The day following the adjournment of the Baltimore Convention, at which
President Lincoln was renominated, various political organizations
called to pay their respects to the President. While the Philadelphia
delegation was being presented, the chairman of that body, in
introducing one of the members, said:
“Mr. President, this is Mr. S., of the second district of our State,--a
most active and earnest friend of yours and the cause. He has, among
other things, been good enough to paint, and present to our league
rooms, a most beautiful portrait of yourself.”
President Lincoln took the gentleman’s hand in his, and shaking it
cordially said, with a merry voice, “I presume, sir, in painting your
beautiful portrait, you took your idea of me from my principles and not
from my person.”