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TOM CORWINS'S LATEST STORY.
One of Mr. Lincoln's warm friends was Dr. Robert Boal, of Lacon,
Illinois. Telling of a visit he paid to the White House soon after Mr.
Lincoln's inauguration, he said: "I found him the same Lincoln as a
struggling lawyer and politician that I did in Washington as President
of the United States, yet there was a dignity and self-possession about
him in his high official authority. I paid him a second call in the
evening. He had thrown off his reserve somewhat, and would walk up and
down the room with his hands to his sides and laugh at the joke he was
telling, or at one that was told to him. I remember one story he told to
me on this occasion.
"Tom Corwin, of Ohio, had been down to Alexandria, Va., that day and
had come back and told Lincoln a story which pleased him so much that
he broke out in a hearty laugh and said: 'I must tell you Tom Corwin's
latest. Tom met an old man at Alexandria who knew George Washington, and
he told Tom that George Washington often swore. Now, Corwin's father had
always held the father of our country up as a faultless person and told
his son to follow in his footsteps.
"'"Well," said Corwin, "when I heard that George Washington was addicted
to the vices and infirmities of man, I felt so relieved that I just
shouted for joy."'"
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Stories and Anecdotes About the Life of Abraham Lincoln
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