General Moorehead agreed that this was necessary; and when I undertook to make a suggestion about getting Mr. Lincoln to give me a commission, Covode told me in polite terms but decided language, but in a fatherly way: "Now you've got to keep quiet."
The rest all thought this quite a funny remark. When Covode crawled into the carriage, Mr. Moorehead said, "Well, what's the programme?" Covode explained that it was to be a demand for pay from the President's secret-service fund. No one had even suggested the amount, and I reckon Mr. Covode's idea was to leave this discretionary with the President, but Mr. Blair and Moorehead, who were business men as well as statesmen, insisted that it would be better to settle a sum in advance.
"Make it enough," said Mr. Blair.
"Yes, we may just as well make it $10,000," observed the Senator.
Mr. Moorehead shrewdly suggested: "We have to appropriate this secret-service money anyhow, and our votes will go for this amount."
Covode admitted that, "We have given him hundreds of thousands of dollars for this use already."
This, in a general way was the plan and purpose of the visit to Mr. Lincoln on that date.
It failed—not that the claim was rejected by the President—it was never presented to him or anybody else. When we reached the White House we were informed on the threshold that "the President had that day gone to Fortress Monroe." That ended it for that day, and for all time. Soon after, I left Washington for another trip. The same crowd were never again brought together in this interest. As I have said, I was not a good manager, and perhaps neglected my own interests in this respect.
I have to show my children, however, that which is dearer to me than gold—a commission as a Second Lieutenant signed by Abraham Lincoln and E. M. Stanton. That will remain for all time on the war records of my country. If I had secured this money, I might have failed in obtaining this commission, and no doubt the $10,000 would have soon disappeared from sight forever and no record of it left.
A few days after this visit—the date of which may be fixed by a reference to the books, which will indicate the time of Mr. Lincoln's visit to Fortress Monroe—I saw Mr. Stanton personally, but only for a moment; he was not such a dreadful person after all, as I expected to find him.