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Albraillaiinijii LiiBieoJiia 
 
 Felbrasirs^ 12, IBM 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMIES M. ASlLEf 
 
 
QxchangQ 
 Univ. of Mich. 
 
 OCT 1 4 1933 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Address Delivered in Memorial Hall, Toledo, Ohio 
 February 12, 1918 
 
 BY 
 
 James M.i'Ashley 
 
 Cm^ 
 

 Excbaage 
 Univ. of Mich. 
 
 °CT 14 19S9 
 
Abraham Lincoln 
 
 "How "humble yet how hopeful he could be; 
 
 How in good fortune and ill the same, 
 Not bitter in defeat nor boastful in success, 
 
 Thirsty for power nor feverish for fame." 
 
 Two names in America's wonderful history will forever serve as 
 beacon lights to those who love liberty and their fellow men. George 
 Washington, soldier, statesman, father of his country; Abraham Lincoln, 
 master pilot of the ship of state, inspired leader of men, whose matchless 
 statesmanship aroused and directed the heroic men who saved the Union, 
 removed the blight of human slavery from our midst, recreated a nation 
 of free men; a nation destined, under the providence of God, to become 
 the greatest of commonwealths, in whose fate the welfare of man- 
 kind is involved, a nation ever slow to anger but with high courage to 
 maintain the right. . Destined to win victory, not as brutal supermen, as 
 we in horror behold today the attempt made in stricken Europe, through 
 seas of blood and oceans of tears, but as fellow men, all children of a 
 just God, by excellence in the gentle ax'ts of peace, with malice towards 
 none and charity towards all. 
 
 Born in 1809, dying in 1865, the life and work of Abraham Lin- 
 coln embraced a period in the life of the nation equal in importance 
 to that in which Washington and Hamilton battled, thought and 
 toiled for twenty-five years to the end that, from a small beginning, 
 there should spring a mighty people, secure in their liberty and in the 
 fruits of their toil, with a constitutional government strong but just and 
 gentle in the administration of written laws made by and for the people; 
 invincible in war against foreign foes; fit to serve not only as a beacon 
 light to the oppressed of other lands, but ready, able and willing to aid 
 in the extension of the blessings of that liberty to the men of other races 
 and other climes. 
 
 Less than sixty years ago the institution of human slavery hung like 
 a pall over this fair land. The national life of our people was one of 
 uncertainty, of dread, of apprehension, before the coming conflict of two 
 irreconciliable civilizations. 
 
 In the Southland were nine millions of Anglo-Saxons and four 
 millions of negro slaves. There feudalism was revived, that relic of 
 barbarism that held the humanity of Europe in its yoke for the four 
 hundred years known to historians as "the dark ages;" transplanted to 
 the New World, where, nourished by a wealth of virg'n soil, fed by the 
 unrequited toil of the slave, led by men of a world-conquering" race, 
 trained in the leadership of thought and action, with a settled, aggressive 
 policy, it threatened the domination of the New World. Cotton was 
 King, and the wealth of the growing commerce of the world was 
 accumulated at a pace never known before. The slave baron, brainy, 
 courageaus, daring, skillful in statecraft, faithful to his policy and 
 leaders, had, aided by powerful politicians of the North, seized and 
 dominated the national government, and was fast encroaching upon 
 our national life. The shadow and the dread of a recurrence of the 
 centuries of the dark ages rested heavily upon the heart and conscience 
 of the Nation. 
 
 - — 3 — 
 
In the greater Northland another civilization had arisen, based on 
 the greatest liberty to the individual consistent with the maintenance of 
 order, and had, as its basic truth, the principle that all men were created 
 with equal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under the 
 protection of constitutional law. It was based on free labor, on contracts 
 enforcible by law. It was nourished in the log school nouse; and the 
 lives of its men and women were enriched by the living truths that came 
 in lines of rude eloquence from the lips of the earnest men who carried the 
 gospel truths from one rude hamlet to another. The brave and energetic 
 the oppressed of all lands, came with glad hearts to help create a mighty 
 commonwealth. This civilization soon produced inventors. Canals, 
 the steam engine and the railroad, vast and powerful machines, soon 
 harnessed the power of nature, and the slave labor of the South was soon 
 equaled and then surpassed in productiveness, and twenty millions of free 
 people were ready to defend their civilization, even in an appeal to the 
 God of battles. Cotton, tilled by slave labor, was no longer king. Corn 
 wheat, the products of the factory— the results of the toil of free labor- 
 became greater in value and brought to the many men of the North more 
 of the necessities, the conveniences and the luxuries of life, and the educa- 
 tion to enjoy them, than cotton brought to those of the South, Two 
 mighty civilizations stood face to face. The great conflict was near at 
 hand. One or the other must perish. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, of all the men of the North, was best fitted by 
 nature and equipped by training to lead in this great conflict for the 
 preservation of free institutions and the maintenance of that national 
 union necessary to conserve the energies of a great people in their on- 
 ward march towards a higher civilization. 
 
 Born and reared amidst the hardships of a rude and turbulent frontier 
 — his education in a log school house in the bare rudiments did not ex- 
 ceed a year. But in his speeches and writings he displayed a style 
 distinctive of his individuality; the structural order, clearness, sense of 
 proportion, ease, simplicity— that gave classic quality to his utterances. 
 Few men had so little of what is commonly regarded as oratory; and few 
 have so constantly approached the high literary art everywhere apparent 
 in his work. He early evidenced a passion for books and reading. Of 
 these days his good old mother says, "Abe was a kind and dutiful son to 
 me and I always took particular pains when he was reading, not to 
 disturb him." He had access to a library of less than twenty volumes— but 
 he managed to read through every volume within a circuit of sixty miles. 
 This passion for knowledge so strongly displayed in Lincoln is not 
 uncommon — but the clear thinking he soon developed turned everything 
 to account, and was uncommon. His self-education in the art of expres- 
 sion soon gave him a reputation both as a talker and writer. In his 
 speech especially he developed a command of primary and universal 
 elements of interest in human affairs which became to him later a source 
 of his greatest power. It was his deep and profound feeling on the public 
 questions of the days before the war that carried him beyond the realm 
 of mere oratory and gave to his words a finality of expression only seen 
 in the noblest art. 
 
 Lincoln and Douglass met in joint debate on the plains of Illinois in 
 the fall of 1858. Lincoln said, " 'A house divided against itself cannot 
 stand.' I believe this government cannot permanently endure half-slave 
 and half -free." Douglass declared in reply "that he did not care whether 
 slavery was voted up or voted down." But Mr. Lincoln did care— the 
 heart and conscience of the nation cared — every honest man in the 
 world cared. 
 
 — 4 — 
 
The result of this memorable contest made Mr. Lmcoln one of the 
 leaders of his party, and finally in 1860 resulted in his nommation as the 
 Republican candidate for President and in his triumphant election. At- 
 fpmnted secession and armed rebellion followed. In the eleven cotton 
 StTtt th NaTional authority was denied and the peaceful administration 
 of National law ceased. The conflict of the two great cwihzat.on 
 this continent commenced. President Lincoln called to his Cabmet al 
 of hisTate rivals-Seward and Chase were the leaders-and annou^.ced 
 as tie policy of the Administration "that the Union must and shall be 
 preserved;" that even war was preferable to disunion -"^ \narchy-for 
 ?h would have been not only one division but many. The Sou hei n 
 leaders refused all peace overtures.and fired on Fort Sumter. The call 
 to an- wa sounded throughout the North-all unwilling to believe 
 fLt war was possible-and a million men sprang to arms, to defend the 
 Flag to protect ^he Union, and finally to crush out rebellion and slavery. 
 By virtue of his office Abraham Lincoln became the Nation's leader- 
 bv vSue of his abilities its savior. As chief executive of the Nation 
 Ltru^ed with the duties and responsibilities of a grea government 
 duing the greatest civil war that has ever cursed mankind, he achieved 
 Seltness of the first rank. From the day of his inauguration to the 
 tx-ag c c ose of his life the mental and physical strain upon his vital force 
 were bevond conception. There was in his mental make-up a marv^el- 
 Tus blending of sunshine and sorrow-of earnestness and apparent levity 
 orhumor, of hopeful prophecy, but of inexorable logic; and he did his 
 work simply, grandly and well. 
 
 He was without commercial training; yet in determining a financial 
 policy to sustain the Government during this period of vast expendi ure. 
 alttugh he relied much upon his great Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon 
 P Chase, it was his decisive "aye" that approved the gigantic plans And 
 fn the okduct of the foreign affairs-often on the verge of war wi h both 
 Great Britain and France-he relied upon his accomplished Secretaiy of 
 State wSa- H. Seward; even there he was the master director of 
 thing; Z be done and left undone. Peace abroad was nec-sai-y to su - 
 cess at home, and peace with honor was maintained. But "\ ^o^^^^^ic 
 po icies he wks alone in his greatness. By a singular tac^, ability and 
 natTence he held the loyalty and support of the border States of West 
 Vh-gTn a' Kentucky and Missouri. When it is realized that these State 
 In. 250 000 of the best of soldiers, familiar with the people and the 
 St ng ground^; into the Union armies, the importance of this triumph 
 canTe understood, since it rendered possible the early successes in the 
 West that gave th; men of the North the courage to continue to the end. 
 rnvprnment by partv had continued for many years. He was the 
 chief of the RepubLan party-composed of many different and differing 
 
 Te^rne^t : t: bemot'LuM t; subdu^'.., that the Union shouUI be 
 ZZet and that no dictatorship should mar th.s great rmmph. 
 
 ™artrLr^':^,ltrr-S;^ 
 
 — 5 — 
 
ernment, often tempted by the emergencies of disaster and defeat, that 
 the Constitution not only withstood the storm safely, but was made 
 stronger, better fitted, for the government of a great people than it was 
 when he came to the Presidency. All of the essential and vital functions 
 of government were conducted in accordance with the civil law of the 
 land, through Constitutional methods, as authorized and directed by the 
 representatives in Congress freely chosen by the people. 
 
 With the end of the long and bloody war came the tragic end of this 
 kindly old man, merciful always, just, as his duty required, and without 
 the pride or arrogance of power. But before he left us to join the great 
 dead he gave to us a message. It was at Gettysburg, on the first anni- 
 versary of that great battle that he said simply and grandly: 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
 continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition that all men are created equal. 
 
 "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether the Nation, 
 or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. — We are 
 met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a 
 portion of that field as a final resting place for those who gave their lives 
 that that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we 
 should do this. 
 
 "But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we 
 cannot hallow, thia ground. The brave men, living and dead, whol 
 struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. 
 The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can 
 never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be 
 dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
 thus far nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the 
 great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take 
 increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their full measure 
 of devotion; that we here highly resolve that those dead shall not have 
 died in vain; that this Nation, under God. shall have a new birth of free- 
 dom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 The Civil War has passed into history and the people of the North 
 and the South have come year by year, and more and more clearly, to 
 recognize their common destiny and their common duty to the greatest 
 of commonwealths, under whose protection and leadership mankind may 
 be lifted up to higher planes of thought and action by the shining example 
 of Constitutional law made by and for the people of the great Republic. 
 
 In this conflict, grand, terrible, but final, for the preservation of 
 the Union, the upholding of the express and implied powers of the Con- 
 stitution, the name and fame of Abraham Lincoln, great leader of the 
 thoughts and actions of men, a controller of events, who during all the 
 tremendous conflict used all his marvelous power to the limit of human 
 possibility, will, so long as that Constitution endures, be recognized as its 
 preserver, and as worthy of a place in the Nation's temple of fame beside 
 that of Washington. 
 
 And when the martyr's crown was pressed upon his brow and he 
 passed into the valley and the shadow of death, there remained for us the 
 immortal heritage of great duties fulfilled, a nation saved, the memory of 
 a most orderly mind, of highest courage, of a gentle but firm hand, of 
 ai'dent patriotism and a love for his fellow men that passeth human un- 
 
 — 6 — 
 
derstanding, to guide us through the storms of this strange world where 
 we dwell as in a twilight zone groping our uncertain way. 
 
 The name and fame of Abraham Lincoln has become a milestone for 
 all humanity, in its slow progress towards a better life under the reign 
 of the higher law to come with the ages, a higher law justly adminis- 
 tered for all humanity, of which Abraham Lincoln was the immortal 
 prophet. 
 
 J .M. ASHLEY. 
 
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