IBRARY LINCOLN IN WASHINGTON IN 1847—He opposes THE MEXÍ IN November, 1847, Lincoln started for Washington. The city in 1848 was little more than the outline of the Washington of 1899. The capitol was without the present wings, dome, or western terrace. The White House, the City Hall, the Treasury, the Patent Office, and the Post-Office were the only public buildings standing then which have not been rebuilt or materially changed. The 'streets were unpaved, and their dust in summer and mud in winter are celebrated in every record of the period. The parks and circles were still unplanted. Near the White House were a few fine old homes, and Capitol Hill was partly built over. Although there were deplorable wastes between these two points, the majority of the people lived in the southeastern part of the city, on or near Pennsylvania avenue. The winter that Lincoln was in Washington, Daniel Webster lived on Louisiana avenue, near Sixth street; Speaker Winthrop and Thomas H. Benton on C street, near Third; John Quincy Adams and James Buchanan, the latter then Secretary of State, on F street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth. Many of the senators and congressmen were in hotels, the leading ones of which were Willard's, Coleman's, Gadsby's, Brown's, Young's, Fuller's, and the United States. Stephen A. Douglas, who was in Washington for his first term as senator, lived at Willard's. So inadequate were the hotel accommodations during the sessions that visitors to the town were frequently obliged to accept most uncomfortable makeshifts for beds. Seward, vis I iting the city in 1847, tells of sleeping on "a cot between two beds occupied by strangers." The larger number of members lived in "messes," a species of boarding-club, over which the owner of the house occupied usually presided. The "National Intelligencer" of the day is sprinkled with announcements of persons "prepared to accommodate a mess of members." Lincoln went to live in one of the best known of these clubs, Mrs. Spriggs's, in "Duff Green's Row," on Capitol Hill. This famous row has now entirely disappeared, the ground on which it stood being occupied by the Congressional Library. At Mrs. Spriggs's, Lincoln had as mess-mates several congressmen : A. R. McIlvaine, James Pollock, John Strohm, and John Blanchard, all of Pennsylvania, Patrick Tompkins of Mississippi, Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio, and Elisha Embree of Indiana. Among his neighbors in messes on Capitol Hill were Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. One of the members of the mess at Mrs. Spriggs's in the winter of 1847-1848 was Dr. S. C. Busey of Washington, D. C. 66 "I soon learned to know and admire Lincoln," says Dr. Busey in his "Personal Reminiscences and Recollections," "for his simple and unostentatious manners, kind-heartedness, and amusing jokes, anecdotes, and witticisms. When about to tell an anecdote during a meal he would lay down his knife and fork, place his elbows upon the table, rest his face between his hands, and begin with the words,' That reminds me,' and proceed. Everybody prepared for the explosion sure to follow. I recall with vivid pleasure the scene of merriment at the dinner after his first speech in the House of Representatives, occasioned by the descriptions, by himself and others of the congressional mess, of the uproar in the House during its delivery. "Congressman Lincoln was always neatly but very plainly dressed, very simple and approachable in manner, and unpre tentious. He attended to his business, going promptly to the House and remaining till the session adjourned, and appeared to be familiar with the progress of legislation." The town offered then little in the way of amusement. The Adelphi theater was opened that winter for the first time, and presented a variety of mediocre plays. At the Olympia were "lively and beautiful exhibitions of model artists." Herz and Sivori, the pianists, then touring in the United States, played several times in the season; and there was a Chinese museum. Add the exhibitions of Brown's paintings of the heroes of Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterey, and Buena Vista, and of Powers's "Greek Slave," the performances of Dr. Valentine, "Delineator of Eccentricities," a few lectures, and numerous church socials, and you have about all there was in the way of public entertainments in Washington in 1848. But of dinners, receptions, and official gala affairs there were many. Lincoln's name appears frequently in the "National Intelligencer" on committees to offer dinners to this or that great man. In the spring of 1849 he was one of the managers of the inaugural ball given to Taylor. His friend Washburn recalls an amusing incident of Lincoln at this ball. "A small number of mutual friends," says Mr. Washburn, “including Mr. Lincoln, made up a party to attend the inauguration ball together. It was by far the most brilliant inauguration ball ever given. Of course Mr. Lincoln had never seen anything of the kind before. One of the most modest and unpretending persons present, he could not have dreamed that like honors were to come to him, almost within a little more than a decade. He was greatly interested in all that was to be seen, and we did not take our departure until three or four o'clock in the morning. When we went to the cloak and hat room, Mr. Lincoln had no trouble in finding his short cloak, which little more than covered his shoulders, but, after a long search was unable to find his hat. After an hour he gave up all idea of finding it. Taking his cloak on his arm, he walked out into Judiciary square, deliberately adjusting it on his shoulders, and started off bare-headed for his lodgings. It would be hard to forget the sight of that tall and slim man, with his short cloak thrown over his shoulders, starting for his long walk home on Capitol Hill, at four o'clock in the morning, without any hat on." Another reminiscence of his homely and independent ways comes from the librarian of the Supreme Court at that period, through Lincoln's friend, Washburn. Mr. Lincoln, the story goes, came to the library one day for the purpose of procuring some law books which he wanted to take to his room for examination. Getting together all the books he wanted, he placed them in a pile on a table. Taking a large bandana handkerchief from his pocket, he tied them up, and putting a stick which he had brought with him through a knot he had made in the handkerchief, he shouldered the package and marched off from the library to his room. In a few days he returned the books in the same way. Lincoln's simple, sincere friendliness and his quaint humor soon won him a sure, if quiet, social position in Washington. He was frequently invited to Mr. Webster's Saturday breakfasts, where his stories were highly relished for their originality and drollery. Dr. Busey recalls his popularity at one of the leading places of amusement on Capitol Hill. "Congressman Lincoln was very fond of bowling," he says, "and would frequently join others of the mess, or meet other members in a match game, at the alley of James Casparis, which was near the boarding-house. He was a very awkward bowler, but played the game with great zest and spirit, solely for exercise and amusement, and greatly to the enjoyment and entertainment of the other players and bystanders by his criticisms and funny illustrations. He accepted success and defeat with like good nature and humor, and left the alley at the conclusion of the game without a |