To Lincoln’s annoyance, many callers insisted that he solve minor disputes and deal with other petty matters. According to Hay, Lincoln “pretended to begin business at ten o[’]clock in the morning, but in reality the anterooms and halls were full before that hour—people anxious to get the first axe ground. He was extremely unmethodical: it was a four-years struggle on Nicolay’s part and mine to get him to adopt some systematic rules. He would break through every regulation as fast as it was made. Anything that kept the people themselves away from him he disapproved—although they nearly annoyed the life out of him by unreasonable complaints & requests.” In 1863, Stoddard reported from the White House that the president was besieged by the “same unceasing throng in the ante-rooms … bent on dragging him ‘for only a few minutes only,’ away from his labors of state to attend to private requests, often selfish, often frivolous, sometimes corrupt or improper, and not so often worthy of the precious time and strength thus wasted.” Private grievances, misfortunes, and wishes were so numerous that Lincoln once remarked “that it seemed as if he was regarded as a police justice, before whom all the petty troubles of men were brought for adjustment.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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