ished person whom we pause to honor was not born great, if
to be born great means to be born in a mansion, surrounded at the start
of life with opulence, "dangled on the knee of indulgence and charmed to
sleep by the voice of liveried servants"; if this is the measure of
greatness, then Abraham Lincoln was not born great,--but if to be born
great is to be ushered into the world with embryonic qualities of heart,
elements calculated to unfold into the making of the stature of a
complete man, a manly man, a brave, a God-fearing man--a statesman equal
to the greatest emergency of a nation, then the little fellow of destiny
who made his initial bow to the goddess of light in Hardin County,
Kentucky, February 12, 1809, was born great.

If to achieve greatness is to win the hearts of one's youthful
companions, one's associates in professional life, and to merit the
confidence and genuine love of a nation to the extent of securing its
greatest honors and to perform the mightiest work of a century, then
Abraham Lincoln achieved greatness.

* * * * *

The assertion has been made that President Lincoln was not in favor of
universal freedom. I beg to take issue with this view.

A careful study of this sincere, just, and sympathetic man will serve to
show that from his earliest years he was against slavery. He declared
again and again; "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong; I cannot
remember when I did not so think and feel."

Back in the thirties this young man clad in homespun was standing in the
slave-mart of New Orleans, watching husbands and wives being separated
forever, and children being doomed never again to look into the faces of
their parents. As the hammer of the auctioneer fell, this young
flat-boatman, with quivering lips, turned to his companion and said: "If
ever I get a chance to hit that thing (slavery), I will hit it hard, by
the Eternal God I will."

In March, 1839, he had placed upon the _House Journal of Illinois_ a
formal protest against pro-slavery resolutions which he could get but
one other member beside himself to sign. Long before he was made
President, in a speech at Charleston, Illinois, he said: "Yes we will
speak for freedom, and against slavery, as long as the Constitution of
our country guarantees free speech, until everywhere on this wide land
the sun shall shine, and the rain shall fall, and the winds shall blow
upon no man who goes forth to unrequited toil."

While in Congress in 18