The Governor-General of Canada, with some of his principal officers,
visited President Lincoln in the summer of 1864.
They had been very troublesome in harboring blockade runners, and they
were said to have carried on a large trade from their ports with the
Confederates. Lincoln treated his guests with great courtesy.
After a pleasant interview, the Governor, alluding to the coming
Presidential election said, jokingly, but with a grain of sarcasm: “I
understand Mr. President, that everybody votes in this country. If we
remain until November, can we vote?”
“You remind me,” replied the President, “of a countryman of yours, a
green emigrant from Ireland. Pat arrived on election day, and perhaps
was as eager as your Excellency to vote, and to vote early, and late and
often.
“So, upon landing at Castle Garden, he hastened to the nearest voting
place, and as he approached, the judge who received the ballots
inquired, ‘Who do you want to vote for? On which side are you?’ Poor Pat
was embarrassed; he did not know who were the candidates. He stopped,
scratched his head, then, with the readiness of his countrymen, he said:
“‘I am forninst the Government, anyhow. Tell me, if your Honor plase:
which is the rebellion side, and I’ll tell you haw I want to vote. In
ould Ireland, I was always on the rebellion side, and, by Saint Patrick,
I’ll do that same in America.’ Your Excellency,” said Mr. Lincoln,
“would, I should think, not be at all at a loss on which side to vote!”
“CAN’T SPARE THIS MAN.”
One night, about eleven o’clock, Colonel A. K. McClure, whose intimacy
with President Lincoln was so great that he could obtain admittance to
the Executive Mansion at any and all hours, called at the White House to
urge Mr. Lincoln to remove General Grant from command.
After listening patiently for a long time, the President, gathering
himself up in his chair, said, with the utmost earnestness:
“I can’t spare this man; he fights!”
In relating the particulars of this interview, Colonel McClure said:
“That was all he said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was
safe in Lincoln’s hands against his countless hosts of enemies. The only
man in all the nation who had the power to save Grant was Lincoln,
and he had decided to do it. He was not influenced by any personal
partiality for Grant, for they had never met.
“It was not until after the battle of Shiloh, fought on the 6th and
7th of April, 1862, that Lincoln was placed in a position to exercise a
controlling influence in shaping the destiny of Grant. The first reports
from the Shiloh battle-field created profound alarm throughout the
entire country, and the wildest exaggerations were spread in a floodtide
of vituperation against Grant.
“The few of to-day who can recall the inflamed condition of public
sentiment against Grant caused by the disastrous first day’s battle
at Shiloh will remember that he was denounced as incompetent for his
command by the public journals of all parties in the North, and with
almost entire unanimity by Senators and Congressmen, regardless of
political affinities.
“I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and
in giving my reasons for it I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming
protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant’s continuance in
command.
“I did not forget that Lincoln was the one man who never allowed
himself to appear as wantonly defying public sentiment. It seemed to
me impossible for him to save Grant without taking a crushing load of
condemnation upon himself; but Lincoln was wiser than all those
around him, and he not only saved Grant, but he saved him by such
well-concerted effort that he soon won popular applause from those who
were most violent in demanding Grant’s dismissal.”