I leave to other and abler pens the proper estimate of ABRAHAM LINCOLN
as a ruler and statesman,--his work and place in history. Favored
during the year 1864 with several months of personal intercourse
with him, I shall attempt in these pages to write the story of that
association; not for any value which the record will have in itself,
but for the glimpses it may afford of the person and character of the
man,--every detail of whose life is now invested with enduring interest
for the American people.