e of
superiority. Not that Lincoln was lacking in personal dignity.
Neither as a practising lawyer nor as President of the United States,
would he permit anyone to take what he regarded as liberties with him.
But, on the other hand, he did not allow his elevated position to
change his personal relations. His old Illinois friends found in the
White House the same cordial welcome and simple manners to which they
had been accustomed in the pleasant home at Springfield.

During the first few weeks of the administration it was believed by
many persons, including Mr. Seward himself, that President Lincoln
would be greatly influenced in his policy by the superior experience in
public affairs of his Secretary of State. Mr. Seward even went so far
as to draw up a plan of action, which he submitted to his chief.
Lincoln soon showed, however, that he was not a follower, but a leader
of men, beneath whose good nature and kindly spirit was a power of
initiative that has rarely been equalled among the statesmen of the
world. Even the dictatorial Secretary of War found it necessary to
yield to the President on all points that the latter regarded as being
fundamental. Few other presidents have been so bitterly attacked and
so cruelly misrepresented as Lincoln, but nothing could turn him from
his purpose when that was once formed. Like the wise man that he was,
Lincoln was always ready to listen to the suggestions of others, but
the conclusion finally reached by him was always his own. He applied
to questions of state the same methods of careful, impartial inquiry
that had served him so well as a lawyer on the Illinois circuit, and
if, being human, he did not always avoid committing errors, he never
acted from impulse or prejudice. Lincoln was a strong leader, but he
was at the same time a wise leader.

Turning now from the man to his works, we note first that the
development of Lincoln's style was slow. One might almost be tempted
to say that Lincoln developed several different styles in succession.
This, however, is hardly true, for in spite of the numerous marked
changes and improvements in Lincoln's manner of writing, certain
fundamental qualities remained, the real expression of his personality,
that is, the real style of Lincoln. From the beginning to the end we
find an effort to say something and to say it in as clear a manner as
possible, an effort without which there can be no real success in
writing. After a pra