WHITE ELEPHANT ON HIS HANDS.
An old and intimate friend from Springfield called on President Lincoln and found him much depressed.
The President was reclining on a sofa, but rising suddenly he said to his friend:
“You know better than any man living that from my boyhood up my ambition was to be President. I am President of one part of this divided country at least; but look at me! Oh, I wish I had never been born!
“I’ve a white elephant on my hands—one hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear to contend with, the jealousies of the military commanders, and not receiving that cordial co-operative support from Congress that could reasonably be expected with an active and formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life-blood of the Government, my position is anything but a bed of roses.”
WHEN LINCOLN AND GRANT CLASHED.
Ward Lamon, one of President Lincoln’s law partners, and his most intimate friend in Washington, has this to relate:
“I am not aware that there was ever a serious discord or misunderstanding between Mr. Lincoln and General Grant, except on a single occasion. From the commencement of the struggle, Lincoln’s policy was to break the backbone of the Confederacy by depriving it of its principal means of subsistence.