Part 36 (1/2)
as Lincoln needs no memorial, being one of the dozen supremely great rulers of men the world has ever seen.”
The Library was completed in 1904, and I was invited to deliver the dedicatory address, which invitation I was very glad to accept.
It was an interesting occasion, held in the main room of the library building, which was crowded with the very best people of the city.
I give a few extracts from the speech I delivered that evening:
”Mr. Chairman: It was a great pleasure to me to be invited by your library board to partic.i.p.ate in these exercises attending the opening of this splendid library building.
”I can not resist on this occasion the inclination to say a few words in reference to Springfield and my early relations to it.
”Old historic Springfield! Here have taken place many of the most important events in the history of Illinois. Springfield has been the centre of the political struggles of both parties since it has been the capital of the State. Many of the great statesmen of Illinois have occupied seats in the legislative hall in Springfield.
Here were mobilized during the Civil War the thousands of troops who went forth to do and die for the Union. Here the greatest General of the age received his first command. Here Lincoln and Douglas met, and from here Lincoln went forth to a.s.sume a task greater than any President has been called upon to undertake in all our history.
”Springfield is endeared to me by all the sacred memories of friends.h.i.+p, family, and home.
”I came here fifty years ago. In Springfield I received my legal education, was admitted to the Bar, and in your old courthouse here I practised my profession. In Springfield I married and reared my family, and here my children are laid in their final resting-place.
”Those early days of my residence here are among the happiest of my life. Official duties have necessitated my absence a great part of the time for the past twenty years, but my heart lingers with it, and the ties which made those early days so happy will never be broken so long as I shall live.”
After giving a history of the library and referring to the generosity of Mr. Carnegie, I continued:
”This is a material age. Carnegie, the great captain of industry, is a typical representative of the leaders of this age. It is well worth our while to stop to consider why he should devote a part of his great wealth to the founding of public libraries.
”Andrew Carnegie was a poor boy, enjoying none of the advantages and opportunities which are afforded by a good library. He missed in his early life the opportunity for culture which is now obtained through the facilities supplied by libraries in the towns and cities. He knew that there was no other agency so valuable for the purpose of spreading culture among the people as the public library. No word so precisely describes the influence of good reading as does the word 'culture'. Emerson tells us that the word of ambition of the present day is 'culture.'
”Andrew Carnegie, the great leader of the industrial world, desiring to give to the young men and the young women of this day an opportunity for education, for culture, whose value to the young he realizes so well, has devoted the enormous fortune of over one hundred million dollars for the founding of public libraries. . . .
”There should be no pleasure like the pleasure derived from reading a good book. Emerson, expressing our debt to a book says: 'Let us not forget the genial, miraculous, we have known to proceed from a book. We go musing into the vaults of day and night; no constellation s.h.i.+nes, no muse descends, the stars are white points, the roses brick-colored leaves; and frogs pipe, mice cheep, and wagons creak along the road. We return to the house and take up Plutarch or Augustine, and read a few sentences or pages, and lo, the air swims with life, secrets of magnanimity and grandeur invite us on every hand, life is made of them. Such is our debt to a book.'
”The founding of public libraries is the surest mark of advanced civilization. The origin of libraries is lost in the dim twilight of the early ages. When they commenced, how they commenced, we do not know; but we have authentic records that centuries before the Christian era the temples of those countries of the East where civilization had made the greatest advances, contained libraries of clay tablets, carefully shelved in regular order. Among the Greeks, private libraries existed at least four hundred years before the birth of Christ. The Roman Caesars returning from conquest to the development of the arts of peace, established libraries in the then great Capital of the World.
”But the United States is pre-eminently the home of the free public libraries, supported by taxation. This country has more free public libraries than any other country in the world.
”What a great thing it is for our people to have these advantages!
The foundations of our Republic are being well laid. The family, the church, the school--and the library! A people who will adhere to the great principles of the sacredness of the family, the church, and the school, will not perish from the earth. Virtue and intelligence are the necessary foundations on which a republic must rest. Education is more necessary in a republic, where the people are the sovereigns, than it is in a monarchy, where the people are subjects. With education and the library comes culture. The family, the church, the school, and the library are all necessary to qualify the citizen for the great duties of life. . . .
”Mr. Carnegie has given us this building and has requested that it be named in honor of the great emanc.i.p.ator, Abraham Lincoln. Like a number of others who are in this room to-night, I knew Abraham Lincoln intimately and well. We are proud that this city was the home of Abraham Lincoln while living, and now that he has pa.s.sed away, it is the home of his sacred dust. The words of Mr. Carnegie, that no name should be coupled with the name of Mr. Lincoln manifested the highest appreciation by him of the great name of Lincoln. He was a n.o.ble man. Only forty-three years ago, he was going in and out among us, interested in the local affairs of our city, doing his duty in the common affairs of our community, and at the same time grappling with the great questions pressing upon the attention of the people and touching the life of the Nation.
”My friends, in the language of Mr. Carnegie, Lincoln has been 'one of a dozen supremely great rulers of men that the world has seen.'
He was one of a few men in the world's history whose great and n.o.ble life and deeds will be remembered forever. I rejoice that he lived among us and that he was loved by our people while he lived, and that his memory is fresh and green in our hearts.
”My friends, as we reflect upon the progress of our Nation in wealth and power and influence among the Nations of the world in the century just closed, our hearts swell with pride and thankfulness that we have been so favored. As a Nation we are now in the first rank of the nations of the earth.
”Let us do our part in maintaining our national supremacy. We can hold our place by standing by the right as a community, as a State, and as a Nation, adhering rigidly to the foundation principles of our Republican Government, cheris.h.i.+ng liberty, and obeying law; upholding the sacredness of the family, the church, and the school; with school, the library will follow, and in the time to come our Nation will endure, and its people will cultivate from generation to generation, a better and higher civilization.”
CHAPTER x.x.xIII CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO UNITED STATES SENATE
I was twice elected Governor of Illinois, and have been elected to the United States Senate for five consecutive terms, and as I write this narrative I have served in the Senate more than twenty-eight years. I consider this a greater honor than an election to the Presidency of the United States. I owe the deepest debt of grat.i.tude to the people of the State of Illinois, who have for so many years continued me in the public service. To my many friends who have so loyally supported me during all these years, I am profoundly grateful.
I have already referred to my first election to the United States Senate. At the conclusion of my first term, I was, on January 22, 1889, re-elected without opposition.
The country had turned the Republican party out of power and elected Mr. Cleveland in 1892; and for the first time since 1856, the State of Illinois went Democratic and elected Mr. Altgeld as Governor.