Daily Story
Escape of Confederate Leaders
General Grant asked for special instructions of Mr. Lincoln,–whether he should try to capture Jefferson Davis, or let him escape from the country if he wanted to so. Mr. Lincoln replied by relating the story of an Irishman who had taken the pledge of Father Matthew, and having become terribly thirsty applied to a bar-tender for a lemonade; and while it was being prepared he whispered to the bar-tender, ‘And couldn’t you put a little brandy in it all unbeknownst to myself?’ Mr. Lincoln told the general he would like to let Jeff Davis escape all unbeknown to himself: he had no use for him.
Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, p. 246.