Lincoln was given this supreme vision. He did not hate the man from
whom he differed. Weakness was as foreign as wickedness to his strong,
gentle nature; but his courage was of a quality so high that it needed no
bolstering of dark passion. He saw clearly that the same high qualities,
the same courage, and willingness for self-sacrifice, and devotion to the
right as it was given them to see the right, belonged both to the men of
the North and to the men of the South. As the years roll by, and as all of
us, wherever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the valor and
self-devotion, alike of the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the
gray, so this whole nation will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in
the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people and for the
freedom of a race; the lover of his country and of all mankind; the
mightiest of the mighty men who mastered the mighty days, Abraham Lincoln.

AMERICAN TRADITION[2]

FRANKLIN K. LANE

[Footnote 2: Address delivered by Secretary Lane at the University of
Virginia, Feb. 22, 1912. Reprinted from the University of Virginia _Alumni
Bulletin_, and from _The American Spirit_, by Franklin K. Lane (Copyright,
1918, by the Frederick A. Stokes Co.). By permission of the author and of
the publishers.]

It has not been an easy task for me to decide upon a theme for discussion
to-day. I know that I can tell you little of Washington that would be new,
and the thought has come to me that perhaps you would be interested in what
might be called a western view of American tradition, for I come from the
other side of this continent where all of our traditions are as yet
articles of transcontinental traffic, and you are here in the very heart of
tradition, the sacred seat of our noblest memories.

No doubt you sometimes think that we are reckless of the wisdom of our
forebears; while we at times have been heard to say that you live too
securely in that passion for the past which makes men mellow but unmodern.

When you see the West adopting or urging such measures as presidential
primaries, the election of United States Senators by popular vote, the
initiative, the referendum and the recall as means supplementary to
representative government, you shudder in your dignified way no doubt, at
the audacity and irreverence of your crude countrymen. They must be in your
eyes as far from grace as that American who visited one of the ancient
temples of Indi