Executive Mansion
October 12, 1863
After my nomination Springfield filled with ox carts, wagons, buggies, horsemen, trainloads of folk. Fifty-thousand poured into my little town. Hordes jammed the street in front of my house, yelling “Speech...speech!”
I greeted them, said a few words, joked.
Reporters swarmed around me. Friends came and went. I forgot to stable the horse, forgot to milk the cow. Mary scolded me for forgetting my supper.
Tad got lost in the crowd.
Wind blew, dust blew.
It seems very amusing to me now. Unreal.
Streets were lit with burning tar barrels and torches. People sang, paraded the streets.
“ Ole Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness,