ex-governor rice, of massachusetts, tells a story of president lincoln, which will prove of especial interest to my young readers. i transcribe it from the union signal:
on an occasion (while he was in congress) he and senator wilson found it necessary to visit the president on business, he says:
“we were obliged to wait some time in the anteroom before we could be received; and, when at length the door was opened to us, a small lad, perhaps ten or twelve years old, who had been waiting for admission several days without success, slipped in between us, and approached the president in advance.
“the latter gave the senator and myself a{226} cordial but brief salutation, and turning immediately to the lad, said, ‘and who is the little boy?’
“during their conference the senator and myself were apparently forgotten. the boy soon told his story, which was in substance that he had come to washington seeking employment as a page in the house of representatives, and he wished the president to give him such an appointment. to this the president replied that such appointments were not at his disposal, and that application must be made to the door-keeper of the house at the capitol.
“ ‘but, sir,’ said the lad, still undaunted, ‘i am a good boy, and have a letter from my mother, and one from the supervisors of my town, and one from my sunday-school teacher; they all told me that i could earn enough in one session of congress to keep my mother and the rest of us comfortable all the remainder of the year.’
“the president took the lad’s papers and ran his eye over them with that penetrating and absorbent look so familiar to all who knew him, and then took his pen and wrote upon the back of one of them. ‘if capt. goodnow can give a place to{227}
image unavailable: abraham lincoln, signing the emancipation proclamation. page 267
abraham lincoln, signing the emancipation proclamation. page 267
this good little boy, i shall be gratified,’ and signed it ‘a. lincoln.’
“the boy’s face became radiant with hope, and he walked out of the room with a step as light as though all the angels were whispering their congratulations.
“only after the lad had gone did the president seem to realize that a senator and another person had been for some time waiting to see him.
“think for a moment of the president of a great nation, and that nation engaged in one of the most terrible wars waged against men, himself worn down with anxiety and labor, subjected to the alternations of success and defeat, racked by complaints of the envious, the disloyal, and the unreasonable, pressed to the decision of grave questions of public policy, and encumbered by the numberless and nameless incidents of civil and martial responsibility, yet able so far to forget them all as to give himself up for the time being to the errand of a little boy, who had braved an interview uninvited, and of whom he knew nothing, but that he had a story to tell of his mother and of his ambition to serve her.”
of a different character, but equally characteristic{228} of mr. lincoln, is a story told by general charles g. dahlgren, brother of admiral dahlgren:
“as mr. lincoln and my brother were about to go to dinner, and while the president was washing his hands, secretary stanton entered excitedly with a telegram in his hand and said, ‘mr. president, i have just received a dispatch from portland that jake thompson is there waiting to take the steamer to england and i want to arrest him.’ mr. lincoln began to wipe his hands on a towel, and said, in a long, drawling voice, ‘better let him slide.’
“ ‘but, mr. president,’ said secretary stanton, ‘this man is one of the chief traitors—was one of buchanan’s cabinet, betrayed the country then, and has fought against us ever since. he should be punished.’
“ ‘w-e-l-l,’ said the president, ‘if jake thompson is satisfied with the issue of the war, i am. b-e-t-t-e-r let him slide.’
“ ‘such men should be punished to the full extent of the law,’ said mr. stanton. ‘why, if we don’t punish the leaders of the rebellion, what shall we say to their followers?’{229}
“b-e-t-t-e-r let them slide, stanton,” said the president, laying aside his towel.
“mr. stanton went out, evidently annoyed, and mr. lincoln, turning to my brother, said: ‘dahl, that is one of the things i don’t intend to allow. when the war is over, i want it to stop, and let both sides go to work and heal the wounds, which, heaven knows, are bad enough; but jogging and pulling them is not the best way to heal a sore.’
“and the old general, turning to his work, said, with a sigh, ‘if that policy had been carried out, the wounds would have healed long ago.’ ”
the following story, told by m. j. ramsdell, shows that mr. lincoln judged men sometimes by their spirit rather than their military qualifications:
“a sergeant of infantry, whom i shall call dick gower, commanded his company in a great many battles in the west in the early days of the war. his company officers had all been killed, but right royally did dick handle his men. at the first lull in the campaign, the officers of his regiment, of his brigade, and of his division, united in recommending him for a lieutenancy{230} in the regular army. the commanding officer joined in the recommendation. mr. lincoln ordered the appointment. forthwith, sergeant dick was ordered before an examining board here in washington, for the regular army officers were tenacious of what they thought their superiority. dick presented himself in a soiled and faded sergeant’s uniform, his face and hands bronzed and cracked by the winds and suns of a hot campaign.
“the curled darling of washington society, the perfumed graduates of west point, who had never seen a squadron set in the field, conducted the examination to ascertain if dick was fit to be an officer in the regular army. they asked him questions as to engineering, mathematics, philosophy, and ordnance, of harbor warfare, of field campaigns, and all such stuff. not a single question could dick answer. ‘what is an echelon?’ was asked. ‘i don’t know,’ answered dick; ‘i never saw one.’ ‘what is an abbattis?’ was the next question? dick answered: ‘you’ve got me again. we haven’t got ’em in the west.’ ‘well, what is a hollow square?’ continued his tormentors. ‘don’t know,’ said dick sorrowfully; ‘i{231} never heard of one.’ ‘well,’ finally said a young snip in eye-glasses, ‘what would you do in command of a company if the cavalry should charge on you?’ they had at last got down to dick’s comprehension, and he answered with a resolute face and a flashing eye, ‘i’d give them jesse, that’s what i’d do, and i’d make a hollow square in every mother’s son of them.’ a few more technical questions were asked, but poor dick was not able to answer them, and the examination closed.
“the report was duly sent to the secretary of war, who submitted it to mr. lincoln, saying that evidently dick would not do for an officer. mr. lincoln, when through with the report, and found that dick had not answered a single question, but he came to where dick said what he would do if attacked by cavalry, and then he did what sensible abe lincoln did in all such matters, he threw the report on his table and made a little memorandum in pencil ordering the secretary of war to appoint dick gower a lieutenant in the regular army. dick achieved distinction afterward, and was everywhere known in the army as a man without fear, who never made a mistake.”{232}
a correspondent of the boston traveller furnishes a humorous story told by president lincoln, to show the embarrassment which he felt as to the disposal of jefferson davis:
“a gentleman told me a story recently which well illustrates lincoln’s immense fund of anecdotes. said he: ‘just after jeff davis had been captured i called over at the white house to see president lincoln. i was ushered in, and asked him: “well, mr. president, what are you going to do with jeff davis?” lincoln looked at me for a moment, and then said, in his peculiar, humorous way: “that reminds me of a story. a boy ’way out west caught a coon and tamed it to a considerable extent, but the animal created such mischief about the house that his mother ordered him to take it away and not to come home until he could return without his pet. the boy went down-town with the coon, secured with a strong piece of twine, and in about an hour he was found sitting on the edge of the curbstone, holding the coon with one hand and crying as though his heart would break. a big-hearted gentleman, who was passing, stopped and kindly inquired: ‘say, little boy, what is the matter?’ the boy{233} wiped a tear from his eye with his sleeve, and in an injured tone, howled: ‘matter! ask me what’s the matter! you see that coon there? well, i don’t know what to do with the darn thing. i can’t sell it, i can’t kill it, and ma won’t let me take it home.’ that,” continued lincoln, “is precisely my case. i am like the boy with the coon. i can’t sell him, i can’t kill him, and i can’t take him home!” ’ ”
i have already remarked that mr. lincoln was superstitious. he seemed to be deeply impressed by dreams, and claimed to be notified in this way of the approach of important events.
“on the friday of his death he called his cabinet together at noon, and he seemed dispirited. he said: ‘i wish i could hear from sherman.’ general grant, who was present, said: ‘you will hear well from sherman.’ he said: ‘i don’t know. i have had a dream, the same that i had before the battles of bull run, of chancellorsville, and of swan river. it has,’ he said, ‘always boded disaster.’ it made a great impression on all of the cabinet and on general grant. mr. lincoln had been remonstrated with for going about unattended, but he said: ‘what is the use{234} of precautions? if they want to kill me they will kill me.’ he was killed, but history will place him next to washington in the list of beloved presidents. the skill displayed by him in managing chase, stanton, sumner, fessenden, wade, seward, and other candidates for the presidency, was wonderful, and when there was any hitch he was reminded of a story, illustrating the situation. his stories were, in short, ‘parables.’ ”—boston budget.
even in the hour of victory he was thoughtful, not jubilant.
“when general weitzel escorted president lincoln and his companions through the capitol at richmond the day after the occupation, in april, 1865, they reached what the rebels called the cabinet room of the great president of the southern confederacy. general weitzel said: ‘this, mr. president, is the chair which has been so long occupied by president davis.’ he pulled it from the table and motioned the president to sit down. mr. lincoln’s face took an extra look of care and melancholy. the narrator says ‘he looked at it a moment and slowly approached and wearily sat down. it was an hour of exultation{235} with the soldiers; we felt that the war was ended, and we knew that all over the north bells were pealing, cannon booming, and the people were delirious with joy over the prospect of peace. i expected to see the president manifest some spirit of triumph as he sat in the seat so long occupied by the rebel government; but his great head fell into his broad hand and a sigh that seemed to come from the soul of a nation, escaped his lips and saddened every man present. his mind seemed to be travelling back through the dark years of the war, and he was counting the cost in treasure, life, and blood that made it possible for him to sit there. as he rose without a word and left the room slowly and sadly, tears involuntarily came to the eyes of every man present, and we soldiers realized that we had not done all the suffering nor made all the sacrifices.’ ”
where abraham lincoln obtained some of his anti-slavery ideas may be learned from a recent article in the century, by leonard w. bacon, who describes the effects of his father’s writings upon this subject on the mind of the future president:
“ ‘these essays’—from the preface to which i have just quoted—had been written at divers{236} times from 1833 onward, and were collected, in 1846, into a volume which has had a history. it is a book of exact definitions, just discriminations, lucid and tenacious arguments; and it deals with certain obstinate and elusive sophistries in an effective way. it is not to be wondered at that when it fell into the hands of a young western lawyer, abraham lincoln,—whose characteristic was ‘not to be content with an idea until he could bound it north, east, south, and west,’—it should prove to be a book exactly after his mind. it was to him not only a study on slavery, but a model in the rhetoric of debate. it is not difficult to trace the influence of it in that great stump-debate with douglas, in which lincoln’s main strength lay in his cautious wisdom in declining to take the extreme positions into which his wily antagonist tried to provoke or entice him. when, many years after the little book had been forgotten by the public, and after slavery had fallen before the president’s proclamation, it appeared from lincoln’s own declaration to dr. joseph p. thompson that he owed to that book his definite, reasonable, and irrefragable views on the slavery question, my father felt to sing the nunc dimittis.”