Lincoln, the unknown

32A,fter she left the White House Mrs. Lincoln got intoserious difficulties, and made an exhibition of herself that becamenational gossip.In matters of household expense she was excessively penurious.It had long been customary for the Presidents to give anumber of state dinners each season. But Mrs. Lincoln arguedher husband into breaking the tradition, saying that these dinnerswere "very costly"; that these were war-times and publicreceptions would be more "economical."Lincoln had to remind her once that "we must think of somethingbesides economy."When it came, however, to buying things that appealed toher vanity—such as dresses and jewelry—she not only forgoteconomy, but seemed bereft of all reason and indulged in afantastic orgy of spending.In 1861 she had come off the prairie,confidently expectingthat as "Mrs. President" she would be the center of the glitteringconstellation of Washington society. But to her amazementand humiliation she found herself snubbed and ostracized bythe haughty aristocrats of that Southern city. In their eyes, she,a Kentuckian, had been untrue to the South: she had marrieda crude, awkward "nigger-lover" who was making war uponthem.itBesides, she had almost no likable personal qualities. She was,must be admitted, a mean, common, envious, affected, mannerlessvirago.239