Oh, please. He was practicing the arts of a conqueror, long ago described in Caesar's Commentaries (De Bello Gallico), when he described the deliberate lenity with which he treated defeated Gauls and Germans, which of course was less favorable than the treatment afforded those same people, if they collaborated rather than appealing to the sword. Likewise, he treated his Gaulish allies more favorably still, as he did other Gauls and Germans who were potential tributaries but still independent. It's the same power-and-status game our own politicians play when, e.g., receiving vassals, allies, and independent actors in a formal setting.
Caesar's advice, if it wasn't already vintage then, will have been familiar to every Renaissance princeling and later tyrant like Lincoln, who set himself about the business of gaining command of multitudes on a basis of inequality.
You've used that phrase at least three times now, in reference to men whose boots you couldn't shine, as if they were bank robbers or spree criminals. That's enough of your sneering, thank you.