Mr. Lincoln had advised Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, commanding
the United States Army, of the threats of violence on inauguration day,
1861. General Scott was sick in bed at Washington when Adjutant-General
Thomas Mather, of Illinois, called upon him in President-elect Lincoln’s
behalf, and the veteran commander was much wrought up. Said he to
General Mather:
“Present my compliments to Mr. Lincoln when you return to Springfield,
and tell him I expect him to come on to Washington as soon as he is
ready; say to him that I will look after those Maryland and Virginia
rangers myself. I will plant cannon at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue,
and if any of them show their heads or raise a finger, I’ll blow them to
h---.”
“YANKEE” GOODNESS OF HEART.
One day, when the President was with the troops who were fighting at the
front, the wounded, both Union and Confederate, began to pour in.
As one stretcher was passing Lincoln, he heard the voice of a lad
calling to his mother in agonizing tones. His great heart filled. He
forgot the crisis of the hour. Stopping the carriers, he knelt, and
bending over him, asked: “What can I do for you, my poor child?”
“Oh, you will do nothing for me,” he replied. “You are a Yankee. I
cannot hope that my message to my mother will ever reach her.”
Lincoln, in tears, his voice full of tenderest love, convinced the boy
of his sincerity, and he gave his good-bye words without reserve.
The President directed them copied, and ordered that they be sent that
night, with a flag of truce, into the enemy’s lines.