Long after the President reconsidered his hasty surmise that the
impending war was "artificial crisis," Congress continued to waver, and
no one put forward a definite and working policy for the head who
avowed that he never had one. In his despondency and lonesomeness, he
welcomed an old friend from his State, who, however, like the rest, had
his frets and rubs to seek solace for.
"You know better than any man living that, from my boyhood up, my
ambition was to be President. I am, at least, President of one part of
the divided country; but look at me! With a fire in my front and one in
my rear to contend with, and not receiving that cordial cooperative
support from Congress, reasonably expected, with an active and
formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life-blood of the
government, my position is anything but on a bed of roses."
* * * * *
"BLIND" FORTUNE.
A soldier shot in the head so as to be deprived of sight in both eyes
left the Carver Hospital, Washington, and blundered in crossing the
avenue. At that very moment the President's carriage was coming along
to the Soldiers' Home from the mansion. The coach alone would probably
have not brought any casualty upon the unfortunate young invalid, but
it was again surrounded by one of the cavalry detachments, which
Lincoln insisted on being withdrawn, but it was replaced, for the time.
The soldier hearing this double clatter of hoofs became bewildered, and
stood still in the midroad, or, if anything, inclined toward the
thundering danger. The cavalry chargers, trained to avoid hurting
men--for a rider might be thrown--eluded contact, and the coachman
neatly pulled aside. In the next moment, in a cloud of dust, the
President, leaning out of the window, to ascertain the cause of the
abrupt stop, saw the poor young soldier by his side. Lincoln threw out
a hand to seize him by the arm, and reassure him of safety by the
vibrating clutch. Then, perceiving the nature of the affair, he asked
in a voice trembling with emotion about the man's regiment and
disablement. The man was from the Northwest--Michigan. Lumbermen--and
they are of the woods woody out there--and Lincoln believed in "the ax
as the enlarger of our borders"--are brotherly. The next day the
soldier was commissioned lieutenant with perpetual leave, but full
pay.--(By the veteran reservist, H. W. Knight, of the escort.)
* * * * *