Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[RJNorton]

(12-15-2017 07:06 PM)kerry Wrote:  typical adolescent

Emerson writes the following description of Robert as he rode the inaugural train to Washington:

"Seventeen-year old Robert, at the height of his adolescence, experienced the journey as a typical teenager: he had as much fun as he could, and availed himself of every opportunity for such. It was reported that his jovial, colloquial ways contributed daily to the general good feelings of the train party. Robert, twenty-two-year-old Hay, twenty-nine-year- old Nicolay, and twenty-four-year-old Ellsworth, were the four youngest men on board and spent much time together. Most of Robert's chumming, in the form of socializing, drinking, smoking, and flirting with girls, was with Hay alone, as Nicolay was shy and extremely busy as Lincoln's secretary, and Ellsworth, head of the Springfield Zouaves, was full of a military dignity and abstemiousness."

...Some newspapers, especially those run by Democrats, characterized Robert as quite a partier, or "fast." The New York Tribune sought to rebut these statements by declaring him "a young man of fine abilities and much dignity of character" and stating that reports to the contrary were "no less painful to him than to his excellent parents, to whom he has ever been a dutiful and affectionate son." As dutiful and affectionate as Robert was, it is not incorrect to reveal his great desire and ability for smoking cigars, drinking, and carousing, which only increased during his college years."