More on Mrs. Lincoln's [non] faux pas

[David Lockmiller]

(06-19-2014 03:27 PM)L Verge Wrote:  In looking for something else, I ran across this description of Mary Lincoln in a booklet produced by the White House Historical Association. I found it an appropriate assessment and tastefully done:

"An intellectual by nature, she loved literature and was probably far better read than Lincoln." (emphasis added)

As an necessary offset to this statement, anyone particularly interested in this topic should read Chapter XIV, Section III as written by Congressman William D. Kelley in the book Remininscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, collected and edited by Allen Thorndike Rice, published by the North American Review,1888.

This section begins as follows:

There were persons who knew of Mr. Lincoln but as a storyteller, and believed him to be devoted to intercourse with men who enjoyed hearing and knew how to tell mirth-provoking stories. Of this class was my friend, the late John McDonough, a celebrated actor, who was an intensely partisan Democrat, and had accepted the theory that Mr. Lincoln was a mere buffoon, whose official duties were performed by his Cabinet. I may without injustice to the memory of a valued friend make this statement, for after the incident to which I am about to refer he made the utmost atonement for any injustice he might have done Mr. Lincoln. Mr. McDonough was to play an engagement at the National Theatre, in which he was to appear as "Mrs. Pluto," in an extravaganza entitled The Seven Sisters. After much persuasion, he consented to go with me to the White House the evening preceding the opening of his engagement.[Joining them was Congressman Kelley's friend, Reverend Benjamin R. Miller, chaplain of the 119th Pennsylvania Volunteers.]

The night was terribly stormy, but in spite of wind and rain I proposed an early start for the White House, the more certainly to secure the interview I hoped to bring about. Thanks to the condition of the weather, we found the President alone.

I now quote from the text near the substantive end of this section written by William D. Kelley:

Having disposed, for the present, of questions relating to the stage editions of the [Shakespeare] plays, [Mr. Lincoln] recurred to his standard copy, and, to the evident surprise of Mr. McDonough, read or repeated from memory extracts from several of the plays, some of which embraced a number of lines.

It must not be supposed Mr. Lincoln's poetical studies had been confined to [Shakespeare's] plays. He interspersed his remarks with extracts striking form their similarity to, or contrast with, something of Shakespeare's, from Byron, Rogers, Campbell, Moore, and other English poets.

The time had come for our departure, and Mr. McDonough had thanked the President warmly for the pleasure he had afforded him . . . . It was now past eleven o'clock. We had been with him more than four hours, and when I expressed regret for the thoughtlessness which had detained him so long, he responded: "Kelley, I assure your friends that in bringing them here this evening you have given me the benefit of a long holiday. I have not enjoyed such a season of literary recreation since I entered the White House, and I feel that a long and pleasant interval has passed since I closed my routine work this afternoon."