Address of President Roosevelt
on the occasion of the Celebration
of the Hundredth Anniversary
of the Birth of Abraham
Lincoln
Hodgenville, Ky.
February 12, 1909
Washington
Government Printing Office
1909
We have met here to celebrate thehundredth anniversary of the birth of oneof the two greatest Americans; of one ofthe two or three greatest men of the nineteenthcentury; of one of the greatestmen in the world’s history. This railsplitter, this boy who passed his ungainlyyouth in the dire poverty of the poorestof the frontier folk, whose rise was by[2]weary and painful labor, lived to leadhis people through the burning flamesof a struggle from which the nationemerged, purified as by fire, born anew toa loftier life. After long years of ironeffort, and of failure that came more oftenthan victory, he at last rose to the leadershipof the Republic, at the moment whenthat leadership had become the stupendousworld-task of the time. He grew to knowgreatness, but never ease. Success cameto him, but never happiness, save that[3]which springs from doing well a painfuland a vital task. Power was his, but notpleasure. The furrows deepened on hisbrow, but his eyes were undimmed byeither hate or fear. His gaunt shoulderswere bowed, but his steel thews neverfaltered as he bore for a burden thedestinies of his people. His greatand tender heart shrank from givingpain; and the task allotted him wasto pour out like water the life-bloodof the young men, and to feel in his[4]every fiber the sorrow of the women.Disaster saddened but never dismayedhim. As the red years of war went bythey found him ever doing his duty in thepresent, ever facing the future with fearlessfront, high of heart, and dauntless ofsoul. Unbroken by hatred, unshaken byscorn, he worked and suffered for thepeople. Triumph was his at the last; andbarely had he tasted it before murderfound him, and the kindly, patient, fearlesseyes were closed forever.
As a people we are indeed beyondmeasure fortunate in the characters of thetwo greatest of our public men, Washingtonand Lincoln. Widely though theydiffered in externals, the Virginia landedgentleman and the Kentucky backwoodsman,they were alike in essentials, theywere alike in the great qualities whichmade each able to render service to hisnation and to all mankind such as noother man of his generation could or didrender. Each had lofty ideals, but each[6]in striving to attain these lofty ideals wasguided by the soundest common sense.Each possessed inflexible courage in adversity,and a soul wholly unspoiled byprosperity. Each possessed all the gentlervir