with a familiar example, hitting the nail squarely on the head and
driving it home, and they called him a buffoon. Big wigs and little wigs
were agreed that he lowered the dignity of debate; as if debates were
intended to mystify, and not to clarify truth. Yet he went on and on,
and never backward, until his time was come, when his genius, fully
developed, rose to the great exigencies intrusted to his hands. Where
did he get his style? Ask Shakespeare and Burns where they got their
style. Where did he get his grasp upon affairs and his knowledge of men?
Ask the Lord God who created miracles in Luther and Bonaparte!

What was the mysterious power of this mysterious man, and whence?

His was the genius of common sense; of common sense in action; of common
sense in thought; of common sense enriched by experience and unhindered
by fear. "He was a common man," says his friend Joshua Speed, "expanded
into giant proportions; well acquainted with the people, he placed his
hand on the beating pulse of the nation, judged of its disease, and was
ready with a remedy." Inspired he was truly, as Shakespeare was
inspired; as Mozart was inspired; as Burns was inspired; each, like him,
sprung directly from the people.

I look into the crystal globe that, slowly turning, tells the story of
his life, and I see a little heart broken boy, weeping by the
outstretched form of a dead mother, then bravely, nobly trudging a
hundred miles to obtain her Christian burial. I see this motherless lad
growing to manhood amid the scenes that seem to lead to nothing but
abasement; no teachers; no books; no chart, except his own untutored
mind; no compass, except his own undisciplined will; no light, save
light from Heaven; yet, like the caravel of Columbus, struggling on and
on through the trough of the sea, always toward the destined land. I see
the full-grown man, stalwart and brave, an athlete in activity of
movement and strength of limb, yet vexed by weird dreams and visions; of
life, of love, of religion, sometimes verging on despair. I see the
mind, grown as robust as the body, throw off these phantoms of the
imagination and give itself wholly to the work-a-day uses of the world;
the rearing of children; the earning of bread; the multiplied duties of
life. I see the party leader, self-confident in conscious rectitude;
original, because it was not his nature to follow; potent, because he
was fearless, pursuing his convictions with earnest zeal, and