friend will escape that woe, for he would be the
exception had he no enemies."

The most pleasing feature of his early life in the town was the way in
which he attached all classes of people to him. He naturally, from his
political importance and from his relation to Mr. Stuart, was admitted
to the most exclusive circle of society. But Lincoln was not received
there from tolerance of his position only. The few members left of
that interesting circle of Springfield in the thirties are emphatic in
their statements that he was recognized as a valuable social factor.
If indifferent to forms and little accustomed to conventional usages,
he had a native dignity and self-respect which stamped him at once as
a superior man. He had a good will, an easy adaptability to people,
which made him take a hand in everything that went on. His name
appears in every list of banqueters and merry-makers reported in the
Springfield papers. He even served as committee-man for cotillion
parties. "We liked Lincoln, though he was not gay," said one charming
and cultivated old lady to me in Springfield. "He rarely danced, he
was never very attentive to ladies, but he was always a welcome guest
everywhere, and the centre of a circle of animated talkers. Indeed, I
think the only thing we girls had against Lincoln was that he always
attracted all the men around him."

Lincoln's kindly interest and perfectly democratic feeling attached to
him many people whom he never met save on the streets. Indeed his life
in the streets of Springfield is a most touching and delightful study.
He concerned himself in the progress of every building which was put
up, of every new street which was opened; he passed nobody without
recognition; he seemed always to have time to stop and talk. He
became, in fact, part of Springfield street life, just as he had of
the town's politics and society. By 1840 there was no man in the town
better known, better liked, more sought for; though there were more
than one whose future was considered brighter.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: Reminiscences of Mr. Weir, a former resident of Sangamon
County, related by E.B. Howell of Butte, Montana.]

[Footnote 2: Summary condensed from Moses's "History of Illinois."]

[Footnote 3: The original of this letter is owned by E.R. Oeltjen of
Petersburg, Illinois.]

[Footnote 4: Lincoln's address on "The Perpetuation of Our Political
Institutions" is dated January 27