The Lincoln Story Book Part 37

He had the room cleared and discussed the war, interspersing the dialogue with apposite stories.--(Told by Senator C. M. Depew.)

"ACCUSE NOT A SERVANT----"

As the possibilities of rapid advancement were redoubled during the war, the President, in his first term of office, was stormed by the office-seekers, who thought it the best plan to have occupiers of posts ousted to give them an opening; so they maligned and even accused chief officials with a freedom unknown in other countries where the bureaucracy is a sacred inst.i.tution--as within a generation it has become here. Lincoln rebuked one of these covetous vexers by saying gravely to him:

"Friend, go home and attentively read 'Proverbs,' chapter thirteen, verse ten."

The rebuffed applicant found at that page in the book: "Accuse not a servant to his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty!"--(Attested by Schuyler Colfax.)

A WOLF IN A TRAP MUST SACRIFICE HIS "TAIL" TO BE FREE.

The presidential private secretary, Stoddard, maintains that his chief sorely astonished and baffled the tribe of acquaintances who flocked in upon him as soon as he was elevated and went back home, with empty haversacks, wondering that he ignored them with heartless ingrat.i.tude.

"He did not make even his own father a brigadier nor invite cousin Dennis Hanks to a seat in his Cabinet!"

SOMEWHAT OF A NEWSMAN.

Innately attached to letters, and precocious, Abraham Lincoln soon learned his letters and drank in all the learning that his few books could supply. Hence at an early age he became the oracle on the rude frontier, where even a smattering made him handy and valuable to the illiterate backwoodsmen. Besides, as working at any place and at any work, he rarely abided long in any one spot, and had not what might be called a home in his teens.

Dennis Hanks, his cousin, said of Abraham, at fourteen to eighteen: "Abe was a good talker, a good reader, and a kind of newsboy." Hence he was a sort of volunteer colporteur distributing gossip, as a notion pedler, before he was a store clerk where centered all the local news.

It was on this experience that he would mingle with the newspaper reporters and telegraph men fraternally, saying with his winning smile and undeniable "push":

"Let me in, boys, for I am somewhat of a news-gatherer myself."

And then he would fix his footing by one of his stories, always--well, often--uttered with a view to publication.

"A LITTLE MORE LIGHT AND A LITTLE LESS NOISE."

As the President was a diligent devourer of the newspaper in the vexatious times (as at all others), he met many a torrent of criticism, incitement, and counsels which left him stunned rather than alleviated. To a special correspondent who hampered him, he said:

"Your papers remind me of a little story. There was a gentleman traveling on horseback in the West where the roads were few and bad and no settlements. He lost his way. To make matters worse, as night came on, a terrible thunder-storm arose; lightning dazzled the eye or thunder shook the earth. Frightened, he got off and led his horse, seeking to guide himself by the spasmodic and flickering electric light. All of a sudden, a tremendous crash brought the man in terror to his knees, when he stammered:

"'Oh, Lord! if it be the same to Thee, give us a little more light and a little less noise!'"

"MY PART OF THE s.h.i.+P IS ANCh.o.r.eD."

Among the first men called out was a young Ma.s.sachusetts man, Burrage, who went as a private. Grievously wounded, he was sent into the hospital and then to his home. Recuperated, he joined his old regiment at the front. He was unaware that strict orders were out against the soldiers exchanging newspapers, and so performed the daily courtesy of giving a paper to the rebels; they had two, and he promised to give them the one due next time. This was held as keeping up correspondence with the Johnnies, and the authorities reduced him to the ranks, as he was then a captain. Worse and worse, the enemy seized him when he went out to redeem his promise about the news, and he was imprisoned on their side. This regalled his wounds and he was a great sufferer. The Ma.s.sachusetts member of Congress, Alexander Rice, pleaded with the President for his native citizen. The complication was that Burrage was a captain when captured, but a private again soon after, and the rebels would probably hold him at the higher rate if an exchange was allowed, while the Union War Department stood for his being but a common soldier.

"If General Wadsworth raises that point," replied the President, who had allowed this pathetic case to break his rule to deal with cla.s.ses and not individual offenses, "tell him if he could take care of the exchange part, I guess I can take care of the rank part!"

It is clear that the President saw in this punctilio about a humane act, whose "offense was _ranker_."

It reminded one of the story of the New England skipper who, with his mate--and crew of a small fisher--owned the vessel. They having quarreled and the captain bidding the other mind his part of the s.h.i.+p, the latter did so, and presently came to the stern to report:

"Captain, I have anch.o.r.ed my part of the s.h.i.+p! Take care of your own."

ANGELS SWEARING MAKE NO DIFFERENCE.

On the President being urged to answer some virulent newspaper a.s.sault, his reply was:

"Oh, no; if I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business, I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so, until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything; if the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S DIFFICULT TASK.

Shortly after Lincoln's inauguration, a senator said to him:

"You have as difficult a task as Was.h.i.+ngton's, when he took command of the American Army, and as little to do it with."

"That is true, but I have larger resources."

(The three thousand millions spent on the war vividly contrasts with the Colonies fighting rich England with an empty treasury and barefoot, ragged soldiers.)

STEEL AND STEAL.

President Lincoln asked a friend, a senator, immediately on his taking office, upon an embarra.s.sed condition of affairs:

"Have you seen that prophecy about my administration in the papers? A prophet foretells that my rule will be one of steel! To which the wags retort: 'Well, Buchanan's was one of _steal_.'"