''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 103"What made the deepest impression upon you?" inquired a friend one day,"when you stood in the presence of the Falls of Niagara, the greatest ofnatural wonders?""The thing that struck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls," Lincolnresponded, with characteristic deliberation, "was, where in the world did allthat water come from?""LONG ABE" FOUR YEARS LONGER.The second election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the UnitedStates was the reward of his courage and genius bestowed upon him by thepeople of the Union States. General George B. McClellan was his opponentin 1864 upon the platform that "the War is a failure," and carried but threeStates--New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. The States which did notthink the War was a failure were those in New England, New York,Pennsylvania, all the Western commonwealths, West Virginia, Tennessee,Louisiana, Arkansas and the new State of Nevada, admitted into the Unionon October 31st. President Lincoln's popular majority over McClellan, whonever did much toward making the War a success, was more than fourhundred thousand. Underneath the cartoon reproduced here, from "Harper'sWeekly" of November 26th, 1864, were the words, "Long AbrahamLincoln a Little Longer."But the beloved President's time upon earth was not to be much longer, ashe was assassinated just one month and ten days after his secondinauguration. Indeed, the words, "a little longer," printed below the cartoon,were strangely prophetic, although not intended to be such.The people of the United States had learned to love "Long Abe," theiraffection being of a purely personal nature, in the main. No other ChiefExecutive was regarded as so sincerely the friend of the great mass of theinhabitants of the Republic as Lincoln. He was, in truth, one of "thecommon people," having been born among them, and lived as one of them.