Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1885 — Grant and Stephens. [ARTICLE]

Grant and Stephens.

The following story is credited to Gen. Grant: He said that when the famous Peace Commission called on him and President Lincoln, in Virginia* he saw Alexander H. Stephens for the first time. He had often heard much of the Southern statesman, and had supposed him to be a very little man; but on seeing him in company with the other Commissioners 'he thought him astonishingly big. Stephens wore a huge overcoat, made of some rude material—coarser, the General said, than any Canadian cloth he had ever seen. The collar was more comprehensive than any he had come across, the tails touched the ground, and the circumference was in keeping with the rest of the ample proportions. In Grant’s headquarters Stephens took off the coat and revealed kimself the slender and in every way diminutive man he had been represented to be. It was the garment that had afforded bulk. The Peace Commission went up on the York River to «ee Lincoln, and a Jew days later the President came down to meet Grant. “Did you see Stephens?” Lincoln .asked. “Yes, sir,” replied Grant. “See him in his overcoat?” “Yes, sir.” “See him take it off .?” “Yes, sir.” “Well,” and Lincoln roared with laughter, “ain’t that the littlest ear out of ifche biggest shuck you ever saw in your life?” * Grant told the story with gusto, and seemed to especially recall Lincoln’s qmiek sense of the ludicrous.