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
“‘If from this day William Scott does his duty, so that, if I was there
when he comes to die, he can look me in the face as he does now, and
say, I have kept my promise, and I have done my duty as a soldier, then
my debt will be paid.
“‘Will you make that promise and try to keep it?”
The promise was given. Thenceforward there never was such a soldier as
William Scott.
This is the record of the end. It was after one of the awful battles of
the Peninsula. He was shot all to pieces. He said:
“Boys, I shall never see another battle. I supposed this would be my
last. I haven’t much to say.
“You all know what you can tell them at home about me.
“I have tried to do the right thing! If any of you ever have the chance
I wish you would tell President Lincoln that I have never forgotten the
kind words he said to me at the Chain Bridge; that I have tried to be a
good soldier and true to the flag; that I should have paid my whole
debt to him if I had lived; and that now, when I know that I am dying,
I think of his kind face, and thank him again, because he gave me the
chance to fall like a soldier in battle, and not like a coward, by the
hands of my comrades.”
What wonder that Secretary Stanton said, as he gazed upon the tall form
and kindly face as he lay there, smitten down by the assassin’s bullet,
“There lies the most perfect ruler of men who ever lived.”
SAVED A LIFE.
One day during the Black Hawk War a poor old Indian came into the camp
with a paper of safe conduct from General Lewis Cass in his possession.
The members of Lincoln’s company were greatly exasperated by late Indian
barbarities, among them the horrible murder of a number of women and
children, and were about to kill him; they said the safe-conduct paper
was a forgery, and approached the old savage with muskets cocked to
shoot him.
Lincoln rushed forward, struck up the weapons with his hands, and
standing in front of the victim, declared to the Indian that he should
not be killed. It was with great difficulty that the men could be kept
from their purpose, but the courage and firmness of Lincoln thwarted
them.
Lincoln was physically one of the bravest of men, as his company
discovered.
LINCOLN PLAYED BALL.
Frank P. Blair, of Chicago, tells an incident, showing Mr. Lincoln’s
love for children and how thoroughly he entered into all of their
sports:
“During the war my grandfather, Francis P. Blair, Sr., lived at Silver
Springs, north of Washington, seven miles from the White House. It was a
magnificent place of four or five hundred acres, with an extensive lawn
in the rear of the house. The grandchildren gathered there frequently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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