy is egotism—firmness, heroism.
He influenced others without effort, unconsciously;
and they submitted to him as men submit to nature—
unconsciously. He was severe with himself, and for
that reason lenient with others.
He appeared to apologise for being kinder than his
fellows.
He did merciful things as stealthily as others com
mitted crimes.
Almost ashamed of tenderness, he said and did the
noblest words and deeds with that charming con
usion, that awkwardness, that is the perfect grace of
fmodesty.
As a noble man wishing to pay a small debt to a
poor neighbor, reluctantly offers a hundred dollar bill
and asks for change, fearing that he may be suspected
either of making a display of wealth or a pretence of
payment, so Lincoln hesitated to show his wealth of
goodness, even to the best he knew.
A great man stooping, not wishing to make his
fellows feel that they were small or mean.
�( 29 )
By his candor, by his kindness, by his perfect free
dom from restraint, by saying what he thought, and
saying it absolutely in his own way, he made it not
only possible, but popular, to be natural. He was the
■enemy of mock solemnity, of the stupidly respectable,
of the cold and formal.
He wore no official robes either on his body or his
soul. He never pretended to be more or less, or other,
or different, from what he really was.
He had the unconscious naturalness of Nature's self.
He built upon the rock. The foundation was secure
and broad. The structure was a pyramid, narrowing
as it rose. Through days and nights of sorrow, through
years of grief and pain, with unswerving purpose,
‘ with malice towards none, with charity for all,” with
infinite patience, with unclouded vision, he hoped and
toiled. Stone after stone was laid, until at last the
Proclamation found its place. On that the goddess
stands.
He knew others, because perfectly acquainted with
himself. He cared nothing for place, but everything
for principle ; nothing for money, but everything for
independence. Where no principle was involved,
easily swayed ; willing to go slowly, if in the right
direction ; sometimes willing to stop ; but he would not
go back, and he would not go wrong.
He was willing to wait ; he knew that the event was
not waiting, and that fate was not the fool of chance.
He knew that slavery had defenders, but no defence,
and that they who attack the right must wound them
selves.
He was neither tyrant nor slave ; he neither knelt
nor scorned.
With him, men were neither great nor small—they
were right or wrong.
�( 30 )
Through manners, clothes, titles, rags and race he
saw the real—that which is. Beyond accident, policy,
compromise and war he saw the end.
He was patient as Destiny, whose undecipherable
hieroglyphs were so deeply graven’on his sad and
tragic fate.
Nothing discloses real character like the use of
power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most
people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know
what a man really is, give him power. This is the
supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having
almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on
the side of mercy.
Wealth could not purchase, power could not awe
this divine, this loving man.
He knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong.
Hating slavery, pitying the master—seeking to conquer,
not persons, but prejudices—he was the embodiment of
the self-denial, the courage, the hope, and the nobility
of a Nation.
He spoke not to inflame, not to upbraid, but tn
convince.
He raised his hands, not to strike, but in benediction.
He longed to pardon.
He loved to see the pearls of joy on the cheeks of a
wife whose husband he had rescued from death.
Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest civil
war. He is the gentlest memory of oui* world.
��WROKS BY COL. R. G. INGERSOLL.
s. d.
MISTAKES OF MOSES
1 0
Superior edition, in cloth
1 6
DEFENCE OF FREETHOUGHT
0 6
Five Hours’ Speech at the Triai of C. B.
Reynolds for Blasphemy.
REPLY TO GLADSTONE. With a Biography by
J. M. Wheeler
0 4
ROME OR REASON ? Reply to Cardinal Manning 0 4
CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS
0 3
AN ORATION ON WALT WHITMAN d
0 3
ORATION ON VOLTAIRE
..
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THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS
0 2
TRUE RELIGION ...
0 2
FAITH AND FACT. Reply to Rev. Dr. Field
0 2
GOD AND MAN. Second Reply to Dr Field
0 2
THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
...
0 2
LOVE THE REDEEMER. Reply to Count Tolstoi 0 2
THE LIMITS OF TOLERATION
0 2
A Discussion with Hon. F. D. Ooudert and
Gov. S. L. Woodford
THE DYING CREED
0 2
DO I BLASPHEME ?
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THE CLERGY AND COMMON SENSE "
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SOCIAL SALVATION
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MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE ...
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GOD AND THE STATE
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WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC?
0 2
WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? Part II”'
0 2
ART AND MORALITY
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CREEDS AND SPIRITUALITY
0 1
CHRIST AND MIRACLES
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THE GREAT MISTAKE
0 1
LIVE TOPICS
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MYTH AND MIRACLE
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REAL BLASPHEMY
0 1
REPAIRING THE IDOLS
0 1
Read THE FREETHINKER, edited by G.W. Foote.
Sixteen Pages.
Price One Penny.
Published every Thursday.
R. Forder, 28 Stonecutter-street, London, E.C.
�
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Abraham Lincoln : an oration
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
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1893
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Abraham Lincoln
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\v
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(3
94
Abraham Lincoln—Fifteenth Amendment.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN—FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
BY REV. JOHN WEISS.
Whoever recalls some of the fa
mous dates of history, will have a
suspicion either that Providence in
dulges a taste for coincidences, or
that the historian has been mytholo
gizing. It was understood between
Xerxes and the Carthaginians that,
when he passed over into Greece,
they should invade Sicily. The bat
tle of Salamis was fought on the 23d
of September, 480 b.c., and the great
victory at Himera, in Sicily, gained by
Geton and Theron over Hamilcar,
occurred on the same day. Such a
nice adjustment of events at both
ends of the line of invasion happen
ed so long ago that it passes for an
improbability. But one is ready to
believe it since Gettysburg and
Vicksburg were announced to Ame
rica on the same 4th of July, as
if God celebrated; and Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge
crowned the first Thanksgiving at
which all the States sat on the same
day. Does a sublime irony also
mingle with these grave touches of
Providence ? For I remember that
the head and cap of the Goddess of
Liberty was lifted to its place on the
dome of the Capitol at noon on De
cember 2d, four years after another
head with a cap upon it was lifted
up to draw all people to it. Fused
and moulded in their hearts, the
bronze crowns the precise moment,
as if to give the country God’s opin
ion of an execution.
But April is America’s month of
resurrection. It is full of Easter-
days. On the 19th, in 1689, the
men of Boston put the tyrannical An
dros into his own castle, built by him
to command the town. On the 19th,
in 1775, Lexington retorted sharp
ly on Governor Hutchinson. And
on the 19th, in 1861, Massachusetts
went to Baltimore. This month, Fort
Sumter challenged, and Richmond
surrendered, and Booth finished the
lingering treason. We stand in this
week of patriotic memories, with the
day set apart by Christians for cele
brating a resurrection, to remember
a genuine one in the passing away of
Abraham Lincoln’s spirit into the
proclamation of the Fifteenth Amend
ment. Surely this month, when our
fields begin to resume their green,
marks a springtime of emotions and
ideas that puts an accent on the
page of history.
It is a month when every thing has
seemed so often lost just before
every thing has been virtually gained.
It is the divine vindication of appa
rent failures; and I do not know
that the theory of Providence was
ever more precisely stated than by
two negroes who had just heard of Mr.
Lincoln’s death: Said one, “ Well,I
tell you now, human events be one
mass of ignorances.” Said the other,
11 Ah! yes ; but de Lord puts in his
stick, and stirs them up, and makes
a heap o’ wisdom.” So it seems to
day. If Providence be the grave
digger, the turf finds nutriment. We
should grow tired in mentioning the
evidence of this which has been ao'
�Abraham Lincoln—Fifteenth Amendment.
cumulating ever since the rebellion
brought in a series of disasters. It
was the last resort of a desperation
that defeats itself in taking it. . Paymaster Smith, of the Kearsarge, used
to relate that the Alabama’s flag was
shot away four or five different times
during the action, while our flag was
hit but once. Captain Winslow had
a battle-flag furled at the mizzen with
the stops, ready to let go if victory
was ours ; and the last shot that was
fired by the Alabama carried away
the halyards, and threw it open to
the breeze. So treason at last tore
away the country’s hesitation, and
set liberty broad open over all the
States.
It seems a good thing for Ameri
can pulpits to recall on Easter-Sun
day the character of the man who
first proclaimed the emancipation
which the nation has just secured
and ratified. His own private for
tune represented what is possible to
the poor and miserable, provided
they are reared in a republic; if not
a station as exalted as his own, or
such an opportunity to become en
deared to the hearts of millions, at
least freedom like his own, which
brought out his natural capacity. He
was a conspicuous symbol of the
American idea, born among the poor
white trash of Kentucky. He was
the country reduced to its simplest
terms. When a German soldier, who
had been promoted for good beha
vior in the field, grew very grateful,
and tried to show the President, with
much garrulity, that it was a safe
thing to make him an officer because
he came of an excellent family in
Europe, and was, in fact, the son of
a nobleman: “Oh! never mind
Ki^,” said the witty American no-
95
ble; “ you will not find that to be an
obstacle to your advancement.” The
President meant to say that all the
fine qualities of common people
eventually get to the front in this
country, and all the low qualities of
superfine people are eventually or
dered to the rear, with the mules
and the baggage. How grudgingly
we conceded administration to the
low qualities of his accidental suc
cessor !
The President’s mind was plain,
with a tendency toward metaphysi
cal speculation so decided that he
sometimes told his friends he had
missed his vocation. One of his ear
liest efforts was a rationalistic treatise,
which an over-zealous partisan put
into the stove, lest it should hurt his
political prospects. This quality ap
peared conspicuously in his early
analysis of the sophistries of Senator
Douglas, and was always like some
cleaner or picker, that frees a staple
of its refuse. His common sense
kept it in the service of practical
questions, and it never interfered
with his natural ability to grow up
to their level. He did not represent
the prophetic thought of a few minds,
but the great bulk of thinking, or
rather of the popular instinct, which
is coming up abreast of the finest in
telligence. It was not his mission
to proclaim the truths which were
necessary to America, before there
was an America to accept them.
His healthy growth was due to the
sagacity which waited for the im
pulses of the country to gather head
way, and which never mistook a
good deal of local feeling for a deli
berate American conviction. But he
had a faith in the ultimate resolu
tion of the people, that kept him
�96
Abraham Lincoln—Fifteenth Amendment,
steady all the while. The advanced
posts of truth often sighed to hear
the trumpet’s comfort and assurance
from his lips, and lamented the
silence. But his roots were in the
prairie, where he absorbed both sun
and air; and when he went to the grist,
he went full of nature. His temper
was not enthusiastic; he never fired
the popular heart, any more than the
corn and wheat do in growing. He
never appeared to yearn after the
point which at length he gained ;
but, as if he had the instinct of all
the country’s staples in him to make
the fruit itself put forth its own blos
som, his feeling could not be hurried
to antedate his growth. When the
time came, he said something that
struck another hour of liberty’s life.
For his roots tapped our hearts, and
went working all around for every
drop, slowly to draw in and change
the people’s secret hopes into the
people’s unconcealed America, whose
eyes this morning beam with majesty
and confidence.
His fancy was homely, and seemed
to point his thought on purpose with
the commonest illustrations, as if to
satirize the flowery politicians. Fifty
years of oratory, self-laudation and
arrogance, of corrupt expedients
ably recommended, of crimes against
the people adroitly argued, of latent
treason covered by that flaunting
rag called patriotism—this bad
dream of a restless country was
broken by a rude and honest voice ;
as when he said, “ Gold is good in
its place ; but living, brave, and pa
triotic men are better than gold.”
There is no chance for bribery in
that. How welcome were his sen
tences, bare as your hand, but clos
ed firmly on their object, to hold it,
and nothing more ; not to play fast
and loose with our great ideas, but
to win and keep them for the benefit
of all. The large, hard-featured hand
which tore all our old bunting to the
ground, hung out the flag of the com
mon people of America.
Before me as I write there lies a
cast of his hand, brought to me from
the West, where it was taken. It is
closed tight around a willow stick,
which he had just been whittling.
There is no flesh to spare ; the act
of grasping brings out deep wrinkles
at the base of the thumb, and the
veins which run up to feed the long,
prehensile fingers. Just as you say
it is the most virile hand you ever
saw, its symmetry strikes you. From
the knotted wrist to the perfectly
fashioned nails, it is the hand built
by a man in whom balance of think
ing, tenderness of feeling, perception
for unaffected beauty, gives shape
and artistic finish to a power that
could throttle without drawing
breath.
And the homely willow
stick makes this symbol of a great
president complete.
See this hand in his addresses
and state papers. They are filled
with something better than rhetori
cal contrivances. They show a
power of divesting the subject-mat
ter of every thing that is merely ad
ventitious, either in ornament or in
suggestion.
The President’s religion was, like
his rhetoric, stripped of every incum
brance ; he was content with God
for his day’s march. He woke with
that essential in the morning, and
had reason to be grateful for the
sustenance in his tired bivouac at
night. Whenever he took the name
of God upon his lips, it became the
�Abraham Lincoln—Fifteenth Amendment.
utterance of a heart that was filled
with a sense of the divine presence
in the history of America. The
leaders of the rebellion made a co
pious use of the name of God. Gene
ral Lee was accustomed to speak of
the blessing of the Lord of hosts
which rested on his arms; and Jef
ferson Davis hid the venom of his
sting in the sheath of holy phrases.
You will see elaborate liturgies in
vogue wherever established oppres
sion seeks to prolong its irreligious
life. Bishops and ministers used to
prove the divine sanction of slavery
by being very evangelical about the
Bible, thus literally holding up the
crucifix to advertise the auction-block
and whipping-post.
During the middle ages, a famous
instrument of death, called the
Maiden, was in use. It was the
figure of a beautiful virgin placed in
the niche of a prison cell, to repre
sent the adorable Madonna. The
prisoner, exhausted by fasting and
torture, and turned into this cell,
falls in supplication before this
image, which is contrived to open its
arms, as if to invite his bewildered
fancy to a protecting embrace. He
rushes into the trap ; the arms close,
and a thousand knife-blades kiss his
life away. Such is the religion of
every kind of oppression. It is fair
with all the forms of Christianity,
and its mouth is filled with the di
vine invitation, “ Come unto me, all
ye that labor.” It is a Jesus utterling those words with sinister intent
to keep the wretched in its power;
and a thousand secret miseries spring
forth to drink their blood.
The President never traded in the
name of Jesus. From the testimony
which has been lately brought forvol. i.—7
97
ward by Mr. Herndon, his law-part
ner, who was the intimate of his
opinions, we learn, as we might ex
pect, that his religion was primitive
and simple, as he was ; it consisted
in a profound sense of the Infinite, in
childlike trust, in absolute devotion
to the orders of the day. It will sur
prise some men that he did his work
without a mediator. When John
Alden wanted Miles Standish to
do a bit of courting for him, the old
soldier’s advice was, “ If you want
any thing well done, go and do it
yourself, John.” The President ad
dressed himself directly to the source
of all beauty and goodness. He
never wasted time in speaking well of
Jesus, still less in struggling to ima
gine that his way to the present God
lay through this departed person. His
sincerity needed miracles as little
as Theodore Parker’s did. They
were both alike in freeing their man
liness from the fetters of the super
natural ; that ball and chain clanked
at the ankles of neither. Of what accountto him, in the multifarious tasks
of strength and tenderness which he
accomplished, would have been a be
lief in feeding the five thousand or in
the raising of Lazarus ? He witness
ed a truer resurrestion with his own
eyes ; a country bandaged from head
to foot starting from its noisome
tomb at the voice of a great people.
He cast out demons with little honest
sentences, which they bit and raged
at in vain. All the lameness in the
country gained sound muscles in his
frame, paralyzed liberty leaped up,
threw away its crutches as he passed
by, and grasped a million muskets.
And when, at their approach, he saw
the rebellion, reduced to its own
shape, rush violently down a- steep
�A braham L incoln—Fifteenth Amendment.
9S
place and disappear, the mythologi
cal swine must have seemed less im
pressive. Let us commend to the
churches the problem of this religious
man, who got along so well on sim
ple integrity, and never met a mo
ment so critical as to claim the aid
of a supernatural mediator. Strange
to say, God himself sufficed from the
first gun at Sumter to the proclama
tion of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Abraham Lincoln never played
the diplomatist with God’s name ; he
never used the airy phrases of reli
gion to feather public documents, or
conciliate the respectability of our
theologies. For God was in the
camp of his armies, and claimed a
seat at his council-board, and thun
dered in the great majority which
bade him occupy till death.
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Now the people must bring all
these homely qualities of the great
President to the work of the Fif
teenth Amendment; the same pa
tience and tenacity ; the same good
sense; the same placability; ele
ments that wait for results before
they put on lustre. They are like
the rough gems which catch the light
in noble flashes when long grinding
proves their temper. The amend
mentwill drain our manliest qualities
before it becomes a fact as well as a
law.
*****
We must see that the personal re
ligion of Abraham Lincoln is fur
nished to these men, instead of the
forms of sectarianism. We must in
sist that the missionary shall have
his theology reduced to marching
rations as he goes among those chil
dren in religion to distribute to them
the plain truths of morals, of health
and order, of a practical knowledge
of God, of hopes less fantastical
than their crude feelings now claim.
But first, some missionary must
visit us. What Northern sect cafi
invite them into its meeting-houses
with the text, “ The rich and poor
meet together; the Lord is the Maker
of them all ” ? Only those can meet
together who are able to offer pre
miums for the best seats. It will be
long before a black man with money
in his pocket can compete at this
new auction-block, where religion is
knocked down to and by the highest
bidder. May it be long, indeed !
What sect can venture to proclaim
to the negro that Christianity means
brotherhood, when it does not mean
that in horse-cars, hotels, railroads,
theatres, and concert-rooms, and on
ly means it to the extent of about
four of the worst pews in a meeting
house. It does not mean that in the
very places where our chances for
contact are the best. It is a glitter
ing generality that keeps its own
coupe ; the seat for the other person
is not yet put in. Will the China
man, whose Buddhism received its
first inspiration from the heart’s na
tural recoil at caste, be much im
pressed with the equality that has
forgotten the first lesson in optics,
that yellow is a constituent of white ?
The day will come when white itself
in this country will depend upon a
harmonic gradation of all the cheeks
that the sun kisses. The sun has no
sallies of contempt, of which these
are the hues. It loves to divide its
unity. Whatever form this naturali
zation may assume, the missionary
must be its first preacher, and if he
will insist upon it that one is our Lord
and Master, let him at least sweeten
�Abraham Lincoln—Fifteenth Amendment.
the assumption by confessing that all
of us are brethren. In this respect
the Catholic starts with an advantage
over the Protestant of a thousand
years of ministry among all races and
tolors. Rome has no squeamishness
that turns on nationality. It knows
hdlv to put a black bishop over a
black diocese ; and in course of time
the country will discover that the
whole diocese will vote to please the
bishop. The pope does not go into
a cathedral and put up seats at high
mass to be contended for by prospe
rous dry-goods merchants ; he pre
fers to collect his Peter’s pence by
making the whole building the home
and solace of the miserable. The
more meagre and bloodless the fly
is, the more sumptuous is the invita
tion to walk into the pope’s parlor.
You may claim that he is fallible, but
you can not deny that such diplo
macy will have infallible results. It
will bring all the pariahs of America
to their knees before Rome’s confes
sionals.
Of all the incidents in the New
Testament, the baptizing of the
Ethiopian has been most dear to the
city that loves to propagate the dra
matic faith of eighteen centuries.
The South has already been selected
for a special field. Politics and re
ligion powerfully combine to guide
the operations of the priest among
this people of ardent feeling, picto
rial fancy, flashing emotions. Music
and symbols may attract them intp a
fetichism, or idol-worship, no more
emancipating than what their an
cestors in Guinea practiced ; and per
haps some day all these dusky millions at the elevation of the host will
bow down to a policy that is. at
war with republics, that watches to
gg
throw our Bible out and bring our
money in, to found sectarian schools
and a feudal system on the soil
which free blood has so often ran
somed. Crucifix in hand, the priest
will point to the symbol of sorrow as
he walks among the despised and re
jected ; they will recollect their stripes
and perceive our prejudice, and
throng into the gate which the man
who was acquainted with grief will
seem to throw open to them; and
the cross will again become a club to
dash out the brains of revering hu
manity. Protestantism has no chance
short of instantaneous and absolute
equality, North and South, practical
fraternity that makes exclusion a
crime, and opportunity a claim to
the country’s gratitude in every man
who offers it. Then your Fifteenth
Amendment will be ratified, not by
mere bluster of cannon, but by the
sincere welcome of thirty million
lips.
After the battle of Gettysburg, the
grateful heart of Abraham Lincoln
compromised itself to all our hopes
in these sentences : “ Thanks to all,
peace does not appear so distant as
it did. I hope it will come soon,
and come to stay, and so come as to
be worth the keeping in all future
time. It will then have been proved
that among freemen there can be no
successful appeal from the ballot to
the bullet, and that they who take
such appeal are sure to lose their
case and pay the cost. And then
there will be some black men who*
can remember that with silent,
tongue, and clinched teeth, and.
steady eye, and well-poised bayo
net, they have helped mankind on to'
this great consummation. Let us bequite sober. Let us diligently ap
ply the means, never doubting that a.
just God in his own good time will1
give us the rightful result.”
It seems to be a message from him
on an Easter morning, “ Let us be
quite sober. Let us diligently apply
the means.”
�We
f an dahL
JUNE, 1870.
THE NEW POWERS OF CON the force, intelligence, and capacity
for organization to use that power
GRESS.
efficiently, he can command any
The pretense of State sovereignty thing and every thing that rightfully
vanished at Appomatox. It disap belongs to him. That, therefore, is
peared when Lee sheathed his per our primary reliance. If the negro
jured sword. The Tenth Section of neglects to avail himself of this
Article First of the Constitution for means of self-defense, it is his own
bade the States to exercise the usual fault. If he proves incapable of
powers of sovereigns : those touch using it efficiently, that will be his
ing treaties, the raising of armies, misfortune. But whether such a re
the coinage of money, the laying of sult comes from his weakness or his
taxes on imports, etc. The Thir neglect, it is the same peril to us;
teenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth and we can not afford to let this
Amendments still further cut down ready weapon of the nation’s de
the powers of the States. Following fense drop from our hands. Whe
in the line of that Tenth Section, ther weak or neglectful, we must, for
and carrying out its policy still fur our own sakes, for the nation’s sake,
ther, these amendments define who protect this ally to the fullest extent
shall constitute the citizens of a that the circumstances allow. In
State, and prohibit the State’s in the present transition state, for seve
terference, in certain respects, with ral years to come, the new citizen
the civil and political rights of its must have the special intervention
citizens. Still further, these amend of Congress. The most explicit
ments intrust Congress with the duty laws, such as can not be evaded
of providing for the enforcement of or transgressed with impunity, are
their provisions. As to the matters the debt the nation owes to the new
specified in these amendments, voter.
therefore, Congress is empowered
It is not for us to suggest the de
to exercise legislation in the am tails of such laws. One or two prin
plest manner.
ciples we may presume to point out
We do not rely, in the last resort, —principles which should underlie
on any legislation for the protection all legislation on these points. All
of the black race. Every voting will admit that the difficulties in this
class, in the long run, protects itself. class of laws are—first, to initiate
The negro has the ballot. If he has proceedings; secondly, to secure
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Abraham Lincoln - Fifteenth Amendment
Creator
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Weiss, John
Description
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Place of publication: [Chicago]
Collation: 94-99 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From The Standard, Vol. 1, no. 2, June 1980. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". It was ratified on February 3,1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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[1870]
Identifier
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G5446
Subject
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Race
Suffrage
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Abraham Lincoln - Fifteenth Amendment), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Abraham Lincoln
American Reconstruction
Conway Tracts
Race
Racism
United States Constitution