Mary was a leaker

[kerry]

In late February or early March 1862 (I found it quoted in an issue of Crisis), the Herald published the following, which shows the politicized aspects of the inquiry. The Herald was sort of pro-Lincoln but would do it in an over-the-top way that caused backlash. I believe that it was the main purpose of the meeting. He "voluntarily" appeared, so he wasn't called. The committee was holding hearings on that issue, and according to later reports that misreport it as the Conduct of War Committee, was apparently stunned and embarrassed when Lincoln appeared, and let the matter drop.

“Beau Hickman’s Kitchen Committee is making progress. It has finished its examination of the contemptuous Chevalier Wykoff, and is now engaged with the floral Watts. Watts used to be the gardener of the White House, and Beau Hickman expects to get a great deal of information from him. We hope he may. What Watts don’t know about flowers and kitchen gardening is not worth knowing, and the longer the Paul Prys of the committee pump Watts the better they will be able to rival Linnaeus or keep a hot-house on their own books. Naturally enough, the first questions Beau Hickman proposed to Watts were about the flowers used at the White House ball. It is amusing to observe how interested and curious these long-haired, uninvited abolitionists are about that ball, and how anxiously they endeavor to glean the particulars in regard to it. The committee smelled treason stratagems or spoils in every flower that adorned the White House tables upon the night of the ball; and if this had been the old War of the Roses revived, Beau Hickman could not have been more minute in his inquiries about the White House garden. We are told in Scripture that gratitude things sometimes come out of a grain of mustard seed; and the Kitchen Committee evidently applies this principle to flower and vegetable seeds as well. The relation between turnips and treason, raiders and rebellion, salad and State secrets, is as clear as amber to the inquiring mind of the investigating Hickman. To him camellias suggest contracts; dahlias, dangerous delays to advance; japonicas, jealousies of McClellan; and lilacs, Mrs. Lincoln’s influence with the President. Particular attention was directed to cabbages, their culture and use: for to the wise heads of the Kitchen Committee, the subject of cabbages includes Cameron, Cabinet conferences, closets, coteries, and circumstance generally...By his shrewd device Beau Hickman succeeded in eliciting many important facts, which may be included in the agricultural volumes of the Patent office reports…He learned, also, that upon one memorable day, Watts, having occasion to read up a little on the abstruse subject of dandelions, went to to the Presidential Library for that purpose, and saw lying upon the table the forthcoming message of the president. The message being written in a good round hand, and Watts having enjoyed the blessings of a public school education, the gardener was enabled to read the document in question; and he forthwith culled the sweet flowers of the President’s rhetoric, formed them into a bouquet and turned them in the flowerstand of memory….The proclivities of servants to pry into their master’s affairs is a fact so new, so unheard of and so startling, that Beau Hickman expects to be hailed as a sort of kitchen Columbus, and will patent his discovery as soon as possible….Nor is the matter to end here. All the servants of the White House are to be brought before the Kitchen Committee. President Lincoln was overheard repeating certain portions of his message to the partner of his bosom while dressing, and so all the pretty chambermaids of the White House are to be examined. The bill of fare for the White House dinner, was written one day, upon the back of an unfinished draft of the message, and therefore the White House cook and other members of the genuine Kitchen Cabinet are to be questioned by Hickman….There never was such a chance of becoming acquainted with the kitchen, the laundry, the chambers, the closets….the cellar, and every other private department of the White House, before, and Beau Hickman knows it…..Such fellows as Hickman and his tribe of bigoted, spiteful abolitionists … indulge a petty malice against a lady whose position and sex alike should shield her from insult….Congress authorizes and encourages this indecent, malicious, and ill-timed investigation, during the crisis of a struggle for national existence…"

I didn't gather the positive reports about Mary yet, but one thing I noticed is that people who had everyday contact with her were generally positive. Servants, soldiers, bodyguards, and close neighbors might mention her temper, but would say she was a basically good person. That's nearly universal, which I think says something. People living in Springfield or Washington but who did not know her well generally were quite negative, because they would know of the most volatile incidents only. Press coverage during the War was mixed - the bad press coverage was everywhere after the ball/Wikoff issue, which happened at the same time, but Willie died during that time, so I doubt they ever processed it much. The other round of attacks was October 1864 - intended as an October Surprise. After Lincoln's death it was bad, but she had a few defenders. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote, in 1867 I believe, “Her unfortunate organization, a tendency to insanity (for which she is not responsible), increased and aggravated by the great sadness of her husband, which rested like a dark cloud most of the time on his household, furnish a sufficient excuse for many of her idiosyncrasies of character.” This was obviously a while before she was found insane. I also found an interview in which Harriet Tubman said she wouldn't meet with Lincoln because she did not believe him to be serious about racial equality, but she would meet with Mary. She gave no details.