robably have left Washington at the close of his term as
obscure as either of them. The issues presented to the people of the
United States at the Presidential election of 1860 were to a larger
extent moral questions, humanly speaking, than were those presented at
any other Presidential election. They were: first, the right of the
majority to rule; second, the right of eight millions, more or less, of
our fellow-beings to their freedom; and, third, the institutions and
traditions which Washington planted and Jefferson watered, with the
sacrifices necessary for their preservation. These questions
subordinated all other political issues, and appealed more directly and
forcibly to the moral sentiments of this nation than any issues they had
ever before been called to settle either at the ballot-box or by force
of arms. A President was needed at Washington to represent these moral
forces. Such a President was providentially found in Lincoln ... a
President who walked by faith and not by sight; who did not rely upon
his own compass, but followed a cloud by day and a fire by night, which
he had learned to trust implicitly."

A very graphic summing-up of Lincoln in person and character is that of
Mr. John G. Nicolay, one of his private secretaries, who knew him
intimately and understood him well. "President Lincoln was of unusual
stature, six feet four inches, and of spare but muscular build," says
Mr. Nicolay. "He had been in youth remarkably strong and skilful in the
athletic games of the frontier, where, however, his popularity and
recognized impartiality oftener made him an umpire than a champion. He
had regular and prepossessing features, dark complexion, broad, high
forehead, prominent cheek bones, gray, deep-set eyes, and bushy, black
hair, turning to gray at the time of his death. Abstemious in his
habits, he possessed great physical endurance. He was almost as
tender-hearted as a woman. 'I have not willingly planted a thorn in any
man's bosom,' he was able to say. His patience was inexhaustible. He had
naturally a most cheerful and sunny temper, was highly social and
sympathetic, loved pleasant conversation, wit, anecdote, and laughter.
Beneath this, however, ran an undercurrent of sadness; he was
occasionally subject to hours of deep silence and introspection that
approached a condition of trance. In manner he was simple, direct, void
of the least affectation, and entirely free from awkwardness, oddity,
or eccentrici