He is evidently a man of keen faculties, and,
what is still more to the purpose, of powerful character. As to his
integrity, the people have that intuition of it which is never deceived.
Before he actually entered upon his great office, and for a considerable
time afterwards, there is no reason to suppose that he adequately
estimated the gigantic task about to be imposed on him, or, at least, had
any distinct idea how it was to be managed; and I presume there may have
been more than one veteran politician who proposed to himself to take the
power out of President Lincoln's hands into his own, leaving our honest
friend only the public responsibility for the good or ill success of the
career. The extremely imperfect development of his statesmanly
qualities, at that period, may have justified such designs. But the
President is teachable by events, and has now spent a year in a very
arduous course of education; he has a flexible mind, capable of much
expansion, and convertible towards far loftier studies and activities
than those of his early life; and if he came to Washington a backwoods
humorist, he has already transformed himself into as good a statesman (to
speak moderately) as his prime-minister.
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