During that session, some observers felt that Lincoln had achieved little. Stuart recalled that Lincoln “was the author of no special or general act” and that he “had no organizing power.” John Moses reported that Lincoln “arose in his place and spoke briefly on two or three occasions, without giving any special promise, however, of ability as a debater or speaker. He seemed rather to be feeling his way, and taking the measure of the rising men around him.” Lincoln did virtually nothing to implement the three main proposals of his 1832 platform: expanding public education, improving navigation of the Sangamon, and curbing high interest rates. Usher F. Linder said that “if he won any fame at that season I have never heard of it.” In 1835, upon meeting Lincoln for the first time, Linder found him “very modest and retiring,” “good-natured, easy, unambitious, of plain good sense, and unobtrusive in his manners,” resembling “a quiet, unassuming farmer.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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