well, the president-elect worked to organize his government mary launched her own campaigns hosting family and friends greeting diplomats and statesmen, anticipating her new set of duties. and she sought to maneuver the treacherous shoals of secession. the coldness and snobbery of easterners was wearing her down. she confronted one of the most idiosyncratic of american institutions, washington society. at the heart of the city, the toughened core of social arbiters were known as cave dwellers. their tenure and tenacity gave them influence over the parade of newcomers who straggled into the city at irregular but certainly every four-year intervals. the inner city of d.c. society was surrounded by the money bags whose rung on the ladder was bought. and then there were the highbrows whose station was secured by talent regardless of wealth although it was

considered felicityious when the two went together. three outer rungs applied social steady pressure, jockeying for pressure, the diplomats the army and navy crowd and the politicos, but clearly it was the cave dwellers particularly women like mary klemmer and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capitol's society. fanny eams mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th street home while her sister marian campbell governeur of new york was in several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames reigned in d.c. and she would later befriend the first lady, mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. john hay concurred it would be

difficult to conceive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue. and as we just heard maybe the architectural recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remained there. there were of course areas of the city which boasted palatial homes. the finest date of senator steven douglas near "i" street and jersey avenue where his wife, adele, a legendary beauty near 25 years his junior held her court. equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwynn, however, was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began was imprisoned until 1863, then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora.

the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgian but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only james buchanan mural in the world. harriet lane, buchanan's niece, who assumed the role of white house hostess, left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed. and she wrote cattily that

lincoln resembled the irish doorkeeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. arriving in a town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a dressmaking order with mrs. kekly. elizabeth kekly was a prominent mixed-race seamstress. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was farina davis. assuming the role himself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslim palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight, his wife stayed on dancing polka

and shodishes into the night. she viced the washington snobs as elizabeth ellet an influential cave dweller, commented on mary lincoln's exquisite toilette and complimented her admiral ease and grace. "the new york herald" weighed in, again, that's the newspaper not our herald she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoy palloy. but she had wicked step-sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with confederate kin. and so many elite southern women

boycotted inaugural festivities and they turned their backs on the president's wife. the republicans were flocking into town in droves but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee daughter of marilyn power broker frances preston blair, suggested the womenkind are giving mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder in the city, and consequently the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created deep rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s. who could forget bully brooks and his cane and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861 the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights. so churchgoing even became a

divided enterprise. linken's election like andrew jackson's decades before represented a seismic social shift in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs. and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage, denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to but the cage was not exactly gilded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby run-down condition of the president's residence. the furnishing in the red room which the lincolns claimed for private callers had pleases left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion

really resembled a second-rate hotel with its red bare carpets and chopped-up drapes. mary was discernment to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month, the washington ladies have not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself. and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate. hoping that once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city, and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on fort sumter and lincoln's call to arms her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation.

white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where quote, under the gorgeous glass sland here shand lirchandeliers on the brilliant carpet. a vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's predecessor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the costs would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she proposed to the president that they drop the customary state dinners, not simply for reasons of economy she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the

institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her argument was skeptical. i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries proclaimed lauren has determined to abrogate dinners, and lauren got her way. while her husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln zmondemonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at-homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levies will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainder of the session of congress. these social occasions were obligatory and staff found them wearing. nickel let confided they are both novel and plechb to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to, quote, do washington. but for us who have to suffer the infliction once a week they get to be intolerable bores.

a congressional wife complained of the president looking more and more gaunt and care-worn. to relieve the tedium mrs. lincoln introduced the practice of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion for special occasions. linken's favorite singers actors and others might be singled out for recognition, even one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts, colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. the first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manors invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room. not only the labor required for such an event but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and

acute to the lincoln secretaries who by now had nicknamed her hellcat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not mr. and mrs. wade are. and for that reason declined to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge quail, duck, turkey, foie gras, beef, and the president's favorites, oysters greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant sponge sugar desserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka, composed to honor the first lady. and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen.

mary had taken nearly a year, hoping to banish the memory of her predecessor's reign in the white house. harriet lane had been both a popular socialite and impeccable style setter. mary klemmer, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense harmonious vitality, her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke rebuke, kijd withndle. her mouth was her most peculiar beautiful feature while her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's goal when she took over the executive mansion focused on erasure of memories of when this blonde younger model made washington society dance to her tune. klemmer suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill

and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition. and mary lincoln made her journey to washington a triumphal passage. and with all of mary's faults as pulitzer prize-winning historian margaret leach has argued in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. mary's poor relations with the press formed a mainstay of my biographical treatment of her in mrs. lincoln and she and her husband were unforgiving. what they felt was an abusive forth of state. lincoln had his battles with journalists during his administration, and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the

times" recalled running into the couple while they were on a carriage ride. and the president was not so good-humored, nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip. and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and went over the public her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst, ludicrous ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign as fervently as the statesmen wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's exit created a vacuum almost immediately filled by the charismatic kate chase. the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival salmon p. chase. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the

treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house. in the chase home at 6th & "e," quite a good place this clara barton matthew brady nexus. contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office. and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john auller's new book, "american queen: the rise and fall of kate chase sprague, civil war belle of the north and gilded age women of scandal," which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fast nate fascinating life. rumors in washington say that the chase lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861.

the couple visited at the home of governor william denison of ohio on february 13th, the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol, then he and his family spent the evening being entertained including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night which of course, was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counterstory was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance. but both fanciful tales seem manufactured likely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness and her rendition of the revivalry in later years, particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity

peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and mary lincoln was introduced at the first white house levy on march 8th, 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and confidante of mrs. lincoln. this young eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. ann richardson french wife of sculptor daniel chester french, described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow deliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded that both her striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns' first state dinner on march 28th, battle lines were clearly being drawn as the stories repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as

she left, i shall be glad to see you any time, ms. chase. and chase allegedly replied mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me any time. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction, but i think we both know they were giving veiled of the seas ahead. the gauntlet had been thrown down. they were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile, kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1860, but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent visitor as well as many other wealthy financiers. in addition, kate held receptions for the republican faithful every wednesday afternoon. and afternoon gatherings would

drift into evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the influential wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england, lord lyons, apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about warming her way into lincoln's inner circle, attending a theater with john hay and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip. and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases'. hay stayed in the picture and was even manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wonderkind, sprague. he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, heir to a textile fortune, the youngest man elected at 29 to lead a state nicknamed the boy governor of rhode island, sprague cut a

dashing figure at war's onset. and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's, and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington the president was extraordinarily kind, even solace tus of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife. but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spyglass tour during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with a delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth kekly repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to

speak to kate at a white house reception. something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known affinity for alcohol. he was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege brigadier general james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife, wrote inquisitively you

and ms. kate are taking dinners out, visiting camps et cetera. is ms. kate a very charming, interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period, we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a "new york tribune" reporter lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow, one year kate chase's junior and nearly a decade younger than garfield. as for kate perhaps being squired in public by garfield was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work as thereafter the couple became involved again and eventually engaged. sprague played close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. an $18,000 paris gown was part of her bridal wardrobe.

kate's advance to advance her father's career never wavered. it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lincoln has a new french rig with all the poseys, costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6,000 arrangement including a $3,000 shawl. go to it, greenbacks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. but if you read a washington paper of the period sara austin, the proprietor of a popular fancy house, chance to drive alongside a carriage which

had two professional rival ss. one of them called out that it contained a tub of guts. madam austin summoned the police and the fannys were hailed before justice and fined $2.50 each. newspapers might treat female rivalry satirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication, whether highbrow or lowbrow, hijinks or low blows, all part of the washington merry-go-round. in 1864, kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863, had been hailed as the social event of the season. the bride was resplendent in a white velvet wedding dress with a needle did point veil sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000.

the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln spent over two hours to quote, take the cuffs off the meagerness of the presidential party, as he put it. mrs. sprague, however, after her marriage, did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated that she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864. although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage apartment on chase's behalf, the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation, this time this was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate

sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors, having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck, suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly that i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set, and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also indulge in her shopping mania and "the new york herald" reported during the summer of '64 that she ransacked the

treasures of the broadway dry goods stores. mary klemmer complained while her sisters scraped lint, the wife of president spent her time rolling to and 'fro between washington and new york, intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife. but we do know that indeed even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven berry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with

general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan, although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally locked the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some politicians began to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan in congress a week earlier which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. but over the next two years mcclellan dubbed the american napoleon more for his personality than his military prowess, found criticism no laughing matter. he wrote to his wife, ellen when he received his first great military promotion in july 1861, i find myself in a new and strange position here. president, cabinet, general scott and all deferring to me by

some strange operation of magic i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now, i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore i won't be dictator. admirable self-denial. and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship, but their courtship was protracted and it wasstymied. he fell head over heels with the daughter of his former army commander, randolph marci. he encouraged this young soldier who had prospects. and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother that he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant

ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military, ellen's father threatened that if she did not break off with him, i fear that my ardent affections will turn to hate. ellen did eventually abandon hill who would later, as we know, serve the rebel cause and often face mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox. but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find that mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. and when the mcclellans were on a visit to chicago and she was 25 mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. the couple were married in may 1860. and by all accounts remained devoted.

however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self-promoter on his own. achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34, consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when winfield scott retired in november 1861 mcclellan insisted to lincoln that i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not. and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private, he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mike time. by july of 1862 salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed. yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove

himself. and tetum became her final downfall. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle splendidly. one of these days history will, i trust do me justice. yet lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he defected blame and then gloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party as their nominee in 1864. he actually held on to his military commission until election day november 8th

following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the afterfirmation of your excellency. he forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marci mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations next year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger,

blonder rivals? harriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush precipitously into matrimonial connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one, although she lost her uncle her husband, and both of her children, two sons before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s, donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography. as mary lincoln and harriet lane did. even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for

president. kate and her sister nettie were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court, an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873, four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring william's philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as

kate's own infidelity her involvement with new york senator roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alleyil alimoney. it was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife who would return to the use of her maiden name, kate chase. she settled in the washington suburban home her father left her, caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty who was born mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life. which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. as auller argues, rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed

to politics. her tragic life was, like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. much like the first lady she desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidate's victory. instead they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864 and one which just like today is ruled by social media just as generals

petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught, never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex and media mix in washington. thank you. >> if there are any questions, we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> oh i'm norm. >> hi, norm. >> from akron, illinois but original ly

originally -- >> lincolnian. >> i asked this question of jean baker when she was here last. and i'll ask the same question to you, but i'm not going to give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar bipolar? >> i have often said -- and i will repeat -- that pie doctorate's in history, not in medicine. and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today, and she were examined by people, they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose. i try and lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues. jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. and we have some new work coming out about concussions and what

head trauma and injuries can do. so i very much welcome that speculation. but i myself try to contextualize, and i believe that i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated, confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> melberger, boston mass. >> hey don't forget us over here. >> oh, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i must go to the left first, mel. do you mind? i'll take this, then i'll come

right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath from buffalo, new york. grover cleveland territory. and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> yeah. anyway my question is mary todd linken didn't -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia. but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor. but in the 1870s, grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well i would just check my last chapter because i believe

it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. that's just my -- >> that's what i heard. i just wonder if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> oh did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her presidential -- >> they actually had a really interesting incident that she was living abroad. and it's a very small town, very springfieldlike, a little capital in the south of france. you would go there for your health. british doctors would come. and interestingly, the grants were visiting there. and while she was in residence. and i came across an exchange of

correspondence which was that very sincere, we're so terribly sorry, we had no idea you were here. and now our schedule doesn't allow us to visit you. so i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death, she never, i think, recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederickd douglass douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant, i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dunn grant, no they were never going to really become, you

know bosom buddies, yeah. >> where would you rank her on first ladies? would she be on your top five? >> what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. yes. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children and then subsequently -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. one died after. >> what was the -- were her social rivals able to empathize and, you know ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships, or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore her? >> after her -- after her child's death. well, that was what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically.

but when i got to the '61, '62, '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how karping her critics were. she just went through, you know, an amazing year of press surveillance, presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters. and doris goodwin put me on to the notion that if you want to attack the house, you set fire to the that muchch. she was often being scorched burnt during this particular period. and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find particular. but she does by '64 get herself revved up again. although she can throughout the period '63, '64 dissolve

completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willie, except for neptune. i'm blanking. >> gideon wells. >> gideon wells' life who had lost so many children herself that she wrote a very reassuring note. so i do find some people coming in. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her. that she was going to hospitals. that she was feeding -- they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper, which is, of course, why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and

her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar. some of her behavior her shopping behavior and so forth. but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marci broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family the marci family, of amplgts p. a.p. hill's condition. >> well, thank you for that. i just don't do military history, but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then yes. >> yes.

good c sxmorning. i'm david carroll. i'm from chicago. >> hi, david. >> hi. in the last year, published in "the journal of the abraham lincoln association" -- >> yes. >> -- there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing pennyroyal at diller's drugstore in springfield when she was born with thad who was born with a rift cleft palate. i was wondering if you had any insights on this recent scholarship. >> i'm sorry, i can't comment on the scholarship. i apologize that i haven't read it, my recent move and dislocation of many of my books and pieces have meant that you know, i don't have the 41 trunks of mary lincoln, but moving a household from ireland was difficult, so i haven't looked at that particular thing. i would say from my estimation, my reading during that period, i would have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there

would be any way i could comment or believe that she was trying to not have a fourth child. the lincolns the lincolns were besoted by their children. they were very proud and devoted that when she suffered family tragedies and the death of oh little eddie, she was pregnant within a month. indeed the idea of having two younger sons and robert already gone to school was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. thanks. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. that's all. >> oh, well, well. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we'll applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it's good.

i did take great umbrage at the book that came out that said she definitely had syphilis. medically, i'm sure people can speculate. >> originally from ohio. the land of the presidents. can you talk more about mary lincoln's work. she spent time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of the vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? and was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand she was doing this? >> i don't think she advertised on purpose. thank you for that.

i think she was someone of very much went into penaltyt penitence when her son died. one of the things is i told you about the grand ball and her grand aspirations for dethroning harriet lane. that was the night her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. if you go to the lincoln library, it is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room to check during the ball. here was her great social triumph. within days her beloved willie was dead. i think during that period, if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64 i think you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. but also writing letters and taking care of the bonds between

families during the wartime dislocations was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowerses from the white house. she took fruit. she was, indeed, serving the role which she thought was a political role. we nolin con did it as well. they didn't go in as a couple. they went in separately and made tear way through the wards. when people came to her to try to publicize it, when someone mentioned it, she wrote to them saying please don't. we do know she was trying to keep that side of her charity. she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers' cause during that period. that's what i think was her interest at that time. yes? >> mary beth donnelly. i appreciate the opportunity to oh ask a question. >> i'm sorry. the last question. make it a good one. >> i'll try. >> i'm sorry. >> it's broad. i'm thinking of last night's conversation about lincoln on film. what do you think about the portrayal of oh mary lincoln on film. specifically related to

spielberg or anything else. do you feel it's been fair? >> well, i do have weaknesses. i think that i have very strong feelings about ann rutledge on film which i won't share. nevertheless, i think mary on film is a really interesting phenomenon. i do believe, for example, you could see in the portrait with sam waterston with gore vidal and mary tyler moore trying to show a woman with clear disturbances. i thought that was powerful. but i felt that the recent portrait by sally field, which i very much regret didn't earn her her third oscar, was nevertheless such an amazing inhabiting of the role. i think people can have differences of opinion about what were her problems. what were her flaws.

i think that portrait captured her as a flawed, dynamic, intense character. she contributed to that in a way that i found amazing. i'm regretful i can't name the actress who portrayed mary todd in "lincoln the vampire slayer." you have to understand that any scholar who has written a biography of harriet tubman and mary lincoln that finds these characters taking guns to gettysburg to save the union is =q> we'd like to tell you about some of our other american history tv programs. join us every saturday at 6:00

p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern for a special look at the civil war. we'll bring you to the battlefields, let you hear from scholars and reenactors and bring you the latest historical forums on the subject. that's programs on the civil war every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv on c-span3. >> you have been watching c-span's american history tv. we want to hear from you. follow us on twitter @cspan history. connect with us at facebook.com/cspan history where you can leave comments too. check out the website, c-span.org/history. >> new year's day on the c-span networks. here are some of the featured programs. 10:00 a.m. eastern, the washington ideas forum. energy conservation with david crane. business magnate t pickens,

inveb tor dean cayman. the brooklyn history society holds a conversation on race. then at 8:00 p.m. eastern from the explorers club, apollo vii astronaut walt with cunningham on the first manned space flight. u new year's day on cspan 2, just before noon eastern, author hector tobar on the 33 men that were buried in a chiliian mine. at 3:00 p.m. richard norton smith on the life of nelson rockefeller. at 8:00 p.m. eastern former investigative correspondent for cbs news cheryl atkinson on her experiences reporting on the obama administration. new year's day on american history tv on c-span3 . at 10:00 a.m. eastern juanita abernathy on her experiences and the role of women in the civil rights movement. at 4:00 p.m. brooklyn college professors47w benjamin carp on the

link between alcohol and politics in prerevolutionary new york city. at 8:00 p.m., cartoonist patrick oliphant draw thes ten presidential caricatures as david mccullough discuss it is presidents and their memorable qualities. new year's day on the cspan networks. for the complete schedule go to cspan.org. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span 2, on c-span3 we complement the coverage by showing you the most relevant congressional hearings and public affairs events. on weekends, c-span3 is home to american history tv with programs that tell our nation's story, including six unique series. the civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events. american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites to is see what is revealed about america's past. history bookshelf, the best known history writers. the presidency looking at the policies and legacieses of the nation's commanders in chief. lectures in history with top college professors delving into america's past and reel america

featuring government and educational films from the 1930s through the '70s. c-span3, created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> historian damian shields talks about the life of patrick clebur next e and his role in the army during the battle of franklin. he later enlisted in the army

where he rose to the rank of major general, proposing to emancipate slaves to enlist them. this 50-minute talk is part of a series organized by the tennessee civil war ses question centennial commission. >> i will use my big voice to get everyone rounded back up for next part of the program. in franklin, talking about the battle of franklin, the battle of nashville and the final campaign, the last campaign has meant to tennessee, southern history and american history. 1r so thanks for coming out. it's sort of like introducing a rock star next. you have had the well known acts and the front acts. now you get a special event.