CIVIL WARS
says a member of his cabinet, "he remarked that he had made a vow—a covenant—that if God gave us the victory in the approaching battle, he would consider it an indication of divine will, and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation." So, having gained something like a victory, he kept his vow and issued the proclamation.
Both men, therefore, in spite of formal differences of expression, agreed in their attitude, each striving to see what the fact was and to interpret its meaning, not seeking to impose his own plan as if it were inspired, but accepting with a wise opportunism the guidance of events. "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess that events have controlled me," said Lincoln[1], just as Cromwell confessed that he had risen without knowing where he was going, and "seen nothing in these dispensations long beforehand."
Where Lincoln was superior to Cromwell was in the possession of a calmer and more balanced judgment. He subjected his own
- ↑ Nicolay and Hay, vi. 160; Rhodes, iii. 343, 423.
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