Lincoln's Yarns and Stories [30]
"Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" printed this cartoon, over the title of "Sandbag Lincoln and the Old Man of the Sea, Secretary of the Navy Welles." It was intended to demonstrate that the head of the Navy Department was incompetent to manage the affairs of the Navy; also that the Navy was not doing as good work as it might.
When this cartoon was published, the United States Navy had cleared and had under control the Mississippi River as far south as Memphis; had blockaded all the cotton ports of the South; had assisted in the reduction of a number of Confederate forts; had aided Grant at Fort Donelson and the battle of Shiloh; the Monitor had whipped the ironclad terror, Merrimac (the Confederates called her the Virginia); Admiral Farragut's fleet had compelled the surrender of the city of New Orleans, the great forts which had defended it, and the Federal Government obtained control of the lower Mississippi.
"The Old Man of the Sea" was therefore, not a drag or a weight upon President Lincoln, and the Navy was not so far behind in making a good record as the picture would have the people of the world believe. It was not long after the Monitor's victory that the United States Navy was the finest that ever plowed the seas. The building of the Monitor also revolutionized naval warfare.
McCLELLAN WAS "INTRENCHING."
About a week after the Chicago Convention, a gentleman from New York called upon the President, in company with the Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. Dana.
In the course of conversation, the gentleman said: "What do you think, Mr. President, is the reason General McClellan does not reply to the letter from the Chicago Convention?"
"Oh!" replied Mr. Lincoln, with a characteristic twinkle of the eye, "he is intrenching!"
MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT, ANYWAY.
>From the day of his nomination by the Chicago convention, gifts poured in upon Lincoln. Many of these came in the form of wearing apparel. Mr. George Lincoln, of Brooklyn, who brought to Springfield, in January, 1861, a handsome silk hat to the President-elect, the gift of a New York hatter, told some friends that in receiving the hat Lincoln laughed heartily over the gifts of clothing, and remarked to Mrs. Lincoln: "Well, wife, if nothing else comes out of this scrape, we are going to have some new clothes, are we not?"
VICIOUS OXEN HAVE SHORT HORNS.
In speaking of the many mean and petty acts of certain members of Congress, the President, while talking on the subject one day with friends, said:
"I have great sympathy for these men, because of their temper and their weakness; but I am thankful that the good Lord has given to the vicious ox short horns, for if their physical courage were equal to their vicious disposition, some of us in this neck of the woods would get hurt."
LINCOLN'S NAME FOR "WEEPING WATER."
"I was speaking one time to Mr. Lincoln," said Governor Saunders, of Nebraska, of a little Nebraskan settlement on the Weeping Water, a stream in our State."
"'Weeping Water!' said he.
"Then with a twinkle in his eye, he continued.
"'I suppose the Indians out there call Minneboohoo, don't they? They ought to, if Laughing Water is Minnehaha in their language.'"
PETER CARTWRIGHT'S DESCRIPTION OF LINCOLN.
Peter Cartwright, the famous and eccentric old Methodist preacher, who used to ride a church circuit, as Mr. Lincoln and others did the court circuit, did not like Lincoln very well, probably because Mr. Lincoln was not a member of his flock, and once defeated the preacher for Congress. This was Cartwright's description of Lincoln: "This Lincoln is a man six feet four inches tall, but so angular that if you should drop a plummet from the center of his head it would cut him three times before it touched his feet."
NO DEATHS IN HIS HOUSE.
A gentleman was relating to the President how a friend of his had been driven away from New Orleans as a Unionist, and how, on his expulsion, when he asked to see the writ by which he was expelled, the deputation which called on him told him the Government
When this cartoon was published, the United States Navy had cleared and had under control the Mississippi River as far south as Memphis; had blockaded all the cotton ports of the South; had assisted in the reduction of a number of Confederate forts; had aided Grant at Fort Donelson and the battle of Shiloh; the Monitor had whipped the ironclad terror, Merrimac (the Confederates called her the Virginia); Admiral Farragut's fleet had compelled the surrender of the city of New Orleans, the great forts which had defended it, and the Federal Government obtained control of the lower Mississippi.
"The Old Man of the Sea" was therefore, not a drag or a weight upon President Lincoln, and the Navy was not so far behind in making a good record as the picture would have the people of the world believe. It was not long after the Monitor's victory that the United States Navy was the finest that ever plowed the seas. The building of the Monitor also revolutionized naval warfare.
McCLELLAN WAS "INTRENCHING."
About a week after the Chicago Convention, a gentleman from New York called upon the President, in company with the Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. Dana.
In the course of conversation, the gentleman said: "What do you think, Mr. President, is the reason General McClellan does not reply to the letter from the Chicago Convention?"
"Oh!" replied Mr. Lincoln, with a characteristic twinkle of the eye, "he is intrenching!"
MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT, ANYWAY.
>From the day of his nomination by the Chicago convention, gifts poured in upon Lincoln. Many of these came in the form of wearing apparel. Mr. George Lincoln, of Brooklyn, who brought to Springfield, in January, 1861, a handsome silk hat to the President-elect, the gift of a New York hatter, told some friends that in receiving the hat Lincoln laughed heartily over the gifts of clothing, and remarked to Mrs. Lincoln: "Well, wife, if nothing else comes out of this scrape, we are going to have some new clothes, are we not?"
VICIOUS OXEN HAVE SHORT HORNS.
In speaking of the many mean and petty acts of certain members of Congress, the President, while talking on the subject one day with friends, said:
"I have great sympathy for these men, because of their temper and their weakness; but I am thankful that the good Lord has given to the vicious ox short horns, for if their physical courage were equal to their vicious disposition, some of us in this neck of the woods would get hurt."
LINCOLN'S NAME FOR "WEEPING WATER."
"I was speaking one time to Mr. Lincoln," said Governor Saunders, of Nebraska, of a little Nebraskan settlement on the Weeping Water, a stream in our State."
"'Weeping Water!' said he.
"Then with a twinkle in his eye, he continued.
"'I suppose the Indians out there call Minneboohoo, don't they? They ought to, if Laughing Water is Minnehaha in their language.'"
PETER CARTWRIGHT'S DESCRIPTION OF LINCOLN.
Peter Cartwright, the famous and eccentric old Methodist preacher, who used to ride a church circuit, as Mr. Lincoln and others did the court circuit, did not like Lincoln very well, probably because Mr. Lincoln was not a member of his flock, and once defeated the preacher for Congress. This was Cartwright's description of Lincoln: "This Lincoln is a man six feet four inches tall, but so angular that if you should drop a plummet from the center of his head it would cut him three times before it touched his feet."
NO DEATHS IN HIS HOUSE.
A gentleman was relating to the President how a friend of his had been driven away from New Orleans as a Unionist, and how, on his expulsion, when he asked to see the writ by which he was expelled, the deputation which called on him told him the Government