Tad Lincoln's Father

Introduction

mary a. decredico Introduction Abraham Lincoln remains one of this nation’s most beloved and revered presidents. His elevation to iconic status came quickly after he was killed prematurely by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. The man known variously as the Great Emancipator, the Savior of the Union, and Father Abraham did not live to see the end of the war that preserved the nation he held so dear. It is—and has been—hard to separate the “real” Lincoln from the dei fied image most historians and biographers have crafted since his death in 1865. Essayist Edmund Wilson once wrote, “There has undoubtedly been written about him more romantic and sentimental rubbish than any other American figure, with the possible exception of Edgar Allen Poe.”1 Other scholars have noted that Lincoln will forever be separated from history by the circumstances of his assassination. Even Lincoln’s most even-handed biographers, such as David Donald, have portrayed a man destined for greatness. How refreshing it is—and how different— to view Lincoln through the eyes of a bright, sophisticated sixteen-yearold girl. Julia Taft Bayne’s Tad Lincoln’s Father is a delightful, albeit sentimentalized, look at President and Mrs. Lincoln and their beloved sons, Willie and Tad, during the early years of Lincoln’s presidency. The picture we see is of doting parents who refuse to let secession and a bloody civil war interfere with their sons’ childhood. Julia Taft Bayne was the vivacious daughter of Judge Horatio N. 1. Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), 115. xii introduction Taft, who had managed to have President James Buchanan appoint him chief of the U.S. Patent Office. Although Taft was a native New Yorker and had served the Empire State in a number of official positions, he quickly became friends with other members of the very pro-Southern Buchanan administration. Perhaps Taft was a doughface, a term used to describe Northerners who had strong Southern leanings and often pro-slavery sentiments. The Tafts did have two black servants, slaves who had been leased from their owner in Virginia, who, according to Julia, had nothing but disdain for the abolitionists. And Julia Taft makes mention of the numerous Southern senators who begged her father to cast his lot with the South once secession loomed on the horizon. Taft’s position within the Patent Office and his friendship with Buchanan and other luminaries assured the family of a high profile within the nation’s capital. JuliarelishedherencounterswithPresidentBuchananandhisofficial hostess, Harriet Lane, his niece. She admitted they probably did not know her name, but her attendance at the prestigious Madame Smith’s French School gave her a type of status other young girls may have lacked. Indeed, Julia Taft frequently darted through the White House grounds on her way to and from school. Often she had the good fortune to bump into the president and Miss Lane. They conversed with her in French and obviously saw nothing unusual about the fact young Julia used the White House as a shortcut to school and home. For Julia Taft, James Buchanan was the perfect gentleman every chief executive should be. Obviously she regretted the change in administrations when Abraham Lincoln became President on March 4, 1861. Yet Julia Taft would quickly find herself again a guest of the president after Lincoln was inaugurated. Shortly after those festivities, Julia and her younger brothers, Horatio Nelson Jr., known as Bud, and Halsey Cook Taft, called Holly, were invited to the White House to play with Willie and Tad Lincoln. Mary Lincoln, who had met Julia’s parents, knew that the Taft boys, at twelve and eight, were almost the same ages as her two sons. Having left their playmates behind in Springfield, Illinois, the young Lincoln boys were lonely for fun. Thus began the frequent visits of Bud, Holly, and Julia to the White House, visits that lasted until Willie’s death in 1862. introduction xiii Julia Taft Bayne’s book, published more than sixty years after her initial meeting with Lincoln, does have elements of nostalgia and perhaps even embellishment. Still, the book is a charming depiction of Lincoln as father, an image often overlooked by scholars who focus on Lincoln as the war president. Julia herself makes no apologies for the picture she...