Extra Credit Questions

[Eva Elisabeth]

It seems a bit strange to me for an adult to complain about the wife of his boss. "Mr. President, your wife doesn't treat me well, that's not nice of her!"? What would you have done in Lincoln's place? "Mary, please, Hay is taboo, or you go to bed without supper..."? Reminds me of my childhood. When other kids got attacked (verbally or physically) by (again) other kids, they used to run to their parents to have those solve that for them (scold the attacker). My mother would never have meddled in - she told me I were old enough to handle that myself, and that in most cases there were two sides involved in the evoking of a dispute. I wonder if Hay sometimes lacked diplomacy in dealing with Mary. My best guess is he occasionally had a loose tongue that some females of a certain age don't cope well with. Or misunderstand.
Sometimes, with some people it is just smarter to hold back on certain things that aren't worth a war. Some people who can be wonderful in many (other) ways just in some ways need to be treated with diplomacy because of some shortcomings on their part. Lincoln knew that, and how to deal the best with such people. It's a matter of what it's worth it.
(And if Hay was bothered that much he could have drawn consequences instead of just complaining - "Either she stops xy, or I quit", and do so if no change.)