FREEDOM IN THE CABINET.
Secretary Usher relates some interesting facts.
"I was in the Cabinet somewhat more than two years. It was very ill-assorted. There was hardly ever such a thing as a regular cabinet meeting in the sense of form. Under Johnson and Grant the chairs were placed in regular order around the table. Nothing of the kind ever occurred in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Seward would come in and lie down on a settee. Stanton hardly ever stayed more than five or ten minutes. Sometimes Seward would tell the president the outline of some paper he was writing on a State matter. Lincoln generally stood up and walked about. In fact every member of the Cabinet ran his own department in his own way. I don't suppose that such a historic period was ever so simply operated. Lincoln trusted all his subordinates and they worked out their own performances."
A GREAT MAN.
He was one of the greatest men who ever lived. It has now been many years since I was in his Cabinet and some of the things which happened there have been forgotten, and the whole of it is rather dreamy. But Lincoln's extraordinary personality is still one of the most distinct things in my memory. He was as wise as a serpent. He had the skill of the greatest statesman in the world. Everything he handled came to success. Nobody took up his work and brought it to the same perfection.
A FORGIVING MAN.
That Mr. Lincoln was not only kind-hearted, but forgiving, is shown by his treatment of the secession leaders. He never spoke unkindly of them, including even Jefferson Davis, who caused so much of the trouble. Some at the close of the war said: "Do not let Davis escape. He must be hanged." To which Mr. Lincoln replied: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." When he was assassinated he was planning pardon and kind treatment for those who were defeated in the rebellion.