The Cecil Whig., 1885-06-27
OLD "ABE" AS He WAS.
What Ex-Assistant Attorney Gel Leral Cof-
fey Knows of President Lincoln.

What x-Assistant Attorney -Gel eral Cof-
fey Knows of President Lincoln,
Unpublished Anecdotes of the Late Fresi-
dent-An Interesting Pennsylvania Rc-
nance of the War-A Soldier who Died
at tGettysburg-Notes.
1t has been often and truthfully said
of Abraham Lincoln that he was a man
whose heart lay close to the great pop
ular heart and felt its beatings. Even
after he had reached the perilous elcva-
ton of the White House, where the
truth is apt to be seen through very re-
fracted mediums, he never for a mo-
ment lost the faculty of reading the
mind of those whom he called "the
plain people," In truth he was, by
birth, education, experience and SYM
pathy one of 'the plain people" him
self, and the traits that made him so
uniquely interesting were simply the
outgrowth of mind original and Wig
orous and kindly heart, developed by
and taking shape from the modes of
thought and expression, the habits and
manner of life of the people amid whom
he had been brought up and lived.
Born in England or Massachusetts, and
educated in conventional fashion at
Oxford or Harvard, he would doubt
less have been man of mark and
power, but he would have not have
been the Abraham Lincoln whom the
people know and love- As Macaulay
argued, that Milton's learning tended
to clip the wings of his imagination,
so it may be said that the training of
the schools would probably have pol
ished away, not indeed the native humor
and shrewd faculty of observation, but
that quaint and orig ginal habit Of thought
and speech which found constant ex-
preston in racy and effective phrase
and in stories of Western life, often
homely, but never obscene, and always
singularly apt in Illustration.
But | am not writing an essay on
Mr.. Lincoln's character or genius-a
theme we'll worn, but not yet exhausted.
My less ambitious work is to record a
few examples of his preaching by par
able" and of his habit of condensing
an idea in a single telling phrase. When
these incidents happened l may pre-
mise that was in the public service,
and, by virtue of a custom established
by MIR. Lincoln, | had occasional &C
cess to the Cabinet meetings during
the absence of my departmental chief,
the Attorney General. What l have to
tell is, with small exception, doubtless
well-known to those who were nearer
to him than |. But l think it has not
before been published.
HOW CAMERON'S SUCCESSOR WAS CHOSEN.
A story told Of him after Gen. Cam
eron's retirement from the War De-
partment which | have never seen in
J print, illustrates his habit of sending
applicants away IN good humor, even
when they failed to extract a desired
answer. Everyone knows that Mr..
Lincoln's Cabinet was chosen chiefly
from his rivals for the presidential nom
nation, and from considerations largely
political. But the exigencies of the
war demanded, in the opinion of many
good Republicans, reorganization of
the Cabinet, based on the special fit
ness Of each member for the great work
in hand. OF this opinion were some
of the leading Republican senator's
After the retirement of Gen. Cameron
they held a caucus and appointed a
committee represented that, inasmuch
as the Cabinet had not been chosen
with reference to the war, and had
more or less lost the confidence OF the
country, and, since the President had
decided to select a new war minister,
they thought the occasion was oppor-
tune to change the whole seven Cabinet
ministers. They, therefore, earnestly
advised him to make a clean sweep,
and select seven new men, and SO re-
store the waning confidence of the
country.
The President listened with patient
courtesy, and when the senators had
concluded he said, with a characteristic
gleam of humor in his eye: "Gentle-
men, your request for change Of the
whole Cabinet because | have made
one change reminds me Of story ]
once heard in Illinois of farmer who
was much troubled by skunks. They
annoyed his household at night, and
his wife insisted that he should take
measures to get rid of them. One moon
light night he loaded his old shotgun and
stationed himself in the yard to watch
for the intruders, his wife remaining in
the house, anxiously awaiting the re-
suit. After some time she heard the
shotgun go off and in few minutes the
farmer entered the house. What luck
had your? said she. 4 hid myself be,
hind the woodpile,' said the old man
with the shotgun pointed toward the
henroost, and before long there ap.
peared not one skunk but Sc7CN.
took aim, blazed away, killed one, anc
he raised such a fearful smell that !
concluded it was best to let the othe
six co."
With a hearty laugh the senator re
! tired, and nothing more was heard O
Cabinet reconstruction.