Representative Train presnts whip to president
From The New-York Times March 22, 1862:
A SHORT SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT.
A party of Massachusetts gentlemen met in Washington, at the rooms of Hon. Mr. TRAIN, on the 13th inst., to accompany him to the White House, and there witness the presentation of an elegant whip, made by a Massachusetts whip company. Mr. LINCOLN received the party in his council chamber, where Secretaries CHASE and STANTON were with him, and cordially greeted each one. Mr. TRAIN, holding the whip, made a few remarks and presented it to the President. Receiving the gift, Mr. LINCOLN examined it and then remarked:
“I thank you, Mr. TRAIN, for your kindness in presenting me with this truly elegant and highly creditable specimen of the handiwork of the mechanics of your State of Massachusetts, and I beg of you to express my hearty thanks to the donors. It displays a perfection of workmanship which I really wish I had time to acknowledge in more fitting words, and I might then follow your idea that it is suggestive, for it is evidently expected that a good deal of whipping is to be done. But, as we meet here specially, let us not think only of whipping rebels, or of those who seem to think only of whipping negroes, but of those pleasant days which it is to be hoped are in store for us, when, seated behind a good pair of horses, we can crack our whips and d[r]ive through a peaceful, happy and prosperous land. With this idea, gentlemen, I must leave you for my business duties.”
A glimpse of President Lincoln looking beyond the war – with no malice
Charles Russell Train represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House long enough to help manage the impeachment of West Humphries. He also served as “volunteer aide-de-camp to General George B. McClellan.”
Longing for a peaceful buggy ride
