Inside Lincoln's White House In War Times

[David Lockmiller]

(03-03-2021 04:44 PM)Anita Wrote:  

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This is from an article http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/the-s...-stoddard/

“I was sitting at my work one evening when the door opened and Mr. Lincoln came in. ‘I reckoned I’d find you here. I am going to the theatre to see [actor James] Hackett play Falstaff, and I want you to come with me. I’ve always wanted to see him in that character. Come to my room. It’s about time to go.”

Stoddard wrote: “We went over to his office I believed that he was all the while trying to put away from him his load of thoughts. If he had landed his cares upon the Cabinet table they would have been stacked ten feet high. I do not now remember anything else that took place until we were seated in the Executive box at the theatre. There were some persons, even then, who criticized the President severely for his heartlessness in ever going to a theatre or listening to music at a time when the affairs of the nation required his devotion.” At the theater that night one critic arose and denounced the President before the performance began. A German-American soldier came to the President’s defense: “De President haf a right to his music! Put out dot feller! De President ees all right! Let him haf his music!” And Mr. Lincoln’s military admirers in the audience evicted the impromptu critic.