He always did the thing he could best do.

He did the thing that most needed to be done, the thing most effective at the time, the thing that no other man did or could do.

He left to others to do what hundreds of others could do well enough.

He contributed largely to the Government of his country, in the most trying period of our history, its motive and its direction.

That is a pretty practical contribution to the voyage which furnishes to the steamship its engine and its compass.