Statue of Abraham Lincoln Placed in England, August 1920

From the Charlotte Observer as reprinted on the front page of The Watauga Democrat, August 26, 1920

Lincoln, Lee and Wilson

A statue of Lincoln was recently unveiled at Westminster Abbey, and on that occasion Premier Lloyd George made an address in which he signaled out Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee as the two greatest men America has produced. The circumstances that the British Prime Minister should have coupled the names of Lincoln and Lee together was an incident that has been productive of prideful and delighted descussion throughout the south. The Observer is reminded by a Southern friend that it affords opportunity for felicitatious presentment and treatment. Of Lincoln, the English Pime Minister's statement was--

I doubt whether any statesman who ever sank so deeply into the hearts of the people of many lands as Abraham Lincoln did. I am not sure that you in America realize the extent to which he is also our possion and our pride. His courage, fortitude, patience, humanity, clemency, his trust in the people, his belief in democracy, and may I add, some of the phrases in which he gave expression to those at tributes, will stand out forever as beacons to guide troubled natins and their perplexed leaders. Resolute in war, he was moderate in victory. Misrepresented, misunderstood, underestimated, he was patient to the last. but the people believed in him all the time, and they still believe in him.

In his life he was a great American. He is an American no longer. He is one of those giant figures, of whom there are very few in history, who lose their nationality in death. They are no longer Greek, or Hebrew or English or American--they belong to mankind. I wonder whether I will be forgiven for saying that George Washington was a great American, but Abraham Lincoln belongs to the common people in every land. They love his haggard face with the sad and tender eyes. There is a worship in their regard. There is a faith and a hope in that worship.

But it is not Lincoln alone, for Premier Lloyd George proceeded--

The people, the great people who can produce men like Lincoln and Lee for their emergencies are sound to the core. The qualities that enabled the American nation to bring forth, to discern, to appreciate and to follow as teachers such men are needed more now than ever in the settlement of the world. May I respectfully, but earnestly say one word from this platform to the great people of America. This torn and bleeding earth is calling today for help in the America of Abraham Lincoln.

In the years to come another name will be added to America's famous men and it will be that of Woodrow Wilson, who is even now sharing the fate that was Lincoln's in Lincoln's life time. An apt illustration was embodied in an editorial expression by the New York Times when it set forth that "a public man's own generation is not fitted to be his all seeing judge. Time and prospective are necessary. Assaying for foreigners is also an element in the final verdict of history. When we are amazed at the reversals of feelings about living statement it is steadying to think what happened to Lincoln in his life time, and what after his death. Object of the most contemptuous depreciation and the most bitter assaults while he was doing his work, he has since been 'revalued' year by year, with the result of an ever-mounting fame."

A decade hence there will be no three outstanding names in American and international history, and the South will stand for the nativity of all--Kentucky being the mother of one and Virginia the mother of two--and all three, Lincoln, Lee and Wilson, were developed through the crisis of great wars.