Charlottesville

[David Lockmiller]

(08-22-2017 02:38 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks for sharing, David. There is a good article about Forney here.

I read the article as suggested and copied some excerpts here:

Presidential aide John Hay wrote that after wandering around Gettysburg on November 18, 1863, he met up with Forney, also there for the cemetery dedication the next day:

We went out after a while following the music to hear the serenades. The President appeared at the door said half a dozen words meaning nothing & went in.

[Forney] had been drinking a good deal during the day. We went back to Forney’s room having picked up Nicolay and drank more whiskey. Nicolay sung his little song of the ‘Three Thieves’ and we then sung John Brown. At last we proposed that Forney should make a speech and two or three started out - Shannon and Behan and Nicolay - to get a band to serenade him. I staid with him.

The music sounded in the street and the fuglers came rushing up imploring him to come down. The crowd was large and clamorous. The fuglers stood by the door in an agony. The reporters squatted at a little stand in the entry. Forney stood on the Threshold, John Young & I by him. The crowd shouted as the door opened. Forney said: ‘My friends, these are the first hearty cheers I have heard tonight. You gave no such cheers to your President down the street. Do you know what you owe to that Great man? You owe your country – you owe your name as American citizens.’

Forney went on blackguarding the crowd for their apathy & then diverged to his own record saying he had been for Lincoln in his heart in 1860 – that open advocacy was not as effectual as the course he took – dividing the most corrupt organization that ever existed – the proslavery Dem. Party. He dwelt at length on this question and then went back to the eulogy of the President that great, wonderful mysterious inexplicable man: who holds in his single hands the reins of the republic: who keep his own counsels: who does his own purpose in his own way no matter what temporizing minister in his cabinet sets himself up in opposition to the progress of the age.

Drunk or sober, Forney was a strong and vocal supporter of the President. Several weeks later on New Year’s Eve, 1863, Hay once again spent time with Forney, who was again leading a somewhat lubricated party. “Forney made several very ebrious [sic] little speeches. He talked a great deal about the President. . . . Forney added: “Lincoln is the most truly progressive man of the age because he always moves in conjunction with propitious circumstances, not waiting to be dragged by the force of events or wasting strength in premature struggles with them.”

Also, in this article, I learned of the unfortunate circumstances of Johnson’s drunken speech immediately prior to President Lincoln’s second inauguration ceremonies:

Forney’s social drinking led to a political scandal at Mr. Lincoln’s second inauguration. As Secretary of the Senate, Forney had a prominent role, but as host, he had spent the previous night drinking with new Vice President Andrew Johnson - [who]had taken a drink on the way to the Capitol to fortify himself against his flu. [Forney wrote:] “I can never forget President Lincoln’s face as he came into the Senate Chamber while Johnson was delivering his incoherent harangue. Lincoln had been detained signing the bills that had just passed the old Congress, and could not witness the regular opening of the new Senate till the ceremonies had fairly commenced. He took his seat facing the brilliant and surprised audience, and heard all that took place with unutterable sorrow.” (John W. Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, p. 177.)