McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, April, 1896Various
History
McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, April, 1896
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
[Transcriber's Note: The following is handwritten beneath the
photograph: "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hands I accepted
the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago. Washington, D.C.
October 5, 1861 A. Lincoln"]
[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES.
From a painting. William Henry Harrison was born at Berkeley,
Virginia, February 9, 1773. He was educated at Hampden Sidney College,
and began to study medicine, but, excited by Indian outrages, gave it
up to enter the army. He was sent against the Indians of the West, and
at once distinguished himself. After peace was made in 1798, he was
appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799 he was a
territorial delegate to Congress, and from 1801 to 1813, territorial
governor of Indiana. In the war of 1812 he gained the battles of
Tippecanoe and the Thames. From 1816 to 1819 he was a delegate to
Congress from Ohio; from 1825 to 1828, a United State Senator; and in
1828 and 1829, United States Minister to Colombia. In 1836 he was the
Whig candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated. Four years
later (1840) he was elected, but lived for only one month after his
inauguration.]
"Mr. Lincoln stood in a wagon, from which he addressed the mass of
people that surrounded it. The meeting was one of unusual interest
because of him who was to make the principal address. It was at the
time of his greatest physical strength. He was tall, and perhaps a
little more slender than in later life, and more homely than after he
became stouter in person. He was then only thirty-one years of age,
and yet he was regarded as one of the ablest of the Whig speakers in
that campaign. There was that in him that attracted and held public
attention. Even then he was the subject of popular regard because of
his candid and simple mode of discussing and illustrating political
questions. At times he was intensely logical, and was always most
convincing in his arguments. The questions involved in that canvass
had relation to the tariff, internal public improvements by the
federal government, the distribution of the proceeds of the sales
of public lands among the several States, and other questions
that divided the political parties of that day. They were not such
questions as enlisted and engaged his best thoughts; they did not take
hold of his great nature, and had no tendency to develop it. At times
he discussed the questions of the time in a logical way, but much
time was devoted to telling stories to illustrate some phase of his
argument, though more often the telling of these stories was resorted
to for the purpose of rendering his opponents ridiculous. That was a
style of speaking much appreciated at that early day. In that kind
of oratory he excelled most of his contemporaries--indeed, he had no
equals in the State. One story he told on that occasion was full of
salient points, and well illustrated the argument he was making. It
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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