LINCOLN’S SOLITUDE
In the oration he delivered at the unveiling of the stately memorial built around the lowly birthplace cabin of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky, President Woodrow Wilson said: “I have read many biographies of Lincoln, I have sought out with the greatest interest the many intimate stories that are told of him, the narratives of nearby friends, and sketches at close quarters, in which those who had the privilege of being associated with him have tried to depict for us the very man himself . . . but I have nowhere found a real intimate of Lincoln’s. That brooding spirit had no real familiars . . . It was a very lonely spirit that looked out from underneath those shaggy brows and comprehended men without full communing . . . In spite of all its genial efforts at comradeship, it dwelt apart, saw its visions of duty where no man looked on.”
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