Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-01-13

The Character OF President Lincoln.
The Rev. Henry Fowler, of Auburn,
in his Thanksgiving sermon, drew the
following picture of the President, which
will be recognized as asstrikiug portrait
in many particulars:
The progress of the President illus
trates. the progress Of the people. Ar
Thur Stanley speaks of Samuel the
prophet aszmediater between the old and
the new, in Jewish history. His two
sided sympathy enabled him to unite the
passing and coming epoch Such an
| epoch ofzperplexity, transition, change,
is not often witnessed. In every such
passage of nation there ought to be
chafacter. like that of Samuel Msun-
| fderstood and misrepresented at the time;
sattaeked 4romboth sides; charged with
not going far enough and with going too
| far charged with saying too much and
saying too little; he slowly, conscien-
tiously aud honestly works out the
mighty problem. He was not the found
er Of a new state of things like Moses;
i he was not the champion of the existing
order of things Ike Elijah. He stood
between the two; between the living and
the dead /; between the past and the pres
Tent : between The old and the new; with
that sympathy forseach which at such
1 3period is the best hope for any perma-
nent solution of the questions which tor
Sment it. = His duty is carefully to dis
.tingaish between that whichis temporal
and Shat which is eternal He has but
little praise from partisans; but is the
careful healer binding up the wounds of
the age, in spite of Itself, the good sur
fgeon, knitting together the dislocated
1bones of the disiointed times
Such q man was Samuel among the
Jews; such man was Athanasius
among the early Christians; such man
is Abraham Lincoln in this day. The
explanation for his7every act is this: He
? executes the will of the people. He rep.
resents controlling majority. If he be
slow it is because the people are slow.
If he has done foolish act, it was the
stupidity of the people which impelled it.
! His wisdom consists in carrying out the
good sense of the nation. His growth
y in political knowledge, his steady move
ment toWardl maneipation, are but the
growth and, movements of the national
mind. Indeed, in character and culture
1 he is afair representative Of the average
> American, His awkward speech and
1 yet more awkward silence, his uncouth
Il manpers, his grammar selftaught and
partly forgotten, his style miscellaneous
concreted from the best authors, like Q
, reading book, and yet often times of Sax
: en force and classic purity; his humol
an argument, and his logic joke, boil
n unseasonable at times and irresistible
r alweysi his questions answers, and hi:
< answers questions; his guesses prophe
Is sizes, and fulfillment ever beyond hi
promise; honest yet shrewd, simple ye
reticent; heavy and yet energetic, neve
.1 despairing and dneversanguine; careless
;, in forms; conscientious 4 in essentials
I'll never sacrificing good servant one,
Z trusted, never deserving a good principl,
:. once adoptedj not afraid of new ideas
not despising old ones; improving op
= portunities to confess sinistakes, ready +
learn, getting at facts, doing noahini
when he knows not what to do; hesita
~, ~ ting at nothing when he gsees the right
lacking the recognized qualification {
% a party leader and yet leading his part
as no other man can; sustaining his pc
! ltical enemies in Missouri to their dt
feat, sustaining his political friends i
- MARYLAND to their victory; conservatiy
in his sympathies and radical in his acts
t,s Soeratic in his style AID Baconian in h
q. method his religion consisting in trutl
fulness, temperance, asking good peop
to pray for him, and publicly acknow