"And in a few days her husband was remanded to his regiment. I am sorry to add that, not long after, he was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, thus sealing with his blood her pledge that he should be faithful to his duty."
Attorney-General Bates, a Virginian by birth, who had many relatives in that State, one day heard that the son of one of his old friends was a prisoner of war and not in good health. Knowing the boy's father to be a Union man, Mr. Bates conceived the idea of having the son paroled and sent home, of course under promise not to return to the army. He went to see the President and said,—
"I have a personal favor to ask. I want you to give me a prisoner." And he told him of the case. The President said, "Bates, I have an almost parallel case. The son of an old friend of mine in Illinois ran off and entered the rebel army. The young fool has been captured, is a prisoner of war, and his old broken-hearted father has asked me to send him home, promising, of course, to keep him there. I have not seen my way clear to do it, but if you and I unite our influence with this administration I believe we can manage it together and make two loyal fathers happy. Let us make them our prisoners."
Lincoln's reputation for kindness of heart extended even among the officials of the Confederacy. Mr. Usher, Secretary of the Interior, says that when he returned from the Peace Conference on the James, in 1864, where he met Messrs. Stephens, Campbell, and Hunter, he related some of his conversations with them. He said that at the conclusion of one of his discourses, detailing what he considered to be the position in which the insurgents were placed by the law, they replied,—
"Well, according to your view of the case, we are all guilty of treason and liable to be hanged."
Lincoln replied, "Yes, that is so." And Mr. Stephens retorted,—
"Well, we supposed that would necessarily be your view of our case, but we never had much fear of being hanged while you are President."
From his manner in repeating this scene he seemed to appreciate the compliment highly. There is no evidence that he ever contemplated executing any of the insurgents for their treason. There is no evidence that he desired any of them to leave the country, with the exception of Mr. Davis. His great, and apparently his only, object was to have a restored Union.
A short time before the capitulation of General Lee, General Grant had told him that the war must necessarily soon come to an end, and wanted to know whether he should try to capture Jeff Davis or let him escape from the country if he would. Mr. Lincoln said,—
"About that, I told him the story of an Irishman who had taken the pledge of Father Mathew. He became terribly thirsty, applied to a bar-tender for a lemonade, and while it was being prepared whispered to him, 'And couldn't ye put a little brandy in it all unbeknown to meself?' I told Grant if he could let Jeff Davis escape all unbeknown to himself, to let him go. I didn't want him."