“The illustrious Honest Old Abe has continued during the last week to make a fool of himself and to mortify and shame the intelligent people of this great nation.
His speeches have demonstrated the fact that although originally a Herculean rail splitter and more lately a whimsical story teller and side splitter,
he is no more capable of becoming a statesman, nay, even a moderate one, than the braying ass can become a noble lion.
People now marvel how it came to pass that Mr. Lincoln should have been selected as the representative man of any party.
His weak, wishy-washy, namby-pamby efforts, imbecile in matter, disgusting in manner, have made us the laughing stock of the whole world.
The European powers will despise us because we have no better material out of which to make a President.
The truth is, Lincoln is only a moderate lawyer and in the larger cities of the Union could pass for no more than a facetious pettifogger.
Take him from his vocation and he loses even these small characteristics and indulges in simple twaddle which would disgrace a well bred school boy.”
https://www.civilwar.org/learn/articles/evidence-unpopular-mr-lincoln
Reading the rest of that article, you could take Lincoln’s name and replace it with Trump and you’d have a New York Times Editorial piece..............