The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1916-04-15


would bear printing, and Lamion, the
historian, adds that he was not re-
strained by any company or occasion.
When he went to Gettysburg battle
field to make his celebrated address
he asked for and had a sung a ribald
song. Was ever so sublime a thins
ushered in by the ridiculous?" asks
Rhodes. He WROTE a satire. called
The First Chronicle of Reuben" also
some verses which Lincoln himself
circulated, and which Lamon said
were too indecent to be transcribed TO
his book. Lamon was his close friend
and testified that not even the high
position of president changed him in
any way. His clownishness and lack
of dignity was proverbial, and some of
us can remember the silly joke he per-
petrated when the Marquis Of Harting
ton. q distinguished Frenchman was
presented to him at White House
reception. His salutation was "Ah!
the Marquis of Harrington, rhymes
with Mrs. Partington" 1t is not hard
to imagine what the foreigner thought
of the backwoods wit of the head Of
81 great nation.
In forming an estimate of what
constitutes great man one surely
would not leave out personal cou--
age. yet Lincoln his been called
great" without this essential. If we
are to accept the testimony Of those
who tell Of his stealthy midnigh. en-
tree into Washington a day or two
before his inauguration, accompa-
MED by his lifelong friend I4amon,
heavily armed: Lanion expressly de-
clares that Lincoln's fear Of violence
was without the slightest foundation.
Horace Greeley likened him to a
hunted fugitive" Ida Tarbell says
that on inauguration day he not only
had platoons Of soldiers at the street
corners. but had groups OF rifiemen
on the housetops and artillery at
given points. She says he entered the
capital through a board tunnel, with
SO or so soldiers under the platform.
LAmon and Vice, President Hamlin
record that he was bitterly ashamed
ever afterwards Of his fright, and
Hon. Henry L. Dawes .sys he never
altogether lost the look with which
he met the curious and not very kind
ly gaze 81 the house Of representa-
tives on; tA first morning after what
they deemed "his pusillanimous creep"
into washington. When Baltimore
had stopped Che Massachusetts SOL
diers and Marylnd troops from go
ing into Washington and the capital
seemed at the mercy of the South,
Miss Tarbsll and others give a curl
GUS accoant OF Lincoln's panic and
Quote hin as saying, why don't they
come. 9n Why. don't they come! /
begin TO Believe there is no NORTH
and the Seventh regiment is a myth"
RUSSELL wrote to the London Times,
after the defeat at Bull Run, that
"Lincoln sat listening in fear and
trembling for the sound of the en-
enfy's cannon" B. F. Butler says:
"A careful reading of that descrip-
tion would almost lead one to infer
that LINCOLN was in state of abject
fear" in which opinion most heart.
iiy agree with him!
When Charles Francis Adams visit
ed the president to get his instruc-
tions before he left as minister 10
he declares himself to have
been half amused. half mortified,
and altogether shocked" at Lincoln,s
behavior. and his uuconsciousness OF
the gravity of the crisis. Charles ii
Dana says that the lack of respec.
for the president in ali parties Isl un-
concealed" and he wrote Adams
minister to England. that Lincoln
had no admirer, and did not act, talk
or feel like the ruler of a great en-
pire. In great crisis. and that ut
was a calamity to have him where
he is''
Gen. Don Piatt in his. "Reminis-
cences of Lincoln" says that he was
not Of kindly or forgiving nature,
and showed the greatest insensibi,i:y
to the Ills of his fellow citizens and
soldiers, when the miseries Of the
war were at their worst. as we'll as to
the codnition Of the negroes. In fact,
this writer claims that their welfare
did not enter into Lincoln's policy at.
all. His hatred of slavery and slave