He believed in organized political action. He remained a trusted leader in the party of his choice, seldom alienating himself from the party managers, or the rank and file. Still he was no slave of party or caucus. His party, town or state, could not buy or bribe his integrity, or get him to be false to his duty. He believed that parties were useful to democratic government as long as they were substantially in harmony with its deeper objects. Still he did not deem them sacred, and when circumstances demanded, favored their dissolution, and the organization of new parties. He was one of the few politicians in American history who acted on the conviction that the man who served his state best, best served his party. Having no sympathy with anarchy in politics, he gave full value to the importance of the organization, but did not exalt it into an object of adoration. Above it, he placed loyalty to the Constitution and the fathers of the country. He was neither mugwump nor partisan.
There are two classes of men, materialists and visionaries. The materialist is a slave to the fact. He is so intent on the earth that he seldom enjoys a glimpse of star or constellation. Still he is a student of methods and results, a worshipper of success, and hence he is generally in the ascendancy. The visionary is a slave to his ideal, he looks at the world as it should be and not as it is. While he gazes at the sunset and the evening star he falls in the pit at his feet. He resembles the mariner of Heine:
"A wonderful lovely maiden,
Sits high in her glory there,
Her robe with gems is laden,
And she combeth her golden hair,
And as she combs it,
The gold comb glistens,
The while she is singing a song,
That hath a mystical sound and a wonderful melody,
The boatman when once she has bound him,
Is lost in wild mad love,
He sees not the black rocks around him,
He sees but the beauty above."
The real leaders in the world's history have been idealists of high practical wisdom. They have been the captains, not the subjects of their ideal. The petty politician rules for the day. The men who dominate the ages give substance to shadow, make the dream of one day the reality of another, crystallize the yearnings of humanity into statute and decision.
The world is used to the omnipresent politician. The visionary, the undaunted reformer, is not an infrequent participant in the domain of affairs. The political idealist, with the judgment of the one and the inspiration of the other, is so rare that he confounds by his presence. The combination astounds the generation unaccustomed to such a phenomenon. The man of high endowments is stupidly expected to be wanting in worldliness, and the practical representative of the people in the vision. The solution of all political problems depends on political sagacity illumined with altruism. The political idealist consummates the alliance of vision with method.
Lincoln was neither idealist nor politician. With the idealist he was faithful to the vision, with the politician he studied the way to success. He was not lost in mere adoration of the ideal; was not content until it became a reality. He blended the enthusiasm of the visionary with the wisdom of the politician. He was the ideal politician.
Lincoln was the prophet politician of his time, blending the righteousness of the Hebraic seer with political sagacity. He faced failure imperiously. He was never finally vanquished. He looked beyond temporary triumph to ultimate consequences. Despite setback, disaster and every obstacle, he had abounding faith in the abiding triumph of justice.
He knew the shortcomings of human nature, the painful, sluggard progress of moral evolution. He weighed men as they were and not as he wished them to be. Hence, he was patient with their failings. He made ample allowance for the heavy hand of habit, for ancestral, religious, political, social and industrial environment. That men were largely the children of their time was to him an ever present truth. Coöperation not antagonism was his method of achievement. He would not force progress and he recognized the sway of the grim law of necessity. He measured the labored march of public sentiment. He waited the slow processes of time; was no believer in magical reforms or quack political remedies. He did not squander his energies in the wonderland of dreams. He is the wisest politician in American history, consummate in his strategy for the general welfare, the supreme friend and champion of democracy and humanity.