LINCOLN had the keenest sense of humor, and always saw the laughable
side even of disaster. In his humor there was logic and the best of
sense. No matter how complicated the question, or how embarrassing the
situation, his humor furnished an answer and a door of escape.
Vallandigham was a friend of the South, and did what he could to sow
the seeds of failure. In his opinion everything, except rebellion, was
unconstitutional.
He was arrested, convicted by a court martial, and sentenced to
imprisonment.
There was doubt about the legality of the trial, and thousands in the
North denounced the whole proceeding as tyrannical and infamous. At the
same time millions demanded that Vallandigham should be punished.
Lincoln's humor came to the rescue. He disapproved of the findings of
the court, changed the punishment, and ordered that Mr. Vallandigham
should be sent to his friends in the South.
Those who regarded the act as unconstitutional almost forgave it for the
sake of its humor.
Horace Greeley always had the idea that he was greatly superior to
Lincoln, because he lived in a larger town, and for a long time insisted
that the people of the North and the people of the South desired peace.
He took it upon himself to lecture Lincoln. Lincoln, with that wonderful
sense of humor, united with shrewdness and profound wisdom, told Greeley
that, if the South really wanted peace, he (Lincoln) desired the same
thing, and was doing all he could to bring it about. Greeley insisted
that a commissioner should be appointed, with authority to negotiate
with the representatives of the Confederacy. This was Lincoln's
opportunity. He authorized Greeley to act as such commissioner. The
great editor felt that he was caught. For a time he hesitated, but
finally went, and found that the Southern commissioners were willing
to take into consideration any offers of peace that Lincoln might make,
consistent with the independence of the Confederacy.
The failure of Greeley was humiliating, and the position in which he was
left, absurd.
Again the humor of Lincoln had triumphed.
Lincoln, to satisfy a few fault-finders in the North, went to Grant's
headquarters and met some Confederate commissioners. He urged that
it was hardly proper for him to negotiate with the representatives of
rebels in arms--that if the South wanted peace, all they had to do was
to stop fighting. One of the commissioners cited as a precedent the fact
that Charles the First negotiated with rebels in arms. To which Lincoln
replied that Charles the First lost his head.
The conference came to nothing, as Mr. Lincoln expected.
The commissioners, one of them being Alexander H. Stephens, who, when in
good health, weighed about ninety pounds, dined with the President
and Gen. Grant. After dinner, as they were leaving, Stephens put on an
English ulster, the tails of which reached the ground, while the collar
was somewhat above the wearer's head.
As Stephens went out, Lincoln touched Grant and said: "Grant, look at
Stephens. Did you ever see as little a nubbin with as much shuck?"
Lincoln always tried to do things in the easiest way. He did not waste
his strength. He was not particular about moving along straight lines.
He did not tunnel the mountains. He was willing to go around, and reach
the end desired as a river reaches the sea.