"Do you remember, Mr. President, a request from a stranger a few days since for your autograph? You gave it to him upon a half-sheet of note-paper. The scoundrel doubtless forged an order above your signature, and has attempted to swindle somebody." "Oh, that's the trick, is it?" said the President. "What shall be done with him?" inquired Mr. Nicolay. "Have you any orders?" "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."