More “Shinplasters” to Heal the Sore
In 1863 President Lincoln went out to condole with the beaten Unionists, whom General Hooker had led fatally against Lee at Chancellorsville. Lincoln took his little son “Tad” with him. Amid the cheering one of the soldiers plainly voiced a terrible grievance—just when the sufferers were mostly in need of necessaries, the pay was behindhand. So one cried: “Send along more ‘greenbacks,’ Father Abraham!”
The boy was puzzled, but his companion explained that the soldiers wanted their money due. The hearer thought this over for a moment, and then pertly said: “Why don’t ‘Governor’ Chase print some more?”
“THERE IS MUCH IN AN ‘IF’ AND A ‘BUT.’”
Mr. Tinkler, telegraph-operator of the cipher telegrams at Washington, in the Executive residence, took the despatch announcing the nomination of Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, to the vice-presidency with Lincoln for the second term. The latter read it carefully, and thought aloud:
“Well, I thought possibly that he might be the man; but—”
He passed out of the office, leaving the hearer impressed. Indeed, it was a prophecy of the future—poor, inebriate Andy—not the Handy Andy, but the Merry Andrew of the fag-end of the lamentably sundered second term. Charles A. Dana, editing the New York Sun, printed this drop-line, and said it was a proof that Lincoln had no hand in his Vice being proposed or nominated.