Lincoln was denounced and insulted by some of the very men he had appointed to positions of high power-men like McClellan, Seward, Stanton, and Chase. Yet Lincoln believed, according to Herndon, his law partner, that “No man was to be eulogised for what he did; or censured for what he did or did not do,” because “all of us are the children of conditions, of circumstances, of environment, of education, of acquired habits and of heredity moulding men as they are and will for ever be.” Perhaps Lincoln was right. If you and I had inherited the same physical, mental, and emotional characteristics
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Lincoln's Philosophy
