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quotations, which was listened to with the greatest pleasure, but it was unfortunately never reported. He was extremely fond of ballads, and simple, sad, and plaintive music.

He was a most admirable reader. He read and recited from the Bible and Shakespeare, with great simplicity, but remarkable expression and effect. Often when going to and from the army, on the steamers and in his carriage, he took a copy of Shakespeare with him, and not unfrequently read aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public affairs, he would take up his Shakespeare, and addressing his companions, remark, "What do you say now to a scene from Macbeth, or Hamlet," and then he would read aloud, scene after scene, never seeming to tire of the enjoyment. On the last Sunday of his life, as he was coming up the Potomac, from his visit to City Point and Richmond, he read many extracts from Shakspeare. Among other things, he read, with an accent and feeling which no one who heard him will ever forget, extracts from Macbeth, and among others, the following:

"Duncan is in his grave;

After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well.

Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing

Can touch him farther."

After "treason" had "done his worst," the friends who heard him on that occasion, remembered that he read that passage over twice, and with an absorbed and peculiar manner. Did he feel a mysterious presentiment of his approaching fate?

His conversation was suggestive, original, instructive, and playful; and by its genial humor, fascinating and attractive beyond comparison. Mirthfulness and sadness, were strongly combined in him. His mirth was exuberant, it sparkled in jest, story, and anecdote; and the next moment those peculiary sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes, showed a man "familiar with sorrow, and acquainted with grief." I have listened for hours at his table, and elsewhere, when he has been surrounded by statesmen, military leaders, and other great men of the Nation, and I but repeat the universally concurring

verdict of all, in stating that as a conversationalist, he had no equal. One might meet in company with him, the most distinguished men, of various pursuits and professions, but after listening for two or three hours, on separating, it was what Lincoln said, that would be remembered. His ideas, and his illustrations were those that would not be forgotten. Men often called upon him for the pleasure of listening to him. I have heard the reply to an invitation to attend the theatre, "No, I am going up to the White House-I would rather hear Lincoln talk for half an hour, than attend the best theatre in the country."

As a public speaker, without any attempt at oratorical display, I think he was the most effective of any man of his day. When he spoke, every body listened. It was always obvious, before he completed two sentences, that he had something to say, and it was sure to be something original, something different from anything any one had heard from others, or had read. He impressed the hearer at once, as an earnest, sincere man, who believed what he said. To-day, there are more of the sayings of Lincoln, repeated by the people, more expressions, sentences, and extracts from his writings and speeches, familiar as "household words," than from those of any other American.

Next to the Bible, and Shakspeare, there is no other source so prolific of these familiar phrases and expressions as his writings and speeches. Somebody has said, "I care not who makes the laws, if I may write the ballads of a nation." The words of Lincoln have done more in the last six years to mould and fashion the American character than those of any other man, and their influence has been all for good; for truth, right, justice, and liberty. Great as has been Lincoln's services to the people, as their President, I think his influence derived from his words and his example in moulding the future National character, in favor of justice, right, liberty, truth, and real, sincere, unostentatious reverence for God, is scarcely less important. The Republic of the future, the matured National character, will be more influenced by Abraham Lincoln, than by any other man. This is evidence of the greatness of the man, intellectually, and still more,

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morally. In this power of impressing himself upon the people, he contrasts with many other distinguished men in our history.

A few quotations from Webster live in the every day language of the people. Little of Clay survives; not much of Calhoun, and who can quote, off hand, two sentences from Douglas? But you hear Lincoln's words, not only in every cabin and caucus, but at every school house, high school and college, and by every farmer, as he tells you story after story of Lincoln's, and all to the point, hitting the nail on the head every time, and driving home the argument. Mr. Lincoln was not a scholar, but where is there a speech more exhaustive in argument than his Cooper Institute speech? Where anything more full of pathos than his speech to his neighbors at Springfield, when he bade them farewell, on starting for the Capital? Where anything more eloquent than his appeal for Peace and Union, in his first Inaugural Address, or than his defence of the Declaration of Independence in the Douglas debates? Where is the equal of his speech at Gettysburg? Where is a more conclusive argument than in his letter to the Albany meeting, on arrests? What is better than his letter to the Illinois State Convention; and that to Hodges of Kentucky, in explanation of his antislavery policy? Where is there any thing equal in simple grandeur of thought, and sentiment, to his last Inaugural?

From all of these, and many others, from his every day talks, are extracts on the tongues of the people, as familiar, and nearly as much reverenced, as texts from the Bible; and these are shaping the national character.

"Though dead, he yet speaketh."

As a public speaker, if excellence is measured by effect, he had no superior. His manner was generally earnest, often playful; sometimes, but this was rare, he was vehement and impassioned. There have been a few instances, at the bar and on the stump, when, wrought up to indignation by some great personal wrong, or an aggravated case of fraud, or injustice, or when speaking of the fearful wrongs and injustice

of slavery, he has spoken in a strain of impassioned vehemence which carried everything before him.

Generally, he addressed the reason and judgment, and the effect was lasting. He spoke extemporaneously, but with more or less preparation. He had the faculty of repeating, without reading it, a discourse or speech which he had prepared and written out. His great speech, on opening the campaign in Illinois, June, 1858, was carefully written out, but so naturally spoken that few suspected that it was not extemporaneous. In his style, manner of presenting facts, and way of putting things to the people, he was more like Franklin than any other American. His illustrations, by anecdote and story, were not unlike the author of Poor Richard.

Another source of his great intellectual power, was the thorough, exhaustive investigation he gave to every subject. Take, for illustration, his Cooper Institute speech. Hundreds of able and intelligent men have spoken on the same subject, as was treated by him in that speech, yet, they will all be forgotten and his will survive, because his is absolutely perfect for the purpose for which it was designed. Nothing can be added to it.

Mr. Lincoln, however, required time, thoroughly to investigate, before he came to his conclusions, and the movements of his mind were not rapid, but when he reached his conclusions he believed in them, and adhered to them with great firmness and tenacity. When called upon to decide quickly upon a new subject, or a new point, he often erred, and was ever ready to change when satisfied he was wrong.

It was the union, in Mr. Lincoln, of the capacity clearly to see the truth, and an innate love of truth, and justice, and right in his heart, that constituted his character, and made him so great. He never demoralized his intellectual or moral nature, either by doing wrong, that good might come, or by advocating error, because it was popular. Although, as a statesman, eminently practical, and looking to the possible good of to-day, he ever kept in mind the absolute truth, and absolute right towards which he always aimed.

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Mr. Lincoln was an unselfish man. He never sought his own advancement at the expense of others. He was a just man. He never tried to pull others down, that he might rise. He disarmed rivalry and envy by his rare generosity. He was eminently a tender-hearted, kind and humane man. These traits were illustrated all through his life. He loved to pardon; he was averse to punish. It was difficult for him to deny the request of a child, a woman, or of any who were weak and suffering. Pages of incidents might be quoted, showing his ever thoughtful kindness, gratitude, and appreciation of the soldiers. The following letter is selected from many on this subject:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864. "DEAR MADAM: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

"Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"To Mrs. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts."

One summer's day, in walking along the shaded path which leads from the White House to the War Department, I saw the tall form of the President seated on the grass under a tree, with a wounded soldier sitting by his side. He had a bundle of papers in his hand. The soldier had met him in the path, and recognizing him, had asked his aid. Mr. Lincoln sat down upon the grass, investigated the case, and sent the soldier away rejoicing.

His charity, in the best sense of that word, was pervading. When others railed, he railed not again. No bitter words, no denunciation can be found in his writings or speeches.