230
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES
[Apr.
ii
reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me
that he was confident
that the people, with
his
military cooperation, would reconstruct substan-
tially on
that
plan.
I wrote
to him and some
of them to try
it.
They tried
it, and the
result
is known.
Such
has
been my
only agency
in
getting up the Louisiana government.
As to sustaining
it, my promise
is out, as be-
fore
stated.
But
as
bad
promises
are
better
broken
than
kept,
I
shall
treat
this
as
a bad
promise, and break
it whenever
I
shall be con-
vinced
that keeping
it
is
adverse to the
public
interest
; but I have not yet been so convinced.
I
have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed
to be an able one,
in which the writer expresses
regret that my mind has not seemed to be
defi-
nitely fixed on the question whether the seceded
States, so
called, are
in the Union or out of
it.
It would perhaps add astonishment to his regret
were he to learn that since I have found professed
Union men endeavoring to make that
question,
I have purposely forborne any public expression
upon
it.
As appears
to me,
that
question
has
not been, nor yet
is, a practically material one,
and
that any
discussion of
it, while
it thus
re-
mains practically immaterial, could have no effect
other than the mischievous one of dividing our
friends.
As
yet, whatever
it may hereafter be-
come, that question
is bad as the basis of a con-
troversy, and good for nothing at
all—a merely
pernicious abstraction.
We all agree that the seceded States, so called,
are out of their proper practical relation with the
Union, and
that the
sole object
of the govern-
ment, civil and military, in regard to those States
is to again get them
into that proper
practical
i86s]
ON RECONSTRUCTION
231
relation.
I believe that
it is not only possible, but
in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even
considering whether these States have ever been
out of the Union, than with
it.
Finding them-
selves safely at home,
it would be utterly imma-
terial whether they had ever been abroad.
Let
us
all join in doing the acts necessary to restor-
ing the proper
practical
relations between these
States and the Union, and each forever after in-
nocently indulge his own opinion whether in do-
ing the acts he brought the States from without
into the Union, or only gave them proper assist-
ance,
they
never
having been
out
of
it.
The
amount of
constituency,
so
to
speak, on which
the new
Louisiana government
rests, would be
more satisfactory to
all
if
it contained 50,000 or
30,000,
or
even
20,000,
instead
of
only
about
12,000,
as
it
does.
It
is
also
unsatisfactory
to
some that the elective franchise is not given to the
colored man.
I would myself prefer that
it were
now
conferred on
the
very
intelligent,
and on
those who serve our cause as
soldiers.
Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana
government, as
it
stands,
is quite
all that
is de-
sirable.
The question
is, will
it be wiser to take
it as
it
is and help to improve
it, or to reject and
disperse
it?
Can
Louisiana
be
brought
into
proper practical
relation with the Union sooner
by
sustaining
or
by
discarding
her new
State
government?
Some
12,000 voters
in
the
here-
tofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn
alle-
giance
to
the Union, assumed
to be
the
right-
ful political power of the State, held elections, or-
ganized a State government, adopted a free-State
constitution, giving the benefit of public schools
equally to black and white, and empowering the
232
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES
[Apr. n
legislature to confer the
elective
franchise upon
the colored man.
Their
legislature has already
voted
to
ratify
the
constitutional
amendment
recently passed by
Congress,
abolishing
slavery
throughout the nation.
These 12,000 persons are
thus fully committed to the Union and to perpet-
ual freedom in the State—committed to the very
things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants
—and they ask the
nation's
recognition and
its
assistance
to make good
their committal.
Now,
if we reject and spurn them, we do our
utmost to disorganize and disperse them.
We, in
effect, say to the white man
: You are worthless
or worse
; we will neither help you, nor be helped
by you.
To the blacks we say
: This cup of
lib-
erty which these, your old masters, hold to your
lips we
will
dash
from
you, and
leave you
to
the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered
contents
in
some
vague
and
undefined
when,
where,
and how.
If
this
course,
discouraging
and
paralyzing both
white and
black,
has any
tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical
relations with the Union,
I have so far been un-
able to perceive
it.
If, on the contrary, we recog-
nize and sustain the new government of Louisi-
ana, the converse of
all this
is made true.
We
encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the
12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue for
it,
and proselyte for
it, and fight for
it, and feed
it,
and grow
it, and ripen
it to a complete
success.
The
colored man,
too,
in
seeing
all
united
for
him,
is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and
daring, to the same end.
Grant that he
desires
the elective franchise, will he not attain
it sooner
by saving the already advanced
steps toward
it
than by running backward over them ?
Concede
i865]
ON RECONSTRUCTION
233
that
the new government
of
Louisiana
is
only
to what
it should be as the egg
is to the
fowl,
we
shall sooner have
the
fowl by hatching the
egg than by smashing
it.
Again,
if we
reject Louisiana we
also
reject
one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to
the national Constitution.
To meet this proposi-
tion
it has been argued that no more than three-
fourths of those States which have not attempted
secession
are
necessary
to
validly
ratify
the
amendment.
I do not commit myself against this
further than to say that such a ratification would
be questionable, and sure to be persistently ques-
tioned, while a ratification by three-fourths of all
the
States would
be
unquestioned and
unques-
tionable.
I repeat the question
: Can Louisiana be
brought
into proper
practical
relation
with
the
Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her
new
State government?
What has been said of
Louisiana
will
apply
generally
to
other
States.
And
yet
so
great
peculiarities
pertain
to
each
State, and such important and sudden changes
occur
in the same
State, and withal so new and
unprecedented
is the whole
case
that no
exclu-
sive and
inflexible plan can safely be prescribed
as to details and collaterals.
Such exclusive and
inflexible
plan would
surely become
a new
en-
tanglement.
Important principles may and must
be
inflexible.
In
the
present
situation,
as
the
phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new
announcement to the people of the South.
I am
considering, and
shall not
fail to act when satis-
fied that action will be proper.
Conversations and Anecdotes
Reported by F. B. Carpenter
in his
"Six Months at the
White House with Abraham Lincoln
'*
CONVERSATIONS AND
ANECDOTES
By F. B. Carpenter.
From
February
to
August,
1864,
the
artist
F.
B,
Carpenter was an occupant
of
the
Executive Mansion
engaged
in painting
his
masterpiece, "The
First Read-
ing
of
the
Emancipation
Proclamation
before
the
Cabinet."
He had many conversations with the
Presi-
dent, heard many
stories told by him and more told of
him,
and
witnessed
numerous
incidents
that
revealed
in
a
striking way the personality of the
'First Ameri-
can."
These
he
gathered
together
and
published
shortly after the death of Lincoln,
in a volume
entitled
"Six Months
at
the White House with Abraham Lin-
coln."
The
best
of these
conversations and anecdotes
are here reproduced.
The
History
of
the
Emancipation
Procla-
mation.
The
appointed
hotir
found me
at
the
well-
remembered door of the
official chamber,—that
door watched daily, with so many conflicting emo-
tions
of hope and
fear, by the anxious throng
regularly gathered there. The President had pre-
ceded me, and was already deep in Acts of Con-
gress, with which the writing-desk was strewed,
awaiting
his
signature.
He
received me
pleas-
antly, giving me a seat near his own arm-chair;
and
after having
read Mr.
Lovejoy's
note, he
237
238
ANECDOTES
j
took
off
his
spectacles,
and
said,
"Well,
Mr.
'
C
, we
will turn you
in
loose here, and
try-
to
give you
a good
chance
to work
out your
idea."
Then, without paying much attention to
the enthusiastic expression of my ambitious de-
sire
and
purpose,
he
proceeded
to
give me
a
detailed account of the history and issue of the
great
proclamation.
'Tt had got to be," said he, "midsummer, 1862.
Things had gone on from bad
to
worse,
until
I
felt that we had reached the end of our rope
on the plan of operations we had been pursuing
;
that we had about played our last card, and must
change
our
tactics,
or
lose
the game
!
I now
determined upon the adoption of the emancipa-
tion
policy;
and,
without
consultation
with,
or
the knowledge
of
the
Cabinet,
I
prepared
the
original
draft
of
the
proclamation,
and,
after
much
anxious
thought,
called
a
Cabinet
meet-
ing upon
the
subject.
This
was
the
last
of
July, or the
first part of the month
of August,
1862."
(The exact date he did not rememiber.)
""This Cabinet meeting took place,
I think, upon
a
Saturday.
All were
present,
excepting Mr.
Blair,
the
Postmaster-General, who was
absent
at
the
opening
of
the
discussion,
but came
in
subsequently.
I
said to the Cabinet that
I had
resolved upon this step, and had not called them
together to ask their advice, but to lay the sub-
ject-matter of a proclamation before them; sug-
gestions
as
to which would
be
in
order,
after
they had heard
it read.
Mr. Lovejoy," said he,
*'was in error when he informed you that
it ex-
cited no comment, excepting on the part of Sec-
retary
Seward.
Various
suggestions were
of-
fered.
Secretary
Chase
wished
the
language
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
239
stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks.
Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy,
on
the ground
that
it would
cost
the Admin-
istration
the
fall
elections.
Nothing,
however,
was offered that
I had not already
fully
antici-
pated and
settled
in my own mind,
until
Sec-
retary
Seward
spoke.
He
said
in
substance
:
*Mr.
President,
I approve
of
the proclamation,
but
I question the expediency of
its issue at this
juncture.
The
depression
of
the
public
mind,
consequent
upon
our
repeated
reverses,
is
so
great
that
I
fear
the
effect
of
so
important a
step.
It may be viewed as the
last measure of
an exhausted government,
a
cry
for
help
;
the
government stretching forth
its hands to Ethio-
pia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands
to the government.'
His
idea,"
said the
Presi-
dent,
''was that
it would be considered our
last
shriek, on the
retreat."
(This was
his
precise
expression.)
''
* Now,'
continued
Mr.
Seward,
Svhile
I approve the measure,
I suggest,
sir, that
you postpone
its
issue,
until you can give
it
to
the country supported by military success, instead
of
issuing
it,
as would be
the
case now, upon
the
greatest
disasters
of the war
!' "
Mr. Lin-
coln
continued:
"The wisdom
of
the view
of
the Secretary of State struck me with very great
force.
It was an aspect of the case
that,
in
all
my thought upon the subject, I had entirely over-
looked.
The
result was that
I put the draft of
the proclamation
aside,
as you do your
sketch
for a picture, waiting for a victory.
From time
to time
I added or changed a
line, touching
it
up here and there, anxiously watching the prog-
ress of events.
Well, the next news we had was
of Pope's disaster, at Bull Run.
Things looked
240
ANECDOTES
darker than
ever.
Finally, came
the week
of
the
battle
of
Antietam.
I
determined
to
wait
no longer.
The news came, I think, on Wednes-
day, that the advantage was on our side.
I was
then staying at the Soldiers' Home
(three miles
out
of Washington).
Here
I
finished
writing
the
second
draft
of
the
preliminary
proclama-
tion
; came up on Saturday
;
called the
Cabinet
together to hear
it, and
it was published the
fol-
lowing Monday."
At
the
final meeting of September
20th,
an-
other interesting incident occurred in connection
with Secretary Seward.
The President had writ-
ten
the
important
part
of
the
proclamation
in
these words
:
"That,
on
the
first day
of
January,
in
the
year
of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred
and sixty-three,
all persons held as slaves within
any State or designated part of a State, the peo-
ple
whereof
shall
then
be
in
rebellion
against
the United
States,
shall be then, thenceforward,
and
forever free
; and
the
Executive
Govern-
ment of the United States, including the military
and
naval
authority
thereof,
will
recognize
the
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or
acts
to
repress
such
persons,
or any
of
them,
in any
efliorts
they may make
for
their
actual
freedom."
"When
I finished reading this para-
graph,"
resumed
Mr.
Lincoln,
"Mr.
Seward
stopped
me, and
said, T
think, Mr.
President,
that you should insert after the word "recognize,"
in that sentence, the words "and maintain."
'
I
replied
that
I had
already
fully considered the
import of that expression in this connection, but
I had not introduced
it, because
it was not my
way
to
promise what
I was
not
entirely
sure
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
241
that
I could perform, and
I was not prepared to
say that I thought we were exactly able to 'main-
tain'
this."
**But," said he, ''Seward insisted that we ought
to take this ground; and the words
finally went
in!"
*'It
is
a somewhat remarkable
fact," he
sub-
sequently
remarked,
"that
there were
just
one
hundred days between the dates of the two proc-
lamations issued upon the 22d of September and
the
ist of January.
I had not made the calcu-
lation
at the time."
Signing the Emancipation Proclamation.
The
final
Proclamation was
signed on New-
Year's Day,
1863.
The President remarked to
Mr. Colfax, the same evening, that the signature
appeared
somewhat
tremulous
and
uneven.
"Not,"
said
he, "because of any uncertainty or
hesitation on my part
; but
it was just after the
public
reception, and three hours' hand-shaking
is
not
calculated
to improve
a man's
chirogra-
phy."
Then changing his tone, he added
:
"The
South
had
fair
warning,
that
if
they
did
not
return to their duty,
I should strike at this pillar
of
their
strength.
The
promise must now
be
kept, and
I
shall never
recall one word."
I remember to have asked him, on one occa-
sion, if there was not some opposition manifested
on the
part
of
several members
of the Cabinet
to this policy.
He replied, "Nothing more than
I
have
stated
to
you.
Mr.
Blair
thought we
should
lose the
fall elections, and opposed
it on
that ground only."
"I have understood," said
I,
"that Secretary Smith was not in favor of your
242
ANECDOTES
action.
Mr. Blair told me that, when the meet-
ing closed, he and the Secretary of the Interior
went away together, and that the
latter
said to
him,
if the President carried out that policy, he
might
count
on
losing
Indiana,
sure !"
"He
never said anything of the kind to me," returned
the President.
"And what
is Mr. Blair's opinion
now?"
I
asked.
"Oh," was
the prompt
reply,
"he proved right
in regard to the
fall
elections,
but he
is satisfied that we have since gained more
than we lost."
"I have been told,"
I added, "that
Judges Bates doubted the constitutionality of the
proclamation."
"He
never
expressed
such
an
opinion
in my
hearing,"
replied
Mr.
Lincoln.
"No member of the Cabinet ever dissented from
the
policy,
in any conversation with me."
Mr. Chase told me that
at the Cabinet meet-
ing,
immediately
after
the
battle
of
Antietam,
and
just
prior
to
the
issue
of
the
September
Proclamation,
the
President
entered
upon
the
business
before them, by saying that
"the time
for the annunciation of the emancipation policy
could be no longer delayed.
Public sentiment,"
he
thought,
"would
sustain
it—many
of
his
warmest
friends and supporters demanded
it
and
he
had
promised
his God
that
he would
do
it!"
The
last
part
of
this was
uttered
in
a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one
but Secretary Chase, who was
sitting near him.
He
asked
the
President
if he
correctly under-
stood
him.
Mr.
Lincoln
replied
:
"/ made
a
solemn vozv before God, that if General Lee zvas
driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown
the result by
the declaration
of freedom
to
the
slaves."
In February,
1865, a few days
after the pas-
INTERVIEW WITH THOMPSON
243
sage of the "Constitutional Amendment,"
I went
to Washington, and was
received by Mr.
Lin-
coln with the kindness and familiarity which had
characterized
our
previous
intercourse.
I
said
to him at this time that I was very proud to have
been
the
artist
to
have
first
conceived
of
the
design
of painting a
picture commemorative
of
the Act of Emancipation
; that subsequent occur-
rences had
only confirmed my own
first judg-
ment of that act as the most sublime moral event
in our history.
"Yes," said he,—and never do I
remember to have noticed in him more earnest-
ness of expression or manner,—"as affairs have
turned,
it is the central act of my administration,
and the great event of the nineteenth century."
Interview with
George Thompson.
Mr. George Thompson, the English
anti-slav-
ery
orator,
delivered an
address
in
the House
of
Representatives,
to
a
large
audience,
April
6th,
1864.
Among
the
distinguished
persons
present was President Lincoln, who was greatly
interested.
The following morning, Mr. Thomp-
son and party, consisting of Rev. John Pierpont,
Oliver Johnson, formerly President of the Anti-
Slavery
Society
of New
York,
and
the
Hon.
Lewis
Clephane,
of Washington,
called
at
the
White House.
The
President was
alone when
their names were announced, with the exception
of
myself.
Dropping
all
business,
he
ordered
the party to be immediately admitted.
Greeting
them
very
cordially,
the
gentlemen took
seats,
and Mr. Thompson commenced conversation by
referring to the condition of public sentiment in
England
in regard
to the great
conflict the na-
244
ANECDOTES
tion was passing through.
He said the aristoc-
racy and the ''money interest" were desirous of
seeing the Union broken up, but that the great
heart
of the masses beat
in sympathy with
the
North.
They
instinctively
felt
that
the
cause
of
liberty was bound
up
with
our
success
in
putting down the Rebellion, and the struggle was
being watched with
the deepest
anxiety.
Mr. Lincoln thereupon said: "Mr. Thompson,
the people of Great Britain, and of other foreign
governments, were
in one great error
in
refer-
ence to this conflict.
They seemed to think that,
the moment
I was
President,
I had the power
to abolish slavery, forgetting that before
I could
have any power whatever, I had to take the oath
to support the Constitution of the United States,
and execute the laws
as
I found them.
When
the Rebellion broke out, my duty did not admit
of
a
question.
That
was,
first, by
all
strictly
lawful means to endeavor to maintain the integ-
rity of the government.
I did not consider that
I had a right to touch the
'State'
institution of
'Slavery'
until
all other measures
for
restoring
the Union had
failed.
The paramount
idea of
the constitution
is the preservation of the Union.
It may not be
specified
in so many words, but
that
this was
the
idea
of
its
founders
is
evi-
dent
;
for,
without
the
Union,
the
constitution
w^ould be worthless.
It seems
clear,
then,
that
in
the
last
extremity,
if
any
local
institution
threatened the
existence of the Union, the Ex-
ecutive
could
not
hesitate
as
to
his
duty.
In
our
case,
the moment came when
I
felt
that
slavery must
die that the nation might
live
!
I
sometimes used
the
illustration
in
this
connec-
tion of a man with a diseased limb, and his sur-
THREATS OF ASSASSINATION
245
geon.
So long as there
is a chance of the pa-
tient's restoration, the surgeon is solemnly bound
to try to save both
life and limb; but when the
crisis comes, and the limb must be
sacrificed
as
the only chance of saving the life, no honest man
will
hesitate.
''Many
of my
strongest
supporters
urged
Emancipation before
I thought
it indispensable,
and,
I may
say, before
I
thought
the
country
ready for
it.
It
is my conviction
that, had the
proclamation been
issued even
six months
ear-
lier
than
it
was,
public
sentiment
would
not
have sustained
it.
Just
so, as to the subsequent
action in reference to enlisting blacks in the Bor-
der States.
The step, taken sooner, could not, in
my
judgment, have been
carried
out.
A man
watches
his
pear-tree day
after
dav,
impatient
for the ripening of the
fruit.
Let him attempt
to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit
and
tree.
But
let him
patiently
zvait, and
the
ripe pear at length
falls into his lap
!
We have
seen
this
great
revolution
in
public
sentiment
slowly but surely progressing, so that, when final
action
came,
the
opposition
was
not
strong
enough to
defeat the purpose.
I can now
sol-
emnly assert," he concluded, "that I have a clear
conscience
in regard
to my
action on
this mo-
mentous
question.
I have
done what no man
could have helped doing, standing in my place."
On Threats
of Assassination.
On the way to the sculptor's studio a conver-
sation occurred of much significance, in view of
the
terrible tragedy
so
soon
to paralyze
every
loyal heart in the nation. A late number of the
246
ANECDOTES
New York
Tribune had
contained
an
account
from a correspondent within the Rebel Hnes, of
an elaborate conspiracy, matured in Richmond, to
abduct, or assassinate—if the first was not found
practicable—the person of the President.
A se-
cret
organization,
composed,
it was
stated,
of
five hundred
or
a thousand men, had solemnly
sworn to accom.plish the deed.
Mr. Lincoln had
not
seen
or
heard
of
this
account, and
at
his
request,
I gave him the
details.
Upon the con-
clusion, he smiled incredulously, and said
: "Well,
even
if true,
I do not see what the Rebels would
gain by
killing or getting possession
of me.
I
am
but
a
single
individual,
and
it
would
not
help
their cause or make the
least difference
in
the progress of the war.
Everything would go
right on just the same.
Soon after
I was nomi-
nated
at
Chicago,
I
began
to
receive
letters
threatening my
life.
The
first one or two made
me a
little uncomfortable, but
I came
at length
to look
for a regular instalment of this kind of
correspondence
in every week's mail, and up to
inauguration
day
I was
in
constant
receipt
of
such letters.
It
is no uncommon thing to receive
them now
; but they have ceased to give me any
apprehension."
I
expressed
some
surprise
at
this,
but
he
replied
in
his
peculiar
way,
*'Oh,
there is nothing like getting used to things
!"
In reply to the remonstrances of friends, who
were
afraid
of
his
constant
exposure
to
dan-
ger, he had but one answer
:
'Tf they
kill me,
the next man will be just as bad for them; and
in a country like this, where our habits are sim-
ple, and must
be,
assassination
is always possi-
ble, and will come,
if they are determined upon
it."
LINCOLN'S CRITICS
247
A cavalry guard was once placed at the gates
of the White House
for
a
while, and he
said,
privately,
that
*'he worried
until he got
rid
of
it."
Considering the many open and secret threats
to take his
life,
it
is not surprising that Mr. Lin-
coln had many thoughts about
his coming to a
sudden and
violent end.
He once
said
that he
felt the
force of the expression, "To take one's
life
in his hand"
; but that he would not
like to
face death
suddenly.
He
said
that he thought
himiself a great coward physically, and was sure
that he would make
a poor
soldier,
for,
unless
there was something inspiriting in the excitement
of a battle, he was sure that he would drop his
gun and
run,
at
the
first symptom
of
danger.
That was said sportively, and he added, "Moral
cowardice
is
something which
I
think
I
never
had."
On Critics of the Administration.
At the White House one day some gentLmen
were present from the West,
excited and trou-
bled about the commissions or omissions of the
Administration.
The President heard them pa-
tiently, and then
replied:
"Gentlemen, suppose
all the property you were worth was in gold, and
you had put
it in the hands of Blondin to carry
across the Niagara River on a
rope, would you
shake
the
cable,
or keep
shouting
out
to
him,
'Blondin,
stand up
a
little
straighter—Blondin,
stoop a little more—go a little faster—lean a little
more
to
the
north—lean
a
Httle
more
to
the
south.'
No,
you
would
hold
your
breath
as
well
as your
tongue, and keep your hands
off
248
ANECDOTES
until he was
safe
over.
The Government
are
carrying an immense weight.
Untold treasures
are in their hands.
They are doing the very best
they
can.
Don't
badger
them.
Keep
silence,
and
we'll get you
safe across."
The President was once speaking of an attack
made on him by the Committee on the Conduct
of
the War,
for
a
certain
alleged
blunder,
or
something worse,
in the Southwest—the matter
involved
being
one
which
had
fallen
directly
under the observation of the officer to whom he
was talking, who possessed official evidence com-
pletely upsetting all the conclusions of the Com-
mittee.
''Might
it
not
be
well
for me,"
queried
the
officer,
"to
set
this
matter
right
in
a
letter
to
some
paper,
stating
the
facts
as
they
actually
transpired?"
"Oh, no," replied the President, "at
least, not
now.
If
I were
to
try to
read, much
less
an-
swer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might
as
well be closed
for any other business.
I do
the very best
I know how—the very best
I can
;
and
I mean to keep doing so
until the end.
If
the
end
brings me
out
all
right, what
is
said
against me
won't amount
to
anything.
If
the
end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing
I was right would make no difference."
At one of the "levees," in the winter of 1864,
during a
lull
in
the hand-shaking, Mr. Lincoln
was addressed by two lady friends, one of whom
is
the wife
of a gentleman
subsequently
called
into the Cabinet.
Turning to them with a weary
air,
he
remarked
that
it was
a
relief
to have
now and then those to talk to who had no favors
to
ask.
The
lady
referred
to
is
a
radical,—
a
LINCOLN'S CRITICS
249
New
Yorker by
birth,
but
for many
years
a
resident
of
^he
West.
She
repHed,
playfully,
"Mr.
President,
I
have one
request
to make."
"Ah !"
said
he,
at once looking grave.
"Well,
what
is
it?"
"That you suppress the infamous
Chicago
Times,"
was
the
rejoinder.
After
a
brief
pause, Mr.
Lincoln asked
her
if
she had
ever tried
to imagine how she would have
felt,
in some former administration to which she was
opposed,
if
her
favorite
newspaper
had
been
seized by the government, and suppressed.
The
lady replied that
it was not a parallel case
; that
in circumstances
like those then
existing, when
the nation was struggling for
its very
life, such
utterances as were daily put forth in that journal
should be suppressed by the strong hand of au-
thority; that the cause of loyalty and good gov-
ernment demanded
it.
"I
fear you do not
fully
comprehend," returned the President, "the dan-
ger of abridging the liberties of the people. Noth-
ing but the very sternest necessity can ever jus-
tify
it. A governm.ent had better go to the very
extreme
of
toleration,
than
to
do
aught
that
could be construed into an interference with, or
to jeopardize
in any degree, the common
rights
of
its citizens."
It was, perhaps,
in connection with the news-
paper attacks, that Mr. Lincoln told, during the
sitting,
this story
:
"A traveller on the
frontier
found
himself
out
of
his
reckoning
one
night
in a most inhospitable region. A terrific thunder-
storm came up, to add to his trouble.
He flound-
ered
along
until
his
horse
at
length gave
out.
The lightning afforded him the only clew to his
way,
but
the
peals
of
thunder
were
frightful.
One
bolt, which seemed
to crash the
earth
be-
250
ANECDOTES
neath
him,
brought him
to
his
knees.
By no
means a praying man, his petition was short and
to the
point,—'O Lord,
if
it
is
all the same to
you, give us a
little more
light and a
little
less
noise
!' "
Lincoln
at the
Soldiers' Home.
"The
Soldiers'
Home,"
writes
a
California
lady,* who visited Mr. Lincoln there,
''is a few
miles out of Washington on the Maryland
side.
It
is situated on a beautifully wooded
hill, which
you ascend by a winding path, shaded on both
sides by wide-spread branches, forming a green
arcade above you.
When you reach the top you
stand between two mansions,
large, handsome,
and substantial, but with nothing about them in-
dicative of the character of either.
That on your
left
is
the
Presidential
country-house;
that
di-
rectly
before
you,
the
'Rest'
for
soldiers who
are
too
old
for
further
service.
.
.
.
"Around
the 'Home' grows
every
variety of
tree,
particularly of the evergreen
class.
Their
branches brushed into the carriage as we passed
along, and left with us that pleasant, woody smell
belonging to leaves.
One of the ladies, catching
a bit of green from one of these intruding branch-
es,
said
it was
cedar,
and
another
thought
it
spruce.
" 'Let me discourse on a theme
I understand,'
said
the
President.
'I know
all about
trees
in
right
of being a backwoodsman.
I'll show you
the
difference between
spruce,
pine, and
cedar,
and this shred of green, which
is neither one nor
* In the San Francisco Bulletin.
AT SOLDIERS' HOME
251
the other, but a kind of illegitimate cypress.' He
then proceeded to gather specimens of each, and
explain the
distinctive
formation
of
foliage
be-
longing to every
species.
'Trees,' he
said,
'are
as
deceptive
in their likeness
to one another as
are certain classes of men, amongst whom none
but a physiognomist's
eye can
detect
dissimilar
moral features until events have developed them.
Do you know
it would be a good thing
if in
all
the schools proposed and carried out by the im-
provement of modern thinkers, we could have a
school of events ?'
" 'A
school
of
events ?'
repeated the
lady he
addressed.
" 'Yes,' he continued,
'since
it
is only by that
active development that character and ability can
be
tested.
Understand
me,
I now mean men,
not trees
; they can be
tried, and an analysis of
their strength obtained less expensive to
life and
human interests than man's.
What
I say now
is
a mere whimsey, you know; but when
I speak
of a school of events,
I mean one
in which, be-
fore
entering
real
life,
students
might
pass
through
the
mimic
vicissitudes
and
situations
that are necessary to bring out their powers and
mark
the
caliber
to
which
they
are
assigned.
Thus,
one
could
select
from
the
graduates
an
invincible
soldier,
equal
to
any
position,
with
no such word as
fail
; a martyr
to Right, ready
to give up life in the cause
; a politician too cun-
ning to be outwitted
; and so on.
These things
have
all
to be
tried, and their sometime
failure
creates
confusion
as
well
as
disappointment.
There
is no more dangerous or expensive analy-
sis than that which consists of trying a man.'
" 'Do you think
all men are tried ?' was asked.
252
'ANECDOTES
'' 'Scarcely,'
said
Mr.
Lincoln,
'or
so many
would not
fit their place so badly.
Your friend,
]\Ir.
Beecher,
being an
eloquent man,
explains
this well
in
his quaint
illustration of people out
of
their
sphere,—the
clerical
faces
he
has met
with in gay,
rollicking
life, and the natural wits
and good
brains
that have by
a
freak dropped
into
ascetic
robes.'
*' 'Some men seem able to do what they wish
in any
position,
being
equal
to them
all,'
said
some one.
" 'Versatility,' replied the President,
'is an in-
jurious
possession,
since
it never can be great-
ness.
It misleads you
in your calculations from
its very agreeability, and
it inevitably disappoints
you
in any great trust from
its want of depth.
A
versatile
man,
to
be
safe
from
execration,
should never soar; mediocrity
is sure of detec-
tion.'
On Shakspeare.
Presently the conversation turned upon Shak-
speare,
of whom
it
is
well known Mr. Lincoln
was very fond.
He once remarked, "It matters
not
to me
whether
Shakspeare
be
well
or
ill
acted;
with him
the thought
suffices."
Edwin
Booth was playing an engagement
at
this time
at
Grover's
Theatre.
He had
been announced
for
the coming evening
in
his famous
part
of
Hamlet.
The
President
had
never
witnessed
his representation of this character, and he pro-
posed being present.
The mention of this play,
which
I
afterward
learned had
at
all
times
a
peculiar charm
for Mr.
Lincoln's mind, waked
up
a
train
of thought
I was not prepared
for.
ON SHAKSPEARE
253
Said
he,—and
his
words
have
often
returned
to me with a sad interest since his own assassi-
nation,—"There
is
one
passage
of
the
play
of
'Hamlet'
which
is very apt
to be
slurred over
by the actor, or omitted altogether, which seems
to me
the
choicest part
of the
play.
It
is
the
soliloquy of
the king,
after the murder.
It
al-
ways struck me
as one of the
finest touches
of
nature
in the world."
Then,
throwing
himself
into
the
very
spirit
of the scene, he took up the words
:
"O my offence
is rank,
it smells
to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon
't."
He
repeated
this
entire
passage from mem-
ory, with a feeling and appreciation unsurpassed
by
anything
I
ever
witnessed upon
the
stage.
Remaining
in thought
for
a
few moments,
he
continued
:
''The opening of the play
of 'King Richard
the Third' seems to me often entirely misappre-
hended.
It is quite common for an actor to come
upon
the
stage,
and,
in
a sophomoric
style,
to
begin with a flourish
:
" 'Now
is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by
this sun of York,
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house,
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried
!'
Now," said he, "this
is
all wrong.
Richard, you
remember, had been, and was then, plotting the
destruction
of
his
brothers,
to make room
for
himself.
Outwardly, the most loyal to the newly
crowned king, secretly he could scarcely contain
his
impatience
at
the
obstacles
still
in the
wa)""
of his own elevation.
He appears upon the stage,
254
ANECDOTES
just after the crowning of Edward, burning witH
repressed
hate and
jealousy.
The
prologue
is
the utterance of the most intense bitterness and
satire."
Then,
unconsciously assuming
the
character,
Mr. Lincoln repeated, also from memory, Rich-
ard's
soliloquy,
rendering
it
with
a
degree
of
force and power that made
it seem
like a new
creation to me.
Though
familiar with the pas-
sage from boyhood,
I can truly say
that never
till that moment had
I fully appreciated its spirit.
I could not refrain from laying down my palette
and brushes, and applauding
heartily, upon
his
conclusion, saying, at the same time, half in ear-
nest, that
I was not sure but that he had made
a mistake
in the choice of a profession, consid-
erably,
as may be imagined,
to
his amusement.
Mr.
Sinclair
has
since
repeatedly
said
to me
that
he
never
heard
these
choice
passages
of
Shakspeare
rendered
with
more
effect
by
the
most famous of modern actors.
Lincoln's Purity
of Heart.
Mr. Lincoln,
I am convinced, has been greatly
wronged
in this respect [enjoyment of salacious
stories^.
Every foul-mouthed man in the coun-
try gave currency
to the
slime and
filth
of
his
own imagination by
attributing
it to the
Presi-
dent.
It
is
but
simple
justice
to
his memory
that
I should state, that during the entire period
of my stay
in Washington,
after witnessing his
intercourse with nearly
all
classes
of men, em-
bracing
governors,
senators, members
of Con-
gress, officers of the army, and intimate friends,
I
cannot
recollect
to have
heard him
relate a
LINCOLN'S TENDERNESS
255
circumstance
to any one of them, which would
have been out of place uttered in a ladies' draw-
ing-room.
And
this
testimony
is
not unsup-
ported by that of others, well entitled to consid-
eration.
Dr.
Stone,
his
family physician, came
in one day to see my studies.
Sitting in front of
that
of
the
President,—with whom he
did
not
sympathize
politically,—he remarked, with much
feeling,
''It
is
the
province
of
a
physician
to
probe
deeply
the
interior
lives
of men
; and
I
affirm that Mr. Lincoln is the purest hearted man
with whom
I ever came
in contact."
Secretary
Seward, who of the Cabinet officers was proba-
bly most intimate with the
President, expressed
the
same
sentiment
in
still
stronger
language.
He
once
said
to the
Rev.
Dr.
Bellows
:
"Mr.
Lincoln
is the best man I ever knew
!"
Lincoln's Tenderness of Heart.
Referring to Mr. Lincoln's never-failing fund
of anecdote. Judge Bates, Attorney-General,
re-
marked, "The character of the President's mind
is such that his thought habitually takes on this
form of illustration, by which the point he wishes
to
enforce
is
invariably
brought home
with
a
strength and clearness impossible in hours of ab-
stract argument.
Mr. Lincoln," he added, "comes
very near being a perfect man, according to my
ideal
of manhood.
He
lacks
but
one
thing."
Looking up from my palette,
I asked, musingly,
if
this was
official dignity as
President.
"No,''
replied Judge Bates, "that is of little consequence.
His deficiency
is in the element of
zvill.
I have
sometimes
told
him,
for
instance,
that he was
unfit to be intrusted with the pardoning power.
256
ANECDOTES
Why,
if
a man comes
to him with
a touching
story,
his judgment
is
ahnost
certain
to be
af-
fected by
it.
Should the appHcant be a woman,
a wife, a mother, or a
sister,—in nine cases out
of
ten,
her
tears,
if
nothing
else,
are
sure
to
prevail."
Lincoln the Pardoner.
The
opinion
of
the
Attorney-General, Judge
Bates,
as
to
the
safety
of Mr.
Lincoln's being
intrusted with the pardoning power, was founded
upon
an
intimate
knowledge
of
the
man.
A
nature
of such tenderness and humanity would
have
been
in danger
of
erring on
w^hat many
would
call
the weak
side, had
it not been
bal-
anced by an unusual degree of strong practical
good
sense and judgment.
The Secretary of War, and generals
in com-
mand, were
frequently much annoyed
at being
overruled,—the
discipline and
efficiency
of
the
service being thereby, as they considered, greatly
endangered.
But
there was no going back
of
the
simple
signature, "A.
Lincoln,"
attached to
proclamation
or
reprieve.
The Hon. Mr. Kellogg, representative from Es-
sex County, New York, received a despatch one
evening from the army, to the effect that a young
townsman,
who
had
been
induced
to
enlist
through
his
instrumentality,
had,
for
a
serious
misdemeanor, been convicted by a court-martial,
and was
to be shot the next day.
Greatly
agi-
tated, Mr. Kellogg went to the Secretary of War,
and urged,
in the strongest manner, a
reprieve.
Stanton was inexorable.
'Too many cases of the
kind had been let off," he said
; "and
it was time
LINCOLN THE PARDONER
257
an
example
was
made."
Exhausting
his
elo-
quence
in
vain, Mr. Kellogg
said,—"Well, Mr.
Secretary,
the
boy
is
not
going
to
be
shot,—
of that
I give you
fair warning !"
Leaving the
War Department, he went directly to the White
House, although the hour was
late.
The
senti-
nel
on
duty
told
him
that
special
orders
had
been issued to admit no one whatever that night.
After a long parley, by pledging himself to
as-
sume the responsibility of the
act, the congress-
man passed
in.
The President had retired
; but,
indifferent to etiquette or ceremony, Judge Kel-
logg
pressed
his way
through
all
obstacles
to
his
sleeping apartment.
In an
excited manner
he stated that the despatch announcing the hour
of execution had
but
just reached
him.
"This
man must not be
shot, Mr.
President," said
he.
*T
can't
help what he may have
done.
Why,
he
is an old neighbor of mine
;
I can't allow him
to be shot !"
Mr. Lincoln had remained in bed,
quietly
listening
to
the vehement
protestations
of
his
old
friend
(they
were
in
Congress
to-
gether).
He
at length
said: "Well,
I don't be-
lieve shooting him will do him any good.
Give
me that pen."
And,
so saying, "red tape" was
unceremoniously
cut, and another poor
fellow's
lease of
life was indefinitely extended.
One night Speaker Colfax
left
all other busi-
ness to ask the
President to
respite the son
of
a
constituent, who was sentenced to be
shot,
at
Davenport,
for
desertion.
He heard
the
story
with
his usual patience, though he was wearied
out with incessant calls, and anxious for rest, and
then
replied
:
"Some
of our generals complain
that
I impair discipline and subordination
in the
army by my pardons and
respites, but
it makes
258
ANECDOTES
me rested, after a hard day's work,
if I can find
some good excuse
for saving a man's
life, and
I go
to bed happy
as
I think how joyous the
signing of my name will make him and his fam-
ily and
his
friends."
Mr. Van Alen, of New York,
in an account
furnished
the
Evening
Post,
wrote
:
"I
well
remember the case of a poor woman who sought,
with the persistent affection of a mother, for the
pardon
of
her
son condemned
to
death.
She
was
successful
in her
petition.
When
she had
left
the
room, Mr.
Lincoln
turned
to me and
said
:
'Perhaps
I
have done
wrong,
but
at
all
events
I have made that poor woman happy.' "
The Hon. Thaddeus Stevens told me that on
one occasion he called at the White House with
an elderly lady, in great trouble, whose son had
been in the army, but for some offence had been
court-martialled, and sentenced
either
to
death,
or imprisonment at hard labor for a long term.
There
were
some
extenuating
circumstances
;
and
after
a
full
hearing,
the
President turned
to
the
representative, and
said
: "Mr.
Stevens,
do you think
this
is
a case which
will warrant
my interference?"
"With my knowledge of the
facts and the parties," was the
reply, "I should
have
no
hesitation
in
granting
a
pardon."
"Then,"
returned Mr.
Lincoln,
"I
will pardon
him," and he proceeded forthwith to execute the
paper.
The
gratitude
of
the
mother was
too
deep
for
expression, and not
a word was
said
between
her and
Mr.
Stevens
until
they were
halfway down
the
stairs on
their passage
out,
when
she
suddenly
broke
forth
in
an
excited
manner with the words, 'T knew
it was a copper-
head
lie!"
"What do you
refer
to, madam?"
LINCOLN THE PARDONER
259
asked Mr. Stevens.
*'Why, they told me he was
an
ugly
looking man,"
she
replied,
with
vehe-
mence.
'"He
is the handsomest man
I ever saw
in my
life !"
And
surely
for
that mother, and
for many another throughout the land, no carved
statue of ancient or modern
art,
in
all
its sym-
metry, can have the charm which
will for ever-
more encircle that careworn but gentle face, ex-
pressing as lineaments of
ruler never expressed
before, ''Malice towards none—Charity for
all."
The Amnesty Proclamation.
One of the party took occasion shortly to en-
dorse very decidedly the Amnesty Proclamation,
which
had
been
severely
censured
by
many
friends
of
the
Administration.
This
approval
appeared to touch Mr. Lincoln deeply.
He said,
with a great deal of emphasis, and with an ex-
pression
of
countenance
I
shall
never
forget,
"When a man
is
sincerely penitent
for his mis-
deeds,
and
gives
satisfactory
evidence
of
the
same, he can
safely be pardoned, and
there
is
no exception to the rule."
"The Scoundrel Will Get Off."
A couple of well-known New York gentlemen
called upon the
President one day
to
solicit
a
pardon for a man who, while acting as mate of a
sailing vessel, had struck one of his men a blow
which resulted in his death.
Convicted and sen-
tenced
for manslaughter, a powerful appeal was
made
in his
behalf,
as he had previously borne
an excellent character.
Giving the facts a hear-
ing, Mr. Lincoln responded
:
"Well,
gentlemen,
leave
your
papers,
and
I
26o
ANECDOTES
will
have
the
Attorney-General,
Judge
Bates,
look them
over, and we
will
see what
can be
done.
Being both of us 'pigeon-hearted' fellows,
the chances are that, if there
is any ground what-
ever for interference, the scoundrel will get off !"
"Public Opinion Baths."
*'Once—on
what
was
called
a
'public
day,*
when Mr. Lincoln received all applicants in their
turn—the
writer* was
struck by
observing,
as
he passed through the corridor, the heterogeneous
crowd of men and women, representing all ranks
and
classes,
who
were
gathered
in
the
large
waiting-room
outside
the
Presidential
suite
of
offices.
.
.
.
"This led to a somewhat general conversation,
in which
I
expressed
surprise
that he
did
not
adopt the plan
in force at
all military headquar-
ters,
under
which
every
applicant
to
see
the
general commanding had
to be
filtered through
a
sieve
of
officers,—assistant
adjutant-generals,
and
so
forth,—who allowed none
in to take up
the general's time save such as they were satisfied
had business of sufficient importance, and which
could be tranracted
in no other manner than by
a personal interview.
.
.
.
"
' Ah,
yes
!'
said Mr.
Lincoln,
gravely,—and
his words on this matter are important as
illus-
trating a rule of his action, and to some extent,
perhaps, the
essentially representative character
of his mind and of his administration,—'ah, yes,
such things do very well for you military people,
with
your
arbitrary
rule,
and
in
your
camps.
But the
office of President
is
essentially a
civil
* Colonel Charles G. Halpine, New York Citizen.
LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY
261
one, and the afifair is very different.
For myself,
I
feel—though
the tax on my time
is heavy
that no hours of my day are better employed than
those
which
thus
bring me
again
within
the
direct contact and atmosphere of the average of
our
whole
people.
Men
moving
only
in
an
official circle are apt to become merely
official
not to say arbitrary—in their ideas, and are apter
and apter, with each passing day, to forget that
they only hold power in a representative capacity.
Now
this
is
all wrong.
I go into these promis-
cuous receptions of all who claim to have business
with me twice
each week, and
every
applicant
for audience has to take his turn, as
if waiting
to be shaved
in a barber's
shop.
Many of the
matters brought to my notice are
utterly
frivo-
lous, but others are of more or
less importance,
and
all serve to renew in me a clearer and more
vivid
image
of
that
great
popular
assemblage
out of which
I sprung, and to which at the end
of two years
I must return.
I
tell you, IMajor,'
he
said,—appearing
at
this
point
to
recollect
I was in the room, for the former part of these
remarks had been made with half-shut eyes,
as
if
in
soliloquy,—
'I
tell you that
I
call these
re-
ceptions my
"piihlic-opinion baths' ;
for
I
have
but
little
time
to
read
the
papers
and
gather
public opinion
that way; and though they may
not be pleasant in all their particulars, the effect,
as
a
whole,
is
renovating and
invigorating
to
my perceptions
of
responsibility and
duty.' "
Lincoln's Magnanimity.
When the
reports,
in an authentic form,
first
reached
Washington
of
the
sufferings
of
the
262
.
ANECDOTES
Union prisoners,
I know he was greatly excited
and overcome by them.
He was told that justice
demanded
a
stern
retaliation.
He
said
to
his
friend
Mr.
Odell,
with
the
deepest
emotion
:
"I
can
never,
'never
stance
men
like
that!
Whatever
others may
say
or
do,
I
never
can,
and I never will, be accessory
to such treatment
of human beings!''
And although he spoke with
the deepest feeling at the Baltimore Fair of the
Fort
Pillow
massacre,
and
pledged
retaliation,
yet that pledge was never carried into execution.
It was simply impossible
for Mr. Lincoln to be
cruel or vindictive, no matter what the occasion.
In the serene light of history, when party
strife
and
bitterness
shall
have
passed
away,
it
will
be
seen
that,
if he erred
at
all,
it was always
on the side of mercy and magnanimity.
A Short Statute.
Speaking on a certain occasion, of a prominent
man who had the year before been violent in his
manifestations of hostility to the Administration,
but was then ostensibly favoring the same policy
previously denounced, Mr. Lincoln expressed his
entire readiness to treat the past as
if
it had not
been, saying, "I choose always to make my 'stat-
ute of limitations' a short one."
Lincoln's Treatment of Insolence.
A
great
deal
has
been
said
of
the uniform
meekness
and
kindness
of
heart
of
Mr.
Lin-
coln,
but
there
would
sometimes
be
afforded
evidence that one grain of sand too much would
break even this camel's back.
Among the callers
INSOLENT VISITORS
263
at
the
White
House
one
day, was
an
officer
who had been cashiered from the
service.
He
had prepared an
elaborate
defence
of
himself,
which he consumed much time
in reading to the
President.
When he had
finished, Mr.
Lincoln
replied,
that
even upon
his own
statement
of
the
case, the
facts would not warrant executive
interference.
Disappointed,
and
considerably
crestfallen,
the man
withdrew.
A
few
days
afterward
he made
a
second
attempt
to
alter
the
President's
convictions, going over substan-
tially the same ground, and occupying about the
same
space of
time, but without
accomplishing
his end.
The third time he succeeded in forcing
himself
into Mr.
Lincoln's
presence, who with
great
forbearance
listened
to another
repetition
of the case to
its conclusion, but made no reply.
Waiting for a moment, the man gathered from
the expression of his countenance that his mind
was
unconvinced.
Turning
very
abruptly,
he
said
:
**Well, Mr. President,
I see you are
fully
determined
not
to
do me
justice !"
This was
too
aggravating, even
for Mr.
Lincoln.
Mani-
festing, however, no more
feeling than that
in-
dicated by a
slight compression
of
the
lips, he
very quietly arose, laid down a package of papers
he held in his hand, and then suddenly seizing the
cashiered
officer by the
coat-collar, he marched
him
forcibly
to the
door,
saying,
as he
ejected
him into the passage
:
"Sir, I give you fair warn-
ing never to show yourself
in
this room
again.
I can bear censure, but not insult !"
In a whining
tone
the man begged
for
his
papers, which he
had dropped.
"Begone,
sir," said the President,
"your papers will be sent to you.
I never wish
to see your face again
!"
264
ANECDOTES
"N. C
J.,"
in
a
letter
to
the New
York
Times,
gives
the
following
incident
of
a
re-
buke
Lincoln
gave
a woman
for
her
lack
of
humanity
:
''Among the various applicants, a well-dressed
lady came forward, without apparent embarrass-
ment
in
her
air
or manner, and addressed
the
President.
Giving her a very close and scrutiniz-
ing look, he
said, 'Well, madam, what can
I do
for you?'
She proceeded
to
tell him
that
she
lived
in Alexandria
; that the church where she
worshiped had been taken for a hospital.
'What
church, madam?' Mr. Lincoln asked, in a quick,
nervous
manner.
'The
church,'
she
re-
plied
;
'and
as
there
are
only
two
or
three
wounded
soldiers
in
it,
I came
to
see
if you
would
not
let
us have
it,
as we want
it
very
much
to worship God
in.'
'Madam, have you
been
to
see
the
post
surgeon
at
Alexandria
about
this matter?'
'Yes,
sir; but we could do
nothing
with
him.'
'Well, we
put
him
there
to attend to just such business, and
it
is reason-
able to suppose that he knows better what should
be done under the circumstances than
I do.
See
here
:
you say you live in Alexandria
; probably
you own property
there.
How much
will you
give to assist in building a hospital?'
" 'You
know,
Mr.
Lincoln,
our
property
is
very much embarrassed by the war;—so,
really,
I
could
hardly afford to give much
for such a
purpose.'
" 'Well, madam, I expect we shall have another
fight soon
; and my candid opinion
is, God wants
that church
for poor wounded Union
soldiers,
as much as he does for secesh people to worship
in.'
Turning to his table, he said, quite abruptly,
INSOLENT VISITORS
265
'You will excuse me
;
I can do nothing for you.
Good-day, madam.'
*'On Thursday of a certain week, two
ladies,
from Tennessee, came before the President, ask-
ing the release of their husbands, held as prison-
ers of war at Johnson's
Island.
They were put
off
until
Friday,
when
they
came
again,
and
were again put off until
Saturday.
At each of
the interviews one of the
ladies urged that her
husband was
a
religious
man.
On
Saturday,
when
the
President ordered
the
release
of
the
prisoner,
he
said
to
this
lady,—'You
say your
husband
is a religious man
;
tell him, when you
meet him, that
I say
I am not much of a judge
of
religion, but that
in my opinion the
religion
which
sets men
to
rebel and
fight
against
their
government, because, as they think, that govern-
ment does not
sufficiently help some men to eat
their bread in the sweat of other men's
faces,
is
not the
sort of
religion upon which people can
get to heaven.' "
"The Delegation from the Almighty."
On another occasion, an antislavery delegation,
also from New York, were pressing the adoption
of
the
emancipation
policy.
During
the
inter-
view
the
''chairman,"
the
Rev.
Dr.
C
,
made
a
characteristic
and
powerful
appeal,
largely made
up
of
quotations
from
the
Old
Testament Scriptures.
Mr. Lincoln received the
"bombardment"
in
silence.
As the speaker con-
cluded, he continued
for
a moment
in thought,
and
then,
drawing
a
long
breath,
responded
:
*'Well, gentlemen,
it
is not often one
is favored
with a delegation direct from the Almighty
!"
266
ANECDOTES
On a Time-serving Clergyman.
Some one was
discussing,
in the presence of
Mr.
Lincoln,
the
character
of
a
time-serving
Washington clergyman.
Said Mr. Lincoln to his
visitor
:
"I think you are rather hard upon Mr.
.
He reminds me of a man
in
Illinois, who was
tried
for passing
a
counterfeit
bill.
It was
in
evidence
that
before
passing
it
he
had
taken
it to the cashier of a bank and asked his opinion
of the
bill, and he received a very prompt reply
that
it was a counterfeit.
His lawyer, who had
heard of the evidence to be brought against his
client, asked him,
just before going
into court,
'Did you take the bill to the cashier of the bank
and ask him
if
it was good?'
'I
did,' was the
reply.
'Well, what was the reply of the cashier ?'
The
rascal was
in
a
corner, but he got out of
it
in this fashion:
'He said
it was a pretty tol-
erable, respectable sort of a
bill.' "
Mr.
Lincoln
thought
the
clergyman was
"a
pretty tolerable, respectable sort of a clergyman.''
Lincoln's Paternal Love.
The Hon. W.
D.
Kelley,
of
Philadelphia,
in
an address delivered
in that city soon after the
assassination,
said
:
"His
intercourse
with
his
family was as beautiful as that with his friends.
I
think
that
father
never
loved
his
children
more
fondly
than
he.
The
President
never
seemed grander
in my
sight than when,
stealing
upon him in the evening,
I would find him with
a book open
before
him,
as
he
is
represented
in the popular photograph, with
little Tad beside
DEATH OF WILLIE LINCOLN
267
him.
There were of course a great many curious
books
sent
to
him,
and
it
seemed
to
be
one
of the
special deHghts of
his Hfe to open those
books at such an hour, that his boy could stand
beside
him, and
they
could
talk
as
he
turned
over
the
pages,
the
father
thus
giving
to
the
son a portion of that care and attention of which
he was ordinarily deprived by the duties of office
pressing upon him."
No
matter who was
with
the
President,
or
how intently he might be absorbed, little Tad was
always welcome.
At the time of which
I write
he was eleven years
old, and of course rapidly
passing from
childhood
into
youth.
Suffering
much
from
an
infirmity
of
speech
which
de-
veloped in his infancy, he seemed on this account
especially
dear
to
his
father.
''One
touch
of
nature makes the whole world kin," and
it was
an impressive and
affecting
sight
to me
to
see
the burdened
President
lost
for the time being
in the affectionate parent, as he would take the
little
fellow
in
his arms upon
the
withdrawal
of visitors, and caress him with
all the fondness
of a mother for the babe upon her bosom
!
The Death of Willie Lincoln.
In
the
spring
of
1862,
the
President
spent
several days
at Fortress
INIonroe, awaiting mil-
itary operations upon the Peninsula.
As a por-
tion
of
the
Cabinet were
with
him,
that was
temporarily the seat of government, and he bore
with him
constantly
the
burden
of
public
af-
fairs.
His favorite diversion was reading Shak-
speare.
One
day
(it
chanced
to
be
the
day
before the capture of Norfolk) as he sat reading
268
ANECDOTES
alone,
he
called
to
his
aide*
in
the
adjoining
room,—"You
have
been
writing
long
enough,
Colonel; come
in
here;
I want
to
read you
a
passage
in
'Hamlet.' "
He
read
the
discussion
on ambition between Hamlet and
his
courtiers,
and
the
soliloquy
in
which
conscience
debates
of a
future
state.
This
v/as
followed by
pas-
sages from ''Macbeth."
Then opening to "King
John," he read from
the
third
act the passage
in
which
Constance
bewails
her
imprisoned,
lost boy.
Closing the book, and recalling the words,
"And,
father
cardinal,
I
have
heard
you
say-
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven
:
If that be
true,
I
shall
see my boy
again,"
Mr. Lincoln said
: "Colonel, did you ever dream
of a lost
friend, and
feel that you were holding
sweet communion with that friend, and yet have
a sad consciousness that
it was not a reality?
just so
I dream of my boy Willie."
Overcome
with emotion, he dropped his head on the table,
and sobbed aloud.
William Wallace Lincoln,
I never knew.
He
died
Thursday, February
20,
1862,
nearly two
years before my
intercourse with the
President
commenced.
He
had
just
entered
upon
his
twelfth
year, and has been
described
to me
as
of an unusually serious and thoughtful
disposi-
tion.
His death was the most crushing affliction
Mr. Lincoln had ever been called upon to pass
through.
After
the
funeral,
the
President resumed
his
official
duties, but mechanically, and with a ter-
* Colonel Le Grand B. Cannon, of General Wool's staff.
DEATH OF WILLIE LINCOLN
269
rible weight at his heart.
The following Thurs-
day he gave way to his feelings, and shut himself
from
all
society.
The second Thursday
it was
the same; he would
see no
one, and seemed a
prey to the deepest melancholy.
About this time
the
Rev
Francis
Vinton,
of
Trinity
Church,
iNew York, had occasion to spend a few days in
V^-ashmgton.
An acquaintance of Mrs. Lincoln
and of her sister, Mrs. Edwards, of Springfield,
he was requested by them
to come up and
see
the
President.
The
setting
apart
of Thursday
for the mdulgence of his grief had gone on for
several
weeks,
and
Mrs.
Lincoln
began
to
be
seriously alarmed for the health of her husband
of which
fact
Dr.
A^inton was
apprised.
.Air
Lincoln received him
in the parlor, and an op-
portunity was soon embraced by the clergyman
to chide him
for showing so rebellious a dispo-
sition
to
the
decrees
of
Providence.
He
told
him plainly that the indulgence of such
feelings
though
natural, was
sinful.
It was unworthy
one who believed
in the
Christian
religion.
He
had
duties
to
the
living,
greater than those
of
any other man, as the chosen
father, and leader
of the people, and he was unfitting himself
for
his
responsibilities
by
thus
giving way
to
his
grief.
To mourn the departed as
lost belonged
to heathenism—not to Christianity.
''Your son "
said Dr. Vinton,
''is alive
in Paradise.
Do vou
remember
that
passage
in
the
Gospels:
'God
IS not the God of the dead but of the livino-
for
all live unto him'?"
The President had listened
as one in a stupor, until his ear caught the words,
Your
son
is
alive."
Starting
from
the
sofa,
he exclaimed,
"Alive!
alive!
Surely you mock
me."
"No,
sir, believe me," replied Dr. Vinton;
270
ANECDOTES
"it
is a most comforting doctrine of the church,
founded
upon
the
words
of
Christ
himself."
Mr. Lincohi looked
at him a moment, and then,
stepping- forward, he threw
his arm around the
clergyman's
neck,
and,
laying
his
head
upon
his
breast,
sobbed
aloud.
''Alive?
aliveT'
he
repeated.
"My dear sir," said Dr. Vinton, greatly
moved,
as he twined
his own arm around
the
weeping
father,
"believe
this,
for
it
is
God's
most precious truth.
Seek not your son among
the
dead
;
he
is
not
there
;
he
lives
to-day
in
Paradise
!
Think of the full import of the words
I have quoted.
The Sadducees, when they ques-
tioned Jesus, had no other conception than that
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead and buried.
Mark the reply
: 'Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses showed at the bush when he called
the
Lord
the
God
of
Abraham,
the
God
of
Isaac,
and
the God
of
Jacob.
For
he
is
not
the God of the
dead, but of the
living, for
all
.live
unto
him!'
Did
not
the
aged
patriarch
mourn
his
sons
as dead?—'Joseph
is
not, and
Simeon
is
not, and ye
will take Benjamin
also.'
But Joseph and Simeon were both living, though
he believed
it
not.
Indeed, Joseph being taken
from him, was the eventual means of the pres-
ervation of the whole
family.
And so God has
called your son into his upper kingdom—a king-
dom and an
existence
as
real, more
real, than
your own.
It may be that he too,
like Joseph,
has
gone,
in God's good
providence,
to be the
salvation of
his father's household.
It
is a part
of
the
Lord's
plan
for
the
ultimate
happiness
of you and yours.
Doubt
it not.
I have a ser-
mon," continued Dr. Vinton, "upon this subject,
which
I
think
might
interest
you."
Mr.
Lin-
LINCOLN THE CHRISTIAN
271
coin begged him
to
send
it
at an
early day
thanking him
repeatedly
for
his
cheering
and
hopeful words.
The sermon was sent, and read
over and over by
the
President, who caused a
copy to be made
for his own private use before
it was returned.
Through a member of the fam-
ily,
I
have
been
informed
that
Mr.
Lincoln's
views
in
relation
to
spiritual
things
seemed
changed
from
that
hour.
Certain
it
is,
that
thenceforth he ceased the observance of the day
of the week upon which his son died, and grad-
ually resumed his accustomed cheerfulness.
Lincoln the Christian.
The Rev. Mr. Willets, of Brooklyn, gave me an
account of a conversation with
]\Ir.
Lincoln, on
the part of a lady of his acquaintance, connected
with
the
"Christian
Commission," who
in
the
prosecution of her duties had several interviews
with
him.
The
President,
it seemed, had been
much impressed with the devotion and earnest-
ness of purpose manifested by the
lady, and on
one occasion, after she had discharged the object
of
her
visit, he
said
to
her:
"Mrs.
,
I
have
formed
a high
opinion
of your
Christian
character, and now,
as we are
alone,
I have
a
mind to ask you to give me,
in brief, your idea
of what constitutes a true religious experience."
The
lady
replied
at some
length,
stating
that,
in
her
judgment,
it
consisted
of
a
conviction
of one's own sinfulness and weakness, and per-
sonal
need
of
the
Saviour
for
strength
and
support
: that views of mere doctrine might and
would
differ, but when one was
really brought
to
feel his need of Divine help, and to seek the
272
ANECDOTES
aid
of
the Holy
Spirit
for
strength and
guid-
ance,
it was
satisfactory evidence of
his having
been
born
again.
This was
the
substance
of
her reply.
When she had concluded, Mr. Lincoln
was
very
thouglitful
for
a
few moments.
He
at length said, very earnestly, *Tf what you have
told me
is
really
a
correct
view- of
this
great
subject,
I think
I can say with
sincerity, that
I
hope
1 am
a
Christian.
I had
lived," he con-
tinued, "until my boy Willie died, without realiz-
ing
fully these things.
That blow overwhelmed
me.
It showed me my weakness as
I had never
felt
it before, and
if
I can take what you have
stated as a
test,
I think
I can
safely say that
I
know
something
of
that
change
of which you
speak
; and
I
will
further add, that
it has been
my intention for some time, at a suitable oppor-
tunity, to make a public religious profession."
Mr. Noah
Brooks,
in some
"reminiscences,"
gives the following upon this subject
:
"Just
after
the
last
Presidential
election
he
said, 'Being only mortal, after
all,
I should have
been
a
little
mortified
if
I had been beaten
in
this
canvass
;
but
that
sting would
have
been
more than compensated by the thought that the
people had
notified me
that
all my
official
re-
sponsibilities were soon to be lifted ofT my back.'
In reply to the remark that he might remember
that
in
all these cares he was daily remembered
by those who prayed,
not
to be heard of men,
as
no man had
ever before
been remembered,
he caught
at the homely phrase, and
said, 'Yes,
I like that phrase, "not to be heard of men," and
I guess
it
is generally true, as you say
; at
least,
I
have
been
told
so, and
I
have been
a good
deal helped by just that thought.'
Then he
sol-
ON THE LORD'S SIDE
273
emnly and slowly added
:
'I should be the most
presumptuous blockhead upon
this
footstool,
if
I for one day thought that
I could discharge the
duties which have come upon me
since
I came
into this place, without the aid and enlightenment
of
One who
is
stronger
and
wiser
than
all
others.'
^^
"On an
occasion
I
shall
never
forget,
says
the Hon.
H.
C.
Deming,
of
Connecticut,
"the
conversation turned upon religious subjects, and
Mr.
Lincoln made
this
impressive
remark:
'I
have never united myself to any church, because
I
have
found
difficulty
in
giving my
assent,
without mental
reservation,
to the long, compli-
cated
statements
of
Christian
doctrine
which
characterize
their
Articles
of
Belief and
Con-
fessions
of
Faith.
When any
church
will
in-
scribe over
its
altar, as
its
sole qualification for
membership,'
he
continued,
'the
Saviour's
con-
densed statement of the substance of both Law
and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with
all
thy
heart, and with
all
thy
soul, and
with
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,"
that church will
I join with
all my heart and
all
my soul.'
On the Lord's
Side.
No nobler reply ever fell from the lips of ruler,
than
that
uttered
by
President
Lincoln
in
re-
sponse
to
the clergyman who ventured
to
say,
in his presence, that he Jwped "the Lord was on
our side."
^,
'^I am not at all concerned about that,
replied
Mr.
Lincoln,
"for
I
know
that
the
Lord
is
ahvaxs on the
side
of
the
right.
But
it
is my
274
ANECDOTES
constant anxiety and prayer that / and this nation
should be on the Lord's side."
The President and the "Powder Monkey."
"President
Lincoln,"
says
the
Hon. W.
D.
Kelley,* "was a large and many-sided man, and
yet so simple that no one, not even a child, could
approach him without feeling that he had found
in him a sympathizing friend.
I remember that
I
apprised him
of
the
fact
that a
lad,
the son
of one of my townsmen, had served a year on
board the gunboat Ottazva, and had been in two
important engagements
; in the first as a powder-
monkey, when
he had conducted
himself
with
such
coolness
that he had been chosen
as cap-
tain's messenger in the second; and
I suggested
to the President that
it was in his power to send
to the Naval
School,
annually, three boys who
had served at least a year in the navy.
"He
at
once wrote on
the
back
of
a
letter
from
the commander
of
the
'Ottazva, which
I
had handed him, to the Secretary of the Navy
:
'If the appointments for this year have not been
made,
let this boy be appointed.'
The appoint-
ment had not been made, and
I brought
it home
with me.
It
directed the
lad
to report
for ex-
amination at the school in July.
Just as he was
ready to
start,
his
father, looking over the law,
discovered that he could not report until he was
fourteen years of
age, which he would not be
until
September
following.
The
poor
child
sat down and wept.
He feared that he was not
to go to the Naval
School.
He was, however,
soon consoled by being told
that
'the President
* Address in Philadelphia upon the death of Mr. Lincoln.
LINCOLN AND NEGROES
275
could make
it right.'
It was my fortune to meet
him the next morning at the door of the Execu-
tive Chamber with
his
father.
"Taking by the hand the
httle
fellow,—short
for
his
age,
dressed
in
the
sailor's
blue
pants
and shirt,—I advanced with him to the President,
who sat in his usual seat, and said
:
'Mr. Presi-
dent, my young
friend,
Willie
Bladen,
finds
a
dfficulty
about
his
appointment.
You have
di-
rected him to appear
at the school
in July; but
he
is not yet fourteen years of age.'
But before
I got half of this out, Mr. Lincoln, laying down
his spectacles, rose and said
:
'Bless me
!
is that
the boy who did so gallantly
in those two great
battles ?
Why,
I
feel that
I should bow to him,
and not he to me.'
"The
little fellow had made his graceful bow.
The
President took the papers
at
once, and
as
soon as he learned that a postponement
till Sep-
tember would
suffice, made
the
order
that
the
lad should report
in that month.
Then putting
his hand on
Willie's head, he
said
:
'Now, my
boy, go home and have good fun during the two
months,
for they are about the last holidays you
will
get.'
The
little
fellow bowed himself
out,
feeling that the President of the United
States,
though a very great man, was one that he would
nevertheless like to have a game of romps with."
Lincoln and the Negroes.
"On New Year's
day,
1865," wrote a corre-
spondent of the New York Independent, "a mem-
orable incident occurred, of which the
like was
never before
seen
at the White House.
I had
noticed at sundry times during the summer, the
276
ANECDOTES
wild
fervor and
strange enthusiasm which our
colored
friends always manifest over the name
of Abraham Lincoln.
His name with them seems
to be
associated with that of
his namesake, the
Father
of
the
Faithful.
In
the
great crowds
which gather from time to time
in front of the
White House,
in honor of the
President, none
shout
so
loudly
or
so
wildly,
and swing
their
hats with
such
utter abandon, while
their eyes
are beaming with the
intensest
joy,
as do these
simple-minded and grateful people.
I have often
laughed
heartily
at
these
exhibitions.
But
the
scene yesterday excited
far other emotions.
As
I
entered the door of the
President's House,
I
noticed groups of colored people gathered here
and there, who seemed to be watching earnestly
the inpouring throng.
For nearl}^ two hours they
hung around,
until
the crowd of white
visitors
began
sensibly
to
diminish.
Then
they
sum-
moned up courage, and began timidly to approach
the door.
Some of them were richly and gayly
dressed
; some
were
in
tattered
garments,
and
others
in
the most
fanciful and grotesque
cos-
tume.
All pressed eagerly forward.
When they
came into the presence of the President, doubt-
ing
as
to
their
reception,
the
feelings
of
the
poor
creatures
overcame
them,
and
here
the
scene baffles my powers of description.
"For two
long hours
Mr.
Lincoln had been
shaking the hands
of
the
'sovereigns,' and had
become excessively weary, and his grasp languid
;
but here his nerves rallied at the unwonted sight,
and he welcomed this motley crowd with a hearti-
ness
that made them wild with
exceeding
joy.
They laughed and wept, and wept and laughed
exclaiming, through
their
blinding
tears
:
'God
LINCOLN AND NEGROES
277
bless you
!'
*God bless Abraham Lincoln !'
'God
bress
Massa Linkum !'
Those who
witnessed
this
scene
will not soon
forget
it.
For
a long
distance
down
the
Avenue,
on
my
way
home,
I
heard
fast
young
men
cursing
the
President
for
this
act
; but
all
the way
the
re-
frain
rang
in my
ears,—'God
bless Abraham
Lincoln
!' "
Miss
Betsey
Canedy,
of
Fall
River,
Massa-
chusetts,
while
engaged
in
teaching
a
school
among the colored people of Norfolk, Virginia,
had
in
her
schoolroom
a
plaster
bust
of
the
President.
One
day
she
called
some
colored
carpenters who were
at work on
the
building,
and showed
it
to them, writing down
their
re-
marks, some of which were as follows
:
''He's brought us safe through the Red Sea."
*'He
looks
as deep
as the
sea himself."
"He's
king of
the United
States."
"He ought
to be
king of all the world."
"We must all pray to the
Lord
to
carry him
safe
through,
for
it
'pears
like he's got everything hitched to him."
"There
has been a
right smart praying for him, and
it
mustn't stop now."
A southern correspondent
of
the New York
Tribune,
in
Charleston,
South
Carolina,
the
week following the assassination, wrote
:
"I
never saw
such
sad
faces,
or heard such
heavy heart
beatings,
as here
in Charleston the
day the dreadful news came
!
The colored people
—the
native
loyalists—were
like
children
be-
reaved of an only and loved parent.
I saw one
old woman
going up
the
street
wringing
her
hands and saying
aloud,
as
she walked looking
straight before her, so absorbed in her grief that
she noticed no one,
278
ANECDOTES
" 'O Lord
! O Lord
! O Lord
!
Massa Sam's
dead!
Massa
Sam's
dead!
O Lord!
Massa
Sam's dead!'
" 'Who's dead, Aunty ?'
I asked her.
" 'Massa Sam !' she said, not looking at me,
renewing her lamentations
:
'O Lord
! O Lord
!
Lord!
Massa Sam's dead!'
" 'Who's Massa Sam?'
I asked.
" 'Uncle Sam !' she said.
'O Lord
!
Lord
!'
"I was not quite sure that she meant the Pres-
ident, and
I spoke again
:
" 'Who's Massa Sam, Aunty?'
" 'Mr. Linkum
!' she said, and resumed wring-
ing her hands and moaning in utter hopelessness
of sorrow.
The poor creature was too ignorant
to comprehend any
difference between the very
unreal Uncle Sam and the actual President; but
her
heart
told
her
that
he whom Heaven had
sent
in
answer
to
her
prayers was
lying
in
a
bloody grave, and she and her race were
left
fatherless."
In 1863, Colonel McKaye, of New York, with
Robert Dale Owen and one or two other gentle-
men, were associated as a committee to
investi-
gate the condition of the freedmen on the coast
of North Carolina.
Upon their return from Hil-
ton Head they
reported
to
the
President; and
in the course of the interview Colonel McKaye
related the
following
incident.
He had been speaking of the ideas of power
entertained by these people.
He
said they had
an idea of God,
as the Almighty, and they had
realized
in
their
former
condition
the
power
of their masters.
Up to the time of the arrival
among them of the Union
forces, they had no
knowledge of any other power.
Their masters
LINCOLN AND NEGROES
279
fled upon the approach of our soldiers, and this
gave the slaves a conception of a power greater
than
that exercised by them.
This power they
called "Massa Linkum."
Colonel McKaye said that their place of wor-
ship was a large building which they called
''the
praise
house"
;
and
the
leader
of
the
meeting,
a venerable black man, was known as *'the praise
man."
On a certain day, when there was quite
a
large
gathering
of
the
people,
considerable
confusion was
created by
different persons
at-
tempting to
tell who and what ''Massa Linkum"
was.
In the midst of the excitement the white-
headed
leader commanded
silence.
"Brederin,"
said
he,
''you
don't know
nosen'
what
you'se
talkin' 'bout.
Now, you just listen to me.
Massa
Linkum,
he
eberywhar.
He know
eberyting."
Then, solemnly looking up, he added,
"He walk
de carf like de Lord!"
Colonel McKaye
told me
that
Mr.
Lincoln
seemed much
affected by
this account.
He did
not smile,
as another man might have done, but
he got up from his
chair, and walked in silence
two or three times across the
floor.
As he
re-
sumed
his
seat, he
said, very
impressively:
"It
is a momentous thing to be the instrument, under
Providence, of the liberation of a race."
"Upon entering the President's office one after-
noon,"
says
a
Washington
correspondent,
"I
found Mr.
Lincoln
busily counting greenbacks.
'This,
sir,'
said
he,
'is
something
out
of my
usual
line
; but a President of the United States
has
a
multiplicity of
duties not
specified
in the
Constitution
or
acts of Congress.
This
is one
of them.
This money belongs
to a poor negro
who
is
a
porter
in
the
Treasury
Department,
28o
ANECDOTES
at present very bad with the
smallpox.
He
is
now
in
hospital
and
could
not
draw
his
pay
because he could not sign his name.
I have been
at considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty
and get
it for him, and have at length succeeded
in cutting red tape,
as you newspaper men
say.
I am now dividing the money and putting by a
portion
labelled,
in an
envelope,
with my own
hands, according to his wish'
; and he proceeded
to indorse the package very carefully."
No one
witnessing the transaction could fail to appreciate
the goodness of heart which prompted the Pres-
ident of the United
States
to turn
aside
for
a
time from his weighty cares to succor one of the
humblest of his
fellow-creatures
in sickness and
sorrow.
Mr.
Lincoln's
cordial
reception
of
Frederick
Douglass,
the
distinguished
anti-slavery
orator,
also
once
a
slave,
was
widely
made
known
through
that gentleman's own account of
it
in
one of his public lectures.
In August or September,
1864, Mr. Douglass
again visited Washington.
The President heard
of
his being
in the
city, and
greatly desiring a
second
conversation upon
points
on
which
he
considered the opinion and advice of a man of
Mr. Douglass's antecedents valuable, he sent his
carriage
to
the
boarding-house where
he was
staying, with a request that Mr. D. would "come
up and take a cup of tea" with him.
The
invi-
tation was accepted
; and probably never before,
in our
history, was
the
executive
carriage em-
ployed
to
convey
such
a
guest
to
the
White
House.
Mr.
Douglass
subsequently
remarked
that *'Mr. Lincoln was one of the few white men
he ever passed an hour with, who
failed to
re-
TEMPERANCE PRINCIPLES
281
mind him in some way, before the interview ter-
minated, that he was a negro.' "
The Two Ruling Ideas of Lincoln's Life.
Schuyler
Colfax
once
said
to me
that "Mr.
Lincoln had two ruling ideas, or principles, which
governed
his
life.
The
first was hatred of slav-
ery, which he inherited in part
fromi his parents
;
the other was sympathy with the lowly born and
humble, and the desire to
lift them up."
I know
of no better epitaph for his tombstone than this,
save that suggested by Theodore Tilton, the edi-
tor of the New York Independent,—'*He bound
the nation^ and unbound the slave."
Lincoln's Temperance Principles.
After this ceremony [the formal notification of
his nomination for
the Presidency]
had passed,
Mr.
Lincoln remarked
to
the company,
that
as
an appropriate conclusion to an interview so im-
portant and
interesting
as
that which had
just
transpired, he supposed good manners would re-
quire
that
he
should
treat
the
committee
with
something
to
drink;
and
opening
a
door
that
led into a room in the rear, he called out ''Mary
!
Mary!"
A girl responded to the
call, to whom
Mr.
Lincoln
spoke
a
few
words
in
an
under-
tone,
and,
closing
the
door,
returned
again
to
converse with his guests.
In a few minutes the
maiden entered, bearing a large waiter, contain-
ing
several
glass tumblers, and
a
large
pitcher
in tne midst, and placed
it upon the centre-table.
Mr.
Lincoln
arose, and gravely addressing
the
company, said
: ''Gentlemen, we must pledge our
282
ANECDOTES
mutual
healths
in
the most
healthy
beverage
which God has given to man—it
is the only bev-
erage
I have ever used or allowed in my family,
and
I cannot
conscientiously depart from
it on
the present occasion—it
is pure Adam's ale from
the
spring'
; and, taking a tumbler, he touched
it
to
his
lips, and pledged them
his highest
re-
spects in a cup of cold water.
Of course,
all his
guests
were
constrained
to
admire
his
consis-
tency, and
to join
in
his example.
No Vices, Few Virtues.
A gentleman once complimented the President
on having no
vices, neither drinking nor smok-
ing.
"That
is a doubtful compliment," answered
the President
; "I
recollect once being outside a
stage-coach,
in
Illinois, and a man sitting by me
offered me a cigar.
I told him
I had no vices.
Pie said nothing, but smoked for some time, and
then growled out
:
'It's my experience that folks
who have no vices have generally very few vir-
tues.' "
Lincoln's Democratic Habits.
Some
of
Mr.
Lincoln's
immediate
neighbors
were
taken
as
completely
by
surprise
[at
his
nomination for the Presidency]
as those
in dis-
tant
States.
An old resident of Springfield told
me
that
there
lived
within
a
block
or two
of
his house,
in
that
city, an Englishman, who of
course
still
cherished
to some
extent
the
ideas
and prejudices of
his native
la-.d.
Upon hear-
ing of the choice
at Chicago he could not con-
tain
his
astonishment.
PERSONAL APPEARANCE
283
"What !" said he, ''Abe Lincoln nominated for
President of the United States ?
Can
it be possi-
ble
!
A man that buys a ten-cent beefsteak for
his breakfast, and carries
it home himself."
Presidential Perquisites.
Mr. G. B. Lincoln also told me of an amusing-
circumstance which took place at Springfield soon
after Mr. Lincoln's nomination in i860,
A hat-
ter in Brooklyn secretly obtained the size of the
future
President's
head,
and made
for him
a
very
elegant
hat, which he
sent by
his towns-
man
Lincoln
to
Springfield.
About
the
time
it was
presented,
various
other
testimonials
of
a
similar character had come
in from
different
sections.
Mr.
Lincoln
took
the
hat, and
after
admiring
its
texture
and
workmanship,
put
it
on
his head and walked up
to
a
looking-glass.
Glancing
from
the
reflection
to
Mrs.
Lincoln,
he
said,
with
his
peculiar
twinkle
of
the
eye,
"Well,
wife,
there
is
one
thing
likely
to come
out
of
this
scrape, anyhow.
We
are going to
have some nezu clothes!"
Lincoln's Personal Appearance.
Mr.
Lincoln's
height was
six
feet
three and
three-quarter inches
"in
his
stocking-feet."
He
stood up, one day, at the right of my large can-
vas,
while
I marked
his exact height upon
it.
His frame was gaunt but sinewy, and inclined
to stoop when he walked.
His head was of
full
medium
size,
with
a
broad
brow,
surmounted
by
rough,
unmanageable
hair,
which,
he
once
said, had "a way of getting up as far as possible
284
ANECDOTES
in the world."
Lines of care ploughed his face,
—the hollows
in
his cheeks and under his eyes
being very marked.
The mouth was his plainest
feature, varying widely from classical models,
nevertheless
expressive
of much
firmness
and
gentleness
of character.
His
complexion
was
inclined
to
sallowness,
though
I judged
this
to be
the
result,
in
part,
of
his
anxious
life
in
Washington.
His
eyes
were bluish-gray in color,—always in deep shad-
ow, however, from
the upper
lids, which were
unusually heavy
(reminding me,
in
this respect,
of
Stuart's
portrait
of Washington),—and
the
expression was remarkably pensive and
tender,
often
inexpressibly
sad,
as
if
the
reservoir
of
tears
lay very near the surface,—a
fact proved
not only by the response which accounts of suf-
fering and sorrow invariably drew forth, but by
circumstances which would ordinarily affect few
men
in
his
position.
Mr.
Lincoln was
always
ready
to
join
in
a
laugh
at
the expense of
his person, concerning
which
he
was
very
indifferent.
Many
of
his
friends
will
recognize the
following
story,—the
incident
having
actually
occurred,—which
he
used to
tell with
great glee
:
''In the days when
I used
to be
'on the
cir-
cuit,'
I was once accosted in the cars by a stran-
ger, who
said,
'Excuse me,
sir,
but
I have an
article
in my possession which belongs
to
you.*
'How
is that?'
I asked, considerably astonished.
The stranger took a jack-knife 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 my-
self.
I have
carried
it from
that time
to
this.
LINCOLN'S FIRST DOLLAR
285
Allow me nozv to say,
sir, that
I think you are
fairly
entitled to the property.' "
Once when a Philadelphia delegation was be-
ing presented, the chairman of that body, m m-
troducing one of the members, said
: "Mr. Presi-
dent,
this
is Uv. S
, of the Second District
of our State,—a most active and earnest friend
of yours and the
cause.
He
has, among other
things, been good enough
to
paint, and present
to our League rooms, a most beautiful
portrait
of yourself."
Mr. Lincoln took the gentleman s
hand
in
his, and shaking
it
cordially,
said with
a merry voice,—"I presume,
sir, in painting your
beautiful portrait, you took your idea of me from
my principles, and not from my person."
Lincoln's First Dollar.
In the Executive Chamber one evening, there
were
present
a
number
of
gentlemen, among
them Mr.
Seward.
A
point
in
the
conversation
suggesting
the
thought, the President said: "Seward, you never
heard, did you, how
I earned my
first
doLar.''
*'No " rejoined' Mr. Seward.
"Well," continued
Mr. Lincoln, "I was about eighteen years of age.
I belonged, you know,
to what they
call down
South, the 'scrubs'
; people who do not own slaves
are
nobody
there.
But we
had
succeeded
in
raising,
chiefly by
m^y
labor,
sufficient produce,
as
I
thought,
to
justify me
in taking
it down
the
river to
sell.
-
"After much persuasion,
I got the consent ot
mother
to
go, and
constructed
a
little
flatboat,
large enough to take a barrel or two of things
that we had gathered, with myself and little bun-
286
ANECDOTES
die, down to New Orleans. A steamer was com-
ing down
the
river.
We
have, you know, no
wharves on the Western streams
; and the cus-
tom was,
if passengers were at any of the land-
ings,
for them to go out
in a boat, the steamer
stopping and taking them on board.
"I was
contemplating my new
flatboat,
and
wondering whether
I could make
it stronger or
improve
it in any particular, when two men came
down to the shore in carriages with trunks, and
looking
at the
different boats
singled out mine,
and asked, 'Who owns this?'
I answered, some-
what modestly,
'I
do.'
'Will
you,'
said one of
them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steam-
er ?'
'Certainly,' said
I.
I was very glad to have
the
chance
of
earning something.
I
supposed
that each
of them would give me two or three
bits.
The trunks were put on my
flatboat, the
passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and
I
sculled them
out
to
the
steamboat.
"They
got
on
board,
and
I
lifted
up
their
heavy trunks, and put them on deck. The steamer
was about to put on steam again, when
I called
out
that
they had
forgotten
to pay me.
Each
of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar,
and threw
it on the floor of my
boat.
I could
scarcely
believe my
eyes
as
I
picked
up
the
money.
Gentlemen, you may think
it was a very
little thing, and
in these days
it seems to me a
trifle
; but
it was
a most important
incident
in
my
life.
I could
scarcely
credit
that
I,
a poor
boy, had earned
a
dollar
in
less than a
day,
that by honest work I had earned a dollar.
The
world seemed
wider and
fairer
before
me.
I
was
a more
hopeful and
confident being from
that time."
LINCOLN'S FIRST FEE
287
Lincoln's
First Big
Fee.
Soon after Mr. Lincoln entered upon the prac-
tice of his profession at Springfield, he was en-
gaged in a criminal case in which
it was thought
there was
little chance of success.
Throwing
all
his powers
into
it, he came
oif
victorious, and
promptly received
for
his
services
five hundred
dollars.
A
legal
friend
calling upon him
the
next morning found him
sitting before
a
table,
upon which his money was spread out, counting
it over and over.
"Look here, Judge," said he
;
''see what
a heap
of money
I've got from the
case.
Did you ever
see anything
like
it?
Why,
I
never had
so much money
in my
life
before, put
it
all together !"
Then crossing his
arms upon the table, his manner sobering down,
he added, "I have got just five hundred dollars
:
if
it was only seven hundred and
fifty
I would
go
directly and
purchase
a
quarter
section
of
land, and
settle
it upon my
old
step-mother.'^
His
friend said that
if the deficiency was
all he
needed, he would loan him
the amount, taking
his note, to which Mr. Lincoln instantly acceded.
His
friend
then
said
:
"Lincoln,
I would not
do
just what you
have
indicated.
Your
step-
mother
is getting old, and will not probably live
many
years.
I would
settle the property upon
her for her use during her lifetime, to revert to
you upon
her
death."
With much
feeling, Mr.
Lincoln
replied
:
"I
shall do no such thing.
It
is a poor
return,
at
the best, for
all the good woman's devotion and
fidelity to me, and there
is not going to be any
half-way business about
it;" and
so
saying, he
gathered up his money, and proceeded forthwith
288
ANECDOTES
to carry his long-cherished purpose
into execu-
tion.
Hannibal's Treasury.
At a time of financial difficulty, a committee of
New York bankers
waited upon the
Secretary
of the Treasury and volunteered a
loan
to the
government, which was gratefully accepted.
Mr.
Chase
subsequently accompanied the gentlemen
to the White House and introduced them to the
President, saying they had called to have a talk
with him about money.
*' Money,"
replied Mr.
Lincoln; "I don't know anything about 'money'
I never had enough of my own to
fret me, and
I have no opinion about
it any way."
*Tt
is considered rather necessary to the carry-
ing on
of
a
war, however,"
returned
the
Sec-
retary.
''Well,
I don't know about that," rejoined Mr.
Lincoln, turning crosswise in his chair, swinging
both
legs backward and
forward.
"We
don't
read that 'Hannibal' had any 'money'
to prose-
cute
his wars with."
On Wall
Street.
The
bill
empowering
the
Secretary
of
the
Treasury
to
sell
the
surplus
gold had
recently
passed, and Mr. Chase was then
in New York,
giving his attention personally to the experiment.
Governor Curtin referred to this, saying, 'T see
by
the
quotations
that
Chase's movement
has
already knocked
gold down
several
per
cent."
This gave occasion for the strongest expression
I ever heard
fall from the
lips of Mr.
Lincoln.
Knotting his face in the intensity of his
feeling,
LOVE OF HUMOR
289
he
said,
''Curtin,
what
do you
think
of
those
fellows in Wall Street, who are gambling in gold
at
such
a time
as
this?"
"They
are
a
set
of
sharks," returned Curtin.
"For my part," con-
tinued the President, bringing his clinched hand
down upon the table, "I wish every one of them
had his devilish head shot off
!
"
Lincoln's Love of Humor.
In a corner of his desk he kept a copy of the
latest humorous work
; and
it was his habit when
greatly fatigued, annoyed, or depressed, to take
this up and read a chapter, frequently with great
relief.
Among the
callers
in the course of an even-
ing which
I
well remember, was
a party com-
posed
of two
senators,
a representative, an ex-
lieutenant-governor of a western
State, and sev-
eral private citizens.
They had business of great
importance, involving the necessity of the Presi-
dent's examination of voluminous documents. He
was
at
this
time, from an unusual pressure of
office-seekers, in addition to his other cares, liter-
ally worn
out.
Pushing
everything
aside,
he
said
to one
of
the
party: "Have you
seen the
'Nasby
Papers'?"
"No,
I
have
not," was
the
answer
; "who is 'Nasby' ?"
"There is a chap out
in Ohio," returned the President, "who has been
writing a series of letters in the newspapers over
the
signature
of
'Petroleum V.
Nasby.'
Some
one
sent me a pamphlet
collection
of them the
other day.
I am going to write to Tetroleurn'
to come down here, and
I intend to
tell him
if
he
will
communicate
his
talent
to
me,
I
will
'szvap'
places wath him."
Thereupon he
arose,,
290
ANECDOTES
went to a drawer in his desk, and, taking out the
''Letters,"
sat down and
read one
to
the com-
pany, finding
in
their enjoyment of
it the tem-
porary excitement and reUef which another man
would have found
in a glass of wine.
The
in-
stant he ceased, the book was thrown aside, his
countenance relapsed into its habitual serious ex-
pression, and
the
business
before him was
en-
tered upon with
the utmost
earnestness.
During the
dark days
of
'62,
the Hon.
Mr.
Ashley, of Ohio, had occasion to call at the White
House
early one morning,
just after news of a
disaster.
Mr. Lincoln commenced some
trifling
narration,
to which
the
impulsive congressman
was
in no mood to
listen.
He rose to his
feet
and said:
"Mr. President,
I did not come here
this morning
to
hear
stories
;
it
is
too
serious
a
time.''
Instantly
the
smile
faded from
Mr.
Lincoln's face.
''Ashley," said he, "sit down
!
I
respect you as an earnest, sincere man.
You can-
not be more anxious than
I have been constantly
since the beginning of the war
; and I say to you
now, that were
it not for this occasional vent,
I
should
die."
"A Yard Full of Bulls."
A
gentleman was
pressing
very
strenuously
the promotion of an officer to a "Brigadiership."
"But we have
already more
generals
than we
know what
to do
with,"
replied
the
President.
"But,"
persisted the
visitor, "my
friend
is very
strongly recommended."
"Now, look here," said
Mr.
Lincoln, throwing one leg over the arm of
his chair, "you are a farmer, I believe
; if not, you
will understand me.
Suppose you had
a large
INSTRUCTIONS TO COUNSEL
29 [
cattle-yard full of all sorts of cattle,—cows, oxen,
bulls,—and you kept killing and selling and dis-
posing of your cows and oxen,
in one way and
another,—taking good care
of your
bulls.
By-
and-by you would find that you had nothing but
a yard
full of old bulls, good for nothing under
heaven.
Now,
it will be just so with the army,
if I don't stop making brigadier-generals."
Instructions to Counsel.
General
Garfield,
of Ohio,
received from the
President
an
account
of
the
capture
of
Nor-
folk, with the following preface
:
''By the way, Garfield," said Mr. Lincoln, "you
never
heard, did you, that Chase,
Stanton, and
I had a campaign of our own? We went down
to
Fortress Monroe
in
Chase's
revenue
cutter,
and consulted with Admiral Goldsborough as to
the
feasibility of taking Norfolk by landing on
the
north
shore and making
a march
of
eight
miles.
The Admiral
said, very positively, there
was no
landing on
that
shore, and we
should
have to double the cape and approach the place
from the south
side, which would be a long and
difficult journey.
I thereupon asked him
if he
had ever tried to find a landing, and he replied
that he had
not.
'Now,'
said
I, 'Admiral, that
reminds me of a chap out West who had studied
law,
but had never
tried
a
case.
Being
sued,
and not having confidence in
his
ability to man-
age
his own
case, he employed
a fellow-lawyer
to manage
it for him.
He had only a confused
idea of the meaning of law terms, but was anx-
ious
to make
a
display of learning, and on the
292
ANECDOTES
trial constantly made suggestions to his lawyer,
who paid no attention to him.
At
last,
fearing
that
his lawyer was
not handling the opposing
counsel very well, he lost all patience, and spring-
ing to his
feet cried out, "Why don't you go at
him with
a
capias,
or a
surre-hutter,
or some-
thing, and not stand there like a confounded old
nudum-pactum?"
'
Close Construction.
Late one evening, the President brought in to
see my
picture
his
friend
and
biographer,
the
Hon. J. H. Barrett, and a Mr. M
, of Cincin-
nati.
An
allusion
to
a
question
of law
in the
course
of
conversation
suggesting
the
subject,
Mr.
Lincoln
said
:
''The
strongest example
of
'rigid government' and 'close construction'
I ever
knew, was that of Judge
.
It was once said
of him
that he would hang a man
for blowing
his nose
in the
street, but that he would quash
the indictment
if
it failed to specify which hand
he blew
it with!"
Diplomatic Advice.
Upon the betrothal of the Prince of Wales to
the
Princess Alexandra, Queen
Victoria
sent a
letter
to each
of the European
sovereigns, and
also
to
President
Lincoln, announcing the
fact.
Lord Lyons, her ambassador
at Washington,
a
"bachelor," by
the way,—requested an
audi-
ence of Mr. Lincoln, that he might present this
important document
in person.
At the time ap-
pointed
he was
received
at
the White
House,
in company with Mr. Seward.
SETTING HIM AT EASE
293
"May
it
please
your
Excellency,"
said Lord
Lyons,
"I hold
in my hand an autograph
letter
from my royal
mistress, Queen Victoria, which
I have been commanded to present to your Ex-
cellency.
In
it she informs your Excellency that
her son, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
is about to contract a matrimonial
alliance with
her Royal Highness
the Princess Alexandra of
Denmark."
After continuing in this strain for a few min-
utes. Lord Lyons tendered the letter to the Presi-
dent and awaited
his
reply.
It was
short, sim-
ple, and expressive, and consisted simply of the
words
:
*'Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise."
It
is
doubtful
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 diplomatic language
when he reported
it to her Majesty.
Setting Him at Ease.
A
lieutenant, whom
debts compelled
to
leave
his
fatherland
and
service,
succeeded
in
being
admitted to President Lincoln, and, by reason of
his commendable
and winning deportment and
intelligent appearance, secured the promise of a
lieutenant's
commission
in
a
cavalry
regiment.
He was so enrapkired with
his success, that he
deemed
it
a duty
to inform
the
President
that
he belonged
to
one
of
the
oldest
noble houses
in Germany.
"Oh, never mind
that,"
said Mr.
Lincoln
; ''you will not find that to be an obstacle
to your advancement."
294
ANECDOTES
^
Democratic Abutments.
The
antagonism
between
the
northern
and
southern sections of the Democratic party, which
culminated
in
the
nomination
of two
separate
tickets
in
i860, was a
subject to draw out one
of Mr,
Lincoln's hardest
hits.
''I once knew," said
he,
*'a sound churchman
by the name of Brown, who was a member of
a
very
sober
and
pious
committee
having
in
charge the erection of a bridge over a dangerous
and
rapid
river.
Several
architects
failed, and
at last Brown said he had a friend named Jones,
who had
built
several bridges and undoubtedly
could build that one.
So Mr. Jones was called
in.
'Can you
build
this
bridge?'
inquired
the
committee.
*Yes,'
replied Jones,
'or any
other.
I could build a bridge to the infernal regions,
if
necessary
!'
The committee were
shocked, and
Brown
felt called upon to defend
his
friend.
T
know Jones so well,' said he, 'and he
is so hon-
est a man and
so good an
architect, that
if he
states
soberly and
positively
that he
can
build
a bridge to—to
, why, I believe
it
; but
I feel
bound to say that
I have my doubts about the
abutment on the
infernal
side.'
So,"
said Mr.
Lincoln, "when politicians told me that the north-
ern and southern wings of the Democracy could
be harmonized, why,
I believed them, of course
;
but
I always had my doubts about the 'abutment'
on the other side."*
Lincoln's "Influence with the Administration."
Judge Baldwin of
California, being in Wash-
ington, called one day on General Halleck, and,
Abbott's "History of the Civil War.'*
A LIVE WARD
295
presuming upon a familiar acquaintance in Cali-
fornia
a few years
before,
solicited
a pass
out-
side
of our
lines
to
see
a brother
in
Virginia,
not thinking that he would meet with a refusal,
as both his brother and himself were good Union
n|en.
"We have been deceived too often," said
General Halleck, "and
I regret
I can't grant
it."
Judge
B.
then went
to
Stanton, and was very
briefly disposed of, with the same result.
Finally,
he obtained an interview with Mr. Lincoln, and
stated
his
case.
"Have you
applied
to General
Halleck?"
inquired
the
President.
"Yes,
and
met with a
flat
refusal,"
said Judge
B.
"Then
you must see Stanton," continued the President.
"I have, and with the same
result," was the
re-
ply.
"Well, then," said Mr. Lincoln, with a smile,
"I can do
nothing;
for you must know
that I
have
very
little
infliience
with
this
Administra-
tion/'
Another Ward Heard From.
When
the
telegram
from
Cumberland
Gap
reached Mr.
Lincoln
that
"firing was heard
in
the
direction
of
Knoxville,"
he remarked
that
he was *'glad of
it."
Some person present, who
had the
perils of Burnside's position uppermost
in
his
mind,
could
not
see
zvhy
Mr.
Lincoln
should be glad of
it, and so expressed
himself.
"Why, you
see,"
responded
the
President,
"it
reminds me of Mistress Sallie Ward, a neighbor
of mine, who had a very
large
family.
Occa-
sionally one of her numerous progeny would be
heard crying in some out-of-the-way place, upon
which Mrs. Ward would
exclaim,
'There's one
of my
children
that
isn't
dead
yet.' "
296
ANECDOTES
Weeping Water.
Some gentlemen
fresh from
a western
tour,
during
a
call
at
the White House,
referred
in
the course of conversation to a body of water in
Nebraska which bore an Indian name signifying
"weeping
water."
Mr.
Lincoln
instantly
re-
sponded
:
**As
'laughing
water,'
according
to
Longfellow,
is 'Minnehaha,' this evidently should
be
'Minneboohoo.' "
"Apple Overboard!"
A farmer from one of the border counties went
to the President on
a
certain occasion with the
complaint that the Union soldiers in passing his
farm had helped themselves not only to hay but
to
his
horse
;
and
he hoped
the
proper
officer
would
be
required
to
consider
his
claim imme-
diately.
"Why, my good
sir," replied Mr. Lincoln,
"if
I should attempt to consider every such individ-
ual
case,
I should
find work enough
for twenty
Presidents
!
In my early days,
I knew one Jack
Chase, who was
a lumberman
on
the
Illinois,
and, when
steady and
sober, the
best raftsman
on
the
river.
It was
quite
a
trick
twenty-five
years ago to take the logs over the
rapids, but
he was
skilful with
a
raft, and always kept her
straight
in the channel.
Finally a steamer was
put on, and Jack—he's dead now, poor fellow
!
was made
captain
of
her.
He always used
to
take the wheel, going through the
rapids.
One
day, when
the boat was plunging and wallow-
ing along the boiling current, and Jack's utmost
vigilance was being exercised to keep her in the
SORRY FOR HORSES
297
narrow
channel,
a boy
pulled
his
coat-tail and
hailed him with
:
'Say,
Mister Captain
!
I wish
you would
just
stop your boat
a minute—I've
lost my apple overboard
!'
"Sitting on the Blister."
In August,
1864, the prospects
of the Union
party,
in
reference
to the
Presidential
election,
became very gloomy.
A friend, the private sec-
retary of one of the cabinet ministers, who spent
a few days
in New York
at
this
juncture,
re-
turned
to Washington with
so discouraging an
account of the political situation, that after hear-
ing
it, the Secretary told him to go over to the
White
House
and
repeat
it
to
the
President.
My friend said that he found Mr. Lincoln alone,
looking more
than
usually
careworn
and
sad.
Upon hearing the
statement, he walked two or
three times across the
floor
in
silence.
Return-
ing, he
said with grim earnestness
of tone and
manner:
''Well,
I cannot run the
political ma-
chine;
I have enough on my hands without that.
It
is
the
people's
business,—the
election
is
in
their hands.
If they turn their backs to the
fire,
and
get scorched
in
the
rear,
they'll
find they
have got to
'sit' on the
'blister'
!"
Sorry to Lose the Horses.
A juvenile "Brigadier" from New York, with
a
small
detachment
of
cavalry,
having impru-
dently gone within the Rebel
lines near Fairfax
Court House, was captured by "guerrillas." Upon
the
fact being reported to Mr.
Lincoln, he said
that he was very sorry
to
lose the horses!
298
ANECDOTES
''What do you mean ?" inquired his informant.
"Why,"
rejoined
the
President,
''I can make
a
better
'brigadier'
any
day;
but
those
horses
cost the government a hundred and twenty-five
dollars
a
head
!"
The Strength of the Confederate Forces.
Mr.
Lincoln
sometimes had
a
very
effective
way of dealing with men who troubled him with
questions.
A
visitor once asked him how many
men the Rebels had
in the
field.
The President
replied, very
seriously, "Twelve hundred thou-
sand, according to the best authority."
The
in-
terrogator blanched
in the
face, and ejaculated,
"Good
Heavens !"
"Yes,
sir
;
twelve
hundred
thousand—no doubt of
it.
You
see,
all of our
generals, when they get whipped, say the enemy
outnumbers them from three or five to one, and
I must
believe
them.
We have
four hundred
thousand men
in the
field, and three times four
make twelve.
Don't you see
it?"
Chase's
"Chin-fly."
"Within
a
month
after
Mr.
Lincoln's
first
accession to office," says the Hon. Mr. Raymond,
"when the South was threatening civil war, and
armies
of
office-seekers were
besieging him
in
the Executive Mansion, he said to a friend that
he wished
he
could
get
time
to
attend
to
the
Southern
question
;
he
thought
he knew
what
was wanted, and believed he could do something
towards
quieting
the
rising discontent
; but the
office-seekers demanded all his time.
T am,' said
he,
'like a man so busy
in
letting rooms
in one
SECRETARY CHASE
2^9
end of his house, that he
can't
stop to put out
the fire that
is burning the other.'
Two or three
years
later, when
the
people had made him
a
candidate for reelection, the same friend spoke to
him of a member of his Cabinet wdio was a can-
didate also.
Mr. Lincoln said he did not concern
himself much about
that.
It was important
to
the country that the department over which
his
rival presided should be administered with vigor
and
energy, and whatever would
stimulate
the
Secretary
to
such
action
would
do
good.
*R
,' said he, 'you were brought up on a farm,
were you
not?
Then you know what a
chin-
fly
is.
My brother and
I,' he added, 'were once
ploughing corn on
a Kentucky
farm,
I driving
the horse, and he holding the plough.
The horse
was lazy
; but on one occasion rushed across the
field so that
I, w^ith my long legs, could scarcely
keep pace
with
him.
On
reaching
the end
of
the
furrow,
I found an enormous
chin-fly
fast-
ened upon him, and knocked him off. My brother
asked me what I did that for.
I told him. I didn't
want the old horse bitten in that way.
'*Why,"
said my brother,
''that's
all that made him go!'\
Now,' said Mr. Lincoln,
'if Mr.
has a presi-
dential
chin-fly
biting
him,
I'm
not
going
to
knock him
off,
if
it
will only make
his
depart-
ment go/
""
Appointment of Chase as Chief Justice.
The Hon. Mr. Frank, of New York, told me
that
just
after the nomination of Mr. Chase as
Chief
Justice,
a
deeply
interesting conversation
upon
this
subject
took
place
one
evening
be-
tween
himself and the
President,
in
Mrs.
Lin-
300
ANECDOTES
coin's
private
sitting-room.
Mr.
Lincoln
re-
viewed Mr.
Chase's
political course and aspira-
tions
at some
length,
alluding
to what he had
felt to be an estrangement from him personally,
and
to various
sarcastic and
bitter
expressions
reported
to him
as having been indulged
in by
the ex-Secretary, both before and
after
his
res-
ignation.
The
Congressman
replied
that
such
reports were always exaggerated, and spoke very
warmly
of
Mr.
Chase's
great
services
in
the
hour of the country's extremity,
his
patriotism,
and
integrity
to
principle.
The
tears
instantly
sprang into Mr. Lincoln's eyes.
''Yes," said he,
''that
is
true.
We
have
stood together
in
the
time
of
trial, and
I should
despise myself
if
I
allowed personal
differences
to
affect my judg-
ment
of
his
fitness
for the
office
of Chief Jus-
tice."
Fremont's Cave of Adullam.
The interview at which this conversation took
place, occurred
just after General Fremont had
declined
to run against him
for the presidency.
The magnificent Bible which the negroes of Balti-
more had
just
presented
to him
lay upon
the
table,
and
Lincoln
asking
Colonel
Deming
if
he
remembered
the
text
which
his
friends
had
recently
applied
to
Fremont,
instantly
turned
to
a
verse
in
the
first
of
Samuel,
put on his spectacles, and read in his slow, pecu-
liar, and waggish tone
: "And every one that was
in
distress, and every one that was
in debt, and
every one that was discontented, gathered them-
selves unto him, and he became a captain over
them, and there were with him about four hun-
dred men."
BORROWING THE ARMY
301
Grant's Brand of Whiskey.
Just previous to the
fall of Vicksburg, a
self-
constituted committee,
solicitous
for the morale
of our armies, took
it upon themselves
to
visit
the President and urge the removal
of General
Grant.
In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired,
"For what reason?"
"Why," replied the spokes-
man,
"he
drinks
too much
whiskey."
"Ah
!"
rejoined
Mr.
Lincoln^
dropping
his
lower
lip.
"By the way, gentlemen, can
either of you
tell
me where General Grant procures
his whiskey?
because,
if
I can find out,
I will send every gen-
eral
in the
field
a barrel of
it!"
On McClellan's Engineering Propensities.
About two weeks
after the Chicago Conven-
tion,
the Rev.
J.
P. Thompson,
of New York,
asked the President
:
"What do you think, Mr.
President,
is the reason General
INlcClellan does
not reply to the letter from the Chicago Conven-
tion?"
"Oh!" replied Mr. Lincoln, with a char-
acteristic twinkle of the eye/'he
is intvencliing."
Some gentlemen were discussing
in Mr. Lin-
coln's presence on a certain occasion General ]\lc-
Clellan's military capacity.
"It
is doubtless true
that he is a good 'engineer,' " said the President
;
"but he seems to have a special talent for devel-
oping a 'stationary' engine."
Borrowing McClellan's Army.
"On
another
occasion
the
President
said
he
was
in
great
distress
(about
the
possibility
of
soon beginning operations with the Army of the
Potomac)
; he had been
to General
McClellan's
house, and the General did not ask
to
see him.
302
ANECDOTES
To use his own expression,
if something was not
soon done, the bottom would fall out of the whole
affair, and
if General McClellan did not want to
use the army, he would like to borrow it, provided
he could see how
it could be made to do some-
thing."
A Convenient Escape.
Upon Mr. Lincoln's return to Washington, af-
ter the capture
of Richmond, a member of the
Cabinet asked him
if
it would be proper to per-
mit Jacob Thompson
to
slip through Maine
in
disguise, and embark from Portland.
The Presi-
dent, as usual, was disposed to be merciful, and
to permit the arch-rebel to pass unmolested, but
the
Secretary urged that he should be arrested
as
a
traitor.
"By permiting him
to escape the
penalties
of treason,"
persistently remarked the
Secretary,
''you
sanction
it."
''Well,"
replied
Mr.
Lincoln,
"let me
tell you
a
story.
There
was
an
Irish
soldier
here
last summer,
who
wanted something to drink stronger than water,
and stopped
at a drug-shop, where he espied a
soda-fountain.
'Mr. Doctor,'
said he,
'give me,
plase,
a
glass
of
soda-wather,
an'
if
yees
can
put in a few drops of whiskey unbeknown to any
one,
I'll be obleeged.'
Now," continued Mr. Lin-
coln,
"if
Jake
Thompson
is
permitted
to go
through Maine unbeknown
to any
one,
what's
the harm?
So
don't have him
arrested."
One
of
the
latest
of
Mr.
Lincoln's
stories
was
told
to
a
party
of
gentlemen,
who, amid
the
tumbling
ruins
of
the
'Confederacy,'
anx-
iously asked "what he would do with
'Jeff Da-
vis'?"
LAST CABINET MEETING
303
"There was
a
boy
in
Springfield,"
rejoined
Mr.
Lincoln,
*Svho
saved
up
his
money
and
bought
a
'coon,'
which,
after
the novelty wore
off, became a great nuisance.
He was one day
leading him
through
the
streets,
and
had
his
hands
full to keep clear of the
little vixen, who
had
torn
his
clothes
half
off
him.
At
length
he sat down on the curb-stone, completely fagged
out.
A man passing was
stopped by the
lad's
disconsolate
appearance, and
asked
the
matter.
'Oh,' was the
reply,
'this coon
is such a trouble
to me!'
'Why don't you get rid of him, then?'
said the gentleman.
'Hush
!' said the boy
; 'don't
you see he
is gnawing his rope off?
I am going
to
let him do
it, and then
I
will go home and
tell the folks that he got away from mef "
The Last Cabinet Meeting.
At the Cabinet meeting held the morning of
the day
of
the
assassination,
it was
afterward
remembered,
a
remarkable
circumstance
oc-
curred.
General Grant was present, and during
a
lull
in the discussion the President turned to
him and asked
if he had
heard from
General
Sherman.
General
Grant
replied
that
he had
not, but was
in hourly expectation of receiving
despatches from him announcing the surrender
of Johnston.
"Well,"
said
the
President,
"you
will
hear
very soon now, and the news will be important."
"Why do you think so?" said the General.
"Because," said Mr. Lincoln, "I had a dream
last night
; and ever since the war began,
I have
invariably had the same dream before any im-
portant
military event
occurred."
He then
in-
304
ANECDOTES
stanced
Bull
Run,
Antietam,
Gettysburg,
etc.,
and
said
that
before
each
of
these
events,
he
had had the same dream; and turning to Secre-
tary Welles, said
:
''It
is
in your
line, too, Mr.
Welles.
The dream
is, that
I saw a ship sailing
very
rapidly;
and
I am
sure
that
it
portends
some important national
event."
Later
in the
day, dismissing
all business, the
carriage v^as ordered for a drive.
When asked
by
Mrs.
Lincoln
if he would
like
any
one
to
accompany them, he
replied, "No
;
I
prefer
to
ride by ourselves to-day."
Mrs. Lincoln subse-
quently
said
that
she
never saw him seem
so
supremely happy as on
this
occasion.
In reply
to
a remark
to
this
effect,
the
President
said
:
"And well
I may
feel
so, Mary,
for
I consider
this day
the war
has come
to
a
close."
And
then added
: "We must both
be more
cheerful
in
the
future;
between
the war
and
the
loss
of our darling Willie, we have been very misera-
ble."
Tad's
Grief
at His
Father's
Death.
Little
"Tad"
was
frantic
with
grief.
For
twenty-four hours the
little fellow was perfectly
inconsolable.
Sunday morning, however, the sun
rose in unclouded splendor, and in his simplicity
he looked upon
this
as
a token
that
his
father
was happy.
"Do you think my father has gone
to heaven?" he asked of a gentleman who had
called upon Mrs. Lincoln.
"I have not a doubt
of
it," was the reply.
"Then," he exclaimed,
in
his broken way, "I am glad he has gone there,
for he never was happy after he came here.
This
was not a good place for him !"