“They saw a tall, powerful man whose grand face overlooked them all; whose voice was kindly, who greeted every one with dignity and a courteous propriety of expression which surprised his friends,” wrote Vermont delegate Lucius E. Chittenden, the official keeper of Peace Convention records. Now and then a delegate would ask Lincoln a pointed question tinged with “a slight contemptuous disrespect,” Chittenden recalled. “Then his stature seemed to grow loftier, and there was a ring to his voice and flash from his eyes which discouraged a repetition of the experiment.”
