"Well," replied Mr. Lincoln, pausing between the words, "I don't see but that he will have to sit upon the blister bench."
In 1861 E. Delafield Smith was United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. One of the first and most important of his trials was that of William Gordon for slave-trading. Gordon was convicted—the first conviction under the slave law that was ever had in the United States either North or South—and sentenced to be hanged. An extraordinary effort was made to have Lincoln pardon him. Mr. Smith deemed it his duty to go to Washington and protest against clemency. Lincoln took from his desk a reprieve already prepared and laid it before him. He picked up a pen, and held it in his hand while he listened to the argument of Mr. Smith on the imperative necessity of making an example of Gordon, in order to terrorize those who were engaged in the slave-trade. Then he threw down the pen and remarked,—
"Mr. Smith, you do not know how hard it is to have a human being die when you feel that a stroke of your pen will save him."
Gordon was executed in New York.
A volunteer major who had been wounded at Petersburg found himself mustered out of his regiment on that account, nolens volens, and appealed to the President for an appointment on staff duty, so that he could still continue to perform service regardless of his physical incapacity.
The President took down a large volume of the laws of Congress, opened to the page and section of the act, put his finger on the line, and read aloud the words which authorized him to make staff appointments only on the request of a general commanding a brigade, division, or corps. The major admitted that he had not brought such an application, for he had not thought it necessary. "It cannot be done," said the President, "without such a request. I have no more power to appoint you, in the absence of such a request, than I would have to marry a woman to any man she might want for her husband without his consent. Bring me such an application and I will make it at once, for I see you deserve it."
The late Governor Rice, of Massachusetts, said, "A mercantile firm in Boston had an office boy whose duty, among other things, was to take the mail to and from the post-office. This boy was fresh from the country, and, seeing his opportunity to get money from the letters intrusted to him, yielded to the temptation, was detected, convicted, and imprisoned; but the employers and the jury joined with the boy's father to obtain his pardon. The father appeared in Washington with a petition numerously signed. I introduced him to the President, to whom I also handed the petition. Mr. Lincoln put on his spectacles, threw himself back in his chair and stretched his long legs and read the document. When finished, he turned to me and asked if I met a man on the stairs. 'Well,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'his errand was to get a man pardoned, and now you come to get a boy out of jail. But I am a little encouraged by your visit. They are after me on the men, but appear to be roping you in on the boys. The trouble appears to come from the courts. It seems as if the courts ought to be abolished, anyway; for they appear to pick out the very best men in the community and send them to the penitentiary, and now they are after the same kind of boys.'"
Once he received a message from a zealous Irish soldier with more courage than brains (or he would not have telegraphed direct to the President), who had been left behind in the retreat of the army across the Potomac before the advancing columns of Lee's army, with one gun of his battery on the bank of the river below Edwards Ferry. It read about thus: "I have the whole rebel army in my front. Send me another gun and I assure your honor they shall not come over." This pleased the President greatly, and he sent him an encouraging reply, suggesting that he report his situation to his superior officer.
A rebel raid on Falls Church, a little hamlet a dozen miles from Washington, had resulted in the surprise and capture of a brigadier-general and twelve army mules. When Lincoln heard of it he exclaimed,—
"How unfortunate! I can fill that general's place in five minutes, but those mules cost us two hundred dollars apiece."