General Fisk, attending a reception at the White House, saw waiting in
the ante-room a poor old man from Tennessee, and learned that he had
been waiting three or four days to get an audience, on which probably
depended the life of his son, under sentence of death for some military
offense.
General Fisk wrote his case in outline on a card and sent it in, with a
special request that the President would see the man. In a moment the
order came; and past impatient senators, governors and generals, the old
man went.
He showed his papers to Mr. Lincoln, who said he would look into the
case and give him the result next day.
The old man, in an agony of apprehension, looked up into the President’s
sympathetic face and actually cried out:
“To-morrow may be too late! My son is under sentence of death! It ought
to be decided now!”
His streaming tears told how much he was moved.
“Come,” said Mr. Lincoln, “wait a bit and I’ll tell you a story;” and
then he told the old man General Fisk’s story about the swearing driver,
as follows:
“The general had begun his military life as a colonel, and when he
raised his regiment in Missouri he proposed to his men that he should
do all the swearing of the regiment. They assented; and for months no
instance was known of the violation of the promise.
“The colonel had a teamster named John Todd, who, as roads were not
always the best, had some difficulty in commanding his temper and his
tongue.
“John happened to be driving a mule team through a series of mudholes a
little worse than usual, when, unable to restrain himself any longer, he
burst forth into a volley of energetic oaths.
“The colonel took notice of the offense and brought John to account.
“‘John,’ said he, ‘didn’t you promise to let me do all the swearing of
the regiment?’
“‘Yes, I did, colonel,’ he replied, ‘but the fact was, the swearing had
to be done then or not at all, and you weren’t there to do it.’”
As he told the story the old man forgot his boy, and both the President
and his listener had a hearty laugh together at its conclusion.
Then he wrote a few words which the old man read, and in which he found
new occasion for tears; but the tears were tears of joy, for the words
saved the life of his son.