Team of Rivals_ The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - Doris Kearns Goodwin [388]
At the Chase mansion, Kate Sprague continued to be the “observed of all observers.” Whether dressed in blue brocade, gray, or simple black, she impressed congressmen, senators, and generals alike with her interest in politics and familiarity with military affairs. Holding court at the entrance, she had an appropriate greeting for every guest. Benjamin French thought her “one of the most lovable women” he had ever seen. Noah Brooks was likewise smitten, at once recognizing the delightful contrast to her “frosty” father, who “looked uncomfortable and generally bothered” at these affairs. Chase’s nearsightedness had grown so extreme that he was unable to recognize anyone without “a very close examination.” Nevertheless, he still refused to wear glasses.
The Washington elite preferred the fancy dinner parties at the Seward and Chase mansions to the public levees at the White House, where bonnets were crushed and cloaks occasionally stolen in the chaos. During the winter, Mary found it necessary to put durable brown coverings over her elegant French carpets to protect them from the muddy tramp of the “human tide” that poured in to shake hands with the president. Many visitors were ill dressed and bedraggled, as after a long dusty ride, and some still carried their carpetbags. The elegant furnishings that Mary had so lovingly and expensively put in place took a beating. Brooks noted that “the lace curtains, heavy cords, tassels, and damask drapery have suffered considerably this season from the hands of relic-hunting vandals who actually clip off small bits of the precious stuff to carry home as mementoes.” Desperate to preserve their experience, some even lifted the brown covering and cut out pieces of the French carpet “as large as a man’s hand.”
For Mary, who relished her position as first lady, it was galling to read in the papers that Seward, not she, would inaugurate “the fashionable ‘season.’” He was to host an exclusive party for the visiting members of the National Academy of Science, along with “the heads of the foreign Legations, the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the presiding officers of the two Houses of Congress and the Committees on Foreign Relations, with their families.” That same week, the New York Herald noted, the White House reception was “not so largely attended as usual.” Benjamin French, who was Mary’s customary escort at public functions, saw that she was “disappointed.” The Sewards hosted three more receptions in January 1864, accounted the “grandest,” “most elegant,” and “most brilliant” affairs of the season, with guest lists including barons, counts, lords, ladies, and young Robert Lincoln, home for vacation.
Mary’s wounded pride increased her feelings of resentment toward Seward. She continued to begrudge the intimacy he shared with her husband, the many nights Lincoln chose to spend with Seward instead of her. Fred Seward records a pleasant evening that January when Lincoln walked over to Seward’s with John Hay to share a humorous language guidebook, English as She is Spoke. “As John Hay read aloud its queer inverted sentences, Lincoln and Seward laughed heartily, their minds finding a brief but welcome relief from care.” Though Seward had long since ceased to be a political threat to her husband, Mary could not relinquish her suspicions. She told their family friend Anson Henry that Seward and his friends were behind the various “scandalous reports in circulation about her.” Dr. Henry dismissed her fears, saying that the nasty rumors probably originated in “the Treasury Department,” for he had “traced many of them” to Chase’s friends