Lincoln always addresses himself to the reason of the American
people. This was, indeed, a true democrat, who grounded himself
on the assumption that a democracy can think. "Come, let us
reason together about this matter," has been the tone of all his
addresses to the people; and accordingly we have never had a chief
magistrate who so won to himself the love and at the same time the
judgment of his countrymen. To us, that simple confidence of his in
the right-mindedness of his fellowmen is very touching, and its
success is as strong an argument as we have ever seen in favor of
the theory that men can govern themselves. He never appeals to
any vulgar sentiment, he never alludes to the humbleness of his
origin; it probably never occurred to him, indeed, that there was
anything higher to start from than manhood; and he put himself on a
level with those he addressed, not by going down to them, but only
by taking it for granted that they had brains and would come up to
a common ground of reason. In an article lately printed in *The
Nation,* Mr. Bayard Taylor mentions the striking fact, that in the
foulest dens of the Five Points he found the portrait of Lincoln.
The wretched population that makes its hive there threw all its
votes and more against him, and yet paid this instinctive tribute to
the sweet humanity of his nature. Their ignorance sold its vote and
took its money, but all that was left of manhood in them recognized
its saint and martyr.

Mr. Lincoln is not in the habit of saying, "This is *my* opinion, or
*my* theory," but "This is the conclusion to which, in my
judgment, the time has come, and to which, accordingly, the sooner
we come the better for us." His policy has been the policy of public
opinion based on adequate discussion and on a timely recognition
of the influence of passing events in shaping the features of events