Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1864-03-12
Character of Pre- sident Lincoln.

Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe writes the follow
ing vindicaton of the character of Mr.. Lincoln,
whereat we suppose the snobs, Copperheads and
pharisees will all be very much offended
The brilliant Courts of Europe leveled their
opera glasses at the phenomenon Fair ladies
saw that he had horny hands, and disdained
white gloves. Dapper diplomatsts were shocked
at his system of etiquette but old statesmen,
who knew the tcrrors of the passage, were wiser
than court ladies and dandy diplomatists, and
watched him with fearful curiosity, simply
asking, . Will that awkward old backwoodsman
really get that ship through? If he does, it will
be time for us to look about us"
Sooth to say, own politicians were some
what shocked with his State papers at first.
Why not let as make them little more conven-
tional and file them to a classicalpattern "No,
was his reply. q shall write them myself The
people will understand them - But this or
that form of expression is not elegant, not elias
sica.'' ''The people will understand it, has
been his invariable reply. And whatever may
be said of his State papers as compared with the
classic standards, it has been fact that they
have always been wonderfully well understood
by the people, and that since the time of Wash
ington the State papers of no President have more
controlled the popular mind And one reason for
this is that they have been informal and undiplo-
matte. They have more resembled fathers
talk to his children than a State paper. And
they have had that relish and smack of the soil
that appeal to the simple human heart and head,
which is greater power in writing than the most
artful devices of rhetoric. Lincoln might well
say. with the apostle, q But though be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been
thoroughly made manifest among goa in all
things" His rejection Of what is called fine
writing was as deliberate as Saint Pauls, and
for the same reason-because he felt that he was
speaking on a subject which must be made clear
to the lowest intellect, though it should fail to
captvate the highest. But say of Lincoln
writing, that for all true manly purposes of
writing there are passages in his State papers
that could not be better put-they are absolute
" perfect They are brief, condensed, intense
and with power of insight and expression
which make thcm worthy to be inscribed in let
tiers of gold. Such passages Of the
celebrated Springfield letter, especially that mas
tcry where he compares the conduct of the
patriotic and loyal blacks with that of the treach-
erous and loyal whites. No one can read this
letter without feeling the influence of mind
both strong and generous.
Lincoln is strong man, but his strength is of
peculiar kind it is not aggressive so much as
passive, and among passive things il is like the
strength not so much of Il stone buttress as of a
wire cable. 1t is strength swayng to every in
fuence yielding on this side and on that popular
needs vet tenaciousy and innexibly bound to
carry its great end and probably by no other
kind of strength could our National ship have
been drawn safely thus far during the tossings
and tempests which beset her way.
Surrounded by all sorts of conflicting claims,
by traitors, by half-heartcd, timid men, by Bor-
der States men and free States men, by radical
Abolitonists and Conservatives, he has listened
to all, weighed the words Of ALL waited, OBJ
/ served, yielded now here and now there but in
the main kept one infiexiblc, honest purpose, and
drawn the National ship through.
In times of trouble Abraham Lincoln has had
his turn of being the best abused man of our
nation. Like Moses leading his Israel through
the wilderness, he has seen the day when every
man seemed ready 10 stone him and yet, with
simple, wiry, steady perseverance, he has held
on. conscious of honest intentions, and looking
to God for help. All the nation have felt, in
the increasing solemnity of his proclamations
and papers. how deep an education was being
wrought in his mind by this simple faith in Tod,
the Ruler of nations, and this humble willing
ness learn the awful lessons of His providence.
We do not mean to give the impression that
Lincoln is religious man in the sense in which
that term is popularity applied. We believe he
has never made any such profession but we see
evidence that in passing through this dreadful
National crisis he has been forced, by the very
anguish of the struggle, to look upward where
any rational creature must look for support. No
man in this agony has suffered more and deeper,
albeit with dry, weary, patient pain that
seemed to like insensibility. Whichever
way it ends, he said to the writer, " have the
impression that shan't last long after it's over.
After the dreadful repulse of Fredericksburg
he is reported to have said =" If there is
out of he'll that suffers more than ! do, pity
him" In those dark days his heavy eyes and
weary air told how our reverses were upon him.
and yet there was anever failing fund of patience
and bottom, that sometimes rose to the surface
in some droll, quaint saying or story, that forced
laugh even from himself.
There have been times with many, mpetuous
impotence, when our National ship seemed to
lie water-logged, and we have called aloud for a
deliverer of another fashion, brilliant Cen
cral !; dashing, fearless statesman man who
could dare and do, who would stake all on die,
and win or lose by brilliant coup de main. n
may comfort minds that since He who ruleth
in the armies of nations set no such man to this
work. that perhaps He in the man whom He
did send some peculiar fitness and aptitudes
therefor.
Slow and careful in coming to resolutions,
willing to talk with every person who has any
thing to show any side of disputed subject,
long in weighing and bordering, attached to
constitutional limits and tme-honored land
marks, Lincoln certainly was the safest leader
nation could have at time when the hdcedS
corpus mist be suspended, and all the consiiiu-
tional and minor rights of citizens De thro%n
into the hands Of their military leader. n -
less, bold, theorizing, dashing man OF se nna5
might have wrecked Constitution ana t enuet
us in a splendid military despotism VIZ VIZ ~ he
did with n q his bag of specie the bank on the
S;mn,e promise TO bring them back when he had
''a among no, the many accusations which in hours
Of III luck have been thrown out upon Lincoln;
il is remarkable that he mas never peen az" uiea
nc liking or selfish. When we were troubled
81 "a, in darkness, and looked doubtful toward
The presidential chair it never was that we
doubted the good will Of our pilot-only the
cIearness of his eyesight. But Almighty God
has granted to him that cearness OF VISION winch
He gives to the true-hearted, and enabled him to
set his honest foot in that promised land Of free
/ dom which is to be the patrimony of all men,
black and white; and from henceforth nations
/ shall rise up and call him blessed
BREATHING SPELL.---L. W. Elliott, District At
! r Il. ID -