What makes a great politician?

[David Lockmiller]

(12-31-2017 09:33 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  For me, what I quoted in post #30 here still nails (some of) it:
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...ght=Brandt

The following words from Chancellor Brandt's speech in Springfield, Illinois reminded me of two short addresses to Ohio regiments that President Abraham Lincoln made late in the American Civil War:

"[E]ven an outsider may venture the guess that those who stood 'on the other side of the barricade' during the Civil War would also agree today without hesitation that the United States could not have become a haven of freedom and the leading world power had the unity of the nation been shattered."

On August 18, 1864, in an address to the 164th Ohio Regiment, President Abraham Lincoln said:

"We have, as all will agree, a free government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose."

And, on August 22, 1864, in an address to the 166th Ohio Regiment, President Lincoln said:

"It is not merely for today, but for all time to come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that great and free government we have enjoyed all or lives. I beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to occupy this White House. i am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has.

It is in order that each one of you may have, through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this that the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright -- not only for one, but for two or three years, [if necessary]. The nation is worth fighting for to secure such an inestimable jewel."

(Source: "The Democracy of the Constitution: And Other Addresses and Essays," by Henry Cabot Lodge, pages 152-53.)

It may be of interest to note that in a number of the source books that I consulted, the words "if necessary" were left out. I finally found these words once again in "The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln ...: Together with His State Papers...," by Henry Jarvis Raymond, Francis Bicknell Carpenter, page 607.