Mr. Lincoln once remarked to a fellow-passenger on the old-time mud-wagon
coach, on the corduroy road which antedated railroads, that all men were
prompted by selfishness in doing good or evil. His fellow-passenger was
antagonizing his position when they were passing over a corduroy bridge
that spanned a slough. As they crossed this bridge, and the mud-wagon was
shaking like a sucker with chills, they espied an old, razor-back sow on
the bank of the slough, making a terrible noise because her pigs had got
into the slough and were unable to get out and in danger of drowning.
As the old coach began to climb the hillside Mr. Lincoln called out:
“Driver, can’t you stop just a moment?” The driver replied. “If the other
feller don’t object.” The “other feller”--who was no less a personage
than, at that time, “Col.” E. D. Baker, the gallant general who gave his
life in defense of old glory at Ball’s Bluff--did not “object,” when
Mr. Lincoln jumped out, ran back to the slough and began to lift the
little pigs out of the mud and water and place them on the bank. When he
returned Col. Baker remarked: “Now, Abe, where does selfishness come in
in this little episode?” “Why, bless your soul, Ed, that was the very
essence of selfishness. I would have had no peace of mind all day had I
gone on and left that suffering old sow worrying over those pigs. I did
it to get peace of mind, don’t you see?”