Mr. Leonard Volk, the artist, relates that, being in Springfield when
Lincoln’s nomination for President was announced, he called upon Mr.
Lincoln, whom he found looking smiling and happy. “I exclaimed, ‘I
am the first man from Chicago, I believe, who has had the honor of
congratulating you on your nomination for President.’ Then those two
great hands took both of mine with a grasp never to be forgotten,
and while shaking, I said, ‘Now that you will doubtless be the next
President of the United States, I want to make a statue of you, and
shall try my best to do you justice.’
“Said he, ‘I don’t doubt it, for I have come to the conclusion that you
are an honest man,’ and with that greeting, I thought my hands in a fair
way of being crushed.
“On the Sunday following, by agreement, I called to make a cast of Mr.
Lincoln’s hands. I asked him to hold something in his hands, and told
him a stick would do. Thereupon he went to the woodshed, and I heard the
saw go, and he soon returned to the dining-room, whittling off the end
of a piece of broom handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle
off the edges. ‘Oh, well,’ said he, ‘I thought I would like to have it
nice.’”
“BOTH LENGTH AND BREADTH.”
During Lincoln’s first and only term in Congress--he was elected in
1846--he formed quite a cordial friendship with Stephen A. Douglas, a
member of the United States Senate from Illinois, and the beaten one in
the contest as to who should secure the hand of Miss Mary Todd. Lincoln
was the winner; Douglas afterwards beat him for the United States
Senate, but Lincoln went to the White House.
During all of the time that they were rivals in love and in politics
they remained the best of friends personally. They were always glad to
see each other, and were frequently together. The disparity in their
size was always the more noticeable upon such occasions, and they well
deserved their nicknames of “Long Abe” and the “Little Giant.” Lincoln
was the tallest man in the National House of Representatives, and
Douglas the shortest (and perhaps broadest) man the Senate, and when
they appeared on the streets together much merriment was created.
Lincoln, when joked about the matter, replied, in a very serious tone,
“Yes, that’s about the length and breadth of it.”
“ABE” RECITES A SONG.
Lincoln couldn’t sing, and he also lacked the faculty of musical
adaptation. He had a liking for certain ballads and songs, and while he
memorized and recited their lines, someone else did the singing. Lincoln
often recited for the delectation of his friends, the following, the
authorship of which is unknown:
The first factional fight in old Ireland, they say,
Was all on account of St. Patrick’s birthday;
It was somewhere about midnight without any doubt,
And certain it is, it made a great rout.
On the eighth day of March, as some people say,
St. Patrick at midnight he first saw the day;
While others assert ‘twas the ninth he was born--
‘Twas all a mistake--between midnight and morn.
Some blamed the baby, some blamed the clock;
Some blamed the doctor, some the crowing cock.
With all these close questions sure no one could know,
Whether the babe was too fast or the clock was too slow.
Some fought for the eighth, for the ninth some would die;
He who wouldn’t see right would have a black eye.
At length these two factions so positive grew,
They each had a birthday, and Pat he had two.
Till Father Mulcahay who showed them their sins,
He said none could have two birthdays but as twins.
“Now boys, don’t be fighting for the eight or the nine;
Don’t quarrel so always, now why not combine.”
Combine eight with nine. It is the mark;
Let that be the birthday. Amen! said the clerk.
So all got blind drunk, which completed their bliss,
And they’ve kept up the practice from that day to this.
“MANAGE TO KEEP HOUSE.”
Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, introduced his brother, William T.
Sherman (then a civilian) to President Lincoln in March, 1861. Sherman
had offered his services, but, as in the case of Grant, they had been
refused.
After the Senator had transacted his business with the President, he
said: “Mr. President, this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who is just
up from Louisiana; he may give you some information you want.”
To this Lincoln replied, as reported by Senator Sherman himself: “Ah!
How are they getting along down there?”
Sherman answered: “They think they are getting along swimmingly; they
are prepared for war.”
To which Lincoln responded: “Oh, well, I guess we’ll manage to keep the
house.”
“Tecump,” whose temper was not the mildest, broke out on “Brother John”
as soon as they were out of the White House, cursed the politicians
roundly, and wound up with, “You have got things in a h--l of a fix, and
you may get out as best you can.”
Sherman was one of the very few generals who gave Lincoln little or no
worry.