Opening paragraphs...........................

     The subject of this memoir is revered by multitudes of his countrymen as the preserver of their commonwealth.  This reverence has grown with the lapse of time and the accumulation of evidence.  It is blended with a peculiar affection, seldom bestowed upon the memory of statesmen.  It is shared today by many who remember with no less affection how their own fathers fought against him.  He died with every circumstance of tragedy, yet it is not the accident of his death but the purpose of his life that is remembered.

-Lord Charnwood,  Abraham Lincoln:  A Complete Biography