“Will you keep it entirely secret?” asked the President.
“Oh, yes, upon my honour.”
“Well,” said the President, “I’ll tell you.” Assuming an air of great mystery, and drawing the man close to him, he kept him a moment awaiting title revelation with an open mouth and great anxiety. “Well,” said he, in a loud whisper, which was heard all over the room, “the expedition has gone to—sea!”
About the Negro Question.
The story will be remembered, perhaps, of Mr. Lincoln’s reply to a Springfield (Ill.) clergyman, who asked him what was to be his policy on the slavery question.
“Well, your question is rather a good one, but I will answer it by telling you a story. You know Father B., the old Methodist preacher? and you know Fox river and its freshets? Once in the presence of Father B. a young Methodist was worrying about Fox river, and expressing fears that he should be prevented from fulfilling some of his appointments by a freshet in the river. Father B. checked him in the gravest manner. Said he, ‘Young man, I have always made it a rule in my life not to cross Fox river till I get to it!’ ‘And,’ said old Abe, ‘I am not going to worry myself over the slavery question till I get to it!’ Some few days afterwards a Methodist minister called on the President, and on being presented to him, said simply, ‘Mr. President, I have come to tell you that I think we have got to Fox river.’ The old joker thanked the clergyman, and laughed heartily.”
An extraordinary reply by Old Abe.
One day, it is said, a distinguished New York official was at Washington, and in an interview with old Abe, introduced the question of emancipation. “You see,” said Lincoln, “we’ve got to be mighty cautious how we manage the negro question; if we’re not, we may be like unto the barber out in Illinois, who was shaving a fellow with hatchet face and lantern jaws like mine. The barber put his finger in his customer’s mouth, to make his cheek stick out, but while shaving away he cut through the fellow’s cheek and cut off his own finger! Now, if we don’t play smart about the negro we shall do as the barber did.”
A Rebuke to people asking trivial questions.
A farmer, not over patriotic, of the State of Virginia, importuned the President to use his influence to have a claim for damage done to his farm by soldiers considered immediately.