 |
|
|
"In the End You Are Sure to Succeed": Lincoln on Perseverance
If there was one quality Abraham Lincoln believed essential both to
individual success and to social advancement, it was industriousness. A child
of the impoverished frontier who went on to take proud advantage of what historian Gabor Boritt has called "the right to rise" in America, Lincoln expected others to
share his ambition for advancement. As he put it: "I am always for the man who
wishes to work."
Politically, this meant opposing slavery and advocating full opportunity: the hope,
as he put it once, that "the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and
that all should have an equal chance" Personally, it meant urging friends and relatives to pursue the unfettered path toward upward mobility. "Free labor," he insisted,
"has the inspiration of hope."
Lincoln occasionally provided such inspiration himself. When a school teacher
from Pleasant Plains, Illinois wrote in 1860 to inquire how best to transform himself
into a lawyer, Lincoln's advice was simple and straightforward: "Work, work, work is
the main thing." Later, as President, supervising the vast federal bureaucracy, Lincoln discovered that not everyone in government shared his enthusiasm for tireless
labor. When asked by a needy mother in October 1861 to supply army jobs for her
eager boys, the new President was barely able to contain a newfound cynicism when
he obliged with a letter of referral. "Set them at it," he instructed an army major.
"Wanting to work is so rare a merit, that it should be encouraged."
Lincoln may have been thinking back to the period, ten years earlier, when his
own shiftless step-brother had proposed selling the family's Illinois homestead and
relocating to Missouri. John D. Johnston was guilty of one sin that Lincoln could not
pardon: laziness. "If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right
where you are," he wrote scathingly. "If you do not intend to work, you can not get
along any where. Squirming & crawling about from place to place can do no good...
you are destitute because you have idled away all your time ... Go to work is the
only cure for your case."
Such was precisely the case with - and advice for - George Clayton Latham of
Springfield, Illinois, a young man whose aching disappointments and unique relationship
with the Lincoln family inspired one of the most rousing personal letters in the entire
Lincoln canon. Young Latham was the son of Ohio native Catherine Rue Taber
Latham and Kentucky-born Philip C. Latham, one of Springfield's early settlers. The
elder Latham joined the County Clerk's office in 1827, and within eleven years had built
a new home in town. His name later appeared as a co-signatory on a notice for the April
1840 election of Springfield Town Trustees, further suggesting his emergence as an
important citizen of the new state capital. Son George was born on May 16, 1842.
But then tragedy struck. On May 25, 1844, the elder Latham was hit and killed by
lightning near the village of Shawneetown. George and his four brothers and sisters
were left fatherless. But not friendless. The Latham house stood only a few blocks from
the Lincolns' Jackson Street dwelling, and George grew close to the Lincolns' eldest
son, Robert. Together, they attended the local Estabrook Academy, then, beginning in
1854, the preparatory school of the new Illinois State University, which held classes in
a onetime Presbyterian Church called the Mechanics' Union.
Robert, who was a year younger than George, took the Harvard University entrance
exams in 1859 - and failed miserably. To prepare him to take the tests anew his parents
sent him off that September to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire (annual tuition:
$24). George Latham joined Robert at Exeter as a fellow student, and the two
were soon rooming together at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Clarke (at an
additional cost of $2.25 per week). They were allowed to live off campus and study on their
own (a reform only recently introduced by the strict faculty) as long as they were
securely in their rooms by 7 p.m. It is not known how successful the two boys were
at honoring their curfew, but Abraham Lincoln certainly found them as inseparable as ever
when he arrived for a visit at the end of February 1860.
Lincoln had been invited east to speak at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, an
appearance that instead blossomed into his celebrated appearance at the Cooper Union
in Manhattan. His stunning New York oratorical debut transformed him almost
overnight from a western politician into a formidable candidate for the White House.
With his round-trip fare already paid by his hosts, Lincoln decided to extend his
publicity-generating stay in the East. He headed into New England to deliver additional
speeches, and also to visit his son.
At Exeter, Lincoln was reunited on February 29 not only with Robert, but with
George Latham. The two teenagers then accompanied Lincoln to Concord and
Manchester, where the presidential contender delivered two well-received speeches.
The boys were doubtless on the scene as well on March 3 when Lincoln returned to
Exeter and spoke at the local Young Men's Working Club. The next morning the
three worshipped together at a local church. The boys may not have realized it, but
they were bearing witness to a political and historical transformation. Within
months, Lincoln would win the Republican nomination for President. Meanwhile
Robert would enjoy a triumph of his own: on his second attempt, he passed the
rigorous entrance tests and entered Harvard.
Unfortunately George Latham did not fare as well. He failed the Harvard entrance
exams. The younger Lincoln reported the bad news to his father, prompting
Lincoln on July 22 to compose the magnificent letter of encouragement that is
reproduced here. The mere fact that the busy and preoccupied candidate took time
to do so in the midst of his campaign gives the effort particular poignancy. True to
tradition, Lincoln did not actively electioneer on his own behalf that summer. He
remained in Springfield, but his days were devoted to answering voluminous
correspondence and conferring with aides and supporters. At the very time Robert
informed his father of George's bitter disappointment, Lincoln was working to
arrange meetings with his onetime rival William H. Seward of New York and his
current running mate, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Simultaneously, the nominee
was struggling to quell a small crisis over false allegations that he had once visited
a retrograde "Know-Nothing" lodge in nearby Quincy.
At just this time Lincoln was also under siege by artists who had been sent to
Springfield to paint portraits that could be adapted into popular prints. The
candidate invariably cooperated with such requests, requiring only that the painters work
while he scribbled away at his correspondence. As it happened, on the very day he sat
down to write to George Clayton Latham, Lincoln was also posing for Boston artist
Thomas M. Johnston. In fact, Johnston was likely observing him at the precise
moment Lincoln penned the Latham letter. That same day, Johnston reported home: "I
believe no man's personal appearance has been so variously misrepresented as the
Hon. Abraham Lincoln's.... Mr. Lincoln has a fine head and face the expression of
which indicates an amiable disposition combined with great force of character." That
"force of character" was much in evidence in Lincoln's letter to George Latham.
He began it by confiding that he had "scarcely felt greater pain" than on learning
of George's disappointment, but hastened to insist that the young man "allow no
feeling of discouragement to seize, and prey upon you." Surely George would have
another opportunity, and when he did, Lincoln declared, "you can not fail, if you resolutely determine that you will not." Above all, the nominee advised, "having made
the attempt, you must succeed in it. 'Must' is the word." Echoing throughout the letter was that Lincolnian ethic: "Work, work, work is the main thing." For George, it
likely made all the difference.
That fall, Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election. In February 1861 he left
Springfield forever to make the long journey to Washington accompanied by his
family - and by George Latham. Robert's friend traveled all the way to the capital
with the Lincolns, and stayed in the White House for a week following the inauguration, before heading back to prep school at Exeter.
Eventually, Latham returned to live in Springfield, where he was reunited with
Robert in May 1865 for a heartbreaking event: the martyred President's funeral and
burial. Two years later, Latham married Olive Priest, and entered his father-in-law's
shoe business. The Lathams went on to raise three children of their own.
George Latham died in his old home town on February 1, 1921 at the age of 78, and
was buried in the same cemetery where Abraham Lincoln had been interred more
than fifty years earlier. Saddened by the loss of his old companion, Robert Lincoln
confessed: "With the death of... Mr. George Latham, there is not now in Springfield,
I feel quite sure, a single one of my old men friends or even acquaintances who might
write to me."
But Robert's father had written - famously and inspiringly - to George Latham,
motivating him beyond a potentially crushing early failure. One of Lincoln's most accomplished personal letters, this gem of optimistic correspondence testifies as elo-
quently to Lincoln's own perseverance, discipline, and uncompromising work ethic
as it does to his extraordinary ability to inspire others.
One thing is certain: Lincoln's words had not been lost on George Latham. The
young man took Lincoln's advice to heart, studied hard, and went on to pass his college entrance exams and enter one of the great American universities.
But not Harvard. George Clayton Latham went to Yale.
-Harold Holzer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
Springfield, Ills. July 22. 1860.
My dear George
I have scarcely felt greater pain in my life than on learning yesterday from Bob's letter, that you had failed to enter Harvard University.
And yet there is very little in it, if you will allow no feeling of discour-
agement to seize, and prey upon you. It is a certain truth, that you can
enter, and graduate in, Harvard University; and having made the at-
tempt, you must succeed in it. "Must" is the word.
I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature
age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely
determine, that you will not.
The President of the institution, can scarcely be other than a kind
man; [page 2] and doubtless he would grant you an interview, and
point out the readiest way to remove, or overcome, the obstacles which
have thwarted you.
In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not
yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great struggle
of life, than many others, who have entered college more easily.
Again I say let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and
in the end you are sure to succeed.
With more than a common interest I subscribe myself
Very truly your friend.
A. Lincoln.
|
|
|
Click to see Lincoln's letter.
|
GLC 3876. Abraham Lincoln to George Clayton Latham, July 22, 1860.
Editors: James G. Basker, President, Gilder Lehrman Institute; Paul W. Romaine, Former Curator and Executive Director, Gilder Lehrman Collection.
Photography: Schechter Lee.
|
|
|
