LINCOLN AND THE LIQUOR HABIT
AT the second inauguration of Lincoln I was chairman of the committee which escorted the President to the Capitol, and sat by his side while Andrew Johnson, after taking the oath as Vice-President, harangued the crowded senate chamber. During the painful ordeal, Mr. Lincoln’s head drooped in the deepest humiliation. As I offered him my arm for the procession to the steps of the Capitol, where he delivered the Inaugural, he turned to the marshal and said, “Don’t let Johnson speak outside.”
Senator Doolittle, who had escorted the Vice-President elect to the Capitol, told me that when they went into Mr. Hamlin’s room Johnson said to the retiring Vice-President:
“Mr. Hamlin, I have been feeling very ill. Can you give me some good brandy?”
A bottle of French brandy was found, and to brace his nerves for the task before him, he poured out the full glass that wrought the mischief. His reputation was that of a temperate man; and this was his only show of inebriety; but the scene was so deeply humiliating that a caucus of senators a few days afterward seriously considered the propriety of asking him to resign as their presiding officer.
Mr. Lincoln’s aversion to liquor and tobacco was well known. He once told me with relish of a rebuke for his abstinence given by a friendly stage-driver. During the time that he was a circuit lawyer, he sometimes walked from one county court to another. While on such a tramp a stage overtook him and the driver invited him to take a seat on the box. After they had chatted for a while the driver produced a whisky-flask, saying:
“Stranger, won’t you take a drink?”
“No, thank you,” Lincoln replied; “I never drink.”
A little later the driver drew some tobacco from his pocket and said:
“Stranger, won’t you have a chew?”
Lincoln answered:
“No, thank you, I never chew.”
After a period of reflection the driver said:
“Stranger, do you smoke?”
Lincoln replied:
“No, I never smoke.”
Looking at him quizzically, the driver exclaimed:
“So you’re one of those men I’ve heard of who have no small vices.”
To which Lincoln answered:
“It is true that I don’t use liquor or tobacco.”
Then the driver turned on him with the conclusive remark:
“Stranger, I’ll tell you what I think: those men who have no small vices seldom have any large virtues.”
I once heard Mr. Lincoln tell of another liquor experience, this time at the expense of Senator David Davis, who was present and enjoyed it as much as the rest of the company. While attending a session of court presided over by Judge Davis, the latter overtook him one morning on the road, and asked him to get into the Davis carriage, which was drawn by a pair of spirited horses, driven by a trusted coachman. They traveled at a rate which made Lincoln uneasy, and soon entered on a piece of new road abounding in ruts and stumps. As the carriage bumped and swayed, Lincoln, in much alarm, turned to the judge and asked:
“Mr. Davis, isn’t your driver drunk?”
From a photograph by Prince, taken in 1908. Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson
GENERAL JOHN B. HENDERSON
“No,” replied the judge, “Michael is a sober man and never takes anything.”
After a jar which nearly upset them, Lincoln asked that the carriage should be stopped, so that he could get out. The judge expostulated, but when they struck another stump, Lincoln exclaimed:
“Mr. Davis, your driver is drunk!”
Thereupon Davis loudly demanded of the coachman that he should stop, and, observing him closely, saw the whole truth in the wild gleam of his eyes. The judge indignantly exclaimed:
“Michael, you are drunk!”
And Michael, with an approving leer, answered:
“Judge Davis, that’s the correctest decision you’ve rendered in the last twelve months.”