In the “Diary of a Public Man” appears this jocose anecdote:
“Mr. Lincoln walked into the corridor with us; and, as he bade us
good-by and thanked Blank for what he had told him, he again brightened
up for a moment and asked him in an abrupt kind of way, laying his hand
as he spoke with a queer but not uncivil familiarity on his shoulder,
‘You haven’t such a thing as a postmaster in your pocket, have you?’
“Blank stared at him in astonishment, and I thought a little in alarm, as
if he suspected a sudden attack of insanity; then Mr. Lincoln went on:
‘You see it seems to me kind of unnatural that you shouldn’t have at
least a postmaster in your pocket. Everybody I’ve seen for days past has
had foreign ministers and collectors, and all kinds, and I thought you
couldn’t have got in here without having at least a postmaster get into
your pocket!’”