973.7L63 GT372L Thompson, Dorothy Lincoln Papers LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Cbc Lincoln Papers Dorothy Cbompson Lincoln Papers Dorothy Cbompson Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/lincolnpapersOOthom ^75,70,3 CrT37P^ ff Cbc Cincoln Papers Che opening of the long = sealed Cincoln letters and documents in the Cibraryof Congress, kept from the public eye for so longby tbe decision of the Civil UJar president's son, Robert Codd Cincoln, bas been preceded for years by speculations regarding their content, eertainly they would throw new light on, or at least supply new details about, one of the most deci » sive administrations in American history. But would they shed new light upon the somber, central fig= ure, the tragic hero, the mytb=crea? tor, in his lifetime as vehemently hated as he was respected $ loved? Chere are souls who would, even if subconsciously, wishitttHen who can'tenduretbeillustrtouslesttbey appear to themselves grovelling; those whose ears lengthen to every gossip concerning weaknesses of of the great, character assassins by avocation, ever seeking to impugn motives, denigrate the lofty, reduce even the Sermon on me mount to a trade =union manifesto; those from the realm of the hunchbacks to whom in€dna$tUincentt1)illay'simagery the strong, straight spine appears grotesque- a cause for clucking in the children* •jl whole school of historians has Jl arisen which interprets history from the snake'scye viewof thegos- sip columnist, Chey look under and into beds, elevate an incident into a basic cause, find conspiracy behind each error, a leader's vice in every lost battle, and a consideration of a personal interestbehind ev'ry judg- ment. Distortionsof psychoanalysis help- ed them. Do character is what it seems* Destiny is not character, for character presumes the illusion of free will, fl man has no free will; be isdetermined by bis infantile condi* tionings affecting bis sexual impul= see, bis public and private acts* Che Marxists helped tbem. Gco= nomics is destiny. Che means of production create the Zeitgeist, and the Zeitgeist the man. Everything that happens- that a man happens, that a Cincoln or a Christ happen s- is "inevitable". If it had not been one man it would have been another, each a cog in a mechanical universe of greater or lesser cogs, and with out even a deus ex machina. Chose exponentsof democracy who see in it only a way of counting headshelpthedebunkers.Cheyare the glorifiers of the "common man" whothinktodefendhimby debasing the uncommon* chey are flatterers of mediocrity, organising it to push down every bead that rises above the mass level, $ by meanness win the suffrages of tbe mean ♦ Cbey pride themselves to vulgarize speech* to boast of their own commonness, $ snicker at the great and thus tbey help the debunkers too. But now the Bluebeard's chamber is opened , and what do we find? Onlyan empty room in which sits the shade of the man we always knew was there: Canky and stooped, his bony hands resting,likea farmer's, on spread knees; the eyes deep =set $ tragically melancholy, the wide, humorous mouth moulded by half bitter humor, the craggy cheeks f ur= rowed with laughter and pain - the old, thefamiliar, the beloved figure, the authentic American fiero. 77 1 hat should we have expected ? W Can a man fall out of his skin? UlasnottbeautboroftbeGettysbutg Address, $ the even more profound 2d Inaugural , their author? even if we should find that his was not the pen, are they not his spirit? Did not humility breathein every word of the Re ro whom circumstances forced to a dictatorship of necessity? Did not he, whom the doctrinaires excori* ated as irreligious, speak of God as only those can who live with Rim? OJas it not be who said, "1 find my* self often going to my knees in the certain conviction that there is no where else to go 44 ? Chemanisexaetlywhatheseemed to be == what the myth, after the dying down of political passions, revealed him to be in the minds and hearts of the people: Cbe man who causedthepoettomournwbenlilacs last in the door yard bloomed, and the great star hung in the western sky, and to mourn and re = mourn with the American people, witbever returning spring* man and mytb are One, and the oneness is tbe truth. Cbe truth is leadership with humility, war with compassion, peace witb"mal» ice toward none" and "charity for all," and "firmness in the right, as " '6od gives us to see the right. " It is ever that humble note of doubt and quest»tbe man who had to "finish tbe work that we are in;" the man whom another man shot and killed. But the assassin was unable to kill tbe truth, unable to kill the myth « which lives on and shall not perish from the earth, unless and until that to which bis soul was wedded shall perish from the earth: Cbe people's governmentcontinually,und'r6od, reborn in freedom. from "On the Record" by Dorothy Cbompson, by her permission. ** 41$ copies done at CbePony Barn Press, Ularrenville, Illinois, 3une, 194$, Of tbese23$wereon BR Jill Rag Book, 74 on Rives Poype, 53 on Rives Ualfrey, and 53 on gapuleti , © Cbe Cincoln Papers Dorothy Clwmpson f--.. LINCOLN PAPERS WARRENVIUE. ILL.