Abraham Lincoln : the true story of a great life . me it was their heart-strings thatentwined and sustained him. Sympathy, we aretold, is one of the strongest and noblest incentivesto human action. With the sympathy and love ofthe people to sustain him, Lincoln had unlimitedpower over them ; he threw an invisible and weight-less harness over them, and drove them throughdisaster and desperation to final victory. The trustand worship by the people of Lincoln were theresult of his simple character. He held himself notaloof from the masses. He became one of feared together, they struggle
Abraham Lincoln : the true story of a great life . me it was their heart-strings thatentwined and sustained him. Sympathy, we aretold, is one of the strongest and noblest incentivesto human action. With the sympathy and love ofthe people to sustain him, Lincoln had unlimitedpower over them ; he threw an invisible and weight-less harness over them, and drove them throughdisaster and desperation to final victory. The trustand worship by the people of Lincoln were theresult of his simple character. He held himself notaloof from the masses. He became one of feared together, they struggled together, theyhoped together ; thus melted and moulded intoone, they became one in thought, one in will, onein action. If Lincoln cautiously awaited the fulldevelopment of the last fact in the great dramabefore he acted, when longer waiting would be acrime, he knew that the people were determinedly athis back. Thus, when a blow was struck, it camewith the unerring aim and power of a bolt fromheaven. A natural king—not ruling men, but lead- The Lincoln Monument in Springfield. THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 319 ing them along the drifts and trends of their own ten-dencies, always keeping in mind the consent of thegoverned, he developed what the future historianwill call the sublimest order of conservative states-manship. Whatever of life, vigor, force, and power of elo-quence his peculiar qualities gave him ; whateverthere was in a fair, manly, honest, and impartialadminstration of justice under law to all men at alltimes ; whatever there was in a strong will in theright governed by tenderness and mercy ; whateverthere was in toil and sublime patience ; whateverthere was in these things or a wise combination ofthem, Lincoln is justly entitled to in making up theimpartial verdict of history. These limit and definehim as a statesman, as an orator, as an executive ofthe nation, and as a man. They developed in allthe walks of his life ; they were his law; they werehis nature , they we
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