Lincoln's yarns and stories : $b A complete collection of the funny and witty anecdotes that made Lincoln famous as America's greatest story tellerMcClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
History
Lincoln's yarns and stories : $b A complete collection of the funny and witty anecdotes that made Lincoln famous as America's greatest story teller
McClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Anecdotes
During the Civil War, Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, had shown
himself, in the National House of Representatives and elsewhere, one
of the bitterest and most outspoken of all the men of that class which
insisted that “the war was a failure.” He declared that it was the
design of “those in power to establish a despotism,” and that they had
“no intention of restoring the Union.” He denounced the conscription
which had been ordered, and declared that men who submitted to be
drafted into the army were “unworthy to be called free men.” He spoke of
the President as “King Lincoln.”
Such utterances at this time, when the Government was exerting itself to
the utmost to recruit the armies, were dangerous, and Vallandigham was
arrested, tried by court-martial at Cincinnati, and sentenced to be
placed in confinement during the war.
General Burnside, in command at Cincinnati, approved the sentence,
and ordered that he be sent to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor; but the
President ordered that he be sent “beyond our lines into those of
his friends.” He was therefore escorted to the Confederate lines in
Tennessee, thence going to Richmond. He did not meet with a very cordial
reception there, and finally sought refuge in Canada.
Vallandigham died in a most peculiar way some years after the close of
the War, and it was thought by many that his death was the result of
premeditation upon his part.
GO DOWN WITH COLORS FLYING.
In August, 1864, the President called for five hundred thousand
more men. The country was much depressed. The Confederates had, in
comparatively small force, only a short time before, been to the very
gates of Washington, and returned almost unharmed.
The Presidential election was impending. Many thought another call for
men at such a time would insure, if not destroy, Mr. Lincoln’s chances
for re-election. A friend said as much to him one day, after the
President had told him of his purpose to make such a call.
“As to my re-election,” replied Mr. Lincoln, “it matters not. We must
have the men. If I go down, I intend to go, like the Cumberland, with my
colors flying!”
ALL WERE TRAGEDIES.
The cartoon reproduced below was published in “Harper’s Weekly” on
January 31st, 1863, the explanatory text, underneath, reading in this
way:
MANAGER LINCOLN: “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to say that the tragedy
entitled ‘The Army of the Potomac’ has been withdrawn on account of
quarrels among the leading performers, and I have substituted three
new and striking farces, or burlesques, one, entitled ‘The Repulse of
Vicksburg,’ by the well-known favorite, E. M. Stanton, Esq., and
the others, ‘The Loss of the Harriet Lane,’ and ‘The Exploits of the
Alabama’--a very sweet thing in farces, I assure you--by the veteran
composer, Gideon Welles. (Unbounded applause by the Copperheads).”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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