Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House

“What do you mean?” inquired his informant.

“Why,” rejoined the President, “I can make a better ‘brigadier’ any day; but those horses cost the government a hundred and twenty-five dollars a head!”

Mr. Lincoln sometimes had a very effective way of dealing with men who troubled him with questions. A visitor once asked him how many men the Rebels had ih the field. The President replied, very seriously, “Twelve hundred thousand, according to the best authority.” The interrogator blanched in the face, and ejaculated, “Good Heavens!” “Yes sir, twelve hundred thousand--no doubt of it. You see, all of our generals, when they get whipped, say the enemy outnumbers them from three or five to one, and I must believe them. We have four hundred thousand men in the field, and three times four make twelve. Don't you see it?”

Some gentlemen were discussing in Mr. Lincoln's presence on a certain occasion General McClellan's military capacity. “It is doubtless true that he is a good ‘engineer,’ said the President; but he seems to have a special talent for developing a ‘stationary’ engine.”

When Mr. Lincoln handed to his friend Gilbert his appointment as assessor in the Wall Street district, New York, he said: “Gilbert, from what I can learn, I judge that you are going upon good ‘missionary’ ground. Preach God and Liberty to the ‘bulls’ and ‘bears,’ and get all the money you can for the government!”