Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 39
with laughtel over a French, German, or negro anecdote, and
he was always ready to match the best with a better. More
than once, when I bore a message to him from the Senate, he
detained me with some amusing sketch of Western life. He
seemed to have read the character, and to know the peculiarities
of every leading man in Congress and the country, and would
play off many an innocent joke upon them. I will not attempt
to repeat what has been so often described. There was also a
sacred confidence around many of those scenes which could
not be violated without offense to many living good men; and
as I do not write to wound the feelings, I will not profane an
illustrious memory by reviving what would only give unnecessary pain.
His two inaugurations were accompanied by apprehensions
of his assassination, and the second was followed in a little
more than a month by his murder. At the inauguration of
March 4, I86I, I was present as Clerk of the House. At the
inauguration of March 4, I865, I was present as Secretary of
the Senate. James Buchanan, as ex-President, heard the remarkable first message of the man who succeeded him, just as
Andrew Johnson heard the still more remarkable inauguration
of the man he succeeded. War followed the one, peace and
assassination the other. The scene in the Senate of the United
States on the 4th of March I865, when Andrew Johnson was
sworn in as Vice-President, has too often been painted to be
set out into daylight again. Let it rest. I refer to it now
only to relate one incident. After we reached the eastern and
middle portion of the Capitol, where Mr. Lincoln took the oath,
Johnson was under a state of great excitement, and was in my
immediate charge. I was confident, however, that he would be
subdued before the President finished his inaugural. To the
surprise of every body however, except, perhaps, the Cabinet,
Mr. Lincoln did not consume five minutes in repeating it. As
soon as the people outside saw that he was done, loud cries