Yet Mr. Lincoln could be sternly just when necessary. A law
declaring the slave trade to be piracy had stood on the statute
books of the United States for half a century. Lincoln's
administration was the first to convict a man under it, and
Lincoln himself decreed that the well-deserved sentence be
carried out.
Mr. Lincoln sympathized keenly with the hardships and trials of
the soldier boys, and found time, amid all his labors and cares,
to visit the hospitals in and around Washington where they lay
ill. His afternoon drive was usually to some camp in the
neighborhood of the city; and when he visited one at a greater
distance, the cheers that greeted him as he rode along the line
with the commanding general showed what a warm place he held in
their hearts.
He did not forget the unfortunate on these visits. A story is
told of his interview with William Scott, a boy from a Vermont
farm, who, after marching forty-eight hours without sleep,
volunteered to stand guard for a sick comrade. Weariness overcame
him, and he was found asleep at his post, within gunshot of the
enemy. He was tried, and sentenced to be shot. Mr. Lincoln heard
of the case, and went himself to the tent where young Scott was
kept under guard. He talked to him kindly, asking about his home,
his schoolmates, and particularly about his mother. The lad took
her picture from his pocket, and showed it to him without
speaking.
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