The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-12
ABRAHAM .LINCOLN.
BY F. B. CARPENTER.
Gross Calumny Related.

Gross Oalumny hefuteds
From The ~. Y Independent.
The charge that President Lincoln INDUCED
in unseemly levity on the battlefield of Antie-
tam-calling for ribald songs and vulgar jokes,
in the presence of the wounded, the dying,
and the unbured dead-has been from time to
time repeated and industriously circulated by
the enemies of the Union party throughout the
country. Mr.. Horton, late editor Of the New
York Day Book, has embodied the story in his
"Youth's History of the Civil War; written
from the Southern stand point, to Offset
similar work from the Northern point of view,
published in Boston,; and the Boston Post, o.
so recent date as September 2S, 1867, refer
ring to criticism upon President Johnson's
speech at the Antietam Cemetery ceremonies,
says-"Perhaps it'' (the Tribune ''would
have preferred that GeaTy or some one else
had sung the song which the late lamented
President Lincoln sang when galoping at the
head of party Of visitors over that field of
battle.''
Believing this charge to have been malig-
nant fabrication, have long sought for evi-
denoe to prove the fact. Very lately there
has providentially come into my hands the
most complete and incontestable vindication of
Mr.. MncOln's character; and | am now pre-
pared to prove the origin and authorship of
the calumny.
It's author was Joseph Scovill, the New
York correspondent during the war of the
London Herald and the London Standard,
whose letters, over the signature of "Manhat-
tan" will be long remembered by the Ameri-
can public for their virulent disloyalty and
perversion of all facts which favored the
Northern cause.
Two or three weeks after the battle of An
tietam, in one of Mr.. Scovill's gossiping Lon
don letters, he mentioned the fact of Mr.. Lin
coins visiting the battlefield, and therein in
vented and wrote the slander since republished
so many times by Mr.. Lincoln's enemies. Re-
= ference to the newspapers of that date will
show that the first time the story was printed
in this country il was an extract from letter
to the London Herald by its New York CORES
pondent Manhattan
Mr.. Il. H. Jenny well-known citizen of
New York city, met Mr.. ScOvill in Carleton's
bookstore shortly after the publication of the
letter containing this charge. He said to him,
"Scovill, how came you to write that nonsense
to the London press about President Lincoln
at Antietam 7"
only as joke. received" he continued,
"ten pounds sterling for that letter. have
to put Just such stuff as that in my letters to
please such fellows as they are over there"
Mr.. Jenny fortunately put this statement in
writing soon afterwards, and has thus on re-
cord the very words of the conversation.
London Herald purpOrting to give an account
of General Grants advance towards Rich
Il mond, and so grossly misrepresented the bat
tie of Spottsylvania that when the letter came
back to this country, as published both in
the London Herald and London Standard
General Dix wrote ScoVill to consider himself
under arrest, and report at his office. Scovil
told General Dix that he was very i'll, and
thought he had not three weeks to live, and
begged not to be sent to Fort Lafayette. Gene
raj Dix said the matter would be referred tC
Washington, and in the meantime he mus
consider himself under arrest. Scovill subse
: ouently exhibited his 'order of arrest" Il
Mr. Jenny at the Controllers Office of the city
of New York, and in answer to inquiries as t
the nature of the charges against him, replied
-''My account of Grants fighting on the
Rapdan and at Spottsylvania." When Mr.
Jenny suggested that it might be his slandel
of President Lincoln at Antietam, instead, ht
replied:-'That was intended only as a joke
nobody believes it here; it was written Il
please those fellows over there" reiteratinl
his assertion that the letter containing th'
fabrication 'produced him f10 sterling"
MR.. 11NooLE's LOVE OF MUSIC.
Speaking of music, Mr.. Lincoln once sai(
that he had little knowledge OF what he char
acterized as scientific music; but he alwayi
detected and enjoyed what he called the ''swee
strains" in any description OF music. His pre-
ference was for simple songs and ballads, lik
"Auld Robin Gray' and "Twenty Years Ago.
He long sought for music that would properly
convey the sentiment of his favorite poem,
"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
But in this he was never successful. His owl
recitation of this poem left nothing to b
desired.
remember we'll his coming down to tn
cred Room" where there was piano-torte
with party of visitors, one morning in tn
summer of 1864, to hear one Of the number
who was fine singer render the stirrin
hymn, then recently published-
1--WE are coming Father Abraham
Three hundred thousand more"
The singing of this hymn at this time, will
its background and accessories-the desolat
nation mourning her slain, the flower of tn
land, yet again responding cheerfully to tn
call of her chief; that chief himself sitting wit
patient, pensive eyes and bowed head, lister
ing as If to catch the voice of the people On
statue might well represent him as ever thr
listening) all together formed a scene unlil
to but suggestive of that other scene, immo
talized by French artists-ths singing for Il