The Life and Public Service of General Zachary Taylor: An Address | Page 4

orders. It was
this fact that enabled Lincoln and other Whigs who were opposed on
principle to the Mexican War to support Taylor for the Presidency.
They were particular to explain that he performed that act as a soldier,
under orders, and that the Polk Administration was responsible, and not
their own candidate. In this address Lincoln did not enlarge upon that
fact, but he did not fail to state it.
His favorable comment upon the fact that Taylor had not engaged in
dueling is the more notable because Lincoln had himself been an
unwilling participant in what had threatened to be a duel--a fact of
which he was never very proud.
It is notable that he speaks of Taylor's freedom from ambition to be

President until the position came within the range of possibility, and
then became possessed of a "laudable ambition" to secure the position.
Lincoln had not as yet precisely an ambition of that character, but there
always lurked in his mind the possibility that he might rise to that high
position. Even in 1848, when he had not been reëlected to Congress,
and had been disappointed in his remaining political ambition, he still
thought the desire to become President a "laudable ambition."
We note in the oration one or two studied attempts at eloquence, such
as characterized the earlier oratory of Lincoln, but which disappeared
wholly from his later and more chaste style. The description of the
mutual solicitude of the garrison of Fort Brown and the party of
soldiers outside the fort, and of the relief that was succeeded by a cry of
"Victory," must have been dramatic, and it shows at its best that earlier
vein of Abraham Lincoln's studied attempt at oratorical effect.
One of the most interesting because most characteristic qualities of the
address is the appreciation of the magnanimity of General Taylor, as
exemplified in his treatment of Colonel Worth. This I regard as one of
the best things in the address, because it was an example of what was
best in that bluff and sensible and generous old soldier, Zachary Taylor,
and because it was so nobly characteristic also of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln emphasized that quality in Taylor, because he unconsciously
sought out in him what was most truly like to his own noble nature.
Orations by one President upon another are none too common in
American literature; and this by Lincoln upon Taylor is of value in its
estimate of the best in Taylor as discerned by one in whom the same
quality was worthily present. Lincoln would have done for Worth what
Taylor did. He treated in similar fashion the men who opposed him.
One feature of the oration has remarkable interest. It appears to have
been the only address of Lincoln's in which he made use of his favorite
poem,--
"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
This poem he quoted so often to his friends that some of them supposed

him to have been its author, but so far as a search of his published
works can show, he did not use it in any other formal address.
Lincoln often inquired of his friends whether any of them knew the
author of this poem. So far as is known, he never learned. Herndon, in
his lecture which has served as the basis of all the literature concerning
Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, informs us that, after the death of Ann,
Lincoln formed an attachment for this poem. It has been affirmed that
he learned it from Ann. I have inquired of Mrs. Sarah Rutledge
Saunders, surviving[1] sister of Ann Rutledge, whether her mother
knew this poem and taught it to her daughters, Ann included. She
replied:
Yes, Mother knew the poem, "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be
proud." But she did not teach it to Lincoln. The girls and Mother
learned it from Lincoln. They always called it Lincoln's song.
[Footnote 1: Mrs. Saunders was living when this Introduction was
written, but died May 1, 1922.]
The first allusion made to this poem in any of Lincoln's letters, that I
have seen, was in April, 1846, when he was writing some verses of his
own, and comparing them with those of another budding poet, William
Johnson. Johnson had sent to Lincoln a poem which he had written, a
parody upon Poe's "Raven." Lincoln had never read the "Raven," but he
sent to Johnson some lines of his own, composed after his visit to his
old home in Indiana in the fall of 1844. Subsequently, in September,
1846, Lincoln sent him additional lines suggested by the same visit. It
is in the letter of April 18, 1846, that Lincoln refers to the poem, "Oh
why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" He says:
I have