Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1885 — Pay No Attention to His Squealing. [ARTICLE]

Pay No Attention to His Squealing.

Lincoln was a good judge of men and quickly learned the peculiar traits of character in those he had to deal with. I recall an anecdote by which he pointed out a marked trait in one of our Northern Governors. This Governor was earnest, able, and untiring in keeping up the war spirit in his State, and in raising and equipping troops; but he always wanted his own way, and ill brooked the restraints imposed by the necessity of conforming to a general system. Though devoted to the cause, he was at times overbearing and exacting in bis intercourse with the General Government. Upon one occasion he complained and protested more bitterly tban usual, and w arned those in authority that the execution of their orders in his State would be beset by difficulties and dangers. The tone of his dispatches gave rise to an apprehension that he might not co-operate fully in tho enterprise in hand. The Secretary ot War, therefore, laid the dispatches before the President for advice or instructions. They did not disturb Lincoln in the least. In fact, they rather amused him. After reading all The papers he said in a cheerful and reassuring tone: “Never mind, never mind, those dispatches don’t mean anything. J ast go right ahead. The Governor is like a boy I saw once at the launching of a ship. When everthing was ready they picked out a boy and sent him under the ship to knock away the trigger and let her go. At the critical moment everything depended on the boy. He had to do the job well by a direct vigorous blow, and then lie flat and keep still while the ship slid over him. The boy did everything right, but he yelled as if he was being murdered from the time he got under the keel until he got out I thought the hide was all scraped off his back, but he wasn't hurt at all. The master of the yard told me that this boy was always chosen for that job, that he did his work well, that he never had been hurt, but that he always squealed in that way. That’s just the way with Governor . Make up your minds that he is not hurt, and that he is doing the work right, and pay no attention to his squealing. He only wants to make you understand bow hard his task is, and that he is oil hand performing it.” Time proved that the President’s estimate of the Governor was correct— Gen. Fry.