during the stormy years of his official service, his state papers, properly so called, were few. Hardly one of them falls short, however, of being in itself an important feature in the record of the time, for all were as forces set in action and producing perceptible results. Their condensed style, their freedom from anything like rhetorical ornament, their close connection with public business and its details, render them, for the greater part unavailable for brief quotation purposes. Nevertheless, the popular mind has here and there discovered, severed and preserved wise utterances which have become almost as household words.

Some of Lincoln's speeches, before his election as President, possess a similar value for they are at once state papers, generally regarded as such, then and afterwards,

and they are also as historical landmarks, measuring periods in the progress of events.

He

His correspondence, while yet a private citizen, was free but not copious, and the interest attaching to such specimens of it as have been preserved is mainly personal or biographical. After he became. the chief magistrate of the nation, he almost ceased to write personal letters, or even to read them. seemed to have no longer any interests, hardly any thoughts, apart from the duties and endurances of his official position. The few letters that he did write were almost as if they had been addressed to the nation, rather than to individuals, and some of their words may be treasured as public heirlooms.

A study of the utterances which are now regarded as peculiarly expressing his wisdom, his developed

character, or his convictions concerning truth, discovers the fact that hardly any of them are of any earlier date than the year 1856. Very nearly all that are of marked importance belong to the last seven years of his life. They seem to attest that, in comparison with this period, the years of his greatest public service and personal trial, all the years preceding it were short. There were certainly more than forty years that were as youth, as schooling, as varied methods of preparation. Afterwards, the mere almanac-measure became of less account and it is by no means a mere figure of speech to say that he had lived long and was older than other men when he died,—at fiftysix.

Wide as was Lincoln's fame as an orator, comparatively few of his political speeches were reported. Even

the great speech, by some declared his greatest, in its power and consequences, delivered before the Bloomington Convention, in 1856, found no record whatever. It was the beginning of his new career, and, after that, whatever he said was considered worth preserving.

By

This latter idea soon extended to many sayings which were of a conversational nature, and in dealing with any pointed presentation of them it is necessary to take into consideration the trustworthiness of the hearer who recorded them. this process, a large mass of mateials loosely attributed to Mr. Lincoln has been long since ruled out as, at best, apocryphal. Only such utterances as are believed to be authentic and fairly accurate in form of expression are included in this selection.

WILLIAM O. STODDARD.