VI. SOME HUMAN INTERESTS MAKING LIGHTER THE BURDENS OF THE TROUBLED WAY
Great minds always see a ridiculous aspect in the midst of every human crisis, even as Franklin did in the signing of the Declaration of Independence when he said, “We must all hang together or we will all hang separately.”
The President on a certain occasion was feeling very ill and he sent for the doctor, who came and told him that he had a very mild form of smallpox.
“Is it contagious?” he asked.
“Yes, very contagious,” replied the doctor.
A visitor was present who was very anxious to be appointed to a certain office. On hearing what the doctor said, the visitor hastily arose.
“Don’t be in a hurry, sir,” said Lincoln, as if very well intentioned toward him.
“Thank you, sir, I’ll call again,” said the retreating office seeker, as he vanished through the door.
“Some people,” said Lincoln, laughing at the hurried exit of his friend, “do not take kindly to my Emancipation Proclamation, but now I am happy to believe I have something that everybody can take.”
Once, when Charles Sumner called upon him, he found Lincoln blacking his boots.
“Why, Mr. President,” he exclaimed, “do you black your own boots?”
With a vigorous rub of the brush, the President replied,
“Whose boots did you think I blacked?”
The way Lincoln answered unjustified people is illustrated in his response to a delegation asking the appointment of a certain man to be commissioner to the Sandwich Islands. After praising his qualifications for the place, they urged the plea of his bad health.
The President said, “Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker than your man.”
Lincoln, in the great receptions, often heard flattering remarks that had been made short so as to be delivered quickly. But his apt replies were always equal to the remark. On one occasion, as the handshakers came by, an elderly gentleman from Buffalo said, “Up our way we believe in God and Abraham Lincoln.” To which the President replied as he took the next hand, “My friend, you are more than half right.”
Somewhat similar is a noble reply of Lincoln to some over-zealous religious friends which has become justly famous. A clergyman, heading a delegation with one of the many immature and injudicious appeals, said sadly, “I hope, Mr. Lincoln, that the Lord is on our side.”
“I am not at all troubled about that,” was the instant reply, “for I know that the Lord is always on the side of right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that this nation and I should be on the Lord’s side.”