Lincoln's peculiar service to his countrymen before the war was that of seeing straighter and thinking harder than did his contemporaries.

No doubt he must needs have courage, also, for in the beginning he acted against the advice of his Republican associates.

But in 1858 there were plenty of men who had the courage, whereas there were very few who had Lincoln's disciplined intelligence and his just and penetrating insight.

Lincoln's vision placed every aspect of the situation in its proper relations; and he was as fully competent to detect the logical weakness of his opponent's position as he was to explain his own lucidly, candidly, and persuasively.

It so happened that the body of public opinion which he particularly addressed was that very part of the American democracy most likely to be deluded into allowing the Southern leaders to have their will, yet whose adhesion to the national cause was necessary to the preservation of the Union.