t important things he decides and there is no cavil. I am
growing more convinced that the good of the country demands that he
should be kept where he is till this thing is over. There is no man in
the country so wise, so gentle, and so firm."(27)

And again, "You may talk as you please of the Abolition Cabal directing
affairs from Washington; some well-meaning newspapers advise the
President to keep his fingers out of the military pie, and all that sort
of thing. The truth is, if he did, the pie would be a sorry mess. The
old man sits here and wields, like a backwoods Jupiter, the bolts of
war and the machinery of government with a hand especially steady and
equally firm. . I do not know whether the nation is worthy of him for
another term. I know the people want him. There is no mistaking that
fact. But the politicians are strong yet, and he is not their 'kind of a
cat.' I hope God won't see fit to scourge us for our sins by any of the
two or three most prominent candidates on the ground."(28) This was the
conclusion growing everywhere among the bulk of the people. There is one
more cause of it to be reckoned with. Lincoln had not ceased to be the
literary statesman. In fact, he was that more effectively than ever. His
genius for fable-making took a new turn. Many a visitor who came to find
fault, went home to disseminate the apt fable with which the President
had silenced his objections and captured his agreement. His skill in
narration also served him well. Carpenter repeats a story about Andrew
Johnson and his crude but stern religion which in mere print is not
remarkable. "I have elsewhere insinuated," comments Carpenter, "that Mr.
Lincoln was capable of much dramatic power. . . . It was shown in his
keen appreciation of Shakespeare, and unrivaled faculty of Storytelling.
The incident just related, for example, was given with a thrilling
effect which mentally placed Johnson, for the time being, alongside
Luther and Cromwell. Profanity or irreverence was lost sight of in a
fervid utterance of a highly wrought and great-souled determination,
united with a rare exhibition of pathos and self-abnegation."(29)

In formal literature, he had done great things upon a far higher level
than any of his writings previous to that sudden change in his style
in 1860. For one, there was the Fast Day Proclamation. There was also a
description of his country, of the heritage of the nation, in the third
message. Its aim was to give im