Lincoln . To save the Na-tion he must find his way through some adjustmentof these differing views as well as meet the openfoe. The way before him was one of blood andtears and death. He was facing a war whichproved to be one of the greatest wars in history;—a war whose responsibilities and heart-breaking ex-periences were sufficient to wear out any ordinaryman. The people did not know the man then as weknow him now; indeed he had not taken full meas-ure of himself, and none but God could understandthe needs of the coming ordeal and take themeasure of the man He wanted. It was thought
Lincoln . To save the Na-tion he must find his way through some adjustmentof these differing views as well as meet the openfoe. The way before him was one of blood andtears and death. He was facing a war whichproved to be one of the greatest wars in history;—a war whose responsibilities and heart-breaking ex-periences were sufficient to wear out any ordinaryman. The people did not know the man then as weknow him now; indeed he had not taken full meas-ure of himself, and none but God could understandthe needs of the coming ordeal and take themeasure of the man He wanted. It was thought by some that he was overmatchedby his principal rivals for the Presidency, andwould be overshadowed by the statesmen of the 74 See First Inaugural—In part, Appendix. 75He said:—There were those for the Union with,but not without slavery; those who were for it without,but not with; those for it with or without but whopreferred it with ; and those for it with or without butwho preferred it without. 110. HOUSE WHERE PRESIDENT LINCOLN DIED. day. Failure was predicted, but fear was soondispelled. He summoned to his Cabinet, as coun-selors, those men whom none but a great manwould have ventured to select,—his principal rivalsin the contest for the Presidential nomination, theleaders of the party, and the ablest statesmen ofthe country. Nor did his greatness suffer in com-parison by the contact. He towered above them allas their leader. His discernment of character andhis masterly management of men so different fromhimself and from each other as Seward and Stan-ton and Chase, the power to hold them together andto utilize their splendid and indispensible abilitiesfor the good of the Nation, proved the genius of aleader seldom, if ever before, found in history. Inless than a year every one of these great leadersrecognized that he was in the presence of his chiefand superior. Seward was one of the first to recog-nize this. Early in the administration he wrote tohis wife:—Execut
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlincoln, bookyear1913
