Show greatness of lincoln shown in in State statecraft cira ft writing in the st louis post dis patch nathaniel W stephenson Step heason professor of history nt at the college of 0 charleston S C thus reviews president Lincol ns great achievements the history of the north had vir virtually become by april 1861 the history of lincoln himself and during the remaining years of the presidents life it Is 13 to separate his personality sona lity from the trend of national history any attempt to understand the achievements and the omissions of the northern people without undertaking an intelligent estl estimate mate of their leader would be only to duplicate the story of hamlet with hamlet left out according to the opinion of english military experts against the great greaf military genius geilus of certain southern leaders fate opposed the unbroken resolution and passionate devotion to the union which he wor shipped of the great northern resident As long ns as he be lived and ruled the people of the north there could be no turning back I 1 na ile was nether a saint nor dor a villain what tie he actually was Is not however so easily stated prodigious men are arc never easy to sum up and lincoln wits was a prodigious man dian the more one studies him the more individual lie he appears to be ky by degrees one comes to understand how it was possible for contemporaries to hold contradictory views of him nod and tor for each to believe that his views were proved by the facts Lincol ns friends and enemies to measure Lincol ns achievement two things must be remembered on the one hand his bis task was not as arduous as it might have been because the most intellectual part of the north had definitely committed itself either irretrievably for or ir reconell ably ag igainia agal ainiA nit his policy lincoln therefore dad not have to trouble himself with this portion of the population on the other hand that part which lie he had to master included such emotional rhetoricians as horace greeley creeley such fierce zealots zealous as henry winter davis of Maryin maryland nid who made him trouble indeed and benjamin wade I 1 stich military egotists egoists as me clellan and pope such euch crafty doub double e dealers as his own secretary of the the treasury such astute grafters drafters gr as cameron such miserable creatures us s a certain powerful capitalist who sacrificed his army to their own lust for profits aud filched gleber from army contracts the wonder of Lincol ns achieve ment Is that lie he contrived at last to extend his hold over nil all these diverse elements that lie he persuaded some outwitted others and overcame them all the subtlety of this task would have ruined any stat statesman esmin of the sort sorl great creative ability we are arc een today far from a definitive understanding of 0 Lincol ns statecraft but there Is perhaps justification fi for venturing upon one prophecy the farther from him we get and the more clearly we see him in perspective spec tive the more shall we realize his crea creative tise influence upon his party in the lincoln of his ultimate biographer there will be more of iron than ot of a less enduring metal in the figure fl ure of the lincoln of the present tradition though none of his bis gentleness will disappear there will be more emphasis placed upon his firmness arid and upon such stich episodes as that of 0 december ISCO when his bis single will turned the scale against compromise upon his steadfastness I 1 in n the def defeat e nj of his party at the polls in 1862 the civil war was ln in brath Lincol ns war those modern pacifists paci fists who claim him as their own orin are beside the mark they will never ge get t over the illusions about lincoln until they see as all the world Is beginning to see that his career has uni universal it sig significance nill because of its hearing bearing upon the universal problem of democracy it will not do ever to forget that he was a man of the people always playing the hand of the people in the limited social sense of that word though playing it with none of the heat usually met with in the statesmen of successful democracy from cleon to from andrew jackson to lloyd george ills his gentleness does docs not remove lincoln from that stern category throughout his life besides his passion for the union besides his antipathy for slavery there dwelt in ills his very heart love of and faith in tile the plain people we shall never see sec him in true historic perspective until w we 0 cone conceive eive him as the instrument of a vast social idea the determination W V au I 1 V abair to t pictured abe 5 ol at mra mr Abra abraham abrahart harn lincoln which wj was pre presented atad to the be while by paired todd lincoln Uneal rr too a at 1 the great emancipator the pa Dalot tal Is the tb work ork ol of katherina catherine hot hcan to make a government based upon the plain people successful in war intense love for mankind he did not scruple to seize power when he thought the cause of the people demanded it and his enemies were prompt to accuse him of holding to the doctrine that the end justifies the means a hasty conclusion which will have to be reconsidered what concerns us more closely Is the nite conviction that lie he felt no sa sacrifice crince too great it if it advanced the happiness of the generality of mankind five fire weeks after the second inauguration augu ration lee surrendered and the w war ar was virtually at an end what was to come after was inevitably the overshadowing topic of the hour blany anecdotes represent lincoln in aliese last few days of his life as possessed by a high though melancholy mood of extreme mercy therefore much has been inferred from the following words in his last public address made on the night of the eleventh of april in the present situation As na the phrase goes it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the south I 1 am considering si and shall not fall fail to act when action shall be proper no animosity in his heart what was to be done for the south what treatment should be accorded the southern leaders engrossed the president and his cabinet at the meeting on april 14 which was destined to be their last secretary welles has preserved the spirit of the meeting in a striking anecdote lincoln said no one need expect lie he would take any part in hanging or killing those men even the worst of them frighten them out of the country open the gates let down tile the bars scare them off he said throwing up his hands as it if scoring scaring sheep enough lives have boon been sacrificed we must extinguish our resentments presentments resent ments if we expect harmony and nulon while lincoln was thus arming himself with a valiant mercy a brind band of conspirators at an obscure g house in washington were planning ma his assassination the passage of CO years has provell prove fully necessary to the placing of ua coln coin in historic perspective no president in hla his tn time with the possible exception of washington wits was so bitterly tinted hated and so fler fiercely cely reviled on the other hand none ans been the lie object of such intemperate hero worship however the gren greatest test in the land were in the main quirk quick to see him film in per perspective spec tive and to hla historic it Is 19 recorded of davis dails that in niter after deys tie a beautiful tribute to lincoln aind wild salil next 1 to the of nf flip dip alion on fe derney the benth of atio i 1 coln coin was the hie darkest l day she hc south Sl tins bas ever koil known |