This work was not accomplished fully in Mr. Lincoln's time, but he was the leader of ideas and policies which could have no other consummation.
At the end it must be said of Mr. Lincoln that he was a great man, in a great place, burdened with great responsibilities, coupled with great opportunities, which he used for the benefit of his country and for the welfare of the human race. Among American statesmen he is conspicuously alone. From Washington to Grant he is separated by the absence on his part of military service and military renown. On the statesmanship side of his career, there is no one from Washington along the entire line who can be considered as the equal or the rival of Lincoln.
And we may wisely commit to other ages and perhaps to other lands the full discussion and final decision of the relative claims of Washington and Lincoln to the first place in the list of American statesmen.
DELIVERED AT GROTON, MASS., OCTOBER 21, 1892
We celebrate this day as the anniversary of the discovery of the American continent.
"The hand that rounded Peter's dome. And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew."
Of these lines of Emerson, the last three are as true of Columbus, as of
"The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,"
"Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew."
And shall we therefore say that he is not worthy of praise, of tribute, of memorials, of anniversary days, of centennial years, of national and international gatherings and exhibitions, that in some degree mankind may illustrate and dignify, if they will, the events that have followed the opening of a new world to our advanced and advancing civilization?
In great deeds, in great events, in great names, there is a sort of immortality, an innate capacity for living, a tendency to growth, to expansion, and thus what was but of little comment in the beginning is seen, often after the lapse of years, possibly only after the lapse of centuries, to have been freighted with consequences whose value can only be measured by the yearly additions to the sum of human happiness.