The officer on duty wrote the order, and the couple were soon together.
Another story goes as follows:
Creditors treated the struggling Lincoln with the utmost patience. They often quoted the moral that patience is not pardon. Lincoln was given the chance to show his own patience when his turn came. Before he became president, Lincoln was a lawyer. One of his clients was long overdue in paying his bill. He ran into the man by chance on the steps of the @Springfield court house.
He greeted him politely and commented about the man's accident. @Cogdale had lost a hand in a gunpowder accident. He began to apologize for his overdue bill, showing that he was crippled. Lincoln plainly expressed his sympathy and sorrow.
"I have been thinking about that bill of yours," he said. He took the paper out of his wallet and forced it upon him. "I won't think of it any more."
Cogdale took the bill. He told Lincoln that he did not know when he could pay it.
But Lincoln hurried away, saying, "If you had the money, I would not take it out of your only hand!"
A third story is told that:
On September 17, 1862, the Confederate march into @Maryland ended with the decisive defeat at @Antietam. When the South pulled back, Lincoln called the Cabinet to a special meeting. He told the men that the time had come at last for his announcement of freedom to the slaves everywhere in the United States. After much doubt, he believed public opinion would now support this action.
"Besides, I promised my God I would do it. I made a solemn vow before God that, if General @Lee was driven back from @Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slave!
