The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-02-09

so as to tighten his discontinue, 7
abused him, as being the cause of his
and his friends undoing.
And can never forget the sad
and spiritless way in which he de-
Tended himself from my attacks. We
sat together in the cheerless, dismal
office till after dark, when he went
with me to my hotel, and, in fact, re-
NAMED with me till late hour he
said with bitterness: Il expect every
one to desert me.
Mr.. Lincoln was model citizen, In
the sense of being citizen of the
whole State, and ultimately Of the
whole Nation, although, at the outset
of his career, his Affiliations were
purely local and quadrated with
Sangamon alone. Yet, with larger
experiences, his social and political
horizon expanded and enlarged, and
he was no more intimately in touch
with the people of Springfield or
Sangamon County than with those of
Logan or Champaign. He deemed
himself to be as much obligated to
the people of any other village in the
bestowment of official or other favors
as to those at his immediate home.
And In his entire administration at
Washington it was, in principle, the
same; he really wanted a Cabinet
Minister-Ju dd-from his own State,
but he considered that his State had
had enough consideration in his own
election. He had no more regard, in
! the matter of executive favors, for
Illinois than for Maine Geograph-
ical propinquity and social propin-
guilty had no alliance in his mind;
/ his social area embraced the whole
State and ultimately the entire Ma
ton. His field was the world He
dwelt in principles and institutions.
To him men were but agents or
media, to originate, promulgate or
enforce principles, and mans local
| ity had naught to do with his eff
ficiency in that respect; and the acme
and high-water mark of such social
pastimes as he allowed himself was
achieved on the circuit with the
"boys" Gas we we're called) during
court-time.
This catholicity (as contradistir
guished i pm anything specially of as
ISOLATION and consequent failure to
localize his social and political at
| tachments, will serve to explain, in
some sort, the lack of that ardent
sympathy for him at home which
sometimes land especially on election
day in November, 1860 cropped out.
| The bitterness of partisan politics,
especially on the part of those who
deemed his anti-slavery sentiments
as recusant to the land of his fathers,
aided this feeling, and his omission
to recognize his home neighbors suf-
| ficiently in the distribution of Fed
eral offices all combined to engender q
considerable social alienation, and
prevented him from being, as abb
stractly and on his individual merits
he would have been, an ideally popu-
lar citizen. Not that he was unpop-
| ular, but he should have been poph
lar to the verge of enthusiasm, as
| he was when news of the location OF
the capital at Springfield reached the
then insignificant little village.
He was a most rigid supporter OF
all laws, those which were conven.
tional and unimportant, as well as
those which were vital; paid his
debts and taxes promptly; did not
allow his little real estate to get on
the delinquent list, nor violate OF
omit any other political duty. He
drank no liquor at any period of his
life and did not visit saloon Gal.
though it was lawyer-like habit tc
do sol on any pretense whatever;
neither did he obtrude advice or
pertinacious temperance lecture on
those who did so. We were once in.
F., yited to visit a primitive vineyard in
Vermiilion County, and to taste the
several varieties of homemade wine
1t affected no one hut Lincoln, but il
did affect him: "Fellers, I'm getting
drunk, said he, comically.