Lincoln Story Book, The

<h3>WORRY TILL YOU GET RID OF THINGS.</h3> <p>On Colonel Halpine trying to make the chief see that even indoors there was danger, he debated about the two menaces--violence of "cranks" and of a political fanatic. He thought too well of the sense of the "people at Richmond," some of whom had been colleagues of his in his first stay in Washington as congressman.</p> <p>"Do you think that they would like to have Hannibal Hamlin--his first vice-president--here any better than myself?"</p> <p>The story is repeated with his second Vice substituted for the first, with the more justification, as "Andy" Johnson was impeached for his incompetency. Detective Baker put it this way: "As to the crazy folks, I must take my chances. The most crazy people being, I fear, some of my own too zealous adherents."</p> <p>(He had the same idea as in an ancient Chinese proverb: "You may steal the captain out of his castle, but you cannot steal the castle.")</p> <p>"I am but a single individual, and it would not help their cause, or make the least difference in the progress of the war." [Footnote: He might have said, as truly as his predecessor, John Tyler, reproached also for going about unguarded: "My body-guard is the people who elected me."]--(Cited by F. B. Carpenter.) <br/> <br/> <br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />