An American Marriage

[David Lockmiller]

(06-08-2021 03:49 PM)Steve Wrote:  Here's the relevant part:

I was in Washington once more in 1864, when the great struggle was nearer its close. My business was to secure a pardon for a young man from Ohio, who had deserted under rather peculiar circumstances. When he enlisted he was under engagement to a young girl, and went to the front very certain of her faithfulness, as a young man should be, and he made a most excellent soldier, feeling that the inevitable “she” at home would be proud of him. It is needless to say that the young girl, being exceptionally pretty, had another lover, whom she had rejected for the young volunteer, and also, it is needless to add, that the stay-at-home rejected hated the accepted soldier with the utmost cordiality. Taking advantage of the absence of the favored lover, the discarded one renewed his suit with great vehemence, and rumors reached the young man at the front that his love had gone over to his enemy, and that he was in danger of losing her entirely. He immediately applied for a furlough, which was refused him, and half mad and reckless of consequences, deserted. He found the information he had received to be partially true, but he came in time. He married the girl, but was immediately arrested as a deserter, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. I stated the circumstances, giving the young fellow a good character, and the President at once signed a pardon.

“I want to punish the young man—probably in less than a year he will wish I had withheld the pardon. We can’t tell, though. I suppose when I was a young man I should have done the same fool thing.”

No man on earth hated blood as Lincoln did, and he seized eagerly upon any excuse to pardon a man when the charge could possibly justify it. The generals always wanted an execution carried out before it could possibly be brought before the President.

I like this story, especially the part where President Lincoln admittedly states: "I suppose when I was a young man I should have done the same fool thing.”

And, I think that President Lincoln may have been correct about his perception regarding the young woman he married: "probably in less than a year he will wish I had withheld the pardon. We can’t tell, though." The young man was risking his life in battle. ("When he enlisted he was under engagement to a young girl . . .")