Whitman was preëminently manly,--richly endowed with the universal,
healthy human qualities and attributes. Mr. Conway relates that when
Emerson handed him the first thin quarto edition of "Leaves of Grass,"
while he was calling at his house in Concord, soon after the book
appeared, he said, "Americans abroad may now come home: unto us a man is
born."
President Lincoln, standing one day during the war before a window in the
White House, saw Whitman slowly saunter by. He followed him with his
eyes, and, turning, said to those about him, "Well, _he_ looks like a
_man_."
"Meeter of savage and gentleman on equal terms."
During Whitman's Western tour in 1879 or '80, at some point in Kansas, in
company with several well-known politicians and government officials, he
visited a lot of Indians who were being held as prisoners. The sheriff
told the Indians who the distinguished men were who were about to see
them, but the Indians paid little attention to them as, one after the
other, the officials and editors passed by them. Behind all came Whitman.
The old chief looked at him steadily, then extended his hand and said,
"How!" All the other Indians followed, surrounding Whitman, shaking his
hand and making the air melodious with their "Hows." The incident
evidently pleased the old poet a good deal.