Mr.
Lincoln's expectation when he announced to the world that all slaves in
all States then in rebellion were set free must have been that the avowed
position of his government, that the continuance of the war now meant the
annihilation of slavery, would make intervention impossible for any
foreign nation whose people were lovers of liberty--and so the result
proved.
The growth and development of Lincoln's mental power and moral force, of
his intense and magnetic personality, after the vast responsibilities of
government were thrown upon him at the age of fifty-two, furnish a rare
and striking illustration of the marvellous capacity and adaptability of
the human intellect--of the sound mind in the sound body. He came to the
discharge of the great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no
experience in the administration of government, or of the vastly varied
and complicated questions of foreign and domestic policy which
immediately arose, and continued to press upon him during the rest of his
life; but he mastered each as it came, apparently with the facility of a
trained and experienced ruler.
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