a commercial alliance with the Confederacy. "As to the
free city business," said Lincoln, "well, I reckon it will be some time
before the front door sets up bookkeeping on its own account."(3) The
formal round of entertainment on his way to Washington wearied Lincoln
intensely. Harassed and preoccupied, he was generally ill at ease. And
he was totally unused to sumptuous living. Failures in social usage were
inevitable. New York was convulsed with amusement because at the opera
he wore a pair of huge black kid gloves which attracted the attention of
the whole house, "hanging as they did over the red velvet box front."
At an informal reception, between acts in the director's room, he looked
terribly bored and sat on the sofa at the end of the room with his hat
pushed back on his head. Caricatures filled the opposition papers.
He was spoken of as the "Illinois ape" and the "gorilla." Every rash
remark, every "break" in social form, every gaucherie was seized upon
and ridiculed with-out mercy.

There is no denying that the oddities of Lincoln's manner though
quickly dismissed from thought by men of genius, seriously troubled even
generous men who lacked the intuitions of genius. And he never overcame
these oddities. During the period of his novitiate as a ruler,
the critical sixteen months, they were carried awkwardly, with
embarrassment. Later when he had found himself as a ruler, when his
self-confidence had reached its ultimate form and he knew what he really
was, he forgot their existence. None the less, they were always a part
of him, his indelible envelope. At the height of his power, he received
visitors with his feet in leather slippers.(4) He discussed great
affairs of state with one of those slippered feet flung up on to a
corner of his desk. A favorite attitude, even when debating vital
matters with the great ones of the nation, is described by his
secretaries as "sitting on his shoulders"--he would slide far down into
his chair and stick up both slippers so high above his head that they
could rest with ease upon his mantelpiece.(5) No wonder that his enemies
made unlimited fun. And they professed to believe that there was an
issue here. When the elegant McClellan was moving heaven and earth, as
he fancied, to get the army out of its shirt-sleeves, the President's
manner was a cause of endless irritation. Still more serious was the
effect of his manner on many men who agreed with him otherwise. Such a
high-minde