President Lincoln had an early political rival named Edwin Stanton. He called Lincoln the original gorilla. When Lincoln was elected President he chose Stanton to be his secretary of war because he believed he was the best man for the job. At Lincoln’s funeral Stanton said, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.”

President Lincoln had learned not to take insults personally.

Source: Abraham Lincoln: the Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Michael Burlingame, John George Nicolay, John Hay; and Personal Recollections of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman, Grenville Mellen Dodge