...Back in 1849, at age of twenty-four, I first met Abraham Lincoln, he being then forty-one. Ever afterward as I sat at his feet, as Saul of Tarsus sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and was permitted, as we walked together the journey of life, 'To lean on his own great arm for support.' I watched his thoughtful face when the news first reached him that he had received a large vote for vice-president at Philadelphia when Fremont and Dayton were nominated, and when the thought of great political preferment first took root in his mind. I know from this intimate relation how confidence and sympathy may exist between a great leader and the people without either knowing the other. I can never forget how in moments of great doubt he agonized, watched and listened for tokens of guidance from the common people, as the mariner watches the sun, to learn where he is and whither he is drifting, through the darkness and mist of the storm.
Leonard Swett, nominating Walter Q. Gresham for president in 1888.
Proceedings of the Ninth Republican National Convention, pg. 115.
Swett drew parallels between Gresham and Lincoln, arguing that neither man actively sought the presidency, but that each was ambitious. Gresham was known as a climber.