Honorable Robert T. Lincoln's letter. Abraham Lincoln, loyal to the Constitution. UNIV. OF CHAPTER I. MEETING ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHEN I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD AT When about seven years old I remember Abraham Lincoln as one of a number of politicians and members of the legislature in Springfield who visited our home in Second street. This must have been prior to his term in the House of Representatives in Washington. Among our guests were frequently Stephen A. Douglas, Lyman Trumbull, James Shields, and others who later became famous. Among the friends of my sisters who were at these social gatherings, were Mrs. Lincoln, formerly Miss Todd, Mrs. Trumbull, formerly Miss Julia Jayne and Mrs. N. W. Edwards, sister of Miss Todd. Springfield was very new and primitive in those days. There were not many amusements, except the simple ones we provided for ourselves. The social gatherings in the home gave more pleasure than all the artificially stimulated outside entertainment does nowadays. I remember the first time I met Abraham Lincoln. It was just such an old-fashioned party to which he had been invited at our house. I was a little lad and had been sent up to bed before the party began. But one of the guests had failed to come, and the company wished to dance the quadrille. My sister came upstairs and dragged me out of bed to complete the figure of the quadrille. I slipped hurriedly into my clothes and crept downstairs, half awake, yawning, and not in the best of tempers. Mr. Lincoln was leaning against the fireplace in the sitting room. I remember that I was particularly impressed by his height. He towered above everybody else in the room. He had a very charming manner and was really the life of the party and made all the guests laugh with his inexhaustible fund of stories and anecdotes. His strong face lighted up radiantly and he had one of the most agreeable smiles I have ever seen. Of course I can't say that his grace of manner can be stretched to include the way he went through the stately and dignified steps of the quadrille. Mr. Whitney in his book entitled, "On the Circuit with Lincoln," speaks of Lincoln as having often engaged in social sports before he came to Springfield. He took part in the games and dances at weddings, husking bees, etc. He says: "Mrs. Lincoln was a Miss Todd, born in 1818, being nine years Lincoln's junior. She was the daughter of Robert S. Todd. She came of an old Virginia family on one side, and had direct connection through another line with General Andrew Porter of Pennsylvania, a well-known soldier of the Revolution. Miss Todd was accomplished in music, dancing, the languages, and the arts and refinements of life. Her acquaintance with Lincoln began in Springfield and in a short time ripened into friendship, affection and love with occasional lapses in favor of Stephen A. Douglas and other swains then in vogue at the capital. Miss Todd was acquainted with Lincoln for two or three years previous to their marriage." He undoubtedly took part with her in the social entertainments of the select circle in Springfield where there were the usual quadrilles and dances popular at that time. That which impressed itself on my memory more than anything else was the towering figure of Mr. Lincoln, standing by a mantlepiece in our parlor, with his elbow resting upon it, quietly overlooking the guests of the evening. He was rather awkward in society. Few realized then that he would become our future president and the great character in history into which he developed. He possessed a large fund of good humor, and consequently always was a welcome visitor. He used this gift later to great advantage in trying times after he became president. When overcome with anxiety, humor was to him a relief and he often turned the prevailing gloom into a moment of enjoyment by reciting some amusing story applicable to the occasion. Mr. John Hay and Mr. John G. Nicolay, both of whom I knew intimately in Springfield, state in their history of Abraham Lincoln: "He was (in 1849) still the center of interest of every social group he encountered, whether on the street or in the parlor. Serene and bouyant of temper, cordial and winning of language, charitable and tolerant of opinion, his very presence diffused a glow of confidence and kindness. Wherever he went he left an ever-widening ripple of smiles, jests and laughter. His radiant good fellowship was beloved by political opponents and partisan friends." I often saw Mr. Lincoln with one of his sons on the side-porch of his home in Eighth street, and on the street between his home and law office. He always had a pleasant word or a joke to tell when meeting those he knew, and his kind but rather plain face |