i973»7L63 Hertz, Emanuel 
 
 GHUiW V/ashington and Lincoln; the two 
 
 master builders of the Union* 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
Washington and Lincoln 
 
 The two Master Builders 
 
 of the Union 
 
 By 
 EMANUEL HERTZ. 
 
 Delivered at Fort Washington Synagogue, February 17, 1928 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/washingtonlincolOOhert 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 

 or? 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 
 
 By EMANUEL HERTZ 
 
 CONTRAST between the Colonial protagonist in bring- 
 ing about our independence in the struggle with Great 
 Britain, which was even then preparing to grasp the hegemony 
 among the world powers — and the preserver of the Republic 
 seventy years later, has been and is today and must ever be a 
 favorite topic of discussion. Not so much to demonstrate that 
 either the founder or the saviour of the nation was greater, not 
 so much to prove that either one or the other deserves more 
 credit, more veneration for the accomplishment of a task which 
 in either case has never been equalled; but rather to under- 
 stand that both were needed, both were God-sent and Divinely 
 ordained — one to create and make possible government by the 
 people, the other to conserve and preserve and rescue from 
 sedition and rebellion and civil war what his predecessor had 
 brought about and accomplished. Here were three million 
 English-speaking people, as much part of England as was 
 Wales or Scotland, under circumstances which tended to make 
 for a great universal English commonwealth with a people who 
 read the same Bible, who pored over the same Milton and 
 Chaucer, over the Elizabethan poets and dramatists, over the 
 Caroline poets and historians, who followed the development 
 and evolution of English law and Parliamentary government 
 even as did the residents of London and Liverpool and Edin- 
 burgh. The problem of keeping these colonies in leash with- 
 out permitting them to participate in the government, in the 
 evolution, in the growth of the coming Britsih Empire — was a 
 problem which all recognized excepting the narrow-minded 
 ruler and his immediate cronies in the Cabinet. The elder, 
 Chatham and Burke — the two greatest minds of their day or 
 
 787434 
 
for that matter of any other day in the history of Parliamentary 
 government, saw the light of a new dawn — pleaded for fair 
 play for the new Empire of the West, but their eloquent pleas 
 fell upon deaf ears — and America was forever lost to England. 
 It could not be otherwise — for Cromwell's Puritans and 
 Rupert's Roundheads and Cavaliers were fighting for a prin- 
 ciple in their new home — against England's hirelings picked up 
 from the four corners of the earth, who knew not what they 
 were fighting against. 
 
 And then the first citizen of his day — trained in warfare, 
 trained in public affairs, a member of a remarkable body of 
 men — and no better group ever essayed to create a nation — by 
 his tact and patience and enormous influence, organized and 
 brought forth a nation, patterned after the Republics of an- 
 tiquity — and became its first President. The growing pains of 
 the new giant, the problems and insuperable difficulties it en- 
 countered in a world dedicated to the principle of the divine 
 right of kings — made the beginning so difficult that a great 
 many thought that the young Republic would never survive — 
 the hostility of England, the jealousy of France, and the hos- 
 tile indifference of the rest of the world — all with one object 
 in view — to crush and destroy our Republic. 
 
 But the team work of the Colonial Congress, of the Consti- 
 tution makers, of John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, 
 Franklin, Patrick Henry, Witherspoon, James Wilson and 
 Washington brought forth a Constitution which was modelled 
 on the experiences of the past and the lessons of the present. 
 The Constitution was adopted, thanks to the genius and per- 
 suasive powers of Hamilton in New York and Madison in Vir- 
 ginia. The Constitution, as promptly strengthened by the 
 twelve amendments, stood adamant until the real test came in 
 1861. John Marshall made it a living, throbbing, mighty in- 
 strument for good. 
 
 There is honor enough in the fact that George Washington 
 was present at the birth of a nation — that he fought off its 
 
 6 
 
enemies ; that he set the governmental machinery in motion, 
 and that for eight years he was at the head of affairs — and 
 when he reads his Farewell Address, he has established the 
 groundwork of these stupendously powerful United States of 
 today. There may be, there are, monuments to Washingtofi 
 everywhere, of every kind, but his greatest monument is the 
 Nation he created after wresting it from England's narrow- 
 minded rulers of the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 And now the formative years of our country. With England 
 definitely out, with England acknowledging that she was 
 definitely beaten in 1812 — we turn our attention home to see 
 and set in order what we had won — what we conquered and 
 what, through Jefferson, we acquired in addition. For that 
 many-sided genius added an empire overnight to our domain, 
 for the price of a square block in an unimportant section of 
 New York City today. But then, we inherited the problems 
 and the causes for conflict which drove us out of England and 
 into the wilderness. Here we had the Puritan in the North, 
 the Hollander in New York, the Dutchman in Pennsylvania, 
 the Cavalier in Virginia, the Catholic in Maryland, the Dis- 
 senter in Massachusetts, Roger Williams (who had been driven 
 out of Massachusetts) had settled in Rhode Island, the Quaker 
 in Pennsylvania, the cotton grower and slaveholder in the 
 South, the farmer and factory hand in the North, and the 
 pioneer from the East gradually trecking to and opening up 
 the great Empire in the West — and as if these were not suffi- 
 cient we greeted the Spaniard in the Floridas, thrown into our 
 lap by Andrew Jackson's romantic military exploits, and the 
 Frenchman in Louisiana with his Code Napoleon and up the 
 Mississippi whither Father Marquette and his resolute band 
 had taken them. And then from the very heart of France 
 came the best blood of the Huguenots such as had not been 
 massacred with Coligny on Bartholomew's Night — and the 
 Jewish people, too, came from the Netherlands, from the South 
 Americas — and after 1848 from Germany and the process of 
 
making the American was on. We can almost see that when the 
 Almighty came to make the American who was to have sway 
 in this land — planted upon and springing from the Bible, he 
 took from Palestine its religion and philosophy and the Bible — 
 God's greatest boon to mankind; from Greece the arts and 
 beauty ; law from Rome ; from Holland the spirit of liberty and 
 tolerance; from France and England and Germany the 
 sciences, the orderly processes of modern life; from Spain 
 color and chivalry and the spirit of discovery; and the noblest 
 fruits of the Rennaissance — art in the highest forms — from 
 Italy, and so merged and mingled and re-enforced all these in 
 the cauldron of creation that the finished product was none 
 other than the American! 
 
 The first great problem with which we were then confronted 
 was the question whether the immortal Declaration, the joint 
 intellectual product of the three million colonists was a truth 
 or a scrap of paper. For forty years the great joint debate 
 lasted — and upon that great stage came all the leaders and 
 thinkers and statesmen of the day and of the epoch — beginning 
 with that remarkable trio of statesmen — Webster and Clay and 
 Calhoun and ending with Stephens and Seward and Douglas. 
 All were heard, all gave the best in their life for their ideas, 
 and the whole country was the interested audience, and ac- 
 tively participated in answering the question whether this 
 country would be free — and endure. 
 
 Many a Presidential election was fought and won on one 
 phase or another of this great controversy. Personal ambitions 
 were submerged in the tremendous clash of national ambitions, 
 whole sections of the country were transformed as to their 
 political opinions. Families were broken up, institutions van- 
 ished, political parties disappeared, a whole section of the 
 country had to be made over before this elemental question was 
 properly answered and the problem depending on the question 
 adequately and definitely solved. An entire school of states- 
 men who thought that they were heaven-sent to adjust this 
 
 8 
 
national clash between North and South, passed from the 
 stage — completely disappointed and broken-hearted — because 
 they did not understand the gravity of the situation. Another 
 class of statesmen who saw and understood the gravity of the 
 problem, had no adequate solution and followed the will-o-the- 
 wisps of compromise and delay. It also came to pass that the 
 policy of pacification and of postponement of the evil day came 
 to an end. This situation could not be postponed, could not be 
 sidestepped, could not be delayed, could not be adjusted except 
 in one way. The whole country, while sick at heart of the 
 controversy, while dreading the consequences, was nevertheless 
 aware of the fact that there must be some solution of these old 
 and ever-recurring problems — but no one had shown that he 
 knew the solution — no one, either, directly or by insinuation, 
 could be induced to pronounce a formula which would please 
 all the parties concerned — a policy of drifting under Buchanan's 
 inept and meaningless admiration then ensued for a short 
 while — then the whole country was startled by the appearance 
 of a man in the Middle West — who spoke so clearly that all 
 could understand : 
 
 * * * " *A house divided against itself cannot stand.' 
 I believe that this government cannot endure permanently 
 •half slave and half free. It will become all one thing or 
 all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
 the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind 
 shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 
 extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it 
 shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as 
 new. North as well as South." 
 
 Who was this man who had thus spoken? Where did he come 
 from? Where had he mastered the principles involved in the 
 conflict of forty years, to be thus able to pronounce a formula 
 which no one could honestly controvert and which no one 
 could gainsay? This man, who said: "Let us try to do our 
 duty as we understand it. Let us have faith in the fact that 
 
right makes might." Then people began to hear from his 
 friends, from his neighbors, from his clients, from his legisla- 
 tive comrades, from the Judges before whom he had practiced, 
 from the lowly he had befriended, that the man who was driv- 
 ing Douglas from political life, was the man who had studied 
 and digested and comprehended this cancer at the heart of the 
 Union better than any other human being living and better than 
 the framers of the Constitution themselves. The people now 
 began to follow him all during the Joint Debate with Douglas 
 — to Cooper Union when he spoke to the whole country — and 
 clung to him and to his words until they brought him to Wash- 
 ington, the first Commoner in the seat of the mighty — of the 
 statesman, the scholar, the gentleman, the aristocrat and the 
 patrician, of the scion of the blue-blooded hierarchy of the 
 South. A farm hand in the White House: — ^a Mississippi boat- 
 man in the White House, a country lawyer pleading petty 
 causes in the White House — a poor man with practically no 
 family history, no family connections, in the seat of Washing- 
 ton — the wealthiest man of his day, in the seat of Madison and 
 John Quincy Adams, the most cultured men of their day and 
 generation. There must be some mistake, some accident, this 
 man with the old duster, with the shawl about his giant shoul- 
 ders, this cadaverous-looking individual with the cavernous 
 eyes, ill-kempt, ill-clad, this crude frontiersman, he certainly 
 cannot be the leader in this epoch-making struggle — which 
 might spell the doom of the Republic. We need a statesman 
 of the Seward type, of the Chase type, of the Sumner type. 
 We need a trained diplomat, a seasoned executive. No, there 
 was no mistake. *'God moves in a mysterious way his wonders 
 to perform." From the depths he had chosen his instrument, his 
 messenger, to go and tell the modern Pharaoh of Slavery that 
 his day of power was over ; and to the people he said : 
 
 "Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this 
 mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if 
 God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
 
 10 
 
bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
 shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
 the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as 
 was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said : 
 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
 gether.' " 
 
 And so, unwillingly, hesitatingly, pleading for peace, appeal- 
 ing to his misguided countrymen in vain. Father Abraham 
 called for men, for munitions, for money to fight and preserve 
 what the fathers had founded. And we see him surmount all 
 the difficulties, we see him undo all the harm, all that was 
 caused by the sins of omission and of commission, by a supine 
 if not a cowardly administration which preceded him and which 
 almost wrecked the Union — we see him organize an army and 
 navy anew — the real soldiers were with the South — we saw 
 him inaugurate a blockade which strangled Southern commerce, 
 a diplomatic service which gathered information wherewith 
 Lincoln could counteract every plot and scheme which tended 
 to bring recognition to the Confederacy from abroad. He held 
 his enemies at home in check — ^he helped his splendid war gov- 
 ernors in keeping the great Northern states not only loyal but 
 ready to make every sacrifice required to save the Union. He 
 gave his attention to press and pulpit in order to have the 
 common people properly informed and exhorted to stand solidly 
 behind their annointed leader in the holy war of the Union. 
 With the precision of destiny came blow upon blow, the Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation, failure to attain recognition abroad, 
 Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the War of attrition under Grant, Sher- 
 man, Sheridan and Thomas, and a host of brilliant Northern 
 soldiers — all trained during the agonizing first years of the 
 War when the South seemed to be winning. Finally Appo- 
 matox — when all that made up the Richmond government col- 
 lapsed — and even Robert E. Lee saw and pronounced the doom 
 of the Confederacy, and urged his misguided and disillusioned 
 countrymen to return to the Union. 
 
 11 
 
Enough has been stated to place the two great Americans side 
 by side, not for comparison but in order to demonstrate that 
 the same Providence which guided the destinies of these 
 colonies for eight long years — until England yielded to the in- 
 evitable and made peace and acknowledged the sovereignty of 
 the United States which soon thereafter became a Nation, the 
 same Providence came to our assistance when the even more im- 
 portant question came up for final settlement whether this 
 country could be half slave and half free — whether this coun- 
 try could remain a Republic while it was contaminated by the 
 Moloch of slavery — whether this country was to remain a 
 loosely jointed Confederation of quarreling states, whether it 
 was to become split up like the South American Republics or 
 the Balkan States, or be an indestructible Union of indestructi- 
 ble States — was it to be a Nation or a mob? 
 
 Through the divine interference and through the life and 
 efforts of Lincoln, these questions were answered in a way 
 that no future recurrence of these ailments are conceivable. 
 The Constitution was so amended that at no time will one being 
 garner what the other achieves by the sweat of his brow. All 
 are alike before the law — which countenances no other govern- 
 ment than that of the people — who make and unmake govern- 
 ment by the people, and all are concerned that the best measure 
 of self-government shall be safeguarded for all the people of 
 the land founded by Washington and recemented and saved by 
 Lincoln. 
 
 "Two stars alone of primal magnitude, 
 
 Turn beacons in our firmanent of fame. 
 Shine for all men with benison the same ; 
 
 On day's loud labor by the night renewed, 
 
 On templed silences where none intrude. 
 
 On leaders followed by the streets's acclaim, 
 The solitary student by his flame, 
 
 12 
 
The watcher in the battle's interhide. 
 
 All ways and works of men they shine upon; 
 And now and then beneath their golden light 
 
 A sudden meteor reddens and is gone ; 
 
 And now and then a star grows strangely bright, 
 Drawing all eyes, then dwindles on the night ; 
 
 And the eternal sentinels shine on." 
 
 13 
 
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