This Clinches It
A party accompanying the President to the ground to see experiments with new ordnance in the Navy Yard, in 1862, were diverted by his taking up a ship-carpenter’s ax from its nick in a spar, and holding it out by the end of the handle; a feat that none of the group could imitate.
He said that he had enough of the Dahlgreens, Columbiads, and Raphael repeaters—and that this was an American institution, which, “I guess, I understand better than all other weapons!”