The semi-weekly messenger., 1906-01-23
LINCOLN AND ROOSEVELT
Hardly Any Two Presidents Have
Been so Unlike
Few Points of Resemblance Far Out
numbered by Their Differences.
Traits That Make Each of Them Re-
garded as q Typical President.

The magazine and newspaper pane
gyrists of the President attribute 10
him the fantastic idea that he is mod
cling his public course upon that OF
Abraham Lincoln Except in the mat
ter Of honest, patriotic purpose, there
have hard.y been two Presidents more
unlike. Lincoln was the least impul-
sive of our Presidents. Lincoln's lead
ership was intellectual Roosevelt's IS
emotional. Lincoln thought ahead OF
the people, but never went far in ad-
! vance of them. Roosevelt scintillates
and dashes in SO many different direc-
: tlons that he scarcely stops to think
at all. and is never so we'll pleased
es when he fancies himself at the top
Of some political or administrative San
Juan Hill, with Congress and the peo-
pie tagging and struggling behind him
Lincoln resisted for two years the de-
mands of the radical anti-slavery meE
, that he should issue an emancipation
proclamation; when it was issued il
! meant something, accomplished some
thing, and was Loyalty supported. Judg-
ing by his temperament and his per-
formances, Roosevelt would have shot
off the proclamation as quickly as it
was suggested to him. Lincoln had a
! deep knowledge of and a profound re-
spect for the constitution and laws
Even Mr.. Roosevelt's eulogists will
hardly claim this for him.
! President Lincoln, it is said, differ
; ed with some of the other leaders Of
| his party, even the strongest, and took
| his own course This is true But
read his biography and the lives OF
] his contemporaries and associates, and
! see with what patience he listened TO
| those men, how carefully he cOnsid-
cred both their arguments and their
| feelings, and with what deliberation
| he decided and acted. 1t is cOmmdn
! complaint in private, even of the men
! for whom Mr.. Roosevelt sends ostensi-
! bly, for consultation, that they can
hardly get word in edgewise se"-that
while he asks advice he really wants,
! like many other maSterful men, agree
ment and support.
| If the truth were fully known it
would probably appear that very few
Of the Republican Senators feel that
| they have any influence with the Pres
! ident on matters upon which he has
set his heart, and that only one mem
ber of his caJinet-Secretary Root--is
really and truly constitutional ad-
viser,' and a political monitor as we'll.
Self-reliance is an admirable quality
in a military commander; it is not so
admirable or so safe in President.
Mr. Lincoln's trust in the people
was not an egotistic belief that they
thought him an infallible guide, whom
they would follow wherever he lead.
He knew the people so WELL and kept
so close to them in thought and action,
that, as Lowell finely said: when
Lincoln spoke it seemed to the people
that they were listening to their own
thinking aloud" and when he got
ready to move they were always, as his
speeches and messages indicate. makes
known his views and expects the peo-
pie to shout "Amen!" The last elec-
ton was no doubt a big shout for the
President, but its echoes will hardly
last through his term if he goes on q:
he has begun.-Exchange