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The President’s old fried Joshua Speed was at the White ‘louse for a visit, and the next morning watched while the President granted a request for the release of several draft registers whose case was presented by two ladies.  When Speed and Lincoln were alone, the President said, “That old lady was no counterfeit.  The mother spoke out in all features of her face.  It is more than one can often say that in doing right he has made two people happy in one day.  Speed, die when. I may, I want it said of me by those who ‘now me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower here I thought a flower would grow.”

The Humorous Mr. Lincoln, page 139