His peculiar distinction does not consist in the fact that he was a "Man of the People" who passed from the condition of splitting rails to the condition of being President.

No doubt he was in this respect as good a democrat as you please, and no doubt it was desirable that he should be this kind of a democrat.

But many other Americans could be named who were also men of the people, and who passed from the most insignificant to the most honored positions in American life.

Lincoln's peculiar and permanent distinction as a democrat will depend rather upon the fact that his thoughts and his actions looked towards the realization of the highest and most edifying democratic ideal.

Whatever his theories were, he showed by his general outlook and behavior that democracy meant to him more than anything else the spirit and principle of brotherhood.