Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/77

 public service, and confused governmental procedure.

Abraham Lincoln, to whom we owe more than to any other single individual for the preservation of the republic, expressed in no uncertain terms his opinion of boards and commissions. Just before Lincoln started for the Ford Theater, on the night of his assassination, Mr. Ashmun, who had presided over the convention of 1860, in which Lincoln was nominated for President, called at the White House. He told Mr. Lincoln that he still had the gavel which he had wielded in that convention, and after a few moments' conversation, he said: "Mr. Lincoln, I am interested in a cotton claim, and I want you to appoint a commission to investigate the matter and report." Lincoln replied, with so much earnestness and warmth that he afterwards apologized to Mr. Ashmun for his abrupt manner:

"Ashmun, I have done with commissions. I think they are contrivances to cheat the government."

I am glad that Lincoln uttered those words in the very ripeness of his experience, the maturity of his judgment and the fullness of his wisdom. It was Lincoln's last expression concerning government, and I think by far the most important of all his great utterances. Would that these