be gradually reduced to insignificance, or else it must transform and take possession of the American national idea.  The Union had become a house divided against itself; and this deep-lying division could not be bridged merely by loyal Constitutionalism or by an anti-national interpretation of democracy.  The legal Union was being threatened precisely because American national integrity was being gutted by an undemocratic institution.  The house must either fall or else cease to be divided.  Thus for the first time it was clearly proclaimed by a responsible politician that American nationality was a living principle rather than a legal bond; and Lincoln’s service to his country in making the Western Democracy understand that living Americans were responsible for their national integrity can scarcely be over-valued.  The ground was cut from under the traditional point of view of the pioneer—­which had been to feel patriotic and national, but to plan and to agitate only for the fulfillment of local and individual ends.

The virtue of Lincoln’s attitude may seem to be as much a matter of character as of intelligence; and such, indeed, is undoubtedly the case.  My point is, not that Lincoln’s greatness was more a matter of intellect than of will, but that he rendered to his country a peculiar service, because his luminous and disciplined intelligence and his national outlook enabled him to give each aspect of a complicated and confused situation its proper relative emphasis.  At a later date, when he had become President and was obliged to take decisive action in order to prevent the House from utterly collapsing, he showed an inflexibility of purpose no less remarkable than his previous intellectual insight.  For as long as he had not made up his mind, he hesitated firmly and patiently; but when he had made up his mind, he was not to be confused or turned aside.  Indeed, during the weeks of perplexity which preceded the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Lincoln sometimes seems to be the one wise and resolute man among a group of leaders who were either resolute and foolish or wise (after a fashion) and irresolute.  The amount of bad advice which was offered to the American people at this moment is appalling, and is to be explained only by the bad moral and intellectual habits fastened upon our country during forty years of national turpitude.  But Lincoln never for an instant allowed his course to be diverted.  If the Union was attacked, he was prepared actively to defend it.  If it was let alone, he was prepared to do what little he could towards the de-nationalization of slavery.  But he refused absolutely to throw away the fruits of Republican victory by renewing the policy of futile and unprincipled compromises.  Back of all his opinions there was an ultimate stability of purpose which was the result both of sound mental discipline and of a firm will.  His was a mind, unlike that of Clay, Seward, or even Webster, which had never been cheapened by its own exercise.  During his mature years he rarely, if ever, proclaimed an idea which he had not mastered, and he never abandoned a truth which he had once thoroughly achieved.