No other name has such electric power on every true heart, from Maine
to Mexico, as the name of Lincoln. If Washington is the most revered,
Lincoln is the best loved man that ever trod this continent.
GREATEST CHARACTER SINCE CHRIST BY JOHN HAY, Former Private Secretary to
President Lincoln, and Later Secretary of State in President McKinley’s
Cabinet.
As, in spite of some rudeness, republicanism is the sole hope of a sick
world, so Lincoln, with all his foibles, is the greatest character since
Christ.
STORIES INFORM THE COMMON PEOPLE, BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, United States
Senator from New York.
Mr. Lincoln said to me once: “They say I tell a great many stories; I
reckon I do, but I have found in the course of a long experience that
common people, take them as they run, are more easily informed through
the medium of a broad illustration than in any other way, and as to what
the hypercritical few may think, I don’t care.”
HUMOR A PASSPORT TO THE HEART BY GEO. S. BOUTWELL, Former Secretary of
the United States Treasury.
Mr. Lincoln’s wit and mirth will give him a passport to the thoughts and
hearts of millions who would take no interest in the sterner and more
practical parts of his character.
DROLL, ORIGINAL AND APPROPRIATE. BY ELIHU B. WASHBURNE, Former United
States Minister to France.
Mr. Lincoln’s anecdotes were all so droll, so original, so appropriate
and so illustrative of passing incidents, that one never wearied.
LINCOLN’S HUMOR A SPARKLING SPRING, BY DAVID R. LOCKE (PETROLEUM V.
NASBY), Lincoln’s Favorite Humorist.
Mr. Lincoln’s flow of humor was a sparkling spring, gushing out of a
rock--the flashing water had a somber background which made it all the
brighter.
LIKE AESOP’S FABLES, BY HUGH McCULLOCH, Former Secretary of the United
States Treasury.
Many of Mr. Lincoln’s stories were as apt and instructive as the best of
Aesop’s Fables.
FULL OF FUN, BY GENERAL JAMES B. FRY, Former Adjutant-General United
States Army.
Mr. Lincoln was a humorist so full of fun that he could not keep it all
in.
INEXHAUSTIBLE FUND OF STORIES, BY LAWRENCE WELDON, Judge United States
Court of Claims.
Mr. Lincoln’s resources as a story-teller were inexhaustible, and
no condition could arise in a case beyond his capacity to furnish an
illustration with an appropriate anecdote.
CHAMPION STORY-TELLER, BY BEN. PERLEY POORE, Former Editor of The
Congressional Record.
Mr. Lincoln was recognized as the champion story-teller of the Capitol.