length elsewhere in this volume. The following statement by the Hon. W. D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, gives an added touch to the faithful representation of a home and family scene in the famous picture of "Tad" and his father, referred to below: "His intercourse with his family was beautiful as that with his friends. I think that father never loved his children more fondly than he. The President never seemed grander in my sight than when, stealing upon him in the evening, I would find him with a book open before him, as he is represented in the popular photograph, with little 'Tad' beside him. There were of course a great many curious books sent to him, and it seemed to be one of the special delights of his life to open those books at such an hour, that his boy could stand beside him, and they could talk as he turned over the pages, the father thus giving to the son a portion of that care and attention of which he was ordinarily deprived by the duties of office pressing upon him.""" As indicating that this fellowship between Mr. Lincoln and his little son extended also to the perusal of the pages of the Scripture and was of frequent occurrence, the following is significant: "Captain Mix, being for a time in charge of President Lincoln's bodyguard, was upon terms of very close intimacy with the President. He saw him when others did. not, and he saw him many times as he was not seen by others. So close were his relations with the President and his family that the Captain often took breakfast with them at their summer residence at the Soldiers' Home. This fact, and the high character of Captain Mix, give peculiar force to the following statement by him: 'Many times have I listened to our most eloquent preachers, but never with the same feeling of awe and reverence as when our Christian President, with his arm around his son, with his deep, earnest tone, each morning read a chapter from the Bible.'" "7 Mrs. Pomeroy, as nurse, ministered to the afflicted mem66 Six Months in the White House, pp. 92-93. 67 Ibid., p. 261. bers of the President's family for several months and the great depth to which Mr. Lincoln was moved by his affection for the members of his family, and by the bereavement through which he passed, is indicated by the following: "On arriving at the Executive Mansion, Miss Dix conducted her into the green room, where the lifeless remains of Willie had just been laid out. Thence, she was taken to Mrs. Lincoln's chamber, where she was lying quite sick. From Mrs. Lincoln's room she was led into an adjoining one where little 'Tad' lay in a dying condition. The physicians had relinquished all hope of his recovery and he was not expected to live twenty-four hours. Mr. Lincoln was sitting by him, 'the very picture of despair.' 'Mrs. Pomeroy, Mr. President,' said Miss Dix. Mr. Lincoln arose, and very heartily shook her hand, saying: 'I am glad to see you; I have heard of you. You have come to a sad house.' His deep emotion choked further utterance and the tears streamed down his careworn cheeks."8 "Several weeks after the death of Willie, Mr. Lincoln, with several members of his Cabinet, spent a few days at Fortress Monroe, watching military operations upon the Peninsula. He improved his spare time there in reading Shakespeare. One day he was reading 'Hamlet' when he called to his private secretary: 'Come here, Colonel; I want to read you a passage.' The Colonel responded, when the President read the discussion on ambition between Hamlet and his courtiers, and the soliloquy in which conscience debates about a future state. Then he read passages from 'Macbeth,' and finally opened to the third act of 'King John,' where Constance bewails her lost boy. Closing the book, and recalling the words: "And, father cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven; 68 William M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, p. 346. Mr. Lincoln said: 'Colonel, did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not reality?—just so I dream of my boy Willie.' Overcome with emotion, he dropped his head on the table and sobbed aloud. "Beautiful example of paternal love in the highest place of the land! The million of fathers over whom he ruled found in him a worthy father to imitate.""" Few children ever more deeply interested mankind than did dear little "Tad," President Lincoln's youngest son. After the death of Willie the little fellow crept into his father's life in a marvelous measure. Tearfully touching is the story told of the nights when the careworn and weary ruler, while seeking the rest he sorely needed, would hear a familiar tap upon his chamber door and answering would find his darling boy waiting outside to feel his father's loving embraces and to cuddle up to him in bed where he would remain until morning. Such incidents were common during those months in the White House, and none but those with a flinty heart can read with tearless eyes the following by F. B. Carpenter: "Little "Tad's' frantic grief upon being told that his father had been shot was alluded to in the Washington correspondence of the time. For twenty-four hours the little fellow was perfectly inconsolable. Sunday morning, however, the sun rose in unclouded splendor, and in his simplicity he looked upon this as a token that his father was happy. 'Do you think my father has gone to heaven?' he asked of a gentleman who had called upon Mrs. Lincoln. 'I have not a doubt of it,' was the reply. 'Then,' he exclaimed, in his broken way, 'I am glad he has gone there, for he never was happy after he came here. This was not a good place for him!' 9970 69 William M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, pp. 356-357. 70 Six Months in the White House, p. 293. |