The sometimes wise and almost always witty Oscar Wilde once said, "These days man knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing."
More than 100 years later, few among us see the value inherent in our birthright, our core American values of simplicity, forthrightness, ingenuity, and honest reliability.
In his day, Abraham Lincoln personified these virtues. He taught himself grammar and mathematics and was good enough at math to become a land surveyor. As a young politician he successfully fought for the creation of a canal from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan, which aided the economy of Illinois.
As a possible result of a trip down the Mississippi by raft, Lincoln became interested in shipping and in 1849 was granted a patent on a device for reducing the draft of steamboats. After becoming president he advocated the development of steam power for such things as plows and tillers.
These acts help define Lincoln. And yet it is all too easy to restrict Lincoln to the events surrounding the Civil War. His most important contribution may well have been emancipation, but it rests within a larger framework of his efforts to maintain the Union. He saw the U.S. growing and wanted it to be a happy, prosperous nation. He understood that this meant building an economy based upon its collective strengths. He knew only too well the opportunities in U.S. agriculture, industry, and commerce. He understood the strength of our resources in coal and iron ore.
During the Civil War he encouraged military innovation. He watched over the development of such weapons as the Monitor and its sister ships (this is of particular note to this writer, as his family contributed iron work to the Monitor's turret). He encouraged the Navy to design and build steamships of war.
Lincoln's vision was on the leading edge of his time. As president, he repeatedly advocated connecting the East and West coasts by telegraph and laying an Atlantic cable, as well as the extension of the telegraph as far as Russia.
The only things grand about Lincoln were his presence and his mind. He never had a good tailor, much less a good barber. He lacked the polish of most politicians. And yet it is a mistake to dwell on humble Abe. His mind and actions were far-reaching and, to a great extent, aggressive. He not only acted as a day-to-day commander in chief during the war, he was an architect of what he hoped would be an intelligent and generous reconstruction.
No president before or since Lincoln so often and so fully acknowledged the contributions of the founding fathers, particularly Washington. Lincoln saw the United States as the world's best hope, and based this belief on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
The United States may still be the world's best hope, but our vision, and others' perceptions of our vision, has become cloudy -- in no arena so much as in manufacturing.