him to make softer utterance of that truth; but he declared that it was God's truth; that the time had come for uttering it; and that the people were ready for its enunciation; and, therein, two years before he became President, he had displayed that marvellous capacity for fathoming public sentiment and of being guided by it, which was his strength during his administration.

With the repute caused by this speech in the West, Mr. Lincoln came to Cooper Union. A notable throng was gathered to hear him. The poet Bryant presided; and, in that historic second cradle of liberty, which Cooper Union is, there were gathered representatives of culture, financial power and the lofty character which makes New York of pre-eminent influence. These men eyed the tall, gaunt lawyer from the West with curious glance; and, if most of them had spoken with the truth, they would have said it was a half-humorous curiosity which brought them to that place to hear this Western lawyer; but, when he had finished that masterly address -pre-eminent in its ability, cool and remorseless in its logic, conciliatory and tender in its suggestions - no feeling of curiosity mastered that great throng, but one of profound respect and admiration, so that they asked one another, "What manner of man is this lawyer of the West, who has set forth these truths as we have never yet heard them before?" That address disclosed one of the capacities of Mr. Lincoln which we understood better afterward. It was the ability to grasp opinion as it was asserting itself among the masses of the people, and to make such perfect presentation of it as caused him to be regarded, not as a follower of opinion, but as the creator and leader of it. Often Mr. Lincoln said, "I do not lead; But there was the genius, such as has

I only follow."

been given to few men in this world, revealed in that following, so that it appeared like leadership.

It is this quality which those who aspire to leadership in this day and in future would do well to study. There are those who mistake their own obstinacy, deeming it but the conviction of the public; there are those who believe that, in a Republic like ours, leadership forces public opinion and does not follow it; and the political graveyards are filled with buried ambitions and crushed hopes, because of that mistake, which Mr. Lincoln never made. He had extraordinary courage; but it was not the courage of brute obstinacy or insensibility. When, a month after his inauguration, that man of supreme ability and splendid acquirements, Governor Seward, who had been chosen Secretary of State, laid before Mr. Lincoln a certain paper containing suggestions as to policy and an intimation that the President might commit to his Secretary the carrying out of that policy, Mr. Lincoln saw that the time had come when it must be shown to his Cabinet, that he could delegate no powers and responsibilities, and that he must command his administration. But it was in gentle courtesy that he took the paper from his Secretary of State, placed it in his portfolio, and, with wise and sad admonition, indicated that the policy which he proposed he would carry out; and, from that day until his death, he was the master of his official servants.

He showed courage, when, in a time of great emergency, he sent for that Western lawyer, who was not even of his political party, and asked him to enter the Cabinet as Secretary of War. There was every reason, at least personal inclination, why Mr. Lincoln should have chosen almost any other competent man than

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Edward M. Stanton for that post. Stanton had been a member of Buchanan's Cabinet. Only a few years before he had met Mr. Lincoln, in the prosecution of a law case at Cincinnati; and he, with humiliating offensiveness, snubbed the country lawyer of Illinois. Yet this, and other considerations, had no more weight with Mr. Lincoln than would have been the case had they not existed. He had the courage to call a Democrat to his Cabinet, because he perceived that that man possessed those unusual qualifications which were imperative for a successful conduct of the War Department, and he knew that behind Mr. Stanton's failings of temperament, there was an absorbing love of his country and an honesty of character, such as few men possess. With Stanton he could be firm and courageous, yielding often in trifles, but masterful when there was need of it. Said Stanton to him one day: "Mr. President, I cannot carry out that order. It is improper, and I don't believe it right." And, speaking very gently, Mr. Lincoln said: "Well, I reckon, Mr. Secretary, that you will have to carry it out." "But I won't do it, Mr. President; it's all wrong." "I guess you will have to do it, Mr. Secretary "; and it was done.

In the quality of tact Mr. Lincoln has been excelled by no man who ever held high office in this country. Van Buren was tactful, but too transparently so to secure the best results. Lincoln's tact was so subtle and masterful that it seldom was perceived, and never realized until its purpose had been accomplished. But it was the pre-eminent quality of fathoming public opinion—which he believed, in the long run, always to be right, correcting itself when led into error and becoming the absolute servant of that opinion, in which Mr. Lincoln's claim as

a public servant worthy of the highest honor and gratitude rested. We see now that he was waiting for public opinion to become pre-eminent before he indicated his policy with respect to the slaves. He revoked Hunter's order in South Carolina and Fremont's in Missouri, proclamations which established freedom for the slaves in those military districts; and though he was savagely rebuked for doing so by Phillips and Garrison and the influential public men who espoused immediate emancipation, yet it was because Mr. Lincoln saw, as they did not, that the time was not ripe for such a beneficent act. He waited for a year; and when he perceived that opinion would sustain him then he, seeming to lead it, issued his Emancipation Proclamation; and in lesser matters he was always thus guided. He erred sometimes, and no one saw a mistake sooner than he himself; but it was a recent Minister to Great Britain who said "that a man who made no mistakes made nothing." Statesmen have said that he was in error when he suggested, in the closing months of his first administration, that Congress could afford to appropriate money to recompense the men of the South for the loss of their property, if by such appropriation the War could be brought to a close. But in these latter days we are not sure that Mr. Lincoln's view had not more wisdom in it than did that of those in Congress who opposed him.

NEW YORK CITY.

AN HOUR WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

BY FRANK B. CARPENTER,

AUTHOR OF "SIX MONTHS IN THE WHITE HOUSE."

MR. LINCOLN's hand was on the bell cord of his office; Louis Burgdorf, the Prussian usher, had answered his summons. Taking up a card, he said: "I will see Colonel Noteware, of Colorado, and his friends."

Leaning back in his chair he rested his head upon his hand, with an expression of great weariness. His eyes for a moment wandered to the distant Virginia horizon and the unfinished Washington monument in the foreground.

"How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest,"

he uttered softly, as if alone with his thoughts. "How gladly would I take the place in the ranks of the humblest soldier that sleeps to-night upon the banks of the Potomac." The party of three he had sent for entered a Western Senator, a Congressman and an old Illinois friend, Colonel Noteware. Instantly, by one of those rapid transitions, characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, the wan and tired look passed away. The greeting over, he at once began to question the party concerning the recent elections in their States, contrasting the figures