Excerpt from Two War-Time Conventions

The next evening, when I called on the President at home, I was astonished by his jokingly rallying me on my failure to send him word of his nomination. It appeared that no body had apparently thought it worth while to telegraph him the result of the balloting for the presidential nominee of the convention. Prob ably each one of the many men who would have been glad to be the sender of pleasant tidings to the President had thought that some other man would surely anticipate him by a telegram of congratulation. In the confusion that reigned in the convention nobody went to the wires that were led into the building but the alert newspaper men, who thought only of their own business.

It turned out that the President, having business at the War Department, met Major Eckert, superintendent of the military bureau of telegraphs, who congratulated him on his nomination. What! Am I renominated? Asked the surprised chief. When assured that this had been done, Mr. Lincoln expressed his gratification, and asked Major Eckert if he would kindly send word over to the White House when -the name of the candidate for vice-president should have been agreed upon. Lincoln, later on, was informed by Major Eckert that Johnson had been nominated, and (as the President himself subsequently told me) made an exclamation that emphatically indicated his disappointment thereat. Major Eckert after ward confirmed this statement with a hearty laugh.

While we were talking over some of the curious details of the convention (lincoln being especially sorry for his friend Thompson Campbell's disappointment), a band came to the White House, and a messenger brought up the information that the members of the Ohio delegation to the Baltimore convention desired to pay their respects to the President, whereupon he went down to the door, hat in hand, and when the cheering and music had subsided, spoke as follows.

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