CHARACTERISTICS OF LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln
(Library of Congress)

[Editor's Note - This is the second in a series of excerpts from

“ABRAHAM LINCOLN AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE R, E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans, AT RICHMOND, VA., ON OCTOBER 29TH, 1909, BY HON. GEORGE L. CHRISTIAN.” which is in response to Steven Spielberg's movie, "Lincoln," which is a very one sided view, and historically very debatable, presentation.]

CHARACTERISTICS OF LINCOLN.

          Of course, within the limits of this paper, we shall make no attempt to do more than to give some glimpses of the true character, characteristics and conduct of Mr. Linclon, nor shall we attempt to follow his biographers in their details of the career and conduct of this enigmatical man.

Ward Lamon
(Library of Congress)

          [Ward Hill] Lamon says he was "morbid, moody, meditative, thinking much of himself, and the things pertaining to himself, regarding other men as instruments furnished to hand for the accomplishment of views which he knew were important to him, and therefore considered important to the public. Mr. Lincoln was a man apart from the rest of his kind. He seemed to make boon companions of the coarsest men on the list of his acquaintances low, vulgar, unfortunate creatures."

         "It was said that he had no heart that is, no personal attachments warm and strong enough to govern his passions. It was seldom that he praised anybody, and when he did, it was not a rival or an equal in the struggle for popularity and power."

        "No one knew better how to damn with faint praise, or to divide the glory of another by being the first and frankest to acknowledge it." (Lamon, pp. 480-1.)

          "He did nothing out of mere gratitude, and forgot the devotion of his warmest partisans as soon as the occasion for their services passed." Id., p. 482.

         "Notwithstanding his over-weaning ambition, and the breathless eagerness with which he pursued the objects of it, he had not a particle of sympathy with the great mass of his fellow-citizens who were engaged in similar struggles for place." Id., p. 483.

          Now mark you, this is what Lamon, his closest friend, and most ardent admirer, has to say of the "make up" of Mr. Lincoln. Is this the stuff of which the world's great characters, heroes, martyrs, and the exemplars for our children are made? Surely it would seem not, and further comment is deemed unnecessary.