Ralph Waldo Emerson said:  “His broad good humor, running easily into jocular talk, in which he delighted, and in which he excelled, was a rich gift to this wise man.  It enabled him to keep his secret, to meet every kind of man, and every rank in society; to take off the edge of the severest decisions, to mask his own purpose and sound his companion, and to catch, with true instinct, the temper of every company he addressed.  And, more than all, it is to a man of severe labor, in anxious and exhausting crises, the natural restorative, good as sleep, and is the protection of the overdriven brain against rancor and insanity.”

Even amidst the stern realities of war, Lincoln was keenly appreciative of anything that disclosed the comic or grotesque side of men or happenings,—­largely, doubtless, for the relief afforded him.  At the beginning of Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania, in June, 1863, when the Union forces under Colonel Milroy were driven out of Harper’s Ferry by the Confederates, great consternation and alarm were caused by reports that the Army of the Potomac had been routed and was retreating before Lee, who was pressing forward toward Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania.  Mr. Welles records in his Diary (June 17, 1863) that he was at the War Department with the President and Secretary Stanton, when “a messenger came in from General Schenck, declaring that the stragglers and baggage-trains of Milroy had run away in affright, and squads of them on different parallel roads had alarmed each other, and each fled in terror with all speed to Harrisburg.  This alone was asserted to be the basis of the great panic which had alarmed Pennsylvania and the country.  The President,” continues Mr. Welles, “was in excellent humor.  He said this flight would be a capital joke for Orpheus C. Kerr[D] to get hold of.  He could give scope to his imagination over the terror of broken squads of panic-stricken teamsters, frightened at each other and alarming all Pennsylvania.  General Meigs, who was present, inquired with great simplicity who this person (Orpheus C. Kerr) was.  ‘Why,’ said the President, ’have you not read those papers?  They are in two volumes; anyone who has not read them is a heathen.’  He said he had enjoyed them greatly—­except when they attempted to play their wit on him, which did not strike him as very successful, but rather disgusted him.  ’Now, the hits that are given to you, Mr. Welles, or to Chase,’ he said, ’I can enjoy; but I daresay they may have disgusted you while I was laughing at them.  So vice versa as regards myself.’”

Hon. Lawrence Weldon relates that on one occasion he called upon the President to inquire as to the probable outcome of a conflict between the civil and military authorities for the possession of a quantity of cotton in a certain insurrectionary district.  As soon as the inquiry had been made, Lincoln’s face began lighting up, and he said:  “What has become of our old friend Bob Lewis, of DeWitt