sented the wealth of the city-"one hundred millions in their own right." Mr. Lincoln heard them attentively, evidently impressed with the "hundred millions," and replied as follows:

"Gentlemen, I am, by the Constitution, commanderin-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and, as a matter of law, I can order anything done that is practicable to be done; but, as a matter of fact, I am not in command of the gun-boats or ships of war as a matter of fact, I do not know exactly where they are, but presume they are actively engaged. It is impossible for me, in the condition of things, to furnish you a gun-boat. The credit of the Government is at a very low ebb. Greenbacks are not

worth more than 40 or 50 cents on the dollar, and in this condition of things, if I was worth half as much as you gentlemen are represented to be, and as badly frightened as you seem to be, I would build a gunboat and give it to the Government."

says

The gentleman who accompanied the delegation he never saw one hundred millions sink to such insignificant proportions as it did when that committee recrossed the threshold of the White House, sadder but wiser men. They had learned that money as well as muscle was a factor of war.

LAWRENCE WELDON.

002

XI.

BENJAMIN PERLEY POORE.

HE election of Abraham Lincoln as President

was very acceptable to the older Washington correspondents. They remembered him well in the XXXth Congress, when, as the Representative from the Sangamon district, he was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, then but seven in number. In the drawing for seats his name had been one of the last called, and he had been obliged to content himself with a desk in the very outer row, about midway on the Speaker's left hand, where he had on one side of him Harmon S. Conger, of New York, and on the other John Gayle, of Alabama. There he used to sit patiently listening to the eloquence of John Quincy Adams, Robert Toombs, David M. Barringer, Andrew Johnson, and others whose genius and learning adorned the old Hall, and to the verbose platitudes of those less gifted. His own voice was never heard unless when he voted "aye" or "nay."

During the Christmas holidays Mr. Lincoln found his way into the small room used as the post-office