Lincoln, the unknown

88•LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNShe wanted to live in Washington, too, she longed to baskin the social prestige that she was sure awaited her. But whenshe came East to join him, she found things vastly differentfrom what she had anticipated. Lincoln was so poor that he hadhad to borrow money from Stephen A. Douglas to pay his expensesuntil he got his first salary check from the Government;so Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln stopped at Mrs. Spriggs's boardinghousein Duff Green's Row. The street in front of Mrs. Spriggs'sestablishment was unpaved, the sidewalk was made of ashes andgravel, the rooms were bleak, and there was no plumbing. Inher back yard Mrs. Spriggs had an outhouse, a goose-pen, anda garden; and, as the neighbors' hogs were constantly breakingin to eat her vegetables, her little boy had to run out at intervalswith a club to drive the animals away.The city of Washington did not trouble in those days to collectthe garbage; so Mrs. Spriggs dumped her refuse in the backalley, and depended upon the cows, pigs, and geese that wanderedabout the streets at will, to come and devour it.Mrs. Lincoln found the door to the exclusive society ofWashington shut tightly against her. She was ignored, and leftalone to sit in her bleak boarding-house bedroom, with herspoiled children and a headache—listening to Mrs. Spriggs'sboy, shouting to drive the hogs out of the cabbage-patch.Disappointing as that was, it was nothing in comparisonwith the political disaster that lurked around the corner. WhenLincoln entered Congress, the country had been waging a waragainst Mexico for twenty months—a shameful war of aggression,deliberately provoked by the slave power in Congress inorder that the nation might acquire more territory where slaverywould flourish and from which pro-slavery senators would beelected.America accomplished two things in that war. Texas hadonce belonged to Mexico and then seceded. We forced Mexicoto renounce all of her claims to Texas; and, in addition, we deliberatelyrobbed Mexico of half of all the territory she ownedand carved it up into the States of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada,and California.Grant said it was one of the wickedest wars in all history,and that he could never forgive himself for having fought in it.A great many of the American soldiers rebelled and went overto the enemy; one famous battalion in Santa Anna's army wascomposed entirely of American deserters.Lincoln stood up in Congress and did what many other