PRESIDENT LINCOLN.- "The amiable Mrs. Lincoln served
up for us yesterday, for dessert, a very fine tart, by saying: 'Since everybody
is brewing and baking compromises now, therefore I baked for you, Abe a 'compromise
tart' to-day. The flour of it is from Missouri, the butter from Wisconsin, the
milk from Illinois, the lard from Kentucky, the sugar from Louisiana, the syrup
from Iowa, the eggs from Indiana, the fruit from Delaware, the citron from Massachusetts,
the pepper from Texas, the salt from New York, the large raisins from South
Carolina; in short, from every state is one of the ingredient parts.' 'Very
fine and tasteful,' said old Abe, tasting the tart, and smacking his delicate
lips with the air of a connoiseur, 'but there is one thing wanting, in your
compromise tart; you didn't bake any niggers in it; without niggers there would
be no compromise, and without compromises there would be not niggers; in this
country nothing is of any value without the nigger. The eagle on the great seal
of the Union ought to be erased and the nigger placed there instead.'
"Perhaps it is not known as much as it ought to be, that the president
elect is in the habit of acting as his own servant, blacking his own boots and
brushing his own clothes, and that he will not allow himself to be served. He
intends to adhere to this habit also at the White House. I cannot imagine the
beautiful effect of the contrast, if one day the English or French ambassador
should pay him a visit, early in the morning, and find him in the back door
of the White House engaged in polishing his brogans, with the profound air of
a freeman, self-dependent and self-reliant. Such a man we need, in order to
brush and scrub the puffed up aristocrats of the South, and extract a little
of the dust from the jackets. In this respect, Lincoln will surpass Fabricius,
Cato, and even Cincinnatus, who had, at least, their slaves and servants. Labor
will come to honor again." |