long and how hard she had worked to raise the twelve hundred dollars to purchase her freedom and George’s, she could well understand how someone else in her place would have given in to temptation. But Mrs. Lincoln was no longer only a patron, or even just the First Lady. She had become a friend, and Elizabeth would rather die than betray her.
For Mrs. Lincoln, the autumn was marked by changes in the White House staff, some she desired and others that were forced upon her. After all the schools in the district were shut down due to the wartime emergency, the First Lady decided to open a classroom in the White House rather than send Willie and Tad off to boarding school. She hired a tutor, arranged desks and a chalkboard, and brought in her sons’ best friends, Bud and Halsey Taft, as classmates. Until then, the youngest Lincoln boys’ education had been sorely neglected by their indulgent parents. Willie had a scholarly bent and often read and composed poetry on his own, but Tad was barely literate, something Mrs. Lincoln resolved to remedy. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln valued education and hoped their younger sons would come to love learning as much as they did, and perhaps in time follow their eldest brother, Robert, on to Harvard. Privately, Elizabeth heartily approved of the new plan, which she hoped would give the mischievous boys some much-needed discipline along with the usual lessons. She had long regretted that she had been given no formal education, and she disliked seeing any opportunity for learning squandered.
Some new members of the White House staff should have been reassuring, but instead their presence made Elizabeth uncomfortablyaware of the dangers confronting the president in those perilous times. New doormen—some of them officers from the new Metropolitan Police, dressed in civilian attire and carrying concealed weapons—could be found in the public rooms, and uniformed sentries were posted on the grounds. In the year since his election, the president had received so many threatening letters that it was impossible to keep track of them all, although their frequency and virulence had increased since Bull Run. Mrs. Lincoln worried more about her husband’s safety than he seemed to, and she urged him to travel unannounced and accompanied by guards whenever he moved about the city. He considered such precautions unnecessary and consequently ignored his wife’s requests, which made her fret all the more.
Mrs. Lincoln was also concerned about threats from within. She and the president often discussed his cabinet members in Elizabeth’s presence, and Elizabeth had observed that the First Lady was a shrewd judge of character, and her intuition about other people’s sincerity was usually more accurate than her husband’s. Elizabeth had learned early on that Mrs. Lincoln despised Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, whom she called a selfish politician instead of a true patriot, but Elizabeth attributed some of her dislike to the fact that he was the father of her most bitter social rival, the lovely Miss Kate Chase.
Mrs. Lincoln thought no better of Secretary of State William Seward. One morning, Elizabeth arrived at the White House earlier than usual to find Mr. Lincoln sitting in a chair, holding the newspaper in one hand and stroking little Tad’s head with the other. While Elizabeth was basting a dress, a servant entered with a letter for Mr. Lincoln that had just arrived by messenger. He broke the seal and read the letter in silence.
“Who is the letter from, Father?” asked Mrs. Lincoln.
“Seward.” Mr. Lincoln tucked the letter into his pocket. “I must go over and see him today.”
“Seward! I wish you had nothing to do with that man. He cannot be trusted.”
Mr. Lincoln regarded her mildly, but Elizabeth thought she saw thecorner of his mouth twitch as if he were trying not to smile. “You say the same about Chase. If I listened to you, I should soon be without a
For Mrs. Lincoln, the autumn was marked by changes in the White House staff, some she desired and others that were forced upon her. After all the schools in the district were shut down due to the wartime emergency, the First Lady decided to open a classroom in the White House rather than send Willie and Tad off to boarding school. She hired a tutor, arranged desks and a chalkboard, and brought in her sons’ best friends, Bud and Halsey Taft, as classmates. Until then, the youngest Lincoln boys’ education had been sorely neglected by their indulgent parents. Willie had a scholarly bent and often read and composed poetry on his own, but Tad was barely literate, something Mrs. Lincoln resolved to remedy. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln valued education and hoped their younger sons would come to love learning as much as they did, and perhaps in time follow their eldest brother, Robert, on to Harvard. Privately, Elizabeth heartily approved of the new plan, which she hoped would give the mischievous boys some much-needed discipline along with the usual lessons. She had long regretted that she had been given no formal education, and she disliked seeing any opportunity for learning squandered.
Some new members of the White House staff should have been reassuring, but instead their presence made Elizabeth uncomfortablyaware of the dangers confronting the president in those perilous times. New doormen—some of them officers from the new Metropolitan Police, dressed in civilian attire and carrying concealed weapons—could be found in the public rooms, and uniformed sentries were posted on the grounds. In the year since his election, the president had received so many threatening letters that it was impossible to keep track of them all, although their frequency and virulence had increased since Bull Run. Mrs. Lincoln worried more about her husband’s safety than he seemed to, and she urged him to travel unannounced and accompanied by guards whenever he moved about the city. He considered such precautions unnecessary and consequently ignored his wife’s requests, which made her fret all the more.
Mrs. Lincoln was also concerned about threats from within. She and the president often discussed his cabinet members in Elizabeth’s presence, and Elizabeth had observed that the First Lady was a shrewd judge of character, and her intuition about other people’s sincerity was usually more accurate than her husband’s. Elizabeth had learned early on that Mrs. Lincoln despised Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, whom she called a selfish politician instead of a true patriot, but Elizabeth attributed some of her dislike to the fact that he was the father of her most bitter social rival, the lovely Miss Kate Chase.
Mrs. Lincoln thought no better of Secretary of State William Seward. One morning, Elizabeth arrived at the White House earlier than usual to find Mr. Lincoln sitting in a chair, holding the newspaper in one hand and stroking little Tad’s head with the other. While Elizabeth was basting a dress, a servant entered with a letter for Mr. Lincoln that had just arrived by messenger. He broke the seal and read the letter in silence.
“Who is the letter from, Father?” asked Mrs. Lincoln.
“Seward.” Mr. Lincoln tucked the letter into his pocket. “I must go over and see him today.”
“Seward! I wish you had nothing to do with that man. He cannot be trusted.”
Mr. Lincoln regarded her mildly, but Elizabeth thought she saw thecorner of his mouth twitch as if he were trying not to smile. “You say the same about Chase. If I listened to you, I should soon be without a
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