Lincoln's Birthday : $b a comprehensive view of Lincoln as given in the most noteworthy essays, orations and poems, in fiction and in Lincoln's own writings
History
Lincoln's Birthday : $b a comprehensive view of Lincoln as given in the most noteworthy essays, orations and poems, in fiction and in Lincoln's own writings
There are contradictory opinions in reference to Mr. Lincoln's heart
and humanity. One opinion is that he was cold and obdurate, and the
other opinion is that he was warm and affectionate. I have shown you
that Mr. Lincoln first lived and breathed upon the world from his head
and conscience. I have attempted to show you that he lived and
breathed upon the world through the tender side of his heart, subject
at all times and places to the logic of his reason, and to his exalted
sense of right and equity; namely, his conscience. He always held his
conscience subject to his head; he held his heart always subject to
his head and conscience. His heart was the lowest organ, the weakest
of the three. Some men would reverse this order, and declare that his
heart was his ruling organ; that always manifested itself with love,
regardless of truth and justice, right and equity. The question still
is, was Mr. Lincoln a cold, heartless man, or a warm, affectionate
man? Can a man be a warm-hearted man who is all head and conscience,
or nearly so? What, in the first place, do we mean by a warm-hearted
man? Is it one who goes out of himself and reaches for others
spontaneously because of a deep love of humanity, apart from equity
and truth, and does what it does for love's sake? If so, Mr. Lincoln
was a cold man. Or, do we mean that when a human being, man or child,
approached him in behalf of a matter of right, and that the prayer of
such a one was granted, that this is an evidence of his love? The
African was enslaved, his rights were violated, and a principle was
violated in them. Rights imply obligations as well as duties. Mr.
Lincoln was President; he was in a position that made it his duty,
through his sense of right, his love of principle, his constitutional
obligations imposed upon him by oath of office, to strike the blow
against slavery. But did he do it for love? He himself has answered
the question: "I would not free the slaves if I could preserve the
Union without it." I use this argument against his too enthusiastic
friends. If you mean that this is love for love's sake, then Mr.
Lincoln was a warm-hearted man--not otherwise. To use a general
expression, his general life was cold. He had, however, a strong
latent capacity to love; but the object must first come as principle,
second as right, and third as lovely. He loved abstract humanity when
it was oppressed. This was an abstract love, not concrete in the
individual, as said by some. He rarely used the term love, yet was he
tender and gentle. He gave the key-note to his own character when he
said, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," he did what he
did. He had no intense loves, and hence no hates and no malice. He had
a broad charity for imperfect man, and let us imitate his great life
in this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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