He was often his own worst enemy. He had done himself no favors at Lincoln’s second inaugural. Already sick, he had spent the preceding night drinking with John Forney, an editor, secretary of the Senate, and one of the more corrupt political fixers of a corrupt age. He had resumed drinking in the morning, and illness and alcohol produced a rambling, insulting inaugural speech that was rescued only by being largely inaudible to much of the audience. He never lived it down. In Chesnut’s slur, he was the drunken tailor.30
