I came across the phrase, “Let’em up easy,” in the following sentence in the section of “1864 Reelection” of “Abraham Lincoln” in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Reconstruction began during the war, as Lincoln and his associates
anticipated questions of how to reintegrate the conquered southern
states, and how to determine the fates of Confederate leaders and
freed slaves. Shortly after Lee's surrender, a general had asked
Lincoln how the defeated Confederates should be treated, and Lincoln
replied, "Let 'em up easy, General.”—Determined to find a course that
would reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged
that speedy elections under generous terms be held throughout the
war."
As I was unable to get an idea of "Let 'em up easy,” I consulted English dictionaries at hand. None of them registers “let sb / stg up easy,” nor did Google Ngram show the incidence of the phrase since 1840, more than a quarter century earlier than the President used it.
Is this famous line, “Let’em up easy,” inscribed in the history, a just one-off phrase used by President Lincoln, or then-current-but-now-an-obsolete phrase?
Best Answer
It's a bit of a pun. While the phrase let them up easy may be rare, the phrase let him down easy is not.
Let him down easy could refer to a man who is fainting – catch him, and lay him gently on the ground – but it could also refer to an emotional blow. For example, one might advise a woman who intends on breaking up with her boyfriend, a soldier who has been deployed for six months, “Don't just break up with him the moment he gets of the plane – let him down easy.”
At the end of the Civil War, many in the Union were still bitter toward their enemies. Lincoln, however, was a proponent of reconstruction; he felt that the Southern states needed to be gradually welcomed back into the Union in a non-punitive manner.
I've not heard the quote before, but it sounds Lincolnesque. Lincoln was rather fond of quips and puns; this one is attributed to him: