Mary Lincoln “was surrounded by flatterers and intriguers, seeking for influence or such places as she can give,” William H. Russell noted. She had, said the editor of the Indianapolis Journal, “been spoiled by the gross flatteries of the fools about the White House, and thinks she must conduct herself like a European Queen.” That Republican newspaper editorialized: “If the President hasn’t sense enough, or control enough, over his foolish wife,” then it was up to members of Congress “to exert that control themselves over him and his wife both.” Other newspapers referred to her as “our parvenue queen” who had “no conception of dignity” and “all the peevish assurance of a baseless parvenue.” David Davis criticized the “queenly” way she traveled, and she reportedly sought to have the presidential yacht, the Harriet Lane, renamed the Lady Lincoln. Her imperious manner led people to call the First Lady “her royal majesty.” Even her friend Mercy Levering Conkling referred to her as “Our Royal Highness.” A satirical newspaper piece criticized her for being “stuck up,” for accepting inappropriate gifts, and for wasting taxpayer dollars on elaborate china. A gentleman in Crawfordsville, Indiana, said that everybody there regarded her as “decidedly a snob” and made fun of her. He regretted that “we have a president with so little mind, and a presidentess with so little of the lady.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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