The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

72~O
P- 0)
i.. LJ

government of this country. Hle was tall and thin, angular and ungraceful in his motions, careless in dress, unstudied in manner, and too thoroughly earnest and hearty,
in every thing he said or did. to be polished and polite.
But there was a native grace, the out-growth of kindness
of heart, whichb never failed to shine through all his
words and acts. His heart was as tender as a woman's,as accessible to grief and gladness as a child's,-yet
strong as Hercules to bear the anxieties and responsibilities of the awful burden that rested on it. Little incidents of the war,-instances of patient suffering in devotion to duty,-tales of distress from the lips of women,
never failed to touch tlhe innermost chords of his nature,
and to awaken that sweet sympathy which carries with
it, to those who suffer, all the comfort the human heart,'an
crave. Those who have heard him, as many have, relate
such touching episodes of the war, cannot recall without
emotion the quivering lip, the face gnarled and writhi;'~
to stifle the rising sob, and the patient, loving eyes swimming in tears, which mirrored the tender pity of his
gentle and loving nature. He seemed a stranger to the
harsher and stormier passions of man. Easily grieved, he
seemed incapable of hate. Nothing could be truer than
his declaration, after the heated political conterst which
secured his re-election, that he had "never willingly
planted a thorn in any human breast,"-and that it was
not in his nature to exult over any human being. It is
first among the marvels of a marvellous time, that to such
a character, so womanly in all its traits, should have
been committed, absolutely and with almost despotic
power, the guidance of a great nation through a bloody
and terrible civil war; and the success which crowned
his labors proves that, in dealing with grealat communities,
as with individuals, it is not the stormiest natures that
are most prevailing, and that strength of principle and of
purpose often accompanies the softest emotions of the
human heart.
Nothing was more marked in Mr. Lincoln's personal
demeanor than its utter unconsciousness of his position.