The conversations he had and the
correspondence he carried on upon matters of public interest, not only
with men in official position, but with private citizens, were almost
unceasing, and in a large number of public letters, written ostensibly to
meetings, or committees, or persons of importance, he addressed himself
directly to the popular mind. Most of these letters stand among the
finest monuments of our political literature. Thus he presented the
singular spectacle of a President who, in the midst of a great civil war,
with unprecedented duties weighing upon him, was constantly in person
debating the great features of his policy with the people.
While in this manner he exercised an ever-increasing influence upon the
popular understanding, his sympathetic nature endeared him more and more
to the popular heart. In vain did journals and speakers of the
opposition represent him as a lightminded trifler, who amused himself
with frivolous story-telling and coarse jokes, while the blood of the
people was flowing in streams. The people knew that the man at the head
of affairs, on whose haggard face the twinkle of humor so frequently
changed into an expression of profoundest sadness, was more than any
other deeply distressed by the suffering he witnessed; that he felt the
pain of every wound that was inflicted on the battlefield, and the
anguish of every woman or child who had lost husband or father; that
whenever he could he was eager to alleviate sorrow, and that his mercy
was never implored in vain.
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