 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. The clock has just gone 2 of the morning and I have now returned from the Lincoln monument positioned prominently on Cambridge Common. It is mild this August evening, a faint breeze caresses; just a hint of the cleansing rain on its way. Nothing stirs but one troubled man out and about the work he must do... For over 40 years now this statue of a pensive man contemplating his great work and the so often baffling decisions he must make, matters of life and death, more demanding than King Solomon's, has been a part of my life. I have grown old and older still seeing this arresting commemoration which looks today as it did the first time I saw it, when I was little more than a boy. It abides forever, but I do not. I must act now, or not act at all.... I had need of Lincoln this morning, his steadfast purpose, his clarity of vision, the profound goodness of his great heart and so with heavy gait and heavier heart I walked into the cool air of a new day, pristine, untouched, unruffled, oppressed in spirit, wondering yet again at the course of my nation and its wayward Great Republic. The place was peaceful. It spoke to me. "Sit down, friend, and rest a spell. Your spirit is heavy and craves refreshment." And so I sat on a concrete bench I had sat upon so many times before, saw again the Union sentries at their eternal posts and then looked into the eyes of the great man who saw beyond the perplexity of the present to what must be done to shape the future to our will. His eyes saw not just what was, but what could be, if only we have the fortitude and mettle required. At this moment something of the man, his strength, his unrivaled commitment and certainty about what must be done and the need to commence doing it passed from him to me and I knew the comfort and serenity of embracing the right and worthy task and what I must do. The statue, the man, his presence had done their important work again and I rushed home ready to do my part in averting a great injustice, at once avoidable, unnecessary and inevitable if we do not act. Now! Swiftly! Together in this necessary, purposeful endeavor rightly due the man whose monument I saw this day bathed in a blazing light which might have been celestial, beyond radiance; so did it stand forth, a beacon in the night... The music. "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present". (Annual Message to Congress, December 1,1862) In April,1942, the outcome of what had by then become the most sweeping and universal of wars, engaging the total energies of millions, was not yet determined. It was at this moment of complete commitment but not yet certain endeavor that Aaron Copeland (1900-1990) this most American of composers finished the jewel which was the "Lincoln Portrait", a classical orchestral work punctuated by a brass section which compels our full attention, marking the significance of each climactic moment. The work means to focus you, insists you render your full attention and demands that you think not just about the music but about the message, in Lincoln's own words that music takes to its soulful destination within each of us, especially citizens answerable to God for the period, long or short, for which they are responsible as trustees, a role too often recalled only in the breach. Copeland meant us to know, through some of the most affecting of measures that this is not good enough, not nearly good enough; that as we are equipped to do better, so must this better be done. The problem. "It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.'" (Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858.) The problem addressed in this article stems from the undeniable fact that Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, politician, president and citizen was a prodigious worker. During the course of his abbreviated life (1809-1865), he wrote well over 100,000 letters, legal documents, presidential papers, etc. His son Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving child, gave nearly 23,000 such papers to the Library of Congress in January 1923. But this was only the tip of a massive archival iceberg of incredible value not just to the many Lincoln scholars who mine them for unique content, but for the Great Republic itself which had in these papers the sustained thoughts and lyric expressions of one of democracy's greatest thinkers and effective advocates; the man who, at the cost of his own life, saved the Union and thus the very notion that a nation could be effectively run of the people, by the people, for the people and shall not perish from the earth. Given the importance of the man, the incalculable value of his thoughts, insights, and observations, you might have thought the discovery, exegesis, preservation, and accessibility of such resources would be a national priority. But you'd be wrong. This is America, a great nation cavalier about its history and conservation; a nation always ready to spend billions on even the least defensible of wars, whilst projects like the Lincoln papers, costing a tiny fraction, go begging, the work of decades grinding to a halt, only half way through the job. Lincoln gave his all to the Union. Is it too much to ask that this Union in Congress assembled do this vital thing of such paltry cost for him and for the sacred ideals for which he lived, and died? Or have we descended so far into smug self satisfaction and inertia that we disdain the very people who made what we now wantonly abuse and destroy? What then must we do? "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation." (Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862) Since 1985 the project now called the Papers of Abraham Lincoln has existed to tackle the herculean task of identifying, imaging, and publishing all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime. The following organizations now sponsor this project: the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Abraham Lincoln Association, University of Illinois at Springfield. Their budget (just $775,000 a year recently) has always been meagre; their task immense, their commitment total and complete even as their funding sources slashed their vital resources, then slashed them again. Now they have been informed that by June, 2014 their budget will be slashed again, this time mortally. In other words these fine and dedicated researchers, having helped the nation through this November's 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, the most well-known presidential remarks, and with some 75,000 documents still remaining to be dealt with, will be shown the door. 75,000 documents now entombed in the nation's archives will remain there, unknown, uncataloged, this great man incomplete because we begrudge him the pennies necessary to finish the project and show this man the genius for democracy he was. What can you do? Just this. go to www. papersofabrahamlincoln.org and donate a few bucks. Then write your congressman and senators, urging them to do the little it takes to secure the pittance necessary to keep this good work going. And remember, but for him our Great Republic might have died forever in those dark days in 1861 and all the dark and bloody days that followed. His resolution saved the Union whose benefits we enjoy today. Act accordingly. Envoi and dedication. Before you leave this article, go to any search engine and select any version of Copeland's sublime "Lincoln Portrait." I have heard Gregory Peck, Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, George McGovern and Adlai Stevenson read the narrative portion. They were all excellent, but because my mother loved Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) he was my favorite narrator of all. Lincoln! Sandburg! Copeland! My mother! They brought Lincoln to life for me and I am grateful. I am listening to Sandburg now... and remembering... "As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew...." I miss you so... and the serene, fugacious evenings on the great prairies of Illinois; I didn't realize until later I loved so much and which I will cherish forever. |
