Encounters
''chaplain'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜_encounter｜ENC｜20260904172645-48-•
A chaplain observing a review thought that Lincoln cut a ludicrous figure, for it seemed “as though every moment the Presidential limbs would become entangled with those of the horse he rode and both come down together, while his arms were apparently subject to similar mishaps. That arm with which he drew the rein, in its angles and position, resembled the hind leg of a grasshopper—the hand before—the elbow away back over the horse’s tail. The removal of his hat before each regiment was also a source of laughter in the style of its execution—the quick trot of the horse making it a feat of some difficulty, while, from the same cause, his hold on it, while off, seemed very precarious.” And yet “the boys liked him, in fact his popularity in the army is and has been universal. Many of our rulers and leaders fall into odium but all have faith in Lincoln. ‘When he finds it out,’ they say, ‘it will be stopped.’ ” Shortly after the review, a Massachusetts soldier wrote that “Abraham Lincoln has acted the part of a Wise Man. No one man in this Country has so many supporters as Old Abe. … Let Abraham Lincoln say the Word, then let every man, wither Abolishionists, Proslaverites, Fanatics, Radicals, Moderates or Conservatives of whatever Party or Distinction, hold up both hands and with one unanimous voice say Amen.” Lincoln’s paternal streak led him to call the troops “my boys.” They in turn regarded him as a benevolent father.
Source: Abraham Lincoln∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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''rhetoric'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜_encounter｜ENC｜20260904172645-53-•
Lincoln disappointed some by failing to offer confidence-inspiring rhetoric. The following day an Illinoisan told him: “you ought to take a stronger stand. The nation expects you to. You are looked up to with confidence. Rouse the soul of the people.” Others praised Lincoln’s impromptu speech extravagantly. Whitelaw Reid called it “remarkable, alike for the courageous assumption of unpopular responsibility, and for the characteristic honesty with which he refrained from boastful promises and stirring declarations that the war should now soon be ended.” Reid could think of “no more striking scene” in “all the history of the Republic.” Rhetorically he asked: “Was ever the ruler of a great people, in a moment when his personal popularity was so flatteringly brought home to him by his people, known voluntarily to assume, without special necessity therefor, such popular odium as the President honestly sought to transfer from the Secretary [of War] to himself?” Reporters noted that the crowd “was delighted with the manly manner in which the President assumed the whole responsibility in the Stanton-McClellan imbroglio.” The Providence Journal lauded the president’s “straightforward manliness and homely common sense,” and Erastus Brooks, a partisan Democratic journalist, wrote that by such “frank confessions, which are often more generous to others than just to himself, the President draws friends around him, and makes many friends of those, who have been warm opponents of his policy, principles and his election.” Lincoln’s profound magnanimity would continue to win him respect and affection.
Source: Abraham Lincoln∶ A Life ▫𓂃
Link to original