This training of
thought before expression, of knowing exactly what he wished to
say before saying it, stood him in good stead all his life; but
only the mind of a great man, with a lofty soul and a poet's
vision; one who had suffered deeply and felt keenly; who carried
the burden of a nation on his heart, whose sympathies were as
broad and whose kindness was as great as his moral purpose was
strong and firm, could have written the deep, forceful,
convincing words that fell from his pen in the later years of his
life. It was the life he lived, the noble aim that upheld him, as
well as the genius with which he was born, that made him one of
the greatest writers of our time.
At the date of his second inauguration only two members of Mr.
Lincoln's original cabinet remained in office; but the changes
had all come about gradually and naturally, never as the result
of quarrels, and with the single exception of Secretary Chase,
not one of them left the cabinet harboring feelings of resentment
or bitterness toward his late chief. Even when, in one case, it
became necessary for the good of the service, for Mr. Lincoln to
ask a cabinet minister to resign, that gentleman not only
unquestioningly obeyed, but entered into the presidential
campaign immediately afterward, working heartily and effectively
for his reelection. As for Secretary Chase, the President was so
little disturbed by his attitude that, on the death of Roger B.
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