soil." His great main interest was in keeping to the front that fundamental principle in the struggle which was being made to preserve the integrity of the Nation.

There was another political convention held that same year in Cleveland, Ohio. It was made up of those who desired to nominate some northern man who would be able to defeat Lincoln at the polls. It was a mixed assemblage. The John C. Fremont men were all there. The Peaceat-any-price Party was well represented. The German radicals from St. Louis, under the leadership of B. Gratz Brown, were on hand. The Convention made a great deal of noise and the Democratic papers of the time affected to treat it with the utmost seriousness and dignity.

The delegates had a great deal to say about "the tyrant Lincoln." They denounced him for his unconstitutional acts. They adopted a good many strenuous resolutions. During the Convention this

resolution

was
was introduced,-"Resolved,

That we insist upon putting down the Rebellion at once." One pious delegate moved to amend it by inserting these words, "with God's assistance." This, however, was voted down with boisterous demonstrations of disapproval. They wanted no help from any quarter whatsoever. Then, after having denounced Lincoln repeatedly for being unconstitutional, they proceeded to nominate for President John C. Fremont and for Vice-President a man who came from the same state, apparently forgetting that the Constitution of the United States expressly prohibits the electors of any state from casting their votes for a President and a Vice-President, both of whom shall come from the same state as themselves. Then having done this unconstitutional thing they adjourned.

The people saw at once the futility of it all. Fremont had the good sense to with

draw his name.

And very speedily the

whole force of the opposition there ex

pressed faded out. But if Lincoln had allowed himself to be side-tracked by some minor issue; if he had anchored to anything less than the great main fact in that heart-breaking struggle, his first four years in the White House might have resulted in failure. He might not have been renominated or reëlected in 1864. And the whole history of our country for the last fifty years might have been a story of tragic disappointment.

His political sagacity had in it the quality of the X-ray. He could see all the way in and all the way through, and all the way down. Deep underneath the ruffling and the millinery which rested upon the surface of society in those days; deep within the warm throbbing flesh of popular feeling, he saw the solid backbone, the skeleton of political principle which alone would hold the Republic upright. And

with that he cast in his lot. I would name, therefore, as the second element in his greatness his power of comprehending and in the end of utilizing men of extreme views by keeping to the front the deeper underlying principles.

The third element I would name would be his ability to keep close to the hearts of the people in sympathetic fashion and yet lead them steadily in those lines of action which he desired them to take. It was James Russell Lowell, in his essay on Lincoln, who said that there was "a certain tone of familiar dignity, a kind of fireside plainness" about the man not only in his conversation and in his speeches but even in his state papers. He did not have the air of a man who was laying down the law to the country. He showed, rather, the attitude of one who was taking the whole country into his confidence and talking matters over with it as one neigh

bor might discuss the questions of the day over the back fence with his neighbor. His word was ever "Come, now, let us reason together about this matter."

He respected the people too much to bully them. He respected the people too much to flatter them. There was in him nothing of the demagogue. He reasoned with them in serious fashion and in confident expectation that the same considerations which had persuaded his mind would persuade theirs. In that way he gathered to himself their consent and approval. On the day that he died I suppose he was the most absolute ruler in Christendom. Never a Czar of all the Russias had such power over his people as Abraham Lincoln had over the loyal people of this land.

Now that is leadership of the highest type. The finest quality of leadership, whether it be in ward politics, or in a Woman's Club, or in a baseball nine, is