Lincoln brought to the Presidency the strongest personality that has ever adorned the highest trust of the nation. It is studied with increased interest as time passes onward in its flight, and it is worthy of extended notice here. I had not met Lincoln personally until after his election. I had attended the Chicago convention as chairman of the State committee along with Curtin, and bore some humble part in aiding the nomination of Lincoln; and my correspondence with him during the campaign would have made one of the most interesting of Lincoln relics, but unfortunately the letters were destroyed when Chambersburg, including my own house, was burnt by General McCausland. Pennsylvania was the battle ground, and he naturally tried to keep in close touch with it. His letters were always kind and hopeful, sometimes quaint, and always going directly to the point of winning the State. He communicated with me every week from the time I opened headquarters early in June until after the election, and I prized more highly the Lincoln correspondence of that struggle than any of all the many valued letters I have ever received. I think it safe to say that he was as familiar with the details of the contest in Pennsylvania as I was myself, and knew every element of strength and every element of weakness in our lines. He was never enthusiastic or sentimental, but always thoroughly practical, with occasional flashes of his exquisite Western humor. After such intercourse with Lincoln, lasting from the beginning to the close of the great battle of his life, I of course had formed what I supposed to be an intelligent and accurate estimate of the character and attributes of the man, but I never had a glimpse of the grandeur of Lincoln’s character until I met him personally at his home in Springfield on the 3d of January, 1861. A contest over the appointment of Cameron to the Cabinet, in which I took part, in opposition to Cameron, made Lincoln telegraph me on the 2d of January to visit him at Springfield. I was then a member of the Senate; the Legislature was just about to meet, and I made as hurried a trip as possible. I reached Springfield about seven o’clock on the evening of the 3d, having telegraphed him in advance that I would arrive at that hour and must return at eleven. I went from the depot directly to his house, and when I rang the bell the door was opened by Lincoln himself, and I saw no other person during my stay.