He was called just about every name imaginable by the press of the day, including a grotesque baboon, a third-rate country lawyer who once split rails and now splits the Union, a coarse vulgar joker, a dictator, an ape, a buffoon, and others. The Illinois State Register labeled him “the craftiest and most dishonest politician that ever disgraced an office in America.” One can only imagine what it must have been like and what was going through Lincoln’s mind when he reached Washington to take the oath of office. He gave an indication that he was ever mindful of these feelings toward him when,
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