Lincoln's Yarns and Stories [144]
woman had come in from the country, making a journey of eight or ten miles, to relate to Mr. Lincoln this incident, which, in her mind, had doubtless taken the form of a prophecy. Mr. Lincoln placed the honest creature at her ease, chatted with her of old times, and dismissed her in the most happy frame of mind.
HOW THE TOWN OF LINCOLN, ILL., WAS NAMED.
The story of naming the town of Lincoln, the county seat of Logan county, Illinois, is thus given on good authority:
The first railroad had been built through the county, and a station was about to be located there. Lincoln, Virgil Hitchcock, Colonel R. B. Latham and several others were sitting on a pile of ties and talking about moving a county seat from Mount Pulaski. Mr. Lincoln rose and started to walk away, when Colonel Latham said: "Lincoln, if you will help us to get the county seat here, we will call the place Lincoln."
"All right, Latham," he replied.
Colonel Latham then deeded him a lot on the west side of the courthouse, and he owned it at the time he was elected President.
"OLD JEFF'S" BIG NIGHTMARE.
"Jeff" Davis had a large and threatening nightmare in November, 1864, and what he saw in his troubled dreams was the long and lanky figure of Abraham Lincoln, who had just been endorsed by the people of the United States for another term in the White House at Washington. The cartoon reproduced here is from the issue of "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" of December 3rd, 1864, it being entitled "Jeff Davis' November Nightmare."
Davis had been told that McClellan, "the War is a failure" candidate for the Presidency, would have no difficulty whatever in defeating Lincoln; that negotiations with the Confederate officials for the cessation of hostilities would be entered into as soon as McClellan was seated in the Chief Executive's chair; that the Confederacy would, in all probability, be recognized as an independent government by the Washington Administration; that the "sacred institution" of slavery would continue to do business at the old stand; that the Confederacy would be one of the great nations of the world, and have all the "State Rights" and other things it wanted, with absolutely no interference whatever upon the part of the North.
Therefore, Lincoln's re-election was a rough, rude shock to Davis, who had not prepared himself for such an event. Six months from the date of that nightmare-dream he was a prisoner in the hands of the Union forces, and the Confederacy was a thing of the past.
LINCOLN'S LAST OFFICIAL ACT.
Probably the last official act of President Lincoln's life was the signing of the commission reappointing Alvin Saunders Governor of Nebraska.
"I saw Mr. Lincoln regarding the matter," said Governor Saunders, "and he told me to go home; that he would attend to it all right. I left Washington on the morning of the 14th, and while en route the news of the assassination on the evening of the same day reached me. I immediately wired back to find out what had become of my commission, and was told that the room had not been opened. When it was opened, the document was found lying on the desk.
"Mr. Lincoln signed it just before leaving for the theater that fatal evening, and left it lying there, unfolded.
"A note was found below the document as follows: 'Rather a lengthy commission, bestowing upon Mr. Alvin Saunders the official authority of Governor of the Territory of Nebraska.' Then came Lincoln's signature, which, with one exception, that of a penciled message on the back of a card sent up by a friend as Mr. Lincoln was dressing for the theater, was the very last signature of the martyred President."
THE LAD NEEDED THE SLEEP.
A personal friend of President Lincoln is authority for this:
"I called on him one day in the early part of the War. He had just written a pardon for a young man who had been sentenced to be shot for sleeping at his post. He remarked as he read it to me:
"'I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts.' Then he added:
HOW THE TOWN OF LINCOLN, ILL., WAS NAMED.
The story of naming the town of Lincoln, the county seat of Logan county, Illinois, is thus given on good authority:
The first railroad had been built through the county, and a station was about to be located there. Lincoln, Virgil Hitchcock, Colonel R. B. Latham and several others were sitting on a pile of ties and talking about moving a county seat from Mount Pulaski. Mr. Lincoln rose and started to walk away, when Colonel Latham said: "Lincoln, if you will help us to get the county seat here, we will call the place Lincoln."
"All right, Latham," he replied.
Colonel Latham then deeded him a lot on the west side of the courthouse, and he owned it at the time he was elected President.
"OLD JEFF'S" BIG NIGHTMARE.
"Jeff" Davis had a large and threatening nightmare in November, 1864, and what he saw in his troubled dreams was the long and lanky figure of Abraham Lincoln, who had just been endorsed by the people of the United States for another term in the White House at Washington. The cartoon reproduced here is from the issue of "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" of December 3rd, 1864, it being entitled "Jeff Davis' November Nightmare."
Davis had been told that McClellan, "the War is a failure" candidate for the Presidency, would have no difficulty whatever in defeating Lincoln; that negotiations with the Confederate officials for the cessation of hostilities would be entered into as soon as McClellan was seated in the Chief Executive's chair; that the Confederacy would, in all probability, be recognized as an independent government by the Washington Administration; that the "sacred institution" of slavery would continue to do business at the old stand; that the Confederacy would be one of the great nations of the world, and have all the "State Rights" and other things it wanted, with absolutely no interference whatever upon the part of the North.
Therefore, Lincoln's re-election was a rough, rude shock to Davis, who had not prepared himself for such an event. Six months from the date of that nightmare-dream he was a prisoner in the hands of the Union forces, and the Confederacy was a thing of the past.
LINCOLN'S LAST OFFICIAL ACT.
Probably the last official act of President Lincoln's life was the signing of the commission reappointing Alvin Saunders Governor of Nebraska.
"I saw Mr. Lincoln regarding the matter," said Governor Saunders, "and he told me to go home; that he would attend to it all right. I left Washington on the morning of the 14th, and while en route the news of the assassination on the evening of the same day reached me. I immediately wired back to find out what had become of my commission, and was told that the room had not been opened. When it was opened, the document was found lying on the desk.
"Mr. Lincoln signed it just before leaving for the theater that fatal evening, and left it lying there, unfolded.
"A note was found below the document as follows: 'Rather a lengthy commission, bestowing upon Mr. Alvin Saunders the official authority of Governor of the Territory of Nebraska.' Then came Lincoln's signature, which, with one exception, that of a penciled message on the back of a card sent up by a friend as Mr. Lincoln was dressing for the theater, was the very last signature of the martyred President."
THE LAD NEEDED THE SLEEP.
A personal friend of President Lincoln is authority for this:
"I called on him one day in the early part of the War. He had just written a pardon for a young man who had been sentenced to be shot for sleeping at his post. He remarked as he read it to me:
"'I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts.' Then he added: