^ )■ '
 
 LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY
 
 BEST LINCOLN 
 STORIES 
 
 TERSELY TOLD 
 
 BY 
 
 J. E. GALLAHER 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
 
 Copyright 1898 
 By J. E. GALLAGHER 
 
 Made in U. S. A.
 
 373. 7^u 
 
 > 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ^ Page. 
 
 ^ Preface 7 
 
 ^ Lincoln's Great Strength as a Boy 9 
 
 Was Proud of His Strength 9 
 
 Lincoln a Powerful Wrestler 10 
 
 Lincoln Split 400 Rails for a Yard of Jeans 11 
 
 Lincoln as a Verse Writer 12 
 
 Lincoln's Quick Wit in Helping a Girl to Spell a Word 12 
 
 » Lincoln as a Notion Peddler 13 
 
 Lincoln Saved from Drowning 13 
 
 Lincoln's Youthful Eloquence 15 
 
 One of Lincoln's Songs 17 
 
 Lincoln's First Political Speech 18 
 
 How Lincoln Became Known as " Honest Abe " 19 
 
 Lincoln Was an "Obliging" Man 19 
 
 How Lincoln Paid a Large Debt 20 
 
 His First Sight of Slavery 21 
 
 Lincoln and Jeff Davis in the Black Hawk War 22 
 
 Lincoln's Glowing Tribute to His Mother 22 
 
 What Lincoln's Step-Mother Said of Him 23 
 
 Lincoln's First Love 23 
 
 The Duel Lincoln Didn't Fight 25 
 
 Lincoln as a Dancer 26 
 
 Lincoln's Courtship and Marriage 27 
 
 Lincoln's Personal Appearance 28 
 
 Lincoln's Mother 29 
 
 Lincoln's Melancholia 31 
 
 Lincoln's Height 32 
 
 How Lincoln Became a Lawyer 33 
 
 Lincoln as a Lawyer 34 
 
 Lincoln's Conscientiousness in Taking Cases 35 
 
 The Jury Understood 35 
 
 Lincoln's Honesty with a Lady Client 36 
 
 Lincoln Wins a Celebrated Case 37
 
 CONTENTS— Continued. 
 
 Lincoln's "Selfishness" 38 
 
 Lincoln Removes a License on Theaters 39 
 
 How Lincoln Got the Worst of a Horse Trade 39 
 
 Lincoln Helped Him to Win 40 
 
 Lincoln Settles a Quarrel without Going to Law 42 
 
 A Lincoln Story About Little Dan Webster's Soiled Hands 44 
 
 Lincoln's Long Limbs Drive a Man Out of His Berth 44 
 
 Lincoln's Joke on Douglas 45 
 
 Lincoln Shrewdly Traps Douglas 47 
 
 Lincoln's Fairness in Debate 48 
 
 Lincoln Asks His Friend's Help for the United States Senate 60 
 
 Making Lincoln Preseniable 62 
 
 Evidence of Lincoln's Religious Belief 52 
 
 Lincoln a Temperance Man 63 
 
 Lincoln's Famous Gettysburg Address 64 
 
 The Gettysburg Address 55 
 
 Lincoln as a Ruler 66 
 
 Lincoln's Real Object in Conducting the War 57 
 
 Lincoln Asked for Some of Grant's Whisky 58 
 
 Lincoln Believed Himself Ugly 59 
 
 Lincoln's Kindness to a Disabled Soldier 59 
 
 A Sample of Lincoln's Statesmanship 60 
 
 Two Good Stories 61 
 
 Lincoln Raises a Warning Voice Against the Concentration of Great 
 
 Wealth 62 
 
 Lincoln and the Dying Soldier Boy 62 
 
 The Dandy, the Bugs and the President 63 
 
 Lincoln Upheld the Hands of Gen. Grant 64 
 
 Why Lincoln Told Stories 
 
 Lincoln Rewards a Man for Kindness Thirty Years After the Occur- 65 
 
 rence 66 
 
 Lincoln a Merciful Man 67 
 
 Lincoln's Humorous Advice to a Distinguished Bachelor 68 
 
 How Lincoln Answered a Delicate Question 69 
 
 Lincoln Illustrates a Case Humorously 70 
 
 Why Lincoln Mistook a Driver to be an Episcopalian 71 
 
 A Clergyman Who Talks But Little 71 
 
 How Lincoln Received a Jackknife as a Present 72 
 
 The Best Car for His Corpse 73 
 
 His Title Did Not Help Any 73
 
 CONTENTS— Continued. 
 
 One of Lincoln's Autographs 74 
 
 Lincoln's Substitute 74 
 
 Lincoln's Estimate of the Financial Standing of a Neighbor 75 
 
 Lincoln's Query Puzzled the Man 75 
 
 Lincoln's Inauguration 76 
 
 John Sherman's First Meeting with Lincoln 77 
 
 Lincoln and the Sentinel 78 
 
 Origin of "With Malice Toward None, " Etc 79 
 
 His Good Memory of Names 79 
 
 Lincoln's Grief Over the Defeat of the Union Army 80 
 
 Three Stories of Lincoln by Senator Palmer 81 
 
 His Famous Second Inaugural Address 83 
 
 Lincoln Said Even a Rebel Could Be Saved 84 
 
 Washington and Lincoln Compared 86 
 
 Lincoln Remembered Him 87 
 
 Why Lincoln Pardoned Them 89 
 
 The Lincoln Portraits 92 
 
 Lincoln's Faith in Providence 93 
 
 Lincoln's Last Words 96 
 
 A Chicagoan Who Saw Lincoln Shot 97 
 
 Martyred Lincoln's Blood 100 
 
 A Strange Coincidence in the Lives of Lincoln and His Slayer 101 
 
 Where Is the Original Emancipation Proclamation 102 
 
 Mr. Griffiths on Lincoln 102 
 
 A Famous Chicago Lawyer's Views 103 
 
 Lincoln W as Plain But Great 104 
 
 Lincoln's Specific Life Work 106 
 
 The Proposed Purchase of the Slaves 107 
 
 Senator Thurston's Speech 108 
 
 Lincoln Analyzed 112 
 
 The Religion of the Presidents 116
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 How American history would dwindle if that name were 
 taken out of it! Washington was great. Grant was great. Lee 
 was great. Many others have been and are great in all the 
 walks of life. But Lincoln, who came out of the lowly heart of 
 the people, will come back nearer that heart than any other man 
 probably that the nation has known. There have been men 
 of war and there have been men of peace, but there has been no 
 such man of peace in war as Lincoln. 
 
 Why is it we never tire of thinking of Mr. Lincoln personally, 
 nor of speaking of him and his deeds? Is it not because "he 
 was indeed one of the most unique figures in history, and one of 
 the most remarkable surprises of the age?'' What has he been 
 called by those who knew him best? "The greatest of patriots, 
 the wisest of rulers, the ablest of men. " 
 
 What led to his greatness and caused him to hold such an 
 extraordinary sway over the people during the most tumultuous 
 of times, when seven states had seceded and the rebellion was 
 well under way at his inauguration, and when a bloody and 
 fiercely contested war was fought during his administration? 
 I will let one more competent than myself answer. Bishop 
 Fowler of the First M. E. Church, of New York, said: 
 
 "What, then, were the elements of Lincoln's greatness? 
 To begin with, 'he was not made out of any fool mud,' and then 
 he thoroughly understood himself and knew how to handle his 
 resources. His moral sense was the first important trait of his 
 character, his reason the second, and the third was his wonder- 
 ful 'common sense,' the most imcommon thing found even among 
 the great. 
 
 "These are the three fixed points on which his character 
 hung. Without the first he had been a villain. Without the 
 second, a fool. Without the third, a dreamer. With them all 
 he made up himself — Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 7
 
 8 Preface 
 
 It is wonderful how many stories President Lincoln told, 
 and still more wonderful how many stories are told of him. 
 The late Senator Voorhees, of Indiana, said that Lincoln had 
 more stories than any other man he had ever met. He had a 
 story for every occasion, and he illustrated everything by anec- 
 dote. Some of the best stories current today, originated with 
 Lincoln and hundreds of his best stories have never been pub- 
 lished. Senator Voorhees had preserved a number which he 
 expected to use in lectures which he was preparing at the time 
 he died. He had hoped to live long enough after his retirement 
 from public life to write a book on his personal recollections 
 of the martyred President, among which would have been in- 
 cluded many stories. 
 
 The late David Davis, of Illinois, before whose court. Lincoln 
 practiced so often, once said, that there were but three men in 
 the world who thoroughly understood Abraham Lincoln — 
 himself, Leonard Sweet, of Chicago, and Daniel W. Voorhees. 
 AH these three men are dead. 
 
 In gathering material for this work the editor has exercised 
 due care in accepting only such stories as bore the impress of 
 truth. It is his nope that this Httle volume will be eagerly wel- 
 comed in every home which venerates the name of Abraham 
 Lincoln, and that it will be an inspiration to every boy of the 
 land who, in looking to Lincoln for an ideal, should ever remem- 
 ber that 
 
 Honor and shame from no condition rise; 
 Act well your part; there all the honor lies. 
 
 J. E. GALLAHER.
 
 BEST LINCOLN STORIES 
 TERSELY TOLD. 
 
 Lincoln's Great Strength as a Boy. 
 
 The strength Lincoln displayed when he was ten 
 years old is remarkable. At that age he was almost 
 constantly using an axe in chopping and splitti^ig wood 
 and he used it with great skill, sinking it deeper into 
 the wood than any other person. He cut the elm and 
 linn brush used for feeding the stock, drove the team, 
 handled the old shovel-plow, wielded the sickle, threshed 
 wheat with a flail, fanned and cleaned it with a sheet 
 and performed other labor that few men of today could 
 do so well. He wielded the axe from the age of ten 
 till he was twenty-three. As he grew older he became 
 one of the strongest and most popular *' hands" in the 
 vicinity and his services were in great demand. He 
 was employed as a ''hand" by his neighbors at 25 cents 
 a day, which money was paid to his father. 
 
 Was Proud of His Strength. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was a remarkably strong man; he was 
 strong as well as tall. He was in the habit of measuring 
 his height with other tall men, — he did this even in 
 the White House. In 1859 he visited the Wisconsin 
 State Fair at Milwaukee and was led around by the 
 
 9
 
 1 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 then Governor Ho}^. They entered a tent where a 
 "strong man" was performing with hugh iron balls. 
 His feats amazed and interested Lincoln. The gover- 
 nor told him to go up on the platform and be introduced 
 to the athlete, by whose exhibition of skill he was so 
 fascinated. He did so, and after the formal intro- 
 duction he remarked to the ''strong "man" who was 
 short of stature: ''Why, I could lick salt off the top 
 of your hat. 
 
 Lincoln a Powerful Wrestler. 
 
 While a clerk in a general store at New Salem, 111., 
 Lincoln gained the reputation of being a skillful and 
 powerful wrestler. Near New Salem was a settlement 
 known as Clary 's Grove, in which lived an organization 
 known as " Clary 's Grove Boys. " They were rude in 
 their manners and rough and boastful in their ways, 
 being what would today be called a "set of rowdies." 
 
 The leaders of this organization, and the strongest 
 of the lot, was a yoimg man named Armstrong. It 
 had been said that Lincoln could easily outdo any one 
 of the Clary Grove boys in anything and the report 
 naturally touched the pride of the Armstrong youth. 
 He felt compelled to prove the truth or falsity of such 
 a story, and accordingly a wrestling match was arranged 
 between Lincoln and himself. 
 
 It was a great day in the village of New Salem and 
 Clary's Grove. The match was held on the groimd 
 in front of the store in which Lincoln had been clerking.
 
 Tersely Told. 11 
 
 There was much betting on the result, the odds being 
 against Lincoln. Hardly, however, had the two 
 wrestlers taken hold of each other before the Armstrong 
 youth found that he had *'met a foe worthy his steel. " 
 The two wrestled long and hard, each doing his utmost 
 to throw the other but to no avail. Both kept their 
 feet; neither could throw the other. The Armstrong 
 youth being convinced that he could not throw Lincoln, 
 tried a *' foul. " This resort to dishonest means to gain 
 an advantage inflamed Lincoln vv^th indignation, and 
 he immediately caught young Armstrong by the throat, 
 held him at arm 's length, and "shook him like a child. ' ' 
 Armstrong's friends rushed to his rescue, and for 
 a time it seemed as if Lincoln would be mobbed. But 
 he held his own bravely and all alone, and by his daring 
 excited the admiration of even those whose sympathies 
 were with yoimg Armstrong. What at one time seemed 
 to result in a general fight resulted in a general hand- 
 shake, even ''Jack" Armstrong declaring that Lincoln 
 was ''the best fellow who ever broke into camp." 
 
 Lincoln Split 400 Rails for a Yard of Brown Jeans. 
 
 When Lincoln lived in Illinois (New Salem) he wore 
 trousers made of flax and tow cut tight at the ankles 
 and out at both knees. Though a very poor yoimg 
 man he was imiversally welcomed in every house of the 
 neighborhood. Money was so scarce in those days 
 that it is known that Lincoln once split 400 rails for 
 every yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut 
 bark, that would be necessary to make him a pair of 
 trousers.
 
 12 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 Lincoln as a Verse Writer. 
 
 Even when he was a boy Lincoln was sometimes 
 called upon to write poetry. The following are among 
 his earliest attempts at rhyme: 
 
 Good boys who to their books apply, 
 Will all be great men by and by. 
 
 It is needless to say that Lincoln himself carried 
 out what he wrote so well; in other words, he *' prac- 
 ticed what he preached. " It was in a great measure 
 owing to his constant application to his books that he 
 afterward became a great man. 
 
 The following poem Mr Lincoln wrote in 1844 
 while on a visit to the home of his childhood; 
 
 My childhood's home I see again 
 
 And sadden with the view; 
 And, still, as memory crowds my brain, 
 
 There's pleasure in it, too. 
 Oh, memory, thou midway world 
 
 'Twixt earth and paradise, 
 Where things decayed and loved ones lost 
 
 In dreamy shadows rise; 
 And, freed from all that's earthy vile. 
 
 Seems hallowed, pure and bright, 
 Like scenes in some enchanted isle. 
 
 All bathed in liquid light. 
 
 Lincohi's Quick Wit in Helping a Girl to Spell a Word. 
 
 "Abe" Lincoln was always ready and willing to 
 help any one. Once he was in a spelHng match at 
 school when the word "defied" had been given out by 
 the teacher. It had been misspelled several times
 
 Tersely Told. 13 
 
 when it came the turn of a girl friend of Lincoln's to 
 spell. The pupils were arranged on opposite sides of 
 the room and *'Abe" was watching his freind as she 
 struggled with the spelling. She began d-e-f, and 
 stopped, being unable to decide whether to proceed 
 with an i or a y. Happening to look up, she caught 
 sight of Abe, who was grinning. He pointed with his 
 index finger to his eye. The hint was quickly under- 
 stood, the word was spelled with an i and it went 
 through all right. 
 
 Lincoln as a Notion Peddler. 
 
 In March, 1830, the Lincoln family moved from 
 Gentryville, Indiana, to near Decatur, IlHnois, their 
 household goods being packed in a wagon drawn by 
 four oxen driven by *'Abe. '* The winter previous 
 Lincoln had worked in a country store in Gentryville 
 and before imdertaking the journey he invested all the 
 money he had, some thirty dollars, in notions, such as 
 needles, pins, thread, buttons and other domestic 
 necessities. These he sold to families along the route 
 and made a profit of about one himdred per cent. This 
 shows he had a mind for seizing hold of opportunities 
 for making money even when young. 
 
 Lincoln Saved from Drowning. 
 
 The life of Lincoln during the time the family lived 
 in Kentucky appears to have been entirely tmeventful. 
 He helped his mother — after he was three years old —
 
 14 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 in the simple household duties, went to the district 
 school, and played with the children of the neighbor- 
 hood. The only one of young Lincoln's playmates 
 now living is an old man nearly 100 years old named 
 Austin Gollaher, whose mind is bright and clear, and 
 who never tires of telling of the days Lincoln and he 
 *' were little tikes and played together. " This old man, 
 who yet lives in the log house in which he has always 
 lived, a few miles from the old Lincoln place, tells 
 entertaining stories about the President's boyhood. 
 
 Mr. Gollaher says that they were together more than 
 the other boys in school, that he became fond of his 
 Httle friend, and he believed that Abe thought a great 
 deal of him. 
 
 In speaking of various events of minor importance 
 in their boyhood days Mr. Gollaher remarked: "I 
 once saved Lincoln 's life. '* Upon being urged to tell 
 of the occurrence he thus related it: *'We had been 
 going to school together one year but the next year we 
 had no school, because there were so few scholars to 
 attend, there being only about twenty in the school the 
 year before. 
 
 ** Consequently Abe and I had not much to do; 
 but, as we did not go to school and our mothers were 
 strict with us, we did not get to see each other very 
 often. One Sunday morning my mother waked me 
 up early, saying she was going to see Mrs. Lincoln, and 
 that I could go along. Glad of the chance, I was soon 
 dressed and ready to go. After my mother and I got 
 there Abe and I played all through the day.
 
 Tersely Told, 15 
 
 *' While we were wandering up and down the little 
 stream called Knob Creek, Abe said: 'Right up there' 
 — pointing to the east — 'we saw a covey of partridges 
 yesterday. Let's go over and get some of them.' The 
 stream was swollen and was too wide for us to jump 
 across. Finally we saw a narrow foot-log, and we 
 concluded to try it. It was narrow, but Abe said, 
 'Let's coon it.' 
 
 '*I went first and reached the other side all right. 
 Abe went about half-way across, when he got scared 
 and began trembling. I hollered to him, 'Don't look 
 down nor up nor sideways, but look right at me and 
 hold on tight!' But he fell off into the creek, and, as 
 the water was about seven or eight feet deep and I could 
 not swim, and neither could Abe, I knew it would do 
 no good for me to go in after him. 
 
 " So I got a stick — a long water sprout — and held it 
 out to him. He came up, grabbing with both hands, 
 and I put the stick into his hands. He clung to it, and 
 I pulled him out on the bank, almost dead. I got him 
 by the arms and shook him well, and then rolled him 
 on the ground, when the water poured out of his mouth. 
 
 "He was all right very soon. We promised each 
 other that we would never tell anybody about it, and 
 never did for years. I never told any one of it until 
 after Lincoln was killed. " 
 
 Lincoln's Youthful Eloquence. 
 
 One man in Gentryville, Ind., a Mr. Jones, the 
 storekeeper, took a Louisville paper, and here Lincoln
 
 16 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 went regularly to read and discuss its contents. All 
 the men and boys of the neighborhood gathered there, 
 and everything which the paper related was subjected 
 to their keen, shrewd common sense. It was not long 
 before young Lincoln became the favorite member of 
 the group and the one listened to most eagerly. Politics 
 was warmly discussed by these Gentryville citizens, and 
 it may be that sitting on the counter of Jones' grocery 
 Lincoln even discussed slavery. It certainly was one 
 of the live questions of Indiana at that date. 
 
 Yoimg Lincoln was not only T;^anning in those days 
 in the Jones grocery store a reputation as a debater and 
 story teller, but he was becoming known as a kind of 
 bacia\"Oods orator. He could repeat with effect all the 
 poems and speeches in his various school readers, he 
 could imitate to perfection the wandering preachers who 
 came to Gentryville, and he could make a poHtical 
 speech so stirring that he drew a crowd about him every 
 time he mounted a stimip. The applause he won was 
 sweet, and frequently he indulged his gifts when he 
 ought to have been at work — so thought his employers 
 and Thomas, his father. It was trying, no doubt, to 
 the hard pushed farmers to see the men vrho ought to i 
 have been cutting grass or chopping wood throw down 
 their sickles or axes to group around a boy whenever; 
 he mounted a stump to develop a pet theory or repeat! 
 with variations yesterday's sermon. In his fondriessj 
 for speechmaking he attended all the trials of the 
 neighborhood and frequently walked fifteen miles to 
 Boone ville to attend court.
 
 Tersely Told. 17 
 
 One of Lincoln's Songs. 
 
 As will be learned elsewhere in this book Annie 
 Rutledge was Lincoln's first love. Mrs. William 
 Prewitt, of Fairfield, Iowa, is a sister of Annie Rutledge. 
 She is a widow in comfortable circumstances and lives 
 with one of her sons. This is what she says of her dead 
 sister and Lincoln: 
 
 **Her death made a great impression upon him, I 
 could see. We never knew him to jolly or laugh after- 
 ward. Annie was next to the oldest girl in our family, 
 and she had a great deal of the housework to do. I 
 remember seeing her washing in the old-fashioned way. 
 She would sweep and bake, and was a good cook and 
 took pride in her housework. She and Abe were very 
 jolly together, sometimes. They used to sing together. 
 There was one song I didn't Hke to hear, and he would 
 sing it to tease me. He would tip back his chair and 
 roar it out at the top of his voice, over and over again, 
 just for fun. I have the book they used to sing out of 
 yet, with that song in it. " 
 
 The book is an old-fashioned "Missouri Harmony, " 
 
 and the song is as follows ; 
 
 When in death I shall calmly recline, 
 
 O, bear my heart to my mistress dear; 
 Tell her it lived on smiles and wine 
 
 Of brightest hue while it lingered here; 
 Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow 
 
 To sully a heart so brilHant and bright, 
 But heahng drops of the red grape borrow 
 To bathe the reHc from mom till night. 
 When informed that the song was a queer one to 
 sing for fun, Mrs. Prewitt replied that "it is a queer 
 song, anyhow. "
 
 1 8 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln's First Political Speech. 
 
 A citizen of Buffalo has found among his papers 
 an account of the circumstances under which Abraham 
 Lincoln made his maiden speech. It was originally 
 printed in the Springfield (111.) Republican, and is as 
 follows : 
 
 "The President of the United States made his 
 maiden speech in Sangamon County, at Pappsville 
 (or Richland), in the year 1832. He was then a Whig 
 and a candidate for the Legislature of this State. The 
 speech is sharp and sensible. To understand why it 
 was so short the following facts wiU show: 1. Mr. 
 Lincoln was a young man of 23 3^ears of age and timid. 
 2. His friends and opponents in the joint discussion 
 had rolled the sun nearly down. Lincoln saw it was 
 not the proper time then to discuss the question fully, 
 and hence he cut his remarks short. Probably the 
 other candidates had exhausted the subjects under dis- 
 cussion. The time, according to W. H. Hemdon's 
 informant — who has kindly furnished this valuable 
 reminiscence for us — was 1832; it may have been 1831. 
 The President lived at the time with James A. Hemdon, 
 at Salem, Sangamon County, who heard the speech, 
 talked about it, and knows the report to be correct. 
 The speech which was characteristic of the man, was 
 as follows: 
 
 *' 'Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens: I presume you all 
 know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I 
 have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate 
 for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet.
 
 Tersely Told. 19 
 
 like an ''old woman's dance." I am in favor of a 
 national bank. I am in favor of the international 
 improvement system and a high protective tariff. 
 These are my sentiments and political principles. If 
 elected, I will be thankful. If defeated, it will be all 
 the same.' " 
 
 How Lincoln Became Known as "Honest Abe.'* 
 
 As a grocery clerk at New Salem, Lincoln was 
 scrupulously honest. This trait of his soon became 
 known, but the two following incidents are particularly 
 responsible for the appellation of *' Honest Abe, " given 
 him and by which he has been so familiarly known. 
 He once took six and a quarter cents too much from a 
 customer. He did not say to himself, ''never mind 
 such little things, " but walked three miles that evening, 
 after closing his store, to return the money. On an- 
 other occasion, he weighed out a half-pound of tea, as he 
 •supposed, it being night when he did so, and that having 
 been the last thing he sold in the store before going 
 home. On entering in the morning he discovered a 
 four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw his mistake, 
 and shutting up shop, hurried off to deliver the remain- 
 der of the tea. These acts of his, as well as his thorough 
 honesty in other respects, soon gained for him the now 
 famous title of ''Honest Abe. " 
 
 Lincoln Was an "Obliging" Man. 
 
 Lincoln was always ready to help any man, woman, 
 child or animal. He was naturally kindhearted, and
 
 20 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 ''possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of 
 entering into the interests of others, a power found only 
 in reflective, unselfish natures. '* He loved his friends 
 and sympathized with them in their troubles. He was 
 anxious always to do his share in making their labor 
 day after day, as light as possible. 
 
 Thus we are told by his neighbors (biography by 
 Mr. Hemdon and others) that he cared for the children 
 while on a visit to a friend's house; gave up his own 
 bed in the tavern where he was boarding when the 
 house was full, and slept on the counter; helped farmers 
 pull out the wheel of their wagon when it got stuck in 
 the mud; chopped wood for the widows; rocked the 
 cradle while the woman of the house where he was 
 staying was busy getting the meal, and otherwise made 
 himself useful. No wonder there was not a housewife 
 in all New Salem who would not gladly ''put on a plate " 
 for Abe Lincoln, or who would not dam or mend for 
 him whenever he needed such services. It was the 
 ''spontaneous, unobtrusive helpfulness of the man's 
 nature which endeared him to everybody." 
 
 How Lincoln Paid a Large Debt. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln went into partnership in the grocery 
 business in New Salem, 111., with a man named Berry. 
 This man Berry mismanaged the business while Lin- 
 coln was away surveying. Eventually he died, leaving 
 Lincoln to pay a debt of eleven hundred dollars con- 
 tracted by the firm. In those days it was the fashion 
 for business men who had failed to "clear out," that
 
 Tersely Told. 21 
 
 is, skip the town and settle elsewhere. Not so with 
 "Abe." He quietly settled down among the men he 
 owed and promised to pay them. He asked only time. 
 For several years he worked to pay off this debt, a load 
 which he cheerfully and manfully bore. He habitually 
 spoke of it to his friends as the *' national debt, " it was 
 so heavy. As late as 1848, when he was a member of 
 Congress, he sent home a part of his salary to be ap- 
 plied on these obligations. All the notes, with the high 
 interest rates then prevaiHng, were finally paid. 
 
 His First Sight of Slavery. 
 
 In May, 1831, Lincoln and a few companions went 
 to New Orleans on a flat-boat and remained there a 
 month. It was there that he witnessed for the first 
 time, negro men and women sold Hke animals. The 
 poor beings were chained, whipped and scourged. 
 ''Against this inhumanity his sense of right and justice 
 rebelled, and his mind and conscience were awakened to 
 a realization of what he had often heard and read,** 
 writes one of his biographers, Ida M. Tarbell. One 
 morning, in his rambles with his friends over the city, 
 he passed a slave auction. A comely mulatto girl of 
 vigorous physique was being sold. She underwent a 
 thorough examination at the hands of the bidders; 
 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 
 oflering to buy was sound or not. *'The whole thing
 
 22 Best Lincoln Stories • 
 
 was so revolting that Lincoln moved away from the 
 scene with a deep feeling of imconquerable hate. " He 
 remarked to his companions: *'It I ever get a chance 
 to hit that thing (slavery) I '11 hit it hard. " 
 
 Lincoln and Davis in the Black Hawk War. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln had a very brief experience with 
 actual warfare. He enlisted with a company of vol- 
 unteers to take part in the Black Hawk war. It was 
 the custom in those days for each company to elect its 
 own Captain, and Lincoln was chosen Captain of his 
 company almost unanimously. He was heard to say 
 many times in after life that no other success in his life 
 had given him such pleasure as did this one. His 
 command did little, as they were never engaged in a 
 pitched battle, so Lincoln had to be content ''with the 
 reputation of being the best comrade and story-teller 
 in the camp." It is a peculiar coincidence that Jef- 
 ferson Davis also served as an officer in this war. 
 
 Lincoln's Glowing Tribute to His Mother. 
 
 These famous words originated with the good and 
 lowly Abraham Lincoln: 
 
 ''All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel 
 mother. " 
 
 His affection for his mother was very strong, and 
 long after her death he would speak of her affectionately 
 and tearfully. She was a woman five feet, five inches 
 in height, slender of figure, pale of complexion, sad of 
 expression, and of a sensitive nature. Of a heroic na- 
 ture, she yet shrank from the rude life around her.
 
 Tersely Told. 23 
 
 About two years after her removal from Kentucky to 
 Indiana, she died. *'Abe" was then ten years old. 
 She was buried under a tree near the cabin home, where 
 little *'Abe" would often betake himself and, sitting 
 on her lonely grave, weep over his irreparable loss. 
 
 Lincoln's mother was buried in a green pine box 
 made by his father. Although a boy of ten years at 
 that time, it was through his efforts that a parson came 
 all the way from Kentucky to Indiana three months 
 later to preach the sermon and conduct the service. 
 The child could not rest in peace till due honor had been 
 done his dead mother. 
 
 What Lincoln's Step-Mother Said of Him. 
 
 **Abe was a good boy, and I can say what scarcely 
 one woman — a mother — can say in a thousand: Abe 
 never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused 
 in fact or appearance, to do anything I requested him, 
 
 I never gave him a cross word in all my life 
 
 His mind and mine — what little I had — seemed to run 
 together. He was here after he was elected President. 
 He was a dutiful son to me, always. I think he loved 
 me truly. I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe, 
 Both were good boys; but I must say, both now being 
 dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or expect 
 to see." — Ida M. Tarbell. 
 
 Lincoln's First Love. 
 
 Lincoln's first love was Anna Rutledge, of New 
 Salem, whose father was keeper of the Rutledge tavern
 
 24 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 where "Abe" boarded. The girl had been engaged to 
 a young man named John McNeill, whom, we are in- 
 formed, the village commimity pronounced an adven- 
 turer and a man unworthy the girl's love. He left for 
 the East, promising, however, to return within a year 
 and claim her as his wife, so the story reads. Accord- 
 ing to Mrs. WiUiam Prewitt, a sister of Anna Rutledge, 
 who is at present (1898) H\'ing, the engagement was 
 broken off before McNeill went away, so that she was 
 free to receive the attentions of ''Abe" Lincoln. She 
 finally promised to become his wife in the spring of 
 1835, soon after his return from Vandalia. But unfortu- 
 nately, circumstances did not permit of a marriage 
 then, Lincoln being barely able to support himself, not 
 yet having been a(£nitted to the bar, and the girl, being 
 but seventeen years old. It was agreed that she should 
 attend an academy at Jacksonville, 111., and Lincoln 
 would devote himself to his law studies till the next 
 spring, when he would be admitted to the bar, and then 
 they would be married. 
 
 New Salem was deeply interested in the yoimg 
 lovers and prophesied a happy life for them; but fate 
 willed it otherwise. Anna Rutledge became seriously 
 ill, with an attack of brain fever, and when it was seen 
 that her recovery was impossible, Lincoln, her lover was 
 sent for. They '' passed an hour alone in an anguished 
 parting," and soon after (August 25, 1835), Anna died. 
 
 The death of his sweetheart was a terrible blow to 
 Lincoln. His melancholy increased and darkened his 
 mind and his imagination, and tortured him with 
 its black picture. One stormy night he was sitting
 
 Tersely Told. 25 
 
 beside a friend of his, with his head bowed on his hand, 
 while tears trickled through his fingers. His friend 
 begged him to try to control his sorrow; to try to forget 
 it. Lincoln replied: "I cannot; the thought of the 
 snow and rain on Ann's grave fills me with indescribable 
 grief. " For many days Lincoln journeyed on foot to 
 the cemetery where Anna Rutledge lay buried, and there 
 alone, in the ''city of the dead, " wept for the girl whom 
 he had loved so well. Many years afterward, when he 
 had married and become great, he said to a friend who 
 questioned him: "I really and truly loved the girl 
 and think often of her now. " After a pause he added: 
 '* And I have loved the name of Rutledge to this day. " 
 
 The Duel Lincohi Didn*t Fight. 
 
 President Abraham^Lincoln and General Joe Shields, 
 who married sisters, once arranged to fight a duel at 
 Alton, 111. It is remembered yet by the old settlers. 
 Shields had offended a young lady at Springfield, and 
 she got even by sending an article about it to a Spring- 
 field paper, signing a nom de plume. The next day 
 General Shields called upon the editor and gave him 
 24 hours during which to divulge the name of the 
 author or to take the consequences. The editor, who 
 was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, called upon him and 
 asked him what to do. Not thinking it was a very 
 serious affair, Lincoln promptly said, "Tell him that I 
 wrote it." The editor did so, and General Shields 
 challenged Lincoln to a duel, the latter accepting and 
 choosing broadswords as the weapons and an island
 
 26 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 opposite Alton as the place. The principals and 
 seconds went to the place appointed, when a chance 
 remark of Lincoln that he hated to have to kill Shields 
 because he caused him to beHeve that he wrote the 
 article in order to protect a lady, brought about a recon- 
 ciliation, and the duel failed to come off. Hundreds of 
 people were on the bank of the river, and to carry out 
 a joke a log was dressed up, placed in a skiff, the occu- 
 pants fanning it with their hats as though it was an 
 injured man, and the excitement was intense. It 
 always remained a sore spot with Lincoln, and but 
 little was ever said about it. 
 
 Lincoln as a Dancer. 
 
 Lincoln made his first appearance in society, when 
 he was first sent to Springfield, 111., as a member of the 
 state legislature. It was not an imposing figure which 
 he cut in a ballroom, but still he was occasionally to be 
 found there. Miss Mary Todd, who afterward became 
 his wife, was the magnet which drew the tall, awkward 
 young man from his den. One evening Lincoln ap- 
 proached Miss Todd and said, in his peculiar idiom: 
 
 *'Miss Todd, I should like to dance with you the 
 worst way. " 
 
 The young woman accepted the inevitable and 
 hobbled around the room with him. When she re- 
 turned to her seat, one of her companions asked mis- 
 chievously: ''Well Mary, did he dance with you the 
 worst way?" 
 
 *' Yes, " she answered, *Hhe very worst. "
 
 Tersely Told. 27 
 
 Lincoln*s Courtship and Marriage. 
 
 In 1839, Miss Mary Todd, of Kentucky, arrived 
 in Springfield to visit a married sister, Mrs. Edwards. 
 At the instance of his friend Speed, who was also a 
 Kentuckian, Lincoln became a visitor at the Edwards, 
 and before long it was apparent to the dbservant among 
 those in Springfield that the lively young lady held him 
 captive. Engagements at that time and in that neigh- 
 borhood were not announced as soon as they were made, 
 and it is not at all impossible that Miss Todd and Mr. 
 Lincoln were betrothed many months before any other 
 than Mrs. Edwards and Mr. Speed knew of it. 
 
 At this time, as was the case till Lincoln was elected 
 to the presidency, his one special rival in Illinois was 
 Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Douglas had more of the 
 social graces than Mr. Lincoln, and it appeared to him 
 that nothing would be more interesting than to cut out 
 his poHtical rival in the affections of the entertaining 
 and lively Miss Todd, and so he paid her court. 
 
 A spirited young lady from Kentucky, at that time, 
 in Illinois, would have been almost less than human if 
 she had refused to accept the attentions of the two 
 leading men of the locaHty. Therefore, Miss Todd, 
 being quite human, encouraged Douglas, and again 
 there was what novv^adays would have been called a 
 flirtation. This course of action did not spur Lincoln 
 on in his devotion, but made him less ardent, and he 
 concluded, after much self worriment, to break off the 
 engagement, v/hich he did, but at the same interview 
 there was a reconciliation and a renewal of engagement.
 
 28 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln's marriage to Mary Todd occurred !n 
 Springfield, 111., at the home of Mr. M. W. Edwards, 
 where Miss Todd lived. She was the belle of Spring- 
 field. The marriage, although hastily arranged in the 
 end, was perhaps the first one performed in thaftity 
 with all the requirements of the Episcopal ceremony. 
 Rev. Charles Dresser officiated. Among the many 
 friends of Lincoln who were present was Thomas C. 
 Brown, one of the judges of the state supreme court. 
 He was a blunt, outspoken man and an old timer. 
 
 Parson Dresser was attired in full canonical robes 
 and recited the service with much impressive solemnity, 
 He handed Lincoln the ring, who, placing it on the 
 bride's finger, repeated the church formula, ''With this 
 ring, I thee endow with all my goods and chattels, 
 lands and tenements." 
 
 Judge Brown, who had never before witnessed such 
 a ceremony, and looked upon it as utterly absurd, 
 ejaculated, in a tone loud enough to be heard by all, 
 "God Almighty, Lincoln, the statute fixes all that!" 
 This unexpected interruption almost upset the old par- 
 son, w^ho had a keen sense of the ridiculous, but he 
 quickly recovered his gravity and hastily pronounced 
 the couple man and wife. 
 
 Lincoln's Personal Appearance. 
 
 That Lincoln was a man of extraordinary personal 
 appearance is well known. He measured six feet four 
 inches, and as most men are below six feet it will be seen 
 that he was considerably taller than the average. He
 
 Tersely Told, 29 
 
 possessed great strength, both bodily and mental, and 
 had a superabundance of patience, which he displayed 
 constantly, and treated even those who differed with 
 him with respect and kindness. One who had sustained 
 close relations with Lincoln and knew him intimately, 
 the late Charles A. Dana, in his Reminiscences of 
 Abraham Lincoln, pubHshed in McClure's Magazine, 
 thus describes him : 
 
 *'Mr. Lincoln's face was thin, and his features were 
 large. He had black hair, heavy eyebrows, and a square 
 and well developed forehead. His complexion was 
 dark and quite sallow. He had a smile that was most 
 lovely, surpassing even a woman's smile in its engaging 
 quality. When pleased his face would light up very 
 pleasantly. Some have said he was awkw^ard in his 
 step. The word 'awlcc^/ard' hardly fits, because there 
 was such a charm and beauty about his expression, such 
 good hiomor and friendly spirit looking from his eyes, 
 that one looking at him never thought whether he was 
 awkward or graceful. His whole personality at once 
 caused you to think, *What a kindly character this man 
 has ! ' Always dignified in manner, he was benevolent 
 and benignant, always wishing to do somebody some 
 good if he could. He was all solid, hard, keen intelli- 
 gence combined with goodness. " 
 
 Lincoln's Mother. 
 
 Not long before his tragic death, Mr. Lincoln said: 
 
 "All that I am, and all that I hope to be, I owe to 
 
 my mother. " That mother died, when little Abe was
 
 30 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 nine years of age. But she had already woven the 
 texture of her deepest character into the habits and 
 purposes of her boy. Her own origin had been humble. 
 But there were certain elements in her character that 
 prepared her for grand motherhood. When Nancy 
 Hanks, at the age of twenty-three, gave her heart and 
 hand to Thomas Lincoln, she was a young woman of 
 large trustfulness, of loving, unselfish disposition, of 
 profound faith in Divine Providence, of unswerving 
 Christian profession. 
 
 On the day of their marriage Thomas Lincoln took 
 this young wife to his unfinished cabin, which had as 
 yet neither door, floor, nor window. The young man 
 w^as a shiftless Kentucky hunter, who could not read a 
 word. He was handy with his few carpenter tools, but 
 had received no encouragement to keep at work. His 
 happy, trusting wife assisted him to finish the cabin. 
 He mortared the chinks with mud which they together 
 had mixed. Her hope and song made the work of the 
 day his happy employ. In the evening she taught him 
 to read, spelling the words out of her Bible as the text 
 book, which served her double ptupose. 
 
 From that day Thomas Lincoln was a new man. 
 It was this conscientious wife that inspired him to move 
 across the Ohio into the free State of Indiana. Here 
 Lincoln soon became a justice of the peace. When this 
 wife died, only twelve years after their marriage, 
 Thomas Lincoln had been transfonned from the shift- 
 less hunter, who could not read, to an intelligent farmer 
 of the largest influence of any man in his township. 
 Little Abe had been taught to read out of that same
 
 Tersely Told, 31 
 
 Bible, and had read out of that mother's eyes and voice 
 her large trust in the overshadowing Providence and 
 her unswerving honesty in doing the right. It was 
 this woman that put into his hands the fine books — 
 the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, ^sop's Fables, Robinson 
 Crusoe, and Weems' Life of Washington. 
 
 Such was the mother that started Abraham Lincoln. 
 ''Widow Johnston" who became his stepmother, was a 
 good woman, with whom he always maintained the 
 kindest relations. She deserved the honorable mention 
 she received. 
 
 Lincoln's Melancholia. 
 
 A friend of Lincoln writes: Lincoln's periods of 
 melancholy are proverbial. On one occasion, while 
 in court in 1855, Maj. H. C. Whitney describes him as 
 *' sitting alone in one comer of the room remote from 
 any one else, wrapped in abstraction and gloom. It 
 w^as a sad but interesting study for me, and I watched 
 him for some time. It appeared as if he were pursuing 
 in his mind some sad subject through various sinuosities, 
 and his face would assume at times the deepest phases 
 of seeming pain, but no relief came from this dark and 
 despairing m.elancholy till he was roused by the break- 
 ing up of court, when he emerged from his cave of gloom 
 and came back, like one awakened from sleep, to the 
 world in which he lived again." As early as 1837 
 Robert L. Wilson, who was his colleague in the legis- 
 lature, testifies that Lincoln admitted to him, that, 
 although he appeared to enjoy life rapturously, still he
 
 32 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 was the victim of extreme melancholy, and that he was 
 so overcome at times by depression of spirits that he 
 never dared carry a pocketknife. 
 
 To physicians he was something of a physiological 
 puzzle. John T. Stuart insisted that his digestion was 
 organically defective, so that the pores of his skin 
 oftentimes performed the functions of the bowels ; that 
 liis Hver operated abnormally and failed to secrete bile, 
 and that these things themselves were sufficient in his 
 opinion to produce the deepest mental depression and 
 melancholy. 
 
 Lincoln's law partner, Mr. Hemdon, attributed 
 Lincoln's melancholy to the death of Anna Rutledge, 
 beheving that his grief at her untimely death was so 
 intense that it cast a perpetual shadow over his mental 
 horizon. Another believed that it arose from his do- 
 mestic environments ; that his family relations were far 
 from pleasant, and that that imhappy feature of his 
 life was a constant menace to his peace and perfect 
 equipoise of spirits. "Although married," says one, 
 "he was not mated, so that if we see him come into his 
 office in the morning eating cheese and bologna sausages 
 philisophically, what can we expect but some periods of 
 sadness and gloom? Emerson, who you and I hold 
 in high esteem, had pie for breakfast all his married 
 life, and in my opinion that is what clouded his mem- 
 ory the rest of his life after seventy years of age. " 
 
 Lincoln's Height. 
 
 Emma Gurley Adams in the New York Press: 
 Sir: — The admirable speech of Hon. Thomas B.
 
 Tersely Told. 33 
 
 Reed in your paper of Feb. 9, contains one error which 
 I would Hke to correct. Mr. Reed says Mr. Lincoln 
 was six feet four inches in height. Mr. Lincoln told 
 my father that he was exactly six feet three inches only 
 a short time before his tragic death. Mr. Lincoln was 
 very fond of tall men, and generally knew their exact 
 height and never hesitated to say: **I am exactly 
 six feet three. " 
 
 How Lincoln Became a Lawyer. 
 
 That Lincoln was a skilled lawyer is well known. 
 It is not, however, generally known that he learned 
 law himself never having studied with any one, or hav- 
 ing attended any law school. He was pre-eminently a 
 self-educated man. • He borrowed law books of his 
 friend Stuart, of Springfield, 111., took themx home 
 (twenty miles away) and studied them hard. He 
 walked all the way to Springfield and back, and usually 
 read while walking. He ofter read aloud during these 
 trips. Twenty years afterward, while he was a great 
 lawyer and statesman, he gave this advice to a young 
 man who asked him ''how he could become a great 
 lawyer? " 
 
 "Get books, and read and study them carefully. 
 Begin with Blackstone's 'Commentaries,' and after 
 reading carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's 
 'Pleadings,' Greenleaf's 'Evidence,' and Story's 'Equ- 
 ity,' in succession. Work, work, work is the main 
 thing. "
 
 34 Best Lincoln Stori^ 
 
 Lincoln as a Lawyer. 
 
 When Lincoln became a la^\ye^, he carried to the 
 bar his habitual honesty. His associates were often 
 surprised by his utter disregard of self-interest, while 
 they could but admire his conscientious defense of 
 what he considered right. One day a stranger called 
 to secure his services. 
 
 "State your case, " said Lincoln. 
 
 A history of the case was given, when Lincoln as- 
 tonished him by saying: 
 
 **I cannot serve you; for you are wrong and the 
 other party is right. " 
 
 *'That is none of your business, if I hire and pay 
 you for taking the case, " retorted the man. 
 
 ''Not my business!" exclaimed Lincoln. **My 
 business is never to defend \\Tong, if I am a lawyer. I 
 never imdertake a case that is manifestly \^Tong. " 
 
 *' Well, you can make trouble for the fellow, " added 
 the appHcant. 
 
 *'Yes," replied Lincoln, fully a'-oused, "there is no 
 doubt but that I can gain the case for you, and set a 
 whole neighborhood at loggerhead. I can distress a 
 widowed mother and her six fathe^-Tess children, and 
 thereby get for you six hundred donars, which rightly 
 belongs as much to the woman and her children as it 
 does to you; but I won't do it. " 
 
 "Not for any amount of pay?" continued the 
 stranger. 
 
 " Not for all you are worth, " replied Lincoln. " You 
 must remember that some things which are legally right 
 are not morally right. I shall not take your case. "
 
 Tersely Told. 35 
 
 "I don't care a snap whether you do or not!" ex- 
 claimed the man angrily, starting to go. 
 
 *'I will give you a piece of advice without charge, " 
 added Lincoln. " You seem to be a sprightly, energetic 
 man; I would advise you to make six hundred dollars 
 some other way.'* 
 
 LincoIn^s Conscientiousness in Taking Cases. 
 
 Even as early as 1852 Lincoln had acquired a repu- 
 tation for story telling. When not busy during the 
 session of the court he was "habitually whispering 
 stories to his neighbors, frequently to the annoyance of 
 Judge Davis, who presided over the English circuit. " 
 If Lincoln persisted too long the judge would rap on the 
 chair and exclaim: "Come, come, Mr. Lincoln; I 
 can't stand this I There is no use trying to carry on 
 two courts. I must adjourn mine or 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?" 
 
 In his law practice Lincoln seems to have been sin- 
 guarly conscientious, his first effort being to try to 
 arrange matters so as to avoid litigation. Nor would 
 he assimie a case that he felt was not founded upon 
 right and justice. 
 
 The Jury Understood. 
 
 Another one of these anecdotes is related in con- 
 nection with a case involving a bodily attack. Mr.
 
 36 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln defended, and told the jury that his client was 
 in the fix of a man who, in going along the highway with 
 a pitchfork over his shoulder, was attacked by a fierce 
 dog that ran out at him from a farmer's door-yard. 
 In parrying off the brute with the fork its prongs stuck 
 into him and killed him. 
 
 "What made you kill my dog?'* said the farmer. 
 
 *'What made him bite me?" 
 
 *'But why did you not go after him with the other 
 end of the pitchfork? " 
 
 *'Why did he not come at me with his other end?" 
 
 At tins Mr. Lincoln whirled about in his long arms 
 an imaginary dog and pushed his tail end towards the 
 jury. This was the defensive plea of *'Son assault 
 demesne" — ^loosely, that "The other fellow brought 
 on the fight" — quickly told and in a way the dullest 
 mind would grasp and retain. 
 
 Lincoln's Honesty with a Lady Client. 
 
 A lady who had a real estate claim which she desired 
 prosecuted once called on Lincoln and wished him to 
 take up her case. She left the claim in his hands, to- 
 gether with a check for two hundred dollars as retain- 
 ing fee. Lincoln told her to call the next day, and 
 meanwhile he would examine her claim. 
 
 Upon presenting herself the next day the lady was 
 informed that he had examined the case carefully and 
 told her frankly that she had no vaHd or legal grounds 
 on which to base her claim. He therefore could not 
 advise her to institute legal proceedings. The lady was 
 satisfied, and thanking Inm, rose to leave.
 
 Tersely Told, 37 
 
 *'Wait,'* said Lincoln, at the same time fumbling 
 in his vest pocket, ^' here is the check you left with me. " 
 
 *'But, Mr. Lincoln, I think you have earned that," 
 replied the lady. 
 
 ''No, no," he responded, handing it back to her, 
 ''that would not be right. I can't take pay for doing 
 my duty. " — From Lincoln's Stories, by J. B. McClure. 
 
 Lincoln Wins a Celebrated Case. 
 
 The son of Lincoln's old friend and former employer, 
 who had loaned him books, was charged with a murder 
 committed in a riot at a camp-meeting. Lincoln vol- 
 unteered for the defense. 
 
 A witness swore that he saw the prisoner strike the 
 fatal blow. It was night, but he swore that the full 
 moon was shining clear, and he saw everything dis- 
 tinctly. The case seemed hopeless, but Lincoln pro- 
 duced an almanac, and showed that at that hour there 
 was no moon. "Then he depicted the crime of per- 
 jury with such eloquence that the false witness fled 
 the courthouse. " 
 
 One who heard the trial says: "It was near night 
 when Lincoln concluded, saying, 'If justice was done, 
 before the sim set it would shine upon his client a free 
 man.' " 
 
 The court charged the jury; they returned and 
 brought in a verdict of "not guilty." The prisoner 
 fell into his weeping mother's arms, says the writer, 
 and then turned to thank Lincoln. The latter, looking 
 out at the sun, said: " It is not yet simdown, and you 
 are free. "—From Lincohi's Stories, by J. B. McCltire
 
 38 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln's "Selfishness." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln once remarked to a fellow-passenger 
 on the old-time mud- wagon coach, on the corduroy 
 road w^hich antedated railroads, that all men were 
 prompted by selfishness in doing good or evil. His 
 fellow-passenger was antagonizing his position when 
 they were passing over a corduroy bridge that spanned 
 a slough. As they crossed this bridge, and the mud- 
 wagon was shaking like a sucker with chills, they espied 
 an old, razor-back sow on the bank of the slough, making 
 a terrible noise because her pigs had got into the slough 
 and were unable to get out and were in danger of drown- 
 ing. As the old coach began to cHmb the hillside Mr. 
 Lincoln called out: ^'Driver, can't you stop just a 
 moment?" The driver replied, *'If the other fellow 
 don't object." The *' other feller" — who w^as no less 
 a personage than, at that time, *'Col. E. D. Baker, the 
 gallant general who gave his life in defense of old glory 
 at Ball's Bluff — did not *' object," when Mr. Lincoln 
 jimiped out, ran back to the slough and began to lift 
 the little pigs out of the mud and water and place them 
 on the bank. When he returned Col. Baker remarked: 
 *'Now, Abe, where does selfishness come in in this little 
 episode?" **Why, bless your soul, Ed, that was the 
 very essence of selfishness. I would have had no peace 
 of mind all day had I gone on and left that suffering 
 old sow worrying over those pigs. I did it to get peace 
 of mind, don't you see?"
 
 Tersely Told. 39 
 
 Lincoln Removes a License on Theatres. 
 
 One of the most interesting anecdotes about the 
 beloved Lincoki is the one quoted from Joe Jefferson's 
 autobiography. Jefferson and his father were playing 
 at Springfield, during the session of the legislature, and, 
 as there were no theatres in town, had gone to the ex- 
 pense of building one. Hardly had this been done 
 when a religious revival broke out. The church people 
 condemned the theatre and prevailed upon the author- 
 ities to impose a license which was practically prohibi- 
 tion. 
 
 *'In the midst of our trouble,'^ says Jefferson, *'a 
 young lawyer called on the managers. He had heard 
 of the injustice and offered, if they would place the 
 matter in his hands, to have the Hcense taken off, de- 
 claring that he only desired to see fair play, and he 
 would accept no fee whether he failed or succeeded. 
 The yoimg lawyer began his harangue. He handled the 
 subject with tact, skill and humor, tracing the history 
 of the drama from the time when Thespis acted in a 
 cart to the stage of today. He illustrated his speech 
 with a nimiber of anecdotes and kept the coimcil in a 
 roar of laughter. His good humor prevailed and the 
 exorbitant tax was taken off. The young lawyer was 
 Lincoln. 
 
 How Lincoln Got the Worst of a Horse Trade. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was fond of a good story, and it 
 is a well-known fact that he often illustrated an im- 
 portant point in the business at hand by resorting to his
 
 40 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 favorite pastime. Probably, one of the best he ever 
 told he related of himself when he was a lawyer in Illi- 
 nois. One day Lincoln and a certain judge, who was 
 an intimate friend of his, were bantering each other about 
 horses, a favorite topic of theirs. Finally Lincoln said: 
 
 ''Well, look here, Judge, I'll tell you what I'll do. 
 rU make a horse trade with you, only it must be upon 
 these stipulations: Neither party shall see the other's 
 horse until it is produced here in the court yard of the 
 hotel, and both parties must trade horses. If either 
 party backs out of the agreement, he does so under a 
 forfeiture of $25. " 
 
 *' Agreed," cried the judge, and both he and Lin- 
 coln went in quest of their respective animals. 
 
 A crowd gathered, anticipating some fim, 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 — bHnd in both 
 eyes — that ever pressed turf. But presently Lincoln 
 came along carrying over his shoulder a carpenter's 
 horse. Then the mirth of the crowd was furious. 
 Lincoln solemnly set his horse down, and silently sur- 
 veyed the judge's animal with a comical 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. " 
 
 Lincoln Helped Him to Win. 
 
 His first case at the bar will never be forgotten by 
 ex-Senator John C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky, for 
 Abraham Lincohi played a conspicuous part in helping
 
 Tersely Told. dl 
 
 the young Kentucldan to win his suit. Lincoki was 
 merely an attorney, waiting for one of his cases to be 
 called, when the incident occurred. 
 
 Ex-Senator Blackburn was but twenty years old 
 when he began the practice of law, having graduated at 
 Center College, Danville, Ky. His first case was in the 
 United States court in Chicago, presided over by Jus- 
 tice John McLean, then on the circuit, says the Chicago 
 Times-Herald. The opposing coimsel was Isaac N. 
 Arnold, then at the head of the Chicago bar, and subse- 
 quently a member of congress and author of the first 
 biography of Lincoln. Young Blackburn had filed 
 a demurrer to Mr. Arnold's pleadings in the cause, and 
 when the case was reached on the calendar the young 
 Kentuckian was quite nervous at having such a for- 
 midable and experienced antagonist, while the dignity 
 of the tribunal and the presence of a large number of 
 eminent lawyers in court served to increase his timidity 
 and embarrassment. In truth, the stripling barrister 
 was willing to have any disposition made of the cause, 
 in order to get rid of the burden of embarrassment and 
 "stage fright. " He was ready to adopt any suggestion 
 the opposing coimsel should make. 
 
 Arnold made an argimient in which he criticized the 
 demurrer in a manner that increased the young lawyer's 
 confusion. However, Blackburn knew that he had to 
 make some kind of an effort. He proceeded with a few 
 remarks, weak and bewildering, and was about to sit 
 when a tall, homely, loose-jointed man sitting in the 
 bar arose and addressed the court in behalf of the posi- 
 tion the young Kentuckian had assumed in a feeble
 
 42 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 and tangled argument, making the points so clear that 
 the court sustained the demurrer. 
 
 Blackburn did not know who his volimteer friend 
 was, and Mr. Arnold got up and sought to rebuke the 
 latter for attempting to interfere in the case, which he 
 had nothing to do with. This volunteer was none 
 other than Abraham Lincoln, and this was the first 
 and last time the Kentuckian ever saw the ''rail- 
 splitting President." In replying to Mr. Arnold's 
 strictures, Mr. Lincoln said he claimed the privilege 
 of giving a young lawyer a helping hand when struggling 
 with his first case, especially when he was pitted against 
 an experienced practitioner 
 
 Lincoln Settles a Quarrel Without Going to Law. 
 
 When Abe Lincoln used to be drifting around the 
 country practicing law in Fulton and Menard counties, 
 Illinois, an old fellow met him going toLewistown, riding 
 a horse which, while it was a serviceable enough an 
 animal, was not of the kind to be truthfully called a 
 fine saddler. It was a weather-beaten nag, patient 
 and plodding and it toiled along mth Abe— and Abe's 
 books, tucked away in saddle-bags, lay heavy on the 
 horse's flank. 
 
 "Hello, Uncle Tommy, " said Abe. 
 
 ''Hello, Abe," responded Uncle Tommy. 'Tm 
 powerful glad to see ye, Abe, for I'm gwyne to have 
 sumthin' fer ye at Lewiston co't, I reckon. '* 
 
 ''How's that, Uncle Tommy? " said Abe.
 
 T&rsely Told, 43 
 
 *'Well, Jim Adams, his land nms long o' mine, he's 
 pesterin' me a heap an' I got to get the law on Jim, I 
 reckon. " 
 
 "Uncle Tommy, you haven't had any fights with 
 Jim, have you? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 ' 'He 's a fair to middling neighbor, isn't he?' ' 
 
 * 'Only tollable, Abe." 
 
 "He's been a neighbor of yours for a long time, 
 nasn't he?" 
 
 "Nigh on to fifteen years. " 
 
 " Part of the time you get along all right, don't you?' ' 
 
 ' 'I reckon we do, Abe. " 
 
 "Well, now, Uncle Tommy, you see this horse of 
 mine? 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. For aU horses have faults. You and 
 Uncle Jimmy must put up with each other as I and my 
 horse do with one another. " 
 
 "I reckon, Abe," said Uncle Tommy, as he bit off 
 about four oimces of Missouri plug. " I reckon you're 
 about right. " 
 
 And Abe Lincoln, with a smile on his gaunt face, rode 
 on toward Lewistown.
 
 44 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 A Lincoln Story about Little Dan Webster*s 
 Soiled Hands. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, on one occasion narrated to Hon. Mr. 
 Odell and others, with much zest, the following story 
 about young Daniel Webster. 
 
 When quite young, at school, Daniel was one day 
 guilty of a gross violation of the rules. He was detected 
 in the act, and called up by the teacher for pimishment. 
 This was to be the old-fashioned ^'ferruling'* of the 
 hand. His hands happened to be very dirty. KJnowing 
 this, on his way to the teacher's desk, he spit upon the 
 palm of his right hand, wiping it off upon the side of his 
 pantaloons. 
 
 *'Give me your hand, sir," said the teacher, very 
 sternly. 
 
 Out went the right hand, partly cleaned. The 
 teacher looked at it a moment and said: 
 
 " Daniel ! if you will find another hand in this school 
 room as filthy as that, I will let you off this time! " 
 
 Instantly from behind his back came the left hand. 
 ''Here it is, sir,'* was the ready reply. 
 
 "That will do," said the teacher, "for this time; 
 you can take your seat, sir. " — From Lincoln's Stories, 
 by J. B. McClure. 
 
 Lincoln's Long Limbs Drive a Man out of His Berth. 
 
 There was one story of his carreer that the late 
 George M. Pullman told with manifest delight, which 
 is thus related by an intimate friend.
 
 Tersely Told. 45 
 
 One night going out of Chicago, a long, lean, ugly 
 man, with a wart on his cheek, came into the depot. 
 He paid George M. Pullman, 50 cents, and half a berth 
 was assigned him. Then he took off his coat and vest 
 and hung them up, and they fitted the peg about as 
 well as they fitted him. Then he kicked off his boots, 
 which were of surprising length, turned into the berth, 
 and having an easy conscience, was sleeping like a 
 healthy baby before the car left the depot. Along 
 came another passenger and paid his 50 cents. In two 
 minutes he was back at George Pullman. 
 
 ** There's a man in that berth of mine," said he, 
 hotly, **and he's about ten feet high. How am I going 
 to sleep there, I'd like to know? Go and look at him. " 
 
 In went Piillman — ^mad, too. The tall, lank man's 
 knees were imder his chin, his arms were stretched 
 across the bed and his feet were stored comfortably — 
 for him. Pullman shook him until he awoke, and then 
 told him if he wanted the whole berth he would have to 
 pay $1. 
 
 *'My dear sir,'* said the tall man, *'a contract is a 
 contract, I have paid you 50 cents for half this berth, 
 and, as you see, I'm occupying it. There's the other 
 half, " pointing to a strip about six inches wide. '' Sell 
 that and don't disturb me again. '* And, so saying, 
 the man with a wart on his face went to sleep again. 
 He was Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Lincoln's Joke on Douglas. 
 
 On one occasion, when Lincoln and Douglas were 
 "stumping" the State of Illinois together as political
 
 46 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 opponents, Douglas, who had the first speech, remarked 
 that in early life, his father, who he said was an excel- 
 lent cooper by trade, apprenticed him out to learn the 
 cabinet business. 
 
 This was too good for Lincoln to let pass, so when 
 his turn came to reply, he said : 
 
 "I had imderstood before that Mr. Douglas had 
 been bound out to learn the cabinet-making business, 
 which is all well enough, but I was not aware imtil now 
 that is father was a cooper. I have no doubt, however, 
 that he was one, and I am certain, also, that he was a 
 very good one, for (here Lincoln gently bowed toward 
 Douglas) he has made one of the best whisky casks I 
 have ever seen. '^ 
 
 As Douglas was a short heavy-set man, and occa- 
 sionally imbibed, the pith of the joke was at once appar- 
 ent, and most heartily enjoyed by all. 
 
 On another occasion, Douglas in one of his speeches, 
 made a strong point against Lincoln by telling the 
 crowd that when he first knew Mr. Lincoln he was a 
 " grocery -keeper, " and sold whisky, cigars, etc. *' Mr. 
 L.," he said, *'was a very good bartender!" This 
 brought the laugh on Lincoln, whose reply, however, 
 soon came, and then the laugh was on the other side. 
 
 ^ What Mr. Douglas has said, gentlemen, " replied 
 Mr. Lincoln, "is true enough; I did keep a grocery 
 and I did sell cotton, candles and cigars, and some- 
 times whisky; but I remember in those days that Mr. 
 Douglas was one of my best customers. 
 
 "Many a time have I stood on one side of the counter 
 and sold whisky to Mr. Douglas on the other side, but
 
 Tersely Told. 47 
 
 the difference between us now is this : I have left my 
 side of the counter, but Mr. Douglas still sticks to his as 
 tenaciously as ever!" — From Lincoln's Stories, by 
 J. B. IVfcClure. 
 
 Lincoln Shrewdly Traps Douglas. 
 
 Perhaps no anecdote ever told of Mr. Lincoln 
 illustrates more forcibly his "longheadedness" in laying 
 plans, not even that incident when he asked the '' Jedge" 
 a question in his debate with Mr. Douglas, which may 
 be told as follows: 
 
 One afternoon during that joint debate Mr. Lincoln 
 was sitting with his friends, planning the program, when 
 he was observed to go off in a kind of reverie, and for 
 some time appeared totally oblivious of everything 
 aroiuid him. Then slowly bringing his right hand up, 
 holding it a moment in the air and letting it fall with a 
 quick slap upon his thigh, he said: 
 
 ''There, I am going to ask the ^jedge* (he always 
 called him the 'jedge') a question to-night, and I don 't 
 care the ghost of a continental which way he answers 
 it. If he answers it one way he will lose the senator- 
 ship. If he answers it the other way it will lose him 
 the Presidency. " 
 
 No one asked him what the question was : but that 
 evening it was the turn for Mr. Douglas to speak first, 
 and right in the midst of his address, all at once Mr. 
 Lincoln roused up as if a new thought had suddenly 
 struck him, and said: 
 
 '' Jedge, will you allow me to ask you one question? *
 
 48 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 *' Certainly, *' said Mr. Douglas. 
 
 ** Suppose, Jedge, there was a new town or colony 
 just started in some Western territory; and suppose 
 there were precisely 100 householders — voters — there; 
 and suppose, Jedge, that ninety-nine did not want 
 slavery and one did. What would be done about it? " 
 
 Judge Douglas beat about the bush, but failed to 
 give a direct answer. 
 
 "No, no, Jedge, that won't do. Tell us plainly 
 what would be done about it?" 
 
 Again Douglas tried to evade, but Lincoln would 
 not be put off, and he insisted that a direct answer 
 should be given At last Douglas admitted that the 
 majority would have their way by some means or other. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln said no more. He had secured what 
 he wanted. Douglas had answered the question as 
 Illinois people would have answered it, and he got the 
 Senatorship. But that answer was not satisfactory 
 to the people of the South. In 1860 the Charleston 
 convention split in two factions and "it lost him the 
 Presidency," and it made Abraham Lincoln President. 
 
 Lincoln's Fairness in Debate. 
 
 The first time I met Mr. Lincoln was during his 
 contest with Douglas. I was a young clergyman 
 in a small Illinois country town. I was almost a stranger 
 there when Lincoln was announced to make a speech. 
 I went to the hall, got a seat well forward and asked 
 a neighbor to point out Mr. Lincoln when he came in. 
 *'You won't have no trouble knowin' him when he
 
 Tersely Told. 49 
 
 comes," said my friend, and I didn't. Soon a tall, 
 gaunt man came down the aisle and was greeted with 
 hearty applause. 
 
 I was specially impressed with the fairness and 
 honesty of the man. He began by stating Douglas' 
 points as fully and fairly as Douglas could have done. 
 It struck me that he even overdid it in his anxiety to 
 put his opponent's argument in the most attractive 
 form. But then he went at those arguments and 
 answered them so convincingly that there was nothing 
 more to be said. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's manner so charmed me that I asked to 
 meet him after the address, and learning that he was to 
 be in town the next day attending court I invited him 
 to dine with me. He came, and we had an interesting 
 visit. 
 
 The thing that most impressed me was his reverence 
 fpr learning. Recently come from divinity studies, I 
 was full of books, and he was earnest in drawing me out 
 about them. He was by no means ignorant of Hterature 
 but as a man of affairs natvurally he had not followed 
 new things nor studied in the Hnes I had. Philosophy 
 interested him particularly, and after we had talked 
 about some of the men then in vogue he remarked how 
 much he felt the need of reading and what a loss it was 
 to a man not to have grown up among books. 
 
 ''Men of force," I answered, **can get on pretty 
 well without books. They do their own thinking in- 
 stead of adopting what other men think."
 
 60 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 ** Yes, " said Mr. Lincoln, "but books serve to show 
 a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very 
 new, after all. " 
 
 I met Mr. Lincoln several times later, the next 
 time a long while after in another place. I thought 
 he would have forgotten me, but he knew me on sight 
 and asked in the gentlest way possible about my v/ifc, 
 who had been ill when he came to see us. But of all 
 my memories of Lincoln the one that stands out strong- 
 est was his interest in poetry and theology. He loved 
 the things of the spirit. — ^A Clergyman. 
 
 Lincoln Asked His Friend's Help for the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 One of the most valued possessions of the Gillespie 
 family of Edwardsville, 111., is a package of old letters, 
 the paper stained by time and the ink faded, but each 
 missive rendered invaluable, to them at least, by the 
 well-known signature of Abraham Lincoln which adorns 
 it. These letters, so carefully preserved, are nearly all 
 of a poHtical nature, and are addressed to Hon. Joseph 
 Gillespie, before the war, one of the leading politicians 
 of Ilhnois, a famous stump speaker, several times mem- 
 ber of the legislature, and for many years one of Lin- 
 coln's most intimate pohtical friends. The correspond- 
 ence covers a period of about ten years, from 1849 to 
 1858, and the most interesting feature of this period, 
 so far as Lincoln was concerned, was his unsuccessful 
 effort to be elected to the United States senate. ^ Prob- 
 ably the first intimation of his ambition in this direction
 
 Tersely Told. 61 
 
 was conveyed to Mr. Gillespie in the following letter, 
 the original of which is now in the possession of the 
 Missouri Historical Association, having been presented 
 to that society by Mr. Gillespie in 1876. A copy, how- 
 ever, forms part of the family collection. It reads: 
 
 ''Springfield, 111., December 1, 1854.— (J. Gillespie, 
 Esq.) — Dear Sir: I have really got it intomy head 
 to be United States senator, and if I could have 
 your support my chances would be reasonably good. 
 But I know and acknowledge that you have as just 
 claims to the place as I have; and, therefore, I cannot 
 ask you to 3deld to me if you are thinking of becoming 
 a candidate yourself. If, however, you are not, then 
 I would like to be remembered by you; and also to 
 have you make a mark for me with the anti-Nebraska 
 members down your way. If you know, and have no 
 objection to tell, let me know whether Tnmibull in- 
 tends to make a push. If he does I suppose the two 
 men in St. Clair, and one or both in Madison, w.ll be 
 for him. 
 
 *'We have the legislature clearly enough on joint 
 ballot, but the senate is very close, and Cullom told me 
 today that the Nebraska men will stave off the election 
 if they can. Even if we get into joint vote we shall have 
 difficulty to unite our forces. Please write me and let 
 this be confidential. Your friend as ever. 
 
 "A.LINCOLN." 
 
 tt OF ILL Ua
 
 52 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Making Lincoln Presentable. 
 
 In narrating **When Lincoln Was First Inaugu- 
 rated, " Stephen Fiske tells of Mrs. Lincoln's efforts to 
 have her husband look presentable when receiving a 
 delegation that was to greet them upon reaching New 
 York City. 
 
 *'The train stopped," writes Mr. Fiske, ''and 
 through the windows immense crowds could be seen; 
 the cheering drowning the blowing off of steam of the 
 locomotive. Then Mrs. Lincoln opened her hand bag 
 and said: 
 
 *' 'Abraham, I must fix you up a bit for these city 
 folks.' 
 
 *'Mr. Lincoln gently lifted her upon the seat before 
 him; she parted, combed and brushed his hair and 
 arranged his black necktie. 
 
 *' *Do I look nice now, mother?' he affectionately 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, you'll do, Abraham,* replied Mrs. Lincoln 
 critically. So he kissed her and lifted her down from 
 the seat, and turned to meet Mayor Wood, courtly 
 and suave, and to have his hand shaken by the other 
 New York officials." 
 
 Evidence of Lincoln's Religious Belief. 
 
 There has been much controversy over Lincoln's 
 religious beliefs, many claiming that he was a deist 
 while others have sought to prove that he was an infidel. 
 Although never a member of any church, there is much 
 docimientary as well as corroborative evidence which
 
 Tersely Told, 53 
 
 show him to have been a believer in Providence; and 
 in his parting address to his Springfield neighbors, when 
 leaving for Washington he said: 
 
 *' Washington would never have succeeded except 
 for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all 
 times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the 
 same Divine blessing which sustained him; and on the 
 same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. 
 And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may 
 receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot 
 succeed, but with which success is certain. " 
 
 Lincoln a Temperance Man. 
 
 After his nomination for the Presidency at the 
 Republican convention of Chicago, a committee visited 
 him in Springfield and gave him official notification of 
 his nomination. 
 
 The ceremony over, Lincoln informed the company 
 that custom demanded that he should treat them with 
 something to drink. He thereupon opened a door that 
 led into a room in the rear and called a girl servant. 
 When she appeared Lincoln said something to her in 
 an undertone, and returned to his guests. In a few 
 minutes the girl appeared, bearing a large waiter, con- 
 taining several glass tumlDlers, and a large pitcher in 
 the midst, which she placed upon the table. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln arose and gravely addressing the com- 
 pany, 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
 
 54 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 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." So saying he took a 
 tumbler, touched it to his Hps and pledged them his 
 respects in a cup of cold water. Of course, all his 
 guests were constrained to admire his consistency, and 
 to join in his example. — From Lincoln's Stories, by 
 J. B. McClure. 
 
 Lincoln* s Famous Gettysburg Address. 
 
 Speaking of the dedication of the National Cemetery 
 at Getty sbtug and President Lincoln's famous ad- 
 dress, deHvered on that occasion, Nov. 19, 1863, Gov. 
 Ciurtain, of Pennsylvania, said that there had been 
 much discussion as to how and when that address was 
 written, and he continued. 
 
 *'I can tell you all about that. Of course, I was there, 
 and the President and his cabinet had arrived and were 
 at the hotel. Soon after his arrival, as we were sitting 
 around in the parlor, Mr. Lincoln looked thoughtful 
 for a moment or two, and then said: *I believe, gentle- 
 men, the committee are expecting me to say something 
 here today. If you will excuse me I will go into this 
 room here and prepare it.' After a time, he returned, 
 holding in his hand a large, yellow government envelope, 
 on which he had written his address. 
 
 ** 'Here, gentlemen,' he said, *I want to read this to 
 you to see if it will do ;' and sitting down he read it to us, 
 and then said: 'Now for your criticisms. Will it do? 
 What do you say?'
 
 * Tersely Told. ^ 65 
 
 "Several spoke in favor of it, and one or two com- 
 mended it in strong terms. 'Well/ says the President, 
 'haven't you any criticisms? What do you say, 
 Seward?' 
 
 "Mr. Seward made one or two suggestions, bearing 
 on some slight verbal changes, which I believe Mr. 
 Lincoln incorporated. 
 
 " 'Now if you will allow me, gentlemen,* continued 
 the President, 'I will copy this off;^ and again with- 
 drew and made a copy of the address. " 
 
 The Gettysburg Address. 
 
 "Ladies and Gentlemen: Four score and seven 
 years ago yoiu" fathers brought forth upon this conti- 
 nent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated 
 to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now 
 we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
 that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- 
 cated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle- 
 field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion 
 of that field as a final resting-place for those who here 
 gave their lives that the nation might live. It is alto- 
 gether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
 
 "But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we can- 
 not consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The 
 brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have 
 consecrated it far above our power to add to or detract. 
 The world will little note, nor long remember, what we 
 say here; but it can never forget what they did here.
 
 56 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 * 'It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here 
 to the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
 thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be 
 here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, 
 that from these honored dead we take increased devo- 
 tion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
 measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that 
 these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, 
 under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that 
 the government of the people, by the people, and for 
 the people shall not perish from the earth. *' 
 
 Lincoln as a Ruler. 
 
 Mr. Henry Watterson, the distinguished and schol- 
 arly editor of the widely-read Louisville Courier Journal, 
 once delivered a lecture on "Lincoln. " The following 
 is part of what he said: 
 
 *' After he was inaugurated President, Mr. Lincoln 
 evinced four great qualities of mind and heart so great 
 indeed that it is doubtful if such a combination of kingly 
 talents was ever before or since concentrated in the 
 same man.'* Mr. Watterson then elaborated from 
 historical facts, incidents, and conclusions, as also from 
 quotations from Mr. Lincoln's speeches and letters, 
 his direction and management of generals and cabinet 
 officers, his knowledge of law, diplomacy, and military 
 affairs, his firmness for the right, his great kindness of 
 heart, and love of humanity, the following propositions: 
 
 1. Lincoln was the wisest ruler of this or any other 
 age.
 
 Tersely Told. 57 
 
 2. He had the firmness of the everlasting hills. 
 
 3. His love of justice and righteousness between 
 man and man, and between nations guided him in all 
 things. 
 
 4. His kindness of heart, and his sympathies for 
 mankind were an overflowing fountain. 
 
 5. Abraham Lincoln was raised up of God, and 
 in a sense inspired for the place and work he fulfilled in 
 the world. 
 
 * 'Perhaps the most striking illustration of superior 
 wisdom and power as a ruler, " said the speaker, "was 
 his reply to Mr. Seward's proposition to declare war 
 against France and Spain, and impliedly against Eng- 
 land and Russia, only one month after Lincoln's inaugu- 
 ration. The reply was complete; so was his mastery 
 over the most astute and scholarly statesman and diplo- 
 matist of the age. While preparing that reply, the 
 same night after receiving Mr. Seward's wonderful 
 proposals, — a reply which the best critics of the world 
 have declared needed not another word, and would not 
 have been complete with one word lacking, — he was 
 overheard repeating to himself, audibly over and over, 
 'One war at a time, one war at a time, one v/ar at a 
 time.'" 
 
 Lincoln*s Real Object in Conducting the War. 
 
 The great Horace Greeley was wont to criticize 
 Lincoln's plan of conducting the war. He finally 
 wanted to know "what were the purposes and aims of 
 the President, anyway?" The following is Lincoln's
 
 58 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 reply, showing that his sole purpose was to save the 
 Union at whatever cost. 
 
 *'If there be those who would not save the Union 
 unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do 
 not agree with them. If there be those who would not 
 save the Union unless they could at the same time de- 
 stroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My para- 
 mount object is to save the Union, and not either to 
 save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
 without freeing any slave, I would do it. If I could save 
 it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could 
 do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I 
 would also do that. What I do about slavery and the 
 colored race I do because I beUeve it helps to save the 
 Union, and what I forbear I forbear because I do not 
 believe it helps to save the Union. I shall do less 
 whenever I shall believe that what I am doing hurts the 
 cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing 
 more will help the cause. " 
 
 Lincoln Asked for Some of Grant's Whisky. 
 
 When officious intermeddlers went to President 
 Lincoln and demanded Gen. Grant's removal from 
 the command of the armies, charging that he was in 
 the habit of getting dnmk, Lincoln cooly asked them 
 where he could get some of the brand of whisky that 
 Grant was using; he wanted to supply it to his other 
 generals. This remark of his silenced his callers, and 
 he heard no more complaints about Grant getting 
 drunk.
 
 Tersely Told. 59 
 
 Lincoln Believed Himself Ugly. 
 
 Mrs. Benjamin Price, of Baltimore, told, at a 
 meeting of the Woman's Literary Club of that city, 
 two anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln. In one of them 
 she said that her father-in-law had at one time been 
 appointed to a government position in place of Mr. 
 Addison, who was a most polished but notably plain- 
 featured man. The two gentlemen went together to 
 call upon President Lincoln, who received them cheer- 
 f uhy in the midst of the somewhat embarrassing opera- 
 tion of shaving. His face was a lather of soap, he 
 extended a hand to each, and upon Mr. Addison enum- 
 erating the good qualities of his successor, and con- 
 gratulating the President upon securing so eminent an 
 officer, Mr. Lincoln exclaimed: 
 
 *'Yes, Addison, I have no doubt Mr. Price is all 
 that you say, but nothing can compensate me for the 
 loss of you, for when you retire I shall be the homeliest 
 man in the employment of the government. " 
 
 Lincoln's Kindness to a Disabled Soldier. 
 
 One summer morning, shortly before the close of the 
 civil war, the not unusual sight in Washington of an 
 old veteran hobbling along could have been seen on a 
 shady path that led from the executive mansion to the 
 war office. The old man was in pain, and the pale, 
 simken cheeks and vague, far-away stare in his eyes 
 betokened a short-lived existence. He halted a mo- 
 ment and then slowly approached a tall gentleman who
 
 60 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 was walking along. "Good morning, sir.^ I am an 
 old soldier and would like to ask your advice. '\ 
 
 The gentleman turned, and smiling kindly, invited 
 the poor old veteran to a seat imder a shady treee. 
 There he listened to the man's story of how he had 
 fought for the Union and was severely wounded, in- 
 capacitating him for other work in life, and begged 
 directions how to apply for back pay due him and a 
 pension, offering his papers for exanimation. 
 
 The gentleman looked over the papers and then 
 took out a card and wrote directions on it, also a few 
 words to the pension bureau, desiring that speedy at- 
 tention be given to the appHcant, and handed it to him. 
 
 The old soldier looked at it, and with tears in his 
 eyes thanked the tall gentleman, who, with a sad look, 
 bade him good luck and hurried up the walk. Slowly 
 the old soldier read the card again, and then turned it 
 over to read the name of the owner. More tears welled 
 in his eyes when he knew whom he had addressed 
 himself to, and his Hps muttered: " I am glad I fought 
 for him and the country, for he never forgets. God 
 bless Abraham Lincohi!" 
 
 A Sample of Lincoln's Statesmanship. 
 
 President Lincoln, the man who said and did so 
 many kindly things, taught Seward how to write state 
 papers. He was not only master of the situation 
 in this country, but when England and France were 
 about combining to recognize the Confederacy, he so 
 won the admiration of Lord Lyon, the British ambas-
 
 Tersely Told. 61 
 
 sador at Washington, that that official informed Lord 
 Russell that he was in error when he sent instructions 
 to prepare the government for the recognition of the 
 South by England, and Lord Lyon afterward resigned 
 his office in consequence of the opposition to Lincoln. 
 At that time there was a Russian fleet in New York 
 harbor imder sealed instructions, to be opened when 
 France and England made their move, and the instruc- 
 tions were afterward foimd to be a command to the 
 admiral to report to his excellency, President Lincoln. 
 
 Two Good Stories. 
 
 At a cabinet meeting once, the advisability of put- 
 ting a legend on greenbacks similar to the In God We 
 Trust legend 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 greenbacks I 
 would suggest that of Peter and Paul: "Silver and 
 gold we have not, but what we have we'll give you. " 
 
 On another occasion when Mr. Lincoln was going 
 to attend a political convention one of his rivals, a 
 Hverjnnan, provided him with a slow horse, hoping 
 that he would not reach his destination in time. Mr. 
 Lincoln got there, however, and when he returned with 
 the horse, he said: '* You keep this horse for funerals, 
 don't you?" 
 
 ''Oh, no, " replied the liveryman. "Well, I'm glad 
 of that, for if you did you'd never get a corpse to the 
 grave in time for the resurrection. "
 
 62 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln Raises a Warning Voice Against the 
 Concentration of Great Wealth, 
 
 '' Liberty cannot long endure, " said Webster, "when 
 the tendency is to concentrate wealth in the hands of a 
 few.'' 
 
 President Lincoln, in a message to Congress, said 
 of this danger: *' Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted 
 at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. 
 In my present position I could scarcely be justified 
 were I to omit raising a warning voice against approach- 
 ing despotism. There is one point to which I ask a 
 brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an 
 equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure 
 of the government. Let them beware of surrendering a 
 political power which they already have, and which 
 if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of 
 advancement against such as they, and to fix new dis- 
 abilities and burdens upon them till all liberty shall 
 be lost." 
 
 Lincoln and the Dying Soldier Boy. 
 
 One day in May, 1863, while the great war was 
 raging between the North and South, President Lin- 
 coln paid a visit to one of the miUtary hospitals, says 
 an exchange. He had spoken many cheering words 
 of sympathy to the woimded as he proceeded through 
 the various wards, and now he was at the bedside of a 
 Vermont boy of about sixteen years of age, who lay 
 there mortally wounded.
 
 Tersely Told. 63 
 
 Taking the dying boy's thin, white hands in his 
 own, the President said, in a tender tone : 
 
 ''Well, my poor boy, what can I do for you?" 
 
 The young fellow looked up into the President's 
 kindly face and asked: ''Won't you write to my 
 mother for me? " 
 
 "That I will," answered Mr. Lincoln; and calling 
 for a pen, ink and paper, he seated himself by the side 
 of the bed and wrote from the boy's dictation. It was 
 a long letter, but the President betrayed no sign of 
 weariness. When it was finished, he rose, saying: 
 
 "I will post this as soon as I get back to my office. 
 Now, is there anything else I can do for you?" 
 
 The boy looked up appealingly to the President. 
 
 "Won't you stay with me?" he asked. "I do want 
 to hold on to your hand. " 
 
 Mr. Lincoln at once perceived the lad's meaning. 
 The appeal was too strong for him to resist; so he sat 
 down by his side and took hold of his hand. For two 
 hours the President sat there patiently as though he 
 had been the boy's father. 
 
 ^ When the end came he bent over and folded the 
 thin hands over his breast. As he did so he burst into 
 tears, and when, soon afterward, he left the hospital, 
 they were still streaming down his cheeks. 
 
 The Dandy, the Bugs and the President. 
 
 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 on his way to
 
 64 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 the White House to thank the President. He was 
 dressed in the most extravagant style. The wag hor- 
 rified him by telling him that the country to which he 
 was assigned was noted chiefly for the bugs that abound- 
 ed there and made life unbearable. 
 
 *' They'll bore a hole clean through you before a 
 week has pased, " 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 President, he told him the wag's story 
 of the bugs. "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, j^oimg 
 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. " 
 
 Lincoln Upheld the Hands of General Grant. 
 
 In his '' Campaigning With Grant, " in the Century, 
 Gen. Horace Porter told of Gen. Halleck's fear of 
 trouble from enforcing of the draft, and his desire that 
 Grant should send troops to the Northern cities. Gen. 
 Porter says: 
 
 On the evening of August 17, General Grant was 
 sitting in front of his quarters, with several staff officers 
 about him, when the telegraph operator came over from 
 his tent and handed him a dispatch. He opened it, and 
 as he proceeded with the reading of it his face became 
 suffused with smiles. After he had finished it he broke
 
 Tersely Told. 65 
 
 into a hearty laugh. We were curious to know what 
 could produce so much merriment in the General in the 
 midst of the trying circumstances which surrounded 
 him. He cast his eyes over the dispatch again, and 
 then remarked: ^'The President has more nerve than 
 any of his advisers. This is what he says after read- 
 ing my reply to Halleck's dispatch. '^ He then read 
 aloud to us the following: 
 
 ''I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwil- 
 lingness to break your hold where we are. Neither 
 am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip and chew 
 and choke as much as possible. 
 
 *'A. LINCOLN." 
 
 Why Lincoln Told Stories. 
 
 Mr. Edward Rosewater, editor of the Omaha Bee, 
 said he beheved Lincoln got relaxation by his story 
 telling, and that the hearing of a good story gave him 
 the mental rest that he so m.uch needed during those 
 brain-taxing days. These stories came out imder the 
 most trying circimistances and at the most solemn 
 times. A striking instance of this was just after the 
 battle of Fredericksburg. After the Union armies were 
 defeated an official who had seen the battle hiuried 
 to Washington. He reached there about midnight; 
 and went directly to the White House. President 
 Lincoln had not yet retired, and the man was at once 
 received. Lincoln had already heard some reports of 
 the battle. He was feehng very sad and rested his
 
 66 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 head upon his hands while the story was repeated to 
 him . As the man saw his intense suffering he remarked : 
 
 " I wish, Mr President, that I might be a messenger 
 of good news instead of bad. I wish I could tell you 
 how to conquer or get rid of those rebelHous States." 
 
 At this President Lincoln looked up and a smile 
 came across his face as he said: '' That reminds me of 
 two boys out in Illinois who took a short cut across 
 an orchard. When they were in the middle of the 
 field they saw a vicious dog boimding toward them. 
 One of the boys was sly enough to climb a tree, but 
 the other ran around the tree with the dog following. 
 He kept running until, by making smaller circles than 
 it was possible for his pursuer to make, he gained upon 
 the dog sufficiently to grasp his tail. He held on to the 
 tail with a desperate grip until nearly exhausted, when 
 he called to the boy up the tree to come down and help. 
 
 "What for?" said the boy. 
 
 "I want you to help me let this dog go. " ^ 
 
 *'Now, " concluded President Lincoln, *'if'l could 
 only let the rebel States go it would be all right. But 
 I am compelled to hold on to them and make them 
 stay." 
 
 Lincoln Awards a Man for Kindness Thirty Years 
 After the Occurrence. 
 
 Lincoln's indebtedness, in consequence of the clos- 
 ing out of his general store at New Salem, was such that 
 it took him many years to extinguish all. There was 
 one man among his creditors who would not wait,
 
 Tersely Told. 67 
 
 but secured a judgment against Lincoln and his per- 
 sonal effects were levied upon. Among them was his 
 surveying instruments on which he depended for his 
 .living. At the sale a farmer friend of Lincoln's named 
 James Short bought the horse and surveying instru- 
 ments for $120 and generously turned them over to 
 their former owner. This kindness deeply touched the 
 future President of the United States, who, some years 
 later, repaid with interest the money so kindly ad- 
 vanced by Mr. Short. 
 
 Thirty years later, while Lincoln was President, he 
 heard that James Short was living in CaHfomia. Fi- 
 nancial reverses had overtaken him some years pre- 
 viously and he left his home near New Salem and 
 emigrated with his family to the State on the Pacific 
 Ocean. One day Mr. Short received a letter from 
 Washington informing him that he had been appointed 
 an Indian agent. It will thus be seen that Lincoln 
 never forgot a benefactor. 
 
 Lincoln a Merciful Man, 
 
 Abraham Lincoln had a heart that was full of 
 mercy; he could not bear to see even an animal suffer, 
 and would not tolerate any wanton cruelty to animals. 
 There are numerous instances of his mercifulness, but 
 the following story will serve to show how kindly dis- 
 posed the man was: 
 
 One day the major-general commanding the forces 
 in and aroimd Washington, came to the office of Mr. 
 Dana with a spy whom one of his men had captured.
 
 68 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Mr. Dana was assistant secretary of war. The officer 
 informed Mr. Dana that the spy had been tried by 
 court martial and had been sentenced to death. He 
 handed Mr. Dana the warrant for his execution, which 
 was to take place at six o'clock the following morning. 
 The warrant must be signed by the President, or in his 
 absence, by some officer with authority to sign it. Presi- 
 dent Lincoln was absent from Washington at that tim.e 
 and was not expected back before the afternoon of the 
 next day. It therefore became necessary for Mr. 
 Dana to sign the warrant for the execution of the spy, 
 in accordance with the decision of the court. But 
 President Lincoln got home at two o'clock in the early 
 morning and on learning of the affair at once stopped 
 the whole thing and thus spared the man's life. It 
 may be here stated that the law of nations in regard 
 to the pimishment of spies when captured is death. 
 
 Lincoln's Humorous Advice to a Distinguished 
 
 Bachelor. 
 
 When the Prince of Wales was betrothed to the 
 Princess Alexandria, Queen Victoria sent a letter to 
 every sovereign of Europe, and to President Lincoln, 
 announcing the fact. The ambassador of England 
 then at Washington was Lord Lyons, and he was a 
 bachelor. He requested an audience with President 
 Lincoln in order that he might present the important 
 letter in person.
 
 Tersely Told, 69 
 
 He called at the White House in company with 
 Secretary Seward and addressed the President as 
 follows : 
 
 **May it please your Excellency, I hold in my hand 
 an autograph letter from my royal mistress Queen 
 Victoria, which I have been commanded to present to 
 yoiu" Excellency. 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 Alexandria of Denmark. " 
 
 After the use of such diplomatic and high-sounding 
 language one would naturally suppose Lincoln would 
 require a few moments to collect his thoughts and reply 
 in kind. Not so, however. His reply was short, 
 simple and expressive, as follows: 
 
 *'Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise. " 
 
 A witness of the above incident said: ^' It is doubt- 
 ful if an English ambassador was ever addressed in this 
 manner before, and it would be interesting to learn 
 what success he met with in putting the reply in diplo- 
 matic language, when he reported it to her Majesty. " 
 ■ — From Lincoln Stories, by J. B. McClure. 
 
 How Lincoln Answered a Delicate Question. 
 
 At the time when the Union soldiers were htmting 
 for Jeff Davis, some one asked the President: *'Mr. 
 Lincoln, suppose they were to find Davis, and, in order 
 to capture him, it was necessary to shoot him. Would 
 you want them to do so? **
 
 70 ^ Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Mr. Lincoln said: *'When I was a boy, a man 
 lecturing on temperance stayed at our house over 
 night. It was a cold, stormy night, and the man was 
 quite chilled when he reached home after the meeting. 
 He said if they would give him a hot lemonade he 
 thought it would prevent his taking cold. Some one 
 suggested that some spirits added w^ould be beneficial. 
 'Well,' he said, 'you might put in some imbeknownst 
 tome!''' 
 
 Lincoln Illustrates a Case Humorously. 
 
 On one occasion, exasperated at the discrepancy 
 between the aggregate of troops forwarded to McClellan 
 and the number the same general reported as having 
 received, Lincoln exclaimed, "Sending men to that 
 army is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard — half 
 of them never get there. " 
 
 To a politician who had criticized his course, he 
 wrote, ''Would you have me drop the war where it is, 
 or would you prosecute it in future with elder stalk 
 sqmrts charged with rosewater?" 
 
 When, on his first arrival in Washington as Presi- 
 dent, he found himself besieged by office seekers, while 
 the war was breaking out, he said, "I feel like a man 
 letting lodgings at one end of the house while the other 
 end is on fire. "
 
 Tersely Told. 71 
 
 Why Lincoln Mistook a Driver To Be an 
 Episcopalian. 
 
 The first corps of the army commanded by General 
 RejTiolds was once reviewed by the President on a 
 beautiful plain at the north of Potomac Creek, about 
 eight miles from Hooker's headquarters. The party 
 rode thither in an ambulance over a rough, corduroy 
 road, and as they passed over some of the more diffi- 
 cult portions of the jolting way the ambulance driver, 
 who sat well in front, occasionally let fly a volley of 
 suppressed oaths at his wild team of six mules. 
 
 Finally, Mr. Lincoln, leaning forward, touched the 
 man on the shoulder, and said: 
 
 *^ Excuse me, my friend, are you an Episcopalian?" 
 The man greatly startled, looked around and re- 
 plied: 
 
 *'No, Mr. President; I am a Methodist." 
 *'Well, " said Lincoln, "I thought you must be an 
 Episcopalian, because you swear just like Governor 
 Seward, who is a church warden. " 
 
 A Clergyman Who Talked But Little. 
 
 A clergyman of some prominence was one day 
 
 presented to Lincoln, who gave the visitor a chair and 
 
 said, with an air of patient waiting: 
 
 ^'I am now ready to hear what you have to say. " 
 "Oh, bless you, sir," replied the clergyman, *'I 
 
 have nothing special to say. I merely called to pay 
 
 my respects."
 
 72 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 "My dear sir, " said the President, rising promptly, 
 his face sho^vdng instant relief, and with both hands 
 grasping that of his visitor; *'I am very glad to see 
 you, indeed. It is a relief to find a clergyman, or any 
 other man for that matter, who has nothing to say. 
 I thought you had come to preach to me. '* 
 
 How Lincoln Received a Jackknife as a Present. 
 
 Considering his own personality Lincoln was very 
 indifferent. He was perfectly aware that many peo- 
 ple talked about his ''awkwardness" and homely per- 
 sonal appearance. Far from feeling hurt at the re- 
 marks occasionally flung at him he rather enjoyed them. 
 
 One day he was traveling in a train. He was 
 addressed, without any formal introduction, by a 
 stranger in the car, who said: 
 
 *' Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my pos- 
 session which belongs to you. " 
 
 "How is that?" Lincoln inquired, much surprised. 
 
 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 to this. Allov/ me to say now, 
 sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the property." 
 
 Lincoln related the above story to his friends again 
 and again during his lifetime. — From Lincoln's Stories, 
 by J. B. McClure.
 
 Tersely Told. 73 
 
 The Best Car for His Corpse. 
 
 Lincoln had the following good story on President 
 Tyler: 
 
 "During Mr. Tyler's incumbency of the office he 
 arranged to make an excursion in some direction and 
 sent his son 'Bob' to arrange for a special train. It 
 happened that the railroad superintendent was a strong 
 Whig. As such he had no favors to bestow upon the 
 President and informed Bob that the road did not 
 run any special trains for the President. 
 
 " 'What,' said Bob Tyler, 'did you not furnish a 
 special for the fimeral of Gen. Harrison?' 
 
 " 'Yes,' said the superintendent, *and if you'll 
 bring your father in that condition you shall have the 
 best train on the road. ' '* 
 
 His Title Did Not Help Any. 
 
 During the war an Austrian coimt applied to Presi- 
 dent Lincoln for a position in the army. He was in- 
 troduced by the Austrian Minister, but as if fearing 
 that his importance might not be duly appreciated, he 
 proceeded to explain his nobility and high standing. 
 With a merry twinkle in his eye, Mr. Lincoln laid his 
 hand on the coimt's shoulder and said: 
 
 "Never mind; you shall be treated with just as 
 much consideration for all that."
 
 74 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 One of Mr. Lincoln's Autographs. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln once received a letter asking for 
 a * ' sentiment ' ' and his autograph. He replied : ' ' Dear 
 Madam: When you ask a stranger for that which is 
 of interest only to yourself always enclose a stamp. 
 Abraham Lincoln. " 
 
 Lincoln's Substitute. 
 
 It is not generally known that Abraham Lincoln 
 sent a substitute to the war against the South, but 
 such is a fact. 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 desire 
 to go to the front. Lincoln heard of him, and after 
 a conference selected him as his representative, and 
 he proved worthy, for he won honor on the field. He 
 survived the war and finally died in Stroudsburg. 
 The inscription on the stone over liis grave reads as 
 follows: *'J. Summerfield Staples, a private of Com- 
 pany, 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." — Phila- 
 delphia Record.
 
 Tersely Told. 75 
 
 ~ y 
 
 Lincoln's Estimate of the Financial Standing of a 
 
 Neighbor. 
 
 A New York firm applied to Abraham Lincoln 
 some years before he became President for information 
 as to the financial standing of one of his neighbors. 
 Mr. Lincoln repHed: 
 
 "I am weU acquainted with Mr. , and know 
 
 his circumstances. First of all, he has a vnie and baby 
 together they ought to be worth 850,000 to any man. 
 Secondly, he has an office in which there is a table 
 worth, say SI. 50, and 3 chairs worth, say SI. 00. Last 
 of all, there is in one comer a large rat hole, which will 
 bear looking into. _ Respectfully , A. Lincoln." 
 
 Lincoln's Query Puzzled the Man. 
 
 At a time when the war crisis was at its height one 
 of those persons who were ever ready to give the Presi- 
 dent free advice on how to conduct the war, had just 
 finished explaining an elaborate idea, when Mr. Lin- 
 coln remarked: 
 
 ''That reminds me of a man in Illinois, who, in 
 driving the hoops of a hogshead to 'head it up,' was 
 much annoyed by the constant falling in of the top. 
 At length a bright idea struck him of putting his little 
 boy inside to hold it up. This he did. But when 
 the job was completed there arose the more serious 
 question, how to get the boy out of the hogshead. 
 Your plan sounds feasible, but how are you to get the 
 boy out?"
 
 76 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln's Inauguration. 
 
 In the March '' Ladies' Home Journal" Stephen 
 Fiske graphically recalls the excitement and apprehen- 
 sion and the condition of the country ''When Lincoln 
 Was First Inaugurated. " He tells the incident of the 
 memorable joiurney to the capital, of Mr. Lincoln's 
 reception, and gives a rather grewsome picture of the 
 inaugural ceremonies. *' As I walked up to the capitol 
 the wide, dusty streets were already crowded,'* he 
 writes; *' regular troops were posted at intervals along 
 Pennsylvania avenue. Sharpshooters were climbing 
 over the roofs of the houses. A mounted officer at 
 every comer was ready to report to General Scott the 
 passage of the procession. Detectives in plain clothes 
 squirmed through the m^asses of people. The poHce- 
 men had been instructed to arrest for 'disorderly con- 
 duct' any person who called Mr. Lincoln an opprobrious 
 name or uttered a disloyal sentiment. There was 
 much suppressed excitement; and the prophetic word 
 'assassination' was in every mind. 
 
 ''President Buchanan, whose term expired at noon, 
 was engaged vmtil half an hour later in signing the bills 
 that had been hurriedly passed, but the congressional 
 clock had been put back to legalize the transaction. 
 At last he drove down to Willard's, and the procession 
 was formed. The President and President-elect rode 
 in an open barouche ; but this confidence in the people 
 was more apparent than real. On the front seat were 
 Senators Baker and Pearce; a guard of honor of the 
 regxdar cavalry siurrounded the carriage; beyond were
 
 Tersely Told, 77 
 
 mounted marshals four files deep. From the side- 
 walks no one could accurately distinguish Mr. Lin- 
 coln. Close behind marched regiments of regulars 
 and marines, fully armed. It seemed more like es- 
 corting a prisoner to his doom than a President to his 
 inauguration. Little cheering and no enthusiasm' greeted 
 the procession. Every now and then an arrest for 
 'disorderly conduct* was quickly and quietly made 
 in the crowd. The sunshine was bright, but the whole 
 affair was as gloomy as if Mr. Lincoln were riding 
 through an enemy's country — as, indeed, he was. " 
 
 John Sherman's First Meeting with Lincohi. 
 
 Secretary Sherman says he never will forget his 
 first meeting with a President. It was shortly after 
 Lincoln's inauguration, and he attended a public re- 
 ception, feU into Hne, and awaited an hour or two for a 
 chance to shake hands with the Great Emancipator. 
 
 *'Dxiring this time," says Mr. Sherman, "I was 
 wondering what I should say and what Lincoln would 
 do when we met. At last it came my turn to be pre- 
 sented. Lincoln looked at me a moment, extended 
 his hand and said: 'You're a pretty tall fellow, aren't 
 you? Stand up here with me, back to back, and let's 
 see which is the taller.* 
 
 "In another moment I was standing back to back 
 with the greatest man of his age. Naturally I was 
 quite abashed by this unexpected evidence of democ- 
 racy.
 
 78 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 "* You're from the West, aren't you?* inquired 
 Lincoln. 
 
 ^' ' My home is in Ohio,' I replied. 
 
 "'I thought so,' he said; 'that's the kind of men 
 they raise out there. ' " 
 
 Lincoln and the SentineL 
 
 A slight variation of the traditional sentry story is 
 related by C. C. Buel, in the current Century. It was 
 a cold, blusterous winter night. Says Mr. Buel: 
 
 *'Mr. Lincoln emerged from the front door, his 
 lank figure bent over as he drew tightly about his 
 shoulders the shawl which he employed for such pro- 
 tection; for he was on his way to the War Depart- 
 ment, at the west comer of the grounds, where in times 
 of battle he was wont to get the midnight dispatches 
 from the field. As the blast struck him, he thought 
 of the nimibness of the pacing sentry, and turning to 
 him, said : * Young man, you've got a cold job to-night ; 
 step inside, and stand guard there.' 
 
 "*My orders keep me out here,' the soldier replied. 
 
 *^*Yes,' said the President, in his argumentative 
 tone; 'but your duty can be performed just as well 
 inside as out here, and you'll obUge me by going in.' 
 
 ***I have been stationed outside, 'the soldier an- 
 swered, and resumed his beat. 
 
 '"Hold on there!' said Mr. Lincoln, as he turned 
 back again; 'it occurs to me that I am commander- 
 in-chief of the army, and I order you to go inside. ' "
 
 Tersely Told. 79 
 
 Origin of "With Malice Toward None," Etc. 
 
 It was during Lincoln's second inauguration as 
 
 President of the United States that he gave voice to 
 
 these famous and oft-quoted words: 
 
 "With maHce toward none, With charity for all." 
 The above occur in the last paragraph in his second 
 
 inaugural speech, delivered at Waslungton, D. C, 
 
 March 4, 1865. 
 
 His Good Memory of Names. 
 
 The following story illustrates the power of Mr. 
 Lincoln's memory of names and faces. When he was 
 a comparatively young man and a candidate for the 
 Illinois Legislature, he made a personal canvass of the 
 district. While ''swinging arovmd the circle" he 
 stopped one day and took dinner with a farmer in 
 Sangamon county. 
 
 Years afterward, when Mr. Lincoln had become 
 President, a soldier came to call on him at the White 
 House. At the first glance the Chief Executive said: 
 *'Yes, I remember; you used to Hve on the Danville 
 road. I took dinner with you when I was running for 
 the Legislature. I recollect that we stood talking out 
 at the barnyard gate, while I sharpened my jack-knife." 
 
 "Y-a-a-s," drawled the soldier; *'you did. 
 But say, wherever did you put that whetstone? I 
 looked for it a dozen times, but I never could find it 
 after the day you used it. We allowed as how mabby 
 you took it 'long with you. "
 
 80 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 *'No," said Lincoln, looking serious and pushing 
 away a lot of documents of state from the desk in front 
 of him. ''No, I put it on top of that gatepost — that 
 high one. " 
 
 *'Well!" exclaimed the visitor, *'mabby you did. 
 Couldn't anybody else have put it there, and none of 
 us ever thought of looking there for it. " 
 
 The soldier was then on his way home, and when 
 he got there the first thing he did was to look for the 
 whetstone. And sure enough, there it was, just where 
 Lincoln had laid it fifteen years before. The honest 
 fellow wrote a letter to the Chief Magistrate telling 
 him that the whetstone had been found, and would 
 never be lost again. 
 
 Lincoln's Grief over the Defeat of the Union Army. 
 
 We had been talking of the war, and the late Gov- 
 ernor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, broke out suddenly 
 and said: 
 
 ''It was just after the battle of Fredericksburg. 
 I had been down there and came up to Washington by 
 the night boat. I arrived at the foot of Seventh street 
 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 v/ord 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:
 
 Tersely Told. 81 
 
 *''Well, Governor; so you have been down to the 
 battle-field? 
 
 ** 'Battlefield? Slaughter-pen! It was a terrible 
 slaughter, Mr. Lincoki.' I v/as 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 up 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 feehngs. " 
 
 Three Stories of Lincoln by Senator Palmer. 
 
 "Speaking of Lincoln's birthday," said Senator 
 Palmer yesterday, *' reminds me that the very last case 
 Lincoln ever tried was one in which I, too, was engaged. 
 It was in Springfield, in June, 1860, after Mr. Lincoln 
 had received the Presidential nomination. Old David 
 Baker, who had been a Senator in the early days, had 
 sued the trustees of Shurtleff College, my alma mater, 
 for expelling his grandson, a lad named Will Gilbert. 
 Mr. Lincoln appeared for the prosecution. I was the 
 college attorney. Mr. Lincoln came into court and 
 the Judge said to him: 'Mr. Lincoln, 111 argue this 
 case for you. You have too much on your hands al- 
 ready. You haven't any case.' And he explained the 
 law and application.
 
 82 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 " 'Well,' said Mr. Lincoln, with a smile, 'don't you 
 want to hear a speech from me? ' 
 
 " 'No,' said the Judge, and the last case Mr. Lin- 
 coln tried he — well, he didn't try it at all. 
 
 *'The first time I met Mr. Lincoln was in 1839, when 
 I went to Springfield to be admitted to the bar. He 
 was already recognized as a Whig leader He wore, I 
 remember, a suit of linsey woolsey, that could not have 
 been worth more than S8 even in those days. The last 
 time I saw him was in February of 1865. I had come 
 to Washington at the request of the Governor, to com- 
 plain that Illinois had been credited with 18,000 too 
 few troops. I saw Mr. Lincoln one afternoon and he 
 asked me to come again in the morning. 
 
 *'Next morning I sat in the ante-room while several 
 officers were relieved. At length 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 couldn't be- 
 fore 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 great crisis like this the people were going out to 
 a little one-horse town and pick out a one-horse lawyer 
 for President I wouldn't have beheved it.' 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln whirled about in his chair, his face 
 white with lather, a towel under his chin. At first I 
 thought he was angry. Sweeping the barber away he 
 leaned forward, and placing one hand on my knee said :
 
 Tersely Told, 83 
 
 " '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. ' 
 
 *' Lincoln was not an eloquent man. He was a 
 strong lawyer, and an ingenious one. His stronghold 
 was his abilit}^ to reason logically and clearly. He 
 was a very self-contained man, and not easily excited. 
 I remember the night when the news of his election was 
 received at Springfield. The patriotic ladies of the 
 town were serving a lunch in an upper room opposite 
 the capitol. Mr. Lincoln was there, and read the re- 
 turns as they were brought to him. The returns from 
 New York decided the day. Mr. Lincoln stood up 
 and read the telegram. He was the calmest man in 
 the room. When he had finished he said simply, 
 'Well I must go and tell my wife.' " 
 
 His Famous Second Inaugural Address. 
 
 Lincoln was an orator as well as a statesman and 
 many of his speeches will go down in history through 
 all time. In his second inaugural address he made 
 use of the following striking expressions: 
 
 *'0n the occasion corresponding to this foiu* years 
 ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impend- 
 ing civil war. Both parties deprecated war, but one 
 of them would make war rather than let the Nation 
 survive, and the other would accept war rather than 
 let it perish; and the war came. Both read the same 
 Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His
 
 84 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 aid against the other. It may seem strange that an}^ 
 men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in 
 wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
 faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
 The prayer of both could not be answered. That of 
 another has been answered fully. With malice toward 
 none, with charity for all, with finr.ness in the right, 
 as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work 
 w^e are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to care for 
 him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow 
 and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cher- 
 ish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with 
 all Nations." 
 
 Eloquent, is it not? Beautiful, is it not? 
 
 And yet there is not a word in it that a child could 
 not understand. Lincoln's English was like himself, 
 simple, forcible, direct, natural, eloquent, full of heart- 
 throbs. As his unadorned language still stirs the 
 heart of every American like the roll of a drum, and as 
 beside it the tinsels and flowers, and gewgaws of pol- 
 ished speech are but as pulseless marble, so the rugged 
 nature of America's greatest man looms above all 
 lesser public men, the spotless, genius-crowned Shasta 
 of our National history. 
 
 Lincoln Said Even a Rebel Could Be Saved. 
 
 This story w^ell illustrated Lincoln's humanity of 
 character which found expression in his famous words 
 of *' charity for all, and malice toward none." It 
 appears that Mr. Shrigley, of Philadelphia, a Universal- 
 ist, had been nominated for hospital chaplain. A
 
 Tersely Told, 85 
 
 protesting delegation went to Washington to see Presi- 
 dent Lincoln on the subject. The following was the 
 interview : 
 
 *'We have called, Mr. President, to confer with 
 you in regard to the appointment of Mr. Shrigley, of 
 Philadelphia, as hospital chaplain. " 
 
 The President responded: *'0h, yes, gentlemen, 
 I have sent his name to the Senate, and he will no 
 doubt be confirmed at an early date. " 
 
 One of the young men replied: *'We have not 
 come to ask for the appointment, but to solicit you 
 to withdrav/ the nomination. " 
 
 ''Ah!" said Lincoln, ''that alters the case; but 
 on what grounds do you wish the nomination with- 
 drawn?" 
 
 The answer was: "Mr. Shrigley is not sound in 
 his theological opinions. " 
 
 The President inquired: "On what question is the 
 gentleman unsound? " 
 
 Response: "He does not believe in endless pim- 
 ishment; not only so, sir, but he believes that even 
 the rebels themselves will be finally saved. " 
 
 "Is that so?" inquired the President. 
 
 The members of the committee responded, "Yes, 
 yes." 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any 
 way imder Heaven whereby the rebels can be saved, 
 then, for God's sake and their sakes, let the man be 
 appointed. " 
 
 It is almost needless to add that Mr. Shrigley was 
 appointed, and served imtil the close of the war.
 
 86 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 Washington and Lincoln Compared. 
 
 At a banquet given in his honor on Washington's 
 birthday, in New York, February 22, 1897, the elo- 
 quent and gifted Chauncey M. Depew made the fol- 
 lowing comparison between America's two greatest 
 heroes : 
 
 ''This February, for the first time, both Washing- 
 ton's and Lincoln's birthdays have been made legal 
 holidays. Never since the creation of man were two 
 human beings so unlike, so nearly the extremes of 
 opposition to each other, as Washington and Lincoln. 
 The one an aristocrat by birth, by breeding, and asso- 
 ciation, the other in every sense and by every surround- 
 ing, a democrat. As the richest man in America, a 
 large slave-holder, the possessor of an enormous landed 
 estate, and the leader and representative of the prop- 
 erty, the culture, and the colleges of the colonial period, 
 Washington stood for the conservation and preserva- 
 tion of law and order. 
 
 "And yet millionaire, slaveholder and aristocrat, 
 in its best sense, that he was, as he lived, so at any time 
 he would have died for the immortal principle put by 
 the Puritans in their charter, adopted in the cabin of 
 the Mayflower, re-enacted in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, of the equality of all men before the law and 
 of the equal opportunity for all to rise. Lincoln, on 
 the other hand, was bom in a cabin, among that class 
 known as poor whites in slaveholding times, who held 
 no position and whose condition was so helpless as to 
 paralyze ambition and effort. His situation so far as
 
 Tersely Told. 87 
 
 his surroundings were concerned had considerable 
 mental but Httle moral improvement by the removal 
 to Indiana and subsequently to Illinois. 
 
 ^'Anjrwhere in the Old World a man bem amidst 
 such environments and teachings, and possessed of 
 imconquerable energy and ambition and the greatest 
 powers of eloquence and constructive statesmanship, 
 would have been a Socialist and the leader of a social 
 revolt. He might have been an Anarchist. His 
 one ambition would have been to break the crust above 
 him and shatter it to pieces. He would see otherwise no 
 opportunity for himself and his fellows in social or polit- 
 ical or professional life. But Lincoln attained from the 
 log cabin of the poor white in the wilderness the same 
 position which Washington reached from his palatial 
 mansion and baronial estate on the Potomac ; he made 
 the same fight unselfishly, patriotically, and grandly 
 for the preservation of the republic that Washington 
 had done for its creation and foimdation. Widely as 
 they are separated, these two heroes of the two great 
 crises of our national Hfe stand together in representing 
 the solvent powers, the inspiring processes, and the 
 hopeful opportunities of American liberty. " 
 
 Lincoln Remembered Him. 
 
 A stair-carpenter happened to see a picture of the 
 martyred President. Instantly the tones of his voice 
 softened, his eyes grew moist with tears, and the whole 
 expression of his face changed.
 
 88 Best LiTicoln Stones 
 
 Then he told us his ''story of Linceln.'' He had 
 been shot through the lungs when on picket in '63, 
 arid was in the hospital at Fortress Monroe. 
 
 For weeks he had been l^ang there, till he had 
 grown dreadfully homesick, and felt as if the only 
 thing that could cure him was to get home to Mary- 
 land. 
 
 One morning Lincoln visited the hospital, and as 
 he was passing around, pausing before each cot to 
 speak a w^ord of cheer to each woimded 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 Maryland, " was the reply. 
 
 "What is your name?'* 
 
 "S. Stover, Co. H, 2d Maryland Volunteers," 
 was promptly answered, and Lincoln passed on. 
 
 In just three days came an order from the Presi- 
 dent to transfer Private Stover, Co. H, 2d Mary- 
 land Volunteers, by water to the hospital at AnnapoHs. 
 
 "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 \\^th so much to think of should keep in mind 
 the name, regiment and company of a private soldier. "
 
 Tersely Told. 89 
 
 As he turned away to conceal the tears he could not 
 keep back, it was plain how large a place the thought- 
 ful kindness of that great man had won in the heart 
 of the poor, homesick, wounded soldier. 
 
 Why Lincoln Pardoned Them. 
 
 It was President Lincoln's intense love for his fel- 
 low men that led him to disapprove of the findings of 
 court-martial whenever there was a possible excuse, 
 particularly in the cases of soldiers charged with deser- 
 tion, v/ith having fallen asleep at a post of duty, or 
 with other offenses. 
 
 Secretary Stanton always insisted upon the strictest 
 discipline in the army and frequently urged that dere- 
 lict soldiers receive the severest punishment of mili- 
 tary law and custom, but Lincoln rarely took any ad- 
 vice on such matters. He had m.editated deeply on 
 that subject and consulted his own judgment in dis- 
 posing of cases of that kind that came before him. 
 
 The late Joseph Holt, w^ho recently died at Wash- 
 ington, was judge advocate general of the army during 
 the whole period of the war and it became his duty to 
 report many cases of alleged cowardice of soldiers as 
 well as other offenses. President Lincoln carefully 
 read every line of the charges against such men, and 
 as soon as he saw the sUghtest chance to excuse the 
 poor fellow, a gleam of satisfaction would pass over 
 his serious face. Then folding the papers together 
 he placed them in a pigeon hole of his desk, and with
 
 90 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 his big eyes looking into those of the judge advocate 
 standing before him, he would say: 
 
 *'Holt, we will let those soldiers go. Order them 
 set free. " 
 
 It was after the battle of Chancellorsville that 
 charges were brought against several men for failing 
 to march with their regiments into the fight at a time 
 when they were most needed. The charge of deser- 
 tion was made. 
 
 When Secretary Stanton heard of these cases he 
 commanded Judge Holt to present the charges against 
 the men to the President in the strongest possible 
 terms. 
 
 "We need stronger discipline in the army," said 
 the stem secretary of war to the judge advocate. ''The 
 time has come when the President must yield to our 
 opinion. " 
 
 Judge Holt was himself one of the ablest lawyers 
 of his day, and had won fame as a forensic orator long 
 before the war. 
 
 "In presenting these cases," said he to the writer 
 a few months before his death, "in obedience to the 
 wish of the secretary of war, I used all the legal acumen 
 at my command. One morning, with my papers all 
 ready (and I was deeply in earnest in the matter), I 
 proceeded to the White House; and, as I entered his 
 private office, the President looked up with his long, 
 sad face, saying: 
 
 " ^Ahl Holt, what have you there?*
 
 Tersely Told. 91 
 
 "*I have some important cases for your careful 
 consideration, Mr. President, with documentary evi- 
 dence sufficient to condemn every man.' 
 
 ''He took the papers and read them carefully, 
 stopping at times to reflect, then read on until he fin- 
 ished. There was no change in his countenance this 
 time, imless that it grew more sad and his expression 
 more serious. I had covered the cases in question 
 with strong and convincing argument and evidence. 
 He finally raised his eyes from the last paper and gazed 
 intently through the window at some object across the 
 Potomac. Then, rising from his chair, with the papers 
 aU folded together, he placed them in a pigeon hole 
 already filled with similar documents. With his tall, 
 gaunt form facing me, he spoke, in deep, sad tones, 
 that would have touched the heart of the sternest 
 officer of the army: 
 
 '' 'Holt (it was his custom to mention only the last 
 name), you acknowledge those men have a previous 
 record for bravery. It is not the first time they have 
 faced danger; and they shall not be shot for this one 
 offense.' 
 
 ' *'I then thought it was my duty as the head of my 
 department of mihtary justice to make further argu- 
 ment. For I knew Stanton would nearly explode with 
 rage when he heard of the President's decision. I 
 began to speak and Lincoln sat down again, giving me 
 his closest attention. Then, rising from his chair and 
 riveting his eyes upon me, he said: 
 
 " ' Holt, were you ever in battle?' 
 
 "'I have never been.'
 
 92 Best Li7icoln Stories 
 
 '"Did Stanton ever march in the first line, to be 
 shot at by an enemy like those men did?' 
 
 '''I think not, Mr. President.' 
 
 "'Well, I tried it in the Black Hawk war, and I 
 remember one time I grew awful weak in the knees 
 when I heard the bullets whistle aroimd me and saw 
 the enemy in front of m.e. How my legs carried me 
 for^^ard I cannot now tell, for I thought every minute 
 that I would sink to the groimd. The men against 
 whom those charges have been made probably were 
 not able to march into battle. Who knows that they 
 were able? I am opposed to having soldiers shot for 
 not facing danger when it is not known that their legs 
 would carry them into danger. Send this dispatch 
 ordering them to be set free. And they were set free 
 that day.' " 
 
 The Lincoln Portraits. 
 
 The Lincoln apotheosis is much more satisfactory 
 than the Napoleon apotheosis. Lincoln is not only 
 our own, but a greater, purer, sweeter, really stronger 
 man than Napoleon. It is a good thing to bring out 
 the Httle-kno\\Ti portraits of Lincoln. What a marvel- 
 ous face! It is full of strength — ^^ath just enough of 
 the big child in it to kindle love and sympathy. Has 
 anyone ever noticed the way in which Lincoln's face 
 is cast on the Hnes of the North American Indian? 
 We have never heard that Lincoln had Indian blood 
 in him; but take any of his good beardless portraits, 
 \\nth front or nearly front vicv/; add to it a shock of 
 straight hair parted in the middle and falling dowTi,
 
 Tersely Told. 93 
 
 either straight or in two braids, on the shoulders; add 
 a feather to it; clothe the body in a blanket and let it 
 take an Indian stoop; and no one would question that 
 the man was an aborigine. The face has the gravity 
 of the Indian countenance, but not the impassiveness 
 that we read about; but Indian faces, after all, are 
 seldom impassive. The face of Lincoln, who was not 
 an Indian, has more of the aborigine in it than of that 
 other great President, Benito Juarez, who was an 
 Indian. 
 
 Lincoln's Faith in Providence. 
 
 The raid made by the Confederate general, J. E. B. 
 Stuart, in June, 1862, around the Union army com- 
 manded by General McClellan, caused great anxiety 
 in Washington. One of its results was the interruption 
 of commimications between the capital and the arm}^ 
 of the Potomac. What this portended no one could 
 affirm. That it suggested' the gravest possibihties 
 was felt by all. 
 
 While this feeling was dominating all circles, several 
 gentlemen, myself among them, called on President 
 Lincoln in order to be definitely advised about the 
 condition of affairs as imderstood by hkn. 
 
 To our question: *'Mr. President, have you any 
 news from the army? " he sadly replied: ''Not one 
 word; we can get no communication with it. I do not 
 know that we have an army; it may have been de- 
 stroyed or captured, though I cannot so believe, for it 
 was a splendid army. But the most I can do now is to 
 hope that serious disaster has not befallen it. "
 
 94 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 This led to a somewhat protracted conversation 
 relative to the general condition of our affairs. It 
 was useless to talk about the Army of the Potomac; 
 for we knew nothing concerning its condition or position 
 at that moment. The conversation therefore took a 
 wide range and touched upon the subject of slavery, 
 about which much was said. 
 
 The President did not participate in this conversa- 
 tion. He was an attentive listener, but gave no sign 
 of approval or disapproval of the views which were 
 expressed. At length one of the active participants 
 remarked : 
 
 "Slavery must be stricken down wherever it exists 
 in this cotmtry. It is right that it should be. It is 
 a crime against justice and humanity. We have toler- 
 ated it too long. It brought war upon us. I believe 
 that Providence is not unmindful of the struggle in 
 which this nation is engaged. If we do not do right I 
 believe God will let us go our own way to our ruin. 
 But, if we do right, I believe He will lead us safely out 
 of this wilderness, crown our arms with victory, and 
 restore our now dissevered Union. " 
 
 I observed President Lincoln closely while this 
 earnest opinion and expression of religious faith was 
 being uttered. I saw that it affected him deeply, and 
 anticipated, from the play of his features and the 
 sparkle of his eyes, that he would not let the occasion 
 pass without making some definite response to it. I 
 was not mistaken. Mr. Lincoln had been sitting in 
 his chair, in a kind of weary and despondent attitude 
 while the conversation progressed. At the conclusion
 
 Tersely Told. 95 
 
 of the remarks I have quoted, he at once arose and 
 stood at his extreme height. Pausing a moment, his 
 right arm outstretched towards the gentleman who had 
 just ceased speaking, his face aglow like the face of a 
 prophet, Mr. Lincoln gave deliberate and emphatic 
 utterance to the religious faith which sustained him 
 in the great trial to which he and the country were sub- 
 jected. He said: 
 
 "My faith is greater than yours. I not only be- 
 lieve that Providence is not immindfvd of the struggle 
 in which this nation is engaged; that if we do not do 
 right God will let us go our own way to our ruin; and 
 that if we do right He will lead us safely out of this 
 wilderness, crown our arms with victory, and restore 
 our dissevered union, as you have expressed your 
 belief; but I also believe that He will compel us to do 
 right in order that He may do these things, not so 
 much because we desire them as that they accord with 
 His plans of deahng with this nation, in the midst of 
 which He means to estabHsh justice. I think He 
 means that we shall do more than we have yet done in 
 furtherance of His plans, and He will open the way for 
 our doing it. I have felt His hand upon me in great 
 trials and submitted to His guidance, and I trust that 
 as He shall further open the way I will be ready to 
 walk therein, relying on His help and trusting in His 
 goodness and wisdom." — From *'Some Memories of 
 Lincoln," by ex-Senator James F. Wilson, in North 
 American Review.
 
 96 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 Lincoln's Last Words. 
 
 The very last words Lincoln delivered on the after- 
 noon before the assassination — last of those great utter- 
 ances that for six or seven years electrified and en- 
 lightened half the world — were a message of suggestion 
 and encouragement to the miners of the Rockies. 
 Schuyler Colfax was going thither and was paying his 
 final call at the White House. Lincoln said to him: 
 
 "Mr. Colfax, I want you to take a message from 
 me to the miners whom you visit. I have very large 
 ideas of the mineral w^ealth of our nation. I believe 
 it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds aU over 
 the western cotmtry, from the Rocky mountains to the 
 Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. 
 During the war, when we were adding a couple of mil- 
 lion dollars every day to our national debt, I did not 
 care about encouraging the increase in the volimie of 
 our precious metals; we had the country to save first. 
 But now that the rebellion is overtlirown, and we know 
 pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the 
 more gold and silver we mine, we make the payment 
 of that debt so much easier. Now, I am going to en- 
 courage that in every possible way. We shall have 
 hundreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many 
 have feared that their return home in such great num- 
 bers might paralyze industry by furnishing suddenly 
 a greater supply of labor than there will be a demand 
 for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden 
 wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room 
 enough for all. Immigi'ation, which even the war has 
 not stopped, will land upon our shores hundreds of
 
 Tersely Told. 97 
 
 thousands more from over-crowded Europe. I in- 
 tend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for 
 them in the West. Tell the miners for me, that I shall 
 promote their interests to the best of my ability, be- 
 cause their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation; 
 and we shall prove in a few years that we are indeed 
 the treasury of the world. '* 
 
 A Chicagoan Who Saw Lincoln Shot. 
 
 Mr. George C. Read, of Chicago, at the time of 
 President Lincoln's assassination, was a foot orderly 
 imder Generals Griffin and Ayers. He was in Wash- 
 ington on the fateful April 14, 1865, and was an eye- 
 witness to the tragedy. He tells of it as follows: 
 
 ''Some time in the latter part of March, 1865, I 
 was sent to Washington on account of the loss of my 
 voice. I remained there most of the time in barracks 
 on East Capitol Hill. On the afternoon of the fated 
 April 14, 1865, I happened in the saloon next door to 
 Ford's Theatre to see the barkeeper, one Jim Peck. 
 While standing near a stove about the center of the 
 room three men came into the place laughing and 
 talking loudly. They all went to the end of the bar 
 nearest the door and ordered a drink. One was a tall, 
 handsome fellow, dressed in the latest fashionable 
 clothes, if I remember rightly, and the others appeared 
 like workmen of some kind. Both were carelessly 
 dressed, and I think one was in his shirtsleeves. They 
 had their drink, and then the fine-looking man turned 
 toward where I was standing and said, 'Come up
 
 98 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 soldier, and have a drink/ I declined, for the reason 
 that I had not at that time become addicted to the 
 habit of social drinking. He then approached me and 
 took me by the arm and said, 'Have something ; take 
 a cigar.' This I did not refuse, and he put his hand in 
 his vest pocket and, pulling out a cigar, handed it to 
 me without any further remarks. He then returned 
 to his companions at the bar. They remained, if I 
 remember correctly, about five minutes after, and 
 then, all laughing at something that Peck said, left 
 the place. As soon as they were gone I asked Peck 
 who the big man was, and he said that he was an actor 
 — one of the Booth family — John Wilkes Booth. I 
 had heard of him before, but paid no further attention 
 to it except to remark that he seemed to be in a happy 
 frame of mind, when Peck stated that he was on a 
 drunk, and associated with the stage mechanics in the 
 theater all the time. 
 
 "As I was about to depart, little thinking what 
 history would develop in a few short hours, Peck asked 
 me to accept a couple of tickets to the theater for that 
 night. I was glad to get them, having no money to 
 purchase the same, and knowing that the President 
 would be at the play. Later I foimd a young man, 
 like myself, broke, and invited him to accompany me 
 to the play. We were on hand early, and, having good 
 reserved seats about the center of the house, were 
 elated over our good luck. 
 
 ** Suffice it to say that the curtain went up and 
 'Our American Cousin' was introduced. I was in- 
 tently interested and cannot remember positively what
 
 Tersely Told. 99 
 
 act it was that was on, except what is told in history, 
 when I heard a shot, and immediately a man appeared 
 at the front of the President's box and, without waiting, 
 jumped to the stage beneath. I, as well as all others 
 in the theater, was astonished. He ran to about the 
 center of the stage and raised his left hand and said 
 something I did not catch, and then disappeared be- 
 hind the wings. As soon as I saw him I recogn zed 
 the handsome man I had seen in the saloon that after- 
 noon, and turned to my comrade and said: * That's 
 Wilkes Booth, the actor, and I think he is on a drunk.' 
 Before I had finished even this a cry went up that the 
 President had been shot, *Stop that manl' and many 
 other exclamations I have forgotten. It was all done 
 so quickly that one had hardly time to think. Im- 
 mediately the audience rose as one person and cries 
 were heard all over the house, *Stop that man!* 'The 
 President has been assassinated!* and many others. 
 The people began to crush each other and try to get out 
 of the theater, but they were quieted to a certain ex- 
 tent and the provost g"uard on duty there fought to 
 make them keep their places. Soon there was a move- 
 ment on the side aisle running from the President's 
 box, and from where I was standing on my seat I 
 could see what appeared to be a party of men carrying 
 some one. Later the rest of the party were conducted 
 out of the theater, and when I managed to get outside 
 I saw a crowd looking up at a house opposite. On 
 asking what it meant, I was told that the President had 
 been carried there and was dying. I lost my comrade 
 in the crowd and have never met him since.
 
 100 Bed Lincoln Stones 
 
 "It is unnecessary to go into any more details of 
 what occurred that night. I was excited, as well as 
 every one else in the city, and got little rest. But 
 that is my experience, told as briefly as possible, with- 
 out any stretch of imagination. If I had to do the 
 same again I think it would have been better if I had 
 told the officials what I saw that afternoon, but, as 
 it was, all came out right, and the really guilty ones 
 suffered the penalty of their crime. I met Peck the 
 next year in New York City, but have never heard of, 
 or seen him since." 
 
 Martyred Lincoln's Blood. 
 
 An interesting and valuable reHc, which brings 
 vividly to the mind the historic scene in Ford's Theater, 
 Washington, on the night of April 14, 1865, is owned 
 by Colonel James S. Case, at one time a resident of 
 Philadelphia, but whose home is now in Brooklyn. 
 
 It is only a play bill, but upon it is a discoloration 
 made by a tiny drop of President Lincoln's blood. 
 It was picked up just after the tragedy by John T. 
 Ford, the manager of the theater. He found it on 
 the floor of the box where it had fallen from the Presi- 
 dent's hand when the bullet of Assassin Booth pierced 
 his head. It lay beneath the chair in which the citizen 
 hero received his death wound. There was a tiny spot 
 of blood, still red as it came from the great heart of 
 Lincoln, on the edge. 
 
 Mr. Ford carried the precious paper home, and only 
 parted with it at the request of the late A. K. Browne
 
 Tersely Told. 101 
 
 of Washington, who was a warm personal friend of the 
 manager. It came into Mr. Browne's possession while 
 the nation was still mourning for its idol, and soon 
 after his assassin had met justly merited fate at the 
 hands of Sergeant Boston Corbett. 
 
 The playbill is somewhat yellow from age, but 
 othen;\dse is in an excellent state of preservation. The 
 bloodstain is now a dare brown. The program was of 
 ''Our American Cousin, "which was being given for the 
 benefit of Laura Keene. The blood stain is nearly 
 halfway down the program, opposite the names of 
 John Dyott, and Harry Hawk, Miss Keene's leading 
 support. 
 
 A Strange Coincidence in the Lives of Lincoln and 
 
 His Slayer. 
 
 When President Lincoln was assassinated on the 
 night of April 14, 1865, while witnessing a play at 
 Ford's Theater, in Washington, he was removed to the 
 Peterson house, which was directly opposite the theater. 
 
 The late John T. Ford related that he had occasion 
 to visit John Wilkes Booth at the Peterson house once. 
 The Davenport-Wallack combination was playing 
 *' Julius Cassar" at Ford's theater. Booth had been 
 cast to play Marc Antony and was late in coming to 
 rehearsal. Ford went over to the house to ask him to 
 hurry up. He found Booth lying in bed studying his 
 lines. He little dreamed then that Lincoln would so 
 shortly die in the same house, the same room and on 
 that identical bed, or that Booth would turn out to be 
 his assassin.
 
 102 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Where Is the Original Emancipation Proclamation? 
 
 When Lincoln went to Washington he had a sale 
 of the furniture of the Eighth street home at Spring- 
 field. Most of the articles were bought by a well-to- 
 do family named Tilt on, who admired the President 
 in such a way as to make what had belonged to him, 
 things to be treasured. When the troops passed 
 through Springfield to the front they visited the house 
 ''where Uncle Abe had lived," and the Til tons used 
 to confer great favor by permitting the boys in blue 
 to sit down in the dining room and have a glass of milk 
 off the table from which Mr. Lincoln had eaten many 
 times. But the Tiltons moved away to Chicago. 
 They carried with them the furniture which had been 
 in the Lincoln house, prizing it more than ever after 
 his death. In 1871 came the Chicago fire, and with it 
 went not only the Lincoln furniture, but the original 
 document, which, if it were in existence now, would be 
 preserved with the zeal that guards the Declaration of 
 Independence — the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 The draft of the proclamation had been sent to Chicago 
 to be exhibited for some purpose and was burned in 
 that fire. 
 
 Mr. Griffiths on Lincoln. 
 
 ''No other public man has been subjected to such 
 scrutiny from the time he was bom until the end of his 
 tragic career as was Lincoln, " said Mr. Griffiths in a 
 lecture. "He obtained his early education from 
 *,^op's Fables,' 'Robinson Crusoe,* the 'Pilgrim's
 
 Tersely Told, 103 
 
 Progress' and a copy of the Indiana statutes. This 
 was before some of oui later legislatures had made their 
 records or his education might have been marred in- 
 stead of made^ 
 
 "When he was elected President/' Mr. Griffiths 
 continued, *'he was a plodding coimtry lawyer whose 
 library consisted of twenty-two volumes. Through his 
 pubHc addresses he blazed his way to the Presidency. 
 He believed the position of a stump speaker to be one 
 of sacred trust. He had none of the platform graces. 
 His figure was ungainly; his voice was rasping. He 
 always made the most careful preparation and gave 
 his best thought to the smallest audiences. He had 
 marvelous gift of expression and he knew more about 
 the Bible than Webster. He was not learned in the 
 law and he despised the legal routine. On a lawsuit 
 he always dealt in the tmexpected, which greatly dis- 
 comfited the opposing lawyer. He liked stories, but 
 always told them to illustrate a point. He was a 
 deeply religious man." 
 
 A Famous Chicago Lawyer's Views. 
 
 ''Into the story of the republic from 1861 to 1865, 
 the patriot does well to enter, there to find for instruc- 
 tion and example the manliest of Americans, the high- 
 est type of Americanism, the central figure of the cen- 
 tury, Abraham Lincoln. The fierce partisanship which 
 assailed him during his short period of leadership be- 
 came silent at his death, and each succeeding year but 
 serves to exalt his work and character.
 
 104 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 *'The judgment of time has already shown to be 
 colossal him who was called common — the honor that 
 we offer to his memory is only the spontaneous tribute 
 of contemporary history — om* enthusiasm is but the 
 sum of the world's calmest thinking. For years in all 
 lands gifted speech has proclaimed his deeds and the 
 pens of poets have sketched his life. Thus does he 
 receive his tribute from the people. 
 
 *'In his mentality Lincoln shone in justice, com- 
 mon sense, consistency, persistence, and knowledge of 
 men. In his words he was candid and frank, but ac- 
 curate and concise, speaking strong Anglo-Saxon im- 
 adomed — powerful in its simplicity. In his sentiments 
 he was kind, patriotic, and brave. No leader ever 
 combined more completely the graces of gentleness 
 with rugged determination. In his morals truth was 
 his star, honestly the vital essence of his life. 
 
 *'In his reHgion he was faithful as a saint. Provi- 
 dence was his stay and he walked with God. As Presi- 
 dent his life and deeds were a constant sermon. Love 
 of men and faith in God were the fundamental elements 
 of his character. Poverty had schooled him to pity 
 and taught him the equahty of all mankind. " — Luther 
 Laiiin Mills. 
 
 Lincoln Was Plain But Great. 
 
 Lincoln's forefathers were independent owners of 
 the land they trod on, barons, not serfs. You will 
 say perhaps, that Lincoln had little education. We 
 are apt to say that of our great men. Lincoln knew
 
 Tersely Told. 105 
 
 how to speak, read and write. What more do we teach 
 our boys today? He knew the Bible, which cannot be 
 said of everybody in Boston. He read Bums, and this 
 v/ith the Bible gave him his inspiration and sentiment, 
 .^sop and ''Pilgrim's Progress" taught him aptness 
 and pregnant illustration. 
 
 The incidents of his life were few but notable. He 
 was a resident of three states before he was twenty-one 
 and made a river trip to New Orleans, longer than 
 Thomas Jefferson had taken at his age. At New Or- 
 leans he saw for the first time the auction and whipping 
 of slaves, which made so deep an impression on him 
 that it may be said to be the birth of his anti-slavery 
 sentiment. 
 
 The choice of Mr. Lincoln for President was not a 
 strained one. He was the logical selection. Lin- 
 coln's qualities, that sympathy with the conimon peo- 
 ple, that homely sincerity, have given him a place 
 in the people's hearts a Httle closer, a Httle dearer, than 
 is held by any other pubHc man. He had faults, but 
 they were small compared with his virtues. He had 
 not Washington's grandeur, the mental alertness of 
 Hamilton, or the intellectual force of Webster. His 
 greatness was made up of natural qualities, as of a 
 hillside towering o'er a plain, yet a part of it. Lin- 
 coln was surpassed in certain qualities by other of our 
 historically great men, but there are none, we feel 
 sure, who would have filled the place the way he filled 
 as well as he. — Secretary of War Long.
 
 106 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 Lincoln's Specific Life Work. 
 
 One often thinks of his Hfe as cut off, but no great 
 man since Caesar has seen his life work ended as did 
 Lincoln. Napoleon died upon a desert rock, but not 
 until Austerlitz and Wagram had become memories, 
 and the dust of the empire even as all dust. Crom- 
 well knew that England had not at heart materially- 
 altered. Washington did not know that he had created 
 one of the great, perhaps the greatest, empires to be 
 known to man. But Lincoln had a specific task to do 
 — to save his country and to make it free — and on that 
 faitful 14th of April, he knew that he had accomplished 
 both things. 
 
 There are those who would say that chance put this 
 man where he was to do this work. To the thoughtful 
 mind it was not chance, however, but design, and that 
 the design of which all greatness is a part. War is 
 indeed the crucible of the nations. It is the student 
 of a century hence who shall properly place the civil 
 war in American history. But, whatever that place 
 be, there can be no doubt of the position in it of the 
 war President. Like William the Silent, his domina- 
 tion of all about him was a matter, not of personal 
 desire, but of absolute and constant growth. There 
 are few more interesting characters in history than 
 Lincoln. There is none who in quite the same manner 
 fits himself so absolutely into his circumstances. It 
 is the highest form of genius that so produces as to 
 make production seem effortless, and it is perhaps the 
 greatest tribute to Lincoln that what he did seems 
 sometimes only what the average man would have 
 done in his place.
 
 Tersely Told. 107 
 
 The Proposed Purchase of the Slaves. 
 
 The discussion on the question of whether or not 
 Abraham Lincoln suggested at the conference with 
 the southern commissioners at the so-called Fortress 
 Monroe meeting, that he was prepared to pay $400,- 
 000,000 for the slaves in the Southern States provided 
 peace with union could be obtained, is hardly likely 
 to lead to any definite conclusion, for the reason that 
 the few who should have known definitely about ^ it 
 are distinctly divided in their opinions. We are in- 
 chned to believe that, if the proposition was made, 
 Mr. Lincoln, notwithstanding the immense ^ influence 
 that he then possessed, would have found it exceed- 
 ingly difficult to convince Congress and a majority of 
 the people of the North of the wisdom of the suggestion. 
 As a business proposition, entirely apart from senti- 
 ment, it might have been, even at that late day, a wise 
 plan to adopt. But the war had then been going on 
 for years, and the hard feelings engendered would 
 apparently have made the scheme a less tenable one 
 then, than at an earlier day. ^ It will, we imagine, 
 appear to future historians that, in spite of the example 
 which had been set by England in the West Indies, 
 those representing both the North and the South 
 showed themselves, just prior to the war, wanting^ in 
 the true elements of statesmanship in not reaHzing 
 that it was better to peaceably adjust their differences 
 than have recourse to physical force. It is now well 
 imderstood, and might have been well understood at 
 the time, that the main issue was the slave issue,^and 
 that once out of the way, all other sources of division
 
 108 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 were insignificant. We could have well afforded to 
 vote, if need be, several thousands of millions of dollars 
 to purchase the freedom of the slaves, if by that means, 
 the civil war withall of its wastes and sufferings could 
 have been avoided; and if not now, a generation or 
 two hence, we feel convinced that the people, both of 
 the North and South, will be of the opinion that such 
 an outcome of the contention would have been possible 
 it we had on both sides of the quarrel statesmen of the 
 caliber of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, John 
 Quincy Adams and other eminent Americans who have 
 made their mark in our national history. 
 
 Senator Thurston's Speech. 
 
 Senator John M. Thurston said in part at a ban- 
 quet of the Baptist Social Union, New York, on Lin- 
 coln's birthday, in 1897: 
 
 *'This is an entirely different gathering than that 
 to which I have been recently accustomed. I come 
 from a forty days' session of a moot court, in which the 
 question of silver has been discussed and passed upon 
 without any hope of legislation. There I have been 
 used to having my audiences rise and leave as soon 
 as I begin to speak. 
 
 *'Mr. President, if I have any purpose to-night, it 
 is to strengthen the belief in a Divine Providence; and 
 if I have any further purpose in this time of wars and 
 rumors of wars, it is to show that God Almighty has 
 made nations for higher purposes than mere money 
 making. I am to speak to-night of Abraham Lincoln,
 
 Tersely Told. 109 
 
 the simplest, serenest, sublimest character of the age. 
 Seventy millions of people join in commemorating his 
 greatness. It is not my purpose to review his life; 
 that is too much a part of history. That history should 
 be taught in every American public school and preached 
 from every Christian pulpit. The story of Abraham 
 Lincoln, citizen, President, liberator and martyr, should 
 be in the heart of every American child. I prefer to 
 speak of only one event in his history. Yet that event 
 was the harbinger of a new civilization. 
 
 *'Not long since, as I sat in a crowded court room, 
 engaged in the trial of a case involving the title to a 
 valuable tract of real estate, there came to the witness 
 stand a venerable, white-haired negro. Written all over 
 his old black face was the history of three-quarters of 
 a century of such an existence as few persons ever have 
 known. Bom a slave, he had stood upon the auction 
 block and been sold to the highest bidder; he had seen 
 his wife and children dragged from his side by those 
 who mocked his breaking heart ; he bore upon his back 
 the scars and ridges of a master's lash. Now he came 
 into a court of justice to settle, by the testimony of his 
 black lips, a controversy between white men. When 
 asked his age he drew himself proudly up and said: 
 Tor fifty years I was a chattel. On the first day of 
 January, 1863, old Uncle Abe made me a man.* 
 
 ^* The act which set that old man free was the crown- 
 ing glory of Lincoln's Hfe, for by it he not only saved 
 his coimtry, but emancipated a race. When Abraham 
 Lincoln took his pen to sign the Emancipation Procla- 
 mation he knew that the supreme moment had come.
 
 110 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 He had known it years before, when he said: *A house 
 divided against itself cannot stand. I beHeve that 
 this government cannot exist permanently, half slave 
 and half free, but I do not expect this house to fall, this 
 government to be dissolved.* 
 
 "God has always raised up a great leader for a 
 great crisis. Moses, initiated into the sublime mys- 
 teries of the house of Pharaoh, himself a ruler and al- 
 most a king, led the children of Israel through the 
 parted waters of the Red Seas into the wilderness in 
 the strange hope of a deliverance. A shepherdess on 
 the hills of France felt herself stirred at the sore trials 
 of her race. Joan d'Arc, the savior of her country, 
 was the instrument of God. 
 
 *'Who can doubt that Providence put the prepos- 
 terous notion of a rotmd world into the head of the 
 Genoese sailor? Who can doubt that Providence 
 designed Christopher Columbus, George Washington, 
 Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant each for his 
 own mission? The Declaration of Independence was 
 the Genesis of American Hberty, but the gospel of its 
 New Testament was the Emancipation Proclamation. 
 Until the Emancipation Proclamation the tide of suc- 
 cess set strongly against the Union shore. But after- 
 ward the soldiers of the Union marched steadily from 
 Chattanooga to Atlanta and from Atlanta to the sea. 
 From the time the flag of Hberty became the flag of 
 freedom and the Stars and Stripes no longer floated 
 over slaves, the Union never wavered in its onward 
 march.
 
 Tersely Told. Ill 
 
 "Almost a third of a century has passed away. 
 Blue and gray they lie together beneath the sod. He- 
 roes all, they fell face to face, brother against brother. 
 But through the mingled tears that fall ahke upon the 
 dead of both sections, the eyes of all turn toward a new 
 future under the old flag. To the North and South, 
 to the white and black, Abraham Lincoln was God's 
 special providence. What is the heritage to us? In 
 his own wonis, *A government of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people.' 
 
 *'I wish that my voice could reach from one end of 
 the land to the other while I tell what true Americanism 
 is. I come from a State that has as great local neces- 
 sities, perhaps, as any other. The State of Nebraska 
 put one star into the flag. The great State of New 
 York put another. But when they set them there, 
 they ceased to shine for themselves, but for the whole 
 Union. 
 
 "What we need in this country is the Emancipation 
 Proclamation and the Stars and Stripes at every polling 
 place. We need a revival of the American flag. Let 
 it float over every American battlefield, be taught in 
 every pubHc school. Set the Stars of the Union in the 
 hearts of our children and the glory of the Republic 
 will remain forever. It does not matter whether the 
 American cradle is rocked to the music of 'Yankee 
 Doodle' or the lullaby of 'Dixie' if the flag of the nation 
 is displayed above it, and the American baby can be 
 safely trusted to pull about the floor the rusty scab- 
 bard and the battered canteen, whether the inheritance 
 be from blue or gray, if from the breast of a true mother
 
 112 Best Lincoln Stones 
 
 and the lips of a brave father, its little soul is filled with 
 the glory of the American constellation. 
 
 "The memory of Lincoln cannot perish. On free- 
 dom's roll of honor the name of Lincoln is written 
 first. His colossal statue stands on a pedestal of the 
 people's love, and in its protecting shadow, liberty and 
 equality are the heritage of every American citizen." 
 
 Lincoln Analyzed. 
 
 There is something in Washington or in Lincoln or 
 Grant, that defies analysis. It is a moral elevation, 
 a magnanimity, a nobleness and profoundness of mind. 
 It is force of character and ability by which man is able 
 to meet great emergencies. This is true greatness. 
 
 Nothing discloses real character like the use of 
 power. If you wish to know what a man really is, 
 give him power. This is the supreme test. 
 
 Judged by this standard Abraham Lincoln stands 
 out one of the purest and noblest characters of all 
 time. Greatness was never more unconscious of it- 
 self than it was in him. It consisted in the fact that 
 he made mistakes but rose above them. 
 
 Lincoln was a man of marvelous growth. The 
 statesman or the military hero bom and reared in a 
 log cabin is a familiar figure in American history ; but 
 we may search in vain among our men of honor and 
 fame for one whose origin and early life equaled Abra- 
 ham Lincoln's in obscurity and lack of education. 
 
 He sprang from the poorest class in the border 
 south. Hard work his early lot; his education a minus
 
 Tersely Told. 113 
 
 factor. In the year of his majority his father moved 
 to IlHnois. Here Lincoln began for himself the hard 
 battle of life. He became an ambitious young man. 
 Unquestionably in some mysterious way, he arrived 
 at the conclusion that this world had something far 
 higher for him than neighborhood joker, champion 
 wrestler or prize wood chopper. 
 
 A lawyer lent him a copy of Blackstone and he 
 commenced the study of law; was admitted to the bar 
 in 1836; rose rapidly in his profession and became an 
 eminent lawyer. Being more adapted to the part of 
 a jurist than an advocate, owing to the striking up- 
 rightness of his character, he applied himself to this 
 branch of his profession, and it may truly be said that 
 his vivid sense of truth and justice had much to do with 
 his effectiveness as a jurist. When he felt himself 
 to be the protector of innocence, the defender of justice, 
 or the prosecutor of wrong, he frequently disclosed 
 such imexpected resources of reasoning, such depth of 
 feeling, and rose to such fervor of appeal as to astonish 
 and overw^helm his hearers, and make his appeal irre- 
 sistible. 
 
 He continued to ''ride the circuit, " read books, tell 
 funny stories to his fellow lawyers in the tavern, chat 
 familiarly with his neighbors and become more and 
 more widely known, trusted and beloved among the 
 people of his State for his ability as a lawyer and poli- 
 tician, for the integrity of his character and the ever- 
 flowing spring of sympathetic kindness in his heart. 
 His mJn ambition was that of political distinction, 
 yet no one, at that time, would have suspected that
 
 11-i Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 he was the man destined to lead the nation through the 
 the greatest crisis of the century. 
 
 Nevertheless, he was growing, indeed, this is one 
 prominent fact in Lincoln's life — he never ceased 
 growing. As captain in the Black Hawk war, as candi- 
 date for the legislature, as storekeeper, postmaster, 
 surveyor and law student, he was always growing. 
 
 In 1846, he was elected to congress where he dis- 
 tinguished himself as a humorous speaker and rapidly 
 advanced to the front as a statesman. 
 
 Lincoln was a statesman in the truest and grand 3st 
 sense of the word. He was a type of honesty and 
 moral integrity. He had a conscience *'void of offense 
 toward God, and toward men. " A lover of the truth 
 and men learned to trust him. He was just and foi 
 that reason would not put upon others that which he 
 would not put upon himself. He studied the questions 
 of the day and founded his opinions on truth and 
 justice. 
 
 It was not imtil 1854, when the slavery question 
 had been thrust into poHtics as the paramount issue, 
 that Lincoln's powers were aroused to their fullest 
 capacity. He plunged into arduous study of the ques- 
 tion, in its legal, historical and moral aspects, imtil 
 his mind became a complete arsenal of argument. 
 
 Now he was able to cope with any poHtical antag- 
 onist. The time had come when the republican party 
 required a man to put for^vard as their standard bearei 
 one who would be equal for the coming election. 
 
 They found in Lincoln all the antecedents of his 
 life to be such as to produce in him the rarest qualifica-
 
 Tersely Told. 115 
 
 tions for the Presidency, to which he was now called 
 by his party. It was during this canvass that he first 
 revealed, in his great debates with Stephen A. Douglas, 
 the full scope of his originality and genius. Subse- 
 quent to this combat of giants, he was duly elected 
 President. 
 
 No President, before or since, ever took his seat 
 under such difficulties. The situation which confronted 
 him was appalHng; secession of the Southern States 
 was fully organized, and less than a month before his 
 inauguration seven of them had already seceded. 
 
 During his inaugural address, he declared his fixed 
 purpose to uphold the Constitution and preserve the 
 integrity of the Union. It was his policy to ignore the 
 action of the seceded States as a thing in itself null, 
 void and of no effect. 
 
 Lincoln was the man whom Providence placed at 
 the head of the nation in the supreme hour of its destiny. 
 When he assumed the reins of government he was sur- 
 roimded by traitors. The government was without 
 army, without navy, without credit. He spoke, and 
 two miUions of men sprang, as from the ground. He 
 breathed, and the bosom of the ocean was covered 
 with ships of war. He placed his hand upon Wall 
 street and the credit of the government was secured. 
 He surroimded himself with the best and truest coun- 
 selors of the time. 
 
 He signed his name and the shackles fell from the 
 limbs of four million of slaves. His was a greatness for 
 the time. He was the Moses of a new dispensation — 
 called of God to lead the hosts of captives out of the
 
 116 Best Lincoln Stories 
 
 bondage house of their oppression. Like his great 
 protopype he was not permitted to see the land of 
 promise. He led the people safely through, but he was 
 not allowed to guide them across the Jordan. 
 
 On the morning of April 15, 1865, God called Abra- 
 ham Lincoln away from mortal sight. 
 
 Measured by what he did as a statesman and leader, 
 he stands head and shoulders above all rulers of men 
 in the annals of the six thousand years of Human His- 
 tory. 
 
 While a ''solitary stripe remains in our banner," 
 while a "single star is blazoned on its field of blue," 
 so long will the deeds, the heroism and the loyalty of 
 Abraham Lincoln be told to generations j^et unborn. 
 
 The Religion of the Presidents. 
 
 George Washington was a communicant of the 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was a member of no church. 
 He was a Deist. 
 
 John Adams was a Unitarian. 
 
 James Madison was an Episcopahan. 
 
 James Monroe was an Episcopalian. 
 
 John Quincy Adams was a Unitarian. 
 
 Andrew Jackson became a member of the Presby- 
 terian Church after the death of his wife. 
 
 Martin Van Buren regularly attended the Dutch 
 Reformed Church at Kinderhook, N. Y., but was not 
 a member. 
 
 WilHam Henry Harrison was a communicant in the 
 Episcopal Church. His pew in Christ Church, Cleve-
 
 Tersely Told. 117 
 
 land, Ohio, bore his silver plate for years after his 
 death. 
 
 John Tyler was a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 James K. Polk never united with any denomination. 
 While he was President he attended the Presbyterian 
 Church out of deference to his wife's wishes. On his 
 death-bed he was baptized by a Methodist preacher, 
 an old friend and neighbor. 
 
 Zachary Taylor was an attendant of the Episcopal 
 Church and is said to have been a member. 
 
 Millard Fillmore was a Unitarian. 
 
 FrankHn Pierce was a Trinitarian Congregation- 
 alist. 
 
 James Buchanan was a Presbyterian. 
 
 Andrew Johnson was not a member, but attended 
 the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln belonged to no church, but 
 usually attended the Presbyterian services. 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant attended the Methodist Church, 
 but was not a member. 
 
 Rutherford B. Hayes was a Methodist. 
 
 Jamics A. Garfield was a member of the Church 
 of the Disciples. 
 
 Chester A. Arthtu: was an EpiscopaHan. 
 
 Grover Cleveland joined the Presbyterian Church 
 after his marriage. 
 
 Benjamin Harrison v/as a member of the Presby- 
 treian Church. 
 
 WiUiam McKinley was a member of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt is a member of the Episcopalian 
 Church.