the officer pleaded in vain.  Lincoln laughingly paraphrased Charles II, “Now as to political assassination, do you think the Richmond people would like to have Hannibal Hamlin here any more than myself? . . .  As to the crazy folks, Major, why I must only take my chances-the most crazy people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous adherents."(11) With Carpenter, to whom he seems to have taken a liking, he would ramble the streets of Washington, late at night, “without escort or even the company of a servant."(12) Though Halleck talked him into accepting an escort when driving to and fro between Washington and his summer residence at the Soldiers’ Home, he would frequently give it the slip and make the journey on horseback alone.  In August of 1862 on one of these solitary rides, his life was attempted.  It was about eleven at night; he was “jogging along at a slow gait immersed in deep thought” when some one fired at him with a rifle from near at hand.  The ball missed its aim and the President’s horse, as Lincoln confided to his familiars, “gave proof of decided dissatisfaction at the racket, and with one reckless bound, he unceremoniously separated me from my eight-dollar plug hat . . .  At break-neck speed we reached a haven of safety.  Meanwhile, I was left in doubt whether death was more desirable from being thrown from a runaway Federal horse, or as the tragic result of a rifle ball fired by a disloyal bushwhacker in the middle of the night"(13)

While carrying his life in his hands in this oddly reckless way, he belied himself, as events were to show, by telling his friends that he fancied himself “a great coward physically,” that he felt sure he would make a poor soldier.  But he was sufficiently just to himself to add, “Moral cowardice is something which I think I never had."(14)

Lincoln’s humor found expression in other ways besides telling stories and laughing at himself.  He seized every opportunity to convert a petition into a joke, when this could be done without causing pain.  One day, there entered a great man with a long list of favors which he hoped to have granted.  Among these was “the case of Betsy Ann Dougherty, a good woman,” said the great man.  “She lived in my county and did my washing for a long time.  Her husband went off and joined the Rebel army and I wish you would give her a protection paper.”  The pompous gravity of the way the case was presented struck Lincoln as very funny.  His visitor had no humor.  He failed to see jokes while Lincoln quizzed him as to who and what was Betsy Ann.  At length the President wrote a line on a card and handed it to the great man.  “Tell Betsy Ann to put a string in this card and hang it round her neck,” said he.  “When the officers (who may have doubted her affiliations) see this they will keep their hands off your Betsy Ann.”  On the card was written, “Let Betsy Ann Dougherty alone as long as she behaves herself.  A. Lincoln."(15)