Mary Todd Lincoln's faux pas (plural), worse, and much worse

[David Lockmiller]

Lincoln hesitated in his speech because as I quoted in a previous posting "Lincoln feared that something he said [within his speech] had given offense." As Professor Burlingame wrote, "[Lincoln] soon realized that no disrespect was meant" toward him. Some people in the crowd trying to hear the speech were unable to do so because "[Lincoln's] wife and Clara Harris . . . stood at a nearby window chatting so loudly that they nearly drowned out the president."

Do you think that there was anyone in that crowd, who came to hear President Lincoln's scheduled speech that night, would believe that what Mary Todd Lincoln and Clara Harris had to say to one another was more important than what the President of the United States had to say on his policy of reconstruction after the Civil War?

The conduct of Mary Todd Lincoln and Clara Harris was disrespectful of President Abraham Lincoln and the audience that was trying to be able to hear what he had to say.