It was Lincoln’s custom to hold an informal reception once a week, each
caller taking his turn.
Upon one of these eventful days an old friend from Illinois stood in
line for almost an hour. At last he was so near the President his voice
could reach him, and, calling out to his old associate, he startled
every one by exclaiming, “Hallo, ‘Abe’; how are ye? I’m in line and hev
come for an orfice, too.”
Lincoln singled out the man with the stentorian voice, and recognizing
a particularly old friend, one whose wife had befriended him at a
peculiarly trying time, the President responded to his greeting in a
cordial manner, and told him “to hang onto himself and not kick the
traces. Keep in line and you’ll soon get here.”
They met and shook hands with the old fervor and renewed their
friendship.
The informal reception over, Lincoln sent for his old friend, and the
latter began to urge his claims.
After having given him some good advice, Lincoln kindly told him he
was incapable of holding any such position as he asked for. The
disappointment of the Illinois friend was plainly shown, and with a
perceptible tremor in his voice he said, “Martha’s dead, the gal is
married, and I’ve guv Jim the forty.”
Then looking at Lincoln he came a little nearer and almost whispered, “I
knowed I wasn’t eddicated enough to git the place, but I kinder want to
stay where I ken see ‘Abe’ Lincoln.”
He was given employment in the White House grounds.
Afterwards the President said, “These brief interviews, stripped of
even the semblance of ceremony, give me a better insight into the real
character of the person and his true reason for seeking one.”