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IT DEPENDED UPON HIS CONDITION.
The President had made arrangements to visit New York, and was told that
President Garrett, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, would be glad to
furnish a special train.
"I don't doubt it a bit," remarked the President, "for I know Mr.
Garrett, and like him very well, and if I believed--which I don't, by
any means--all the things some people say about his 'secesh' principles,
he might say to you as was said by the Superintendent of a certain
railroad to a son of one my predecessors in office. Some two years after
the death of President Harrison, the son of his successor in this office
wanted to take his father on an excursion somewhere or other, and went
to the Superintendent's office to order a special train.
"This Superintendent was a Whig of the most uncompromising sort, who
hated a Democrat more than all other things on the earth, and promptly
refused the young man's request, his language being to the effect
that this particular railroad was not running special trains for the
accommodation of Presidents of the United States just at that season.
"The son of the President was much surprised and exceedingly annoyed.
'Why,' he said, 'you have run special Presidential trains, and I know
it. Didn't you furnish a special train for the funeral of President
Harrison?'
"'Certainly we did,' calmly replied the Superintendent, with no
relaxation of his features, 'and if you will only bring your father here
in the same shape as General Harrison was, you shall have the best train
on the road."'
When the laughter had subsided, the President said: "I shall take
pleasure in accepting Mr. Garrett's offer, as I have no doubts whatever
as to his loyalty to the United States government or his respect for the
occupant of the Presidential office."
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Stories and Anecdotes About the Life of Abraham Lincoln
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