Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1962-01-01 / 1. szám
10 FRATERNITY SOME ANECDOTES ABOUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN In 1832 Chief Black Hawk led a party of Fox and Sac Indians across the Mississippi River and attacked some villages in Illinois. Volunteers from New Salem, Illinois, chose Abraham Lincoln — then only twenty-two — as their captain. As he and his company of men had no military experience, they set about learning to drill. One of Captain Lincoln’s first problems involved getting his company, which was marching sixteen abreast, to pass through an open gate in single file. Just as his men seemed to crash into the fence, Lincoln shouted: “Company dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in on the other side of the gate!” * * ★ When Lincoln was serving in the state legislature and living in Springfield, Illinois, he had to attend a political convention being held elsewhere in the state. A member of the rival political party, a livery stable owner, provided Lincoln with a slow horse, hoping he would not get to the convention in time. Back from the convention, which he barely managed to reach in time, he returned the horse to the stable. “You keep this horse for funerals, don’t you?” Lincoln asked. “Oh, no”, replied the liveryman. “Well, I’m glad of that”, said Lincoln. “For if you did, you would never get the corpse to the grave in time for the resurrection.” * * + Lincoln prepared his first Inaugural Address in a room over a store in Springfield, Illinois. But on the way to Washington, the satchel containing the Address and other papers was lost temporarily. In reporting the loss to one of his bodyguards, Lincoln said: “I guess I have lost my certificate of moral character, written by myself.” ★ ★ ★ When Lincoln arrived in the capital for his inauguration, with the nation on the verge of civil war, he found himself besieged by office seekers. Lincoln observed ruefully: “I feel like a man letting lodgings at one end of his house, while the other end is on fire.” ★ ★ ★ During the Civil War, powerful politicians sought to have the President relieve General Grant of his command, charging among other things that he was a drunkard. Grant at that time was inflicting heavy losses on the Confederate forces. “So Grant gets drunk, does he?” Lincoln asked one of Grant’s bitterest critics. “Yes, he does, and I can prove it”, was the reply. “Well”, said Lincoln, “you needn’t waste your time getting proof. Just find out, to oblige me, what brand of whiskey Grant drinks. I want to send a barrel of it to each of my generals.” ★ ★ ★ When Richmond, Va., the capital of the Confederacy, fell at last to the Union armies, Lincoln was watching the battle from a warship in the James River. His presence there was making everybody feel uneasy. When informed of this, Lincoln remarked: “Well, if anyone else had been President and had gone to Richmond, I would have been alarmed. But I was not scared about myself one bit.” American Council
