The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by Lord Charnwood

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Title: Abraham Lincoln

Author: Lord Charnwood

Release Date: May 11, 2006 [EBook #18379]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN ***

Produced by Al Haines

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BY LORD CHARNWOOD

GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC.

COPYRIGHT, 1917

BY

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE

Statesmen--even the greatest--have rarely won the same unquestioning
recognition that falls to the great warriors or those supreme in
science, art or literature. Not in their own lifetime and hardly to
this day have the claims to supremacy of our own Oliver Cromwell,
William III. and Lord Chatham rested on so sure a foundation as those
of a Marlborough or a Nelson, a Newton, a Milton or a Hogarth. This is
only natural. A warrior, a man of science, an artist or a poet are
judged in the main by definite achievements, by the victories they have
won over foreign enemies or over ignorance and prejudice, by the joy
and enlightenment they have brought to the consciousness of their own
and succeeding generations. For the statesman there is no such exact
measure of greatness. The greater he is, the less likely is his work
to be marked by decisive achievement which can be recalled by
anniversaries or signalised by some outstanding event: the chief work
of a great statesman rests in a gradual change of direction given to
the policy of his people, still more in a change of the spirit within
them. Again, the statesman must work with a rough and ready
instrument. The soldier finds or makes his army ready to yield
unhesitating obedience to his commands, the sailor animates his fleet
with his own personal touch, and the great man in art, literature or
science is master of his material, if he can master himself. The
statesman cannot mould a heterogeneous people, as the men of a
well-disciplined army or navy can be moulded, to respond to his call
and his alone. He has to do all his work in a society of which a large
part cannot see his object and another large par