David Ross Locke brought to life a powerful and popular humorous character when he created Petroleum V. Nasby, the ostensible narrator of a long series of letters that commented on current events and were printed in various newspapers over a twenty-five-year period.

Abraham Lincoln was a fan of Nasby's and read many of the letters to family, friends, visitors, and government officials. In one of Lincoln's favorite letters (dated 2 April 1862), sent from Nasby's fictional home, Wingert's Corners, Nasby comments, "We vew with alarm the ackshun uv the President uv the U.S., in recommendin the immejit emansipashun uv the slaves of our misgided Suthern brethrin, and his evident intenshun uv kolonizin on em in the North, and the heft on em in Wingert's Corners...." Lincoln recognized that the letters were not criticism directed at him and his government but satire designed to expose the weaknesses and faults of...