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TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
Lincoln and His Son "Tad" 
 
 From an Engraving after the Photograph by Brady 
 
TAD 
 
 AND HIS FATHER 
 
 BY 
 
 F. LAURISTON BULLARD 
 
 WITH FRONTISPIECE 
 AFTER A PHOTOGRAPH BY BRADY 
 
 NON-REFERT 
 
 S1MVAD-Q3S 
 
 M^y4iLj »i wjU'-J-' " "-^ '" - ■ ■■ I * 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 / 
 
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 «lu 
 
 
 Copyright, igi^. 
 By Little, Brown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Published, September, 1915 
 
 Setup and electrotyped by J. S. Cashing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A* 
 Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Cq. , Boston, Mass. , U . S.A, 
 
 SEP 171915 
 
 5CI.A410497 V 
 
H. D. B. 
 
 AND 
 
 C. E. B. 
 
TAD AND HIS 
 FATHER 
 
 ON a day in the late summer of 1862, 
 the President of the United States 
 and his Cabinet were in conference in a 
 large room upon the second floor of the 
 White House in Washington. The win- 
 dows opened to the southward, and the 
 men about the big table, strewn with pa- 
 pers and books, sometimes looked rather 
 wistfully at the Potomac River and the 
 Virginia hills under the warm sunshine 
 without. A war map, hanging from a 
 roller in one corner of the room, was 
 
 I 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 thickly stuck with pins of various sizes 
 and colors. An engraved portrait of 
 Andrew Jackson looked severely down 
 from the north wall, and upon the man- 
 tel there stood a photograph of the Eng- 
 lish champion of the American Union, 
 John Bright. 
 
 The members of the Cabinet were 
 engaged in a discussion of the military 
 situation, and the President was listen- 
 ing quietly to their informal remarks. 
 Their tones and gestures were those of 
 men sorely disappointed and somewhat 
 discouraged. The Confederates, elated 
 by their recent successes, were carrying 
 the war into the North, declaring their 
 intention to release Maryland from the 
 ''foreign yoke." 
 
 Intently the President studied the 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 faces of his advisers. There sat William 
 Henry Seward, his head, with its beet- 
 ling brows, seeming almost too heavy 
 for his slender neck and small body. 
 The strong, aquiline nose projected over 
 the chest in a manner suggestive of 
 inquiry and combat. The eyes were 
 keen, the mouth firm, the hair white, 
 with glimpses in its tangle of an early 
 tinge of red. Subtle and witty in speech, 
 the Secretary of State indulged in some 
 characteristic eccentricities of exaggera- 
 tion which brought the President for- 
 ward into his favorite attitude for lis- 
 tening, both hands clasping his left knee, 
 and his face at the same time took on a 
 look of worn and sad attention. 
 
 There sat Edwin M. Stanton, burly 
 and aggressive, a natural primal force, 
 
 3 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 devoid of tact, scornful of ceremony, 
 inexorable as fate, well hit off by the 
 name of the god of war which the Presi- 
 dent playfully applied to him. A mass 
 of black, curling hair and a long beard 
 surrounded the leonine head, with its 
 sharp eyes, which the spectacles could 
 not dim, and its strong, full lips. He 
 gave full sway to his brusque intolerance 
 of forms and spoke vehemently and with 
 intense earnestness of the commanders 
 in the field, only in a few minutes to 
 veer to a mood as warm and caressing 
 as the September sunshine. 
 
 Salmon P. Chase was striding about 
 the room, an impressive figure, two 
 inches more than six feet in height. 
 The President's eyes turned expectantly 
 upon him. The Secretary of the Treas- 
 
 4 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 ury looked the Roman statesman, lack- 
 ing only the toga to complete the 
 illusion. His domelike, massive head 
 had the qualities of the marble bust 
 which later was to be considered his 
 most perfect likeness. His austere 
 manner and the cold look in his bluish- 
 gray eyes seemed almost to affect the 
 atmosphere of the room. 
 
 There also sat Gideon Welles, big, 
 quiet, unassuming, his carefully adjusted 
 wig giving him an absurd appearance 
 which accounted for the popular notion 
 that he was an old fogy ; and there, 
 too, were the Secretary of the Interior, 
 the Attorney-general, and the Post- 
 master-general. 
 
 As the President turned from speaker 
 to speaker, his hands fondled ever more 
 
 S 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 closely his left knee, and the Hnes of 
 weariness seemed to deepen upon his 
 countenance. No feature of the face 
 appeared quite to harmonize with any 
 other feature. The eyes looked out of 
 deep hollows, as if they were placed at 
 the bottom of a ravine, and above them 
 was a high, wide forehead with a brow 
 jutting outward like a cliff. The bushy 
 eyebrows were surrounded by delicately 
 sensitive muscles and mobile wrinkles. 
 The flesh was dropping away from the 
 cheekbones, making them look sharp 
 and high. The ears were long and pro- 
 truding, the lower jaw strong and angu- 
 lar, the chin high and solid. The small 
 gray eyes dominated the face, and as 
 the President uncoiled his limbs and 
 slowly arose, he stretched himself up- 
 
 6 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 ward, with that vertical elasticity often 
 noticed in him, until he seemed even 
 more than six feet and four inches in 
 height. The eyes kindled, the pre- 
 occupied and dreamy look disappeared, 
 the whole aspect became animated, and 
 the incongruous features were fused into 
 a harmony which no merely decorative 
 face ever displays. The marks of his 
 early occupations were ineffaceably 
 stamped upon Abraham Lincoln, but 
 the rail-splitter did not try to cover 
 over what he had been by what he had 
 become. 
 
 Perhaps he was thinking of some of 
 the outward contrasts between himself 
 and the other members of the group 
 as he looked upon his family of official 
 advisers. Here was his chief competi- 
 
 7 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 tor for the Presidency ; there was an- 
 other who aspired to the White House 
 and whose self-love was wounded that 
 one so inferior in the lore of schools 
 should be preferred before himself; and 
 the Attorney-general had been the fa- 
 vorite candidate of the most powerful 
 newspaper editor of the North. It was 
 a strangely mixed council of state, and 
 it required rare skill to hold those able 
 and powerful men together. 
 
 With a quizzical smile, the President 
 glanced again at Stanton, and said : 
 
 *'Well, Mars, the one thing that seems 
 to be sure to everybody is that Mc- 
 Clellan must keep between Lee and 
 Washington, and by jings — '^ 
 
 He was interrupted. A commotion 
 was heard in the hall outside, and blows 
 
 8 
 
I TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 resounded upon the door. There were 
 three sharp raps, followed by two slow 
 thumps. In that order the blows were 
 repeated over and over. 
 
 "Now I wonder what Tadpole wants," 
 said the President. ''You see, that's 
 the code I taught him yesterday, three 
 short and two long, this way — " and 
 he drummed the signal upon the Cabinet 
 table — 
 
 "Tad learned it over in the telegraph 
 office. It's a sort of bribe to prevent 
 him breaking in on us without warning. 
 I've got to let him in, you see, because 
 I promised never to go back on the 
 code." 
 
 But the applicant was getting im- 
 patient, and as the President strode 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 towards the door, with the Cabinet 
 looking on curiously, it flew open, and 
 in rushed a small boy, who plunged 
 straight into his father's arms. A jolly, 
 round-faced lad he was, cheeks glowing, 
 gray eyes flashing, dark hair flying. 
 Words were getting into each other's 
 way as they tumbled out of his mouth, 
 and a slight defect in his utterance 
 made it still harder to understand him. 
 In his excitement he seemed to explode 
 just like a bombshell, and he shattered 
 the solemnity of the Cabinet meeting 
 quite as efi^ectually as a shell might 
 have done. 
 
 The President sat down again and 
 took the boy on his knees. A marvel- 
 lous change transformed his face. The 
 eyes were radiant, the wrinkles were 
 
 lO 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 smoothed out, and a tender smile ef- 
 faced every vestige of melancholy. It 
 was the look which his friends always 
 remembered affectionately, but which 
 no artist ever was able to record. 
 
 "Now, Tad, tell us all about it,'* 
 he said, speaking very slowly. 
 
 Tad, sizzling with excitement, jerked 
 out his story, much as the sparks sputter 
 from a burning fuse. 
 
 "Papa day, isn't the kitchen ours, 
 and can't I feed some boys if I want 
 to ? There's a lot of 'em down-stairs, 
 and they're all my friends, and two of 
 'em have got a papa in the army. We're 
 all hungry as bears, and I won't eat if 
 they can't. And Peter won't let us 
 in, and mama is away, and isn't it our 
 kitchen t I want Peter to get out the 
 
 II 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 meat and pies and things he had left 
 yesterday, and he called my friends 
 street boys, too. Can't I give them 
 some dinner ? Because it's our kitchen, 
 isn't it ? And please make Peter mind 
 me." 
 
 "How many boys are there, Taddie ?" 
 *'Why — , there's the two soldier boys, 
 and Perry Kelly, and Bobby Grover, 
 and two more, and me ; that makes 
 seven. We're terrible hungry : please, 
 papa day." 
 
 The President looked gravely around 
 upon the Cabinet circle. Chase, stand- 
 ing with arms folded, seemed to contem- 
 plate the scene as from some Olympian 
 height. Stanton was in a melting mood, 
 and smiles softened his resolute face. 
 Seward, whose native sense of humor 
 
 12 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 had been deepened by his intimate as- 
 sociation with the man from the prairies, 
 was chuckhng aloud. 
 
 *' Seward," said the boy's father, *^you 
 must advise with me. This is a case 
 for diplomacy." 
 
 The Secretary moved to the side of 
 the President's chair and patted the 
 boy on the head. 
 
 "Now, Thomas," he said, "you must 
 remember that this house belongs to 
 the nation, and that the kitchen is 
 loaned for your use just for a few years. 
 And Mr. Chase will tell you how expen- 
 sive it is to carry on this war. So you 
 must be careful not to run the govern- 
 ment into debt. However, it also seems 
 unwise to let promising young citizens 
 starve. I guess the Chief Executive 
 
 ) 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 had better issue an order on the Com- 
 missary Department of the Presidential 
 Residence for rations for seven boys." 
 
 Tad Hstened quietly to this speech, 
 although he understood it only in part. 
 But the twinkle in the speaker's eyes 
 he understood very well, and he wriggled 
 out of his father's arms, rushed to the 
 table, and came back with pencil and 
 paper. With a droll smile, the President 
 wrote a line and signed it, remarking 
 that he "reckoned Peter would come 
 to time now." This "'order" he de- 
 livered into the brown hands of the 
 eager boy. 
 
 The Secretary of War stepped pon- 
 derously forward. 
 
 "My boy," he said, and there was a 
 mellow quality in his voice which some 
 
 14 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 members of the Cabinet did not remem- 
 ber ever to have perceived before, "you 
 seem to care a great deal for the soldiers 
 and their children. Wouldn't you like 
 to be a soldier yourself?*' 
 
 ''Yes, I would, but Tm only a boy." 
 
 "Well," continued Stanton, "perhaps 
 I can fix it so you may be a real soldier 
 and a boy at the same time. Anyhow, 
 I'm going to make you a lieutenant of 
 United States Volunteers. Maybe Peter 
 will obey an army officer." 
 
 "Do you mean I'll have a uniform, 
 and straps on my shoulders, and brass 
 buttons, and a sword .^" 
 
 "Why — yes. Tad, I think you would 
 have to have all the trappings and pomp 
 of your rank. And if you could muster 
 a company, you might drill your men." 
 
 IS 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 "Papa day, papa day, you hear that ?" 
 cried the boy triumphantly. And then, 
 as a doubt entered his mind, he added : 
 
 "He isn't laughing at me, is he, papa 
 day?" 
 
 "No, Tad," said the President, rising 
 and putting his arm about the shoulders 
 of his son. "No, I don't think Mars is 
 laughing at you, but just to clinch the 
 thing, I'd make him give me a regular 
 commission if I were you." 
 , Instantly Tad was in full eruption 
 again. 
 
 "You mean a paper that I can show 
 folks so they'll know I'm a soldier.?" 
 he cried, and with the question on his 
 lips, he scrambled headlong to the table 
 for paper, and then to the Secretary, 
 like a small hurricane in knickerbockers, 
 
 i6 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 and that willing official promptly drew 
 up an impressive looking document, re- 
 quiring the proper clerks in his Depart- 
 ment to issue a commission as first 
 lieutenant, and to provide the uniform 
 and sword of the rank, the commission 
 to be presented to himself for his signa- 
 ture, and to be forwarded duly to the 
 White House to Thomas Lincoln, aged 
 nine years. 
 
 Tad beamed upon the Secretary, 
 dashed at the long legs of his father and 
 wrapped his arms about one of them for 
 a moment, and without another word 
 clattered out of the door and down the 
 hall. 
 
 "Well, Mars," said the President, "I 
 reckon you've made the boy so happy 
 that the place won't hold him for awhile. 
 
 17 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 I don't think you'll regret what you've 
 done, either. Did I ever tell you about 
 Sam Waters and the famous steed he 
 brought to Sangamon County ?" 
 
 But just then the President glanced 
 again at Chase, and as he took in the 
 imperious figure, the arms still folded 
 and the countenance stamped unmis- 
 takably with disapproval, he doubled 
 together with uproarious laughter, in 
 which every member of the circle joined, 
 excepting only the martinet who watched 
 over the finances of the nation. 
 
 "Well, boys," said the President pres- 
 ently, *^ we'll get back to work and let 
 the Sangamon steed go for this time." 
 
 An hour later, the others having gone 
 their several ways, the President walked 
 across with Stanton from the White 
 
 i8 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 House to the big building which housed 
 the War Department. As they left the 
 mansion, they caught sight of a group of 
 boys sitting on a flight of steps at the 
 rear. They had been having a feast, 
 and Tad, nutcracker in hand, was dis- 
 tributing the final course. Perry Kelly, 
 who was about Tad's own age, was the 
 son of a Pennsylvania Avenue tinsmith. 
 Bobby Grover's father was the manager 
 of the National Theatre, usually called 
 Grover's, to which the President went 
 more frequently, perhaps, than to the 
 better-known playhouse conducted by 
 John T. Ford. Charlie Forbes, the big 
 Irish footman, happened to be passing, 
 and he stopped to look on for a moment, 
 only to have his hands filled with nuts 
 by the generous master of ceremonies. 
 
 19 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 The Secretary and the President re- 
 garded the scene as they crossed the 
 lawn, and Lincoln remarked humor- 
 ously : 
 
 "'Oil's well that ends well', as my 
 friend Nasby says. I reckon the 
 kitchen's ours." 
 
 The President called Tad the tyrant 
 of the White House, and the degree of 
 liberty enjoyed by the boy was almost 
 a scandal in the eyes of some 'very 
 "proper" persons. The father's habit of 
 "having a little fun with the boys", 
 with the simple manners and the story- 
 telling practices, came right along to 
 Washington from the plain home in 
 Illinois. Willie, the second of the three 
 lads, died in February, 1862, and from 
 that time, as Robert, the oldest, was 
 
 20 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 away at school, the President indulged 
 *' Tadpole" more than ever and made 
 him almost a constant companion. The 
 lively little fellow always had some active 
 enterprise on hand, but he was treated 
 with affectionate toleration by every 
 occupant of the mansion, while the 
 office-seekers petted him and the offi- 
 cials of the various departments showered 
 gifts upon him. One presented him 
 with a box of tools, and the boy pro- 
 ceeded to use them not only in the 
 stables and the kitchen but in the "show 
 rooms" of the White House as well. 
 The big table in the Cabinet Room was 
 used once or twice for a work-bench ; 
 he drove nails into the old-fashioned 
 mahogany desk used by John Hay ; 
 and he carried his experiments in car- 
 
 zi 
 
 \ 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 pentry into the small room in which 
 his father slept ; but when he attacked 
 the chairs in the showy East Room, the 
 tools disappeared overnight, and no 
 one seemed to know what had become 
 of them. 
 
 Conditions in the White House favored 
 the innocent lawlessness of the boy. 
 Visitors came in swarms from early 
 morning until midnight. Office-seekers, 
 military and naval commanders, private 
 soldiers, inventors with devices which 
 they fondly believed would revolution- 
 ize warfare, stricken fathers and mothers 
 upon errands of supplication, often 
 blockaded the way between the Presi- 
 dent's office and the private apartments 
 of his family. The President did not 
 care for ceremony, and in that critical 
 
 22 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 period unimportant formalities were 
 thought by many persons to be out of 
 place. Lincoln, with his burden of 
 responsibility for the preservation of 
 the Republic, lived with the single pur- 
 pose of saving the Union, and found his 
 relaxation in telling stories, attending 
 the theatre, reading the poets, and pour- 
 ing out the fullness of his tender heart 
 upon the one child who shared his home, 
 the warm-blooded boy who was all the 
 dearer because of an impediment in his 
 speech. 
 
 That September day of 1862 was one 
 of the very liveliest days for mischievous, 
 impulsive, imperious, sensitive, boister- 
 ous, big-hearted Tad. No one about 
 the White House forgot it for a long 
 time. ''What will he do next.?" asked 
 
 23 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Louis, the messenger, of James Halliday, 
 the White House carpenter. Only a 
 few hours after he burst in upon the 
 Cabinet meeting, a new freak caused a 
 hubbub throughout the mansion. The 
 President was busy over the charts and 
 papers in his workroom. All the secre- 
 taries, John G. Nicolay, John Hay, and 
 William O. Stoddard, were in their places. 
 Below stairs parties of visitors were 
 strolling about the public apartments. 
 Suddenly the bell above the desk of 
 Secretary Stoddard jangled violently. 
 Hastily the young assistant jumped up ; 
 he was startled, for never before had 
 the President rung so vehemently. As 
 he turned toward the President's room, 
 he heard other doors opening hurriedly, 
 and both the senior secretaries came 
 
 24 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 hustling in. And along the hall, almost 
 running, came the messenger, and to the 
 amazement of the bewildered group, 
 Edward, the historic White House door- 
 keeper, who had served every President 
 since Taylor, was laboring up the stairs. 
 Even the bell in the President's own 
 room was ringing. They were about 
 to rap upon his door when it swung 
 open, and the President stood before 
 them, with a patient smile on his face. 
 . "Maybe you'd better look for Tad," 
 he said. 
 
 Halliday promptly acted upon the 
 hint. Sure enough, way up in the attic 
 he found the boy, pulling with all his 
 might at the yoke which formed the 
 connecting link for all the bells of the 
 White House system. The instant Tad 
 
 25 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 saw the carpenter, he gave the yoke one 
 final swing and plunged for the stairs, 
 down which he ran pell-mell and charged 
 into the sure refuge of his father's room. 
 But the President seemed already to have 
 forgotten the episode, for he was in close 
 conversation with a big man in uniform, 
 who was just in from the army lines. 
 
 For a most remarkably long time Tad 
 was quiet. His father sat in a big chair, 
 one leg over its arm, his long body twisted 
 into a grotesque position of rest and 
 comfort. At his knee stood the boy, 
 looking not at all like the rollicking 
 youngster who had stormed the War 
 Secretary that morning, but listening 
 gravely to the conference between the 
 brigadier-general and the commander-in- 
 chief of the armies of the United States. 
 
 26 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 The door was open a trifle, and the 
 President glanced up as a quiet knock 
 fell upon the panels. There stood Ed- 
 ward, solemnly rubbing his hands. The 
 caller whom he had ushered all the way 
 upstairs was invisible as yet, but a 
 cane with an ornamental handle pro- 
 truded from behind him. Quick as a 
 flash Lincoln unwound his legs and rose 
 to his feet in time to respond with 
 dignity to the ceremonious greetings of 
 the Senator from Massachusetts, Charles 
 Sumner. The President knew that cane, 
 and its owner was one of the few men who 
 were allowed immediate access to his 
 office at almost any time. The general 
 retreated to a window, and the boy 
 moved to the far side of the table, 
 whence he contemplated with unblink- 
 
 27 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 ing eyes the distinguished statesman, 
 whose solemn mien and gorgeous waist- 
 coat were almost startling in their in- 
 congruity. After a little conversation 
 about the military situation, Mr. Sumner 
 made known his wish that a certain 
 gentleman should be appointed to a 
 certain consulate. Considerate good-bys 
 were then exchanged, and the senator 
 took his walking stick and made an 
 elaborate exit. As the door closed, the 
 President smiled broadly, noting the 
 curious and incredulous look upon the 
 soldier's face. 
 
 "Come up. General," he called. 
 **When we are in Rome, we must do as 
 the Romans do, you know. I don't 
 know much about bishops, but Sumner 
 has always been my idea of a bishop," 
 
 28 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 and again he twisted his long legs about 
 his favorite chair and snuggled down 
 into a comfortable attitude. 
 
 But Tad could stand the quiet no 
 longer. "Good-by, papa day/' he 
 called, and out he hurried, closing the 
 door with a resounding slam. In half 
 an hour the house again was in commo- 
 tion. Several ladies from Boston were 
 inspecting the residence. In the East 
 Room they looked with seemly reverence, 
 although with some disappointment, 
 upon the velvet carpet, the garish plush 
 upholsterings, the frescoed ceiling, the 
 glittering chandeliers, and the mahogany 
 furniture, some of which evidently was 
 in need of repairs. A door at the far 
 end of the main corridor opened with a 
 bang, and the solemn stillness was rudely 
 
 29 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 shattered by a frightful racket. The 
 Boston ladies were amazed and horrified 
 by what they saw. Charging through 
 the hall came a shouting boy, flourish- 
 ing a long whip and driving a pair of 
 goats, hitched tandem fashion to a 
 kitchen chair. The party of visitors 
 watched him guide his horned team into 
 the sacred precincts of the great East 
 Room. They heard him yell: **Look 
 out there !" and their staring eyes fol- 
 lowed his course around the big apart- 
 ment and through the doorway, and they 
 knew from what they then heard that 
 he must have driven those goats through 
 the vestibule and down the front steps 
 of the presidential mansion. They gazed 
 aghast at one another, and it was only 
 after an interval of shocked silence 
 
 30 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 that they achieved a sufficient recovery 
 to make a hasty and rather stealthy 
 departure as from a sanctuary pro- 
 faned, y 
 
 The sun was almost down that day, 
 and the cool of the evening was settling 
 over the city, when the manager of the 
 telegraph office in the War Department 
 came to the White House with a message 
 from the governor of one of the most 
 important northern States. As he 
 entered the hall, passing the solemn- 
 faced doorkeeper, Tad emerged from 
 some nook, seized his hand, and walked 
 up-stairs with him. Lincoln found the 
 despatch so urgent that he decided to 
 have a talk with the governor by wire. 
 
 *'Tad," he asked, "want to go along 
 to the War Department ?" 
 
 31 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 The lad snatched up a gray plaid 
 shawl which was hanging from a tall 
 desk standing against the wall, the father 
 threw it over his shoulders, and the three 
 tramped down-stairs together. As they 
 reached the gravel walk, Lincoln 
 stretched out his long arm and picked 
 up a pebble, challenging the others to 
 a game of *'followings." The President 
 proved much the best marksman. Most 
 of Tad's shots, to his chagrin, went wild. 
 His father kept the marker stone well 
 ahead, and laughed heartily when, as 
 the Department was reached, he was 
 declared the winner. 
 
 "If your arms were as long as mine, 
 I reckon you'd throw better," he said. 
 
 In the cipher room the President hung 
 his shawl over the top of the screen door 
 
 32 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 opening into the larger apartment in 
 which the operators sat at their chcking 
 keys, and took his accustomed place at 
 a desk between two windows. Presently 
 questions and replies were being ex- 
 changed over the wire, and when the 
 President's inquiries had been answered 
 satisfactorily, he leaned back in his 
 chair and stared intently out upon Penn- 
 sylvania Avenue. The operators and 
 cipher readers looked at him curiously 
 as they often had done before, when that 
 mood of melancholy meditation settled 
 upon him. No one disturbed him. 
 
 Tad meantime promptly got into 
 trouble. In the telegraph room the in- 
 struments were set upon marble-topped 
 tables, and the boy freakishly dipped 
 his fingers into an ink-well and smeared 
 
 33 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 several of the white slabs. For several 
 minutes no one noticed what he was 
 doing, and then an operator seized the 
 boy and led him at arm's length to the 
 cipher room. Every one was a little 
 embarrassed when Tad faced his father 
 and held up his blackened fingers. 
 
 The President glanced at the table- 
 tops, smiled a little at the operator who 
 still clutched the boy's shoulder, and 
 gathered the youngster up into his arms, 
 careless of the damage the inky hands 
 might do to his linen, saying quietly: 
 "Well, Tad, we'll go ; I'm afraid they're 
 abusing you." Back across the lawn to 
 the White House he carried the lad, 
 completing the last of the three trips 
 which he made every day between his 
 home and the office to which came the 
 
 34 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 despatches from the armies in the field. 
 It never seemed to occur to the Presi- 
 dent that there was any sacrifice of 
 personal dignity in his going thus to the 
 War Department for news. 
 
 Late that night, after the President 
 had worked for many hours over the 
 ever-accumulating piles of papers on the 
 table in his office, he sought his bed- 
 room, a small apartment just across the 
 hall from the room in which Tad slept. 
 Lincoln was in a calico dressing-gown, 
 which reached clear to his ankles, and he 
 shuffled along in old-fashioned leather 
 slippers, above which showed a margin 
 of home-made blue stockings. He set 
 down his candle, closed the door, and 
 picked up a little volume of the poems 
 of Thomas Hood. He had scarcely 
 
 35 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 settled into a chair when the signal 
 tapping began upon the panels — 
 
 Instantly his face lost its look of 
 weariness, and with a smile that made 
 the homely countenance wonderfully 
 handsome, he drew the bolt and ad- 
 mitted the boy. In bounced Tad in 
 his white nightgown. Many a night upon 
 waking he had crossed the hall and crept 
 into his father's bed. And to-night again 
 the President and Tad, the lonely man 
 who bore in his heart the sorrows of the 
 nation and the lad in whose comradeship 
 he found relief from the awful ordeal 
 which it was his duty to endure, the 
 father and the boy together entered the 
 peaceful refuge of sleep. 
 
 36 
 
II 
 
 THE Secretary of War completely 
 and promptly fulfilled his promise 
 to provide Tad with the uniform and 
 other equipments appropriate to the rank 
 which had been conferred upon him. 
 From the arsenal twenty-five guns were 
 sent over to the White House, and these 
 the youngest lieutenant of United States 
 Volunteers was permitted to keep in a 
 room in the basement, while for his own 
 headquarters there was assigned a room 
 near the laundry. The energetic boy 
 proceeded at once to draft recruits for 
 a company, and the gardeners and ser- 
 vants about the mansion were duly 
 
 37 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 drilled and marched around the grounds 
 and through the halls of the house. The 
 juvenile autocrat even dismissed the 
 regular sentries one evening and kept 
 his company on guard duty until they 
 were relieved by a special deputy under 
 the authority of the commander-in- 
 chief. 
 
 In the pride of his heart, Tad caused 
 himself to be photographed several times 
 in his pretty uniform, gloves, cap, sword, 
 and all. When, in the heat of the sum- 
 mer, the family removed to the stone 
 cottage in the grounds of the Soldiers' 
 Home in the suburbs of Washington, the 
 young lieutenant in full uniform often 
 rode out from the city in the evening, 
 ambling along on his pony beside the 
 towering figure of the President. In the 
 
 38 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 heated term, however, he went north 
 with his mother, leaving his father, as 
 he said, to ''bache it'' in the summer 
 residence. 
 
 During these absences, the boy was 
 constantly in his father's mind. In Lin- 
 coln's letters there were frequent 
 thoughtful allusions to his son. "Tell 
 dear Tad," he wrote, *'poor 'Nanny 
 Goat' is lost, and the housekeeper and 
 I are in great distress about it. The 
 day you left, Nanny was found resting 
 herself and chewing her little cud in 
 the middle of Tad's bed ; but now she 
 is gone ! The gardeners kept complain- 
 ing that she destroyed the flowers until 
 it was concluded to bring her down to 
 the White House. This was done, and 
 the second day she disappeared, and has 
 
 39 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 not been heard of since. This is the 
 last we know of poor 'Nanny' V 
 
 Again the President, always sensitive 
 to the possible significance of the dreams 
 which visited him at various times when 
 important events impended, telegraphed 
 Mrs. Lincoln at Philadelphia to put 
 Tad's pistol away, for he had had "an 
 ugly dream about him." 
 
 The great event in the military life 
 of Tad was the grand review of the 
 Army of the Potomac, when he shared 
 the honors with the President. Down 
 the river the party sailed on a little 
 steamboat to Aquia Creek, and thence, 
 in an ordinary freight car, with rough 
 plank benches for seats, but abundantly 
 bedecked with flags, they rode to Fal- 
 mouth station. In an ambulance, 
 
 40 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 guarded by a cavalry escort, they went 
 on to the headquarters of the army, 
 where several large hospital tents with 
 wooden floors and camp bedsteads were 
 assigned for their use. 
 
 For five days the party were in camp, 
 and during the time Tad was a very 
 busy boy. On the first day he explored 
 the whole outfit, the printing office, the 
 telegraph station, the big bakery, the 
 tents of the oflficers, and the hospitals, 
 and everywhere he was made welcome. 
 He wanted to see how the *'gray backs" 
 looked, and was taken down to the 
 picket lines opposite Fredericksburg to 
 have a peep at them. The smoke of 
 the camp-fires of the enemy ascended 
 from behind a ridge, and above a hand- 
 some residence on a height floated a 
 
 41 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 flag of stars and bars. Confederate sen- 
 tinels strode jauntily down to the river's 
 brink and peered across the stream. 
 
 On each of the following days there 
 was a parade and review. For the first 
 time the entire cavalry force of the Army 
 of the Potomac had been massed as one 
 corps, and scores of regiments of infantry 
 also were ready for inspection. To these 
 reviews there rode from headquarters 
 from day to day a brilliant cavalcade. 
 In the train there were captains, and 
 colonels, brigadier-generals, and major- 
 generals, and numbers of staff officers. 
 Upon the flank were the President's 
 guard of honor, the Philadelphia Lancers, 
 in showy, gold-laced uniforms, and 
 superbly mounted. In front of the 
 column rode the commanding general 
 
 42 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 and the commander-in-chief. And some- 
 what to one side, riding the small gray 
 horse which had been provided for him, 
 and attended by a young trooper as- 
 signed to act as his orderly, rode Tad. 
 
 The great spectacle was the cavalry 
 review, but the sixty thousand infantry- 
 men who marched past the reviewing 
 staff made an impressive sight. Tad 
 delighted especially in the gallop down 
 the long lines, and in the thrilling effect 
 of the martial music of the trumpets, 
 throbbing drums, and shrilling fifes. 
 
 The President was not a graceful 
 rider. The general sat his horse like a 
 dragoon, but the very height of Lincoln 
 made him look awkward on horseback. 
 Some who saw him those days were 
 reminded of the saying that his legs 
 
 43 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 were so long that it was impossible to 
 exaggerate them. Spectators wondered 
 if they would not become entangled 
 with the legs of his horse. The left 
 hand held the reins, and the arm was so 
 long that the elbow projected behind 
 his back for all the world like the hind 
 leg of a grasshopper. The situation was 
 made all the more absurd by his stove- 
 pipe hat. This he constantly removed 
 in saluting the men in the ranks, although 
 he merely touched it in acknowledging 
 the courtesies of the officers, and its 
 management was a rather precarious 
 feat of dexterity. 
 
 But how the soldiers liked him ! They 
 called him ** Father Abraham;" they 
 repeated his droll stories, praising his 
 shrewdness and his wit ; and they de- 
 
 44 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 clared that when he found out about 
 their complaints, every case would be 
 adjusted. What did it matter if his 
 trousers were half way up to his knees 
 and his socks visible to all the army ? 
 He had a heart for the common soldier, 
 which was more than could be said for 
 most of the "fuss and feathers'' com- 
 manders they might name. 
 
 And then the word was passed from 
 rank to rank that the boy riding on the 
 flank of the reviewing column, with his 
 short legs sticking straight out from 
 his saddle, was Tad. And how they 
 cheered him ! He was in the lieutenant's 
 uniform, and a gray riding cloak floated 
 behind him, as his pony galloped across 
 the fields. No wonder that the soldiers 
 burst into an ecstasy of enthusiasm over 
 
 45 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 him. Thousands of them had boys at 
 home. Father Abraham had brought 
 this sturdy, fresh-faced youngster with 
 him just on purpose to let them know 
 that he did not forget their famihes. 
 Well, it was just like him. God bless 
 him — he had a heart for the common 
 soldier. Hurrah for the President and 
 hurrah for the boy ! They swung their 
 hats and cheered for Lincoln, and they 
 cheered and swung their hats for Tad. 
 He was a reminder of home and of what 
 was waiting for them when they should 
 get home. 
 
 And how Tad enjoyed it all. Some 
 one told him that he ought to doff his 
 cap to the soldiers, but he said : ''That's 
 the way the general and father do, but 
 Vm only a boy.'' He rode hard and was 
 
 46 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 quite fearless in the saddle, although 
 there was some danger at times that he 
 would be thrown from his horse. But 
 the orderly was always on guard, and 
 every night brought him into camp 
 greatly excited, but safe, and very, very 
 hungry. 
 
 Tad and his father were frequent 
 patrons of the theatre. Both to 
 Grover's and to Ford's they came to see 
 extravaganzas and occasionally a min- 
 strel show, and the President was con- 
 stantly in attendance when Shakespeare 
 was played. He came often for no 
 other purpose than to get away from 
 the multitudes who constantly impor- 
 tuned him at the White House. Some- 
 times they were a family party, and 
 again Tad and his tutor would come 
 
 47 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 alone. Burke, the White House coach- 
 man, would drive them to the door, 
 Charlie Forbes would leap to the ground 
 and pilot them into the theatre, and 
 after the performance the carriage would 
 be waiting to take them home. The 
 family came to Grover's to see Charlotte 
 Cushman, J. W. Wallack, and E. L. 
 Davenport, when they appeared together 
 in '' Macbeth " for the benefit^of the Sani- 
 tary Commission ; and when Edwin Booth 
 was in Washington for his only visit dur- 
 ing wartime, they saw him in " Othello," 
 the " Merchant of Venice," and John 
 Howard Payne's " Brutus." 
 
 Tad became so much at home at 
 Grover's that he made a chum of the 
 director's son and frequently visited the 
 stage rehearsals alone. The stage attaches 
 
 48 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 at once became his friends, and the restless 
 lad was permitted to "assist" in placing 
 the properties when the settings were 
 changed, so that at last he was spending 
 more time behind than before the scenes. 
 Indeed, he got almost as severe an attack 
 of stage fever as of the military disease, 
 and rigged up a little theatre of his own 
 in a small room in the White House. 
 Perry Kelly and Bobby Grover were 
 the "actors", and Leonard Grover, the 
 latter's father, loaned the lads some 
 costumes and a few pieces of stage 
 furniture. Halliday's services were de- 
 manded of the President, and the car- 
 penter arranged the orchestra, par- 
 quet, stage, curtains, and footlights for 
 their miniature playhouse. Several little 
 "dramas" were duly produced with the 
 
 49 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 employes of the mansion playing 
 audience, and on one or two occasions 
 the President appeared chuckHng at the 
 door ; and once he was accompanied 
 by a distinguished war governor whom 
 he brought over from his workshop '*to 
 have a look at the latest freak of the 
 boys." In one instance a minstrel show 
 was given in the attic. 
 
 While the artist, Frank B. Carpenter, 
 was at work upon his emancipation 
 group, he made use of the "theatre" 
 as a dark room in which the photogra- 
 phers, who were taking pictures to aid 
 him, might do their work. This in- 
 censed the spirited boy, who felt that 
 his rights had been challenged. He 
 turned out the photographers and locked 
 the door upon their plates and chemicals. 
 
 so 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Not until the President hunted up the 
 boy would he yield the key, and then, 
 as Mr. Carpenter told the story, Lin- 
 coln said : "When I went to him, he 
 was violently excited. I said to him : 
 *Tad, do you know you are making 
 your father a great deal of trouble.'*' 
 Then he burst into tears and instantly 
 gave up the key." 
 
 One night, early in 1864, Grover's 
 National Theatre was so crowded that 
 scarcely a foot of standing room was 
 unoccupied. The audience represented 
 almost every class of persons in the 
 States of the West and North. Fashion- 
 able women filled the boxes, some of 
 them belonging to old Washington fam- 
 ilies whose sympathies were predomi- 
 nantly with the South. They were openly 
 
 SI 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 stared at by the army officers who soHdly 
 filled the front rows in the pit. The 
 permanent and the floating populations 
 of the city were mingled in the crowd, 
 and many strangers looked curiously 
 upon the scene. The predominating 
 color was army blue, for multitudes of 
 soldiers were always in the city in those 
 days. Many Congressmen and several 
 Senators were present, and the audience 
 had loudly cheered two or three well- 
 known army commanders as they came 
 down the aisles. The orchestra was 
 vigorously playing the popular war songs 
 of the day, and hundreds sang the 
 choruses. 
 
 Just as the people were becoming 
 somewhat impatient, the President 
 arrived. It had been announced that 
 
 5* 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 he would be present, and a box at the 
 right of the stage was designated for 
 his occupancy by the flags with which 
 it was festooned. The appearance of 
 an usher at the door of the box was the 
 signal for the audience to stand. A 
 minute later the President entered, and 
 with him was a small boy who stood at 
 his side for a moment, looking out upon 
 the house. There was a burst of ap- 
 plause, and Lincoln bowed gravely. As 
 soon as he was seated, the curtain rose, 
 but for a time many in the audience 
 paid little attention to the stage. Scores 
 of opera glasses were turned upon the 
 President's box, and hundreds who had 
 never seen the chief magistrate of the 
 nation watched him intently now. 
 The ''play" was better calculated, 
 
 S3 
 
 ^ 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 perhaps, to appeal to the boy than to 
 his father. Tad had seen it before 
 more than once, and it was he, indeed, 
 who had persuaded his father to attend 
 the performance. It was billed as a 
 ** spectacular extravaganza" under the 
 title of ''The Seven Sisters", and it had 
 run for more than eight months at 
 Laura Keene's Theatre in New York 
 City. Founded upon an old German 
 play called "The Seven Daughters of 
 Satan " , it represented the group of 
 sisters as escaping for a time from the 
 Plutonian realms for a visit to the earth. 
 The conclusion was a "transformation 
 scene" depicting "the birth of Cupid" 
 and advertised as a great triumph of 
 stagecraft. A play of such a nature 
 admitted of many interpolations, and 
 
 54 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 during its Washington run patriotic epi- 
 sodes were freely introduced. In one 
 army tableau "Rally 'Round the Flag'' 
 was sung by a soloist, with a big chorus 
 coming in on the refrain, and such 
 characters as Uncle Sam and Columbia, 
 Liberty and Union, Massachusetts and 
 South Carolina were added to the usual 
 cast. The play was all movement and 
 lilting melody, color and tinsel, and it 
 stirred the audience to much laughter and 
 enthusiasm. Persons who studied the 
 face of the President could see that he had 
 forgotten the cares of his office, that he 
 was not thinking of the strategy of the 
 campaign nor of the clamor of the office- 
 seekers. Politics and war had no exist- 
 ence for the time. He smiled broadly 
 and occasionally laughed heartily. Tad 
 
 55 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 had disappeared, but the President 
 thought nothing of it, for the boy had 
 the run of the house, and every usher 
 and stage hand was his friend. 
 
 Quite in his accustomed way the boy 
 had gone behind the scenes, where he 
 roamed about at will, responding to the 
 greetings of his acquaintances. Finally he 
 went to a wardrobe and took out an army 
 blouse much too big for him, but into 
 which he struggled nevertheless, and 
 found a cap which proved a better fit. 
 Thus rigged out, he strolled among the 
 "gallant soldier boys'' of the chorus, 
 until the finale came in the army episode. 
 
 Now it happened that at the time the 
 celebrated John McDonough was taking 
 a leading part in the spectacle, and in 
 the final tableau it was he who sang 
 
 56 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 "The Battle Cry of Freedom'' with 
 thrilHng effect. The soldiers and fairies 
 who filled the stage joined in the choruses, 
 and it was expected that at the end the 
 audience would catch the infection, so 
 that stage, pit, galleries, and boxes would 
 all be singing together. 
 
 Tad that night walked boldly out upon 
 the stage with the chorus and took a 
 place at the end of the front line, looking 
 grotesquely conspicuous in his misfit 
 uniform. McDonough sang the first 
 stanza, and as the chorus swung into 
 the refrain, he caught sight of Tad, whom 
 he knew to be the President's son. In- 
 stantly the soloist walked across the 
 stage and placed the silk flag he carried 
 in the boy's hands. The lad rose to 
 the occasion and waved the flag with 
 
 57 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 all his might, as McDonough sang the 
 second stanza. While the second chorus 
 was sung, the soloist led Tad forward 
 and sang the remaining stanzas with 
 the boy standing at his side. The 
 theatre grew so still that the dropping 
 of a fan in one of the boxes startled the 
 entire audience. Every eye was fixed 
 upon the strange little figure standing be- 
 side the soloist. The chorus concluded, 
 McDonough acted upon an inspiration 
 of the moment and sang it over again, 
 using a variant, however, which made a 
 blend of two popular songs of the day : 
 
 " We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 
 thousand more, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom. 
 We will rally 'round the flag, boys, rally once 
 
 again, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 
 
 58 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 The innovation must be intended as 
 an impersonation of the spirit of juvenile 
 patriotism, thought the audience. But 
 how small the boy was, how ridiculous 
 was the man's blouse he was wearing, 
 and how intently he was watching the 
 President's box ! McDonough was help- 
 ing him wave the flag, as if in salutation 
 of the nation's chief executive. And 
 how amazed the President seemed to 
 be. Surely that look of astonishment 
 must mean something more than sur- 
 prise at this novelty in the performance. 
 McDonough sang the third stanza : 
 
 " We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true, 
 and brave, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom, 
 And altho' they may be poor not a man shall 
 
 be a slave, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 
 
 59 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 A whisper ran over the house Hke a 
 fire over an Hlinois prairie. It passed 
 from Hp to lip, and every one who heard 
 it looked again first at the boy and then 
 at the President. Some one had recog- 
 nized the lad — some Senator or Repre- 
 sentative probably, who saw him every 
 little while at the White House. "It's 
 Tad Lincoln!" The word reached the 
 gallery, and in a minute or two the 
 farthest spectator in the rearmost seat 
 had heard it. "Tad Lincoln, the Pres- 
 ident's son. Father Abraham is in the 
 box, and his boy is on the stage!" 
 
 Everybody knew about Tad. They 
 had seen him riding through the streets 
 in the big black carriage behind the two 
 black horses. "That's the boy," said 
 one soldier to another. "I saw him 
 
 60 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 with his father watching the ball game 
 between the Commissary and the 
 Quartermaster's departments out at 
 Sixth and K streets the other day." 
 Others had seen him playing with his 
 dog team by the Potomac, and just a 
 few days before he had kept shop in the 
 historic portico of the Presidential man- 
 sion. Halliday had supplied him with 
 some boards and trestles, and he had 
 spread out his stock of apples and ginger- 
 bread where no one could enter the build- 
 ing without being importuned to buy. 
 The stock was purchased from an old 
 woman who had a stand near the Treas- 
 ury Building. Tad explained that his 
 was one of the fairs for the benefit of 
 the Sanitary Commission which then 
 were so common throughout the country. 
 
 6i 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Every office-seeker and every office- 
 holder who passed through the portico 
 was glad to buy of "the President's 
 son", some of the customers hoping 
 doubtless to reach the father by this 
 indirect method of flattery. Some of 
 the men who had been levied upon were 
 in the theatre that night, and they con- 
 firmed the identification of the little 
 fellow who was vigorously waving the 
 big silk flag while McDonough sang 
 another stanza. 
 
 " So we're springing to the call from the East and 
 
 from the West, 
 Shouting the batde-cry of freedom, 
 And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we 
 
 love the best, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 
 
 A wave of enthusiasm swept over the 
 house as Tad bravely started in upon 
 
 62 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 the chorus with McDonough, and the 
 hundred stage singers behind them. If 
 the President had been surprised, he 
 was hugely amused now. He leaned 
 far forward in his chair, his hands upon 
 his knees, and swayed backward and 
 forward with laughter. The audience 
 laughed in sympathy with him, and 
 although a few of the ladies were almost 
 in tears, with a mighty roar the great 
 crowd arose, the choristers upon the 
 stage moved forward, and players, gal- 
 lery, soloist, and Tad all joined in that 
 final refrain : 
 
 " We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 
 thousand more, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom, 
 While we rally 'round the flag, boys, rally once 
 
 again, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 
 
 63 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 In a great surge of ecstasy the chorus, 
 sung again and yet again, rolled through 
 the auditorium, waxing in fervor with 
 every repetition. It seemed to dominate 
 and absorb every soul there ; every 
 voice joined in it ; men who had not sung 
 for years, and some who fancied they 
 could not sing at all, joined in that 
 simple tune. It rang forth with a volume 
 and majesty that put thrill and fire into 
 the homely words, as if a magnificent 
 assurance had taken possession of that 
 multitude of singers, an overwhelming 
 conviction that the men would be found 
 to save the Union. 
 
 That night at Grover's Theatre a 
 great tide of patriotism flooded every 
 heart. Men and women looked upon 
 the President and saw his face wearing 
 
 64 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 a smile of transforming and irradiating 
 sweetness, as he sat erect and very still 
 in his box. They looked at Tad, and, 
 although they could not hear his voice, 
 they saw that his lips were moving, and 
 that he kept his flag waving. And as 
 the refrain ended, an army officer sit- 
 ting almost under the stage led the 
 audience and the players in three lusty 
 cheers for ''Father Abraham and his 
 boy." As silence fell upon the weary 
 throng, the President rose and bowed, — 
 and no diplomat versed in the usages of 
 Old World courts could have exceeded 
 the dignified impressiveness of that ges- 
 ture, — and the curtain came down. 
 
 6s 
 
Ill 
 
 AS time went on, the President more ^ 
 
 and more made a companion of 
 the lively lad. General Grant came to 
 Washington and had conferences with 
 the commander-in-chief, with Tad stand- 
 ing gravely by. On a day shortly before 
 Christmas, he interrupted a Cabinet 
 meeting to obtain a reprieve for a turkey 
 to which he had taken a fancy and which 
 had been marked for execution. Several 
 times he brought cases of distress to the 
 attention of the President. He would 
 go about the hall, asking callers what 
 they wanted. One day he found an 
 old, poorly-dressed woman in the corridor, 
 
 66 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 and he rushed to his father with her 
 story of a husband in a mihtary prison 
 and some cold and hungry boys and 
 girls at home. He came back with a 
 promise of help, and the woman and the 
 boy cried together while she called down 
 the blessings of heaven upon him. Tad 
 sometimes took petitioners by the hand 
 and dragged them forthwith into his 
 father's presence. 
 
 Almost every day the President would 
 have at least one romp with the boy. 
 The game at times was blind man's 
 buff ; again the tall man would run 
 through the rooms and the hall above 
 stairs with Tad mounted upon his 
 shoulders ; and often they played horse, 
 with each alternating as the driver. 
 In the early evening or late afternoon, 
 
 ^1 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 when the work of the day was about 
 over, and the President had a brief 
 respite before he began the toil of the 
 night, he would call the boy to his side 
 and talk over the doings of the day with 
 him. They looked through books of 
 engravings together, and Lincoln sharp- 
 ened pencils for the boy and helped 
 him keep track of his playthings. Fre- 
 quently the lad fell asleep in the office, 
 and the President would carry him ten- 
 derly across the hall to bed. A succes- 
 sion of tutors came to the White House, 
 but Tad was equally intolerant of them 
 all, and the father said he ^' might as 
 well run for awhile — there'd be time 
 enough for him to sober up and get 
 sedate in the future." 
 One Friday in summer the President 
 
 68 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 and General Eaton were in conference 
 in the White House, and Tad was mak- 
 ing such a war map as no strategist 
 ever would have dreamed of by poking 
 the pins into the chart in the corner at 
 his own freakish pleasure. The wind 
 was blowing from the Virginia side of 
 the Potomac, and it brought through the 
 windows the sound of a musketry volley. 
 The President rose and walked across 
 the room and stood gazing at the Vir- 
 ginia hills, with his arm about Tad's 
 shoulders. As he came back to his 
 chair, there were tears streaming down 
 his cheeks. 
 
 "This is the day when they shoot 
 deserters,'' he said, "and I am wonder- 
 ing whether I have used the pardoning 
 power enough. Some of the officers, 
 
 69 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 to be sure, say that I am using it so 
 freely that I am demoraHzing the army 
 and destroying its discipHne." And 
 then, as Tad came to his knee, he added : 
 "But Tad here tells me I'm doing right, 
 and Tad's advice usually is pretty good." 
 And now at last the war was drawing 
 to a close. General Grant advised the 
 President that the final struggle was at 
 hand, and he started for the head- 
 quarters of the Army of the Potomac. 
 A side-wheel passenger steamer called 
 the River Queen, closely followed by 
 the despatch boat Bat, left Washington 
 on the afternoon of March 23, 1865, 
 and on board were the President, Mrs. 
 Lincoln, and Tad. The boy had the 
 run of the boat and explored it from 
 bow to stern and from engine-room to 
 
 70 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 pilot-house. Late on the evening of 
 March 24, the steamer came to anchor 
 off City Point. The next morning Tad's 
 grown-up brother, Robert, now a cap- 
 tain on the staff of General Grant, 
 came on board and reported some de- 
 tails of a Confederate assault, and at 
 the breakfast table the President, with 
 Tad at his side, wrote a despatch to 
 Stanton about " the rumpus at the 
 front." The "rumpus" in fact was the 
 severe action at Fort Stedman, in which 
 several thousand men were lost. Lin- 
 coln visited the scene ; he saw the men 
 of the Sanitary Commission attending 
 to the wounded and the burial parties 
 caring for the dead ; and he returned 
 to the ship looking worn and haggard. 
 The next morning the River Queen 
 
 71 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 steamed to Harrison's Landing, and Tad 
 was one of the large party which watched 
 Sheridan's cavalry crossing the river 
 there on a pontoon bridge. The vessel 
 then turned and passed through the 
 fleet. The ships were ranged in double 
 lines and gayly decked with flags, and 
 their crews cheered madly as the Presi- 
 dent's boat went by. 
 
 During the following days at City 
 Point, Tad found much to interest him. 
 The river was crowded with craft, moni- 
 tors and gunboats, colliers and trans- 
 ports ; the great storehouses ashore were 
 crammed with army supplies, and count- 
 less wagons were coming and going all 
 day long. The boy was a welcome guest 
 on board Admiral Porter's flagship, the 
 Malvern, and it was an easy trip down 
 
 72 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 the gangplank of the River Queen, across 
 the pier, and up the gangplank of the 
 steamship Martin, on board of which 
 were the family of General Grant. The 
 lad became as great a favorite at City 
 Point as he had been in the White 
 House. 
 
 City Point was opposite the triangle 
 made by the junction of the Appomat- 
 tox, which flowed by Petersburg, and 
 the James, which flowed past Richmond. 
 A long stairway led up the hill to the 
 plateau upon which stood a group of 
 log houses, in the centre of which was 
 the headquarters cabin, furnished only 
 with four tables, some chairs, and a 
 pile of charts. The plain beyond was 
 covered with huts and tents, but these 
 had been vacated, for the last hours of 
 
 73 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 the Confederacy were at hand, and all 
 the troops were in pursuit of Lee. 
 
 Tad climbed many times to the head- 
 quarters hut, and he especially en- 
 joyed the band which played on the 
 plateau every afternoon. ''There comes 
 our band," he would shout, as he 
 heard them in the distance. One day 
 he made the seventh in a historic group 
 which included the commander-in-chief, 
 and six of the Union generals, with 
 Grant and Sherman among them. 
 
 Tad's mother returned to Washing- 
 ton on April i, but the boy remained 
 with his father. Sunday, the second, 
 passed quietly, a beautiful, mild, spring 
 day. That night great explosions shook 
 the earth. Arsenals, powder magazines, 
 and ironclads were being blown up. 
 
 74 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Flying brands fired the lower part of 
 the Confederate capital, and when dawn 
 broke a conflagration was raging. The 
 last of the soldiers in gray marched 
 over a bridge and burned it behind 
 them. There was a little interval of 
 respite for the city which had flung back 
 the Federals again and again ; and then 
 the soldiers in blue came marching in, 
 their bands playing "Yankee Doodle" 
 and *'The Star Spangled Banner." All 
 Monday Richmond was a city of des- 
 olation, peopled with destitute women 
 and children. Piles of furniture were 
 heaped upon the grass, which sprang 
 fresh and green in the parks and squares. 
 The fruit trees already were in bloom, 
 and butterflies were hovering about the 
 dandelions. All nature was smiling 
 
 7S 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 upon Richmond, encircled with trenches 
 and forts, battle-torn and scarred, full 
 of starvation and sickness, as if the 
 spirit of the springtime would bring 
 balm to the hearts of a people who for 
 four years had hoped and prayed and 
 endured and desperately struggled on. 
 The next day the President came. 
 Up the James River, in a big barge 
 manned by twelve sturdy sailors, the 
 emancipator was brought to the Con- 
 federate capital. The boat carried 
 also a detachment of marines, a naval 
 captain, an officer of the signal corps, 
 a cipher telegraph operator. Admiral 
 Porter, and a small boy. Lincoln in- 
 tently watched the city as the barge 
 drew near a landing not far from Libby 
 Prison. He recognized a war corre- 
 
 76 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 spondent whom he saw standing on the 
 shore, and called to know if the reporter 
 could direct them to the headquarters 
 of General Weitzel. Receiving an 
 affirmative reply, the boat was swept 
 alongside the landing. Out stepped six 
 marines armed with carbines ; after 
 them came the President, wearing as 
 usual his high stovepipe hat and his 
 long frock coat, and Tad, who was tightly 
 clutching his father's hand ; then the 
 Admiral and the other officers, and 
 finally six more blue-jacketted marines. 
 The news spread like wild fire all over 
 the waterfront. Half a hundred negroes, 
 who were earning their rations by build- 
 ing a canal bridge under the orders of 
 an army engineer, ran shouting to the 
 landing. From the little side streets 
 
 71 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 poured scores of women and children, 
 their white eyeballs rolling in wonder. 
 
 ■'Hallelujah! Bress the Lord!" they 
 shouted. "Massa Linkum ! Massa 
 Linkum ! Glory, glory, hallelujah!'' 
 
 They burst into camp-meeting re- 
 frains ; they laughed like lunatics ; they 
 embraced each other, and leaped up 
 and down, and swung their straw hats 
 and turbans. They had lived to see 
 the man who had made them free, and 
 they surged about their deliverer in a 
 frenzy of joy. There were some, too, 
 who regarded him with silent, stupefied 
 wonder. The streets became almost 
 impassable as the President's party 
 mounted toward Capitol Square. Fi- 
 nally they halted, and a cavalry soldier 
 was sent for a larger escort. 
 
 78 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 At the base of Capitol Hill an aged 
 negro, decrepit in person and dilapidated 
 in dress, lifted his battered straw hat, 
 baring a snow-white head, and fell 
 upon his knees in the road. "May 
 the good Lord keep you safe, Massa 
 Linkum," he said. The President re- 
 garded the old man gravely, and then 
 lifted his own hat and bowed, while 
 the excited crowd gaped in wonder. 
 The emancipator had taken off his hat 
 to a former slave ! Women in bright 
 turbans which looked like enormous 
 tulips invoked the blessings of heaven 
 upon "Massa Linkum's little boy." 
 Never had the President's face worn 
 a sadder smile. The bluecoats about 
 him saw the gleam of tears in his eyes. 
 
 The tramp was resumed, and the 
 
 79 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 green of the restful square was traversed. 
 The Hnden trees were fragrant, and the 
 squirrels were playing about the grass. 
 Over the way was St. Paul's Church, 
 where two days before the sexton had 
 tiptoed up the aisle to hand the President 
 of the Confederacy his summons. There 
 was the Department Building, before 
 which the government papers had been 
 burned. The homely man from the 
 North looked at the Capitol with its 
 white Doric columns and glanced up at 
 the stars and stripes which had replaced 
 the stars and bars at last. Before the 
 speaker's chair in the room which had 
 been the Virginia Hall of Delegates, 
 Stonewall Jackson had lain in state 
 two years before. 
 The party went to Shockoe Hill, 
 
 80 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 where, in the house with tall, white 
 pillars and long windows which had 
 been the executive mansion of the 
 Southern States, General Weitzel had 
 made his headquarters. The President 
 climbed the steps and dropped into a 
 chair in one of the rooms, and it happened 
 to be the very chair which had been 
 used at his writing-desk by Jefferson 
 Davis. Tad was still at his father's 
 side. 
 
 That afternoon, in an ambulance with 
 Tad upon his knee and a cavalry escort 
 clattering behind. President Lincoln rode 
 down Grace Street and over a section 
 of the city. The night was spent aboard 
 the Malvern, But the next morning the 
 father and the boy again came ashore 
 in the barge and spent several hours 
 
 gi 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 looking upon the desolation of the cap- 
 tured citadel. The President saw the 
 hospitals where wounded and dying 
 soldiers had been cared for by the brave 
 women of the Confederacy, the sewing- 
 rooms where those women had made 
 uniforms and scraped lint, and the pris- 
 ons where captive Federals had suf- 
 fered and languished. He stopped long 
 before the bronze equestrian statue of 
 Washington, with Jefferson and Mar- 
 shall and other Virginians about him. 
 He gazed at the red brick houses, the 
 ironwork balconies, and the walls covered 
 with vines shutting in the pretty gar- 
 dens. He looked across from the hills, 
 whence the people had watched the 
 little red battle flags and the toy shells 
 bursting in tiny puffs of smoke in the 
 
 82 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 far distance during the Seven Days* 
 Battles. At the Confederate mansion 
 they told him that from the garden the 
 campfires of two armies were seen night 
 after night, for almost a year, and their 
 bugles heard. 
 
 It was beautiful, this city of seven 
 hills, he thought, and he fell into a 
 revery over the guns that had rumbled 
 over these cobbles and the drums that 
 had beaten funeral marches for four 
 long years. For four years he had suf- 
 fered with the South, and he was suffer- 
 ing with the South now. The lines 
 upon his face were deep, very deep, and 
 his countenance was very pale. The 
 negroes hurrahed for him ; they ran 
 with their pickaninnies that the children 
 might see him ; they pointed out little 
 
 83 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Tad to their boys and called down 
 blessings upon them both. He saluted 
 them sometimes, but his smiles were 
 few. The men riding with him unobtru- 
 sively watched him, and none of them 
 ever forgot the dignity and pathos of 
 his bearing. One of his smiles brought 
 healing to the heart of the young wife 
 of the soldier who had led the great 
 charge at Gettysburg, and Tad was 
 delighted to see a plump baby reach 
 from the arms of Mrs. Pickett and 
 kiss his father. At last the President 
 said: ''Tad, I can't stand any more; 
 we'll go home." 
 
 A tug towed the barge back to City 
 Point. 
 
 84 
 
IV 
 
 Two days after their return, Tad 
 and his father were once more 
 together before the pubhc. Back in 
 the White House, Tad let loose again 
 all his abounding energies. Upon the 
 second night at home the mansion was 
 illuminated, and all Washington was 
 full of jubilation. The war was over ; 
 Petersburg and Richmond were taken ; 
 the news of the surrender of Lee was 
 upon everybody's lips. Thousands of 
 persons tramped out Pennsylvania 
 Avenue to the home of the President 
 to cheer ** Father Abraham." Brass 
 bands marched to the mansion, playing 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 not only ''John Brown" but ''Dixie" 
 and "Maryland, My Maryland." Fire- 
 works were set off upon the lawns. 
 From the Navy Yard a small battery 
 was dragged to the residence, and 
 salutes were fired every few minutes. 
 Suddenly the din doubled. There 
 were tremendous cheers and roars of 
 laughter. The multitude were almost 
 in a frenzy over a Confederate flag which 
 a small boy, in the uniform of a lieutenant 
 of United States Volunteers, was waving 
 frantically from a second-story window. 
 It was Tad, of course, and how the crowd 
 did enjoy his prank ! Poor old Edward, 
 his dignity outraged by the breach of 
 decorum, was scandalized. He tried 
 desperately to drag the little chap away 
 from the window and to confiscate the 
 
 86 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 banner. "A rebel flag from the win- 
 dows of the White House ! Tad, Tad !" 
 Outside the people shouted in sheer 
 happiness over the scene. The boy 
 fought the butler energetically for a 
 time, then suddenly dropped the flag 
 and turned just at the right instant 
 to bolt into his father's arms. 
 
 The moment the President was seen, 
 a roar that almost shook the building 
 burst from the throng. Quietly stoop- 
 ing forward a little, he looked out upon 
 the people. His face was beaming. 
 The lines of care seemed almost smoothed 
 away. He was happy and content. 
 These were his friends. Many of them 
 had seen him day after day in the avenues 
 of Washington. They had come to his 
 home to cheer him, but their cheers 
 
 87 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 were for their common country, for 
 their flag, not one of whose stars was to 
 be lost ; their resounding hurrahs were 
 a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm, 
 significant of the loyalty and devotion 
 which had fought the awful war through 
 to the end. He was not any more to 
 hear the volleys of the firing squads 
 shooting deserters ; no more would the 
 long lines of stretchers bear the wounded 
 to the hospitals, nor the mufiled drums 
 throb the requiems of the dead. The 
 war was over. He had *' fondly hoped" 
 and "devoutly prayed", and '*the 
 scourge of war" had *' passed away." 
 If only some artist might have painted 
 him then as he brooded tenderly upon 
 that spectacle ! He began to speak : 
 **We meet this evening, not in sorrow, 
 
 88 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 but in gladness of heart. The evacua- 
 tion of Petersburg and Richmond, and 
 the surrender of the principal army, 
 give hope of a righteous and speedy 
 peace, whose joyous expression can not 
 be restrained. In the midst of this, 
 however. He from whom all blessings 
 flow must not be forgotten." 
 
 A profound silence fell upon the crowd. 
 Their heartbeats could almost be heard. 
 They scarcely breathed. Every one 
 was intent to hear the message which 
 their President was bringing them. 
 And there in the midst of the throng, 
 their brains teeming with murderous 
 plots, were Lewis Payne and John 
 Wilkes Booth ! 
 
 The address was written, and the 
 candles had not been placed high enough 
 
 89 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 for the towering speaker to see the 
 sheets well. He took a candle in his 
 hand and read on, but, coming to the 
 end of a page, he availed himself of the 
 services of a guest, who stood behind 
 him and held the light until the end of 
 the little speech was reached. As the 
 President finished reading each page, he 
 let the manuscript fall sheet by sheet 
 upon the floor, and Tad, who had made 
 a trip to the dining-room with satis- 
 factory results, came back just in time 
 to pursue the fluttering leaves as they 
 dropped from his father's hand. In 
 full view of the crowd, he crept about 
 his father's feet on hands and knees, 
 and if the interval between sheets seemed 
 long, he would lift his ardent face as if 
 asking for more. It was an unforget- 
 
 90 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 able picture : a vast sea of faces over 
 which the Hght of the torches played, 
 all gazing at the tall figure of the Presi- 
 dent ; the emancipator reading his last 
 address to the people, and occasionally 
 lifting his foot in a queer, admonitory 
 way to warn Tad that he must not 
 interrupt the reading. Who shall say 
 that as Lincoln read his remarks on 
 reconstruction, he was not thinking also 
 of the lad who had been the apple of his 
 eye and the solace of his heart during 
 the dreary years of civil strife ? 
 
 91 
 
ON the morning of April 14, General 
 Grant arrived in Washington, and 
 with him was Captain Robert Lincoln. 
 Late in the afternoon, the Secretary of 
 War called at the White House and 
 had a talk with the President. After- 
 ward with Mrs. Lincoln he took a drive, 
 and Tad, for once, was left behind. 
 They talked of the future, and Mrs. 
 Lincoln remarked that she had not seen 
 her husband so cheerful since the death 
 of their second son, Willie. 
 
 That night Washington went on a 
 lark. The night was flooded with moon- 
 light, but the houses were lighted from 
 
 92 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 cellar to attic. Business houses, gov- 
 ernment buildings, and private resi- 
 dences were gorgeously decorated with 
 flags and bunting. The theatres were 
 a mass of bright colors, and flaming 
 announcements were posted to attract 
 the crowds who would certainly be seek- 
 ing amusement on that festal occasion. 
 The streets were filled with torchlight 
 processions, and the inspiring strains 
 of martial music were heard in every 
 square. 
 
 Both the leading playhouses had sent 
 invitations to the President to occupy 
 that night the box always reserved for 
 him, and to C. Dwight Hess, the acting 
 manager of Grover's, Mrs. Lincoln wrote 
 in reply that the President already had 
 accepted an invitation to Ford's, but 
 
 93 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 that Tad with his tutor would be glad 
 to come to the National. 
 
 The boy and his escort arrived early, 
 and, after a little visit behind the scenes, 
 the boxes now having been all sold, 
 they were shown to seats well at the 
 front of the house. 
 
 So it happened that while the father 
 was witnessing a performance of "Our 
 American Cousin" and smiling over the 
 drolleries of "Lord Dundreary", Tad 
 was enjoying the "great Oriental Specta- 
 cle of Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp ", 
 with "magnificent scenery, wonderful 
 mechanical effects, grand ballets, bdau- 
 tiful tableaus ", and, between the acts, 
 a patriotic poem composed for the occa- 
 sion, called "The Flag of Sumter." 
 
 After awhile a messenger came to 
 
 94 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 Tad's companion and whispered some- 
 thing to him. The tutor seemed sur- 
 prised and bewildered, but he turned 
 to the boy and told him that word had 
 been brought that Mr. Lincoln was ill, 
 and that perhaps it would be well for 
 them to return to the White House. 
 As soon as they had retired, Mr. Hess, 
 with a very white face, came before the 
 curtain, and to an audience that sud- 
 denly, as by the electric thrill of pre- 
 monition, became as still as the grave, 
 he made his terrible announcement. 
 As if they were afraid to breathe, the 
 people walked past the soldiers now on 
 guard at the doors and out into the 
 moonlight. 
 
 The hoofs of cavalry horses soon 
 came pounding over the cobblestones. 
 
 95 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 The lights in the dwelHngs were all 
 extinguished. But all night long women 
 huddled together in groups at the win- 
 dows and waited and wondered. All 
 night long rumors flashed over the 
 stricken city of rebel raids, of wholesale 
 assassinations, and of lootings and burn- 
 ings. Blue-clad sentinels during the 
 whole night patrolled the streets, through 
 which horsemen dashed, bearing orders 
 and despatches. An enormous throng 
 stood in the streets about the house to 
 which ''Father Abraham" had been 
 carried. All night long couriers bore 
 bulletins from that secretary whom the 
 President had playfully called '' Mars", 
 now keeping vigil in the house of death 
 in Tenth Street, to the telegraph office 
 in the War Department, whence the 
 
 96 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 operators, almost speechless with grief, 
 sent them to New York to be distrib- 
 uted over the country and the world. 
 And in the morning thousands of men, 
 infuriated, despairing men, tramped to 
 their homes and told the dire tidings 
 to the waiting women. 
 
 At the White House door Thomas 
 Pendel, who had been a member of the 
 President's bodyguard and now was 
 stationed at the entrance to his home, 
 was awaiting the return of the theatre 
 party. Somehow the tidings reached 
 him. No one knows just how the 
 story was wafted over Washington that 
 night. The horror spread and all in an 
 instant seemed to blanket the joy of 
 the people, put out their lights, and 
 silence their cheers. Pendel had to 
 
 97 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 notify, Secretary John Hay and Captain 
 Robert Lincoln, and they hastened 
 away to Tenth Street. 
 
 Scarcely had they gone ere Pendel, 
 quivering with apprehension, had to 
 receive Tad and his tutor. The boy 
 came running up the steps and through 
 the portico, sobbing as if his heart 
 would break. Into the arms of the 
 agitated doorkeeper he tumbled, just 
 as a thousand times he had dashed into 
 the embrace of his father, crying: "O 
 Tom Pen ! O Tom Pen ! They've 
 killed my papa day ! They've killed 
 my papa day !" 
 
 As tenderly as ever his father might 
 have done, Pendel, who was almost as 
 tall as Lincoln, carried the weeping boy 
 up-stairs. He laid him down upon his 
 
 98 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 bed in the room across the hall from the 
 workshop where the Cabinet consulta- 
 tions had been held. As a mother would 
 have done, he took off the lad's shoes, 
 loosened his clothing, and bathed his 
 face. They wept together. Tad's lisp- 
 ing syllables shaped themselves intelli- 
 gibly only when he called "Papa day, 
 Papa day." Pendel stretched out be- 
 side the boy, put his arms about him, 
 and soothed him patiently until, some- 
 time after midnight. Tad fell asleep and 
 forgot his troubles for a time. 
 
 All day following, the rain fell. Men 
 said the heavens were weeping. In an 
 hour the capital which had been a riot 
 of color became a city of sepulchral 
 black. The bells which had clanged in 
 joy now tolled doleful dirges. The bands 
 
 99 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 which had blared ** Dixie" and ** Yankee 
 Doodle" now played a solemn dead 
 march, as the President was carried 
 home once more. The black people 
 whom he had liberated crowded about 
 his coffin. Thousands waited in line 
 all day to look upon his face as he lay 
 in state in the executive mansion of the 
 nation. 
 
 Secretary Welles and Attorney-gen- 
 eral James Speed came through the 
 upper hall that afternoon, silent and 
 preoccupied with their hopes and fears. 
 The boy of the White House turned 
 from a window through which he had 
 been looking at the crowd of wailing 
 colored women and children without, 
 recognized the Secretary of the Navy, 
 and burst into tears. 
 
 100 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Welles," he cried, "who 
 killed my papa day, and why did he 
 have to die ?'' 
 
 The grave men could not restrain 
 their emotion, nor could they answer 
 Tad's question. They could only try 
 to say something comforting and pass 
 on, leaving disconsolate the boy who 
 had been so great a comfort to his 
 martyred father. 
 
 How many thousands have asked your 
 question since then, Tad ! How many, 
 indeed! "Why?" Had he not al- 
 ways "plucked a thistle and planted a 
 flower wherever he thought a flower 
 would grow?" Was he not a man of 
 the plain people who never forgot his 
 kind ? Did not the whole nation, South 
 
 lOI 
 
TAD AND HIS FATHER 
 
 as well as North, need him ? Why 
 might he not have had a little of the 
 gladness of the morning after the purga- 
 torial darkness of the night of suffering ? 
 He had grown old so frightfully fast ; 
 could he not have had a few years to 
 grow young again ? How can either 
 reason or conscience include the death 
 of Lincoln within any reasonable ideal 
 of a moral universe ? Yes, Tad, your 
 question touches upon the mysteries 
 of time and eternity. It involves the 
 problems over which the greatest minds 
 and hearts of the world have wrestled 
 and prayed. But when you went away 
 a few years later and joined your father, 
 then. Tad, I think — although I cannot 
 be quite sure — I think that then you 
 found an answer. 
 
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