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“Lincoln Wouldn’t Be Recognized Down In Springfield”
He never owned a razor in his life, and he didn’t visit a barber as frequently as Mrs. Lincoln thought he should. He neglected to groom his coarse, bushy hair, that stood out all over his head like horsehair. That irritated Mary Todd beyond words, and when she combed it, it was soon mussed again, by his bank-book, letters, and legal papers, which he carried in the top of his hat.
One day he was having his picture taken in Chicago, and the photographer urged him to “slick up” a bit. He replied that “a portrait of a slicked-up Lincoln wouldn’t be recognized down in Springfield.”
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-070-07
Lincoln never was ashamed of these things —at least he never changed his habits when he came into national prominence, buit his continuance of them did not urlse from affectation. They were natural to him and he was not willing to have one set of manners for Washington and another for the people back In Illinois.
That he was careless of his appearance there was no doubt. When he sat for a photographer he never straightened his tie or smoothed his unkempt hair, but, like Crom-well, told the picture man to take him as he was. He knew that a portrait of a ” slicked up ” Lincoln, as he would have said, would not have been recognized In Springfield, and he didn’t want them to think he was putting on airs because they had elected him to the presidency.
–“Abraham Lincoln’s appearance”
He’s Just Beautiful.
Lincoln’s great love for children easily won their confidence. A little girl, who had been told that the President was very homely, was taken by her father to see the President at the White House. Lincoln took her upon his knee and chatted with her for a moment in his merry way, when she turned to her father and exclaimed: “Oh, Pa! he isn’t ugly at all; he’s just beautiful!”
Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories by Colonel Alexander K. McClure , From Wit & Humor Of Abraham Lincoln, Gathered from Authentic Sources by Carleton B., Case, Chicago: Shrewesbury Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 50-99.
A little incident, showing how truly his noble nature was interpreted by the intuitions of children, may here be mentioned: A little girl who had heard Mr. Lincoln spoken of as “ugly” was taken by her father to see him. Whereupon she exclaimed, “Why, Pa, he’s not ugly at all, he’s beautiful.”
Abraham Lincoln： An Address By Newton Bateman
Sandburg-397, 267
“The Striking Thing about him was his Affection for the Child.”
I noticed his sweetness of nature particularly with his little son, a child at that time perhaps seven or nine years old, who used to roam the departments, and whom everybody called Tad. He had a defective palate, and couldn’t speak very plainly. Often I have sat by his father, reporting to him about some important matter that I had been ordered to inquire into, and he would have this boy on his knee; and, while he would perfectly understand the report, the striking thing about him was his affection for the child.
He was good to everybody. Once there was a great gathering at the White House on New Year’s day, and all the diplomats came in their uniforms, and all the officers of the army and navy in Washington were in full costume. A little girl of mine said, Papa, couldn’t you take me over to see that? I said yes; so I took her over and put her in a corner, where she beheld this gorgeous show. When it was finished, I went up to Mr. Lincoln, and said, I have a little girl here who wants to shake hands with you. He went over to her, and took her up and kissed her and talked to her. She will never forget it if she lives to be a thousand years old. That was the nature of the man. I must tell another story to illustrate the same point.
By Charles A. Dana, Recollections of the Civil War. Sandburg-397, 267
“He Was Constantly Out With The Common People”
Some persons may insist that this picture is too highly colored. If so, I can only answer, they do not know the facts. The majority of those who have a personal knowledge of them are persistent in their silence. If their lips could be opened and all could be known, my conclusions and statements, to say the least of them, would be found to be fair, reasonable, and true. A few words more as to Lincoln’s domestic history, and I pass to a different phase of his life. One of his warmest and closest friends, who still survives, maintains the theory that, after all, Lincoln’s political ascendancy and final elevation to the Presidency were due more to the influence of his wife than to any other person or cause. “The fact,” insists this friend, “that Mary Todd, by her turbulent nature and unfortunate manner, prevented her husband from becoming a domestic man, operated largely in his favor; for he was thereby kept out in the world of business and politics. Instead of spending his evenings at home, reading the papers and warming his toes at his own fireside, he was constantly out with the common people, was mingling with the politicians, discussing public questions with the farmers who thronged the offices in the court-house and state house, and exchanging views with the loungers who surrounded the stove of winter evenings in the village store. The result of this continuous contact with the world was, that he was more thoroughly known than any other man in his community. His wife, therefore, was one of the unintentional means of his promotion. If, on the other hand, he had married some less ambitious but more domestic woman, some honest farmer’s quiet daughter,-one who would have looked up to and worshipped him because he uplifted her,-the result might have been different. For, although it doubtless would have been her pride to see that he had clean clothes whenever he needed them; that his slippers were always in their place; that he was warmly clad and had plenty to eat; and, although the privilege of ministering to his every wish and whim might have been to her a pleasure rather than a duty; yet I fear he would have been buried in the pleasures of a loving home, and the country would never have had Abraham Lincoln for its President.”
By William H. Herndon，Jesse W. Weik “Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life” Herndon-257-15
“A Breeze Had Sprung Up Over The Domestic Sea”
He was not exactly an early riser, that is, he never usually appeared at the office till about nine o’clock in the morning. I usually preceded him an hour. Sometimes, however, he would come down as early as seven o’clock-in fact, on one occasion I remember he came down before daylight. If, on arriving at the office, I found him in, I knew instantly that a breeze had sprung up over the domestic sea, and that the waters were troubled. He would either be lying on the lounge looking skyward, or doubled up in a chair with his feet resting on the sill of a back window. He would not look up on my entering, and only answered my “Good morning” with a grunt. I at once busied myself with pen and paper, or ran through the leaves of some book; but the evidence of his melancholy and distress was so plain, and his silence so significant, that I would grow restless myself, and finding some excuse to go to the courthouse or elsewhere, would leave the room.
The door of the office opening into a narrow hallway was half glass, with a curtain on it working on brass rings strung on wire. As I passed out on these occasions I would draw the curtain across the glass, and before I reached the bottom of the stairs I could hear the key turn in the lock, and Lincoln was alone in his gloom. An hour in the clerk’s office at the court-house, an hour longer in a neighboring store having passed, I would return. By that time either a client had dropped in and Lincoln was propounding the law, or else the cloud of despondency had passed away, and he was busy in the recital of an Indiana story to whistle off the recollections of the morning’s gloom. Noon having arrived I would depart homeward for my dinner. Returning within an hour, I would find him still in the office,-although his house stood but a few squares away,-lunching on a slice of cheese and a handful of crackers which, in my absence, he had brought up from a store below. Separating for the day at five or six o’clock in the evening, I would still leave him behind, either sitting on a box at the foot of the stairway, entertaining a few loungers, or killing time in the same way on the court-house steps. A light in the office after dark attested his presence there till late along in the night, when, after all the world had gone to sleep, the tall form of the man destined to be the nation’s President could have been seen strolling along in the shadows of trees and buildings, and quietly slipping in through the door of a modest frame house, which it pleased the world, in a conventional way, to call his home.
By William H. Herndon，Jesse W. Weik “Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life” Herndon-257-14
“The Boys Literally Crawled All Over Him”
After dinner he sometimes stared into the fireplace for half an hour at a time, saying nothing. The boys literally crawled all over him and pulled his hair and talked to him, but he seemed unconscious of their existence. Then suddenly he would come to and tell a joke or recite one of his favorite verses: “Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passes from life to his rest in the grave.”
Mrs. Lincoln criticized him for never correcting the children. But he so adored them that “he was blind and deaf to their faults.” “He never neglected to praise them for any of their good acts,” said Mrs. Lincoln, “and declared: Tt is my pleasure that my children are free and happy, and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.’ ”
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-070-13
“Lincoln Apparently Never Even Thought Of Correcting His Son”
The liberties he allowed his children at times appear extraordinary. For example, once when he was playing chess with a judge of the Supreme Court, Robert came and told his father it was time to go to dinner. Lincoln replied, “Yes, yes.” But, being very fond of the game, he quite forgot that he had been called, and played on. Again the boy appeared, with another urgent message from Mrs. Lincoln. Again Lincoln promised to come, again he forgot.A third time Robert arrived with a summons, a third time Lincoln promised, and a third time he played on. Then, suddenly, the boy drew back and violently kicked the chess-board higher than the players’ heads, scattering the chessmen in every direction. “Well, Judge,” Lincoln said with a smile, “I reckon we’ll have to finish this game some other time.” Lincoln apparently never even thought of correcting his son.
The Lincoln boys used to hide behind a hedge in the evening and stick a lath through the fence. As there were no street lights, passers-by would run into the lath and their hats would be knocked off. Once, in the darkness, the boys knocked off their father’s hat by mistake. He didn’t censure them, but merely told them that they ought to be careful, for they might make somebody mad.
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-070-14
“To Play Town Ball With Them”
Lincoln was inordinately fond of his two little sons, Tad and Willie. He often stole away, on a summer evening, to play “town ball” with them, his coat-tails flying out behind him as he ran from base to base. Sometimes, he would shoot marbles with them all the way from the White House to the war-office. At night he loved to get down on the floor and roll and romp with them. On bright, warm days he would sometimes go out back of the White House and play with the boys and their two goats. Tad and Willie kept the White House in an uproar, organizing minstrel shows, putting the servants through military drill, running in and out among the office-seekers. If they took a fancy to a certain applicant, they would see that he got in to see “Old Abe” immediately. If they couldn’t get him in the front way, they knew of back entrances. With as little respect for ceremony and precedent as their father had, they dashed in and interrupted a Cabinet meeting once to inform the President that the cat in the basement had just had kittens. On another occasion the stern Salmon P. Chase was irritated and disgusted because Tad climbed all over his father and finally perched on his shoulder and sat astride of his neck while Chase was discussing the grave financial situation that confronted the country.
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-142-12
“his face was…ever looked upon”: Joseph Wilson Fifer, quoted in Rufus Rockwell Wilson,Intimate Memories of Lincoln(Elmira, N.Y.: Primavera Press, 1945), p. 155.
“eyes would sparkle…than his”: Jonathan Birch, “A Student Who Was Aided by Mr. Lincoln,” in Wilson, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 105. Ethan Allen/George Washington story: Abner Y. Ellis statement, January 23, 1866, in HI, p. 174.
“Well, B…. as a man ought to want”: “Recollections of Mr. McCormick,” in Wilson,Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 251 (quote); Holzer, Lincoln at Cooper Union, p. 86. Holzer identifies “B.” as Mayson Brayman.
the long evenings Lincoln spent at Seward’s: Hendrick, Lincoln’s WarCabinet, p. 186. “My friend…churchwarden!”: Wilson, IntimateMemories of Lincoln, p. 422.
The day before…“half of his speech”: James Speed quoted in John G. Nicolay, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” Century 47 (February 1894), p. 597. Various accounts suggest…“a makeshift desk”: George D. Gitt, quoted in Wilson, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 476.
An audience…between Everett and Seward: Klement, “The Ten Who Sat,” Lincoln Herald (1985), p. 106. “leaned from one side…of his right hand”: Gitt, quoted in Wilson, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 478. Another member…to his pocket: Monaghan, Diplomat in Carpet Slippers, p. 341.
“flutter and motion…an empty house”: Gitt, quoted in Wilson, IntimateMemories of Lincoln, p. 478. steel-rimmed spectacles…at his pages: Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. II, p. 468. “He had spent…supreme principle”: Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, p. 120.
“the assemblage…there came applause”: Gitt, quoted in Wilson,Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 479. he turned to Ward Lamon…“disappointed”: Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, p. 173.
Henry Wilson, “Jeremiah S. Black and Edwin M. Stanton,”Atlantic Monthly 26 (October 1870), pp. 469–70.
Wilson Brothers
Charles L. Wilson
Senator Wilson
Dorothy Clarke Wilson
Vice President Wilson
Beverly Wilson Palmer
James F. Wilson
Garff B. Wilson
in Douglas L. Wilson
Robert L. Wilson
“I’ve Read Enough of it”
For many years I subscribed for and kept on our office table the Westminster and Edinburgh Review and a number of other English periodicals. Besides them I purchased the works of Spencer, Darwin, and the utterances of other English scientists, all of which I devoured with great relish. I endeavored, but had little success in inducing Lincoln to read them. Occasionally he would snatch one up and peruse it for a little while, but he soon threw it down with the suggestion that it was entirely too heavy for an ordinary mind to digest.
In 1856 I purchased in New York a life of Edmund Burke. I have forgotten now who the author was, but I remember I read it through in a short time. One morning Lincoln came into the office and, seeing the book in my hands, enquired what I was reading. I told him, at the same time observing that it was an excellent work and handing the book over to him. Taking it in his hand he threw himself down on the office sofa and hastily ran over its pages, reading a little here and there. At last he closed and threw it on the table with the exclamation, “No, I’ve read enough of it. It’s like all the others. Biographies as generally written are not only misleading, but false. The author of this life of Burke makes a wonderful hero out of his subject. He magnifies his perfections-if he had any-and suppresses his imperfections. He is so faithful in his zeal and so lavish in praise of his every act that one is almost driven to believe that Burke never made a mistake or a failure in his life.” He lapsed into a brown study, but presently broke out again, “Billy, I’ve wondered why book-publishers and merchants don’t have blank biographies on their shelves, always ready for an emergency; so that, if a man happens to die, his heirs or his friends, if they wish to perpetuate his memory, can purchase one already written, but with blanks. These blanks they can at their pleasure fill up with rosy sentences full of high-sounding praise. In most instances they commemorate a lie, and cheat posterity out of the truth. History,” he concluded, “is not history unless it is the truth.” This emphatic avowal of sentiment from Mr. Lincoln not only fixes his estimate of ordinary biography, but is my vindication in advance if assailed for telling the truth.
By William H. Herndon，Jesse W. Weik “Herndon’s Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life” ,Herndon-257-23