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ABRAHAM LINCOLN
An Appreciation by BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
[Excerpt. from an addre•• before the Republican Club of New York. February 12. 1909]
YOU ask that which he found a piece of property and
turned into a free American citizen to speak to you tonight
on Abraham Lincoln. I am not fitted by ancestry
or training to be your teacher to-night, for I was born a slave.
My first knowledge of Abraham Lincoln came in this way:
I was awakened early one morning before the dawn of day, as
I lay wrapped in a bundle of rags on the dirt floor of our slave
cabin, by the prayers of my mother, just before leaving for her
day's work, as he was kneeling over my body, earnestly praying
that Abraham Lincoln might succeed and that one day she
and her boy might be free. You give me the opportunity here
to celebrate with you and the nation, the answer to that prayer.
To h.ave been the in trument used by Providence through
which four million of slaves, now grown into ten millions of
free citizens, were made free would bring eternal fame within ,
itself, but this is not the only claim that Lincoln has upon our
sense of gratitude and appreciation.
Lincoln lives in the 32,000 young men and women of the
Tegro race learning trades and u eful occupations; in the
200,000 farms acquired by those he freed; in the more than
400,000 homes built; in the 46 banks establi hed and 10,000
.'tores owned; in the $550,000,000 worth of taxable property in
hand; in the 28,000 public schools existing, ,vith 30,000 teachers;
in the 170 indu trial schools and colleges; in the 23,000 ministers
and 26,000 churches. But, above all this, he lives in the
steady and unalterable determination of 10,000,000 of black
('itizens to continue to climb, year by year, the ladder of the
highe t usefuln and to perfe~t themselves in strong, robu t
character. For makinO' all thi po ible, Lincoln lives.
By the same token that Lincoln freed my race, he said to the
whole world that man, everywhere, mu t be free.
One man cannot hold another down in the ditch without
remaining down in the ditch with him. One who goe through
life with his eye clo ed against all that is good in another race
is weakened and circumscribed, as one who fights in a battle
with one hand tied behind him.
In Lincoln' rise from the most abject poverty and ignorance
to a position of high usefulness and power he taught the world
one of the greatest of all lessons. In fighting his own battle
up from obscurity and squalor he fought the battle of every
other individual and race that is down, and so helped to pull
up every other human who was down. People so often forget
that by every inch that the lowest man crawls up he makes it
easier for every other man to get up. To-day, throughout the
world, because Lincoln lived, struggled, and triumphed, every
boy who is ignorant, is in poverty, is despised or discouraged,
holds his head a little higher. His heart beats a little faster,
his ambition to do,something and be something is a little stronger,
because Lincoln blazed the way. _ ;
In so far a the life of Abraham Lincoln emphasizes patience,
long-suffering, incerity, naturalness, dogged determination,
• and courage, - courage to avoid the superficial, courage to
persistently seek the substance instead of the shadow, - it
points the road for my people to travel.
Like Lincoln, the Negro race should seek to be simple, ,vithout
bigotry and without ostentation. There is great power in simplicity.
We as a race should, like Lincoln, have moral courage to be ,
what we are, and not pretend to be what we are not. We should
keep in mind that no one can degrade us except ourselves; that if
we are worthy, no influence can defeat us. Like other races, the
Negro 'will often meet obstacles,. often be sorely tried and tempted;
but we must keep in mind that freedom, in the broadest and
highest sense, has never been a bequest; it has been a conquest.
In the final te t, the success of our race will be in proportion
to the ervice that it renders to the world. In the long run, the
badge of service is the badge of sovereignty.
I..Iincoln lives to-day because he had the courage to refu e
to hate the man at the South or the man at the North when they
did not agree with him. He had the courage as well as the
patience and foresight to suffer in silence, to be misunderstood,
to be abused. For he knew that, if he was right, the ridicule
of to-day would be the applause of to-morrow.
May I not ask th!l-t you, the worthy representatives of seventy
millions of white American , join heart and hand with the ten
millions of black Americans - these ten millions who speak your
tongue, profess your religion - who have never lifted their voice
or hands except in defense of their country's honor and their
country's flag, and swear eternal fealty to the memory and the
traditions of the sainted Lincoln? I repeat, may we not join ,vith
your race, and let all of u here higWy resolve that justice, goodwill,
and peace shall be the motto of our lives? If this be true, in
the highest sense, Lincoln shall not have lived and died in vain.
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