With much feeling, Mr. Lincoln replied: “I shall do no such thing. It is a poor return, at the best, for all the good woman’s devotion and fidelity to me, and there is not going to be any half-way business about it;” and so saying, he gathered up his money, and proceeded forthwith to carry his long-cherished purpose into execution. Among the numerous delegations which thronged Washington in the early part of the war was one from New York, which urged very strenuously the sending of a fleet to the southern cities,--Charleston, Mobile, and Savannah,--with the object of drawing off the rebel army from Washington. Mr. Lincoln said the project reminded him of the case of a girl in New Salem, who was greatly troubled with a “singing” in her head. Various remedies were suggested by the neighbors, but nothing tried afforded any relief. At last a man came along,--“a common-sense sort of man,” said he, inclining his head towards the gentleman complimentarily,--“who was asked to prescribe for the difficulty. After due inquiry and examination, he said the cure was very simple. ‘What is it?’ was the anxious question. ‘Make a plaster of _psalm-tunes_, and apply to her feet, and draw the “singing” _down_,’ was the rejoinder.” On another occasion, an anti-slavery delegation, also from New York, were pressing the adoption of the emancipation policy. During the interview the “chairman,” the Rev. Dr. C----, made a characteristic and powerful appeal, largely made up of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures. Mr. Lincoln received the “bombardment” in silence. As the speaker concluded, he continued for a moment in thought, and then, drawing a long breath, responded: “Well, gentlemen, it is not often one is favored with a delegation _direct_ from the Almighty!” One of Mr. Lincoln’s Springfield neighbors, a clergyman, visiting Washington early in the administration, asked the President what was to be his policy on the slavery question. “Well,” said he, “I will answer by telling you a story. You know Father B., the old Methodist preacher? and you know Fox River and its freshets? Well, once in the presence of Father B., a young Methodist was worrying about Fox River, and expressing fears that he should be prevented from fulfilling some of his appointments by a freshet in the river. Father B. checked him in his gravest manner. Said he: ‘Young man, I have always made it a rule in my life not to cross Fox River till I get to it!’ And,” added Mr. Lincoln, “I am not going to worry myself over the slavery question till I get to it.” General Garfield, of Ohio, received from the President an account of the capture of Norfolk, similar to that recorded on a previous page, with the following preface:--