Lincoln and flowers

[David Lockmiller]

(07-17-2020 04:19 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Joshua Speed is the source of this quote. Speed wrote to William Herndon on January 12, 1866, and reported that Lincoln had said this to him.

Speed reported Lincoln said, “Speed die when I may I want it said of me by those who know me best to say that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

SOURCE: pp. 157-158 of Herndon's Informants.

In February 1865, Joshua Speed witnessed a touching scene in which the president granted the requests of not only two Pennsylvania women for the release of their kinsmen imprisoned for draft dodging but also ordered the release of all conscription evaders in western Pennsylvania. Lincoln explained his decision to Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana, whom he called into the room to draw up the order. “These fellows,” he declared, “[have] suffered long enough and I have thought so for some time, and now that my mind is on it, I will turn out the whole flock.” The women, according to Speed, rushed forward in tears and knelt before the president in thanks. Lincoln directed them to “get up, thank God & go.” The older woman grabbed his hand and said good-bye, sobbing, “I shall never see you again till we meet in Heaven.” Leading her to the door, Lincoln replied, “I am afraid with all my troubles, I shall never get there – But if I do I will find you – That you wish me to get there is the best wish that you could make for me.”

After the women had gone, Lincoln told Speed: “That scene which you witnessed is the only thing that I have done today which has given me any pleasure. I have in that made two people happy. . . . Speed, die when I may I want it said of me by those who knew me best to say that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”

(Source: Lincoln’s Last Months, William C. Harris, (2009), page 65.)