Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-11
NO. 60.
Misfelianeous.
ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.
BY COL. j. w. fORNEY.

wit is apt to become responsible for all the
best jokes, old and new. Many Joe
Miller was and is still credited to Thadde-
US Stevens and Abraham Lincoln. Things
they never said now that both are gone,
are boldly laid upon their memories. But
no two men, perhaps, SO entirely different
in character, ever threw off more sponta-
neous jokes. Mr.. Stevens rarely told a
story. He was strong in repartee, in re-
tort, in quiet interrogatory. He must
have been terrible at the cross-examina-
ton OF witness. There is nothing finer,
as think, in the annals of humor than his
quaint question to David Reese and John
Chauncey, the to officers of the House who
in his last days used to carry him in a
large armchair from his lodging across
the public grounds up the broad stairs of
the noble Capitol-"Who will be so good
to me and take me up in their strong arms
when You two mighty men are gone ?n
Here was not only uncommon wit, but u
sense OF intellectual Immortality. A con-
| seriousness OF superiority of another sort
was his answer to John Hickman, who
called as Stevens laid on his bed, when he
felt the grip of the grim messenger fas-
tening on him. Hickman told the old man
he was looking well "Ah, John ~ was
his quick reply '.it is not my appear
ance, but my disappearance, that troubles
me- member of the House who was
known for his uncertain course on all
questions, and who often confessed that
he never fully investigated n mooted point
without finding himself neutral, asked
for leave Of absence. Mr. Speaker
. do not rise to object. but to suggest
that the honorable member need not ask
this favor. for he can easily pair off with
| nlf IJo Il, ,t.,ll
ostentatiously So "Oh, sir y said beg
gar woman to him one cold morning as he
was limping to the House, 'Oh, Sir! l
have just lost all the money had in the
world And how much was thatpn
"Oh, sir it was seventy five cents You
don't say so,' was the old mans answer,
as he put five dollar bill into her hands;
land how wonderful it is that | should
have found what you had lost I"
| Shortly after was elected Clerk of the
House, in 1860, q lady friend, since de-
ceased, called my attention to the fact
that the wife OF one of her best servants,
Sam, was about to be sent away from him
to Georgia, and that unless over eight
hundred dollars could be raised for her in
torty-cight hours, her master, man liv-
ing at Georgetown, ID. c.. would be sure
to sell her to strangers. The case was a
terrible one. Sam was fine fellow, and
his distress was grievous. | sat down
and wrote out the facts, headed the SUBJ
scriptiOn, and in 4 few hours raised the
money, paying over three hundred dollars
myself. The papers We're made out to
me, and | set the woman free. WELL"
said Mr.. Stevens, as he paid his fifty dol
lars, "this is the first time ever heard of
a Democrat buying negro and then Civ
ing her her liberty ?n
He affected much indignation when
President Lincoln consigned Roger A.
Pryor to me as sort of prisoner-guest in
1865 and regularly every morning would
greet me with the grim remark "How is
your Democrat friend. General Pryor? l
hope you are both WELL" / was little
annoyed by his sarcasm, and when an APP
peal was made to me by an old citizen to
assist in pardoning another Confederate,
| referred him to Mr.. Stevens. He hap
pened to know the Great Commoner, and
went over with my message. Judge of
my surprise when he returned with the
proposition that whatever wrote he TSte-
vens would sign. | dictated the strong
est appeal to the President, and Mr. Stew
ems put his name to it. OF course, en-
dorsed the petition but did not fail to
remind my neighbor that very day of his
Inconsistency. "Oh you need not be ril-
ed about it." was the retort; II saw YOU
were going heavily into the pardon busi-
ness and thought | would take hand in
it myself"
Mr. Lincoln was Il humorist of another
school. He delighted in parallels and sto-
ries. His treasures of memory were in
eXhaustible. He never failed for an illus
tration. He liked the short farce better
than the five-act tragedy. He would
shout with laughter over French, Ger
man, or negro anecdote. and he was al
ways ready to match the best with bet
ter. More than once, when / bore mes
sage to him from the Senate, he detained
me with somes amusing sketch of Western
life. He seemed to have read the charac-
ter, and to know the peculiarities of every
leading man in Congress and the country,
and would play off many an innocent Joke
upon them. | will not atte mpt to repeat
what has been so often described. There
was also sacred confidence around many
of these scenes which could not be viola
ted without offence to many living good
men; and so do not write to wound the
feelings. will not profane an illustrious
memory by reviving what would only
give unnecessary pain.
His two inaugurations were accompa-
MED by apprehensions of his assassina-
ton, and the second was followed in a lit
tie more than month by his murder. At
the Inauguration of March 4, 1861, was
present as Clerk of the House. At the in
auguratien of March 4, 1865, was pres
ent as Secretary of the Senate. James
Buchanan, as ex-President, heard the re-
markable first message of the man who
succeeded him, just as Andrew johnson
heard the still more remarkable inaugura-
ton of the man he succeeded War fol-
lowed the one, peace and assassination
the other. The scene in the Senate of the
United States on the 4th of March. 1865
when Andrew johnson was sworn in as
Vice President, has too often been painted
to set out into daylight again. Let il rest.
refer to it now only to relate one incl
dent After we reached the eastern and
middle portion of the Capitol, where Mr..
Lincoln took the oath, johnson was under
md