973.7L63 Hertz, Emanuel 
 GHUUawi Abraham Lincoln with the 
 immortals . 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 
 WITH THE IMMORTALS 
 
 By 
 EMANUEL HERTZ 
 
 Delivered over WGL, February 12, 1928 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnwiOOhert 
 

 
 ABRAHAMLINCOLN: WITH THE IMMORTALS 
 
 By EMANUEL HERTZ 
 
 ITT has become a custom hallowed by the ages to recall an- 
 •"- nually the memories and performances of those who de- 
 parted. Fervent and intense as is the observance at first, it 
 gradually mellows and becomes more formal and frequently the 
 anniversary becomes a biennial event and then a quinquennial, 
 then a centennial memorial frequently remembered only — rather 
 than formally observed. The vast majority of these terminate 
 within a short period, for only the closest family ties keep us 
 concerned about those departed. Have we not seen it all in 
 our own day — how short-lived and baseless is temporary fame? 
 The hero of today — whom we greet with triumphal arches and 
 hosannahs — who is greeted by rulers and people alike — is barely 
 remembered twenty years later. Witness the late Admiral 
 Dewey — upon whom the honors of a hundred million people 
 were so unstintingly showered. How many recall that gigantic 
 universal outpouring of praise and pomp and popular acclaim 
 today ? McKinley — as lovable a soul as ever lived — universally 
 beloved in his day — is rarely, if ever, referred to. A statue 
 here and there— perhaps three in all — certainly not more — mark 
 all that was earthly of. that simple soldier boy — in Phik Sheri- 
 dan's regiments — who was raised to the highest post in the land. 
 Who remembers three generals in the Great World War of 
 ten years ago? 
 
 We must, therefore, conclude that nothing short of lasting 
 performance, nothing less than what benefits the race, only an 
 unselfish performance coupled with the greatest sacrifice which 
 changes the course of an entire race, frees a people from bond- 
 age, and implants upon the minds of those who follow, an 
 eternal elemental principle which up to that day was either 
 
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unknown or unrecognized, and which does not change with the 
 tides, nor with the progress of the suns — only such an in- 
 dividual, whoever he be, wherever he comes from — only such 
 an one cannot and will not be forgotten. 
 
 And when one such is found, human nature veers com- 
 pletely the other way. No lip worshhip only, no formal 
 memorial will do. We go the whole length of the gamut of 
 human gratitude and love and set apart an entire day — an en- 
 tire day in the United States of complete rest, of complete in- 
 activity, of shutting down the myriads of human endeavors and 
 occupations on the farm, in the mine, in the counting house, in 
 the courts, in the schools — all given over and dedicated to the 
 memory of Lincoln — indeed a gigantic sacrifice running into 
 many hundreds of millions of dollars — counting time and effort 
 suspended and money expended and lovingly forgone — in order 
 to celebrate this natal day of him who — like Elijah of old — 
 breathed the spirit of life into an expiring Union. An entire 
 day — not only to remember, to recount, but to contemplate and 
 study the life and character of him who has thus become dis- 
 tinguished. First one State, Massachusetts, twenty years ago, 
 then another, and then President Roosevelt, nineteen years ago, 
 asked the Congress of the United States to declare Lincoln's 
 birthday — a special holiday. 
 
 And now there have sprung up all over this land Lincoln 
 organizations, who follow annually a program which has for its 
 sole object to bring before and explain to the people of his Union 
 — young and old — the great services rendered by him to make 
 his Union free and mighty and respected by all the nations of 
 the world — because he made it an emblem of righteousness, an 
 example of brotherly love, a people loving and pursuing justice. 
 His heritage of unselfish advice to the plain people — and he 
 concerned himself mostly with those only — because the vast 
 majority of his fellow-countrymen were plain people, is now 
 and has for the last seventy years been slowly absorbed. His 
 
appeals in his own day seemed to reach those common people — 
 they understood Father Abraham — whether it be the starving., 
 dole receiving cotton spinners of Manchester, England — 
 crippled by the blockade, which prevented the exporting of cot- 
 ton — or the plain people in the marshes at Shilo, at Vicksburg 
 or in the Wilderness — they all understood him — and went 
 straight into the shadow of the valley of death — because he 
 asked it. The so-called leaders could not respond so quickly. 
 How could you expect the Cabots, the Adamses, the Sumners, 
 the Seward's, the Chases, the Lees, the Davises, the Longstreets, 
 the Beauregards and the rest of the aristocracy of the North, 
 as well as of the South, to stoop or rather look up to — for like 
 Saul he towered over all — this crude frontier giant, who would 
 talk in the patois of the frontier, who like Aesop of old would 
 draw his similies from the farm and from nature, and who had 
 as much regard for the art in clothes or the habiliments of the 
 boudoir as did Socrates, — as he walked with his disciples in his 
 Athenian groves. 
 
 Somehow or other these few human intellectual giants have 
 a vision of their own — they see through k all — no phrase, no 
 adornment, no veil, no hue, no color — conceals the great heart, 
 the great soul, which burns like a perpetual fire — now and for- 
 ever. Unconsciously, perhaps, Lincoln ignored all these super- 
 ficialities — suffered from all these social disadvantages so-called, 
 and concerned himself with eternal things only. He may have 
 even used some of these social leaders — for he needed manni- 
 kins in the diplomatic service — he needed social secretaries — he 
 needed intermediaries with these recalcitrant Governors and 
 unreasonable Senators, with these pompous and strutting 
 would-be saviours of the nation, who simply did not compre- 
 hend him or the problems with which he was coping. Today 
 he was perfectly willing to give up his task to anyone who 
 would appear to be able to do better than he — the next day he 
 actually convinced the two or three other men in the country — 
 who seemed to understand the enormous task, but actually tried 
 
to sidestep it — or to sacrifice the Union in carrying out their 
 theory as to slavery — that to do what they advocated was 
 treason if not madness outright; — and then when he had ar- 
 ranged the fighting forces, his diplomatic forces, his legislative 
 forces, his State leaders and his spiritual leaders, into some 
 semblance of team work — he was forced to combat the entire 
 Democratic party who had actually succeeded in organizing 
 itself in the North under the sinister influences of Vallading- 
 ham, Pendleton and Seymour in opposition to his struggle for 
 the Union — and urged cessation of hostilities at any price and 
 negotiation for peace with the Confederacy in 1864 at any cost 
 — the very thing he prevented England and France and other 
 European powers from inaugurating two years before. But in 
 time they simply withered before him — the party almost ceased 
 to exist. Not one of these time servers, not one of these 
 political or military leaders saw or wanted to see or hear his 
 mellow reasoning or his well considered program. Resignations 
 from high officials were either threatened or requested — for 
 Lincoln could not forever be trifled with — Chase ascertained 
 that to his complete discomfiture. Washington was a treason- 
 infested town — and the miracle of it all was that the assassina- 
 tion of the one man who stood between the living and the dead 
 —was so long deferred. 
 
 Little wonder, then, that those who lived to see what he had 
 accomplished turned an intellectual somersault and from sus- 
 picion turned to trust, from carping heartless criticism, to im- 
 measurable love and praise and appreciation and trust. He 
 had made it clear, at last, that Lincoln had a policy, that Lin- 
 coln was honest, that Lincoln was capable, that Lincoln was 
 unselfish, that Lincoln was trustworthy, that Lincoln was a 
 statesman, that Lincoln was a great military leader, that Lin- 
 coln was a diplomat, that Lincoln was adamant on saving the 
 Union, that Lincoln was not a slave driver, that Lincoln was 
 not a clown, that Lincoln was not a cruel conqueror, that Lin- 
 coln was not an enemy of the South, that Lincoln was not pre- 
 
pared to upturn Southern society, that Lincoln was not against 
 peace on honorable terms, that Lincoln was not a candidate for 
 re-election, that Lincoln was not here to perpetuate a military 
 .hierarchy ; above all, that Lincoln was not afraid, and could 
 not be intimidated or turned from the one true course he had 
 outlined to himself when he registered his oath in heaven to 
 preserve the Union. And now that he was no more — all saw 
 •even more clearly how this simple child of the forest had been 
 selected by Providence to bridge the chasm between the slave 
 •and the free, between a mobocracy and a democracy, between 
 darkness and between light. 
 
 Of course, there were those who saw it not to the very end — 
 nay to this day there be learned dissenters. Men today demon- 
 strate by quoting the unspeakable Billingsgate of Civil War 
 and Reconstruction times, then voiced by the halt, the lame, the 
 sick, the envious, the mentally decrepit — that the real Lincoln 
 was not what the people thought he was. Of course, we are 
 not concerned with those— there be even spots on the sun — but 
 the sun ever shines, and yields life and nourishment and health 
 and vigor — and only the lame, the halt and the blind concede it 
 not. But they are as ineffective as the fool who sayeth there is 
 no God, The commotion, the noise, the misleading rumors, the 
 unholy slanders, were gaining such velocity, such strength, were 
 voiced from so -many points of vantage, appeared and re- 
 appeared in so many disloyal and half loyal sheets, that Lin- 
 coln himself began to doubt — not that his cause was just — not 
 that his was the only course to pursue — but he began to doubt 
 whether the people, his people, would continue to stand by him 
 or whether the siren sounds of peace, of a disgraceful peace, 
 of a perverted peace — would not finally become so effective as 
 to distract the attention of his followers and finally defeat him 
 at the polls, at a time when the rays of the rising sun of vic- 
 tory and of peace with honor, were becoming visible on the 
 horizon. 
 
And at one time, and only one time, he said : "It is my be- 
 lief that from present indications, the Administration will be 
 defeated at the polls at the next Election." But lie had hardly 
 spoken these words — when things began to happen. Grant re- 
 generated the army and it began to hammer away at Lee's army 
 and the process of attrition was on. Sherman began to destroy 
 the heart of the Confederacy — Sheridan destroyed its source o£ 
 supplies; Thomas (a Northern Robert E. Lee) gave the death 
 blow to the Confederacy — when he wiped out its army within 
 its borders and helped to isolate Lee. Farragut at Mobile and 
 the blockade along the entire coast — and the Election in 
 November was as overwhelming as was the work of the army 
 and of the navy. The people had overwhelmingly spoken again 
 for Abraham Lincoln.. The prophets of evil, the soothsayers in 
 the North were indeed as effective as the fool who sayeth there 
 is no God. 
 
 But the common people, the plain people, the poor people, 
 Lincoln's people, Lincoln's neighbors, Lincoln's soldiers, Lin- 
 coln's sailors, Lincoln's clients — an entire nation of clients saw 
 it all — not only at the end when even Chase and Andrew and 
 Reverdy Johnson and Henry Winter Davis began to concede 
 and to comprehend — they saw in the beginning — God Almighty 
 had opened their eyes and they beheld Lincoln and Douglas 
 arguing and debating whether a house divided against itself 
 could stand. Douglas wanting the Senatorship said it could; 
 Lincoln, however, cared not for the Senatorship and actually 
 lost it when he said, so that an entire world could hear: "A 
 house divided against itself cannot stand," — and won the 
 Presidency. I know of no better example or anecdote which 
 better describes that great event — the dramatic election of 1860 
 — than the quotation from Major H. C. Whitney, in concluding 
 his great work — "Lincoln on the Circuit" : 
 
 Major Henry C Whitney in concluding one of the few real 
 works on Lincoln tells the following illuminating anecdote : 
 
 10 
 
The story is somewhere told, that, tewnty-five centuries ago, 
 the citizens of Mitylene resolved to erect a statue of Jupiter, 
 Father of Gods and Men, in front of that masterpiece of archi- 
 tecture, the great theatre: and that they invited a display of 
 .■statutes of the mythological god, from which to choose one, 
 adequate. 
 
 Upon the day of choice, the citizens of the Lesbian Isle 
 'crowded into the plaza, there to behold two draped figures 
 which were to compete for the honor of saluting the sun, as it 
 arose from the Mediterranean, for hundreds of slowly revolv- 
 ing years. 
 
 The draperies fell apart, and revealed a figure of classical 
 beauty — the perfection of symmetry — a paragon of sculpture — 
 a miracle of art — an image in which glorious life had been 
 arrested at its highest tide — a fit marble ideal of the presiding 
 divinity in the assemblage of the Gods \ 
 
 Also a rough effigy of a human figure — -no majesty in its 
 lineaments — no grace in its pose — apparently no art in its 
 execution — no harmony in its relations — no dignity in its 
 bearing : 
 
 "Tetrum ante omnia vulturn." 
 
 The popular verdict was prompt — one mighty shout should 
 rent the air : — "Here is our Jupiter-!" — was the universal 
 acclaim, all pointing to the masterpiece of scultpure; "to the sea 
 ivith the base imposture" ; designating the inglorious statue. 
 
 But the poet Alcaeus arrested the fierce outcry: "Men and 
 brethren," exclaimed he, "I crave one further test of judgment : 
 let but the applauded and the condemned statues, each, be 
 elevated to the height of the shaft where the chosen one is to 
 find its long repose, before we judge conclusively." 
 
 To this fair proposal, assent was finally made; and on the 
 designated day, the same eager throng filled the great space 
 which was to be the scene of final judgment. 
 
 The two draped figures were poised in mid-air. The drap* 
 
 11 
 
eries were unloosed, and the two competitors stood out in boldi 
 relief against the pure azure sky. 
 
 But mark the change ! the favorite had been transformed by 
 the intervening distance. The classical features — the sparkling, 
 eye — the luminous countenance, had vanished : but, a greater 
 transformation had been wrought in the other figure, by dis- 
 tance, the arch-enchanter. 
 
 Life had been impressed upon those hitherto ungainly fea- 
 tures — majesty sat enthroned upon those rugged lineaments — 
 the eyes gleamed with- the Ere of genius ; 
 
 * * * deep on his front engraven 
 Deliberation sat, and public care; 
 and a God stood outlined, in classical marble, to the view. 
 
 A cry went up, drowning the sound of the waves that broke 
 on the Lesbian shore: "Here is, indeed, a God! this is worthy 
 to preside at the council of the Immortals I This is 
 
 jupiter r 
 
 In the year of destiny — 1860 — our people, moved by Fatev 
 met to select a Jupiter Tonans, to preside over councils much 
 more majestic than the fabled assemblages of Mount Olympus; 
 councils involving the destiny of the human race. 
 
 The competition which ensued and its result, are indited on 
 the most familiar pages of recent history; and the statue of 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, reproduced ad infinitum in bronze, 
 granite and marble, and enshrined in all patriotic hearts, will 
 remain the great central figure of humanity and unselfish 
 patriotism as long as civilization shall hold sway. 
 
 12 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 9737L63GH44AWI C 001 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: WITH THE IMMORTALS NY 
 
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