“The Prairie Lawyer, Master of Us All”:
A Birthday Tribute to Abraham Lincoln, 16th
President of the United States and a Founding Father of the University of
Illinois
Saturday, February 12, 2022
[All Images in the Public Domain – 19th
Century]
Lincoln
in 1863 at the age of 54.
Poem
on the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln (1909)
By
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
Through
the dim pageant of the years
A
wondrous tracery appears:
A
cabin of the western wild
Shelters
in sleep a new-born child.
Nor
nurse, nor parent dear can know
The
way those infant feet must go;
And
yet a nation’s help and hope
Are
sealed within that horoscope.
Beyond
is toil for daily bread,
And
thought, to noble issues led,
And
courage, arming for the morn
For
whose behest this man was born.
A
man of homely, rustic ways,
Yet
he achieves the forum’s praise,
And
soon Earth’s highest meed has won,
The
seat and sway of Washington.
No
throne of honors and delights;
Distrustful
days and sleepless nights,
To
struggle, suffer and aspire,
Like
Israel, led by cloud and fire.
A
treacherous shot, a sob of rest,
A
martyr’s palm upon his breast,
A
welcome from the glorious seat
Where
blameless souls of heroes meet;
And,
thrilling through unmeasured days,
A
song of gratitude and praise;
A
cry that all the Earth shall heed,
To
God, who gave him for our need.
Excerpt from Heroic Leadership Through
Altruistic Service: The Key to Our Future (4-H House Scholarship Banquet Address)
By Rob Chappell – Thursday, April 10, 2008
The story of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is well known to
us, as we all are associated with the University of Illinois, which Lincoln
helped to found through his signing of the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1862.
Abraham Lincoln as a young man was taught about the evils of slavery by his
father, Thomas Lincoln, and he witnessed the horrors of enslavement firsthand
when he and a friend journeyed south on the Mississippi River to New Orleans in
their early twenties. What Lincoln had heard about from his father now became
very real to him, and he determined – when he was your age – that if he ever
came to a position of influence, he would do his best to restrict, contain, and
if at all possible, eradicate slavery throughout the United States. Thirty
years later, when Lincoln was elected President in 1860, he inherited “a house
divided”: the nation fell into civil war, and as the agonizing conflict dragged
on and the casualties mounted on both sides, many began to question why the
Union continued to fight on. Was the Civil War being fought merely to preserve
national unity, or was there a higher purpose to the conflict?
Lincoln answered this question in one of his “State of the Union” addresses to Congress on December 1, 1862:
“Fellow-citizens,
we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be
remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance,
can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will
light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are
for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save
the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We – even we here – hold
the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we
assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give and what we
preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth.
Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful,
generous, just – a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and
God must forever bless.”
Lincoln’s altruistic and heroic leadership ultimately led
to his demise. He became a martyr for the cause of liberty and equality when he
was killed by an assassin’s bullet in April 1865. “Now he belongs to the ages,”
the inscription reads on his monument in Springfield – and Lincoln continues to
challenge us to follow his example from beyond the grave. “Let us have faith
that might makes right,” he said in an 1860 speech in New York City, “and in
that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” That
is what heroic leaders do: challenge the status quo, right wrongs, set captives
free, proclaim liberty throughout the land – not counting the cost, but firmly
embracing the destiny that has been laid out before them: to improve the world
for generations yet unborn, so that even if they do not live to see the
fruition of their labors, then their inheritors might live to see it, and
rejoice with thanksgiving for the heroic leadership of their forebears.
Ann Rutledge: Lincoln’s First Love – And Her
Enduring Influence on His Life
Abraham Lincoln is pictured here
with Ann Rutledge, in an illustration from page 276 of The Soul of Ann
Rutledge: Abraham Lincoln’s Romance, by Bernie Babcock, published in
1919. The caption reads: “"Abraham, this place seems holy and you are its prophet."
(Image Credit: Public Domain via Project Gutenberg)
Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge were close friends –
and possibly romantically involved – while they studied under the tutelage of
Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster in New Salem, Illinois. Her untimely death in
1835 devastated young Lincoln, and he was never afterwards entirely free of
melancholy.
Edgar Lee Masters commemorated Ann
Rutledge in this epitaph. His words are engraved on her tombstone at Oakland
Cemetery in Petersburg, Illinois:
“Out
of me, unworthy and unknown,
The vibrations of deathless music!
‘With malice toward none, with charity for all.’
Out of me, the forgiveness of millions toward millions,
And the beneficent face of a nation
Shining with justice and truth.
I am Ann Rutledge, who sleep beneath these weeds,
Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln,
Wedded to him, not through union,
But through separation.
Bloom forever, O Republic,
From the dust of my bosom!”
Excerpt from Lincoln’s Speech at Peoria: October
16, 1854
“Let us re-adopt the
Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which
harmonize with it. Let north and south – let all Americans – let all lovers of
liberty everywhere -- join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall
not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and
to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the
succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and
call us blessed, to the latest generations.”
Walt Whitman’s Foresight (Writing in 1856)
“Whenever the day comes for him to appear, the man
who shall be the Redeemer President of These States, is to be the one that
fullest realizes the rights of individuals, signified by the impregnable rights
of The States, the substratum of this Union. The Redeemer President of These
States is not to be exclusive, but inclusive. In both physical and political
America, there is plenty of room for the whole human race; if not, more room
can be provided.”
Lincoln’s
Farewell Address to the People of Springfield, Illinois:
February
11, 1861
My friends, 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 the 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.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: November 19, 1863
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We
are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion
of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot
consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far
so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Excerpt from Lincoln’s Speech to the 166th Ohio
Regiment: August 22, 1864
“It is not merely for
to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s
children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. I
beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen temporarily
to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your
children may look to 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 human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained,
that we may not lose our birthright – not only for one, but for two or three
years. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.”
Lincoln’s
Second Inaugural Address:
March
4, 1865
At this second appearing to take the oath of the
Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there
was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which
public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase
of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of
our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as
to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.
With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all
sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this
place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents
were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the
Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one
of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves,
not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of
it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that
this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and
extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the
Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to
restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war
the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither
anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the
conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result
less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same
God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any
men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the
sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The
prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for
it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses
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 offense
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 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 altogether.”
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 lasting peace among ourselves and with all
nations.
One of many
paintings created in the aftermath of Lincoln’s death that portrayed his joyous
reception into a glorious afterlife following his repose on April 15, 1865.
Leo
Tolstoy (1828-1910) on Abraham Lincoln
Printed
in the New York World – 1909
“Of all the great
national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant.
Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even Washington
stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain moral
power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right to be
proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will live
thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too near
to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after a
few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do.
His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding,
just as the Sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.”
“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” (1914)
By Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)
Editor’s Note:
This poem portrays Father Abraham as a bodhisattva figure – a saintly person
who continues to be actively involved with the world even after death. Lindsay
views our 16th President as walking among us yet, unseen, still
praying, striving, and working for justice, freedom, and peace. This is one of
my favorite poems of all time! J
It
is portentous, and a thing of state
That
here at midnight, in our little town
A
mourning figure walks, and will not rest,
Near
the old court-house pacing up and down,
Or
by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He
lingers where his children used to play,
Or
through the market, on the well-worn stones
He
stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.
A
bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,
A
famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make
him the quaint great figure that men love,
The
prairie-lawyer, master of us all.
He
cannot sleep upon his hillside now.
He
is among us: — as in times before!
And
we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe
deep, and start, to see him pass the door.
His
head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings.
Yea,
when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?
Too
many peasants fight, they know not why,
Too
many homesteads in black terror weep.
The
sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He
sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.
He
carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now
The
bitterness, the folly and the pain.
He
cannot rest until a spirit-dawn
Shall
come; — the shining hope of Europe free:
The
league of sober folk, the Workers’ Earth,
Bringing
long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.
It
breaks his heart that kings must murder still,
That
all his hours of travail here for men
Seem
yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That
he may sleep upon his hill again?
Concluding
Reflection:
“Lincoln”
by Vachel Lindsay
Would
I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,
That
which is gendered in the wilderness
From
lonely prairies and God’s tenderness.
Imperial
soul, star of a weedy stream,
Born
where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,
Whose
spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave,
Above
that breast of earth and prairie-fire —
Fire
that freed the slave.
Resources
for Further Exploration
·
The Abraham Lincoln Institute @ https://abrahamlincoln.org/
·
Abraham Lincoln Online @ https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/
·
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
@ https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/
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