tion, in which I took little or no part, turned upon
the operations in the field. I observed no sign of weakness in anything
the President said; neither did I hear anything that particularly
impressed me, which, under the circumstances, was not surprising. What
did impress me, however, was what I can only describe as a certain lack
of sovereignty. He seemed to me, nor was it in the least strange that he
did, like a man utterly unconscious of the space which the President of
the United States occupied that day in the history of the human race,
and of the vast power for the exercise of which he had become personally
responsible. This impression was strengthened by Mr. Lincoln's modest
habit of disclaiming knowledge of affairs and familiarity with duties,
and frequent avowals of ignorance, which, even where it exists, it is as
well for a captain as far as possible to conceal from the public. The
authority of an executive officer largely consists in what his
constituents think it is. Up to that time Mr. Lincoln had had few
opportunities of showing the nation the qualities which won all hearts
and made him one of the most conspicuous and enduring historic
characters of the century."

Some uncommonly vivid "first impressions" of Lincoln are given in the
Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who early in February of 1862 made a
visit to Washington for the purpose of delivering a lecture before the
Smithsonian Institution--a lecture which Lincoln is said to have
attended. A day or two afterwards Emerson was taken by Senator Sumner of
Massachusetts to call at the White House. "The President impressed me,"
says Emerson, "more favorably than I had hoped. A frank, sincere,
well-meaning man, with a lawyer's habit of mind, good clear statement of
his facts; correct enough, not vulgar, as described, but with a sort of
boyish cheerfulness, or that kind of sincerity and jolly good meaning
that our class-meetings on Commencement Days show, in telling our old
stories over. When he has made his remark he looks up at you with great
satisfaction, and shows all his white teeth, and laughs.... When I was
introduced to him he said, 'Oh, Mr. Emerson, I once heard you say in a
lecture that a Kentuckian seems to say by his air and manners, "Here am
I; if you don't like me, the worse for you."'" (The point of this of
course is that Lincoln was himself a Kentuckian.) A day or two later
Emerson again called on the President, this time in the company of
Se