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.

724 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find another man
who would not, upon a sudden transfer from the obscurity of private life in a country town to the dignities and
duties of the Presidency, feel it incumbent upon him to
assume something of the manner and tone befitting that
position. Mr. Lincoln never seemed to be aware that his
place or his business were essentially different from those
in which he had always been engaged. He brought to
every question, —the loftiest and most imposing, —the
same patient inquiry into details, the same eager longing
to know and to do exactly what was just and right, and the
same working-day, plodding, laborious devotion, which
characterized his management of a client's case at his law
office in Springfield. He had duties to perform in both
places-in the one case to his country, as to his client
in the other. But all duties were alike to him. All
called equally upon him for the best service of his mind
and heart, and all were alike performed with a conscientious, single-hearted devotion that knew no distinction,
but was absolute and perfect in every case.
Mr. Lincoln's place in the history of this country will
be fixed quite as much by the importance of the events
amidst which he moved, and the magnitude of the results
which he achieved, as by his personal characteristics.
The Chief Magistrate whose administration quelled a rebellion of eight millions of people, set free four millions
of slaves, and vindicated the ability of the people, under
all contingencies, to maintain the Government which rests
upon their will, whose wisdom and unspotted integrity
of character secured his re-election, and who, finally,
when his work was done, found his reward in the martyrdom which came to round his life and set the final
seal upon his renown, will fill a place hitherto unoccupied in the annals of the world.