When a surveyor, Mr. Lincoln first platted the town of Petersburg, Ill.
Some twenty or thirty years afterward the property-owners along one
of the outlying streets had trouble in fixing their boundaries. They
consulted the official plat and got no relief. A committee was sent
to Springfield to consult the distinguished surveyor, but he failed to
recall anything that would give them aid, and could only refer them to
the record. The dispute therefore went into the courts. While the trial
was pending, an old Irishman named McGuire, who had worked for some
farmer during the summer, returned to town for the winter. The case
being mentioned in his presence, he promptly said: “I can tell you all
about it. I helped carry the chain when Abe Lincoln laid out this
town. Over there where they are quarreling about the lines, when he was
locating the street, he straightened up from his instrument and said:
‘If I run that street right through, it will cut three or four feet off
the end of ----‘s house. It’s all he’s got in the world and he never
could get another. I reckon it won’t hurt anything out here if I skew
the line a little and miss him.”’
The line was “skewed,” and hence the trouble, and more testimony
furnished as to Lincoln’s abounding kindness of heart, that would not
willingly harm any human being.
“WHEREAS,” HE STOLE NOTHING.
One of the most celebrated courts-martial during the War was that
of Franklin W. Smith and his brother, charged with defrauding the
government. These men bore a high character for integrity. At this time,
however, courts-martial were seldom invoked for any other purpose than
to convict the accused, and the Smiths shared the usual fate of persons
whose cases were submitted to such arbitrament. They were kept in
prison, their papers seized, their business destroyed, and their
reputations ruined, all of which was followed by a conviction.
The finding of the court was submitted to the President, who, after a
careful investigation, disapproved the judgment, and wrote the following
endorsement upon the papers:
“Whereas, Franklin W. Smith had transactions with the Navy Department to
the amount of a million and a quarter of dollars; and:
“Whereas, he had a chance to steal at least a quarter of a million
and was only charged with stealing twenty-two hundred dollars, and the
question now is about his stealing one hundred, I don’t believe he stole
anything at all.
“Therefore, the record and the findings are disapproved, declared null
and void, and the defendants are fully discharged.”