1308 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters. 
How nobly, bow grandly be transcended the highest expecta¬ 
tions of bis most sanguine admirers is too well known for his¬ 
toric proof. Ho greater demand for a national guide and guar¬ 
dian was ever made, or more nobly and wonderfully met in 
any part of the world. It is certain that, for measure of en¬ 
dowment and balance of powers, the supreme founder and 
father of the Republic alone can be compared with Lincoln, 
its preserver and the eismancipator of millions of a down-trod¬ 
den and most wretched race. 
Intellectually, Mr. Lincoln was remarkable for the habit of 
close and critical attention to whatever engaged his thought; 
for such power of discrimination and comparison as made him 
clear-headed; such power of logical analysis as made him quick 
to detect a flaw and expose a fallacy, on which account his 
opponent in debate ofttimes found himself floundering ere he 
knew he was on the wrong side, and painfully sunject to such 
withering sarcasm, if he deserved it, as Mr. Lincoln knew so 
well how to use;- remarkable also for such readiness to dis¬ 
cover the relations of things as made him far-sighted and hence 
either courageous, even bold and daring, or prudent, as the 
occasion might justify or demand. 
On the side of the sensibilities I was happy to find, after 
a further acquaintance, that I had myself underrated him. 
His rugged, stalwart frame was at first suggestive of a prob¬ 
able sternness of spirit and manner. But, as I came nearer, I 
was charmed by the delicacy, even tenderness, and all-abound¬ 
ing sympathy of a great and beautiful soul—qualities that made 
him a lover of the beautiful in nature ; that prompted him, on 
entering the great round tent at the Wisconsin State Bair, with 
its magnificent display of fruits and flowers, to take off his 
hat, for a salute, with a grace that won the hearts of all who 
were present, saying: “How beautiful! Eden transferred!;” 
that made him too glad for utterance when he signed the im¬ 
mortal Emancipation Proclamation and saw the shackles fall 
from millions of his fellow-men, and again when, after one of 
the most fearful conflicts in human history, he knew the Re¬ 
public saved and foresaw a Union grander and more glorious 
