![]() ![]() " promiscuous receptions," as Lincoln had taken to calling them, were Much even for the generous Lincoln to bear, and his staff secured someĬoncessions and organized a formal schedule. Thus bring me again within the direct contact and atmosphere of theĦ Eventually, however, the crush proved too Is heavy-that no hours of my day are better employed than those which "For myself," he insisted, "I feel-though the tax on my time Quest of the loaves and fishes they believed theirs by right.įirst, Lincoln rejected his staffs efforts to spare him by limiting Time of his inauguration, job aspirants made their way to Washington in Republican president, Lincoln was expected by his party to cleanse theīureaucracy of Democratic holdovers, and when he failed to do so by the Importune him for lucrative government appointments. The hallways all the way down the front stairs in an endless effort to Presidents time and energy-among them, his wife's own relatives-crowding Office-seekers were the biggest drain on the Nor security precautions shielded the president from his voraciouslyĭemanding public. Through windows at levees, and camped outside Lincoln's office door "onĪll conceivable errands, for all imaginable purposes." Visitors besieged the White House stairways and corridors, climbed Virtually from Lincoln's first day in office, a crush of Lincolns was the mansion's open-door policy to the public, war White House life that made family life particularly difficult for the The bad news, and bear the brunt of his outrage. She compelled the hapless commissioner of public buildings to bring him ![]() Not even tell her husband directly that she had overspent on its decor President's marriage after only nine months in the mansion. Revealed the strains that White House life had already exacted on the Supplemented the appropriation the following year-but the episode Up the difference "out of his own pocket" after all, and Congress quietly The overrun was hushed up and made good-Lincoln was not required to make Had been overrun by the President when the poor freezing soldiers could Have it said that an appropriation for $20,000 for furnishing the house ![]() The weary commander in chief declared: "It would stink in the land to Put his name on such a bill he would pay it out of his own pocket." As Old house!" As Lincoln viewed matters, it was "furnished well enough when Public buildings in December 1861 that he would never approve the bills The effort-by nearly 30 percent-Lincoln swore to the commissioner of When Mary overran a generous congressional appropriation allocated for No doubt much of this renovation initiative was sorely needed, but Concluding that it would be "a degradation" to subject her family and her guests-to such surroundings, the new first lady launched a monumental redecorating project, purchasing new carpets, draperies, wallpaper, furnishings, china, and books, and modernizing plumbing, heating, and lighting. Stoddard conceded, many once glittering areas of the house were run down even the East Room had "a faded, worn, untidy look." 2 Mary's visiting cousin Lizzie Grimsley thought the "deplorably shabby furnishings" looked like they had "survived many Presidents," although the house had been extensively refurbished twice in the previous decade. Mary's fond hopes for a palatial new existence in Washington were in a way dashed almost as soon as she took up residence in March 1861. Although Mary dutifully hosted her share of public and diplomatic receptions, her husband grew increasingly occupied with running the government and the war, and before long the couple found themselves spending fewer hours together than at any time since his circuit-riding days as an attorney. However much the Lincolns-particularly Mary Lincoln-may have hoped for a glorious four years of social triumph and renewed intimacy at the nation's most famous residence, rebellion, civil war, and family tragedy conspired to puncture their dream. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has." 1 By the time he spoke these heartfelt words, it might be fair to say, Lincoln had endured nearly as much suffering and heartache in that "big White House" as the soldiers had on the battlefield. As he put it: "I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. Thanking the men profusely for their bravery and sacrifice, Lincoln implored the veterans to remember that the nation remained "an inestimable jewel" well "worth fighting for," not just for their own generation, but to guarantee "equal privileges" for "our children's children" as well. On a hot summer day in August 1864, Abraham Lincoln strolled from his Second-Floor office to the lawn outside the Executive Mansion to greet a regiment of Ohio soldiers en route home after surviving some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. ![]()
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