A Mile From H-e-l-l asks Lincoln?

[NH Civil War Gal]

From the book "Unforgettables" by John Waugh recently released by Savas Beattie

Nobody burned hotter to destroy slavery and remake the South than Ben Wade. No Radical was more put out with Abraham Lincoln than Wade, impatient that the president would not move faster. He hated Lincoln's apparently merciful approach to Southern reconstruction at war's end. Wade insisted that was Congress's job, not the kindly president's.

One day, on one of his pilgrimages to the White House, Wade shouted at Lincoln, "You are on the road to Hell with this government, and you are not a mile off this minute." This rather struck Lincoln as amusing. "A mile from Hell, Senator?" he asked. "That is just about the distance from here to the Capitol, is it not?"

 

[Drew]

"A mile from Hell, Senator?" he asked. "That is just about the distance from here to the Capitol, is it not?"

Ha ha. Classic line. And so true.

 

[JackADriscoll]

I can only imagine a dinner with Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, and Muhammad Ali

 

[Militarybooks]

It's a wonderful book. Thanks for posting this.

Unforgettables: Winners, Losers, Strong Women, and Eccentric Men of the Civil War Era

A leader in military and general history book publishing.

www.savasbeatie.com