When the Sherman expedition which captured Port Royal went out there was a great curiosity to know where it had gone. A person with ungovernable curiosity asked the President the destination.
"Will you keep it entirely secret?" asked the President.
"Oh, yes, upon my honor."
"Well," said the President, "I will tell you." Assuming an air of great mystery, and drawing the man close to him, he kept him waiting the revelation with great anxiety, and then said in a loud whisper, which was heard all over the room, "The expedition has gone to—sea."
A gentleman asked Lincoln to give him a pass through the Federal lines in order to visit Richmond. "I should be very happy to oblige you," said the President, "if my passes were respected; but the fact is, within the past two years I have given passes to Richmond to two hundred and fifty thousand men and not one has got there yet."
A New York firm applied to Lincoln some years before he became President for information as to the financial standing of one of his neighbors. This was the answer:
"Yours of the 10th received. First of all, he has a wife and baby; together they ought to be worth $500,000 to any man. Secondly, he has an office in which there is a table worth $1.50 and three chairs worth, say, $1. Last of all there is in one corner a large rat hole, which will bear looking into. Respectfully,
"A. Lincoln."
A certain Senator once called at the White House to persuade Lincoln to issue an order to the Secretary of War to pay a constituent of his a considerable sum of money for services which clearly he had not rendered, the amount being claimed on the ground that he would have rendered them if he had been permitted to do so. Lincoln heard the statement of facts and the argument with his usual patience and rendered his decision as follows:
"Years ago when imprisonment for debt was legal in some States a poor fellow was sent to jail by his creditors and compelled to serve out his debt at the rate of a dollar and a half per day. Knowing the exact amount of the debt, he carefully calculated the time he would be required to serve. When the sentence had expired he informed his jailer of the fact, and asked to be released. The jailer insisted upon keeping him four days longer. Upon making up his statement, however, he found that the man was right, and that he had served four days longer than his sentence required. The prisoner then demanded not only a receipt in full of his debt, but also payment for four days' extra service, amounting to six dollars, which he declared the county owed him.
"Now," said Lincoln, "I think your client has just about as good a claim for the money as he had."