158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



except a political system that will work, and that there 

 is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sin- 

 cerity formulated into dogma. It is always demoralizing 

 to extend the domain of sentiment over questions where 

 it has no legitimate jurisdiction; and perhaps the 

 severest strain upon Mr. Lincoln was in resisting a ten- 

 dency of his own supporters which chimed with his own 

 private desires while wholly opposed to his convictions 

 of what would be wise policy. 



The change which three years have brought about is 

 too remarkable to be passed over without comment, too 

 weighty in its lesson not to be laid to heart. Never did 

 a President enter upon office with less means at his 

 command, outside his own strength of heart and steadi- 

 ness of understanding, for inspiring confidence in the 

 people, and so winning it for himself, than Mr. Lincoln. 

 All that was known of him was that he was a good 

 stump-speaker, nominated for his availability, that is, 

 because he had no history, and chosen by a party with 

 whose more extreme opinions he was not in sympathy. 

 It might well be feared that a man past fifty, against 

 whom the ingenuity of hostile partisans could rake up 

 no accusation, must be lacking in manliness of charac- 

 ter, in decision of principle, in strength of will ; that 

 a man who was at best only the representative of a 

 party, and who yet did not fairly represent even that, 

 would fail of political, much more of popular, support. 

 And certainly no one ever entered upon office with so 

 few resources of power in the past, and so many mate- 

 rials of weakness in the present, as Mr. Lincoln. Even 

 in that half of the Union which acknowledged him as 

 President, there was a large, and at that time dangerous 

 minority, that hardly admitted his claim to the office, 

 and even in the party that elected him there was also a 

 large minority that suspected him of being secretly a 



