-- sial oratory its great persuasive power; for it struck the note of absolute sincerity and of intense conviction, the note that was lacking in the oratory of his most redoubtable opponent, Douglas, as it was lacking also in the eloquence of the greatest of the Roman orators. This trait in Lincoln's style was fostered, if it was not actually created, by his legal training, and by the necessity imposed upon him of addressing bodies of men who lacked the academic point of view, who were not versed in technicalities, but whose mother wit and native shrewdness made them keen to detect a flaw in the most brilliant argument and to supply by close and cogent reasoning the lack of formal training. Lincoln's style, then, was no holiday weapon, but one that had been slowly forged by him in the fire of experience, one that had been tempered to a perfect edge, one that had again and again been tested in the severest of forensic conflicts. The second characteristic is still more remarkable. It finds its embodiment in the perfect taste and exquisite finish that endow some of his periods with such unusual beauty of expression. In several of the famous passages that are quoted here- the First and Second Inaugurals and the Gettysburg Address the most accomplished rhetorician will find it difficult to detect a flaw. And they contain much more than rhetoric. The sentences are short and simple; the thought is not elaborated; yet the simplicity is the simplicity of strength, and the ease is the ease of conscious power, while throughout the words whose cadences run on in an unbroken harmony there is a certain loftiness of diction that not infrequently attains to the sublime, especially when a coloring of metaphor is introduced that half recalls the severe yet splendid imagery of the Hebrew prophets. Just how this taste, this instinctive perception of every cadence, and this touch of the sublime, became a part of Lincoln's intellectual endowment is a mystery that stylists have in vain endeavored to make clear. Perhaps the ultimate solution must be sought in that psychological truth which contains the explanation of the source of every great style. For a style is only great when it is a true reflection of mentality, of temperament, of the man himself of whom it is a part; and thus it is that we may find in the prose of this untaught American the accurate embodiment of his own character as moulded by experience and by environment. It had clearness because his thought was logical; it had sincerity because he was himself sincere; it had solemnity and stateliness because of his own fundamental seriousness, whose depths were in reality revealed and not obscured by the humor that so often played upon the surface of his thought; and it had harmony because in him the qualities of strength and gentleness were fitly and indissolubly harmonized. HARRY THURSTON PECK FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS THIS Country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen - has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose; but the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government, as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.” I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. [From the First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. Reprinted, by permission of the publishers, The Century Company, from the text used by Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. ii, pp. 6–7.] LETTER TO GENERAL MCCLELLAN MAJOR-GENERAL MCCLELLAN : EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., My Dear Sir: You remember my speaking to you of what I called your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess, and act upon the claim? As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you cannot subsist your army at Winchester unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance nearly twice as great from railroad transportation as you would have to do without the railroad last named. He now wagons from Culpeper Court House, which is just about twice as far as you would have to do from Harper's Ferry. He is certainly not more than half as well provided with wagons as you are. I certainly should be pleased for you to have the advantage of the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester, but it wastes all the remainder of autumn to give it to you, and in fact ignores the question of time, which cannot and must not be ignored. Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is to "operate upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without exposing your own." You seem to act as if this applies against you, but cannot apply in your favor. Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania; but if he does so in full force, he gives up his communications to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him. If he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what is left behind all the easier. Exclusive of the water-line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy is by the route that you can and he must take. Why |