Such are the authentic proofs of the validity and vitality of
democracy.
Here, no less, hides the mystery of democracy. Who shall guess this
secret of nature and providence and a free polity? Whatever the vigor
and vitality of the stock from which he sprang, its mere vigor and
soundness do not explain where this man got his great heart that seemed
to comprehend all mankind in its catholic and benignant sympathy, the
mind that sat enthroned behind those brooding, melancholy eyes, whose
vision swept many an horizon which those about him dreamed not of,--that
mind that comprehended what it had never seen, and understood the
language of affairs with the ready ease of one to the manner born,--or
that nature which seemed in its varied richness to be the familiar of
men of every way of life. This is the sacred mystery of democracy, that
its richest fruits spring up out of soils which no man has prepared and
in circumstances amidst which they are the least expected. This is a
place alike of mystery and of reassurance.
It is likely that in a society ordered otherwise than our own Lincoln
could not have found himself or the path of fame and power upon which he
walked serenely to his death.
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