Show i J i J I I Abraham Line i f u. u f Bein eo r I I I 1 t he Human C I t I I j I j I 1 7 1 r i i C ac at j ky r h v. v t j. j i tJ X x a. a ni w r Ni I I I t 4 7 1 r I Lt oJ tl 4 t 4 r f o v. v H x Ii if 4 r f iff 1 j it 4 5 r Y i II rl t 1 t 1 7 1 a r I t G l I 1 4 y 1 i By y ELMO ELMO SCOTT Y WATSON i the fact t that 1 rat It deals f with a n certain set set of truths m most gt y of which wilch can be backed baked up by do docu documentary cu un u- u n J evidence It It Is Js ra rather her q queer v 1 that there here should have been In the them t or t i m past past past-aad- and and- for that that matter still still are are- areso so many ways of writing blog t raphy One style style t which was wasp much in dp vogue In the early days da s 's of this 1 r. n Republic v was was the U the kind which made d r S. S 1 i i J Lincoln IQ l us of f nil all biography 1 1 q t 1 I F Fot DS as he said sald bl trind trI nd Herndon g 7 M rap written rItt n nr are false alse and misleading The Ther r j author of a f fl fe of ot his hero paints him as a's a pert per per- t t feet c Man mt bi erf and s sup sup- I. I pr his describes s-describes the success r Qt I s. s hero In glowing t terms never er e once hinting z i ai at is s s' s ancl blunders blunders' I i i. it be this 1 L th this the prophetic v vision slon 0 of of this man manof iJ rrt r.- r. of or destiny d in hi ro foresee ese what his biographers ra I r r- r f I- I r do n and J caused aused him to utter titter those thos words word f For For i tel affer his hiS' death d ath if a perfect perfect- hotd ter of writers writerS' S t leap an creating f a Lincoln oln myth In mUch ranch j. j I I the the sar as ns Lincoln himself had charr char char- r f teriz d If this this HIls a It I s process when It w was s st t J just declared Washington n isnow is rapt i now V billy teel te j engraving Of or the the real real man an who IO II ed lived and nd loved and hated and schemed we Know linow 1 but flut little Hundreds of f people are ace pow k X J k engaged gage I In in sm smoothing out the tite lines on Lincoln's face forcing face forcing all nil features to the common mold mold mold- i so sU that hat h he inay be he known not as he really was but according to their poor standard as ns he be should have been Somewhere between the extremes of the old old- 1 st style le nisi bonum biographer and the modern muckraker somewhere between the superficial super biographer an and the com compiler lf r of the dull facts of a Who there lies the h Ideal al type of biographer t who Imo ho can cnn canso canso so blend fact and opinion who ca can n so a a c both the creation of a mythical superman and und the delineation of a 0 weak vessel of human clay and andt t can eln present the portrait of or a man who Is both a 8 hero and a n believable belle human being Modern 7 biography Inns has furnished at least one example of I. I this type of writer but the tragedy of It Is that death Interrupted his work before it was finished j For such Is Is the volume two study of of the first f 0 0 years of ot Abraham Lincoln's life lite by t the Je late Albert J. J Beveridge i published recently by the S. S Flos Floughton n Mifflin 1 company Literary critics seem r- r to be unanimous In the opinion expressed by one J t of them that On the whole this is incomparably Ii S and ably y the greatest story of Lincoln's life before Presidency It was a n cruel str stroke that too took from us before he reached the Civil U h iI w war war r. r F For Far T Beveridge died soon after he had har made the fast draft of his chapter on the Lincoln Lincoln- Douglas debates dehateR and as another critic crith has hils Justly said It ends like Schubert's Unfinished Sym phony For the Lincoln wl which stalks through the pages 1 of ot Beveridge's bool books B Is n a different Lincoln from flom that pre presented t to us by the myth makers He lie f fa isa Is Isa a far le les Ie s perfect but much mor more understandable understand understand- able ahle figure figure n a human being He lie had his weal nesses messes his flaws some of ot which are n not lt wholly admirable themselves but hut the man himself Is s ail all the more admirable because he Ire rose to the heights he did In spite of ot those laws flaws Despite the tire fact t that nc Bc Beveridge demolishes many of ot the favorite fa myths about Lincoln he Is not an un Idle Itle J- J t. t nor by hy a u stretch of Imagination could he be r tied Mth i-Mth the muckrakers erS He Ile does pinta not cringe t before a fact that dissipates a n cherished Illusion It Ir I is iI time the only thin thing an nn honest can cnn do So I says n R one critic and therein lies ills I the rho great rea r value of what e Beveridge has hus done The myth f i u ilia ours I lynched n Herndon for telling the truth J Lincoln ln many years ears f ago ngn Beveridge has tins r el C without ut exception But nut hud t e lived It If Is certain that the modem mik rv r. would not nOI have dared durell try tC to 1 1 1 jn W Washington Washington- t L All All t portraits rt ir from m i Beveri Beverages es Lincoln ln U t courtes courtesy Houghton Mifflin Company ropa any y i t i T i f l' f I I I. I 1 Abraham 1 Lincoln l corn The maci madet bY A s. s n Urbana 1 Om m the col j col-j l lection of Fre lcJ r H. H Ht 1 Mers i 2 Mat Mahy Matr r Toyd tf Lincoln i ln t From a a print In the the- J bf OU r R Barrett arr t. t of 35 3 3 Abraham Lincoln la about out 1848 From a d daguerreotype daguer guer merIX rr c d by y- y Robert T T. Lincoln inthe inthe in the e j t L i 6 Ff er ck H. H e e e. e 4 4 Abraham Lincoln Lincoln in 1858 Th The ma made e a at 7 Macomb om I III I. I Fr From m the collection of Jf Frederick Frederick H. H ft t t t r M ii N n iiii i MN i r tHI W i Synch lynch him There simply Is Is' Is no no answer r to the thet which he prese ts 4 t acts c presents r ift The lie myths whIch Beveridge has n demolished are many The he picture of the boy Lincoln reading by the light of the fireplace Beveridge shows ws to be imaginary The story of his industrious and energetic energetic ener ener- getic youth hat hati been leen much overdone for Be Beveridge shows that he had considerable of a n distaste for manual labor did it It only when it was wa absolutely necessary and when he did hire out his employers often had reason to complain u that t he be was more likely to be he telling stories than thanT T working The story of his letter to a minister begging him to preach a sermon over his mothers mother's grave rave is shown to be he Impossible caus be-caus at that time Lincoln could not write Another favorite story about Lincoln Is that of ot othis his witnessing the time slave auction In New Orleans and his declaration that when he had a n chance he ho would hit that Institution and hit It hard It Is true that hp saw the slave e auction but there is no record that he commented upon it either then or thereafter and for years his attitude toward slavery was one of Indifference Especially Esp Espe o daily was this shown In his career as a legislator In Illinois lU when a n decided stand on slavery would have made him very vely unpopular Lincoln had hal all nil the more reason to keep silent on nn the time slavery question then for as a 8 legislator he was wm more concerned with mana managing the fight for the removal of the capital from Vandalla Vandalia to Springfield Spring Spring- field In his own district and he was not taking any chances on antagonizing anyone n one who would have any Influence In that contest No other historian has bas ever made as S careful a study of Lincoln's career In the Illinois legisla IC legislature sla slature ture tore as ns has hns Beveridge and from that study there Is only one possible conclusion lon to draw draw that that Lincoln was a clever manipulator n II typical partisan nn politician more mOle concerned with results result than methods and guided by hy expediency ncy This was true especially of sin slavery very for tor n as ne Beveridge says Two decades were to pass before Lincoln showed much concern over O slavery cry As a congressman Beveridge e shows Lincoln to have been pretty much of a n failure ure His fits appeal for election was not because e of any special Illness for tor the Job but as he lie said Turn furn ahou Is h fair tall fairplay play play you you know that Is my argument After being elected he tie virtually crossed double his constituents with a It strong sI speech ch n against the Mexican war which was popular In his state and they were so sn Infuriated b by this that 11 he wn wits was denied election re-election and his whole political I career reer seem seemed cI wrecked forever Deeply humiliated he returned to Illinois a n discredited man and again took up his lu profession of law Jaw At AI about this time he be became subject of fits of ot melancholy which bordered closely Insanity According to the popular le legend end It was his lR griel over the death of Ann Rutledge e which was wn re responsible for Cor this condition In view o of the recent furore over the publication of the purported purported pur pur- ported love letters between Ann Rutledge and ami Lincoln In the Atlantic Monthly l It Is Interesting to note that B Beveridge e shows that Ann was In love lo with a n young man named John l and not wit wit- Lincoln nut aud Ild that althou although h Lincoln no doubt was deeply affected by Anns Ann's death II it could not account for tor his condition de described by one of his friends as ns oln was crazy crazy as rf ti l Loon on Altho Although gh most of Lincoln's love affairs fc were unfortunate by lY mental I lapses Including his unhappy marriage to o Mary T Todd dd from which he had J b out Beveridge's Be s 's conclusion on seems t to fly that P J hs ns bitter dis- dis appointment In politics and the strain caused by excessive study and reading which Were pr n. n responsible for th the n m melancholy holy which over overtook ovel took him from bout time to time Among th the oth other r weaknesses of of thIs this very er human being Abraham Lincoln coln which h B Be shows was was' his h 1 it f anonymous lett letters Is Isto to the n newspapers Jt lIt was one of these which Involved In th the famous f ino s 's duel with James' James with the that Shields which leaves one feeling 1 by the he standards of the play day Lincoln deserved a thrashing But the result of this was was as ns I Beveridge Be points out At last his habit t formed in boyhood of ridiculing other persons through offensive anonymous letters had been sternly checked N Never r did Lincoln oln for forgot forget pt that experience From the time of the Shields duet Lincoln was Infinitely and considerate con con- con coil In his dealings others He Ele Heas was as a n regular reader of newspapers anti and especially the newspaper poetry of the time many pieces of which he clipped More than that he attempted to write poetry himself Ills Ells earliest poem is the now famous couplet which he scribbled In the copy book when wilen he was a boy Abraham Lincoln his Stand hand and pen He lIe will be good but God knows when But It was during his career a as a legislator both state and national that h he became more inure as a n versifier Beveridge e records In one I instance instance In which 11 he wrote a poem of nf ten verses on the ancient topics of death ath icay ay and the comforts of memory and It If was only one of four cantos erld Bc Beveridge reproduces one which he calls the best hest of the verses erse in this canto cunto and r re remarks remarks re- re marks Fortunately the remaining canto of ut this production appear to ha have hah h been lost Then Theu h he says Lincoln was thIrl seven s sn n year ear old when he wrote those these poems Nearly f twenty years par were to elapse before he produced the R Second Inaugural But It was also In this period that the IAn Lin coin of Immortality was being molded In the th fiery furnace of these latter lutter days s 's of impenetrable gloom And one of the m mysteries trl s of Lincoln which Beveridge does not attempt to m solve tend and which may never be solved Is the sudden genius In th the use of words which Lincoln t developed at ut this period In his career Beveridge shows him him working for tor a literary style seeking the exact word ward or phrases and the musical Uon which were to make the Immortal But there Is no reason which cart can be assigned for the change p from tom the man who wrote a very ery poor kind of poetry Into the writer of matchless prose But nut the fuel fact remains that h by the time h he lie was f flirty forty five five this tills unhappily married lIIn lawyer lawer and und politician who nho differed r only from front hum him of other mid western mid western In lawyers of ot hl his day clay only b by his Inflexible honesty ti hi ambition and his great personal lin alternations of gayety a ety and gloom 1001 was vis beginning h to fo develop de tle Into the tow towering genius of the Lincoln Lincoln- I Dou Doug Douglas Ils debater mil and the only man who win I Iha ha have Ic led the nation sac safely ly through the four ye-in ye of ot agony of 1 G. GI n By some n strange e jy ty I this this this' I 1 man whom Beveridge Be makes males us lIS see S so clearly was changing into the statesman and leader who probably could never have hn existed d I the molding In the time fiery furnace of hl his earl early years curs when he W was IS disciplined b bv by humilia I driven to a n ruthless self by hy dis dis- appointment nt So for nil all that flint till thin latest st hing of Lincoln takes tales from I rapper nI n away us many a 11 tl legend c jt nd he has tins given us an Infinitely greater great er and fin liner finer r character and one more worthy of ot I our respect and admiration because through an nu understanding of Abraham Lincoln the human being we can come nearer an nn und understanding of 01 I Lincoln oln the thc Immortal |