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PRESIDENT LINCOLN.- "The amiable Mrs. Lincoln served up for us yesterday, for dessert, a very fine tart, by saying: 'Since everybody is brewing and baking compromises now, therefore I baked for you, Abe a 'compromise tart' to-day. The flour of it is from Missouri, the butter from Wisconsin, the milk from Illinois, the lard from Kentucky, the sugar from Louisiana, the syrup from Iowa, the eggs from Indiana, the fruit from Delaware, the citron from Massachusetts, the pepper from Texas, the salt from New York, the large raisins from South Carolina; in short, from every state is one of the ingredient parts.' 'Very fine and tasteful,' said old Abe, tasting the tart, and smacking his delicate lips with the air of a connoiseur, 'but there is one thing wanting, in your compromise tart; you didn't bake any niggers in it; without niggers there would be no compromise, and without compromises there would be not niggers; in this country nothing is of any value without the nigger. The eagle on the great seal of the Union ought to be erased and the nigger placed there instead.'

"Perhaps it is not known as much as it ought to be, that the president elect is in the habit of acting as his own servant, blacking his own boots and brushing his own clothes, and that he will not allow himself to be served. He intends to adhere to this habit also at the White House. I cannot imagine the beautiful effect of the contrast, if one day the English or French ambassador should pay him a visit, early in the morning, and find him in the back door of the White House engaged in polishing his brogans, with the profound air of a freeman, self-dependent and self-reliant. Such a man we need, in order to brush and scrub the puffed up aristocrats of the South, and extract a little of the dust from the jackets. In this respect, Lincoln will surpass Fabricius, Cato, and even Cincinnatus, who had, at least, their slaves and servants. Labor will come to honor again."

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the sixteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1861. This tongue-in-cheek account of a "compromise tart" made by Mrs. Lincoln, with ingredients from each state, reflects the attitude of the North before the onset of the Civil War. The writer also comments that the president elect will not allow himself to be served, acts as his own valet and should be just the man needed to deal with the "aristocrats" of the South. The Gazette & Courier was the newspaper in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from July 20, 1841 until June 24, 1932. Before 1841 the newspaper's name changed quite frequently, with Gazette a frequent part of the title.

 

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"President Lincoln" article from the Gazette and Courier newspaper

publisher   Greenfield Gazette and Courier
date   Mar 11, 1861
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
height   7.5"
width   3.5"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L05.092


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See Also...

"The Inaugural"

Frederick Douglas refused passport

"The Traitor's Confederacy"


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