973.7L63 
 K1956a 
 
 Miers, Earl Schenck. 
 The Fundamental Creed of 
 Abraham Lincoln* 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
THE FUNDAMENTAL CREED 
 
 OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/fundamentalcreedOOIinc 
 
THE FUNDAMENTAL CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
The Fundamental Creed of 
 Abraham Lincoln a selection 
 
 FROM HIS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 
 REVEALING HIS DEVOTION TO FAMILY, 
 HIS TENETS OF CHARACTER, HIS REVER- 
 ENCE TO GOD, AND HIS BELIEFS AS AN 
 AMERICAN CITIZEN. ARRANGED AND 
 ANNOTATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 BY EARL SCHENCK MIERS. 
 PRINTED JUNE 1956 WITH WOODCUTS 
 BY ANTONIO FRASCONI FOR FRIENDS OF 
 
 The Curtis Paper Company 
 
 NEWARK • DELAWARE 
 
COPYRIGHT 1956 BY EARL SCHENCK MIERS 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 

 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Ihere was so much salt of life in Abraham Lincoln that wherever 
 one shakes his memory he adds zest to one's own experience. More 
 than any other American, Lincoln seems to have something to give to 
 everyone, and the humanity of the man has become a national inspi- 
 ration. More than any other American, Lincoln seems to have some- 
 thing to say in almost every situation, and few are our heroes so often 
 quoted — and misquoted — to lend weight and color to current politi- 
 cal prejudices. The image of Lincoln grows in our minds and hearts 
 from earliest childhood; where once thousands felt toward the man 
 as toward a kinsman, today millions possess this feeling of personal 
 belonging. Like the old carpet slippers in which he once scuffed 
 around the White House, we slip into Lincolnisms with a sense of 
 comfort, intimacy and well-being. 
 
 There are books about the books about Lincoln. As though it were 
 a rare and somewhat curious timepiece, his character has been taken 
 apart so that each cog and spring may be examined carefully; and, 
 happily, the tinkerers usually have reassembled their treasure with 
 equal diligence. Excellent studies exist of Lincoln as a lawyer, as a 
 military genius, as husband and father; there is a good book devoted 
 to his personal finances, another sanctifies his paternity, and a pro- 
 fessor of Germanic language and literature demonstrates that Lincoln 
 is descended from a German family named Linkhorn. 
 
 Thus the fascinations multiply. A doctor has devoted a large share 
 of his lifetime to proving Lincoln's melancholy and hallucinations 
 
 5 
 
date from the day he was kicked in the head by a horse; and when a 
 pair of skeptics questioned Lincoln's ability to write the beautiful 
 letter of sympathy to Mrs. Bixby, a book appeared nailing that false- 
 hood to one of the darker walls of history. One needs only to mention 
 any of the places where Lincoln lived or boarded - Vandalia, New 
 Salem, Springfield, Coles County, to cite a few — and books abound 
 to tell what happened to Old Abe hither, thither and yon. 
 
 Today to discover any interest that Lincoln possessed for which 
 there is not already at least one monograph of merit is an achievement 
 of no small proportions. To Jay Monaghan, Lincoln is the "Diplomat 
 in Carpet Slippers"; William H. Townsend has turned bottoms up on 
 "Lincoln and Liquor"; to Daniel Kilham Dodge, Lincoln is the 
 "Master of Words"; and William E. Barton has examined "The Soul 
 of Abraham Lincoln" and found it without blemish of atheism, spirit- 
 ualism, or Quakerism (Barton preached in Congregational churches). 
 For originality, William E Peterson leads the Lincoln pack; he has 
 taken Abe, and his old verbal sparring partner, Stephen A. Douglas, 
 to demonstrate how men who are dissimilar chemically and physi- 
 cally react to environment in varying psychosomatic patterns (in 
 damp spring Lincoln tired easily, in hot summer he brimmed with 
 vigor). 
 
 Each of these books has claimed a valid purpose; each has added 
 to the sum of knowledge; each has enlarged a legend that can give 
 Davy Crockett a running start and still beat him. 
 
 When Lincoln first went to Vandalia to serve in the Illinois legisla- 
 ture, the colleague who described him as the ugliest specimen of the 
 human race God ever had created doubtless stretched a point. Stand 
 Lincoln in a brisk wind that would straighten him up and he meas- 
 ured six feet, four inches without the hat; he was thin, bony, graceless, 
 6 
 
and, by Dr. Petersen's testimony, his energy and endurance suffered 
 from insufficient fat, sugar and vitamins. Yet if Lincoln was not the 
 prettiest nor the most energetic figure coming along those muddy 
 streets, he quickly emerged as one of the most popular. He met people, 
 all sorts of people, with an unaffected friendliness, and that quality 
 went well on the frontier; he told a joke to put himself at ease (for 
 Lincoln always understood the universality of laughter and tears) 
 and when they asked him a question, he told another story while he 
 thought through a straight answer, again qualities that went well with 
 people who dealt with such down-to-earth realities as the "milk-sick" 
 and grubbing a living from the land and forging a destiny for the 
 common man. 
 
 The folk of Vandalia, like the folk in New Salem and Springfield, 
 grew to understand the wholeness of Lincoln; he was a man with a 
 fundamental creed, a man who stood for unwavering principles and 
 values and who succeeded in enunciating his beliefs, even with his 
 high-pitched voice, as though spelling out his own Book of Proverbs. 
 Not all his neighbors loved him, but most all trusted him; not all 
 agreed with him, but most all respected him; not all grasped the depth 
 and the genius of the man in life, but most all wept with a realization 
 of personal loss when he died. 
 
 In time Lincoln walked through a chill February rain to the Spring- 
 field depot of the Great Western Railroad. Under glowering skies the 
 journey to Washington began. Behind him were the House Divided 
 speech, the debates with Douglas, the address at Cooper Union: all 
 products of the same fundamental creed. Not all the nation compre- 
 hended that fact; not all the nation had listened, or had been per- 
 mitted to listen. 
 
 In 1861 Lincoln remained, as he always had been, a man of tem- 
 perate habits and moderate emotions, a man of quick sympathy and 
 good humor, a man with peace in his heart and love for the old Revo- 
 
 7 
 
lutionary patriots in his soul; and four years of bloody civil war did 
 not change him. In parts of the South news of his assassination caused 
 wild cheering, a reflection of the terrible passion that never had 
 touched Lincoln (or Lee); later the South knew (as Lee realized in- 
 stantly) and later the South wept, sometimes secretly, sometimes 
 openly, and always with a growing consciousness of personal dimin- 
 ishment. 
 
 So today the children of the children of those who sobbed and those 
 who hurrahed come to Arlington, standing shoulder to shoulder on 
 the porch of Lee's Mansion, looking across the Potomac at the majes- 
 tic Lincoln Memorial, and forming on silent lips prayers of affection- 
 ate blessing for both North and South. 
 
 Some months ago I worked with Paul M. Angle in culling through the 
 great mass of Lincoln's writings and speeches to reconstruct The 
 Living Lincoln. One of the best rewards of the labor was coming 
 upon a letter or paragraph that revealed so intimately the essential 
 man. The familiar pronouncements, such as the First and Second 
 Inaugural, the Gettysburg Address, the letters to Mrs. Bixby and the 
 parents of Colonel Ellsworth, passages in his messages to Congress, 
 possessed still a radiant beauty: Lincoln, both a hero and poet of the 
 human spirit, used these prose forms to create his own American 
 Ballad. 
 
 The purpose of the present collection, however, is to give emphasis 
 to lesser known fragments of Lincoln's writings that, representing his 
 lifetime, disclose the fundamental creed whence his greatness stems. 
 Of necessity this selection is representative, and of necessity it is sub- 
 jective: Lincoln is my kinsman, too, and these are just some of the 
 reasons why I am a better person for that fact. 
 
 E.S.M. 
 
 8 
 
I • DEVOTION TO FAMILY 
 
 In Abraham's tenth year his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, 
 died of the "milk-sick." The boy helped his father carry the 
 crude coffin into the woods, and weeks later led a traveling 
 preacher to the lonely grave to conduct a proper burial serv- 
 ice. Thomas Lincoln remarried; and Sarah Bush Johnston, a 
 widow with three children, brought kindness and under- 
 standing into the Lincoln home. Abraham adored her. In 
 1851, when his father died, a shiftless stepbrother was filled 
 with schemes for disposing of the family property in Coles 
 County. Lincoln, tigerish in devotion to his stepmother, 
 replied tartly: 
 
 Dear Brother: 
 
 When I came into Charleston day-before-yesterday I learned that 
 you are anxious to sell the land where you live, and move to Missouri. 
 I have been thinking of this ever since; and cannot but think such a 
 notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in Missouri, better than 
 here? Is the land any richer? Can you there, any more than here, raise 
 corn, & wheat & oats, without work? Will anybody there, any more 
 than here, do your work for you? If you intend to go to work, there is 
 no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to 
 work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming & crawling about 
 from place to place can do no good. You have raised no crop this year, 
 and what you really want is to sell the land, get the money and spend 
 
 9 
 
it — part with the land you have, and my life upon it, you will never 
 after, own a spot big enough to bury you in. Half you will get for the 
 land, you spend in moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat 
 and drink, and wear out, & no foot of land will be bought. Now I feel 
 it is my duty to have no hand in such a piece of foolery. I feel that it is 
 so even on your own account; and particularly on Mothers account. 
 The eastern forty acres I intend to keep for Mother while she lives — 
 if you will not cultivate it; it will rent for enough to support her — at 
 least it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two forties, she 
 can let you have, and no thanks to me 
 
 Lincoln's irritation with John D. Johnston, his stepbrother, 
 was an old story. Three years earlier Johnston had dunned 
 Lincoln for a loan of eighty dollars. "You are not lazy, and 
 still you are an idler," replied Lincoln, trying to nudge his 
 stepbrother along the only path that could lead to self- 
 respect: 
 
 . . . You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose 
 is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nails" for somebody who will 
 give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things 
 at home — prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work 
 for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that 
 you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now 
 promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this [Lincoln 
 wrote on the day before Christmas, 1848] and the first of next May, 
 get for your own labor, either in money, or in your own indebtedness, 
 I will then give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at 
 ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty 
 dollars a month for your work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off 
 to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I 
 mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home 
 in Coles County. Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, 
 
 10 
 
and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from 
 getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year 
 you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give 
 your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in 
 Heaven very cheaply for I am sure you can with the offer I make you 
 get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months work. You say 
 if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and, if you don't 
 pay the money back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense! If you 
 can't now live with the land, how will you then live without it? You 
 have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind 
 to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find 
 it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you 
 
 Lincoln's devotion to his wife is revealed in the letters he 
 wrote whenever they were separated. It may be true that 
 Mary one day used a broom to chase him from the house; 
 but Lincoln was absent-minded, spring often turned the 
 streets of Springfield into rivulets of mud, and a neat house- 
 keeper's patience has reasonable limits. Lincoln loved Mary 
 with a tenderness that placed her comfort and peace of mind 
 before his own. In 1848 Congressman Lincoln brought Mary 
 and the boys with him to Washington. The decision was a 
 mistake, for Mary's loneliness developed into a neurosis, and 
 Lincoln, understanding, encouraged her to visit her family 
 in Lexington, Kentucky. A letter in April could not disguise 
 how her absence affected him: 
 
 In this troublesome world, we are never quite satisfied. When you 
 were here, I thought you hindered me some in attending to business; 
 but now, having nothing but business — no variety — it has grown 
 exceedingly tasteless to me. I hate to sit down and direct documents, 
 and I hate to stay in this old room by myself. You know I told you in 
 last Sunday's letter, I was going to make a speech during the week; 
 
 11 
 
 W4WERSJTV Of lUINOft 
 m LIBRARY 
 
but the week has passed away without my getting a chance to do so; 
 and now my interest in the subject has passed away too 
 
 Suppose you do not prefix the "Hon/' to the address on your letters 
 to me any more. I like the letters very much, but I would rather they 
 should not have that upon them. It is not necessary, as I suppose you 
 have thought, to have them come free. 
 
 Are you entirely free from headache? That is good — good — con- 
 sidering it is the first spring you have been free from it since we were 
 acquainted. I am afraid you will get so well, and fat, and young, as 
 to be wanting to marry again. . . . Get weighed, and write me how 
 much you weigh. 
 
 I did not get rid of the impression of that foolish dream about dear 
 Bobby till I got your letter written the same day. What did he and 
 Eddy think of the little letters father sent them? Don't let the blessed 
 fellows forget father. . . . 
 
 Fifteen years later, Lincoln was no less lonely, no less con- 
 siderate: 
 
 . T . , Washington, D.C. Sept. 20 1863 
 
 Mrs. A. Lincoln ° r 
 
 New-York 
 
 I neither see nor hear of sickness here now; though there may be 
 
 much without my knowing it. I wish you to stay, or come just as is 
 
 most agreeable to yourself . , „ 
 
 6 J A. Lincoln 
 
 Washington, D.C. Sept. 21, 1863 
 
 Mrs. A. Lincoln 
 
 Fifth Avenue Hotel New- York 
 
 The air is so clear and cool, and apparently healthy, that I would 
 
 be glad for you to come. Nothing very particular, but I would be glad 
 
 to see you and Tad. 
 
 A. Lincoln 
 
 12 
 
Lincoln indulged all his sons; if this were a fault, it did not 
 disturb him. His own boyhood years in Kentucky and Indi- 
 ana frequently had been hard, grubbing, friendless; in con- 
 trast, he provided for the Lincoln boys a freedom that often 
 scandalized others. Here are a message, a letter to Mary, and 
 a letter to one of Robert's friends that reveal his warm feel- 
 ing for his boys — for all boys. 
 
 Capt. Dahlgren may let "Tad" have a little gun that he cannot hurt 
 himself with. 
 
 Oct. 14, 1862 
 
 A. Lincoln 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, August 8, 1863 
 My dear Wife. 
 
 . . . Tell dear Tad, poor "Nanny Goat," is lost; and Mrs. Cuthbert & 
 
 I are in distress about it. The day you left Nanny was found resting 
 
 herself, and chewing her little cud, on the middle of Tad's bed. But 
 
 now she's gone! The gardener kept complaining that she destroyed 
 
 the flowers, till it was concluded to bring her down to the White 
 
 House. This was done, and the second day she had disappeared, 
 
 and has not been heard of since. This is the last we know of poor 
 
 "Nanny.". . . 
 
 Springfield, Ills., July 22. i860 
 My dear George 
 
 I have scarcely felt greater pain in my life than on learning yester- 
 day from Bob's letter, that you had failed to enter Harvard University. 
 And yet there is very little in it, if you will allow no feeling of dis- 
 couragement to seize, and prey upon you. It is a certain truth, that 
 you can enter, and graduate in, Harvard University; and having made 
 the attempt, you must succeed in it. "Must" is the word. 
 
 I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature 
 
 '3 
 
age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you reso- 
 lutely determine, that you will not. 
 
 The president of the institution, can scarcely be other than a kind 
 man; and doubtless he would grant you an interview, and point out 
 the readiest way to remove, or overcome, the obstacles which have 
 thwarted you. 
 
 In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not 
 yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great 
 struggle of life, than many others, who have entered college more 
 easily. 
 
 Again I say let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in 
 the end you are sure to succeed. 
 
 With more than a common interest I subscribe myself Very truly 
 your friend, A _ Lincoln _ 
 
 On February n, 1861 a tall man stood on the rear platform 
 of the train that in a few moments would start the long 
 journey to Washington. Neighbors had gathered to wish him 
 Godspeed. Lincoln spoke his last words to them: 
 
 No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness 
 at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe 
 everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed 
 from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and 
 one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may 
 return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon 
 Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever 
 attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. 
 Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you and be 
 everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. 
 To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will 
 commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
II • TENETS OF HIS CHARACTER 
 
 Lincoln belonged to an age in America distinguished for the 
 rise of the common man. There was no school or cult that 
 produced this phenomenon; rather, a rare individualism 
 characterized each of its spokesmen — Emerson and Thor- 
 eau, Melville and Whitman and Lincoln. Experience was 
 their great master; and their academy was the searching of 
 their hearts. It was about July 1850 (the document cannot 
 be definitely dated) when Lincoln wrote these notes: 
 
 I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for 
 a lecture in those points where I have failed, as in those wherein I 
 have been moderately successful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as 
 for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for 
 tomorrow which can be done today. Never let your correspondence 
 fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before 
 stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done. 
 When you bring a common law suit, if you have the facts for doing 
 so, write the declaration at once. If a law point is involved, examine 
 the books, and note the authority you rely on upon the declaration 
 itself, where you are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defenses 
 and pleas. In business not likely to be litigated, — ordinary collection 
 cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like, — make all examinations 
 of titles, and note them, and even draft orders and decrees in advance. 
 This course has a triple advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, 
 
 15 
 
saves your labor when once done, performs the labor out of court 
 when you have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Ex- 
 temporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the 
 lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be 
 in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot 
 make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young law- 
 yers than relying too much on speech-making. If anyone, upon his 
 rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery 
 of the law, his case is a failure in advance. 
 
 Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise 
 whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is 
 often the real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace- 
 maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. 
 There will still be business enough. 
 
 Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than 
 one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who ha- 
 bitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, 
 whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pockets? A moral tone 
 ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men 
 out of it. 
 
 The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of 
 bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done 
 to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. 
 As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more 
 than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than 
 a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if 
 something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And 
 when you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill 
 and diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of the fee and 
 take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for 
 something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. 
 
 16 
 
Never sell a fee note - at least not before the consideration service 
 is performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty - negligence by 
 losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund when 
 you have allowed the consideration to fail. 
 
 There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dis- 
 honest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent con- 
 fidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the 
 people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is 
 very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost uni- 
 versal. Let no young man choosing law for a calling for a moment 
 yield to the popular belief - resolve to be honest at all events; and if 
 in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be 
 honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather 
 than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be 
 a knave. 
 
 Lincoln demonstrated in a letter to George E Floyd that he 
 could practice what he preached: 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have just received yours of 16th, with check on Flagg & Savage 
 for twenty-five dollars. You must think I am a high-priced man. You 
 are too liberal with your money. 
 
 Fifteen dollars is enough for the job. I send you a receipt for fifteen 
 dollars, and return to you a ten dollar bill. Yours truly, 
 
 A. Lincoln 
 
 For all the melancholy ascribed to Lincoln, his eyes often 
 twinkled. He respected the "small troubles" of neighbors 
 and strangers: 
 
 September 25, 1858 
 
 My old friend, Henry Chew, the bearer of this, is in a straight for 
 
 some furniture to commence housekeeping. If any person will furnish 
 
 17 
 
him, twenty-five dollars' worth, and he does not pay for it by the first 
 of January next, I will. [Lincoln did.] 
 
 September 24, i860 
 
 The lady bearer of this, says she has freight at the depot, which 
 
 she cannot get without four dollars. If this be correct, let her have the 
 
 freight, and I will pay you any amount not exceeding four dollars on 
 
 presentation of this note. [Lincoln paid Hve days later.] 
 
 Lincoln was modest. Asked in 1858 to supply biographical 
 data for the Dictionary of Congress he wrote: "Born, Febru- 
 ary 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. Education defec- 
 tive. Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of volunteers 
 in the Black Hawk War. Postmaster at a very small office. 
 Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was a 
 member of the lower house of Congress." Two years earlier 
 he had meditated on his career: 
 
 Twenty-two years ago Judge Douglas and I first became ac- 
 quainted. We were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even 
 then, we were both ambitious; I, perhaps, quite as much so as he. 
 With me, the race of ambition has been a failure — a flat failure; with 
 him it has been one of splendid success. His name fills the nation; and 
 is not unknown, even, in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the 
 high eminence he has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my 
 species, might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather 
 stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that ever pressed 
 a monarch's brow. 
 
 A note from Lincoln to the War Department respects a 
 human virtue: 
 
 The lady — bearer of this — says she has two sons who want to 
 work. Set them at it, if possible. Wanting to work is so rare a merit, 
 that it should be encouraged. 
 
 18 
 
Toward young people Lincoln revealed the warmest side of 
 his nature, perhaps remembering his own adolescent miser- 
 ies. In verses to the daughter of an innkeeper, and in counsel 
 to the son of his wife's cousin, Lincoln speaks to youth: 
 
 To Rosa — 
 
 You are young, and I am older; 
 
 You are hopeful, I am not — 
 Enjoy life, ere it grow colder — 
 
 Pluck the roses ere they rot. 
 
 Teach your beau to heed the lay — 
 That sunshine soon is lost in shade — 
 
 That nows as good as any day - 
 To take thee, Rosa, ere she fade. 
 
 Winchester, Sep. 28, 1858. 
 
 Washington, D.C. 
 June 28, 1862 
 Cadet Quentin Campbell 
 My dear Sir 
 
 Your good mother tells me you are feeling very badly in your new 
 situation. Allow me to assure you it is a perfect certainty that you will, 
 very soon, feel better — quite happy — if you only stick to the reso- 
 lution you have taken to procure a military education. I am older than 
 you, have felt badly myself, and know, what I tell you is true. Adhere 
 to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On 
 the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of 
 keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life. Take the advice 
 of a friend, who, though he never saw you, deeply sympathizes with 
 you, and stick to your purpose. 
 
 l 9 
 
The court martial that convicted Captain James Madison 
 Cutts, Jr., found that he had peeped through keyhole and 
 transom to watch a lady undress, and that he had used 
 offensive language to a superior officer and then written 
 derogatory letters. Lincoln remitted the sentence, but first 
 offered some advice: 
 
 Although what I am now to say is to be, in form, a reprimand, it is 
 not intended to add a pang to what you have already suffered upon 
 the subject to which it relates. You have too much of life yet before 
 you, and have shown too much of promise as an officer, for your future 
 to be lightly surrendered. You were convicted of two offences. One of 
 them, not of great enormity, and yet greatly to be avoided, I feel sure 
 you are in no danger of repeating [privately Lincoln had quipped that 
 Cutts "should be elevated to the peerage . . . with the title of Count 
 Peeper"]. The other you are not so well assured against. The advice 
 of a father to his son "Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, 
 bear it that the opposed may beware of thee," is good, and yet not the 
 best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself, 
 can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take 
 all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the 
 loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more 
 than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. 
 Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for 
 the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite. 
 
 In the mood indicated deal henceforth with your fellow-men, and 
 especially with your brother officers; and even the unpleasant events 
 you are passing from will not have been profitless to you. 
 
 20 
 
Ill • LINCOLN AND GOD 
 
 Politics on the prairies could be a rough and tumble game. 
 One of Lincoln's earliest political opponents was the hard- 
 visaged, circuit-riding Methodist parson, Peter Cartwright, 
 who was not above unsavory tactics. Lincoln would not 
 listen to those friends who advised him to ignore the old 
 parson's insidious innuendos. Instead, he replied in a hand- 
 bill: 
 
 TO THE VOTERS OF THE SEVENTH 
 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 
 
 Fellow-citizens: 
 
 A charge having got into circulation in some of the neighborhoods 
 of this district, in substance that I am an open scoffer at Christianity, 
 I have by the advice of some friends concluded to notice the subject 
 in this form. That I am not a member of any Christian church, is true; 
 but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never 
 spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any 
 denomination of Christians in particular. It is true that in early life I 
 was inclined to believe in what I understand is called the "Doctrine 
 of Necessity" — that is, that the human mind is impelled to action, or 
 held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control; 
 and I have sometimes (with one, two or three, but never publicly) 
 tried to maintain this opinion in argument. The habit of arguing thus 
 
 21 
 
however, I have entirely left off for more than five years. And I add 
 here, I have always understood this same opinion to be held by several 
 of the Christian denominations. The foregoing is the whole truth, 
 briefly stated, in relation to myself upon this subject. 
 
 I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, 
 whom I know to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. Leav- 
 ing the higher matter of eternal consequences, between him and his 
 Maker, I still do not think any man has the right thus to insult the 
 feelings, and injure the morals, of the community in which he may 
 live. If, then, I was guilty of such conduct, I should blame no man 
 who should condemn me for it; but I do blame those, whoever they 
 may be, who falsely put such a charge in circulation against me. 
 
 July 31, 1846. ALincoln . 
 
 In its day an anti-Lincoln faction, stubborn if small, kept 
 alive the charge of religious hypocrisy. It was claimed to be 
 a known fact "that Lincoln was frequently influenced by 
 members of his Cabinet ... to insert pious phrases in his 
 public documents, for political reasons/' The following frag- 
 ment — "not written to be seen of men," declared Nicolay 
 and Hay, the President's secretaries — probably should be 
 dated in early September of 1862. At this time, faced by the 
 staggering defeat at Second Manassas, Lincoln impressed 
 one Cabinet officer as "wrung by the bitterest anguish." 
 
 The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act 
 in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be 
 wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same 
 time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose 
 is something different from the purpose of either party — and yet the 
 human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best 
 adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say this is prob- 
 
 22 
 
ably true — that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end 
 yet. By His mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, 
 He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human 
 contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the 
 final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds. 
 
 To a delegation from Baltimore, who presented the President 
 with a Bible, Lincoln said: 
 
 "All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated 
 through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. 
 All things most desirable for man s welfare, here and hereafter, are to 
 be found portrayed in it." 
 
 An esteemed White House visitor and correspondent was the 
 widow of the famous English Quaker, Joseph J. Gurney. On 
 September 4,1864 Lincoln wrote Mrs. Gurney: 
 
 ... I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country 
 for their constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them, 
 more than to yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and 
 must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately per- 
 ceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this 
 terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled 
 otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error 
 therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives 
 us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He or- 
 dains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty con- 
 vulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. 
 
 Your people — the Friends — have had, and are having, a very great 
 trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, 
 they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard 
 dilemma, some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those 
 
 2 3 
 
appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, 
 the best I could and can, in my own conscience, and under my oath 
 to the law. That you believe this I doubt not; and believing it, I shall 
 still receive, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to our 
 Father in Heaven. 
 
 Why had the war continued between people who read the 
 same Bible and prayed to the same God? Lincoln said in his 
 Second Inaugural: 
 
 If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having 
 continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and 
 that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe 
 due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any 
 departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living 
 God always ascribe to Him? 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 bond- 
 man'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 altogether." 
 
 2 4 
 
IV • A.LINCOLN, AMERICAN 
 
 On the frontier if a man worked hard and stuck to his pur- 
 pose — always fundamental traits of character to Lincoln — 
 life could offer enormous opportunities. Against this back- 
 ground Lincoln acquired a hard core of beliefs in people and 
 principles that constituted a distinct brand of Americanism. 
 In 1832, making his first political speech, he said: 
 
 . . . Upon the subject of education ... I can only say that I view it 
 as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. 
 That every man may receive at least, a moderate education, and 
 thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other coun- 
 tries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institu- 
 tions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account 
 alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived 
 from all being able to read the scriptures and other works, both of a 
 religious and moral nature, for themselves. For my part, I desire to 
 see the time when education, and by its means, morality, sobriety, 
 enterprise and industry, shall become much more general than at 
 present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute 
 something to the advancement of any measure which might have a 
 tendency to accelerate the happy period. . . . 
 
 2 5 
 
In St. Louis a mob had murdered a harmless mulatto on 
 mere suspicion of wrongdoing and in Alton, Illinois, pro- 
 slavery fanatics had killed Elijah E Lovejoy for publishing 
 an abolitionist newspaper when in 1838 Lincoln addressed 
 a group of his townspeople on "The Perpetuation of our 
 Political Institutions." Lincoln turned to the question of how 
 Americans could protect themselves from "the caprice of a 
 mob": 
 
 . . . The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, 
 every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolu- 
 tion, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; 
 and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of 
 Seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so 
 to the support of the Constitution and laws, let every American pledge 
 his life, his property, and his sacred honor; — let every American re- 
 member that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, 
 and to tear the charter of his own, and his children's liberty. Let rever- 
 ence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisp- 
 ing babe, that prattles on her lap — let it be taught in schools, in 
 seminaries, and in colleges; — let it be written in primers, spelling 
 books, and in almanacs; — let it be preached from the pulpit, pro- 
 claimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in 
 short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old 
 and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all 
 sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly 
 upon its altars. . . . 
 
 After one term in Congress Lincoln returned to Springfield, 
 and began a period when his law partner said that "melan- 
 choly dripped from him as he walked." He was often buried 
 in thought, pondering problems that he confided to few. 
 This memorandum, written in July, 1854, contains some of 
 his reflections: 
 
 26 
 
The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of 
 people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or 
 cannot, so well do, for themselves — in their separate, and individual 
 capacities. 
 
 In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, 
 government ought not to interfere. 
 
 The desirable things which the individuals of a people cannot do, 
 or cannot well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which 
 have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these 
 branch off into an infinite variety of subdivisions. 
 
 The first — that in relation to wrongs — embraces all crimes, mis- 
 demeanors, and non-performance of contracts. The other embraces 
 all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, 
 as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, 
 orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of govern- 
 ment itself. 
 
 From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be 
 some, though not so much, need of government. 
 
 Lincoln lived in an age of a gathering intellectual storm that 
 now has lasted better than a century. The upheaval has 
 taken many forms and assumed many names. Late in Sep- 
 tember of 1859 Lincoln traveled to Madison to address the 
 Wisconsin State Fair. Asked to make a non-political speech, 
 Lincoln tried earnestly to comply, yet in at least one passage 
 he touched upon the core of a dominant problem for future 
 generations of Americans: 
 
 By the "mud-sill" theory it is assumed that labor and education are 
 incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. 
 According to that theory, a blind horse upon a treadmill, is a perfect 
 illustration of what a laborer should be — all the better for being 
 blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly. 
 
 27 
 
According to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only use- 
 less, but pernicious, and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed 
 a misfortune that laborers should have heads at all. Those same heads 
 are regarded as explosive materials, only to be safely kept in damp 
 places, as far as possible from that peculiar sort of fire which ignites 
 them. A Yankee who could invent a strong handed man without a 
 head would receive the everlasting gratitude of the "mud-sill" advo- 
 cates. 
 
 But free labor says "no!" Free labor argues that, as the Author of 
 man makes every individual with one head and one pair of hands, it 
 was probably intended that heads and hands should co-operate as 
 friends; and that that particular head, should direct and control that 
 particular pair of hands. As each man has one mouth to be fed, and 
 one pair of hands to furnish food, it was probably intended that that 
 particular pair of hands should feed that particular mouth — that each 
 head is the natural guardian, director, and protector of the hands and 
 mouth inseparably connected with it; and that being so, every head 
 should be cultivated, and improved, by whatever will add to its 
 capacity for performing its charge. In one word free labor insists on 
 universal education 
 
 Enroute to Washington to begin the weary, tragic years as 
 President, Lincoln told the New Jersey Senate how, as a boy, 
 he had thrilled to Weems' Life of Washington, and in read- 
 ing of the Revolution he had believed "there must have been 
 something more than common that those men struggled for." 
 In Philadelphia's Independence Hall the following day he 
 acknowledged the one incident which, more than any other 
 in our history, had lasting meaning to him: 
 
 ... I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from 
 the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have 
 often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who 
 
 28 
 
assembled here and adopted that Declaration of Independence — I 
 have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and 
 soldiers of the army, who achieved that independence. I have often 
 inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this 
 confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the sepa- 
 ration of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that 
 Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, 
 but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave prom- 
 ise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of 
 all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the senti- 
 ment embodied in that Declaration of Independence. 
 
 A President, beset with the worries of war, gives a Cabinet 
 officer tart advice in fundamental justice: 
 
 February 5, 1864 
 
 Submitted to the Sec. of War. On principle I dislike an oath which 
 
 requires a man to swear he has not done wrong. It rejects the Christian 
 
 principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it enough if 
 
 the man does no wrong hereafter. 
 
 A. Lincoln 
 
 Where did a President, in times of war, draw the line be- 
 tween loyalty and freedom of conscience and religion? The 
 case of Dr. McPheeters of St. Louis, suspected of rebel sym- 
 pathies, strained Lincoln's patience — the military people 
 couldn't seem to understand him. A typical touch of Lincoln 
 testiness concluded a letter on December 22, 1863: 
 
 I have never interfered, nor thought of interfering as to who shall or 
 shall not preach in any church; nor have I knowingly, or believingly, 
 tolerated anyone else to so interfere by my authority. If anyone is so 
 interfering, by color of my authority, I would like to have it specific- 
 ally made known to me. 
 
 29 
 
If, after all, what is now sought, is to have me put Dr. M. back, over 
 the heads of a majority of his own congregation, that, too, will be 
 declined. I will not have control of any church on any side. 
 
 To the 166th Ohio Regiment Lincoln reiterated another 
 basic American belief: 
 
 ... I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a 
 living witness that any one of your children may come here as my 
 father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have through 
 this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair 
 chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may 
 all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable hu- 
 man aspirations. . . . The nation is worth fighting for, to secure an 
 inestimable jewel. 
 
 A. Lincoln, American, coming to the end of his Second 
 Inaugural, remained unembittered. He spoke words to en- 
 grave upon all hearts: 
 
 With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the 
 right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
 work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who 
 shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to 
 do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, 
 among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
 30 
 
THIS EDITION, the third annual booklet 
 in Americana distributed by the Curtis Paper Company 
 has been designed by Joseph Blumenthal and printed at 
 The Spiral Press, New York. The paper is Curtis Rag White 
 Laid with Stoneridge Cover. The type used is Caledonia for 
 the text and Bulmer for the headings, title page and cover. 
 

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63K1956A C001 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 3 0112 031830968