Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House

“I shall ever cherish among the brightest memories of my life,” says the Rev. J. P. Thompson, of New York, “the recollection of an hour in Mr. Lincoln's working-room in September, ‘64, which was one broad sheet of sunshine ... I spoke of the rapid rise of Union feeling since the promulgation of the Chicago Platform, and the victory at Atlanta; and the question was started, which had contributed the most to the reviving of Union sentiment — the victory or the platform. ‘I guess,’ said the President, ‘it was the victory; at any rate, I'd rather have that repeated.’ ”

Being informed of the death of John Morgan, he said: “Well, I wouldn't crow over anybody's death; but I can take this as resignedly as any dispensation of Providence.”

The celebrated case of Franklin W. Smith and brother, was one of those which most largely helped to bring military tribunals into public contempt. Those two gentlemen were arrested and kept in confinement, their papers seized, their business destroyed, their reputation damaged, and a naval court-martial, “organized to convict,” pursued them unrelentingly till a wiser and juster hand arrested the malice of their persecutors. It is known that President Lincoln, after full investigation of the case, annulled the whole proceedings,