A copy of it was presented to Whittier, who wrote
concerning it: "It was never my privilege to know Abraham Lincoln
personally, and the various pictures have more or less failed to
satisfy my conception of him. They might be, and probably were, what
are called 'good likenesses,' so far as outline and detail were
concerned; but to me they always seemed to lack one great essential of
a true portrait,--the informing spirit of the man within. This I find
in Marshall's portrait. The old harsh lines and unmistakable mouth are
there, without flattery or compromise; but over all and through all
the pathetic sadness, the wise simplicity and tender humanity of the
man are visible. It is the face of the speaker at Gettysburg, and the
writer of the second inaugural."
It was during this year, also, that the "Tent on the Beach" was
written. He had said again and again in his notes that he had this
work in hand, but always declared he was far too ill to finish it
during the year. Nevertheless, in the last days of December the
package was forwarded to his publisher. "Tell me," he wrote, "if thee
object to the personal character of it. I have represented thee and
Bayard Taylor and myself living a wild tent life for a few summer days
on the beach, where, for lack of something better, I read my stories
to the others. My original plan was the old 'Decameron' one, each
personage to read his own poems; but the thing has been so hackneyed
by repetition that I abandoned it in disgust, and began anew.
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