Lincoln's Yarns and Stories [95]
one of the afternoon receptions at the White House a stranger shook hands with him, and, as he did so, remarked casually, that he was elected to Congress about the time Mr. Lincoln's term as representative expired, which happened many years before.
"Yes," said the President, "You are from--(mentioning the State). "I remember reading of your election in a newspaper one morning on a steamboat going down to Mount Vernon."
At another time a gentleman addressed him, saying, "I presume, Mr, President, you have forgotten me?"
"No," was the prompt reply; "your name is Flood. I saw you last, twelve years ago, at--" (naming the place and the occasion).
"I am glad to see," he continued, "that the Flood goes on."
Subsequent to his re-election a deputation of bankers from various sections were introduced one day by the Secretary of the Treasury.
After a few moments of general conversation, Lincoln turned to one of them and said:
"Your district did not give me so strong a vote at the last election as it did in 1860."
"I think, sir, that you must be mistaken," replied the banker. "I have the impression that your majority was considerably increased at the last election."
"No," rejoined the President, "you fell off about six hundred votes."
Then taking down from the bookcase the official canvass of 1860 and 1864, he referred to the vote of the district named, and proved to be quite right in his assertion.
ONLY HALF A MAN.
As President Lincoln, arm in arm with ex-President Buchanan, entered the Capitol, and passed into the Senate Chamber, filled to overflowing with Senators, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and visitors, the contrast between the two men struck every observer.
"Mr. Buchanan was so withered and bowed with age," wrote George W. Julian, of Indiana, who was among the spectators, "that in contrast with the towering form of Mr. Lincoln he seemed little more than half a man."
GRANT CONGRATULATED LINCOLN.
As soon as the result of the Presidential election of 1864 was known, General Grant telegraphed from City Point his congratulations, and added that "the election having passed off quietly . . . is a victory worth more to the country than a battle won."
"BRUTUS AND CAESAR."
London "Punch" persistently maintained throughout the War for the Union that the question of what to do with the blacks was the most bothersome of all the problems President Lincoln had to solve. "Punch" thought the Rebellion had its origin in an effort to determine whether there should or should not be slavery in the United States, and was fought with this as the main end in view. "Punch" of August 15th, 1863, contained the cartoon reproduced on this page, the title being "Brutus and Caesar."
President Lincoln was pictured as Brutus, while the ghost of Caesar, which appeared in the tent of the American Brutus during the dark hours of the night, was represented in the shape of a husky and anything but ghost-like African, whose complexion would tend to make the blackest tar look like skimmed milk in comparison. This was the text below the cartoon: (From the American Edition of Shakespeare.) The Tent of Brutus (Lincoln). Night. Enter the Ghost of Caesar.
BRUTUS: "Wall, now! Do tell! Who's you?"
CAESAR: "I am dy ebil genus, Massa Linking. Dis child am awful impressional!"
"Punch's" cartoons were decidedly unfriendly in tone toward President Lincoln, some of them being not only objectionable in the display of bad taste, but offensive and vulgar. It is true that after the assassination of the President, "Punch," in illustrations, paid marked and deserved tribute to the memory of the Great Emancipator, but it had little that was good to say of him while he was among the living and engaged in carrying out the great work for which he was destined to win eternal fame.
HOW STANTON GOT INTO THE CABINET.
President Lincoln, well aware of Stanton's unfriendliness, was surprised when Secretary of the Treasury Chase told him that Stanton had expressed the opinion that the arrest of the Confederate Commissioners,
"Yes," said the President, "You are from--(mentioning the State). "I remember reading of your election in a newspaper one morning on a steamboat going down to Mount Vernon."
At another time a gentleman addressed him, saying, "I presume, Mr, President, you have forgotten me?"
"No," was the prompt reply; "your name is Flood. I saw you last, twelve years ago, at--" (naming the place and the occasion).
"I am glad to see," he continued, "that the Flood goes on."
Subsequent to his re-election a deputation of bankers from various sections were introduced one day by the Secretary of the Treasury.
After a few moments of general conversation, Lincoln turned to one of them and said:
"Your district did not give me so strong a vote at the last election as it did in 1860."
"I think, sir, that you must be mistaken," replied the banker. "I have the impression that your majority was considerably increased at the last election."
"No," rejoined the President, "you fell off about six hundred votes."
Then taking down from the bookcase the official canvass of 1860 and 1864, he referred to the vote of the district named, and proved to be quite right in his assertion.
ONLY HALF A MAN.
As President Lincoln, arm in arm with ex-President Buchanan, entered the Capitol, and passed into the Senate Chamber, filled to overflowing with Senators, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and visitors, the contrast between the two men struck every observer.
"Mr. Buchanan was so withered and bowed with age," wrote George W. Julian, of Indiana, who was among the spectators, "that in contrast with the towering form of Mr. Lincoln he seemed little more than half a man."
GRANT CONGRATULATED LINCOLN.
As soon as the result of the Presidential election of 1864 was known, General Grant telegraphed from City Point his congratulations, and added that "the election having passed off quietly . . . is a victory worth more to the country than a battle won."
"BRUTUS AND CAESAR."
London "Punch" persistently maintained throughout the War for the Union that the question of what to do with the blacks was the most bothersome of all the problems President Lincoln had to solve. "Punch" thought the Rebellion had its origin in an effort to determine whether there should or should not be slavery in the United States, and was fought with this as the main end in view. "Punch" of August 15th, 1863, contained the cartoon reproduced on this page, the title being "Brutus and Caesar."
President Lincoln was pictured as Brutus, while the ghost of Caesar, which appeared in the tent of the American Brutus during the dark hours of the night, was represented in the shape of a husky and anything but ghost-like African, whose complexion would tend to make the blackest tar look like skimmed milk in comparison. This was the text below the cartoon: (From the American Edition of Shakespeare.) The Tent of Brutus (Lincoln). Night. Enter the Ghost of Caesar.
BRUTUS: "Wall, now! Do tell! Who's you?"
CAESAR: "I am dy ebil genus, Massa Linking. Dis child am awful impressional!"
"Punch's" cartoons were decidedly unfriendly in tone toward President Lincoln, some of them being not only objectionable in the display of bad taste, but offensive and vulgar. It is true that after the assassination of the President, "Punch," in illustrations, paid marked and deserved tribute to the memory of the Great Emancipator, but it had little that was good to say of him while he was among the living and engaged in carrying out the great work for which he was destined to win eternal fame.
HOW STANTON GOT INTO THE CABINET.
President Lincoln, well aware of Stanton's unfriendliness, was surprised when Secretary of the Treasury Chase told him that Stanton had expressed the opinion that the arrest of the Confederate Commissioners,