“Is that not Putting the Cart Before the Horse?”
The results of the convention were routed through the telegraph office at the War Department. Lincoln was present in the late afternoon when a clerk handed him a dispatch reporting Johnson’s nomination. Having not yet heard his own nomination confirmed, Lincoln was startled. “What! do they nominate a Vice-President before they do a President?” Is that not putting “the cart before the horse”? The embarrassed operator explained that the dispatch about the president’s nomination had come in several hours earlier, while Lincoln was at lunch, and had been sent directly to the White House. “It is all right,” replied Lincoln. “I shall probably find it on my return.”
By Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”，pp. 626 Goodwin-621-423-22,By Francis Bicknell Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, p. 163.
April 20, 2020 at 23:00
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