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
Enduring friendship and love of old associations were prominent
characteristics of President Lincoln. When about to leave Springfield
for Washington, he went to the dingy little law office which had
sheltered his saddest hours.
He sat down on the couch, and said to his law partner, Judge Herndon:
“Billy, you and I have been together for more than twenty years, and
have never passed a word. Will you let my name stay on the old sign
until I come back from Washington?”
The tears started to Herndon’s eyes. He put out his hand. “Mr. Lincoln,”
said he, “I never will have any other partner while you live”; and to
the day of assassination, all the doings of the firm were in the name of
“Lincoln & Herndon.”
VERY HOMELY AT FIRST SIGHT.
Early in January, 1861, Colonel Alex. K. McClure, of Philadelphia,
received a telegram from President-elect Lincoln, asking him (McClure)
to visit him at Springfield, Illinois. Colonel McClure described his
disappointment at first sight of Lincoln in these words:
“I went directly from the depot to Lincoln’s house and rang the bell,
which was answered by Lincoln himself opening the door. I doubt whether
a wholly concealed my disappointment at meeting him.
“Tall, gaunt, ungainly, ill clad, with a homeliness of manner that was
unique in itself, I confess that my heart sank within me as I remembered
that this was the man chosen by a great nation to become its ruler in
the gravest period of its history.
“I remember his dress as if it were but yesterday--snuff-colored and
slouchy pantaloons, open black vest, held by a few brass buttons;
straight or evening dresscoat, with tightly fitting sleeves to
exaggerate his long, bony arms, and all supplemented by an awkwardness
that was uncommon among men of intelligence.
“Such was the picture I met in the person of Abraham Lincoln. We sat
down in his plainly furnished parlor, and were uninterrupted during the
nearly four hours that I remained with him, and little by little, as
his earnestness, sincerity and candor were developed in conversation, I
forgot all the grotesque qualities which so confounded me when I first
greeted him.”
THE MAN TO TRUST.
“If a man is honest in his mind,” said Lincoln one day, long before he
became President, “you are pretty safe in trusting him.”
“WUZ GOIN’ TER BE ‘HITCHED.”’
“Abe’s” nephew--or one of them--related a story in connection with
Lincoln’s first love (Anne Rutledge), and his subsequent marriage to
Miss Mary Todd. This nephew was a plain, every-day farmer, and
thought everything of his uncle, whose greatness he quite thoroughly
appreciated, although he did not pose to any extreme as the relative of
a President of the United States.
Said he one day, in telling his story:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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