Merry-Making.
When the Merrimac was about to be christened. The president remarked, “that it was a somewhat strange title as the ship was built, to make mourning rather than make merry.”
A Husband’s Wit.
Mrs. L— was, one day, engaged in making an apple pie, and in the operation contrived to besmear her face with the batter. The president observing the same, asked her “the loan of her batter eye” (battery).
The cause discovered.
When the Federals flew before the Southerners at Bull’s run. Lincoln remarked that “it resulted from the army having too many wings.”
Byronic.
Lincoln, upon hearing that an old friend of his had gone to Utah, said “he supposed he had gone to spend his latter days among the Mormon knights.”
A satisfactory conclusion.
When Lincoln read the account of Bull’s run, wherein it said that the Northern army was knocked into a cocked hat. Lincoln drily remarked that “he supposed it had been caught napping.”