It is rather strange to
recall that throughout the relations of the two men, it was the trained
and scholarly statesman of the East who had to be repressed for unwise
truculency and that the repression was done under the direction of the
comparatively inexperienced representative of the West, the man who had
been dreaded by the conservative Republicans of New York as likely to
introduce into the national policy "wild and woolly" notions.
In Lincoln's first message to Congress, he asks the following question:
"Must a government be of necessity too strong for the liberties of its
own people or too weak to maintain its own existence? Is there in all
republics this inherent weakness?" The people of the United States were
able under the wise leadership of Lincoln to answer this question "no."
Lincoln begins at once with the public utterances of the first year of
the War to take the people of the United States into his confidence. He
is their representative, their servant. He reasons out before the
people, as if it constituted a great jury, the analysis of their
position, of their responsibilities, and the grounds on which as their
representative this or that decision is arrived at. Says Schurz:
"Lincoln wielded the powers of government when stern resolution and
relentless force were the order of the day, and, won and ruled the
popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his nature.
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