" "The Chief Magistrate derives
all his authority from the people." "Why should there not be a
patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there
any better or any equal hope in the world?"
These sentences were utterances of a faith within him. In the people
he had faith. He saw them only lower than the King of kings, and they
were to be trusted and obeyed.
Yet this man who thus trusted and honored the people, who so
reverenced their authority, and bowed before their majesty, has been
called "tyrant," "usurper," by men who now would make the world
forget their infamy by putting on badges of woe, and who seek to wash
out the record of their slander by such tears as crocodiles shed! Out
upon the miserable dissemblers!
When the people had spoken, he bowed to their mandate. When it
became necessary to anticipate their decision, he did so, calmly
trusting their integrity and intelligence. He considered their wishes
in the constitution of his cabinet, in the choice of military
commanders, in the appointment of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and in the measures he recommended to Congress.
The people proved worthy of the trust. They promptly took every loan
asked for the relief of the treasury and sustained the national
credit. They answered all his calls for men. They sprang into the
ranks, shouting
"We are coming, Father Abraham.
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