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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: "Let him fight, instead of shooting him."
He used to call these cases of desertion his "leg cases," and
sometimes when considering them, would tell the story of the
Irish soldier, upbraided by his captain, who replied: "Captain, I
have a heart in me breast as brave as Julius Caesar, but when I
go into battle, Sor, these cowardly legs of mine will run away
with me."
As the war went on, Mr. Lincoln objected more and more to
approving sentences of death by court-martial, and either
pardoned them outright, or delayed the execution "until further
orders," which orders were never given by the great-hearted,
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