VIII. THE MAN AND THE CONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE Typical Incidents From Among Momentous Scenes. Experiences Demanding Mercy and Not Sacrifice. Humanity and the Great School of Experience. Simple Interests That Never Grow Old. Some Incidents From the Great Years. IX. FALSEHOOD AIDS NO ONE'S TRUTH Freedom to Misrepresent Is Not Freedom. Homely Ways To Express Truth. X. THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY The Great Tragedy. The Time When "Those Who Came To Scoff Remained To Pray." Some Typical Examples Giving Views of Lincoln's Life. Remembrance At the End of a Hundred Years. XI. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS A Masterpiece of Meaning for America. The Harmonizing Contrast of Men. The Mission of America. LINCOLN AND AMERICAN FREEDOM CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS I. A PERSONAL LIFE AND ITS INTEREST TO AMERICANS "America First" has probably as many varieties of meaning and use as "Safety First." It means to every individual very much according to what feelings it inspires in him of selfishness or patriotism. We are inspired as we believe, and, to be an American, it is necessary to appreciate the meaning and mission of America. American history is composed of the struggle to get clear the meaning of American liberty. Through many years of distress and sacrifice, known as the Revolutionary War, the American people freed themselves from un-American methods and masteries imposed on them from across the sea. Out of that turmoil of minds came forth one typical leader and American, George Washington. But we did not yet have clear the meaning of America, and through yet more years of even worse suffering, involving the Civil War, we freed ourselves from the war-making methods and masteries entrenched within our own government. Out of that political turmoil of minds appeared another American, Abraham Lincoln, whose life represents supremely the most important possibilities in the meaning and ideal of America. To know the mind-making process that developed Washington and Lincoln is to know not only the meaning but also the mission of America. Every American child and every newcomer to our shores is in great need to understand clearly and indisputably their interest in American freedom, as being human freedom and world freedom, if they are to realize and fulfill their part as Americans. The American vision of moral freedom and social righteousness can in no way be made clearer than in studying the process of development that individually prepared Washington and Lincoln to be the makers and preservers of a developing democracy for America and for the American mind of the world.