produce his papers.  ‘Well, well,’ said the President, ’it is a little risky for an army man to be wandering around without papers to show where he belongs and what he is, but I will see what can be done for you.’  And taking a blank card from a little pile of similar blanks on the table, he wrote some lines upon it, addressed it, and handing it to the man bade him deliver it to a certain quartermaster, who would attend to his case.”

The President could, however, be emphatic and even severe when necessary on such occasions.  One day, we are told, “he was approached by a man apparently sixty years of age, with dress and manner which showed that he was acquainted with the usages of good society, whose whole exterior, indeed, would have favorably impressed people who form opinions from appearances.  The object of his visit was to solicit aid in some commission project, for the success of which Mr. Lincoln’s favor was regarded as essential.  The President heard him patiently, but demurred against being connected with or countenancing the affair, suggesting mildly that the applicant would better set up an office of the kind described, and run it in his own way and at his own risk.  The man pleaded his advanced years and obscurity as a reason for not attempting this, but said if the President would only let him use his name to advertise and recommend the enterprise, he would then, he thought, need nothing more.  At this the eyes of the President flashed with sudden indignation, and his whole aspect and manner underwent a portentous change.  ‘No!’ he broke forth, with startling vehemence, springing from his seat under the impulse of his emotion.  ’No!  I’ll have nothing to do with this business, nor with any man who comes to me with such degrading propositions.  What!  Do you take the President of the United States to be a commission broker?  You have come to the wrong place; and for you and every one who comes for such purposes, there is the door!’ The man’s face blanched as he cowered and slunk away confounded, without uttering a word.  The President’s wrath subsided as speedily as it had risen.”

Another example of Lincoln’s power to dispose summarily of people who tried his patience too far is given by Secretary Welles, who records that a Mrs. White—­a sister or half-sister of Mrs. Lincoln—­made herself so obnoxious as a Southern sympathizer in Washington in 1864, that the President sent her word that “if she did not leave forthwith she might expect to find herself within twenty-four hours in the Old Capitol Prison.”

With all his kindness and desire to do what was asked of him, Lincoln could not be persuaded to consent to anything which he felt to be distinctly wrong, regardless of any unfavorable consequences which his refusal might bring upon himself.  When the members of Congress from Minnesota, late in 1862, called on him in a body to urge him to order the execution of three hundred Indian prisoners, captured in their State and charged with great atrocities, he positively refused, although realizing that it might cost him the support of those members of the House, which he greatly needed at that time.