He smiled at the notion, said that
it was inconsistent with his natural character, and that it implied
foresight and dexterity beyond what any mortal is endowed with. I think
so too; but nevertheless, I was long and long ago aware that he cherished
a very high ambition, and that, though he might not anticipate the
highest things, he cared very little about inferior objects. Then as to
plans, I do not think that he had any definite ones; but there was in him
a subtle faculty, a real instinct, that taught him what was good for
him,--that is to say, promotive of his political success,--and made him
inevitably do it. He had a magic touch, that arranged matters with a
delicate potency, which he himself hardly recognized; and he wrought
through other minds so that neither he nor they always knew when and how
far they were under his influence. Before his nomination for the
Presidency I had a sense that it was coming, and it never seemed to me an
accident. He is a most singular character; so frank, so true, so
immediate, so subtle, so simple, so complicated.
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