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Foreword
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
william e. barton Foreword To Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln of Springfield, Illinois, beginning in 1843, were born with becoming regularity four sons, one about every two years. All of them were welcomed and loved, for both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were fond of children. The boys had their own way with their father; and while their mother was sometimes disposed to chide them for undue mischief, even she gave them quite as much liberty as was good for them. They were good boys, not prigs or saints, but good, average boys. When Eddie died in Springfield, and Willie died in Washington, both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were plunged into deep sorrow. Their greatest pride and hope was in their sons. But with all this satisfaction went one sorrow. They had no daughter. We are not left in any doubt concerning their disappointment, for neither of them made any secret of the fact. Four noisy boys needed a sister, and both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were ready to pet and love a little girl. The shyness which Lincoln felt in the presence of women left him when he met little girls. He admired them and liked them, and wished to have them about him. They were to him a happy reminder of what he had always wanted but never had possessed. And Mrs. Lincoln liked to have young girls about her. She was a bit conservative with regard to other women, but young girls were very dear to her. That the Lincoln family at the threshold of their experience in Washington should have met Julia Taft, and invited her to come to the White House and play with the Lincoln boys, is something as pleasant xxii foreword to know about as it would have been natural to expect. In Springfield, the boys knew all the boys and girls of the town; in Washington, they were to make new friends under very different conditions. Mrs. Lincoln was solicitous in regard to the companions for her boys, and happy to have their friends at the White House. And so Julia Taft came thither. It is very gratifying that Julia herself can tell us about her life as a playmate of the Lincoln boys, and at the same time tell us how a young girl saw Mr. Lincoln in his hours of freedom from the cares of office. Julia’s narrative carries its own evidence of veracity, and it affords us a most interesting look into the White House in those grim days. Her story will find its fitting place with the permanently valuable documents of the Lincoln home, for it is a most readable tale, and gives us added reason for loving Abraham Lincoln. ...