VOL. XV.
No. 2.
BOSTON.
FEBRUARY, 1903.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. BY DUANE MOWRY. A FEW years ago the children of the late William Lloyd Garrison told the story of their distinguished father's life in four large volumes. In doing this, they very nat urally, perhaps unavoidably, gave considera ble prominence to the slavery question, with which their father was, for so many years, in timately identified. Incidentally, Abraham Lincoln is made to figure somewhat conspic uously on the pages of these volumes. For no history of slavery and' of the slave-power in America would be complete which did not take into the reckoning the life and works of the martyred President. Professor Goldwin Smith, a distinguished scholar, educator and critic, has occasion to consider, in a quite lengthy review, the last two volumes of this series, in an article in one of the English magazines, under the title of "A Moral Crusader. Professor Smith refers to the martyred President in the article in question and undertakes to place some estimate on the man and his place in history. I quote from the article: "He (Garrison) did not at first give full confidence to Lincoln, nor was he, or any one but a blind partisan, called upon to do so. Lincoln was a Western politician' who had risen by the same arts as the rest of his class, and had been nominated not so much for his merits as because he had the Illinois vote. He turned out infinitely better than those who brought him forward had any right to expect. His character proved ad mirable, and was most useful in giving tone
to the nation during the struggle. But his ability, after all, was chiefly shown in keep ing that touch with popular sentiment, the cultivation of which is the supreme study of the politician. The writers of these volumes have to admit that his plans for dealing with the slavery question in the Border States by means of indemnities were mistaken and al most fatuous. Xor can it be said that the war was ably administered while the manage ment was in his hands. The great service which Grant rendered was that of taking the war out of the hands of all the civilians and grasping it as his own. Of finance Lincoln was ignorant, and the story was credible which made him, when told that the funds ran low, ask whether the printing-machine had given out. How he would have dealt with the most difficult problem of all, that of Reconstruction, nobody knows. Lincoln's martyrdom to the great cause, so combined with the pride felt in exalting an American 'railsplitter' above all the statesmanship of the Old World, have, we cannot help think ing, led the Americans to raise Lincoln to an unapproachable pinnacle of glory as a states man on which, when the final judgment of history is pronounced, he will hardly remain. America may yet produce a greater man." It is well known that Professor Smith is not a native-born American, although he is not a stranger in our country and is not un familiar with our people and our institutions. He 'has lived in this country for some years; he has been connected with some, or at least,
