The President's letters and telegrams to his wife when she and Tad were absent from Washington were almost always laden with some piece of information for Tad's special benefit. In one such communication he noted that Nanny was found resting herself and chewing her little cud on the middle of Tad's bed, and again he sent this message by telegraph, "Tell Tad the goats and father are very well, especially the goats.' Perhaps the strangest document in all the volumes of the complete works of Abraham Lincoln is a telegram in reference to Tad, and sent to his wife: "Think you had better put Tad's pistol away. I had an ugly dream about him. A. L." A few days before the President's death Secretary Stanton tendered his resignation of the War Department. He accompanied the act with a most heartfelt tribute to Mr. Lincoln's constant friendship and faithful devotion to the country, saying, also, that he, as Secretary, had accepted the position to hold it only until the war should end, and now he felt his work was done, and his duty was to resign. Mr. Lincoln was greatly moved by the Secretary's words, and, tearing in pieces the paper containing the resignation and throwing his arms about the Secretary, he said, "Stanton, you have been a good friend and a faithful public servant, and it is not for you to say when you will no longer be needed here.” Several friends of both parties were present on the occasion, and there was not a dry eye that witnessed the scene. "The last time I saw Mr. Lincoln to speak with him," said Mr. Dana, "was in the afternoon of the day of his murder. I had received a report from the provost-marshal of Portland, Maine, saying that Jacob Thompson [a Confederate agent] was to be in that town that night for the purpose of taking the steamer for Liverpool, and what orders had the Department to give? I carried the telegram to Mr. Stanton. He said promptly, 'Arrest him'; but as I was leaving his room he called me back, adding, 'You had better take it over to the President.' It was now between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, and business at the White House was completed for the day. I found Mr. Lincoln with his coat off, in a closet attached to his office, washing his hands. 'Hello, Dana,' said he, as I opened the door, 'what is it now?' 'Well, sir,' I said, 'here is the provostmarshal of Portland, who reports that Jacob Thompson is to be in that town to-night, and Lincoln responded at once in health and spirits, but h to the theater on that fatal any presentiment of evil. American Cousin," and h It was funny enough, and funny things, but not twic even for company's sake. of going, but Mrs. Lincoln She had had troubles of her ter party from outside-Ge having been called away a and she did not propose to h desert her. She insisted on "All right," he said, in I way, when he found resista right, Mary, I'll go; but if history as the martyr Presid He didn't miss his guess became a world tragedy. |