LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY "w 7ro7roi, rj 8r] fivpt' 3 08v\fs HI TO all the speakers and writers who have ever used, or intend to use, a "Lincoln story," this collection— from which they are hereby invited to borrow (within reason and with acknowledgments)— is respectfully dedicated BIOGRAPHY "No, sir, I've read enough of it. It is like all the others. Biog- raphies, as generally written, are not only misleading but false. The author of that Life of Burke makes a wonderful hero out of his subject. He magnifies his perfections, and suppresses his im- perfections. He is so faithful in his zeal, and so lavish in his praise of his every act, that one is almost driven to believe that Burke never made a mistake or failure in his life. Billy, I've wondered why book publishers and merchants don't have blank biographies on their shelves, ready for an emergency; so that if a man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written, but with blanks. These blanks they can fill up at their pleasure with rosy sentences full of high- sounding praise. In most instances they commemorate a lie, and cheat posterity out of the truth." —Lincoln to William Herndon Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/lincolntalksbiogOOhert INTRODUCTION According to William Herndon, Lincoln was suspicious of the art of biography. It seemed to him that most of its practitioners were more concerned with their own moral prejudices than with the facts from the lives of their subject, and that these facts were therefore always cut to measure, selected for their consonance with a preconceived point of view, and so quite worthless as a descrip- tion of actualities. But this work, too, is a biography, though not in the ordinary sense. It pretends to be no more than a kaleidoscopic presentation of a thousand and one living incidents in Lincoln's career, told by a thousand eyewitnesses. Precisely, however, because each anecdote has come to us refracted through a different point of view, we may hope that in their totality all personal equations will have canceled one another out, "corrected" each other, as the scientists say; and that thus we may possibly approach closer to an objective portrait of Lincoln than we could have done by following the guidance of any one man. Each of these contemporaries naturally treasured his rare mo- ment of contact with Lincoln; I feel, therefore, that their combined testimony offers an opportunity for the expression of as fresh, spontaneous, and urgent a vitality as any one writer might be ex- pected to maintain. Nor perhaps is it driving the point too far to suggest that for a single human being to attain as all-round a view of the subject as might be possible to these thousand uncollaborat- ing men and women, he would have to be at once a Democrat and a Republican, a grateful client and a Circuit judge, a humble neigh- bor and a Confederate general, an exasperated Cabinet member ix X INTRODUCTION and a disgruntled office-seeker, a frightened petitioner and an in- dignant patriot, a celebrity and a nonentity, a millionaire and a servant. For such are the reporters who have written this book. The method here followed has therefore not been one of selec- tion, whether on the basis of style, of novelty, or even of credi- bility. My aim has rather been the greatest completeness possible at this time. Each reader will undoubtedly find many anecdotes with which he is in substance familiar though perhaps not in the form in which they are here given; on the other hand, many of them appear here for the first time outside the contemporary news- papers in which they were originally recorded. Some rejections there had to be, but only of stories that are es- sentially repetitious (as when there is more than one eyewitness account of the same episode) or of those that are essentially mean- ingless. On the other hand, I have permitted myself to include an occasional speech or letter by Lincoln— though these properly fall outside the scope of the present work— when one was neces- sary to make intelligible a whole complex of small observations. For my task has been not merely to collect but to arrange in order. Though the order I have followed is in the main simply chrono- logical, it has sometimes seemed preferable to group together anecdotes about a single historical occurrence irrespective of its duration. This biographical method, it seems to me, needs no apology. It is that of Tycho Brahe, who, when he was asked by his royal patron's supercilious courtiers what he had been doing in his ob- servatory for these last five-and-twenty years, showed them his table of seven hundred stars. "And is this all?" they asked. "Not all, I hope," said the astronomer, "for I think before I die I shall have marked a thousand." Lincoln is a mighty tree. The shade he cast will endure as long as there is an American history. Therefore, not only his height and breadth, described so many times, are significant to an understand- ing of him, but also the myriad rootlets of his daily life. These INTRODUCTION XI thousand stories are presented for that purpose, in the hope that those who know others may add to them. In line with my purpose I have of course borrowed everywhere —from diarists, autobiographers, letters, and earlier collections of Lincoln stories (the reader is referred to the Selected Bibliography at the end of this volume); but, as I have already indicated, the richest source of these materials, which I have been collecting for twenty years, has been the contemporary press. Here for a host of people was set down their single claim to the attention of pos- terity—they had talked with Lincoln! And here, as a consequence, we find an incomparable picture of Lincoln in action— wheedling juries, receiving delegations, granting pardons, turning away office- seekers, placating his wife, thinking out loud about national prob- lems, quarreling with his secretaries, correcting his children, being wise or witty, indignant or peace-loving. Here Lincoln smiles and weeps, and talks. Always they carried away with them the memory of Lincoln talking, for Father Abraham was one of the world's great story- tellers, and his unstudied humor was what thousands remembered of him after they had heard him in law courts or at political rallies, and in private interviews or intimate conversations. So apt were his jokes and tales that the memory of these alone has rescued from oblivion the incidents and occasions which they served to point. That is why any book planned as this one is must stress one side of Lincoln above others— Lincoln as the Aesop of the American prairies. Emanuel Hertz CONTENTS Part One : 1809-1860 YOUTH 3 LAWYER 2 I MAN AND STORYTELLER 73 POLITICIAN 1 17 Part Two : President PARTY LEADER * 9 3 COMMANDER IN CHIEF 37 2 FATHER ABRAHAM 575 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY &75 INDEX 677 Xlll LINCOLN TALKS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PART ONE 1809-1860 ■aw^m ^^^^^^^^^$^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ LINEAGE WE found Lincoln occupying a shabby little uncarpeted of- fice over a grocery store. Something was said about his first ancestor. He said: "Well, my young friend, the first ancestor that I know anything about was one Tom Lincoln, who came over in 1634 and settled at a place Hingham— or perhaps it was Hanghim. Which was it, Judge?" —James Grant Wilson, in the Century Magazine. GRANDFATHER Speaking of his ancestry, Lincoln remarked: "I don't know who my grandfather was, and I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be." — Herndon, in The Hidden Lincoln. MOTHER Lincoln seldom spoke of his mother, but when he did re- fer to her, it was with the utmost tenderness. Years afterward he said of her: "All I am or hope to be I owe to my sainted mother!" —Herndon. NAME PLACE A young lawyer once asked Mr. Lincoln if the county seat of Logan County was named after him. "Well, it was named after I was," he gravely replied. —Herndon. 3 LINCOLN TALKS EARLY PATRIOTISM Once, when asked what he remembered about the war (of 1812) with. Great Britain, he replied: "Nothing but this. I had been fish- ing one day and caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I met a soldier on the road, and, having been always told at home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him my fish." — Nicolay and Hay: Abraham Lincoln. POLITENESS VS. CURIOSITY With the beginning of the little settlement on Little Pigeon Creek life opens up to the Lincolns. Abe is growing hungry for people and happenings. The sight of a stranger brings him to the front of the cabin tense with interest. Tom has hardly time to drawl out his hospitable: "Light, stranger," before the boy, for- getting his shyness and everything else but the possibilities of news and information the stranger holds out, has asked some eager question. That answered, he fires another, and is ready with an- other, when Tom cuffs him on the head with a curt: "Shut up; ain't you got no better manners than to pester a stranger to death with questions? Get away." Abe slinks off and finds Dennis, who is his confidant and companion. "Denny," he complains, "Pap thinks it ain't polite to ask folks so many questions. I reckon I wasn't born to be polite. There's so darned many things I want to know." —Dennis Hanks, in The Hidden Lincoln. LOVE S AWAKENING "Did you ever write out a story in your mind? I did when I was a little codger. One day a wagon with a lady and two girls and a man broke down near us, and while they were fixing up, they cooked in our kitchen. The woman had books and read us stories, and they were the first I ever had heard. I took a great fancy to YOUTH 5 one of the girls; and when they were gone I thought of her a great deal, and one day when I was sitting out in the sun by the house I wrote out a story in my mind. I thought I took my father's horse and followed the wagon, and finally I found it, and they were sur- prised to see me. I talked with the girl and persuaded her to elope with me; and that night I put her on my horse, and we started off across the prairie. After several hours we came to a camp, and when we rode up we found it was the one we had left a few hours before, and we went in. The next night we tried it again, and the same thing happened— the horse came back to the same place; and then we concluded that we ought not to elope. I stayed until I had persuaded her father to give her to me. I always meant to write that story out and publish it, and I began once; but I con- cluded it was not much of a story. But I think that was the be- ginning of love with me." —Lincoln to an acquaintance, in Wayne Whipple: Story Life of Lincoln. PIGS One beautiful moonlight night we were walking on a country road, and we noticed just ahead of us six little pigs with their noses together. Lincoln said: "Those little things are lost; let us help them find their mother." We stirred them up, and with grunt and sniff and snort they ran down the road; at last they found the hole in the fence and the mother in the field. Lincoln said: "I never see a pig that I do not think of my first pet. When a boy six years old I went over to a neighboring farm. A litter of striped pigs had recently been born, and I was so crazy about them that they could not get me away from them. The man filled me with supreme delight by saying: 'Abe, you may have one of those pigs, if you can get him home.' " 'I will attend to that,' I said. I had on a tow shirt reaching to my feet, which my mother made, and I made a fold in the garment, and in it, as a sack, I carried my pig home. I had an old bee-gum, LINCOLN TALKS a hollow log, put corn shucks and stalks and leaves in it for a bed and tucked him away for the night. "He squealed for his mother nearly all night. In the morning I brought him corn meal, bran, bread, milk, everything I could think of, but he would not touch any of them; he did not seem to have time or energy for anything but to squeal. At last mother said to me: 'Abe, take that pig back home; it will die if you keep it here.' "What my mother said was always the truth and the law to me, and though it about broke my heart I took the pet back. The mother was so glad to see him and he so glad to see her. After she had given him his dinner, he looked so pretty I could not stand it, and I begged the man to let me take him back, and I put him in the tow sack as I had done before and carried him to our house. "Mother protested and I cried, and she broke down and re- lented, and said I might try him one more day. He would not eat a thing I brought him, and mother sent me back with him again, and I carried him back and forth to his meals for two weeks, when we taught him to eat, and he was mine for good. "That pig was my companion. I played with him, I taught him tricks. We used to play 'hide and go seek.' I can see his little face now peeping around the corner of the house to see whether I was coming after him. After a while he got too heavy for me to carry him around, and then he followed me everywhere— to the barn, the plowed ground, the woods. Many a day I have spent in the woods brushing the leaves away and helping him to find the acorns and nuts. Sometimes he would take a lazy spell and rub against my legs, and stop in front of me, and lie down before me, and say in a language which I understood: 'Abe, why don't you carry me like you used to do?' "When he grew larger, I turned the tables on him and made him carry me, and he did just as happily as I ever did tfte same service for him. Father fed him corn, piles of it, and how he did eat! And he grew large, too large for his happiness and mine. YOUTH 7 There was talk about the house of the hog being fat enough to kill. At the table I heard father say he was going to kill the hog the next day. My heart got as heavy as lead. "The next morning father had a barrel of water ready and was heating the stones that were to be thrown into it to make hot water for the scalding, and I slipped out and took my pet with me to the forest. When father found out what had happened, he yelled as loud as he could: 'You, Abe, fetch back that hog! You, Abe, you, Abe, fetch back that hog!' The louder he called, the farther and faster we went, till we were out of hearing of the voice. We stayed in the woods till night. "On returning, I was severely scolded. After a restless night, I arose early and went to get my pig for another day's hiding, but found that father had arisen before me and fastened my pet in the pen. I knew then all hope was gone. I did not eat any breakfast, but started for the woods. I had not gone far when I heard the pig squeal, and, knowing what it meant, I ran as fast as I could to get away from the sound. "Being quite hungry, at noon I started for home. Reaching the edge of the clearing, I saw the hog, dressed, hanging from a pole near the house, and I began to blubber. I could not stand it, and went back into the woods again, where I found some nuts that stayed my appetite till night, when I returned home. They never could get me to take a bit of the meat, neither tenderloin, nor rib, nor sausage, nor souse. And months after, when the cured ham came on the table, it made me sad and sick to even look at it. "The next morning I went out into the yard, and saw the red place on the ground where the throat had been cut with the knife, and, taking a chip, I scraped the blood and the hair that had been scattered, into a pile, and burned it up. Then I found some soft dirt, which I carried in the folds of my tow shirt, and scattered it over the ground to cover up every trace of the killing of my pet. "The dirt did not do its work very well, for to this day, when- ever I see a pig like the little fellows we have just met in the road, 8 LINCOLN TALKS my heart goes back to that pet pig, and to the old home, and the dear ones there." —Frederick C. Iglehart: The Speaking Oak. LIES At thirteen, Abe has Aesop's Fables, the Arabian Nights, and Weems's Washington. The Arabian Nights and Aesop's Fables he reads aloud in bits to his step-mother and to Dennis, who is whittling. Sometimes Dennis, growing reflective, puts in the com- ment: "Abe, them yarns is all lies." Abe, without putting down the book, says: "Mighty darn good lies, Denny," and proceeds with his reading. —Dennis Hanks, in The Hidden Lincoln. HORSE-TRADER When Abraham Lincoln was a young boy at home, his father wanted to buy a horse that one of his neighbors had offered for sale. Thomas Lincoln told Abraham to go and try to buy the horse. He said: "You may offer fifty dollars for the horse; but if you can't get it for that, you may give as much as sixty dollars for it." Young Abraham went to the neighbor and said: "Mr. Blank, Father told me I might offer fifty dollars for that horse you have for sale; but if I couldn't get it for fifty dollars, I might give you as much as sixty for it. I have made up my mind that I won't give you but fifty dollars for the horse." He remained firm, and got the horse for fifty dollars. —John Hanks, in The Hidden Lincoln. SLOW MILL Abe Lincoln, when a boy, had an uncle who kept a mill down west. Noticing that the mill was going very slowly, the young joker, on meeting the miller, said he could eat the meal faster than the mill ground it. YOUTH 9 "How long could you do so?" said his uncle. "Why, till I starved to death," Abe replied. —Legacy of Fun. UNCLE "My deceased uncle," said Lincoln, "was the most polite gentle- man in the world. He was making a trip on the Mississippi when the boat sank. He got his head above the water for once, took of! his hat, and said: 'Ladies and gentlemen, will you please excuse me?' and down he went." —Legacy of Fun. BLESSINGS Sometimes neither pen nor forest afforded meat. One day when a liberal portion of baked potatoes was all that graced the table, Thomas gave the usual Baptist blessing. "Dad," commented Abe, "I call them mighty poor blessings." —Dennis Hanks, in The Hidden Lincoln. SCHOOLING Old Whitey, Abe's schoolmaster, said to him angrily one day: "Abraham, you are better fed than taught!" "Should think I was," said Abe, "as I feed myself, and you teach me!" —Andrew Adderup: Lincolniana. SPELLING BEE Abraham was considered good at spelling. In school they "trapped" up and down, and he held his place at the head of the class. When they had spelling matches, the side that chose Abe Lincoln always "spelled down." So he had to be left out of their spelling bees. One day he happened outside the schoolroom when Andrew Crawford was hearing a class in spelling. The teacher gave out the word "defied," which they all misspelled. In his ex- asperation he told the class that no one should be allowed to leave IO LINCOLN TALKS the schoolhouse until the word was spelled correctly. This did not inspire the poor spellers with confidence, and the case began to look desperate. The last speller was Kate Roby, a pretty girl whom Abe is said to have admired. This may have been why he was hanging about the schoolhouse that day. She began, slowly and hesitatingly, to spell the word: "d-e-f"— here Abe put his forefinger up to his eye. Kate finished: "i-e-d," with a flourish of triumph. — Lamon: Life of Abraham Lincoln. Carl Vititoe, one of the frontier lads, approached the tall boy and shouted teasingly: "High, I have dropped my knife in the spring. The water's too deep for me to get it, but you can easily reach it with your long arms." "Now, my arm ain't quite long enough," said the tall boy slowly, "but when my father has a piece of timber that is too short, he splices it with another and sometimes the two together will do the job. So I'll just splice my arm to yours and you can get your knife yourself." Then, with a swift movement, he wound his long arms around his tormentor, lifted him from the ground and carried him, wrig- gling and squawking, to the spring. There he thrust him head downwards into the icy cold water while he drawled: "Now, Carl, you can reach your knife yourself." He held him under the water, as it seemed to the waiting group of youngsters, a long time. Then, as the bubbles started to rise, he drew him up, dripping and sputtering. A knife was clasped tightly in the lad's wet hand. "I see you got your knife all right, Carl," the tall boy intoned pleasantly, the shadow of a twinkle in his deep-set eyes. "I got my knife all right," screamed the soaked victim, shaking his wet fist in the other's calm face, "but I'll do something to you some day, Abe Lincoln." YOUTH II "Mebbe you will," drawled the tall boy, "but one thing you won't do is call me 'High.' " —Youth's Companion. FEELINGS OF THE TERRAPIN The wantonly cruel experiment of testing the sensitiveness in reptiles armored, passed into a proverb out West in pioneer times. Besides carving initials and dates on the shell of land tortoises, boys would fling the creatures against trees or rocks to see them perish with exposed and lacerated body, or literally place burning coals on the back. In such cases Lincoln, a boy in his teens but a redoubtable young giant, would not only interfere vocally, but with his arms, if needed. "Don't terrapins have feelings?" he inquired. The torturer did not know the right answer, and, persisting in the treatment, had the shingle wrenched from his hand and the cinders stamped out, while the sufferer was allowed to go away. "Well, feelings or none, he won't be burned any more while I am around!" —Lincoln Story Book. BADGER GAME Once as a young man, a raw country lad attending a country fair, he stood and watched a badger-baiting, in that day one of the rustic sports. The badger was backed into an L-shaped box. The man who had him offered five dollars to anyone with a dog game enough to draw the badger out. There was an entrance fee of fifty cents for each contestant. Dog after dog was started into the box, but one and all came out "pretty catawampously chawed up and clawed up." None of them in that cramped place was able to get a "holt" on the badger and draw him out. Lincoln watched the fun for some time. Then he turned to one of the dog owners. "I'll give you a half of the winnings for the use of your dog for five minutes," said he. 12 LINCOLN TALKS "Why," said the man, "I'll go you; but he's been agin it already. He can't fetch the dern thing out." "Never mind," said Lincoln; and then to the fellow with the badger: "It's five dollars if I get him out?" "With the dog, yes," said the man. Lincoln seized the dog he had hired and pushed him tail-wise into the box. The badger took a firm grip on the dog's tail. Lincoln let go, and the dog, in his effort to get away, jerked the badger fairly out of the box. "It was five dollars you said, I believe?" said Lincoln. "Thanks." —New York Press, Feb. 12, 1909. FIRST DOLLAR "Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my first dol- lar? Well, I was about eighteen years of age. I belonged, you know, to what they call down South, the 'scrubs'; people who do not own slaves are nobody there. But we had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After much persuasion, I got the consent of mother to go, and constructed a little flatboat, large enough to take a barrel or two of things that we had gathered, with myself and little bundle, down to New Orleans. "A steamer was coming down the river. We have, you know, no wharves on the Western streams; and the custom was, if pas- sengers were at any of the landings, for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board. I was contemplat- ing my new flatboat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any particular, when two men came down to the shore in carriages with trunks, and, looking at the different boats, singled out mine, and asked: 'Who owns this?' I answered, somewhat modestly: 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I. "I was very glad to have the chance of earning something. I sup- YOUTH 13 posed that each of them would give me two or three bits. The trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and I sculled them out to the steamboat. They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay. Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. "You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day— that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time." —Lincoln to Seward, in Mrs. P. A. Hanaford: Abraham Lincoln. DOG RESCUE Thomas Lincoln turned in his farm to Mr. Gentry, and sold his corn, hogs, and whatever he could not well take to Illinois, and in February 1830, the whole family emigrated in one wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen. A dog belonging to one of the family fell behind and, after the oxen had floundered through the mud, snow, and ice of a prairie stream, they discovered that they had left the cur behind. The others, annoyed and anxious to go on and find a camping place for the night, for it was then late, were in favor of leaving the dog to his fate. To turn back with the heavy wagon and ox-team was out of the question. But Abraham could see the dog on the other bank running up and down in great distress. Once, referring to this incident, he said: "I could not endure the idea of abandoning even a dog. Pulling off shoes and socks I waded across the stream and triumphantly re- turned with the shivering animal under my arm. His frantic leaps 14 LINCOLN TALKS of joy and other evidences of a dog's gratitude amply repaid me for all the exposure I had undergone." — Herndon. LOST OX When Abe moved with his father from this neighborhood to Decatur, Illinois, they put all they had in the world in a wagon and hitched two oxen to it. They had gotten a day's journey from home and, as was the custom in those days, turned the oxen out to graze for the night. One of the oxen broke away and came back home. Father saw him coming along the road and, recognizing him, turned him into his lot. The next day Abe came back, looking for the ox. He said to Father: "Seen anything of our ox?" "Yes," replied Father. "Where is he?" asked the boy. "In my lot," said Father. "I have come for him," said Abe. "How are you going to take him?" asked Father. "You have no rope, no halter, no saddle, nor bridle." "I will show you," answered Abe. "When I yell 'Open,' you open the gate." He went into the lot with a switch, ran the animal around a little while to master him, and yelled: "Open!" Father opened the gate, and the ox made a break for it. Abe ran swiftly after him and, jumping high in the air, he alighted astride of the ox and, holding his heels in the flanks of the steer, he drove him on the run back to the wagon. When he wanted to go to the right he would take his old slouch hat and with it hit the beast on the left side of the head; if he desired to turn to the left, he would hit him on the right side of the head. —Herndon. EGGS Early in 183 1, Abe was one of the guests of honor at a boat- launching, he and two others having built the craft. A sleight-of- hand performer was present and, among other tricks performed, he fried some eggs in Lincoln's hat. As explanatory of his delay in YOUTH 15 passing up his hat for the experiment, Lincoln drolly observed: "It was out of respect for the eggs, not care for my hat." — Herndon. SLAVE AUCTION In New Orleans, for the first time, Lincoln beheld the true hor- rors of human slavery. No doubt, as one of his companions has said: "Slavery ran the iron into him then and there." One morning in their rambles over the city the trio passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto girl was being sold. She underwent a thorough examination at the hands of the bid- ders: they pinched her flesh and made her trot up and down the room like a horse, to show how she moved, and in order, as the auctioneer said, that "bidders might satisfy themselves" whether the article they were offering to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was so revolting that Lincoln moved away from the scene with a deep feeling of "unconquerable hate." Bid- ding his companions follow him he said: "Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard!" —John Hanks, in The Hidden Lincoln. BUTCHER He was once asked by the farmer who employed him if he could slaughter a pig, to which he replied, in the manner of the Irishman who was asked to play the violin [and said] that he had never done it, but he could try. "If you will risk the pig, I will risk myself," said he. —Boys' Life, Feb. 1923. LAW SCHOOL "One day a man who was migrating to the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which contained his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would buy an old barrel for which he had no room in his wagon, and which contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to oblige him I bought it, l6 LINCOLN TALKS and paid him half a dollar for it. Without further examination I put it away in the store and forgot all about it. Some time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the barrel and emptying it on the floor to see what it contained, I found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. "I began to read those famous works, and I had plenty of time; for during the long summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more I read the more intensely interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured them." —Lincoln to A. J. Conant. ADVERTISEMENT "Goods, wares, merchandise, sold; rooms, apartments; furniture, used & enjoyed; meat, drink, fire, candles, attendance, boarding, lodging & other necessaries, found & provided; & money loaned and advanced." —Early Lincoln MS. SURVEYOR To this home came the young surveyor and his helper one sweltering August noon. They were tired and hungry, as only such outdoor workers could be. Mrs. Hornbuckle met them at the door and recognized the grocery clerk who had returned her change not so long ago. Her greeting was pleasant but she was somewhat apologetic. She did not have dinner started. She ex- plained that the old family clock had stopped and that she did not know the time of day. But notwithstanding this she hurried about and had a fine dinner ready. After it had been eaten, Lincoln said to her: "Aunt Clarissa I can arrange it, even though your clock has stopped, so that you can tell when it is twelve o'clock. Bring me an awl." With that he set down his compass upon the cabin floor, and YOUTH 17 with the awl scratched a line on the floor due north-south, starting at the edge of the door jamb. "When the jamb's shadow strikes this line, it will be high noon," he said. —Fred E. Trent. POSTMASTER On May 7, 1833, Lincoln was appointed postmaster at New Salem, and kept the place until it was discontinued. The balance of money in his hands which belonged to the Government was between sixteen and eighteen dollars. This small amount was over- looked by the Post Office Department and not called for. One day several years afterward an agent of the Post Office called at Mr. Henry's, with whom Lincoln at that time kept his office in Spring- field. Knowing Lincoln's poverty [Mr. Henry afterward related], and how often he had been obliged to borrow money, I did not believe he had the funds on hand to meet the draft, and was about to call him aside and loan it to him, when he asked the agent to be seated a moment. He then went over to his boarding house and returned with an old blue sock with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it. Untying the sock, he poured out the contents on the table and proceeded to count it, and the exact sum (and the identical coin) was found which years before he had received for postage-stamps from his friends in Salem. All the intervening years the money had been placed aside in an old trunk, and, no matter how much he needed money, he never thought of using that which he held in trust for the Govern- ment. He never used trust funds. -Dr. A. G. Henry. WOODCHOPPER When Abraham Lincoln was postmaster, the duties were not so hard, for the people at that time did not write many letters. lb LINCOLN TALKS Indeed the mail was so small that no bags were used and Lincoln carried the letters in his hat. One day Lincoln was delivering letters when he saw a poor old man chopping wood. The man looked weak, was barefooted, and shivering with cold. Lincoln stopped and asked him how much he would get for that job. "A dollar," replied the man, "I've got to have some shoes." "Go home and warm yourself," said Lincoln, taking the ax from the man. Lincoln chopped the wood and the poor wood- chopper got his dollar. —Mrs. P. A. Hanaford. ADDRESS An Irishman calls. "I want my letter, Mr. Postmaster." "What is the name?" says Lincoln. Says the Irishman: "Sure, my name's on the letter." — Lincolniana. EUCLID "In the course of my law reading I constantly came upon the word demonstrate— I thought at first that I understood its mean- ing, but soon became satisfied that I did not. I consulted Webster's Dictionary. That told of certain proof, 'proof beyond the proba- bility of doubt'; but I could form no sort of idea what sort of proof that was. I consulted all the dictionaries and books of ref- erence I could find, but with no better results. You might as well have defined blue to a blind man. At last I said: 'Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if you do not understand what demonstrate means.' And I left my situation in Springfield, went home to my father's house, and stayed there until I could give any proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out what demon- strate meant, and went back to my law studies." — Herndon. YOUTH 19 MILITIAMAN When young Lincoln joined the Sangamon Militia and entered on the Black Hawk War campaign, his colonel was a small snipe of a fellow about four feet three inches. Abe had rather a slouch- ing look and gait at that time and, attracted by his awkward ap- pearance, the dapper little colonel thus saluted the future Execu- tive: "Come, Abe, hold up your head; higher, fellow!" "Yes, sir." "Higher, fellow— higher." Abe stretched his lank neck to its greatest altitudinous tension and said: "What— so, sir?" "Yes, fellow, a little higher." "And am I always to remain so?" "Yes, fellow, certainly!" "Then," said Abe, with a woeful countenance, "good-by, Colonel, for I shall never see you again!" — Herndon. HAWK Someone said to him as he was departing for the war: "You are not afraid of Black Hawk, are you?" "Well, I guess not," replied the youthful captain, proudly. "I'm no chicken." —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. WRESTLER There was in Captain Henry L. Webb's company from Union County a very strong and athletic man named Lorenzo Thomp- son, nicknamed "Dow" Thompson. The question of compara- tive muscular strength arising between him and Lincoln, they re- sorted to a wrestling match, in order to decide it. After struggling for a while with no advantage either way, Lin- coln said: "This is the strongest man I ever met." Soon thereafter, amid great and growing excitement, Lincoln was fairly thrown. This was for the first time in his life. The wrestlers took hold again, and a second time Lincoln was thrown. 20 LINCOLN TALKS Instantly a hundred men jerked off their coats crying: "Foul!" An equal number on the other side followed suit, crying: "We'll see if it was." A deadly fight seemed imminent, but Lincoln commanded at- tention, and said: "Boys, this man can throw me fairly, if he didn't do it this time; so let us give up that I was beaten fairly." — Herndon and Lamon. RUNNER On a scout, the company encountered the Indians, and in a brisk skirmish drove them some miles, when, night coming on, our forces encamped. Great was the consternation on discovering that Lincoln was missing. His absence, or rather his stories', from the bivouac, was a misfortune. Suddenly, however, he came into camp. "Major Abe, is that you?" "Thought you were killed." "Where' ve you been?" "Yes," said Lincoln, "this is me— ain't killed either." "But where have you been all the time? Didn't run away, did you?" "No," said he deliberately, "I don't think I ran away; but, after all, I reckon if anybody had seen me going, and had been told I was going for a doctor, he would have thought somebody was al- mighty sick." -Lincolniana. ^^^^^s^^^^^^^^^^^s^s^^^^^^ LAWYERS AFTER a long trip across country in the coldest kind of XX weather, to appear in court, Lincoln tarried at a town tavern the night before the case was to be heard. When he reached the inn, the fire was surrounded by numerous other attorneys in- terested in the case. The host thought to create a little conversa- tion with the gaunt man. "Pretty cold night," he opened. "Colder than hell," Lincoln replied. One of the lawyers turned at this and asked: "You've been there, too, have you, Mr. Lincoln?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "and the funny thing is that it's much like it is here— all lawyers are nearest the fire." — Lincolniana. CHARGE TO THE JURY After his admission to the Springfield bar in 1837, Lincoln rode several miles to witness a trial by jury. "The court, I remember," said Mr. Lincoln, "was held in a small town in the Eighth Judicial District of Illinois. On account of the absence of a courthouse, the town school, much to the joy of the scholars, was brought into use. The Circuit judge, an elderly and portly man, had had a bad touch of the gout, and the master's hard wooden chair in which he sat became decidedly uncomfort- able as a long, uninteresting case dragged through the hot after- 21 22 LINCOLN TALKS noon. Finally the opposing lawyer finished and he arose for the final address. " 'Gentlemen of the jury,' he began, savagely brushing a pair of hungry flies from his shiny bald head, 'you have heard all the evidence. If you believe what the counsel for the plaintiff has told you, your verdict will be for the plaintiff; but if on the other hand you believe what the defendant's counsel has told you, then you will give a verdict for the defendant. But if you are like me, and don't believe what either of them has said, then I'll be hanged if I know what you will do.' " — Depew: Collected Speeches. HONEST OLD ABE In Illinois in a city now called Lincoln occurred the incident that gave Abraham Lincoln the name of "honest old Abe." He was trying a simple case of collection on a note. The de- fendant went on the stand and showed a receipt of payment in full, given him by the plaintiff. Mr. Lincoln asked his client: "Did you know he held this re- ceipt?" "Yes, but I thought he had forgotten it." Mr. Lincoln abruptly left the courthouse and went to the hotel. A few moments after, the judge sent a messenger to him to come and finish the case. "You go tell the judge that I am washing my hands," replied Mr. Lincoln. —Judge Samuel H. Treat. ON HIS STORYTELLING A lawyer, who was a stranger to Mr. Lincoln, once expressed to Usher F. Linder the opinion that Mr. Lincoln's practice of tell- ing stories to the jury was a waste of time. "Don't lay that flattering unction to your soul," Linder an- swered; "Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he 'breaks to win.' ,: —Usher F. Linder LAWYER 23 SMALL MISTAKE Lincoln, being questioned one day in regard to some of his re- puted mistakes, replied: "That reminds me of a minister and a lawyer who were riding together; says the minister to the lawyer: " 'Sir, do you ever make mistakes in pleading?' " 'I do,' says the lawyer. " 'And what do you do with mistakes? ' inquired the minister. " 'Why, sir, if large ones, I mend them; if small ones, I let them go/ said the lawyer. 'And pray, sir,' continued he, 'do you ever make mistakes in preaching?' " 'Yes, sir, I do.' " 'And what do you do with mistakes?' said the lawyer. " 'Why, sir, I dispose of them in the same manner that you do. Not long since,' he continued, 'as I was preaching, I meant to ob- serve that the devil was the father of liars, but made a mistake, and said the father of lawyers. The mistake was so small that I let it go.' " -Honest Old Abe's Jokes. CROSS-EXAMINER Grayson was charged with shooting Lockwood at a camp- meeting, on the evening of August 9, 18 , and with running away from the scene of the killing, which was witnessed by Sovine. The proof was so strong that, even with an excellent previous char- acter, Grayson came very near being lynched on two occasions soon after his indictment for murder. The mother of the accused, after failing to secure older counsel, finally engaged young Abraham Lincoln, and the trial came on to an early hearing. No objection was made to the jury, and no cross-examination of witnesses, save the last and only important one, who swore that he knew the parties, saw the shot fired by Grayson, saw him run away, and picked up the deceased, who died instantly. 24 LINCOLN TALKS The evidence of guilt and identity was morally certain. The attendance was large, the interest intense. Grayson's mother be- gan to wonder why Abraham remained silent so long, and why he didn't do something. The people finally rested. The tall lawyer stood up and eyed the strong witness in silence, without books or notes, and began slowly his defense by these questions: Lincoln: "And you were with Lock wood just before and saw the shooting?" Witness: "Yes." Lincoln: "And you stood very near to them?" Witness: "No, it was twenty feet or more." Lincoln: "In the open field?" Witness: "No, in the timber." Lincoln: "What kind of timber?" Witness: "Beech timber." Lincoln: "Leaves on it are rather thick in August!" Witness: "It looks like it." Lincoln: "You could see defendant shoot— see how the barrel hung, and all about it?" Witness: "Three-quarters of a mile away." Lincoln: "Where were the lights?" Witness: "Up by the minister's stand." Lincoln: "Three-quarters of a mile away?" Witness: "Yes— I answered you twice." Lincoln: "Did you not see a candle there, with Lockwood or Grayson?" Witness: "No, what'd we want a candle for?" Lincoln: "How, then, did you see the shooting?" Witness: "By moonlight!" (Defiantly.) Lincoln: "You saw the shooting at 10 o'clock at night— in beech timber, three-quarters of a mile from the lights— saw the pistol barrel— saw the man fire— saw it twenty feet away— saw it all by moonlight? Saw it nearly a mile from the camp lights?" LAWYER 25 Witness: "Yes; I told you so before." The interest was now so intense that men leaned forward to catch the smallest syllable. Then the lawyer drew out a blue- covered almanac from his side pocket— opened it slowly— offered it in evidence— showed it to the jury and court— read from a page with careful deliberation that the moon on that night was unseen, and only arose at one o'clock the next morning. Following this climax, Mr. Lincoln moved the arrest of the perjured witness as the real murderer, saying: "Nothing but a motive to clear himself could have induced him to swear away so falsely the life of one who never did him harm!" With such de- termined emphasis did Lincoln present his showing that the court ordered Sovine arrested, and under the strain of excitement he broke down and confessed to being the one who fired the fatal shot himself, but denied it was intentional. —J. W. Donovan and F. L. Wellman. SPELLING Being asked by a client in Springfield why he spelled so badly in his law papers, Lincoln replied: "Because the Suckers are so cussed mean they won't pay for good spelling." —Lincolniana and Ben. Perley Poore. BEEF Returning home from the Circuit once, Lincoln said to Hern- don: "Billy, I heard a good story while I was up in the country. Judge D — was complimenting the landlord on the excellence of his beef. 'I am surprised,' he said, 'that you have such good beef. You must have to kill a whole critter when you want any.' 'Yes,' said the landlord, 'we never kill less than a whole — Herndon. 26 LINCOLN TALKS SMALL CROP Lincoln had been retained to defend a farmer accused of as- saulting his neighbor. The plaintiff, an egotistical and vainglorious man, painted a vivid picture of the brutal and unjust treatment he had suffered at the hands of his vicious neighbor. Unfortunately for the defendant, there were no witnesses of the overt act, and, under the rules of evidence then governing the conduct of a trial, the defendant was not allowed to speak in his own behalf. Lincoln's only way to save his client was to make the plaintiff's account seem too ridiculous for belief, by playing upon the unsuspecting fellow's vanity. "How much ground was there over which you and my client fought?" asked Lincoln. The plaintiff boastfully retorted: "Six acres, Mr. Lincoln." "Well," declared Lincoln, "don't you think this was a mighty small crop of fight to raise on such a large farm?" Judge, prosecutor, and jury laughed the plaintiff from the wit- ness stand, and Lincoln's client was acquitted. — Depew. surgeon's fee Lincoln, at most of his trials, was altogether commonplace, ex- cept when fired by the thought of injustice or oppression. Then he became transformed. To speak well he must think that someone, black or white, had been "abused." One of these trials was a case of some importance, and practi- cally the whole affair hinged on the testimony of a celebrated surgeon. Lincoln refused to cross-examine any except this last witness. The surgeon had made some very extreme statements, and when he was all through, Lincoln said, very slowly and im- pressively: "Doctor, how much money are you to receive for testifying in this case?" LAWYER 27 The witness hesitated for a moment, then asked the judge: "Your Honor, do I have to answer that question?" "Yes," said the judge. "It's proper." The witness named a fee so large that the audience fairly held its breath. Lincoln rose, turned, and his left eye went up, as it often did in moments of excitement. Stretching out his long right arm and fore- finger, he cried in a shrill voice, overflowing with the hottest in- dignation: "Gentlemen of the jury, big fee, big swear!" And those four monosyllables were all he ever said to that jury. They won the case. — Herndon. REVOLUTIONARY WIDOW The poor crippled widow of a Revolutionary soldier hobbled one day into the law office of Lincoln and Herndon and tearfully told Lincoln how a pension agent named Wright had defrauded her. Wright had induced the Government to grant her a pension of four hundred dollars, she said, but for his commission he had pocketed half of the award. Her bitter protests over this exorbitant fee had availed her nothing. And now she appealed to Lincoln for advice and aid. As soon as the sobbing old woman departed, Lincoln walked over to the pension agent's office and demanded the returii of the money. When Wright turned a deaf ear to the request, Lincoln indignantly reminded him that courts of justice still existed to deal with greedy rascals. Without further delay the lawyer brought suit. The day before the trial, Lincoln asked Herndon to obtain for him a history of the Revolutionary War. That night he read it carefully. "I am going to skin Wright and get that money back!" Lincoln resolutely told his junior associate as they walked to court the following day. 28 LINCOLN TALKS He had but one witness— the crippled old lady. But through her tears she told a most touching story. Lincoln arose to plead her case. He began to picture eloquently and minutely the scene at Valley Forge. Vividly he described the barefoot patriots creeping with bleeding feet over the ice. Then he recalled how the plaintiff's husband had kissed her and their baby and had departed for the war. "Time rolls by; the heroes of seventy-six have passed away and are encamped on the other shore," he continued pathetically in a low, sad voice. "The soldier has gone to rest; and now, crippled, blinded, and broken, his widow comes to you and to me, gentle- men of the jury, to right her wrongs. She was not always thus. She was once a beautiful woman. Her step was as elastic, her face as fair, and her voice as sweet, as any that rang in the mountains of Virginia. But now she is poor and defenseless. Out here on the prairies of Illinois, many hundreds of miles away from the scenes of her childhood, she appeals to us who enjoy the privileges achieved for us by the patriots of the Revolution, for our sympa- thetic aid and manly protection." Then, stretching out his long arms toward the jury, he con- cluded dramatically: "All I ask is, shall we befriend her?" The speech made the desired impression on the jury [Herndon recalls]. Half of them were in tears, while the defendant sat in the courtroom, drawn up and writhing under the fire of Lincoln's invective. The jury returned a verdict in our favor for every cent we demanded. Lincoln was so much interested in the old lady that he became her surety for costs, paid her way home, and her hotel bill while she was in Springfield. When the judgment was paid, we remitted the proceeds to her and made no charge for our services. The notes from which Lincoln spoke outline his plan of attack against the unfortunate defendant. It is a unique law brief, and reads as follows: "No contract— No professional services— Unreasonable charge- Money retained by Defendant not given by Plaintiff— Revolution- ary War— Describe Valley Forge privations— Ice— Soldier's bleed- LAWYER 20 ing feet— Plaintiff's husband, soldier leaving home for army— Skin Defendant! Close!" — Herndon. LIVING CORPSE He appears for two brothers charged with the murder of a third brother. One of the two brothers is weak-minded and is bulldozed and bluffed by the prosecution to plead guilty to having murdered his brother, which he does. The other brother is de- fended by Lincoln. Lincoln made a very thorough study of the case, did his own detective work, and located the supposed corpus delicti in a sana- torium some miles away. The case proceeds to trial. One of the defendants takes the stand and confesses that he and his brother have done the third brother to death. At the proper time Lincoln produces the doctor in whose sana- torium the missing brother is then resting, slowly he leads the doctor through the testimony, and at the proper moment the dead man walks into court. The defendant paid Lincoln by giving him a promissory note for one hundred dollars, upon which Lincoln had to sue in order to collect his fee. —Herndon. HOG THIEF About 1850 a man was indicted in Coles County in this State for hog stealing, and was unable to employ a lawyer. The Court asked the man: "Who is your attorney?" "I have none and am too poor to employ one." "In that case, I will appoint one— have you any preferences among the members of the bar?" "I'll take that tall man sitting there," pointing to Lincoln. Lincoln took his client to the back room. "What is your defense —what are the facts of the case?" asked Lincoln. The thief said: "I have no facts to tell you, Mr. Lincoln. The truth is we'll jump in and fight 'em on general principles and clear me as I know you 30 LINCOLN TALKS can." "This is curious. Here are a half-dozen witnesses on the back of this indictment who will swear that you stole the hogs." "Well, I can't help that." The man was very calm and yet he had a peculiar quiz on his face, something that meant certain confidence in his acquittal. They returned into the court and pleaded "Not guilty." All the witnesses swore that the defendant stole the hogs and sold them to various persons; it was a plain case of hog stealing. About the time that the prosecuting attorney was to end his opening speech, the criminal leaned over to Lincoln and said: "Pitch in, go it on general principles with a whoop and a yell, I'll be cleared, you bet." Lincoln rose and ran over the evidence quickly; he saw that all the jury were intent on every word he said; he likewise noticed that the jury paid no attention to the prosecution speech. Lincoln then asked the Court to give this instruction: "If the jury on all the evidence in this case have any reasonable doubts of the de- fendant's guilt they will find the defendant not guilty." The jury retired and was gone to deliberate on their verdict for about an hour. The sheriff led the jury to their seats; the clerk read their verdict aloud: "Not guilty." Lincoln took the man out of the courthouse and walked away from the hearing of every person, and said: "I do not understand this case at all, but would like to know the inside of it, all the facts from top to bottom." The man at last said: "Well, Lincoln, I'll tell you. I did steal the hogs and more of 'em than I was indicted for, many more, and sold 'em to my neighbors, the jury; they knew that if I was con- victed that they would have to pay for the hogs that I sold them. Now, Lincoln, do you see where the joke comes in?" Lincoln used to tell the story on Circuit with great gusto and to the delight of his brother attorneys of the bar, saying: "That case beat me, badly, more than any I ever had." — Herndon LAWYER 31 CLOTHES Mr. Lincoln, while practicing law in Illinois, wore clothes made of plain, cheap material, and did not seem to know whether they fitted him or not. Mr. Lincoln was, in the absence of the judge, chosen by both parties to try an action brought by a merchant against a rich farmer, for a suit of clothes sold to his minor son. The farmer refused to pay the bill because the clothes were bought without his authority. The question of law was whether the clothes, the cost being $28, were extravagant, in which case the farmer would not be obliged to pay, or were such as were befitting the young man's condition in life. Mr. Lincoln, sitting in the case as judge without a jury, decided that the clothes were extravagant, and, therefore, not suitable to the young man, adding: "I have very rarely in my life had a suit of clothes that cost $28." —Leonard Swett. HOGS Lincoln, attending one of the neighboring Circuit Courts above Springfield, was employed to aid a young county attorney to prosecute some reputed hog thieves. The crime of hog stealing had become so common that the people were considerably excited and an example was determined on. The first person tried was acquitted on a pretty clear alibi or pretty hard swearing. As the fellow thus acquitted was lounging round the courthouse, Lincoln was passing, and he hailed him: "Well, Mr. Lincoln, I reckon you got the wrong sow by the ear when you undertook to pen me up." "So it seems," replied Lincoln, blandly, "but really you must excuse me, pigs are so very much alike! In fact, people up here don't all seem to know their own." —Lincolniana. 32 LINCOLN TALKS SILENCE It was decidedly the worst case I ever handled, and my client was rather the meanest specimen of alleged manhood in the cir- cuit. He was the son of a man who had grown rich by the accident of getting to the central section of Illinois at an early day and lo- cating a large tract of land. The son grew up with the idea that his money could do anything, and so it was not necessary for him to make an effort— not even to be a gentleman. He paid his addresses to a young woman of high character and some beauty, who had to work for a living. She rejected him and he circulated slanderous reports about her. There wasn't a word to be said for him; but when suit was brought against him, her parents made the mistake of employing, because they wanted to help him, a young fellow who was set on practicing law, but had not a qualification for the business. Seeing, however, that they had made a mistake, they employed Lincoln as associate counsel. The rule of the court then was that the plaintiff had the opening and closing speech; and Air. Lincoln, finding that his colleague was de- termined to have half the time, of course gave the young fellow the first speech. It was plain as a pike staff that if Abe Lincoln addressed that jury of level-headed old farmers for one hour, or even half an hour, before they went out, my client, the slanderer, was a ruined man. That jury would have "sized his pile" and left him barely enough to pay costs. But with all his astuteness Abe had overlooked the rule of pleading, that if the defense waived its right to reply, there could be no second speech, and I knew too well that nothing I could say would help my client. Well, the young lawyer opened for the plaintiffs. He maundered and mumbled, backed out and repeated himself, read long and dry decisions and botched his case generally till everybody was tired out and disgusted. The jury was yawning and all the court at- LAWYER 33 tendants were wishing for him to stop— they wanted to hear Abe. Well, when he sat down and everybody drew a breath of relief, I rose, and in the fewest possible words waived my right to reply and asked that the case be given to the jury. And it was done. There was nothing else for the Court to do under the rule. Lincoln looked sour for a while, but the humor of the thing soon brought him round. The jury gave the girl fair damages, but it was nothing to what people expected. And then, as a proper wind-up, my mean-spirited client kicked because I didn't "make a speech and try to do somethin' for him." He didn't know, hadn't sense enough to know, that this was a case where silence was golden— and the gold into his pocket. -Col. J. H. Wickizer. CROOKED FENCE Judge Scott recalled a trespass action brought by a young law- yer to recover damages done to his client's crops by the hogs of a neighboring farmer. The right of action under the law of Illinois [said Judge Scott] depended on the fact whether plaintiff's fence was sufficient to turn ordinary stock. There was some little conflict in the evidence on that question, but the weight of the testimony was decidedly in favor of plaintiff, and sustained beyond all doubt his cause of action. Mr. Lincoln appeared for the defendant. There was no con- troversy as to the damage done by defendant's stock. The only thing in the case that could possibly admit of any discussion was the condition of plaintiff's fence; and as the testimony on that question seemed to be in favor of plaintiff, and as the sum involved was little in amount, Mr. Lincoln did not deem it necessary to argue the case seriously, but by way of saying something in behalf of his client, he told a story about a fence that was so crooked that when a hog went through an opening in it, invariably it came out on the same side from which it started. His description of the 34 LINCOLN TALKS confused look of the hog after several times going through the fence and still finding itself on the side from which it had started was a humorous specimen of the best telling. The effect was to make the plaintiff's case appear ridiculous; and while Mr. Lincoln did not attempt to apply the story to the case, the jury seemed to think it had some kind of application to the fence in controversy— otherwise he would not have told it— and shortly returned a verdict for the defendant. —Judge Scott. CASE OF THE COLT Two farmers went to law about a young colt. One brought thirty-four witnesses, who testified that they had known the colt from the day of its birth; that it belonged to him. Thirty other men swore they also had known it from its birth; that it belonged to the other man. There had been two colts, but one was missing. Everybody said they were so nearly alike in size and color it was not possible to say which was which. "Let the mares be brought into the case as witnesses," said the judge. He leaves the bench, and goes with all the lawyers and a great crowd of people to see and hear what the animals will say. The two mares are brought into the public square, and the colt let loose. It whinnies for its mother. There is an answering whinny from one of the mares, and the colt runs to her side and will not leave her. What ought the jury to do? Thirtv-four men have testified on one side, and thirty on the other. They all say they have known the colt from its birth, and that they cannot be deceived. Shall the actions of the animals be accepted as evidence? "May it please Your Honor," said Lincoln, "I submit that the voice of Nature in the colt and its mother is of far more impor- tance than the testimony of man. This is a case in which the argu- ment is as to the weight of evidence. It is a civil suit, and we want to find out who owns the colt. It is a case in which the jury must decide according to the weight of evidence. Now, gentlemen of the LAWYER 35 jury, if you were going to bet as to which of the mares is the mother, on which would you risk your money— even if it was not more than a picayune? On which is the preponderance of evi- dence? Possibly you might not be right, but that is not the ques- tion. It is whether you will accept the testimony of thirty men and the silence of one of the mares on the one side, or the testi- mony of thirty-four men, the other mare, and the colt on the other side?" The jury had no difficulty in deciding just as they would have bet their money. — Herndon. OX TEAM CASE Mr. Cass had a case in court. He owned two yoke of oxen and a breaking-up plow which he wanted to sell, and which Mr. Snow's two sons bought, giving their note in payment. Neither of the boys had arrived at the age of manhood. Mr. Cass trusted that they would pay the note when it became due; but it was not paid. Abra- ham Lincoln questioned a witness. "Can you tell me where the oxen are now?" he asked. "They are on the farm where the boys have been plowing." "Have you seen them lately?" "I saw them last week." "How old are the boys now?" "One is a little over twenty-one, and the other is nearly twenty- three." "They were both under age when the note was given?" "Yes, sir." "That is all. "Gentlemen of the jury: I do not think that those boys would have tried to cheat Mr. Cass out of his oxen but for the advice of their counsel. It was bad advice in morals and in law. The law never sanctions cheating, and a lawyer must be very smart indeed to twist the law so that it will sanction fraud. The judge will tell 36 LINCOLN TALKS you what your own sense of justice has already told you— that if those boys were mean enough to plead the baby act when they came to be men, they at least ought to have taken the oxen and plow back to Mr. Cass. They ought to know that they cannot go back on their contract and also keep what the note was given for." The jury, without leaving their seats, rendered a verdict, and the young men were obliged to pay for the oxen and plow. —Frederick T. Hill: Lincoln the Lawyer. HOROLOGICAL CASE The Horological Case, having a scientific and mechanical turn, immediately interested Lincoln and he took full charge of the examination of the exhibits and drawings, and argued the case in person. Mr. Lincoln was telling me about the case and included a de- scription of the apparatus; I then ventured to ask him how to stop the thing when in motion. "There's the rub," he replied, laughing, "and I reckon I'll have to answer you as I did the judge who asked the same question. The thing's like some of the glib and interesting talkers you and I know, John; when it gets to going it doesn't know when to stop." —John W. Bunn. STUBBORN JUROR Lincoln told how he was once employed to prosecute a suit for a divorce; his client was a very gentle, refined, and interesting woman. The defendant was a rather gross, morose, querulous, fault-finding, cross, and uncomfortable person, entirely unfitted for the husband of such a woman. And though Lincoln was able to prove the use of very offensive and vulgar epithets applied by the man to his wife, and all sorts of annoyances, but no such acts of personal violence assigned by the statute to justify a divorce, he did the best he could and appealed to the jury to have com- LAWYER 37 passion on the woman and not bind her to such a man and such a life as awaited her as the wife of such a man. The jury took about the same view of it in their deliberations. They desired to find for her, but could find no evidence which would really justify a verdict for her, and drew up a verdict for the defendant, and all signed but one, who, when asked to do so, said: "Gentlemen, I am going to lie down to sleep and when you get ready to give a verdict for that woman, wake me up, for before I will give a verdict against her I will lie here until I rot, and the pismires carry me out through the keyhole." —Grant Goodrich to Herndon, in The Hidden Lincoln. COWHIDING CASE The first time I saw Lincoln as a lawyer was in the old Morgan County courthouse, at Jacksonville, when he was defending Colo- nel Dunlap, a wealthy, aristocratic Democrat, in an action for $10,- ooo damages, brought against him by the editor of what was then called the abolition paper. The action grew out of a deliberately planned and severe cowhiding administered by the Colonel to the editor, on a bright Saturday afternoon, in the public square, in the presence of hundreds of the town and country people whom the Colonel desired to witness that novel and exciting performance. Be- sides local counsel, the editor had employed Ben. Edwards, who was the most noted for eloquence of all the Democratic lawyers in the State. Colonel Dunlap retained Lincoln as one of his lawyers for the defense. I ran off from my recitations for the sole purpose of hearing Lin- coln. Edwards used all the arts of the orator and advocate. He pic- tured, until it could almost be felt, the odium and disgrace to the editor, which he declared were worse than death. He wept, and made the jury and spectators weep. The feelings of those in the courthouse were roused to the highest pitch of indignation against the perpetrator of such an outrage. It was felt that all the Colonel's 38 LINCOLN TALKS fortune could not compensate for the lawless indignity, ani that the editor would in all probability recover the full $10,000. No pos- sible defense or extenuation existed. Before all eyes were dried, it was Lincoln's turn to speak. He dragged his feet off the table, on the top of which they had been resting, set them on the floor, gradually lifted up and straightened out his great length of legs and body, and took off his coat. While removing his coat it was noticed by all present that his eyes were intently fixed upon something on the table before him. He picked up the object, a paper, scrutinized it closely, and, without uttering a word, indulged in a long, loud laugh, accompanied by his most wonderfully grotesque facial expression. There was never any- thing like the laugh or the expression. It was magnetic. The whole audience grinned. Then he laid the paper down slowly, took off his cravat, again picked up the paper, re-examined it, and repeated the laugh. It was contagious. He then deliberately removed his vest, showing his one yarn suspender, took up the paper, again looked at it curiously, and again indulged in his peculiar laugh. Its effect was absolutely irresistible. The usually solemn and dignified Judge Woodson, members of the jury, and the whole audience joined in the merriment, and all this before Lincoln had spoken a single word. When the laughter had subsided, he apologized to the court for his seemingly rude behavior and explained that the amount of damages claimed by the editor was at first written $1000. He sup- posed the plaintiff afterwards had taken a second look at the colo- nel's pile and concluded that the wounds to his honor were worth an additional $9000. The result was at once to destroy the effect of Edwards's tears, pathos, towering indignation, and high-wrought eloquence, and to render improbable a verdict for more than $1000. Lincoln immediately and fully admitted that the plaintiff was entitled to a judgment for some amount, argued in mitigation of damages, told a funny story applicable to the peculiar nature of LAWYER 39 the case, and specially urged the jury to agree upon some amount. The verdict was for a few hundred dollars, and was entirely satis- factory to Lincoln's client. —Judge Abram Bergen. LEG ROOM Court being held in a very small and dilapidated schoolhouse out in the country, Lincoln was compelled to stoop very much in order to enter the door, and the seats were so low that he doubled up his legs like a jackknife. He was obliged to sit upon a school bench, and the distance between him and the seat in front of him was very narrow and uncomfortable. In order to carry out his preference, which he secured as often as possible, "to sit as near to the jury as convenient," he took ad- vantage of his discomfort and finally said to the judge on the bench: "Your Honor, with your permission, I'll sit up nearer to the gentlemen of the jury, for it hurts my legs less to rub my calves against the bench than it does to skin my shins." —Henry L. Williams. SUBSCRIPTION FOR LAMON Mr. Lincoln was attending the Circuit Court which met at Bloomington, Illinois. The prosecuting attorney Lamon was a man of great physical strength, and took particular pleasure in athletic sports, and was so fond of wrestling that his power and experience rendered him a formidable and generally successful opponent. One pleasant day in the fall Lamon was wrestling near the court- house with someone who had challenged him to a trial, and in the scuffle made a large rent in the rear of his unmentionables. Before he had time to make any change he was called into court to take up a case. The evidence was finished, and Lamon got up to address the jury, and having on a somewhat short coat his misfortune was 40 LINCOLN TALKS rather apparent. One of the lawyers, for a joke, started a subscrip- tion paper, which was passed from one member of the bar to an- other as they sat by a long table fronting the bench, to buy a pair of pantaloons for Lamon, "he being," the paper said, "a poor but worthy young man." Several put their names down with some ludicrous subscription, and finally the paper was laid by someone in front of Mr. Lincoln on a plea that he was engaged in writing at the time. He quietly glanced over the paper, and immediately took up his pen and wrote after his name: "I can contribute noth- ing to the end in view." — Herndon. PRIMA FACIE A man named Anderson had been murdered in his back yard, and his wife, with Theodore Anderson, a cousin of the husband, was arrested, charged with the crime. Stuart, Edwards, and Matheny were employed to defend, and John E. Rosette, a young attorney, helped them in the trial, looking up the law and putting papers where they would be handy. Lincoln was not then a mem- ber of the firm. General Linder was assisting to prosecute, and it was known that he was primed for a great effort. When the trial came on Lincoln was there in the courtroom. It was known that he had been offered a fee to help prosecute. They would have a hard enough time with Linder's eloquence. They did not want to see Lincoln help prosecute. So they determined to offer him a fee of $100 to help them defend. They offered him the fee and he accepted it. All he did was to talk with Rosette, as if consulting with him. Linder, seeing Lincoln talking with the helpful young attorney, made the mistake of believing Rosette was the defendant, and turned from a terrible and convincing denun- ciation of the handsome widow of the murdered man and pointed to Rosette. "Look at him, gentlemen," he cried, "here on trial for his life, sullying the books of the law with his blood-red hands of murder. LAWYER 41 He has the face of a murderer, the assurance of a murderer, and the — " "Hold on, General Linder," said Lincoln, quietly. "This is Mr. Rosette, an attorney of record in this court, and engaged in assisting the defense. That mild youth over there is Theodore Anderson, the man accused." —Illinois State Journal, 1895. THE COURT'S REPOSE No one enjoyed Lincoln's courtroom humor more than Judge Davis. During a tedious and uninteresting trial held in the circuit court at Bloomington one warm summer afternoon, Lincoln, while arguing for one of the litigants, thought that the corpulent jurist had fallen asleep on the bench. Believing it would be a great joke to catch the judge napping, Lincoln exclaimed in a voice loud enough to awaken the soundest sleeper: "If it please Your Honor, and the Court will wake up, we are ready to submit our cause for instructions to the jury on the pleadings and testimony." Of course, the case had not actually advanced to that point, but Judge Davis, who had been listening attentively with his eyes closed, immediately straightened up in his chair and replied: "The Court has been waiting on Counsel Lincoln for his argument on the part of the plaintiff for over an hour. This has not been made. If it had been, the Court could have reposed comfortably the whole time; but as the case is submitted without argument on the written pleadings and the testimony, the jury will find " And Judge Davis thereupon instructed the jury concerning the law involved in the case. The joke was on Lincoln, as he was deprived of his oral argu- ment to the jury. But he joined in the laughter and increased the merriment by adding: "If it please Your Honor, I will be pleased to make an argument any time, whenever it will bring comfort and repose to the Court." —Judge David Davis. 4* LINCOLN TALKS THE COURTS KNOWLEDGE Lincoln, in arguing a case before a court, gave a most compre- hensive history of the law involved in the matter. On the way back to the office the junior partner asked why he went "so far back in the history of the law," for he "presumed" the court knew that. "That's where you're mistaken," replied Lincoln. "I dared not trust the case on the presumption that the court knows everything. In fact I argued on the presumption that the court didn't know anything." — Herndon. WITNESS James Quarles, a distinguished lawyer of Tennessee, Lincoln said, was trying a case, and, after producing his evidence, rested, whereupon the defense produced a witness who swore Quarles completely out of court, and a verdict was rendered accordingly. After the trial one of his friends came to him and said: "Why didn't you get that fellow to swar on your side?" "I didn't know anything about him," replies Quarles. "I might have told you about him," said the friend, "for he would swar for you jest as hard as he'd swar for the other side. That's his business, Judge, the feller takes in swarin' for a livin'." —James Quarles. A JUDGE TRAPPED I remember once that while several of us lawyers were together, including Judge Davis, Lincoln suddenly asked a novel question of court practice, addressed to no one particularly, to which the judge, who was in the habit, certainly, of appropriating his full share of any conversation, replied, stating what he understood the practice should be. Lincoln thereat laughed and said: "I asked that question, hoping that you would answer. I have that very question to present to the LAWYER 43 Court in the morning, and I am glad to find out that the Court is on my side." —Whitney: Lincoln on the Circuit. Judge Harriet of Pekin, Illinois, had been promoted from the of- fice of justice of the peace to that of Circuit judge. He was some- what uncertain in his opinions and frequently responded to coun- sel: "I don't know about that." He repeated and emphasized the remark to Lincoln: "I don't know about that, I don't know about that." Lincoln looked at the judge and said: "I knew Your Honor didn't know about it and that's why I told you." — Herndon. ON THE BENCH Several of us lawyers in the eastern end of the Circuit annoyed Lincoln once while he was holding court for Davis by attempting to defend against a note to which there were many makers. We had no legal, but a good moral defense, but what we wanted most of all was to stave it off till the next term of court by one expedient or another. We bothered "the court" about it till late on Saturday, the day of adjournment. He adjourned for supper with nothing left but this case to dispose of. After supper he heard our twaddle for nearly an hour, and then made this odd entry. "L. D. Chaddon vs. J. D. Beasley et al. April Term, 1856, Cham- paign County Court. Plea in abatement by B. Z. Green, a de- fendant, not served; filed Saturday at 11 o'clock a.m., April 24, 1856, stricken from the files by order of court. Demurrer to dec- laration, if there ever was one, overruled. Defendants who are served now, at 8 o'clock p.m. of the last day of the term, ask to plead to the merits, which is denied by the court on the ground that the offer comes too late, and therefore, as by nil dicet, judg- 44 LINCOLN TALKS ment is rendered for Pl'fT. Clerk assess damages. A. Lincoln, Judge pro tern." The lawyer who reads this singular entry will appreciate its oddity if no one else does. After making it, one of the lawyers, on recovering from his astonishment, ventured to inquire: "Well, Lincoln, how can we get this case up again?" Lincoln eyed him quizzically for a moment, and then answered: "You have all been so mighty smart about this case, you find out how to take it up again yourselves." —Whitney. STEAMBOAT In one lawsuit Lincoln was opposed by a lawyer who was a glib court room orator but a shallow thinker given to reckless and irresponsible statements. "My friend on the other side," Lincoln said, "is all right, or would be all right if it were not for a physico-mental peculiarity which I am about to explain. "His habit— of which you have witnessed a very painful speci- men in his argument to you in this case— of reckless assertion with- out grounds, need not be imputed to him as a moral fault or blemish. He can't help it. The oratory of the gentleman com- pletely suspends all action of his mind. "I never knew of but one thing which compared with my friend in this particular. That was a steamboat. Back in the days when I performed my part as a keel boatman, I made the acquaintance of a trifling little steamboat which used to bustle and puff and wheeze about in the Sangamon River. It had a five-foot boiler and a seven-foot whistle, and every time it whistled the boat stopped." —Sen. Daniel W. Voorhees. LAZINESS The first term of Davis's court I attended, the judge was calling through the docket for the first time, in order to dispose of such LAWYER 45 cases as could be done summarily, and likewise to sort the chaff from the wheat, when he came across a long bill in chancery, drawn by an excellent, but somewhat indolent lawyer, on glancing at which, he exclaimed: "Why, Brother Snap, how did you rake up energy enough to get up such a long bill?" "Dunno, Jedge," replied the party addressed, squirming in his seat and uneasily scratching his head; The judge unfolded and held up the bill. "Astonishing, ain't it? Brother Snap did it. Wonderful, eh, Lincoln?" This amounted to an order on Lincoln to heave a joke in at this point, and he was ready of course. He had to be, he never failed. "It's like the lazy preacher," drawled he, "that used to write long sermons, and the ex- planation was, he got to writin', and was too lazy to stop." —Whitney. CUSTOM AND LAW A lawyer opposed to Lincoln tried to convince a jury that prece- dent was superior to law, and that custom made things legal in all cases. When Lincoln rose to answer, he told the jury he would argue his case in the same way. Said he: "Old Squire Bagley, from Menard, came into my office, and said: 'Lincoln, I want your ad- vice as a lawyer. Has a man what's been elected justice of the peace a right to issue a marriage license?' I told him he had not; when the old squire threw himself back in his chair very indignantly, and said: 'Lincoln, I thought you was a lawyer. Now, Bob Thomas and me had a bet on this thing, and we agreed to let you decide; but if this is your opinion, I don't want it, for I know a thunderin' sight better, for I have been squire for eight years, and have done it all the time.' " -T. W. S. Kidd. ALONE Lincoln told of a case in which a man was charged with mis- treating a livery-stable horse. A witness testified: "When his com- 46 LINCOLN TALKS pany rides fast he rides fast, and when his company rides slow he rides slow." "I want to know," said the important lawyer for the other side, "how he rides when he is alone." "W-e-1-1," said the witness, a slow talker, "I— never— was— with— him— when— he— was— alone; so— I don't know." —Wordsworth: Lincoln Anecdotes. SCOTCHING It is well understood by the profession that lawyers do not read authorities favoring the opposite side. I once heard Mr. Lincoln, in the Supreme Court of Illinois, reading from a reported case some strong points in favor of his argument. Reading a little too far, and before becoming aware of it, he plunged into an authority against himself. Pausing a moment, he drew up his shoulders in a comical way, and half laughing, went on: "There, there, may it please the Court, I reckon I've scotched up a snake. But, as I'm in for it, I guess I'll read it through." Then, in his most ingenious and matchless manner, he went on with his argument, and won his case, convincing the court that "it was not much of a snake after all." —Gen. Mason Brayman. SHIRTS While Judge Logan was Lincoln's partner, two farmers, who had a misunderstanding respecting a horse-trade, went to law. By mutual consent the partners in law became antagonistic in this case. On the day of the trial, Mr. Logan, having bought a new shirt, open in the back and with a huge standing collar, dressed himself in extreme haste and put on the shirt with the bosom at the back, a linen coat concealing the blunder. He dazzled the jury with his knowledge of "horse points," and as the day was sultry took of! his coat and summed up in his shirt sleeves. Lincoln, sitting behind him. LAWYER 47 took in the situation, and when his turn came, remarked to the jury: "Gentlemen, Mr. Logan has been trying for over an hour to make you believe that he knows more about a horse than these honest old farmers who are witnesses; he has quoted largely from his 'horse doctor'; and now, gentlemen, I submit to you" (here he lifted Logan out of his chair and turned him with his back to the jury and the crowd, at the same time flipping up the enormous standing collar), "what dependence can you place in his horse knowledge, when he has not sense enough to put on his shirt?" — Lamon. CHALLENGED JURY A lawyer challenged a juror because of his personal acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln, who appeared for the other side. Such an objec- tion was regarded as more or less a reflection upon the honor of an attorney in those days, and Judge Davis, who was presiding at the time, promptly overruled the challenge; but when Lincoln rose to examine the jury, he gravely followed his adversary's lead and be- gan to ask the talesmen whether they were acquainted with his op- ponent. After two or three had answered in the affirmative, how- ever, His Honor interfered. "Now, Mr. Lincoln," he observed severely, "you are wasting time. The mere fact that a juror knows your opponent does not disqualify him." "No, Your Honor," responded Lincoln dryly. "But I am afraid some of the gentlemen may not know him, which would place me at a disadvantage." —Judge Lawrence Weldon. JOHNNIE KONGAPOD When James C. Conkling was yet a novice in the law practice, he was retained as the attorney for the defendant in a case in which Lincoln appeared for the plaintiff. After all the testimony had been 48 LINCOLN TALKS offered, Lincoln felt certain that the verdict would be for his client, so he waived the opening argument to the jury and leaned back in his chair to listen to this inexperienced opponent sum up his case for the defense. Conkling believed that, unless he made an extraordinary appeal in behalf of his client, he would be completely eclipsed when the veteran Lincoln made the closing address. So the young man spoke long and eloquently in the not unusual sophomoric style of the beginner. Lincoln arose to reply, but Conkling was amazed that his able opponent made no reference to the evidence on his own lengthy arguments. Lincoln, certain of victory, just joked with the jury and concluded by saying: "Gentlemen of the jury: in early days there lived in this vicinity, over on the Sangamon River, an old Indian of the Kickapoo tribe by the name of Johnnie Kongapod. He had been taken in charge by some good missionaries, converted to Christianity and educated to such extent that he could read and write. He took a great fancy to poetry and became somewhat of a poet himself. His desire was that after his death there would be placed at the head of his grave an epitaph which he prepared himself in rhyme in the following words: " 'Here lies poor Johnnie Kongapod; Have mercy on him, gracious God, As he would do if he were God— And you were Johnnie Kongapod.' " It was all sheer nonsense and had no direct application to the case on hearing. It was merely his way of ridiculing the sophomoric eloquence of defendant's counsel. As he had expected, the jury's verdict was for the plaintiff. —Usher F. Linder. ERUDITION When a lawyer opposed to him in a case made use of a Latin maxim in order to impress his hearers with his erudition, and asked LAWYER 49 Lincoln: "Is not that so?" Lincoln dryly replied: "If that is Latin, I think you had better call another witness." -Woldman MS. SAMARITAN When I was nineteen years of age I located in Chicago, and com- menced the practice of law. One of my first cases was in the United States Court. The opposing counsel was Isaac N. Arnold, then at the head of the Chicago bar. I had filed a demurrer to Mr. Arnold's pleadings in the cause, and when the case was reached on the calen- dar I was quite nervous at having such a formidable and experi- enced antagonist, while the dignity of the tribunal and the presence of a large number of lawyers in the court all aided to increase my timidity and embarrassment. I was young, inexperienced, and nat- urally felt diffident and nervous; in fact, I was willing that any dis- position should be made of the case, so I could get rid of it. I was ready to adopt any suggestion of the opposing counsel which would relieve me from my embarrassing situation. I wanted to get away from the ordeal as soon as possible. Mr. Arnold made an ar- gument in which he criticized my demurrer in a manner that greatly tended to increase my confusion. However, I had to make an effort. I said but little, and that in a very bewildered manner, and was about ready to sit down and let the case go by default, as it were, when a tall, homely, loose- jointed man sitting in the bar, whom I had noticed as giving close attention to the case, arose and addressed the court in behalf of the position I had assumed in my feeble argument, making the points so clear that when he closed, the Court at once sustained my de- murrer. I did not know who my volunteer friend was, but Mr. Arnold got up and attempted to rebuke him for interfering in the matter, when I for the first time heard that he was Abe Lincoln of Springfield. Mr. Lincoln, in his good-natured reply to Mr. Arnold's strictures on his interference, said that he claimed the privilege of giving a $0 LINCOLN TALKS young lawyer a boost when struggling with his first case, espe- cially if he was pitted against an experienced practitioner. Of course, I thanked him, and departed from the court as proud as a field marshal. I never saw Mr. Lincoln again, and he died without ever knowing who the young, struggling lawyer was he had as- sisted and rescued from defeat in his maiden effort before a United States tribunal. —Sen. Joe Blackburn. TEACHER Lincoln had already attained a very considerable local reputa- tion, while Colonel Hosmer was just at that particular time a sorely embarrassed and confused young attorney struggling with his first really important matter in court. In the midst of his perplexity he felt a kindly hand laid upon his shoulder. He looked up and found Lincoln bending over him, smiling encouragingly. "Young man," he heard him say, "I know more about this sort of thing than you do; let us see if I can't help you out." Then seat- ing himself beside him he skillfully coached the tyro to a successful conclusion. —Col. James R. Hosmer. DISBARMENT Abraham Lincoln, respected and admired by all the young law- yers of the Illinois bar who knew him, was assigned one day to the unpleasant task of reprimanding a youthful barrister against whom disbarment proceedings had been brought. As a law student serving his apprenticeship in the office of a member of the Bloomington bar, this young man had learned some valuable information concerning the business of a client of his preceptor. Shortly after the student's admission to the bar, his pre- ceptor filed a suit in the Circuit Court at Bloomington on behalf of this client, the litigation being based on the very information which had passed through the hands of the young man. LAWYER 51 When the case came up for trial, to the great surprise of the older lawyer, his former apprentice appeared as counsel for the defendant. It soon became apparent that the student had disclosed to his client the confidential information he had learned in his pre- ceptor's office. At the disbarment proceedings which followed, the young law- yer regretfully admitted his indiscretion and beseeched Judge Davis to show leniency and spare him from the impending dis- grace. He would voluntarily leave the bar and the county, he pleaded, and with tears in his eyes he begged for the dismissal of the disbarment proceedings so he could start anew in some other State. Judge Davis was inclined to grant the request, but he was deter- mined that this young lawyer who had disgraced his profession should not leave without first receiving a severe and open reproof for his offense. Seeing Abraham Lincoln in the crowded court- room, Judge Davis called him to the bench and urged him to con- vey to the young man the censure and indignation of the bar. In a low voice, which expressed the sorrow he felt, Lincoln ad- dressed the recreant. "Sir," he said, "you have polluted the ermine of this court of justice, that should be as pure and spotless as the driven snow or the light of the brightest stars in the firmament. Justice is not a fiction; and though it is often held to be a sentiment only, or a remote ideal, it is real, and it is founded and guarded on all sides by the strongest powers of Divine and human law. The court will not pronounce your disbarment; you have done that yourself. The people will trust no one, without sincere reforma- tion, who has been wrong and reckless, as you admit, in one of the most confiding relations that ever exists between men. "A client appears in court by his lawyer so often and the custom so generally prevails that if he is not represented by honorable and trustworthy counsel, the right is of little value and he is virtually denied the justice to which our law entitles him. The Wisest has said that 'no man can serve two masters.' In your default you have A ^ / *£ 52 LINCOLN TALKS used the information obtained in your preceptor's office while he was counsel for the plaintiff. You have done so when you were counsel for defendant, his adversary in the action, using such in- formation surreptitiously and without permission of the plaintiff, who fully confided in your preceptor as counsel and in you be- cause of your relation of law student in his office. In this way you have been using the knowledge which you have gained from both parties in a way that no faithful and conscientious lawyer should do, and certainly very much to the detriment of one of them. "A lawyer who becomes by his admission to the bar of any of our courts part of the judicial establishment of the land should have integrity beyond question or reproach. Courts of law as of equity can sustain no other without themselves becoming venal and corrupt. A tarnished lawyer is a homeless man. Therefore seek un- til you find a real reformation in honest work, and the court will approve." When Abraham Lincoln finished these impromptu remarks the deep silence which prevailed in the courtroom was broken only by the soft sobbing of the contrite youth. The impressive words so firm with reproof yet filled with genuine sympathy had accom- plished their purpose. The older lawyer slowly walked over to the young man, took hold of his hand and said: "We bid thee Godspeed in a work that will make you a better man." In sorrowful silence Lincoln then returned to his seat. -Woldman MS. THE LAWYER AS PEACEMAKER "Discourage litigation," was Lincoln's advice to lawyers. "Per- suade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser— in fees, ex- penses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a su- perior opportunity of becoming a good man. There will always be enough business. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely LAWYER 53 be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it." — Nicolay and Hay. SETTLEMENT I once got into difficulty with a neighbor about the line between our farms. I went to Mr. Lincoln to secure him. Mr. Lincoln said: "Now, if you go on with this, it will cost both of your farms, and will entail an enmity that will last for generations and perhaps lead to murder. The other man has just been here to engage me. Now, I want you two to sit down in my office while I am gone to dinner and talk it over, and try to settle it. And, to secure you from any interruption, I will lock the door." He did so, and he did not return all the afternoon. We two men, finding ourselves shut up together, began to laugh. This put us in good humor, and by the time Mr. Lincoln returned, the matter was settled. —Told to the Rev. N. W. Miner by a farmer. NEIGHBORS When Lincoln was riding to Lewiston to try a case in the Circuit Court, a farmer hailed him and sought to retain him to "git the law" on Jim Adams, a neighbor, concerning a land line dispute. "Uncle Tommy, you haven't had any fight with Jim, have you?" Lincoln asked. "No." "He's a fair to middling neighbor, isn't he?" "Only tol'able, Abe." "He's been a neighbor of yours for a long time, hasn't he?" "Nigh onto fifteen years." "Part of the time you get along all right, don't you?" 54 LINCOLN TALKS "I reckon we do, Abe." "Well, now, Uncle Tommy, you see this horse of mine?" And he pointed to his plodding, weatherbeaten nag. "He isn't as good a horse as I could straddle and I sometimes get out of patience with him, but I know his faults. He does fairly well as horses go, and it might take me a long time to get used to some other horse's faults. You and Uncle Jimmy must put up with each other, as I and my horse do with one another." — Woldman MS. COMPASSION "I could have got a judgment against Turley, if I had pressed to the utmost; but I am really sorry for him— poor and a cripple as he is. He begs time to try to find evidence to prove that the deceased on his death bed ordered the note to be given up to him or de- stroyed." —Lincoln in a letter to his client L. M. Hays, in Hertz: Lincoln. A GOOD CASE After listening some time one day to a would-be client's state- ment, with his eyes on the ceiling, he suddenly swung around in his chair, and exclaimed: "Well, you have got a good case in tech- nical law, but a pretty bad one in equity and justice. You'll have to get some other fellow to win this case for you. I couldn't do it. All the time while standing talking to that jury I'd be thinking: 'Lin- coln, you're a liar,' and I believe I should forget myself and say it out loud." —Gen. John H. Littlefield. FEES AND DUNS "I have news from Ottawa that we win our Gallatin and Salem County case. As the Dutch justice said when he married folks, 'Now vere ish my huntred tollars?' " —Lincoln in a letter to Andrew McCallen, in Hertz: Lincoln. LAWYER 5$ A client sent fifty dollars for services rendered him by Lincoln. When the lawyer checked his files, he found that Kellogg did not owe him quite that amount. So he gave him a receipt reading: "Received May n, 1855, of Benjamin Kellogg, Jr., fifty dollars in full balance of all fees up to this date, and also one dollar and a quarter to be applied on the next fee." —Benjamin Kellogg, Jr., in Hertz: Lincoln. "I understand Mr. Hickox will go or send to Petersburg to- morrow for the purpose of meeting you to settle the difficulty about the wheat. I sincerely hope you will settle it— I think you can if you will, for I have always found Mr. Hickox a fair man in his dealing— if you settle, I will charge nothing for what I have done and thank you to boot. By settling, you will more likely get your money sooner, and with much less expense." —Lincoln to his client, Abraham Bale, in Angle: Lincoln. Squire Masters of Petersburg, Illinois, was once threatened with a lawsuit. He went to Springfield and had a talk with Lincoln about the case. Lincoln told him, as an old friend, that if he could not settle the case he would undertake to defend it, but he urged his friend to make an amicable adjustment. "What'll you charge, Abe, to go into court for me?" "Well," Lincoln replied, "it will cost you ten dollars; but I won't charge you anything if you can settle it between yourselves." The other party heard of the Squire's visit to Lincoln, and agreed to settle. —Lincoln Story Book. I had leased the Quincy House, at Quincy, Illinois. I employed Mr. Lincoln to execute the lease for me. He sent the lease to me at Quincy but said nothing about pay for his services. Thinking twenty-five dollars would be about right, I sent him that amount. In a few days I received a letter from Mr, Lincoln, of which the following is a copy: 56 LINCOLN TALKS "February 21, 1856: I have just received yours of the 16th inst., with check on Flagg & Savage for twenty-five dollars. You must think I am a high-priced man. You are too liberal with your money. Fifteen dollars is enough for the job. I send you a receipt for fifteen dollars and return you a ten-dollar bill. Yours truly, A. Lincoln." — W. A. Richardson. OUT-OF-TOWN CLIENTS "Whatever fees we earn at a distance, if not paid before, we hare noticed we never hear of after the work is done. We, therefore, are growing a little sensitive on that point." —Lincoln to James S. Irwin. DELAYED PAYMENT There came to Springfield an Englishman who had been in St. Louis passing himself off as a nobleman and buying land and cattle without settling his debts. Claims against him had been put in the hands of the Springfield banker, Jacob Bunn, whose brother John sat up with Lincoln nearly all of one summer night in front of the hotel where the confidence man was staying. Noticing that he was closely watched, the Englishman took Lincoln to one side and said he would pay a thousand dollars if that wiped out the claims against him. Lincoln took the offer to Bunn, who agreed to the settlement. The money was paid, and the Englishman went his way with no one at his heels. Bunn asked Lincoln what the fee would be. Lincoln answered that, if some time in the future he felt he had a fee coming, he would ask Bunn for it. And Bunn had nearly forgotten all about the fee, when one morning, as he was eating breakfast, Lincoln came in and asked for a hundred-dollar fee in the case. Bunn said he would be glad to pay the fee but wished to know why Lincoln had let the matter LAWYER 57 go so long, and why the fee should be collected in the middle of a morning breakfast. And as Bunn told it later, "Lincoln's answer was that he needed the money, not for himself, but for another who was in trouble and needed his help. Three of his friends had spent the night in a spree, had broken in almost the entire front of a grocery or saloon; they were in the sheriff's office and would be placed in jail unless someone should settle for the damage done. In a few mo- ments I secured the money and turned it over to him. He seemed more or less relieved, and hurriedly left to interview the sheriff and release his friends. I did not press him for names, but learned that two of his friends were the sons of wealthy parents and the third was his law partner. Lincoln was poorer than any of them, and yet he seemed to regard it as his duty to crawl out of his bed before daybreak to their rescue. I doubt if another man in Spring- field would have done it. No wonder Lincoln sometimes thanked God he was not born a woman!" —John W. Bunn. UNEARNED Leonard Swett, his contemporary and friend, once told me that Lincoln was not worth a cent in a case in which he did not believe. He related an incident of Lincoln and himself being appointed by Judge David Davis to defend a man indicted for murder who was supposed to be without means to retain a lawyer. However, the prisoner had friends who were able to raise one hundred dollars for his defense. The money was turned over to Swett, who handed half of it to Lincoln. When they came to consult with the prisoner, Lin- coln became convinced that he was guilty and that the only chance of saving his neck was to have him plead guilty and then appeal to the court for leniency. This was opposed by Swett, who was an ex- tremely adroit criminal lawyer. The case, therefore, came to trial, but Lincoln, though present and sitting beside Swett, took no part 58 LINCOLN TALKS in it further than to make an occasional suggestion to his associate in the course of the examination of witnesses. The outcome of the case, thanks to technicalities which unexpectedly appeared, and which Swett was not slow to take advantage of, was that the man was acquitted. When the jury rendered its verdict, Lincoln reached over Swett's shoulder, with the fifty dollars in his hand, and said: "Here, Swett, take this money. It is yours. You earned it, not I." —Leonard Swett. "splitting" lamon's fee Early in our practice a gentleman named Scott placed in my hands a case of some importance. He had a demented sister who possessed property to the amount of $10,000. A "conservator," as he was called, had been appointed to take charge of the estate, and we were employed to resist a motion to remove the conservator. A designing adventurer had become acquainted with the unfor- tunate girl, and, knowing that she had money, sought to marry her, hence the motion. Scott, the brother, and the conservator, before we entered on the case, insisted that I should fix the amount of the fee. I told him that it would be $250, adding, however, that he had better wait; it might not give us much trouble, and in that event a lesser amount would do. He agreed at once to pay $250, as he expected a hard contest over the motion. The case was tried inside of twenty minutes; our success was complete. Scott was satisfied and cheerfully paid over the money to me inside the bar, Mr. Lincoln looking on. Scott then went out, and Mr. Lincoln asked: "What did you charge that man?" I told him $250. Said he: "Lamon, that is all wrong. The service was not worth that sum. Give him back at least half of it." I protested that the fee was fixed in advance; that Scott was per- fectly satisfied, and had so expressed himself. "That may be," retorted Mr. Lincoln, with a look of distress and of undisguised displeasure, "but I am not satisfied. This is posi- LAWYER 59 tively wrong. Go, call him back and return half of the money at least, or I will not have one cent of it for my share." I did go, and Scott was astonished when I handed back half the fee. — Lamon. WINNER PAYS DAMAGES We know an old gentleman here— a wagon-maker by trade— who knew [Lincoln] well when he was just a smart young lawyer, smarter than most of them, and so sought after in difficult cases. The cartwright had a case to win or lose. On the other side the best lawyer of his little town was employed and his own was no match for him. The eventful day had come and his father-in-law quaked for the result. "Son," he said to him, "you've got just time. Take this letter to my young friend, Abe Lincoln, and bring him back in the buggy to appear in the case. Guess he'll come if he can!" So he set off. He found the young lawyer, not in his office, but at a street corner, surrounded by a troop of small urchins, he laugh- ing heartily at the fun. The letter was handed to him. But he said: "All right, wait a minute, I must clean out these young 'uns at 'knacks' first!" The operation went on amid peals of laughter. That concluded, he proceeded to accompany the son-in-law of his friend to the neighboring town. And the peals of ringing laughter continued as Abe recounted story after story in his inimitable way, so much so, that the driver says today, he never had such a job to hold his lines and guide his horse in his life. At length, so convulsed was he, that the horse guided himself— into the ditch— turned over the vehicle, upset the occupants, and smashed the buggy. "You stay behind and look after the buggy," said Lincoln. "I'll walk on." This he did in time for the court, went in and won the case. "What am I to pay you?" inquired the delighted client. 60 LINCOLN TALKS "I hope you won't think ten or fifteen dollars too much," an- swered the young lawyer, "but I'll pay the half -hire of the buggy and half the cost of getting it repaired." —Green Bag. LEGAL ADVICE When Lincoln was an obscure attorney a client who had a claim against a poor widow sought his services. He said: "We can doubt- less win the case. We can set a whole neighborhood at logger- heads; we can distress a widowed mother and her fatherless chil- dren and thereby get for you $600 to which you seem to have a legal claim. But some things legally right are not morally right. My advice to you is to try your hand at making $600 in some other way." — Herndon. ALL-ROUND SETTLEMENT A certain rich man in Springfield vindictively pursued a poor man who, as he alleged, owed him $2.50. The poor man denied the debt and would not pay. The man of wealth asked Lincoln to en- ter suit, but Abe was disinclined. Finally, however, after much per- suasion, he consented, saying that his fee would be $10, cash down. The client readily produced the $10. Lincoln went to the poor man and gave him $5 of the money on condition that he would im- mediately pay the alleged debt. This was done. The lawyer made $5, the poor man gained $2.50, and the claim was satisfied. -H.N.B. COMPROMISE Lincoln said that a farmer came into his office in Springfield one day, insisting on divorce proceedings being commenced at once. Lincoln said: "What is the difficulty?" The farmer answered: "We have got along so well that we are now rich enough to abandon the old log cabin and we have built a LAWYER 6l frame house. When the question came about painting, I wanted it painted white like our neighbors', but my wife preferred brown. Our disputes finally became quarrels. She has broken crockery, throwing it at my head, and poured scalding tea down my back and I want a divorce." Lincoln said: "My friend, man and wife should live together if possible for their own sake and the children's and endure a great deal. Now go back— and keep your temper and compromise with your wife. You could not have lived together without learning some basis upon which you can compromise any difficulty, and don't come back for a month." At the end of four weeks the farmer returned and said: "Lin- coln, you need not bring up that suit. My wife and I have com- promised." "What is the compromise?" eagerly asked Lincoln. "Well," said the farmer, "we are going to paint the house brown." — Depew. YOUNG PHYSICIAN I came to this country from Kentucky, a young man, and began the practice of medicine. Soon after I opened an office, a woman who had broken her arm at the elbow called upon me to set it. The break was a very bad one, and I could not make a good job. A rival physician prompted her to sue me for malpractice, and I was threat- ened with professional extinction at the start of my career. I wrote to Lincoln at Springfield, and asked him to undertake my case. He wrote back for me to go to the office of Leonard Swett, in my own town, and give him the facts, and that on the day of the trial he would come over and examine witnesses and make a speech. I went to Swett's office, and in the back room on a ratty lounge I saw the young man, dead drunk, asleep. I wrote to Lincoln that I would not leave my case in the hands of such a man. He wrote back to do as he told me to— leave the facts with Swett— and I did so. 6l LINCOLN TALKS That young man was the late Leonard Swett, of Chicago. He re- formed and became one of the leading lawyers of the country. The day of the trial came. Lincoln examined and cross-examined the witnesses with great skill, and made such a masterly speech that a verdict was rendered in my favor, and I was saved from financial and professional ruin at the start in life. When I asked for my bill, he said: "You are a young man just starting out upon your career. I have easily earned a hundred dol- lars. I am only going to charge you twenty-five, and I will donate the other seventy-five to a worthy young man who has been the subject of envy and malice." -Dr. Worrall. SOLDIER A young officer being indicted at Chicago for an assault on an aged gentleman, Uncle Abe began to open the case thus: "This is an indictment against a soldier for assaulting an old man." "Sir," indignantly interrupted the defendant, "I am no soldier, I am an officer!" "I beg your pardon," said Abe, grinning blandly; "then, gentle- men of the jury, this is an indictment against an officer, who is no soldier, for assaulting an old man." — Lincolniana. TRIAL SCENE Thirty years ago, the American House was Springfield's great hotel and the resort of those who loved to spend a few hours in the society of the bons vivants who there assembled— Lincoln, Douglas, Shields, Ferguson, Herndon, and many others. One evening as they were sitting in the barroom, one of the chambermaids came in and informed the landlord that, while stooping down to untie her gaiters, she saw a man under the bed. Boniface [the landlord] at once called for volunteers to secure the interloper. All volunteered. They surprised and captured the man, and brought him down to LAWYER 63 the barroom; but what to do with him? It was determined to treat him with the prompt justice peculiar to that era. A court was therefore got together at once, all expectant of fun but the unfortunate culprit. Judge Thomas Brown was decided upon to act as judge; Lam- born, the talented but eccentric state attorney, was detailed to prosecute; and Lincoln and Douglas to defend the prisoner. Dr. Wallace acted as sheriff, and upon the jury were Dr. Merry man, General Shields, John Calhoun, Uri Manly, and many other well- known personages. Lamborn took occasion to imitate the prevailing style of oratory too common in Illinois— a style in which the Hardshell-Baptist devil mingled with the rough dialect of the backwoodsman: "May it please Your Honor, and you, gentlemen of the jury: The Legislature of Illinois, though it has legislated upon every sub- ject it could think of, has omitted to pass any act against a man be- ing born as ugly as he pleases. If such an idea ever occurred to my friend Lincoln here, when in the Legislature, I know he would at once dismiss it, not only as too personal, but as repugnant to his honest heart. As for myself, I like ugly men. An ugly man stands upon his own merits. Nature has done nothing for him, and he feels that he must labor to supply the deficit by amiability and good conduct generally. There is not an ugly man in this room but has felt this. A pretty man, on the contrary, trusts his face to supply head, heart, and everything. ... I confess I don't like pretty men half so well as I do pretty women. . . . "No, gentlemen, ugliness is nothing. It is manners that are every- thing. The ugliest man that ever lived, never intentionally fright- ened a woman— nay, never was so unfortunate as to do so. But this creature, this mendacious wretch, would doubtless enter for a prize of beauty at a vanity fair— how has he failed in his duty to society? Why, gentlemen, by crawling under the bed upon which two fair damsels were about to expose their loveliness to Diana's envious gaze. Did he wish to woo them? Petruchio was rough in his woo- 64 LINCOLN TALKS ing— this man was mean! Woman loves not surprises. ... It is mystery that adds to beauty, and the woman who surrenders that to importunity or surprise, has lost half her vantage ground. The story of Gyges and Candaules' queen, if not paralleled here, is not without its moral. What else meant this wretch but to surprise these charming damsels when only armed with the light shield that the Huntress and the cotton plant throw over earthly beauty? Or, perhaps he meant more— his own guilty heart can only accuse him there. "The failure of our Legislature to provide a specific punishment for such miscreants as this is no reason why society should fold its arms and leave woman's hidden beauties to be anatomized by guilty eyes. . . . Gentlemen of the jury, where are the spirits of the fathers of the Constitution? Are they not hovering over us in the air of the still summer day? Are they not wailing upon the winds that sweep over our prairies? Are they not heard in the sigh of the mountain pine? Are they not abroad in all lands, whis- pering to earth's downtrodden millions like a voice of this creature then? Why, creeping under the bed of two girls, hazarding the chance of overturning— well, it matters not." And much more. Lincoln followed, illustrating with anecdotes meet for the place and occasion, of which I recollect only the opening. "Gentlemen of the jury," said he, "the remarks of my friend Lamborn about ugly men come home to my bosom like the sweet odors of a rose to its neighboring great sister, the cabbage. It was a grateful, a just tribute to that neglected class of the community— ugly men. "I wish to say something for my client, although it must in candor be admitted that he had 'gone to pot.' I don't see why we should throw the kettle after him; he may be the victim of cir- cumstances; he looks very bashful now, and it may be the girls scared him; who knows? At least I claim for him the benefit of a doubt. "Why, gentlemen, many of us have, or might have, suffered from a concatenation of circumstances as strong as that under which my LAWYER 6$ client labors. Let me relate a little personal anecdote in illustration. When I was making the secret canvass of this country, with my friend Cartwright, the Pioneer Preacher, we chanced to stop at the house of one of our old Kentucky farmers, whose log-cabin parlor, kitchen, and hall were blended in one, and only separated at night by sundry blankets hung up between the beds. As we were candi- dates for the august National Congress, our host treated us with the privacy of a blanket room. During the night I was awakened by someone throwing their leg over me with some force. I thought it was neighbor Cartwright, and took hold of it to give it a toss back; but it didn't feel like one of his white-oak legs, and while I was feeling it to ascertain the correctness of my half-awake doubts, a stifled scream thoroughly awakened me, and the leg was with- drawn. Why, gentlemen, would you believe me? It was the leg of our host's daughter! Imagine my position if you can! What an ap- parent breach of hospitality! While I was imagining an excuse for my conduct the old folks struck a light, and the blanket between our bed and that of the buxom damsel was discovered to have been pulled down! More damning proof, thought I. I feigned sleep, but kept one corner of my left eye open for observation. The blanket was soon fixed up, and I was greatly relieved to hear the damsel explain to her mother that she herself had invaded our bed while dreaming, caused by some undigestible vegetables she had eaten for her supper. Our host was serene and affable in the morning, and I had no need to apologize; but, gentlemen, imagine what an escape I had, and have mercy on my client." The jury returned a verdict of "guilty of scaring the girls," and the judge sentenced the culprit to be whipped in the back yard, by the girls he had scared. — Herndon. WEBSTER Lincoln and Herndon appeared for the Illinois Central Railroad in an action brought by McLean County, Illinois, in August 1853, 66 LINCOLN TALKS to recover taxes alleged to be due the county from the road. The Legislature had granted the road immunity from taxation, and this was a case intended to test the constitutionality of the law. The road sent a retainer fee of $250. In the lower court the case was decided in favor of the railroad. An appeal to the Supreme Court followed, was argued twice, and finally decided in favor of the road. This last decision was rendered some time in 1855. Lincoln then went to Chicago and presented the bill for legal services. Lincoln and Herndon asked for $2000 more. The official to whom he was referred, after looking at the bill, expressed great surprise. "Why, sir," he exclaimed, "this is as much as Daniel Webster himself would have charged! We cannot allow such a claim." "Why not?" asked Lincoln. "We could have hired first-class lawyers at that figure," was the response. "We won the case, didn't we?" queried Lincoln. "Certainly," replied the official. "Daniel Webster, then," retorted Lincoln in no amiable tone, "couldn't have done more," and Abe walked out of the official's office. —Herndon. SLANDER SUIT Mr. Lincoln rose to state his case to the jury. He was not ex- cited, but manifested a great earnestness, not only because of his client, but he also wanted to redeem himself from the implication arising from the fact that he had been, as the lawyers say, "de- murred out of court." I recall some of his opening sentences when he said: "Gentlemen of the jury: I do not believe that the best way to build up and maintain a good reputation is to go to law about it, and during my practice at the bar it has been my uniform policy to discourage slander suits. But, gentlemen, in this case, for- bearance has ceased to be a virtue, and this courtroom, dedicated LAWYER 67 to the sacred cause of justice, is the only place where my client can seek protection and vindication. If the malice of the defendant had rested satisfied with speaking the words once or twice, or even thrice, my client would have borne it in silence. But when he went from house to house, gabbling, yes, gabbling about it, then it was that my client determined to bring this suit." It would be impossible to describe the force of the word "gab- bling," as emphasized by Mr. Lincoln. It was as splendid in its dra- matic effect as the word "fail" in Richelieu, when uttered by Booth or Barrett. Another equally dramatic and powerful stroke was his direct reference to Spencer's accusation that Dungee was a "nigger." It had a curious touch of the ludicrous, by Mr. Lincoln's pronunciation of a word, which instead of detracting seemed to add to the effect. I hear him now, as he said: "Gentlemen of the jury: My client is not a Negro though it is no crime to be a Negro —no crime to be born with a black skin. But my client is not a Negro. His skin may not be as white as ours, but I say he is not a Negro, though he may be a Moore." "Mr. Lincoln," interrupted Judge Davis, scarcely able to re- strain a smile, "you mean a Moor, not Moore." "Well, your Honor, Moor, not C. H. Moore," replied Mr. Lin- coln, with a sweep of his long arm toward the table where Moore and I sat. "I say my client may be a Moor, but he is not a Negro." In the argument of the case on the testimony Mr. Lincoln made a most powerful and remarkable speech, abounding in wit, logic, and eloquence of the highest order. His thoughts were clothed in the simplest garb of expression, and in words understood by every juror in the box. After the instructions were given by the Court, the jury retired, and in a few moments returned with a judgment for the plaintiff. Said Mr. Lincoln: "Well, I will cheerfully advise my client to remit on the most favorable terms. The defendant is a fool. But he has one virtue. He is industrious and has worked hard for what he has, so I am not dis- posed to hold him responsible. If every fool was to be dealt with 68 LINCOLN TALKS by being held responsible in money for his folly, the poorhouses of the country would have to be enlarged very much beyond their present capacity." —Judge David Davis. THE CASE OF MR. WHISKY At one time (about 1855) he was in attendance upon court at the little town of Clinton, Illinois, and one of the cases on the docket was where fifteen women from a neighboring village were defendants, they having been indicted for trespass. Their offense, as duly set forth in the indictment, was that of swooping down upon one Tanner, the keeper of a saloon in the village, and knock- ing in the heads of his barrels. Lincoln was not employed in the case, but sat watching the trial as it proceeded. In defending the ladies, their attorney seemed to evince a little want of tact, and this prompted one of the former to invite Mr. Lincoln to add a few words to the jury, if he thought he could aid their cause. He was too gallant to refuse and, their attorney having consented, he made use of the following argument: "In this case I would change the order of indictment and have it read The State vs. Mr. Whisky, instead of The State vs. The Ladies; and touching these there are three laws: the law of self- protection; the law of the land, or statute law; and the moral law, or law of God. "First, the law of self-protection is a law of necessity, as evinced by our forefathers in casting the tea overboard and asserting their right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. In this case it is the only defense the ladies have, for Tanner neither feared God nor regarded man. "Second, the law of the land, or statute law, and Tanner is rec- reant to both. Third, the moral law, or law of God, and this is probably a law for the violation of which the jury can fix no pun- ishment." Lincoln gave some of his own observations on the ruinous ef- LAWYER 69 fects of whisky in society, and demanded its early suppression. After he had concluded, the Court, without awaiting the return of the jury, dismissed the ladies, saying: "Ladies, go home. I will require no bond of you, and if any fine is ever wanted of you, we will let you know." — Nicolay and Hay. TIP-TOP LAWYER It was in 1856 that I met Abraham Lincoln. I boarded in the same house with him in Bloomington, Illinois, from March 2 to June 1. At that time Mr. Lincoln was practicing law and he di- vided his time between Bloomington and Springfield. I had come to know him quite well from meeting him in the house and we often had talked together, but I always had supposed that he was one of the directors of the Illinois Central Railroad. I never had suspected that he was a lawyer and had not taken the trouble to ask anyone what his business was, although I was greatly interested in his personality. One of the men in the town owed me a bill and did not want to pay it, so I decided to ask Lincoln where I could get a good lawyer. When Mr. Lincoln came in that night, I explained the circum- stances and asked him: "Do you know where I can get a tip-top lawyer?" He may have been surprised but I did not notice it; and if he had, his quick response probably would have prevented my sus- picions from being aroused. Mr. Lincoln replied: "In the Brett Building." I went to the Brett Building and found the lawyer (I think that his name was Brett) and he collected the bill for me. Afterwards, Mr. Brett, if that was his name, said: "Who sent you to me?" and I told him: "Mr. Lincoln." He was greatly surprised and wanted to know all of the circumstances. When I had told him he said: "Why didn't Lincoln collect the bill?" Then it was my turn to show surprise and I asked if Lincoln 70 LINCOLN TALKS was a lawyer. Of course Mr. Brett assured me that he was and one of the best in the State, and then I felt disturbed. The next time I saw Lincoln I went up to him and said: "Why didn't you take that case for me?" Mr. Lincoln replied: "Because you did not want the kind of lawyer that I represent; you said that you wanted a tip-top lawyer." —Elmer F. Church. ACQUITTAL BY FORGIVENESS One of the most noted murder cases in which Lincoln defended the accused was tried in August 1859. The victim, Crafton, was a student in his own law office; the defendant, "Peachy" Harrison, was a grandson of the Reverend Peter Cartwright; both were con- nected with the best families in the county; they were brothers-in- law, and had always been friends. The two young men had engaged in a political quarrel, and Crafton was stabbed to death by Harri- son. The tragic pathos of a case which involved the deepest affec- tions of almost an entire community reached its climax in the appearance in court of the venerable Peter Cartwright. Lincoln had beaten him for Congress in 1 846. Eccentric and aggressive as he was, he was honored far and wide; and when he arose to take the witness stand, his white hair crowned with this cruel sorrow, the most indifferent spectator felt that his examination would be unbearable. It fell to Lincoln to question Cartwright. With the rarest gentleness he began to put his ques- tions. "How long have you known the prisoner?" Cartwright's head dropped on his breast for a moment; then straightening himself, he passed his hand across his eyes and an- swered in a deep quavering voice: "I have known him since a babe; he laughed and cried on my knee." The examination ended by Lincoln's drawing from the witness the story of how Crafton had said to him, just before his death: "I LAWYER 71 am dying; I will soon part with all I love on earth, and I want you to say to my slayer that I forgive him. I want to leave this earth with a forgiveness of all who have in any way injured me." This examination made a profound impression on the jury. Lin- coln closed his argument by picturing the scene anew, appealing to the jury to practice the same forgiving spirit that the murdered man had shown on his death-bed. It was undoubtedly to his han- dling of the grandfather's evidence that Harrison's acquittal was due. —John M. Palmer. LINCOLN AND THE NEW YORK CENTRAL Mr. Corning had heard Lincoln's speech at Cooper Union in New York, and was deeply impressed. The next morning he hur- ried down to the Astor House and said to one of the members of Mr. Lincoln's party: "I want to see Mr. Lincoln on business. Can I get to him?" "He's the easiest man in the world to see," replied the politician. After the introduction the railroad president opened the subject which lay on his mind. "Mr. Lincoln," he said, "I understand that in Illinois you win all your lawsuits." Lincoln laughed softly. "Oh, no, A4r. Corning, that is not true," he replied. "But I do make it a rule to refuse unless I am convinced my client's cause is just." "Would you accept an offer from the New York Central," con- tinued Mr. Corning abruptly, "to become its general counsel at a salary of $10,000 a year?" This proposition was as amazing as it was sudden. Members of the Lincoln party were struck dumb with surprise. Lincoln lapsed into a deep study. "Why, Mr. Corning," he said at last, "what would I do with $10,000 a year? It would ruin my family to have that much in- come. I don't believe that I had better consider it." 72 LINCOLN TALKS "Of course you'll accept!" remarked his companions after Corn- ing left. "No, I don't think I shall," said Lincoln. "Why, man alive, of course you'll accept!" persisted his friends. But Lincoln continued to shake his head, and a fortnight later, back in Illinois, he wrote a letter to Mr. Corning, answering with a final negative. — Erastus Corning and Depew. BRIDGE Lincoln tried the famous Rock Island Case. The opposition con- tended that it was illegal to build a railroad bridge across a river. Lincoln made history. He said: "One man has as good a right to cross the stream as another has to navigate it." He exposed the fallacy and selfishness of the navigators who opposed erection of the bridge over the river. The last thing that would please him would be "to have one of these great channels extending almost from where it never freezes to where it never thaws, broken up. For demand of those who travel from East to West are no less important than of those who navigate on the river." When Judge Weed (opposing counsel) alluded to the strife of the contending interests, and even hinted of a dissolution of the Union by reason of this fierce controversy, Lincoln thought the proper move for all parties in this affair was to "Live and let live. And then we will find the cessation of this trouble about the bridge." — Nicolay and Hay. TCDIBWIBILILIBIB STORIES I ASKED Lincoln once where he got so many stories. He said he picked them up everywhere; that when he was on the cir- cuit in Illinois, when they reached the country towns, they all stopped at the same hotel, and they stayed up all night— the judge and lawyers and the witnesses, and the grand and petit jurymen— swapping experiences. —Noah Brooks. ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN "Now, as to the young men. You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that sus- picion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be di- verted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it." — Nicolay and Hay. 73 74 LINCOLN TALKS MEETING SMOOT One day in 1832, while Lincoln was clerking for Offutt, a stranger came into the store, and disclosed the fact that his name was Smoot. Abe was behind the counter at the moment, but, hear- ing the name, he sprang over and introduced himself. Abe had often heard of Smoot and Smoot had often heard of Abe. "Smoot," said Lincoln, after a steady survey of his person, "I am very much disappointed in you; I expected to see an old 'Probst' of a fellow." ("Probst" was the most hideous specimen of human- ity in all that country.) "Yes," replied Smoot, "and I am equally disappointed, for I expected to see a good-looking man when I saw you." A few neat compliments like the foregoing laid the foundation of a lasting intimacy between the two men. —Coleman Smoot. VIOLET When Joshua Speed, the dearest friend of Lincoln's young manhood, married, young Mrs. Speed put a violet in one of her husband's letters to Lincoln. "The sweet violet you enclosed," wrote Lincoln, "came safely to hand, but was so dry and mashed flat that it crumbled to dust at the first attempt to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place on the letter which I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who procured it to be sent." —Joshua F. Speed. AROUND THE STOVE The store of Wallace & Diller early became the visiting place of Mr. Lincoln, for Mr. Wallace was his brother-in-law. When the firm subsequently changed, its drug store continued to be Mr. Lin- MAN AND STORYTELLER 75 coin's headquarters when he went downtown and did not go to his office. I remember when the store was burning meeting Mr. Lincoln with an armful of bottles he was trying to save. He stubbed his toe near the door and dropped all the bottles. He said he was no good as a bottle carrier, and left the building. He returned, however, to help carry out the stove. There were a great many associations around that stove, which was replaced in the new store. Around it there gathered a crowd of fifteen or twenty almost every evening when there was nothing going on in town. Among the names I now recall were N. H. Ridgeley, General Brayman, William B. Fundey, Ed Baker, and Mr. Lincoln. The group talked of everything under the heavens. Most frequently the talk ran to politics. Whatever the theme, Mr. Lincoln always had his story to illustrate the point he wanted to make. In those days men were a great deal more profane than they now are, but in the talk around that stove I never heard Mr. Lin- coln use an oath. When he got started with his sarcasm in an argu- ment he was merciless, and I have heard him furnish a more com- plete answer to an argument by a story than an hour's talk would have done. I often have been asked where Mr. Lincoln got all the stories he told and if he made them up. A great many of them were based on his personal experience and were altered to suit his sense of what a story should be to be effective. Then everybody in the country who liked good stories always came straight to Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Wallace with a new one. Wallace liked good stories, but he never told one where he got the point right. I have seen judges on the Circuit come straight to the store from the stage before the time of newspapers such as we have now, and the story was the chief thing with those who had the sense of humor. I do not think Mr. Lincoln ever brought forth from his imagination a single story, but they were based on what he had seen or heard. Many of the stories, however, were so changed in his way of telling them that j6 LINCOLN TALKS the man who invented them would not have recognized his work. He almost always told his stories around the stove to illustrate a point in his argument. And they did. -Isaac R. Diller. LIZARD An old-line Baptist preacher rose up in the pulpit of his country meeting house, and in a loud voice announced his text thus: "I am the Christ whom I shall represent today." He was dressed in coarse linen pantaloons and a shirt of the same material. The pants, manufactured after the old fashion, with baggy legs, were made to attach to his frame without the aid of suspenders. A single button held his shirt in position, and that was at the col- lar. About this time a little blue lizard ran up his roomy pantaloons. The old preacher, not wishing to interrupt the steady flow of his sermon, slapped away on his leg, expecting to arrest the intruder, but his efforts were unavailing, and the little fellow kept on ascend- ing higher and higher. Continuing the sermon, the preacher loosened the central but- ton which graced the waistband of his pantaloons, and with a kick off came that easy-fitting garment. But, meanwhile, Mr. Lizard had passed the equatorial line of the waistband and was calmly exploring that part of the preacher's anatomy which lay underneath the back of his shirt. Things were now growing interesting, but the sermon was still grinding on. The next movement on the preacher's part was for the collar button, and with one sweep of his arm off came the tow linen shirt. The congregation sat for an instant as if dazed; at length one old lady in the rear part of the room rose up, and, glancing at the excited object in the pulpit, shouted at the top of her voice: "If you represent Christ, then I'm done with the Bible." —Lincoln to Herndon, in The Hidden Lincoln. MAN AND STORYTELLER 77 ON SERMONS "The fact is," said Lincoln, "I don't like to hear cut-and-dried sermons. When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees." —Leonard Volk. WORTH THE MONEY The courthouses in which Lincoln practiced were stiff, old- fashioned wood or brick structures, usually capped by cupola or tower, and fronted by verandas with huge Doric or Ionic pillars. Few of the lawyers had offices in the town; and a corner of the courtroom, the shade of a tree in the courtyard, a sunny side of the building, were where they met their clients and transacted business. In the courts themselves there was a certain indifference to for- mality engendered by the primitive surroundings, which, however, the judges never allowed to interfere with the seriousness of the work. Lincoln habitually, when not busy, whispered stories to his neighbors, frequently to the annoyance of Judge Davis. If Lincoln persisted too long, the judge would rap on the chair and exclaim: "Come, come, Mr. Lincoln, I can't stand this! There is no use try- ing to carry on two courts; I must adjourn mine or you yours, and I think you will have to be the one." As soon as the group had scattered, the judge would call one of the men to him and ask: "What was that Lincoln was telling?" I was never fined but once for contempt of court [says one of the clerks of the court in Lincoln's day]. Davis fined me five dol- lars. Mr. Lincoln had just come in, and leaning over my desk had told me a story so irresistibly funny that I broke out into a loud laugh. The judge called me to order. "This must be stopped, Mr. Lincoln; you are constantly disturbing this court with your stories." Then to me: "You may fine yourself five dollars for your disturbance." 78 LINCOLN TALKS I apologized, but told the judge that the story was worth the money. In a few minutes the judge called me to him. "What was the story Lincoln told you?" he asked. I told him and he laughed aloud in spite of himself. "Remit your fine," he ordered. —Judge David Davis. CUSTARD The lawyers would come to Bloomington twice a year to attend court for two weeks. During court weeks here five of us ladies would entertain the lawyers with parties. All of them seemed to enjoy these gatherings. When the two weeks of court were up, Mr. Lincoln would say regretfully: "Well, our parties are through until fall." The last time Mr. Lincoln visited us he was in fine spirits. The ceilings in our house were not as high as they are nowadays. Mr. Lincoln struck his head against the chandelier and then apologized, saying: "We haven't got these things at our house." At another time he remarked: "Ladies, excuse me, but this is the nicest party we have had, and we did not have any custard, either." One of the stopping places on the circuit was Barnett's tavern at Clinton. Mrs. Barnett always made a large bowl of custard for the visiting lawyers. One time when the lawyers arrived at Barnett's and came to the table, Mr. Lincoln pointed to the usual bowl of custard and said to Judge Davis: "Did you ever see anything keep like that custard? It looks just as it did when we left it last fall." The old lady made no more custard for the lawyers. —Mrs. Judith A. Bradner. BILLY AND THE PIGS Billy Herndon, as everybody knows, was addicted at times to the excessive use of hard drinks. It happened at Phoenix, one of the stopping places in the famous practice circuit that Lincoln, MAN AND STORYTELLER 79 Herndon, Judge Logan, Shelby Cullom, Ward Lamon, and the others used to ride over. Lincoln was very fond of Herndon, but was always annoyed and disgusted when he let liquor get the bet- ter of him— for Lincoln, you know, was the most temperate of men, and in the midst of the hard drinking and revelry of the early times, which scotched the careers of many brilliant young men, he was always sober and always had his wits about him. The first oysters that had ever come to town had just arrived. Though it was cold weather, they were a little the worse for their journey from the seaboard; but this made no difference, evidently, to Herndon and Lamon, who were in an unusually convivial mood after a long day's ride on horseback, and they did great justice to the new delicacy. Their artificial appetites lent zest to the feast, and they sat there and ate oysters and drank and cracked jokes till some of the tired lawyers, among them Lincoln, went upstairs to bed. Presently Herndon was taken with a sudden queer feeling about the stomach, and he made an unsteady rush for the back door. He passed on out into the darkness, and kept going till he ran against a fence. He steadied himself by the top board, as a seasick passenger does at the taffrail of a ship, and proceeded to unload on the other side. It proved to be a pig pen he had come to, and the surprised occupants rushed quickly to the trough. It was a new sort of feast for the pigs, but they took to it kindly, and when the supply ceased they set up a great squealing. Then Herndon began to swear at them in a loud voice. The way he talked to those hogs, you would have thought he was making one of his characteristic sledgehammer arguments to a jury to clear a horsethief . Lincoln heard the rumpus, came downstairs, and asked Lamon what the trouble was. "Oh, nothing," said Lamon; "it's only Billy out back, dividing his liquor with the shoats." Lincoln went to the door and yelled out in his keen, treble voice: "Billy! Billy! For God's sake, don't stand out there in the So LINCOLN TALKS dark quarreling with those hogs! There's certainly enough of the damned stuff in the country for both of you!" — Azariah Wendell. KNOW-ALL When Logan County was first set off, Lincoln, Douglas, Hear- ington, and Ferguson were all young and all went to Logan County courthouse, and James Robinson of Mt. Pulaski, who was well known as "Know-All" Robinson, was one of the jurors and all had to stop at the same hotel, for there was but one, and of course it had a bar, and when they went to retire they all said they would take a drink, and they did, and in the morning when they got up he said: "Boys, who sets them up this morning?" and Mr. Douglas said: "The one that has got the money. We are all broke," and Know- All said: "He set them up last night and it wasn't his turn." And Abe said: "No, we are no dead beats, but we are all broke. You set them up until some of us have a trial and we get some money and we will even up." Know-All said: "No; I have a proposition. Every man who asks a question he can't answer himself shall set them up," and they all accepted. Abe said: "What is the reason there is no dirt in at the mouth of those ground squirrels' dens?" They all pleaded ignorance and couldn't tell and Abe would have to tell, and they seemed to think they had Abe for the drinks. Abe said: "The reason is that they begin to dig at the bottom." Know-All put in and said: "Abe, how do they get to the bottom to commence?" and Abe said: "Know-All, that is your question, you answer it!" —Isaac N. Arnold. MARBLES In a little courtyard in Paris, Illinois, William Slemmons, aged nine, and two other boys were shooting marbles when a tall figure stopped to watch. MAN AND STORYTELLER 8l "Boys, I would like to have a hand in the game," said Mr. Lin- coln. "We'll play partners." I remember how funny he looked [said Slemmons], this six- footer down on his knees by the circle we had made with a stick. He and one of the other boys played partners. Whenever Lincoln made a good shot, he chuckled. When the game was over, Abe and his partner had all the marbles. He handed them back to us, thanked us for playing with him, and walked away. I have one definite impression of the event. Mr. Lincoln was certainly a great marble shooter. —William C. Slemmons. SHIRTS A friend came to Lincoln to borrow a "biled" shirt. "I have only two," said Lincoln, "the one I have just taken off and the one I have on; which will you take?" —Legacy of Fun. NEW SUIT In the days when Mr. Lincoln was practicing law he was not overcareful of his dress. This was partly due to scarcity of funds. A friend encountered him leaving a clothing store with a new coat on. "Got a new coat, Abe?" he asked after the greetings. "Yes," said Mr. Lincoln; "it appears so." "But it's a little short, isn't it?" asked the friend. "Yes, perhaps it is," said Lincoln; "but it will be long enough before I get another one." — Lincolntana. OVERCOAT A gentleman driving along the Springfield road was accosted by Mr. Lincoln, who said: "Will you have the goodness to take my overcoat to town for me?" 82 LINCOLN TALKS "With pleasure," replied the stranger, "but how will you get it again?" "Oh, very readily," said Mr. Lincoln, "as I intend to remain in it." — Orville H. Browning. HORSE-TRADE When Lincoln was a young lawyer in Illinois, he and a certain judge got to bantering each other about trading horses; and it was agreed that the next morning at nine o'clock they should make a trade, the horses to be unseen up to that hour, and no backing out, under a forfeiture of twenty-five dollars. A crowd gathered, and when the judge returned first, the laugh was uproarious. He led, or rather dragged, at the end of a halter, the meanest, boniest rib-staring quadruped— blind in both eyes— that ever pressed turf. But presently Lincoln came along carrying over his shoulder a carpenter's horse. Lincoln solemnly set his horse down, and silently surveyed the judge's animal with a look of infinite disgust. "Well, Judge," he finally said, "this is the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade." -A. K. McClure. STEERS Speaking of the relative merits of New England rum and corn juice, as Lincoln called it, to illuminate the human mind, he told me the story of John Moore, who subsequently became State Treasurer. Mr. Moore came to Bloomington one Saturday in a cart drawn by a fine pair of young red steers. For some reason he was a little late starting home, and besides his brown jug, he other- wise had a good load on. In passing through the grove that night, one wheel of his cart struck a stump or root and threw the pole out of the ring of the yoke. The steers, finding themselves free, ran away, and left John Moore sound asleep in his cart, where he re- MAN AND STORYTELLER 83 mained all night. Early in the morning he roused himself, and look- ing over the side of the cart and around in the woods, he said: "If my name is John Moore, I've lost a pair of steers; if my name ain't John Moore, I've found a cart." After a good laugh together Lincoln said: "Morgan, if you ever tell this story, you must add that Moore told it on himself." —Richard Price Morgan. SAUSAGES While at breakfast, Mr. Davis said: "You seem fond of our Chicago sausages." To which I responded affirmatively, adding that I thought the article might be relied on where pork was cheaper than dogs. "That," said Mr. Lincoln, "reminds me of what occurred down at Joliet, where a popular grocer supplied all the villagers with sausages. One Saturday evening, when his grocery was filled with customers, for whom he and his boys were busily engaged in weighing sausages, a neighbor, with whom he had had a violent quarrel that day, came into the grocery, made his way up to the counter, holding two enormous dead cats by the tail, which he deliberately threw on the counter, saying: 'This makes seven to- day. I'll call round on Monday and get my money for them.' " — Thurlow Weed. HIS FEET He and his fellow-legislators from Menard County were known as "The Long Nine," all being of unusual height. As these men were making their way homeward after the session, Abe managed to keep up with them although they were mounted. Once he com- plained of the chilly weather. One of his companions remarked with a grin: "You see, Abe, it's this way. There is entirely too much of you on the ground. No wonder you are cold and uncomfortable." —Told by one of "The Long Nine." 84 LINCOLN TALKS PILLOW FIGHT I was told that I would find Mr. Lincoln in Judge Davis's room. I climbed the unbanistered stairway, and to my timid knock two voices responded almost simultaneously: "Come in!" Imagine my surprise, when the door opened, to find two men undressed, or rather dressed for bed, engaged in a lively battle with pillows, flinging them at each other's head; one, a low, heavy-set man, who, leaning against the bed and puffing like a lizard, an- swered to the description of Judge Davis; the other, a man of tremendous stature, looking as if he were at least seven feet tall, was incased in a long garment, yellow as saffron, which reached to his heels, and from beneath which protruded two of the largest feet that, up to that time, it had ever been my privilege to see. This immense shirt— for such it must have been— looked as if it had lit- erally been chopped out of the original bolt of flannel from which it had been made and the pieces joined together in the dark without reference to fit or measurement. The only thing that kept it from slipping off the gaunt, attenuated frame it so completely enveloped was the single button at the throat. I cannot fully describe my sensations as this apparition, with the modest announcement, "My name is Lincoln, sir," strode across the room, and grasped my hand. — Herndon. FELLOW-TRAVELER In the spring of 1849 Colonel Thomas H. Nelson and Judge Abram Hammond, who was afterward Governor of Indiana, ar- ranged to go from this city to Indianapolis together in the stage coach. This was before the epoch of railways and an entire day was usually consumed in the journey. Before the dawn of the day the coach arrived in front of the Terre Haute House, and as these gentlemen were about to step in they discovered that the entire back seat was occupied by a long, gloomy individual whose head protruded from one side of the MAN AND STORYTELLER 85 coach and his feet from the other. He was the sole occupant and was sleeping soundly. Hammond slapped him familiarly on the shoulder and asked him if he had chartered the stage for the day. The stranger, now wide awake, said: "Certainly not," and at once took the front seat, after politely asking the gentlemen to take the place of honor and comfort, which they accordingly did. As daylight advanced they thought they took in their traveling companion at a glance. A queer, odd-looking fellow he was, dressed in a well-worn and ill-fitting suit of bombazine, without vest or cravat, and a twenty-five-cent palm hat on the back of his head. His very prominent features, in repose, seemed dull and expres- sionless. Here was a rare chance for fun, and the gentlemen soon availed themselves of it. It was not long after the quizzing commenced before they dis- covered that the stranger was "greener" and a better subject for merriment than they expected. They got off many jokes and "sells." He took them all with the utmost innocence and good nature and joined in the laugh, although at his own expense. In fact, he seemed to be rather awed in the presence of such eminent men. At noon they stopped at a wayside hostelry for dinner. The rain was falling and the ground was muddy. The stranger sprang from the coach, entered the inn, and returned with a plank and an um- brella, and the gentlemen, one after another, were as daintily handed into the house as if they had been ladies, he walking in the rain and mud. When dinner was announced, the gentlemen took their seats and he remained standing, until Hammond, in a patroniz- ing way, said: "Sit down, my good fellow, and eat with us." He appeared to think that it was about the greatest honor of his life, and he sat down with about half of his person on a small chair and held his hat under his arm during the meal. On being asked if he had ever been in as large a town as Terre Haute before, he said that several years ago he had driven an ox-wagon containing a family of movers through Terre Haute on their way from Bloom- ington, Indiana, to Paris, Illinois, for which he was paid $3.50. He 86 LINCOLN TALKS said also that he had been in Washington City, about which many surprising things had been said by the gentlemen, but he didn't know much about it as he could not move in the same circles of society as his distinguished traveling companions. Resuming their journey after dinner, conversation drifted into a discussion of the comet, a subject that was then agitating the scientific world, in which the stranger took the deepest interest. He made many startling suggestions and asked many questions showing profound ignorance of the wonderful phenomenon. Nel- son amazed him with "words of learned length and thundering sound," talked about the attractions of gravitation and cohesion, centripetal and centrifugal forces, etc., etc. After an astounding display of wordy pyrotechnics, the now dazed and bewildered stranger asked: "What is going to be the upshot of this comet business?" Mr. Nelson replied that he was not quite certain, that he dif- fered from most scientists and philosophers, but that in his private opinion the world would follow the darned thing off! The stranger exhibited much alarm and anxiety at the prospect of such an ap- palling catastrophe. They arrived at Indianapolis late in the afternoon and stopped at Browning's hotel. The gentlemen repaired to their rooms to improve their costumes. In a few minutes Mr. Nelson descended to the portico and descried his long, gloomy fellow-traveler in the center of an admiring group of lawyers, among whom were Judge McLean, Judge Huntington, Mr. Hannigan, Albert S. White, and Colonel Thompson, who were all amused and interested in a funny story he was telling. He frequently mentioned the names of Hammond and Nelson and was several times interrupted by roars of laughter. Nelson called out Browning, the landlord, and asked: "Who is that chap who is creating so much sport at our ex- pense?" MAN AND STORYTELLER 87 "Don't you know him?" said Browning. "That's Abe Lincoln, of Illinois, the greatest practical joker on the continent!" That was a crusher! Mr. Nelson rushed upstairs and told Ham- mond, who was still at his toilet, that they would be the laughing stock of the whole state, that they had been completely outwitted by our greenhorn friend who was no less a personage than that inimitable wag, Abe Lincoln, of Illinois, who was then convulsing our legal friends on the portico by an account of our journey. Hammond rapidly gathered up his duds, pushed them into his carpet sack and suddenly left the hotel by the back door, going down a muddy alley to the Palmer House, from which he did not emerge for several days. Curiously enough, Hammond was Governor of the State when Lincoln arrived at Indianapolis, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated as President, but remembering our famous journey, and fearing ridicule, he discreetly left the city and did not return until after Lincoln's departure. Nelson had many opportunities after the stage ride to cultivate Mr. Lincoln's acquaintance and friendship, and was a zealous ad- vocate of his nomination and election to the Presidency. Before leaving his home for Washington, Mr. Lincoln caused Usher and Nelson, of this city, to be invited to accompany him. They agreed to join him at Indianapolis. On reaching that city, the Presidential party had already arrived, and upon inquiry, they were informed that the President-elect was in the dining room at supper. Passing through, they saw that every seat at the numerous tables was oc- cupied, but they failed to find Mr. Lincoln. As they were nearing the door to the office of the hotel, a long arm reached out to Nel- son's shoulder and a shrill voice exclaimed: "Hello! Nelson; do you think, after all, that the world is going to follow the darned thing off?" It was Mr. Lincoln. —Col. Thomas H. Nelson and Judge Abram Hammond. LINCOLN TALKS HIS FACE He enjoyed jokes at the expense of his personal appearance, and used to appropriate to himself this ancient incident, which has been told of so many other ugly men: "In the days when I used to be on the Circuit I was once accosted in the cars by a stranger, who said: 'Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession which belongs to you.' 'How is that?' I asked, considerably astonished. The stranger took a jackknife from his pocket. 'This knife,' said he, 'was placed in my hands some years ago with the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. I have carried it from that time until this. Allow me now to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the prop- erty." -A. K. McClure. RESIGNATION "One day," said Mr. Lincoln, "when I first came here, I got into a fit of musing in my room and stood resting my elbows on the bureau. Looking into the glass, it struck me what an ugly man I was. The fact grew on me and I made up my mind that I must be the ugliest man in the world. It so maddened me that I resolved, should I ever see an uglier, I would shoot him on sight. Not long after this, Andy"— naming a lawyer present— "came to town and the first time I saw him I said to myself: 'There's the man.' I went home, took down my gun, and prowled around the streets waiting for him. He soon came along. 'Halt, Andy,' said I, pointing the gun at him; 'say your prayers, for I am going to shoot you.' 'Why, Mr. Lincoln, what's the matter? What have I done?' 'Well, I made an oath that if I ever saw an uglier man than I am, I'd shoot him on the spot. You are uglier, surely; so make ready to die.' 'Mr. Lin- coln, do you really think that I am uglier than you?' 'Yes.' 'Well, MAN AND STORYTELLER 89 Mr. Lincoln,' said Andy deliberately and looking me squarely in the face, 'if I am any uglier, fire away ' " -A. K. McClure. OUT OF BOUNDS After the adjournment of the Major Hall State Convention (in Bloomington, 1856) the Republican editors of Illinois met in con- vention at Bloomington. Mr. Lincoln attended and was invited to address the meeting. He said he was afraid he was out of place. He was not an editor, and had no business there; in fact, he was an interloper. He said: "I feel like I once did when I met a woman riding horseback in the woods. As I stopped to let her pass, she also stopped, and look- ing at me intently, said: 'I do believe you are the ugliest man I ever saw.' Said I: 'Madam, you probably are right, but I can't help it!' 'No,' said she, 'you can't help it, but you might stay at home.' " —Told by Ezra M. Prince to James S. Ewing. CHANGELING Abe, when asked whether he could account for his excessive homeliness, said: "When I was two months old I was the handsom- est child in Kentucky, but my Negro nurse swapped me off for another boy just to please a friend who was going down the river whose child was rather plain-looking." —Lincolniana. CROOKED Lincoln, being asked once why he walked so crookedly, said: "Oh, my nose, you see, is crooked, and I have to follow it!" — Lincolniana. ON HIS MEMORY It was once said to him that his mind was a wonderful one; that impressions were easily made upon it and never effaced. "No," 90 LINCOLN TALKS said he, "you are mistaken; I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel— very hard to scratch anything on it, and almost impossible, after you get it there, to rub it out." — Herndon. NO VICES In the early morning he took his seat in the stage at RamsdelPs tavern. There was only one other passenger, a Kentuckian, who took a plug of tobacco from his pocket, bit off a quid, and handed it to the silent man beside him. "No, I thank you, sir; I do not chew." "Perhaps you will take a cigar?" and the Kentuckian held out a case well filled with cigars. "Much obliged to you, but I do not smoke." "Well, stranger, seeing you don't chew, or smoke, perhaps you will take a little nice French brandy?" said the man, taking a flask from his pocket. "You are very kind, but I am not in the habit of drinking," re- plied Lincoln. The stage reached the tavern where the horses were changed, and where the Kentuckian was to stop. He did not quite understand the man who had declined the offered courtesies. "See here, stranger," he said, "I think you are a real clever fel- low; I wouldn't offend you for the world; but allow me to say that a man who does not chew, smoke, or drink, who has no vices of any kind, is not likely to have many virtues." —Herndon. CATFISH One night Lincoln came wet and cold to a crossroad tavern in Indiana, and found the fire more thoroughly blockaded with Hoo- siers than mother Welles has been able to blockade the Southern Confederacy. Abe ordered the landlord to carry his horse a peck of catfish. "He can't eat catfish," said Boniface. MAN AND STORYTELLER 91 "Try him," said Abe, "there's nothing like trying." The crowd all rushed after the landlord to see Abe's horse eat the peck of catfish. "He won't eat them, as I told you," said the landlord, on re- turning. "Then," coolly responded Uncle Abe, who had squatted on the best seat, "bring them to me and I'll eat them myself." — Lincolniana. ADVERTISEMENT When Lincoln was on a visit to New York, some thief contrived to ease him of his watch. The next day he inserted the following in the New York Herald: "Stolen, a watch worth a hundred dollars. If the thief will return it, he shall be informed, gratis, where he may steal one worth two of it, and no questions asked." —Legacy of Fun. LEGS Two farmers became plunged in heated argument as to how long a man's legs should be in proportion to the upper part of his body. They visited Lincoln in his office and asked his opinion. "This question," said the lawyer, "has been a source of contro- versy for untold ages. It has led to bloodshed in the past and there is no reason to doubt that it will in the future. After much thought and consideration, not to say worry and mental effort, it is my opinion, all side issues being swept away, that a man's lower limbs, in order to preserve harmony of proportion, should be at least long enough to reach from his body to the ground." —Lincolniana. JUDGMENT DAY "Better lay down that spade you are stealing, Paddy; if you don't, you'll pay for it at the day of judgment." "Be the powers, if ye'll credit me so long, I'll take another, jist!" —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. 02 LINCOLN TALKS COALS "We once had in Springfield a colored family, the head of which was what is known as a 'no-account nigger.' He would get drunk, whip his wife, and scold his children, but he would not work or take proper care of his family. The wife, becoming impatient, con- sulted the pastor of her church on what to do with her worthless husband. The pastor said to her: 'Be patient with your husband and set him a good example. You will pour coals of fire on his head in that way.' The wife replied: 'That would do no good; I have already poured bilin' water on him, and it don't scarcely take the dander out of his hair.' " —Carrie H. Gehrmann, quoting Dr. William Jayne. BLIZZARD Lincoln appeared as counsel in a suit in a far Northern county of Illinois. During the trial a blizzard engulfed the small com- munity. Sleeping in a room of a small country hotel, he nearly froze. As he stood beside a huge stove next morning, thawing out, someone coughed. It was a man who had just come in after work- ing all night to keep snow off railroad switches. The driving bliz- zard had covered his long whiskers almost solidly with ice. Lincoln walked up to him and exclaimed: "Well, neighbor, what room did you have?" —Told by Sen. Lyman Trumbull to Herbert Wells Fay. HAWK TRAP To one who had ever seen the effects of a "Mackinaw breeze" in November, which often tore away two or three feet of the shore in a single day, this suggestion [to hedge a November gale by plant- ing seaweed in its path], must inevitably appear grotesque. It so struck Mr. Lincoln, who asked Judge Drummond's permission to tell a story which seemed to him apropos, and which he was MAN AND STORYTELLER 93 afraid he might forget when the time for argument should arrive. Traveling on horseback in the State of Indiana, he had noticed in front of a farmhouse by the way a tree whose top had been cut off and a protruding pole fastened thereon, at the extremity of which was attached what looked like a scythe-blade, edge upper- most. His curiosity being aroused, he dismounted and inquired of the farmer what the apparatus meant. "Wal, stranger," said the rustic, "you see my chickens feeds mostly under that tree. There's a power o' hen-hawks about here. When they dive for the chicken they don't see nothin' else but the chicken, and I reckoned if I put that scythe-blade up so, some of 'em would certainly cut themselves in two on it, comin' down." The proposal, said Mr. Lincoln, might naturally have come from a member of the same family. —Judge Thomas Drummond. BRAGGART James Larkin was a great hand to brag on anything he owned. This time it was his horse. He stepped up before Abe, who was in a crowd, and commenced talking to him, boasting all the while of his animal. "I have got the best horse in the country," he shouted to his young listener. "I ran him nine miles in exactly three minutes, and he never fetched a long breath." "I presume," said Abe, dryly, "he fetched a good many short ones though." —Ida M. Tarbell: Life of Abraham Lincoln. OYSTERS When a great patent case was being tried in Chicago, and cham- pagne and oysters were the favorite viands served nightly to coun- sel and jurors after the adjournment of court, it happened that one Ed. D n, a young patent lawyer from New York, was present on one of those occasions. Now, Ned was terribly afflicted with a 94 LINCOLN TALKS determination of words to the mouth, and managed to monopolize the whole conversation. Ned had a speech to make upon every- thing, and kept buzzing around like a mosquito, dipping his bill into everything animate or inanimate, no matter which. At last he began to officiate at serving out the oysters and, with ladle in hand, said in his usual stilted style: "I wonder whether this bivalve, this seemingly obtuse oyster, is endowed with any degree of intelli- gence." Uncle Abe looked at the puppy, who, by the way, had prevented his cracking a single one of his favorite jokes for the entire evening, and remarked that he was "satisfied that an oyster knew when to shut up, and that was more than some New York lawyers knew." —Lincolniana. In 1859 Governor John Wesley Hoyt of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society invited Lincoln to make an address at the State Fair, and afterward escorted him around. He tarried long in a tent where a professional "strong man" tossed large cannon balls around. Lincoln marveled at the ability of the professional, who was squatty and broad, to toss the iron globes around, and finally remarked: "I could lick salt off the top of your hat." —Gov. John Wesley Hoyt. THE PLEDGE When Lincoln worked in and kept a grocery-store, it was flanked by a groggery and he had to supply spirits, but from that fact he saw the evils of the saloon and early identified himself with the new temperance movement. In 1843, he joined the Sons of Tem- perance. While he said he was temperate in theory, it was not so— he was practically abstinent. Not only did he lecture publicly, but on one such occasion he gave out the pledges. In decorating a boy, Cleophas Breckenridge, with a badge, after he took the pledge, he said: "Sonny, that is the best thing you will ever take." —Isaac R. Diller, quoted by the Rev. Louis A. Banks. MAN AND STORYTELLER 95 NESTLINGS We had passed through a thicket of wild plum and crab trees, and stopped to water our horses, when Hardin came up alone. "Where is Lincoln?" we all inquired. "Oh," replied he, "when I saw him last he had caught two young birds which the wind had blown out of their nest, and he has been hunting for the nest so as to put them back." In a short time Lincoln came up, having found the nest. The party laughed at him, but he said: "I could not have slept if I had not restored those little birds to their mother." —Joshua F. Speed. MOVING Legislator Lincoln's leadership in the removal of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield made "The Long Nine" and others desirous of having him reside in Springfield. His friend Stuart of- fered to take him in as law partner as soon as he was admitted to the bar, which took place in April 1837. In March, that year, after the Legislature had adjourned, Lincoln sold his surveying instruments, packed his few clothes, books, and other effects into his saddle bags, borrowed a horse of Bowling Green, and left New Salem and all the friends he had found during six years' sojourn there. He hitched the horse before the store of Joshua F. Speed, who was destined to become his dearest friend. "Say, Speed," he asked, "how much will a bed, blankets, and so forth cost me?" Speed reckoned it up. "Seventeen dollars or so," he said. "I'd no idea 'twould cost half of that! I can't pay so much. If you can wait till Christmas and I make any money, I'll pay you up; if I don't, I can't," was Lincoln's dubious reply. Speed was struck with a sudden thought. "I've got a bed big enough for two. You're welcome to half of it till you can do better." "Where is it?" asked Lincoln. q6 LINCOLN TALKS "Upstairs," said Speed, pointing; "turn to your right, over in the corner." The newcomer went up. Speed heard the saddle bags drop in the right corner. Lincoln came down, and said, with beaming face: "Well, Speed, I've moved!" —Joshua F. Speed. BEAUTIFUL SPRINGFIELD The uninviting appearance of Springfield a century ago and later was often a subject of jest by the residents. A man one day applied to Secretary of State Thomas Campbell for permission to deliver a series of lectures in the hall of the House of Representatives in the old State House. "May I ask what is to be the subject of your lectures?" Campbell inquired. "Certainly," was the answer. "They are on the second coming of our Lord." "It's no use," was Campbell's reply, as quoted by Mr. Lincoln. "If you will take my advice you will not waste your time in this city. It is my private opinion that if the Lord has been in Springfield once, he will not come a second time." —Lincoln Anecdotes. TRUNK I was going with a little friend for my first trip alone on the rail- road cars. I had planned for it and dreamed of it for weeks. The day came, but as the hour of the train approached, the hack- man, through some neglect, failed to call for my trunk. As the minutes went on I realized, in a panic of grief, that I should miss the train. I was standing by the gate— my hat and gloves on— sob- bing as if my heart would break, when Mr. Lincoln came by. "Why, what's the matter?" he asked, and I poured out all my story. MAN AND STORYTELLER 97 "How big's the trunk? There's still time if it isn't too big," and he pushed through the gate. My mother and I took him up to my room, where my little old- fashioned trunk stood locked and tied. "O-ho," he cried. "Wipe your eyes and come on quick." And before I knew what he was going to do he had shouldered the trunk, was downstairs, and striding out of the yard. Down the street he went, as fast as his long legs could carry him, I trotting behind, drying my tears as I went. We reached the station in time. Mr. Lincoln put me on the train, kissed me good-by, and told me to have a good time. It was just like him. — Herndon. GOAT Boys had been deviling the goat to make for people and butt them off their feet, and this morning Lincoln with his hands folded behind him, and his chin sunk in his bosom, comes along the street on his way to the office. And the goat makes for him. Well, Lin- coln could be pretty quick when he wanted to be. And he stooped over and his two hands got hold of the two horns of the goat. Then Lincoln dropped down, put his face close to the goat's face, and slowly drawled: "Now — there — isn't — any — good — reason — why — you — should — want — to — harm — me — and — there — isn't — any — good — reason — why — I — should — want — to — harm — you. The — world — is — big — enough — for — both — of us — to — live — in. If — you — behave — yourself — as — you — ought — to — and — if — I — behave — myself — like — I — ought — to — we'll — get — along — without — a — cross — word — or — action — and — we'll — live — in — peace — and — harmony — like — good — neighbors." Then Lincoln lifted at the two horns, dropped the goat over a high fence, and walked up the street. —Milton Hay. 98 LINCOLN TALKS ABRAHAM S BOSOM One morning in Springfield, when Mr. Lincoln was on his way from his home to his office, two girls ahead of him were skipping backward on the sidewalk. As they neared and were within a few feet of him, one of them struck the edge of a brick and fell back- wards. Before she reached the ground, Lincoln had caught her in his arms. Lifting her tenderly to her feet he asked the girl her name. "Mary Tuft," she answered, blushing. "Well, Mary," said Mr. Lincoln, smiling, "when you reach home you can truthfully tell your mother you have rested in Abraham's bosom." — Herndon. TEACHING In the days when Lincoln had his law offices in Springfield, "Little Betty Smith," as she was known then, was presented to Lincoln by her father. "Well, well, Little Betty," said the tall man with the big hands, "if I had a teacher like you, I would be in school yet." The men around her began to laugh, and Miss Betty was almost overcome with embarrassment. "Never mind, Chestnut Curls," Mr. Lincoln said consolingly. "Teaching is the most important work to be done in the world; keep at it." Then Betty told him that her ambition was to become a teacher in a seminary. "Then," said Lincoln, "you'll have to study while you teach. You cannot fly a kite high unless you have a long string." —Mrs. Elizabeth Hutchins (nee Smith), Dearborn Independent, Feb. 1925. MAN AND STORYTELLER 99 FRIENDLINESS I was tramping the State of Illinois, from south to north, when I came upon the farmhouse of Jacob Strauss, who owned forty thousand acres of land in the center of the State. Finding that I was going to pass through Springfield the next day, Mr. Strauss told me he would keep me over night if I would carry some papers to a lawyer in the capital. He said the lawyer's name was Abe Lin- coln, "a very smart man." I started next morning at sunrise. There was snow on the ground, and the weather was biting cold. I reached a little, unimportant office, at nightfall, and saw the legend, "A. Lincoln, Attorney," on a plain strip of black tin on the door. I knocked, and a voice re- plied: "Come in." Entering I found Lincoln sitting on an old- fashioned, splint-bottomed chair, before a great wood fire, with feet against the mantel, higher than his head, and reading a copy of the Louisville Journal. I handed him the papers. Taking them, he said: "I didn't think the old codger would send a horse out such a day as this." Finding that I had no money, he took a five-dollar bill out of his pocket and gave it to me, saying he would charge it up to his client, as it was worth ten dollars to bring the papers in such weather. Then, taking up the newspaper he had laid down, he wrote on the white margin: "A4r. Wilson, take care of this boy until tomor- row, or longer, if the weather is bad, and send the bill to me. A. Lin- coln." Tearing this off and handing it to me, he pointed through the window to a hotel across the square, and told me to go there and remain until I was able to resume my journey. As I was leaving the hotel the next morning, to continue my journey, a man brought a note from Mr. Lincoln, which read as IOO LINCOLN TALKS follows: "Mr. Wallace, Peoria. Dear Sir: This boy wants to reach the Rock River country, somewhere near Beloit. If he needs any assistance, and you can help him in any way, it will be appreciated, and I will be responsible. Yours, A. Lincoln." When I arrived at my destination, I wrote a letter of thanks to the homely kindly lawyer who had befriended me; and a personal correspondence was begun with him, which ended only with his death. He got a place for me in the printing office at Springfield, where I, though only a boy, was permitted to enjoy his intimate companionship. — Capt. Gilbert J. Greene. MOSES I was cashier of one of the banks of Springfield, and Lincoln came into the bank one morning convulsed with laughter. He said to me: "Do you want to hear a good joke on me?" "Yes," I answered. "Well, as I came from my office here I saw a little girl going to school. She was drenched with the terrible storm, and was standing on the corner unable to cross the street, which was flooded with water more than ankle deep. Her back was to me, and I put mv hands under her arms, and wading across the street, I set her down safely on the other side. As I did so, I reached around and kissed her cheek, and as she turned to thank me for my kindness, I dis- covered that she was a little nigger." Lincoln broke out into a hearty laugh again. I have thought so many times since, that Lincoln helping the little colored schoolgirl over the flooded street in Springfield was the type and prophecy of Lincoln carrying four millions of the same race over the Red Sea. -H.N.B. MAN AND STORYTELLER 101 STARS One night Lincoln said to me, then a boy about nineteen: "Gil- bert, you have to stand at your printer's case all day and I have to sit all day; let us take a walk." As we walked on the country road out of Springfield, he turned his eyes to the heavens full of stars, and told me their names and their distance from us and the swiftness of their motion. He said the ancients used to arrange them so as to make monsters, serpents, animals of one kind or another out of them, but, said he: "I never behold them that I do not feel that I am looking in the face of God. I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God." — Capt. Gilbert J. Greene. LINCOLN AS PASTOR To my certain knowledge Lincoln was a faithful student of the Bible. There was a copy of the New Testament with a flexible cover which lay on his table. I often took it in my hands and ex- amined it. It was worn almost through with the rail-splitter's fin- gers. He once recited to me Christ's Sermon on the Mount without making a mistake. He said to me more than once that he considered Paul's sermon on Mars' Hill the ablest and most eloquent literary production ever spoken by mortal lip, or recorded by human pen. One day he said to me: "Gilbert, there is a woman dangerously sick living fifteen miles out in the country, who has sent for me to come and write her will. I should like to have you go along with me; I would enjoy your company, and the trip would be a little recreating for you." We found the woman worse than we expected. She had only a 102 LINCOLN TALKS few hours to live. When Lincoln had written the will and it had been signed and witnessed, the woman said to him: "Now I have my affairs for this world arranged satisfactorily. I am thankful to say that long before this I have made preparation for the other life I am so soon to enter. I sought and found Christ as my Saviour, who has been my stay and comfort through the years. ... I do not fear death; I am really glad that my time has come, for loved ones have gone before me and I rejoice in the hope of meeting them so soon." Mr. Lincoln said to her: "Your faith in Christ is wise and strong, your hope of a future life is blessed. You are to be congratulated on passing through this life so usefully and into the future so hap- pUy." She asked him if he would not read a few verses out of the Bible to her. They offered him the Book, but he did not take it, but began reciting from memory the 23d Psalm, laying especial emphasis upon "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they com- fort me." Without the Book he took up the first part of the 14th of John: "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." After he had given these and other quotations from the Scrip- tures he recited several hymns, closing with "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me." I thought at the time I had never heard any elocutionist speak with such ease or power as he did. I am an old man now, but my heart melts as it did then in that death chamber, as I remember how, with almost divine pathos, he spoke the last stanza. A little while after the woman passed to her reward. As we rode home in the buggy, I expressed surprise that he should have acted pastor as well as attorney so perfectly, and he replied: "God and eternity were very near to me today." —Frederick C. Iglehart: The Speaking Oak. MAN AND STORYTELLER 103 POOR RELATIONS One of the traits of Mr. Lincoln's character was his considerate legard for the poor and obscure relatives he had left, plodding along in their humble ways of life. Wherever upon his circuit he found them, he always went to their dwellings, ate with them, and, when convenient, made their houses his home. He never assumed in their presence the slightest superiority to them. He gave them money when they needed it and he had it. Countless times he was known to leave his companions at the village hotel, after a hard day's work in the courtroom, and spend the evening with these old friends and companions of his humbler days. On one occasion, when urged not to go, he replied: "Why, Aunt's heart would be broken if I should leave town without calling upon her." Yet he was obliged to walk several miles to make the call. — Herndon. GRATITUDE "I have just heard of your deep affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can hardly believe that he is guilty of the crime alleged against him. It does not seem possible. I am anxious that he should have a fair trial, at any rate; and gratitude for your long- continued kindness to me in adverse circumstances prompts me to offer my humble services gratuitously in his behalf. It will afford me an opportunity to requite, in a small degree, the favors I re- ceived at your hand, and that of your lamented husband, when your roof afforded me grateful shelter, without money and with- out price." —Lincoln to Hannah Armstrong, in Nicolay and Hay. FRIENDSHIP When Darrow was a lad he was carrying a pail of milk one day and met Lincoln on the narrow path. He stepped aside to let the 104 LINCOLN TALKS stranger pass, and a vicious cow kicked the pail from his hands. Darrow's father grabbed a whip and thrashed his son until the blood poured off his back. "Lincoln," said Dr. Darrow, "was so incensed at the unjust treat- ment I had received that he said: 'If your father ever beats you like that again, leave him and come to me in Springfield and I will look out for you.' " Only a few months later young Darrow took his new friend at his word. After getting another unmerciful beating he rode 105 miles to Springfield. True to his promise, Lincoln found him a place and the two were close friends for the months that the home- less boy was there. The next spring Lincoln proposed that his young charge return to his father, and he took him back with the promise that he would befriend him a second time if necessary. It was only a short time before young Darrow was obliged to look to Lincoln again for help, and after that they were close friends for years. For all the favors showered on him by his Springfield guardian the happiest return that Dr. Darrow ever made was when he cured his distinguished friend of a slight ailment while he was an inmate of the White House. He nursed him for several days there. —Dr. D. A. Darrow. BIG MACHINE At a State Fair a huge machine was on exhibition. The small boy was much interested; he was vainly trying to decipher its uses and decided to seek council of the only man in sight. "I stepped up close to him," writes Captain Burgess; "his head was bowed down upon his hands, seemingly in meditation. I hesitated to disturb him and was about to withdraw when he arose and said: " 'Well, my boy, are you trying to investigate this machine? ' "I asked him if he could explain it to me, and he proceeded to do so very clearly and minutely. He went all over it and all around MAN AND STORYTELLER IO5 it, and finally he said: 'How many yoke of oxen, my boy, do you think it takes to drag this machine?' I made a guess of eight yoke. 'Well,' he said, 'they haul it with eight yoke, but when heavy ditching is to be done they generally use twelve.' "I think we must have spent an hour at the machine; then the man said: 'I guess we had better go over to the buildings and see what is going on.' And he laid his hand on my shoulder and talked to me all the way. "When we neared the building, several gentlemen stepped for- ward to greet him, and I went on by myself, in search of my brother. I soon came upon him, and he said he had been looking for me. He wanted me to see Abraham Lincoln. We went into one of the buildings, and my brother went up to the very man with whom I had been talking. 'Mr. Lincoln,' said he, 'may I present my brother?' "Lincoln turned around, and seeing me smile, said: 'Why, this boy and I are old friends. We've been talking together for an hour.' At the same time he put his arms around me and lifted me from the ground." — Capt. W. T. Burgess, in the Daily Eagle, Wichita, Kansas. APOLOGY It happened in 1852. Jonathan Crouch, nine years old, had gone with his father to Springfield, to sell farm products. He strayed from his father's wagon to explore a barn. As he emerged, Lincoln drove up in a light buggy, called the boy to him, and quickly searched his clothing, explaining that someone had been taking his eggs. A week later word came to the Crouch farm that Lincoln wanted to see Johnny at his office. Johnny went and the lawyer, offering him his hand, said: "I am sorry I accused you of stealing eggs. I want you to forgive me." —Jonathan Crouch. 106 LINCOLN TALKS R. P. Morgan, Esq. CHALKED HAT Springfield, III, Feb. 13, 1836, Dear Sir: Says Tom to John, "Here's your old rotten wheelbar- row. I've broke it, usen on it. I wish you would mend it, 'case I shall want to borrow it this afternoon." Acting on this precedent, I say, "Here's your old 'chalked hat.' I wish you would take it and send me a new one, 'case I shall want to use it the first of March." Yours truly, A. Lincoln. — Nicolay and Hay. COMPRESSION "He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." —Frederick T. Hill. MEANS Uncle Abe was asked by a client whether his neighbor Brown was "a man of means." "Well, I reckon he ought to be," said Abe, "for he is just the meanest man in Springfield." — Lincolniana. EARLY FRIEND In Rushville on his last visit, someone said: "Mr. Lincoln, there is a man here who once knew you when you were boys together." "What is his name?" said Lincoln. "Joe Angel." "Tell him to come; I want to see him." A messenger was dispatched for Mr. Angel, but he refused to go, as he had not the courage to thrust himself on a candidate for MAN AND STORYTELLER IO7 United States Senator, whom he knew and remembered as a boy wearing jean pants and driving an ox team. "Well," said Lincoln, "if Joe will not come to see me, I must go to see him," and he walked to the place where he was at work and, extending his hand in the most friendly way, said: "How are you, Joe?" Joe responded: "How are you, Abe?" and instantly the wide chasm of years since they were boys was bridged. —Publication No. 8, Illinois Historical Library. SPICED PEACHES Years ago, when my father was a little boy and Abraham Lincoln was a poor young man practicing law in Woodford County, during court week at Metamora, Grandfather brought him home to sup- per. It was a cold stormy Monday night, and Grandmother hur- ried around getting supper, and thought she would have something extra, so she opened a jar of preserved peaches. When they sat down to eat, my grandmother dished the peaches out three to a person. It seemed to take Abraham Lincoln a long time to eat a peach and he did not finish it either. So as soon as he had finished his supper and had gone into another room, Grandmother went to his dish to see why it was he hadn't eaten, and there found she had given him the muslin sack with the peach kernels and spice in it instead of a peach. Grandmother hurried into the other room to apologize to Mr. Lincoln, and he said to her: "That is all right, Mrs. Perry; my mother used the same thing and it was so good that I wanted to get all the juice out of it." —Mrs. Perry. FORDING JUSTICE On the Circuit, which he traveled so many years as lawyer and politician, the classic example of his practical jokes was his pilot- ing of the court traveling on horseback across Fox River. The river was in flood, running wild across the prairies. The travelers, thor- 108 LINCOLN TALKS oughly bewildered, asked one another how in the world they were to cross. There was only one way, Lincoln said. They must strip, tie their clothes in a bundle to the back of their saddles, and swim for it. Whatever objections may have been raised were overruled, and they prepared and started, Lincoln in the lead. For an hour their horses waded through water which never reached the stir- rups, and when they saw they were approaching a town, they re- alized it was their town, and that to reach it, it had not been neces- sary to cross Fox River. —Judge David Davis. DANCER Lincoln's entrance into society in Springfield, when he was a young man there, was not too impressive. He attended his first ball there because he wished to see one of the guests, Mary Todd, who later became his wife. Mary and another girl were sitting together, and Lincoln approached in his bashful way and asked Mary to dance. "Miss Todd," he said, "I should like to dance with you the worst way." Mary was willing, but it was a trial for her to hobble through the steps with her big, rather awkward partner. As she limped back to her friend and sat down, rubbing her mistreated feet, the other young lady said mischievously: "Well, Mary, did he dance with you 'the worst way'?" "He certainly did," Mary replied; "the very worst!" — Herndon. DUEL Mary Todd and Judge Trumbull's first wife were both young and unmarried. General Shields was a vain, pompous fellow, always desirous of appearing more intimate with women than he was. He served in the Senate from three States. He had been wounded in the Mexican War, and the bullet which hit him fired him into Congress. He had a sort of superficial brightness, but he was a nar- MAN AND STORYTELLER 109 row, self-conscious man. The girls wrote a little article poking fun at Shields. This he took very much at heart and demanded the name of the writer. The editor went into Lincoln's office near by and told his trouble. "Well," said Lincoln, "tell Shields I wrote it." This was an easy way out of the difficulty and the blame fell on Lincoln. Shields instantly sent a challenge and Lincoln accepted, choosing broadswords as the weapons. He said: "My long arms have often been ridiculed; now they may do me some good." They went down to Bloody Island, as it was called. The fiasco is well known. No one in the crowd was in earnest except Shields. Lincoln never could have killed anybody. As they returned on the boat, a wag took a long cloak belonging to some member of the company, folded it around a pillow, sat down beside the effigy, and began to fan it. Lincoln said: "It is not my dead body, for its legs are not long enough," but Shields sat by in sullen silence and they never again became friends. — Herndon. HIS HONOR At one time Lincoln aspired to a position on the bench, and Mrs. Lincoln, so as to be prepared for the event, practiced the habit of calling her husband "His Honor," or "Your Honor," as the case might be. Lincoln never, however, succeeded to the dignity of the ermine but attending Circuit at Chicago, and stopping at the Hotel, Mrs. Lincoln accompanied her husband. Lincoln had donned a new pair of boots, which were anything but com- fortable, and almost as uncertain as a pair of skates to a learner on the keenest of ice. Mrs. Lincoln was enjoying herself in the parlor in a chit-chat with a number of other ladies, and putting on as many airs as her provincial position in Springfield would admit, when a strange, rumbling sound disturbed the pleasant company, who rushed out to learn what was the matter. IIO LINCOLN TALKS Lo and behold! there was Lincoln in the undignified predica- ment of tumbling downstairs and bumping the end of his spine upon every step. The new boots, or the swig of forty-rod which he had taken in his bedroom, had proved traitor to him. Mrs. Lincoln was nearly nonplused, but exclaimed in a consoling voice: "Is Your Honor hurt?" "No," said Uncle Abe, sitting gravely on the carpet, with legs spread out amidst the bevy of tittering damsels, and rubbing the seat of his trousers, "no, my honor is not hurt, but my— my head is! " — Lincolniana. CALL AGAIN When Uncle Abe was taken sick recently, and Mrs. Lincoln had sent for the doctor, Uncle Abe, having an aversion to physic, said he had better call another time, as he was too sick then to joke with him. — Lincolniana. FORMALITY It cannot be charged that Mr. Lincoln was a husband to grace fashionable society. He hated clothing of all sorts, and it was his habit, on reaching his office or his home, to take off his boots, as he naively expressed it, "to allow his feet to breathe," and very often he would receive the friends of his wife at the door in his shirtsleeves. He was a thoroughly informal man. A prominent lady called by appointment to see Mrs. Lincoln. He received the caller and, apologizing for his wife's tardiness, explained that she would be down "as soon as she got all her trotting harness on." —David R. Locke. FIRE BRIGADE The fire brigade in Springfield wished to secure some badly needed supplies, and a lot of us youngsters were given a share in collection money. I went up to the rooms over the grocery and en- MAN AND STORYTELLER III tered the law office of Lincoln. He asked me a lot of questions about the fire brigade, seeming quite interested. Then he said: "Well, I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll go home to supper— Mrs. Lincoln is generally good-natured after supper— and I'll tell her I've been thinking of giving $50 to the fire brigade. And she'll say: 'Abe, will you never have any sense? Twenty dol- lars is quite enough.' So tomorrow, my boy, you come around, and get your $20." Which I did! -H.N.B. STARCH Mrs. Lincoln: "You're a very smart man, Mr. Lincoln." Mr. Lincoln: "Well, what have I done now?" Mrs. L.: "Why, you have put your coat on top of my fresh starched gowns." Mr. L.: "Never mind, don't be cross. I'll take my coat away and hang your gowns over it." —Frances AfTonsa. TWO-STORY BACK The Lincoln home at Eighth and Jackson Streets was a story- and-a-half house, standing on what was then the outskirts of the village of Springfield. In those days, the evidence of aristocracy was a house with a two-story back. That meant a house in which the second story ran clear to the rear. Mrs. Lincoln was consumed with a desire that her house have a "two-story back." So one time, when Mr. Lincoln was away from the city, riding his "law circuit," Mrs. Lincoln called in the carpenters and told them what she wanted. And Mrs. Lincoln finally saw in a few weeks her dreams become a reality. Shortly after the remodeling was completed, Lincoln returned to Springfield and walked down Eighth Street to his home. He observed the change at once, so instead of turning in, he walked 112 LINCOLN TALKS on a few steps past the house. On the street crossing he met an urchin. Now Mrs. Lincoln, awaiting anxiously the way Abe would view the changed house, was listening at the window, but if Lincoln saw her he gave no sign. "Bub," he demanded loudly, "can you tell me where Abe Lin- coln lives?" "Come in here, you old fool," Mrs. Lincoln called loudly from the house. "You know well enough where you are." — Herndon. THE REAL MARY LINCOLN When this man was a boy he played with the Lincoln children. The boys got into the parlor one day during Mrs. Lincoln's ab- sence and upset things. When Mrs. Lincoln came home she was very cross, and scolded them heartily. Lincoln came in and in- terfered on the boys' behalf. Instantly, Mrs. Lincoln turned on her husband. "But he only laughed, picked her up in his arms, and kissed the daylights out of her. And she clung to him like a girl." — Honore Willsie Morrow. HEREDITY When Robert Todd Lincoln, their first child, was born, their friends and neighbors joined in congratulating them. You know Mr. Lincoln had extremely long legs, while Mrs. Lincoln was small in stature. Well, one day Mr. Thayer met Lin- coln on the street and offered his congratulations on Lincoln's being the father of a son and on the fact that "mother and child were doing as well as could be expected." Lincoln thanked him. "But I was scared," he added. "Why?" Mr. Thayer asked. "What alarmed you?" "Well," Lincoln drawled, "I was afraid it might have one leg like Mary's and one like mine!" —Edward Thayer, in the Kansas City Star. MAN AND STORYTELLER 113 WISE MEN Young Bob Lincoln and Elmer Ellsworth, who was reading law in Lincoln's office in Springfield, were cutting up in the office, and Lincoln reproved them. Bob replied by quoting the well- known couplet: A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the wisest men. "So it is," said Lincoln; "that's the difference between the wise man and a fool, who relishes it all the time." -Elmer E. Ellsworth. CHESS Judge Treat, a Springfield acquaintance of the Lincolns, used to call and chat with the lawyer in his office, and sometimes the two attorneys would play a game of chess after business hours. As this came in conflict with Mrs. Lincoln's household arrange- ments, she would send Tad to bring his father home to supper without delay. On this occasion the boy attempted several side attacks upon the chess-board, but his alert father managed with a long arm and a strong hand to keep the chess-men undisturbed. Tad quieted down and sank to the floor as if he had decided to be patient for once in his young life! Mr. Lincoln's attention, thus thrown off guard, became deeply intent on the next move, when the table suddenly "bucked" like a Mexican mustang, the chess- board bounced up in the air, and the pieces were scattered on the floor in all directions. Judge Treat jumped up and swore that boy ought to be well flogged. Mr. Lincoln patiently picked up the chess-men and be- stowed them in the table drawer while his antagonist's hot temper was subsiding. Then, taking his tall hat in one hand and seizing Tad by the other, he remarked, calmly: 114 LINCOLN TALKS "Considering the position of your pieces, Judge, at the time of the upheaval, I think you have no reason to complain." —Judge Samuel H. Treat. MILK Mr. Lincoln himself called for Tad's milk every morning. Al- though a small lad, James Sebree well remembered the heavy wool suit, plug hat, and high-topped leather boots Lincoln wore— his trousers usually tucked in his boot tops— and, for added warmth, a brown-plaid, fringed shawl which he threw about his shoulders. James Sebree's mother always had the milk ready and waiting so that he might not be detained. One of Mr. Sebree's cherished recollections is the tall Mr. Lincoln and the kind, but to him austere voice as he invariably greeted Mrs. Sebree with a formal "Good morning, ma'am." —James S. Sebree. MISCHIEF In my boyhood my family lived almost directly across the street from Mr. Lincoln. He had two sons, William and Thomas, nicknamed Tad, who were about the same age as my brother, Dr. Jesse K., and myself. We, with the other boys of the neigh- borhood, used to gather on Lincoln's corner in the summer eve- nings and play the usual games of boys until bedtime. Often Mr. Lincoln would romp with us, and we were perfectly safe in play- ing jokes on him. There was one prank which never failed to be great sport for us. The front fence of Mr. Lincoln's Springfield home, then and now, was about three feet high, and stood on a brick wall, which was about five feet high. Almost directly in front of the steps leading up from the sidewalk to the home was a tree planted by Mr. Lincoln himself which still stands there. At that time it was about eighteen or twenty feet high. Mr. Lincoln, as I recall, invariably wore a high hat, commonly called a "plug" hat. During the time of his great debates with MAN AND STORYTELLER 115 Douglas and just preceding and after his nomination for the Presi- dency, Mr. Lincoln was much preoccupied in mind. When at home he usually went up to the State House after his evening meal to consult with his party associates. He was quite regular in his habits and usually came back about 8:30 in the evening. His daily habits were so well fixed that the boys could calculate on his movements, and we tied a string from the tree to the fence at just such a height as to strike Mr. Lincoln's plug hat about the center. We hid ourselves behind the fences in the adjoining yard, behind the wall, around the corner, and various places. When Mr. Lincoln, with his arms folded behind his back and evidently in deep thought, would be suddenly aroused by having his hat knocked off by some unseen power, we would raise a mighty yell, rush out from our hiding places, grab hold of him wherever we could find a place and shout for joy. All his serious thoughts would vanish instantly and he would laugh and romp with us, and not infrequently march up the street with all the boys clinging around him until he could find a place to buy us some nuts or fruit. —Sen. Fred T. Dubois. TAD Mr. Lincoln made his last visit to Urbana in October 1859 to attend a session of court. He brought his little son Tad with him and I remember waiting on them. They came into the dining room and Tad took his place in a chair beside his father. Mr. Lincoln thought he would play a joke on his son by not giving him in- structions how to order, for the little fellow had been to few, if any, hotels in his life. Mr. Lincoln gave me his order quietly, and then I turned to Tad and said: "What do you wish to order, Tad?" He looked puzzled, not knowing what to say, and then diplomatically replied: "I'll take just what Father takes." And Lincoln did laugh at the way his son turned the joke on him. —Mrs. Russell. l6 LINCOLN TALKS SCRATCHED Lincoln was seen leaving church before the service was half over with the struggling Tad slung across his left arm like a pair of saddle bags. As he reached a street corner he met a group of fellow-townsmen and before anyone could ask him a question he said: "Gentlemen, I entered this colt, but he kicked around so much I had to withdraw him." — Alcott of Elgin. WALNUTS I remember hearing a great racket in the street in front of my house and stepped on the porch to see what was the matter. Mr. Lincoln was coming down the street with Tad and Will hanging to his coattails. They were yelling at the top of their voices. "What's the trouble, Mr. Lincoln?" I asked. "Same old trouble since the world began," he replied, as he pushed his way along up the street, dragging the boys behind him. "I have three walnuts in my pockets and each of the boys wants two." — Herndon. IPCDMTKKDHAH ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ON DELIVERY **TT)ILLY, don't shoot too high— aim lower and the common JJ people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach. The educated and refined people will understand you, anyway. If you aim too high, your idea will go over the heads of the masses and only hit those who need no hitting." —Lincoln to Herndon. APPEAL TO INTELLIGENCE I once asked Mr. Lincoln what was the secret of his power as a public speaker. He answered: "I always assume that my audiences are wiser than I am, and I say the most sensible thing I can to them, and I never found that they did not understand me." —Judge W. M. Dickson. POLITICAL ATTRIBUTE One time I remember I asked Mr. Lincoln what attribute he considered most valuable to the successful politician. He laid his hand on my shoulder and said, very earnestly: "To be able to raise a cause which shall produce an effect, and then fight the effect." -T. W. S. Kidd. FIRST STUMP SPEECH He wore a mixed jean coat, claw-hammer style, short in the sleeves and bob-tail— in fact it was so short in the tail he could not 117 Il8 LINCOLN TALKS sit on it— flax and tow linen pantaloons, and a straw hat. I think he wore a vest, but do not remember how it looked. He wore pot- metal boots. His maiden effort on the stump was a speech on the occasion of a public sale at Pappville, a village eleven miles off Springfield. After the sale was over and speech-making had begun, a fight— a "general fight," as one of the bystanders relates— ensued, and Lincoln, noticing one of his friends about to succumb to the at- tack of an infuriated ruffian, interposed to prevent it. He did so most effectively. Hastily descending from the rude platform, he edged his way through the crowd, and seizing the bully by the neck and the seat of his trousers, threw him by means of his strength and long arms, as one witness stoutly insists, "twelve feet away." Returning to the stand, and throwing aside his hat, he inaugurated his campaign with the following brief, but juicy declaration: "Fellow-citizens, I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to be- come a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are 'short and sweet' like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high pro- tective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not it will be all the same." — Nicolay and Hay. ON MANNERS Lincoln was once canvassing for himself, for a local office, when he came to a blacksmith's shop. "Sir," said he to the blacksmith, "will you vote for me?" "Mr. Lincoln," said the son of Vulcan, "I admire your head,, but damn your heart!" "Mr. Blacksmith," returned Lincoln, "I admire your candor, but damn your manners!" —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. POLITICIAN 119 LIGHTNING Lincoln was a candidate for the Legislature. On the stump in Springfield he was challenged by George Forquer, a lawyer who had switched from the Whig to the Democratic Party and after the switch was named by the Democratic Administration at Wash- ington as Registrar of the Land Office. Forquer had just finished building the finest house in Springfield and put up a lightning rod. It was the first lightning rod in that part of Illinois. At the meeting the crowd started to leave after a speech by Lincoln. Forquer took the platform and said: "The young man who has just finished is sailing too high and will have to be taken down." And he was sorry the task devolved on him. Lincoln stood by with folded arms and measuring eyes. When Forquer quit speaking, Lincoln stepped up quietly, apologized, and offered his argument and closed as follows: "Mr. Forquer commenced his speech by announcing that the young man would have to be taken down. It is for you fellow-citizens to say whether I am up or down. The gentleman has seen fit to allude to my be- ing a young man; but he forgets that I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. I desire to live, and I de- sire place and distinction; but I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that I should change my politics for an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God." —Isaac N. Arnold. CAMPAIGN EXPENSES When chosen by the Whigs a second time for the Legislature of his State, friends gave him $200 for expenses. He handed back $199.25 afterwards, saying: "I didn't need the money. I made the canvass on my own horse; my board, at the homes of my friends, 120 LINCOLN TALKS cost nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five cents for a barrel of cider with which to treat some farm laborers." — Attleboro Sun, Feb. 8, 1927. GO WEST Lincoln used to tell of a youth who emigrated from New York to the West and soon wrote back to his father, who was something of a politician: "Dear Dad: I have settled at and like it first rate. Do come out here, Dad, for almighty mean men get office here." -Honest Old Abe's Jokes. The proper sense of personal dignity forbade Lincoln to go to the Capitol at Vandalia in the shabby clothing which was good enough for his daily round of life and work in New Salem. Among his older acquaintances was a man named Smoot, as dry a joker as himself, but better supplied with ready money. To him Lincoln went one day. "Smoot, did you vote for me?" "I did that very thing." "Well, that makes you responsible. You must lend me the money to buy suitable clothing, for I want to make a decent appearance in the Legislature." —Coleman Smoot. CONCEPTION When Lincoln first made his appearance in the Illinois House of Representatives, and was desirous of delivering his sentiments on a certain measure, he rose and began: "Mr. Speaker, I con- ceive—" but could go no further. Thrice he repeated unsuccessfully the same attempt; when Douglas, who had more confidence, and had been a year longer in the House, completely dumbfounded POLITICIAN 121 Abe by saying: "Mr. Speaker, the honorable gentleman has con- ceived three times, and brought forth nothing." —Stephen A. Douglas. LOUSE Then there is the story supposed to have been told by Mr. Lin- coln to silence a troublesome member of the Illinois Legislature who questioned the constitutionality of every motion made. "Mr. Speaker," said Lincoln, "the objection of the member from So and So reminds me of an old friend of mine," and he went on to de- scribe a grizzled frontiersman with shaggy overhanging brows, and spectacles, very like the objecting legislator. One morning, on looking out of his cabin door the old gentleman thought he saw a squirrel frisking on a tree near the house. He took down his gun and fired at it, but the squirrel paid no attention. Again and again he fired, getting more mystified and more mortified at each failure. After a round dozen shots he threw down the gun, muttering that there was "something wrong with the rifle." "Rifle's all right," declared his son who had been watching him. "Rifle's all right, but where's your squirrel?" "Don't you see him?" thundered the old man, pointing out the exact spot. "No, I don't," was the candid answer. Then, turning and star- ing into his father's face, the boy broke into a jubilant shout. "Now I see your squirrel! You've been firing at a louse on your eyebrow." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. BUCKSKIN ARISTOCRACY In the election of members for the Legislature, Mr. Lincoln was again a candidate. His opponent, Colonel Taylor, said the Whig party was composed of aristocrats, who wore broadcloth and rode in fine carriages, whereas the Democrats were poor men, who worked hard to get a living. The rich Whigs lived in luxurious 122 LINCOLN TALKS homes, while the Democrats were found in log cabins. "My opponent," said Lincoln, in reply, "accuses the Whigs of riding in fine carriages and wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, and gold watch chains. Well, I was once a poor boy, and worked hard on a flatboat for $8 a month, and had only a pair of buckskin breeches. You know that buckskin after being wet is apt to shrink in drying, and as my breeches were often wet, the shrinking went on, the breeches getting shorter and shorter, till there were several inches of bare ankle between my stockings and the lower ends of the breeches. They were so tight that they left a blue streak around my shins. Now, if you call that aristocracy, I plead to the charge." His opponent was a demagogue who, when making political speeches to obtain an office, liked to wear fine clothes and a showy watch chain, but who, when trying to obtain votes, was careful to cover up his ruffled shirt and chain. Lincoln knew that he was deceiving the people, and by a sweep of his arm gave the fellow's vest a jerk, exposing the ruffle of his shirt and gold chain. The people roared with laughter, and the fellow left the platform, very red in the face. By the sweep of his arm he had upset all of Taylor's plans. — Herndon. TURNCOAT "So you know B — ?" said the President. "Did he ever tell you I helped him to his wife? "You see," said he, "B — never could get a chance to pop the question because the lady's father was always in the room; so at last I told him I'd manage it for him, and the next time he called I went with him. I knew the old man and often talked politics with him, but as both of us were Whigs the talk was never very lively. That time, to help B , I turned Democrat, and the old man got so excited that B and the daughter managed to slip out on the back porch and do the thing up at once." —Springfield Republican. POLITICIAN 123 LOCOFOCOS In the Presidential race of 1840 the Democrats were called Locofocos. The Whigs declared that the good old Democracy was no more, was dead, and that a bastard generation of poor machine politicians had grown up like a mushroom. The Democracy con- tended that they were the simon-pure Democracy descending by divine right from Jefferson and Jackson. Lincoln denied that they were the true and genuine article, not a particle of Democracy about them, that they were a fraud, only an assumption of genu- ineness, and to point his charge frequently told this story: "Once an old farmer in the country heard a devil of a racket in his hen house, heard it often before, so he thought to get up and see what was the matter and kill the thing if it was some wild ani- mal. He got up, lit his candle, and went gun in hand to see and fight it out. On going into the hen house he looked around on the floor and on the roosts and at last found his enemy, a polecat, crouched in the corner with two or three dead chickens. The farmer seized the polecat and dragged him out, and all who know the nature of such a cat know what followed— a devil of a stink. The polecat demurred as well as he could in his own language, saying that he was no such brute as charged, but an innocent animal and a friend of the farmer just come to take care of his chickens. The farmer to this replied: 'You look like a polecat, just the size of a polecat, act like one'— and snuffing up his nose— 'and smell like one, and you are one, by God, and I'll kill you, innocent and as friendly to me as you say you are.' These Locofocos," said Lincoln, "claim to be true Democrats, but they are only Loco- focos— they look like Locofocos, just the size of Locofocos, act like Locofocos, and"— turning up his nose and backing away a little on the stand as if the smell was about to smother him— "are Locofocos, by God." — Herndon. 124 LINCOLN TALKS BRIDGE Mr. Lincoln once knew, he said, a sound churchman, of the name of Brown, who was the member of a very sober and pious committee, having in charge the erection of a bridge over a dan- gerous and rapid river. Several architects had failed, and at last Brown said he had a friend named Jones who had built several bridges, and could undoubtedly build that one. So Mr. Jones was called in. "Can you build this bridge?" inquired the committee. "Yes," replied Jones, "or any other. I could build a bridge to hell, if necessary." The committee were shocked, and Brown felt called upon to defend his friend. "I know Jones so well," said he, "and he is so honest a man, and so good an architect, that if he states soberly and positively that he can build a bridge to— to— the infernal re- gions, why, I believe it; but I feel bound to say that I have my doubts about the abutment on the other side." "So," said Mr. Lincoln, "when politicians told me that the North- ern and Southern wings of the Democracy could be harmonized, why, I believed them, of course; but I always had my doubts about the abutment on the other side." —Lincoln Anecdotes. CALCULATION I remember very distinctly hearing him tell a story to three or four gentlemen sitting around Mr. Baker's editorial table, in refer- ence to some plan of the Democrats, in which they had ingloriously failed, owing to their over-confidence in not reckoning on what had been planned by the Republicans. Mr. Lincoln said: "This situation reminds me of three or four fellows out near Athens (Menard County), who went 'coon hunt- ing one day; after being out some time, the dogs treed a 'coon, which was soon discovered in the extreme top of a very tall oak tree; they had only one gun, a rifle, and after some discussion as POLITICIAN 125 to who was the best shot, one was decided on, who took the rifle and, getting in a good position, the 'coon being in plain view, lying close on a projecting limb, and at times moving slowly along, the man fired, but the 'coon was still on the limb; a small bunch of leaves from just in front of the 'coon fluttered down. "The surprise and indignation of the other fellows was bound- less; and all sorts of epithets were heaped on the best shot. 'Well,' he said, 'you see, boys, by gum, I sighted just a leetle ahead and 'lowed for the durn'd thing crawling.' " — E. L. Baker. HEARTS AND HEELS In an argument against the opposite political party at one time during a campaign, Lincoln said: "My opponent uses a figurative expression to the effect that 'the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the heart and head.' The first branch of the figure— that is the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel— I ad- mit is not merely figuratively but literally true. Who that looks but for a moment at their hundreds of officials scampering away with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distressingly affected in their heels with a species of running itch? "It seems that this malady of their heels operates on the sound- headed and honest-hearted creatures very much as the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner, which, when he once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the more it would run away. "At the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will relate an anecdote the situation calls to my mind, which seems to be too strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably retreated without orders at the first charge of the en- gagement, being asked by his captain why he did so, replied: 'Cap- 126 LINCOLN TALKS tain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but some- how or other, whenever danger approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it.' "So with the opposite party— they take the public money into their hands for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can dictate; but before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally, vulnerable heels will run away with them." — Nicolay and Hay. COURAGE The first time I saw Lincoln was at Jacksonville, in August 1 844. There was a rally and Douglas and John J. Hardin were to hold a debate. Joab Wilkinson, a farmer and politician of Menard County, was sitting beside me on a window ledge, when he glanced out and pointing to a tall, muscular-looking man said: "Perry, that's Abe Lincoln." It was soon time for the debate to open, and as his friends began to go around to the courthouse door, Abe stood still a minute, and then started on an easy trot and jumped in through the window. The crowd laughed and several exclaimed: "That's his way. He's an odd feller." I was introduced to him and said: "Sorry, but I'll have to tell you that I'm a Democrat." To this he replied: "Well, I don't know as I can blame you for that," and in a half-solemn, half- joking way concluded: "It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong." A great sentence, wasn't it? Young chap as I was, it made a profound impression on me. —Perry Armstrong. DESTINATION When Lincoln ran for Congress in 1 846, his opponent was Peter Cartwright, a famous Methodist circuit rider and a member of the church militant, who combined revivals with campaigning. One Sunday evening in Springfield, Cartwright saw the tall fig- POLITICIAN 127 ure of Lincoln in the audience. Near the close of the meeting he exhorted: "All who desire to lead a new life, to give their hearts to God and to go to heaven, will stand." A sprinkling of men, women, and children stood up. Then Cartwright continued: "All who do not wish to go to hell will stand." The remainder of the audience stood, all except Lin- coln. In a grave voice Cartwright said: "I observed that many re- sponded to the first invitation to give their hearts to God and go to heaven. And I further observe that all of ypu save one indicated that you did not desire to go to hell. The sole exception is Mr. Lin- coln, who did not respond to either invitation. May I inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where you are going?" Lincoln rose slowly and said: "I came here as a respectable lis- tener. I did not know I was to be singled out by Brother Cart- wright. I believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity. I admit the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great importance. I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did. Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I de- sire to reply with equal directness. I am going to Congress." — Herndon. MEXICAN WAR Lincoln, while a member of Congress, took his stand against the Mexican War. He declared that those who argued that the war was not a war of aggression made him think of the Illinois farmer who said: "I ain't greedy about land. I only want what jines mine." —Washington Intelligencer. EVEN "The Democrats are kind enough to frequently remind us that we have some dissensions in our ranks. Our good friend from Baltimore (Mr. McLane) expressed some doubt the other day as to 128 LINCOLN TALKS which branch of our party General Taylor would ultimately fall into the hands of. That was a new idea to me. I knew we had dis- senters, but I did not know they were trying to get our candidate away from us. . . . Some such we certainly have; have you none, gentlemen Democrats? Is it all union and harmony in your ranks? No bickerings? No divisions? If there be doubt as to which of our divisions will get our candidate, is there no doubt as to which of your candidates will get your party? I have heard some things from New York; and if they are true we might well say of your party there, as a drunken fellow once said when he heard the reading of an indictment for hog stealing. The clerk read on till he got to, and through, the words, 'did steal, take and carry away, ten boars, ten sows, ten shoats, and ten pigs,' at which he exclaimed: 'Well, by golly, that is the most evenly divided gang of hogs I ever did hear of.' If there is any gang of hogs more evenly divided than the Democrats of New York are about this time, I have not heard of it." —Lincoln in a speech in the House of Representatives on the candidacy of Gen. Zachary Taylor (1848). "I have introduced General Cass's accounts to show the wonder- ful physical capacities of the man. They show that he not only did the labor of several men at the same time, but he often did it at several places many hundred miles apart at the same time. And at eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite as wonderful. From October 1821 to May 1822 he ate ten rations a day in Michi- gan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near five dollars' worth a day besides, partly on the road between the two places. And then there is an important discovery in his example— the art of being paid for what one eats, instead of having to pay for it. Hereafter if any nice young man shall owe a bill which he cannot pay in any other way, he can just board it out. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard of the animal standing between two stacks of hay, POLITICIAN 129 and starving to death; the like of that would never happen to Gen- eral Cass. Place the stack a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still midway between them, and eat them both at once; and the green grass along the line would be apt to suffer some too at the same time. By all means make him President, gentlemen. He will feed you bounteously— if— if there is anything left after he shall have helped himself." —Lincoln in a speech in Congress on the candidacy of Gen. Lewis Cass, Democrat (1848) ; in Jesse W. Weik's scrap book. TIGHT PLACE One day he was drilling his men [as an army captain during the Black Hawk War], and they were marching with twenty men fronting in line across a field, when he wished to pass through a gate into the next field. "I could not for the life of me," said Mr. Lincoln, "remember the proper word of command for getting my company 'endwise,' so that it could get through the gate; so, as we came near the gate, I shouted: 'This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate.' " When the laughter which the description of these novel tactics caused had subsided, Mr. Lincoln added: "And I sometimes think here that the gentlemen in yonder who get into a tight place in debate would like to dismiss the House until the next day, and then take a fair start." —Ben: Perley Poore. MILITARY HEROISM When a member of Congress, Mr. Lincoln made a campaign speech, in which he alluded to the custom of exaggerating the mili- tary service of candidates, and ridiculed the extravagant claims to heroism set up for General Lewis Cass, then a candidate for the Presidency against General Zachary Taylor. 130 LINCOLN TALKS "By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and —came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not 'break my sword,' for I had none to break; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one oc- casion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in despera- tion. I bent my musket by accident. If General Cass went in ad- vance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with mosquitoes, and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may sup- pose there is of black-cockade federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I pro- test they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." —Lincoln in a speech in Congress, 1848. CURRANT JELLY At Washington he had, in 1848, made acquaintance with the fashionable world. He preferred the livelier and less strait ways of the Congressional boarding-house table, the Saturday parties at Daniel Webster's, and the motley crowd at the bowling-alley, as well as the chatterers' corner in the Congressional post office. Still, as chairman of a committee, and by reason of his being a wonder from the hirsute West, he was invited to the receptions and feasts of the first families. Green to the niceties of the table, he committed errors— so frankly apologized for and humorously treated that he lost no standing. At one dinner the experience was new to him of the dish of POLITICIAN 131 currant jelly being passed around for each guest to transfer a little to his plate. So he took it as a sweet, oddly accompanying the veni- son, and left but little on the general plate. But after tasting it, he perceived that the compote dish was going the rounds, and sud- denly looking pointedly at his plate and then at the hostess, with a troubled air, he said, with convincing simplicity: "It looks as though I took more than my share." — Weik's scrap book. COMPARISON One day as Lincoln and a friend were sitting on the House of Representatives steps, the session closed, and the members filed out in a body. Lincoln looked after them with a serious smile. "That reminds me," said he, "of a little incident when I was a boy; my flatboat lay up at Alton on the Mississippi, for a day, and I strolled about the town. I saw a large stone building, with massive stone walls, not so handsome though, as this, and while I was look- ing at it, the iron gateway opened, and a great body of men came out. 'What do you call that?' I asked a bystander. 'That,' said he, 'is the State Prison, and those are all thieves going home. Their time is up.' ' : — Lincolniana. RECOMMENDATION "Mr. Bond I know to be, personally, every way worthy of the office; and he is very numerously and most respectably recom- mended. His paper I send to you; and I solicit for his claims a full and fair consideration. Having said this much, I add that, in my individual judgment, the appointment of Mr. Thomas would be better." —Lincoln to the Secretary of State, 1849. INGRATITUDE Dr. was a prominent physician and noted Whig politician in the northern part of Illinois some thirty years ago. He knew I32 LINCOLN TALKS Lincoln intimately in those days when the knowledge of him was no great honor. He entertained him under his roof, assisted his plans, gave him advice, and, perhaps, lent him money— was, in fact, a warm, unselfish friend to a man whose stock of that article was not then very large. The friendship— apparently mutual— continued until the election of Taylor, when Dr. , who had labored hard for the success of the Whig cause, went to Washington to get his reward in the shape of an office. As usual in such cases he set his mark high, gradually lowered it as the prospect for preferment diminished, and at last was compelled to content himself with an Indian agency in Oregon. The place did not amount to much, but it required a bond of a few thousand dollars. Armed with the necessary blank, Dr. returned to Spring- field and sought out Lincoln, who had then been a member of Congress and was a personage of considerable local consequence. He told his friend what he wanted, and the friend promised to obtain the necessary signatures by the next day. The doctor called one time, but nothing had been done; he called every day for a week, with the same result; but finally at the expiration of a fort- night Lincoln returned him the bond with forty names upon it. The poor office-seeker understood what that long array meant; it said as plain as a whisper in the ear: "We believe this man is either a thief or incompetent, and so intend making the pro rata of respectability as small as possible." It was a bond which carried condemnation on its face, but Dr. — could do no better, and so sadly took the road for Washington. Arriving there he did not dare present himself and his ominous document to the Department, and lingered around the city, not knowing what to do. At last, made desperate by poverty and mortification, he de- termined to consult Douglas. His reception was as cordial as though he had been a brother instead of a bitter opponent, and emboldened by the hearty welcome of "the little giant," Dr. drew out the paper and offered it for inspection, with these words: POLITICIAN 133 "Do you think the Secretary will accept such a bond as that?" Douglas looked over Lincoln's and the thirty-nine other names, smiled, and said: "Well, Dr. , I don't believe the Secretary ever saw such a bond as that for such an office." As he spoke he held the paper in the flaming gas until it was consumed, and added: "Bring me another blank tomorrow, and I will fix it." The blank was brought; Douglas signed it himself, and procured the signature of two or three men of his acquaintance. The Secre- tary accepted it at once, and Dr. went on his way rejoicing, never to forget Douglas— or "his friend" Lincoln either. — Lamon. DEUS EX MACHINA In the year 1 849 Colonel Baker was making a speech to a mixed audience in the courtroom. Lincoln's office was just above, and he was listening to Baker through a large hole, or trap-door, in the ceiling. Baker warmed with his theme, and, growing violent and personally offensive, declared at length that "wherever there was a land office, there was a Democratic newspaper to defend its corruptions." "This," said John B. Webber, "was a personal attack on my brother George Webber. I was in the courtroom, and in my anger cried: 'Pull him down!'" A scene of great confusion ensued, threatening to end in a gen- eral riot, in which Baker was likely to suffer. But just at the critical moment Lincoln's legs were seen coming through the hole; and directly his tall figure was standing between Baker and the audience, gesticulating for silence. "Gentlemen," said he, "let us not disgrace the age and the coun- try in which we live. This is a land where freedom of speech is guaranteed. Mr. Baker has a right to speak, and ought to be per- mitted to do so. I am here to protect him, and no man shall take him from this stand if I can prevent it." -S. G. Pratt. 134 LINCOLN TALKS ARGUMENT Judge T. Lyle Dickey of Illinois related that when the excite- ment over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill first broke out, he was with Lincoln and several friends attending court. One evening several persons, including himself and Lincoln, were discussing the slavery question. Judge Dickey contended that slavery was an institution which the Constitution recognized, and which could not be dis- turbed. Lincoln argued that ultimately slavery must become ex- tinct. "After a while," said Judge Dickey, "we went upstairs to bed. There were two beds in our room, and I remember that Lincoln sat up in his night shirt on the edge of the bed arguing the point with me. At last we went to sleep. Early in the morning I woke up and there was Lincoln half sitting up in bed. 'Dickey,' said he, 'I tell you this nation cannot exist half slave and half free.' 'Oh, Lincoln,' said I, 'go to sleep.' " —Judge Theophilus Lyle Dickey, in the Bloomington Pantograph. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE "The Missouri Compromise excluded slavery from the Kansas- Nebraska Territory. The repeal opened the territories to slavery. If there is any meaning to the declaration in the 14th section, that it does not mean to legislate slavery into the territories, it is this: that it does not require slaves to be sent there. The Kansas and Nebraska Territories are now as open to slavery as Mississippi or Arkansas were when they were territories. "To illustrate the case— Abraham Lincoln has a fine meadow, containing beautiful springs of water, and well fenced, which John Calhoun had agreed with Abraham (originally owning the land in common) should be his, and the agreement had been consum- mated in the most solemn manner, regarded by both as sacred. John Calhoun, however, in the course of time, had become owner of an extensive herd of cattle— the prairie grass had become dried up POLITICIAN I35 and there was no convenient water to be had. John Calhoun then looks with a longing eye on Lincoln's meadow, and goes to it and throws down the fences, and exposes it to the ravages of his starv- ing and famishing cattle. 'You rascal,' says Lincoln, 'what have you done? What do you do this for?' 'Oh,' replies Calhoun, 'every- thing is right. I have taken down your fence; but nothing more. It is my true intent and meaning not to drive my cattle into your meadow, nor to exclude them therefrom, but to leave them per- fectly free to form their own notions of the feed, and to direct their movements in their own way!' "Now would not the man who committed this outrage be deemed both a knave and a fool— a knave in removing the restric- tive fence, which he had solemnly pledged himself to sustain— and a fool in supposing that there could be one man found in the country to believe that he had not pulled down the fence for the purpose of opening the meadow for his cattle?" —Editorial by Lincoln in the Illinois Journal, Sept. 11, 1854. SLAVE TRADE Referring to the divisions upon the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Lincoln once said: "It used to amuse me to hear the slave-holders talk about wanting more territory, because they had not room enough for their slaves; and yet they complained of not having the slave-trade, because they wanted more slaves for their room." — Nicolay and Hay. BORROWED CAPITAL In 1854, during the high Know-Nothing excitement of that year, Mr. Lincoln was elected to the Legislature, and much to the sur- prise of the opponents of the Democracy, they had a majority of one in the Legislature. Here was a chance for Mr. Lincoln to se- cure a seat in the United States Senate, and his friends persuaded him to decline qualifying, as the Illinois Constitution barred the election of a member of the Legislature to the United States Sen- I36 LINCOLN TALKS ate. Mr. Lincoln complied, and a new election was called, he being confident that an anti-Democrat could be chosen in his place. But the Democrats availed themselves of this confidence, brought out no candidate publicly, seemingly being willing to let the election go by default. But, lo! when the votes were counted, one M'Daniel, a Democrat, was discovered to have been voted for— and, worse yet, he had a majority of the votes! This was a terrible blow to Mr. Lincoln's friends, who "took on terribly"; but "Old Abe," when he heard the result, tee-hee'd one of his peculiar laughs and, of course, "told a story." He said the result reminded him of one of the camp-followers of General Taylor's army, who had secured a barrel of cider, erected a tent, and commenced dealing it out to the thirsty soldiers at twenty-five cents a drink; but he had sold but little before an- other sharp one set up another tent at his back, and tapped the barrel so as to flow on his side, and peddled out No. 1 cider at five cents a drink! of course getting the latter's trade entire on bor- rowed capital. The Democrats, said Mr. Lincoln, had played "know-nothing" on a cheaper scale than had the real devotees of "Sam" and had "raked down his pile" with his own cider! — Weik's scrap book. BIRTH "I had some time ago an Irishman named Patrick cultivating my garden. One morning I went out to see how he was getting along. 'Mr. Lincoln, what do yez think of these Know-Nothings?' he in- quired. I explained what they were trying to do, and asked Pat why he had not been born in America. 'Faith,' he replied, 'I wanted to, but me mother wouldn't let me.' " —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. HECKLING During the Fremont campaign I attended a meeting at Vandalia, Illinois. The half-dozen Republicans who had raised their banner POLITICIAN 137 in this Egyptian city placed a dry goods box against the old Capi- toL and Deacon Bross, of the Chicago Tribune, commenced speak- ing. It was a Democratic crowd, with a very slight sprinkling of Republicans. Very soon the speaker began to be interrupted by questions and sallies, a certain red-faced doctor being the main spokesman; and as the deacon seemed to be somewhat annoyed by this artil- lery, the fire grew hotter and hotter. Presently there was a movement in the crowd, and it was an- nounced that Mr. Lincoln had arrived. Mr. Bross at once yielded the stand and Old Abe began his speech. The first thing which struck me, after having witnessed the virulent hostility of the audi- ence, was the perfect confidence of the speaker; confidence not merely in himself, but in them and in the power of truth. He spoke with an easy, straightforward air, in the homely and familiar strain with which one farmer would talk with another across the fence, and it was easy to see that he had the ear of the meeting. The doctor very soon began his questions to him, and it was at once evident that the interruption was anything but disagreeable. No war horse ever snuffed the battle more keenly than did the back- woods lawyer such a hand-to-hand encounter. Both questions and answers have now faded from my recollec- tion but the skill of the rail-splitter in this fight at close quarters, the manliness, courage, and self-poise with which he wielded the truth in the midst of that unsympathetic audience are well re- membered. There was a keenness in his ready repartee from which even his genial good nature could not take the edge, and the crowd in spite of their predilections enjoyed the wit and joined heartily in the laugh against their oracle. This gentleman grew redder than ever, lost his temper, and finally in answer to some clinching question put to him by Mr. Lincoln, answered by a mere quibble. Old Abe, looking him straight in the eye,' rejoined: "Now, my friend, if you think that answer will be satisfactory to your friends, I38 LINCOLN TALKS here, you are quite mistaken. I know these men, I have plowed with them and mowed with them, and I know that whatever their polit- ical opinions, they like to see a man, as they say, farr (fair)." The hearty applause of the audience showed that he had read them aright, and the doctor subsided. -H.N.B. FOOLING THE PEOPLE It was in the summer of 1 856 that I stood next to Mr. Lincoln and heard him say: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." He was addressing an assemblage of about three or four hundred people from a raised platform of the entrance to the Pike House, in Bloomington, Illinois, upon the subject of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and reviewing the arguments of Douglas in support of it. His application of the epigram was so apt and so forceful that I have never forgotten it, and I believe that no verbal modification of it would be accurate. In his final peroration of that address, referring again to the arguments favoring the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he said, with wonderful energy and earnestness: "Surely, surely, my friends, you cannot be deceived by such sophistries." —Richard Price Morgan. AUTOBIOGRAPHY "Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. Educa- tion defective. Profession, a lawyer. Have been a captain of volun- teers in Black Hawk War. Postmaster at a very small office. Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature and was a member of the lower house of Congress. Yours, etc. A. Lincoln." —Lincoln to the compiler of The Dictionary of Congress. POLITICIAN 139 POLITICAL DOCTOR In 1858 Lincoln had an appointment in Cumberland County, and after he had spoken, a Dr. Hamburgher (a bitter Democrat) impudently jumped up and said he would reply. So Lincoln took a seat on the outer edge of the plank seats and listened. Hamburgher presently got violent and insulting, when a little, insignificant-looking, lame man limped up to Lincoln and said: "Don't mind him; I know him; I live here; I'll take care of him; watch me"; and two or three times he circulated around to Lin- coln and repeated the admonition. When Hamburgher concluded, the little lame man was on the platform and at once commenced a reply, and had proceeded but a short time when Hamburgher roared out: "That's a lie." "Never mind," retorted the lame man, patronizingly, "I'll take that from you— in fact, I'll take anything from you, except your pills." This cut the doctor to the raw. "You scoundrel," exclaimed he, "you know I've quit practicing medicine!" The little lame man instantly dropped down on his sound knee, and, raising his hands in mock worship, exclaimed: "Then, thank God! the country is safe." —Anthony Gross: A Book of Stories of Abraham Lincoln. A HOUSE DIVIDED "I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the House to fall— but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. The opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it 140 LINCOLN TALKS shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." His political managers advised against him using this paragraph. They said he was committing political suicide. And what is more he did not need to make it, in the joint debate. Lincoln said: "I would rather go down to defeat with this statement made than to victory without it/j — Nicolay and Hay. DESIRE OF OFFICE "I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselfish; I do not pretend that I would not like to go to the United States Senate; I make no such hypocritical pretense, but I do say to you that in this mighty issue it is nothing to you— nothing to the mass of the people of the na- tion—whether or not Judge Douglas or myself shall ever be heard of after this night; it may be a trifle to either of us, but in con- nection with this mighty question, upon which hang the destinies of the nation, perhaps, it is absolutely nothing. "Plainly, you stand ready saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and waiting to be driven over to the slavery extension camp of the na- tion—just ready to be driven over, tied together in a lot, to be driven over, every man with a rope around his neck, that halter being held by Judge Douglas." —Lincoln in a speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858. PREDICTION "He says that I am in favor of making war by the North upon the South for the extinction of slavery; that I am also in favor of inviting (as he expresses it) the South to a war upon the North, for the purpose of nationalizing slavery. Now, it is singular enough, if you will carefully read that passage over, that I did not say that I was in favor of anything in it. I only said what I expected would take place. I made a prediction only— it may have been a POLITICIAN I4I foolish one perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery would be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do so now, how- ever, so there need be no longer any difficulty about that. Gentle- men, Judge Douglas informed you that 'this speech of mine was probably carefully prepared.' I admit that it was. I am not a master of language; I have not a fine education; I am not capable of enter- ing into a disquisition upon dialectics, as I believe you call it; but I do not believe the language I employed bears any such construc- tion as Judge Douglas puts upon it. But I don't care about a quibble in regard to words. I know what I meant, and I will not leave this crowd in doubt, if I can explain to them what I really meant in the use of that paragraph." —Lincoln in a speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION He exposed the sham of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Terri- tories when taken with the Dred Scott decision, as the Democrats understood the decision. He summed up the whole miserable sophism in a single sentence, and called it the doctrine which taught "that a thing may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful right to be." — Nicolay and Hay. DRED SCOTT CONSPIRACY Lawyers are all acquainted with the famous Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court— which was held back until after the Fre- mont-Buchanan election. The election had been rather close— and it was well within the possibilities that, had the decision been promptly announced, Fremont, and not Buchanan, might have been elected. Now there were great men on that bench at the time. Roger B. Taney was still Chief Justice. It required some courage to take the court to task. Newspapers might have done it— the man in the street might have done it— and the court could disregard I42 LINCOLN TALKS comment and criticism alike. But here was a member of the bar— the leader of the Illinois bar— a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States— who could easily be held to account for his strictures upon the most exalted tribunal in the world. But here was Lincoln, who knew he was right, whose instinct reas- sured him that the judges, or some of them, had an ear to the ground, and for the moment heard the siren sounds of politics, and came to the conclusion that the cause had not been disposed of simply on the legal questions involved. He saw the hand of Douglas and Pierce and Buchanan in addition to the voice of Taney. Honest and fearless, Abraham Lincoln was shocked at the low estate into which John Marshall's court had fallen— the court which had made our Constitution virile and our country great. And Lincoln spoke— Lincoln charged a conspiracy of silence pend- ing the election— and conspiracy of the slave power for the per- petuation of slavery after the election. This is what Lincoln had to say: "My main object was to show, so far as my humble ability was capable of showing to the people of this country, what I believe was the truth— that there was a tendency, if not a conspiracy, among those who have engineered this slavery question for the last four or five years, to make slavery perpetual and universal in this nation. Having made that speech principally for that object, after arranging the evidences that I thought tended to prove my proposition, I concluded with this bit of comment: " 'We cannot absolutely know that these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert, but when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places, and by different workmen— Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance; and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too POLITICIAN 143 few— not omitting even the scaffolding— or if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in— in such a case we feel it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James, all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before the first blow was struck.' " — Nicolay and Hay. DESTINY The discourse by Dr. Peter Akers, whose text was Zach. 9:9, 10, at the Salem Church . . . continued: "If we interpret the prophe- cies of this book aright, there will come about a half century hence such changes and revolutions as we have never seen. There will come a decade (possibly covering more time) about i860 and 1870, when the head and front of this offending shall be broken ... a time when slaveships, like beasts of prey, shall no longer prowl along the coast of helpless Africa, a time when we shall no longer trade in 'slaves and the souls of men'; but the whip, the manacle, and unrequited toil shall be banished from our fair land. Who can tell but that the man who shall lead us through this strife may be standing in our presence?" Men cringed and cowered under words so plainly spoken, for it was near the time of the terrible Love joy tragedy in Alton, and a majority of the audience were from Southern States and had been directly or indirectly connected with slavery. Mr. Lincoln sat silent until one of them asked his opinion of the sermon. Then thoughtfully he gave this answer: "It was the most instructive sermon, and he is the most impres- sive preacher I have ever heard. It is wonderful that God has given such power to men. I firmly believe his interpretation of the prophecy, so far as I understand it, and especially about the break- ing down of civil and religious tyrannies; and odd as it may seem, when he described those changes and revolutions, I was deeply 144 LINCOLN TALKS impressed that I should be somehow strangely mixed up with them." He then lapsed into silence again, but many times since, even to men that made light of it, he said he believed that a peculiar work and an important destiny awaited him. — Herndon. LIKENESS When that momentous speech [at Ottawa] had been finished, Lincoln was ushered into a side room where the representative of a Chicago paper submitted a report of his address preparatory to forwarding the same. Lincoln sat down, crossed his long legs, and when asked by the anxious scribe "how it was," replied: "Well, I must say, as my grandfather did when he saw his daguerreotype: 'It's most hor- ribly like me.' " —J. O. Glover, in the Illinois Journal. THE FREEPORT QUESTIONS On the way north, on the cars, Mr. Lincoln beckoned to me to take a seat beside him— I was sitting a few seats behind him at the time— which I did. He took a half sheet of writing paper out of his pocket and handing it to me said: "I am going to answer Mr. Douglas's questions today in our dis- cussion which he put to me at Ottawa, and I intend to ask him a few questions in return, and I jotted them down this morning at the hotel before I left there. I wish you to read them over and tell me what you think of my questions." I did so, reading one of them several times. After a considerable pause he said: "Well, how do these interrogatories strike you?" I replied: "Mr. Lincoln, I do not like this second question." "What's the objection to it?" Mr. Lincoln asked. I replied: "It opens the door through which Senator Douglas will be enabled to escape from the tight place in which he finds him- self on the slavery question in this State since he succeeded in get- POLITICIAN 145 ting the Missouri Compromise repealed. Your question says: 'Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way against the wishes of citizens of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State constitution?' Now in my opinion, Mr. Lincoln, Senator Douglas will answer that question in the affirmative without any hesitation. He must so answer it, because if he should reply to that question in the negative he must see that it would defeat him disastrously in Illinois for re-election to the Senate, and he doesn't want that to happen, as it would destroy his prestige before the country. He will undoubtedly de- clare today, when that question is put to him, that a majority of the people of a Territory can prevent the introduction of slaves therein, or, if they have come in, that majority can drive them out." "Against the will of the owners?" asked Lincoln, and I replied: "Yes, certainly, Douglas has been preaching the doctrine of popu- lar sovereignty in Territories for some time, and he dare not go back on it now." "Well," said Lincoln, "I do not agree with you. Judge Douglas is more anxious to be elected President two years from now than he is to be re-elected to the Senate for the third time this fall. Can't you see that if he answers my question as you seem to think he will, he will exasperate every slave-holder in the South, because they all hold to the doctrine that the people of the South have an equal constitutional right to take every species of their property into the Territories as freely as the citizens of the North may carry all kinds of their property into any Territory? Every slave-holder believes that under the compromises of the Constitution a South- ern slaveholder can take his bondsmen into Kansas and keep and work them there during the period that Kansas has a territorial government only, with just as much right to protection from the Federal law as a Massachusetts abolitionist would have if he went into the Territory with a span of horses to farm, or if some of our Illinois people should go over there with mules for the same pur- I4 6 LINCOLN TALKS pose. Now, that being so, don't you see that if Douglas replies in the way you imagine he will, he would lose every supporter he expects to get in the South, and, under the Democratic rule of re- quiring a two-thirds majority to nominate, it would be impossible for him to be a successful candidate of the Democratic party in i860? Now, on the other hand, if he should reply in the negative and declare that a majority of the people of the Territory can- not drive out any slaves already brought in or exclude slaves from being brought in, and thus deny the power of the squatters to protect themselves from slavery, he would stand a mighty slim chance of being elected to the Senate, and he would probably render it impossible if he were nominated to carry any Northern State. And if he answers as you believe he will, it will cost him a good many votes down in Egypt, where the old settlers come mostly from the slave States and feel about the same as the people of the South." We argued it at some further length, but I could make no im- pression whatever on Mr. Lincoln's mind. He said that he wouldn't change the form of the question, and that he intended "to spear it" at Douglas that afternoon. In due time we arrived at Freeport, and there was a great crowd of Lincoln's friends at the depot with a carriage, to take him up to his hotel. I found at the hotel the Republican member of Congress from that district, E. B. Washburne, with whom I was intimately acquainted, and Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, who was Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. I took each of them to one side and related what passed between Lincoln and myself on the cars, and repeated the language of the second question which he intended to propound to Douglas, and both of them said that they feared ill effects from it, and they would try and persuade Lincoln to leave it out or modify its language. They followed Mr. Lincoln upstairs into his apartments, and they spent a considerable time with him. When they came downstairs I saw both of them POLITICIAN I47 again and they informed me that they had argued the impolicy of putting question two to Douglas as strongly as they could, but they were not able to change his purpose. Other leaders saw Mr. Lincoln before the debate began and urged him not to give Douglas such an opportunity to get out of the tight place it was believed he was in before the people of Illinois on the slavery question. But nothing was accomplished in that direction. I have recalled this episode in Mr. Lincoln's career for the pur- pose of showing his remarkable keenness as a controversalist. Doug- las himself was a debater of great power, but he was really no match for Lincoln in making points and in incisiveness in debate. Lincoln was unquestionably the sharpest and strongest man in dis- cussion with an antagonist who put him on his mettle that the West has ever produced. This famous question looked very innocent in a casual reading, and appeared to be a blunder in the eyes of some of the leaders in the party at that time; but it is the velvet paw which conceals the sharp claws beneath it. Mr. Douglas "gave him- self away" completely on that occasion, and fell into Lincoln's trap, rendering his election to the Presidency impossible. Whether he saw clearly the intended effect of Mr. Lincoln's interrogatory or not I have no means of knowing. Perhaps he concluded that it presented a dilemma, and that the bluntest horn to take was the one he did— viz., to placate and conciliate his own people and se- cure his re-election to the Senate, trusting to the two years' time before the Presidential convention to render his position acceptable to the South. But he failed to accomplish that purpose. The South grew more and more hostile and implacable towards him as they studied his Freeport reply to Lincoln, and finally came to believe that he was an unsafe man for them to support for the Presidency; and they took the desperate resolution to defeat him at all hazards and let the Republicans have the Presidency. At all events that was the outcome of the whole matter. —Joseph Medill, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 19, 1895. I48 LINCOLN TALKS THIN Douglas's Freeport sophism was "as thin," to use a Lincolnian il- lustration, "as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death." — Nicolay and Hay. DISPROOF "Why, sir, there is not a single statement in Trumbull's speech that depends on Trumbull's veracity. Why does not Judge Doug- las answer the facts? If you have studied geometry you remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown how to work it out. Now, if you undertook to disprove that proposition, to prove that it was erroneous, could you do it by calling Euclid a liar? "That is the way Judge Douglas answers Trumbull." —Lincoln at Charleston, 111., in debate with Douglas. LICENSE Mr. Lincoln was about to enter the hall of the courthouse when Joe yawped out: "Abe, keep your eye on 'Doug,' or the first thing you know will be that you don't know nothing." Lincoln turned and good-naturedly said: "Joe, I'm sorry to see you violating the law as you do." Joe straightened up and said: "How am I violating the law, Lincoln?" "Why, don't you know it is against the law to open up a rum hole without a license?" "When did I ever open up a rum hole?" Lincoln referred to the opening under Joe's nose and stepped into Noah W. Matheny's office, leaving the crowd in a roar of laughter and Joe muttering to himself: "Abe, you are too smart to be interesting." -John S. Condell, Sr. POLITICIAN I49 AFTER STEPHEN On one of these occasions [the joint debates], after Judge Doug- las had made one of his most eloquent speeches, it came to Mr. Lin- coln's turn. Throwing off his overcoat, he handed it to a young man near by, and said, in his droll way: "Here, you hold my clothes, while I 'stone Stephen'!" —Lincoln in Debate with Douglas. EMINENCE "Twenty-two years ago Judge Douglas and I first became ac- quainted. We were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even then, we were both ambitious; I, perhaps, quite as much so as he. With me, the race of ambition has been a failure— a flat fail- ure; with him, it has been one of splendid success. His name fills the nation; and is not unknown, even, in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow." —Lincoln in Debate with Douglas. THE BAR Lincoln, Douglas said, had failed at everything he attempted: at farming, teaching, liquor selling, and law; and now he was try- ing politics. Lincoln arose and said Douglas had presented an ac- curate picture. "It's true— every word of it. I've tried a lot of things, but there's one thing that Douglas forgot. He told you that I sold liquor, but he didn't mention that while I had quit my side of the counter the judge has remained on his." —Lincoln at Galesburg, 111., Oct. 7, 1858. 15© LINCOLN TALKS COOPER "Douglas has said that his father was a cooper by trade and had apprenticed him to learn the cabinet making trade, which is all well enough, though I was not aware until now that his father was a cooper. I have no doubt, however, that he was one, and I am cer- tain that he was a very good one for"— here Mr. Lincoln bowed gently toward Mr, Douglas-*"he has made one of the best whisky casks I have ever seen!" —Lincoln in Debate with Douglas. NO ACCOUNT In "stumping" the State against Douglas, Lincoln ran across McVicker's boy, who was proudly wearing a Douglas badge. Not knowing the great man, the boy answered his question, "Why do you wear a Douglas badge?" by flippantly saying: "Oh, Lincoln's no account." Turning to the father, Mr. McVicker, who was stand- ing at a little distance, Lincoln dryly remarked: "Well, I have al- ways heard that children and fools always tell the truth." —Isaac R. Diller. ROYALTY Going to meet an appointment in the Southern part of the Sucker State— that section of Illinois called Egypt— Lincoln, with other friends, was traveling in the "caboose" of a freight train, when the freight was switched off the main track to allow a special train to pass. Lincoln's more aristocratic rival [Stephen A. Douglas] was being conveyed to the same, town in this special. The passing train was decorated with banners and flags, and carried a band of music, which was playing: "Hail to the Chief." As the train whistled past, Lincoln broke out in a fit of laughtei\ POLITICIAN IJI and said: "Boys, the gentleman in that car evidently smelt no roy- alty in our carriage." — Moncure D. Conway; Horace White. HARMONICA On one of his journeys for a debate with Douglas, Abraham Lincoln picked out of his pocket a little harmonica and played upon it. He said: "This is my band: Douglas had a brass band with him in Peoria, but this will do for me." —Matthias Hohner. DEPRESSION He used to come to my father's store, stick his feet on the coun- ter, and talk about the affairs of the nation. I was present one night when Abe came in, looking as melancholy as a man whose hens won't lay. "What's the matter, Lincoln?" my father asked. "Oh, nothing much! I'm discouraged a bit. I fear my tilt with Douglas was not very successful." "Nonsense, Abe!" remarked my father. "Your words have elec- trified the country. They will bear rich fruit for you. Your repu- tation has been merely local heretofore; now it is national." "Do you think so? Well, I hope you're right." Then the future President stalked out into the night, looking more cheerful than when he entered. —Isaac R. Diller, in Weik's scrap book. PYRAMID This was 1858. Lincoln said he would carry the State in the popular vote but Douglas would be elected, owing to the skillful manner in which the State had been redistricted. "You can't over- turn a pyramid," he said, "but you can undermine it. That's what I have been trying to do." —David R. Locke. 152 LINCOLN TALKS INTERMARRIAGE Of a law forbidding intermarriage of whites and Negroes, he said: "The law means nothing. I shall never marry a Negress, but I have no objection to anyone else doing so. If a white man wants to marry a Negro woman, let him do it, if the Negro woman can stand it. Slavery is doomed— even Judge Douglas admits it to be an evil and an evil can't stand discussion. In discussing it we have taught a great many thousands of people to hate it who had never given it a thought before." — Nicolay and Hay. PROPORTION In one of his political speeches, Judge Douglas made use of the following figure of speech: "As between the crocodile and the Negro, I take the side of the Negro; but as between the Negro and the white man— I would go for the white man every time." Lincoln, afterwards, when he had occasion to refer to the re- mark, said: "I believe that this is a sort of proposition in propor- tion, which may be stated thus: 'As the Negro is to the white man, so is the crocodile to the Negro; and as the Negro may right- fully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat the Negro as a beast or reptile.' " —Nicolay and Hay. ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE "I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and adopted the Declaration of Independ- ence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it POLITICIAN 153 was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother- land but something in that declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope for the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance." — Nicolay and Hay. THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE "That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles —right and wrong— throughout the world. They are the two prin- ciples that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says: 'You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for en- slaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." -JLincoln in Debate with Douglas. CLASSES "I hold if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating, and none of the work, He would have made them with mouths only, and no hands, and if He had ever made another class that He had intended should do all the work and none of the eating, He would have made them without mouths and all with hands." —Lincoln Story Book. 154 LINCOLN TALKS THE GOOD CAUSE "I have never professed an indifference to the honors of official station; and were I to do so now, I should only make myself ridiculous. Yet I have never failed— do not now fail— to remember that in the Republican cause there is a higher aim than that of mere office. I have not allowed myself to forget that the abolition of the slave-trade by Great Britain was agitated a hundred years be- fore it was a final success; that the measure had its open fire-eating opponents, its stealthy 'don't care' opponents, its dollar-and-cents opponents, its inferior-race opponents, its Negro-equality oppo- nents, and its religion-and-good-order opponents; that all these opponents got offices, and their adversaries got none. But I have also remembered that though they blazed, like tallow candles, for a century, at last they flickered in the socket, died out, stank in the dark for a brief season, and were remembered no more, even by the small. Schoolboys know that Wilberforce and Granville Sharp helped that cause forward; but who can now name a single man who labored to retard it? Remembering these things, I cannot but regard it as possible that the higher object of this contest may not be completely attained within the term of my natural life. But I cannot doubt either that it will come in due time. Even in this view, I am proud, in my passing speck of time, to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which my own poor eyes may not last to see." —Hertz: Lincoln. THE DURABLE QUESTION "I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age which I could have had in no other way; and though I sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I be- lieve I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone." —Lincoln to Dr. A. G. Henry after the election in Nov. 1858. POLITICIAN I55 ON RIGHT At one time when Lincoln was censured for his unwavering policy, he gave this answer to his critics: "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." —George B. Cortelyou. BIG MEN "Great men," said Mr. Lincoln, "have various estimates. When Daniel Webster made his tour through the West years ago, he visited Springfield among other places, where great preparations had been made to receive him. As the procession was going through the town, a barefooted little darky boy pulled the sleeve of a man named T., and asked: 'What the folks were all doing down the street?' " 'Why, Jack,' was the reply, 'the biggest man in the world is coming.' "Now, there lived in Springfield a man by the name of G.— a very corpulent man. Jack darted off down the street, but presently returned, with a very disappointed air. " 'Well, did you see him?' inquired T. " 'Yes,' returned Jack; 'but laws— he ain't half as big as old G.' " -R. D. Wordsworth; J. B. McClure. PROPHECY A very important case was being tried in Chicago. There were concerned in it quite an array of distinguished counsel. Isaac N. Arnold was one of them, and associated with him was Mr. Lincoln, who had only recently been defeated by Stephen A. Douglas in their memorable contest for the United States Senatorship. Mr. Arnold in his summing up alluded to the length of time the I56 LINCOLN TALKS case had been before the courts, having been to the Supreme Court and been sent back for a new trial. He spoke of the changes in the personnel of the counsel involved in the suit and intimated that further and greater changes might occur before its final disposi- tion. "As, for instance," he said jokingly, "my learned colleague, Mr. Lincoln, may be called to occupy the White House at Wash- ington." He was interrupted by bursts of laughter, in which bench, bar, jury, and spectators all joined. Mr. Lincoln himself, throwing his head back, roared with laughter. The idea seemed highly improb- able in the light of his recent defeat for the United States Senator- ship and the fact that Mr. Seward's nomination for the Presidency seemed assured. —Isaac N. Arnold. JOHN HICKMAN He said of John Hickman: "It was the Anti-Lecompton fight which made me President of the United States; and in that man Hickman's speeches nearly every sentence contains a thought." He then turned to a copy of his Columbus speech (delivered in September 1859) and read these words: " 'Fellow-citizens: Senator Douglas takes me to task for saying that this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. Yes, my friends, I did say this, and the Senator from Il- linois threatens to squelch me at home, and is hungering and thirst- ing to squelch William H. Seward in New York for his expressions in regard to the irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery. But Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, declared before I did, in the Richmond Enquirer, that this Government could not exist half slave and half free. He used the same expressions which in us are so unpatriotic and heretical. " 'But the Senator from Illinois never breathed a word against Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia. POLITICIAN I57 " 'Since that time John Hickman, of Pennsylvania, has expressed the same sentiment. But he has never denounced Hickman. Why? Notwithstanding that opinion in the mouth of Hickman, he thinks Hickman may yet become a Douglas man.' "In my Columbus speech I desired to get down to the temper of the people and to test the depth of this Anti-Lecompton feeling, which boded no good to the Democracy. And I said to an im- mense Republican audience which contained many Democrats: 'My friends, of all the Anti-Lecompton Democrats that have been brought to my notice, Hickman alone has the true, genuine ring of the metal, and, without endorsing what he says, I propose three cheers for the gallant Hickman, of Pennsylvania.' " — Nicolay and Hay. NAMES Something was said about the absurdity of the Breckinridge fol- lowers in holding fast to the old party name, when Democratic principles had long been thrown overboard. Upon this hint Mr. Lincoln spoke, relating how an ancient colored lady, dwelling upon the line of one of the old Missouri highroads, had acquired con- siderable fame as a manufacturer of game pies. In the natural course of events her "ole man," who provided the chief ingredient of these delightful pasties, grew feeble and rheumatic, and failed to keep up the supply but the business was too profitable to be stopped, and the sales went on for a while as briskly as ever. Presently, how- ever, customers began to grumble, and at last Aunt Jenny was called to account. "What is the matter with these pies of yours, Aunt Jenny?" "Well, what is the matter, they're good pies, isn't they?" "But there's no game in them." "Lor, child, prayer hen (prairie hen) ain't suitable to these times. My ole man, he do the best he can, but they's too quick for his rheumatiz. You jest wait a while." "But you shouldn't let on to sell game pies when there's nothing 158 LINCOLN TALKS but crust and old pork to them. What do you call them game pies for anyhow?" Aunt Jenny thought this unreasonable, and her patience gave way. "Bless you, child, I call 'em game pies 'cause that's their name. Game pies always was the name, and game pies is always a-going to be the name. That's all they is about it." —Charles A. Dana, in the New York Daily Tribune, i860. EVE OF COOPER UNION "Will you come to Brooklyn and attend church with me on Sunday?" He said he would be very glad to do so. He asked where I at- tended church. I told him Plymouth Church; and he said he would like to hear Mr. Beecher, and that he would come over in good time. I then invited him to dine with me after the morning service. He said he would do so. Soon after ten o'clock on Sunday morning he appeared at the door of the church where I was waiting for him, and I escorted him to my pew. His presence in church was un- known to anybody. A few moments before the service com- menced, I introduced him to Mr. Horace B. Claflin, who sat in the next pew behind me. He talked with him a moment, and then Mr. Claflin turned around and spoke to his neighbor in the adjoining pew; and I am pretty sure that within ten minutes a large propor- tion of the audience knew Mr. Lincoln was present. The sermon seemed to interest him very much; after the meeting closed I in- vited Mr. Beecher— on a slip of paper— to come down and speak to Mr. Lincoln. He did so, and the interview seemed to attract the attention of the audience, who remained, almost in a body, to look at the distinguished stranger from Illinois. All seemed anxious to shake hands with him, and hundreds did so. Finally he said: "I think, Mr. Bowen, we have had enough of this show, and I will now go with you." We started from the church, passed through the crowd and went to my house. When POLITICIAN 159 we got to the front steps he said: "Mr. Bowen, I guess I will not go in." My reply was: "My good sir, we have arranged to have you dine with us, and we cannot excuse you." His reply was: "Now, look here, Mr. Bowen, I am not going to make a failure at the Cooper Institute tomorrow night, if I can possibly help it. I am anxious to make a success of it on account of the young men who have so kindly invited me here. It is on my mind all the time, and I cannot be persuaded to accept your hospitality at this time. Please excuse me and let me go to my room at the hotel, lock the door, and there think about my lecture." —Henry C. Bowen, in the Independent. HOUSE OF CORRECTION One Sunday morning I saw a tall, remarkable-looking man enter the room and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed atten- tion to our exercises, and his countenance expressed such genuine interest that I approached him and suggested that he might be will- ing to say something to the children. He accepted the invitation with evident pleasure; and, coming forward, began a simple ad- dress, which at once fascinated every little hearer and hushed the room into silence. His language was strikingly beautiful, and his tones musical with intense feeling. The little faces would droop into sad conviction as he uttered sentences of warning, and would brighten into sunshine as he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the imperative shout of "Go on! Oh, do go on!" would compel him to resume. As I looked upon the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and marked his powerful head and determined features, now touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I felt an irrepress- ible curiosity to learn something more about him, and while he was quietly leaving the room, I begged to know his name. He courteously replied: "It is Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois." —Told by a teacher of the Five Points House of Industry, a correctional institution in New York, i860; in C. C. Coffin. l6o LINCOLN TALKS MEN ENOUGH In March 1 860 after the famous Cooper Union speech, Lincoln appeared in Meriden, Connecticut; during his speech a man seated on one of the window-sills, at the side of the hall, in a piping voice interrupted him with: "Do you believe, Mr. Lincoln, that if the Republicans should elect a President, they will be able to inaugurate him?" Lincoln straightened himself to his full height and, pointing to the man, said, with a bit of the Western drawl: "I reckon, friend, that if there are votes enough to elect a Republican President, there'll be men enough to put him in." —Rev. J. P. Gulliver, in Harper's, i860. PUBLIC SPEAKER On the morning following Lincoln's speech, in Norwich, Con- necticut, Mr. Gulliver met Mr. Lincoln upon a train of cars, and entered into conversation with him. In speaking of his speech, Mr. Gulliver remarked to Mr. Lincoln that he thought it the most re- markable one he ever heard. "Are you sincere in what you say?" inquired Mr. Lincoln. "I mean every word of it," replied the minister. "Indeed, sir," he continued, "I learned more of the art of public speaking last eve- ning than I could from a whole course of lectures on rhetoric." Then Mr. Lincoln informed him of "a most extraordinary cir- cumstance" that occurred at New Haven a few days previously. A professor of rhetoric in Yale College, he had been told, came to hear him, took notes of his speech, and gave a lecture on it to his class the following day; and, not satisfied with that, followed him to Meriden the next evening, and heard him again for the same purpose. All this seemed to Mr. Lincoln to be "very extraordinary." He had been sufficiently astonished by his success in the West, but he had no expectation of any marked success in the East, particu- larly among literary and learned men. "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, POLITICIAN l6l "I should very much like to know what it was in my speech which you thought so remarkable, and which interested my friend the professor so much?" Mr. Gulliver's answer was: "The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style of your reasoning, and, especially, your illustrations, which were romance and pathos and fun and logic all welded together." After Mr. Gulliver had fully satisfied his curiosity by a further exposition of the politician's peculiar power, Mr. Lincoln said: "I am much obliged to you for this. I have been wishing for a long time to find someone who would make this analysis for me. It throws light on a subject which has been dark to me. I can under- stand very readily how such a power as you have ascribed to me will account for the effect which seems to be produced by my speeches. I hope you have not been too flattering in your estimate. Certainly, I have had a most wonderful success for a man of my limited education." -Rev. J. P. Gulliver. SNAKES At New Haven and Norwich, Lincoln used this illustration as to the introduction of slavery into the new States and Territories: "If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more, if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the snake to the gentleman alone. But if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any question how I ought to decide." — Nicolay and Hay. l62 LINCOLN TALKS DORCHESTER HEIGHTS About half way up the street Paul heard someone coming from behind with long, strong strides. Turning, the boy saw a gigantic man swinging up the narrow walk; soon the two came close to- gether. "Say, Bub, is this the right road to Dorchester Heights?" "Yes, sir." "Pretty steep walking, isn't it? Aren't many hills where I live." Paul volunteered to guide the stranger. At the top they halted in the middle near the little reservoir. "Of course you know the history of this place?" asked the stranger. "Everybody knows that." They faced the harbor, the State House dome shone far away on the left. "The fleet lay about there," said the boy, glad to show his knowl- edge. "Then Washington planted his guns where we stand." "So everybody says, sir, and George Washington probably stood just where I stand now." "Here he made history that counts for something." The great big man stooped over and scrabbled up a handful of pebbles which he put in his trousers pocket. He was dressed in black cloth. He wore a tall hat, as many men did at that time. "Probably this gravel was brought here from somewhere else. Well! So was I: but both of us are better for having been here." This was not said to Paul, but addressed to the surround- ings. Soon the stranger saw all that interested him and said: "Bub, I am glad to have been here. I may not have another opportunity, and am glad to have come." Paul accompanied the man down to Broadway and Dorchester Street. He had never seen so big a man before, nor so gaunt a face, POLITICIAN 163 nor such sad eyes, that could light up so finely; this face fixed itself in his memory. The summer came with intense interest. The crisis with slavery had come. Everyone was excited. Conventions had nominated candidates and political clubs were formed. Wide-awakes paraded every night with flaming lamps and oilcloth caps. Paul was now fourteen and quite tall, so he enrolled. He was one of the most enthusiastic members of the club, for there at the end of Watts's Hall on the high wall was a picture of the big stranger who had visited Washington Heights in his com- pany. Under this picture was "Abraham Lincoln." —Paul Du Verney. FISHING "Way down east" Abraham Lincoln was no celebrity when, early in i860, he made a trip through New England. Though that was but a few months before his nomination for the Presidency, Lincoln passed twice through Boston practically unnoticed, and to this day nobody knows whether he put up at a hotel or ate at a restaurant. William Wainwright, who was a boy in Exeter, New Hampshire, tells this story of Lincoln's visit to his home town. On the morning of Lincoln's arrival he was engaged in fishing for eels in a canal. The eels were biting well, and Wainwright was using two poles, oblivious of everything but the pleasurable task in hand, until he became conscious of somebody climbing the fence behind him. He supposed it was another boy, but on looking up was sur- prised to see a tall, solemn-looking man. The man smiled and re- marked that the boy was pretty busy. The boy replied that he was; that "they were biting fine." The man then asked if he could use one of the poles. His request was granted, and after catching a few eels he accidentally broke the pole, which was a rough alder stick, such as New Hampshire boys are wont to use. He offered to pay for 164 LINCOLN TALKS the pole, but on the boy's refusing he climbed the fence again and went away. Young Wainwright did not learn until later that his guest was Abraham Lincoln. —William Wainwright. GENERAL LOGAN Besides Judge Davis, who could not go to bed without hearing Lincoln tell some stories, there was General John A. Logan, then an attorney of strong intellect and said to have been Lincoln's keenest opponent on the circuit. Lincoln always admired Logan and one day said to Judge Gillespie, as they sat by the stove talk- ing: "Judge, I wish I could take all you boys down to Washington with me, Democrats and all, and make a Cabinet out of you. I'd know where every man would fit and we could get right down to work. Now I've got to learn my men before I can do much." "Do you mean, Mr. Lincoln, you'd take a Democrat like Logan?" said the judge. "Yes, sir, I would; I know Logan. He's agin me now and that's all right, but if we have trouble you can count on Logan to do the right thing by the country, and that's the kind of men I want— them as will do the right thing by the country. 'Tain't a question of Lincoln, or Democrat or Republican, Judge; it's a question of the country." —Ida M. Tarbell, in He Knew Lincoln. SELF-NOMINATED The first time I ever heard the name of Lincoln used in connec- tion with the Presidency was by the lips of Lincoln himself. Lin- coln, Leonard Swett, Jesse D. Fell, one or two others, and I felt the nomination ought to come to the West. And one day we had a meeting to agree upon a man that we would support. One name after another was mentioned, and their strong and weak points considered. At last Lincoln spoke up and said: "Why don't you POLITICIAN 165 run me? I can be nominated, I can be elected, and I can run the Government." We all looked at him and saw that he was not jok- ing. That was the first time I ever knew of his name having been suggested for the office by pen or tongue. —Judge David Davis. SELF-MADE He once related an incident that had occurred at Decatur when the Illinois Republicans named him as their choice for the Presi- dency. An old Democrat from "Egypt," as Southern Illinois was called, approached Mr. Lincoln and said: "So you're Abe Lin- coln?" "Yes, that is my name." "They say you're a self-made man." "Well, yes; what there is of me is self-made." "Well, all I've got to say," observed the man, after a careful survey of the Republican candidate, "is that it was a damned bad job!" —Lincolniana. NO BARGAINS At the Chicago Republican Convention of 1 860, the popular cur- rent had, at first, set very strongly in favor of Mr. Seward, who, many supposed, would be nominated almost by acclamation. The evening before the balloting the excitement was at the highest pitch. Mr. Lincoln was telegraphed at Springfield that his chances with the Convention depended on obtaining the votes of two dele- gations which were named in the dispatch; and that, to secure this support, he must pledge himself, if elected, to give places in his Cabinet to the respective heads of those delegations. A reply was immediately returned over the wires, characteristic of the man. It was to this effect: "I authorize no bargains and will be bound by none. A. Lincoln." -John B. Alley. l66 LINCOLN TALKS PREVARICATION A friend of Mr. Lincoln's, in the first convention that nominated him for the Presidency, had worked and spoken with great effect. Afterwards, in thanking him for his enthusiasm, Mr. Lincoln said: "But I am afraid, Colonel, that when you spoke for me you pre- varicated just a little." "Prevaricated, Mr. Lincoln?" said the other. "Prevaricated? Why, I lied like the devil." —Gail Hamilton. BARBER I did not understand English much, for I had been in this coun- try from Italy only a year. I was a barber in Chicago when they had the Republican Convention. All the other barbers were Cop- perheads. Lincoln, with a big stovepipe hat on his head, was staying at the hotel where we had our shop. The others did not want to shave him. The boss asked me: "You want to go up and shave that big hayseed that thinks he's going to be President?" I said: "Sure, I shave him." So I took my things and go up to the room, where there were a lot of men. Lincoln saw me and I was only a kid, seventeen, just five feet one-quarter inch tall. He said to me: "Are you a barber?" I could understand that. "Yes, sir," I said. "Can you shave me?" he said. "Yes, sir." "Will you cut my throat?" "Yes, sir!" Everybody gave a great big roar. Lincoln sat down in a chair, and even then he was so tall that I had to stand on a box to shave him. When I started to go, I wouldn't ask him to pay me, but he shook hands with me and in my palm he left a five-dollar gold piece. — Rosario Manzella, in the Chicago Tribune. TIDINGS FOR MARY When I went to dinner the day he was nominated I passed him on his way down home with a telegram in his hand. "There is a little woman down here who is interested," he said. POLITICIAN 167 "I'm awful glad Springfield has a candidate for the Presidency," I said, "but I've got to vote for Little Doug." "That won't make any difference with us, Rolley," he replied, in his usual kindly tone, and passed on. -John G. Holland. GRAMMAR When Mr. Lincoln had prepared his brief letter accepting the Presidential nomination he took it to Dr. Newton Bateman, the State Superintendent of Education. "Mr. Schoolmaster," he said, "here is my letter of acceptance. I am not very strong on grammar and I wish you to see if it is all right. I wouldn't like to have any mistakes in it." The doctor took the letter and, after reading it, said: "There is only one change I should suggest, Mr. Lincoln. You have written: 'It shall be my care to not violate or disregard it in any part.' You should have written 'not to violate.' Never split an infinitive, is the rule." Mr. Lincoln took the manuscript, regarding it a moment with a puzzled air. "So you think I better put those two little fellows end to end, do you?" he said, as he made the change. —Dr. Newton Bateman. BROOMSTICK I exclaimed: "I am the first man from Chicago, I believe, who has had the honor of congratulating you on your nomination for President." Then those two great hands took both of mine with a grasp never to be forgotten and, while shaking, I said: "Now that you will doubtless be the President of the United States, I want to make a statue of you, and shall try my best to do you justice." Said he: "I don't doubt it, for I have come to the conclusion that you are an honest man," and with that greeting, I thought my hands in a fair way of being crushed. On the Sunday following, by agreement, I called to make a cast l68 LINCOLN TALKS of Mr. Lincoln's hands. I asked him to hold something in his hands, and told him a stick would do. Thereupon he went to the wood- shed, and I heard the saw go, and he soon returned to the dining room, whittling off the end of a piece of broom handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle off the edges. "Oh, well," said he, "I thought I would like to have it nice." —Leonard Volk. WINE It was a great day in Springfield when Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency. The bells rang all day, and when a telegram was received from Chicago that a committee from the convention would arrive in Springfield the next afternoon formally to notify Mr. Lincoln of his nomination, the town went wild, to put it mildly. A great many Springfield people had been at Chicago during the convention, and when they began to arrive, each one added to the excitement by telling his story of the great contest. I was then a clerk in my brother's store and was alone when Mr. Lincoln came in. His face was long and he wore an air of extreme depression. He dropped into a chair and looked like a man who had not a friend on earth. "Can I do anything for you?" I asked. "I don't know," Mr. Lincoln replied. "Do you want anything?" "I don't know." ' "What is the trouble, anyway, Mr. Lincoln?" I asked anxiously. I recall that Mr. Lincoln went on to unfold the difficulty he was in. It seemed that Mrs. Lincoln had considered it the proper thing to prepare a supper at their house for the notification committee, and that she had insisted there should be wine at the table. In that J suppose Mrs. Lincoln was entirely correct, judging from the usual custom of the times, but Mr. Lincoln objected to the wine. POLITICIAN 169 "Do you want to have it?" I remember asking him. "I have never had wine in my house and I don't want to com- mence now if I can help it." Mr. Lincoln added that he realized there were many things he had never done and did not want to do which his new position would require of him, but he did not want wine the first thing. I told him that he need not and ought not to have a supper at his house anyway that night. The committee of Springfield citizens already had prepared an elaborate dinner for the visitors at the Chenery House, then the leading hotel of Springfield; we were going to have wine and brandy and whisky and water, and the committee ought to be well enough entertained at the dinner be- fore going to call on him not to require anything to eat or drink at his house. He was much pleased at this arrangement, which seemed to take a load of! his mind. He then asked what was expected of him during the visit of the committee. I advised him to be waiting at the house and to be much surprised when the committee called. He answered that that would be a lie, for, while he might be excited by the visit of the committee, he would not be surprised. —John W. Bunn. PROHIBITIONIST At the proper time, Governor Morgan, of New York, chairman of the committee, arose and, with becoming dignity, informed Mr. Lincoln that he and his fellows appeared in behalf of the Con- vention in session at Chicago, to inform him that he had that day been unanimously nominated to the office of President of the United States; and asked his permission to report to that body his acceptance of the nomination. Mr. Lincoln, with becoming mod- esty, but very handsomely, replied that he felt his insufficiency for the vast responsibilities which must devolve upon that office under the impending circumstances of the times; but if God and his coun- 170 LINCOLN TALKS try called for his services in that direction, he should shrink from no duty that might be imposed upon him, and therefore he should not decline the nomination. After this ceremony had passed, Mr. Lincoln remarked to the company that, as an appropriate conclusion to an interview so important and interesting as that which had just occurred, he sup- posed good manners would require that he should treat the com- mittee with something to drink; and opening a door that led into a room in the rear, he called out "Mary! Mary!" A girl responded to the call, to whom Mr. Lincoln spoke a few words in an under- tone and, closing the door, returned again to converse with his guests. In a few minutes the maiden entered, bearing a large tray containing several glass tumblers, and a large pitcher in the midst, and placed it upon the center-table. Mr. Lincoln arose and, gravely addressing the company, said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual healths in the most healthy beverage which God has given to man— it is the only beverage I have ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on the present occasion— it is pure Adam's ale from the spring"; and, taking a tumbler, he touched it to his lips, and pledged them his high- est respects in a glass of cold water. Of course, all his guests were constrained to admire his consistency, and to join in his exam- ple. —John W. Bunn. APPEARANCE "I confess, with gratitude, be it understood, that I did not sup- pose my appearance among you would make the tumult I now wit- ness. I am gratified because it is a tribute which can be paid to no man as a man; it is the evidence that four years from this time you will give a like manifestation to the next man who is the representa- tive of the truth on the question that now agitates the public." — Nicolay and Hay. POLITICIAN 171 CAMPAIGN STORIES When in August the monster mass meeting was held in Spring- field, every effort was made to persuade Mr. Lincoln to speak. All he would consent to do was to appear and in a few words excuse himself. "Fellow-citizens and friends, the time comes upon every pub- lic man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed. That time has come upon me." To one gentleman who asked him to write something disclaim- ing all intention to interfere with slaves or slavery in the States, he replied: "I have already done this many many times; and it is in print and open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I have already publicly said would not read or heed a repetition of it. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." And to another correspondent, who suggested that he set forth his conservative views, he wrote: "I will not forbear from doing so merely on punctilio and pluck. If I do finally abstain, it will be because of apprehension that it would do harm. For the good men of the South— and I regard the majority of them as such— I have no objection to repeat seventy and seven times. But I have bad men to deal with, both North and South; men who are eager for something new upon which to base new misrepresentations; men who would like to frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of timidity and cowardice. They would seize upon almost any letter I could write as being an 'awful coming down.' I intend keeping my eye upon these gentlemen, and to not unnecessarily put any weapons in their hands." Nor would he defend himself against the "campaign stories" which appeared in numbers. One, of which his enemies made much, 172 LINCOLN TALKS was that he had received $200 for the Cooper Union speech in February i860. They claimed that as it was a political speech it was contrary to political etiquette to accept pay. Lincoln explained the affair in a letter to a gentleman who had been disturbed by it and added: "I have made this explanation to you as a friend, but I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss, and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot if we don't." — Nicolay and Hay. LIFE STORY When Mr. Scripps of the Chicago Tribune wanted to gather material for a campaign biography, Lincoln hesitated whether to aid the publication or not. He said: "There is no romance nor is there anything heroic in my early life. The story of my life can be condensed into one line, and that line you can find in Gray's 'Elegy': " 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' " —Dr. William Jayne. EMANCIPATION One of Lincoln's colored friends and neighbors, Donnegan, a cobbler, of Springfield, stated that the Negroes of that place were once thrown into confusion and consternation by a report that Lincoln seemed to have publicly renounced sentiments favoring emancipation, even though it were legally in his power to bring such an act about. It was stated that he had even gone so far as to declare, in an informal speech in the courthouse square in that very city, that he would not free the slaves if he could. The charge was too well verified to admit a doubt and too serious to be ig- nored. His very words were repeated. They were: "If I were Presi- dent, and an emancipation bill should pass Congress, I'd be the last man to sign it." Mr. Donnegan declared that the Negroes were greatly agitated POLITICIAN 173 by the report. The epithet of "nigger worshiper" had been flung time and again at their champion— was he weakening? Such were the ponderings amongst the colored people, and much gloom pre- vailed. One day Mr. Lincoln came into the barber shop of Mr. Donne- gan's brother to be shaved. As usual, he was willing to chat, and finally the barber mustered up courage to ask the prospective President if he had really uttered the words attributed to him. "Now, Tom," was his reply, "did you get caught on that fool gag?" "Well, that's what they say that you said!" "Sure enough I said it. So I should. Who's the last man to sign all bills passed by Congress, Tom? Isn't it the President?" —Tom Donnegan. PERSONALITY AND PRINCIPLE On many of the banners might be noticed the following: "Lin- coln the Champion of Freedom," "Hurrah for the Railsplitter," "No Squatter Sovereignty for Us," and "The Little Giant Bucked off the Bridge." As the head of the procession reached the southwest corner of the square, a local Democratic "hustler" with half a dozen fol- lowers, breaking through the crowd, rushed to the heads of the horses drawing Lincoln's carriage, and frantically waving their hats, hurrahed wildly for Douglas. But for the coolness of the driver, the team would have been stampeded— an effect which though not probably intended was doubtless in mind, and would not have been regretted. Mr. Lincoln was not at all nervous. I remarked: "They might have caused several smashups." "Hardly," was the reply; "the horses seem to understand, and when they have a steady driver, one in whom they have confidence, they will stand a good deal of scaring before they become un- manageable." 174 LINCOLN TALKS I apologized for the exuberance of zeal on the part of the Demo- crats on the ground of local pride, as the most boisterous of the party had been a pupil of Senator Douglas. "Yes," said Lincoln, "on their side success is wanted on per- sonal grounds; on ours, to maintain a principle." — Moncure D. Conway; Carpenter. CABINET MAKER "Mr. Lincoln," said an ardent sovereignty man, "Mr. Douglas is a cabinet maker." "He was when I first knew him," said Uncle Abe, "but he gave up the business so long ago, that I don't think he can make a Presi- dential chair now." — Lincolniana. SHANKS'S NOSE A few days before the time appointed to join Mr. Lincoln's party, a boil made its appearance on the end of my nose. It not only marred my appearance but caused me no small amount of pain, so that when I reached Indianapolis I was uncertain whether to go farther or not. I yielded to the entreaties of Nelson and agreed to make the trip. Much to my surprise and relief, when I met Mr. Lincoln, I was very cordially greeted by him. He put me completely at ease, and I confess I was so charmed and interested in him I took up a great deal more of his time than I had any right to expect. He made no references to my disfigurement and did not seem to notice it. On arriving at Cincinnati, the pain was more acute, the swelling had increased, and there was danger that by morning the boil might come to a head and "break." I stepped into a drug store, and asked the man in charge if he would not provide something that would drive the thing inwards or at least scatter it for twenty-four hours. He gave me a piece of cotton and a small vial containing some POLITICIAN I75 acetic acid, directing me to apply a very small portion to the af- fected parts. The next morning I was awakened by Nelson exclaiming: "For God's sake, Shanks, get up and look into the mirror!" I complied and the sight froze the blood in my veins. Instead of the red, angry protuberance of the previous day the end of my nose had shrunk and shriveled until it looked like a washerwoman's finger. I had been too generous with my applications of the medicine. It had driven away the inflammation, sure enough, but had left the surface pale, wrinkled, and sickly in color, thus rendering me infinitely more conspicuous than ever. Nelson was roaring with laughter. Within an hour I was due to breakfast with the President-elect! There was, however, no escape; I entered the dining room of the hotel and was promptly led to the President's table, where he was seated when I was ushered to my place. I was pleasantly greeted by Mr. Lincoln, but my head swam because I was sure he would ask a question or make some reference to my affliction or the sud- den and unusual change in my facial appearance. However, he ap- peared not to notice it, and presently the conversation became so animated and general and I was so absorbed in the various matters under discussion I soon actually forgot about it myself. Mr. Lin- coln had gone carefully over the entire Indiana situation, which was the matter he wanted to take up with us— and seemed much pleased by what he had learned. Having finished our meal we were on the point of rising from our chairs, and I was congratulating myself over my lucky escape, when suddenly Mr. Lincoln looked up, and with a smile irradiat- ing his rugged features, playfully inquired: "Gentlemen, can any of you tell me why Mr. Shanks' nose reminds me of a backslider?" Instantly all eyes were turned on me. Of course no one could an- swer the question. "Well, I'll tell you then," he answered; "be- cause his last condition is worse than his first." — Weik's scrap book. 176 LINCOLN TALKS r BLAME "But you will not abide the election of a Republican President? In that supposed event, you say you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool! A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mut- ters through his teeth: 'Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you— and then you will be a murderer!' " —From a speech by Lincoln at New York, Feb. 27, i860. POLITICAL CONVERSATION My older brother, at the age of seventeen, was working at the painter's trade. Being unable to work because of a felon on one of his fingers, he boarded a train for Springfield, and sat down be- side a man with the appearance of a farmer. This man offered the boy a paper to read, but the latter said he was nursing a felon on his finger and did not care to read just then. So they fell into conversation upon the leading topic of the day, the campaign for the Presidency between Lincoln and Douglas. My brother expressed the opinion that "Abe" would be elected. "Why so?" asked the other. "I've been reading a book which portrays the political and social conditions and I think the sympathies of the people are with Lin- coln." Upon reaching Springfield, the stranger kindly carried my brother's satchel off the train. "I'd like to find a moderate-priced boarding house for a while," said my brother. "Well, there is one near where I live; I'll point it out to you." The stranger still carrying the satchel, they finally reached the gate leading to the boarding house. As he set the satchel down in- side the gate, he said: "There comes Mrs. Smith, who keeps this boarding house. Mrs. Smith, here is a young friend of mine whom I met on the train. He has a felon, and I thought you might know POLITICIAN 177 something to do for it. He wishes to stop with you for a while till he gets able to go to work again." And then he said: "Good-by." But my brother said: "Sir, you have been very kind to me, and I would like to know your name before we part." "Well, I'm that Abe Lincoln you have been thinking would be elected; I live down here a short distance, come see me. I have a law office up town; drop in when you can, read the papers, and make yourself at home." —Rev. E. D. Tyson in a letter to President Coolidge. BARBECUE Now and then Lincoln got me into a good deal of trouble. I was a Democrat, and was in politics more or less. A good many of our Democratic voters at that time were Irishmen. They came to Il- linois in the days of the old canal, and did their honest share in making that piece of internal improvement an accomplished fact. One time Mr. Lincoln told the story of one of those important young fellows who live in every town, and have the cares of state on their shoulders. This young fellow met an Irishman on the street, and called to him, officiously: "Oh, Mike, I'm awful glad I met you. We've got to do something to wake up the boys. The campaign is coming on, and we've got to get out voters. We've just had a meeting up here, and we're going to have the biggest barbecue that ever was heard of in Illinois. We are going to roast two whole oxen, and we're going to have Douglas and Governor Cass and someone from Kentucky, and all the big Democratic guns, and we're going to have a great big time." "Bedad, that's good!" says the Irishman. "The byes need stirrin' up/' "Yes, and you're on one of the committees, and you want to hustle around and get them waked up, Mike." "When is the barbecue to be?" asked Mike. "Friday, two weeks." "Friday, is it? Well, I'll make a nice committeeman, settin' the iy8 LINCOLN TALKS barbecue on a day with half of the Dimocratic party of Sangamon County can't ate a bite of mate. Go on wid ye." Lincoln told that story in one of his political speeches, and when the laugh was over he said: "Now, gentlemen, I know that story is true, for Tom Kidd told it to me." And then the Democrats would make trouble for me for a week afterward, and I'd have to explain. -T. W. S. Kidd. UNANIMITY "Job says the more he hears about 'em [the candidates] the more he can't tell one from t'other," explained a friendly listener. Mr. Lincoln moved forward in his chair, to the right and to the left, drew himself erect for a moment, and then leaned composedly back. This was the usual prelude to a story. "Job reminds me of Pidge Risley, down at Widow Branch's. The widow had a fine growth of girls— Olive Branches they used to call them— five bright creatures and one son. People said the old folks set out to have ten daughters— preferred girls; but concluded, after the fifth, to put all the womanishness of five more into one son. Anyway, young Phil Branch didn't seem to be of much use as a man. The girls were all grown up and marriageable— two or three had been marriageable for ever so long; but when any one of them began to be courted, Phil would step in and do some ridiculous thing to upset the whole business. Pidge Risley was a stranger, and when he moved into Calhoun County, he gave out he was in search of a wife, so he was taken to Widow Branch's in a friendly way, and passed a merry first evening. When he took leave, that useless brother hung onto him, and tried to find out what he thought about the girls. Pidge wouldn't say much, except that he liked the youngest one's way of fixing her curls; and the very next time he called there, what do you think— three out of the five had their hair put up just the same way— all in curls. The youngest didn't seem well pleased, but Pidge enjoyed himself, and when Phil came around investigating again he let on that he was a good deal taken POLITICIAN I79 by a tasty cap the oldest daughter wore. Presently Pidge looked in once more of an evening and the first thing he saw was that four of the girls had the same identical caps on their heads. That night he gave a little the most attention to the one who wore no cap, just for contrariness, I suppose, and when Phil Branch came prowling a few days later, Pidge couldn't help saying, although he was a bit shy of Phil by that time, that he never saw a nicer picture than the middle sister of the five, so plump and fresh, and sparkling, with her low-necked frock and short sleeves. Sunday evening he dropped in after tea, having mentioned to the widow at afternoon meeting that he intended to do so, and there were the whole five in a row, all in low necks and short sleeves. That seemed to set Pidge reflect- ing hard, and the upshot of it was, he never went near the Widow Branch's again. He was talked to a good deal about it, but you could get nothing out of him, except that there was altogether too much want of dissimilarity in the Branch family, and he couldn't see the utility of a lot of sisters being so unanimous. You see, Job," concluded Mr. Lincoln, "the more he saw of 'em, the more he couldn't tell one from the other." —Charles A. Dana, in the New York Daily Tribune, i860. GRASS IN THE STREETS "It is for you, sir," said William E. Dodge, of New York, "to say whether the whole nation shall be plunged into bankruptcy, whether the grass shall grow in the streets of our cities." "If it depends on me," Mr. Lincoln answered, "the grass shall not grow anywhere except in the fields and the meadows." "Then you will yield to the put demands of the South— and will not go to war on account of slavery?" said Dodge. "I do not know what my acts or opinions may be in the future. If I ever come to the great office of President of the United States I shall take an oath to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. This is a great and solemn duty. With the support of the people and the assistance of the Almighty I shall l8o LINCOLN TALKS undertake to perform it. I have full faith that I shall perform it. It is not the Constitution as I would like to have it, but as it is, it is to be defended. The Constitution will not be preserved and de- fended until it is enforced and obeyed in every part of every one of the United States. It must be so respected and defended. It must be so defended, let the grass grow where it may." —The Independent. INSCRIPTION Hon. William D. Kelly. My dear Sir: Yours of the 6th asking permission to inscribe your new legal work to me, is received. Gratefully accepting the proffered honor, I give the leave, begging only that the inscription may be in modest terms, not representing me as a man of great learning, or a very extraordinary one in any respect. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. — Nicolay and Hay. OMEN He related an incident which I will try to put on paper here, as nearly as possible in his own words: "It was just after my election in i860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day, and there had been a great 'Hurrah, boys!' so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau"— and here he got up and placed the furniture to illustrate the position— "and, looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected, nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the top of the nose of one being about three inches from the top of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again I saw it a second time— plainer if possible than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler, say five shades, than the other. I got up and the thing melted away, and I went off and, in the ex- citement of the hour, forgot all about it— nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up and give me a pang, as POLITICIAN l8l though something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home again that night, I told my wife about it, and a few days after- ward I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the thing came again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a 'sign' that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term." —Francis Grierson. FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW Lincoln said to a prominent Democratic politician of the State of Kentucky who called upon him at Springfield immediately after the November election: "The Fugitive State law will be better ad- ministered during my Administration than it ever has been under that of my predecessors. If your party has been honest in its execu- tion, I will see that my party is equally honest in its execution." The gentleman said in reply: "Mr. Lincoln, if you will put that in writing that I may take it South and show it to the people, I will guarantee to save every State from secession excepting probably South Carolina." Mr. Lincoln said: "Sir, these are my views, given to you hon- estly and with good interest. You may use them as you think proper. It would be indelicate and uncalled for to put them in writing, at this time, for the purpose you indicate. I have not yet been placed in charge of the Government. When the time comes for me to assume authority, I will speak plainly and explicitly and no man who is for the Union will mistake me." —A. H. Markland, in the New York Daily Tribune. VICTORY OUT OF DEFEAT Two or three days after the election of i860, learning that the active workers of the Republican party in the State were calling on Mr. Lincoln in Springfield from all parts of Illinois to congratu- 182 LINCOLN TALKS late him, I concluded to make the same pilgrimage and went down on the Alton cars with a number of other Chicagoans. I walked up to the old State House in the public square, where Mr. Lincoln was holding his levee in the office of the Secretary of State. After passing into the room, which was quite full of men, Mr. Lincoln saw me and advanced to where I was and extended his hand and gave me a very cordial greeting. I congratulated him on his great success and hoped for him a useful and successful administration. He bent his head down to my ear and said in low tones, something like this: "Do you recollect the argument we had on the way up to Free- port two years ago over my question that I was going to ask Judge Douglas about the power of squatters to exclude slavery from ter- ritories?" And I replied that I recollected it very well. "Now," said he, "don't you think I was right in putting that question to him?" I said: "Yes, Mr. Lincoln, you were, and we were right. Douglas's reply to that question undoubtedly hurt him badly for the Presi- dency, but it elected him to the Senate at that time, as I feared it would." Lincoln then gave me a broad smile and said: "And I have won the place that he was playing for." We both laughed, and the mat- ter was never again referred to. —Joseph Medill, in the Chicago Tribune. LOCKED OUT At the time Mr. Lincoln was elected, I was in Springfield with my sister, Mrs. Albert Jones. We went to the Lincolns' the next day to offer our congratulations. Mr. Lincoln was in fine spirits. He told us he thought he had a good joke on his wife. Pointing to Mrs. Lincoln he said: "She locked me out." Mrs. Lincoln said to him: "Don't ever tell that again." But Mr. Lincoln laughed and went on with the story. He said Mrs. Lincoln had said when he went down- town in the evening to hear the returns that if he wasn't at home POLITICIAN 183 by 10 o'clock she would lock him out. And she did so. But Mr. Lincoln said that when she heard the music coming to serenade them she turned the key in a hurry. -Mrs. Judith A. Bradner, in Walter B. Stevens: A Reporter's Lincoln. woman's suffrage There lived in Springfield an Irish day-laborer named John Mc- Carty, an intense Democrat. Some time after the Presidential elec- tion, Mr. Lincoln was walking along the public square, and John was shoveling out the gutter. As the President-elect approached, McCarty rested on his shovel, and holding out his hand, said bluntly: "An' so yer elected President, are ye? Faith, and it wasn't by my vote at all!" "Well, yes, John," replied Mr. Lincoln, shaking hands cordially; "the papers say I am elected, but it seems odd I should be when you opposed me." "Well, Mr. Lincoln," said John, dropping his voice lest some brother Democrat should hear the confession, "I'm glad you got it, after all. It's moighty little peace I've had wid Biddy for vothin' forninst ye; an' if ye'd bin bate she'd ha' driv me from the shanty, as shure's the worrold." "Give my ' compliments to Biddy, John, and tell her I'll think seriously of woman's suffrage," said Mr. Lincoln, as he passed on to his office. —Scrap book, Library of Congress. MRS. PRESIDENT After Lincoln was elected President, Mrs. Lincoln remarked one day: "What am I to be when you get to be President?" "Why, the same old fool you've always been," Lincoln replied, with a kindly smile. You know, language like that carried no offense in those days*. —Joshua F. Speed. LINCOLN TALKS OFFICE-SEEKING After Mr. Lincoln's first election as President, he invited me to Springfield, where I passed two days with him in free consultation about the great questions upon which he would be called to act. Mr. Lincoln was frank and unrestrained, evidently inviting cor- responding frankness and freedom on my part. His Cabinet, his inaugural, his policy, etc., were fully discussed; and when I was about to take my leave, Mr. Lincoln inquired playfully if I hadn't forgotten something; adding, after a moment's pause: "You have not asked for any offices, Mr. Weed." I replied that when the proper time arrived, I should probably, like hosts of other friends, ask for such favors. "But," said Mr. Lincoln, "you have the reputation of taking time by the forelock. I was warned to be on my guard against you; and the joke of the matter is that those who gave the warning are after offices themselves, while you have avoided the subject." — Thurlow Weed. PATRONAGE In the course of our conversations, Mr. Lincoln remarked that it was particularly pleasant to him to reflect that he was coming into office unembarrassed by promises. He owed, he supposed, his exemption from importunities to the circumstance that his name as a candidate was but a short time before the people, and that only a few sanguine friends anticipated the possibility of his nomina- tion. "I have not," said he, "promised an office to any man, nor have I, but in a single instance, mentally committed myself to an appointment; and as that relates to an important office in your State, I have concluded to mention it to you, under strict injunc- tions of secrecy, however. If I am not induced by public considera- tion to change my purpose, Hiram Barney will be Collector of the Port of New York. . . . He has not asked for this or any other office, nor does he know of my intention." —Thurlow Weed. POLITICIAN 185 STEAM DOCTOR While we were at Mr. Lincoln's house in Springfield, a New Hampshire editor called. He commenced a very stiff and formal bowing when in Lincoln's presence, who went to him and seized his hand and shook it in real Hoosier style and gave him the heartiest welcome. It soon became evident that the editor had come a thousand miles to get enough out of Mr. Lincoln to form a policy for him. After an hour's struggle the editor abandoned the indirect method as hopeless. All hypothetical cases had been failures. He finally put the direct question: "Do you think, Mr. Lincoln, that the difficulty between the North and South can be settled by compromise?" The question reminded Lincoln of a story. He said he knew a doctor in Sangamon County, who confidently claimed his school of medicine was the only correct method of treating disease, and that he could cure anything by steam. A farmer's team in that neighborhood ran off and threw the farmer out and wounded him in the bowels. The steam doctor was sent for and he claimed that he could mend the broken bowels by steaming the outside of the patient. Mr. Lincoln, smiling at the editor, said: "Do you think that good medical practice?" The editor gave it up, rose, and, with a very stiff and formal bow, bade us all "Good day," and left. Mr. Lincoln said he felt sorry for the man who had come so far for nothing. -Lieut.-Gov. Will Cumback. CLOTHES From the time of his nomination gifts poured in on him. Many of these came in the form of wearing apparel. Mr. George Lin- coln, of Brooklyn, in January carried a handsome silk hat to the President-elect. In receiving the hat, Mr. Lincoln laughed heartily over the gifts of clothing and remarked to Mrs. Lincoln: l86 LINCOLN TALKS "Well, wife, if nothing else comes out of this scrape, we are going to have some new clothes, are we not?" -Ida M. Tarbell. GETHSEMANE "Gillespie, I would willingly take out of my life a period in years equal to the two months which intervene between now and my in- auguration. Because every hour adds to the difficulties I am called upon to meet, and the present administration does nothing to check the tendency towards dissolution. I, who have been called to meet this awful responsibility, am compelled to remain here, doing nothing to avert it or lessen its force when it comes to me. I see the duty devolving upon me. I have read upon my knees the story of Gethsemane, when the Son of God prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from him. I am in the Garden of Geth- semane now, and my cup of bitterness is full to overflowing." —Lincoln to Judge Joseph Gillespie. CABINET QUALIFICATIONS Chase had called at Lincoln's law office in Springfield to accept the appointment as Secretary of the Treasury and to discuss the situation generally. Young John Bunn had been in and out of the office all the afternoon while the conference was on. He had heard much of it. Next day, John, who was always free with his opin- ions, said: "Mr. Lincoln, I don't like Mr. Chase." "Don't like him?" asked Mr. Lincoln. "Why, he is one of the most distinguished men in the country!" "I know that," replied young Bunn. "The trouble with him is, he thinks he is a bigger man than you are." Lincoln laughed and then said: "John, if you will find for me seven bigger men than I am, I will put them all in my Cabinet." -H.N.B. WHISKERS During one of the sittings, the mail was handed in, and letter after letter glanced over and laid aside. At last a wee note attracted Mr. POLITICIAN 187 Lincoln's attention, followed by a convulsive shout of laughter that told how it had struck his humorous vein. Again and again he yielded to the comical assault upon his risibilities of the young woman's frank message when for the first time she had seen the face of the newly elected President. "It was so disappointingly ugly, I beg of you for heaven's sake to raise side-whiskers to fill out the lantern jaws." "If ever that girl," said Lincoln, "applies for office I'll appoint her to run a barber shop in the dead-letter office, the saucy hussy!" And then he quickly added: "Why, Healy, she may be right after all, but go ahead, and paint me now as I am. Some of these days, when the whiskers have sprouted, you can come to the White House and beard the lion in his den." -G. P. A. Healy. BURDEN OF OFFICE As we approached the [Springfield] railroad station Lincoln said: "My hat hain't chalked on this road now, so I reckon I must get a ticket." I ridiculed him and, handing him the antiquated carpet bag, I went into the office of Mr. Bo wen [superintendent of the road] and asked for a pass for Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Bowen was entirely alone, not even a clerk being present, it being breakfast time for them— and as he commenced to write a pass he suggested I invite Lincoln in there to wait, the train not having come from the West. I found the President-elect surrounded by the few persons who were also wait- ing for the train, while he was industriously at work tying the handles of his carpet bag together with a string. As soon as he was seated in Bo wen's office he said: "Bowen, how is business on your road now?" When he was answered he said: "You are a heap better off running a good road than I am playing President. When I first knew Whitney I was getting on well— I was clean out of politics and contented to stay so; I had a good business, l88 LINCOLN TALKS and my children were coming up, and were interesting to me; but now— here I am—" and he broke off abruptly, as if his feelings over- powered him. —Edward Bates. CONVERT His train stopped in Wellsville, Ohio. A large crowd gathered and the homespun lawyer was making a speech from the rear plat- form when an inebriate in the crowd blurted out: "I voted for a damn sight better man than you." Lincoln responded with: "I want to meet that man; bring him to me." Although intoxicated, the man had sense enough to be fright- ened, while the crowd became tense with anticipation of the meet- ing. In a few minutes the man was face to face with the President- elect. Lincoln, still poised, looked at him a moment and then said: "My friend, you didn't vote for me, but I have been elected. I am your President. I am going down to Washington to tackle a very hard job, and I need your help. Will you help me?" This overwhelmed the inebriate, and he replied: "Sure I will, Mr. Lincoln, sure I will." — Lamon. THE COAL-HEAVER When Lincoln was on his way to assume the office of President, the train was delayed at Freedom, Pennsylvania. Neither Major Sumner nor Colonel Ellsworth was tall, and, as they stood beside Lincoln on the rear platform, while he made his address, they looked shorter than they really were. At the close of Lincoln's short speech, a coal-heaver called out: "Abe, they say you are the tallest man in the United States, but I don't believe you are any taller than I am." Lincoln replied: "Come up here and let us measure." The coal-heaver pressed his way through the crowd and climbed POLITICIAN 189 onto the platform, where Lincoln and he stood back to back. Turn- ing to Colonel Ellsworth, Lincoln said: "Which is the taller?" Colonel Ellsworth, being so much shorter, could not tell, so he climbed onto the guard rail, and, putting his hand across the top of the heads of the two men, said: "I believe that they are exactly the same height." Then Lincoln and the coal-heaver turned around and faced each other. The crowd shouted loudly when Lincoln took the black, sooty hand of the coal-heaver in his and gave a hearty handshake to the man who was his equal, in height. — Maj. Edwin V. Sumner. SPEECH While Lincoln was on his way to Washington for his inaugura- tion, we at Peekskill succeeded in having his consent to stop there and make a brief speech. Thousands gathered at the station, many having driven over from Connecticut, twenty-five miles away. The chairman of the reception committee was Judge Nelson, then past eighty years of age, who had served in Congress with Lincoln. Then President-elect stepped onto an extemporized platform and was introduced to the committee, and then the judge began the speech of welcome. The crowd was wild to hear Mr. Lincoln, but the judge continued speaking until the bell of the locomotive rang and the conductor shouted: "All aboard"! Mr. Lincoln hastily jumped on the platform of the car, laughing heartily at the speaker, whose arms were gesticulating, and whose closing sentence was half finished, while the audience cheered frantically and then roared with rage at the judge. — Depew. CITY APPEARANCE The train stopped [in New York City], and through the win- dows immense crowds could be seen, the cheering drowning the blowing off of steam of the locomotive. Then Mrs. Lincoln opened her handbag and said: 190 LINCOLN TALKS "Abraham, I must fix you up a bit for these city folks." —Stephen Fiske. HANDSHAKING While Mr. Lincoln was President-elect he appeared at the New York City Hall to meet the people. I took my place in line with the vast multitude in the park and it was over an hour before I got inside the hall. There stood about the center the noble form of the great and good man, toward whom all eyes were turned. Closer and closer we came, till the face of Abraham Lincoln was beaming kindly into ours at very close range. Next to and preceding me was a little old man who looked like a farmer. He grasped Mr. Lincoln's hand, shook it most vigorously, remarking: "I am so glad to see you," etc. At that moment the President-elect exclaimed: "My friends, that is the last man I shall shake hands with in this assembly today; my arm is tired; please excuse me." Of course I came next and my heart almost sank within me as he spoke, but I ventured to say: "Mr. Lincoln, won't you shake hands with me?" I shall never forget the kindly manner in which he replied: "My young friend, gladly would I shake hands with you if I could, but I cannot. I have just publicly announced that that was the last man I would shake hands with here today, and I cannot go back on my word." And as if feeling for me in my disappointment, he took time to say: "Now, my young man, I appeal to your own sense of honor in this case, would it be right in me to shake hands with any person in this place under these circumstances?" At once I replied: "No, sir, it would not." His mind seemed relieved as he said: "Thank you, my friend, thank you! Don't be offended. I must be true to my word." And the whole thing was done in such an exceedingly kind and gentle spirit that I took it like a father's benediction. —Alexander Shaw. LINCOLN TALKS PART TWO PRESIDENT IPiMBTPY BtlBiUDlBIB ^^^^^^S^^^^^S^^^^^^^^^^^^« EMOLUMENTS TO an applicant eager for office he said: "There are no emolu- ments that properly belong to patriotism. I brought nothing with me to the White House, nor am I likely to carry anything out." —Andrew G. Curtin. NEWSHAWK The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not dance, so an impromptu reception was substituted [at the Inaugural Ball] for the court quadrille, and almost every person was presented to Mr. Lincoln and shook hands with him. He was in jovial spirits, as full of fun as a boy, and said: "This handshaking is harder work than rail- splitting." After the supper, when the ball had become more like a dance, I handed Mrs. Lincoln her bouquet, and ventured to congratulate the President upon his improved health. He responded so cor- dially that I was emboldened to ask whether he had any special news that I might send to Mr. Bennett, the editor of the New York Herald. "Yes," he replied, looking at me significantly, "you may tell him that Thurlow Weed has found out that Seward was not nom- inated at Chicago!" This was very old news, another "Lincoln joke," and I smiled and took my leave. But on my way to the telegraph office the joke assumed most serious proportions. It meant, on the authority of 193 194 LINCOLN TALKS the President himself, that Weed's secret intrigues to become the power behind the Cabinet had been exposed and defeated. So tre- mendous was the importance of this "joke" that it crowded out for a day the description that I had previously telegraphed of the costumes at the curious ball which ended the first inauguration of President Lincoln. —New York Herald. VOLUNTEERS We had just commenced conversation when Secretaries Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Smith, and Attorney-General Bates came in. Mr. Lincoln said to me: "Please excuse me, Mr. Foot, for a few minutes." Mr. Lincoln then said: "Gentlemen, something has occurred this morning, which I am in doubt about, and I have asked you to call and give me your views. Senator Chandler has been here this morn- ing, and says there are five thousand men in Michigan more than her quota, organized and armed and anxious to enter the public service to put down the rebellion. There are in the other States twenty thousand more in the same condition. Now what shall we do with these twenty-five thousand men? Shall we disappoint them and send them home, or shall we gratify them and take them into the service? We must not forget, they are a part of the people on whom we are to rely." This led to a full discussion of the state of the country, the prob- able strength and duration of the rebellion, and the number of troops which would be required to subdue it. Among other sug- gestions which were considered was the issuing of another procla- mation calling for twenty-five thousand more troops. This was not approved, as it would look as if the Government were alarmed, or bragging. Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, in addition to other views which he presented, remarked "that there were no funds pro- vided for the payment of these troops, and Congress might hesitate PARTY LEADER l<)$ to provide for more than the seventy-five thousand already called for." Mr. Seward, who had taken no part in the discussion, but had sat listening attentively to it, finally said: "Suppose the Secretary of War just quietly takes them into the public service without any- thing being said about it. If they are not wanted, and the rebellion is put down without them, Congress will no doubt freely pay them; and if they are wanted, then all will be glad they are on hand." This suggestion was approved and acted on. One thing I noticed in this discussion, which gave me the high- est gratification, and that was that while Mr. Lincoln only now and then made a remark, the remarks he did make showed a reach of intellect, a comprehension of the condition and wants of the coun- try, and a knowledge, which seemed intuitive, of the measures which true policy required, far beyond those of any member of his Cabinet who took a part in the discussion; and when I left the White House that day, I felt a perfect assurance that the country was in safe hands. As soon as Mr. Seward's suggestion was adopted, several of the gentlemen left; but General Cameron, the Secretary of War, re- mained. I was acquainted with him, and thought it a convenient and favorable opportunity to mention my object in bringing Law- rence to Washington. I did so. He looked at Lawrence, spoke to him, and turned to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Judge Foot has brought one of his sons here, and would like to have him sent to West Point in the place of some of the rebels who have left there. There he is" (pointing to Lawrence), "a bright-looking chap— suppose you give him the appointment at once." Mr. Lincoln thought for a few seconds and then said: "There are a number of pressing applications for West Point. I have partly promised some of them. I must think of this, but will remember it." He then called his secretary and told him to take Lawrence's name, age, and address, and place him on the list of candidates for West Point. I afterwards saw General Totten, the head of the Engineer 196 LINCOLN TALKS Corps and of West Point under the Secretary of War and Presi- dent, and found there were a large number of applications for ap- pointments of cadets, certainly more needing, and probably more deserving, the favor of the Government than mine for Lawrence. This showed how thoughtful and just Mr. Lincoln was, in the discharge of every duty. —Judge Samuel A. Foot. RANKS The recruits had been drawn up on Pennsylvania Avenue and reviewed by the President and his Secretary of State, Mr. Seward. President Lincoln remarked: "Seward, I suppose there are a hundred men in these ranks who could hold your job or mine." —Seward. EPISCOPALIAN / One day the President and the Secretary of State attended a review near Arlington on the opposite side of the Potomac. A conveyance drawn by four mules was provided. When the party arrived on the Virginia side of the river, where the roads were rough and badly cut by artillery and army trains, the driver had so much difficulty with the team, in his efforts to prevent the wheels dropping into the ruts, that he lost his temper and began to swear; the worse the roads became, the greater became his pro- fanity. At last the President said, in his pleasant manner: "Driver, my friend, are you an Episcopalian?" Greatly astonished, the man made answer: "No, Mr. President, I ain't much of anything; but if I go to church at all, I go to the Methodist Church." "Oh, excuse me," replied Lincoln; "I thought you must be an Episcopalian, for you swear just like Secretary Seward, and he's a church-warden!" —Putnam's Magazine. PARTY LEADER 1 97 ORIGINALITY By tradition, as the premier in fact, the Secretary of State is sup- posed to write the first drafts at least of the Presidential speeches to foreign ministers, and, as the secretary was Seward, a man of letters pre-eminently, he had Lincoln's addresses, even to home delegations, fathered upon him. The President was chatting in his own study when a messenger ran in with a paper, explaining his haste with the words: "Compliments of the Secretary with the speech Your Excellency is to make to the Swiss minister." Anybody else would have been abashed by the seeming exposure, but the Executive merely cried aloud as if to publish the facts to the auditory: "Oh, this is a speech Mr. Seward has written for me. I guess I will try it before these gentlemen, and see how it goes." He read it in the burlesque manner with which he parodied circuit preachers in his boyhood and public speakers in his prime, and added at the close: "There, I like that. It has the merit of originality!" —Carpenter. ON SEWARD Not always popular with the leading Congressional Radicals, on account of the development of his unexpected conservatism and some concessions on what were deemed vital questions, President Lincoln, after one of his receptions, referred in a conversation with me thus quaintly to some of these Radical strictures. Said he: "Tell them they are entirely mistaken in supposing that Seward can control me, as they assume, in my official action. When subjects come before us, he argues them, instinctively and with great power, too, from the standpoint of what is the widest and most popular policy; while with me, my determination is to find out, and then to stand inflexibly for, the right. But I could not get along here at all without him and his counsel. He knows all about ancient and 198 LINCOLN TALKS modern history— the Peloponnesian as well as Revolutionary War; he is familiar with the great men of Europe, of whom I know but little; he can tell me all about etiquette, when I never went to dignity school in my life; and he writes all the speeches I make to the foreign ministers, for I wouldn't know what to say to them." —Schuyler Colfax in the Congregationalist. LOCAL REPRESENTATION There was no member of the Cabinet from the South when Attorney-General Bates handed in his resignation, and President Lincoln had a great deal of trouble in making a selection. Finally Titian F. CofTey consented to fill the vacant place for a time, and did so until the appointment of Mr. Speed. In conversation with Mr. CofTey, the President remarked: "My Cabinet has shrunk up North, and I must find a Southern man. I suppose if the twelve Apostles were to be chosen nowadays, the shrieks of locality would have to be heeded." —Titian J. Coffey, in the New York Daily Tribune. BEARD We were all going one day out from Washington to Tennally- town— the President, Secretary Chase, Attorney-General Bates, and myself— to see General McClellan review the Pennsylvania re- serves. Bates's hair I noticed had retained its freshness while his beard was almost as white as mine is now. It was an exception to the usual law and I asked Mr. Bates, after he had spoken of the peculiarity, if he knew any especial reason for it. He said he didn't, but the President exclaimed, laughingly: "Why, don't you know? It's because he uses his chin more than he does his head." —Jay Cooke. ADVICE Mr. Lincoln said in talking of Mr. Bates: "I am reminded of the advice which Mr. Barton, a distinguished lawyer of St. Louis, gave to a client thirty or forty years ago. A young man from Pitts- PARTY LEADER I99 burgh stopped at a hotel in St. Louis, and immediately placed a package of money in deposit with the branch bank of the United States; after which and during the day, he made several investments and drew several checks. On the following morning he was wanted at the bank, where he found several gentlemen in conversation, one of whom informed him that they had received information of a robbery of the bank from which the money he had deposited had been taken, and that, though delicate and unpleasant, it was deemed proper to inquire who he was, and whether he came hon- estly in possession of so large a sum of money. The young man re- plied that he was the son of a wealthy and well-known citizen of Pittsburgh, but that he had no acquaintances in St. Louis and was unable to identify himself. The bank men thought, under the cir- cumstances, it was their duty to retain the money until they could be satisfied that he was the honest owner of it. Finding himself in a tight place, the landlord advised the young man to employ coun- sel, and recommended him to Squire Barton. "He found Squire Barton at his office, over a store, in his shirt sleeves, who listened attentively and without speaking until the whole case was laid before him, and then taking the young man to an open window said: 'That's a pretty large amount of money for a stranger to carry around with him. There've been a good many robberies lately; 'tisn't an honest way of getting a living, but some people don't find that out till they've tried it. If you're the son of General Anderson, as I hope you are, and didn't steal that money, my advice is that you face the music, and I will stand by you; but if, as I strongly suspect, you were tempted, and that money isn't honestly yours, I advise you' (pointing in the direc- tion indicated) 'to make tracks for that tall timber, and to put the Mississippi between you and these bank fellows as soon as you can find a crossing.' 'And how much shall I pay you for your advice?' inquired his client. 'If you intend to hook it, five dollars. If you remain and prove yourself an honest lad, nothing.' " — Thurlow Weed. LINCOLN TALKS LIFE IN MARYLAND Mr. Lincoln, in making up his Cabinet, remarked that Judge Blair had been suggested for one of the places. I finally remarked that, if we were legislating on the question, I should move to strike out the name of Montgomery Blair and insert that of Henry Winter Davis. Mr. Lincoln laughingly replied: "Davis has been posting you up on this question. He came from Maryland, and Maryland must, I think, be like New Hampshire, a good State to move from." And then he told a story of a witness in a neighboring county, who, on being asked his age, replied: "Sixty." Being satisfied that he was much older, the judge repeated the question, and on re- ceiving the same answer, admonished the witness, saying that the Court knew him to be much older than sixty. "Oh," said the wit- ness, "you're thinking about that fifteen years that I lived down on the eastern shore of Maryland; that was so much lost time and don't count." — Thurlow Weed. SCARED One evening during the last week of his life, when extremely busy and weary as well, Lincoln was called to the reception room to see Mr. Speed, then x\ttorney-General. He had called to intro- duce a friend and, seeing the weary look on the President's face, began to apologize. "I am very sorry, Mr. President," said Mr. Speed, "to disturb you." "Speed," he replied, "you remind me of a story of Henry Ward Beecher. One Sunday as he was going to preach, he saw some boys playing marbles in the street. He stopped and looked at them very hard. 'Boys,' he said, presently, 'boys, I am scared at what I see/ 'Then,' replied one of the boys, 'why the hell don't you run away?' " —Chicago Tribune. PARTY LEADER 201 STEVENS ON CAMERON Thad Stevens went to the President to protest against an in- tended favor to Cameron [Secretary of War], whom he did not like. "You don't mean to say," said Lincoln, "that Cameron would steal?" "No," replied Stevens, "I don't think he would steal a red-hot stove." Lincoln could not help passing the joke along to Cameron, who was so far from pleased that he demanded a retraction. This Stevens made in his own fashion. "Mr. Lincoln," he said, "Cameron is very mad and made me promise to retract. I will now do so. I believe I told you that I didn't think he would steal a red-hot stove. I now take that back." — Thaddeus Stevens. CAMERON RESIGNS Thurlow Weed was thoroughly possessed by the idea that Simon Cameron, as Secretary of War, was not strong enough to cope with the military situation likely to confront him. He finally went to Mr. Lincoln and asked that Cameron be requested to resign. "Well, I can't do that," answered the President; "I simply cannot do it. I would resign myself before I would do that." "Well, now, Mr. President," urged Weed, "I can make the mat- ter perfectly easy for you— so easy for you, in fact, that all you will have to do will be to accept his resignation. Indeed, I will so arrange it that Cameron will come to you himself voluntarily and ask to be relieved." To this plan Lincoln readily assented, and the next time Weed called on Cameron, he stepped back hastily, looked at the Secre- tary with marked anxiety, and said: "Why, Cameron, what's the matter? You look as pale as a sheet!" "There is nothing the matter with me," replied Cameron. "I am quite well." For several days this performance went on, different 202 LINCOLN TALKS men calling and remarking their surprise at his apparent illness. Finally Weed called on Cameron again. "It is evident to me, Mr. Cameron," said Weed, "that the work of this office is undermining your health. You have no right, in justice to yourself, to allow these responsibilities to kill you. Come with me up to my place on the Hudson and take a good long rest." Cameron accepted the invitation, and after he had been at Weed's for some time, Weed tactfully suggested that they quietly call in a certain noted specialist. This physician said: "I find, Mr. Secre- tary, that you have no organic trouble, but you have been greatly overworked, and a long rest is absolutely essential to prevent a nervous breakdown, and I would suggest a sea voyage." By this time Mr. Cameron was ready to ask that the President relieve him of his duties as Secretary of War, and Weed hinted to Mr. Cameron that he would do well to ask for a foreign mission. Fortunately for Weed's plans, Cassius M. Clay, our minister to Russia, had just tendered his resignation on account of his desire to enter the military service. So Weed went to President Lincoln about the matter, and the result was that Clay became a major- general, Cameron became ambassador to Russia, and Edwin M. Stanton became Secretary of War. —Judge Thomas Ewing. SPOTTED ANIMALS To some gentlemen who thought the interests of the country required an entire reconstruction of the Cabinet, Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War, having already resigned, Lincoln said: "Gentlemen, when I was a young man I used to know very well one Joe Wilson, who built himself a log cabin not far from where I lived. Joe was very fond of eggs and chickens, and he took a good deal of pains in fitting up a poultry shed. Having at length got together a choice lot of young fowls— of which he was very proud —he began to be very much annoyed by the depredation of those little black and white spotted animals, which it is not necessary to PARTY LEADER 203 name. One night Joe was awakened by an unusual cackling and fluttering among his chickens. Getting up, he crept out to see what was going on. It was a moonlight night, and he soon caught sight of half a dozen of the little pests, which with their dam were run- ning in and out of the shadow of the shed. Very wrathy, Joe put a double charge into his old musket and thought he would 'clean' out the whole tribe at one shot. Somehow he only killed one, and the balance scampered off across the field. In telling the story, Joe would always pause here and hold his nose. 'Why didn't you fol- low them up and kill the rest?' inquired the neighbors. 'Blast it/ said Joe, 'why, it was eleven weeks before I got over killing one. If you want any more skirmishing in that line you can just do it yourselves.' " —J. B. McClure; Carleton B. Case. BRICKS I called upon Mr. Lincoln as soon as it became known that Stan- ton had accepted an appointment in his Cabinet and congratulated him upon having secured so valuable a coadjutor. Mr. Lincoln re- plied that it was an experiment which he had made up his mind to try, and that whenever a Union man was willing to break away from party affiliations and stand by the Government in this great struggle, he was resolved to give him an opportunity and welcome him to the service. He remarked that he had been warned against this appointment and had been told that it would never do; that "Stanton would run away with the whole concern and that he would find that he could do nothing with such a man unless he let him have his own way." The President then told a story of a minister out in Illinois who was in the habit of going off in such high flights at camp meeting that they had to put bricks in his pockets to keep him down. "I may have to do that with Stanton; but, if I do, bricks in his pocket will be better than bricks in his hat. I'll risk him without either." —Henry L. Dawes, in the New York Daily Tribune. 204 LINCOLN TALKS SUPERFLUOUS "You never swear, Mr. President, do you?" asked a prominent Boston man. "Oh, I don't have to," he laughed. "You know I have Stanton in my Cabinet." —Henry L. Dawes. ON STANTON Mr. Lincoln loved Edwin M. Stanton, and believed in him from first to last. When inquired of concerning the reasons for his ap- pointment, Mr. Lincoln said he rather wished at first to appoint a man from one of the border States, but he knew the New England people would object; and then, again, it would have given him great satisfaction to appoint a man from New England, but that would displease the border States. On the whole, he thought he had better take a man from some intervening territory. "And, to tell you the truth, gentlemen," said he, "I don't believe Stanton knows where he belongs himself." —Henry L. Dawes. COUNTERMAND About 3 o'clock in the afternoon of June 1 1, General Daniel D. Ruker, followed by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stan- ton, entered my office on Twenty-Second Street, near G Street. The general introduced me to the President, whereupon the Presi- dent put his hand on my shoulder and said: "I want your help. Early is making a raid on Washington. We have no available troops here. I want you to turn out the quartermaster brigade." (This bri- gade was organized by me about twelve months previous and equipped by order of General Ruker. The arms could always be found at the armory on G Street.) I said to the President: "We have no time to lose." I commenced to write orders to the differ- PARTY LEADER 205 ent superintendents to have their men fully equipped and to report at the mouth of Rock Road promptly at 9 o'clock that night. Stanton took the order, and Mr. Lincoln read it over Stanton's shoulder and said: "Stanton, Pennicke says 9 o'clock and you 12 o'clock." "Twelve is time enough; I will have the orders printed at the printing office and Pennicke can send them out." I said: "Mr. President, if Mr. Stanton says 12 o'clock, I will not send an order out of this office. These men are all civilians, not sworn in for military service, therefore the Secretary has no au- thority to command them. Early approaches with an army flushed with victory. I will not order the men to be butchered because Mr. Stanton thinks they should be. What we want is trenches and all kinds of hindrances in the road so they cannot advance." Mr. Lincoln turned to me and said: "Pennicke, you grasp the situation; send your order." — Weik's scrap book. eckert's honor Secretary Stanton one day in an especially black mood had Eckert "on the carpet." In the presence of General Sanford and others he charged him with neglect of duty, unfitness, and with "leaking" information to the newspaper correspondents. Eckert hotly denied every charge and innuendo, and under suppressed excitement demanded immediate acceptance of his resignation, which he wrote out on the spot. Before the colloquy was over, the President slipped into the room and stood immediately behind Captain Eckert. Eckert felt a hand on his shoulder and supposed it was General Sanford. He discovered it was Lincoln. There was the stillness of death as we awaited the climax of the tense drama. "Mr. Secretary," said Lincoln, addressing his War Secretary with great dignity, "I heard your charge against Captain Eckert. 206 LINCOLN TALKS To my personal knowledge Captain Eckert is faithful to duty, competent in every way, and worthy of the highest trust." Instantly the atmosphere in the room changed. Eyes were glued on the embarrassed Secretary of War. There was only one thing for Stanton to do, and he did it. Picking up Eckert's resignation, he tore it to shreds. Reaching for the order of dismissal, which he already had signed, he destroyed that also. Facing Eckert and Lincoln, he said: "I apologize to Captain Eckert for acting on in- sufficient information. Captain Eckert, you are no longer a cap- tain. I shall appoint you a major as soon as the commission can be made out." —Cincinnati Gazette. ALWAYS READY A gentleman called upon Mr. Lincoln seeking a pardon for a young surgeon in the Confederate service. After hearing the case the President said: "I cannot interfere; I must not offend Secre- tary ." "That cannot happen," said the petitioner; "Secretary has not been requested to give the pardon; I have preferred to make application to the President, who listens patiently, which Secretary will not always do." "Perhaps," said Mr. Lincoln, "there is that difference between the Secretary and myself, and it recalls a story told to me by Swett: A man had a small bull terrier that could whip all the dogs of the neighborhood. The owner of a large dog that the terrier had whipped asked the owner of the terrier how it happened that the terrier whipped every dog he encountered. 'That,' said the owner of the terrier, 'is no mystery to me; your dogs and other dogs get half through a fight before they are ready; my dog is always mad.' " -Harper's, 1868. FEAR OF STANTON Said Mr. Lincoln to the Senator: "It is seldom that I am placed in such an embarrassing position as that in which you find me this PARTY LEADER 207 morning. Here is a poor widow whose only boy is an enlisted soldier who is negligent of his duty, and a court martial has ad- judged that he is guilty of a military crime, of which the penalty is death. The judgment has been pronounced upon him and the poor woman is here asking for his pardon. The boy's action lost nothing to us, but the army officers say if the reprieve is granted it will destroy all discipline and make it impossible to secure obedi- ence from the men. Now, what would you do in such a case?" Senator Fessenden replied that his action would be guided by his heart, and that it would be favorable to the widow. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln said with a half -smile: "Well, that is just what I have done, but I expect that Secretary Stanton will be terribly angry when he hears of it. However, I guess he will get over it after a while." —Samuel Fessenden. ROCK Two members of Congress wanted an army appointment for the son of a man who had befriended Lincoln, who endorsed the application with a request that the Secretary of War make the ap- pointment. Mr. Stanton, in refusing to make the appointment, said: "I cannot comply with the President's wishes in this case." This refusal being communicated to the President, he said: "Gentlemen, it is my duty to submit. I cannot add to Mr. Stanton's troubles. His position is one of the most difficult. Thousands in the army blame him because they are not promoted and other thousands out of the army blame him because they are not appointed. The pressure upon him is immeasurable and unending. He is the rock on the beach of our national ocean against which the breakers dash and roar, dash and roar without ceasing. He fights back the angry waters and prevents them from undermining and overwhelming the land. Gentlemen, I do not see how he survives, why he is not crushed and torn to pieces. Without him I should be destroyed. He performs his task superhumanly. Now, do not mind this mat- 208 LINCOLN TALKS ter, for Mr. Stanton is right, and I cannot wrongly interfere with him." —Gen. James B. Fry. MOUNTEBANK In the private office of Secretary Stanton, the evening of elec- tion day in 1864, the returns were coming in from various States, and were read with the greatest avidity. The returns were reported early, and were apparently so decisive that there was no doubt of Lincoln's election over McClellan. But before this conclusion had been reached, Lincoln was enjoying the perusal of a new book by Petroleum V. Nasby; he listened but languidly to report after report as it was received and read, immediately returning to the fun and bad spelling before him. "Dana," said he to me, "have you ever read anything of Petro- leum V. Nasby? Pull up your chair and listen." I drew up to him, and he began to read aloud, to me only and not to Stanton, one after another of Petroleum's funny hits; and between each of them we had a quiet little laugh all to ourselves. But the lion head of the Secretary showed plainly that he had no sympathy with this amusement; in fact his face wore its darkest and sternest expression. However, the reading went on, occasion- ally interrupted by General Eckert's entrance with another tele- gram, to which Mr. Lincoln paid no very serious attention; and he quickly went back to the reading every time. In this way he read paragraphs and even pages of Nasby, until finally a dispatch was brought in of a more important nature, and he laid the pamphlet down to attend to it. At length Stanton's impatience got the better of him, and his rage was unbounded. He motioned to Dana and Eckert, chief of the Military Telegraph, to follow him into another room. When the door was shut he broke out in fury: " it to !" said he. "Was there ever such nonsense? Was there ever such PARTY LEADER 209 inability to appreciate what is going on in an awful crisis? Here is the fate of this whole Republic at stake, and here is the man around whom it all centers, on whom it all depends, turning aside from this momentous, this incomparable issue, to read the trash of a silly mountebank!' " —Charles A. Dana, in the New York Daily Tribune. RETALIATION A speculator who had induced the President to oblige him with a permit to trade in cotton reported with zest how Secretary Stan- ton had no sooner seen the paper than, instead of countersigning, he had torn up the leaf without respect even for the august signa- ture. Stanton was famous for irascibility. And he did not forbear to manifest it toward all, even to the President. But, as the latter ob- served: "Hot or cold, Stanton is generally right." This time he was not sorry at heart for the reproof as to his allowing a signal favor which might work harm. But affecting rage, he blurted out: "Oh, he tore up my paper, did he? Go and tell Stanton that I will tear up a dozen of his papers before Saturday night!" —David Homer Bates, HAND-ORGAN A certain Foreign Minister complained to the President of a man with a hand-organ who disturbed him at all hours by grinding music in front of his residence. "I'll tell you what to do," said Mr. Lincoln, "speak to Stanton about it, and tell him to send Baker after the man. Baker will steal the organ and throw its owner into the Old Capitol and you'll never be troubled with his noise again." This referred to the many complaints of arbitrary arrests being made in this city, and the Baker mentioned was the well-known chief of the corps of detectives. —Springfield Republican. 210 LINCOLN TALKS STANTON S OPINION Owen Love joy, brother of the man who had given his life in defense of the freedom of the press, was a member of Congress. He thought that national unity would be promoted by a greater min- gling of Eastern with Western troops. The President saw that much good might come from such action, and wrote a note to the Sec- retary of War, which Mr. Love joy handed to Mr. Stanton. "I will not do it," said the Secretary. "But here, Mr. Secretary, is the President's letter." "The President is a damned fool." Mr. Lovejoy returned to the White House. "Well, what now, Lovejoy?" the President asked. "Stanton says you are a damned fool." "Did he say that?" "Yes." "Well, if he said so, I reckon I must be, for he is nearly always right. I'll step over and see about it." —Owen Lovejoy. DOORKEEPER One day a tall, lank gentleman came to the entrance of the War Department and asked if the Secretary was in. James Elter, the doorkeeper, replied that he was not— that it was too early for him. The caller then asked at what hour he would be likely to find the Secretary, and was duly informed. With a pleasant "Thank you," the inquirer walked away. At the hour mentioned by the doorkeeper the stranger again walked up the steps and asked Elter if he would not go to the Secretary's room and say that the caller wished to see him. The doorkeeper said that he could not leave his post. "Oh, that's all right. I am Mr. Lincoln and I will keep door while you deliver my message. Tell him that I want to see him here in the lower hall." With this the President unpinned Elter's badge, stuck it in his own coat, and took the watchman's chair. Elter hastened to the PARTY LEADER 211 Secretary's room and soon the two were together near him but in quiet and earnest talk. —James Elter. GOOD LETTER A major-general accused Secretary Stanton of favoritism. It made the Secretary of War angry. Stanton wrote forcefully. He brought the letter to Lincoln, and as Stanton read it Lincoln inter- jected at various places: "That's right, give it to him, Stanton," "Just what he deserves," "Good for you." Stanton, gratified, folded the letter to put it in its envelope. Said Lincoln: "What are you going to do with it now?" "Why, send it, of course," replied Stanton. "Don't do it, Stanton," said Lincoln. "But you said it was just what he deserved," replied the Secre- tary of War. "Yes," said Lincoln, "I believe he does deserve it, but you don't want to send such a letter as that. Put it in the fire. That's what I do when I am angry. It's a good letter and you have had a good time writing it and you feel better, don't you? It has done you good and answered its purpose. Now burn it!" —Stanton. ARTEMUS WARD He said: "Stanton, I find a heap of fun in Artemus Ward's book." "Yes," said Stanton dryly, "but what do you think of that chapter where he makes fun of you?" Mr. Lincoln quickly replied: "Stanton, to save my life I could never see any humor in that chapter." —Stanton. ACCUSE NOT Another time, an excited man approached the President with loud abuse against Secretary Stanton. "Your order has not been obeyed, Mr. President. It's more than 212 LINCOLN TALKS two weeks since you ordered my brother's release, and he is still in captivity." Lincoln turned his eyes wearily on the complainant. " 'Accuse not a servant unto his master,' " said the President, " 'lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty.' " "There is no such passage in the Bible," said the irate visitor. But Lincoln and Pendel found it in Proverbs the next morning. —Thomas F. Pendel. YES AND NO That reminded Mr. Stanton of the dilemma he had been placed in just before leaving, by the receipt of a telegram from General Mitchell, who was in Northern Alabama. The telegram was in- distinct and could not be clearly understood; there was no time to ask for further explanation, and yet an immediate answer was re- quired; so the Secretary took the chance and answered back: "All right; go ahead." "Now, Mr. President," said he, "if I have made a mistake, you must countermand my instructions." "That reminds me," said Mr. Lincoln, "of a story about a horse that was sold at the crossroads where I once lived. The horse was supposed to be fast and quite a number of people were present at the time appointed for the sale. A small boy was employed to ride the horse backward and forward to exhibit his points. One of the would-be buyers followed the boy down the road and asked him confidentially if the horse had a splint. 'Well, Mister,' said the boy, 'if it's good for him he's got it, but if it isn't good for him he hasn't.' And that's the position," said the President, "you seem to have left General Mitchell in." —Egbert L. Vielle, Scribner's, Oct. 1878. PEACEMAKER There was some official jealousy between Postmaster-General Blair and Secretary Stanton. Markland had been sent to the latter for certain orders relating to the postal service within the lines of PARTY LEADER 2IJ the army and Stanton had declined to issue them, "to accommodate Mr. Blair," who proceeded to write a letter to the President, call- ing his attention to the situation. Markland was the messenger to bear the communication and he tells: "When I delivered the letter, Mr. Lincoln read it carefully and handed it back to me saying: 'What is the matter between Blair and Stanton?' I told him all I knew in reference to the proposed orders. He then said: 'If I understand the case, General Grant wants the orders issued, and you want them issued, and Stanton won't issue them. Now don't you see what kind of a fix I will be in if I interfere? I'll tell you what to do: if you and General Grant un- derstand one another, suppose you try to get along without the orders, and if Blair or Stanton makes a fuss I may be called in as a referee and I may decide in your favor.' " —A. H. Markland, in the New York Daily Tribune. THREAT The imperious Stanton took a fancy one day to a house in Wash- ington that Lamon had bargained for. He ordered the latter to vacate instanter. Lamon not only did not vacate, but went to Stan- ton and said he would kill him if he interfered with the house. Stanton was furious at the threat, and made it known at once to Lincoln. The latter said to the astonished War Secretary: "Well, Stanton, if Lamon has said he will kill you, he certainly will, and I'd advise you to prepare for death without further de- lay." —Lamon. STOCK IN TRADE Senator Hicks of Maryland came in with an order from the President to release a Confederate prisoner; this was written on one of the small cards the President used in minor matters. Stanton, before reading it, tore it in two and said: "Senator, you ought to know better than to come stumping in here seeking the release of rebel prisoners." 214 LINCOLN TALKS The Senator, who had lost a leg by accident, limped out in high dudgeon, whereupon Judge Bond told Stanton that, in view of Hicks's infirmity, he should not have addressed him as he did, and that he was sure to go to the President and make complaint. Bond went with Stanton direct to the White House, where they found Hicks telling his story. The President then turned to Stan- ton and said: "Mr. Secretary, why did you disobey my order?" Mr. Stanton at once replied: "Mr. Lincoln, I can't lose my stock in trade to exchange for Union soldiers in prison; and for every one you release unconditionally, some poor fellow is compelled to remain at Belle Isle or Andersonville; and I won't have my stock reduced." The President turned to Mr. Hicks and said: "Senator, what can a man do with such a secretary?" The pardon was not granted. —Gov. Thomas H. Hicks. SIGNATURE Edward Stanley, of North Carolina, was appointed military gov- ernor of his State. Mr. Stanton caused the commission to be made out, signed it, and stamped it with the seal of the War Depart- ment. Then he sent the document over to the White House for the President's signature. Mr. Lincoln read the commission, and then began turning and twisting it, as if searching for something. "Did Mr. Stanton say where I was to put my signature?" said the President, ironically, and he handed back the commission to the clerk who had brought it. "No, sir," answered the astonished clerk. "Can you tell me whereabouts on this paper I am to put my signature?" The clerk looked at the commission, and saw the large signature of the adjutant-general to the left. He also saw a white space be- neath the signature of the Secretary, which the President might have used had he seen fit to do so. PARTY LEADER 215 But the polite clerk replied: "I don't see any place provided for your signature, Mr. President." "Take the paper back to the Secretary of War," said Mr. Lin- coln, in a dignified tone, "with my compliments, and say that the President will promptly sign any proper commission that may be sent to him for Governor Stanley, or anybody else." —New York Daily Tribune. CORRESPONDENCE "Dear Stanton: Appoint this man chaplain in the army. {Signed) A. Lincoln." "Dear Mr. Lincoln: He is not a preacher. {Signed) E. M. Stan- ton." "Dear Mr. Stanton: He is now. {Signed) A. Lincoln." "Dear Mr. Lincoln: But there is no vacancy. {Signed) E. M. Stanton." "Dear Mr. Stanton: Appoint him chaplain-at-large. {Signed) A. Lincoln." "Dear Mr. Lincoln: There is no warrant in law for that. {Signed) E. M. Stanton." "Dear Stanton: Appoint him anyhow. {Signed) A. Lincoln." "Dear Mr. Lincoln: I will not. {Signed) E. M. Stanton." —Official Records of the War Department. TAD AND STANTON Tad offered to help the head gardener water the South Lawn with the hose to which was attached a newly invented variable nozzle. He played that the White House was on fire and, by turn- ing the nozzle this way and that, learned how to make it sprinkle and spray, and do a sudden spurt, then pour a steady stream. While he was thus experimenting, who should burst out of the south door and come stamping down the long, curved stairway but the Sec- 2l6 LINCOLN TALKS retary of War, still brandishing a paper under the nose of the President, who was following him. Mr. Lincoln had just written a dispatch to be sent to the front forbidding a young soldier to be shot next day, which Stanton testily insisted was demoralizing the discipline of the army. He had just descended to the lawn and turned about for a parting shot: "I tell you, Mr. President, if this thing don't stop " Bzt!— a spurt through the new nozzle knocked that paper out of the Secretary's hand and sent it fluttering down the grass, and a firm stream struck the astounded functionary full in the face, then played up and down his shuddering form. Stanton stood gurgling, gasping, and strangling, thickly uttering a medley of sublimated profanity, while making frantic clutches in the direction of the grinning cause of his sudden discomfiture. Right here a soldier guard stationed at the White House caught the boy and took him into the White House to change his wet clothing. Stanton, still shivering, shouted up to the President: "I'd like to put that boy in the calaboose." "No, Stanton," Mr. Lincoln replied kindly, "that would do more harm than good. Can't you see that you're to blame for this whole business? You've kept that boy's blood at the boiling point for several weeks now. He doesn't like the way you talk to me. After you went out the other day he asked me why I didn't take you across my knees and give you a good spanking— and because I laughed at the idea then, he has taken the matter into his own hands. "Let me give you a bit of fatherly counsel. You know as well as I do that men are just boys of larger growth. You're getting your- self disliked on all sides by fuming and swearing at everybody, and Tad isn't the only person who resents some of the things you say to and about me. If you can make that boy your friend, you will be better able to win the war and save the Union." Edwin M. Stanton forgave Tad and even the sorry plight he was PARTY LEADER 217 in, as he seized the hand of the Chief and said fervently: "I believe you're right, Mr. President, I believe you're right." —Thomas F. Pendel. DESPAIR When he became closeted with me, on these visits, Mr. Lincoln would unbosom himself, and talk of his cares and woes. Several times he insisted that he ought to resign, and thus give the country an opportunity to secure someone better fitted to accomplish the great task expected of the President. Or, if he did not resign, he thought he ought to impress upon Congress the propriety of giv- ing the absolute control of the army to someone purely military. He had a great idea of Hooker's ability as a soldier, and, in addition, he believed him to be an honest man and a sincere patriot. He wanted him to fight what he intended should be, and he felt would be, the closing battle of the war. Accordingly, when Hooker got under way, and the news came that at Chancellorsville he would make his fight, Mr. Lincoln was in the greatest state of mental ex- citement. From the time that Hooker's army began its march, until the smoke of battle had cleared from the fatal field of Chancellors- ville, he scarcely knew what it was to sleep. It will be remembered that the fight lasted three days. During the first two days, it looked as if Hooker was about to accomplish what so many generals before him had failed to do; but, early on the third day, the usual half-hour dispatches began to make matters look dark and ominous of defeat. That whole day, Mr. Lincoln was miserable. He ate nothing, and would see no one but me. As it grew dark, the dispatches ceased coming at all. Mr. Lincoln would walk from the White House to my department, and anx- iously inquire for news from Hooker. With the going-down of the sun, a cold and drenching rain set in, which lasted through the night. At about seven o'clock, Mr. Lincoln ceased his visits to my department, and gave orders at the Executive Mansion that he would see no one before morning. 2l8 LINCOLN TALKS An hour afterward, a dispatch of an indefinite character was received from Hooker, and I hurried with it to Mr. Lincoln's apart- ments. When I entered, I found him walking the floor, and his agonized appearance so terrified me that it was with difficulty that I could speak. Mr. Lincoln approached me like a man wild with anxiety and excitement, seized the dispatch from my hand, read it, and, his face slightly brightening, remarked: "Stanton, there is hope yet!" At my solicitation, Mr. Lincoln accompanied me to the War Department, where he agreed to spend the night, or until some- thing definite was heard from Hooker. For five hours, the longest and most wearisome of my life, I waited, before a dispatch an- nouncing the retreat of Hooker was received. When Mr. Lincoln read it, he threw up his hands and exclaimed: "My God! Stanton, our cause is lost! We are ruined— we are ruined; and such a fearful loss of life! My God! this is more than I can endure." He stood trembling visibly, his face of a ghastly hue, the perspira- tion standing out in big spots on his brow. He put on his hat and coat, and began to pace the floor. For five or more minutes he was silent, and then, turning to me, he said: "If I am not about early tomorrow, do not send for me, nor allow anyone to disturb me. Defeated again, and so many of our noble countrymen killed! What will the people say?" As he finished he started for the door. I was alarmed. There was something indescribable about the President's face and manner that made me feel that my chief should not be left alone. How to approach him without creating suspicion was the thought of a second. Going up to him and laying my hand on his shoulder, I said: "Mr. President, I too am feeling that I would rather be dead than alive; but is it manly, is it brave— that we should be the first to succumb? I have an idea; you remain here with me tonight. Lie down on yonder lounge, and, by the time you have had a few hours' sleep, I will have a vessel at the wharf, and we will go to the front, and see for ourselves the condition of the army." PARTY LEADER 210 The idea of visiting the army in person acted like a tonic. Mr. Lincoln instantly adopted the suggestion. The next morning, we left Washington, on a gunboat, for Hooker's command. On our return trip, Mr. Lincoln told me that, when he had started to leave the War Department, on that evening, he had fully made up his mind to go immediately to the Potomac River, and there end his life, as many a poor creature— but none half as miserable as he was at the time— had done before him. — E. J. Edwards; John Russell Young. LAST ESTIMATE OF STANTON While the President was on his way back from Richmond, and at a point where no telegraph could reach the steamer upon which he was, a dispatch of the utmost importance reached Washington, demanding the immediate decision of the President himself. The dispatch was received by a confidential staff officer, who at once ascertained that Mr. Lincoln could not be reached. Delay was out of the question, as important army movements were involved. The officer having the dispatch went with it directly to Mr. Stanton's office, but the Secretary could not be found. Messengers were promptly dispatched for him in all directions. Their search was useless, and a positive answer had been already too much delayed by the time it had occupied. With great reluctance the staff officer sent a reply in the President's name. Soon after, Mr. Stanton entered himself, having learned of the efforts made to find him. The dispatch was produced, and he was informed by the officer sending the answer of what had been done. "Did I do right?" said the officer to the Secretary. "Yes, Major," replied Mr. Stanton, "I think you have sent the correct reply, but I should hardly have dared to take the responsi- bility." At this the whole magnitude of the office, and the great responsi- bility he had taken upon himself, seemed to flash upon the officer, 220 LINCOLN TALKS and almost overcame him, and he asked Mr. Stanton what he had better do, and was advised to go directly to the President, on his return, and state the case frankly to him. It was a sleepless night for this officer, and at the very earliest hour he went to the White House, Mr. Lincoln having returned late the night before. Mr. Lincoln was reclining on a lounge, look- ing over a pile of papers, but stopped at once to hear his visitor's mission. The dispatch was shown him, and the action upon it stated frankly and briefly. The President thought a moment, and then said: "Did you consult the Secretary of War, Major?" The absence of the Secretary at the important moment was then related to Mr. Lincoln, with the subsequent remark of Mr. Stan- ton that he thought the right answer had been given, but that he himself would have shrunk from taking the responsibility. Mr. Lincoln rose, crossed the room, and, taking the officer by the hand, thanked him cordially, and then spoke earnestly as follows: "Here- after, Major, whenever you have Mr. Stanton's sanction in any matter, you have mine, for so great is my confidence in his judg- ment and patriotism that I never wish to take an important step myself without first consulting him." —Cincinnati Gazette. ANDREW JOHNSON Three days before the murder of Mr. Lincoln, he had made ar- rangements for an afternoon ride with certain members of his family, and the hour of two o'clock was fixed upon. At that time, the President not appearing, word was sent to him that the party were waiting for him. He returned an answer that the Vice- President had called upon him, and that he would not be able to go. Mr. Johnson remained about two hours, when the President joined his family, and in conversation regarding the delayed ride remarked, with much apparent concern: "That miserable man! I cannot anticipate the troubles he will cause me during my second term of office." Such were, with scarcely a doubt, the last words PARTY LEADER 221 spoken by Mr. Lincoln concerning the present occupant of the White House; and spoken as they were, in the privacy of his own family circle, they were doubtless the full and free expression of his real belief. —Cincinnati Gazette. GREENBACKS AND THE CONSTITUTION The idea that the notes issued directly from the Government to the people, as currency, should bear interest struck Mr. David Taylor, of Ohio, with such force that he sought Mr. Lincoln and urged him to put the project into immediate execution. The Presi- dent listened patiently and at the end said: "That is a good idea, Taylor, but you must go to Chase. He is running that end of the machine and has to consider your proposition." Taylor sought the Secretary of the Treasury and laid before him Amasa Walker's plan. Chase heard him through in a cold, unpleasant manner and then said: "That is all very well, Mr. Tay- lor, but there is one little obstacle in the way that makes the plan impracticable, and that is the Constitution." The poor enthusiast returned to the President and reported his defeat. Mr. Lincoln looked at the would-be financier with the ex- pression at times peculiar to his homely face that left one in doubt as to whether he was jesting or in earnest. "Taylor," said he, "go back to Chase and tell him not to bother himself about the Con- stitution. Say that I have that sacred instrument here at the White House and I am guarding it with great care." Taking a card from the table, he wrote upon it: "The Secretary of the Treasury will please consider Mr. Taylor's proposition. We must have money and I think this is a good way to get it. A. Lincoln." Armed with this, the real father of the greenbacks was received more politely than before, but was cut short in his advocacy of the measure by a proposition for both of them to see the President. They did so and Mr. Chase made a long and elaborate constitutional argument against the proposed measure. 222 LINCOLN TALKS "Chase," said Lincoln, after the secretary had concluded, "down in Illinois I was held to be a pretty good lawyer and I believe I could answer every point you made, but I don't feel called upon to do it. This thing reminds me of a story of an Italian captain who ran his vessel on a rock and knocked a hole in her bottom. He set his men to pumping and he went to prayers before a figure of the Virgin in the bow of the ship. The leak gained on them. It looked at last as if the vessel would go down with all on board. The cap- tain, at length, in a fit of rage at not having his prayers answered, seized the figure of the Virgin and threw it overboard. Suddenly the leak stopped, the water was pumped out, and the vessel got safely into port. When docked for repairs the statue of the Virgin Mary was found stuck head foremost in the hole." "I don't see, Mr. President, the precise application of your story," said Mr. Chase. "Why, Chase, I don't intend precisely to throw the Virgin Mary overboard, and by that I mean the Constitution, but I will stick it in the hole if I can. These rebels are violating the Constitution in order to destroy the Union; I will violate the Constitution, if neces- sary, to save the Union; and, I suspect, Chase, that our Constitution is going to have a rough time of it before we get done with this row. Now, what I want to know, Constitution aside, is this project of issuing interest-bearing notes a good one?" "I must say," responded Mr. Chase, "that with the exception you make it is not only a good one, but the only way open to us to raise money. If you say so, I will do my best to put it into im- mediate and practical operation and you will never hear from me any opposition to this project." -Edmond Dick Taylor. TAXES When Secretary Chase decided to ask Congress to direct the issue of the famous "7.30" bonds, he drew the bill and submitted it to the Ways and Means Committee. One day Lincoln walked PARTY LEADER 223 into Chase's office and, holding up the bill authorizing the loan, said: "Chase, I do not like this bill. It exempts the purchasers of these bonds from all taxation thereon. I do not think it is right. We are taxing nearly everything else. The rate of interest is large and I am opposed to exemption from taxation. I don't want to sign it." "We must have the money, Mr. Lincoln, to conduct the war. The American people are not supplying us with funds rapidly enough. We must offer a bonus of some sort, or they will not come to our aid," argued Secretary Chase. "The money is vital." "But it is driving a hard bargain with the Government!" "That cannot be helped, Mr. President." "Well, let me think about it," said Mr. Lincoln. Finally he re- entered the room, took a pen, signed the bill, threw it before the Secretary, and dashed the pen he had used upon the floor. "That is the damnedest, most outrageous thing I have ever done! Nothing short of necessity could induce me to favor any class in this country or elsewhere to the injury of another class. I do not believe in exempting bonds from their share of taxation." —Chase. GREENBACK GOOSE There appeared in an illustrated paper a cartoon representing Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, as feeding gold to a United States goose that naturally laid greenbacks for goosebills. He went straight to the President with the paper, and denounced the lam- poon as destructive of our credit, in every point of view reprehen- sible, deserving of prompt punishment, and added with excited emphasis: "I would myself give a thousand dollars to make an example of its author!" Beaming upon the Secretary a look of mingled humor, sagacity, wisdom, and esteem, Mr. Lincoln gently said: "From which end would you pay, Chase?" —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. 224 LINCOLN TALKS INSCRIPTION FOR GREENBACKS At a Cabinet meeting once the advisability of putting on green- backs a legend similar to the "In God We Trust" on the silver coins was discussed, and the President was asked what his view was. He replied: "If you are going to put a legend on the greenback, I would suggest that of Peter and John: 'Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.' " -A. K. McClure. PAPER Mr. Chase came to him one day with a report on the vast sums of paper currency already issued, and the sums still needed to pay the soldiers and carry on the Government. At the end of the dis- mal recital he stopped as if to say: "What can be done about it?" Lincoln, with a flicker of perplexity and another of amusement crossing his sad face, looked down on his shorter companion and answered: "Well, Mr. Secretary, I don't know, unless you give your paper mill another turn." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. DEBT "I have come here," said Secretary Chase, "to consult you on the national debt." "Its great interest," said Lincoln, "claims my most devout atten- tion." —Chase. ALTERNATIVE "In wartime," said Secretary Chase, "Americans must be eco- nomical and live under their incomes." PARTY LEADER 225 "How can they do that," said Lincoln, "when they have no other alternative but to live on them?" —Chase. BOSS A prominent Senator was remonstrating with Mr. Lincoln about keeping Mr. Chase in his Cabinet when it was well known that Mr. Chase was opposed tooth and nail to Mr. Lincoln's re-election. "Now see here," said the President, "when I was elected I re- solved to hire my four Presidential rivals, pay them their wages, and be their boss. Those were Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates; but I got rid of Cameron after he had played himself out; as to discharging Chase or Seward, don't talk about it. I pay them their wages, and am their boss, and wouldn't let either of them out on the loose for the fee simple of the Alamaden patent." -New York Herald, Mar. 15, 1864. BURIAL Previous to the Baltimore Convention, it was thought by some of the leaders of the party that Mr. Lincoln's chances for a re- nomination were somewhat dubious. Shortly after the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, the President told this story at a Cabinet meeting. "Thad Stevens was asked by someone, the morn- ing of the day appointed for that ceremony, where the President and Mr. Seward were going. 'To Gettysburg,' was the reply. 'But where are Stanton and Chase?' continued the questioner. 'At home, at work,' was the surly answer. 'Let the dead bury the dead.' " —Carpenter. TOO ANXIOUS Mr. Lincoln said that he was in no sense a candidate, and that he did not see how he could be a candidate again and bear the burden that he was then bearing. "You're not only not a candidate, but you're doing everything that you can to help your rivals," I said. 226 LINCOLN TALKS "I'm not afraid of Chase," he replied; "he's too anxious and too willing, and that sort of thing doesn't go well in courting and in some other things. Chase reminds me," he said, "of a fellow-student of mine. He was a fine fellow, but rather fast and inclined to keep questionable company. We were finally much pleased to hear that he had formed the acquaintance of one of the nicest girls in the town, and that everything seemed to be tending toward a very satisfactory ending. There came a day, however, when he became despondent. We sought to learn the trouble. 'I've lost her,' was the answer. 'I was in too much of a hurry. I embraced her before I popped the question.' Now that is the trouble with our friend Chase." —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. CHIN-FLY Some of Mr. Lincoln's intimate friends once called his attention to a certain member of his Cabinet who was quietly working to secure a nomination for the Presidency, although knowing that Mr. Lincoln was to be a candidate for re-election. His friends in- sisted that the Cabinet officer ought to be made to give up his Presidential aspirations or be removed from office. The situation reminded Mr. Lincoln of a story. "My brother and I," he said, "were once plowing corn, I driving the horse and he holding the plow. The horse was lazy, but on one occasion he rushed across the field so that I, with my long legs, could scarcely keep pace with him. On reaching the end of the furrow, I found an enormous chin-fly fastened upon him, and knocked him off. My brother asked me what I did that for. I told him I didn't want the old horse bitten in that way. 'Why,' said my brother, 'that's all that made him go.' "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "if Mr. has a Presidential chin-fly biting him, I'm not going to knock him off, if it will only make his department go." —Henry J. Raymond. PARTY LEADER 227 ABE SEES I consoled the President this morning by relating to him what an unfortunate letter "C" was in the Presidential Chase. A joke- do you take? I related the fate of Crawford, Calhoun, Clay, and Cass. The Presidential eye brightened up. I saw hope displayed in every lineament of his countenance. Fie replied: "I see it." How quick he is at repartee! How pointed, too! I think the Presidential heart has beat easier since the administry of my last solace. — Lincolniana. "declining" chase To Colonel A. K. McClure, who was one day discussing with him the situation regarding Chase and the nomination, Lincoln remarked lazily: "By the way, how would it do if I were to 'de- cline' Chase?" The phrase puzzled the colonel. "Well," replied the President, "I don't know exactly how it might be done, but I had in mind the story of two Democratic candidates for Senator down in 'Egypt,' Illinois, in early political times. That section of the State was almost solidly Democratic, as you know, and nobody but Democrats were candidates for of- fice. The two Democratic candidates for Senator met each other in joint debate each day, and gradually became more and more exasperated at each other, until their discussions were simply dis- graceful wrangles, and they both became ashamed of them. They finally agreed that either should say anything he pleased about the other, and it should not be resented as an offense; and from that time on the campaign progressed without any special display of ill temper. "On election night the two candidates, who lived in the same town, were receiving the returns together; and the contest was uncomfortably close. A distant precinct in which one of the can- didates confidently expected a large majority was finally reported with a majority against him. The disappointed candidate expressed 228 LINCOLN TALKS great surprise, to which the other candidate answered that either was free to say anything about the other without offense; and added that, under that authority, he had gone up into the district and taken the liberty of saying that his opponent had retired from the contest; and therefore the vote of the district was changed, and the 'declined' candidate was thus defeated. I think I had better 'de- cline' Chase." -A. K. McClure. CHASE AND FESSENDEN Secretary Chase's resignation was written and forwarded on the 29th of June. It was not unexpected to President Lincoln, and he dealt with it with wise deliberation. During the day he requested me to call at the White House at the close of business. I found him undisturbed, and apparently in a happy frame of mind. "I have sent for you," he said, "to ask you. a question. How long can the Treasury be 'run' under an acting appointment? Whom can I appoint who will not take the opportunity to run the engine off the track, or do any other damage?" I was too much troubled and surprised to answer him directly. "Mr. President," I exclaimed, "you will not let so small a matter as this New York appointment separate yourself and Governor Chase? Do not, I beg of you! Tell me where the trouble lies, and let me see if I cannot arrange it." "No; it is past arrangement," he said. "I feel relieved since I have settled the question. I would not restore what they call the status quo if I could." "But," I continued, "think of the country, of the Treasury, of the consequences! I do not for a moment excuse the Secretary. His nomination of Field was most unaccountable to me. But Secre- tary Chase, with all his faults, is a great financier. His administra- tion of the Treasury has been a financial miracle. Who can fill his place? There is not a man in the Union who can do it. If the na- PARTY LEADER 229 tional credit goes under, the Union goes with it. I repeat it— Secre- tary Chase is today a national necessity." "How mistaken you are!" he quietly observed. "Yet it is not strange; I used to have similar notions. No! If we should all be turned out tomorrow, and could come back here in a week, we should find our places filled by a lot of fellows doing just as well as we did, and in many instances better. As the Irishman said: 'In this country one man is as good as another; and, for the matter of that, very often a great deal better.' No; this government does not depend upon the life of any man," he said, impressively. "But you have not answered my question. There"— pointing to the table— "is Chase's resignation. I shall write its acceptance as soon as you have told me how much time I can take to hunt up another Sec- retary." "The Treasury can be run under an acting appointment two or three days," I answered. "It ought not to be run for a day. There is an unwritten law of the department that an acting Secretary should do nothing but current business. No one whom you would be likely to appoint would consciously violate it." "Whom shall I appoint acting Secretary?" he asked. "I have thought it would be scarcely proper to name one of the Assistant Secretaries after their chief is out." "If you ask my opinion," I replied, "I should advise the appoint- ment of the First Assistant. I fear the effect of this resignation upon the country, and it would be unwise to increase its evils by depart- ing from the usual course. An intimation from you that noth- ing but current business should be transacted will certainly be re- spected." "That seems sensible; I thank you for the suggestion," he said. "But I shall have to put on my thinking cap at once, and find a suc- cessor to Chase." "Where is the man?" I exclaimed. "Mr. President, this is worse than another Bull Run defeat. Pray let me go to Secretary Chase, 230 LINCOLN TALKS and see if I cannot induce him to withdraw his resignation. Other- wise I shall not sleep tonight." I shall carry the memory of his next words as long as I live. Con- sider the circumstances. The country was in the fiercest throes of civil war; the President was weighted with the heaviest responsi- bilities; his Secretary of the Treasury was tendering his resignation when there was no good excuse for the act, manifestly to embarrass him and to increase his difficulties. Then weigh these words: "I will tell you," he said, leaning back in his chair, and carelessly throwing one of his long legs over the other, "how it is with Chase. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to fall into a bad habit. Chase has fallen into two bad habits. One is that to which I have often referred. He thinks he has become indispensable to the coun- try, that his intimate friends know it, and he cannot comprehend why the country does not understand it. He also thinks he ought to be President; he has no doubt whatever about that. It is incon- ceivable to him why the people have not found it out— why they don't, as one man, rise up and say so. He is, as you say, an able financier; as you think without saying so, he is a great statesman, and, at the bottom, a patriot. Ordinarily he discharges a public trust, the duties of a public office, with great ability— with greater ability than any man I know. Mind, I say ordinarily, for these bad habits seem to have spoiled him. They have made him irritable, un- comfortable, so that he is never perfectly happy unless he is thor- oughly miserable and able to make everybody else just as uncom- fortable as he is himself. He knows that the nomination of Field would displease the Unionists of New York, would delight our enemies, and injure our friends. He knows that I could not make it without seriously offending the strongest supporters of the Government in New York, and that the nomination would not strengthen him anywhere or with anybody. Yet he resigns because I will not make it. He is either determined to annoy me, or that I shall pat him on the shoulder and coax him to stay. I don't think PARTY LEADER 23I I ought to do it. I will not do it. I will take him at his word." Here he made a long pause. His mobile face wore a speaking expression, and indicated that he was thinking earnestly; but with perfect coolness he continued: "And yet there is not a man in the Union who would make as good a Chief Justice as Chase." There was another pause; his plain homely face was illuminated as he added: "And if I have the opportunity, I will make him Chief Justice of the United States." Before sunrise the next day I was again sent for. I rode to the White House in the dawning light of an early summer morning, and found the President in his waistcoat, trousers, and slippers. He had evidently just left his bed, and had not taken time to dress him- self. As I entered the familiar room, he said, in a cheerful, satisfied voice: "I have sent for you to let you know that we have got a Secre- tary of the Treasury. If your sleep has been disturbed, you have time for a morning nap. You will like to meet him when the de- partment opens." "I am indeed glad to hear it," I said. "But who is he?" "Oh, you will like the appointment, so will the country, so will everybody. It is the best appointment possible. Strange that I should have had any doubt about it. What have you to say to Mr. Fessenden?" "He would be an eminently proper appointment," I answered. "The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance; perfectly familiar with all our financial legislation; a strong, able man, and a true friend of the Union. He is also next in the direct line of pro- motion. But he will not accept. His health is frail, and his present position suits him. There is not one chance in a thousand of his acceptance." "He will accept; have no fear on that account. I have just notified him of his appointment, and I expect him every moment." 232 LINCOLN TALKS At this moment the door suddenly opened, and Mr. Fessenden almost burst into the room, without being announced. His thin face was colorless; there was intense excitement in his voice and movements. "I cannot! I will not! I should be a dead man in a week. I am a sick man now. I cannot accept this appointment, for which I have no qualifications. You, Mr. President, ought not to ask me to do it. Pray relieve me by saying that you will withdraw it. I repeat, I cannot and I will not accept it." The President rose from his chair, approached Mr. Fessenden, and threw his arm around his neck. It may seem ludicrous, but as I saw that long and apparently unstiffened limb winding like a cable about the small neck of the Senator from Maine, I won- dered how many times the arm would encircle it. His voice was serious and emphatic, but without any assumption of solemnity, as he said: "Fessenden, since I have occupied this place, every appoint- ment I have made upon my own judgment has proved to be a good one. I do not say the best that could have been made, but good enough to answer the purpose. All the mistakes I have made have been in cases where I have permitted my own judg- ment to be overruled by that of others. Last night I saw my way clear to appoint you Secretary of the Treasury. I do not think you have any right to tell me you will not accept the place. I believe that the suppression of the rebellion has been decreed by a higher power than any represented by us, and that the Al- mighty is using His own means to that end. You are one of them. It is as much your duty to accept as it is mine to appoint. Your nomination is now on the way from the State Department, and in a few minutes it will be here. It will be in the Senate at noon, you will be immediately and unanimously confirmed, and by one o'clock today you must be signing warrants in the Treas- ury." — L. E. Chittenden. PARTY LEADER 233 SUPPORT FOR MR. CHASE After the death of Chief Justice Taney, a committee of citi- zens from the Philadelphia Union League, with a distinguished journalist at their head as chairman, proceeded to Washington for the purpose of laying before the President the reason why, in their opinion, Mr. Chase should be appointed to the vacancy of the bench. They took with them a memorial addressed to the President, which was read to him by one of the committee. After listening to the memorial, the President said to them, in a deliberate manner: "Will you do me a favor, to leave this paper with me? I want it in order that, if I appoint Mr. Chase, I may show the friends of the other persons for whom the office is solicited by how powerful an influence and by what strong per- sonal recommendations the claims of Mr. Chase were supported." The committee listened with great satisfaction, and were about to depart, thinking that Mr. Chase was sure of the appointment, when they perceived Mr. Lincoln had not finished what he in- tended to say. "And I want the paper, also," continued he, after a pause, "in order that, if I should appoint any other person, I may show his friends how powerful an influence and what per- sonal recommendation I was obliged to disregard in appointing him." — L. E. Chittenden. AMBITION Less than four months after [Chase's] resignation (followed, as I regret to say, by some ill-tempered remarks from the ex- Secretary against the President, which I am sure he soon re- gretted) the great office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court became vacant, and in Congress as well as among press and peo- ple there was developed a strong and rapidly increasing public opinion in favor of the appointment of ex-Secretary Chase. It happened that, by the request of numerous fellow-members of 234 LINCOLN TALKS the House, in which I presided, it devolved upon me to spend an evening with the President to present their desires. After urg- ing every possible consideration— namely, that, as Chief Justice, Mr. Chase would give up that ambition for the Presidency which had dominated his later life, and that on the bench we felt that he could not fail to stand by the war measures he had assisted in shaping in the Cabinet, etc., Mr. Lincoln replied: "I am satisfied that it is the wish of a large majority of my sup- porters that I should appoint Mr. Chase, and I intend to do so, although I think myself that William M. Evarts is, by his legal attainments, the fittest man for the place. But all of you are mis- taken in supposing that it will end Chase's longing for the Presi- dency, for I predict that he will be a candidate for it, despite the judgeship, about every four years, and just as ardently in the future as in the past." — L. E. Chittenden. APPOINTMENT OF OPPONENTS Upon being told that Chase, upon whom he was about to con- fer a valuable appointment, had been bitterly opposed to his re- nomination, he said: "I suppose that Judge Chase, having been disappointed before, did behave pretty ugly; but that wouldn't make him any less fit for this place, and I have a Scriptural au- thority for appointing him. You recollect that while the Lord on Mount Sinai was getting out a commission for Aaron, that same Aaron was at the foot of the mountain making a false god, a golden calf, for the people to worship; yet Aaron got his com- mission, you know." At another time, when remonstrated with upon the appoint- ment to place of one of his former opponents, he said: "Nobody will deny that he is a first-rate man for the place, and I am bound to see that his opposition to me personally shall not interfere with my giving the people a good officer." —Noah Brooks. PARTY LEADER 235 LANDLORD The place-seekers swarmed in numbers almost equal to the locusts of Egypt, and the President was pestered day and night by the leading statesmen of the country, who clamored for offices for their henchmen. I well remember the sad picture of despair his face presented when I happened to meet him alone for a few moments in the Executive Chamber as he spoke of the heartless spoilsmen, who seemed to be utterly indifferent to the grave dan- gers which threatened the Government. He said: "I seem like one sitting in a palace assigning apartments to importunate ap- plicants while the structure is on fire, and likely soon to perish in ashes." -Hay. CRUSADERS I received a personal invitation to accompany a delegation which was to visit Mr. Lincoln at Willard's Hotel in Washington, prior to his inauguration. We were admitted to Mr. Lincoln's presence in a small chamber of Willard's Hotel, where he received us cordially and shook hands with each one. In our party was a burly gentleman; he was to be the orator of the delegation. His features were saturnine, and one of his eyes was afflicted with strabismus to a degree that rendered General Butler a thing of beauty. He began: "Mr. President"; to which Mr. Lincoln interjected: "Not yet." Then our orator, smiling, began again: "Mr. President-elect." Probably owing to his smile, Mr. Lincoln instantly dodged his gaze, and rested his eyes fixedly on me. It was a distressing oration, out of which cropped nothing but the utter selfishness of their mission. Though there had been only the fraction of a Republican party in Baltimore, the orator recounted how they had stood the brunt of obloquy, of abuse, of threats, and now it was but a matter of simple justice that they should be given the offices. 236 LINCOLN TALKS Whether it was that my face wore a counter smile of doubt, or whether he recoiled from the eye of the orator, Mr. Lincoln directed his entire response, by voice and gesture, direct at me. He thanked them for their visit and the expression of their good wishes. He sailed rapidly over existing conditions and at length found one of his famous similes. He likened the delegation to the zealous soldiers of the Crusades, discarding their homes and com- fort, suffering the tortures of long marches, assailed by sickness, and at all times ready to give their lives for their belief. He pic- tured this distressed army attacking a walled city. Under fierce fires of arrows and huge catapults, they dragged their scaling ladders and placed them against the ramparts. With rapidly thin- ning ranks, they mounted round by round and ultimately some of them reached the top. The tide of the contest turned in their favor, and the besieged city was taken. "But, gentlemen," he con- cluded with a genial smile, "those heroic soldiers who were first on top of the walls didn't get the offices." The delegation was answered and they seemed pleased. They had been likened to the Crusaders. —Leonard Grover. JERRY SMITH The President was very much annoyed by the persistence of Congressman Jerry Smith, who haunted him continually with applications for office. One day a delegation of clergymen called upon Mr. Lincoln and one of them asked him if he ever sought counsel and guidance from the Lord. "Yes," replied Mr. Lincoln, "I pray every night before I re- tire. I think of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers camped in the South; the boys in blue as well as the boys in gray, and I pray that the one may be supported in their efforts to preserve the Union and the other shown the error of their unholy strife. I think of the thousands of deserted homes in the North, of the thousands of weeping women and fatherless children, and I pray PARTY LEADER 237 that God give them strength to bear their bereavements and the wisdom to see that their husbands, sons, and fathers have died fighting for the right. I think of my responsibility and pray for strength and wisdom. Then I look under the bed and find Jerry Smith is not there with an application for an office. I thank the Lord for it, turn out the light, lock the door, jump in between the sheets, and to sleep instantly." — Weik's scrap book; Indianapolis Journal. UNOFFICIAL SPOKESMAN I called upon the President soon after he was installed in the White House. In the room where Mr. Lincoln granted interviews were several persons who were waiting their turns to speak to him. I listened to the requests of several men and women and I saw that very few were granted what they solicited. I had a seat at or near one end of a long table. Mr. Lincoln sat at the other end. Soon after I was seated, in walked several officers of the Span- ish Navy to pay their compliments to Mr. Lincoln. By some means they were directed to my end of the table and I saw that they took me for the President. Mr. Lincoln saw the same thing and hastily signaled to me: "Go ahead and receive them." I rose, shook hands with each officer and exchanged a few words with them, which would, I suppose, have been appro- priate had I indeed been the President. The moment their backs were turned I looked towards Mr. Lincoln. He was shaking with laughter. I thought now I had paved my way to win the position I had come to ask. I made up my mind to address the President in a new way and thus add to the hold I already had upon him. So when my time came, I stepped up to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Sir, I have seen the annoyances to which you are subjected by so many and oft-repeated requests for innumerable positions, etc. Now, if you will permit me to shake hands I will endeavor to smother my desire for a certain position which I had come to ask of you." 238 LINCOLN TALKS Mr. Lincoln jumped up and, grasping my hand, said: "Sir, you are one man in a thousand. I am doubly indebted to you. You have been the means of conveying to those Spanish officers that the President of the United States is a very handsome man and then you do not even ask an office. But," he added, "hurry home; you may repent." —Harpefs, May 1877. CARL SCHURZ Lincoln visited Carl Schurz when the latter came to Spring- field and told him: "Men like you, who have real merit and do the work, are always too proud to ask for anything. . . . You may depend upon it that I shall know how to distinguish deserv- ing men from drones." —Carl Schurz. BENEFACTOR Lincoln, at one of his morning levees, had a visitor who intro- duced himself as one of the President's best friends and, soliciting a Government post then vacant, urged his claim for the appoint- ment upon the ground that it was solely through the applicant's exertions that Mr. Lincoln had been elected President. "Oh, indeed," said the President, "I now look upon the man who, of all men, has crowned my existence with a crown of thorns —no post for you in my gift, I assure you; I wish you good morning." — Lincolniana. PETITIONER "Keep your seat, General," said the President, as with a huge bandanna he wiped the dust and moisture from his face. "It is too hot to stand on ceremony. I have only dropped in to tell you that I have learned something new today." "What is that, Mr. President?" asked General Scott. PARTY LEADER 239 "That it is a great thing to be an office-holder," Mr. Lincoln went on. "Since nine o'clock this morning I have been trying my best to get an audience with a clerk in the Pension Office, but without success. I have been upstairs and downstairs, from the ground floor to the attic, half a dozen times, and I am completely fagged out." "Pardon me, Mr. President," General Scott broke in, "but it is rather an uncommon thing for the President of the United States to become a solicitor of pensions. When you have any business of that kind demanding attention, send it to me, and my secre- tary here will be glad to attend to it, without delay." (The secretary in question was Colonel, afterwards Major- General, Schuyler Hamilton.) "I am sure the claim is a just one," the President continued, unmindful of the general's interruption, "for I have gone over the papers in the case with care." Here he drew a bulky pack- age from one of his pockets. "The applicant is the widow of a corporal who was killed by the Indians. She should have had her money long ago, but nobody seems to have taken any inter- est in the case. She has been haunting the White House almost daily for weeks. I am resolved to wind the matter up one way or another today. I have promised the poor woman an answer at four o'clock, and she is waiting for me over at the White House. How long do you think it would take you, Colonel"— addressing Hamilton— "to get this case through the Pension Of- fice?" "It should be done in half an hour," replied Hamilton, as he glanced over the papers to see if they were in proper form. "Go ahead, my son," said the President, "and I will w r ait for you here." Five minutes later Hamilton was addressing the Com- missioner of Pensions. "Did you see a tall, dark-complexioned man here today?" he asked. "He wore a linen duster and a slouch hat, and was inter- 240 LINCOLN TALKS ested in the pension of a woman whose husband was killed in the Seminole War." "Oh, yes, I remember the man," was the reply. "He said he was a lawyer from somewhere out West." "Well," said Hamilton, "you have got yourself into a pretty fix. That man is President Lincoln, and I have just promised him I would bring him an answer from you inside of half an hour." This brief announcement wrought an instant change in the Pen- sion Office. Bells were rung and heads of divisions sent for, while clerks and messengers ran here and there at the seeming peril of life and limb. Before the expiration of the promised half-hour, Hamilton placed the final papers, duly signed and executed, in the hands of the President. He looked them over carefully, to make sure that they were right, and then, with a quizzical smile, asked: "Can you tell me, Colonel, how it is that I was so long and failed and you were so short and succeeded?" "To speak frankly, Mr. President," said Hamilton, "I regret to say you are not known by sight in the Pension Office." — Ma j. -Gen. Schuyler Hamilton. ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE To a member of Congress who applied to him for a mess of patronage, Lincoln said: "Your demand illustrates the difference between the abstract and the concrete. When a bill is pending to create more army officers, you take the floor and denounce it (al- though you dodge a vote on it) as a needless scheme to increase the power and tyranny of the Executive; but as soon as the bill becomes a law, you come here and demand that all of your brothers-in-law and cousins and nephews be appointed under it. Your action in Congress is abstract, but in the executive chamber —Whitney. PARTY LEADER 24I UNQUALIFIED A distinguished visitor was endeavoring to recall to his mind a young man whom he had seen, but forgotten, who was an ap- plicant for office. Mr. Lincoln evidently did not think that the young man was qualified for the position, and he finally said: "Oh, yes, I know who you mean; it is that turkey-egg- faced fel- low that you would think didn't know as much as a last year's bird's nest." — Lincolniana. HINT Among those who went to Washington soon after Lincoln was inaugurated was a man named Chase, whose home was in New Hampshire. He had worked hard for Lincoln's election, and thought he was entitled to some consideration. He wanted an of- fice of some kind. He had several interviews with the President, but could get no satisfaction. One day Mr. Lincoln noticed him in the throng of office-seekers and, calling him into his private office, said: "Chase, you are from New Hampshire, I believe?" "Yes, sir." "I never was in New Hampshire but once," said Mr. Lincoln, "and that was in the fall of the year— a cold, rough day, and a high wind was blowing. Just outside the city I noticed a big bull-thistle, and on this thistle was a bumblebee trying to extract honey from the blossom. The wind blew the thistle every which way, but the bumblebee stuck. I have come to the conclusion that persistency is a characteristic of everything in New Hampshire, whether men or bumblebees." Chase laughed, but said nothing. Doubtless he thought that at last he was to be rewarded with an office. Then Mr. Lincoln went on, thoughtfully: "Chase, I have often wondered whether that bumblebee got enough honey out of that bull-thistle to pay him for his gymnastics." — S. E. Chase. 242 LINCOLN TALKS TOO MANY Some politicians had called on President Lincoln, to urge the appointment of some of their friends to positions in a certain de- partment. By way of refusal the President told the following story: "Gentlemen, the conditions in that department put me in mind of the time that a young friend and myself tried to court the two daughters of a peppery widow living near our homes. The old lady kept a lot of hounds. "We had not been in the house long before one of the hounds came into the room, and lay down by the fire. In a little while another one came to the door. He didn't get in, for the old lady gave him a kick, saying: 'Get out of here! There's too many dogs in here now!' "We concluded to court some other girls." —Sen. James Harlan. PLACE "When I give away a place," said Lincoln, to a person who was continually importuning him, "I discover that I always make a hundred foes to one friend." —Sen. Daniel Clark. ASTROLOGER Mr. Seward said: "Gentlemen, I will tell you one thing, Mr. Lin- coln never tells a joke for the joke's sake, they are like the parables of old— lessons of wisdom. When he first came to Washington he was inundated with office-seekers. One day he was particularly afflicted; about twenty place-hunters from all parts of the Union had taken possession of his room with bales of credentials and self- recommendations ten miles long. The President said: " 'Gentlemen, I must tell you a little story I read one day when I was minding a mudscow in one of the bayous near the Yazoo. PARTY LEADER 243 " 'Once there was a certain king,' he said, 'who kept an as- trologer to forewarn him of coming events and especially to tell him whether it was going to rain when he wanted to go on hunting expeditions. One day he had started off for the forest with his train of ladies and lords for a grand hunt, when the cavalcade met a farmer, riding a donkey, on the road. "Good morning, Farmer," said the king. "Good morning, King," said the farmer. "Where are you folks going?" "Hunting," said the king. "Lord, you'll get wet," said the farmer. The king trusted his astrologer, of course, and went to the forest, but by midday there came on a terrific storm that drenched and buffeted the whole party. When the king returned to his palace he had the astrologer decapitated and sent for the farmer to take his place. "Law's sake," says the farmer when he arrived, "it ain't me that knows when it's goin' to rain, it's my donkey. When it's goin' to be fair weather that donkey always carries his ears forward so." "Make the donkey the court astrologer!" shouted the king. It was done. But the king always declared that that appointment was the greatest mistake he ever made in his life.' "Lincoln stopped there. 'Why did he say it was a mistake?' we asked him. 'Didn't the donkey do his duty?' 'Yes,' said the Presi- dent, 'but after that time every donkey in the country assembled in front of the palace and wanted an office.' " —Leslie's Weekly, 1863. ORIGIN OF A PHRASE When a certain Western Senator brought in his successor to introduce him to the President, he made at the same time a re- quest for the place of Indian Commissioner. Lincoln said after- wards: "I hate to have old friends like the Senator go away; and another thing I usually find out is that a. Senator or Representative out of business is a sort of lame duck. He has to be provided for." —Sen. John Sherman. 244 LINCOLN TALKS SMALL-POX Mr. Wade went to the White House to see Lincoln, who had been ill. He found the President a little pale, but jolly as he could be. "Sit down, Wade," he said. "I am glad to see you. You know I have been ill, and a great many people have wondered what ailed me. The truth is, I was worried to death and talked sick pretty much by one man, the most everlasting bore you ever saw, who wanted an office. I knew he would come again as soon as I was able to sit up. I only got out yesterday, and sure enough this morning he called on me. I had determined to be polite to him, but he stayed so long the humor seized me and I sent for the doctor. Giving him the wink, I held out my hand, and in- quired: " 'Doctor, what marks are those on my hand?' " 'That's varioloid or mild small-pox,' said the doctor. " 'Well,' said I, 'it's all over me. It's contagious, is it not, Doc- tor?' " 'Very contagious indeed,' he replied, 'and you should see no one.' "My visitor, who had been getting more and more nervous every moment, now could stand it no longer, and rising, said: " 'Well, Mr. Lincoln, I can't stop any longer, I just called to see how you were,' and then he started to hurry out. " 'Stop a minute. I want to talk to you,' said I, 'about that office.' " 'Excuse me, Mr. President. You are not well this morning and I won't bother you,' said he, shoving toward the door. " 'Never mind,' said I, 'don't be in a hurry. It's all right, and if you are going to get the varioloid you will get it now anyhow. So you might as well sit down.' 46 'Thank you, sir, but I'll call again,' he replied, fairly turning livid and executing a masterly retreat. PARTY LEADER 245 "Now," said Lincoln, "it will be all over the city in an hour that I have the small-pox, and you contradict the story." As might have been expected, hardly had Mr. Wade quitted the White House when he heard the President had the small-pox and was very sick. Wade promptly contradicted the story, but that night it was telegraphed all over the country. Commenting on the report, Lincoln said to Wade: "Some people said they could not take my proclamation very well, but when I get the small-pox, Wade, I shall then be happy to say I have something everybody can take." —James S. Brisbin. CAUTIOUS GENEROSITY "Why don't you come to Washington and see me? Is there no place you want? Come on and I will give you any place you ask for— that you are capable of filling— and fit to fill." —Lincoln to Petroleum V. Nasby. ADVOCATE Dr. Bellows, President of the Sanitary Commission, went to Washington to get Mr. Lincoln to make a certain appointment. He presented the case to the President, who listened intently, but said nothing. After twenty minutes of eloquence, Mr. Lincoln replied: "I made that appointment several days ago." "Why didn't you tell me, Mr. Lincoln, and save yourself the trouble of hearing all this?" "Oh, Bellows, I do like to hear you talk," said Lincoln. —Rev. Dr. Henry Whitney Bellows. WORK A woman came to the White House one day on an unusual er- rand which Lincoln suspected was a pretext, but he took her 246 LINCOLN TALKS at her word and gave her the following note to a major of the Quartermaster's Department: "My dear Sir: The lady bearer of this says she has two sons who want to work. Set them at it, if possible. Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. A. Lincoln." —Official Records of the Quartermaster's Department. TEMPTATION "Why, Briggs, I believe there is even a system of female brok- erage in offices here in Washington, for I am constantly beset by women of all sorts, high and low, pretty and ugly, modest and the other sort. Here, yesterday, a very handsome young woman called; she would not take a denial, was admitted, and went straight to work soliciting a certain office for somebody supposed to be her husband. She pled his cause dexterously, eloquently, and at times was almost successful by her importunate entreaties. By degrees she came closer and closer to me, as I sat in my chair, until really her face came so near my own that I thought she wanted me to kiss her. Then my indignation came to my relief, and, draw- ing myself back and straightening myself up, I gave her the proper sort of a look and said: 'Mrs. , you are very pretty, and it's very tempting, but I won't.' " —Lincoln to James A. Briggs. WEIGHT A distinguished member of Congress called on President Lin- coln one night soon after his inauguration, and found him im- mersed in a pile of papers concerning a post office in a small town in Ohio. "Glad to see you; sit down," he cried. "Here's a little office I have filled and unfilled half a dozen times." "Can I be of any service to you, Mr. President?" PARTY LEADER 247 "Oh, I guess not; fact is, I had just made up in my mind to give it to the fellow whose papers weigh the most. That's as good a way as any— so here goes." — Donn Piatt, in the New York Daily Tribune. GRAFT An old-time friend of Abraham Lincoln came to the White House to ask "Old Abe" whether he should run for sheriff. "Don't do it," warned the President. "You'll no sooner get the position than they will be accusing you of graft." But he did not take Lincoln's advice and, three months later, the President chided him: "I see you got the office. Now I suppose they are accusing you of graft." The man laughed. "Accusing me! Why, they've proved it on me. —Maurice E. Levick. WHOSE? The friends of Governor Curtin waited on Mr. Lincoln to press the claims of the governor for a foreign mission. The President expressed a willingness to favor them, but the missions were all full. "I am in the position of young Sheridan when his father told him he must cease his rakish life and take a wife. To which he answered: 'All right, Father, but whose wife shall I take?' " -A. K. McClure. SPANISH One man came day after day asking for a foreign mission. At last the President, weary of his face, said: "Do you know Span- ish?" "No," said the eager aspirant, "but I could soon learn it." "Do so," said Mr. Lincoln, "and I will give you a good thing." The needy politician hurried home and spent six months in 248 LINCOLN TALKS studying Ollendorf s grammar. He then reappeared at the White House with a hopeful heart and a fine Castilian accent, and the President presented him with a copy of Don Quixote in Spanish. —Noah Brooks. TACT President Lincoln at once satisfied and reconciled an importu- nate but lifelong friend who wanted a mission to a distant country where the climate was very unhealthy by saying, when all argu- ments failed: "Strangers die there soon, and I have already given the position to a gentleman whom I can better spare than you." — Depew. ACTOR J. H. Hackett, in his part of FalstafT, was an actor who gave Lincoln great delight. With his usual desire to signify to others his sense of obligation, he wrote a genial little note to the actor, expressing his pleasure at witnessing his performance. Mr. Hackett, in reply, sent a book of some sort; perhaps it was one of his own authorship. He also wrote several notes to the President. One night, quite late, when the episode had passed out of my mind, I went to the White House in answer to a message. Passing into the Presi- dent's office, I noticed, to my surprise, Hackett sitting in the ante- room, as if waiting for an audience. The President asked me if any- one was outside. On being told, he said, half sadly: "Oh, I can't see him; I can't see him. I was in hopes he had gone away." Then he added: "Now, this just illustrates the difficulty of having pleasant friends and acquaintances in this place. You know how I liked Hackett as an actor, and how I wrote to tell him so. He sent me that book, and there I thought the matter would end. He is a master of his place in the profession, I suppose, and well fixed in it. But just because we had a little friendly correspondence, such PARTY LEADER 249 as any two men might have, he wants something. What do you suppose he wants?" I could not guess, and Lincoln added: "Well, he wants to be consul to London. Oh, dear!" -W. O. Stoddard. DANDY President Lincoln appointed as consul to a South American country a young man from Ohio who was a dandy. A wag met the new appointee, dressed in the most extravagant style, on his way to the White House to thank the President. The wag horrified him by telling him that the country to which he was assigned was noted chiefly for the bugs that abounded there and made life unbearable. "They'll bore a hole clean through you before a week has passed," was the comforting assurance of the wag as they parted at the White House steps. The new consul approached Lincoln with disappointment clearly written all over his face. Instead of joyously thanking the Presi- dent, "I am informed, Mr. President," he said, "that the place is full of vermin and that they could eat me up in a week's time." "Well, young man," replied Lincoln, "if that's true, all I've got to say is that if such a thing happened they would leave a mighty good suit of clothes behind." — Depew. TONGUES Lincoln had just disposed of a man who boasted to him that he was able to speak six languages. Following him was an embarrassed young man who couldn't find a paper, for which he searched all his pockets. Lincoln waited patiently, at last remarking: "Friends, you will remember that some time ago a man stood here who told me he could speak six languages, and now we have one who does not seem to be able to speak a word." —Edward D. Neill: Glimpses of a Nation's Struggle. 25O LINCOLN TALKS SICK APPLICANT A delegation once called on Lincoln to ask the appointment of a gentleman as commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. They pre- sented their case as earnestly as possible, and, besides his fitness for the place, they urged that he was in bad health and a residence in that balmy climate would be of great benefit to him. The Presi- dent closed the interview with the good-humored remark: "Gen- tlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker than your man." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. ST. HELENA An eager importuner at the White House, who whisperingly sought appointment as a consul at St. Helena, found Lincoln averse to secrecy. "St. Helena?" said the President aloud, so all could hear him, "Why, we don't have a consul there." The man continued to whisper, and Lincoln to dispute in louder tones, until an old messenger of the Executive Offices interrupted to say that there was an American consul at St. Helena, the then incumbent being an appointee of President Buchanan's. Lincoln sat down and wrote: "Dear Governor Seward: If there be a consul at St. Helena" ("Mind you," he added aloud to the man, "I don't wholly give up my contention"), "wish you would ap- point the bearer, particularly because he comes from Thad Stevens, who has not troubled us much of late. A. Lincoln." —Nicolay and Hay. THE OTHER SIDE Congressman Brandegee was earnestly in favor of Henry Ham- mond's being appointed United States Marshal, while certain other members of the Connecticut delegation opposed the appointment. But Brandegee had a way of working for his friends, and after go- PARTY LEADER 25I ing over all of Hammond's good qualities and claims, pretty vehe- mently, culminated by the question: "Now, Mr. President, mayn't I rely upon your appointing Hammond?" "Well, Brandegee," responded Mr. Lincoln, "do you mean to force me to a decision now?" "Of course I do," responded the resolute little Congress- man. "Well, then, Brandegee, I'll have to answer by telling a little story. "Out in our town of Springfield, some years ago, a thick-headed and very conceited young fop of a lawyer dropped down upon us and opened his office. He waited long and patiently for a case, and finally caught a victim who had a cause to come before a village justice, who was a wag in his way and had an eye upon the green legal fledgling. At daylight next morning the young law- yer called at the squire's house, and getting him up and aside, said he had come thus early on a most confidential errand. In fact, he had got his first case, and before it was brought into open court he thought he would come down and see him privately about it, as it being his first case, it was of the utmost importance that he win the case, and therefore he had come to fix it in a strictly confidential way beforehand. 'All right,' said the squire, entering into the spirit of the affair with seeming enthusiasm. 'Now state all the points in your case and I'll listen.' The assured attorney went over it with an air of triumph, and waited for the justice's decision. 'Well, my friend, I must say, as you state the case, I should be compelled to decide against you!' 'What, Squire! You don't say so?' 'Yes, I couldn't help it, as you state it, but then I don't know but the other side might help you out so I could stand by you.' " — Norwalk (Conn.) Gazette. SENSE OF JUSTICE The Republicans had despaired of doing anything for freedom so long as the United States Supreme Court stood like a wall in the way of justice, when one of the justices died. Nearly every one of the Republican States had a candidate for the vacant place. 252 LINCOLN TALKS One day Senator Chandler and the Michigan delegation pro- ceeded to the White House. Lincoln welcomed them in his usual, cordial way, and when they were all seated, Chandler began to sound the praises of James F. Joy, of Detroit, as a learned and able man, and a lawyer of national reputation. The perennial smile on Lincoln's face began to "set" like a plaster-of -Paris cast. But he said nothing, and sat with his long legs crossed, with the upper one moving up and down like a pump handle. When Chandler had finished, Lincoln motioned to another of the delegation. When he had finished, Lincoln listened to the third, and so on until every man had his say. Then he arose, fumbled in his pocket, and drew out a bunch of keys, and, moving up to an old-fashioned bookcase, which had evidently been brought from his law office in Springfield, unlocked it and commenced looking for a certain bunch of files. He saw the letter J, pulled out the file box, and removed the documents. Holding them in one hand, he ran them over with the fingers of the other, and pulled out a letter. Then he cleared his throat and read as follows, as near as I can recollect: " 'Abraham Lincoln, Esq., Springfield, 111. " 'Dear Sir: Your bill for $300 for legal services in the tax case received and contents noted. I think your charge is altogether too much. The work done was nothing but what a country lawyer could do, and I enclose a check for $100, which you will please accept in full for your services in that suit. Yours respectfully, James F. Joy.' " The silence that ensued could be cut with a knife. Lincoln folded up the letter, put it in the other documents, placed them all in the file box, and put the latter back into the bookcase. Then he turned the lock, placed the keys in his pocket, and said in a steady voice: "Gentlemen, the man who wrote that letter has not the requisite sense of justice that would warrant me in appointing him to the Supreme Bench of the United States. Good morning, gentlemen." —Sen. Zacharia Chandler, in the Detroit Tribune. PARTY LEADER 253 ADDITION A New York lawyer was desirous of being appointed as a judge. "There are only ten," he exclaimed, "to transact the whole of the State's affairs." "And so you want to increase them to one hun- dred?" said Lincoln. "How so?" said the applicant. "Why, by add- ing a cipher to them." —Legacy of Fun. QUALIFIED When the internal revenue system was put in operation, the Republicans of Westchester and Rockland Counties selected me for collector of that district. They gave Mr. Lincoln's friend, Judge Nelson, a formidable petition, signed by all the members of the Congressional and county committees and endorsed by the chairman of the State committee. Mr. Lincoln received our party with great cordiality, and said: "I know of young Depew and the good work he did in the campaign; but a man named Hyatt from your district was here yesterday and told me of finding my brother at a country hotel, sick with the small-pox, and, while everyone else fled, he remained and nursed my brother" (it was Lincoln's step- brother) "through, and I promised him the place." "Why," said Mr. Nelson, "he is the most bitter Copperhead in the country, and has denounced you everywhere in the most virulent way!" "A man who would do what he did," replied the President, "is all right at the bottom and will make good." —Depew. WALL STREET When Mr. Lincoln handed to his friend Gilbert his appointment as assessor in the Wall Street district, New York, he said: "Gilbert, from what I can learn, I judge that you are going upon good 254 LINCOLN TALKS 'missionary ground'! Preach God and Liberty to the 'bulls' and 'bears,' and get all the money you can for the Government!" —Carpenter. DOUBLE RECOMMENDATION "I am told there is an office in your department called 'The Superintending Architect of the Treasury Department, connected with the Bureau of Construction,' which is now held by a man of the name of Young, and wanted by a gentleman of the name of Christopher Adams. Ought Mr. Young to be removed, and if yea, ought Mr. Adams to be appointed? Mr. Adams is magnificently recommended; but the great point in his favor is that Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley join in recommending him. I suppose the like never happened before, and never will again; so that it is now or never. What say you?" — Nicolay and Hay. PRICE When the Government decided to confiscate the cotton crop, Memphis was made the leading place of seizure. Great fleets of steamboats, cotton-laden, passed Memphis almost daily, bound for St. Louis and the Northern markets. A number of agents were ap- pointed by President Lincoln to take charge of the station, to seize the cargoes, and divert shipments to factories making government cloth. For quite a period, nothing was heard from these agents, so the Government sent inspectors to ascertain the reason. The inspectors reported that the cotton-brokers at Memphis had bribed the entire force, and that the traffic of cotton remained undisturbed. The President, greatly disappointed, ordered the arrest of these culprits. Remembering an old friend at Springfield, by the name of Smith, who was noted for his rock-ribbed honesty, he wired him to come to Washington. On his arrival the President laid the situa- tion before him, and begged him to accept the important Memphis post, at the same time cautioning him against the danger of bribery. PARTY LEADER 255 Smith accepted, and the President was indeed happy with the assurance of an honest administration at Memphis in view. The new official, after holding forth for a short time, wired the Presi- dent the following message: "A. Lincoln, President: I have just been offered fifty thousand dollars, which is damn near my price. What shall I do? J. B. Smith." —National Republic, vol. 25. REMINISCENCE A cheery woman from distant Oregon wrote that the health of her husband had failed, and that it would be a great assistance if he were made postmaster. She continued: "By the name I bear since my marriage you will not know me, but you will when I tell you that I am Deacon 's daughter, at whose house you used to stop in going to court, and you may re- member that once, after sewing a button on your coat, you laugh- ingly said: 'I will not forget you when I am President'; and on another occasion, when my father was making preparation for his quite lengthy evening family prayer, you whispered: 'Go up- stairs and bring down a pillow for me, for I am afraid my knees will become sore.' " —Edward D. Neill: Glimpses of a Nation's Struggle. A POSTMASTER He walked into the corridor with us; and, as he bade us good-by and thanked for what he had told him, he again brightened up for a moment and asked him in an abrupt kind of way, laying his hand, as he spoke, with a queer but not uncivil familiarity, on his shoulder: "You haven't such a thing as a postmaster in your pocket, have you?" stared at him in astonishment, and, I thought, a little in alarm, as if he suspected a sudden attack of insanity. Then Mr. Lincoln went on: "You see, it seems to be kind of unnatural that you shouldn't have at least a postmaster in your pocket. Every- 256 LINCOLN TALKS body I've seen for days past has had foreign ministers and col- lectors and all kinds, and I thought you couldn't have got in here without having at least a postmaster get into your pocket." -W. O. Stoddard. JUDGE OF HORSES Mr. Lincoln came out of his front door alone, and started at a brisk pace in the same direction. I ran and caught up with him and took his hand. He neither halted nor looked around, but seeing who it was, he at once said: "A man from your place has just left me who is a great judge of horses. . . . He tried to argue to me that he could be of great service to me, in inspecting horses bought for the army; and I tried to get rid of him, and the more I tried the more he hung on, and would not give up. So I had to say to him at last, so that he would understand: 'I hain't got anything to give you; I havrit got anything to give you!' and when I said that, he looked at me in such a pitiful way— such a despairing look— that I can't get over it— it hurts me. I expect his family— little children perhaps— are depending upon my giving him something to do." —Whitney. ALL OVER AGAIN As the day of his reinauguration approached, he said to Senator Clark, of New Hampshire, "Can't you and others start a public sentiment in favor of making no changes in offices except for good and sufficient cause? It seems as though the bare thought of going through again what I did the first year here, would crush me." To another he said, "I have made up my mind to make very few changes in the offices in my gift for my second term. I think now that I will not remove a single man, except for de- linquency. To remove a man is very easy, but when I go to fill his place, there are twenty applicants, and of these I must make nineteen enemies." Once he said: "Sitting here, where all the ave- nues to public patronage seem to come together in a knot, it does seem to me that our people are fast approaching the point where PARTY LEADER 257 it can be said that seven-eighths of them are trying to find how to live at the expense of the other eighth." —Carpenter. DOORKEEPER "So you want to be doorkeeper to the House, eh?" "Yes, Mr. President." "Well, have you ever been a doorkeeper? Have you ever had any experience in doorkeeping?" "Well, no— no actual experience, sir." "Any theoretical experience? Any instructions in the duties and ethics of doorkeeping?" "Um-no." "Have you ever attended lectures on doorkeeping?" "No, sir." "Have you ever read any text-books on the subject?" "No." "Have you conversed with anyone who has read such a book?" "No, sir, I'm afraid not, sir." "Well, then, my friend, don't you see that you haven't a single qualification for this important post?" said Lincoln. —Lincoln Scrap Book, New York Public Library. SECOND-HAND Edward— the venerable messenger at the door of the President's room— for four administrations doorkeeper of the White House, was an undersized, neatly dressed, polite, comical old man, with a world of genuine Irish wit in his white head. He it was who went with Fillmore to look at a carriage which some Southern magnate had thrown upon the market. "Well, Edward," said the President, "and how will it do for the President of the United States to buy a second-hand carriage?" "And sure, yer Excellency, and ye're only a second-hand Presi- dent, ye know!" 258 LINCOLN TALKS This anecdote was told me by Mr. Lincoln, and was called up by the following: One rainy evening we had got as far as the door, on our way to General McClellan's headquarters, without an umbrella, and Edward was sent back after one, the President telling him whereabouts he might find it. In a few minutes he came back, announcing a fruitless search, and adding: "Sure, yer Excel- lency, and the owner must have come for it! " —Lincoln Anecdotes. INDIFFERENCE One of his friends, a hater of Buchanan, asked him, on Inaugura- tion Day, if he preferred to go to the Capitol in a barouche with Buchanan, or to go alone. Now it was, of course, a necessity that he ride with Buchanan, but it was his privilege, if not his duty, to show his contempt for him, yet without expressing it; so he achieved both objects, without grating at all on the feelings of his interlocutor, by this answer: "That puts me in mind of a man dressed like a Quaker, who, coming into court as a witness, was asked if he would swear or affirm. 'I don't care a damn which,' was the reply." —Whitney. STEEL "I see you state," said the President to Hanscom one day, "that my Administration will be the reign of steel. Why not add that Buchanan's was the reign of stealing?" — Lincolniana. HONOR Mr. Lincoln was never so happy as when some of his old chums from Springfield with whom he had often sat around a tavern stove, swapping stories, came to Washington. He was delighted to see them, provided they were not after office. As one particular friend was about to leave one night, he said to Lincoln: "Now, Mr. PARTY LEADER 259 Lincoln, I want you to be honest with me and tell me how you like being President of the United States." Mr. Lincoln replied: "You have heard the story, haven't you, about the man who was tarred and feathered and carried out of town on a rail? A man in the crowd asked him how he liked it. His reply was that if it was not for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk." -W. O. Stoddard. ANNIVERSARY Having occasion to write something, he inquired the date. Mr. Welch, who sat near, replied: "The fourth of March, Mr. Presi- dent." Mr. Lincoln slowly repeated: "The fourth of March." And then looking up added: "I have been President of the United States just one year, and if either of you thinks it a nice thing to be President of the United States, just let him try it" —Edwin A. Stevens. RESPONSIBILITY At a meeting of prominent Northern men, including Governors of Northern States, resolutions were passed demanding a more aggressive campaign, and Congressman James Dixon was to see President Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln listened without interruption to Congressman Dixon. When he was through, Mr. Lincoln said: "Dixon, you are a good fellow and I have always had a high opinion of you. It is needless for me to add that what comes from those who sent you here is authoritative. The Governors of the Northern States are the North. What they decide must be carried out. Still, in justice to myself, you must remember that Abraham Lincoln is the President of the United States. Anything that the President of the United States does, right or wrong, will be the act of Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln will by the people be held responsible for the President's action. But I have a proposition l6o LINCOLN TALKS to make to you. Go home and think the matter over. Come to me tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, and I will promise to do any- thing that you by then have determined upon as the right and proper thing to do. Good night." Mr. Dixon left the White House feeling even larger than when he had entered it, assured that the President put a higher value upon his abilities than he himself supposed. He consulted with himself as to what should be done, when the responsibility fell on him to decide the policy of the President of the United States. Many suggestions occurred to him, but one after another each was dismissed for some reason. When morning light broke, he had not determined upon his course, upon the policy which he was to impose upon the President. He decided he would not go to the White House that morning. He did not go the next, or the next. Three weeks passed before he saw the President. Then it was a reception at Secretary Seward's, and Mr. Dixon tried to get by the crowd without attracting special attention. But the long arm of Mr. Lincoln shot out and grabbed Dixon, and dragged him on one side. "By the way, Dixon," said the President, "I believe I had an appointment with you one morning about three weeks ago." Mr. Dixon said he did recall a mention of something of the sort. "Where have you been all these weeks?" asked the President. "Here in Washington," said Mr. Dixon; "but to tell the truth, Mr. President, I have decided never to keep that appointment." "I thought you would not when I made it for you," was Mr. Lincoln's comment. —James Dixon. DIALOGUE ON THE LAW The deep, sepulchral voice of John A. Seddon of Virginia, who was doing what he could to bring about the secession of that State, PARTY LEADER 26 1 broke in: "It is your failure to enforce the laws of which we com- plain—to suppress your John Browns and Garrisons, who preach insurrection and make war upon our property." There was humor and firmness in Mr. Lincoln's reply: "If my memory serves me, John Brown was hung and Mr. Garrison im- prisoned. You cannot justly charge the North with disobedience to statutes, or with failure to enforce them. You have made some which are very offensive, but they have been enforced, notwith- standing." "You do not enforce the laws. You refuse to execute the statute for the return of fugitive slaves. Your leading men openly declare that they will not assist the marshal to capture or return them," said Seddon. "You are wrong in your facts again, Mr. Seddon. Your slaves have been returned from the shadow of Faneuil Hall, in the heart of Boston. Our people do not like the work. They will do what the law commands, but they will not volunteer to act as tipstaves and bailiffs. The instinct is natural to the race. Is it not true of the South? Would you join in the pursuit of a fugitive slave if you could avoid it? Is it the proper work for gentlemen?" "Your press," said Seddon, "is incendiary. It advocates servile insurrections, and advises our slaves to cut the throats of their mas- ters. You do not suppress your newspapers. You encourage their violence." "I beg your pardon, Mr. Seddon; I intend no offense, but I will not suffer such a statement to pass unchallenged, because it is not true. No Northern newspaper, not even the most ultra, has advo- cated a slave insurrection, or advised slaves to cut their masters' throats. A gentleman of your intelligence should not make such as- sertions. We do maintain the freedom of the press. We deem it necessary in a free government. Are we peculiar in that respect? Is not the same doctrine held in the South?" -Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer. 262 LINCOLN TALKS FINGER AND THUMB Matters were coming to a crisis, when the leading men of Vir- ginia sent a deputation of three of their number to wait on the President, Mr. Lincoln. They tried to impress him with a sense of the gravity of the situation, and urgently entreated that he would do something to calm the excitement amongst the people, whose irritation at the threats of the Administration, and of the Northern States, was getting beyond control. It was just after the taking of Fort Sumter, and Lincoln's hav- ing called out seventy-five thousand men to coerce the South. "But what would you have me do?" said Mr. Lincoln. "Mr. President," replied one of the deputation, "I would beg you to lend me your finger and thumb for five minutes"— meaning, of course, that he wished him to write something that should allay the prevailing excitement. But Mr. Lincoln did not choose to understand him. "My finger and thumb!" he repeated. "My finger and thumb! What would you do with them? Blow your nose?" The deputation retired in disgust, and Virginia seceded! —Told in Blackwood's Magazine by an English officer with Lee's army. AESOP'S LION In his conversation with W. C. Reeves of Virginia, who pro- ceeded to advise the President to give up Forts Sumter and Pickens and all government property in the Southern States, Lincoln said: "Do you remember the fable of the lion and the woodman's daugh- ter?" Reeves said that he did not. "Aesop," said the President, "reports that a lion was very much in love with a woodman's daughter. The fair maid referred him to her father. The lion applied for the girl. The father replied: 'Your teeth are too long.' The lion went to a dentist and had them extracted. Returning, he asked for his bride. 'No,' said the wood- man, 'your claws are too long.' Going back to the dentist, he had PARTY LEADER 263 them drawn. Then he returned to claim his bride, and the wood- man, seeing that he was unarmed, beat out his brains. "May it not be so," said Mr. Lincoln, "with me, if I give up all that is asked?" -W. C. Reeves. TIGHTROPE At one time some politicians of the West called at the White House excited and very much perturbed about the sins of commis- sion or omission of the Administration. They eagerly explained to Lincoln the path he should follow. "Gentlemen," he said at length, after listening patiently to them, "suppose all the property you were worth was in gold and this you had placed in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope. Would you shake the cable and keep shouting at him: 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter; Blondin, stoop a little more, go a little faster, go a little slower, lean a little more to the south'? No, you would hold your breath, as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he got safely over. "The Government is carrying an enormous weight. Untold treasure is in their hands. Don't badger them. Keep silence and we will get you safely across." , —Rabbi Benjamin Szold; W. O. Stoddard. FORGIVENESS An editor of a weekly paper, published in a little village in Mis- souri, called at the White House. He at once commenced stating to Mr. Lincoln that he was the man who first suggested his name for the Presidency, and pulling from his pocket an old worn, de- faced copy of his paper, exhibited to the President an item on the subject. "Do you really think," said Mr. Lincoln, "that announcement was the occasion of my nomination?" "Certainly," said the editor; "the suggestion was so opportune 264 LINCOLN TALKS that it was at once taken up by other papers, and the result was your nomination and election." "Ah! well," said Mr. Lincoln with a sigh, and assuming a rather gloomy countenance, "I am glad to see you and to know this, but you will have to excuse me, I am just going to the War Department to see Mr. Stanton." "Well," said the editor, "I will walk over with you." When they reached the door of the Secretary's office, Mr. Lincoln turned to his companion and said: "I shall have to see Mr. Stanton alone, and you must excuse me," and taking him by the hand, he continued: "Good-by. I hope you will feel perfectly easy about having nomi- nated me; don't be troubled about it. I forgive you." —Washington Chronicle. NO COMPETITION A Mr. Addison, a Federal officer from Baltimore, called upon Lincoln to tender his resignation, whereupon Lincoln said: "AH right, Addison, I accept your resignation, but nothing can com- pensate me for the loss of you, for when you retire I will be the ugliest man left in the employ of the Government." —Isaac Markens. SECESSIONISTS In April 1861, a deputation of sympathizers with secession had the boldness to call on President Lincoln and demand a cessation of hostilities until the convening of Congress, threatening that seventy-five thousand Marylanders would contest the passage of troops over their soil. "I presume," quietly replied Mr. Lincoln, "that there is room enough in her soil for seventy-five thousand graves?" —Gov. Thomas S. Hicks. GRAFT I remember when I was in the Indian department, there was quite an army stationed in the West, for it was at the time of the Chero- PARTY LEADER 265 fcee troubles. Now, there were graft and crookedness in those days just as today. It developed that the soldiers would be sent out every day or two to round up cattle and slaughter them. Then the car- casses would be turned over to a private contractor and he would sell the meat to the army. Lincoln relieved the general in command. The general was a brave man and a good fighter. His friends rallied around him. Some time later a Senator went to Lincoln with numerous petitions. As he started to undo the petitions, Lincoln said: "You needn't undo them, Senator. I investigated thoroughly. The general was not honest. If you had a petition from every man in the United States I would still refuse even to see them. Good day." —Carpenter. COPPERHEADS "Mr. Lincoln, you know this Northern Copperhead represents a large class of Northern men, who in the final settlement of our difficulties will be far from glorying in such a title." He said: "You are right; you are right. There are many who are mistaken and misinformed in regard to matters, who, when they come to a better understanding, will be found true and loyal men. I would not even seem to grieve, by word, act, or deed, a single one of my fellow-citizens, much less one who, though he may seem to be an enemy, is yet a real friend to our cause. I can say truly that I have no malice in my heart toward a single living man." -H.N.B. TOLERABLY RESPECTABLE Someone was discussing the character of a Copperhead clergy- man in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, who said: "I think you are rather hard upon Mr. Blank. He reminds me of a man in Illinois who was tried for passing a counterfeit bill. It was in evidence that before passing it he had taken it to the cashier of a bank and asked his opinion of the bill, and he received a very prompt reply 266 LINCOLN TALKS that the bill was a counterfeit. His lawyer, who had heard of the evidence to be brought against his client, asked him just before going into court: 'Did you take the bill to the cashier of the bank and ask him if it was good?' 'I did,' was the reply. 'Well, what was the reply of the cashier?' The rascal was in a corner, but he got out of it in this fashion: 'He said it was a pretty tolerable, respec- table sort of a bill.' " —Carpenter and Lincolniana. MITIGATION Mr. Lincoln said that the lady as a representative of her class in Alexandria reminded him of a story of the young man who had an aged mother and father owning considerable property. The young man, being an only son, and believing that the old people had outlived their usefulness, assassinated them both. He was ac- cused, tried, and convicted of the murder. When the judge came to pass sentence upon him, and called upon him to give any reason he might have why the sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he with great promptness replied that he hoped the court would be lenient to him because he was a poor orphan! —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. BOTH SIDES In 1862-3 the Reverend Dr. McPheeters, a prominent Presby- terian, was preaching at St. Louis. One day Dr. McPheeters found the doors of the church closed by order of General Curtis. A com- mittee, composed of both factions, went to see the President. The President listened patiently and then spoke as follows: "I can best illustrate my position in regard to your St. Louis quarrel by telling a story. A man in Illinois had a watermelon patch on which he hoped to make money enough to carry him over the year. A big hog broke through the log fence nearly every night and the melons were gradually disappearing. At length the farmer told his son John to get out the guns and they would promptly dispose of the disturber of their melon patch. They followed the PARTY LEADER 267 tracks to a neighboring creek, where they disappeared. They dis- covered them on the opposite bank and waded through. They kept on the trail a couple of hundred yards, when the tracks again went into the creek, but promptly turned up on the other side. Once more the hunters buffeted the mud and water and again struck the lead and pushed on a few furlongs, when the tracks made another drive into the creek. Out of breath and patience, the farmer said: 'John, you cross over and go up on that side and I'll keep on this side, for I believe the old fellow is on both sides.' "Gentlemen," concluded Mr. Lincoln, "that is just where I stand in regard to your controversies in St. Louis. I am on both sides. I can't allow my generals to run the churches and I can't allow your ministers to preach rebellion. Go home, preach the gospel, stand by the Union, and don't disturb the Government any more with any of your petty quarrels." —Rev. R. L. Stanton. FLEDGLING I was a young man at the time and this was my first important venture in politics. I had been nominated for clerk of the court in my township on the Republican ticket. Things were not going any too well for the party in the campaign. As election time ap- proached, we became apprehensive. We cast about for some good political stroke. We finally decided to call in a body on President Lincoln at the White House, the whole Republican ticket— candidates from top to bottom. This was to be made the occasion of a few strong words in our behalf from the President to the voters of Illinois. We made the trip and were very kindly and warmly received by the President. I shall never forget how he came into the room where we had all gathered. He greeted our leaders heartily, placing his hand on the shoulder of our spokesman. He listened attentively and then gave us briefly the message we wished. He then moved among us, speaking to nearly everyone individually. 268 LINCOLN TALKS I was the youngest in the group, running for probably the most inconspicuous office, and had somewhat diffidently withdrawn to the outskirts of the gathering. He noticed me and came over toward me and, placing his hand on my shoulder, as he had with our leader, spoke to me almost benevolently. "And now, my young man," he said to me, "how are you getting along?" "Well, Mr. President," I replied, "I am getting along pretty well, but out in my district some of my opponents persist in calling me 'the damned Jew.' " Instead of showing serious concern, the President laughed a bit and then, leaning far over, cupped his hand to my ear and whis- pered: "Oh, don't mind that. When I was a small boy they called me 'Little Abie,' and you see it never hurt me." —Herman Silver. CRITIC In accordance with Lincoln's request in his letter of November 24, 1862, 1 reported at the White House, was promptly shown into his little room upstairs, where I found Mr. Lincoln seated in an armchair before the open grate fire, his feet in his gigantic morocco slippers. He greeted me cordially, bade me pull up a chair and sit by his side; then he brought his large hand with a slap down on my knee and said with a smile: "Now, tell me, young man, whether you really think that I am as poor a fellow as you have made me out in your letter!" I explained to him my impressions of the situation and my reasons for writing him as 1 had done. He listened with silent attention and, when I stopped, said very seri- ously: "Well, I know that you are a warm anti-slavery man and a good friend to me. Now let me tell you all about it." He unfolded his view of the existing state of affairs, his troubles, how the criti- cisms coming down upon him from all sides chafed him and how my letter had touched him as a terse summing up of all the princi- pal criticisms and offered him a good chance for a reply. Then, PARTY LEADER 269 slapping my knee again, he broke out in a loud laugh and ex- claimed: "Didn't I give it to you hard in my letter? Didn't I? But it didn't hurt, did it? I did not mean to, and therefore I wanted you to come so quickly." He laughed again and seemed to enjoy the matter heartily. "Well," he added, "I guess we understand one another now, and it's all right." I asked whether he still wished that I should write to him. "Why, certainly," he answered, "write me whenever the spirit moves you." —Carl Schurz. A PROMISE When Mrs. Vallandigham left Dayton to join her husband, just before the election, she told her friends that she expected never to return until she did so as the wife of the Governor of Ohio. "That reminds me of a pleasant little affair that occurred out in Illinois," said Lincoln, on hearing of this. "A gentleman was nominated for Supervisor. On leaving home on the morning of election, he said: 'Wife, tonight you shall sleep with the Supervisor of this town.' "The election passed, and the confident gentleman was defeated. The wife heard the news before her defeated spouse returned home. She immediately dressed for going out, and awaited her husband's return, when she met him at the door. " 'Wife, where are you going at this time of night?' he exclaimed. " 'Going? ' she replied. 'Why, you told me this morning that I should tonight sleep with the Supervisor of this town, and I was going to his house.' " —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. THE AGITATOR "Long experience has shown that armies cannot be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him 270 LINCOLN TALKS to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by get- ting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there work upon his feelings until he is persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to punish him if he shall desert. I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy." — Nicolay and Hay. ON THE SUSPENSION OF HABEAS CORPUS Vallandigham, the Ohio Copperhead Congressman, made speeches in and out of the House bitterly anti-Union. At Dayton in the summer of 1863, he went so far in arraigning the Govern- ment that General Burnside arrested him and locked him up. North- ern Democrats in many instances were furious, and an Albany mass meeting directed by Erastus Corning, president of the New York Central Railroad, sent President Lincoln resolutions deploring the arrest of Vallandigham and the suspension of habeas corpus in his case. Lincoln reviewed the entire subject, and in commenting on Coming's contention that there had been a gross violation of the Constitution in the suspension of habeas corpus had this to say: "I can no more be persuaded that the Government can constitu- tionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger ap- prehended by the meeting, that the American people will by means of military arrests during the rebellion lose the right of public dis- cussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the indefinite peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics PARTY LEADER 2"Jl during temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them during the remainder of his healthful life." —Lincoln in a letter to Erastus Corning. VALLANDIGHAM Colonel Wolford was arrested by General Burbridge and sent to Washington, where he remained, reporting daily to the War Department. In answer to the request that the order of Gen- eral Burbridge be rescinded, the President replied that he should not depart from the policy before pursued concerning Vallandig- ham. Mr. Mallory remarked that the Vallandigham order was in- operative, that individual having returned to Ohio. Mr. Lincoln replied, in substance, that he had no official notice of Vallandig- ham's return, and that when Mr. Vallandigham made his presence known by objectionable acts, the Executive would be prepared to act. —Official Records. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS Speaking, on a certain occasion, of a prominent man who had the year before been violent in his manifestations of hostility to the Administration, but was then ostensibly favoring the same policy previously denounced, Mr. Lincoln expressed his entire readiness to treat the past as if it had not been, saying: "I choose always to make my 'statute of limitations' a short one." —Carpenter. INFORMATION John Ganson, a Democratic Congressman from Western New York, was peculiar in that he did not have a hair on his head. His pate was as bald as an ostrich egg, and his face showed neither a hair nor a bristle. He came to see the President: "Now, Mr. Presi- dent, you know what I've done for you and for the Union. I don't want you to do anything for me, but I do want you to take me 272 LINCOLN TALKS into your confidence. You're a lawyer and I am a lawyer, and you know you can trust any secret to me. Now, won't you tell me your plans?" The President looked at him half a minute, leaned over, and, putting his hand on Ganson's knee, said: "Ganson, how clean you shave!" — Depew. ENLARGED OFFICE "My dear Sir: I understand a bill is before Congress by your in- stigation, for taking your office from the control of the Depart- ment of the Interior, and considerably enlarging the powers and patronage of your office. The proposed change may be right for aught I know, and it certainly is right for Congress to do as it thinks proper in the case. What I wish to say is, that if the change is made, I do not think I can allow you to retain the office; because that would be encouraging officers to be constantly intriguing, to the detriment of the public interest, in order to profit themselves." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. GENTLEMAN OF THE PRESS "Reporter of the Herald, eh? Well, I'm not afraid of you. Walk right in and sit down." "Mr. President," he said, "I was sent up here by the acting editor of the Herald to ascertain, if possible, the motive of your sudden visit to this place. Perhaps you will consider it impertinent for me to inquire into such a subject." "No, sir, I do not consider it in any way an impertinence. At worst it might be thought an imprudence." The lines on his brow all at once deepened into larger furrows. "You gentlemen of the press seem to be pretty much like soldiers, who have to go wherever sent, whatever may be the dangers or difficulties in the way. God forbid I should, by any rudeness of speech or manner, make your PARTY LEADER 273 duties harder than they are. A while ago I said to you that I was not afraid of you, which you should know can have a double meaning. If I am not afraid of you, it is because I feel you are trustworthy. That is to say, I have no fear that you will violate confidences, or make improper use of any words I may let fall. The press has no better friend than I am— no one who is more ready to acknowledge its great power— its tremendous power for both good and evil. I would like to have it always on my side, if it could be so; so much, so very much, depends upon sound public opinion. Mr. Bennett is an extraordinary exponent of that truth; he can do what he likes with the public in many ways. He is a great editor, and his paper is a great paper— the greatest in this country, perhaps, if my good friend Horace Greeley will allow me to say so. Now, there, sir, in that remark about Greeley is an illustration of what I mean by trusting gentlemen of the press. If I made it to some of your profession they would instantly use it in their papers, and get me into hotter water with my friend Horace. Ah, do you gentle- men who control so largely public opinion, do you ever think how much you might lighten the burdens of men in power— those poor unfortunates weighed down by care, anxieties, and responsi- bilities? If you would only give them a consistent and hearty sup- port, bearing patiently with them when they seem to be making mistakes and giving them credit at least for good intentions, when these seem not to be clear, what comfort you would bestow!" He paused for a moment, and the reporter did not fail to vol- unteer assurance that nothing that might be objectionable would be printed by him. "I trust you, sir, I trust you," said the President. "My allusion had no present application. As to your question concerning my motive in coming here, you may say to your editor it has not been caused by any crisis in the affairs of the nation." "He was of the opinion," the writer remarked, "that Your Ex- cellency must have come here to confer with General Scott about military affairs." 274 LINCOLN TALKS The President mused again for fully a minute, and then, with a twinkle in his eye, observed: "There is a gun factory over there, sir," pointing riverward to the other side of the Hudson. "Parrot's gun factory?" "Yes, sir, that is what I mean. I am forever experimenting with and testing new inventions in firearms." "And you would have me believe that your object in coming here has been to examine something in Parrot's line?" "I would have you consider whether one theory is not as good as the other," he replied, smiling pleasantly. "Still, sir, if you will allow me to say so, Parrot could have gone to you without your coming to him, had you needed to inspect anything new in his line, while General Scott is an old officer in poor health, and retired, whom you would hate to disturb." "Oh, yes, that is true," he interrupted, quickly, "I would come a long way to talk with the old hero sooner than bother him. And, having come here, I was glad of the chance to converse with him about the situation of the country. Now I don't think I could say more were we to talk till bedtime." This seemed an invitation to withdraw, which was promptly ac- cepted by the writer, who stood up preparatory to making his adieu. "You won't think hard of me, will you?" President Lincoln said, with his most taking smile, and stretching forth his hand, in which the reporter felt his own swallowed up as it were. But the pressure might have been a woman's, so gentle was it. —New York Herald. GAS On a certain occasion, the President was induced by a com- mittee of gentlemen to examine a newly invented "repeating" gun, the peculiarity of which was that it prevented the escape of gas. After due inspection, he said: "Well, I believe this really does what it is represented to do. Now, have any of you heard of any PARTY LEADER 275 machine or invention for preventing the escape of gas from news- paper establishments?" —Carpenter; J. B. McClure. THE TIMES Mrs. Hugh McCulloch, with a friend, attended a reception by Mrs. Lincoln one Saturday afternoon, and were thus greeted by the President: "I am always glad to see you ladies, for I know you don't want anything." "But, Mr. President," said Mrs. McCulloch, "I do want some- thing. I want you to do something very much." "Well, what is it?" he asked, adding: "I hope it isn't anything I can't do." "I want you to suppress the Chicago Times, because it does noth- ing but abuse the Administration." "Oh, tut, tut! We must not abridge the liberties of the press or the people. But never mind the Chicago Times. The Administra- tion can stand it if the Times can." —Samuel R. Curtis. THE HERALD My brother was convalescing from typhoid pneumonia and I had procured a pass to return from the front at Yorktown to nurse him, as we were in the same regiment. That memorable morning I had been reading the war news to him, and when the distinguished visitors entered our room, I threw the paper on his pillow. It was the New York Herald, and Mr. Bennett had bitterly opposed and abused the President in his conduct of the war for months. When the President grasped Jim's hand, he asked questions, and I said: "Mr. Lincoln, he is my brother and too weak to converse, so I must talk for him." Turning to me he said: "It is very fortunate that he has a brother here to nurse and care for him." While speaking, he held my hand in a fatherly manner. Then he discovered the Herald and he said: "Do you read the papers?" 276 LINCOLN TALKS I said: "He is unable to read but I read all the army news to him." Then a quizzical look came over his sad face and his eyes twinkled as he said: "Well, my poor boy, if you can read and digest the contents of the Herald, I think you will surely get well." —Brigade Surgeon Shipman. ENOUGH IRON "Read that," Lincoln cried, holding out a clipping from a New York opposition sheet which charged that, while Jefferson Davis, as President of the Southern Confederacy, drew his $25,000 salary in Confederate money, then worth but twenty-five per cent of its face value, Lincoln took his pay in gold, although the soldiers were paid with greenbacks worth fifty cents on the dollar in comparison. Lincoln went on: "See to what depths of infamy a Northern Copperhead can descend! If the scoundrel who wrote that don't boil hereafter, it will be because the devil hasn't got iron enough to make gridirons." — L. E. Chittenden. LIGHT Abraham Lincoln, speaking of unjust and baseless newspaper at- tacks, once said: "I'm like the traveler on the frontier who was lost in a wild country on a pitch-black night. A terrific storm was rag- ing, yet though he was buffeted by wind and rain, the glare of the lightning alone showed him the way. Suddenly came a crashing bolt and the traveler dropped upon his knees. 'Oh, Lord,' he prayed, 'if it's all the same to You, give us a little more light and a good deal less noise." —Carpenter. DISRUPTER "That newspaper must be rigorously dealt with," said Welles. "I have already," said Lincoln, "contrived to divide America, and you now want me to smash the Globe/" —Legacy of Fun. PARTY LEADER 277 FIGHTING THE PRESS At a Cabinet meeting one of the members said to Mr. Lincoln: "Mr. President, why don't you write a letter to the public stating these facts and that will end Mr. Greeley's attacks?" The President answered: "Mr. Greeley owns a daily newspaper, a very widely circulated and influential one. I have no newspaper. The press of the country would print my letter, and so would the New York Tribune. In a little while the public would forget all about it, and then Mr. Greeley would begin to prove from my own letter that he was right, and I, of course, would be helpless to re- ply." —Edward Bates. ON BEING RIGHT The President was once speaking about an attack made on him by the Committee on the Conduct of the War for a certain al- leged blunder, or something worse, in the Southwest— the matter involved being one which had fallen directly under the observa- tion of the officer to whom he was talking, who possessed official evidence completely upsetting all the conclusions of the Com- mittee. "Might it not be well for me," queried the officer, "to set this matter right in a letter to some paper, stating the facts as they actually transpired?" "Oh, no," replied the President, "at least, not now. If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how— the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." —Seward. 278 LINCOLN TALKS CRITICISM Violent criticism, attacks, and denunciations rarely ruffled the President. In connection with something of this kind he once told me this story. "Some years ago," said he, "a couple of emigrants, fresh from the Emerald Isle, were making their way toward the West. Coming suddenly one evening upon a pond of water, they were greeted with a grand chorus of bullfrogs— a kind of music they had never heard. 'B-a-u-m!'— 'B-a-u-m!' Overcome with ter- ror, they clutched their shillelaghs, and crept cautiously forward, straining their eyes in every direction to catch a glimpse of the enemy; but he was not to be found! At last a happy idea seized the foremost one; he exclaimed: 'And sure, Jamie! It is my opinion it's nothing but a noise!' " —Carpenter. BULLFROGS Lincoln was a very quiet man, and went about his business in a quiet way, making the least noise possible. He heartily disliked those boisterous people who were constantly deluging him with advice, and shouting at the top of their voices whenever they ap- peared at the White House. "These noisy people create a great clamor," said he one day, in conversation with some personal friends, "and remind me, by the way, of a good story I heard out in Illinois while I was practicing, or trying to practice, some law there. I will say, though, that I practiced more law than I ever got paid for. "A fellow who lived just out of town, on the bank of a large marsh, conceived a big idea in the money-making line. He took it to a prominent merchant, and began to develop his plans and speci- fications. 'There are at least ten million frogs in that marsh near me, an' I'll just arrest a couple of carloads of them and hand them over to you. You can send them to the big cities and make lots of money for both of us. Frogs' legs are great delicacies in the big towns, PARTY LEADER 279 an' not very plentiful. It won't take me more'n two or three days to pick 'em. They make so much noise my family can't sleep, and by this deal, I'll get rid of a nuisance and gather in some cash.' "The merchant agreed to the proposition, promised the fellow he would pay him well for the two carloads. Two days passed, then three, and finally two weeks were gone before the fellow showed up again, carrying a small basket. He looked weary and done up, and he wasn't talkative a bit. He threw the basket on the counter with the remark: 'There's your frogs.' " 'You haven't two carloads in that basket, have you?' inquired the merchant. " 'No,' was the reply, 'and there ain't two carloads in this blasted world.' " 'I thought you said there were at least ten millions of 'em in that marsh near you, according to the noise they made,' observed the merchant. 'Your people couldn't sleep because of 'em.' " 'Well,' said the fellow, 'accordin' to the noise they made, there was, I thought, a hundred million of 'em, but when I had waded and swum that there marsh day and night for two blessed weeks, I couldn't harvest but six. There's two or three left yet, an' the marsh is as noisy as it uster be. We haven't catched up on any of our lost sleep yet. Now, you can have these here six, an' I won't charge you a cent fer 'em.' " — R. D. Wordsworth: Lincoln Anecdotes and Stories. MOVING When Kentucky was overrun, a committee called on Lincoln- Senator Lane opened for Indiana, Garrett Davis for Kentucky, etc. They all had complaints about the conduct of the war in the West. The President said: "I announce to you that I am not going to do a single thing that any one of you has asked me to do. But I will give my reasons," and he did. When he. was done he said: "Judge List, this reminds me of an anecdote which I heard a son of yours tell in Burlington, Iowa. He was trying to enforce upon his hear- 280 LINCOLN TALKS ers the truth of the old adage that three moves is worse than a fire. As an illustration he gave an account of a family who started from Western Pennsylvania, pretty well off in this world's goods when they started. But they moved and moved, having less and less every time they moved, till after a while they could carry everything in one wagon. He said that the chickens of the family got so used to being moved, that whenever they saw the wagon sheets brought out, they laid themselves on their backs and crossed their legs, ready to be tied. Now, gentlemen, if I were to listen to every committee that comes in at that door, I had just as well cross my hands and let you tie me." —Sen. James H. Lane. CONGRESS One time I went to Mr. Lincoln's office at the White House and found the door locked. I went through a private room and through a side entrance into the office, where I found the President lying on a sofa, evidently greatly disturbed and much excited, manifestly displeased with the outlook. Jumping up from his reclining posi- tion he advanced, saying: "You know better than any man living that from my boyhood up my ambition was to be President. I am President of one part of this divided country at least; but look at me! I wish I had never been born! It is a white elephant on my hands, and hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear; hav- ing to contend with the jealousies of the military commanders, and not receiving that cordial co-operation and support from Congress which could reasonably be expected; with an active and formida- ble enemy in the field threatening the very life-blood of the Gov- ernment—my position is anything but a bed of roses." I remarked to him: "It strikes me that you are somewhat in the position of the great Richelieu, of whom it was said that he was the first man in Europe but the second only in his own country." "Oh, no! very far from it," he replied. "Richelieu never had a fire in his front and rear at the same time, but a united constitu- PARTY LEADER 28l ency, which it has never been my good fortune to have." Then brightening up, his whole nature seemed all at once to change as he said: "If I can only keep my end of the animal pointed in the right direction, I will yet get him through this infernal jungle and get my end of him and his tail placed in their proper relative posi- tions. I have never faltered in my faith of being ultimately able to suppress this rebellion and of reuniting this divided country; but this improvised vigilante committee to watch my movements and keep me straight, appointed by Congress, and called the 'Committee on the Conduct of the War,' is a marplot, and its greatest purpose seems to be to hamper my action and obstruct the military opera- tions." Earnestly desirous of conciliating and harmonizing every ele- ment with a view to the accomplishment of his one aspiration, a restoration of the Union, Mr. Lincoln had yielded until further concessions would have implied docility or imbecility, until every sentiment of dignity and of self-respect would have uttered an in- dignant protest. . . . He exclaimed: "This state of things shall continue no longer. I will show them at the other end of the Av- enue whether I am President or not!" —New York Daily Tribune, 1885; Weik's scrap book. CHALLENGE Charles Sumner, who was a very tall man, and proud of his height, once worried the President about some perplexing matter, when Lincoln sought to change the subject by abruptly challeng- ing his visitor to measure backs. "Sumner," said Mr. Lincoln, "de- clined to stand up with me, back to back, to see which was the tallest man, and made a fine speech about this being the time for uniting our fronts against the enemy, and not our backs. But I guess he was afraid to measure, though he is a good piece of a man. I have never had much to do with bishops where I live, but, do you know, Sumner is my idea of a bishop." —Ben: Perley Poore. 282 LINCOLN TALKS BIG LOG James B. Fry once said to Lincoln: "Mr. President, I am anxious to learn how you disposed of Governor . He went to your of- fice from the War Department in a towering rage. I assume you found it necessary to make large concessions to him, as he re- turned from you entirely satisfied." "Oh, no," he replied; "I did not concede anything. You know how that Illinois farmer managed the big log that lay in the mid- dle of his field? To the inquiries of his neighbors one Sunday he announced that he had got rid of the big log. 'Got rid of it?' said they. 'How did you do it? It was too big to haul out, too knotty to split, and too wet and soggy to burn; what did you do?' 'Well, now, boys,' replied the farmer, 'if you won't divulge the secret, I'll tell you how I got rid of it— I plowed around it.' Now," said Lin- coln, "don't tell anybody, but that's the way I got rid of Gover- nor . I plowed around him, but it took me three mortal hours to do it, and I was afraid every minute he'd see what I was at." —James B. Fry. POWDER TEST The President sent for me about ten. Entering his Cabinet room, I saw Forney, Secretary of Senate, in conversation with him, and saying that it would be well to publish report of committee on fight at Frederick, as the people were excited. The President answered warmly "that he did not want to swear, but why will people be such damned fools?" Forney remarked, going, "that he hoped the President would not let Mr. Chase resign," and added: "nor Mr. Seward." The President paused and reddened, then said suddenly: "If one goes, the other must; they must hunt in couples." So Forney made his bow. The President, much glad to drop such troublesome business, and PARTY LEADER 283 relaxing into his usual humor, sat down and said: "Well, Captain, here's a letter about a new powder," which he read, and showed the sample. Said he had burned some, and there was too much residue. "Now, I'll show you." He got a small sheet of paper; placed on it some of the powder, ran to the fire, and with the tongs picked up a coal, which he blew, specs still on nose. It occurred to me how peaceful was his mind, so easily diverted from the great convul- sion going on, and a nation menaced with disruption. The President clapped the coal to the powder and away it went, he remarking: "There is too much left there." He handed me a small parcel of the powder to try, and, in noticing the late im- broglio, said "it was very well to talk of remodeling the Cabinet, but the caucus had thought more of their plans than of his benefit, and he had told them so." —Diary of Admiral John A. Dahlgren. TREASON "During a crucial period of the war many malicious stories were in circulation, based upon the suspicion that Mrs. Lincoln was in sympathy with the Confederacy. These reports were inspired by the fact that some of Mrs. Lincoln's relatives were in the Con- federate service. At last reports that were more than vague gossip were brought to the attention of some of my colleagues in the Senate. They made specific accusation that Mrs. Lincoln was giv- ing important information to secret agents of the Confederacy. These reports were laid before my committee [on the Conduct of the War] and the committee thought it an imperative duty to in- vestigate them, although it was the most embarrassing and painful task imposed upon us. The sessions of the committee were necessarily secret. We had just been called to order by the chairman, when the officer sta- tioned at the committee-room door opened it and came in with a 284 LINCOLN TALKS half-frightened, half -embarrassed expression on his face. Before he had opportunity to make explanation, we understood the reason for his excitement, and were ourselves almost overwhelmed by astonishment. For at the foot of the table, standing solitary, his hat in his hand, his tall form towering above the committee members, Abraham Lincoln stood. Had he come by some incantation, thus appearing of a sudden before us unannounced, we could not have been more astounded. The pathos that was written upon Lincoln's face, the almost un- human sadness that was in his eyes as he looked upon us, and above all an indescribable sense of his complete isolation— the sad solitude which is inherent in all true grandeur of character and intellect- all this revealed Lincoln to me and I think to every member of the committee in the finer, subtler light whose illumination faintly set forth the fundamental nature of this man. No one spoke, for none knew what to say. The President had not been asked to come be- fore the committee, nor was it suspected that he had information that we were to investigate the reports, which, if true, fastened treason upon his family in the White House. At last Lincoln spoke, slowly, with infinite sorrow in his tone, and he said: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, appear of my own volition before this committee of the Senate to say that I, of my own knowledge, know that it is untrue that any of my fam- ily hold treasonable communication with the enemy." Having said that, Lincoln went away as silently and solitary as he came. We sat for some moments speechless. Then by tacit agree- ment, no word being spoken, the committee dropped all considera- tion of the rumors that the wife of the President was betraying the Union. We had seen Abraham Lincoln in the solemn and isolated majesty of his real nature. We were so greatly affected that the committee adjourned sine die. —Gen. Thomas L. James; Weik's scrap book. PARTY LEADER 285 SHORT HORNS Speaking of the many mean and petty acts of certain members of Congress, the President said: "I have great sympathy for these men, because of their temper and their weakness; but I am thankful that the good Lord has given to the vicious ox short horns, for if their physical courage were equal to their vicious disposition, some of us in this neck of the woods would get hurt." -H.N.B. CURT Mr. Charles Gibson, Solicitor of the United States in the Court of Claims, addressed a letter to the President, in which he tendered his resignation in terms quite uncomplimentary. The President replied through his secretary, in a note which closed as follows: "He thanks Mr. Gibson for his acknowledgment that he has been treated with personal kindness and consideration, and he says he knows but two small drawbacks upon Mr. Gibson's right to still receive such treatment: one of which is, that he never could learn of his giving much attention to the duties of his office; and the other is, this studied attempt of Mr. Gibson to stab him." -W. O. Stoddard. WASH In order to illustrate the moral cleanliness of certain unsavory politicians, Lincoln said on one occasion, he was reminded of a "feller" who applied to a physician for advice about a cutaneous disease. The doctor wrote out for him the following prescription: "B: Sapon, Castile, oz. 8 Aquae purae, gal. l / 2 Misce. "Apply to all parts of the body with a sponge and then wipe dry with a towel." 286 LINCOLN TALKS "That simply means washing me," exclaimed the dirty sufferer. "It certainly is open to that objection," replied the physician. —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. ONE-HALF Lincoln said that in the Senate he owned nine of the Senators and one-half of another. "Who owns the other half?" asked a gentleman. "Henry Wilson of Massachusetts," replied the Chief Magistrate. "Wilson is for me before breakfast; rather against me while his digestion is going on after it; loves me like pie during the hours which he spends visiting the various departments and asking for places and patronage; and bitterly my enemy from seven every evening until he goes to bed, drops asleep, and commences snoring. Wilson is carrying water on both shoulders, but I guess he'll get a wetting and soil his clothes before he gets through." — Lincolniana. HAIR TONIC A Philadelphia man called at the White House so frequently and took up so much of the President's time that the latter finally lost his patience. One day when the gentleman was particularly verbose and persistent, and refused to leave, although he knew that im- portant delegations were waiting, Lincoln arose, walked over to a wardrobe in the corner of the Cabinet chamber, and took a bottle from a shelf. Looking gravely at his visitor, whose head was very bald, he remarked: "Did you ever try this stuff for your hair?" "No, sir, I never did." "Well," remarked Lincoln, "I advise you to try it, and I will give you this bottle. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Keep it up. They say it will make hair grow on a pumpkin. Now take it, and come back in eight or ten months and tell me how it works." PARTY LEADER 287 The astonished Philadelphian left the room instantly, without a word, carrying the bottle in his hand. —Justice David K. Cartter. SEYMOUR Governor Seymour telegraphed to Lincoln, during the late riots in New York City, that there was no occasion to act so harshly and drag so many citizens off to prison. The reply was that "he (the President) thought quite differently, and that he should never be content till he'd see more (Seymour) there." —Legacy of Fun. STUBBED After a State election in New York in which the Republican Party was defeated, Mr. Lincoln was asked how he felt after hav- ing heard the news. He replied: "Somewhat like the boy in Ken- tucky who stubbed his toe while running to see his sweetheart. He said he was too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh." —Lippincotfs, Feb. 1901. NEW JERSEY "One terribly stormy night in bleak December, a vessel was wrecked off the coast of Jersey, and every soul save one went down with the doomed craft. This one survivor seized a floating spar and was washed toward the shore, while innumerable kind- hearted tools of the Camden and Amboy Railroad clustered on the beach with boats and ropes. Slowly the unhappy mariner drifted to land and, as he exhaustedly caught at the rope thrown to him, the kindly natives uttered an encouraging cheer. " 'You are saved!' they shouted. 'You are saved, and must show the conductor your ticket!' With the sea still boiling about him, the drowning stranger resisted the efforts to haul him ashore. 'Stop!' said he, in faint tones, 'tell me where I am! What country is this?' They answered: 'New Jersey.' Scarcely was the name uttered 288 LINCOLN TALKS when the wretched stranger let go the rope, ejaculating, as he did so: 'I guess I'll float a little farther!' " —Honest Old Abe's Jokes, SOLID MEN A dozen or more of the leading business men of Wilmington called upon the President. They told him that they represented the "solid men" of Delaware, and that they had come to discuss the situation and the means of ending the struggle. After the chairman of the delegation had finished his speech, the President asked: "So you are the solid men of Delaware?" "Yes," was the reply. "All from New Castle County?" "Yes, all from New Castle." "All from Wilmington, too?" "Yes, all from the same city," replied the gentlemen, in a chorus. "Well," remarked Mr. Lincoln, as his eyes twinkled, "did it ever occur to you, gentlemen, that there was danger of your little State tipping up during your absence?" —George P. Fisher. CHICAGO Speaking of Chicago, Mr. Lincoln related the following: "Some years ago, when Chicago was in its infancy, a stranger took up his quarters at the principal hotel, and inscribed his name on the register as Mr. J , of St. Louis. For several days he re- mained there, engaged in transacting his business, and from his exceedingly plain dress, manners, and general appearance, attracted but little attention. Soon Mr. J was suddenly seized with illness, during which he was sadly neglected by his host; and the servants taking their tone from the master of the house, left him to shift for himself as best he could. Thus matters went on, till one morning he was past praying for; his papers were then examined, that the PARTY LEADER 289 sad intelligence might be communicated to his friends, when to the surprise of all he was found to be one of the wealthiest men in the Western country. "Arrangements were accordingly made for the funeral; but be- fore the last rites were performed, the subject came to life again, having been the victim of catalepsy. All were overjoyed at his for- tunate escape from so dreadful a fate, and from that time were profuse in their expressions of solicitude, elicited, however, we judge, by 'documentary evidence,' rather than by any personal re- gard. At length someone ventured to ask how things appeared to him while in his trance, to which he thus replied: " 'I thought I had come to -the river of death, where I met an angel who handed me a jewel to serve as a pass to the other side. On giving this to the ferryman, I received from him another, which carried me further another stage in my journey. Going on thus for several stages, receiving at the termination of each a ticket for the succeeding one, I at last reached the gate of the Heavenly City. There I found St. Peter, who opened the door at my summons, pipe in mouth, seated by a small table, on which stood a goodly mug of steaming whisky toddy. "Good morning, sir," said he very politely. "Good morning, St. Peter," said I. "Who are you, sir?" said he, turning over the leaves of a huge ledger. "My name is J ." "Very good, sir; where do you live down below?" "I lived at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri." "Very well, sir; and where did you die?" "I died at Chicago, in Illinois." "Chicago?" said he, shaking his head. "There's no such place, sir." "I beg your pardon, St. Peter, but have you a map of the United States here?" "Yes, sir." "Allow me to look at it." "Certainly, sir." " 'With that he handed down a splendid atlas, and I pointed out Chicago on the map. "All right, sir," said he, after a moment's pause; "it's there, sure enough, so walk in, sir; but I'll be blest if you ain't the first man that has ever come here from that place!" ' " —Honest Old Abe's Jokes, 290 LINCOLN TALKS PRESIDENTIAL GRUB When Lincoln was a candidate for renomination he did not dis- guise his anxiety to remain in the White House for four years more, to finish, as he expressed it, the great job the people had given him to do. It was not Fremont he feared, or the Wade-Davis Manifesto, nor was he afraid of the numerous and powerful malcontents in- side his own party, headed by Chase and Greeley. But he did fear, as he told me, that General Grant's name would be sprung upon the Baltimore Convention. Indeed, such an effort was made, and Mis- souri did cast her solid vote for Grant for President, but Grant wisely and stubbornly refused to countenance this movement, and by telegraph forbade it. The President learned that one of Grant's staff was at Willard's Hotel. He sent his carriage. The officer was brought to the White House and ushered into the library. Lincoln said: "Colonel, does Grant want to be President?" "No, sir," quickly replied the staff officer. "Do you know for certain?" "Yes, I do. You know how close I have been to Grant for three years. That he has the last infirmity of noble minds, ambition, I cannot deny. There may be lurking in his mind thoughts of the Presidency in the dim future. But right well I know, Mr. Lincoln, that he is so loyal to you, to whom he owes so much, that there is no power on earth that can drag his name into this Presidential canvass. McClellan's career was a lesson to him. He said, to me, within a week: 'I regard Abraham Lincoln as one of the world's greatest men, and he is without question the greatest man I ever met.' Grant's whole soul, Mr. Lincoln, is bent on your re-election, and his one fixed idea is, under your lead as President, to conquer the rebellion, and aid you in restoring and rebuilding the country and perpetuating the Union." "Ah, Colonel," said Lincoln, "you have lifted an awful load from PARTY LEADER 29I my mind. I was afraid of Grant, because we are all human; although I would rather be beaten by him than by any living man. When the Presidential grub gets inside of a man it hides itself and burrows deep. That basilisk is sure to kill." —James M. Scovel. GIBRALTAR It was characteristic of Lincoln that in speaking, or listening to others speaking, he was almost constantly reminded of stories, which he would tell in his inimitable way. Before his second nomination for the Presidency, some would-be friends and advisers called upon him, and the spokesman, doubt- less a very learned man and a deep thinker, tried to convince Lin- coln that it would be wise in him to decline the nomination, say- ing that, although there was apparently a feeling of friendliness toward him, there was also an undercurrent of feeling running counter to it that would come to the surface during the excitement of a campaign and defeat him. He compared this subterranean feel- ing to a strong undercurrent that flows with resistless force in the Strait of Gibraltar, and elaborated on that theme until Lincoln was thoroughly bored. However, he listened patiently until the man finished speaking, and then said: "Well, gentlemen, that doesn't re- mind me of any story I ever heard." —James M. Scovel. SWAPPING HORSES "I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small por- tion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The Convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests of the country, for the present and the great future, and the part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the Convention and the League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be entrusted with the place I have occupied for the 292 LINCOLN TALKS last three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to con- clude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that it was not best to swap horses when cross- ing a stream." —To a delegation of the National Union League; in Nicolay and Hay. THIRD PARTY The strifes and jars in the Republican Party at this time (1864) disturbed him more than anything else, but he avoided taking sides with any faction. I asked him why he did not take some pronounced position in one trying encounter between two very prominent Republicans. "I learned," said he, "a great many years ago, that in a fight be- tween man and wife, a third party should never get between the woman's skillet and the man's ax-helve." —Wayne Whipple. ONE MILE Senator Benjamin Wade, of Ohio, a hot-tempered statesman, and usually "on the outs" with the President, one day stormed into the President's office on the second floor of the White House, and lost no time in getting started. "Mr. President," he bellowed, "this Ad- ministration, sir, is on the way to hell— on the way to hell, sir— it's only a mile away from it!" "Why, Wade," said the patient man, "that's the exact distance from here to the Capitol." — Lamon. WRIGGLERS Upon the appearance of what was known as the "Wade-Davis Manifesto," subsequent to his renomination, an intimate friend and supporter, who was very indignant that such a document should have been put forth just previous to the Presidential elec- PARTY LEADER 293 tion, took occasion to comment very severely upon the course that prompted it. "It is not worth fretting about," said the President; "it reminds me of an old acquaintance, who, having a son of a scientific turn, bought him a microscope. The boy went around, experimenting with his glass upon everything that came in his way. One day, at the dinner table, his father took up a piece of cheese. 'Don't eat that, Father,' said the boy; 'it is full of wrigglers.' 'My son,' replied the old gentleman, taking, at the same time, a huge bite, 'let 'em wriggle; I can stand it if they can.' " —Carpenter. JUDGMENT President Lincoln said the prospect of his election for a second term reminded him of old Jake Tullwater who lived in Illinois. Old Jake got a fever once, and he became delirious, and while in this state he fancied that the last day had come, and he was called to judge the world. With all the vagaries of insanity he gave both questions and answers himself, and only called up his acquaintances, the millers. "Shon Schmidt, come up here! Vat bees you in this lower world?" "Well, Lort, I bees a miller." "Well, Shon, did you ever take too much toll?" "Oh, yes, Lort, when the water was low, and the stones was dull, I did take too much toll." "Well, Shon," old Jake would say, "you must go to the left among the goats." So he called up all he knew and put them through the same course till finally he came to himself: "Shake Tullwater, come up here! Well, Shake, what bees you in this lower world?" "Well, Lort, I bees a miller." "And, Shake, didn't you ever take too much toll?" 294 LINCOLN TALKS "Ah, yes, Lort, when the water was low, and the stones was dull, I did take too much toll." "Well, Shake— well, Shake" (scratching his head), "well, what did you do mit dat toll?" "Well, Lort, I gives him to de poor." "Ah! Shake— gave it to the poor, did you? Well, Shake, you can go to the right among the sheep— but it's a tam'd tight squeeze!" —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. SCOUT When the Democratic Convention, which nominated McClellan for the Presidency in 1864, was about to assemble, Lincoln said: "That convention must put a war man on a peace platform, or a peace man on a war platform, I don't care much which." As I was going to the convention, but not to return at once to Washington, Lincoln said: "I wish you would write me, say, two letters, giving me an idea of the tone and temper of the convention, and of the delegates, as you meet them." This I agreed to do and asked for further instructions, when he said: "Write just what you would talk, but wouldn't print." —Noah Brooks. THE FREMONT CONVENTION There were others not so honest who, for personal reasons, dis- liked the President. To these it was impossible to stand quietly by and see Mr. Lincoln made his own successor without one last ef- fort to prevent it. The result of informal consultations among them was the publication of a number of independent calls for a mass convention of the people to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 31st of May, a week before the assembling of the Republican Conven- tion at Baltimore. The object stated in their call was then and there to recommend the nomination of John C. Fremont for the Presidency of the United States and to assist in organizing for his election. They denounced "the imbecile and vacillating policy PARTY LEADER 295 of the present Administration in the conduct of the War," etc. The whole proceeding, though it excited some indignation among the friends of Mr. Lincoln, was regarded by the President himself only with amusement. On the morning after the Conven- tion, a friend, giving him an account of it, said that, instead of the many thousands who had been expected, there were present at no time more than four hundred men. The President, struck by the number mentioned, reached for the Bible, which commonly lay on his desk, and after a moment's search, read these words: " 'And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men.' " (I Sam. 22:2.) — Nicolay and Hay. POSTPONEMENT A gentleman remarked to Lincoln, in 1864, that the friends of Fremont were anxious to have the National Union Convention postponed. "It's very natural they should," quoth Abraham; "there were two men in jail here, a few weeks since, under sentence of death, and their friends were anxious to have the hanging-day post- poned." —Whitney. REARGUARD The more reckless critics of the Administration were now be- ginning openly to allege an unholy alliance between the President and all that is vilest in American political life. The dragging course of the war lent the only conceivable color of truthfulness to their attack; but it must have been singularly bitter to Lincoln. He had become very weary and discouraged. With grim earnestness, but twitching with humor, he would say: . "Well, I cannot run the political machine; I have enough on my hands without that. It is the people's business— the election is in 296 LINCOLN TALKS their hands. If they turn their backs to the fire, and get scorched in the rear, they'll find they have to sit on the blister!" —Henry B. Binns, quoting J. R. Gilmore. ON VICTORY To the sentiments and assurances of the United States Christian Commission, Mr. Lincoln listened with closest attention and re- plied chiefly in these words: "I thank you, gentlemen, for this interview. Such visits strengthen me. No man who knows what we know here of the state of things can fail to see that a greater than a human hand is con- trolling the issues of this war. If our great enemy over there," pointing his finger across the Potomac, "could have had his way, he would have had victory long ago. But the Almighty has not thought as he thought. If I could have had my way, I would have had victory long ago. But it is evident that the Almighty has not thought as I thought. I know not how, nor when, nor by whom it shall be accomplished, but I have a firm, unshaken faith that in the end success will crown our arms, and that the Union of these States will be restored and maintained. . . . "Whatever differences of opinion may exist concerning the management of the war, it is manifest that the Government must be sustained by the people of the loyal States. For example," said he, with a smile and a twinkle that lighted up his grave face for the moment, "if a man wishes to be elected President of the United States, he must sustain the Government in prosecuting this war to a successful end, because if it should not be victorious there will be no Union for him to preside over." — Nicolay and Hay. ON RE-ELECTION A visitor, congratulating Mr. Lincoln on the prospects of his re- election, was answered with an anecdote of an Illinois farmer who undertook to blast his own rocks. His first effort at producing an PARTY LEADER 297 explosion proved a failure. He explained the cause by exclaiming: "Pshaw, this powder has been shot before!" —Honest Old Abe's Jokes, PRIVATE O'REILLY SINGS AT THE WHITE HOUSE Mr. Lincoln replied that he was happy to see Private O'Reilly, but did not care to make a set speech. In his position it was not wise to talk foolishly, and he would, therefore, but rarely talk at all. As to the "war for the succession," about which the Herald and Mr. Wendell Phillips appeared crazy, he would say some few words. Men oftenest betray and defeat themselves by over-anxiety to secure their object, just as the Widow ZollicorTer's darky did, away down in Bourbon County, when he had been eating her cran- berry jam. The widow, while making her jam, was called away to a neighbor who was about to increase the population. "Sam, you rascal," she said, "you'll be eating my jam when I'm away." Sam protested he'd die first, but the whites of his eyes rolled hungrily towards the bubbling crimson. "See here, Sam," said the widow, taking up a piece of chalk, "I'll chalk your lips, and then on my re- turn I'll know if you've eaten any." So saying, she passed her fore- finger heavily over his lips, holding the chalk in the palm of her hand, and not letting it touch him. Well, when she came back, Sam's lips were chalked a quarter of an inch thick, and she needed against him no other evidence. Now, it is much the same about the Presidency. A good friend of mine declares that he wouldn't take it at any price; but his lips were thickly chalked when he came back from Ohio. (Great merriment, in which Mr. Chase joined heartily.) So were General Fremont's out in Missouri, when he issued his "emancipation order." And General Butler's were not only chalked, but had the jam on, and had it thick. Secretary Seward once chalked very badly, but had given it up as of no use since his quarrel with the machine proprietor of his own State. (Loud laughter.) Mingled chalk and jam might be seen on the lips of General Banks; while the same compound formed quite a 298 LINCOLN TALKS paste around the orifice through which his good friend Governor Seymour supplied the wants of nature. He had never seen any chalk on the lips of Secretary Stanton or General Henry W. Halleck; but, with these exceptions, there was scarcely a man connected with the army who did not chalk his lips. (Continued mirth, the foreign diplomatic corps joining heartily.) He believed many of the gen- erals would compromise for a brigadier's commission in the regular army; but these were matters too grave to be joked about. He would now introduce to all present Private Miles O'Reilly, of the Tenth Army Corps— an army corps which had done well under General Gillmore, having been magnificently disciplined by Gen- eral Hunter— perhaps the very strictest field officer in the service. Mr. Lincoln would now conclude by bidding the bard of Morris Island welcome to the White House, at the same time extending his hand for a friendly shake. "Colonel Hay, please touch the bell," said Mr. Lincoln; "and let Burgdorf, my messenger, send us up the decanters and things. I have some French wines, sent me from Paris by Secretary of Lega- tion Pennington, whose tongue is so completely occupied in the business of tasting vintages that he has never had time to teach it French, though a resident in Paris many years. If you . prefer whisky, I have some that can be relied upon— a present from Mr. Leslie Combs. I call it 'Grant's Particular,' and Halleck is about issuing an order that all his generals shall drink it." "With the news we have today from Chattanooga," said Gen- eral Halleck, gaily, "I think the country will endorse the order to which Mr. Lincoln has referred. For my own part, I'll take some of that whisky— just enough to drown a mosquito, and with the President's permission, our first toast will be the health of Ulysses Grant, the iron horse of the Mississippi!" Secretary Stanton seconded the toast in a neat and spirited ad- dress, Mr. Lincoln frequently applauding. The health was received with all the honors, everyone present standing up, while the liquor PARTY LEADER 299 went down, and the company giving three cheers for General Grant, and then three more, and then three after that to top off with. Some drank it in wine, others in whisky. The council table was hastily cleared of books, papers, and maps. All took seats except Private O'Reilly, who continued to have spasms of rigidity and the "first positions of a soldier" whenever his eyes happened to rest for a moment on General Halleck's buttons in bunches of three, or General Cullum's twin-button brigadier arrangement. "Excuse me, gentlemen; this is my only beverage," said the Pres- ident, filling up a glass of water. "Help yourselves. Seward, the diplomatic body is under your care. Baron Gerott's glass is empty. General Meagher, will you be kind enough to see what the friends of Private O'Reilly will take? Now, Miles, clear your throat with a glass of wine— not too much for him, Colonel Hay— and let us hear your song in honor of Lord Palmerston." —New York Herald, Nov. 29, 1863. FORNINST THE GOVERNMENT The Governor-General of Canada, with some of his principal officers, visited President Lincoln in the summer of 1864. Lincoln treated his guest with great courtesy. After a pleasant interview, the Governor, alluding to the coming Presidential election, said, jokingly, but with a grain of sarcasm: "I understand, Mr. President, that everybody votes in this country. If we remain until Novem- ber, can we vote?" "You remind me," replied the President, "of a countryman of yours, a green emigrant from Ireland. Pat arrived on Election Day, and perhaps was as eager as Your Excellency to vote, and to vote early, and late, and often. "So, upon landing at Castle Garden, he hastened to the nearest voting place, and as he approached, the judge who received the ballots inquired: 'Who do you want to vote for? On which side are you?' Poor Pat was embarrassed; he did not know who were 300 LINCOLN TALKS the candidates. He stopped, scratched his head, then, with the readiness of his countrymen, he said: " 'I am forninst the Government, anyhow. Tell me, if Your Honor plases, which is the rebellion side, and I'll tell you how I want to vote. In ould Ireland, I was always on the rebellion side, and by Saint Patrick, I'll do that same in America.' Your Ex- cellency," said Mr. Lincoln, "would, I should think, not be at all at a loss on which side to vote!" —Army and Navy Journal, vol. 46; Carleton B. Case. EVE OF ELECTION There was at no time during the campaign a reasonable doubt of the election of Mr. Lincoln over General McClellan. Early in this campaign, on going into Mr. Lincoln's office one night, I found him in a more gleeful humor than usual. He was alone, and said: "I am glad you have come in. Lamon, do you know that 'we have met the enemy, and they are ourn'? I think the cabal of obstructionists 'am busted'! I feel certain that if I live, I am going to be re-elected. Whether I deserve to be or not, it is not for me to say; but on the score even of remunerative chances for speculative service, I now am inspired with the hope that our disturbed country further re- quires the valuable services of your humble servant. 'Jordan has been a hard road to travel,' but I feel now that, notwithstanding the enemies I have made and the faults I have committed, I'll be dumped on the right side of that stream. I hope, however, that I may never have another four years of such anxiety, tribulation, and abuse. My only ambition is and has been to put down the rebellion and restore peace; after which I want to resign my office, go abroad, take some rest, study foreign governments, see something of foreign life, and in my old age die in peace with the good will of all of God's creatures." About two weeks before the election, Mr. Lincoln began to consider how to make the result most decisive. He again recurred PARTY LEADER 301 to McClellan, and again consulted Mr. Blair. It seemed that neither of these sagacious men could entirely free himself from the thought that in one way or another General McClellan, with the Demo- cratic Party at his back, was somehow to contribute a mighty blow toward the suppression of the rebellion and the pacification of the country. With the respect which they both entertained for Gen- eral McClellan's intelligence, with the faith they both had in his patriotism, they did not doubt that, seeing as they did the utter impossibility of his own election to the Presidency, he would be willing, if the way were graciously opened to him, to save his party from the humiliation of a crushing defeat, to use his remaining power to restore the Union without further unnecessary blood- shed, and to tranquillize the country without more needless and heedless political strife. Mr. Lincoln said to Mr. Blair: "I shall be re-elected. No one can doubt it. I do not doubt it, nor do you. It is patent to all. General McClellan must see it as plainly as we do. Why should he not act upon it, and help me to give peace to this distracted country? Would it not be a glorious thing for the Union cause and the coun- try, now that my re-election is certain, for him to decline to run, favor my election, and make certain a speedy termination of this bloody war? Don't you believe that such a course upon his part would unify public partisan sentiment, and give a decisive and fatal blow to all opposition to the re-establishment of peace in the coun- try? I think he is man enough and patriot enough to do it. Do you? You have been his friend and mine. Will you try this last appeal to General McClellan's patriotism?" Mr. Blair heartily assented; and, as the result of their consulta- tion, Mr. Lincoln wrote a most remarkable autograph letter to his rival, suggesting that he retire from the canvass and allow Mr. Lin- coln's election, then visibly impending, to be as nearly unanimous as might be. The compensations to General McClellan and his party for the timely relinquishment of a mere shadow were to be McClellan's immediate elevation to be General of the Army, the 302 LINCOLN TALKS appointment of his father-in-law, Marcy, to be major-general, and the very substantial recognition of the Democracy which would necessarily have followed these arrangements. This letter contain- ing these distinct proposals was placed in Mr. Blair's hands, and by him delivered to General McClellan. It was the attempted stroke of a master. Had it succeeded— had the proposals contained in the letter been accepted— Mr. Lincoln might have lived to pre- vent the follies and the crimes of reconstruction, and to bless his country with an era of peace and good will— thus preventing those long years of ferocious political contention over the results of the war which followed its conclusion and his murder. — Lamon. THANKS "I have heard of the incident at the polls, in your town, in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. The example of such devo- tion to civic duties, in one whose days have already been extended an average lifetime beyond the psalmist's limits, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for the country which you have, in your sphere, served so long and so well, that I thank you." —Lincoln in a letter to Deacon John Phillips, aged 104. soldier's politics In 1864, a soldier at work on the Baltimore defenses attended a Democratic meeting and made a speech there in favor of its prin- ciples and General McClellan as the standard-bearer. Secretary of War Stanton, fierce, like all apostates, turned on this Democrat, and his disgrace as to the army was threatened. Captain Andrews went to the fountain-head with his remonstrance. Lincoln said: "Andrews has as good a right to hold onto his Democracy, if he chooses, as Stanton had to throw his overboard. No; when the mili- PARTY LEADER 303 tary duties of a soldier are fully and faithfully performed, he can manage his politics his own way!" — E. W. Andrews. TASTE When he heard that a general who was supporting McClellan had been relieved of his command, the President countermanded the order, saying: "Supporting General McClellan for the Presi- dency is no violation of army regulations, and as a question of taste in choosing between him and me— well, I'm the longest, but he's better-looking." —Elmer F. Murch. ON THE PRESIDENCY "My opinion as to who will be the next President," said Mr. Lin- coln "is very much the opinion that Pat had about the handsome funeral. You see, Pat was standing opposite the State House in Springfield, with a short black pipe in his mouth and his hands deeply buried in his empty breeches pockets. " 'Pat, whose funeral is that passing? ' inquired old Jake Miller, who seemed impressed with a belief that an Irishman must know everything. " 'Plaize your honor,' replied Pat, removing his pipe for a mo- ment, 'it isn't myself can say for sartin, but to the best o' my belief the funeral belongs to the gintleman or lady that's in the coffin.' "Now, it's very much the same," continued Mr. Lincoln, "about the Presidency. I can't say for certain who will be the people's choice; but to the best of my belief it will be the successful candi- date." —New York Herald, Feb. 21, 1863. FREE GOVERNMENT In November 1864, some District of Columbia Lincoln and Johnson clubs gave him a serenade, and in response the President 304 LINCOLN TALKS made them a little speech as usual, and I have often thought that this little speech, made on the spur of the moment, deserves to go down in history alongside his immortal speech at Gettysburg: "It has been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to main- tain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our Government to a severe test, and a Presi- dential election occurring in a regular course during the rebellion added not a little to the strain. If the loyal people, united, were put to the utmost of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fall when divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the election was a necessity. We cannot have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. The strife of the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts of the case. What has occurred in this case must ever re-occur in similar cases." — Nicolay and Hay. PRAYERS Just after the last Presidential election he said: "Being only mor- tal, after all, I should have been a little mortified if I had been beaten in this canvass; but that sting would have been more than com- pensated by the thought that the people had notified me that all my official responsibilities were soon to be lifted off my back." In reply to the remark that he might remember that in all these cares he was daily remembered by those who prayed, not to be heard of men, as no man had ever before been remembered, he caught at the homely phrase, and said: "Yes, I like that phrase, 'not to be heard of men,' and guess it is generally true, as you say; at least, I have been told so, and I have been a good deal helped by just that thought." Then he solemnly and slowly added: "I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this footstool, if for one day I thought that I could discharge the duties which have PARTY LEADER 305 come upon me since I came into this place, without the aid and en- lightenment of One who is stronger and wiser than all others." —Noah Brooks. IMPROMPTU Coming into the drawing-room that night, after a little company of friends of the family had dined together, he laid a roll of manu- script on a table, and, noticing a look of surprise on the countenance of one of these, he said: "I know what you are thinking about. You think it mighty queer that an old stump-speaker like myself should not be able to address a crowd like this outside without a written speech. But you must remember I am, in a certain way, talking to the country, and I have to be mighty careful. Now, the last time I made an off-hand speech, in answer to a serenade, I used the phrase, as applied to the rebels, 'turned tail and ran.' Some very nice Boston folks, I am grieved to hear, were very much outraged by that phrase, which they thought improper. So I resolved to make no more impromptu speeches if I could help it." —Noah Brooks. POLICY One day, at the height of that terrible crisis of secession, when the existence of the American republic was most in peril, I asked Mr. Lincoln what was his policy. "I have none," he replied. "I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up." —Prince de Joinville. AMERICA "I almost always feel inclined, when I say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them, in a few brief remarks, the importance of success in this contest. It is not merely for the day, but for all time to come, that we should perpetuate for our children's children that 306 LINCOLN TALKS great and free government which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen, temporarily, to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each one of you may have, through this free Government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise, and intelli- gence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations— it is for this that the strug- gle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthrights, not only for one, but for two or three years, if necessary. The nation is worth fighting for to secure such an inestimable jewel." —Lincoln to an Ohio regiment, Sept. 1864; in Nicolay and Hay. HOMAGE TO WASHINGTON "Washington is the mightiest name on earth— long since the mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral ref- ormation. "On that name a eulogy is expected. It cannot be. "To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washing- ton is alike impossible. "Let none attempt it. "In solemn awe pronounce the name, and, in its naked, deathless splendor, leave it shining on." —Nicolay and Hay. ATTORNEY In private conversation Lincoln manifested a singular reluctance to speak of himself as President, or to mention the office with any sort of personal reference to himself. He always used the phrase, "Since I came into this place," instead of saying, "Since I became President." The war he usually spoke of as "this great trouble," and he almost never alluded to the enemy as "Confederates," or "the PARTY LEADER 307 Confederate Government," but he used the word "rebel" in his talk and in his letters. He also had an unconquerable reluctance to appear to lead pub- lic opinion and often spoke of himself as "the attorney for the peo- ple." Once, however, when a Senator was urging on him a certain course which the President was not disposed to pursue, the Senator said: "You say you are the people's attorney. Now, you will admit that this course would be most popular." "But I am not going to let my client manage the case against my judgment," Lincoln replied quickly. "As long as I am attorney for the people I shall manage the case to the best of my ability. They will have a chance to put me out, by and by, if my management is not satisfactory." —Noah Brooks. CLOSE CONSTRUCTION Mr. Lincoln said: "The strongest example of 'rigid government' and 'close construction' I ever knew, was that of Judge . It was once said of him that he would hang a man for blowing his nose in the street, but that he would quash the indictment if it failed to specify which hand he blew it with." —J. H. Barrett. PRESCIENCE I called at the White House in the afternoon [of the day Lincoln was assassinated] with Schuyler Colfax, not only to say good-by, but to protest to the President against a certain act of General Weitzel, military governor of Richmond, of which we disap- proved. When the President saw us coming, he came to meet us and be- fore we could say a word he called out: "Good morning, gentle- men, I just took care of that Weitzel matter," his almost uncanny prescience taking us quite off our feet. —Sen. Cornelius Cole 308 LINCOLN TALKS STATE BANKS Mr. P — , of Chelsea, Massachusetts, a member of the delega- tion of bankers, referred to the severity of the tax laid by Congress upon the State banks. "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "that reminds me of a circumstance that took place in a neighborhood where I lived when I was a boy. In the spring of the year the farmers were very fond of the dish which they called greens, though the fashionable name for it nowadays is spinach, I believe. One day after dinner, a large family were taken very ill. The doctor was called in, who at- tributed it to the greens, of which all had freely partaken. Living in the family was a half-witted boy named Jake. On a subsequent occasion, when greens had been gathered for dinner, the head of the house said: 'Now, boys, before running any further risk in this thing, we will first try them on Jake. If he stands it, we are all right.' And just so, I suppose," said Mr. Lincoln, "Congress thought of the State banks!" — L. E. Chittenden. SCRIPTURE The Secretary of the Treasury in Lincoln's second term, Hugh McCulloch, one day, with some awe, presented to the President a delegation of New York bankers with the preliminary statement: "These gentlemen have come to see you about the new loan. As bankers they are obliged to hold our national securities. I can vouch for their patriotism and loyalty; for as the good book says: 'Where the treasure is, there will be the heart also.' " To which Lincoln quickly answered: "There is another text, Mr. McCulloch, I remember, that might equally apply: 'Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.' ' : -Hugh McCulloch. CURE A party of New York financial men had gone down to visit Lin- coln in the darkest d^ys of the war. The money situation was about PARTY LEADER 309 as bad as it could be. Gold was so reduced in volume that it com- manded a big premium. These bankers proposed that the country should turn over to the people the Treasury's gold reserve and thereby lighten the strain. Nobody knew so well as Lincoln how little gold the Treasury held. And the department had issued quan- tities of paper money. But he did not undertake to argue the point. His visitors were armed with weighty reasons. In all probability they could out-talk him. So he told them this story: "Gentlemen, when I was practicing law out in Illinois, the farm- ers were troubled by a disease among the hogs that threatened to carry away most of them. Someone suggested that the way to cure the hogs and end the epidemic would be to cut off their tails. So they cut them off and the hogs were cured, but next year the hogs died because they had no tails. Now, I hope it would not be that way with our gold reserve." — Depew. OXEN A tax had been levied on oxen. An owner of a pair came to Lin- coln to see if he would not help him to get rid of the tax. Lincoln knew the man, and remembered the oxen, and said: "Are those the oxen I see standing at the corner whenever I go to the Treasury? I never saw them move. Maybe they're not movable property. Per- haps we may get them put down as real estate." —Noah Brooks. DROUGHT An old acquaintance of Lincoln's called upon him with the view of getting hold of a contract. Lincoln told him that contracts were not what they were in Cameron's time. "In fact," said he, "they remind me now of a piece of meadow land on the Sangamon bottoms during a drought." "How was that?" said the Sucker. "Why," said Abe, "the grass was so short that they had to lather before they could mow it." — Lincolniana. 3io LINCOLN TALKS HIGH OFFICE Being ushered into the President's chamber by Major Hay the first thing he saw was Mr. Lincoln bowing an elderly lady out of the door— the President's remarks to her being, as she still lingered and appeared reluctant to go: "I am really very sorry, madam; very sorry. But your own good sense must tell you that I am not here to collect small debts. You must appeal to the courts in regular order." When she was gone, Mr. Lincoln sat down, crossed his legs, locked his hands over his knees, and commenced to laugh— this be- ing his favorite attitude when much amused. "What odd kinds of people come to see me," he said; "and what odd ideas they must have about my office! Would you believe it, Major, that old lady who has just left came in here to get from me an order for stopping the pay of a Treasury clerk, who owes her a board bill of about seventy dollars?" And the President rocked himself backward and forward, and appeared intensely amused. "She may have come in here a loyal woman," continued Mr. Lincoln; "but I'll be bound she has gone away believing that the worst pictures of me in the Richmond press only lack truth in not being half black and bad enough." -Hay. PIGEON-HEARTED A couple of well-known New York gentlemen called upon the President one day to solicit a pardon for a man who, while acting as mate of a sailing vessel, had struck one of his men a blow which resulted in his death. Convicted and sentenced for manslaughter, a powerful appeal was made in his behalf, as he had previously borne an excellent character. Giving the facts a hearing, Mr. Lincoln re- sponded: "Well, gentlemen, leave your papers, and I will have the PARTY LEADER 311 Attorney-General, Judge Bates, look them over, and we will see what can be done. Being both of us 'pigeon-hearted' fellows, the chances are that, if there is any ground whatever for interference, the scoundrel will get ofT!" — Lincolniana. ON THE COURTS Alexander H. Rice once paid a visit to President Lincoln on be- half of a Boston boy who had been imprisoned for stealing his em- ployer's letters. After reading the petition, signed by many citizens of Boston, the President stretched himself in his chair, and asked Mr. Rice if he had met a man going downstairs. "Yes, Mr. President," replied Mr. Rice. "His errand," said the President, "was to get a man pardoned out of the penitentiary; and now you have come to get a boy out of jail." Then Mr. Lincoln continued: "I'll tell you what it is, we must abolish these courts, or they will be the death of us. I thought it bad enough that they put so many men in the penitentiary for me to get out; but if they have now begun on the boys and the jails, and have roped you into the delivery, let's after them! "They deserve the worst fate," he went on, "because, according to the evidence that comes to me, they pick out the very best men and send them to the penitentiary; and this present petition shows they are playing the same game on the boys and sending them all to jail. "The man that you met on the stairs affirmed that his friend in the penitentiary is a most exemplary citizen, and Massachusetts must be a happy State if her boys out of jail are as virtuous as this one appears to be who is in. "Yes, down with the courts and deliverance to their victims, and then we can have some peace!" —Alexander H. Rice. 312 LINCOLN TALKS ASSETS "Your claim," Lincoln replied, "reminds me of Jim Price's rat- hole. You never knew Jim, did you? Well, he had all his life been roaming about from one place to another and had tried every way imaginable to make a living, but without success. At the time I speak of he was trying to practice law in a little town near Spring- field; but soon tiring of this he thought to enter the dry goods business, and accordingly wrote on to an Eastern house to know if it would furnish him with a stock of goods on credit, at the same time forwarding references as to his integrity. The Eastern firm ad- dressed an inquiry to one of these references, desiring to know if it could safely trust Jim with a certain amount of goods, and the reply was something like this: 'Jim Price's assets I would fix at $50,000, consisting of the following items: One wife, valued at $25,000, at least if I had such a wife I wouldn't take less than that for her; two children, valued at $24,998, at least if I had two such children I wouldn't take less than that for them; one office table, valued at $1.85; one inkstand, valued conservatively at ten cents; one penholder, valued at five cents; and a rat-hole in the corner of his office that is worth looking into!' " — Carleton B. Case, in Springfield Republican. TARIFF Lincoln, asked for an opinion on the tariff, replied with a story: "When I was a clerk in a grocery store in New Salem, down in Menard County, a man came in and said to the storekeeper: 'I want a nickel's worth of ginger snaps.' When they were laid out on the counter, the customer changed his mind and said: Til have a glass of cider instead.' He drank the cider and turned toward the door. 'Here, Bill,' said the storekeeper, 'ain't you goin' to pay for that cider?' The reply came back: 'Didn't I give you the ginger PARTY LEADER 313 snaps for it?' 'Well, then, pay me for the ginger snaps.' 'But I never ate your ginger snaps,' was the quick answer. The storekeeper grudgingly admitted that he had told the truth, but added he had lost something somehow, in the deal. "So it is," said Mr. Lincoln, "with the tariff. Somebody loses; but I don't know as yet who it is." —Wilbur F. Wakeman. COUNTERFEITING Just after the greenback currency got under full headway of circulation, I was in his office when the conversation turned on the condition of our finances, and on the greenback as a representative of money. He was in high spirits that day, and I casually asked him if he knew how our currency was made. "Yes," said he; "I think it is about— as the lawyers would say— in the following manner, to wit: the engraver strikes off the sheets, passes them over to the Register of the Currency, who places his earmarks upon them, signs them, hands them over to Father Spin- ner, who then places his wonderful signature at the bottom, and turns them over to Mr. Chase, who, as Secretary of the United States Treasury, issues them to the public as money— and may the good Lord help any fellow that doesn't take all he can honestly get of them!" Taking from his pocket a five-dollar greenback, he said: "Look at Spinner's signature! Was there ever anything like it on earth? Yet it is unmistakable; no one will ever be able to counter- feit it!" "But," I said, "you certainly don't suppose that Spinner actually wrote his name on that bill, do you?" "Certainly I do; why not?" I then asked: "How much of this currency have we afloat?" He remained thoughtful for a moment, and then stated the amount. I continued: "How many times do you think a man can write a signature like Spinner's in the course of twenty-four hours?" 314 LINCOLN TALKS The beam of hilarity left his countenance at once. He put the greenback into his vest pocket, and walked the floor; after a while he stopped, heaved a long breath, and said: "This thing frightens me!" He then rang for a messenger, and told him to ask the Secre- tary of the Treasury to please come over to see him. Mr. Chase soon put in an appearance. Mr. Lincoln stated the cause of his alarm, and asked Mr. Chase to explain in detail the modus operandi, the system of checks in his office, etc., and a lengthy discussion fol- lowed—Lincoln contending that there were not sufficient checks to afford any degree of safety in the money-making department, and Mr. Chase insisting that all the guards for protection were af- forded that he could devise. "In the nature of things," he said, "somebody must be trusted in this emergency. You have entrusted me, and Mr. Spinner is en- trusted with untold millions, and we have to trust our sub- ordinates." Words waxed warmer than I had ever known them to do be- tween these distinguished gentlemen, when A4r. Lincoln feelingly apologized by saying: "Don't think that I am doubting or could doubt your integrity, or that of Mr. Spinner; nor am I finding fault with either of you; but it strikes me that this thing is all wrong, and dangerous. I and the country know you and Mr. Spinner, but we don't know your subordinates, who are great factors in making this money, and have the power to bankrupt the Government in an hour. Yet there seems to be no protection against a duplicate issue of every bill struck, and I can see no way of detecting duplicity un- til we come to redeem the currency; and even then, the duplicate cannot be told from the original." The result of this conversation was that Lincoln became so im- pressed with danger from this source that he called the attention of Congress to the matter, and a joint committee was appointed; but the result of the investigation, like many others during the war, was never made public, to my knowledge. —Chase. PARTY LEADER 315 WILDCAT CURRENCY From that we passed on to wildcat currency. Mr. Lincoln's story- was that he was going down the Mississippi River on a steamboat, when the pilot announced to the captain that they were out of wood. The captain said: "Well, put into the first woodpile." The flat-bottomed boat was run up to the mud shore, and the captain hailed a man who was working among several piles of wood. "Will you sell your wood?" he shouted. "Yes," came the reply. "For cash?" "Yes." "Take wildcat currency?" "Certainly." "Well, how will you take it?" The answer came back without hesitation: "Cord for cord." —David Homer Bates. PROUD In submitting to the President some rules for his approval under which the fund should be paid to the marshals, I spoke of the fact that they no longer sought the aid of the district attorneys but were all anxious to get control of the money. "Yes," he said, "they will now all be after the money and be con- tent with nothing else. They are like a man in Illinois whose cabin was burned down, and according to the kindly custom of early days in the West, his neighbors all contributed something to start him again. In his case they had been so liberal that he soon found himself better off than before the fire, and he got proud. One day, a neighbor brought him a bag of oats, but the fellow refused it with scorn. 'No,' said he, Tm not taking oats now. I take nothing but money.' " —Titian J. Coffey, in the New York Daily Tribune. POCKET VETO As soon as the West Virginia State Bill passed Congress, Mr. Carlile went at once to the President. "Now, Mr. Lincoln," said he, "you must veto that bill." 316 LINCOLN TALKS "Well," said the honest President, "I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll split the difference and say nothing about it." —Sen. James S. Carlile. COMMON PEOPLE A Congressman from a Western district approached him dur- ing his term as President and apologized for presenting a petition from his constituents, because they were very common people. "Well," said Mr. Lincoln pleasantly, "God must love the com- mon people, He's made so many of them." —New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 20, 1903. MEN "It matters not what becomes of me, we must have the men! If I go down, I intend to go like the Cumberland, with my colors flying!" —Lincoln to Commissioner Dole. GETTYSBURG When Lincoln was on his way to the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, an old gentleman told him that his only son fell on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and he was going to look at the spot. Mr. Lincoln replied: "You have been called on to make a ter- rible sacrifice for the Union, and a visit to that spot, I fear, will open your wounds afresh. "But, oh, my dear sir, if we had reached the end of such sacri- fices, and had nothing left for us to do but to place garlands on the graves of those who have already fallen, we could give thanks even amidst our tears; but when I think of the sacrifices of life yet to be offered, and the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate, before this dreadful war is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I feel at times like hiding in deep darkness." — E. W. Andrews. PARTY LEADER 317 GETTYSBURG ADDRESS After he had delivered his Gettysburg Address, which has been compared to the Sermon on the Mount, he turned and said: "Lamon, that speech won't scour." — Lamon. NOTHING ILLEGAL A gentleman was relating to the President how a friend of his had been driven away from New Orleans as a Unionist, and how, on his expulsion, when he asked to see the writ by which he was expelled, the deputation which called on him told him that the Government had made up their minds to do nothing illegal, and so they had issued no illegal writs, and simply meant to make him go of his own free will. "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "that reminds me of a hotel-keeper down at St. Louis, who boasted that he never had a death in his hotel, for whenever a guest was dying in his house he carried him out to die in the gutter." —Carpenter. FIRE CHIEF In the fall of 1861 fires in Washington, D.C., were of frequent occurrence, without any organized adequate means for extinguish- ing them being in existence there. This condition of affairs was a source of so much anxiety to the country at large that no sooner was a Washington fire announced in the newspapers than the mails would teem with patriotic offers to the President from all sections for the formation of fire brigades as a component part of the army for the protection of the capital. This was one of the great annoy- ances of irrelevant subjects thrust upon the President. One night the Washington infirmary burned down, and, as was customary after such disasters, the next day brought the President the usual complement of offers of fire engines and firemen. Phila- 318 LINCOLN TALKS delphia's patriotism, true to its traditions, could not await the slow progress of the mail, but sent forward a committee of citizens to urge upon the President the acceptance of a fully equipped fire brigade for Washington. Eloquently did they urge their mission, but valuable time was being wasted, and Mr. Lincoln was forced to bring the conference to a close, which he did by interrupting the committee in the midst of a grand and to-be-clinching oratorical effort by gravely saying, as if he had just awakened to the true import of the visit: "Ah, yes, gentlemen, but it is a mistake to suppose that I am at the head of the fire department of the city of Washington! I am simply President of the United States!" —William Bender Wilson. RAILROAD PRESIDENT "The draft has fallen with great severity upon the employees of our company," said the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road. "Indeed!" responded the President of the United States. "If something is not done to relieve us, it is hard to foresee the consequences." "Let them pay the commutation." "Impossible! The men can't stand such a tax." "They have a rich company at their back, and that's more than other people have." "They ought to be exempted, because they are necessary to the working of the road for the Government." "That can't be." "Then I will stop the road." "If you do, I will take it up and carry it on." -J. W. Garrett. BILL SIKES'S DOG I laid a plan before Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Fessenden to save the cotton of Montgomery. They both favored my plan and at once PARTY LEADER 319 gave me every facility to prosecute it successfully. My idea ap- pealed especially to Mr. Lincoln, who had always been in favor of drawing all the cotton out of the Confederacy. Said Mr. Lincoln: "The Confederacy is like Bill Sikes's dog. Old Bill Sikes had a yellow dog, a worthless cur. His strong hold was to run out and bark at passers-by and scare horses and children. The boys in the neighborhood decided to have some fun with the no-account ca- nine brute. They procured a small stick of giant powder, inserted a cap and fuse into it, wrapped a piece of meat around it, lit the fuse, laid out the little joker on the sidewalk, whistled, and climbed the fence to see the fun. Out comes the dog with his usual Vow, wow.' He scented the meat and bolted the bundle. In a few seconds there was a terrible explosion. Dog meat was flying in all direc- tions. "Out came Sikes from the house, bareheaded. 'What in hell's up?' yelled Old Bill. 'Why, the dog's up,' cried the boys on the fence. While Old Bill was gazing around in wonderment, some- thing dropped at his feet. He picked it up and found that it was his dog's tail. While looking sorrowfully at the appendage of his departed friend, he exclaimed: 'Well, I'll be damned if I think Tige'll amount to much after this as a dog.' And so it would be with the Confederacy. Take all the cotton away from them and it wouldn't amount to shucks. It would fry all the fat out of them." —Horace Porter. INTERRUPTION "Mr. President," said the Senator, "this gentleman was present at the capture of Port Royal, and he tells me that he has seen cotton growing there within the lines of the army." "John," called out Mr. Lincoln, "John, go into Mrs. Lincoln's room and borrow a copy of Vanity Fair." While John was gone, Mr. Lincoln monopolized the conversa- tion, telling us of the joke he was about to read us. John came and the story was read, and after we had all duly laughed, "Mr. Presi- 320 LINCOLN TALKS dent," began the Senator again, "this gentleman tells me that he has seen cotton growing within the lines of one army at Hilton Head — " "That reminds me," interrupted Mr. Lincoln, "of the attempt I made to grow cotton in Illinois." We listened, not the Senator. His impatience to bring the President to the point of hearing the story of cotton growing within reach at Port Royal was evident. But he did not succeed in fixing the Presidential attention upon that cot- ton in South Carolina. The Senator was expelled from Congress for speculating upon his official position. Though no such revelation was expected at the time, it was evident that the keen-sighted President had taken the measure of the man. The true secret of Mr. Lincoln's storytelling reputation was revealed in that interview. —Knapsack, 1878. COST Lincoln, once reminded of the enormous cost of war, remarked: "Ah, yes! That reminds me of a wooden-legged amateur who hap- pened to be with a Virginia skirmishing party when a shell burst near him, smashing his artificial limb to bits, and sending a piece of iron through the calf of a soldier near him. The soldier 'grinned and bore it' like a man, while the amateur was loud and emphatic in his lamentation. Being rebuked by the wounded soldier, he re- plied: 'Oh, yes; it's all well enough for you to bear it. Your leg didn't cost you anything and will heal up; but I paid two hundred dollars for mine!' " -Honest Old Abe's Jokes. ARITHMETIC Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, called at the White House to present four gentlemen from England. It was early in the forenoon, and the President had not laid aside his dressing- gown. He rose and greeted them without embarrassment, making- no apology for not having completed his toilet. PARTY LEADER 321 "You have been fighting great battles," said Mr. Goldwin Smith, one of the visitors. "Yes." "Will not your great losses impair the industrial resources of the North and the revenues of the country?" "That brings to mind 'darky arithmetic,' " said Mr. Lincoln. "Darky arithmetic! I did not know, Mr. President, that you have two systems of arithmetic." "Oh, yes; and I'll illustrate that point by a little story. Two young contrabands, as we now call them, were seated together. 'Jim,' said one, 'do you know 'rithmetic?' " 'No. What is 'rithmetic? , " 'It's where you adds up things. When you has one and one and puts dem togeder, dey makes two. When you substracts things, if you has three things and you takes one away, only two remains.' " 'Is dat 'rithmetic?' " 'Yes.' " 'Well, 'tain't true; it's no good. Now s'pose three pigeons sits on dat fence, and somebody shoots one of dem, do tother two stay dar? Dey flies away 'fore tother feller falls.' "Now, gentlemen, the story illustrates the arithmetic you must use in estimating the actual losses resulting from one of our great battles. The statements you refer to give the killed, wounded, and missing at the first roll-call, which always gives an exaggerated total." —William D. Kelley, in the New York Daily Tribune. Washington's order President Lincoln drove in an army wagon to the very spot where Davis stood, and after looking for a moment at the statue of Washington with its right arm pointing to the West and eyes fixed upon every beholder, Lincoln quietly dropped the remark: "Washington is looking at me and pointing to Jeff Davis." — Lieut.-Col. George A. Bruce. 322 LINCOLN TALKS DEMOCRACY Hay referred to Browning's suggestion that the North should subjugate the South, exterminate the whites, set up a black repub- lic, and protect the Negroes "while they raised our cotton." "Some of our Northerners seem bewildered and dazzled by the excitement of the war," Lincoln replied. "Doolittle seems inclined to think that this war is to result in the entire abolition of slavery. Old Colonel Hamilton, a venerable and most respectable gentle- man, impresses upon me most earnestly the propriety of enlisting the slaves in our army." (I told him his daily correspondence was thickly interspersed by such suggestions.) "For my own part," he said, "I consider the central idea pervading this struggle is the ne- cessity that is upon us of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle this question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the Govern- ment whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves. There may be one consideration used in stay of such final judgment, but that is not for us to use in advance; that is, that there exists in our case an instance of a vast and far-reaching disturbing element, which the history of no other free nation will probably ever present. That, however, is not for us to say at present. Taking the Government as we found it, we will see if the majority can preserve it." This statement, spoken offhand to his secretary, reveals the foun- dation of Lincoln's judgment on the War of the Rebellion: there was at stake something more precious than the preservation of the Union, something more urgent than the abolition of slavery— and that was Democracy. -Hay. CONFISCATION The President has been importuned by men prominent in public life and who held high official station, to confiscate Southern prop- PARTY LEADER 323 erty located in the North. They desire him to interfere in the trans- fer of real estate, and base their proposition upon the ground that Southern men decline to pay debts due the North, and do not hesi- tate to seize property wherever they can find it. To one of these delegations— and there have been several— Mr. Lincoln calmly listened, and then said: "No, gentlemen, never." "But they do it," replied the spokesman. "They," rejoined the President, "can afford to do a wrong— I cannot." —Daily Cow ant, May 18, 1861. BY THE TAIL "Some of the supporters of the Union cause," said the Presi- dent, "are opposed to accommodate or yield to the South in any manner or way because the Confederates began the war, were de- termined to take their States out of the Union, and, consequently, should be held responsible to the last stage for whatever may come in the future. Now this reminds me of a story I heard once, when I lived in Illinois. "A vicious bull in a pasture took after everybody who tried to cross the lot, and one day a neighbor of the owner was the victim. This man was a speedy fellow and got to a friendly tree ahead of the bull, but not in time to climb the tree. So he led the enraged animal a merry race around the tree, finally succeeding in seizing the bull by the tail. "The bull, being at a disadvantage, not able either to catch the man or to release his tail, was mad enough to eat nails; he dug up the earth with his feet, scattered gravel all around, bellowed until you could hear him for two miles or more, and at length broke into a dead run, the man hanging onto his tail all the time. "While the bull, much out of temper, was legging it to the best of his ability, his tormentor, still clinging to the tail, asked: 'Darn you, who commenced this fuss?' 324 LINCOLN TALKS "It's our duty to settle this fuss at the earliest possible moment, no matter who commenced it. That's my idea of it." — Carleton B. Case, in Wit and Humor of Abraham Lincoln. HANGMAN A distinguished gentleman, an earnest advocate for punishment of the rebels, once asked him what he intended to do when the moment arrived for him to act. "Do?" said he. "Why, reconstruct the machinery of this government! This is all that I see I can prop- erly do." The gentleman, with much asperity, exclaimed: "Mr. President, it does appear to some of your friends, myself included, as if you had taken final leave of your senses! As if it were intended that treason should henceforth not be regarded as odious, and the offenders, cutthroats, and authors of this war should not only go unpunished, but receive encouragement to repeat their outrages on the Government with impunity! They should be hanged higher than Haman, sir!" Mr. Lincoln here asked: "Mr. , suppose, when the moment has arrived, the hanging policy you recommend be adopted— will you agree to be chief executioner? If so, let me know, and I will at once appoint you a brigadier-general and prospective public hang- man of the United States." —Sen. John W. Daniel. THE FUTURE A few days after April 9, the day of Appomattox, he caught me by both hands, a way he had when emotionally excited, and said: "Young man, if God gives me four years more to rule this country, I believe it will become what it ought to be; what its Divine Author intended it to be; no longer one vast plantation for breeding human beings for the purposes of lust and bondage, but it will become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat, where all the nations of the earth will assemble together under one flag, worshiping a common God, and they will celebrate the resurrection of human freedom." —James M. Scovel. PARTY LEADER 325 RECONSTRUCTION In his last public address, on the evening of April 1 1, 1865, which he delivered from the porch of the White House, he made this re- mark concerning the progress of reconstruction measures in Lou- isiana: "Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it." — Nicolay and Hay. AFTER THE CLOUD On the day of the assassination, General Creswell came to Wash- ington to see the President in the interest of an old friend who had been located in the South, and had got into the rebel army, and had been captured by our troops and imprisoned. He drew an affi- davit setting forth what he knew about the man, particularly men- tioning extenuating circumstances which seemed to entitle him to the generosity or leniency of the Government. General Creswell found the President very happy. The Confederacy had collapsed. The scene at Appomattox had just been enacted. He was greeted with: "Creswell, old fellow, everything is bright this morning. The war is over. It has been a tough time, but we have lived it out— or some of us have," and he dropped his voice a little on the last clause of the sentence. "But it is over; we are going to have good times now, and a united country." —John A. J. Creswell. RIVER CROSSING One of Mr. Lincoln's Springfield neighbors, a clergyman, visit- ing Washington early in the Administration, asked the President what was to be his policy on the slavery question. "Well," said he, "I will answer by telling you a story. You know Father B., the old Methodist preacher, and you know Fox River 326 LINCOLN TALKS and its freshets. Well, once in the presence of Father B., a young Methodist was worrying about Fox River and expressing fears that he would be prevented from fulfilling some of his appointments by a freshet in the river. Father B. checked him in the gravest manner. Said he: 'Young man, I have always made it a rule in my life not to cross Fox River until I get to it.' And," added Mr. Lincoln, "I am not going to worry myself about the slavery question till I get to it." -Ida M. Tarbell. ALTRUISM When Lincoln was taken to task for his seeming indifference to General Phelps's proclamation freeing the slaves, he said: "Well, I feel about that a good deal like a man who had the reputation of being badly henpecked. At last one day his wife was seen switching him out of the house. A friend said: 'Jones, I always stood up for you, but I won't do it any longer.' 'Now, don't,' said Jones; 'it didn't hurt me any and you've no idea what a power of good it did Sarah Ann/ " -Gen. John W. Phelps. PROFANITY The Confiscation Bill [confiscating the slaves used to aid the re- bellion] was carried to the President by Senator Bingham of Mich- igan, of the Committee on Enrolled Bills. It was in the last half- hour of the session, and the adjournment could not be delayed. The President looked it over carefully and laid it down. "You won't sign this bill, Mr. President?" said Bingham inquiringly. "No; I am not going to sign it." "Well, then, will you at least veto it, and send it back so we can pass it if we choose?" "No, I shan't do that." "What are your objections, Mr. President?" "It will lose us Ken- tucky." "Damn Kentucky!" exclaimed Bingham. The President looked up good-humoredly and retorted: "Then damn you!" Well, Bingham rallied the Senators [Wade, Wilson, and Sum- PARTY LEADER 327 ner], and perhaps others, and they persuaded the President to sign the bill. I believe Mr. Seward assisted in the good work. —Sen. Kinsley S. Bingham. PRESSURE After some moments Mr. Lincoln, apparently much depressed, said in substance: "They are making every effort, Henderson, to induce me to issue a proclamation of emancipation. Sumner and Wilson and Stevens are constantly urging me, but I don't think it best now; do you think so, Henderson?" To which Henderson promptly replied that he did not think so; that in existing conditions such a measure would in his judgment be ill-advised and possibly disastrous. "Just what I think," said the President. "But they are constantly coming and urging me, sometimes alone, sometimes in couples, and sometimes all three together, but constantly pressing me." With that he walked across the room to a window and looked out on the avenue. Sure enough, Wilson, Stevens, and Sumner were to be seen approaching the Executive Mansion. Calling his visitor to the window and pointing to the approaching figures, he said in a tone expressing something of that wondrous sense of humor which no burden of disaster could wholly dispel: "Hender- son, did you attend an old field school?" Henderson replied that he had. "So did I," said the President; "what little education I ever got in early life was in that way. I attended an old field school in In- diana, where our only reading book was the Bible. One day we were standing up reading the account of the three Hebrew chil- dren in the fiery furnace. A little tow-headed fellow who stood beside me had the verse with the unpronounceable names; he mangled up Shadrach and Meshach woefully and finally went all to pieces on Abednego. Smarting under the blows that in accord- ance with the old-time custom promptly followed his delinquency, the little fellow sobbed aloud. The reading, however, went round, 328 LINCOLN TALKS each boy in the class reading his verse in turn. The sobbing at length ceased, and the tow-headed boy gazed intently upon the verse ahead. Suddenly he gave a pitiful yell, at which the school- master demanded: 'What is the matter with you now?' " 'Look there,' said the boy, pointing to the next verse; 'there comes them same darn three fellers again!' " —Titian J. Coffey, in the New York Daily Tribune. WORDS Once when a deputation visited Abraham Lincoln and urged emancipation before he was ready, he argued that he could not enforce it, and, to illustrate, asked them: "How many legs will a sheep have if you call the tail a leg?" "Five," they answered. "You are mistaken," said Lincoln, "for calling a tail a leg doesn't make it so." —George R. Lamb. VIA CHICAGO After listening to the appeal of the Chicago ministers who called on him, in September 1862, to demand of him a proclamation of emancipation, he replied pointedly: "Now, gentlemen, if I cannot enforce the Constitution down South, how am I to enforce a mere Presidential proclamation? Won't the world sneer at it as being as powerless as the Pope's bull against the comet?" They went away sorrowing, in the erroneous belief that he had decided the case adversely. One of these ministers felt it his duty to make a more searching appeal to the President's conscience. Just as they were retiring, he turned and said to Mr. Lincoln: "What you have said to us, Mr. President, compels me to say to you in reply that it is a message to you from our Divine Master, through me, commanding you, sir, to open the doors of bondage that the slave may go free!" Mr. Lincoln replied instantly: "That may be, sir, for I have PARTY LEADER 329 studied this question, by night and by day, for weeks and for months, but if it is, as you say, a message from your Divine Master, is it not odd that the only channel he could send it by was the roundabout route by way of that awful, wicked city of Chicago?" —Schuyler Colfax. THE VOICE OF GOD An anti-slavery delegation from New York were pressing the adoption of the Emancipation policy. During the interview the chairman, the Reverend Dr. C , made a characteristic and pow- erful appeal, largely made up of quotations from the Old Testa- ment. Mr. Lincoln received the bombardment in silence. As the speaker concluded, he continued for a moment in thought, and then, drawing a long breath, responded: "Well, gentlemen, it is not often one is favored with a delegation direct from the Al- mighty!" —Carpenter. DOCTORS DISAGREE Several of our ministers called on President Lincoln on an im- portant errand. Mr. Lincoln received them with great courtesy, and gave them a good audience. When the brethren rose to leave the room, one of them, probably Dr. L. Davis, said: "Mr. Lincoln, you have been very kind and painstaking to answer our questions. We have yet one which our people are deeply interested in, and which we wish to put before you for an answer. What do you here at Washington intend to do with slavery?" Mr. Lincoln was ready for the emergency. Rising to his feet and straightening up his bony form, he said: "Gentlemen, I will tell you how it is. The treatment proposed by the officials here for the slavery question is about like what would be proposed by a set of doctors for a man with a large ugly wen on his person. He consults a number of physicians about it, and they all agree that it must come off. About the method of removing it they do not agree. One 330 LINCOLN TALKS says the best way is to put the knife into it, and with the knife re- move it. One advises powerful external applications with a view to its removal. Another thinks the better way is to put a cord tightly around it and every day draw it tighter, until at last a severance will of itself occur. That, gentlemen, is just the way it is here with us. We are all agreed that slavery is a wen on the Government. We are all agreed that it must come off. We are not agreed about how to do it." —Dr. L. Davis, from the Religious Telescope. god's will A memorial was presented to the President from the children and young people of Concord, Massachusetts, petitioning for the freedom of all slave children. In reply, he wrote: "Tell those little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, and that while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has; and that it seems He wills to do it." —Carpenter. SLAVE-TRADER A slave-trader languished in a Massachusetts prison, in Newbury - port, serving out a five years' sentence, and still confined from in- ability to procure the thousand dollars to pay a superimposed fine. Mr. Alley, Congressman of Lynn, laid the unfortunate's petition before President Lincoln. It acknowledged the guilt and the jus- tice of his condemnation; he was penitent and deplored his state- all had fallen away from him after his conviction. The chief arbiter was touched; nevertheless, he felt constrained to say: "My friend, this is a very touching appeal to my feelings. You know that my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals to mercy, and if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such PARTY LEADER 33I an appeal. But the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer, that he can never receive pardon at my hands. No! He may rot in jail before he shall have liberty by any act of mine!" -John B. Alley. SHAVING A distinguished public officer, in an interview with the Presi- dent, introduced the question of emancipation. "Well, you see," said Mr. Lincoln, "we've got to be very cau- tious how we manage the Negro question. If we're not we shall be like the barber out in Illinois, who was shaving a fellow with a hatchet face and lantern jaws like mine. The barber stuck his fin- ger into his customer's mouth to make his cheek stick out, but while shaving away he cut through the fellow's cheek and cut off his own finger. If we are not very careful we shall do as the barber did." —John M. Palmer. beecher's PROMISE One day Beecher suddenly turned to Lincoln and said to him: "Do you promise that you will issue a proclamation of emanci- pation if ever the military necessity shall occur?" "Certainly," Lincoln replied, "with all my heart." One morning, at our home in Brooklyn [writes Mrs. Beecher], after he had read the reports of military affairs, Mr. Beecher was strongly agitated. "I think that I shall go to Washington," he said, and gave the usual instructions about the prayer meeting and the correspondence. I am told that he went to the Fulton Ferry and crossed and recrossed several times, as if undecided as to what course to pursue. At length he seemed to arrive at the conclusion that steam could not carry him to Washington fast enough for his 332 LINCOLN TALKS purpose. So he entered the nearest telegraph office and sent this message to the President: "Is there not a military necessity now? Will you keep your promise?" Then he returned home and busied himself with church affairs. As the hours passed he became more preoccupied and absorbed, speaking to no one, and answering no question until it had been twice or thrice repeated. When he sat down to dinner he pushed his plate away, untasted. The doorbell rang and a telegram was brought to him. As he opened the envelope his hand trembled visibly. The message consisted of only two words, but they meant the freedom of a race. They were: "Yes! Lincoln." He had given to Mr. Beecher, who had labored so long, so zeal- ously, and so eloquently for abolition, the honor of receiving the first intimation of that proclamation which has shed upon this country even a greater glory than the Declaration of Independence. —Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher. NEGRO DIALECTICS Upon one occasion when I happened at the White House, just previous to the promulgation of his Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Lincoln observed to a prominent pro-slavery man present that the subject had been under consideration for some time, and he was fully impressed with the conviction that it would prove the most prompt and efficacious method of terminating hostilities, be- sides being an act of justice to the Negroes. The other begged to differ with him as to the wisdom of the policy of immediate universal emancipation, remarking that, in his judgment, the decided preponderance of the animal over the intellectual faculties, as developed in the organization of the Afri- can cranium, rendered that race ethnologically so far beneath the white man in reasoning and other mental faculties that it would be unsafe to entrust the former with the unrestricted exercise of the PARTY LEADER 333 elective franchise, or with plenary participation in legislation or other important governmental functions. The President admitted that the blacks had as yet received but little political or parliamentary training, yet he had known in- stances going to show that they were by nature singularly astute and logical reasoners. "Indeed," added he, "when I was a small boy living in Kentucky, some of the more intelligent slaves in our neighborhood started a sort of dialectic association for debating questions of interest to them; and I once attended one of their periodic meetings, upon which occasion the following was enunciated as the subject for discussion: 'If a certain hen lays ten eggs, and a different hen sits upon and hatches out those eggs, which of the two fowls is entitled to the maternity of the chickens?' "The meeting was duly organized, and the subject most thor- oughly canvassed in all its imaginable phases and bearings, until the pros and cons had been well exhausted, and the presiding officer was about rendering his decision upon the merits of the argument, when an antiquated individual, who was seated upon a barrel in a remote corner of the apartment, suddenly rose to his feet, and, in a tremulous and cracked but ludicrously solemn intonation of voice, propounded the following startling interrogatory: 'But, Mis'er Pres'dent, s'posin' dem eggs what dat dar ole hen lay, an 7 de obdentical eggs what dat dar udder hen she hotch out, be duck eggs! Den dis nigger like for to know, ef de cha'r plaze, who am de mudder ob de chickens?' "This at first seemed a poser to the umpire, but after a moment's hesitation he replied: 'Dat wenerable pusson, my 'tickler frien' Mis'er Jeemes, will plaze fur to presume his bar'l, as de duck eggs am not in de queschum fur dis ebenin'.' He then concluded in the following words: 'De pedegee ob de fowl specie am ginrally mon- strous onsartin, an' de 'tickler birds what de s'iety been 'scussin' on dis kashun am periently more onsartiner nur de ginralty ob de hen genus. Mabby dis yere chicken got ten faders; den, ag'in, mabby 334 LINCOLN TALKS so he hain't got but one; but dat he hab two mudder am, in de 'pinion ob dis cha'r, sartin sure.' " ■Drawer. PROCLAMATION FORMULATED Monday, September 22, 1862. To Department about nine. State Department messenger came with notice to heads of Departments to meet at twelve. Received sundry callers. Went to the White House. All the members of the Cabinet were in attendance. There was some general talk, and the President mentioned that Artemus Ward had sent him his book. Proposed to read a chapter which he thought very funny. Read it and seemed to enjoy it very much; the heads also (except Stanton), of course. The chapter was "High-Handed Outrage at Utica." The President then took a graver tone and said: "Gentlemen, I have, as you are aware, thought a great deal about the relation of this war to slavery; and you all remember that several weeks ago I read to you an order I had prepared on this subject which, on account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since then my mind has been much occupied with this subject and I have thought, all along, that the time for acting on it might probably come. I think the time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in a better condition. The action of the army against the rebels has not been quite what I should have best liked. But they have been driven out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. When the rebel army was at Fred- erick I determined as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing to anyone, but I made the promise to myself and" (hesitating a little) "to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise. "I have got you together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have PARTY LEADER 335 determined for myself. This I say without intending anything but respect for any of you. But I already know the views of each on this question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written is that which my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in the expressions I use or in any minor matter which any one of you thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to receive the suggestions. One other observation I will make. I know very well that many others might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and if I was satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any one of them than by me, and knew of any Constitutional way in which he could be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield it to him. But, though I believe that I have not so much of the confidence of the people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things considered, any other person has more, and, however this may be, there is no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here; I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take." The President then proceeded to read his Emancipation Procla- mation, making remarks on the several parts as he went on, and showing that he had fully considered the whole subject in all the lights under which it had been presented to him. After he had closed Governor Seward said: "The general question having been decided, nothing can be said farther about that. Would it not, how- ever, make the proclamation more clear and decided to leave out all reference to the act being sustained during the incumbency of the present President; and not merely say that the Government 'recognizes,' but that it will maintain, the freedom it proclaims?" I followed, saying: "What you have said, Mr. President, fully satis- fies me that you have given to every proposition which has been made a kind and candid consideration. And you have now ex- pressed the conclusion to which you have arrived clearly, and dis- tinctly. This it was your right, and under your oath of office, your 336 LINCOLN TALKS duty to do. The proclamation does not, indeed, mark out exactly the course I would myself prefer. But I am ready to take it just as it is written, and to stand by it with all my heart. I think, however, the suggestions of Governor Seward very judicious, and shall be glad to have them adopted." The President then asked us severally our opinions as to the modification proposed, saying that he did not care much about the phrases he had used. Everyone favored the modification, and it was adopted. Governor Seward then proposed that in the passage relating to colonization, some language should be introduced to show that the colonization proposed was to be only with the consent of the colonists and the consent of the States in which colonies might be attempted. This, too, was agreed to. Mr. Blair then said that the question having been decided, he would make no objection to issuing the proclamation; but he would ask to have his paper, presented some days since, against the policy filed with the proclamation. The President consented to this read- ily; and then Mr. Blair went on to say that he was afraid of the influence of the proclamation on the Border States and on the army, and stated, at some length, the grounds of his apprehensions. He disclaimed most expressly, however, all objections to Emanci- pation per se, saying he had always been personally in favor of it, always ready for immediate Emancipation in the midst of slave States rather than submit to the perpetuation of the system. —Diary of Salmon P. Chase. PROMISE When the parts of the Proclamation containing the exception from its operation of States and parts of States were considered, Mr. Montgomery Blair spoke of the importance of the Proclama- tion as a state paper, and said that persons in after times in seeking correct information of the occurrences of those times, would read and wonder why the thirteen parishes and the city of New Orleans in Louisiana, and the counties in Virginia about Norfolk, were PARTY LEADER 337 excepted from the Proclamation, that they were in the "very heart and back of slavery," and unless there was some good reason which was then unknown to him he hoped they would not be excepted. Mr. Seward said: "I think so too, I think they should not be ex- cepted." Mr. Lincoln replied: "Well, upon first view, your objections are clearly good, but after I issued the Proclamation of September 22, Mr. Bouligny, of Louisiana, then here, came to see me. He was a great invalid and had scarcely the strength to walk upstairs. He wanted to know of me, if these parishes in Louisiana and New Orleans should hold an election, and elect members of Congress, whether I would not except them from this Proclamation. I told him I would." Continuing, he said: "No, I did not do that in so many words; if he was here now he could not repeat any words I said which would amount to an absolute promise. But I know he understood me that way, and that is just the same to me. They have elected members and they are here now, Union men, ready to take their seats, and they have elected a Union man from the Norfolk district." —Montgomery Blair. BREAKING THE NEWS Mr. Lincoln gave the following account of the first announce- ment of the Emancipation Proclamation in a Cabinet meeting. He said he read it through, and there was a dead silence. Presently Mr. Chase spoke. He said he liked all but so and so, instancing a clause; then someone else made an objection, and then another, until all had said something. Then the President said: "Gentlemen, this reminds me of the story of the man who had been away from home, and when he was coming back was met by one of his farm hands, who greeted him after this fashion: 'Master, the little pigs are dead, and the old sow's dead, too, but I didn't like to tell you all at once.' " —Springfield Republican. 338 LINCOLN TALKS PROPERTY RIGHTS During an interview with Mr. Lincoln in the fall of 1862, 1 told him that almost every prominent man I had met since my arrival in the city had desired me to urge upon him a certain line of policy in regard to the prosecution of the war, adding that I supposed he was in great need of advice. "Yes," said he, "I am suffering for it. I remember a clock-peddler in Marshall County, Illinois, who told the people that they were actually suffering for clocks." The conversation afterwards turned upon the Emancipation Proclamation, and he referred to the Southern objection that it was an interference with the rights of property, and said it re- minded him of an affair which happened near St. Louis a few years before: A ruffian made an unprovoked assault in the street upon a quiet citizen, at the same time drawing his revolver, but the assaulted party made a sudden spring and wrested the weapon from the hands of the would-be assassin. "Stop!" said the latter. "Give me back that pistol; you have no right to my property." —Gospel Banner. AMENDMENT In the preparation of the final Proclamation of Emancipation, of January 1, 1863, Mr. Lincoln manifested great solicitude. He had his original draft printed and furnished each member of his Cabinet with a copy, with the request that each should examine, criticize, and suggest any amendments that occurred to him. At the next meeting of the Cabinet, Mr. Chase said: "This paper is of the utmost importance, greater than any state paper ever made by this Government. A paper of so much importance, and involv- ing the liberties of so many people, ought, I think, to make some reference to Deity. I do not observe anything of the kind in it." PARTY LEADER 339 Mr. Lincoln said: "No, I overlooked it. Some reference to Deity must be inserted. Mr. Chase, won't you make a draft of what you think ought to be inserted?" Mr. Chase promised to do so, and at the next meeting presented the following: "And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." When Mr. Lincoln read the paragraph, Mr. Chase said: "You may not approve it, but I thought this or something like it would be appropriate." Lincoln replied: "I do approve it; it cannot be bettered, and 1 will adopt it in the very words you have written." —Chase. SAVING THE NEGRO "Doctor, if it had been left to you and me, there would have been no war. If it had been left to you and me, there would have been no cause for this war; but it was not left to us. God has allowed men to make slaves of their fellows. He permits this war. He has before Him a strange spectacle. We, on our side, are praying Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray Him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us? And which is coming from the strug- gle? What will be the effect of it all on the whites and on the Negroes? As for the Negroes, Doctor, and what is to become of them: I told Ben Wade the other day that it made me think of a story I read in one of my first books, Aesop's Fables. It was an old edition, and had curious, rough wood-cuts, one of which showed four white men scrubbing a Negro in a potash kettle filled with cold water. The text explained that the men thought that by scrub- bing the Negro they might make him white. Just about the time they thought they were succeeding, he took cold and died. Now, 1 am afraid that by the time we get through this war the Negro will catch cold and die." —Lincoln to Dr. Sutherland, Senate chaplain. 340 LINCOLN TALKS SIGNING THE PROCLAMATION The roll containing the Emancipation Proclamation was taken to Mr. Lincoln at noon on the first day of January 1863. As it lay unrolled before him, Mr. Lincoln took a pen, dipped it in the ink, moved his hand to the place for the signature, held it a moment, then removed his hand and dropped the pen. After a little hesita- tion, he again took up the pen and went through the same move- ments as before. Mr. Lincoln then turned to Mr. Seward, and said: "I have been shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into his- tory it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the docu- ment hereafter will say: 'He hesitated.' " He then turned to the table, took up the pen again, and slowly, firmly wrote "Abraham Lincoln." He then looked up, smiled, and said: "That will do!" —Frederick W. Seward. PETER A tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon the President to withdraw the threatened issue of the Emancipation Proclama- tion. Letters poured in, some imploring, some threatening, until the stanch anti-slavery people feared that Mr. Lincoln would not withstand the pressure. One day about a week before the day set for the proclamation, Mr. Robbins walked into the office of Sec- retary Nicolay. The President entered, put his hand on Mr. Rob- bins's shoulder, and said: "Well, old friend, the important day draws near." "Yes," replied Robbins, "and I hope there will be no backing out on your part." "Well, I don't know," said Lincoln. "Peter denied his Master. He thought he wouldn't but he did." The great day came and with it the freedom to black and white. PARTY LEADER 34I A few days later Mr. Robbins met Mr. Lincoln, when the latter grasped his hand and said: "Well, friend Robbins, I beat Peter." -Z. C. Robbins. MINORITY The next glimpse I had of the President was on the evening of January 25, 1863. It was in company of a number of anti-slavery men chiefly from Boston (where I was then editing the Common- wealth), who feared that the President had fallen into the hands of reactionists and that his Edict of Emancipation might be rendered ineffectual. The conversation was introduced by Wendell Phillips, who, with all his courtesy, expressed our gratitude and joy at the Proclama- tion of Emancipation, and asked him how it seemed to him to be working. The President said that he had not expected much from it at first, and consequently had not been disappointed; he had hoped, and still hoped, that something would come of it after a while. "My own impression, Mr. Phillips," said the President, "is that the masses of the country generally are only dissatisfied at our lack of military successes. Defeat and failure in the field make every- thing seem wrong." His face was now clouded and his next words were somewhat bitter: "Most of us here present have been nearly all our lives working in minorities, and may have got into a habit of being dis- satisfied." Several of those present having deprecated this, the President said: "At any rate it has been very rare that an opportunity of 'running' this Administration has been lost." To this Mr. Phillips answered in his sweetest voice: "If we see this Administration earnestly working to free the country from slavery and its rebellion, we will show you how we can 'run' it into another four years of power." The President's good humor was restored by this, and he said: 342 LINCOLN TALKS "Oh, Mr. Phillips, I have ceased to have any personal feeling or expectation in that matter— I do not say I never had any— so abused and borne upon as I have been." "Nevertheless, what I have said is true," replied Phillips, who then went on to submit our complaint against Military Governor Stanley (an old politician of North Carolina), urging the necessity of having in such positions men who were heart and soul in favor of his (the President's) declared policy of emancipation. The facts communicated to us from North Carolina were also submitted. The President was evidently aware of them and did not deny them. He only said that Stanley was in Washington when the Proclamation of September 22, 1862, was issued, announcing that an Edict of Emancipation would be issued on the following New Year's Day for all States that had not laid down their arms, "and that he (Stanley) then said he 'could stand that.' " "Stand it!" exclaimed one of our number. "Might the nation not expect in such a place a man who cannot merely stand its Presi- dent's policy but rejoice in it?" This made the President a little retractive, and he said: "Well, gentlemen, I have got the responsibility of this thing, and must keep it." "Yes, Mr. President," interposed Phillips, "but you must be pa- tient with us, for if the ship goes down, it doesn't carry down you alone; we are all in it." "Well, gentlemen," said the President, bowing pleasantly to Phillips in acknowledgment of the justice of his remark, "whom would you put in Stanley's place?" Someone asked if it would not be better to have nobody there than an active opponent of the President's avowed policy. Another suggested Fremont, then without any command, as a substitute for Stanley— Fremont being the natural representative of a Procla- mation of Emancipation which he had anticipated in Missouri. "I have great respect for General Fremont and his abilities," said the President slowly, "but the fact is that the pioneer in any move- PARTY LEADER 343 ment is not generally the best man to carry that movement to a successful issue. It was so in old times— wasn't it?" he continued with a smile. "Moses began the emancipation of the Jews, but didn't take Israel to the Promised Land after all. He had to make way for Joshua to complete the work. It looks as if the first reformer of a thing has to meet such a hard opposition, and gets so battered and bespattered, that afterward, when people find they have to accept his reform, they will accept it more easily from another man." The wit and philosophy of this remark were appreciated by us all. We urged, however, that Fremont could hardly be considered a pioneer reformer, and referred to the general welcome given by the loyal press to Fremont's proclamation of emancipation in Mis- souri. The President said he did not believe that the Northern people taken as a whole regarded that proclamation with favor. In the course of our further conversation the President reminded us that he had been elected by a minority of the American people, and said he felt convinced that his Administration would not have been supported by the country, at any earlier stage of the war, in a policy of emancipation. Even now, if he should place prominent abolition generals at the front, he did not see what they could do with the slaves, should these come in large numbers. "All I can say now is that I believe the Proclamation has knocked the bottom out of slavery, though at no time have I expected any sudden results from it." One of those present warned the President that if the course of military events should not be favorable between that time and the election, the following year might witness the return of a power which could put the bottom in again, or try to do so, and his great work so faithfully begun be overthrown; which would not merely mean a restoration of slavery but of disunion— for never again could there be a Union with slavery. We then rose to leave, and expressed to the President our thanks for his kindly reception and for his 344 LINCOLN TALKS attention to statements of which some were naturally not welcome. The President bowed graciously at this and, after saying he was happy to have met gentlemen known to him by distinguished serv- ices, if not personally, and glad to listen to their views, added: "I must bear this load which the country has entrusted to me as well as I can and do my best." He then shook hands affably with each of us. — Moncure D. Conway, in the New York Daily Tribune, Sept. 6, 1885. GARRISON To William Lloyd Garrison he said, when the latter told him they wouldn't let him see the inside of the jail in Baltimore, where he had been confined years before for his abolition doctrines: "You have had hard luck in Baltimore, haven't you, Garrison? The first time you couldn't get out of prison, and the second time you couldn't get in." —William Lloyd Garrison. HARPOONED After the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Morgan, of New York, was at the White House one day, when the President said: "I do not agree with those who say that slavery is dead. We are like whalers who have been long on a chase— we have at last got the harpoon into the monster, but we must now look how we steer, or, with one 'flop' of his tail, he will yet send us all into eternity!" -Ida M. Tarbell. NEW A gentleman was one day finding fault with the constant agita- tion in Congress of the slavery question. He remarked that, after the adoption of the Emancipation policy, he had hoped for some- thing new. "There was a man down in Maine," said the President, in reply, PARTY LEADER 345 "who kept a grocery store, and a lot of fellows used to loaf around that for their toddy. He only gave 'em New England rum, and they drank pretty considerable of it. But after a while they began to get tired of that, and kept asking for something new— something new— all the time. Well, one night, when the whole crowd were around, the grocer brought out his glasses, and says he: 'I've got something new for you to drink, boys, now.' 'Honor bright?' said they. 'Honor bright,' says he, and with that he sets out a jug. 'Thar,' says he, 'that's something new; it's New England rum!' says he. Now," remarked Mr. Lincoln, "I guess we're a good deal like that crowd, and Congress is a good deal like that store-keeper! " —Carpenter. INSTRUMENT OF PROVIDENCE In 1863, Colonel McKaye, of New York, and Robert Dale Owen and one or two other gentlemen, were associated as a com- mittee to investigate the condition of the freedmen on the coast of North Carolina. Upon their return they reported to the Presi- dent. In one place Colonel McKaye said their place of worship was a large building which they called "the praise house"; and the leader of the meeting, a venerable black man, was known as "praise man." On a certain day, when there was quite a large gathering of the people, considerable confusion was created by different persons' attempting to tell who and what "Massa Linkum" was. In the midst of the excitement, the white-haired leader commanded silence. "Brederin," said he, "you don't know nosen' what you'se talkin' about. Now, you just listen to me. Massa Linkum, he everywhar. He know eberting." Then, solemnly looking up, he added: "He walk de earf like de Lord!" Colonel McKaye said that Mr. Lincoln seemed much affected by this account. He did not smile, as another man might have done, but got up from his chair and walked in silence two or three times across the floor. As he resumed his seat, he said, very impressively: 346 LINCOLN TALKS "It is a momentous thing to be the instrument, under Providence, of the liberation of a race." —Robert Dale Owen. NEVADA In the spring of 1864, the Administration decided that the Con- stitution of the United States should be amended so that slavery should be prohibited. It was believed that such an amendment to the Constitution would be equivalent to new armies in the field, that it would be worth at least a million men. It was necessary first to have the proposed amendment approved by three-fourths of the States. When that question came to be considered, the issue was seen to be so close that one State more was necessary. The State of Nevada was organized and admitted to the Union to answer that purpose. I have sometimes heard people com- plain of Nevada as superfluous and petty, not big enough to be a State; but when I hear that complaint, I always hear Abraham Lincoln saying: "It is easier to admit Nevada than to raise another million sol- diers." —Sen. William M. Stewart. DISTINCTION "Several prominent ministers," said Mr. Thompson, "are exert- ing their influence in your behalf. Among them is the Reverend Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, who is earnestly advocating your re-election." "Bacon! Let me see. What do I know of him? Didn't he once write a book on slavery, which some of the abolitionists did not agree with?" "Yes." "Well, I read that book some years ago, and at first did not know exactly what to make of it, but I afterwards read it more carefully, and got hold of Dr. Bacon's distinctions, and it had much to do PARTY LEADER 347 with shaping my own way of thinking on the subject of slavery. He is quite a man." "There is a distinction," said Mr. Thompson, "between what might be termed domiciliary subjection of captives taken in war, and the bond service of paupers, as allowed under the Mosaic econ- omy, and chattel slavery in our own country." "Yes," replied the President, "there is a distinction. However, I have somehow thought that Moses didn't quite understand the Lord along there." —Rev. Joseph P. Thompson; Moncure D. Conway. PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION The Cincinnati Commercial printed a sensational story of how, during the recent war, and after the second battle of Bull Run, President Lincoln telegraphed to Governor Tod of Ohio and the Honorable Samuel Galloway, asking them to come to Wash- ington. Together with the late Secretary Stanton and one other person, now dead, supposed to be the Commercial's anonymous informant, they first considered and decided whether or not General Pope should be superseded by the restoration of Gen- eral George B. McClellan to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and then listened to a most thrilling detail by the Presi- dent of his plan of reconstructing the rebel States, to be adopted at the close of the war. It will be noted that the parties to this grave consultation are now all dead, except the narrator; but the Commercial says this man, whoever he is, says that President Lincoln, after expressing his own opinion that the Emancipation Proclamation would pro- duce results, said: "Well, gentlemen, let us conclude that it will, and that phase of the question is finally settled. What most concerns me, however, is the after-consequences of this wholesale emancipation of four millions of people, who for a period of nearly two centuries have 348 LINCOLN TALKS been in the most absolute bondage, and who necessarily are totally devoid of the requisite intelligence to enable them to take care of themselves. If my life is spared, and on me should devolve, in con- nection with the National Legislature, the solving of this important problem, I am free to say, right here, that, in my opinion, the blacks should be regarded in the same light as an infant just born, and necessarily dependent on its parent for the most careful and nur- turing aid; that the benign spirit of education must form the chief cornerstone of their nurture; that in this most important matter they must be taught to crawl before they are permitted to stand upright and walk. What I mean by this simile is that they cannot, on the instant, be qualified to take care of themselves; that it would be futile and dangerous to entrust them with a share of the govern- ing power. They cannot be expected to grasp, on the instant, the true principles of republican government. In short, gentlemen, the now ignorant blacks must be educated up to the situation. And, with some, I do not entertain any fears of their former masters, that they will seek to wreak vengeance on their former slaves, looking on them as the prime cause of their discomfiture. I believe, on the contrary, the whites will treat the blacks with kindness. On them (the former slaves) they (the whites) will be compelled to lean for years for their subsistence. To guard against anything of the vengeance order, however, and to gain time for the education of the blacks, I would place the subdued States under a kind of semi- military territorial government, granting a partial voice to the blacks, after a while, in the government of the territory but with- holding an indiscriminate ballot until its purport was better and thoroughly understood by them. In this way I would place the Southern States and people under a governmental pupilage com- pelling them to look to the General Government as their parent and protector. This state of things should, in my opinion, continue for at least ten years. In that time great progress could be made in the education and general enlightenment of the blacks; the for- mer masters would be enabled to get used to the changed situations; PARTY LEADER 349 the population would be beneficially leavened by emigration from the North and the European states to such a degree as to make it safe and proper to again admit the recusant South in a body to full communion with their Northern brethren. Any other course would, in my opinion, be dangerous, unwise, and full of disastrous consequences." —Samuel Galloway. THE PROPER TIME Mr. George Thompson, the English anti-slavery orator, deliv- ered an address in the House of Representatives, to a large audience, April 6, 1864. The following morning, Mr. Thompson and party called at the White House. Mr. Lincoln thereupon said: "Mr. Thompson, the people of Great Britain and of other foreign governments were in one great error in reference to this conflict. They seemed to think that, the moment I was President, I had the power to abolish slavery, forgetting that, before I could have any power whatever, I had to take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and execute the laws as I found them. When the rebellion broke out, my duty did not admit of a question. That was, first, by all strictly lawful means to endeavor to maintain the integrity of the Government. I did not consider that I had a right to touch the 'state' institution of slavery until all other measures for restoring the Union had failed. The paramount idea of the Con- stitution is the preservation of the Union. It may not be specified in so many words, but that this was the idea of its founders is evi- dent; for, without the Union, the Constitution would be worthless. It seems clear, then, that in the last extremity, if any local institu- tion threatened the existence of the Union, the Executive could not hesitate as to his duty. In our case, the moment came when I felt that slavery must die that the nation might live! I have some- times used the illustration in this connection of a man with a dis- eased limb, and his surgeon. So long as there is a chance of the pa- tient's restoration, the surgeon is solemnly bound to try to save 350 LINCOLN TALKS both life and limb; but when the crisis comes, and the limb must be sacrificed as the only chance of saving the life, no honest man will hesitate. "Many of my strongest supporters urged Emancipation before I thought it indispensable, and, I may say, before I thought the country ready for it. It is my conviction that, had the proclama- tion been issued even six months earlier than it was, public senti- ment would not have sustained it. Just so, as to the subsequent action in reference to enlisting blacks in the Border States. The step, taken sooner, could not, in my judgment, have been carried out. A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap! We have seen this great revolu- tion in public sentiment slowly but surely progressing, so that, when final action came, the opposition was not strong enough to defeat the purpose. I can now solemnly assert," he concluded, "that I have a clear conscience in regard to my action on this momentous question. I have done what no man could have helped doing, stand- ing in my place." —Rev. John Pierpont; Oliver Johnson. THE GREAT BOOK "I can only say now, as I have often said before, it has always been a sentiment with me that all mankind should be free. So far as I have been able, so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I believed was right and just, and done all I could for the good of mankind. I have, in letters and documents sent forth from this office, expressed myself better than I can now. In regard to the great Book, I have only to say it is the best gift which God has ever given man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communi- cated to us through this Book. But for that Book we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are con- PARTY LEADER 35I tained in it. I return you my sincere thanks for this very elegant copy of the great Book of God which you present." — Nicolay and Hay. VOW Mr. Chase told me that at the Cabinet meeting immediately after the battle of Antietam the President entered upon the business be- fore them saying: The time for the annunciation of the Emanci- pation Proclamation could be no longer delayed. Public sentiment would sustain it— many of his warmest friends and supporters de- manded it— and he had promised his God he would do it! The last part of this was uttered in a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one but Secretary Chase, who was sitting near him. He asked the President if he correctly understood him. Mr. Lin- coln replied: "I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." In February 1865, a few days after the Constitutional amend- ment, I went to Washington and was received by Mr. Lincoln with the kindness and familiarity which had characterized our previous intercourse. I said to him at this time that I was very proud to have been the crtist to have first conceived the design of painting a picture com- memorative of the Act of the Emancipation; that subsequent oc- currences had only confirmed my first judgment of that act as the most sublime moral event in our history. "Yes," said he— and never do I remember to have noticed in him more earnestness of expression or manner, "as affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century." —Carpenter. THE EMANCIPATED After the Federal forces had hammered their way on to the Petersburg front, General Grant and President Lincoln took a 352 LINCOLN TALKS ride among the troops, and those visited included the colored sol- diers of the Eighteenth Corps. The enthusiasm of the blacks knew no bounds when they beheld the Emancipator of their race, and General Porter says the scene defied description. They cheered, laughed, cried, sang hymns of praise. They crowded about the President and fondled even his horse; some of them pressed up to kiss his sacred hands, while others ran away crying in triumph to their comrades that they had touched his garments. Mr. Lincoln rode with bared head, the tears swam in his eyes, and his voice was so broken by emotion that he could hardly speak the words of thanks to these humble and devoted ones. General Grant was notably affected, and in speaking to him of the tenderly dramatic event, Mr. Lincoln said: "I was opposed on nearly every side when I first favored the raising of colored regiments; but they have proved their efficiency in taking six out of the sixteen guns captured the other day. I told my opposers that it is well to be a little color-blind, and these boys are now showing what the Negro can do." —Horace Porter. RETALIATION Frederick Douglass, the colored men's representative, called on the President to procure a pledge that the unfair treatment of Negro soldiers in the Union uniform should cease by retaliatory measures on the captured Confederates. But his hearer shrank from the bare thought of hanging men in cold blood, even though the rebels should slay the Negroes taken. "Oh, Douglass, I cannot do that! If I could get hold of the actual murderers of colored prisoners, I would retaliate; but to hang those who have no hand in the atrocities, I cannot do that!" —New York Daily Tribune. COLOR-BLIND "I think, General, we can say of the black boys what a country fellow, who was an old-time abolitionist in Illinois, said when he PARTY LEADER 353 went to a theater in Chicago and saw Forrest playing Othello. He was not very well up on Shakespeare, and didn't know that the tragedian was a white man who had blacked up for the purpose. After the play was over, the folks who had invited him to go to the show wanted to know what he thought of the actors, and he said: 'Waal, layin' aside all sectional prejudices and any partiality I may have for the race, derned if I don't think the nigger held his own with any of 'em.' " —Lincoln to Grant, as told by Horace Porter. TWO ROADS Seward was embarrassed about the Dominican question. To move either way threatened difficulty. On one side was Spain, on the other side the Negro. The President remarked that the dilemma reminded him of the interview between two Negroes, one of whom was a preacher endeavoring to admonish and enlighten the other. "There are," said Josh the preacher, "two roads for you, Joe. Be careful which you take. One ob dem leads straight to hell, de odder go right to damnation." Joe opened his eyes under the impressive eloquence and visions of an awful future, and exclaimed: "Josh, take which road you please; I go troo de wood." "I am not disposed to take any new trouble," said the President, "just at this time, and shall neither go for Spain nor the Negro in this matter, but shall take to the woods." —Gideon Welles. ENGLAND AND THE CONFEDERACY Mr. Lincoln was in constant communication with John Bright and the few other English friends of America. Well knowing that if the Confederacy was recognized by foreign countries its suc- cess was assured, Lincoln prepared the following resolution, which was passed over to Sumner, by whom it was forwarded to John Bright of the English Parliament: "Whereas, while heretofore. States and Nations have tolerated 354 LINCOLN TALKS slavery, recently, for the first time in the world, an attempt has been made to construct a new nation upon the basis of and with the primary and fundamental object to maintain, enlarge, and per- petuate human slavery, therefore "Resolved, that no such embryo state should ever be recognized by, or admitted into the family of, Christian and civilized nations; and that all Christian and civilized men, everywhere, should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost such recognition or admission." —John Bright; Charles Sumner. ENGLISH SYMPATHY We went to the levee yesterday. It was at one o'clock, an hour for bonnets and morning dress. We passed through the great hall and to the anteroom filled with elegantly dressed people. In the Blue Room beyond, the President stood receiving the stream that flowed toward him, and thence passed into the great East Room, and so out of the White House. While the others were busy talking to a number of their friends I watched the President. He shook hands and bowed, only occa- sionally speaking to someone he knew or chose to distinguish by his notice. Sometimes he answered a remark made to him, but it was generally: "Good morning, Mrs. Jones!" "Mr. Smith, how do you do?" "Miss , of England." "Ah!" said the President, and he stooped his great height to look into my face. He looked so kind that I forgot to be frightened. I blurted out: "Mr. Lincoln, may I tell you how earnestly my peo- ple at home are with you, in heart and soul, especially since the first of January?" "I am very glad to hear it, very glad, though I may not know them personally. That is one of the evils of being so far apart. We have a good deal of salt water between us. When you feel PARTY LEADER 355 kindly toward us we cannot, unfortunately, be always aware of it. But it works both ways, when you in England are cross with us, we don't feel it quite so badly." —Youth's Companion, Feb. 1918. BRAG Bishop Simpson recently delivered his great lecture in Wesley Chapel, Washington, to a large audience, among whom were President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton. The bishop told an anec- dote about a Kentuckian asked by an Englishman what were the boundaries of our country. The Kentuckian replied that the United States were "bounded on the East by the rising sun, on the West by the precession of the equinoxes, on the North by the aurora borealis, and on the South by the day of judgment." This reminded the President of the following story, which he told sub voce to those around him: "John Bull met with a North American Indian, and in the course of conversation was very anxious to impress him with the great- ness of the British Empire. 'The sun/ said Mr. Bull, 'never sets on English dominion. Do you understand how that is?' 'Oh, yes,' said the Indian, 'that is because God is afraid to trust them in the dark.' " —Bishop Simpson. STATE DINNER The British Minister often dined alone with full ceremony. In the midst of his dinner President Lincoln would be announced, follow the servant into the dining room, and take his seat at the table. The Minister would urge the President to join him in the dinner, but the President would answer: "No, Lyons, I have had my dinner. If anything comes which is inviting I'll browse around," but before the President departed, the ever-present fear of Great Britain's recognition of the Confederacy and the means of avert- ing it were under discussion. — Depew. 356 LINCOLN TALKS ONE BULLET One day at a meeting of the Cabinet, it being at the time when it seemed as though war with England and France could not be avoided, Secretary of State Seward and Secretary of War Stanton warmly advocated that the United States maintain an attitude, the result of which would have been a declaration of hostilities by those great powers. "Why take any more chances than are absolutely necessary?" asked the President. "We must maintain our honor at any cost," insisted Secretary Seward. "We would be branded as cowards before the entire world," said Secretary Stanton. "But why run the greater risk when we can take the smaller one?" asked the President. "The less risk we run the better for us. That reminds me of a story I heard a day or two ago, the hero of which was on the firing line during a recent battle, where the bul- lets were flying thick. Finally his courage gave way entirely and, throwing down his gun, he ran for dear life. "As he was flying along at top speed he came across an officer, who drew his revolver and shouted: 'Go back to your regiment at once, or I will shoot you.' " 'Shoot and be hanged!' the soldier exclaimed. 'What's one bul- let to a whole hatful?' " -A. K. McClure. SPOILING FOR A FIGHT Once, when a war with England seemed imminent, owing to the strained relations existing, someone asked Lincoln for his opin- ion. "I remember," replied the President, "when I was a lad, there were two fields behind our house separated by a fence. In each field there was a big bulldog, and these dogs spent the whole day racing PARTY LEADER 357 up and down, snarling and yelping at each other through that fence. One day they both came at the same moment to a hole in it, big enough to let either of them through. Well, gentlemen, what do you think they did? They just turned tail and scampered away as fast as they could in opposite directions. Now, England and America are like those bulldogs." -A. K. McClure. THE TRENT AFFAIR The readiness and ability with which Lincoln met the perilous emergency of the Trent affair, in a field entirely new to his experience, was worthy of the most accomplished diplomat and statesman. Admirable, also, were his cool courage and self-reliance in following a course radically opposed to the prevailing sentiment throughout the country and in Congress, and contrary to the ad- vice of his own Cabinet. Secretary of the Navy Welles hastened to approve officially the act of Captain Wilkes in apprehending the Confederate Commis- sioners Mason and Slidell; Secretary Stanton publicly applauded; and even Secretary of State Seward, whose long public career had made him especially conservative, stated that he was opposed to any concession or surrender of Mason and Slidell. But Lincoln, with great sagacity, simply said: "One war at a time.' , —Seward. HOARDED GRUDGE Lincoln once confessed that the Trent affair had given him great uneasiness. When asked whether it was not a great trial to surrender the two captured commissioners, he said: "Yes, that was a pretty bitter pill to swallow, but I contented myself with believing that England's triumph in the matter would be short-lived, and that after ending our war successfully we could if we wished call England to account for the embarrassments she had inflicted upon us. I felt a good deal like the sick man in Illinois 358 LINCOLN TALKS who was told he probably hadn't many days longer to live, and that he ought to make peace with any enemies he might have. He said the man he hated worst of all was a fellow named Brown, in the next village, and he guess he had better begin on him. So Brown was sent for, and when he came the sick man began to say, in a voice as meek as Moses', that he wanted to die at peace with all his fellow-creatures, and hoped he and Brown could now shake hands and bury all their enmity. The scene was becoming altogether too pathetic for Brown, who had to get out his handkerchief and wipe the gathering tears from his eyes. It wasn't long before he melted and gave his hand to his neighbor, and they had a regular love- feast. After a parting that would have softened the heart of a grind- stone, Brown had about reached the room door, when the sick man rose up on his elbow and said: 'But, see here, Brown, if I should happen to get well, mind that old grudge stands!' So I thought if this nation should happen to get well, we might want that old grudge against England to stand." —Horace Porter. FOREIGN POLICY The members of the Cabinet were one day solemnly debating a rather serious international problem. The President was in the minority, as was frequently the case, and he was "in a hole," as he afterwards expressed it. He didn't want to argue the points raised, preferring to settle the matter in a hurry. "Gentlemen," said he, "the situation just now reminds me of a fix I got into some thirty years or so ago when I was peddling 'notions' on the way from Indiana to Illinois. I didn't have a large stock, but I charged large prices, and I made money. Just before we left Indiana and crossed into Illinois, we came across a small farmhouse full of nothing but children. These ranged in years from seventeen years to seventeen months, and all were in tears. The mother of the fam- ily was red-headed and red-faced, and the whip she held in her PARTY LEADER 359 right hand led to the inference that she had been chastising her brood. The father of the family, a meek-looking, mild-mannered, tow-headed chap, was standing in the front doorway, awaiting— to all appearances— his turn to feel the thong. r 'I thought there wasn't much use in asking the head of that house if she wanted any 'notions.' She was too busy. It was evi- dent an insurrection had been in progress, but it was pretty well quelled when I got there. The mother had about suppressed it with an iron hand, but she was not running any risks. She kept a keen and wary eye upon all the children, not forgetting an occa- sional glance at the 'old man' in the doorway. "She saw me as I came up, and from her look I thought she was of the opinion that I intended to interfere. Advancing to the door- way, and roughly pushing her husband aside, she demanded my business. " 'Nothing, madam,' I answered as gently as possible; 'I merely dropped in as I came along to see how things were going.' " 'Well, you needn't wait,' was the reply in an irritated way. 'There's trouble here, an' lots of it, too, but I kin manage my own affairs without the help of outsiders. This is jest a family row, but I'll teach these brats their places ef I hev to lick the hide off every one of them. I don't do much talkin', but I run this house, an' I don't want no one sneakin' round tryin' to find out how I do it, either.' "That's the case here with us," the President said in conclusion. "We must let the other nations know that we propose to settle our family row in our own way, and 'teach these brats their places' " [the seceding States] "if we have to 'lick the hide off' of each and every one of them. And, like the old woman, we don't want any 'sneakin' round' by other countries who would like to find out how we are to do it, either. "Now, Seward, you write some diplomatic notes to that effect." -A. K. McClure. 360 LINCOLN TALKS LENDING I asked the Chilean Admiral (who is an Englishman and came out with me) why the Chileans did not try to get the greatest of American republics to help them [in the war against Spain]. He thought it was no use trying, because a couple of years ago he was sent to Washington to get the permission of the Government for the purchase and export of two vessels, at that time contraband of war. President Lincoln received him with his usual affability; and while Seward was reading the Chilean state paper, Abraham Lin- coln said: "Admiral, I must tell you a little story. When a young man I was very anxious to read a book which belonged to a neigh- bor of mine. 'Neighbor/ I asked, 'could you lend me this book?' 'Certainly,' he replied; 'you can come here and read it whenever you like.' As the book was rather a bulky one, I thought this was an odd way of lending it to me; but I let that pass. A short time after- wards he came to me. 'Lincoln,' he asked, 'can you lend me your bellows?' 'Certainly,' I replied; 'here they are; you can come here and blow away as much as you like'; and that is exactly the case now, Admiral; you can come here and blow away as much as you like, but we cannot let you take the ships away." —London Athenaeum. MEXICO When the Emperor Napoleon, taking advantage of the "lockup" of the United States, set a puppet on the imperial throne— so called —of Mexico, the Cabinet of Lincoln were divided on the subject; whereon the Marquis of Chambrun, having the ear of the Execu- tive, called on him, and inquired on the real state— would the United States intervene? "There has been war enough," was his rejoinder. "I know what the American people want; but, thank God, I count for something, and during my second term there will be no more fighting!" —George H. Boutwell; Marquis of Chambrun. PARTY LEADER 361 CHURCHES INTO HOSPITALS A lady from Alexandria complained that the medical director had taken the church, where she was accustomed to worship, for a hospital. "Mr. President," she said, "as there are only two or three wounded soldiers in it, I came to see if you would not let us have it, as we want it very much to worship God in." "Have you called upon the post surgeon?" "Yes, sir, but we can do nothing with him." "Well, madam, he is there to attend to just such business, and it is reasonable to suppose that he knows better than I what should be done under the circumstances. You probably own property in Alexandria. How much will you give towards building a hospital?" "Really, Mr. President, our property is very much embarrassed by the war, so I could not give much for such a purpose." "Well, madam, I expect there will be a battle soon, and it is my opinion that God wants the church for poor wounded Union sol- diers quite as much as he does for secesh people to worship in. You will excuse me. Good day, Madam." —Carpenter. TOO BUSY The burden of his case was that he was a real-estate holder in New Orleans, and since the advent of military rulers there, he could not collect his rents, his living. "Your case, my friend," said the President, "may be a hard one, but it might be worse. If, with your musket, you had taken your chances with the boys before Richmond, you might have found your bed and board before now! But the point is, what would you have me do for you? I have much to do, and the courts have been opened to relieve me in this regard." The applicant, embarrassed, said: "I am not in the habit of ap- pearing before big men." 362 LINCOLN TALKS "And for that matter," it was quickly responded, "you have no need to change your habit, for you are not before very big men now. But I am too busy to go into the rent-collection business." —Noah Brooks. david's answer Judge Gillespie asked Lincoln on one occasion what was to be done with the South after the rebellion was put down. He said some thought their heads ought to come off; but, said he: "If it was left to me, I could not tell where to draw the line between whose heads should come off, and whose heads should stay on." He said he had recently been reading the history of the rebellion of Absalom, and that he inclined to adopt the views of David. "When David was fleeing from Jerusalem, Shimei cursed him. After the rebellion was put down, Shimei craved pardon. Bishai, David's nephew, the son of Zeruiah, David's sister, said: 'This man ought not to be pardoned because he cursed the Lord's anointed.' David said: 'What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries unto me? Know ye that not a man shall be put to death in Israel.' " —Judge Joseph Gillespie. HOLLOW TREE About the close of the year 1863, when open enemies were de- feating us in the field and secret foes were plotting against us at home, and giving aid and comfort to rebels in the South in various ways, it was decided by the Cabinet that some decisive effort must be made to stop the currents of information that seemed to flow uninterruptedly between the North and the South. The Govern- ment at last determined to seize all the telegraph offices in the country on a certain day, and to hold possession of them for one hour; and to forward every message that passed over the wires dur- ing that time, with the names of all the parties, in a sealed envelope to Washington. PARTY LEADER 3^3 The plan was successfully carried out on the day appointed, and an immense number of dispatches of all kinds were collected. The Cabinet, by special appointment, had assembled for the sole pur- pose of acting upon the information thus obtained-to defeat and punish those who should be found engaged in treasonable cor- respondence with the South. One by one the telegrams were opened and read, until the evidence against many, heretofore un- suspected and supposed to be above suspicion, was astonishing, and painful in the extreme; while many suspected parties were impli- cated by the clearest evidence. What was to be done? Thus far, the only result had been to con- firm the worst suspicions and arouse many new ones. The Secre- tary of War said: "Bring them all to justice; let no one escape." Others said anxiously: "These are but a few of the hundreds known to us before. We have before us the results of only one hour's work." At last the Secretary turned to Mr. Lincoln, who had been thus far thoughtfully silent, saying: "Mr. President, what shall we do? The country is threatened with betrayal and destruction by enemies in our own camp." Mr. Lincoln, putting himself in a favorite attitude, remarked: "I have a story which I think applicable to this case, and which is expressive of my feelings. When I was out West, I knew an old farmer who had moved there, and settled in a dense forest not far from my house. He cleared about an acre of land, built him a log cabin, brought his wife and children there, bought a cow, a pig, and some fowls, and seemed to be living very happily and doing finely. He had a truck-patch on most of the cleared ground, on which he was growing his winter store of vegetables. All the trees had been cut down except one old monarch, which he had left to shade his house. "It was a majestic-looking tree, and apparently perfect in every part-tall, straight, and of immense size-the grand old sentinel of his forest home. One morning, while at work in his garden, he saw 364 LINCOLN TALKS a squirrel run across the ground before him. Thought he, that fel- low would make me a nice dinner. So he picked up a stick and sent it flying after him; but squirrel-like, he dodged it, and went up the great pine tree. The woodman went into the house and got his gun to shoot him. After looking a long time he spied a hole, and thought the tree might be hollow. He proceeded to examine it carefully and, much to his surprise, he found that the stately mon- arch that he had spared for its beauty and grandeur to be the pride and protection of his little farm was hollow from top to bottom. Only a rim of sound wood remained, barely sufficient to support its weight; all the inside was punky or rotten. What was he to do? If he cut it down, it would spoil nearly all his truck-patch with its great length and spreading branches. If he let it remain, his fam- ily was in constant danger. In a storm it might fall, or the wind might blow it down, and his house and children be crushed by it. What should he do? As he turned away, he said, sadly: 'I wish I had never seen that squirrel'; and," said Mr. Lincoln, "I wish we had never seen what we have today." —Beechefs Magazine. SONS OF LIBERTY In 1862 Judge Tevis Greathouse, then residing at Vandalia, was arrested by a United States marshal, charged with leadership in a disloyal cabal known as "Sons of Liberty," and by order of the Department of Justice he was sent to Washington under guard. There he was left in charge of a deputy marshal, who, upon his promise to meet all expenses with a liberal hand, took him to a good boarding-house. Next day he asked to be accompanied to the White House, telling the officer that he and the President had been warm personal friends all their lives. Greetings at their meet- ing must have satisfied the officer that the judge had told the truth. "Hello, Tevis," exclaimed the President; "glad to see you. What are you doing here? Business in the Supreme Court, eh?" "No, Abe," replied the judge. "I am here because your sleuths PARTY LEADER 3 6 5 have brought me on a criminal charge. They accuse me of member- ship in the Sons of Liberty." "Ah! that is the trouble, is it? Well, I really do want to find out something about these Sons, and you can give me the facts per- haps. Mr. Officer, I will relieve you of your charge till you are sent for, and take this prisoner over into my own custody. I will be responsible for him." "What do you want to ask me about the Sons of Liberty?" "There will be time enough for that before your visit is ended," said Lincoln. "Now you are my guest, and it is my duty to make your stay as pleasant as possible." Greathouse was given a guest chamber and told to occupy his time according to his own desire, at the White House or anywhere about the city of Washington. When he awoke in his room on the morning of the fourth day of his visit he found the President sitting beside his bed with trouble on his countenance. After cus- tomary greetings he said: "Tevis, I have looked into the charge against you and found out all I want to know about the Sons of Liberty. Most of those among them whom I remember are good people, but they are misled by ideas which you and I ought to oppose, and which, if generally favored, would in my opinion imperil our Government. I am at work as industriously as possible to counteract such notions and to replace them by sentiments of common patriotism, and in this effort I need your help in that part of Illinois for whose prosperity you and I have toiled together in times past. I do not wish to limit your visit, which I am much enjoying, but here is a railway ticket that will take you home when you are ready to go, and when you get there I want you to tell my old friends that I am doing my duty to the best of my ability, and hope they will always do theirs as true-hearted Americans. I do not ask you for a promise of any kind. You have seen our efforts and can appreciate our needs, and I feel the strongest confidence in your judgment and honesty of purpose." 366 LINCOLN TALKS In concluding this narrative, Judge Greathouse said: "Both the President and myself were in tears before he had fin- ished speaking, and it was impossible for me to reply verbally. I started for home in the evening of that day, and upon arriving there I called an extra meeting of the Sons and related my ex- perience and repeated the President's words verbatim. Then I re- signed my official connection with the organization. Only one meeting was held afterward, and from that time the order was prac- tically dead in Southern Illinois. The good President had killed it with kindness at a time when persecution would have strengthened and made it dangerous." —Judge Tevis Greathouse. JUDGE OF RELIGION It was while he was composing that message, that is to say, during the early part of the winter of 1864-5, t ^at he sent for me "to hear a story." It was written on one of his pasteboard sheets, in pencil, and after I came into the room, he asked me to wait until he had finished it, as it was not quite all written. I give it here: The President's Last, Shortest, and Best Speech "On Thursday of last week two ladies from Tennessee came be- fore the President asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They were put off till Friday, when they came again, and were again put off to Saturday. At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man. On Saturday the President ordered the release of the prisoners, and then said to the lady: 'You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their Government, because, as they think, that Government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread on the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven!' " — Nicolay and Hay. PARTY LEADER 367 ENEMIES DESTROYED The kind words the President said regarding the enemy called forth a rebuke from an elderly lady who was present. She won- dered how he could speak kindly of his enemies, when he should rather destroy them. "What, madam," replied the President, "do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?" —Legacy of Fun. HANGING Vice-President Hobart once asked me to speak at a Lincoln din- ner, and I told him that a man to speak on such an occasion ought to be in whole-hearted sympathy with his subject, and I thought he could select someone better fitted than myself. I was tolerably familiar with the history of Lincoln, but I thought I would refresh myself by looking over one of his biographies. On the first page to which I turned were these words: "At the first meeting of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet after the news of the surrender at Appomattox had been brought to him, he said: 'Gentlemen, before you take up the public business, I have a re- mark to make on my own account. I hear cries here and there, "Hang this man and hang that man!" Gentlemen, there has been enough bloodshed in this country, and I want to say to you for myself that instead of catching anybody and hanging anybody I wish all of those who feel that they might leave their country for their country's good might go away without anybody's catching them.' " I went to Mr. Hobart the next morning and said: "I will go to your Lincoln dinner and I will speak on Abraham Lincoln, for he is the kind of man I like." —Sen. John W. Daniel. On the night when the news reached Washington of Lee's sur- render to Grant, the people of Washington flocked to the White 368 LINCOLN TALKS House lawn to serenade the President. A band being there, Lincoln turned to it and said: "I have always thought 'Dixie' one of the best tunes I ever heard. I insisted yesterday we had fairly captured it. I presented the ques- tion to the Attorney-General and he gave the opinion that it was our lawful prize. I have not heard the old tune for four years. Now let the band play 'Dixie'!'' —Newport Mercury. THE 'COON Just after Jeff Davis had been captured I called over at the White House to see President Lincoln. I was ushered in, and asked him: "Well, Mr. President, what are you going to do with Jeff Davis?" Lincoln looked at me for a moment, and then said: "That reminds me of a story. A boy way out West caught a 'coon and tamed it to a considerable extent, but the animal created such mischief about the house that his mother ordered him to take it away and not to come home until he could return without his pet. The boy went down town with the 'coon, secured with a strong piece of twine, and in about an hour he was found sitting on the edge of the curb- stone holding the 'coon with one hand and crying as though his heart would break. A big-hearted gentleman who was passing stopped and kindly inquired: 'Say, little boy, what is the matter?' The boy wiped a tear from his eye with his sleeve, and in an in- jured tone howled: 'Matter! Ask me what's the matter! You see that 'coon there? Well, I don't know what to do with the darn thing. I can't sell it, I can't kill it, and Ma won't let me take it home.' That," continued Lincoln, "is precisely my case. I'm like the boy with the 'coon. I can't sell him, I can't kill him, and I can't take him home!" —Isaac N. Arnold. MAROONED "Creswell," said Mr. Lincoln, "you make me think of a lot of young folks who once started out Maying. To reach their destina- PARTY LEADER 369 tion, they had to cross a shallow stream, and did so by means of an old flatboat. When the time came to return, they found to their dismay that the old scow had disappeared. They were in sore trouble, and thought over all manner of devices for getting over the water, but without avail. After a time, one of the boys pro- posed that each fellow should pick up the girl he liked best and wade over with her. The masterly proposition was carried out, until all that were left upon the island was a little short chap and a great, long, gothic-built, elderly lady. Now, Creswell, you are try- ing to leave me in the same predicament. You fellows are all get- ting your own friends out of this scrape; and you will succeed in carrying off one after another until nobody but Jeff Davis and myself will be left on the island, and then I won't know what to do. How should I feel? How should I look, lugging him over? I guess the way to avoid such an embarrassing situation is to let them all out at once." —John A. J. Creswell. DAVIS'S FATE In commenting to Slade, his mulatto doorkeeper, on various sug- gestions as to what should be done to Jefferson Davis, Lincoln said: "This talk about Davis tires me. I hope he will mount a fleet horse, reach the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and drive so far into its waters we shall never see him again." —Doorkeeper Slade. DAVIS'S ESCAPE "I asked Mr. Lincoln explicitly, when we were at City Point, whether he wanted me to capture Jeff Davis or let him escape," said General Sherman, "and in reply he told me a story. 'I'll tell you, General,' Mr. Lincoln began, 'what I think of taking Jeff Davis. Out in Sangamon County there was an old temperance lec- turer who was very strict in the doctrine and practice of total abstinence. One day, after a long ride in the hot sun, he stopped at the house of a friend, who proposed making him a lemonade. 370 LINCOLN TALKS As the mild beverage was being mixed the friend insinuatingly asked if he wouldn't like a drop of something stronger to brace up his nerves after the exhausting heat and exercise. "No," replied the lecturer, "I couldn't think of it; I'm opposed to it on principle; but," he added with a longing glance at the black bottle that stood con- veniently at hand, "if you could manage to put in a drop unbe- knownst to me, I guess it wouldn't hurt me much." Now, General/ Mr. Lincoln concluded, 'I am bound to oppose the escape of Jeff Davis; but if you could manage to let him slip out unbeknownst- like, I guess it wouldn't hurt me much.' "And that," exclaimed General Sherman, "is all I could get out of the Government as to what its policy was concerning the rebel leaders until Stanton assailed me for Davis's escape." —Gen. William T. Sherman. ELEPHANT The President was at the White House, business hours were over, Lincoln was washing his hands. "Hallo, Dana," said he, as I opened the door, "what is it now?" "Well, sir," I said, "here is the Provost Marshal of Portland, who reports that Jacob Thompson is to be in town tonight, and inquires what orders we have to give." "What does Stanton say?" he asked. "Arrest him," I replied. "Well," he continued, drawling his words, "I rather guess not. When you have an elephant on your hands, and he wants to run away, better let him run." —Charles A. Dana. UNBEKNOWN After the capture of Richmond, a member of the Cabinet asked him if it would be proper to permit Jacob Thompson to slip through Maine in disguise, and embark from Portland. The Presi- dent, as usual, was disposed to be merciful, and to permit the arch- rebel to pass unmolested, but the Secretary urged that he should PARTY LEADER 371 be arrested as a traitor. "By permitting him to escape the penalties of treason," persistently remarked the Secretary, "you sanction it." "Well," replied Mr. Lincoln, "let me tell you a story. There was an Irish soldier here last summer, who wanted something to drink stronger than water, and stopped at a drugshop, where he espied a soda-fountain. 'Mr. Doctor,' said he, 'give me, plase, a glass of soda- wather, an' if yees can put in a few drops of whisky unbeknown to anyone, I'll be obleeged.' Now," continued Mr. Lincoln, "if Jake Thompson is permitted to go through Maine unbeknown to anyone, what's the harm?" —Charles A. Dana. NOT A LINCOLN STORY MAJOR ECKERT says that Mr. Lincoln told him he had heard this story. It was good, and would be very good if he had told it— but he did not. He supposed it was "charged to him to give it currency." He went on to say: "The original is back in King George's time. Bitter complaints were made against General Wolfe that he was mad. The King, who could be more justly accused of that, replied: 'I wish he would bite some of my other generals.' " — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. OUTNUMBERED One day a guest asked the President how large the Confederate Army was. "About 1,200,000 men," he answered. "Is it possible that it is that large?" the other cried in wonder. "Well," said Lincoln, "whenever one of our generals is licked he says that he was outnumbered three or four to one, and we have 400,000 men." —Harper's, Nov. 1862. POLLUTION The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was mobbed in Baltimore. Baltimore and Maryland officials waited on the President, begging 372 COMMANDER IN CHIEF 373 him not to allow Maryland soil to be "polluted" by the feet of soldiers marching against sister States. Lincoln replied: "We must have troops; and as they can neither crawl under Maryland, nor fly over it, they must come across it!" —Lincoln Story Book. SUBSTITUTE It is not generally known that Abraham Lincoln sent a substitute to the war against the South. During the earlier days of the war it seems to have been the desire of all prominent men in Washington to have a representative in the ranks, and Lincoln was no exception to the rule. At that time there was a minister named Staples in Washington, one of whose sons, then aged nineteen, had a de- sire to go to the front. Lincoln heard of him, and after a conference selected him as his representative. He survived the war and finally died in Stroudsburg. The inscription on the stone over his grave reads as follows: "J. Summerfleld Staples, a private of Company C, One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth Regiment, P.V. Also a member of the Second Regiment, D.C. Vols., as a substitute for Abraham Lincoln." —Official Records. SURRENDER As the members of one of our volunteer companies were being practiced in the musket-drill, a gentleman, who, although not of the corps, was acting as lieutenant for the day, said: "I will teach you the manner of surrendering arms, so in case you ever have to do it, you will know how to do it gracefully." Mr. Lincoln standing near, immediately responded: "Hold on, Lieutenant; I'll teach them that myself." He seized a musket from a soldier standing near and raised it to his shoulder a moment, as if in the act of firing upon an enemy; then letting it drop from his hand, he imitated the action of a man shot through the heart, stag- gered heavily forward, and fell upon the piece. He sprang up again 374 LINCOLN TALKS in a moment and cried: "That's the way to surrender arms! That's the kind we learn— surrender and die at the same time; never mind the grace of it." —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. BLOODSHED While I was whipping a new company into shape for the Army of the Potomac, the President with the Secretary of War came to review the outfit. Lincoln turned to Mr. Cameron, and asked: "How does this regiment compare with our soldiers of the Black Hawk War, Mr. Cameron?" "Very favorably, sir." Then Lincoln said: "I sincerely hope the organization will suffer no more bloodshed than the troops of the Black Hawk campaign." Secretary Cameron asked how much blood the men of that cam- paign had shed. "Only what the mosquitoes drew from them," drawled the President. — Capt. John H. Cummings. SALOON Like many others of our boys, the saloon or tavern was the first thing we hit. With my comrade I was just about to go into the door of one of these places, when a hand was laid upon my arm, and, looking up, there was President Lincoln from his great height above me, a mere lad, regarding me with those kindly eyes and pleasant smile. I almost dropped with surprise and bashfulness, but he held out his hand, and as I took it he shook hands in strong Western fashion and said: "I don't like to see our uniform going into these places." That was all he said. He turned immediately and walked away; and we passed on. We would not have gone into that tavern for all the wealth of Washington City. And this is what Abraham Lincoln did then and there for me. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 375 He fixed me so that whenever I go near a saloon and in any way think of entering, his words and face come back to me. —Rev. Dr. Bergen. THE DUTCH I heard a conversation between Lincoln and Stanton in relation to the selection of brigadier-generals. The many applications and recommendations were examined and discussed. Lincoln finally said: "Well, Mr. Secretary, I concur in pretty much all you say. The only point I make is, there has got to be something done that will unquestionably be in the interest of the Dutch; and to that end, I want Alexander Schimmelpfennig appointed." The Secretary replied: "Mr. President, perhaps this Schimmel— what's-his-name— is not as highly recommended as some other Ger- man officer." "No matter about that," said Lincoln; "his name will make up for any difference there may be, and I'll take the risk of his coming out all right." —Gen. James B. Fry. GOOD NAME Mr. Lincoln was signing commissions, among which was one for Brigadier-General Alexander Schimmelpfennig. "There," said Mr. Lincoln, "if the Johnnies ever capture that fellow, he will be held until the end of the war if they keep him till they learn how to pronounce his name." —Gen. James B. Fry. ORDAINED To one of his queries as to the safety of Washington, General Scott had replied: "It has been ordained, Mr. President, that the city shall not be captured by the Confederates." "But we ought to have more men and guns here," was the Chief Executive's answer. "The Confederates are not such fools as to let a good chance to capture Washington go by, and even if it has 376 LINCOLN TALKS been ordained that the city is safe, I'd feel easier if it were better protected. All this reminds me of the old trapper out in the West who had been assured by some city folks who had hired him as a guide that all matters regarding life and death were prearranged. " 'It is ordained,' said one of the party to the old trapper, 'that you are to die at a certain time, and no one can kill you before that time. If you met a thousand Indians, and your death had not been ordained for that day, you would certainly escape.' " 'I don't exactly understand this ordained business,' was the trapper's reply. 'I don't care to run no risks. I always have my gun with me, so that if I come across some reds I can feel sure that I won't cross the Jordan, 'thout taking some of 'em with me. Now, for instance, if I met an Indian in the woods, he drew a bead on me — sayin', too, that he wasn't more'n ten feet away— an' I didn't have nothing to protect myself; say it was as bad as that, the redskin bein' dead ready to kill me; now, even if it had been ordained that the Indian (sayin' he was a good shot) was to die that very minute, an' I wasn't, what would I do 'thout my gun?' "There you are," the President remarked; "even if it has been ordained that the city of Washington will never be taken by the Southerners, what would we do, in case they made an attack upon the place, without men and heavy guns?" -A. K. McClure. GENERAL SCOTT, POLITICIAN I was sent by my chief to the President with a message that referred to a military subject, and that led to a discussion. Finding that Mr. Lincoln's observations were beginning to tangle my argu- ments, I said: "That is the opinion of General Scott, and you know, Mr. President, he is a very able military man." "Well," said the President, "if he is as able a military man as he is unable as a politician, I give up." -Ma j. -Gen. E. D. Keyes COMMANDER IN CHIEF 377 SITTER "Jones [the sculptor] tells a good story of General Scott, of whom he once made a bust. Having a fine subject to start with, he succeeded in giving great satisfaction. At the closing sitting he at- tempted to define and elaborate the lines and markings of the face. The general sat patiently; but when he came to see the result, his countenance indicated decided displeasure. " 'Why, Jones, what have you been doing?' he asked. " 'Oh,' rejoined the sculptor, 'not much, I confess, General; I have been working out the details of the face a little more, this morning.' " 'Details,' exclaimed the general warmly; 'blank the details! Why, man, you are spoiling the bust!' " —Carpenter. TELEGRAM A telegram was received by General Scott, announcing the vic- tory of the Union Army, under McClellan and Rosecrans at Rich Mountain, West Virginia, July n, 1861. As military secretary I had, previously, under the commands of General Scott, disturbed the President five times that night. When I knocked for the sixth time at the door of the President's bed- chamber, he appeared, exhibiting some little vexation, in a red flannel shirt, which, out of modesty, he was holding down in front. He said: "Colonel, do you ever sleep?" The reply was: "Mr. President, I was about to ask you the same question." He said: "I have not slept much since this civil war began." The rejoinder was: "Indeed, Mr. President, I regret to have to disturb you so often" (I had to do it several times almost every night), "but you know, Mr. President, I am under authority and must obey General Scott's orders without question." 378 LINCOLN TALKS "Oh, Colonel, I understand that very well. I have been disturbed at every hour of the night tonight, and poor Mrs. Lincoln also." (It was then about 4 a.m.) "She is now asleep, and I hated to dis- turb her, but she has got my dressing-gown twisted around her feet, so I have had to come out in my red shirt. Either I have grown too long or the shirt has grown too short, I know not which." I said: "Mr. President, the telegram I hold in my hand will give you the greatest pleasure; it is the announcement of the first victory of the Union Army." "But, Colonel, what am I to do?" "Oh, Mr. President, I think we can manage that. If you will allow me for once in my life to turn my back on the President of the United States, you can let go and I can pass the telegram over my shoulder." "Do so, Colonel," said he. I faced about, and passed the telegram over my shoulder. He read it, pondered it, read it aloud. "Colonel," he asked, "is there any- thing in corroboration of this telegram?" "A great deal, Mr. President," was the reply. "Colonel," and there was a happy rhythm in his voice, a ripple of merriment and satisfaction, "Colonel, if you will come to me every night with such telegrams as that, I will come out not only in my red shirt, but without any shirt at all. Tell General Scott so." He handed me back the telegram over my shoulder, to be duly placed on file, and bade me good-night. —Gen. Daniel Butterfield. DEMOCRATIC VOLUNTEERS When President Lincoln heard that I had enlisted he sent for me. I told him that although I had been a major in the 12th Regiment, National Guard of New York, I would not know what to do with a regiment after I had raised one, in line of war, nor would I like to raise a regiment and let someone else lead it while I stayed home. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 379 "Well," said Lincoln, "you will soon learn how to command, and I will commission you as a colonel." I replied: "Mr. President, I will undertake to raise a regiment on one condition— I will not raise a regiment under any State gov- ernment, but if you authorize me to raise a regiment of United States volunteers, I will do it." "Well," answered the President, "I want you in the service any- way. You are a prominent Democrat in New York, and I want all the prominent Democrats in the country in the army." I asked: "Do you want them all killed?" "No!" he exclaimed. "Not at all. But the war cannot be success- ful unless all the parties in the country are represented in the army; if only Republicans are in the army, the war will be a failure; but if the Republicans, the Democrats, the Know-Nothings, and the Socialists are in the army, we shall be saved." "Well," I asked, "what do you say to my proposition to raise a regiment of U. S. volunteers in which I will incorporate com- panies from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and half a dozen other States?" "Sickles," said Lincoln, "I rather like that idea; yes, I rather like it. I never thought of it before, but I am afraid it is rather late, because the Governors of the States have had a taste of patronage by the appointment of officers, and they will be reluctant to give it up. However, you may try the experiment." I thereupon raised a regiment and reported to the President and was commissioned a colonel of U. S. volunteers— the only com- mission of that kind ever issued up to that time— 1 86 1. The Presi- dent soon afterwards asked me to raise another one. I inquired: "Do you want them all Democrats?' "Yes," he said, "I want you Democrats to be prominent; I want Douglas to be prominent, and Dix, and Meagher, and Cochrane to be conspicuous in the army." "All right," I replied. "I will raise another regiment." Which I did, as well as a third one, a fourth one, and a fifth one. Then the 380 LINCOLN TALKS President said he wished to appoint me to command a brigade. He said: "All the men who enlisted under you will be willing to serve under your command. I want you not only to be colonel but a brigadier general." I expressed the hope that I might deserve his confidence and win even higher rank. "Ah," he exclaimed, "but you will have to win that by hard fighting!" —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. DEMOCRATIC GENERAL When I returned to Washington, Lincoln sent for me, and after greetings said: "General, you are out of a job; now, if we only had the troops, I would like to have an expedition either against Mo- bile, New Orleans, or Galveston. Filling up regiments is going on very slowly." I said: "Mr. President, you gave me permission to tell you when I differed from the action of the Administration." He said hastily: "You think we are wrong, do you?" I said: "Yes, in this: You are making this too much of a party war. That perhaps is not the fault of the Administration, but the result of political conditions. All the Northern Governors are Re- publicans, and they of course appoint only their Republican friends as officers of regiments, and then the officers only recruit Repub- licans. Now this war cannot go on as a party war. You must get the Democrats in it, and there are thousands of patriotic Democrats who would go into it if they could see any opportunity on equal terms with Republicans." He said: "There is meat in that, General," a favorite expression of his. "What is your suggestion?" I said: "Empower me to raise volunteers for the United States and to select the officers, and I will go to New England and raise a division of 6000 men in sixty days. If you will give me power to COMMANDER IN CHIEF 381 select the officers, I shall choose all Democrats. And if you put epaulets on their shoulders, they will be as true to the country as I hope I am." He said: "Draw such an order as you want, but don't get me into any scrape with the Governors about the appointments of the officers if you can help it." The order was signed, the necessary funds were furnished the next day, and I started for New England; in ninety days I had 6000 men enlisted, and was ordered to make preparations for an expedi- tion to Ship Island. Before I left Washington I called on the Presi- dent to take leave of him. He received me very cordially, and said: "Good-by, General; get into New Orleans if you can, and the backbone of the rebellion will be broken. It is of more importance than anything else that can now be done; but don't interfere with the slavery question, as Fremont has done at St. Louis, and as your man Phelps has been doing on Ship Island." I said: "May I not arm the Negroes?" He said: "Not yet; not yet." I said: "Jackson did." He answered: "Not to fight against their masters, but with them." I replied: "I will wait for the word or the necessity, Mr. Presi- dent." "That's right; God be with you." —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. PATRIOT ENEMY I called on Lincoln at the White House to make acknowledg- ments for my appointment as a major-general. When he handed me the commission, with some kindly words of compliment, I replied: "I do not know whether I ought to accept this. I received my orders to prepare my brigade to march to Washington while trying a cause before a jury. I stated the fact to the court and asked that 382 LINCOLN TALKS the case might be discontinued, which was at once consented to, and I left, to come here the second morning after, my business in utter confusion." He said: "I guess we both wish we were back trying cases." I said: "Besides, Mr. President, you may not be aware that I was the Breckinridge candidate for Governor of my State in the last campaign, and did all I could to prevent your election." "All the better," said he. "I hope your example will bring many of the same sort with you." "But," I answered, "I do not think that I can support the meas- ures of your administration, Mr. President." "I do not care whether you do or not," was the reply, "if you will fight for the country." —Gen. Benjamin F. Butier. UNPOPULAR Politics was rife among the generals of the Union Army, and there was more "wire-pulling" to prevent the advancement of fellow-commanders than the laying of plans to defeat the Con- federates in battle. However, when it happened that the name of a particularly unpopular general was sent to the Senate for con- firmation, the protest against his promotion was almost unanimous. The nomination didn't seem to please anyone. Generals who were enemies before conferred together for the purpose of bringing every possible influence to bear upon the Senate and securing the rejection of the hated leader's name. The President was surprised. He had never known such unanimity before. "You remind me," said the President to a delegation of officers which called upon him one day to present a fresh protest to him regarding the nomination, "of a visit a certain Governor paid to the penitentiary of his State. It had been announced that the Gov- ernor would hear the story of every inmate of the institution, and was prepared to rectify, either by commutation or pardon, any wrongs that had been done to any prisoner. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 383 "One by one the convicts appeared before His Excellency, and each one maintained that he was an innocent man, who had been sent to prison because the police didn't like him, or his friends and relatives wanted his property, or he was too popular, etc., etc., The last prisoner to appear was an individual who was not at all prepossessing. His face was against him; his eyes were shifty; he didn't have the appearance of an honest man, and he didn't act like one. " 'Well,' asked the Governor, impatiently, 'I suppose you're in- nocent like the rest of these fellows?' " 'No, Governor,' was the unexpected answer; 'I was guilty of the crime they charged against me, and I got just what I deserved.' "When he had recovered from his astonishment, the Governor, looking the fellow squarely in the face, remarked with emphasis: 'I'll have to pardon you, because I don't want to leave so bad a man as you are in the company of such innocent sufferers as I have discovered your fellow-convicts to be. You might corrupt them and teach them wicked tricks. As soon as I get back to the capital, I'll have the papers made out.' "You gentlemen," continued the President, "ought to be glad that so bad a man, as you represent this officer to be, is to get his promotion, for then you won't be forced to associate with him and suffer the contamination of his presence and influence. I will do all I can to have the Senate confirm him." —Wordsworth: Lincoln Anecdotes and Stories. EAVESDROPPER Benajat G. Jayne was the personal assistant to Secretary Stanton during most of the Civil War. One day Lincoln sent for Jayne to come to the White House. "My boy," said he, "there is a letter I would like to have you look at." Jayne picked up the letter and found it was from General Dix. It conveyed the information that several Federal prisoners had escaped from Libby Prison with the aid of Abbie Green, a woman famous during the war. The letter 384 LINCOLN TALKS also said that, as the fact of Abbie's assistance was well known, she had been obliged to flee from Richmond and even then was on her way to Washington on the flag-of-tnice boat. "Now, my boy," said the President, "I don't know what I should say to any rascal who would steal that letter and have a bill passed through Congress to grant $10,000 to the relief of Abbie Green." Mr. Jayne "stole the letter," and the next day both branches of Congress passed the bill to grant $10,000 to Abbie Green. The fol- lowing morning "Honest Abe" sent for Jayne again. "I told you I didn't know what I should say," he said, "to the rascal who would steal that letter and have Congress act on it. Now I have made up my mind what to say. You go down to No. Street, get Abbie Green, take her down to Chase at the Treasury, and don't let her go until she gets that money." — Benajat G. Jayne. ARMY ORDERS It was in the summer of 1861, a short time after the Bull Run defeat, that complaint was made to Governor R — concerning the conduct of Colonel of the — Regiment, Wisconsin Vol- unteers. The colonel was a prominent man, a Democrat, and the Governor was disposed in military affairs to act impartially; but how to have the colonel transferred or "let down easy," so that no disturbance, political or other, should arise to vex him, was the question. Finally it was resolved that the matter should be left with President Lincoln. So Judge O was requested by the Gov- ernor to go to Washington and have "matters fixed." Accordingly the judge and Senator D — called at the White House and stated the case to Mr. Lincoln, and recommended that the colonel be put upon some general's staff, where he could be more useful than in the position he then occupied, and so "let him down easy." Mr. Lincoln inquired if the colonel knew anything of the plan and, upon being answered in the negative, said: "This reminds me of a little story. It was in the Mexican War— COMMANDER IN CHIEF 385 at the battle of Monterey, I believe— that a little Irish captain from Sangamon County was ordered by his colonel to a position, so and so, with his company. After hearing the order the little captain straightened up full height and said: 'Colonel, will yez be so kind as to tell that to my min yourself; for, be jabers, Colonel, I'm not on speaking terms with my company.' " —Wit and Humor of American Statesmen. BIG HOG To a curiosity-seeker who desired a permit to pass the lines to visit the field of Bull Run, after the first battle, Lincoln made the following reply: "A man in Cortlandt County raised a porker of such unusual size that strangers went out of their way to see it. One of them the other day met the old gentleman and inquired about the animal. " 'Wal, yes,' the old fellow said, 'I've got such a critter, mighty big un; but I guess I'll have to charge you about a shillin' for lookin' at him.' "The stranger looked at the old man for a minute or so, pulled out the desired coin, handed it to him, and started to go off. " 'Hold on,' said the other. 'Don't you want to see the hog?' " 'No,' said the stranger; 'I have seen as big a hog as I want to see!' "And you will find that fact the case with yourself, if you should happen to see a few live rebels there as well as dead ones." —Carpenter. COLTS General Robert C. Schenck one evening sent a telegram from Drainsville, Virginia, announcing a slight skirmish with the enemy, resulting in the capture of thirty or forty prisoners, all armed with Colt's revolvers. As Lincoln read the message, he turned to the operator, who had handed it to him, and said that the newspapers were given to such exaggeration in publishing army news that we might be sure when General Schenck's dispatch appeared in print 386 LINCOLN TALKS the next day all the little Colt's revolvers would have grown into horse-pistols. —David Homer Bates. KNOW THYSELF "Do you know General A ?" queried the President one day. "He is a really great man— a philosopher. He is a mighty thinker, because he has mastered that ancient and wise admonition: 'Know thyself; he has formed an intimate acquaintance with himself, knows as well for what he is fitted and unfitted as any man living. Without doubt he is a remarkable man. This War has not produced another like him. "Greatly to my relief, and to the interests of the country, he has resigned. The country should express its gratitude in some substantial way." -A. K. McClure. AT JONESBORO When General Rosecrans's Federal Army at Chattanooga was in danger from attack from the Confederates under General Bragg, Lincoln ordered General Burnside to go to Rosecrans's relief. A week passed and Burnside finally telegraphed that he was at Jonesboro, further away from Rosecrans than when he was ordered to hurry to his aid. Lincoln was in the telegraph office in the War Department when Burnside's telegram came. He read it and ex- claimed: "Damn Jonesboro!" It was the only time those in the War Office Telegraph Bureau ever heard the President swear. He penciled this telegram to Burn- side: "If you are to do any good to Rosecrans, it will not do to waste time with Jonesboro." —David Homer Bates. TO THE LAST CHICKEN The President told with great gusto of a crony of his named Payne whom he appointed a general at Illinois. One day a wealthy COMMANDER IN CHIEF 387 old lady, whose plantation was in the vicinity of the camp, came in and inquired for General Payne. In warm language she told him that his men had stolen her last coop of chickens, and de- manded its restoration or its value in money. "I am sorry for you, madam," replied the general, "but I can't help it. The fact is, madam, we are determined to squelch out the rebellion, if it costs every damned chicken in Tennessee." —Legacy of Fun. EXPERIENCE Weller was at Washington settling his accounts as Minister to Mexico. He went to pay his respects to Mr. Lincoln, with whom he had served in Congress. "Mr. President," said Colonel Weller, "I have called on you to say that I most heartily endorse the con- servative position you have assumed and will stand by you as long as you prosecute the war for the preservation of the Union and the Constitution." "Colonel Weller," said the President, "I am heartily glad to hear you say this." "Yes, Mr, President," said Weller, "I desire an appointment to aid in this work." "What do you want, Colonel?" asked Abraham. "I desire to be appointed commodore in the navy," said Weller. The President replied: "Colonel, I did not think you had any ex- perience as a sailor." "I never had. Mr. President," said Weller; "but, judging from the brigadier-generals you have appointed in Ohio, the less ex- perience a man has. the higher position he attains." Lincoln turned off with a hearty laugh, and said: "I owe you one, Colonel!" -Honest Old Abe's Jokes. CARE SCHURZ The more maturely I debated with myself the question of re- turning from Spain, the more fully I became convinced that in 388 LINCOLN TALKS such times the true place for a young and able-bodied man was in the field, and not in an easy chair. I waited a reasonable time, so as to avoid the appearance of treating Mr. Lincoln's kindly ad- monition lightly, and then I told him that my mind was made up. "Well," said he, "I hope that you have not forgotten that you are giving up a large salary and a distinguished and comfortable place to take one that pays little and will bring you plenty of work and discomfort, and danger. Have you talked the matter over with that handsome, dear wife of yours?" Mr. Lincoln had seen Mrs. Schurz several times, and had apparently been much pleased with her ap- pearance and conversation. "Yes," I said, "she thought it was pretty hard, but she is a good patriot." "If she agrees," said Mr. Lincoln, "then I do. I expected you to come to this decision and I shall send your name to the Senate with the next batch of brigadiers and I trust we can find you a suitable command." —Carl Schurz: Autobiography. DO SOMETHING To General James A. Garfield: "By the way, Garfield, you never heard, did you, that Chase, Stanton, and I, had a campaign of our own? We went down to Fort Monroe in Chase's revenue cutter, and consulted with Admiral Goldsborough as to the feasi- bility of taking Norfolk by landing on the north shore and making a march of eight miles. The admiral said, very positively, there was no landing on that shore, and we should have to double the cape and approach the place from the south side, which would be a long and difficult journey. I thereupon asked him if he had ever tried to find a landing, and he replied that he had not. " 'Now,' said I, 'Admiral, that reminds me of a chap out West who had studied law, but had never tried a case. Being sued, and not having confidence in his ability to manage his own case, he employed a fellow-lawyer to manage it for him. He had only a confused idea of the meaning of law terms, but was anxious to make a display of learning, and in the trial constantly made sugges- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 389 tions to his lawyer, who paid no attention to him. At last, fearing that his lawyer was not handling the opposing counsel very well, he lost all patience, and springing to his feet shouted: "Why don't you go at him with a demurrer, a capias, or a ne exeat, or a surre- butter, or a non est, or something, and not stand there like a con- founded old nudum-pactum?" ' " —Lincoln to Gen. James A. Garfield; in J. B. McClure. SHALLOW DRAFT A gunboat contractor was impressing upon Mr. Lincoln the great superiority of his boats because they would run in such shallow water. "Oh, yes," replied the President, "I've no doubt they'll run any- where the ground's a little moist." —Legacy of Fun. GUNBOATS A delegation of New York millionaires waited upon him in 1862, after the appearance of the rebel ram Merrimac, and represented to him that they were very uneasy about the unprotected situa- tion of their city, which was exposed to attack and bombardment by rebel rams; and they requested him to detail a gunboat to defend the city. The gentlemen were fifty in number, very dignified and respectable in appearance, and stated that they represented in their own right $100,000,000. Lincoln did not wish to offend these gentlemen, and yet he in- tended to give them a little lesson. He listened with great attention, and seemed to be much impressed by their presence and their state- ments. Then he replied, very deliberately: "Gentlemen, I am by the Constitution commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States; and, as a matter of law, can order anything done that is practicable to be done. But, as a matter of fact, I am not in command of the gunboats or ships of war; as a matter of fact, I do not know exactly where they are, but presume they are actively 390 LINCOLN TALKS engaged. It is impossible for me, in the present condition of things, to furnish you a gunboat. The credit of the Government is at a very low ebb; greenbacks are not worth more than forty or fifty cents on the dollar; and in this condition of things, if I was worth half as much as you, gentlemen, are represented to be, and as badly scared as you seem to be, I would build a gunboat and give it to the Government." — Depew. ADMIRAL When Admiral Foote was appointed to command the South Atlantic squadron, Lincoln bade Welles see that the Admiral's ship was quite seaworthy. "How is it you are so particular?" said the naval chief. "Why," said Lincoln, with a chuckle, "have I not placed my Foote in it?" —Legacy of Fun. MERRIMAC When the battleship Merrimac was put into service, Lincoln said: "That's a strange name. It was built to make mourning, not to make merry." —Legacy of Fun. ARMOR-CLAD "We must not let the rebels get ahead of us in such an important matter as plating vessels with iron," said Mr. Lincoln. "Naval officers doubt the stability of armored ships. They think that the amount of iron needed to make them effective would send them to the bottom," said Mr. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. "Is not that a sum in arithmetic? On our Western rivers we can figure how many tons will sink a flatboat. Can't your clerks do the same for an armored vessel?" "I suppose they can; but there are other difficulties. With such COMMANDER IN CHIEF 391 a weight a single shot piercing the armor would sink the vessel so quickly that no one could escape," 3aid Mr. Fox. "Now, as the very object of nhe armor is to get something that the best projectile cannot pierce, that objection does not appear to be sound," Mr. Lincoln replied. Mr. Fox was greatly impressed and an investigation for building iron-clad vessels *^as begun at once. A few weeks later Captain Ericsson exhibited some plans of a craft, the like of which had never been seen— a hull wholly below water, carrying a revolving iron- clad turret. President Lincoln, after hearing the explanation of Ericsson and looking over the plans, remarked: "As the darky said in putting on his boot and finding a thistle in it: *I reckon dar's somet'ing in dar.' " -G. V. Fox. ON THE MONITOR "I am not prepared for disastrous results, why should I be? We have three of the most effective vessels in Hampton Roads, any number of small craft that will hang on the stern of the Mer- rimac like small dogs on the haunches of a bear. They may not be able to tear her down, but they will interfere with the comfort of her voyage. Her trial trip will not be a pleasure trip, I am certain. We have had a big share of bad luck already, but I do not believe the future has any such misfortunes in store as you anticipate." Said Captain Fox: "If the Merrimac does not sink our ships, who is to prevent her from dropping her anchor in the Potomac where the steamer lies, and throwing her hundred-pound shells into this room, or battering down the walls of the Capitol?" "The Almighty," answered the President, excitedly, but without the least affectation. "I expect set-backs, defeats; we have had them and shall have them. They are common to all wars. But I have not the slightest fear of any result which shall fatally impair our mili- tary and naval strength, or give other powers any right to inter- fere in our quarrel The destruction of the Capitol would do both. 39 2 LINCOLN TALKS I do not fear it, for this is God's fight, and He will win it in His own good time. He will take care that our enemies do not push us too far. "Speaking of ironclads," said the President, "you do not seem to take the little Monitor into account. I believe in the Monitor and her commander. If Captain Worden does not give a good ac- count of the Monitor and of himself, I shall have made a mistake in following my judgment for the first time since I have been here, Captain. I have not made a mistake in following my clear judg- ment of men since this war began. I followed that judgment when I gave Worden the command of the Monitor. I would make the ap- pointment over again today. The Monitor should be in Hampton Roads now. She left New York eight days ago. I am sure that the Monitor is still afloat, and that she will yet give a good account of herself. Sometimes I think she may be the veritable sling that will yet smite the Merrimac Philistine in the forehead." -G. V. Fox. FAITH "Would it not be fortunate if the Monitor should sink her?" "It would be nothing more than I have expected," calmly ob- served President Lincoln. "If she does not, something else will. Many providential things are happening in this war, and this may be one of them. The loss of two good ships is an expensive lesson, but it will teach us all the value of ironclads. I have not believed at any time during the last twenty-four hours that the Merrimac would go right on destroying right and left without any obstruc- tion. Since we knew that the Monitor had got there, I have felt that she was the vessel we wanted." -G. V. Fox. SALT When the foolish rumor was current in Washington that the Monitor had been captured, the President walked over to the War Department and asked whether the report was true. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 393 "Certainly," replied an officer with due gravity. "How did the rebels succeed in capturing her?" asked the Presi- dent. "By putting salt on her tail," was the reply. The President answered only: "I owe you one." —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. stanton's navy Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had had a quarrel with Stanton, Secretary of War, concerning the safety of Washington during those days when the ironclad Confederate ship Merrimac was spreading terror. Stanton was sure the Merrimac would come up the Potomac and blow the capital to smithereens. Welles told him it was impossible; the ironclad couldn't get over shoals in the river. Nevertheless, Stanton had the army load sixty canal boats with stone ready to be sunk across the channel. For weeks these boats swung at anchor waiting the summons which did not come. Lincoln and a party of friends, passing this flotilla, discussed them. "What are they for?" asked a newcomer. "Oh, that's Stanton's navy," said Lincoln. "Stanton's navy is as useless as the paps of a man to a sucking child. They may be some show to amuse the child but good for nothing in service." —Gideon Welles. VANDERBILT "I will come to dinner, Mr. Secretary," replied Commodore Vanderbilt, "unless you expect me to appear in a swallow tail, for I came in a hurry; but there is only one thing I want to do in Wash- ington now, and that is to see old Abe, I mean President Lincoln, and if Mr. Tucker will take me over and introduce me to him, I shall be greatly obliged." "I will also go with you," said Stanton, "for I wish to inform Mr. Lincoln of this arrangement as soon as possible." So all three walked over to the White House, and Stanton pre- 394 LINCOLN TALKS sented Vanderbilt to the President, who* said: "I heard you were in town. Mr. Welles has just been here and said you were at his office inquiring about the Merrimac." "Yes," said Stanton, "we sent for Mr. Vanderbilt to consult with us on that subject, and he has a plan for sinking the Merrimac." "Well, now," said the President, "how could any man do a better thing? I am interested in this subject myself, and I should like to know how you propose to act in the premises." Vanderbilt accordingly made a statement similar to the one al- ready related, adding, however, this to it: "I intend to give her commander directions to station the Vanderbilt somewhat in the rear of the Monitor, and when the Merrimac attacks the Monitor, to circle round and ram the Merrimac at full speed. My ship may go to the bottom, but I'll be damned if that rebel craft doesn't go down with her." "That is a very bold scheme," said the President; "much like fighting a duel over a handkerchief; but I think the urgency of the case justifies it." Here Tucker interposed to explain that Vanderbilt declined all compensation for this exceptional service. "Does he, though?" said the President. "Tucker, I wish you would bring more such men to my house. I see enough of the other sort. Is that the way you do business in New York, Com- modore?" "No, it is not the way we do in New York," replied Vanderbilt; "but it is the way I do business in Washington. I built the Cornelius Vanderbilt for a race across the ocean, and I think as much of her as I do of my own children. Now I am going to sacrifice her for the good of the country, and to think of taking any compensation for it kind of chokes me." President Lincoln turned to the Secretary of War and said: "How does that make you feel, Stanton? We have often heard of Mr. Vanderbilt's mercantile ability, and I have wondered what he was COMMANDER IN CHIEF 395 like in other respects. Now, I think we know him, and that there is good stuff in him." — F. P. Stearns, in the New England Magazine, March 1909. REBUKE After his injury on the Monitor, Dr. Grenville M. Weeks came to Washington to apply for an appointment on the Medical Staff of the Army. Secretary Stanton gave him no encouragement. Dr. Weeks heard that President Lincoln was holding a recep- tion and crossed over to the White House to pay his respects. As he was about to enter the room where President Lincoln was standing, an officer blocked his way and gruffly told him to fall in at the end of the line. Lincoln overheard the order. He recalled Dr. Weeks and, turn- ing to the officer, he said: "Hereafter, whether the caller is an of- ficer or private, Major, be a gentleman," separating the syllables of the last word and emphasizing the first two. Then, turning to Dr. Weeks, the President said: "You are wounded, sir. There's a place for you, however, if you can use your head." —Dr. Grenville M. Weeks, in the New York Times. PLASTER Among the numerous delegations which thronged Washington in the early part of the war was one from New York, which urged very strenuously the sending of a fleet to the southern cities- Charleston, Mobile, and Savannah— with the object of drawing off the rebel army from Washington. Lincoln said the object reminded him of the case of a girl in New Salem, who was greatly troubled with a "singing" in her head. Various remedies were suggested by the neighbors, but nothing seemed to afford any relief. At last a man came along— "a common-sense sort of man," said he, inclining his head towards his callers pleasantly— "who was asked to prescribe 396 LINCOLN TALKS for the difficulty. After due inquiry and examination, he said the cure was very simple. 'What is it?' was the question. 'Make a plas- ter of psalm-tunes, and apply to her feet, and draw the singing down,' was the rejoinder." -W. O. Stoddard. ATTACK A delegation called upon him from New York. The members wanted the President to adopt different tactics to conquer the South. They suggested that a force be sent by sea to strike in somewhere about South Carolina or Georgia. He listened to them attentively and said: "There was an old crooked hollow log that ran through a fence into a field. A sow and her pigs were in the habit of crawling through the hollow of the log, and having a good time rooting in the field. The son of the farmer who owned the field came along one day and moved the crooked log so the elbow was in the field and both ends out. The sow entered the log as usual, grunting with satisfaction, followed by her pigs. When she came out and found herself on the same side, she was nonplused, and for hours she ran through the log expecting to find a way into the field, but always landing on the same side, the outside. Gentle- men . . ." —John H. Litdefield. SABBATH DESECRATION An eminent theologian called on the President to make personal protest against the gravest desecration of the Sabbath, when Union armies engaged in battle on the Lord's Day. Mr. Lincoln, as usual, listened attentively and respectfully. When the full argument had been stated, he glanced upward with a smile and observed: "Do you know that this Administration is in entire accord with those sentiments?" "I am more than gratified to hear it," answered the good clergy- man. "Yes, indeed; and there is only one other influence now that you COMMANDER IN CHIEF 397 need bring to bear in order to stop the pernicious practice of fight- ing battles on Sunday." "What is it, Mr. President?" "Why, just see the Confederate generals, and get them to let our soldiers alone." -H. N. B. REPORT A committee had been appointed to make a report on a newly invented gun. The report was sent for, and when it came in was found to be of the most voluminous description. Mr. Lincoln glanced at it, and said: "I should want a new lease of life to read this through!" Throwing it down upon the table, he added: "Why, can't a committee of this kind occasionally exhibit a grain of com- mon sense? If I send a man to buy a horse for me, I expect him to tell me his 'points'— not how many hairs there are in his tail." -John H. Hubbard. ABRAM HEWITT When General Grant planned his attack on Forts Donelson and Henry, Mr. Abram S. Hewitt received a dispatch one Sunday evening from the President, asking him if he could build twelve mortar carriages within a month. He telegraphed in reply that he would undertake it if the department would send him a model. The model was sent on Tuesday, and the same night Mr. Hewitt sent a message that he would undertake the work. The carriages were delivered in twenty-eight days. For this work he was not paid promptly, and since he was much in need of money, he went to Washington, after waiting a long time, and applied to Secretary of War Stanton. Stanton gave him a note to the President. When Lincoln saw him— he was of rather short stature— he asked: "Are you Mr. Hewitt?" 1 am. "Wei!," said Lincoln, who saw before him a man who had done 398 LINCOLN TALKS in one month what no other manufacturer would promise in six months, "I expected to see a man at least eight feet high." The President sent for Mr. Stanton, and asked why he did not pay Mr. Hewitt's bill. The Secretary replied that he was powerless, but that the President, as commander in chief, could put the mat- ter through, which he did by writing on the bill: "O.K. A. Lin- coln." — Abram S. Hewitt. ROCKET TEST One evening a party of six or eight, including Mr. Lincoln, came to the Navy Yard, where they had arranged to demonstrate the workings of certain signaling rockets, several of which were sent up with good results. When the last one was tried, it soared aloft, leaving its streams of fire trailing behind, but when half-way up it exploded prematurely and fell to the water a miserable failure. "Well," remarked Lincoln, "small potatoes and few in a hill." —Com. F. S. Dupont. GUN TEST Mr. Lincoln at once put my rhetoric and embarrassment to flight by taking me by the hand and saying: "Well, what does little Connecticut want?" As I proceeded to comment upon the unfairness of submitting a Connecticut invention to a rival gun- maker, the unfriendly tests adopted, and the supreme importance of a gun which would do more execution at the muzzle than at the breech, Mr. Lincoln listened with evident interest. Ames, the inventor, had stated that a record existed of the various charges, the number of firings, and the respective results to each gun, and that it would vindicate all he claimed, but he had been denied ac- cess to it. Mr. Lincoln closed the interview by requesting me to procure it, and bring it to him at eight o'clock that evening. At my suggestion, he took an executive envelope from a bundle which was always on his table and wrote the following: "Let Mr. — COMMANDER IN CHIEF 399 of Connecticut have a copy of such record as he indicates. A. Lincoln." We got what we wanted and took it to the President that eve- ning. Mr. Lincoln sat at an office desk under which his long legs protruded. At first he had on a pair of slippers, but as the conversa- tion progressed, he unconsciously withdrew his feet, disclosing a pair of dark yarn stockings, through which he had worked his great toe, and this he kept in almost perpetual motion. The record verified the claim of Mr. Ames, and after much dis- cussion and searching questions, Mr. Lincoln took an executive envelope and wrote the following: "If Horatio Ames will make ten wrought-iron guns after this method, which will answer satis- factorily such tests as I shall order, I will see that he gets paid $i per pound for each gun. A. Lincoln." Thus ended my first interview. I never saw Ames afterward, but was told by Oakes Ames, his brother, that the guns were made, answered all tests, and that his brother received $100,000 on the strength of that envelope. —Augustus Brandegee. SHOOTING The President took a lively interest in all new firearms im- provements and inventions, and it sometimes happened that, when an inventor could get nobody else in the Government to listen to him, the President would personally test his gun. A former clerk in the Navy Department tells an illustrative incident. He had stayed late one night at his desk, when he heard some- one striding up and down the hall muttering: "I do wonder if they have gone already and left the building all alone." Looking out, the clerk was surprised to see the President. "Good evening," said Mr. Lincoln. "I was just looking for that man who goes shooting with me sometimes." The clerk knew Mr. Lincoln referred to a certain messenger of 400 LINCOLN TALKS the Ordnance Department who had been accustomed to go with him to test weapons, but as this man had gone home, the clerk offered his services. Together they went to the lawn south of the White House, where Mr. Lincoln fixed up a target cut from a sheet of white Congressional notepaper. "Then pacing off a distance of about eighty or a hundred feet," writes the clerk, "he raised the rifle to a level, took a quick aim, and drove the round of seven shots in quick succession, the bullets shooting all around the target like a Gatling gun and one striking near the center. " 'I believe I can make this gun shoot better,' said Mr. Lincoln, after we had looked at the result of the first fire. With this he took from his vest pocket a small wooden sight which he had whittled from a pine stick, and adjusted it over the sight of the carbine. He then shot two rounds, and of the fourteen bullets nearly a dozen hit the paper!" -A. K. McClure. INTERVIEW I had nearly recovered from my wound when I returned to Washington to find I had been honorably discharged because of its severity. I decided to see Lincoln about it. With fear and trembling, I sent in my little card, stating I was a wounded soldier. He at once admitted me, leaving generals, Senators, and others waiting. I asked him if there was not some way I could serve my country more. "Well, my boy, you are serving your country by being wounded. However, I am glad you want to serve your country more." He was reading a letter as I entered. He looked at me over his spectacles, then lifting them above his eyes on his forehead, he looked at me searchingly, as if looking for my wound. Then he took off his glasses and laid them on the table. I remember it was a long table piled with maps and books. He arose and walked COMMANDER IN CHIEF 4OI slowly around to where I stood— no longer with fear, but as if I had met my best friend. He put his hand on my shoulder. "And you would like to go back to the front? But you are too badly wounded for that! Wait a little. Go back home and get well and strong. We are thinking of organizing an Invalid Corps to displace able men now on guard duty, and when we are ready for wounded recruits, send in your name and you shall do more duty for your country!" He then asked me where and when I was wounded. "Oh, yes, these bad bulls that ran, but the last was not so mad-bad as the first." He then asked me about the management of the sec- ond Bull Run battle. I told him I felt my commander McDowell had been sacrificed by the jealousy of other generals. And I had the pleasure of entertaining him quite a little, while the great men waited in the lobby. — Capt. George Edward Hall, in Bruno's Review of Two Worlds, Feb. 192 1. RABBI The day that Lincoln issued one of his early war proclama- tions, I chanced to be at the White House with a distinguished New York rabbi, Dr. Morris J. Raphall, who came to Washington to ask for the promotion of his son Alfred from a second to a first lieutenancy in the army. The White House was closed for the day when we got there, but upon sending up my card we gained ad- mittance, and after Lincoln had heard the rabbi's request he blurted out: "As God's minister is it not your first duty to be at home to- day to pray with your people for the success of our arms, as is be- ing done in every loyal church throughout the North, East, and West?" The rabbi, evidently ashamed at his faux pas, blushingly made answer: "My assistant is doing that duty." "Ah," said Lincoln, "that is different." The President then drew forth a small card and wrote the following upon it: "The Secretary of War will promote Second Lieutenant Raph- all to a first lieutenancy. A. Lincoln." 402 LINCOLN TALKS Handing the card to the rabbi, he said, with a smile all his own: "Now, Doctor, you can go home and do your own praying." — Adolphus S. Solomons. officer's qualifications Another time, a major called. He was anxious to get into Gen- eral Hancock's corps; he told that to the President and left his papers. He returned and reminded Mr. Lincoln of his application and requested a reply. "Yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "I have read your papers, but I do not find anything very strong in them." "Why," said the major, "don't you see what General Hancock said?" "Yes, he says you are a gallant officer." "What more could you want him to say?" asked the major in surprise. "Why," replied Mr. Lincoln, "he does not say that you are a sober officer." The man carried signs of dissipation on his face. The only comment the President made after the soldier walked out without a word was: "I dare not restore this man to his rank and give him charge of a thousand men, when he puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains." —Thomas F. Pendel. ON PROMOTION Adjutant Aldrich and myself were selected to go to Washington and recommend the promotion of our colonel, Halbert E. Paine, to the grade of brigadier-general of volunteers. I stated briefly the object of our visit, spoke quite earnestly of Colonel Paine's merits and qualifications, and handed the paper to the President. He took the papers and said: "I will first see what I have here in relation to Wisconsin brigadiers." He took some papers from pigeon-holes above the desk, and spreading them before him, de- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 403 liberately read aloud the recommendations upon which Generals King and Cutler had been appointed. After returning these papers to their place he said: "Now we will read your papers"; and he read them in the same manner as he had read the others. Then turning tome he asked: "How many regiments has your State in the service?" I answered: "Twelve in the field, and seven more in process of formation in the State." He said: "Allowing four regiments to a brigade, that would en- title you to another brigadier; but I must not make unnecessary of- ficers; now if General Dix had said in his letter that he needed another brigadier to properly organize his force, I would imme- diately appoint Paine on these letters." I said: "Mr. President, I think General Dix would have said so, had he thought it necessary to secure the appointment; but he probably thought it was for you to say when another brigadier would be appointed for Wisconsin." He replied: "Young man, when you become an applicant for promotion I hope you will find as earnest an advocate. But I can- not appoint anyone without an apparent necessity. However, I will refer to these papers whenever the question of appointing a briga- dier from Wisconsin comes up. These papers are stronger than those upon which I have made two appointments from your State. I have no doubt that in time your colonel will be promoted. That is all that I can say to you now." Two months later, having been promoted to be major of the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, I went again to Washington. My two younger brothers were enlisted men in my company, and I desired to have them transferred with me to the cavalry. I had prepared a petition asking their transfer, which had been approved by Colonel Paine, General Lockwood, and General Dix; and I presented this petition to General Seth Williams, then Assistant 404 LINCOLN TALKS Secretary of War. He said quickly: "It cannot be done"; and handed me a copy of the President's order forbidding future trans- fers in volunteer regiments. I said that I had read the order, but had hoped that an exception might be made in favor of my brothers; but that I would decline the promotion and return to my regiment. The general answered: "Since you are here, I would not do that; but there is only one man who can help you. This is an executive order; only Mr. Lincoln can make an exception to it." I answered: "I will not trouble the President with so small a mat- ter," but he said: "I think you might try, rather than refuse promo- tion. State the case clearly to the 'old man.' He does curious things sometimes." In a few moments I again stood before Mr. Lincoln. He looked tired and worn, but said quickly: "You have been here before." "Yes, Mr. President, I presented letters recommending Colonel Paine, of Wisconsin, for promotion." "I remember. Well, Paine has not been promoted yet, but he will be." "Mr. President, I have come to you on a purely personal matter. I have been commissioned major of the First Wisconsin Cavalry, and wish to accept; but I cannot go unless I can have my younger brothers transferred with me. They are enlisted men in my com- pany. My military superiors have approved my petition, and Gen- eral Williams at the War Department showed me your order but told me I might come to you. He has written here what will grant my request if you sign it; if you do you will make me very happy." He asked very slowly: "How many men have you in your com- pany?" "Ninety-seven, sir." "When you issue an order to your men you try to set them an example of obedience, do you not?" "I do, sir." "I have issued this order at the request of General McClellan be- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 405 cause men seek transfers to avoid duty, or to find opportunities to desert; besides, the volunteer force is becoming so large that fre- quent transfer would encumber the records and require more clerks. Don't you think I ought to set an example of obedience to my own order?" "Yes, sir; but, I thought that one who made an order might make an exception to it." "But if I made one exception I would be asked to make a thou- sand; each one would think his case peculiar; as you think yours." "Mr. President, I am sorry that I troubled you. I will return to my regiment." "No, you must not return to your regiment. Your Governor has thought you worthy of this promotion, you must accept it. You en- listed to do all you could to put down the rebellion, did you not?" "Yes, sir." "You have a hundred men under you; how many would you have if you were a major of cavalry?" "Four hundred, sir." "You could do more with four hundred than you could with one hundred, could you not?" "Yes, sir; but I cannot leave my brothers; they are younger than I am; we must stay together; please give me the paper and let me go." "Did it ever occur to you that if you got your brothers trans- ferred and one of them should be hurt, you would think he might have escaped unhurt if you had left him in the old regiment? Are you not assuming too much responsibility for your brothers? They were manly enough to enlist; then they will be manly enough to take care of themselves. It is your duty to accept the promotion." "Forgive me, Mr. President, for having troubled you; I want to do my duty; I would like to be a major of cavalry; but my mother let my brothers enlist under me. She would not think I did right if I left them to take promotion in another regiment." He answered very slowly: "I understand you; take this paper, 406 LINCOLN TALKS go to your room; think this matter all over; then if you wish me to sign the paper, bring it here at seven o'clock this evening; say you came by appointment; they will let you in; I will be in this room, and if you then want me to sign this paper give it to me and I will sign it." We had been standing; he held out his hand; my throat was swell- ing and my eyes were full; I said: "Good-by, God bless you, Mr. Lincoln," and I never saw him again. But I shall never forget the sad, kind look upon his face. —Oscar H. La Grange, in the Milwaukee Telegraph, Apr. u, 1886. SUPERIOR I received a letter from the Honorable James S. Jackson, the member of Congress from the district in Kentucky in which I had formerly resided, informing me that he was going back to his State to raise a regiment of cavalry, and wanted me to accompany him and accept the position of lieutenant-colonel. At once I rode into Washington to confer with him. The only way this could be done was to get a leave of absence, to enable me to accept the position. I called on Adjutant-General Thomas and submitted the question to him. He objected. I proceeded to Jackson's rooms to report progress. "Well," said he, "tonight we will go up and see Mr. Lin- coln." Jackson stated the case, and Mr. Lincoln said: "Come up in the morning at ten o'clock, and I will go over with you to see Mr. Thomas." Promptly at ten o'clock we were again at the Executive Man- sion. We proceeded at once to General Thomas's office, where the President became spokesman. He said: "General Thomas, I would like to have a leave of absence granted to my Confederate friend, Captain Johnson, to enable him to accept the position of lieutenant- colonel of a Kentucky cavalry regiment." "It cannot be done," said Thomas. "But," said Mr. Lincoln, straightening himself up until he looked to be fifteen feet high, "I have not come over to discuss this ques- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 407 tion with you, General Thomas, but to order you to give the necessary instructions." In less than an hour I had my order in my pocket. — Capt. Albert E. H. Johnston. INFLUENCE Judge Baldwin of California, an old and highly respectable and sociable gentleman, called on General Halleck and solicited a pass outside of the Federal lines to see a brother in Virginia, not think- ing that he would meet with a refusal, as both his brother and him- self were good Union men. "We have been deceived too often,' 7 said General Halleck, "and I regret I can't grant it." Judge Baldwin then went to Stanton and was kindly disposed of with the same result. Finally he obtained an interview with Lincoln and stated his case. "Have you applied to General Halleck?" inquired the Presi- dent. "And met with a flat refusal," said Judge Baldwin. "Then you must see Stanton," continued the President. "I have, and with the same result," was the reply. "Well, then," said old Abe, with a smile of good humor, "I can do nothing; for you must know that I have very little influence with this Administration." —Judge Joseph Baldwin. BLAME After Lee had taken Harpers Ferry, President Lincoln deter- mined to fix the responsibility. Halleck was summoned, but he did not know where the blame lay. "Very well," said Lincoln, "I'll ask General Schenck." Schenck disclaimed any blame. Gilroy also entered a plea of "not guilty." Hooker was next given a hear- ing and he was equally emphatic in his disclaimer of responsibility. Then the President assembled the four in his room and said: "Gen- tlemen, Harpers Ferry was surrendered, and one of you, it seems, is responsible. I am very anxious to discover who is." After strid- ing across the room several times the President suddenly threw up his bowed head and exclaimed: "I have it! I know who is responsi- ble." 408 LINCOLN TALKS "Who, Mr. President; who is it?" anxiously inquired the quartet. "Gentlemen," said the President, "General Lee is the man." -H. N. B. IN WRITING One of the most familiar figures about the Capitol at Washing- ton for nearly twenty years after the close of the late war was Colonel Tom Worthington, a West Point officer who commanded an Ohio regiment during the earlier part of the Rebellion. He was dismissed from the service for alleged disobedience of orders at the battle of Shiloh, and for too free criticism of his superior officers. Seeking redress, he immediately went to Washington, and spent every winter there until he died. Constantly begging to be rein- stated in the service, he bored President Lincoln almost to death. One day Worthington called General Tom Ewing out of the House of Representatives and said to him: "Lincoln's a fool!" "What makes you think so?" asked Ewing. "Read this note," said Worthington, pulling a paper from his pocket. The letter was dated at the Executive Mansion, and read as fol- lows: "I have several times informed Mr. Worthington, verbally, that he was unfit to be a colonel, and now, at his request, I put it in writing. A. Lincoln." —Hertz: Lincoln. CIVILIAN WAR During the latter part of the war a woman friend of the Lincoln family said to the President: "My son is a West Point graduate and his record is excellent. His superior officers have recommended his promotion, but he has not been promoted. Every week large num- bers of civilian officers are being promoted through the instru- mentality of Senators and Congressmen. I can get no Senator or Congressman to interest himself in my son. I come to you as a last COMMANDER IN CHIEF 4OQ resort in behalf of a young officer in every way qualified for pro- motion." "My dear woman," said Lincoln, with real interest, "your son is not the only one in just that fix. I hear of them every week. The trouble is with the Senate. They won't do anything for anyone but civilians. Leave your son's case with me. The only way I can get him promotion is to sandwich his name in with five civilians, for it seems that only when five civilians are promoted can a West Point man get consideration from the Senators, and then he can't get through unless he goes in with the five, all in a bunch." — Depew. MILITARY APTITUDE I drove to the Executive Mansion about eight o'clock in the evening. As other visitors passed out, I went in, giving as an ex- planation that I found no one by whom I could send in my card. Mr. Lincoln stopped my apology, saying that he was not much wedded to red tape and circumlocution, adding, familiarly: "What can I do for you, Lew?" Informing him of my wish to go with McLean to Fort Lafayette, I said I desired him to give me a permit to do so. "Is that all? Most certainly will I"; and, picking up a blank card, he wrote in pencil: "Allow Col. Lew D. Campbell to enter Fort Lafayette. A. Lin- coln." I read it, and thanking him, said: "All right, Mr. President, as far as it goes; but I would much prefer to have you add one thing more." Taking the card again, and reading aloud, he inquired: "What more do you think necessary?" "Please add the words 'also to come out'!" Leaning back in his chair, he laughed loud enough to be heard all over the mansion. After adding the words, which he said was very important in those days, he inquired: "Lew, why did you not remain in the army? You ought to be there." I replied: "My health failed, and I could not have lived until now in the service; but why 410 LINCOLN TALKS do you think I should have remained?" "Because," said he, "you seem to have the natural elements for successful military service. Whilst you are disposed to push forward, you have at the same time the prudence to guard the rear and provide for a safe retreat if necessary." —Col. Lew D. Campbell. Cromwell's successor There was a Mississippi River pilot named Billy Patterson, who was remarkably skillful in running the Confederate batteries. So successful was he that when they took an old river boat and sheeted it with iron and mounted it with a couple of guns, Billy Patterson applied for the captaincy. He went before the examination board and the first question which they asked him was this: "Who suc- ceeded Cromwell?" Billy Patterson promptly answered: "Tom Watson." "Tom Watson!" exclaimed the chairman. "Are you drunk? What do you mean by taking up the valuable time of this commit- tee with such fool answers!" Billy said: "I guess I know what I am talking about; old Sam Cromwell was the captain of the Lady Gay, and when he died, Tom Watson took his place." Said the chairman: "I want you to understand I am not talking about Mississippi River steamboats or pilots. I am talking about Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England." Billy Patterson said: "I don't know and don't care a damn who he was; I ain't hunting for his job." The chairman of the board wrote across the application: "Not recommended— ignorant and insolent." But Billy Patterson had plenty of friends to take up his case. His friends interviewed peo- ple in his behalf and they went to Washington with an accumula- tion of endorsements. At last Senator Washburne, of Illinois, took up the case of Billy Patterson, and he went to see Mr. Lincoln. He found him almost overwhelmed with a mountain of docu- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 4II ments. He had gone through them all and had reached the last one and was just about to O.K. the application, when he turned to Sena- tor Washburne and said: "I want you to see what I am going to write." He took his pen and wrote on the back of the application: "This seems to have become a sort of triangular contest between Charles Stuart, Oliver Cromwell, and Billy Patterson. It is gen- erally believed hereabouts that Charles and Oliver are dead. If the committee upon investigation finds this to be the fact, give the appointment to Billy Patterson." — E. B. Washburne. EXAMINATION Dick Gower had shown his bravery and his capacity among the Western Indians, but was rejected by the board of military mar- tinets at Washington, because he "did not know what an abatis, or echelon, or hollow square was." "Well," sharply said the dilettante officer, "what would you do with your command if the cavalry should charge on you?" "I'd give them hell, that's what I'd do; and I'd make a hollow square in every mother's son of them." Lincoln signed his lieu- tenant's commission. -W. O. Stoddard. MILITARY HISTORY To Secretary Stanton: "Dear Sir: I personally wish Jacob Freese of New Jersey to be appointed colonel for a colored regiment, and this regardless of whether he can tell the exact shade of Julius Caesar's hair." — Nicolay and Hay. COMMISSION Having read the packet, the President turns to him and says: "And you want to be a captain?" Boy: "Yes, sir." 412 LINCOLN TALKS Lincoln: "And what do you want to be captain of? Have you got a company?" Boy: "No, sir, but my officers told me that I could get a cap- tain's commission if I were to present my case to you." Lincoln: "My boy— excuse my calling you a boy— how old are you?" Boy: "Sixteen." Lincoln: "Yes, you are a boy, and from what your officers say of you, a worthy boy and a good soldier, but commissions as cap- tains are generally given by the Governors of the States." Boy: "My officers said you could give me a commission." Lincoln: "And so I could, but to be a captain you should have a company or something to be captain of. You know a man is not a husband until he gets a wife— neither is a woman a wife until she gets a husband. I might give you a commission as captain and send you back to the Army of the Potomac, where you would have nothing to be captain of, and you would be like a loose horse down there with nothing to do and no one having any use for you." At this point the boy, who had come to Washington full of hope, broke down, and his eyes filled with tears. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln, putting his hand affectionately upon his shoulder and pat- ting him, said: "My son, go back to the army, continue to do your duty as you find it to do, and, with the zeal you have hitherto shown, you will not have to ask for promotion, it will seek you. I may say that had we more like you in the army, my hopes of the successful outcome of this war would be far stronger than they are at present. Shake hands with me, and go back the little man and brave soldier that you came." — T. B. Bancroft. MATHEMATICIAN Morrison's highest boyish ambition had always been for an ap- pointment to West Point, and he directed his energies toward se- curing letters of introduction and commendation from his influen- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 413 tial friends in Ohio. Fortified with his bundle of letters, he sought an interview at the White House in the early spring of 1 865. The door- keeper was inclined to turn the boy away; but Mr. Lincoln, hap- pening to pass through the hall at the moment, directed that he should be admitted to his private office. Young Morrison made his appeal in earnest but halting words. He was only sixteen, and small for his years. The President sought to place him at his ease and, while taking up the package of letters, he said: "Well, son, so you want to go to West Point, and wish me to help you get there. Is that it? Now suppose we sit right down here on the floor and take the skins off these things," referring to the papers Morrison had brought with him. Together the great man and the small boy squatted tailor-fashion on the rug in front of the official desk, as the President glanced from letter to letter. Suddenly he looked up and said: "Boy, do you realize that I have only ten appointments to give, and there are at least a thousand applicants? Now what chance do you suppose you have?" "Just one in a hundred, Mr. President." Mr. Lincoln clapped his hands and responded: "Good arithmetic! You shall go! I will make a note of it now." —Told by the widow of Capt. Charles Clifford Morrison. BLUE BLOOD In the early part of the Civil War a former lieutenant in the Prussian army, who had been forced on account of bad debts to leave his own country, was given an audience by the President. Lincoln was much impressed by the alertness of the young man and by his marks of intelligence and training, and promised him a lieu- tenancy of cavalry. The officer, delighted with his favorable recep- tion, thought it proper to tell Mr. Lincoln that he belonged to one of the oldest noble houses of Germany. The President listened to 414 LINCOLN TALKS the young man's recital and then he smiled at him reassuringly. "Oh, that is all right," he said, "you won't find that the slightest obstacle to your advancement." -W. O. Stoddard. MONOPOLY A woman with a commanding air told Lincoln: "Mr. President, you must give me a colonel's commission for my son. Sir, I de- mand it, not as a favor, but as a right. Sir, my grandfather fought at Lexington. Sir, my uncle was the only man that did not run away at Bladensburg. Sir, my father fought at New Orleans and my hus- band was killed at Monterey." "I guess, madam," replied Lincoln, "your family has done enough for the country. It is time to give somebody else a chance." —Anthony Gross. JUDGE ADVOCATE Lincoln sent Bingham's name to the Senate for appointment as Judge Advocate with the rank of major. Bingham called on Lin- coln and told him he had had no experience in military law and was unfit for the place. "Well," said Lincoln. "I know no common-law lawyer under- stands martial or military law, but I think you can learn it as soon as anyone I know, and I wish you to accept the appointment that you may try before a court martial the Surgeon General of the United States, against whom grave charges are preferred, for which he must be tried by court martial, and I am sure as Judge Advocate of the court, if the Surgeon General is innocent, you will find it out and protect him." —John A. Bingham. CREDENTIALS I arrived at the White House at 9: 30, sent in my card, and in two minutes was in Abe's presence, and alone with him. That was COMMANDER IN CHIEF 415 a piece of good luck. He asked me to be seated. I handed him Bob's letter (Bob being my friend Robert T. Lincoln, of the class of 1864), told the President what I wished, answered two or three questions as to my residence, age, etc., and seated myself by the fire while he took the letter and a pen. After a few minutes he looked up and laughingly read this endorsement to me: "Mr. Rogers wishes to be an Assistant Paymaster in the Navy. I know not whether there is a vacancy. The within shows that my son Bob has a high opinion of him. (Signed) A. Lincoln." — Nicolay and Hay. adjutant-general's clerk A clerk from the Adjutant-General's Office called at the White House, and expressed to Mr. Lincoln his desire to be appointed an Assistant Adjutant-General. "Do you know whether there are any vacancies in the Adjutant- General's Office at this time?" asked the President. "There are none," replied the clerk, "but it has occurred to me that I might be appointed, and assigned to the staff of some general officer commanding a corps, division, or brigade." "Exactly," said Mr. Lincoln; "but has any corps, division, or brigade commander applied for you on his staff?" "Not that I am aware of," was the answer. "Well, sir, do you know of any general officer who wants you upon his staff?" asked the President. "I cannot say that I do at this time, sir," replied he. "Then," said Mr. Lincoln, "it seems to me that you might just as well ask me to marry you to a woman who didn't want you as to expect me to send you to a general who didn't want a clerk pro- moted from the Adjutant-General's Office; and if I were to force any general to take you against his wishes, I reckon he would have as good cause to apply for a divorce as the woman would have who didn't want a husband; so that it looks to me, Smith, as if you had 416 LINCOLN TALKS better remain where you are in the Adjutant-General's Office until somebody wants you elsewhere." —Gen. James B. Fry. GIBBON I was introduced to President Lincoln in front of Fredericksburg, when we were directed to call on him. Among others the division commander introduced me, and my name seemed to strike the ear of the President in a funny manner, and he cocked his head to one side and said: "Is this the man who wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?'''' Mr. Lincoln saw me color up at that, and came across the room, and put his hand on my shoulder, and said: "Never mind, Gibbon, if you will write the decline and fall of this rebellion, I will let you off." — Ma j .-Gen. John Gibbon. CHAPLAINS A delegation of clergymen called on the President in reference to the appointment of army chaplains. They said that the character of many of the chaplains was notoriously bad, and they had come to urge upon the President the necessity of more discretion in those appointments. "But, gentlemen," said the President, "that is a matter with which the Government has nothing to do; the chaplains are elected by the members of the regiments." Not satisfied with this, the clergymen pressed in turn a change in the system. Mr. Lincoln heard them through without a remark, and then said: "Without any disrespect, gentlemen, I will tell you a little story. Once, in Springfield, I was going off* on a short journey, and reached the depot a little ahead of time. Leaning against the fence outside the station was a little darky boy, whom I knew, named Dick, busily digging with his toe in a mud puddle. As I came up I COMMANDER IN CHIEF 417 said: 'Dick, what are you about?' 'Making a church/ said he. 'A church?' said I. 'What do you mean?' 'Why, yes,' said Dick, point- ing with his toe. 'Don't you see? There's the steps and there's the door, here's the pews where the folks sit, and there's the pulpit.' 'Yes, I see,' said I, 'but why don't you make a minister?' 'Laws,' answered Dick with a grin, ' 'cause I hain't got mud enough.' " —Lincoln Stories. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL To Dubois and Hatch, who wanted an appointment which was filled, he telegraphed: "What nation do you desire General Allen to be made quarter- master-general of? This nation already has a quartermaster-general. A. Lincoln." —Jesse K. Dubois. REFORMED Lincoln came into the telegraph office chuckling to himself over a fairy-story book that someone had given to Tad, who was holding his father's hand as he entered the room. He thereupon re- peated the story to the cipher-operators. It told how a mother hen tried to raise a brood of chicks, but was much disturbed over the conduct of a sly old fox, who ate several of the youngsters while still professing to be an honest fox; so the anxious mother had a serious talk with the old reynard about his wickedness. "Well, what was the result?" one of us asked, when it appeared that Lincoln did not intend to continue his narrative. "The fox reformed," said Lincoln, his eyes twinkling, "and be- came a highly respected paymaster in the army, and now I am wondering which one he is." —Charles A. Tinker, cipher operator, War Dept. POKER A quartermaster having neglected to present his accounts in proper shape, and the matter being deemed of sufficient importance 418 LINCOLN TALKS to bring it to the attention of the President, the latter remarked: "Now this instance reminds me of a little story I heard only a short time ago. A certain general's purse was getting low, and he said it was probable he might be obliged to draw on his banker for some money. " 'How much do you want, Father?' asked his son, who had been with him a few days. " 'I think I shall send for a couple of hundred,' replied the general. " 'Why, Father,' said his son, very quietly, 'I can let you have it.' " 'You can let me have it! Where did you get so much money?' " 'I won it playing draw-poker with your staff, sir! ' replied the youth. "The earliest morning train bore the young man toward his home, and I've been wondering if that boy and that quartermaster had happened to meet at the same table." -A. K. McClure. PAYMASTER At one of the receptions, when a paymaster in full major's uni- form was introduced, he said: "Being here, Mr. Lincoln, I thought I would call and pay my respects." "From the complaints made by the soldiers," responded the President, "I guess that is all any of you do pay." —Legacy of Fun. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS In 1863, a certain captain of volunteers was on trial in Washing- ton for a misuse of the funds of his company. The accused officer made only a feeble defense, and seemed to treat the matter with indifference. After a while, however, a new charge— that of dis- loyalty to the Government— came into the case. The accused was at once excited to a high degree of indignation, and made a vigor- ous defense. He appeared to think lightly of being convicted of embezzling, but to be called a traitor was more than he could bear. At the breakfast-table, one morning, the President, who had COMMANDER IN CHIEF 419 been reading an account of this case in the newspaper, began to laugh and said: "This fellow reminds me of a juror in a case of hen-stealing which I tried in Illinois many years ago. The accused man was summarily convicted. After adjournment of court, as I was riding to the next town, one of the jurors in the case came cantering up behind me, and complimented me on the vigor with which I had pressed the prosecution of the hen-thief. Then he added: " 'Why, when I was young, and my back was strong, and the country was new, I didn't mind taking off a sheep now and then. But stealing hens! Oh, Jerusalem!' " -Paul Selby. EVADING ORDERS One morning President Lincoln asked Major Eckert, on duty at the White House: "Who is that woman crying out in the hall? What is the matter with her?" Eckert said it was a woman who had come a long distance ex- pecting to go down to the army to see her husband. An order had gone out a short time before to allow no women in the army, ex- cept in special cases. Mr. Lincoln sat moodily for a moment after hearing this story and, suddenly looking up, said: "Let's send her down. You write the order, Major." Major Eckert hesitated a moment, and replied: "Would it not be better for Colonel Hardie to write the order?" "Yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "that is better; let Hardie write it." The major went out, and soon returned, saying: "Mr. President, would it not be better in this case to let the woman's husband come to Washington?" Mr. Lincoln's face lighted up with pleasure. "Yes, yes," was the President's answer in a relieved tone; "that's the best way; bring him up." — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. 420 LINCOLN TALKS HOMESICK SOLDIER He had been shot through the lungs when on picket in '63, and was in the hospital at Fortress Monroe. For weeks he had been ly- ing there, till he had grown dreadfully homesick, and felt as if the only thing that could cure him was to get home to Maryland. One morning Lincoln visited the hospital, and as he was passing around, pausing before each cot to speak a word of cheer to each wounded soldier, this one made up his mind that if he gave him a chance, he would make known his wants. At last his turn came. "You seem very comfortable, my friend," Lincoln said. "Not so comfortable as I should be if I could get home to Mary- land," was the reply. "What is your name?" "S. Stover, Company H, 2d Maryland Volunteers," was promptly answered, and Lincoln passed on. In just three days came an order from the President to transfer Private Stover, Company H, 2d Maryland Volunteers, by water to the hospital at Annapolis. "I was surprised myself," he said; "for I had watched him as long as he was in sight, and when I saw him go through the door without writing down my name and company, I gave up all hope of seeing my Maryland again. And it has always been a mystery to me that a man with so much to think of should keep in mind the name, regiment, and company of a private soldier." —Private S. Stover. FAIR A woman, somewhat advanced in life, was admitted, in her turn, to Mr. Lincoln. Her husband and three sons, all she had in the world, had enlisted. Her husband had been killed, and she had come to ask the President to release to her the oldest son. Being satisfied of the truthfulness of her story, Lincoln said: "Certainly, if your prop is taken away, you are justly entitled to COMMANDER IN CHIEF 42I one of your boys." He wrote an order for the discharge of the son. The woman thanked him gratefully, and went away. On reach- ing the army, she found that this son had been wounded and taken to a hospital. She found the hospital, but the boy was dead. The surgeon in charge made a memorandum of the facts upon the back of the President's order, and, almost broken-hearted, the woman found her way again into his presence. He was much affected by her story, and said: "I know what you wish me to do now, and I shall do it without your asking. I shall re- lease to you your second son." Upon this, he took up his pen and commenced writing the order. While he was writing, the woman stood by his side, the tears running down her face, and stroked his rough hairs as a fond mother caresses a son. By the time he had finished writing, his own heart and eyes were full. He handed her the paper. "Now," said he, "you have one and I one of the other two left; that is no more than right." She took the paper, and reverently placing her hand again upon his head, the tears still upon her cheeks, said: "The Lord bless you, Mr. Presi- dent! May you live a thousand years, and always be the head of this great nation!" —James Speed. DISOBEDIENT BOYS Two boys ran away from their parents while under age and en- listed in the navy. The parents finally got an audience with Mr. Lincoln and said that the worst fault of the boys was their dis- obedience to parental commands. Mr. Lincoln listened quietly to the story of the anxious fathers. He made no answer to their earnest appeals for the boys' discharge but, reaching over to an adjoining table, picked up a blank card and wrote these words: "Secretary Welles: The United States don't need the services of boys who disobey their parents. Let both Snyder and Ratcliffe be discharged. A. Lincoln." — Nicolay and Hay. 422 LINCOLN TALKS LETTER HOME During the war he frequently visited the hospitals and addressed cheering words to the wounded soldiers. On one occasion he found a young fellow whose leg had been amputated, and he was evi- dently sinking rapidly. "Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Lincoln. "You might write a letter to my mother," was the reply. The President wrote at the youth's dictation: "My dear Mother, I have been shot bad, but I am bearing up. I tried to do my duty. They tell me I cannot recover. God bless you and Father. Kiss May and John for me." At the end these words were added as a post- script: "This letter was written by Abraham Lincoln." When the boy perused the epistle and saw the added words, he looked with astonished gaze at the visitor, as he asked: "Are you our Presi- dent?" "Yes," was the quick answer; "and now that you know that, is there anything else I can do for you?" Feebly the lad said: "I guess you might hold my hand and see me through." —Kiivanis Magazine. RIGHT SIDE The President says his political friends often remind him of the following story: A rebel lady visited the hospital at Nashville one morning with a Negro servant, who carried a large basket on his arm, covered with a white linen cloth. She approached a German and accosted him thus: "Are you a good Union man?" "I ish dat," was the laconic reply of the German, at the same time casting a hopeful glance at the aforesaid basket. "That is all I wanted to know," replied the lady, and beckoning to the Negro to follow, she passed to the opposite side of the room, where a rebel soldier lay, and asked him the same question, to which he promptly replied: "Not by a damned sight." The lady thereupon uncovered the basket and laid out a bottle of wine, mince pies, COMMANDER IN CHIEF 423 pound cake, and other delicacies, which were greedily devoured in the presence of the indignant Union soldiers. On the following morning, however, another lady made her appearance with a large covered basket, and she also accosted our German friend and desired to know if he was a Union man. "I ish, by Got; I no care what you got; I bese Union." The lady set the basket on the table, and our German friend thought the truth availed in this case, if it did fail in the other. But imagine the length of the poor fellow's face when the lady uncovered the basket and presented him with a bushel of tracts. He shook his head dolefully and said: "I no read English, und, peside, dat rebel on 'se oder side of 'se house need tern so more as me." Not long afterwards along came another richly dressed lady, who propounded the same question to the German. He stood gaz- ing at the basket, apparently at a loss for a reply. At length he an- swered her in Yankee style, as follows: "By Got, you no got me dis time; vot you got mit de pasket?" The lady required an unequivocal reply to her question, and was about to move on when our German friend shouted out: "If you got tracts, I bese Union; but if got mince pie mit pound cake unt vine, I be secesh like de tibel." -H. N. B. ROSECRANS, COMMANDING It was in the border States that the Civil War was felt most severely. Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Missouri were the debatable ground, occupied first by one army and then by the other. Missouri, in particular, suffered greatly from guerrilla war- fare. The headquarters of the army of the southwest were at St. Louis, with General Rosecrans commanding. He had been so an- noyed by the depredations of bushwhackers that he finally de- clared his determination to retaliate in kind. When, therefore, tidings were received that a major and two 424 LINCOLN TALKS soldiers had been attacked and murdered by the "Bald Knobbers," the general gave instant orders that a Confederate major and two private soldiers should be taken out and shot. The order was at once executed as far as the privates were concerned, but, strange to say, among all the prisoners, of whom the city was full, not a major was to be found. The prisoners had got wind of the affair, and although there were many captains and lieutenant-colonels, no one confessed to the rank of major. But General Rosecrans was not to be thwarted. Not long after, a Major Lyons was captured coming into the city in disguise, and an order for his execution was issued forthwith. The officer had in- fluential friends, however, who bestirred themselves in his behalf. They appealed to the President; and before the day appointed for the execution a telegram was received from Washington ordering a reprieve until there should be time for the examination of the papers in the case. The general was very angry. He threw the telegram on the table with indignation. "Officials a thousand miles away," he stormed, "interfere with orders they know nothing whatever about!" He had better resign at once, he declared, if he was to be allowed no liberty of action. If his orders were to be set aside in the face of the enemy, and he was to be thwarted at every turn, how much au- thority did they suppose he would be able to enforce? He would not submit to being incessantly interfered with in this way. But the orders were peremptory; there was no help for it; let the general storm as he would, the execution must be delayed; and command was given accordingly. In about ten days came a letter, not from the War Department, but from the President himself. "I have examined personally all the papers in the Lyons case," wrote President Lincoln, "and I cannot see that it is a matter for executive interference. So I turn it over to you with full confidence that you will do what is just and right; only begging you, my dear General, to do nothing in reprisal for the past— only what is neces- sary to ensure security for the future; and reminding you that we COMMANDER IN CHIEF 425 are not fighting against a foreign foe, but our brothers, and that our aim is not to break their spirits, but only to bring them back to their old allegiance. Conquer by kindness— let that be our policy. Very truly yours, A. Lincoln." When General Rosecrans took up the letter, it was with a sneer. "I suppose this is to set aside my authority altogether," he said. But as he read the lines his face softened, until at the end his eyes were moist. Putting the letter into an inner compartment of his private drawer, he turned to his desk and wrote a line or two. "See that it is carried out," he said, handing the slip of paper to the adjutant, and he went back into his own private room. Everyone crowded around [the adjutant], expecting to see the order for an immediate execution, which, now that the heat of the moment was over, seemed almost a relapse into barbarism. Great was their astonishment when they read the words: "Let Major Lyons be released on parole. Rosecrans, Commanding." —Gen. James B. Fry. DISLOYALTY The President sat at a desk with an open space cut through it, and I can remember yet how amazingly far out into the floor his feet stretched, for he was lounging deep down in his chair. I re- member that what first struck me was the extraordinary longness of the man; then I looked at his face and saw there the homely force and honesty and kindliness that shone out of him. The officer from Buffalo saw it, too, I suppose, for he heartened up right away, though he had been worrying as to what he would say. He just spoke right out and told Lincoln everything and Lincoln looked at him steadily but not unkindly as he talked. "I haven't had any pay for seven months," said the officer, "and my wife needed the money. I tell you, Mr. President, she was ac- tually hungry. I got drunk that night and talked foolishly, but I couldn't have said anything disloyal. I haven't got a disloyal thought or a disloyal drop of blood in me." 426 LINCOLN TALKS "Well," said Lincoln, after a little pause, and speaking very de- liberately, "if I'd been fighting seven months and got no pay and Ann had no food"— I remember he spoke of Mrs. Lincoln as Ann— "I presume I'd say something disloyal myself." Then he reached over and wrote a request that the officer from Buffalo be restored if his record was all right. —Lieut. R. M. Shurtleff, in the New York Sun, Feb. 13, 1900. AUDIENCES In all, I suppose, I was with Lincoln fifteen minutes. He said something in his dry way, in answer to a remark about his being so busy, as to the queer visitors he had. "Why, washerwomen come here to see me," he said, "and ask me to make the soldiers pay their washing bills. They mean it, too." A little later while I was still in the corridor, an elderly woman and her daughter came out after talking to Lincoln and the woman went down in a heap on the floor and rolled there like one in mortal agony. Her son had been sentenced to death as a deserter and she had come to beg the President for his life, but Lincoln would promise her nothing except that he would investigate. His investi- gation showed that the culprit was a mere boy, and the President let him off. -Lieut. R. M. Shurtleff. FACTOTUM When I approached Lincoln's desk I heard him say: "Well my man, that may all be so, but you must go to your officers about it." The man, however, presuming upon Lincoln's good nature, and determined to make the most of his opportunity, persisted in retelling his troubles and pleading for the President's interference. After listening to the same story two or three times as he gazed wearily through the south window of his office upon the broad Potomac in the distance, Lincoln turned to the man and said in a peremptory tone that ended the interview: "Now, my man, go COMMANDER IN CHIEF 427 away, go away! I cannot meddle in your case. I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the de- tails of the army." -H. N. B. LEG CASES "No one need ever expect me to sanction the shooting of a man for running away in a battle," Lincoln said to me once. "I won't do it. A man can't help being a coward any more than he could help a humpback, if he were born with one." Then turning to me again, he said: "Voorhees, were you ever scared?" I confessed that I had some little experience that way. "So have I," said Lincoln, laughing, "and I just know what it means. And in any contest or controversy which arises between the head and the heels, I never knew the heels to get anything but the best of it. No, sir; they needn't send any leg cases to me at all. I'll never order a man shot for any such offense." Once he turned to me with a pathetic look of anxious pain and said: "Voorhees, doesn't it seem strange that I should be here— I, a man who couldn't cut a chicken's head off— with blood running all around me?" —Sen. Daniel W. Voorhees. TARES AND WHEAT I felt no special awe of this man because he was President. I was quite used to seeing the great men of both North and South. I sim- ply told how my father was a Union man, one of the three in Fred- ericksburg who had voted against secession; how he was a minister of the Gospel as well as a business man; how his flock w T as scattered, their church building taken for barracks, his business ruined and property devastated. I told him how, on the Sunday following the recent battle of Chancellorsville, about sixty Federal soldiers straggled into Fredericksburg, got drunk, were captured by a party of young men, disarmed, and run off down to Richmond, where they were in prison. My father knew nothing of this until 428 LINCOLN TALKS afterward, when he said: "Those boys have done an evil thing this day." A few hours later my father, with fifty-nine other of the best men in Fredericksburg, was arrested and they are all lying in Fort Delaware as hostages for those drunken soldiers. The captors have found very pressing business detaining them far within the Confederate lines. There was an occasional gentle question; otherwise the Presi- dent listened intently, sometimes apparently amused. Then he said: "Did you ever read the parable of the tares and the wheat?" I said: "Yes, sir." "Well," he went on, "your father is doubtless good wheat, that in the gathering has got mixed with the tares." "Not so, sir," I answered, quickly; "the tares went right into Richmond; my father is with the good wheat in Fort Delaware." The President laughed almost merrily, saying: "I never could argue with women; I always get the worst of it." Then after a short silence he said: "Well, my little girl, even a President can't always do as his heart prompts him; there may be some reason why I can- not interfere. The Senator will bring me all the papers on Monday. If I can possibly do it, your father shall be released, but if I can- not you will try to bear it?" "Yes," I sighed, "I guess I'll have to." He took my hand with such a tender, pitying clasp in his own great, bony one, and walked with us into the lobby. I wish I could tell you of Mr. Lincoln's manner and expression. His was the best face, but about the homeliest, I ever saw. You forgot the homeli- ness when he talked to you. Very soon my father was released. I did not then know, as I do after the lapse of years, what it was for that busy, burdened man to give me those precious moments, that hearty interest, that invalu- able help. -Edward D. Neill. SLEEPER George C. Alden of Company K, 7th Massachusetts Regulars, had fallen asleep on his post. The fact that he was subject to fits of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 429 sleeping sickness, against which he was powerless to struggle, found no place for consideration in the crude, summary justice of the field. As he awaited the execution of a court martial's decree, Samuel Breck, a friend and fellow-townsman, wrote to Senator Sumner setting out all the facts. Sumner's endorsement on the back of the letter is as follows: "I ask attention to this letter from an estimable citizen hoping that proceedings should be delayed against George C. Alden for sleeping at his post. Charles Sumner." Then follows Lincoln's respite: "I know nothing of this case- know not where Mr. Alden is— whether any proceedings are on foot against him— I should not knowingly let him be punished, if shown he has the infirmity stated in the affidavit, though the in- firmity may be sufficient reason for dismissing him from the service. A. Lincoln, May 21, 1862." —Charles Sumner. EXAMPLE To Judge Bromwell, of Denver, in March 1865: "I've had more questions of life and death to settle in four years then all the men who sat here in this chair put together. But I've managed to get along and do my duty as I believe, but there's no man who knows the distress of my mind. There have been some of them I couldn't save; there are some cases where the law must be executed. There was the case of Beal on the lakes. That was a case where there must be an example. They tried me in every way. They wouldn't give up; but I had to stand firm on that, and I even had to turn away his poor sister, when she came and begged for his life, and let him be executed, and he was executed and I can't get the distress out of my mind yet." —Lincoln to Judge Bromwell. REMORSE The wife of Colonel Scott, commanding a New Hampshire regi- ment, was killed in a steamboat collision on the Potomac near 430 LINCOLN TALKS Hampton Roads. The body was found, and Colonel Scott was notified of his wife's death. It happened just at this time that im- perative orders were issued from the War Department prohibiting all intercourse with the Peninsula, and Colonel Scott's application for permission to return to Virginia was refused by Secretary Stanton. At the suggestion of a friend, Colonel Scott determined to appeal directly to the President. Accordingly they went to the President's summer home, a few miles from the city, but were unfortunate in finding Mr. Lincoln in one of his most despondent and discouraged moods. Colonel Scott stated his case and preferred his request, but the President said sharply: "Go to Secretary Stanton; this is his affair." "I have been to him, Mr. President, and he will do nothing." "Then I can do nothing," said the President. "Mr. Stanton has done right; he knows what he is about. We are at war, and sorrow is the lot of all. You must bear your share," and with as brusque a motion as the kindly nature of the man permitted Mr. Lincoln dis- missed his visitors. Colonel Scott, though deeply depressed, bore his disappointment like the brave soldier that he was, and with his friend returned to Washington. Before Colonel Scott was fully dressed the following morning, there came a knock at the door and, opening it, he saw the Presi- dent. Mr. Lincoln came forward and, grasping the officer's hand, said: "I treated you brutally last night and I beg your pardon. I was utterly tired out at the time, but I was sorry enough when you had gone, and I thought I'd drive into town in the cool of the morn- ing and make it all right." "This is very good of you, Mr. President," said the colonel, deeply moved. "No, it is not," responded Mr. Lincoln. "I never should have for- given myself if I had not righted what I said last night. Now, come with me, Colonel, and we will go to the War Department and see Mr. Stanton about this matter." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 43 1 Early as it was, they found the Secretary of War at his post. The President requested not only that Colonel Scott receive a leave of absence, but that a small steamer be sent to bring back the body of Mrs. Scott, which, of course, was done. "Humanity, Mr. Stanton," said the good man, "should over- come even considerations of policy in matters like this." -Mrs. F. W. Low. FURLOUGH One Sunday morning a lieutenant-colonel was pacing up and down in front of Secretary Seward's house. He saluted the Presi- dent in military fashion as the two statesmen passed him; but there was something in his expression that arrested Mr. Lincoln's atten- tion. He walked up to the officer and shook hands with him, saying: "You seem to be in a peck of trouble." "Yes," said the officer, slowly, "I am in deep trouble; my wife is dying at our home in the interior of Pennsylvania, and my applica- tion for a furlough of two weeks was peremptorily refused yester- day by my colonel. My God! What can I do? If I go home my colonel will surely brand me as a deserter. I shall be arrested on my return— and shall military etiquette keep me from my dying wife?" Mr. Lincoln was visibly affected. "Never mind, young man," said he, "we'll try and fix this matter." He pulled a card from his vest pocket, and as he leaned against the broad oaken door of the Seward mansion, after the Secretary had handed him a lead pencil, he wrote on the back of the visiting card: "Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: "It is my desire that Lieutenant-Colonel be granted leave of absence for fifteen days to see his dying wife. A. Lincoln." The officer trembled like a leaf, speechless with emotion, and as he was hastening away, Lincoln, as if to conceal his own feelings, 432 LINCOLN TALKS playfully shook his index finger at the officer, and said: "If I ever catch you in Washington again, I'll make a brigadier-general of you." — Nicolay and Hay. URGENT A certain Northern regiment was wearing its heart out close to the border somewhere in Virginia, and the boys were homesick and discontented, and one of them in particular sat around with his head in his hands and would not eat, and could not sleep. He went to the officer in charge and asked for a furlough; the officer told him that the President had issued orders that there were to be no more furloughs for two years; the boy groaned aloud and drew a letter from his pocket and handed it to the officer without a word. It was a poor, little tear-stained letter, badly worded and badly spelled, and it told a poor, little, terrified helpless story. It was from a girl in the little village back home, who had urgent reasons for being married without delay to her soldier lover, and the boy wanted to go home and marry her. The officer took the letter and sent it by special courier to Washington to the President of the United States, and the Presi- dent read it and turned it over and wrote on the back of it: "Dear Colonel: Let John go home and marry Mary. A. Lincoln." —Hertz: Lincoln. HOSPITALS I entered the White House, not with fear and trembling, but strong and self-possessed, fully conscious of the righteousness of my mission. I was received without delay. I had never seen Mr. Lin- coln before. He alone, in a room, no elegance about him, no ele- gance in him. He raised his eyes, saying: "Mrs. Harvey?" In a mo- ment he looked at me with a good deal of sad severity and said: "Madam, this matter of Northern hospitals has been talked of a great deal, and I thought it was settled, but it seems not. What have you got to say about it?" COMMANDER IN CHIEF 433 "Only this, Mr. Lincoln, that many soldiers in our Western army on the Mississippi River must have Northern air or die. There are thousands of graves all along our Southern rivers and in the swamps for which the Government is responsible, ignorantly, undoubtedly, but this ignorance must not continue. If you will permit these men to come North you will have ten men where you have one now." "If your reasoning were correct, it would be a good argument. I don't see how sending one sick man North is going to give us in a year ten well ones." "Mr. Lincoln, I intended to say, if you will let the sick come North, you will have ten well men in the army one year from to- day, where you have one well one now; whereas, if you do not let them come North, you will not have one from the ten, for they will all be dead." "Yes, yes, I understand you; but if they are sent North, they will desert; where is the difference? " "Dead men cannot fight," I answered, "and they may not desert." Mr. Lincoln's eye flashed as he replied: "A fine way, a fine way to decimate the army; we should never get a man of them back, not one, not one." "Indeed, but you must pardon me when I say you are mistaken; you do not understand our people. You do not trust them suf- ficiently. They are as true and as loyal to the Government as you say. The loyalty is among the common soldiers and they have ever been the chief sufferers." "This is your opinion," he said with a sort of a sneer. "Mrs. Harvey, how many men do you suppose the Government was paying in the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Antietam, and how many men do you suppose could be got for active service at that time? I wish you would give a guess." "I cannot, Mr. President." He threw himself around in the chair, one leg over the arm, and again spoke slowly: "This war might have been finished at that time if every man had been in his place that was able to be there, 434 LINCOLN TALKS but they were scattered hither and thither over the North, some on furloughs, and in one way or another, gone; so that out of 170,- 000 men which the Government was paying at that time, only 83,- 000 could be got for action. The consequences, you know, proved nearly disastrous." "It was very sad but the delinquents were certainly not in Northern hospitals, neither were they deserters therefrom, for there are none. This is, therefore, no argument against them." "Well, well, Mrs. Harvey, you go and see the Secretary of War and talk with him and hear what he has to say." "May I return to you, Mr. Lincoln?" I asked. "Certainly," he replied, and his voice was gentler than it had been before. I left him for the War Department. I found written on the back of the letter these words: "Admit Mrs. Harvey at once; listen to what she says; she is a lady of intelligence and talks sense. A. Lin- coln." On my return to Mr. Lincoln, the messenger said I had better go directly into the President's room. I found my way to the back part of the room, and seated myself on a sofa in such a position that the desk was between Mr. Lincoln and me. I do not think that he knew I was there. The gentleman with him had given him a paper. The President looked at it carefully and said: "Yes, this is suf- ficient endorsement for anybody; what do you want?" The promo- tion of somebody in the army, either a son or a brother, was strongly urged. At this the President threw himself forward in his chair in such a manner as to show me the most curious, comical face in the world. He was looking the man straight in the eye with the left hand raised to a horizontal position, and his right hand patting it coax- ingly, and said: "My friend, let me tell you something; you are a farmer, I believe; if not, you will understand me. Suppose you had a large cattle yard, full of all sorts of cattle, cows, oxen, and bulls, and you kept selling your cows and oxen, taking good care of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 435 your bulls; by and by, you would find that you had nothing but a yard full of old bulls, good for nothing under heaven, and it will be just so with my army if I don't stop making brigadier generals.'* The man was answered; he could scarcely laugh, though he tried to do so, but you should have seen Mr. Lincoln laugh— he laughed all over, and fully enjoyed the point if no one else did. The story, if not elegant was certainly apropos. The gentleman soon departed, fully satisfied, I doubt not, for it was a saying at Washington when one met a petitioner: "Has Mr. Lincoln told you a story? If he has, it is all day with you. He never says 'yes' after a story." I stepped forward as soon as the door closed. The President mo- tioned to a chair near him. "Well, what did the Secretary of War say?" I gave a full account of the interview, and then said: "I have nowhere else to go but to you." He replied earnestly: "Mr. Stanton knows very well that there is an acting surgeon-general here, and that Hammond will not be back these two months. I will see the Secretary of War myself, and you come in the morning." I returned in the morning, full of hope, but no smile greeted me. The President was evidently annoyed by something, and waited for me to speak, which I did not do. I after- ward learned his annoyance was caused by a woman pleading for the life of a son who was sentenced to be shot for desertion under very aggravating circumstances. After a moment he said: "Well," with a peculiar contortion of face I never saw in anybody else, "have you nothing to say?" "Nothing, Mr. President, until I hear your decision. You bade me come this morning; have you decided?" "No, but I believe this idea of Northern hospitals is a great hum- bug, and I am tired of hearing about it." He spoke impatiently. I replied: "I regret to add a feather's weight to your already over- whelming care and responsibility. I would rather have stayed at home." 436 LINCOLN TALKS With a kind of half smile, he said: "I wish you had." I answered him as though he had not smiled. "Nothing would have given me greater pleasure; but a keen sense of duty to this Government, justice and mercy to its most loyal supporters, and regard for your honor and position made me come. The people cannot understand why their friends are left to die when with proper care they might live and do good service for their country. Mr. Lincoln, I believe you will be grateful for my coming. I do not come to plead for the lives of criminals, not for the lives of deserters, not for those who have been in the least disloyal. I come to plead for the lives of those who were the first to hasten to the support of this Government, who helped to place you where you are, because they trusted you. Men who have done all they could, and now when flesh, and nerve, and muscle are gone, still pray for your life and the life of this re- public. They scarcely ask for that for which I plead— they expect to sacrifice their lives for their country." While I was speaking, the expression of Mr. Lincoln's face had changed many times. He had never taken his eye from me. Now every muscle in his face seemed to contract and then suddenly ex- pand. As he opened his mouth you could almost hear them snap as he said: "You assume to know more than I do." "You must pardon me, Mr. President, I intend no disrespect, but it is because of this knowledge, because I do know what you do not know, that I come to you. If you knew what I do and had not ordered what I ask for, I should know that an appeal to you would be made in vain; but I believe the people have not trusted you for naught. The question only is whether you believe me or not. If you believe me you will give me hospitals, if not, well " With the same snapping of muscles he again said: "You assume to know more than surgeons do." "Oh, no! Mr. Lincoln, I could not perform an amputation nearly as well as some of them do; indeed, I do not think I could do it at all. But this is true— I do not come here for your favor, I am not an aspirant for military honor. I have visited the hospitals, from earlv COMMANDER IN CHIEF 437 morning until late at night sometimes. I have visited the regimental and general hospitals on the Mississippi River from Quincy to Vicksburg, and I come to you from the cots of men who have died, who might have lived had you permitted. This is hard to say, but it is none the less true." During the time that I had been speaking, Mr. Lincoln's brow had become very much contracted, and a severe scowl had settled over his whole face. He sharply asked how many men Wisconsin had in the field, that is, how many did she send? I replied: "About 50,000, 1 think, I do not know exactly." "That means she has about 20,000 now." He looked at me, and said: "You need not look so sober, they are not all dead. I have a good mind to dismiss every man of them from the service and have no more trouble with them!" The spell must be broken, so I said: "Do not speak so, Mr. Presi- dent. Who will have so much reason to rejoice when the Govern- ment is restored, as it will be?" "I know, I know," he said, placing a hand on each side and bow- ing forward, "but the springs of life are wearing away." As I rose to take leave, I said: "Have you decided upon your answer to the object of my visit?" He replied: "No. Come tomorrow at twelve o'clock." The messenger said: "The President desires you to wait, for the Cabinet will soon adjourn." I waited and waited, and waited, three long hours and more, during which time the President sent out twice, saying the Cabinet would soon adjourn, that I was to wait. He came forward, rubbing his hands, and saying: "My dear madam, I am very sorry to have kept you waiting. We have but this moment adjourned." I replied: "My waiting is no matter, but you must be very tired, and we will not talk tonight." He said: "No. Sit down," and placed himself in a chair beside me, and said: "Mrs. Harvey, I only wish to tell you that an order 438 LINCOLN TALKS equivalent to granting a hospital in your State has been issued nearly twenty-four hours." I could not speak, I wept for joy. When I could speak I said: "God bless you. I thank you in the name of thousands who will bless you for the act." Then, remembering how many orders had been issued and countermanded, I said: "Do you mean really and truly, that we are going to have a hospital now?" With a look full of humanity and benevolence, he said: "I do most certainly hope so." He said he wished me to come and see him in the morning and he would give me a copy of the order. I was very ill and it was ten o'clock the next morning before I was able to send for a carriage to keep my appointment with the Presi- dent. I did not expect an audience, but sent in my name and said I would call again. The messenger said: "Do not go, I think the President will see you now." I had been but a moment among anxious, expectant, waiting faces, when the door opened and the voice said: "Mrs. Harvey, the President will see you." As I passed the crowd, one person said: "She has been here every day, and what is more, she is going to win." I entered the presence of Mr. Lincoln for the last time. He smiled very graciously and drew a chair near him, and said: "Come here and sit down." He had a paper in his hand which he said was for me to keep. It was a copy of the order just issued. I thanked him, not only for the order but for the manner and spirit in which it had been given, then I said I must apologize for not having been there at nine o'clock as he desired me to be, but that I had been sick all night. He looked up with: "Did joy make you sick?" I said: "I don't know, very likely it was the relaxation of nerves after intense excitement." Still looking at me he said: "I suppose you would have been mad if I had said no?" COMMANDER IN CHIEF 439 I replied: "No, Mr. Lincoln, I should have been neither angry nor sick." "What would you have done?" he asked curiously. "I should have been here at nine o'clock, Mr. President." "Well," he laughingly said, "I think I acted wisely, then," and suddenly looking up: "Don't you ever get angry?" he asked. "I know a little woman not very unlike you who gets mad sometimes." I replied: "I never get angry when I have an object to gain of the importance of the one under consideration; to get angry, you know, would only weaken my cause, and destroy my influence." "That is true, that is true," he said, decidedly. "This hospital I shall name for you." I said: "No, but if you would not consider the request indeli- cate, I would like to have it named for Mr. Harvey." "Yes, just as well, it shall be so understood if you prefer it. I honored your husband, and felt his loss, and now let us have this matter settled at once." He took a card and wrote a few words upon it, requesting the Secretary of War to name the hospital "Harvey Hospital," in mem- ory of my husband, and to gratify me he gave me the card, saying: "Now do you take that directly to the Secretary of War and have it understood." I thanked him, but did not take it to Mr. Stanton. The hospital was already named. I expressed a wish that he might never regret his present action, and said I was sorry to have taken so much of his time. "Oh, no, you need not be," he said kindly. "You will not wish to see me again, Mr. President." "I didn't say that and shall not." I said: "You have been very kind to me and I am grateful for it." He looked at me from under his eyebrows and said: "You almost think me handsome, don't you?" His face then beamed with such benevolence and was lighted by such a pleasant smile that I looked at him, and with my usual im- 440 LINCOLN TALKS pulse, said, clasping my hands together: "You are perfectly lovely to me, now, Mr. Lincoln." He colored a little and laughed most heartily. —Cornelia A. P. Harvey. POSTMASTER Wall enlisted early in the war, and while at the front wrote let- ters to his sweetheart, Elizabeth Jones, who also lived in Mulberry Grove, Illinois. There was another Elizabeth Jones in that town, and, according to Mr. Wall, the Elizabeth Jones to whom he was not engaged got all the other Elizabeth's letters. This was rather embarrassing to the soldier, and he tried by every means to get the letters to the proper girl. He even put her father's name on the envelopes with the girl's but still the wrong Elizabeth read the right Elizabeth's letters. Finally the exasperated boy resolved to write to the President himself, explaining the difficulty. By the next mail the President's reply came, couched in terms somewhat as follows: "I am very sorry. Whom do you want for postmaster at Mul- berry Grove, Bond County, 111.? A. Lincoln." To this the soldier-lover responded, recommending a crippled cobbler. Within a few days the change took place, the mail was delivered to the right Elizabeth Jones, and by his warm-hearted action Abraham Lincoln was a great factor in bringing about the Wall-Jones wedding, which took place soon after the war. —James G. Johnson. PRESIDENTIAL DUTIES A farmer from one of the border counties went to the President on a certain occasion with the complaint that the Union soldiers in passing his farm had helped themselves not only to hay but to his horse; and he hoped the proper officer would be required to con- sider his claim immediately. "Why, my good sir," replied Mr. Lincoln, "if I should attempt to consider every such individual case, I should find work enough COMMANDER IN CHIEF 44I for twenty Presidents! In my early days, I knew one Jack Chase, who was a lumberman on the Illinois, and, when steady and sober, the best raftsman on the river. It was quite a trick twenty-five years ago to take the logs over the rapids, but he was skillful with a raft, and always kept her straight in the channel. Finally a steamer was put on, and Jack— he's dead now, poor fellow!— was made captain of her. He always used to take the wheel going through the rapids. One day, when the boat was plunging and wallowing along the boiling current, and Jack's utmost vigilance was being exercised to keep her in the narrow channel, a boy pulled his coat- tail and hailed him with: 'Say, Mister Captain! I wish you would just stop your boat a minute— I've lost my apple overboard!" —Carpenter. VEGETARIAN Linton Park, a painter and decorator, enlisted at Washington, and was assigned to the Second District of Columbia Regiment. Mr. Park was a vegetarian, so he took his troubles to no less a per- son than President Lincoln. He explained that, in some respects, he was like the children of Israel, after they set out from Egypt. He could not forget "the leeks and onions" with which he was wont to regale himself back in Indiana County. "You want me to turn you out to graze like Nebuchadnezzar?" Lincoln asked. "It would beat salt pork," was Mr. Park's reply. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln wrote carelessly on an ordinary sheet of paper: "The bearer, Linton Park, is herewith granted permis- sion to browse wherever he chooses." —Linton Park. FRANKING It was no easy matter to get letters home during the Civil War. Soldiers who were near Washington had their letters franked by Senators and Representatives— and they were kept busy with their pens. On one occasion Frank King, a private in a Wisconsin regi- 442 LINCOLN TALKS ment, got a package of envelopes and with a friend Henry Dunn went to the White House and asked Mr. Lincoln to frank the en- velopes. The President asked: "Why don't you get your Congress- man to frank these envelopes? I am very busy, boys." "The folks at home would like to see your name on the en- velopes, Mr. President," was the reply. Mr. Lincoln smiled and, taking a pen, he wrote on one of the envelopes: "Let it go. A. Lincoln." He carefully blotted it and, handing it to the young man, said: "Take this with the rest of the package to your Congressman Scott Sloan and tell him that I said to fix them for you. If he refuses, and I don't think he will, bring them back to me." — Capt. Thomas Jones. TOBACCO When the advance of the Union army entered Petersburg, guards were at once placed about the public buildings and tobacco ware- houses. We boys, many of us, wanted tobacco, and when we came upon a large warehouse, near which we halted, a grand rush for the place was made. But there we met the guards with "strict or- ders" not to permit any foraging. There was a general protest, some saying: "We deserve all we can take, after fighting and marching so many days." While we were considering ways and means of getting at their tobacco, and cursing the commanding general, one of us spied an elderly man standing some distance off. He wore a slouch hat, and his brown, sunburned face and general appearance suggested to the soldiers that he was a Southerner. So a delegation approached the old Virginian, and the spokesman accosted him thus: "Say, do you own that tobacco warehouse?" He replied slowly and with a sort of drawl: "Well, perhaps I do, boys. Why do you want to know?" Thus encouraged, several flocked around him and asked if he COMMANDER IN CHIEF 443 would give us some. The old Southerner quietly walked over to the entrance and asked the guard: "May I see the officer in com- mand, please?" Upon this a young lieutenant with a brilliant new uniform pompously strode forward. "Who are you? Do you own this warehouse?" With a sudden look of surprise and pain at the officer's manner, the Southerner said: "Will you please call your superior officer?" "Not for any — rebel son of a — ," replied the lieutenant. At this, the rebel took out a notebook, and writing hastily, asked if there was an orderly with a horse to be had; and one of the men came forward and volunteered to deliver the note, which was ad- dressed to General U. S. Grant. In a few minutes General Grant, covered with dust, came galloping up in great haste. He sprang from his horse and, grasping the hand of the old rebel, exclaimed: "Mr. President, how can I serve you?" The lieutenant now became pale, while the soldiers sent up a shout; as the news spread, cheering could be heard among the crowds in the distance. Approaching the President, the abashed young officer stammered an apology, expecting instant dismissal. Lincoln, with some severity, said to him: "Young man, don't always judge by appearances. And treat your elders with more respect in the future." The boys were given a sufficient quantity of tobacco to satisfy their desires for some time. —Dr. J. E. Burriss. FELLOW-PATRIOT At a time when the camp fires of the Confederate Army were in sight of Washington, and, of course, when the whole time and thought of the President were strained to the limit, a man appeared at the door of the White House insisting on seeing the President personally, but for several days he was denied admission. The mat- ter finally coming to Mr. Lincoln's ears, he gave instructions that the man on his next appearance should be admitted. He proved to 444 LINCOLN TALKS be a common laboring man living on the outskirts of the city, his habitation commanding a view of the Smithsonian Institute and Arlington Heights as well. After looking about very carefully and satisfying himself that the doors were all closed and no one within earshot, he gravely in- formed the President that every night at midnight for the several weeks past a signal had been flashed from the tower of the Smith- sonian Institute to the Confederates encamped across the river, and he thought it should be brought to the attention of the Presi- dent, the only official in whom he had absolute confidence. Mr. Lincoln, placing his hand on the man's shoulder, very kindly informed him that that was the lantern of the man whose duty it was to take the reading of the weather instruments situated there, and assured the man that his loyalty was appreciated by the Gov- ernment, and urged him always to come and inform the President of anything suspicious that he might observe. Most men would have sent the man away with a reminder that the time of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation should not be taken up by trifles, but not so Abraham Lincoln. —J. H. Morse. PETITION OF WORKING WOMEN The petition of the women employees of the Philadelphia ar- senal set forth that: "At the breaking out of the rebellion that is now deluging our land with blood, and which for a time threat- ened the destruction of the Nation, the prices paid at the U. S. Arsenal in this city were barely sufficient to enable the women en- gaged upon Government work to earn a scanty respectable sub- sistence. Since the period referred to, board, provisions, and all other articles of female consumption have advanced to such an extent as to make an average of at least seventy-five per cent, while women's labor has been reduced thirty per cent." President Lincoln referred the matter to Secretary Stanton with the following comment: "I know not how much is within the legal COMMANDER IN CHIEF 445 power of the Government in this case; but it is certainly true in equity, that the laboring women in our employment should be paid at the least as much as they were at the beginning of the war. Will the Secretary of War please have the cases fully examined, and so much relief given as can be consistently with the law and the public service? A. Lincoln. July 27, 1864." —Hertz: Lincoln, FORMALITIES In the summer of 1862, 1 had occasion to call on the President in Washington, to urge the claim of an officer whose pay had been unjustly withheld by the War Department. I said: "I have not called to ask for an office either for myself or any friend." I then went on to cite the facts in the case of the officer. When I had fin- ished, Mr. Lincoln said: "When you came in, you said you did not come to ask for office, but the fact is, you bring up a matter which will give me more trouble than any application for office." After looking over some documents, Lincoln added: "I do not see how the Government of the United States can afford not to pay an officer for rendering it services." He then endorsed on the officer's commission the following words: "Ascertain length of time of service and pay without formalities. A. Lincoln." -Judge W. I. Gilbert. THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER An Austrian officer, Captain Bourry, served a year in the Fed- eral Army under McClellan. When his claim for pay came up, the matter was presented to Lincoln, who wrote: "I remember nothing of this case, but I desire that it shall be investigated and that Cap- tain Bourry be paid for the services he actually rendered, if any. The Government cannot afford to accept services and refuse to pay for them. A. Lincoln." As soon as the claim got to the Adjutant General's office, the 446 LINCOLN TALKS red tape began to appear, and Mr. Lincoln's note was returned with the information that Captain Bourry had never been mustered into the service within the official knowledge of that office. Mr. Lin- coln's second note read: "I did not ask for information as to whether this man had been mustered into the service. Have we accepted his actual services? If we have, let him be paid for them, unless there is a positive law against it. A. Lincoln." —Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1894. FURLOUGH GRANTED President Lincoln received the following letter from an indig- nant private: "Dear President: I have been in the service eighteen months, and I have never received a cent. I desire a furlough for fifteen days, in order to return home and remove my family to the poor house." The President granted the furlough. —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. SOLDIER GIRL A young girl had enlisted as a boy in an Indian regiment and had served more than a year, when she was severely wounded at Fredericksburg and her sex was discovered. After she was dis- charged from the hospital, she was denied further service in the ranks under the rules, and she had long tried in vain to get the four months' pay due her. At last she appealed to the President. After patiently listening to her story the President asked: "My child, how came you to enlist?" "Oh, Mr. President, I wanted to do something for my country." Mr. Lincoln looked at the wounded girl for a moment, and then he wrote and handed her the following note: "C. P. Andrews, Paymaster-General: Examine the rolls and ascertain whether this girl is entitled to four months' pay as a soldier. If she is, pay her at once and do not send her from one paymaster to another. If there is no law to justify you, I will indemnify you. A. Lincoln." —Thomas L. James, quoting Col. Charles H. Page. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 447 PAY One day in November 1864 the President was traversing the long halls of the War and Navy Building, when he met a worn soldier in the tattered uniform of blue— and he accosted him. "My good man, whom do you wish to see?" The soldier replied that he was just from the Army of the Potomac, having been discharged after a year of service, that he wished to go to his home in Vermont, but he had been obliged to stop in Washington to get his money, which was due him, as the regimental paymaster had given him an order for the money payable in Washington. For hours he had been wandering about the city and the public buildings, looking for the officer to whom the order was directed, but had been un- able to find him. The President knew the Paymaster General was not the person who made the payment to each awarded soldier, but he took a blank card from his pocket and held it against the wall and with a short pencil wrote upon it as follows: "This poor soldier is in distress because he can get no pay. Will Paymaster General please have him put on the right track to get his pay? A. Lincoln. Nov. 9, 1864." — Nicolay and Hay. THE SOUTH ARMING THE SLAVES "There are but a few views or aspects of this great war upon which I have not said or written something whereby my own opinion might be known. But there is one— the recent attempt of our erring brethren, as they are sometimes called, to employ the Negro to fight for them. I have neither written nor made a speech on that subject, because that was their business and not mine, and if I had a wish on the subject I had not the power to introduce it nor make it effective. "The great question with them was whether the Negro, being put into the army, will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore 448 LINCOLN TALKS cannot decide. They ought to know better than we. I have in my life time heard many arguments why the Negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those who would keep them in slavery it will be a better argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight for that ought to be a slave. "They have concluded at last to take one out of four of the slaves and put them in the army; and that one out of four who will fight to keep the others in slavery ought to be a slave himself, unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said that all men ought to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who wanted to be; and next to them those white persons who argue in favor of making other people slaves. "I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it for themselves. I will say one thing in regard to the Negro being employed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay at home and make bread, too, and as one is about as important as the other of them I do not care which they do. I am rather in favor of allowing them to try them as soldiers. They lack one vote of doing that and I wish I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast it in favor of allowing the Negro to fight. But they cannot fight and work both. We must now see the bottom of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long as they can; and if the Negro will fight for them they must allow him to fight. "They have drawn upon their last branch of resources. And we can now see the bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I have said more now than I intended and will therefore bid you good-by." —Lincoln, quoted by the Hartford Cow ant, Mar. 25, 1865. THE NORTH ARMING THE SLAVES Several United States Senators urged President Lincoln to mus- ter Southern slaves into the Union Army. Lincoln replied: "Gentlemen, I have put thousands of muskets into the hands of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 449 loyal citizens of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Western North Caro- lina. They have said they could defend themselves, if they had guns. I have given them the guns. Now, these men do not believe in mustering in the Negro. If I do it, these thousands of muskets will be turned against us. We should lose more than we should gain." Being still further urged, President Lincoln gave them this an- swer: "Gentlemen, I can't do it. I can't see it as you do. You may be right, and I may be wrong; but I'll tell you what I can do; I can resign in favor of Mr. Hamlin. Perhaps Mr. Hamlin could do it." —Benjamin F. Wade; John Sherman. CONVINCED Lincoln said: "I say to you gentlemen freely that your visit has determined me finally to do what my dear friend Hamlin has urged me to do— to arm the blacks; and I will write an order to the Secre- tary of War to form such an organization without delay." — Vice-Pres. Hannibal Hamlin. TOTAL WAR It is known in this House that I was very anxious that all the black men, North and South, that could be possibly enlisted should be placed in the army to help put down the rebellion. I introduced a resolution to that effect, and it passed the House of Representa- tives. Shortly afterward I met Mr. Lincoln and he asked me to come to his room, when he said to me: "That resolution implies that we are not doing all that we could; but I am glad that Congress has endorsed the policy of actively en- listing black men. It implies that if they are enlisted and fight for the country it must do something more for them. It is a great day for the black man when you tell him he shall carry a gun. Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "tell your people in Iowa, and your friends in 45° LINCOLN TALKS Congress if you choose, that the time has come when I am for everybody fighting the rebels. Let Indians fight them; let Negroes fight them; and if you have any strong-legged jackasses in Iowa that can kick rebels to death, they have my hearty consent," and added: "When you give the Negro these rights, when you put a gun in his hands, it prophesies something more; it foretells that he is to have the full enjoyment of his liberty, and his manhood." -J. B. Grinnell. BLACK SOLDIER General James Wadsworth, of New York, was shot and killed while on horseback leading his brigade, sword in hand, in the bloodiest battle of the Wilderness. And of this noble soldier Mr. Lincoln recalled to my memory the fact that after the death of General Wadsworth there was found Mr. Lincoln's own letter, stained with the dead soldier's blood, in which the President had written these words: "We have clothed the black man in the uniform of the United States. We have made him a soldier. He has fought for his right to be a citizen. He has won it with his blood. It cannot be taken away from him." — Nicolay and Hay. BLACK COLOR-BEARER It had been represented to the President that the Negro soldier would not fight. Mr. Lincoln turned and said: "The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, under Colonel Shaw, was at Fort Wagner. The fighting was hot, and the firing from the fort was very disastrous to our boys. The colors were shot away, and the colonel asked for a man who would bring back the flag. A black soldier came for- ward and agreed to return with the flag. He crawled on his hands and knees, and wrapping the colors around his body, crawled back, riddled with bullets. And three cheers went up for the color-bearer of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts. Do you tell me," continued Mr. Lincoln, "that a black soldier won't fight? " -Col. Robert Gould Shaw. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 45I DISOWNED When Mrs. Lincoln doubted the heroism of the Negroes, her husband related the following: "A Negro at Boston had a severe attack of rheumatism, which finally settled in his foot. He bathed it and rubbed it, but to no purpose. Finally, tearing the bandage off, he stuck it out with a savage grin, and shaking his fist at it, ex- claimed: 'Ache away, dear old feller, I shan't do nothing more for yer; dis child,' tapping his breast, 'can stand it as long as you can, so ache away.' " —Legacy of Fun. DINNER I accompanied the President to Fort Monroe, and afterward to Fort Wool, which is on the middle ground between the channels at Hampton Roads. As we sat at dinner, before we took the boat for Washington, his mind seemed to be preoccupied, and he hardly did justice to the best dinner our resources could provide for him. I said: "I hope you are not unwell; you do not eat, Mr. President." "I am well enough," was the reply, "but would to God this din- ner or provisions like it were with our poor prisoners in Anderson- ville." —Surgeon McCormack. PROMISE As soon as Lee entered Pennsylvania I rushed to Washington to see the President, who asked me to call out the militia on my own authority— as there was no time to call the Legislature— and "I will stand behind you." With that promise I called out the militia. The President distinctly promised to introduce the matter into his message at the opening of Congress in December, and would rec- ommend Congress to reimburse us for all the expenses accruing to the State on account of the invasion. I called together the bank presidents in Philadelphia, told them we must have the money— 452 LINCOLN TALKS that I would give my notes for the amount, and that the President would in his forthcoming message to Congress recommend an ap- propriation to cover the amount. They made the loans, and I signed the notes to the amount of $700,000. On scanning Lincoln's message, I found that he made no allu- sion to the matter at all. I hurried to Washington and immediately proceeded to the White House, and as Mr. Lincoln made no men- tion of the matter, I asked why he had not made the recommenda- tion. "Seward said it would not do." "What do you mean, Mr. President?" "Why, Governor, if I recommended in my message the pay- ment of that bill, various States would at once bring in bills of one sort or another, until by and by, some member of Congress would go to the tailor's, and order a suit of clothes, and tell the tailor to send the bill to me. Do you suppose that I should pay it?" "No, Mr. President, I don't suppose you would unless you had previously promised to." Lincoln dropped his head, thought just a second or two— then arose, sat down on the arm of my chair, put his arm around my neck, and looking directly into my face, said: "Governor, I want you to let up on me on that promise. As President of the United States, I ask you to let up on me. Will you?" "Of course, I suppose I shall have to, if you ask it in that way." "Thank you, Governor," said Lincoln and resumed his seat, and said nothing more upon that subject, but seemed perfectly at ease, and the whole matter slipped entirely out of his mind. I soon left. I went to the Capitol and called on Thad Stevens and told him what had happened. The "Great Commoner" was terribly excited. "He had no business to ask you, and you had no business to do it. Let's go and see him." So we started for the White House— and Stevens walked up to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Mr. President, the Governor says that you asked him 'to let up on you' about that militia business. Did you?" COMMANDER IN CHIEF 453 "Mr. Stevens, I did." "Well, you had no business to ask him to do any such thing, and he had no business to do it." Then the President smiled a bland smile and said: "Mr. Stevens, you are chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, are you not?" "Well, what if I am? Has that anything to do with your keep- ing your promises?" "Well, well, Mr. Stevens, see here! You bring in a bill from your committee, and I will leg it for you. You see it would not do for me to recommend this payment on account of its influence on other States. But a bill from your committee will receive atten- tion, we will all favor it, and it will pass both Houses of Congress. I will sign it, and it will not prove a precedent." Ah! was not he cunning? The old fox! He planned that all out from the beginning. Of course, the bill went through, and we got the money and I took up my notes. —Gov. Andrew G. Curtin. LEVY A new draft was levied, and the city of Chicago, which already had furnished 20,000 men, was asked to send 6000 more. There was a great mass meeting to protest, and Medill headed a delegation which went down to Washington to urge upon the President a reduction in Chicago's allotment. "Gentlemen," he said, "you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. No sections of the North did so much to bring on this war as New England and the Northwest. You in Chicago were calling for it and you got it. And you, Medill, with your Chicago Tribune and all its influence, you were among those who wanted it most. Now, when I am trying to carry it through to a successful conclusion and call for more troops to do it, you beg for mercy. Go back to Chicago and raise those men!" "We went out of that presence," said Medill, "thoroughly 454 LINCOLN TALKS ashamed of our mission, and we went back to Chicago and raised the 6000 men." —Joseph Medill. BOUNTY A Congressman called to explain to Mr. Lincoln that his district had been called on under the first draft for four hundred soldiers more than its legitimate quota— which, at the then prevailing rate of bounty, placed a burden on the district of $320,000 in excess of what it ought to be. The Congressman apologized for the seeming lack of patriotism in the complaint. The President replied: "Mr. S , apologies are not in order. The legitimate burdens of the war are heavy enough for the people to bear. A wrong has been done by somebody to your people. You must not leave Washington until that wrong is corrected. I will send for Provost-Marshal Gen- eral Fry at once. Call here at nine o'clock tomorrow." —Gen. James B. Fry. THE KISS Shortly after, at nine o'clock one morning, the door at the end of the ward was opened and Dr. MacDonald, chief surgeon, called: "Attention! The President of the United States." There outside the door, the sunlight streaming into the room over square gaunt shoulders, stood Abraham Lincoln. Into the room he stalked, bending his awkward form ungracefully, for the doorway was low. At cot after cot he paused to speak some word of cheer, some message of comfort to a wounded soldier. At Major Charles Houghton's cot the two men paused. "This is the man," whispered MacDonald. "So young?" questioned the President. "This is the man that held Fort Haskell?" MacDonald nodded. With a large uncouth hand the President motioned for a chair. Silently a nurse placed one at the cot's head. Houghton did not know; he could not. As though he were afraid it would clatter and hurt the sufferer, Lincoln softly placed his "stovepipe" hat of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 455 exaggerated fashion on the floor. Dust covered his clothes, which were not pressed. As he leaned over the cot a tawdry necktie, much awry, dangled near Houghton's head. Gently as a woman he took the wasted colorless hand in his own sinewy one of iron strength. Just the suspicion of a pressure was there, but Houghton opened his eyes. A smile which had forgotten suffering answered the great Presi- dent's smile of pain. In tones soft, almost musical it seemed, the President spoke to the boy on the cot, told him how he had heard of his great deeds, how he was proud of his fellow-countryman. A few feeble words Houghton spoke in reply. At the poor tone- less voice the President winced. The doctor had told him that Houghton would die. Then happened a strange thing. The Presi- dent asked to see the wound which was taking so noble a life. Surgeons and nurses tried to dissuade him, but Lincoln insisted. The horrors of war were for him to bear as well as others, he told them, and to him the wound was a thing holy. Bandages long and stained were removed and the President saw. Straightening on his feet, he flung his long, lank arms upward. A groan such as Houghton had not given voice to escaped the lips of the President. "Oh, this war! This awful, awful war!" he sobbed. Down the deep lined furrows of the homely, kindly face hot tears burned their way. Slowly, tenderly the President leaned over the pillow. The dust of travel had not been washed from his face. Now the tears of which he was not ashamed cut heavy furrows in it, and splotched the white sheets on which they fell. While nurses and surgeons and men watched there in the little hospital Abraham Lincoln took the pallid face of Houghton between his hands and kissed it just below the damp, tangled hair. "My boy," he said, brokenly, swallowing, "you must live. You must live." The first gleam of real, warm, throbbing life came into the dull eyes. Houghton stiffened, with a conscious, elastic tension on the 456 LINCOLN TALKS cot. With a little wan smile he managed to drag a hand to his fore- head. It was the nearest he could come to a salute. The awkward form of the President bent lower and lower to catch the faint, faint words. "I intend to, sir," was what Houghton said. And he did. — Maj. Charles H. Houghton. GRIEF It was just after the battle of Fredericksburg. I had been down there and came up to Washington by the night boat. I arrived a little after midnight. Just as I landed, a messenger met me, saying that the President wanted to see me at once at the White House. I took a carriage and went directly there. I sent in my card, and word came back that the President had retired, but that he re- quested me to come up to his bedroom. I found him in bed, and, as I entered the room, he reached out his hand, shook hands, and said: "Well, Governor; so you have been down to the battlefield?" "Battlefield? Slaughter-pen! It was a terrible slaughter, Mr. Lin- coln." I was sorry, in a moment, that I had said it, for he groaned, and began to wring his hands and took on with terrible agony of spirits. He sat on the edge of the bed, and moaned and groaned in anguish. He walked the floor of the room, and uttered exclamations of grief, one after another, and I remember his saying over and over again: "What has God put me in this place for?" I tried to comfort him, and could hardly forgive myself for not being more careful and considerate of his feelings. —Gov. Andrew G. Curtin. BY THE TAIL In taking his leave of the sorrowful executive, Governor Curtin said: "I trust matters will look brighter when the official reports come in," and then he added, impulsively: "I would give all I possess to know how to rescue you from this terrible war." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 457 Immediately the President's manner changed, and he relieved his mind by telling the following story: "This reminds me of an old farmer out in Illinois that I used to know. He took it into his head to go into hog raising. He sent over to Europe and imported the finest breed of hogs he could buy. The prize hog was put in a pen, and the farmer's two mischievous boys, James and John, were told to be sure not to let him out. But James, the worse of the two, let the brute out the next day. The hog went straight for the boys, and drove John up a tree. Then it went for the seat of James's trousers, and the only way he could save him- self was by holding onto the hog's tail. The hog would not give up his hunt nor the boy his hold. After they had made a good many circles around the tree, the boy's courage began to give out, and he shouted to his brother: 'I say, John, come down quick and help me let this hog go.' Now, Governor, that is exactly my case. I wish someone would come and help me let this hog go!" —Gov. Andrew G. Curtin. MCCLELLAN NAPS One morning about eight o'clock, I found the staff officers as- sembled in the reception room, awaiting the general commanding, McClellan. He had been up all night on duty at the front. Retiring to his quarters soon after daybreak, he threw himself on his couch for a brief interval of rest. Soon after my arrival at headquarters President Lincoln and the Secretary of War arrived at the moment when I was telling an amusing story to the staff officers. As the President entered he ex- claimed: "Gentlemen, I am sure you must have been listening to a good story from the laughter I heard in the hall. Can't we have it re- peated? I always enjoy a laugh." Yielding to his request I of course repeated the story I had just told, and not to be outdone in this direction the President gave us in his own inimitable way one or two of his own felicitous anec- 458 LINCOLN TALKS dotes. As soon as the President finished his last story, the chief of staff informed me that General McClellan had been at the front all night and would soon be ready to receive him. "Oh," said Mr. Lincoln, "don't hurry, Cameron and I haven't much to do. Tell George we will wait here and enjoy ourselves while he finishes his nap." —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. ENGINEER President Lincoln one day remarked, in reference to General McClellan's tardiness and unwillingness to fight the enemy or fol- low up advantages gained: "I wish McClellan would go at the enemy with something; I don't care what. General McClellan is '* pleasant and scholarly gentleman. He is an admirable engineer, but; he seems to have a special talent for a stationary engine." —Carpenter. NEWS Earlier in the same month Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. Seward, dropped into the telegraph office with a pleasant "Good morning. What news?" Wilson replied: "Good news, because none." Where- upon Lincoln rejoined: "Ah, my young friend, that rule does not always hold good, for a fisherman does not consider it good luck when he can't get a bite." On another occasion Lincoln came to the office after dark and asked for the latest news. He was told that McClellan was on his way to Arlington to Fort Corcoran and that our pickets still held Ball's Crossroads and that no firing had been heard since sunset. The President inquired if any firing had been heard before sunset, and upon being answered in the negative, laughingly replied: "That reminds me of the man who, speaking of a supposed freak of na- ture, said: 'The child was black from his hips down,' and upon being asked the color from the hips up, replied: 'Why, black, of course.' " —David Homer Bates. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 459 THE BOTTOM At the time Pope was defeated and Lee threatened Washington, Lincoln dropped into Meigs's office on his "weary way to see Stanton," threw himself into a big chair, and with a mingled groan and sigh exclaimed: "Chase says we can't raise any more money. Pope is licked and McClellan has the diarrhea. What shall I do? The bottom is out of the tub — " -Gen. M. C. Meigs. ADVICE In the summer of 1862 General McClellan wrote from the Pen- insula a long letter to the President, giving him advice as to the general politics of the country and how to carry on the affairs of the nation. "What did you reply?" asked someone of Mr. Lincoln. "Nothing; but it made me think of the Irishman whose horse kicked up and caught his foot in the stirrup. 'Arrah! ' said he. 'If you are going to get on, I will get off.' " —Lincoln Story Book. FLEAS On account of the looseness and corruption attending the raising of soldiers at first, the President, noting the difference between the number of men forwarded to General McClellan for the Army of the Potomac, and the number reported arrived, said: "Sending men to that army is like shoveling fleas across a barn- yard—half of them never get there." — Wit and Humor of American Statesmen. CROWDED "If I gave McClellan all the men he asks for," said the President, "they couldn't find room to lie down. They'd have to sleep stand- ing up." — Carleton B. Case. 460 LINCOLN TALKS DRESS PARADE Lincoln told the story of his experience with General McClel- lan, comparing it to a certain cock-fight he once witnessed in New Salem. "Bap McNabb was famous for his ability in raising and buying roosters of prime fighting quality, and when his birds fought, the attendance was large. One night Bap brought a little red rooster whose fighting qualities had been well advertised for days in ad- vance, and much interest was manifested in the outcome. "They formed a ring and tossed in their fowls— Bap's red rooster along with the rest. But no sooner had the little beauty discovered what was to be done than he dropped his tail and ran. "The crowd cheered, while Bap, in disappointment, picked him up and started away, losing his quarter (the entrance fee), carry- ing his dishonored fowl home, and throwing him down there in chagrin. "The little rooster, out of sight of all rivals, mounted a woodpile and, proudly flirting out his feathers, crowed with all his might. Bap looked on in deep disgust. " 'Yes, you little cuss,' he exclaimed spitefully, 'you're great on dress parade, but you're not worth a darn in a fight!' ' — R. D. Wordsworth. DILATORY In November 1862, it was a gloomy time all over the country. The rebel army was in front, and every day a new crop of rumors was harvested in reference to its purpose. One hour, "Washington is safe!" and "All is quiet on the Potomac!" The next, "The reb- els are marching on to Washington!" "They are blocking our river communications!" "They are threatening to overwhelm our forces!" or, "They have already taken our position!" Despondency sat on every face. "I wonder whether McClellan means to do anything!" said Mr. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 461 Lincoln one day to a friend. "I should like to borrow the army of him for a day or two." —Mary A. Livermore. As time went on, McClellan began to show his contempt of the President, frequently allowing him to wait in the anteroom of his house while he transacted business with others. On one occasion McClellan went upstairs to bed, leaving the President and an at- tendant waiting below. The discourtesy was so open that McClellan's staff noticed it, and newspaper correspondents commented on it. The President was too keen not to see the situation, but he was strong enough to ignore it. It was a battle he wanted from McClellan, not deference. "I will hold McClellan's horse, if he will only bring us success," he said one day. — Nicolay and Hay. MCCLELLAN'S LOYALTY The convention of Governors of Northern States that met at Altoona, Pennsylvania, was called to bring an influence to bear upon President Lincoln to induce him to issue a proclamation or do some act that should set at liberty the 4,000,000 slaves; but the President outwitted the twenty-two Governors by issuing the proclamation the same day their convention met. The Governors then decided to go on to Washington and present to the President an address complimenting him upon the step he had taken. After this address was read, Governor Kirkwood of Iowa rose and said: "Mr. President, I should be delighted could I return to my home and say to the people of Iowa that the President of the United States believes General George B. McClellan is a loyal man." He branched off upon other subjects connected with the war, and then closed by repeating with more emphasis: "I should be glad, Mr. President, to be able to tell the people of Iowa that you believe in the loyalty and patriotism of George B. McClellan." 462 LINCOLN TALKS Taking his feet down from the desk upon which they had been resting, Mr. Lincoln sprang to his feet and straightened up ap- parently two inches taller than usual, and said, with much force and apparent excitability: "Loyal! George B. McClellan is as loyal as any one of you." Then, stopping a moment, the President's face assumed its naturally pleasant look, and he continued in a natural and pleasing tone: "I'll tell you, gentlemen, General McClellan is an exceedingly well-informed general, and very careful, in fact, too careful, and the great trouble with him is that when he wins a victory he doesn't know what to do with it." "Why not try somebody else?" mildly suggested Governor Blair. "We might do that and might lose an army by it," was the quick response of the President. —Austin Blaii. SLOW When the army was vexingly slow and the cry of "On to Rich- mond!" was the keynote of popular clamor, and General McClel- lan made no sign of an advance, the President told the following story to a group who were discussing the subject: "I once wanted to attend a political convention and went to a livery stable, kept by a rival of mine, to hire a horse, and a slow one was given to me with the hope that I would not reach my destination in time. I got there, however, and when I returned, I said to the man: 'You keep this horse for funerals, don't you?' 'Oh, no,' replied the man. 'Well,' said I, 'I am glad of that, for if you did, you would never get a corpse to the grave in time for the final resurrection.' " — Adolphus S. Solomons. PASSES A gentleman from a Northern city, in the spring of 1862, ear- nestly requested a pass to Richmond. "A pass to Richmond!" ex- claimed the President. "Why, my dear sir^ if I should give you one, COMMANDER IN CHIEF 463 it would do you no good. You may think it very strange, but there's a lot of fellows between here and Richmond who either can't read or are prejudiced against every man who takes a pass from me. I have given McClellan, and more than two hundred thousand others, passes to Richmond, and not one of them has yet gotten there!" -W. O. Stoddard. LOW EBB As I was ushered in I saw at the further end of the long room the tall form of Lincoln leaning against a window. He waved his hand, indicating that I was to take the women to a sofa, and then by another wave of the hand he motioned for me to come to him. My heart filled with sympathy for him, for I knew something was wrong. As I approached him and looked into his face it seemed to me it was the saddest and most troubled countenance I had ever beheld. There were deep lines of suffering about the face, the fea- tures were drawn and pinched. His hair was thin and uncombed. He was naturally somewhat stoop-shouldered, but seemed to be especially so on this occasion. As I drew nearer and caught his eye I was more deeply impressed with the sadness which permeated his whole being. If I were to live a thousand years I would not forget the anguish of the expression of his face. I said: "Mr. Lincoln, I hope you are not sick." He replied: "No, I am not sick." I said: "You look sad. Something terrible must have happened." He made no reply, but, calling a servant, he asked how long it would be until the boat left the wharf for Harrison's Landing. The answer was: "In thirty minutes." Then, turning to me, Lincoln said in an undertone, and the sadness of his face deepened as he said it: "I must go on that boat to Harrison's Landing on the James River." "What for?" I asked in surprise. His voice dropped to a whisper as he replied: "I must go to 464 LINCOLN TALKS Harrison's Landing to keep McClellan from surrendering the army." It was after the Seven Days' Battle, and the leader of the great army was retreating before the Confederates. At this point I introduced the women and retired. In thirty min- utes Lincoln was on board the boat, speeding away on his journey. The next I heard of him he was at Harrison's Landing, and the Union Army was not surrendered. —Gen. Lew Wallace. ADDRESS TO THE SOLDIERS The President had taken a trip to the Peninsula to see the posi- tion of the army for himself. He reviewed the entire line, in com- pany with General McClellan and his staff, and was everywhere received with the greatest enthusiasm by the troops, who mingled their cheers with the salvos of artillery with which he was greeted. Subsequent to the review, he returned to the steamer on which he went up the James, accompanied by General McClellan, and after an hour's consultation quietly took his departure. During his visit he made a speech to the masses of armed men who had just come out of seven days' terrific combat. Dismount- ing from his horse and mounting upon a rail fence, he addressed the army in these words: "Be of good cheer; all is well. The coun- try owes you an inextinguishable debt for your services. I am un- der immeasurable obligations to you. You have, like heroes, en- dured, and fought, and conquered. Yes, I say conquered; for though apparently checked once, you conquered afterward and secured the position of your choice. You shall be strengthened and re- warded. God bless you all!" — Nicolay and Hay. mcclellan's army When the Federal Army under General McClellan was near Antietam, Lincoln visited McClellan to find out for himself the reason for his inactivity. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 465 Lincoln awakened his old friend, O. M. Hatch, at daybreak, saying: "Come, Hatch, I want you to take a walk with me." Lincoln led the way to the surrounding hills, the only sounds being the notes of the early birds and voices from distant farms. As the President watched the sun rise over the great city of tents, he said to his Illinois friend: "Hatch, what is all this?" "Well, Mr. Lincoln," replied Hatch, "this is the Army of the Potomac." Lincoln straightened himself up to his six feet four inches. "No, Hatch, no," he said, "this is McClellan's bodyguard." Silently the two men walked back to their tent. — Ozias Mather Hatch. PATHOS He was sorely tried by McClellan's inactivity and his letters and dispatches were often pathetic. "If you don't intend to use the army, won't you lend it to me?" "What has your cavalry been doing since the battle of Antietam that would fatigue anything?" — Nicolay and Hay. COWS General McClellan, nettled at the constant request for reports on his doings which he was always slow to furnish, went to the other extreme and began to report everything, including the fol- lowing: "President Abraham Lincoln, Washington, D.C.: We have just captured six cows. What shall we do with them? George B. McClellan." Instantly the answer was forwarded: "George B. McClellan, Army of the Potomac: As to the six cows captured— milk them. A. Lincoln." —Dearborn Independent. ESCAPE "It seems to me," remarked the President one day while reading over some of the appealing telegrams sent to the War Department 466 LINCOLN TALKS by General McClellan, "that McClellan has been wandering around and has sort of got lost. He's been hollering for help ever since he went South— wants somebody to come to his deliverance and get him out of the place he's got into. He reminds me of the story of a man out in Illinois who, in company with a number of friends, visited the State penitentiary. They wandered all through the in- stitution and saw everything, but just about the time to depart, this particular man became separated from his friends and couldn't find his way out. "He roamed up and down one corridor after another, becoming more desperate all the time, when, at last, he came across a convict who was looking out from between the bars of his cell-door. Here was salvation at last. Hurrying up to the prisoner he hastily asked: " 'Say! How do you get out of this place?' " — R. D. Wordsworth. TAD ON MCCLELLAN The boys of the company used to be around the Soldiers' Home a great deal and frequently saw the President as he went back and forth. One day shortly after the battle at Gettysburg they saw little Tad playing with his goats on the lawn, and talked to him. Little Tad said: "Oh, I like General Meade, and Papa likes him, too; he likes him first-rate." "Well," said one, "how about General McClellan?" The answer came quick as a flash: "Oh, McClellan played out long ago." —John S. Howard. INTRENCHED About a week after the Chicago [Democratic] Convention, a gentleman from New York called upon the President, in company with the Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. Dana. In the course of conversation, the gentleman said: "What do you think, Mr. Presi- dent, is the reason General McClellan does not reply to the letter from the Chicago Convention?" COMMANDER IN CHIEF 467 "Oh!" replied Mr. Lincoln, with a characteristic twinkle of the eye. "He is intrenching!" —Charles A. Dana. CONFIDENCE "General — asks for more men," said Secretary of War Stanton to the President one day, showing a telegram from the commander named appealing for reinforcements. "I guess he's killed off enough men, hasn't he?" queried the President. "I don't mean Confederates— our own men. What's the use in sending volunteers down to him if they're only used to fill graves?" "His dispatch seems to imply that, in his opinion, you have not the confidence in him he thinks he deserves," the War Secretary went on to say, as he looked over the telegram again. "Oh," was the President's reply, "he needn't lose any of his sleep on that account. Just telegraph him to that effect; also, that I don't propose to send him any more men." —Stanton. TAMMANY John Morrissey, the noted prize fighter, was the "Boss" of Tam- many Hall during the Civil War period. Morrissey was such an absolute despot that the New York City democracy could not make a move without his consent. President Lincoln had been seriously annoyed by some of his generals, who were afraid to make the slightest move before asking advice from Washington. One commander, in particular, was so cautious that he telegraphed the War Department upon the slight- est pretext, the result being that his troops were lying in camp do- ing nothing, when they should have been in the field. "This general reminds me," the President said one day while talking to Secretary Stanton, "of a story I once heard about a Tam- many man. He happened to meet a friend, also a member of Tam- many, on the street, and in the course of the talk the friend, who 468 LINCOLN TALKS was beaming with smiles and good nature, told the other Tam- manyite that he was going to be married. "This first Tammany man looked more serious than men usually do upon hearing of the impending happiness of a friend. In fact, his face seemed to take on a look of anxiety and worry. " 'Ain't you glad to know that I'm to get married?' demanded the second Tammanyite, somewhat in a huff. " 'Of course I am,' was the reply; 'but,' putting his mouth close to the ear of the other, 'have ye asked Morrissey yet?' " -A. K. McClure. MILITARY ORATORS Speaking of a general prone to indulge in big promises, Lincoln said: "These fellows remind me of a man who owned a dog which, so he said, just hungered and thirsted to eat up wolves. It was a diffi- cult matter, so the owner declared, to keep that dog from devoting the entire twenty-four hours of each day to the destruction of wolves. "One day a party of this man's friends decided to have a wolf hunt, and as this particular dog was so ferocious, they said they wouldn't take any other dog. The man who owned the dog didn't seem over-anxious to go on the hunt, but he finally consented, and the party, accompanied by the ferocious wolf-dog, started out. "At last they sighted some wolves and tried to 'sic' the dog on them. He whined and whimpered, but they finally kicked some en- thusiasm into him and started him after the wolves. Wolves and dog soon disappeared in the timber. "The hunting party got no trace of the chase until after a few miles they came to a farmhouse, where they saw a man hanging over the fence. " 'Have you seen anything of a wolf-dog and a pack of wolves around here?' asked the hunters. " 'Yep,' was the short answer. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 469 " 'How were they going?' " 'Pretty fast.' " 'What was their position when you saw them?' " 'Well,' replied the farmer, 'the dog was a leetle ahead.' "Now, gentlemen," concluded the President, "that's the posi- tion in which you find most of these bragging generals when they get into a fight with the enemy. That's why I don't like military orators." —Chicago Inter ocean, Feb. 7, 1909. PROCLAMATIONS Speaking of the practice that grew up in the beginning of the war, for everybody that found himself in command at a crossroads —or any other place, no matter how insignificant— to issue a gran- iloquent proclamation to the inhabitants, defining the position of the Government, and more particularly expressing his own views upon the situation, etc., Mr. Lincoln remarked that he had been so much annoyed by these manifestoes that he had determined to put a stop to them. The first occasion that offered itself was when Burnside and Goldsborough appeared at the Executive Mansion to receive their final instructions in regard to the joint military and naval expedition to North Carolina. He called their attention to this subject, expressing very decided opinions in the matter. "Would you believe it," said Mr. Lincoln later; "when I spoke of proclamations, each pulled one out of his pocket that had been prepared in advance, without consultation. I had no idea of catch- ing them in the very act." —Egbert L. Vielle, Scribner's, Oct. 1878. SAFE When the telegram from Cumberland Gap reached Mr. Lincoln that "firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville," he remarked that he was "glad of it." Some person present, who had the peril? 470 LINCOLN TALKS of Burnside's position uppermost in his mind, could not see why Mr. Lincoln should be glad of it, and so expressed himself. "Why, you see," responded the President, "it reminds me of Mistress Sallie Ward, a neighbor of mine, who had a very large family. Occasionally one of her numerous progeny would be heard crying in some out-of-the-way place, upon which Mrs. Ward would exclaim: 'There's one of my children that isn't dead yet.' " —Carpenter. EASY I recall the forcible illustration with which President Lincoln characterized the fatal facility of the Rappahannock transit, when I subsequently described to him the particulars [of the defeat at Fredericksburg] . "Well," he said, "I thought the case was suspicious. It reminded me of a young acquaintance out in Illinois, who, having secured the affections of a lass, was proceeding to her father for his per- mission to marry her, when he saw him plowing in a field. " 'Hallo,' cried the impatient youth, 'I want your darter.' " 'Take her,' said the old man as, without turning, he trudged after the plow. " 'A little too easy,' exclaimed the prudent swain, scratching his head, 'a little too darned easy.' " — Maj.-Gen. John Cochrane. MILITARY ADVICE General Halleck's letter was full of formal and military technical terms, and contained a warning couched in this fashion: "In under- taking to place your command on the opposite shore of the Rap- pahannock River, you will exercise extreme caution in affording full protection to advance, rear, and flanks, in order that the enemy may not be encouraged to make an attack while your forces are separated in the act of crossing." This was good advice. Lincoln gave it to the same commander COMMANDER IN CHIEF 47 1 in the note which he wrote to him; but this was the form in which he expressed it: "Look out, when you cross the river, that you don't hang your- self up in the middle like a steer on a fence, neither able to hook with your horns nor kick with your hoofs." — Nicolay and Hay. INSTRUCTIONS TO HOOKER President Lincoln wrote to General Hooker on June 5, 1863, warning Hooker not to run any risk of being entangled on the Rappahannock "like an ox jumped half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs, front and rear, without a fair chance to give one way or kick the other." On the tenth, he warned Hooker not to go south of the Rappa- hannock upon Lee's moving north of it. "I think Lee's army and not Richmond is your true objective power. If he comes toward the upper Potomac, follow on his flank, and on the inside track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret him, and fret him." On the fourteenth again, he says: "So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg. If they could hold out for a few days, could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg, and the tail of it on the flank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellors- ville, the animal must be very slim somewhere; could you not break him?" —Nicolay and Hay. EGOTISM The President and Mr. Stanton had, on the previous evening, been down to the hospital at Georgetown to visit the gallant Hooker, who was suffering from a painful wound. The President, like everybody else, was boiling over with admiration of "fighting Joe." In reply to a remark on another subject, he said: 472 LINCOLN TALKS "Yes, there are occasions when a man may speak well of himself without egotism. There is Joe Hooker. He came over from Cali- fornia at the beginning of the war; rather under a cloud, I think. He called on me, and in a modest way, offered his services. He was a West Pointer, you know, and had resigned and gone into other business. I referred him to General Scott; but Scott, I think, didn't like him, because he refused him. He stayed about Washington very quietly until McClellan came in. Then he made the same ap- peal to me again. I sent him to General McClellan, and he was again turned away. "Pretty soon we suffered another dreadful defeat. Then he came to me the third time and told me that he was educated at the ex- pense of the Government, and felt that he owed something to his country; and exclaimed, while the tears fell down his cheeks: 'Mr. President, I have waited here patiently. I have tried to serve my country, but have been twice rejected. You have had another dis- graceful retreat. I tell you, sir, that I am a better officer than you had in the field on that day, and yet you won't have me!' " "Yes, Joe Hooker," said Mr. Lincoln, taking him by the hand, "I will have you!" And a brigadier's commission followed forth- with. — Brig.-Gen. Charles P. Mattocks. NOTICE To General Joseph Hooker: "I was coming down this afternoon; but if you would prefer I should not, I shall blame you if you do not tell me so. "Abraham Lincoln. "Executive Mansion, Washington, June 13, 1S63P VICTORY DANCE Mr. Lincoln had been exceedingly solicitous about the result of that battle [Gettysburg]. At last, towards midnight, came the COMMANDER IN CHIEF 473 electric flash of the great victory that saved the Union. Stanton seized the dispatch and ran as fast as he could to the Executive Mansion, up the stairs, and knocked at the room where the Presi- dent was catching a fitful slumber. "Who is there?" he heard in the voice of Lincoln. "Stanton." The door was opened and Mr. Lincoln appeared with a light in his hand and peered through the crack of the door, "in the shortest nightgown and longest legs," as Stanton said, he ever saw on a human being. Before Stanton, who was out of breath, could say a word, the President, who had caught with unerring instinct the expression of his face, gave a shout of exultation, grabbed him with both arms around the waist and danced him around the chamber until they were both exhausted. They then sat down upon a trunk and the President, who was still in his nightdress, read over and over again the telegram and then discussed with him the probabili- ties of the future and the results of the victory until day dawned. —Stanton. meade's victory The congratulatory order which General Meade published to his troops after the battle of Gettysburg was telegraphed to the War Department. I saw Lincoln read Meade's order. When he came to the sentence about driving the invaders from our soil, an expres- sion of disappointment settled upon his face, his hands dropped upon his knees, and in tones of anguish he exclaimed: " 'Drive the invaders from our soil!' My God! Is that all?" —James M. Scovel. TACTICIAN On the twelfth of July, upon receiving a telegram from General Meade explaining somewhat in detail the movements of his army and of the enemy as near as he could ascertain them, the President called me to a large map hanging near my desk and pointed out that the enemy were surely being driven to cross the river instead 474 LINCOLN TALKS of being prevented from doing so. General Meade's message closed with these words: "It is my intention to attack the enemy tomorrow, unless some- thing intervenes to prevent it, for the reason that delay will strengthen the enemy and will not increase my force." Calling me again to the map, and pointing out the positions as he understood them, the President paced the floor wringing his hands and said: "They will be ready to fight a magnificent battle when there is no enemy there to fight." His apprehensions were justified, for the next morning the enemy had indeed escaped across the river. —Gen. James B. Fry. MAGNANIMITY Just after the battle of Gettysburg Lincoln thought that prompt pursuit and battle by Meade would destroy Lee's army before it could recross the swollen Potomac. Meade's delay and his failure to seize his great opportunity deeply grieved and annoyed the President. He finally sent a peremptory order to attack Lee forth- with, and accompanied the order by perhaps the most remarkable note ever sent by a commander to his subordinate. It ran thus: "This order is not of record. If you are successful you may destroy it, together with this note; if you fail, publish the order, and I will take the responsibility." —Rev. Dr. Joseph Fort Newton. hay's diary Saturday, July 1 1, 1863.— The President seemed in specially good humor today, as he had pretty good evidence that the enemy were still on the north side of the Potomac, and Meade had announced his intention of attacking them in the morning. The President seemed very happy in the prospect of a brilliant success. Monday, 13.— The President begins to grow anxious and impa- tient about Meade's silence. I thought and told him there was noth- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 475 ing to prevent the enemy from getting away by the Falling Waters if they were not vigorously attacked. . . . Nothing can save them if Meade does his duty. I doubt him. He is an engineer. July 14.— This morning the President seemed depressed by Meade's dispatches of last night. They were so cautiously and al- most timidly worded— talking about reconnoitering to find the enemy's weak places, and other such. . . . About noon came the dispatches stating that our worst fears were true. The enemy had gotten away unhurt. The President was deeply grieved. "We had them within our grasp," he said. "We had only to stretch forth our hands and they were ours. And nothing I could say or do could make the army move." Several days ago we sent a dispatch to Meade which must have cut like a scourge, but Meade returned so reasonable and earnest a reply that the President concluded he knew best what he was do- ing, and was reconciled to the apparent inaction, which he hoped was merely apparent. July 15.— Robert Lincoln says the President is silently but deeply grieved about the escape of Lee. He said: "If I had gone up there I could have whipped them myself." I know he had that idea. —Hay: War Diary. QUERY "I would give much to be relieved of the impression that Meade, Couch, Smith, and all, since the battle of Gettysburg, have striven only to get the enemy over the border without another fight. Please tell me if you know who was the one corps commander who was for fighting, in the council of war, on Sunday night." —Lincoln to Simon Cameron; William R. Plum. PRISONERS President Lincoln reached Meade Station, near Petersburg, soon after a serious battle, in which about two thousand Confederates were made prisoners. General Meade was on the President's left 476 LINCOLN TALKS and Colonel George D. Ruggles on his right. On their way to headquarters, they rode to a point where they could see the large assemblage of prisoners. With the prisoners were many colored servants and laborers. "Mr. Lincoln," said General Meade, "I guess Ruggles did not overestimate the number of men captured." Mr. Lincoln checked his horse, deliberately surveyed the field, full of Gordon's disarmed men and the contraband, and said: "Yes, General, the number is there in black and white." —Chicago Times Herald. ON GENERAL MEADE One afternoon at a reception, while I stood near Lincoln, General Meade came in and was rapidly advancing to the President. Lin- coln's eyes flashed. Turning toward me, his head thrown back, he said: "There! General Meade has just come in." With a tinge of bitterness in his voice, he continued: "And that is the great general who ought to have cut the rebel army to pieces at Falling Waters; and he didn't do it!" —James M. Scovel. STRATEGIST In September 1863, General Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, then along the upper Rappahannock, wrote desiring the views of the Government as to what course he was expected to pursue. Lincoln himself, unknown to Halleck or to anyone else, sent this letter in reply in his supreme capacity as commander in chief: "I am not prepared to order or even advise an advance in this case, wherein I know so little of the particulars, and wherein he, in the field, thinks the risk is so great and the promise of advantage so small. And yet the case presents matter for very serious considera- tion in another aspect. These two armies confront each other across a small river, substantially midway between the two capitals, each COMMANDER IN CHIEF 477 defending its own capital and menacing the other. General Meade estimates the enemy's infantry in front of him at not less than 40,000. Suppose we add fifty per cent to this for cavalry, artillery, and extra duty men, stretching as far as Richmond, making the whole force of the enemy 60,000. "General Meade, as shown by his returns, has with him and be- tween him and Washington, of the same classes of well men, over 90,000. Neither can bring the whole of his men into a battle, but each can bring as large a percentage as the other. For a battle, then, General Meade has three men to General Lee's two. Yet, it having been determined that choosing ground and standing on the de- fensive gives so great advantage that the three cannot safely attack the two, the three are left simply standing on the defensive also. "If the enemy's 60,000 are sufficient to keep our 90,000 away from Richmond, why, by the same rule, may not 40,000 of ours keep their 60,000 away from Washington, leaving us 50,000 to put to some other use? "To avoid misunderstanding, let me say that to attempt to fight the enemy slowly back into his intrenchments at Richmond, and there to capture him, is an idea I have been trying to repudiate for quite a year. My judgment is so clear against it that I would scarcely allow the attempt to be made, if the general in command should desire to make it. If our army cannot fall upon the enemy and hurt him where he is, it is plain to me it can gain nothing by attempting to follow him over a succession of intrenched lines into a fortified city." — Nicolay and Hay. TURNING POINT In criticizing General Meade, the President never failed to do justice to the achievements of the hero of Gettysburg. It was of that battle that I heard Lincoln speak these words: "Of the two great efforts to enslave the human race in body and in mind, the first met its grave two hundred years ago under Crom- 478 LINCOLN TALKS well, at Marston Moor; and the second met its doom under General Meade, at Gettysburg." —James M. Scovel. General Nathaniel Kimball, of Indiana, was a veteran of the Mexican War and an old-time personal friend of Mr. Lincoln. It was he who gave the famous Stonewall Jackson his first and only defeat, at the first battle of Winchester, early in 1862. During one of the important campaigns of the Anny of the Potomac the War Department issued an order forbidding for the time all leaves of absence to the officers of that army. It so happened that just then it was a matter of urgent necessity for General Kimball to spend a few days at home to look after some highly important private busi- ness. He applied for a leave, but General Meade, then command- ing the Army of the Potomac, was compelled to refuse it. By dint of persistent solicitation, however, permission was finally given him to visit Washington. Here he promptly sought Mr. Lincoln and was cordially received by his old friend, who listened patiently to his story and at its conclusion asked: "Well, Nathan, what does Meade say?" "He flatly refused any leave, stating that the War Department had issued stringent orders on the subject and he could not disre- gard them." "That is too bad, but I don't see that anything can be done." "Why, Mr. President, surely you can grant me a leave of ab- sence." "Can't do it, Nathan. You see, I am tied up tight by my own order." "Well, Mr. President, you see the fix I am in. What would you advise me to do?" "At this,*' said General Kimball, "Mr. Lincoln arose from his chair and stretched himself to his full height— I had never before seen him look so tall. Then he leaned over towards me and said in COMMANDER IN CHIEF 479 a loud whisper, looking around as though fearing someone might overhear him: " 'Nathan, I would just go!' "I considered that sufficient authority," laughed the general, "made a quick trip, attended to my business, and reported to Gen- eral Meade, telling him of my interview with the President. He was a quiet man, but he laughed as heartily as I did and remarked: " 'That is just like Mr. Lincoln.' " —Gen. Nathaniel Kimball. MORGAN THE RAIDER Congressman Cox went to the White House for information, saying: "Mr. President, I have been to the War Department, but can get no information concerning John Morgan. Can you tell me anything about him? Where is he? Will he capture Columbus? Will he — " "He has not told me yet," replied Mr. Lincoln, "but I would be willing to make a bet that he will capture Columbus if he can and carry off your livestock and fancy chickens, Mr. Cox, if he can get them. No, we don't know this morning just where he is, but you may be pretty sure that our boys will catch him soon. When they do get him I want to see him. "I like that rascal, Mr. Cox, like him very much. John has a sense of humor which thoroughly humanizes him. He captures mail trains, examines all of the letter mail, lets ordinary corre- spondence go right along, but the big envelopes with the War Department imprint he takes possession of, examines, and uses for his own military purposes. Only this morning I heard of one of his tricks and what do you suppose it was? "In one of the big envelopes there was a commission promoting a second lieutenant to be major of his regiment; the promotion was made for merit and courage. Down in one corner of the commis- sion John read the words, 'Approved. A. Lincoln.' "Right underneath, he wrote: 480 LINCOLN TALKS " 'Approved by me also, John Morgan/ and he forwarded that commission to the worthy officer. I tell you, friend Cox, I like John and hope to see him one of these days, very soon." -S. S. Cox. morgan's death Being informed of the death of John Morgan, he said: "Well, I wouldn't crow over anybody's death; but I can take this as resign- edly as any dispensation of Providence." — S. S. Cox. KILPATRICK Mr. Lincoln then mentioned a bright saying which he had re- cently heard during the riots in New York, in which the Irish figured most conspicuously, as follows: "It is said that General Kilpatrick is going to New York to quell the riots, but that his name has nothing to do with it." -W. O. Stoddard. TITLE Lawrence Weldon relates that on one occasion he called upon the President to inquire as to the probable outcome of a conflict between the civil and military authorities for the possession of a quantity of cotton in a certain insurrectionary district. Lincoln's face began lighting up, and he said: "What has become of our old friend Bob Lewis, of DeWitt County? Do you remem- ber a story that Bob used to tell us about his going to Missouri to look up some Mormon lands that belonged to his father? You know that when Robert became of age he found among the papers of his father a number of warrants and patents for lands in North- east Missouri, and he concluded the best thing he could do was to go to Missouri and investigate the condition of things. It being before the days of railroads, he started on horseback, with a pair of old-fashioned saddlebags. When he arrived where he supposed his land was situated, he stopped, hitched his horse, and went into COMMANDER IN CHIEF 481 a cabin standing close by the roadside. He found the proprietor, a lean, lank, leathery-looking man, engaged in the pioneer business of making bullets preparatory to a hunt. On entering, Mr. Lewis observed a rifle suspended in a couple of buck-horns above the fire. He said to the man: 'I am looking up some lands that I think belong to my father,' and inquired of the man in what section he lived. Without having ascertained the section, Mr. Lewis proceeded to exhibit his title papers in evidence and, having established a good title, as he thought, said to the man: 'Now, that is my title. What is yours?' The pioneer, who had by this time become somewhat interested in the proceedings, pointed his long finger toward the rifle. Said he: 'Young man, do you see that gun?' Mr. Lewis frankly admitted that he did. 'Well,' said he, 'that is my title, and if you don't get out of here pretty damned quick you will feel the force of it.' Mr. Lewis very hurriedly put his title papers in his saddle- bags, mounted his pony, and galloped down the road, and, as Bob says, the old pioneer snapped his gun twice at him before he could turn the corner. Lewis said that he had never been back to disturb that man's title since. "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "the military authorities have the same title against the civil authorities that closed out Bob's Mormon title in Missouri." Judge Weldon says that after this anecdote he under- stood what would be the policy of the Government in the matter referred to as well as though a proclamation had been issued. —Lawrence Weldon, in the New York Daily Tribune, 1885. EMERGENCY During the fall of 1863, Uncle Abe was riding on the Virginia side of the Potomac, between Arlington Heights and Alexandria, accompanied by Dr. N of New Jersey. Passing the huge earth- work fortifications, the doctor observed: "Mr. President, I have never yet been enabled to discover the utility of constructing and maintaining those forts. What is your opinion about them?" 482 LINCOLN TALKS "Well, Doctor," replied Uncle Abe, "you are a medical man, and I will ask you a question in the line of your profession. Can you tell me the use of a man's nipples?" "No, I can't," said the doctor. "Well, I can tell you," said Uncle Abe. "They would be mighty handy if he happened to have a child." — Lincolniana. THE FLEA When Edgerly stole the Willow Creek battle plans "from under the nose of Robert E. Lee," Lincoln gave him the nickname of "the Flea." Secretary of State Seward had doubted the authenticity of Lee's signature on the plan. "Did you ever try to put your finger on a flea," Lincoln asked Seward, "to find he wasn't there? That's the way with my man. He got these plans and immediately wasn't there." —Jason H. Edgerly. THE DEVIL Lincoln says there is a good deal of the devil in the rebels. They sometimes fight like him, frequently run like him, and always lie like him. —Legacy of Fun. RESISTERS He was told the Pennsylvania coal miners were resisting war service. "I can't expect minors to fight," he said. "But let's make them majors and then they won't have to." —Legacy of Fun. RIVER OPERATIONS The President was opposed to the army operations on the Yazoo River. He said, if an army could not go down a river one mile wide, the Mississippi, how absurd to attempt to go down a narrow stream COMMANDER IN CHIEF 483 a hundred or so yards wide. And then, when the army got down the narrow stream, where were they? Just where they began, at the big river. But he concluded by saying that he intended to leave it to his generals; that he did not wish to interfere and dishearten them; that they had their little plans and would try to bring all things out right. —John H. Littlefield, in the Mail and Express. SIGNATURE On one occasion an official letter was received from John Win- trup, the operator at Wilmington, Delaware, on the route of the military line from Washington to Fort Monroe. His signature was written in a rather bold hand and with the final letter quite large, almost like a capital, and ending in flourishes which partly ob- scured the name itself. Lincoln's eye dropped on this letter as it lay on the cipher-desk, and after satisfying his curiosity as to the peculiar signature he said: "That reminds me of a short-legged man in a big overcoat, the tail of which was so long that it wiped out his footprints in the snow." —David Homer Bates. CRAZYGRAMS On many occasions, telegrams from irresponsible persons were received at the War Department, generally addressed to the Presi- dent, criticizing the Administration or some of the generals in the army, and volunteering advice concerning political and military matters. One of these free-lance advisers, named Maxwell, a small dry-goods merchant, lived in Philadelphia, and scarcely a month passed in which he did not telegraph direct to the President. One impertinent telegram [criticizing General Thomas] the President held until his evening visit to the War Department; mean- while, no doubt, thinking that some defense of General Thomas by the Administration might serve to allay the already evident wide- spread distrust and anxiety, he wrote the following answer to Max- well at the White House, brought it with him to the telegraph of- 484 LINCOLN TALKS fice, and handed it to Tinker, one of the cipher-operators, for transmission: "September 23, 1863. "I hasten to say that in the state of information we have here r nothing could be more ungracious than to indulge any suspicion towards General Thomas. It is doubtful whether his heroism and skill exhibited last Sunday afternoon has ever been surpassed in the world. A. Lincoln." But the message had been in Tinker's hands only a few minutes, when Lincoln came over to the cipher-desk and said: "I guess I will not send this; I can't afford to answer every crazy question asked me." Thereafter, adopting Lincoln's description, we always referred to these officious dispatches as "crazygrams." —David Homer Bates. RAISINS Lincoln's habit was to go immediately to the drawer each time he came into our room, and read over the telegrams, beginning at the top, until he came to the one he had seen at his last previous visit. When this point was reached, he almost always said: "Well, boys, I am down to raisins." After we had heard this curious remark a number of times, one of us ventured to ask him what it meant. He thereupon told us the story of the little girl who celebrated her birthday by eating very freely of many good things, topping off with raisins for des- sert. During the night she was taken violently ill, and when the doctor arrived she was busy casting up her accounts. The genial doctor, scrutinizing the contents of the vessel, noticed some small black objects that had just appeared, and remarked to the anxious parent that all danger was past, as the child was "down to raisins." "So," Lincoln said, "when I reach the message in this pile which I saw on my last visit, I know that I need go no further." —Albert Brown Chandler. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 485 LACONIC Early on the morning of the day before his assassination, he came into the telegraph office while I was copying a dispatch that conveyed important information on two subjects and that was couched in very laconic terms. He read over the dispatch, and after taking in the meaning of the terse phrases, turned to me, and, with his accustomed smile, said: "Mr. Tinker, that reminds me of the old story of the Scotch country girl on her way to market with a basket of eggs for sale. She was fording a small stream in scant costume when a wagoner approached from the opposite bank and called: 'Good morning, my lassie; how deep's the brook, and what's the price of eggs?' 'Knee deep and a sixpence,' answered the little maid." —Charles A. Tinker. OBEDIENCE The President was at the battle of Fort Stevens and, standing in a very exposed position, he apparently had been recognized by the enemy. A young colonel of artillery, who appeared to be the officer of the day, walked to where the President was looking over the parapet and said: "Mr. President, you are standing within range of four hundred rebel rifles. Please come down to a safer place. If you do not, it will be my duty to call a file of men, and make you." "And you would do quite right, my boy!" said the President, coming down at once. "You are in command of the fort. I should be the last man to set an example of disobedience!" -Col. Thomas F. Wright. CHARGE I was with several other young officers, also carrying reports to the War Department, and one morning we were late. In this in- stance we were in a desperate hurry to deliver the papers, in order to be able to catch the train returning to camp. 486 LINCOLN TALKS On the winding, dark staircase of the old War Department, which many will remember, it was our misfortune, while taking about three stairs at a time, to run a certain head like a catapult into the body of the President, striking him in the region of the right lower vest pocket. The usual surprised and relaxed grunt of a man thus assailed came promptly. We quickly sent an apology in the direction of the dimly seen form, feeling that the ungracious shock was expensive, even to the humblest clerk in the department. A second glance revealed to us the President as the victim of the collision. Then followed a special tender of "ten thousand par- dons," and the President's reply: "One's enough; I wish the whole army would charge like that." — R. D. Wordsworth. CURE FOR BOILS "Blair, did you know that fright has sometimes proven a cure for boils? Not long ago, when Colonel — , with his cavalry, was at the front and the Rebs were making things rather lively for us, the colonel was ordered out to a reconnaissance. He was troubled at the time with a big boil where it made horseback riding decidedly uncomfortable. He finally dismounted and ordered the troops for- ward without him. Soon he was startled by the rapid reports of pistols, and the helter-skelter approach of his troops in full retreat before a yelling rebel force. He forgot everything but the yells, sprang into his saddle, and made capital time over the fence and ditches till safe within the lines. The pain from the boil was gone, and the boil, too, and the colonel swore that there was no cure for boils so sure as fright from rebel yells." —Montgomery Blair. HORSES A juvenile "brigadier" from New York, with a small detachment of cavalry, having imprudently gone within the rebel lines near COMMANDER IN CHIEF 487 Fairfax Court House, was captured by guerrillas. Upon the fact being reported to Lincoln, he said that he was very sorry to lose the horses. "What do you mean?" inquired his informant. "Why," rejoined the President, "I can make a 'brigadier' any day; but those horses cost the Government a hundred and twenty-five dollars a head!" —Schuyler Colfax. PARTICULAR The following story Father Abraham often told about two con- trabands, servants of General Kelly and Captain George Harrison. When the general and his staff were on their way up the moun- tains they stopped at a little village to get something to eat. They persuaded the occupant of the farmhouse to cook them a meal, and in order to expedite matters, sent the two contrabands to assist in preparing the repast. After it was over the general told the Negroes to help themselves. An hour or two afterward he observed them gnawing away at some hard crackers and flitch. "Why didn't you eat your dinner at the village?" asked the gen- eral of one of them. "Well, to tell the God's trufe, General, it was too cussed dirty!" was the reply. —Honest Old Abe's Jokes. REGULATIONS One morning we drove to the Arsenal, then to the Navy Yard. Mr. Lincoln was alone in the carriage. The mounted escort were not with us. He always left them behind if he possibly could. We came past the old Capitol. It was filled with rebel prisoners. A guard was pacing up and down in front of it. The regulations of this improvised prison were that no carriages or people should pass unless they went fast. I didn't know about the rule, so I let the horses walk. The guard saw us and yelled: "Trot along there; trot along there!" I didn't like the way he spoke to us so I paid no attention 4»0 LINCOLN TALKS to him. He glared at me for a second, then yelled for the corporal of the guard, who came out from the doorway, ran in front of the horses, held up his gun, and stopped us. "Don't you people know the rules and regulations of this prison?" he asked. I told him no. "Well," he snapped— for he was a young corporal and very im- portant, "the rules are to drive by fast. I place you people under arrest." "Young man," I asked, "do you know whom you have ar- rested?" "No, and I don't care," he snapped. "You have arrested the President of the United States." In an instant the corporal reversed his gun, straightened up, and stood at present arms. He looked straight ahead, very pale and scared. The President had been leaning out of the side of the carriage, watching us and listening. He spoke now for the first time. "Corporal," he called kindly, "come here." The corporal obeyed. "I'm very sorry we broke the rules," said Lincoln, apologetically, "but neither my coachman nor I knew about them. I assure you it won't happen again." The corporal was still too scared to speak. "Corporal," continued Lincoln, "to what company do you be- long?" The corporal told him. "Who is your captain? " questioned Lincoln, "and what is your own name?" Thinking he was about to be reported, the corporal could hardly talk at all. He half stammered his reply. "Corporal," continued Lincoln, "come closer." The corporal did so. "I wish we had more men at the head of the army like you. I wish all our soldiers were as good and accurate and obedient to orders as you are. Good day, Corporal." —John Christian. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 489 EXCUSES Lincoln was on the River Queen at Hampton Roads when he was to meet Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell. The boat ran out of drinking water, and Quartermaster-Colonel James issued an order for a fresh supply. The order was delayed and Colonel James was annoyed. He wrote a note to the President explaining the delay and suggested that the subordinate responsible should be brought to account. President Lincoln returned the note to Colonel James with an endorsement in his own handwriting that "the delay had caused no inconvenience" and he "hoped Colonel James would not deal with severity with the delinquent officer, for it is probable he has either mistaken the order, or that from some accidental cause he has been delayed in its execution." — Maj. Eliphalet Rowell. GENTLE MEASURES At every reverse to the Unionists, the more or less secret sympa- thizers with the seceders reiterated the cry that gentle measures should be used against "our erring brothers." To one such pleader, the President severely, but humorously, responded, in writing: "Would you have me drop the war where it is, or would you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts charged with rose- water?" — Nicolay and Hay. THE WOMAN ORDER "Well, General Butler," said Lincoln, shaking his hand, "you've done one good job. Are you ready for another?" "I'm ready to go back to New Orleans, Mr. Lincoln. That was a scurvy trick sending Banks to replace me! And I can't find out who did it. Stanton says he doesn't know. Seward says Halleck did it. Halleck says Seward did it. From you, sir, I expect the truth! " Butler began to pace the floor. "It's an outrage," he shouted, 490 LINCOLN TALKS "that my splendid work of renovating New Orleans should be made the plaything of politicians. I'm going back, sir!" "I'd like to have you go back and let General Banks go on over to Texas," said the President. "But your Woman Order raised such an awful stink in Europe that Seward and the rest don't think it wise to have you do so. I'd like to have you go West, to the Missis- sippi Valley and " "Offering me Grant's job, I suppose!" barked Butler. "Well, it's not big enough for me, though it's just the right size for that whisky-fed butcher." "If you'll stop sweeping up and down like a herd of buffalo, I'll try to explain myself," said Lincoln patiently. Butler flung himself impatiently into a Cabinet chair. Sumner sank on one of the sofas, while Lincoln seated himself in the ma- hogany rocker by the fireplace and began his explanation: "M. Mercier has bombarded Seward for months with requests for your removal because of the alleged insult to French Creole women in New Orleans, in your Woman Order. Seward held off as long as he dared, but a little too long at that, because Napoleon has made an offer of mediation. He wants 'to end the infamies of war waged against innocent women.' Over in England they've gone crazy about the order. Lord Palmerston made a speech in Parliament about you in which he cast off Anglo-Saxon kinship with men who would protect themselves from a handful of women by an official threat. We thought you'd better come home for a while. I think it'll all blow over; then you can go back." —Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. CONFEDERATES Finally, after visiting the wards occupied by our invalid and convalescing soldiers, we came to three wards occupied by sick and wounded Southern prisoners. With a feeling of patriotic duty, I said: "Mr. President, you don't want to go in there; they are only rebels." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 49I I will never forget how he stopped and gently laid his large hand upon my shoulder and quietly answered: "You mean Confeder- ates!" And I have meant Confederates ever since. There was nothing left for me to do after the President's remark but to go with him through those three wards; and I could not see but that he was just as kind, his handshakings just as hearty, his interest just as real for the welfare of the men, as when he was among our own soldiers. —Dr. Jerome Walker. FINES A gentleman solicited Mr. Lincoln to release a number of men, women, and children who had been arrested by order of General Hunter. After listening to the statement, the President said: "Did you ever read a book called Flush Times in Alabama?" "No, sir," was the reply. "Well, you ought; for there is a case in it which just fits this: An old judge had a propensity for fining offenders, no matter what the offense. On one occasion the regular term of court was not long enough to close all the cases and enable the judge to order fines, so he held an adjourned term for that purpose, and while in- tently occupied in that agreeable duty, the stove-pipe fell; where- upon the judge, enraged at the interruption, without stopping to learn the cause, called out: 'Sheriff, arrest every one of them!' Then, looking through his spectacles and seeing the crowd, His Honor said: 'Stop, Mr. Clerk; enter a fine against every one in the room, women and children alone excepted.' And," said Mr. Lin- coln, "I don't know but General Hunter has as great a propensity for arresting as the old judge had for fining people." -H. N. B. CRITICISM Ishmael Day, the hero of the flag, who killed the rebel soldier that dared to pull down "Old Glory," recently paid a visit to the President, with a letter of introduction from General Wallace. 492 LINCOLN TALKS He told the President that the general had taken steps to indemnify him by levying a tax on the sympathizers with the rebellion in the vicinity of his destroyed property. "Tell General Wallace from me," said the President, "that he is right, and to go ahead, and that I will sustain him!" This is the way the loyal men everywhere like to hear the Chief Magistrate talk, and to see him act. On the other hand, the loyal community feel that his leniency in letting off the four culprits who were to be hung at Fort McHenry next Monday, is a premium on future violations of law. It is a remarkable fact that his leniency and mercy in every case have been repaid by the scorn and contempt of the reprieved criminals and their friends, and by repetitions of the offense. —New York Evening Post, Aug. 30, 1864. BIG FISH The party consisted of a lady and two gentlemen. She had come to ask that her husband, who was a prisoner of war, might be per- mitted to take the oath and be released from confinement. To se- cure a degree of interest on the part of the President, one of the gentlemen claimed to be an acquaintance of Mrs. Lincoln. The President proceeded to ask what position the lady's husband held in the rebel service. "Oh," said she, "he was a captain." "A captain!" rejoined Mr. Lincoln. "Indeed!— rather too big a fish to set free simply upon his taking the oath. If he was an officer, it is proof positive that he has been a zealous rebel; I cannot release him." Here the lady's friend reiterated the assertion of his acquaint- ance with Mrs. Lincoln. Instantly the President's hand was upon the bell-rope. An usher answered the summons. "Cornelius, take this man's name to Mrs. Lincoln, and ask her what she knows of him." The boy promptly returned with the reply that "the Madam" COMMANDER IN CHIEF 493 (as she was called by the servants) knew nothing of him whatever. The man said it was very strange. "Well, it is just as I expected," said the President. The party made one more attempt to enlist his sympathy, but without effect. "It is of no use," was the reply; "I cannot release him." —Carpenter. TWO APPLICATIONS I had an opportunity during the war of witnessing the reception by the President of two applications for pardon, which met with widely different fates. The case of the first was this: A young man, belonging to a Virginia family of the most trea- sonable character, remained in Washington when the rest of the household went with the Confederacy. Though he took no active part with the loyalists of the capital, he was so quiet and prudent as to allay their suspicions concerning him, and finally to gain their confidence. He opened a market and kept for sale the very best quality of meats, supplying many of the families of prominent of- ficers of the Government, and for a time the family at the White House. He even managed to obtain a sort of intimacy in some of. these households, through the intrigues of disloyal servants. As afterwards appeared, he possessed himself of information that was valuable to the rebels, and which he imparted to them promptly and unreservedly. When Lee moved up into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, this young man was suddenly missing. "He was unexpectedly called away by business," was assigned as the reason for his absence. Dur- ing that June raid the young man was taken prisoner by General Kilpatrick's men. He was recognized, was proved to be a spy, and but for the President's leniency would have been hanged. Instead he was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Every wire was pulled that was supposed to have any power to open his prison door. At last the President himself was besieged. 494 LINCOLN TALKS It was in the President's room, while waiting my turn for an in- terview, that I learned the above facts. Two persons were plead- ing in his behalf— a man and a woman. It was a very plausible story as they told it. Their truly loyal young kinsman had gone into Maryland to buy beeves for the Washington market, was "gobbled up" with his fine, fat kine by Stuart (the Confederate), who con- fiscated his property and impressed its owner into his cavalry. And then, as if that were not calamity enough for one day, he was captured again by Kilpatrick, who supposed him to be a rebel like the rest. The President listened impatiently and with a darkening face. "There is not a word of this true!" he burst in, abruptly and sternly. "And you know it as well as I do. He was a spy, he has been a spy, he ought to be hanged as a spy. From the fuss you folks are making about him, who are none too loyal, I am convinced that he was more valuable to the enemy than we have yet suspected. You are the third set of persons that has been to me to get him pardoned. Now I'll tell you what— if any of you come bothering me any more about his being set at liberty, that will decide his fate. I will have him hanged, as he deserves to be. You ought to bless your stars that he got off with a whole neck; and if you don't want to see him hanged as high as Haman, don't you come to me again about him." The petitioners, as may be imagined, "stood not upon the order of their going, but went at once," and after their departure the President narrated the facts which I have given. The other case was of a different character. I was in the ante- chamber of the President's room one morning, waiting the exit of Secretary Stanton, who was holding an interview with Mr. Lin- coln. There were some fifty men in attendance, and, besides my- self, only one woman. She was sitting in the corner of the anteroom, with her face to the wall. She was poor-looking, shabbily but neatly dressed, middle-aged, sunburnt, and careworn. Her hands were tightly clenching a handkerchief, which she held close against her breast, with the evident effort to master the emotion that was shak- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 495 ing her whole frame, and she was weeping. I saw by her manner that she was in trouble, and my heart went out to her. Putting my arm about her, I stooped and said as kindly as I could: "My poor woman, I am afraid you are in trouble; can I do anything to help you?" "Oh," said she, "I am in great trouble. My husband is to be shot, and if I cannot get him pardoned, nobody can comfort me." A kindly-appearing man stepped forward, a country neighbor of the poor woman, and told her story. Her husband was a major of an Illinois regiment, and had served two years in the army with honor and fidelity. His colonel was a hard man and, when intoxi- cated, abusive, uncontrollable, and profane. While under the in- fluence of strong drink, he had come fiercely into collision with the major, and a most profane and angry altercation ensued in the presence of half the regiment. Foul epithets were hurled back and forth until the colonel called the major a "coward," with numerous obscene and profane prefixes. The major was a sober man, reticent, somewhat unpopular, very cool, and slow to anger; but this stung him. "Take that back, Colonel," he demanded, fiercely, drawing his revolver, "or you are a dead man." The colonel repeated the insult, even more offensively. Before the bystanders could interfere, the colonel fell dead by the major's hand. For this he was tried, convicted, sentenced to be shot, and was then lying in jail awaiting his death. He had written his wife a farewell letter entreating her to be reconciled to the event— a brief epistle which she gave me to read— full of tenderness for her and accusation for himself, but evincing great manliness. Senator Henderson of Missouri was to introduce my friends and myself to the notice of the President, and we entreated that he would also escort this poor woman, and give her an immediate op- portunity to present her petition. He gladly consented. I sought to allay her agitation. "Won't you talk for me?" she entreated. "I am so tired; I can't think; do beg the President not to allow my husband to be shot." 496 LINCOLN TALKS Immediately we were ushered into the apartment, two of us leading the trembling wife between us as if she were a child learning to walk. The townsman of the woman was first introduced, saying: "This woman, Mr. President, will tell you her story." But instead, she dropped tremblingly into a chair, only half alive; and, lifting her white face to the President's with a beseech- ing look, more eloquent than words, her colorless lips moved with- out emitting a sound. Seeing she was past speech, I spoke quickly in her behalf, stating her case, and urging her prayer for her hus- band's life with all the earnestness I felt. All the while the hungry eyes of the woman were riveted on the President's face, and tear- less sobs shook her frame. The President was troubled. "Oh, dear, dear!" he said, passing his hand over his face and through his hair. "These cases will kill me! I wish I didn't have to hear about them! What shall I do? You make the laws," turning to the members of Congress in the room, "and then you come with heart-broken women and ask me to set them aside. You have de- cided that if a soldier raises his hand against his superior officer, as this man has done, he shall die! Then if I leave the laws to be exe- cuted, one of these distressing scenes occurs, which almost kills me." The attendant of the wife gave the President an abstract of the case, which had been furnished by the major's counsel and which the President began gloomily to run over. He had turned over some half-dozen pages when he suddenly dropped it, sprang forward in his chair, his face brightened almost into beauty, and he rubbed his hands together joyfully. "Oh," said he, "I know all about it now! I know all about it! This case came before me ten days ago, and I decided it then. Without any solicitation I have changed his sentence of death to two years' imprisonment, at Albany. Major — had been a brave man, and a good man, and a good soldier, and he had had great provocations for a year. "Your husband knows all about it before now," he said, ad- dressing the wife; "and when you go back you must go by way COMMANDER IN CHIEF 497 of Albany and see him. Tell him to bear his imprisonment like a man, and take a new start in the world when it is over." The major's wife did not at first comprehend, but I explained to her. She attempted to rise, and made a motion as if she were going to kneel at the President's feet; but instead she only slid helplessly to the floor before him, and for a long time lay in a dead faint. The President was greatly moved. He helped raise her; and when she was taken from the room, he paced back and forth for a few moments before he could attend to other business. "Poor woman!" he exclaimed. "I don't believe she would have lived if her husband had been shot. What a heap of trouble this war has made!" —Sen. John B. Henderson. THIRTY DOLLARS The ex-Governor took the floor in behalf of the oppressed Mis- sourians. He first presented the case of a certain lieutenant, who was described as a very lonely Missourian, an orphan, his family and relatives having joined the Confederate Army. Through evil reports and the machinations of enemies this orphan had got into trouble. Among other things the orator described the orphan's arrest, his trial and conviction on the charge of embezzling the money of the Government; and he made a moving appeal to the President for a reopening of the case and the restoration of the abused man to his rank and pay in the army. The papers in the case were handed to Mr. Lincoln, and he was asked to examine them for himself. The bulky package looked formidable. Mr. Lincoln took it up and began reading aloud: "Whereas, conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman . . ." "Whereas, without resentment, the said lieutenant received a letter from a man named , stating that the President must be a Negro"; and "Whereas, the said lieu- tenant corruptly received while an officer on duty, from a man in , the sum of forty dollars- — " 498 LINCOLN TALKS "Stop there!" exclaimed the lieutenant, who was at that mo- ment behind the ex-Governor's chair. "Why, Mr. Lincoln— beg pardon— Mr. President, it wa'n't but thirty dollars." "Yes," said the Governor, "that charge, Mr. President, is clearly wrong. It was only thirty dollars, as we can prove." "Governor," said Mr. Lincoln, who was by this time thor- oughly amused, but grave as a judge, "that reminds me of a man in Indiana, who was in a battle of words with a neighbor. One charged that the other's daughter had three illegitimate children. 'Now,' said the man whose family was so outrageously scandalized, 'that's a lie, and I can prove it, for she only has two.' " — Lamon. REPRIEVED MINISTER The Confederates were in need of percussion-caps; they also wanted quinine, a remedy for fever-and-ague, which commanded a very high price. Among those arrested for attempting to supply them with articles contraband of war was the Reverend Henry M. Luckett, a Methodist minister past seventy years of age. He was tried by court martial and sentenced to be shot. The day be- fore the one fixed for his death his daughter, Mrs. Bullitt, of Ken- tucky; Henry M. Lane, Senator from Indiana; Daniel W. Voor- hees, member of Congress from that State; and several other gentlemen entered the Executive Chamber. "We have called," said Senator Lane, "to ask you, Mr. President, to reprieve Henry M. Luckett, who is sentenced to be shot to- morrow. He is an old man. He has done wrong, but there are extenuating circumstances. He is poor. He has been overpersuaded by Confederate friends." The President made no reply. The daughter of the condemned man approached. He turned to hear what she had to say. She pleaded earnestly for her father's life. "Lane, what did you say the man's name was?" said the Presi- dent, breaking in, seemingly awakening from a dream. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 499 "Luckett." "Not Henry M. Luckett?" "Yes, that is my father's name," Mrs. Bullitt replied. "Didn't he preach in Springfield years ago?" "Yes, sir; my father preached there." "Well, this is wonderful! I know him— have heard him preach. He is tall and angular like myself. I have been mistaken for him on the streets. But you say he is to be shot tomorrow?" "Yes, sir." "No, no; there will be no shooting in this case. Henry M. Luckett! There must be something wrong with him, or he wouldn't get into such a scrape as this." The President dictated a dispatch to General Hurlburt, in com- mand of the Department at Memphis, directing him to suspend the execution till further orders. "No; we will have no shooting in this case," he repeated, as if in soliloquy. —Sen. Henry S. Lane. HONESTY During the war Miss N — , a beautiful and spirited Virginian, whose brother, a Confederate soldier, had been taken prisoner by the Union forces, was desirous of obtaining a pass which would enable her to visit him. Francis P. Blair agreed to secure an audi- ence with the President, but warned his young and rather im- pulsive friend to be very prudent and not let a word escape her which would betray her Southern sympathies. They were ushered into the presence of Mr. Lincoln and the object for which they had come stated. The tall grave man bent down to the petite maiden and, looking searchingly into her face, said: "You are loyal, of course?" Her bright eyes flashed. She hesitated a moment, and then, with a face eloquent with emotion and honest as his own, she replied: "Yes, loyal to the heart's core— to Virginia!" 500 LINCOLN TALKS Mr. Lincoln kept his intent gaze upon her for a moment longer and then went to his desk, wrote a line or two, and handed her the paper. With a bow the interview terminated. Once outside, the extreme vexation of Mr. Blair found vent in reproachful words. "Now, you have done it," he said. "Didn't I warn you to be very careful? You have only made yourself to blame." Miss N — made no reply but opened the paper. It contained these words: "Pass Miss N ; she is an honest girl and can be trusted." —Francis P. Blair. THE REBEL S BIBLE In the summer of 1862 I was with General Lee's army on its march into Maryland. We had a rough time before we crossed the Potomac, and much worse after we got on this side. At the battle of Sharpsburg my regiment, the 10th Alabama, suffered heavily in killed and wounded. Among the wounded of Company K was myself. I was supposed to be mortally wounded and left on the field, and consequently fell into the hands of the Union forces. As I lay suffering from pain, and being very weak from loss of blood, and wishing that death would come to my relief, a gentleman dressed in citizen's clothes came up to me, stooped over my almost lifeless body, and in a gentle voice said: "My lad, you are very young to be in the army. How old are you?" "I am sixteen, and am dying. Will you be kind enough to send this Bible to my mother?" I drew the book from my pocket and gave it to him. He said: "Your mother shall have this Bible, and you shall take it to her." On the fly-leaf was written my mother's name and address, with the following lines underneath: "Will some generous foe COMMANDER IN CHIEF 5OI please return this book to my mother and give this body Christian burial?" He asked my name and command. As the stranger turned to leave I called him back and asked him to please give me his name, as I did not wish to die and never know whom to thank for such kindness. "You will not die, my lad; take courage, you will be cared for," were his words. "My name," he said, "is Abraham Lincoln." After many months I became convalescent. One morning I was called to headquarters and notified that I would be sent the next day to Fort Monroe. You can imagine my delight; I was cheered with the hope of seeing the dear ones at home. As I was about ready to leave for Baltimore the officer handed me a small pack- age. After I had started on the journey I unwrapped the covering of paper and found it was my Bible. In turning over the pages I found a card in the book, with the following written on it: "Take this Book of God to your mother. A. Lincoln." The card was in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, and the first, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses of that chapter were marked in pencil with the letter "L." The first verse read thus: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them"; thirteenth: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man"; fourteenth: "For God shall bring every work into judg- ment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." -Edward D. Neill. GOOD HUSBAND One day a woman, accompanied by a Senator, called on Presi- dent Lincoln. The woman was the wife of one of Mosby's men. 502 LINCOLN TALKS Her husband had been captured, tried, and condemned to be shot. She came to ask for the pardon of her husband. Lincoln heard her story and then asked what kind of husband her husband was. "Is he intemperate, does he abuse the children and beat you?" asked the President. "No, no," said the wife. "He is a good man, a good husband; he loves me and he loves the children and we cannot live without him. The only trouble is that he is a fool about politics. I live in the North and was born there, and if I get him home he will do no more fighting for the South." "Well," said Lincoln, after examining the papers, "I will pardon him and turn him over to you for safekeeping." The woman, overcome with joy, began to sob as though her heart would break. "My dear woman," said Lincoln, "if I had known how badly it was going to make you feel, I never would have pardoned him." "You do not understand me," she cried between sobs. "Yes, yes, I do," answered Lincoln, "and if you do not go away at once I shall be crying with you." —Leslie J. Perry. CAPTURED CONFEDERATE Charles O. Roby of Fairfax County, Virginia, whose father was a Union man, was wounded and captured at Gettysburg in the Confederate service, into which, according to the affidavit of his father, he had been conscripted, and from which he tried to es- cape. On the father's affidavit Mr. Lincoln endorsed: "My impulse would be to say: 'Let Charles O. Roby take the oath and be discharged,' yet I do not so say, not knowing what valid objection there may be known at the War Department. Mr. Foster, who presents this, was an M.C. from New York several years ago, and afterwards a resident of Virginia, as he states. He COMMANDER IN CHIEF 503 is vouched to me as a respectable and worthy gentleman. I sub- mit the case to the Secretary of War. A. Lincoln." -Wilder D. Foster. VENGEANCE When by a peculiar coincidence the two sons of Robert E. Lee were captured, one while wounded and the other when he came to be exchanged for the wounded brother under a flag of truce to Fortress Monroe, and both were ordered held until further orders from the Secretary of War, Lee hastened to Richmond for the aid of Jefferson Davis to stay the hanging of his two sons in reprisal for the impending hanging of two Union soldiers. "You need not worry," said Davis, "because Abraham Lincoln will not permit such an outrage." "Stanton will carry out this diabolical purpose," replied General Lee, "and Lincoln will know nothing about it until it has been accomplished and both of my sons are dead." Jefferson Davis telegraphed to President Lincoln requesting his interference to save the lives of the sons of General Lee and had it sent through the military lines with a request to the Federal com- mander to see that the message be delivered to Abraham Lincoln in the White House. "That will cause delay and at least one of my sons can be saved," said Lee. "It will not only cause delay," replied Davis, "but it will save the lives of both your sons." It was nearing midnight when the Secretary of War entered the White House in response to an unusual mandatory message when President Lincoln handed him the telegram from Jefferson Davis and asked: "What does this mean?" Secretary Stanton stated the case with his habitual earnestness and wound up by saying: "Mr. President, the lives of those two Union captains are as precious to their families as are the lives of those Lee boys to their family. If our men are hanged in Richmond, both of the sons of Robert E. Lee should be hanged." 504 LINCOLN TALKS "Stanton, if a crime is committed in Richmond I cannot prevent it, but a crime like that committed under my jurisdiction would stamp upon my heart by command of my conscience the word 'murderer.' Stanton, it can't be done! It can't be done! . . . We are not savages. Let us see what the Book says." Lincoln opened wide the Bible, which was always upon his desk, and said: "Stanton, here is a command from Almighty God in His Book. Read these words yourself: 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.' " Turning his back upon Stanton, Lincoln walked to the desk of an ever-present telegraph operator, wrote a couple of lines with a lead pencil, and directed the sending of the telegram to the officer in command at Fortress Monroe: "Immediately release both of the sons of Robert E. Lee and send them back to their father. A. L." —Smith D. Fry; Charles A. Dana, in the New York Sun. RELIGION A Southern woman who had come to see Lincoln about her husband, who was confined in a Northern prison because of his "pernicious politics," mentioned the fact that the prisoner was a religious man. "I'm glad to hear that," said Mr. Lincoln, cheerfully, and the lady smiled hopefully in response. Then he went on: "Because any man who wants to disrupt this Union needs all the religion in sight to save him." —Washington Chronicle; Noah Brooks. ONE LIFE President Lincoln was implored to pardon a young man from Kentucky. The condemned man had been enticed into the Con- federate army, deserted, and made his way back home. He was arrested, accused of being a spy, and sentenced to be hanged. President Lincoln was seen by one of his friends from Kentucky, who explained his errand and asked for mercy. "Oh, yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "I understand. Someone has been COMMANDER IN CHIEF $0$ crying and worked upon your feelings, and you have come here to work on mine." His friend then went into more detail and assured him of his belief in the truth of the story. After some deliberation, Mr. Lin- coln, evidently scarcely more than half convinced, but still pre- ferring to err on the side of mercy, replied: "If a man had more than one life I think a little hanging would not hurt this one, but as this man has only one life, I think I'll pardon him." -H. N. B. FORGERY The next person in line was a man with some alleged letters of loyalty from an ex-Governor of Maryland. As he handed them to Mr. Lincoln, another man caught what had been said and inter- rupted the conversation to tell Lincoln that the papers must have been forged, as the Maryland ex-Governor had been dead for sev- eral years. The man who had brought in the letter collapsed, and Lincoln, with that peculiar pity which he could show even to those who least deserved it, replied quickly: "Oh, never mind, sir, never mind, sir; it is far more interesting. I would rather get a letter from a dead man than from a live man any day." — Hezekiah S. Bundy. TWO FOOLS The Attorney-General came to the President soliciting a favor. "A friend of mine," said Mr. Bates, "over in Virginia is a Union man, but his boy enlisted in the rebel army. He has been cap- tured by our troops, and the father wants him paroled. He prom- ises that the boy shall not serve again. As a personal favor I hope you will see your way to grant it." "Bates," said Mr. Lincoln, "I have a case almost like it. The son of an old friend in Illinois ran away from home and enlisted in the rebel army. The poor fool has been captured, and his broken- hearted father wants me to send him home, and he promises to 506 LINCOLN TALKS keep him there. Now, let us unite our influence with this Ad- ministration, and see if we can't make the two old men happy, and at the same time keep two fools from going back into the rebel army." —Titian J. Coffey, in the New York Daily Tribune. APOLOGY Soon after the outbreak of the war, a young man, son of a mem- ber of Dr. Gurley's church, enlisted in the Confederate Army, be- came a prisoner, was court-martialed, and sentenced to be shot. Dr. Gurley secured a commutation of the sentence. A short time after, the father of the boy came to Dr. Gurley and solicited his aid to procure a pardon. Dr. Gurley said it would be extremely imprudent to do so so soon. The father replied that his wife would lose her mind if something were not done. "I must make the at- tempt on his mother's account." Dr. Gurley signed the petition for a pardon and the father took it to President Lincoln. When the father made known his errand, the President became very much excited and fiercely said: "I saved the life of your son after he had been condemned to death, to be shot; and now you come here so soon, when you know I am overwhelmed with care and anxiety, asking for his pardon. You should have been content with what I have done. Go, and if you annoy me any more, I shall feel it to be my duty to consider whether I ought not to recall what I have already done." A few days after, the President sent for the father, apologized for the way he had spoken to him, and to his utter astonishment, handed him a pardon. Before long Dr. Gurley met the President, who said to him: "By the way, Doctor, you signed the petition for Mr. —— 's son's pardon, didn't you?" The doctor replied that he had done so, but explained that he had advised against it— but signed because he was told that his mother might lose her mind if something was not done to relieve her. The President then remarked: "Well, Mr. came to me COMMANDER IN CHIEF 507 with the petition. It made me very angry and I dismissed him roughly. Afterward I felt so ashamed of myself for having lost my temper that I made out the pardon for the man and gave it to him. Ah, Doctor, these wives of ours have the inside track on us, haven't they?" —Rev. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley. GOLDEN RULE G. L. Mordecai, a Confederate who made an effort to run the blockade from Richmond, was arrested on entering Washington from Port Tobacco and marched to Old Capitol Prison. After several months friends finally procured his release. In return for this act of kindness we called at the White House to thank the President for his consideration and magnanimity. My friend un- consciously informed Mr. President that I had fought against the Government and that Mordecai's father was prominent in the Confederacy and a liberal contributor to the Southern cause. He grasped my hand and in response answered: "I am happy to know I am able to serve an enemy." —New York Daily Tribune, Feb. 13, 1901. OATH An elegantly dressed lady broke the silence and opened her case. She was from Maryland— and as the President looked over her letters, I saw from his manner, and from an occasional com- ment, that her petition was seconded by the highest names in the State. Her brother, who had been an officer in the Navy, had on the breaking out of the rebellion sent in his resignation, and was now under arrest. The lady urged, with more eloquence, that the mere resignation of his position was no offense. The President, raising his eyes, with a kind but penetrating look, asked: "Do you really think, now, that it was quite loyal in him to send in his resignation in such a crisis?" 508 LINCOLN TALKS The fair attorney met the question with intrepidity and in- sisted on her brother's innocence. Mr. Lincoln assured her of his sympathy for her, and of his respect for the gentlemen who had written in her behalf, and that he would do anything in his power for her brother. "But," said he, with an earnest and honest air which fairly illuminated his strong features, "the fact is there are some of us here who have taken an oath to support this old Government." -B. F. Milliard. POLITICAL ENEMIES After speaking of his long acquaintance with Lincoln, and the fact well known to his auditors of having often crossed swords with him, he said there were one or two incidents that he thought it was proper to refer to— most painful incidents in his own life — which illustrated better than the most eloquent phrases he could make use of the kindliness and nobility of Lincoln's nature. Only a few years before the election of Lincoln to the Presidency his, Linder's, son was indicted for murder. It was at a period of great political excitement, and General Linder, as usual, was taking a prominent part in the campaign. There appeared to be a disposi- tion in some quarters to secure the conviction of the son, with a view to the humiliation of the father. To this end, it was rumored that Lincoln had been retained to assist the prosecuting attorney of the county. Linder soon after met Lincoln in the street, and, after saluting him, said: "Lincoln, I hear that you have been re- tained to assist in the prosecution of my boy." Lincoln looked at him with that faraway gaze in his eyes that at times was so marked a feature in his expression, and simply replied: "Linder, do you believe me capable of accepting a retainer to prosecute your son for murder?" and immediately walked away. The second incident related by General Linder was that, years afterward, when the Civil War broke out, the same son went South and joined a Confederate regiment. In the course of the for- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 509 tunes of war he was captured and sent to the Old Capitol Prison at Washington. His father wrote to the President, asking the favor of his release and return home. Days and weeks elapsed, and re- ceiving no response to his letter, Linder had given up hope of a favorable outcome to his request, when, on Christmas eve, he re- ceived a telegram from the President, saying: "I am sending your boy to you today as a Christmas present. Keep him at home." —Usher F. Linder. SAVING TIME Congressman John W. Longyear of Michigan introduced a con- stituent who had a petition on behalf of his relative who joined the Confederate Army and was captured and imprisoned at Indian- apolis, from which he unsuccessfully tried to escape. The Con- gressman acquainted the President with the object of the errand and handed him a document, which he quickly read. "He hasn't many signers," he remarked, "but they are good ones. Can you sign it?" he asked Mr. Longyear, passing it across the table. Mr. Longyear added his name to the five "good ones," passed it back, and the President wrote across it: "Grant the prayer of the petitioner. A. Lincoln." "So you are anxious to get this boy home?" he remarked kindly as he handed me the paper. "Yes," I answered, "his mother is waiting for him at my house." "You take this to the War Department in the morning. Enter the west door, go to the east end of the hall, and enter the door to the right. There you will see a man standing at a high desk. Give him the paper. It will save you a week in getting him home." —John W. Longyear. GRANTED A prisoner in Camp Morton, Indianapolis, made a feeling per- sonal appeal to the President for release, the opening paragraph of which was as follows: "Mr. President, I never was, am not, and never can be, a secessionist. I have been of a highly nervous tern- 510 LINCOLN TALKS perament, with weak lungs, and easily excited. I was shamefully deceived by a supposed friend, who made me believe that I would be killed unless I fled my home and native State to seek safety in the South," etc. Upon this document the President made this endorsement: "This man being so well vouched, and talking so much better than any other I have heard, let him take the oath of December 8, and be discharged. A. Lincoln." -H. N. B. SUFFICIENT REASON "My poor girl," he said to a young woman in a neat but scanty dress, "you have come with no Governor or Senator or member of Congress to plead your cause. You seem truthful, and you don't wear hoops, and I'll be whipped but I'll pardon your brother!" —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. MISSION In the month of October 1864, I went from Fairmount, Mis- souri, to Washington, in behalf of Daniel Hayden of Scotland County, who had been captured at Helena, Arkansas, fifteen months before, and who was now confined in the old Alton, Il- linois, penitentiary, which had been turned into a military prison. On the afternoon of the seventh I did not reach the White House until after three o'clock. At the entrance I met an old man, a clerk in the department of the commissary-general of prisoners. I had accidentally met and conversed with the plain old fellow, who proved my salvation at this time. The moment he met me he said: "Have you seen the President yet?" I replied in the negative. He then advised me to go right up. He said: "It is now past office hours. I have just left the President; went in to get these papers signed. Tomorrow the Cabinet meets; the next day is Sunday- Monday is always a busy day, so you can- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 5II not hope to see him before Tuesday evening, even though you were first on the list, and there are hundreds ahead of you." I certainly felt that the old man's advice was good, but it also occurred to me that I would be running a great risk to walk into the private office of President Lincoln, unannounced and uncalled for. I was only a green young woman from the backwoods of Missouri. What would I do if he should order me out or some- thing of that kind? My case would surely be hopeless and I undone. But the thought of the poor father who was paying my expenses, and the advice of the clerk whom I met, made me somewhat des- perate, and, after getting up all the courage possible, I made my way upstairs and to the door of the office. I could feel my heart beating in an unusual manner, and I was actually trembling from head to foot. At last I took hold of the door knob, hesitated a mo- ment, then turned it and walked in. Mr. Lincoln was all alone, sitting beside a very plain table, rest- ing his elbow on the table and his head upon his hand. When I en- tered he raised his tired eyes, oh, so tired, and with a worn look I can never, never forget. As I advanced, and before he spoke, I said: "Mr. Lincoln, you must pardon this intrusion, but I just could not wait any longer to see you." The saintly man then reached out his friendly hand and said: "No intrusion at all, not the least. Sit down, my child, sit down, and let me know what I can do for you." I suggested that probably he was too tired. He replied: "I am tired, but I am waiting to say good-by to two friends from Chicago, who are going on the train at seven." I briefly explained to him the case before me, saying that Hay- den had been in prison fifteen months; that he was a Union man, forced from his home by the rebels, etc.; that his wife had died since he had been in prison, leaving five little children with his aged mother, who had lately lost her eyesight. I had, besides, a large envelope filled with letters of recommendation from dif- ferent officers of the department of Missouri; also a petition drawn up by myself, signed by the Union neighbors of Mr. Hay- 512 LINCOLN TALKS den; appended to it a certificate of their loyalty, signed by the county clerk. To all the above, Senator John B. Henderson had added an endorsement for myself, in strong, impressive language. When I offered my papers to the President he didn't touch them but said without raising a hand: "Now, suppose you read them over for me. Your eyes are younger than mine. Besides, as I told you, I am very, very tired." By accident, the petition was the first thing I took up. When I came to John B. Henderson's name, he reached out and said, quickly: "Let me see that." As he glanced over it to the bottom, he laid the paper down, slapped his hand upon the table and exclaimed: "Plague on me, if that ain't John Henderson's signature. Well, I'll release this man just because John Henderson asks me to do it. I know he wouldn't ask me if it wasn't right, nor send anyone here that would do anything detri- mental to our Government. Come in tomorrow at eight o'clock- mind, at eight o'clock precisely. Bring that petition with John Henderson's name on it and I'll fix you so you can get this man out of prison." He then seemed interested and asked me several questions about men and matters in Northeast Missouri. At this moment the door opened and Colonels Turner and Han- cock entered. He greeted them in a very off-hand manner, mo- tioned them to seats, then turning to Colonel Turner he said: "Why, this must be the woman you told me about." At this the very gallant, elegant-looking man immediately stood up, and in a most gracious manner said: "Yes, Mr. Lincoln, this is the daughter of an old friend of mine, and I beg that you may hear what she has to say, and grant her request for my sake." "All right, Colonel; all right. Sit down." Our mingled conversation lasted about half an hour. As we were rising to leave, Mr. Lincoln, addressing all three, said: "Now, you folks have come with your favors to bestow and petitions to be granted. I have promised to do all that has been asked of me, and said the finest thing I could to what has been bestowed. So I think I ought to have my way next, and what I have to ask is that you COMMANDER IN CHIEF 513 all three come and eat dinner with me tomorrow. Will you do it?" Of course we accepted with profuse thanks, and as we said good-by he reminded us: "No formality at dinner tomorrow. Not a bit." At this moment I remembered and said: "Now, Mr. Lin- coln, you have requested me to be here at eight in the morning. Pray tell me how I am to get in?" "Oh, the usher is only a tender little Irishman. If he refuses to let you pass, slap him down the steps, and walk in as you did just now." At this the gentlemen all laughed heartily, and, as the President turned to me, he held out his hand, and, smiling like summer, said: "You come when I tell you, my child, you'll get in as sure as you're alive." I walked briskly to the White House the next morning and stood at the head of the stairs waiting for my watch to say the moment, not in the least guessing how I was to get permission to enter. Standing at the end of the corridor nearest the door I had passed through the day before, I heard someone say: "This way, Mrs. Byers." Looking up, I saw, to my great astonishment, at the farther end of the corridor the President motioning me to come. I walked up to where he stood as quickly as possible. He grasped my hand warmly, led me in, and introduced me to William H. Seward and Mr. Nicolay. He sat down by his desk, reached out for the petition, wrote across the back: "Release this man on or- der No. . A. Lincoln." As he handed it straight back to me, he remarked, with looks full of inexpressible sympathy and goodness: "Mrs. Byers, that will get your man out. And tell his poor mother I wish to heaven it were in my power to give her back her eye- sight so she might see her son when he gets home to her." That afternoon we went together from Willard's Hotel to dine with President Lincoln, and of informal affairs I have ever at- tended it certainly took the lead. I was seated at the right of the President, Col. Turner on his left; Mrs. Lincoln, the two boys, and Colonel Hancock occupied the rest of the table. When a dish of anything was brought, he reached out for it, handled the spoon like an ordinary farmer, saying to all in his reach: "Will you have 514 LINCOLN TALKS some of this?" dishing it into our plates liberally. And so it was throughout the whole dinner, as he had said, truly informal. Mrs. Lincoln was very sweet and gracious. The contrast between them was so striking that I have them plainly before me this moment as they appeared then. I have always considered the President's actions, through this whole affair of my own, very extraordinary in more ways than one. So many, many wonderfully weighty matters upon his heart, mind, and hands, and yet to remember that I, an ordinary woman on an ordinary mission, had been promised admission at eight o'clock on the morning of October 8, and that this small matter had not been forgotten. Stranger than all, that he had not for- gotten the poor, blind mother. —Mrs. Byers. A CURIOSITY At the Hampton Roads conference, Stephens requested that Mr. Lincoln send back his nephew, Lieutenant Stephens, who had been in a Federal prison, having been taken prisoner at Vicksburg. Mr. Lincoln sent for him. "I told your uncle that I would send you to him, Lieutenant. You have the freedom of the city," Mr. Lincoln said, "as long as you please to remain here. When you want to go home, let me know, and I will pass you through the lines." The lieutenant re- mained in Washington about two weeks. He then got a pass from the President, and at the same time Mr. Lincoln handed him his photograph, saying: "You had better take that along. It is con- sidered quite a curiosity down your way, I believe." —Alexander H. Stephens. STAY "It is said an old lady in Clay County, Missouri, by name Mrs. Winifred E. Price, is about being sent South. If she is not misbe- having, let her remain." —Lincoln to Ma j. -Gen. Granville M. Dodge. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 515 LAST PARDON A lady came to see General Dodge. Her son was about to be executed for murder, committed as a guerrilla. She had been to Washington to save him, and she brought Lincoln's card, on the back of which he had written: "My dear General Dodge. Cannot you do something for this lady, who is in so much trouble?" That same night Lincoln was shot. The lady called the next day and asked for the card; said she desired to keep it as a memento, no doubt giving up all hope for her son. General Dodge com- muted the sentence to imprisonment for life. — Maj.-Gen. Granville M. Dodge. LAST ACT At the close of the war, one Colonel Green, brother to United States Senator James S. Green, crossed into Mississippi with his friend and brother in arms, George E. Vaughan. He gave Vaughan letters for home and started him to carry news to his family. Cap- tured within the Federal lines, he was held as a spy. Senator Hen- derson succeeded in getting a retrial, and even a third hearing, but still the man was under sentence of death. On the afternoon of April 14, he called at the White House, and insisted that the par- don should be granted now if ever, "in the interest of peace and consideration." The chief agreed with him, and directed him to go to Secre- tary Stanton and have the prisoner released. But the inflexible of- ficial refused, and the man had but two days to live. When the intermediary hurried back to the Executive Mansion, the Presi- dent was dressed to go to Ford's Theater, with his wife, his son, and a couple of young friends. Nevertheless, he stopped, went into the study, and wrote an unconditional release and pardon for Vaughan, saying: 516 LINCOLN TALKS "I think this will have precedence over Stanton!" It was his last official act. —Sen. John B. Henderson. PAIN It was agreed at one time among the corps commanders that they would carry into effect these sentences by courts martial be- fore Mr. Lincoln could have an opportunity of granting a re- prieve. This was done in many cases. When we were on the march to Gettysburg, we had with us three prisoners, sentenced to death as bounty jumpers. The men extending the telegraph lines were within two or three miles of my camp. The three prisoners were ex- ecuted just before the lines reached us. The very first message that came over the line was an order from Mr. Lincoln to postpone their execution. I telegraphed back to Lincoln that the sentence had already been carried into effect. Several months after, I stopped at the White House to say good-by to Mr. Lincoln on my way to the West. The moment I entered the room he said: "General Slocum, the last message I received from you caused me more pain than anything that has occurred since I became President." It did not occur to me what he was alluding to. He said: "When you were at Leesburg, I telegraphed you to sus- pend sentence in the case of a man condemned to death. When I did so, the mother and sister of the soldier were seated here at this table and I was compelled to open and read your dispatch saying that he had already been executed." -Gen. H. W. Slocum. BLACK FRIDAY Judge Peck was walking up and down the East Room with Mr. Lincoln, who looked exceedingly sad and every now and then threw out his arm with a pathetic gesture. The judge said: "Mr. President, may I inquire what distresses you tonight?" "Oh, Judge," he said, as he clasped closer the judge's arm, "this is Fri- day, black Friday, hangman's day! This day they execute farmers' COMMANDER IN CHIEF 517 boys for falling asleep at their posts, down on the Potomac. If I say anything they say I interfere with army discipline. Oh, I can't bear it, I can't bear it." —Judge Ebenezer Peck. BUTCHER-DAY I remember one day being in his room when Lincoln was sit- ting at his table with a large pile of papers before him, and after a pleasant talk he turned quite abruptly and said: "Get out of the way, Swett; tomorrow is butcher-day, and I must go through these papers and see if I cannot find some excuse to let these poor fellows off." The pile of papers he had were the records of courts martial of men who on the following day were to be shot. —Leonard Swett. RECREATION Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the House, pleaded with Lin- coln for the life of an elector's son, sentenced to be shot. Though he intruded on the arbiter very late after a long spell of official duties, Lincoln accorded the boon. "Colfax," exclaimed he, "it makes me rested after a hard day's work, if I can find some good excuse for saving a man's life, and I go to bed happy as I think how joyous the signing of my name will make him, and his family, and his friends." —Schuyler Colfax. PILE Marshal Lamon of Washington had called upon the President with an application for the pardon of a soldier. After a brief hear- ing the President took the application, and when about to write his name upon the back of it, he looked up and said: "Lamon, have you ever heard how the Patagonians eat oysters? They open them and throw the shells out of the window until the pile gets higher than the house, and then they move"; adding: "I feel today 518 LINCOLN TALKS like commencing a new pile of pardons, and I may as well begin it just here." — Lamon. REMISSION This was the reply made by Lincoln to an application for the pardon of a soldier who had shown himself brave in war, had been severely wounded, but afterward deserted: "Did you say he was once badly wounded? "Then, as the Scriptures say that in the shedding of blood is the remission of sins, I guess we'll have to let him off this time." -Orlando Kellogg; A. K. McClure. PARDON While I was Secretary of the Senate there was hardly an hour during any day that I was not called upon to help somebody who had friends or kindred in the army. One day a very energetic lady called on me to take her to the President and aid her to get a pri- vate soldier pardoned who had been sentenced to death for deser- tion, and was to be shot the very next morning. We were much pressed in the Senate, and she had to wait a long time before I could accompany her to the White House. It was late in the after- noon when we got there, yet the Cabinet was in session. I sent my name in to Mr. Lincoln, and he came out evidently in profound thought, and full of some great subject. I stated the subject of our call and, leaving the lady in one of the ante-chambers, returned to the Senate, which had not yet adjourned. The case made a deep impression on me, but I forgot it in the excitement of the debate and the work in my office, until perhaps, near ten o'clock at night, when my female friend came rushing into my room radiant with delight, with the pardon in her hand. "The Cabinet adjourned, and I sat waiting for the President to come out and tell me the fate of my poor soldier, whose case I placed in his hands after you left; but I waited in vain— there was no Mr. Lincoln. So I thought I would go up to the door of his COMMANDER IN CHIEF 5IQ Cabinet chamber and knock. I did so, and as there was no answer, I opened it and passed in, and there was the worn President asleep, with his head on the table resting on his arms, and my boy's pardon signed at his side. I quietly woke him, blessed him for his good deed, and came here to tell you the glorious news. You have helped me to save a human life." —John W. Forney. INSUBORDINATION The President said: "I have done something this morning which has roused the ire of Secretary Stanton. Congressman Dennison, of Pennsylvania, came to me this morning with the mother of John Russell, a soldier who was to be shot within forty-eight hours for insubordination, and I gave a peremptory order pardon- ing the soldier and restoring him to his regiment. At a recent bat- tle in the face of the enemy, John Russell's captain ran away. When the battle was over, in which half the command were lost, this soldier met his captain, and, walking up to him, rifle in hand, said: 'Captain, you're a damned coward, you ought to be shot for cowardice.' The captain pulled out his revolver and attempted to kill Russell, who aimed his rifle at the captain's head. They were separated. The captain preferred charges of insubordination against the soldier and a subservient court martial promptly sen- tenced Russell to be shot and did not even censure the cowardly officer. Congressman Dennison has just given me all the facts in the case and I have just made the poor mother happy by saving the boy." And with compressed lips, he went on: "And I did more; I dis- missed the cowardly captain from the army." —William Dennison. widow's son Lincoln was at the War Department. We walked to the War Office and soon met a tall, gaunt figure, seemingly carrying the load of the struggle to which the nation was subjected. 520 LINCOLN TALKS I said: "Is this Mr. Lincoln?" He replied: "Yes, sir." I said: "All day we have been trying to see you in behalf of Willie — , of Buffalo, the widow's only son, who has been sen- tenced to be shot in the Army of the Cumberland." He said: "What for?" I replied: "We do not know, but he is to be shot, and he is the only son of a widow." He said: "Get the papers and come to me in the early morn- ing and we will see whether Willie will be shot." Arriving at the Executive Office in the morning, many people were waiting, but Willie's case had precedence. Mr. Lincoln said: "Read the papers and let me hear why Willie is to be shot." It was when the Government could not pay the soldiers promptly, Willie was one of a detachment of eight sent up fifteen miles to repair a bridge. He had the only money in the company. The sergeant borrowed it and wasted it in whisky. A quarrel arose between another and Willie, and he stabbed his comrade. Mr. Lincoln said: "Now, he was a nice sergeant. Willie lends him money, the sergeant buys the whisky, and they drink it and quarrel and now Willie is to be shot. Well," he said, "go on." At the conclusion Lincoln said thoughtfully: "I don't know as I can reach the general," but he took his pen and dashed off the message: "Delay the execution of Willie — , the widow's only son, until further notice. A. Lincoln." — Effie Reeme Osborn. TUG OF WAR On one occasion in the summer of 1 864 when the President took me with him to the War Department for the purpose of making notes on certain confidential papers, he said to me in a whisper- pointing to a woman sitting in the waiting room: "Find out who that woman is and what is the object of her visit." Then he passed, COMMANDER IN CHIEF 52I under the escort of Madison, Mr. Stanton's darky factotum, into the private office of Stanton. I saw a tall, raw-boned, gaunt New England woman, dressed plainly in an unpretentious calico gown and gazing about with eyes that impressed, almost frightened, me, the anxiety and despair in them were so great. I heard her whisper to a passing orderly: "I must see Mr. Stanton at once." "You will have to wait your turn, my good woman," replied the military servitor. I beckoned her aside and said cautiously: "Perhaps, Madam, if you will tell me your business, I can transmit it to some of the higher officials and so obtain for you an interview more rapidly than would be possible under other circumstances." With a grateful look she stammered: "My son is to— to be shot today by sentence of the court martial!" I requested details. These she gave to me rapidly, impressively. "If Mr. Stanton could understand, he would not condemn, he would pardon him," she sighed; then whispered indignantly: "My boy is no bounty jumper. He risked his life in every engagement of the Army of the Potomac for two long years." Next she mut- tered in piteous despair: "He is all that is left me. Speak to Mr. Stanton for me. Hurry! Executions nearly all take place in the fore- noon. Hurry!" I said briefly: "I will speak to one who may aid you." I didn't dare to mention the President's name, though I knew there was a much better chance with him than with the iron-faced, glass-eyed man who sat in his private office discussing with Abraham Lincoln the destinies of the Republic. I stepped up to Madison and said: "Rap upon the door of the Secretary's private office." "I dassent, sah." "You've got to. Mr. Lincoln directed me to make a report to him immediately of a certain matter. It is vital that he should hear it. The President will protect you from any reprimand for obeying his personal orders." 522 LINCOLN TALKS "Yas, but after Massa Lincoln has gone away, how 'bout dat?" "Will you do a favor for Mr. Lincoln?" "Yas, sah." "Then I am sure he will regard your action in this matter as a personal obligation." But I noticed that the black fingers trembled as they rapped upon the inner portal and that he shivered in his boots as the sharp voice of the Secretary of War said: "Damn you, come in!" At this mo- ment the woman from Vermont flew through the passageway and entered the dread sanctum of Edwin Stanton. Standing before him, she said: "As you love God, give me the life of my son!" "How dare you interrupt me, Madam!" "How dare I interrupt! How dare I interrupt! My boy fought through the battles of the Peninsula with McClellan, at Antietam, at Fredericksburg, at Gettysburg. He was wounded twice, enlisted again, and has now been sentenced"-a laugh of despair punctuated her words— "as a bounty jumper!" "Ah, Private Charles Allen Putnam of the Seventh Vermont," interrupted the precise, frigid tones of the Secretary of War. "Madam, I am sorry for you, but I do my duty. Don't distress me by an appeal that is useless." Here the peculiar, impressive, yet kindly tones of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation intruded upon the conversation. "Don't be in such a hurry, Stanton. Listen to any woman speaking for her son's life. You say your son, Mrs. Putnam, fought for his country for nearly three years? Tis strange he is a deserter now." "Not really a deserter. He is simply a boy made foolish by a woman." As she said these words, the mother turned to see to whom she was speaking. She now perceived the gaunt, tall frame before her, the kindly eyes, the Western face of the President, and gave a sigh of hope as she knew she was addressing the supreme head of the Nation. "God has sent you here, Mr. Lincoln, to hear my prayer!" she broke forth. "I am a widow up in Vermont. I have given seven sons COMMANDER IN CHIEF 523 to death for their country; will you take the eighth, the last— the only— the youngest one from me?" "Seven sons?" The voice of Abraham Lincoln had grown as sad as that of the woman addressing him. "Seven sons? Stanton— you hear— seve?i sons!" "Yes, all volunteered from our farm in Vermont. The eldest fell at the First Bull Run; one more died in McClellan's peninsula cam- paign, though they couldn't find his body; one at Antietam; one at Fredericksburg; two were slaughtered at Gettysburg and one at Brandy's Station. And this one— all that is left to me— fought in all those battles, protected by God, and came back on furlough two months ago to our farm in Vermont and there saw the woman who has brought him to this. He was refused leave six days ago. He would see her eyes. He came into Washington and was arrested as a deserter, and you know what a quick court martial means. It was only to get a kiss or two from the fool girl and go back and fight again— listen, please listen to me, Mr. President. Seven sons dead and one to be shot because he— he wanted to kiss the girl he loves." "Stanton, you must listen to this lady, this patriotic lady who has given up more than either you or I for this country," muttered Lincoln, his voice husky and his sad eyes filled with tears. But Mr. Stanton was not listening. During the mother's agonized appeal to the President, after one quick glance at the sympathetic face of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, the Secretary of War had seated himself at his desk and had written a few lines hurriedly, signed, folded, and addressed them. Then he stepped to the door and handed the billet to Madison, saying imperatively: "Immediate! Tell the orderly to hurry!" Having done this he now turned to the President. "Listen to this lady, Stanton," remarked Mr. Lincoln, "and see if there isn't virtue in her appeal for some revision, some commuta- tion of her son's sentence." "Mr. President, under my duty as Secretary of War I have sworn to myself, for the salvation of the American army, whose effective- 524 LINCOLN TALKS ness is now necessary for the preservation of this country, that no convicted deserter shall have pardon or commutation of sentence. It is vital that we stop bounty jumping in the present status of the recruiting service." "But my son only a few days ago fought at Fort Stevens and pro- tected you and the capital," implored the mother. "He was slightly wounded there and the scar of the Southern bullet is not yet en- tirely healed upon his arm." Then, an ecstasy of despair overcoming her, she moaned: "Mercy, Mr. Stanton! Mr. President, as you love your own offspring, listen to me; you have a kinder heart." "Recite your case to Mr. Stanton. I do not wish to interfere, if possible. Tell me then what he says," replied the President sadly. With these words Mr. Lincoln fortunately stepped out of the pri- vate office into the passageway where I had been taking note of the distracting scene through the half -closed door. As he stood in the hallway I heard him sigh: "I believe her honest Vermont face. Seven sons! Women like her do not lie. But it's awful hard bucking up against Stanton." Emboldened by this I stepped to him and ventured to suggest in a whisper: "Mr. President, if you have any intention of pardoning that man, you have no time to lose." "What do you mean?" Mr. Lincoln turned his piercing eyes on me inquiringly. "I mean, Mr. President, that if you do not act immediately— the sentence will be carried out before executive clemency can reach the condemned," I whispered hurriedly. "An orderly has just gal- loped away from this building and turned north towards Fort de Russey, where I believe the prisoner is held awaiting execution. He carried with him the few lines Mr. Stanton wrote at that desk while the woman was appealing to you." "Well, I'm damned!" ejaculated the President, growing taller and his eyes commencing to beam with an expression that everyone knew meant business. In a few long strides the President stepped into the telegraphic COMMANDER IN CHIEF 525 office of the War Department. To the head clerk he said: "A wire is run to Fort de Russey?" "Yes, Mr. Lincoln, to every fort in the fortifications of Wash- ington, of course." "Call up Fort de Russey at once." "The wire is at present in use, Mr. President, on very important orders with regard to the movement of the Sixth Corps." "Hold the dispatch!" "It is very important, Mr. President. It has Mr. Stanton's per- sonal orders that it be put through immediately." "Stop the dispatch! I direct it!" This was done. "Now!" The President strode behind the rail to the impressed operator, and I, keeping within earshot, heard him command: "Telegraph to the Provost Marshal having in charge Private Charles Allen Putnam of the Seventh Vermont, sentenced to execution to- day. Direct him to bring immediately to the War Department his prisoner. Order him under the personal commands of the President of the United States to disregard all other orders whatsoever, as regards the disposition of this prisoner. Inform him that this dis- patch is given to you by Abraham Lincoln in person, and ask for the Provost Marshal's personal acknowledgment by telegraph of the receipt of this order. I will wait here till I receive your state- ment that answer is received to this dispatch." Five minutes after came the personal acknowledgment from the captain of the provost guard that he had received the President's personal orders and would execute them, and bring the prisoner to the War Department forthwith. Then Mr. Lincoln returned to the private office of his Secretary of War, I venturing to follow him. There he found a despairing woman and an inflexible Draco. "You have concluded, of course, Stanton, to at least postpone the execution of this man until you can make further investiga- tions?" he observed. 526 LINCOLN TALKS "On the contrary, Mr. President," replied the Secretary of War, "in order to avoid discussion on this matter, you having promised me yourself, in such cases, to withhold the pardoning power and leave it entirely in my hands, I have already taken such steps that discussion is — " But Lincoln interrupted Stanton sharply: "Discussion is never useless as long as a man is alive." "Ah, you intend to pardon my son, Mr. President!" screamed the woman. "If what you have said to me is substantially true, I do, Madam." "God forever bless you!" "Now, my good woman, I will listen to the details of your story." So half sobbing, yet with eyes that began to have a little hope in them, the mother told him how her sons in the early part of the war, inspired by her own words, notwithstanding that their father was dead, had one by one volunteered and gone to the front in the various Vermont regiments and lost their lives in the battles she had mentioned; that the last one alive— the only one— the son of her old age, Charlie, after re-enlisting and accepting the bounty, which he had given entirely to her to support her in case, when he returned to the army, he came not back again, had spent his furlough with her on the old farm at Stowe, Vermont. "Such a happy month, and now— now! But I must convince you, Mr. President. There he met a girl that he took to powerfully, and she— this fool girl who has brought him death— loved him like an idiot. So after Charlie had come down to Washington and done his duty here— you saw him, Mr. President, at the battle of Fort Stevens. They all say you were there — " "Why, yes," interrupted Old Abe, with a chuckle, "bluff old Wright of the Sixth Corps said 'Come along,' and I went to the front and found myself as much in the fighting line as I was in the Black Hawk War. But when a bullet killed a surgeon within a foot or two of me, Wright almost on his knees begged me to get out of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 527 the line of battle, remarking that I'd be a loss to the country. 'And what would you be?' said I. 'Nothing, only a soldier doing his duty,' replied the veteran. 'There are plenty of generals and only one President,' and hang me if he didn't threaten unless I left the zone of danger to put me, the President of the United States, under a guard and move me to the rear." "Then you saw my son fight," said the mother earnestly. "You saw the Sixth Corps drive the Rebels out of Maryland and run them back into Virginia and save this capital. My boy was wounded in the line of battle beside you," continued the woman, her tearful eyes beginning to grow sunny with definite hope. "Have my boy brought here and I will show you the unhealed wound upon his arm. These records will prove that he was present at every engage- ment of his regiment during this whole bloody war." She pro- duced some documents. "Bring him here, and I will show you, Mr. Secretary Stanton, that he risked his life not a week ago for his country and his flag. "Then— then that fool country girl to whom my boy had taken such a shine came trolloping down to Washington after him. Charlie couldn't get leave to come into the town to see her, and she, unknowing military law, beguiled him. Fool that he was, ca- joled by her pleadings, he left the camp at Fort de Russey and came into the city to have a day of bliss with her. He was captured by Baker's Secret Service without a pass, and then— then I was tele- graphed, and I came on and found him sentenced to death. Yester- day I saw him and he gave me his word of honor as a man that he had not intended to desert; that he would have returned to the flag the very day he was seized. My son has never lied to me in his life, Mr. Stanton. He is no sneaking bounty jumper. If so, I would say: 'Execute him, he is not of my blood. Though I bore him, he is not my son.' But he is and had been true to his country and— he is the only one left to me." During this I heard the clank of a cavalry escort outside and the 528 LINCOLN TALKS noise of the wheels of an ambulance. A moment later Madison came in, a curious grin upon his face, and said deprecatingly: "The Provost Marshal from Fort de Russey with a prisoner." "How? What? Impossible!" exclaimed Stanton, springing up astounded. Covered with the dust of a rapid ride through the dusty roads and streets of the capital, there entered a cavalry captain. To the astounded Secretary he remarked, saluting: "I have the President's personal orders by telegraph to present before him in your office the prisoner condemned to execution today, Private Charles Allen Putnam of the Seventh Vermont." With this, four troopers of his guard brought in the manacled prisoner, a young Vermont giant, fair-haired and gray-eyed like his mother, drawn lines on his haggard face. Gazing in a dazed way about the apartment, the boy gasped: "Mother!" and with a scream: "My son!" the woman took him into her arms. As she held him in her embrace, she faltered: "Mr. President, you have let my boy come into my arms once more; you have given me hope. See!" She tore the blue sleeve from her son's arm and showed the awful unhealed wound inflicted by a Confederate Minie bullet. "This is proof he risked his life for his country. I have here a cer- tificate from all the officers of the regiment in which he served stating he did his duty gallantly through his first enlistment. I have here the affidavit of the girl that he told her he must leave her to return to his command. You have given him to my arms, you can- not take him from them to murder him." The President had been hastily writing. He handed to her a slip of paper and said: "The free pardon of your son!" During this, a curious discussion had taken place between the Secretary and the captain of the provost guard. Mr. Stanton had said hoarsely: "You received my commands by orderly?" "Yes, sir; but not until I had received by direct telegram attested from the telegraph clerk of this department directions that the execution be stayed and that I forthwith report with the prisoner COMMANDER IN CHIEF 529 here personally to the President of the United States. The orders were attested to have the sign manual of Abraham Lincoln. I had signed for their receipt; I could not disobey them." "Stanton, that's where I had a little joke on you," chuckled the President. "You're not up to the modern telegraph, Mr. Secretary. Electricity beats horse-flesh." Mr. Lincoln then said: "Young man, your sentence to death by court martial acts as a discharge from the Army of the United States. My pardon has made it an honorable discharge. Go home and support and cherish your noble mother who has given you a second life." Tears welled up in the deepset eyes of the backwoods President as the mother, supported by the son, whose manacles had been taken off, was carried half fainting from the room. "I think, Stanton," remarked the President, looking at his Secre- tary of War suggestively, "that we had better burn, unopened, this dispatch you sent to the Provost Marshal." He lighted the cruel document over a blazing taper used for the sealing of official papers. "Mr. President," said the Secretary, rising, "this action of yours will produce a thousand deserters in the Army of the Potomac." "I don't care if it does," replied Abraham Lincoln. "It has made one less broken heart in this country— perhaps two. The fool girl who lured that young fellow from his duty loves him also." Then the President sighed: "Oh, if I could send all my Boys in Blue home to their mothers. Yes, and all the Johnnies, too!" His voice grew commanding: "We will discuss the details of the reinforcements to be sent to Grant this afternoon. Good-by, Stanton." Coming out with me, the President turned to me and remarked: "I had a pretty hard time with the Head of the War Department, didn't I? Stanton makes a bully good Secretary of War. The only trouble with him is he has no more philoprogenitiveness than an alligator who lays a pile of eggs in the burning sand and thinks he's done his whole duty by his family." —A. R. Cazauran, Lincoln's private stenographer, in collaboration with Archibald Clavering Gunter; Guntefs Magazme, Feb. 1905. 530 LINCOLN TALKS REPRIEVE Congressman Kellogg, from New York, received a dispatch from the army to the effect that a young townsman had, for a serious misdemeanor, been convicted by a court martial and was to be shot the next day. Greatly agitated, Mr. Kellogg went to the Secretary of War and urged, in the strongest manner, a reprieve. Stanton was inexorable. "Too many cases of this kind have been let off," said he, "and it is time an example was made." "Well, Mr. Secretary, the boy is not going to be shot, of that I give you fair warning!" Leaving the War Department, he went directly to the White House, although the hour was late. The sentinel on duty told him that special orders had been given to admit no one whatever that night. After a long parley, by pledging himself to assume the responsi- bility of the act, the Congressman passed in. Mr. Lincoln had re- tired, but, indifferent to etiquette or ceremony, Kellogg pressed his way through all obstacles to his sleeping apartment. In an ex- cited manner he stated that the dispatch announcing the hour of execution had just reached him. "This man must not be shot, Mr. President," said he. "I can't help what he may have done. Why, he is an old neighbor of mine; I can't allow him to be shot!" Mr. Lincoln had remained in bed, quietly listening to the pro- testations of his old friend (they had been in Congress together). He at length said: "Well, I don't believe shooting will do him any good. Give me that pen." —William Kellogg. CLOSE CONSCRIPTION Mr. Lincoln, being found fault with for making another "call," said that if the country required it, he would continue to do so COMMANDER IN CHIEF 531 until the matter stood as described by a Western provost marshal. This man asked a butternut-clad individual who had succeeded in making good his escape about the rigidness with which the con- scription was enforced south of the Tennessee River: "Do they conscript close over the river?" "Stranger, I should think they did! They take every man who hasn't been dead more than two days!" "If this is correct, the Confederacy has at least a ghost of a chance left," said the marshal. —Legacy of Fun. MULE-DRIVER General Fisk, attending President Lincoln's reception at the White House, saw waiting in the anteroom a poor old man from Tennessee. He learned from the old man that he had been wait- ing for three or four hours to get an audience with the President, and that upon the interview probably depended the life of his son, who was under sentence of death for some military offense. General Fisk wrote the outline of the case on a card and sent it in, with a special request that the President would see the man. The request was acceded to and, past Senators, Governors, and generals waiting impatiently, the old man was escorted into the presence of the President. The old man showed the papers to Mr. Lincoln, and he, on tak- ing them, said he would look into the case and give him the result on the following day. The old man exclaimed: "Tomorrow may be too late! My son is under sentence of death! The decision ought to be made now!" "Come," said Mr. Lincoln, "wait a bit and I'll tell you a story"; and then he told the old man a story about General Fisk: "The general had begun his military life as a colonel, and, when he raised his regiment in Missouri, he proposed to his men that he should do all the swearing for the regiment. They assented; and for months no instance was known of violation of the prom- 532 LINCOLN TALKS ise. The colonel had a teamster named John Todd, who, as roads were not always the best, had some difficulty in commanding his temper and tongue. John happened to be driving a mule team through a series of mudholes a little worse than usual, when he burst forth into a volley of profanity. "The colonel took notice of the offense and brought John to account. 'John,' said he, 'didn't you promise to let me do all the swearing of the regiment?' 'Yes, I did, Colonel,' he replied, 'but the fact was the swearing had to be done then or not at all, and you weren't there to do it.' " The old man forgot his boy and both he and the President joined in a hearty laugh, after which a few lines were written which saved the life of the son. -J. B. McClure. DEBT There is a great similarity in the many stories of Lincoln's leniency to soldiers incurring the death penalty according to the code of war, and no wonder, when they were so numerous that he often had four-and-twenty sentences to sign or ignore in a day. A member of a Vermont regiment was sentenced for sleeping at his post. The more than usual intercession made for him induced Lincoln to visit the culprit in his cell. He found him a simple coun- try lad, impressing him as a reminder of himself at that age. In the like plain and rustic vein he discoursed with him. "I have been put to a deal of bother on your account, Scott," he said paternally. "What I want to know is how are you going to pay my bill?" From a lawyer's point of view this was reasonable enough; so the young man responded: "I hope I am as grateful to you, Mr. Lincoln, as any man can be for his life. But this came so sudden that I did not lay out for it. But I have my bounty-money in the savings bank, and I guess we could raise some money by a mort- gage on the farm; and, if we wait till pay-day for the regiment, COMMANDER IN CHIEF 533 I guess the boys will help some, and we can make it up— if it isn't more nor five or six hundred, eh?" With the same gravity, the intermediator reckoned the cost would be more. "My son," said he, "the bill is a large one. Your friends cannot pay it— nor your comrades, nor the farm, nor the pay! If from this day William Scott does his duty so that, if I were there when he came to die, he could look me in the face as now and say: 'I have kept my promise and have done my duty as a soldier,' then my debt will be paid." The boy made the promise and was immediately restored to the regiment. —David D. Thompson, in the Northwestern Christian Advocate. FURTHER ORDERS One day, Mr. John B. Alley, a member of Congress, who called at the White House on business, saw in the crowd an old man crying as if his heart would break. Such a sight was so common that the Congressman paid no attention to it. The next day he again called at the White House, and found the old man still there, crying. His heart was touched, and he asked him: "What is the matter, old man?" The old man told him the story of his boy, a soldier in General Butler's Army of the James, who had been convicted of some crime, and sentenced to be shot the next week. His Congressman was convinced of the boy's guilt, and would not interfere. "Well," said Mr. Alley, "I will take you into the Executive Chamber after I have finished my business, and you can tell Mr. Lincoln all about it." On being introduced into Mr. Lincoln's presence, he was asked: "Well, my old friend, what can I do for you today?" The old man then repeated to Mr. Lincoln what he had already told the Congressman in the anteroom. A cloud of sorrow came over the President's face, as he replied: "I am sorry to say I can do nothing for you. Listen to this telegram received from General 534 LINCOLN TALKS Butler yesterday: 'President Lincoln, I pray you not to interfere with the courts martial of the army. You will destroy all discipline among our soldiers. B. F. Butler.' " Every word of this dispatch seemed like a death-knell to the old man. Mr. Lincoln watched his grief for a minute, and then ex- claimed: "By jingo, Butler or no Butler, here goes!"— writing a few words and handing them to the old man. The confidence created by Mr. Lincoln's words broke down when he read: "Job Smith is not to be shot until further orders from me. A. Lincoln." "Why," said the old man, "I thought it was to be a pardon; but you say, 'not to be shot until further orders,' and you may order him to be shot next week." Mr. Lincoln smiled, and replied: "Well, my old friend, I see you are not very well acquainted with me. If your son never looks on death till further orders come from me to shoot him he will live to be a great deal older than Methuselah." -John B. Alley. BARNEY SAVED When Colonel Mulligan's Chicago regiment lay in camp away down South, one of the privates, Barney D — , in a moment of passion and intoxication stabbed and terribly mangled a comrade. Barney was one of the hard characters of the command and it was a matter of no surprise when the court martial sentenced him for this last and gravest of his many offenses to be shot, and fixed the day of his execution. Meanwhile, to the surprise of everyone, in- cluding the surgeons, the wounded man began to recover, and was soon pronounced out of danger. Public opinion took the usual turn. It was thought a pity, after all, to shoot a fine young fellow, such as Barney D was in his better moments; besides he was one of the boys, had been born like them in Chicago, grown up with them, enlisted with them, and fought with them. A move- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 535 ment looking to a petition for the culprit's pardon was sent on foot, in which none joined more heartily than the wounded man, and the camp, which but yesterday was for lynching Barney, now yearned to save his life. The night before the fatal day arrived; Barney was to be shot at sunrise next day. No reprieve had arrived, and reluctantly the adjutant prepared the necessary orders, detailed the firing party, arranged for the parade. The night wore on. Not an eye was closed in the camp and every ear was strained for hoof-beats from the east. Past midnight, one, two, three o'clock; it was almost dawn. Suddenly a faint sound was heard, as of a shout away to the east. Men rushed from their tents, half dressed, and gathered in anxious groups. The officers were hardly less excited and min- gled with them. At last burst into view the long-looked-for mes- senger covered with mud from head to foot, wan and worn out, his horse panting and travel-stained and bruised, for they had rid- den thirty miles since midnight along roads that were sluices of mud and water. The rider held his way straight to the Colonel's tent and delivered his telegram. It read thus: "Colonel Mulligan: If you haven't shot Barney D — yet— don't. A. Lincoln." —Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 1909. QUAKER In 1 86 1 the great-grandson of the first Quaker was drafted. "But it will be no use," he said. "I shall never fight. My mother taught me it is a sin. It is her religion, and my father's, and their fathers'. I shall never raise my hand to kill anyone." The recruiting officer took little notice. "We'll see about that later," he commented carelessly. The regiment went to Washington, and the Quaker boy drilled placidly and shot straight. "But I shall never fight," he reiterated. Word went out that there was a traitor in the ranks. The lieu- tenant conferred with the captain, and all the forms of punish- 536 LINCOLN TALKS ment devised for refractory soldiers were visited on him. He went through them without flinching, and there was only one thing left. He was taken before the colonel. "What does this mean?" demanded the officer. "Don't you know you will be shot?" "That is nothing," said the Quaker. "Thee didn't think I was afraid, did thee?" The colonel went to the President. Lincoln listened and looked relieved. "Why, that is plain enough," he answered. "There is only one thing to do. Trump up some excuse and send him home. You can't kill a boy like that, you know. The country needs all her brave men wherever they are. Send him home." — Rufus Jones: Later Periods of Quakerism. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS The three Vermont youths were drafted for service in July 1863. Pringle's uncle was willing to pay for a substitute, but the young Quaker steadily refused. They were given a month's leave. The parole expired on August 24, when, with other conscripts, they were taken to the guardroom at Brattleboro Camp. After three days of confinement with fellow conscripts of a very different type they were transferred to Camp Vermont, Boston Harbor. In the camp they were not ill-treated, but their steady refusal to carry out military orders caused the officers much perplexity. The major transferred them to the hospital tents, but they were no more willing to work there. Meanwhile their friends had been interceding for them, but could only re- port on September 13 that "the President, though sympathizing with those in our situation, felt bound by the Conscription Act, and felt liberty, in view of his oath to execute the laws, to do no more than detail us from active service to hospital duty or to the charge of the colored refugees." The young Friends were unwilling to accept the concession, as such work was still under military control. This naturally hard- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 537 ened the authorities against them. They were transferred from one camp to another. After their refusal to continue the hospital duty, the colonel said he would make no more effort to relieve them, adding that "a man who would not fight for his country did not deserve to live." "Two sergeants soon called for me and, taking me a little aside, bid me lie down on my back, and stretching my limbs apart tied cords to my wrists and ankles, and to these four stakes driven into the ground, somewhat in the form of an X. I was very quiet in my mind as I lay there on the ground (soaked) with the rain of the previous day, exposed to the heat of sun, and suffering cruelly from the cords binding my wrists and say that I caught a glimpse of heavenly pity. I wept, not so much from my own suf- fering, as from sorrow that such things should be in our own country, where Justice and Freedom and Liberty of Conscience have been the annual boast of Fourth-of-July orators so many years. It seemed that our forefathers in the faith had wrought and suffered in vain, when the privileges they so dearly bought were so soon set aside. And I was sad, that one endeavoring to follow our dear Master should be so generally regarded as a despicable and stubborn culprit." After an hour of endurance, he was again asked to clean the gun and, again refusing, was left for a second hour, and then re- leased. The sergeants threatened him with worse in the future. At this point, however, the situation changed. The three Friends, on October 6, were summoned to report to Washington, where Isaac Newton, a Friend and an official in the Department of Agri- culture, had undertaken their case. He told them that both Lincoln and Stanton were anxious to prevent any further suffering. "There appeared one door of relief open— that was to parole us and allow us to go home, but subject to their call again ostensibly, though this they neither wished nor proposed to do." Until this could be arranged they were assigned to duty in a hospital, where the nursing staff were civilians and there was no question of releasing 538 LINCOLN TALKS others for the fighting line. "It was hoped and expressly requested that we would consent to remain quiet and acquiesce, if possible, in whatever might be required of us. . . . These requirements, being so much less objectionable than feared, we felt relief and consented* to them." At last Isaac Newton was able to bring their case directly be- fore the President, who immediately said: "I want you to go and tell Stanton that it is my wish all these young men be sent home at once." Newton hurried to the War Office and, while he was urging Stanton, the President entered. "It is my urgent wish," he said. The Secretary yielded and the paroles were given on Novem- ber 7. It was none too soon for Pringle, who was seriously ill. —Margaret E. Hirst: The Quakers in Peace and War. DRAFTED QUAKER When the draft was made, my name was one that was drawn along with those of several other young Friends, two others in our little meeting. It created a good deal of excitement among us. The two others paid their three hundred dollars each, but I felt it right to do nothing, feeling that I could not go myself nor give money to hire others to go. The proper military officer came out and notified me that I would be expected to report in the military camp at Lafayette (Indiana) for training, on a certain day. I told him that I could not conscientiously be there, that as I could not fight it would not do any good for me to report. Then he de- manded the three hundred dollars. To this I replied: "If I believed that war is right, I would prefer to go myself than to hire someone else to be shot in my place." He told me I would either have to come or pay the three hun- dred dollars, or he would be forced to sell my property. As I was firm in my decision he went out and looked over the farm, select- ing the stock that he proposed to sell and then sat down and com- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 539 menced writing bills for the public sale of our horses, cattle, and hogs. While he was writing, dinner was ready, and when we sat down to the table we insisted on his eating with us. We tried to keep up a pleasant conversation on various subjects, making no reference to the work he was engaged in. After dinner he turned to me and said: "If you would get mad and order me out of the house, I could do this work much easier, but here you are, feeding me and my horse while I am arranging to take your property from you. I tell you it's hard work!" We told him we had no unkind feelings toward him, as we sup- posed he was only obeying the orders of those who were superior to him. I went out again to my work and when he had prepared the sale bills, he placed one on a large tree by the roadside in front of the house, and then rode around and placed the others in different places in the neighborhood. A few days before the time had arrived for the sale I was at La- fayette. The officer came to me and said: "The sale is postponed. I don't know when it will be. You can go on using your horses." I heard nothing more about it for several years. After the war closed, I learned that Governor Morton, who was in Washington about that time, spoke to President Lincoln about it and he or- dered the sale to be stopped. —The American Friend. GOOD DEED I well remember one day when a poor woman sought, with the persistent affection of a mother, for the pardon of her son con- demned to death. She was successful in her petition. When she had left the room, he turned to me and said: "Perhaps I have done wrong, but at all events I have made that poor woman happy." —James I. Van Alen, in the New York Evening Post. 540 LINCOLN TALKS DESERTER A letter once came from Canada, every line of which seemed to be the moan of a burdened conscience. The writer told how he had been skulking for months as a deserter, but that within a short time he had been attending church, had repented, and deter- mined to lead a new life. From the hour he had changed his course, although friends tried to dissuade him, he felt impelled to write to the President, and mention that on a certain day, and at a cer- tain hour, he would be seen walking in the grounds around the White House, clothed in a certain manner. A messenger was told to be on the watch, and at the time speci- fied he was brought up to my room. He had the emaciated face of one who had experienced mental suffering, and willing, if neces- sary, to die for his transgression. While he waited his letter was sent and explained to the President, who wrote on the back: "Let this man be returned to his regiment without penalty ex- cept that he shall serve, after the expiration of his term of enlist- ment, the number of days he was absent by desertion." -Edward D. Neill. PETITIONERS Secretary Stanton came to the White House one afternoon to protest against a pardon which President Lincoln had issued for a soldier sentenced to be shot for desertion. Stanton said: "That mother-in-law who came to you this morning was only shedding crocodile tears. She doesn't care for that son-in-law. I'm told that she merely came as a matter of duty, because she had op- posed the marriage of her daughter to that man, and to refuse to plead for his life would have been almost unpardonable. But she didn't care for the pardon, and didn't expect it." "All of that was very clear to me, Stanton," was Lincoln's re- ply. "I only looked at her once, and then patiently listened to her. I had made up my mind to issue the pardon before that mother- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 54I in-law began to talk and weep. The pardon was issued, in my mind, as soon as I looked at that poor, frail, tearless Madonna, the girl who would soon be a widow but for me. I led her to a seat, wrote and placed the pardon in her hands. I bade her good-by but the tears that fell on my hand were from the eyes of the child- wife, whose grief had been so deep that she had been tearless until she held that pardon." —Carpenter. WIDOWS The first week of my command there were twenty-four de- serters sentenced by court martial to be shot, and the warrants for their execution were sent to the President to be signed. He refused. I went to Washington and had an interview. I said: "Mr. President, unless these men are made an example of, the army itself is in danger. Mercy to the few is cruelty to the many." He replied: "Mr. General, there are already too many weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake, don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." —Gen. James B. Fry. REFERENCE His little son moved softly from the room, returning in a few moments with a sad-faced woman, who held an infant in her arms. The President motioned her to a chair, and she said modestly that she had come from a town in the far West to plead for the life of her husband, who was sentenced to die in six weeks for de- sertion. "He ran away from his regiment then?" "No, sir, but they think he did." The President frowned and shook his head rapidly from side to side. "Of course, madam, you think that he did not." "Oh, sir! oh!—" And she began to cry aloud, the baby joining the chorus. 542 LINCOLN TALKS The President seemed much annoyed but, turning to her, kindly said: "If you can prove to me that your husband did not run away from or desert his regiment, I will have him pardoned. Will you go on with your story, and stop your crying?" "How kind you are, sir!" A faint smile played on the President's face, as he answered: "Please go on with your story." She told him she was dangerously sick, and her husband, hearing it from a comrade, went home, about three miles from the camp. The next day he was seized as a deserter, and dragged away. As soon as she could walk a little, she had gone to the officers to plead for him, but they would not listen to her. She was sick after that long walk, and as soon as she could get up again she had started for Washington. "It was a long and tiresome journey," he said, sympathetically. "Yes, sir; but, someway, I felt, if I could only see you and tell you, that you would believe my story. I have no letters to speak for me, only this one," moving her hand towards her pocket. The President shook his head. He was twisting a piece of paper over and over through his fingers. Lifting his eyes suddenly to her face, he asked: "Who is that letter from?" "It is from a kind minister; I asked him to write it. He said you did not know him, and would in all probability not read the let- ter; yet, if it would be any comfort to me, he would write it." "Let me see it." As he bent forward to take the letter, the infant seized his hand. The President patted the little hands and face, and then leaned toward the light to read. How anxiously the woman watched him! But the countenance gave no indication of his thoughts. He folded the letter carefully; slowly he handed it back again, saying: "I am satisfied with it. I believe your story. I shall pardon your husband." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 543 The baby looked steadily up at him; the woman arose, as she exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. President, how can I thank you!" "Take this note to the War Department, and they will give you a paper of release for your husband from the charge of desertion. It will make your journey home more comfortable. Good night." "God bless you!" she answered, and was gone. —Carpenter. NO GOOD TO SHOOT A widow had her only son at work in the Cambria mills, but he could not resist enlisting, and while the Army of the Potomac lay inactive during the winter months he returned to Johnstown, called there by the need of his old mother for support. The young man was discovered, arrested, and tried as a deserter. Mr. Morrell was visited by the mother and told the story. She begged to be taken to see Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Morrell was a great favorite with Mr. Lincoln, and when he told him that the mother was in the next room, Lincoln said: "Now, Dan, that is not kind of you. You know I ought not to see her; but the son did give all his earnings to his mother and he was a good boy?" "Yes, Mr. President, I am sure he did, and that he is a good boy and ought not to be shot." "Well, Dan, I cannot say no to her. Bring her in." Lincoln listened to the woman's story, told between sobs, said nothing, but he had been scribbling a few lines with a pencil on a pad of paper, and his first words were: "Well, he is a good son. He went to save his mother." Then to the mother direct: "I do not think it would do him any good to shoot him, do you?" That question was too much for the mother, and she broke down. Lincoln took the little folded paper and handing it to Morrell said: "Dan, you go with that direct to the court martial and deliver it, but mind that neither you nor he is to tell Stanton." When Morrell found the open air he unrolled the crumpled bit 544 LINCOLN TALKS of paper and found written: "Send this boy" [giving his name] "to his regiment at the front. A. Lincoln." —Andrew Carnegie. JUSTICE Senator J. F. Wilson, in pleading the cause of a soldier wrong- fully accused of desertion, and finding the Secretary of War in- exorable, "appealed to Caesar," and procured an overriding order from the President which Stanton finally obeyed. When the result was reported to Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Well, I am glad you stuck to it, and that it ended as it did; for I meant it should so end, though I had to give it personal atten- tion. A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major- general." —Sen. James F. Wilson. HONEYMOON In the spring of 1863 a very handsome and attractive young lady from Philadelphia came to be introduced to the President. She was married to a lieutenant in a Pennsylvania regiment, and he had been compelled to leave her the day after the wedding to rejoin his command in the Army of the Potomac. After some time he obtained a leave of absence, returned to Philadelphia, and started on a brief honeymoon journey with his bride. A move- ment of the army being imminent, the War Department issued a peremptory order, requiring all absent officers to rejoin their regiments by a certain day on penalty of dismissal in case of dis- obedience. The bride and groom, away on their hurried wedding tour, failed to see the order, and on their return he was met by a notice of his dismissal from the service. The young fellow was completely prostrated by the disgrace, and his wife hurried to Washington to have him restored. She told her story with simple pathetic eloquence and wound up by saying: "Mr. President, won't you help us? I promise you, if you will restore him, he will be faithful to his duty." The Presi- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 545 dent had listened to her with evident sympathy and a half-amused smile at her earnestness, and as she closed her appeal, he said with parental kindness: "And you say, my child, that Fred was com- pelled to leave you the day after the wedding? Poor fellow, I don't wonder at his anxiety to get back, and if he stayed a little longer than he ought to have done, we will have to overlook his fault this time." —Philadelphia North American. ANOTHER WAY A Connecticut boy, who was perhaps a little wild, had one day, returning from school, been trapped by some New York bounty agents, paid $300, enlisted in a New York regiment, and hurried off to the front without his parents' knowledge. His mother was almost distracted. His father, one of the first citizens of Connecti- cut, had intervened in vain to get his release. A delegation of prominent citizens of his town came to Washington and appealed to the Secretary of War. We found him, as was his custom, standing bolt upright at the corner of his desk, with a head like a huge cannonball, short mas- sive neck, square-built frame, and iron-gray beard blowing down over his bosom— a man of iron— with eyes blazing full of energy, will, and determination. He heard my appeal with ill-concealed impatience and snorted out an instant and absolute refusal: "He had heard the case before and had decided it. The boy had taken his money and enlisted. If he should discharge all the minors whose mothers wanted them home he would soon not have a man to handle a musket." Leaving the War Office we went to the White House. Mr. Lin- coln heard the case with sympathetic interest. He at once wrote on one of the inevitable envelopes: "Let young — ■ of Connecti- cut, a minor, enlisted by fraud in the — New York Regiment, be discharged. A. Lincoln." We took this, not without an air of triumph, back to Stanton to 546 LINCOLN TALKS have the necessary order issued. He glared at it for an instant, crumpled it in his fist, threw it on the floor, and growled through his set teeth: "I won't do it." I said: "Shall we report that to the President as your reply, Mr. Secretary?" "Yes," said he, bristling like a grand old Numidian lion, "and you may add that I will re- sign my portfolio before I will set such a precedent." We returned to the President and reported the scene and the words verbatim. "Did he say that after reading my order?" asked the President. "Yes," I replied, expecting an explosion. "Well," said he, "I guess he would do it. We must find some other way to get this boy home to his mother"; and taking a piece of paper, he wrote: "To the commanding officer at : Dis- charge young — of Connecticut, now in the — New York, and send him to Washington. A. Lincoln." —Andrew Carnegie. BETTER First in order was a citizen of Washington, praying for pardon in the case of a deserter. "Well," said the President, after carefully reading the petition, "it is only natural for one to want pardon; but I must in that case have a responsible name that I know. I don't know you. Do you live in the city?" "Yes." "Do you know— h'm!— the mayor?" "Yes." "Well, the mayor is the better horse. Bring me his name and I will let the boy off." —Editor, Lowell Citizen. child's letter It was now Wednesday, and the next Friday was the fatal day. About ten o'clock a gentleman of my acquaintance came to my room saying there was a woman below whose husband was sen- COMMANDER IN CHIEF 547 tenced to be shot, and couldn't I do something to help her? The woman was indeed there, and in great distress, for her husband was one of the doomed four. He had deserted, nor will I suppress the fact that this was the second time he had attempted to rejoin his family, nor the further circumstance— a doubtful palliation— that he had done so while excited with drink. Even if the soldier's misconduct had made me indifferent to his fate— and it certainly had not— his poor wife's distress would have roused my warmest sympathies. I had some slight acquaintance with one or two Senators, and even with the Vice-President, but could they, or would they, help me in this matter? Had not the poor woman come to Wash- ington a fortnight before and, with a Senator to help her, tried in vain to get an audience with the President, till heart and hope had failed her? ... I bethink myself of the President's private secre- tary, and soon gain admission to that great man. "Can we see the President?" "He's so busy I think it doubtful." "Our business is very urgent— a matter of life or death; do you think we can see him?" "I cannot tell you, madam." "Do you think it probable we can get an interview, if we wait?" "Madam, I cannot tell you." That was all the great man said and we left his august presence profoundly convinced that he was the most important personage upon the premises, except perhaps the lackey who first met us at the door. We return to our places in the waiting-room, and seeing a female servant crossing the hall, I ask: "Will you carry a card to Mrs. Lincoln?" "You cannot see her; she is sick." "I do not wish to see her. Will you carry her a card?" The servant as- senting, I pencil a few words upon a card. At length Secretaries Chase, Seward, and Stanton come out, so that I know the Cabinet meeting is over. And now— is it possible? —the usher approaches us. "Have you any letters for the Presi- dent?" I hand him one— the letter of a little child, the daughter of the 548 LINCOLN TALKS condemned. It was the child's own thought, as she had written it without prompting or aid. The usher soon returns; the door that has seemed of adamant opens before us; and with a bewildering feeling we enter. The President is sitting near a table, and nearly facing the door, and as he greets us politely, I notice traces of tears upon his face. His voice, too, betrays emotion. "Mr. President," I said, with what steadiness I could command, "the husband of this lady is sentenced to be shot, as you have learned from the letter, and we are come to ask you to spare his life. Men's lives are getting to be precious." "I know it, but I must do something to keep those fellows, or half of them would run away." After some more conversation, he said at last: "Now you women may go home comforted. I have telegraphed for them not to be executed until I send an order, and I don't intend to send that order." The poor woman at my side could only weep her thanks, but I recollect saying, more than once: "We thank you a thousand times, sir." The President rose and dismissed us in a pleasant and cheerful way, but yet with such kindly sympathy in word and manner as I shall always gratefully and affectionately remember. —Portland Advertiser. RELIEF I was employed in the office of Judge Advocate General Holt; one of my duties was to arrange the papers which Judge Holt kept putting in the pigeonholes of his desk. When Burnside com- manded the army, there was a German soldier, a mere boy, who was one day sentenced to be shot for desertion. His sister sent a number of letters to the President and told him how her brother only imperfectly understood the English language; that he had wandered away from his command, and did not know where he COMMANDER IN CHIEF 549 was or how to ask where to go; and she prayed and supplicated and begged and argued like a good sister. The soldier was not shot. The commanding general reviewed his case and pardoned him. The facts were communicated to the President, and he sent the commutation to the Judge Advocate General, just as he had all the other papers in the case, only this one was endorsed in the President's own handwriting, with these words: "Out of the scrape. A. Lincoln." — Maj. Levi C. Pruden. HASTE When my father, Francis Kernan, was a member of Congress, during the war, a woman came to him one day and said that her husband had been captured as a deserter and she wanted my father to go and see the President about the matter. So the next morning he called on Mr. Lincoln. He found him very much oc- cupied, but, sending in word that it was an urgent matter, the President saw him. My father gave the President the facts in the case. It seems that the man had been absent a year from his family and, without leave, had gone home to see them. On his way back to the army he was arrested as a deserter and sentenced to be shot. The sentence was to be carried out that very day. The President listened attentively, becoming more and more in- terested in the story. Finally he said: "Why, Kernan, of course this man wanted to see his family; and they oughtn't to shoot him for that." So he immediately rang his bell, called his secretary, and gave him orders to send off telegrams suspending the sentence and ordering the record of the case to be sent to him. As he went on dictating to his secretary he became more and more anxious about the matter. "For God's sake, get that off just as quick as you can, or they will shoot this man in spite of me!" At the time my father was pleading for the man, Lincoln at first said: "I don't know, Kernan. It is very hard for me to interfere in these matters. Here is General So-and-So and General So-and-So, 550 LINCOLN TALKS and they all insist that I am interfering with the discipline of the army, destroying its efficiency; but," said he, "I can't help it. Here is a man who just went home to see his wife and children and they caught him on his way back to the army. I don't think he ought to be shot for that, and I am going to interfere." —Sen. Francis Kernan. DRAGNET When a little woman whose scant raiment and pinched features indicated the struggle of respectability with poverty secured, after days of effort, an entrance to his presence, he said: "Well, my good woman, what can I do for you?" She replied: "My son, my only child, is a soldier. His regiment was near enough to my house for him to take a day and run over and see his mother. He was arrested as a deserter when he re-entered the lines and condemned to be shot, and he is to be executed tomorrow." Hastily arising from his chair, the President left Senators and Congressmen and generals, and seizing the little woman by the hand, dragged her on a run, as with great strides he marched with her to the office of the Secretary of War. She could not tell where the regiment then was, or at what place or in what division the execution was to take place, and Stanton, who had become wearied with the President's clemency, which, he said, destroyed discipline, begged the President to drop the matter; but Mr. Lincoln, rising, said with vehemence: "I will not be balked in this. Send this message to every headquarters, every fort, and every camp in the United States: 'Let no military execution take place until further orders from me. A. Lincoln.' " — Weik's scrap book. RECONSIDERATION Professor Henry: A few days ago a friend of yours called and urged me to par- don Private McCarthy, & upon my refusal, went away dissatisfied, and I thought a little out of temper. COMMANDER IN CHIEF 55I After he was gone, I telegraphed General Meade that if he and McCarthy's colonel would consent, I would send him back to his regiment, and the within is General Meade's answer. Yours truly, A. Lincoln. Jan. 10, 1864. Office U. S. Military Telegraph War Department The President: I find that Private McCarthy was a drafted man who deserted in two (2) or three (3) days after he joined the Regt & was ap- prehended by our Pickets attempting to pass our Lines towards the enemy. When arrested he attempted to bribe the Pickets to allow him to pass. I cannot recommend any mitigation of the sentence in his case. Geo. G. Meade M. G. Comdg. — Nicolay and Hay. BANDAGE PARDON Going through a hospital prison Lincoln discovered a wounded lad on one of the cots. He went over to him and listened to his story— that of being accused of desertion, and wounded. Lincoln, never known to refuse clemency to any boy under eighteen years of age, was evidently convinced of the truthfulness of the lad's story, and lacking a piece of paper, took an ordinary bit of hospital bandage, and wrote on it these words: "Let this boy be pardoned for any supposed desertion, and discharged from the service, A. Lincoln. May 28, 1864." —Hertz: Lincoln. SUFFERING ENOUGH At the second election of Abraham Lincoln as President, I had the honor of being the bearer of the electoral vote of Massachu- setts to Washington. While there I was invited by Senator Wilson 552 LINCOLN TALKS to join him in an evening visit to the President at the White House. We found Mr. Lincoln very gracious, having just received news of the safe arrival of General Sherman and his army on their march from Atlanta through the Southern States. He illustrated in his own way, by a quaint story and with a cane, by marking upon the floor a diagram explaining the success of the march. During the evening John B. Alley, then a member of Congress from this State, and Ben. Perley Poore called in the interest of a young soldier from Essex County, who for some offense was confined in prison at Elmira. They explained the nature of the misdemeanor, which was not serious, and the fact that the boy was in the explosion of the mine on the James River, when Mr. Lincoln, who had listened intently with eyes aglow at the story of the boy's life, said quickly: "That's enough. Any boy who was in that explosion has suffered enough. Give me the papers," and he endorsed them: "Let this boy be pardoned. A. Lincoln." —Solomon B. Stebbins. SHERMAN Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, introduced his brother, Wil- liam T. Sherman to President Lincoln in March 1861. Sherman had offered his services, but, as in the case of Grant, they had been refused. After the Senator had transacted his business with the President, he said: "Mr. President, this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who is just up from Louisiana; he may give you some information you want." To this Lincoln replied, as reported by Senator Sherman him- self: "Ah! How are they getting along down there?" Sherman answered: "They think they are getting along swim- mingly; they are prepared for war." To which Lincoln responded: "Oh, well, I guess we'll manage to keep house." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 553 "Tecump," whose temper was not the mildest, broke out on "Brother John" as soon as they were out of the White House, cursed the politicians roundly, and wound up with: "You have got things in a hell of a fix, and you may get out as best you can." —Gen. William T. Sherman. AFTER BULL RUN I was once a soldier in the Army of the Potomac, and, as some of you must know, fought and was whipped at Bull Run. One day I was down by the river, when I saw an open barouche ap- proaching from the ferry with two gentlemen in it, whom I recognized as Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward. I had met Mr. Lincoln but once before, but he recognized me by saying: "Colonel Sherman, how are you?" I was very well, and inquired if I could be of any service. Mr. Lincoln said: "I have heard that you have got over the big scare, and I thought I would come over and see the boys." I then inquired if he proposed to visit my camp, which he said he did, and he invited me to get in and go along. Sending forward for the several regiments to be paraded on their respective grounds, we soon approached a New York regiment, which presented arms and then stood at parade rest. Mr. Lincoln rose and addressed them from the carriage one of the most feeling and beautiful speeches it has ever been my good fortune to hear. I have heard Clay in his palmiest days, and Crit- tenden and Corwin, and most of the celebrated orators, and have marked them well; but I never heard a man who spoke to the hearts of his hearers as Mr. Lincoln spoke to our soldiers that day. I recall almost every word he said. He addressed them as his children, and said that the days were sad, but brighter ones would come; that the rain was falling, but the clear sky was beyond, and soon would be clear again; they should not be discouraged, but think of the tomorrow that awaited them, having faith in the 554 LINCOLN TALKS nation and final success, which was as sure to come as there was a God in heaven. —Gen. William T. Sherman. THOSE SHERMANS When a revolt took place in the early part of the rebellion and General William Tecumseh Sherman subdued it, one of the offi- cers complained to President Lincoln that the general had been very severe in his language and had said, if a similar disorder took place again, one of the old regiments should fire on the regiment of recruits that was so disorderly. The officer asked Lincoln whether he did not think that was severe. "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "don't trust those Shermans; they are apt to do just as they say they will." — Capt. John H. Cummings. BARRELED During the avalanche of plans to conduct the suppression of the rebellion, a genius proposed what afterward seemed a forecast for Sherman's march to the sea. But at the time Lincoln saw in it merely a desperate venture which would entail a rescue-party. "That reminds me," he said, "of a cooper out my way, new at the trade and much annoyed by the head falling in as he was hoop- ing in the staves around it. But the bright idea occurred to him to put his boy in to hold up the cover. Only when the job was com- pleted by this inner support, the new problem rose: how to get the boy out? "Your plan is feasible, sir; but how are you to get the boy out?" —Henry L. Williams. DREAM The Cabinet met, Friday being its regular day. General Grant was invited to remain to its session. There was the greatest inter- est at the moment in General Sherman's movements, and Grant was plied with questions by the Cabinet. The President was least COMMANDER IN CHIEF 555 anxious of all. The news would soon come, he said, and it would be favorable. He had no doubt of this, for the night before he had had a dream which had preceded nearly every important event of the war. "He said it was in my Department, it related to the water," Secretary Welles afterward wrote; "that he seemed to be in a singular and indescribable vessel, but always the same, and that he was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore; that he had had this singular dream preceding the firing on Sumter, the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Stone River, Vicksburg, Wilmington, etc. . . . Victory did not always follow his dream, but the event and results were important. He had no doubt that a battle had taken place, or was about being fought, 'and Johnston will be beaten, for I had this strange dream again last night. It must relate to Sherman; my thoughts are in that direction, and I know of no other very important event which is likely just now to occur.' " —Gideon Welles. LAST MESSAGE TO SHERMAN The President extended his hand to me saying: "Well, Colonel, I got a message from Grant telling me that you were going to find Sherman. I am sure you will bring us good news, for we always get good news from you!" As he said this, he looked me intently in the eye. "Say to General Sherman for me, whenever and wherever you meet him, God bless him, and God bless his army. This is as much as I can say, and more than I can write." When I reached the door and had partially opened it to go away, he called to me from the place I had left him standing, and said: "Remember now, I say, God bless his army!" -A. H. Markland, in the New York Daily Tribune, 1885. FAULT-FINDING Lincoln turned to me in the most simple manner and said: "Sherman, do you know why I took a shine to Grant and you?" $$6 LINCOLN TALKS A shine! I said: "I don't know, Mr. Lincoln. You have been very kind to me, Mr. Lincoln, far more than my deserts." "Well," said he, "you have never found fault with me." I was arguing with him that if Lee was a general, really a gen- eral, he would escape from Richmond and fall upon me. Grant merely said: "I will follow on his heels." Lincoln said: "My God, my God, can't you spare more effusion of blood? We have had so much of it." —Gen. William T. Sherman. STICKING "Colonel," said Lincoln, "did I ever tell you the story of Grant at the circus? Well, when Grant was about ten years old, a circus came to Point Pleasant, Ohio, where the family lived, and the boy asked his father for a quarter to go to the circus. As the old tanner would not give him the necessary coin, he crawled in under the canvas tent, as I used to do; for in those days," said the President, "I never possessed a quarter of a dollar. There was a clever mule in that circus that had been trained to throw his rider, and when he appeared in the ring it was announced that anyone in the au- dience that would ride him once around the ring without being thrown would win a silver dollar. There were many candidates for the coin, but all were thrown over the animal's head. Finally the ringmaster ordered the mule taken out, when Master Ulysses presented himself, saying: 'Hold on, I will try that beast.' The boy mounted the mule, holding on longer than any of the others, but at length, when about seven-eighths of the ring had been achieved amid the cheers of the audience, the boy was thrown. Springing to his feet and throwing off his cap and coat, Ulysses shouted in a determined tone: 'I would like to try that mule again/ and again the audience cheered him. This time he resorted to strategy. He faced to the rear, seized hold of the beast's tail in- stead of his head, which rather demoralized the mule, and so the COMMANDER IN CHIEF 557 boy went around the ring, winning the silver dollar. And," added the President, "just so General Grant will hold on to Bob Lee." —Putnam's Magazine, Feb. 1909. FIGHTER To a delegation that was making emphatic demands that Gen- eral Grant be removed from command, on the charge that the "Silent Man" was a butcher, a drunkard, and an incompetent, Lin- coln replied: "Grant rights. And that reminds me of a story. "Out in my State of Illinois there was a man nominated for sheriff of the county. He was a good man for the office, brave, determined, and honest, but not much of an orator. In fact, he couldn't make a speech to save his life. His friends knew he was a man who would preserve the peace of the county and perform the duties devolving upon him all right, but the people of the county didn't know it. They wanted him to come out boldly on the plat- form at political meetings and state his convictions and principles; they had been used to speeches from candidates, and were some- what suspicious of a man who was afraid to open his mouth. So at last the candidate consented to make a speech, and his friends were delighted. The candidate was on hand, and when he was called upon, advanced to the front and faced the crowd. There was a glitter in his eye that wasn't pleasing, and the way he walked out to the front of the stand showed that he knew just what he wanted to say. 'Feller-citizens,' was his beginning, the words spoken quietly, Tm not a speakin' man; I ain't no orator, an' I never stood up be- fore a lot of people in my life before; I'm not goin' to make no speech, 'xcept to say that I can lick any man in the crowd!' " -H. N. B. ON GENERAL GRANT "The great thing about Grant," said Lincoln, "I take it, is his perfect coolness and persistency of purpose. I judge he is not 558 LINCOLN TALKS easily excited, which is a great element in an officer, and has the grit of a bulldog! Once let him get his teeth in, and nothing can shake him ofT." —Carpenter. grant's whisky Just after the battle of Pittsburg Landing a self-constituted committee of prohibitionists took it upon themselves to visit the President and urge the removal of Grant. The President, greatly surprised, inquired for what reason. "Why," replied the spokes- man, "he drinks too much whisky." "Ah!" rejoined Lincoln, dropping his lower jaw. "By the way, gentlemen, can any one of you tell me where General Grant procures his peculiar whisky, because if I can find out I will send every general in the field a barrel of it!" — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. HOUSECLEANING On Sunday, after the surrender of Vicksburg, the President said, speaking of Grant: "I fully appreciated the real strength of Grant's character when he spent a whole day with me in Washington, and asked that eight major-generals and thirteen brigadier-generals should be retired, solely to make room for the soldiers who had won and wore their wounds and honors at the front. In vain," continued Lincoln, "I told Grant that many of these officers were my personal friends. At last I yielded, and by doing so greatly strengthened the army." -W. O. Stoddard. PRAYER "Mr. Lincoln," I said, "we heard at Gettysburg that here at the capital you were all so anxious about the result of the battle that the Government officials packed up and got ready to leave at short notice with the official archives." COMMANDER IN CHIEF 559 "Yes," he said, "some precautions were prudently taken, but for my part I was sure of our success at Gettysburg." "Why were you so confident?" I asked. There was a brief pause. The President seemed to be in deep meditation. His pale face was lighted up by an expression I had not noted before. Turning to me, he said: "When Lee crossed the Potomac and entered Pennsylvania, followed by our army, I felt that the great crisis had come. I knew that defeat of a great battle on Northern soil involved the loss of Washington, to be followed perhaps by the intervention of England and France in favor of the Southern Confederacy. I went to my room and got down on my knees in prayer. "Never before had I prayed with so much earnestness. I wish I could repeat my prayer. I felt I must put all my trust in Almighty God. He gave our people the best country ever given man. He alone could save it from destruction. I had tried my best to do my duty and had found myself unequal to the task. The burden was more than I could bear. "I asked Him to help us and give us victory now. I was sure my prayer was answered. I had no misgivings about the result at Gettysburg." "How do you feel about Vicksburg, Mr. Lincoln?" I asked. "Grant will pull through all right, I am no longer despondent. God is with us." Arising to go, Mr. Lincoln took my hand in his, and said with tenderness: "Sickles, I have been told, as you have been told perhaps, your condition is serious. I am in a prophetic mood to- day. You will get well." —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. AFTER VICKSBURG "Mr. President, I do not like General Grant's paroling those prisoners at Vicksburg. We had better feed than fight them." Mr. Lincoln, straightening himself up to his full height, and 560 LINCOLN TALKS his countenance beaming with that peculiar smile which indicated that he was highly pleased: "Dubois, General Grant has done so well, and we are all so pleased at the taking of Vicksburg, let us not quarrel with him about that matter." He added: "Dubois," placing his foot upon the base of the railing and taking a less erect posture, "do you know that at one time I stood solitary and alone here in favor of General Grant? Even — " (naming a member of Congress from Northern Illinois) "came and told me that Grant was not worth a damn, and that I would have to remove him." —Jesse K. Dubois. SURRENDER TO GRANT Grant, Lincoln, and Stanton sat down and had a talk. Grant objected at first to taking the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln re- plied that he thought Grant's success at Vicksburg and Chatta- nooga would heal the jealousies of the Army of the Potomac. "I will, of course, come," said Grant, "but I hear you have a practice here of sending orders from the rear. With us in the West the head of our army is usually in front." Lincoln turned to Stanton and said: "You and I have been running this machine for three years, and we have not made a success of it. Let us give up trying." -Gen. William T. Sherman. MORE TAIL When Grant was appointed lieutenant-general the President called him aside to speak to him privately; and after a brief ref- erence to the military situation he said: "At one time there was a great war among the animals, and one side had great difficulty in getting a commander who had suffi- cient confidence in himself. Finally they found a monkey, of the name of Jocko, who said he thought he could command their army if his tail could be made a little longer. So they got more tail and spliced it onto his caudal appendage. He looked at * COMMANDER IN CHIEF $6l admiringly, and then thought he ought to have a little more still. This was added, and again he called for more. The splicing proc- ess was repeated many times until they had coiled Jocko's tail around the room, filling all the space. Still he called for more tail, and, there being no other place to coil it, they began wrapping it around his shoulders. He continued his call for more, and they kept on winding the additional tail about him until finally its own weight broke him down." General Grant saw the point and, rising from his chair, replied: "Mr. President, I will not call for more assistance unless I find it impossible to do with the forces I already have." —Gen. Frederick D. Grant. HOMAGE TO GRANT With Grant in supreme command early in 1864, he ordered certain troops in the city of Washington to join the Army of the Potomac at the front. Stanton declared he would appeal to Lin- coln, and he went with Grant to the White House. Entering the President's office, Stanton turned to Grant and said: "Now, Gen- eral, state your case." "I have no case to state," said Grant. Stanton at once entered a vigorous protest about depleting the defenses of Washington. When he paused, Lincoln, placing his hand on the shoulder of the War Secretary, said: "Well, Stanton, Congress has given us a man"— glancing at Grant— "to take charge of these military matters, and I reckon we had better let him have his way." — Ma j. -Gen. John Gibbon. grant's peace "Before Grant took command of the Eastern forces," said the President, "we did not sleep at night here in Washington. We began to fear the rebels would take the capital, and once in pos- session of that, we feared that foreign countries might acknowl- edge the Confederacy. Nobody could foresee the evil that might 562 LINCOLN TALKS come from the destruction of records and of property. But since Grant has assumed command on the Potomac, I have made up my mind that whatever it is possible to have done, Grant will do, and whatever he doesn't do, I don't believe is to be done. And now," he added with emphasis, "we sleep at night." —Noah Brooks. A MAN The confidence reposed in Lieutenant-General Grant by Presi- dent Lincoln was illustrated by a characteristic anecdote related recently by the President in reply to a question in regard to the present military prospect: "Well, sir, your question reminds me of a little anecdote about the automaton chess-player, which many years ago astonished the world by its skill in that game. The automaton was challenged by a celebrated player, who, to his great chagrin, was beaten twice by the machine. At the end of the second game, the player, significantly pointing his finger at the automaton, exclaimed in a very decided tone: 'There's a man in it!' And this, sir, is just the secret of our present success." — Maj.-Gen. E. D. Townsend. FAVORITE DEATH A friend in conversation with Mr. Lincoln about the approach ing Presidential nominations said that nothing could defeat him but Grant's capture of Richmond, followed by his nomination and acceptance. "Well," said the President, "I feel very much like the man who said he didn't want to die particularly, but if he had got to die that was precisely the disease he would like to die of." -Col. William S. Hillyer. THE KISS The New York Tribune had four correspondents in the field, of whom I was one, attached, at that time, to the Second Corps. At the close of the first day's fighting we came together at army COMMANDER IN CHIEF 563 headquarters, to compare notes and to lay plans for the future. The battle was to be renewed the next morning. It was an open secret that Meade had suggested a retreat across the river, under cover of the night, and a fresh start, over some more promising route, and that Grant had vetoed the proposition and had ordered the lines to be formed for an assault upon the enemy at daybreak. I found that I was the first newspaper man— indeed, the only man from the front— to cross Bull Run River. This made my news doubly valuable. The nearest public telegraph station was at Al- exandria, twenty miles away. That office would close at mid- night. To accomplish my "beat" on all the other papers, I must make that twenty miles in three hours. I offered all sorts of sums, up to a thousand dollars, for a horse and guide to Alexandria. The Government had a telegraph wire out there, with an operator. I knew that no messages, except those strictly on Government business and under military control, were ever permitted over one of these wires. Nevertheless, I was bent on "subsidizing" that operator, at whatever cost, to send out just a few words to the Tribune bureau at Washington. But before I reached the telegraph office this scheme was abandoned as impracticable. As I discarded this plan another suggested itself. The Honorable Charles A. Dana was a personal friend of mine, and was Assistant Secretary of War. If I could get him on the wire, something might possibly be done, so I wrote a dispatch as a "feeler," directed to him officially as follows: "I am just in from the front. Left Grant at four o'clock this morning." (This, by the way, was all that I had told anybody lest any real news might "leak.") A response came immediately, but from Secretary Stanton: "Where did you leave General Grant?" What! Even the Government had no knowledge of events at the front! I had, stored away under that faded cloth hat, all the information there was of the momentous movements across the Rapidan. But I would be modest and generous: if Mr. Stanton would let me send one hundred words over the Government line 564 LINCOLN TALKS I would tell him all that I knew. On a repetition of the demand, in more peremptory terms, I replied that my news belonged to the New York Tribune, and that he would have to negotiate with them for its release. But I renewed my offer. Five minutes afterward, at a call from the operator, the post commander came in. He looked at a telegram handed him; and he then informed me that Mr. Stanton had ordered my arrest as a spy unless I would uncover my news from the front. Of course that settled it. I would not have told him one little word to save my life. But here I was, at the end of my resources. It had been my purpose, if he finally refused my offer, to start, afoot, for Alexandria, in a frantic effort to make the twenty miles by mid- night; but now there was nothing to be done but to submit. I lay down on a bench, in the little station— hungry, tired, and, for the first time, utterly discouraged. Then something occurred that I cannot explain. I knew nothing of the telegraph code; yet, as a message was being ticked off on the tape, some subtle current of influence touched my appre- hension. I knew that it was for me. I sprang to my feet. "What is it?" "Mr. Lincoln wants to know if you will tell him where Grant is." I repeated my offer, to communicate whatever information I had, for the use of the wire to transmit one hundred words. He accepted my terms without hesitation, only suggesting that my statement to my paper be so full as to disclose to the public the general situation. Nothing now was the matter with me. I was not tired, or hun- gry, or sleepy. Standing by the operator, I dictated the half- column dispatch which appeared in the Tribune on the morn- ing of Saturday, May 7, 1864. Mr. Lincoln, with his characteristic thoughtfulness for the public interests, arranged for the transfer to the Associated Press of a short summary of the news, and thus the anxiety of the whole country was set at ease. COMMANDER IN CHIEF $6$ A locomotive was sent down for me, and about two o'clock in the morning, I reached the White House, where the President had gathered his official family to meet me. As I stepped into the room where they were seated, my glance caught a quick gleam of surprise and apprehension in Mr. Lincoln's eyes, and I was awakened to a sense of my disreputable appearance. My hair was disheveled, my shabby old coat was dusty and wrinkled, my panta- loons, much too long, were folded back at the bottom and gath- ered about my ankles with pieces of cotton twine, and my coarse shoes were coated three or four layers thick with "sacred soil." I had met, perhaps, every one of this company at public functions or in private interviews, but not one of them recognized me in this garb. As my glance swept around the group, it rested on the genial countenance of a particular friend, Mr. Welles, the Secre- tary of the Navy. As I advanced and accosted him, he identified me by my voice. Then, as the company was dispersing, I turned to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Mr. President, I have a personal word for you." The others withdrew, and he closed the door, and advanced toward me. As he stood there, I realized, as never before, how tall he was. I looked up into his impassive face and delivered Grant's message. He took a short, quick step toward me, and stooping to bring his eyes level with mine, whispered, in tones of intense, impatient interest: "What is that?" I was so moved that I could hardly stammer: "General Grant told me to tell you, from him, that, whatever happens, there is to be no turning back." The vision that opened through those wonderful eyes, from a great soul, glowing with a newly kindled hope, is the likeness of Mr. Lincoln that I still hold in my memory, and ever shall. And that hope was never to be extinguished. Others had "turned back." Every other one had. But there had come an end of that fatal folly. §66 LINCOLN TALKS Mr. Lincoln put his great, strong arms about me and, carried away in the exuberance of his gladness, imprinted a kiss upon my forehead. We sat down again, and then I disclosed to him, as I could not do, except in the light of that pledge of the great com- mander, all the disheartening details of that dreadful day in the Wilderness. But I could assure him that the Army of the Poto- mac, in all its history, was never in such hopeful spirit as when it discovered, at the close of a day of disappointment, that it was not to "turn back." As I at last sought my bed, I had filled out a full day of twenty- four hours since I first mounted my good horse beyond the Rapi- dan to enter into untried and almost unparalleled adventures. I had "won out," through the repeated intervention of the most surprising good fortune; but my chief satisfaction was in having been admitted into the friendship of the great-hearted, true- hearted, tender-hearted Lincoln. He never forgot me. From that time forward, while he lived, I was favored with many tokens of his affectionate interest. —Henry E. Wing. BULLDOG Dispatch to General Grant, August 17, 1864: "I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. "Hold on with a bulldog grip." — Nicolay and Hay. ON SHERIDAN One of the want-to-knows had the impertinence to inquire of Mr. Lincoln his opinion of General Philip H. Sheridan, not yet known, who had come out of the West early in 1864 to take com- mand of the cavalry under General Grant. "Have you not seen Sheridan?" The answer was in the nega- tive. "Then I will tell you just what kind of a chap he is: One of COMMANDER IN CHIEF 567 those long-armed fellows, with short legs, that can scratch their shins without having to stoop over to do it!" —Lincoln Story Book. Sheridan's pursuit Considerable anxiety had prevailed in Washington during the latter of Sheridan's operations. He had got beyond telegraphic communication. The War Department feared for the capital, while the President grew anxious for Sheridan's safety. Mr. Lin- coln, of course, had a story to tell. He was afraid that Sheridan's hot pursuit had been a little like that of General Cass, in one of our Indian wars. Cass was pursuing the Indians so closely that the first thing he knew he found himself in their front and the Indians were pursuing him. -W. O. Stoddard. BETTER EARLY A victory by Sheridan over Early was reported to him. "I'm delighted to hear it," he said. "Federal victories are usually over-late." —Legacy of Fun. STONEWALL When the Chronicle, of Washington, had the courage to speak well of "Stonewall" Jackson, accidentally shot, as a brave soldier, however mistaken as an American, Lincoln wrote to the editor: "I honor you for your generosity to one who, though con- tending against us in a guilty cause, was nevertheless a gallant man. Let us forget his sins over a fresh-made grave." —Henry L. Williams, quoting the Washington Chronicle. URGENCY To General Grant, spring 1865: "The financial pressure is so great, I hope you will make an early move and close the war." —Edward D. Neill: Glimpses of a Nation's Struggle. 568 LINCOLN TALKS APPLICANT To General Grant: "My son, now in his twenty-second year, having graduated from Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission to which those who have served long are more entitled and better qualified to hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you or detriment to the service, go into your military family, with some nominal rank, I, and not the public, furnishing the necessary means? If not, say so without hesita- tion." — Nicolay and Hay. INTUITION Following the Battle of Five Forks, Lincoln met Grant at City Point on the morning of April 3. Lincoln seized Grant's hand and said: "Do you know, General, that I have had sort of a sneaking idea for several days that you intended to do something like this?" —Nicolay and Hay. STEPHENS HUSKED I remember when Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia came on the Jeff Davis Peace Commission to City Point. Stephens did not weigh more than eighty pounds, and he wore an overcoat that made him look like a man of two hundred pounds. As Lincoln and I came in, Stephens took off his coat. Lincoln said, after he had gone: "I say, Grant, did you notice that coat Aleck Stephens wore?" I said yes. "Never have I seen so small a nubbin come out of so much husk," said Lincoln. -Gen. U. S. Grant. FIZZLE The President, in company with General Grant, was inspecting the Dutch Gap Canal at City Point. "Grant," he said, "do you COMMANDER IN CHIEF 569 know what this reminds me of? Out in Springfield, there was a blacksmith named — . One day, not having much to do, he took a piece of soft iron, and attempted to weld it into an agricultural implement, but discovered that the iron would not hold out. Then he decided it would make a claw hammer, but having too much iron attempted to make an ax, but decided after working a while that there was not enough iron left. Finally, becoming disgusted, he filled the forge full of coal and brought the iron to a white heat; then with his tongs he lifted it from the bed of coals, and thrusting it into a tub of water near by, exclaimed with an oath: 'Well, if I can't make anything else of you, I will make a fizzle anyhow.' I was afraid that was about what we had done with the Dutch Gap Canal." -Gen. U. S. Grant. COCK-CROW Shortly after Lincoln's arrival at City Point, while he was en- gaged in conversation with a group of officers around him, a dis- tant musket shot was heard from the direction of General Parke's corps, which then occupied the right of our lines about two miles from City Point. Soon after this the report of another shot came, then followed several others in rapid succession, and directly after- wards volleys were fired, interspersed with occasional discharges of cannon, all from nearly the same direction. Early on the following morning Colonel P , accompanied by General N , rode over to Parke's headquarters to ascertain the cause of the firing, when they learned that it was occasioned by a careless recruit, who about dusk accidentally discharged his mus- ket near one flank of the line, which was soon responded to by an equally careless soldier at some other point, and this was immedi- ately followed by other pattering shots along the entire line, so that in a few minutes quite an imaginary battle was inaugurated, and in the darkness which soon obscured everything, the troops, verily believing the enemy was in front of them, fired volleys of 570 LINCOLN TALKS musketry, with now and then a salvo of artillery; but fortunately nobody was hurt, and the disturbance soon quelled. Charged with these facts, the officers returned to City Point and reported them to Lincoln, who had just settled himself at the breakfast table. Whereupon he smilingly observed that this affair reminded him of an occurrence which once took place in Spring- field, Illinois. It happened upon one third of July night, after quite a number of people from the surrounding country had assembled in town in anticipation of participating in the celebration of the anniver- sary of our national independence, and after nearly everybody had gone to sleep, with the exception of a few frolicsome young fellows who had been prowling about town until after midnight. They had pretty well exhausted their ingenuity in devising new pranks for fun and mischief, when one of them proposed to bet drinks for the party that he would within five minutes' time make every cock in the whole town crow. The wager was promptly accepted, and the young fellow leaped upon a fence and, slapping his thighs with his open hands, gave forth a vociferous "cock-a- doodle-do-o-o-o," which in the stillness of the calm night rever- berated like a clarion throughout every nook and corner of the town. Then a solitary reply issued from a chicken-roost in a remote suburb, which was soon taken up by others in different di- rections, and within the brief period specified in the wager prob- ably every cock in the town had repeated the call. But the strang- est part of the whole affair was that the sell was not confined to the chickens, for as soon as the crowing commenced, all the boys in the place, who very likely slept with one eye open upon that special occasion, and verily believing the joyful fourth of July had dawned, leaped out of bed, jumped into their clothes, and rushed pell-mell to the streets, and within less time than it has taken to relate it, firecrackers, pistols, and guns were being dis- charged from every direction. COMMANDER IN CHIEF $Jl "But," added the narrator, "nobody was hurt any more than when Parke's roosters prematurely crowed last evening." -Gen. John G. Parke. POWDER In the evening a pitch-pine campfire was kindled at the military headquarters. It was a pleasure to the President to sit before it, assuming any attitude he pleased. With his legs at full length or doubled up, the bright flames illumining his countenance, he gave free play to fancy, and entertained General Grant and his staff with anecdote and story. "I have here," said General Horace Porter, member of the staff, "a specimen of the new powder for the fifteen-inch guns at For- tress Monroe. The kernel is nearly as large as a walnut." "Well," the President replied, "that is a little larger than the powder I used in my shooting days. It reminds me of what once occurred in a country meeting-house in Sangamon County. You see, there were very few newspapers then, and the country store- keepers had to resort to some other means of advertising their wares. If, for instance, the preacher happened to be late in coming to a prayer-meeting of an evening, the shopkeeper would often put in the time while the people were waiting by notifying them of any new arrival of an attractive line of goods. One evening a man said: 'Brethren, let me take occasion to say, while we're a-waitin', that I have just received a new inv'ice of sportin' pow- der. The grains is so small you kin scarcely see 'em with the naked eye. They are polished so fine you kin stand up and comb your ha'r in front of 'em jes' like it was a lookin'-glass. Hope you'll come down to my store at the cross-roads, and examine that pow- der for yourselves.' "When he had got about thus far a rival merchant, who had been boiling with indignation at the amount of advertising, got up and said: 'Brethren, I hope you'll not believe a single word 572 LINCOLN TALKS Brother Jones has been saying about that powder. I've been down thar and seen it for myself, and I pledge you my word, brethren, that the grains is bigger than the lumps in a coal-pile, and any one of you brethren in your future state could put a bar'l of that powder on your shoulder and march square through the sul- phurious flames of the world below without the least danger of an explosion.' " —Gen. Horace Porter. PIGTAIL One of the men took it upon himself to approach him in regard to the matter of a change of service, stating in substance that the men felt they were not needed here, and that there was greater need of their services at the front. The President listened patiently, and then he said: "Well, my boy, that reminds me of an old friend of mine in Illinois, who used to say he never could understand why the Lord put a curl in a pig's tail; it did not seem to him to be either useful or ornamental, but he guessed the Lord knew what he was doing, when he put it there. "I do not myself," he said, "see the necessity of having soldiers traipsing around after me wherever I go, but Stanton, who knows a great deal more about such things than I do, seems to think it necessary, and he may be right; and if it is necessary to have soldiers here, it might as well be you as someone else. If you were sent to the front, someone would have to come from the front to take your place. It's a soldier's duty to obey orders without ques- tion, and in doing that you can serve your country as faithfully here as at the front, and," said he with another smile, "I reckon it is not quite as dangerous here as it is there." —Smith Stimmel. STEALING THUNDER Lincoln was in Richmond. Operator Beckwith rode in General Grant's carriage following Lincoln's carriage. As Grant's elegant COMMANDER IN CHIEF 573 carriage rolled up to the Jeff Davis house where Lincoln was, there was loud cheering. "Young man," said Lincoln to Beckwith as he came up to re- port, "I am afraid you have been stealing somebody's thunder." -Capt. S. H. Beckwith. STRATEGY The day after Lincoln's return from Richmond, he was in Colonel Bowers's tent at City Point in happy humor over Grant's successes, and he quoted from memory Artemus Ward's account of the escape of the Polly Ann on the Erie Canal when being chased by pirates. One of the crew, carrying a bag of oats, ordered the pilot to "heave to," and when the vessel "huv to," went ashore and scattered the oats liberally along the tow-path. When the mules of the pirates' craft reached the oats, no amount of per- suasion could induce them to proceed until the oats had all been consumed; and so the Polly Ann escaped. Lincoln was interrupted at this point by the entrance of Secretary Harlan, but immedi- ately resumed, saying: "Now, gentlemen, that was true strategy, because the enemy was diverted from his real purpose." -Capt. S. H. Beckwith. GEORGE PICKETT The name of Abraham Lincoln, wherever it may occur, recalls a scene from my window in the old Pickett home at the corner of Sixth and Lehigh Streets in Richmond on a day in early April after the surrender of our armies. A carriage passing by my home was surrounded by guards and followed by a retinue of soldiers. After it had passed, the cavalcade paused and a man alighted from the carriage and came back to our house. Hearing his knock I opened the door with my baby in my arms and saw a tall, gaunt, and sad-faced man who asked: "Is this George Pickett's place?" "Yes, sir, but he is not here." "I know that, ma'am, but I just wanted to see the place. Down 574 LINCOLN TALKS in old Quincy, Illinois, I have heard the lad describe the home. I am Abraham Lincoln." "The President!" I gasped. The stranger shook his head. "No, ma'am; just Abraham Lin- coln, George Pickett's old boyhood friend." "I am George Pickett's wife and this is his boy." I had never seen Mr. Lincoln but remembered the intense love and reverence with which my soldier always spoke of him. It had been long since my baby had seen a man and, being reminded of his own father, reached out his hands to Mr. Lincoln, who took him in his arms, an expression of almost divine love glorify- ing his face. My baby opened his mouth wide and gave his fa- ther's friend a dewy baby kiss. Putting the little one back in my arms, Mr. Lincoln said: "Tell your father, the rascal, that I for- give him for the sake of that kiss and those bright eyes." —Told by the widow of Gen. George Pickett. Sheridan's dispatch As I entered the room, a voice from behind the open door called my name, and as I turned, Mr. Lincoln rose from a desk and pleasantly made a few inquiries about myself. He then said: "Oh! Let me give you the latest news," and picking up a paper which lay on his table, he read to me Sheridan's telegram to Gen- eral Grant, repeated word for word by the latter to the President, in which the capture of 7000 men and five generals, including Ewell and Custis Lee, was reported. This was the famous dispatch in which Sheridan said that if the thing was pushed, he thought Lee would surrender, to which Lincoln, in his characteristic style, laconically replied: "Let the thing be pushed." Mr. Lincoln remarked with a smile upon his dear face such as I had never before seen: "The end has almost come!" — Nicolay and Hay. iPiii'inniB ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^$^^^^^^^^^ CREED WHEN a member of Congress, knowing his religious char- acter, asked him why he did not join some church, Mr. Lincoln replied: "Because I have found difficulty, without mental reservation, in giving my assent to their long and complicated confessions of faith. When any church will inscribe over its altar the Saviour's condensed statement of law and gospel: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my heart." —Carpenter. SANITARY COMMISSION Dr. Hill, a trustee who had been silent up to this time, said: "Brethren, I think I can settle the question and put at rest any doubt of the great President's faith. During the war there was a reception given at the White House to the members of the Sani- tary Commission. I was present. During the evening I took the opportunity to compliment President Lincoln on the wonderful success of the Commission. "He said: 'Doctor, would you like to know how this institu- tion was started?' " 'I certainly would, Mr. President/ said I. 575 576 LINCOLN TALKS "He continued: 'One rainy night I could not sleep; the wounds of the soldiers and sailors distressed me; their pains pierced my heart, and I asked God to show me how they could have better relief. After wrestling some time in prayer, He put the plans of the Sanitary Commission in my mind, and they have been carried out pretty much as God gave them to me that night. Doctor, thank our kind Heavenly Father and not me for the Sanitary Commis- sion/ " -Dr. Hill. Lincoln's trust in god Lincoln for a time was greatly depressed. After a period of ab- straction he turned away from the window, and his face took on a brighter look as he said: "Henry, do you believe in prayer?" and after an instant he continued: "If the Lord did not answer prayer, I could not stand it. And if I did not believe in a God who works His will with nations, I should despair of the Republic. , ' —Henry E. Wing, in the Christian Advocate. GOD AND THE RIGHT One afternoon during the dark days of the war there was an assemblage of distinguished men at the White House, and among them was Senator Doolittle. It was he, I think, who said in a tone loud enough for Mr. Lincoln to hear above the rest of the con- versation: "If only we as a people could do right, I am sure that God would give us victory." Then in that shrill, high voice of his, Mr. Lincoln said: "My faith is greater than yours." The conversation in the room died down, and Senator Doo- little asked him: "What is it?" Then said Mr. Lincoln: "God will make us do sufficiently right to give us the victory." -Gen. O. O. Howard FATHER ABRAHAM 577 CHURCH One Sunday morning, when the Confederate forces were close to the city, and the fighting was heavy, Dr. Gurley declared from his pulpit that the next Sunday would be the last in which the church could be used, as an order from the Secretary of War had requisitioned the church for use as a hospital for wounded sol- diers. Mr. Lincoln, who was in the congregation, arose in his pew and said: "Dr. Gurley, we are too much in need of this church these days; we cannot let it be closed; I countermand the order." —Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo. OUT One of Lincoln's stories described a rough frontier cabin, with children running wild, and a hard-worked wife and mother, slat- ternly and unkempt, not overhappy perhaps, but with a woman's loyal instinct to make the best of things before a stranger. Into this setting strode an itinerant Methodist, unctuous and insistent, selling Bibles as well as preaching salvation. She received him with frontier hospitality, but grew restive under questioning she deemed intrusive, and finally answered rather sharply that of course they owned a Bible. He challenged her to produce it. A search revealed nothing. The children were called to her aid, and at last one of them unearthed and held up for inspection a few tattered leaves. Protest and reproaches on the part of the visitor, but on her own stanch sticking to her colors. "She had no idea," she declared, "that they were so nearly out." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. DE PROFUNDIS I spent three weeks in the White House with Mr. Lincoln, as his guest. One night— it was just after the battle of Bull Run— I was restless and could not sleep. I was repeating the part which 578 LINCOLN TALKS I was to take in a public performance. The hour was past mid- night, indeed it was coming near the dawn, when I heard low tones proceeding from a private room near where the President slept. The door was partly open. I saw the President kneeling beside an open window. The light was turned low in the room. His back was toward me. For a moment I was silent, looking in amazement and wonder. Then he cried out in tones so pleading and sorrowful: "O thou God that heard Solomon in the night when he prayed for wisdom, hear me; I cannot lead this people, I cannot guide the affairs of this nation without thy help. I am poor, and weak, and sinful. O God! who didst hear Solomon when he cried for wisdom, hear me, and save this nation." —James E. Murdoch. PRECEDENTS With the purpose of encouraging the serious-minded, care- worn President who received us, Senator Trumbull cheerfully greeted President Lincoln, saying: "Mr. President, I hope that you are looking on the bright side of affairs. On Capitol Hill we all wonder that you can do so well in these trying times, espe- cially as you have no precedent to guide you in anything, judi- cial, civil or military." "Thank you, Senator Trumbull, for every word of encourage- ment. But please tell the boys on Capitol Hill that I have prece- dents for everything. Tell them all that I shall commit no dan- gerous error; that I shall not blunder, because I have precedents, and I carefully follow them. I get my precedents, Trumbull, by my bedside at night. I get them while I am on my knees. I seek my precedents then and there; and they come to me from the source of all wisdom." —Sen. Lyman Trumbull. AUCTION On the occasion of the dedication of what was known as the Founders Methodist Church in Washington, Mr. Lincoln was FATHER ABRAHAM 579 present, and Bishop Simpson delivered the dedicatory address. The President was seated in an armchair in front of the pulpit, with his back to the minister, and after the sermon was over an effort was made to raise funds to pay the debt of the church. This phase of the meeting was tiresomely protracted, the minister in the customary style earnestly urging an unresponsive congrega- tion to contribute until nearly every inducement had been ex- hausted. Finally somebody started a movement to raise a certain definite amount of money, the achievement of which would make the President a life member of some church society. But even this scheme was not accepted with much enthusiasm, and Bishop Simpson renewed his plea for donations. At last Mr. Lincoln, who had grown tired and bored at the performance, craned his head around to Bishop Simpson and said in a tone that everybody heard: "Simpson, if you will stop this auction, I will pay the money myself." —Sen. Daniel W. Voorhees. ROOM When Sunday came the young pair, who were on their honey- moon trip to Washington, went early to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church to see President Lincoln. They obtained seats just back of the historic pew. The President arrived and sat sideways at the door of his pew, his custom, as the narrow space between pews cramped his long legs. Just as the service began, down the aisle within President Lincoln's vision came wandering a forlorn-looking man, poorly clad, awkwardly seeking a seat. Instantly out shot that long arm of Abraham Lincoln and gathered him in beside him, and they heard him say: "Come right in here, Brother, there's plenty of room!" —Mrs. Radcliffe. METEORS In the darkest period of that awful conflict, when someone ex- pressed fear of the results, Lincoln replied: "One night, in No- 580 LINCOLN TALKS vember, years ago, a shower of meteors fell from a clear sky. A friend standing by was frightened; I looked up, and between the falling stars I saw the fixed stars beyond shining serene in the firmament, and I said: 'Don't let us mind the meteors.' " —Carpenter. THE PEOPLE S LOYALTY In the winter of 1864 a number of the officers of the Sanitary Commission were presented to Mr. Lincoln, and each shook hands with him. When it came the turn of a tiny old Quaker lady from Philadelphia, she said: "Yes, Friend Abraham, thee needs not think thee stands alone. We all are praying for thee. All our hearts, the hearts of all the people, are behind thee, and thee cannot fail! The Lord has ap- pointed thee, the Lord will sustain thee, and the people love thee. Take comfort, friend Abraham, God is with thee!" "I know it." The great soft voice rolled solemnly and sweetly from the trembling lips. "I know it. If I did not have the knowl- edge—it is not hope— it is knowledge— the knowledge that God is sustaining and will sustain me until my appointed work is done, I could not live. If I did not believe that the hearts of all loyal peo- ple were with me, I could not endure it. My heart would have broken long ago. It is that blessed knowledge and that blessed belief that holds me to my work. This has been a bad day, and I was almost overwhelmed when you ladies came in. You have given a cup of cold water to a very thirsty and grateful man. Ladies, you have done me a great kindness today. I knew it be- fore. I knew that good men and good women were praying for me, but I was so tired, I had almost forgotten. God bless you all!" —Army and Navy Journal, vol. 52. RELIANCE The Old School Presbyterian Synod visited President Lincoln. In response to an address, Mr. Lincoln spoke as follows: "I was FATHER ABRAHAM 581 early brought up to the reflection that nothing in my power would succeed without the direct assistance of the Almighty. I have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am. Nevertheless, awed by the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance on God, knowing all would go well, and He would decide for the right. I thank you, gentlemen, in the name of the religious bodies which you represent, and in the name of our Common Father, for this expression of your respect. I cannot say more." — Nicolay and Hay. WELCOME An officer of the Government called one day at the White House, and introduced a clerical friend. "Mr. President," said he, "allow me to present to you my friend, the Reverend Mr. F. Mr. F. has expressed a desire to see you and have some conversa- tion with you, and I am happy to be the means of introducing him." The President shook hands with Mr. F., and desiring him to be seated, took a seat himself. Then, his countenance having assumed an air of patient waiting, he said: "I am now ready to hear what you have to say." "Oh, bless you, sir," said Mr. F., "I have nothing special to say; I merely called to pay my respects to you, and, as one of the mil- lions, to assure you of my hearty sympathy and support." "My dear sir," said the President, rising promptly, his face showing instant relief, and with both hands grasping that of his visitor, "I am very glad to see you, indeed. I thought you had come to preach to me!" —Carpenter. SKEPTICISM When I knew him in early life he was a skeptic. He had tried hard to be a believer but his reason could not grasp and solve the great problem as taught. . . . He often said that the most am- 582 LINCOLN TALKS bitious man might live to see every hope fail, but no Christian could see his fail, because fulfillment could only come when life ended. . . . The only evidence I have of any change was in the summer before he was assassinated. I was invited out to the Sol- diers' Home to spend the night. As I entered the room, near night, he was sitting near a window intensely reading his Bible. Ap- proaching him, I said: "I am glad to see you profitably engaged." "Yes," said he, "I am profitably engaged." "Well," said I, "if you have recovered from your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I have not!" Looking me earnestly in the face, and placing his hand on my shoulders, he said: "You are wrong, Speed; take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and bet- ter man." —Joshua F. Speed. SOULS A Methodist minister in Kansas, living on a small salary, who was greatly troubled to get his quarterly installment, at last told the non-paying trustees that he must have his money, as he was suffering for the necessaries of life. "Money!" replied the trustees. "You preach for money? We thought you preached for the good of souls!" "Souls!" responded the reverend. "I can't eat souls; and if I could it would take a thousand such as yours to make a meal!" "That soul is the point, sir," said the President. — R. D. Wordsworth. PRAYING MAN President Lincoln once said that the best story he ever read in the papers about himself was this: Two Quakers were traveling on the railroad and were heard discussing the probable result of the war. "I think," said one, "that Jefferson will succeed." "Why does thee think so?" asked the other. "Because Jefferson is a pray- ing man." "And so is Abraham a praying man." "Yes, but the FATHER ABRAHAM 583 Lord will think Abraham is only joking," doubtfully replied the first. -H. N. B. IMPERTINENCE President Lincoln, while refusing to grant a request to some House members, related the problem of some orthodox ministers who wished to get rid of a Universalist minister in their midst. It was resolved to "preach him down," and the pastor appointed to "take the first shot," exclaimed: "Why, the impertinent fellow de- clares that all shall be saved, but, my dear brethren, let us hope for better things." —Luther E. Robinson, quoting Sen. Cornelius Cole. MAN OF SORROWS The next day my friend Mrs. Hoge and myself had another interview with the President, on business entrusted to us. If we were shocked the night before at his haggard face, how much more were we pained when the broad light of day revealed the ravages which care, anxiety, and overwork had wrought. In our despondent condition it was difficult to control our feelings so as not to weep before him. Our unspoken thought ran thus: "Our national affairs must be in the very extremity of hopelessness if they thus prey on the mind and life of the President. The country has been slain by treason— he knows it— and that it cannot recover itself." Our business ended, before we withdrew we made one more attempt to draw encouraging words from the reluctant head of the nation. "Mr. President," we said timidly, "we find ourselves greatly de- pressed by the talk of last evening; you do not consider our na- tional affairs hopeless, do you? Our country is not lost?" "Oh, no!" he said with great earnestness. "Our affairs are by no means hopeless, for we have the right on our side. We did not want this war, and we tried to avoid it. We were forced into it; 584 LINCOLN TALKS our cause is a just one, and now it has become the cause of free- dom." (The Emancipation Proclamation had then been promul- gated.) "And let us also hope it is the cause of God, and then we may be sure it must ultimately triumph. But between that time and now there is an amount of agony and suffering and trial for the people that they do not look for, and are not prepared for." I saw him several times afterwards, and each time I was im- pressed anew with the look of pain and weariness stereotyped on his face. "I envy the soldier sleeping in his blanket on the Potomac," he would say, in his torture. And sometimes, when the woes of the country pressed most heavily on him, he envied the dead soldier sleeping in the cemetery. "Whichever way the war ends," he said to a friend of mine, "I have the impression that I shall not last long after it is over." After the dreadful repulse of our forces at Fredericksburg, when the slaughter was terrific, the agony of the President wrung from him the bitter cry: "Oh, if there is a man out of hell that suffers more than I do, I pity him!" —Mary A. Livermore. HALF RIGHT An elderly gentleman from Buffalo said: "Up our way, we be- lieve in God and Abraham Lincoln." "My friend, you are more than half right!" was the President's reply, as he passed him on to the next in line. -H. N. B. SCHOOL OF EVENTS A California woman went for a drive with the Lincolns, when she was visiting Washington, and wrote home about it. She had found the family at the Soldiers' Home. "The grounds," she wrote, "are situated on a beautifully wooded hill which you ascend by a wind- FATHER ABRAHAM 585 ing path shaded on both sides by widespread branches forming an arcade above you. Around grows every variety of tree, especially of the evergreen class. Their branches brushed into the carriage as we passed along and left us with that pleasant woody smell be- longing to trees. One of the ladies, catching a bit of green from one of these intruding branches, said it was cedar, but another thought it was spruce. " 'Let me discourse on a theme I understand,' said Lincoln. 'I know all about trees by right of being a backwoodsman. I'll show you the difference between spruce, pine, and cedar and this shred of green which is neither one nor the other but a sort of illegitimate cypress.' "He then proceeded to gather specimens of each and explain the distinctive forms of foliage belonging to every species. 'Trees,' he said, 'are as deceptive in their likeness to one another as are certain classes of men among whom none but a physiognomist's eye can detect dissimilar moral features until events have developed them. Do you know, it would be a good thing if, among all the schools proposed, we could have a school of events? Trees can be tried and an analysis of their strength obtained with far less expense to life and human interests than man's can be. What I say now is a mere whimsy, you know, but when I speak of a school of events, I mean one in which students might pass through mimic vicissitudes and events that would bring out their powers. Thus one could se- lect from the graduates an invincible soldier equal to any position with no such word as fail. A martyr to Right could be selected ready to give up life in the cause, a politician too cunning to be outwitted, and so on. There is no more dangerous or expensive experiment than that which consists in trying a man.' "And then he went on to speak of General McClellan's failure and the consequent awful losses. Yet he could not speak harshly of his beloved soldier. He said: 'Even his failings lean to virtue's side. A keen sense of the genius in another and a reverence for it that forced expression was out of place at Seven Oaks, as beautiful 586 LINCOLN TALKS things will sometimes be. He was lost in admiration of General Lee and, filled with that feeling, forbore to conquer him! The quality that would prove noble generosity in a historian does not fit the soldier. Another instance of the necessity of my suggestion being carried into effect,' he added, smiling." —Noah Brooks. TREES Noah Brooks, a newspaperman, frequently accompanied the President on his rides around Washington. Lincoln liked to get away from his guards and amble quietly through the woods. One afternoon, when the two men were alone in a forest on the Vir- ginia side of the Potomac, Lincoln pointed out a tree that was being killed by a vine which covered its trunk. "That's very beautiful," remarked the President, "but it's like certain habits of men. It decorates the ruin it makes." On another day Brooks found Lincoln alone in these same woods. He was standing on the stump of a tree, the better to view the scenery. He called Brooks's attention to some of the more subtle aspects of the landscape; then he said: "I like trees best when they're not in leaf and you can study their anatomy. Look at the delicate firm outline of that leafless tree against the skyline. And see!"— pointing to the network of shadows cast by the branches on the snow— "that's the profile of the tree." The memory of this silhouette on the snow remained with Lin- coln, for the next day, when he was having a discussion with some- one about the difference between character and reputation, he said in Brooks's hearing: "Perhaps a man's character is like the shadow it casts. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." —Noah Brooks. SYMPATHY One day, when his anteroom was crowded with men and women seeking admission to his presence and he was unusually perplexed by official problems, a friend remarked: FATHER ABRAHAM 587 "Mr. President, you had better send that throng away. You are too tired to see any more people this afternoon. Have them sent away, for you will wear yourself out listening to them." "They don't want much, and they get very little," he replied. "Each one considers his business of great importance, and I must gratify them. I know how I would feel if I were in their place." -W. O. Stoddard. CUTTING RED TAPE I dropped in upon Mr. Lincoln on Monday last, and found him busily engaged in counting greenbacks. "This, sir," said he, "is something out of my usual line; but a President of the United States has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution or Acts of Congress; this is one of them. This money belongs to a poor Negro, who is a porter in the Treasury Department, and who is at present very sick with the small-pox. He is now in the hospi- tal and could not draw his pay, because he could not sign his name. I have been at considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty and get it for him; and have at length succeeded in cutting red tape, as you newspaper men say. I am now dividing the money, and putting by a portion, labeled, in an envelope, with my own hands, accord- ing to his wish." — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. MISSIONARY MONEY One time when the President was visiting at Julia's home, Julia was counting the money in her missionary box. Mr. Lincoln asked: "What are you doing over there?" "I'm counting my missionary money, Uncle Abe," replied Julia. Mr. Lincoln put his hand in his pocket and pulled out something and held it toward Julia. Julia drew back her box. "Oh, no, I can't take that, Uncle Abe," she said earnestly. "I have to earn all the money I put in this box." The next day, when he was ready to start for the train, he said to Julia: "I wonder if you couldn't walk down to the depot with 588 LINCOLN TALKS me, Julia?" As they started down the street together, Abraham Lincoln shifted his valise to the other hand. It was an old-fashioned valise with two handles. "Do you suppose," he said, "that you could help me carry my valise? It's pretty heavy." Julia took hold of one of the handles, and they carried it be- tween them all the way to the depot, talking gaily as they went. At the depot the President pulled a shining coin out of his pocket. "There, Julia," he said, "now, you've earned your missionary money." The next Sunday, at Sunday school, the missionary boxes were opened. "How much money did you have in your missionary box, Julia?" asked the superintendent. "Eighty-two cents," answered the little girl, without any hesi- tation. "Are you sure that was all you had? Where did this come from?" she was asked, and she saw the bright penny that the President had given her. "Oh, that's the money Uncle Abe gave me!" she answered eagerly. "I earned it helping him carry his valise." The shining coin was a five-dollar gold piece. —Youth's Companion. TEMPTATION I was eight years old when my father took me with him to Wash- ington. We were walking on the street when a tall, thin man with very long legs and loose clothes, and a frowning, wrinkled face, came striding toward us. His eyes were fixed on the pavement; but I was more interested in watching a ragged little urchin between us, standing barefooted on the curb, his dirty hands clutched be- hind him, his lips twisting, and his big eyes fixed on a pile of oranges, in a vender's cart. The tall man passed the boy at the same time we did. He stopped suddenly, plunged a hand into his pocket, bought a big orange, gave it to the boy, and went on. The boy was grinning and had already set his teeth in the orange, FATHER ABRAHAM 589 much to my envy, when my father asked him if he knew who gave it to him. He shook his head, his teeth going deeper into the orange. "That was President Lincoln, lad," my father said. "Hurry and thank him." The boy ran, caught the flopping coat, and as the stern face turned sharply, he called: "Thank you, Mr. President Lincoln!" Suddenly the face was transformed as I have never seen a face since then. A beautiful smile covered it. "You're welcome, boy. You wanted to steal it while the fellow wasn't looking, didn't you? But you wouldn't because it wasn't honest. That's the right way. I wish some men I know were like you." -H. N. B. BURDEN He asked me if the masses of the people in Ohio held him in any way personally responsible for the loss of their friends in the army. "It is a good thing for individuals," he said, "that there's a Gov- ernment to shove over their acts upon. No man's shoulders are broad enough to bear what must be." —David R. Locke. TEARS I called at the White House to see the President on a pressing matter of business, and as we entered we remarked the President standing before a window, looking out across the Potomac. He did not move till we approached very closely, when he turned round abruptly and advanced towards us, extending his hand. "Ex- cuse me," he said, "but I cannot talk." The President burst into tears, and concealed his face in his handkerchief. He walked up and down the room for some moments, and we stepped aside in silence, not a little moved at such an unusual spectacle, in such a man, in such a place. After composing himself somewhat, the President took his seat and desired us to approach. "I will make 590 LINCOLN TALKS no apology, gentlemen," said the President, "for my weakness; but I knew Ellsworth well, and held him in great regard. Just as you entered the room, Captain Fox left me, after giving me the painful details of Ellsworth's unfortunate death. The event was so unexpected, and the recital so touching, that it quite unmanned me." The President here made a violent effort to restrain his emotions, and after a pause he proceeded, with a tremulous voice, to give us the incident of the tragedy that had occurred. "Poor fellow," re- peated the President, as he closed his relation, "it was undoubtedly an act of rashness but it only shows the heroic spirit that animates our soldiers, from high to low, in this righteous cause of ours. Yet who can restrain their grief to see them fall in such a way as this, not by the fortunes of war, but by the hands of an assassin?" Towards the close of his remarks he added: "There is one fact that has reached me, which is a great consolation to my heart, and quite a relief after this melancholy affair. I learn from several per- sons that, when the Stars and Stripes was raised again in Alex- andria, many of the people of the town actually wept for joy, and manifested the liveliest gratification of seeing this familiar and be- loved emblem once more floating above them. This is another proof that all the South is not Secessionist; and it is my earnest hope that as we advance we shall find as many friends as foes." —New York Herald, May 31, 1861. INSURED MAIL A. Couch, whose husband joined the Union army in Kentucky, came North with her family of little children to escape the perse- cution of her neighbors, and settled as near neighbor to my home. She had little education and called on her neighbors to do her writ- ing. At one time her husband had sent her $5.00 in a letter which she never received, so she asked a neighbor to write President Lin- coln about it, and a few days later she received an answer from Mr. Lincoln telling her that the only way to trace the letter was FATHER ABRAHAM 59I through the Post Office Department, and as the money had not been sent by registered mail it was hardly likely that she could ever recover it. So in order to insure her of not losing this much-needed money, he just enclosed $5.00. -H. N. B. CONSOLATION After the terribly destructive battles between Grant and Lee in the Wilderness, after days of dreadful slaughter, the lines of ambulances conveying the wounded from the steamers on the Potomac to the great field hospitals on the heights around Wash- ington would be continuous— one unbroken line from the wharf to the hospital. At such a time I have seen the President in his carriage, driving slowly along the line, and he looked like one who had lost the dearest members of his family. On one such occasion, meeting me, he stopped and said: "I cannot bear this; this suffer- ing, this loss of life— is dreadful." I recalled to him the line from a letter he had years before written to a friend whose great sor- row he had sought to console. Reminding him of the incident, I asked him: "Do you remember writing to your suffering friend these words: 'And this too shall pass away, never fear. Victory will come'?" —New York Daily Tribune, 1896. KITTENS The day on which Grant's army began the final advance, the President sat in a small telegraph office at City Point, receiving tele- grams and examining a pocket chart. Three little kittens were run- ning about the hut, in which was the office. The President of the nation whose fate was in the scales picked up the kittens, placed them on the table, and said: "You poor, little miserable creatures; what brought you into this camp of warriors? Where is your mother?" "The mother is dead," answered the colonel in charge. "Then she can't grieve for them," said the President with a sigh. 592 LINCOLN TALKS "Many a poor mother is grieving for a son who has fallen in bat- tle. Ah, kitties, thank God you are cats, and can't understand this terrible strife. There, now, go, my little friends," wiping the dirt from their eyes with a handkerchief; "that is all I can do for you. Colonel, get them good milk, and don't let them starve; there is too much starving going on in this land, anyhow; let us mitigate it when we can." —Admiral David D. Porter. ON QUARRELING In a letter of censure to a young officer accused of quarreling with another, President Lincoln wrote: "The advice of a father to his son, 'Beware of entrance to k quarrel, but, being in, bear it that the opposed may beware of thee,' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right, and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." — Nicolay and Hay. SWIFT CHANGE A splendidly dressed, society-stamped man, with some sort of proposition entirely unconnected with governmental affairs, be- sought Lincoln's favor and the use of his name. The President patiently heard him, but demurred from giving his name, telling the man if he had a good plan he should work it himself. The caller responded that his age, sixty, and his being unknown were against him, but if the President would permit him to use his name to advance and commend the enterprise it would go. "No, no!" thundered Lincoln, rising. "I'll have nothing to do with the thing, nor with any man who comes with such a degrad- FATHER ABRAHAM 593 ing proposition. What do you take the President of the United States to be— a commission broker? You have come to the wrong place, and for you and for every other one who comes for such a purpose there is the door!" A white-haired old father with a shy, bashful, but undeniably pretty daughter, was next in line, and stepped forward with a rather frightened look after hearing this outburst. The gentleman said he had no business to transact but simply to pay his respects and to present his daughter, who had greatly desired to meet the President before leaving Washington. Instantly Lincoln was an- other man. His face lighted with a smile, and, greeting them cordially, he quickly made them feel as though they had been ac- quainted for years, and stood for some time holding a hand of each of them and chatting most delightfully. He detained them with his own interested manner long after they thought of with- drawing, and then showed how mentally alert to little things he kept himself by courteously leading them to a private outlet of the crowd in the antechamber, remarking as he did so: "This will certainly be more agreeable to the young lady." —Mrs. C. Van Santvoord. SENATOR BAKER A delegation from a distant State waited on Lincoln with a written protest against certain appointments. The paper con- tained some reflections upon the character of Senator Baker, Lin- coln's old and beloved friend. With great dignity, the President said: "This is my paper which you have given me?" Assured that it was, he added: "To do with as I please?" "Certainly, Mr. President." Lincoln stooped to the fireplace behind him, laid it on the burn- ing coals, turned, and said: "Good day, gentlemen." —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. 594 LINCOLN TALKS HAY One day, when the vain boasting of a certain general was the subject of discussion, Lincoln was reminded of a farmer out in Illinois who was in the habit of bragging about everything he did and had and saw, and particularly about his crops. While driving along the road during the haying season, he noticed one of his neighbors hauling a load of hay into his barn. He could not resist the opportunity, and commenced to brag about the size of his hay crop, which, as usual, he asserted to be larger and better than any ever before known in the country. After he had finished, he asked what kind of crop his neighbor had put in. "The biggest crop you ever see!" was the prompt reply. "I've got so much hay I don't know what to do with it. I've piled up all I can outdoors, and am going to put the rest of it in the barn." -A. K. McClure. VANITY In an interview between President Lincoln and Petroleum V. Nasby, the name came up of a recently deceased politician of Il- linois whose merit was blemished by great vanity. His funeral was very largely attended. "If General — had known how big a funeral he would have had," said Mr. Lincoln, "he would have died years ago." -A. K. McClure. TACT President Lincoln was confronted once by two rival hatters, who visited him to present him with hats each had made. After the presentation both hatters stood back expectantly awaiting com- ment. Lincoln looked over the two hats very carefully, and then re- marked solemnly: "Gentlemen, they mutually excel each other." —Wilbur Cartwright. FATHER ABRAHAM 595 SOUVENIR When we attended a state reception in the East Room of the White House, Mrs. Cole lost one of her gloves and she happened to mention it in the hearing of President Lincoln. Quickly he turned to her and said: "Never mind, Mrs. Cole. You cannot find your glove in this confusion, but I will have the servants look for it after the guests are gone and if they find it I will keep it for a souvenir." —Sen. Cornelius Cole. PLOWING Lincoln with Tad and troopers on the way to Soldiers' Home, during the summer of 1864, stopped long enough for a trooper to climb a tree and get persimmons for Tad. Lincoln noted that near by were men plowing; he remarked: "I hope to see the day when our Western prairies will be plowed by steam, and I believe it will be done. I have always felt a great interest in that subject." —Lieut. George C. Ashmun. AMBASSADOR Lord Lyons, Queen Victoria's ambassador at Washington, a bachelor by the way, requested an audience of Mr. Lincoln, that he might present an important document in person. He was re- ceived at the White House. "May it please Your Excellency," said Lord Lyons, "I hold in my hand an autograph letter from my royal mistress, Queen Vic- toria, which I have been commanded to present to Your Excel- lency. In it she informs Your Excellency that her son, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, is about to contract a matrimonial alliance with Her Royal Highness the Princess Alexandra of Den- mark." After continuing in this strain for a few minutes, Lord Lyons tendered the letter to the President and awaited his reply. It was: "Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise." —Seward. 596 LINCOLN TALKS OFFICE HOURS President Lincoln was passing down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington one day, when a man came running after him, hailed him, and thrust a bundle of papers in his hands. It angered him not a little, and he pitched the papers back, say- ing: "I'm not going to open shop here." -A. K. McClure. MISNAMED "What are you?" said Lincoln, to a man dressed in fustian, who had rudely accosted him in the streets of Washington. "I am a civil engineer," was the reply. "Then," said the President, "you are like the war now raging, sadly misnamed, for there is nothing civil about you." —Legacy of Fun. SHAKESPEARE "It matters not to me," he said one day, "whether Shakespeare be well or ill acted; with him, the thought suffices." — M. Laugel, in the Revue des Deux Mondes. POETRY A young poet sent a newly published volume to the President asking his opinion of the poems, to which the kind-hearted Lin- coln replied: "For people who like that sort of thing, that is about the sort of a thing they would like." —Dr. David Starr Jordan. MACBETH At my last interview with Mr. Lincoln, a small dinner party at the Executive Mansion, the President seemed depressed and did not get warmed into his usual humor. The conversation turned mainly upon history and poetry. Mr. Lincoln had a fancy for the weird poems of Ossian, and recited snatches from one of the FATHER ABRAHAM 597 wars of Fingal. He quoted from Macbeth, which was a great favor- ite with him, from the lines commencing: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly!" —Noah Brooks. COMMANDMENT Abe Lincoln was shown a picture done by a very indifferent hand, and asked to give an opinion of it. "Why," said the Presi- dent, "the painter is a very good painter, and observes the Lord's commandments." "What do you mean by that, Mr. Lincoln?" said a well-known member of the Senate, who was standing by. "Why, I think," answered Abraham, "that he hath not made to himself the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." —Thomas F. Pendel. FLATTERY A friend of mine in New York City asked me by letter to obtain for him a good picture of Mr. Lincoln with his autograph upon it, so I got a couple of photographs recently taken of him and one evening handed them to him, repeating the request of my friend and remarking that I supposed he was frequently annoyed by similar applications. He said: "Well, I suppose you know that men will stand a good deal when they are flattered a little." I smiled doubtfully, and he said: "You haven't learned that yet? Well, you needn't remain any longer in ignorance of it, because it's so." —Albert Brown Chandler. BEAUTY The day following the adjournment of the Baltimore Conven- tion, at which President Lincoln was renominated, various politi- cal organizations called to pay their respects to the President. While the Philadelphia delegation was being presented, the chair- man of that body, in introducing one of the members, said: 598 LINCOLN TALKS "Mr. President, this is Mr. S., of the second district of our State —a most active and earnest friend of yours and the cause. He has, among other things, been good enough to paint, and present to our league rooms, a most beautiful portrait of yourself." President Lincoln took the gentleman's hand in his, and shaking it cordially said, with a merry voice: "I presume,, sir, in painting your beautiful portrait, you took your idea of me from my prin- ciples and not from my person." —Carpenter. LOOKS To a lady who came from Baltimore just to look at him, he said: "Well, in the matter of looking at one another ... I have alto- gether the advantage." —Carl Russel Fish. PORTRAIT I went in and said: "Mr. President, there is an artist out there who has a painting he wants you to see." He replied: "Fetch him in." The artist brought it in and waited for the President to speak. The President looked at the picture for some time; then, with considerable humor in his eye, he said to the artist: "Why, yes, that is a very good picture of me, and do you know why?" The artist was so confused he could not reply. "Well," continued Mr. Lincoln, "I'll tell you why it is the best picture of me; it is the ugliest." —Thomas F. Pendel. CHARACTER STUDY As I came up to the railing in front of him, he was reading a paper that had just been presented to him by a man who sat in the chair opposite him and who seemed, by his restlessness and his unsteady eyes, to be of a nervous disposition, or under great excitement. Mr. Lincoln, still holding the paper up and without movement of any kind, paused and, raising his eyes, looked for a long time FATHER ABRAHAM 599 at this man's face and seemed to be looking down into his very soul. Then, resuming his reading for a few moments, he again paused and cast the same piercing look upon his visitor. Suddenly, without warning, he dropped the paper and, stretch- ing out his long arm, he pointed his finger directly in the face of his vis-a-vis and said: "What's the matter with you?" The man stammered and finally replied: "Nothing." "Yes, there is," said Lincoln. "You can't look me in the face! You have not looked me in the face since you sat there! Even now you are looking out that window and cannot look me in the eye!" Then, flinging the paper in the man's lap, he cried: "Take it back! There is something wrong about this! I will have nothing to do with it!" -A. K. McClure. PROMISE A gentleman who visited President Lincoln, in order to induce one of Mr. Lincoln's boys to sit on his lap, offered to give the boy a charm which he wore on his watch-chain. The boy climbed into his lap. Finally the gentleman arose to go, when Mr. Lincoln said to him: "Are you going to keep your promise to my boy?" "What promise?" said the visitor. "You said you would give him that charm." "Oh, I could not," said the visitor. "It is not only valuable, but I prize it as an heirloom." "Give it to him," said Mr. Lincoln sternly. "I would not want him to know that I entertained one who had no regard for his word." The gentleman colored, undid the charm, and handed it to the boy. -H. N. B. LIAR "He's the biggest liar in Washington," said Lincoln, referring to a then well-known lawyer. "Reminds me of an old fisherman who got a reputation for stretching the truth. 600 LINCOLN TALKS "He got a pair of scales and insisted on weighing each fish he caught before witnesses. One day a doctor borrowed the scales to weigh a new baby. The baby weighed forty-seven pounds." -Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell. POTATO CURE Lincoln used to joke me about my superstitions. I carried, you know, a rabbit's foot for luck. "Look at this," he said one day, and he took from his pocket a potato. "What's that for?" I asked. "For rheumatism," he replied. "I haven't had a twinge of rheuma- tism since I began carrying it." "Wonderful!" "Yes," said Lincoln, with his whimsical smile, "and still more wonderful is the fact that it's retroactive, too; for I never had a twinge before I began carrying it, either." -H. N. B. POLE At a levee the Russian Ambassador stood talking to the Presi- dent when the President asked him this question: "Would you have taken me for an American if you had met me anywhere else than in this country?" "No," said the distinguished Muscovite, who, like Lincoln, was a bit of a wag, "I should have taken you for a Pole." "So I am," exclaimed the President, straightening himself up to his full attitude, "and a Liberty Pole at that." —Legacy of Fun. SHRUNK "Can you remember any of his jokes?" I asked. Old Sam filled his pipe again and smoked awhile, trying to remember. "Abe cut a cur'ous figger on his hossback rides araoun' our camp. Tall hat, long black coat, an' his long legs hangin' daown below the hoss's FATHER ABRAHAM 6oi belly— in long sterrup straps. Jest as solemn as a jedge, an' always a-jokin'. One day he come along an' we seen his pants was 'way up short, showin' his under drawers. We all sal-uted as usual, and he waved back a salute— I see him now like it was yesterday! — one of th' boys sez: 'Abe, what's the matter yer pants? They's all shortened up on yer!' "Abe sez: 'They're woolen pants an' Mammy (th' White House laundress) has jest washed 'em an' they're shrunk some. Thet's th' way some of us comes outer th' wash— shorter than they'd orter be— an' thet's me, I guess.' " -H. N. B. THE IRISH A lieutenant told the President that of all the men that composed his regiment, the Irish gave him the greatest amount of uneasi- ness. "Sir," was Lincoln's reply, "our enemies, the rebels, make the same complaint." —Legacy of Fun. FIT On a certain evening, Lincoln left his stovepipe hat on a chair in Stanton's reception room. On his return, a very fat woman rose from the place to bow to the President. Lincoln returned the bow, then, walking behind her, picked up the remains of his hat and said, shaking his head sadly: "Madam, I could have told you that my hat wouldn't fit you before you tried it on!" —David Homer Bates. PATENTS Lincoln then told two stories both relating to applications for letters patent. The first device was called a "hen walker," was in- tended to prevent hens from scratching up the garden, and con- sisted of a movable brace attached to the hen's legs, so that at each scratch the hen was propelled forward and so by succession of scratches all the way out of the garden. The other device was called a "double-back-action hen persuader," which was so adjusted un- 602 LINCOLN TALKS der the hen's nest that as each egg was laid, it fell through a trap door out of sight of the author, who would then be persuaded to lay another egg. —Smith Stimmel. DANCING A well-dressed woman passed through the hospital distributing tracts. One patient picked up with languid hand one of the leaflets she dropped upon his cot and began to laugh. Mr. Lincoln ex- postulated with him. "She means well," he said, "and it is hardly fair to laugh at her gift." "I can't help it, Mr. President," said the soldier. "She has given me a tract on 'The Sin of Dancing,' and both my legs were shot off." —Noah Brooks. ENGINE As Lincoln was visiting the army and was reviewing General O. O. Howard's command, suddenly we saw a little engine, named the "Flying Dutchman," fly past us on a railroad track. Mr. Lin- coln, seeing it and hearing a shrill wild scream from its saluting whistle, laughed aloud. "They ought to call that thing 'The Skeared Virginian'!" he said. -Gen. O. O. Howard. IMPOUNDED President Lincoln once told the following story of Colonel W., who had been elected to the Legislature, and had also been Judge of the County Court. His elevation, however, had made him some- what pompous and he became very fond of using big words. On his farm he had a very large and mischievous ox, called "Big Brin- dle," which very frequently broke down his neighbors' fences, much to the colonel's annoyance. One morning after breakfast, in the presence of Lincoln, who had stayed with him over night, and who was on his way to town, he called his overseer and said to him: FATHER ABRAHAM 603 "Mr. Allen, I desire you to impound Big Brindle, in order that I may hear no animadversions on his eternal depredations." Allen bowed and walked off, sorely puzzled to know what the colonel wanted him to do. He went to his wife and asked her what the colonel meant by telling him to impound the ox. "Why, he meant to tell you to put him in a pen," said she. Allen left to perform the feat, for it was no inconsiderable one, as the animal was wild and vicious, but, after a great deal of trouble and vexation, succeeded. "Well," said he, wiping the perspiration from his brow and soliloquizing, "this is impounding, is it?" The next day the colonel gave a dinner party, and as he was not aristocratic, Allen, the overseer, sat down with the company. After the second or third glass was discussed, the colonel turned to the overseer and said: "Eh, Mr. Allen, did you impound Big Brindle, sir?" Allen straightened himself and, looking around at the company, replied: "Yes, I did, sir; but Old Brindle transcended the impanel of the impound, and scatterlophisticated all over the equanimity of the forest." The company burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, at which the colonel's face reddened with discomfiture. "What do you mean by that, sir?" demanded the colonel. "Why, I mean, Colonel," replied Allen, "that Old Brindle, being prognosticated with an idea of the cholera, ripped and teared, snorted and pawed dirt, jumped the fence, tuck to the woods, and would not be impounded nohow." -A. K. McClure. DISADVANTAGES OF RELIGION "Colonel Howard of a Maine regiment, now general, true to his conscience as a Christian soldier, tried to inspire some religion in his regiment. He accosted one of the teamsters. 'My friend,' he said, 'do you know you are in a very dangerous business? You have 604 LINCOLN TALKS a family at home; you may be killed. Don't you think you should be giving some consideration to your soul's salvation?' " 'Well, Colonel, I do think about it,' he replied. 'I know, too, that I ought to get religion.' " 'Well, why don't you?' asked the colonel. " 'Colonel,' answered the teamster. 'If I get religion, who in hell is going to drive these mules?' " — Capt. William A. Howard. SHAGGY After a hearty laugh at what he called this "direct way of put- ting the case," the President said: "The story that suggests to me is about a lady in Philadelphia who had a pet poodle dog, which mysteriously disappeared. Rewards were offered for him, and a great to-do made without effect. Some weeks passed, and all hope of the favorite's return had been given up, when a servant brought him in one day, in the filthiest condition imaginable. The lady was overjoyed to see her pet again, but horrified at his appearance. 'Where did you find him?' she exclaimed. 'Oh,' replied the man, very unconcernedly, 'a Negro down the street had him tied to the end of a pole, swabbing windows.' " —Carpenter. LONG SPEECH The President being recently importuned to deliver a set speech for a certain specified purpose said that the request reminded him of an old story. It was on one of those memorable days when the Kansas-Ne- braska bill was being debated. Senator Seward tapped Douglas on the shoulder, and whispered in his ear that he had some Bourbon in his (the Senator's) private room which was twenty years old, and upon it he desired to get Douglas's judgment. The "little giant" de- clined, stating that he meant to speak in a few minutes, and wished his brain unclouded by the fumes of liquor. At the conclusion of his speech Douglas sank down exhausted in his chair, hardly conscious FATHER ABRAHAM 6o$ of the congratulations of those who flocked around him. At this juncture Seward seized the orator's arm, and bore him off to the Senatorial sanctum. "Here's the Bourbon, Douglas," said Seward; "try some— it's sixty years old." "Seward," remarked Douglas, "I have made today the longest speech ever delivered; history has no parallel for it." "How is that?" rejoined Seward. "You spoke about two hours only!" "Don't you recollect that a moment before I obtained the floor you invited me to partake of some Bourbon twenty years old, and now immediately after closing my remarks, you extend to me some of the same liquor, with the assertion that it is sixty years old! A forty-year speech was never delivered before." —Seward. FRIEND OF WEBSTER I went on to see him, and told him that I'd been an intimate personal friend of Daniel Webster; that I had talked with him so much on the affairs of the country that I felt perfectly competent to tell him what Mr. Webster would advise in the present crisis; and thereupon I talked to Mr. Lincoln for two solid hours, telling him just what he should do and what he should not do; and would you believe it, sir, when I got through, all Mr. Lincoln said was, as he clapped his hand on my leg: "Mr. Harvey, what tremendous great calves you have got!" — Depew. LADY LECTURER Meeting him going down the stairway in the evening, after a greeting with his usual kindness, he asked me if I could not return next morning. Of course I would. "I would not think of stopping you as you are going out." "Yes," said he, "I would not like to stop now, if you can come back another time conveniently. I am just going to hear a pullet 606 LINCOLN TALKS crow." And, with his silvery ringing laugh, added: "I am going to hear Miss — lecture." —George H. Yeaman. EXPANSION On one occasion, when a crowd of citizens and soldiers were attending a reception and surging through the White House, a gentleman said to him: "Mr. President, you must diminish the num- ber of your friends, or Congress will have to enlarge this edifice." "Well," promptly replied Mr. Lincoln, "I have no idea of diminishing the number of my friends; but the only question with me now is whether it will be best to have the building stretched or split." -H. N. B. PERFECT WOMAN The President told of a Southern Illinois preacher who, in the course of his sermon, asserted that the Saviour was the only perfect man who had ever appeared in this world, also that there was no record in the Bible or elsewhere of any perfect woman having lived on the earth. Whereupon there arose in the rear of the church a persecuted-looking personage who, the parson having stopped speaking, said: "I know a perfect woman and I've heard of her every day for the last six years." "Who was she?" asked the minister. "My husband's first wife." —James Grant Wilson. COINCIDENCE The President, looking in at the telegraph-room in the White House, happened to find Major Eckert in, counting greenbacks. So he said jokingly: "I believe you never come to business now but to handle money!" FATHER ABRAHAM 607 The officer pleaded that it was a mere coincidence, and instanced a story in point. "Very good!" returned Lincoln. "That is very like a story I heard of a man driving about the country in an open buggy, caught at night by a pouring rain. Passing a farmhouse, a man, apparently struggling with the effects of whisky, thrust his head out of a window, and shouted loudly: 'Hello!' "The traveler stopped, for all of his hurry for shelter, and asked what was wanted. 'Nothing of you!' was the blunt reply. " 'Well, what in the infernals are you shouting "Hello" for when people are passing?' angrily asked the traveler. " 'Well, what in the infernals are you passing for when people are shouting "Hello"?' " — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. SECRET OF SUCCESS "Every man has his own peculiar and particular way of getting at and doing things," said President Lincoln one day, "and he is often criticized because that way is not the one adopted by others. The great idea is to accomplish what you set out to do. "That reminds me of a fellow out in Illinois who had better luck in getting prairie chickens than anyone in the neighborhood. He had a rusty old gun no other man dared to handle; he never seemed to exert himself, being listless and indifferent when out after game, but he always brought home all the chickens he could carry, while some of the others, with their finely trained dogs and latest im- proved fowling-pieces, came home alone. " 'How is it, Jake,' inquired one sportsman, who, although a good shot, and knew something about hunting, was often unfortu- nate, 'that you never come home without a lot of birds?' "Jake grinned, half closed his eyes, and replied: 'Oh, I don't know that there's anything queer about it. I jes' go ahead an' git 608 LINCOLN TALKS " 'Yes, I know you do; but how do you do it?' " 'You'll tell.' " 'Honest, Jake, I won't say a word. Hope to drop dead this minute.' " 'Never say nothing if I tell you?' " 'Cross my heart three times.' "Jake put his mouth close to the ear of his eager questioner, and said, in a whisper: 'All you got to do is jes' to hide in a fence corner an' make a noise like a turnip. That'll bring the chickens every time.' " -A. K. McClure. PROTECTION "Friend Lincoln," said a Western farmer, one day, to the Presi- dent, "thee knows almost everything. Can thee tell me how I am to preserve my small beer in the back yard? My neighbors are often tapping it of nights." "Put a barrel of old Madeira by the side of it. Let the rogues but get a taste of that, and I warrant they'll never touch your small beer any more." —Legacy of Fun. COLUMBUS Lincoln used to tell a story about a school teacher who said to his pupils one day: "If each child will bring an egg to school tomorrow I will show you how Christopher Columbus made the egg stand on end. Those who cannot bring an egg kindly bring a piece of ham." — Pres. Batsell Baxter, Abilene College. HEAT "It's very hot in the South, Mr. Lincoln, is it not?" said a per- sonal friend to Lincoln, on his return from a visit to an important FATHER ABRAHAM 609 station of the Federal army. "Very," was the ready answer. "I saw a woman do her ironing with no other warming power save that of the sunshine, and as I came away she was hanging her kettle out of the window to get her tea ready." —Legacy of Fun. NATIVE COSTUME "On account of this sectional warfare," Senator Mason, of Vir- ginia, announced his resolve to wear homespun, and dispense with Yankee manufactures altogether. That made Lincoln laugh, and say: "To carry out his idea, he ought to go barefoot. If that's the plan, they should begin at the foundation and adopt the well- known Georgia colonel's uniform— a shirt-collar and a pair of spurs!" —Anthony Gross; Henry L. Williams. STRONG Mr. Lincoln was walking up Pennsylvania Avenue the other day, relating "a little story" to Secretary Seward, when the latter called his attention to a new sign bearing the name of "T. R. Strong." "Ha!" says Old Abe, his countenance lighting up, "T. R. Strong, but coffee are stronger." —Seward. SELF-PRESERVATION "Upon the hurricane-deck of one of our gunboats," said the President, "I saw an elderly darky, with a very philosophical and retrospective cast of countenance, squatted upon his bundle, toast- ing his shins against the chimney, and apparently plunged into a state of profound meditation. "I made some inquiries, and found that he had been with the Ninth Illinois Infantry at Fort Donelson, and began to ask him some questions about the capture of the place. " 'Were you in the fight?' 6lO LINCOLN TALKS " 'Had a little taste of it, sa.' " 'Stood your ground, did you?' " 'No, sa, I runs.' " 'Run at the first fire, did you?' " 'Yes, sa, and would hab run soona, had I knowed it war comin7 , " 'Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage.' " 'Dat isn't in my line, sa— cookin's my profeshun.' " 'Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?' " 'Reputation's nuffin to me by de side ob life.' " 'Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?' " 'It's worth more to me, sa.' " 'Then you must value it very highly?' " 'Yes, sa, I does, more dan all dis wuld, more dan a million ob dollars, sa, for what would dat be wuth to a man wid de bref out ob him? Self-preserbation am de fust law wid me.' " 'But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?' " 'Different men set different values on their lives; mine is not in de market.' " 'But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you died for your country." " 'Dat no satisfaction when feelin's gone.' " 'Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?' " 'Nuffin whatever, sa— I regard them as among the vanities.' " 'If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the Government without resistance.' " 'Yes, sa, dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn't put my life in de scale 'g'inst any gobernment dat eber existed, for no gobernment could replace de loss to me.' " 'Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been killed?' " 'Maybe not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sojers, let alone a dead nigga— but I'd a missed myse'f , and dat was de p'int wid me.' " -R. D. Wordsworth. FATHER ABRAHAM 6ll CARDING A man from New York told of an interview he had with the President. "How are you?" said he. "I saw your card, but did not see you. I was glad, however, that you carded me, and I was re- minded of an anecdote of Mr. Whittlesey. When Mr. Cox, then a young man, first came here, Mr. Whittlesey said to him: 'Sir, have you carded the Senators?' 'No sir; I thought I would curry favor first and then comb them.' 'It is no joking matter, sir,' said Mr. Whittlesey, seriously. 'It is your duty to card the Senators, sir; and it is customary, I believe, to card the Cabinet also, and you ought to do it, sir. But,' he added, after a moment's thought, 'I think I am wrong; the Cabinet may card you.' " -S. S. Cox. RETAIL Lincoln very seldom invented a story. Once he said to me: "You speak of Lincoln stories. I don't think that is a correct phrase. I don't make the stories mine by telling them. I am only a retail dealer." —Noah Brooks. HELL Lincoln was very fond of repeating the following: "I knew an old preacher, out West, who, on a very cold day, when describing hell, said it was an awful place and that the cold was unbearable. One of his congregation, at the close of the sermon, took upon him- self to ask the preacher why he had described hell as being cold, when all eminent divines said it was the very reverse. 'Oh, sir,' said the preacher, 'I had good reason, for if I had preached the reverse, I should have had them running away to warm them- selves.' " —Legacy of Fun. 6l2 LINCOLN TALKS AT ANTIETAM It seems he had accompanied a young lady to one of the hos- pitals in the capital where the sympathizing creature, as in duty bound, became interested in a wounded soldier. To all her inquiries as to the location of the wound, however, she could get only one reply, thus: "My good fellow where were you hit!" "At Antie- tam." "Yes, but where did the bullet strike you?" "At Antietam." "But where did it hit you?" "At Antietam." Becoming discour- aged, she deputized Uncle Abe to prosecute the inquiry, which he did successfully. Upon his rejoining her, she was more curious than ever, when the President, taking both her hands in his, said in his most impressive style: "My dear girl, the ball that hit him would not have injured you." — Lincolniana. PICKLES When Atlanta was wrecked a large quantity of pickles was, inadvertently, also destroyed. Lincoln said it didn't matter much, as his generals generally contrived to get their men into no end of pickles; but had they desired to retain them, they surely ought to have been preserved. —Legacy of Fun. LAWN I had been stationed at a turnstile gate which led to a cross-cut path to a rear door to the War Department, and my instructions were to the effect that no man should be permitted to enter the field at that point. The path had been generally used, and I was busy in keeping the generals, and colonels, as well as the privates "off the grass." The general officers, as a rule, were polite and pleasant when informed of the new order while some of the small fry were highly indignant. My most distinguished caller was President Lincoln himself. FATHER ABRAHAM 613 When I saw his tall form turning the corner, I knew he would make for the cross-cut and that I was in for it. Mr. Lincoln ap- proached the forbidden gate, I saluted, to which he lifted his hat, and gave me a most pleasant bow. "Charley," he said, "you know me. Please don't see me." "Halt!" I ordered. "Why? What's the trouble?" inquired Mr. Lincoln. I simply pointed to the young grass, just peeping above the ground in the old highway to the War Department. "Oh, I see," laughingly said the President. Then, standing on the sides of both his feet so as to show the great expanse of sole leather beneath, he said: "Well, I guess I am in for it." Again lifting his hat and thanking me for the performance of my duty as a sentry, President Lincoln also went around to the front entrance of Secretary Stanton's headquarters. As he stood at the top of the steps the President turned and once more lifted his hat to me, and do you know that such extreme courtesy from the great war President was worth all of my three years' hardship as a private in the ranks? -W. S. Sumner. BANQUO A man appeared at the landing dressed in gray homespun with a somewhat decayed appearance, and with a staff about six feet long in his hand. It was, in fact, nothing more than a stick taken from a woodpile. It was two and a half inches in diameter, and was not even smoothed at the knots. It was just such a weapon as a man would pick up to kill a mad dog with. "Who are you, and what do you want?" asked the officer of the deck. "You cannot come on board unless you have important business." "I am Duff Green," said the man. "I want to see Abraham Lin- coln, and my business concerns myself alone. You tell Abraham Lincoln Duff Green wants to see him." 614 LINCOLN TALKS The officer came down into the cabin and delivered the message. I arose and said: "I will go up and send him away," but the President said: "Let him come on board. Duff is an old friend of mine, and I would like to talk to him." I then went on deck to have a boat sent for him, and to see what kind of man this was who sent off such arrogant messages to the President of the United States. He stepped into the boat as if it belonged to him; instead of sitting down, he stood up, leaning on his long staff. When he came over the side, he stood on the deck defiantly, looked up at the flag, and scowled, and then, turning to me (whom he knew very well), he said: "I want to see Abraham Lincoln." He paid no courtesy to me or to the quarterdeck. It had been a very long time since he had shaved or cut his hair, and he might have come under the head of "unkempt and not canny." "When you come," I said, "in a respectful manner, the President will see you, but throw away that cord of wood you have in your hand, before entering the President's presence." "How long is it," said he, "since Abraham Lincoln took to aping royalty? Man dressed in brief authority cuts such fantastic capers before high heaven that it makes the angels weep. I can expect airs from a naval officer, but I don't expect to find them in a man with Abraham Lincoln's horse sense." I thought the man crazy, and think so still. "I can't permit you to see the President," I said, "until I receive further instructions, but you can't see him at all until you throw that woodpile over- board." He turned on his heel and tried to throw the stick on shore, but it fell short, and went floating down with the current. "Ah!" he said, "has it come to that? Is he afraid of assassination? Tyrants generally get into that condition." I went down and reported this queer customer to the President, and told him I thought the man crazy, but he said: "Let him come down; he always was a little queer. I shan't mind him." Mr. Duff FATHER ABRAHAM 615 Green was shown into the cabin. The President got up from his chair to receive him, and approaching him, offered him his hand. "No," said Green, with a tragic air, "it is red with blood: I can't touch it. When I knew it, it was an honest hand. It has cut the throats of thousands of my people and their blood, which now lies soaking in the ground, cries aloud to heaven for vengeance. I came to see you, not for old remembrance' sake, but to give you a piece of my opinion. You won't like it, but I don't care, for people don't generally like to have the truth told them. You have come here, protected by your army and navy, to gloat over the ruin and desola- tion you have caused. You are a second Nero, and had you lived in his day you would have fiddled while Rome was burning!" When the fanatic commenced this tirade of abuse, Mr. Lincoln was standing with his hand outstretched, his mouth wreathed with the pleasant smile he almost always wore, and his eyes lighted up as when anything pleased him. He was pleased because he was about to meet an old and esteemed friend and better pleased that he had come to see him of his own accord. Mr. Lincoln gradually withdrew his outstretched hand as Duff Green started on his talk, the smile left his lips as the talker got to the middle of his harangue, and the softness of his eyes faded out. He was another man altogether. Had anyone shut his eyes after Duff Green commenced speak- ing, and opened them when he stopped, he would have seen a per- fect transformation. His slouchy position had disappeared, his mouth was compressed, his eyes were fixed, and he looked four inches taller than usual. Duff Green went on without noticing the change in the Presi- dent's manner and appearance. "You came here," he continued, "to triumph over a poor conquered town, with only women and children in it; whose soldiers have left it, and would rather starve than see your hateful presence here. Those soldiers— and only a handful, at that— who have for four years defied your paid mer- cenaries on these glorious hills, and have taught you to respect 6l6 LINCOLN TALKS the rights of the South. You have given your best blood to conquer them and now you will march back to your demoralized capital, and lay out your wits to win them over so that you can hold this Government in perpetuity. Shame on you! Shame on " Mr. Lincoln could stand it no longer, his coarse hair stood on end, and his nostrils dilated like those of an excited racehorse. He stretched out his long right arm and extended his lean forefinger until it almost touched Duff Green's face. He made one step for- ward to place himself as near as possible to this vituperator, and in a clear cutting voice addressed him. He was really graceful while he was speaking— the grace of one who is expressing his honest convictions. "Stop, you political tramp," he exclaimed, "you the aider and abettor of those who have brought all this ruin on your country, without the courage to risk your person in defense of the principles you profess to espouse. A fellow who stood by to gather up the loaves and fishes, if any should fall to you. A man who had no principles in the North, and who took none South with him. A political hyena who robbed the graves of the dead, and adopted their language as his own! You talk of the North cutting the throats of the Southern people. You have all cut your own throats, and unfortunately have cut many of those of the North. Miserable im- postor, vile intruder, go before I forget myself, and the high posi- tion I hold. Go, I tell you, and don't desecrate this national vessel another minute!" And he made a step toward him. This was something which Duff Green had not calculated upon; he had never seen Abraham Lincoln in anger. His courage failed him, and he turned and fled out of the cabin, and up the cabin stairs as if the avenging angel was after him. He never stopped until he reached the gangway, and there he stood looking at the shore, seemingly measuring the distance, to see if he could swim to the landing. I was close behind him, and when I got on deck, I said to the officer in charge. "Put that man on shore, and if he appears in sight FATHER ABRAHAM 617 of this vessel while we are here, have him sent away with scant ceremony." -New York Daily Tribune, Jan. 1885. ESCORT To the Secretary of War, 1862: "On reflection, I think it will not do, as a rule, for the adjutant general to attend me wherever I go: not that I have any objection to his presence, but that it would be an uncompensated encumbrance both to him and me. When it shall occur to me to go anywhere I wish to be free to go at once, and not to have to notify the adjutant general and wait for him to get ready." — Seitz: Lincoln the Politician. REPAIR Early one morning, one of the President's life-guard tapped on the President's bedroom door. To his surprise he found the Presi- dent of the United States in dishabille and carpet slippers, sewing a button on his trousers. With a twinkle, Mr. Lincoln exclaimed: "All right. Just wait a minute while I repair damages." —Thomas F. Pendel. BOYS On the way they passed a vacant lot where boys were playing ball and the President stopped to watch them. The ball fell close by Mr. Lincoln, who picked it up and threw it back. Then he walked over to the boys, took each one by the hand, and spoke a few words. One of the boys seemed to know him, and they burst out cheering as he turned and left them. "You know, Tisdale," he said with a gleam of fun in his eyes, "I was a boy myself— once. And I enjoy the company of boys." —William H. Tisdale. 6l8 LINCOLN TALKS SUNBURST The second Inauguration Day was amid the usual March weather in the District of Columbia, like the fickle April in unkinder lati- tudes; smile and scowl. But as the President kissed the Book there was a sudden parting of the clouds, and a sunburst broke in all its splendor. The President said next day: "Did you notice the sun- burst? It made me jump!" — L. E. Chittenden. SPELLING On one occasion [in February 1865] I attended a reception at the White House. It was a general reception, open to everybody. The procession of visitors included soldiers and civilians of every rank. Mr. Lincoln was stationed in one of the smaller rooms, and was attended by Judge David Davis. In the same room were a number of handsomely dressed ladies, including Mrs. Lincoln. The visitor was directed by officers first to enter the anteroom, where he gave his name to a lieutenant and was by the lieutenant con- ducted and introduced to Judge Davis, and by Judge Davis to the President. A handshake and a word was all that could be practically extended, and the visitor was expected to move along to the larger East Room. After my presentation and handshake I, in company with a friend, who was familiar with the etiquette of the White House, stepped aside from the line of exit and took my station for a few moments near the group of ladies, in order that I might have an opportunity to observe the President. I stood near enough to hear Mr. Lincoln in conversation with Judge Davis, which neces- sarily was quite desultory. The interruptions were incessant. Now it was: "How do you do, Colonel?" or "My brave boy, I am glad to see you," or some other word of cordial recognition. There was no official starchiness or affectation. I was, in fact, impressed with the lack of conventional tone and bearing. I heard Mr. Lin- coln, in a most unaffected way, and in a tone, if not loud, certainly FATHER ABRAHAM 619 not confined to the judge's hearing, exclaim to Judge Davis: "Judge, I never knew until the other day how to spell the word 'maintenance.' " Then occurred a handshake, or howdy-do, with some visitor. "I always thought it was m-a-i-n, main— t-a-i-n, tain— a-n-c-e, ance— maintainance, but I find that it is m-a-i-n, main— t-e, te— n-a-n-c-e, nance— maintenance." What a spectacle! The President of a great nation at a formal reception, surrounded by many eminent people, statesmen, ministers, scholars, critics, and ultra-fashionable people— by all sorts— who honestly and uncon- cernedly, in the most unconventional way, speaks before all, as it were, of a personal thing illustrative of his own deficiency! —Albert Blair, in A Reporter's Lincoln. GREAT WHITE CHIEF When about twenty Indian chiefs came to the Executive Mansion to treat personally with the Great Father in the adjustment of their affairs, the interpreter said: "Mr. President, the chiefs would be glad to hear you talk." "My red brethren," said Lincoln, "are anxious to be prosperous and have horses and carriages like the palefaces. I propose to tell them how they may get them. "The plan is a simple one. You all have land; we will furnish you with agricultural implements, with which you will turn up the soil by hand if you have not the means to buy an ox, but I think with the aid which you receive from the Government, you might at least purchase one ox to do the plowing for several. You will plant corn, wheat, and potatoes, and with the money for which you will sell these you will be able each to buy an ox for yourself at the end of the first year. At the end of the second year, you will each be able to buy perhaps two oxen, and some sheep and pigs. At the end of the third year, you will probably be in a condition to buy a horse, and in the course of a few years you will thus be the pos- sessor of horses and carriages like ourselves. 620 LINCOLN TALKS "I do not know any other way to get these things," added Lin- coln. "It is the plan we have pursued— at least those of us who have them. You cannot pick them off the trees and they do not fall from the clouds." To change the subject and restore the chiefs to good humor he requested one of the attendants to roll up a large globe of the world which stood in a corner. The President placed his hands on the globe and turned it round, saying: "We palefaces believe the world is round like this." At this point Lincoln caught the inquiring eyes of the Indians fastened like a note of interrogation on the legs of the globe. "Without the legs," continued Lincoln. "We palefaces can get into a big canoe, shoved by steam— here, for instance, at Washing- ton, or Baltimore near by— go round the world, and come back to the place from which we started." They evidently thought that Lincoln exaggerated, especially when he started to tell them about the North Pole, the Torrid Zone, the length and breadth of the United States, and how long it would take a man to walk from one end of it to the other. -Albert Rhod. PRE-EMPTED We always set apart a large chair for the President for daily use when he came to the War Telegraph office. One day he came in alone and walked over to the instrument table and began to write. Almost immediately there was a call at that table, and operatoj Flesher, in answering it, leaned over Mr. Lincoln's shoulder. Turn- ing and smiling, the President said: "Have I hunkered you out oi your chair?" -William B. Wilsc ICE Payne said that he was secreted behind the bushes in front oi the old conservatory, where the Executive Offices now stand, waiting for Lincoln to return from the War Department. There FATHER ABRAHAM 621 had been a light rain and it then got colder and there was a crust of ice so that it crackled under one's foot. He heard footsteps from the direction of the War Department, and when the persons got nearly opposite where he was hiding he saw Lincoln and an- other man coming along the walk, and heard the President say: "Major, spread out, spread out, or we shall break through the ice." — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. IRISH MEDICINE The President relapsed into silence, which I did not interrupt. Then he said: "When the old monks had tired themselves out in fighting the devil, did they not have places to which they retired for rest which were called retreats?" "They did," I answered; "though I understand they were for spiritual rather than bodily recuperation." "I think of making this office one of my retreats," he said. "It is so quiet and restful here. Do you never get discouraged?" "I shall be delighted to have you," I said, ignoring his question. "I only wish I could say of it, as Father Prout sang of the Groves of Blarney: " 'There's gravel-walks there for speculation, And conversation in sweet solitude.' " "Tell me more of that ballad," he exclaimed, cheerily. "I like its jingle. What an Irish conceit that is— 'conversation in sweet soli- tude.' " "I fear I cannot. I must send you the book. I only remember: " 'There's statues gracing this noble place in, All heathen goddesses so fair, Bold Neptune, Plutarch, and Nicodaymus, A-standing naked in the open air.' " "I must have that book tonight," he said. "A good Irish bull is medicine for the blues." — L. E. Chittenden. 622 LINCOLN TALKS BUGGY Lincoln regularly every day went to the War Department to read the dispatches from the front, and he got into the habit of reclining on an old hair-cloth lounge. One evening he got up hur- riedly, and, with the cipher operators for an audience, turned to the light and flicked from his coat lapel a bed bug, and then re- marked: "Well, boys, I have been very fond of that old lounge, but it has become a little buggy. I fear I must stop using it." —David Homer Bates. METALLIC "Financial success," Lincoln once said, "is purely metallic. The man who gains it has four metallic attributes— gold in his palm, silver on his tongue, brass in his face, and iron in his heart." —Benjamin F. Tillman. MILLIONAIRES Referring to the methods of a somewhat notorious millionaire, Lincoln wrote: "Some men seem to think that as long as they keep out of jail they have a sure chance of getting into heaven." —Philadelphia North American. ROSEBUD At one of the stopping places of the train on its way to Gettys- burg, a very beautiful little child, having a bunch of rosebuds in her hand, was lifted up to an open window of the President's car. "Floweth for the President." The President stepped to the window, took the rosebuds, bent down, and kissed the child, saying: "You are a sweet little rosebud yourself. I hope your life will open into perpetual beauty and good- ness." -A. K. McClure. FATHER ABRAHAM 623 BONDS It was in the early days of the war and the Government was in great need of money. Loans had been authorized; the issue of 7.30 notes, 5.20 bonds, and certificates of indebtedness was ordered. A force of twenty-five or thirty, young men mostly, was selected by Secretary Chase to issue the notes and bonds. Our quarters were guarded, overlooking the White House grounds. Nobody was admitted; but one day somebody was ad- mitted, to our surprise and infinite pleasure. The private door was noiselessly opened and, unattended, in walked Abraham Lincoln. Upon entering the room, clad as you see him in some of the best pictures, in his calling clothes, he removed his hat and addressed us in this characteristic fashion: "How are you all today, boys? I hear you are very busy over here, and that means that you are getting money in as well as paying it out. We are very busy over at our house too, but I snatched a few minutes to come over and see you and to leave a little money of our savings in exchange for bonds or notes, which we have great faith in." —New York Sun. GRAMMARIAN Uncle Billy Green, of Illinois, was Lincoln's partner in the gro- cery at Salem, and at night, when the customers were few, he held the grammar while Lincoln recited his lessons. At Lincoln's first inaugural banquet Green sat at the table on the President's left, with the dignified Secretary Seward on his right. Lincoln presented the two men to each other, saying: "Secretary Seward, this is Mr. Green, of Illinois." Seward bowed stiffly, when Lincoln exclaimed: "Oh, get up, Seward, and shake hands with Green; he's the man that taught me my grammar." —Seward. 624 LINCOLN TALKS AUNT SALLY After Lincoln's election to the Presidency an old woman, whom he called "Aunt Sally," came from New Salem to say good-by be- fore he went to Washington. The President-elect was standing in the room placed at his disposal in the old State Capitol talking with two men of national renown when the old woman entered, shy and embarrassed. He saw her at once and walked across the room to meet his old friend. Taking both her hands in his, he led her to the seat of honor and presented his distinguished visitors to her, putting her quite at ease by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a good old friend of mine. She can make the best flapjacks you ever tasted, for she has baked them for me many a time." -H. N. B. COUSIN When I went down to Washington to see him it was about a neighbor that had got into trouble. The folks here sent me to speak to Abe about him. It was durin' the war and thar was a lot o' sol- diers around the White House stickin' their guns in everybody's face. I went to a door— thar's only one, though I looked 'round fur a back door, thinkin' to sneak in. A porter stopped, and asked as smart: "Who do you want to see?" "I want to see Abe Lincoln," I says. "You can't see him this time o' day," he says as smart. "You bet I kin," I answered him. "He's not goin' back on Dennis Hanks, his cousin, and the boy he's rassled with, if he is the Presi- dent. I hain't come here from Illinois to be told I can't see Abe Lincoln." He grinned and showed me the office. There was a lot of fellers waitin' but I waded through 'em and opened the door, and thar sot Abe as tail's his own shadder, writin' at an old desk he tuk from Illinois. FATHER ABRAHAM 625 "Hey!" I hollered. "You're a purty President, ain't you? Git up hyur and shake hands. I ain't after no office yit, Abe." "Well, Dennis, is that you? I'm glad you don't want an office; most of them do. You've got a big heart, but no head for an office." Then he run and jist gethered me in to him like they did in the Bible, and so I wept a little so I had to take my bandanner out. He looked kinder tired. When I told him what I wanted he said: "I'm busy today, but I'll get Stanton to fix that up. You go down to the house and Mary will give you something to eat and a shake- down." . I knowed it was too fine for me where Mary was. She was a good woman, but was too highfalutin' for me; so I jist went to a tavern and put up. Next mornin' Abe had a lot of papers for my case and told me to take 'em to Stanton. "Abe," says I, "blamed if I know where the plagueoned place is." So he called a feller and sent the papers, and pretty soon Mr. Stanton come lookin' like a jaybird in a spike-tailed coat, and snarled about them papers, but Abe got time to sign 'em. He acted so ugly that when he went out I said: "Abe, if Fs as big as you I would take that little feller over my knee and spank him." Abe, he laughed and said he guessed Stanton was a bigger man than he was in some respects. I came home then and the next spring Abe was shot. -H. N. B. LOWER CASE When Lincoln's attention was called to the fact that, at one time in his boyhood, he had spelled the name of the Deity with a small "g," he replied: "That reminds me of a little story. It came about that a lot of Confederate mail was captured by the Union forces, and, while it was not exactly the proper thing to do, some of our soldiers opened several letters written by the Southerners at the front to their peo- ple at home. 626 LINCOLN TALKS "In one of these missives the writer, in a postscript, jotted down this assertion: 'We'll lick the Yanks termorrer, if goddlemity spares our lives.' "That fellow was in earnest, too, as the letter was written the day before the second battle of Manassas." — R. D. Wordsworth. GENTLEMAN Abraham Lincoln rode out with one of his aides one day, and in the green lanes of Washington they met a ragged old Negro. The Negro was plodding along in the dusk, but when he heard the horses' hoofs, he looked up, and when he saw who the rider was, off came his ragged old hat, and he bowed. Lincoln raised his long bony hand to his silk hat, bowed gravely, and passed on. "Mr. President," ejaculated the aide, "would you take of! your hat to a ragged old rapscallion like that?" Lincoln smiled. "My friend," he said, "I allow no man to be a greater gentleman than I am." —Guy Richardson. MUSICIAN When the gaunt President took my hand to thank me, he held it in a grip of iron, and when, to accentuate the compliment, mean- ing to give a little extra pressure, he put his left hand over his right, I felt as if my hand was shut in a waffle-iron and I should never straighten it out again. "Music is not much in my line," said the President; "but when you sing you warble yourself into a man's heart. I'd like to hear you sing some more." I thought of that lovely song, "Mary Was a Lassie," so I sang that. Mr. Lincoln said: "I think I might become a musician if I heard you often, but so far I know only two tunes." " 'Hail Columbia'?" I asked. "You know that, I am sure." "Oh, yes; I know that, for I have to stand up and take off my hat." "And the other one?" FATHER ABRAHAM 627 "The other one? Oh, the other one is the other, when I don't stand up." — Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone. lamon's fist Ward Lamon, when Lincoln had appointed him Marshal of the District of Columbia, accidentally found himself in a street fight, and, in restoring peace, he struck one of the belligerents with his fist, a weapon with which he was notoriously familiar. The blow was a harder one than Lamon intended, for the fellow was knocked senseless, taken up unconscious, and lay for some hours on the border of life and death. Lamon was alarmed, and the next morn- ing reported the affair to the President. "I am astonished at you, Ward," said Mr. Lincoln; "you ought to have known better. Hereafter, when you have to hit a man, use a club and not your fist." —Lamon. FRANKIE Frankie dressed in his best and joined the long line of elderly peo- ple passing in one door of the White Flouse and out another, paus- ing briefly to grasp the hand of the nation's Executive. Frankie found himself "sandwiched" between two tall men in the line, and when Mr. Lincoln had grasped the hand of the man ahead of Frankie, and said: "Howdy do," he wondered why the man back of Frankie did not advance to accept his salutation. Mr. Lincoln looked groundward for some sign of an obstruction and, sure enough, that obstruction was Frankie. "Well, well, well," Mr. Lincoln remarked. "I see a little gentle- man here among the grown-ups. What is your name?" "Frank Sheldon, sir." "Howdy do, Frank," said Mr. Lincoln. "Are your folks with you?" "No," replied Frankie, "I came alone, sir." "Who is your father, and where is he?" "He's Edward Sheldon, and he works in the Treasury Department." "And your mother?" "Oh, 628 LINCOLN TALKS sir, Mother's here in Washington, now while Father's here." "Then you come from some place else?" "Yes, sir; Byron, Michigan." "Michigan's a great State"— Mr. Lincoln still held Frankie's hand— "lots of fine men from there are in the service of our coun- try these days. With so much war around us, what do you do with your time?" "I'm a page, sir, in the House." "Ho, ho! Also in the service. Well, Frankie, you can see just how busy a man like the President of the United States can be. Meeting problems, meeting people. I like to meet people, Frankie; only good can come of a man meeting the people. I am glad to have met you today, maybe more so than you can realize. I want you to come and see me again. Come and see me when there is no reception. I will see to it that you are admitted. Good-by, my boy." —Youth's Companion. TEDIOUSNESS Lincoln once condemned for its tediousness a Greek history, whereupon a diplomat took him to task. "The author of that his- tory, Mr. President," he said, "is one of the profoundest scholars of the age. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any man of our generation has plunged more deeply in the sacred fount of learn- ing." "Yes, or come up drier," said Lincoln. -H. N. B. COMMODORE NUTT President Lincoln sent Mr. P. T. Barnum an invitation to visit the White House and bring his short friend, "Commodore Nutt." . . . Mr. Lincoln bent down his long, lank body and, taking Nutt by the hand, said: "Commodore, permit me to give you a parting word of advice: when you are in command of your fleet, if you find yourself in danger of being taken prisoner, I advise you to wade ashore." —P. T. Barnum: Struggles and Triumphs. FATHER ABRAHAM 629 BACKWOODS Once, when I presented to him an eminent lawyer, the President courteously said he was familiar with the judge's professional repu- tation. The judge responded: "And we do not forget that you too, Mr. President, are a dis- tinguished member of the bar." "Oh," said Mr. Lincoln modestly, "I'm only a mast-fed lawyer." —Titian J. Coffey, in the New York Daily Tribune, 1885. ONE-HORSE When I was told to enter the President's room, Mr. Lincoln was in the hands of the barber. "Come in, Palmer," he called out. "Come in, you're home folks. I can shave before you. I wouldn't before those others, and I have to do it some time." We chatted about various matters and at length I said: "Well, Mr. Lincoln, if anybody had told me that in a general crisis like this the people were going out to a little one-horse town to pick out a one-horse lawyer for President, I wouldn't have believed it." Mr. Lincoln whirled about in his chair, his face white with lather, and a towel under his chin. At first I thought he was angry. Sweep- ing the barber away, he leaned forward and said: "Neither would I; but it was a time when a man with a policy would have been fatal to the country. I have never had a policy; I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day as each day came." —John M. Palmer. OBVERSE Late one evening, when I dined with the President, the Secre- tary of State and Mr. E. B. Washburne, member of Congress from Galena, Illinois, were announced. Mr. Seward said they desired to show the large gold medal, just received from the Philadelphia Mint, which was voted by Congress to General Grant for the cap- ture of Vicksburg. Mr Lincoln, approaching a small center-table, 630 LINCOLN TALKS on which there was a drop-light, opened the morocco case con- taining the medal upside down. After a long pause, the writer ventured to remark: "What is the obverse of the medal, Mr. President?" He looked up and, turn- ing to Mr. Seward, said: "I suppose by his obverse the colonel means t'other side!" There was no sting in this, and the victim joined in the general laugh. —Gen. James Grant Wilson. STORIES He said to me: "Say, Depew, they say I tell a great many stories. I reckon I do; but I have learned from long experience that plain people, take them as they run, are more easily influenced through the medium of a broad and humorous illustration than in any other way; and what the hypercritical Few may think, I don't care." —Depew. FORGER A telegram from Philadelphia was once received setting forth that someone had been arrested there for obtaining fifteen hun- dred dollars on Mr. Lincoln's name. "What!" said Mr. Lincoln. "Fifteen hundred dollars on my name! I have given no one authority for such a draft, and if I had," he added, half humorously, "it is surprising that any man could get the money." "Do you remember, Mr. President, a request from a stranger a few days ago for your autograph, and that you gave it to him on a half -sheet of notepaper?" said Mr. Nicolay. "The scoundrel doubtless forged an order above your signature and has attempted to swindle somebody." "Oh, that's the trick, is it?" said the President. "What shall be done with him? Have you any orders to give?" inquired the secretary. FATHER ABRAHAM 63 1 "Well," said the President, slowly, "I don't see but that he will have to sit on the blister bench." —Lincoln Anecdotes. PROGRESS IN SPELLING Having some business at the War Department and knowing that my success depended on the President's favor, I called to ask the President for his aid. After stating my case, I asked him if he would speak to the Secretary in my behalf. "Certainly I will," said he. Pausing a moment, he added: "Or what is better, I will write him a note. Sit down, and I will write it now." He went to his desk and began writing, but in a few moments turned to me and, looking up over his spectacles, said: "O-b-s-t-a-c-1-e: is that the way you spell obstacle?" I was so disconcerted at the sudden, unexpected question that for the moment I was silent. Noticing my confusion, he laid down his pen and turned his revolving chair so as to face me. When I had recovered myself, I said: "I believe that is right, Mr. President." He then said: "When I write an official letter, I want to be sure it is correct, and I find I am sometimes puzzled to know how to spell the most common word." When I remarked that that was not an unusual experience with many persons, he said: "I found about twenty years ago that I had been spelling one word wrong all my life up to that time." "What word is that, Mr. President?" I inquired. "It is very," he said, "I used always to spell it with two r's— v-e-r-r-y. And then there was another word that I found I had been spelling wrong until I came here to the White House. It is opportunity. I had always spelled it op-p-e-r-tunity." In relating those instances of his "progress in spelling," as he 632 LINCOLN TALKS called it, the President laughed heartily and added some words on the importance of giving attention to orthography. — R. B. Stanton, in Scribnefs. BOOTS While Lincoln and Lord Lyons were together on a visit near the Civil War front, the minister was surprised to catch the Presi- dent one morning brushing his own boots, and when Lord Lyons protested that a President of the United States should not do a thing like that, he received the reply: "If the President shouldn't brush his own boots, in Heaven's name whose boots should he brush?" According to an older version, what Lord Lyons said was: "In England no gentleman cleans his own boots." And Lincoln an- swered: "Whose boots then does a gentleman clean?" —Sir Esme Howard, quoting Henry Adams. DELAYED Lincoln attended a murder trial at Booneville and heard the most eloquent pleas and argument made by a Kentucky lawyer named Brackenridge. After his argument before the jury, all the promi- nent men in the courtroom rose to congratulate him. Lincoln was anxious to shake hands with the eminent jurist, pushed himself through the crowd up to the attorney, and when he stretched out his hand to shake, Mr. Brackenridge pushed him aside and shook hands with those he considered more prominent. Lincoln always remembered the name of Brackenridge. Several years after, at the second inauguration of Lincoln, thou- sands of people greeted the great War President. Hundreds of this number came from Kentucky, and among the number was this man Brackenridge. Recognizing him at once as the man who ig- nored him at Booneville several years ago, Lincoln grasped the man's hand with a hearty shake and said: "I am more glad to see you than any man I know of. I have al- FATHER ABRAHAM 635 ways wanted to congratulate you upon that speech you made at Booneville several years ago." —Henry M. Brackenridge. BED Early in 1865, feeling that the downfall of the Confederacy was near, he determined to be on the scene and in readiness to meet any emergency which might arise. There he lived on a boat in the James River, opposite the cluster of huts on the bank which served as Grant's headquarters. Admiral Porter urged him to accept his bed, but he insisted upon not disturbing the Admiral and sleeping in a small stateroom, whose berth was four inches shorter than his body. "I slept well," he said, next morning, "but you can't put a long sword in a short scabbard." His host set carpenters to work, in the absence of his distin- guished guest, to remedy the deficiency. The stateroom was quickly lengthened and widened; and the following morning Lin- coln soberly reported: "A miracle happened last night; I shrank six inches in length and a foot sideways." The Admiral was positive, however, that if he had given him two fence-rails to sleep on he would not have found fault. —Admiral David D. Porter. BOWIE There was an officer cleaning his sword at the campfire when the President was visiting the camp. Mr. Lincoln came up, looked at it, took it in his hand, and said: "That is a formidable weapon, but it don't look half as dangerous to me as once did a Kentucky bowie knife. One night I passed through the outskirts of Louis- ville, when suddenly a man sprang from a dark alley and drew out a bowie knife. It looked three times as long as that sword, though I don't suppose it really was. He flourished it in front of me. It glistened in the moonlight, and for several seconds he seemed to 634 LINCOLN TALKS try to see how near he could come to cutting off my nose, without doing it. Finally he said: 'Can you lend me five dollars on that?' I never reached in my pockets for money so quick in the whole course of my life. Handing him a bill, I said: 'There's ten dollars, neighbor. Now put up your scythe.' " —Gen. Horace Porter. CHAMPAGNE The President was accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and Tad, on the steamer River Queen, protected by a small gunboat. Upon the President's arrival [at City Point], General Grant and the members of his staff went on board the steamer to pay their respects to their commander in chief. "I am not feeling very well," said the President. "I got pretty well shaken up on the bay coming down, and am not altogether over it." "Let me send," said a staff-officer, "for a bottle of champagne for you, Mr. President; that is the best remedy I know of for sea- sickness." "No, no, my young friend; I have seen many a man in my time sea-sick ashore from drinking that very article," the President re- plied. —Gen. Horace Porter. BEER I was in charge of the telegraph bureau in the War Department. We were working day and night at fever heat, and when the news came of the fall of Vicksburg I remember that we sent a messenger out for a can of beer. Of course, it was contrary to the rules of the office to drink anything of the sort there, but we were so exhausted, and, withal, so jubilant over the glorious news, that we couldn't resist the temptation to indulge in this refreshment. We were pass- ing the bucket around when, to our astonishment and alarm, in strode the President, who had to come to look over our dispatches at first hand. You can imagine our embarrassment. There was no FATHER ABRAHAM 635 use of attempting to deny or conceal. We had been caught by the Chief Executive. He had seen the tell-tale can, and although this was now practically empty, Lincoln was too shrewd a man not to know that we were all guilty of violating one of the strictest orders of the War Department. But he affected at first not to notice. Com- ing over to my instrument he asked to see the latest dispatch. He read it slowly, handed it back, and, turning to the messenger, who had been hoping for a favorable moment to make his escape with the can, Lincoln asked: "What have you in that bucket?" Answering for the startled messenger, I explained what we had been doing. "Any beer left?" said the President. I told him that we had drunk it all. "Here," said Lincoln, pulling a twenty-five cent piece from his pocket, "go and fill it up again." So saying he turned again to the telegrams. The messenger arrived with the beer, and Mr. Lincoln looked up and told him to pass it around. "Mr. President," I ventured to say, "if I get a glass will you not do us the great honor to share the beer with us?" "Never mind the glass," he replied, "I'll drink when it comes my turn." —Edward Rosewater. CANES A gentleman calling at the White House one evening carried a cane, which, in the course of conversation, attracted the President's attention. Taking it in his hand, he said: "I always used a cane when I was a boy. It was a freak of mine. My favorite one was a knotted beach stick, and I carved the head myself. There's a mighty amount of character in sticks. Don't you think so? You have seen these fishing poles that fit into a cane? Well, that was an old idea of mine. Dogwood clubs were favorite ones with the boys. I suppose they use them yet. Hickory is too heavy, unless you get it from a 6$6 LINCOLN TALKS young sapling. Have you ever noticed how a stick in one's hand will change his appearance? Old women and witches wouldn't look so without sticks. Meg Merrilies understands that." —Carpenter. AXES I remember one night, it was raining very hard, that Mr. Lincoln came over about one o'clock. As I started to accompany him, he said: "Don't come out with me in this storm tonight, boys; I have my umbrella and can get home without you." "We have orders from Mr. Stanton not to allow you to return alone; and you know we dare not disobey his orders." "No," replied Lincoln, "I suppose not; for if Stanton should learn you had let me return alone, he would have you court- martialed and shot within twenty-four hours." On one occasion Mr. Lincoln, who always had a pleasant "good evening" and sometimes stopped to pass a word or two, hesitated on the landing where my desk was stationed in the old War De- partment building, and looking at the wall where hung a pair of axes to be used in case of fire, asked what they were there for. I replied that they were to be used in case of fire. "Well, now," said he, "I wonder if I could lift one of those axes up by the end of the handle?" and suiting the action to the word, he took one down, and laying the heavy end on the floor, he com- menced raising it till he held it out at arm's length, and kept it there several seconds. "I thought I could do it," he said, as he put it down. "Corporal, you try it." I did try it and failed. Mr. Lincoln laughed, and as he passed on he said: "When I used to split rails thirty years ago in Illinois, I could lift two axes that way, and I believe I could do it now, and I will try it some other time." -Henry W. Knight. FATHER ABRAHAM 637 GLOVES Four days after Lincoln was inaugurated he held his first levee on lines laid down by Alexander Hamilton for President George Washington. Lincoln's huge hands were squeezed into white gloves and they were torture. However, he kept on shaking hands with the general public. When he was engaged in shaking hands with an old Illinois friend named Simpson, Lincoln was more vigorous than usual and one of the kid gloves split with an audible sound. "Well, my old friend," said Lincoln to Simpson, "this is general bustification. You and I were never intended to wear such things. If they were stronger they might do well enough to keep out the cold, but they are a failure to shake hands with between old friends like us." — Carleton B. Case. GINGERBREAD When Lincoln first came to Washington, I went to see him, so prejudiced against him beforehand that no man with less genius could have overcome it. I left that first interview his friend. No man ever came under the charm of Lincoln's personality without respecting him, and, if allowed, loving him. One day, after we had become fairly good friends, I told him of my early prejudice. "Mr. Lincoln," I said, "I had heard every mean thing on earth about you except one. I never heard that you were too fond of the pleasures of life." Mr. Lincoln sat for a moment stroking his long cheek thoughtfully, and then he drawled out in his peculiar western voice: "That reminds me of something that a boy said to me when I was about ten years old. "Once in a while my mother used to get some sorghum and some ginger and mix us up a batch of gingerbread. It wasn't often, and it was our biggest treat. One day I smelled it and came into the 638 LINCOLN TALKS house to get my share while it was hot. I found she had baked me three gingerbread men, and I took them out under a hickory tree to eat them. "There was a family near us that was a little poorer than we were, and their boy came along as I sat down. " 'Abe,' he said, edging close, 'gimme a man.' "I gave him one. He crammed it into his mouth at two bites and looked at me while I bit the legs from my first one. " 'Abe,' he said, 'gimme that other'n.' "I wanted it, but I gave it to him, and as it followed the first one I said: 'You seem to like gingerbread.' " 'Abe,' he said earnestly, 'I don't s'pose there's anybody on this earth likes gingerbread as well as I do,' and drawing a sigh that brought up crumbs, 'I don't s'pose there's anybody gets less of it.' " —Anna Leach. USES OF STORIES Colonel Burt was present with others, one of whom, a major, perhaps under the influence of wine, perceived not the fact that Lincoln's face "in every line told the story of anxiety and weari- ness." After the business which caused them to call upon Lincoln was concluded and they rose to go, he slapped the President on the knee, and said: "Mr. President, tell us one of your good stories." Says Colonel Burt: "If the floor had opened and dropped me out of sight, I should have been happy." The President drew himself up, and turning his back as far as possible upon the major, with great dignity addressed the rest of us, saying: "I believe I have the popular reputation of being a story- teller, but I do not deserve the name in its general sense, for it is not the story itself, but its purpose, or effect, that interests me. I often avoid a long and useless discussion by others or a laborious explanation on my own part by a short story that illustrates my point of view. So, too, the sharpness of a refusal or the edge of a FATHER ABRAHAM 639 rebuke may be blunted by an appropriate story, so as to save wounded feeling and yet serve the purpose. No, I am not simply a story-teller, but story-telling as an emollient saves me much fric- tion and distress." -Col. Silas W. Burt. HONEST LAWYERS Someone ventured to ask Lincoln, soon after his arrival at the White House, how he got the sobriquet of "Honest Abe." "Oh," said he, "I suppose my case was pretty much like that of a country merchant I once read of. Some one called him a 'little rascal.' 'Thank you for the compliment,' said he. 'Why so?' asked the stigmatizer. 'Because that title distinguishes me from my fellow-tradesmen, who are all great rascals.' " "So honest lawyers were so scarce in Illinois that you were thus distinguished from them?" persisted the questioner. "Well," quoth Uncle Abe, glancing slyly at Douglas, Swett, and others from Illinois, "it's hard to say where the honest ones are." —Leonard Swett. RELATION Executive Mansion, Washington, Dec. 4, 1861. My dear Madam: I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of Nov. 26; and in thanking you for the present by which it was accompanied. A pair of socks so fine, and soft, and warm, could hardly have been manufactured in any other way than the old Kentucky fashion. Your letter informs me that your maiden name was Crume, and that you were raised in Washington County, Ken- tucky, by which I infer that an uncle of mine by marriage was a relative of yours. Nearly or quite sixty years ago, Ralph Crume 64O LINCOLN TALKS married Mary Lincoln, a sister of my father, in Washington County, Kentucky. Accept my thanks, and believe me, Very truly, Yours forever, A. Lincoln. Mrs. Susannah Weathers, Rossville, Clinton County, lnd. — Nicolay and Hay. MEMORY After Anderson had evacuated Fort Sumter, on visiting Wash- ington, he called at the White House to pay his respects to the President. Lincoln expressed his thanks to Anderson for his con- duct at Fort Sumter, and then said: "Major, do you remember ever meeting me before?" "No, Mr. President, I have no recollection of ever having that pleasure." "My memory is better than yours," said Lincoln; "you mustered me into the service of the United States in 1832, at Dixon's Ferry, in the Black Hawk War." —Gen. Robert Anderson. RANTOUL It was my good fortune to meet President Lincoln on more than one occasion. At a White House reception early in the Administra- tion which I attended, Mr. Lincoln repeated: "Rantoul, Rantoul," when my name was announced. "Are you any relation," he asked, "to a man of that name who went out to Illinois some years ago and got a charter for the Illinois Central Railroad?" "That was my father, Mr. President," I replied. Whereupon the President seemed greatly pleased. "Well, that is pretty good," he said, slapping his thigh to give emphasis to his statement. "Do you know, Mr. Rantoul, that I did FATHER ABRAHAM 64I all I could to head him off? But he beat me, sir. He got the charter, and my Illinois clients who wanted to build that road themselves failed to keep out the Massachusetts fellows." —Robert S. Rantoul. RECOGNITION When Abraham Lincoln was in Springfield, Illinois, he met a little boy who was introduced to him, and who was allowed the honor of shaking the great man's hand. On the President's depar- ture the boy boasted of the incident among his schoolfellows, who refused to believe him and made his life miserable by their jeers. The young boy was not daunted, however, by the skeptics' perse- cution, but sat down and wrote a letter to Lincoln telling him of his trouble. In a little while he received this letter: "Executive Mansion, March 19, 1861. "Whom it may concern: I did see and talk with George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A. Lincoln." — Nicolay and Hay. SPREAD The ushers and secret service officials on duty at the Executive Mansion during the war were prone to congregate in a little ante- room, directly against instructions by the President. One night the guard and ushers were gathered in the little room talking things over, when suddenly the door opened, and there stood President Lincoln, his shoes in his hand. All the crowd scattered save one privileged individual. The intruder shook his finger at him and, with assumed ferocity, growled: "Pendel, you people remind me of the boy who set a hen on forty-three eggs." "How was that, Mr. President?" asked Pendel. "A youngster put forty-three eggs under a hen, and then rushed in and told his mother what he had done. 642 LINCOLN TALKS " 'But a hen can't set on forty-three eggs,' replied the mother. " 'No, I guess she can't, but I just wanted to see her spread her- self.' "That's what I wanted to see you boys do when I came in," said the President, as he left for his apartments. —Thomas F. Pendel. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE Mrs. E. M. Stanton, wife of the Secretary of War, had given eight bushels of strawberries to the hospital, and Mrs. Cole, the head dietitian, had supervised the baking of a mammoth strawberry shortcake. As the soldiers were lounging around the kitchen, President Lincoln and his Cabinet entered. There were few chairs and the dining-room was filled. When Mrs. Cole brought the President a large piece of the cake, he gra- ciously took it, walked to the corner of the room, and sat down on the floor. The Cabinet members all followed his example. -Mrs. Helen B. Cole. KENTUCKY A New Yorker said that it seemed strange that the President of the United States and the President of the Confederate States should have been born in the same State. "Oh, I don't know about that," laughed Mr. Lincoln. "Those Kentucky people will tell you that they can raise most anything in their State, and I reckon they're mighty near right." — Lincolniana. TELEGRAPHER In 1862, when I was a cipher operator in the War Department, Mr. Lincoln often visited the office and was always affable and courteous, sometimes even familiar, in his intercourse with the attaches of the office. He did not recognize me as the young tele- graph operator he had met in *tie West. On one occasion, when he FATHER ABRAHAM 643 was telling a story to a member of the Cabinet and some prominent army officers, he tried to recall the name of a certain man in Illinois. It seemed to annoy him very much that he could not remember the name. With some trepidation I ventured to say: "Mr. President, permit me to suggest; was it not Judge Puterbough?" He turned upon me with a look of surprise, and shouted: "Why, yes! Did you know him?" "Yes, sir." "Where did you know him?" "Down in Pekin, Illinois, where I had the honor of explaining to the present President of the United States the working of the telegraph, in the little office in the Tazewell House." He turned to his surprised audience, and exclaimed: "Well, isn't it funny that we should have met here?" and confirmed to them how he had first witnessed the working of the telegraph in the Tazewell House. —Charles A. Tinker. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE In November 1862, Mrs. Stowe accepted an invitation to visit Washington and attend the great Thanksgiving dinner provided for the thousands of fugitive slaves who had flocked to the city. It was then she had her interview with Lincoln. In telling of this in- terview afterward, Mrs. Stowe dwelt particularly on the rustic pleasantry with which that great man received her. She was intro- duced into a cozy room where the President was seated before an open fire, for the day was damp and chilly. It was Mr. Seward who introduced her, and Mr. Lincoln rose awkwardly from his chair, saying: "Why, Mrs. Stowe, right glad to see you! " then he said: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war! Sit down, please!" he added, as he seated himself once more before the fire, meditatively warming his immense hands over the smoldering embers by first extending the palms, and then turning his wrists so that the grateful warmth reached the backs of his hands. The first thing he said was: "I do love an open fire. I always had one to home." —Harriet Beecher Stowe. 644 LINCOLN TALKS AUTOGRAPH Lincoln found a sheet of paper in the White House bearing the signature of John Quincy Adams and in his good-natured way, knowing that his War Lord Stanton was an autograph collector, he wrote the following letter upon the same sheet. "My dear Stanton: Finding the above signature of Adams in an obscure place in the Mansion this morning and knowing of your weakness for oddities I am sending it to you, hold on to it— it will no doubt be much more valuable some day. Yours, A. Lincoln. June 14, 1864." Little did he think that his own letter and signature would add so much to the value of the paper that bears the name of John Quincy Adams. It is one of the finest specimens of a rare auto- graph, bearing both these signatures. -H. N. B. SHOES At that time my father was keeping shop in Washington, and was locally known for a certain style of easy-fitting shoes, his own make. Lincoln sent for my father, and when he came, the former rail-splitter said: "I understand you make shoes big enough for five toes?" Lincoln then recited the trouble he had had with shoes. He had a peculiarly shaped foot, and certainly could not be fitted in any store handling ready-made goods. Then, too, he declared, he was tired of his shoemaker, and wanted a change. Then Lincoln took off his boots and, following my father's in- structions, he stood on the paper while the shoemaker traced with pencil the outline of the Presidential pedals. This sheet is the one for which I recently refused $1000 in cash. The dimensions are marked in lead pencil on the sheet as follows: Heel, across instep, left 14V2 inches Same, right 14 % inches FATHER ABRAHAM 645 Instep, left 9% inches Same, right io{4 inches At small toes, left 8 inches Same, right 8 inches Length, left 12 inches Same, right 12/2 inches —David R. Locke. SURE-FOOTED That evening they spent at the War Department. From the first the returns were most encouraging, and Lincoln's good humor added to the gaiety of the company. When Eckert came in, "very disreputably muddy," the Tycoon was reminded of a story. "For such an awkward fellow," he said, "I am pretty sure-footed. It used to take a pretty dexterous man to throw me. I remember the evening of the day in 1858 that decided the contest for the Senate between Mr. Douglas and myself was something like this— dark, rainy, and gloomy. I had been reading the returns and had ascer- tained that we had lost the Legislature, and started to go home. The path had been worn, hog-backed, and was slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other one out of the way, but I re- covered myself and lit square; and I said to myself: 'It's a slip, and not a fall' " — Maj. Thomas T. Eckert. HANDSOME Thaddeus Stevens once went with a constituent of his, an elderly woman, to the President on an errand of mercy. Mr. Lincoln granted her request, and her gratitude was literally too deep for words. Not a syllable did she utter until they were well on their way out of the White House, when she stood still and broke forth vehemently: "I knew it was a Copperhead lie!" 646 LINCOLN TALKS "What do you mean, madam?" he asked. "They told me that he was an ugly-looking man! He is not. He is the handsomest man I ever saw in my life!" —Helen Nicolay, from the notes of John G. Nicolay. HEIGHT We were passing in review along Pennsylvania Avenue, and among the thousands who lined the pavement I saw a small group of men standing apart. All were tall, but I noticed especially one man, very tall and gaunt, wearing a frock coat which clung some- what indifferently to him. He had a thoughtful and serious look, his face was pale and his shoulder stooped. As I passed this group the tall man called out: "Hello, Bub," and beckoned. I did not know he was calling me until my captain told me to obey him. I did not realize who the man was. I went over to him and he grasped my hand. "Excuse me," he said, "but it was jealousy that made me call you out of ranks. I wanted to size you up. How tall are you and what is your age?" I told him I was 6 feet 6 V 2 inches in height and 1 7 years old. He then drew from his pocket a black-covered memorandum book and a stub of a pencil and wrote in it my name, my regiment, and the measurements. Then he introduced himself. "I am 'Old Abe,' " he said. I was startled at first and then my back stiffened with pride as I realized I was talking with the President of the United States. He then introduced me in his kindly, gentlemanly way to the other men in the group and put their names and heights down in his little book. A glance at that record will show with what famous men a humble soldier boy had that day been on terms of intimacy. This is the way Mr. Lincoln wrote it: Mahlon Shaaber, Co. B, 93 P.V. 6'6 l / 2 " Abe Lincoln, President. 6'4" Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-Pres. 6' FATHER ABRAHAM 647 Gen'l Cameron, Sec'y of War. 6' Vi " Gov. A. G. Curtin, Penna., 6'2 1 / 2 " Total v'W -Mahlon Shaaber. GIANT Lincoln, you understand, was a very tall man, reaching a height of 6 feet 4 inches. He always took the keenest interest in tall people because he met so few in life as high in stature as himself. I was present at this time, however, when the President was introduced to probably the tallest man he had ever met. The stranger was seven feet tall. In silent contemplation Lincoln looked the stranger over, aghast at his great height. Up and down from head to foot he scanned him, as if first trying to frame some expression to give vent to his surprise. At length he burst out: "Well, well, my friend! Can you tell when your feet get cold?" —Gen. James Grant Wilson. UNCHANGED One day a number of persons went down into the office and among them was an old personal friend from Illinois. He at once came up to Mr. Lincoln and said: "Why, Mr. President, you look just about as you did when you were out in Illinois." The President said: "Yes, I am about the same, and that puts me in mind of an old farmer out in Illinois who had an old horse which he put in pasture to recuperate. After the horse had grazed in pasture some time, one of the neighbors remarked to the owner of the old horse: 'Well, you put this horse in here to recuperate, but he looks just about the same as when you put him in here. He neither recupes nor de- cupes.' " —Thomas F. Pendel. 6 4 8 LINCOLN TALKS FAT HORSE I had some doubts for a time about the authenticity of the stories attributed to Lincoln, until an experience of my own with him. I was sent from the West by Grant with some dispatches to the President in person. It was late Saturday night when I got into Washington. The next morning I went to the White House, and there was nobody about. I made a noise at the door until someone came and said that Mr. Lincoln couldn't be seen on Sunday; it was against the rules. "Go upstairs," I said, "and tell the President that Logan is here with some important dispatches from Grant." Pretty soon the messenger came back and told me to walk up. When I got into the room, Mr. Lincoln was sitting in a chair with one foot on a table and his head thrown back. A barber was just getting through shaving him. He told me to take a seat and he would be ready to talk to me in a few minutes. The barber finished the shaving and went to work on the hair. Mr. Lincoln saw me glance at his foot. It was much swollen. Both of his feet, in fact, were in a bad condition. I said nothing, but he commenced talking about them. "They remind me," said he, "of a man in Sangamon County who made a pretty bad horse trade. The animal was in awful condition, but the farmer got him home. About two weeks afterward one of his neighbors met him and asked him how his new horse was com- ing on. 'Oh, first rate,' said the farmer, 'he's putting on flesh very fast. He's fat now up to his knees.' That's my fix." Since then I have accepted as authentic all Lincoln stories. —Gen. John A. Logan. MATCHMAKER A young lady, who had known Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln for years, visited Washington. She was an exceptionally sensible, warm- hearted, refined woman, gifted with a marvelous voice and a grace- FATHER ABRAHAM 649 ful figure, but she was very homely. She called at the White House, and when she had gone with his wife into a private room, Mr. Lincoln expressed his surprise to a friend that "some good man had not been lucky enough to marry her," adding: "L — herself would be much happier if she were a wife and mother." A few moments later Major C — , a volunteer officer, thor- oughly respected by the President, and a bachelor, came into the study. Mr. Lincoln looked at him thoughtfully. "What are you going to do when the war is over, C ?" he asked suddenly. "Seek my fortune, I suppose," was the startled reply. "There it is in that room." A frank, girlish laugh was heard at the moment. "No, you can't go to seek it now; business first. But there it is." That evening there was a reception at the White House. The President beckoned to Major C . "Listen!" he said. A lady, whom they could not see because of the crowd, was singing, in a voice of great beauty and sweetness, some gay song. The major would have moved forward but Mr. Lincoln detained him, his eyes twinkling with shrewd fun. "Wait a bit," he said. "Don't look at her face yet." Presently she sang a ballad with such pathos that the major's eyes grew dim. "Now go. She's as good and true as her song." The good word of Mr. Lincoln probably influenced both parties. In a few months they were married. "I did one wise thing in 1864," Mr. Lincoln said, rubbing his chin, as was his wont when pleased; "I made that match." —New York Times, Nov. 29, 1878. PRACTICAL JOKER On one occasion President Lincoln, when riding near the Sol- diers' Home, said to his footman, named Charles Forbes, who had 650 LINCOLN TALKS but recently come from Ireland: "What kind of fruit do you have in Ireland, Charles?" To which Charles replied: "Mr. President, we have many good kinds of fruit: gooseberries, pears, apples, and the like." The President asked: "Have you tasted any of our American fruits?" Charles said he had not, and the President told Burke the coachman to drive under a persimmon tree by the roadside. Stand- ing up in the open carriage he pulled off some of the green fruit, giving some of it to Burke, and some of it to Charles, with advice that the latter try some of it. Charles, taking some of the green fruit in his hand, commenced to eat, when to his astonishment he found that he could hardly open his mouth. Trying his best to spit it out he yelled: "Mr. President, I'm poisoned! I'm poisoned!" Mr. Lincoln fairly lay back in the carriage and rolled with laughter. —Charles Forbes. COACHMAN In January 1863, a short time after the fiat of Emancipation, much feeling was shown in Washington against that measure, by many officers of the army. The immediate neighborhood of my theater, surrounded as it was by all kinds of saloons, was perhaps the center of such antipathy. At such a time, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, with Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker of the House, and without guard or special attendance, appeared one evening at the theater. I met them at the curb and conducted the party through a private passage to their box. Then I retired to my private office, and continued with my work until I was warned by the sound of the dispersing audience that the per- formance was over. I hurriedly descended the stairs and met the President's party as they were leaving the box, and I again con- ducted them through the private passageway to the street. By this time the audience had almost entirely departed. The President's carriage was drawn up against the curb, and a crowd of more than a hundred persons was gathered about it. Just as we reached the sidewalk, a burst of jeering laughter greeted us. It was evidently FATHER ABRAHAM 6$l not provoked by the appearance of the President, and there was nothing distinctly threatening in its character. Something had hap- pened, something coarsely funny. It transpired that during the time the President's party was within the theater, the coachman, an Irishman under thirty years, instead of returning to the White House stables, had accepted an invitation to take a drink in one of the numerous saloons, leaving the carriage in the charge of a drummer boy, who, after losing an arm in the service, had found employment with the President. One drink led to many, and after nearly three hours, the coachman was as full as he could hold of bad liquor. In ignorance of the coachman's condition, I opened the carriage door, handed in Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln and A4r. Colfax follow- ing. As I closed the door of the carriage, there was a second jeering outburst. I turned to learn the cause. The one-armed drummer boy was on the box holding the lines in his single hand, while the coachman, having slipped from the wheel in his effort to mount to his seat, had fallen on the pavement. The coachman slowly regained his feet, staggered slightly, and then with a supreme effort, clam- bered over the wheel, landed on the box, seized the reins from the hand of the drummer boy, and, turning to take his seat— fell sprawl- ing his full length on the walk. The jeering shout which followed had a threatening tone. Any overt act, the throwing of a stone, might have resulted in catastro- phe. Twisting the reins from the fallen coachman's hand, I sprang to the box and started the team in quick time. At the head of the triangle, I pulled up and asked the President where he would like me to drive. He asked me, if I wouldn't mind, to take Mr. Colfax home. So to Mr. Colfax's house we went, somewhere off to the north of the Capitol; then we returned by way of F Street to the White House. When we arrived there, I handed the carriage over to the attendants. As we stood under the White House portico, Mr. Lincoln grasped one of my hands and Mrs. Lincoln the other. Mr. Lincoln said: "Mr. Grover, you have done me a very great 652 LINCOLN TALKS service tonight, and one that I shall never forget. I have this to say to you: if at any time you want anything and it is in my power to grant it, you have only to ask and it shall be done." Mrs. Lincoln tugged at my other hand and said: "Remember, Mr. Grover— what Mr. Lincoln says he means." —Leonard Grover. FAINTING WOMAN After four or five hours under the direct rays of the hot sun, Lydia, who had come with her husband to be present at the dedi- cation at Gettysburg, fainted. But the crowd was so dense she could not fall. Everything seemed to be turning black, and she felt dizzy and weak. There was confusion and crowding around her, when a man called out: "A woman has fainted!" Then she heard a far-away voice commanding: "Here, hand that lady up to me!" When she came to herself, she was seated on the platform in the President's chair, while "Father Abraham" fanned her tenderly. She whispered, gasping: "I feel— better— now. I want to go back to —to Jacob." "Oh, no, no, madam," said the President, laughing, "stay right here with me. I had such a hard time pulling you out of that crowd, I know I could never stick you back again!" -Dr. Joseph S. Walton. NO HURRY At the appointed time [for the trip to Gettysburg] I went to the White House, where I found the President's carriage at the door to take him to the station; but he was not ready. When he appeared it was rather late, and I remarked that he had no time to lose. "Well," said he, "I feel about like the convict in one of our Illinois towns felt when he was going to the gallows. As he passed along the road in custody of the sheriff, the people, eager to see the execution, kept crowding and pushing past him. At last he called out: FATHER ABRAHAM 653 " 'Boys, you needn't be in such a hurry to get ahead. There won't be any fun till I get there!' " —Gen. James B. Fry. ON ASSASSINATION That night, as we walked back to the White House through the grounds between the War Department buildings and the house, I fancied that I saw in the misty moonlight a man dodging behind one of the trees. My heart for a moment stood still, but, as we passed in safety, I came to the conclusion that the dodging figure was a creature of the imagination. Nevertheless, as I parted from the President at the door of the White House, I could not help saying that I thought his going to and fro in the darkness of the night, as was usually his custom, often alone and unattended, was dangerous recklessness. That night, in deference to his wife's anx- ious appeal, he had provided himself with a thick oaken stick. He laughed as he showed me this slight weapon, and said, but with some seriousness: "I long ago made up my mind that if anybody wants to kill me, he will do it. If I wore a shirt of mail, and kept myself surrounded by a bodyguard, it would be all the same. There are a thousand ways of getting at a man, if it is desired that he should be killed. Besides, in this case, it seems to me the man who would come after me would be just as objectionable to my enemies —if I have any." — Lamon. ON ASSASSINATION Mr. Lincoln concluded: "It would never do for a President to have guards with drawn sabers at his door, as if he fancied he were, or were trying to be, or were assuming to be, an emperor." This expression called my attention afresh to what I had re- marked to myself almost every time I entered the White House, and to which I had very frequently called the attention of Major Hay and General Halleck— the utterly unprotected condition of the President's person, and the fact that any assassin or maniac, 654 LINCOLN TALKS seeking his life, could enter his presence without the interference of a single armed man to hold him back. The entrance-doors, and all doors on the official side of the building, were open at all hours of the day, and very late into the evening; and I have many times entered the mansion, and walked up to the rooms of the two pri- vate secretaries, as late as nine or ten o'clock at night, without see- ing or being challenged by a single soul. There were, indeed, two attendants— one for the outer door, and the other for the door of the official chambers; but these— thinking, I suppose, that none would call after office hours save persons who were personally ac- quainted, or had the right of official entry— were, not infrequently, somewhat remiss in their duties. To this fact I now ventured to call the President's attention, say- ing that to me— perhaps from my European education— it appeared a deliberate courting of danger, even if the country were in a state of the prof oundest peace, for the person at the head of the nation to remain so unprotected. "There are two dangers," I wound up by saying; "the danger of deliberate political assassination, and the mere brute violence of insanity." Mr. Lincoln heard me through with a smile, his hands locked across his knees, his body rocking back and forth— the common indication that he was amused. "Now, as to political assassination," he said, "do you think the Richmond people would like to have Hannibal Hamlin here any better than myself? In that one alternative, I have an insurance on my life worth half the prairie land of Illinois. And besides"— this more gravely— "if there were such a plot, and they wanted to get at me, no vigilance could keep them out. We are so mixed up in our affairs, that— no matter what the system established— a con- spiracy to assassinate, if such there were, could easily obtain a pass to see me for any one or more of its instruments. "To betray fear of this, by placing guards or so forth, would only be so put the idea into their heads, and perhaps lead to the very FATHER ABRAHAM 6$$ result it was intended to prevent. As to the crazy folks, Major, why, I must only take my chances— the worst crazy people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous adherents. That there may be such dangers as you and many others have suggested to me, is quite possible; but I guess it wouldn't improve things any to pub- lish that we were afraid of them in advance." —Col. Charles G. Halpine. PLOTTERS The President received me most cordially in the Admiral's cabin, and then sat down on the long cushioned seat running along the side of the ship behind the dining table, I taking my seat opposite him. Little Tad, who was then a small and very restless boy, amused himself by running up and down the length of the sofa behind his father and jumping over his back in passing. As I pro- gressed in the explanation of my errand, Mr. Lincoln let his head droop upon his hands as his elbows rested on the table, his hands supporting his chin and clasping either cheek in an expression of the most heart-breaking weariness. I read the paper (outlining the plan of the plotters). I urged upon him the reasonableness of the warning, the good faith and apparent integrity of the man (Snyder), and to make the impression deeper, if possible, I begged him to let me bring him in and talk with him, but it was all to no purpose. Finally he lifted his hand, and said: "No, General Ripley, it is impossible for me to adopt and follow your suggestions. I deeply appreciate the feeling which has led you to urge them upon me— but I must go on in the course marked out for me, for I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me any harm." — Brig.-Gen. Edward H. Ripley. BAROUCHE President Lincoln had not been in the White House very long before Mrs. Lincoln became seized with the idea that a fine new barouche was about the proper thing for "the first lady in the 6$6 LINCOLN TALKS land." The President did not care particularly about it one way or the other, and told his wife to order whatever she wanted. Lincoln forgot all about the new vehicle, and was overcome with astonishment one afternoon when, having acceded to Mrs. Lin- coln's desire to go driving, he found a beautiful barouche standing in front of the door of the White House. His wife watched him with an amused smile, but the only remark he made was: "Well, Mary, that's about the slickest 'glass hack' in town, isn't it?" —Joseph Christian. MA LINCOLN One day while Joseph Christian, Lincoln's wartime valet- coachman, was driving the President and Mrs. Lincoln, one of the horses got the blind staggers and began to run wild. When the coachman finally succeeded in bringing it to a standstill, Mrs. Lin- coln, badly frightened, jumped out of the carriage. "The horse will probably be all right in a moment, madam," the coachman assured her. But his explanation was of no avail and Lincoln came to the rescue. "No, Ma," he urged gently, "you know I don't want you to walk. You'll be too tired. Get back in and we'll drive slowly." "No, I'm going to walk," she insisted, still frightened at the horse's antics. So Christian turned the horses and started back at a clipping pace. Some time after their return, Mrs. Lincoln came in, tired and dusty. "Hello, Ma," said the President, "did you have a nice walk?" The first lady of the land was angry, Christian recalls, but "Lin- coln just smiled." —Joseph Christian. EMBARRASSMENT Colonel — , an old officer superannuated before the war, was, FATHER ABRAHAM 657 while I was running for Congress, stationed in my district. He used to send the garrison band to enliven our meetings and occasionally to serenade me. When I got to Washington I discovered I was expected "to pay for the piper" by pushing a state claim which the Colonel had against the Government as compensation for quarters, fuel, horses, etc., while he was awaiting orders many years pre- viously in New York. I presented the case to Secretary Stanton, but although the claim was technically just, he put his foot on it immediately. "We were scraping the earth, the air, and the sea," he said, "to get a dollar to pay live soldiers, without wasting money on dead ones." Not long after, I was at the department on other business, when Stanton told me he had received a visit from Mrs. Colonel — , who without my knowledge had come to Washington to push the matter in person. She was a young wife of the old colonel, not devoid of personal attractions. Stanton wanted me to see her and urge her to go home, as he hated such visitations. I politely declined to assume any responsibility, either for her pres- ence or her absence. Some time after, my colleague, Colonel Deming, was invited by President Lincoln to meet Grant, himself, and a few others. On his return he related to me with great gusto the following account, which Mr. Lincoln gave him, of an interview with Mrs. Colo- nel about the old ante-bellum claim. One evening, he said, Edward, the janitor, brought up the card of this lady who desired a personal interview on important business. Immediately upon being ushered in, she advanced, fell upon her knees, caught him around the legs, and began in a very impassioned manner to urge the claim for compensation. "When," said Mr. Lincoln, "the door suddenly opened, and who do you think en- tered? Mary Lincoln! and a pretty mess we had of it!" Mrs. Colo- nel was requested not to stand on the order of her going but to go at once. Edward was instructed "never again to admit 'that woman' to the White House." "And now," said Mr. Lincoln, "tell 658 LINCOLN TALKS your colleague to get that long-legged woman back to Connecticut or never expect to ask of me a favor again." —Col. Henry C. Deming. THE KISS Prince Felix von Salm-Salm fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, became a brigadier-general and married a Vermont girl, both pretty and talented. This girl followed her husband through the war, and they became friends of President Lincoln. After the defeat of Chancellorsville, the President and Mrs. Lincoln had come down the Potomac for a visit to the camps. General Sickles thought that "Abe" needed cheering up a bit and suggested that the ladies greet him with a chaste salute. The Princess von Salm-Salm opened the performance, which the President seemed to enjoy. But young Tad told Mrs. Lincoln of this, and Mrs. Lincoln became very angry. When General Sickles was wondering just how he might straighten out the tangle, he received notification to accompany the President and Mrs. Lincoln back to Washington. The next eve- ning he found himself seated at table with the offended First Lady. Lincoln told some of his characteristic stories, but Mrs. Lincoln refused to respond. She was much put out. "Sickles," said Lincoln, "I never knew you were such a pious man until I came down to see the army." "I'm not quite sure, Mr. President," answered General Sickles; "I do not merit that reputation if I have gained it." "Oh, yes, they tell me you are the greatest psalmist in the army. They say you are more than a psalmist— they tell me you are a Salm-Salmist." Mrs. Lincoln had to give in. She joined heartilv in the general laugh that followed, and her grievance was forgotten. —Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. ENEMY BROTHER Ben Hardin Helm first met his brother-in-law, Abraham Lincoln, in Springfield, in 1858. About the middle of April 1861, in response FATHER ABRAHAM 659 to a cordial personal letter of invitation, Helm came to Washing- ton to visit President Lincoln. On April 27, 1861, Mr. Lincoln called his brother-in-law into his private office, and, handing him a sealed envelope, said: "Ben, here is something for you. Think it over by yourself, and let me know what you will do." Going to his room, Helm opened the envelope. It contained his nomination to be paymaster in the United States Army, with the rank of major. Nothing had ever touched Helm like this. He hap- pened that very afternoon to meet Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the Second Cavalry, with whom he had some acquaintance. Helm took the letter and handed it to Colonel Lee. "Did you know Mr. Lin- coln was my brother-in-law?" said Helm. "No, I did not," said Colonel Lee. "But now let me say one word. I have no doubt of Lincoln's kindly intentions but he cannot con- trol the elements. There must be a great war. I cannot strike at my own people. So today I wrote out my resignation, and have asked General Scott, as a favor, for its immediate acceptance. My mind is too much disturbed to give you any advice. But do what your conscience and honor bid. Good-by." "I will go home," Helm told Lincoln, "and answer you from there. The position you offer me is beyond what I had expected in my most hopeful dream. It is the place above all others which suits me. You have been kind and generous to me beyond anything I have known. I have no claim upon you, for I opposed your can- didacy, and did what I could for the election of another, but with no unkindly feeling toward you. I wish I could see my way. I will try to do what is right. Don't let this offer be made public yet. You shall have my answer in a very few days." "I never had such a struggle," said General Helm long afterward. "The ideal career was before me. The highest positions in the pro- fession I was educated for were opened to me in one day. I would not only be the youngest officer of my rank in the army, but could have been transferred at the earliest possible moment into one of the cavalry regiments. With the changes occurring in them by res- 660 LINCOLN TALKS ignation, I would certainly have been a full colonel within the year. Think what a career, what possibilities were open to me. Then I could have been a general officer of volunteers besides. Such an opportunity rarely offers itself, and it almost killed me to decline." "I never saw Mr. Lincoln more affected," said Senator Davis, in 1877, "than when he heard of the death of his young brother-in- law Helm, only thirty-two years old, at Chickamauga. I called to see him about three o'clock on the twenty-second of September. I found him in the greatest grief. 'Davis,' said he, 'I feel as David of old did when he heard of the death of Absalom. "Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" ' I saw how grief- stricken he was, so I closed the door and left him alone." Upon the death of General Helm, Mr. Lincoln sent a permit South for Mrs. Helm and her three little children to return to Ken- tucky. Upon arriving at Fortress Monroe she was called upon by an officer to take the oath, which was required of all returning North. She declined and asked for a parole to Washington, which was allowed her. She was kindly welcomed by President Lincoln, who was confined to his room by a slight indisposition. Her diary, in giving the substance of the interview says: "My sorrow was too recent to keep my tears back, but when I could control myself I said: 'Brother Lincoln, I came to thank you for your kindness and to explain my position in declining to take the oath which was required of me at Fortress Monroe.' He said nothing for a moment and then in a kindly tone and in an awkward manner untying my bonnet strings, said: 'Little sister, I think we will take a cup of tea before we talk any more,' and, although I declined, he rang the bell and until the lunch came directed the conversation entirely to my trip and other matters. Afterwards he made minute inquiries in regard to the death of my brother Aleck, and also my husband, and then said: 'Little Sis, I do not want you ever to think of me in connection with this. I did what I could to FATHER ABRAHAM 66 1 keep Ben from this.' I told him that I had never felt there was any blame anywhere. It was the fortune of war and the providence of God. He said: 'I believe that Ben would have considered my wishes for him if it had not been for the influence of his father.' I said: 'Brother Lincoln, you do his father injustice and you also do my husband injustice. Hardin did as he felt in duty bound with no in- fluence except his own conscience, and I would not have you for a moment think otherwise.' He gave a deep sigh, and said: 'Well, I did all I could. I loved your husband.' With these words he brushed a tear from his eye, and I bowed my head and wept long and si- lently." —Washington City Herald. DEATH OF WILLIE On the evening of the reception Willie was suddenly taken worse. His mother sat by his bedside a long while, holding his feverish hand in her own, and watching his labored breathing. Still the doctor claimed there was no cause for alarm. The reception was a large and brilliant one, and the rich notes of the Marine Band, in the apartments below, came to the sick-room in soft subdued mur- murs. During the evening, Mrs. Lincoln came upstairs several times, and stood by the bedside of the suffering boy. The night passed slowly; morning came and Willie was worse. He lingered a few days and died. I assisted in washing and dressing him, and then laid him on the bed when Mr. Lincoln came in. I never saw a man so bowed down with grief. He came to the bed, and, lifting the cover from the face of his child, gazed at it long and earnestly, murmuring: "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is better off in Heaven, but then we loved him so. It was hard— hard— to have him die!" Great sobs choked his utterance. He bowed his head in his hands, and his tall frame was convulsed with emotion. I stood at the foot of the bed, my eyes full of tears, looking at the man in silent, awe- 662 LINCOLN TALKS stricken wonder. His grief unnerved him, and made him a weak, passive child. I did not dream that his rugged nature could be so moved. Mrs. Lincoln was inconsolable. In one of her paroxysms of grief the President kindly bent over his wife, took her by the arm, and gently led her to a window. With a solemn, stately gesture, he pointed to the lunatic asylum, saying: "Mother, do you see that large, white building on the hill yon- der? Try to control your grief, or it will drive you mad, and we may have to send you there." —Elizabeth Keckley. WILLIE Mr. Lincoln said: "Colonel, did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not a reality? Just so I dream of my boy Willie." Overcome with emotion, he dropped his head on the table, and sobbed aloud. -Paul Selby. GOAT-BUYER "Tisdale, I want Tad to have a pair of goats— and he wants them, too! Do you know where you can get a pair?" I knew. The Presi- dent drew out his wallet and took out two twenty-dollar bills and a ten and said: "I don't know what a good pair of goats will cost, but get them as cheap as you can." In a settlement of shanties I found a woman who sold me a pair of billies for five dollars each. I led them to the White House. "You've made a fine bargain; they are pretty good-looking billy- goats, but you've got yourself in for a lot of trouble." "How so, sir?" "Tad won't let you rest," he said, "until you get harness for his goats." The saddler of our cavalry company made a double set of harness and I fitted a pole to a little wagon. -William H. Tisdale. FATHER ABRAHAM 663 GOATS Mr. Lincoln had two goats that knew the sound of his voice, and when he called them, they would come bounding to his side. In the warm bright days, he and Tad would sometimes play in the yard with these goats, for an hour at a time. One Saturday afternoon I went to the White House to dress Mrs. Lincoln. I had nearly com- pleted my task when the President came in. It was a bright day, and walking to the window, he looked down into the yard, smiled, and, turning to me, asked: "Madam Elizabeth, you are fond of pets, are you not?" "Oh, yes, sir," I answered. "Well, come here and look at my two goats. I believe they are the kindest and best goats in the world. See how they sniff the clear air, and skip and play in the sunshine. Whew! what a jump," he exclaimed as one of the goats made a lofty spring. "Madam Elizabeth, did you ever before see such an active goat?" Musing a moment, he continued: "He feeds on my bounty, and jumps with joy. Do you think we could call him a bounty-jumper? But I flatter the bounty-jumper. My goat is far above him. I would rather wear his horns and hairy coat through life than demean myself to the level of the man who plunders the national treasury in the name of patriotism. The man who enlists into the service for a consideration, and deserts the moment he receives his money, but to repeat the play, is bad enough; but the men who manipulate the grand ma- chine and who simply make the bounty- jumper their agent in an outrageous fraud are far worse. They are beneath the worms that crawl in the dark hidden places of earth." —Elizabeth Keckley. DOLLS On one occasion we were in the attic and Tad demanded his doll, Jack, which was sent to him from the Sanitary Commission Fair in New York. I volunteered to find the doll, and went downstairs. 664 LINCOLN TALKS The President was lying stretched out in a large chair, his head laid back, but with such an utterly weary, sad look— his eyes were closed— that I softly shut the door, and went up and told Tad: "Your father's just going to sleep and he is dreadfully tired and Jack is under his chair." "Huh!" said Tad. "Come on, Hally— we'll go down just as still, and give our Indian war-whoop; that'll wake him up!" They went downstairs as still as a load of bricks, and we heard their wild whoops below. Every little while this doll was solemnly court-martialed by the boys, found guilty of "sleeping on post" or "desertion," and sen- tenced to be shot. The firing squad was Tad and his cannon. Then they had a grand military funeral, quite ignoring the fact that con- demned soldiers are not accorded military honors. The grave was dug among the choice roses on the south side of the house. Mrs. Lincoln one day said: "Why are the boys making that dread- ful noise, Julia?" I replied: "That is the 'Dead March'; they're burying Jack." "Oh, yes," she said; "and Mr. Watt says they dug holes among the new roses. Go and tell them they must not, Julia." I went, though I knew they had been told several times before. Mr. Watt was there scolding and showed me several places where Jack had been buried and later disinterred. "Look here, Tad," said the head gardener, "why don't you have Jack pardoned?" The suggestion was enough; the four boys clat- tered up the stairs to the President's private office and demanded a pardon for Jack. Mr. Lincoln heard them gravely, took a sheet of his official note paper and wrote: "The doll Jack is pardoned. By order of the President. A. Lincoln." —Julia Bayne Taft. RETORT FILIAL "Oh, yes," one chuckled, "you have your defense, but you've lost. Losers always have their defense. Lincoln used to illustrate that with a story about his boy Tad. FATHER ABRAHAM 665 "Lincoln and Tad were lunching one day in the White House. " 'Don't eat your fish with your knife, my boy,' said Lincoln, sternly. 'It's not polite.' " 'But, Father,' said Tad, 'is it polite to stare at folks when they're eating?'" -H. N. B. TAD IN THE WHITE HOUSE It is hardly surprising that Tad became the bane of the servants' existence. I remember once he had pulled up some of the choice plants in the garden. The head gardener was furious, and declared he would tell the madam. "But remember," I said to him, "he is the madam's son." "The madam's wildcat," snarled the head gardener. It was Tad, too, who provided my mother with one of her most embarrassing experiences. The first Union officer killed in the war was Colonel Elmer Ellsworth of the New York Fire Zouaves. Dur- ing the early hostilities he came into Alexandria and found a Con- federate flag flying over the Marshall House. Rashly impulsive, he dashed up and tore down the flag. The keeper of the hotel shot him down while the banner was still in his arms, and as he fell his blood stained it red. The flag was sent by his comrades to Mrs. Lincoln as a treasured relic, and she prized it highly. So did Tad. He used to steal it away from her room to play with it, until she finally hid it from him in a drawer. Then came the day after the battle of the Monitor and the Mer- rimac, and all Washington turned out to celebrate the victory. There was a great to-do, for Washington people had been in terror lest the dread Merrimac steam up the river and bombard the city. The streets were crowded with revelers, when a lady rushed up to my mother and asked: 666 LINCOLN TALKS "Oh, Mrs. Taft! Did you know there's a Confederate flag flying from your house?" "Why— no!" gasped out Mother, quite shocked. And she scurried back to see. Sure enough, there was the blood-stained flag from Alexandria, fluttering in the breeze. Tad had found it again, and brought it over to decorate our house. -Paul Selby. LOCOMOTIVE TRIP At length my attention was attracted by a question the boy put to the man: "Papa, can't we get up on it? Ask the gentleman, please!" I invited the two to step up. I noticed that the gentleman was tall. He had to remove his high hat and then stand in a slightly stooping position while in the cab. From his answers to the ques- tions with which the boy plied him and his explanations of different parts of the machine, I saw that he knew something of the principle upon which locomotives are built. "Oh, Papa! I do wish I could take a ride on it." "Not now, my son. Maybe some day we may have a chance." I said: "If you and your son will have a seat over there on the fireman's box I shall be glad to give the young man a little ride. I want to pump her up, anyway." He thanked me as he and the boy seated themselves. We moved slowly down the yard, and out to the Washington end of the Long Bridge across the Potomac. The gentleman explained to the boy all my acts in controlling the machine in a manner that showed he knew the locomotive well. "Oh, Papa! I do wish I could take a long ride on this engine out in the country, where it goes fast. It must be grand to be carried away by such a big, strong horse." As the engine slowly backed once more into the sheds, the gen- tleman again thanked me, and as I caught the wistful look in the boy's face I was prompted to say: "My run is only three hours out FATHER ABRAHAM 667 and three back, sir. I leave here at 10 a.m., and return at 4:30 p.m. If you are willing to trust the boy to me, I will take him for the trip here in front of me on my seat. The road is safe. We do not go into the enemy's country. I think I can promise to deliver the young man to you at this spot at 4: 30 this afternoon." "Papa, Papa, do let me go. Do let me go, Papa, and don't tell Mamrna until I get back. I want to surprise her by telling her all about the trip." The gentleman could not withstand his son's pleading. He let him go. Words fail to tell the delight of the boy as we sped over the hills and valleys of Virginia. From the questions he asked I soon discovered he was a Western boy from the prairieland. As the engine puffed and groaned up a long grade on the return trip, sud- denly the boy, who sat between my knees, looked up into my face and said: "I have got the very best papa that ever lived. Do you know my papa?" "No, my boy, I do not; but there was something so familiar to me in his appearance that ever since you climbed into this cab I have been trying to think where I have seen your father before. What is his name?" "Why, he is Abraham Lincoln," replied my fellow-traveler. For a moment I reeled on my seat in surprise. You may be sure I made a doubly careful run into Washington when I found that Tad Lincoln was the little guest I had in my cab. Another man, I suppose a White House servant, met the train on its arrival and took the boy away. —John Henry Martin WHOSE KITCHEN? Both the steward and the cook had remonstrated with "Master Tad" upon bringing into the kitchen of the White House "such squads of poor dirty, hungry street urchins to be fed," and at last Peter said that Mrs. Lincoln must be told. Tad flew into a ra^e, ran 668 LINCOLN TALKS up stairs to see his mother and, on finding her out, searched the place for his busy father. Meanwhile, the small objects of his charity waited at the lower door— for Peter had absolutely refused to let them "step inside." The indignant boy spied his father just crossing the yard with head bowed, eyes to the ground, talking earnestly to Mr. Seward as they walked to the Department of State together. He cried out to him at once: "Father, Father! Can I bring those poor, cold, hungry boys home with me whenever I want to? Isn't it our kitchen?" Secretary Seward was shaking with laughter. Mr. Lincoln turned to him: "Seward, advise with me. This case requires diplomacy." Mr. Seward patted Tad on the back and said he must be careful not to run the Government into debt, and the President took Tad's hands and bade him "run along home and feed the boys," and added: "Tell Peter that you are really required to obey the Bible by getting in the maimed and the blind, that he must be a better Christian than he is!" —Seward. tad's signals In the summer of that year I was at the White House late one night, with my field maps spread out on the table, explaining some details of one of Grant's battles, when my attention was distracted by a gentle knocking on the panel of the door, to which the Presi- dent gave no heed. Then the door-knob was rattled and a childish voice called: "Unfasten the door." Lincoln thereupon rose and drew the bolt, and little Tad (then ten years old), in his nightgown, bounced in, jumped upon his father's lap, and threw his arms about his neck. The little fellow, I afterward learned, was in the habit, if he awoke in the night, of creeping into his father's bed; but, on this occasion, not finding him, had come over to the office, which was on the same floor. FATHER ABRAHAM 669 Lincoln, with his boy upon his knee, began with patience to teach him to make a certain signal by tapping on the desk, with Tad's fist doubled up in the father's big bony hand. There were three quick raps, followed by two slower ones, thus and over and over again these dots and dashes were sounded on the desk until Tad made the signal correctly without his father's help. It appears that the child had before been taught to make this signal on the office door whenever he wanted to come in, and that Tad could thus always gain admission. But on this occasion he had forgotten the signal, and so his father paid no attention to the dis- turbance until he heard his child's voice. —Thomas F. Pendel. DREAM OF DEATH Shortly before the assassination some friends were talking about dreams recorded in the Bible when Lincoln said: "About two days ago I retired late. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me, but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. Before me was a catafalque on which was a form wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; there was a throng of people, some gazing mourn- fully upon the catafalque, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead 670 LINCOLN TALKS in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was the answer. 'He was killed by an assassin.' There came a loud burst of grief from the crowd which woke me from my dream." —Francis Grierson. LAST CABINET MEETING Mr. Stanton, on leaving the council with the Attorney-General, said to him: "That is the most satisfactory Cabinet meeting I have attended for many a long day. What an extraordinary change in Mr. Lincoln!" The Attorney-General replied: "We all saw it before you came in. While we were waiting for you he sat with his chin down on his breast. " 'Gentlemen, something very extraordinary is going to happen and that very soon.' " To which the Attorney-General had observed: "Something very good, I hope, sir?" when the President answered very gravely: "I don't know— I don't know. But it will happen and shortly too." As they were all impressed by his manner, the Attorney-General took him up again: "Have you received any information, sir, not yet disclosed to us?" "No," answered the President, "but I have had a dream. And I have had the same dream three times; once the night preceding the battle of Bull Run, once on the night preceding such another" (naming a battle also not favorable to the North). His chin sank on his breast again, and he sat reflecting. "Might one ask the nature of this dream, sir?" said the Attorney- General. "Well," replied the President, without lifting his head or chang- ing his attitude, "I am on a great, broad, rolling river— and I am in a boat— and I drift— and I drift— but this is not business," sud- denly raising his voice and looking around the table as Mr. Stanton entered. "Let us proceed to business, gentlemen." FATHER ABRAHAM 6jl Mr. Stanton and the Attorney-General said, as they walked on together, it would be curious to notice whether anything ensued on this, and they agreed to notice. —Charles Dickens. FUTURE HAPPINESS In 1864, when one of my soldiers was unjustly sentenced and his gray-haired mother pleaded with me to use what influence I would have with the President, I went to Washington and told the story to the President. He said he had heard something about it from Mr. Stanton, and he said he would investigate the matter, and he did afterward decide that the man should not be put to death. At the close of that interview I said to the President: "I beg your pardon, Mr. Lincoln, but is it not a most exhausting thing to sit here hearing all these appeals and have all of this busi- ness on your hands?" He laid his head on his hand, and, in a somewhat wearied manner, said, with a deep sigh: "Yes, yes; no man ought to be ambitious to be President of the United States; and," said he, "when this war is over— and that won't be very long— I tell my Tad that we will go back to the farm, where I was happier as a boy when I dug potatoes at twenty -five cents a day than I am now; I tell him I will buy him a mule and a pony and he shall have a little cart and he shall make a little garden in a field all his own." And the President's face beamed as he arose from his chair in the delight of excitement as he said: "Yes, I will be far happier than I have ever been here." -Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell. LAST JOKE When the Civil War was practically over Mr. Lincoln responded at once by an improvement in health and spirits, but he did not want to go to the theater on that fatal night, and not from any presentiment of evil. The play was Our American Cousin, and he had seen it once. It was funny enough, and Mr. Lincoln loved funny 672 LINCOLN TALKS things, but not twice in the same place, even for company's sake. He tried to get out of going, but Mrs. Lincoln would not permit it. She had had troubles of her own with that theater party from outside— General and Mrs. Grant having been called away at the last minute— and she did not propose to have her own husband desert her. She insisted on his going. "All right," he said in his meek, submissive way, when he found resistance was useless. "All right, Mary, I'll go, but if I don't go down in history as the martyr President I miss my guess." — W. J. Lampton. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY [The initials H. N. B., when given as the source of a story, refer to the author's notebooks, a collection of one hundred and twenty volumes of newspaper clippings (i 858-1938), photostats, etc., dealing with Lincoln.] Adderup, Andrew: Lincolniana, or the Humors of Uncle Abe Arnold, Isaac N.: Life of Abraham Lincoln Atkinson, Eleanor: Lincoln's Boyhood Barrett, Joseph H.: Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency Life of Abraham Lincoln Barton, William E.: Life of Abraham Lincoln Bates, David Homer: Lincoln in the Telegraph Office Beveridge, Albert J.: Abraham Lincoln Binns, Henry Bryant: Life of Abraham Lincoln Brooks, Elbridge S.: Historic Americans Century Book of Famous Americans True Story of Abraham Lincoln Brooks, Noah: Abraham Lincoln Browne, Francis Fisher: Every-Day Life of Lincoln Burrage, Henry Sweetser: Lincoln and Stanton Butterfield, Daniel: Biographical Memory Butterworth, Hezekiah: In the Boyhood of Lincoln Carpenter, F. B.: Six Months at the White House Case, Carleton B.: Wit and Humor of Abraham Lincoln Chittenden, L. E.: Personal Reminisce?ices Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration Coffin, Charles Carlton: Abraham Lincoln Curtis, William Elroy: The True Abraham Lincoln Dana, Charles A.: Recollections of the Civil War Gallaher, J. B.: Best Lincoln Stories Gross, Anthony: Lincoln's Own Stories Hanaford, Phebe A. C: Abraham Lincoln Herndon, William H.: Life of Lincoln Hirst, Margaret E.: The Quakers in Peace and War Holland, J. G.: Life of Abraham Lincoln 675 6j6 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Hopson, J. T.: Lincoln Year Book Huidekoper, Henry Shippen: Notes and Recollections of Abraham Lincoln Iglehart, Frederick C: The Speaking Oak Jay, Allen: Autobiography Keckley, Elizabeth: Behind the Scenes Lamon, Ward H.: Life of Abraham Lincoln Recollections of Lincoln Livermore, Mary A.: My Story of the War McClure, A. K.: Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times Lincoln's Own Yarns and Stories McClure, J. B.: Lincoln's Stories Morse, John T., Jr.: Abraham Lincoln Nicolay, Helen: Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln Nicolay, John G., and Hay, John: Abraham Lincoln Pendel, Thomas F.: Thirty -Six Years in the White House Pratt, Silas G.: Lincoln in Story Putman, M. Louise: Children's Life of Abraham Lincoln Rice, Allen Thorndike: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln Rothschild, Alonzo: Lincoln, Master of Men Schriner, Charles A.: Wit, Wisdom and foibles of the Great Schurz, Carl: Reminiscences Selby, Paul: Lincoln's Life, Stories and Speeches Stevens, Walter B.: A Reporter's Lincoln Stoddard, William O.: Abraham Lincoln, the True Story of a Great Life Inside the White House in War Times Table Talk of Abraham Lincoln Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln Tarbell, Ida M.: Life of Lincoln Townsend, E. D.: Anecdotes of the Civil War Villard, Henry: Memoirs Ward, William Hayes: Reminiscences of Abraham. Lincoln Weed, Harriet A.: Life of Thurlotu Weed Weik, Jesse W.: The Real Lincoln Welles, Gideon: Lincoln and Seward Whipple, Wayne: Story Life of Lincoln Whitney, Henry C: Life on the Circuit with Lincoln Lincoln the Citizen Williams, Henry L.: Lincoln Story Book Wilson, James Grant: Washington, Lincoln and Grant Wordsworth, R. D.: u Abe" Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories A Book of Stories of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Publishing Co., Ft. Wayne, Indiana) Appleton's Annual Encyclopaedia (Vols. I-XV, 1861-1875) Honest Old Abe's Jokes (Hearst and Co., New York) Proceedings of the Republican Club of the City of New York (1 887-1928) True Stories of Heroic Lives (Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1899) Wit and Humor of American Statesmen (Jacobs and Co., Philadelphia, 1902) INDEX ^^^S^^^^$^^^^^^^^^^^^^S^^^^ Abraham's bosom, resting in, 98 Abstract and concrete, 240 "Accuse not," Bible text, 21 1-2 Acquittal by forgiveness, 70-1 Actor seeks consulship, 248-9 Adams, Christopher, 254 Adam's ale, Lincoln toasts in, 169-70 Addison, 264 Addition, of cipher, 253 Address, on Irishman's letter, 18; to Mc- Clellan's army, 464 Advertisement, early business, 16; for stolen watch, 91 Advice, to young men, 74; to suspected traveler, 198-9; unwelcome, 459; mili- tary, 470-1 Aesop, Lincoln as American, xi; Fables, 8; lion, 262-3; scrubbing the Negro, 339 Affonsa, Frances, 1 1 1 Akers, Dr. Peter, sermon of, i43~4 Alcott of Elgin, 116 Alden, Geo. C, victim of sleeping sickness, 428-9 All-around settlement, 60 Alley, John B. (M.C.), 165; intervenes for slaver, 330-1 ; procures stay of execution, 533-4'» aids injured boy, 551-2 Almanac, 23-5 Almighty, delegation from, 329 Alone, 45-6 Altar inscription for church, 575 Alton. Lincoln reminded of prison at, 131; and Lovejoy, 143 Altruism, Jones and Sarah Ann, 326 Ambassador, advice to, 595 Amendment, Chase's, to Emancipation Proc- lamation, 334-6 America, preserving a free, 305-6 Ames, Horatio, contract for guns, 398-9 Anderson, Maj. Robert (commander at Fort Sumter), 640 Anderson, Theodore, 40 Andersonville prison, Lincoln preoccupied by, 451 Andrews, C. P., must pay girl, 446 Andrews, E. W., 302-3, 316, 622 "Andy," alleged uglier than Lincoln, courts death, 88-9 Angel, Joe, 106-7 Anniversary, first, of inauguration, 259 Another way, discharge for minor secured, 545-6 Antietam, fatigue of cavalry since, 465; Lincoln has dream before, 555-6; soldier wounded at, 612 677 Anti-Lecompton issue, 156-7 Anxiety costs, 225-6 Apology, to Jonathan Crouch, 105; from Dr. Gurley, 506-7 Appearance, Lincoln's facial, 88, 89; pub- lic, 170 Applicant, 568 Appomattox, prophecy after, 324 Arabian Nights, 8 Argument, 134 Arithmetic, darky, explained, 320-1 Arming slaves, Senators urge, 448-9 Armor-clad vessels, theory vs. fact, 390-1 Arms to slaves, Hamlin induces Lincoln to give, 449 Armstrong, Hannah, 103 Armstrong, Perry, 126 Army orders, relayed, 384-5 Arnold, Isaac N. (leader of Chicago bar; M.C. during Lincoln's administration; appeared against young lawyer whom Lincoln helped), 49-50, 80, 119, 368; prophecy re Lincoln, 155-6 Ashmun, Geo. C, 595 Assassination, Lincoln on, 653-5 Assets, Jim Price's, 312 Astrologer, donkey as court, 242—3 Athens (111.), 124 Attack, suggested, on South, 396 Attorney, Lincoln the people's, 306-7 Auction, 578-9 Audiences, various kinds, 426 Autobiography, Lincoln's, 138 Autograph, of J. Q. Adams, given to Stan- ton, 644 Axes, lifted in rail-splitting days, 636 Backwoods lawyer, Lincoln a, 629 Bacon, Rev. Leonard, on slavery, 346-7 Badger-baiting, 11-2 Bagley, Squire, 45 Baker, Edward Dickenson (Sen., 111.), at Wallace and Diller's store, 75; protected by Lincoln, 133; Lincoln resents reflec- tion on, 593 Baker, E. L., 124-5 Baldwin, Judge Joseph, 407 Bale-, Abraham, 55 Ball game, Lincoln watches, 617 Baltimore Negroes give Lincoln Bible, 350 Bancroft, T. B., 41 1-2 Bandage, pardon written on, 551 Banquo, 613-7 Bap McNabb's rooster, 460 Bar, two sides to, 149 678 INDEX Barbecue, on Friday, disgusts Irishman, 177-8 Barber shaves nominee Lincoln, 166 Bargains not authorized, 165 Barnett, Mrs., makes custard for lawyers, 7 8 Barney, Hiram, 184-5 Barney D., if not shot, 534-5 Barnum, Phineas T., 628 Barouche, Mrs. Lincoln's, 655-6 Barreled boy, 554 Barrett, J. H., 307 Barrett, Lawrence, 67 Barton, Squire, 198-9 Bateman, Dr. Newton, on grammar, 167 Bates, David Homer, 209, 315, 385-6, 458, 483-4, 601, 622 Bates, Edward (Atty.-Gen., candidate for President), 186-7, 277; on Michigan quota, 194-6; chin exercised, 198; he and Lincoln both pigeon-hearted, 310— 1 Baxter, Batsell (pres. Abilene College), 608 Beal, John Y. (Southern spy), 429 Beauty, Lincoln's, not painter's guide, 597- 598 Beckwith, Capt. S. H., steals Lincoln's thun- der, 573 Bed, miracle of lengthened, 633 Beecher, Henry Ward, 158; scared at Sun- day game, 200; Lincoln's promise to, 331- 332 Beef, 25 Beer, in War Dept., 634-5 Bellows, Rev. Dr. Henry Whitney (pres. of Sanitary Commission), 245 Bench, Lincoln on, 43-4 Benefactor, 238 Bennett, James Gordon, sends bouquet to Mrs. Lincoln, 193-4 Bergen, Judge Abram, 37-9 Bergen, Rev. Dr., 374~5 Better early than late, 567 Better horse, mayor is, 546 Bible, Lincoln and, 101-2 Bibles, out of, 577 Big Brindle, 603 Biggest liar in Washington, 599-600 Big hog, 385 Big men, Webster vs. local celebrity, 155 Bills, laundry, 426 Bill Sikes's dog, Confederacy like, 318-9 Bingham, John A. (M.C., Ohio). 414 Bingham, Kinsley S. (Sen.), and Confis- cation Bill, 326-7 Binns, Henry B., 295-6 Black and white, number in, 476 Blackburn, Joe (Sen.), 50 Black color-bearer, 450 Black Friday, hangman's day, 516-7 Black Hawk War, 19-20, 138, 640; Lin- coln's "heroism" in, 129-30; bloodshed in, 374 Blacksmith, disgruntled, 568-9 Black soldier, Gen. Wadsworth and, 450 Blackstone, 16 Blair, Albert, 618-9 Blair, Austin (ex-Gov., Mich.), 461-2 Blair, Francis P. (statesman, friend of sev- eral Presidents) , consulted on McClel- lan's attitude, 300-2; intercedes for Vir- ginia girl, 499-500 Blair, Montgomery (Postmaster-Gen.), 200, 486; orders of Stanton and Grant, 212-3; on Lincoln's promise to Bouligny, 336-7 Blame, highwayman's philosophy of, 176 Blame, on Gen. R. E. Lee, 407-8 Blessings, potatoes as poor, 9 Blister, critics must sit on, 295-6 Blister bench, for forger, 631 Blizzard, Lincoln nearly frozen in, 92 Biondin, Jean Frangois Gravelet (1824- 1897; crossed Niagara Falls in 1859 on a tight rope 1300 feet long, 3*4 inch di- ameter; performed this remarkable ex- ploit blindfold, in a sack, pushing a wheel- barrow, on stilts, with a man on his back; once sat down midway and cooked and ate an omelet), 263 Bloodshed in Black Hawk War, 374 Bloomington (111.), 39, 41, 50, 69, 78, 82, „ 89, 138 Bloomington (Ind.), 85 Blue blood no obstacle to advancement, 413-4 Board bills, 310 Bodyguard, army is McClellan's, 464-5; President's obeys Stanton, 636 Boils, cure for, rebel yells as, 486 Bond, John R. S., advises Stanton on Hicks's request, 213-4 Bonds, Lincoln buys Govt., 623 Bond?, tax-free, 222-3 Bond with 39 guarantors, 13 1-3 Booth, Edwin, 67 Boots, gentleman cleans whose, 632 Boots, removed for comfort, no Borrowed capital, 135-6 Boss, Cabinet, 225 Boston folks, and impromptu talk, 305 Bottom out of tub, 459 Bounty, excess, corrected, 454 Bounty-jumpers, 663 Bourbon, fast-aging, 604-5 Bourry, Capt., pay for, 445-6 Boutwell, Geo. H., 360 Bowen, Henry C, 186-7; Lincoln declines invitation of, 158-9 Bowers, Col., 573 Bowie knife brandished, 633-4 Boys, Lincoln fond of, 617 Brackenridge, Henry M., 632-3 Bradner, Mrs. Judith A., 78, 182-3 Brag. American and British, 355 Braggart, 93 Brahe, Tycho, x Brandegee, Augustus (M.C., Conn.), 398- 399; presses candidacy of Henry Ham- mond, 250-1 Brayman, Gen. Mason, 46-7; at Wallace and Diller's store, 75 Breaking news, all at once, 337 Breckenridge, Cleophas, given temperance pledge by Lincoln, 94 Brett, Mr., lawyer recommended by Lin- coln, 69-70 Bricks in pockets to keep down flighty, 203 Bridge: R.R. case, 72; dubious about abut- ment of, on Hades shore, 124 Brief, terse, 28-9 Briggs, James A., 246 Bright, John (English statesman, friend of America), forwards Lincoln's resolution to Parliament, 353-4 Brisbin, James S., 244-5 Bromwell, Judge (of Denver), 429 Brooks, Noah, 73, 234, 247-8, 304-5. 361-2 418-9, 504, 561-2, 584-6, 596-7» 602, 611 Broomstick, Lincoln whittles, 167-8 Bross, Deacon, addresses meeting, 136-7 Brown, John, 261 Brown, Judge Thomas, presides at mock trial, 63-5 . _ Browning, Orville H. (Sen., Atty.-Gen.), 82; suggests subjugation of South, 322 Browning, Oscar W. (Sen. from 111., Cabi- net officer), hears Lincoln's story of "comet" business, 86-7 Buchanan, James (President) : in Dred Scott conspiracy, i4!-3; at Lincoln's in- auguration, 258 Buckskin aristocracy, 121-2 Buggy: smashed by laughter, 59-60; lounge becomes, 622 Bull, Irish, cures blues, 621 Bull circumnavigates tree, 3 2 3~4 Bulldog grip, Grant advised to use, 566 Bulldogs, England and America like, 356-7 Bullfrogs, imaginary carloads of, 278-9 Bullitt, Mrs., Luckett's daughter, pleads for father, 498-9 Bull Run, 553-6 Bulls, yard full of, 434~5 Bundy, Hezekiah S. (M.C., Ohio), 505 Bunn, Jacob, 56-7 Bunn, John W., 36, 56-7, 168-70 Burbridge, Gen., arrests Col. Wolford, 271 Burden, Govt, to carry, 589 Burden of office, 186-7 Burgess, Capt. W. T., Lincoln explains machine to young, 104-5 Burial, 225 Burleigh, Dr., appointed Indian agent, 256 Burnside, Gen. Ambrose E. : assists Rose- crans, 386; prepares proclamation, 469 Burriss, Dr. J. E., 443 Burt, Col. Silas W., 638-9 Bustification, general, 637 Butcher, amateur, 15 Butcher-day, tomorrow is, 517 Butler, Benjamin F., commissioned Maj.- Gen., 381-2; Lincoln on future service of, 489-90; objects to Lincoln's "destroy- ing discipline," 534 Butterfield, Gen. Daniel, 377-8 Byers, Mrs., seeks pardon for blind wom- an's son, 510-4 By the tail, 3 2 3~4 Cabinet maker, Douglas trained to be, 174 Calculation, on 'coon hunt, 124-5 Calhoun, John C. (Sen. from S.C.) : in mock trial, 63-5; in Lincoln's illustration of Missouri Compromise repeal, 134-5; one of unlucky "C's," 227 Call again (too sick to joke with doctor), no Cameron, Simon (Sen. from Pa., Secy, of War, Minister to Russia) : compares sol- diers with those of Black Hawk War, 374; discusses excess Michigan volun- teer quota, 194-6; height of, 647; Lin- coln queries, 475; resigns War post, 201- 202; Stevens protests favor to, 201; while McClellan naps, 457~8 Campaign: biography, J. L. Scripps seeks, 172; expenses, 119-20; stories, Lincoln ignores, 17 1-2 Campbell, Col. Lew D., 409-10 INDEX 679 Campbell, Thomas (Illinois Secy, of State), on attractiveness of Springfield, 96 Camp Morton prisoner freed, 509-10 Canal boat Polly Ann, 572 Canes, disquisition on, 635-6 Capital, borrowed, 135-6 Captaincy, boy seeks, 41 1-2 Captured Confederate, interceded for, 502 Carding, Senators and Cabinet, 611 Carlile, James S. (Sen., W.Va.), sees Lincoln re W.Va. State Bill, 315-6 Carnegie, Andrew, 543-4, 546 Carpenter, F. B., 253-4, 265-6, 271, 274-5, 276, 278, 293, 317, 344-5, 35i, 360, 361, 377, 385, 416-7, 440-1, 458, 469-70, 492-3, 54o-3, 557, 575, 579-8o, 581, 597-8, 604, 635-6 Cartter, Judge David K., 286-7 Cartwright, Rev. Peter: pioneer preacher, 65; grandfather of "Peachy" Harrison, 70-1; inquires Lincoln's destination, 126- 127 Cartwright, Wilbur (M.C.), 594 Case, Carleton B., 98-9, 356, 399-400, 459, 460, 465-6, 468-9, 518, 637 Cass, Gen. Lewis (candidate for Presi- dency) : his capacity, 128-9; his heroism described, 129-30; one of unlucky "C's," 227- pursuit of Indians, 567 Cass, Mr., and ox team case, 35-6 Catfish, horse offered, 90-1 Cazauran, Alexander R. (author, drama- tist, collaborator with A. C. Gunter), 529 Chairman talks too much, 189 Chalked hat, 186-7 Chambrun, Marquis of, asks as to interfer- ence in Mexico, 360 Champagne, Lincoln declines, 634 Chancellorsville, despair caused by, 217-9 Chandler, Albert Brown, 484, 597 Chandler, Zacharia (Sen., Mich.) : reports Mich., exceeds volunteer quota, 194-6; sponsors candidacy of James F. Joy, 251- 252 Changeling, Lincoln calls self, 89 Change of manner, 592-3 Chaplain, elected by regiment, 416-7 Character study, 598-9 Charge, of clerks, up staircase, 485-6 Charity, method of contributing to, 110-1 Chase, Pilot Jack, and apple overboard, 441 Chase, Salmon P. (Secy, of Treasury) : ac- companies Lincoln to review Pa. Re- serves, 198; anecdotes, 224-5; at read- ing of Emancipation Proclamation, 334- 336; caricatured, 223; discusses Mich, volunteer quota, 194-6; explains safe- guards of Treasury, 313-4; final esti- mate of, 230-1; offers amendment to Proclamation, 338-9; one of unlucky "C's," 227; on national debt, 224; opin- ion of greenbacks, 221-2; resigns, 228- 231; succeeds Taney as Chief Justice, 233-4; told of Lincoln's vow re Procla- mation, 351; yields on greenbacks, 222 Chase, S. E., 241 Chess, Tad disrupts game, n 3-4 Chicago, divine message via, 328-9 Chicago and St. Peter, 288-9 Chicago Convention, 165 Chicago Times, Mrs. H. McCulloch asks its suppression, 275 68o INDEX Chickens, secret of catching, 607-8 Chickens prepare for moving, 279-80 Child's letter, condemned man saved by, 546-8 Chin-fly, as incentive, 226 Chittenden, L. E., 228-32, 233-4, 276, 308, 618, 621 Christian, John (Lincoln's valet-coach- man), 487-8; new barouche, 655-6; horse's staggers, 656 Church, Dr. Gurley's, not closed, 577 Church, Elmer F., 69-70 Churches into hospitals, 361 Cider and ginger snaps, illustrate tariff, 312-3 "Civil" engineer, 596 Civilian war, 408-9 Claflin, Horace B., 158 Clark, Daniel (Sen., N.H.), 242 Classes, social, Lincoln on, 153 Clay, Cassius M., resigns as minister to Russia, 202 Clay, Henry (statesman, M.C., Sen.): one of unlucky "C's," 227; as speaker, com- pared to Lincoln, 553 Clerk aspires to military rank, 415-6 Clinton (111.), 68, 78 Clock peddler, Marshall County, 338 Close conscription in Tennessee, 530-1 Clothes, 31; new suit of, 81; new, as by- product of election, 185 Coachman, Leonard Grover acts as, 650-2 Coal-heaver measures with Lincoln, 188-9 Coals of fire no use, 92 Cochrane, Maj.-Gen. John, 470; wanted in army, 379 Cock-crow, premature, 569-71 Coffey, Titian J. (Atty.-Gen. after Bates), 198, 315, 327-8, 505-6, 629 Coffin, C. C, 159 Coincidence, shouting hello, 606-7 Cole, Mrs. Helen B., 642 Cole, Sen. Cornelius, 307, 583, 595 Colfax, Schuyler, 197-8, 427, 486-7, 517; sees manifestation of Lincoln's prescience, 307; with the Lincolns at Grover's thea- ter, 650-2 Colonel of militia, farewell to, 19 Color-blind, judging performance of Othel- lo by Edwin Forrest, 352-3 Colt, case of, 34-5 Colt, withdrawn for kicking, 116 Colt's into horse-pistols, 385-6 Columbus, egg demonstration — or ham, 608 Comet business, japes upon, 84-7 Commandment, painter observes Lord's, 597 Common people, God must love, 316 Company endwise, 129 Comparison, unflattering, 131 Compassion, Lincoln urges, 54 Competition in looks removed, 264 Compression (most words into smallest ideas), 106 Compromise, man vs. wife, 60—1 Conant, A. J., told of Lincoln's legal study, 15-6 Conception, non-productive, 120-1 Condell, John S., Sr., 148 Confederates, not rebels, 490-1 Confidence, in general, little, 467 Confiscation Bill, and Senator Bingham, 326-7 Confiscation of Southern property urged, 322-3 Congress, difficulty-maker, 280-1 Conkling, James C., 47-8 Conscientious objectors, Pringle's case, 536 Conscription, close, 530-1 Consolation, sorrows pass away, 591 Constitution, respected and defended, 179 Construction, a judge's close, 307 Contrabands, two fastidious, 487 Contrast, Lincoln vs. McClellan, 303 Conversion, enemy into friend, 188 Convict story, 652-3 Conway, Moncure D., 150-1, 341-4, 346-7 Conwell, Dr. Russell H., 599-600, 671 Cooke, Jay, 198 'Coon, and distressed boy, 368 'Coon hunt, 124-5 Cooper Union, 71, 158-9 Copperhead lie, 645-6 Copperheads, Northern, 265 Cord for cord, wildcat currency, 315 Cork leg, runaway, 125 Corning, Erastus, 71-2, 270-1 Correspondence, re appointment of chap- lain, 215 Cortelyou, Geo. B., 155 Corwin, Thomas, as speaker, compared to Lincoln, 553 Cost, of wooden vs. real leg, 320 Counterfeiting, safeguards against, 313-4 Courage to do right, 126 Court, knowledge of the, 42 Court, repose of the, 41 Courtesy, 593 Cousin, Dennis Hanks visits, 624-5 Cowhiding case, 37-9 Cows, McClellan captures, 465 Cox, S. S. ("Sunset"— M.C., Ohio), 611; asks Lincoln about raider Morgan, 479 Crafton murder case, 70-1 Crawford, Andrew, 9-10 Crawford, Wm. H. (Sen., Presidential candidate), one of unlucky "C's," 227 Crazygrams, 483-4 Credentials, Robert T. Lincoln's opinion, 4 J 4-5 Creed, Lincoln would prefer, 575 Creswell, John A. J. (Sen. from Md.) : Lincoln mentions Appomattox to, 325; and marooning, 368-9 Crimes and misdemeanors, 418-9 Criticism, by Gen. Lew Wallace, 491-2 Crittenden, John J. (statesman), as speak- er, compared to Lincoln, 553 Crocodile, Douglas's preference for Negro as against, 152 Cromwell's successor, Billy Patterson not interested in, 410-1 Crook, Wm. H., 617 Crooked fence, 33 _ 4 Crooked nose, crooked path, 89 Crop of fight, 26 Crouch, Jonathan, apology to, 105 Crowded army, 459 Crusaders, 235-6 Cullom, Shelby, 79. Cumberland, sink like, 316 Cummings, Capt. John H., 374, 554 Cure for rheumatism, 600 Curiosity, a, Lincoln's photo in South, 514 Curiosity vs. politeness, 4 Currant jelly, Lincoln devours, 130-1 INDEX 68l Currency, wildcat, 315; see also Green- backs Curtin, Andrew G. (Gov., Pa.), 456-7; not named to foreign mission, 247; signs notes for $700,000, 451-3; height of, 647 Curtis, Samuel R., 275 Custard, Mrs. Barnett's, 78 Custom and law, 45 Daguerreotype, 144 Dahlgren, Adm. John A., 282-3 Damages to buggy, Lincoln pays for, 59-60 Dana, Charles A., 157-8, 178-9, 466-7, 503-4; Lincoln reads Nasby to, 208-9; on Thompson's escape, 370-1; Wing's message to, 563 Dance, first, with Mary Todd, 108 Dancing, sin of, 602 Dandy, frightened out of appointment, 249 Daniel, John W. (Sen., Va.), 367 Darrow, Dr. D. A., 103-4 David's answer, quoted, to Judge Gillespie, 362 Davis, David (Judge of Supreme Court of Illinois; Lincoln's manager at Chicago Convention; appointed to U.S. Supreme Court), 42, 43, 44-5, 47, 51, 57, 107-8, 164-5; hears case with eyes closed, 41; hears Spencer vs. Dungee, 66-8; fines court clerk for laughter at Lincoln's joke, 77-8; in pillow fight with Lincoln, 84; at Presidential reception, 618-9 Davis, Dr. L., 329-30 Davis, Henry Winter (M.C.. Md.), 200 Davis, Jefferson: is like coon dilemma, i68; fate, hoped for, 369; escape of, -incoln "bound to oppose, but — , 369- 370; asks that Lee's sons be spared, 503 Dawes, Henry L., 203, 204 Day, lshmael, visits Lincoln, 491-2 Deacon's daughter asks reward, 255 Death: better than ugliness, 88-9; Lin- coln suggests his favorite, 562 Debt: national, of great interest, 224; of Wm. Scott, 532-3 Decatur (111.), 14 Declaration of Independence, 152-3 Delaware, might tip, 288 Delayed: payment, 56-7; meeting with Brackenridge, 632-3 Delivery, advice on, 117 Deming, Col. Henry C, 656-8 Democratic : general, 380-1 ; party, lik- ened to Hades bridge, 129; volunteers, Gen. Sickles undertakes to raise regi- ment of, 378-80 Democrats vs. Locofocos, 127 Dennison, William (Postmaster-Gen.), re- quest for pardon granted, 519 Depew, Chauncey M., 22, 26, 60-1, 71-2, 189, 248, 249, 272, 309, 355, 390, 408-9, 605, 630; candidate for collector of rev- enue, 253 Depression, Lincoln's, following defeat by Douglas, 151 De Profundis, Lincoln's prayer, 577-8 Deserter, decision re penitent, 540 Desire of office, Lincoln on, 140 Despair, after Chancellorsville, 217-9 Destination, heaven, hell, or Congress, 126- 127 Destiny, 143-4 Deus ex machina, 133 Devil, good deal of, in rebels, 482 Dialogue on law between Seddon and Lin- coln, 260-1 Dickens, Charles, 670-1 Dickey, Judge Theophilus Lyle, hears Lin- coln on "house divided," 134 Dickson, Judge W. M., 117 Dictionary, Webster's, 18 Dilatory army, 460-1 Diller, Isaac R., 74-6, 94, 150 Dinner, for Andersonville prisoners, 451 Disadvantages of religion, 603-4 Disbarment, 50-2 Discharge, 545-6 Disloyalty, understandable, 425-6 Disobedient boys, released from navy, 421 Disowned rheumatism, 451 Disproof, 148 Distinction between war captives and slav- ery, 346-77 Divorce suit, 36-7 Dix, John A., wanted in army, 379 "Dixie," question of ownership raised, 367- 368 Dixon, James (M.C., Conn.), Lincoln promises to take his advice, 259-60 Doctor, Lincoln too ill to see, no Doctors disagree, slavery like operation, 329-30 Dodge, Gen. Granville M., commutes pen- alty for guerrilla, 514, 515 Dodge, Wm. E., Lincoln to, 179 Dog: Lincoln rescues, 13-4; always mad, 206; a little ahead, 468-9 Dogs, too many, 242 Dole, Commissioner, 316 Doll, Lincoln pardons Tad's, 663-4 Dominican question, 353 Donovan, J. W., 23-5 Doolittle, James B. (Sen., Wis.), 322, 576 Doorkeeper: examination of candidate for, 257; Lincoln as, 210-1 Dorchester Heights, Bub guides Lincoln to, 162-3 Do something, young lawyer's advice, 388-9 Douglas, Stephen A., 138, 140, 141, 151; and whisky cask, 150; answers Freeport questions, 144-7; " as between crocodile and Negro," 152; at Jacksonville debate, 126; at Logan County courthouse, 80; avoids facts, 148; eminence held by, 149; Hickman mentions, 156-7; in Dred Scott conspiracy, 141-3; in mock trial, 62-5; son of cooper, 150; substitutes 3 guaran- tors for 39, 1 3 1-3; taunts Lincoln as poor speaker, 120-1; wanted in army, 379 Douglass, Frederick, suggests general re- taliation, 352 Dragnet, executions everywhere stopped, 550 Dreams, 554, 669-71 Dred Scott: conspiracy, analyzed, 141-3; decision, summarized, 141 Dress parade, and Bap McNabb's rooster, 460 Drought, contracts recall, 309 Drummond, Judge Thomas, 93 Dubois, Jesse K., 114, 417, 559-60 Dubois, Sen. Fred T., 114-5 Duel, with Gen. Shields, 108-9 Dunlap, Col., 37-9 Dupont. Com. F. S., 398 682 INDEX Dutch, Alexander Schimmelpfennig made Brig.-Gen., to please, 375 Dutch Gap Canal, 568-9 Dutch justice, 54 Du Verney, Paul, 162-3 Dying boy, letter home for, 422 Early, Gen. Jubal: raid on Washington, 204-5; Sheridan's victory over, 567 Easy, suspiciously, 470 Eavesdropper takes hint, 383-4 Eckert, Thomas T., 419, 558, 587, 697, 620- 621, 645; Lincoln prevents dismissal of, 205-6; hears Lincoln reading Nasby, 208-9; gives a non-Lincoln story, 372 Edgerly, Jason H., called "flea," 482 Edward (White House doorkeeper), and Fillmore, 257-8 Edwards, Benjamin, 37, 38 Edwards, E. J., 217-9 Eggs, 14-5 Egotism, of "fighting Joe" Hooker, 471-2 Election, way to swing, 227-8 Elephant on hands, 370 Ellsworth, Elmer E., 113, 188-9, 589-90 Elter, James (doorkeeper, War Depart- ment), and Lincoln, 210-1 Emancipation, 172-3, 3 2 7~8, 334~6, 340 # Embarrassment, caused by passionate claim- ant, 656-8 Emergency, male nipples in, 481-2 Emoluments, none for patriotism, 193 Endorsement, financial, of a friend, 98-9 Enemies destroyed, made friends, 367 Enemy brother-in-law, 658-61 Engine, better named "Skeared Virginian," 602 Engineer, McClellan a stationary, 458 England and the Confederacy, 353~4 English sympathy, Lincoln discusses, with English girl, 354~5 Enlarged office, promoter of, discouraged, 272 Episcopalian, Seward-like swearing, 196 Ericsson, John, and Monitor, 391 Erudition, 48-9 Escape, McClellan and Illinoisan in peni- tentiary, 465-6 Escort, Lincoln declines, 617 Eternal struggle, 153 Euclid: called liar, no proof, 148; valua- ble to a lawyer, 18 Evading orders, husband may see sad wife, 419 Evarts, William M., 233-4 Even division, 127-8 Eve of election, Lamon upsets Lincoln on, 300-2 Evidence, 40 Ewing, James S., 89 Ewing, Judge Thomas, 201-2 Examination, Dick Gower passes, 411 Excuse, 489 Exeter (N.H.). Lincoln visits, 163-4 Expansion of White House, 606 Expenses, campaign, 119-20 Experience, Col. Weller would be commo- dore, 387 Expulsion, by free will, 317 Eyes, not looking in, 598-9 Face, ugly, rewarded with gift, 88 Factotum, Lincoln not, 426-7 Fainting woman, at Gettysburg, 652 Fair, one son for each, 420-1 Faith, Lincoln's, in destruction of Merri- mac, 392 Fault-finding, Sherman not addicted to, 555 Fay, Herbert Wells, 92 Fee, big, 26-7 Fees and duns, 54-6 Feet, and cold, 83 Fell, Jesse D., 164-5 Fellow-patriot, warning from, 443-4 Fellow-traveler, and "comet business," 84-7 Female job brokerage, 246 Fence, crooked, 33-4 Ferguson, W. J., at Logan County court- house, 80; in mock trial, 62-5 Fessenden, Samuel, 206-7 Fessenden, William P. (Sen., Secy, of Treasury), advice on pardon, 206-7; suc- ceeds Chase, 231-2 Fighter, 557 Filial retort, Tad to Lincoln, 664-5 Fillmore, Millard, buys second-hand car- riage, 257-8 Fines, general imposition of, 491 Finger and thumb, loan of, 262 Fire brigade, funds for, 110-1 Fire chief, Lincoln not, 317-8 First dollar earned by Lincoln, 12-3 Fish, and soldier, 4 Fish, Carl Russel (author, historian), 598 Fish, too big a, 492-3 Fisher, George P., 288 Fishing, William Wainright shares, 163-4 Fisk, Gen. Clinton B., reprimands mule- driver for swearing, 531-2 Fiske, Stephen, 190 Five Points school, Lincoln speaks at, 159 Fizzle, anyhow, 568-9 Flapjacks, Aunt Sally's, praised, 624 Flatboat, 12-3 Flattery, oil fordispositions, 597 Flea, Lincoln nicknames Edgerly, 482 Fleas, shoveling, 459 Flush Times in Alabama, 491 Flying Dutchman engine misnamed, 602 Fooling the people, 138 Fools, two, parallel cases, 505-6 Foot, Judge Samuel A. (Judge of N.Y. State Court of Appeals), hears discus- sion of excess quota, 194-6 Foot, Lawrence (son of Samuel A.), intro- duced to Lincoln and Gen. Totten, 194-6 Foote, Adm., 390 Forbes, Charles (Lincoln's Irish footman), tries green persimmon, 649-50 Fording Fox River, 107-8 Foreign policy, no "sneakin' 'round," 358-9 Forger, obtains $1500, 630-1 Forgery, voice from grave, 505 Forgiveness, acquittal by, 70-1 Forgiveness, to editor claiming to have nominated Lincoln, 263-4 Formalities, payment without, 445 Formality, freedom from, no Forney, John W. (Secretary of Senate), 282; secures pardon, 518-9 "Forninst the Government," Irishman who was, 299-300 Forquer, George, and lightning rod, 119 Forrest, Edwin, in Othello, 352-3 Ft. Stevens, Lincoln obeys order at, 485 Foster, Wilder D., 502-3 Fourth of July, Springfield, 570-1 Fox, Gustavus V. (Asst. Secy, of Navy), considers armored craft, 390-2 Fox into paymaster, 417 Fox River, court fords, 107-8 Fox River, crossing, 325-6 Frankie, family well provided, 627-8 Franking, letters for soldiers, 441-2 Freak of nature, 458 Fredericksburg, grief over, 456 Freedom (Pa.), and coal heaver, 188-9 Free government, 303-4 Freeport questions, M4~7 Freeport sophism, definition of Douglas's, 148 Freese, Jacob, colonelcy for, 411 Fremont, Gen. John C., 136-8, 294-5 Friends, case of three, 536-8; see also Quakers Frontiersman and louse, 121 Fry, Gen. James B. (Provost-Marshal), 207-8, 375, 415-6, 425, 473, 474, 541, 653; is told of disposal of a Governor, 282; corrects excess bounty, 454 Fry, Smith D. (historian), 503-4 Fugitive Slave Law, to be enforced, 181 Fundey, William B., at Wallace and Dil- ler's, 75 Funeral of person in coffin, 303 Furlough: to distracted officer, 431-2; to remove family to poor house, 446 Further orders, not shot until, 533-4 Future happiness, Lincoln looks to, 671 Gabbling, as grounds for slander suit, 66-8 Galloway, Hon. Samuel, and Gov. Tod summoned by Lincoln, 347-9 Game pies sans game, 157-8 Ganson, John (M.C., N.Y.), makes im- portant inquiries, 271-2 Garfield, James A., hears young lawyer's advice, 388-9 Garrett, John W. (railroad man), 318 Garrison, William Lloyd, 261; finds diffi- culty getting into prison, 344 Gas, invention to stop escape of, from newspapers, 274-5 General bustification of gloves, 637 Generals, surplus, removed, 558 Generosity, cautious, 245 Gentleman, allow no greater, 626 Gentleman of the press interviews Lincoln, 272-4 Gentle measures, war squirt-guns, 489 Gentry, Mr., 13 George III, on Gen. Wolfe, 372 German: deserter, 548-9; on right side, 422-3 Gethsemane, Lincoln in, 186 Gettysburg, Lincoln and Sickles discuss, 558-9; Lincoln to father of lost son at, 316; same dream as before, 555-6; Ste- vens on Lincoln's going to, 225 Ghost of chance, for South, 531 Giant, question to, 647 Gibbon, Maj.-Gen. John, 561; not historian, 4i5 Gibraltar, Strait of, 291 Gibson, Charles, curt reasons for accepting resignation of, 285 Gilbert, Judge W. I., 445 Gilbert, Mr., made assessor, Wall Street, 253-4 INDEX 683 Gillespie, Judge Joseph, 362; Gethsemane mentioned to, 185-6; Lincoln would like in Cabinet, 164; receives David's answer, 362 Gilmore, J. R., 295-6 Gingerbread, liked most and got less, 637-8 Girl: honest, 499-500; soldier, 446 Glass hack, slickest in town, 656 Globe, Lincoln declines smashing, 276 Glover, J. O., 144 Gloves, splitting of kid, 637 < Goat, Lincoln's argument with, 97 Goat-buyer for Tad, 662 Goats, disquisition on, 663 God and right, 576 God's will, President writes Concord chil- dren, 330 Golden rule, applied, 507 Goldsborough, Rear Admiral L. M., 388; prepares proclamation, 469 Good case declined, 54 Good cause, 154 Good deed, pardon, 539 Good husband, paroled to wife, 501-2 Good letter, for easing wrath, 211 Good name, Schimmelpfennig, 375 Goodrich, Grant, 37 Good son, not improved by shooting, 543-4 Gower, Dick, passes test, 411 "Go West"— motivation, 120 Graft, 247, 264-5- Grammar, corrected, 167 Grammarian, Billy Green, Lincoln's, 623 Grandfather, Lincoln's, 3 Grant, Frederick D. (son of U. S. Grant), 560-1 Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 213, 568, 569; at circus, 557; at Petersburg, 443; de- clines to run against Lincoln, 290-1 ; gets his teeth in, 557; has no case to state, 561; Lincoln fears candidacy of, 290-1; present as Lincoln tells of dream, 555-6; reporter tells Lincoln his mes- sage, 565; supported by Lincoln, 559-60; to Army of Potomac, 560; will follow on Lee's heels, 556; will not ask for more troops, 561; whisky, Lincoln wants to know brand, 558 Grant's peace, on Potomac, 561-2 Grass, Lincoln kept off, 612-3 Gratitude, to Mrs. Hannah Armstrong, 103 Gray's "Elegy," as biography, 172 Grayson murder case, 23-5 Great Book, Lincoln thanks colored people of Baltimore for, 350-1 Greathouse, Judge Tevis, 364-6 Great White Chief addresses red brethren, 619 Greeley, Horace, agrees with Weed, 254; Lincoln declines to write letter to, 277 Green, Abbie, aided, 383-4 Green, Billy, meets Seward, 623 Green, Bowling, 95 Green, Duff, insults Lincoln, 613-7 Green, Sen. James S., requests release of prisoner, 515-6 Greenbacks, 221-4 Greene, Capt. Gilbert J„ 5, 6, 7, 8, 99-100, 101, 102 Greens tried on Jake, 308 Grief, Lincoln's, after Fredericksburg, 456 Grierson, Francis, 180-1, 669-70 Grinnell, J. B., 449-50 684 INDEX Gross, Anthony, 414, 609 Ground squirrels, 80 Grover, Leonard (Washington theatrical manager), 236; doubles for coachman, 650-2 Growler rushed to War Dept., 634-5 Gulliver, Rev. J. P., 160-1 Gunboats, New Yorkers' request for, an- swered, 389-90 Gunter, Archibald Clavering (author, play- wright), 520-9 Gun test, contract with Horatio Ames, 398 Gurley, Rev. Phineas D., and apology, 506- 507; announces church closing, 577 Gyges and Candaules' queen, 64 Habeas corpus, suspension of, 270-1 Hackett, J. H., as Falstaff, 248-9 Hail, Columbia, the only song Lincoln knows, 626 Hair tonic, washes out a bore, 286-7 Half right, reply to Buffalonian, 585 Half Senator, 286 Half slave, half free, 134, 139-40 Halleck, Gen. H. W., at Private O'Reilly's party, 297-9 Halpine, Col. Charles G., 654-5 Hamburgher, Dr., replies to Lincoln, 139 Hamilton, Gail, 166 Hamilton, Maj.-Gen. Schuyler, helps Lin- coln in pension office, 238-40 Hamlin, Hannibal (U.S. Senator from Maine, Vice-President of U.S.) : advises Lincoln to arm slaves, 449; height of, 646; succession of, as insurance against assassination, 654 Hammond, Henry, Brandegee's candidate, 250-1 Hammond, Judge Abram A. (Governor of Indiana), discusses "comet business" with Lincoln, 84-7 Hanaford, Mrs. P. A., 13, 18 Hand-organ, advice on silencing, 209 Handshake, Presidential, confirmed, 641 Handshaking: harder than rail-splitting, 193; no more, 189-90 < Handsome, Lincoln considered, 645—6 Hanghim (Hingham), 3 Hanging, opinion of, 367 Hangman, position of, offered to fire-eater, 324 Hanks, Dennis, 4, 8, 9, 624 Hanks, John, 8, 15 Hannigan, Edward, hears Lincoln on "comet business," 86-7 Hardin, John J., 95 ; at Jacksonville debate, 126 Harlan, Sen. James, 242 Harmonica, Lincoln's band, 151 Harpooned, 344 Harriet, Judge, 43 Harrison, "Peachy," defendant in Crafton case, 70-1 Harvey, Cornelia A. P., 432-40 "Harvey hospital," named after Gov. Har- vey, 439 ,. . Haste, to pardon in time, 549—50 Hat, no fit for lady, 601 Hatch, Ozias Mather, accompanies Lincoln to McClellan's army, 464-5 Hats, mutually excel, 594 Hawk, 19 Hawk trap r rustic's, 92-3 Hay, biggest crop of, 594 Hay, John, 235, 310, 322, 372, 475; at Pvt. O'Reilly's party, 297-9; diary, re Meade and Gettysburg, 474-5 Hay, Milton, ^7 Hayden, Daniel, blind woman's son, par- doned, 510-4 Hays, L. M., 54 Healy, G. P. A., paints Lincoln, 186 Hearington, Mr., 80 Heart, brave, vs. cowardly heels, 125-6 Heat in South, 608-9 Heckler, charged with not being fair, 136— 138 Heels, vulnerable at approach of danger, 125-6 Hegermann-Lindencrone, Lillie de, 626-7 Height, Lincoln's and four others' com- pared, 646-7 Hell: bridge to, 124; lawyers' place in, 21; preaching a cold, 611 Helm, Ben Hardin, and Lincoln's offer, 658-61 Henderson, Sen. John B., 327-8, 493-7, 510-4, 516 Hen persuader, to secure more eggs, 601-2 Henry, Dr. Anson G., i7 ? 154 Hen-stealing beneath dignity, 418-9 Hen walker, patent, 601-2 Herald, patient in hospital reads and sur- vives, 275-6 Herald reporter interviews Lincoln, 272-4 Heredity, Lincoln fears for Robert, 112 Herndon, William H. (Mayor of Spring- field, banking commissioner of Illinois), ix, 3, 8, 14, 15, 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34- 35. 37, 39-43, 60, 62-65, 66, 76, 84, 89-90, 97, 98, 103, 108, 109, 112, 116, 117, 121-2, 123, 127, 133, 136-8, 143-4; "Billy and the Pigs," 78-80; in mock trial, 62-5 Hewitt, Abram S. (M.C. from N.Y., Mayor of New York City, merchant), paid by Lincoln's order, 397-8 Hickman, John, speech by, 156-7 Hickox, Mr., 55 Hicks, Thomas H. (Sen., Gov. of Md.), 264; asks release of Confederate soldier, 21 3-4 "High," nickname, 10-11 Hill, Dr. (Buffalo clergyman), 575-6 Hill, Frederick T., 36, 106 Hillyer, Col. William S., 562 Hingham (Hanghim), 3 Hirst, Margaret E., 536-8 "His Honor," not hurt, 109-10 Hoarded grudge stands, 357-8 Hobart, Garrett A., 367 Hog: and crooked fence, 33-4; big, 385; help needed to let go, 457; on both sides of stream, 266-7 Hogs: case, 31; cured(!) by tail-bobbing, 308-9; evenly divided gang of, 127-8; Herndon and, 78-80 Hog thief, 29-30 Hohner, Matthias, 151 Holland, J. G., 166-7 Hollow tree, squirrel on, 362-4 Homesick soldier, Lincoln remembers, 420 Homicide, justifiable, 495-7 "Honest Abe," origin of nickname, 22, 639 Honest girl, declares loyalty to Va., 499- 500 Honest lawyers, scarce in Illinois, 639 Honeymoon, penalty for, 544 - 5 Honor, of riding on rail, 258-9 Hooker, Gen. Joseph, Lincoln's instruc- tions to, 471 Hoosier tavern, and ichthyophagous horse, 90-1 Hornbuckle, Mrs. Clarissa, 16-7 Horological case, 36 Horse, fat, to his knees, 648 Horses, expensive, 486-7 Horses, judge of, 256 Horse sale, and Gen. Mitchell's instruc- tions, 212 Horse-trade, between Lincoln and judge, 82 Horse-trader, 8 Hosmer, Col. James R., 50 Hospitals, Mrs. Harvey appeals for North- ern, 432-40 Hotel-keeper, St. Louis, considers dying guests, 317 Houghton, Maj. Charles H., visited in hos- pital, 454-6 Housecleaning, Grant retires 21 generals, 558 "House divided," 139-40 Howard, Capt. William A., 603 Howard, Gen. O. O. (Division Command- er), 576, 602 Howard, John S., 466 Howard, Sir Esme, 632 Hoyt, Gov. John Wesley, asks Lincoln to make address at Wisconsin State Fair, 94 Hubbard, John H. (M.C.), 397 Hungry boys, Seward and Lincoln confer, 667-8 Hunkered out of chair, 620 Huntington, Judge William S., hears Lincoln's account of the "comet busi- ness," 86-7 Hutchins, Mrs. Elizabeth G. (nee Betty Smith), 98 Hyatt, Mr., appointed collector, 253 Hymns, Lincoln recites, 102 Ice, spread out or break through, 620-1 Iglehart, F. C, 5, 6, 7, 8, 102 Illinois Central R.R. tax case, 65-6 Impertinence, 583 Impounded, big Brindle, 602-3 Impromptu talks, 305 Income, living on, 224-5 Indian, on British empire, 355 Indians, address to, 619-20 Inebriate and how he voted, 187-8 Influence, Lincoln has no, 407 Informality in dress, no Ingratitude, 13 1-3 Inscription, book, permission for, 180 Instrument of Providence, Lincoln consid- ered, in N.C., 345-6 Insubordinate soldier pardoned, cowardly captain dismissed, 519 Intelligence, appeal to, 117 Intermarriage, Lincoln on, 152 Interruption, of Senator's desire for cot- ton, 319-20 Interview, with wounded youth, 400—1 Intrenching, McClellan is, 466-7 Intuition, Lincoln has, 568 Irish, give uneasiness all around, 601 INDEX 685 Irish captain, huffy, 384-5 Irishman: Lincoln asks name of, 18; reason for birth in Ireland, 136 Irishman's horse, 459 Irish medicine, 621 Iron, devil short of, to make gridirons, 276 Irwin, James S., 56 Sack, doll, pardoned, 664 ackson, Gen. "Stonewall," tribute to, 567 ackson, James S. (M.C., Ky.), seeks pro- motion of friend, 406-7 Jacksonville (111.), 37, 126 James, Gen. Thomas L., 217-9, 283-4, 446 Jayne, Benajat G. (asst. to Stanton), "steals" a letter, 383-4 Jayne, Dr. William, 172 Jocko's tail, 560-1 "Joe Hooker, I'll have you," 472 John, furloughed to wed Mary, 432 Johnson, Andrew (Vice-President), Lin- coln on, 220-1 Tohnson, James G., 440 [ohnson, Oliver, 349~5o Tohnston, Capt. Albert E. H., 406-7 Toinville, Prince de, 305 [oke, last, 671-2; practical, 649-50 Toking, Abraham only, 582-3 Tones, Capt. Thomas, 441-2 Tones, Elizabeth, gets no mail, 440 Tones, Rufus (writer on Quakerism), 535- 536 Tones and Sarah Ann, 326 Jonesboro be damned, 386 Jordan, Dr. David Starr, 596 Joy, James F. (R.R. lawyer of Detroit), candidate for justice of Supreme Court, 251-2 Judd, Norman B., at Freeport debate, 146- 147 Judge advocate, J. A. Bingham appointed, 414 Judge of horses wearies Lincoln, 256 Judges, 21-2, 41 ff. Judgment, Jake Tullwater's, 293-4 Judgment Day, credit extended to, 91 Julia earns missionary money, 587-8 Julius Caesar's hair, appointment despite ignorance of color of, 411 Juror, stubborn, 36-7 Jury, challenged, 47 Jury, charge to, 21-2 Justice, private soldier has right to, 544 Kansas and Nebraska territories, Lincoln's illustration, 134-5 Keckley, Elizabeth (seamstress to Mrs. Lincoln), 662, 663 Kelley, William D. (M.C., Penn.), 320-1 Kellogg, Benjamin, Jr., meets Lincoln, 55 Kellogg, Orlando (M.C.), 518 Kellogg, William (M.C.), 530 Kelly, William D., letter to, 180 Kentucky, raises 'most anything, 642 Kernan, Cong. Francis (pere), obtains soldier's pardon, 549-50 Kernan, Francis (fils) (Sen. from N.Y.), 549-50 Keyes, Maj. -Gen. E. D., 376 Kickapoo, 48 Kidd, T. W. S. (Springfield merchant), 45» "7, *77 686 INDEX Kilpatrick, Gen., to quell N.Y. riots, 480 Kimball, Gen. Nathaniel, leaves with hinted consent, 478-9 Kiss, Lincoln's, to energetic reporter, 562- 566 Kiss, Lincoln's, revives Maj. Charles Houghton, 454-6 Kiss, Salm-Salm, Tad tells Mrs. Lincoln of, 658 Kitchen, whose, 667-8 Kittens in telegraph office, 591-2 Knee deep and sixpence, 485 Knight, Henry W., 636 Know-Ail Robinson bested, 80 Know thyself, general resigns, 386 Kongapod, Johnnie, 47-8 Laconic lassie, 485 Lady lecturer, a pullet crowing, 605-6 La Grange, Oscar H., on Paine's promo- tion, 402-6 Lamborn, Josiah (state attorney), in mock trial, 63-5 Lame duck, phrase coined, 243 Lamon, Ward H. (lawyer, Lincoln's part- ner in Bloomington ; goes to Washington with L. ; Marshal of District of Colum- bia), 10, 46-7, 58-9, i3i-3» 187-8, 292, 300-2, 317, 497-8, 517-8, 653; list not safe weapon, 627; tells Lincoln about Herndon and pigs, 79; subscription for, 39-40; threatens to kill Stanton, 213 Lampton, W. J., 671-2 Landlord, renting apartments while struc- ture blazes, 235 Lane, Sen. Henry S. (Kansas), 498-9 Lane, Sen. James H., 279-80 of, unequally dis- tributed, 249 Language, knowledge Larkin, Uncle Jimmy, 93 Last act, releases prisoner for Sen. Green, 515-6 Last Cabinet meeting, 670-1 Last chicken in Tennessee, fight to, 386-7 Last joke, 671-2 Last message to Sherman, 556 Last pardon, directed to Gen. Dodge, 515 Last, shortest, and best speech, 366 Laugel, M. (author, historian), 596 Lawn, Stanton's, at War Dept., 612-3 Law school, 15-6 Lawyer as peacemaker, 52-3 Lawyer, attitude to small mistakes, 23 Lawyers, position of, on cold nights, 21 Laziness, 44-5 Leach, Anna, 637-8 Lecturer, female, 605-6 Lee, R. E., sons of, captured and released, 503-4 . Legal advice, 60 Legal studies, 15-6 Leg, cork, runaway, 125 Leg cases, heels vs. head, 427 Leg not tail, 328 Leg room, 39 Legs, cowardly, vs. brave heart, 125-6 Legs, should reach the ground, 91 Lending on premises only, 360 Letter home, for dying boy, 422 Levick, Maurice E., 247 Levy, Chicago allotment, 453~4 Lewis, Bob, asks pioneer for title, 480-1 Liar, biggest, in Washington, 599-600 Liberty pole, 600 License, for rum hole, 148 Lies, 8 Lieutenant-Colonel, seeks leave to see dying wife, 431-2 Light, more, and less noise, 276 Lightning rod, to protect politicians, 119 Likeness, of daguerreotype, 144 Lincoln, Abraham accedes to Grant's dismissal of generals, 558 accepts book inscription, 180 accepts Chase's amendment, 338-9 accepts resignation of Gibson, 285 accepts Weed's plan for Cameron's res- ignation, 201-2 adamant on accepting Chase's resigna- tion, 228-31 address, N.Y. City, 176 addresses disbarred attorney, 50-2 admission to the bar, 21 advice to Commodore Nutt, 628 advises Herndon against "quarreling with those hogs," 79-80 advises Herndon "don't shoot too high," 117 advises Lamon to use club, not fist, 627 advises settlements, 55 advises young men, 73 Aesop of American Prairies, xi aids Rev. Tyson's brother, 176-7 analyzes Dred Scott conspiracy, 141-3 ancestry, 3 and applicant for Spanish mission, 247-Z and Chicago ministers, 328-9 and mother of deserter, 543-4 and Revolutionary widow, 27-9 answers Ellsworth's quotation, 113 answers Ganson's queries by comment on baldness, 271-2 answers Palmer re one-horse lawyer, 629 Apostles chosen on basis of locality, 198 apostrophe to G. Washington, 306 appoints Fessenden to replace Chase, 228- 232 appoints Hyatt, not Depew, 253 appoints J. B. Smith cotton inspector, 254-5 appoints new postmaster for Elizabeth Jones, 440 appreciates work of U.S. Christian Com- mission, 296 appropriates dish of jelly, 130— 1 approves goat purchase, 662 approves Stanton's refusal of pass to Scott, 430 approves wife's new barouche, 656 ascertains that Mrs. Lincoln does not know petitioners, 492-3 as horse-trader, 8 asked by Hackett for London mission, 248-9 asks what general advised advance after Gettysburg, 475 asks whether war should be directed with squirts, 489 assists young physician, 61—2 at Charleston, 111., 148 at Galesburg, 111., 149 at Jacksonville debate, 126 INDEX 687 Lincoln, Abraham (continued) at Logan County courthouse, bests Know-All Robinson, 80 attitude to Mexican empire, 360 barrel of cider story, 135-6 "beats Peter," 340-1 Beecher's fright, 200 befriends traveling youth, 99-100 begs wife to control grief over Willie, 662 "boss" of Cabinet, 225 boy can't make minister because hasn't mud enough, 416-7 boy's 'coon dilemma, 368 calls army McClellan's bodyguard, 465 calls for Tad's milk, 114 cares for kittens in telegraph office, 591-2 carries child's trunk to station, 96-7 challenge to measure height with Sum- ner declined, 281 clerk fined for laughing at his joke, 77-8 Coleman Smoot on physiognomy of, 74 comment to Hicks on Stanton, 213-4 _ compares departure of legislators with departure of thieves from state prison, 131 compares Negro question to shaving, 331 compares Wilson, Stevens, and Sumner to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 327-8 compliments corporal for enforcing rules, 487-8 consoles nicknamed candidate, 267-8 converts enemy into friend, 187-8 cowhiding case, 37-9 cross-examines Sovine in Grayson case, 23-5 "damn your manners," 118 dances "worst way" with Mary Todd, 108 declines guard, 653 declines position as counsel to New York Central R. R. Co., 71-2 declines to incarcerate Tad,. 215-7 declines to paint self as conservative, 171-2 declines to pardon slave-trader, 330-1 declines to sign commission, 214-5 declines to stop Chicago Times, 275 declines suggested method for fighting press, 277 defends hog thief, 29-30 delivers address at Wisconsin State Fair, 94 describes Fremont Convention, 294-5 dialogue with Seddon, 260-1 discourages promoter of enlarged office, 272 discusses Michigan excess quota, 194-6 disposes of problem raised by Rev. Dr. _ McPheeters, 266-7 dissatisfied with answer of heckler, 136-8 doubts harmony between Northern and Southern Democrats, 124 doubts immediate efficacy of Emancipa- tion Proclamation, 344 drops through trap-door to protect Col. Baker, 133 early reading, 8 eases sentence of major who shot colonel, 494-7 . effect of impromptu talk on Boston folks, 305 endorses pardon "out of scrape," 549 enough glory for one family, 414 envies eminence of Douglas, 149 experiments with new gun, 399-400 explains censures to Carl Schurz, 268-9 explains complicated machine to boy, 104- 105 explains darky arithmetic, 320-1 explains Negro dialectics, 332-4 extols Aunt Sally's flapjacks, 624 fans Lydia to consciousness, 652 favors "bridge in Rock Island case, 72 feeds Forbes persimmons, 650 feels self referred to in Dr. Akers's pro- phetic sermon, 143-4 fellow-traveler of Col. Thomas H. Nel- son and Judge Abram A. Hammond, 84-7 finds one uglier than self, 88-9 first dollar earned, 12-3 first stump speech, 11 7-8 forgets Stonewall Jackson's sins, 567 forgives editor, 263-4 Gibbon will write decline and fall of re- bellion, 416 gives terse biography, 172 goes to Harrison's Landing to prevent surrender, 463-4 goes to Our American Cousin, 672 grammar corrected by Bateman, 167 grants Mrs. Harvey permission for pro- viding Northern hospitals, 438 grants pass to honest girl, 500 Grant's presence brings sleep, 561-2 grants unofficial leave to Kimball, 478-9 guesses we'll manage, 553 habitue of Wallace and Diller's, 74-6 happy to receive telegram, 377-8 has but two "biled" shirts, 81 has heights of others in book, 646-7 has little influence with administration, 407 hat knocked off by Tad, Willie, and play- mates, 1 14-5 hints at suicide after Chancellorsville, 217-9 his grandfather, 3 his "heroism" in Black Hawk War, 129 his mother, 3 holds Coleman Smoot responsible for election, 120 hopes prairies will be plowed with steam, 595 horses cost $125, 487 "house divided" speech, 139-40 how he liked being President, 258-9 illustrates confidence in Grant by autom- aton story, 562 in debate with Douglas, 149-50, 153 ~ Illinois Journal, 134-5 in mock trial, 62-5 in Pension Office, 238-40 in speech at Chicago, 140-1 'n speech in Congress, 130 n speech on candidacy of Cass, 128-9 intervenes for delinquent officer, 489 oins Sons of Temperance, 94 ast estimate of Stanton, 219-20 ets boy off on recommendation of mayor, 546 ineage, 3 oves an open fire, 643 688 INDEX Lincoln, Abraham {continued) love story, 4-5 low opinion of Andrew Johnson, 220-1 made poor woman happy, 539 makes pet of young pig, 5-8 makes powder test, 282-3 Mary Todd's article leads to challenge by Shields, 108-9 mast-fed lawyer, 629 meets Claflin and Bowen, 158-9 meets Pickett's wife and baby, 573 meets Samuel A. Foot's son, Lawrence, 194-6 men enough, 160 men seasick ashore from champagne, 634 mentions Appomattox to Creswell, 325 mentions Lee to Grant and Sherman, 556 mistaken for rebel, 44 2_ 3 never swears, Stanton does that, 204 nobility no obstacle to advancement, 4*3" 414 • r u no captaincy tor boy, 41 1-2 no one out of hell suffers more, 584 on accompanying Buchanan to inaugura- tion, 258 on admission of Nev. to Union, 346 on Alexandria churches turned into hos- pitals, 361 on Browning's suggestion of subjugation, 322 on charges and fees, 54-6 on Chase's Presidential aspirations, 235- 226 on classes, 153 on daguerreotypes, 144 on Declaration of Independence, 152-3 on Douglas's crocodile and Negro, 152 on Douglas's Freeport sophism, 148 on easily won maiden, 470-1 on effect of proclamation on Louisiana parishes, 336-7 on English dominion, 355 on eternal struggle, 153 on fooling the people, 138 on Gen. Cass's capacity, 128-9 on Gen. Morgan, 479-80 on George Thompson's talk, 349~5o on Grant's tenacity, 557 on hanging, 367 on harmony of New York Democrats, 127-8 on heroism of Gen. Lewis Cass, 129-30 on his and Davis's both being born in Kentucky, 642 on his swollen feet, 648 on intelligence of oysters, 93-4 on James Larkin's horse, 93 on Jim Price's assets, 312 on Joliet sausages, 83 on leg cases, 427 on McClellan and victory, 462 on Meade's message about Gettysburg, 473 on Meade's tactics, 473~4 on Mr. Harvey's calves, 605 on Mrs. Barnett's custard, 78 on most valuable political attribute, 117 on postponement of Democratic Conven- tion, 295 on reconstruction in Louisiana, 325 on repeal of Missouri Compromise, 134-5 on ruinous effects of whisky, 68-9 on Sheridan's dispatch — "end has almost come," 574 on sick soldier reading N. Y. Herald, 275-6 on slavery, 134, 135 on Southern confiscation, 322-3 on steer caught on fence, 470—1 orders Duff Green from boat, 616 overrules court martial on Geo. Alden, 428-9 "owes one" to Col. Weller, 387 pardons boy who was in explosion, 552 pardons brother of girl sans hoops, 510 pardons prisoner as last official act, 515-6 pardons soldier despite mother-in-law, 540-1 pardons stabber, 519-20 passes beer bucket, 635 paymaster pays only respects, 418 pillow fight with Judge Davis, 84 plan of reconstruction, 347-9 plays Moses to Negro child, 100 "plowed around" a Governor, 282 points lightning rod at Forquer, 119 praises Bond but recommends Thomas for appointment, 131 praises recruits to Seward, 196 prepares resolution for John Bright, 353 promises Beecher to issue proclamation, 331-2 promises enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law, 181 promises to follow Dixon, 259-60 prophetic dream must relate to Sherman, 556 provides payment for Hewitt, 397-8 queries Atty.-Gen. on ownership of "Dixie," 367-8 query on cleaning boots, 632 quit his side of counter, 149 quotes Scripture re N.Y. bankers, 308 reads letter of James F. Joy, 252 reads P. V. Nasby, 208-9 receives knife as reward of superior ugli- ness, 88 recognizes Col. Campbell's military apti- tude, 409-10 reduces fee by half, 58-9 refuses pass to Richmond, 463 refuses to dismiss petitioners, 586—7 regrets inability to restore woman's sight to see son, 513 releases Alexander H. Stephens's nephew, 514 relieves general guilty of graft, 264-5 reminded of only two, not three illegiti- mate children, 498 reminds Medill of Freeport forecast, 181 removal of wen like problem of slavery, 329-30 removes from New Salem, 95-6 replies to Meade's inquiry as to pursuit of Lee, 476-7 reply to Maxwell, 483-4 reproves Butler, 489-90 resents reflection on Sen. Baker, 593 resents trifling details, 397 responds to delegation of National Con- vention, 291-2 restored soldier who overstayed leave for honeymoon, 544-5 returns campaign fund, 119—20 NDEX 689 Lincoln, Abraham (continued) returns fee to Leonard Swett, 57-8 returns part of fee, 55-6 safeguards smallpox-stricken Negro's money, 587 satisfied with reference from minister, 541-3 says McClellan is intrenching, 467 secret of power as speaker, 117 sees Carlile re W.Va. statehood, 315-6 sends Linder's son as Christmas present, 508-9 sends Quaker home, 536 serves on bench in place of Judge Davis, 43-4 Seward not in control of, 197-8 shoots marbles with boys, 80-1 simile of short-legged man in big over- coat, 483 slavery agitation like New England rum, 344-5 snakes and neighbors' children, 161 soldier shouldn't be shot for seeing wife and children, 549-50 solves contest between Billy Patterson, Charles Stuart, and Oliver Cromwell, 410-1 speaks at Five Points school, 159 speech on candidacy of Taylor, 127-8 stand against Mexican War, 127 statement after defeat by Douglas, 154 story of one bullet, 356 story of sow and crooked log, 396 story of Squire Barton, 198-9 story of squirrel on hollow tree, 362-4 story of Widow Zollicoffer's darky, 297 struck by charge of clerks, 485-6 suggests that Stevens propose bill for Curtin, 453 summarizes Dred Scott decision, 141 supports greenback proposition, 221-2 swears there is no treason in White House, 283-4 taunted by Douglas as poor speaker, 120 telegraphs Col. Mulligan, re Barney D., 535 telegraphs Gen. Hurlburt not to shoot Luckett, 499 tells Bromwell of questions of life and death, 429 tells Burleigh he will never starve, 256-7 tells Cartwright destination is Congress, 127 tells Chilean admiral about lending, 360 tells Gen. Slocum he was cause of pain, 5i6 tells Grant to hold like bulldog, 566 tells McClellan to milk captured cows, 465 tells Meade he will take responsibility, 474 tells Stanton to prepare for death, 213 tells story about breaking news gradu- ally, 337 tells two Tennessee ladies about religious husbands, 366 tells Wade hell within length of Penna. Ave., 292 thanks Commodore Vanderbilt for boat, 393-5 thanks old voter for going to polls, 302 thinks driver Episcopalian because he swears, 196 to Lamon re Gettysburg speech, 317 too busy to collect rents, 361-2 took a shine to Grant and Sherman, 556 to Secretary of State, 131 to Sheridan, let thing be pushed, 574 to The Dictionary of Congress, 138 turns Democrat to help friend's marital aims, 122 ultimate source of aid and enlightenment, 304-5 unfortunate "C" — Crawford, Calhoun, Clay, Cass, and Chase, 227 upsets Col. Taylor's argument, 12 1-2 wanted to congratulate Brackenridge, 632-3 wants Douglas, Dix, Meagher, and Coch- ran in army, 379 Weed asks no office of, 184 welcomes preacher with nothing to say, .581 will not be balked, 550 "wives have inside track," 507 worsted in a "horse" trade, 82 would hold McClellan's horse, 461 would rather have letter from dead man than live man, 505 writes to Concord children, 330 youth, 3 ft. Lincoln, George, gives hat, 185 Lincoln (Illinois)^ 22 Lincoln (Logan Co.), naming of, 3 Lincoln, Mrs. Mary Todd, 220; alters house, 111-2; and pretensions, 109-10; angry at Salm-Salm incident, 658; appre- ciates Grover's acting as coachman, 652; cured of anger, 112; first dance with Lincoln, 108; inconsolable at death of Willie, 662; status after election, 183; surprises passionate claimant, 657-8; walks home after shakeup, 656 Lincoln, Robert Todd, birth of, 112; en- dorses classmate, 414-5; quotes father on Lee's escape from Gettysburg, 475 Lincoln, Thomas ("Tad"), breaks up chess game, 11 3-4; orders dinner at Urbana, 115; taken from church, 116; wails for walnuts, 116; turns hose on Stanton, 215-7; on McClellan, 466; given a goat, 662; on manners, 665; in White House, "madam's wildcat," 665-6; hangs out Confederate flag, 665-6; signals of, 668- 669 Lincoln, Tom, 3, 4, 8, 9, 13-4 Lincoln, William, 114-6, 661-2 Linder, Usher F. ("For God's Sake"), 22, 40, 48, 508-9 Lineage, Lincoln's, 3 Lips, a time to keep closed, 17 1-2 "Little Abie," early nickname, 267-8 Littlefield, Gen. John H., 54, 482-3 Little Pigeon Creek, 4 Livermore, Mary A., 460-1, 584 Living corpse, 29 Lizard, and Baptist preacher, 76 Local representation, 198 Locke, David R. ("Petroleum V. Nasby"), 151, 589, 645 Locked out, on election night, 182-3 Lockwood (Grayson) murder case, 23-5 Locofocos, Lincoln defines, 123 Locomotive trip, Tad begs Lincoln for, 666- 667 69O INDEX Logan, Gen. John A. (lawyer, General of volunteers), 46-7, 79, 164, 648 "Long Nine, The," 83, 95 Long speech, Douglas's, 604-5 Longyear, John W. (M.C., Mich.), 509 Looks, comparative, 598 Louisiana parishes and the Proclamation, T 336_7 . , • , Louse, mistaken for squirrel, 121 Lovejoy, Elijah, 143 Lovejoy, Owen (M.C.), and Stanton, 210 Love's awakening, 4-5 Low, Mrs. F. W., 429-31 Low ebb, at Harrison's Landing, 463-4 Lower case, Deity with small "g," 625-6 Loyalty, people's, Quaker lady asserts, 580 Loyalty, to Va., 499-500 Luckett, Rev. Henry M., charged with smuggling morphine, 498-9 Lyons, Lord, 595, 632 Macbeth, Lincoln quotes, 596-7 Machine, explained to boy, 104-5 Madam's wildcat, gardener's view of Tad, 665-6 Madison, doorkeeper, violates Stanton's rule, 520-9 Maelzel's chess-player, 562 Magnanimity, Lincoln's to Meade, 474 Mail, insured, disposal of, 59°-i Man, in automaton, 562 Man and wife, interfering in fight between, 292 Manly, Uri, in mock trial, 63-5 Manners, Lincoln on, 118 Man of sorrows, reassures visitors, 583-4 Manslaughter, novel defense for, 310-1 Manzella, Rosario (barber), 166 Marbles, Lincoln shoots with boys, 80-1 Mares, as witnesses, 34-5 Markens, Isaac, 264 Markland, A. H., 181, 212-3, 555 Marooned, 368-9 Marshall, John (Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court), his court fallen low, 142 Martin, John Henry, 666-7 Martyr President, spoken in jest, 672 Maryland, Federal troops crossing, 372-3 Maryland, life in, 200 Marylanders threaten to prevent passage of troops, 264 Mason and Slidell, capture applauded by Stanton and Seward, 357 Masters, Squire, 55 Matchmaker, President as, 648-9 Mathematician, boy, appointed to West Point, 412-3 Matheny, Noah W., 148 Mattocks, Brig.-Gen. Charles P., 471-2 Maxwell, Robert A., crazygram to Lincoln, 483 . , McCallen, Andrew, 54-5 McCarthy, Pvt., guilty of desertion, 551 McCarty, John (Biddy's husband), votes against Lincoln, 183 McClellan, Gen. George B.: bodyguard of, 464-5; discourtesy of, and Lincoln's po- liteness, 461; engineer, but stationary, 458; loyalty of, questioned, 461-2; naps while Lincoln waits, 457-8; present at Lincoln's address to soldiers, 464; sending men to, like shoveling fleas across barnyard, 459; Tad on, 466 McClure, A. K., 76, 82, 88, 89, 92, 224, 247, 356, 357, 375-6, 386, 399-400, 418, 460, 467-8, 518, 594, 596, 599, 603, 608, 622; told by Lincoln of "declining" Chase, 227-8 McClure, J. B., 293, 388-9, 395-6, 413-4, 416-7, 532 McCormack, Surgeon John, 451 McCulloch, Hugh (Secy, of Treasury), and N.Y. bankers, 308 McCulloch, Mrs. Hugh, asks suppression of Chicago Times, 275 McDaniel, Mr., to Senate, 135-6 McDonald, Dr. (chief surgeon), brings Lincoln to Houghton's cot, 454 McKaye, Col. Donald, and Robert Owen, report on Negroes' situation in N.C., 345-6 McLane, Mr., 127-8 McLean, John (Judge of the Supreme Court), hears Lincoln's account of "comet business," 86-7 McNabb, Bap, and rooster, 460 McPheeters, Rev. Dr., 266-7 McVicker's boy, 150 Meade, Gen. George C. : Lincoln comments on his failure to pursue Lee, 476; mes- sage of victory, 473; prosecutes Pvt. McCarthy, 551; Tad on, 466; with Pres- ident, 475-6 Meagher, Gen. Thomas H., at Private O'Reilly's party, 297-9; wanted in army, 379 Means, man of, 106 Meat in that, 380 Medill, Joseph (ed. Chicago Tribune), 144- 147; Lincoln recalls Freeport question, 181-2; on Chicago levy, 453-4 Meigs, Gen. M. C, 459 Memory, like steel plate, 89-90, 640 Men enough, 160 Mercier, M., asks Seward to remove But- ler, 489-90 Meriden (Conn.), heckler answered, 160 Merrimac, 390, 392 Metallic, financial success is, 622 Metamora, 107 Meteors, don't mind, 579-80 Mexican War, Lincoln's stand against, 127 Mexico, Napoleon seizes opportunity, 360 Michigan, quota exceeded, 194—6 Military aptitude, Col. Lew D. Campbell has, 409-10 Military heroism, of Gen. Lewis Cass, 129- 130 Militiaman, 19 Milk, Lincoln calls for, 114 Mill, slow, 8-9 Millionaires, 622 Miner, Rev. N. W., 53 Miners into majors, 482 Minister, attitude to small mistakes, 23 Minor, enlisted by fraud, discharged, 545-6 Miscegenation, 152 Misnamed "civil" engineer, 596 Missed self, would have, 610 Mission, blind woman's son, 510-4 Missionary money, Julia earns, 587-8 Missouri Compromise, Lincoln's illustra- tion, 134-5 Mistakes, ministers' and lawyers', 23 Mitchell, Gen. O. M., instructions to, 212 Mock trial at Springfield, 62-5 Monitor, quiets Fox's fears, 391-2 Monopoly on glory, 414 Moor no Negro, 67 Moore, C. H., 67 Moore, John (state treasurer of 111.), loses steers, 82-3 Mordecai, G. L., Confederate, pardoned by Lincoln, 507 More tail, 560-1 Morgan, Edwin D. (Gov., N.Y.), 169; is told slavery is harpooned, 344 Morgan, Gen. John M. (raider) : Cong. Cox inquires about, 479-80; death of, Lincoln on, 480 Morgan, Richard Price, 82-3, 138; to Lincoln, on "rotten wheelbarrow," 106 Morrell, Daniel, aids deserter's mother, 543-4 Morrison, widow of Charles Clifford, 411 Morrissey, John, have you asked, 467-8 Morton, Gov. Oliver P. (Indiana), 538-9 Moses, Lincoln in role of, 100 Moses didn't understand Lord, 347 Mother, Lincoln's, 3 Mt. Pulaski (111.), 80 Moving, effect of, on chickens, 279-80 Mulberry Grove (111.), gets new postmas- ter, 440 Mule-driver, and swearing, 531-2 Mullard, B. F., 507-8 Mulligan, Col., message to, 534~5 Murch, Elmer F., 303 Murdoch, James E. (actor, author), 577-8 Musician, not much of a, 626-7 "My father's son," temporarily in White House, 305-6 Names unchanged, 157-8 Nasby, Petroleum V., Lincoln reads, 208- 209, 245 Native costume, Georgia colonel's uniform, 609 Negro dialectics explained, 332-4 Negroes, effect of arming, 449-50 Neighbors, Lincoln reconciles, 53-4 Neill, Rev. Edward D., 249, 255, 427-8, 500-1, 540, 567 Nelson, Judge Samuel, 174-5, 189, 253 Nelson, Thomas H., discusses "comet business" with Lincoln, 84-7 Nestlings, Lincoln hunts nest of, 95 Nevada, admission to Union, effect of, 346 New coat, 81 New England rum, resemblance to anti- slavery agitation, 344-5 New Hampshire, bumblebee characteristic of, 241 New Haven, 161 New Jersey, drifting mariner prefers float- ing past, 287-8 New Orleans, Lincoln sees slave auction at, 15 News, good, because none, 458 New Salem, 17 Newshawk, 193-4 Newton, Isaac, aids three Friends, 537-8 Newton, Rev. Dr. Joseph Fort, 474 New York Central R.R. Co., seeks to re- tain Lincoln, 71-2 New York City, Lincoln fixed up for, 189 EX 69I Next President, Pat's opinion on, 303 Nickname, 10-1 Nicolay, Helen, 121, 224, 250, 272, 510, .577, 593 Nicolay and Hay, 53, 68-9, 72, 73, 106, 1 17-8, 126, 135, 139-40, 141, 142, 143, 148, 152, 153, 157, 161, 170, 171, 180, 187, 250, 254, 270, 292, 295, 304, 306, 325, 35o-i, 366, 368, 411, 415, 421, 431- 432, 447, 461, 464, 465, 47o-i, 476-7, 489, 55i, 566, 568, 574, 581, 592, 640, 641 No account, 150 No hurry, to reach Gettysburg, 652-3 Northern hospitals, Mrs. Harvey appeals for, 432-40 Norwich (Conn.), 160 Nose, crooked, 89 Nothing but noise, Celt's conclusion, 278 Notice, to Hooker, 472 Notification, 168-70 Nourse, Rev. Dr., 237 Nutt, Commodore, introduced by Barnum, to President, 628 Oath, some have taken, 507-8 Obedience, Lincoln's example of, at Ft. Stevens, 485 Obverse means t'other side, 629-30 Office hours, not on street, 596 Officer no soldier, 62 Office-seekers, 184, 235, 237-8, 242, 256 Offutt, Denton, store of, 74 Omen, two faces in mirror, 180-1 One bullet, to a hatful, 356 One-horse lawyer for President, 629 One life, man has but, 504-5 One war at a time, 357 Opponents, appointment of, 234 Orators, military, 468-9 Ordained, safe (maybe), 375-6 O'Reilly, Pvt. Miles, at White House party, ^97-9 . Originality in speeches, 197 Orphan, plea of parricide, 266 Osborn, Effie Reeme, 519-20 Ossian, Lincoln quotes, 596-7 Other side, help from, 250-1 Our American Cousin, 671 Outnumbered, estimate of Confederate army, 372 Out of Bibles, 577 Out-of-town clients, 56 _ Overcoat, with Lincoln in it, 81-2 Owen, Robert Dale, and Col. McKaye re- port on N.C. freedmen, 345-6 Ox: impounded, 602-3; team, credit pur- chase, 35-6; lost, 14 Oxen, as real estate, 309 Oysters, lawyer questions intelligence of, 93-4 Page, Col. Charles H., 446 Pain caused by Gen. Slocum, 516 Paine, Halbert E., promotion asked for, 402-6 Painter, makes no likeness, 597 Palmer, John M. (Gov., 111.), 70-1, 331; surprised at choice of "one-horse lawyer." 629 692 INDEX Palmerston, Lord (prime minister of Eng- land), condemns Butler's Woman Or- der, 489-90 Paper currency easily augmented, 224 Pappville, 118 Pardons, 504-5; for deserter, 426; for widow's son, 206-7; J- W. Forney se- cures, 518-9; on bandage, 551; to "only guilty man," 382-3 ; to Camp Morton prisoner, 509-10; two applications for, 493-7 Paris (111.), 80, 85 Park, Linton, 441 Parke, Gen. John G., 569-71 Particular Negroes, meal "cussed dirty," 487 Passes to Richmond, 462-3 Pastor, Lincoln as, 101-2 Patagonians, eating oysters, 517-8 Patents, hen improvers, 601-2 Pathos, fatigue since Antietam, 465 Patriot enemy, Gen. Butler commissioned, 381-2 Patriotism (War of 1812), 4 Patronage, 184-5, 2 56 Patterson, Billy, application turned down, 410-1 Pay, soldier put on right track to get, 447 Paymaster: pays girl soldier, 446; pays only his respects, 418 Payment, for Capt. Bourry, 445-6 Payne, Gen., 386-7 Peacemaker, lawyer as, 52-3 Peaches, adventure of spiced, 107 Peck, Judge Ebenezer, 516-7 Peekskill (N.Y.) "speech," 189 Pekin (111.), 43 Pendel, Thomas F., 212, 215-7, 402, 597, 598, 617, 642, 647, 669; finds Bible passage, 21 1-2 Pennicke, Mr., helps fortify Washington, 204-5 Pension agent case, 27-g People who like, etc., 596 Peppery widow, courting daughters of, 242 Perfect woman, husband's first wife, 606 Perry, Leslie J., 501-2 Perry, Mrs., and spiced peaches, 107 Persimmons, and innocent Celt, 649-50 Personality and principle, difference be- tween Lincoln and Douglas campaigns, 173-4 Peter, record bettered by Lincoln, 340-1 Petitioners, and Stanton, 540-1 Petition of working women, 444-5 Phelps, Gen. John W., 326 Phillips, Deacon John, 302 Phillips, Wendell, conference with Lin- coln, 341-4 Philoprogenitiveness, no more, than an alligator, 529 Phoenix (111.), 78 Physician, young, 61-2 Piatt, Donn, 246-7 Pickett, Gen. George, Lincoln visits home of, 573 Pickles, destroyed at Atlanta, 612 Pierce, Franklin, in Dred Scott conspiracy, 141-3 Pierpont, Rev. John, 349-50 Pig, 15 Pigs: six little lost, 5-8; and Herndon, 78-80 Pigtail, 572 Pile of pardons, new, 517-8 Pillow fight, Lincoln vs. Judge Davis, 84 Place, result of giving, 242 Plaster, for psalm tunes, 395-6 Plotters, Lincoln ignores, 655 Plowed around, a Governor, 282 Plowing prairies, by steam, 595 Plum, William R. (author), 475 Pocket veto, West Virginia State Bill, 315- 316 Poetry, Lincoln's opinion of, 596 Poisoned, wails Celt, 650 Poker, general's son plays poker with fa- ther's staff, 417-8 Pole, Liberty, 600 Polecat, analogy to Locofocos, 123 Policy, Lincoln claims none, 305, 629 Politeness, to extremes, 9 Politeness vs. curiosity, 4 Political doctor, 139 Political enemy, pardon for son of, 508-9 Politician, successful, rule for, 117 Pollution, by Federal troops crossing Md., 372-3 Polly Ann and pirates, 573 Poore, Ben: Perley, 25, 129, 281; aids in- jured boy, 551-2 Poor relations, Lincoln visits, 103 Porter, Admiral David D., 592, 633 Porter, Gen. Horace, 318-9, 352-3, 357-8, 571-2, 633-4; describes the emancipat- ed, 351-2 Portrait, best because ugliest, 598 Postmaster, and wrong Elizabeth Jones, 440 Postmaster, Lincoln as, 17 Postmaster in pocket, 255-6 Potato cure for rheumatism, 600 Potatoes, 9 Potomac River: bail with teaspoon, 426-7; too quiet on, 460-1 Powder: Brother Jones's superior, 571—2; test, Lincoln makes, 282—3; shot before, 296-7 Practical joker, gives green fruit, 649-50 Prayer, 236-7, 304-5, 576; Lincoln's, for success at Gettysburg, 558-9 Praying man, Jefferson Davis is, 582-3 Preacher, with nothing to say, rare, 581 Preacher and lizard, 76 Precedents, Lincoln's, from prayer, 578 Prediction, on extinction of slavery, 140-1 Pre-empted chair, 620 Prescience, Lincoln's, manifested to Col- fax, 307 President, next, 303 Presidential duties, not claim-settling, 440- 441 Presidential grub, effect of, 290-1 President not broker, 592-3 Press, a way not to fight the, 277 Prevarication, a mild word, 166 Price, Jim, assets of, 312 Price, Mrs. Winifred E., remain if not misbehaving, 514 Price almost paid, 254-5 Prima facie evidence, 40 Prince, Ezra S., 89 Principles, beauty of, for painter, 597-8 Pringle, Cyrus, conscientious objector, 536 Prisoners, Ruggles didn't overestimate, 475-6 Private has right to justice, 544 Proclamations, everybody issued, 469 Profanity, 326 Promise: Curtin lets Lincoln off, 45.i-3'> makes visitor weep, 599; to Bouligny, 536-7 Promotion, asked for Halbert E. Paine, 402-6 Property rights, would-be assassin claims, in pistol, 338 Prophecy: Arnold's, 155-6; Dr. Akers's, 143-4 Protection of small beer, 608 Proud settler, takes only money, 315 Pruden, Maj. Levi C, 548-9 Pryor, Roger A., Hickman mentions, 156-7 Public speaker, Lincoln as, 160-1 Putnam, Pvt. Charles Allan, 520-9 Pyramid, undermine rather than over- turn, 151 Quaker: drafted, 535-6; declines to hire substitute, 538-9 Qualifications: for office, 253; for officers, 402 Quarles, James, 42-3 Quarreling, advice on, 592 Quartermaster-general, for what nation, 4i7 Query, what general advised pursuit of Lee, 475 Quincy (111.), 55 Rabbi, interview with, 401-2 Radcliffe, Mrs., 579 Railroad president bemoans draft, 318 Raisins, down to, 484 Rantoul, Robert S., Lincoln remembers fa- ther of, 640-1 Raphall, Dr. Morris J., interviews Lin- coln, 401-2 Rappahannock transit, fatal facility of, 470-1 Rascals, little vs. great, 639 Rat hole: as item in neighbor's financial schedule, 98-9; worth looking into, 312 Raymond, Henry J., 226 Rearguard, singed, 295-6 Rebel's Bible, Lincoln cares for, 500-1 Rebuke, to officer blocking Dr. Weeks, 395 Recognition of handshake, 641 Recommendation, of two office-seekers, 131 Reconsideration, for Prof. Henry, 550-1 Reconstruction: and Louisiana, 325; plan of, told by newspaper, 347-9 Recreation, saving a life, 517 Red-hot stove, Cameron would steal, 201 Red tape, cutting, 587 Re-election, on prospects of, 296-7 Reeves, W. C, advice to ? 262-3 Reference, from kind minister, 541-3 Reformed fox becomes army paymaster, 4i7 Regulations, coach stopped by, 487-8 Rejected suitor, case of the, 32-3 Relation, letter of thanks to, 639-40 Reliance on God, 580-1 Relief, young German pardoned, 548-9 Religion: Lincoln no judge of, 366; needed N D E X 693 by disunionists, 504; Lincoln's own, 575- 576 Remission, of sins, shedding blood is, 518 Remorse, in decision re Col. Scott, 429-31 Repairs, sewing button, 617 Repeal of Missouri Compromise, 134-5 Report, too full, 397 Reprieve, for Kellogg's friend, 530 Reprieved minister, 498-9 Republican editors addressed by Lincoln, Resisters, Pa. coal miners, 482 Retail dealer in stories, 611 Retaliation: Lincoln opposes broad, 352; on Stanton, 209 Retroactive cure, 600 Rice, Alexander H., seeks pardon for boy, 3" Richardson, Guy, 626 Richardson, W. A., 55-6 Richelieu, comparison with, 280—1 Richmond Enquirer, 156-7 Ridgley, N. H., at Wallace and Diller's, 75 Rifle, best title to frontier land, 480-1 Right: on being, 277; side, for rewards, 422-3; stand for, 155 Riot, Lincoln averts, 133 Ripley, Gen. Edward H., warns against plotters, 655 Risley, Pidge, and Widow Branch's daugh- ters, 178-9 River operations, on Yazoo, opposed, 482-3 River Queen, short of drinking water, 489 Robbins, Z. C, 340-1 Robinson, James (Know- All), juror at Logan County courthouse, 80 Robinson, Luther E., 583 Roby, Charles O., captured, 502-3 Roby, Kate, 9-10 Rocket test, fizzles, 398 Rock Island bridge case, 72 Rogers, Mr., classmate of Robert Lincoln, 415 Room in Lincoln's pew, 579 Rooster, Bap McNabb's, 460 Rosebud, "floweth" for President, 622 Rosecrans, Maj. -Gen. W. S.: assistance to, 386; advised to "conquer by kindness," 423-5 Rosette, John E., 40 Rosewater, Edward (telegrapher, War Of- fice), 634-5 Rowell, Major Eliphalet, 489 Royalty not in caboose, 150-1 Ruggles, Col. George D., did not over- estimate prisoners, 475~6 Ruker, Gen. Daniel D., defending Wash- ington, 204-5 Rumors, 460 Runner, 20 Rushville (111.), 106-7 Russia, Clay and Cameron, ministers to, 202 Sabbath desecration, advice to theologian on, 396-7 Safe, not dead yet, 469-70 St. Helena, Thad Stevens sends applicant for consulate at, 250 St. Peter and Chicago, 288-9 Sally, Aunt, farewell of, 624 694 I N Salm-Salm: Prince Felix von, serves Un- ion, 658; Princess, kisses Lincoln, 658 Saloon, soldiers deterred from entering, 374-5 _, . Salt on tail, to capture Monitor, 392-3 Samaritan, 49-5° Sandwich Islands, ill applicants for, 250 Sanford, Gen., 205 Sangamon Militia, 19 Sangamon River, 48 Sanitary Commission, and Dr. Hill, 575-6 Sausages, Judge Davis and Lincoln on, 83 Saving the Negro, 339 Saving time, 509 Scales, fisher's mendacious, 600 Schenck, Gen. Robert, and Colt's revolv- ers, 385-6 Schimmelpfennig, Alexander, appointed Brig.-Gen., to please Dutch, 375; hard to pronounce, _ 375 Schoolmaster, Lincoln's, 9 School of events, 584-6 Schurz, Carl (Sen. from Mo., general, Minister to Spain) : highly regarded by Lincoln, 238; reproved, 268-9; resigns as Spanish minister, 387-8 Scotching, 46 Scott, Col., wife of, killed, seeks pass to Va., 429-31 . . Scott, Gen. Winfield, 238-40; as politician, 376; belief in safety of Washington, 375- 376; sits for a bust, 377 Scott, Judge, 33-4 Scott, Wm., debt of, 533 Scovel, James M. (publicist, writer), 291, 324, 473, 476, 478 Scripps, John Locke, asks for campaign biography, 172 Scythe, put up, 634 Sebree, James S., 1 14 Second-hand President, 257-8 Secret of success, 607-8 Seddon, John A., of Va., dialogue with Lincoln, 260-1 Seitz, Don C, 617 Selby, Paul, 418-9, 458, 662, 666 Self-made man, Democrat disapproves job, 165 Self-nominated — Lincoln suggests self for Presidency, 164-5 Self-preservation, darky's philosophy on, 609-10 Sense of justice, a man minus, 251-2 Serenade, by Lincoln and Johnson Club, „ 3°3-4 Sermons, vigorous, 77 Settlement: between two farmers, 53; an all-around, 60 Seward, Frederick W. (son of Wm. H. SO, 340 Seward, Wm. H. (Secy, of War), 277, 358-9, 595, 604-5, 609, 667-8; told of Lincoln's first dollar, 12-3; applauds cap- ture of Mason and Slidell, 357; asked to remove Butler, 489-90; at Pvt. O'Reil- ly's party, 297-9; breaks dilemma of volunteers, 194-6; churchwarden swears, 196; Hickman mentions, 156-7; in- dispensable fount of wisdom, 197-8; meets Billy Green, 623; "not nominated at Chicago," 194-6; sends Lincoln speech, 197; urges war with England, 356 Seymour, Horatio (Gov. of N.YO, pun on name, 287 Shaaber Mahlon, height of, 646-7 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, com- pared to Wilson. Stevens, and Sumner, e 327 Shaggy dog as window-mop, 604 Shakespeare, thought suffices, 596 Shallow-draft, boats run on moist ground, 389 Shanks, John P. C, 174-5 Shanks's Nose, and Lincoln's conundrum, 174-5 Sharp, Granville, historical place of, 154 Shaving, Negro question compared to, 331 Shaw, Alexander, 189-90 Shaw, Col. Robert Gould, 450 Sheep-stealing, 418-9 Sheridan, Gen. Philip H.: his dispatch evokes Lincoln's advice, 573-4; his pur- suit, likened to Cass's of Indians, 567; short legs of, 566-7 Sherman, Gen. Wm. T., 560; Lincoln talks to, about Davis's escape, 369-70; tells brother things are in a hell of a fix, 553; compares Lincoln address to those of Clay, Crittenden, and Corwin, 553-4; finds no fault with Lincoln, 556; Lin- coln's last message to, 556 Sherman, John (Sen., Ohio), 243, 448-9; introduces Lincoln to his brother, W. T. Sherman, 552-3 Shields, James (Springfield lawyer, Mexi- can War general, U.S. Sen. from 3 states), in mock trial, 62-5; challenges Lincoln to a duel, 108-9 Shipman, Brigade Surgeon, 275-6 Shirts, 46-7; choice of two, 81 Shoes, size of Lincoln's, 644-5 Shoot and be hanged, 356 Shooting: Lincoln's experiments, 399-400; needless, and cock-crow, 569-71 Short horns, vicious oxen have, 285 - Shrunk pants, reason for, 600-1 Shurtleff. Lieut. R. M., 425-6 Sickles, Gen. Daniel E., 226, 378-80, 380- 381, 457-8, 658; talks to Lincoln re Gettysburg, 558-9; a Salm-Salmist, .658 Signals, Tad's, prearranged, 668-9 Signature: Lincoln withholds, 214-5; hid- den by flourishes, 483 Sikes, Bill, his dog, 318-9 Silence, 32-3 Silver^ Herman (local candidate for office in Springfield), 267-8 Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 355 Sin of dancing, tract on, to soldier sans legs, 602 Sitter, Gen. Scott and sculptor, 377 Sizoo, Dr. Joseph R., 577 Skeared Virginian, 602 Skepticism, Speed not recovered from, 581- 582 Slade (mulatto doorkeeper), spoken to about Jefferson Davis's fate, 369 Slander suit, 66-8 Slave auction, 15 Slavery: Lincoln on, 134-5, 152, 153. 154, 161, 325-6, 327-34; prediction as to, 1 40- 1 Slaves, arms for, 447-9 Slave trade, repeal of Missouri Compromise and, 135 Slave-trader, Cong. J. B. Alley intervenes for, 330- 1 Sleeper, on post, 428-9 Sleeping sickness, soldier victim of, 428-9 Sleep standing, McClellan's men, 459 Sleight-of-hand, 14-5 Slemmons, William C., shoots marbles with Lincoln, So-i Slim, animal must be, 471 Sloane, Scott (Congressman), soldiers sent to, 442 Slocum, Gen. H. W., executes prisoner, Slow horse, for funerals, 462 Small crop of fight, 26 Small ear in big husk, 568 Small potatoes, 398 Small-pox, something all can take, 244-5 Smith, Caleb B. (Secy, of Interior), dis- cusses Michigan quota, 194-6 Smith, Goldwin (English author, publicist, and teacher), darky arithmetic explained to, 320-1 Smith, J. B., almost bought, 254-5 Smith, Jerry (M.C.), importunities of, 236- 237 Smith, Job, execution waits orders, 534 Smith, "Little Betty," wants to teach, 98 Smithsonian Institute, signals from, 443-4 Smoot, Coleman: appearance of, disap- pointing, 74; "held responsible" for Lin- coln's election to legislature, 120 Snake: scotching a, 46; to deal with a, 161 Sneakin' 'round, banned, 358-9 Snow, Mr., 35 Soldier: and fish, 4; brave but scary, 125-6; girl, from Indiana, 446; homesick, 420; indicted for assault, 62; politics of, im- material, 302-3 "Solid men" of Delaware, 288 Solomons, Adolphus S. (publisher, printer, bookseller), 402, 462 Sons of Liberty, Judge Tevis Greathouse and, 364-6 Soul is the point, 582 Souls, preacher cannot eat, 582 South arms slaves, 447-8 Souvenir, Mrs. Cole's lost glove, 595 Sovine, 23-5 Sow and crooked log, 396 Spanish, student of, 247-8 Spanking, Dennis Hanks advises Stan- ton's, 625 Speed, James (Atty.-Gen.), 420-1; sorry for disturbing Lincoln, 200 Speed, Joshua F. (111. friend of Lincoln), 74, 200, 581-2; helps Lincoln move, 95-6 Spelling, 25; bee, 9-10; Lincoln's difficulty with, 618-9; progress in, 631-2 Spencer vs. Dungee, 66-8 Spiced peaches, Mrs. Perry's, 107 Spinner, "Father," admirable signature of, 313-4 Spirit and letter, officer ordered paid, 445- 446 "Splitting" Lamon's fee, 58-9 Spoiling for a fight, 356-7 Spotted animals, 202-3 Spread, lad wanted to see hen, 641-2 Springfield, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 69, 98, INDEX 695 99, 100, 104, 105; capital moved to, 95; dubious charm of, 96 Spy, not freed, 493-4 Stanley, Edward, appointed military gov- ernor of N.C., 214-5; criticized by Phil- lips, 342-4 Stanton, Edwin M. (Atty.-Gen., Secy, of War, Justice of the Supreme Court), 211; appointed Secy, of War, 202; and Lamon's threat, 213; applauds capture of Mason and Slidell, 357; at Private O'Reilly's party, 297-9; attempts to dis- miss Capt. Eckert, 205-6; countermand- ed order of, 204-5 \ declines to appoint chaplain, 215; declines to modify deci- sion re Pvt. Putnam, 520-9; fear of, 206-7; demands Wing's news, 563-4; finds soldier's mother-in-law shedding crocodile tears, 540-1; forgives Tad and agrees with President, 216-7; imperious- ness reduced by Tad, 215-7; Lincoln's estimate of, 219-20; not a party man, 204; opinion of the President, 210; op- poses Hicks's request for release of Con- federate, 213-4; overruled for Sen. Green, 515-6; refuses discharge for minor, 545-6; refuses pass to Col. Scott, 429-31; required to make appointment, 411; resents Nasby, 208-9; restrains President from leaving in shattered con- dition, 217-9; saves Lincoln swearing, 204; shows telegram requesting soldiers, 467; tears up Lincoln's order, 209; tells Grant to state case to Lincoln, 561; urges war with England, 356; troubles of, 207—8; victory dance with Lincoln after Gettysburg, 472-3 Stanton, Rev. R. L., 266-7 Stanton, R. B., 631-2 Stanton's navy, Welles on, 393 Staples, J. Summerfield, Lincoln's substi- tute, 373 Starched gowns, coat laid over, in Stars, Lincoln's reflections on, 101 State banks, and greens, 308 State dinner, Lincoln visits Lord Lyons at, 355 State vs. Harrison (Crafton case), 70-1 State vs. Mr. Whisky, 68-9 Statute of limitations, a short one, 271 Stay, Mrs. Price may, 514 Steamboat, sinking, 9 Stearns, F. P., 393-5 Stebbins, Solomon B., 551-2 Steel, administration a reign of, 258-9 Steer on fence, helpless, 471 Steers, and John Moore, 82-3 Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James — analogy to conspiracy of Douglas, Pierce, Taney, and Buchanan, 141-3 Stephens, Alexander H. (Congressman, Governor, Vice-President of the C.S.A.), Stephens, Lt., given Lincoln's photo, 514 Stevens, Edwin A., 259 Stevens, Thaddeus (M.C., Pa.), 201, 225; on Lincoln's going to Gettysburg, 225; protests favor to Cameron, 201 ; rebukes Lincoln, 452-3; told Lincoln is handsome, 645-6 Stevens, Walter B., 182-3 Stewart, Sen. William M. (Nevada), 346 696 INDEX Stick, Grant will, to Lee, as to circus mule, 556-7 Stimmel, Smith, 572, 601-2 Stock in trade (prisoners), 213-4 Stoddard, W. O., 249, 255-6, 285, 362- 364, 395-6, 411, 413-4, 462, 480, 558, 567, 587 Stone River, 555-6 Stoning Stephen, 149 Stories: campaign, 171-2; uses of, 630, 638-9; sources, 73, 75-6 Storytelling, 22 Stove as social center, 74-6 Stover, Private S., 420 Stowe, Harriet Beecher (author, sister of Henry Ward), 643 Strategist, Lincoln as, advises Meade, 476- 477 Strategy, Grant's, approved, 573 Strauss, Jacob, sends boy with papers to Lincoln, 99—100 Strawberry shortcake, Mrs. E. M. Stan- ton's mammoth, 642 Strong, T. R., pun on, 609 Strong man, 94 Stuart, Edwards, and Matheny (law firm), 40 Stubbed toe, not for tears or laughter, 287 Stubborn juror, 36-7 Stump speech, Lincoln's first, 11 7-8 Substitute, Lincoln's, 373 Success: financial is metallic, 622; secret of, 607-8 Suckers, 25 Suffering enough, boy in explosion has, S5I-2 Sufficient reason, no hoops, 510 Sumner, Charles (Sen. from Mass.), 353- 354; declines to measure heights, 281; appeals for Geo. Alden, 428-9 Sumner, Maj. Edwin V., 188-9 Sumner, William M., 622 Sumner, W. S., 612-3 Sunburst, on 2nd Inauguration Day, 618 Sun dial, 16-7 "Sun never sets, etc.," 355 Superior, Lincoln Gen. Thomas's, 406-7 Supervisor, defeated, 269 Sure-footed, 645 Surgeon's fee ("big fee, big swear"), 26- 27 Surrender, how to, if inevitable, 373 _ 4J Lincoln suggests that Stanton and he surrender to Grant, 560 Surveyor, Lincoln as, 16-7 Sutherland, Rev. Dr. (Senate chaplain), 339 Swapping horses, when crossing stream, 291-2 Swearing, then or not at all, 531-2 Swett, Leonard (Chicago lawyer, friend and political supporter of Lincoln), 31, 57-8, 61-2, 5i7 ? . 639; Lincoln suggests his own nomination, 164-5; "dog is al- ways mad," 206; Lincoln describes his eagerness to pardon, 517 Swiss minister, Seward writes Lincoln's speech for, 197 Switchman, 92 Sympathy with petitioners, 586-7 Szold, Rabbi Benjamin, 263 Tact: strangers die there, 248; two new hats, 594 Tactician, Meade as, 473-4 Taft, Julia Bayne, 663-4 Tail: called leg, 328; monkey Jocko's, 560- 561; vicious hog held by, 456-7 Tails, cutting off, cure for epidemic, 308-9 Talk but not print, 294 Tammany, power of, 467-8 Taney, Roger B. (Chief Justice), in Dred Scott conspiracy, 141-3; death of, 233 Tanner, publican, sues temperance work- ers, 68-9 Tansey's horse, 22 Tarbell, Ida M., 36, 93, 164, 185, 326, 344 Tares and wheat, little girl's appeal, 427-8 Tariff, Lincoln on, 312-3 Taxes, Lincoln on, 222-3 Taylor, Col. Edmond Dick, 221-2; Lincoln upsets arguments of, 121-2 Taylor, David, suggests greenbacks to Chase, 221-2 Taylor, Gen. Zachary, candidacy of, 127- 128, 129-30; office-seeker under, 131-3; camp followers and barrel of cider, 135- 136 Teacher, Lincoln as, 50 Teaching, encouraging ambition for, 98 Tears, Lincoln's, at death of Ellsworth, 589-90 Tediousness, and Greek history, 628 Telegram, Gen. Scott transmits to Presi- dent, 377-8 Telegrapher, met Lincoln in Pekin, 642-3 Temperance, 94, 168-70, 374-5, 634; as qualification for officers, 402 Temptation, 246; boy's, to steal fruit, 588-9 Tennessee, conscripts even newly dead, 53o-i Terrapin, feelings of, 11 Terre Haute, 84, 85 Thayer, Edward, 112 Thieves: hog, defended, 29-30; hog, prose- cuted, 31 Thin soup, 148 Third party, 292 Thirty dollars, lieutenant stole only, 497-8 Thomas, Adj. -Gen. Lorenzo, refuses to make appointment, 406-7 Thomas, Bob, 45 Thomas, Gen. George H., 483—4 Thompson, Col. Richard W., hears Lin- coln's account of "comet business," 86-7 Thompson, David D., 532-3 Thompson, George (English anti-slavery orator), talks in House of Representa- tives, 349-50 Thompson, Lorenzo ("Dow"), 19-20 Thompson, Rev. Joseph P., 346-7 Threat to Stanton, 213 Thunder, stolen, 572 Tidings for Mary, 166-7 Tight place, squeezing out of, 129 Tightrope, 263 Tillman, Benjamin F. ("Pitchfork"), 622 Times, Chicago, not suppressed, 275 Tinker, Charles A., 417, 485, 643 Tip-top lawyer recommends another law- yer, 69-70 Tisdale, William H., 617, 662 INDEX 697 Title, pioneer's, to land, 480-1 Tobacco, at Petersburg, 442-3 Tod, David (Gov., Ohio), and Samuel Galloway summoned by Lincoln, 347-9 Todd, John, mule-.«kinner, 532 Todd, Mary; see Lincoln, Mrs. Mary Todd Tolerably respectable bill, 265-6 Too busy to collect rents, 361-2 Torture, of conscientious objector, 537 Total wan 449-50 Totten, Gen. James, Lincoln introduces Lawrence Foot to, 195-6 Townsend, Maj.-Gen. E. D., 562 Treason in White House nonexistent, 283-4 Treat, Judge Samuel H., 22; chess game with Lincoln disrupted, 11 3-4 Trees, Lincoln on, 585, 586 Trent, Fred E., 16-7 Trent affair, 357 Trumbull, Lyman (Sen., 111.), 92, 578; answered by Douglas, 148 Trunk, child's, carried to station, 96-7 Trust in God, Lincoln's, 576 Tucker, George (Asst. to Stanton), intro- duces Vanderbilt to Lincoln, 393-5 Tuft, Mary, in Abraham's bosom, 98 Tug of war, Lincoln vs. Stanton, 520-9 Tullwater, Jake, judgment of, 293-4 Turner, Col., 510-4 Turning point, Lincoln's estimate of Meade, 477-8 Turnip, noise like a, 608 Two roads, choosing between, 353 Two-story back, makes home unrecogniza- ble, 111-2 Tyson, Rev. E. D., Lincoln aids brother of, 176-7 Ugliness startles stranger, 89 Umbrella, 258 Unanimity, 178-9 Unbeknown, might like whisky, 370-1 Unchanged, neither recupes nor decupes, 647 Uncle, Lincoln's, 9 Unearned fee, 57-8 U.S. Christian Commission, Lincoln ap- preciates work of, 296 Unofficial spokesman, 237-8 Unpopular, pardoning man who admits guilt, 382-3 Unqualified (turkey-egg-faced fellow), 241 Urbana (111.), 115 Urgency, financial, to end war, 567-8 Urgent reason for furlough, 432 Usher, J. P. (Asst.-Secy. and Secy, of Interior under Lincoln), 87 Vallandigham, Clement L. (M.C., Ohio) : agitator, Lincoln's attitude toward, 269- 270; arrested by Gen. Burnside, 270-1; wife's attitude reminds Lincoln of town supervisor story, 269 Valley of Jehoshaphat, U.S. to become, 324 Van Alen, James I., 539 Vandalia, 120, 136; capital removed from, 95 Vanderbilt, Commodore Wm. H., donates boat to navy, 393-5 Vanity, general's large funeral, 594 Van Santvoord, Mrs. C, 592-3 Vegetarian, allowed to "browse," 441 Vengeance is Lord's, 503-4 Vices — "no vices, no virtues," 90 Vicksburg: after taking of, 559-60; Lin- coln later has same dream as before cap- ture of, 555-6 Victory: from defeat, 18 1-2; dance of, Lincoln and Stanton stage private, after Gettysburg, 472-3 Vielle, Egbert L., 212, 469 Violet, Mrs. Joshua Speed sends Lincoln, 74 Virgin Mary, statue stops ship leak, 222 Vititoe, Carl, 10 Voice of God, delegation from Almighty, 329 Volk, Leonard, 77; makes cast of Lin- coln's hands, 167-8 Volunteers, quota exceeded, 194-6 Voorhees, Sen. Daniel W., 44, 578—9; Lin- coln explains leg cases to, 427 Vow, Lincoln's, re Emancipation Procla- mation, 351 Wade, Benjamin F. (Sen., Ohio), 244-5, 448-9; tells Lincoln administration is near hell, 2cj2 Wadsworth, Gen. James, and Negro sol- diers, 450 Wagoner, lassie's laconic retort to, 485 Wainwright, William, boy, fishes with Lin- coln, 1 63—4 Wakeman, Wilbur F. (tariff expert), 312-3 Walker, Amasa, father of greenbacks, 221 Walker, Dr. Jerome, 490-1 Wall, Pvt., and postmaster at Mulberry Grove, 440 Wallace, Dr., in mock trial, 63-5 Wallace, Gen. Lew, 463-4, 491; Lincoln's message to, 492 Wallace, Mr., 74-5 Wallace and Diller's store, social center, 74-6 Wall-Jones wedding, thanks to postmaster, 440 Wall Street, advice to Gilbert as to, 253-4 Walnuts, not enough for boys, 116 Walton, Dr. Joseph S., 652 Ward, Artemus: humorless, chapter, 211; Polly Ann and pirates, 572 Ward, Sallie, and scattered family, 470 War of 18 12, 4 Wash, recipe for, 285-6 Washburne, E. B. (Sen. from 111., Secy, of State, Minister to France), 410-1; at Freeport debate, 146-7 "Washing his hands," 22 Washington, George, 306, 321 Washington ordained not to be captured, 37576 Washington (Weems's), 8 Watch, advertisement for stolen, 91 Weathers, Mrs. Susannah, Lincoln thanks for socks, 639-40 Webb, Capt. Henry L., 19 Webber, George, 133 Webber, John B., 133 Webster, Daniel: "biggest man in world," 155; comparative fees, 65-6; friend of, 698 INDEX "advises" Lincoln, 605; parties at home of, 130 Webster's Dictionary, 18 Weed, Thurlow, 83, 184-5, 198-9, 200; agrees with Greeley, 254; engineers Cameron's resignation, 201-2; fails to ask office for self, 184; Lincoln sends message to, via James G. Bennett, 193-4 '. opposes Lincoln in Rock Island case, 72 Weeks, Dr. Grenville N., received by Lin- coln, 395 Weems, Lincoln reads, 8 Weight of papers determines appointment, 246-7 Weik, Jesse, 130-1, 136, 151, 175, 205, 237, 252, 281, 550 Weitzel matter, disposition of, 307 Welch, Mr., 259 Weldon, Judge Lawrence, 47; story of pioneer's title, 480-1 Weller, Col., would be commodore, 387 Welles, Gideon (Secy, of Navy), 353; ap- proves act of Capt. Wilkes, 357; on "Stanton's navy," 393; ordered to dis- charge two runaway boys, 421; present as Lincoln tells dream, 555-6 Wellman, Francis L., 25 Wellsville (Ohio), 187 Wendell, Azariah, 78-80 Whipple, Wayne, 5, 292 Whiskers, girl asks Lincoln to grow, 186 Whisky: Grant's brand of, 558; Mr., case of, 68-9 White, Albert S., hears Lincoln's tale of "comet business," 86-7 White, Horace, 150-1 Whitey, Old, 9 Whitney, Henry C, 42-3, 44-5, 139, 240, 256, 258, 295 Whose wife, 247 Wickizer, Col. J. H., 32-3 Widow Branch's daughters, 178-9 Widow of Revolutionary soldier, 27—9 Widows, too many already, 541 Widow's son pardoned, 519-20 Widow Zollicoffer's darky, 297 Wife, sad, gets around orders, 419 Wilberforce, Wm., historical place of, 154 Wildcat currency, woodman takes it "cord for cord," 315 Wilkes, Capt., Welles approves act of, 357 Wilkinson, Joab, at Jacksonville debate, 126 Will, Lincoln makes, for client, 10 1-2 Williams, Henry L., 39, 328, 490-1, 554, 567, 609 Wilmington, dream before, 555-6 Wilson, Henry (Sen. from Mass., Vice- Pres.): owns half a Senator, 286; pre- sents Goldwin Smith to Lincoln, 320-1 Wilson, James F. (Sen.), told that private has right to justice, 544 Wilson, James Grant, 3, 606, 629-30, 647 Wilson, Joe, and skunks, 202-3 Wilson, William B., 317-8, 620 Wine, none for committee, 168-9 Wing, Henry E. (reporter), 576; meets Lincoln, 562-6 Winner pays damages, 59-60 Wintrup, John, signature of, 483 Wise men vs. fools, 113 Witness ("who takes in swarin' for a liv- in' "), 42-3 Witnesses, mares as, 34-5 Woldman, Albert A., 48-9, 50-2, 54 Wolfe, Gen. James, George Ill's wish as to, 372 Wolf ord, Col., arrested by Burbridge, 271 Woman Order, and Gen. B. F. Butler 489-90 Woman's Suffrage, 183 Women, petition of working, 444-5 Women vs. whisky, 68-9 Woodchopper, 17-8 Woodson, Judge, 38 Worden, Capt., Lincoln's faith in, 392 Wordsworth, R. D., 155, 279, 460, 465-6, 486, 531-2, 582, 610, 626 Work, wanting to, rare, 245-6 Worrall, Dr., 61-2 Worthington, Col. Tom, "told off" in writ- ing, 408 Wrestler, 19-20 Wrigglers, bearable, 292-3 Wright, Col. Thomas F., 485 Wright (pension agent), 27 Writing, opinion put in, 408 Yazoo plan, opposed, 482-3 Yeaman, George H., 605 Young, John Russell, 217-9 Young, Mr. (architect), 254 Young men, advice to, 73 Young physician, 61-2 Zollicoffer, Gen. Felix K., 261-3