Finished reading this intriguing biography of Abraham Lincoln today. This book, written by Dale Carnegie in 1932, was inspired by Irishman T.P. O'Connor who wrote a column called "Men and Memories" for the Morning Post in London. Carnegie was surprised and fascinated at how little he knew about many personal aspects of Abraham Lincoln's life. Hence the book entitled, "Lincoln the Unknown"
This book presents Lincoln's life as one long odyssey of struggles and failures punctuated by occasional success and happy outcomes, which unfortunately were few and far between. Lincoln, the Unknown is a tale of a sad life fraught with seemingly unending disappointments and setbacks from one chapter to another.
By the time he was 49 years old, Lincoln was described as having "arrived" at failure in business and bleak unhappiness in marriage. Although he was fairly successful in his Law practice, he had but only frustration and defeat in politics.
Yet the 49th year was the turning point in Lincoln's life.
Starting with his first and most famous political battle in U.S. history, Lincoln lived the remaining seven years of his short life achieving enduring fame, going down in history as the most popular, the 16th President of the United States of America.
Perhaps one of the "unknown" things of Lincoln is his favourite poem, a short poem about the need to refrain from being proud because life is short and fleeting, which he used as a maxim throughout his life. (p74)
"Oh, why should the spirit
of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor,
a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning,
a break of the wave,
He passes from life
to rest in the grave."
Of course no story about Lincoln, notwithstanding "The Unknown" part of the book-title, would be complete without his well-known speeches: his Gettysburg Address in 1863 and his Second Inauguration Speech in 1865 (please see Appendix A and B below respectively).
One may say Lincoln was more well known as an orator than as a politician. Today he is remembered for his fine speeches more than for his political or military achievements.
A question that one may ask at the end of this book is, what was the key to Lincoln's successful and inspiring speeches. The answer is found about halfway through the book, in Chapter 14, describing his rise to political power:
Firstly, Lincoln was unyielding in preparation.
He was always thinking about his speeches and would write notes on scraps of paper and envelopes whenever the thoughts, ideas and phrases came to mind.
Secondly, Lincoln was meticulous in revision.
He was constantly revising, recasting and improving on the words that he wanted to say in public or in meetings.
Finally, Lincoln was unwavering in his conviction.
He believed in speaking the truth, even if it meant losing support and becoming unpopular. "I am willing, if necessary, to perish with it . . ." he was often known to tell colleagues who warned him of the pitfall of making unpopular statements.
Appendix A
p174, 19Nov1863, after victory at the Battle of Gettysburg
Lincoln delivered his famous speech, which started with the words, "Four score and seven years ago . . ." and ended with "Of the people, by the people, for the people . . ."
"Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth upon this continent,
A new nation, conceived in Liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation, or any nation
So conceived and so dedicated,
Can long endure. We are met
On a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of
That field, as a final resting place
For those who here gave their lives
That that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper
That we should do this.
But, in a larger sense,
We can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—
We can not hallow—this ground. The brave men,
Living and dead, who struggled here
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power
To add or detract. The world will little note,
Nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
To the unfinished work which they who fought here
Have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us—
That from these honored dead we take
Increased devotion to that cause for which
They gave the last full measure of devotion—
That we here highly resolve that these dead
Shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
Under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—
And that government of the people,
By the people, for the people,
Shall not perish from the earth.
Appendix B
p192, 04Mar1865
Lincoln's Second Inauguration Speech, a speech so eloquent that it was declared by Earl Curzon, the Chancellor of Oxford University to be the purest form of human eloquence . . . almost divine. This is the well-known, "With malice toward none, with charity for all . . ." speech.
The closing paragraphs are extracted below:
"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations"
