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CASAS
FERNANDO

1
 &PROXIMITIES
LIMITS
A survey of works spanning six decades

3
07. 1960’s

20. 1970’s

22. “Polar Perspective: A Graphical System for Creating Two-Dimsensional

Images Representing a World of Four Dimensions” by Fernando Casas

38. 1980’s

40. “Casas: Discovering the Edge of the World” by Bruce Leutwyler

63. “Flora” and Death” by Luis H. Antezana J.

82. “The Perpetual Duality of Fernando Casas” by Oscar E. Jordán Arandia

90. 1990’s

106. 2000’s

124. 2010’s

144. Limits and Proximities

148. “Flora and Time” by Eduardo Mitre

158. “Fernando Casas, Before Oneself” by Fernando Castro R.

172. “The Incompletness of the Visual World” by Fernando Casas

5
1960
0’s 7
The Universe Lights Up in the Hands of God

Graphite on Paper

19” x 12”, 1964

9
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Self Portrait

Oil on Board

25” x 18”, 1967

11
 Self Portrait

Oil on Canvas

40” x 27”, 1967

Fernando Rojas Silva Collection, Bolivia

13
Mother and Child Playing

India Ink on Paper

25” x 18”, 1967

15
Petrushka

India Ink on Paper

25” x 17”, 1967

17
Abstract Minimal

India Ink and Gouache on Paper

21.5” x 14”, 1969

Leslie Field Collection, Houston

19
1970
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0’s 21
POLAR PERSPECTIVE: A GRAPHICAL SYSTEM FOR CREATING TWO-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES
REPRESENTING A WORLD OF FOUR DIMENSIONS

Fernando R. Casas

Abstract - The author introduces a system of perspective called Polar Perspective. He explains in
nontechnical terms the structure of polar perspective images and how to construct them. Using
polar perspective, the artist can create perspective images that represent not only the three spa-
tial dimensions, but also the dimension of time. Moreover, the artist can apply polar perspective
to create perspective images that represent in a visually coherent and unambiguous fashion, a
world of four spatial dimensions.

INTRODUCTION
How do the three spatial dimensions of the visual world project (or map) on a surface (or pic-
ture)? Imagine a structure of three wooden poles that intersect each other perpendicularly. Each
pole represents one of the three spatial dimensions of the world. The person interested in per-
spective wants to find out what kind of image these three poles create on the visual field of a
human observer.

Classical perspective (also called central convergence perspective), which was developed mainly
during the Renaissance, gives one explanation. According to classical perspective, the visual
image that an observer has in his visual field at a given moment is identical to the image that
would be created on a flat window placed between the observer and the object observed. This
setup, illustrated in Fig. 1a, is classical perspective’s model of visual perception. This model
likens the visual field of the observer to a flat surface called the picture plane. For the last 400
years, classical perspective has allowed the artist to create remarkably ‘realistic’ images of the
world that, when placed in appropriate circumstances, were able to fool the eye. Examining Fig.
1a, we can see that the three spatial dimensions of the visual world (axes X, Y, Z) project onto the
picture plane a perspective grid with one and only one vanishing point. This is point V, where the
projected line of axes X, Y and Z intersect.

In Spite of its remarkable realism, classical perspective creates anomalous images. When we
strictly follow the rules of image construction according to classical perspective, we end up cre-
ating images that do not accord with the way we actually see the world. This disparity is more
evident in some images than others. The notorious column paradox is one example [1]. Such
anomalies can be avoided by altering the model of visual perception offered by classical per-
spective. This can be accomplished by conceiving of the human visual field not as a flat surface,
but as a concave surface [2].

We are completely surrounded by the visual world. We can turn our gaze in any direction and
see a different portion of the visual world. This is illustrated in Fig. 1b as a spherical surface with
an observer at its center. The spherical surface, which replaces the flat picture plane model of
the visual field, carries on its surface the image of the entire surrounding visual world. Regardless
how narrow our instantaneous visual field, our sphere of vision includes all the visual data of our
surroundings. This raises two questions. First, what kind of image do the three dimensions of
the visual world project onto this spherical visual field? Second, imagine that we could see all
around ourselves at once. How might we represent on a flat surface this visual experience? I
have answered the first question with spherical perspective, and the second with flat-sphere
perspective [3].

Figure 1b illustrates an observer surrounded by his spherical visual field. The three spatial di-
mensions are represented by axes X, Y, and Z. When these axes are mapped onto the spherical
visual field of the observer, they create a perspective grid, the group of lines that organize on
the spherical surface the appearance of the three spatial dimensions presented to the observer.
This grid has six fundamental points of convergence. Spherical perspective has two advantages
over classical perspective. First, spherical perspective dissolves the anomalies that classical per-
spective gives rise to. Second, spherical perspective organizes in a single continuous image the
whole surrounding visual world, rather than only a portion of it.

An artist interested in using spherical perspective might find one important shortcoming in the
system; spherical perspective images can be created only on spherical surfaces. Consequently,
just as we cannot see in one glance the entire visual space that surrounds us, we cannot see in a
glance the entire spherical perspective image, whether the image is on the outside surface of a
sphere or on the inside surface of a large spherical room. For instance, when faced with a spher-
ical mirror or with a spherical perspective image painted on the surface of a balloon, we can see
only one side of the balloon or the mirror at a time. We need to move around the balloon in
order to see the rest of the image and around the spherical mirror to see visual space reflected
on the other side of the mirror [5].
Figure 1.
Flattening the spherical image results in a perspective image of the entire visual world that can (a) Classical perspective’s model of visual
perception. The three axes of the visual world
be seen at one glance. This concept led to the flat-sphere perspective system of representing –X, Y, Z – Map on the picture plane in front of
the surrounding visual world on a flat surface. I conceived the sphere of vision to be elastic like observer O, creating a perspective grid with
only one vanishing point, V.
a balloon. I could pierce it at a point on its surface and then stretch it into a flat disk. The point (b) Spherical perspective’s model of visual
at which the sphere is pierced becomes the perimeter of the disk. The disk contains the whole perception. The observer O is at the center of
of the spherical image, and it can be seen at a glance. his spherical visual field. The three axes of the
visual world create a grid with six vanishing
points N, S, P, Q, R, T.
The spherical perspective image undergoes various transformations during flattening. For in-
stance, the straight lines of the spherical image become curved in the flattened image. Yet ‘dis-
tortions’ like this are actually the visual manifestation on a flat surface of the spherical nature of
the visual image. The perspective of the spherical image transferred into the flat-sphere image
the geometrical organization of its perspective grid-remains unaltered. There is, however, one
graphical point in the spherical image, and one point only, where its perspective organization is
altered by the flattening procedure. This is the point where this spherical image is pierced prior
to being flattened. Efforts to overcome this limitation of flat-sphere perspective (which will be
explained in more detail later) led me to polar perspective.

Polar perspective is a further development in the field of perspective representation. Polar per-
spective does not replace flat-sphere perspective. Rather, both flat-sphere perspective and

23
classical perspective are special cases within the more general system of polar perspective.
Using polar perspective, the artist can create images that represent not only the three spatial
dimensions but also the dimension of time. The system also allows the artist to construct images
that represent in a coherent and unambiguous manner four spatial dimensions.

Polar perspective is developed here as a purely graphical system, not as a mathematical system.
The concepts of point, line and surface are understood to stand for graphical elements that we
can see. A graphical point, far from being a zero-dimensional entity, is roughly a dot on a surface.
A line is the sort of elongated trace that an instrument such as a pencil leaves on a surface. In
accordance with the elastic surface mentioned above, the points and lines referred to here are
graphical entities that can stretch in any direction along the surface in which they appear.

The following sections explain in simple terms the perspective structure of polar images and
how to build them. Questions about how to translate this graphical system into a mathematical
system and its relationship to theories in physics regarding the fourth dimension are not consid-
ered here.

CONCENTRIC POLAR IMAGES

An image created with polar perspective is produced when two or more flat-sphere images are
connected to form a new, perfectly unified, coherent and continuous image. Figure 2 shows a
painting created with polar perspective. Notice that there is a full flat-sphere image in the central
portion of this image. This flat sphere is ‘surrounded’ by another flat-sphere image. (The outer
periphery of the surrounding, flat-sphere image has been left out for aesthetic reasons. In princi-
ple, it could have been represented). This section will describe how to create a polar image like
that of Fig. 2 and the logic behind it.

If a person’s visual field were such that he could see all around himself at once, his visual field
would exactly correspond to his sphere of vision. For this analysis, we will assume a hypotheti-
cal observer whose visual field exactly corresponds to his sphere of vision. Since objects in his
sphere of vision may be in motion, our hypothetical observer may have a different image in his
visual field at any given moment. Let us imagine this new spherical image placed next to the
first image. We can continue adding to our collection of spherical images by making each new
sphere represent an instantaneous image obtained on the sphere of vision of our hypothetical
observer. The images may be different, but all of them have the same perspective structure.

Figure 3 illustrates a sequence of four such spheres. On the surface of each sphere, we have
drawn their perspective structures, so that each sphere displays the same grid of spherical per-
spective structures, so that each sphere displays the same grid of spherical perspective. Notice
that each sphere has the same six vanishing points – N, S, T, P, Q and R. Now notice a most im-
portant feature of this image: the spheres are not simply one next to another; they are connect-
ed in such manner that two contiguous spheres share the same graphical point. For instance,
spheres 1 and 2 share point S; spheres 2 and 3 share point N; and spheres 3 and 4 share point
S again, etc.
Figure 2.
The Polar Eye, Four-color
lithograph, 36 × 24 inches,
1980. This is an example of
a simple polar image that
contains two flat spheres.
Only the enclosed flat sphere
appears in its entirety.

25
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slavery question till I get to it.”
General Garfield, of Ohio, received from the President an
account of the capture of Norfolk, similar to that recorded on a
previous page, with the following preface:—
“By the way, Garfield,” said Mr. Lincoln, “you never heard, did
you, that Chase, Stanton, and I, had a campaign of our own? We
went down to Fortress Monroe in Chase’s revenue cutter, and
consulted with Admiral Goldsborough as to the feasibility of taking
Norfolk by landing on the north shore and making a march of eight
miles. The Admiral said, very positively, there was no landing on that
shore, and we should have to double the cape and approach the
place from the south side, which would be a long and difficult
journey. I thereupon asked him if he had ever tried to find a landing,
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me of a chap out West who had studied law, but had never tried a
case. Being sued, and not having confidence in his ability to manage
his own case, he employed a fellow-lawyer to manage it for him. He
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anxious to make a display of learning, and on the trial constantly
made suggestions to his lawyer, who paid no attention to him. At
last, fearing that his lawyer was not handling the opposing counsel
very well, he lost all patience, and springing to his feet cried out,
“Why don’t you go at him with a capias, or a surre-butter, or
something, and not stand there like a confounded old nudum-
pactum?”’”
An officer of the Government called one day at the White House,
and introduced a clerical friend. “Mr. President,” said he, “allow me to
present to you my friend, the Rev. Mr. F., of ——. Mr. F. has
expressed a desire to see you and have some conversation with
you, and I am happy to be the means of introducing him.” The
President shook hands with Mr. F., and desiring him to be seated
took a seat himself. Then, his countenance having assumed an air of
patient waiting, he said: “I am now ready to hear what you have to
say.” “Oh, bless you, sir,” said Mr. F., “I have nothing special to say; I
merely called to pay my respects to you, and, as one of the million,
to assure you of my hearty sympathy and support.” “My dear sir,”
said the President, rising promptly, his face showing instant relief,
and with both hands grasping that of his visitor, “I am very glad to
see you, indeed. I thought you had come to preach to me!”
On the way to the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Mr. Lincoln
said to his friend, McVeagh, of Pennsylvania, speaking of Governor
Gamble and the administration troubles in Missouri:—“I do not
understand the spirit of those men who, in such a time as this,
because they cannot have a whole loaf will take no bread. For my
part, I am willing to receive any man, or class of men, who will help
us even a little.”
On the same occasion, when the Presidential party reached
Hanover Junction they found a large concourse of people assembled
to greet them. Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Seward, an hour previous,
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response to the clamor of the crowd, a friend intruded upon them,
saying to the President that he was “expected to make a speech.”
“No!” he rejoined, very emphatically; “I had enough of that sort of
thing all the way from Springfield to Washington. Seward,” said he,
turning over in his berth, “you go out and repeat some of your
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Upon the betrothal of the Prince of Wales to the Princess
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sovereigns, and also to President Lincoln, announcing the fact. Lord
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requested an audience of Mr. Lincoln, that he might present this
important document in person. At the time appointed he was
received at the White House, in company with Mr. Seward.
“May it please your Excellency,” said Lord Lyons, “I hold in my
hand an autograph letter from my royal mistress, Queen Victoria,
which I have been commanded to present to your Excellency. In it
she informs your Excellency that her son, his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, is about to contract a matrimonial alliance with her
Royal Highness the Princess Alexandra of Denmark.”
After continuing in this strain for a few minutes, Lord Lyons
tendered the letter to the President and awaited his reply. It was
short, simple, and expressive, and consisted simply of the words:—
“Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise.”
It is doubtful if an English ambassador was ever addressed in
this manner before, and it would be interesting to learn what success
he met with in putting the reply in diplomatic language when he
reported it to her Majesty.
The antagonism between the northern and southern sections of
the Democratic party, which culminated in the nomination of two
separate tickets in 1860, was a subject to draw out one of Mr.
Lincoln’s hardest hits.
“I once knew,” said he, “a sound churchman by the name of
Brown, who was a member of a very sober and pious committee
having in charge the erection of a bridge over a dangerous and rapid
river. Several architects failed, and at last Brown said he had a friend
named Jones, who had built several bridges and undoubtedly could
build that one. So Mr. Jones was called in. ‘Can you build this
bridge?’ inquired the committee. ‘Yes,’ replied Jones, ‘or any other. I
could build a bridge to the infernal regions, if necessary!’ The
committee were shocked, and Brown felt called upon to defend his
friend. ‘I know Jones so well,’ said he, ‘and he is so honest a man
and so good an architect, that if he states soberly and positively that
he can build a bridge to—to ——, why, I believe it; but I feel bound to
say that I have my doubts about the abutment on the infernal side.’
So,” said Mr. Lincoln, “when politicians told me that the northern and
southern wings of the Democracy could be harmonized, why, I
believed them, of course; but I always had my doubts about the
13
‘abutment’ on the other side.”
About the time Mr. Lincoln began to be known as a successful
lawyer, he was waited upon by a lady, who held a real-estate claim
which she desired to have him prosecute,—putting into his hands,
with the necessary papers, a check for two hundred and fifty dollars,
as a retaining fee. Mr. Lincoln said he would look the case over, and
asked her to call again the next day. Upon presenting herself, Mr.
Lincoln told her that he had gone through the papers very carefully,
and he must tell her frankly that there was not a “peg” to hang her
claim upon, and he could not conscientiously advise her to bring an
action. The lady was satisfied, and, thanking him, rose to go. “Wait,”
said Mr. Lincoln, fumbling in his vest pocket; “here is the check you
left with me.” “But, Mr. Lincoln,” returned the lady, “I think you have
earned that.” “No, no,” he responded, handing it back to her; “that
would not be right. I can’t take pay for doing my duty.”
Mr. Lincoln liked to feel himself the attorney of the people, not
their ruler. Speaking once of the probability of his renomination, he
said: “If the people think I have managed their ‘case’ for them well
enough to trust me to carry it up to the next term, I am sure I shall be
glad to take it.”
 “Judge Baldwin of California, being in Washington, called one
day on General Halleck, and, presuming upon a familiar
acquaintance in California a few years before, solicited a pass
outside of our lines to see a brother in Virginia, not thinking that he
would meet with a refusal, as both his brother and himself were good
Union men. “We have been deceived too often,” said General
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and was very briefly disposed of, with the same result. Finally, he
obtained an interview with Mr. Lincoln, and stated his case. “Have
you applied to General Halleck?” inquired the President. “Yes, and
met with a flat refusal,” said Judge B. “Then you must see Stanton,”
continued the President. “I have, and with the same result,” was the
reply. “Well, then,” said Mr. Lincoln, with a smile, “I can do nothing;
for you must know that I have very little influence with this
Administration.”
Mr. Colfax told me of a gentleman’s going to the President, one
day, with a bitter denunciation of Secretary Stanton and his
management of the War Department. “Go home, my friend,”
interrupted Mr. Lincoln, “and read attentively the tenth verse of the
14
thirtieth chapter of Proverbs!”
A lieutenant, whom debts compelled to leave his father-land and
service, succeeded in being admitted to President Lincoln, and, by
reason of his commendable and winning deportment and intelligent
appearance, was promised a lieutenant’s commission in a cavalry
regiment. He was so enraptured with his success, that he deemed it
a duty to inform the President that he belonged to one of the oldest
noble houses in Germany. “Oh, never mind that,” said Mr. Lincoln;
“you will not find that to be an obstacle to your advancement.”
Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg, a self-constituted
committee, solicitous for the morale of our armies, took it upon
themselves to visit the President and urge the removal of General
Grant. In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, “For what reason?”
“Why,” replied the spokesman, “he drinks too much whiskey.” “Ah!”
rejoined Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower lip. “By the way, gentlemen,
can either of you tell me where General Grant procures his whiskey?
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barrel of it!”
When the telegram from Cumberland Gap reached Mr. Lincoln
that “firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville,” he remarked that
he was “glad of it.” Some person present, who had the perils of
Burnside’s position uppermost in his mind, could not see why Mr.
Lincoln should be glad of it, and so expressed himself. “Why, you
see,” responded the President, “it reminds me of Mistress Sallie
Ward, a neighbor of mine, who had a very large family. Occasionally
one of her numerous progeny would be heard crying in some out-of-
the-way place, upon which Mrs. Ward would exclaim, ‘There’s one of
my children that isn’t dead yet.’”
A gentleman once complimented the President on having no
vices, neither drinking nor smoking. “That is a doubtful compliment,”
answered the President; “I recollect once being outside a stage-
coach, in Illinois, and a man sitting by me offered me a cigar. I told
him I had no vices. He said nothing, but smoked for some time, and
then growled out: ‘It’s my experience that folks who have no vices
have generally very few virtues.’”
Mr. Lincoln’s aversion to calls for a speech that must be merely
“off-hand,” was decided; yet, unwilling altogether to disappoint the
crowds, who perhaps too often made such demands of him, he
seldom excused himself altogether from speaking. One evening a
friend was conversing with him in his room, when his quick ear
caught the sound of approaching music, and his countenance
suddenly changed, as he inquired its meaning, though readily
divining it. A serenade was presently announced by an usher, and
Mr. Lincoln, as he arose to go forward to the front window, lingered a
moment, and said:—
“These ‘serenade’ speeches bother me a good deal, they are so
hard to make. I feel very much like the steam doctor, who said he
could get along very well in his practice with almost every case, but
he was always a little puzzled when it came to mending a broken
leg.”
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and poetic sensibility. Surely, the soul which could conceive the last
inaugural, or indite the closing sentence of the first, was not wanting
in these elements:—
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field
and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Neither was the mind deficient in enthusiasm, which could
prophesy:—
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preserved, will live to see it contain two hundred and fifty millions.
The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day; it is for a vast
future also.”
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occasion, “is his own War-Minister. He directs personally the
movements of the armies, and is fond of strategy; but pays much
less attention to official details than is generally supposed.”
Mr. Lincoln’s wit was never malicious nor rudely personal. Once
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impeaching the veracity of a senator whom Mr. Lincoln had quoted,
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the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Now, if you
undertake to disprove that proposition, would you prove it to be false
15
by calling Euclid a liar?”
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President one day to solicit a pardon for a man who, while acting as
mate of a sailing vessel, had struck one of his men a blow which
resulted in his death. Convicted and sentenced for manslaughter, a
powerful appeal was made in his behalf, as he had previously borne
an excellent character. Giving the facts a hearing, Mr. Lincoln
responded:—
 “Well, gentlemen, leave your papers, and I will have the
Attorney-General, Judge Bates, look them over, and we will see what
can be done. Being both of us ‘pigeon-hearted’ fellows, the chances
are that, if there is any ground whatever for interference, the
scoundrel will get off!”
Attorney-General Bates was once remonstrating with the
President against the appointment to a judicial position of
considerable importance of a western man, who, though once on the
“bench,” was of indifferent reputation as a lawyer.
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too hard on ——. Besides that, I must tell you, he did me a good turn
long ago. When I took to the law, I was going to court one morning,
with some ten or twelve miles of bad road before me, when ——
overtook me in his wagon. ‘Hallo, Lincoln!’ said he; ‘going to the
court-house? come in and I will give you a seat.’ Well, I got in, and
—— went on reading his papers. Presently the wagon struck a
stump on one side of the road; then it hopped off to the other. I
looked out and saw the driver was jerking from side to side in his
seat: so said I, ‘Judge, I think your coachman has been taking a drop
too much this morning.’ ‘Well, I declare, Lincoln,’ said he, ‘I should
not much wonder if you are right, for he has nearly upset me half-a-
dozen times since starting.’ So, putting his head out of the window,
he shouted, ‘Why, you infernal scoundrel, you are drunk!’ Upon
which, pulling up his horses and turning round with great gravity, the
coachman said: ‘Be-dad! but that’s the first rightful decision your
honor has given for the last twelve months.’”
Some gentlemen fresh from a western tour, during a call at the
White House, referred in the course of conversation to a body of
water in Nebraska which bore an Indian name signifying “weeping
water.” Mr. Lincoln instantly responded: “As ‘laughing water,’
according to Longfellow, is ‘Minnehaha,’ this evidently should be
‘Minneboohoo.’”
A farmer from one of the border counties went to the President
on a certain occasion with the complaint that the Union soldiers in
passing his farm had helped themselves not only to hay but to his
horse; and he hoped the proper officer would be required to consider
his claim immediately.
“Why, my good sir,” replied Mr. Lincoln, “If I should attempt to
consider every such individual case, I should find work enough for
twenty Presidents! In my early days, I knew one Jack Chase, who
was a lumberman on the Illinois, and, when steady and sober, the
best raftsman on the river. It was quite a trick twenty-five years ago
to take the logs over the rapids, but he was skilful with a raft, and
always kept her straight in the channel. Finally a steamer was put
on, and Jack—he’s dead now, poor fellow!—was made captain of
her. He always used to take the wheel going through the rapids. One
day, when the boat was plunging and wallowing along the boiling
current, and Jack’s utmost vigilance was being exercised to keep her
in the narrow channel, a boy pulled his coat-tail and hailed him with:
‘Say, Mister Captain! I wish you would just stop your boat a minute—
I’ve lost my apple overboard!’”
At a time of financial difficulty, a committee of New York bankers
waited upon the Secretary of the Treasury and volunteered a loan to
the government, which was gratefully accepted. Mr. Chase
subsequently accompanied the gentlemen to the White House and
introduced them to the President, saying they had called to have a
talk with him about money. “Money,” replied Mr. Lincoln; “I don’t know
anything about ‘money.’ I never had enough of my own to fret me,
and I have no opinion about it any way.”
“It is considered rather necessary to the carrying on of a war,
however,” returned the Secretary.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” rejoined Mr. Lincoln, turning
crosswise in his chair, swinging both legs backward and forward.
“We don’t read that ‘Hannibal’ had any ‘money’ to prosecute his wars
with.”
The President was one day speaking of a visit he had just
received from another delegation of bankers, from New York and
Boston, who had been urging the removal of General Cameron from
the Cabinet.
 “They talked very glibly,” said he, “especially a man named G
—— from Boston; and I finally told them as much—adding,
nevertheless, that I was not convinced. ‘Now,’ said I, ‘gentlemen, if
you want General Cameron removed, you have only to bring me one
proved case of dishonesty, and I promise you his “head”; but I
assure you I am not going to act on what seems to me the most
unfounded gossip.’”
The Hon. Mr. Hubbard of Connecticut once called upon the
President in reference to a newly invented gun, concerning which a
committee had been appointed to make a report.
The “report” was sent for, and when it came in was found to be
of the most voluminous description. Mr. Lincoln glanced at it, and
said: “I should want a new lease of life to read this through!”
Throwing it down upon the table, he added: “Why can’t a committee
of this kind occasionally exhibit a grain of common sense? If I send a
man to buy a horse for me, I expect him to tell me his ‘points’—not
how many hairs there are in his tail.”
Late one evening, the President brought in to see my picture his
friend and biographer, the Hon. J. H. Barrett, and a Mr. M——, of
Cincinnati. An allusion to a question of law in the course of
conversation suggesting the subject, Mr. Lincoln said: “The strongest
example of ‘rigid government’ and ‘close construction’ I ever knew,
was that of Judge ——. It was once said of him that he would hang a
man for blowing his nose in the street, but that he would quash the
indictment if it failed to specify which hand he blew it with!”
A new levy of troops required, on a certain occasion, the
appointment of a large additional number of brigadier and major-
generals. Among the immense number of applications, Mr. Lincoln
came upon one wherein the claims of a certain worthy (not in the
service at all) for a generalship were glowingly set forth. But the
applicant didn’t specify whether he wanted to be brigadier or major-
general. The President observed this difficulty, and solved it by a
lucid indorsement. The clerk, on receiving the paper again, found
written across its back: “Major-General, I reckon. A. Lincoln.”
 A juvenile “Brigadier” from New York, with a small detachment of
cavalry, having imprudently gone within the Rebel lines near Fairfax
Court House, was captured by “guerillas.” Upon the fact being
reported to Mr. Lincoln, he said that he was very sorry to lose the
horses!
“What do you mean?” inquired his informant.
“Why,” rejoined the President, “I can make a better ‘brigadier’
any day; but those horses cost the government a hundred and
twenty-five dollars a head!”
Mr. Lincoln sometimes had a very effective way of dealing with
men who troubled him with questions. A visitor once asked him how
many men the Rebels had in the field. The President replied, very
seriously, “Twelve hundred thousand, according to the best
authority.” The interrogator blanched in the face, and ejaculated,
“Good Heavens!” “Yes sir, twelve hundred thousand—no doubt of it.
You see, all of our generals, when they get whipped, say the enemy
outnumbers them from three or five to one, and I must believe them.
We have four hundred thousand men in the field, and three times
four make twelve. Don’t you see it?”
Some gentlemen were discussing in Mr. Lincoln’s presence on a
certain occasion General McClellan’s military capacity. “It is
doubtless true that he is a good ‘engineer,’” said the President; “but
he seems to have a special talent for developing a ‘stationary’
engine.”
When Mr. Lincoln handed to his friend Gilbert his appointment as
assessor in the Wall Street district, New York, he said: “Gilbert, from
what I can learn, I judge that you are going upon good ‘missionary’
ground. Preach God and Liberty to the ‘bulls’ and ‘bears,’ and get all
the money you can for the government!”
A gentleman calling at the White House one evening carried a
cane, which, in the course of conversation, attracted the President’s
attention. Taking it in his hand, he said: “I always used a cane when I
was a boy. It was a freak of mine. My favorite one was a knotted
beech stick, and I carved the head myself. There’s a mighty amount
of character in sticks. Don’t you think so? You have seen these
fishing-poles that fit into a cane? Well that was an old idea of mine.
Dogwood clubs were favorite ones with the boys. I suppose they use
them yet. Hickory is too heavy, unless you get it from a young
sapling. Have you ever noticed how a stick in one’s hand will change
his appearance? Old women and witches wouldn’t look so without
sticks. Meg Merrilies understands that.”
One of Mr. Lincoln’s “illustrations” in my hearing, on one
occasion, was of a man who, in driving the hoops of a hogshead to
“head” it up, was much annoyed by the constant falling in of the top.
At length the bright idea struck him of putting his little boy inside to
“hold it up.” This he did; it never occurring to him till the job was
done, how he was to get his child out. “This,” said he, “is a fair
sample of the way some people always do business.”
In a time of despondency, some visitors were telling the
President of the “breakers” so often seen ahead—“this time surely
coming.” “That,” said he, “suggests the story of the school-boy, who
never could pronounce the names ‘Shadrach,’ ‘Meshach,’ and
‘Abednego.’ He had been repeatedly whipped for it without effect.
Sometime afterwards he saw the names in the regular lesson for the
day. Putting his finger upon the place, he turned to his next neighbor,
an older boy, and whispered, ‘Here come those “tormented
Hebrews” again.’”
Referring to the divisions upon the Missouri Compromise, Mr.
Lincoln once said: “It used to amuse me to hear the slave-holders
talk about wanting more territory, because they had not room enough
for their slaves; and yet they complained of not having the slave-
trade, because they wanted more slaves for their room.”
Speaking on a certain occasion, of a prominent man who had
the year before been violent in his manifestations of hostility to the
Administration, but was then ostensibly favoring the same policy
previously denounced, Mr. Lincoln expressed his entire readiness to
treat the past as if it had not been, saying, “I choose always to make
my ‘statute of limitations’ a short one.”
 At the White House one day some gentlemen were present from
the West, excited and troubled about the commissions or omissions
of the Administration. The President heard them patiently, and then
replied: “Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in
gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the
Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep
shouting out to him, ‘Blondin, stand up a little straighter—Blondin,
stoop a little more—go a little faster—lean a little more to the north—
lean a little more to the south.’ No, you would hold your breath as
well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over.
The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures
are in their hands. They are doing the very best they can. Don’t
badger them. Keep silence, and we’ll get you safe across.”
The President was once speaking of an attack made on him by
the Committee on the Conduct of the War, for a certain alleged
blunder, or some thing worse, in the Southwest—the matter involved
being one which had fallen directly under the observation of the
officer to whom he was talking, who possessed official evidence
completely upsetting all the conclusions of the Committee.
“Might it not be well for me,” queried the officer, “to set this
matter right in a letter to some paper, stating the facts as they
actually transpired?”
“Oh, no,” replied the President, “at least, not now. If I were to try
to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop
might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I
know how—the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until
the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me
won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels
swearing I was right would make no difference.”
“I shall ever cherish among the brightest memories of my life,”
says the Rev. J. P. Thompson, of New York, “the recollection of an
hour in Mr. Lincoln’s working-room in September, ’64, which was one
broad sheet of sunshine.... I spoke of the rapid rise of Union feeling
since the promulgation of the Chicago Platform, and the victory at
Atlanta; and the question was started, which had contributed the
most to the reviving of Union sentiment—the victory or the platform.
‘I guess,’ said the President, ‘it was the victory; at any rate, I’d rather
have that repeated.’”
Being informed of the death of John Morgan, he said: “Well, I
wouldn’t crow over anybody’s death; but I can take this as resignedly
as any dispensation of Providence.”
The celebrated case of Franklin W. Smith and brother, was one
of those which most largely helped to bring military tribunals into
public contempt. Those two gentlemen were arrested and kept in
confinement, their papers seized, their business destroyed, their
reputation damaged, and a naval court-martial, “organized to
convict,” pursued them unrelentingly till a wiser and juster hand
arrested the malice of their persecutors. It is known that President
Lincoln, after full investigation of the case, annulled the whole
proceedings, but it is remarkable that the actual record of his
decision could never be obtained from the Navy Department. An
exact copy being withheld, the following was presented to the Boston
Board of Trade as being very nearly the words of the late
President:—

“Whereas, Franklin W. Smith had transactions with the Navy

Department to the amount of one million and a quarter of a
million of dollars; and whereas, he had the chance to steal a
quarter of a million, and was only charged with stealing twenty-
two hundred dollars—and the question now is about his stealing
a hundred—I don’t believe he stole anything at all. Therefore,
the record and findings are disapproved—declared null and void,
and the defendants are fully discharged.”

“It would be difficult,” says the New York “Tribune,” “to sum up
the rights and wrongs of the business more briefly than that, or to
find a paragraph more characteristically and unmistakably Mr.
Lincoln’s.”
A gentleman was pressing very strenuously the promotion of an
officer to a “Brigadiership.” “But we have already more generals than
we know what to do with,” replied the President. “But,” persisted the
visitor, “my friend is very strongly recommended.” “Now, look here,”
said Mr. Lincoln, throwing one leg over the arm of his chair, “you are
a farmer, I believe; if not, you will understand me. Suppose you had
a large cattle-yard full of all sorts of cattle,—cows, oxen, bulls,—and
you kept killing and selling and disposing of your cows and oxen, in
one way and another,—taking good care of your bulls. By-and-by
you would find that you had nothing but a yard full of old bulls, good
for nothing under heaven. Now, it will be just so with the army, if I
don’t stop making brigadier-generals.”
Captain Mix, the commander, at one period, of the President’s
body-guard, told me that on their way to town one sultry morning,
from the “Soldiers’ Home,” they came upon a regiment marching into
the city. A “straggler,” very heavily loaded with camp equipage, was
accosted by the President with the question: “My lad, what is that?”
referring to the designation of his regiment. “It’s a regiment,” said the
soldier, curtly, plodding on, his gaze bent steadily upon the ground.
“Yes, I see that,” rejoined the President, “but I want to know what
regiment.” “—— Pennsylvania,” replied the man in the same tone,
looking neither to the right nor the left. As the carriage passed on,
Mr. Lincoln turned to Captain Mix and said, with a merry laugh, “It is
very evident that chap smells no blood of ‘royalty’ in this
establishment.”
Captain Mix was frequently invited to breakfast with the family at
the “Home” residence. “Many times,” said he, “have I listened to our
most eloquent preachers, but never with the same feeling of awe
and reverence, as when our Christian President, his arm around his
son, with his deep, earnest tone, each morning read a chapter from
the Bible.”
Some one was discussing, in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, the
character of a time-serving Washington clergyman. Said Mr. Lincoln
to his visitor:—
“I think you are rather hard upon Mr. ——. He reminds me of a
man in Illinois, who was tried for passing a counterfeit bill. It was in
evidence that before passing it he had taken it to the cashier of a
bank and asked his opinion of the bill, and he received a very prompt
reply that it was a counterfeit. His lawyer, who had heard of the
evidence to be brought against his client, asked him, just before
going into court, ‘Did you take the bill to the cashier of the bank and
ask him if it was good?’ ‘I did,’ was the reply. ‘Well, what was the
reply of the cashier?’ The rascal was in a corner, but he got out of it
in this fashion: ‘He said it was a pretty tolerable, respectable sort of a
bill.’”
Mr. Lincoln thought the clergyman was “a pretty tolerable,
respectable sort of a clergyman.”
A visitor, congratulating Mr. Lincoln on the prospects of his
reëlection, was answered with an anecdote of an Illinois farmer who
undertook to blast his own rocks. His first effort at producing an
explosion proved a failure. He explained the cause by exclaiming,
“Pshaw, this powder has been shot before!”
An amusing, yet touching instance of the President’s
preoccupation of mind, occurred at one of his levees, when he was
shaking hands with a host of visitors passing him in a continuous
stream. An intimate acquaintance received the usual conventional
hand-shake and salutation, but perceiving that he was not
recognized, kept his ground instead of moving on, and spoke again;
when the President, roused to a dim consciousness that something
unusual had happened, perceived who stood before him, and seizing
his friend’s hand, shook it again heartily, saying, “How do you do?
How do you do? Excuse me for not noticing you. I was thinking of a
man down South.” He afterward privately acknowledged that the
“man down South” was Sherman, then on his march to the sea.
Mr. Lincoln may not have expected death from the hand of an
assassin, but he had an impression, amounting to a “presentiment,”
that his life would end with the war. This was expressed not only to
Mr. Lovejoy, as stated on a previous page, but to Mrs. Stowe and
others.
“He told me, in July, 1864,” says a correspondent of the Boston
“Journal,” “that he was certain he should not outlast the rebellion.
 “It was a time of dissension among the Republican leaders.
Many of his best friends had deserted him, and were talking of an
opposition convention to nominate another candidate; and universal
gloom was among the people.
“The North was tired of the war, and supposed an honorable
peace attainable. Mr. Lincoln knew it was not,—that any peace at
that time would be only disunion. Speaking of it, he said: ‘I have faith
in the people. They will not consent to disunion. The danger is, in
their being misled. Let them know the truth, and the country is safe.’
He looked haggard and careworn; and further on in the interview I
remarked on his appearance, ‘You are wearing yourself out with
work.’ ‘I can’t work less,’ he answered; ‘but it isn’t that,—work never
troubled me. Things look badly, and I can’t avoid anxiety. Personally,
I care nothing about a reëlection; but if our divisions defeat us, I fear
for the country.’ When I suggested that right must eventually triumph,
that I had never despaired of the result, he said:—
“‘Neither have I, but I may never live to see it. I feel a
presentiment that I shall not outlast the Rebellion. When it is over,
my work will be done.’”
“The Freedmen,” once said the President to the Secretary of
War, “are the ‘wards’ of the nation.”
“Yes,” replied Stanton, “wards in chancery.”
A few days before the President’s death, Secretary Stanton
tendered his resignation of the War Department. He accompanied
the act with a heart-felt tribute to Mr. Lincoln’s constant friendship
and faithful devotion to the country; saying, also, that he as
Secretary had accepted the position to hold it only until the war
should end, and that now he felt his work was done, and his duty
was to resign.
Mr. Lincoln was greatly moved by the Secretary’s words, and
tearing in pieces the paper containing the resignation, and throwing
his arms about the Secretary, he said: “Stanton, you have been a
good friend and a faithful public servant, and it is not for you to say
when you will no longer be needed here.” Several friends of both
parties were present on the occasion, and there was not a dry eye
that witnessed the scene.
“On the night of the 3rd of March, the Secretary of War, with
others of the Cabinet, were in the company of the President, at the
Capitol, awaiting the passage of the final bills of Congress. In the
intervals of reading and signing these documents, the military
situation was considered,—the lively conversation tinged by the
confident and glowing account of General Grant, of his mastery of
the position, and of his belief that a few days more would see
Richmond in our possession, and the army of Lee either dispersed
utterly or captured bodily,—when the telegram from Grant was
received, saying that Lee had asked an interview with reference to
peace. Mr. Lincoln was elated, and the kindness of his heart was
manifest in intimations of favorable terms to be granted to the
conquered Rebels.
“Stanton listened in silence, restraining his emotion, but at length
the tide burst forth. ‘Mr. President,’ said he, ‘to-morrow is
inauguration day. If you are not to be the President of an obedient
and united people, you had better not be inaugurated. Your work is
already done, if any other authority than yours is for one moment to
be recognized, or any terms made that do not signify you are the
supreme head of the nation. If generals in the field are to negotiate
peace, or any other chief magistrate is to be acknowledged on this
continent, then you are not needed, and you had better not take the
oath of office.’
“‘Stanton, you are right!’ said the President, his whole tone
changing. ‘Let me have a pen.’
“Mr. Lincoln sat down at the table, and wrote as follows:—
“The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to
have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the
capitulation of Lee’s army, or on some minor or purely military matter.
He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer
upon any political question. Such questions the President holds in
his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or
conventions. In the mean time you are to press to the utmost your
military advantages.’
“The President read over what he had written, and then said:—
“‘Now Stanton, date and sign this paper, and send it to Grant.
We’ll see about this peace business.’
“The duty was discharged only too gladly by the energetic and
far-sighted Secretary; with what effect and renown the country
16
knows full well.”
Governor Yates, of Illinois, in a speech at Springfield, quoted one
of Mr. Lincoln’s early friends—W. T. Greene—as having said that the
first time he ever saw Mr. Lincoln, he was in the Sangamon River
with his trousers rolled up five feet, more or less, trying to pilot a
flatboat over a mill-dam. The boat was so full of water that it was
hard to manage. Lincoln got the prow over, and then, instead of
waiting to bail the water out, bored a hole through the projecting part
and let it run out; affording a forcible illustration of the ready
ingenuity of the future President in the quick invention of moral
expedients.
“Some two years ago,” said Colonel Forney, in a speech at
Weldon, Pennsylvania, before the “Soldiers’ Aid Society,” in 1865, “a
deputation of colored people came from Louisiana, for the purpose
of laying before the President a petition asking certain rights, not
including the right of universal suffrage. The interview took place in
the presence of a number of distinguished gentlemen. After reading
their memorial, he turned to them and said: ‘I regret, gentlemen, that
you are not able to secure all your rights, and that circumstances will
not permit the government to confer them upon you. I wish you
would amend your petition, so as to include several suggestions
which I think will give more effect to your prayer, and after having
done so please hand it to me.’ The leading colored man said: ‘If you
will permit me, I will do so here.’ ‘Are you, then, the author of this
eloquent production?’ asked Mr. Lincoln. ‘Whether eloquent or not,’
was the reply, ‘it is my work;’ and the Louisiana negro sat down at
the President’s side and rapidly and intelligently carried out the
suggestions that had been made to him. The Southern gentlemen
who were present at this scene did not hesitate to admit that their
prejudices had just received another shock.
“To show the magnanimity of Mr. Lincoln, I may mention that on
one occasion, when an editorial article appeared in my newspaper,
the Washington ‘Chronicle,’ speaking well of the bravery and the
mistaken sincerity of Stonewall Jackson, the news of whose death
had been just received, the President wrote me a letter thanking me
warmly for speaking kindly of a fallen foe. These were his words:—
“‘I honor you for your generosity to one who, though contending
against us in a guilty cause, was nevertheless a gallant man. Let us
forget his sins over his fresh-made grave.’
“Again, I happened to be in the Executive Chamber when a
number of Kentuckians insisted that troops should not be sent
through that State for the purpose of putting down the rebel spirit in
Tennessee. The President was hesitating what to do, and they were
pressing immediate action.
“‘I am,’ he said, ‘a good deal like the farmer who, returning to his
home one winter night, found his two sweet little boys asleep with a
hideous serpent crawling over their bodies. He could not strike the
serpent without wounding or killing the children, so he calmly waited
until it had moved away. Now I do not want to act in a hurry about
this matter; I don’t want to hurt anybody in Kentucky; but I will get the
serpent out of Tennessee.’
“And he did march through Kentucky, to the aid of Andrew
Johnson’s mountaineers.”
“The roll containing the Emancipation Proclamation was taken to
Mr. Lincoln at noon on the first day of January, 1863, by Secretary
Seward and his son Frederick. As it lay unrolled before him, Mr.
Lincoln took a pen, dipped it in ink, moved his hand to the place for
the signature, held it a moment, and then removed his hand and
dropped the pen. After a little hesitation he again took up the pen
and went through the same movement as before. Mr. Lincoln then
turned to Mr. Seward, and said:—