“Enemies! We Must Never Speak of That”
Arrived at the Potomac wharf, our party was forced to disperse. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, Senator Sumner, and myself drove home in the same carriage. We were nearing Washington when Mrs. Lincoln, who had hitherto remained silently looking at the town a short distance off, said to me: “That city is filled with our enemies.” On hearing this the President raised his arm and somewhat impatiently retorted, “Enemies! We must never speak of that.” This was on the evening of April 9th.
Quoted in Marquis de Chambrun, “Personal Recollections of Mr. Lincoln,” Scribner’s (1893), p. 35