years ago, he said: "If the people think that I have managed their case for them well enough to trust me to carry up to the next term, I am sure that I shall be glad to take it." worst feature about newspapers was that they were so sure to be "ahead of the hounds," outrunning events, and exciting expectations which were sure to be disappointed. One of the worst effects of a victory, he said, was to lead people He liked to provide for his friends, who were to expect that the war was about over in conse- often remembered gratefully for services given quence of it; but he was never weary of com- him in his early struggles in life. Sometimes mending the patience of the American people, he would "break the slate," as he called it, of which he thought something matchless and those who were making up a list of appointtouching. I have seen him shed tears when ments, that he might insert the name of some speaking of the cheerful sacrifice of the light old acquaintance who had befriended him in and strength of so many happy homes through- days when friends were few. He was not deout the land. His own patience was marvel-ceived by outside appearances, but took the ous; and never crushed at defeat or unduly ex- measure of those he met, and few men were cited by success, his demeanor under both was worth any more or any less than the value which an example for all men. Once he said the Abraham Lincoln set upon them. keenest blow of all the war was at an early stage, when the disaster of Ball's Bluff and the death of his beloved Baker smote upon him like a whirlwind from a desert. Upon being told that a gentleman upon whom he was about to confer a valuable appointment had been bitterly opposed to his renomination, he said: "I suppose that Judge, having been disappointed before, did behave pretty ugly; but that wouldn't make him any less fit for this place, and I have a Scriptural authority for appointing him. You recollect that while the Lord on Mount Sinai was getting out a commission for Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain making a false god, a golden calf, for the people to worship; yet Aaron got his commission, you know." At another time, when remonstrated with upon the appointment to place of one of his former opponents, he said: "Nobody will deny that he is a first-rate man for the place, and I am bound to see that his opposition to me personally shall not interfere with my giving the people a good officer." It is generally agreed that Mr. Lincoln's slowness was a prominent trait of his character; but it is too early, perhaps, to say how much of our safety and success we owe to his slowness. It may be said, however, that he is to-day admired and beloved as much for what he did not do as for what he did. He was well aware of the popular opinion concerning his slowness, but was only sorry that such a quality of mind should sometimes be coupled with weakness and vacillation. Such an accusation he thought to be unjust. Acknowledging that he was slow in arriving at conclusions, he said that he could not help that; but he believed that when he did arrive at conclusions they were clear and "stuck by." He was a profound believer in his own fixity of purpose, and took pride in saying that The world will never hear the last of the his long deliberations made it possible for him "little stories" with which the President garto stand by his own acts when they were once nished or illustrated his conversation and his resolved upon. It would have been a relief to early stump speeches. He said, however, that the country at one time in our history if this as near as he could reckon, about one-sixth of trait of the President's character had been bet- those which were credited to him were old acter understood. There was no time, probably, quaintances; all of the rest were the producduring the last administration, when any of the tions of other and better story-tellers than himso-called radical measures were in any danger self. Said he; "I do generally remember a of being qualified or recalled. The simple ex-good story when I hear it, but I never did inplanation of the doubt which often hung over his purposes may be found in the fact that it was a habit of his mind to put forward all of the objections of other people and of his own to any given proposition, to see what arguments or counter-statements could be brought against them. While his own mind might be perfectly clear upon the subject, it gave him real pleasure to state objections for others to combat or attempt to set aside. His practice of being controlled by events is well known. He often said that it was wise to wait for the developments of Providence; and the Scriptural phrase that "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera" to him had a depth of meaning. Then, too, he liked to feel that he was the attorney of the people, not their ruler; and I believe that this idea was generally uppermost in his mind. Speaking of the probability of his second nomination, about two vent any thing original; I am only a retail dealer." His anecdotes were seldom told for the sake of the telling, but because they fitted in just where they came, and shed a light on the argument that nothing else could. He was not witty, but brimful of humor; and though he was quick to appreciate a good pun, I never knew of his making but one, which was on the Christian name of a friend, to whom he said: "You have yet to be elected to the place I hold; but Noah's reign was before Abraham." He thought that the chief characteristic of American humor was its grotesqueness and extravagance; and the story of the man who was so tall that he was "laid out" in a rope-walk, the soprano voice so high that it had to be climbed over by a ladder, and the Dutchman's expression of "somebody tying his dog loose," all made a permanent lodgment in his mind. His accuracy and memory were wonderful, and one illustration of the former quality may be given in the remarkable correspondence between the figures of the result of the last presidential election and the actual sum total. The President's figures, collected hastily, and partially based upon his own estimates, made up only four weeks after the election, have been found to be only one hundred and twenty-nine less in their grand total than that made up by Mr. M Pherson, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, who has compiled a table from the returns furnished him from the official records of all the State capitals in the loyal States. "Hosea Biglow," every one of whose effusions "Ef you take a sword and dror it, 79 66 Mr. Lincoln's love of music was something passionate, but his tastes were simple and uncultivated, his choice being old airs, songs, and ballads, among which the plaintive Scotch songs were best liked. "Annie Laurie,' 'Mary of Argyle," and especially "Auld Robin Gray," never lost their charm for him; and all songs which had for their theme the rapid flight of time, decay, the recollections of early days, were sure to make a deep impression. The song which he liked best, above all others, was one words to which are supposed to be uttered by a man who revisits the play-ground of his youth. He greatly desired to find music for his favorite poem, "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" and said once, when told that the newspapers had credited him with the authorship of the piece, "I should not care much for the reputation of having written that, but would be glad if I could compose music as fit to convey the sentiment as the words now do." Latterly Mr. Lincoln's reading was with the humorous writers. He liked to repeat from memory whole chapters from these books; and on such occasions he always preserved his own gravity though his auditors might be convulsed with laughter. He said that he had a dread of people who could not appreciate the fun of such things; and he once instanced a member of his own Cabinet, of whom he quoted the saying of Sydney Smith, "that it required a surgical op-called "Twenty Years Ago"-a simple air, the eration to get a joke into his head." The light trifles spoken of diverted his mind, or, as he said of his theatre-going, gave him refuge from himself and his weariness. But he also was a lover of many philosophical books, and particularly liked Butler's Analogy of Religion, Stuart Mill on Liberty, and he always hoped to get at President Edwards on the Will. These ponderous writers found a queer companionship in the chronicler of the Mackerel Brigade, Parson Nasby, and Private Miles O'Reilly. The Bible was a very familiar study with the President, whole chapters of Isaiah, the New Testament, and the Psalms being fixed in his memory, and he would sometimes correct a misquotation of Scripture, giving generally the chapter and verse where it could be found. He liked the Old Testament best, and dwelt on the simple beauty of the historical books. Once, speaking of his own age and strength, he quoted with admiration that passage, "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." I do not know that he thought then how, like that Moses of old, he was to stand on Pisgah and see a peaceful land which he was not to enter. He wrote slowly, and with the greatest deliberation, and liked to take his time; yet some of his dispatches, written without any corrections, are models of compactness and finish. His private correspondence was extensive, and he preferred writing his letters with his own hand, making copies himself frequently, and filing every thing away in a set of pigeon-holes in his office. When asked why he did not have a letter-book and copying-press, he said, "A letter-book might be easily carried off, but that stock of filed letters would be a back-load." He conscientiously attended to his enormous correspondence, and read every thing that appeared to demand his own attention. He said that he read with great regularity the letters of an old friend who lived on the Pacific coast until he received a letter of seventy pages of letter paper, when he broke down, and never read another. Of the poets the President appeared to prefer Hood and Holmes, the mixture and pathos in their writings being attractive to him beyond any thing else which he read. Of the former author he liked best the last part of "Miss Kilmansegg and her Golden Leg," "Faithless Sally Brown," and one or two others not generally so popular as those which are called Hood's best poems. Holmes's" September Gale,' "Last Leaf," "Chambered Nautilus," and "Ballad of an Oysterman" were among his very few favorite poems. Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" and "Birds of Killingworth" were the only productions of that author he ever mentioned with praise, the latter of which he picked up some-citement of the moment I am sure to say somewhere in a newspaper, cut out, and carried in his vest pocket until it was committed to memory. James Russell Lowell he only knew as People were sometimes disappointed because he appeared before them with a written speech. The best explanation of that habit of his was his remark to a friend who noticed a roll of manuscript in the hand of the President as he came into the parlor while waiting for the serenade which was given him on the night following his re-election. Said he: "I know what you are thinking about; but there's no clap-trap about me, and I am free to say that in the ex thing which I am sorry for when I see it in print; so I have it here in black and white, and there are no mistakes made. People attach too much importance to what I say any how." Upon another occasion, hearing that I was in the parlor, he sent for me to come up into the library, where I found him writing on a piece of common stiff box-board with a pencil. Said he, after he had finished, "Here is one speech of mine which has never been printed, and I think it worth printing. Just see what you think." He then read the following, which is copied verbatim from the familiar handwriting before me: ANECDOTES OF UNITARIAN distinguished clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, and equally distinguished as a man of letters, long after he had completed his fiftieth year undertook a literary work of great magnitude, which he has lived nearly to accomplish. It is a biography of all the most distinguished American clergymen of the various denominations, from the settlement of the country to the year 1855, under the general title of "Annals of the American Pulpit." Successive volumes have from time to time been issued from the press of Robert Carter and Brothers, who have just published the eighth volume of the series, containing biographical sketches of the Unitarian clergy of the United States. It contains the memoirs of eighty clergymen, gath THE REV. DR. SPRAGUE, of Albany, a "On Thursday of last week two ladies from Tennessee came before the President, asking the release of their husbands, held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man. On Saturday, when the President ordered the release of the prisoners, he said to this lady: 'You say your hus-ered and prepared with an incredible amount of band is a religious man; tell him when you meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their Government because, as they think, that Gov-logical part of it we leave for other hands and ernment does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.'" labor, and making a treasury of interesting material, not only for the denomination specified, but for all who are interested in the theological and literary history of the country. The theo other journals, but we shall endeavor to cull some of the material which will be instructive and entertaining to the readers of this Magazine. The first of the clergymen whose lives are here recorded was the Rev. EBENEZER GAY, D.D., who was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, in the year 1696. He lived to the age of ninety-one years. The length of his ministry, from the day of his ordination to his decease, was more than sixty-eight years, and his entire ministry, from the commencement of his preaching, was but a few months short of seventy years. To this the President signed his name at my request, by way of joke, and added for a caption, "The President's Last, Shortest, and Best Speech," under which title it was duly published in one of the Washington newspapers. His Message to the last session of Congress was first written upon the same sort of white pasteboard above referred to, its stiffness enabling him to lay it on his knee as he sat easily in his arm-Upon the day on which he completed his eightychair, writing and erasing as he thought and wrought out his idea. fifth year he preached a sermon from the text, Josh. xiv. 10, "I am this day fourscore and five years old," which was published under the title of "The Old Man's Calendar," and in which he made this remarkable record: "Lo, now, my brethren, I am this day fourscore and five years old-a wonder of God's sparing mercy; sixtythree of these years have I spent in the work of the ministry among you. One hundred and forty-six years ago your fathers came with their pastor and settled in this place [Hingham, Massachusetts]. I am the third in the pastorate of this church, which hath not been two years vacant." The already extended limits of this article will not permit any thing more than a mention of many of the traits of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar character, many of which are already widely known by his published writings and speeches, and by the numerous anecdotes which have been narrated by others who have been ready to meet the general desire to know more of the man whose life was so dear to the people. His thoughtfulness for those who bore the brunt of the battles, his harmonious family relations, his absorbing love for his children, his anxiety for the well-being and conduct of the emancipated He was evidently a man of considerable hucolored people, his unwavering faith in the hast-mor, as appears not only from many anecdotes ening doom of human slavery, his affectionate which are recorded of him, but from his choice regard for "the simple people," his patience, of texts for his public services. He preached a his endurance, his mental sufferings, and what he did for the Nation and for Humanity and Liberty-these all must be left to the systematic and enduring labors of the historian. Though he is dead, his immortal virtues are the rich possession of the nation; his fame shall grow with our young Republic; and as years roll on brighter lustre will adorn the name of Abraham Lincoln. discourse at one time from the passage in Luke, "Remember Lot's wife," designed to counteract some of the tendencies of the times, and entitled it, "A Pillar of Salt to Season a Corrupt Age." At the installation of the Rev. Ezra Carpenter, at Keene, in 1753, he preached from the passage, Zechariah, ii. 1: "I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand." Having for a long time been unsuccessful in digging a well | He was likely to enter into conversation with During the Revolutionary war, a little before the time for the annual Thanksgiving, and when it was generally expected that there would be a great deficiency of the foreign fruits with which that festival had been celebrated, several English vessels laden with those productions were driven by a storm upon the coast, captured, and brought into Boston. Dr. Gay, who was considered a prudent loyalist, not having taken part in the movements of the colonies, and who was accustomed on Thanksgiving-days to make mention in his prayer of the special blessings of the year, did not suffer such a token of Divine favor to pass unnoticed. Accordingly, in his Thanksgiving prayer he gratefully acknowledged the unexpected bounty, somewhat after this sort: "O Lord, who art the infinitely wise disposer of all things, who rulest the winds and the waves according to thy own good pleasure; we devoutly thank Thee for the gracious interposition of thy providence in wafting upon our shores so many of thy rich bounties to make glad the dwellings of thy people on this joyful occasion.” Shortly after some one repeated the Doctor's ejaculations to Samuel Adams, who, with his usual promptness and decision, exclaimed, "That is trimming with the Almighty." 66 amuse himself in giving and receiving jokes. Dr. SAMUEL WEST, of Dartmouth, Massa- Dr. GAD HITCHCOCK, of Pembroke, Massachusetts, who was a contemporary with Dr. Gay, was celebrated for his patriotism and for his fearlessness in avowing it, and in doing all that he could for the cause of his country. In several instances he officiated as chaplain in the army, and he never shunned the dangers to which the soldiers were exposed. The first sermon which he published was addressed to a military company when the French were making inroads upon the northern frontier. His "Election Sermon," which was preached only the year before the breaking out of the Revolution-married," and so he took another wife. He was ary war, filled Governor Gage, who was present, an ardent patriot from the beginning of the difwith great wrath on account of the boldness of ficulties with England, and was unsparing in the positions, not to say the air of defiance that his denunciations of those who were unwilling pervaded it. Even the preacher's own friends to come out on the side of their country. Imare said to have been surprised at some of the mediately after the battle of Bunker Hill he statements which he ventured to make in the joined the army to do what he could as a minGovernor's presence. It is said that the ser- ister to keep up the courage of the soldiers, and mon was prepared with the expectation that the to promote their welfare. He gained great noGovernor would not be present; and that when toriety by deciphering for General Washington it was ascertained that he would be there to a treasonable letter from Dr. Church to an offihear it Dr. H. was advised to be cautious in his cer of the British army, a full account of which expressions; but he replied, "My sermon is is contained in Sparks's Writings of Washington. written, and it will not be altered." In private During the Revolutionary war he rendered imlife Dr. Hitchcock was eminently agreeable, portant service to the country. He was an inthough he had some strongly-marked peculiari- fluential member of the Convention that adopted ties. His presence gave great animation to al- the Constitution, and it was through his influmost every social circle in which he appeared.ence that Governor Hancock was induced to "Be merry and wise," was his habitual advice give his assent to the adoption of the Federal to the young on occasions of joy. There was Constitution. a familiarity in his manners and conversation not common among clergymen at that day. Dr. West was remarkable for absence of mind. C the Constitution of the United States he spent advanced, he opened his vest and made such an many of his evenings abroad, and generally re-exhibition of muddy finery as tended very little turned with his pockets filled with handkerchiefs, to the religious edification of the younger porsilk gloves, silk stockings, and other small arti- tion of his audience. He was on terms of inticles, and was greatly distressed on finding them macy with Dr. Whitridge, a physician of Tiverthere, thinking that he had taken them up and ton, Rhode Island, at whose house he frequently slipped them into his pockets. In fact they had met the celebrated Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, anbeen placed there by friends who took this meth- other friend. It was not often that three such od of making him presents, well knowing that men were brought together. They usually spent he was too much engaged in conversation to take nearly the whole night in conversation. Dr. any notice of it. While he was a pastor his friends Hopkins sometimes required a little sleep, but would sometimes find him on his horse, which the morning light not unfrequently found the had stopped to graze by the way-side, the bridle others still up. On one occasion, Dr. West havloose, the Doctor's hands folded on his breast, ing mounted his horse a little before night, Dr. and himself wholly absorbed in his own thoughts. Whitridge went out bareheaded to see him off. Once he went out to drive a cow from his yard, A new topic was started; the horse walked on and striking at her with a long board missed a few steps and stopped; then a few steps more, the cow, and was himself brought to the ground, the friends being still earnestly engaged in conand split his small- clothes nearly the whole versation. At last they were alarmed by the length of the leg. He knew nothing of this lat- appearance of a light in the east, which, after a ter accident; but gathering himself up, and for- short time, they found was the break of day. getting entirely where he was, he went on with- His absence of mind increased upon him as he out a hat three miles, entered a friend's house, became advanced in years, and at length his and passed the night talking with him to the con- memory failed, although his intellect, when exsternation of his wife, who, on his return, saw cited, retained much of its vigor. He had preachin what a plight he was for a visit to one of the ed the same sermon to his congregation three most genteel families of the parish. He once Sabbaths in succession, but no member of his met a friend, and told him that he and his wife family was willing to distress him by informing were on their way to make him a visit. "Your him of what he had done. The fourth Sabbath wife?" said his friend. "Where is she?" his daughter saw with a heavy heart that he had "Why," replied the Doctor, "I thought she his Bible open at the same place, the Parable was on the pillion behind me.' She had got of the rich man and Lazarus. Fortunately he ready to accompany him, and the absent-minded left the room for a minute; she opened the Doctor had gone off without her. He would Bible at another place, and put it back with the sometimes at the church stop at the horse-block leaf turned down just as he had left it in his for his wife to dismount, when she had been own place. When he took up the book on his forgotten and was still at home. Once he went return he seemed for a moment lost, then fixed to mill, leading his horse and carrying the grist his attention upon the passage to which she had on his own shoulder. One who saw him on opened, and from that preached a discourse which his way, states that when before his second to some of his people seemed the ablest that he marriage he went to ask the town-clerk to had given for years. publish the bans, he walked the whole distance leading his horse, and passed directly by the house of the town-clerk, and did not halt until he was brought up by a log at the end of a wharf. Once, upon a Saturday afternoon, when on his way home from Boston, he was overtaken by a violent shower as he was riding on horseback. His family at home were anxiously expecting his return, but he did not make his appearance until the last moment on Sunday morning, when he was seen hurrying his horse onward, with muddy ruffles dangling about his hands, and another large ruffle hanging out of his bosom through the open vest, which he usually kept buttoned close to his chin. He never had worn such embellishments before, and never afterward could tell how he came by them then. It was too late to make a change, the congregation were waiting. His daughter but toned up his vest so as to hide the ruffles of the bosom, and carefully tucked the ruffles in about the wrists. During the opening services all went very well, but probably feeling uneasy about the wrists, he twitched at them until the ruffles were flourishing about, and then growing warm as he Of the Rev. Dr. RIPLEY, for fifty years the only minister of Concord, Massachusetts, the following anecdote is related. He was born to govern, and was not a little arbitrary in the exercise of his sole authority as bishop of the place. He approved of the old custom of putting up notes of thanksgiving after the birth of children, and insisted on its continuance long after it had ceased in neighboring parishes; and in defense of the custom he preached so terribly about the perils of childbirth that the village physicians feared its effect upon the nerves of those most deeply interested. At length Mr. H―, one of the deacons, was bold enough to carry to the church an infant for baptism without having put up a note. The Doctor saw the whole ground, planted himself on his principles, and there he stood by the font. The congregation, intent upon the administration of the rite, waited in expectation. The Doctor addressed Deacon H, and said, "Why have you put up no note since the birth of this child?" "Because," said Mr. H—, "I thought it not best." Said the Doctor, "I think it is best." 66 'Well," said Mr. H- "don't keep me here; do some |