USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 9
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Does not the love of his fellow man shine out in every line of that sad but kindly free? Compare it with the scowling face of the Kaiser, the outstanding example of the autocrat-a face indicating arrogance, contempt, brutal disregard of the rights and feelings of others.
Your President has said that the present war is waged that the world may be safe for democracy.
Truly the workl is now in the crucible; the furnace is seven times heated, the tension well-nigh intolerable: in the welter of blood, the cry of agony. the horror of death, the world's destiny is now being wrought out-the white hot metal must soon issue and take permanent form -- all this is terrible but it was inevitable.
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The autocrat and the democrat minist needs meet in deadly conflict, and determine what the future of the world shall be- there is not room enough on earth for both.
This is no dynastie war to establish a sovereign or a reigning house, no religious conflict to render dominant, Catholic or Protestant, all but a very few peoples are wholly indifferent who is and who is not king; Protestant Prussia and Protestant Eng- land, Catholic Austria and Catholic France and Italy are not divided on religious lines, the Catholic American or Canadian stands shoulder to shoulder with his Protestant fellow-country- man with the same high resolve toward the same lofty ends. A people whose whole principle of government is autocratic, whose Kaiser is never photographed without a frown, his avowed models a people whose princes glory in military uniform, whose whole national atmosphere is enmity, hate and malevolence had been preparing for more than a generation for world dominion -- not a world dominion where others would be treated with kindness and justice but where they would be ruled with a rod of iron having no rights which a German was bound to respect.
The rest of the world was strangely blind to its danger -- the few who understood and spoke out, were treated as alarmists; one I know in Canada was laughed at and ridiculed, and more than one in England had the same experience. No one in a civil- ized country could believe that any people had reached the depth of infamy required to make them disregard all justice and right in order to aggrandize themselves and their ruling house. Yet so it was; and the world had a terrible awakening.
To the amazement of the civilized world, the solemn contract to respect and maintain the neutrality of Belgium was ruthlessly broken ; the nation which prided itself on its blunt honesty became a perjured nation-true, at first the Chancellor expressed some kind of regret but soon the real spirit became all too manifest. the brutal aggressor was contemptible enough actually to attempt to justify the wrong by lying charges against crucified Belgium, enmity, hate, malevolence did their perfect work. France must necessarily resist for she was attacked-but the land across the -SCC
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channel was safe, her navy ruled the narrow seas, and there was little chance of a successful invasion of her peaceful shores.
But she ind made a bargain with Belgium, she wished well to Belgium. her heart went out to Belgium; and she threw her small army in the way of the aggressor.
The world did not know the Prussian, did not understand to what depth of brutality he could descend. Rules of deceney were supposed still to hold even in war; but every vile thought that could be conceived by the vilest of men was carried into execution by the invading Hun-not sporadically as may happen in any army who see red and are in the agony of battle, but of design, with fixed purpose and by command of cool, collected officers. Murder, rape, arson by wholesale; women and children massacred or tortured with a torture worse than death-the Indian on this continent never gave such a spectacle, the world stood aghast and the German siniled a smile of self-satisfaction.
For long the conflict raged. Canadians fought and bled and died, many gallant young Americans joined our army, many joined the forces in France -- but the United States was neutral.
Murder on land was followed by murder on the sea; Ameri- can lives went out in the waters as Belgian lives went out on the plain, and yet America held her hand.
But when the promise solemnly made was contemptuously broken, wlien it became manifest that a wild beast, a tiger was abroad to which a promise was but something to be broken, when it beeame manifest that the Germany which was at war was the enemy of the human race, there was no longer hesitation.
War was declared by America against the enemy of America because the enemy of every nation governed by humane and moral principle, an enemy determined to set at naught all principles of right, of mercy, of justice to attain his object.
And America is united-the un-American. disloyal, hyphen- ated, I disregard ; they are annoying but ridiculous and will vanish from sight once the United States seriously turns its atten- tion to them. Some day when Uncle Sam is not too busy, he will take a bath and have his clothes baked; and we shall then licar no more of the verinin.
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Is this not in a large measure the work of Abraham Lincoln? Abraham Lincoln thought that in giving freedom to the slave freedom was assured to the free; in waging war against slavery he said "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth." Britain grimly hanging on, France bleeding at every pore, Italy angrily and helplessly watching the Hun devastate her beautiful land look eagerly across the sea for the coming Ameri- can host who are nobly to save, not, please God, meanly to lose the last best hope on earth-aud he who set free the slave for a United America half a century ago made it possible for a United America to keep free and democratic the weary nations fighting for life against the autecrat.
It is a favorite thought of mine that the democrat and the autrerat are typifiel in the leading characters in that war for freedom and in this the man, the kindly Abraham Lincoln, the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen, the repellant, scowling Kaiser, the superman, one of the worst failures, the one fearing God and expressing ignorance of His will, the other patronizing the good old German God, congratulating Him on bring a faithful ally and admitting Him almost to an equal partnership: Lincoln willing to hold MeClellan's horses if he would but bring victory: William, arrogance personificd, filled with overweening pride and insolenee. Lincoln took as his models the Fathers of the Revolution and the good of all nations. The Kaiser, Alexander, Caesar, Theodoric II, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Alexander, who, after deluging the world with blood, wept because there were no other worlds to conquer, Caesar, whose cold blooded slaughter of the unfortunate Gauls horrifies even the school boys, who have to pick out their meaning with the aid of grammar and lexicon; Theodoric, who murdered his guest at the banquet and slew his great Chancellor because he dared to insist. on the innocenee of oue whom Theodoric had determined to de- . troy. Frederick the Great, the perjured thief whom all the rhe- torie of Thomas Carlyle cannot make into even a decent barbarian. Napoleon, who also sought world power and cared little how he got it, who sprinkled kings of his own family over Europe like grains of pepper out of a pepper pot, who eared no more for the
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blood of the common man than for the life of a fly-such are the Kaiser's chosen models and he strives hard to better their example. If the President had a reverence for contract the Kaiser treats it as a scrap of paper ; Lincoln gave up Mason and Slidell though he thereby angered the North because the rules of international law forbade their retention, the Kaiser boldly says there is no longer any international law and murders at sea as on land. The American instructed Francis Lieber-a Brandenburger be it said, one who never forgot that he was a Brandenburger, a Prussian, a German-to draw up rules for the conduet of his troops, a war code the best, the most humane known to its time and never im- proved upon; the Prussian! The cities, villages and plains of France and Flanders cry aloud his infamy, slaughtered non-com- batant, outraged woman, starved child, ruined fane, poisoned well, the hideous story is all too well known, the world will not for generations forget the nightmare horror of Belgium, and so long as devotion to duty, sincere patriotism and unaffected piety and self-sacrifice command the admiration of the world, so long will be held in memory the name of that illustrious martyr to the German rules of war, Edith Cavel !.
America is at war. Why? What is the real reason? It is! the same as why Britain and her fairest daughter Canada are at war.
It is that the principles which were dear to Lincoln max: prevail, that malevolence and overweening pride may have a f?" that the awful doctrine of the superman may be destroyed. : humanity may be vindicated, that the free shall remain free the enslaved made free, that the people of every land shall ; how and by whom they will be governed, that militarism may shown to be not only a curse but also a failure; that it !! clearly appear that contract breaking. lying, cruelty, do not ]
Until that lesson is learned and thoroughly learned, { Prussian must remain withont the pale of friendly converse vi; other nations unlike him; but the lesson when learned will abundantly worth the pain experienced in learning it. Let but the arrogant superman lay aside his intolerable assumption of superiority, let him lay aside the brutality symbolized by the
تلك المعادن
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scowl of his Kaiser, let him feel the moving spirit of democracy and benevolence toward others, let him in a word become human -and he may be met as an equal, esteemed and loved as a friend.
But until that time comes, we must fight on -- if the Germans conquer then nothing else is worth while. All the silly attempts at a German peace must be received with the contempt which they deserve, the conempt with which Lincoln looked upon the efforts of many to compromise. Ile could not compromise with slavery, we cannot compromise with autocratic pretensions. We cannot lay down the sword til' democracy and our civilization are safe. We will never accept the Kultur of Prussia.
We must expect reverses, bitter disappointments, loss of hard- eathed ground, luke warm friends, incessant spying, incessant attempts to weaken our resolve -- but these must not discourage us, the goal is clear ahead and there is no discharge in this war.
Thirty-five thousand Canadian lads, three thousand from my own city, of high courage and high promise lie under the sod, . having given their all for us, having made the supreme sacrifice for civilization-a hundred thousand are crippled or wounded in the various hospitals-tens of thousands of Canadian mothers are broken-hearted-yet we must carry on.
So too, America must now take her share of the burden; hating war as she does she must fight as never before, for there never was a war like this before -- every nerve strained, all her resources called out, man and woman and child each in his own way doing his very best, even so the road will be long and hard, and ever and anon the heart will be sick from hope deferred.
There cannot be any doubt of the final result-right must triumph and wrong be put down, but there can be no slackening of the efforts put forth for victory.
One Canadian soldier bard has sung with a curiosa felicitas not excelled, I think, since the times of Horace:
"In Flanders fields the poppics grow Between the crosses row on row That mark our place and in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly
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Scarce heard amidst the guns below -- We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved aud were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foc, To you from failing hands we throw The Torch-be yours to hold it high ! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep though poppies grow In Flanders fields."
(The poet, my friend, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae him- self now lies in Flanders fields, having made the last, the supreme sacrifice for God, for King and for the right.)
So your dead are calling you-few they are now but many they will be-your hearts will ache like ours but thank God your courage is as high, your faith as serene.
As Lincoln before the dead at Gettysburg, so you before your dead in France and we before ours in Mesopotamia and Syria, at Gallipoli and Saloniki and wherever on the western front the battle has been waged most fiercely-at St. Julien, Viny Ridge, Paschen- daele, Courcelette-must offer up the Now "It is * for us to be dedicated to the great ta-l. remaining before us, that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. that we * * highly resolve that they shall not have died in vain, that the world under God shall have a ie-birth of free- dom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." Mis we be strength- ened to carry out the like resolve to his, "With malice toward nom. with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God has given us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in * * * to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lust- ing peace." .
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For those who mourn the dead vill come the consolation:
"To yearning hearts that pray in the night For solaee to ease them of their pain For those who will ne'er return again There shines in the darkness a rachant light -- A vision of service at God's right hand For the noble, chivalrous, youthful band Who gave up their ali for God and the Right.
"God will repay what we owe to Youth, Youth that sprang at their Country's call, Youth ready to give up their all For God and Country, Freedom and Truth, For love of home and a scathless hearth, For all that ennobles this transient earth Imperilled, o'ershadowed by woeful ruth' ??
For Gol and the right? Yes we fight not for Britain, for France. for America alone, not even for the democratic nations alone. Just as Lincoln when pouring his hosts against the South knew that he was fighting for the South and the future of the South, so we straining every muscle against Germany and her allies are fighting for them and their future. We do not arrogate the right to dictate to them how they are to be governed. Our arms may persuade them by the only argument they can fully understand that there is no need of loss of liberty to hold the Fatherland secure that democracy can wage a war and defend & land in the long run more effectually then autocracy; but if they resist our persuasion, that is their affair-every nation has the gov- comment it deserves. But they must learn that people of our race are not to be bullied, that we are not subdued by threat or by brutality and Schrecklichkeit has no terrors over us. Having learned that democracy has the will and the power to live they may choose their own form of government: but they must keep "hands off" ours.
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Free America, America who more than a century ago fought that her sons might be free, who fought half a century ago that the helpless black might be free, we welcome you to the great Armageddon wherein you will fight that the world may be free. Germany must share the benefits of your victory. Once she has seen the light, has learned the truth of the apostle's words "God has made all nations of men of one blood," when her people have learned that inen of other dations are their brethren not destined to be their slaves, that "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" then may be seen on earth what the poet saw in his vision of the heavens :
"I dreamt that overhead I saw in twilight grey The Army of the Dead Marching upon its way. So still and passionless, With faces so serene, That one could scarcely guess Such men in war had been.
"No mark of hurt they bore. Nor smoke, nor bloody stain ; Nor suffered any more Famine, fatigue or pain ; Nor any lust of hate Now lingered in their eyes -- Who have fulfilled their fate, Have lost all enmities.
"A new and greater pride So quenched the pride of race That foes marched side by side Who once fought face to face. That ghostly army's plan Knows but one reje, one rod All nations there are Man, And the one King is God.
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"No longer on their ears The bugle's sunmons falls:
Beyond these tangled Spheres The Archangel's trumpet calls; And by that trumpet led Far up the exalted sky.
The Army of the Dead Goes by and still goes by.
"Look upward, standing mute; Salute !"'
(No :: I have read this beautiful poem of Barry Pain's on many occasions. I make no excases for reading it again. W. R. R.)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE HONORABLE THOMAS POWER O'CONNOR Member of the British Parliment
I can scarcely remember the time when the name of Abraham Lincoln was not familiar to me. I still remember the strange thrill with which I listened to my professor reading out in the class the forecast in a newspaper as to what the different states of the Union were expected to do in care there came a war. I still remember the historic description of his interview with Abra- ham Lincoln by Goldwin Smith, one of the prominent Englishmien of his time, who was on the side of the North.
The first speech I ever made was on the Civil War. Finally there come- back to me, with something of the poignancy of the hour the day when Dennis, the good old porter of my college, said with sadness on his face, that there was a rumor that Abra- ham Lincoln had been assassinated; it was in the days before the Atlantic cable and I suppose then news did not reach the small and remote Irish town in which I then lived till some weeks after the tragic event.
But it was not until many years afterwards that I got some knowledge of Lincoln. One morning I found myself introduced
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to a man who was seated in a bath chair taking, like myself, the cure at Carlsbad. He looked the splendid ruin of a great west- ern man, the shoulders were unusually broad; the chest massive, the head massive and the massive features, and his expression gave a similar impression of a powerful temperament ; powerful and yet genial and amiable. It was Want Lamon, once a partner of Lincoln in this very town, afterwards hi- Marshal in Washington; for many years his intimate friend; always his deveted admirer.
Let me tell you the spirit in which I approach the study of Lincoln. In his case, as in the case of all public men, and indeed of all men who have influenced the world. I start from the principk. of giving the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There is a tendency to make of Lincoln what is called plaster of paris saint; he is a saint in iny secret calendar of saints; but you make less a saint of him trying to make him a plaster of paris saint. It was a great saying of Oliver Cromwell, "Paint me as I am, wart and all," and Lincoln would probably have said the same thing.
It is only snobbishmness or prudery, or the vulgarity that some- times calls itself elegance, that seks to portray Lincoln in in- human perfection.
A great deal has been written on the very trivial question whether Lincoln's language was always that of the Sunday school. It wasn't; and some people have found it necessary to prove that he never used a big D.
What ignorance such criticism displays of human nature and of the masters that understand and control human nature! Wis- dom is not effective which does not get to the simplest as well as to the crudite-to the plain people as well as the scholars. A gospel has failed which is not in the Language of the people.
The sayings of Lincoln are better known than those of any other president that ever lived in the white house. Many of these sayings summed up a whole world of wisdom and of policy in a single phrase which at once caught the imagination and reached the mind of his people, as for instance, when he warned the nation during his second election not to "Swap horses when crossing the stream." If anybody object that his toris had sometimes phrases that are not used in the drawing room. again remembering my
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principle that we are dealing with a saintly man, but not a plaster of paris man. I am not concerned to prove that the language was not always that of the drawing room.
Surely it is the merest prudery to contend that Lincoln's utterances so often in the somber philosophy of Solomon's vanity of vanities should also be combined with the healthy and wise laughter of "Don Quixote" or the Pickwick Papers. In this view of life, half ironical and yet pronouncedly serious, Lincoln was the embodiment of the point of view of the American people then and since.
If you scrutinize his utterances through the different epochs of his career you find at once great variety and yet underlying unity. His first appeal to the people is that of a somewhat rough man. Then you pass on to the period when his style has some- thing of the pretentiousness of the self-educated man, until at last you reach the period when his utterances have the noble simplicity of the great masterpieces of literature.
There has been a strange theory that there were two Lincolns, and that it is impossible to account for the Lincoln of the white house and the Lincoln of Springfield. Coupled with this there has been much said about the defects of his education, as that he was only a little less than a year altogether at school, that he never attended university, that he never was outside America. I hold very strongly to the opinion that a university education is a very useful part of the life of any man, for everybody ought to inherit the wisdom of all the ages. Amd yet in a way I would not have had the education of Lincoln other than it was.
The greatest of all educators, the greatest of all universities, is the education and the university of life, always on the condi- tion that you live. Lincoln lived to the utno -t. There wasn't a part of the life around him, there was scarcely a part of the life of the whole nation, except of the idle rich, of which he did not have personal experience.
Like so naany millions of other Americans, before and since, he had to work with his hands. He had to try storekeeping. He had to travel with baggage contained within the narrow frontier of his shabby tall hat from village to village and to occupy with
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his fellow lawyer the same room and even the same bed. Men born with silver spoons have occasionally in human history been the leaders in the revolt and in the liberation of the plain people, but it remains the general truth that most men can realize the lives, the difficulties, the joys, the sorrow's of the plain people only if they have been plain people themselves.
Imagine a president at the white house who had to ask mil- lions of his countrynien to fight their fellow countrymen, to die the death, to pass through this awful struggle of four years of sanguinary war, frequent defeat, frequent disaster; imagine a president who came from the rich family of the crowded city, and I think you will realize the greater and the supreme fitness of Lincoln's training for Lincoln's task. It was because he under- stood the plain people that he was able to get the plain people to go through so tremendous and awful a strain.
I have heard it said that if you want to get the real opinion of the real American, by which is meant that vast population that lives outside the great cities, on lonely farms or in small towns, you have to go to the popular forum that gathers around the stove of the rustic hotel. This was the forum in which Lincoln at once sharpened his mind and studi d and realized his people. Thus, graduating from the small some to the big stove, from New Salem to Springfield, he was learning all the time. He was graduating in his university.
When he burst upon the east of America, and then on all America, as some strange unknown portent neither the east nor America had a real conception of the main. To them he was a rough, untutored, unsuccessful, provin ind lawyer, trained in no arts but those of small and squalid politic ..
"Who is this huck-ter in politics," asked Wendell Phillips; "who is this country bred advocate?" But he learned to know Lincoln better. In addition the ungainliness of his person much exaggerated had passed through the country, and especially through the South until he appeared. as Mr. Morse says, in his biography, "a Caliban in education, manners and aspect ; the ape from Illinois, the green hand." There is a story of a proud South Carolina lady with fre in her eye, conempt in her manner,
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