PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INDORSEMENT OF NASBY.
The subjoined account of President Lincoln's high appreciation
of the wit and humor of Nasby was contributed to the
New York Independent, by F. B. Carpenter, Esq., the artist,
who enjoyed the confidence of our late lamented Chief Magistrate,
and whose reminiscences have an authenticity entitling
them to implicit credit. Mr. Carpenter says:
“The Saturday evening before President Lincoln left Washington, to
go to the front, just previous to the capture of Richmond, I was with
him from seven o'clock till nearly twelve. It had been a very hard
day with him. The pressure of office-seekers was greater at this juncture
than I ever knew it to be, and he was almost worn out. Among
the callers that evening was a party composed of a Senator, a Representative,
an ex-Lieutenant Governor of a Western State, and several
private citizens. They had business of great importance, involving
the necessity of the President's examination of voluminous documents.
Pushing every thing aside, he said to one of the party, `Have you seen
the Nasby Papers?' `No, I have not,' was the answer. `Who is Nasby?'
`There is a chap out in Ohio,' returned the President, `who has been
writing a series of letters in the newspapers over the signature of Petroleum
V. Nasby. Some one sent me a pamphlet collection of them
the other day. I am going to write to “Petroleum” to come down here,
and I intend to tell him if he will communicate his talent to me, I will
swap places with him!' Thereupon he arose, went to a drawer in his
desk, and taking out the `letters,' he sat down and read one to the
company, finding in their enjoyment of it the temporary excitement
and relief which another man would have found in a glass of grog!
The instant he had ceased, the book was thrown aside, his countenance
relapsed into its habitual serious expression, and the business was entered
upon with the utmost earnestness.”
