Evening Star Newspaper, February 9, 1930, Page 91

THI. SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. amusement, and added greatly to the enjoy- ment and entertasinment of the other players and bystanders by his criticisms and funny illustrations. “He accepted success and defeat with like good nature and humor, and left the alley at the comelusion of the game without a sorrow or disappointment. When it was known that he was in the alley there would e num- bers of pecple to witness the fun which was anticipated by those who knew of his fund of anecdotes and jokes. When in the alley, surrounded by a crowd of eager listeners, he in- dulgad rative. some one, but they appeared very many as if they had been made for the immediate occasion. “Congressman Linceln was always neatly very plainly dressed, very simple and proachable in manner, and unpretentious. attended to his business, guing promptly to t House and remaining till the session adjourned, and appeared to be familiar with the progress of legislation. “During that session Mrs. Lincoln, with the eldast son, was at the house for a time, but was so retiring that she was rarely seen the meals. Robert was a bright bey, 4 years old, and seemed to have way. If there were any other children, I do not recall the fact. During the where I do not remember.” . Tad'’s Toy Shop, still standing at 1207 New York avenue, where Lincoln would go with Thomas, or “Tad,” as he was called, to pur- chase toys for this little son of his; the home of Seeretary Stanton, 1323 K street northwest, where Linecoln would freguently stop on his way to and from the Soldiers’ Home, and the in the Patent Office building; the site depot through which he passed when secretly brought to the city and the s old Willard Hotel, to which he was taken upon’ his arrival on the morning of February 23, 1861 —these arc ind:-1 bué a few of the places in Washington made historic through their association with the Great Emancipator. FORT STEVENS, where he stood under fire during those uncertain days in July, 1864, when Gen. Early was only stopped from burn- ing or capturing the city by the timely arrival of Gen. Wright and the “Gallant 6th Corps”; the Capitol Building, in which he twice took the oath of office as President and where he read his famous second inaugural, to be seen on the wall of the Lincoln Meniorial; the dome of that great structure which he saw compieted and surmounted with the statue of freedom, ere his eyes should close forever; the White House, where his son Willie died on February 20, 1862, and where but a few years later he was to receive the final rites in the east room, and the celebrated Pennsylvania avenue, over which his funeral cortege meoved on its way to the depot—to the lover of Lin- coin these are truly sacred spots and places. “ndeed, no place on earth has so much of the atmosphere of Lincoln as has the Capital of the Nation, not to include the places here associated with his assassination. Though the people here were somewhat divided in senti- ment when he came to the city in 1861, yet it did not take long to learn the real man, and hostility largely turned to love. His sudden death was regarded in many quarters as a perscnal loss. Never can the District people be accused of disioyalty after the greab sacrifice they made for the preservation of the Union. Indeed, in Lincoln’s greatest hour of need, on the day of his inauguration, a battalion of District troops, under the command of Col. Tate, guarded the position where the President took the oath of office and made his inaugural address. It was the District’s Volunteer Cavalry that guarded the carriage in which the two Presidents rode, while the Engineer company (Duane) marched before the carriage, and the District Volunteers behind it. District Volunteer Riflemen oecu- pied the windows of the Capitol overlooking the ceremony of inauguration and also occu- pied the roofs of the houses along Pennsyl- vania avenue through which the procession passad. THE District troops were the first to be mus- tered into the service of the Government for the upholding of the hands of the constitu- tionally elected President. ‘“There is incon- testable evidence existing in authentic docu- ments and sworn statements that President Lincoin called for ten companies of District volunteers on April 9, 1861, for immediate serv- ice as United States Volunteers, and these and one company besides were mustered into serv- ice, commencing on April 10. Company A, Washington Light Infantry, commanded by Capt. Lemuel Towers, was sworn in on that day, and on the 11th was on guard at Long Bridge; and on the night of the 12th the Washington Light Infantry guarded the Treas- ury, State Department and the White House. From the 10th to the 18th, when the first troops arrived from the North, the District Jtroops guarded the public departments and property and every thoroughfare of approach to the Capital by land or water.” Though there will be no demonstration—at least no considerable demonstrtation—on Lin- coln’s birthday, yet his life and character will occur to quite a number who still reside here and remember President Lincoln in the living flesh; the calm, sincere, noble, generous Lin- coln who saved the Union that we might have national peace and national unity, have but one Government and live under but one flag, and it might not be going too far to say that he was indeed the only man of his time who could have preserved the Union of the States. For this, if for nothing else, the everlasting gratitude of every citizen of the United States 8 due his memory. Every school child should be familiar with Young Lincoln at his mother’s grave. the life of Abraham Lincoln; every citizen of the Republic should be proud to say that he has read the story of the life of this unusual man, and to some degrec to try to follow his precepts and his teachings. Several of our Presidents were born, and for a time reared, under very poor circumstances and conditions. Several were self-taught and gained all their knowledge and education under the mest difficult and trying circumstances, but net ene of these could have handled the situation put up to Lincoln. BORN on the Big South Fork of Nolin Creek, in what was then Hardin but now La Rue County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was destined to spend his early child- hood life almost in poverty. About 1813 his father, Thomas Lincoln, purchased a farm of 238 acres on Knob Creek, and in 1816 again moved to a heavily timbered traect of land on Little Pigeon Creek, in Perry County, Indiana. We who live in comparative luxury cannot have the slightest conception of what this family must have gone through with and en- dured in this wild, unsettled country. In 1818 “the milk sickness” became prevalent, and Mrs. Lincoln died from this disease on October 5 of that year. Thomas Lincoln, the husband, who was a carpenter, made the coffin out of green lumber cut from the woods, and with practically no ceremony the future President's mother was buried in a clearing not far dis- tant from the house. Abraham, who loved his mother dearly, though but 9 years of age, grieved that his mother should have been buried without the services of a clergyman, and when one chanced heart of his—fairly well educated and with pride and some ability. famous, he gave unstinted praise and credit to his stepmother for her kindness and help- fulness to him, and, though she had three dren of her own, yet she always said t stepson, Abraham, was the best child and there was always a great affection the two. IN 1830 the Lincoln family mewed to Macon County, Iilinois, where Abraham’s activities were varied, and from which State he came to shows up better than in the case of Pvt. William Scott, as related by Allen C. Clark in his “Abraham Lincoin, the Merciful President.” Pvt. Scott had been found at his post out near Chain tenced to be shot. Before the defendant testified: “He had never been up all night that he remembered. beat out’ by the before, should have a hard fight to keep awake; thought of hiring one place, but they might think he do his duty, and he decided ‘to chance fit. Twice he went to sleep and woke himself he was marching, and then—he could not tell anything about it.” Scott was from Vermont, and a party of soldiers of his ccmpany who sought to have the sentence set aside was granted an inter- view with thie President through the efforts of L. C. Crittenden, Registrar of the Treasury, When introduced to the President the captain —who was the spokesman—told the story, con- cluding with: “He is as brave a boy as there is im your army, sir. Scott is no coward. Our mountains breed no cowards. They are the home of 30,- 080 men who voted for Abraham Lineoin. They will not be able to ses that the best thing to be done with William Scott will be to shoot him like a traitor and bury him like a dog! Oh, Mr. Lineoln, can you?” ‘The writer adds: “Mr. Lincoln exclaimed, ‘No, I can’t’ and then with a hearty laugh, ‘Mr. Crittenden, do your Green Mountain boys fight as well as they talk? If they do, I don't self. I have for some time intended to go up to Chain Bridge. I will do so today. I shall then know that there is no mistake jn sus- pending the execution.’ “Scott said the President spoke to him kind- Asked about his school, the farm, the il Tt PYLEL SR £ H : ??i:‘. sfiptitngt it g8 AEs lived; and that now, when I know that I am dying, I think of his kind face and thank him again, because he gave me the chance to fall like a soldier in battle and not like a coward by the hands of my comrades.” Few peopl> realize that President Lincoln vole untarily furnished a substitute during the war, but that is just what he did, and this sub- stitute was John S. Staples, at that time & resident of the District of Columbia. During the Summer of 1864 the provest mar- shal general commended an expressed desire made by some prominent citizens to procure recruits at their own expense, and among the more prominent persons to respond, besides President Lineoln, were “Hon. Justin S. Morrill of Vermomt, Alex Agassiz, Edward Everett, H. W. Longfellow, J. Russell Lowell and John G. Pal- frey of Massachusetts, R. E. Penton, J. K. Morehead and David Wilmot of New York, Joshua F. Speed of Kentucky and William B. Allison of Iowa.” Mn_ LINCOLN, as will be seen by the fol- lowing statement, became quite interested in the propesed method of building up the Army and communicated to the provost - shal his desire that he select the gentlexi who should fulfill his wishes, “The provost marshal sent for Mr. Noble D. Larner, father of our well known citizen, John B. Larner, and stated to Him the President's wishes and placed the matter in his hands. After considerable trouble, substitutes being scarce, he succeeded in getting one and had him sworn in as the President’s substitute. He was dressed in his uniform and taken to the White House and introduced to the President, who spoke very pleasantly as to his duties as a soldier. “President Lincoln subsequently sent Mr. Larner a cheek on Riggs Bank in this city in payment of the price he had paid for the sub- stitute. “Statements as to the price vary from $300 to $1,000. The soidier's father told the man who erected the soldier’s monument that the soldier received $600 and he himself $50. A signed statement by the soldier is in existenee, giving the amount as $500, which statement is the best evidence.” L Just a day or so ago a gentleman, in speak- ing to the writer about Lincoln, expressed the regret that there was so little available infor- mation regarding the President’s last day in the White House—just what he did upon that - fatal Good Friday before going to the theater. ALONG this line one of the clearest and most concise accounts appears in the Daily Morning Chronicle of April 17, 1865, a paper published in this city from 1862 to 1874, and as the statement was made but three days after the assassination there is reason to regard it as authentic. The following is aecount: “His son, Capt. Lincoln, breakfaSted with him_ on Friday morning, having just returned frosa the capitulation of Lee, and the President pass- ed a happy hour listening to the details of that event. While at breakfast he learned that Speaker Colfax was in the house, and sent word that he wished to see him immediately in the reception room. He conversed with Mr. Colfax nearly an hour about his future policy as to the rebellion, which he was about to sub- mit o the cabinet. “Afterward he had an interview with Mr. Hale, Minister to Spain, and several Senators and Representatives, “At the meeting of the cabinet Gen. Grant was present, and in one of the most satisfac- tory and important cabinet meetings held since his fizst inauguration the future pelicy of the administration was harmoniously and unani- mously agreed on. When the members of the cabinet separated Secretary Stanton said he felt that the Government was stromger than at any previous period since the rebeilion com- menced. In the afterncon Mr. Limcoln had a long and pleasant interview with Gov. Ogles- by, Senator Yates and other leading citizens of his State. “In the evening Mr. Colfax called again, at his request, and Mr. Ashmun of Massachusetts, who presided over the Chicago convention of 1860, was present. To them he spoke of his visit to Richmond, and when they stated that there was much uneasiness at the North while he was at the rebel eapital, for fear some traitor might shoot him, he replied, jocularly, that he ‘would have been alarmed himself if any other person had been President and gone there, but he, himself, did not feel in any danger what- ever.’ “Conversing on a matter of business with Mr. Ashmun, he made a remark, at which he saw Mr. Ashmun was surprised, and immedie ately, with his well known kindness of heart; sald: ‘You did not understand me, Ashmum; ¥ did not mean what you inferred, and will take it all back and apelogize for it.’ ing to cenverse further about the matter—the last writing of his life, 5 “Turning to Mr. Colfax, he said, ‘You are going with Mrs. Linecoln and me to the theater, I hope’; but Mr. Colfax had other engagements, expecting to leave the city the next merning, He then said to Mr. Coifax: h-thenvelo(theconrmcum which he got at Richmond, to hand to the Secretary of War, but I insisted then that he must give it to you, and you tell him for me to hand it over.’ “Mr. Ashmun alluded to the gavel, which he szflll-d.'hkhheulfliuthclflm vention. The President and Mrs. Executive Mansjon , never to return to it s