Note 7 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
Page 199, last line, after the word "quality."
While reading over some of the appealing telegrams sent to the War Department by General McClellan, Lincoln said, "It seems to me that McClellan has been wandering around and has got lost. He's been hollering for help ever since he went south—wants somebody to come to his deliverance and get him out of the place he's got into. He reminds me of the story of a man out in Illinois, who, in company with a number of friends, visited the state penitentiary. They wandered all through the institution and saw everything, but just about the time to depart, this man became separated from his friends and couldn't find his way out. At last he came across a convict who was looking out from between the bars of his cell door; he hastily asked: 'Say! How do you get out of this place?'"