Abraham Lincoln

ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY HUGO B. ANDERSON. Nothing new can be said on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Every act of his official career, every line of his public declarations, every word of his private correspondence, and every apparent motive for his efforts, have been scrutinized by the critics of the times as have those of no other man. And yet, today his character remains as lofty and undefiled as it seemed the day he fell a martyr in the cause of humanity. What more can be said of any mortal? It is quite fitting, nevertheless, that we continue to keep fresh before us the life of so great a man, that the inspiration of his accomplishments may impel us to do something which will better our lives and thus rekindle that inspiration for posterity. Lincoln was a great man. The testimony of one hundred years has established it. He was not born great. Greatness was not thrust upon him. He achieved greatness. It remains for us to discover the secret of his success, and then heed the lesson which his life so grandly taught. It is doubtful if any historic character ever came into the world under more discouraging prospects than did Abraham Lincoln. With a shiftless and ignorant father, an uneducated but good and big-hearted mother, and in the most dire poverty, he spent his early youth. One thing and one only worked in his favor. He was born in a new country, among the rough, yet truehearted pioneers. With these simple and courageous folk, ancestry or wealth counted for naught. A man was judged by strength of body and character, and not by the social status of his father. Every man had an equal chance to make a name for himself, and

282 IMPROVEMENT ERA. no man received a name who did not make it. That was Abraham Lincoln's one opportunity, and from the time he was old enough to realize it, he made the most of his chances. He read everything which he could lay hands upon. As soon as he gained a bit of information he used it. He practiced telling people, in ;i simple way, what he had read, illustrating his points with stories from life. In this way he acquired that art of putting things which in later years inspired a great man to say, "when Mr. Lincoln speaks, it seems as though the people are thinking out loud." With ambitious courage he struggled on as a farm hand, as a store clerk, as a leader of a company in the Black Hawk War, From an Untouched Negative Made ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Sixteenth President of the United States. Born Feb. 12. 1809;shot I by an assassin, April 14. 18tio, and died the following day.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 283 and was at the age of twenty-five elected to the Illinois legislature. Here, before long the time came when he must choose his standing place. A proslavery resolution was brought before the house. When a young man, Lincoln, with several companions, had witnessed a slave auction in New Orleans. It made a profound impression on him. It seemed to strike a cord which a farseeing Providence had tuned within his soul in harmony with Divine justice. Turning to his friends he is said to have uttered these words, "Boys, if I ever get a chance to hit slavery, by God, I'll hit it hard." His first chance to oppose slavery was now at hand. But he was new in politics, the preponderance of sentiment was against him, he was ambitious for political distinction, and a vote against the measure might ruin his chances, "for in that time in many parts of the west an abolitionist was regarded as little better than a horsethief ." Should he stand for his conviction or let this trifling affair slide by until he gained a stronger political power? And here is the key to the success of Lincoln's life. He not only did not do wrong, vote for the measure, but he struck a blow for the right. With a following of only one man he recorded his protest against the resolution. He showed the heroic courage to stand alone for his convictions, and trusted to God for his future. With that the life of Lincoln is told. He had passed the cross-roads. He had taken the first road which turned to the Right. That road led to success. From that time on with the same courage and trust in truth, he pushed forward no matter how steep and rough the road which he must climb, nor deep the mire of sorrow through which he must pass. When he wrote the speech in which he declared that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he was advised by his friends that if he should deliver it he could not be elected to Congress. He delivered it and was defeated. But what mattered that to him ! An opportunity had been offered him, and he threw all his splendid strength into a blow for the right. As he left his home in Springfield to assume the responsibilities of the presidential office, he spoke these words of final farewell to his friends, ''I now leave, not knowing when or whether

284 IMPROVEMENT ERA. 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 1 can not fail." He sought that assistance. He studied, he toiled. At times he was criticised severely. But he never swerved from a course which he considered right, to elevate himself in the popular mind, or to please another. And he succeeded. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as <lod gave him to see the right," he pressed bravely on to carry into effect his life's conviction, that the institution of slavery was founded on injustice. With the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, that work which he had started, when as a boy he witnessed the horrors of the slave auction, was completed- He had reached the goal. And then came the end, too tragic for expression: As when a kingly ;edar, green with boughs, Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.

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The light of truth, the conviction of right and wrong, is given to every man. In this we are all born in a new country, for all have equal opportunity. The cross-roads are at hand. Success shines today, as it did in the days of Lincoln, on the horizon of the road to the Right. That road is as rough, steep and thick with mire as ever before. This is the lesson of Lincoln's life: — No man is born into the world whose opportunities are not great enough to enable him to achieve that success, if he will but pay the price, — strike fearlessly for the right, as he sees the right, and trust in (iod. Sugar House, Utah.