Lincoln's Yarns and Stories [106]
county of Larue, a mile or a mile and a half from where Rodgen's mill now is. My parents being dead, and my own memory not serving, I know no means of identifying the precise locality. It was on Nolen Creek.
A. LINCOLN."
"SAMBO" WAS "AFEARED."
In his message to Congress in December, 1864, just after his re-election, President Lincoln, in his message of December 6th, let himself out, in plain, unmistakable terms, to the effect that the freedmen should never be placed in bondage again. "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" of December 24th, 1864, printed the cartoon we herewith reproduce, the text underneath running in this way:
UNCLE ABE: "Sambo, you are not handsome, any more than myself, but as to sending you back to your old master, I'm not the man to do it--and, what's more, I won't." (Vice President's message.)
Congress, at the previous sitting, had neglected to pass the resolution for the Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery, but, on the 31st of January, 1865, the resolution was finally adopted, and the United States Constitution soon had the new feature as one of its clauses, the necessary number of State Legislatures approving it. President Lincoln regarded the passage of this resolution by Congress as most important, as the amendment, in his mind, covered whatever defects a rigid construction of the Constitution might find in his Emancipation Proclamation.
After the latter was issued, negroes were allowed to enlist in the Army, and they fought well and bravely. After the War, in the reorganization of the Regular Army, four regiments of colored men were provided for--the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. In the cartoon, Sambo has evidently been asking "Uncle Abe" as to the probability or possibility of his being again enslaved.
WHEN MONEY MIGHT BE USED.
Some Lincoln enthusiast in Kansas, with much more pretensions than power, wrote him in March, 1860 proposing to furnish a Lincoln delegation from that State to the Chicago Convention, and suggesting that Lincoln should pay the legitimate expenses of organizing, electing, and taking to the convention the promised Lincoln delegates.
To this Lincoln replied that "in the main, the use of money is wrong, but for certain objects in a political contest the use of some is both right and indispensable." And he added: "If you shall be appointed a delegate to Chicago, I will furnish $100 to bear the expenses of the trip."
He heard nothing further from the Kansas man until he saw an announcement in the newspapers that Kansas had elected delegates and instructed them for Seward.
"ABE" WAS NO BEAUTY.
Lincoln's military service in the Back Hawk war had increased his popularity at New Salem, and he was put up as a candidate for the Legislature.
A. Y. Ellis describes his personal appearance at this time as follows: "He wore a mixed jean coat, claw-hammer style, short in the sleeves and bob-tailed; in fact, it was so short in the tail that he could not sit on it; flax and tow linen pantaloons and a straw hat. I think he wore a vest, but do not remember how it looked; he wore pot-metal boots."
"HE'S JUST BEAUTIFUL."
Lincoln's great love for children easily won their confidence.
A little girl, who had been told that the President was very homely, was taken by her father to see the President at the White House.
Lincoln took her upon his knee and chatted with her for a moment in his merry way, when she turned to her father and exclaimed
"Oh, Pa! he isn't ugly at all; he's just beautiful!"
BIG ENOUGH HOG FOR HIM.
To a curiosity-seeker who desired a permit to pass the lines to visit the field of Bull Run, after the first battle, Lincoln made the following reply:
"A man in Cortlandt county raised a porker of such unusual size that strangers went out of their way to see it.
"One of them the other day met the old gentleman and inquired about the animal.
"'Wall, yes,' the old fellow said, 'I've got such a critter, mi'ty big un; but I guess I'll have to charge you about
A. LINCOLN."
"SAMBO" WAS "AFEARED."
In his message to Congress in December, 1864, just after his re-election, President Lincoln, in his message of December 6th, let himself out, in plain, unmistakable terms, to the effect that the freedmen should never be placed in bondage again. "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" of December 24th, 1864, printed the cartoon we herewith reproduce, the text underneath running in this way:
UNCLE ABE: "Sambo, you are not handsome, any more than myself, but as to sending you back to your old master, I'm not the man to do it--and, what's more, I won't." (Vice President's message.)
Congress, at the previous sitting, had neglected to pass the resolution for the Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery, but, on the 31st of January, 1865, the resolution was finally adopted, and the United States Constitution soon had the new feature as one of its clauses, the necessary number of State Legislatures approving it. President Lincoln regarded the passage of this resolution by Congress as most important, as the amendment, in his mind, covered whatever defects a rigid construction of the Constitution might find in his Emancipation Proclamation.
After the latter was issued, negroes were allowed to enlist in the Army, and they fought well and bravely. After the War, in the reorganization of the Regular Army, four regiments of colored men were provided for--the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. In the cartoon, Sambo has evidently been asking "Uncle Abe" as to the probability or possibility of his being again enslaved.
WHEN MONEY MIGHT BE USED.
Some Lincoln enthusiast in Kansas, with much more pretensions than power, wrote him in March, 1860 proposing to furnish a Lincoln delegation from that State to the Chicago Convention, and suggesting that Lincoln should pay the legitimate expenses of organizing, electing, and taking to the convention the promised Lincoln delegates.
To this Lincoln replied that "in the main, the use of money is wrong, but for certain objects in a political contest the use of some is both right and indispensable." And he added: "If you shall be appointed a delegate to Chicago, I will furnish $100 to bear the expenses of the trip."
He heard nothing further from the Kansas man until he saw an announcement in the newspapers that Kansas had elected delegates and instructed them for Seward.
"ABE" WAS NO BEAUTY.
Lincoln's military service in the Back Hawk war had increased his popularity at New Salem, and he was put up as a candidate for the Legislature.
A. Y. Ellis describes his personal appearance at this time as follows: "He wore a mixed jean coat, claw-hammer style, short in the sleeves and bob-tailed; in fact, it was so short in the tail that he could not sit on it; flax and tow linen pantaloons and a straw hat. I think he wore a vest, but do not remember how it looked; he wore pot-metal boots."
"HE'S JUST BEAUTIFUL."
Lincoln's great love for children easily won their confidence.
A little girl, who had been told that the President was very homely, was taken by her father to see the President at the White House.
Lincoln took her upon his knee and chatted with her for a moment in his merry way, when she turned to her father and exclaimed
"Oh, Pa! he isn't ugly at all; he's just beautiful!"
BIG ENOUGH HOG FOR HIM.
To a curiosity-seeker who desired a permit to pass the lines to visit the field of Bull Run, after the first battle, Lincoln made the following reply:
"A man in Cortlandt county raised a porker of such unusual size that strangers went out of their way to see it.
"One of them the other day met the old gentleman and inquired about the animal.
"'Wall, yes,' the old fellow said, 'I've got such a critter, mi'ty big un; but I guess I'll have to charge you about