The Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams

H >> Henry L. Williams >> The Lincoln Story Book

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

"'Well, well,' said he; 'this is all very fine, Mr. Case. Your hogs
are doing very well just now, but, you know, out here in Illinois the
frost comes early, and the ground freezes for a foot deep. Then, what
are you going to do?'

"This was a view of the matter Mr. Case had not taken into account.
Butchering time for hogs was 'way on in December or January! He
scratched his head, and at length stammered:

"'Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don't see but
it will be "Root, hog, or, die!"'"

The speaker had no need to draw this moral as to the fate of the South
after the war, for black or white, from a _Case_ in Illinois; the
negro minstrel song was current then which supplied the apt allusion,
and was called "Root, Hog, or Die." It may well be that the sailors
conveying the baffled commissioners to Richmond, or the soldiers about
the "other government," were chanting the instructive and prophetic
chorus: "It doan' make a bit of difference to either you or I, but
Big Pig or Little Pig, it is Root, Hog, or Die."

Mr. Raymond, in chronicling this anecdote, tells of the New York
_Herald_ giving the story in a mangled and pointless copy. But it
was current in conversation. Mr. Lincoln was in hopes that "it would
not leak out lest some oversensitive people should imagine there was
a degree of levity in the intercourse between us."

Quite otherwise, for the majority thought the illustration as good as
any argument, and would have deemed the speaker prophet if they could
have foreseen that the South would have to buckle down to hard work
to redeem the losses.

* * * * *

THE GRANT BRAND OF WHISKY.

Although a Kentuckian--orthodox jest--Lincoln was so known for his
rare temperance convictions that no one carped at the buffet at his
official house being clear of the decanters characterizing it in
previous administrations. The total abstinence societies therefore
hailed him as an apostle of their creed. Consequently, they had been
pleased, on certain occasions, at his espousing and cheering their
counsel. When General Grant was elevating himself by his string
of solid victories in the West, it was object of caviling, by the
adherents of the generals eclipsed and foreseeing his becoming
lieutenant-general, and the slander circulated that "Philip sober"
got the credit of "Philip drunk," perpetrating his plans with the
dram-bottle at his elbow.

Lincoln heard out this spiteful diatribe with his habitual patience,
when, calmly looking at the chairman, he responded:

"Gentlemen, since you are so familiar with the general's habits,
would you oblige me with the name of General Grant's favorite brand
of whisky. I want so to send some barrels of it to my other generals!"

The deputation withdrew in poor order.

Major Eckert says that Mr. Lincoln told him he had heard this story.
It was good, and would be very good if he had told it--but he did not.
He supposed it was "charged to him to give it currency." He went on
to say:

"The original is back in King George's time. Bitter complaints were
made against General Wolfe that he was mad. The king, who could be
more justly accused of that, replied: 'I wish he would bite some of
my other generals.'"

* * * * *

"A GENERAL, AT LAST!"

Without disparaging the Lincoln generals, it may be said that they
will never occupy a niche in Walhalla beside Napoleon's marshals and
Washington's commanders. But Washington society liked them one with
another for affording opportunities of outings to the grand reviews
and parades. One--that to Bull Run--turned out a failure, and the
Southerners chasing the fugitives had the pickings of the iced wines,
game pies, and cold chicken which "Brick" Pomeroy saw strewing the
road back. Grant's negligent and war-worn uniform did not remind any
one of the gay and brilliant period of "Old Fuss and Feathers," the
veteran Scott. But Grant and the other Westerner, Lincoln, mutually
pleased at their first meeting, the latter emerged from the interview
exclaiming with joy:

"At last, we have a general!"

* * * * *

A FIZZLE ANYHOW!

American dash was, in military matters as in others, opposed to the
engineering schemes dear to the scientific officers fresh from West
Point Academy. Among their projects was the Dutch Gap Canal at City
Point. When Grant, as his lieutenant-general, was conducted by the
President to see the forces and their positions, the guide made known
his opinion of the undertaking in his frank manner, consonant with
the new commander's bluntness.

"Grant, do you know what this reminds me of? In the outskirts of our
Springfield, there was a blacksmith of an ingenious turn, who could
make something of pretty nigh anything in his line. But he got hold
of a bit of iron one day that he attempted to make into a corn-knife,
but the stuff would not hold an edge, so he reasoned it would be a
claw-hammer; but that would be a loss of overplus, and he tried to
make an ax-head. That did not come out to a five-pounder; and, getting
disgusted, he blew up the fire to a white heat around the metal mass,
when, yanking it out with his tongs, he flung it into the water-tub
hard by, and cried out:

"'Well, if I can't make anything of you, I'll make a fizzle anyhow!'

"Well, general, I am afeared that that's what we'll make of the Dutch
Gap Canal."

* * * * *

"FORGET OVER A GRAVE!"

When the _Chronicle_, of Washington, had the noble courage to
speak well of "Stonewall" Jackson, accidentally shot, as a brave
soldier, however mistaken as an American, Lincoln wrote to the editor:

"I honor you for your generosity to one who, though contending against
us in a guilty cause, was nevertheless a gallant man. Let us forget
his sins over a fresh-made grave."

* * * * *

IF HE FELT THAT WAY--START!

Although Colonel Dana, of the private branch of the War Office
Intelligence Department, might have claimed exemption from active
service, he never spared himself, though such a messenger ran not only
the common military dangers, but of the Johnnies treating him as a
spy. During the battles of the Wilderness, acute was the trepidation
in Washington, where no news had come since a couple of days--Grant
having "cut loose" and buried himself in the midst of the foes.
Nevertheless, Dana had a train at Maryland Avenue to take him to the
front, and a horse and escort to see him farther; he came to take the
President's last orders. But the other had been reflecting on the
perils into which he would be sending his favorite despatch-bearer.

"You can't tell where Lee is, or what he is doing; _Jeb_ Stuart
is on the rampage pretty lively between the Rappahannock and the
Rapidan. It is considerable risk, and I do not like to expose you
to it."

"But I am all ready; and we are equipped, if it comes to the worst,
to run!"

"Well, now, if you feel that way--start!"--(E. P. Mitchell, from
Dana.)

* * * * *

FIGURES WILL PROVE ANYTHING.

Toward the finish of the Rebellion, Lincoln was asked to what number
the enemy might amount. He replied with singular readiness:

"The Confederates have one million two hundred thousand men in the
field."

Astonishment being manifested at the precision, he went on, smiling:

"Every time a Union commander gets _licked_, he says the enemy
outnumbered him three or four times. We have three or four hundred
thousand, so--logic is logic! they are three times that; say, one
million two hundred thousand."

As a fact, at the grand review before the President (Johnson) the two
armies of Grant and Sherman, May, 1865, two hundred thousand veterans
filed past. Lincoln should have lived to see that glorious march past.

* * * * *

"I DON'T WANT TO--BUT THAT'S IT IF I MUST DIE!"

In the ferment, as the term of Lincoln's first office-holding was
terminating, the old war fever returned by which "Little Mac
(McClellan), Idol of the Army" was hailed as "the hope of the
country." Only this time the presage was that General Grant had only
to secure that phantasm, the capture of Richmond, to be nominated
and elected. This reached the President's ears through the "hanged
good-natured friend," as Sheridan--the wit, not the general--calls
the stinging tongue.

"Well," drawled Mr. Lincoln, "I feel very much like the man who said
he did not particularly want to die, but, if he had got to die, that
was precisely the disease he wanted to die of!"

* * * * *

BEST LET AN ELEPHANT GO!

A rebel emissary, the notorious Jacob Thompson, was reported by the
secret service as slipping through the North and trying to get passage
to Europe on the Allan steamship out of Portland, Maine, or Canada.
Brevet-general Dana, confidential officer to the War Department
and the President, inquired if the fugitive was to be detained at
Portland, where the provost-marshal thought he could capture him.
Secretary Stanton wanted him apprehended.

"H'm," said Lincoln, who was being shaved, "I don't know as I have any
apprehension in that quarter. When you have an elephant on your hands,
and he wants to run away, better let him run!"

(NOTE.--The "Unbeknownst" story has been applied to this tolerated
"escape.")

* * * * *

HISTORY REPEATS.

There is a double echo in the Lincolnian saying, "No surrender, though
at the end of one or a hundred defeats," from General-President
Taylor's reply at Buena Vista: "General Taylor never surrenders,"
to its antecedent, not so well authenticated, of General Cambronne
at Waterloo: "The Old Guard dies, but does not surrender."

* * * * *

"NOT THE PRESIDENT, BUT THE OLD FRIEND."

In February, 1865, General Grant's plans were so well shaped that,
with the reenforcement of General Sherman returned from his march
to Savannah, he could count on crushing up Richmond, as an egg under
trip-hammers. Before this the doom was registered, for the Southerners
were at the end of their men, as before they had been at that of their
means. Bridges burned or blown up, the rebel army was pouring out of
their capital with the fear that their one or two ways of flight were
already blocked by Sheridan or Sherman. The desperate attempt to
arm the slaves against their coming deliverer was the "last kick."
Lee clung to Richmond in hope that his lieutenant, Johnston, would
check the oncomer, but he was compelled to notify his President
and colleagues that flight was their only resource when he could
no longer fight.

Lincoln was at Petersburg at Grant's headquarters when, a few miles
off, Davis received the fatal intelligence that Lee was being deserted
so freely that there would not be a body-guard left him. He fled, to
be ignominiously captured in female disguise. His lair was hot when
Lincoln entered it, and made it his closet, whence he issued his
orders.

Soon after this occupation the victor heard the name of Pickett
announced to him. The Southern general, George Pickett, was a protege
of his, as he smoothed his entry upon the West Point Military Academy
book when he was a congressman. Without either knowing it, the hero
was lying dead on a hard-fought field close by. But Lincoln ordered
her admittance. She was accompanied by her little son. This alone
would have prevailed over the President, but, as she formally
addressed him as the authority, he interrupted:

"Not the President, but George's old friend!"

And beckoning the wondering boy to him with the irresistible
attraction of men who love the young, and are intuitively loved by
them, he said:

"Tell your father, rascal, that I forgive him for the sake of your
mother's smile, and your own bright eyes."

This reconciliation on the fall of the sword was a token of the
forgivingness of the North toward the chastened foes.

* * * * *

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!"

The Marquis of Chambrun, a French volunteer, who entered the Lincoln
circle, relates in a more elegant strain the above incident. He states
that Thompson and Sanders were informed upon, and Stanton repeated the
information to the President with a view of having them intercepted.
But the other in his tender voice responded:

"Let us close our eyes, and leave them pass unnoticed."

* * * * *

DON'T JUDGE BY APPEARANCES.

The President's recklessness seems incredible as to going about
the capital, as far as he knew and wished, without escort, but his
"browsing," to use his word, about the perilous front while the
concluding actions were enveloping Petersburg preliminarily to the
rush at Richmond, partake of the nature of a fanatic's daring. This
is the support to the otherwise taxing story told by Doctor J. E.
Burriss, of New York, then a volunteer soldier at the place. He states
that Lincoln, so shabbily dressed as to be taken for a farmer or
planter, was so treated by soldiery before a tobacco-warehouse under
guard. They wanted tobacco, and begged him to allow some to be turned
out. He approached a young lieutenant commanding the post, but the
latter was insolent to the "old Southerner." The latter sent a soldier
to General Grant, who himself rode up, post-haste, at the summons.
The soldiers were given some of the Indian weed, and the donor,
turning to the impertinent officer, who had thought him a converted
reb, said:

"Young sir, do not judge by appearances; and for the future treat your
elders with more respect."

* * * * *

"NOTHING CAN TOUCH HIM FURTHER."

Returning to Washington from Richmond, Lincoln read twice to friends
on the journey, from his pocket Shakespeare:

Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.

* * * * *

"WENT AND RETURNED!"

The last days of March, 1865, contained the three battles, closing
with that of Five Forks, signalizing the collapse of the Confederacy
at Richmond. The President, at the front, sent the news of victories
to the Cabinet at home. After the battles, the advance of the
triumphing Unionists. On Monday morning Lincoln was enabled to
telegraph the talismanic words so often dreamed of in the last
agonizing years of fluctuating hope:

"_Richmond has fallen_! I am about to enter!"

Secretary Stanton, of the war office, immediately implored: "Do not
peril your life!"

But in the morning he received this line from the most independent
President known since Jackson:

"Received your despatch; went to Richmond, and returned this morning!"

Expostulated with by Speaker Colfax on the apparent rashness, for he
had completed "the foolhardy act" by occupying President Jefferson
Davis' vacated house, he replied with the calm of a man of destiny:

"I should have been alarmed myself if any other person had been
President and gone there; but _I_ did not feel in any danger
whatever."

(NOTE.--Mark the analogy in great men. General Grant says of his first
emotions in war--the Mexican--"If some one else had been colonel, and
I had been lieutenant-colonel, I do not think I would have felt any
trepidation.")

* * * * *

THE CLEAR FORESIGHT.

On the 2d of April, 1865, the President was at City Point, Grant's
headquarters, until he started forth for the culminating series of
ceaseless strokes. That morning, attack along the whole line had been
commanded, and the President telegraphed to his wife, at the capital,
during the raging battle. He knew that already the hostile lines had
been pierced in one or more places, and that Sheridan's cavalry rush
was supported by a division of infantry. He concludes foreseeing
that at length "pegging away" was over and slugging begun:

"All is now favorable!"

In truth, on that same day, the rebel government at Richmond faded
thence like a mirage, and, within one week, General Lee surrendered
his enfeebled relic of a grand army.

* * * * *

DO IT "UNBEKNOWNST."

On April 7, 1865, General Grant had enveloped the enemy so that he
could be assured that the rebel government, if it remained in Richmond
as the "last ditch," would be trapped. He notified the President close
by, at Petersburg, and asked what should be done in the event of
the game being bagged. The plan was, it seems, to have slain the
ex-President and his Cabinet officers in a rout, and the charge would
have been described as massacre abroad. The arbiter on this point of
anguish replied in his characteristic manner:

"I will tell you a story. There was once an Irishman, who signed the
Father Mathew's temperance pledge. But a few days afterward he became
terribly thirsty, and finally went into a familiar resort, where the
barkeeper was, at first, startled to hear him call for a 'straight'
soda. He related that he had taken the pledge, so he hinted, with
an Irishman's broadness of hint, 'you might put in some spirits
_unbeknownst_ to me!'"

(NOTE.--Another and later version--for the above was limitedly
repeated at the time with gusto and appreciation of the sublety--makes
the hero a temperance lecturer at Lincoln's father's house. This is
stupid, for Lincoln, a fervent temperance advocate, would not
have decried the apostles of the doctrine for which he was also
a sufferer.)

In course of time doubt has been cast on this anecdote by reason that
the President would not have jested at such a juncture. But abundant
confirmation was forthcoming at the time. Besides, we have so grave
a general as Sherman alluding to the "Unbeknownst" in an official
document.

* * * * *

ONE CANNOT DIE TWICE.

In Lincoln's last interview with his rustic friends, Mrs. Armstrong
repeated the fears many apprehended of evil being visited on the
President-elect on his way to be inaugurated.

"Hannah, if they do kill me, I shall never die another death!" and
laughed at her.

* * * * *

NO MORE INVIDIOUS NAME-CALLING.

On returning from a carriage-drive into Washington, Mrs. Lincoln--who
was not the Southern sympathizer the scandalous hinted--glanced at
the city, and said aloud with bitterness:

"That city is full of our enemies!"

Had she a premonition on the fatal eve?

Right before the Marquis of Chambrun, their companion, the President
serenely said:

"Enemies, Mary! Never speak of that!"

No wonder, when the dastardly taking off was bruited through the
beaten but ever gallant South, they knew that they had lost "their
best friend!" as General Pickett styled Lincoln.--(By the Marquis
of Chambrun.)

* * * * *

"THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE TREASURY OF THE WORLD."

As Schuyler Colfax was going West, Lincoln, in bidding him the
_last_ farewell, said foresightedly:

"I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. Now that
the Rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount
of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the
payment of that debt the easier. Tell the miners from me that I shall
promote their interests to the best of my ability because their
prosperity is the prosperity of the nation; and we shall prove in
a few years that we are the treasury of the world."

* * * * *

"HANG ON--NOT HANG!"

On April 11, 1865, Mr. Lincoln spoke out of his study window to
an immense and joyous crowd. There were rockets, and portfire, and
a huge bonfire, while the President was serenaded. The finish of
the Rebellion delighted all persons. His offhand speech was full
of compassion and brotherly love. Louisiana was already being
"reconstructed." Mr. Harlan, who followed the chief, touched the
major key: "What shall we do with the rebels?" To which the mob
responded hoarsely:

"Hang them!"

Lincoln's little son, Tad, was in the room, playing with the quills
on the table where his father made his notes. He looked at his father,
and said, as one whose intimacy made him familiar with his inmost
thoughts:

"No, papa; not hang them--but _hang on_ to them!"

The President triumphantly repeated:

"We must hang on to them! Tad's got it!"--(By Mrs. H. McCulloch,
present.)

* * * * *

LINCOLN'S LAST WISH.

"Springfield! how happy four years hence will I be, to return there
in peace and tranquillity!"--(To the Marquis of Chambrun, April, 1865.)

* * * * *

ASSASSINATION.

At Springfield, immediately upon the election for President, Lincoln
began to receive letters with lethal menaces. His friends took them
as serious, and two or more carried weapons, and escorted him closely
that no one with a dagger might reach his side. Calling on his
stepmother for the farewell, she reiterated the general, and rising,
fears. At Philadelphia, detectives and others whispered of a plot
matured at Baltimore, and in his speech at raising the flag over
Independence Hall he said pointedly:

"If this country cannot be saved without giving up this
principle--liberty to the world--I was about to say I would rather be
assassinated on the spot than surrender it.... I have said nothing but
what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty
God, to die by."--(Speech, Philadelphia, February, 1861.)

* * * * *

A PRESIDENT, NOT AN EMPEROR.

The President said to Colonel Halpine as respected the life-guards,
which he soon dispensed with around his person, often going out
unawares so as to "dodge" the escort in waiting:

"It will never do for the President of a republic to have guards with
drawn swords at his door, as if he fancied he were, or were trying to
be, or were assuming to be, an emperor."

* * * * *

THE PLOT TO WAYLAY THE PRESIDENT (1860).

The dispute as to whether there was a foundation to the supposed plot
to waylay and sequester President-elect Lincoln between Philadelphia
and Washington is notable. From the later light and the letter from
Wilkes Booth to his brother-in-law, Sleeper Clarke, the comedian, no
doubt is left that to kidnap him was a plot dated very early when
the foresighted slave-holders were certain that he was a greater
enemy from consistency than the louder-voiced and openly violent
Abolitionists. While Colonel Lamon doubted, and wished he had not
been beguiled into aiding in the ignominious flight in disguise
and secretly by train, Secretary Seward and General Scott gave it
credence. The foreboding had touched Lincoln before he left his
Illinois home. At Springfield his farewell speech is tinged with
shade. At Philadelphia and Harrisburg he spoke of blood-spilling,
and used the word "assassination" at the former. He took up the
matter like a reasoner. Already the detective brothers, Pinkerton,
had an inkling of the doings of the Knights of the Golden Circle,
or some such secret society, designing regicide. So, as the
Concordance is held as a proof from the variance of the witnesses
to scenes, he argued that the story was founded. Otherwise he would
not have heard of the criminal attempt from all sides. That was what
made him yield his dignity to the safety of a person whom he felt
was chosen for the crisis. The next morning he had concluded to
pass through Baltimore at another than the arranged hour to foil
the plot.

* * * * *

"I DON'T BELIEVE THERE IS ANY DANGER!"

One night the President had been very late with the secretary of war
at the latter's department. But, just the same, he insisted on his
getting home by the short cut--a foot-path, lined and embowered
by trees, then leading from the war office to the White House. But
Stanton stopped him.

"You ought not to go that way; it is dangerous for you in the
daytime"--it did lend itself to an ambuscade, and persons who knew
Wilkes Booth assert having seen him prowling around--"it is worse
at night!"

"I do not believe there is _any_ danger there, night or day!"
responded the President, with Malcolm's confidence that he stood
"in the great hand of God."

"Well, Mr. President," continued Stanton, a stubborn man himself,
"you shall not be killed returning from my department by that dark
way while I am in it!"

And he forced him to enter his carriage to return by the well-lighted
avenue.

Lincoln had previously consented to carry a cane. (By Schuyler
Colfax.)

* * * * *

WORRY TILL YOU GET RID OF THINGS.

On Colonel Halpine trying to make the chief see that even indoors
there was danger, he debated about the two menaces--violence of
"cranks" and of a political fanatic. He thought too well of the
sense of the "people at Richmond," some of whom had been colleagues
of his in his first stay in Washington as congressman.

"Do you think that they would like to have Hannibal Hamlin--his first
vice-president--here any better than myself?"

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18