TOO BUSY TO HATE
If biography and history teach us anything, it is that great men have almost always refused to poison their spirits with vindictiveness and hate. Abraham Lincoln amazed the nation by putting into his Cabinet his foremost political enemies. As Secretary of War he chose Stanton, who had characterized him as a clown and gorilla. He made Seward Secretary of State, knowing that Seward regarded himself as much the abler man. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, used his Cabinet influence to promote his own chances for the presidential nomination. It meant nothing to Lincoln so long as Chase kept the confidence of the country, and did his work well. When McClellan snubbed him brutally, and Lincoln was urged to replace him, he replied: “I will hold McClellan’s horse if only he will give us victories.” Disraeli had the same calm superiority to personal resentments. During his short tenure of power in 1868, he granted a pension to the children of…
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