Whom did Lincoln admire?

[LincolnMan]

(03-25-2019 09:49 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(03-25-2019 06:27 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  I would add Burns to the list as Abraham Lincoln even directly expressed his admiration:.

"...at the annual banquet of the capital’s Burns Club in January 1865, he replied: 'I cannot frame a toast to Burns. I can say nothing worthy of his generous heart and transcending genius. Thinking of what he has said, I cannot say anything which seems worth saying.' " (Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume VII, p. 237)
 

LINCOLN had been invited to attend the annual celebration of the Burns Club of Washington in 1864 (Robert Crawford to Lincoln, January 23, 1864).

Alexander Williamson, a clerk in the Second Auditor's Office who had tutored Willie and Tad Lincoln, wrote again on January 24, 1865:

"The Executive Committee of Management for the Celebration of the 106th Anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns' have instructed me as their Secretary to request the honor of your recognition of the genius of Scotland's bard, by either a toast, a sentiment, or in any other way you may deem proper. It takes place tomorrow.''

The Washington Evening Star of January 26, 1865, reported the meeting of the Burns Club on the previous evening:

Mr. Williamson, remarking that the President's pressing duties had prevented him writing a letter or a toast in response to the invitation to be present . . . read a hastily written memorandum which the President had sent him, in substance as follows:

"I cannot now frame a toast to Burns or say to you aught worthy of his most generous heart and transcending genius.''

I always recall Robert Burns' lines from Ode to a Mountain Daisy in this regard:

Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.

I would observe that I do not believe anyone can top the toast honoring Robert Burns that Lincoln made:

"I cannot now frame a toast to Burns or say to you aught worthy of his most generous heart and transcending genius. Thinking of what he has said, I cannot say anything which seems worth saying."

[I combined the two source quotes.]

Wow! That is awesome. I have never heard anyone offer such a toast in such a non toast way!