This was the state of things to be mastered by “honest Abe Lincoln” when he took his seat in the Presidential chair,—­“honest Abe Lincoln,” who was so good-natured that he could not say “no”; the greatest achievement in whose life had been a debate on the slavery question; who had never been in any position of power; who was without the slightest experience of high executive duties, and who had only a speaking acquaintance with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend.  Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted with general confidence even by the members of his party.  While he had indeed won much popularity, many Republicans, especially among those who had advocated Seward’s nomination for the Presidency, saw the simple “Illinois lawyer” take the reins of government with a feeling little short of dismay.  The orators and journals of the opposition were ridiculing and lampooning him without measure.  Many people actually wondered how such a man could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to his neighbors in his parting speech, was “more difficult than that of Washington himself had been.”

But Lincoln brought to that task, aside from other uncommon qualities, the first requisite,—­an intuitive comprehension of its nature.  While he did not indulge in the delusion that the Union could be maintained or restored without a conflict of arms, he could indeed not foresee all the problems he would have to solve.  He instinctively understood, however, by what means that conflict would have to be conducted by the government of a democracy.  He knew that the impending war, whether great or small, would not be like a foreign war, exciting a united national enthusiasm, but a civil war, likely to fan to uncommon heat the animosities of party even in the localities controlled by the government; that this war would have to be carried on not by means of a ready-made machinery, ruled by an undisputed, absolute will, but by means to be furnished by the voluntary action of the people:—­armies to be formed by voluntary enlistments; large sums of money to be raised by the people, through representatives, voluntarily taxing themselves; trust of extraordinary power to be voluntarily granted; and war measures, not seldom restricting the rights and liberties to which the citizen was accustomed, to be voluntarily accepted and submitted to by the people, or at least a large majority of them; and that this would have to be kept up not merely during a short period of enthusiastic excitement; but possibly through weary years of alternating success and disaster, hope and despondency.  He knew that in order to steer this government by public opinion successfully through all the confusion created by the prejudices and doubts and differences of sentiment distracting the popular mind, and so to propitiate, inspire, mould, organize, unite, and guide the popular will that it might give forth all the means required for the performance of his great task, he would have to take into account all the influences strongly affecting the current of popular thought and feeling, and to direct while appearing to obey.