AUSTRALIA’S TRIBUTE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 186, 4 May 1937, Page 9

AUSTRALIA’S TRIBUTE

Abraham Lincoln’s Memory Canberra, April 30. In response to a request from the professor of history at the Lincoln Memorial University at Harrogate, Tennessee, United States of America, for an autographed tribute to Abraham Lincoln to add to a collection of similar messages from famous personages, the Acting-Prime Minister, Dr. Earle Page, has sent the following: “I appreciate this opportunity to pay my homage to Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest figures of history. To Australians ho is something more than an American statesman who handled a grave national crisis with the courage of an outstanding leader. Above all, he is known to us as a man, and the flame of his individual personality grows with increasing brightness as the years go by. "We do not judge him by the political issues of his day, which were, and still are. subjects of legitimate controversy. We know him for his lore of mankind, his understanding of human nature, his love of justice and freedom and democracy, his simplicity, his humour, and the force and clarity of his expression.

“Abraham Lincoln’s speeches have added gems to the literature of the English language, and by crystallising democratic thought into inspired phrases ho has enabled us to glimpse the very soul of democracy. Though bo was a President of the United States for a fleeting moment of history, yet he belongs to all the world for all time.”