ty. His mental qualities were a quick analytic perception,
strong logical powers, a tenacious memory, a liberal estimate and
tolerance of the opinions of others, ready intuition of human nature;
and perhaps his most valuable faculty was rare ability to divest himself
of all feeling or passion in weighing motives of persons or problems of
state. His speech and diction were plain, terse, forcible. Relating
anecdotes with appreciating humor and fascinating dramatic skill, he
used them freely and effectively in conversation and argument. He loved
manliness, truth, and justice. He despised all trickery and selfish
greed. In arguments at the bar he was so fair to his opponent that he
frequently appeared to concede away his client's case. He was ever ready
to take blame on himself and bestow praise on others. 'I claim not to
have controlled events,' he said, 'but confess plainly that events have
controlled me.' The Declaration of Independence was his political chart
and inspiration. He acknowledged a universal equality of human rights.
'Certainly the negro is not our equal in color,' he said, 'perhaps not
in many other respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the
bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every other
man, white or black.' He had unchanging faith in self-government. 'The
people,' he said, 'are the rightful masters of both congresses and
courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who
pervert the Constitution.' Yielding and accommodating in non-essentials,
he was inflexibly firm in a principle or position deliberately taken.
'Let us have faith that right makes might,' he said, 'and in that faith
let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.' ..."

CHAPTER XVIII

Lincoln and his Cabinet--An Odd Assortment of
Officials--Misconceptions of Rights and Duties--Frictions and
Misunderstandings--The Early Cabinet Meetings--Informal
Conversational Affairs--Queer Attitude toward the War--Regarded as
a Political Affair--Proximity to Washington a Hindrance to Military
Success--Disturbances in the Cabinet--A Senate Committee Demands
Seward's Removal from the Cabinet--Lincoln's Mastery of the
Situation--Harmony Restored--Stanton becomes War Secretary--Sketch
of a Remarkable Man--Next to Lincoln, the Master-mind of the
Cabinet--Lincoln the Dominant Power.

President Lincoln's Cabinet, while containing men of