Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1864-01-22

Az Estimate OF ABRAHAs LIEooLS.-Mr5
Harriet Beecher Stowe writes, in the Boston
Watchman and Reflector, biographical
sketch of President Lincoln and good an
alysis Of the strong points of his character.
We quote from the latter
The world has seen and wondered at the
greatest sign and marvel Of our day, to-wit, 8
plain working man of the people, with no more
culture, instruction or education than any such
working man may obtain for himself, called on
TO conduct the pas age Of great people through
a crisis involving the destinies Of the whole
world. The eyes Of princes, mobiles, aristocrats,
OF dukes, earls, scholars statesmen, warriors all
turned on the plain backwOodsman, with his
simple sense, his imperturbable simplicity, his
determined self-reliance, his impracticable and
incorruptible honesty, as he sat amid the war Of
conflicting elements with unpretending steadi-
ness, striving TO guide the national ship through
a channel at whose perils the worlds Oldest
statesmen stood aghast. The brilliant courts Of
Europe levelled their opera glasses at the phe-
nomenon. Fair ladies saw that he had horny
hands and disdained white gloves. Dapper di-
plgmatists were shocked at his system Of eti-
quette, but old statesmen, who knew the terrors
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 viii be time for US to
look about US.
So0th 90 say, our own politicians were some
what shocked with his state papers at first
Why not let us make them a little more conven-
uoull and file them to a classical pattern p
" No, was his reply, d" shall write them my
self The people will understand them. - - But
this or that form OF expression il not elegant,
not classical. 80 " The people will understand
%, has been his inyariable reply. And what
ever may be said Of his state papers as compared
with the classic standards, II has been fact
that they have always been wonderfully well IN
dcrsiood by the people, and that since the time
of Washington, the state papers Of no President
have more controlled the popular mind. And
one reason for this Is, that they have been in
formal and undiplomatic They have more
re-embiei a fathers talk 70 his children than
o. state paper. And they have had the relish
and smack of the soil, that appeal to the simple
human heart and heal which Is a greater power
in writing than the most artful devices Of rhet-
orc. Lincoln might well say with the apostle,
" Bur though J De rude ia speech yet not in
knowledge, but We have been thoroughly made
manifest among YOU IN ali things" His reiec-
gon lf what is called hne writing Was as delib-
crate as ST. Paul s and Tor the same reason-bs-
cause he felt that he was speaking on a subject
winch must be made clear 70 the lowest intellect
though it should fail 10 captivate the highest
But We say of Lincoln's writing, tlat for al
true, manly purposes Of writing, there are pas
ages ia his state papers that could not be better
put-they are absolutely perfect. They are brief,
CONDENSED, intense, and with a power Of insight
and expression which make them worthy TO be
inscribed in letters Of gold. such are some
laszagas of the celebrated Springfield letter es-
peclaliy that mastery one where he compares
the conduct Of the patriotic and loyal blacks
" .th that Of the treacherous and disloyal whites
No one can read this letter without feeling the
influence Of a mind both strong and generous
Lincoln f. a strong man, but his strength is Of
a peculiar kind, it is not aggressive 50 much as
passive, and among passive things it is ike the
strength not so much Of a stone buttress, a. Of
a wire cable. IL is strength swsying to every
influence, yielding on this side and on that TO
popular uoeis. yet tenaciously and infexibly
bound Co carry it. great end; and probably BY
ul other sind Of strength could our national
ship have been drawn safely thus far during the
--.lE- and tempests which beset her way
Surrounded by all sorts Of conflicting claims,
ay traitors, hy half-hearted, timid men, by Dor
der state men and free state men, by radical
lhaiitouists and conservatives, he has listened
to al weighed the words Of all, waited, observ-
Ell. yielding now here and now there, but in the
main kept bis iuhexible, honest purpose. and
drawn the national ship through