If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.
— A. Lincoln, 1863Visitors and Guests
While living at the cottage, the Lincolns were remarkably accessible to the public and entertained both invited guests and unexpected visitors at nearly any time of the day or night. The degree to which the Lincolns lived an ordinary life, free of the formality and security that is now associated with the life of a United States President, seems surprising today.
Those who visited the Lincolns, whether at the White House or at the cottage, commented on President Lincoln's willingness to sit and chat casually with anyone who dropped by, and the President paid little heed to formality. He received visitors in his slippers if unexpected guests arrived after he had retired for the evening. George Borrett, a visitor from England, noted such an occasion when unannounced he visited the President at the Soldiers' Home one summer evening in 1864.
We were ushered into a moderate-sized, neatly furnished drawing-room, where we were told the President would see us immediately. We had sat there but a few minutes, when there entered through the folding doors the long, lanky, lath-like figure that we had seen descending from the "one horse-shay," with hair ruffled, and eyes very sleepy, and - hear it, ye votaries of court etiquette! "feet enveloped in carpet slippers . . . Mr. Lincoln advanced to me and my fellow-travellers, shook each of us warmly by the hand, expressed his pleasure at seeing us, and told us to take seats and make ourselves comfortable…"
— George Borrett, English visitor to Washington, D.C.1
George Borrett, like others who spent time with Lincoln, noted that the President enjoyed reading, reciting, and discussing poetry, particularly when the subject seemed pertinent to current events. Lincoln often spent his evenings with his favorite works of literature, whether reading alone or reciting passages to his friends.
Where only one or two [friends] were present [Lincoln] was fond of reading aloud . . . He passed many of the summer evenings in this way when occupying his cottage at the Soldiers' Home.
— John Hay, Lincoln's personal secretary.2
I went with [Lincoln] to the Soldier's Home & he read Shakespeare to me, the end of Henry VI and the beginning of Richard III till my heavy eyelids caught his considerate notice & he sent me to bed.
— John Hay, diary entry, August 23, 1863.3
On some summer evenings, rather than reading, President Lincoln sought to ease his wartime anxiety by indulging his curiosity about machines, gadgets, and scientific discoveries. In August 1863, President Lincoln and John Hay rode from the Soldiers' Home one night to visit the U. S. Naval Observatory in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, where astronomer Asaph Hall showed them the moon and the star Arcturus through the Observatory's largest telescope. Several nights later, according to the astronomer's son, the President rode back to the Observatory alone to ask Hall a question about what he had seen4. On August 24, 1864, Lincoln and a group of government officials witnessed a demonstration in which Samuel Morse, an inventor best known for his role in the development of the telegraph and Morse Code, transmitted a signal from a tower at the Soldiers' Home to the roof of the Smithsonian Institution, several miles to the south.5
1Jean H. Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1987), 227.
2Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, cited in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Unmiversity Press, 1955), vol. V, 492.
3Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, cited in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. VII, 417. "Tom" refers to one of the three White House servants: Thomas H. Cross, furnace man; Thomas Cross, doorkeeper; or Thomas Stackpole, watchman.
4Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, cited in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. VII, 417. "Tom" refers to one of the three White House servants: Thomas H. Cross, furnace man; Thomas Cross, doorkeeper; or Thomas Stackpole, watchman.
5Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, cited in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. VII, 417. "Tom" refers to one of the three White House servants: Thomas H. Cross, furnace man; Thomas Cross, doorkeeper; or Thomas Stackpole, watchman.