The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-11-11

ana corrections, was afterward photo
graphed, one or two copies being made
which are esteemed very highly by the
owners.
1t was not so amazing that the president
should have thus corrected an official COM
munication made by one OF his cabinet
officers That was not only his privilege
but his duty in case ne felt that the origi-
nal draft did not fully meet his own
views. The astonishing thing, as it
seemed to Justice Gray and to other liter
airy men who have seen this document, is
that the corrections of Mr.. Lincoln very
greatly improved the literary form in
which the document first appeared Bet
ter English IS used, the sentences We're
more skillfully arranged and the idea
more clearly, tersely and elegantly ex-
pressed.
Seward was O college graduate, man
who bad enjoyed the highest advantages.
and one who had gained repute for {
literary perfection CT his political and
other addresses. Lincoln had scarcely en-
joyed any schooling and was as much as
any man who ever held high Office in
this country self taught. Yet he had a
command of English and capacity for
singularly lucid expression Of thought in
words which his distinguished secretary
Of state could not command even in the
writing of very important official docu
ment. NJ. Seward was generous man
and was the first 10 acknowledge the i'm
provement which Mr.. Lincoln's pen had
brought TO that document.
Later there was another example Of Lin
ooln' s power when at Gettysburg he spoke
few words which have become perhaps
the finest of American prose classics,
whereas Edward Everett, the most pol
ished orator of his day, delivered an ora
ton upon which he had spent many
months on the same occasion and one
which has been forgotten.
Yet Mr.. Lincoln, who once seems seri-
ously to have contemplated a semi-literary
career, failed in his first attempts so dis
mally that he was compelled to abandon
his purpose. II was after he had carried
Oh the famous debate with Stephen A.
Douglas which gave him his national re-
pute. He thought Of preparing lecture,
deeming it possible that his reputation
might serve him so that he could COM
maud audiences of considerable size. 1t
was the day when public lecturing was
profession and brought to some of the
most successful Of those who followed it
very handsome incomes. Mr.. Lincoln did
prepare a lecture and delivered it two or
three times, but either because he was
not familiar with tho subject or else be-
cause he had been so long accustomed to
speaking wholly upon political or legal
questions he failed to command any inter
est, and after few attempts threw the
lecture away.
In this day, when so much interest has
been developed in the career Of Napoleon,
it is also remarkable to notice that this is
matched by the eager desire TO CLEAN every
anecdote, TO learn every possible thing Of
MIR. Lincoln. Two of the ma gaines are
now running serials describing Napoleon's
life, and one of them publishes another
paper giving an interesting anecdote of
Lincoln and proposes to follow it up with
other articles containing new anecdOtal
and personal matter CLEANED here and
there from living witnesses, from old let
tiers and from traditions traced to their
sources, so that view of Lincoln as a
man rather than as a public man may be
obtained. Lincoln, like Napoleon, in his
early days had strong literary impulses.
he was an eager reader as was the Corsi-
can boy, of everything that he could get,
and each of them chose the best that was
available. Lincoln wrote essays and at
least upon one occasion poem.
Napoleon even after he became an officer
in the French army seemed to have a
strong bent to literature. He wrote one or
two romances, and, like great American
financial genius, Jay Gould, prepared
history of his native 0iStrict He evan
ventured into the drama, writing two or
three tragedies in which it is said there
are TO be now discovered not only the
promise of his military genius, but also
that capacity for craftsmanship which he
revealed after he had become first consul
L. j. EDWARDS