so
independent, so natural, so complete a man cannot in older societies
come to wield so large a power over the affairs and the minds of
men; we can only say that amid all the stirring movements of the
nineteenth century he has not so done. The existence of what may be
called a widespread commonalty explains the rarity of personal
eminence in America. There has been and still remains a higher
general level of personality than in any European country, and the
degree of eminence is correspondingly reduced. It is just because
America has stood for opportunity that conspicuous individuals have
been comparatively rare. Strong personality, however, has not been
rare; it is the abundance of such personality that has built up
silently into the rising fabric of the American Commonwealth,
pioneers, roadmakers, traders, lawyers, soldiers, teachers, toiling
terribly over the material and moral foundation of the country, few
of whose names have emerged or survived. Lincoln was of this stock,
was reared among these rude energetic folk, had lived all those
sorts of lives. He was no "sport"; his career is a triumphant
refutation of the traditional views of genius. He had no special
gift or quality to distinguish him; he was simply the best type of
American at a historic juncture when the national safety wanted such
a man. The confidence which all Americans express that their country
will be equal to any emergency which may threaten it, is not so
entirely superstitious as it seems at first sight. For the career of
Lincoln shows how it has been done in a country where the "necessary
man" can be drawn not from a few leading families, or an educated
class, but from the millions.

Rabbi Schechter, in an eloquent address delivered at the Centennial
celebration, speaks of Lincoln's personality as follows:

The half century that has elapsed since Lincoln's death has
dispelled the mists that encompassed him on earth. Men now not only
recognise the right which he championed, but behold in him the
standard of righteousness, of liberty, of conciliation, and truth.
In him, as it were personified, stands the Union, all that is best
and noblest and enduring in its principles in which he devoutly
believed and served mightily to save. When to-day, the world
celebrates the century of his existence, he has become the i