"Perhaps I have too little of it, but I never thought it
paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If
any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against
him." This state of mind might well have been called by a higher
name than "lack of personal resentment."
Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and
212 out of 233 electoral votes--only those of New Jersey,
Delaware and Kentucky, twenty-one in all, being cast for
McClellan.
For Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life.
Assured of his personal success, and made devoutly confident by
the military victories of the last few weeks that the end of the
war was at hand, he felt no sense of triumph over his opponents.
The thoughts that filled his mind found expression in the closing
sentences of the little speech that he made to some serenaders
who greeted him in the early morning hours of November 9, as he
left the War Department to return to the White House:
"I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but while
deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I
know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal
triumph. . . . It is no pleasure to me to triumph over anyone,
but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the
people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of
humanity.
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