Lincoln on Democracy

"The Presidency... Is No Bed of Roses": From a Eulogy of Zachary Taylor, Chicago, Illinois

46 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case, the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of fee, and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee-noteat least not before the consideration service is performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty-negligence, by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund, when you have allowed the consideration to fail. There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest . I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence , and honors are reposed in, and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression, is common-almost universal . Let no young man, choosing the law for a calling, for a moment yield to this popular belief. Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you can not be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation , rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave. "THE PRESIDENCY . .. Is No BED OF ROSES" From a Eulogy of Zachary Taylor, Chicago, Illinois [JULY 25, 1850] In 1848, Lincoln abandoned his idol, Henry Clay, to support the Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor for president. Lincoln believed only Taylor could defeat the Democrats, and the general went on to do so. Once elected, however, Taylor disappointed Lincoln by denying him a federal appointment he coveted. Nevertheless, when President Taylor died only sixteen months after taking office, Lincoln delivered this eulogy in Chicago. It Lincoln and the American Dream, 1832-1852 included his assertion that political institutions were worthless without popular support. Lincoln ended the eulogy by quoting one of his favorite poems, a verse by William Knox. 47 The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed ofroses; and Gen. Taylor like others, found thorns within it. No human being can fill that station and escape censure. Still I hope and believe when Gen. Taylor's official conduct shall come to be viewed in the calm light of history, he will be found to have deserved as little as any who have succeeded him. Upon the death of Gen. Taylor, as it would in the case of the death ofany President, we are naturally led to consider what will be its effect, politically, upon the country. I will not pretend to believe that all the wisdom, or all the patriotism ofthe country, died with Gen. Taylor. But we know that wisdom and patriotism, in a public office, under institutions like ours, are wholly inefficient and worthless, unless they are sustained by the confidence and devotion of the people. And I confess my apprehensions, that in the death of the late President, we have lost a degree of that confidence and devotion, which will not soon again pertain to any successor. Between public measures regarded as antagonistic , there is often less real difference in its bearing on the public weal, than there is between the dispute being kept up, or being settled either way. I fear the one great question of the day, is not now so likely to be partially acquiesced in by the different sections of the Union, as it would have been, could Gen. Taylor have been spared to us. Yet, under all circumstances, trusting to our Maker, and through his wisdom and beneficence, to the great body of our people, we will not despair, nor despond. The death of the late President may not be without its use, in reminding us, that we, too, must die. Death, abstractly considered, is the same with the high as with the low; but practically, we are not so much aroused to the contemplation of our own mortal natures, by the fall of many undistinguished, as that of one great, and well known, name. By the latter, we are forced to muse, and ponder, sadly. 48 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud" So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed, That withers away to let others succeed; So...