In an argument against the opposite political party at one time during a
campaign, Lincoln said: “My opponent uses a figurative expression to
the effect that ‘the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are
sound in the heart and head.’ The first branch of the figure--that
is the Democrats are vulnerable in the heel--I admit is not merely
figuratively but literally true. Who that looks but for a moment at
their hundreds of officials scampering away with the public money to
Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the earth where a villain may
hope to find refuge from justice, can at all doubt that they are most
distressingly affected in their heels with a species of running itch?
“It seems that this malady of their heels operates on the sound-headed
and honest-hearted creatures very much as the cork leg in the comic song
did on its owner, which, when he once got started on it, the more he
tried to stop it, the more it would run away.
“At the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will relate
an anecdote the situation calls to my mind, which seems to be too
strikingly in point to be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always
boasting of his bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably
retreated without orders at the first charge of the engagement, being
asked by his captain why he did so, replied, ‘Captain, I have as brave
a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, but somehow or other, whenever danger
approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it.’
“So with the opposite party--they take the public money into their hands
for the most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can
dictate; but before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally,
vulnerable heels will run away with them.”