The afternoon of the day on which the President was shot he was out driving with his wife, and she subsequently remarked that she never saw him so supremely happy as on this occasion. When the carriage was ordered she asked him if he would like any one to accompany them, and he replied, “No; I prefer to ride by ourselves to-day.” During the ride his wife spoke of his cheerfulness, and his answer was: “Well, I may feel happy, Mary, for I consider this day the war has come to a close;” and then added: “We must both be more cheerful in the future; between the war and the loss of our darling Willie, we have been very miserable.” His household was very miserable from that awful night.
The grief manifested by little Tad, the youngest son, on learning that his father had been shot was touching to behold. For twenty-four hours he was inconsolable. He frequently said that “his father was never happy after he came here,” and asked questions of those about him as to their belief in his being in heaven. He seemed resigned when this idea fastened itself strongly in his mind, and in his simplicity he imagined that his father’s happiness in heaven made the sun shine brightly.
Mrs. Lincoln never recovered from the shock. After the death of the President she remained in the White House five weeks, too ill to depart. The remains of her husband were borne back to Illinois, through towns, villages and hamlets, bearing every outward token of woe, and the cortege was met at each stopping-place by thousands of mourners who paid their respects to the great dead. Impressive scenes occurred all along the route, and the funeral pageant which met the remains at Springfield was the largest ever assembled in the country. Robert Lincoln, the eldest son, accompanied the remains, and after all honor had been paid the body of the martyred father, he returned to remove his mother to their future home.
The White House was like a public building during these sad weeks. The officials were embarrassed under the extraordinary circumstances, and the mansion was given over to servants. The soldiers on duty there had no other authority than to keep out the rabble, and no one felt justified in taking charge of the house while Mrs. Lincoln remained. The new President, Mr. Johnson, disavowed any inclination to hasten her departure; and when at last Mrs. Lincoln removed from the building, it was in the condition to be expected after the hard usage it had received subsequent to the tragedy.
Mrs. Lincoln left Washington accompanied by her sons, the youngest, “Tad,” being her special care and protection.
The country learned with sincere regret of the death of this lad after the return of the family to their western home. Mrs. Lincoln, after all the excitement and the trials through which she had passed, was unable to live quietly in any place, and travelled with the hope of recovering her health. In 1868 she went abroad and remained a considerable time in Germany. During her stay there she asked Congress for a pension, her letter to the Vice-President bearing date of January 1st, 1869. The bill was presented by Senator Morton, of Indiana, and was adversely reported upon by the Committee on Pensions. It read as follows:
“The committee are aware the friends of the resolution expect to make a permanent provision for the lady under the guise of a pension; but no evidence has been furnished to them, or reasons assigned why such provision should be made. If such was the intention, the committee submit, the reference should have been made to some other committee, as the Committee on Pensions, at least for some years past, have not thought it compatible with their duty or the objects of their appointment to recommend in any case the granting of any special pension, or any pension of a greater amount than is allowed by some general law. If they thought the amount so allowed too small, they would feel it incumbent on them to report a general bill for the relief in all similar cases. If the increase proposed was on account of extraordinary military or naval services, the proper reference would be to the military or naval committee. Under all these circumstances, the committee have no alternative but to report against the passage of the general resolutions.”
It was, however, granted her by a later Congress.
Broken in health and depressed in spirits, Mrs. Lincoln has lived in various countries, much of her time for several years being spent in France. She has not and will not recover from the catastrophe which robbed the country of its President, and her of her husband. With him died all her hopes of ambition, of home-life, and of rest and companionship in old age.
In October, 1880, Mrs. Lincoln returned to the United States from France on the steamer Amerique, and among her fellow-voyagers was Mlle. Bernhardt, the French actress. The New York Sun, in describing the arrival and reception of the latter thus incidentally mentions Mrs. Lincoln: