"Abe" Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories: A Collection of the Best Stories Told by Lincoln Which Made Him Famous as America's Best Story Teller
History
"Abe" Lincoln's Anecdotes and Stories: A Collection of the Best Stories Told by Lincoln Which Made Him Famous as America's Best Story Teller
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes
This was done at once. On the trial six lawyers certified that the
bill was reasonable, and judgment for that sum went by default; the
judgment was promptly paid, and, of course, his partner, Herndon, got
"your half, Billy" without delay.
=LONG AND SHORT OF IT=
On the occasion of a serenade, the President was called for by the
crowd assembled. He appeared at a window with his wife (who was
somewhat below the medium height), and made the following "brief
remarks":
"Here I am, and here is Mrs. Lincoln. That's the long and the short of
it."
='SQUIRE BAGLY'S PRECEDENT=
Mr. T. W. S. Kidd, of Springfield, says that he once heard a lawyer
opposed to Lincoln trying to convince a jury that precedent was
superior to law, and that custom made things legal in all cases. When
Lincoln arose to answer him he told the jury he would argue his case
in the same way.
"Old 'Squire Bagly, from Menard, came into my office and said,
'Lincoln, I want your advice as a lawyer. Has a man what's been
elected justice of the peace a right to issue a marriage license?'
I told him he had not; when the old 'squire threw himself back in
his chair very indignantly, and said, 'Lincoln, I thought you was a
lawyer. Now Bob Thomas and me had a bet on this thing, and we agreed
to let you decide; but if this is your opinion I don't want it, for I
know a thunderin' sight better, for I have been 'squire now for eight
years and have done it all the time.'"
=TOM CORWIN'S LATEST STORY=
One of Mr. Lincoln's warm friends was Dr. Robert Boal, of Lacon,
Illinois. Telling of a visit he paid to the White House soon after Mr.
Lincoln's inauguration, he said: "I found him the same Lincoln as a
struggling lawyer and politician that I did in Washington as President
of the United States, yet there was a dignity and self-possession
about him in his high official authority. I paid him a second call in
the evening. He had thrown off his reserve somewhat, and would walk up
and down the room with his hands to his sides and laugh at the joke he
was telling, or at one that was told to him. I remember one story he
told to me on this occasion.
"Tom Corwin, of Ohio, had been down to Alexandria, Va., that day and
had come back and told Lincoln a story which pleased him so much that
he broke out in a hearty laugh and said: 'I must tell you Tom Corwin's
latest. Tom met an old man at Alexandria who knew George Washington,
and he told Tom that George Washington often swore. Now, Corwin's
father had always held the father of our country up as a faultless
person and told his son to follow in his footsteps.
"'"Well," said Corwin, "when I heard that George Washington was
addicted to the vices and infirmities of man, I felt so relieved that
I just shouted for joy."'"
=THE CABINET WAS A-SETTIN'=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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