This article originally appeared in the pages of the Gettysburg Times, in June of 2025. It was penned by Scott Burkett of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, in the hopes of sharing the work the Fellowship does.

“Four score and seven years ago.”

We all know what Abraham Lincoln said, but what did the people who knew him best say about him? Let’s find out.

We’ll start with “Honest Abe”:

“I shall have my hands full. He is the strong man of his party – full of wit, facts, dates – and the best stump speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the west. He is as honest as he is shrewd, and if I beat him my victory will be hardly won.”

• -      Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, upon hearing that Lincoln would be his opponent in Illinois 1858 U.S. Senate race

“Mr. Lincoln … is almost monomaniac on the subject of honesty.”

• -      Mary Todd Lincoln, in a letter to a friend

Lincoln as a leader:

“With all his awkwardness of manner, and disregard of social conventionalities…there was something about Lincoln that enforced respect.”

• -      Don Piatt, soldier and journalist

“In matters of importance, he was firm as a rock.”

• -      John B. Alley, Congressman (R-NY) and friend

“He showed to the world, by his lofty example, that there are times when the voice of partisanship should be hushed, and that of patriotism only be heeded.”

• -      William McKinley, Union officer and 25^th president of the United States.

Lincoln became well known for his connection to the common man:

“The trust which Abraham Lincoln had in himself and in the people was surprising and grand, but it was also enlightened and well founded. He knew the American people better than they knew themselves, and his trust was based on this knowledge.”

- Frederick Douglas, former slave and abolitionist

“Lincoln was the apostle of the common people. No man ever knew the common people better than he, or was closer in sympathy with them. Besides, he was endowed with that best sense – common sense.”

• - Judge Owen T. Reeves, soldier and legal scholar

“The characteristic that struck me most about Lincoln was his superabundance of common sense. He knew people and how to reach them better than any man of his time.”
           -- Chauncey M. Depew, state representative from New York

We conclude with these thoughts on Lincoln:

“In all my interviews with Mr. Lincoln, I was impressed with his entire freedom from popular prejudice against the colored race. I felt as though I was in the presence of a big brother, and that there was safety in his atmosphere.”

- Frederick Douglas, former slave and orator

“I must say, and I am proud to say, that I was never treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than was shown me by the great and good man, Abraham Lincoln.”

• -      Sojourner Truth, former slave and Underground Railroad “conductor”

“You have nominated a very able and honest man.”

• -      Stephen A. Douglas, upon hearing the Republicans had chosen Lincoln in 1860.
• “Today throughout the world, because Lincoln lived, struggled and triumphed, every boy who is in poverty, is despised or discouraged, holds his head a little higher. His heart beats a little faster, his ambition to do something and be something is a little stronger – because Lincoln blazed the way.”
  -- Booker T. Washington, former slave and educator