Failures? Not so. Every seeming defeat was a slow success. His
was the growth of the oak, and not of Jonah's gourd. He could not
become a master workman until he had served a tedious
apprenticeship. It was the quarter of a century of reading,
thinking, speech-making and lawmaking which fitted him to be the
chosen champion of freedom in the great Lincoln-Douglas debates
of 1858. It was the great moral victory won in those debates
(although the senatorship went to Douglas) added to the title
"Honest Old Abe," won by truth and manhood among his neighbors
during a whole lifetime, that led the people of the United States
to trust him with the duties and powers of President.
And when, at last, after thirty years of endeavor, success had
beaten down defeat, when Lincoln had been nominated, elected and
inaugurated, came the crowning trial of his faith and constancy.
When the people, by free and lawful choice, had placed honor and
power in his hands, when his name could convene Congress, approve
laws, cause ships to sail and armies to move, there suddenly came
upon the government and the nation a fatal paralysis. Honor
seemed to dwindle and power to vanish. Was he then after all not
to be President? Was patriotism dead? Was the Constitution only a
bit of waste paper? Was the Union gone?
The outlook was indeed grave. There was treason in Congress,
treason in the Supreme Court, treason in the army and navy.
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