ight, without Seeing, or being challenged by a single soul." But the
officer pleaded in vain. Lincoln laughingly paraphrased Charles II, "Now
as to political assassination, do you think the Richmond people would
like to have Hannibal Hamlin here any more than myself? . . . As to
the crazy folks, Major, why I must only take my chances-the most
crazy people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous
adherents."(11) With Carpenter, to whom he seems to have taken a liking,
he would ramble the streets of Washington, late at night, "without
escort or even the company of a servant."(12) Though Halleck talked him
into accepting an escort when driving to and fro between Washington and
his summer residence at the Soldiers' Home, he would frequently give it
the slip and make the journey on horseback alone. In August of 1862 on
one of these solitary rides, his life was attempted. It was about eleven
at night; he was "jogging along at a slow gait immersed in deep thought"
when some one fired at him with a rifle from near at hand. The ball
missed its aim and the President's horse, as Lincoln confided to his
familiars, "gave proof of decided dissatisfaction at the racket,
and with one reckless bound, he unceremoniously separated me from my
eight-dollar plug hat . . . At break-neck speed we reached a haven of
safety. Meanwhile, I was left in doubt whether death was more desirable
from being thrown from a runaway Federal horse, or as the tragic result
of a rifle ball fired by a disloyal bushwhacker in the middle of the
night"(13)

While carrying his life in his hands in this oddly reckless way, he
belied himself, as events were to show, by telling his friends that he
fancied himself "a great coward physically," that he felt sure he would
make a poor soldier. But he was sufficiently just to himself to add,
"Moral cowardice is something which I think I never had."(14)

Lincoln's humor found expression in other ways besides telling stories
and laughing at himself. He seized every opportunity to convert a
petition into a joke, when this could be done without causing pain. One
day, there entered a great man with a long list of favors which he hoped
to have granted. Among these was "the case of Betsy Ann Dougherty, a
good woman," said the great man. "She lived in my county and did my
washing for a long time. Her husband went off and joined the Rebel army
and I wish you would give her a protection paper." The pompous gravity
of the