Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: An Historical Address

Then so much depends upon the point of view. In this regard, men are like mountains. A height of land towers over our heads: is it a mountain, splitting the clouds, and joining the earth and the sky; or is it a mere knoll, shutting from our view the real peaks which are just beyond it? In a deep and narrow valley, one has no idea how some mighty peak dominates the whole landscape for miles and miles. But when he gets away upon the other summits, he sees at once how easily it is the master and king of the en tire region.

I repeat - so with men. We do not judge the public men of our own time with intelligence even, - let alone fairness and candor. No man, it is said, is a hero to his own valet. The genuine greatness or the essential littleness of those who figure largely in the world's affairs is not clearly perceived in their own times. To illustrate by familiar examples how have the contemporary estimates of Daniel Webster and of Charles Sumner changed since their deaths. You all know how John A. Andrew is reckoned to-day; but in 1862, there was a strong opposition to his re-election, even within his own party, and no less a man than Charles Dev ens was made the candidate of dissatisfied republicans, and of democrats eager to profit by the dissensions of their oppo neuts.

At rare intervals, there appears upon the stage of human affairs, a man, whose life and deeds and character compel the attention, the admiration, and the lasting affection of the world. His is one of the few, the immortal names, that were not born to die. Generations come and generations go; but his memory, living and green, does not fade. Parties rise and fall; but his name becomes a household word, dear to the hearts and the lips of his countrymen. Great issues are settled so that the settlements mark clear gains for human progress his fortunes had been married to those great principles and his fame is forever linked with their triumph. His services, too carelessly estimated during his life-time, - his motives, often lightly aspersed by the thoughtless and the ignorant; his relations to progress and truth, so rarely understood by his fellow - citizens, particular ly when they seemed to threaten the triumph of some party or sect, these at last become evident. Then he receives the place in history to which he is entitled; his services, his motives and his various merits bring him again the happy experience of the modest guest, and the muse of history is constantly inviting him to come up higher.

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