To which the Professor, with a still merrier twinkle, replied: “I suppose it is my family you have the grudge against; but we are going to elect you President, and call it even.”
Thereupon Mr. Lincoln, narrating to those who were present the story of his defeat by Thompson, concluded with the words: “I never had been thrown in a wrestling-match until the man from that company did it. He could have thrown a grizzly bear.”
Nor did the reminiscences concerning that memorable encounter cease there. Discussing former days with old friends who visited him at the White House, President Lincoln several times referred to the occurrence. One of these interviews is thus related by Mr. Greene: “During the rebellion, in 1864, I had occasion to see Mr. Lincoln in his office at Washington, and, after having recalled many of our early recollections, he said, ‘Bill, whatever became of our old antagonist, Thompson,—that big curly-headed fellow who threw me at Rock Island?’ I replied I did not know, and wondered why he asked. He playfully remarked that if he knew where he was living, he would give him a post-office, by way of showing him that he bore him no ill-will.”
[i-50] Henry McHenry, in Lamon, 154; Browne, 104.
[i-51] Confidence in Lincoln as an arbitrator continued through his later career. This is evinced by the following telegram, quoted by Hill (250) from the Orendorff collection:—
Chicago, Oct. 14, 1853.
To Abraham Lincoln,
Springfield, Ill.
Can you come here immediately and act as arbitrator in the crossing case between the Illinois Central and Northern Indiana R.R. Companies if you should be appointed? Answer and say yes if possible.
(Signed) J. F. Joy.
[i-52] Address on Benjamin Ferguson, delivered at a meeting of the Washington Temperance Society on February 8, 1842.