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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.
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[s.n.]
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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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Text
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English
Abraham Lincoln
American Reconstruction
Conway Tracts
Race
Racism
United States Constitution