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Mrs. Lincoln-it id not of quite so much importance to the Country who the President's wife is, as it is vrho is President. In ordinary times the Country might not be greatly concerned to learn that there was a lady in the White House whose head iiad become giddy by her elevation, and ’■tfftGee -deportment, instead of being marked by ■the quiet, serious, lady-like demeanor that ought now iu these solemn days of National trial and peril to grace the Mansion of the Head ■ of the Nation, was made painfully conspicuous by an absence of refinement, at delicate sensibility, of womanly sympathy, of matronly dig--nity, and by the presence, in their place, of a girlish vanity, an unbecoming coquetry, a passion lor display quite out ol place in the depressed state of the National finances, and an •-unfeeling heedlessness of the momentous and solemn events being enacted iu the new way for independence. Many unpleasant facts have reo ntly come to light respecting the tastes, the manners, and the associations of the lady of the White House. Sometime sinee we copied from u, New York paper the statement that Mrs. Lincoln was in frequent, almost daily, correspondence with the wife of tficeditor of the New Y ork ILraid. James Gordon Bennett, the editor of the Herald,did what he could to defeat Mr. Lincoln, and after his election did what he could to help ou the Southern rebellion. When waited ■upon by some indignant gentlemen and asked to -display the American tlag, after the fall of -Sumter, and when the National ensign was blossoming from almost every house in the city, he was compelled to ask mUulgence till lie could tbercow one. lie is an outcast, a pariah in so-•ciety. Hut lie has great wealth, and Mrs. Ben-■aett is enabled to appear in very dashing and brilliant style. She spends very much of her time abroad, preferring the corrupt and heart--leas society of a French capital where her husband's reputation, to say nothing of her own, -does not shut the doors against her. But since •vshc has found a confidential and intimate friend .in the White House, she can forego fora winter •the Bushing society of Paris, and devote her ac--complisliments to her new ullinity at Washington. Mr. Henri Wikoff, a political and social intriguer, an unprincipled and shameless ad-’venturer, a man w ho is kicked out of ull respectable society wherever he is known, und who Jmc. beeu made acquainted with the inside of • oreign prisons, for his impuduut efl’rontry, and A is persistent social intriguing, lias been made in many instances the vehicle for transmitting between Mrs. Lincoln aud Mrs. Bennett scented billets, elegant bouquets of flowers, aud the silly trifles that lackadaisical sohool-misses so much .affect, before they have outgrown their girlish .fancies and never-dying friendship, and arrived at the dignity und grace of womanhood. This -same Wikoff—an atlacktc of the Herald—is also u, frcquneter of the White Mouse. When ho Mas ordered under arrest the oilier day by the .linuvo lor refusing to disclose the mcans tb. ,h ■•vliieh lie was enabled 10 furnish the H / the substance of the President's message uti-vanco of its delivery, tlio President liims .lt appeared before the Committee to help clear up the ina ter, and it will bo remembered that it was dually explained that Mr. Watt, the President s gardener, and Mr. Wikofl' managed through their free run of the Mansion to gi.. a sight at Mr. Lincoln’s manuscript ,In addition to harboring such an unprincipled scamp as Wikoff and such an unblushing traitor us Watt about the household, it is also now said that the notorious Dan. E. Sickles,—who is not much bettor than when he was thrust out from the company of honest people awhile since aixcept that ho is now a Brig. General,— is a
Newspaper Details
Montpelier Daily Green Mountain Freeman
Montpelier, Vermont, US
Thu, Feb 20, 1862
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
DC, USA 12 Feb 2024
Other Publications Near Montpelier, Vermont
The Vermont Watchman
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Montpelier Daily Green Mountain Freeman
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