Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-09-26
New Series, Vol. 20, No 80.
A CURIOUS STORY OF LINCOLN

~ " MUS S1Oh1 UT l1NOO1AN
Charles A. Dana, in The New York sun.
In the last number of "The Century
Magazine" Messrs. Hay and NicoIay
narrate their idea of what happened in
War Department on the evening after
the second election of President Lincoln
in 1864. AS they were not present, their
report must be matter of hearsay. /
do not know that any of the particulars
they relate are deficient in accuracy,
though L can testify that while was
there at that time, did not observe
them.
was not usually on duty in the War
Department at night; but Mr.. Stanton
had directed me to come over that even
ing, and L arrived pretty early, say at s
o'clock or half-past s. The excitement
of the struggle had been intense. Inal
my experience L have never witnessed
any other election that had so much pol
itics In it. All the resources of partisan
science, backed by the immense power
of the vast and widespread expenditures
of the War Department, then about a
million day, had been employed by the
astute and relentless statesman at the
head of the War Office; and he did it
with a pertinacity and skill that never
have been surpassed. OF course, no
great step had been taken without the
knowledge and consent of Mr.. Lincoln,
himself politician of a very fertile and
superior order; but the engineer whose
hand was never taken off the machine,
and whose purpose never relaxed its
high-pressure energy, was Mr.. Stanton;
and his ardent and excite.ible nature
was kept at fever heat to the very last
moment of the contest, and afterward. |
The President, apparently as serene as
a summer morning, was in Mr.. StantOn's |
large private room, and no one was with |
him except the Secretary and General |
Eckert, who came continually with tele-
grams. The result of the voting was of |
such decisive character that the news
arrived much earlier than had been eX-
pected; and when 1 went in, learned |
both from the President and the Secre-
tary that the question seemed already
to be substantially settled. Each dis
patch that was received seemed only to
add to the apparent certainty; and by
about o'clock there was no longer any
doubt. But without waiting for that
hour, Mr. Lincoln drew from his breast
a thin yellow-covered pamphlet. "Dana,"
said he to me, shave you ever read any
thing of Petroleum V. Nasby?" pro-
Nasby as though the first syll-
able were spe"ed with the letter e. "No,
,ir," said l, ''not much; but l know he
writes from the Confederate Cross
Roads and prints his things in The To- {
edo Blade"
"Yes," said Mr.. Lincoln, ''that's so, but ]
hat is not the whole. Pull up your
hair and listen" l drew up to him,
md he began to read aloud, to me only
md not to Stanton, one after another of
funny hits; and between
zach of them we had quite little laugh
III to ourselves. But the lion of the Sec
etary showed plainly that he had no !
y
lis face wore its darkestand sternest ex-
,ression. However, the reading went :
IN, occasionally broken by General Eek :
rt's entrance with another telegram, to :
which Mr.. Lincoln paid no very serious t
ttention; and he quickly turned back /
o the reading every time. In this way f
le read paragraphs and even pages of q
Iasby, until finally a dispatch was 4
'rought in of a more important nature, /
nd he laid the pamphlet down to attend q
o it.
While he was thus engaged Mr.. STAN a
on motioned to me to come with him into 8
ieneral Eckert's room, and when the q
oor was shut he broke out in fury: g
- it TO-" said he, O
was there ever such nonsense? Was n
here ever such inability to appreciate a
THAT is going on in an awful crisis? t
Iere is the fate of this whole Republic q
t stake, and here is the man around