Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-08

warrant or excuse, for he wrongs no man,
and much less is he capable of injustice,
wrong, or even unkindness to woman
But we happen to know-the late Caleb B.
Smith, then Secretary of the Interior, be-
! ing our informant-a fact which incensed
Mrs. Lincoln against Mr.. Seward. The
President gave the Prince Napoleon din
ner, for which Mrs. Lincoln sent to the Sec
retary of the Interior, for payment, a bill
of some $500. This demand, though who'll
| ly illegal, coming from the Presidents
wife, embarrassed the Secretary, who called
upon the Secretary of State for advice,
where he learned that Mr.. Seward had also
dined the Prince, having the same number
Of guests, and giving them a duplicate of
the dinner at the White House. In fact,
| Mr.. Seward ordered both dinners from the
same restaurant, and by his own bill, knew
paid $500, Mrs. Lincoln demanded $780,
| But whether three or nine hundred, the
claim was alike illegal, and could not be
paid. For this, however, Mrs. Lincoln
quarreled with Secretaries Smith and Sew
ard. This amount, however, was subse-
quently covered up. IN a gardeners ac-.
count, but occasioned scandal, which res
pect for Mr.. Lincoln measurably sup
| pressed.
| Though Mr.. Lincoln left an estate which
enabled his family to live quite as comfort
ably as they had ever lived, Congress and
the people would have promptly and cheer
1 fully, provided munificently for them if
Mrs. Lincoln herself, with every advantage
j that high position gave her had made
/ friends OF inspired respect. And this last
exhibition proves how instinctively right
the popular estimate of her character was.
The fact for which Mrs. Lincoln seeks large
publicity; namely, that she received pres
ents valued at $4,000, is pregnant and
suggestive one-suggestive, at least, of Off
oh orit
able construction is reached through the
assumption that they were expressions of
regard and friendship. BUTT is not known
| that the wife OF any other President, how
ever estimable, was SO loaded with shawls,
laees, turs, diamonds, rings, &c. f'-.a.
Mrs. Lincoln's propensity to sell things
was manifested early, and before any ne
cessity was foreseen. If our information
is reliable, eleven of Mr.. Lincoln's new
linen shirts were sold almost before the
remains, which were sfirouded in the
twelfth, had started for that ''bourne from
whence no traveller returns"
Individually, we are obliged to Mrs. Lin
coin for an expression of her nl-will. 1t
is pleasant toremember that we were al
ways out of favorin that quarter. And it
is equally pleasant to remember that we
possessed the friendship and confidence of
Mr.. Lincoln to the last hour of his life,
without paying court, as others did, to
mrS. LlHCOlD, anu III Sp1G6 Oh uer COQSDdlG
efforts o disturb our relations.
The Cleveland Herald, edited by the Post
master of that city, after remarking that
Mrs. LINCOLN, by her recent course, has
forfeited that claim to forbearance which
the public is always ready to extend to-
The facts are just these. Judge Davis,
Lincoln's administrator. reported that the
estate was worth $4,000 Congress gave
Mrs. Lincoln the Presidents unexpired
years salary, and also gave her SIS, ZOO be-
sides, the same as was allowed the late
Mrs. Gen. Harrison. %" YET
Congressman Wentworth pressed Mrs.
Lincoln's claim for one hundred Thousand
dollars, but Congress did not think such
gift, ,justifable. There are other facts that
should see the light. and, perhaps, would B
explain Mrs. Lineoln's present straitened
circumstances. Among such facts is this,
that bill for some $4,000 for jewelry pur-
chased by Mrs. Lincoln was presented to
Congress and disallowed, and the secrets
of that committee could divulge most re-
markable items that through Mrs. Lincoln
these things, will all be made public, and
that it also may be known what the forty
huge boxes sent to Chicag go from the White
House, after the death of Mr.. Lincoln, con- 3
tained. Let the country know the fact that
it required an appropriation of one hum
dred thousand dollars TO make good the
spoliation at the White House, and let it
be proved who had the benefit of such
plundering. ,i t.F,[ ..
The CINCINNATI Commercial, adds its mite
to the TRADE OF of abuse as follows: a4nss
The widow of President Lincoln has in
sisted upon largely advertising her true
0far- TO- fhn A To-
the world. An intensely vulgar woman,
her conduct throughout the administration
of her husband was mortifying to all who
respected him, and source of satisfaction
to the enemies of the country. The gaudy
bad taste with which she dressed, and the
constant effort to make a show of herself
disgusted ell observers. She was always
trying to meddle in public affairs, and now
she will have it known to the whole
world that she accepted costly presents
from corrupt contractors. Her rela-
tives were nearly all secessionists,
thies were rather with the rebellion
than the nation, and her highest dream of
ambition to be recognized as one of the
Southern aristocracy.1 After the death of
her husband her conduct was disgracetul.
She fingered in the White House, and when
she had to leave it sought to appropriate as
her personal property articles that belong
ed to the house. Mr.. Weed shows that she
deliberately sent a, bill for a dinner to the
Prince Napoleon to the Secretary of the
Interior and charged three times the cost
of the dinner, and at length got her money
under false pretense that was acquiesced
in rather than make scandal. Having been
charitably permitted to sink into obscurity
she demands notoriety at the expense of
public shame, and we have no doubt she en-
joys the large advertising she is receiving
from the press of the country. She had
plenty Of money to live comfortably with.
but she wants show, and regards it her
right to revel in barbaric pomp.-
Hence her cries about the fngratitude of
the people and the need of money. If she
had bad the good sense to return to her old
house in Springfield, and to live modestly
there, she, with all her faults, would have
been respected, and, perhaps, in time she
might have been revered by the American
people. She could not think of such a
thing, however. Her complaint of strait
ened circumstances is unwarranted. The
Ohio State Journal said, when the story was
first started. that she was exposing her
in the New York market:
I'VE are reliably Informed by gentle- j
nan, who held position in the Treasury
Department during Mr.. Lincoln's admins
ration, that Mr.. l., always carefully saved
his earnings and invested them in United
states bonds, and that George Harrington,
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was
lis financial agent. Mr.. Harrington had,
hort time before the death OF Mr.. Lincoln,
,vor cavantv thotlsaffl- follara in nvaetod in '