announced that the Governor would hear the story
of every inmate of the institution, and was prepared to rectify, either
by commutation or pardon, any wrongs that had been done to any prisoner.

"One by one the convicts appeared before His Excellency, and each one
maintained that he was an innocent man, who had been sent to prison
because the police didn't like him, or his friends and relatives wanted
his property, or he was too popular, etc., etc. The last prisoner to
appear was an individual who was not all prepossessing. His face was
against him; his eyes were shifty; he didn't have the appearance of an
honest man, and he didn't act like one.

"'Well,' asked the Governor, impatiently, 'I suppose you're innocent
like the rest of these fellows?'

"'No, Governor,' was the unexpected answer; 'I was guilty of the crime
they charged against me, and I got just what I deserved.'

"When he had recovered from his astonishment, the Governor, looking
the fellow squarely in the face, remarked with emphasis: 'I'll have to
pardon you, because I don't want to leave so bad a man as you are in
the company of such innocent sufferers as I have discovered your
fellow-convicts to be. You might corrupt them and teach them wicked
tricks. As soon as I get back to the capital, I'll have the papers made
out.'

"You gentlemen," continued the President, "ought to be glad that so bad
a man, as you represent this officer to be, is to get his promotion,
for then you won't be forced to associate with him and suffer the
contamination of his presence and influence. I will do all I can to have
the Senate confirm him."

And he was confirmed.

IN A HOPELESS MINORITY.

The President was often in opposition to the general public sentiment of
the North upon certain questions of policy, but he bided his time, and
things usually came out as he wanted them. It was Lincoln's opinion,
from the first, that apology and reparation to England must be made
by the United States because of the arrest, upon the high seas, of the
Confederate Commissioners, Mason and Slidell. The country, however (the
Northern States), was wild for a conflict with England.

"One war at a time," quietly remarked the President at a Cabinet
meeting, where he found the majority of his advisers unfavorably
disposed to "backing down." But one member of the Cabinet was a really
strong supporter of the President in his attitude.

"I am reminded," the President said after the var