Superintendent Chandler, of the Telegraph Office in the War Department,
once told how President Lincoln wrote telegrams. Said he:
“Mr. Lincoln frequently wrote telegrams in my office. His method of
composition was slow and laborious. It was evident that he thought out
what he was going to say before he touched his pen to the paper. He
would sit looking out of the window, his left elbow on the table, his
hand scratching his temple, his lips moving, and frequently he spoke the
sentence aloud or in a half whisper.
“After he was satisfied that he had the proper expression, he would
write it out. If one examines the originals of Mr. Lincoln’s telegrams
and letters, he will find very few erasures and very little interlining.
This was because he had them definitely in his mind before writing them.
“In this he was the exact opposite of Mr. Stanton, who wrote with
feverish haste, often scratching out words, and interlining frequently.
Sometimes he would seize a sheet which he had filled, and impatiently
tear it into pieces.”