Lincoln's Yarns and Stories [127]
respects, and if I may, to say to you a word about the serious condition of this country.'
"'Go ahead, Doctor,' replied the President; 'every little helps.' But I was too much in earnest to laugh at his sally at my smallness."
ABOUT TO LAY DOWN THE BURDEN.
President Lincoln (at times) said he felt sure his life would end with the War. A correspondent of a Boston paper had an interview with him in July, 1864, and wrote regarding it:
"The President told me he was certain he should not outlast the rebellion. As will be remembered, there was dissension then among the Republican leaders. Many of his best friends had deserted him, and were talking of an opposition convention to nominate another candidate, and universal gloom was among the people.
"The North was tired of the War, and supposed an honorable peace attainable. Mr. Lincoln knew it was not--that any peace at that time would be only disunion. Speaking of it, he said: 'I have faith in the people. They will not consent to disunion. The danger is, they are misled. Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.'
"He looked haggard and careworn; and further on in the interview I remarked on his appearance, 'You are wearing yourself out with work.'
"'I can't work less,' he answered; 'but it isn't that--work never troubled me. Things look badly, and I can't avoid anxiety. Personally, I care nothing about a re-election, but if our divisions defeat us, I fear for the country.'
"When I suggested that right must eventually triumph, he replied, 'I grant that, but I may never live to see it. I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over, my work will be done.'
"He never intimated, however, that he expected to be assassinated."
LINCOLN WOULD HAVE PREFERRED DEATH.
Horace Greeley said, some time after the death of President Lincoln:
"After the Civil War began, Lincoln's tenacity of purpose paralleled his former immobility; I believe he would have been nearly the last, if not the very last, man in America to recognize the Southern Confederacy had its armies been triumphant. He would have preferred death."
"PUNCH" AND HIS LITTLE PICTURE.
London "Punch" was not satisfied with anything President Lincoln did. On December 3rd, 1864, after Mr. Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, a cartoon appeared in one of the pages of that genial publication, the reproduction being printed here, labeled "The Federal Phoenix." It attracted great attention at the time, and was particularly pleasing to the enemies of the United States, as it showed Lincoln as the Phoenix arising from the ashes of the Federal Constitution, the Public Credit, the Freedom of the Press, State Rights and the Commerce of the North American Republic.
President Lincoln's endorsement by the people of the United States meant that the Confederacy was to be crushed, no matter what the cost; that the Union of States was to be preserved, and that State Rights was a thing of the past. "Punch" wished to create the impression that President Lincoln's re-election was a personal victory; that he would set up a despotism, with himself at its head, and trample upon the Constitution of the United States and all the rights the citizens of the Republic ever possessed.
The result showed that "Punch" was suffering from an acute attack of needless alarm.
FASCINATED By THE WONDERFUL
Lincoln was particularly fascinated by the wonderful happenings recorded in history. He loved to read of those mighty events which had been foretold, and often brooded upon these subjects. His early convictions upon occult matters led him to read all books tending' to strengthen these convictions.
The following lines, in Byron's "Dream," were frequently quoted by him:
"Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world And a wide realm of wild reality. And dreams in their development have breath, And tears and tortures, and the touch of joy; They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts, They take a weight
"'Go ahead, Doctor,' replied the President; 'every little helps.' But I was too much in earnest to laugh at his sally at my smallness."
ABOUT TO LAY DOWN THE BURDEN.
President Lincoln (at times) said he felt sure his life would end with the War. A correspondent of a Boston paper had an interview with him in July, 1864, and wrote regarding it:
"The President told me he was certain he should not outlast the rebellion. As will be remembered, there was dissension then among the Republican leaders. Many of his best friends had deserted him, and were talking of an opposition convention to nominate another candidate, and universal gloom was among the people.
"The North was tired of the War, and supposed an honorable peace attainable. Mr. Lincoln knew it was not--that any peace at that time would be only disunion. Speaking of it, he said: 'I have faith in the people. They will not consent to disunion. The danger is, they are misled. Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.'
"He looked haggard and careworn; and further on in the interview I remarked on his appearance, 'You are wearing yourself out with work.'
"'I can't work less,' he answered; 'but it isn't that--work never troubled me. Things look badly, and I can't avoid anxiety. Personally, I care nothing about a re-election, but if our divisions defeat us, I fear for the country.'
"When I suggested that right must eventually triumph, he replied, 'I grant that, but I may never live to see it. I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the rebellion. When it is over, my work will be done.'
"He never intimated, however, that he expected to be assassinated."
LINCOLN WOULD HAVE PREFERRED DEATH.
Horace Greeley said, some time after the death of President Lincoln:
"After the Civil War began, Lincoln's tenacity of purpose paralleled his former immobility; I believe he would have been nearly the last, if not the very last, man in America to recognize the Southern Confederacy had its armies been triumphant. He would have preferred death."
"PUNCH" AND HIS LITTLE PICTURE.
London "Punch" was not satisfied with anything President Lincoln did. On December 3rd, 1864, after Mr. Lincoln's re-election to the Presidency, a cartoon appeared in one of the pages of that genial publication, the reproduction being printed here, labeled "The Federal Phoenix." It attracted great attention at the time, and was particularly pleasing to the enemies of the United States, as it showed Lincoln as the Phoenix arising from the ashes of the Federal Constitution, the Public Credit, the Freedom of the Press, State Rights and the Commerce of the North American Republic.
President Lincoln's endorsement by the people of the United States meant that the Confederacy was to be crushed, no matter what the cost; that the Union of States was to be preserved, and that State Rights was a thing of the past. "Punch" wished to create the impression that President Lincoln's re-election was a personal victory; that he would set up a despotism, with himself at its head, and trample upon the Constitution of the United States and all the rights the citizens of the Republic ever possessed.
The result showed that "Punch" was suffering from an acute attack of needless alarm.
FASCINATED By THE WONDERFUL
Lincoln was particularly fascinated by the wonderful happenings recorded in history. He loved to read of those mighty events which had been foretold, and often brooded upon these subjects. His early convictions upon occult matters led him to read all books tending' to strengthen these convictions.
The following lines, in Byron's "Dream," were frequently quoted by him:
"Sleep hath its own world, A boundary between the things misnamed Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world And a wide realm of wild reality. And dreams in their development have breath, And tears and tortures, and the touch of joy; They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts, They take a weight