The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-12

HNSE from which these
words are dictat
ed, said: sI.incoln read less and thought
more than any other man in America.
There is not one great book that he ever
read thoroughly. When a boy, he read
the Bible, and when of age he read
Shakespeare, and he eften quoted from
both, but he never read either book
through. repeat that he was the poor
est reader and the greatest thinker,
within his sphere, in America, if not in
the world. -
The sayer of this was already tremu-
lous with the premonitiOns of the final
catastrophe, but his head was clear, and
I could but remember that he had been
for a long time more intimate with Lin
coin than was ever any other man. 1 be-
1ieve that Herpdon' g judgment was good
in the matter referred to. Lincoln did
think more-and better-than any other
man in America. He rose above his age
because he was the greatest thinker. In
many particulars he was not the highest
man. He was not the best. He was not
the noblest. He was not the greatest
pioneer of freedom. He was not much
moved with the sublime enthusiasm of
humanity, but he could outthink any
man of the age.
The operations of Lincoln's mind
we're more exact and more certain, more
complete and finished, than were those
of any other mind in that greatest epoch
of our national existence. So much has
been said about the matter that / hest
tate to enter upon new analysis or to
revise the old analyses Of the Lincoln
ian intellect, but I insist on the main
fact and emphasize it-namely, that
Lincoln could outthink any man of his
age and country. His reading was so
small and desultory that it may be
wholly disregarded, but his view Of the
world he lived in was clearer, more far
reaching and distinct than that of any
of his contemporaries or any several OF
them together.
Note with particularly the mode
and manner of that tall, gaunt, melan-
choly creature moving among his fellows
and talking to them in tho manner of
Esop. OF nature he knew nothing. He
never referred to nature. He never spoke
of rain or shine, of the green earth or
the blue sky, of forest or plain, of dis
tant mountain or ruffled sea. He who
had himself been q fiatboatman descend
ing the Father of Waters gives no sign
that the majestic stream ever interested
him or touched his imagination. His
speeches are as devoid of reference to
the aspects of the natural world as
though no such world existed.
I recall with interest that the very
last words Lincoln delivered on the aft
ernoon before the assassination-last Of
those great utterances that for six or
seveR years electrified and enlightened
half the world-wore a message of sug-
gestion and encouragement to the min
ers of the Rockies. Schuyler Colfax was
going thither and was paying his final
call at the White House. Lincoln said
to him: 81 want you to take a message
for me to the miners. have large ideas
of the mineral wealth of our nation.
During the war, when we were adding
$4,000, 900 day to our national debt,
did not care about encouraging the in
crease in the volume Of our precious
metals, but now that the rebellion is
overtArown and we know pretty nearly
the amount Of our national debt, the
more gold and silver we mine makes
the payment of that debt SO much the
easier. Now I am going to encourage
that in every possible way. 1 in
tend to point the immigrants to the
gold and silver that wait for them in
the west. Tell the miners from me that
1 shall promote their interests to the ut
most of my ability, because their pros
perity is the prosperity of the nation"
These were the last public words of
the Immortal, and they were as pro-
phetic and true as the rest. If Lincoln
were present today, and in power, the
international gold trust would break
itself to pieces on the immovable granite
of that great and honest nature.
Lincoln has been credited with pos
sessing a vein of poetry. That is not
true. He had no Imagination, no ideal
ity. The one poem which he is said to
have known by heart is long piece of
moralizing doggerel about the folly of
pride in such creature as man. 1t has
in it the precise tone of melancholy and
doubt which were the prevailing charac-
teristics of Lincoln s sonber sentiments.
For that reason he read the poem and
committed it. He was q dabbler in
Shakespeare because the aphorisms of
that Titanic genius suited him in point
and argument. 1t was not the poetry,
but the Shakespearean logic, that he
caught at and took. To him Meissonier's
''F'riedland" would have suggested a
story of the Blackhawk war, and Millet's
'Angelus" would have brought to mind
a joke that he once heard in Indiana.
POLITICALLY considered, Lincoln s mind
was as fat as a mastering ground. The
aesthetic faculties were wanting. He
endured music as a necessity. On the
Fourth of July, 1858, being ereraded,
be concluded his speech thus: Recent
events bring up glorious names, and
particu larly prominent ones, but these
will not mention. Having said thus
much, / will now take the music. -
That is, will take it as medicine! The
exclusive power did not exist in Lin