Apropos of his impatience on this subject the following incident related
by one of the Governor's friends is worth recalling:--
"It was the summer of 1862, when emancipation was being talked a great
deal. We had not had any great successes, and everybody had a notion
that emancipation ought to come. One day the Governor sent for me to
come up to the State-House. I went up to his room, and I never shall
forget how I met him. He was signing some kind of bonds, standing at
a tall desk in the Council Chamber, in his shirt-sleeves, his fingers
all covered with ink. He said, 'How do you do? I want you to go to
Washington.'--'Why, Governor,' said I, 'I can't go to Washington
on any such notice as this; I am busy, and it is impossible for me
to go.'--'All my folks are serving their country,' said he; and he
mentioned the various services the members of his staff were engaged
in, and said with emphasis, 'Somebody must go to Washington.'--'Well,
Governor, I don't see how I can.' Said he, 'I command you to
go!'--'Well,' said I, 'Governor, put it in that way and I shall go,
of course.'--'There is something going on,' he remarked. 'This is a
momentous time.' He turned suddenly towards me and said, 'You believe in
prayer, don't you?' I said, 'Why, of course.'--'Then let us pray;' and
he knelt right down at the chair that was placed there; we both kneeled
down, and I never heard such a prayer in all my life.
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