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
“When I retired, it was the master of the house and chosen ruler of the
country who saw me to my room. ‘Joe,’ he said, as he was about to leave
me, ‘I am reminded and I suppose you will never forget that trial down
in Montgomery county, where the lawyer associated with you gave away the
whole case in his opening speech. I saw you signaling to him, but you
couldn’t stop him.
“‘Now, that’s just the way with me and Buchanan. He is giving away the
case, and I have nothing to say, and can’t stop him. Good-night.’”
POSING WITH A BROOMSTICK.
Mr. Leonard Volk, the artist, relates that, being in Springfield when
Lincoln’s nomination for President was announced, he called upon Mr.
Lincoln, whom he found looking smiling and happy. “I exclaimed, ‘I
am the first man from Chicago, I believe, who has had the honor of
congratulating you on your nomination for President.’ Then those two
great hands took both of mine with a grasp never to be forgotten,
and while shaking, I said, ‘Now that you will doubtless be the next
President of the United States, I want to make a statue of you, and
shall try my best to do you justice.’
“Said he, ‘I don’t doubt it, for I have come to the conclusion that you
are an honest man,’ and with that greeting, I thought my hands in a fair
way of being crushed.
“On the Sunday following, by agreement, I called to make a cast of Mr.
Lincoln’s hands. I asked him to hold something in his hands, and told
him a stick would do. Thereupon he went to the woodshed, and I heard the
saw go, and he soon returned to the dining-room, whittling off the end
of a piece of broom handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle
off the edges. ‘Oh, well,’ said he, ‘I thought I would like to have it
nice.’”
“BOTH LENGTH AND BREADTH.”
During Lincoln’s first and only term in Congress--he was elected in
1846--he formed quite a cordial friendship with Stephen A. Douglas, a
member of the United States Senate from Illinois, and the beaten one in
the contest as to who should secure the hand of Miss Mary Todd. Lincoln
was the winner; Douglas afterwards beat him for the United States
Senate, but Lincoln went to the White House.
During all of the time that they were rivals in love and in politics
they remained the best of friends personally. They were always glad to
see each other, and were frequently together. The disparity in their
size was always the more noticeable upon such occasions, and they well
deserved their nicknames of “Long Abe” and the “Little Giant.” Lincoln
was the tallest man in the National House of Representatives, and
Douglas the shortest (and perhaps broadest) man the Senate, and when
they appeared on the streets together much merriment was created.
Lincoln, when joked about the matter, replied, in a very serious tone,
“Yes, that’s about the length and breadth of it.”
“ABE” RECITES A SONG.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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