AMIDST A DEPRESSING TIME during the Civil War, James Ashley, a young Congressman from Ohio, came to complain about General McCellan. Lincoln said, “Well, that reminds me of a story. Ashley stood up and said:
“I beg your pardon, but I didn’t come here to hear a story.” Ashley, I have great respect for you, but if I didn’t tell these stories, I would die. Sit down.”
Historians say “the scene seems bathed in the aura of mythology developed since the assassination, described as the reconciliation of two opposing views of Lincoln’s personality. One was the Emancipator-Martyr. The other was the folklore Frontier Hero of humble origin and moral fiber but given to telling jokes.” – Abe Lincoln Laughing; Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources” by P.M. Zall, 1982.
Other books I own include “The Prairie Years” by Carl Sandberg (I haven’t gotten to that one yet), “The Religion of Abraham Lincoln” by William J. Wolf, 1959, and “The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln” by Henry J. Raymond, 1865. It came off the press about six months after the assassination. When it was given to me, it was almost 100 years old, and now it’s about 160. To paraphrase some highlights:
At some point a Union officer told Lincoln a story about some slaves who had been freed by Union soldiers. A group of them were gathered in their Praise House and were having a discussion regarding Lincoln’s power. Life under powers is all they had known before. Finally, a very old man stood up and said:
“Now you lissen to me. You don’ know what you talkin’ about. Massa Linkum, he be like da Lord. He be ebrywhere. He knows ebrything.”
After he heard the story, Lincoln didn’t smile as most people would. He got up and slowly walked around the room and came back and sat down. He said:
“It is a hunbling thing to be the liberator of a race.”
I have to paraphrase some of these as best as I can recall them, to speed up the process. An old friend from Illinois visited the White House and asked Abe what it felt like being the President. Lincoln replied:
“Well, it kind of reminds me of the guy who got run out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered. When asked how he felt, the guy said, ‘
Except for the honor, I’d rather be walking.”
Lincoln once said he’d rather be sleeping on the ground like the soldiers than be President. He once said that he felt like a man walking across Niagara Falls on a high wire, with midgets on both ends trying to shake him off.” [That may be how President Trump feels, without the melancholy of course].
Lincoln’s entrance into Richmond after the surrender of Lee is a moving story. The black people came out of their houses and all but threw palm branches in front of his entourage (Lincoln was walking).
PS: My dad was born in 1900 and saw Teddy Roosevelt speak in 1912. My grandparents could have been contemporaries of Abraham Lincoln if he hadn’t gotten shot. Some of my great-grandparents were born before John Quincy Adams died, and he was old enough at the time of the Declaration to remember it.
PPS: America is too young to die. Happy 250th birthday?
Curtis Dahlgren
Photo: rarehistoricalphotos.com
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