no one probably was better fitted to give a discriminating analysis of mr. lincoln’s character than mr. w. h. herndon, for more than twenty years his law-partner. from an address delivered at springfield, ill., dec. 12, 1865, by that gentleman, i shall, therefore, quote freely, without indorsing everything that is said, but submitting it as the opinion of a man who knew mr. lincoln well:
“mr. lincoln read less and thought more than any man in his sphere in america. no man can put his finger on any great book written in the last or present century that he read. when young he read the bible, and when of age he read shakespeare, this latter book was scarcely ever out of his mind. mr. lincoln is acknowledged{286} to have been a great man, but the question is, what made him great? i repeat that he read less and thought more than any man of his standing in america, if not in the world. he possessed originality and power of thought in an eminent degree. he was cautious, cool, concentrated, with continuity of reflection; was patient and enduring. these are some of the grounds of his wonderful success.
“not only was nature, man, fact, and principle suggestive to mr. lincoln—not only had he accurate and exact perceptions, but he was causative; i.e., his mind ran back behind all facts, things, and principles to their origin, history, and first cause,—to that point where forces act at once as effect and cause. he would stop and stand in the street and analyze a machine. he would whittle things to a point, and then count the numberless inclined planes and their pitch, making the point. mastering and defining this, he would then cut that point back and get a broad transverse section of his pine stick and point and define that. clocks, omnibuses, and language, paddle-wheels, and idioms, never escaped his observation and analysis. before he could form any idea of {287}anything—before he would express his opinion on any subject, he must know it in origin and history, in substance and quality, in magnitude and gravity. he must know his subject inside and outside, upside and downside. he searched his own mind and nature thoroughly, as i have often heard him say. he must analyze a sensation, an idea, and words, and run them back to their origin, history, purpose, and destiny.”
“all things, facts, and principles had to run through his crucible and be tested by the fires of his analytic mind; and hence, when he did speak, his utterances rang out gold-like—quick, keen, and current—upon the counters of the understanding. he reasoned logically, through analogy and comparison. all opponents dreaded him in his originality of idea, condensation, definition, and force of expression, and woe be to the man who hugged to his bosom a secret error if mr. lincoln got on the chase of it! i say, woe to him! time could hide the error in no nook or corner of space in which he would not detect and expose it.”
“mr. lincoln was a peculiar man, having a peculiar mind. he was gifted with a peculiarity—{288}namely, a new lookout on nature. everything had to be newly created for him—facts newly gathered, newly arranged, and newly classed. he had no faith, as already expressed. in order to believe, he must see and feel and thrust his hand into the place. such a mind as this must act strongly,—must have its time. his forte and power lay in his love of digging out for himself and hunting up for his own mind its own food, to be assimilated unto itself; and then, in time, he could and would form opinions and conclusions that no human power could overthrow. they were as irresistible as iron thunder, as powerful as logic embodied in mathematics.”
“an additional question naturally suggests itself here, and it is this: had mr. lincoln great, good common sense? different persons of equal capacity and honesty hold different views on this question—one class answering in the affirmative and the other in the negative.
“these various opinions necessarily spring out of the question just discussed. if the true test is that a man shall quickly, wisely, and well judge the rapid rush and whirl of human transactions as accurately as though indefinite time and proper{289} conditions were at his disposal, then i am compelled to follow the logic of things, and say that mr. lincoln had no more than ordinary common sense. the world, men, and their actions must be judged as they rush and pass along. they will not wait on us—will not stay for our logic and analysis; they must be seized as they run. we all our life act on the moment. mr. lincoln knew himself, and never trusted his dollar or his fame on his casual opinions—he never acted hastily on great matters.”
“the great predominating elements of mr. lincoln’s peculiar character were—first, his great capacity and power of reason; secondly, his excellent understanding; thirdly, an exalted idea of the sense of right and equity; and fourthly, his intense veneration of what was true and good. his reason ruled despotically all other faculties and qualities of his mind. his conscience and heart were ruled by it. his conscience was ruled by one faculty—reason; his heart was ruled by two faculties—reason and conscience. i know it is generally believed that mr. lincoln’s heart, his love and kindness, his tenderness and benevolence were his ruling qualities; but this opinion is erroneous{290} in every particular. first, as to his reason. he dwelt in the mind; not in the conscience, and not in the heart. he lived and breathed and acted from his reason,—the throne of logic and the home of principle, the realm of deity in man. it is from this point that mr. lincoln must be viewed. his views were correct and original. he was cautious not to be deceived; he was patient and enduring. he had concentration and great continuity of thought; he had a profound analytic power; his vision was clear, and he was emphatically the master of statement. his pursuit of the truth was indefatigable—terrible. he reasoned from his well-chosen principles with such clearness, force, and compactness, that the tallest intellects in the land bowed to him with respect. he was the strongest man i ever saw—looking at him from the stand-point of his reason, the throne of his logic. he came from that height with an irresistible and crushing force. his printed speeches will prove this; but his speeches before courts, especially before the supreme courts of the state and nation, would demonstrate it. unfortunately none of them have been preserved. here he demanded{291} time to think and prepare. the office of reason is to determine the truth. truth is the power of reason—the child of reason. he loved and idolized truth for its own sake. it was reason’s food.
“conscience, the second great quality and forte of mr. lincoln’s character, is that faculty which loves the just. its office is justice; right and equity are its correlatives. it decides upon all acts of all people at all times. mr. lincoln had a deep, broad, living conscience. his great reason told him what was true, good and bad, right, wrong, just or unjust, and his conscience echoed back its decision; and it was from this point that he acted and spoke and wove his character and fame among us. his conscience ruled his heart; he was always just before he was gracious. this was his motto—his glory; and this is as it should be. it can not be truthfully said of any mortal man that he was always just. mr. lincoln was not always just, but his general life was. it follows that if mr. lincoln had great reason and great conscience, he was an honest man. his great and general life was honest, and he was justly and rightfully entitled to the appellation, ‘honest abe!’ honesty was his great polar star.{292}
“mr. lincoln had also a good understanding, that is, the faculty that understands and comprehends the exact state of things, their near and remote relation. the understanding does not necessarily inquire for the reason of things. i must here repeat that mr. lincoln was an odd and original man; he lived by himself and out of himself. he could not absorb. he was a very sensitive man, unobtrusive and gentlemanly, and often hid himself in the common mass of men, in order to prevent the discovery of his individuality. he had no insulting egotism and no pompous pride; no haughtiness and no aristocracy. he was not indifferent, however, to approbation and public opinion. he was not an upstart and had no insolence. he was a meek, quiet, unobtrusive gentleman. these qualities of his nature merged somewhat his identities. read mr. lincoln’s speeches, letters, messages, and proclamations; read his whole record in his actual life, and you can not fail to perceive that he had good understanding. he understood and fully comprehended himself; and what he did, and why he did it, better than most living men.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“there are two opinions—radically different opinions—expressed about mr. lincoln’s will by men of equal and much capacity. one opinion is that he had no will, and the other is that he was all will—omnipotently so. these two opinions are loudly and honestly affirmed. mr. lincoln’s mind loved the true, the right, and good—all the great truths and principles in the mind of man. he loved the true first, the right second, and the good the least. his mind struggled for truths and his soul for substances. neither in his heart nor in his soul did he care for forms, methods, ways,—the non-substantial facts or things. he could not by his very structure and formation in mind and body care anything about them. he did not intensely or much care for particular individual man—dollar, property, rank, order, manners, and such like things. he had no avarice in his nature, or other like vice.... what suited a little, narrow, critical mind, did not suit mr. lincoln’s, any more than a child’s clothes did his body. generally, mr. lincoln did not take any interest in little local elections—town meetings. he attended no gatherings that pertained to local or other such interests, saving general political{294} ones. he did not care (because he could not in his nature) who succeeded to the presidency of this or that christian association or railroad convention; who made the most money; who was going to philadelphia; when and for what; and what were the costs of such a trip. he could not care who among friends got this office or that—who got to be street inspector or alley commissioner. no principle of goodness, of truth, or right was here. how could he be moved by such things as these? he could not understand why men struggled for such things. he made this remark to me one day—i think at washington: ‘if ever this free people—if this government itself is ever utterly demoralized, it will come from this human wriggle and struggle for office; a way to live without work; from which nature i am not free myself.’ it puzzled him a good deal at washington to know and to get at the root of this dread desire,—this contagious disease of national robbery in the nation’s death-struggle.
“because mr. lincoln could not feel any interest in such little things as i have spoken of, nor feel any particular interest in the success of those who were then struggling and wriggling, he was{295} called indifferent—nay, ungrateful—to his friends. especially is this the case with men who have aided mr. lincoln all their life. mr. lincoln always and everywhere wished his friends well; he loved his friends, and clung to them tenaciously, like iron to iron welded; yet he could not be actively and energetically aroused to the true sense of his friends’ particularly strong feelings of anxiety for office. from this fact mr. lincoln has been called ungrateful. he was not an ungrateful man by any means. he may have been a cool man—a passive man in his general life; yet he was not ungrateful. ingratitude is too positive a word—it does not convey the truth. mr. lincoln may not have measured his friendly duties by the applicant’s hot desire; i admit this. he was not a selfish man,—if by selfishness is meant that mr. lincoln would do any act, even to promote himself to the presidency, if by that act any human being was wronged. if it is said that abraham lincoln preferred abraham lincoln to any one else in the pursuit of his ambitions, and that, because of this, he was a selfish man, then i can see no objections to such an idea, for this is universal human nature.{296}
“it must be remembered that mr. lincoln’s mind acted logically, cautiously, and slowly. now, having stated the above facts, the question of his will and its power is easily solved. be it remembered that mr. lincoln cared nothing for simple facts, manners, modes, ways, and such like things. be it remembered, that he did care for truth, for right, for principle, for all that pertains to the good. in relation to simple facts, unrelated to substance, forms, rules, methods, ways, manners, he cared nothing; and if he could be aroused, he would do anything for anybody at any time, as well foe as friend. as a politician he would courteously grant all facts and forms—all non-essential things—to his opponent. he did so because he did not care for them; they were rubbish, husks, trash. on the question of substance, he hung and clung with all his might. on questions of truth, justice, right, the good, on principle—his will was as firm as steel and as tenacious as iron.... ask mr. lincoln to do a wrong thing, and he would scorn the request; ask him to do an unjust thing, and he would cry ‘begone!’; ask him to sacrifice his{297} convictions of the truth, and his soul would indignantly exclaim, ‘the world perish first!’ ”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“mr. lincoln sometimes walked our streets cheerily, good-humoredly, perhaps joyously—and then it was, on meeting a friend, he cried, ‘how d’ye?’ clasping one of his friend’s hands in both of his, giving a good, hearty soul-welcome. of a winter’s morning he might be seen stalking and stilting it toward the market-house, basket on arm, his old gray shawl wrapped around his neck, his little willie or tad running along at his heels, asking a thousand little quick questions, which his father heard not, not even then knowing that little willie or tad was there, so abstracted was he. when he thus met a friend, he said that something put him in mind of a story which he heard in indiana or elsewhere, and tell it he would, and there was no alternative but to listen.
“thus, i say, stood and walked and looked this singular man. he was odd, but when that gray eye and face, and every feature were lit up by the inward soul in fires of emotion, then it was that all those apparently ugly features sprang into organs{298} of beauty, or sunk themselves into a sea of inspiration that sometimes flooded his face. sometimes it appeared to me that lincoln’s soul was just fresh from the presence of its creator.”
“this man, this long, bony, wiry, sad man, floated into our county in 1831, in a frail canoe, down the north fork of the sangamon river, friendless, penniless, powerless, and alone—begging for work in this city,—ragged, struggling for the common necessaries of life. this man, this peculiar man, left us, in 1861, the president of the united states, backed by friends and power, by fame and all human force; and it is well to inquire how?
“to sum up, let us say, here is a sensitive, diffident, unobtrusive, natural-made gentleman. his mind was strong and deep, sincere and honest, patient and enduring; having no vices and having only negative defects, with many positive virtues. his is a strong, honest, sagacious, manly, noble life. he stands in the foremost rank of men in all ages,—their equal,—one of the best types of this christian civilization.”
