729

628. John S. Bradford (Jesse W. Weik Interview).

[1883-89]

Some years ago when I had invested in my first carriage I invited Mrs. Lincoln to accompany me and my family in a drive to the country. We drove to the Lincoln residence, and when the madame came down the front steps to join us in the carriage, she appeared to be very nervous and more or less wrought up. What had caused her agitation she failed to disclose. We suspected that there had been a collision or disagreement of some kind with her servant, for, just as she settled back in her seat, she exclaimed with a sigh: "Well, one thing is certain; if Mr. Lincoln should happen to die, his spirit will never find me living outside the boundaries of a slave State."

Weik, 99

nts

Notes.

1. This incident is told in abbreviated form in H&W (1889), 424n. In The Real Lincoln, JWW prefaces this quotation as follows: "John S. Bradford, at one time State Printer, told me this incident in his office in Springfield and I made a note of it at the time" (99).