“For Each One a Cordial Greeting and a Pleasant Word”

Posted on April 20, 2016 Updated on May 16, 2018

Accompanied by Tad and Assistant Navy Secretary Gustavus Fox, Lincoln left the Washington Navy Yard aboard the river steamerBaltimore in the early evening of June 20. The journey to City Point, which was about 180 miles farther south by water than Aquia Creek, took more than sixteen hours. Horace Porter, Grant’s aide-de-camp, recalled that when the steamer arrived at the wharf, Lincoln “came down from the upper deck…and reaching out his long, angular arm, he wrung General Grant’s hand vigorously, and held it in his for some time,” as he expressed great appreciation for all that Grant had been through since they last met in Washington. Introduced to the members of Grant’s staff, the president “had for each one a cordial greeting and a pleasant word. There was a kindliness in his tone and a hearty manner of expression which went far to captivate all who met him.”

Over a “plain and substantial” lunch, typical of “the hero of Vicksburg,” noted the Herald correspondent, Lincoln conversed entertainingly and delivered “three capital jokes” that provoked hilarity. When the meal was finished, Grant suggested a ride to the front ten miles away. Porter noted that Lincoln made an odd appearance on his horse as his “trousers gradually worked up above his ankles, and gave him the appearance of a country farmer riding into town wearing his Sunday clothes.” The sight “bordered upon the grotesque,” but the troops he passed along the way “were so lost in admiration of the man that the humorous aspect did not seem to strike them…cheers broke forth from all the commands, and enthusiastic shouts and even words of familiar greeting met him on all sides.”

Reaching the front, the president took “a long and lingering look” at the sights of Petersburg, where Lee’s armies were gathered behind formidable earthworks. On the return trip, they passed a brigade of black soldiers, who rushed forward to greet the president, “screaming, yelling, shouting: ‘Hurrah for the Liberator; Hurrah for the President.’” Their “spontaneous outburst” moved Lincoln to tears, “and his voice was so broken by emotion” that he could hardly reply.

That evening, Porter recalled, as Lincoln sat for hours with General Grant and his staff, “we had an opportunity of appreciating his charm as a talker, and hearing some of the stories for which he had become celebrated.” The young aide-de-camp observed what so many others had seen before, that Lincoln “did not tell a story merely for the sake of the anecdote, but to point a moral or clench a fact.” Seated on “a low camp-chair,” with his long legs wrapped around each other “as if in an effort to get them out of the way,” he used his arms to accompany his words and “joined heartily with the listeners in the laugh which followed.” Discussion of a new form of gunpowder prompted a story of two competing powder merchants in Springfield. The sight of a newly patented artillery trace led to the recitation of a line from a poem: “Sorrow had fled, but left her traces there.” Reference to the electoral college brought forth the quaint observation that “the Electoral College is the only one where they choose their own masters.” When the convivial evening came to a close, the president walked with Porter to his tent, taking a peek inside, “from curiosity, doubtless, to see how the officers were quartered,” before returning to his stateroom on the Baltimore.

By Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”，Goodwin-627-428 008-011

“Mr. Lincoln is as simple as a child”

Posted on April 20, 2016 Updated on May 16, 2016

“Ten thousand inquiries will be made as to the looks, the habits, tastes and other characteristics of Honest Old Abe,” the Chicago Press and Tribune wrote. “We anticipate a few of them…. Always clean, he is never fashionable; he is careless but not slovenly…. In his personal habits, Mr. Lincoln is as simple as a child…his food is plain and nutritious. He never drinks intoxicating liquors of any sort…. He is not addicted to tobacco…. If Mr. Lincoln is elected President, he will carry but little that is ornamental to the White House. The country must accept his sincerity, his ability and his honesty, in the mould in which they are cast. He will not be able to make as polite a bow as Frank Pierce, but he will not commence anew the agitation of the Slavery question by recommending to Congress any Kansas- Nebraska bills. He may not preside at the Presidential dinners with the ease and grace which distinguish the ‘venerable public functionary,’ Mr. Buchanan; but he will not create the necessity” for a congressional committee to investigate corruption in his administration.  
By Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” Goodwin-257-178-34

“To Laugh at such Frivolous Jests”

Posted on April 20, 2016 Updated on May 12, 2018

On November 8th, election day, I went over to the War Department about half past eight o’clock in the evening, and found the President and Mr. Stanton together in the Secretary’s office. General Eckert, who then had charge of the telegraph department of the War Office, was coming in constantly with telegrams containing election returns. Mr. Stanton would read them, and the President would look at them and comment upon them. Presently there came a lull in the returns, and Mr. Lincoln called me to a place by his side.

“Dana,” said he, “have you ever read any of the writings of Petroleum V. Nasby?”

“No, sir,” I said; “I have only looked at some of them, and they seemed to be quite funny.”

“Well,” said he, “let me read you a specimen”; and, pulling out a thin yellow-covered pamphlet from his breast pocket, he began to read aloud. Mr. Stanton viewed these proceedings with great impatience, as I could see, but Mr. Lincoln paid no attention to that. He would read a page or a story, pause to consider a new election telegram, and then open the book again and go ahead with a new passage. Finally, Mr. Chase came in, and presently somebody else, and then the reading was interrupted.

Mr. Stanton went to the door and beckoned me into the next room. I shall never forget the fire of his indignation at what seemed to him to be mere nonsense. The idea that when the safety of the republic was thus at issue, when the control of an empire was to be determined by a few figures brought in by the telegraph, the leader, the man most deeply concerned, not merely for himself but for his country, could turn aside to read such balderdash and to laugh at such frivolous jests was, to his mind, repugnant, even damnable. He could not understand, apparently, that it was by the relief which these jests afforded to the strain of mind under which Lincoln had so long been living, and to the natural gloom of a melancholy and desponding temperament — this was Mr. Lincoln’s prevailing characteristic — that the safety and sanity of his intelligence were maintained and preserved.

Quoted in Charles A. Dana,Recollections of the Civil War: With the Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the Sixties (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1898), p.260

Dana’s recollection is that this episode occurred while Lincoln was waiting for the results of the November presidential election. Other sources, however, suggest that it probably occurred while a larger crowd waited in the telegraph office for results of the state elections in October. Given that Stanton was ill and remained at home during November elections, Dana has probably confused the two dates.
Doris Kearns Goodwin，“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”，pp. 661   Goodwin-661-450-02

“Grasping My Arm He Leaned Over”

Posted on April 20, 2016

    “The night after the battle,” he relates, “accompanied by two Wisconsin Congressmen, I called at the White House to get the news from Manassas, as it was then called, having failed in obtaining any information at Seward’s office and elsewhere. Stragglers were coming with all sorts of wild rumors, but nothing more definite than that there had been a great engagement; and the bearer of each report had barely escaped with his life. Messengers bearing despatches to the President and Secretary of War were constantly arriving, but outsiders could gather nothing worthy of belief. Having learned that Mr. Lincoln was at the War Department we started thither, but found the building surrounded by a great crowd, all as much in the dark as we. Removing a short distance away we sat down to rest. Presently Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary, came along, headed for the White House. It was proposed by my companions that as I was acquainted with the President I should join him and ask for the news. I did so, but he said that he had already told more than under the rules of the War Department he had any right to, and that, although he could see no harm in it, the Secretary of War had forbidden his imparting information to persons not in the military service. ‘These war fellows,’ he said, complainingly, ‘are very strict with me, and I regret that I am prevented from telling you anything; but I must obey them, I suppose, until I get the hang of things.’ ‘But, Mr. President,’ I insisted, ‘if you cannot tell me the news, you can at least indicate its nature, that is, whether good or bad.’ The suggestion struck him favorably. Grasping my arm he leaned over, and placing his face near my ear, said, in a shrill but subdued voice, ‘It’s d—d bad.’ It was the first time I had ever heard him use profane language, if indeed it was profane in that connection; but later, when the painful details of the fight came in, I realized that, taking into consideration the time and the circumstances, no other term would have contained a truer qualification of the word ‘bad.'”

Quoted in Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life Written by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, ed. Herndon-325-11

“He was Playful and Sportive as a Child”

Posted on April 20, 2016 Updated on May 15, 2018

“About one week after the battle of Bull Run,” relates another old friend-Whitney-from Illinois, “I made a call on Mr. Lincoln, having no business except to give him some presents which the nuns at the Osage Mission school in Kansas had sent to him through me. A Cabinet meeting had just adjourned, and I was directed to go at once to his room. He was keeping at bay a throng of callers, but, noticing me enter, arose and greeted me with his old-time cordiality. After the room had been partially cleared of visitors Secretary Seward came in and called up a case which related to the territory of New Mexico. ‘Oh, I see,’ said Lincoln; ‘they have neither Governor nor Government. Well, you see Jim Lane; the secretary is his man, and he must hunt him up,’ Seward then left, under the impression, as I then thought, that Lincoln wanted to get rid of him and diplomacy at the same time. Several other persons were announced, but Lincoln notified them all that he was busy and could not see them. He was playful and sportive as a child, told me all sorts of anecdotes, dealing largely in stories about Charles James Fox, and enquired after several odd characters whom we both knew in Illinois. While thus engaged General James was announced. This officer had sent in word that he would leave town that evening, and must confer with the President before going. ‘Well, as he is one of the fellows who make cannons,’ observed Lincoln, ‘I suppose I must see him. Tell him when I get through with Whitney I’ll see him.’ No more cards came up, and James left about five o’clock, declaring that the President was closeted with ‘an old Hoosier from Illinois, and was telling dirty yarns while the country was quietly going to hell.’ 

Quoted in Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life Written by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, ed. Herndon-325-12

On Friday, July 26, 1861, being a few days after the first battle at Bull Eun, I reached Washington from the West, and called on the President, the Cabinet meeting having just broken up.

Stackpole, the messenger, carried my name in, and I was immediately admitted, when I found the President writing a brief note on a card, which, when completed, he read aloud, and handed to an old gentleman who was waiting for it. It read thus (in substance) : “Mr. Chase — The bearer, Mr. , wants in the Custom House, at Baltimore.

If his recommendations are satisfactory (and I recollect them to have been so) the fact that he is urged by the Methodists should be in his favor, as they complain of us some. A. Lincoln.”

I remarked, jocularly, that by that philosophy he should treat the rebels better than he did, as they complained of us some ; to which he replied, drily, that they complained the wrong way. Stackpole, who had come in for something, took occasion to make hay while the sun shone, by observing that his people were Quakers (I believe), and they had received fewer offices than the people of any other denomination ; but Lincoln paid no attention to the remark, and the old gentleman, after thanking him warmly, withdrew with the messenger.   

I had no business at all with the President, except to pay my respects to him after a three months’ absence fromWashington on official business ; but he evidently was very glad to see me, and appeared as if he designed to appropriate me for the time being, in order to secure some needed rest and recreation from burdensome cares, by talking with me about the light and trivial matters we had experienced and seen together in his happier days ; so I remained with him the entire afternoon, entirely alone, except a chance call from Secretary Seward, on a brief errand.

As the Secretary came in the President hailed him in a somewhat peremptory but good-natured manner: “Well, Govern-nwer, what is it now?” The Secretary seemed a mere trifle nettled, but still amused, at this abrupt greeting. His ostensible business related to some needed thing about New Mexico ; the President interrupted him by remarking: “In other words. New Mexico has no govern-or nor gov era- merit. ” He then gave the Secretary the instructions needed, when the latter immediately withdrew, fully impressed with the belief that the President had banished care and burdensome business, including consultations with his constitutional advisers, for the remainder of that day.

Later in the afternoon Stackpole brought in word that General, formerly Senator, James, of Rhode Island, was anxious to see the President, and that he must leave town that very afternoon.

The President said, carelessly: “Well, as James makes canning (cannon), I reckon I must see him.” Then to Stackpole : “Tell him when I get through with Whitney I will see him.” But he didn’t mention the subject afterward (I expect James had got to be a great bore) : and as I left, just before six o’clock, Stackpole told me that James waited till just before train time, and then left, soundly abusing the President and me, whom (having heard that I was from Illinois) he averred was some backwoods rail-splitter whom he was amusing with stories. The only work the President did on that afternoon was to sign his name to a mass of commissions for navy officers, talking all the while in a style that ranged “From grave to gay, from lively to severe.”

Conversation could not have taken a wider range than ours did, embracing his view of the crisis we were then in his estimate of several of the leading men of the day ; his description of the cabinet councils preceding and concerning the ill-fated battle of Bull Eun ; his anxieties for the future ; interspersed with stories and random talk about characters we had jointly met, and incidents we had encountered together. I Will venture to say that a faithful report of our tete-a-tete would have astonished the nation : so curious a melange of statesman-like expressions and opinions, and “Smalltalk” — the sublime and the ridiculous so interwoven and blended — has rarely been known ; and I will venture to say further that if one of his monologues on the crisis could have been authoritatively repeated in Richmond, it would have been reproduced in every newspaper — in every political speech — in official documents — at the head of brigades on the eve of battle — and in every household, throughout Dixie.

He was apparently devoid of care for the time being ; I remarked this with gratulation, to which he replied, his face becoming sad for a moment : “I have trouble enough ; when T last saw you I was having little troubles ; they filled my mind full: since then I have big troubles, and they can do no more.” Said he : “What do you think has annoyed me more than any one thing?” I replied: “Bull Run, of course.” “I don’t mean,” said he, “an affair which is forced by events, and which a single man cannot do much with, but I mean of matters, wholly mine to manage. Now, I will tell you ; the fight over two post-offices — one at our Bloomington, and the other at , in Pennsylvania (I think),”and he told me at length of the various elements in those struggles — being quite equally balanced — which had disturbed him so much.  

I remarked that some of the politicians had already set McClellan up as his successor ; to which he replied, with complete indifference, that he was perfectly willing if he, McClellan, would but push the war vigorously, and win. This was just after the young Napoleon had taken hold.

He asked me in detail about many of our mutual friends in Illinois, of both high and low degree : of Judge Davis I said,: “You ought to make him a Supreme Jadge.” To this bit of vicarious electioneering, Lincoln vouchsafed no response at all, but was thoughtful and silent for a few moments, when he started out on a new subject : thus clearly rebuking me for obtruding office-seeking politics on his social pastime. We spoke of Douglas, and of the joint debate of 1858, and he chuckled over the trap he had set for Douglas at Freeport, by which he was caught in the springes of “unfriendly legislation,” and lost his hope of the Presidency. The simile which was used to illustrate the subject was more pertinent than classical. I referred to a bombastical, florid and pathetic account I had read in some paper of the parting between them, when Douglas left for Illinois, to which he replied: “All there was of it, Douglas bustled in here one day, in a great hurry, saying that and wanted him to come to Illinois and malce some speeches, and see the party leaders there, and he would do just as I said about it : and I told him I thought he had better go, and he said goodbye, and rushed out m a hurry to get ready for the train : and that is all there was about it.” A man Avhom we both knew, and who was then living in a Border slave state, was referred to by Mr. Lincoln as seeking an appointment as quartermaster, and he asked my advice about it. It so happened that this person and his associates in a business matter had employed us both as lawyers in connection with it, and then had cheated us both out of our fees. It had been a flagrant case of outrage, inasmuch as Lincoln, at my request, had made elaborate research and an extensive brief in the case, and I reminded him of it, remarking warmly that a man who would cheat a lawyer out of pay for actual services, would doubtless cheat the government, if he got a chance. Lincoln reflected for perhaps a minute over this proposition, and then said, slowly : “I rather reckon that is so.” I incline to think he was intending to make the appointment, and would have done so but for this reminder. As he was signing commissions, I said : “Everything is drifting into the army, and I guess you will have to put me in.” He at once said : “I’m making generals now, but I’ll get to making quartermasters in a day or two, then I’ll attend to you,” and he did so, without further request.

The then recent disaster at Bull Eun was necessarily mentioned, and I said to him : “I heard Eichardson say in Congress that General Scott had told him that Bull Eun was not his battle, the innuendo being that it was forced on him by the administration.” Lincoln at once went to another part of the room and brought a hand-made ma]p of the battlefield and surrounding country, and said : ‘Here is the topographical engineers’ map that we planned the battle by. I gave Scott my views ; I showed him the enemies’ forces, their positions and entrenchments — their railway facilities — capacities for reinforcing and what Johnson might do ; I particularly tried to impress on him the disadvantage Patterson’s forces labored under of having no communication but by a common road ; but to all I could urge, or suggest, or doubt, Scott would not reply in detail or specifically, but would scout the idea that we could be defeated ; and I really could not get him down to a consideration of the subject in a practical way; he would insist that we couldn’t be beat, no how, and that was all there was of it.”

The gravity of the situation as it then existed was spoken of, and Lincoln thus expressed himself: “I intend to make and keep the blockade as effective as I can ; that is very difficult to do, and it gives me a great deal of trouble, as the line of coast is long ; but I attach great importance to that measure, and I mean to do the best I can about it; then I want to move a column of the army into East Tennessee, to liberate the luiion sentiment there ; I want to press them here in Virginia, and keep them away from Washington ; I want to hem in those who are fighting us, and make a feint against Eichmond, and drive them away from Manassas ; I hope ultimately they will get tired of it, and arouse and say to their leaders, and to their politicians, ‘This thing has got to stop !’ That is our only chance. It is plain to me that it’s no use of trying to subdue those people if they remain united, and bound they wont be subdued.” As I have never heard of these sentiments being expressed to any one else, I have endeavored to be very accurate about my statements, as I am very positive about my recollection. I have given the substance, certainly, and almost the very language used.

One might naturally suppose that enough incident for our afternoon talk existed on this hemisphere, but he gave me an humorous account of the various shifts of Charles James Fox to elude his creditors.

The ideal moral philosopher will probably be shocked to learn that the President of this nation, in the day of its sternest trial, while Congress was in session concerting measures to confront the rebellion, should be idling away his time as I have described it ; but a practical philosopher, possessed of all the facts, can readily see the absolute need of these hours of respite from anxiety — the necessity of this mental relaxation — the great importance of taking his mind away from the tread-mill which was wearing his spirits out.

I do not in the least doubt that our tired, jaded and wretched President did more good to the nation by taking this afternoon of relief from labor and anxiety than if he had steeped his soul in misery in some way for the good of the cause, according to the most approved style of the dilletante paragraphers and reviewers, who think that a statesman, like a blind horse in a tread-mill, needs no rest, or that, like the conventional whitewashed statue of justice, he must always pose for dignified effect.  

In June or July, 1853, one year before I saw Lincoln under similar circumstances, while riding toward Bangor, with a friend, we encountered, in the dusty road, an ordinary buggy drawn by an ordinary horse, and having for a driver an ordinary, farmer-like man, clad in a severely plain manner, having on a broad-brimmed straw hat ; swart of visage, and slovenly in style. But it was Hannibal Hamlin, then the leading Senator from the state of Maine, near his home.

A few moments later, we passed his law-office in the little settlement of Hampden. It was located away from all other buildings, and on the edge of the village. It was a one-story building, and while having the appearance of, at some period, having had a coat of paint, it was so dilapidated and weather-beaten as to afford little trace thereof, then. The windows were cracked and broken, and a mud-hole at the front door, gave evidence that the building was in a state of desuetude. The sign “H. Hamlin, Attorney,” was still in place ; but the storms of — probably — a quarter of a century had pretty well obliterated the inscription.

On the succeeding Sabbath, at the village church, I saw Senator Hamlin among his neighbors ; and his general appearance and deportment, gave no evidence of his political exaltation. He appeared very much like the average farmer or mechanic, with the single exception that he wore the swallow-tail coat of two decades previously, and the neck stock which had gone out of general use for nearly as long.

At this time, Senator Hamlin was in full and regular standing in the Democratic party, with probably no expectation of ever severing his connection therefrom. He was in full political accord with Jeff. Davis — Franklin Pierce — Eobert Toombs, and the rest ; but within eight months from the day I encountered him on the dusty road, he arose in his seat in the Senate, and asking the Senate to receive his resignation as Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, conferred by the Democratic party, he withdrew forever therefrom. It had joined itself to its pro-slavery idol, and he let it alone.

By Henry C. Whitney:Life on the circuit with Lincoln

Words ：Humor

Posted on April 20, 2016 Updated on April 23, 2020

“It very Often Happens”
“There won’t be any Fun till I Get there”
“You are a little Rosebud Yourself”
“A Mere Breathless Running of the Gauntlet”
November 18, 1863

 
“If they do Kill me I shall never Die Again”
January 31, 1861

“And Generally Says What he Means”
“There’s One of my Children that isn’t Dead yet”

“When it was Ripe we did not Harvest it”
“The Debtor Assumed to be Crazy”
“This Amendment is a King’s Cure for all the Evils”
Feb. 1. 1865

“I should not have all my Eggs in the Same Basket”

“Lincoln wouldn’t be Recognized down in Springfield”
By Egbert L. Viele, May 5, 1862

“I Confess I Rather Like it myself”

By William T. Sherman , July 23, 1861

 “Is that not Putting the Cart Before the Horse?”

By National Republican, June 8, 1864

“God Tempers the Wind to the Shorn Lamb”  Letter to Mary Speed (Sept 27,1841)

Sept. 27th. 1841

Letter to Joshua Speed (August 24, 1855)

August 24, 1855

“Especially If it be a Black Sheep”

April 18, 1864

“But It’s not all the Truth”

By Matilda Johnston

“He Fell Into His Old Habit Of Telling Amusing Stories”

By Orville H. Browning, June 12, 1860

“He Was Playful And Sportive As A Child”

By Henry C. Whitney,  July 26, 1861

“To Laugh At Such Frivolous Jests”

By Charles A. Dana, October 11, 1864

“His Love Of Fun”

By Leonard Swett, January 17, 1866

“His Wit And Rich Humor Had Free Play”

by John Hay

“He Had An Illustration For Everything”

By David D. Porter ， 1865

“The President Had Some Quaint Remarks”

By David D. Porter ， 1865

“He Was One Of The Most Interesting Men I Ever Met”

By David D. Porter ， 1865

“This Little Scrap Amused Him Exceedingly”

By Egbert L. Viele, May 5, 1862

“The Aptness Of Which Was Always Perfect”

1860

“He Reeled Off One Humorous Anecdote After Another”

March 27, 1861

“For Each One A Cordial Greeting And A Pleasant Word”

June 20, 1864

“Lincoln Was Invariably The Center Of Attention”

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Lincoln Possessed An Extraordinary Ability”

Telling Stories

At The Age Of 21

His First Attempt At Public Speaking

Petroleum V. Nasby

George Gordon Byron

“All That I Am or Ever Hope To Be I Owe to Her”

Posted on April 19, 2016 Updated on May 11, 2018

On the subject of his ancestry and origin I only. remember one time when Mr. Lincoln ever referred to it. It was about 1850, when he and I were driving in his one-horse buggy to the court in Menard county, Illinois. The suit we were going to try was one in which we were likely, either directly or collaterally, to touch upon the subject of hereditary traits. During the ride he spoke, for the first time in my hearing, of his mother,1 dwelling on her characteristics, and mentioning or enumerating what qualities he inherited from her. He said, among other things, that she was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred Virginia farmer or planter; and he argued that from this last source came his power of analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his ambition, and all the qualities that distinguished him from the other members and descendants of the Hanks family. His theory in discussing the matter of hereditary traits had been, that, for certain reasons, illegitimate children are oftentimes sturdier and brighter than those born in lawful wedlock; and in his case, he believed that his better nature and finer qualities came from this broad-minded, unknown Virginian. The revelation –painful as it was-called up the recollection of his mother, and, as the buggy jolted over the road, he added ruefully, “God bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her,” and immediately lapsed into silence. Our interchange of ideas ceased, and we rode on for some time without exchanging a word. He was sad and absorbed. Burying himself in thought, and musing no doubt over the disclosure he had just made, he drew round him a barrier which I feared to penetrate. His words and melancholy tone made a deep impression on me. It was an experience I can never forget. As we neared the town of Petersburg we were overtaken by an old man who rode beside us for awhile, and entertained us with reminiscences of days on the frontier. Lincoln was reminded of several Indiana stories, and by the time we had reached the unpretentious court-house at our destination, his sadness had passed away.

Quoted in Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life Written by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, ed.Herndon-1-09

“He Could Not Understand”

Posted on April 19, 2016

His nomination for the Presidency in 1860, however, made the publication of his life a necessity, and attracted to Springfield an army of campaign biographers and newspaper men. They met him in his office, stopped him in his walks, and followed him to his house. Artists came to paint his picture, and sculptors to make his bust. His autographs were in demand, and people came along distances to shake him by the hand. This sudden elevation to national prominence found Mr. Lincoln unprepared in a great measure for the unaccustomed demonstrations that awaited him. While he was easy of approach and equally courteous to all, yet, as he said to me one evening after a long day of hand-shaking, he could not understand why people should make so much over him.
Quoted in Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life Written by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, ed.  Herndon-1-05