The Wonderful Story of Lincoln: And the Meaning of His Life for the Youth and Patriotism of AmericaStevens, C. M. (Charles McClellan)
History
The Wonderful Story of Lincoln: And the Meaning of His Life for the Youth and Patriotism of America
Stevens, C. M. (Charles McClellan)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Juvenile literature
Washington was charged with the heroic task of making the thirteen
colonies safe for "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness;"
Lincoln's patriotic mission was to unchain this Ideal for all America:
and Wilson's sublime conception was to make the world "safe for
democracy," that its peace might be planted on "the trusted
foundations of liberty."
A mind-union upon human meaning as an ideal is necessary for the
patriotism of America. The right to life means that the making of
right life has a right way. Those who deny the meaning of America
divest themselves of all claims in reason upon the rights of life
defined in American history. The American kingdom of right is
perfecting itself as rapidly as minds can be mobilized for its sublime
task. The war-message extending the definition of American freedom
says:
"We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion.
We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the
sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of
the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have
been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nations can
make them."
And, finally, the duty of every American, worthy of America, enters
the third epoch of American history, as did the patriot duty of
Washington and Lincoln in their time. The message concludes in these
measured terms:
"It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into
war--into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization
itself seeming to be in the balance.
"But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy,
for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in
their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations,
for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as
shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself
at last free.
"To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything
that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who
know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her
blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she
can do no other."
The world in its social evolution has come on through its immemorial
struggle to the crisis in its history, where civilization, as liberty
in moral law, can progress further only as the forces of humanity are
organized "to make the world safe for democracy." The final truth is
that the world will be made safe for democracy when democracy is made
safe for the individual. All political creeds, religious interests and
moral ideals, must have this democracy in which to work, before they
can become free to develop their own truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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