Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-12-25
4 4braIam Lincoln.
BY I. B. tAI;AE>gEK.


The charge thar President Lincoln in
dulged in unseemly levity on the battle
field OF Antietam-calling for ribald songs
and vulgar Jokes, in the presence Of the
wounded. the dying, and the unburied
dead-has been from time to time repeat
ed, and industriou>ly circulated by the
enemies of the Union party, throughout
the country. Mr. Horton, late editor OF
the Netc York Day BOOK ha~ embodied
the story in his Youths History ot the
Civil War" written from the Southern
standpoint, to offset u similar work from
the Northern point of view, published in
Boston, and the Boston Post, Of so recent
a date as Sept. y, 1867, referring to !
criticism in the Ne,c York Tribune upon
President .JohnsOn's speech at the Antletam
Cemetery ceremonies, says: = Perhaps it. "
the Tri5,tne) would have preferred that
Gearv or some one else had sung the song
which the late lamented President Lincoln
sang, when galloping at the head of party
of visitors over that field OF battle.
Believing this charge to have been I
malignant fabrication, | have long sought
for evidence to prove the fact. Very lately
there has providentially come into my
hands the most complete and incontestible
vindication of Mr. Lincoln's character ;
and | am now prepared to prove the origin
and authorship Of this calumny.
Its author was Mr Joseph Scovill, the
New York correspondent, during the war,
Of the London Herald and London Stan
dqrd, whose letters, over the signature OF
:. Manhattan, will be long remembered by
the American public for their virulent dis
loyalty and perversion of all facts which
favored the Northern cause.
Two or three weeks after the battle Of
Antietam, in one of Mr. Scovill's gossipine
London letters, he mentioned the fact oi
Mr.. Lincoln's visiting the battle field, and
therein invented and wrote the slandei
since republished so many times by Mr.
Lincon's enemies Reference to the news
papers of that date will show that the first
time the story was printed in this country
it was an extract from letter to the Lon
don Herald by its New York correspon
dent - Manhattan"
Mr. f. H. Jenny, a wei-known citizer
of New York City, met Mr.. Scovill ii
| Carleton's bookstore shortly after the pub
! llcaJlOn OF lne lttleF containing tntS tildi -
He said to him, . Scovill. how came yol
/ to write that nonsense to the London pres
about President Lincoln at Antietam ?"
Why" replied Scovill, = it was in
tended only as joke. I received" h'
continued, g ten, pounds sterling TOR thai
letter | have to put Just such stuff a:
that in my letters to please such fellows a
they are over there
Mr.. Jenny fortunately put this statemen
in writing soon afterward, and has thus OF
record the very words of the conversation
Subsequently Scovill wrote letter t.
the London Herald purporting to give al
account of Gen. Grants advance towar'
Richmond and so grossly misrepresente'
the battle of Spottsylvania that when tn
latter came back to this country, as pub
lished both in the London Herald an
LOndoa Standard, Gen. Dix wrote Scovi
to consider himself under arrest, and r.
port at his Office. Scovill told Gen. Di
: that he was very i'll, and thought he ha
t not three weeks to live. and begged not
= be sent to Fort Lafayette. Gen. Dix sal
. the matter would be referred to Washin;
f ton, and in the meantime be must consid'
4 himself under arrest. Scovill subsequent
i exhibited his order Of arrest to VI
: Jenny at the Controllers Office of the eli