128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Meanwhile he must solve the riddle of this new Sphinx, 

 or be devoured. Though Mr. Lincoln s policy in this critical 

 affair has not been such as to satisfy those who demand an 

 heroic treatment for even the most trifling occasion, and who 

 will not cut their coat according to their cloth, unless they 

 can borrow the scissors of Atropos, it has been at least not 

 unworthy of the long-headed king of Ithaca. Mr. Lincoln 

 had the choice of Bassanio offered him. Which of the three 

 caskets held the prize that was to redeem the fortunes of the 

 country ? There was the golden one whose showy specious- 

 ness might have tempted a vain man ; the silver of compro 

 mise, which might have decided the choice of a merely acute 

 one; and the leaden dull and homely-looking, as prudence 

 always is, yet with something about it sure to attract the 

 eye of practical wisdom. Mr. Lincoln dallied with his deci 

 sion perhaps longer than seemed needful to those on whom 

 its awful responsibility was not to rest, but when he made it, 

 it was worthy of his cautious but sure-footed understanding. 

 The moral of the Sphinx- riddle, and it is a deep one, lies in 

 the childish simplicity of the solution. Those who fail in 

 guessing it, fail because they are over-ingenious, and cast 

 about for an answer that shall suit their own notion of the 

 gravity of the occasion and of their own dignity, rather than 

 the occasion itself. 



In a matter which must be finally settled by public 

 opinion, and in regard to which the ferment of prejudice and 

 passion on both sides has not yet subsided to that equilibrium 

 of compromise from which alone a sound public opinion can 

 result, it is proper enough for the private citizen to press his 

 own convictions with all possible force of argument and per 

 suasion; but the popular magistrate, whose judgment must 

 become action, and whose action involves the whole country, 

 is bound to wait till the sentiment of the people is so far 

 advanced toward his own point of view, that what he does 

 shall find support in it, instead of merely confusing it with 

 new elements of division. It was not unnatural that men 

 earnestly devoted to the saving of their country, and pro 

 foundly convinced that slavery was its only real enemy, 

 should demand a decided policy round which all patriots 

 might rally ; and this might have been the wisest course for 

 an absolute ruler. But in the then unsettled state of the 

 public mind, with a large party decrying even resistance to 

 the slaveholders rebellion as not only unwise, but even 



