The Evening Star (February 12, 1946)
Editorial: Lincoln
On the one hundred and thirty-seventh anniversary of his birth, the fact about Abraham Lincoln which properly should be stressed is that he belongs to no single nation, no single class, no party. The preserver of the Union cannot be comprehended in strictly contracted connotations. He is not, nor can he ever be, the possession of any particular sect. His mind and his heart were too big to be contained in any narrow dogma. He was a philosopher, and it is useless to attempt to discuss him in terms of exclusive doctrines, restrictive fixations.
But these truths commonly were not considered while Lincoln lived nor in the long and troubled “period of reconstruction” which ended only recently – if indeed it has ended at all. One section of the country regarded him with fear and hatred, another with adulation which was unreasonable, even hysterical in some of its manifestations. Meanwhile, he was similarly misapprehended by different racial communities in both the North and the South. The gradual development of more accurate, more charitable opinions and sentiments respecting him was accelerated when American participation in the World War I fused millions of citizens of varying origins and types of experience into an effective solidarity. A proper realization of his true character continued to grow through World War II. Of course, a complete and perfect appreciation of what he was and what his life signifies remains unattained at this prevailing moment. As Secretary Stanton either did or did not say, “he belongs to the ages.” It is natural, then, that he should represent an immortal challenge to human appraisal, increasing inimitably in value and attraction as the generations pass.
In other language, Lincoln may be visioned as the symbol of mankind in general, personifying the instincts, the hopes, the struggles, the sufferings, the failures, the successes of millions of people. He shares with other unforgotten martyrs not merely the glory of having died for his kind but also the glory of having lived for them. And living means learning as well as striving in all such instances.
Hence it is that not just a portion of the nation he saved, nor simply a part of the human family, but men, women and little children everywhere celebrate Lincoln on the day of the year most notably sacred to his memory. They pay their tribute with a constantly expanding devotion as their perception of him improves. No other figure in modern history has so much import of righteousness and mercy, brotherhood and tolerance or so much poignancy and power. The ideals of civilized society which he connoted will prosper as they faithfully are served by the heirs of his genius.