New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-04-19
MIR. IyNCOLN's FAME.

Without the least desire % join in the race o.
iheaping cxtravagant and preposterous lauda-
ions on our dead President rs the wiSost and
greatest man who ever lived. WE feel sure that
the discerning and conSderate OF all parties
| will concur in our judgment that Mr.. Lincoln ;
reputation will stand higher with posterity than
with the mass of his cotemporaries-that dis
' lance, whether in time or space. while dwarilng
and obscuring 80 many, must place HIM III q
fairer light-that future generations will deem.
I him underyalucd by those for and with whom
he labored. and be puzzled by the bitter fierce
ness of the personal assaults by which his tenn
I per was tested.
1 One reason for this is doubtless to be found ir
( the external, superficial, non-cssenti0i tests 10y
K (which we arc accustomed to gauge contemporary
MORT king without his crown and purple
robes is, 10 the vulgar apprehension, soieeisin,
an impos,ibity. Acoarscly clad, travcl-siained,
barefoot jesus, could gel no hearing IN our
fashionable eynagogues, though BIS every dis
course were Sermon ON the Mount. And Mr..
Lincoln was 30 G. scntiaily, anchaagcahly COM
moDcr-among ambassador, and grandccs in
the White House the identical "Od Abe
that many " Us had shaken hy both hand- a,
Western ba-becrc5-hi, homcy, punseut anec.
dolcs so Ike those We had head HIM relate
from political stumps and by log-cobin iiresidcs
that the masses thought OF him but as one
with whom they had been splitting rails
on pleasant Spring day or making
prosperous voyage down the Mis-
..ssippi on an Illinois Gal-bo4t, and bad found
MIN a downright good fellow. We have had
Presidents before him sprung from The ioins q
poverty and obscurity, but never one who re
NAMED TO the last 30 simply, absolutely, alike
in heart and manner, one OF thc People. No
one who approached him, whether a. minister
or messenger, felt impclcd either to stoop or
TO strut in his presence. lie was neither awed
TBS assumption nor diaguied by yulgariIy. Hc
was never con trained nor uneasy in wh2tcvcI
presence. and he imposed no cons,rarl nor
ceremony on other. Every one found him
easy Oh acCesS, yet no one iet en-
couraged to take undue liberties. Mr.. Everett,
one of the best bred most refined and iastidious
of our countrymcn, alter observing bis bearing
among the cabinet and foreign ministers the
governors, senators, generals, and other nota.
|bles collected az the Gettysburg celebration,
pronounced him the peer IN department OF any
one present. Prcsumins that 10 be The fact, 1t ~
probably due TO the Circumstance that he alone
never thought Of manners, nor how be nor
|any one else was appearing Ia Others. His
mind was intent on matters of wider and more
|enduring consequence.
Mr. Lincoln has suffered in the Judgment Of
his immediate contemporaries from the fact that
|of all things that he might have been required
Ito do, the conduct Of a great war was that ioi
(which lie was least fitted. Fog War requires
the utmost CELEBRITY Of comprehension, decision,
faction; and Mr. Lncolns mind was essentially
certain to be right in the end; but i'll War to be
|rgh, a little TOO late is equivalent to being
wrong altogether. Besides War sometime re-
|quires sternness and he was at heart tender
and merciful as a woman. He might have
saved many lives by prompt severity toward a
few of the active traitors who thronged Balti-
more and Washington directly after the fall of
Sumter, and openly, ostentatiously exulted over
our disaster at Bull Run. That extreme lcnity
which BELTS the close Of civil war was most
|unluckily evinced by him at the beginning of
ours, giving every coward to understand that,
while there was peril in steadfast loyalty, it was
ncrfentIv safe 10 be n Rehel To human anne i