OCRed data provided
for searching only. august 1887 709
606. Thomas Mather (JWW interview)1
[ca. 1883]
¿Entering the room,î related Mather in later years, ¿I found the old warrior,2 grizzly and wrinkled, propped up in the bed by an embankment of pillows behind his back. His hair and beard were considerably disordered, the ‚esh seemed to lay in rolls across the warty face and neck, and his breathing was not without great labor. In his hand he still held Lincoln's letter. He was weak from long-continued illness, and trembled very perceptibly. It was evident that the message from Lin‚coln had wrought up the old veteran's feelings. ´General Mather,' he said to me, in great agitation, ´present my compliments to Mr. Lincoln when you return to Spring‚eld, and tell him I expect him to come on to Washington as soon as he is ready. Say to him that I'll look after those Maryland and Virginia rangers3 myself; I'll plant cannon at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue, and if any of them show their heads or raise a ‚nger I'll blow them to hell.' On my return to Spring‚eld,î concludes Mather, ¿I hastened to assure Mr. Lincoln that, if Scott were alive on the day of the inauguration, there need be no alarm lest the performance be inter‚rupted by any one. I felt certain the hero of Lundy's Lane would give the matter the care and attention it deserved.î
H&W (1889), 492¬93
607. Leonard Swett to WHH 1
CHICAGO, ILL., August 29, 1887. My Dear Sir:Ü
Your inquiry in reference to the circumstances of the appointment of David Davis as one of the Justices of the Supreme Court reached me last evening. In re‚ply I beg leave to recall the fact, that in 1860 the politicians of Illinois were divid‚ed into three divisions, which were represented in the Decatur convention by the votes on the nomination for Governor. The largest vote was for Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, his strength in the main being the northern part of the State. I was next in order of strength, and Richard Yates the third, but the divisions were not materially unequal. The result was Yates was nominated, his strength being about Spring‚eld and Jacksonville, extending to Quincy on the west, and mine was at Bloomington and vicinity and south and southeast.
1. JWW wrote in The Real Lincoln: ¿I knew General Mather well, and when I was in Spring‚eld often heard him relate the incidents of his trip to Washington [in 1861]î (1922:304). The account given there (304¬6) conveys the same anecdote but in entirely different words. As no original has been found, the text given here is from H&W (1889) as being closer to the time of JWW's interviews with Mather in the 1880s.
2.
Gen. Win‚eld Scott.
3.
Threats to AL's inaugural had been made by secessionist sympathizers in Maryland and Virginia.
1. No original for this letter has been found, though it is referred to in Swett's letter of August 30, 1887, Ñ523.
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