The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-08-23
"REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN.

set an lie erroun'."
"REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN.
A Democratic senator Gives a Pleas.
ant Picture OF the Martyred Presi-
dent.
Lincoln was one of the first men 1
know after / began to practise law"
said Senator Voorhees, to me the other
day. We were in the Senator's rooms
and he felt reminiscent. "At that
time lawyers travelled q circuit. 1
was then as now in Indiana, while
Lincoln was in Illinois, but our respec-
tive circuits, going to the State line in
each instance, joined, and our business
frequently took us into each others
bailiwicks. Lincoln was very kind to
n considerate of mel was green,
untried, and u much yOuger man than
he-and 1 can recall many q favor he
did me.
He was a strong lawyer and singu-
larly successful. AS q politician 1
never met his equal. He was shrewd,
indOmitable, enterprising, and with q
courage which finched. 1 look
on him as the best and most sagacious
politician in u high, big way who aver
set foot in the White House. What
we call big politicians are. generally
opS"hhhS " duu IulEQlGSS gem
GRAFTON compared with Abe Lincoln.
He gave you m impression Of great
ness every moment. He never did, and
by nature couldn't conceive Of doing, a
mean or little thing. I saw him as a
lawyer, and 1 vas in Congress while he
was in the White House. l knew him
intimately and under varying condi-
tions. l have seen him surrounded by
a state OF affairs which would have
o~verborne any other man I ever met.
And yet l saw Lincoln fall short
or fail to fulfil every necessity the
moment 1T arose. He answered every
requirement of every hour in his great
life and rose to meet every emergency
with an ease which spoke of unlimited
power in reserve. He was q great man
"a great American.
"Ltncoln's personal courage had no
limit. He was afraid of nothing on
earth. He received, I know, as many
as half u dozen. letters every week
threatening assassination. He never
needed them and seldom referred to
them. He went about as freely as
Grover Cleveland does now. He would
get into the saddle and canter out to
the Soldiers Home, six miles, and an
assassin could have picked him off with
a rifle at every step of the way. Lin
coin v appeared to have the
slightest fear of it. Stanton used to
get scared and put guards around Lin
coin, but the latter only laughed at it.
He had II great laugh-a high,
musical tenor-and when he had listen
ed to or told a story which particularly
pleased him he would walk up and
down the room with one hand on the
small of his back and the other rubbing
his hair in all directions, and make
things ring with laughter.
Lincoln has great fame as O story
teller and yet the truth isn't half told.
First and last, he told thousands and
thousands of stories. He was a we'll
spring of %anecdote. Yet under all his
humor and all his laughter, he was
tender, sensitive, romantic, Outlines
sad. he appeared hard and practical,
and yet no man ever lived who needed
n craved sympathy more than Lin
coin. he was strongly social in his
nature and liked people rather than
places. Like all men of the highest
courage. fearing nobody, he hated
none. He would oppose a man TO the
death, but he would never hate him.
While Lincoln was fearless in his
own nature, he had the keenest for
bearance for the timidity of others.
He could never consent to shoot a
soldier for cowardice. He called them
leg cases. No m need ever expect
me to sanction the shooting of a man
for running away in a BATTLE he said
to me once; L won't do it. A man
can't help being d coward any more
than he could help q humpback, If he
were born with one.' Then turning to
me again, he said voorhees,, were
you ever scared p
II confessed hat I had some little
experience that way.
$50 have L. said Lincoln, laughing,
and l know just what it means. And
In any contest or controversy which
arises between the head and the heels, l
never knew the heels to get anything
but the best of it. No, sir, they
needn't send any leg cases to me at ali.
iii v order q man shot for any
such offence
Once when l was up to the White
House to see him about something, he
turned to me with a pathetic look of
anxious pain and said voorhees,.
doesn't 1T seem strange that l should
pc here-l, a mar who couldn't cut a
chickens head off, with blood running
oil around me p
speaking of his numberless stories. |
L recall n he once told during the
argument in a lawsuit. The lawyer on
the other side was a good deal of a glib
found or much of u thinker. He was
rather reckless and irresponsible in
his speechmaking also, and would saw
anything to % jury which happened to
enter his head. Lincoln in his address
to the jury, referring to all these, said
My friend on the other side is ali
right, or would be all right were it not
Tor The psychomental popularity / am
about to chronicle. His habit-of
full specimen In his argument to YOU In
this case-of reckless assertion and
statements without grounds, need not
be imputed to him as a moral fault or