29H

LIFE OF OOBDEN. [OBAF.

1868. «October 4,1864. ( ,, )—I should say that as a poli
&r. 59. tician Lincoln is very superior to McClellan, who is 8
professional soldier and nothing more. By the way, Lincoln
stumped Illinois for the Senate in opposition to Douglas
the ablest debater in America after Clay. They travelled
from county town to county town together, and met the same
audience on the same platform in forty or fifty counties, questioning,
 bantering, and exposing each other’s shortcomings:
It is the fashion to underrate Lincoln intellectually in part,
because he illustrates his arguments with amusing anecdotes:
But Franklin was not less given to apologues, and some
of them not of the most refined character. It is quite
certain that an inferior man could never have maintained
such a contest as Lincoln went through with Douglas.
Presidents are apt to fulfil the second term better than the
first. Chase is the strongest man of the Republican party,
and I sincerely hope Lincoln will bring him back to the
Treasury.
“I hope you were pleased with the compliment paid ©8
in California.® There is a poetical sublimity about the ides
of associating our name with a tree 300 feet high and 60
feet girth! Verily it is a monument not built with men’s
hands. If I were twenty years younger I would hope t0
look on these forest giants; great trees and rivers have an
attraction for me.”

Political torpor of the day.
“April 5, 1863. (To Mr. Hargreaves.}—How do you
admire the reception given to the ¢ Feargus O’Connor of
the middle classes’ in Scotland?’ For the Town Councils
and their addresses I can find excuses ; they are privileged
¢ The names of Cobden and Bright were inscribed respectively on tablet?
on two of the giant trees of the Yosemite valley.
? Lord Palmerston was installed as Lord Rector at Glasgow, March 30, and
had a very triumphant reception. See Irvine's Annals of our Time. p. 64%