 Section 317 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. No Dutch Courage. Red for LibriVox.org. After the miraculous intervention of the Ericsson Monitor, the President took a party aboard to inspect the little champion which had saved the fleet, and perhaps the capital where the captain received them. He apologized for the limited accommodation and for the lack of the traditional lemon and necessary attributes for a presidential visit. But the T. Toteler chief merrily replied, Some uncharitable persons say that old Bourbon Valor inspires our generals in the field, but it is plain that Dutch Courage was not needed on board of the Monitor. End of Section 317. This recording is in the public domain. Section 318 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. If I had as much money and was as badly scared, Red for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. If I had as much money and was as badly scared. In March 1862, after her terrifying exploits, the Merrimack Ram was reported to have escaped to sea and was seeking fresh prey to devour. The eastern seaports were in a panic. A deputation of New York's merchant princes, bullion barons and plutocrats generally representing a hundred millions, was the rumour heralding their rush-visitor to the capital arrived at the White House. The spokesman faltered that the great metropolis was in peril, that treasures were involved by the apprehension, and that in brief the government ought to take measures to defend the Empire City from the spite of this irresistible ocean terror. At the conclusion, the patient hero responded, Well, gentlemen, the government has at present no vessel which can sink the Merrimack. They were not, for state reasons, to know what the sly fox had up his sleeve. The government is pretty poor, its credit is not good, its legal tender notes are worth only forty cents on your Wall Street, and we have to pay you a high rate of interest on our loans. Now, if I were in your place and had as much money as you represent, and was as badly scared as you say you are, I'd go right back to New York and build some war vessels and present them to the government. Centicated by Shilah Colfax, afterward vice president under General Grant, and by Judge Davis, who presented the delegation. End of section 318. This recording is in the public domain. Section 319 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. It pleases her, and it don't hurt me. Read for Librebox.org by Jerusha Renstrom. It pleases her, and it don't hurt me. April 1862 closed brilliantly for the Union as New Orleans was captured. General Porter Phelps issued a proclamation which freed the slaves. As on previous occasions, when this bomb was brought out, the President had directed its being stifled and reserved for his occasion. There was wonder that he took no official notice of the premature flash. Taken to task by a friendly critic for his odd omission, he deigned to reply, Well, I feel about it a good deal like that big, burly, good-natured canal laborer who had a little, wispy bit of a wife in the habit of beating him. One day she put him out of the house and switched him up and down the street. A friend met him a day or two after and rebuked him with the words, Tom, as you know I have always stood up for you, but I am not going to do it any longer. Any man may stand for a bully raving by his wife, but when he takes a switching from her right out on the public highway he deserves to be horse-whipped. Tom looked up with a wink on his broad face and slapped the interfere on the back with a leg of mutton fist, rejoined, Why, drop it! It pleases her, and it don't hurt me. Section 320 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Let him squeal if he works. One of the northern war governors was admirably loyal and devoted to the reunion, but he was set on doing things his own way and protested every time he was called on for men or material. Lincoln saw that he was willing and was only like the lady who me thinks protests too much, so he told Secretary Stanton who laid before him the objections. Never mind, these dispatches do not mean anything, go right ahead. The governor reminds me of a boy I knew at a launching. He was a small boy, chosen to fit the hollow in the midst of the ways where he should lie down, after knocking out the king dog which holds the ship on the stocks when all other checks are removed. The boy did everything right, but yelled as if he was being murdered every time the keel rushed over him in the channel. I thought the hide was being peeled from his back, but he wasn't hurt a mite. The shipyard master told me that the boy was always chosen for the job, doing his work well and never being hurt, but that he always squealed in that way. Now that's the way with our governor. Make up your mind that he is not hurt and that he is doing the work all right and pay no attention to his squealing. To his confidant, General Veal, the president said, We cannot afford to quarrel with the governors of the loyal states about collateral issues we want their soldiers. End of Section 320. This recording is in the public domain. Section 321 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Brigadiers cheap, chargers costly, read for LibriVox.org. The news was transmitted to the executive that a Brigadier General and his escort of cavalry had been gobbled up, the current and expressive term by rebel raiders near Fairfax Courthouse, close enough to resound the echoes of the effray. I am sorry of the loss of the horses, deplored the president, and I mean that I can make a Brigadier General any day, but those horses cost the government a hundred and twenty-five to fifty dollars ahead. End of Section 321. This recording is in the public domain. Section 322 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. To Cure Singing in the Head. Read for LibriVox.org by Rebecca Case. The key to the trammels which bore upon the several generals of the Army of the Atomic is found in the fears of the inhabitants of the capital that at the least weakness in its defenders there would be a shifting of the two governments and the Richmond one would replace that at Washington. Footnote. This seems unlikely now, but generally and many competent judges plung to the belief that had his general early held his position at Gettigsburg, Jefferson Davis, and not Abraham Lincoln would have occupied Washington's seat, for a time anyway. But if the story of the Civil War is studded with ifs. But the Navy was not considered in this relation, hence there was a proposition to draw the rebel forces from the north by threatening the southern seaports with naval attacks and a sense of the Tars and Marines. A deputation visited the president with this project. He listened to its unfolding with his proverbial patient attention and rejoined. This reminds me of the case of a girl out our way, troubled with a singing in the head. All the remedies, having been uselessly tried, a plain common-horse-scent sort of fellow, he bowed to the deputation, was called in. The cure is simple, he said. What is called by sympathy, make a plaster of solemn tunes and apply to the feet. It will draw the singing down and out. Repeated by Frank Carpenter's recollections. End of Section 322. This recording is in the public domain. Section 323 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Bowing to the Boy of Battles. Read for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. Bowing to the Boy of Battles. Congressman W.D. Kelly wished to procure the admittance of a youth into the Naval School, though a lad he had shown the metal of a man on two serious occasions while belonging to the gunboat Ottawa. The President has the right to send three candidates to the school yearly, who have served a year in the Naval Service. Thrilled by the recital of the youth's heroic conduct, the President wrote to the Secretary of the Navy to have the boy put on the list of his appointees. But the subject was found short of the age required. He would not be fourteen until September of that year. And it was but July. Lincoln had the hero appear before him. He admired him frankly and altered the order so as to suit the later date. He bade the boy go home and have a good time, during the two months, as about the last holiday he would get. The President had reconsidered his first impression that the disturbance was but an artificial excitement. And that's the boy who did so gallantly in those two great battles he mused. Why, I feel that I should bow to him, and not he to me. Section 324 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. When Washington was all one tavern, read for LibriVox.org. As men winning with Mars expect to sup with Pluto, the drinking at the capital during the war was horrifying. The bars were overflowing with officers, and while as orfeals, the bar was full of men, the bar was full of men, and the bar was full of men, and the bar was full of men, and the bar was full of men. While, as Orpheus C. Kerr was saying of the Civil Service Corps, that spilling red ink was very different from spilling red blood, the novices in uniform were staining their new coats with port. Coming out of the west with the unique recommendation, this gentleman from Kentucky never drinks. President Lincoln had only the American standby, the ice water pitcher, on his sideboard. And up to the last, even when the jubilation upon the war's close made many a stopper fly out of the tabooed bottle he could say, My example never belied the position I took when I was a young man. So he could reply to a New England woman's temperance deputation, probably believing the caricatrice who pictured old Abe mint juloping with the eagle. They would be rejoiced if they only knew how much I have tried to remedy this great evil. Indeed, he was still meddling when he wrote and spoke against drunken habits in the army, especially among the officers. End of Section 324. This recording is in the public domain. Section 325 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Break the Critter, Wear Slim. Lincoln's letters to his generals would be a revelation of character if it were not already famed. He warns fighting Joe Hooker in June 1863 not to get entangled in the Wrappa Hanok like an ox jumped half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs, front and rear, without a fair chance to give one way or kick the other. Later, fight Lee, too, when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret him and fret him. Finally, if the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail on the Plank Road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the Critter must be slim somewhere. Could you not break him there? End of Section 325. This recording is in the public domain. Section 326 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. How Get Him Out? Read for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. How Get Him Out? During the avalanche of plans to conduct the suppression of the rebellion, a genius propose was afterwards seemed a forecast for Sherman's march to the sea. But at the time, Lincoln saw in it merely a desperate venture which would detail a rescue party much more important. That reminds me, he said, with his whimsical smile. Off a cooper, out my way, knew at the trade and much annoyed by the head falling in as he was hooping in the staves around it. But the bright idea occurred to him to put his boy in to hold up the cover. Only when the job was completed by this inner support, the new problem rose. How to Get the Boy Out? Your plan is feasible, sir. But how are you to get the boy out? The story was originally credited to a Chinese cooper to whom modern cast making was a mystery. End of Section 326. This recording is in the public domain. In 327 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. A Pleasure to Preside at Last. Read for LibriVox.org by Carol Stripling. On the 4th of March, 1863, when Congress was closing the session, President Lincoln gave away the bride at a marriage ceremony held by his invitation in the House of Representatives Chamber. This seems a singular and high honor to the couple. Their preeminence and the function being acclaimed by all the notables connected with the field and the form in the capital was a characteristic testimonial to the comforters whose service to the soldier was inestimable. The pair were John A. Fowle and Elida Rumsey, the man from Boston, the lady from New York. They were both attendants on the hospitals at the front when their acquaintance verged into the community and this eventful matrimony. Lincoln had met both in his continuous calls at the hospitals and offered the west wing of the capital building for the wedding. He gave away the bride, and in the records figure his name and those of the illustrious witnesses. He gave a huge basket of the finest flowers from the White House Conservatory. He stayed to witness the dedication of the soldier's library founded by Mr. Fowle, who had seen the errant want of reading matter by our soldiers, so few being illiterate. At the President's hint, Congress granted the ground for the library, but the pension office now occupies the site. Sixty-three was a dark year, and the President might well say on this typical incident, during a time there was little marrying, it is for once a pleasure to preside. End of Section 327. This recording is in the public domain. Section 328 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. On the Lord's Side. On a pastor assuring the President that the Lord is on our side, he replied, I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of right, but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side. End of Section 328. This recording is in the public domain. Section 329 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Going to Canaan. Read for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. Going to Canaan. Although the South is a poetic country, no Bard wrote any merciless hymn on that side. One of the few effusions bidding tolerably for public was Lincoln going to Canaan. A parody on the numerous Negro camp meeting lays in which Lincoln was hailed as the coming Moses. This burlesque was laid before Mr. Lincoln, he taking the grim relish in hits at him. Caracatures and sallies which great men never spun. Going to Canaan, he is reported to have said. Going to Canaan, I expect. End of Section 329. This recording is in the public domain. Section 330 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Going to Canaan. Although the South is a poetic country, no Bard ever wrote any merciless hymn on that side. One of the few effusions bidding tolerably for publicity was Lincoln going to Canaan. A parody on the numerous Negro camp meeting lays in which Lincoln was hailed as the coming Moses. This burlesque was laid before Mr. Lincoln, he taking the grim relish in hits at him. Caracatures and sallies which great men never spun. Going to Canaan, he is reported to have said. Going to Canaan, I expect. End of Section 330. This recording is in the public domain. Section 331 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Fox Appointed Paymaster. Read for Libervox.org by Andy from Inverarning Scotland. The President came into the telegraph office of the White House laughing. He had picked up a child's book in his son's had's room and looked at it. It was a story of a motherly hen, struggling to raise her brood to live honest and useful lives. But in her efforts, she was greatly annoyed by a mischievous fox. She had given him many lectures on his wicked wheeze and said the President, I thought I would turn over to see the finny, to see how they came out. This is what it said. And the fox became a good fox and was appointed paymaster in the army. I think it very funny that I should have appointed him a paymaster. I wonder who he is. Such inability to distinguish one officer as good does not speak highly for the eradication of the soldier's prejudice for the gentry. Superintendent Tinker. End of section 331. This recording is in the public demean. Section 332 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L Williams. Risking the Dictatorship. Read for Libervox.org. Every one of the generals leading the army of the Potomac was accused of the longing for the presidency, which placed the occupant in a peculiar predicament. Of General Joe Hooker it was said in the press and in the Washington Hotels that he was the man on horseback and would, at the final success of clearing out the rebel beleaguers, set up as dictator. Hence the letter which Lincoln wrote to him. I have heard in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command of the army of the Potomac. What I ask of you is military success and I will risk the dictatorship. It was April 1863. Hooker issued the stereotype address full of confidence on taking command, advanced and withdrew his army after the repulse by Lee. All he scored was the death of Stonewall Jackson, Lee's right hand, and that was an accident. As Lee invaded Maryland, all hopes of Hooker's dictatorship were dispersed in the battle smoke penetrating too far north to be pleasant incense to fallen heroes. End of Section 332. This recording is in the public domain. Section 333 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. A Stage in the Ceaseless March Onward to Victory. Readful LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. A Stage in the Ceaseless March Onward to Victory. Veterans will remember the peculiar effort on a force march of the younger or less enduring comrade falling asleep as to all but his eyes and the muscles employed, but stepping out and apparently sustained only by the touching of elbows in the lurching from the ruts in the obliterated road. On the night of the stunning news of the last conflict at Chancellorsville Lincoln could derive no comfort from later intelligence. Late at night General Halleck commanding the capital and Secretary Stanton left him unconsold. Then his Secretary, as long as he stayed, heard the man on whom rested the national hopes, her very future. Paced his room without pause saved to turn. It was like the fisher on the banks who must keep awake for a chance at a grab of the chains of the ship that may burst through the fog and crush his smack like a coconut shell. At midnight the chief may have stopped to write for there was a pause but a breathing spell. Then the pacing again till the attache left at three a.m. When he came in in the morning, not unanxious himself, he found his chief eating breakfast alone in the unquitted room. On the table lay a sheet of written paper, instructions for General Hooker to renew fighting, although it only brought the slap on the other cheek at Winchester. And still Lee pressed on into Pennsylvania till Harrisburg was menaced, but Meade supplanted fighting Joe, and the Gettysburg wiped out the shame of the later repulses. The private secretary was W. O. Stoddard. End of section three hundred and thirty-three, this recording is in the public domain. Section three thirty-four of The Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Working for a living makes one practical. Read for LibriVox.org by Rebecca Case. The year eighteen sixty three was black lettered in the north by disaster. General Hooker had been badly beaten by General Lee. The Confederate advance into Pennsylvania shook the strongest faith in the triumph of the federal arms, and the victory of Gettysburg was attained at a bloody cost. The draft riots in New York excited a fear that the discontent with the colossal strife was deep rooted. General Thomas at Chequemalga saved the Union army from destruction, but the call for three hundred thousand three years men denoted that the end was not even glimpsed. Nevertheless, this latter feat of arms gladdened Tremulus Washington, and among the exploits was cited to the president the desperate fiddling of General Thomas exhausted troops by General Garfield. He performed a dangerous ride from Rosencrantz to the beleaguered victor, and brought him craved for provisions. How is it inquired President Lincoln of an officer, courier of the details, that Garfield did in two weeks what would have taken one of your West pointers two months to accomplish? The recollection was perfectly well understood by the regular who thought the amateur commander meddled too much with the operations of the field. Because he was not educated at West Point was the reply, but half in jest. No, that was not the reason corrected the questioner. It was because when a boy he had to work for a living. He rewarded the purveyor general with the rank of major general. End of section three thirty four. This recording is in the Pope of Domain. Section three hundred thirty five of the Lincoln storybook by Henry L. Williams. Hold on and Chaw. While in July 1863 General Grant was held at Vicksburg by a siege which he successfully prosecuted the New York draft riots broke out without knowing from experience that a riot, however pretentious, must cease when the mob are drunk or spent the inevitable contingencies in his alarm General Halleck at Washington begged General Grant to ascend reinforcements that he might not weaken the capital defenses to any extent. The commander of the West declined and referred to the president. General Horace Porter was on Grant's staff and saw his smiles as he read the dispatch from headquarters. The president has more nerve than any of his advisors observed he to his officers for Lincoln did not agree with his cabinet as to the revolution in the rear and the message was sent by the staff. I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold neither am I willing hold on with a bulldog grip and Chaw and choke as much as possible. End of section three hundred thirty five. This recording is in the public domain. Section three thirty six of the Lincoln storybook by Henry L. Williams The Great National Job read for Librebox.org. The signs look better. The father of waters again goes unvexed to the sea. The job was a great national one and let none be banned who bore an honorable part in it and while those who cleared the Great River may well be proud even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than at Antietam Murfreesboro Gettysburg and on many fields of lesser note nor must Uncle Sam's web feet be forgotten not only on the deep sea the broad bay and the rapid river but also up the narrow muddy bay and wherever the ground was a little damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all for the great republic. Letter by President Lincoln regretting inability to attend a meeting of unconditional union men at Springfield Illinois dated August 26th 1863 to J.C. Conkling. End of section three thirty six this recording is in the public domain. Section three hundred and thirty seven of the Lincoln storybook by Henry L. Williams for Flaying a Man Alive read for Librebox.org by Magdalena Cook for Flaying a Man Alive a representative of Ohio Alexander Long proposed in the House a recognition of the Southern Confederacy. It must be borne in mind that before the firing on the supply steamer at Charleston which was dispatched surreptitiously not to offend the sympathiser susceptibilities many good citizens dwelling on the silence of the constitution as to succession said openly that they did not see why the state's shaping under the partnership all the original thirteen made should not withdraw peacefully. Long was not solitary in his unseemly proposition which however could never have been otherwise and untimely after the first shot. General Garfield met the issue with indignation he called the act treason and denounce the author as a second Benedict Arnold. He entreated loyal representatives to not believe that another such growth on the soil of Ohio to form the face of nature and darken the light of God's day. When this speech met the president's eye he hastened to thank General Garfield for having flayed Long alive. Ender section three hundred and thirty seven. This recording is in the public domain. Section three hundred thirty eight of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. One on I'm not dead yet. Read for lippervox.org by Carol Strip Lane. As communications were cut off with the north intense anxiety was occasioned there by the situation in November eighteen sixty three of General Burnside packed in Knoxville Tennessee by Long Street's dreaded veterans. At last Telegram reached the War Department vaguely telling a firing herd in the direction of Knoxville. The president reading expressed gladness in spite of the remaining uncertainty. Why? said he to the group of officers and officials. It reminds me of a neighbor of ours in Indiana in the brush who had a numerous family of young ones. They were all the time wandering off into the scrub but she was relieved as to their being lost by a squall every now and then. She would say, thank the laws there is one still alive. That is I hope one of our generals is in the thicket but still alive and kicking. Indeed Burnside resisted a night-storming party and Long Street was not a lane that knew no turning but turned and retreated. End of section three hundred thirty-eight. This recording is in the public domain. Section three thirty-nine of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The South like an ash cake. Red for Libravox dot org. At the end of eighteen sixty-four the Confederacy was scotched if not quite killed. Sherman had halved it by striking into Savannah. East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia were cut by Stoneman. Alabama and Mississippi were traversed by Greerson and Wilson. In some the new map resembled that of a territory charted off into sections. President Lincoln said that its face put him in mind of a weary traveler in the West who came at night to a small log cabin. The homesteader and his wife said they would put him up but had not abided victuals to offer him. He accepted the truss of litter and was soon asleep. But he was awakened by whispers letting out that in the fire ashes a hoe-cake was baking. The woman and her mate were merry over how they had defrauded the stranger of the food. Feeling mad at having been sent to bed supperless, uncommon mean in that part, he pretended to wake up and came forth to sit at the dying fire. He pretended too that he was ill from worry. The fact is my father when he died left me a large farm. But I had no sooner taken possession of it than mortgages began to appear. My farm was situated like this. He took up the logger head poker to illustrate, drawing lines in the ashes so as to enclose the ash-cake. First one man got so much of it at one side. He cut off a side of the hidden dough. Then another brought in a mortgage and took off another piece there. Then another here and another there, and here and there, drawing the poker through the ashes to make the figure plain, until, he said, There was nothing of the farm left for anybody, which I presume is the case with your cake. And I reckon, concluded Mr. Lincoln, that the prospect is now very good of the South being as cut up as the ash-cake. It was said that the cabinet of Lincoln were divided on the subject, whereon the Marquis of Chambrune, having the ear of the executive, called on him and inquired on the real state, would the United States intervene, if only by winking at a filibustering expedition from the South, with Northern Volunteers' accessory, to assist the natives against the usurper. There has been war enough, was his rejoinder, with that sadness which Secretary Boutwell declares inseparable from him, but not due to the depression of public affairs. I know what the American people want, but, thank God, I count for something, and during my second term there will be no more fighting. It was left for his successor, with the two armies disbanded, but still wedded for slaughter, to expel the French by the mere threat of their union to restore the Republic. Section 342 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Mayor is the Better Horse. Readful LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. The Mayor is the Better Horse. The Lowell Citizen Editor participated in a presidential reception in 1864, just before the fall of Richmond. The Usher giving intimation that the President would see his audience at once, all were ushered into the inner room. Abraham Lincoln's countenance bore that open, benign and outline expected, but what struck us especially was his cheerful, wide-awake expressiveness, never met within the pictures of our beloved Chief. The secret may have been that the Secretary Stanton, middle-aged, well-built, stern visaged man, had brought in his budget good news from Grant. After saluting his little circle of callers, they were seated and attended to in turn. First in order was a citizen of Washington praying for pardon in the case of a deserter. Well, said the President, after carefully reading the petition. It is only natural for one to want to pardon, but I must in that case have a responsible name that I know. I don't know you. Do you live in the city? Yes. Do you know him? The Mayor? Yes. Well, the Mayor is the Better Horse. Bring me his name and I will let the boy off. The soldier was pardoned. End of Section 342. This recording is in the public domain. Section 343 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Real Superior Thing to the Sham Battle. Read for LibreVox.org. On the 25th of March, 1864, in honor of the President's renewal of office, a grand review had been fixed at City Point, outside the Capitol. Whatever the opinion of the old military, the volunteers gave the civilian commander the soldier's vote. In imitation of the French soldiers dubbing Bonaparte, the little corporal, after his Italian victories, the Americans promoted Lincoln to be their captain, as Walt Whitman worded it, after his repeated reinstatement. He was rapturously greeted by his boys in blue. But the arrangements made at Washington in the undisturbed council were upset by General Lee. On that very morning he had attacked and had taken Fort Steadman. To drive him out required a veritable action, not terminating for several hours. Lincoln visited the scene of the restoration after the carnage and on hearing regrets that the review, the chief recreation of the Washingtonians, he checked the light sold attendance with, this victory is better than any review. End of Section 343. This recording is in the public domain. Section 344 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Tool Turned on the Handle. Read for LibriVox.org by Harold Stewart. The scales having fallen from our sight and the figure of the greatest American, standing out colossal in clean cut for posterity to worship is without a blemish. It is hard to measure the conceit of the clique of politicians, petty foggers, and office seekers, certainly assisting in the advancement of Abraham Lincoln from confined obscurity in the west to the choice of the northern nation. That was not enough, but still gauging him with their tape they withheld justice from him after he displayed his worth in meeting the impending crisis. When on the heels of the call for three hundred thousand men in 1863 came in spring 1864 another for five hundred thousand defortified general Grant in his finishing maneuvers, a murmur was heard. Chicago, gallantly having done her part, thought it was pumping at a void. A deputation from Cook County, headed by Lincolnites, departed for the capital to object to the summons. It was thought by his friends and long supporters that their own elect could not resist their plea or turn it off with a joke. This deputation fined down to three persons as it was not a patriotic quest. One of them also wished to bulk, being Joseph Madill, editor of the Chicago Tribune. As a matter of course, Secretary of War Stanton refused the indulgence, obdurate as he was. The president was likewise averse, but he did consent to go over the matter with Stanton. The result was the same. All was left solely to Lincoln, since the personal argument was implied by the mediums selected. I, said Madill to Mr. Arbell, I shall never forget how Mr. Lincoln suddenly lifted his head and turned on us a black and frowning face. Gentlemen, said he, in a voice full of bitterness, after Boston Chicago has been the chief instrument in bringing this war on the country. The Northwest has opposed the South, as New England opposed the South. It was you who were largely responsible for causing the blood to flow as it has. You called for war until we had it. You called for emancipation, and I have given it to you. Whatever you have asked, you have had. Now you come here, begging to be let off from the call for men which I have made to carry out the war you demanded. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I have a right to expect better things of you. Go home and raise your six thousand extra men, the Cook County rate. And you, Madill, you are acting like a coward. You and your Tribune have had more influence than any paper in the Northwest in making this war. Go home and send us those men. They went home and they raised and sent those men. End of Section 344. This recording is in the public domain. Section 345 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Sooner the fowl by hatching the egg than smashing it. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it or to reject and disperse? Concede that the new government is to what it should be as the egg to the fowl. We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Laughter. Speech by A. Lincoln, his last, in answer to a serenade at the White House, 11 April 1865, amid illuminations for the victories. End of Section 345. This recording is in the public domain. Section 346 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Too busy to go into another business. Read for LibriVox.org. There came into the Presidential hearing a man of French accent from New Orleans. He was evidently a diffident person, not knowing how precisely to state his case. But the burden of it was that he was a real estate holder in New Orleans, and since the advent of military rulers there, he could not collect his rents, his living. Your case, my friend, said the President, may be a hard one, but it might be worse. If with your musket you had taken your chances with the boys before Richmond, you might have found your bed and board before now. But the point is, what would you have me do for you? I have much to do, and the courts have been open to relieve me in this regard. The applicant, still embarrassed, said, I am not in the habit of appearing before big men. And for that matter, it was quickly responded, you have no need to change your habit, for you are not before very big men now, playfully adding, I am too busy to go into the rent collection business. End of 346. This recording is in the public domain. Section 347 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. The Scale of Rebels. Read for LibriVox.org by Captain Allegra. When, at the finale, Lincoln reproved his own wife for using the hackneyed expression of rebels, suggesting confederates, as officially accepted on both sides, a wit commented, The Southerners will be like the Jews. As a poor one is simply a Jew, a rich one a Hebrew, and a Roth's child an Israelite. So it will be rebels, confederates, and our southern brothers anew. End of Section 347. This recording is in the public domain. Section 348 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. One War at a Time. Read for LibriVox.org by Jerusha Renstrom. One War at a Time. When the Austrian Archduke Maximilian was foisted upon Mexico as its emperor by Napoleon III, the Southerners, who did not have their belly full of fighting by 1864, more than hinted that they would range shoulder to shoulder with the Federals to try to expel him and the mercenary marshal the Zane. But the President returned sagaciously. One War at a Time. It was under his successor Johnson that the expulsion was affected and the upstart executed by the exasperated Mexicans themselves. Note, this was undoubtedly said, but Mr. Henry Waterson, in his lecture on Lincoln, dates it as at the commencement of the war when Secretary Seward to forestall possible European alliances in favour of the Confederate States, proposed waging war against France and Spain, already allied, and challenging Russia and England to follow. End of Section 348. This recording is in the public domain. Section 349 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Again the government read for Libervox.org by Andy from Envorn in Scotland. In the summer of 1864, the Governor-General of Canada paid the President a visit with a numerous escort during the late unpleasantness. As much comfort as possible under the Neutrality Act was believed to have been given the Readers in the Border Towns as witness the St. Albans Bank Steel and the outfitting of blockade runners. But they were treated at Washington with perfect courtesy. The head of the British Party, at the conclusion, said with some sarcasm in his genial tone, I understand Mr. President that everybody is entitled to a vote in this country. If we remain until November, can we vote? You would have to make a longer residence, which I could desire, politely replied the host. Only I fear we should not gain much by that. For there was a countryman of your Excellency from the sister Kingdom of Ireland. Though who came here and on landing wanted to exercise the privilege you seek, to vote early and often. But the officials at Castle Garden Landing Stage laughed at him, saying that he knew nothing about parties. To which he replied, bothered the parties. It is the same here with me as in the old country. I begin the government. You see, he wanted to vote on the side of the rebellion. Your Excellency would then be no more at a loss to decide on which side. End of section 349. This recording is in the public demean. Section 350 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams, plowing around a log. A state governor came to Washington furious at the number of troops headquarters commanded of him and the mode of collecting them. I rate as he was, General Fry saw him bidding goodbye to the capital with a placid, even pleased, mean. The general inquired of Lincoln himself how he had been so miraculously mollified. I suppose you had to make large concessions to him as he returns from you entirely satisfied, suggested the general. Oh no, replied the President. I did not concede anything. You know how that Illinois farmer managed the big log that lay in the middle of his field? To the inquiries of his neighbors, he announced he had gotten rid of it. How did you do it? They asked. It was too big to haul away, too naughty to split, too wet and soggy to burn. Whatever did you do? Well, no, boys. If you won't tell the secret, I'll tell you how. I just plowed round it. Now, Fry, don't tell anybody, but I just plowed around the governor. On the authority of General James B. Fry. End of Section 350. This recording is in the public domain. Section 351 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Not the Right Clay to Cementa Union. Read for LibriVox.org. In 1864, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, and a great authority among the farming class and the extremists, consented to attend an abortive peace consultation with southern representatives, George N. Sanders, Beverly Tucker, and Clement C. Clay at Niagara Falls. Clay was so set upon Jefferson Davis being still left as a ruler in some high degree, which would condone his action as president of the succeeded states, the project like others was a fizzle, as Lincoln would have said. To our president, Henry Clay was the beau ideal of a statesman, but it was clear that his namesake was not of the Clay to Cementa Union. End of Section 351. This recording is in the public domain. Section 352 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Man Down South. Read by Andy from Inveronon, Scotland. In August 1864, a painful absorption was noticed in the president's manner, growing more and more strained and depressed. The ancient smile was fainter when it flitted over the long drawn features, and the eyes seem to bury themselves out of light in the cavernous sockets, too dry for tears. These withdrawing fits were not uncommon, but they had become frequent this summer, and at the reception he had mechanically passed the welcome and given the handshake. But then the abstraction became so dense that he led an old friend stand before him without a glance, much less the usual hearty greeting expected. The newcomer, alarmed, ventured to arouse him. He shrewd off his absence of mind, seized the hand, proffered him, and while grasping it, exclaimed as though no others were by, also staring in pain. Excuse me, I was thinking, thinking of a man down south, he was thinking of Sherman, that military genius who burned his ships and penetrated the hostile country, like Cortez, and from whom no reliable news had been received while he was investing Savannah. Lincoln had in his mind been accompanying his captain on that forlorn march, smashing things to the sea. End of section 352. This recording isn't the public demean. Recording by Andy, M-E-L-I-S, W-S. Section 353 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams, The Dismembered Yellow Dog, read for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. The Dismembered Yellow Dog. Toward the end of December 1864, the news trickled in off the uttered disconfiture of Confederate General Hood's army at Nashville by General Thomas, an enthusiastic friend of the president said to him, there is not enough left of Hood to make a dishrag, is there? Well, no, Madill. I think Hood's army is in about the identical fix of Bill Sykes' dog. The application from Dickens is noticeably a showing Lincoln's eclectic reading. Down in Sangamon County, did you never hear it? As a Chicago man, Mr. Meddle might be allowed to be ignorant of Sangamon Valley incidents. Well, this Bill Sykes had a long hungry yellow dog, forever getting into the neighbors, meat, smoke houses, and chicken coops, and the like. They had tried to kill it a hundred odd times, but the dog was always too smart for them. Finally, one of them got a coon's innards and filled it up with gunpowder and tied a piece of punk in the nozzle. When he sees this dog are coming around, he fired this punk, split open a corn cake, and squozed the intestine inside, all nice and slab and throughout the lot. The dog was always ravenous and swallowed the heap, kachunk. Pretty soon, along came an explosion, so the man said. The head of the animal lit on the stoop. The four legs caught a straddle off the fence. The hind legs kicked in the ditch, and the rest of the critter lay around loose. Pretty soon, who should come along but Bill? And he was looking for his dog when he heard the supposed gun go off. The neighbor said innocent like, William, I guess that there is not much of that dog left to catch anybody's fails. Well, no, admitted Sykes. I see plenty of pieces, but I guess that dog, as a dog, ain't of much account. Just so, Medill, there may be fragments of Hood's army around, but I guess the army, as an army, ain't of much more account. Joseph Medill was editor of the Chicago Tribune, who was one of the Coteri who claimed to have discovered Abraham Lincoln, and surely added propulsion to the way of carrying him to Washington. Another version of this anecdote is applied to the breaking up of General Earley's rashly advanced army in July, but it would seem by Mr. Medill's name that this is the genuine, the other is not told in the western vernacular of Mr. William Sykes. End of Section 353. This recording is in the public domain. Section 355 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Did she take the wink to herself? Miss Anna Dickinson, lecturing by invitation in the House of Representatives Hall, alluded to the sunburst which came upon the President on Inauguration Day, just as he took the oath of office. The illustrious auditor sat directly in front of the lady, so that he also faced the reporter's gallery behind her. Lincoln amably glanced over her head, caught sight of an acquaintance among the newspaper men, and winked to him as she made the reference to the so esteemed omen. Next day he said to this gentleman, Noah Brooks, I wonder if Miss Dickinson saw me wink at you? End of Section 355. This recording is in the public domain. Section 356 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Going down with Colors Flying. Read for LibriVox.org by Kagliostro. All the wire pulling of the many contestants for the presidential chair failed to get a prize upon it. It was held that there must be in excelsis no swapping of horses in crossing the stream, still turbid and dangerous. So the national convention held at Baltimore, perched by this time of its former reasonable activity, and the soldiers fair held there. The president had alluded to the time when he had to be whisked through as past a bed of fibers and said, Blessings on the men who have brought these changes. All the states voted for the incumbent, save Missouri, which stood for the general grant, but the votes transferred to Lincoln. The opinion was unanimous. Within two months he was driven by circumstances to call out 500,000 men. His partisans regretted the necessity and on the old story that the people were tired of the war declared it would prove injurious to his re-election. But it is undisputed that about half the levies never reached their mustering point. The arts and wells of the Marplets were equaled only by their prodigality and persistency of the parents to save their sons from the evils of camp life. It is but fair to the Puritans to accept their plea that the loss of them fighting the country's battle did not so distrust them. Lincoln replied to the political argument nobly. Gentlemen, it is not necessity that I should be re-elected, but it is necessary that our brave boys in the front should be supported and the country saved. The hectic phrase had led to his party being nicknamed the Union Saver. I shall call out the 500,000 more men and if I go down under the measure I will go down like the cumberland with my collars flying. On the 8th of March 1862 the Confederate Ironclad Ram Merrimack ran into and sank the Union's loop of war cumberland nearly half of the latter's company perishing. Acting Captain Morris refused to strike his flag. End of section 356. This recording is in the public domain. Section 357 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. There Must Be the Bale Mule. President Lincoln formally disavowed the desire erinously attributed to him by military critics that he wished to die with soldiers' harness on his back. To quote General Grant, to whom he said in their first interview, when the victor of the West was summoned to Washington to be made Lieutenant General, and given full command over all the national forces, Mr. Lincoln stated to me that he had never professed to be a military man or to know how campaigns should be conducted, and never wanted to interfere with them, but that procrastination on the part of his commanders and the pressure of people at the North and of Congress had forced him into issuing the executive orders. He did not know but that they were all wrong and did not know that some of them were. End of section 357. This recording is in the public domain. Section 358 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Root Hog or Die. Read for LibriVox.org by Jennifer Thirteen, Chicago, Illinois. Root Hog or Die. In February 1865, permission was requested from the national government for three appointees on a peace commission to confer with the executive. It was granted, but the parties were not allowed to enter Washington, as they wanted to do, to give more luster to the course. The interview of the President, Mr. Seward, the bottle-holder, as it was facetiously said about this sparring match for breath, was with Alexander Stevens, Hunter and Campbell of Alabama, on board of the River Queen, off Fort Monroe. The discussion lasted four hours, but though unfriendly terms as between gentlemen, resulted in nothing, for the President held that the first step which must be taken was the recognition of the Union. As was his habit, he rounded off the parlay with one of his stories apropos. Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, had assumed that, if the South consented to peace on the basis of the Emancipation Proclamation, the slaves would precipitate ruin on not only themselves, but the entire Southern society. Mr. Lincoln said to Henry J. Raymond of the Times, New York, that, I waited for Seward to answer that argument, but, as he was silent, I at length said, Mr. Hunter, you ought to know a great deal better about that than I, for you have always lived under the slave system. I can only say and reply to your statement of the case, that it reminds me of a man out in Illinois by the name of Case, who undertook to raise a very large herd of hogs. It was a great trouble to feed them, and how to get around this was a puzzle to him. At length he hid upon a plan of planting a great field of potatoes, and, when they were sufficiently grown, turned the whole herd into the field and let them have full swing, thus saving not only the labor of feeding the hogs, but also that of digging the potatoes. Charmed with his sujocity, he stood one day leaning against the fence counting his hogs, when a neighbor came along. Well, well, said he. This is all very fine, Mr. Case. Your hogs are doing very well just now, but, you know, out here in Illinois the frost comes early and the ground freezes for a foot deep. Then what are you going to do? This was a view of the matter Mr. Case had not taken into account. Butchering time for hogs was way on in December or January. He scratched his head, and at length stammered. Well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but I don't see but it will be root hog or die. The speaker had no need to draw this moral as to the fate of the South after the war for black or white from a case in Illinois. The Negro minstrel song was current then which supplied the aptillusion and was called root hog or die. It may well be that the sailors conveying the baffled commissioners to Richmond or the soldiers about the other government were chanting the instructive and prophetic chorus. It don't make a bit of difference to either you or I, but big pig or little pig it is root hog or die. Mr. Raymond, in chronicling this anecdote, tells of the New York Herald giving the story in a mangled and pointless copy, but it was current in conversation. Mr. Lincoln was in hopes that it would not leak out lest some oversensitive people should imagine there was a degree of levity in the intercourse between us. Quite otherwise, for the majority thought the illustration as good as any argument, and would have deemed the speaker profit if they could have foreseen that the South would have to buckle down to hard work to redeem the losses. End of Section 358. This recording is in the public domain, recording by Jennifer Thirteen, Chicago, Illinois. Section 357 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams, the Grant brand of whiskey, read for LibriVox.org. Although a Kentuckian, orthodox jest, Lincoln was so known for his rare temperance convictions that no one carped at the buffet at his official house being clear of the decanters characterizing it in previous administrations. The total abstinence societies therefore hailed him as an apostle of their creed. Consequently they had been pleased on certain occasions at his espousing and cheering their counsel. When General Grant was elevating himself by his string of solid victories in the West, it was an object of coveling by the adherence of the General's eclipsed and foreseeing his becoming Lieutenant General, and the slander circulated that Philip Sober got the credit of Philip Drunk, perpetrating his plans with the dram bottle at his elbow. Lincoln heard out this spiteful diatribe with his habitual patience. When, calmly looking at the chairman, he responded, gentlemen, since you are so familiar with the General's habits, would you oblige me with the name of General Grant's favorite brand of whiskey? I want so to send some barrels of it to my other generals. The deputation withdrew in poor order. Major Eckert says that Mr. Lincoln told him he had heard this story. It was good, and would be very good if he had told it, but he had not. He supposed it was charged to him to give it currency. He went on to say, The original is back in King George's time. Bitter complaints were made against General Wolfe that he was mad. The king, who could be more justly accused of that, replied, I wish he would bite some of my other generals. Section 360 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. A general at last. Without disparaging the Lincoln generals, it may be said that they will never occupy a niche in Walhalla besides Napoleon's marshals and Washington's commanders. But Washington's society liked them one with another for affording opportunities of outings to the grand reviews and parades. One, that to bull run, turned out a failure, and the Southerners chasing the fugitives had the pickings of the iced wines, game pies, and cold chicken, which Brick Pomeroy saw strewing the road back. Grant's negligent and war-worn uniform did not remind anyone of the gay and brilliant period of old fuss and feathers, the veteran Scott. But Grant and the other Westerner, Lincoln, mutually pleased at their first meeting, the latter emerged from the interview exclaiming with joy, at last we have a general. End of Section 360. This recording is in the public domain. Section 361 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. A Fizzle Anyhow. Read for LibriVox.org by Cagliostro. American Dash was, in military matters, as in others, opposed to the engineering schemes dear to the scientific officers fresh from West Point Academy. Among their projects was the Dutch cap canal at City Point. When Grant, as his lieutenant general, was conducted by the president to see the forces and their positions, the guide may know his opinion of the undertaking in his frank manner, consonant with the new commander's bluntness. Grant, do you know what this reminds me of? In the outskirts of our Springfield there was a blacksmith of an ingenious turn who could make something of Brittany Nye anything in his line. But he got hold of a bit of iron one day that he attempted to make into a corn knife. But the stuff would not hold an edge, so he reasoned it would be a claw hammer. But that would be a loss of over-plus, and he tried to make an axe head. That did not come out a five-pounder, and, getting disgusted, he blew the fire to a white heat around a metal mass. When yanking it out with his tongs he flung it into the water tub, hard-buy, and cried out, Well, if I can't make anything of you, I'll make a fizzle anyhow. Well, General, I am afraid that that's what we'll make of the Dutch cap canal. End of section 361. This recording is in the public domain. Section 362 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams Forget Over a Grave When the Chronicle of Washington had the noble courage to speak well of Stonewall Jackson accidentally shot as a brave soldier, however mistaken as an American, Lincoln wrote to the editor, I honor you for your generosity to one who, though contending against us in a guilty cause, was nevertheless a gallant man. Let us forget his sins over a fresh-made grave. End of section 362. This recording is in the public domain. Section 363 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams If he felt that way, start. Read for LibriVox.org by David Lawrence If he felt that way, start. Although Colonel Dana of the private branch of the War Office Intelligence Department might have claimed exemption from active service, he never spared himself, though such a messenger ran not only the common military dangers, but of the Johnny's treating him as a spy. During the battles of the wilderness, acute was a trepidation in Washington where no news had come since a couple of days, Grant having cut loose and buried himself in the midst of the foes. Nevertheless, Dana had a train at Maryland Avenue to take him to the front, and a horse and escort to see him farther. He came to take the President's last orders, but the other had been reflecting on the perils into which he would be sending his favorite dispatch-bearer. You can't tell where Lee is or what he is doing. Jeb Stewart is on the rampage pretty lively between the Rappahonic and the Rappadin. It is considerable risk, and I do not like to expose you to it. But I am ready, and we are equipped if it comes to the worst to run. Well now, if you feel that way, start. E. P. Mitchell from Dana. L. Williams. Figures Will Prove Anything. Red, Philippevox.org, by Morgan Dautrich. Figures Will Prove Anything. Towards the finish of the rebellion, Lincoln was asked to what number the enemy might amount. He replied with singular readiness. The Confederates have one million two hundred thousand men in the field. Astonishment being manifested at the precision, he went on smiling. Every time a Union commander gets licked, he says the enemy outnumbered him three or four times. We have three or four hundred thousand, so, logic is logic, they are three times that, say, one million two hundred thousand. As a fact, at the grand review before President Johnson, the two armies of Grant and Sherman, May 1865, two hundred thousand veterans filed past. Lincoln should have lived to see that glorious March past. End of Section 364. This recording is in a public domain. Section 365 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. I don't want to, but that's it if I must die. In the ferment, as the term of Lincoln's first office holding was terminating, the old war fever returned by which little Mac McClellan, idol of the army, was hailed as the hope of the country. Only this time the presage was that General Grant had only to secure that phantasm, the capture of Richmond, to be nominated and elected. This reached the President's ears through the hanged good-natured friend as Sheridan, the wit, not the general, calls the stinging tongue. Well, drawled Mr. Lincoln, I feel very much like the man who said he did not particularly want to die, but if he had got to die it was precisely the disease he wanted to die of. End of Section 365. This recording is in the public domain. Section 366 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Best Let an Elephant Go. Read for LibriVox.org by David Lawrence. Best Let an Elephant Go. A rebel emissary, the notorious Jacob Thompson, was reported by the Secret Service as slipping through the North and trying to get passage to Europe on the Alan Steamship out of Portland, Maine or Canada. Brevet General Dana, Confidential Officer to the War Department and the President, inquired if the fugitive was to be detained at Portland, where the Provost Marshall thought he could capture him. Secretary Stanton wanted him apprehended. Hmm, said Lincoln, who was being shaved. I don't know as I have any apprehension in that quarter. When you have an outfit on your hands and he wants to run away, better let him run. Note, the unbeknownst story has been applied to this tolerated escape. End of Section 366. This recording is in the public domain. Section 367 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. History repeats. Read for LibriVox.org. There is a double echo in the Lincolnians saying, no surrender, though at the end of one or a hundred defeats. From General President Taylor's reply at Buena Vista, General Taylor never surrenders. To its antecedent, not so well authenticated, of General Cambrone at Waterloo, the old guard dies, but does not surrender. End of Section 367. This recording is in the public domain. Section 368 of the Lincoln Story Book by Henry L. Williams. Not the President, but the old friend. Read for LibriVox.org by Cadillostro. In February 1865, General Grant's plans were so well shaped that, with the reinforcement of General Sherman returned from his march to Savannah, he could count on crushing up Richmond as an egg and a drip hammers. Before this, the doom was registered, for the Southerners were at the end of their men, as before they had been at that of their means. Budget burned or blown up, the rebel army was pouring out of their capital with the fear that their one or two ways of flight were already blocked by Sheridan or Sherman. The desperate attempt to arm slaves against their coming deliverer was the last kick. Lee clung to Richmond in hope that his lieutenant, Johnston, would check the on-comer, but he was compelled to notify his president and colleagues that flights were their only resource when he could no longer fight. Lincoln was at Petersburg, at Grant's headquarters, when, a few miles off, Davis received fatal intelligence that Lee was being deserted so freely, that there would not be a bodyguard left him. He fled to be ignominiously captured in female disguise. His lair was hot when Lincoln entered it and made it his closet, once he issued his orders. Soon after this occupation, the victor heard the name of Pickett announced to him. The southern general George Pickett was a protégé of his, as he smoothed his entry upon the West Point Military Academy book when he was a congressman. Without either knowing it, the hero was lying dead on a heartfelt field close by, but Lincoln ordered to her admittance. She was accompanied by her little son. This alone would have prevailed over the president, but as he formally addressed him as the authority, he interrupted. Not the president, but George's old friend. And beckoning the wandering boy to him with the irresistible attraction of men who love the young and are intuitively loved by them, he said, Tell your father, Rascal, that I forgive him for the sake of your mother's smile and your own bright eyes. This reconciliation on the fall of this word was a token of the forgivingness of the North toward the Charleston foes. End of section 368. This recording is in the public domain. Section 369 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Close your eyes. Read for LibriVox.org by Magdalena Cook. Close your eyes. The marquee of Shambrun, a French volunteer who entered the Lincoln Circle, relates in a more elegant strain the above incident. His states that Thompson and Sanders were informed upon and Stanton repeated the information to the president with a view of having them intercepted, but the other in his tender voice responded. Let us close our eyes and leave them pass unnoticed. End of section 369. This recording is in the public domain. Section 370 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Don't judge by appearances. The president's recklessness seems incredible as to going about the Capitol as far as he knew and wish without escort, but his browsing, to use his word, about the perilous front while the concluding actions were enveloping Petersburg preliminarily to the rush at Richmond, partake of the nature of a fanatics daring. This is the support to the otherwise taxing story told by Dr. J. E. Burris of New York, then a volunteer soldier at the place. He states that Lincoln, so shabbily dressed as to be taken for a farmer or a planter, was so treated by soldiery before a tobacco warehouse under guard. They wanted tobacco and begged him to allow some to be turned out. He approached a young lieutenant commanding the post, but the latter was insolent to the old southerner. The latter sent a soldier to General Grant, who himself rode up post-haste at the summons. The soldiers were given some of the Indian weed and the donor, turning to the impertinent officer, who had thought him a converted reb, said, young sir, do not judge by appearances, and for the future treat your elders with more respect. Section 371 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Nothing can touch him further. Read for LibriVox.org by Hannah Dowell. Returning to Washington from Richmond, Lincoln read twice to friends on the journey from his pocket Shakespeare. Treason has done his worst, nor steal nor poison, malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch him further. End of Section 371. This recording is in the public domain. Section 372 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. Went and Returned. Read for LibriVox.org. On the last days of March, 1865 contained the three battles, closing with that of five forks, signalizing the collapse of the Confederacy at Richmond. The president at the front sent the news of victories to the cabinet at home. After the battles, the advance of the triumphing Unionists. On Monday morning Lincoln was unable to telegraph the talismanic words so often dreamed of in the last agonizing years of fluctuating hope. Richmond has fallen. I am about to enter. Secretary Staunton of the War Office immediately implored, do not peril your life. But in the morning he received this line from the most independent president known since Jackson. Received your dispatch, went to Richmond, and returned this morning. Expostulated with, by Speaker Colfax on the apparent rashness, for he had completed the foolhardy act by occupying President Jefferson Davis's vacated house, he replied with the calm of a man of destiny. I should have been alarmed myself if any other person had been president and gone there, but I did not feel in any danger whatever. Note. Mark the analogy in Great Men. General Grant says of his first emotions in war, the Mexican, if someone else had been colonel and I had been lieutenant colonel, I do not think I would have felt any trepidation. The clear foresight. On the 2nd of April 1865 the president was at city point, Grant's headquarters, until he started force for the culminating series of ceaseless strokes. That morning attack along the whole line had been commanded, and the president telegraphed to his wife at the capital during the raging battle. He knew that already the hostile lines had been pierced in one or more places, and that Sheridan's cavalry rush was supported by a division of infantry. He concludes foreseeing that at length pecking away was over and slugging begun. All is now favorable. In truth on that same day the rebel government at Richmond faded sense like a mirage, and within a one week General Lee surrendered his enfeebled relic of a grand army. End of section 373. This recording is in the public domain. Section 374. The Lincoln Storybook by Henry L Williams. Do it unbeknownst. Read for LibriVox.org by Hannah Dowell. On April 7th 1865 General Grant had enveloped the enemies that he could be assured that the rebel government if it remained in Richmond as the last ditch would be trapped. He notified the president close by at Petersburg and asked what should be done in the event of the game being bagged. The plan was, it seems, to have slain the ex-president and his cabinet officers in a route, and the charge had been described as massacre abroad. The arbiter on this point of anguish replies in his characteristic manner. I will tell you a story. There was once an Irishman who signed the Father Matthews Temperance Pledge, but a few days afterward he became terribly thirsty and finally went into a familiar resort, where the barkeeper was, at first, startled to hear him call for a straight soda. He related that he had taken the pledge, so he hinted, with an Irishman's broadness of hint, he might put in some spirits, unbeknownst to me. Note, another and later version, for the above was limitedly repeated at the time with gusto and appreciation of the subtlety, makes the hero a temperance lecturer at Lincoln's father's house. This is stupid, for Lincoln, a fervent temperance advocate, would not have decried the apostles the doctrine for which he was also a sufferer. In course of time doubt has been cast on this anecdote, by reason that the President would not have gestured at such a juncture. But abundant confirmation was forthcoming at the time. Besides, we have so grave a general as Sherman alluding to the unbeknownst in an official document. End of Section 374. This recording is in the public domain. Section 376 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. No more invidious name-calling. Read for LibriVox.org. On returning from a carriage-drive into Washington, Mrs. Lincoln, who was not the Southern sympathizer the scandalist hinted, glanced at the city and said aloud with bitterness, That city is full of our enemies. Had she a premonition on the fatal eve? Right before the Marquis of Chamberlain, their companion, the President serenely said, Enemies, Mary, never speak of that. No wonder, when the dastardly taking off was brooded through the beaten but ever-gallant South, they knew that they had lost their best friend as General Pickett styled Lincoln, by the Marquis of Chamberlain. End of Section 376. This recording is in the public domain. Section 377 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The United States of America. The Treasury of the World. Read for LibriVox.org. The United States of America. The Treasury of the World. Our Shilor Colfax was going west, Lincoln, in beating hymns the last far well, said foresightedly. I have very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. Now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine, we make the payment of the debt the easier. Tell the miners from me that I shall promote their interests to the best of my ability, because their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation, and we shall prove in a few years that we are the Treasury of the World. End of Section 377. This recording is in the public domain. Section 378 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. On April 11, 1865, Mr. Lincoln spoke out of his study window to an immense and joyous crowd. There were rockets and port fire and a huge bonfire while the President was serenaded. The finish of the rebellion delighted all persons. His offhand speech was full of compassion and brotherly love. Louisiana was already being reconstructed. Mr. Harlan, who followed the Chief, touched the major key. What shall we do with the rebels? To which the mob responded hoarsely, hang them! Lincoln's little son, Tad, was in the room, playing with the quills on the table where his father made his notes. He looked at his father and said, as one whose intimacy made him familiar with his inmost thoughts. No, Papa, not hang them, but hang on to them. The President triumphantly repeated, we must hang on to them. Tad's got it! By Mrs. H. McCullough present. End of Section 378. This recording is in the public domain. At Springfield, immediately upon the election for President, Lincoln began to receive letters with lethal menaces. His friends took them as serious, and two or more carried weapons and escorted him closely that no one with the dagger might reach his side. Calling on his stepmother for the farewell, she reiterated the general, and rising, fears. At Philadelphia, detectives and others whispered of a plot matured at Baltimore, and in his speech at raising the flag over Independence Hall he said pointedly, If this country cannot be saved without giving up this principle, liberty to the world, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on the spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God to die by. Speech, Philadelphia, February 1861. End of Section 380. This recording is in the public domain. Section 381 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. A President, not an Emperor. Read for LibriVox.org by Christine. A President, not an Emperor. The President said to Colonial Halpin, as respected the lifeguards, which he soon dispensed with around his person, often going out unaware so as to dodge the escort in waiting. It will never do for the President of a Republic to have guards with drawn swords at his door, as if he fancied he were, or were trying to be, or were assuming to be an Emperor. End of Section 381. This recording is in the public domain. Section 382 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. The Plot to Waylay the President, 1860. Read for LibriVox.org by Steve Eberhardt. The dispute as to whether there was a foundation to the supposed Plot to Waylay and sequester President-Elect Lincoln between Philadelphia and Washington is notable. From the later light and the letter from Wilkes Booth to his brother-in-law, Sleeper Clark, the comedian, no doubt is left that to kidnap him was a Plot dated very early when the four-sided slaveholders were certain that he was a greater enemy from consistency than the louder-voiced and openly violent abolitionists. While Colonel layman doubted, and whisked he had not been beguiled into aiding the ignominious flight in disguise and secretly by train, Secretary Seward and General Scott gave it credence. The foreboding had touched Lincoln before he left his Illinois home. At Springfield his farewell speech is tinged with shade. At Philadelphia and Harrisburg he spoke of blood-spilling and used the word assassination at the former. He took up the matter like a reasoner. Already the detective brothers, Pinkerton, had an inkling of the doings of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or some such secret society, designing Regicide. So, as the concordance is held as a proof from the variance of the witnesses to scenes, he argued that the story was founded. Otherwise he would not have heard of the criminal attempt from all sides. That was what made him yield his dignity to the safety of a person whom he felt was chosen for the crisis. The next morning he had concluded to pass through Baltimore, at another than the arranged hour to foil the plot. End of section 382. This recording is in a public domain. Section 383 of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams. I don't believe there is any danger. Read for LibriVox.org by Christine. I don't believe there is any danger. One night the President had been very late with the Secretary of War at the latter's department, but just the same he insisted on his getting home by the shortcut, a footpath lined and embalmed by trees, then leading from the bar office to the White House. But Stanton stopped him. You ought not to go that way. It's dangerous for you in the daytime. It did lend itself to an unbusted, and persons who knew Wilkes Booth assert, having seen him prowling around. It's worth at night. I do not believe there is any danger there, night or day, responded the President, with Malcolm's confidence that he stood in the great hand of God. Well, Mr. President, continued Stanton, a stubborn man himself. You shall not be killed returning from my department by that dark way while I am in it. And he forced him to enter his carriage to return by the well-lighted avenue. Lincoln had previously consented to carry a cane. End of Section 383. This recording is in the public domain. Section 384 of the Lincoln's storybook by Henry L. Williams. Worry till you get rid of things. Read for LibriVox.org. On Colonel Halpine trying to make the Chief see that even indoors there was danger, he debated about the two menaces, violence of cranks and of a political fanatic. He thought too well of the sense of the people at Richmond, some of whom had been colleagues of his in his first day at Washington as congressman. Do you think they would like to have Hannibal Hamlin, his first Vice President, here any better than myself? The story is repeated with his second Vice substituted for the first, with the more justification, as Andy Johnson was impeached for his incompetency. Detective Baker put it this way, As to the crazy folks, I must take my chances, the most crazy people being, I fear, some of my own two zealous adherents. He had the same idea as in an ancient Chinese proverb, you may steal the captain out of his castle, but you cannot steal the castle. I am but a single individual, and it would not help their cause, or make the least difference in the progress of the war. Footnote. He might have said, as truly as his predecessor, John Tyler, reproached also for going about unguarded, my bodyguard is the people who elected me, cited by F. B. Carpenter. End of Section 384. This recording is in the public domain. He was touched by the victory of Gettysburg made a believer. It is plain that, after this, a fortitude replaced the despondency stamping him. It may be due to this conviction of being one of the chosen, like Cromwell and Gordon, soldiers of Christ, that he met all adurations for him to take care of his precious life with fanatical unconcern. He communicated to the cabinet, at the close of the conflict, how he had appointed to confer alone, and without guards to terrify the emissary, and noted Confederate. They were to discuss peace, and by that word Lincoln was drawn to anyone. He answered the quotients with a simple saying, I am but an individual, and my removal will not in any way advance the other folks in their endeavours. In fact, it was so. The misdeed was a double-edged blade, which cut both ways. It will never be known, probably, how near a massacre followed the explosion of indignation at that maniac's murder of the emancipator. Fortunately, for the unsolid robe of Columbia, a hundred advocates of living retribution to heaven, echoed Garfield's appeasing address. Lincoln met the intermediator, but the ultimate negotiation fell through, like the others all. He came home from city point with sadness, but from his seat his outcome the universal peace tribunal of the Hague. Professor Martins based his original plea of the Tsars on the Lincolnian guide for the soldiers in our war. End of section 385. This recording is in the public domain. 386 of the Lincoln storybook by Henry L. Williams, the poisoning plot. A servant at the White House testifies that he was approached by emissaries who offered him a sum almost preposterously large to put a powder in the milk for the Lincoln's family table. The agents knew that they were temperance followers, milk being as common as wine at previous tenants' table. This was laughed at before the shadow of Booth's patricide was cast ahead. But the reverend Henry Ward Beecher publicly declares, and he was in the state's secrets as deeply as any layman, that President General Harrison, Tippecanoe, was poisoned that Tyler might fulfill the plan to annex Texas as a slave state. With even stronger convictions, is it affirmed that President General Taylor was poisoned that a less stern successor might give a suppler instrument to manage? Who doubts now that it was attempted Breckenridge in his room? End of section 386. This recording is in the public domain. Section 387 of the Lincoln storybook by Henry L. Williams. Nothing like getting used to things, read for LibriVox.org. Nothing like getting used to things. The more evident it grew that the president, at whom the stupid jeers persisted through incurable density of his enemies, was the vital motor of the Union cause, then threats of violently removing him were continually sent him. So many such letters accumulated that he grimly packaged them together and labelled the mess as assassination papers. It was a Democlesian dagger of which he spoke lightly, because fear of death never owed him. When a man walks in the manifest path, traced out for him by heaven, he does not tremble. But friends, more concerned by the strain in watching over his safety, expressing surprise at his indifference, he tried to reassure them. Oh, there is nothing like getting used to things. End of section 387. This recording is in the public domain. General Wadsworth, in his anxiety about the president's safety in Washington, swarming with insurgent agents, set a cavalry guard over the president's carriage. He went and complained to General Halleck, in charge of the Capitol, saying only partly facetiously, why Mrs. Lincoln and I cannot hear ourselves talk for the clatter of their sabers and spurs, and some of them appear to be new hands and very awkward, so that I am afraid of being shot by the accidental discharge of a carbine or revolver than any attempt upon my life by a roving squad of Jeb Stewart's cavalry. Since Stewart came twenty miles within the Union lines, he was the criterion of rebel raiders' possibilities. End of section 388. This recording is in the public domain. Section 389. Of the Lincoln Storybook, by Henry L. Williams. The One Word He Had Learned, read for LibriVox.org. The One Word He Had Learned. A tale-bearer came to the president with a plot against him and the government, which was a cock-and-bull without any adherents, and also superficial. Lincoln heard him out, but then sharply returned. There was one thing that I have learned, and that you have not. It's only one word, thorough. Then, bringing his huge hand down on the table desk, to emphasize his meaning, he repeated, thorough. End of section 389. This recording is in the public domain. Section 390. Of the Lincoln Storybook, by Henry L. Williams. Not to disappoint the people. Read for LibriVox.org. By Bill Elliott at Vocability.com. The strictly religious went so far as to call the Lincoln assassination a judgment, as it happened in a playhouse on a good Friday. It appears that the president had compunctions, and at the last minute was disinclined to go, though a party had been made up to oblige a young espoused couple. But General Grant, who was to be a feature of the command performance, was called away, no doubt escaping the knife the murderer had in reserve to his pistol. The president said that he must go, not to disappoint the people on this gala night, as the rejoicing was wide over the disillusion of the Confederacy. End of section 390. This recording is in the public domain. Section 391. Of the Lincoln Storybook, by Henry L. Williams. Nothing like prayer, but praise. Read for LibriVox.org. By Esther. Nothing like prayer, but praise. In 1862 the president suffered an affliction harder to bear than the war. His son Willie, William, next to the one that died in infancy, was carried off by typhoid fever under the presidential roof. And another, Tad, Thomas, who actually lived to be twenty and passed away in Illinois, was given up by the physicians. At this crisis Miss Dix, daughter of the general, famous for his order, if anyone offers to pull down the American flag, shoot him on the spot. Recommended an army nurse, Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomeroy. She was a born suckerer, pious and fortifying. She came reluctantly to the important errand, as she had to leave a ward full of wounded soldiers. She had lost many of her family, and was able to comfort, from gauging the affectionate father's grief. She led him to pray in his double racking of bad war news and the domestic distress. On next seeing him, and that he was less grieved, for news of the Fort Donaldson surrender to General Grant arrived in the meantime, she hastened to say, There is nothing like prayer, Mr. President. Yes, there is, praise, prayer and praise must go together. The End End of section 391 End of the Lincoln Storybook by Henry L. Williams This recording is in the public domain.