Once hearing me make some slighting remark of the Great Commoner, my father, a life-long Democrat, who, on opposing sides, had served in Congress with Mr.Clay, gently rebuked me.

"Do not express such opinions, my son," he said, "they discredit yourself.

Mr.Clay was a very great man--a born leader of men." It was certainly he, more than any other man, who held the Union together until the time arrived for Lincoln to save it.
I made no such mistake, however, with respect to Abraham Lincoln.

From the first he appeared to me a great man, a born leader of men.

His death proved a blow to the whole country--most of all to the Southern section of it.